Rockstar Games created an entire team dedicated to what some might consider "background noise" for GTA 6.

The tidbit comes from GTA 6 developers who recently spoke to Love magazine about the open-world epic. Rockstar's senior vice president of narrative, Rupert Humphries, says there's "an amazing team of writers and creatives" focused on creating the "'background noise' that makes the city and the world come to life."

According to Humphries, that includes a "specific team of pedestrian dialogue writers in LA and then a team of advertising and comedy writers across New York, LA, and London." He adds: "It's a team from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life, but we all share a sense of humor and a desire to have a bit of fun with the ridiculousness of humans and the media and advertising. And none of us see it as background! It's all part of the tapestry of the game and creates the experience of living in this wild world."

Open world writing director, James Horton, says the studio apparently "dreamed a lot bigger this time around," building entire teams for details that might be after thoughts in other open-world games.

"There are no shortcuts when it comes to building a world like this: it's a question of giving the right people the resources they need to build something that's not only vast and varied as a whole, but where every part rings true no matter how small it is, or how closely you look at it," Horton explains. "It needs to wash over you when you're sprinting down the busiest street in the city, hearing snatches of a hundred different conversations as you go; and it needs to be totally convincing if you decide to stop and pay close attention to any one of those conversations."

Horton even argues that, in some ways, there's "no background" in GTA 6. The difference between "background" and "foreground" simply depends on whatever the player is paying attention to at any given moment. Focus on a random NPC, and you might find a character with their own interesting inner life. "No one you meet is an extra; they're not only full characters, everyone you meet is the main character in their own story," Horton continues.

GTA 6 radio stations revealed, Rockstar says "for the first time" in Grand Theft Auto history there are also in-game podcasts

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is welcoming four new playable superheroes in its Year One DLC - Spider-Man's frenemy Venom, X-Men's Jubilee, Jane Foster's Mighty Thor and a version of Cyclops who's been taken over by Phoenix are all joining the fighting game's colorful roster.

Publisher PlayStation announced the full lineup earlier today, a few days after revealing Phoenix Cyclops as its first post-launch character coming on November 2.

Developer Arc Systems chose to add a "Phoenix version of Cyclops" because the frequent X-Men leader has appeared in so many fighting games over the years that the team wanted to "challenge ourselves to explore whether there was a way to present him in a style that felt different from what players had seen before," according to a blog post penned by producer Takeshi Yamanaka. "This became a major topic of discussion within the team."

"We felt this interpretation would allow us to create fresher visuals and a more exciting fighting style while offering something unexpected for players," Yamanaka says of the character, who was inspired by an Avengers vs X-Men storyline. "Cyclops is designed as an all-rounder who excels at both long-range combat and close-range strikes through his versatile use of Optic Blasts."

Up next is Jane Foster's Thor - as seen in the Mighty Thor comic run - who looks awesome in a first-look trailer (above). She's coming as a Year One fighter sometime this winter, and unsurprisingly "wields the legendary Mjolnir" to unleash the "electrifying power of the God of Thunder."

Venom heads to Marvel Tokon next spring, alongside a post-launch stage called Klyntar, which is an artificial planet hosting the alien symbiotes in some comic book incarnations. X-Men mainstay Jubilee is the final Year One character, coming sometime in summer 2027.

Marvel Tokon's Year One pass costs $35, though it's also included with the game's Deluxe and Ultimate editions.

Marvel Tokon sold 485,000 copies in a week but it could have been "closer to 1M" with a better PC port and Steam reviews, analyst says

Any job worth doing in Watch Dogs 2 is worth doing to music. And so, the best mechanic in Ubisoft's hacker-action sequel is Marcus Holloway's earbuds. Equippable at any time, they pump an eclectic stream of on-demand tunes, from Dizzee Rascal to Anti-Flag, KC & The Sunshine Band to Run The Jewels and more, into your ears. You can freely soundtrack any mission (attempting grand larceny while blaring Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is one moment we won't forget in a hurry) or simply wander the streets of San Francisco to your favourite songs.

One particular track so perfectly captures the philosophy of Watch Dogs 2, it almost feels as if the game was formed around it. We blast Get Stupid as we have Holloway ride on top of a car like it's a skateboard, driving it remotely via his phone. "Get stupid, it's what we do good," Mac Dre raps. "Ghost ride the whip while we dancin' on the hood." Virtual Californians look on in bewilderment, and we laugh uproariously. Even Dre seems to admire our efforts, crooning his approval: "Boy, we go dumb, dude". Credit to Ubisoft, then, for a tonal U-turn of such epic proportions that it singlehandedly saved a series. Watch Dogs got stupid. And it worked.

Bright lights of play

After the 2014 release of Watch Dogs, something had to be done. It suffered as a result of a now-infamous E3 2012 reveal that, on the cusp of a new generation of consoles, made promises beyond the actual graphical capabilities. The ‘downgrade', as it was dubbed, was apparent to anyone playing the final game. But on top of that, Watch Dogs didn't endear itself to players. Its Chicago setting was designed to be cramped and dark, a representation of a city riddled with surveillance cameras and made paranoid under the all-seeing eye of Big Tech. And its lead, Aiden Pearce, had all the charisma of wet cardboard.

Sunny San Francisco is a breath of fresh air in comparison. It's a riot of colour and sound, where all-glass offices sit around the corner from pastel Victorian houses, and perverse wealth brushes past crippling poverty. Artists and entrepreneurs roam the streets, each convinced they're a little more like the other. It's a place that, in art as in life, more accurately encapsulates the tech industry, a sphere infinitely more ridiculous than it is terrifying.

Holloway, too, is a fresh take on a well-worn theme: he's a young, Black, brilliant hacker who has the sense of self to recognise his own oppression as one part of a much bigger problem. He's also likeable enough that he can make some friends who'll help him do something about it. Your mileage may vary regarding the core crew, who often express themselves via corny LED emoji masks and outdated turns of phrase (2010 called, Ubisoft, and it wants its ‘Y U NO' meme back). But their exuberance was a welcome shot in the arm coming off the back of Watch Dogs: these people are not only not about to take this shit lying down, but they have a sense of humour about it, too.

In turn, it makes it easier to accept many of the game's flaws as part of its precocious personality. There are, of course, precisely zero realities in which San Franciscans are bombing around on mopeds bumping a playlist clearly composed by someone Googling ‘songs about the Bay Area'. It's an improvement on the first instalment's soundtrack, however, which Edge once described as "songs by artists from Chicago, that once lived in Chicago, that have Chicago in the title or are by the band Chicago". And as part of a fantasy in which you can drain bank accounts at the press of a button, and five kids can afford to rent a hackerspace in the middle of San Francisco? It somehow feels in keeping with the bombastic tone to strut around your home turf, insisting to the seals at Pier 39 that "in the Bay Area we dance a little different".

Happily, sightseeing is something of which much is made in Watch Dogs 2. This is a developer known for pouring a huge amount of resources (although very few of them human, if the recent stories of abuse coming out of the studio are anything to go by) into its recreations of famous locales, and yet it took until Watch Dogs 2 for it to openly acknowledge the proportion of players who enjoy these games mainly as an excuse to partake in virtual tourism. The ScoutX app on Holloway's phone flags up several of Frisco's best-known – and even some lesser-known – landmarks for you to hunt down and photograph, which widens DedSec's online reach.

Even SongSneak, Watch Dogs 2's Shazam equivalent, encourages you to get among it all in pursuit of new songs. If you're within 25 metres of a song playing over a bar's sound system, being blared from a boombox or a car radio, you can press a button to add it to your phone playlists. Ubisoft hit on something essential with this particular implementation, taking a realisation that GTA maker Rockstar had long ago and pushing it that little bit further: the fact that our love of music is so often about the context in which we first hear it, how it's threaded through the very fabric of cities and cultures, and bound so strongly with memory. It's not a reward doled out randomly upon you completing a load of laundry or getting a new job; you hear it somewhere, pick it up and take it with you.

Still, the whole thing is largely enjoyable caricature; while it's not perfect, its flaws do tend to work in its favour. Ubisoft's NPC AI in Watch Dogs 2 leaves much to be desired, with its ambitious interlocking systems often bumping awkwardly against each other. But when they come off in ludicrous ways, it feels only appropriate for this exaggerated vision of San Francisco, in which AirPod-wearing trust-fund babies call the cops on each other over an argument about latte foam, and taking a selfie in front of a marriage proposal sets off a chain of events that ends with a fistfight between the two lovers. Few games since have sported a world that feels so systemic, most likely because it is so loud about it. As a result, whatever you're doing has a visible impact, a feeling surely top of any young revolutionary's wishlist.

Indeed, DedSec's ability to draw in others (represented by the idea of ‘followers' as an in-game currency earned through completing missions and posting photos to your fictional social media accounts) plays a key mechanical and narrative role in positioning it as an organisation by the people, for the people.

And it's that – not the one-button ‘quick hacks', or the suggestion that bonking someone on the head with a billiard ball on a bungee cord is a non-lethal pursuit – that's the real fantasy in play here: that you can stick it to the man, if only you've got a laptop and enough energy. And that it can be fun.

Plugged in

One of the earliest, pettiest and most memorable missions has you steal what is essentially KITT from Knight Rider because Holloway reckons the ‘Cyberdriver' film makes hacker culture look childish. To which his response is to remote-drive the car across a pyrotechnic-laden assault course through the city while Judas Priest's Turbo Lover plays on the speakers, before crashing it through a promotional billboard. Quod erat demonstrandum, mate.

But we have the pleasure of watching Holloway and the gang gradually mature. And we do mean gradually – the skewering of a Martin Shkreli-esque pharma bro being another laugh-out-loud moment placed front and centre of the campaign. As the story unfolds, we see DedSec mobilise more effectively, sniffing out corruption among law enforcement, politicians, and a tech corporation monopolising and weaponising the world's data. A final mission in which you switch between playing as every one of the core group underscores the idea that collective effort is the key to standing up to the most untouchable of establishments.

It's a concept that follow-up series entry Watch Dogs: Legion tries to run with, but fails to communicate. In attempting to showcase that rebellion is a collaborative affair, its ‘play as anyone' tech ends up robbing London's inhabitants of any sense of individuality beyond randomly-generated character descriptions. And this is what, for all its occasional clumsiness, Watch Dogs 2 got so right back in 2016, just as a megalomaniac celebrity was stepping into his role as US president: power struggles are a personality contest, and with the advent of the Internet, they are even more so.

We look to leaders who outwardly represent our values, people we can relate to, and believe in. In Legion, every possible wrinkle in every playable character has to be ironed out to fit the exact same vague template. It's difficult to get invested in the fates of people who don't feel real – furthermore, any attempts at retaining some of Watch Dogs 2's good-natured clownery ring hollow without anyone believable to attach it to. And when your firearms are lethal, it feels a lot less like mischief and more like murder.

By contrast, Holloway – along with most other things in Watch Dogs 2 – does feel genuine. Ubisoft surely felt it had little to lose by abandoning the stifling self-seriousness of the first Watch Dogs, and instead headed in the opposite direction to embrace the actual hacker fantasy. It feels like a creative team hanging out the sunroof, doing what it wants to, as Mac Dre puts it; in doing so, it uncovers fundamental truths about why so many people really dream of having some control over the world they live in. It may be a work of fiction, but there's a lot of truth in the way it portrays one possible view of a revolution – with an emphasis on earnestness, connection, and even a little fun. Sometimes you have to get stupid to be taken seriously

This Watch Dogs 2 article was first published in issue 354 of Edge Magazine. To get more like this delivered straight to your doorstep (or digital device) consider subscribing to Edge.

Risk of Rain 2's Hallowed Concepts DLC is another hit for one of the best roguelikes around. Years after a shaky start, Gearbox seems to be doing a much better job with the genre icon.

The Borderlands maker bought Risk of Rain 2 back in 2022, as the original developers soon went to work at Valve. The beloved roguelike then found itself in troubled waters. Gearbox's first major update to the game post-buyout, Seekers of the Storm, was hugely divisive with series fans, but the publisher has since turned things around with last year's Alloyed Collective and this week's Hallowed Concepts.

Risk of Rain 2's newest expansion is already a hit on Steam, with 84% of user reviews giving it the thumbs up on the platform.

"Hallowed Concepts blows every other DLC out of the water," one positive review reads. "The DLC is so fresh and does so much to reinvigorate the lategame that it feels like the devs read my mind… There's so much intentional and clever design in how these new systems are implemented and overlay themselves on top of the core game. So much of the new content is geared towards making the lategame matter again… It's lovely. Truly."

"Easily the best DLC from the new team. Seekers was fine after it got patched from launch, Alloyed Collective was also fine, but this blows the others out of the water. I'd say it's on-par with Void. Not to mention the free update it came with was huge, adding 4 new skills and challenges for them (even if Acrid's is cruel). Good job," another says.

Hallowed Concept isn't totally flawless, however. The negative reviews that do exist draw attention to the expansion's bugs, and not the creepy crawly kind. "Great expansion, fun items and bosses, but in one day, two runs died to bosses spawning outside of the map and becoming impossible to attack, until that's fixed I cannot recommend this expansion, but otherwise amazing," a negative review says.

Regardless, it's a good step forward for the roguelike icon.

Risk of Rain 2, now under Borderlands house Gearbox, vows to take "full responsibility" for AI art it calls a "mistake" – "We are sending the designer to the Void Fields as punishment"

One of the big criticisms leveled against Starfield at launch was its lack of seamless planetary landing. Spacefarers can essentially pick a landing zone and go through a glorified loading screen to reach their destination, but they couldn't fly into a planet's atmosphere and land directly themselves a la No Man's Sky.

A Starfield modder is now working to change that, and their results are already super impressive. Frederik Wessberg today posted a clip of the "Seamless Landings" mod that's still in-progress, showing how a Starfield ship can go from the void of space to the surface of a planet "without any loading screens."

"I've worked on this thing for roughly half a year at this point, and finally it's starting to look and feel ready enough for me to show it to you," Wessberg writes in the video's description. "I'm bringing Seamless Landings on planets and moons without any loading screens to Starfield."

Wessberg explains that the seamless landing works whether you're flying the ship manually or putting letting autopilot do the work, so you can leave the captain's seat and enjoy the view stress-free.

"You can even land on water! If you ever wondered how it would look if you were allowed to select a spot in the ocean in vanilla Starfield, here's your chance to see that for yourself," he adds. "And during your trip to the surface, you'll be flying through real 3D layers of volumetric clouds, driven by climate data and weather systems, thunderstorms and lightning, auroras around the poles, airglow above the night-side horizon, physically-based atmospheric scattering based on the actual atmospheric composition the game data provides."

Wessberg initially thought the mod would be a "fun, small project," but quickly ran into some trouble because "planet rendering in space in vanilla Starfield is very limited: A planet is represented by a texture, maybe a moving cloud layer, and maybe an atmosphere." Trying to land on a planet would essentially be akin to landing on a "flat texture."

To get the job done, Wessberg "had to completely reimplement Starfield's planet rendering in space in 3D," but "thankfully, Starfield is actually amazingly physically accurate, and in many ways a true space simulator - it just doesn't ever reveal this to the player."

Starfield's seamless landing mod will be completely free on NexusMods when it's eventually ready.

"I don’t think Starfield was anywhere near successful enough to do a Starfield 2," former Bethesda dev says

A former Naughty Dog veteran who worked on The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 is more excited about the idea of shorter games rather than "monolithic" blockbusters like GTA 6 or The Elder Scrolls 6.

Matt Radford was a visual effects artist on some of Naughty Dog's biggest hits before opening his own studio called 5th Corner, and he recently spoke about the merits of shorter games in an interview with Kiwi Talkz (embedded below).

"I'm 38 years old," Radford says. "And I think that there's also something intimidating to me about a GTA 6 or, you know, another Elder Scrolls. I, personally, am really looking for shorter experiences that are focused [and] that I have a great time with. That excites me probably more."

Part of his reasoning is the time available to him and other players. A game that runs for upwards of 50 hours can be a huge time sink that's simply not feasible for a huge portion of people to complete, while shorter campaigns can be enjoyed in a weekend or two.

"Even The Last of Us 2, I thought, was so long… I really loved those earlier Uncharted games when they were like 6 to 8 hours," he adds.

The other part of the equation is the ballooning budgets of video game development. Modern AAA games can cost over $200 or $300 million to produce, but those costs might be able to come down if studios focused on tighter experiences.

"GTA 6 is gonna be awesome, I'm sure," he continues. "And I think collectively as an industry we want it to succeed. No gamer will be happy if it failed because it would not be a good sign for the business."

GTA 6 shows Jason nude, and fans are wondering if Rockstar will go full Red Dead Redemption 2: "Those horse balls physics gotta go somewhere"

Sonic Racing: Crossworlds already has a pretty hectic lineup of characters, but Sega's Year Two DLC roadmap takes things one step further. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake series, Persona, Godzilla, Hello Kitty, Bayonetta, Evangelion, the Dreamcast itself, and much more are all coming to the well-liked kart racer before the end of 2027.

Sonic's most recent and surprisingly great take on kart racing is no stranger to bonkers crossovers. The game's first year of post-launch content welcomed everybody from Spongebob Squarepants and Minecraft Steve to Yakuza's Ichiban Kasuga, but Sega's one-upped itself with Year Two.

Year Two includes free content drops throughout 2027, alongside a paid Season Two Pass with exclusive goodies. The free content starts with monster-spanking icon Bayonetta joining the roster, alongside a kart inspired by McLaren and Persona 3's Aigis coming between November and March of next year.

The paid Season Two kicks off with a Godzilla collaboration on day one (November 3), bringing karts based on popular kaiju and a track that features our beloved, radioactive 'zilla causing chaos throughout a city. Evangelion is up next with playable characters Asuka Shikinami Langley and Rei Ayanami, plus new karts and a track.

Sometime after, we can look forward to playing as Hello Kitty and Kuromi in a course that's inspired by the wider Sanrio universe (if you have a favorite friend, there's a good chance they've been hidden somewhere in the background of the track.)

Taking a break from crossovers, the Segaland pack goes back in time with a course that pays tribute to Sega's entire history, arcade classics and home consoles included. Sega's also introducing three karts based on classic arcade cabinets (Outrun, After Burner, and Super Megalo) and three karts based on its consoles (Genesis, Saturn, and Dreamcast), alongside a bonus Super Shadow racer for owners of both Season Passes.

And, finally, the Year Two Season Pass ends with two big hitters. A Final Fantasy 7 Remake collaboration is on the way, but all Sega had to show was Cloud's Buster Sword sitting alongside a generic ring from the Sonic series. No word on what this collab includes, exactly. The other pack comes from the Reload Revival Royal pack, which presumably features characters and/or stages from all three modern Persona games.

Despite Sega's Mario Kart World shade, rival racer Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has "fallen short" of expectations, and compared to Nintendo's sales I can see why

Co-op games can go one of two ways: they are either a bonding activity that brings you closer together, or a catalyst for a screaming match.

Ghost Town Games is very familiar with both, thanks to their award-winning title Overcooked becoming a go-to 2016 co-op game where duos work against the clock to prepare meals together. Some pairs crack like an egg under pressure as they frantically toss ingredients at each other, leading to…Well, it is dubbed "Divorce Kitchen" in China for a reason. Regardless of the different outcomes, though, 10 years later, there's no denying Overcooked's impact and success in the co-op space, which is why I've kept my eyes firmly on the studio's next game, Stage Fright.

I'll admit that I did expect the upcoming game to have elements similar to Overcooked when it was first announced back in 2024. But after witnessing the title's latest trailer at Nintendo's 2026 Direct, I caught up with Ghost Town Games co-founders Phil Duncan and Oli De-Vine to learn what makes Stage Fright a completely different kind of experience.

A night together

Ghost Town Games isn't afraid to try something new. While Overcooked focuses on time-based levels, stressful environments, and food-prep challenges, Stage Fright is a narrative-driven title where you'll follow three protagonists through a coming-of-age story, communicating with each other to solve escape-room-like puzzles while exploring a very cute but spooky world.

"What we didn't want is to create a purely chaotic game this time around. We wanted this to be something that brings people together. It sounds a bit obvious, but let's talk about Overcooked breaking people apart," Duncan explained when I asked what prompted the decision to move away from Overcooked's wildly popular time-based gameplay.

"This is the one that we want you to get together on a Friday night with your partner, draw the curtains, order a pizza, and sit and play this game together, and hopefully get closer," he continued.

Overcooked may have a vague overarching plot, but let's be honest: you don't stay for the story. You stay for the culinary carnage. On the other hand, each trailer for Stage Fright so far feels akin to watching an animated movie, which makes sense, as De-Vine explains that the new game was built "around this mystery seaside coming-of-age story." This shift to an overarching narrative is something Ghost Town Games has only touched on before, but Stage Fright promises a linear, more structured experience than the fast-paced, characterless avatars of Overcooked days.

"A lot of what you experience with Overcooked or with any cooperative game is how you communicate with the person who's next to you, and we thought, well, let's try and tie that into the story as well," says Duncan. "So a lot of what the characters are having to deal with and the characters that they're meeting is to do with how they interact and what their relationship is like and how it changes over time."

No player left behind

Even as someone who is a massive fan of narrative-first co-op games such as Hazelight Studio's titles like It Takes Two and Split Fiction, the move toward a narrative experience is a complete swing away from the arcade-like levels of Overcooked's kitchens. Stage Fright also seems to have a pretty unique setup for the co-op genre in general, with the team choosing to have us follow three characters instead of two, despite Stage Fright being a strictly two-player game.

De-Vine and Duncan reveal that players won't choose the character they play for the entire experience. Instead, you will be "hopped" into different roles throughout the story. This not only adds variety for all players but also ensures no one feels like they are being "dragged around".

To explain this point, Duncan describes a section that involves a spotlight "that one player is controlling and the other player has to stay inside of while there's dangers all around them." The job of who controls the spotlight doesn't stay the same the whole level, though.

"Variety is important to us, not just in terms of keeping the game exciting, but also playing to different types of players' strengths as well," Duncan explains. Stage Fright has undergone some playtesting already, and the team is mindful that each player should have something to do in a section. "You find one player who's really good at word puzzles; say someone else is much more spatial; someone's more into the skill side of things. It's another way to make sure one player isn't solving everything, trying to keep it fresh."

Split reality

One of my biggest pet peeves in co-op games, having grown up with a brother and now having a longtime partner, is that some titles feel like they could have easily been single-player games instead. But Stage Fright's decision to use split-screen gives each player a different experience while also promoting teamwork, as they will need to communicate with each other to solve puzzles.

The constant split-screen, whether you play online or in couch co-op, is all about perspective. "It's trying to put the players in different locations a lot of the time, or if they're in the same location, maybe they see different things from each other," says De-Vine. "You're going to miss stuff that the other player sees, and then they're going to have to bring you in on their thought process. Otherwise, the game is impossible for you if you don't communicate, and it's also not possible for one player to basically play the game for the other."

The challenge is still here.

The split-screen choice, story focus, and art style of Stage Fright are all vastly different from Overcooked. Instead of another game defined by "communication in chaos", Stage Fright ticks nearly all my co-op boxes while giving us a chance to breathe.

Duncan tells me that you can pause during the aforementioned spotlight section: "One player can just stop moving the controller, and the other person can just stand in the middle of the spotlight," he explained. There is chaos in the game, but you can disengage without worrying about the clock.

Of course, that may set off alarm bells for some about Stage Fright being too accessible and Ghost Town Games losing too much of its bite. Luckily, De-Vine and Duncan have assured me that Stage Fright isn't without challenge. Without going into specifics, both tease that players can get each other killed "in a playful way".

"It's about sort of balancing those moments of adrenaline and then cooling you down a little bit," Duncan says. "We're not making a game that's going to punish players a lot, but we're making a game that should be difficult if you aren't communicating well, and if you are communicating well, it should be satisfying," De-Vine continues.

Stage Fright's more cerebral approach might sound worlds away from Overcooked's fast, frantic loop, but it's very much an evolution of its core idea.

"It's connected in the sense that we're still trying to make games for gamers and non- gamers, and it's still very geared around communication and accessibility and the like," De-Vine tells me. "But we want to do something original and different."

After 10 years of couples gloriously devolving into Gordon Ramsay screaming matches with Overcooked, Stage Fright's more narrative-first approach looks to be filling the co-op game void for pairs who just didn't click with the chaos-filled kitchens. It's clear that Stage Fright won't be another "Divorce Kitchen," from everything that I have seen so far. Instead, its more methodical approach and emphasis on overcoming a charming mystery together might mend those fractured friendships at long last.

Stage Fright is set to release sometime in 2027. While we wait, check out our list of the best co-op games to play today. Or look ahead to more 2027 releases with our round-up of all the new games on the way.

If you're playing Hytale in early access via the premium Cursebreaker Edition, you might want to keep an eye out on your account inbox the next time a new chapter releases on the long road to 1.0.

Simon Collins-Laflamme, founder of Hytale studio Hypixel, announced on Twitter that he's giving away a single copy of the Standard Edition of Hytale early access to everyone with the fancy Cursebreaker Edition – for every time a new chapter releases until the game gets its 1.0 update, whenever that might be.

Don't believe me? Hold on, let me fetch the tweet. Ah, here it is.

"For every Hytale early access chapter we release, Cursebreaker Edition owners will get 1 extra game copy to give away," reads a tweet from Hypixel Simon himself, who clarifies that, yes, "If we release 6 chapters before 1.0, that's 6 extra standard copies to give to friends and family!"

Still don't believe me? Think I just pulled those words straight out of my you-know-where? Wrong! I pulled them from a genuine tweet from Mr. Hytale, which I've embedded below for proof:

We're obviously having fun on this late Friday evening, but in reality, longtime Hypixel fans probably aren't terribly surprised by Simon's latest hijinks. Simon takes his work seriously, but he's also a CEO that likes to have fun, as evidenced by promotions like this one as well as his offering $15,000 to the first person who can beat a ridiculous challenge in the upcoming Out of the Breach update. And speaking of which, that update is out October 12, at which time Cursebreaker Edition players should find a code for Hytale early access in their inboxes, which they can use to spread the word.

If you, like me, are wondering who in the world to gift your potential six copies of Hytale to, well, one Twitter user asked Simon that exact question, and they received an admittedly pretty great response: "get more friends bro."

Here are the 35 best RPGs we recommend playing right now.

We live in a heavy world right now, with stressors like AI, layoffs, and political crises seemingly around every corner with no signs of slowing down, which is why, even in the spooky month of October, I'm leaning into the cozy gaming space more than ever. Animal Crossing is still my go-to home away from home, but I'm always on the lookout for some place else to escape the real world.

"We wanted our game to feel like The Lord of the Rings x Animal Crossing," reads the caption on a YouTube short for new indie Kickstarter smash hit, Humblets. I'm intrigued.

"Have you ever wanted to become a rock?", asks developer Berry Bite in another video. Uh, sure?

"Sheep petting!!" says the dev in another short. Getting warmer.

"Card battles!" "Cozy meals!" "Plants wiggle!" OK, I'm thoroughly sold.

"We don't use AI!"... say more.

"Every part of our indie game is hand-made," says Berry Bite. "And we commission human artists for every single card. We'd rather support real passion than prompt a machine."

Take. My. Money.

Actually, with more than $135,000 in crowdfunding at the time of writing, Berry Bite probably doesn't need my money, but I'm compelled to back this ridiculously charming indie game nonetheless.

There's a lot going on here, with Lord of the Rings and D&D influences in its enchanting world, Minecraft building mechanics, cooking and fishing inspired by Animal Crossing, card collecting and battles, and even Zelda: Breath of the Wild DNA in its gliding and campfire cooking system, but having watched every gameplay video I could find, it all seems like a miraculously cohesive package all centered around "relaxed exploration, collection, and crafting."

It sounds like there's a deep level of customization in Humblets that'll let you personalize your avatar, your mobile campsite and tent, and thank goodness, your adorable pet companion you get assigned via a personality test and who helps you find and collect resources as you explore the world.

The only thing I'm somewhat hesitant about is Humblets' procedurally generated world. I'm generally a proc-gen skeptic, but find it a useful tool in generating massive amounts of playable space and variety in games like Hades, Diablo, and Minecraft where you need that sense of scale, but I find its less useful in something like a cozy game where it's more about moment-to-moment discovery in a smaller, well, cozier space. Berry Bite says the proc-gen world is mixed with "hand-crafted landmarks," but I'd definitely rather have everything be handmade. That said, everything else about Humblets has created enough goodwill for me that I'm happy to look past that element of the game.

Humblets has an estimated alpha delivery date of October 2027, and it's set to fully launch on Nintendo Switch 1 and 2, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

If you want cozy board games for Fall, some of my all-time favorites just got major discounts

Gears of War: E-Day sales topped 230,000 across Xbox and Steam following an October 1 launch, according to estimates from analyst firm Alinea.

Market analysis head Rhys Elliott reports the Xbox player base is larger than it appears, even if premium sales were dominated by Steam. An estimated 62,000 people bought the game outright on Xbox consoles, with 168,000 buyers on Steam.

SteamDB ownership estimates, which are always fallible and are especially volatile shortly after launch, support this figure, estimating 171,000 to 195,000 owners at the time of writing.

How did a new, highly rated entry in a flagship series sell just 62,000 copies on Xbox in launch week? (Our Gears of War: E-Day review also awards it high marks.) Elliott notes that while Xbox Game Pass is "cannibalising much of the premium revenue," with some 1.7 million estimated players playing E-Day through the subscription service, over 722,000 Game Pass subs also paid for E-Day's premium upgrade.

"So '230K copies' undersells the paying audience," Elliott writes. "Including the 722K upgrades, nearly 950K people actually paid something for E-Day." This brings the game's total estimated sales revenue to around $37 million.

Nevertheless, "The $70 premium SKU is – functionally – dead on Xbox," Elliott argues.

I've reached out to Microsoft for comment on these figures, which remain unconfirmed estimates, and its expectations for E-Day.

As Circana games analyst Mat Piscatella points out online (not in direct response to Alinea's report, but certainly in its orbit), "it isn't straight cannibalism if a person paying for Game Pass plays an offered game through the service."

Many game developers, including several who've worked with or under Microsoft, have criticized the effects Game Pass can have on full-fat sales or the value of games. This year, Microsoft removed new Call of Duty games from the service's day-one offerings, though it stopped short of admitting it was losing too much money on the deal as Game Pass growth failed to meet expectations despite a significant bump from CoD.

However, the assumption that, in a world without Xbox Game Pass, the sales of games like Gears of War: E-Day would be directly boosted by however large their Game Pass audience was doesn't hold up.

"Not every person who plays a game via a sub service would buy that game were it not included in that service," Piscatella notes. We don't, and can't, know exactly how many Game Pass players, or even Game Pass premium upgraders, would've paid full price in this case, but it certainly wouldn't be all of them. We also can't separate the value of any Game Pass subscriptions purchased by people enticed by E-Day – that is, the value-add.

E-Day was once on track to become another multiplatform Xbox game before Microsoft shelved a reportedly near-finished PS5 port to prioritize its home console, even if that means limiting its audience.

Gears of War: E-Day studio reportedly fears post-launch layoffs, "wouldn't put it past" Microsoft to withhold bonuses.

How long it takes to beat Star Wars Galactic Racer varies a lot, but rolling the credit can certainly be done in under 30 hours. The reason for the variation is its runs-based structure, so how long it takes you to beat ultimately depends on your skill and the number of tours you do. With that in mind, I've laid out some estimations for how long it might take you to beat Star Wars Galactic Racer as well as how each Act is structured so you know what lies ahead.

How long is Galactic Racer?

Star Wars Galactic Racer should take you roughly 20-30 hours to complete all three Acts and roll the credits.

That's obviously quite a broad range but, as I've said, it's down to how many tours you do. If you're a gifted racer, you might get through each Act in only a few attempts, which will mean you might even complete the game in under 20 hours. Conversely, if you have some absolute stinkers, you'll be closer to or exceeding 30 hours. Using the best Star Wars Galactic Racer speeder and my Galactic Racer tips might help you win more races, but you've still got to make good choices on every tour all the way through to Derven Acos to move onto the next act.

If you're looking to unlock and even upgrade everything in the campaign, such as Galactic Racer Favors, you can add several more hours onto your completion time. You'll be relying on random chance for some unlocks so this can take a while. Factor in all the Scenarios, Arcade time trials, and multiplayer and you're easily looking at spending 50+ hours in Star Wars Galactic Racer. I rolled the credits after about 27 hours but have continued playing for another 20 or so due to all the non-campaign extras.

How many Acts are in Galactic Racer?

As mentioned, Star Wars Galactic Racer has three Acts. I won't go into the story specifics to avoid spoilers but here's how they look structurally:

• Act 1: Jakku > Lantaana > Ando Prime > Derven Acos Qualifier event
  • Every planet besides Derven Acos has four regular events for a total of 13 events in a single Act 1 tour.
• Act 2: Sentinel I > Jakku > Crait > Ando Prime > Derven Acos Galactic Gauntlet and final race
  • Every planet besides Derven Acos has four regular events for a total of 18 events in a single Act 2 tour.
• Act 3: Lantaana > Sentinel I > Ando Prime > Jakku > Crait > Derven Acos Galactic Gauntlet and final race
  • Every planet besides Derven Acos has four regular events and ends with a Podracing Challenge, for a total of 27 events in a single Act 3 tour.

If you've got a Prime subscription, you can stream Star Wars Galactic Racer on Amazon Luna.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update is the talk of the town, but an even bigger change could be on the horizon. From October 13 through October 20, developer Embark will test something that some players have wanted from day one: a pure PvE mode. Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal tells me this test is an essential step toward answering a question that even the devs have had since launch, even if it ends up splitting the game in two one day.

Originally, Arc Raiders was a pure PvE game about fighting giant robots. It only pivoted to a PvPvE mix very late in development. The devs also ditched the free-to-play structure and put everything they had into the extraction shooter basket, and miraculously, it paid off. As a result, going back to pure PvE feels like a huge risk.

"Naturally, we were a bit like, 'Are we gonna open this door? What does that mean?'" Grøndal says. "We had that question ongoing for a long time, maybe even too long, to be fair."

An Arc Raiders PvE mode is just a limited test for now, but Grøndal suggests there's potential for much more. I asked if he can imagine a world where Arc Raiders is essentially split into two games – the game we've known, and a pure PvE version – and he reckons "it's very possible."

"I mean, the community is already split along those lines," he continues. "If the game eventually will represent that? Quite possibly. I think it's important to respect how the players want to enjoy the game, even if it doesn't necessarily fully gel with what we thought the game was initially or how we designed the game to be initially. It's possible. Of course, it creates some challenges on our end. We need to figure out what we really mean by that."

For all the demand for it, there are also concerns around what a PvE mode could do to Arc Raiders and how it will feel to play. Will it ruin the game's tension? Will it undermine that beloved camaraderie when you aren't choosing to be friendly? Will it warp the economy or split the player base?

"I mean, all of these are valid risks, right?" Grøndal responds. "Which is one of the reasons why we wanted to run a test which is somewhat limited around some of the higher-end stuff. It will affect, or it has a chance of affecting, the overall experience. This is also why we wanted to just get it out there, look at the data, look at what the feedback says, and then really figure out what the best way forward is.

"I think there's a lot of valid concerns, and internally at the studio, that has been expressed, both sides of that coin. It's not like everyone was high-fiving Aleks when we introduced this idea to do this test. That's not the case. There were some real concerns there too. But at the end of the day, I really feel like we need to answer this question, at least to ourselves, and of course also to the players."

Arc Raiders Frozen Trail patch notes are full of sentences that players have dreamed of for a year: "You can now open the map while downed."

Marvel Rivals developer NetEase is taking extra care to make sure it doesn't leak anything about Avengers Doomsday as it plans a crossover with the MCU film.

2026 has been a big year for the Marvel Rivals team as the developers have been celebrating the four Avengers MCU themes with new cosmetics and modes throughout the year on the Path to Doomsday. This kicked off in April with an Avengers themed event that had a 6v1 asymmetrical mode in which you team up against a single Loki, while this week marks the Infinity War event which will introduce a 2v2 mode in which two teams of 6 players can battle with the Infinity Stones in round robin bouts. Then later this month a PVE mode based on Endgame will drop, in which 50 players have a scrap with Thanos and his army.

Naturally, this is all set to culminate with Avengers Doomsday in December, but all of Marvel Studios barring 2018 Tom Holland and Mark Ruffalo take spoilers very seriously. But for Rivals to have Doomsday-themed content, it'll need some insider info.

Speaking to FRVR, Marvel Rivals game director Guangyun Chen assured "We are doing everything we can to prevent any leaks for this important event." Unfortunately, this is somewhat undercut by supposed leaks for Marvel Rivals season 11 which pegs Nightcrawler and Dr Doom – both of which are set to play a big role in Doomsday – as the new characters set to be added next season. Not to mention Season 10's Gorr the God Butcher was leaked ahead of time too.

Granted, I don't know that Marvel Rivals' crossover will necessitate too many full-blown spoilers about the upcoming movie, least of all the "surprising ending" Joe Russo is hyping up. I'd be shocked if the film's ending – which features Beast transforming into Frasier Crane in a Dragon Ball Z-like sequence in which he one shots Doom – will be crucial to the new season. But let's hope no leaks happen, just to be safe.

Marvel Rivals hasn't managed to beat Overwatch's stats yet, but Disney boasts it's still "attracted 40 million players worldwide."

Video games have gotten large, and quite expensive, both to make and buy. Some might argue, myself included, they are generally a bit too big for their own good, and the bloating budgets aren't helpful for the industry. Former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios CEO Shawn Layden agrees, and he believes if publishers focus on smaller releases, it'll help everyone.

He provided his views during an appearance on the Expansion Pass podcast. "I've been involved with plenty of games that are 80, 90, 100 hours of gameplay," he starts. "And I'll be the first one to say they're not all quality hours. You know, some of that is running across the desert to get the red key to open the red door when you come back."

He believes development more broadly should circle around to projects that are contained and captivating. "So I would rather see a world where we have good 20 to 25 hour games that are just action-packed like a John Woo film that you just, you can't put down the controller," he adds.

One need only see how many games, especially in the triple-A space, have sandboxes to see his point. Your Assassin's Creeds and Final Fantasy games and the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - they all require a considerable amount of time and energy to complete, and there's a certain amount of faff in each.

I say that with love, too. The first two installments of the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy are among my favorites of this decade thus far, and the same for all three of Insomniac's Spider-Man games. But they all have their share of side-quests or cookie cutter design I didn't enjoy.

Layden believes some part of the roots here lay in rental culture in the '90s, where devs would try and make sure a game couldn't be beaten in one weekend if you rented it. My mind immediately jumped to the stampede level of The Lion King on the SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive for a prime example of making sure you'd be a repeat customer.

Such bloat became a design tenet. "Keep it tight and keep it banging, that's where I like to see it go," he says. "If we can make those smaller scale games and have an idea that what we're building to is that kind of template, I think a lot of the costs associated with game development will start to, if not decrease, at least stop increasing."

Estimates place the costs of Battlefield 6, Hideo Kojima's Physint, GTA 6, and many more well into hundreds of millions. When you look at widespread layoffs, one certainly appears to beget to the other. Hopefully, as the industry rights itself, it'll re-approach some of these structural ideas and aim for something more sustainable.

Sony is still selling tons of the discs it plans to kill off: Marvel's Wolverine launch sales were reportedly 35% physical, showing a huge appetite for a non-digital future

Although Bloodborne isn't officially available on PC – and at this point, might never be – a good few fans have worked to port it over themselves… including those behind The Hunter's Dream, a multiplayer emulation that might not be as ambitious as it seems.

The PlayStation 5 is seeing various emulation projects take off, finally allowing PC players access to Sony exclusives – but Bloodborne's own The Hunter's Dream might not really be that.

As per its official website and posts over on Twitter, it supposedly supports quite a lot, from multiplayer to keyboard and mouse controls and much, much more. Heck, it apparently works on both Windows and Linux (Steam Deck included), with all bells and whistles included.

While it sounds impressive on paper, there's a chance – like, 100% – that the Bloodborne port was made using generative AI… and, a whole lot of it, too.

We're living in the (unfortunate) era of AI-powered crossovers and such, so it's not all that surprising, but still. If you take a look at the creator's GitHub page, you'll see that Claude, as in the AI bot, is credited as one of the "people" who worked on pretty much every single aspect of the project.

It's understandable, then, that many comments on the social media post unveiling the project aren't exactly positive. "It's not really a native port btw," reads one. "AI just slopped stuff from the emulator." Another declares, "NOT PLAYING THIS AI SLOP I WILL JUST USE THE EMULATOR MADE BY HUMANS!"

Further down, the sentiment remains the same, with folks warning The Hunter's Dream stems from "fucking Claude."

There's also the fact that, as one person points out, "you still fucking need the original copy of Bloodborne and an e-boot from your PS4" – but that makes sense as it'd be *cough* illegal *cough* otherwise (not that it's totally clean now by any means, for what it's worth).

All in all, I'd personally advise perhaps giving this one a miss, but if you're hoping for something more official, I'm sadly not sure it'll ever happen.

Heck, even former PlayStation chief Shuhei Yoshida doesn't know why Bloodborne hasn't been remastered or released on PC, having called it "a complete mystery" – and that checks out. I'll forever look forward to one myself, but… I wouldn't hold my breath.

Bloodborne movie producer Jacksepticeye admits "80% of the responses were critical" of his involvement, as he reassures fans he's "trying to honor the universe."

Wardogs Season 2 sees developer Bulkhead address imbalance in the game's teams, with notorious blue loser Lonestar receiving targeted bonuses to entice players to join up as part of a "social experiment" in game balance.

The Season 2 patch notes take a swing at "faction balance," with Bulkhead acknowledging that "Wardogs is a game that isn't supposed to be always perfectly balanced." The running gag with blue team, however, bolstered by legitimate gameplay concerns, has started to materially affect many matches.

"One team had a notoriously lower win rate than the other two teams," the devs admit. "There are valid complaints around Lonestar's uniform visibility and certain spawn positions which we have been watching and addressing. However – sentiment around the blue team is the largest driving factor for players not wanting to play on that team."

Bulkhead is tackling this team imbalance the old-fashioned way: by injecting a bunch of cash into the weak team. For Season 2 only, playing as Lonestar will net you bonus cash and XP on win, as well as teamplay action cash and XP multipliers. You know a team is bad when the devs are literally paying people to support them.

Additionally, Lonestar uniforms will be "more desaturated to stick out less compared to other factions." This is the tragedy of being blue – an extraordinarily rare color in nature, rare in part because it's so bleeding obvious.

Similarly, to help offset spawn imbalances, "all faction spawns have moved on Bakurani."

If you do find yourself on the losing team – specifically, at least 40 points behind second place – you'll get access to a new 20% vendor discount. "Relevant to all teams, not just Lonestar," Bulkhead clarifies. You know a team is bad when it's the de facto loser in hypotheticals.

Simultaneously, Season 2 will introduce new team switching restrictions. "To stop late switching from deciding matches," Bulkhead says, "once a team is more than 10 points ahead" you won't be able to switch teams for 15 minutes after joining one.

"If you switch teams or join a match in progress, your map stays obscured until you reach the control zone for the first time," the patch notes add. What's more, "you cannot use the spawn vehicle until you reach the control zone for the first time."

Bulkhead may be running a social experiment and defending imbalance, but the devs still want to maintain some semblance of fairness. "These changes are intended to increase friction for team switch abusers, whilst still allowing for you to join the team of your friends if needed," the studio says.

For similar reasons, "community server hosts being seen to exploit the faction bonus" added to Lonestar "will be punished."

Wardogs has already made over $100 million on Steam, analyst says, but the new shooter couldn't beat Arc Raiders and Helldivers 2's launches.

Membrane gaming keyboards are some of the cheapest available, but they often have a hard time defending themselves against the budget end of the mechanical market. The Corsair Skiff 100 Plus sits at the usual $59.99 / £59.99, but its typing experience, extra macro keys and vibrant RGB lighting combined with a healthy propensity for discounts falling at around $49.99 / £39.99 mean this deck really can give some of those cheaper mechanical clackers something to think about.

It's only going to make sense if you're looking for a super silent gaming keyboard, and the best gaming keyboards at the top of the market have nothing to worry about, but even if you're on the fence about losing that thwack sound the smoothness of these rubber domes is enough to keep those with tired hands coming back.

I always find membrane keyboards troublesome on the old fingers. Their caps often need far more pressure than mechanical options to actuate, often with a mushy, almost-stuck, feeling to them. While I haven't exactly been dancing across the keys during my time with the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus, it's certainly the best membrane gaming keyboard I've tested so far from a typing feel standpoint.

Corsair Skiff 100 Plus design

Corsair isn't doing anything revolutionary with the design of the Skiff. This is an all-black plastic chassis illuminated by a bold set of bright LEDs. Yes, there's a little flex when pushing particularly hard on that top plate, but the plastic underneath feels sturdy and durable and hammering down on the keys themselves never presented a single bounce in my testing.

ABS keycaps can feel a little sticky under the fingertips, but are par for the course at this price. It should be noted, though, in the race against Amazon's collection of budget mechanical decks, that these clackers can't be replaced. Once they shine up, you're stuck with them.

That's one of the main drawbacks of membrane keyboards, though one the Glorious GMBK 75% manages to overcome particularly well. If only the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus combined its far preferable typing feel with Glorious's swappable caps.

Otherwise, we've got a full-sized layout here, with comfortable spacing between the main deck keys and plenty of space in the top right corner for that volume dial. Corsair hasn't skimped on this aspect either, while it's seemingly plastic on the top it still has that brushed aesthetic regularly threaded through this brand's keyboards.

My only real gripe with the design here is in the cable. It's permanently plugged into the deck and it's that old cheap rubber material that keeps its kinks no matter how flat you try and straighten it out.

The permanent connection will make travel a little squeakier and that cable construction makes for a pretty messy desktop experience before it's properly managed or tucked away.

Corsair Skiff 100 Plus features

Corsair uses standard rubber dome switches under each of its ABS keycaps, which means you're not getting the speed or smoothness of a mechanical clacker or the additional actuation controls of a Hall effect keyboard. Still, you're paying less than you usually would for a mainstream brand's gaming keyboard using either of those clackers, and getting more additional features in the process.

Membrane keyboards may sacrifice typing feel but they're still loved by players on a budget for their sturdy feature sets compared to comparably priced mechanical options. You're getting six additional macro keys lined up along the left side of the chassis here, for example. While they can only be configured with recorded macros, rather than system features, it's certainly more than you'll find from most budget mechanical options.

The volume dial on the top right also has other membrane keyboards like the Roccat Magma beat, though dedicated playback controls can only be accessed when holding the function button at the same time. That's neater than having to squeeze extra buttons onto the deck, but some may prefer track skips to have their own controls.

Surface-level customizations like basic RGB lighting effects and macro settings can be configured in Corsair Web Hub, but you'll need to download iCue to go deeper into each of those ten lighting zones and configure Win-Lock conditions. PS5 and PS4 compatibility mode can also be toggled with Fn+Windows, held for five seconds.

The Corsair Skiff 100 Plus also comes with a wrist rest in the box, which is always appreciated. In this case, the pad isn't quite as plush as you'll find on other, more expensive, models, but it's perfectly raised to provide a more comfortable angle for the keyboard itself and keeps the brand's soft-touch covering as well. It handles temperature particularly well, staying cool to the touch after longer sessions unlike some of the more pillowy options out there.

There's one 'but' here, and it's a little hidden in the spec sheet. The Corsair Skiff 100 Plus doesn't feature full N-key rollover, instead we're back to 12-key selective rollover here. That's not going to hurt most of us too much, though.

Corsair Skiff 100 Plus performance

Onto how the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus actually feels to use, and I will say I was surprised here. I'm normally warming up the hands when I prepare for a membrane keyboard review. Those heavier switches can take their toll on the joints.

While there's still more actuation force required here compared to a mechanical deck, though, the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus feels relatively breezy. Only the hybrid mecha-mechanical SteelSeries Apex 5 beats this one for typing feel among its peers. Every keystroke is smooth, and even manages to maintain a nice sense of tactility at the bottom of each press. Some keys feel a little lighter than others; main alphas are a little heavier, while larger keys like the backspace, space, and enter have a little more give to them.

In-game, repeat keypresses feel a little sluggish compared to a mechanical deck, but side by side with heavier switches that don't have this level of smoothness they're nearly sprightly. I was still able to zip across arenas in Doom: The Dark Ages, even if my CS:2 performance was a little more cumbersome than usual.

Crucially, keypresses are recorded as quickly as casual players will need them, and feel comparatively comfortable when they are.

Should you buy the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus?

Casual gamers looking for a keyboard to run their everyday Steam library will be happy here, while I'd still recommend typists opt for something more mechanical under the hood. That $59.99 / £59.99 full price is set a little awkwardly against cheaper mechanical decks, but if you value additional macro controls and a wrist rest more than a lighter typing feel the Skiff 100 Pro is well worth keeping an eye on. With discounts settling early in this keyboard's life, I'm hopeful this one will find itself at $40-$50 soon enough - and that price it's an easy recommendation for membrane keyboard fans.

How I tested the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus

I used the Corsair Skiff 100 Plus for all my daily work and play for a period of one week, while testing alongside some alternatives for a second week. That was a busy few weeks of typing, but I also took the Skiff out for a spin in my usual roster of Doom: The Dark Ages and CS:2 as well as some Planet Coaster 2 and High on Life 2. For more information on how we test gaming keyboards, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

We're also rounding up the best hot-swappable keyboards and the best wireless gaming keyboards for more options.

A new patch for the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is upon us, bringing everything from the new City of Dalaran dungeon to various class changes – but it's not exactly landing well with all of the MMO's early players, it seems.

The World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes outline a lot, and that's a bit of an understatement – we're entering the fourth week of the Beta, after all.

You'll find them over on Blizzard's official forums, beginning with bug fixes and leading into a plethora of class changes which are, unsurprisingly, stirring quite the storm in the community. The first point of contention has to do with looting, however.

As the WoW: Forever patch notes read, "This build reintroduces Classic looting behavior, where creatures that dropped no loot can still be interacted with." In other words, enemies are now professional time wasters as you can interact with them whether or not they have loot.

To say the least, it's pretty annoying – and I'm not alone in thinking so. Over on a Reddit thread on Patch 5.01, one person simply asks, "Why?"

They continue: "I mean, what purpose does this have beyond 'it's how it was?' Is it just masochism from thinking you got a quest item?"

Honestly, I get it. It's already confusing folks, too, with another commenter saying, "I found it mildly annoying/confusing at first when I killed a mob and I couldn't loot it. Took me a bit to realize what was going on." Perhaps this is one thing they should've axed from the original game.

Players are also unhappy with the new World of Warcraft: Forever class changes – and lack thereof. It's looking especially rough for Rogue fans specifically, with one reply joking, "Sick Rogue changes" (spoiler alert: there are none).

Caster classes like the Druid, Priest, and Shaman do see tweaks – but they're apparently, uh, not the greatest. "They're committed to making casters feel bad at low levels," as one fan amusingly puts it.

For example, Blizzard has adjusted the Shaman's Lightning Bolt and its "base points and points per level of ranks 1-5" so as "to make the growth rate of ranks 1-6 more consistent, and new ranks always an upgrade" – but it feels like a non-change.

As one fan writes, there are "0 meaningful changes" in reality. All in all, it feels like the developers opted to nerf lower, currently preferable ranked skills than "making the higher ranks better."

It's worth a browse through the full World of Warcraft: Forever patch notes to see it all for yourself if you're interested, but something tells me Blizzard might be delivering even more changes following fan feedback soon.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

Dragon's Dogma 2 : Dark Arisen is out, and true to the developers words, it's proving a lot harder than the original version of the RPG.

Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen's lead dev said the friction is key to the experience, and promised that the new expansion of Capcom's 2024 RPG has been designed to "offer battles with an even greater sense of tension and challenge than the main game." Ahead of launch, Capcom said the new Lost Rites dungeons are to be challenged at level 20, while Forsaken Dominion – the main questline featured in the new region of Norgan – is recommended for level 40.

I started Lost Rites and Forsaken Dominion at level 80 and got absolutely decimated countless times.

And I'm glad to report it's not just a skill issue on my part, as one glance at the Dragon's Dogma 2 subreddit shows that Arisen all over the globe are getting battered. One post accuses returning Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen director Kento Kinoshita of being a liar, saying, "Bro said something like level 50 is a good starting point for this DLC and i went in on my lvl275 character," adding, "Bro this shit is still hard I'm getting 4 shot by random mobs and the trailer dragon is currently fucking me up severely."

Elsewhere on the subreddit, there are a number of meme posts and videos recounting how the snowy tundra of Norgan is beating them down mercilessly, with others sharing tales about how they hoarded relics only for a snow ogre to steal them all.

That being said, these aren't really complaints. Everyone seems super pleased to be getting their butts kicked by Dragon's Dogma 2 after a two-and-a-half year wait. One players says "the new DLC is everything I wanted," praising enemies that are much smarter and harder than before. It went down a treat with reviews, too, as Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen nabbed a higher score than the first game's DLC.

Dragon's Dogma 2 update finally gives the RPG the performance boost it desperately needed, and it's so good that it's even lowered the PC system requirements.

I recall many things from my 140-hour initial playthrough of The Witcher 3, but taking in the scenery is not one of them. Between monster contracts, heartbreaking questlines like The Bloody Baron, and far too many games of Gwent, the position of the sun in the sky was never of concern to me.

But The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered has put all that on its head. I wanted to hone in on a specific quest for this first instalment of October's RPG Club, exploring how White Orchard's griffin-slaying contract feels with the new combat and reworked skill tree now in play thanks to the new update. So tell me why I've just spent almost five hours treating The Witcher 3 like an open world photo op, seeking out the best sunsets in town?

Quest Log

Heavens above

Aside from all the half-naked bodies (which have always been there in this dream sequence), the first thing I notice upon starting a new save is how jaw-droppingly vivid, colorful, and vibrant it is.

Shadows are richer, the contrast between Geralt's bare chest and the marbled oak furniture behind him starker than Yennefer's state of undress. I walk out onto the balcony and can almost feel the sun's golden warmth pouring over Kaer Morhen, setting aflame the emerald and sage and every other fancy word you can think of to say "green" in its lush surrounding wilderness.

It boggles the mind. I'm playing The Witcher 3 on my six year-old gaming laptop. Yes, I updated my graphics card drivers especially for this occasion, but I was prepared to miss out on the best of the remaster's visual upgrades given the age of my rig. Turns out that even without ray-tracing and occlusive lighting, The Witcher 3 has never looked more magical.

When I'm let loose in White Orchard, I try to stay on track. Well, as on track as you're supposed to be in a game like this; White Orchard is the starter town for a reason, offering a snapshot of the game's many systems and mission types in one handy place as Geralt sets out to find Yennefer with witcher mentor, Vesesmir. Wraith in the Well is a great introduction to the planning that goes into each monster hunt. For a taste of The Continent's political landscape, Twisted Firestarter sees me tracking down an arsonist who burned down the local forge after the blacksmith supplied arms to invading Nilfgaardian forces. Elsewhere, I help a sweet old dear get her prized frying pan back from the home of a dead man. You know, just normal things.

I have to admit that since it has been some time since I last played The Witcher 3, some of the combat enhancements might be lost on me. If anything, I find myself running into more bugs than before – Geralt refused to dive to fetch some herbs once, forcing me to reload, while he petulantly decided that dodging is for losers and massively showed me up in a brawl outside a tavern. But at least I can stop and snap some pretty pictures in Photo Mode when I'm not reloading to fix said bugs.

To griffin-ity

By the time I get around to the griffin-slaying contract, I've reached Level 3 and completed all nearby side quests. It took a bit of time; White Orchard is not for level grinding, since there's a whole game and two DLC (soon to be three when Songs of the Past launches next year) to do that in. But it does mean that I can start exploring the reworked skill tree nice and early – thank god.

I have no shame in admitting that my first Witcher 3 build was utter chaos. I had no idea what I was doing, assigning random mutagens here, mismatching them with other-colored abilities there, never properly upgrading skills after they were first unlocked. But CDPR has made it far more visually intuitive, doing away with the need to blow all your points in a specific category before you can unlock higher-tier skills.

They branch out more naturally now – I'm going for an Igni build at this early stage, since few things can shrug off a bunch of sparks in their faces, which smoothly branches out into the Aard ability tree to let me skip the lower levels outright. It's a far smarter, more user-friendly rework compared to the original – though given how much I struggled with Cyberpunk 2077 at first, maybe I've just gotten used to the developer's flair after all.

Going up against the griffin is easy, if a little daunting. You never feel truly ready in The Witcher 3; some high-level enemies go down surprisingly fast with the right oils rubbed on your silver sword, while others (cough Detlaff cough) give me far more stress than I'd care to rehash here.

It also doesn't help that after fetching herbs and finding the abandoned griffin's lair – RIP griffin wife – all I want to do is take photographs of everything. I'm so consumed with documenting my new Witcher 3 journey like a photojournalist, taking time framing each shot just so, that when Vesemir hands me a crossbow, I panic. Uh, how do I use this again?!

After downing three accidental potions and casting Igni at my horse (sorry Roach), I finally work out how to equip the blasted thing. It's pretty useless, if I'm honest; I'll stick to using the Igni special attack, a stream of continuous fire that reaches a surprising distance, to stun the beast and bring it crashing down to earth for some melee attacks.

It's on toward Vizima now that the brute has been slain, and time to meet Yennefer. But not before I snap another juicy shot of Geralt and his winged prize. I'm sure that there's more I'll appreciate about the remaster update later down the line – I haven't even experienced the new missions that came with the next gen update, after all – but for now, I'm quite happy playing The Witcher 3 in a state of awe and wonder. Each new sunset brings another exciting rush to snap a picture before it's too late, even if Geralt's hair looks startlingly blue or blonde in certain lighting. CD Projekt Red's bold enhancements of The Witcher 3's color palette has turned it into a true fantasy for me, and at this rate, it'll take me a very long time to leave Velen.

So it's just as well that next week, another member of the GamesRadar+ team will take you on an adventure into one of their favorite sections of this big, beautiful game! Until then, I'll see you on The Path.

Gears of War E-Day might be restricted to PC and Xbox, but that doesn't mean you can't consider playing it with your friends on those platforms. Even better, the latest instalment includes that near-lost, increasingly rare mechanic that is couch co-op, so charge those controllers, get comfy, and lock in for the Gears of War E-Day co-op campaign.

Is the Gears of War E-Day campaign co-op?

Yes! The Gears of War E-Day campaign does have co-op, both online and local. You can continue your journey from any chapter you've already started, or your most recent save, and friends will be launched straight in with you.

All multiplayer and single-player campaign options are reached from the same screen. To invite friends to join you in the Gears of War E-Day campaign online, launch the campaign from the main menu, and you'll automatically be assigned to play as Marcus Fenix. Scroll across and click on any of the buttons beneath the three remaining characters to open your friends list. Choose the friend you want to play with to send an invite.

If you want to play the Gears E-Day campaign in couch co-op, press the menu button on the second player's Xbox controller add select the player's account or log-in as a guest.

I've missed couch co-op in most modern games, so it's nice to see it as one of the Gears of War E-Day campaign co-op options. Whether you're playing alone or with a friend, make sure you've got the best Gears of War E-Day mods for your weapons, armor, and tactical equipment, and prepare yourself by checking out the average Gears of War E-Day campaign length.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Whether you're thinking about checking off the campaign before tackling Horde Siege or you want a break from the multiplayer mode, you're here to answer the question of the Gears of War E-Day campaign length.

Based on a few playthroughs, we've got the approximate answer below, and while it's longer than any other Gears campaign so far, it's far from a long game, meaning you'll have plenty of time to complete it once or more and get into Horde Siege, too.

What's the Gears of War E-Day campaign length?

Based on a few playthroughs, the approximate total playtime for the Gears of War E-Day campaign is:

• Story Campaign: 11-13 hours.
• Standard Playthrough (Story + major side quests): 13-15 hours.
• 100% Completion: 15+ hours.

As you can see, even with finding all collectibles and completing side quests, you'll be able to complete Gears of War E-Day in less than 20 hours, making it a very reasonably sized game. Previous Gears of War campaigns usually last under 10 hours, with Gears 5 - the longest before E-Day - tipping the scales slightly over that amount. This makes E-Day the longest Gears game by far, but it never feels too long thanks to an engaging and moving story from start to end.

Even if you're not a completionist, I certainly recommend looking around for Hardcases, which is made much easier by using the clever Tac-Com mechanic, as these contain Gears of War E-Day mods for your weapons and armor. You'll also be able to get mods from completing side quests, too, so keep an eye out for yellow icons, indicating a nearby side quest.

You could also speed things up a bit by bringing in a friend to help you through the Gears of War E-Day co-op campaign.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

High-end VR brand Pimax is making big strides to combat Valve's re-entry into the XR market. The creator of the classic Crystal and more recent Dream Air headsets has announced new hardware, including the Pimax Crystal Pro, a new VR headset that targets a lot of the appeal of Valve's Steam Frame. Alongside it are controllers that magnetically snap into a full gamepad, a mini PC that looks just like the Steam Machine, and to top it all off, the brand has swapped its green and black color scheme for a Valve-reminiscent black and blue.

The Pimax Crystal Pro is a standalone VR headset running on Snapdragon's XR2 Gen 2 processor, but it also has a DisplayPort connection for true, lossless PCVR gaming. That said, its wireless mode is where the focus clearly is, because Pimax is dead set on solving the wireless VR image compression problem.

"Every single wireless headset in the world compresses the image," says Japp Grolleman, brand and communications manager at Pimax.

"Each frame gets squished through a codec to fit through wireless connection, and you pay for that squeeze... that's not a flaw of any one product; it's just how wireless VR has always worked. So we asked, what if it didn't have to?

"That question is the reason this headset exists."

The Crystal Pro, like the Steam Frame, will come with a dedicated Wi-Fi 6E dongle for a unique channel connection to a PC you want to stream games from. The difference is that it'll utilize a 60G AirLink, which is a bandwidth that "nothing else" utilizes. The trade-off with this type of connection, which Pimax has experimented with before, is that it won't pass through walls, so Pimax is offering a $599 AirLink kit that sports two USB-C antennas that attach to the back of the headset. Both of these send and receive a signal to ensure blockages don't disrupt the flow of data.

Using Pimax Play, the brand's dedicated software home for its devices, you can tilt and position them for the best connection in your gaming room or house.

For even further reassurance that the connection is uncompressed and not disrupted, Pimax is utilizing beam aiming using infrared signals in the antennas and USB dongle to ensure the signal is being sent directly to the headset.

The Crystal Pro will also feature what Pimax is calling "native foveated streaming" - a concept which Valve has coined with the Steam Frame but has since been adopted by Virtual Desktop. By narrowing down the focus area of the user using 10 infrared emitters per eye polling at 120Hz, the Crystal Pro can sharpen the image quality even more where it counts.

The rest of the headset's specs only bolster all of this innovation. It uses aspheric lenses as opposed to the pancake lenses that have proven popular after the Quest 3's arrival. Pimax says they give more accurate tracking, a cleaner view of your eye, and better viewing angles.

To save weight but add comfort, the Crystal Pro will give you a separate battery puck that you can keep in your pocket, like the Apple Vision Pro. Unlike the Steam Frame, it'll have a fixed headband to distribute weight. It'll also sport a magnetic, snapping facial interface.

Tracking is done via Pimax's SLAM software, which has now been improved to work better in dark surroundings, but different faceplates can provide different functions like full-color passthrough and base station tracking. There are three microphones on the headset, two for your voice, and one for noise cancellation. Valve Index-like audio speakers are available separately, but the integrated ones will likely do the trick for most gamers.

In a departure from Pimax's previous Mini-OLED devices, the Crystal Pro will feature 2880 x 2880 QLED panels per eye with a 110° FOV and refresh rates up to 120Hz. The ringless VR controllers are very reminiscent of Valve's Steam Frame controllers in that they're a full gamepad split in half. Conveniently, they can snap together with a magnetic centrepiece that turns them into a traditional gamepad for flat-screen gaming.

At the same time, Pimax is launching Spation, a desktop-class mini-PC specifically built around VR play, supporting Windows and SteamOS. There hasn't been a price announced for the Spation, but the Crystal Pro will set you back $1,399 (or $1,899 with the 60G AirLink kit bundled in).

In reference to Valve, which got a lot of mentions in Pimax's full-length announcement video, Jaap Grolleman said, "We admire what Valve has built in the same way we admire what the Quest 3 delivers at its price. These two share real common ground."

For more on VR, take a look at the best Meta Quest accessories.

Video games have that unique ability to make you feel reflected in a way that nothing else can, so it needs to include the things that we feel self-conscious about. Otherwise, it just becomes a perpetual youth simulator, or beauty simulator, in a way that I don't think is actually constructive for kind of mental health or just how diverse we all are.

The power of a great character creator is that it can make or break a game, especially a game where you consistently see your character in cutscenes or in conversations.

That's the topic for this week's episode of G+RLS, where Heather Wald, Rosalie Newcombe, and I discuss all the character creators we've loved of late, and what's still to be improved to truly reflect the diversity of humankind. From Dragon's Dogma 2 to the character representation in Lost Records: Bloom and Rage, there's certainly a few surprises that pop up in between.

You can watch the brand-new episode above, and do let me know what you think are the best character creators, especially if it's not one we've mentioned!

If you're new here, G+RLS is the GamesRadar+ podcast that tells the stories of women who game and the games they play. We release a new episode every other Friday, alternating between team chats on the games industry and interviews with creators, developers, voice actors, and more.

Join us for a new episode every other Friday and let us know what you'd love to hear us talking about. We're available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, and Amazon Music.

You can also watch episode 7 on YouTube below!

It's not so bad, I thought. What could it cost? $150? $170? Nope.

The Corsair Vanguard 99 Air is a wireless optical mechanical keyboard with a nicely quiet low profile typing experience, but a key piece of software that I couldn't get working. And it costs $259.99.

That's the price of some of the best gaming keyboards on the market, decks tuned with high-end typing experiences, feature-full magnetic switches, or luxury build materials. It can't be the price of the low-profile clackers I've had on (and off) my desk for the last few months.

Corsair has been flying high with recent releases like the Vanguard Pro 96 and Galleon 100 SD shooting to the top of my recommendation lists. The Corsair Vanguard 99 Air may serve you well if you're after a low profile option with silent keystrokes, but it's going to be difficult to fully get behind in 2026.

What I like about the Corsair Vanguard 99 Air Wireless

Compact 99% layout

Squished gaming keyboard layouts are becoming far more popular as folk push toward more compect designs while still keeping their number pads intact. That's certainly a trend I can get behind, especially with the Vanguard Air 99's additional strip of macro keys running down the right hand side as well.

It's a little longer than a 96% offering, and still suffers slightly from the squished arrow keys in the Corsair Vanguard Pro 96, but ultimately you're getting everything you need here without having to load a behemoth onto your desk.

Slick design

From the semi-transparent accent keys to its subtle RGB lighting, the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 gets a lot right with it aesthetic. Even the slightly rounded keycaps offer a nicely comfortable landing spot with just the right amount of visual interest to keep the board looking slick on a desk.

That extends through to the typing experience as well. These are notably quiet clackers, but it's impossible not to be impressed with the sound dampening underneath as well. Every keystroke feels cushioned but sounds it as well. Rather than the echoes, pings, and thocks of a chunkier mechanical deck, all I can hear is the tippity taps of particularly light optical clackers.

Good key travel

Once thing that generally puts me off about low profile keyboards is their lack of, to put it obviously, depth. I know I know, a low profile deck is all about light touches, speed, and soft pressure, but I prefer a tactility that few slimline decks can accomplish.

Corsair has nailed it here, with a suitably satisfying feel to each keystroke that manages to keep everyday typing and gaming rich and interesting while still keeping that silent low profile DNA.

Meaningful screen updates

Since the launch of the Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 and its pretty boring display / glorified digital photo frame, Corsair has added more screen options to its iCue-supported devices. Now that the Vanguard Air 99 is among them, you've got a good supply of options to keep tucked away in that top right corner. Media information, FPS, weather, and calendar displays are all available... as well as your photos.

What to consider

Some typing... quirks

Unfortunately, the first major problem I encountered with the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 was its chatter, and it was a problem that presented itself almost immediately. Multiple inputs are regularly detect off a single keystroke and it's pretty frequent.

This was ultimately solved with a later firmware update on a new unit, but it should be known that the original device I received suffered pretty heavily.

Concerning Stream Deck functionality

Finally, we get to one of the most frustrating parts of the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 experience. Those seven macro keys lined up along the right side of the deck are designed to work with the brand's Stream Deck software for a greater degree of flexibility in your extra controls. The key word there being 'designed' to.

In reality, I couldn't get the Stream Deck software to recognize the keyboard once, no matter how it was connected, how up to date both the keyboard and software were, and even with a completely fresh second unit at my disposal. Corsair supplied me with a brand new retail device after I got in touch around this issue, but unfortunately it was never resolved in my testing.

Should you buy the Corsair Vanguard Air 99?

I wouldn't recommend the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 to anyone initially drawn in by the promise of that Stream Deck integration and, considering the price point, I'd be wary recommending it to those just looking for a low profile keyboard. It feels solid in the hands, but with early chattering and this level of software volatility, it's difficult to call the Air 99 a reliable piece of kit.

If you're after a silent-as-possible low profile keyboard and don't mind potentially missing out on one of the advertised features, there's still a nicely designed deck to be found here. Smooth typists and light-handed players will be delighted with the overall build and feel and that boosted screen works a lot harder than previous iterations as well. Ultimately, though, this isn't an easy recommendation to make - especially at this price point.

The competition

How I tested the Corsair Vanguard Air 99

I've had the Corsair Vanguard Air 99 on my desk for a total of four weeks (and in my possession for a few months). That's because I spent two weeks putting the deck through all my usual speed, durability, and typing tests before trading my device out for a new one following chatter and connectivity issues. With a fresh unit in hand, I tested for a further two weeks afterwards.

I primarily tested across Apex Legends and CS2, with additional gameplay in Planet Coaster 2, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Farming Simulator 25, while using the keyboard for everyday productivity at the same time. For more information on how we test gaming keyboards, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm rounding up plenty more of the best wireless gaming keyboards as well as the best hot-swappable keyboards on the market as well.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is impressing fans all over again following CD Projekt Red's new patch targeting the revamped RPG's visuals and more.

In case you missed it, The Witcher 3 Remastered saw the release of patch 5.01 yesterday – an update that does everything from fix boats moving "uncontrollably" to adding Bloom, Light Shafts, and Depth of Field as options to the game's settings on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

You may not think much of those if you're on PC, but console users are practically convinced they're playing something different with how much of a difference there is. The PC tweaks are nothing to scoff at, either.

Over on Reddit, one player explains how they were "worried that the update wouldn't solve my problems with the game," but it turned out better than they thought: "I didn't expect it will look this good."

Comments show fellow fans agree, with an especially amusing reply saying, "Mine is so improved that I've been just slowly moving around on my horse too just taking in the scenery." Valid, honestly.

Other threads elsewhere echo this sentiment, with a side-by-side comparison on Twitter showing how much better The Witcher 3 Remastered looks after patch 5.01.

"CDPR released an update for The Witcher 3 Remastered that massively improves the visuals," it reads. "They fixed the brightness and color tonemapping and the shadows look way punchier now. It honestly looks like a proper remaster now."

The top response is similar: "That's so good!!! The remaster really felt off to me compared to the beautiful contrast of the original game."

Put simply, patch 5.01 is finally putting the "Remastered" in The Witcher 3 Remastered – and retaining the original RPG's beauty to boot. As another post comparing the post-update game states, colors "are now far more accurate to the intended art style" than they were prior to the patch.

And, honestly, I'm in agreement here. Sure, it's already the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic – but there's always room for improvement, and CD Projekt Red knows it.

The Witcher 3 Remastered leads to new Steam player peak of nearly 140,000 as CD Projekt Red celebrates its 11-year-old RPG's resurgence: "Much love."

RTX Spark laptops are now available for pre-order ahead of an October 16 release date, though anyone hoping Nvidia's new SoC would prove cheaper than its dedicated GPU gaming laptops might need to think again. These aren't your budget-friendly rigs; they're the first wave of machines designed to offer high-powered creative, professional, and gaming with AI at the core. That means the cheapest rigs still start at $2,599.99.

That's about the average going rate for an RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop these days - machines that can run the latest releases in QHD+ without qualms. Why so expensive? These machines need a lot of memory, and anyone in the business of upgrading in 2026 will know RAM shortages have caused chaos in these prices. Considering Nvidia compared its Spark performance to an RTX 5070 at its announcement, these laptops are going to have to pull their weight in other ways.

What's new for gamers? The win here is size. Even the best gaming laptops can bulk out a backpack. The first roster of Nvidia RTX Spark laptops packs that power into a much thinner chassis, the kind of razor-thin designs typically reserved for creator productivity machines. There are also a few more 4K options in this mix, typically a far more expensive upgrade for traditional gaming laptops.

Just how well that RTX Spark can really run demanding games at smooth framerates (DLSS is going to be running this show) remains to be seen. Gamers should also note that Arm-based operating systems like the RTX Spark still rely on a certain degree of emulation, so it's not exactly going to be plain sailing for all.

Still, we've got Microsoft, Asus, MSI, HP, Lenovo, and Dell in on the action today. Most RTX Spark pre-orders are happening over at Best Buy, but some brands are also splitting their time across Amazon, Costco, and B&H Photo as well.

Split across eight laptops and a total of 18 different configuration options (there's even an 18-core and 20-core version of the Spark causing price differences), any early adopters looking to dive in at the deep end have a few different options.

You'll find the cheapest RTX Spark laptop pre-orders from each brand alongside their different configuration options just below.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra

Asus ProArt

HP OmniBook

MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI

Lenovo Pro 9n

Dell XPS 16 Creator

We're also rounding up all the best Alienware laptops and the best Razer laptops on the market, or check out the top Black Friday gaming laptop deals we've found so far.

After dipping his toes into gaming with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Daredevil star Charlie Cox says he's working on an upcoming Sega game.

After over 20 years of acting, Cox finally made his game debut in 2025's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as lead character Gustave. And despite only spending four hours working on the French JRPG (or J'RPG if you will), the game blew up and unexpectedly became one of his most beloved roles in the long acting career. On top of that, the Cox noted that the game "has seemingly opened a new avenue for my professional work" as he confirmed he was working on another game earlier this year.

At New York Comic Con 2026, Cox spoke to IGN (below) and revealed a little more about his upcoming game, explaining, "I did another one, it doesn't have a name yet," and revealing that "I did a Sega one." He adds: "It hasn't come out yet but it was fun to do."

Cox continues, "It's hard. It's a whole different job," explaining, "I had to do, like, 40 hours," which is obviously a bit more intensive than his four hours on Clair Obscur.

With it not even having a name, naturally details are scarce, but Cox shares an amusing anecdote that maybe shines a bit more light on the game. "I showed up for the first day, and I was like, 'Hi guys, nice to meet you! How are you?' And all of them went, '...oh, he's English.'" He adds, "they wanted him to be American, but like, now I've got to do 40 hours of lines I've not prepared in an accent."

It being so early that it doesn't have a name yet means it's probably something we don't even know about; which is to say RPG fans hoping for Cox to bless Persona 6 with a performance are probably out of luck. Given how much RGG Studio loves casting celebrity actors, I can imagine the studio casting Cox in an upcoming game. With Cox having an American accent in Daredevil, a TV show where he plays a lawyer, I'd maybe have to speculate that perhaps a return of the Judgment series could be in the cards?

A year later, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Daredevil star Charlie Cox has finally played the hit J'RPG: "I'm not very good at it."

To streamline killing enemies as quickly as possible, you're going to need the best Gears of War E-Day weapon builds, so you'll need to find the best mods. As soon as you enter Act 2 Chapter 2, the E-Day map opens up to you, and you're relatively free to explore as you wish.

In doing so, you'll discover weapon mods and upgrade caches, and I'm sure you'll immediately want to know the best Gears of War E-Day weapon mods to hunt down as soon as possible, just as I did. Since weapons mods and extra slots are obtained from Hardcases found around the map and for completing side quests, it can be hard to know where to start, so, here are the best weapon builds and where to find the mods and slots you'll need to craft them.

Best Longshot build

The best Longshot build consists of:

• Full Metal Jacket
  • Default
• Skeleton Frame
  • In a hardcase to the south of Monroe Library
• Forged Barrel
  • In a Hardcase under the Gears Statues in Act 2 Chapter 3
• Mod slots
  • In a Hardcase near the bloody fountain in Act 2 Chapter 2
  • TBC

The Longshot is a one-hit kill sniper rifle that excels at both wiping out enemy snipers and more nearby foes with the Forged Barrel. There's no need to use any scope on this as the default is perfectly suitable for any use. Since you need to reload after every bullet, accuracy is key here, which we've got with this build, but if and when I find a mod that increases mag capacity, I'll be adding that, too.

Best Prototype Lancer build

The best Prototype Lancer build consists of:

• Full Metal Jacket
  • Default
• Chainsaw Autoloader
  • Obtained during the 'Gear Up' campaign mission early in the campaign
• Holo Sight
  • In a Hardcase on the first floor, across the street from Carter's Place
• Cover Brace
  • Found in the Hardcase to the west of the Courthouse
• Extra mod slots
  • Found in the Hardcase to the west of the Courthouse
  • TBC

The iconic chainsaw gun is back and there are some excellent mods to stick on the Proto Lancer as soon as you have them - not least the Chainsaw Autoloader, which has great synergy with the Full Metal Jacket mod. From here, Holo Sight is essential given it's toggle zoom, meaning you only have to use it when you need it. Plus, since you'll almost always be using your Proto Lancer from behind cover, the Cover Brace is another no-brainer, leading to the perfect full build ones you've unlocked all three slots.

Best Snub build

The best Snub build consists of:

• Full Metal Jacket
  • Default
• Aim Stabilizer
  • In a Hardcase to the south of the Bank of Tyrus.
• Extended Mag
  • Default
• Extra mod slots
  • TBC
  • TBC

You're unlikely to get much use out of your Snub, but it can come in handy in short-range combat or when you're out of bullets, so don't overlook these mods. For the best build, you're just going to need to make it more accurate and with a larger mag capacity, with the Aim Stabilizer and Extended Mag, of course with the default Full Metal Jacket in there as well.

Best armor mods

These are the best armor mods to equip:

• Hardened Cover
  • In a Hardcase outside Amberstone Storage
• Rock Steady
  • In a Hardcase outside Amberstone Storage
• Proximity Regen
  • In a Hardcase under the flyover at the south of the Chapter 2 map (where a very dark cutscene takes place, but no spoilers)

When you get your armor slots, the build above gives you increased resistance against incoming fire while behind cover, but also allows you to automatically regain health when killing enemies at close range. Rock Steady, meanwhile, improves your accuracy when firing, so it's a great all-round build.

Since you're searching Hardcases and completing side quests to collect these mods, prepare yourself by checking out our guide to the Gears of War E-Day campaign length. We've also got a guide to getting your friends involved with Gears of War E-Day co-op, so don't forget to let them in on the best mods, too.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Now that the World of Warcraft: Forever Beta is entering its fourth week, Blizzard's got some new content in store for us – like the exciting new City of Dalaran dungeon.

Yes, that's right… we're finally heading to Dalaran, and we'll get to test a new dungeon, too – one that's already managing to stir up some chaos, it appears.

If you're familiar with World of Warcraft, then you likely know that Dalaran belongs to the Alliance and not the Horde. Well, it seems that the latter is somehow able to enter the city regardless after the dungeon's introduction to WoW: Forever, as per Wowhead.

Apparently, Horde players just need to complete the City of Dalaran, accompanying dungeon quest "Heart of Disruption," and get the Dalaran Sewer Key – the item that grants us entry to Dalaran. It's at that point that folks are then tasked with bringing the loot they got from the dungeon into Dalaran, in fact, through a new quest titled "Shrewd Negotiations."

Whether you're Alliance or Horde, you'll be safe in the city following this sequence.

All of the guards that should be hostile will act neutral toward you, should you be a Horde player, and offer safe passage (as long as you defeat the Archmage in the City of Dalaran and so on, so forth).

What's more, you can freely explore the city after completing everything, much like an Alliance player – but although you can stock up on supplies, you won't be able to access every NPC's services, apparently.

As Wowhead amusingly points out though, you can fish for coins in the Dalaran fountain – heck yeah. Not everyone is pleased with the Horde being in Dalaran, however.

Over on Reddit, players find it so mind-boggling they say it's "probably just a bug." Others argue that, as it's tied to a quest, it "doesn't sound like a bug." Nonetheless, it's stirring up some lore-related discussions, which aren't exactly new to World of Warcraft: Forever.

There's the whole controversy surrounding the new Skyborne race, from its $30 price tag to its lore implications, and the fact that Blizzard has just revealed it's changing the elves to better fit the rest of the MMO, for example.

It's never easy dealing with source material that's this old and beloved, I suppose, but I do think Blizzard's well aware of this and how fans feel about the legendary 2004 game that started it all.

World of Warcraft: Forever is "simplifying" Blizzard's usual PvP but also adding a controversial weekly grind as MMO fans beg "please don't do the weeklies thing."

Use the latest Survive a Million Monkeys codes for Gems so that you can save up for powerful weapons and skilful classes, to help you defeat even more angry monkeys as you're stranded on the island alone (or with a few teammates).

This popular Roblox game is a survival experience, so the goal is, obviously, to survive as long as possible. To do so, then, you're going to need to upgrade your gear as soon as possible, while different classes improve your stats like health and damage. All of these cost Gems, so redeem these generous Survive a Million Monkeys codes now.

If you're after some more general rewards that can be used in all of your experiences, then we've got the current Roblox promo codes covered too.

All Survive a Million Monkeys codes

These are the Survive a Million Monkeys codes you can redeem right now:

• SURVIVE - 1,000x Gems
• MONKEYS - 1,000x Gems

Survive a Million Monkeys codes are for Gems, with thousands up for grabs. Since you can also earn a lot by beating waves, you should have enough for the next best class or gun in no time.

It's worth noting that Survive a Million Monkeys promos aren't case-sensitive, so you only have to ensure you spell the codes right, but you can always copy and paste from above to be sure.

How to redeem Survive a Million Monkeys codes

To redeem Survive a Million Monkeys codes, simply click on the Codes button in the top-right hand corner of the screen, enter a code into the box, then hit the green check mark to claim your rewards.

The codes button appears in the lobby and the post-match screen, but you can't redeem codes during a match.

Expired Survive a Million Monkeys codes

• There are no expired codes.

Since the experience only just launched, there are currently no expired Survive a Million Monkeys codes. I would expect these release promos to expire at some point though, so don't miss out.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The clash of blades pulses through my being. My hulking opponent repeatedly swings a rusty greatsword with menacing purpose, demanding I dodge or parry with perfect timing to avoid calamitous damage. It's a challenge I relish, stepping to this monstrous humanoid and returning strikes when the gaps emerge.

The blows are dramatic and satisfying, and the victory is mine. Phantom Blade Zero is without a doubt one of the most enjoyable action-RPGs I've sampled this year.

Got Soul but a Soulslike?

Phantom Blade Zero's wuxia influence is immediately present, with characters gracefully leaping to rooftops, twisting beyond the reach of incoming attacks, and delivering jaw-dropping finishing moves.

Playing on the game's normal difficulty, I'm stunned to find Phantom Blade Zero is fairly forgiving, at least initially. Parry windows are reasonably long, and player character Soul can take a few hits before needing to heal. It's also not too hard to overwhelm average field enemies with combos, although take larger foes for granted at your peril.

Sure, there may be bonfire-esque bells for resting, fast-traveling and so on, but any Soulslike comparisons must be made with the caveat that PBZ is not out to punish unnecessarily.

That's not to say a game needs to be ruthless to be rewarding. The combat here is scintillating, with a variety of weapons and fighting styles available as you progress through the horror-tinged world of Phantom Blade Zero. Whether you want to dual-wield daggers with agile aggression, or swing a large blade with the poise and rhythm of a drunk fighting solely for the love of the game, I'm sure you'll find your ideal method within.

The early section of Phantom Blade Zero consists of open areas offering impressive verticality. After an initial skirmish on a horse-drawn carriage, Soul must journey up through a deep ravine, negotiating winding, enemy-infested paths and occasionally encountering walls of red thread that block the way. The red thread is a constant theme throughout, with an ethereal one guiding the protagonist to the next point of interest, often leading to a boss encounter.

After running across walls, swinging on chains and climbing ladders (an action-RPG staple), I guide Soul out of the ravine and into a village of friendly NPCs. It's at this point that the scale of Phantom Blade Zero hits home, with the area proving as immersive as it is inviting. It makes me wonder what other bastions lie ahead in the full game, but the contemplation is cut short by an array of corpses leading to a boss arena.

Phantom Edge, an additional weapon triggered with R2 that serves up a spectacular axe swing capable of doing impressive damage to a foe, proves to be the real star of this boss fight. I'd previously just been using it to break barriers that restrict progression which, while handy, is nowhere near as fun as dropping the blade on a cocky opponent trying to obliterate me. It's here, with the boss fight obliterated, I finally start to get a sense of how Phantom Blade Zero's combat systems work together.

Even so, there's still plenty of traversal to come, with the end of my two hour demo seeing me climb atop a castle after overcoming keen-eyed archers and molten-monsters, all the while checking every corner and crevasse for items to enhance my gear. After all, what's an RPG without enhanceable weaponry that turns the player into a magpie?

Not quite my tempo

I spend my last 30 minutes of game time butting my head and my blade against Flame, the Mask-Bound Lion Dance Grandmaster. This enormous boss resembles Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree's Divine Beast Dancing Lion. As someone who prefers battling monsters over people, I'm instantly at home with this flame-wielding entity, dodging and parrying blows before hitting back with delicious combos.

As I deal damage, the reply attacks become more troublesome by setting fire to areas of the arena, limiting my movement like Laurence, the First Vicar does in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters. I eventually dispatch it, or so I think…

Turns out Flame has a phase two and the vibe switches up, with another humanoid striding onto the battlefield. It may still wear the lion's head, but it's faster and fights more like a martial artist with a point to prove than a wild beast, meaning I have to lock in if I want to win before time runs out out. Dear reader: I did not. Sadly, my session ends just as I ready for round two, leaving me eagerly awaiting a rematch when Phantom Blade Zero launches October 29

While it isn't what I expected, I'm delighted that Phantom Blade Zero is even more interesting and engaging as a result. The vertically-rich open areas are a joy to fight through, the wuxia-inspired combat is as gorgeous as it is fun, and the boss variety during the short preview helped maintain a sense of excitement throughout. It's no exaggeration to say Phantom Blade Zero is shaping up to be a big hit in 2026.

There's nothing phantom about our best Soulslike games ranking, and we've got plenty more games like Dark Souls recommendations to take your fancy.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth takes a lot of flak for the amount of mini-games it has that distract you from the main objective. Queen's Blood, Fort Condor, Chocobo Racing, Galactic Survivors, Pirate's Rampage, Queen's Blood... oh, god, Queen's Blood. (I suck at Queen's Blood because I lack the attention span to learn.)

Anyway, I don't much care for all of Final Fantasy Rebirth's mini-games, but I'm not upset that they exist. Even in the rare occasion I'm forced to interact with them, it's usually a nice, brief break from the main quest that makes me slow down and appreciate the depth of the game's world. That's just me, and there are plenty of JRPG fans who are vocally against the amount of mini-games in Rebirth, and indeed, the conversation has grown loud enough that it's officially become capital-D Discourse. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi, who also helmed Rebirth, isn't having any of it.

"I often see debates about whether it's better to have more minigames or fewer," says Hamaguchi in the latest issue of Edge Magazine. "However, I don't think that discussion really gets to the heart of the matter. What I consider first is what kind of gaming experience is best suited to a particular title. In that sense, the overarching policy that 'the FF7 remakes would offer a gaming experience as rich in minigames as the original' was my decision as director, and I believe that responsibility is mine to bear."

Not only is Hamaguchi taking direct ownership of the decision to stay true to the spirit of the original game with a ton of goofy mini-games, he's also saying people who focus on the amount of mini-games are missing the whole point. It's about quality and quantity, he seems to suggest.

"I believe we should continuously improve aspects such as whether the game is easy to engage with and whether players can enjoy it without unnecessary stress," says Hamaguchi. "We prioritised ensuring that players engage with the minigames because they want to, rather than feeling like they're being made to play them. I believe that how we can deliver that gaming experience is more important than whether to increase or reduce the number of minigames."

The mini-games in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth are definitely, for the most part, thoroughly fleshed out compared to their 1997 counterparts, but for the most part they're entirely optional. Or at least, the ones that require a lot of concentration or skill aren't necessary to the critical path, from what I remember. I don't know, I think I'm picking up what Hamaguchi is putting down here. When there are bigger issues to discuss like Square Enix's "inevitable" embrace of multiplatform availability and the lack of a true physical disc version of Revelation, whether or not there are too many mini-games seems pretty inconsequential.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead explains that making each game in the RPG trilogy a "complete experience" was "non-negotiable" from the beginning

Tracks of the Beast is a potentially dangerous Arc Raiders mission that brings you into contact with the Bully and Skulker ARCs. You don't have to fight them, but there are some optional objectives you can complete if you do.

Once you complete the Exploring Pendoloa Pass quest, you’ll be given this, which asks you to find a train station and ping a Bully and a Skulker. If you can manage to do it all in one round, there are even optional tasks for you to tackle which grant you bonus rewards. If you’re ready for a possible fight or two with these new ARC units, here’s how to finish this.

How to complete Tracks of the Beast

Here are all the tasks you must complete in one round for the Tracks of the Beast quests in Arc Raiders:

• On Pendola Pass, head to the Northern Tracks
• Find the destroyed station at the end of the tracks
• Ping a Bully
• Ping a Skulker
• (Optional) Destroy 3 Skulkers
• (Optional) Deliver a Skulker Targeter

If you don’t have enough time to complete the last two optional tasks, don’t worry. You can still claim the normal rewards, but it’s nice to gain some bonus rewards if you can find enough Skulkers on the map.

Where to find the Northern Tracks and the destroyed station

Your first step in this lengthy quest is to find the Northern tracks. It’s not an area explicitly mentioned on the Pendola Pass map, but it’s essentially the northern region of the map where you see train tracks. I just so happened to spawn there when completing this quest, so it didn’t take much searching for us to track down the Northern tracks.

Once you make it to the general area, your quest should update to tell you to find the destroyed station at the end of the tracks. It doesn’t literally mean the end of the tracks, which is out of bounds.

Simply walk to Almatera Station in the northwestern region of Pendola Pass. As soon as you reach the station, that quest task should tick off its box.

Where to find a Bully and Skulker

Although you can find the new Bully and Skulker ARC units anywhere on this map, you’ll likely find a lurking Bully roaming near the station. Bullies are easy to hear, as they’re almost the size of a Leaper but more like faster, more aggressive Bastion.

The Bully is a large ground enemy that’ll easily close the distance between you and it if it spots you. Run around the station until you hear loud mechanical sounds of it walking around, then creep up to it to ping it. You don’t even have to destroy or damage it to complete this quest, so now spend the rest of the match trying to find a Skulker.

Skulkers, on the other hand, are much smaller. They’re ground enemies that move around the ground like a Pop with legs, but they’re a lot more aggressive once they take position and begin firing. As it was late in the match, I ended up finding the scrap remains of a Skulker, but that still counted for the quest when I pinged it.

If you decide to take on the optional tasks, the Skulkers lurk more out in the open than you’d think. They just like to crawl low and act elusive before they target you, and they blend in well with the snow. Start by searching all around the train station, then head out into the rest of the map if you’re having no luck.

To easily take them down, wait for their turret to pop out of the center, then shoot at that. It looks like a weak spot, making it easier to take down compared to just shooting its outer shell. Make sure to loot them and take at least one Skulk Targeter from their remains to bring back for the optional task.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Home To Roost quest in Arc Raiders takes place on Blue Gate and you'll need a Blue Gate Confiscation Room Key to finish it. Like Exploring Pendoloa Pass this is a multi-step quest where no one part of it is hard, there's just a lot of it all stacked up to get through. While you're here you can also try to look for the Ruined Homestead for the Outpost project.

How to complete Home To Roost

These are all the tasks you must complete to finish the Home To Roost quest in Arc Raiders:

1. Reach the back of the Blue Gate tunnels
2. Scan any Android at the back of the tunnels
3. Reach the MANTIKOR locker room
4. Search for any clues in the locker room
5. Read the last vehicle’s weighing logs
6. Enter the Confiscation Room
7. Transmit MANTIKOR security’s last recordings to Shani

Let's work through all that in more detail below.

Scan an Android at the back of the Blue Gate tunnels

Head straight for the Traffic Tunnel at the back of the Checkpoint in Blue Gate. Once you’re in the tunnels, head to the very back and avoid or take down any lurking ARC units along the way.

There isn’t one specific spot for this quest; it can be any Android you see at the back of the tunnels. We’ve pointed out just one of the many Androids in the tunnels. Interact with the Android to scan it, then it's time to find the MANTIKOR locker room.

Search for clues in the MANTIKOR locker room

From where you just scanned an Android, turn around and head to the Security Wing section of the tunnels. You’ll eventually come across the large MANTIKOR logo above a locked door. Don’t go in there yet. Instead, go through the passage to the right and up the stairs.

Be careful of any ARC units like the Shredders, which I ran into here. Once you’re up the stairs, turn right, and you should find a door you can breach. Breach the door to the locker room, then interact with the mural on the wall to search for clues.

Read the last vehicle’s weighing logs

To read the last vehicle’s weighing logs, go back down the stairs into the tunnels, and right across from the platform you’re standing on is the vehicle weighing station.

Head over to the side closest to the wall, and interact with the computer to read the logs. With that done, you can finally enter the Confiscation room.

Enter the Confiscation room and transmit the last recordings

The only way to enter the Confiscation room is if you already have a Blue Gate Confiscation Room Key. This is an entirely random drop, and it’s pretty rare to find. You should hope that you already have one, or you’re playing with a friend who has the proper key.

When you have the key, you can unlock the door under the MANTIKOR logo from earlier and enter the Confiscation room. You’ll find the correct box to interact with on top of the shelf in the connected room. Climb on top of the metal shelf and interact with the box to transmit the security recordings.

With that done, you can finally return to Speranza and collect your rewards for completing the Home To Roost quest in Arc Raiders!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

This walkthrough will help you complete the Exploring Pendola Pass quest in Arc Raiders step by step. It's a collection a few basic tasks that can quickly become overwhelming as you freeze your butt off outside and get absolutely decimated by the new Bully enemy. Save yourself the pain and use what I've learned to clear it all quick and easy. The Arc Raiders Sizing Things Up quest also takes place here, so there's some scope for multitasking.

How to complete Exploring Pendola Pass in Arc Raiders

There are four tasks to complete in the Exploring Pendola Pass quest. Luckily, they don’t all have to be done in one round, or in any order:

1. Destroy 20 ARC enemies
2. Search the control room at the Cielo Sereno Observatory for power
3. Use 1 Wire to patch into the antenna on top of the tallest tower in the Railyard
4. Search 3 containers inside the Commissary Supermarket

Destroying 20 ARC enemies is the easiest of them all, especially since it can be done on any map and generally completed ambiently as you play. The tougher tasks are the three others, so let’s tackle those.

Where to find the Cielo Sereno Observatory control room

The Cielo Sereno Observatory is on the eastern edge of Pendola Pass. Enter the building, then head up the stairs into the middle section of the observatory. There, you should find the control room that looks over the valley below.

You should see a box on the console that allows you to interact with it. Inspect the tech, and you can now move on to the next task.

Patch the antenna on the tallest tower in the Railyard

For this task you’ll not only need one Wire, but a Zipline as well. You can easily find a Wire on the map if you didn’t bring one, but you're obviously better off bringing a Zipline with you.

Head to the eastern side of the Railyard, and climb up the building. There will be a ladder outside that takes you to the building’s roof. Once you’re up, you’ll reach the base of the tallest Railyard tower.

Now, pull out your Zipline and make sure to place it at the very top. Take the Zipline up, then use the one Wire you brought to interact with the antenna and patch it.

It’s time to take care of the fourth and final task of the Exploring Pendola Pass quest.

Search 3 containers in the Commissary Supermarket

This task may be even easier than taking down 20 ARC enemies since all you have to do is loot through containers in the Commissary Supermarket. Make sure you’re inside the building, then open any type of container.

Do this three times, and you’ll have completed not only this task, but the entire quest! Head back to Speranza to claim your reward.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Astral Ascent, the highly acclaimed indie action roguelite from 2023, has received the rare blessing that is a crossover with Sandfall Interactive's 2025 GOTY sweep, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Of course, by rare I mean singular, as there's yet to be any actual game content featuring characters or world elements from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 until now.

Announced in a Steam blog, Astral Ascent's Expedition 33: For Those Who Come After update is live now and free for all players, with the only requirement being completion of the main quest on base difficulty. Once you've got the update downloaded, you'll want to pop a seat at the new Campfire room, because you'll find some of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's best characters waiting there as special, themed summons.

Gustave is a support-type companion who heals you and gives you attack buffs, but he also has "a devastating" attack that charges up every time he's summoned. Maelle fights alongside you using a stance determined by your HP, shifting from attack to defense and unleashing a "powerful attack" that unlocks when she maintains the same stance for a while. Sciel is a card-based battler with mana regen, a basic strike attack, and a "powerful attack," each triggered under different conditions.

Meanwhile, Lune is an elemental spellcaster who syncs up with your own spell-using habits, and as is starting to become a pattern, she gets her own "powerful spell" when you summon her "enough times." Verso ranks up every time you hit an enemy and drops a rank with every hit you take, starting with an attack penalty and then building to a "massive attack bonus" as he ranks up. Finally, Monocco draws a random card from a set of five and unleashes a "powerful monster summon" based on the card he pulls.

There are also three new Expedition 33-themed rooms in Astral Ascent's crossover update: the aforementioned Campfire, the Lumière, where you square off with Petank and the Mimes with Lumière in the background, and the Gestral Village, where you face off against Golgra. Developer Hibernian Workshop says these rooms appear randomly before the final boss of each run, and you'll have the chance to pick between the Expedition 33-themed bosses or the usual Andromeda Bar, "but choose fast, it won't come back this run," warns the dev.

"We've wanted to do this for a long time. Getting to work with Sandfall Interactive on this crossover has been one of the best experiences we've had making Astral Ascent," the Astral Ascent team says in a statement. "Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a game we fell in love with, like so many of you did, and this update is our way of paying tribute to it. Our biggest challenge was translating this world into our own pixel art, staying true to what makes these places feel alive while making them ours."

Speaking of crossovers, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 "broke" T-Pain with its "too sad" intro: "It gets worse? Absolutely not"

Clean Hands is one of the first new Arc Raider quests in the Frozen Trail update. It requires you to climb a tower at Pendola Pass, the new map, and deliver a sundial. This map is treacherous, with frigid winds that will eat away at your health, making quests like this difficult to complete. Luckily, I'm here to help, so here’s how you can complete the Clean Hands quest in Arc Raiders.

Where to find the Nomad Camp underneath the Railyard

Your first step to completing the Clean Hands quest in Arc Raiders is to drop into Pendola Pass and head straight for the Railyard. The quest asks you to find the Nomad Camp underneath the Railyard, which is quite easy to do as soon as you come to the Railyard from the western side. Upon walking through those tunnels, your quest should update.

Next, you must search for the polluted item in the Nomad camp. This item is easy to find; simply walk up onto the platforms and search the bag on the ground beside the green barrels and the container wrapped in a blue tarp.

An Equatorial Sundial will drop after searching the bag, so make sure to pick that up and place it in your safe pocket just in case. Now, you’ll need to head west to the Old Town to bring the Equatorial Sundial to the top of the church.

Where to use the Equatorial Sundial at the church in Old Town

You’ll find the church near the very center of Old Town, and once inside, head to the very back to spot a set of winding stairs. Walk up the stairs until you find a zipline, then take the zipline up to the top of the tower.

From here, you should see an interaction spot that’ll let you hold up your Equatorial Sundial. Hold your interaction until it completes, and that’s all there is to the Clean Hands quest! Just make sure to keep the Equatorial Sundial in your safe pocket since you need to bring it back to Speranza as well.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Arc Raiders' Frozen Trail update wasn't exactly a make-or-break moment for a game that's already a massive commercial success, but it was a big bet by developer Embark Studios, which committed to releasing larger updates after long periods of relative inactivity. Based on early numbers following Frozen Trail's launch, that gamble is paying off.

As we so often have to, we're working off of Steam numbers for a multiplatform game, so we can only approximate trends here. But SteamDB shows a pretty clear spike for Arc Raiders.

As of October 8, the game has seen a 24-hour Steam peak of 131,388 concurrent players, which is the type of excitement Arc Raiders hasn't seen since April. It hasn't been above 100,000 CCU since May, even, and it has spent several months in the 30,000 to 50,000 range as Embark focused on cutting through the noise with one big knife rather than the dozen small razors it rolled out post-launch.

Obviously, Frozen Trail isn't the only driving factor here. I spoke to executive producer Aleksander Grøndal about the concerted push around this launch, and he said the studio does see it almost as a relaunch in some ways. Nominally, it's a 2.0 moment for the game. To roll out the red carpet, Embark has also given players until October 12 to play the game for free, and it's currently on sale for 50% off to boot.

Sales and giveaways consistently push a lot of players toward games, so Frozen Trail has definitely had some help rocketing Arc Raiders up the Steam charts. This turnout doesn't even touch Arc Raiders' surprisingly explosive launch – nor did anyone really expect it to match those absurd numbers – but it's a pretty strong response, especially since this was a Thursday update. Come Friday night and into the weekend, we may see that 24-hour peak climb higher.

In our chat, Grøndal also examined the discourse around Arc Raiders' player count, which has become a mainstay of many discussions for live service games. "Of course, it's not something that you look at and go, 'Oh, that feels great,'" he says. "That's not what I'm saying. But at the same time, you have to stick to your guns a bit when you make a decision. This is what we're going to do, and you have to believe that's the right approach. And, of course, we hope that works out."

I'd also point you to our discussion with Palworld liaison and Pocketpair comms lead John Buckley, who (fairly) argued that many players misinterpret Steam player numbers. These figures can be useful and interesting as an expression of player appetite, but it can also be easy to overrate them.

Arc Raiders Frozen Trail patch notes are full of sentences that players have dreamed of for a year: "You can now open the map while downed."

Crimson Desert's critic reviews may have been harsher than its user reviews because normal players not working on a deadline had more time to venture off the golden path and enjoy the game's rich world and systems, according to Lybee Park, CEO of developer Pearl Abyss' Europe branch.

Park spoke to The Game Business about Crimson Desert's reception, focusing on the launch period back when it was a different, meaningfully worse game that has since received approximately eight bazillion updates.

Interviewer Christopher Dring says "the critical reception was a little bit more mixed, right? It wasn't terrible, but it was a little bit lower." Crimson Desert's critical reception was, indeed, not terrible: it sits at 77 on Metacritic against an 8.7 user score. On Steam, Crimson Desert Enhanced, an improved version of the game that's replaced the old one less than a year after launch, has 83% positive lifetime user reviews and, as it happens, 77% positive recent reviews. (Our Crimson Desert Review awarded the game 4 out of 5 stars.)

It's not unusual for critical and user reviews to differ, and this is far from the biggest gap I've seen for a game. If you look at some of the best-rated releases of 2026, a lot of them have slightly lower user scores than critic scores, with exceptions like Resident Evil Requiem, which just has even more glowing user scores. Fewer still show score gaps larger than one point – one being Mixtape, a game which was trendy to hate online but still found a very receptive audience of confirmed buyers on stores like Steam, where reviews put it at 87% positive to Metacritic's 5.9 user score, or on the PlayStation Store, where it has 4.6 out of 5 stars.

When a critic may play dozens of times more games per year than the average gamer (who, surveys have found, only buys two or three new games annually), it's easy for tastes and expectations to shift and vary. Park speculates on where Crimson Desert's review gap may have come from.

"I can have my personal opinion, right?" she begins. "I do believe both parties have fair points, especially for critics. They had to play the build that is not the exact same version of the launched game. And, also, they had limited time, and usually the classical approach when they review the game is following the main quest line."

The main quest is not where Crimson Desert is at its strongest, Park implies. The other folks at Pearl Abyss clearly agree: the central story was deemed so erratic that it was actually directly patched with the release of the Enhanced version. We regularly see post-launch updates targeting game balance, resource economies, quality-of-life issues, UI navigation, performance, bugs, and many other elements, but games rarely rewrite their stories in this way.

"But Crimson Desert, our unique charm is spread all over our in-game world," Park adds. "All those tiny details that are hidden, all [the] freedom you can actually explore even further, beyond the common expectations. All of those unique bits and interesting, new, fresh bits, I don't think critics had a fair chance to explore and experience while it was the reviewing period."

I don't do nearly as many reviews as some game journalists, but I've been at this for 13 years so I have done a few dozen, and I can tell you that I don't play review games the same way I play my for-fun games. That's usually because I don't have time to. Thank the stars I didn't play Unicorn Overlord for review. Could I have spent 240 hours slow-rolling and savoring a 45-hour strategy RPG if I was on a deadline? Of course not, and my experience with the game would've been changed as a result.

But reviewers will generally work to see as much of a game as they can beyond just rolling credits. Especially with a sprawling open-world experience like Crimson Desert, there will be a need and a drive to poke around, though that drive can vary as much as opinions. I don't know anybody who reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by sprinting straight to Ganon as soon as they possibly could, unless that was for an experiment after they beat the game the conventional way.

And it is important to note, as Park does, that day-one patches can instantly render reviews somewhat outdated. I've had serious frustrations with games resolved by a patch within days or hours of my review going live. Yet reviewers can only criticize the game in their hands, not an imagined, better version of it. Even if players never encounter the same issues, reviewers are still right to criticize those if they run into them.

Really, the words hanging over this are "the reviewing period" – the time between the delivery of review keys and the opening of review embargoes. This is one place where you will find dramatic differences. How much time you get for a review can vary hugely between games, and the less time you have to play a game, even assuming days or weeks of inordinately long play sessions, the less realistic your experience can be. A lot of media outlets have gotten better about giving reviewers more time to play at a healthy pace which also allows for a more authentic experience, but there's still undeniably incentive to be ready for embargo.

We can fully dissect the levers of online criticism some other time. My point is, Pearl Abyss set the reviewing period for Crimson Desert. I don't wholly agree with Park's assessment that Crimson Desert's critical scores may have been lower because critics only saw the rainbow and not the pot of gold at the end. (I think Crimson Desert's reception was fair, and I think a game's ability to encourage and reward exploration is an important factor.) But I definitely agree that longer review periods are better for everyone.

Crimson Desert DLC Charting the Unknown delayed 2 weeks as Pearl Abyss seeks "a more polished and stable gameplay experience."

A number of high-profile game studios are closely associated with crunch culture, and The Last of Us maker Naughty Dog is undoubtedly one of them. I feel confident saying that not only because the studio's reputation for crunch has been well-established through many years of trustworthy reporting, but because Naughty Dog representatives have confirmed as much explicitly. As recently as December 2025, reports circulated claiming Naughty Dog employees had been forced into mandatory overtime to complete a demo for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and in April, former Naughty Dog senior game designer Benson Russell suggested employees accepted crunch as "what it takes to make games at our level."

Echoing Russell's sentiment to some degree, Matt Radford, who was a VFX artist on Uncharted 4 and the Last of Us, tells Kiwi Talkz there's a misconception online about Naughty Dog's crunch culture. Radford says the claims of crunch coming from news articles are generally "all true" but may miss details, as it's also "why we wanted to be there, too."

"You would feel like, 'Oh my god, we are gonna work 100-plus hours a week, this is possible,' and yet we all kind of went there to push, to try and work at the highest level," he says. "So, it's always complicated. It's not as cut and dry as sometimes the news articles make it out, where it's like, 'evil corporation demands horrific working hours from their employees.' It was more like a lot of really motivated people getting together and using a little bit of peer pressure to push everyone around them to make their best work. And yeah, it took a lot of hours."

Radford then waxes philosophically about the nature of crunch and wonders "is there a correlation between art and suffering," concluding, "I feel personally that what I experienced is great art has come from suffering."

His tone throughout is defensive of Naughty Dog's working conditions, but also admissive. "There was definitely some grueling times, but the results do speak for themselves, and ultimately I think Naughty Dog's secret is the people, and it's the way that everyone there is driven. That is why the games are great."

While I fully trust there are and were Naughty Dog employees happy to put in the time and energy to work exorbitant hours for love of the craft, overtime pay, or both, Radford's insights aren't entirely exonerating. He admits to there being some degree of pressure, albeit from peers, being pushed on workers who may or may not have felt the same way about overtime. Crunch, after all, is more complex than the presence of overtime; it's about how much overtime, how it's compensated, how it's offered or enforced, what happens if it's turned down, and why it's relied on as a production catch-up.

In other words, if someone does actually want to work 100 hours a week for whatever reason, there should be reassurance from management that the same isn't expected of anyone who wants the freedom to work fair and reasonable hours, and I can't conclude that was the case at Naughty Dog based purely on what Radford is saying here.

The Last of Us 2's Troy Baker says the ending's devastating final conversation between Joel and Ellie was originally supposed to be at the start of the game

The big Arc Raiders Frozen Trail update is finally here, dropping a truckload of wintry content on players and, importantly, unloading the biggest patch notes since the start of the game. We're all going to be busy with the new map, skills, guns, gadgets, and Arc for a good while, but the 2.0 Frozen Trail update is full of tiny yet exciting changes, many of which have been requested by players for nearly a full year.

You can read the full patch notes here. I want to focus on some easily missed lines that punch above their weight. Here's an easy crowd pleaser: "Max Stash Size increased by 2 new levels (328 Max without Expedition bonuses)." With tons of new items coming into the game, I wouldn't be surprised if Embark is all but forced to further increase stash size in the future.

This may be a contentious change because it's technically a nerf to a popular strategy, but the Queen and Matriarch have had their loot reallocated once again. "Moved higher tier loot from the armor pieces of the legs to the legs pieces for Queen and Matriarch," developer Embark says.

In other words, you can't just prune leg armor to plunder easy cores any longer. Instead, you'll seemingly have to sever legs entirely or stick around for the kill, which, really, is probably how it always should've worked. Destroying legs at the joint should be more rewarding than simply peeling them, but until now you'd get literally nothing from the leg frame. My inner loot goblin isn't happy, but this just makes sense to me. However, I still think a dead Queen or Matriarch should drop way more loot than a reactor that only one person gets to loot. We'll see how it plays out.

Another point of contention will be the handling of the Anvil hand cannon, which has been pushed to blue rarity as it was "outperforming weapons both within and above its own level of rarity." Once again, this makes sense to me. With an Anvil, a Renegade, and enough ammo, you can kill a machine god.

I'm a bigger fan of the little animations that Embark's added with Frozen Trail. "Added animations to show the player interacting with their map and inventory," the patch notes read. Additionally, there's now a "mouth animation for when players are talking in proximity chat." Other "contextual" character animations include "brushing dust after sliding" and heaving "when running out of breath for a while." Anything that makes my raider feel more like a fallible container of meat struggling in a cyborg apocalypse is welcome.

Here's Embark finally tackling something that always bothered me: "Adjusted how character sounds are occluded by walls and obstacles for more natural audio positioning." My hope is that this will improve Arc Raiders' directional audio, which could get wonky in firefights in some buildings.

The gameplay section of the patch is where the real gold lies. We've got "more contextual Ping information for ARC and various objects." When looting, you can "drop loot to the ground directly from containers." While crawling around, "you can now open the map while downed." If your backpack looks fabulous but has an extremely visible light source, you can now toggle it off to "go full stealth mode."

One of the new movement changes could interact with the updated skill tree, which pushes agility more heavily, in interesting ways: "Added Scrambling. Sprinting at steep slopes will allow you to scramble up them for a short time." Sandwiched between added wall run and mantling maneuvers, this might actually make a noticeable difference.

Embark mentions the dynamic loot zones it's testing in new map Pendola Pass, designed to make scavenging less repetitive match over match by changing loot hotspots. The exciting part here is what executive producer Aleksander Grøndal told me in a recent interview: assuming initial feedback and implementation for dynamic loot zones goes well, "it will be fairly straightforward for us to go back and reapply that to the existing maps as well." Even as a map event, I'd love to see old zones find a little more variety.

Arc Raiders lead says Steam player count discourse doesn't feel great, but Embark "accepted the fact that we would have less players."

A lot of change is going on in the annals of Xbox right now. The games division of Microsoft is in the midst of 3,200 layoffs and a complete restructuring, and that includes in senior management. Mojang, the company overseeing Minecraft, now has a new boss, but their background isn't strictly in game development.

Asha Sharma, CEO of Xbox, has announced that Maria Angelidou-Smith is taking on the role of Mojang CEO, replacing Kayleen Walters, who's now president of XP. That's apparently another wing of Xbox dedicated to how "how people experience our franchises beyond the games themselves" - in other words, TV and movie adaptations and licensing agreements and what not.

Considering the success of A Minecraft Movie, and the fact she's a named producer on the sequel, it makes sense for Walters to move into that role. It's mentioned Minecraft garnered over 250 licensees in her time there.

Angelidou-Smith is no stranger to positions like this, but more in social media than video games. From 2014 to 2022, she was with Meta, looking after various aspects of Facebook, firstly in app monetization, and then in the realm of Facebook Groups, Dating and the like.

Then, after stints in other industries, she took on the job of chief product officer at Reddit in November of last year. And now she's in charge of Minecraft.

"Mojang already has an exceptional game development team that knows Minecraft and its players deeply," Sharma writes in an internal memo shared by The Hollywood Reporter. "We wanted someone who has built products for communities at enormous scale, who is deeply technical, and who understands how creators, product, technology and monetization come together."

Sharma says Angelidou-Smith's "first order of business" is "to learn from the teams and communities that make Minecraft so special."

If you're somewhat cynical of this move, I don't blame you. This certainly looks like Microsoft's targeted someone who's more concerned about user retention, advertising, and monetization than community moderation and access.

Minecraft is a juggernaut that's resisted many of the more concerning practices you can find in something like Roblox. There's no explicit suggestion Microsoft wants to push that direction, but this changeover leaves the possibility open. We'll see what the future holds.

Former Halo art director claps back at founding Xbox member for implying 343 Industries had a "laziness" problem: "It isn't accurate"

World of Warcraft: Forever won't be emulating the retail or Classic versions of Blizzard's beloved MMO when it comes to PvP – it's got its own way of approaching it.

The studio outlines as much in a new post about how PvP works in WoW: Forever over on its official website, and it's somehow easier than it was back in the early 2000s but also… a tad grindy?

Blizzard first describes it bringing "a refreshed sense of purpose to every match-up" with an approach that "gives players more reasons to take part throughout the season while preserving the spirit of competition that defined PvP in the original World of Warcraft."

The developers explain that they "wanted to keep the design pillar of 'Approachable and Familiar' firmly in view: simplifying the original Honor System while staying true to its roots" – so, how does it work?

Well, there are two parts to World of Warcraft: Forever PvP: Honor and Rank Points. Honor is a form of currency you earn by taking part in PvP content, with Blizzard promising to ensure that "acquisition rates are more consistent across the board."

You gain Rank Points from specific PvP activities, like battlegrounds and certain quests. This system is similar to the original World of Warcraft's own, as you'll be working toward titles like Grand Marshal or High Warlord (depending on which faction you've chosen, of course).

There's a catch, however: "Ranks have a weekly cap, retaining the foundation of the original system while making the journey more accessible." That makes it easier, sure, but it also feeds into a weekly grind – and as a Final Fantasy 14 player myself, I'm all too familiar with (and not really a fan of) weekly grinds.

There are more layers to this, too, with Blizzard going on to detail how seasons function: "During a PvP season, players can progress through the ranks and earn Honor. Each season also includes a journey with weekly tasks to complete." Sigh. Yes, weekly.

"Successfully completing those tasks grants Honor and Rank Points, and three tasks each season also grant a Legacy Point," the devs continue. "Completing these tasks is part of the seasonal journey, and because they are tied to the Legacy System, they remain available to complete in future seasons."

In other words, it's definitely a bit simpler to get where you want in PvP rank-wise, but I'll feel more inclined to be consistent. You know, whether I want to be or not – and I'm evidently not alone.

A comment sees a fan saying, "Please don't do the weeklies thing." Another adds, "One of the things I'm trying to avoid is weekly checkboxes I feel I need to hit. Just having X item cost Y Honor and Z rank is enough." A separate response reads, "Please don't do that system. It's unhealthy at all. Having to farm every freaking week without taking any break is not fun."

Overall, though, it's admittedly certainly an accessible PvP system. Blizzard seems to know it as well, concluding, "With more ways to make progress each week and meaningful goals to pursue throughout the season, PvP in World of Warcraft: Forever gives players a clear path to jump in, compete, and keep building toward what comes next."

Fingers crossed it all plays out smoothly come the MMO's November 4 release.

To make World of Warcraft: Forever's controversial Skyborne less "jarring" to look at, Blizzard is going back to 2004

Finding Celeste's childhood drawings in Arc Raiders will take you to three locations in Riven Tides, which is no mean feat given how dangerous the area is. Especially when you don't have a clear idea where you're going or what you're looking for. I've found all the drawing locations already though, so I can point you in the right direction and minimize the wandering about to make it all a lot easier.

Find young Celeste's room in Hotel Panorama Azzuro

The whole objective kicks off with you having to find young Celeste's room in Hotel Panorama Azzuro. That's marked on the map above, and you'll want room 213 specifically. If you take the stairs on the outside of the building, room 213 will be the first one you see when you go inside on the second floor.

Once inside, head to the cabinet by the window to inspect the map, which will add two new objectives: 'find the drawing on the roof of the third Customs House' and 'find the drawing at the Quay'.

Where to find the drawing on the roof of the third Customs House

The third Customs House is marked on the map above - the second building down going north to south of the stack of four. When you get there, head up to the roof and find this metal panel in the corner. There will be a picture you can examine to finish this objective.

Where to find the drawing at the Quay

The Quay is marked on the map above, and is one of the more obscure locations that only shows up when you zoom right in. Head to the point shown and look for two large cable spools.

There's a drawing you can inspect on one of the legs of the spool nearest the sea. Examine that and you're done. All that's left now is to extract and head back to Lance to turn the mission in for your rewards: a Lance's Mixtape backpack charm and three Sterilized Bandages.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer studio lead Matt Webster says the new roguelite racer is way more complex than other racers by the same team.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is out now, and finally brings the series back to racing after a 24 year gap since the PS2's Racer Revenge. And perhaps more crucially, it's developed by the team at Fuse Games, which was born from multiple members of Criterion Games, making Galactic Racer as much of a homage to Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer as it is to Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge.

And while working with a well known and mostly family-friendly IP like Star Wars could've led the devs to perhaps tone things down a little, Galactic Racer is pretty tough. You're moving at super high speeds and even brushing a wall can cause your speeder to blow up. And in the game's campaign, you only have three chances to blow up before you're eliminated and need to restart a run.

Talking to GamesRadar+ guides editor Will Sawyer – who also wrote our Star Wars: Galactic Racer review – Fuse Games CEO Webster spoke about the complexity of the racer, saying, "One of the things that's really interesting for me is that modern gamers can manage a greater amount of cognitive load."

He explains, "We are asking way more out of players in this game than I think we've ever done in a racing game with multiple boost things, pressing more than one face button at a time, switching up the abilities, and thinking strategically and tactically at the same time whilst traveling at 700 kilometers an hour and your eyes are on stalks. It's quite amazing."

Naturally, Galactic Racer has gone down a treat with many, becoming one of the highest-rated Star Wars games ever, and that's undoubtedly down to the racing pedigree of Fuse Games… and Ben Quadinaros, obviously.

Star Wars Galactic Racer introduces "the best Glup Shitto ever," an annoying little dude who'll blow up your vehicle for fun, and fans love him: "George Lucas would shed a tear."

As a massive horror fan, I was on the hunt for Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival Easter Eggs as soon as I loaded up the game. And, to my Cenobite-obsessed delight, I've found 13 references that made me do a double-take while messing about with the Lament Configuration.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is, of course, set in the Hellraiser universe, which has given us some of the best horror movies of all time and is a staple in '80s horror media, period. So of course there were always going to be nods to the iconic franchise for us to dig into here. However, in between my time gushing over Pinhead voice actor Doug Bradley's being in this title and wincing at all the virtual gore on my screen, I was shocked to find obscure nods to other '80s horror movies, the Hellraiser comics getting some love, and even tributes to iconic metal bands as well.

Some of the easter eggs I found are really hidden, and some aren't so cut and dry. I'm sure I may have missed a few as well, so feel free to share any you may have found in the comments below. But for now, here are all the spooky references and easter eggs that are in the new game, Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival. Warning: spoilers ahead!

1. Mattress with chains at the beginning of the game

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of moment, at the very start of the game when you enter Hell for the first time, a mattress is quickly thrown in front of you before it is pulled away with chains. Now, this moment is way too much of a curveball not to be a shout-out to the first two Hellraiser movies. Mattresses being like a gateway to hell are massive things in the franchise in general, but seeing one so soon and without context has to be an easter egg in my opinion. In Hellraiser 2 specifically, Julia is resurrected via a mattress (which the game later replicates with Sunny), so that just further cements my thoughts on this one. Is this Julia's mattress? We don't know, but it is definitely a movie nod if ever there was one.

2. A man with wires on his face like the Doctor in Hellraiser 2

When you first escape Bruno, near the place where you get a gun for the first time in the game, in the hallway you will find the dead body of a detective whose death has some very similar characteristics to Dr. Philip Channard's fate when he is taken over by Leviathan in Hellraiser 2. In the movie, before he's turned into a Cenobite, one of the most memorable moments is seeing wires cut into his face. In the game, the dead body has a contraption on his head with wires cutting into his face in the exact same manner. We do see this model used again later in the game, so it isn't limited to this one scene, but it is a clear homage to one of the best practical-effects moments in an '80s movie. It is also one of the only nods to Channard, who personally would have loved all of Bruno's gruesome handiwork.

3. Shopkeeper being an Eremite

When you meet the shopkeeper for the second time, you will find a document next to her that reveals that she is an eremite. Eremites are basically demons who guard all the puzzle boxes that lead to Hell, and they are also beings who try to entice souls into Leviathan's domain. Eremites are half-human, half-Cenobite beings who can look human at first, but their true form tends to be a bit more horrific. We saw that back in the first Hellraiser movie, with the homeless figure turning into a skeletal winged monster to get the Lament Configuration at the end of that film. We did only get a name for these creatures in the Hellraiser comics, though, so this is a nice nod to that side of the franchise as well. I will say that the shopkeeper behaves quite odd for an Eremite since they don't seem to be operating under Leviathan's will, but they do enjoy messing with Aiden's head about his relationship with Sunny and his true desires, so the essence of the original source material is still there.

4. Orno is mentioned

In the same note that reveals that the shopkeeper is an Eremite, we also get mention of the Cenobite Orno. Now, Orno is basically all of the Eremites' parent and is the Cenobite who is tasked with creating new puzzles in Hell. It's a bit complicated, but in order to reproduce with humans and make Eremites, Orno embeds his essence into his "Raw Material", a tortured human husk he uses to create the insides of the puzzle boxes, which he then returns to the real world in order to act as a surrogate to impregnate people with his own Cenobite genes…delightful. Only years later when they've grown does he send them a puzzle box, activating them like sleeper agents. Orno doesn't turn up in the Hellraiser movies and is really only a figure in Epic Comics, but seeing his name pop up is a neat little easter egg for longtime fans of the franchise.

5. Ozzy Osborne's grave

In the graveyard section of the game, after you escape the club, you can stumble upon a gravestone that reads "Here lies our prince of darkness who raised hell then went back to his mother". Under the tombstone, you will see Ozzy's iconic glasses as well as two bat statues, and for some extra flair, candles sporting the iconic Black Sabbath purple color decorate the grave as well. Ozzy Osbourne died in 2025, so seeing this very sweet homage to him in the game was surprisingly touching. Also, a fun fact: Ozzy wrote a song called Hellraiser with Zakk Wylde and Lemmy Kilmister back in the '90s, so he has got ties to the franchise directly. Basically, this is a top-tier tribute and Easter egg, friends.

6. Motörhead's Lemmy's hat

Next to Ozzy's gravestone, you will also see Motörhead bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister's iconic cowboy hat. As I mentioned in the Ozzy Osbourne Easter Egg, Lemmy co-wrote the Hellraiser song. However, Motörhead did do a version of the song for the movie Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth. Lemmy also played poker with Pinhead in that song's music video, and it was directed by Clive Barker too, which is just the cherry on top of the cool horror cake. So yeah, finding a version of Lemmy's hat next to the Ozzy easter egg is very cool, and one I highly suggest all fans keep an eye out for when they are in the graveyard sections of the game.

7. The occult magazine, Damballa

When you return to the club after acquiring the Hell chain ability, you will see a magazine on a chair called Damballa. Now, I will say a lot of books and magazines in this game are just stock assets; however, in the realm of '80s horror movie lore, this find made me do a double take. Damballa is a voodoo spirit that, in the horror movie Child's Play, is the reason why Chucky was able to transfer his soul into a doll. Damballa doesn't have any Hellraiser ties directly, but the game offers an '80s movie mode, and since Hellraiser 2 came out in 1988 (the same year as Child's Play), I'm pretty sure this is a fun easter egg paying homage to horror movies in general of that time. Later on in the game, we see a cabin that looks kind of similar to Evil Dead, and a boat on a lake that may be a Friday the 13th nod, but those are all very vague "could be" references. The Damballa mention is the best case for an '80s horror movie easter egg out of the whole bunch.

8. Cultist note called 'Hell on Earth'

In the game, you will find a note called "Hell on Earth", which discusses the cult's plans to bring the Cenobites to Earth. In the note, the writer does complain that they want to descend into Hell instead of bringing it to Earth, simply because they want to "bathe in Leviathan's shadow". Pretty standard bad guy stuff, but the Easter Egg here lies in the note's name, which is the same as the third Hellraiser movie, Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth. It's not a deep Easter egg that needs lore unpacking to get the most out of it, but it is a fun little nod.

9. Yellow floating balloon

OK, so I will admit that whether this is an easter egg or not is probably a stretch, but considering all the other subtle nods to '80s horror media that isn't purely Hellraiser-related, I do think it is worth highlighting a potential IT reference I found. In the swamp section, when you are approaching the cabin after the graveyard section in the game, you will be able to spot a very out-of-place yellow balloon. If you are a long-time Stephen King fan like myself, then you know that the balloon that Pennywise gives Georgie is actually yellow in the '90s IT miniseries. The red balloon for the IT franchise was only made popular after the recent movies; before then, Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise holding up that yellow balloon in the gutter haunted my nightmares. There are no other IT signifiers in the game, but a random balloon in a swamp is a suspicious choice to include; also, considering we have had a Chucky reference and that IT was written in 1986, this may be another '80s horror homage.

10. All the Steam achievements are references

Almost all the Steam achievements are references to something. Be that Hellraiser quotes spanning from all the movies, other horror movie nods, Resident Evil 4 references, and there is even an achievement named after a line from Lord of the Rings. I'd be here for ages listing them all, so I highly recommend checking them out for yourself. However, I will share some of my personal favorite Easter eggs that I found:

• The achievement "Only Nightmares Last Forever," which is a line from the more obscure and straight-to-video Hellraiser: Deader movie
• The achievement "A waste of good suffering," a classic line from the first Hellraiser movie
• The two achievements "What Are You Selling?" and "What are you buying?" which are nods to the merchant in Resident Evil 4
• The achievement "What's in the Box," which is a line from the iconic thriller movie Seven
• The achievement "No life in the void, only death," which is a line Sauron says during The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The achievement "Burn, oh such a limited imagination," which is a line from Hellraiser 3
• The achievement "Unlimited Power," which is, of course, a reference to the Star Wars line said by Palpatine in Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

11. Blade tentacles from Hellraiser 2

The general aesthetic of the Labyrinth takes cues from all the Hellraiser movies, so there aren't a lot of Easter Eggs to be spotted in Hell. However, in some sections you will encounter hallways filled with tentacles with surgical blades coming out of them, which is very clear Hellraiser 2 imagery. When Channard turns into the Cenobite "the Doctor" in that movie, he sports said tentacles with blades, and it is very specific to his character. While the other Cenobites tend to stick to hooks and chains, these blades do make Channard stand out in the franchise, so seeing the blade tentacles in the game is clearly a nod to that iconic villain. Even though The Doctor perished at the end of Hellraiser 2, it's nice to see that some twisted part of him stuck around in Hell to make it a more terrifying and horrific place…right?

12. Red Dragon painting

In Marlowe's mansion, there is a very clear interpretation of the Red Dragon painting by William Blake. If you are a Silence of the Lambs fan, chances are you know about this painting through the prequel. The 1981 novel Red Dragon by Thomas Harris often references the painting directly. In the book, the main villain (who isn't Hannibal but a serial killer nicknamed the "Tooth Fairy") believes that each person he murders will bring him closer to ascending into the red dragon, which is very similar to Marlowe's train of thought, if you ask me. Marlowe's crusade is to kill and mutilate his followers for Leviathan, so that he may eventually walk among the Cenobites. The painting that we see in the game isn't an exact replica of the Red Dragon, but it is very clearly a version of the painting that stood out enough for me to do a double take. Also, thematically, the story of the Red Dragon and Marlowe's own wishes are pretty undeniable. On another note, it's very cool to see another '80s horror nod with this one too.

13. Jesus Wept reference from Hellraiser 1

Probably the most iconic scene and line from the first Hellraiser movie is at the end of said film, where Frank Cotton's body is pulled by Pinhead's chains, and his entire skin is stretched out. In that gruesome moment, he says the line "Jesus Wept". In the game, depending on what choice you make, you will see a scene that is pretty similar to this moment. However, I will say Aiden doesn't say the iconic line and isn't as stretched as Frank is. It isn't an exact one-to-one replica of the scene, but it is a very clear nod toward it that will make film fans crack a smile at the very least.

Next read our Hellraiser: Revival review for more details on this new horror.

It's a real pity what's become of Dragon Age. Once a pillar of BioWare alongside Mass Effect, the series is now in the nether regions of the zeitgeist, thanks in no small part to the commercial failure of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The long-gestating sequel suffered a number of issues, and one of the central creators behind the whole franchise suggests a few reasons as to why.

In a new YouTube video (below), Mark Darrah, a lead developer across every installment of the fantasy RPG series (who announced his departure from BioWare in late 2020), broke down why and how The Veilguard wound up failing. Right off the top, he points toward stretched senior staff.

"The project ran without its most senior leadership when I was on Anthem, from 2017 until 2019," he explains. Next, then, were a number of delays, where the goalposts weren't moved far enough away to adequately get the game into a shippable state.

"The game spent a lot of time really close to its perceived release date," Darrah says. "The game changed release dates a lot of times, and the consequence of that is that the team always was quite close to its current release date."

Despite Dragon Age 4 "slipping a tonne," the deadline was always pushed in "little steps" rather than given considerable room to breathe. This created a situation where the team couldn't take an eagle's eye view of the project.

"There was never a time when the project was way in the future," Darrah recalls, "and things could be brought back, looked back, burned down, and looked at in a brand new light."

These issues sprang from, and were exacerbated by, the need for BioWare to fit into EA's annualization approach. Essentially, EA wanted to publish something from the studio every year. When your remit is chunky role-playing games, you can see how this would be difficult.

At one point, he says, BioWare's slate had Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age 4 coming out yearly from 2013 onward. This didn't happen, and delays on each formed a domino effect that led, in part, to The Veilguard arriving in late 2024, to a muted response.

Now the future's uncertain for the studio and the series. Mass Effect 5 is apparently happening, but we've heard next to nothing for years now. Hopefully one day we see Dragon Age make a roaring return – just don't expect it any time soon.

Ex-Dragon Age lead settles the score on Origins' most controversial sequence: The Fade is "filler" and "not very good content."

Join the GamesRadar+ RPG Club today.

Welcome to the RPG Club, a month-long adventure through one unforgettable role-playing game. Over the next four weeks, we'll be exploring CD Projekt Red's gorgeous new remaster of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of the undefeated best RPGs of the last two decades.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered is finally here, with all the weighty choices and dynamic third-person combat you know and love from the 2015 original (with a few adjustments). But what's actually new in the remaster, and are the chances all that noticeable? That's what this month's RPG Club is intent on discovering. From the bitesized tutorial town of White Orchard to the bustling streets of Oxenfurt, the RPG experts of GamesRadar+ are here to walk you through their favorite Witcher 3 missions across four weekly articles, examining how the latest enhancements measure up against the fondness of memory and the game's own legacy.

Below you'll find your Quest Log, which explains the rules for this month's playthrough. Each week will see a new writer focusing on a standout mission, from the most famous ones to those you might have missed in your own past playthroughs. We invite you to join us on The Path and share your own experiences, good or bad, as you explore The Continent alongside us. Do you love the new skill tree? Have you run into any performance issues? We need all the details, so be sure to weigh in down in the comments section each week!

Whether this is your first time with The Witcher 3 or your eighth with an entirely new build, RPG Club is your place to celebrate everything that makes these games and this genre so special.

Quest Log

RPG Club: The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt – Remastered (October 2026)

Meet this month's RPG Club hosts

This week's big question

RPG Masterclass

Get started with The Witcher 3

Submit your best Witcher 3 clip

Grab any great clips during your return to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? Don't forget to submit them to GamesRadar+ Replay. Not only will this give you an opportunity to share your gaming highlights with the GR+ Community, but the best clip of the month wins a $250/£250 Amazon voucher too.