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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Screen to controller

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Video games can transport you across kingdoms and dimensions, so developer Rockstar was bold in deciding to set its 2006 open-world drama Bully in a New England boarding school. 20 years later, there still isn't anything quite like it.

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser tells IGN during a San Diego Comic-Con interview, "The team did an amazing job bringing [Bully] together, and it's a game that's unlike any other games out there."

"You know," Houser added, "I think people are always looking for games that play like normal games, but with different tone and different setting. And Bully really found that." The teen angst simulator puts faith in its moody protagonist Jimmy, whose normal-ness sets him apart from other AAA game heroes. As him, you try winning over each of Bullworth Academy's stereotypical cliques – Jocks, Nerds, Greasers – while dodging adults, drinking soda, and Rated T smooching the NPC of your choice. It's a classroom daydream where you outrun the hall monitor and become a John Hughes hero.

Naturally, players got happily lost in it. Our contemporaneous GamesRadar+ review calls it a "cavalcade of favors, beatdowns, vandalism, minor theft, humiliation, blackmail, make-outs and a whole lot of sticking it to The Man." Basically, it's awesome.

Though, Bully was controversial ahead of its release as parents panicked about the name "Bully" (our review references this by calling Bully either "the ruin of Western civilization or a Catcher in the Rye for the videogame generation"). Rockstar wasn't worried about what was ultimately an anti-bullying statement as Houser pulled freely from his childhood memories while working on the game's story. That grubby authenticity ultimately helped make Bully a popular, empathetic open-world game people could really see themselves in, and it prevented Bully from being another great game overshadowed by moral panic – which is what happened to the other 2006, boarding school nightmare Rule of Rose.

"I think people love open-world games anyway – particularly, ones that are made with integrity," Houser tells IGN about Bully. "We've got amazing art direction from [former Rockstar lead] Steven Olds, you've got incredible music, you've got some really memorable characters, and it's a unique setting. It came together really well."

Find out where Bully falls on our ranked list of the 25 best Rockstar games of all time.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a six-year-old game at this point, but the open-world RPG probably still offers even its most committed players more tucked-away secrets to discover, according to CD Projekt Red associate game director Paweł Sasko.

Responding to a fan on Twitter who hadn't yet realized they could creep through Cyberpunk musician Kerry Eurodyne's laptop and read his aspirations about being painted nude, Sasko says, "Part of our design philosophy is to provide the player with optional ways to explore the depth of the design and narrative."

"In Cyberpunk those are emails, files, shards with additional articles and books," Sasko continues, "all telling the story of the place, characters and completing their arc."

Kerry's hilltop mansion Villa Eurodyne is particularly crammed with detail, as Sasko says, "This whole villa was designed and implemented by me, and I have hidden a lot in this space."

Some intriguing threads leave you with nothing once they're pulled – like the "random locked room" fans assumed Kerry had designated as a sex-murder dungeon, but noclip-ing into it revealed a much less fascinating, empty room. Other times, you might discover – as one fan on Reddit did – that there are two corpses facedown in the dirt outside of Kerry's villa, and this is what happens to you after you try to steal one of Kerry's guitars; a datashard near the thieving pair reveals their thwarted, deadly plan.

Cyberpunk 2077 fans are good about sharing their in-game finds as they stumble upon them, though Sasko does not not say that there are more Villa Eurodyne mysteries to unearth. So who knows – even after six years, Cyberpunk 2077 and its sleazy mansions might have more for you to learn, if you look hard enough.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a better role-playing game than The Witcher 3.

Genshin Impact's free 5-star selector, To Temper Thyself and Journey Far, will begin its fifth cycle on August 10, loosely coinciding with the expected release date of update 7.0 and the Snezhnaya region. The milestone, tucked away in the game's new event timeline, is significant, as it marks the end of the giveaway's four-part debut cycle and could open it up to changes including new characters being added into the rotation.

To Temper Thyself and Journey Far lets Genshin Impact players obtain free Constellations for 5-star characters they already own by repeatedly completing in-game tasks. Each cycle is 12 weeks long, and you have to log eight completed weeks in that time to earn a Constellation (among other rewards), completing at least five days of tasks each week.

The other catch is that you can't redeem the same character multiple times to stack up Constellations. Most people use the event to take a character with no Constellations to "C1," unlocking the first passive ability normally acquired by pulling duplicates of that character. But if you had a character at C1, you could also use a freebie to upgrade them to C2, and so on.

With the next cycle of To Temper Thyself and Journey Far beginning, players will seemingly be able to claim another four free Constellations in the year ahead. The question is whether the selection of characters will be updated in the Snezhnaya era – either expanded, with more characters becoming redeemable, or edited, with some characters rotating out.

Many players have expressed hopes that more and better characters will be added to this event following Snezhnaya's release. Yumemizuki Mizuki is a notable absentee as the only standard-banner character not available, though she is included in the dedicated standard 5-star selector that comes around with Genshin Impact's anniversary.

The timing of the event could leave the door open to more Sumeru or even some Fontaine-era characters becoming available, though I wouldn't expect the strongest of the lot to be given free Constellations like this. As one of the 11 people who pulled Chiori and Emilie, I don't think adding them to the list would be a threat to characters like Zibai or Nefer.

The original roster mostly consisted of old and outdated characters, like Kamisato Ayato and Eula, but some found new life with free Constellations. A C1 Shenhe is a more compelling teammate for the meta-relevant Cryo DPS Skirk, and a C1 Hu Tao isn't an unreasonable Pyro partner for modern support character packages like Columbina and Ineffa.

The value of the characters in the event has changed in the past year, which has seen the power level of new characters rise considerably alongside buffs to older units. For example, recent changes to Yae Miko have made her probably the best C1 pick in the entire game for her synergy with the Stellar Conduct reaction which much of the Snezhnaya cast will evidently be built around. Cyno, another Stellar Conduct target, is in a similar position. Likewise, characters like Albedo and Klee benefited from buffs to units with the Hexerei faction tag, making their early Constellations more appealing.

Valve has "a nice thing going on on PC," Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney says, but "they're missing out on a lot of opportunity" without the likes of Fortnite and Genshin Impact.

Pearl Abyss has rolled out yet another update for Crimson Desert, this time bringing cross-save functionality to its enormous open-world adventure.

Crimson Desert patch 1.14.00 is available now across PC and consoles, and while it also boasts a number of bug fixes and improvements, cross-save functionality is definitely the star of the show. If you own a copy of the game on PC and PS5, for example, you'll now be able to use the exact same save file on both if you choose, rather than having two separate adventures on the go.

In a FAQ section on the official site, Pearl Abyss explains the process – you'll just have to link a Pearl Abyss ID to your accounts for whatever platforms you're planning to play on (for example, to your PSN account). The devs clarify that you only get one cross-save slot per Pearl Abyss ID, although you can freely link and unlink accounts.

Again, to be clear, this is only for folks who own multiple copies of the game – you won't be able to start playing for free on Xbox just because you own the game on Steam, for example. But there's no doubt this is going to be handy for anyone who wants that flexibility to switch around.

One thing to be aware of is that any "paid items" (so, those in the Deluxe Pack) will only appear on the platforms you bought them on. Pearl Abyss says they "will appear disabled on platforms where they have not been purchased," and although "you can still load the save file and play," you'll need to "purchase the disabled items separately to use them on that platform." Kinda harsh, although I suppose it makes sense that Pearl Abyss wouldn't want you to be able to access a Deluxe version of the game at the price of the standard one.

Yet to play? Be sure to check out our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Given it's easily one of the biggest games of the year, you would imagine Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss is keen to get the fantasy adventure on as many platforms as possible. You'd be right, because there are plans for a Switch 2 version, though when we might see it is another question entirely.

The subject came up during a shareholders' meeting (thanks, Inven Global), where Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young made his desires clear by saying the company wants Kliff's quest to be on "as many platforms as possible," but expanded on the intricacies of such.

"We are reviewing the Nintendo Switch 2, and it is currently being developed to a level where basic gameplay is possible," he says.

"However, platform expansion is not just a simple port; the key is whether we can fully maintain the graphics, action, and open-world experience of Crimson Desert on that device," he adds. The same dilemma as the first Nintendo Switch, then.

Since Nintendo's new hardware is also handheld, the specifications aren't as high as what you'll find in a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. This often leads to hurdles with performance for developers who're porting blockbuster games, like Crimson Desert.

It doesn't make doing so impossible, just more difficult. Pearl Abyss' CEO is optimistic about getting it out on Switch 2, but won't be tied down to any kind of launch window at present.

"The Switch 2 version still requires optimization and technical verification, and we must also review partner collaboration and whether it meets our quality standards," he says. "Therefore, it is difficult to confirm a release schedule. We will announce it transparently once there is confirmed information."

Keep in mind too, that Pearl Abyss has been consistently updating Pywel since release, and there's still major DLC to come as well. It's all go over there – rest assured, we'll keep you informed on when Switch 2 players can join the party.

If you're yet to dive in yourself, you can check out our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Crimson Desert's one trillionth update is rolling out now and comes with 39 pieces of new gear, plenty of fixes, and a must-have feature for any action game - the ability to snuggle in bed with your pets.

Developer Pearl Abyss released Crimson Desert's 1.13.00 patch earlier today, and the headlining new feature is that Oongka and Damiane can now enter the Abyss as well. "Accordingly, the locations of Memory Fragments for certain rematchable bosses have been changed," the developer writes in its latest page of patch notes.

That's all well and good, but it pales in comparison to a game-changing new addition that should really be an industry standard across all games: "Summoned pets will now rest together with the character when resting in bed." Your fluffy friends will simply teleport next to you whenever you climb onto a bed and curl up into a ball.

Kliff and Oongka now also have 39 new pieces of equipment, including boss gear and complete sets. Damiane just gets 8 pieces of gear. Poor Damiane.

The rest of Crimson Desert's new patch is absolutely packed with smaller but still nice changes, including loads of bug fixes and slight tweaks here and there. "Changed certain disguise outfits that could not be dyed so that they can now be dyed," is one example from the patch notes. "Improved gathering so that up to 3 fireflies can be obtained when gathering from a firefly colony," is another.

Compared to similar single-player open-world games, Crimson Desert's enjoyed a frankly bonkers cadence of near-constant updates. Everything from Pinball to boss rematches have been added in the months since launch, and that's only beginning to tell the full tale. Marketing director Will Powers recently said the updates aren't Pearl Abyss' attempt to sell more copies, however.

Crimson Desert DLC "will be substantively different" to the main game, Pearl Abyss PR lead teases

Video games, like any other popular form of art, can be excellent advertisements for tourism. I always get the bug to browse flights after playing a new Assassin's Creed, for instance, and I don't think that's a coincidence. On the back of Ghost of Yotei, the eponymous Yotei area of Hokkaido is pushing for more visitors, apparently signing a deal to sell associated merchandise to curious travelers.

According to Japanese outlet Nikkei, Niseko, a resort town for skiing in the area, has entered into an agreement with Sony through a third-party firm to produce a line of Ghost of Yotei items visitors can buy. The first iteration of this agreement is a set of wooden knick-knacks from Kumagera Seisakusho, a producer of pendants, fridge magnets and other products that use locally sourced timber.

The aforementioned items and many more, including pin badges, come emblazoned with symbols associated with the historic open-world game. From the promo images, it seems there are quite a few available, which will no doubt encourage hardcore fans to do some collecting.

A representative of Niseko told Nikkei that they hope the game inspires more people to visit after seeing the area through various in-game seasons. This is yet another layer to what's proving to be a happy relationship between developer Sucker Punch and Japan's tourism industry.

Ghost of Yotei's predecessor, Ghost of Tsushima, likewise caused a spike in tourists for its island setting, to the point that the local economy enjoyed a meaningful jump thanks to more guided tours and merch attached to the game. Leads from Sucker Punch even became ambassadors.

Where the Ghost series goes next might be a heated choice, as other places have surely started noticing the knock-on effect. All I know is that whenever I go to Japan, there will be two stops on my list, and two particular games made sure I won't be missing them.

When it comes to RPG design, Fallout: New Vegas lead Josh Sawyer says Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei have "some of the best armor I've ever seen"

Pearl Abyss PR and marketing director Will Powers says that Crimson Desert's near-constant slate of updates hasn't been a ploy to sell more copies, instead it's about celebrating the game's success.

Obviously, GTA 6 is the big new game for 2026 that has and will continue to dominate the conversation, but outside of that absolute behemoth, Crimson Desert has certainly felt like the game people have been most into (alongside Resident Evil Requiem, of course). The massive open-world game released back in March, and has become an impressive success, especially for a new IP, with it selling over five million copies within its first month. That's on top of the positive Crimson Desert reviews.

However, one thing that has definitely kept Crimson Desert in the conversation is how much support the devs have given it following its launch, with post-launch updates turning the game into a full-blown pet sim in the weeks since release, for example, and even some more out there additions like a pinball mini-game, which I'm not sure anyone was asking for, but it's a welcome addition.

Speaking to CGMag, Powers says: "A new IP selling five million copies in a month should be celebrated. There's too many layoffs and studio closures, and bad news that I think that we all could benefit from spending some time around the good news."

He adds that because of this impressive feat, "this should be a celebration in general, because Pearl Abyss isn't taking a victory lap in the sense of 'All right, how can we sell more?' It's 'How can we give more back to the community?'"

Powers explains: "Their approach post launch has been mostly around what we can do in order to reward the players that have been there from day one and continue to make the game this living breathing experience." Pearl Abyss has said you can expect more free updates as long as the playerbase is interested, but the developer is also working on a "substantively different" DLC alongside it.

Still playing? Check out how to make money fast in Crimson Desert and how to unlock all Crimson Desert characters.

Josh Sawyer, best known for his work on RPG gems like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, says Sucker Punch Productions and Sony Interactive Entertainment created some of the greatest armor sets he's seen in video games.

To be precise, the developer and publisher did so in Ghost of Tsushima and its more recent sequel, Ghost of Yotei.

Speaking in a new Q&A on YouTube, Sawyer admits as much, first explaining that artists gain far more freedom during development when they don't have to "worry about every single part of the body" separately or "follow very strict rules for where every part of armor is broken up."

Not only does it look great, though, but it's technically more practical as well. "The stat bonuses are all built into one suit of armor, and the themes can be just built right around that," Sawyer describes. "All the stats just grow in a very straightforward way."

He does go on to share the appeal of other systems, in which armor sets are "divided" differently and allow the players, rather than the artists, "a lot more freedom," too, though.

Honestly, I feel as though varying armor systems fit well in their respective games – much like Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei's do. It's part of the core identity that titles, especially RPGs, carry with them… and there's no one right way to do it.

Itching to play something fun yourself? Browse through our roundup of the best RPGs out there, or check out a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

Crimson Desert might be a stoic open-world action game on the surface, but with every passing day, it strays closer to its true calling as a cozy life sim. Look no further than Pearl Abyss' latest update, which adds new furniture, outdoor decoration options, and much more.

Pearl Abyss is now rolling out a Crimson Desert update, and it's headlining feature finally lets players "decorate the area outside your house." To round out the fresh decoration options, the developer has also added 58 new pieces of furniture to help you stretch your interior/exterior design muscles.

New decorations include four carpets, six hanging planters, four automata toys, a music box, and a couple of pieces of furniture for your one gazillion pets. Notably, all these pieces can now be crafted at either a Workstation or a Loom - and their crafting manuals can be found "from shops, claw machines, the flower basket crafting mission, the box of fortune, and the orb roll challenge."

Souped up house decoration, crafting recipes and workbenches, a growing list of junk to Tetris around your house... Oh, Animal Crossing, how we've missed you!

Crimson Desert's impressive post-launch support has seen it occupy territories you wouldn't expect from an otherwise serious fantasy game. The game's pet sim aspect has been expanded a lot in the weeks since launch, for example, and it even has a Pinball mini-game now, of all things.

The Crimson Desert 1.12.00 patch notes detail an exhaustive list of new changes, including new armour sets and improvements to certain abilities. But for anyone hoping to see an absurdly in-depth fossil-digging and bug-catching feature, there's hope. Pearl Abyss has said players can expect more free updates as long as the demand keeps up, while the developer works on a "substantively different" DLC.

Still playing? Check out how to make money fast in Crimson Desert and how to unlock all Crimson Desert characters.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 seemed to have been put to bed as developer Insomniac switched its focus to the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, but apparently there's at least one more surprise in store. Alongside the release of today's Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer, Insomniac revealed that Spidey's new look is coming to the game in a free update on PS5 and PC.

"Get a fresh start in Marvel's Spider-Man 2," the studio exclaims in a tweet. "Swing across skylines in Peter Parker's 'Fresh Start' suit inspired by the upcoming film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in theatres July 31! The suit will be available in-game via update July 28 on PS5 and PC at no additional cost!" You can get a very brief look at the new suit at the end of the trailer below.

The game already features an array of suits paying tribute to Spider-Man's varied appearances across different media, including designs inspired by both the Sam Raimi films and the modern MCU movies. But this update is particularly notable simply because it's the first major change to the game in over a year.

In fact, the last update of any kind for Spider-Man 2 appears to have been a May 2025 hotfix for the PC version. That version, of course, launched some time after the PS5 original, and brought with it the sad news that no story DLC was planned for the game, despite some seemingly obvious teases for it in one of the side stories.

With that in mind, it's notable that Spider-Man 2 is getting what's likely its final update in time for the upcoming film. Any excuse to go swinging through digital NYC again is a good one in my mind.

These are the best Marvel games of all time.

Pearl Abyss has yet to properly reveal its in-development Crimson Desert DLC, but whatever shape it ends up taking will supposedly be very different to the base game.

The massive open-world romp has welcomed an almost unbelievable amount of post-launch content since it came out in March, with near weekly updates adding everything from boss replays, new abilities, a full-fledged pet system with 100 fluffy friends to register, more cool mounts, a Pinball mini-game, a gun (yes, a gun), and so much more. But that's all free. What about the upcoming DLC?

Pearl Abyss' PR and marketing lead Will Powers spoke about the unnamed expansion in an interview with The Gamer, where he teases it'll be "substantively different, whether it's in scope, scale, size, it'll be different" to the base game. "What it means beyond that, we're not talking about yet." Alright then, Powers, keep your secrets.

Speaking on the developer's stunning pace of updates, Powers explains the patch cadence comes from Pearl Abyss' experience working on MMO Black Desert, which also received frequent support, as is customary for the genre. "The DNA of the company is inherently live service," he says. "So, although this is a single-player game, that doesn't change the core identity of who the developers are and how they want to support the community."

Pearl Abyss isn't done with free updates while it chips away at its big DLC plans, however. Earlier this month, the developer released a roadmap of everything it wants to add to the game between now and September, including cross-save support and tweaks to "further strengthen the narrative flow of Kliff’s journey."

Yet to play Pearl Abyss's massive open-world game? You can check out our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Crimson Desert's latest patch has arrived and, in what's no longer a surprise, it has a focus on the game's pet system.

Despite Mina the Hollower being the highest-rated game of 2026 and Resident Evil Requiem tearing up the sales charts, Crimson Desert certainly feels like the biggest of all the new games of 2026. Pearl Abyss' open-world game has been a massive hit with players online, with the game offering up so much to do that a large percentage of players haven't even seen the game's ending.

One of the things earning the game favor with fans is the sheer amount of post-launch support that Pearl Abyss has been giving to the game. It feels like you haven't been able to walk ten feet without stepping in a new update for the game, and today is no different, as the studio has released the patch notes for version 1.11.00 on the game's website.

While the patch notes for Crimson Desert have been tackling some of the big issues with the game, anyone who has been paying attention to each update will notice that there's someone at Pearl Abyss that really likes the pet system. 1.09 added "approximately 30 species of small animals that can be registered as pets," and now with 1.11, the only specific change listed in the "Major Updates" segment is: "This patch adds new challenges that let you register more pets."

Specifically, you can now register up to 100. There's now also a dedicated map icon for baby wyverns, and a change has been rolled out so that your beloved pets actually keep their names as they grow.

Although despite the lack of mention in the "Major Updates" section, there are some other really good changes in here, too, such as "Shopkeepers will begin collecting and reselling lost rare equipment." Otherwise, there are improvements to the pinball minigame added in the previous patch (which also added more pet improvements, by the way) – the ball should now feel heavier, shouldn't get stuck in the top left corner as often, and some pins have been moved around.

If you're yet to play, be sure to read our Crimson Desert review.

Already a big, big game in and of itself, fantasy open-world adventure Crimson Desert's going to continue to grow. According to a lead from developer Pearl Abyss, we can expect substantial updates as long as players are enjoying the continent of Pywel.

Being one of the most popular games of the year thus far, Crimson Desert's done quite well for itself. Commenting on that momentum, Will Powers, the PR and marketing director at Pearl Abyss, tells Dexerto that updates will keep happening "as long as there's demand for it."

Essentially, he says, the studio views the game similar to its other major release, the MMO Black Desert Online. "This is a model that gamers aren't used to, of a premium game giving consistent and free content post-launch," Powers says.

It's all in service of keeping Crimson Desert in the charts for concurrent players, always providing fans with more to do and see. This, in turn, creates organic marketing that draws in more people who wish to see what the fuss is about, or catch a glint of an interesting addition.

"Having continued support and continued content both rewards your community and the people that have invested time in it, as well as doing free marketing without having to spend it elsewhere. So you're spending it on adding more content to the game instead of spending it on advertising," Powers adds.

As of now, the roadmap leads us up to September, with a healthy cadence of improvements coming for the main story as well as combat, cross-saving and more. Pearl Abyss is working on DLC too, which it teases will be, "a meaningful addition to your journey."

It seems we can expect this rigor to continue. If Kliff's popularity remains steady, so shall these updates too.

Be sure to read our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Crimson Desert's relentless update cadence isn't slowing down anytime soon as the open-world game just got another bonkers patch, this time adding some minigames and the ability to nurture your baby pets until they become formidable, rideable mounts.

Developer Pearl Abyss today dropped Crimson Desert's 1.10.00 patch onto all platforms, and in my eyes, the headlining feature is the two new minigames: Pinball and Orb Roll. As someone who plays Yakuza minigames until my thumbs turn to jelly, these have me slightly scared, but imagining a medieval Pinball machine in the middle of this fantasy world is also a sight too funny to ignore.

Up next are improvements to the still work-in-progress re-blockade feature, which re-arms enemy strongholds now and then to keep the post-game world a little more populated. This time, Pearl Abyss buffed up the rewards from re-blockades and added the ability to suppress re-blockades in each region by going to the contribution assessor.

Finally, remember those baby wyvern and baby chick pets? You can now feed them, nurture them until they grow up, and then ride them into battle once they're big enough to carry your hench protag. I didn't expect Crimson Desert to have a lite pet sim side months after launch, but here we are...

All in all, Crimson Desert already seemed like a kind of Everything Game that wanted to throw as many features as possible into its sandbox. Now, I'm really, really convinced that's what's going on what with its in-depth house decorations, farming, pet management, minigames, side activities, and of course, all the action-adventure stuff you expect. Heck, even the farming scythe item can now actually be used to gather crops.

To see all the additions and bug fixes, check out Pearl Abyss' full patch notes.

If you're yet to play it, you can read our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Crimson Desert's story is the least impressive thing about the skyscraper-sized, open-world fantasy game, but Pearl Abyss is ready to change that. Soon, the developer will start fiddling with its narrative that tries convincing you a guy named Kliff could be someone's savior, and Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer is giving the company his storyteller blessing.

Pearl Abyss says in a June 2 update describing its plans from now until September that it's been "carefully reviewing the story-related feedback you have shared with us" – so Pearl Abyss might have seen some of those overstuffed Reddit threads calling Crimson Desert's story "terrible," "aggrovatingly bad," and "absolutly non sense." Therefore, "To further strengthen the narrative flow of Kliff’s journey and to make it more engaging, we are working to refine and improve the coherence of key scenes," Pearl Abyss continues. "We hope these improvements will offer something new even for those who have already experienced Pywel."

Since even Pearl Abyss' shareholders were questioning Crimson Desert's lackluster drama about restoring the dignity of the shattered Greymane faction, I think it's smart the developer has decided to go forward with storyline changes rather than focusing exclusively on gameplay patches. While you don't often see developers reworking key cutscenes to a launched game, game expansions and DLC frequently elaborate on mythology, so I don't find Pearl Abyss' plans shocking.

Game director Josh Sawyer, whose experience leading games like Pentiment and Fallout: New Vegas make him an expert in video game stories that endure, seems to think the same thing. He addresses Pearl Abyss' narrative game plan in a Bluesky post, saying, "I think this is fine / good even if it isn't ideal."

Fixing up a game's story is "like patching anything," Sawyer continues. "It's better to patch story content to make it better than to say 'We fucked up on release but we won't do anything about it because story is different from everything else.'" He refers to his own history as a designer on 2000 D&D game Icewind Dale, explaining that the 2001 expansion Heart of Winter "was both short and expensive so we made Trials of the Luremaster as a free expansion." That's sort of a narrative patch, too.

Pearl Abyss is in good company, then, even if the way it's choosing to address narrative issues through future updates is unconventional – and risky. There's always the possibility that Pearl Abyss' post-mortem surgery on Crimson Desert makes its gaping plot holes more obvious, but I think the studio should at least try to fulfill its vision of a more interesting story. For Kliff's sake.

Crimson Desert proves it's better to wait for games than play at launch.

Crimson Desert DLC has been officially confirmed as Pearl Abyss also outlines a number of key areas it's working on for the base game, including story improvements.

In a dev update shared today, Pearl Abyss thanks fans for their feedback on its open-world behemoth up to now, saying that "Crimson Desert has come this far thanks to the support and feedback you've shared with us since launch." But while Pywel is already massive, the experience is clearly going to get even bigger.

"We are also hard at work on an upcoming DLC for Crimson Desert, and while we cannot share the details just yet, we are preparing it as a meaningful addition to your journey," Pearl Abyss teases. "We will share more details in the future, so stay tuned."

It's definitely exciting news, but admittedly not the most surprising. Only last month, Pearl Abyss stated that "we are currently exploring various ways to broaden the game to the next level, including DLC," but clearly, since then, work has begun in earnest.

No timeframe has been given for when we can expect the DLC to launch, but we can at least look forward to the upcoming improvements to the base game that Pearl Abyss plans to roll out between June and September this year. Perhaps the most surprising thing listed – but definitely the one I'm most interested in – is the plan to improve Crimson Desert's lackluster story.

"We have been carefully reviewing the story-related feedback you have shared with us," Pearl Abyss says. "To further strengthen the narrative flow of Kliff's journey and to make it more engaging, we are working to refine and improve the coherence of key scenes. We hope these improvements will offer something new even for those who have already experienced Pywel."

The extent of these improvements isn't clear, but considering that even Pearl Abyss CEO Heo Jin-young previously admitted that the game's narrative wasn't the best it could have been, it'll be good to give it that boost it needs.

Elsewhere, Pearl Abyss is planning alterations to re-blockade – specifically, "a new phase is being developed to make the flow before and after a blockade more natural, along with ways to defend certain strongholds from the threat of invasion." We can expect improved rewards, too. What's more, the devs are "working on a cross-save feature" that'll let you play across multiple platforms with a linked account.

Otherwise, the devs very vaguely tease "new combat-focused content" that'll allow players to "prove their true strength as a Greymane," as well as improvements to "Damiane and Oongka's overall gameplay experience." Pearl Abyss explains: "Various adjustments will be made so that all three playable characters can get a share of the spotlight." Step aside, Kliff.

Finally, it also sounds like we can expect some general quality-of-life improvements, as Pearl Abyss says: "We will continue making improvements to non-combat content, such as trading and farming, to address areas that players have found inconvenient."

We'll just have to watch this space and see when these changes arrive – the last time Pearl Abyss outlined three months' worth of updates, it ended up releasing everything within just weeks. We obviously shouldn't expect that to be the norm, but to say the devs have been hard at work making Crimson Desert the best it can be would be an understatement.

Take a look at our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the biggest new games for 2026.

Continued updates and post-launch support is a big reason why the Dying Light franchise stayed relevant during a seven-year gap in releases, its former franchise director Tymon Smektala says.

While it might seem like an obvious concept, it's one that developer Techland didn't properly consider in the early days of the franchise. The Dying Light veteran said as much at a Digital Dragons panel attended by GamesRadar+, explaining that the team's original post-launch plan was "actually quite limited, because we wanted to release the game, respond maybe to some potential bugs [...], and then focus on the release of the two DLCs for that quarter."

Those updates sort of had a snowball effect, though. "Players are there, they are excited, they are supporting us, they want more of the game, so we did more. The appetite grew, they wanted even more, so we kept going," he says. "And, in the process, we had created a business model that was very unique at that time, and it's a triple-A game with long tail post-launch support."

Smektala sheds light on an internal initiate Techland called 10 in 12, the team's plan to put out 10 free DLCs in one calendar year. "Then it continued, and then it continued, and in the end, the support lasted for 10 years. Last year, we released a graphics update for Dying Light called Retouched."

Developing free updates with no new source of revenue won't work for every team, the ex-boss acknowledges, but he says it made sense for Techland because "it keeps the game on the hard drive, it builds the community trust, it makes the game sell for longer, and you can keep the price at a higher level." It also has the added effect of building hype for a sequel.

"If you can plan the production around this wisely, the game will give back."

It's not just The Witcher and Cyberpunk devs – former Dying Light lead says not properly recording work makes sequels so much harder

The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2077 makers CD Projekt Red recently talked about how shoddy documentation can quickly turn the development of sequels into nightmares, and, now, the former franchise director of Dying Light has exactly the same warning for fellow developers.

Speaking at a Digital Dragons panel attended by GamesRadar+, former franchise lead Tymon Smektala shared a "quick time traveller lesson" to developers in the audience that he would teach to the team at Techland if he could reverse the clocks: "It's take care of your documentation."

Smektala explains that the studio "didn't really pay that much attention to documenting features" during the production of the first game. "We didn't update the documents that well, we didn't make sure that they cover everything. A lot of the things just happened at the computer of a programmer or a designer," says.

It wasn't just features that weren't being properly recorded. Dying Light's lore wasn't either, probably because the team "weren't thinking that we are starting a new franchise with this particular game." As you can imagine, improper documentation led to lots of problems while making Dying Light 2, like trying not to break continuity or getting specific in-universe dates correct.

"So afterwards, in the years that followed, we spent a lot of time trying to reverse engineer some of the features or collect our lore in one place, and usually we were doing this by going to Wikis made by players, always feeling a little bit ashamed about it, that we had to take it from the players," he adds.

"So, the time traveller lesson – do care about your project documentation if you are working on the first game, because years later, when you are making a sequel and expansion pack, you will be very grateful to yourself for it."

CD Projekt Red imparted similar advice to folks at Digital Dragon, explaining how the studio basically had nothing to reference when it came time to remake The Witcher 1.

Don't expect a Witcher 4 expansion: CDPR says "it would be difficult" to make extra content when it's already trying to squeeze 3 Witcher games into 6 years

Pearl Abyss has released patch 1.09 for Crimson Desert, which finally allows players to remap controls and adopt a whole host of little critters as pets.

Crimson Desert was already a contender for one of the biggest new games of 2026 when it launched – both in the sheer amount of things in it and popularity – but Pearl Abyss somehow decided that it could be even bigger. The studio has been updating its massively popular open-world game constantly since it launched back in March – and clearly someone on the dev team is really keen to get Kliff as many pets as possible.

In the last Crimson Desert patch, Pearl Abyss gave Kliff the ability to adopt a Baby Wyvern into his roster of pets, and with today's patch, the game has "added approximately 30 species of small animals that can be registered as pets." I haven't got around to playing Crimson Desert yet, but in my mind, I hope there is no cap on the amount of pets you can have, and that Kliff is able to form an army of critters. But if not, at least there's more variety. Another major addition listed by Pearl Abyss is that this patch "added animations for picking up and putting down certain pets," and suddenly I'm anticipating the game's transformation into a cozy farm sim.

Elsewhere, the game also added a personal favorite option of mine, the ability to remap controls. I'm sure the basic controls were good, given that I haven't seen complaints about it, but the option to change things up is always appreciated. And on top of these, there's a ton of fixes and tweaks that you'd expect from patch notes, including one clearly from whoever really likes the pets: "fixed an issue where bears would try to eat fish dropped on the ground but fail to do so."

I've already been putting off Crimson Desert because, frankly, it's too massive and I don't have the time between other games I'm super keen to play to really give it the time it deserves. But seeing how much the devs are updating and improving it, I'm actually glad I've been waiting.

Only 6.8% of Crimson Desert players on Steam have finished the open-world game 2 months after launch, and that means 93.2% of them are playing it right

It is time to face facts: AI is making plenty of our games these days and in the days to come. In some cases, generative AI is making assets (often placeholders) to populate game worlds. In others, it is mimicking the work of actors. But AI is also coming for the programming sector of video games, and I don't know that we're prepared for just how bad "vibe-coded" games can possibly be.

In a lengthy feature in Edge Magazine surrounding the rise of AI tools in games development, Clint Hocking, who besides serving as director on Far Cry 2 also led the team on the upcoming (and potentially witch-y) Assassin's Creed Hexe, shares that he too thinks that it is inevitable that AI will be implemented into games production. He also admits to having used AI to help him learn how to code in the past.

Speaking on the experience, Hocking says, "It was brutal. ChatGPT kind of sucked. It didn't really know how to code. Everything was broken."

He continues, "It was mostly me trying to debug code without knowing how to code myself." After about half a year of untangling ChatGPT's messes, apparently often into the late of night, Hocking says he finally learned how to code in Javascript and no longer uses AI tools to code.

Though Hocking did ultimately learn the skill he set out to, he "acknowledges in some ways he learned to code despite ChatGPT," which he likens to a tutor more than an alternative, and a kind of unruly one.

Hocking, who was recently working on the future of the Assassin's Creed franchise via both Hexe and the Assassin's Creed Infinity platform, also shares some insights into Ubisoft's own work with AI, stating that no one at the company lost their jobs to AI as far as he could tell, and that the developer was at one point looking into generative technologies that might've powered his last major title at Ubisoft, Watch Dogs: Legion.

Former Square Enix exec says backlash over Final Fantasy 6 AI mock-up shared by the JRPG series' creator "shows how far down the rabbit hole the madness goes"

Now that Crimson Desert's firmly established as one of the biggest games of the year, the big question becomes if we'll see more of the fantastical sandbox. While we wait to hear more of what Pearl Abyss has in store, the voice behind protagonist Kliff is clear he'll happily come back.

Alec Newman, the actor who portrays our hero in the game, said as much during an interview with Fall Damage. "If they asked me, I'd happily record Kliff forever," he says at one point, addressing the topic again in another answer.

"Those relationships are very rich," he muses, while talking about Crimson Desert's supporting cast. "Some of the most fruitful stuff was between Kliff and Oongka for me. They do have history together, which feeds into why their relationship and their bond is so strong, and it's a similar thing with Damiane. It's territory that could be even further developed."

Crimson Desert has a wealth of side-characters who offer narrative runway for expansions. Oongka in particular is ripe for some form of prequel, to fill parts of he and Kliff's storied past and help contextualize their current situation.

There are plenty of others as well, such as Matthias, who tests your sword-fighting early on. The developers aren't short of potential directions for major DLC, or even a follow-up when the time comes to decide on that.

For the time-being, the team is focused on updates and patches to make sure everyone's enjoying the release to the fullest. But I suspect it won't be long before Crimson Desert 2 or similar starts to become a prevalent topic.

Only 6.8% of Crimson Desert players on Steam have finished the open-world game 2 months after launch, and that means 93.2% of them are playing it right

A new Crimson Desert update is upon us, adding everything from a cute Baby Wyvern as a pet that will eventually transform into a mount to the ability for Kliff to wield muskets and shotguns.

Already standing as one of the biggest new games of 2026, it's hard to imagine Pearl Abyss adding even more to Crimson Desert – but, thankfully, the developer continues to do so.

The last patch was quite a massive one, all things considered, too, tackling endgame emptiness even further with five more boss rematches, extra mounts, and new skills. Another Crimson Desert update is upon us now, although it's arguably a bit smaller.

Smaller in size, that is, but not in impact. As per the latest patch notes from Pearl Abyss, this Crimson Desert patch is quite simple: it "adds a pond and a Baby Wyvern as a new pet, along with various bug fixes and stability improvements."

If you ask me, that's a pretty big (and very adorable) deal – but it's not the only thing to land in the open-world game today. There are 20 species of small animals to look out for.

And not only are Baby Wyverns taking our side, but they'll "be able to grow and be registered as mounts in a future update, so stay tuned." As for Wild Wyverns, they "can now be temporarily used as mounts after being subdued." My dragon-loving self is absolutely thrilled to hear it, honestly.

The patch isn't entirely wyvern and creature-shaped, however. Pearl Abyss has also graced us with a new slot to equip tools. These include the logging axe, mallet, shovel, broom, scythe, pickaxe, drill/chainsaw, and fan.

Kliff can now use muskets and shotguns, too, while Damiane and Oongka get a skill equivalent to the "Focused Aerial Roll." There's a lot more as well, ranging from fixes that are more significant to more minor quality-of-life tweaks, so I'd recommend checking the patch notes out fully – and keeping an eye on whatever's next from Pearl Abyss.

Hopefully, this inspires folks to finish the game – as it stands, only 6.8% of players have completed the main story on Steam… but everything's easier with a Baby Wyvern by your side.

If you're curious about the game yourself but have yet to play, check out our Crimson Desert review for our own honest thoughts on it.

The majority of Crimson Desert players on Steam are toiling to finish the gargantuan game's main quests two months after launch, global gameplay statistics reveal, and that's not a bad thing. Developer Pearl Abyss' latest release thrives when the player luxuriates in size and variety, while the storyline it provides protagonist Kliff is as satisfying as you'd imagine an epic created for a man named Kliff.

Which is to say, the game is "far better as a sandbox than as a story," as GamesRadar+ guides writer Joel Franey writes in his four-out-of-five Crimson Desert review. The Steam stats gaming content creator TheRealZephryss shares on Twitter seem to confirm this as the personality quips, "Looks like everyone is still in Hernand" (the starting area a lot of people really were trapped in for more than two weeks after launch).

At the moment, Steam achievement stats show only 6.8% of Crimson Desert players have completed all the game's main quests… of which there are many. GamesRadar+ estimates the time to beat Crimson Desert can easily surpass 200 hours if you're going for 100% completion, while a more ascetic main quest playthrough lies in the 35-50 hours range.

Steam stats also show 22.6% of players haven't even made it through Crimson Desert's first chapter – there are 14, if you count the prologue and epilogue – and that only 25.4% of people have made it halfway through the game's main story and completed Chapter 7.

Considering Crimson Desert reached 5 million copies sold within four weeks, that's a lot of Greymanes staggering around Pywel with their scabbard on backwards, drifting from infinite boss fights to wolf mounts, picking up cute clothes, wandering dense forests, and generally suffering to absorb the content flood that is Crimson Desert. But for some, the work is a duty and honor.

As one fan on Twitter tells TheRealZephryss, "It's not that finishing is difficult, I am just taking my sweet, sweet time, living day by day." Kliff has some wisdom to impart on players after all.

Crimson Desert Kliff actor says video game acting wasn't treated as "proper acting" by peers who are now asking how to get into the industry.

Crimson Desert star Alec Newman says video game acting wasn't always treated with respect by his peers, but that's all changing now.

Alec Newman's been a part of some beloved games in recent years, having voiced Cyberpunk 2077's Adam Smasher, the main character in horror gem Still Wakes the Deep, and most recently, Crimson Desert's Kilff, the blockbuster game's main character and the face on the box.

But he's also been a video game voice actor for well over a decade, stretching back to supporting roles in Fable 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic, a time when Newman remembers his peers not taking game acting very seriously.

"When I started doing voices for video games, it wasn't like a dirty secret or anything, but it somehow wasn't treated by my peers as proper acting," he recalls in an interview with Fall Damage. "And, now, all of those peers are ringing me up and asking how to get into it."

Video game actors are now more visible and more recognizable than ever before, partly thanks to the internet and partly because games are penetrating the mainstream zeitgeist deeper and deeper every year. When games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Baldur's Gate 3 house meaty acting roles that lead to tons of acclaim, it's no surprise to hear that once-cautious actors are now curious about the medium.

As for Newman, he hasn't played "a second" of Crimson Desert "because my gaming sort of ceased when my daughter was born," but he still has nice things to say about the open-world hit. "The game is beautiful. It's unlike anything I've ever been involved in."

Crimson Desert patch tackles endgame emptiness further with 5 more boss rematches, extra mounts, and new skills

Pearl Abyss has pumped out yet another update for Crimson Desert – for the second time this week – this time focusing on the open-world game's new boss rematch feature.

Earlier this month, the developer heard fan complaints about endgame emptiness loud and clear. The further players got in the mammoth fantasy romp, the more sparse and less dangerous its world got, which is kind of the opposite experience you want to have as you turn your characters into monster-killing machines.

To tackles those endgame woes, Pearl Abyss added a whopping 69 boss rematches and a feature that saw enemies periodically retake strongholds you had previously liberated with the promise that both features were works in progress.

Now, in Crimson Desert's 1.07.00 patch, the studio has added five more bosses to take on once more: Muskan, Corrupted Caliburn, Goyen, Draven, the Crowcaller, and Clockwork White Horn.

Players would normally be able to re-challenge bosses wherever they were first encountered, but baddies originally found in the Abyss have been relocated above ground for their own rematches. You can see their locations in the in-game journal if you're lost.

Elsewhere in the Crimson Desert patch, the devs have added "additional wolf and bear types that can be registered as mounts" and upped the number of animals on the map that can be tamed as mounts more generally, while some mounts now have reins attached, as well.

Plus, Damiane has new unarmed combat skills, her and Oongka now have access to the Aerial Stab ability, and Kliff can pull off a 'Blinding Flash Finisher' when fighting with his fists.

If you're yet to try Pearl Abyss's new game, be sure to take a look at our Crimson Desert review to see why it's one of the hottest new games for 2026.

Scottish actor Alec Newman has inhabited countless incredible universes both on and off screen, having once played Dune protagonist Paul Atreides in Syfy's Emmy-winning 2000 miniseries before becoming a video game pro with roles in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring, among many other major titles. But none of it compares to playing tough guy Kliff in open-world adventure Crimson Desert, he says.

Newman describes his time working with developer Pearl Abyss on Crimson Desert in a new interview with Fall Damage, providing interesting insight to why the notoriously stoic Kliff is so much like a piece of wood that occasionally deigns to speak. He says he thinks Pearl Abyss initially cast him for the character, who was originally named Macduff, mostly because the developer wanted "a Scottish lilt to Kliff's voice."

But even when the stone-faced Greymane was voiceless, Newman could tell just by "the render of Kliff's face and the way that he walked, [...] that he had to be a Scot." That led Newman to the sweet realization that Kliff looked a bit like his wife's recently passed stepfather, and so the actor decided that "Kliff's voice is basically his voice."

It's ultimately a lovely tribute. On one hand, Crimson Desert players often bring up its superficial story when criticizing the otherwise wildly successful game, and as part of this complaint, they wish Pearl Abyss had given Kliff a more original narrative than a strong man with a square forehead who stomps around the woods with a sword. But, most people agree, Kliff is also obviously softhearted, and they like that.

In a popular Reddit thread with over 1,000 comments debating why "Kliff is one of the worst AAA MCs in gaming history," for example (ouch), one highly-upvoted reply disagrees and says, "I like the dude. He's over here giving coins to beggars when he had zero to start with. And saving cats. What a nice dude."

"The game is beautiful," concludes Newman during his interview. "It's unlike anything I've ever been involved in, that's for sure." He later says, "If they asked me, I'd happily record Cliff forever." But, he admits, "there's a kind of irony in a character that's a little bit reserved recording for that amount of time."

Crimson Desert DLC teased as Pearl Abyss looks to "broaden the game to the next level" following record quarterly revenue of around $180 million.

Outbound, a cozy little co-op crafting game that's all about building up a base on wheels and exploring a colorful open world, is under fire from fans upset with developer Square Glade Games' reaction to negative reviews – but the studio now has a response.

In case you've missed the drama, Outbound launched on Steam just a few days ago and sits on the storefront with a "Mostly Positive" rating currently. As a mix of both negative and positive reviews started rolling in, folks spotted responses from Square Glade Games to some, in which the devs ask players to request refunds and subsequently remove their feedback. Admittedly, it's… not exactly a great look.

Square Glade Games has spoken out in response to fans sharing how uncomfortable they find the devs replying to negative reviews, though.

"Hi everyone, we wanted to step into this thread to address the recent discussions and feedback on the reviews," they begin. "First and foremost, we truly apologize for how our recent replies have come across. We understand that our communication has felt wrong to many of you, and for that, we are genuinely sorry."

Why did it happen? "To be completely honest, the 24 hours since the launch have been incredibly overwhelming. While we started with a lot of excitement, the reality of a launch brings a lot of pressure and intense emotions. Looking back, we realize that the way we communicated was not the right approach, and we didn't handle the situation with the care it deserved."

In other words, Square Glade Games felt under pressure.

"We've been working around the clock to investigate the issues you've been reporting and to get fixes out as quickly as possible." That's no lie – their latest update on Steam shows they've improved multiplayer stability and addressed some others already, with more patches to come.

As for the situation at hand regarding reviews and the devs' replies to them, Square Glade Games admits it'll no longer respond to fans' feedback.

"We also want to be clear: we will no longer be asking anyone to change their negative reviews, and we have also deleted our previous comments," the studio explains. "We respect your honesty and appreciate the feedback, even when it's tough to hear. It helps us make the game better."

It's nice that the team is remedying its mistakes, I'd say – the wholesome gaming community can be a lot sometimes, but it's always better to take reviews in stride.

The devs close with another apology "for the missteps in our communication" – but not all fans are convinced yet, it seems. Some allege it's an "AI-generated" response, while others call for a boycott. It's difficult all around, but I'm hopeful things will lighten up a bit soon.

If you're interested in browsing other fresh arrivals on Steam and beyond, check out our big roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond.

As I write this, Crimson Desert has a total of 150,814 reviews on Steam with an overall Very Positive rating. In this unstable landscape where even opt-in updates can make otherwise enthusiastic audiences turn on Slay the Spire 2, it's impressive developer Pearl Abyss has charmed its Steam players enough to keep them in good spirits even as they criticize the open-world game's story.

One positive review with 353 "helpful" ratings summarizes what seems to be Crimson Desert players' thoughts and says, "It's Ok to Love a Game and Criticize It Fairly." While Pearl Abyss' ambitious adventure starring every-yeoman Kliff is so huge, most players are barely halfway done exploring even though the game launched in March, people say Crimson Desert's narrative is not nearly as deep. Ostensibly, Kliff is a hawk-eyed adventurer trying to restore the glory of his murdered Greymane faction, but in practice, as one fan on Reddit says in a related thread, "It makes more sense if you imagine Kliff as an omniscient lobotomite that just does things because its on the left side of my screen."

Pearl Abyss might not even disagree with this characterization – the developer admitted to shareholders earlier this spring it regrets not thickening Crimson Desert's story further, but it was in a rush, and polishing gameplay was most important. Anyway, notoriously cranky Steam reviewers – who turn green at the sight of new Helldivers 2 Warbonds, and pan Cities: Skylines after 30,000 apparently excruciating hours of playtime – are fine with it, for some reason.

One positive review with almost 120 hours on record calls Crimson Desert "generally good," but also disclaims, "each time I have to do another "follow another Wolf member, especially Yann, on horseback" so they can ***** and moan - mission...I am tempted to review bomb this."

Another similarly disgruntled positive review flippantly calls Crimson Desert "The Legend of Just Cause Redemption 2: The Wild Hunt," rates its story a "3/10," yet crowns it with a final evaluation of "Fun 11/10."

"This game has a breathtaking map that rivals skyrim, [...] the bosses are some of the worst i've seen in my 30 years of gaming," says a level-headed top negative review whose language is nearly indistinguishable from a more flattering review.

What's going on? Is Kliff sliding Steam players envelopes of silver coins for these reviews? No, I think Crimson Desert has simply captivated gamers with its clever mix of every fun game mechanic ever in history, and it delivers something for everyone – even the most difficult to please.

Crimson Desert update nails a major fan request as lions, tigers, bears, and more can be tamed and turned into special mounts.

Hideo Kojima recently polled fans on their favorite Death Stranding 2 trailer, and obviously, the winner was Higgs. But while Troy Baker's villain came out on top, he didn't run away with the votes. Kojima himself is pretty happy about that, since he's been pouring his heart into character creation for years and can now rest assured that all his children have their fans.

If you've stumbled upon Tomorrow's Nightmare in Death Stranding 2, you've already been asked to choose between Higgs, Rainy, Fragile, and Tomorrow. The game doesn't really present any criteria for the choice, simply imploring you to "choose well." Are you meant to pick your favorite character? The one you'd like Sam to become romantically entangled with? (That would be weird for a lot of reasons.) The one you feel the deepest spiritual connection to? That's for you to decide.

Kojima put the question a lot more simply when he polled his followers on Twitter. "Which character is your favorite?" the poll asks (via machine translation), with the same four options represented. With 1,443 votes counted, Higgs took 33.8% of the responses, with Tomorrow coming in second at 30.3%. That left Fragile in third with 24%, and Rainy in fourth with a still respectable 11.9%.

"Higgs was the top favorite, but since all four had fans, that puts me at ease," Kojima said (again via machine translation) after the poll had run its course. "It's not just DS—up until now, I've always poured especially a lot of love into character creation."

Of course, Kojima's games have always toed a fine line between a loving gaze and an uncomfortable leer at their central characters, and that's especially true now that they're all modeled on real-world actors. Certainly, Death Stranding 2 was built to give us a whole lot of time with Norman Reedus' butt and Elle Fanning's feet.

But I think the fact that it's the campy, melodramatic Higgs leading the poll that suggests that Kojima's devotion to his characters does help fans build a real connection to them. After all, a cadre of impossibly attractive movie stars has nothing on an evil robot cowboy with clown makeup and a guitar gun.

Hideo Kojima said Half-Life had a "kind of soul" which Japanese games lacked, and Metal Gear Solid 2 was directly inspired by Valve's classic FPS.

Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss is officially in pre-production for another boundless adventure DokeV, its Pokemon-esque monster catcher first announced in 2019. But, uh, forget about that last part – Pearl Abyss is hoping to redefine itself as a developer with lean release cycles after Crimson Desert took seven bloated years.

Pearl Abyss confirms reports from March and explains in its new Q1 earnings letter that DokeV is officially "in development," as is its self-described "exosuit MMO shooter" Plan 8. Both games were originally announced in 2019, as was Crimson Desert, but Pearl Abyss is suddenly fired up about "maintaining a new title release cycle of every 2-3 years."

DokeV will be the first of the two games to benefit from that lightning zap of motivation, as Pearl Abyss says, "We will prioritize resources on DokeV to accelerate development. In addition, DokeV is currently in the pre-production stage, and we will share updates as development progresses." Plan 8, in comparison, is only in "the conceptualization stage" according to Pearl Abyss.

But it sounds like the developer might start chipping away at the shooter, too, saying not not vaguely that, "While focusing resources on the development of DokeV, we will strive to maintain the consistent release cycle." So, at the moment, it seems like Pearl Abyss is targeting a 2029 release at the latest for DokeV and a 2031 launch for Plan 8, if it manages to keep its promise to itself about working faster.

That means DokeV could come out a full decade after having been announced in 2019. Plan 8 – which is harder to pinpoint, since it's only in "conceptualization" now – could take around 12 years from its announcement to deliver. These are GTA 6 wait times for MMOs with no franchises to lean on for support, and no built-in hype, so I do wonder why Pearl Abyss decided to show off three apparently massive games – Crimson Desert, DokeV, and Plan 8 – all at the same time.

To be fair, even Pearl Abyss itself is confused about this. Marketing director Will Powers reflected earlier this year and said about Crimson Desert, "We're kind of victims of ourselves – we announced the game too early, and, honestly, that's just inarguable."

He continues to say, "The game changed, and we built an engine, and not just for this game, but an additional engine altogether. So it's not just strictly development time for a singular title. But if we had to do it again, I don't think anyone would say we should announce the game six-and-a-half years in advance."

As another example of Pearl Abyss' ill-informed approach to game reveals, in a 2019 press release, the developer told people interested in DokeV and its "dokebi" dream monsters to wait for a beta test in 2020, and that never happened. But it seems Pearl Abyss has finally learned its lesson.

Crimson Desert DLC teased as Pearl Abyss looks to "broaden the game to the next level" following record quarterly revenue of around $180 million.

Crimson Desert arguably stands as one of the biggest new games of 2026, and new quarterly financial reports from developer Pearl Abyss help solidify that – it's so big, in fact, that the developers are potentially cooking up some DLC for it.

In a new earnings letter covering its quarterly financial performance, Pearl Abyss reveals that Crimson Desert has actually earned the company a record quarterly revenue, raking in around $180 million on its own.

Compared to Black Desert Online's own revenue this quarter of just around $40 million or so, that's quite a figure – and Pearl Abyss knows it. Throughout the letter, the studio comments on its open-world game's "successful launch."

After all, Crimson Desert only graced us with its presence at the tail end of March, but its simultaneous release on consoles and PC – and global presence, seeing as overseas sales have accounted for about 94% of the total quarterly revenue –certainly helped bolster it as a 2026 giant.

Considering all of this success, it comes as no surprise that Pearl Abyss also has DLC on its mind, as per the new earnings letter. The dev reveals, "Crimson Desert will continue to focus on enhancing user satisfaction and driving new sales through continuous updates, while expanding its market presence through platform expansion. In addition, we are currently exploring various ways to broaden the game to the next level, including DLC. We will share the details once the concrete plans are set."

That's pretty big news – especially when taking into account the current size of Crimson Desert. Heck, folks were averaging 20 hours a week in the open-world gem. I'd imagine plenty of players have racked up hundreds since March, and with DLC evidently underway, we could be looking at playtimes that rival RPG behemoths like Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, and The Witcher 3.

Plus, it's likely that Crimson Desert will continue to see even more success – Pearl Abyss notes a target of roughly eight to 10 million sales in 2026.

Here's hoping that the positive vibes keep on comin' and Pearl Abyss has some DLC news ready to share soon – it certainly seems like some kind of expansion(s) is set in stone for Crimson Desert, judging by the studio's words.

If you're curious about the game yourself but have yet to play, check out our Crimson Desert review for our own honest thoughts on it.

Crimson Desert just keeps getting bigger, as it just got yet another patch – this time, adding special mounts, a new way to recover materials, and more.

Patch 1.06.00 makes an all-important change to certain animals – from now on, after you gain the trust of (takes a deep breath) lions, bears, wolves, boars, tigers, camels, kuku birds, iguanas, raptors, deer, and mountain goats, you'll be able to register them as one of the Crimson Desert Special Mounts. Pearl Abyss notes: "Ferocious animals can be tamed by subduing and feeding them, while certain species require unique methods to tame."

Something tells me lions and tigers might be a little harder to befriend than mountain goats and deer, but I suppose we'll just have to figure that out ourselves.

This isn't the only animal-related change, either. The new Sigil of Valor item will make your loyal dogs attack enemies when equipped – you can buy it in Pororin from the Secret Shop NPC.

The other headline change is the new "Extraction" feature. No, the open-world adventure isn't being transformed into a shooter – "materials used to refine equipment can partially be recovered," Pearl Abyss explains. You can use it by interacting with smithies, and "extraction can be performed for a single refinement level or all the way back to the base refinement level, which is the equipment's refinement level when it was first acquired."

Using the Extraction feature doesn't destroy items – it "only affects its refinement level" – and "the quantity of recovered items will vary depending on their type," with you being able to recover around 70% of common materials used in an item, but 100% of all special materials.

Elsewhere, Oongka has some new unarmed combat skills, and sheaths have been added for swords – there's an option to toggle their appearance, so if you don't like how they look, you can revert things back to how they were pre-patch. Meanwhile, for any arcade enthusiasts, a claw machine has been added to the Laughing Marionette, which contains a chair, one type of special headgear, 12 types of lightning items, as well as Abyss Gears and Abyss Artifacts.

In addition to fixes for a whole bunch of lingering issues, which you can check out in full in the devs' patch notes, Pearl Abyss has also added a new Night Tone Mode graphics option, which softens colors and sees darker and shaded areas appear a bit brighter, which sounds ideal if you're someone who prefers exploring Pywel at night.

Pearl Abyss has just kept the Crimson Desert patches coming – the devs recently flew through a massive roadmap of changes that was supposed to take us through to June in a matter of weeks. As recently discussed by Pearl Abyss's PR and marketing director Will Powers, none of the game's updates were pre-planned, either, with changes "iterated in real time based on feedback, based on response" from players.

You can definitely see that in action with this patch. Back at launch, many players expressed disappointment that mounts like bears and wolves weren't permanent, especially after trailers for the game had shown them off.

With this player-centric mentality in mind, it's no wonder the game remains so popular with fans, and it seems likely we can expect even more updates based on what folks are asking for.

Yet to dive into Pywel? Be sure to read our Crimson Desert review to see why it's one of the new games for 2026 that everyone is talking about.

Sony's latest financial report is in, and would you believe it? The company is keen to tell investors just how much its business is going to be improved by AI. PlayStation is just one part of the larger Sony business, but sluggish PS5 sales and big losses around Marathon and Bungie are having their effects. Don't worry, though – PlayStation's investment in AI is going to make it all better, and we've gotten some specifics about how the tech is being used in games like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered.

"At PlayStation, our goal is always to be the best place to play and the best place to publish," according to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino, whose statements during the earnings call were transcribed by Yahoo Finance. "We see AI as a powerful tool to help us in this mission."

Those are pretty standard vagaries about AI, but Nishino did offer some specifics. Notably, he says, "game developers are automating repetitive workloads, improving software engineering productivity, and accelerating areas like quality assurance, 3D modeling, and animations through new AI-powered tools."

That includes an animation tool called Mockingbird, which "quickly animates 3D facial model based on the performance capture." Nishino emphasizes that this is not a replacement for human performers, but it optimizes "how we process the data from these live captures. With Mockingbird, animation work that would have taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second."

This isn't purely theoretical, either. "We have already seen the teams at Naughty Dog, San Diego Studio, and other adopt the tool, including in released titles like Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered," Nishino explains.

While the stink of purely AI-generated content looms large, this is – in theory – the kind of thing AI is actually useful for, helping to automate tedious tasks so that developers can focus their attention on more creative work. That's why you won't find an AI disclosure on Horizon's Steam store page, as Valve doesn't require devs to be up front about "efficiency gains" from AI, as opposed to fully AI-generated content.

Nishino also cites the machine learning-driven PSSR upscaling tech available on PS5 Pro as another example of AI wins, offering improved resolution and performance for games like Saros and Ghost of Yotei. And, more broadly, he says players will get "more immersion, more adventures, and fresh ways to enjoy their favorite characters" thanks to the emerging tech. Simultaneously, AI will offer publishers a "more efficient production environment and a better discovery to ensure their games reach the right audience."

Of course, the reality of these assertions remains to be seen. The biggest effect AI has had on the gaming world so far is making consoles and PCs dramatically more expensive, as data centers gobble up RAM in absurd volumes. That's not Sony's fault or responsibility, of course, but the notion that the tech pushing the game industry's head underwater is the same thing that will save it from drowning is difficult to reckon with in the short term.

PS6 price and release window is still undecided, but Sony reports "an increase in investments" into the next-gen PlayStation.

Oh dear – someone's opened the can of worms around what makes a triple-A or indie studio. This time, it's one of the leads from Pearl Abyss, the company behind fantasy open-world adventure Crimson Desert, who maintains their studio operates with flourishes of both sides.

"We are an indie publisher with a triple-A quality game. We can actually have fun and we can do things," Will Powers, director of marketing and public relations at Pearl Abyss, explained to The Washington Post. "We're more adaptable, we are more malleable. We can pivot faster, versus the [triple-As] of the world that are restricted by their brand bibles."

He makes this comment on the back of discussion of the size of his team, which is a half-dozen strong. For many companies making games the scale of Crimson Desert, you'd have whole publicity departments, but, as he points out, Pearl Abyss aims to be more tactile.

Regarding Crimson Desert and its MMORPG predecessor Black Desert Online, the developer Pearl Abyss seems very indie-spirited. It's dedicated to its own IP and seems to operate with a lean amount of staff.

But the publisher side of the South Korean company has owned CCP Games, the developer behind Eve Online, since 2018, and it has invested in other studios since. I find the claim that Pearl Abyss is truly "indie" a little disingenuous in light of this, because it seems like an outfit keen to expand and become a bigger player within the industry.

The sheer scope of Crimson Desert can't be undermined here either. This is a gigantic game, with hundreds of hours of gameplay. It's something a much smaller team would've likely struggled to ship. It brings to mind the discussion around Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, where, although, it was Sandfall Interactive's first game, the studio had publisher backing, and members of the team had some development pedigree.

These conversations debating indie and AAA often resist simplicity, but we can at least agree that Crimson Desert is a fine accomplishment. I'm just not sure it should be categorized anywhere near the likes of Slay the Spire 2 or Mewgenics when discussing its place in the indie game catalogue.

None of Crimson Desert's big updates were pre-planned because Pearl Abyss is "not baking in presumptions around what the players want."

Crimson Desert was already a massive game at launch. It then had a massive roadmap promising to make it even bigger. And, now, developer Pearl Abyss is gearing up for yet another patch with all the energy of a Mentos dropping into a bottle of Coke.

"Hello Greymanes," the developer tweets for the 1748th time since launch. "We'd like to share some info about the schedule and major update content of our next patch." There's no concrete release date for this upcoming update, but it should be arriving sometime within the next few days.

As for what's included, the Crimson Desert studio promises "new special mounts, an extraction feature that will allow you to recover materials used in equipment refinement, and more." Pearl Abyss has been known to hide some changes from its patch notes, so don't be surprised if we get a little extra.

For context, Pearl Abyss only freshly mopped up the vast majority of what it set out to do in its three-month roadmap in mere weeks. The developer essentially did a game dev speedrun to add boss rematches and enemy re-blockades, extra difficulty modes, toggles to hide weapons, more storage options, and much more.

Since Crimson Desert's initial roadmap was set to last until sometime in June, everything added from here on out is largely unknown territory. Previous patch notes have said certain features are still a work in progress, so expect to see tweaks to things like those enemy re-blockades.

Pearl Abyss' PR lead recently explained the studio didn't have a concrete roadmap with set-in-stone dates attached because the devs wanted to listen to what Crimson Desert players had to say first, without acting on any presumptions. It's entirely possible that thought process will simply extend to all future post-launch updates with fan feedback largely steering the ship.

I imagine New Game Plus will likely be on the menu at some point, alongside even more bosses, enemies, armor kits, pets, mounts, and the like. Having sold over five million copies already, it wouldn't be too shocking to see an expansion or maybe, eventually, a sequel somewhere down the line.

If you're yet to play it, make sure to check out our Crimson Desert review to see why it's one of the biggest new games for 2026.

Accused of using generative AI to fill gaps in Neverness to Everness, developer Hotta Studio released a statement confirming it used AI tools to do pretty much exactly that.

"Neverness to Everness is built on human creativity," the NTE devs begin in a Twitter post. "The characters, stories, and world you experience are the work of artists, writers, and designers. AI-assisted tools were used only on a small number of background and environmental assets, not on the characters or stories that define this game."

From day one, Neverness to Everness has been put under a microscope by players looking for traces of AI-made assets, and they certainly found some. As Hotta Studio says, several smaller bits scattered around the game's open world, seemingly including a poster criticized for closely mirroring famous Japanese animated film Weathering With You, were very clearly made with AI in some capacity.

Frustration and confusion around the game's use of AI recently came to a boil online following an announcement from IronMouse, a massively popular vtuber and streamer who was previously set to run more sponsored content for Neverness to Everness. She claimed that the game's team lied to her about AI use, so when she learned of the AI slop after the fact, she bailed out. This put more eyes on the game, perhaps prompting or at least hastening today's statement.

In that post, the devs add, "We're already reviewing and reworking the flagged assets: 'Clear Skies in Summer' and 'Pink Paws Heist'."

The AI-generated animation in that heist mission was deleted outright, as one player flagged on Reddit earlier today. Previously, players would see a short sequence bearing telltale AI marks, from a yellow tint to inconsistent movements and art styles. Now, you'll evidently just hear the audio from the animation played over TV static, presumably until the animation is redone entirely.

The noise around Neverness to Everness fits a growing pattern of AI backlash in gaming. Breathless claims that every studio is using AI sit alongside consistent backlash from players at the first whiff of AI-generated content, from Nvidia DLSS 5 to individual assets or even translations.

Even Larian, a critical and community darling after the sterling run of Baldur's Gate 3, faced fierce criticism after suggesting AI would be used in a placeholder-adjacent way for its new RPG Divinity (and ultimately u-turning on that). AI content unintentionally left in GOTY trophy collector Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was also quickly replaced after it was discovered, but only after it cost it an Indie Game Award win.

Some of this player response likely stems from confusion on how AI is being used and a scorched-earth answer just to be safe. But sometimes it's very obvious how it's being used, and many players have proven over and over that they don't want it in their games. Amidst this type of pushback, several studios have scaled back AI plans or replaced AI content. Multiple developers, most recently including Subnautica 2 studio Unknown Worlds, have also gotten ahead of the whole mess by publicly saying they aren't using and/or will never use AI.

Neverness to Everness gives out S-class character selector after devs get "an incredible amount of feedback and suggestions" from launch players.

Yes, there's more Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on the way, but no, it's not another season of the gorgeous Netflix anime series. Instead, it's a collaboration with the action-RPG Wuthering Waves, focusing on two characters in particular.

A trailer for the partnership gives a quick little bit of context: the Edgerunners have arrived in the futuristic city of Solaris-3, and they're causing a bit of a stir. If you're unfamiliar, Wuthering Waves is essentially a science fiction version of Genshin Impact – it's free-to-play, with gacha mechanics for new characters and the like, and you're encouraged to explore, complete dailies, and all that good stuff.

Heavily inspired by cyberpunk, not much change is required aesthetically for the cast of Edgerunners to fit into Solaris-3, being both anime-inspired and hailing from a total dystopia themselves. Lucy, the plucky netrunner of Night City who's a catalyst for much of the series, is involved prominently, as is gun nut Rebecca.

The latter's playable for free, and it's hinted the former's got a pretty big questline: she's targeting one of the city's moons for some reason. Frankly, I don't think we need any further reasoning, Lucy versus the moons of Solaris-3 is a mission I'll gladly accept.

There's no release date, but we get a release window of June this year. That's only a few weeks away now! This'll be just over two years since Wuthering Waves first launched on PC, and a month ahead of rolling out Xbox Series X/S. If you're going to celebrate, do it Cyberpunk style.

Cyberpunk 2077's best shopkeeper was originally a "vapid" side character devs had no idea what to do with, says actor, until a few redrafts made her "one of my favourite characters I've ever voiced."

Crimson Desert's enjoyed beefy updates nearly every week since its blockbuster launch almost two months ago, taking a hammer to what players don't like and shoving more of what works into the already overflowing game. Despite the rapid cadence of patches, developer Pearl Abyss apparently didn't pre-plan anything in an effort to work off fan feedback.

Speaking to The Washington Post, the developer explains there wasn't an "official communicated roadmap with set-in-stone dates" for Crimson Desert's expansive post-launch content. Instead, the studio reacted to what fans were talking about as they were talking.

"Everything, patch-wise, content-wise, has been iterated in real time based on feedback, based on response," the studio's PR and marketing director, Will Powers, says. "If you bake in a road map, you're presuming. We are not baking in presumptions around what the players want."

Powers goes on to say that the studio's way of working actually came from Black Desert, the company's long-running fantasy MMO that enshrined that kind of player-first attitude into the company: "There is no Black Desert if there are no players, and there is no Crimson Desert without Black Desert."

And you can see that philosophy reflected in the game itself. One glitch that let main man Kliff dash mid-air was patched into the game with a bespoke animation. Another bug that caused pet cats to idly sit on players' shoulders indefinitely was also turned into an official feature. Complaints around inventory space or an empty late-game world or wonky controls were acted on within no time at all in the context of AAA games.

Pearl Abyss devs also aren't precious, apparently, and don't mind taking ideas from players. "We're not onerous about, if an idea didn't come from us, then it can't be in the game," Powers adds. "I think that's something that [other companies are] too ego-driven a lot of the time to be able to accept other people's ideas. It's almost Silicon Valley-esque. A good idea can come from anywhere."

Good ideas can come from anywhere, that's right, but does Crimson Desert surrender its own individuality (or potential individuality) by trying to appease as many people as possible or adding content for content's sake? I guess with over five million copies sold and a mostly happy player base, Pearl Abyss doesn't mind.

Check out our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

Never doubt the ability of speedrunners to make a big game seem small. Crimson Desert might be a huge, fantastical playground, but the record for hitting credits is already down to sub-12 hours, and there are a couple of players already competing for top place in the rankings.

As of now, the world record on Speedrun.com is 11 hours, 26 minutes, and 14 seconds. That's the pace set by harpo669, a Crimson Desert fan based in Quebec, Canada. He clocked this run only a couple of days ago at time of writing, on May 4, rolling credits over 50 hours faster than the average story-focused player on HowLongToBeat, and trimming almost a full hour off the time of his nearest speedrun rival.

I say that like the leaderboard is stacked. So far, only one other runner has clocked in, GuryDub from the good old United States of America, who broke the seal on Crimson Desert speedrunning, with an impressive best time of 12 hours, 20 minutes, and three seconds. For such a large game that's been out less than two months, these are impressive times.

"Good run overall, need more practice for the Tank bosses and bad robot fight," Harpo669 modestly says in the description of his winning run submission. He doesn't add much else to his stream, other than palpable exhaustion and relief once he's actually done. After nearly 12 hours of constant play, I can imagine he was wrecked, but it sounds like he's not done trying to improve his record.

This is the longest game he's run by a wide margin, his last being the JRPG Trials of Mana, his highest time on which is two hours, 49 minutes and two seconds for No Major Glitches, winning him second place in that category. Before that, it's all SNES and NES games – not libraries where you find many releases that'll take you 12 hours to beat in a single sitting if you know what you're doing.

For their part, GuryDub believes the final boss in Crimson Desert doesn't live up to the rest of the game. "Even for a 12-hour run, this is so unfulfilling," they say as they complete the story. I'll leave out other details, because spoilers, but Pearl Abyss, you need to step it up next time, it seems.

You can read our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the most popular new games for 2026.

You know a game is big when even the people who made it think you're spoilt for choice in your options. A voice actor involved in Crimson Desert has no sympathy for anyone paralyzed by what to do next, he simply believes you've got to dive in and just start making moves around Pywel.

Neil Newbon, the man behind Marni (HALL) in the fantasy adventure, was asked about how overwhelming Crimson Desert is in an interview with Honest Game Trailers. "There is too many choices. You're just going to have to deal with it," he responds. "So much you can do in that game."

His interview partner, Devora Wilde, then asks if there's more choices than in Baldur's Gate 3, a release they both contributed to. Newbon doesn't directly compare the two – when you're talking about games offering hundreds of hours of quests, it's hard to quantify which is bigger – but he does talk up how jam-packed Crimson Desert is.

"It's the things – the activities – in the world that you can do," he states. "There's so many things you can do and different playstyles and such. Yeah, it's a really impressive game."

It truly is a magnificent achievement. Exploring Pywel uncovers all sorts of oddities and strange paths for you to follow, and there are many, many ways to approach the combat. You can even create tornadoes as your central offensive move, if you so choose.

It's the kind of game you'll pour hours upon hours into, and can still find nooks and crannies Pearl Abyss left for people to stumble onto. If you've rinsed Baldur's Gate 3, and need something to absorb you while we wait for Larian's new Divinity, Crimson Desert might be the ticket. There's a train for you to try and stop and all!

Crimson Desert devs know combat "became less frequent" the more players progressed, so a new patch adds re-blockades and rematches for 69 bosses

Developer Pearl Abyss is aware that Crimson Desert's open world gets less dangerous the more players progress, so a new patch aims to make the mammoth map feel a little less sparse with rematches for bosses and stronghold fights available now.

"We understand that as more regions of the continent were liberated, opportunities for combat naturally became less frequent. So to keep the sense of challenge alive, we've added the Rematch and Re-blockade content," the studio writes in its latest patch notes. "We are continuing to refine these features, and this update serves as the first step by implementing their core, foundational systems. Building upon this base in future patches, we plan to progressively refine the content and craft a deeper world, so we hope you're looking forward to what we have in store."

Boss rematches are rolling out for 69 fights today and are available as soon as you beat any particular baddie by lighting a lantern at the site of their encounter. Boss rematches are available with any of the playable characters, and there are also two different modes up in the settings: Reminisce, which resurrects the boss exactly as they were, and Resonate, which scales a boss' stats to match yours as long as your stats are higher.

"In Rematch, any consumables used will be restored to their prior state once the battle ends, and no separate loot can be obtained," the dev notes, explaining that this feature aims to test player skill and allow for playstyle experimentation.

Re-blockades are a similar situation, allowing enemy factions to retake once liberated strongholds. "Re-blockades will occur at a set probability for strongholds that meet specific time and condition requirements," the dev explains, and you can also tweak how often bad guys pop back up again with three frequency options: Stable, Conflict, and War.

Despite Crimson Desert's popularity, almost 80% of Steam players haven't made it halfway through the story yet, proving how massive Pearl Abyss's open world is

In short order after the recent global launch, Neverness to Everness players have all but set iron sights on their very own annoying companion character: Taygedo, the perfect counterpart to Paimon from Genshin Impact, the open-world gacha action RPG that started the genre's modern boom.

Paimon's reputation has improved among Genshin Impact players thanks to a recast English voice actor and a shift in writing direction that's made her less disruptive and repetitive, but for years players complained about the fairy-like sidekick souring quests, cutscenes, and even exploration. Many Neverness to Everness players have fired similar complaints at Taygedo, a tiny, TV-headed mascot who regularly hijacks cutscenes and quests.

"I pretty much just start skipping any missions that revolve around him [including] main story," writes one Reddit user.

"Loving the rest of the game but hate having to listen to this guy.. Why does he have to be part of all the main quests too," insists another.

From day one, players have begged for an option to mute the character without impacting other audio, which is about as damning as companion reviews get. A quick scrub of social media reveals white-hot posts from players in multiple regions – suggesting this is not just an English problem – complaining about Taygedo's presence in NTE, particularly his voice work, which essentially loops the word "Taygedo" like a Pokemon in a shouting match, with subtitles convey the actual content. An early dating-esque mission with Taygedo has become especially infamous for this.

This actually reminds me of another game from Genshin maker HoYoverse, Zenless Zone Zero, which features a lot of tiny, robotic, "Bangboo" characters who speak in subtitled gibberish. Fortunately for ZZZ players, Bangboo are a pretty minor part of most of the story.

Video games have a long and storied history of saddling players with unavoidable and annoying companions or mascots, but this modern wave of gacha games seems particularly enamored with them. It feels like brevity is always the secret to success. These little guys can be fine, even endearing, in short bursts, but in long stretches often become cloying, and the last thing these games need is another reason for gacha players to tune out text and storytelling.

For in-game rewards, here are all the Neverness to Everness codes released so far.

Neverness to Everness gives out S-class character selector after devs get "an incredible amount of feedback and suggestions" from launch players.

You may have noticed Windrose is having a moment. The pirate-themed open-world multiplayer game garnered over 200,000 concurrent players its first week, and it's remained consistent since. In light of this, there are a lot of Steam reviews, and now there's a trailer highlighting some of the best.

"I punched a dodo in the face," is one that immediately jumps out. The reviews are shown in an animated slideshow, framed on the wooden pieces of a docked pirate ship. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these adorn the walls of developer Kraken Express in real life, incredible as they are.

"YAARRRRRR!!! The game be grand, matey!" writes one spirited review, clearly from someone intimately familiar with the seven seas. "Voyagin' with yer crew be a right bit o' fun." There are many just like this, taking my back to when Pirate English was an option on Facebook. Remember that? Simpler times.

As is necessary for anything themed around gathering a crew and setting sail for treasure, there's a reference to Luffy and his merry band of misfits. "It's time to find the One Piece," says one reviewer. If Kraken Express weren't already planning to reference that franchise, the team really should be now.

There are numerous references to boars, wolves and other animals, many of which have battered and bruised players to varying degrees. "I got touched by a big crab," one reviewer solemnly wrote. No further context needed.

The trailer reveals there are apparently now over 1,500,000 players who've tried out Windrose. That's a lot of gold and silver. Yo ho ho, indeed.

Windrose patch fights connectivity woes with setting that sacrifices ping to make sure you can join a friend's game, along with crash fixes, added music, and more

Update ahoy: Windrose's latest patch addresses those annoying connectivity problems by adding another option for players to try if they're suffering any lag. A litany of minor fixes have been made in tow, as well as numerous small additions to make gameplay a little better.

The topmost feature here is the new setting, called Force Relay Connection. Essentially, this pushes the connection through using one of the game's relay servers, if you're having trouble getting into a friend's game. It's not a full P2P connection, so ping takes a hit, but it'll hopefully allow you and your friends to play together. Note, though, that it doesn't work on Direct IP connections.

This is the latest in a growing line of changes developer Kraken Express has had to make following the launch of Windrose to improve the connectivity quality. The team was at such a loss post-release, they put out an open call for people who work at ISPs to help them triangulate the problems. It seems they've found some leads and have cultivated solutions.

Some crashes and other performance issues have been sorted alongside this. If you're someone who enjoys triangles, you're in luck, because 40 of them have been added for crafting roofs. A few more audio-visual tweaks have been made, including a three-minute extension of the bonfire ambience, and as someone who loves video game ambience, I wholeheartedly approve.

The list of other changes is long – this is a meaty, meaty update – but another two things that caught my eye are that the Alpha Wolf's bleed effect now applies at the end of a grapple, and bleed damage in general stops while being grappled. That should help players who've been getting mauled by the canine enemies, if even a little bit.

Steam hit Windrose won't get a major update for "at least 6 months" as devs focus on fixing the problems their open-world pirate survival game already has.

Former Elder Scrolls Online game director and ZeniMax Online Studios founder Matt Firor says Crimson Desert is "awesome," and that "being able to make a single-player MMO is almost like cheating to me."

Speaking in a new interview with MinnMax (below), Firor – who left ZeniMax Online Studios after more than 18 years in 2025 following the cancellation of his dream MMO, Project Blackbird – is asked for his thoughts on Pearl Abyss's massive new open-world game. After all, before Crimson Desert, the devs made the MMORPG Black Desert. In fact, as marketing and PR lead Will Powers previously explained to PlayDay.One, "Crimson Desert was originally announced as not only a prequel to Black Desert, but also an MMO," but this was changed during development to "let it blossom into its own thing."

So, what does Firor think about a studio with such MMO expertise putting its efforts towards a single-player game, instead? "It's fantastic," he begins. "For those game developers listening – or people who want to be game developers – the online tech side of MMOs is never discussed, and it should be, because it's usually the hardest part of the project. And so being able to make a single-player MMO is almost like cheating to me. Like, why didn't anyone think of this before?"

Firor adds that Crimson Desert itself is "awesome," even if "I don't know what the hell I'm doing" in it. "It doesn't hand-hold you at all. And I played it for, I don't know, dozens of hours at this point. And I'm still like, 'Oh, I can do that. Oh, I can do that.' It's very Breath of the Wild in that sense."

That decision to let players figure things out for themselves is something that Firor is a huge fan of. "It reminds me a lot of the old days of gaming when there's not a lot of hand-holding, and not a lot of written material, and no one knows what's going on, and you just learn for yourself," he continues. "And I'm really trying to do that with Crimson Desert, and not watch tutorials... And I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm having so much fun."

Going forward, Firor thinks "more teams will do it." In fact, he reckons "Horizon Zero Dawn was not unlike this also, which is one of my favorite games of all time."

It'll be interesting to see what Pearl Abyss itself does going forward – after Crimson Desert's launch, it was reported that the team is now focusing on the open-world creature-collecting game DokeV. It should be noted that Black Desert hasn't been abandoned in favor of the shiny new offline adventure, though – in the aforementioned interview with Powers from earlier this year, he points out that " in-house there are two dev teams," which are divided "into live service development, which is continued operations on Black Desert and then new IP development." So, as far as the Crimson Desert dev is concerned, it seems likely that it's going to continue to aim for the best of both worlds with its MMO and other games.

Be sure to read our Crimson Desert review to see why it's one of the biggest new games for 2026.

It's all well and good hopping aboard a vessel and setting sail for treasure, until you come face to face with wolves while you search for gold and silver. Then, the value of those trinkets comes into question, as more than a few Windrose players have been learning.

In the Foothills, those who've searched the high seas of this pirate survival game are encountering more feral problems than choppy winds and gnarly waves. A familiar early access survival game hurdle has reared its head: outlier enemies making the learning curve feel more like a learning wall at times. Alpha Wolves are tearing Windrose players apart and leaving them for dead. If they manage to survive, it's by sheer tenacity, as evidenced by this Reddit clip.

"Yeah that Alpha Wolf is an absolute terror if you happen upon him while still in your level 5 gear, the pin and bleed is nuts," says a commenter, who points out they only survived because some goats became more appealing for their canine pursuer. "I’ve steered the wolves into goat herds so often. They do not like each other," a Redditor says in response.

Because walking on the ground is for suckers who want rabies or step in goat dung. from r/crosswind

Another player only realized the danger of the wolves after venturing to the Foothills and encountering one straight away. "Yep, friend and I were feeling really tough on the way there. Sailed home with no food or meds left and bruised egos," one commenter states.

"Ran around minding my own business then a fucking two-star Alpha Wolf jumped me from a bush and insta-killed me with the special attack," another Reddit user states. That'll leave a mark. Enemies in Windrose come in grades of danger, essentially, and it can be hard to guess where you'll encounter what. The Alpha Wolf has become a notorious menace, particularly in the early game, largely through abundance and unpredictability.

One ingenious fan found a solution though: the SkyWay. Just build a wooden path through the area, placing all the ground-level threats below you. "Because walking on the ground is for suckers who want rabies or step in goat dung," the person says with an accompanying image of their architectural phenomenon.

There are worse solutions, but if pirates are defying physics just to escape your wolves, something might be wrong. I agree with the folks who think this'll be patched. All the same, all hail the SkyWay.

Steam hit Windrose won't get a major update for "at least 6 months" as devs focus on fixing the problems their open-world pirate survival game already has

A pirate's life isn't easy, what with the roughshod sailing and treacherous adventuring seeking gold and silver of any description. In an effort to make things easier for the hundreds of thousands of wannabe Captain Blackbeards in the game's community, the Windrose devs have introduced a new resource for troubleshooting, and there's a fresh patch of fixes on the way.

The Windrose Support site does what it says in the title - you hop in, pick your line of inquiry, and go from there. There are established, detailed answers for a long list of known problems, and you have the option of submitting your own if you've found something more specific than what's covered.

"As this tool is rather complex and new, please expect some bugs here and there, and for now it is localized in English only, however, as we put it to real use, it will be improved," developer Kraken Express says in a post on Steam.

Similar functionality on Discord is going to be disabled, to eliminate overlap, simply because "this new platform makes the process much easier for players and devs alike." Having a quick browse through the site, it's a strong foundation for what'll no doubt become a lifeline in the months ahead, if Windrose's player-base remains anywhere near current numbers.

The aim is for the next patch to roll out this week, but there are no promises, as it's currently being tested. It'll cover connectivity problems, CPU usage, disc usage, performance problems, and numerous other smaller issues.

Since eager players have already managed to complete all the narrative aspects currently available, Kraken Express took some time to address when the first big expansion will arrive. Short version: it might be while.

"Our philosophy now is to enrich the current gameplay systems, instead of only adding new biomes with the respective content, so even before we have the full details, it’s safe to say the game will not just grow in size – it will also evolve," the studio states.

"The scope of what we want to do is rather ambitious, so our best bet right now this update will take at least 6 months to deliver. This might sound like a long time, but we believe it will allow us to roll out an exciting and meaningful expansion to the game of appropriate quality."

Windrose players thank the devs for avoiding item durability, a divisive survival game feature: "Possibly the most un-fun mechanic in any video game"

Crimson Desert players seem to not be all that bothered with the main questline, as reportedly just over 20% of players have hit the halfway point of the game.

Crimson Desert is pretty big. That's the vibe I get from the game anyway, where all of the pre-release material was effectively 'we have literally everything in this game by the way, go tame some cats.' Hell, Palworld's communications and publishing head 100%ed the game's achievements after 189 hours, and says he still has 20+ hours of side quests to do. Plus, even in the face of Resident Evil Requiem and Pokemon Pokopia, it's probably the most popular game of 2026 in terms of player reception, but for all the praise showered on its mechanics and the sheer amount of silly stuff you can do in it, I actually don't know anything about the story.

As spotted by PC Gamer, a glance at the Steam Achievements list for Crimson Desert reveals that only 22.1% of players have unlocked the Protector of Pailune achievement, which marks the completion of Chapter 7 of the main questline (around halfway through the main plot), which perhaps puts the reason I don't know anything about the main quest into perspective. The story seems to be the same over on PlayStation, as PSN Profiles says that only about 20.09% of players on PS5 have hit the same milestone.

It's not entirely a stretch to say Crimson Desert's story seems to be one of the weaker parts of the game, especially since even Pearl Abyss studio CEO Heo Jin-young admitted the story could have done with some work. Plus, Kliff mocap actor Trevor McEwan said "I think what it lacks in narrative it more than makes up for in other aspects," although he does not there's a ton of lore nuggets hidden throughout the world.

Granted, I don't really see a problem with this. A good open world can definitely sustain itself by just exploring and doing whatever. I played about 100 hours of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before I bothered to go have a scrap with Calamity Ganon, because it was simply that fun to roam about in. And despite having an incredible story, I wouldn't be shocked if there's a ton of Red Dead Redemption 2 players who haven't finished the story either thanks to just how good that open world is.

Take a look at our Crimson Desert review to find out why it's one of the hottest new games for 2026.