An unlikely collaboration has been revealed between Blizzard Entertainment and CD Projekt Red, the studios behind Diablo and The Witcher series, respectively.

The two companies announced the team-up in separate blogs posted to their respective websites, with CDPR sharing a substantive breakdown of the studios' relationship with each other, and Blizzard opting for a more straightforward explanation of what the collab actually means right now.

The TLDR is that The Witcher 3: Remastered, which was announced during today's Gamescom Opening Night Live, is coming to Blizzard's Battle.net launcher when it releases on September 29. Meanwhile, the upcoming Witcher 3 expansion, Songs of the Past, will also come to Battle.net when it launches next year, and if you pre-order it, you'll get a Geralt of Rivia-inspired skin in Diablo 4.

That's exciting enough, but it sounds like CDPR and Blizzard have a lot more planned for their big new partnership that's still to be revealed. "Both CD PROJEKT RED and Blizzard Entertainment create worlds that allow players to immerse themselves in captivating adventures for hundreds of hours," says CDPR global PR director Radek Grabowski in a statement. "Both studios have always had the ambition to raise the bar — for themselves and, in doing so, for the video game industry. Their worlds and characters have inspired not only other game developers, but also musicians, filmmakers, cosplayers, and, of course, countless players."

The official CDPR Twitter account adds: "And that's just the beginning of our partnership with Blizzard…"

According to Blizzard, we'll learn more about its collab with CDPR during this year's BlizzCon, which takes place on Saturday, September 12, and Sunday, September 13. GamesRadar+ will be in attendance and you can bet your bottom dollar we'll give you all of the firsthand details as they come.

The Witcher 3 Remastered has "improved combat," which hopefully fixes the 2015 RPG classic's biggest problem

Grinding Gear Games has officially set a release date for Path of Exile 2's 1.0 update, with the ARPG finally leaving early access on December 11, right about two years after its initial launch. As expected, the game will be completely free-to-play on all platforms when 1.0 comes out, ditching its current $30 price tag.

GGG took the stage during this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live to reveal a new release date trailer for Path of Exile 1.0, and it shows off brand-new sword-based gameplay that the studio confirmed is from the new Duelist class coming in 1.0. Gamescom attendees in Cologne will be able to try out the new class ahead of its release at the end of the year.

Check it out:

The Duelist will be Path of Exile 2's first sword-wielding class, which makes it a pretty big deal in terms of the game's overall meta and your party's crowd control. The trailer above shows the Duelist wielding both sword and shield to deadly effect using all sorts of melee, ranged, and AoE attacks including what appears to be the Cyclone move from the first Path of Exile, which a lot of players base their whole builds around.

Alongside the new Duelist class, Path of Exile 1's 1.0 drop will add the game's final two story chapters as well as some additional content and tweaks that have yet to be revealed.

Path of Exile is just one of many games like Diablo we recommend trying out in 2026.

Genshin Impact studio Hoyoverse revealed another new game at today's Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026 showcase: Nodusfall, a co-op action game that looks nothing like most Hoyo games.

Nodusfall is described by presenter Geoff Keighley as a mythical action game where teams of Weavers take on divine beasts and beings.

Snippets of presumed gameplay woven into the many cutscenes on display suggest teams of four players will help each other in boss fights, and that's just the start of the Monster Hunter vibes.

Weavers are shown using bows, greatswords, what looks like a longsword (a normal-sized one, not a Monster Hunter-sized one), and some form of magic. One spell seems to revive allies, while another turns the player into a divine being themselves.

In what seems like a scripted sequence, two players team up to land a finishing blow on the dragon mount of a boss. The bosses shown in the trailer have drawn comparisons to Elden Ring enemies like Hoarah Loux, Malenia, as well as Dark Souls 3's Nameless King. Other creatures shown include (what I'm calling) a horned lion, ninetailed fox spirit, armored bear, a fiery archdemon, Fiery Archdemon Deluxe, and an especially feral hog.

Hoyoverse has been dabbling in more realistic art styles in recent projects and job listings, ditching anime for a new MMO called Genesis. Nodusfall looks to be in the same vein, with a detailed fantasy look that's closer to the likes of disguised boss rush Elden Ring Nightreign than the likes of Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, or Zenless Zone Zero.

The question hanging over every Hoyoverse game, no matter how cool it may look, is how it will be monetized. Everything the company touches turns to gacha in some way or another, and it affects everything from storytelling to progression systems. I'd love nothing more than to see Hoyo put its gacha bucks and design experience toward a traditional premium game, but I won't hold my breath.

Ananta release date places the free-to-play anime take on GTA in January 2027, just 2 months after Rockstar's GTA 6.

Lies of P director Jiwon Choi says that Nough Studio didn't consider launching the game's complete edition as a game-key card on Switch 2 as everyone at the company is a "proud gamer."

There has been a lot of discussion about physical versus digital games, particularly since PlayStation announced that it would end physical disc production, before emailing PS5 players to remind them they don't own their digital games. Essentially, the question of game ownership is on everyone's lips with new topics around the subject arising every day.

For Choi and his team, only having a digital version of their game available for Switch 2 players was apparently not a consideration. In an interview with RPG Site, Choi explains how the team always planned to include Lies of P: Complete Edition on the Switch 2 cartridge. "We actually decided on a standard physical release with the full game on the cart at the same time we decided to port the game to the Switch 2," he says.

"Everyone at Nough Studio is a proud gamer, which is why our studio slogan is 'Games by Gamers,'" he continues. "For us, preparing a physical edition of Lies of P that includes both the base game and Overture on the cartridge was a natural choice. We really want it to feel like a gift to our fans, so we’re putting a lot of care into it."

One of the points of contention for fans of physical games, is that digital games are difficult to resell and to give to others as gifts. It seems that Choi and his team understand how many people still treasure their physical games.

3 years after the best Soulslike not by FromSoftware, Lies of P leads feel "pressure" to make the sequel even better

Game Freak has released a new patch for Beast of Reincarnation that addresses some of the game's main issues; however, the removal of some friction has left the community not entirely happy.

Beast of Reincarnation, released earlier this month, marked Pokemon developer Game Freak's first original console game since 2019 and marked a departure for the developer, as it went from its typical cartoony style to a realism-inspired aesthetic. The action RPG got fairly mixed reviews, with the GamesRadar+ Beast of Reincarnation review awarding it four and a half stars out of five, while other reviews were as low as two stars out of five.

Player opinions are almost as mixed, with Metacritic user reviews at 6.1, while its Steam store page holds a Mixed rating, with 63% of reviews positive.

This led to game director Kota Furushima apologizing that things didn't quite hit fan expectations, and now Game Freak has since patched the game to address some of the negative feedback, with Beast of Reincarnation patch v1.0.9 arriving today. This update adds some highly-requested features like Ultrawide support, more options for frame generation, the ability to sell charms and skippable cutscenes.

And while selling charms has been universally praised, some of the gameplay and balance tweaks haven't been as well received. One user on Reddit says, "I wish you could just pick what changes you wanted. I want to sell charms, but I don't want the 500 other things that are basically just 'made the game easier because people whined.'" While a response is confused why acid puddles are removed, and a particular boss fight is now able to be skipped.

Patches that make things easier have been pretty frequent in recent years, with titles like Elden Ring, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Crimson Desert all getting updates that made some of their toughest elements a bit less challenging. And while it does give some bragging rights for beating it pre-patch, it opens up a wider discussion about difficulty in games and removes agency from those who want to take on the harder challenge.

Beast of Reincarnation is a Pokémon-inspired soulslike without the cruelty of Dark Souls – and it's better for it

Kingdom Hearts is celebrating its 25th anniversary next year with the release of Kingdom Hearts 4. While it doesn't have a release date yet, it was also revealed that a Kingdom Hearts animated series is in development for Disney's streaming platforms. However, this is apparently just the beginning of the franchise's plans, according to Disney's director of games, Nana Gadd.

In an interview with 4Gamer that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Gadd discussed the new Kingdom Hearts 4 trailer and anime announcement that were part of Disney's biennial fan convention D23. The series, which features a mash-up of Disney and Final Fantasy characters with original roles sprinkled in, is already known for its expansiveness, but it seems Disney is eager for more.

So far, Kingdom Hearts has been mostly focused on gaming, with over a dozen releases spanning a wide range of genres. While there are also manga and light novels, the majority of the fandom focuses on video games. However, with the announcement of the animated series, it's clear that Disney is hoping to expand.

"Even though Kingdom Hearts has been around for 25 years, there are so many things we want to do," says Gadd. "The announcement of the animated series is truly just the first step."

The franchise is already known for its complicated story, where you need to experience every piece of media just to have a hope of figuring it out. With that in mind, this statement has an exciting yet threatening aura.

Kingdom Hearts 4 features Pixar's Coco because Tetsuya Nomura thought it "would be the best world" for Sora's story

A stunning little action RPG crept onto Steam last month, and after some small wobbles at launch, it's stabilized with hundreds of very positive user reviews.

Lunarium, from developer Lunariumstudio (per its English Steam profile), is a lush isometric game about two girls on a starcrossed journey. Its deflect-driven combat drew comparisons to action greats like Nier: Automata and, especially, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice at launch, and director Jixiang tells me they're "very honored" to hear them.

"Both of those games were important references and learning resources for us during development, and they're also games that many members of our team really love as players," Jixiang explains.

"Sekiro in particular has been a major source of inspiration. I think Sekiro's combat system is a remarkable refinement and innovation on the ideas established by the earlier Souls games. The more you study it, the more you appreciate how sophisticated and carefully designed it is.

"I believe Sekiro's combat system is something that any developer interested in making action games can learn a great deal from."

Alongside the massive collective fandom of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring, Sekiro has cultivated a particularly devoted community which not-unreasonably holds it up as the pinnacle of action combat design. Just as Dark Souls shaped a generation of dark fantasy RPGs, Sekiro's ripples are seen in Nine Sols and, arguably, the likes of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (which is due a sequel, by the way).

Even compared to the Souls games, Sekiro was even stricter in how it presents challenges to players: it's you, a sword, and a boss. You cannot out-think Sekiro the same way you can some other FromSoftware games; you can only learn to keep up with its tempo. Lunarium is intentionally broader in its buildcrafting, with a clever embroidery system adding abilities via the main character's cloak.

Jixiang examines the ideal difficulty for an action RPG like this. "I think the game should require players to attempt challenges repeatedly in order to feel a sense of difficulty, while still providing clear ways for them to overcome those challenges," Jixiang says.

"For example, players might be able to adjust their build, or temporarily focus on other areas to gain additional stats and become stronger. Alternatively, repeated attempts should allow players to gradually recognize and learn the clear patterns and ways to deal with certain enemies.

"The game should reward players for becoming more skilled at playing it, but it shouldn't demand an extremely high level of mechanical mastery just to progress."

The presence of RPG elements like customization will naturally impact each player's perception of the difficulty curve, and it's here that Jixiang prefers to hedge.

"To be honest, we don't feel that we achieved a perfect balance in terms of difficulty and progression," Jixiang explains. "After launch, we've continued to receive feedback that the game's difficulty curve isn't ideal.

"Personally, my final preference is that if we don't have enough confidence in our difficulty design, I'd rather let the game lean toward being somewhat too easy once players have gained enough power. I think the negative experience caused by making the game unnecessarily difficult can be worse, while allowing players to become stronger can also give them a greater sense of progression and growth.

"That said, we're still working toward a more appropriate difficulty curve, and we've continued adjusting it based on player feedback since launch."

Latest Steam lottery winner How to Fish sells 1 million copies in 2 days: "Yes, we'll be adding more content."

The Duskbloods network test got off to a rough start, with connection issues putting a swift end to the first planned session. I was finally able to play a couple of hours over the weekend – long enough to win a few matches – and rough is the perfect description of my experience. Between significant performance issues, convoluted rules, and frustrating PvP, I really don't like The Duskbloods so far.

If you've played Elden Ring Nightreign, you're halfway to understanding The Duskbloods. This is an eclectic multiplayer action game that combines PvP and PvE with board game-like mechanics. As one of multiple vampiric characters known as Bloodsworn, you spend three rounds gearing up for a finale that pits three players against each other in free-for-all PvP (at least in solo matches).

But the whole is less than the sum of its parts. The PvP and PvE segments in The Duskbloods feel inferior to previous FromSoftware games, and even without those unfavorable comparisons, The Duskbloods test felt measurably awful due to technical problems. I always keep my Switch 2 docked, and I noticed framerate dips, latency issues that sabotaged hit registration, and a jerky camera worsened by an ugly smear effect that muddies the game's otherwise gorgeous world. FromSoftware PvP has been janky since Demon's Souls, and building an entire game around that PvP without resolving the jank has gone exactly as I'd feared.

Night rain

The preparation stage is the bulk of The Duskbloods. To get stronger, you run around the map killing weak enemies, picking up consumable items, hunting elites and bosses called Trespassers, and summoning and strengthening NPC allies called Kin. You'll earn experience to level up, and collect Virtue to stay in the game. Each round will cull a few players with the lowest Virtue, so the scoring feels like outrunning a polar bear with a group: all you have to do is run faster than another guy. You'll also receive bonus health based on your Virtue in the finale, but I was never the top-scorer even in the rounds I won, so I'd say this bonus isn't too powerful.

I've played a lot of Elden Ring Nightreign, and this knowledge worked for and against me. The same core strategies have served me well in The Duskbloods, but also put a little devil on my shoulder. It would whisper doubts in my ear every time the game annoyed me, which was frequently. I fear that little voice is right: maybe this is just a worse version of Nightreign. At least in Nightreign, every repetitive match ends with a cool boss fight. Here, my reward for surviving three rounds of grinding is bad PvP.

This may sound familiar. In round one, I focused on killing basic enemies and grabbing easy upgrades. Different areas of the intensely vertical map lean toward specific reward types, and you're able to pick your spawn point at the start of each round, though you can also freely fast travel all over. If too many people pick the same spawn, some players get randomized.

You'll find weapon enhancements lying around. Some environmental fixtures award Virtue just for interacting with something. Quickly summoning a Kin, who'll level up as you do, is essential. Little blood goblins drop upgrades for your skills, improving their damage or cooldown. This is the low-hanging fruit you want early. At most, I might go after a standard elite enemy in round one to plunder a passive bonus like increased stamina or healing, but fighting anything stronger will just waste time at this stage.

For this test, I played as Albert. He comes with a saber, a submachine gun, and two skills that feel a lot like spells from previous FromSoftware games. The Bloodsworn are said to be pretty customizable in the full game, but the barebones test build came with fixed skills, with one unlocked by leveling up. I'd compare Albert's base skill to the Elden Ring spell Glintstone Arc, which also fires a piercing crescent projectile. His second skill is like a worse Comet Azur: a big laser beam.

Everyone has access to ranged attacks in The Duskbloods, and this is one reason that combat, and especially PvP, didn't click with me. You have an unhinged four jumps, can dodge mid-air, and you can fire your gun while jumping. All of the people in my lobbies quickly deduced that spamming ranged weapons while flying around is an incredibly effective strategy, though everyone does have a blood shield that can block many hits. Duos may fare better, but the finales in solo matches are a mess. It's you, two other Bloodsworn, and three summons chucked into a small arena like marbles in a blender. Skill is not high on the list of factors that determine the winner. Whoever happens to get dogpiled or catch more stray shots is often just out of luck. This feels less like FromSoftware PvP and more like Beyblade.

Player vs problems

The Duskbloods at least opens up in round two. Here, now joined by my summon, I'll start to take on Trespassers, either by hunting them myself or joining fights initiated by other players through an invite system. At the end of each Trespasser hunt, everyone gets bonuses based on their contribution to the fight (seemingly, how much damage you dealt). But even in these encounters, The Duskbloods is hamstrung. I have dodged 10,000 boss attacks in FromSoftware games, and there is just something wrong with this one. I don't know if it's coming from the connection, or hitboxes, or the framerate, but I found it impossible to reliably dodge boss attacks, and there's a similar veneer of clunk all over the combat.

PvP is more centered in rounds two and three. In round one, killing other people seems to just slow down your leveling, though there is an interesting vendetta system that gives you a marked target of sorts. Later rounds spawn tribute sites halfway through. Here, you can pledge red and hunt down fellow players for rewards, or claim a gold area and defend it. Both are key methods of earning Virtue, and the core design is fascinating, but two problems spoiled many tributes for me.

Firstly, the map. Alice: Madness Returns taught us that giving your character four freakin' jumps forces you to blow the maps out, and The Duskbloods is so big and vertical that it is a nightmare to find anything that isn't out in the open. There's a ton of stuff underground, and good luck navigating any of it. Map knowledge will surely help here, but that makes the optimistic assumption that I want to play a lot more of The Duskbloods to learn the ins and outs, and the fact remains that the compass and UI are unhelpful. Also: opening your map mid-round is just asking to get shot.

Secondly, alliances. You can temporarily ally with other players in The Duskbloods. All alliances are disabled for the finale, but they're a key part of the tribute stage. If they're smart, the first two people to reach a tribute site can ally and gain a massive advantage over everyone else. If you thought 1v1v1 PvP was frustrating and hard to parse, try 2v1 on a timer.

So far, The Duskbloods is more interesting than it is fun. If the technical issues present in the test aren't resolved, it's a non-starter. And even if everything is tightened, FromSoftware better have some real heat in reserve. The customization and PvE options discussed by director Hidetaka Miyazaki could help, but I'm not eager to return to The Duskbloods. If only because I love seeing studios make weird stuff, I'm glad this game exists. But this is the first FromSoftware game in 17 years to fiercely and immediately put me off.

The Duskbloods closed network test had more applicants than Elden Ring Nightreign despite being a Switch 2 exclusive, FromSoftware lead reveals.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 was my 2025 game of the year and one of my favorite RPGs ever, but having spent more than a year as a beat reporter covering community developments, I'd be naive to think I'm among the game's most diehard fans. My first and only playthrough took me more than 200 hours, and I still haven't seen and done everything. Meanwhile, it's not hard to find RPG fans claiming they've spent more than 1,000 hours in the game with multiple playthroughs.

Take Ray Chase, the voice behind Final Fantasy 15 protagonist Noctis and countless other video game, anime, and TV roles. Speaking to PC Gamer, Chase uncloaked himself as a loud-and-proud RPG sicko dipping his toes into Deltarune Chapter 5 and straight-up deep-sea diving in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

"I'm currently playing Deltarune Chapter 5, but not [for] super long. The other one that I have is Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2," says Chase. "It's the eternal game. I'm doing all of the things. It'll be a few hundred hours. But it's the perfect encapsulation of what a roleplaying game should be."

Using the word "eternal" to describe an RPG like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 really resonates with me as something of a generalist with interests in a wide variety of genres. As I juggle the latest blockbuster releases and longtime horror favorites with a nightly dependence on cozy games and, lately, a whole lot of retro stuff, I can easily see a world where I'm still dipping into Kingdom Come for another decade, perhaps with guidance from Chase's brilliant idea for a "smell run."

"I played one [campaign] all the way through. The [most recent] one I've made, I'm doing a smell build where your character smells and looks so good and fancy that it actually works as armour," he says. "And so I wear perfumes and walk into battle with my fancy boy outfit. And my enemies are too stunned.

"I'm always laundering my clothes. It's the best. I just fucking love that game."

Unfortunately, I feel the need to vibe shift slightly here to note Kingdom Come studio Warhorse's at-times questionable relationship with AI, with a former employee earlier this year alleging he was fired and replaced by AI. Studio founder Daniel Vávra has also expressed some controversially bullish takes on AI in game development while admitting it "may mean the demise of humanity."

That little wrinkle aside, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a generational RPG, and one can only hope Warhorse's upcoming Lord of the Rings RPG and the next Kingdom Come game build on that foundation without the stink of generative AI.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's "excellent storytelling" praised by Red Dead Redemption 2 lead actor Roger Clark as he finally sits down to play Warhorse's RPG

It's not long now until Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, and Konami's provided a few more details about the new entry in the franchise in the form of the English-language voice cast. A few of the names will be familiar to longtime fans, including a couple from the hit Netflix series.

That's a good place to start: Alejandra Reynoso is back in the role of Sypha Belnades, who she started voicing for Castlevania's animated adaptation on Netflix. A witch and noted vampire hunter, Sypha goes way back in the franchise, to 1989's Dracula's Curse, and she's made numerous appearances since, eventually becoming the spouse of one Trevor Belmont.

Reynoso is joined, then, by Graham McTavish, who's voicing Dracula, just as he did in the Netflix show. McTavish's performance is a stand-out of Castlevania's televisual jaunt, making the vampire lord out to be a truly menacing figure.

As one of the most adapted characters ever, Dracula's not an easy role to take on, and McTavish does a fine job. It's nice to see the pair make the jump from the TV series over to the games, since they did excellent in their roles, and it would seem like a sudden finish if their time on the property was done when we have new playable entries.

Another notable member of the cast is Liam O'Brien, the performer behind Isaac. He's returning to that role after over two decades, having last voiced the character in Curse of Darkness, for which he was uncredited.

No such issues here, and it makes a nice full circle moment in his career that he can finally get his flowers on a Castlevania project here. The Trevor of Belmont's Curse is JB Blanc, who'd be much better known as an on-screen talent, with recurring roles in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

Belmont's Curse arrives on October 14, which means your Halloween playing is already sorted.

Konami’s Castlevania relaunch will be delisted and removed before the popular side-scroller gets the chance to escape Apple Arcade jail

We're just over a week out from the release of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and one launch update is already on the cards. After getting some heat following a demonstration of the historical horror-RPG running at certain frame rates, developer Rebel Wolves promises there'll be more options once the game's released to improve performance.

On Twitter, the team announced plans to add a performance mode to the game at launch, a feature that has been in the works for some time. "The Blood of Dawnwalker will receive a Performance Mode targeting 60 FPS on PS5, PS5 Pro, and Xbox Series X on day one through the launch patch," the tweet starts.

"On Friday, we answered your questions about console performance with what we knew we could confidently deliver at launch," Rebel Wolves continues. "Performance Mode was already in the works, but it was still being tested. We simply weren’t ready to promise it yet."

Previously, commenters really honed in on the fact that the footage shown was 30fps and 40fps, leading the company to prioritize this feature for when the game's available to the public. "It was clear how much this mattered to many of you, so we focused on finishing the next round of tests," the tweet reads. "Those results gave us the confidence we needed to confirm Performance Mode for Day 1."

This is good news, because anything that allows people to modify how a game runs to their specifications is generally welcome. The settings scale is the same across PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X: Performance is 60fps, Balanced targets 40fps, Quality goes for 30fps.

The PS5 then has some more "overall visual enhancements." For an adventure of this scale, this seems like a worthwhile addition, to say the least. You can sink your teeth into it when The Blood of Dawnwalker arrives on September 3.

You'll be "quite easy to kill" in Blood of Dawnwalker during the day because Rebel Wolves didn't want "an overpowered protagonist"

Mortal Shell 2 is playing the Soulslike hits in its first major balance patch: buffs for players, nerfs for enemies, and a shipment of quality-of-life changes.

Days after a solid launch, developer Cold Symmetry released patch notes for an update coming to PC ahead of consoles. One member of the studio posted the details to the Mortal Shell subreddit, and the patch notes are also available in the game's official Discord server.

"While we have a bigger patch in the works, which has to be thoroughly tested, we'd like to make a rapid balance & crash fix patch to bring the experience more in line with the game's open beta and our own vision for MS2," the post reads.

"Planned future updates will see extensions to popular game features such as Night Mode, Tarstones, PP Items, and more."

Mortal Shell 2's resource economy is getting some major adjustments. Glimpses, a hugely in-demand currency, are being replaced by more available Gloom as the cost to acquire the map locations of Shells. Anyone who's already spent Glimpses on Shell maps will have them refunded. I guess they have a mail carrier out there in the wastes.

"Finding your favorite Shell shouldn’t cost you the ability to bond with them," the devs say.

Gold, another staple currency, has also been tuned. "Gold drops from enemies have been significantly increased," with enemies in Mammon now dropping twice as much, Cold Symmetry says.

Additionally, smelting a weapon at the Tarforge will cost 75% less Gloom, with the devs agreeing "the Gloom costs were set exorbitantly high."

Many of the enemies and bosses that you'll use these Shells and weapons against have been nerfed, including The Lost Child and Monolith. "Some Monolith Attacks were retimed to be more fair, as well," the devs add.

Nerfed enemies include mace cultists, Caerinid spiders, halberd-wielding rusted knaves, and infested stalkers (with a whopping 52% max health reduction).

Finally, a suite of weapons and Tarstones have been buffed, with the likes of Troubador's Lute receiving 100% attack damage and Bulwark Stone's damage reduction being "increased significantly."

Players are coming out of this significantly stronger. If you found Mortal Shell 2 too hard or too limiting, this patch ought to be nothing but good news.

Mortal Shell 2 review: "The best Soulslike I've played since Elden Ring."

There is nothing the internet loves more than collectively obsessing over a surprisingly cute animated character. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. God of War Laufey's Phranque the Cube. The Overwatch hero Jetpack Cat, and his Marvel Rivals analogue, Jeff the Shark. Dark Souls developer FromSoftware knows what it's doing, and that's why we have Zork, a new and admittedly endearing playable character from The Duskbloods, the studio's upcoming Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer action game.

FromSoftware ended The Duskbloods' first closed network test early today after players flooded the servers and really put the stress in stress test. People are upset about that and talking about it a lot on The Duskbloods subreddit and elsewhere online, but deep, deep down, they know they can't be too mad. FromSoftware planned for this. Zork.

Zork can only do so much. Server issues are no fun... but you know what is fun? A dorky little armored freak with a beak shooting missiles and yeeting people off cliff edges. Zork. Following in the ancient tradition laid down by characters like Wooloo and Gooigi before it, Zork is here to do one thing: make you love him, and he's already stolen the hearts of so many.

Zork definitely knows how to stand out. Defiant next to Senator Samir Patres in the character selection screen, opting for a wide-eyed, tongue (beak?)-out expression instead of brooding like the rest of his playable brethren, Zork is clearly the class clown of Duskbloods' roster. There's also something indescribably cute about him, which makes him ideal meme material, and that's precisely what's happening.

Over the course of about 24 hours, likely hundreds of memes have turned Zork into a verb (zorking it), and otherwise infantilized what is in reality an extremely dangerous killing machine.

ZORK

— @berardbro.bsky.social (@berardbro.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T18:24:21.502Z

Despite the frivolity, a question with potentially disturbing implications lingers... what is Zork? Beneath the armor, beneath the three-inch steel veneer of innocent friendliness? Is there a soul in there? The Duskbloods characters are called Bloodsworn, Vampiric entities of a sort, but what does Zork actually look like without his armor? Some have speculated that he may have come from the sea due to various nautical references in his design and moveset, and the beak and propulsion method have led some to theorize he's actually a squid or octopus, but Zork's true nature will likely remain a mystery until launch.

In the meantime, you have to applaud FromSoftware of all studios, the crew famous for coming up with some of the most horrific, grotesque, mind-numbingly challenging monsters in all of video gamedom, for getting the internet to love-bomb a literal war machine.

The Duskbloods is a Switch 2 exclusive because Nintendo was the "right partner" and "very receptive" to FromSoftware's weird idea, says Hidetaka Miyazaki

With FromSoftware's ever-growing legendary library of Souls games, it's not surprising that other developers are taking a crack at the action-packed genre – but this new Soulslike about a stray dog journeying to save his rescuer might just take the cake as the most precious.

If you've played Dark Souls, then you likely know (and love, because how could you not?) Great Grey Wolf Sif, the boss who faithfully guards the grave of Artorias the Abysswalker – and wields his huge greatsword, too. It's an encounter that sticks with you… but have you ever considered playing as Sif yourself?

Well, Stray Dog: Nobody Cares, a new game from Indie dev Parry Frames Studio, basically lets you do just that.

Although it's not officially Sif or Dark Souls-affiliated, the vibes are impossible to ignore. As per the game's page over on Steam, it places you in the paws of a stray dog that was rescued by a "disgraced knight" (already giving FromSoft vibes, eh?) who is on a journey to rescue said knight following his capture.

In the canine's mouth is a greatsword, of course, which you wield throughout the fantastical medieval-era game.

As per Parry Frames Studio, you can expect all of the Soulslike essentials: "stealth kills, custom levels, precise parries, brutal boss fights," and you name it. I'm sold, personally, and I'm not alone – reactions online show that folks can't get enough.

On Twitter, fans are pulling out all of the best puns to boot. My favorite? "Bark Souls." Bark Souls, indeed. The general excitement is nice to see, too, especially with all of the Sif comparisons.

"Bruh, a Sif origins story (it's not really)," as one reads. "I'm sold." Another chimes in, "We can play as Sif?!" And, similarly, a fan exclaims, "Sooo… basically playing the story of Sif?" I can't even argue that, honestly – Stray Dog looks, well, like it's just that. A spin-off Sif-themed game or something.

Here's hoping that Parry Frames Studio gives us a more solid release date or window soon.

Searching for some other new games to experience? Check our roundup of the best Soulslike games to date – you might just find one you've not played.

FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki has explained why The Duskbloods is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive.

Speaking to IGN, Miyazaki explains, "In terms of the reason that we initially decided to go with Nintendo, we had had an opportunity to discuss the idea for the game with them and I think they seemed very excited and very receptive to the idea, they seemed very forward thinking in terms of how to do it." He adds that this had an impact on his decision before he even thought about the business side of things, saying "that alone was something that I found very appealing and gave me a lot more reassurance for moving forward with this."

Miyazaki adds, "Of course the game isn't out yet so there are more things to consider, but in terms of the relationship currently and how we think it's going," Miyazaki notes that the games systems and rules set are "very unique" and adds, "I think having someone who can constantly give us feedback, support, additional ideas, and the balancing first of all because these features are quite complex and difficult – having this relationship is definitely key to that."

He notes that "the complexity of the systems" was another major factor. "The onboarding tutorials and making sure players understand how the game works and how to succeed in the game is something we've historically not been super great at conveying instantly," Miyazaki explains, adding, "We've definitely just dropped players in and hoped they would figure it out." He notes, "Nintendo is definitely the right partner for better conveying that information in a way that is understandable to the player; it definitely suits their strengths."

Of course, From Software is no stranger to exclusive titles, with two of its most beloved games of all time – Demon's Souls and Bloodborne – being published by Sony and were worked on alongside the now-closed Japan Studio. However, this will be the first time in the post-Dark Souls era that the studio has released a game on a Nintendo console on day one, and not to mention the first Nintendo home console exclusive by the company since 2003's Lost Kingdoms 2.

Hidetaka Miyazaki says The Duskbloods is full of ideas FromSoftware couldn't fit into Dark Souls or Demon's Souls: "That was always at the forefront of my mind"

Gearbox is sticking to its word and continuing to support Borderlands 4 with big new content drops despite what it's admitted was a "softer" launch than expected. The developer has released the full details for the $20 Borderlands 4 Story Pack 2, titled FL4K and the Last Resort, and, as you might've gleaned from that title, the Borderlands 3 playable Beastmaster class FL4K is making a triumphant comeback.

At the heart of FL4K and the Last Resort's story is a rescue mission for the vault hunter's dog, who is kidnapped by Tediore soldiers while accompanying FL4K on a hunting mission on the new tropical jungle map, Providence, which makes up much of the new DLC's visual identity. Art director Chris Neely tells Polygon the update has "a little bit of a Mad Max edge" and "a little John Wick action."

"Tediore has captured one of my best friends. He's a skag, and he's helpless without me. If he is alive, I require assistance rescuing him. If he is dead, go Vault Hunter, put things in their place," says FL4K in the below trailer. Frankly, if there's one guaranteed trick to get me to buy a DLC, it's telling me there's an animal that needs rescuing. Diabolical work, Gearbox.

Story Pack 2 also adds a bunch of new goons called Deadframes to blast through and a new Vault Hunter to embody while doing so, the previously unveiled Cyberpunk hacker, Loveless. Gearbox says Loveless makes use of "advanced cybernetics and a sentient digital virus pet for a unique combat approach," and again, just take my money already.

Ultimately, we're here for the loot, and Story Pack 2 delivers on that front. Gearbox says you'll be able to find two new Pearlescent weapons; the Astonisher Ripper shotgun and the Quadratus, a Vladof Heavy Weapon Ordnance; as well as 18 new pieces of Legendary gear.

Borderlands 4's second big expansion releases alongside a smaller new Bounty Pack, titled Amara and the Vile Shadows, which is a separate $6 purchase and comes with a new replayable mission and new loot including a new Pearlescent weapon and six new pieces of Legendaries.

All of that is releasing alongside a new system update that'll bring the game up to version 1.10 and increase the max level cap by 10 for everyone.

Here are the best FPS games to play in 2026.

FromSoftware president and longtime Souls series director Hidetaka Miyazaki says the studio doesn't make games to target a specific audience. In his case, he says he just makes the games he wants to see.

Miyazaki discusses his, and the FromSoftware team's, design philosophy in an interview with IGN. "We don't really have a set audience in mind at the start," he says. "It's very much showing that this is what I wanted to make; the motivation is that this is a game I want to see exist."

The Duskbloods comes at an unusual time for FromSoftware. 2022's Elden Ring proved to be the studio's biggest commercial success – and, to many or most fans, its finest RPG – which is the type of game that many companies would want to make a sequel for, or at least a similar follow-up. But ever since, and for several years now, we haven't gotten even one of the single-player dark fantasy RPGs that the studio is known for today.

2023 saw Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, the first-in-a-decade numbered installment in one of FromSoftware's oldest series. Per our Armored Core 6 review, the game was great – but it (very deliberately) wasn't more Elden Ring and didn't scratch the same itch. Ironically, neither did Elden Ring Nightreign, an experimental PvE battle royale of sorts forged from Elden Ring assets in a cave.

The Duskbloods is the studio's next game, and while it is a dark fantasy action RPG, it's a multiplayer-first experience with a blend of PvP and PvE. Thanks to a Nintendo partnership, it's also FromSoftware's first exclusive game since Bloodborne, making it another outlier in about 13 years of otherwise consistent action hits.

Miyazaki says there was no grand design behind this brief multiplayer bubble, nor has the studio moved away from single-player games. "At the end of the day, our motivation is always to just make a game that we want to play, something we've been wanting to make," he reiterates.

"There was never really any big plan that these two games [Nightreign and The Duskbloods] would both release next to each other," Miyazaki continues. "I mean, that's a different director, but both of those ideas just coincided with being multiplayer games. It's not necessarily some big reveal saying that this is the direction we plan to go moving forward. We still have a heavy focus on single-player content as well. This is just something that happened to work out the way it did."

The director of Nightreign, Junya Ishizaki, joined by FromSoft producer Yasuhiro Kitao, said as much to me in an interview last year: FromSoftware is dabbling in more multiplayer, but its interest in single-player games hasn't waned.

However, Miyazaki says it is "very fun to make a multiplayer game like this. It's not something we've done a lot and we're looking forward to seeing players' reactions and getting the feedback."

Separately, he explains that The Duskbloods leverages ideas that were brought up years ago but didn't suit the likes of Dark Souls or Demon's Souls.

Similar comments come up in a separate chat with Inven Global, with Miyazaki reaffirming that FromSoftware hasn't suddenly lost interest in single-player games despite a small string of multiplayer releases.

"Our stance remains unchanged even now: 'We make the games we want to make,'" he says. "The timing of planning The Duskbloods and the timing of planning by the [Elden Ring] Nightreign team happened to overlap by chance, and Nightreign just happened to be released first, which seems to have led to this misunderstanding." The Duskbloods actually entered development before Nightreign, which reflects the quick-and-dirty development pipeline that Nightreign seems to have had.

Stop the Bloodborne hunt, Miyazaki says The Duskbloods is totally unrelated: "I almost regret putting the word 'Blood' in the title."

Aesthetic and thematic similarities, not to mention the word "blood," have many FromSoftware fans convinced The Duskbloods is related in some way to the beloved 2015 action RPG, Bloodborne. To be fair, they're definitely related by virtue of the fact that they're both developed by FromSofware with Hidetaka Miyazaki at the helm, but according to Miyazaki himself, that's where the connection ends.

"I expected this question, but it is a game with no connection whatsoever to Bloodborne," he tells Inven Global. "In fact, because we've received this question so often, I almost regret putting the word 'Blood' in the title (laughs). There are merely similar terms and concepts; the themes are quite different."

FromSoft sickos have been begging for a Bloodborne remake or remaster, or even just an official PC port, for years now, but so far it seems their pleading has fallen on deaf ears. In fact, FromSoft reportedly shot down a Bloodborne remake pitch from Demon's Souls remake studio Bluepoint before the developer was shut down by Sony earlier this year.

Point being, Bloodborne hopefuls are desperate for something, anything to suggest FromSoft is aware of their existence. But unfortunately, The Duskbloods ain't it, and Miyazaki says the Switch 2 exclusive will prove itself a very different game from Bloodborne at launch.

"In this network test, not much of the world's lore is revealed, so it might be difficult to feel the differences," he says. "However, in the commercial release (the official launch version), much more of the world lore will be uncovered, and I think by then people will realize the two games are completely different."

Right from its announcement, The Duskbloods has been billed as something fresh and new for FromSoft, a PvPvE action game where groups of up to eight players take part in online matches with varying victory conditions. Miyazaki says it's full of ideas FromSoft couldn't fit into Dark Souls or Demon's Souls, including "things that seemed like great ideas, but didn't really fit in the context of a single-player game or within the context of those games, specifically."

The Duskbloods is due out in 2026, and a possible leak suggests a September release date.

The Duskbloods gameplay footage leaks ahead of network test, showing off slick aerial combat, buttery smooth movement options, and a dude turning into a dinosaur.

The Duskbloods, FromSoftware's upcoming Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive action RPG, is partly the result of studio president Hidetaka Miyazaki and the other developers behind games like Dark Souls finally making use of ideas they've sat on for years.

Speaking with IGN, Miyazaki explains (via interpreter) that "a lot of our previous titles, such as Demon's Souls and the Dark Souls series" included "a lot of unique online elements" but couldn't accommodate everything FromSoftware had in mind.

"There were also a lot of other things that we wanted to try, things that seemed like great ideas, but didn't really fit in the context of a single-player game or within the context of those games, specifically," Miyazaki continues.

"Over time, a lot of those ideas piled up, things that you wish you could have done here and there. Having an outlet for them, somewhere we can find a place where they all fit, or can be made to fit specifically in that multiplayer context, is something that was always at the forefront of my mind."

On the heels of Elden Ring, which is essentially Dark Souls 4, 5, and 6 in a trench coat, Miyazaki's comments are especially interesting. And even more so after Elden Ring Nightreign, an oddball spinoff that, itself, leveraged some ideas that dated back to Dark Souls 3, as Junya Ishizaki, who was recommended for the director role by Miyazaki, told GamesRadar+ last year. Increasingly, it feels like The Duskbloods will show us a different, even weirder side of FromSoftware.

As a PvPvE game, The Duskbloods leans more into the asynchronous multiplayer that's come to define the Souls games and leverages it in new, still largely unknown ways. Miyazaki mentions one approach here.

"There will definitely be a section of the customization that caters towards that playstyle for people who don't want to necessarily always be in an intense PVP thing, even if they make it to the end and want to take more of a backseat and enjoy the game in a different way," he says.

The Duskbloods has a closed network test rolling out this month ahead of a still-undated 2026 launch on Switch 2.

In June, as FromSoftware owner Kadokawa worked to fend off investors clamoring for a regime change, Miyazaki teased multiple games in the works.

The Duskbloods gameplay footage leaks ahead of network test, showing off slick aerial combat, buttery smooth movement options, and a dude turning into a dinosaur.

Game Science has released 15 minutes of Black Myth: Zhong Kui gameplay with an extremely impressive showcase of the game's graphics.

While it may have been overshadowed somewhat by the likes of Metaphor: ReFantazio and Astro Bot when it came to awards season and critical acclaim, I can't think of a bigger game release in 2024 than Black Myth: Wukong. But the real shocker was when, almost exactly a year after its release, Game Science announced a follow-up, with Black Myth: Zhong Kui being confirmed at Gamescom last year.

And now, perhaps even more shockingly – given that it was described as "little more than an empty folder at this stage" upon its reveal – almost exactly a year later, a surprise drop from the developers has revealed 15 minutes of gameplay from the upcoming sequel.

Immediately, the footage is striking: it looks incredibly detailed, with the description stating "all footage was captured in-game from a work-in-progress build." And without a single word spoken, the footage shows a section of the game in which our yet-unnamed protagonist traverses a derelict mountainous region. The graphics are a big hit with YouTube commenters, too, with one user saying, "If they never released Wukong before this, people would think this is fake."

The gameplay also shows a few in-game battles, and right away it looks like there is now a dedicated parry button included in the moveset (you could parry in Wukong, but it was with a specific ability, and not baked into the protagonist's moveset). The rest will look somewhat familiar to anyone who played the first game. There's also a boss fight included in the footage, with the monster's flailing animations looking mighty impressive.

Unfortunately, there's no indication as to when the game will actually release, with the description claiming the game to be in "early development," so we could be waiting a few years yet. But It's undoubtedly an impressive first showing, and as someone who didn't particularly get on with Wukong, I'm keen to give this one a chance.

Black Myth: Wukong sequel isn't using AI because the devs were inspired by The Odyssey and Christopher Nolan's filmmaking techniques: "No rush"

The Duskbloods' closed network test kicks off tomorrow, but gameplay footage of FromSoftware's next multiplayer romp has leaked online ahead of time, giving us a fresh look at how we can expect it to play.

As highlighted over on ResetEra, footage has reportedly made its way online after a preview for the game seemingly went live early – although this original source has since been taken down, folks were quick to reupload things. Specifically, a two-and–a-half-minute clip shows off a Moon Blood Bestowal – described in-game as "the final battle, on the night of dusk. The grail beckons three Bloodsworn, but the moontears will flow for one and one alone."

What follows appears to be a PvP fight between three players, and if I wasn't already excited for this game, I am now. Combat looks incredibly smooth and fast-paced, with plenty of mobility options – there appears to be a high degree of air movement with double jumps and even mid-air attacks.

Of course, there are plenty of different attacks and skills shown off, too. From typical sword and axe slashes to guns and even one move that sees a character turn into some kind of dinosaur before charging at an enemy, biting them, and throwing them off the stage, there's a lot going on here.

FromSoftware fans have had somewhat mixed thoughts so far, though the criticisms largely seem to be from folks who are less interested in PvP to begin with. "It looks like a fake video game (positive)," one optimistic viewer writes. "Holy fuck i can't wait to play it." Another adds: "Graphics look very solid and those are some super inventive attacks/kills. I'm impressed. I wouldn't have guessed this was a Switch 2 game if I didn't know already."

On the flip side, another says: "Infinitely less worried about not playing this one. The PvP is by far the least interesting aspect of FromSoft games for me, I like invasion/invaders only so far as it adds a little spice to clearing dungeons but I've never really spent much time in the arenas or looking for fights." And they're not alone – one comment reads: "Looks like the parts of Souls games I hate. Not a fan at all of the PvP."

There's still a lot we don't know about The Duskbloods – this leak aside, it's kind of wild how little gameplay we've seen of it ahead of the network test tomorrow. We're bound to have a much better idea of the overall feel for it then, and hopefully it won't be too long before FromSoftware narrows down its vague 2026 release window.

They can never compete with Elden Ring, but FromSoftware owner says Nightreign "performed strongly" and The Duskbloods is still coming in 2026.

These days, Dishonored and Dishonored 2 are widely considered benchmark modern immersive sims, but it was also a crucial turning point for developer Arkane, we're now learning from industry veteran Harvey Smith.

Smith, who was lead game designer on the original Deus Ex and creative director on both Dishonored games, tells The Game Business there was a very real threat of full-blown studio closure before the studio collectively decided to refocus and commit to Dishonored. At the time, the studio was fractured into various teams working on different projects, some of which would never come to fruition, and according to Smith, there were only months of funding left before everything would've dried up.

"There was a point in time when Arkane was about to go under. I think we had four months of money left. We were working on [Wii puzzle game] Boom Blox with EA," says Smith, referring to a 2008 release from Danger Close and Amblin Entertainment.

"We were pitching to Ubisoft. We had a couple of guys on a zombie shooter. We were farming people out left and right. We were on nine projects at once. And at some point, we realized this is not the way. We are here to do a very specific thing, let's focus on that, and let's go under if that's what is going to happen. Instead, the result was Dishonored, which was one of the big turnarounds of my career."

A turnaround it was. Dishonored launched to universal acclaim and strong sales, launching a universe that now encompasses several award-winning games including our 2021 game of the year, Deathloop. Of course, Smith lost his job when Microsoft shut down Arkane Austin in 2024, which kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. Thankfully, Smith along with fellow Arkane veteran Ben Horne have founded a new studio, the newly unveiled Black Pony Immersive, and are working on the exact sort of game fans of Dishonored would want from them.

"Think Deus Ex, think Dishonored, that's what we're doing": Former Arkane devs reveal new studio dedicated to making single-player immersive sims

Player choice is a time-honored part of sci-fi action-RPGs, going back to the likes of Deus Ex, through the genre-defining Mass Effect trilogy, and now The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is joining those ranks. In the latest post about the upcoming game, developer Owlcat Games chats how what you choose will change the complexion of the narrative.

The team points out that people saw one possible fork in the road in the Beta, but what "players have not seen is just how far that decision ripples."

Essentially, you have to pick whether to defend your space station, or give it up to roving mercenaries. The immediate effect is how much combat you'll see, but there'll be further ramifications down the road.

"Later, you may meet the families of station personnel and see for yourself how your one decision has affected them," Owlcat Games writes. "The consequences can even reach the people behind the unauthorized raid - especially if your actions allowed the situation on the station to spiral beyond their control."

This spills out into cast dynamics, too, and not just in terms of romance. Young crewmate Polly is used as an example, because you have to choose who she'll shadow, and that can have a pretty profound impact on her.

"Polly may become a cautious hacker, a capable engineer, or pursue a career in medicine," the post says. "The mentor you choose will shape not only her abilities, but also who she will become."

This will no doubt be space catnip to the ears of Mass Effect fans who're waiting for Mass Effect 5 - even if this is very much its own kind of game. The deeper and more complex the choices, the better, to be honest. Owlcat then takes a second to highlight the political aspects here.

"How you deal with Earth, Mars, and the Belt ultimately affects how their stories unfold, including the fates of important characters," the devs say. "Building a strong relationship with a faction can also open up unique rewards, including exclusive items and a faction-specific quest. Those relationships can even pay off during missions, with factions potentially providing direct support."

This Trekkie is apprehensive, but you're saying a lot of the right things, Owlcat, and I admire that much. The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is due out in the back half of 2027. Plenty of time to ponder how you might or might not ruin your save.

Star Citizen stream lifts veil on the $1 billion crowdfunded game's buggy state after 14 years in development, and neither devs nor fans seem impressed: "Such a s*** show"

Sony left the comments live on yesterday's Phantom Blade Zero State of Play, and the chat was pretty much exactly what you would expect.

Back in July, Sony announced it will stop making discs for new games in 2028, which naturally caused uproar within the community of fans who still want to buy physical games. This has been very much targeted, with the likes of a Marvel's Wolverine trailer being bombarded with comments demanding Sony change its mind – as is the case with most trailers on the PlayStation YouTube channel and most posts on the PlayStation social accounts, even games not published by Sony.

However, Sony seems somewhat unphased, saying that "we don't see that there will be any negative impact on our business," further evidenced by the fact it didn't bother to turn off comments for the Phantom Blade Zero State of Play.

During the 20 minute deep dive, the live chat was bombarded with chants of "no disc no buy" and a mass amount of disc emojis. And, via a clip from Twitter user thegamersjoint, it looks like the live chat was not stopping at all, hopefully sending the message to Sony.

This has also continued into the comments on the on-demand version of the video, with tongue-in-cheek comments the likes of "Phantom Disc Zero" and "I'll buy it when it comes out in physical format" flooding the section.

Unfortunately, Sony's decision is having a knock-on effect on games outside of its publishing library. Phantom Blade Zero has been looking pretty sick for years, but its biggest presentation to date has now been overshadowed by Sony's decision to cull physical discs (which has likely made the apparent lack of discs for Phantom Blade Zero a bit more controversial). However, reportedly in 2026, only seven games on PlayStation have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the US so far, so it feels like people will need to vote with their wallets for Sony to pay attention.

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

Not even vampires and their respective hunters are immune to industry headwinds. Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls is being delisted from Apple Arcade in a matter of days, followed by a complete shut down of the game's servers, rendering it totally inaccessible.

"Thank you for playing Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls," reads Konami's announcement. "Since its launch on Apple Arcade in September 2021, the game has continued to be supported by many players. However, we have decided to terminate the service on September 3, 2026."

Two weeks prior, on August 20, the mobile installment in Capcom's long-running horror adventure series will be removed from Apple Arcade. That gives you just three days from time of writing to download it for yourself if you haven't already.

From then on, you have 14 days to enjoy the action-RPG before it's gone for good. The game is essentially a live-service take on Symphony of the Night, with progression systems and a labyrinthine map to explore. There are co-op and PvP elements too, making it quite well-rounded for a mobile release.

Originally it was on Android and other platforms, before becoming an Apple Arcade exclusive in 2021. Now, five years later, it's being closed for unspecified reasons. "We would like to express our gratitude to all of our players for their enthusiastic support throughout the years," Apple's statement reads. "The entire development and operations team sincerely thanks you for being part of this journey."

Once the servers are turned off, Grimoire of Souls will be completely unplayable. Given how it looks and plays like one of the single-player installments, it seems like an incredible waste not to preserve it in some shape or form, regardless of what modes or features need to be turned off or removed.

But such is the lay of the land. Not that Castlevania fans have come to expect much different over the years, the franchise has long been underserved. At least there's finally a new game coming in October, in the form of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse devs say their female protagonist was a "natural fit" because the "role was best suited for a woman"

Mortal Shell 2 is a game about a ripped monster-man who looks like they just wandered off the set of Prometheus. This fellow likes to leap into and possess special corpses – the 'mortal shells' of the title – to spy on their memories and play with their superpowers. Amazingly, it only gets weirder from there. More importantly, it's also great fun, and a superior sequel to Mortal Shell in almost every way.

True, it's yet another Soulslike that's copied a lot of Fromsoftware's homework. So, melee combat is brutal but supremely satisfying, dying means you only get one chance to collect all your levelling up currency, it's a dark fantasy world that's seen better days, yada yada yada.

Shell to pay

But, this sequel makes inspired changes immediately. In the original Mortal Shell you moved at a pace that would embarrass snails. Now, you might as well be playing as a Ferrari. Stamina management has also been nixed entirely. You can dodge, attack, and – praise the gaming gods – sprint as much as you like. Soulslike purists may be spitting blood right now, but it gives Mortal Shell 2 its own speedy flavor that's heavenly after the wading-through-molasses slowpokery of the original.

That shot of speed pairs nicely with a game that constantly throws ideas and surprises at you, some pleasingly silly. Oh, it still takes its bizzaro main narrative seriously, don't you worry. But it also contains a library full of killer books throwing themselves off the shelves at you, and a fight with a wizard who messes with the game's controls. It opens with a riff on Ari Aster's Midsommar (seriously) and has beaten Playground's Fable to the punch of calling me a "twat" by a year.

Instead of fretting about stamina, you have a bar of 'resolve', which you replenish with successful melee strikes. Resolve powers the game's many combat treats. Once you've found enough equipable tarstones by exploring its world – nowhere near as vast as Elden Ring's, but still plenty big – you can use resolve to power devastating special attacks and add debuffs like poison to your melee strikes and to the shots from the firearm now living on your hip. There's some brilliant death-dealing toys to be found, and since certain shells can't be equipped with certain stones, it encourages you to keep switching them out.

The mortal shells are hidden throughout the world and make for an excellent motivation to explore every crevice of it. One is a master of stealth, perfect for when you just want to run through a nightmare area to hopefully get your dropped level-up currency back. Another shell is covered in enough armor to let you tank swarms of rank-and-file enemies. Incredibly useful, especially as Mortal Shell 2 increasingly enjoys swarming you with multiple foes, the cad. Another shell likes to restore his health by chowing down on a human heart. OK then.

Best of all, each new shell comes with a new skill tree to play with. Proxima has a hookshot that yanks enemies towards her – or, if they're too chunky, her towards them – and gives them a nasty electric shock in the process. This can also be upgraded so that every time she uses it, she becomes 1% more effective against that enemy permanently, which quickly racks up. A fantastic solution for when you've hit a brick wall with the game and just want a Hades-like bit of perma-progress each time to get you over the edge.

You also unlock playable flashbacks for the shells as you upgrade them. They're fun little micro-dramas with some pleasingly surreal twists. I've played tons of Soulslikes but I'm pretty sure this is the first one to make me fight a giant bottle symbolising alcoholism (subtle!).

Not to sound shallow but it's also a real looker. The frequent sections in black and white make for such glorious eye-candy that I sorta wish the whole game had committed to that aesthetic. A new camera angle frames all these visual treats as epically as possible. Clearly inspired by the last couple of God of War games, the camera leans in far closer now, making the action more intense and visually dramatic.

This doesn't come without cost, unfortunately. Just like God of War, the game has to rely on big red marks on the screen to tell you that enemies are just outside your field of vision (you can turn these off, but probably shouldn't).

And occasionally, when cornered or a little too close to a wall, the camera panics and gives you the most unhelpful view of the action possible. Doesn't happen constantly, but happens enough to make you consider changing to a less cinematic but more clear angle, something you can thankfully do in the options.

Camera freakouts aside, my only major issue is that Mortal Shell 2's power set can be generous to a fault. The most difficult boss I faced was about ten hours into the game, where I spent two hours furiously reattempting this speedy git who loved crushing me with a big wheel.

That's not a complaint. Being smacked around by a boss in one of these games until I finally get the upper hand is basically my happy place. But eventually I found a tarstone that gave me an attack where I leapt into the air, then came crashing down on the enemy for huge damage. Upgrade it and it does stagger damage, which fills a bar that can let you do an almighty finishing move. Upgrade it again and that stagger damage hits anything nearby, too. Did I mention I'm also untouchable when airborne when I use this?

Frankly, bosses should not be tolerating this nonsense. They should be yanking me out of the sky, slamming me to the floor, and demanding I fight them properly. I'm in a New Game Plus run now (and it does warrant a replay, mainly to see every shell's story) and have forced myself to bury that stone in my inventory. I'm having fun and enjoying a meatier challenge, but it's annoying to pour so many resources into an upgrade only to realize you've snapped the difficulty curve in two.

If you do want more challenge, there's an NPC who can turn the world to nightfall which makes all the enemies stronger and drop better rewards. Now, I don't know if you've ever been out at night but it makes things a lot harder to see. This is a world of sheer cliffs with sudden drops and easily-missed secrets, and I found navigating it in the dark more an exercise in frustration than a compelling test of skill. You're probably better off frequently swapping out shells and weapons you find to keep the challenge up. Fingers crossed for a patch that balances things better.

That's a fair bit of moaning for a four star review, but rest assured the game earns a recommendation. It's one of the finest Elden Ring-a-likes yet, and a lovely apology from GamesRadar+ after they made me suffer through a Code Vein 2 review earlier this year. Mortal Shell 2 is a bizarre, surprisingly funny, beautifully-made Soulslike with such terrific sights to show you. If you also have the ability to leap into and possess people's corpses, you could do a lot worse than jumping into one who owned a copy of this.

Mortal Shell 2 was reviewed on PC, with a code provided by the publisher.

Want more tough adventuring? Check out our best Soulslike games ranking!

Footage of a canceled Star Wars action RPG has surfaced online just over a year after the studio that was making it closed.

The internal name for the game was reportedly Star Wars: Magellan, and it was in development at the formerly Zynga-owned Echtra Games until the studio was shut down last June. After Zynga acquired the studio in 2021, it was announced that the devs were working on "a new, yet to be announced role-playing game (RPG) for cross-platform play, in partnership with Zynga's NaturalMotion studio," and it appears that this latest find is likely the game in question.

MP1st has reportedly uncovered footage of the RPG via a former Echtra developer's portfolio of work. The report keeps the dev anonymous, so it's not clear what role they held on the game, but the footage includes a mix of third-person action gameplay and a showcase of different character animations and models.

The gameplay footage shows off playable Mandalorian and Jedi characters fighting off hordes of enemies, while on-screen text describes the experience as a "multiplayer ARPG" that'd see you "shoot & loot." As you'd expect, the two different playable characters we see both have distinct combat abilities and skills – we see the Jedi pull off a number of fancy Lightsaber moves as well as use the Force, for example, while the Mandalorian primarily uses their jetpack and guns.

Otherwise, the outlet reports that the game was supposed to include a feature that'd see you bond with NPCs, presumably seeing you build relationships with the characters as part of the story.

It's claimed that the game was in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S before the closure of Echtra saw it scrapped, in what now feels like even more of a shame, as there are some promising ideas here, and fans are as disappointed as you'd expect.

"I swear to god the coolest Star Wars projects always seem to get cancelled. 1313 and Mandalorian by Respawn will always live rent free in my head, and now this too," one responds on Reddit. "Such a shame that it's cancelled, it's always weird/interesting watching gameplay clips for cancelled games like this," says another.

Unfortunately, we're just left with the thoughts of what could have been, and cool as it is to have had a glimpse at what it was supposed to become, it makes the reality feel even more disappointing.

While you're here, be sure to check out our list of all the known upcoming Star Wars games on the horizon.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes are a great way to get ahead in this officially licensed RPG of the hit anime series, where you can build your dream team from a huge selection of playable characters. The gift codes available will help you out when you're picking your squad, by delivering an instant supply of resources without having to earn them first. If you're ready to jump into the action, then these are all of the gift codes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit and how to redeem them.

All JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

The following JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes can be claimed at the moment:

• JOJOGS – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• GS2026 – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• JOJOFANS – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• BIZARREADV – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• ORAORA2026 – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• MUDAMUDA – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• GOLDENSPIRIT – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• GOLDENSPIRIT2026 – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• PREJOJO2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate
• JOJOGS2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate
• JOJORPG2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate

As you can see, there are a lot of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes to redeem as the developers have been particularly generous to start with. Claim them all and you'll have stacks of Astrogems and Coins to spend, along with Uncharted Fate Cards to recruit new characters and plenty of other resources.

How to redeem JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

To redeem JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes, you first have to progress through the opening missions until your reach N1-4, at which point you can take full control over your actions. Hit your character icon in the top left corner of the screen, then from the menu that opens tap the cog icon in the bottom right corner to reach the Settings menu. From there, select Exchange Code on the list to the left, before using the text box to enter a gift code. Note that codes for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit are case-sensitive, so enter them exactly as we've listed.

Expired JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

• CBT2026 – 1x Oraora
• AX2026 – 10x Card: Uncharted Fate

There are now some expired JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes, as the launch promos are already starting to shut down. That is likely to continue, so make sure you claim all of the active codes while they're still working.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Fans of Middle-earth got a lovely surprise this week when The Lord of the Rings: War in the North was suddenly available again thanks to publisher Aspyr. A bit of a hidden gem among video games based on JRR Tolkien's work, one of the devs overseeing the original game is glad it's getting another shot after living in The Elder Scrolls' shadow when it launched.

Christian Allen, design director for WB Games during War in the North's development, commented on social media about the circumstances surrounding the action-RPG's release. "Wow, this is cool," he says, sharing the game's trailer. "15 years ago I argued vociferously not to release this up against Skyrim, as it wouldn't get a fair shake. I got overruled."

When you look at the release schedules, it's plain to see he had a point. War in the North arrived November 1, 2011, in the US, while Skyrim followed on November 11. There are a lot of The Lord of the Rings fans in the world, but it would've been hard for anything to compete against the sequel to Oblivion - especially since this one had dragons.

Sure enough, War in the North became an immediate casualty of Bethesda's vacuum, and pretty much died on the vine at launch. Middling reviews didn't help, pushing it further into relative obscurity.

In the replies, Allen clarifies that he was only part of the leadership team, since his role included managing IP-related pitches and releases, and that all actual credit for the game goes to the devs at Snowblind Studios. This would be their last release before becoming part of Monolith Productions in 2012.

Jump forward a decade-and-a-half, and people can give War in the North a fairer shake. Oblivion Remastered came out last year, as did Clair Obscur, and Baldur's Gate 3 was three years ago. The field is clear of major rivals, letting anyone who fancies the quest therein, where a number of heroes help in the battle against Sauron parallel to the Fellowship, enjoy it at their leisure.

Aspyr's teased more releases from the franchise's history are coming too. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - The Third Age is overdue a re-evaluation. But for now, War in the North has earned its time.

One Lord of the Rings fan is fighting back after Google removed the extended edition from their digital library

Unfortunately, reactions to Game Freak's new action-RPG Beast of Reincarnation haven't been the strongest, with players complaining about performance issues and other problsm. The studio, most widely known for Pokemon, is aware of the problems, and the devs are hard at work rectifying whatever they can.

Kota Furushima, game director, spoke to 4Gamer about the response and how the team is handling it. "I honestly feel that there are still areas in the game that require our sincere attention," he says, as translated by Automaton. "I'm truly sorry that parts of the game haven’t provided a sufficiently enjoyable experience."

It's worth noting this was before the first big post-launch patch, meaning his position may have since softened. But it's still a solid reminder that developers are often more than aware of the same problems you're seeing; they're just playing whack-a-mole with everything.

That said, Beast of Reincarnation "needs polishing," according to Fukushima, and Game Freak is digging in to provide as much as possible in the coming weeks and months. On the flipside, he's confident in the flow with your canine companion, and he believes the atmosphere is especially distinctive for the genre.

"I feel the aspect of defeating enemies alongside your partner has been well-received, and we’ve also received positive reactions regarding the overall atmosphere of the game," he comments. "I think the unique post-apocalyptic vibe of the world is resonating with many players."

I'll definitely give Beast of Reincarnation that much; it has a sense of place I'd put up there with Nier: Automata. But then, I have a soft spot for overgrown cities where plants are gradually subsuming our concrete tombs. In any case, it seems like you can expect plenty more fixes and changes to the game soon.

Beast of Reincarnation's first update is here, and it aims to fix story issues and more as "Mixed" Steam reviews dub Game Freak's new action RPG "bad and laughable"

Hogwarts Legacy is officially getting a sequel – but that's about all we know, as Warner Bros. quietly unveiled the follow-up action RPG in a letter to shareholders.

Yes, that's right – Hogwarts Legacy 2 is happening, although it's unclear what shape or form it'll take just yet… or when it'll come.

Warner Bros. reveals the "second installment of Hogwarts Legacy," as it writes, casually in a recent letter to shareholders, first detailing how "games remain an important growth lever as we work toward our long-term Studios segment goals." That's where the Hogwarts Legacy sequel comes in.

The company mentions LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight and mobile title Game of Thrones: Dragonfire, stating, "These releases marked the first launches under our refocused strategy centered around four key $1 billion+ franchises with disciplined investment behind fewer, higher conviction titles."

Although they don't mention what four franchises these are here, we do already know Harry Potter is one of them.

"We expect Games to more meaningfully contribute to segment profitability going forward as our pipeline expands, including the second installment of Hogwarts Legacy," Warner Bros. goes on to say – and, yes, that's sadly all we've got on Hogwarts Legacy 2 for now.

It's likely that we'll learn more about the Harry Potter-inspired game soon, though, seeing as this short mention of its existence will undeniably spur various discussions. Hogwarts Legacy's release three years ago was accompanied by debate due to the views of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. You can read our Hogwarts Legacy controversy explainer for the full story.

Until the game releases, wizarding fans have the Harry Potter TV series to look forward to, as it's bound to come sooner than Hogwarts Legacy 2 with its December 25 release date.

To coincide with pre-orders going live, we've got an extended look at Phantom Blade Zero. Amid all the incredibly stylish sequences, developer S-Games decided to drop a bit of a bombshell: Hong Kong action legend Donnie Yen worked on the game's choreography and served as a mo-cap performer for one of the characters.

The studio kept that well under wraps, but then, it's the perfect thing to help kickstart buzz for pre-orders, just like Keanu Reeves did for Cyberpunk 2077. According to the press release, Yen is a creative consultant, "contributing his extensive martial arts and action filmmaking experience to the game’s combat and action design."

You'll find his face on Mó Yuan, whom we see in the trailer taking part in a particularly fiery battle. We don't know if he's a baddie or a goodie yet, but I get anti-villain vibes. Y'know, the type who proclaims to be evil, and starts off in opposition to you, but has a moral compass deep down.

But that's just a guess. Considering his extensive work in the world of martial arts filmmaking, working on One Upon A Time In China 2, the Iron Monkey movies, and the iconic Ip Man series, he's the kind of guy you want if you'd like your fights to feel weighty and authentic. He's been involved here since 2023, according to S-Game, and he joins longtime collaborator Kenji Tanigaki, who's the action director on Phantom Blade Zero.

Yen's a legend in Hong Kong cinema, and his Hollywood profile has risen over the last couple of decades, between his films getting better distribution overseas and him being part of the cast of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and John Wick: Chapter 4. This actually marks his first foray into video games, but it wasn't meant to be.

He was previously tied to a Sleeping Dogs adaptation that never got off the ground, though it's purportedly been resurrected with Simu Liu attached. At least it didn't put him off doing anything in the medium.

Phantom Blade Zero pre-orders officially live at $60, and the Sekiro-esque Soulslike is getting a 20-minute State of Play from Sony next week

Phantom Blade Zero, the exciting action RPG first unveiled during Sony's 2023 PlayStation Showcase, has drawn quite a lot of attention for its Sekiro-style vibes – and we'll finally get to see more of its Soulslike charm later this month.

That's right – Sony is dropping a 20-minute-long "deep dive" State of Play showcasing some of Phantom Blade Zero's gameplay on August 17, as outlined in its latest blog post on the game.

There's more, though… the studio has also revealed that pre-orders are officially live, along with a brand-new pre-order trailer for Phantom Blade Zero. That pre-order trailer? It's a whopping 11 minutes long itself, highlighting combat, story, and more.

It shows off an eye-catching face, too – that of actor and martial artist Donnie Yen, who Sony says "has served as creative consultant for Phantom Blade Zero since 2023, bringing his martial arts and action filmmaking expertise to our combat design to help deliver an authentic kung fu experience."

He has taken on the role of facial and motion capture actor for Mó Yuan, as well, who is the protagonist Soul's father.

As for glimpses of the gameplay that the trailer provides, we see what seems to be an action-packed boss fight atop of a moving cart pulled by horses (moving very fast, mind you), and other such scenes that prove just how wonderfully chaotic and, well, cool, Phantom Blade Zero appears as though it'll be.

There's also the matter of the actual pre-orders themselves, which are up for grabs over on PlayStation 5 now. The Standard Edition comes in at $59.99, while the Deluxe Edition is just 10 bucks more at $69.99.

Phantom Blade Zero will come to PC, too, but as Sony previously confirmed, it'll be at least 12 months (so, a year) after its PS5 release on October 29 this year. That's not so bad, all things considered, although it does mean that those of us craving some new Soulslike action on PC will have to wait a little while until we get it.

GTA 6 doesn't scare Phantom Blade Zero devs, who just moved their release date closer to Rockstar's: "We don't think about any of this"

For years, it's been a real challenge getting your hands on the cult classic 2011 action RPG Lord of the Rings: War in the North, but today, Aspyr Media surprise-dropped a remaster of the game on PS5, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, and Steam.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North, a hack-and-slash adaptation of the Tolkien novels and the Peter Jackson movies with its own original story by Snowblind Studios, first released back in 2011 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Steam delisted the game a few years back and it was never ported to modern consoles until now, making it hard to actually play the darn thing unless you owned an original copy and still had a seventh-gen console plugged in. Now, that's all changed with Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Legacy Edition.

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North remaster comes with "a variety of modern enhancements," says Aspyr in a press release. You can still team up with three players online and in local split-screen, but now you can swap between player characters on the fly and enjoy new features like "refined enemy-target locking, improved UI/UX with the addition of Health, Mana, and EXP bars for party members," autosave, and gyro controls on PS5 and Switch.

Being honest, I don't have the fondest memories of War in the North and much prefer Stormfront's adaptations of Two Towers and Return of the King, but Aspyr buried a pretty significant tease in its press release for the new remaster. "Fans can look forward to even more classic releases by Aspyr from the beloved franchise in the future," it says, suggesting more Lord of the Rings adaptations are on the way. I would genuinely love nothing more than modern re-releases of Two Towers and Return of the King with local co-op on Switch 2, even if it remains to be seen how competently Aspyr adapted War in the North.

Lord of the Rings fans need to try this tabletop RPG, especially now it's getting a beginner-friendly update.

Saber CEO Matt Karch has belatedly weighed in on Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox taking shots at Embracer, a company that used to own both studios. According to Karch, "without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living."

A few weeks ago, Saber published a new trailer for its Crazy Taxi riff Rideshare Simulator. At first, there are few things that really catch the eye. The narrator – and our car driver – mentions coming across some odd folk in his line of work, like someone going to a medieval feast, an older chap who reckons his grandson is a failure, and someone who has been banned from the aquarium.

And then, our narrator says, "when I think I’ve met the randiest of passengers, someone even stranger gets in." A bit of a weird thing to say, but then the license plate of the car comes into view: "USB DRV."

Ah, we're taking a shot at Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, then. Just to really drive the point home, we also see a cogwheel between the two words on the Texas-based license plate.

It's hard to say if the passengers themselves are a jab at Pitchford, though the overall intent is fairly clear. GameFile also reached out to Saber to make sure, and CEO Matt Karch has the following to say:

"The dig is because Randy took shots at Embracer in Borderlands 4. Without Embracer, Randy is performing magic tricks at birthday parties for a living."

Some explanation is in order, I suppose. The 'USB' reference relates to a past legal episode involving Randy Pitchford and, you guessed it, a USB stick he left at a Medieval Times restaurant. You can search the internet to find out what was on the drive, if you really want to. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the various legal matters related to the USB were settled in late 2019, and Pitchford was "exonerated."

So why is Saber taking issue with something Gearbox said about Embracer? Essentially, both developers were owned by Embracer at one point, and, according to GameFile, Karch wasn't impressed with Pitchford at all.

Eventually, both studios would split with Embracer. Saber was bought out by a group of investors that was led by Karch, and Gearbox went to long-time Borderlands publisher Take-Two. It was a messy time for Embracer, which either parted ways with many of the studios it had acquired or shut them down entirely, resulting in hundreds of layoffs. It also earned Embracer an unwelcome reputation, which various company leaders have addressed several times.

As for Gearbox, Randy Pitchford would later say that Borderlands 4's story was partly inspired by its relationship with Embracer and the change in ownership. "There’s this cultural and emotional shift in me, personally, and at the studio," he said at the time. "What does it mean to trade some autonomy for organization?"

And then there are Borderlands 4's in-game jabs that Karch notes. Fairly early into your playthrough, you'll come across a location called Embracer's Bluff, which features a rundown town ruled by a king in a hot tub and a talking AI hot tub. Hm, I wonder what that's all about.

As we now know, though, Saber wasn't impressed at all.

Gearbox owner Take-Two is "thrilled" with Borderlands 4 even though some fans weren't thrilled with it at launch.

Borderlands 4 had a lot of trouble on PC even months after its September 12, 2025 launch date – and some players still complain about its lack of optimization – but it still sold well, so parent company Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick isn't concerned for the future of Gearbox's looter shooter franchise.

Zelnick tells IGN plainly that the game's commercial "performance has not affected our plans at all." He references Borderlands 4's ongoing Bounty Pack launches, its paid DLC with cosmetics and missions that are sometimes unpopular for how brief they are, proving "we continue to support the title. We've had plenty of incremental releases of content."

It's true – the $5.99 Bounty Pack 4: Murders and Acquisitions just came out on July 30. It includes a new Vault Hunter Skin featuring a pair of yellow, plaid pants, a new Pearlescent sniper rifle, and a mission centered on Electi faction leader Levaine – which has so far won fans over with its apparent return to vintage Borderlands style. Bounty Pack 5 launches on September 10, says Gearbox, along with a new Vault Hunter with perfect abs called Loveless, and the paid expansion Story Pack 2: FL4K and the Last Resort.

Zelnick continues, "We're totally supporting it. We're thrilled with the performance, and thrilled with the reviews and the scores." GamesRadar+'s own Borderlands 4 review rates the 2025 game a four-out-of-five stars for embodying "what Borderlands as a series is designed to do: live fast, die young, pay to be resurrected and do it all over again." Though, features editor Andrew Brown also notes its gameplay can feel "dated and at times irritating – undeniably an excellent looter-shooter, but one that requires a bit of tunnel vision to fully enjoy."

Steam reviewers are hung up on this latter point. Borderlands 4 has a Mixed review rating on the platform, with one recent critic saying, "Honestly the DLC should be given out for free as an apology for what they did to this game."

On this note, some people seem to dislike Borderlands 4 out of what they feel is their political obligation. Gearbox Entertainment Company president Randy Pitchford has, in the past, appeared to dismiss concerns over Borderlands 4's $70 price tag and dire PC performance, leading a portion of fans to develop what's basically their own post-apocalyptic faction against him.

One new Not Recommended Borderlands 4 Steam review explains by saying, "My issue isn't the game itself, it's Randy Pitchford's attitude toward the community that has supported Gearbox for years."

The player continues, "The way he responded to fan criticism came across as dismissive, condescending, and, at times, outright insulting. That's not the kind of leadership I want to financially support." But, you know, if you were looking to financially support Borderlands 4, don't forget that upcoming DLC Zelnick mentioned.

Borderlands 4 unveils final DLC Vault Hunter, a stunning tech-savvy queen fans say "looks like a netrunner from Cyberpunk,"

Any concerns of Black Myth: Zhong Kui using AI have been assuaged, at least for now. The Black Myth: Wukong sequel is moving steadily along, and one of the leads says the team's approaching it somewhat like how filmmaker Christopher Nolan goes about making his movies.

Over on Weibo, Yang Qi, the art director on the Black Myth games and co-founder of studio Game Science, responded to a fan's question over whether AI will be used to speed up development.

"We'll steer clear of [AI generated content] during the design and asset phases," he says, as translated by a user on Reset Era. "Not out of resistance, but simply to stand our ground until the very end."

He references The Odyssey, Nolan's latest epic, to explain his perspective further. "At a time when digital filmmaking and 3D post-production seem to have reached a dead end, look at Nolan," Qi writes.

"He's thriving, using even older techniques to shake things up," he continues. "There's no 'last train' we absolutely have to catch; we can just stay at a small inn for a while. Besides, there's plenty of time for AI and all that - no rush."

That's a relief, because generative AI, and chatbots and the like, are becoming more prevalent within the industry. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Kingdom Hearts are just three releases and series confirmed or suspected to have used or be using gen-AI assets in some form or other, all receiving a considerable amount of pushback.

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain used an AI music video as part of its promotion, too, and its creative director believes the tech is crucial to South Korea's game development scene.

It's good to see Game Science resist all of that in favor of relying purely on human-led creativity.

That said, the suggestion it might become part of the process later is still worrying. One can only hope the negativity surrounding Stellar Blade stemming from the technology's usage will appropriately discourage Game Science.

A Final Fantasy 9 remake was reportedly "very far along" before Square Enix put the JRPG revival on ice, but it's not completely dead yet

Beast of Reincarnation has suffered a bit of a shaky launch, prompting Game Freak – yes, the studio behind Pokemon's own beloved games – to promise "story pacing improvements" and more within a week of launch.

Well, they're certainly delivering on that promise. A new Beast of Reincarnation update just went live yesterday, pushing the game up to v1.0.7. It's more of a "patch," really, all things considered, but it does begin to tackle many of the problems fans cite with the action RPG over on Steam (where it still sits with "Mixed" reviews) and elsewhere online.

First up is the camera, which Game Freak notes faces "various adjustments… both in and out of combat."

Text size is also seeing some "adjustments," but the biggest tweak arguably comes to story pacing – the very thing Game Freak said it would improve last week.

"Story pacing has been slightly adjusted by ensuring that some of the affinity-building conversations that could occur multiple times in a row are now limited to once per day," read the developer's patch notes. "Additional updates are being planned to further improve cutscene experience," too.

There's a plethora of other changes as well, with the default cinematic cutscene setting no longer playing scenes at 24 frames per second by default – "though the option is still available," as Game Freak says.

On top of this, the pesky "interact" button is remappable now, there are "various balance adjustments to bosses across all difficulty levels," and all sorts of bug fixes to boot. It's hefty enough for a patch, and there's more to come.

"Multiple additional patches are planned, and various fixes and adjustments will continue to be made in response to ongoing player feedback," the dev concludes, pointing to requests like "implementation of DLSS 4/4.5 (L/M) and FSR4."

It's good to hear, especially considering said "player feedback" so far. Over on Steam, folks are still dubbing Beast of Reincarnation "bad and laughable," pointing to its camera, gameplay, story, and more.

Here's hoping v1.0.7 and beyond see Beast of Reincarnation make a comeback as the game we hoped to see from Game Freak – there's still hope yet, and it's evident that the dev isn't slowing down work on the action RPG.

Searching for something else to look forward to? Browse our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond.

There's always an inherent pressure following up on an acclaimed piece of art, whether that's the Friends spinoff Joey, Homer's The Odyssey follow-up The Telegony, or the highly anticipated sequel to the 2023 action RPG Soulslike, Lies of P. Developer Nough Studio took home a handful of coveted awards in 2023 for the release and confirmed a sequel to be in development around the same time, and now three years later, the developer is feeling the heat to come up with something even better.

"Back then, attending an awards ceremony or standing on that stage felt like something that happened to other people," says narrative director Kwon Byungsoo in a new video from Nough Studio. "I used to think, 'I wish I could stand there someday.' Now I find myself thinking, 'we have to do even better next time. How much better do we need to be?'

"When we first started, we were building from a completely blank slate," says Byungsoo. "We kept asking ourselves just how far we could go. Now Lies of P is our starting point. The question now is how much more we can build from here."

I've played my fair share of Soulslikes over the years, but never enough to actually beat one. That's why I asked my FromSoft sickos at work to rank Lies of P on a scale of worst to best Soulslikes. It's the best that wasn't made by FromSoftware, I'm unanimously told. That's a high bar to clear with other acclaimed releases like Black Myth Wukong, Nioh 3, and Lords of the Fallen, but Nough is up to the task.

"There's definitely pressure, but for now we're trying to set that aside and return to the mindset we had while making Lies of P," says art lead Cha Byungjun. "We're trying to hold onto it."

It's hard to argue with the idea of following the same guiding light that led to such great success to begin with, but it does make me wonder whether the sequel will have the same level of innovation that refined the Soulslike genre in Lies of P. It's too early to say, but it seems the team is unified in continuing to push boundaries.

"When we were making Lies of P, there was a real sense of excitement and anticipation," adds director Choi Juwon. "But when I look at the team now working on our next project, everyone is seriously thinking about how we can do even better. They seem to be grappling with the same questions I am. So now, our drive to push ourselves further has only grown stronger."

Where's your favorite on our ranking of the best Soulslikes to play in 2026?

Some fans credit 2009 action role-playing game Demon's Souls with establishing many conventions now considered synonymous with its developer FromSoftware, like crumbling Gothic kingdoms, dark fantasy monsters, and challenging gameplay to make you cry like you've ingested a whole lemon. But before it became some discerning masochists' medieval horror of choice, Demon's Souls was an experiment by defunct Sony developer Japan Studio and FromSoftware.

Video game cut content kingpin Lance McDonald gives rare insight into these infant days of Demon's Souls with a previously lost prototype presentation Japan Studio put together in 2007, to show off at a conference called Gameshare 4. Company notes indicate the publisher introduced developer FromSoftware as the brain behind "real-time 3D classic" King's Field – the 1994 graveyard quest that's the true grandfather of Dark Souls – which emphasizes how much time has passed. This is decades before Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Dark Souls itself.

The presentation also shows off the 2007-era "photorealistic quality" of Demon's Souls lorn wastelands and mad, mutated enemies, many of which didn't make it to the final version of the game – like a serpent knight with a squiggly neck and tall boots.

A video demo of Demon's Souls prototype' also shows an optional first-person perspective – like King's Field – that would have put your face right in the middle of bosses' formidable, scaly bellies.

Otherwise, Japan Studio distinguishes Demon's Souls from other RPGs by calling online games too time consuming – and the company literally includes a screengrab from that South Park World of Warcraft episode to demonstrate a "stereotype image for MMO RPG gamers" – and it calls exclusively offline RPGs limiting. It emphasizes the importance of Demon's Souls network connectivity and those ghosts the Souls games continue to proudly flounce around – those see-through phantoms of other players who were killed in battle, or who can be summoned to help you with your own problems.

So I'm struck by the clear parallels between this baby Demon's Souls and the games FromSoftware is still making. A piece of early concept art, for example, shows a luxurious grass field haunted by a large ring of stone in the middle, which looks so much like a Stonesword Key boss area in Elden Ring's verdant Limgrave.

Other concept art of a gnarled dragon stuck in a black pit glowing softly with red magma – Flamelurker, maybe – is reminiscent of several FromSoftware bosses from over the years, like Demon Firesage in Dark Souls.

According to McDonald, Japan Studio's notes emphasize that, while you may feel lonely in Demon's Souls' solitary journey, you are not alone because of all the other people playing, too. And after all this time, I think FromSoftware is still prioritize this heady mix of fear and belonging in its titles.

"Like watching the mona lisa being painted," agrees one comment on YouTube.

"If FromSoftware released the full Dark Souls design document, no one would be debating the lore": Creator of one of the highest-rated new roguelikes on Steam says hands-off storytelling was key.

A good Withered Knight build plays into this classes' strength, which is trying to apply as much burst damage as possible to panic enemies before they can retaliate. The Withered Knight is a slow and fiddly character to use from the selection of Mistfall Hunter classes, so all of its strengths come from trying to kill things as fast as possible before they can get the upper hand. To do that, you'll want to build it all out around the Wither ability, which lets you apply a mark to enemies and then execute them for extra damage. It's all about patience and care - making sure you don't miss and understanding that despite looking like a tank, this Withered Knight can get taken apart very easily.

How to play Withered Knight in Mistfall

The entire point of the Withered Knight is to do damage via a Withered ability. This is powered by light attacks that charge your sword with Judgment after three hits. This Judgment can then be used to add a Withered mark to an enemy, which is then Executed mainly by heavy attacks for extra damage.

If that sounds complicated, then all you're doing is charging your sword with basic attacks. placing that charge on an enemy and then detonating it for extra damage.

Because of this, all your skills and talents should be built around doing that as quickly as possible. For that reason, focus on the Greatsword for this build. The Knight's secondary weapon, the Polearm and Shield, has its uses, especially in a team, but generally doesn't do as much damage, and is more of a defensive playstyle which hampers the 'doing as much damage as you can' tactic you need to lean into. I also find it exacerbates all the Knight's problems, with having attacks that are easy to miss or leave you open.

Best Withered Knight Skills

To get the best out of the Withered Knight you're going to want to access the Greatsword Specialisation from the Weapon specialisation Talents. I'll explain more about that in Talents below but that will basically give you one extra skill for you Greatsword, but take one away from your Polearm. Using that you can then use these three weapon skills:

Greatsword weapon skills

• Radiant Retribution: This is a series of three quick wide slashes that will fully charge your sword with Judgement, ready to apply Wither. You can also use Radiant Retribution Enhancement Talent to increase the distance you can move farward whilew using it. It's a powerful option that can open a fight and charge your sword at the same time.
• Breakthrough charge: This is a two stage attack that starts with a dash, letting you close the distance on an enemy fast. It gives you an element of surprise, as well the ability to close distances fast.
• Parry: Because I'm playing down the Polearm here this will be one of your core defensive moves. This puts you in a defensive posture that will prevent you from taking damage for either five second or five hits. Any time after a parry you can also then trigger a swipe or dash attack to apply Wither to an enemy. It does lock you into a slow, defensive posture so be ready to cancel out of it if you misread a situation or change your mind.

Withered Knight Polearm and Shield weapons skills

Because I'm using the Greatsword Specialisation from the Weapon specialisation Talents you'll only have one weapon skill for your Polearm and Shield. depending on what you want these are the best two options - what you pick depends on if you want something offensive, or something defensive. That said, the Sacred Bulwark is probably the best overall if you're playing in a team.

• Sacred Bulwark: This creates a large magical barrier that blocks attacks and enemies from passing through, so it's great to provide cover for a team. However, while you can fire the barrier forwards for damage and knockback, you're immobile while h9olding it. Making it of limited use on your own.
• Javelin Thrust: This lets you throw your spear at an enemy and then pull yourself to them and apply Wither. It's a good option for increased mobility and traversal and probably the talent you want if you're playing solo. Thorn Guide, which does something similar on the Greatsword, only moves you and applies no damage or affects, which is why this is the better option.

Withered Knight Talents

Obviously there's a lot of Talents to chose from and you can unlock more as you level up but these are the essentials for me to get the class powered up quickly.

• Weapon Specialisation
  • Greatsword Specialisation - this will give you a third Greatsword weapon at the expense of a Polearm one.
• Greatsword: Core Archetype
  • Crime - This is a critical skill you can't afford to miss out as it prevents a Withered mark being consumed when you Execute it. That means you can keep Executing a Withered enemy. It slightly reduces damage over all but that's offset by the ability to keep laying on burst damage.
  • Bad Karma - This unlocks after Crime and lets you apply a series of debuffs when Execute extends Wither's duration. Firstly it'll affect and enemies movement speed, then increase its vulnerability, and finally it case health loss over time. Paired with Crime it increases your damage and affects on the enemy
• Greatsword: Radiant Retribution Enhancement
  • Long Range - This increases the displacement range of the Radiant Retribution weapon skill, letting you attack from further away.

There are obviously a lot more Talents you can use but these are the core ones you want to build off. Legacy in the Greatsword: Core Archetype section is good way to claw back health in a fight, for example, while Dominance in the Greatsword: Breakthrough Charge Enhancement section gives you a moment of Super Armor to negate stagger at the end of that attack - useful if you use it to charge into a crowd. Defensive Shift, from Polearm and Shield: Sacred Bulwark Enhancement is also useful if you chose that skill as it gives the ability to move around slightly instead of being locked in place.

Withered Knight affixes and effects

The main thing to focus on in terms of addition to affixes and effects - via Victory wine and gear - is anything that increase your Burst Affix. This increases your damage from Executing Wither, making it vital for this class. Other good options include Valour to increase your attack generally, while Tenacious and Aegis increase your health and defence respectively.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been trailing its older siblings in sales, but publisher Capcom really wants to close the gap among its children. It just needs to sell about another 20 million of Monster Hunter Wilds to do so. Easy enough, right?

Last we heard, 2018's Monster Hunter World had sold a whopping 30 million copies. That easily makes it the company's best-selling game ever and a commercial juggernaut in any context, but those monstrous figures also make Monster Hunter Wilds look like a baby seikret by comparison. For most of 2025, Monster Hunter Wilds was selling less than older games in the series and eventually reached about 11 million copies sold.

While Monster Hunter Wilds and Monster Hunter World's sales figures weren't updated at the same time, that 20-million-copy gulf between them likely hasn't changed much based on Wilds' lack of momentum. Capcom wants to turn around the game's fortunes, however, and its plan is already in motion.

"Ongoing enhancements to the technical performance of Monster Hunter Wilds have led to sales for the game improving," the publisher says in a recent investor Q&A. "We have also seen a response to the announcement of the upcoming massive expansion, Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance, and related pricing measures."

Capcom then notes it plans to keep "improving the game's technical performance" in an effort to "drive its total unit sales beyond those of Monster Hunter World over the medium to long term." In other words, Capcom's hoping the upcoming expansion and continued improvements to the game's shoddy performance can convince another 20 million or so people to buy in. Wilds' Nintendo Switch 2 port should help, as well.

In case you've been hiding in a Monster Hunter-less rock for the last year and a half, Wilds' PC version launched with notoriously wonky performance and tons of technical woes that lasted longer than you would expect of a big-budget game from an acclaimed company. Things have thankfully gotten better, though there's clearly still ways to go if Capcom wants to achieve its goals.

Capcom is selling Monster Hunter Wilds with the energy of a man paddling up a waterfall: new 26GB demo lets you play the prologue for free after price drop to $40

Mistfall Hunter, the new dark fantasy hybrid of Soulslike RPG and extraction shooter, has reached one million players, and to celebrate the achievement, developer Bellring Games has released the game's official roadmap detailing season 1 content and a tease of what's to come in season 2.

"Soekja just sent us some inspiring news: over 1,000,000 Gyldhunters have now joined the world of Weavereach!" reads an Steam announcement from Bellring that's littered with enough in-game references to make it difficult to parse for casual observers. "This marks a major milestone for us, and none of this would've been possible without your incredible love and support."

As a token of gratitude for its million-strong player base, all players should check their inboxes for codes for the Spellcasting standing pose, five free Moonlight Nectars, a Pro Combat Bag, and an Advanced Combat Bag.

Bellring also says it's seen "an overwhelming amount of feedback" from players who want to solo the Brandrgarde map missions, and thus is adding a solo mode for both Normal and Cataclysm Brandrgarde missions in the middle of season 1 in September.

"That said, adding two new modes will inevitably split the matchmaking queue and present fresh Mistfall Hunter class balance challenges in solo play," the studio says. "We'll continue to evaluate these factors and will communicate our findings with you before making further adjustments."

As for that roadmap, Mistfall Hunter's season 1 is being broken down into three phases, with the first phase adding a new difficulty level to the endgame Einherjar mode, as well as new season-exclusive tasks and content. The second phase will fully unlock the new seasonal tasks and the aforementioned solo mode for Brandrgarde will be added, as well as the new Underworld speed challenge. Phase 3 heats things up even more with the new Golden Woodling monster, which will disguise itself as treasure, and the Ancestor Tree random match event.

Details on Mistfall Hunter's season 2 are much more vague, but Bellring promises a new Blackarrow weapon, the Javelin, as well as a new seasonal theme and "exclusive gameplay," a new season-specific progression system, and "more upcoming seasonal content" to be revealed "gradually."

Although it obviously has its fans, Mistfall Hunter hasn't exactly been showered with praise since its full launch last week. It currently sits at a mixed rating on Steam with 3,650 reviews and counting, with many reviewers noting optimization issues, a reliance on microtransactions, and limited solo options. That said, it seems there's a solid-enough foundation here for people who dig the Dark Souls-style fantasy setting with a more experimental extraction-style gameplay hook. Hopefully the roadmap pans out and Bellring can make that mixed rating a little less mixed.

Monster Hunter Wilds has a new and sizable free demo out to help onboard players ahead of the release of the game's Ascendance DLC.

The roughly 26GB Monster Hunter Wilds prologue demo, which includes the character creator and single-player content up to chapter 1-3 according to a Steam notice from Capcom, comes on the heels of a permanent price drop. Monster Hunter Wilds is now $40 at base, and Capcom's also cobbled together some cheaper ways to buy the mountain of DLC released for the game.

Progress in the demo will carry over to the full version if you do choose to buy it. The only catch is that online play and photo mode aren't available in the demo, though you likely won't be needing help from friends for early-game monsters – and if you do want some assistance, you can presumably rely on NPC hunters to fill out your squad.

Between the price drop, discounted DLC, and now this demo, Capcom is working overtime to paper over Monster Hunter Wilds' rough launch year and bolster the player base ahead of the release of Ascendance, an expansion comparable to Monster Hunter World's Iceborne or Monster Hunter Rise's Sunbreak.

With Ascendance, Capcom is basically releasing the second half of the game, with new monsters, story quests, and, most importantly, Master Rank gear to grind. Its release will, Capcom surely hopes, get Wilds out of the sales slump where it's spent much of the past year, losing to many other games in the company's catalog despite being the latest installment in a marquee series, to say nothing of its record-setting but short-lived debut. (Hundreds of pieces of minor DLC were also aggressively cranked out to help pad declining sales.)

Wilds is in a much better place today than it was at launch, and as I said in our Monster Hunter Wilds review (of the PS5 version), the base game is and was good – but in the updates that followed, Capcom failed to address critical issues on PC for far too long, and disappointed many longtime fans with mishandled features and some strange balance decisions.

The hope, which I share, is that Ascendance will deliver what Monster Hunter Wilds could've been had it not been evidently crushed by design missteps and the demands made of a publicly traded company. In the meantime, you can't beat a free sample.

Final Fantasy 14, Monster Hunter, and Animal Crossing top new survey of games Japanese players have spent the most time on and I can't say I'm surprised.

Three years after its initial launch, Diablo 4 is reportedly set to arrive on Switch 2 next month – although I can't say I'm too surprised after an age rating for the game already suggested as much.

According to reliable leaker Billbil-kun via Dealabs, Diablo 4 is set to arrive on either September 15 or 18 on Nintendo's latest console. While you'll apparently be able to buy a physical box for it, it won't come with a cartridge, but reportedly a download code (no, not even a Game-Key Card).

It's claimed that the Switch 2 version of the game will cost $69.99 / £62.99 – this is the same price as the Age of Hatred collection bundle on other platforms, which includes the Lord of Hatred and Vessel of Hatred DLC as well as the base game. However, Billbil-kun notes that it's not known if the new DLC will be part of the Switch 2 version at this stage, but at that price, I certainly hope so.

Last year, before the Switch 2 even launched, Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson said "there's opportunity there" to bring Diablo 4 to the console, but noted that "live services on Switch have been a little bit challenging in the past." While he didn't expand on what these issues were, more recent evidence has been mounting up to suggest Blizzard has found a way to make the game work on the platform. Specifically, back in June, fans spotted an age rating from the Taiwan Entertainment Software Rating board that listed the Lord of Hatred expansion as coming to the Switch 2.

Assuming that the September launch date for Diablo 4 on Switch 2 is accurate, chances are we won't be waiting very long to see an announcement. Billbil-kun speculates it could be shown at Gamescom 2026 at the end of the month, a few weeks before its apparent release.

Blizzard "heard your feedback" on Diablo 4 Mythics and is completely changing how they work again: "The random factors are gone."

The mission to kill the Mistfall Hunter Greataxe Berserker is one of your first objectives, but is confused by some differing names and a few mechanics that only come to light once you've started what will be a tricky fight. Even when you know where to go and what to do, it's not going to be easy, so you'll need all the help you can get. Having taken him down myself, here's everything you need to know about where to go and how to survive the Greataxe Berserker.

Where's the location of the Greataxe Berserker in Mistfall Hunter?

The mission to Kill the Greataxe Berserker is one of the first big missions you'll get in Mistfall Hunter, as part of the Tracking the Treasure main task. The enemy appears in the Hallowgrove area initially (likely the only place you can access when you first have the objective).

Confusingly though, the Greataxe Berserker is marked as an Elite Berserker on the map, meaning it's not clear where to go when you first start looking. When you do find the Elite Berserker you'll see he is waving a big axe around, but it's not immediately obvious from the map and titling that the two things are the same.

Mark him on the map and it'll appear like this on screen as this red marker to lead you there:

The Berserker will be in one of the named points of interest on the map and, while I mostly saw him appear in areas like Verdant Grounds or Supreme Hall, he actually appeared in Divine Anchor when I finally fought him. He'll always be inside a structure as some sort as a Protection Barrier around it will activate when you first damage him, sealing you in with him.

When you approach wherever he is, you'll actually see red symbols on any closed doors and a red energy field over any open entrances, showing you where the barrier is. Once you're inside and attack the Berserker, you'll be locked into the fight by this field until one of you is dead - if you try and run away, and go past the barrier his health is reset so you can't just nip off for a break without resetting things.

Greataxe Berserker tips

Killing the Greataxe Berserker is just a tough fight generally, although it'll be tougher if you try and take him on too soon. It'll certainly be a test of whether you've made the right choice about your Mistfall Hunter class whatever level you are. Try and complete other missions and generally gather better loot to tip the balance more in your favour before you take a swing. As well as that I'd recommend these tips:

1. Take the time to scope out the various areas you can fight him in, to see how much space there is and if there are any useful extras like teleports. That way you won't be fighting blind and can make a choice if he appears in a spot you like the look of.
2. Always play defensively and stay mobile. The main danger of the fight is that you do chip damage while the Berserker can kill you in three or four good hits. So keep dogging and don't let him connect.
3. Bring plenty of healing. The Berserker dishes out so much damage that you'll need lots of health and often.
4. Don't be afraid to run away for heals and anything else you want to do. Just don't cross the barrier.
5. You get one do over if you're lucky. Assuming you've not been killed already by a monster and someone else is still fighting you'll be able to resurrect once and this shouldn't reset the fight. Use it tactically as you'll come back at full health.
6. Bring help. Either as a team or get someone to join you in match. That will obviously help you inflict more damage but, more importantly, people can act as distractions to give each other space and time to heal and set up attacks.

Greataxe Berserker rewards

Rewards for defeated the Berserker vary, but will yield a range of Gyldenblod, and high (ish) value construction and forging materials and gear. It seems to be randomised, so while I got the rewards below, you'll get different things of a similar rarity.

• 43 Gyldenblod
• Two unidentified rewards that resolved into a Flawless Runestone epic forging material and a Blessing Sachet legendary construction material
• Agate forging material
• Veteran Armor

Once thing that's worth noting is that this might be a shared a shared pool. I took on the Berserker with random player that joined in the fight and they took some of that prize pool before I could claim it.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Just one day after the game's launch, there's a patch on the way for Beast of Reincarnation to address criticisms of the action-RPG. Developer Game Freak plans to release the changes in the coming days.

The studio announced the update on Twitter. "Thank you for playing Beast of Reincarnation!" the post starts. "We take your feedback to heart and are currently planning a series of continuous updates."

The list of changes is mostly things you'll commonly find in a post-launch patch, like camera changes, fixing text size, and myriad bug fixes. But one thing that stands out is "Story pacing improvements," something that'll be altered incrementally, according to the tweet.

It's unclear exactly what this refers to, but it seems players are unhappy with the main narrative, and Game Freak agrees there's room to improve. Getting the story right in a glossy action-RPG like this can be crucial, because it's what many players are there to experience, and as this is all fresh territory for the studio, I suspect the devs have come up against the learning curve of pleasing those fans.

That's not to imply Game Freak's just a Pokemon team - far from it - but Beast of Reincarnation is the devs branching out in a significant way. Something that jumps out to me is that combat isn't mentioned. First impressions from reviews made this a clear dividing line between those who enjoyed the experience and those who found it quite middling. Our own GamesRadar+ Beast of Reincarnation review calls the combat "firm but fair," whereas others called it completely uninspired.

Another update could be in the pipeline to address those criticisms. But either way, this first set of fixes is intended to arrive next week.

Game Freak admits Beast of Reincarnation "doesn’t really fit our vibe" after decades of stylized Pokemon but knew "photorealism would be the best fit" for the action RPG

One of the best ways you can kill a few in-game hours in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is at one of the RPG's many taverns, sitting across from a crap-talking patron in a game of dice, a mug of ice cold ale at your side. Soon, you'll be able to replicate that experience in real life under the stewardship of Luke Dale, the actor who plays the most lovable royal you'll ever meet, Hans Capon. You'll have to travel to the Czechia if you aren't already there, but that's a small price to pay for the authentic Devil's Den experience.

"Ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to run a pub, a restaurant, a cafe, something. Something that was bricks and mortar, something that felt real," Dale says in a new video all about his new Prague-based pub, The Nobleman.

"Because so much of what I've done in my life has been acting, filmmaking, and more recently, streaming, and these things, however amazing they've been, there's an element of which it doesn't feel real to me, and I've always wanted a business that was mine that I could run and I could come to and I could be a part of a community and engender a great feeling in a community."

It's clear Dale and his team have a long way to go, and thus it's unclear what the final product will look like, but the bones of The Nobleman are extremely cozy in a way that most Kingdom Come fans only get to experience in the game right now. Dale, who lives and works in Prague, calls the tavern "a love letter to Prague, a love letter to the Czech Republic, and how much I love this city and this country and everything that it's given me."

Unlike his pampered character in Kingdom Come, Dale is putting in the hours of hard manual labor to make his dream a reality, sanding down tables, transporting building materials, and moving around furniture. "It's like the equivalent of carrying sacks," he jokes in reference to an early scene in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. "A rare sight."

Dale says The Nobleman is "inspired by the places where Noblemen would gather and conspire and socialize," noting that it isn't "a themed bar" or "tourist attraction, but a local space where local people can have a really good beer, amazing food, and a bloody great time." As part of the medieval theme, you'll see "trinkets of shields and things on the walls and things that will remind you of that world," which sounds downright delightful.

The Nobleman is planned to open on October 1.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 lead designer says "friction is intentionally" in the RPG because when "you overcome the friction, you feel better about yourself"

Game Freak's big action RPG Beast of Reincarnation is finally here, alongside its first critic and player reviews, but folks' thoughts on the Pokemon developer's latest outing are all over the place.

There's been a lot of interest in Beast of Reincarnation purely because this is a totally new offering from the Pokemon devs. It's not the studio's first non-Pokemon game, as it's done plenty, from Little Town Hero to Pocket Card Jockey, but the more realistic visuals, post-apocalyptic setting, and intense action combat have certainly turned heads, especially as folks draw comparisons to the titles Game Freak is best known for. However, so far, reviews have been incredibly mixed.

On Metacritic, Beast of Reincarnation's average critic score varies slightly depending on the platform it was played on. There aren't enough reviews logged on Xbox to calculate an average, but on PC it's at 72, while its PS5 score is slightly higher at 73.

Making up these averages are some wildly differing scores. At the top end of the scale, Vice gives the game 9.5/10, writing that its "combat isn't just innovative, it's incredibly fun," and that the mix of real-time and turn-based action is "a perfect blend." GamesRadar+'s own Beast of Reincarnation review similarly gives it 9/10 – we called it "a great ARPG, with firm but fair combat and wide scope for crafting a build to your tastes. Surprisingly, perhaps, it also has a deep and thoughtful story that it trusts you to dig into yourself."

Not everyone is a fan, though. VGC and Eurogamer both give Beast of Reincarnation 6/10, with the former criticizing the "unoriginal setting and story" and lack of enemy variety, while the latter says it "riffs on Sekiro and Monster Hunter with mixed results."

While it might be a bit early to get a proper gauge of player thoughts, early Steam reviews tell a similar story to the Metacritic ratings. Its rating is currently Mixed – at the time of writing, 52% of the 700+ English reviews are positive, so it'd be hard to get any more divisive. One writes: "So far so good – feels like a blend of Sekiro, NieR Automata and Princess Mononoke. Combat feels slick and the 'hair' movement extending vertically and horizontally is a really nice touch that opens up the game."

Others aren't so generous. Another says it "looks far more ambitious than it actually plays," and that "combat feels flat and repetitive," while a similar review states that "combat feels unrewarding and uninspired, guarding and parrying are very inconsistent and sword impacts feel like a dry pool noodle."

It can't be the start that Game Freak was hoping for, but it's interesting to see how much opinion varies – I'm left wondering what the consensus will be once folks have more time with it.

Game Freak admits Beast of Reincarnation "doesn't really fit our vibe" after decades of stylized Pokemon but knew "photorealism would be the best fit" for the action RPG.

Rangifer in Beast of Reincarnation is the first major Nushi, powerful Malefect boss fights that, in this case, manifest as an enormous stag/plant hybrid. You'll actually fight Rangifer twice, once in a crater and a second time in its lair, where it's more powerful and has access to a second stage. While it might seem tough at first, there's actually some pretty consistent strategies and weaknesses for you to exploit here, as I'll explain in our guide on how to beat Rangifer in Beast of Reincarnation.

First Rangifer boss fight

The first time you fight Rangifer in Beast of Reincarnation as part of the Prowling Nushi quest, it'll be at level 9, so you'll want to be at least level 6 or 7 for a fighting chance. If it's still proving difficult, find some nearby enemies to fight for the experience and come back when you're ready. Otherwise, here's some essential tips to know:

• Access the camp in the middle. In the centre of the Rangifer's arena is a tall building with a campsite on it, you'll definitely want to unlock that, as well as the armor up there.
• Start the fight with an assassination from above. From the camp, use the Hair bridge to stand above the Rangifer, then jump down to perform an assassination. This can remove a huge chunk of its health straight away.
• Use ranged attacks early. With Rangifer being mostly melee focused, the bow and crossbow are basically free damage if you can put some distance between you and it. Exhaust the ammo of both if you get the chance.
• Rangifer is weak to fire. For that reason, you'll definitely want to use Koo's Higanbana: Seeds skill, a series of fiery projectiles that can build up the burn status effect, and one of the best skills in Beast of Reincarnation.
• Parry the antlers. Rangifer's most common attack is to swing its antlers at you. Despite the huge size, you can absolutely parry this attack, and it's worth doing, as it'll build up Koo's FP for more fire attacks. This attack also leaves the head lowered, which is your moment for easy melee attacks.
• Practice your mobility. Mobility isn't as important in this phase, but it will be in later phases, so it's worth practicing this now, including the ability to create your own grapple points. Much of Rangifer's attacks are based around hitting downwards, so elevation can heavily compromise its ability to hit you.

Pretty much all of these tips apply to your second fight with Rangifer as well, so make sure they're memorised! You'll also want to make sure that you upgrade weapons in Beast of Reincarnation, as this second fight is going to last a lot longer, and the gap between them will give you ample chance to earn the Amber necessary.

Second Rangifer boss fight

The second time you encounter Rangifer is in its sealed lair, having opened it up and leaving it nowhere to run. This is a two-stage boss fight, with Rangifer unlocking new abilities (and a new health bar) when you reduce it to zero health. Keep in mind that Rangifer is now level 12, and I really wouldn't recommend having this fight if you're not at least level 10 or higher, depending on your skill level.

• Rangifer remains weak to fire. Aside from Koo's attacks, you should now also be able to acquire Fire Arrows from Brad back at the Cleanse Walker. However, while still weak to fire, it's more resistant to the Burn status effect than last time.
• Look out for the stomp. If Rangifer rears up and stamps, now it does a small AOE impact with sharp roots rising. Make sure you clear space!
• If it glows red, look out! If Rangifer's body gains a red glow, it's about to do four antler sweeps, followed by a stomp. These are quick, do massive damage and are hard to parry, potentially able to KO Emma from full health. The best thing to do is either have Koo use a binding attack to interrupt it, use any grapple points you've made to escape, or just rapidly evade and dodge away.
• Rangifer can summon trees. If it backs away and yells before slamming its hea on the ground, it's about to create trees that erupt from the forest floor, marked by red circles.
• In phase 2, these trees last longer. In its phase 2, non-damaging trees also appear, which Emma can use as grapple points. You'll need these mobility boosts to avoid many of its attacks, so keep an eye on their location!
• If it summons a lot of trees and glows, attack it immediately! This happens roughly at the midpoint, wherein Rangifer draws energy from trees it summons to heal itself. Grapple to it and land a combo to end this effect.

For winning the encounter, you'll get the Bloom Art Sakura Javelin, which allows Koo to fire an electrified grapple point at an enemy, as well as the Sakura Blade Art/Finisher for Emma.

Reward yourself with a nice meal, and check out how to cook recipes in Beast of Reincarnation!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.