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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shell to pay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

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

• JOJOGS – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• GS2026 – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• JOJOFANS – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• BIZARREADV – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• CBT2026 – 1x Oraora
• ORAORA2026 – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• MUDAMUDA – 10,000x Coins, 10x Courage Crystals, 10x Refined Iron
• GOLDENSPIRIT – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• GOLDENSPIRIT2026 – 50x Astrogems, 10,000x Coins
• AX2026 – 10x Card: Uncharted Fate
• PREJOJO2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate
• JOJOGS2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate
• JOJORPG2026 – 50x Astrogems, 1x Card: Uncharted Fate

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

How to redeem JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

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

Expired JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes

• No expired codes

There are currently no expired JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Spirit codes, as we're still in the launch period and this is all rather new. That isn't likely to last though, so make sure you claim all of the active codes while they're still working.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to play Withered Knight in Mistfall

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

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

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

Best Withered Knight Skills

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

Greatsword weapon skills

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

Withered Knight Polearm and Shield weapons skills

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

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

Withered Knight Talents

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

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

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

Withered Knight affixes and effects

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

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greataxe Berserker tips

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

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

Greataxe Berserker rewards

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

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

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

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Nobleman is planned to open on October 1.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With a name like Beast of Reincarnation you might expect this to be a game full of aggressive enemies and intense combat. And it is. Yet it's not long before you start to discover that there are layers to this world, and the people who live in it. Layers that make this a strong and deep experience rather than a fun but shallow action game.

Don't get me wrong; there is a lot of fighting. That's almost exclusively what you'll be doing, and in fact, I found it greatly amusing that I came across a grand total of one puzzle in my playthrough. You take the role of Emma, a young woman who is tasked with killing the titular Beast, the source of post-apocalyptic Japan's Blight that mutates animals, spreads pretty but corrupted foliage, and kills people. Before she can do so however, she'll need to kill many of the giant creatures known as Nushi in order to absorb their power, and cleanse the surrounding areas as she buffs up. There's no shortage of lesser enemies standing between her and each Nushi, either.

Emma let you finish

Please don't mistake Beast of Reincarnation, with its high-fidelity sci-fi, and sword-wielding, reserved heroine for being much like Stellar Blade. Unlike that game's star Eve, who is uncomfortably thrust into danger in form-fitting bodysuits that leave nothing to the imagination, Emma is dressed like an actual fighter who takes her job seriously. She also behaves like an actual, real character – unlike many similar heroes, her aloofness has a specific reason behind it which is slowly revealed. She even experiences character growth.

It's a good thing Emma's well armored too. Beast of Reincarnation has combat that is challenging from a very early stage. I was tempted to knock the difficulty down within the first hour or so, in fact – and if that works best for you, it's a perfectly good way to enjoy this or any other game – but, in my case, I'm glad that I didn't. There's a real sense of satisfaction to be had emerging from a tough fight battered, low on resources, close to death – but alive.

The combat system is deceptively simple. Emma carries a sword and (soon) two bows, and that's it for weapons. There is only one attack button for the sword, the depth coming from the mechanics around it. I'll make this clear now: parrying is an integral part of the game. I'm rather tired of the industry's obsession with parry mechanics, and I'm glad that it finally seems to be petering out, but here it works really well. I'm far from perfect at it, though. Many is the time I've hit the button too soon or too late, and been punished with a large chunk of health disappearing as a result. But when it works, it produces a beautiful flow, particularly in boss fights. Like Sekiro (with a touch of Nier), it's akin to a rhythm game, where you learn to parry to the tune of each enemy's unique attack pattern. Tap-tap-taptaptap—tap—tap and then you can unleash vengeance.

It's time to address the elephant – or, rather, the giant mutated dog – in the room. Koo (for that is his name) is another crucial slice of the combat pie. While you can order him to go on ahead to attack an enemy alone if you haven't been spotted, he otherwise acts and attacks independently. You're in charge of leveling up his attributes alongside your own though, and you decide which abilities and stat-altering charm to equip. It's in this way that you direct his presence in battle – particularly when it comes to Bloom Arts.

Koo will use items and abilities independently, but the more powerful Bloom Arts are dependent on points earned during battle, activated only when you command. Much like in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, communicating with Koo slows time to a crawl (even if no Arts are ready yet – useful for getting a breather) and you can choose from your currently equipped list.

A successfully executed Bloom Art will restore a little of Emma's HP, and also deal damage – but rarely very much. They're more useful for triggering effects, especially when you start unlocking modifications for them. While building up status, you can bloom a plant for Emma to close the distance, instantly triggering a sword's special effect that usually requires a parry; all these benefits and more are on the menu with Koo.

Blooming heck

Attacking and parrying will build up a gauge Emma can draw on for her own abilities, including (something I didn't upgrade and properly exploit until embarrassingly late in the game) the ability to briefly pause time so you can go absolutely wild with your attacks without interruption. As with the Bloom Art time-slow however, there's no grace period when you come out of it. If you try to use this in the middle of an enemy's attack, you'll feel very silly and very bruised.

Emma and Koo have a base of operations in the form of a mech, a space they share with a few others. It's a wonderful oasis of calm in the relentlessly hostile world, and I delight in soaking in the optional conversations. At the end of each chapter, I have a ritual. I chat with little Kagura, and then turn to Koo. I shower away the blood and grime we've accumulated (yes, he shakes himself off afterwards like a real doggy), I talk to him, and then I stroke him. Yes, you can indeed pet the dog.

The broad strokes of Beast of Reincarnation give the impression of something leaning all its weight on tired tropes. A post-apocalyptic world; a threat known as The Blight; a single hero (you of course) who is the only one that can put things right. Do not be fooled. The game surfs on waves of philosophy and existential questions that are thought-provoking but never, ever waved in your face.

I'll also add that this has the best ending I've seen in a game for a long time. Obviously I can't go into detail regarding why, but I think it's a beautiful ending to Emma's story that has just the right amount of trust in the audience with a generous sprinkle of 'open to interpretation'.

I love Beast of Reincarnation. I think you should buy it, if you can afford to; but there are just a few little things that held me back from calling it perfect. For one thing, on rare occasions the way forward isn't at all clear. Despite having the usual waypoint, it's a little too far off, More than once I end up stumped as between point 'A' and point 'B' is a seemingly impassable platforming section – one of these I got through by hopping around the edge of a mountain and making liberal use of Emma's ability to lift herself into the air, which I'm (pretty) sure isn't how the developers intended me to progress.

Beast in show

Also rare, but equally annoying, are combat situations that I'm happy to stick my neck out and say are just plain unfair. When a game has punishing combat that employs parry and dodge mechanics, if you find yourself surrounded by enemies at close quarters, this will be because you've done something wrong. I'm happy to accept that. But when that happens, you should be able to get out of the situation by relying more on skill than luck.

The issue is that the camera and the auto-targeting system (which I tried disabling in such situations to no avail) gang up on you like a pair of bullies whenever you have two or more enemies close by, so that it's often impossible to keep them both in view. This was no fun during the fights where two bosses occasionally rush you at the same time, let me tell you. Even on my best parrying days, I find it a little tricky to parry an attack I literally can not see coming.

Moments like those had me use some very interesting language that I'd get told off for trying to repeat here. Thankfully, such moments are rare and (usually) fairly brief, and so easy to forgive within the context of the wider game. On top of everything else, Emma's traversal abilities make wonderful use of space, and offer multiple options for enemy engagement while unseen. She can use her hair (don't ask, I don't know) as a grapple, a portable water spout to let her rise into the air, and a temporary bridge to walk onto from pretty much anywhere.

Beast of Reincarnation is a very linear game (areas are large and open, but it's not strictly open world), but the sense of agency afforded you by such traversal – as well as a wide range of Arts and swords with unique effects to unlock – help make the journey your own. New Game Plus offers one final sword and a couple of cool new, powerful abilities, which just might be enough to encourage me to do it all over again.

Beast of Reincarnation was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

If you're looking for more combat, check out our best ARPGs ranking for plenty of action with a bit of RPG'ing sprinkled on top.

Cooking in Beast of Reincarnation involves both recipes and food ingredients that you'll need to find and research, or just grow yourself in your spare time, before bringing them back to Kagura and letting her go to work in the kitchen. It's a mechanic that allows you to gain various stat bonuses and empower yourself going forward, and it's worth understanding if you want to have the best chance against the game's malevolent Malefects. With that in mind, I'll explain how to cook in Beast of Reincarnation and what you need to know about the various food recipes.

How to cook in Beast of Reincarnation

To cook food in Beast of Reincarnation requires several steps, as it's not actually Emma who does this, but Kagura. Here's how it works:

1. Find meal recipes in the world or purchase them from merchants.
2. Go back to the Cleanse Walker hub and speak to Kagura, next to the workbench where you upgrade weapons in Beast of Reincarnation.
3. Choose "Cooking Research" from the menu and select the recipe you want her to learn permanently.
4. This will take time. Come back later and Kagura will have learned the recipe permanently.
5. When you next choose to rest in the Cleanse Walker, you'll be given a list of the recipes that Kagura knows. As long as she has the ingredients, you can choose that one.
6. Afterwards, you'll be shown a brief cinematic of Emma, Koo and Kagura eating.
7. The next day when she wakes up, Emma will gain a stat increase that varies depending on the meal she consumed.
8. Eating a meal for the first time grants a better enhancement. This should motivate players towards a diverse diet and to keep researching recipes.

It's worth clarifying that Beast of Reincarnation draws a distinction between the meals that Kagura cooks and the hunger-preventing rations that you can take with you out into the world. Kagura's meals provide stat bonuses, whereas the rations delay the onset of hunger for you and Koo.

Ingredients for meals can be purchased from merchants or grown in the Cleanse Walker at the room at the back next to the shower, where the option to grow vegetables and keep small livestock like chickens is presented to you. These both take time to produce ingredients, but it's good to have them going, and to research meals that require very little in terms of produce, so you always have something to eat.

Need more help? Check out how to handle the Beast of Reincarnation Rangifer boss, or find out all the best skills in Beast of Reincarnation!

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

First Rangifer boss fight

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

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

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

Second Rangifer boss fight

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

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

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

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

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The best skills in Beast of Reincarnation, especially early on when you're getting to grips with the game's combat and skillset, are those that are most economical. That is to say, which skills and abilities are you going to be using the most and will make the greatest difference going forward? I found that investing in Koo over Emma early on was a superior choice, as while Emma is basically as good as your reflexes, Koo being largely AI controlled means you'll need to give him as good a chance as possible. With that in mind, here's the best skills and abilities in Beast of Reincarnation for both characters to get first, and what makes them so good early on.

If you're determined to be as powerful as possible, make sure you check out how to upgrade weapons in Beast of Reincarnation.

What are the best skills to get first in Beast of Reincarnation?

Below we've broken down some of the early skills you should get off the skill tree in Beast of Reincarnation, for both Emma and Koo.

• Best Emma Skills
  • Blade Art: Shakuyaku: With how often you'll use this basic attack, you should upgrade it early and often.
  • Sprout Shakuyaku (Hair): A combination attack, binding effect and grapple point that can be deployed in combat is a versatile option, though has limited impact on some bosses.
  • Tracking Shot: A massive damage and accuracy increase to ranged attacks that makes your ranged weapons much more viable in combat, with tracking, piercing and increased damage.
• Best Koo Skills
  • Higanbana: Seeds: A simple basic attack that's worth upgrading, as the ability to inflict burning on enemies is very good against stronger enemies and works in most situations.
  • Mod: Swamp Summoner (Incantation): Slowing swamps that impede enemy movement are a good bonus for Koo to be throwing out, buying you time and control.
  • Taunt (Pounce): Koo draws in attacks from nearby enemies. Very useful against boss fights.

Considering that Koo is more of a controlled NPC and therefore skill-dependant than Emma, it's honestly arguably more important to focus on Koo's skillset than Emma's early on, as so long as Emma can parry and dodge, she can make her way through most of the early encounters. Still, you shouldn't neglect Emma - I'm only saying that if you have the skill points for one or the other, it probably doesn't hurt to prioritize Koo in the early phases.

As you defeat Nushi bosses and reach certain story milestones, you'll unlock more skills and powers that can be added to the existing skill trees, such as the Sakura Storm and Javelin, unlocked after the Beast of Reincarnation Rangifer boss fight. Make sure to consider these when progressing, as some are very good - the Javelin power in particular.

There's other ways to get strong - make sure you know how to cook recipes in Beast of Reincarnation!

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To upgrade weapons in Beast of Reincarnation (a system referred to as Weapon Enhancement) might seem simple at first, but it won't be long before you're running into obstacles that prevent you from further enhancing your swords and ranged weapons, even when you have the Amber to pay for it. Obviously increasing your damage can be done by boosting your strength, but weapon upgrades are an essential component of Beast of Reincarnation that need to be kept in mind if you're going to keep up with the various Malefects out there.

How do you enhance your weapons in Beast of Reincarnation?

To enhance your weapons and upgrade them can be done at the Workbench in your Cleanse Walker hub or through the Enhance Weapons options at camps, in which Emma can spend Amber (the game's main currency) to improve the damage of both her melee and ranged weapons, as well as increase ammo capacity and other similar enhancements.

The workbench is found behind Brad in the pilot's seat, and next to the kitchen section where you can cook recipes in Beast of Reincarnation.

However, you'll notice that after one or two upgrades, you'll hit a hard cap that prevents you from upgrading them any further. To continue upgrades, you'll need to upgrade the stats of the Cleanse Walker's programming, known as Bauera, to a certain level as marked on the weapon.

Bauera has three stats: Power (blue), Calculations (yellow) and Knowledge (green), and Power is usually the limiter that prevents further weapon enhancements. You can improve these stats by finding certain spoils out in the world while adventuring, usually the remnants of golems. Strongboxes and valuable item markers left by Koo are a likely source of these spoils, so make sure to pay attention to your faithful dog along the way.

Want more help against the Malefects? Check out the best skills in Beast of Reincarnation, or find out how to take down the Beast of Reincarnation Rangifer boss!

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Mistfall Hunter's big idea is to mix the Soulslike with the extraction shooter. And while it's not the game's only idea, it's pretty darn close. There's a tense and moreish experience to be had here, but one that currently struggles to stand out from its influences. Though I suppose having a user interface that's about as friendly as a swarm of angry wasps is one way to stand out…

If your least-favorite part of Dark Souls was being able to lock onto your enemy, then boy is Mistfall Hunter the game for you. Everyone else will probably spend their first hour with it inventing new curse words as they attack empty areas right next to monsters over and over. Otherwise, Soulslike veterans will mostly feel right at home. Choose your class between warrior, mage, archer, and more, then dive into a world of brutal combat, limited heals, awkward jumping and flavor text on items you have no time to read because something is busy killing you.

After a preparation phase I'll moan about later, you take a boat ride to one of two areas for some monster-slaying and loot-snatchin'. You've got limited time to explore before the gyldenmist, a gold-plated take on Fortnite's deadly storm, closes in. You might not even live to see that, as the map is full of rank-and-file monsters, elite beasts, and some very nasty bosses.

Treasure is everywhere, as are simple missions that are assigned to you by the cocky crow who also serves as the game's not-always-welcome narrator. You want to kill enough enemies to rack up experience points, find the best loot possible, maybe tackle a mission or two, and then escape alive so it wasn't all for nothing.

Complicating matters is that there are other players somewhere on this map with you. Spot each other, and you might just jump up and down (the universal multiplayer language for 'please don't hurt me') and break out the wave emotes. But it's far more likely you'll engage in a brutal fight to the death, considering how high the rewards are for killing another player. Even if it turns out they were carrying nothing but crap, you'll still get a good chunk of XP for it. Mistfall Hunter clearly isn't trying to be the next Arc Raiders. It incentivizes you to play mean.

You rang?

This is most clear during escapes. After a few minutes, you can use set points on the map to summon a sentient bell monster (but of course). Successfully beat the bell black and blue, and you can ring a bell of your own over its corpse that turns it into an escape route. Naturally, ringing a bell isn't exactly quiet behaviour. You might as well be yelling "Hear ye, hear ye! I'm escaping!"

An escape point can also only be used once. So if you and another player decide not to kill each other, well, one of you is still going to have to stay behind and wait several in-game minutes until that summon point can be used again. Unspoken camaraderie can quickly turn into brutal backstabs in seconds and I love it. It means successfully escaping is always a tense affair that has never once felt routine.

Leveling up gives you more skills to choose from and talent points you can refine them with. I chose the stealth class and can switch between a dagger and a pair of far more lethal swords. I can also turn invisible. Game-breaking? Not at all, thanks to about a million caveats. My invisibility only works for a limited time, has a horrible cooldown, and disappears if I climb a ladder, open a door, or so much as look at the game funny.

Oh, and turning invisible must be incredibly exciting, because my heart goes wild. If there's an invisible player nearby, you'll hear a booming heartbeat getting louder and louder the closer they are. It's a clever way of balancing invisibility without nerfing it completely.

I also get the ability to summon a swarm of crows, and once I sink a talent point into it, my murder of crows will also stun anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the swarm. Outstanding. It's great to see a skill tree full of clever toys I actually want to unlock and play with, which isn't always a given in this kind of game. It also means that even a disastrous run won't leave you completely empty-handed, as experience for kills isn't lost.

Hallowgrove, the opening area, is nicely varied, with different enemy types in each region, and lots of hiding spots and smartly hidden treasures. But, it's also all very seen-it-all-before. Grunts are just FromSoftware leftovers, right down to the way their corpses ragdoll upon defeat. Considering Elden Ring and its better imitators love getting creative with enemy design, it's disappointing. I play the best Soulslike games because I'm excited and terrified to see what lurks around every corner. That diminishes way too quickly here.

Re-quest log

The hub area is an absolute mess. Imagine Dark Souls 2's Majula, if it were bought out by Amazon. Shops, auction houses, blacksmiths, wineries, storage, a mystical tree, a mystical pool, a goddess statue, a… oh Christ, what is this for again? All the good work Arc Raiders did stuffing all this nonsense onto a few menu screens has been forgotten. It's a chore to explore, a relentless pack of exclamation mark icons screaming for your attention.

Navigating all this on PS5 is no picnic, either. Translating tons of PC inputs onto a DualSense can't have been fun, but there's a sloppiness to it that frustrates. 'Press the touchpad to open the map!' it says, but it won't let me open said map because it thinks I'm using the command for 'never show this tooltip again' that's also on the touchpad. There's a lot of 'hold R2 and up on the d-pad simultaneously' which will be familiar to anyone who broke their fingers trying to play Baldur's Gate 3 on this machine.

At least Baldur's Gate 3 rewarded that finger-snapping nonsense with a stellar RPG. Mistfall Hunter is drowning in currencies, marketplaces, daily rewards, seasons, events, etc. You could argue this is all expected in our extraction games and it's certainly not launching content light. But, it's overwhelming and drowns out what little narrative there is. Mistfall is clearly more invested in the cynical hooks, like daily log-in bonuses, than in immersing you in its world or story.

Actions that should be simple are ridiculously convoluted. You can down a glass of wine before entering the fray to buff yourself (don't try that at home, kids). So you have to talk to the wine lady, confirm you want a standard glass, choose what buffs you want, confirm those are the buffs you want, and skip a cutscene of her pouring said glass. Every. Single. Time. "Why haven't you selected your glass of wine first?" asks the game when I try to just play it and skip this nonsense. It's enough to make one burn down a vineyard.

There's currently two areas to explore. The opening map that you do solo, and a far deadlier prison that you have to explore as a trio. There's also deadlier variants of both maps, but I'd say they were both struggling to hold my interest after about a dozen hours of play. The story and its world doesn't have enough to hook me in, leaving the extraction loop to do all the heavy lifting.

That might be enough if you love extraction games and want to try a Soulslike take on it. The foundations are strong and with regular updates and a massive UI overhaul (let a girl dream), this could become something special. For the moment Mistfall Hunter is fun enough, but a bit of a Mist Opportunity.

Mistfall Hunter was played on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

Check out our best online games recommendations for more to play!

There are six Mistfall Hunter classes you can chose from, and the best really depends on how you want to play. There are clear contenders for a best starter to get you into the game, but whether you want direct combat, ranged options, or magic plays into your choice.

There's a recognizable mix of fighters, magic users, stealthy types, rogues, and tanks, each with their own quirks. To figure out what's going on with each takes a little experimenting. Fortunately I've been trying them all out, so I can pass on my opinions of everything available to help you decide what might be best for you.

This is all based on the starter loadouts for the time being, without any levelling up or extra skills. Obviously some of these characters will evolve as you develop them but you're not doing that until you get some experience under your belt with something that works for you off the bat. So here are your options.

Mistfall Hunter best starter classes

Like most of these games the best starter class is the basic fighter, the Mercenary. They have a good mix of mobility, offense, and defense, letting you learn the ropes with the most accommodating set of skills to help you stay alive.

However, currently the tier list of classes is shaping up like this in Mistfall:

• S Tier
  • Sorcerer
  • Mercenary
• A tier
  • Withered Knight
• B tier
  • Shadowstrix
  • Blackarrow
• C Tier
  • Seer

Personally I prefer the Mercenary's mix of mobility and options, but overall the community seems to be leaning hard into the Withered Knight class and its ability to laydown some serious damage. It is one of the tougher classes to master however, with slow, broad attacks that need patience and care to land. A good option if you're willing to put in the practice and get to grips with it's more slow and unwieldly nature.

The Blackarrow and Sorcerer options are good, focusing on ranged attacks that keep you at a safe distance. Of the two I'd say the Blackarrow archer is the best in terms of keeping up the pressure - it's fast and can lay on damage in fast bursts, although all their attacks are basically 'firing an arrow' so it can get a bit samey. The Sorcerer on the other hand has a little more variety but takes a little longer with its charged attacks and cooldowns, and has a stamina draining dodge that can leave you exposed if you overuse it.

The Shadowstrix is another popular option, mainly because of its stealth ability letting you become invisible to escape or reposition. It's basically the twitchy stealthy, rogue-like option but it does feels a little flail-y once you've blown cover.

And, lastly there's the Seer, which has some interesting potential but requires a lot of strategy and planning to build up its abilities. It doesn't have a great deal of primary damage and instead relies on runes and other triggered abilities.

If you want to change class, experiment, and try a few out, you can talk to Dew, and there's a practice ground to test things without any real risk. There's a minimal cooldown involved, but nothing that will stop you swapping around to see how some of the other options play.

All Mistfall Hunter classes

Below are all of the Mistfall Hunter classes and my opinion on then. This isn't in order or preference, just how they appear in-game. Having played around with all of them, I've gathered together some pros and cons, and what I think of them.

Mercenary

The Mercenary is fast and nimble fighter with a quick dodge and a shield to help avoid taking damage. As a class, it sacrifices a high damage output for speed and versatility - letting you dip and weave around enemies while landing a constant rain of blows. There's also a damaging shield dash to close distances. Attacking stacks a Sword Tip effect that then lets you use a Stacked Slash when you accumulate enough to do more damage. You also have the option to change to a giant hammer which swaps the speed and protection of the sword and shield for harder hitting attacks and has the chance to build a Super Armor effect that negates stagger.

Sorcerer

The sorcerer uses ranged attacks to deal damage and add elemental effects to enemies. Their main offense to start with is a fireball, and a windcraft spell that knocks enemies back and hurts them. They can also use a frost attack to damage and slow opponents. Because they are best at range, they also have a far reaching (but stamina sapping) teleport dodge that can get them well out of the reach of danger, although it runs out fast. As they're maybe not the best at charging into battle headfirst, there's also a Phantom Step spell that silences their footsteps and cancels fall damage, giving you some more options to get around. They're good if you're patient and can maintain distance.

Blackarrow

This is a fast paced, ranged archer that specialises in a constant flurry of arrows using distance and a diving roll to avoid taking any damage back. As well as firing basic arrows that can be charged for more damage and range, you can also use a full auto Volley to fire five arrows in quick succession, as well as a shotgun like Scattershot blast that fires seven arrows in a wide arc. You can also switch to a limited amount of Steel Arrows that pierce enemies, and Storm-imbued arrows that cause stagger and knock back effects. I found this option an easy and very safe class in terms of survivability, thanks to the range involved, but it is a little dull to play as all your attacks are basically just 'firing an arrow'.

Shadowstrix

The Shadowstrix can switch between a dagger and dual blades, focusing on a stealthy, backstabbing, poisoning style of play. With the dagger, you can access an invisibility skill to get close to an enemy as well as a poison attack that deals damage and reduces a target's dodge and movement. The single dagger is very much for opening up an attack from stealth, while the Dual Blades is more for the direct combat that follows, with a highly mobile range of dancing combos that string together multiple attacks, or launch them at a distance. You also have a Crow Storm attack that works like a ranged spell to slow and damage enemies. It's a fast character with longer attacks that take a little skill to master so that you're not waving your blades wildly into thing air.

Seer

The Seer is probably the hardest option to start with as it relies on casting runes to deal real damage, while using minor magic attacks to charge the power needed to do that. Their basic attack is a Psionic Orb that doesn't do a huge amount on its own and instead is more about building Psionic Energy you can then use to fire charged orbs and cast runes: there's a Punishment Rune that acts like a turret, firing at the enemy with the lowest health; and a Burst Rune that acts like a landmine - marking enemies that touch it and dealing damage after a delay when the mark 'bursts'. This is very tactical class that requires forward planning to get the most out of it.

Withered Knight

The Withered Knight is a slow and heavy hitting option, with long, broadly animated attacks that can sail past enemies if you miss. They need precision and care to land blows but can stack that damage to build a 'Wither' finisher that can be detonated for even more damage. They can also switch to a polearm and shield combo that trades damage for protection but requires a great deal of precision to land its narrow attacks. This is very much a powerful, slow moving tank that can hit incredibly hard if you master its longer movement and attack wind ups, but probably not the best for beginners.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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"

Stupid Never Dies has had its release date confirmed, with the Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry veterans' new action RPG releasing on October 21, 2026.

As GamesRadar+'s resident Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma sicko, it's no big surprise that Stupid Never Dies, the punk rock action game developed by GPTRACK50 – a new studio founded by Capcom veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who served as a producer on Resident Evil 4, Dragon's Dogma, Devil May Cry, and more – is right up there in terms of the games I'm most looking forward to this year. Especially when there's a nice helping of Suda 51 inspiration in there.

Well, thankfully, it's not releasing in the GTA 6-avoiding mosh pit that is September 2026.

This release date was confirmed in a brand new trailer for the game, which features a new character, Phoenix Zaza Hotfeathers, as he dances for about 30 seconds while revealing the October 21, 2026 date… and that's about everything shown. Over on the game's website, Phoenix Zaza Hotfeathers is described as "a cosmic custodian whose allegiances are anyone’s guess" so presumably this rhythmic fella will be a big deal in the full game.

On top of that, the website has also confirmed that Stupid Never Dies will be co-published by Sega worldwide. The game is getting a PS5 physical release, alongside the "Glorious Idiot Edition" which features the "TickTock Teddies: Nonsense Overload Pack" which includes 5 TickTock Teddies. From what I gather, these are modifiers that give you different animations, music, and effects, such as a big head mode.

While the game is releasing on October 21, that'll work out as being October 22 in some regions – be sure to check your storefront so you know exactly when you can get your hands on it.

Capcom expects 95% of its game sales to be digital in the next year, and it's pretty much already there thanks largely to PC gaming.

A sequel to Chinese Soulslike RPG Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is in the works at new studio Indolphinity, founded by Wuchang director Xia Siyuan after he was reportedly fired from the original, seemingly defunct team at series creator Leenzee Games.

Wuchang publisher 505 Games, which will return to publish Wuchang 2 (or whatever it ends up being called), announced the news in a joint press release with Indolphinity, officially dubbed Chengdu Recursive Dolphin Technology Co.

That press release reiterates, in case you missed it, that Digital Bros, the parent to 505 Games, acquired the IP rights to Wuchang in April 2026. This would've been on the heels of reports that the Leenzee Games Wuchang team had been dissolved after refusing a pivot to support work, not long after Siyuan's alleged firing earlier in the year.

This whole mess followed a significant retcon to Wuchang, evidently prompted by widespread backlash from Chinese fans angry over the game's portrayal of some historically significant people and characters, which also dramatically lowered the game's Steam review score.

"Under the agreement, Indolphinity will lead the creative development of the sequel, while 505 Games will fund and publish the game globally," that press release reads. Additionally, a new Digital Bros subsidiary will be established in Chengdu, China to "further support development and publishing activities."

In a Twitter statement, 505 Games confirms "the Wuchang sequel has officially entered its preparation phase," indicating it won't actually be released for several years. With Indolphinity also likely wrestling with the groundwork of forming a new studio – which, if we're lucky, will include rehiring a lot of the original staff from Leenzee – I'd say even a 2029 release date is generous. But a real future for Wuchang is exciting news nevertheless.

"Wuchang: Fallen Feathers attracted more than 131,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch and reached 5 million players worldwide across PC and console platforms, establishing itself as one of the most successful Action RPG Soulslike titles in its category," 505 Games says.

Digital Bros co-founder Raffi Galante seems to quietly hit on Wuchang's troubled launch in a comment: "From the outset, our priority has been to safeguard and amplify the original creative vision, while equipping the development team with the resources and publishing expertise needed to succeed worldwide. We are committed to preserving the cultural authenticity of the IP, keeping its creative heart in China while bringing the world of WUCHANG to players across the globe."

We've also heard directly from Siyuan, who sounds keen to get back in the saddle.

"We listen closely to the real voices of players and the community, and we remain firmly devoted to our original creative aspirations and cultural foundations, striving to answer everyone's long-standing expectations with more polished quality and a more complete experience," Siyuan says. "Wuchang's story is far from over. Together, Indolphinity and 505 Games set out on a new journey, unfolding an entirely new chapter of Wuchang's story that is deeply rooted in the Eastern soil."

Wuchang reviewed lower than the likes of Lies of P or The First Berserker: Khazan, but it had its devotees and made a name for itself with stunning visual direction, smart iterations on Soulslike-standard systems, a compelling setting, and generally sharp, always flashy combat. I would call it an annoying game that I enjoyed and finished despite some frustrations with encounter design and game balance. Our Wuchang: Fallen Feathers review awarded it 3.5 stars.

Soulslike devs accidentally make a powerful case for discs: PS5-exclusive physical edition sells out as Sony moves to end physical editions.

Beast of Reincarnation's director Kota Furushima has said that Game Freak didn't have a certain art style in mind when creating the game. The team took on a new challenge with the game's photo realistic look, and are aware that it doesn't look like a typical Game Freak game.

In an interview with DenFamiNicoGamer that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Furushima outlines why he chose a more realistic style compared to the company's previous cartoony aesthetic. "I think the biggest thing for us is that it's a new challenge for Game Freak," he says. "When you first look at the visuals, I think it's the sort of game where it's difficult to tell the country it's made in. So I think a major point was that it's 'made by Game Freak.'"

Aside from the Pokémon franchise, which the company is most famous for, Game Freak has worked on a number of games with a simpler, more colorful look, such as Drill Dozer, Tembo the Badass Elephant, and Little Town Hero. Furushima knows that Beast of Reincarnation has a very different art style to any of the games in the studio's library, but decided that the game's core concepts linked it more strongly to Game Freak than a childlike look would.

"The first thing I thought was 'this doesn't really fit our vibe does it?'", he chuckles. "'This isn't a photorealistic graphics kind of studio.' That being said, we're not particular about specific styles. In terms of the concept, I think the major themes are not dissimilar to what Game Freak has worked on before.

"When I was building the prototype I began to realize that photorealism would be the best fit for what I'm trying to express here," he says.

Pokemon dev Game Freak says its history informed Beast of Reincarnation's feeling of "becoming partners through gameplay" despite looking totally different

The tradition of playing FromSoftware games in ridiculous circumstances continues, with streamer Skumnut now beating Maliketh, the Black Blade boss in Elden Ring without so much as a piece of armor on his body. He just had his fists, a bit of willpower, and a whole lot of determination.

If you're familiar with the Elden Ring community, you probably won't be shocked to hear this is coming from Skumnut, the streamer and YouTuber best known for doing wacky challenges in the fantasy action-RPG. His current expedition is the "Elden Ring Nothing run," wherein he's attempting to beat the whole game with, he says on Twitter, "No shields. No armor. No talismans. No buffs. No spells. No physick. No torrent. No consumables. No equipment at ALL."

Simple, straightforward. No problem. His latest hurdle is the hulking mass known as Maliketh, the kind of battle that makes you feel daunted even if you're well-equipped. Skum's in this fight with bright green hair, something to cover his character's nether regions, and moxie.

And it's hilarious to watch. The clip he posted on Twitter is a strong sample of how the encounter went overall: a lot of dodging, rolling, and running around while Skumnut occasionally takes potshots to whittle down the beast's health.

To call it a marathon feels like an understatement. It's absolutely absurd, but yet, it's undeniable, Skumnut gets results eventually.

"It only gets worse, boys," he says to his audience.

"Technically there's only two real bosses left," he adds. "So although it's going to get worse, it's almost over." This battle with Maliketh took him three hours, and only two deaths. Will the next opponent take more? We'll find out soon enough.

Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director's approach to the RPG's story – "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player"

Beast of Reincarnation director Kota Furushima has spoken about why it's so important that dual protagonists Emma and Koo are unable to talk to each other. Game Freak has a history of developing the relationship between man and beast without dialogue thanks to the Pokémon franchise, and has applied this experience to its upcoming action RPG.

In an interview with DenFamiNicoGamer (translated by GamesRadar+), Furushima outlines why a lack of communication was key to developing the world of Beast of Reincarnation.

"The truth is that it's incredibly important that there's no talking," he says. "When you don't speak, you gain something else. We wanted the game to give you a certain feeling, and that wouldn't happen if talking had benefits over keeping quiet."

Further, he believes that building a relationship without words creates a different feeling for the player. "For example, when you don't talk your imagination can take over, and as time passes in this way, something awakens deep in your heart," he explains.

"As the result of devoting ourselves to this concept, [Beast of Reincarnation] took the form it's in today. It's not impossible for a relationship to develop purely because of the scenario they find themselves in. That is dependent on the plot's strength though."

Ever since Beast of Reincarnation was revealed, people have been commenting on how far it strays from Game Freak's usual library. Aside from the Pokémon franchise, games like Tembo the Badass Elephant, Drill Dozer, and HarmoKnight all have a cartoon aesthetic. The upcoming game has a more realistic look, but it clearly borrows from Pokémon's core partnerships.

"Therefore, in order to build this kind of relationship, we chose to do so through gameplay," Furushima adds. "Our company has really thought about how you can build relationships and create that feeling of becoming partners through gameplay. I think we've put everything we've been able to cultivate in that regard into this game."

Trained by decades of Pokemon, Game Freak has taken petting the dog to a new level in its RPG Beast of Reincarnation: pet it, wash it, and master a whole affection system

New Steam game Dinoblade allows you to become a tweenage Spinosaurus capable of manipulating a colossal greatsword with its carnivorous mouth, so yeah, it's sold 36,000 copies in 24 hours.

"36,000 COPIES SOLD IN 24 HOURS," exclaims developer Team Spino's founder Jean Nguyen on Twitter. "The last 24 hours has been an emotional rollercoaster," continues Nguyen, who's also a senior gameplay animator at Ghost of Yotei studio Sucker Punch.

A AAA smash and certified indie Steam hit all in the same year? Nguyen's game developer bingo card must be fully maxed-out. Earlier this week, the developer shared on LinkedIn that Dinoblade had surpassed 600,000 wishlists on Steam – a huge feat.

One day after launch, Dinoblade had already earned a globally Very Positive rating on Steam, with 89% of its total 562 reviews expressing something like "Dinosaurs (Really Cool) + Blades (Really Cool) = Dinoblade (Hell Yeah)." Nguyen's already crossed two impressive milestones for an unconventional game about a scaly sword fighter.

Dinoblade's Steam description calls it "an intense action RPG set in a prehistoric world forever changed by a cataclysmic event." As the young Spinosaurus, who I'd name something powerful, like… Bill, you "confront rival dinosaurs, some armed with weapons of their own, all in a desperate fight to prevent a looming extinction."

It sounds existential, goofy, and most importantly for fellow dinosaur lovers, full of those big, prehistoric guys. There will be more to come soon – Nguyen says he's already "made a patch to fix controller issues. I'll be keeping my eyes out for more hotfix, tweaks, etc. Thank you all for making Day 1 unforgettable!"

I'm sure the rest of Dinoblade's days will be similar; it's about time someone made a game like it. I've always thought that, if we can't bring back the dinosaurs, we could at least give them swords.

Ghost of Yotei was such a hit that the actual Japanese region of Hokkaido is getting official merch amid a tourism rush highlighting areas from the game.

It would appear that the name of the next entry in the Kingdom Come series has been revealed. A trademark filing points towards a slightly different naming convention for the upcoming installment in the historical epic, though other details remain scant for now.

As spotted by The Phrasemaker, on the European Union Intellectual Property Office's online database, you can find an entry for a game called Kingdom Come Salvation. While not proof of anything in and of itself, the logo being stylized like the Kingdom Come Deliverance games definitely makes it seem like a potential spin-off, and then we have the information on who made the filing.

It was Warhorse Studios, on July 23, just yesterday in fact. This was handled by a representative, a lawyer named Dana Lukajová. According to the EUIPO's website, this is Warhorse's first trademark, hence getting third party assistance.

As if all that wasn't enough, Kingdom Come Salvation is listed as "computer gaming software" and "entertainment services for matching users with computer games." It all looks and sounds like an upcoming game, but what that means is another question.

Warhorse confirmed in May that another Kingdom Come game is in the works, and that it would be an RPG. Information is limited beyond that, but considering Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 only came out last year, the follow-up is likely still quite early in the process. Since the developer is now working on a Lord of the Rings project as well, there were questions over when we might see another quest set in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

It seems we may not be waiting all that long, but when we get more information is totally up in the air. The Game Awards seems probable for The Lord of the Rings, if that's in a state to be shown off at all, and I suspect we'll hear more about what they're doing in Middle-earth before we learn about this.

But I'd be happy to be proven wrong. Whatever Kingdom Come Salvation turns out to be, I'm ready.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Hans Capon actor says the RPG's success hasn't led to more work, even though "Warhorse have been absolute gems."

The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings is generally bad for you. Besides attracting Sauron's attention, the dark magic imbued inside doesn't yield many positive side effects. A particular piece of jewelry in Diablo 4 is garnering a similar reputation, since players are finding it causes them to die unexpectedly.

According to its stats, the Wendigo Brand is meant to make you more powerful the more kills you get. Specifically, getting 15 kills within 50 seconds makes you tougher and increases your life. What's not included is that wearing it could cause you to suddenly and inexplicably drop dead.

That's what fans across the community are reporting, anyway. Threads across Reddit, dating back months, have players saying their health is depleting rapidly after partaking in encounters wearing the ring.

This has led to people losing battles they really should be winning while grinding in the action-RPG. "One ring to rule them all," reads a Reddit thread. "This ring will make you go crazy and eventually will kill you."

The comments contain several more anecdotal reports of the equipment harming their progress. "Removed it from my build and random deaths just stopped," says the top commenter. What's happening, according to those who've experienced it, is that when you reach 50 stacks on the health effect, it starts draining your life instead.

Whatever's going on, it isn't good, and claims that it's a bug have been substantiated to an extent by Blizzard itself, as the developer is now investigating. "Thank you all for the reports, team is looking into this," Marcus 'Marcoose' Kretz, senior community manager on the Diablo games, said on the official forums.

I implore them to proceed with caution. We all saw what happened to Gollum. And Isildur. And Boromir. And Frodo himself. Patch it out quickly and effectively.

Diablo 4 hotfix makes it easier to farm Mythics as Blizzard confirms Season 15 will remove Mythic reroll crafting from the Horadric Cube, "adding a direct upgrade" instead

Former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, has no idea why PlayStation hasn't released a PS5 or PC version of Bloodborne, and as a mega fan, he personally hopes that a port, remaster, or even a special edition is on the horizon.

While speaking about Bloodborne during his keynote speech at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Yoshida expresses his disbelief at Sony's decision to keep his favorite Soulslike as a PS4 exclusive.

"This game [Bloodborne] has a lot of fans all over the world, and it still doesn't have a PS5 version," Yoshida says. "PlayStation's first-party team is releasing a ton of remasters, so why don't they release this one? There's no PC release.

"I am often asked why these haven't been released, but it's a complete mystery. Maybe they'll come out in the future. Maybe they won't. Maybe they'll make a special edition. Maybe they won't. As a huge fan, I hope it will come out."

Yoshida also boasts about his Bloodborne platinum trophy, though he complained about some of its more challenging bosses. He also jokingly called the "highlight of his career" defeating hell beast Watchdog of the Old Lords live on stage.

During the speech, he talks about almost 30 games he helped shape during his time at PlayStation, starting with Crash Bandicoot all the way through to Ghost of Tsushima and his work promoting indie games.

"I should have listened properly to Miyazaki": Ex PlayStation boss admits giving FromSoftware "the lowest number possible" for physical copies of Demon's Souls after getting stuck in its "demanding" starting area.

Ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has spoken about his history with the company, including his biggest career fumble with Demon's Souls. When he failed to understand the genius of its challenging, opaque gameplay, very few copies were printed, which led to Sony stopping him from signing Dark Souls due to his lack of support for its predecessor.

While giving the keynote speech at the Computer Entertainment Developers Conference, which has been translated by GamesRadar+, Yoshida, the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, explains how he didn't understand Demon's Souls when he first played it.

"At that time I should have listened properly to [Hidetaka] Miyazaki-san [FromSoftware president and Demon's Souls director] and the in-house producer about what type of game they were making," he says. "I just thought they were making a kind of fantasy-themed action RPG.

"When I tried it, after two hours I was still standing in the spot at the very start of the game. I thought, 'why is this game so hard? Why is it so demanding?'" Sony was split by region at that time, and each region would pitch games developed on their home turfs to the others. Yoshida's pitch to America and Europe must have been pretty underwhelming as neither chose to pick it up.

"In Japan production started with 20,000 copies, the lowest number possible," Yoshida says. "And it wouldn't be sold in Europe or America." However, despite its limited release, Japanese gamers began to catch on to how special the game was, and word of mouth saw it gain success steadily. "At that time users online, on places like 2chan, were really excited about it saying things like, 'Isn't this actually really fun? Isn't this a god-tier game?'" he remembers.

Demon's Souls was picked up by Atlus in the US and Bandai Namco in Europe, but there was still a lack of trust in the series at Sony. "After that, the spiritual successor Dark Souls was announced," Yoshida starts. "Because we knew how amazing Demon's Souls was, and that in truth it was an amazing concept and a new type of game, we asked if we could have it, but Sony said 'You didn't really support Demon's Souls.'"

Reflecting on the fumble, Yoshida blames his history with platformers, where onboarding your players is vital, for his distaste of Demon's Souls' blatantly opaque systems. "I realized that it's important to truly understand the kind of user experience the developer is trying to create when they make a game," he reflects.

His opinion of Soulslikes has become a lot more positive over the years. To pay for his sins, Bloodborne was eventually signed with Sony, and Yoshida nabbed the platinum trophy. He even calls defeating Watchdog of the Old Lords live on stage the "highlight of his career."

FromSoftware experts find evidence Hidetaka Miyazaki's breakout RPG Demon's Souls deleted the biggest middle finger in the series: giant birds that hurl you off cliffs.

The latest Diablo 4 Season 14 patch is now available, and once again, it's tweaking drop rates for Mythics and making them easier to get in general. This has been a running theme since Season of Death Awakening kicked off at the end of June, though the current changes should help alleviate lingering frustrations.

In Undercity, you now have a much better chance of getting a Mythic from the Mythic Tribute of Armaments. If you're Torment X, the odds are "greatly increased," while for Torment XII, they're now totally guaranteed. Those are more forgiving numbers all around.

On top of this, Superior Lair Keys are now part of the last Glints of Hope cache, creating a way to farm them. This will make getting more Mythics easier in general, in terms of gathering Pandemonium Fragments and for finding the items after a big encounter.

These efforts are part of an ongoing clean up from Blizzard since Season 14 turned the hunt for Unique Mythics into a complete disaster. Drop rates are practically non-existent in some cases, as multiple players and streamers found that they couldn't find any Uniques despite playing for hours-long sessions.

Then, a limitation of only being able to carry one crafted Mythic made building characters a headache. The devs have been progressively dismantling and reworking these hurdles, but as always, changes need to be methodical and gradual, lest they over-correct and create issues going the other way.

More changes are already hallmarked for Season 15's Horadric Cube, too. "We're removing Mythic reroll crafting and adding a direct upgrade to Mythic that preserves the original unique item," Marcus 'Marcoose' Kretz, senior community manager on the Diablo series, says in a developer's note referenced by YouTuber Cliptis. "We'll evaluate bringing back this rule for that specific crafting path only."

As it stands, upgrading to Mythic gives you a random item of that class in return – it doesn't guarantee what you're upgrading is what you'll get. Cliptis adds that he believes if Blizzard does this, the rule of only allowing one crafted Mythic will come back, but that's just conjecture at the minute.

The team would be hard pushed to make matters worse than high-level players not finding particular treasure whatsoever, but I digress. This hotfix, and others that are no doubt in the pipeline, should make people's lives in the underworld a little better. For now, anyway.

Diablo 4 players are accidentally trashing their best items due to an "objectively misleading" recipe, and it's the best argument I've seen for yellow paint in games.

What constitutes worthwhile evolution in RPG design is a contentious subject. For every player who prefers the action-oriented route of modern Final Fantasy games, you've got those who want a return to the turn-based days of yore. The same is true for Diablo and action-RPG fans, as Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson explains how more modern, intuitive character progression is less fun to genre diehards.

Wilson went through the logic in a new YouTube video. He says the key problem for ARPG players stems from what are known as breakpoints – the benchmarks for when a particular action stat actually changes or improves. For instance, you don't automatically get quicker in spellcasting each time you move up a level. Instead, your ability goes up by increments after you reach a certain number of levels.

"There are arbitrary sweet spots of attack speed, cast speed, and hit recovery that players want to reach, because the jump in animation speed happens all at once," Wilson explains.

As a response, Diablo 2 "players created tables of speed breakpoints and optimize their characters around these thresholds," Wilson says. "Many of them had a lot of fun doing so, and it was an important part of the game for them."

The Diablo audience is such that I don't think there's any struggle in imagining players putting together spreadsheets of information on how each build can best level up. I've not done it for this series, but I've definitely been known to open up Excel or get out a pen and paper for a Dark Souls game over the years.

In my experience, Wilson is correct: it's fun. Strategizing your build brings a more tangible element to what you're doing and lets you test just how far the developers went with their balancing.

Where Wilson's perspective also holds water is in the fact that other action-RPGs fail to capture the Diablo 2 playerbase. They have less of these breakpoints, thus disappointing people who live for a good graph.

If you want old school players, you've got to play by old school rules. It's that simple.

25 years later, Diablo 2 director still hasn't gotten over how much the stamina bar sucks: "It's like a newbie tax almost."

Nier series director Yoko Taro has expressed his concerns over the decline of physical video games, after Nintendo started to replace some Switch 2 cartridges with Game-Key Cards, and PlayStation announced plans to end physical disc production for new games in 2028.

Following up from a tweet in which he showcases his physical copy of Hi-Fi Rush, the legendary game designer writes about how he is "saddened" by the loss of physical games. Yoko thought that publishers would continue to distribute games physically in some form, but now believes the industry is going in a different direction.

As translated by GamesRadar+, Yoko says: "Personally, I'm saddened by the loss of physical media, but that's just the way things are going." He goes on to explain that he never thought physical media would be phased out completely.

"As keeping control of physical distribution has its advantages compared to just releasing games on Steam etc, I thought that in the future, even if digital game downloads were pushed, there would still be expensive limited editions (like what we see with CDs). Seems I was wrong," he writes.

He continues by talking about Nintendo's controversial Game-Key Cards, which the company has been offering as a replacement for some physical releases. Rather than having the data for the purchased game on the cartridge, Game-Key Cards allow players to download the digital game once they are inserted into the Switch 2.

"Switch 2 keycards are more confusing than normal ROMs," Yoko says. "And they're specified with a huge label on the cover of the box like 'THIS IS A KEY CARD.' I guess that's just the future…"

It seems as though like many players, Yoko has resigned himself to a future without physical games despite how unpopular Sony's announcement has been.

As PlayStation declares nobody wants physical discs anymore, Gen Z is helping fuel a 16% surge in US music CD sales.

Another day, another Diablo 4 stir-up. This time, however, I'm not sure how much blame can be reasonably placed on developer Blizzard, as a big part of the issue stems from some very important – and not even very fine – print that's just not being read.

I'm always cautious to throw up a shield around Blizzard when disgruntled Diablo 4 players come a-knockin', but in this case, the root of the controversy can be pretty evenly divvied up between legitimately confusing precedent set by another crafting recipe, and also gamers' unwillingness to read onscreen text.

See, Diablo 4's season 14, which hasn't been going down well at all, introduced a new crafting recipe for the Horadric Cube. It's called Upgrade to Mythic, which at face value would make you think it's a way to take a Unique and make it a Mythic item with all of the same properties and one additional Mythic power. After all, the pre-existing Upgrade to Legendary path does exactly that, but at the Legendary tier. But no, the Upgrade to Mythic recipe takes your Unique and gives you back a random Mythic item of the same type. So your Unique dagger is going to come out a Mythic dagger, but here's the rub: it won't necessarily be the same dagger that went into the Cube, and in all likelihood, it will be a completely different item with its own stats.

The tooltip for the recipe reads verbatim: "Transmutes a Unique equipment item with at least 850 Item Power into a random Mythic of the same item slot," which is pretty darn unambiguous. That said, I can understand that the Upgrade to Legendary recipe being what it is can cause some confusion. It's just that, still, at the end of the day, simply reading that recipe description even just once would completely eliminate any doubt about what the crafting tool is going to do.

Still, "Diablo 4 Players Keep Destroying Valuable Items Because of One Misleading Recipe," reads a recent headline from Icy Veins. "Guilty," reads the top comment on a Reddit thread discussing the article. "I lost a really good dagger because I thought I was 'upgrading.'"

"Me too. I logged off for a few days afterwards," says another commenter.

"Same lol," says another.

"Yup me too," says another. And so on.

Again, I'm not saying Blizzard is completely blameless here. It is undeniably weird that the Upgrade to Mythic recipe destroys the input item and gives you something completely random when the Upgrade to Legendary recipe gives you the same item but Legendary, but I also can't help but think this whole mess is a pretty compelling argument for the infamous yellow paint that's often used as a visual cue to guide players toward their goal. In this case, it's not about reading between the lines – it's literally about reading the lines.

On the bright side: New Diablo 4 hotfix finally increases Mythic drop rates and removes limits on equipping them as Blizzard admits "not every idea lands exactly as intended."

After almost three weeks of community outcry, Blizzard is modifying the drop rates for Mythics in Diablo 4 Season 14. Players had been finding it tough to get Unique Mythics, to the point where many couldn't find any despite farming specifically for them, and now hotfixes are being rolled out to take the edge off.

"We've heard your feedback on Season of Death Awakening, including Mythic unique drop rates, equip limits, and more," Dan Tanguay, the design director of live service for Diablo 4, says on the official Blizzard forums, as relayed by Marcus 'Marcoose' Kretz, senior community manager for the Diablo series.

"In a patch releasing today, we're increasing the drop rate for Mythics from the Corrupted Reaper boss fight and removing equip limits for Mythic Uniques," he writes. "Additionally, in a patch coming next week, we're adding Superior Lair Keys to the Glints of Hope repeatable cache and increasing the Mythic Tribute drop rates in the Undercity."

How much the drop rate for the Corrupted Reaper battle increases will need to be tested, but seeing as numerous players have gotten exactly zero uniques from that encounter, things can really only go up. Letting people equip more than one is helpful as well – you can only have one crafted Mythic at a time currently, significantly reducing the options for any given build.

His post was made on July 16, yesterday at time of writing, meaning it should be live and available to you whenever you boot up Diablo 4 next. A fan on Reddit amusingly told others they can now "re-install Diablo 4," since a few had commented they were ostensibly avoiding this season due to what was happening with Mythics.

The second patch Tanguay mentioned should massage out further problems, too. "Seasons are where we experiment with new ideas and push Diablo 4 in new directions," he finishes. "Not every idea lands exactly as intended, but we’ll continue listening to your feedback, addressing what’s not working, and applying those lessons to future seasonal updates."

Diablo 4's Overwatch crossover skins have been revealed and they are completely cursed: "Mercy looks like a 90-year-old grandma."

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

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

Whipped into shape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When in Paris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sony plans to end physical discs by 2028, assuming no one wants to hold anything in their hands anymore now that we have the Fortnite item shop to provide us with Skibidi Toilet backpack in exchange for real money. But if that were even a little bit true, then Mortal Shell 2 developer Cold Symmetry wouldn't have to be so despondent. Its PS5-exclusive Revered Edition with a physical disc is running out of stock, which is great, but Cold Symmetry doesn't yet have confirmed plans to replace it.

"Demand for the PS5 physical Revered Edition of Mortal Shell 2 has exceeded expectations," Cold Symmetry writes in a July 16 Twitter post, ahead of the grim Soulslike sequel's August 20 launch. "Unfortunately supply across a number of retailers has now been fully reserved, meaning that in a growing number of markets fans are unable to pre-purchase a copy of the game. We apologise for the lack of availability."

Mortal Shell 2 follows the first game from 2020 in being a frigid stone slab of an action-RPG, all gray and mist blue as you possess fallen warriors' empty Shells and use their combat powers against heretics. Its fancy $70 Revered Edition comes in a big box with a physical game, steelbook, artbook, and in-game exclusives. While most major retailers seem to still be accepting pre-orders for the Edition, Cold Symmetry suggests there's no guarantee your order will be fulfilled if you place one.

"There is a very low chance of additional physical copies becoming available before the game's release," the developer continues on Twitter. "We are working with our distribution partner to review ongoing demand and we'll update as soon as we hear their decision on next steps."

"To be clear," Cold Symmetry reiterates, "there is no guarantee of a stock replenishment plan after launch as this decision is not ours to make."

But even if the Revered Edition's physical games are sold out for good, fans have decided Mortal Shell 2 will still be the accidental poster child of discs. Niko Partners video game market analyst Daniel Ahmad writes on Twitter about Mortal Shell 2's slipping stock, "Granted this is overall a supply issue rather than demand, but it does show this model works and could continue working."

Others scoff more full-throatedly at PlayStation for ever doubting the game format. In any case, it seems that physical media doesn't lie down and die just because Sony wants it to.

Sony's attack on physical goods spreads to Crunchyroll as it adds a $14 subscription requirement just to access new store "experience."