When I heard Owlcat Games turned 10 in June, I was surprised. Not because of its age, but lack of. Within a decade the developer has already become a household name for CRPG fans, thanks to its sprawling isometric games set in the Pathfinder universe and 2023's excellent Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader.

Looking further afield, Owlcat is set to launch its debut third-person RPG, The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, in 2027; while upcoming CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy already looks promising. That's on top of getting into publishing. "We're kind of speedrunning this," jokes Andrey Tsvetkov, head of publishing at Owlcat. "We managed to ship three games in 10 years, while some studios worked on a single project in that time."

Joining me to reflect on Owlcat's first decade and the future ahead, Tsvetkov says the studio owes a great deal to its fans. He's being surprisingly literal: the longer we chat, the more it becomes clear that Owlcat Games' relationship with players, and authenticity to its craft, are the studio's greatest assets.

Taking initiative

Through the 2000s and early 2010s, the RPG genre seemed to be moving in one direction. Increasingly dominated by third-person action RPGs, from Fallout and The Elder Scrolls at Bethesda to BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect, it seemed CRPGs had settled away from the spotlight. Then veteran developer Obsidian Entertainment crowdfunded RPG Pillars of Eternity in 2015, saving itself from dire finances with a return to '90s-style isometric RPGs.

"It showed us that the market didn't move away from these kinds of products," says Tsvetkov. "Everyone was talking about multiplayer back then, and suddenly Pillars of Eternity became a great hit [...] The core team of ours always dreamed of making this kind of game, and that was a good opportunity to do so. So it inspired us to start working on the concept of a game like this – and it turned out to be Pathfinder: Kingmaker."

Pathfinder: Kingmaker was made through crowd-funding, with 18,351 backers raising $909K – far more than the original $500K target. Raising funds for a sequel, 2021's Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, more than 35,000 backers pledged two million dollars. Having found an audience Owlcat funded its last titles internally, but continues to work with fans from early stages, with pre-release builds for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader and its follow-up Dark Heresy helping to shape their vision.

Tsvetkov points to the inception of Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader as an example. "We were thinking of what kind of story we wanted to tell, what might be the next studio we'd work on, and more than half of the studio explicitly told us [they] want it to be Warhammer. 'We just want to work with Warhammer!'

So we approached Games Workshop and found common ground really fast, and started working on an RPG based on the Warhammer universe. It wasn't to achieve some target, or to expand the community, or whatever. We just wanted to make a Warhammer game."

That passion, says Tsvetkov, is a large part of why Owlcat has been able to release games so quickly.

"There is a list of things that the creative team would like to do, and we try to chase them [...] We're not working on a single game for five or six years. One of the key reasons is because the creative team behind our games wants to try different things before we get too old, before we retire and live somewhere peacefully and quietly. We want to try different things, so for us, it's an opportunity. We built the studio in a way that we can work on several projects at once. Some of them are in the full production schedule stage right now. Some are in early pre-production, just concepts we've been doing, but it allows us to bring more creative ideas to life – and that really drives people in the studio."

Developers at the studio are ambitious, yes, but Tsvetkov argues that the team's sincerity is its greatest strength. "Most of the team who are working on the Warhammer games collect miniatures themselves. They know the lore at the level as the best lore masters. I don't want to say anything bad about Games Workshop, but at some of those meetings, we were on the same level of knowledge for Warhammer lore as those guys. That's a compliment!

"We tend not to work with things we don't actually love," he adds. "We don't enjoy ourselves."

Other worlds than these

Owlcat's RPGs have an old-school level of depth, but Tsvetkov doesn't feel the studio is beholden to its ancestors. The team holds quarterly meetings to assess whether "old design ideas" are still relevant, can be improved, or hold them back in any way. "We shouldn't, as we say, become like a bronze statue," he explains. "A studio is a living, breathing organism. We have to make sure there's room for new ideas to grow."

"We don't want to repeat ourselves, right? We know that players already know, like the original Baldur's Gate one or two. They played Icewind Dale, they played Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, etc. They played through all of these games, and they have all this experience with them. They [don't want] repetition. They want something new."

With veteran studios – think Obsidian, Larian – still around and making games, Tsetkov believes striving to be original is crucial to standing out in a crowded genre. He again points to community as a "core" strength. "They act as game ambassadors who spread the word [...] The further we go with this kind of competition, the bigger the community's role. If you have a community supporting you, you can be sure that you [can] survive the harsh reality of game development."

Owlcat is already a mainstay in the CRPG space, but it's seemingly on the cusp of breaking through to the mainstream. Think of how The Witcher 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Baldur's Gate 3 put their respective developers on the map for broader audiences. With a now-sizable audience backing Owlcat, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy could blow the floodgates open. As could The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, which is Owlcat's third-person debut and likely to strike a chord with starved Mass Effect fans. Tsvetkov is modest about the possibility, but admits there's a lot the team would still like to push forwards.

"We're working on a new project that is unannounced, and it will be quite different from what we've done in the CRPG genre before," he says. "We still have room for experiments."

As Owlcat looks ahead, it remains open to tackling other familiar worlds – not just Pathfinder and Warhammer. "There are still a lot of things that we would like to do with some universe that we love," Tsetkov says, adding there are "ongoing conversations with various IP owners that might result in something interesting."

While the studio will continue to make RPGs set in familiar worlds, its "top creative leaders" also want to make a wholly original setting – eventually. The idea sounds distant, but some things are more certain. "We like to do the things that we love to do," Tsetkov says. "So we won't be quitting the CRPG genre."

Still drinking your coffee? Last week's Saturday Read was on the future of MMOs

A now infamous hacker is reportedly going around Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 lobbies and bricking players' accounts in the game's new PlayStation ports.

Activision recently ported the first two Call of Duty: Black Ops games to PS4 and PS5 consoles, but the original games' vulnerable infrastructure seems to have been unchanged, which already led to years-old exploits remaining intact.

Things have gotten slightly worse in Black Ops 2's multiplayer, as a hacker who goes by the name 'C Isn't Sharp?' has been showing up in lobbies and messing with other people's accounts in various ways. Streamer TimTheTatMan fell victim to the hacker, who pushed his account to Level 55 and Prestige 16 - a Prestige level that doesn't even exist in the game proper. (Good spot, IGN.)

Some players have reported that being hacked has also left them unable play online matches at all since the game apparently keeps crashing thereafter. Certain players also claim their progress in other areas of the game have been reset after a chance run in with the hacker.

Right now, the only apparent fix is to look out for C Isn't Sharp's bright green name in lobbies and immediately close the game to stop your account from being altered. Hopping out of the lobby seemingly doesn't stop your stats from messing up, no matter how quick you are.

15-year-old exploits and now a boogeyman hacker haven't done much to turn public opinion around on the new Black Ops port, which were already getting side-eyed thanks to their $40 price tags - no to mention the $30 extra that it'll cost you for the map packs.

Despite all the commotion, Call of Duty is doing what Call of Duty always does: sell. Last month, both Black Ops games landed within the best-selling PlayStation games chart in the US.

Activision admits Call of Duty matchmaking used to be better, updates Black Ops 7 with a new system inspired by "classic games" like Black Ops 1 and 2

In the run-up to GTA 6, we've been spending plenty of time revisiting the best GTA games. Just as important as each sprawling new city to explore is who you play as. Every protagonist is a criminal, but with their own motivations, style, and equipment, the results can be very different. But, which one resonates with you the most?

You might have your own answer in mind, but for scientific purposes we've created this personality quiz to properly determine the Grand Theft Auto protagonist you're the most like. Though, we can't be held responsible for the results. Whether you're bound to become the next '80s criminal mastermind like Tommy Vercetti, or are more grounded like Niko Bellic, who you align with can say a lot about you.

We've focused on the main games in this quiz, with proper protagonists that aren't completely interchangeable (though there is one nod to the true classics in here). Each protagonist , whether it's the trio from GTA 5, or from an earlier gaming generation, has been mapped to each response, so no answer is purely binary. Which means there's no wrong answers, either. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time, but do do this quiz. If you're looking for more, we've got loads on our GamesRadar+ quiz collection page. Let us know who you get in the comments below!

Can't wait? Check out our games like GTA recommendations for what to play before GTA 6 comes out.

Director Naoki Hamaguchi won't leave many loose threads hanging by the time the credits roll in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, so any purely hypothetical DLC that gets made will need to focus on the "untold stories" of specific characters rather than continuing the story.

This isn't the first time Naoki Hamaguchi's discussed potentially adding to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation after launch next year, but what form that might take has been up in the air. He previously hinted that spin-off games could be folded into the game through DLC.

Speaking to Automaton, Hamaguchi's now clarified that the third and final game in his Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will tie up the story. Don't worry about having to pay for DLC to see the true ending, then - looking at you, Final Fantasy 13-2.

"The story will be concluded within the main game," Hamaguchi promises. "We're serious about concluding the series with FF7 Revelation, and we're proceeding with development with that goal in mind."

Should that hypothetical DLC become really real DLC, Hamaguchi says the team wants to "create a kind of spin-off focused on a specific character that depicts their untold stories," similar to what they did with Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Episode Intermission DLC, which followed Yuffie in a short campaign giving the character depth that definitely wasn't seen in the original game. "So, in case we do end up considering making a DLC, this is the kind of thing that we’d likely attempt to do."

"I feel that, at this point, both the media and the fan community are expecting a DLC to come," he says. "That being said, things haven't crystallized yet, so we can't certainly say." Should there be enough of an appetite for it, the team would certainly consider an expansion, he adds.

The possibilities are kind of endless. Alternate timeline adventures in the Lifestream? Prequels focused on Vincent Valentine or Cid Highwind? A look at Tifa's gruelling, mountain-top training? Something something, young Sephiroth?

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's endgame fights may involve some minigames, but its director is more interested in using your levelled-up characters to "overcome difficult situations"

Much has been said about how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 pulled heavily from classic JRPGs - Final Fantasy, Persona, Lost Odyssey, etc - but the hit game also drew lots of inspiration from some of the best anime shows around, including Attack on Titan and Bleach.

Speaking to Automaton about the game's influences, Sandfall Interactive CEO Guillaume Broche says "one of the anime that inspired me for Expedition 33's story was Attack on Titan." Both have pretty existential themes and a cast of characters who are almost constantly face-to-face with a life-ending threat that seems inevitable.

"I really like the idea of a group of heroes fighting together, and I especially love the uniform," Broche explains. "When you see any character from Attack on Titan, you instantly know they're an Attack on Titan character because of the uniform. That's something I really wanted to bring over into Expedition 33, making the game recognizable just from its uniforms."

Broche then mentions he's midway through a series rewatch, "and really, it's an absolute masterpiece for me." Hear, hear.

Attack on Titan's instantly recognizable cast and sleek uniforms weren't the only anime-flavored well the team at Sandfall drew from. Lead character and concept artist, Alan Reynaud, shouts out Bleach as another important touchstone for the studio: "I have to mention Bleach because the character designs in the series are spectacular. One of the things we took from it was designs that are super simple yet incredibly memorable. We wanted to have something like that, with a 'rule of cool' approach. I'd say that was a big inspiration for the character creation."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director prefers JPRGs to the likes of Skyrim, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate because their linear narratives allow for "a stronger story" and "more memorable characters"

Yet another Crimson Desert update is rolling out across each platform in what's become an almost weekly tradition for developer Pearl Abyss. New week, new patch. This one overhauls the open-world game's economy with 133 new trading posts and more ways to fatten your pockets with the weight of endless gold.

Those 133 trading posts will start popping up after progressing through quests, but what's more interesting is how players can now interact with the game's various traders. Harder-to-reach trading wagons will offer you higher prices for the same goods, for example, while royal posts offer you quadruple the price they used to for selling stuff.

Trading posts also stock a more diverse range of goods, wagons no longer disappear after delivering goods to a royal post, and "trade good prices change when too many are sold at a single location." The basics of supply and demand, now in Crimson Desert. Essentially, there's more ways than ever to get rich quick and make the stonks shoot up.

"Added 24 new types of high-value trade goods and 4 new types of regular trade goods," Pearl Abyss' patch notes explain. "Packaged trade goods can now be stacked up to a maximum of 10 or 100, depending on their price."

There's also now a 'Claim Bank Strongbox' feature. "Depositing 10 or more bonds allows you to start investing," the studio says. "Bonds can be exchanged for 10 Gold Bars." And you can buy rare items with your bonds, too.

With so many new trading outposts and ways to engage in Crimson Desert's economy, the map will also let you use filters to find posts, royal posts, wagon workshops, and wagon routes. Heck, you can even filter the map to only show you trading posts that sell the items you're looking for, which is really handy for a game that now has over a 100 vendors.

I'd recommend skimming the rest of the patch notes to get a gist of everything that's new, alongside all the bugs Pearl Abyss have squashed.

While Crimson Desert continues to receive near-constant updates with free content, Pearl Abyss is also working on paid DLC that's "substantively different" at the same time.

See what else is on the horizon with our new games of 2026 guide.

I still have an original PC copy of the 1996 action-RPG Diablo holding down the fort in my home office, but today it's a stark reminder of how much has changed in the 30 years since it came out. Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who left the company in 2024, says the trend toward digital games is clearer than ever thanks to fresh data from Sony on PlayStation game sales, even if he wishes we could keep buying games on disc forever.

Reacting to PlayStation's Q1 FY26 results, which show 82% of the company's game sales are now digital, Ybarra says he's surprised discless games are dominating physical media to that extent. For reference, reputable games analyst Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners has said Xbox's digital ratio is over 90%, while Capcom is expecting 95% digital sales by next year.

"82% of games purchased are digital? Wow, that's very high. I recall when I was in the business, we passed by 50% which was a huge milestone," Ybarra shares.

"I wish physical media was here to stay, but the purchasing trend from consumers is clear. I really hope we see a digital promise of trust, transparency, and clarity soon (across all media!)."

That isn't the first time Ybarra has called for some sort of system to guarantee permanent ownership of a digital purchase, having previously expressed his desire for a "digital promise" to ensure gamers don't have to worry whether "games will work in the future or not," as well as a second-hand marketplace for people to sell and trade digital games.

Ybarra's outspoken and frequently controversial views on the industry aside, this pretty much sums up how most financially disinterested feel about the situation with PlayStation killing discs in 2028 and the industry's broader shift toward digital-only games. Calling back to my opener about Diablo on PC, it's worth noting that disc drives haven't been standard in mainstream gaming PCs for more than a decade.

Even if it means bad news for pretty much everyone, a largely discless future, in which physical games are reduced to novelties and limited releases, has seemed inevitable for a while. At least we know one high-profile games industry exec is mourning along with us when he isn't rage-baiting World of Warcraft players.

PlayStation ditching physical games is "a bridge across the bad years" of high hardware costs, analyst says, but it means "casuals and youngsters will drift off to mobile, PC, and free-to-play even faster"

People are really out here porting Half-Life to the PlayStation 1.

Manny, of Bonnie Studios, is a self-described "software engineer, guitarist, and game developer from Sicily." His debut YouTube video promises "Half-Life on a Real PlayStation 1," and 14 minutes of glorious 1998 technology revisited with 2026 technology bears that promise out.

"Not an emulator and not a demake: a renderer and game runtime written from scratch in Rust," Manny stresses.

Manny is more broadly known for PSoXide, a PS1 development tech stack that, per his Itch.io page, covers an "emulator + Rust SDK + game engine + editor + asset pipeline." In this case, Half-Life was written fully for the Rust coding language without reliance on a traditional emulator, and is running on a proper PS1 console – in this case, "direct capture" off an SCPH-9002 model PS1.

"This is the full Hazard Course, all seven maps, start to finish in one sitting with no cuts," Manny explains in the video description. The Hazard Course is basically the tutorial prologue for Half-Life – a good sandbox for a demonstration like this.

"The deaths, the retries, the moment I get stuck inside a wall and die, and the audio glitches are all still in it," Manny asserts. "It averages around 17fps, holding 20 most of the time and dropping to 10-16 in the widest areas. The capture chain adds about 100ms between the pad and the picture, so it plays tighter on the console than it looks here."

As a quick refresher, the PS1 was released in North America by Sony in 1995, Valve dropped Half-Life in 1998, and the significantly more powerful PS2 arrived in 2000. Lauded for its advanced tech and physics, Half-Life launched on PC and only came to the PS2 in 2001.

Getting the game running at all on a system that predates it by several years is pretty impressive work, even if artifact-like graphical distortions do make it look like protagonist Gordon Freeman pounded back a few benadryl cocktails garnished with melatonin gummies before work.

I can't help but wonder if the AI-generated code that evidently went into the project played a part in that oddness, too, for all Manny's assurances that his "pre-AI coding background" and "core decision" shaped the programming. AI use in ports like this has become a battleground, with some teams targeting specific games just to outdo what they call vibe-coded slop. And GamesRadar+ has extensively covered why game developers in general don't want to use generative AI in any capacity.

Manny lays out just "some" of the workarounds necessary to fit 10 pounds of game into a 5-pound console: "BSP traversal doubling as painter's order for the ordering table, PVS culling, 16 colour CLUTs at 4 bits per pixel, LZ4 map chunks streamed into a static buffer, animation frames pre-posed at cook time because there is no FPU and no heap, SPU ADPCM audio and 27 Red Book CD tracks on the disc."

Which is all to say: squeezing blood from stone.

This being a fan effort, Manny says he's reached out to Valve "asking them to greenlight the project" before releasing the source code. "For legal reasons there will never be a downloadable disc image or a ready-to-play build," he adds. But if Valve miraculously gives him the thumbs up, or if he has "not heard back in a month or so," he says "I will take that as no objection and make it public."

Manny is doing much better than the company that promised and sold a Portal-inspired Steam Machine Companion Cube case "without ever asking Valve" for permission.

"Once released you will need your own lawfully obtained Steam copy of Half-Life: the converter reads it on your own machine and builds the disc from there," Manny adds. That, and you'll need a PS1.

On Twitter, Manny reveals that his next project hopes to get "Minecraft-style worlds running natively on PlayStation 1 hardware." That's full "chunk streaming, day/night, mobs and caves on a 33MHz CPU."

Earlier this month, a designer at Valve recreated Half-Life 2's Ravenholm in the company's new Source 2 engine, saying he was "blown away at powerful these tools are."

The "final game" from Half-Life 2 and Dishonored's late art director has been revealed: "The world's first Soulslike FPS," an apocalyptic Western at "the end of America."

The 1997 RPG Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most beloved games of all time, so naturally this decade's remake trilogy has been received, although largely positively, under intense scrutiny. A remake in every sense of the word, three distinct games have been made out of the original one, and Square Enix has been liberal with changes and expansions to the story, combat, world, and minigames, which naturally means fans have been squabbling online about all of the differences for about six years now. Naoki Hamaguchi, director on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Revelation, sees that as a good thing.

Ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's release next year, Hamaguchi tells Automaton he's "grateful" for the remake trilogy's discourse because it means people care.

"Games are a medium, a community, and a culture. While a culture has certain unchanging aspects, I believe it only truly shapes into a culture when people discuss it from many different perspectives," says Hamaguchi. "If everyone looked at something in exactly the same way, I think it might not leave a lasting impression and could fade into obscurity over time. The very fact that the community is so active, that conversations happen, and debates keep erupting, is a kind of entertainment in and of itself."

I don't know about you, but I'm tickled by the mental image of Hamaguchi browsing Final Fantasy-related subreddits, sipping a cup of coffee, and giggling as his diehard fans argue about impossibly hot fantasy characters with big hair. In more elegant words, Hamaguchi says those heated discussions are proof of passion, which is hard to argue with.

"When people discuss and get heated about the minigames, the story, or the relationships between characters in FFVII, I think that only happens because they see value in those elements," he says. "I'm proud that this series has enough depth and capacity to inspire those kinds of discussions."

Even from game to game in the remake series, there's a lot of variation in terms of gameplay and structure, with the first 2020 entry being far more linear than the massive open world that is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Hamaguchi told GamesRadar+ in a recent interview that people "got a little bit tired" of all the side quests in Rebirth and might have "stepped away" in exhaustion, which suggests Revelation could be a little more streamlined.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director wants "some kind of physical edition" for the RPG, but he can't promise it as Sony becomes the latest to "shift away" toward digital

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey player count soared for the first time in years since Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adaptation released earlier this month, according to data gathered by Alinea Analytics.

Alinea head of market analysis Rhys Elliott explains in a new post on Substack that, once The Odyssey zapped onto IMAX screens on July 17, "the cultural spillover into games was immediate." 10 days later, Ubisoft's 2018 ancient Greek adventure Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had nearly doubled its active player count, swelling from an approximate total of 122,000 players to 233,000 across platforms.

"That's a 90% surge in engagement," says Elliott, "at 1.8x the game's pre-film July baseline." But unlike the Greeks as they piled into their Trojan horse, most recent Assassin's Creed: Odyssey players are unwilling to risk more than a boring afternoon. Only 26% of the action RPG's new recruits came from Steam, while PlayStation players went off like a car alarm up 94% to 114,000 daily active users, and Xbox boomed plus-134% from 36,000 to 84,000 active users.

Probably, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's luck on console came from PS Plus and Game Pass subscribers – even with Game Pass currently limping toward death. Elliott says, "Lapsed fans jumped straight back in, while new players found a 60+ hour Greek epic waiting inside a subscription they already pay for."

Though, Nolan's The Odyssey also blessed Ubisoft's Odyssey with some fresh sales. "Software sales moved modestly at around 400K copies year-to-date," Elliott says, but the real news "is pure player engagement. The film didn't make millions buy an eight-year-old game, but it got a massive cohort playing it again. That data gives Ubisoft great ammunition for an eventual AC Odyssey Resynced."

The developer's recent Black Flag Resynced has been a gargantuan financial success for Ubisoft, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it capitalize further on Nolan fever – if it stops laying off devs long enough to do so.

Ubisoft had a very on-brand problem with Assassin's Creed Odyssey: there weren't many tall buildings in Ancient Greece even though it's a "climbing-frame game."

Today's Genshin Impact 7.0 livestream confirmed an expansion to the game's To Temper Thyself and Journey Far event, better known as the 5-star Constellation selector. With nine new characters added to the selectable roster, the free 5-star options have grown considerably as the event enters its fifth cycle.

Provided you already have the character themselves, as of update 7.0 you'll be able to claim one free Constellation for the following characters in addition to those already available in the selector:

• Lyney
• Wriothesley
• Navia
• Xianyun
• Chiori
• Sigewinne
• Clorinde
• Emilie
• Yumemizuki Mizuki

As expected, the newly added characters are Fontaine-focused, though some players have also expressed their shock at seeing Sumeru characters like Al Haitham skipped over.

Wriothesley, who was recently buffed with the introduction of the Stellar Conduct reaction, is comfortably one of the strongest picks for an early Constellation.

Standard character Yumemizuki Mizuki, who seems to benefit from the addition of the Stellar Swirl reaction in update 7.0, is also surprisingly relevant. I'll probably end up snagging Wriothesley for power, Xianyun for exploration, and Chiori and Emilie to make them slightly stronger as off-field options.

The rules of the selector haven't changed from the first four cycles. As developer Hoyoverse reiterated on-stream, players "can claim one Stella Fortuna [Constellation upgrade] for characters you own from the list above. Each character can only receive it once."

As ever, you can claim these freebies by completing daily tasks multiple times a week for eight weeks in a row, with miscellaneous bonus rewards to follow once you claim the Constellation for each cycle.

All Genshin Impact codes and how to redeem them.

Final Fantasy 14 is no horror game, standing as the MMORPG gem of Square Enix's beloved JRPG series – but it sure does have its spooky moments.

If you know the lore behind the Palace of the Dead, you're probably familiar with how creepy Final Fantasy 14 can get – but its environments and atmosphere are arguably not very eerie, even in Deep Dungeons with heart-wrenching backstories like PotD… most of them, anyway.

One Warrior of Light has discovered an area that almost feels like it should be out-of-bounds in the North Horn of the Occult Crescent, and it's spine-chilling.

I think I found one of the creepiest place SE did in a while. [Spoiler:7.55] from r/ffxiv

"I think I found one of the creepiest places SE did in a while," they write, sharing screenshots of their discovery over on Reddit. The spot comes from the MMO's recent Patch 7.55, and appears after players go through a foggy Silent Hill-esque hole in the wall – yes, hole.

"Was wandering in Occult Crescent North Horn and found a hole in the wall and got a big chill in the spine seeing this," as the poster reports.

"Reminded me of some Creepypasta Backrooms shenanigans," they add – and, yeah, I can certainly see why.

Everything is paint-white, floating against a pitch-black background. There are crawling arms reaching for nothing, forming freaky arches. Enemies prowl the strange area in the Occult Crescent, too, which commenters note are formidable foes.

"I visited there today too, and let's just say it's really risky," as one reply reads. "All enemies are rank 40+," the person responding notes – but there are "four silver chests and a survey point inside" to make it worth it.

Amusingly, Square Enix has chimed in with its own amusing comment on the matter as well, writing in its own post, "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the…"

It's a silly little reference to the Backrooms, but I love it.

Will I explore the area for myself? Honestly, I'm not sure I can be bothered tackling the normal part of the Occult Crescent – but the new Phantom weapon does beckon…

Final Fantasy 14 is great and all, but Yoshi-P would "tackle completely new game designs and values" if he were to make another MMO.

The developers of Dragon's Dogma 2 have confirmed the game will be getting a hard mode focused on giving those who have hit the level cap a challenge.

In a Q&A posted on the Dragon's Dogma 2 Steam Page, producer Naoto Oyama and returning Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen director Kento Kinoshita speak about the upcoming major update and the Dark Arisen expansion set to release in the coming months. The original Dark Arisen could be a bit of a nightmare depending on what point of the game you arrived at its content, and from the sounds of things, difficulty is part of the plan this time.

"Both the Forsaken Dominion and Lost Rites are expansion contents," Kinoshita explains, "so we've designed them to offer battles with an even greater sense of tension and challenge than the main game."

Confusingly, Kinoshita makes it sound like there will be some level of level scaling involved in the expansion, saying, "we're adjusting the balance so that everyone can enjoy the experience – whether they're just starting their adventure, still progressing through the game, or have already completed multiple playthroughs."

However, Oyama also adds that "the recommended starting level for Forsaken Dominion is 40, while that of Lost Rites is 20," and that while you can start the DLC content whenever, "ultimately, we'd like players to use those recommendations as a reference and choose their own path based on how they want to experience the game." To me, that sounds like it won't be level scaling at all.

Oyama says those levels aren't full-caps, either, as "these recommendations apply only to the beginning of each content. As players progress, the challenge gradually ramps up, and both experiences become increasingly demanding."

Speaking of more demanding, Kinoshita also confirms that a long-awaited feature is finally being added to the game, which should ease fears that the expansion content will be too easy: "We're working on a Hard Mode that will provide a satisfying challenge for seasoned players whose stats have reached, or are approaching, the level cap."

Unfortunately, neither can say when this will be made available, with Oyama saying: "Please stay tuned for further updates regarding the details of Hard Mode and its release window."

Capcom returns to its divisive RPG with Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, and the dev leading the expansion says its friction will be preserved – "That is something that we offer so that players can make a decision on how to play."

Despite finding massive success with a modern turn-based classic, the director of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't have a preference between action combat and turn-based battles. In fact, he loves both, so long as the fighting itself is attached to a game that's, you know, actually good.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 creative director and Sandfall Interactive CEO Guillaume Broche says as much in an interview with Automaton when asked about whether he has a preference when it comes to RPG combat styles. Having previously gushed over the sword-swinging Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and overlooked turn-based gem Lost Odyssey, his answer probably won't surprise you.

"I don't have a preference, actually," he says. "I think it really depends. Sometimes I can go for either genre as long as the game is good. Sometimes I just want to play a turn-based game, and other times, I just want to play an action game."

What's really important isn't whether a game lets you freely hack and slash like a frenzied brute or makes you stop to consider your next move. What's important is how well any game executes the combat style it goes for, according to Broche.

"When I start a game, I almost don't care if it's turn-based or action, as long as the combat system is tight and the surrounding aspects like the story and characters are good," he continues. "For me, it's like being asked if I prefer pizza or sushi. You can't compare them. I love both."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's battles definitely follow the classic turn-based mould, but it also requires snappy reflexes from the player to be able to parry enemy attacks or move out the way of a crushing blow. It's a pretty sweet marriage of both styles of gameplay that helped fuel Clair Obscur's historic awards haul.

We don't know what route Sandfall Interactive's next game will take, but after Expedition 33's pretty lengthy development cycle, Broche said he wants to cut loose a little while making the team's second project. "That's also why we want to let ourselves dream again and be creative again. We're going to go a bit crazy."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director prefers JPRGs to the likes of Skyrim, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate because their linear narratives allow for "a stronger story" and "more memorable characters."

As Sony doubles down on its plan to end support for physical PlayStation games, game preservation group DoesItPlay finds that about a third of physical PS5 games effectively don't work without a download, and that jumps up to 50% on Xbox Series X.

Ars Technica spoke to DoesItPlay owner and head admin Clemens Itsel, reporting that 27% of the 3,511 physical games tested so far require a download "to fix game-breaking bugs or obtain core game content" not present on the disc.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a useful example. Can you play that game on console without a download? Sure. But should anyone suffer through the disastrous day-one console build of that game? Heck no.

“There is a clear trend that physical releases are increasingly treated with ignorance from larger companies," Itsel argues. "There is no reason physical games would ever die unless someone like Sony deliberately kills them."

DoesItPlay tests physical games using an offline environment and local accounts that have "not been connected to any online services like PlayStation Network, EA Origin, Bethesda.net, Battle.net, etc."

The group's methodology is fairly straightforward. By beating a game's main story (or mode), testing "common stress situations," documenting bugs and missing content, comparing region and edition gaps as well as platform discrepancies, it creates a profile for how offline-friendly a disc is.

It's easy to call out whether a game requires an online connection to function. The necessity of a download gets a little grayer. DoesItPlay has four different ratings for "download required," which can be summarized as:

• No: The whole game is on the "physical medium," disc or cartridge, doesn't have significant bugs requiring patches, and "only insignificant content" requires a download
• No*: the game is content-complete but "has bugs that are either too severe or too many to provide," or is missing minor content accessed via downloads
• Yes*: You can beat this game with "a very high tolerance of bugs or luck to progress past them," or the game is missing "significant side content" like story DLC, new characters, and so on
• Yes: If a "hard-coded prompt for a download" doesn't stop you, game-breaking bugs or essential, download-only content will

Again, let's pick on Cyberpunk 2077. It gets a "yes" for offline friendly, and a big red "yes" for "download required." DoesItPlay explains: "Power of the PS5 masks a few technical issues, but even the PS5 can't completely mask the framerate issues, pop in, and bugs."

Itsel heavily criticizes the way even physical copies of games have been hollowed out.

"Xbox has long given up on producing fully functioning physical releases," he says amid rumors of Microsoft testing a disc-to-digital service. "They far too often require downloads or force players to create a Microsoft account. It's deliberately undermining the value of physical releases by making them incomplete or online-dependent in other ways."

It's not just Xbox, either. Itsel calls the Nintendo Switch 2's game-key cards "a form of deception" for essentially putting redemption keys on a cart, and says the root problem is how companies have been allowed to "relabel a purchase into 'licensing'."

PlayStation ditching physical games is "a bridge across the bad years" of high hardware costs, analyst says, but it means "casuals and youngsters will drift off to mobile, PC, and free-to-play even faster."

As Grand Theft Auto 6 slowly begins to emerge on the horizon like a portent of civilizational doom, and players endlessly speculate about what to expect from its multiplayer component, I find myself thinking back to what I consider to be the golden age of GTA Online – the late 2010s and early 2020s. Even back then, years after its release, endless post-launch updates adding science fiction weapons and flying supercars had long since robbed the multiplayer component of its crime sandbox of any claim to realism. Not when you could watch the hapless LSPD going up against players armed with Tron bikes and ray guns.

Perhaps this was why the playerbase ended up stumbling upon the perfect absurdist parody in response to this eternal escalation, one that would forever change the face of one of the largest online games in history.

Aliens among us

The "Alien Gang War," as it would come to be known, was not particularly complex at first. Such things never are. Teams of players would pile into panel vans, all dressed in neon green bodysuits, before driving around town until they found a suitable target based on… Well, it was never entirely clear, but comic timing was probably the most significant element.

With their prey decided, the van would come to a screeching halt, and between three and three thousand goons in cheap Halloween costumes would pile out and attack the offender with baseball bats and pool cues, before leaping back into their getaway car and squealing away.

Juvenile? Sure. Bullying? Maybe a little. But on a visual level it was always hilarious, a bunch of neon green mascots enacting frenetic street justice with broken bottles and hammers, ignoring the fact that there were actual ray guns and lasers available in GTA Online. Even players with heavy-duty firepower were generally taken aback by the sheer number of martians sprinting at them, and it only took a single whiffle bat to the skull to knock a target down and allow the rest of the crew to promptly beat them into the tarmac.

This all went on for months as a kind of background story, never really becoming too significant, but then the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic kicked in and things started to change.

As we all remember, lockdown forced many onto their computers for the hope of any sort of social life. This influx of people supercharged the extra-terrestrial conflict, driving Gang War participants well into the millions, and the community ended up producing a counter-force to the growing green menace: the Purple Aliens.

This led to all kinds of Green versus Purple skirmishes, with the former generally standing for chaos in all forms, while the purples usually just tried to obstruct them wherever possible. It was an obviously unwinnable conflict that was still deeply entertaining, even if the Green team reliably had about three times the numbers. Plus it didn't help that a lot of people seemed slightly uncertain what was even going on, but didn't see why that should stop them from getting involved.

And two factions were only the start of it all. Now other players would introduce themselves as human defenders of Earth, out to slaughter both sides, or war reporters documenting events from the peripheries, claiming the role of tritagonists in an ever-developing science fiction saga that had already put Rebel Moon to shame.

Beam me up, knock 'em down

Eventually the lack of a clear end goal or victory state for either side meant that it just petered out, but some players still try to bring back the Alien Wars from time to time, or simply fly the flag for their chosen team by digging out the bodysuit and battering a few people on a Sunday afternoon.

Me included! I'll admit I'm not above the occasional couple of hours spent in spandex while jumping people in dark alleyways, or as I sometimes think of it, "the mean meme green team bean and flee the scene scheme".

But what I hope is that this phenomenon – or something like it – re-emerges in GTA6, especially if it can happen organically without Rockstar's meddling and oversight. In many ways the Green vs Purple conflict was exactly what GTA needed back then, stripping back all the cloying, monetized elements and focusing on consequence-free fuckabouts with very little barrier to entry.

Meanwhile, such a thing never really could get a foothold in Red Dead Online, which ended up being the sensible, well-behaved sibling, less interested in wacky chaos than taciturn hat-tipping and herb gathering. If GTA 6 Online reels me in, it's because it'll have provided that same sort of playground for violent, team-building nonsense that its predecessor did.

Secure your copy of Rockstar's latest with this handy guide to GTA 6 pre-orders

The Countdown to GTA 6 has been activated. It's difficult to believe, but on November 19 you'll finally be able to leave Los Santos behind for a new sandbox to explore. Rockstar Games has booked you a ticket to the fictional US state of Leonida, the Florida-inspired region which also happens to include the neon-lit metropolis of Vice City. Mark the date on your calendars, because there's no stopping Grand Theft Auto 6 from landing this November now.

GamesRadar+ has launched Countdown to GTA 6 as a destination for all of the biggest news and updates on the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X release. We're also going to be celebrating the 13th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 5, returning to the chaos simulator that is GTA Online, and looking back across the entire franchise – exploring the impact and legacy of a series which truly changed the world.

You'll find new Grand Theft Auto articles every week on GamesRadar+ as we countdown to what is undoubtedly the biggest entertainment release of the decade. This is a moment worth celebrating, and we want to do it together with you. So be sure to keep our Countdown to GTA 6 bookmarked and we'll see you out there on the road to release.

Countdown to GTA 6

Rockstar Games is yet to confirm an official release time for GTA 6. Right now, we're assuming that it'll be available globally from midnight local time. So until we have more concrete information, our Countdown to GTA 6 timer is set to 00:00 EST on November 19.

GTA 6: Essentials

Secure Your Pre-Order

The Latest GTA 6 Trailer

Essential GTA 6 Guides

The 10 Best GTA 6 Screenshots

Dive Deeper Into GTA 6

GamesRadar+'s Countdown to GTA 6 brings you new GTA 6, GTA Online, and Grand Theft Auto franchise coverage every week now that we're on the road to release.

It's typically difficult to predict when GTA 6 news is going to land. Developer Rockstar Games is historically secretive and tends to operate on its own schedule. But with around 110 days to go until GTA 6 lands on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X, that's almost certainly about to change.

The next 100 days are going to be critical. There's an exceptionally limited amount of information out there in the wild – we don't yet have a clear sense of how the latest Grand Theft Auto will play or the major gameplay innovations that Rockstar has developed. With that in mind, below you'll find my predictions for the 5 major beats that we should all expect to see on the road to GTA 6's release.

5. GTA 6 gameplay showcase

• Confidence: 95%
• Guesstimate: August

Rockstar previously indicated that the marketing for GTA 6 would kick into high gear over the summer, and with just one month left before the fall you should expect that a big reveal is on the horizon. Whether it's labeled GTA Trailer 3 or something else entirely, I predict that we'll get a detailed gameplay showcase in August ahead of Gamescom.

There's so much that Rockstar could reveal, but I suspect that a first look at raw in-game action would focus on core game elements such as character-switching between the two protagonists, Jason and Lucia, and focus on the new systems and mechanics that'll feed expansive cycles of crime and chaos across Vice City.

4. A Living World Deep-Dive

• Confidence: 80%
• Guesstimate: September

Given that it's been 13 years since the release of Grand Theft Auto 5 and eight since Red Dead Redemption 2, it's now that much of a stretch to believe that Rockstar has a bit of a point to prove. The studio is known for pushing the boundaries of what is possible within open-world sandboxes, and I think that it's likely we'll get a dedicated showcase that covers the living world of Leonida.

GTA publisher Take-Two has a shareholder meeting on September 17, so what better way to generate some good vibes than with a focus on dynamic NPCs, evolving neighborhoods, wildlife density, and graphical fidelity. This seems like a no-brainer to me.

3. GTA Online 2.0 reveal

• Confidence: 50%
• Guesstimate: October

GTA Online remains one of the most popular multiplayer games, with reports suggesting that it still receives millions of active users a week. In my heart, I do believe that Rockstar will want to keep the focus on the core GTA 6 campaign for as long as possible; why risk pulling attention away from Jason and Lucia's adventure?

But with so many GTA Online users spread across PS4 and Xbox One (not to mention PC, where GTA 6 remains unannounced with no release date) it seems only fair that the developer will let its online playerbase know what to expect. The cost of the PS5 and Xbox Series X only continues to rise, so clearing up the future of GTA Online feels more necessary now than ever.

2. GTA 6 previews

• Confidence: 60%
• Guesstimate: October

Will Rockstar let anybody play GTA 6 before it's released? As the Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+, I would certainly hope so – I'm as desperate to play a new Grand Theft Auto as I am to share that experience with all of you. Even if Rockstar does deploy gameplay and living world showcases, there will no doubt be millions of unanswered questions that could be addressed by letting members of the press, content creators, and the GTA community go hands-on.

It's common for studios to put previews of their upcoming video games out there (Rockstar included), but then there's nothing about this marketing campaign that's been conventional. And, given how much of the game leaked in 2022, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Rockstar keeps this one close to the chest.

1. A Final GTA 6 story Trailer

• Confidence: 95%
• Guesstimate: November

If GTA 5 and RDR 2 are any indication, then the last few miles on the road to release will feature a GTA 6 story trailer that is wholly focused on the relationship between Jason and Lucia, and the criminal conspiracy that they get dragged into after a heist gone wrong.

Rockstar has always sought to showcase the filmic quality of its productions, and with GTA 6 being purpose-built for PS5 and Xbox Series X, I expect that to be especially true this time around. Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest entertainment properties in the world and Rockstar won't want to miss an opportunity to remind the masses that GTA 6 is far more than a chaos simulator.

What comes next?

If 100 days takes us to November 8, 2026, then the 101st day will see the marketing campaign kick into high gear ahead of the November 19 release date. Expect GTA 6 to be plastered everywhere in physical and digital spaces, especially as pre-load for PS5 and Xbox Series X is set to begin on November 12 for those of you with a GTA 6 pre-order locked in.

While you wait for GTA 6, why not check out our rankings of the best GTA games and the greatest Rockstar games of all-time.

Remember Sir Daniel Fortesque? The skeleton hero of Gallowmere and the star of the iconic PlayStation game MediEvil that released back in 1998? Well, he's back, in toy form.

The iconic skeletal knight and one of my personal favorite video game characters of all time is part of a new Console Heroes diorama, which simultaneously appeared and was marked as "sold out" at Target for $24.99 (Target), despite not yet being on sale. I fully suspect this listing is just a placeholder for when its release date is ready to drop, and I'm going to need that to be soon, as I'm desperate to own one of the only and best toys of the '90s era PlayStation hero.

I'm well aware that there's a MediEvil Funko Pop available, and it's still $40.77 at Amazon, but that's pretty pricey, and I'm not a fan of Pop figures in any shape or form. Sir Dan's inclusion in this upcoming diorama toy feels like a better fit, as even though his mini-figure looks absolutely tiny at just 1.5 inches, it goes the extra mile to include his skull-covered Silver Shield, which I've been considering getting as a tattoo for decades.

Of course, Sir Dan isn't alone in this set. It also includes figures of additional well-known PlayStation characters, including Gabe Logan from Syphon Filter, Yagi from Cool Boarders, and Axel from Twisted Metal 2. The listing at Target states that each of these includes "peggable bases" so you're free to display them inside the diorama as you see fit.

The housing of the diorama itself is also pretty spectacular. Much like the brand's SEGA-themed toys, which included replicas of Genesis carts (or Mega Drive carts if you're based in the UK like me), the housing is a replica of the original PlayStation console. The brand even went as far as to sculpt the controller ports, which you can see at the front as you open up the collectible - a detail I'm very much a fan of.

What about iconic original PlayStation-era characters like Cloud and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7? Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this new line-up of Console Heroes toys also includes sets dedicated to the beloved RPG, but the bad news is that the $14.99 (Target) set is also listed as "out of stock" for now.

I was hoping this was because they haven't officially launched quite yet. However, a quick search of X (Twitter) reveals users like @asashii29 posted on July 30, 2026 that they were able to pre-order it for just $15, so stock might be gone for now. Which is disappointing, as I love the fact that the toy brand has re-created the burning Nibelheim as Cloud and Sephiroth's toy backdrop. Fortunately, there are no plastic 1.5-inch replicas of the townspeople dying in a fiery blaze behind them. But it's a neat reference which sets it apart from Square Enix's previously released polygon Final Fantasy 7 figures.

For you UK toy collectors, I'll be keeping an eye on these new waves of Console Hero dioramas and will update this page if and when I find stock available. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they'll be just as easy to find on toy shelves both online and in-person as the SEGA ones before them.

• View all Console Hero toys at Amazon

Our team's toy expert Benjamin Abbott has also gathered the best Lego sets and the best Nintendo gifts if you're on the hunt for more nostalgic collectibles.

• Halo: Campaign Evolved is perfect if you want a well-paced FPS packed with memorable levels that can be comfortably completed in a single weekend, either solo or with friends.

Let me give you a 60-second pitch for why you should play Halo: Campaign Evolved this weekend. I still remember the first time I played Halo, back when it was called Combat Evolved and the infamous "Duke" controller was too big for my little-kid hands – it was an extraordinary experience that set a new benchmark for first-person shooters on console.

Whether you're looking to indulge in a little nostalgia or looking to discover Halo for the very first time, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a must play; a well-crafted remake that retains the spirit of the 2001 original and introduces plenty of modern flourishes.

Why play it today?

• Halo: Combat Evolved changed the way a generation of players thought about first-person shooters.

Almost 25 years later, it's certainly true that there are elements of Halo: Campaign Evolved that are a little on the tired side – developer Halo Studios was intent on building a faithful remake, and didn't want to stray far from the foundations that plenty of other prominent shooters have expanded since. Elements of Halo's debut adventure that were once revolutionary are now quite perfunctory, such is its wide influence.

Still, Halo: Campaign Evolved is still an absolute riot for newcomers and returning players alike. There's a quality to its mission design, world scale, and enemy intelligence that's astounding. Seeing this game rebuilt so lovingly in Unreal Engine 5 is well worth the price of admission – and the introduction of console campaign-crossplay means there's more utility here than with Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Time commitment:

If you're wondering how long it's going to take to beat Halo: Campaign Evolved, you're looking at around 10-14 hours for the main campaign. That means it's perfect for couch co-op sessions with a friend or online co-op with a group over either a long weekend or three evenings after work.

Play Halo: Campaign Evolved if you love:

Skip Halo: Campaign Evolved if you want:

One thing to know:

Halo: Campaign Evolved does actually contain some brand new content that is exclusive to this version of the original Master Chief adventure. Halo Studios has delivered three new prologue missions, set about a year before the events of Combat Evolved – a brand new adventure for Chief to go on alongside Sergeant Johnson.

A moment you'll remember:

There's a magic to the moment Master Chief steps onto Installation 04 for the first time. After evacuating the UNSC Pillar of Autumn, Chief is given a minute to breathe. Looking up at the curving Halo ring felt revolutionary back in 2001, and today it still generates a real feeling of genuine awe.

The final verdict:

• Read our full Halo: Campaign Evolved review to learn more.

You should play Halo: Campaign Evolved because it remains a true masterclass in FPS level design, with gunplay and enemy AI that revolutionized a genre. A lot has changed in 25 years, but Master Chief's debut adventure has lost none of its power. Campaign Evolved is every bit as enjoyable as Combat Evolved was back in 2001.

So, where can you play it?

Halo: Campaign Evolved is available now for for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. You can also download the game as part of Game Pass Ultimate.

If you don't have a Game Pass subscription, the Halo: Campaign Evolved standard edition costs $49.99, while the premium edition is $69.99.

How to get started with Halo: Campaign Evolved:

If you're looking to get a better sense of where to start with Halo: Campaign Evolved this weekend, here's four essential guides to assist with your journey onto Installation 04.

Have your say:

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Halo: Campaign Evolved, both Titanfall 2 and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus feature in our best FPS games ranking and are regularly on sale across all major platforms.

Baldur's Gate 3 has dominated the RPG sphere for a good three years now, altering the genre for good with its monumental 2023 release – and, to celebrate, developer Larian Studios is gracing us with the game's biggest sale yet.

Since Baldur's Gate 3 launched some three summers ago, it's only gone on sale a few times – but it's only ever been discounted by about 20-25% max. This week, however, Larian is breaking the mold with a solid 30% price cut for Baldur's Gate 3 on all platforms aside from Xbox: GOG, Steam, and PlayStation 5.

The studio reveals as much in a new online post, celebrating its now-beloved RPG's legacy so far.

"Gather your party and face off against world-ending threats, or end the world with your own two hands," it reads. "Baldur's Gate 3 is now 30% off this week as we celebrate three years of adventure."

In response, the dev also shares an amusing edited screenshot of Withers talking to Shadowheart. The highlighted dialogue jests, "This is the price of having a nice time with your friends." Honestly, it's not wrong – and "nice time" might just be an understatement.

To date, I've managed to rack up nearly 2,000 hours in the RPG – and many of these were spent playing alongside my partner and friends… so, you know, at $41.99 and 30% off, it really might just be the price of having a great time with pals. I'd wager it's worth it at its full price, so it must be doubly so now.

Plus, a quick look over at SteamDB confirms what I said earlier – this is the lowest that Baldur's Gate 3 has ever been priced.

Baldur's Gate 3 boss praises the RPG's most brutal run yet, as 2 players ruin their game to stuff every NPC inside a single crate: "We should've made that an achievement."

My local game store is closing down. News of its closure was, ruefully, the thing that motivated me to pay one last overdue visit. I picked over its second-hand PS4 games like a vulture, while the last remaining, slightly-mishapen Bowser plushie stared at me with accusatory eyes that seemed to ask: why are you only visiting this place now that it is dying?

Despite growing up spending all my pocket money on second hand video game cartridges and discs, doing this now – after years spent buying digitally – feels forced, like a consolatory pat on physical media's coffin. A defeated admission that we had it better then.

There’s a desperation to it, isn’t there? Clinging onto hard copies as if they’re tiny mountain grips that will keep games tangible in an inevitable digital landslide. The pursuit of permanence now appears futile, like trying to fix a chain on a snowflake.

But it was us who moved toward digital gaming willingly. We chose to make full game sales "around 80%" digital on PlayStation and "over 90%" digital on Xbox according to games analyst Daniel Ahmad. We demonstrated that we no longer need game discs or the stores that sell them. And yet the impending loss of physical games and game stores feels like a step forward for tech that’s dragging us along with it in surrender.

The cost of convenience

When it comes to video games, I’d give anything to go back to the physical world. My shelves are bare. I buy my games from a machine. Two clicks of a button and voila, the game is downloading. It’s a transaction that bears no humanity or shared sense of occasion, especially when compared to buying a game in the 00’s.

Looking back on memories of visiting my local game store brings a sharp awareness of what we have sacrificed for convenience. The thrill of finding a game you wanted for ages on the shelf and soaking in every detail of the box art. The lively in-store conversations debating which game titles were superior that month. Discovering new games through staff recommendations, or making new friends with other customers when you both reach for the only second hand copy of PaRappa the Rapper in the bargain bin.

Back then, going to the video game store for a new game was a quest in itself. A journey that required enough initiative and determination to traipse into every second hand game store in town, in pursuit of the cheapest copy of Shadow of the Colossus. That effort meant something, as did holding the game in your hands for the first time. It felt like a reward that has been earned.

When I was a teen, the clerks working in video game stores were the first adults I met who took games seriously. They didn’t scoff at them or admonish them as a waste of time. They were like guiding figures, chatting to them in the store and hearing their recommendations for other games was validating. Maybe I wasn’t so weird for being way more interested in video games than TV or movies, like the other grown ups in my life at the time would have me believe.

I remember my first midnight in-store game release, queueing up in the brisk cold on 11/11/11 to get my hands on a copy of Skyrim. Talking excitedly with other gamers while we waited in line. It felt like a magical shared experience where the game store became a safe haven for an othered passion.

Downloading a game, on the other hand, offers no human interaction. No shared excitement. Just another numbingly convenient, instantly gratifying, solitary moment between me and my machine.

This is why Sony killing PlayStation discs is not just "the latest attack on our diminishing rights" – it’s an erosion of the choice to live in an offline world.

Choice paralysis

When discs die, so do the stores that sell them. As does the shared human interaction and sense of occasion of buying a physical game in real life. We’re going to miss these moments when the next game like Hollow Knight Silksong releases and immediately crashes the Steam and Nintendo eShop, or a PSN outage removes access to our libraries and all we can do is wait, helplessly dependent on digital.

I understand that technically, digital distribution of video games is an improvement in terms of accessibility, production costs, waste management, and availability. But emotionally, it feels like a downgrade.

It might seem silly to feel attached to old gaming discs and the stores that sell them, but these plastic cases are a physical representation of the digital worlds that moved me. Gazing at their box art is like staring at an old photo, it has the power to unlock a million memories. It makes an experience that has only ever existed on a screen feel a little more grounded in reality.

In the 00’s, a screen was once a source of escape from everything. But now that everything is confined to the screen, the escape route has become a claustrophobic tunnel with no end in sight. Collectively, we all chose the digital future. So why didn't it feel like a choice?

Perhaps because PlayStation removing the option to physically own a game is not something we would ever actually choose. Yes, it's the sensible course of business action when you look at the stats of digital vs. physical sales. But in a disc-less world we are unable to trade or resell, unable to borrow from a friend, unable to buy a game in a real life store and own it for life.

We have been railroaded on to the digital path, where all roads lead to reliance on publisher-owned storefronts.

I fear we are passing a point of no return in the games industry. I keep asking myself the same question, one which also rattled through my brain when I stared at the “closing down sale” poster in my local game store: What can I do?

Can the world where we walk into a game store, talk to staff and buy a new game on disc still be saved? Or is it time to let go of those we're still holding onto? Maybe we can't stop the industry from changing, but we can support real game discs and real game stores before the choice disappears entirely.

Escape to a simpler time with the best PS2 games ever

After Dragon Age: The Veilguard, it's hard to imagine the series' future – or a comeback of its past RPGs in the form of remakes. That doesn't mean a return of the original entries is entirely impossible, though. Trent Oster, BioWare co-founder and RPG veteran, believes as much, anyway.

In a new online post, the industry legend, who now serves as the CEO of Beamdog, writes, "I've seen a fair bit of chatter about the impossibility of remastering Dragon Age. I like to think of myself as someone who talks a bit, but more often lets my work speak for me. In my opinion, it is possible, but in no means a trivial exercise."

In other words, remasters or remakes could happen – but that doesn't mean that they will, or that they'd be a simple feat for developers. Oster's opinion has quite the foundation, too.

As he says, "Having led the development of both of the engines that were smashed together to make DA:O and DA:2, I have a unique perspective on the tech under the hood." So, if any dev out there knows how possible it is (and if it's possible at all), it's probably him.

Not everyone agrees with Oster about the possibility, though – or, at the least, they're not sure that remakes or remasters are in the cards right now.

Mark Darrah, who co-directed Dragon Age: Origins and directed its sequel, thinks we shouldn't expect a remaster of the original trilogy like Mass Effect's own even if one would sell "super well." According to him, "basically no one at BioWare" now knows how Dragon Age and its engine work anymore.

Darrah also isn't certain about a series comeback of any sort for Dragon Age, saying, "I suspect that it wouldn't happen" as publisher EA "owns a frightening number of IPs that are dormant" already.

I suppose that checks out, considering the likes of American McGee's Alice, Mirror's Edge, SimCity, Spore, Titanfall, and… I could go on. It's sad to think about, of course, but it definitely doesn't inspire any hope for BioWare's RPGs.

Although I would love to see Oster's thought that "it is possible" ring true and remasters or remakes come to light, I'm not sure I'll hold my breath.

Dragon Age and BioWare veteran says games could learn a thing or two from how the movie business makes money.

There was a lot to do in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, between the main story and all the myriad side-quests – perhaps an overwhelming amount, even, and trilogy head honcho Naoki Hamaguchi is distinctly aware of that issue while making Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

"One of the things I think people got a little bit tired of – or maybe that's when they stepped away from the game – was on the world map, there is a lot of content," Hamaguchi tells GamesRadar+ during a recent interview.

"Sometimes you'd get rewards like materia if you finish that content," he explains. "But for those people who just wanted to get those materia or rewards, they might feel like they have to do certain mini-games, even if they don't really want to."

This is the tricky balance of building out a world map. You want to give players things to do, reasons to explore every nook and cranny, but too much and suddenly it all looks like a mess of fairy lights, and you've no idea where to start.

Or, it just feels arbitrary, as is a hurdle I've encountered in Assassin's Creed games as well as Skyrim and other such sprawling role-playing misadventures, where I noticed I was just ticking things off.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth feels bigger than its predecessor Remake, leaning into the fact we're now away from Midgar, but even with unlocking new magic and abilities, I got a bit fatigued.

His comments make it sound like Revelation will be more curated, perhaps with more variation, either in terms of mini-games and activities, or the things they provide, or both. Bigger isn't inherently better, and I'm relieved to hear Hamaguchi's taken that mindset coming off of Rebirth.

After 2 years, solo Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth modder says fine, I'll do it myself, fixing the JRPG's wonky lighting at long last

Many fans are dragging Shift Up, the studio behind Stellar Blade and its upcoming sequel Stellar Blade: Blood Rain, through the mud for promoting its action game with an official music video generated by AI.

Hot off Stellar Blade: Blood Rain's reveal earlier this summer, the South Korean studio today released a music video for a song called Wanna Be in Love, featuring the star of the sequel, Evie, seen singing and dancing in a futuristic city. The uncanny tell-tale signs of AI generation are confirmed in the video's small print: "This video was created using the Game resource from Stellar Blade: Blood Rain and regenerated with AI support."

The ending also contains logos for Shift Up's Second Eve Studio and AI Labs, which fans were very quick to take note of.

"You have such talented artists and programmers at Shift Up, please stop using this AI nonsense to stifle their work and give it a bad rep. The series doesn't need this dragging it down because this is all people unfamiliar with your games will see," one fan writes on social media.

Another says, "You guys have the models and everything to create this without the slop…"

That's a sentiment echoed across the player base: "You have all the in house resources and funds you could ever want to make this for real. It's a slap in the face to your artists and your fans to churn out lazy, ugly, subpar garbage when you employ some of the most talented people in the industry. No one wants this but you."

Funnily enough, the music video concludes with outtakes of what looks like a real, human production crew 'filming' and high fiving with an AI-generated Evie, though it can be quite hard to tell after it's been filtered through AI generation.

By and large, at least on primarily English-speaking online forums, fans of the first game are seemingly upset with how the AI-assisted video devalues the work of Shift Up's otherwise talented team - not to mention the ethical questions that naturally stem from using the tech at all.

South Korea has reportedly adopted generative AI faster than most countries, and high-profile K-Pop music videos have been using AI generation together with real recorded footage with increasing regularity for a couple of years now.

Stellar Blade: Blood Rain's Evie is more than just "physical attractiveness," Shift Up insists, but devs are taking notes from infamously horny Goddess of Victory: Nikke regardless

Pocketpair's head of publishing and communications John 'Bucky' Buckley has been teasing people that call Palworld a "dead game" on social media by pointing out that it still has a massive half a million concurrent players mid-week.

Shortly after its 2024 early access launch on PC and Xbox, the creature-collecting, survival-crafting game hit a massive peak on Steam with over 2 million concurrent players. In the two years since, Palworld has also been ported to PS5, giving people even more ways to play.

Palworld might not have seen the same number of concurrent players on Steam since that time, but the playerbase has been steadily growing. In fact, Pocketpair announced that Palworld surpassed 40 million players not long before its full release. It has truly gone from strength to strength.

However, its concurrent Steam players have declined since its peak, which is natural given that it's now available on other platforms, and the new-game-hype has died down. That hasn't stopped people from pointing out that, at 'just' half a million concurrents, Palworld has fallen to 25% of the concurrent players it had at its peak.

Bucky, however, has clapped back at the haters on social media, pointing out that despite the natural dip in concurrent players, Palworld is still wildly successful. Noting that three weeks have passed since the game's 1.0 launch but it's "still hitting half a mil [concurrent users] midweek," on Steam he describes its popularity as "bonkers."

He ends the message by joking that haters will have to wait a few more weeks before claiming Palworld is dead again. "There’s people out there absolutely dying to post 'Palworld lost X% of their players! Dead game!!'" he says, "and at this rate they'll have to wait at least another week or two…"

Following up on the post further down in the thread, he adds: "Goofs aside, thanks again for making 1.0 such a success, gamers."

Palworld dev Pocketpair demonstrates that it's pro mods, even those cursed NSFW ones, by releasing a patch to improve their stability.

Hirosaki Castle in Forza Horizon 6 is in the Takashiro Region, and you need to take a photo with it for one of this week's winter challenges in the Italian Exotics Festival Playlist Series. While the castle grounds are quite easy to find on the map, you've still got to find the castle, and be driving a Classic Sports Car to complete the photo challenge. With that, I've explained everything you need to know to complete this Forza Horizon 6 challenge, including the location of Hirosaki Castle.

Forza Horizon 6 Hirosaki Castle location

Hirosaki Castle is in the eastern half of the Takshiro Region of Forza Horizon 6, almost directly north of Soni Circuit. On the map, the castle grounds are quite easy to spot, appearing as a large grey-brown rectangle with an orange road and white road surrounding it. The Hirosaki Castle itself is the white square in the southeast corner of the grounds.

To complete the photo challenge, you need to snap a photo of a Classic Sports Car with the castle itself. You can use Forza Horizon 6 fast travel to reach the road surrounding the castle, but then you need to find one of the ways into the grounds and make your way to the castle.

You also need to be in a Classic Sports Car, so open the 'Change Car' menu, press Y to bring up the Filters menu, then toggle on Classic Sports Cars under the Car Type header. Close the Filters menu and then choose an appropriate car from your garage. Obviously if you don't have any Classic Sports Cars, you'll need to buy one. You could also drive the 1971 Nissan Skyline 200GT-R, which is one of the Forza Horizon 6 Barn Finds.

Once you've got the right car and are in position, open Photo Mode and snap a quickshot with RB to complete the Photo Challenge. For your efforts, you'll get two Festival Playlist points for the winter season and a White Suit for your Drivatar. Remember, like the Forza Horizon 6 Hokubu Treasure Hunt for this winter season, you've only got until 2:30pm UTC on August 6 to complete this challenge!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A finger on the monkey's paw curled with Nintendo fans wishing they could play the Kingdom Hearts games on Switch 2. A collection combining the mainline trilogy was announced in June, but it came with cover art that was immediately hit with AI accusations, a claim Square Enix is now wholeheartedly refuting.

In a statement given to GameSpot, the company claims everything in that cover is manmade, and the problems people were highlighting came from human hands.

"We're aware of feedback regarding recent Kingdom Hearts visuals," a Square Enix PR representative said. "These assets were created by our development team without the use of generative AI, and the issues resulted from human error."

This would be fine and dandy if we were talking about one or two problems, but there's a long list when it comes to that visual. Donald Duck has three fingers on one hand and four on the other, the hands on the clock tower don't look straight and the details around the gears of the clock are muddy, the Keyblades have inconsistently sized keychains – I could go on.

It's worth noting many of these things are tropes of gen-AI imagery, hence why fans were so quick to accuse Square Enix of using it in this instance. The software used to create AI imagery gets these facets a little bit wrong because what it puts out is a composite picture using other assets, made extremely quickly.

Nonetheless, the statement points to the revised artwork. "Quality is extremely important to us, and updated assets have been implemented where appropriate," finishes Square Enix's comment.

Another cover has since been put out. Some things have been sorted, like Donald's hands, but other parts, like the zipper on Sora's jacket going nowhere, remain. Yet another version exists on YouTube, where characters have simply been moved around.

The original is still easy to find on Square Enix's Twitter feed. The Kingdom Hearts Collection comes out on October 6, and maybe we'll see another draft of this art when it actually hits shelves.

Further proving Kingdom Hearts' existence is a miracle, ex-Disney CEO says he can't even remember why he greenlit the JRPG in the first place.

Sony published its Q1 Consolidated Financial Results today, and it's quick to assure prospective console buyers that it has enough RAM to manufacture its expected PS5 quota through the rest of the year. That's going to be big for anyone waiting on their purchase until GTA 6 hits the shelves, the title is expect to cause a surge in demand that Sony needs to be able to accommodate.

The report makes specific mention of "the impact of memory market conditions on PlayStation 5 hardware," before continuing to state "there is no change to our plan for hardware profitability for FY26 to remain similar to FY25." Considering retailers have been stoking fears of a console shortage during Rockstar's release window, that's a relief.

With GTA 6 pre-orders already alive and kicking, and the game set to land as one of the biggest of the last few years (at least), a rush on consoles is expected, price increases be damned. Rising component costs have doubled down on previous supply shortage fears, after RAM shortages and soaring SSD prices dominated the first half of the year.

Sony's already selling fewer consoles than expected, though those expectations were likely based on a world where six-year-old hardware gets cheaper, not more expensive. 1.6 million devices were sold in the first quarter of 2026 (down from 2.5 million in the same period last year), albeit at a higher price. That means hardware revenue has levelled out at a 9.8% drop.

Will the PS5 see its own GTA 6 bundle options? It's looking likely Sony will package up its Pro and Slim devices with GTA 6 during that initial launch period, though I wouldn't put a bet on it. The brand has already come out the gate storming its allegiance with Rockstar, putting heavy emphasis on its range of consoles as the place to play GTA, a sentiment the developer has jumped on as well.

• See all PS5 deals at Amazon

We're also rounding up all the best PS5 accessories as well as the best PS5 controllers and best PS5 headsets in more detail.

Deltarune just got its v0.0.253 patch, which is its final planned update before the release of Chapter 6. It includes a number of bug fixes, including softlocks, and the option to make one of Chapter 5's most challenging bosses easier or harder.

The latest patch focuses on a number of bug fixes, particularly those related to softlocks that occur when you disconnect your headphones in certain parts of the game. Bugs where consumed items are no longer replenished and crashes when specific actions are performed have also been fixed.

However, the change that players are most excited – and angered – by is the change to Chapter 5's Shadow Crystal Boss. This is a challenging optional boss hidden within the chapter that now has three difficulty options. If they defeat you, then a Pink Bomb will spawn outside the arena and you can activate it to make the fight "Nicer or Meaner."

Choosing to make the fight Nicer will show you where certain attacks are targeting, and they will take a little longer before they hit, giving you more time to react. If you choose Meaner, then the boss will deal 25% more damage, and some attacks will be slightly faster.

Minor spoilers for the Chapter 5 Shadow Crystal boss ahead.

The patch notes include a cheeky line teasing that "girls like it when you are better at dodging danmaku." This is actually a hint about the changes to the post-fight cutscene when you defeat Pink at the different difficulty settings. If you defeat her Meaner form, she will reward Kris with a flurry of kisses. However, if you choose the Nicer option, she'll taunt you by poking her tongue out.

These differing cutscenes won't meaningfully change your playthrough, so choose the difficulty you're most comfortable with. However, if winning kisses from your pixel pink waifu are important to you, there's a challenging road ahead.

Deltarune Chapter 5 update stops flirting from freezing the game and makes the final boss easier if you suck.

Sony's decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 isn't exactly popular among consumers – but that doesn't mean the company thinks it's making the wrong choice.

The end of physical media as we know it is quite the hot topic, with game preservation experts predicting it'll all just lead to more piracy and folks within the industry speaking out against companies' move toward digital-only gaming. Lords of the Fallen 2 publisher Marek Tyminski, for example, stated that Sony's choice to axe discs and the fact that GTA 6 is going disc-free itself "feels unfair to studios still backing physical" – so, yeah.

However, Sony appears to be unwavering in its decision. Following its quarterly financial conference during an earnings call Q&A (as transcribed by Investing), Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao implies as much.

The "biggest" reason? "The digitalization of contents overall has been progressing. That's the big factor. It's not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of contents – digitalization is progressing." I immediately think of DVDs, personally.

According to Tao, Sony considered its decision for quite some time.

"When we think about the future – and we put in a lot of thought and time, we cautiously considered this – we came to this conclusion: we're going to cautiously move this forward. To this decision, we have received various opinions; people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people."

That's perhaps an understatement – and, unsurprisingly, the nostalgia factor doesn't help. "It's a form of entertainment that's loved by people," as Tao says, "it's connected to people's fond memories in many cases."

And, although Sony isn't backing down on going disc-free, the executive explains that it's not a cut-and-dried process. "We understand those emotions. We want to consider that," she admits. "And in the future digital ecosystem, how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore."

I do wonder what that means – but, again, it's probably not what most gamers want to hear. It's not an admission of Sony taking its choice back and opting to support physical media… and "future digital ecosystem" is admittedly a tough quote to swallow as a longtime game collector myself.

Plus, Sony goes on to say it doesn't "see that there will be any negative impact on our business."

I'm choosing to remain hopeful that we'll still see discs and game cards in the future in some capacity – even if I'm holding on to a dying form of media here. A girl can dream, right?

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

The Forza Horizon 6 Hokubu Treasure Hunt for the winter season of the Italian Exotics Festival Playlist Series is in quite an obscure place on the map, with the photo clue giving you very little to go off. If you don't know where those big hay bale scarecrows can be found in Forza Horizon 6, then you're going to have a tough time scouring the region for this treasure chest. To help you find and smash it, I've laid out the exact location of this Treasure Hunt in Forza Horizon 6 below.

Forza Horizon 6 Hokubu Treasure Hunt location

The Forza Horizon 6 Treasure Hunt chest in the Hokubu is found on the northwestern side of the Shikisai-No-Aka flower fields, which is roughly in the middle of the region.

The treasure chest itself is in a car park between the highway road that goes around the north side of the flower fields and the white road that goes through them. There's a small garage building by this car park and the treasure chest is next to it, overlooking the snow-covered fields. It's a spot you can’t use Forza Horizon 6 fast travel to reach directly, but you can get close. Once you're there, smash into the treasure chest for an easy 100,000 Credits, making it a great way to get some Forza Horizon 6 money.

This Treasure Hunt in FH6 isn't around for long as it's part of the limited-time Festival Playlist activities for the winter week. That means you've got until 2:30pm UTC on August 6 to destroy the chest, otherwise the season will change to spring and a new set of challenges will take over. You've also got until the same date and time to complete the Forza Horizon 6 Hirosaki Castle photo challenge!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Will Gears of War E-Day be on PS5 at launch, and if not, is that liable to change any time in the future? The new Gears of War prequel has captured attention since it was announced, but right now Xbox-owned games and their ports have a somewhat on-and-off relation with PlayStation 5, making it hard to know off-hand. Below I'll lay out the details and explain what you can play E-Day on.

Will Gears of War E-Day be on PS5?

No, there will NOT be a PS5 port of Gears of War E-Day, according to current information given to us by Microsoft.

The current plan is for E-Day to be an Xbox exclusive, playable only on the Series X/S and PC. While at some point in the past it appeared as though Microsoft was considering a PlayStation port, that appears to have changed in the wake of variously changing business strategies at Xbox.

This might come as a surprise to some, as recent Xbox games have had a habit of making it to PlayStation sooner or later, with recent years giving us PS5 ports of Starfield, Sea of Thieves, and the upcoming Fable game still planned for simultaneous releases on both consoles. However, Xbox appears to be reconsidering which games it makes ports of, at least when it comes to launch day.

It's possible that we may see a later port of E-Day to PS5 in the future, but there's no guarantee of that, and it certainly won't be at launch day according to current information. If you're determined to see the historic moment where a chainsaw was duct-taped to a machine gun as soon as possible, you'll need access to an Xbox or Gaming PC.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online got hit hard by the unprecedented Xbox restructuring from earlier this month, with a Microsoft filing confirming the studio lost more than 200 developers. Still, it insists its flagship title isn't going anywhere any time soon.

In a new community letter from Elder Scrolls Online's new game director, Nick Giacomini, who replaced longtime lead Rich Lambert, Giacomini lays out an optimistic future for the game while acknowledging "a number of organizational changes and departures of teammates who helped shape The Elder Scrolls Online."

Despite messaging that indicates Zenimax Online is struggling with "team bandwidth," as well as concern from a laid off senior developer about the studio's ability to push out content at the same cadence as before, Giacomini says there's still a bright future ahead for Elder Scrolls Online, thanks in part to "a new chapter of collaboration across Bethesda.

"By working more closely with Bethesda Game Studios across The Elder Scrolls, we have new opportunities to share ideas, align our efforts, and create even better experiences for players, all while continuing to build the future of ESO."

Giacomini couches his optimism with some less than great news. "With the recent changes to our studio, trying to hit our previously announced deadlines would mean sacrificing the quality you deserve," he says. "Therefore, we are establishing a clear principle for how we build and ship content and features moving forward: quality experiences over calendar dates."

You know what means: delays. Specifically, the new Crimson Veldt trial is being delayed to January 2027 alongside Update 52, which will also include the new Jerall Pass PvP zone and Skyrim's Dynamic Encounters: Rimegales. The long-anticipated refresh to classes and combat is also being moved to 2027, but Zenimax Online is looking at "some interim options" for classes in the meantime.

"We know it's disappointing to see some features move out, and believe me, we want to get these into your hands as soon as possible, too. But we believe this is the right move for the long-term health of the game," says Giacomini.

Giacomini lays out the main highlights of this year's two seasons in his writeup, and there's definitely a good amount of new stuff still coming this year, but his focus returns to the long-term vision.

"We've had bumps in the road over our 12-year history that we've always faced together," he says. "As our studio evolves, we are not looking to just 'maintain' the game. We are looking to grow it. You, our community, are the reason we have grown over the years, and we want to keep growing with you. 

"Moving forward, our principles are simple: we will continue to build fun and rewarding experiences through our Seasonal model, deliver long-standing player-requested features and changes that make Tamriel more fulfilling, and find new ways to provide you with features and content to keep your adventures fresh."

Giacomini says plans for Elder Scrolls Online in 2027 are still being finalized, but he teases some "never before seen," "all-new experiences in Skyrim" as part of the roadmap. I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online on-and-off for almost a decade, and I'm cautiously excited to see what's next for a studio navigating dramatic leadership changes, a tighter budget, and a smaller team.

"There's really no one left": Former Elder Scrolls Online dev says the MMO "basically funded other failing projects" as Microsoft guts the studio

Late last year, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast revealed that it's working on a new open-world game, the ever-mysterious Warlock, and its cast has now added a well-known games star.

The Hasbro company didn't unveil too much about the exciting title, aside from the fact that it is not, in fact, a turn-based game like Baldur's Gate 3 (much to many fans' disappointment, I'd say) – no dice rolls, and a less "tabletop" vibe. It's also evidently magic-heavy, if the name didn't give it away, and an entirely single-player experience.

Warlock almost strikes me as a mashup of Skyrim and D&D so far, but it's difficult to tell… yet.

What we do now know, however, is that Tasha – the archmage and demonologist you might recognize from various adventures in the Forgotten Realms – is featured in Warlock, and she's voiced by none other than Lady Dimitrescu actor Maggie Robertson.

Yes, the very same Maggie Robertson who plays Orin the Red in Baldur's Gate 3. She'll be taking care of Tasha's motion performance capture as well, if her voice wasn't exciting enough.

Kaatri, the protagonist of Warlock, also has quite the star backing her voice: Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica and Lucifer.

It's shaping up to be one heck of a cast, that's for certain – and if other D&D games like Baldur's Gate 3 taught us anything, it's that the cast can shine very brightly in such titles. Something tells me that Warlock will serve as a great example of this, too, when it arrives sometime in 2027.

I'm excited to see how Tasha fits into Warlock and what the dynamic is like between Kaatri and the historically chaotic evil mage – there's a lot that Wizards of the Coast and developer Invoke Studios could do here lore-wise, but they're not being too open with what we can expect to see just yet.

Searching for other new games to hop into? Here are the best tabletop RPGs you and your pals can enjoy this year – there's more than D&D out there, after all.

The controversy around Mythic items has emerged as the defining issue of Diablo 4's fourteenth season, and Blizzard is back yet again with another foundational change to how the game's rarest loot works.

Diablo 4's Season of Death Awakening launched last month with a big compromise for players who were upset about the big Mythic rework previewed in the PTR. Instead of completely removing a Mythic Unique's special powers and leaving the item's identity up to the RNG gods, Blizzard made it so that a Mythic Unique will always drop with two guaranteed stats, with the other two being random. Well, it appears that wasn't enough to win over the Diablo 4 player base, as PTR 3.2.0, which will be available August 4 to 11, is doing away with Mythic RNG entirely.

"We've heard your feedback, and we're making further improvements to Mythic Uniques and Iconic Mythics," says Blizzard in a new breakdown of PTR 3.2.0. "Changes will make the system simpler, offering more crafting choices and giving you far more control over that one major piece you'll need to carry your build into the highest levels."

Unsurprisingly, Blizzard isn't completely reversing course on Mythics 3.0, meaning Mythic items are still a type of Unique rather than their own distinct category, but whereas previous changes made for items with 50% RNG, the new versions will be "far more deterministic," which is pretty much what players have been asking for this whole time.

The Horadric Cube will now have a new "Upgrade Direct" recipe that'll let you do exactly what it sounds like. Instead of the old upgrade recipe that spat out a completely random Mythic item of the same slot when you put in a Unique, which was causing lots of players to mistakenly trash some of their best items, this new and more "direct" recipe gives you the exact same item but of Mythic quality.

"As the name implies, this is a direct transfer to a Mythic state: the random factors are gone," confirms Blizzard. "Put in a Tibault's Will with ideal affixes and dialed-in Tempering and Masterworking, and you'll get a Mythic-ized version of that Tibault's Will with all affixes and modifications retained.

"The only restriction is that you cannot use this recipe on an Unmodifiable item, so beware of Transfiguring your precious Mythic Unique candidate!"

There is one more pretty crucial caveat here. Any Mythic created using the Cube will have a Crafted tag on it, and you'll only be able to equip one Crafted Mythic at a time. You can have as many Mythics equipped as you want so long as they're all made at the Jeweler, but just one Cube-crafted Mythic.

Hopefully, this latest change to Mythics is the one that satisfies Blizzard and the Diablo 4 community, as frankly, keeping track of what's what has become a full-time job for me. Although, I suppose the Diablo 4 Mythic beat isn't the worst career trajectory I could've thought of.

Diablo 4 lead says "there's often no ideal solution" when it comes to doing anything in the action-RPG: "Often, we just have to pick a thing"

Ghost of Yotei animator Jean Nguyen says Sony studio Sucker Punch was "very supportive" of him making his own game, the hit Steam release Dinoblade, at a time when "most game studios don't let you do that."

Dinoblade, a dinosaur action RPG, is the work of Nguyen and a few supporters, including his own brother. Nguyen still works at Sucker Punch – and he still really likes working there – so it was a little surprising that he was allowed to make his own game at all.

"I had to go through legal, just make sure that I got approval to work on my side project. And I still own the IP 100%," Nguyen tells me. "They're very supportive, and they have supported other employees before. It's a really good position I was in, because most game studios don't let you do that. So I was very lucky to be there and to have Sucker Punch's support."

Just this week, Game Developer published a report on how side work clauses in game dev contracts, which restrict or prohibit what projects employees are allowed to make on their own time, can create "undue burden" on devs and deny them creative outlets that often lead to better performance in their main job.

"As long as I'm doing well and you can see that I'm not slacking off on the quality of work," Nguyen says Sucker Punch doesn't mind at all.

In his case, learning to make a whole game largely on his own was a big shift that taught him a lot about game dev, even after years in the industry. He started with animation work in mobile games at Glu Mobile, later working on some bizarre Britney Spears and Nicki Minaj games, and eventually went to larger studios before winding up at Sucker Punch about three years ago.

"With a big studio, it's important to work with the team, to have everyone come together and have a vision," he explains. But as an indie, he was suddenly flooded with freedom.

"I don't have to do a lot of meetings with people," he continues. "I kind of just go in and do what I want. I have the vision myself. I get to go as unique or crazy as I want without worrying about what my teammate thinks, so I get to try new things and unique things that are more risky that could have a good reward.

"And that's important because it's a way to differentiate Dinoblade from AAA games. What can I do to have players want to play my game when it's, like, low quality? What's unique about it? They could play a high-polish AAA game, so I'm trying out risky stuff, anything I could think of that's fun that I could put in the game. I get that freedom."

Shifting from an animation focus to an everything focus meant, you guessed it, watching a bunch of Unreal Engine tutorials. Over roughly three years, putting in 5 to 15 hours a week, Nguyen slowly cobbled together a real, breathing game based on the viral sword-wielding spinosaurus animation demo that not only put a lot of eyes on the project, but also pushed Nguyen to make this game at all.

The maker of Combat Fury, an Unreal Engine combat system framework, was hugely helpful early on, Nguyen says. He also hired contractors to make models for some of Dinoblade's key story bosses so they'd stand out from the ready-made assets available on the Unreal shop, and he commissioned some music to round things out. But the majority of the work boiled down to his nights and weekends, with some animation and QA help from his brother.

With 83,000 copies sold in a week and a 90% positive score across 1,700 Steam user reviews, Dinoblade is a certified success. Encouraged by its launch, Nguyen plans to continue supporting the game. He says he'll also consider a direct sequel or indirect follow-up once things have calmed down a bit.

"Maybe in the future there's potential that I would like to start my own studio, go full-time on it," he explains. "I want to dream big. I enjoy seeing people play my game. It's really rewarding, so I just want to keep doing that. But it's more of a hobby to me than a career, I would say."

Two devs made a game in 4 months, now it's made $360,000 in 24 hours as Steam's 15th best-selling game: "Still a bit unbelievable."

The rampant contraction, consolidation, and uncertainty in the games industry risks boxing out creators and denying opportunities for teams to develop and master their craft. A new generation of household names like Larian, Remedy, FromSoftware, CD Projekt Red, or Respawn may never be allowed to bloom today. At least, that's the concern of veteran game developer Xalavier Nelson Jr. of (mostly) Strange Scaffold fame.

Originally, I spoke to Nelson Jr. about how, in his view, generative AI won't solve the games industry's budget problems – one of many reasons a lot of game developers don't want to use gen AI. In short, AI didn't cause the unsustainable approach to game development afflicting many publishers, and worse games made cheaper with AI won't fix it. As Nelson Jr. puts it: "We are spending an unknown amount of money in an unknown amount of time to make a game of unknown quality to reach an unknown amount of people." And so far, AI has only added another budget problem: the AI-driven RAM drought has seen console (and Steam Machine) prices rise so high that these machines are no longer accessible to many.

Taking another step back, Nelson Jr. raises an increasingly evergreen point about the confounding combination of industry-wide disasters and endless good games, and it touches on how the effects of the past few years will linger.

Good games in bad conditions

"That's part of why everyone seems like they're losing their minds. It's because, every day, a game is coming from an unexpected place and having an impact on the industry and on players," observes Nelson Jr. "It seems like, without even trying, great games will continue to emerge." Just this week, I wrote about how two devs made a game in four months and watched in awe as it earned over $360,000 in 24 hours.

"The invisible damage of investors, executives, publishers, and even players waiting for great games to emerge from the ether is that the voices that could be producing those projects and refining their craft and making your next favorite game will never have the ability to practice their art such that they can bring that to you," he adds.

A huge problem, Nelson Jr. reasons, is that more and more successful games are coming from unexpected places. Now, this sounds like a good thing. People are finding success and good games are coming out. The actual problem is that the expected places, the bedrock of the industry and the spaces that once represented stability and legacy, are shrinking or dying. This contributes to that uncertainty, making a career in games more dangerous and stunting studios.

"We regularly celebrate the studios and the individual artists that have had a chance to refine their craft for decades at a time, not just in games, but beyond," Nelson Jr. argues. "When an artist gets that much time to figure out what they're doing and why and how to make it meaningful, great things occur. And it happens over and over again. We look at Remedy, we look at Larian. Every single time these studios talk about what they do and how they do it, people get excited. Then simultaneously, we create none of the conditions for another Remedy or Larian to occur.

"If you look at FromSoftware before [its] modern era, they would put out like three or four video games a year minimum. If you look at their time between releases, Dark Souls 3 to Sekiro to Elden Ring was three years each time. How fucking crazy is that? And how much of that is built on a team which has shipped dozens of games beforehand? You don't get the next FromSoftware without having a group of people, individually and together, exercise their craft."

Your first game

Likewise, CD Projekt Red didn't start with The Witcher 3. Larian didn't start with Baldur's Gate 3. But if any of these studios were just sprouting today, they'd be hard-pressed to ever get the chance to make their Elden Ring, Witcher 3, or Baldur's Gate 3. That might require a debut on the level of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is a huge outlier. Which is not to reduce the scope of the games industry's culling to, horror of horrors, fewer games to play. The actual problem is that more people will not have the means or opportunity to build and sustain careers that enable games like that. Because games don't emerge from the ether. Ask Amazon, Xbox, Hasbro, or Embracer what happens when all you have is a bunch of money, control of some IP, and people who are worried about their livelihood.

For all the deserved concern in the air, video games are not going to up and vanish. But plenty of people will be forced out of game development, or forced to accept misery to stay in it. In Nelson Jr.'s view, an approach to games that is decidedly focused on people is probably the best way to help those people.

"I mourn the world where we are waiting for more studios like that to emerge because we haven't created the conditions for it to happen," he concludes. "It's like waiting at the door for a package you've never ordered. That's what the games industry has created in terms of not consistently supporting creators, and one of the only ways we can reverse that is by audiences paying attention to who makes the games that they are loving right now, and showing up for them as often as possible, and evangelizing those projects so that they can keep making them."

"I like finding a new, special, best-selling game on Steam that takes a hold of the zeitgeist as much as anyone. But when that story comes out of nowhere and I can't especially identify with a journey that the developer has gone on to build it, there is something missing. And I also know, because of the patterns in the games industry, I might not see them ever make a game again, and we have to change that."

"Our bosses would have stopped us," if PS2's Spider-Man was made today, says director: "There were several months of us telling our bosses 'Don't look at it yet! Don't look at it yet!'"

Halo Campaign Evolved Skulls are pretty though to find, usually nestled off the beaten path while some are in utterly obscure places. There are also three per level, so that's a total of 39 to find across the game's 13 levels, and there are even three more that you'll unlock along the way for the Campaign Remix mode.

One helpful thing to know about the Skulls is that they make an ominous, ghostly breathing-like sound when you're nearby - wear some headphones and you might be able to home in by listening out. But some of them are impossible to find even when being thorough, requiring specific conditions to be met and puzzles to be solved, so I've explained how to unlock every Skull in Halo Campaign Evolved below.

Make sure you also look out for the Halo Campaign Evolved Terminals as you explore every level!

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, the start of the level.

As soon as soon as you have control of Master Chief, turn around and go to the two large, round containers on the left side of the back of the room. Climb onto these containers, then jump across to the nearby upper walkway. Walk to the other end and you'll find the Speed Limit Skull.

Speed Limit: Disables sprint.

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 2

From Rally Point Alpha, as soon as the marine says Cortana needs you at the bridge.

The next room the marine leads you into is an armory, and the Magnified Skull is on top of the weapon rack near the middle of the room.

Magnified: The assault rifle now has a 60-round magazine, just like the original.

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 3

From Rally Point Bravo, after the cutscene where Master Chief meets Keyes at the bridge.

Turn around and go back into the bridge. Head over to the main control area with the glass canopy and the two pilots in their chairs and drop down into the floorspace below them to find the Perspective Skull.

Perspective: Switches to a third-person, over-the-shoulder view.

Halo Campaign Evolved Halo Skull 1

From Rally Point Charlie, at the lifeboat crash site near the cliff edge where the marines are holed up underground.

Before getting into the details for this Skull, it's worth mentioning that it's much easier to get if you play this mission with the Acrophobia Skull active. Otherwise, make sure you DO NOT use any frag grenades while you rescue the marines.

Clear out the Covenant as normal, then head to the upper platform of the main Forerunner spire structure in the middle of the area. Jump onto the small lip on either side of the spire, then walk up the ramp – this will get you into a small nook in the middle of the spire where you can see a hole that leads down into the basement where the marines were hiding.

Standing in this nook, look at one of the corners opposite the hole where the ramp meets part of the spire and chuck a frag grenade into it. As you do, turn around to face the narrow ledge you need to get on top of, then jump just before the grenade explodes. The explosion should then boost you up enough to get on top of the ledge. You can also crouch in mid-air to tuck Chief's legs and help you get up. Walk up the narrow ledge to find the Grunt Funeral Skull at the top.

If you run out of frag grenades, quickly reload to the last checkpoint and you should be able to attempt again. It is possible to do this grenade jump with a plasma grenade, but their more powerful short-range explosion means you'll probably just blow yourself up. Otherwise, if you have the Acrophobia Skull active, you can fly up to the Skull very easily.

Grunt Funeral: When grunts die, they explode like a plasma grenade.

Halo Campaign Evolved Halo Skull 2

From Rally Point Charlie, at the lifeboat crash site near the rockslide.

After rescuing the marines in this area, go to the top of the rockslide area and stand on the largest of the rock formations (this is usually where a marine with a sniper rifle perches). Hop across to the large, grass-covered rock on your right, then jump down to the smaller rock ahead and below. The Floor Is Lava Skull is on this rock.

Floor Is Lava: Take continuous damage whenever you're touching the ground.

Halo Campaign Evolved Halo Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, along the river from the final lifeboat crash site in the hills.

Find the river and follow it uphill to until you reach the tall tunnel. Go inside the tunnel and on your left there will be some large rocks. Check next to the largest rock and you'll find the Give & Take Skull floating ominously.

Give & Take: Firing your weapon drains your shield, but damaging enemies recharges your shield.

Halo Campaign Evolved Truth and Reconciliation Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, just before using the gravity lift to get inside the ship.

From the grav lift, head up the hill towards the cliff and look for a small tree right on the cliff edge and to the left of a bushier shrub and a much taller tree.

Walk over to this small tree and then look down the cliff and you'll spot the Iron Skull on a tiny ledge. Carefully drop down to collect it. As far as I can tell, there's no way back up, so you have to die or reload your checkpoint.

Iron: Dying while playing solo restart the level. Dying in co-op resets to your last checkpoint.

Halo Campaign Evolved Truth and Reconciliation Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, after entering the vehicle bay with some Wraiths lying around.

Run along the upper walkway but rather than going through the door into the corridors leading down, keep going right until you find a Covenant barrel-looking object near the edge of the walkway next to a purple column – this column is the first in a row of three. The Endurance Spec Skull itself is on the furthest column.

To reach this Skull, you need to leap across the columns using the steep bulbous parts as jumping points. Be warned that this can be quite difficult as it's very easy to bounce or slip off the columns. But when you eventually reach the third one, start holding Square/X so that you grab the Skull without having to land on the column properly.

Endurance Spec: UNSC vehicles can't be damaged.

Halo Campaign Evolved Truth and Reconciliation Skull 3

From Rally Point Bravo, after entering the shuttle bay.

Immediately head right to a door which will occasionally open to let Covenant enemies join the fight. When the door opens, run inside and follow the corridor all the way to the other end. You'll find the Foreign Skull on the floor in a corner next to a round, purple hologram.

Foreign: You cannot use Covenant weapons.

Halo Campaign Evolved Silent Cartographer Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha or Bravo, where the two Hunters are that guard the way to the security system.

The area where you find the Hunter pair features a Forerunner structure in the middle. Walk up the inclined part of this structure and you'll find the Acrophobia Skull at the end near the cliff wall.

Acrophobia: While in mid-air hold the jump button to fly.

Halo Campaign Evolved Silent Cartographer Skull 2

From Rally Point Alpha or Bravo, outside the entrance structure to the Silent Cartographer.

Standing on the platform outside the main entranceway and facing the entrance, look to your right for a hole in the cliff. Head inside to find a small cave tunnel and the Bandana Skull lying in the middle of a patch of light.

Bandana: Gain infinite ammo and grenades (also disables the ability to earn certain achievements).

Halo Campaign Evolved Silent Cartographer Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, after going through the previously locked door.

Follow the main objective through the Forerunner facility, including going down to the next floor. You'll then be directed to another stairwell that leads downward with a blue hologram in the gap. Look down this gap and you'll just about be able to spot the Hip Fire Skull on a small corner ledge. Jump down and collect the Skull.

Hip Fire: Disables aiming and scope zoom for all weapons.

Halo Campaign Evolved Assault on the Control Room Skull 1

From Rally Point Bravo, after driving the Scorpion tank across the bridge in the chasm.

Once on the other side of the bridge, turn left and drive the tank to the ice wall at the end of the platform. You'll notice a tall, narrow gap on the right side of this ice wall which is where the IWHBYD Skull (I Would Have Been Your Daddy, in case you're curious) is.

To reach it, turn the tank around and reverse so that the turret is close to the gap. Then get out the tank, climb on top of the turret, and jump to the Skull.

IWHBYD: Rare dialogue becomes more common.

Halo Campaign Evolved Assault on the Control Room Skull 2

From Rally Point Charlie, after reaching the snowy clearing with three large arches but before going through the door to to find the Control Center Ziggurat.

From this door, turn around to look at the three arch structures. Walk up the one on the right and you'll find the Angry Skull right in the middle.

Angry: Enemies fire their weapons faster and more frequently.

Halo Campaign Evolved Assault on the Control Room Skull 3

From Rally Point Echo, upon reaching the bridge next to the Control Center Ziggurat with the Banshees on it.

Walk up to the middle of the bridge and stand on the left where the slope of the ziggurat almost touches the bridge. Jump down this slope and walk down and under the bridge to find the Cowbell Skull perched on a rock.

Cowbell: Objects are more easily moved by physics effects, such as explosions.

Halo Campaign Evolved 343 Guilty Spark Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, just after you pass the crashed Spirit dropship.

Follow the path left and up the hill. When you pass the large tree on your left and get to the purple light, start climbing up the rock and dirt bank on the left. The Fog Skull is on top of a small dirt mound on this bank.

Fog: Motion Tracker is disabled.

Halo Campaign Evolved 343 Guilty Spark Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, upon finding the insane marine in the Forerunner facility who tries to shoot you.

Kill him. He'll drop the That's Just… Wrong Skull for that.

That's Just… Wrong: Enemies have increased awareness of your presence.

Halo Campaign Evolved 343 Guilty Spark Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, at the end of the level where you have to kill the Flood while you wait for evac next to a large Forerunner structure.

Obviously don't kill everything otherwise you'll end the mission. From the Forerunner structure, facing the oncoming Flood, turn left and go around the back of the structure into the dark forest. Keep going until you find a thin felled tree next to a much larger tree.

Climb up to and walk along the felled tree until you can see a large rock formation below. Look down and to your left and you'll spot the They Come Back Skull on this rock.

They Come Back: Flood Combat Forms reanimated by Infection Forms are much more dangerous.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Library Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, after going through the service tunnel (when you come out the other side, 343 Guilty Spark will remark on how you survived and Sentinels will arrive to kill the Flood).

From the service tunnel exit, walk forward, then turn around and you'll spot large slopes on either side. Climb up to the one on your left to find the Tilt Skull.

Tilt: Positive and negative damage multipliers are increased (for example, plasma weapons deal even more damage against shields, but even less against health).

Halo Campaign Evolved The Library Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, upon reaching the first large door that 343 Guilty Spark must open.

Opposite the door is an area with two large pillars and a small ledge against the wall with a light shining upwards. The Pop Skull is on this ledge. To get to it, climb up one of the slopes near either of the pillars, jump onto a pillar, then jump across to the ledge.

Pop: Shooting Flood enemies in their weakspot causes them to explode.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Library Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, after taking the elevator down to the Flood-infested final floor.

Go straight ahead from the lift, down the incline, and through the doorway into some Flood goop-filled corridors. Take the next left, and you'll find the Famine Skull on the floor near a wall of goop.

Famine: Weapons dropped by enemies contain half the ammo.

Halo Campaign Evolved Two Betrayals Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, upon grabbing a Banshee after leaving the Control Center.

Fly the Banshee to the top of the Control Center spire, land on it, then grab the Tough Luck Skull near the edge. Be aware that there's no way to get down without dying unless you've expertly landed your Banshee, so you'll have to reload a checkpoint or restart the level.

Tough Luck: Enemies always go berserk, constantly dive out the way, and rarely flee a fight.

Halo Campaign Evolved Two Betrayals Skull 2

From Rally Point Charlie, upon reaching the area with the three arches – the same snowy area where the Angry Skull was in Assault on the Control Room.

This time, walk across the middle arch then bear right into the small dead end of Flood growths. The Black Eye Skull is on a small pile of snow in this area.

Black Eye: Your shields only recharge when you melee enemies.

Halo Campaign Evolved Two Betrayals Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, once you reach the snow canyon where you need to commandeer another Banshee.

Fly to the top of the massive tower in the middle of the canyon and land your Banshee on the top. Activate the Forerunner console in the middle to open a door, then fly your Banshee to the landing area in front of the console – not the landing area the objective marker is telling you to go to.

Pass through the now unlocked door here to reach a room full of enemies. Kill everything inside (Flood, stealth Elites and Fuel Rod Gun Grunts), then go to the opposite side of the room to find another console which you can activate to open the nearby door. This leads into a Flood-infested corridor and you need to kill everything in here too so that you can activate another console, letting you into the final room.

Kill everything in this last room (lots of Flood, including Tank Forms), and then collect the Mythic Skull from the enclosure in the middle.

Mythic: Enemies have more health.

Halo Campaign Evolved Keyes Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha on Heroic difficulty or higher, at the very start of the mission. Fair warning: this is by far the hardest Halo Campaign Evolved Skull to get.

The Catch Skull itself is at the highest point of the gravity lift that takes you into the Truth and Reconciliation ship, but it will disappear if you take too long to reach it.

To get this Skull, you need to speedrun through the opening section of Keyes, sprinting and jumping past every enemy, to get to the grav lift area as quickly as possible (Tip: look up slightly to prevent aim assist from dragging your aim around as you run past enemies!).

Once there, focus on killing the Covenant enemies, most of which will be marked with red icons. I recommend grabbing the Overshield, fighting your way to the grav lift itself, and then standing in it while chucking grenades and shooting at anything that approaches.

Eventually, the gravity lift will pull you up, at which point you need to hold Square/X. Doing so should guarantee that you collect the Skull as soon as you reach the highest point of the lift. To give you an idea of how quick you need to be, I grabbed the Skull in just under three minutes, but it is thankfully still obtainable even if you die and reload at a checkpoint midway through your speedrun.

Catch: Enemies throw and drop more grenades.

Halo Campaign Evolved Keyes Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, once you're inside the vehicle bay.

Get down to the main floor of the vehicle bay and head to the open doorway past the Wraiths. Down this corridor, you'll notice a destroyed Wraith and several Covenant containers blocking the way but stick to the left wall and you can crouch-walk under the Wraith. Go to the end of the corridor and you'll find the Blind Skull on the ground next to the locked door.

Blind: HUD and weapons are invisible.

Halo Campaign Evolved Keyes Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, after the cutscene where Master Chief removes Flood Keyes' neural lace.

Keep punching Keyes' Flood form until it drops the appropriately named Piñata Skull.

Piñata: Punching enemies makes them drop inert grenades.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Maw Skull 1

From Rally Point Bravo, in the burning cryo storage room.

Head to the far-left corner of the room where the fire, walk up the collapsed walkway, then turn around and jump onto the far support pillar against the wall. The Stowed Reload Skull is on top of this pillar.

Stowed Reload: Weapons reload while stowed.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Maw Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, just after destroying the four cores in Engineering.

From the far control panel on the right side of the room as you entered (this is the one that controls Core F), jump down on to the small platform with a box on it that's just below the wide doorway you can leave through. Then drop down to the left onto the narrow walkway, where you'll find the Boom Skull tucked away.

Boom: Explosion radius is doubled.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Maw Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, towards the beginning of the Warthog run.

Begin the Warthog run as normal until you reach the first tunnel section. On your right, you'll spot a smaller tunnel with red lights you can drive through as a shortcut. Go through and then keep driving until you find a second tunnel like this, also on your right. Drive halfway through this one, get out the Warthog, then walk over to the scorched wall on your right. The Thunderstorm Skull is on the floor next to this wall.

Thunderstorm: Upgrades the ranks of most enemies.

Halo Campaign Evolved Boarding Action Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, after defeating the two Hunters on the upper floor (you can hear this Skull from the very start of the mission but need to make it past this point to collect it).

Instead of going up to where the objective marker directs, go right and follow the walkway and corridors down to the Seraph (the purple spaceship) launch bay.

Go through the door beyond the Seraph and head towards the path with the orange lights on it past the Shade turret and to your right. The Malfunction Skull is on this path.

Malfunction: When you respawn, a random HUD element is disabled.

Halo Campaign Evolved Boarding Action Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, after reaching the Elite training room area with the purple tube above.

Rather than going through the purple tube as the objective marker directs, head left along the upper floor towards two open doors. Go through the one on your left and follow the corridor to emerge onto the upper floor of the room before the training room – there will also be a squad of Elites ahead, so make sure you kill them first.

Next, go straight ahead to the curved pathway that goes around a rock spire, and you'll find the Johnny Ammo Seed Skull there.

Johnny Ammo Seed: When reloading, any remaining ammo in the discarded magazine is lost.

Halo Campaign Evolved Boarding Action Skull 3

From Rally Point Delta, after fighting through the room with the central gravity lift.

Before riding the grav lift up, go through the door to the left of it and follow the corridor to the end to find the Leadhead Skull.

Leadhead: Headshots no longer provide extra damage or instant kills.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Most Dangerous Game Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha as you need to play through almost the entire level in one go to get this Skull.

To get the Temperamental Skull in The Most Dangerous Game, you need to shoot an invincible gold Elite that appears at three set points during the mission. The problem is that it almost immediately retreats to safety if you start shooting it or get too close. Miss an opportunity to break its shield and you can't collect the Skull later in the level – I recommend holding onto a longer-range weapon, such as the Battle or Needle Rifle to help.

Here are the three places you must shoot the gold Elite and where to find the Skull afterwards:

1. From Rally Point Alpha, after the Brute ambush area. The next area features many tall trees with large leaves and a far-off rock hill. The Elite is at the top of this hill and will retreat into the Covenant building behind it when you start shooting.

2. From Rally Point Bravo, upon reaching the Covenant bridge with a Wraith at the opposite end. Run across the bridge and past the Wraith, then start shooting the Elite. It will very quickly retreat through the doors directly behind it.

3. From Rally Point Charlie, after rescuing the marines from the brig and reach the room with the windows that let you see the packed sarcophagi (this is also very close to this level's Terminal). Head through the exit door into an outside area, then immediately look left and up to spot the gold Elite in an elevated position. Shoot it quickly before it retreats backwards out of sight.

4. If you sufficiently shot the gold Elite in all three areas, the Temperamental Skull can be collected from the same area as above. Kill all the enemies, then go up to the purple spire structure in the middle of the area to find the Skull.

Temperamental: Allies attack you more quickly if you kill a friendly.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Most Dangerous Game Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, upon reaching the bridge with the Wraith at the end.

As you step onto the bridge, turn around and shoot the plasma batteries on top of the columns on either side of the large door. This will cause the door to open, letting you grab the Recession Skull on the ground and access an armory of UNSC weapons.

Recession: Every shot fired expends twice as much ammo.

Halo Campaign Evolved The Most Dangerous Game Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, after you go through a large door where Johnson, Williams, and Master Chief have a brief conversation.

From the large door you came in through, bear left until you reach a tree with lots of stalagmites next to it. Jump onto the stalagmites, then climb up the jagged cliff, heading towards the large door. The Ghost Skull itself is in the purple flame closest to the cliff, so once you've made it to the flatter side of the cliff, you just need to jump across to the flame and grab the Skull.

Ghost: Enemies don't flinch when shot at.

Halo Campaign Evolved Heavy Burden Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, when you reach a bridge across a large chasm.

Rather than crossing the bridge, turn left and go through the next door (be careful as some Elites will attack you from here) and cross the much narrower bridge nearby. The Eye Patch Skull is to the right of the door at the end of this bridge.

Eye Patch: Auto-aiming is disabled for all weapons.

Halo Campaign Evolved Heavy Burden Skull 2

From Rally Point Bravo, when you reach a massive room with several floors as you head back to regroup with Williams.

In this room, you'll notice an elevated circular platform with two purple fire braziers and a cluster of rock spires nearby. The Grunt Birthday Party Skull is on top of the tallest of these spires.

To get to it, you need to get down to this circular platform, hop onto the brazier closest to the rock spires, then sprint and jump across to the top of one of the shorter spires. Then you just need to jump up and hold Square/X to grab the Skull.

Grunt Birthday Party: Killing a grunt with a headshot produces confetti and cheers.

Halo Campaign Evolved Heavy Burden Skull 3

From Rally Point Charlie, after you restore power to the gondola and continue moving.

With the gondola moving again, it will hover into a large room with a bridge, then into a room with a station on either side of the tunnel. The Skull is tucked away in the far-right corner of the station on the left, so you've got to hop off the gondola, sprint to the corner, and grab the Efficient Skull. Unfortunately, this area also has a 'Return To The Battlefield' timer, and the chances of you making it back to the gondola in time are very slim.

Efficient: Enemies killed while you're at full health drop more ammo.

Campaign Remix Skulls

Once you've collected any three Skulls in Halo Campaign Evolved, you'll also unlock three more Skulls – Adaptation, Armistice, and Reload – and the Campaign Remix mode. This mode randomly applies a selection of the Skulls you've collected to a new campaign, except for Adaptation, Armistice, and Reload which are always active in Remix mode. Here's what these Skulls do:

• Adaptation: Randomizes the enemy factions present in a mission.
• Armistice: Enemy factions never fight one another.
• Reload: Randomizes all pre-placed weapons in a mission.

Collecting all of these Skulls will add several hours to how long it takes to beat Halo Campaign Evolved, and they're also one of the major Halo Campaign Evolved changes that the remake introduces.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The future of Cyberpunk 2077 was scary enough without thinking about being mowed down by cars moving like they've been shot out of a cannon. And yet, a modder has made this a reality, completely changing the experience of walking around Night City.

This particular exercise in absurdity comes from Blurbs, a streamer who specializes in making ridiculous mods. For a session with CD Projekt's dystopian RPG, he decided to dial up the speed on every car to be "super sonic," and carnage ensued.

Now, whenever he tries to walk anywhere, the danger of a car just plowing itself into a building or a wall it's going too fast to dodge is omnipresent. Silence is immediately filled by the tension of wondering where the next vehicle is going to appear from, often hearing it first, before seeing it then flipping through the air after hitting an obstacle.

"It's now a horror game," he writes on Twitter, with a compilation of antics his changes wrought up the city. Intersections are now even bigger death traps before, as vehicles just slam into each other with aplomb.

At one point, he decides to get into a car himself, only to find he can't get out of the parking lot. The physics turns him into a pinball, bouncing around the walls and corners of the concrete prison of his own making, while every touch of the accelerator just makes it worse.

While yes, this is scary, it's also hilarious. Seeing the amount of pile ups takes me back to roving through Grand Theft Auto 3 in a tank on maximum wanted level, just enjoying the chaos. Maybe that could be what Blurbs does next?

Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer says Villa Eurodyne is still full of secrets: "I have hidden a lot in this space"

The Last of Us Part 2 modders are looking to do what Naughty Dog sadly couldn't and finally come out with a worthy successor to The Last of Us Factions, the first game's surprisingly thrilling multiplayer mode.

The Last of Us Factions launched in an era where single-player games regularly came out with supplementary online modes that mostly felt like afterthoughts, but Factions' tense scrambles and meta progression made it a fan-favorite regardless – so much so that Naughty Dog eventually started working on a standalone follow-up called The Last of Us Online, which fell victim to PlayStation's flailing live-service plans.

Modder Speclizer isn't letting the dream of The Last of Us Online die so easily, though. Work on a multiplayer mod for The Last of Us Part 2 began at the start of the year, and the team recently "hit quite a big milestone" to get competitive 4v4 matches working ahead of the project's planned launch in September (thanks, PC Gamer). The mod previously only supported 1v1 and then 2v2 games.

The modder has been pretty open about the mod's progress for months now. As recently as last week, they were "looking to implement Naughty Dog level animation sync" and were exploring how the studio pulled it off in Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Factions.

There's no telling how feature-full or beefed up the mod will be come September, but it's shaping up to be a really ambitious fan-made outing based on the info that's already public. Leaderboards are in, there's a map based on the sequel's Seraphite Forest area, the mod's pause menu is a replica of the original Factions one, and there's even a matchmaking system.

Basically, the mod has a couple months to go and already looks like it's a full-fledged, competent online translation of a famously single-player series, using the basic bones and assets and animations from The Last of Us Part 2. We might never find out what Naughty Dog had in store with The Last of Us Online, but PC players can get finally get a taste of the series' multiplayer action, at least.

The Last of Us Online was "the best multiplayer game" many Naughty Dog devs had "ever played," ex game director says.

The crossover we've been waiting for is finally about to arrive. Warhammer 40,000 is coming to Helldivers 2 in the form of new weapons, armor, stratagems and more, to make destroying the bugs and robots even easier than before.

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios has shared a trailer revealing everything in the Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40K Warbond, and there's plenty to dig into. Right off the bat, and I think we all expected this, the Bolt Pistol is being added to the armory. A safe, sturdy piece of kit that'll reduce any insect to flailing limbs.

Then you've the Meltamine, used against Automatons in the video to demonstrate its usefulness against metal and heavy armor. Anything that gives robot scum and even worse day is perfectly fine by me. Preferable, even.

The Hot Shot Marksman Rifle rounds out the standard weapons, a semi-automatic sniper made for picking out headshots when faced with a maelstrom of enemies. Ideal for giving cover, or staving off a wave of insects from a distance.

While these can be used for your loadouts, the Meltagun is a new stratagem. I gawked at first at the notion of this not being something I can lock and load as soon as I drop in, but then seeing it in action, I get it. Melting things by pulling a trigger is a power you should earn, and only for a limited time.

Two sets of armor accompany these, inspired by the Astra Militarum's Kasrkin, which are certainly far more appropriate for Super Earth's loyal army of death-prone soldiers than the more robust, superhuman Space Marines of the 40K universe, for example. Otherwise, there's a smattering of other minor changes that'll come in tow. It all looks like a lot of fun, especially if you like war, and boy howdy, do I like war.

The Warhammer 40,000 collaboration kicks off on August 12.

Helldivers 2 targets Super Credit cheaters with "radically improved" tools, but not everyone's on board with Arrowhead's announcement.

Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida has big plans for the MMO with its new expansion Evercold – but if he were to work on a separate online game, he might take a bit of a different path than he has with the Square Enix gem.

The beloved lead reveals as much in a new interview with GamesRadar+, first explaining how, for Evercold, he "chose to steer FF14 towards 'change' in pursuit of creating even more enjoyment and evolving further. I felt that, in terms of mindset and time, we were prepared to update the gaming experience to be more enjoyable and comfortable for our players and their lifestyles."

That aligns well with what's to come. After all, there are job changes and tweaks to years-old systems underway with the expansion – changes that I personally can't wait to give a go myself (begone, tomestone hell).

It's not easy to make said changes, though.

"Making sudden changes to try and keep up with that pace can be harmful to our operations, like how making sharp turns while driving fast tends to lead to accidents," as Yoshi-P puts it. "Making these judgment calls is a constant part of overseeing FF14."

That's not to say he'd be making the same calls if he started from the ground up on a brand-new MMO, however. "Incidentally," the Final Fantasy 14 head admits, "if I were to develop a new online live service title from scratch, I'd be challenging myself to tackle completely new game designs and values."

That's certainly got me interested, to say the least.

Now, this obviously isn't an admission of any huge new project or anything like that – but I do wonder what Yoshi-P means here. After all, we're talking about the man who managed to pick the original Final Fantasy 14's pieces out of the ashes and transform them into a rebirth for the MMO with A Realm Reborn.

It's not as though that's a small feat, and the game is still pressing on as one of the genre's greatest to date.

I suppose it'll all remain speculation… unless Yoshi-P ever does give something new a go – although judging by what he's said before regarding working on Final Fantasy for at least another decade, I doubt it's something we'd see anytime soon. But, hey, I'm not complaining.

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.

A man from Halifax, Nova Scotia has been found "factually innocent" after 18 months in prison after it was determined that someone had misread his Skyrim-inspired username during an investigation.

In February 2020, Canada police arrested Halifax resident Brandon Klayme on charges that included possession of child pornography and child luring. In April 2023, he was found guilty in court and, in January 2024, sentenced to 18 months in prison, with an 18-month probation period to follow. This month, not long after his release, an appeal court ruled that Klayme is innocent, and it turns out he was only caught up in this whole mess because, during an investigation found inadequate, somebody misread a single underscore in his Skyrim-inspired username on the messaging app Kik: "fus_ro_dah."

A CBC report (thanks, Polygon) notes that the actual suspect in the case, accused of exchanging sexually explicit messages with a 12-year-old child, was operating under the username "fus__ro_dah," with two underscores.

In the appeal (thanks, Gizmodo), Klayme writes in his affidavit, "In the latter stages of preparing my appeal arguments, it was discovered that the subpoena contained a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life."

"The police officer did not notice that the perpetrator's Kik username 'fus__ro_dah' contains a double underscore," Klayme continues. "This discrepancy went completely unnoticed at the trial. It was never brought to the attention of the trial judge."

The appeal background notes, "The Wisconsin police identified Mr. Klayme as the offender using an incorrect username. His conviction rested on the internet username being attributed to him."

The appeal also reiterates that a search of the bedroom believed to have been used by Klayme in his parents' house found "no evidence" linking him to the conversations or images in question, "nor was there evidence found of any Kik account activity by Mr. Klayme during the time frame of the offences."

To really hammer home the point, the appeals court suggests "the correct username likely would have led [sic] identified someone in California" – someone thousands of miles away who has seemingly roamed free, or at least free of this specific charge, throughout this six-year process.

"Mr. Klayme should not have been convicted of these offences," the decision concludes. "This is not a situation where an acquittal is entered because the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the essential elements of an offence or an error during the trial made the verdict unsafe. In these circumstances, Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted."

Bethesda's last Skyrim concept artist has been laid off after "almost 18 years of dedication to The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield" amid Xbox cuts: "It has been my honor."

As exciting as the fight with Sephiroth will be in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, it's the Weapon battles that I'm most looking forward to. They're going to be glorious spectacles, and according to Naoki Hamaguchi, overseer of the remake trilogy, a true challenge of your skills – with the occasional curveball for good measure.

"Obviously, what we're making is an RPG," Hamaguchi tells GamesRadar+ in a new interview. "One of the things that's fun about RPGs is having the characters you've leveled, you've customized, and you've brought them up where they are, and using them to overcome difficult situations."

For the endgame, the devs wanted to find balance between injecting novelty into the fights against Sapphire, Diamond and the other Weapons, and making them straight-ahead slobberknockers. "Say you had this fight against a Weapon, a giant enemy, or something that's really exciting or cool," he begins.

"And you go into it, and it's just a completely new mechanic or minigame," he continues. "I think there are quite a few players who would come away from that feeling quite disappointed that it wasn't a reflection of the effort that they put into building something up to that point."

I would agree. This will be three games into the re-telling of Final Fantasy 7, and as someone who loves tinkering with his materia and equipment, I like feeling my build succeed over any and every kind of adversity. Sometimes to my own detriment – I have forced myself to complete Darks Souls runs with less than optimal characters because I felt I had something to prove.

I digress. Hamaguchi says the devs "want to have the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series combat system at the base," regardless of what other bells and whistles might be attached to a Weapon encounter. "There may be some minigames involved in parts of them, say at the beginning of one of the fights or something like that, to mix things up a little bit," he comments.

"But the core battle is really focused on the characters that you have come through the rest of the game with as an RPG."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director wants "some kind of physical edition" for the RPG, but he can't promise it as Sony becomes the latest to "shift away" toward digital.

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

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

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

Threaddy to rock

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chop shop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screen to controller

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The long-awaited Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40K Warbond is finally on the horizon, letting Super Earth's finest bring Kasrkin-inspired wargear to bear. You'll be able to deploy into the grim darkness of Helldivers 2 missions with a Hot-Shot Marksman Rifle and iconic Bolt Pistol. And heavier firepower in the form of superhot melta weaponry is also up for grabs and looks rather powerful from what has been shown so far. With that, here's everything you need to know about the upcoming Helldivers 2 x Warhammer 40K Legendary Warbond, including when it comes out and what's in it.

Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40K Warbond release date

The Warhammer 40K Warbond is due to arrive in the Superstore on August 12. The exact release time isn't known but expect it to get added at around 12pm UTC.

Since this Warhammer 40K crossover is a Legendary Warbond like the Helldivers 2 Halo Warbond, it will cost 1,500 Helldivers 2 Super Credits instead of the usual 1,000 – you've still got time to farm enough! And remember that because this is a Legendary Warbond, you can't use Helldivers 2 Warbond Tokens to unlock it instead.

All Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40K Warbond gear

The Warhammer Warbond will contain 18 individual items, including three loadout weapons, two armor sets, and several cosmetics. Currently, not a whole lot is known about the specific functions of each weapon, but I can make some educated guesses based on the Warbond trailer and the tabletop counterparts of the Astra Militarum weapons you'll be able to unlock in-game with your Helldivers 2 Medals thanks to this Warbond.

Here are all the items that will be in the Helldivers 2 Warhammer 40K Warbond:

• Weapons:
  • R/40-K Hot-Shot Marksman Rifle: This is a sniper-style configuration of the Hot-Shot Lasgun, so expect this weapon to be a punchy semi-automatic energy weapon with great range.
  • P/40-K Bolt Pistol: This isn't quite the full-fat bolt pistol that Space Marines use, but it should still be quite powerful, hopefully with decent armor penetration but likely hefty recoil.
  • G/40-K Meltamine: A powerful thermal explosive that looks like it'll serve as a throwable anti-tank mine.
• Stratagems:
  • 40-K Meltagun: Fires a short-range thermal beam with significant armor penetration power.
• Armor:
  • TG-8 Sharpshooter armor and helmet: Medium armor with the True Grit passive, which improves handling for all weapons and increases the reload speed of Helldivers 2 Support Weapons by 30%. This armor set resembles the standard uniform of Kasrkin troopers with a green camouflage pattern.
  • TG-122 Demo-Trooper armor and helmet: Heavy armor also with the True Grit passive. This armor set is made to look like the mine-lobbing Kasrkin demo-trooper in an urban camo scheme.
• Cosmetics:
  • Castellan's Green pattern for all five vehicle types (Hellpods, Shuttle, Exosuits, FRVs, and the Bastion), which appears to be inspired by the dark green camo pattern with off-white and red bars seen on Cadian Rogal Dorn tanks.
  • Camo Cloak Cape
  • Camo Cloak Player Card
  • City Fighter's Resolve Cape
  • City Fighter's Resolve Player Card
  • Still Standing Title

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A nationwide survey asking Japanese players which games they've spent the most time in is both super surprising and exactly what you'd expect. Massive evergreen giants such as Final Fantasy 14 and Animal Crossing New Horizons topping the list was definitely predictable, but I'm also kind of stunned to see a rogue PSP Monster Hunter game come dangerously close to the top spot.

A new survey of 5,400 people published in Famitsu magazine (shared online by Genki) has now revealed a list of the 20 most time-consuming games people in Japan have lost hours, days, or even months to. Most of the list won't surprise you – heck, there's a good chance you've also enjoyed some of them for ages – but there's also a few strays that'll definitely make you blink too hard.

Here's the full list in order:

1. Final Fantasy 14
2. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G
3. Final Fantasy 11
4. Animal Crossing New Horizons
5. Dragon Quest 10 Online
6. Minecraft
7. Apex Legends
8. Final Fantasy 7
9. Splatoon 2
10. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
11. Genshin Impact
12. Monster Hunter World
13. Fortnite
14. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
15. Splatoon 3
16. Ragnarok Online
17. Fate/ Grand Order
18. Granblue Fantasy
19. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
20. Dragon Quest 3

Three Final Fantasies, a bunch of gachas, a handful of open-world RPGs, and a couple live-service shooters? Yeah, that checks out pretty perfectly.

In particular, critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 coming out on top is perhaps the most predictable outcome of all. You could squash a couple already-mammoth single-player RPGs together, and they still wouldn't match up to the quality content on offer in Square Enix's seemingly immortal online world, which is only gearing up to get even bigger with next year's Evercold expansion.

What's more interesting are the few surprises here. Take Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, a PSP game that's far from the series' most popular entry but still managed to secure a second place finish. Curiously, there's no Pokemon representation here at all, and only four games on the list come from publishers based in the USA: Fortnite, Minecraft, Apex Legends, and good old Skyrim.

Final Fantasy 14 Evercold changes housing for the better, Yoshi-P says, and World of Warcraft's "amazing" take on the MMO staple has "been a good source of research."

Marvel's Wolverine could very well be one of the last Insomniac games to ever get a physical release. Sony's decision to put an end to physical releases after January 2028 means it's very likely that I won't be adding more of the studio's PS5 titles to my shelf after my beloved Marvel's Spider-Man 2, one of my favorite modern games over the last 10 years.

That realisation is why I was pretty comfortable paying full price for Marvel's Wolverine just to ensure I was sent a physical copy for my collection on its September 15 release day, but I'm far happier with its new pre-order deal. Smyths Toys has dropped the £69.99 MSRP down to £57.99 (Smyths Toys) right now, which means I've saved £12 off the game and it's not even out yet.

One of the reasons why I adore physical PS5 games so much is not just because I like to have a physical game sitting on my shelf so I can gaze lovingly at the box art, but because I can take advantage of deals like this one.

A quick check of the PlayStation online store shows the game available for its full £69.99 (PlayStation Store) MSRP, with no discounts in sight. Had I only had this option to pre-order the game, I would not have been able to take advantage of that £12 off, which is very likely going towards another physical game, if I'm honest. I'm looking at you, Silent Hill: Townfall.

If you're based in the US, the early pre-order discounts aren't as fun to sink your Wolverine claws into. At retailers like GameStop and Best Buy, the game is listed at its full $69.99 price, unfortunately. However, PS5 titles are so prone to price drops, even mere weeks ahead of release, so I recommend bookmarking out Marvel's Wolverine pre-order page to keep up to date with the best prices, which is curated by yours truly.

• View all Ps5 gaming deals at Amazon

Check out our guides to the best PS5 controllers, the best PS5 headsets, and the best SSDs for PS5 if you've already got plenty to play.