Final Fantasy 14 is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 next month, and now that its file size has been confirmed… I hope you didn't want to have a bunch of games installed on your console.

Thanks to a listing on the US version of the Nintendo eShop, we've learned that the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 will come in a hefty 117.2GB file size on Nintendo Switch 2. For those keeping score, that comes at just under half of the Switch 2's entire 256GB storage. That's half of your Switch 2 space for Final Fantasy 14.

So not only is Final Fantasy 14 the biggest single game file available on Nintendo Switch 2 so far, it also beats out the previous record holder for the franchise – 91.8GB Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – by over 25GB. Square Enix has been desperate to hold the title it seems, since, on top of that, the single biggest eShop game listing to date is Kingdom Hearts Collection, which clocks in at an estimated 131GB… but that includes three games.

Of course, Final Fantasy 14 being so big makes total sense. Aside from it having one of the biggest MMO base games, Final Fantasy 14 is currently five major expansions deep with Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, Endwalker, and Dawntrail, and it's only going to get bigger once Evercold releases in January 2027. So even if you're only picking up the base game and not the complete edition of Final Fantasy 14, you will have to install all of that data, too.

Final Fantasy 14's Yoshi-P doesn't quite get the community hype around Chort, the chunky boss who quickly became an online icon: "Just why?"

Square Enix plans to reveal the next Final Fantasy 14 DPS job in a few months from now, and some fresh clues already have fans fawning over the possibility of playing as a bird-loving Falconer-type when the game's Evercold expansion drops.

This past weekend, Final Fantasy 14 composer and sound designer Masayoshi Soken took to the Fan Fest stage in Berlin to tease fans with two audio snippets related to the unannounced second job coming in next year's Evercold expansion, alongside the Bastion.

The first snippet blasted clinging and clanging noises at the audience, while the second sounded like a bird screeching and clawing at something. You can try to decipher the clues for yourself in the clip below.

New ranged dps teased by Soken at Berlin fanfest from r/ffxiv

"These are sound effects from the new DPS job we're going to announce at the JP Fan Fest," it's revealed via a translator. The Japanese leg of Fan Fest is set to begin on October 31, 2026, so we won't need to wait too much longer to find out what the team's been cooking.

Over on Reddit, theorists are overwhelmingly in agreement that all clues are pointing to a Falconer job or something adjacent to that, at least (Hunter, Ranger, Beastmaster, etc.) "Falconer is the ranged DPS we saw in the trailer. Bet," one fan writes.

Evercold's extended teaser trailer threw fuel over the fire, too, with a brief glimpse of a large, armored, winged creature taking flight and annoying a spellcaster.

"Willing to bet that the bird in the trailer is related to the job, but the girl is unrelated," another theorycrafter says. "The last trailer will likely extend that shot to show the bird flying to whoever is our job representative! The baton she has is more likely a plot device, rather than the weapon of the job."

A Falconer job would be entirely new for the Final Fantasy series, though past games have dabbled with similar concepts. Final Fantasy 10-2's Trainer job gives one of the characters a big bird to command, for example. And Final Fantasy 5's Hunter can also occasionally call in help from woodland critters, flying types included.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The developers of Myst and Riven have just released an awesome trailer for a game that finally returns to the universe of their stone cold PC classics, but don't get too excited, as Cyan Worlds canceled this one a year ago for unknown reasons.

Cyan Worlds has been pumping out interesting, first-person adventure games and freaky mysteries for literal decades now. That work was supposed to continue in Project Anglerfish, a previously unannounced game that was quietly in production at the studio last year before it got scrapped just as quietly.

A new trailer now gives us a glimpse of what could've been, otherworldly books and all - take a look below.

First-person exploration through twisty-turvy buildings? A book that seemingly flings readers into whole other worlds? Gorgeous graphics, even on a rough build? Sure seems like a new Myst game, alright.

"Over a year ago, the team here at Cyan spent about four months building a prototype for a new game in the Myst universe, codenamed 'Project Anglerfish,'" the trailer's description reads. "The prototype (and this teaser trailer made for it) were purpose-built for publisher-eyes only. For a variety of reasons, this project couldn't move forward at the time, but we're still proud of the work the team did – so we're sharing the teaser for the prototype with you all now."

Project Anglerfish would've been the first brand-new Myst game in ages - not counting the trove of remakes, remasters, and re-re-releases - though it doesn't sound like we'll need to wait too long for more games in its world. "Don't worry, we're still hard at work on other new Myst universe things," the dev adds. "More on that to come."

Cyan Worlds is one of the longest-surviving independent game makers in the world, having been founded almost 40 years ago. Way back when, the developer made a name for itself with the engrossingly lonely and mysterious Myst, which eventually became the best-selling PC game of its time and one of the most hotly debated games around.

The years since haven't been quite as kind to the influential studio, as Cyan let go of around half of its staff last year. Cyan Worlds did just port its gorgeous Myst and Riven remakes to PS5, PSVR2, and Xbox Series X|S earlier this summer, however.

While we wait to hear about these other Myst universe projects, check out the new games of 2026 and beyond.

Xbox is down, right on the heels of a timely PlayStation outage which punctuated concerns about Sony's proposed all-digital future.

This Xbox outage has now lasted several hours, and seems to have gotten worse after reports first emerged late July 26.

At 7:54am ET, the official Xbox Support Twitter account wrote: "Just checking in on the game library, sign-in, and game launch issue. We know this has been going on a while and appreciate your patience while our teams keep working on it."

The Xbox Status support page affirms that "account and profile, store and subscriptions, games and gaming, and apps and mobile" functions are all experiencing a "major outage."

As of 9:43am ET, Xbox support says it has "identified the issue" for all four areas and has a resolution "pending." These outages were first reported around 11:10pm ET on July 26, according to Microsoft's tracking.

"You may not be able to sign-in to your Xbox profile, may be disconnected while signed in, or have other related problems," a support disclaimer reads. "Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won't be available."

This also extends to your ability to find specific games in the Xbox store, opening apps, and, yes, "you may have problems playing your digital games right now." As ever, any blow to physical games is bad for everyone, whether you actually buy discs or not.

Additionally, Microsoft confirms, "You may have problems playing disc-based games right now." Ah, the joys of modern connectivity.

Xbox is reportedly testing a feature to digitize physical game collections as PlayStation decides to phase out discs.

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

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

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

Run Through the Jungle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There's a new comic set in the world of Baldur's Gate 3 on the way. On the back of the publication being revealed, Larian Studios took the opportunity to remind people this is a licensed venture, and the studio isn't secretly chipping away on anything based on the Forgotten Worlds.

After Dark Horse Comics revealed the upcoming Baldur's Gate 3 book, there was some excitement at Larian's potential involvement, prompting a response quelling any rumors.

"Maximum hijinks are happening right now, but we're not involved in any BG3 related projects," says a post from Larian on Twitter, with an image of founder Swen Vincke getting fitted in armor.

It's not specified why, exactly, he's got a medieval costume on, but it also looks like he's been given some lines to memorise. Perhaps something to do with Divinity? Unlikely, given the wording of the next part – my guess is it's an endorsement of some kind for the comic.

"As soon as we bust outta here, we'll share more about Divinity," the tweet finishes. Larian's been adamant for a while now that it's done working on anything to do with Baldur's Gate in a substantial way.

After the whirlwind of the third, with it being a best-seller and an awards darling, the team has decided to use the boost in recognition and resources to resurrect the Divinity series. The last installment, Divinity Original Sin 2, will be ten years old next year, making it a good time for a fresh entry.

Whether or not we get Baldur's Gate 4 is really a question for Hasbro, who owns the Dungeons and Dragons IP, and it doesn't seem to be a priority for the time-being, although Wizards of the Coast president John Hight previously said "of course" it'll happen eventually. Whenever it does, though, it'll be from a studio other than Larian, even if you see Vincke in a shiny chestplate.

Baldur's Gate 3 player throws 60-hour Honour Mode run with just 2 fights left by falling for one of the D&D RPG's most dishonorable deaths.

A new Dragon Age game would have a very difficult time getting off the ground, according to the series former producer and long-time BioWare veteran Mark Darrah.

BioWare's epic fantasy series hasn't had a smooth ride as of late, which is odd considering Dragon Age Inquisition was a critical and commercial smash. After a decade-long gap between games and multiple internal reboots, Dragon Age: The Veilguard tripped past the finish line when it came out in 2024 to mild sales.

Speaking to FRVR, Darrah says the Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the series' wider troubles were perhaps "happening because of EA's complicated relationship to shipping games at all." He then recalls how "someone once described to me EA as a hedge fund with a video game hobby that it wished it didn't spend so much money on, and I think that remains true."

The BioWare veteran of over 20 years doesn't see things changing anytime soon, either. "I have no concept of who could, would, possibly pitch that at EA," he says, partly because "EA owns a frightening number of IPs that are dormant." You can perhaps find Dragon Age laying in a damp cell alongside Titanfall and Mirror's Edge, then.

As for the reasons why a new Dragon Age project could hit a proverbial wall, well, there's quite a few. "The problem is I don't know who at BioWare would pitch a Dragon Age," he continues. "So the other option is somebody else within the EA organization decides they're gonna pitch a Dragon Age and, what I expect would happen if they try to do that, is somebody at BioWare would essentially become one of those people jumping under the vents to rip that person apart. I suspect that it wouldn't happen for a variety of reasons."

For context, BioWare's been hit hard by mass layoffs at EA multiple times over the last few years, meaning the storied developer might not even have the bandwidth to make a Dragon Age game alongside its next Mass Effect.

Complicating things further is the impending proposed buyout of EA by a group of investment firms led by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Group. Darrah questions whether the publisher's new ownership would even be interested in the series or the studio at all: "I could argue yes and no… do you want BioWare at all in this world?"

"It's a really compelling place to be left in": Dragon Age fans aren't giving up on the RPG – they're expanding it.

Speaking on stage at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest, the MMORPG's lead Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida lays the praise on Naoki Hamaguchi, saying that fans are desperate for the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director to work on the next mainline entry in the long-running JRPG series.

The pair were standing on stage together at MMO's annual fan convention for a panel called Naoki's Room. The two series leads, who coincidentally share the same first name, answered a number of prepared questions during the talk. Towards the end of the discussion, Yoshi-P revealed that he's received many comments from fans asking for Hamaguchi to work on FF17.

"But there were comments along the lines of 'I want this guy [Hamaguchi] to make Final Fantasy 17,'" he says.

Yoshi-P continues by explaining how highly he regards the compliment. "So I think that's probably the highest praise you can get," he continues, before adding "you don't have to respond."

The FF7R lead is clearly embarrassed by the comment when he says, "my response?" Yoshi-P then makes a gesture that he doesn't need to answer before quickly wrapping up the discussion.

Some have speculated that this is a hint that Hamaguchi is indeed working on FF17, but it's vague at best. While Hamaguchi is visibly embarrassed, it could be from the compliment, from being caught off guard, or because he's unsure if he can talk about the projects he's working on. Equally, Yoshi-P may have cut Hamaguchi off to save him from his embarrassment.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was a huge success and we're sure Hamaguchi would do an excellent job developing a completely new mainline entry, rather than his current remakes. However, as the third part of the remake trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, isn't scheduled to be released until 2027, we hope he focuses his energy on perfecting that game first.

Final Fantasy 6, 8, or 9 remakes would need even more games than the FF7 trilogy, Yoshi-P warns: "We'd probably end up having to release them in 4 or maybe even 5 installments."

Careful what you wish for, Final Fantasy fans. Potential future remakes of other games in the series would probably require even more individual parts than the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy – at least, if they were remade in that same style – according to Final Fantasy 14's Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida.

The MMORPG's director said as much during a panel at Fan Fest Berlin – with Final Fantasy 7 Remake lead Naoki Hamaguchi also in attendance – warning folks that the wait for an entire remake of Final Fantasy 6, for example, would be even more painfully long than what we've become accustomed to.

"Of course I understand the feelings of the players, but you gotta think about it," Yoshi-P says, per a translator, of fan requests for future series remakes. "Look at Final Fantasy 6, it's such an incredibly huge game. The scale is just immense."

But the same argument is true for other games in the series, like Final Fantasy 8 and Final Fantasy 9, he adds: "So, of course, now because you are working on the Final Fantasy 7 series, I do get that people would be asking for remakes of other titles. But if we did remake those other titles, we'd probably end up having to release them in four or maybe even five installments."

Final Fantasy games used to be absolutely huge in their scope because the developers couldn't render everything in excruciating detail as they can now – nor did they need to. Final Fantasy 6 was able to fit 14 playable characters, a huge world map that dramatically changes throughout the adventure, and countless epic fights onto a humble SNES cartridge. You can imagine how doing all of that in a game with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's production value would be tricky.

Ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Hamaguchi himself made clear that a hypothetical remake of Final Fantasy 6 would be in better hands with another developer anyway. He seems more keen on doing something new after Revelation ships.

At Fan Fest, Hamaguchi explained that he felt incredibly lucky that so many developers stayed together for all three games in the FF7 Remake trilogy, back to back. "That's why I can't just sit here and go, 'Yeah, yeah, I'll remake [FF6],' because it's not quite that easy."

Perhaps the way forward for Final Fantasy remakes is the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance, a gorgeous pixel art game with turn-based combat, rather than the giant world of the FF7 Remake games.

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

Final Fantasy 14's housing system is due to get two "very big" overhauls as part of the post-Evercold run of patches, and it looks like Blizzard's own take on the popular MMO feature in World of Warcraft has given Square Enix plenty to chew over.

As part of Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest in Berlin, producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida spoke to the press to tackle some questions about Evercold. Among the most interesting was a question over whether Square Enix had any plans to modernize Final Fantasy 14's housing system.

Speaking through a translator, Yoshi-P jokes that the question may have been refined prior to being presented to him, before adding: "I get the feeling what you really want to ask is, well, WoW has come up with this amazing housing system. How about [Final Fantasy] 14?"

Yoshi-P starts by saying that the Final Fantasy 14 team has an "immense respect" for the World of Warcraft team. And indeed, Yoshi-P has rarely been shy in giving Blizzard its flowers.

Then, he shares that when the Final Fantasy 14 team saw that the WoW devs were working on their own housing system, and that they "looked to [Final Fantasy] 14 and incorporated things which they wanted to surpass us, I think that in itself is very much a sense of great honor for us to hear."

Seemingly happy to return the favor, Yoshi-P says he went "hands-on" with the WoW housing system, and came away impressed and motivated.

"I really do appreciate it. It's amazing," he says. "And we always like taking on new challenges. So this time around, when I tried WoW's housing, I thought it really is amazing, and it's been a good source of research."

The good news is that you'll see the results of that research soon. Yoshi-P says the Final Fantasy 14 team is "planning two very big overhauls for housing" during the patch 8.0 series. If you're averse to numbers, that means it'll arrive at some point between Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion launching and whatever the next expansion ends up being.

So what's on the way? Yoshi-P says one of the overhauls relates to the UI as it's currently "quite technical" and "not very accessible." In an ideal world, Yoshi-P would like a casual player to be able to create elaborate housing.

While Yoshi-P can't reveal much about the second overhaul, he does say it will make players happier than the UI update and that it's currently in the planning phase. As such, there's a chance it'll release before the UI update, but we'll just need to wait and see how the chips fall. Yoshi-P says the Final Fantasy 14 team will announce further details when they have more visibility.

The news is the latest sliver we've got about Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion. As part of the Berlin Fan Fest, we've also found out that the first new FF14 Evercold job will be a hulking tank called the Bastion, that Final Fantasy 14 is getting a crossover with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, and much more. It feels like Final Fantasy 14 is going for it, and that might be just what the MMO needs.

Final Fantasy 14 Evercold releases January, 2027.

"The desire for a world you can escape to is stronger than ever": How MMORPGs are flourishing in a multiplayer landscape dominated by live-service shooters.

The Final Fantasy 14 fandom quickly became enamoured by a chunky new boss that came alongside a patch 7.5 dungeon: Chort, a big boy who loves to roll around and wear a permanently hungry grin on his face. The critically-acclaimed MMORPG's director, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, doesn't quite get the hype, though.

"Honestly speaking, I just don't know why this is such a thing," Yoshi-P quips during a Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest panel in Berlin, attended by GamesRadar+. He might not be a huge fan of the rotund icon, but he couldn't exactly ignore the topic in a room full of fans who were asking about Chort.

"I am really glad to hear that Chort is so well received," Yoshi-P adds, per a translator. "But honestly speaking, I just couldn't really understand what is the appeal [or] point of Chort. Of course, we do understand that he's very popular, and there have been many memes. But really, I just couldn't understand, like, just why?"

Yoshi-P's not totally against seeing the good in Chort - he is human, after all, and I'm sure his heart hasn't been totally frozen over. "I mean, this is some huge hunky guy, and then suddenly, well, he's standing there and then he rolls," he continues, inching closer to a eureka moment. "So from that perspective, I can kind of understand." Hook, line, sinker.

Whether he gets the online hype or not, Yoshi-P did tell fans to continue coming together online and talking about the things they enjoy about the game. If nothing else, the devs love to see it: "When these kinds of things happen and the player community picks up on it on social media, and they combine various things, they create their own memes... it's really great for us to see as well because we are involved in creating this entertainment.

"So, if people in the community also find some unexpected sets or point of appeal in any content that we produce moving forward, do make your voices heard because the development team is looking at all of the responses on social media, and we very much do enjoy looking at them, and we do have smirks on our faces when things like this happen."

Long live Chort, then, even if his chances of becoming a minion just became less likely. We'll never forget you, big man.

Elsewhere at Fan Fest, Square Enix revealed that the Bastion is Final Fantasy 14's first new job coming with the Evercold expansion. The game's also getting a very exciting crossover raid series with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.

Final Fantasy 14 reportedly tops 1 million active players for the first time in over a year as fans prepare for the Evercold expansion

Capcom has been churning through remakes of its best Resident Evil games over the last few years, with Resident Evil: Code Veronica up next, but dusting off the horror tomes serves more than one purpose for the publisher. Capcom producer Masachika Kawata says remakes help the company release back-to-back games in the series and help invest more money back into all-new games.

Speaking to Game Informer magazine in its latest issue, Kawata explains that one of the reasons why the publisher creates so many remakes is that "producing a new entry in the Resident Evil series every year would be quite an undertaking and a difficult task" otherwise. Resident Evil isn't properly an annual franchise yet, but the only big gaps in its recent history have been in 2024 and 2025.

"Being able to revisit older games and remake them helps Capcom meet that goal of releasing a Resident Evil title each year, but it also allows the team to continually challenge themselves and hone their craft," Kawata adds. "That's not to say the remakes are any less important. In fact, they're just as important as the mainline titles." (Good spot, NintendoEverything!)

The proof is arguably in the pudding with Resident Evil Requeim, a game that managed to marry the tight and sweat-inducing first-person horror of RE7 and RE8 with the bloody, third-person horror-action of Capcom's recently remade games.

"Capcom is lucky enough to have found this cycle that can continue to provide us with the financial resources to create things like new entries in the Resident Evil series and completely new IP like Pragmata," he continues. "So there is that relationship there."

Of course, the well of old Resident Evil games will eventually run dry. Capcom could re-remake the first game and then try to redeem Resident Evils 5 and 6, sure, but at some point, it'll need to start making multiple original Resident Evil games simultaneously should the company want to keep up the cadence it's on now.

Resident Evil 4 made Capcom another $560 million and became the best-selling remake of the generation, analyst says, more than tripling sales of Oblivion Remastered and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

As Sony inches ever closer to a future where it permanently halts the production of PlayStation discs and as GTA 6 prepares to ship without a true physical version at all, Rockstar Games and Grand Theft Auto co-founder, Dan Houser, has some thoughts about the physical versus digital games debate.

The former GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 lead developer - who also had a hand in several more Rockstar classics - was recently asked about the topic at San Diego Comic-Con 2026. His thoughts? Houser isn't personally enthusiastic about physical games shipping on discs, but he doesn't see why companies should stop making them altogether.

"I don't know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it," Houser tells IGN in an interview at SDCC. "But I don't know that I personally care."

He also acknowledges that people sure are critical of digital games, but from a developer's perspective, "the ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games."

The future of physical games are on a lot of peoples' minds right now after PlayStation announced plans to axe PlayStation disc production starting in 2028. That means new games that come out past that point won't get true physical editions on PlayStation hardware - it also means your ability to lend, borrow, sell, and truly own the games you pay for is seriously constricted. An ironic demonstration of how our all-digital future could go very wrong happened this week, when The PlayStation Network almost went down and stopped waves of people from downloading or even playing their digital library.

Also speaking to IGN, former Rockstar veteran Lazlow Jones chimed in, too: "We all have that sort of feeling when you get that copy, and you put the disc in the console, but I also have to say I really like being at the airport and going, 'Oh, cool. I can download some quick games to my Steam Deck for this 12-hour flight.'"

Jones and Houser are now both working at Absurd Ventures, a company making multiple multimedia projects, including an upcoming AAA open-world game and a new comic book. Jones says that's "a different creative process but also just really fulfilling to have a physical thing you can say, 'Look. We made a thing.'"

"I love physical media," Houser adds.

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

Remember Craig? The ugly alien brute from Halo Infinite who immediately became subject to droves of online ridicule before eventually becoming a loveable internet meme? Halo: Campaign Evolved has now canonized the horrid internet icon, and perhaps even explained why he looks like that.

There are many hulking brutes stomping around the Halo games, but some fans are now convinced that they've had found Craig himself hidden in the newly-released Halo: Campaign Evolved because A) most brutes aren't completely bald and B) not all brutes are that unmistakably fugly.

In one of the remake's new prequel missions, Master Chief can stumble upon liquid-filled pods containing various brutes who have likely been experimented on by their Covenant overlords. Zoom in closely and you'll see that one of them looks very much like our poor old Craig, sad frown and all.

There you have it, then - Craig isn't ugly because Halo Infinite's first gameplay demo wasn't really ready to be shown off. Craig's ugly because he's the victim of genetic alteration and who knows what else? You bully. How he got out of that pod, survived the entire Covenant-UNSC-Flood war, and eventually became a Banished trooper getting whacked in the face by Chief on a faraway ringworld is still a mystery, however. Perhaps we'll need to wait for another Halo remake, which is looking increasingly likely, to find out the full story.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is still available in early access to owners of the Premium Edition only. The full game launches July 28, so be sure to check out what time Halo: Campaign releases in your region. You can also find information on how to pre-load Halo: Campaign Evolved with our handy guide.

Here's all the Halo Campaign Evolved changes and new features compared to the original Combat Evolved.

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

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

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

Building a world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"A balancing act"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The director of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is looking into adding a challenge system to the pirateventure, like the one Assassin's Creed Mirage eventually got, but he's not promising anything just yet.

Asked about bringing back a series feature that let fans replay missions with new challenges and requirements, in an interview with JorRaptor, game director Richard Knight says he thinks it "would be awesome."

Assassin's Creed Mirage actually got a post-launch update with the same challenge system last year, which offered unique challenges for contracts and black box missions. One challenge might have disabled Eagle Vision for the entire mission or asked you to slide a hidden blade into your main target while going undetected - they were essentially cool modifiers that gave mission replays some extra spice.

"We've looked into this one quite a bit," Knight adds. "I can't promise anything on it just because it exists in Mirage, but it doesn't exist in the modern Anvil [Engine]. So, it's like new tech, right? They do have a solution. We do roughly see how it works, but it's going to take time to understand if it's something we can build or how long it would take."

Part of Knight's desire to add tougher mission constraints and replayable challenges to the stealth game comes from his time on the Hitman titles, a series renowned for those sorts of open, free-flowing, flexible assassination sandboxes. "You know, personally, as someone who used to work on Hitman and has played a lot of Hitman and likes seeing the speedrun timer on screen, I think it's a very interesting way to play a game," he explains. "But, yeah, no promises on that one."

Seeing a similar system implemented into Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't entirely impossible. Ubisoft confirmed that a New Game Plus mode is on the way, and the team apparently have a bunch of other DLC ideas as well.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance

A new Final Fantasy 14 Evercold raid has been confirmed, and it features none other than a crossover with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series.

As part of Final Fantasy 14's Fan Fest celebrations in Berlin, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida revealed that an Evercold raid will be called Beyond the Lifestream.

If that's not enough of a hint, that does indeed mean the critically acclaimed MMO is getting a Final Fantasy 7 Remake series crossover.

As part of the reveal, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead Naoki Hamaguchi joined the stage to reveal more details. You're getting three tiers, with the first starting in update 8.01. Additionally, there will be three difficulty levels. The standard Normal and Savage difficulties, and a new difficulty that's new to Evercold that's designed to bridge the gap between the standard two.

Additionally, OG Final Fantasy 7 writer Kazushige Nojima is acting as story supervisor to make sure everything fits. Naturally, OG Final Fantasy 7 art icon Tetsuya Nomura is also getting involved.

Somewhat related, though amusing for sure, but we've also found out that Final Fantasy 14's version of the Gold Saucer is getting additional games, like a typing game that's Final Fantasy 7-related to start, of course. Brush up on your vocab, folks. There are outfits to be unlocked, starting with Tifa and Barret's duds.

That's about it for now, but you can expect plenty more details as we get closer to Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion, which releases in January 2027.

The Bastion is Final Fantasy 14's first new job for Evercold, a hulking tank with a shield and gun on each arm.

The first new Final Fantasy 14 job of Evercold has been revealed, and it's a tank called the Bastion that blends high fantasy and mechanical aesthetics.

As part of the European leg of Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest, producer and director Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida has taken to the stage once more to continue the drip feed of what's coming to the MMO in its next expansion. In this case, Final Fantasy 14 Evercold.

Back at the American leg of Fan Fest, we found out that Final Fantasy 14 would be getting two new jobs in Evercold – something for tank fans, something for DPS fans. Yoshi-P also revealed that these new classes would be something new to the Final Fantasy series, so no throwbacks here.

Now, we know what one of them is. As part of a new trailer, Square Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy is getting a new tank job that not only has a shield on each arm, but can also fire 'em both off as guns.

Our first glimpse of the new job in action came from an extended version of the Evercold trailer, which opened the Berlin Fan Fest keynote.

While Yoshi-P did appear in his cosplay to further tease the job, we had to wait just a little while longer for some more details, and it was worth it.

We first see a glimpse of some of its moves, blending up-close-and-personal combat with the ability to fire off its weapons from a bit of a distance. From vibes alone, it looks like it'll hit like a truck.

If you're keen to start Evercold as the Bastion, you'll want to make sure you're level 90 and around Limsa when the expansion releases in January 2027. Additionally, as touched upon at the last Fan Fest, this job will use the MMO's new streamlined moveset.

The job news might not be a total surprise to some clever Final Fantasy 14 fans. As is tradition, Yoshi-P teased what jobs were to come with a t-shirt he made everyone aware of at the last Fan Fest. Now, the t-shirts aren't typically an obvious giveaway. For Dawntrail, Yoshi-P wore a Ninja Turtles t-shirt to tease the upcoming artist job. It wasn't to tease that some sort of Ninja job was on the way – that'd be too obvious, and the MMO already has it – rather, the clue was that each turtle is named after an artist.

For Evercold, we got a picture of A Realm Reborn antagonist Rhitahtyn sas Arvina with a 'guess who's back' caption above it. Fans quickly assumed this was leading us to the tank job, with theories ranging from something obvious like a gunshield user to grander theories – like something hammer-based due to Ritahtyn sas Arvina's name translating to "judge" in the Roegadyn language. And, of course, the expansion being Norse themed.

Amusingly, Yoshi-P himself said that some fans already guessed what the jobs were back in Anaheim. Naturally, he didn't confirm which guesses were correct.

Regardless, that's one job down, and some were, of course, correct. When the Japan leg of Final Fantasy 14 comes around, we'll find out the other. Final Fantasy 14's Evercold expansion releases in January 2027.

Final Fantasy 14's Third Walk raid starts with FF11's most infamous boss being bodied in a cutscene because a raid designer wanted to show off the true strength of your first foe.

In a sea of conservative, market-researched games, a group of game development and publishing staff pointed to games like French JRPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, co-op adventure Peak, and roguelike card game Balatro as modern demonstrations of the "courage" that games should carry.

"We're moving fast and losing what made us good (creativity, craft & the future)," declared a 2026 DevGAMM Madeira Games Summit workgroup hosted by veteran indie dev and consultant Rami Ismail of Vlambeer fame, as GamesIndustry.biz points out.

Filled with designers, producers, publishers, and other game-orbiting staff, the group, as Ismail put it in a LinkedIn post, examined the "fear" chilling the games industry. In this fearful climate, they looked to four creative pillars: "creating coherence, identifying weaknesses, selling the dream," and "connecting the dots."

"Many of the more fearful reflexes of the industry aim to sand down the rough edges of creative work, creating homogenous and bland works that 'check all the boxes', but are nevertheless (or, consequently) insincere, uninspiring, and uninteresting," Ismail said. "Courage is a consistent factor of most hit titles; in funding, in publishing, in marketing, and in investment."

He added: "The industry’s fear of risk is currently the largest risk it faces."

The thrust, I gather, is to help and encourage more developers and companies to follow the example of games like Clair Obscur, Balatro, and Peak by un-learning the impulse to "make games for everyone" or "chase the algorithm," per GamesIndustry.biz's reporting.

However, there was also notable pushback among the group on the idea of auteur-led development that sees one creative figure dragging teams behind them like cans on string. Rather than a caution-to-the-wind embracement of creativity of all, the group seemed to push brave and sustainable decisions.

"There are too many cowards using all the wrong metrics controlling too many critical levers, and until we figure out how to put people - taste, creativity, and craft - back at the top, we're going to be stuck in the same loop that literally millennia ago people already understood and warned for: that acting from fear begets what you fear," Ismail says on LinkedIn.

This approach to making risk workable comes as many industry figures highlight overdone de-risking in games, particularly in the AAA space, often to the point of outright de-fanging projects in the name of safety or broader appeal.

Just last month, former PlayStation chief Shawn Layden argued that "we've lost a lot of the variety in games" thanks to the "rising cost" to make them. When costs go up, investment risks go up, so large, publicly traded companies often sand off risky elements to improve a project's outlook or try to reach a larger audience. But elements seen as risky are often the secret sauce that makes games fun and memorable, and without it, they may be reduced to a state worse than dead: sauceless.

And let's talk about those costs for a minute. Too often it's implied that these enormous budgets are unavoidable, that games must be this big and expensive (and treading a path strewn with discarded labor, but I digress) and this is just how much it costs to make them. I'm reminded of a quote from Strange Scaffold head Xalavier Nelson Jr, one of the dozens of developers who told GamesRadar+ why they don't want to use generative AI (as it happens, we also spoke to Ismail).

Nelson Jr. rather pertinently said: "For all the people who say it will let us finally make our big games faster and cheaper as the costs go exponentially up, the unspoken decision that has occurred is that rather than ask whether the size of the game is feasible, and whether it provides the thing that is most meaningful for a player, they have decided that the sheer scope is the god of their development process and it must be fulfilled at all costs."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as a more mid-sized AA type of game, has been an especially relevant talking point on budgets. Reports from last year indicated its sub-$10 million budget clocked in around 3% of the likes of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 from Sony-owned studio Insomniac Games.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida says $200 million AAA budgets mean publishers greenlight fewer games: "Something that has to be done."

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

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

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

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

Kick in the head

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

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

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

A hit of Jet

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

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

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

Once you give players an ability, you really can't control how they use it. People can do whatever they like with a photo mode, as the devs behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced have discovered due to the amount of feet pics they've seen.

"There's just nothing like having one million or two million players playing a game at once that you can't replicate. The feet pics were very surprising," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "That's kind of what photo mode is there for – to take really interesting, sometimes unusual, photos."

I'm not surprised – internet loves doing things for the bit, and bizarre, slightly lewd photographs emerging from a new Assassin's Creed game is the exact kind of tomfoolery that goes over very well.

But I'm far too innocent for such things, because my most in-depth experience with photo mode was in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. I loved swinging around and making fake comic book covers. I've made dozens of them across the three installments.

Obviously, that's the wrong line of thinking. Pictures of Spider-Man are out, pictures of feet are in, apparently. "I never would have expected that one," Knight adds.

I have to imagine someone on the team thought it was a possibility, but what are you going to do? Restrict people's creativity? You've got to just let people do what they do, that's the real adventure of life.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance.

Oblivion Remastered and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth have been found dead in a puddle of T-virus – the Resident Evil 4 remake from 2023 has sold 16.8 million copies across all platforms, and games industry researcher Alinea Analytics infers that makes it the best-selling remake of this console generation.

"It’s also among the most successful single-player horror games in history," says market analysis lead Rhys Elliott in a Substack breakdown of the best-selling game remakes and remasters since 2020, "generating $560M in gross revenue for Capcom so far across the three platforms, split 53.1% PlayStation, 34.1% Steam, and 12.8% Xbox." Resident Evil 4 remake's competition comes nowhere close.

In terms of total copies sold, Resident Evil 4 is followed by 2023 remaster Ark: Survival Ascended, which moved a total of 7 million copies. The Last of Us Part 1 remake sits behind it with 6.3 million sold, while Oblivion Remastered, the Dead Space remake, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth lag in the race with a total of 4.5, 4.3, and 4.2 million copies sold, respectively.

Bloober's Silent Hill 2 remake from 2024 is the worst best-seller according to Alinea, with a total of 3.2 million copies sold – though, as a huge fan, I'm at least placated by the suggestion that millions of people have now been exposed to buff Pyramid Head.

Elliot suggests, out of all these still very popular titles, Resident Evil 4 might have been especially suited to the new, industry-wide hobby of swanky remakes because "it's revered enough to guarantee demand and old enough that the remake feels new."

But the obvious flaw with this conclusion is that it applies to multiple titles in Alinea's collection of best-selling remakes. Silent Hill 2, for example, is even older than Resident Evil 4 and similarly revered, while Oblivion released around the same time as Resident Evil 4 and seemed to sell at a similar pace; contemporaneous reports estimate Resident Evil 4 sold 3 million copies within a year from launch, while Circana analyst Mat Piscatella said in 2025 that Oblivion Remastered outsold the original game's first 15 months on the market, which likely also existed in the realm of 3 million (2006 reports say Oblivion had already sold 1.7 copies by the end of its first week).

So what's really so special about the Resident Evil 4 remake? Well, Capcom's sales – you can currently purchase the game on Steam for $9.99 instead of $39.99, whereas Silent Hill 2 is currently $27.99 on sale, and Oblivion is an unrepentant $49.99. Elliott says, "Steam's share of total Resident Evil 4 revenue has grown from 28.0% in launch week to 34.1% today. There’s that Capcom catalogue flywheel again – a game earning a bigger slice of its lifetime revenue years after release, at the low end of the price curve (in markets consoles barely reach)."

Then, there's the irresistible charms of a formative game like Resident Evil 4. It has something for every player – revolutionary third-person shooting, a girl named Ashley, and parasites that look like someone sneezed on the floor. I, personally, couldn't imagine wanting anything more.

Only 7 PlayStation games have sold over 100,000 physical copies in the US this year, says analyst, as commenters demand discs without buying them.

Sega president Shuji Utsumi has promised fans of the Persona series that the teaser trailer for Persona 6 is just the start of what he believes will be a "truly memorable year" to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary. While Persona 4 Revival will be another hype moment for fans, Utsumi hints that there are more reveals on the horizon.

In an interview with Famitsu, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Utsumi expresses how he's "very confident" that fans will be pleased with what Sega has planned for the series' 30th anniversary. A spin-off from Atlus' already popular Shin Megami Tensei series, Revelations: Persona added more of a narrative focus and emphasis on the character's relationships than its beast battling predecessor.

Originally released for the original PlayStation in 1996, the series has evolved well beyond its isometric pixel art roots. If you've only played the series' newer titles you might not be aware that it didn't always feature a spicy UI and ranked high school relationships.

As 2026 is the 30th anniversary of this game, it seemed natural that Sega would announce the next mainline entry in the series, the long-awaited Persona 6. "I think we were able to announce a truly memorable year for Persona's 30th anniversary," Utsumi says. "Hype for the series has been built by Persona 6's reveal.

"And I think Persona 4 Revival will spark fan excitement again," Utsumi continues. "I'm sure everyone will feel the same way, and I'm very confident we'll give the Persona series the lively 30th anniversary celebration it deserves."

Persona 4 Revival seemingly features more scenes with Marie, fuelling hopes she'll be integrated better than in Golden: "If they do that, the remake will have fulfilled its purpose."

The Halo Campaign Evolved Skulls and Terminal found in the first level, The Pillar of Autumn, aren't too difficult to find, for the most part. The main issue is that a couple of Skulls are found so early in the game that you'll no doubt run right past them the first time you play. So, to help you find them quickly, I've explained exactly where to find the Terminal and all Skulls in the first level of Halo Campaign Evolved below.

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 1

From Rally Point Alpha, the start of the level.

At the very start of the level as soon as soon as you have control over Master Chief, turn around and head over to the two large, round containers towards the left side of the back of the room. Climb on top of these containers, then jump across to the nearby upper walkway. Walk to the other end and you'll find the Speed Limit Skull.

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 2

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

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

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Skull 3

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

After this cutscene finishes, turn around and head back into the bridge. Go to the main control area with the glass canopy and the two pilots in their chairs and drop down into the floorspace below them. This is where you'll find the Perspective Skull, and there's a ladder you can use to get out.

Halo Campaign Evolved Pillar of Autumn Terminal

From Rally Point Charlie, when going through the upper cryo room with the cracked windows.

You'll know you're in the right room if Cortana says, "it looks like the Covenant wanted to catch you napping". From here, carry on through the next door, then immediately turn left to find another open door leading into another room with red lights and lots of screens. The Approach Terminal is at the far end.

Finding all these collectibles also takes a while, so expect it to add a few hours to how long it takes to beat Halo Campaign Evolved. If you've played Halo CE in The Master Chief Collection, you will have noticed that all the Skulls are in completely different places to that, which is one of the many Halo Campaign Evolved changes.

This Halo 1 remake is out now in early access but the full Halo Campaign Evolved release time is still to come. In the meantime, make sure you've got your Halo Campaign Evolved pre-load sorted.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Halo: Campaign Evolved might be a remake of one of the best shooters to ever do it, but that doesn't mean it's entirely bullet proof. On Steam, the remake has debuted to an average 'Mixed' rating thanks to player complaints of crashes and server login issues that temporarily stopped people from playing the campaign-only game.

For context, Halo: Campaign Evolved launches in full on July 28, but owners of the $70/£70 Premium Edition get to skip the queue and jump in five days early. Despite paying extra, those fans have maybe been given the short end of the stick if user reviews are anything to go by.

At the time of writing, about 32% of Campaign Evolved's 1,666 Steam user reviews give it the thumbs down, with many reviews citing semi-frequent crashes and problems even connecting to the game's servers in the first place.

"Yes the game just came out, but it shouldn't be a trend for a game to always come out severely broken," one player writes. "Call me a boomer, but I miss when games came out in a playable state without patches needed."

"Login failed," another states. "Cannot play the single-player game as servers are overloaded. Screw your DRM." Halo Studios actually responded to that user review by promising that login issues should now be fixed, and judging by the almost 20 hours the fan has on record, it seems server issues are a non-issue for now.

Still, some other fans took issue with the fact that Halo: Campaign Evolved requires a login and a connection at all. The game is playable start-to-finish in online co-op, but there's no real reason why Spartans who prefer to go in solo should have to connect their Microsoft accounts before even reaching the main menu.

Technical issues and a bumpy launch aside, players who aren't being interrupted by crashes seem otherwise happy with the classic game's second remake.

"Finished the prequel missions. Barely any problems whatsoever, and so far it's been refreshing playing a "new" Halo game again," one fans says of the new three-mission arc.

"Well – it's Halo 1's campaign, but with a new coat of paint on top and some interesting and fun tweaks to mix up the gameplay, with the most comprehensive set of skulls the series has ever seen that offer tons of replay value," a second player explains. "Really, that's all I think needs to be said to justify the recommendation here."

GamesRadar's Halo: Campaign Evolved review had similarly good things to say about the remake, even if the package as a whole also felt like "a wasted opportunity for Halo Studios to put its own spin on a classic."

Want more? A secret Halo: Campaign Evolved ending strongly hints that another Halo 2 remake is in the works – "See you in the sequel."

It seems like things are looking up for Final Fantasy 14. After Dawntrail led to players gradually pulling away from Square Enix's MMORPG, new data suggests many are now returning, in anticipation of upcoming expansion, Evercold.

The information comes from Japanese outlet Lucky Bancho, which regularly posts numbers related to the MMO's overall playerbase. According to these numbers, since March, Final Fantasy 14's number of active players has grown to over one million, to a grand total of around 1,020,000.

That's a good sign, and a decent jump from Lucky Bancho's last survey of the userbase in March, where the numbers for those actively playing were closer to around 770,000. It's mentioned that some 80,000 new accounts have been started as well, double the 40,000 of the previous datapoint, suggesting more people are beginning their journeys through Eorzea.

It's been a long time since the MMO came close to one million, according to the site's numbers. It recorded 990,000 active players in March 2025, over a year ago.

These insights are built through looking over public information on achievements and the like. It's not the most accurate because it doesn't include private accounts and doesn't differentiate among people who have multiple accounts. But it's a good ballpark estimate that can give us some insight into the overall health of the game.

There have been concerns following the negative reception to Dawntrail over the future of Final Fantasy 14. One bad expansion isn't a death knell for a game that's already been going well for over a decade now, but a consistent drop in players is enough to cause some anxiety.

But anticipation is growing for Evercold. It arrives in early 2027, and kicks off the Godless Realms Saga, marking a new era for the MMO. There's even an Evangelion crossover on the way. The future is looking bright, as it tends to under the watchful eye of director Naoki Yoshida.

Final Fantasy 14's Third Walk raid starts with FF11's most infamous boss being bodied in a cutscene because a raid designer wanted to show off the true strength of your first foe.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi understands open-world fatigue, which is why Revelation is seemingly trying to find a balance between Remake and Rebirth.

Rebirth's open world has been a point of criticism for the 2024 RPG, and despite the, ahem, revelation that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will have a bigger world than even Rebirth did, Hamaguchi tells Eurogamer that not overdoing it is on his mind.

He explains, "The world is even bigger than it was in Rebirth, so it is more important than ever for us to ensure there's enough guidance here, so people have no issues enjoying what this game has to offer."

"There are a lot of open world games out in the world right now, and [the idea of 'open world fatigue'] is a very important concept to me," Hamaguchi says.

Hamaguchi notes "it depends on personal preference and different perceptions, but for me personally, I know I've had the experience where I've been thrown out into an open world game and not known where to go, not known where to begin, and not known what to do."

As someone who is just playing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth now after waiting for ages, it's pretty striking how different the layout of the game is compared to the first game in the Remake trilogy. While Final Fantasy 7 Remake did have little hubs to explore and get up to nonsense, it was very much funneling you forward through the adventure.

Rebirth, on the other hand, is very much an open-world game, full of distractions in each of the game's many areas. I've spent countless hours running through the maps to find all of the intel, fast forwarding through every bit of annoying dialogue Chadley is giving, with a few chapters still to go.

"For me personally, as a creator, I think it's very important to offer proper guidance for the players in open world games," Hamaguchi continues.

He says the Rebirth team wanted to "make it easy" for people to see how much content there is, and says "that design philosophy is applied to Revelation: players have all the guidance that they need. This is something that both myself and the development team were very careful about when we designed the game."

Hamaguchi also singles out the Highwind and parachute mechanic included in the next game, and stresses it isn't as simple as picking where to go and letting the cutscene drop you there.

"After you open the parachute, you kind of have to rely on your memory to ensure that you're actually dropping into the place where you want to go," he clarifies. This is billed as "another example of the guidance we're giving players, without directing them too much."

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation DLC includes "Story Expansion Pass," according to Epic Games Store database listings

Jeffrey Gattis, general manager for games at Amazon, hopes to see more people try its cloud gaming service Luna as consoles and PCs become eye-wateringly expensive.

Speaking with The Game Business, Gattis weighs up the increasing costs of gaming today. Component supply chains decimated by AI data centers forced even Valve's wealthy hand (as it refuses to sell hardware at a loss), leading to a flagrantly overpriced Steam Machine that would've been a proper hit with a sticker in the high three-digit range.

Now even Xbox is preemptively talking about how consoles have to adapt to the memory and storage market, in roughly the same way that a dinosaur must adapt to being on fire.

Gattis inherited the difficult task of getting people to know and care about Luna, which was announced in 2020 and swiftly forgotten. By baking it straight into Amazon Prime Video, Gattis says "we've 5x-ed our player base, albeit on a modest base," which is the kind of corporate speak that reveals a very modest starting audience.

But Gattis is optimistic about Luna and cloud gaming's future, especially in a world where the Steam Machine and rumored new-gen consoles cost "well over $1,000."

Cloud gaming has long been "a little bit of a solution in search of a problem," Gattis reflects, but that was in a world where core gaming was relatively affordable.

"Consoles, for the most part, have been relatively inexpensive until now," he says. "So our business is more about reaching more players and expanding the market, not trying to get people to give up their consoles or their gaming PC.

"Having said all that, we've seen the news. We saw the Steam Machine pricing opening at $1,000 US. We hear rumors about consoles, because of the RAM prices, pushing well over $1,000 in gen 10. So I do think you get to a point at which a lot more people will be in the consideration set for a cloud gaming solution just because of the sheer cost of buying dedicated hardware."

Gattis reckons there are "3 billion people in the world who play video games, yet there's only, depending on how you do the math, 300 million to 500 million dedicated hardware devices out in the wild."

In that difference of roughly 2.5 billion gamers, he sees the potential cloud gaming market of tomorrow – folks who don't have the time or money for the latest consoles or PC games, but do want to play something. And as long as they're comfortable with the limitations of cloud gaming licensing.

"Games can be big investments – to go buy a $70 game, to go through the download experience, to pair a controller, and then make an investment of hundreds of hours of time, in some cases, to complete one of these games," Gattis reasons, perhaps exaggerating the arduous toil of pairing a controller.

"There's people like me who love that. That's how I choose to spend my entertainment time. But I think most people fit into more of a bell curve, a more normal distribution. They spend some time watching television, they spend some time watching movies, and they like to play video games. I think that's where we see an opportunity to serve a group of people who I might argue haven't really been well-served because the console and PC companies are mostly focused on those hardcore players."

The big problem, of course, is that Amazon has struggled to get anything right in games. Its once-roaring MMO New World is dead, its Lord of the Rings MMO is reportedly dead, and Amazon Studios' primary exports so far have been layoffs and cancellations. It turns out all the money in the universe can't just magic games into being, so even if Luna was always meant to be a third-party game merchant, it's in untrustworthy hands in the eyes of many players.

Meanwhile: Amazon Games gutted amid 14,000 layoffs: work on first-party games and MMOs in particular scaled back, "casual and AI-focused games" a continued focus.

One of the most exciting things about Beast of Reincarnation – the new action game from mainline Pokemon maker, Game Freak – is the adorably fluffy, but violently capable dog that'll follow you around for the entire adventure. And, yes, thankfully, you can pet the good boy.

Beast of Reincarnation flings us a couple thousand years into the future to experience a post-apocalyptic version of Japan, where we'll do battle with deadly automatons, frenzied beasties who hail from the natural world, and enemies that are a curious mix of both. There's hints of Nier Automata for sure, but the game's main selling point is easily the "one-person, one-dog" gameplay that arguably builds off the monster-befriending, apocalypse-proof loop of Pokemon.

Thanks to new footage courtesy of Denfaminicogamer, we learned that you can pet Koo, the blighted dog, back at your in-game home base and wash whatever blood or robot battery juice spilled onto his otherwise shiny white coat during combat.

Grooming and loving Koo, like he's the goodest boy who's ever boyed, isn't in the game only to appease the dog fanatics among us, however. Feeding or petting Koo will also impact your affection level that'll, in turn, improve your capabilities in other areas of the game (although, exactly how is still up in the air.) Should Koo fall in combat, then your affection level could drop, too.

Beast of Reincarnation also has more in common with Pokemon than simply taming an animal that would realistically chomp you down in most other contexts. Speaking to GamesRadar+ earlier in the year, game director Kota Furushima said his background as Pokemon's battle planner influenced much of Beast of Reincarnation's combat: "It allowed us to create a contrast between real-time actions requiring split-second decisions and command selections that involve a bit of deliberation."

Beast of Reincarnation launches August 4 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass.

Check out our new games calendar to see everything on the horizon.

Your carry capacity and inventory in Dune Awakening starts off limited to 35 slots and 175 pounds of weight, which is a respectable amount, but clearly could be more, especially when you're going on long journeys around the Hagga Basin looking to acquire large amounts of resources. Sadly there's no way at time of writing to directly increase your carry capacity specifically in Dune Awakening, but there are options that can effectively serve a similar purpose, as I'll explain below.

Can you increase your Dune Awakening inventory?

While there's no way at time of writing to increase either the number of slots or the maximum carry capacity weight of your inventory, such as the various Dune Awakening Skills, you can at least move more items around at once by building greater Inventory Modules for various vehicles, and then using those vehicles frequently.

Pretty much all of the Dune Awakening vehicles have a built-in inventory that can be expanded even further by adding an Inventory module to it (researched as normal and then built in the Vehicle Fabricator). There are limits to this, but it serves as a way to transport far greater amounts of items.

The major limitation is that any vehicle with items in its inventory cannot be stored on you using the Vehicle Backup Tool. You need to empty its inventory before you can effectively pocket it, but if you feel brave enough to park your Sandbike or Ornithopter outside a bandit camp or crashed ship, you can then bring the loot you find back to it and store it in the trunk.

It's not been made clear if there'll be new ways to hold more items added to the game in the future, as the choice to make inventory so limited is clearly an intentional one that's part of the whole "struggling survivalist making hard choices" vibe.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The list of Halo Campaign Evolved changes is quite extensive, ranging from things like completely new missions and weapons that weren't in the original to smart-link aiming, sprinting, and accessibility options. While there are a lot of changes, many of them are quite minor and might not be so obvious if you've not played Halo Combat Evolved that much. So, if you're curious to know exactly what's new and what's different from the original, here are all the changes I've been able to find in Halo Campaign Evolved.

New Halo Campaign Evolved features

Halo Campaign Evolved includes several major gameplay features that aren't available in the original game or the Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary remaster in The Master Chief Collection:

• Operation Meteorite bonus missions: On top of the remade campaign, this remake features three new prequel missions that tell the story of Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson during Operation Meteorite, adding a few more hours to how long it takes to beat Halo Campaign Evolved. Taking place one year before the events of the campaign, this operation sees the duo infiltrate and investigate a Covenant research vessel. Brutes make an exclusive appearance in these missions, wielding Spikers and Brute Plasma Rifles.
• Campaign Remix: Campaign Remix is a new mode that lets you replay missions with randomized elements, including available weapons, enemy factions, and active Skulls. It is unlocked after you collect any three Skulls.
• Four-player online co-op: Halo Campaign Evolved is the only way you can officially play some form of Halo 1 with three other players in online co-op. The game also supports crossplay and cross-progression, so you can play with anyone on any platform and even play on any platform without losing progress. You can also play Campaign Evolved in two-player split-screen on consoles only.
• Difficulty and accessibility settings: The usual Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary difficulty options are still there, but you can also create difficulty presets that adjust things like friendly fire, damage resistance, and shield recharge rate – this is all on top of Skulls too! As for accessibility, there are plenty of changes you can make to the aiming crosshair, HUD, subtitles, input rebinding, and lots more.

New Halo Campaign Evolved weapons, vehicles, and enemies

The Halo Combat Evolved sandbox of weapons and vehicles, as well as the array of enemies you'll face, have been considerably expanded for this remake:

• Expanded weapon sandbox: The Energy Sword, Sentinel Beam, Fuel Rod Gun, SMG, and Needle Rifle have all been added to the main campaign. The Battle Rifle, Brute Plasma Rifle, and Spiker are exclusive to the new bonus missions, and the Needle Rifle is significantly more common in them too.
• You can drive Wraiths now: The Covenant Wraith tank is now pilotable in some levels, such as Assault on the Control Room. Most vehicles can also be hijacked now, but note that this works both ways, so the Covenant can hijack you right back!
• Equipment can be stored and used whenever you like: Unlike in the original where Overshields and Active Camo would activate as soon as you pick them up, Campaign Evolved treats them like Halo 3-style equipment pieces that must be deployed with a button press.
• Jackal snipers have been added (oh god): Jackal snipers are an infamously lethal foe in practically every Halo game except for the first one. Campaign Evolved rectifies this, adding them into plenty of missions.
• Flood Tank Forms join the fight: The large Tank Form Flood, first seen in Halo 3, appear in Campaign Evolved. They're rare and pose quite a serious threat, similar to a Covenant Hunter.

Halo Campaign Evolved gameplay changes

Halo Campaign Evolved also introduces some key gameplay change over the original that mostly serve to modernize the game:

• Sprint: As in Halo Studios' previous games, Master Chief has a dedicated sprint button in Campaign Evolved, letting him get around the ring a bit faster on foot.
• Smart-link aiming: While weapons like the Magnum and Sniper Rifle all had scopes in the original game, now Halo Campaign Evolved weapons benefit from some form of aiming thanks to the smart-link system that Halo 5 Guardians introduced. It essentially amounts to a small amount of zoom (usually 1.4x) that helps you more accurately shoot enemies that are slightly further away than is ideal.
• No health kits: Master Chief's health now regenerates like his shields. The original game's health kits that were necessary for healing Chief are therefore absent in Halo Campaign Evolved.
• Improved waypoints and objective tracking: Objectives and their markers are now almost always visible on screen, helping you stay on mission and navigate levels more easily. You can adjust how these appear if you find them getting in the way.
• Slightly redesigned levels: The Library has received the most significant changes to make it easier to navigate and more varied, with new areas and light bridge mechanics. Otherwise, most levels remain almost entirely the same in terms of layout, with some receiving small tweaks. As an example, the Forerunner cave that you drive the Warthog through in Halo no longer has that weird ramp section and is now just one continuous path.
• Skulls and Terminals: Collectible Skull modifiers and lore-based Terminals weren't in the original game but got added for the Combat Evolved Anniversary remaster. For Campaign Evolved there are even more of them to collect, with 42 Skulls (three per level for a total of 39 plus three Campaign Remix ones) and 13 Terminals (one per level). They're also all in different places compared to the Anniversary remaster, so your memories of those won't help.
• No PvP multiplayer: As the Campaign Evolved subtitle suggests, this game features only the campaign – no arena multiplayer.

Halo Campaign Evolved visual and audio changes

The most obvious change of all over the original is the visual overhaul, but there are plenty of other changes to things like dialogue and cutscenes that might go over your head:

• Updated graphics: Halo Campaign Evolved is a complete remake of the original Combat Evolved in Unreal Engine 5, so it benefits from the advanced graphical technology of that engine for stunningly rendered photorealistic textures and lighting. But, as I note in my Halo Campaign Evolved review, it does lead to some typical UE5 performance issues.
• New and altered dialogue and cutscenes: Narratively, Halo Campaign Evolved is the same as the original, but Halo Studios has added and adjusted plenty of dialogue and cutscenes. The new lines are mostly tutorials and explanation from Cortana and other NPCs. Some lines, such as "I don't keep it loaded, son, you'll have to find ammo as you go" from Keyes, and Cortana telling 343 Guilty Spark to "sod off", have been cut, however.
• The original Chief and Cortana voice actors are back…: Steve Downes and Jen Taylor, who voice Master Chief and Cortana respectively, have re-recorded their lines, including some new ones as mentioned above.
• …But Captain Keyes and Sergeant Johnson have been recast: Keith Silverstein, who you may know as Torbjorn from Overwatch, now plays Keyes, while Keston John, who stars in Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and 7 and Yakuza 0 Director's Cut, voices Sergeant Johnson.
• The Covenant now speak English: Elites have various combat barks in human languages that let you know how fervently they fight for the Prophets and the Covenant. It also sounds like Grunt dialogue from Halo 2 and 3 has been repurposed. Overall, there's a lot less "wort, wort, wort".

This Combat Evolved remake is out now in early access but the full Halo Campaign Evolved release time is still to come. In the meantime, make sure you've got your Halo Campaign Evolved pre-load sorted.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Developer World's Edge has seemingly uncanceled an Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition DLC that it scrapped last year, but all is forgiven since the upcoming Baltic Powers expansion is bringing two new civilizations, over 25 new maps, and so much more on September 10.

Early last year, World's Edge said it was canceling an unnamed expansion that it revealed the year prior. The developer felt the project's announcement was "premature," and the team hadn't really built anything proper before sharing its plans with the player base.

At the time, we didn't know much about the then-scrapped expansion outside of a tiny hint production director Earnest Yuen gave in 2024 by showing off the flags of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Denmark. (Thanks, PC Gamer!)

Who would've guessed? World's Edge have now revealed The Baltic Powers, an expansion that adds both the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to the game as playable civilizations. While the developer hasn't outright confirmed that The Baltic Powers is, in fact, the same expansion it binned last year, all the signs point in one direction...

"The Baltic Powers brings two new civilizations, new Challenge Scenarios, new game modes, more than 25 maps, and over 50 hero customizations," the dev's announcement post reads. "More importantly, it is built around what Age 3 fans value most: new strategic problems to solve, new matchups to learn, new ways to master the map, and new reasons to return for a game they love."

The best part? You can try out the Danes and the Poles right now since The Baltic Powers' open beta is available over on Steam.

The only other thing to note is that Age of Empire 3: Definitive Edition's free trial is being retired on Steam come August 13. "We're grateful to everyone who discovered Age III through the free trial, invited friends into the community, tried rotating civilizations, and joined the battlefield," the studio notes. Should free trial players want to continue strategizing in-game, then you'll need to buy the full release by next month.

In the meantime, here are the best strategy games you can play right now.

Hideo Kojima still wants to go to space, but for now he's going to keep making games, and he says that's a good thing.

Metal Gear Solid creator Kojima really hasn't kept it quiet that one day he wants to go to space, so much so that Valve boss Gabe Newell tried to set Kojima up with a tour of SpaceX. Over on Twitter, Kojima recently posted a video of his comments during a panel at Il Cinema in Piazza – a film festival in Rome – where he explains (translated by Genki_JPN) his current thoughts about his space travel aspirations.

"I want to share this with all of you: We all want to make our dreams come true, right?" he begins. And obviously he isn't talking about his dreams with "voluptuous nude women," reanimated "decomposing bodies," and a very impolite coach, as he explains, "I want to go to space and I want to make a movie." However, he adds, "it wouldn't be good if those dreams just came true."

"That's because dreams are goals," Kojima explains, "The idea is to achieve the second, third, and fourth dreams along the way before reaching your ultimate dream." He adds that "for the time being, I think I'll keep on making games without going to space."

I would say perhaps he can go to space once he retires from creating games (although he said he has no plans to retire). However, at that same event, he also said he wants to die in a movie theater, preferably just after the trailers, so unless they build theaters in space, he's probably going to have to come back to Earth at some point.

The original Metal Gear Solid is free to play on Steam this weekend as Konami gears up for Master Collection Volume 2.

Halo: Campaign Evolved strongly hints that another Halo remake could be on the way.

Rumors have been swirling for a while that Halo Studios is planning to remake Master Chief's entire original trilogy – Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 – in the same style as its newly-released revamp, Halo: Campaign Evolved. That means yes to sprint, no to multiplayer, and sweeping changes to the rest of the game (new levels, weapons, updated visuals, etc.)

For anyone crossing their fingers for Halo 2 and Halo 3 to get the same treatment, good news! Halo: Campaign Evolved rather explicitly pours fuel over the fire of those rumors in its secret ending, unlocked by completing the game on Legendary difficulty. (Don't worry, there's no hard spoilers here.)

Finishing the fight on the game's toughest difficulty rewards you with an alternative ending that's surprisingly different to Bungie's 2001 shooter. The part that's important here is a line uttered by our good old Sergeant Avery Johnson, who caps off the entire game with: "See you in the sequel!"

While that's not hard confirmation of a Halo 2 remake in itself, the implication is crystal clear since an inevitable Halo 7 isn't exactly a sequel to Halo: Campaign Evolved, and I doubt HD Johnson is telling folks to go back and play the original Halo 2 after the series' latest remake.

Halo 2 has also actually been remade once before in Halo 2 Anniversary, which came bundled with The Master Chief Collection, but that was the case with the series' first game too, so it's not exactly a deal breaker for Xbox Game Studios.

The iconic Xbox sequel was also infamously a victim of a turbulent development cycle that left tons of content on the cutting room floor. The "finishing this fight" line became so recognizable in the first place because Master Chief did not, in fact, finish the fight until an entire game later when Halo 2's cliffhanger ending was finally resolved.

My point is, Halo 2 perhaps stands to benefit more than its older sibling should it get another, more comprehensive remake. It's also worth nothing that Halo 2 Anniversary was beholden to the source material's exact level layout since you could switch between both graphical options on the fly – a Campaign Evolved-style remake would presumably allow for more dramatic changes.

Our Halo: Campaign Evolved review calls it a "faithful remake of the 2001 classic that highlights exactly why the original Halo holds up so well 25 years later," even though Halo Studios could've done more to put its own spin on the classic game.

Halo 3's final mission could have been a flying banshee scene inspired by Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

PlayStation might make the growing $7.2 billion second-hand games market shrink down to roly-poly size once it officially abandons physical discs in 2028, analysts say.

A CNBC report cites data from market researcher Dataintelo describing the video games resale market as worth $7.2 billion in 2025, though experts anticipated in March that it would expand to $13.8 billion by 2034. But that estimate might look dramatically different now that PlayStation has decided to stop feeding it.

"Brick and mortar game retail is doomed," Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning Michael Pachter tells CNBC definitively. He explains that at least one-third of sold games are used, and these sales help fuel new game purchases, too. Fewer discs from PlayStation lead to fewer opportunities to purchase games in general, whether new or old.

Morningstar equity research director Kazunori Ito likewise imagines the secondhand games market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear" once Sony makes the transition to digital-only. PC games are already there with the help of major online shops like Steam, Epic, and GOG, and while Xbox technically hasn't renounced game discs yet, it's apparently headed that way, and it's practicing by testing a feature that digitizes entire disc collections.

Without new PlayStation and Xbox games to keep it freshly stocked, the secondhand games market will grow stale. We'll all be passing around the same 5,000 copies of Cabela's Monster Buck Hunter until they'll rot, and then I'll really have no chance at securing one of the world's highly coveted Silent Hill 2 discs for less than $300.

Ito adds, "There is an important difference between players accepting that shift [to digital] because they see value in it, and having it effectively forced on them by taking away the alternative." But it doesn't seem to matter to PlayStation.

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

Even Ubisoft seems surprised you all wanted classic-style Assassin's Creed back this bad. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has sold 3.5 million units in 14 days, already beating the publisher's internal sales projections for the full year.

"The strong launch of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in early July by Vantage Studios is an encouraging proof point" of Ubisoft's new corporate structure, CEO Yves Guillemot says in the company's latest financial report. That same restructuring has also cost numerous developers their jobs, including many of the very people who brought Black Flag Resynced to life.

Black Flag Resynced is the first Assassin's Creed game to reach over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. According to Ubisoft, "this translated into a historical proportion of sales for the franchise on PC, led by the US and Chinese markets."

As part of today's financial report, Ubisoft announced net bookings of €256 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year, "down 9% year-on-year and slightly above guidance." Notably, that does not include any boost from Black Flag Resynced sales, which launched just after the start of the second quarter. Instead, those first quarter revenues were "driven by a record performance for Invincible: Guarding the Globe," an idle RPG for mobile.

Clearly, though, Ubisoft expects investors to be pleased with the performance Resynced is going to show next quarter. "The game is the highest-rated Assassin's Creed title since the original Black Flag, and we are very pleased with the praise it received from players," Guillemot continues. "Two weeks in, the title has already exceeded the annual expectations we had. I would like to warmly thank the teams whose talent and dedication brought it to life. This launch illustrates the enduring appeal of the Assassin’s Creed brand, as well as the early benefits of our ongoing transformation and commitment to delivering very high-quality experiences."

Ubisoft CEO says ditching physical games "helped" PC gaming, and PlayStation ending discs won't "disturb" the industry much anyway.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seems largely in Sony's corner regarding the scheduled end to physical PlayStation games, going to bat for some advantages of an all-digital future.

Guillemot fielded a question about the January 2028 discontinuation of physical PlayStation games during Ubisoft's financial call earlier today.

One caller asked how Ubisoft feels about Sony's decision and if it has any worries about its direct or indirect effects, such as the end of the used games market which can enable gamers to pawn games and use those funds to buy new games.

"What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market," Guillemot replies. "There's also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would say. As you said, there are pluses and minuses. But we think it will not disturb, too much, the industry."

There are a couple of points to unpack here. PC gaming has been functionally digital-only for decades, and the popularity of Steam proves that a lot of people don't have a problem with digital games, even if that means licensing rather than owning them.

However, other storefronts are also available on PC, whereas PlayStation only has the PlayStation Store. Additionally, since Steam isn't built for any one hardware specification, it won't up and vanish alongside aging, unsupported hardware the way the PS3 and PS Vita stores will soon enough, and even if it did, we'd still have the likes of GOG. And as general use machines, computers make it much easier to back up and preserve games, so in digital game debates, PC and console aren't perfectly equal.

We have seen digital-only consoles used as a way to lower price points, and with AI data center-induced component droughts continually pushing platform holders to raise console prices, almost anything that can lower entry points will be welcomed as we stare down an increasingly likely $1,000 console generation. But the idea of losing physical games to the AI boom has not gone down well with many.

Digital-only PS5s are outselling disc versions today, according to analyst Daniel Ahmad – but roughly 70% of PS5s sold do have a disc drive. Likewise, many of the games that are actually available physically see much greater diversity in digital and physical sales split compared to the lopsided, collective figures that Sony touts as evidence of the shrinking physical market.

Two truths exist: physical copies are important and can sell well, and relatively few people buy physical games globally. People have already voted with their wallets in the enormous shift to digital games, but a relevant audience of physical buyers remains – it's just not relevant enough in Sony's eyes.

Nintendo is now selling some digital Switch 2 games $10 cheaper than physical versions – building out a more enthusiast market for the minority of people who do want boxes – but it's unclear how Sony's digital future could see savings handed down to players, if at all. Frankly, I wouldn't bet on it. The games industry's got multiple fires to put out and taking less money from players is generally not high on the to-do list. GTA 6 is digital-only, for instance, but it's still $80.

It's not just savings, either. Sony – and, let's not forget, publishers like Ubisoft – will earn more per copy from digital games, so it stands to earn a lot more if all game sales become digital, even if it does lose some users by abandoning discs. Obviously, this is also another reason digital PS5s are sold cheaper: Sony makes less up front, but much more off game sales, so it wants the digital option to be appealing.

Only 7 PlayStation games have sold over 100,000 physical copies in the US this year, says analyst, as commenters demand discs without buying them.

Xbox is testing a new "ad-supported" version of its game streaming service, which will frontload advertisements at the start of a session, folding additional monetization into gaming time.

Microsoft announced the program today, July 23. Xbox Insiders who signed up for the platform's early access features can now test ad-supported streaming for "a limited time."

"During this test period, XBOX Insiders with an XBOX account will be able to stream games they own for free with ads," the company clarifies. "Players will have one hour session limits across supported devices and regions."

Microsoft maintains that "the core game experience is unchanged" once you get through the initial ads. Additionally, this ad tier is "optional" and "players can choose other ways to play at any time."

Some games and gaming services have had ads for many years, and platform holders are increasingly experimenting with more ways to monetize screen time and space.

Microsoft reckons advertising in gaming "hasn’t always been built with the player in mind," but insists that, "when done well, advertising can help lower the cost of access," loosely echoing the ad-supported tiers of TV and movie streaming services.

After this test for streaming, Microsoft says it will "continue to improve it based on how players use it and what they tell us. Our goal is simple. Give more people more affordable ways to play."

The company lays out the core pillars for "ad-supported services across Xbox," indicating that this is not a one-off experiment.

In short, Microsoft says such ads should "not interrupt the flow of gameplay," must be held to "the same quality bar as our content," should be "clear" about what's being advertised, and ought to suit "what players expect on each platform."

In the starchiest bit of corporate speak, Microsoft stresses, "We start with the player. Ads should create value." Players: they love value.

Following eyebrow-raising comments last month, Xbox's new chief strategist Matthew Ball explained that in-game ads that interrupt gameplay would be a bad idea.

Earlier this month, EA advertising VP Alexander Dao argued that in-game advertising is a "huge opportunity" for many developers.

It's always fun to see what lurks just below what we can see in a video game through datamining and the like. You can find remnants of ideas that hit the cutting room floor, or perhaps suggestions of what's to come in DLC. A lead developer on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced respects the curiosity, but asks we don't put much stock in what's uncovered.

"Many games get datamined, it's very clever, I understand," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, says in an interview with JorRaptor (below). "Sometimes these are for assets that don't even exist yet, and sometimes they're placeholders that were done three years ago."

For projects as big as the Black Flag remake – or any triple-A game, really – all sorts of little curios and oddities tend to sneak into the finished product. Perhaps it was easier and faster to just cover something up than to take it out entirely, or, as Knight suggests, there was the kernel of an idea that didn't pan out, but you can still find a little marker, left however long ago in the game's past by god knows who.

They make for good discussion around the game's development, but holding people who worked on it to account for them is difficult. If they're placeholders, the devs genuinely might not remember what the point was, and if they're hints at what's coming, nobody will be allowed to talk about it yet.

Naturally, this comes up because JorRaptor asks about costumes that have been found in the game's innards. Multiple get-ups for Edward drawing on several entries from the storied franchise have been discovered, leading people to believe they indicate what's coming.

Knight is saying nothing, however. "This is my way of saying I don't actually know," he responds, remaining coy. "I can't spoil it because I don't know."

He does say whatever comes, the team will "support the brand legacy." Take that however you like.

If you're yet to set sail in the remake yourself, be sure to read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games in the series.

The length of Halo Campaign Evolved isn't really all that different to the original 2001 game, clocking in at roughly 10 hours. However, this remake packs in a few extras – namely a three-mission bonus prequel campaign and over 50 collectibles in the form of Skulls and Terminals – that will extend how long it takes you to complete the game, depending on what your definition of 'complete' is. With that in mind, here are some estimations for how long Halo Campaign Evolved is based on how you play.

How long is Halo Campaign Evolved?

The average playthrough for Halo Campaign Evolved is about 10 hours, but with things like difficulty, prior knowledge from the original, and collectibles to find, your completion time is affected by many factors:

• Main campaign: 8-12 hours
• Main campaign + bonus missions: 10-14 hours
• 100% completion: 20+ hours

As mentioned, the core campaign – that's the 10 main missions from The Pillar of Autumn to The Maw – should take you 10 hours, give or take a couple. If you're charging through each mission on Easy difficulty or have played the classic Halo Combat Evolved already, you may even be able to get through it much faster. Conversely if you're committing to a Heroic or Legendary playthrough, plenty of deaths will add up to a couple of extra hours.

The Operation Meteorite campaign, comprising three prequel missions featuring Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson, adds a couple more hours of story content, but you should still get through the whole thing in under 15 hours. I completed all 13 missions on Heroic difficulty in about 13 hours, having also played Combat Evolved a few times before.

Finally, those that commit to finding all 39 Skulls and all 13 Terminals spread across each mission, you'll be spending several more hours replaying and scouring each level. If you're going for the Platinum Trophy too, there are plenty of tough challenges that will likely take you multiple attempts to complete, so don't expect a quick walk in the park!

The game is only in early access at the moment, so make sure you know when the Halo Campaign Evolved release time is and ensure you pre-load Halo Campaign Evolved before then.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

It's a good day for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender on every platform except Xbox. The new release based on the property, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, has suffered a sudden delay on Xbox Series X/S, while other versions came out as planned.

The game was scheduled to come out today, July 23, on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and the aforementioned Xbox systems, and players across almost all of these are getting to jump in as planned. Sadly, Microsoft's brand has hit a snag, forcing a change in plans.

"For the Xbox community, we are forced to delay the release," says a message from developer Gameplay Group on Twitter. "Due to unforeseen circumstances on a backend feature, we will now launch by September 3. Existing pre-orders will remain active and will not be canceled."

While delays happen, it's rare to see one so close to the expected launch, and rarer still on just one platform. I do wonder what the feature could be that requires such a drastic pivot, but obviously whatever it is needs particular attention.

Avatar Legends was the subject of scrutiny earlier this month, when Paramount confirmed that Mike Zaimont, a game developer who's been accused of sexual harassment in the past, is involved in the project. He "holds a position as an individual contributor" according to the company.

Despite Gameplay Group keeping pre-orders, there are players taking refunds. "Returning this shit at light speed," says one frustrated reply. "Huge scumbag move," writes another.

Others are just plainly angry. "Delaying an anticipated game by a month and a half less than 24 hours before release is actually insane," one account posted.

As of now, the Steam and PS5 versions are available to buy and play now. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is set to come out sometime later this year.

The Japanese Patent Office has officially had enough of Nintendo, rejecting a patent attached to the Palworld lawsuit with "rarely seen" sass

It takes a moment to adjust to the fact I'm using a DualSense controller and my PS5 to play a Halo game – something which seemed like heresy only a few years ago. But from the moment I fire the iconic M6D Magnum pistol in Halo: Campaign Evolved, my muscle memory from years past kicks right back in. Navigating space cruiser Pillar of Autumn's rat's nest of corridors before crash-landing onto Installation 04 and mounting up in a warthog remains one of my favorite openings for a video game, and Halo Studios has recreated it with stunning accuracy.

Despite being a ground-up remake of the game that started it all for Halo (and arguably Xbox) 25 years ago, it's impressive not only how instantly familiar Halo: Campaign Evolved feels but also how well it holds up. But, after a full run of the campaign and its three new bonus missions, I can't help but feel that such a faithful approach might be to Halo: Campaign Evolved's detriment. It certainly looks the part, but there are so few flourishes that I also can't find many reasons to play it over what's come before.

Sacred Icon

Playing through the opening half of Halo: Campaign Evolved reminded me that The Pillar of Autumn through to Assault on the Control Room really is an all-timer sequence of levels. You get to see almost the whole gamut of Halo environments, from claustrophobic spaceships to lush landscapes, rugged canyons, and esoteric Forerunner facilities.

These have all been beautifully and vibrantly rendered in Unreal Engine 5. Levels like 343 Guilty Spark and The Library benefit greatly from some significant visual improvements. Advanced lighting, a ghostly knee-high fog, and plenty of Flood goop all add to the mysterious atmosphere of these ancient installations, break up the monotony, and even amp up the horror.

I also can't deny that such dedication to realism means Campaign Evolved lacks a certain charm compared to the polygonal and yet timeless look of its precursor. Even so, it's also much kinder on the eyes compared to the brightly lit and overly detailed Anniversary remaster in The Master Chief Collection.

The visuals for Halo: Campaign Evolved are where the most obvious changes to the original lie, though there are a few mechanical additions to bring the original up to modern Halo standards. Namely, Master Chief can use smart-link aiming with any weapon and is now allowed to sprint. I found that both can be safely ignored for a classic feel (there's even a Skull that fully disables sprinting if you hate it that much), with sprinting being a nice addition to simply get around some of the larger levels a bit faster. It hardly dictates the flow of combat with the only foes that really pushed me to sprint mid-combat being aggressive chargers like Hunters, energy sword Elites, and the hulking Pure Form Flood.

Although, I was a little disappointed to see health packs have been cut in favor of Chief regenerating health. This always felt like a nice separation between his Mark 5 and Mark 6 Mjolnir amor, with the latter appearing from Halo 2 onwards along with fully regenerating health – a reminder that Master Chief isn't quite so invincible that encouraged you to play a little more tactically rather than charging in like a barbarian.

With that said, going in guns blazing at all times on Normal difficulty is where Halo: Campaign Evolved really shines, feeling closer to the original game's Heroic difficulty. Measured aggression in the face of the Covenant and using every tool in Chief's arsenal means you can play more like Doomguy, strafing around and filling each enemy with lead or pistol-whipping them before charging to the next. And it’s still as satisfying as ever to perfectly Hail Mary a plasma grenade into a cluster of Grunts, sending them wailing and flying.

So, with the 2001 classic acting as such a solid foundation, it's practically impossible to not have a good time playing Halo: Campaign Evolved, at the very least. I was initially apprehensive that these relatively simple 25-year-old design principles just wouldn't hold up in a time of fast-paced movement shooters and vast open worlds. Surely such a basic feel would make for a terrible first impression for PS5 players who may have no idea what Halo even is, let alone never played it before. But I think it's this simplicity that makes it shine. As such a faithful remake of its forerunner, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a first-person shooter in its purest form.

Unnatural formation

The more I play Halo: Campaign Evolved the more I also realize that this commitment to faithfulness is a double-edged sword. How can a game titled "Campaign Evolved" claim to be an evolution if it sticks so closely to its source material?

Sprinting, regenerating health, and other modernizations are joined by minor tweaks to level design and dialogue, and an expanded arsenal. The Energy Sword, Sentinel Beam, and Wraith tank, all previously tantalizingly out of reach for Chief in the original, can now be wielded to great effect on the ring – they're even joined by the Needle Rifle, SMG, and Fuel Rod Gun, further fleshing out the already excellent weapon sandbox.

The Library, my least favorite level in Halo: Combat Evolved for its monotonous and labyrinthine structure, has been redesigned a little to trim the fat and inject a bit of variety to its vast halls. You go down instead of up now! That vastness certainly had its own appeal, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that it's a considerably more intuitive place to navigate in Halo: Campaign Evolved. It still feels maze-like without you getting lost, providing a greater sense of momentum even as the incessant monitor orb Guilty Spark dawdles and spouts nonsense. But it's a crying shame that Cortana no longer tells him to "sod off" at the start of Two Betrayals.

The stunning scenery that is arguably one of the main draws of Halo: Campaign Evolved also comes at the cost of Unreal Engine 5 choppiness. I noticed that whenever there were lots of enemies on screen or plenty of particle effects going off at once, animation frame rates would noticeably plummet. Nothing game-breaking, but hardly what I'd expect from something that is so otherwise polished.

Hopping back into Halo: Combat Evolved via The Master Chief Collection made me realize that this remake's changes are unfortunately quite inconsequential. Halo Studios has imitated the original so well that there is little that Halo: Campaign Evolved does that makes it an essential play. Obviously, if you only have a PS5, then Halo: Campaign Evolved is your sole option – that's also ultimately who this game is for too – but I find it difficult to recommend to anyone else when The Master Chief Collection, and therefore the original Halo, is widely available.

I think we're just getting started

Of course, Halo Studios already thought about this and so Halo: Campaign Evolved also includes a new three-mission prequel campaign, Operation Meteorite. These bonus missions see Master Chief teaming up with his best non-AI pal and fan-favorite Sergeant Johnson to investigate a mysterious research vessel to hopefully learn the location of the heart of the Covenant.

To be blunt, these missions are quite unremarkable. Despite taking place one year prior to the main campaign, what transpires is of no real relevance whatsoever. It essentially just establishes that Johnson and Chief are two bros who like to kill aliens together and find themselves in an almost Rogue One-style plot-hole-that-didn't-need-explaining story. Narratively, these missions end up being more relevant to Halo 2's story, so Halo fans can do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme while it flies right over the heads of PS5 greenhorns.

These missions are also the only place in all of Halo: Campaign Evolved where you'll get to use the Battle Rifle and fight Brutes. Couple that with the limp narrative and Operation Meteorite ends up feeling more like a chance to deploy some fan service in the form of mild banter between Chief and Johnson, who wears Chief's 1999 MacWorld demo Orion armor, while also testing some things for the surely inevitable Halo 2: Evolved – there's even a gondola section!

Halo Studios clearly has a lot of respect for Bungie's legacy but has also avoided doing anything particularly interesting or new with it. I would have liked to have seen more substantial structural changes to levels given that the developers aren't bound by the technical limitations of the original Xbox. That resulted in recycled environments and backtracking through levels, which are neatly woven into the narrative, but it feels like a wasted opportunity to leverage such modern technology and then not put your own spin on those classics.

However, after trying to go bold with Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Infinite and having to go back to the drawing board every time, I'm hardly surprised that this is how Halo: Campaign Evolved turned out. A modern recreation is certainly the safest option for Halo Studios and Xbox Game Studios, and it's a solid effort that resurrects what feels like a bygone era of single-player shooters. But, only because it copies the genre-defining Halo: Combat Evolved so closely. Why iterate on near-perfection? Yet, the promise of an evolved campaign experience, like Installation 04 itself, rings hollow, and I'm left wondering if playing it safe is really what Xbox should be aiming for with Halo right now.

Halo: Campaign Evolved was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is one of the best FPS games you can play this year, and if you're interested in the rest of the Halo series, take a look at our list of the best Halo games.

Halo Campaign Evolved pre-loading is now available for all platforms and all editions, so whether you're on PS5, PC, or Xbox Series X, you can get the game installed now, ready for the full launch. With the early access period still running, many players can still upgrade, download, and start playing right now, but you may as well get set for July 28 instead. With that, I've explained everything you need to get done before Halo Campaign Evolved's full launch, including pre-loading, so that you can dive in as soon as possible.

How to pre-load Halo Campaign Evolved

To start pre-installing Halo, you obviously must have pre-ordered the Standard Edition of the game on your platform of choice. Bear in mind that if you've got the Premium Edition or the Premium Edition upgrade, you can install and start playing the game now before the Halo Campaign Evolved release time thanks to the included early access period.

With the game pre-ordered, your platform's storefront should automatically begin pre-installing the game right away, assuming you have automatic downloads switched on. Otherwise, check the Halo Campaign Evolved page on your platform's store front or your game library and you should be able to start the early download from there. To ensure you have enough space for it, you should have about 100GB of free space on your console or PC's storage.

I also highly recommend making sure you get your Microsoft account details ready – or make an account if you don't have one while you wait – so that you can get your account linked and start playing Halo with minimal hassle. You can't play the game without an account, and it's used to make crossplay and cross-progression function, so you can play Halo Campaign Evolved with whoever and on whatever eligible platforms you have available to you.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The next Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond, this time a collaboration with Warhammer 40,000, is getting a full reveal on July 30.

Arrowhead Game Studios tells fans to tune in next week with a short trailer showing nothing but a handgun, a date, and a couple logos. A trailer for an incoming trailer two months after the crossover's announcement trailer, then.

"Attention, Helldivers," the developer tweets. "July 30 has been designated as a date of operational significance. Update your calendar accordingly. Further briefing to follow."

Not much is known about the forthcoming Warhammer 40,000 Warbond, but if it follows in the footsteps of the Killzone and Halo collaborations, then we're likely to get some sick cosmetics and cool weapons that would almost fit right into the sci-fi settings of both universes.

Squashing legions of juicy bugs and spreading democracy to all corners of the galaxy with the light touch of ultra-violent, ultra-deadly, sometimes fascist soldiers is common ground for both Helldivers and Warhammer, making this a match made in heaven. Here's hoping the Legendary Warbond can live up to its potential.

Arrowhead actually had another Warbond planned to release this summer, but the developer needed "more time to cook" and "would rather hold back" than apparently launch something half-baked. The unannounced Warbond doesn't have a new release date yet, though the studio says it'll keep players posted once the package nears completion.

Elsewhere in the bug-alien-killing video game world, July 30 is also the same day Gears of War: E-Day plans to show what it has in store for its multiplayer modes. Big day ahead for fans of chainsaw-adjacent weapons and meat-grinding shooters.

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

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

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

Never too late to try again

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

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

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

(War)frame of Mind

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A former Disney CEO can only barely remember the name Kingdom Hearts, and he definitely can't recall what made him give Square Enix's (or SquareSoft at the time) pitch the thumbs up.

Kingdom Hearts' entire existence already seemed like an impossible Disney miracle come true. Some of the company's biggest mascots, Mickey Mouse included, being deeply involved in a nonsensical JRPG's twisty storyline for over two decades, while crossing over with Final Fantasy characters, I might add, doesn't sound like it would've made Disney loosen its usually tight grip on its IP. (This preceded Fortnite's bonkers crossovers, mind you.)

Trying to get to the bottom of what turned Square Enix's wish upon a star into a long-running video game franchise, The Game File's Stephen Totilo managed to get a hold of Michael Eisner, the man who ran The Walt Disney Company for over 20 years.

According to the outlet, Eisner apparently didn't remember Kingdom Hearts at all until it was referred to as the "Final Fantasy plus Disney characters" project. "Oh, I remember now," he then says. Asked if he recalls why he green-lit the first game, he simply says, "I don't." Ouch.

As the story goes, famed character designer Tetsuya Nomura and producer Shinji Hashimoto were early in development on a game that would try to emulate the free-flowing movement of Super Mario 64. When Hashimoto found himself in an elevator with a Disney executive, conversations about what eventually became Kingdom Hearts began in earnest.

Finding out what convinced Disney to relent and have its most iconic characters fight darkness alongside an anime protag wearing clown shoes and a key-shaped sword would've been fascinating, but Eisner likely signed off on many deals during his tenure, so all is forgiven here. Even well before Fortnite, Disney wasn't a total stranger to wacky video game ideas, either, between Disney Infinity and Epic Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts has had a life of its own many years after Eisner's departure, too. Kingdom Heart 4 is up next, with a "deep dive" into the series also scheduled for next month's D23 event.

Canceled Kingdom Hearts spin-off's intro apparently leaks online and not even veteran fans understand what's going on: "Why does it look like Pacific Rim but with Keyblades"

Lead developers of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse have spoken about the process that led to the creation of Rose Belmont, the game's protagonist. Initially, they didn't have a specific gender for the protagonist in mind, but after developing the story, they wanted to base it around the strong bonds between mother and daughter.

In an interview with Famitsu, as translated by GamesRadar+, director Yukiko Hokao explains how the process of developing Belmont's Curse began without a specific protagonist in mind. "At the start we hadn't decided that the protagonist would be a woman," she says. "While we were building the world and the story, we thought the role would best suit a woman, and it was decided that it should be Trevor Belmont's daughter."

She goes on to explain how the original concept for the game had the protagonist's mother die before the beginning of the game. After discussing the game's world with Motion Twin and Evil Empire, it was agreed upon that the main character should be a woman.

Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi expresses how the game's world didn't feel right for a male protagonist. "For example, if this story featured a male protagonist, we'd have to consider the type of world depicted, and I think that could be cool," he says. "However, for this story, it was naturally decided that a female protagonist would be the best fit."

Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille further explains how the protagonist's gender fits into the game's themes. "Particularly, considering her mother Sypha's curse would be inherited by her daughter, there's a bond between parent and child," he says. "There is a strong connection between the two, and it gives her a clear motivation to avenge her mother's death and face her cruel fate. From this, the protagonist became Rose Belmont, and the role was best suited for a woman."

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse wants you to find the "joy" in the difficulty and it won't be "simple or easy": "That's not Castlevania."

The Halo Campaign Evolved release time is less days away, but the early access period has already begun for Premium Edition owners. If you've not splashed out for the Premium Edition, then you'll need to know when exactly you can start playing on July 28 and begin causing chaos across Installation 04. With a simple global simultaneous release for all platforms, everyone will be able to log into Halo Campaign Evolved from the same time. If you want to know when that'll be in your region, I've laid out the Halo CE remake release times below across some major time zones.

Halo Campaign Evolved release time

Halo Campaign Evolved releases globally on July 28 at 3pm UTC. That means all players, whether you're on Xbox Series X, PS5, or PC will be able to play from that time. Here's how that translates to different time zones so you know exactly when you can play:

• US Pacific: 8AM PDT on July 28
• US Eastern: 11AM EDT on July 28
• UK: 4PM BST on July 28
• Central Europe: 5PM CEST on July 28
• Eastern Australia: 1AM AEST on July 29
• New Zealand: 3AM NZST on July 29

While you wait for the proper release time, I recommend following the Halo Campaign Evolved pre-loading advice above and making sure that you have a Microsoft account that you can link to your platform account, particularly if you're going to play on PS5 or Steam. This is essential for crossplay and cross-progression, letting you join your friends regardless of what platform they're on and change platforms without losing progress and unlocks.

Halo Campaign Evolved early access release time

If you've pre-ordered the Premium Edition of Halo Campaign Evolved you can hop into Halo Campaign Evolved right now! The early access period started on July 23 at 3pm UTC, so you can enjoy playing the game early from now until the full launch on the 28th when everyone else gets to play.

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