Diablo 4's new season, Death Awakening, kicked off on June 30 with some highly anticipated adjustments to the game's rarest loot, now called "Iconic" Mythics. The TLDR is that Mythic Uniques now come with two guaranteed powers that synergize with the item's unique abilities, replacing the completely random rolls that garnered so much controversy in the PTR, but even if Blizzard's compromise with players completely restored the community's goodwill (it didn't), it seems there's a whole new pain point emerging: drop rates.

According to one extremely thorough study from Diablo 4 content creator wudijo, Death Awakening's drop rates for Iconic Mythics are pretty darn stingy. In a new 20-minute video, wudijo says he spent "20 hours non-stop farming bosses" to bag himself some Iconic Mythics – in particular the El'Druin Sword of Justice – to no avail.

Wudijo spent most of two full real-world days farming Helltides, "not doing anything else in-between," and ended up with 850 lair keys, 900 greater lair keys, and 127 superior lair keys. Using those farming those bosses netted him a little over 100 Mythics, five Mythic Seals, and more than five billion gold, but unfortunately, not a single Iconic Mythic.

Even after salvaging "almost all" of the Mythics he looted at the blacksmith and trading them for Resplendent Sparks to make new items, "I just don't have that item, with all of my effort with all of the crafting, with all of the Sparks, and all of these lair bosses... so this is what happened here, and I am very sad," says wudijo.

Acknowledging that farming Helltides is an "extremely good" way to rack up regular Mythics and Mythic Seals, wudijo concludes that if you're looking for a specific Iconic Mythic, or really any Iconic, "this is definitely kind of disappointing."

It doesn't help that, in his experience, farming for a Mythic version of a Unique that otherwise fits your build often ends in disappointment.

"Most of the time you will have found so many good Uniques that, by the time that you have any realistic hope of getting the Mythic version, that the Mythic most often just ends up being worse, or at least not much of an upgrade in the first place," wudijo says.

As an example, wudijo says he found a particularly viable Unique Eaglehorn bow and wanted to see if he could find a better Mythic version for his Rogue build, but by the time a Mythic Eaglehorn actually dropped, it wasn't as good as the normal Unique one because "it rolled two bad stats," and since Diablo 4's reworked loot system only lets you re-roll one of a Mythic item's powers, his Mythic Eaglehorn went to the blacksmith for salvaging.

Wudijo is far from the only Diablo 4 player feeling unhappy with Iconic Mythic drop rates in season 14, with one heavily upvoted Reddit thread calling them "broken." Having fond memories spending entire summers as a kid chasing the rarest items in the games, I think there's value in having items so rare that they genuinely feel mythical when encountered, but at the same time, one of the new Diablo 4 season's biggest focuses is the Mythic rework, so it does seem peculiar that there's an item class eluding players as dedicated as wudijo, especially when Diablo seasons only last about three months. We'll see if and how Blizzard responds to the latest kerfuffle from the Diablo community.

Blizzard devs in the dark for now as president of the World of Warcraft and Diablo studio says they "can expect to hear more" soon about Microsoft's plan for the studio as Xbox faces 3,200 job cuts

Follow-up Soulslike Mortal Shell 2 is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on August 20, and I'm encouraged by the variety of disgusting bosses shown off in its new trailer.

Developer Cold Symmetry released a new trailer locking in the date and showing off the sequel's upgraded, grisly combat. Like the original game, Mortal Shell 2 is a third-person action RPG where you melee, parry, and now shotgun your way through hordes of Gothic enemies that are equal parts gross and majestic. As you explore a world that's said to be much larger this time around, you unlock eponymous Shells to equip on your primordial hero, changing their abilities and fighting style dramatically, a bit like channeling the spirits of past warriors.

The original Mortal Shell played and performed fine enough – that is, fine enough to give Cold Symmetry space to make a much more ambitious sequel that, so far, actually feels a lot better. The open beta (really, the demo) for Mortal Shell 2 is still available on Steam, and I was quite taken with it when I gave it a shot. The best demo experience is one that makes you hungry for the full game, and I was certainly disappointed when I remembered I was only playing a vertical slice.

In its early hours, Mortal Shell 2 sheds much of the clunk that saddled the first game and injects ranged weapons that make combat feel more dynamic. I'm the kind of Soulslike glutton who will clear just about anything with a half-decent parry, but I'm properly looking forward to this one after some hands-on time. More polished combat was basically all I was looking for, so if the game also bears out Cold Symmetry's bold promise of a gigantic, dungeon-filled world, this could end up being something special. It helps that it's only $50, too.

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

Former Grinding Gear Games co-founder and Path of Exile co-creator Chris Wilson previously sold parts of his Magic The Gathering card collection "to fund the company" during PoE's development, but has since amassed one of the biggest and most valuable Magic collections the world has ever seen, as he demonstrates in a new video.

Wilson could – but in this video, does not – claim to have one of the top 10 or even top five biggest Magic collections known to exist.

Showing off "My Oldest Magic: the Gathering Cards," Wilson shows page after page, pile after pile, of high-value and hard-to-find Magic cards dating back decades. From Alpha icons to The Dark, Legends, Antiquities and many other early sets, in this brief look – which seems to represent a fraction of Wilson's library, which includes tens of thousands of Lands alone – the man comes across like a dragon walking you through his treasure hoard.

The headliner is obvious: 14 copies of Black Lotus, the most famous Magic card around, crown Wilson's collection. With 12 sleeved in a binder and two more 9-grade Lotuses safely encased in plastic slabs, Wilson is sitting on a fortune in cardboard flowers.

Wilson never really talks about the value of these cards – beyond turning his nose up at the prospect of paying modern prices for more Black Lotuses – and it can be difficult to price some rarities in a turbulent market. But these are apparently "raw Alpha copies" of Black Lotus with black borders, which can easily sell for five digits apiece, and often much closer to six digits, even ignoring private collectors who've reportedly shelled out millions for a Lotus.

The Lotuses are one thing, but there are also random pages in Wilson's binders that could kill a Magic player. The Magic: The Gathering Reddit community was agasp at collection bombs like 24 copies of The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, a hotly contested Land which can go for thousands according to TCG Player.

Wilson has one or even two dozen copies of tons of cards that many people have never held in their life. He rifles through piles of the fabled "Power Nine," a set of cards – spiritually related to Yu-Gi-Oh's Power Five – from early sets that offered enormous advantage, often in the form of extra mana, but also via extra turns a la Time Walk.

The Power Nine were printed back when the goblins in the Magic designers' brains flip-flopped unpredictably between pack filler that will never be played because it's unfit to even absorb beer can condensation on the kitchen table, and nuclear weapons that can never be played because they're banned in every galaxy. Thank goodness Magic players don't have to deal with that anymore. The Black Lotus, a bite of free mana, is just one of these nine.

Condition is obviously a factor in resale value, but Wilson has at least 12 near-mint copies of every Mox artifact in Alpha, and he talks over them like nothing. Those are just the ones in a binder; he has loose, more damaged copies of even more Power Nine, including yet more Moxes. The video feels like a fever dream; I wouldn't have the patience to make proxies of all these. Wilson alone commands a non-trivial portion of the entire Alpha market.

"Alpha is special," he says of the formative Magic set. "Because this is the original history of the game. These are cards that dictated the future of what was gonna happen and set it in motion. If Alpha was bad, the rest of the game would never exist. But thankfully Alpha captured a generation of people and that's why we're still playing Magic to this day."

Gobsmacked Magic players also latched onto standouts like the sheets of Mishra's Workshop and Candelabra of Tawnos. Likewise, Wilson has 12 honest-to-god, white-border, Unlimited Ancestral Recalls. Don't worry, he says he "limited" himself to just a dozen because it would be "silly" to try and get 24 today. Signed Alpha cards dating back to the original artist run naturally round out the dizzying video.

"It just makes me feel so happy to go through sets like this and just appreciate the cool old stuff they printed – in my opinion, back when the game was even better than it is today," Wilson says. "Of course, that opinion's gonna vary."

Path of Exile co-creator tells developers "don't survey your players" because "'your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them'"

It's almost impressive that in 2021, 17 years after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out, new remasters of that, GTA 3, and Vice City proved to be perhaps the worst way to enjoy the landmark releases. Seriously, you'd be better off sourcing original hardware than playing Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition. Despite the complaints, most people who booted the collection up had a good time, according to one of the lead developers.

The company behind The Definitive Edition was Grove Street Games (though you wouldn't know that now because the company's logo was removed from the menus in 2024), and the studio's CEO, Thomas Williamson agrees with the criticisms, but notes there were plenty of fans nonetheless. "I agreed with most of the people's reactions. But unfortunately, I feel like we did not agree with how the game was released and the response to it from a development side," he tells wccftech. "And I think that would have changed the narrative significantly."

He then says that data on their side suggested fans weren't discouraged from roving around as Tommy Vercetti or CJ. "However, at the end of the day, looking at the behind-the-scenes metrics on those games, there were a lot of people who were playing them and really enjoying them," Williamson adds.

I'm a little cynical here. I can easily believe there were disagreements about releasing the games in such a state. Nobody is more aware of how buggy something is than a developer who's working on it all day, with a launch date looming over them and growing ever closer. Such is the reality for many people in the industry.

Williamson himself has gone on record about contentions with Rockstar over how fixes were handled, and Grove Street being taken off the title screens. "It's a dick move to remove primary developers from credits in an update, especially when an update includes hundreds of fixes that were provided by those developers that stayed out of players' hands for years," he said on Twitter in 2024.

That Grove Street Games was getting feedback that indicated most people simply weren't that pushed is a bit of a stretch. It took years for these releases to become generally playable and more stable, following patch after patch.

I have no doubt that a certain, perhaps more casual audience was just happy with the hit of nostalgia. But "a lot of people"? I'm not convinced.

Whatever the case, Williamson's made his peace with the whole thing, and believes if we want better, it'll need to come from Rockstar. "I don't think there'll ever be a perfect redux of those that's not done by Rockstar proper," he says. "If their Rockstar North team took it on and did some crazy thing, that would be awesome."

Maybe after GTA 6, then. So, in 2030-something. I'll dig out my PS2.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games has folks so angry that its announcement has even more views than Rockstar's GTA 6 trailer posts on Twitter

Blizzard made waves in the World of Warcraft community after deciding to remove combat mods alongside the release of new expansion Midnight, but director Ion Hazzikostas remains certain that it was the right decision.

Speaking in a new interview with PCGamesN, Hazzikostas first reiterates that raid mechanics were never developed "with the intent that add-ons would be used to solve them." It's an issue that Final Fantasy 14 players will understand well, too – although Blizzard only recently took action against combat plug-ins.

Players were meant to overcome World of Warcraft's greater challenges more organically, hence the removal of such add-ons.

Even though fans themselves have offered a bit of a mixed bag of reactions to the entire debacle, Hazzikostas believes the UI changes accompanying the add-ons' departure have largely been a good thing.

"I know this may be a controversial statement, but I will say that, overall, [the new UI] has been successful so far," he says. "It's not done, it's not perfect; there's more work to go, and we are continuing to undertake that work."

But, Hazzikostas assures us, "By and large, the vast majority of people are completing the same level of content that they were before, and far more are doing it without feeling like they need to seek out external tools."

Blizzard isn't done yet – the devs are "continuing to improve our base interface" while also making things a bit easier for add-on authors. It's about striking a middle ground, not just scrapping everything players used to know.

And, as Blizzard has said time and time again, "All of this has been in service of a more approachable experience and a more level playing field."

Reactions didn't make that easy, as the whole "killing add-ons" rhetoric "led to a very understandable, very negative reaction around that idea because add-ons have been a part of WoW for 20 years." But, they still are – just not in the same way they used to be.

It's nothing like Square Enix's third-party tool policy that those of us invested in Eorzea know very well – and it's evolving.

"While it's certainly been a transition with its challenges, we're excited to have this new baseline and foundation, and things will only continue to get better from here, both as we continue to add functionality to the base UI, and we continue to empower addon authors to add customization options," as Hazzikostas states.

Ultimately, Blizzard wants "to open up new doors and possibilities for players in raids, dungeons, delves, and everything in between" – and that's what Midnight's changes (and future tweaks, too) aim to do.

Blizzard continues taking action against World of Warcraft private servers as it pushes on with a lawsuit citing "large-scale, egregious, and ongoing infringement" of its MMO

Persona 4 Revival producer Kazuhisa Wada has revealed that Yosuke will be subject to changes to make him a "bit more fitting for the world we live in now."

Speaking to Anime Corner, Wada explains that the team hasn't made many changes "about the story," how characters think, "or how they act or anything" in Persona 4 Revival, but that the changes are "mostly with Yosuke."

He adds that Yosuke is "a little bit insensitive in terms of how he treats outsiders sometimes. So we wanted to lighten that up and make it a little bit more fitting for the world we live in now."

Persona 5 may be the biggest game in the series, but Persona 4 is that guy. Almost 20 years down the line and the game everyone used to complain was being oversaturated during the wait for Persona 5 is coming back, with 18 years of discourse backing it up. Some story elements of Persona 4 are a bit controversial to this day, so many have been curious as to how the remake would handle some of these elements.

One of the elements of Persona 4 that is perhaps aged in the eyes of many is pretty much everything to do with Yosuke. As a character, Yosuke embodies the "bro" archetype and – as someone who was a teen when Persona 4 came out – was a pretty accurate portrayal of your average edgy teenage boy in the era.

Yosuke is a very insecure character deep down, but it manifests with him being a bit of an asshole to his friends, playing on their insecurities, and by-extension being homophobic, misogynist, and just a bit of a creep. Most infamously, he asks Kanji – who was having doubts about his own sexuality – if he and the protagonist are going to be "safe alone" with him.

We've already seen that the game has removed a fan-favorite line that shows how awkward Yosuke could be (as well as a change to the pageant scene). Some are also wondering if the seemingly cut romance option with Yosuke will be restored in the upcoming remake, with some feeling that his homophobia and creepy lines could be symptomatic of a closeted person projecting their own insecurities. However, given the word that the team hasn't made major changes to the story, I have my doubts this will be included.

Persona 4 Golden Chie actor is "deeply grieving" being recast in Revival: "Thank you for sharing the journey with me."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Naval Convoys can be quite a serious challenge early on since you've got to fight multiple ships at once. But given how common these convoys are in Black Flag Resynced, and that they're a great opportunity for getting ship-based loot and plenty of Reales thanks to the Captain's Lockbox, knowing how best to tackle them is essential pirate knowledge. With that, I've explained exactly how these Naval Convoys work below, so that you can plunder the seas with ease.

How to complete Naval Convoys in Black Flag Resynced

To complete a Naval Convoy event in Black Flag, you need to board and successfully commandeer the lead ship in the convoy – that's the largest ship leading the way. The lead ship has at least two smaller escort ships which don't need to be destroyed, but as the tips further below explain, it's probably best to sink them.

To board and seize the lead ship, you need to damage the lead ship until it is immobilized, at which point you can sail the Jackdaw alongside and begin a boarding action by following the button prompt (hold Triangle/Y). Once you've swashbuckled your way on board, start reducing the morale of the enemy ship, by killing the enemy crew; cutting the flag, which can be done by climbing to the top of the main mast and following the button prompt; and destroying gunpowder stores on deck, though not every ship has these – just make sure you don't blow you and your crew up when you shoot these.

Once morale has been reduced entirely, the convoy crew will surrender and you'll be presented with the usual boarding action choices, as well as the Captain's Lockbox:

• Get Captain's Lockbox: This provides additional loot on top of your current earnings. From my experience, the additional rewards tend to be extra Reales and sometimes crew members. Unless you absolutely must choose a different option, you should always choose this to get greater rewards.
• Repair: Recover a portion of the Jackdaw's health.
• Send to Kenway's Fleet: If you have an empty fleet berth, you can add this ship to Kenway's Fleet, letting you send it on missions around the Caribbean to get you extra resources.
• Lower Wanted Level: Reduce your Wanted Level, lowering the risk of Pirate Hunters tracking down the Jackdaw.

Black Flag Resynced Naval Convoy tips

There's a good chance that you've been scuttled by one of these convoys in Black Flag Resynced as they're quite tough, especially early on, so here are some tips for making them as easy as possible:

• Upgrade the Jackdaw: The reason Naval Convoys are tough at first is because the Jackdaw is far too weak for fighting multiple ships at once, especially if the enemy ships are rated three stars or higher. Visit Harbourmasters often and buy whatever upgrades you can, especially the ones that improve broadside cannons, the mortar, and the hull to make the Jackdaw stronger in both offensive and defensive capacities. Any Black Flag Resynced Ultimate ship upgrades will help a lot
• Target the escort ships first: These smaller ships can be annoying if not dealt with first and will wear down the Jackdaw to the point of sinking while you're distract by the lead ship. Start the engagement with a well-placed mortar shot on one or both escorts and, with enough mortar upgrades, you might even destroy both ships, taking them out of the fight before it's even started.
• Board the escort ships: Again, it's not essential that you board these ships, but it's a good idea to do so, giving you opportunities to get more loot and either repair the Jackdaw or reduce your Wanted Level to keep Pirate Hunters from interrupting. I almost always opt for repairs to ensure the Jackdaw has as much health as possible when going to attack the lead ship. Bear in mind that shooting or ramming immobilized ships instead of boarding grants reduce rewards too.
• Use the swivel guns when preparing to board: Once Edward releases the ship's wheel as you prepare to board, run immediately to the swivel guns either side and start firing shots at any red barrels or enemy crew members. Assuming you land your shots, you'll reduce their morale a fair bit before you've even properly boarded.
• Cut down the flag if you don't want to fight: Cutting the flag at the top of the main mast is a great way to reduce enemy morale significantly without having to be in the thick of the fighting if that's not your thing. Just watch out for any snipers in the other masts as any shots that hit you mid-climb can cause you to fall off the mast.
• Remember to brace: Holding Square/X to get your crew to brace reduces the damage enemy cannonballs deal, so don't forget to use this ability rather than going purely on the offensive. If you've got the Black Flag Resynced Officer upgrade, Perfect Brace, timing your brace just before the cannonballs hit the Jackdaw's hull will substantially reduce the damage. Just keep an eye out for the orange glow of cannon fuses on enemy ships, meaning a volley is inbound.

You'll notice that these Naval Convoys become much easier as you get more upgrades and Officers for your crew, helping you get plenty more Reales and useful resources that you can sell. Some of these can traded with the Treasure Hunter in Great Inagua to piece together ruined Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A game like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is catnip for completionists. There's just so much to see and do, so you can sink into the RPG for hours upon hours. Now that the game's over a year old, the curators of a digital checklist for everything you can find have revealed the five most overlooked items.

The site Game Checklists has a complete rundown of all the equipment, loot, and rewards to be gotten in your quest to save Lumière. In case you're wondering, there are 1,161 items in total, and the site's team has gone through data from the over 4,000 players who use their resources to track what they picked up in the role-playing adventure. As an added measure, only people who've gotten as far as the Root of All Evil Expedition Flag are included.

This information has revealed that only 2.5% of those fans managed to get Gustave's Anniversary Haircut. However, there's a large caveat for that one, since these hair-dos only arrived in April 2026, and many people have since moved on to other games. The actual top bit of kit here is the Baguette Weapon, which 6% of users have.

First, you can only get it in New Game Plus, something many probably didn't bother with, and if they do, they're probably ill-equipped due to spending their Festival Tokens. See, you need to keep one for the entire run, then in this mode, you can exchange it for the baked blunt object.

The game doesn't provide this information, instead giving you sellers with whom to exchange your tokens normally. It's a secret driven largely by luck and or incidental ignorance.

The next two are rewards for beating Simon the Divergent Star and Clea Unleashed, in third and fourth, respectively; both sub-bosses that came in the Thank You Update. As such, there's the same asterisk by these as for the haircut, though less so, since the added challenge of these bouts will have attracted plenty of attention from experienced players who want more to do.

Fifth is a haircut for Maelle from the Thank You Update. You need to beat a puzzle for this one, and the cosmetic nature probably means many have glossed over it. As Game Checklists notes, there's really only one entry here that's completely meaningful, and that's the baguette, since it's the only thing everyone could access from the jump on Sandfall Interactive's release.

So, really, that's the rarest pickup you can get. A nice, freshly baked roll of bread. Honestly, that feels like the perfect in-joke for a French team. No wonder they were honored by the government of France.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director thinks devs will eventually "be able to churn out a game in 5 seconds with a prompt," but he hopes they're not any good

The Blood of Dawnwalker is the product of lives spent worshipping RPGs. Its developer, Rebel Wolves, was co-founded by a cohort of CD Projekt Red veterans – writers, artists and directors with credits including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. After spending four hours with The Blood of Dawnwalker, sucking blood and coming to grips with being a vampire in an open-world RPG, I caught up with game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and environment artist Adam Payet to learn more about the personal tastes driving their studio's debut.

Tomaszkiewicz, best known for directing The Witcher 3, found his way to the genre as a means of stepping out from the real world. "My father was a surgeon, but also an alcoholic. It was really hard in our childhood, and video games were my escape," he tells me. "I started from the Spectrum [computer] and I'd rewrite games from the magazines. Then I had an Atari and the NGPC games, and I also played pen and paper RPGs."

Meanwhile, Payet fell in love with the first Baldur's Gate and the rest was history. "In terms of [Tomaszkiewicz's]personal and family-related background, it's a very similar story to me, weirdly," he says. While Tomaszkiewicz channeled his passion for RPGs into CD Projekt Red over the years, moving from The Witcher trilogy's story and game design to lead quest designer and ultimately game director, Payet was inspired by Minecraft to broach game development during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I was taken by the fact there was a world I could shape as well as explore," he recalls. "At one point I got frustrated that it's all cubes, so I started learning software to make my own things."

Salem's Gate

Although I spent four hours playing The Blood of Dawnwalker, it took a fraction of that time to lose myself in its setting. It's something I discuss in my hands-on preview, but the speed at which Rebel Wolves makes you care about its 14th century world is remarkable. So much has happened here before Coen's story begins – war and the Black Plague have left their mark on Vale Sangora, their effects visible in dilapidated villages and looming stone watchtowers. Some of the threads I pull at during exploration, from folktales mentioned in passing to wall paintings in an ancient tomb, hint at lore stretching back hundreds of years.

Main antagonist Brencis has been sucking blood since the Roman Empire's rule, and as freshly-turned progeny Coen fights his sire's rule in Vale Sangora, the ancient vampire and his court can retaliate by issuing edicts and wielding their influence against him across the open-world. In tandem with The Blood of Dawnwalker's time-as-a-currency mechanic, in which quests and side activities nudge the clock hands forward, the world feels truly dynamic – I'm desperate to run amok, but equally feel like I've just started a good book.

Having played my fair share of slow-burn RPGs, I don't take The Blood of Dawnwalker's immediate magnetism for granted. Pressed on how it's achieved, Tomaszkiewicz points to the team's "years of experience" working with "the best in the industry" – which, he adds, includes Rebel Wolves in its current iteration. "We put our heart and soul into [our] games," says Tomaszkiewicz. "We fight a lot while we're doing it, and there's a lot of complaining about the stuff we don't like, so we try to make it better and better. This way, with a lot of iteration, we are where we are."

Joining The Blood of Dawnwalker's development at a later date, Payet's introduction to Vale Sangora mirrors my literary impressions more directly. In his first week at Rebel Wolves, he was asked to read the game's hefty "lore bible" and told that the game's world "is huge not necessarily in terms of physicality, but in terms of lore."

"All of that has been painstakingly researched and written so that what you see in the game is just the tip of the iceberg," he adds. "But the iceberg does exist, and that lends credibility. It makes it so much easier to build a world when you know its history."

What's in a name?

The RPG genre has worn many hats over the years. Tabletop RPGs hitch their wagons to raw imagination and remain timeless for it, and while video games initially sought to replicate that as authentically as possible – often with mechanically dense isometric titles and some of the best tactical RPGs to date – years of lighter third-person adventures and action RPGs have broadened their horizons further. Even now, we see the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Baldur's Gate 3 find mainstream success by building upon the genre's earliest philosophies and mechanics.

With the term 'RPG' now standing for so much, I ask the pair whether they feel a core identity remains or if player taste has fragmented too much for an umbrella term.

Payet brings up a recent conversation within Rebel Wolves. "We miss when genre wasn't a thing, back in the '90s or early 2000s. When you bought a game pre-YouTube, pre-[online] games media, all you had was the title and a blurb of text on the back. Three screenshots, and you didn't know anything until you opened the booklet!"

"It wasn't like 'Oh, that's an RPG', or 'that's a roguelike', or Metroidvania, or whatever," he adds. "It was just: it's a game – go do the thing! Not being constrained by a label of this or that genre made it so people went out with crazy ideas."

"For me, the core will always be the same," says Tomaszkiewicz. "The clue is [in the name] – to get into the role."

The director likens shifting norms and features to "branches" of the genre, and in doing so, speaks to the ambition that marks The Blood of Dawnwalker as one to watch. "I hope that we created our own [RPG] branch," he says. "With this narrative sandbox, this particular combat, and day and night creating other ways to experience the game, this is the branch we want to develop. We want to have our own identity."

One more bite?

One Destiny 2 player, an apparent game developer, has made their own raid to throw one last tomato at former Bungie CEO Pete Parsons, who departed the struggling company amid controversy over the small fortune he'd seemingly recently spent on exotic cars.

Satire Twitter account Pete Carsons, whose operator is currently unclear, proudly revealed "The Vault of Cars" this week – a fully playable, in-browser Destiny raid which parodies the Vault of Glass and features Parsons, reborn as a Taniks-like machine hybrid with a South Park-style bucket mouth, as the final boss.

Spite absolutely drips off of this joke raid. A simulated orbit popup asks, "Do you have what it takes to face Pete Carsons in the Vault of Cars and stop him from purchasing all of the remaining cars in The Last City?"

A Twitter post adds: "Note: This experience is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bungie. It is satire only." You know, in case you weren't sure.

Once you log in to "The Final Car," you're thrown into a conversation with "Pete Carsons, Destroyer of Guardians" in a blurry Vault of Glass. Like every freaking Destiny boss, "Pete Carsons" throws up an invincible shield and starts chucking MacGuffins at you – in this case, a procession of cars with labels like "team reduction, crunch enforcer, layoff candidate, micro management, bad taste," and more.

This is a multilayered fight and a fairly impressive lo-fi recreation of the Vault of Glass final boss, Atheon. If you survive the cars – obviously, by throwing tomatoes at them – you'll be whisked to another realm beset by blinking oracles. If you fail the mechanics, you'll see a wipe screen which confirms that the Guardian in this scenario is named "The Entire Playerbase."

Clearing the raid seems to pull up a "We Want Destiny 3" page, which links to the petition calling for a sequel. The parody's creator, "a random developer," writes, "Building video games is hard. It is very hard.

"This industry is neither forgiving nor secure, and yet – we build these worlds because we know millions of people will be invited to experienced the combined efforts of tens of millions of hours it takes to build those worlds."

This sentiment hits hard as the games industry bloodbath continues amidst, most recently, thousands of layoffs and multiple studio divestments at Xbox.

Skewering "very bad and sometimes obvious decisions" made at the expense of game devs, the creator of Pete Carsons continues: "For me, Destiny was special, and although I never got to work on it, a lot of my friends did, friends who can no longer continue to build their world. This is the devastating reality of those bad decisions. The conditions that presented themselves to make Destiny a reality might not be conditions we see for a very, very long time again, if ever."

This parody comes as Bungie reels from massive layoffs, struggles to even hotfix Destiny 2 now that it's in permanent maintenance mode, and watches Marathon lose players. In May, as players prayed for a Destiny 3, a former Destiny 2 writer said, "It turns out the real Destiny killer was Pete Parsons."

Destiny 2 community manager calls out "leaders who made multiple years of poor decisions" as former Bungie VP shares post blaming industry implosion on the market.

Xbox is in the midst of an aggressive recalibration. CEO Asha Sharma is pursuing a "reset" of the content portfolio. Compulsion Games and Double Fine have regained their independence, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs have been sold; thousands of jobs have been cut across Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox Game Studios. We're still getting a grasp on how severely individual studios are impacted, although some appear significant.

Reportedly, id Software has lost 50% of its staff. It's a shocking development, leaving a pioneering developer – the stewards of the id Tech engine, and creators of Doom and Quake – with drastically lowered capacity. Bethesda Game Studios, id, MachineGames, and ZeniMax Online have apparently been given a mandate to refocus on Bethesda's "strongest franchises", but it's difficult to know where id goes from here.

Doom, Eternal, and The Dark Ages performed admirably, but didn't necessarily rip and tear the market to shreds. Quake Champions launched out of early access in 2022 but failed to gain momentum – arena shooters remain a challenge in an environment dominated by battle royale, extraction, and hero shooters. It's been over seven years since Rage 2.

Common sense would dictate that id shifts to support MachineGames – long rumored to be developing a sequel to 2017's Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus. This would make sense: MachineGames has collaborated with other Bethesda studios around Wolfenstein in the past, having launched Cyberpilot and Youngblood with Arkane Lyon in 2019.

There's also external pressure to consider. A live action Wolfenstein television series is in development at Amazon MGM Studios, and given that Asha Sharma recently outlined a trans-media vision for the future of Xbox, it's unlikely that she will want to repeat the mistake made with Fallout: two hugely successful seasons of the show landing without a new Fallout game to meet raised interest.

Speaking of Fallout, id Software could help Xbox pursue its ambition of getting players back into the wasteland a little faster. Given the palpable appetite within the Xbox community for Obsidian to deliver New Vegas 2, I'd rather see id's expertise placed elsewhere. The studio is world renown for making the best feeling shotguns in video games – that would be wasted on V.A.T.S.

Xbox owns arguably the greatest catalogue of shooter franchises in the video game industry. Brink, Call of Duty, Doom, Gears of War, Halo, Overwatch, Perfect Dark, Prey, Quake, Rage, Singularity, Soldier of Fortune, StarCraft, and Wolfenstein to name but a few. If Xbox is serious about wanting to deliver more of its biggest franchises faster, it could do far worse than transition id to Gears or Halo.

Halo 3: ODST proved that Halo can thrive under tonal shifts; perhaps a faster, more furious id instalment would work wonders as Halo Studios gets its arms around the future of the mainline series. But really, id and Gears are a match made in heaven. The series could do far worse than an FPS experiment.

The gritty setting is perfect territory for a grounded, viscerally violent FPS. Don't just take my word for it, Cliff Bleszinski (designer of the original trilogy) toyed with taking Gears in this direction before Epic sold the IP to Microsoft. "I can tell you I wanted to actually consider going first-person with it," he told XboxEra. "I mean, can you imagine chainsawing a Locust in first person?"

I can imagine it, Cliff, and I want to play it. And there's no studio more equipped to make it a reality than id Software. Whether it will be given the opportunity under this new era of Xbox remains to be seen.

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Before taking on the role of level designer at Valve, game developer Chuck Wilson toyed with recreating Half-Life 2 levels in Source 2.

In case you're out of the loop, Source 2 is Valve's most recent iteration of its in-house engine, powering games like Counter-Strike 2, Deadlock, and Half-Life: Alyx. Older titles from the studio, like the ever-beloved Half-Life 2, used Source – and before that, the GoldSrc engine.

As for Wilson himself, his portfolio includes stints at Sucker Punch Productions, Respawn Entertainment, and now, of course, Valve.

Prior to joining Valve as a level designer in 2022, however, Wilson experimented with Source 2 – perhaps to try and learn the engine before joining the company, or as a test project for the team.

An eagle-eyed fan on Reddit has spotted as much, linking to the dev's website, where he recalls recreating Half-Life 2's spooky ghost town, Ravenholm, in Source 2. Wilson first describes his goal with the recreation.

Chuck Wilson’s (Valve Level Designer) Ravenholm Source 2 project [2022] from r/HalfLife

​"Learn how the editor works by looking over the example content Valve provided, and dive into the levels they shipped to better understand their construction," he writes. "Then build something with what I learned."

Attached are screenshots of his Ravenholm recreation – and, yep, it looks pretty dang great. Much smoother textures than we saw as kids, with improved lighting… but the same eerie vibe from 2004.

Wilson explains why he chose Ravenholm, then goes on to describe his process. "The opening to Ravenholm seemed like it would be an appropriately scaled project to tackle. I started by loading up Ravenholm and taking tons of pictures of the opening area and reacquainting myself with the look, feel, and scale of the space. From the ref, I was able to deduce the scale and re-block it out with Hammer 2's modeling tools."

He's likely referencing Hammer, known by some as Hammer 5 or Hammer 2, which serves as Valve's in-house level editor for games in the Source 2 engine.

"After I got the whole space blocked in, I decided to make some compositional changes to the space to better guide players to the zombie and to the eerily lit sawblade shack," continues Wilson.

Once he was done with the composition, he explored "some of the new features Hammer 2 had to offer." It sounds as though he was a big fan of his time in Source 2 recreating Ravenholm, too – even if there was much to learn.

"Throughout the project, I was able to learn and make use of Hammer 2's modeling tools for geometry, physics sims for cloth, cables, and the hanging zombie ragdoll, tilesets (3d meshes placed off of a single face), hotspot materials (insanely fast UVing of faces), volumetric fog, cubemaps, compile processes, and more."

The level designer concludes: "A small space proved to be a fantastic way to learn a wide variety of tools and prepare me for future projects. I walked away being blown away at how powerful these tools are for Level Designers, and even more so if you are a Level Designer with some environment art background. These are easily my favorite tools I have worked with to date." That's quite the compliment.

Unsurprisingly, Wilson's portfolio share here has sparked new hope in fans' hearts for a Half-Life 2 remake in Source 2. As one commenter exclaims, "This genuinely makes me excited for a Half-Life 2 Source 2 remake in vein of Black Mesa."

Others aren't convinced this means anything at all, though. As somebody else says, "There’s nothing to be read into here." Hey, a girl can dream… right?

Sadly, I doubt we'll see a Half-Life 2 remake from Valve anytime soon, however. Heck, we're still playing the waiting game for Half-Life 3.

Steam is more than 50% larger than PlayStation according to expert's estimate, which puts Valve's store around 200 million monthly active users

A bloodied Ada Wong screams as a meat hook pierces her shoulder – for the third time this match – and she’s pulled skyward. The Entity, Dead By Daylight's villain above villains, draws her into its claws before she wakes by the bonfire again, ready to start the process over.

In the real world, as the one controlling Ada, I push my chair away from my desk and put my head in my hands, despairing at yet another team letting me down, another killer tunneling me out, my own poor judgement. I stand up to walk out the room – but not before hitting the button to ready up and start the process over.

Little do I know that, not only is Ada’s tragic and repetitive death feeding The Entity, but so am I.

Mixed Emotions

We don’t know much about Dead by Daylight’s mysterious Entity, the ultimate evil presiding over the whole affair, drawing killers and their victims into a sick, cyclical game. In a blog post for the game’s tenth anniversary, though, developer Behaviour Interactive gave fans a bit more insight. It turns out that what feeds The Entity in DBD isn’t death itself, or the dead, but rather the emotions felt by each character, both killer and survivor, during a match.

“Consider the various emotions each victim must experience over the course of a Trial,” the blog reads, “The thrill of the hunt. The highs of escape. A fleeting hope like a surge of electricity. The sick satisfaction whenever the light leaves a Survivor’s eyes. It’s speculated that everything [characters] feel over the course of a Trial somehow sustains The Entity.”

Reading this, it occurs to me that this mirror’s the player’s experience, too.

Whether it’s loading into a killer lobby with a tightness in my chest, anxious about going up against a good team or being abused in the post-game chat, or the buzz of getting a four-man escape from a seemingly impossible situation, the DBD player experience is as much of a rollercoaster of emotions as that of the in-game characters. In fact, playing Dead by Daylight is almost exclusively about highs and lows.

As a solo-queue survivor, these feelings are especially elevated. While it feels good as a killer to outplay a sweaty swf (survive with friends) team, it’s even sweeter when a solo-queue survivor squad beats the odds to get every man out. Especially since there are no comms. When wordless communication, excellent game sense, and solid understanding of the HUD come together to result in a narrow escape from a decent killer, the fleeting high is enough to see me through the devastating lows of the other 90% of the trials. The ones when I’m hooked for the first time and see my three team mates creeping around the edge of the map or hiding in a locker, making no effort to rescue me. The ones where I’m intentionally tunneled out at five gens or slugged until I bleed to death.

Meanwhile, when I’m playing as a killer and can feel my heart in my stomach for the entire trial, it’s worth it for those few occasions that I win or even draw. Even then, I just get a “ggwp” in the post-game chat instead of a “ggez”. So every time I’m teabagged at the exit gates, I still ready up again, masochistically putting myself through the ringer once more in the hopes of a close, fun, but wholesome and friendly match.

In doing so, I'm feeding The Entity as much as Ada and the others. By coming back time and time again, struggling and succeeding, lamenting and celebrating, I keep this deadly power alive. Perhaps this was The Entity’s plan all along.

If you're logging back into the action, make sure you've redeemed the latest DBD codes for free rewards.

The price of Palworld will stay at $29.99 even after the apparently massive 1.0 update finally brings Pocketpair's survival game out of early access after more than two years.

Pocketpair announced this slight change of plans today, ahead of the 1.0 launch on Friday, July 10. "After much thought, we have decided not to raise the price of Palworld following the 1.0 release and will keep it at $29.99," the studio begins.

"We are incredibly proud of how far Palworld has come. Thanks to the amazing support of our players, it has become a success beyond our wildest dreams. As a small way of saying thank you, we'll be keeping the price at $29.99. Thank you for your continued support."

For years, Palworld's Steam early access blurb has said, "The price of the game may increase at or closer to the official release." It's long been expected that it would jump to, say, $39.99 for update 1.0.

It's normal for early access games to go up in price when they hit version 1.0 and 'officially' launch, or sometimes even after major update milestones mid-early access. Developers have made a fair case for this approach in the past: price reflecting additional content, rewarding early players for supporting development and tolerating some jank, and setting games up for a more sustainable future.

For example, Subnautica 2, one of the biggest early access success stories of 2026, will increase in price after early access, per developer Unknown Worlds.

Palworld, of course, doesn't have to worry about its future. With a staggering 40 million players (not copies sold, but immense nonetheless), the game has made Pocketpair so much money that it can hardly spend it all. The company has opened its own publishing arm and announced multiple Palworld spinoffs, including a card game.

Earlier this year, Thomas Mahler, head of early access action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, made the case for bumping its price to $60 post-early access. "The reason the game launched at $40 was simple: Early Access players should get a discount," he said, adding that he "never loved" the approach of early access games like Baldur's Gate 3, which were full price from the get-go.

Palworld lead says there's no "bad blood" between rival survival games like Valheim and Rust: "We all get along really well because we all have something in common!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The new Doom: The Dark Ages DLC is being received well on Steam as it releases on the same week Microsoft reportedly laid off around half of the staff at developer id Software.

Doom: The Dark Ages wasn't the most well received game in the series, as its pivot to a slower, more deliberate style of gameplay put off some players that were accustomed to how fast Doom Eternal was (myself included). id Software clearly took this on board as the first look at Doom: The Dark Ages' first big expansion, Revelations (nothing to do with the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 game), seems to speed things right up, with a far more aggressive style.

Over on Steam, the DLC currently sits at a "Very Positive" rating, with one dubbing it "What base game should've been from the start." Another review says: "It's like Dark Ages and Eternal had a child. This doesn't even feel like a dlc this feels like a full on sequel."

Unfortunately, this DLC's release date has come at the worst time, as id Software has been hit hard by Xbox's seemingly endless spree of layoffs – the fifth since Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard – with roughly half of the legendary studio reportedly laid off.

Naturally, a lot of the reviews for the DLC are acknowledging the layoffs, with the current top review saying: "Sending my love and support for ID software after this release, and having half their studio laid off. Nobody deserved this." Meanwhile, the second highest says: "Cherish this DLC with every second you spend playing it. It may very well be the last piece of good DOOM content that we ever get. I see no purpose in review bombing it. It will not change Microsoft's mind." Review bombing the DLC, they add, would not give any laid off staff "their jobs back."

Doom developer id Software "is essentially dead," Duke Nukem 3D co-creator says after layoffs reportedly cut almost half of the studio.

The Acer Nitro 18 AI combines big-screen play with small-pocket prices, stepping away from leading Intel gaming processors and halving RAM compared to other RTX 5070 Ti systems, while undercutting most of the market in its launch RRP. That's an interesting proposition, especially when PC gaming prices are rapidly soaring to unobtainable levels.

With the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and 16GB RAM at the helm, the Nitro 18 AI isn't going to beat some of the best gaming laptops for those with a larger wad of cash to spend. However, for a sub-£2,000 rig with a sturdy display, relatively slimline form factor, and decent performance scores, it could well be a tasty pickup in 2026.

Acer Nitro 18 AI configurations

There are a limited number of Acer Nitro 18 AI configurations on the market, with the machine topping out at an RTX 5070 Ti. All of them use AMD's Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, paired up with a QHD+ display running at 165Hz, and the vast majority of the models you see will sport an RTX 5070 Ti GPU like my test device. RTX 5060 and RTX 5070 options are available, but they're far less widespread on the shelves. There are, however, more 32GB RAM options available via retailers and Acer's own store.

That AMD processor holds the Nitro back when compared with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX usually applied to an 18-inch upper mid-range machine, and the 16GB RAM is half that I would usually expect to see from a similar spec.

The 16GB RAM / RTX 5070 Ti model I've been looking at comes in at £1,749.99, a solid price for an upper mid-range graphics card in a chunkier 18-inch form factor. This is among the cheaper options for this card, though returns do diminish when you look at £1,659.99 RTX 5060 options. If you're interested in this machine, the spec I'm testing seems to offer the best value for money from a pure cost perspective.

Acer Nitro 18 AI performance

The Acer Nitro 18 AI has a pretty spotty performance record. While some figures seem decent for an RTX 5070 Ti machine with 16GB RAM behind it, others look a little off-mark. After running my initial round of tests, though, the machine was fully reset, updated, and all settings triple checked to match previous rigs. The next round produced the same results.

Overall, we're below what I'd expect to see from an RTX 5070 Ti machine with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor at the helm. Its main competition in this testing pool is its sibling; the RTX 5070 Ti Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI - admittedly one with a boosted Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and 32GB RAM.

These drawbacks, then, don't necessarily come from any thermal issues or even a problem with the 12GB RTX 5070 Ti itself. In Fire Strike's more CPU/RAM-testing benchmark, the weaker AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 snags that final score in the physics test. The graphics portion of the run looks decent, averaging at around 38,571, while the physics score averages at 15,814.

As Steel Nomad demonstrates, there's nothing going awry with the overall power of the RTX 5070 Ti here. Had there been space in the Nitro 18's budget for a CPU with a higher core and thread-count, these synthetic benchmarks could be a lot closer.

In-game, the Acer Nitro 18 AI struggles to keep up with the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI in lighter runs like Shadow of the Tomb Raider at FHD resolution, with more dense strategy action from Total War: Three Kingdoms also proving troublesome compared to other RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 systems. Taken in isolation, though, there's little to complain about. I was still well above 60fps in both High and Highest settings at 1080p, only faltering on that margin in Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered.

Interestingly, the Acer Nitro 18 AI seems to pull ahead of some of its competitors with the resolution cranked up to its full native 1600p. Here it overtakes the Asus ROG Strix G16 in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, middles the pack in Total War: Three Kingdoms, and takes a steady lead in Cyberpunk 2077. Strangely, we fall off that podium in Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered, though, with the system struggling to hold its 60fps in High settings.

What I loved about the Acer Nitro 18 AI

A rare slimline design

18-inch gaming laptops come with a trade-off. You're sacrificing that portability that has defined the form factor for so long, while typically picking up a more immersive display, a wider array of ports, and a chunkier cooling system. The Acer Nitro 18 AI feels like it's meeting us half way.

Not that this is a magically backpackable gaming laptop - it's still a heavy, wide machine that's going to hurt your shoulders no matter how sturdy your bag is. However, it is noticeably slimmer than most of the market (most because that Razer Blade 18 is always lurking). Heavy-duty rigs like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 and MSI Raider A18 HX sit fat on a desk top, while this skinnier form factor perches neatly.

The simple aesthetic well-worn by this cheaper, no-nonsense Nitro line certainly helps as well. The tapered lips and clean lines are complimented by an all-black chassis, a simple glossy 'N' logo on the rear panel, and a much thinner wedge shape than I typically see from machines of this size. All that allows the vibrant RGB lighting under the keyboard to shine ever brighter. If you're after a desktop rig that won't scream its gaming intentions at you every time you look at it, this is a worthwhile offering.

Not OLED but still a solid display

You'll find far more sophisticated gaming laptop panels much further up the price scale, but for its relatively modest price tag the Acer Nitro 18 AI still sports a bright, bold, crisp display. The IPS pulls off a surprising level of vibrancy in its colors, offering a far better experience than previous Alienware gaming laptops.

You're not getting the high-contrast impact of an OLED or Mini LED here, but there's still plenty of energy in its colors, sharpness, and power.

Comfortable, snappy keyboard

The numpad-toting keyboard is one of the shining stars here, which is rare for a machine that typically de-prioritizes its chassis quality. Full-sized keys (including that number pad) and bold lighting cover a particularly satisfying tactile experience.

Yes, there's a little more flex in the main deck area than you'll typically see in a more expensive machine, but key action is crisp and snappy, with an energetic bounce and plenty of travel on the way down. It makes for a notably pleasing typing and gaming experience, never fatiguing over longer days either.

What to consider about the Acer Nitro 18 AI

There are higher performing RTX 5070 Ti rigs out there

While they will often, admittedly, come in higher than the Acer Nitro 18 AI's cost at RRP, there are RTX 5070 Ti machines out there that will give you better bang-for-buck performance. The Nitro isn't lacking - you'll still be smooth at 60fps in most games with a few graphical tweaks, but others can net you higher framerates in more competitive titles and hold their own across a wider range of more demanding games.

If you're not tied to this lower-end budget, it's worth exploring Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX options, or those with additional RAM budget.

USB-A ports mounted to the right

Like many 18-inch gaming laptops, the Acer Nitro 18 AI mounts a good deal of its ports on its rear. Excellent, big tick in my book - it's so much tidier for a machine that's likely going to be spending most of its life on a desk top. These rear ports are reserved for more permanent setup connections; power and HDMI, with both USB-C options mounted here as well.

Unfortunately, though, the USB-As are located on the sides, specifically two are to be found on the right side of the chassis. It's a small frustration, but one that will likely get in the way of right-handed use of the machine. Knocking a mouse hand against a cable or dongle every time action calls for a wider pan can get old (and cramped) pretty fast.

Trackpad feels much cheaper than the rest

While the keyboard certainly impressed with its quality, the trackpad feels a little less polished. There's a hollow spacey feel that never quite gets to 'mushy' status but certainly doesn't feel as sophisticated as the rest of your inputs.

Should you buy the Acer Nitro 18 AI?

At full price, you're going to struggle to find an 18-inch RTX 5070 Ti gaming laptop under £2,000 these days, so the ball is in Acer's corner from a raw price perspective. The machine does enough with that GPU to hold its own in the performance arena, even if it's lagging behind other more expensive options further up the price scale. You're still going to be running your games smoothly and without hiccup.

Its screen, keyboard, and overall physical design also work hard in its favor as well. Despite its lower price, this is a system that still manages to delight in the hands and before the eyes. Build quality holds up with very little flexing and wobble, aesthetics remain measured but still flashy in that configurable lighting, and the overall profile has a nicely slimline appeal to it. Trackpad and port placement aside, the machine itself stands tall.

The problem is discounts. While cheaper gaming laptop deals are definitely getting harder to come by, there will be times when machines far better prepared for more demanding titles will be skirting around this RRP. While I can recommend the Acer Nitro 18 AI to those after a big-screen experience on a budget, I'd also urge you to look closely at sale prices on the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI and Asus ROG Strix G16 when you're about to head to checkout. If they're matching (or within £100 of) the Nitro's price tag, they will likely boost you to higher framerate opportunities.

How I tested the Acer Nitro 18 AI

I used the Acer Nitro 18 AI as my main work and play device for a period of two weeks, while also running additional benchmark reps alongside separate devices.

I primarily tested the rig across Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Cyberpunk 2077, and Horizon Zero Dawn: Remastered, testing at both 1080p and 1600p in each game's High and Highest settings (RT: Med and RT: Ultra for Cyberpunk).

I then used 3D Mark to test against Steel Nomad, Time Spy, and Fire Strike synthetic benchmarks. Each test was run in the system's highest power setting (Turbo) with benchmarks carried out three times each, averaging each for final results. For more information on how we test gaming laptops, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the best Asus gaming laptops and the best Razer laptops for more slimline options. Or, check out the best gaming handhelds for premium portable play.

You may or may not be aware that we got a new Final Fantasy 7 spin-off a few years ago. Yes, in addition to Rebirth and Remake. It's called Ever Crisis, and it's a gacha game retelling the whole franchise from the ground up, and if you haven't looked into it yet, you only have a limited window since it's now being shut down.

Square Enix has announced that Ever Crisis will cease operations on October 6, 2026, implying that maintaining the game has become untenable for one reason or another. "Since the launch of the App Store and Google Play versions on September 7, 2023, and the Steam version on December 6, 2023, we have worked to provide the best possible experience for our players," a statement from the company reads.

"After careful consideration, however, we have determined that it will be difficult to continue doing so and have made the decision to end service," the post finishes. We don't have hard data across all platforms, but on Steam, Ever Crisis peaked at 4,756 concurrent players, and now averages around 500, according to SteamCharts.

Unless the mobile playerbase was remarkably different, that's low by any standards, never mind for something tied to one of the most beloved games of all time. Red Crystals, the in-game currency, are now already off sale, but you're free to use any you already have until October 6. Story events will remain until the whole thing goes dark as well, giving players a few months to experience anything they haven't already.

Besides retelling the compilation of Final Fantasy 7, there is some original material in the narrative. Sephiroth's backstory gets more fleshed out, thanks to a plotline set 15 years before the original JRPG.

This is frustratingly common practice for Square Enix – see the nebulous lore of Kingdom Hearts – and it's irritating no method of preservation has been forthcoming. The publisher commented recently that it will look at ways of keeping releases 'enjoyable' on a case-by-case basis, which may mean the best we get are official uploads of the cutscenes on YouTube.

In an added wrinkle of irony, a redo of Final Fantasy 7: Before Crisis kicked off in the latest update. Before Crisis is another mobile game, from 2004, which never released outside Japan before it was discontinued in 2018. It focused on the Turks, and it looks like it'll become lost media for the second time. Reno, Rude and the boys just can't catch a break!

You have until October to enjoy this slice of Final Fantasy 7. Then, we go back to waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation "payoff" will leave you "sobbing," Cloud actor guarantees, even "if you haven't cried in the first two yet."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced's Metacritic score makes it the fourth-highest-rated game in the Ubisoft series, but it hasn't outdone the original.

Over on Metacritic, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced currently sits at a score of 84 on PS5, based on 71 critic reviews. This score puts it in a comfy spot among the top 5 games in the series, ahead of Assassin's Creed 3's 84 and behind the beloved Assassin's Creed 2, Brotherhood, and original Black Flag, which have scores of 90, 89, and 88, respectively.

In the GamesRadar+ Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent gives the game three-and-a-half stars out of five and says, "Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't smooth sailing. Strong pirate adventure foundations and roguish charm keep this remake afloat, but it splashes between wanting to be faithful and wanting to make adjustments, not quite able to find an elegant middle ground between the two. Combined with bugs and other annoyances, this isn't the bold, confident swing its predecessor was, but still a fun outing."

Reviews for the game are mostly around the eight and nine area, with a couple of full marks from Dexerto and Loot Level Chill, while the game's lowest scores are still only categorized as "Mixed" by Metacritic, with a few six or seven out of 10 scores sprinkled among the rest. From the sounds of things, if you already enjoyed Black Flag or Assassin's Creed in general, you probably won't be let down by the remake of the series' best entry.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has "modernized the combat" of the original but is more "action-oriented" than Shadows

From the outside looking in, it would appear that Undead Labs is a victim of mismanagement. The team was acquired by Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just weeks after the release of State of Decay 2. A sequel is set to land in 2027 after navigating a turbulent trajectory – revealed before it was ready for public consumption, development stalling during pre-production, challenges in shifting to Unreal Engine 5. The survival shooter finally opened its doors to public alpha testing earlier this spring.

Undead Labs didn't contribute any new games to the ecosystem in eight years. That's an irrefutable fact, which may speak to why Xbox just sold the studio as part of an internal reset. Although that doesn't mean the team hasn't been busy.

State of Decay 2 was a quiet success – amassing 10+ million lifetime players by its fourth anniversary. Undead supported this community with an expansion, multiple updates, new features, and years of refinements. Given how starved PS5 is for new co-op titles, it's shocking SoD2 wasn't part of the first wave of Xbox games to abandon platform-exclusivity. Another error from the prior Xbox administration.

Xbox has historically done a poor job of drawing attention to collaborations across XGS. The Coalition is an Unreal Engine 5 center of excellence. Other teams have made use of Ninja Theory's high-end motion capture studio. Rare provided the networking know-how for Double Fine's Kiln. Blizzard lent its cinematics expertise to Playground for Fable. Obsidian's proprietary dialogue editor is used by various in-development RPGs at Xbox. There's countless other examples.

Just like State of Decay helping bring Grounded to life. Operating with a small budget, Obsidian sought a novel way to achieve its co-op ambitions. And so it turned to Undead Labs, who had developed a system to store world-data as a shareable save file in the cloud. It's what allows multiple players to independently drop into the same persistent world without requiring a community's host to be online.

"It's almost like a pseudo-dedicated server space," Marcus Morgan, Obsidian's VP of operations, told me last year. "It's effectively just a shared cloud save, but you don't need any of the dedicated server infrastructure – or the cost that goes with it."

"The intention behind that was, because we were a small team (there were only like 20 people working on it, and the cost of making it was relatively small) this was a good way to satisfy player's needs," he says, adding: "That stemmed from a collaboration between us and Undead Labs. I have to give a big shout out to that team. They built this tech initially, and then we built upon it."

This 'Shared Save' technology helped Obsidian scale quickly to build more vibrant and collaborative backyards. Eventually, Undead received an expanded 'Shared World' system in return – allowing State of Decay 3 to support far larger communities, no longer constrained by the co-op tethers that plagued its predecessor. It'll be interesting to see whether the tech evolves again in the future.

Still, it's an interesting example of the sort of value that Undead Labs brought to Xbox, and the way the XGS group has been able to leverage wider expertise to bring concepts to life. Eight years without releasing a new game clearly isn't enough for this next era of Xbox, but the legacy of Undead Labs and State of Decay will live on through Grounded 2's ever-expanding Brookhollow Park forever.

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Subnautica 2's developers have detailed the Early Access 1.1 update, and while you still can't kill the fish, you'll be able to have a scrap with them.

Outside of that big old legal drama, the biggest drama out of Subnautica 2 since its launch has been the fish-killing saga. The game is filled with terrifying underwater beasts, so naturally, some players really want to start blasting.

These requests inspired a response from the devs, with one saying, "We aren't a killing game. Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill." This comment naturally inspired a bit of ire from the community, but some were a little more proactive, with one of the first mods for the game being a mod that lets you kill the fish.

And while "creature mitigation" was promised, the devs stuck by their no-killing rule, and thanks to the Subnautica 2 Update Vlog for Early Access 1.1 (titled Adaptive Measures), we now know what that entails.

First off, the devs have "done some work around creature flinches," Subnautica 2 Creative Director Anthony Gallegos explains, "so if you smack them with the Survival Multi-Tool, you'll get that reaction out of them before they flee to really let you see and understand the impact you're having on them."

And while you won't be getting a proper gun, the Sonic Resonator is now a stun gun. As Gallegos explains, "we've done some work on the Sonic Resonator, where a bunch of the creatures now have stun states, so when you hit them with the Sonic Resonator, you'll see them clearly communicate that they've become stunned." He adds, "That's all in an effort to make you feel like you're having the mitigation of creatures that we want you to feel, which has also been a major part of your feedback."

I'm simultaneously happy to see the devs take what is the biggest piece of feedback on board, while also sticking to their own vision. Compromises like this will hopefully get Subnautica 2 to a place where it'll stand alongside the legendary first entry.

Subnautica 2's first major update "brings back one of the most requested player experiences" and will be "the scariest the game has been yet".

I'm not shy about the fact that I have maybe some of the most bizarre gaming mice preferences you'll come across. Where a lot of FPS gamers will opt for a very slimline, lightweight mouse that's obsessed with gliding across their desk like it were ice skating, I'm not a fan. Instead of the claw grip most people are using, I've always preferred a palm grip, so I ever so slightly detest mice that don't have a dedicated groove for my pinky and ring finger.

To make matters more complicated, I've also been obsessed with an MMO mouse for the last year and a half now. With 12 programmable keys on its thumb side, I have ultimate utility for mapping in-game actions to the buttons I feel are appropriate, and I'm not sure I could go without them now.

All of these things mean that as a gamer and a consumer, I do not feel even close to catered to in the current market. This is because, as my colleague and GR+'s resident mouse expert pointed out recently, the best gaming mice have an Esports problem. As Esports has become more prevalent, the preferences of the extreme 1% of gamers have become almost the entire market.

8,000Hz polling rates, a narrow, lightweight design, and essentially no extra functionality have become the norm for flagship, increasingly expensive mice. As weird and fringe as my own mouse preferences are, I'm not a fan of the fact that brands making them have decided that because it's what suits competitive, twitchy, performance-obsessed sweats on the biggest competition stages, we all need to conform.

Outside of the Corsair Scimitar RGB Elite, I don't see any gaming mice launching these days that stray from that convention. As much as I love the Redragon Impact M908 I use currently, I would love some more FPS features since these are the games I play most often. A slightly lighter weight or a better set of skates, or, if I can dream, a faster polling rate than 1,000Hz so I can keep up with the best players I'm up against. This kind of option just doesn't exist on the shelves, which is why a chance encounter at Computex a month ago drove all this home for me.

While I was in Hall 2, where most of the booths and exhibits are geared at B2B visitors and not the consumer-facing gamer stuff I was there to see, I stumbled upon Meetion's booth. My eye was immediately caught because, minus RGB, my Redragon Impact M908's design is very distinct. You seldom see 12 MMO keys and a pinky grove on a mouse, so I was instantly attracted to something sitting on display.

The Meetion Mega V1 isn't available yet through Meetion's website, nor its UK or US Amazon stores, but when it is, I'll be waiting. See, it has the design I love, but it's got the 8K polling rate and the lighter-weight feel of those Esports mice. It's the weirdo FPS mouse I've been longing for - it's even wireless and feels like it's gliding around the display surface much better than the one on my desk would.

But not only that, there's real innovation hiding in the Mega V1. It's got a modular element to it because you can swap around its side panels to have more or less functionality. Don't fancy those 12 extra MMO keys? Want a different shape on the other side? This mouse caters to you. Where is this level of ingenuity in the current mouse market? I'd be a lot more up for using a lightweight Esports mouse if it had the option for me to attach a side panel with a few extra keys on it.

What impressed me even further was that, in addition to this coming from a relatively unknown brand was that the side keys were tiny microswitches. They clicked in with a premium feel of the best PC controllers; they felt easy to actuate and distinguish from one another. The M908 Impact's side keys are useful, but they're plain plastic buttons that can be tough to actuate quickly - yet another issue that Meetion has found a cure for.

You probably don't have the weirdo, sicko mouse preferences I do, but even so, brands like Meetion are the solution if you don't feel like the biggest names are offering you some versatility these days. Esports rodents just aren't going to be for everyone, and if the bigger brands don't realise that soon, they might be losing some lunch to the smaller brands that are willing to take risks to cater to different desires.

If you want to delve deeper, check out the best wireless gaming mouse, the best Razer mouse, and the best Logitech mouse.

To skip time in Black Flag Resynced – a new feature that wasn't in the original game – you just need to find a good, clear spot for Edward to sit down in, then you use the D-Pad to start passing the hours and change time from day to night. But there are a quite a few limitations to this system that Black Flag Resynced doesn't explicitly lay out, so I've explained everything I know about how to skip time in the game below.

How to pass time in Black Flag Resynced

To skip time in Black Flag, you must briefly hold down D-Pad Right, which will cause Edward to sit down on the spot and time to speed up. Note that skipping time always takes you to the morning or evening – whichever is next – and you have no control over what time Edward gets up from his hours-long contemplative sit-down.

Importantly, you can't initiate a time skip in Black Flag resynced while in combat or during quests. From experience, you also can't skip time while you're on anything other than solid ground, so no time-skipping while aboard the Jackdaw or in or near the sea. You also can't seem to skip time when any sort of potential threat is nearby, such as wildlife, or if you're near vendors and other NPCs that aren't just the standard population. Essentially, you need to find a relatively quiet spot for Edward to sit down and pass the time.

Despite being a new feature for Black Flag Resynced (you can read about all changes in Black Flag Resynced here), I've not really found any notable uses for skipping time other than if you simply don't want it to be day or night. If a quest requires a specific time of day, it'll skip time for you, such as the Black Flag Resynced Sage and Prison Key quest Claiming What's Due. Really the only reason that you may want to use this system is if you either find night time too dark and want to skip to daytime so that you can see, or you want to skip to night to make stealth marginally easier, as Edward is a little harder to spot in the dark.

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The Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Sage and prison key are in the upper villa area of Torres' estate. Finding them isn’t too difficult, but the real challenge is trying to stay hidden to avoid a deadly battle with all the guards, especially if you're new to Assassin's Creed and Black Flag Resynced is your first stabby outing. Below, I've laid out the precise locations of both the Sage you need to rescue and the necessary prison key.

Black Flag Resynced Sage and prison key location

Both the Sage in Black Flag Resynced and the prison key are in the main villa area in the northern part of Torres' estate:

• Prison key: On the estate Warden, who can be initially found in the villa courtyard at 207,573.
• Sage prison cell: In the large square building in the northwest corner of Torres' estate, with the entrance at 204,575.

So, with this information in mind, the best way to complete rescue the Sage in Black Flag Resynced is to cross the plantation area and head up the stone steps in the southwest part of the estate, then head north towards the villa where you'll find a guarded gate. Climb over the wall to the left of the gate, then head east towards the villa. While not essential, you can also eavesdrop on some guards near the gate who mention the Warden mustering all the guards, so you can tail them towards the villa.

When you reach the villa, get onto the roof of the villa by climbing or using a lift (be aware of snipers up on the roof), then wait for the Warden to finish speaking to the guards. He'll then leave the courtyard and start patrolling the villa on his own, giving you plenty of opportunities to leap from the rooftops and assassinate him when no other guards are around. Loot the key from his body, then head over to the prison and unlock the door to complete the quest.

Just bear in mind that when you're skulking about trying to rescue the Sage in Black Flag Resynced, the estate is full of Spanish guards and alerting one or two of them may escalate into a large fight. Thankfully, there aren't any alarm bells for them to ring to bring the whole estate on you, which means that stealth isn't even essential, but it certainly makes things easier. Make good use of Eagle Vision (R3/RS) and aiming (L2/LT) to spot and mark guards; bushes and low walls to hide; whistling to lure guards over for assassinations; and smoke bombs to hide yourself and you'll get this quest done stealthily and smoothly.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is an extremely faithful remake of Ubisoft's original 2013 open-world piracy adventure – except for the many ways in which it isn't. Returning to one of the best Assassin Creed games, and one of my all-timers, has been a treat – but it's also left me wrangling with where a full remake should start and stop. Like the sometimes sunny, sometimes stormy ocean on which protagonist Edward Kenway sails, what seems like a one-to-one remake has a lot more going on beneath the surface.

With no knowledge of the secret Assassin and Templar conflict running through the ages, Edward will take any opportunity for a leg up throughout Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. A shipwreck after the battle that hurls us right into the action? A way to get into the Templars' good grace for coin. Meeting the shadowy Assassins? Side-mission contracts allow him to earn money even as an outsider. Imprisoned on a treasure ship? A chance to fight back, and steal a captainage for himself, putting him on a level field with Nassau's pirate greats – from Blackbeard to Hornigold.

Live, laugh, Libertalia

Caribbean pirate sanctuary Nassau – able to flourish as the Spanish and English empires battle one another as they seize land from its native population – are about "liberty" to Edward, he explains. Meant to have set to sea from Bristol for "two at the most" years away from his wife Caroline in order to bring home enough success to elevate his station, he keeps extending that time away. Likewise, he struggles to understand the Assassin creed of "nothing is true, everything is permitted" as anything more than a self-centered permission slip. He's a man struggling to tread water, weighed down by his own selfishness, clawing for any sense of purpose or validation – caught in a whirlpool of conspiracy, his capacity for growth will be tested, a rogue element able to scuttle either the Assassin or Templar plans on a whim.

But, where Edward Kenway struggles with his own sense of purpose, the original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag was confident in its own from the get-go. The fourth numbered game in the series, it took the best ideas of the divisive Assassin's Creed 3, and reimagined it as a large, open-world adventure merging parkour assassinations across numerous islands with tight naval combat and a sense of discovery. Innovative and bold, it's no exaggeration to say that for many – me included – this was a salve that got us reinvested in Assassin's Creed again, and proved that the Ezio trilogy that began in Assassin's Creed 2 was no fluke. But, in changing tides, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced lacks that same clear purpose.

Solid foundations buoy this remake, but it can feel aimless and adrift, at times too beholden to the original to excite, at others using modern series mechanics to not-quite replicate the original; and laden with annoying bugs, glitches, and jank. It's far from the first time an Assassin's Creed launch has been rough, but when it's a remake which, by its nature, implies a definitive quality, it can be extra grating. I've seen Edward lock-up after skinning an animal, float across the ground like a ghost, had quest markers disappear off the edge of the map, and enemies suddenly revive after a thorough stabbing – sometimes requiring loading past saves to fix.

While Black Flag Resynced is incredibly pretty – whether that's sun and glistening sea, cannon fire lighting up dense fog, or the terror of gigantic waves through a storm – the geometry of most areas is very similar to the original if not one-to-one. It's neat to feel the muscle memory return, but it does create a discordance between the stunning high-fidelity graphics that feel like a wrapper over the strict environments of the original.

It's a nice touch to be able to have an 'advanced parkour' toggle, though, again, like in the source material, all these islands' maps are quite small in terms of both square footage and height, so there's not many opportunities to really get into it. That even goes for the handful of built out cities, like Havana and Kingston, which felt small in the original and still do here. At the time, the tighter, island-centric approach was a smart reaction to AC3's overly large, empty cities and its massive frontier. Now, removed from that context, they just feel basic.

Some of the rethought and additional areas work well. Making Sacrifice Island part of the main map is wonderful, as is allowing you to exit one of Havana's gates where you can rob a new shore-side plantation and sneak through a fort only previously glimpsed from afar. Other islands have segments smartly rearranged to make traversal feel more natural. Nassau, for instance, is now hillier and denser, making it feel like more of a hive of scum and villainy while otherwise keeping the construction the same.

The ability to properly dive underwater at almost any location to explore is great (previously, you could 'stealth swim', a binary ability that simply plopped Edward out of sight below the waves), especially in how it seamlessly connects some diving sequences and Smuggler's Coves. These were present in the original, but felt delineated – this is a real spot in which Resynced uses new technology to better execute on the original's ideas.

Some island treasures have been shuffled around so you now dive for them just off the coast too, which is welcome variety. There's fewer treasure and collectible icons littering the map, but they're still present – now acting more as optional bonuses for going out of your way to investigate smoke or circling birds ashore. However, these rewards are often drab – insubstantial amounts of money, or the Animus currency used for the online 'exchange' store. Even if Edward comments on some environmental storytelling that's unfolded on an island, you can never interact with anything in a meaningful way – even if NPCs are still present.

Sequences across the swamps of Charles-Towne and the sweltering African island of Principe are, like before, their own small areas off the world map designed for specific missions, which feel like missed opportunities for further expansion.

It's disappointing as even its immediate sequel, the underrated Assassin's Creed Rogue, iterated upon some of Black Flag's ideas in neat ways – such as connecting various in-land maps with denser areas connected through multiple ports, which it felt like Havana was teasing before I realized the new zone is just one small addition. I constantly find myself wishing Resynced would play it less safe.

Sword and rope-cery

There are big changes, though. Black Flag Resynced's combat is very different. But, like Assassin's Creed Mirage, I can't help but feel like it's trying to retrofit some of the series' classic elements into a system not really designed to support it. The original's fights were simple, but snappy and satisfying as you chained together brutal executions, assassinations, and pistol shots. Here, with the addition of stun meters, clashes feel looser, more flaily.

Like in the original, counters open up a window for an instant takedown, but I've had constant moments where the inputs seem to drop, whether that's when chaining takedowns, or being next to a tripped enemy. Alongside shifting the one-button quickfire pistol to an ability wheel, combat feels a bit overcomplicated for as imprecise at it feels, and I ended up getting a bit sick of the constant fights which – when you're boarding enemy ships so frequently – is a big part of the game. Revisiting the original Black Flag while playing Resynced, I simply prefer the source material's combat, which is more dynamic and cinematic across multi-countering groups or the way the camera spins to frame each pistol shot Edward fires off.

Many of Resynced's headlining updates ended up mattering little to me in play. The visuals are pretty, but once I get refamiliarized with the maps I stop gawking at them, instead noticing the higher fidelity and intense shadows can lead to a lack of clarity with interaction points. New story quests across recruitable officers and beyond, don't feel particularly additive – in fact, their constant reiteration around Edward being a bit of a deadbeat for leaving his wife just over-salts it thematically.

Being able to crouch anywhere in stealth feels minor considering Edward would auto-crouch in the original in 'stalking zones' anyway, and though I'm told day/night, and weather affects enemy perception, the enemy AI is still very stupid on normal difficulty no matter what so it hardly matters (kill one in tall grass, and watch them keep coming into your killbox on yellow alert).

The four new 'modern' missions are disappointing as well, essentially being vision quests you wander through within the Animus Ego while fighting waves of enemies while being monologued at. It's a shame as the initial mission makes a good first impression, questioning Edward's inability to return home as you platform through impossible digitized spaces while doing an escort mission with his precious chest of loot. Additional modern day storytelling being relegated to lore notes, some of which are connected to a bizarre battle-pass-like currency track, are as horrible to engage with here as they were in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

It's disappointing, as Resynced isn't purely about adding things on or updating mechanics. There are cuts as well – and I don't just mean how Edward no longer does the delightful splish-splash 'knees-up' jog as he runs through shallow water. The original game's first-person modern storyline that cast you as a game developer working for evil Templar-front Abstergo has been excised entirely. The modern day storyline might not be for everyone and, admittedly, the plot threads set up in the original never had a satisfactory pay-off – but, then, wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity to redress that?

Black Flag's modern day storytelling was some of the series' best. Not only that, but it's one of the only games in the series where the narrative directly connects between past and present, meaning that Black Flag Resynced simply doesn't close the loop on a major character's arc at all within the game's main story. In turn, it makes the narrative feel oddly paced, and its ending feels particularly sudden and unsatisfying.

The idea of optional objectives in main missions to accomplish 'full synchronization' has also been dropped. Beyond providing replay value (you can no longer replay missions from a menu), these additional challenges added narrative context for how Edward Kenway canonically approached each mission – one of classic Assassin's Creed's many unique modes of storytelling that the Animus wrapper provides.

This leads to at least one change where, previously, full synchronization with Edward required you to sneak through an Assassin encampment non-lethally. Now, without that encouragement, that portion of the mission simply replaces those Assassins with generic enemy guards. Not only does Resynced remove the joy of replaying a mission to tackle the friction of additional challenge, but it has the side effect of flattening Edward's characterization.

There's conflict within Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in terms of how faithful it wants to be. Even a change as small as removing the mini-map, which makes sense given how you can now scan and tag foes like in the modern games, nevertheless affects how you interact with many missions compared to the original – especially in the returning Templar Hunt sidequests and in naval combat.

Other changes fare better. De-emphasizing tailing missions so you can find alternative ways to a target if you mess up removes a lot of the original's frustration. But, there are still a couple of missions in which you're still forced to play them in specific ways or you instantly 'desynchronize', or another that slapped me on the wrist for sneaking through to the mission objective in a different way than intended, and turned me around to have a ship battle instead.

It makes Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced far from smooth sailing, even though I love the original. Resynced both changes too much and not enough. Decent improvements are here that I'd still recommend it to a lot of players interested in a pirate adventure, but I also think moment-to-moment the original game remains enjoyable and has better combat and more interesting challenges (especially if you can play it on PC with a stable higher framerate) – leaving me in that tricky position of having no firm favorite. Black Flag Resynced is a decent remake of a great game, but can feel a bit rudderless – an unenviable position for any remake with so much to live up to.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

Looking for another big adventure? Our best open world games list will whisk you away to new digital worlds.

The Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced statue puzzles that you come across in the Mayan temple during "The Sage's Buried Secret" quest aren't especially difficult, but there are some sticking points. While each of these Black Flag Resynced puzzles is solved by repositioning some large statues and matching colors, each one layers on more mechanics than the last, making the third and final puzzle a bit of thinker. If you want to breeze through them all, I've laid out the solutions for all the Black Flag statue puzzles in this temple below.

How to solve the Black Flag Resynced statue puzzles

Climb your way across the chasm using the collapsed wall and gnarled tree roots on the left to reach the first statue puzzle:

1. Leap onto the red statue (or climb on top of it if you missed the jump for whatever reason). Edward's weight will lower the statue into place and open the first door.
2. Climb up the wall and onto the blue statue. Again, this will lower the blue statue, causing the second door to open and revealing the way ahead.
3. Proceed with James Kidd through the doorway to the next area.

Statue puzzle, part 2

The second Black Flag statue puzzle in this main quest, which uses the same mechanics as before but introduces a new turntable system:

1. Grab the capstan and rotate the turntable so that the red side is under the red statue on the left.
2. Climb onto the red statue so that it gets weighed down (you'll notice a counterweight statue moving up as you do this, which is important later). This will open the way to the next area.
3. Carry on following Kidd, including a short swimming section through some underwater cave tunnels.

Statue puzzle, part 3

After swimming through the caves and climbing up the temple with Kidd, you'll arrive at the final statue puzzle for this quest which brings in the ability to raise statues by climbing onto the nearby counterweight statues, allowing you to rearrange their positions on the turntable. While this puzzle is simply a case of moving all the statues to their corresponding positions on the turntable as before, here's the easiest way to do it:

1. Start by climbing onto the counterweight statue next to the blue statue (on the left side of the room) to lift the blue statue up.
2. Rotate the turntable counterclockwise once so that the blue section is under the blue statue, then climb onto the blue statue to lower it. This will complete the blue section and open the first door.
3. Rotate the turntable counterclockwise once, placing the red statue in the top-left section of the turntable.
4. Climb onto the left counterweight statue again to raise the red statue, rotate the turntable counterclockwise once again so that the red section is under the red statue, then climb the red statue to lower it into the matching section, opening the second door.
5. Rotate the turntable counterclockwise one more time, then climb onto the green statue to weigh it down into the green section.

Now you'll unlock the third door and launch into a cutscene to wrap up "The Sage's Buried Secret" quest! But if you've already started moving parts around for this puzzle, there is unfortunately no way to reset it so that you can follow the solution above unless you reload a previous save. Focus on just getting one statue in the correct colored section, and then the rest of the solution should become much more obvious until you can solve it.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Officers in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced are a new feature wherein you can recruit new crew members onto the Jackdaw to unlock extra abilities for your ship. While there are a couple of Officers who are recruited as part of the main story and can't be missed, there are also a few optional officers who you'll need to find and recruit off your own back. Below I'll show you how to unlock every crewmember for the Jackdaw in Black Flag Resynced, as well as what ability each officer unlocks.

Warning: the following guide contains minor spoilers for the plot of Black Flag Resynced, but all details are kept to an absolute minimum.

How to Unlock all Officers in Black Flag

There are a total of 5 Officers for the Jackdaw in Black Flag, but only three are optional and unlock extra abilities. I've laid out how to get all of them below.

It's Deadman that's the late-game unlock, which arguably makes sense considering that his abilities are some of the best. However, if you want to prioritize one early on, you should definitely recruit Lucy Baldwin, as her defensive Perfect Brace power is a serious game-changer.

It's also true that each optional Officer has a quest chain of three-to-four missions, though you need only complete the first one to add them to your crew.

All Officer abilities in Black Flag Resynced

Below we lay out all the abilities of the three optional Officers and what they do when unlocked and added to your team.

• Lucy Baldwin: Perfect Brace. Bracing just before you take damage massively increases the Jackdaw's resilience and reduces that damage even further.
• The Padre: Ram-Dash. Press L1+R1/LB+RB to charge the Jackdaw forward and do massive damage to the first thing it rams. Has a long cooldown.
• Tobias "Deadman" Smith: Extra Salvo and Cohort Mortar. When first recruited, Deadman adds an additional Salvo to your Broadside Cannons, increasing their firepower. However, after completing several of his missions and reaching the quest "Very Little, But Something", he also unlocks "Deadman's Cohort Mortar", an alternative fire mode for the Mortar that allows you to fire a stream of bombs.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced finally arrives tomorrow, and according to analysts, it might just be the win that Ubisoft needs after the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake cancellation earlier this year.

There's no doubt that the Black Flag remake has garnered quite some hype from longtime Assassin's Creed fans, boasting everything from revamped visuals to entirely new areas to explore – and according to Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, it may just turn things around for Ubisoft with its potential success.

The analyst explains as much in a new post on his Substack, first looking back at the developer's history with remakes.

"Ubisoft has historically leaned on remasters over full remakes, but it now has a few proper overhauls in the pipeline," writes Elliott. "Alongside the troubled Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake and Rayman Legends Retold, first out of the gate is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. It's a ground-up remake of 2013's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, still widely considered the peak of the franchise."

I mean, he's not exactly wrong there. I still look back at Black Flag as one of the series greats myself, alongside other personal favorites like Assassin's Creed 2. There hasn't been a "pirate" game quite like it since.

According to Elliott, though, that's not the only reason that Resynced might prove popular – it also has a lot to do with the Assassin's Creed series' rising emergence on PC (via Valve's platform Steam, of course).

"While Assassin's Creed has been a console-first property, it's been gaining some ground on Steam," as Elliott puts it. "For context, Assassin's Creed Shadows has sold 5.7 million copies globally, splitting 53.6% PS5, 23.8% Steam, and 23.6% Xbox. Resynced looks poised for a hearty PC showing, already clearing 300,000 copies sold on Steam ahead of launch, worth almost $14 million in gross revenue."

Those are some big numbers.

That's not all, though – "Resynced has already outsold the entire Steam lifetime run of Ubisoft Singapore's previous pirate venture, Skull & Bones, before it's even out. And our estimates have Black Flag Resynced tracking far above AC Shadows on Steam pre-launch, too."

That's… wild. It's no secret that Skull & Bones didn't exactly deliver, but that's all still mind-boggling. Not to mention those Assassin's Creed Shadows comparisons.

"At the same two-day-out milestone, Resynced has sold 5.39x more Steam copies than Shadows did in its equivalent pre-release window." Nostalgia helps, too. In Elliott's own words, "Black Flag Resynced is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft" – it's a "timely strategy for a struggling Ubisoft."

The analyst notes it's been "a turbulent few years of costly development, delays, and high-profile misses" for the company.

That's why it's good that Black Flag already has an established community. "Building an unproven new IP from scratch is a six-to-eight-year gamble costing hundreds of millions." Resynced, on the other hand, is no gamble at all.

Between the already-solid forecast for its sales and the nostalgia, as Elliott notes various times throughout his post, it's likely to be anything but a gamble for Ubisoft.

Here's hoping the analyst's words ring true – although something tells me they will. He'll "be back next week with the full launch data for Black Flag Resynced" after it's had a moment to properly land, so keep an eye on his Substack.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has "modernized the combat" of the original but is more "action-oriented" than Shadows

Two and a half years since its Early Access launch, Palworld has passed a monumental 40 million players right before its 1.0 release – a number so impressive that it further widens the gap between it and the most popular Pokemon games in history, according to data.

Pocketpair has celebrated its latest milestone on social media, thanking players for their "incredible support" since launch. The hit survival game earned an enormous fanbase immediately after its release, quickly smashing Steam records – it became the second game on the platform to reach two million concurrent players (although Black Myth: Wukong later joined it in this league, and surpassed it).

Palworld hit 32 million players across all platforms in February 2025, meaning it's reached a further eight million in the last year or so – an impressive feat, especially while it's still in early access. Pocketpair communications lead and publishing boss John 'Bucky' Buckley previously told us this number was "unexplainable," saying that "a lot of people don't realize how much of an anomaly that is."

Now, as pointed out by fans on social media, there's also an interesting comparison to be made here. Widely circulated data of Pokemon's historical sales records (via Serebii's Joe Merrick) puts the series' top-selling game (or rather, games) as Pokemon Red, Blue, and Green – the very first releases. Specifically, it's believed they collectively sold around 31,380,000 copies.

Unlike some have suggested, this doesn't strictly mean that Palworld has outsold this trio of OG Gen 1 Pokemon games. Pocketpair specifically states its latest figure accounts for "players," which is an important distinction when the survival game is available to play via an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

Back in January 2024, the company demonstrated this when the game hit 19 million players – it explained that the figure was made up of 12 million copies on Steam, and seven million players on Xbox. Every copy sold is a player, but not every player is a copy sold.

Of course, it's still an enormous achievement to surpass Pokemon's golden trio in players, even if not sales, and with the upcoming 1.0 launch of Palworld on July 10, there's no doubt that Pocketpair is going to see another surge in sales. Maybe with that, the company really will be able to surpass them.

Arc Raiders and Marathon aren't "dead" just because their concurrent player count has dropped, Palworld lead says – but he's "not denying that some games do 'die.'"

Remember Project Phoenix? No? I can't blame you. The project, a real-time strategy game with "strong" JRPG influences, was announced way back in 2013 on Kickstarter, where it very quickly racked up $1 million in crowdfunds. These days, the campaign page looks like a graveyard, with PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 proudly listed as supported platforms and a "mid 2015" estimated release window.

In those early days, Project Phoenix held a lot of promise. The art was beautiful and painterly, like a concept for what Octopath Traveler would eventually bring to life. The Kickstarter had earned more than 10 times its initial funding goal, and the team of developers included genuine industry veterans with credits on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Final Fantasy, Diablo, LA Noire, and more. So what went wrong? Well, no one was really sure until now.

After missing several release dates, updates on Project Phoenix, which would typically come from game director Hiroaki Yura, gradually slowed to a halt until 2019 when the whole thing went completely dark without reason. Naturally, the seven years of total silence between then and now have thoroughly eroded public trust in the project, but Yura has now released a lengthy Kickstarter update (via Resetera) explaining what went wrong, what's being done with the money from the campaign, and what's next for the game.

"It has been seven years since my last update. I'm not going to soften that or bury it further down the page," says Yura. "You backed this project, you trusted me with it, and then you heard nothing for a very long time. That silence is mine to answer for. I owe you a full explanation, and more than that, I owe you proof that Project Phoenix is still alive. Both are in this update.

"Years ago, I made myself a rule that I stuck to even when it cost me. I wouldn't post an update unless I had something worth showing," he adds. "For a long stretch I didn't, and instead of filling the gap with mock-ups and promises, I went silent. That was the wrong call. A plain 'we're still working, slowly' would have been far better than nothing, and I'm sorry I didn't give you that."

Yura says Project Phoenix went silent for a number of reasons, one of which being personal issues that "took a lot out of" him. Meanwhile, one of the key programmers "the whole technical side of the game depended on" departed the project at some point, and "rebuilding around that hole took years and money I did not have sitting in an account.

"Rather than burn through what remained and come back to you with nothing, I chose to step back and build a proper business first. One that could pay for this game the way it deserved, instead of running it into the ground. I built that business with my own means, not with what you had pledged, and its work is what funds Phoenix now," Yura says.

One of the biggest pain points around Project Phoenix was that, in the years Kickstarter backers went without any updates, Yura was off forming other studios and releasing other games, letting the perception that the project had been abandoned stand without explanation.

"The reason it happened is that those projects are how I earn the money to pay for this one," explains Yura. "The money has only ever moved in one direction, from that work into Phoenix, never the other way. We did not get rich off them. We are not anywhere close to rich. Whatever room those projects create goes straight back into being able to finish Phoenix the way it should be finished."

Yura also freely admits to having previously lacked a thorough understanding of the needs and demands inherent to a game of Project Phoenix's scale. Those other games and studios Yura was involved with were the stepping stones that would eventually lead him back to making Project Phoenix, now equipped with the required experience.

"It means the Phoenix you eventually play will be made by someone who has actually done this, not by the version of me who started it without knowing what he was taking on. That is a better game than the one that would have limped out years ago, even if it has cost us the time to get here."

As far as the $1 million, Yura says the "plain talk" explanation is pretty straightforward. "A good part of that paid for the work we did in the early years: character and creature designs, base models, the scenario and the world, and a large amount of Uematsu's music," Yura says, adding that a portion of it went into a widely criticized early gameplay demo from way back in 2014. Still, he admits:

"Not every dollar was spent as well as it could have been, and I am not going to tell you otherwise. But all of it went into this game and its production, never anywhere else. Since then, I have made sure the rest is funded properly, so that your contribution is not the thing holding it up."

While backers and fans generally are right to be skeptical, Yura says Project Phoenix is still in the works and is bigger in scope than originally planned, which is saying something. He hopes production will wrap by the end of 2031, which is sure to sting for people who've been waiting for this thing since 2013 (The Elder Scrolls 6 hopefuls can relate). " I would still choose a target I can stand behind over a comfortable one," Yura says. "As we lock down things I can actually promise, you will hear them, and you will hear them far more often than you have.

"I am not going to hand you a release date I can't keep. Dates I couldn't keep are a big part of how we ended up here."

In the interest of transparency, Yura says there will soon be a Project Phoenix Discord where you'll be able to follow along development, reach out to the developers, Yura included, and "hold me to a steadier rhythm than I have kept." Whether that's enough to win back your goodwill is your call, but Yura pledges to put in the work.

"To everyone still here after all this time, thank you. I don't take it lightly, and I intend to earn back the trust you put in me."

In the meantime, here are the best JRPGs to play right now.

No new content is coming to Destiny 2 following its final major update and heavy layoffs at developer Bungie, but the game is keeping the lights on with irregular hotfixes. The studio has admitted it can't guarantee fixes to all reported problems going forward, but one member of the team says some solutions may be workable.

Bungie released the patch notes for a small Destiny 2 update earlier today. It's actually not all that miserably tiny; we've seen smaller updates during livelier periods of the game. But it is basically just a bunch of fixed issues, and that's all we'll see going forward.

Every time Bungie releases a patch like this nowadays, players wonder if this is the last Destiny 2 patch, and blog post, ever. Has the game died its true death? One Twitter user put the question to the Destiny 2 Team account earlier today, and Bungie principal comms manager dmg04 responded.

"There may be moments where we break glass for highest priority issues (game crashes)," he explains. "There will indeed still be downtimes for general server maintenance/upkeep. If we have the opportunity, a small fix could sneak in here or there."

You might think that no new updates means no new crashes, but I've learned not to doubt the power of spaghetti code.

Previously, the Destiny 2 Team account told players that an incoming patch would come "when possible" and contained a "handful of fixes" from "impacted team members." It's a sad story up and down: issues being fixed by people who are no longer at the studio, as that studio tries to keep its head above water at a dire time for the industry altogether.

Id Software veteran of over 20 years absolutely rips and tears into Microsoft after devastating layoffs: "XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed."

Valve hasn't released a few official Steam figures in several years, but reasonable math from a reputable source reckons the biggest store in PC gaming is hovering around 200 million monthly active users, which would make it more than 50% larger than the entire PlayStation platform.

This soft figure comes from Simon Carless' GameDiscoverCo newsletter. Carless used some pretty basic math and alternate data sources to estimate Steam's growth over the past few years, and we can check it ourselves with some equally simple arithmetic based on Valve's 2025 Steam report.

Carless notes that Steam's Digital Services Act notice affirms that the store had "an average of 31.1 million monthly active recipients" in the EU as of the second half of 2025 (this has been cited elsewhere as well). He used this figure as a base to compare the EU's Steam audience to the store's entire demographic, and for that he consulted Steam's public bandwidth chart, which tracks how much data is used where.

Already, caveats come into play. We don't know exactly how much activity makes someone a monthly active user (MAU) under these terms – for example, playing a game versus viewing the homepage or one Steam sale link – nor will bandwidth usage perfectly correlate with user distribution.

However, the math, with non-EU countries removed from Europe's stats, does roughly line up. Carless notes that this approach puts Steam at around 198 million MAU for the second half of 2025, meaning it may have crossed 200 million by now.

Now for official stats. In 2021, Valve said Steam had 132 million MAU. This year, the company said Steam had been gaining about 3.4 million concurrent users each year ever since hitting 25 million for the first time five years ago.

Again, we have to make an assumption: that Steam's concurrent users and MAU grew at exactly the same rate, which they surely did not. But they probably weren't massively detached, either, so we can approximate MAU using that rate (3.4 being 13.6% of 25) to plot five years of growth.

The most generous version of this estimation gives us around 213 to 221 million MAU. We see this range because using 2021's peak of 27.4 million concurrent users as a base reduces the growth rate to 12.4%. Either way, this isn't far off Carless' result. He used a similar formula to gauge his findings and got 210 million; I just plugged in a slightly different number based on Valve's blogs.

This method would also give us roughly 44 million concurrent Steam users, which is only about 9% ahead of the actual 41.2 million users that Valve reports in Steam's charts hub. We assuredly don't have the street address right, but we're probably in the right zip code, or at least the right county.

This is an exercise more than anything, and I wouldn't use this kind of soft math if I were building a space shuttle. But, especially given the larger growth in PC gaming versus console gaming, it does seem fair to assume that Steam is around 50% larger than PlayStation.

A recently translated report from Sony confirms PlayStation had 125 million monthly active users in March 2026, which, as a reminder, is below what Steam had five years ago. If we remove a chunk from the most conservative Steam estimate we have, we'd be right in line with the 187 million monthly users we'd need to hit that 50% mark.

Instead of putting its games on PC, Sony apparently wants to escape the reputation that "PlayStation equals the living room" by selling monitors and speakers.

In the midst of a total upheaval at Xbox, Blizzard is handing over publishing duties for Overwatch in Korea to live-service juggernaut Nexon.

In a joint press release, Blizzard and Nexon announced a new Overwatch service for PC players in Korea, with registration and account linking available now ahead of the official August 12 migration, lining up with the start of Overwatch season 4.

"Registration is now open and excitement is growing for the August 12 start of Nexon's service of Overwatch on PC in Korea," says Nexon president and CEO Junghun Lee, in a press release. "The Nexon team has been working closely with Blizzard to provide a service that enhances the Overwatch experience through Nexon's best-in-class live operations and hyperlocalization."

While the events aren't explicitly linked, the timing of an Xbox-owned franchise shifting hands even regionally is peculiar in the wake of Microsoft's historic downsizing of its gaming division, which saw 1,600 jobs cut immediately and will ultimately result in 3,200 redundancies by the end of fiscal year 2027.

The restructuring also splits off at least four studios from the XGS umbrella, with Compulsion Games and Double Fine going independent and Ninja Theory and Undead Labs entering "terms to join new ownership." Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says the company is reviewing "potential strategic options" for Dishonored and Deathloop studio Arkane.

"Opening registration is an exciting step forward as we approach the August launch of Nexon's service for Overwatch on PC in Korea," says Blizzard's head of development on live games, Walter Kong. "Together with Nexon, we are proud of the high-quality, tailored experience we are building for players in Korea, and we are excited to usher in this new chapter for the Korean Overwatch community."

Over on the official sign-up page for Nexon's new Overwatch service, the publisher encourages players to complete their account linking early and "receive special rewards, including 20 Mythic Prisms, a new Legendary skin, and Loot Boxes."

It's unclear if this will effectively region-lock Overwatch players in Korea, but the mention of hyperlocalized content and the mandatory Nexon account-linking seems to suggest that's the case. I've reached out to Blizzard and Nexon for comment and will update this article if I hear back.

Bethesda union blasts Microsoft as Xbox layoffs hit the Fallout and Elder Scrolls studio, too: "When will this cycle of cuts in pursuit of ever-greater profits end?"

Few people are madder at Microsoft for its mishandling of id Software than Michael Maynard, a game developer of over 40 years, and id veteran of 21 years, who was caught up in heavy layoffs which hit the studio as part of widespread Xbox cost-cutting. Maynard's story demonstrates the institutional knowledge that's being sacrificed in the name of spreadsheets, with multiple studios gutted to the point that they're unrecognizable if not outright closed, and his criticism echoes the pain and fury heard around the industry.

"Big day today at Id Software!" begins a LinkedIn post from Maynard (all emphasis caps his). "We produced arguably THE BEST first person action games, in the entire industry. DOOM, DOOM: Eternal, DOOM: The Dark Ages. The [quintessential] modern trilogy of first person action!

"Yet today, Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed and should be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on.

"Yes, I was part of the team (roughly 50% of the company) that was let go today," he continues, confirming reports on the scale of layoffs. "(I was there for OVER 20 years! RAGE through DOOM: Dark Ages) Sad but, I've been doing this (video games) for over 40 years so, not a huge surprise to me. Just really sad that this is how Id Software, the PIONEER/INNOVATOR of FPS action games is relegated to just another 'reorganization' of assets."

It really is hard to overstate the fumbling of the bag here. Id is the FPS studio, and the modern Doom trilogy is an exemplar in the genre. In its rush to save money by cutting anyone, irreplaceable knowledge be damned, Microsoft has thrown the treasure overboard just to keep the ship above water for another hour.

Microsoft's mistake in this particular arena is perhaps matched only by Sony and Bungie, which have collectively lost hundreds of the best FPS developers in the business – in their case, by squandering Destiny 2.

Id co-founder and Doom father John Romero addressed the impacted devs online, praising the people who kept the studio's legacy alive and highlighting the "real care, skill, and respect" demonstrated by recent releases.

John Romero has a private collection of "critically important" id Software history "including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has."

Id Software suffered major layoffs under Microsoft's Xbox "reset" plan, which will see 3,200 people cut and multiple studios divested. This sparked commiserations from id co-founder and Doom mastermind John Romero, who also shared that he's personally helped with the studio archival work which he hopes will continue internally.

"A note on digital preservation: id's history is critically important to the history of games," Romero writes on Bluesky. "I've preserved id's complete early history from our start at Softdisk through to August 6, 1996, including materials and assets that, as far as I know, id itself no longer has."

Romero, who was fired from id in 1996, has some experience with the situation now facing many former id employees. He's also plenty familiar with game preservation, dating back to the shareware days of Doom, which laid the bedrock for a game that can now be played on virtually anything with a screen (or, with enough willpower, virtually anything without a screen).

"I hope someone is doing the same for the company's ongoing legacy (the work, code, assets, stories and the people behind them)," Romero adds.

Amid reports that half of the studio was cut, impacted id Software developers have suggested critical disciplines, including the studio's legendary tech team and a platoon of coders, were all but entirely laid off.

Senior gameplay systems programmer Michael Maynard hammered Microsoft in a LinkedIn post.

"Microsoft/XBOX decided half the team was no longer needed and should be let go; despite all the amazing work and effort from every designer, programmer, artist, audio specialist, level designer, fx, tech design, and on and on and on," Maynard says.

Romero's private id archive is a rare blessing. Fallout's Tim Cain said last year that he was "ordered to destroy" his own archive of the formative RPG's development.

Doom legend John Romero says the FPS game's 20 million shareware players "were not 'pirates' by default" and "history is messier than 'pirates killed the companies.'"

If you haven't played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, I highly recommend it, especially if you're going through something stressful. It's a great game for venting your frustrations. Apparently, putting it out was a turning point for developer Saber Interactive, as the studio is now enjoying a prosperous era of development.

That's no exaggeration either, since CCO Tim Willits says Space Marine 2 "literally changed everything" for Saber. "It not only changed the way that the team looks at making games, it changed how people look at us," he tells The Game Business. "I've seen this in my career, when you have a huge hit, when you go to make the next game, everything has to be awesome. It's like, 'This has got to be the most awesome toaster ever.' And it fuels success."

Since it was a licensed project, that opened more doors for the company. Nothing helps land a contract more than a good reputation, leading to Saber having to pick its battles in terms of capabilities. "Because we have a reputation of really doing well with licensed IPs, every major license holder wants to make a video game," Willits says. "It's just the way it is. Everybody. So, we are in a very fortunate position to turn down more than we can accept."

Apparently, there was a particular exciting opportunity Saber had to pass on for just this reason. Willits can't name them, of course, but he knows just how nice of a problem it is to have. "You know you're successful when you've turned down those guys. It's really nice to be in that position," he comments.

Indeed it must be. Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is Saber's last major outstanding release for the year, a first-person nightmare co-written with Barker himself that comes out in October, just in time for Halloween. Then, next year, we have Hitman Classic Trilogy Remastered, and the likes of Turok: Origins and the long-in-the-works Knights of the Old Republic remake to get dated at some point.

That's just a small sampling as well. Willits isn't kidding about how much is going across the myriad studios Saber operates, and it sounds like there may be more to come as well. I think we can rest easy that Space Marine 3 will happen, and when it does, who knows what Saber will do next. All I know is, more Cenobites, please.

Hitman and 007 First Light dev IO Interactive regains "full ownership" of its mysterious online RPG project after Xbox reportedly pulled funding

Minecraft's newest update finally brings more ways to rest your blocky behind, as Cushions and Straw Beds headline the new preview.

On the Minecraft website Mojang details what Minecraft: Bedrock Edition players can expect from update preview 26.40.30, which launches today. While it's not going to introduce any game-changing biomes or new mobs to the game, it does introduce a massive new feature in the form of Straw Beds.

Straw Beds are a new type of bed which allow you to sleep through the night while retaining your previous spawn point, which will be perfect for waiting out the night while you're on an expedition. However, there's a catch, as these beds can only be used one time before being destroyed, and of course you won't be able to use these in the Nether or The End. If you use three Hay Bales you'll get Four Straw Beds to use, so it's not the worst trade for something that's a one-time use, plus you can find them naturally in Abandoned Camps.

The update's focus seems to be to help spruce up the Abandoned Camps that were introduced a few weeks ago in update 26.40.27. The new area will now spawn in the Pale Garden and Flower Forest biomes and boast procedural trees, and an issue which saw loot tables list incorrect potion names has also been fixed.

The other new change is the introduction of the Cushion, which you can craft 16 different colored versions of. These don't exactly have much practical use for your hardcore survival mode run, but they're a new item you can sit on and make your home look that much cuter. These currently aren't found in Abandoned Camps, but Mojang lists this as a "known issue," implying these will find a home there after a while.

Frankly, I'm shocked that it's taken almost 17 years (or 15 years after its official 1.0 launch in 2011) for Minecraft to add a way to sleep through the night without resetting your spawn, now that it's actually in the game, it feels like something that should've been a given on day one, so it's good to finally have the option.

Smaller Minecraft updates like Tiny Takeover and Chaos Cubed "feel more sustainable" for Mojang, says lead: "There's always another one right around the corner."

David Hayter, the striking voice behind the Metal Gear series' various Snake roles, isn't a fan of Sony's decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 – and he's certainly not afraid to show it.

The end of physical media as we know it is dominating online discussions following Sony's announcement, which cited how "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – a statement that plenty of folks definitely cannot get behind.

One of them is none other than David Hayter, the iconic voice actor known for his work on Metal Gear Solid games as Solid Snake, Old Snake, Naked Snake… you name it.

In a new online post, Hayter makes this as clear as he possibly can, sharing a picture of all his consoles and games (physical, of course, mind you). Between the Xbox and PlayStation 5 – and various controllers – I see a plethora of gems, including everything from GTA 5 to Red Dead Redemption 2.

As for his caption? "No disc, no buy." And, yes, he tags the official PlayStation account on Twitter, too, so as to catch Sony's attention.

Unsurprisingly, fans are largely in agreement with the actor, who admits in the comments that "this is a fraction of my game collection" as well. Not to mention, "I also have 2500+ DVDs." Physical media, you say? Hayter's no hater in that department.

He's not alone, either, as big developers in the industry themselves have spoken out against the move toward digital-only. Take former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra, for example.

He says "we can't live in a world of fear if our games will work in the future or not," and game preservation experts share in that sentiment, explaining how this will all lead to more piracy.

Just yesterday, CEO of Lords of the Fallen 2 publisher CI Games, Marek Tyminski, also stated that Sony's choice to axe discs and the fact that GTA 6 is going disc-free itself "feels unfair to studios still backing physical" – so, yeah.

There's no telling what the future will bring for physical media enthusiasts, but I'm choosing to remain hopeful that game discs won't do a DVD on us and all but disappear. Something tells me Hayter is, too.

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

It began as a disaster. Fresh off conquering the Continent in peerless fantasy RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red turned its attention to the neon metropolis of Night City for Cyberpunk 2077.

Instead of being an instant success, Cyberpunk 2077 – in the franchise's parlance – flatlined out of the gate in 2020. Game-ruining glitches, a broken world, and stuttering last-gen ports led to the unprecedented removal of the title from the PlayStation Store.

Far from CD Projekt Red being able to do no wrong, things suddenly looked dire. I, along with plenty of my chooms, dropped Cyberpunk – seemingly never to return.

But it's here where the comeback story begins. Away from the gaze of many who felt burned by one of gaming's biggest modern-day disappointments, the developers clawed back a large chunk of goodwill with 2023's 2.0 update. The dramatic changes overhauled everything from skill trees to chrome upgrades to ensure Cyberpunk 2077 closely matched CD Projekt Red – and fans' – initial expectations for the game.

That same week, the Phantom Liberty DLC, introducing players to a dangerous new section of Night City in Dogtown, and a story revolving around a trapped President and the emergence of Idris Elba's shadowy FIA Agent Solomon Reed. Far from being a desperate last gasp of a dying game, it rejuvenated the series. Phantom Liberty now stands alongside CD Projekt Red's dreamy trip to Touissant in The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine as shorthand for best-in-class expansions.

But that wasn't how I, or others, returned to the Cyberpunk fold. Our way back into Night City's crime-ridden streets was through Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a joint collaboration between CD Projekt Red and the acclaimed Studio Trigger of Kill La Kill fame.

Chrome sweet chrome

The show charts the rise of David Martinez, a down-on-his-luck kid who, after suffering a family tragedy and in desperate need of 'eddies' to pay the bills, forces his way through the seedy underbelly of Night City to become one of its most prominent Edgerunners.

Ably backed by a crew that includes netrunner and David's love interest Lucy, hot-headed Rebecca, and stoic leader Maine, Edgerunners begins as an effortlessly cool, stylish depiction of how a Robin Hood-style set of mercs could thrive in a world that wants them dead. Then, spoiler alert, most of them do end up dead.

As much as I love Cyberpunk 2077, Edgerunners understands the franchise's message that much more. Because there are no winners and losers in Night City, just the corporations and those crushed underfoot. While the RPG can absolutely have its heart-wrenching moments, it pales in comparison to David's journey. Hell, you probably haven't looked at the moon in the same way since.

Ahead of the Cyberpunk sequel, Edgerunners also gives Night City new life. Where its game counterpart is a joyful futuristic playground once you're kitted out in all the best chrome, Edgerunners' take is close to something like Akira: a wiry, suffocating beast of a city that – as cliche as it sounds – is a character in itself. This is a place that chews people up and spits them out whole; a lethal, kinetic rush is found in every dilapidated alley and brutalist rooftop. Cyberpunk 2077 may have won back favor on its own merits, but Edgerunners kickstarted everything by truly getting what made everyone so eager in the first place.

Back to Night City

But that's not the end of the saga. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 is coming to Netflix later this year – and first signs are promising.

The early reactions from Anime Expo are incredible, with fans and critics alike praising the premiere as an undoubted step up from the first season. It also speaks to the dedication to the series and its remarkable turnaround that 6000 fans packed into the L.A. event to watch the premiere episode of the second season, and not a single soul leaked footage from the event. There are no gonks here, only those who wish to protect a shared secret, safe in the knowledge that they've just witnessed something very special.

Then you hear the creators talk, and the hype only intensifies. Edgerunners writer Bartosz Sztybor has described the second season as a Scorsese movie in comparison to the first season's explosive Michael Bay-coded offering. That instantly brings to mind something far more narratively brave than what we've seen so far – a path Cyberpunk could do well to walk down between now and the release of the codenamed Orion sequel.

From disaster to delight, Cyberpunk has done what so many have failed to do. As the twin industries of Hollywood and gaming become increasingly littered with failed big-budget projects, layoffs, and a gnawing sense of dissatisfaction, CD Projekt Red should be held aloft as a teaching lesson for many. With time, patience, and a risky side-project, everything can be fixed again. Welcome back to Night City. We can't wait to see where it takes us next.

For more, check out the first Cyberpunk: Edgerunners season 2 reactions. Then, dive into our collection of the best anime on Netflix.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be this year's most ambitious RPG. Helmed by The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the debut game from developer Rebel Wolves will see players dropped into south-east Europe during the 14th century – where time is not on their side.

As the remote Vale Sangora reels from the Black Plague, ancient vampire Brencis muscles in on the region, enforcing blood tithes in exchange for protection from the sickness. When village-boy protagonist Coen is forcibly turned into a vampire by Brencis, the process goes wrong and Coen is caught between two states – fang-toothed undead by night, (mostly) human by day. As Coen, we'll have just 30 in-game days and nights to save his family from Brencis; set loose in an open-world where our actions move time forward and cause rippling consequences.

I got to play the first four hours of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and found that while Rebel Wolves' many CD Projekt Red veterans have continued to build upon The Witcher 3's open-world sensibilities, there's a degree of the old-school RPG friction we're seeing make a comeback in the likes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2.

From Dusk Till Dawn

Much has been made of The Blood of Dawnwalker's time mechanics, but in play, the feature is unobtrusive. I step into Coen's shoes on the morning before mass, which, under Vale Sangora's new ruler, has been perverted into a bloodletting ritual. A bar on the top-right of the screen, broken into eight segments, shows how much time you have left in the day or night. Only specific activities move time forward. Exploring and fighting won't, for example, but quests, certain side activities, and even leveling up will. These are clearly signposted and often only take one hour, creating the sense not that you're rushing through The Blood of Dawnwalker to meet a deadline (the game doesn't end with Coen's 30-day limit), merely being asked to consider how your time in its world is spent.

To begin the day, I'm asked to visit the local healer to fetch herbs for Coen's sick mother, to ensure she's strong enough to survive the upcoming mass. Along the way, I bump into Coen's siblings and decline their request to help them fish – which would take an hour – but a little further down the road, agree to find a villager's missing brother. It's on the way, so I do so – taking the time to track him down with Witcher-esque heightened senses and investigative powers – and rescue him from an unearthed barrow, though decline to spend longer escorting him home.

With all of that done, I still have time to fetch the herbs, set two hours aside from an optional Latin lesson, teach the neighborhood bully some manners, spar with Coen's ex-mercenary father, and solve the case of a missing banner – all in time for mass. Frankly, I manage more in one day here than I do in the real world. And as a reluctant congregation gathers at the church, I realize that The Blood of Dawnwalker is less interested in tracking the minutes, and more focused on how they're spent.

All day, I've heard whispers of rebellion. The banner hanging over the church font – stolen by another villager and returned by Coen earlier in the day – doesn't help ease the tension, depicting humans bleeding to death on a tree of thorns. The priest begins his sermon with a speech acknowledging the tapestry's horrors, while it visibly agitates the congregation, and I'm pleased to see just how much of an impact my decision to return it makes. Similarly, having retrieved medicine for Coen's mother and correctly prepared it, her distress is kept mostly in-check. Comparing my experience to another, I learn that not only can she die during the mass if not properly medicated, and by returning the banner I unknowingly saved its maker from a grisly execution.

Later that night, the townsfolk rise up against Brencis' garrison – fighting their way into an off-limits silver mine to arm themselves. But, as is apt to happen in game prologues, catastrophe strikes. The would-be rebellion is rumbled, Brencis turns Coen into a vampire, and his family is hauled away as their village burns. It's a brilliant opening salvo: for as much as I've waited to see The Blood of Dawnwalker's open world for myself, I'm now itching to hunt down Brencis and his lieutenants.

In theory, I can do just that. Similarly to how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild lets players beeline to their showdown with Ganon at any point, it's possible to march straight to Brencis' fortress. But, my preview is limited to one segment of the map, so instead I take stock of the leads I'm offered and step into the night.

Creatures of the night

The Blood of Dawnwalker's passing of time creates an interesting dynamic with Coen, whose vampiric transformation leaves him with a foot in both worlds. By day he's human, relying on a sword in combat and left to make do without his supernatural powers. When the sun goes down, the fangs come out.

A Dishonored-style blink can be used to vanish and reappear elsewhere at will, while Coen takes notes from Dracula and can walk up walls and on ceilings – meaning he can only climb towers to reveal nearby locales at night. Get into a scrap, and Coen can keep his sword sheathed to instead put his claws to work. Eating food will only heal him during the day – when the moon is out, only blood will provide succor. Wildlife can be hunted for small amounts and you can shadowstep behind humans for quick gulps in combat, but the most filling meals are found by sneaking up on someone unaware and draining them into unconsciousness or even death.

As a long-suffering Oblivion vampire, I'm giddy to see Rebel Wolves commit entirely to vampiric mythology – limitations and all. If you don't keep Coen's thirst slaked, he can lose control during dialogue and fatally feed upon his conversation partner. At one point in my preview, I convince someone to leave a burning building – dying inside is supposedly preferable going outside with a vampire – and inadvertently prove him right, as I lose control and set upon the toasty treat.

In fairer fights, The Blood of Dawnwalker's combat lands somewhere between Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's exacting swordplay and The Witcher 3's sword-and-sign dance. Trading blows with sword and claw, directional input means you decide which angle to attack from (mixing it up makes your opponent less likely to block), while parrying attackers requires the inverse, matching your defense to wherever the blow is coming from. It's quick, fluid, and can be very challenging – particularly when outnumbered – but feels thrilling, particularly against tougher foes who can trade consecutive blows for longer. I did find Coen's active abilities tricky to use, however, as I could only use them by bringing up a clunky ability wheel – leaving them ignored more often than not.

The Blood of Dawnwalker's willingness to put players on the back foot is right up my street. More surprising is how quickly and effectively the RPG draws me into its world. The effect is partly physical: hemmed-in by the Carpathian Mountains, Vale Sangora perpetually has a second horizon above the eyeline. More engrossing still, the valley feels old. Vale Sangora is a melting pot of central to Eastern European mythology, and although vampires here have become a reality, other folklore creatures make their home here too. An abandoned mine, thought haunted, is actually infested with sneaky goblin-like creatures with a penchant for mischief and flesh; while wall paintings in a tomb detail heroic tales so old they seem to have been forgotten entirely.

By planting one foot in fairy tales and another in the realities of medieval life, Vale Sangora reaches similar liveliness to The Witcher 3's Continent. Both come across as believably ancient, and as an RPG fan drawn to worlds that feel like they've existed long before I joined them, I'm immersed in The Blood of Dawnwalker from the get-go. That's no small feat, playing in a crowded room filled with PCs.

Even after playing for four hours, I still feel like I've barely scratched The Blood of Dawnwalker's surface and would have gladly played for longer in a single sitting. From its combat to story and world, there are a lot of beat-by-beat draws. But frankly, I'm thrilled to play a fresh RPG with the nerve to be so big from the get-go. Every game I've compared The Blood of Dawnwalker to was built upon an existing series – success affording them the luxury to iterate – whereas Rebel Wolves has outlined plans for a "saga" before its first game has debuted.

With the RPG's passing time and Coen's uneven powers, I get the impression that the veteran cohort at Rebel Wolves see their fresh start as an opportunity. But what truly surprises me is how well The Blood of Dawnwalker comes together already – for all of the boundaries it pushes, nothing feels risky or gimmicky in play. What remains, then, is an ambitious love letter to role-playing itself – and although The Blood of Dawnwalker is launching in a slew of new games, what I've seen so far is enough to guarantee I'll be back to play more come September 3.

We have interviews with The Blood of Dawnwalker's developers, and more thoughts from our own playtime, still to come. In the meantime, here are the best RPGs to keep busy with.

The team behind Elder Scrolls Online is one of many that's been impacted by ruthless cuts being made by Xbox at the moment. Purportedly up to half of the devs behind Bethesda's MMO have lost their jobs, and a former designer on the fantasy sandbox has been quick to point out the game's unsung glories.

In the wake of the redundancies, Andrew Young, a senior content designer on Elder Scrolls Online who worked on the online RPG from 2012 through to 2024, vented his frustrations on Twitter. "I'm just so angry today," he says. "People will never know the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making ESO or how we basically funded other failing projects while never getting enough resources to really keep up with our release cadence."

He adds that fans may never realize just how integral Elder Scrolls Online was to Bethesda. "Talking to people today and realizing there’s really no one left and no changing it now makes my heart ache," he says. "For the people, our game, who we were as a team and a studio. This is a serious loss, and I don’t think people know how much."

No specifics are given, but my mind immediately jumped to Blades and Legends, two free mobile spin-offs that came out in the 2010s. The former was all about constantly getting into swordfights, while the latter was a digital card game. Both have since been unceremoniously closed, and Young could be talking about other projects within the umbrella of Bathesda's parent company ZeniMax, either.

Elder Scrolls Online has been a reliable money-spinner, bringing in upwards of $2 billion across its lifetime to date. Those are decent earnings, especially when it comes to the currently over-saturated live-service and MMO market. The game adopted a new updated schedule in 2025, moving from yearly changes to a more seasonal approach, with Season Zero: Dawn and Dusk due to finish tomorrow, July 8.

Hopefully, this all helps those impacted by the job losses - which are expected to total 3,200 across Xbox and Microsoft by the end of the year - to find new opportunities. And maybe a little more respect will be put on Tamriel's Second Era as well.

Hitman and 007 First Light dev IO Interactive regains "full ownership" of its mysterious online RPG project after Xbox reportedly pulled funding

Along with the announced cut of 3,200 employees at Xbox, a number of studios like State of Decay 3 creator Undead Labs have either split from the company or gone independent – which also means, in the case of the zombie survival threequel at least, Game Pass might be off the table.

Just yesterday, Asha Sharma revealed the Microsoft layoffs, noting that Xbox sees three to 10 times lower margins than "comparable platform and publishing businesses." This "significant restructure" of the company also means that several studios – one of which is Undead Labs – are officially moving under other brands or going indie, splitting from Xbox. The State of Decay 3 developer itself will see new management, although it's unclear who just yet.

Although we don't yet know who Undead Labs' new owner will be, part of the exit deal between the team and Xbox may mean State of Decay 3 won't have to launch on Game Pass.

As per a recent report from Game File, while the deal does call for the release of the game, as well as the continued funding required up to that point, it doesn't leave State of Decay 3 obligated to Xbox-controlling terms, like being available on Xbox Game Pass. That's certainly interesting.

It's especially eye-catching as State of Decay 3 was just showcased during June's Xbox Games Showcase 2026, where it finally got a 2027 release date – a date fans had waited six long years to hear about.

The supposed continued funding is always nice to read, but I'm admittedly left wondering what other implications this entire situation might have for the third State of Decay entry. It's difficult to tell.

As for the other companies that will no longer be operating under Xbox, there's Psychonauts dev Double Fine, South of Midnight creator Compulsion Games, Senua studio Ninja Theory, and Arkane – a team that is notably currently working on Marvel's Blade. Management at the latter is "beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options," so it's not yet clear exactly what's happening there.

Some of these, like the first two, are independent now. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are finding new homes to work within.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says "a healthy Xbox could weather" the current storm, but Microsoft's gaming brand is anything but: "Our core has to be healthy."

If you're looking for some Meccha Chameleon tips to get better at hiding or seeking, then you've come to the right place. There are now millions of players trying out this viral hit and it can be hard at first to figure out what's going on, while learning the best ways to avoid detection or track down your opponents. Having played quite a few rounds myself, I'm here to help with tips for Meccha Chameleon, whether you're hiding or a hunter.

Wondering if you can play Meccha Chameleon on Mac, consoles, or mobile? We've got the latest information about releases on other formats.

1. Practice in a private server first

They say that practice makes perfect, and it's hard to git gud when you're running around in a panic before the hunters are released. So, if you jump into a private server with just you in it, you can take all the time you need to fully explore each stage to look for the best hiding spots and work on your painting skills.

To set this up, hit the Create Server option from the main menu and then configure the Meccha Chameleon max players count to 1 so you won't be disturbed. Create your server, select the desired map from the lobby, then feel free to wander round and experiment at your own pace.

2. Hiding in plain sight will get you more points

One of the big appeals with Meccha Chameleon is being able to disguise yourself well enough to hide in plain sight, and as you earn points for the time you spend in any hunters' sightline that's also the best scoring strategy. Look for objects you can naturally blend in with and are easy to mimic – I've had huge success in the past curling up next to balloons and matching their color, with whole squads of hunters walking past without spotting me!

Of course, as your skills improve you can start trying to make your hiding in plain sight more audacious, by painting yourself to blend in with increasingly complex surfaces and patterns. You can even try attaching yourself to objects and expanding them – if you look like you're part of the existing structure then you're much less likely to stand out to a hunter.

3. Use the 3D Eyedropper to match your surroundings effectively

If you want to paint yourself to match your surroundings, then you need to get the color(s) you're using as close as possible to the originals so you can blend in. The general Eyedropper tool in the menu will help with this, but the best approach is to use the 3D Eyedropper.

Hold down Space to activate the 3D Eyedropper tool, then hover the mouse over a surface to display a cross that will follow the contours, before using Left click to select the currently targeted color. Make sure you also hold the Right mouse button and move left or right to change the size of your brush – go big for the initial coloring, then shrink it down for detail work, and check the angles to confirm you've painted every part of you that's visible.

4. Hiding out of sight is also a solid option

While it's perhaps not a tactic that's in the 'spirit' of Meccha Chameleon, you can also choose to hide out of sight rather than blending in. While this approach probably won't score you as many points, the trade off is that you're more likely to survive the round if you find a good spot.

If you find a good place to tuck away, you should still give yourself a basic paint coat to match your surroundings so you don't stand out if a hunter starts investigating around you. However, watch out for a warning that "Your body is buried too much!" if you clip too far into the scenery, as if you don't adjust your position to rectify this you'll start flashing red for all hunters to easily find you.

5. Stay where you are unless you're sure your cover is blown

Sometimes while hiding in Meccha Chameleon you just have to hold your nerve when the hunters are near, and have faith that your disguise will keep you safe. I've had times when a hunter was literally crawling on top of me, but I persevered and eventually they moved elsewhere on their search.

Running around the level will make you instantly recognizable as a moving target, so only change position if you absolutely have to and try to stay out of sight if you do. If you end up being chased by a hunter, remember that they have to pause between shots, so keep moving and erratically change direction as you try to break their sightline.

6. Download new maps to keep things interesting

There are a handful of original maps supplied with Meccha Chameleon and new ones are being added, but the solo dev is never going to be able to keep up with the voracious appetites of millions of players. However, there are already a huge number of user created maps in the Steam Workshop, all of which can be downloaded for free.

If the lobby you are in selects a custom map you don't already have, you can easily follow the prompt to add it from the Workshop and jump straight in. My personal favorites so far are The Village, Art Gallery, and Where's Wally?/Waldo?

7. If you're hunting, don't overlook the obvious

As a hunter, you'll be tempted to comb areas of the map in minute detail to see if you can spot something slightly out of place that will give away a hider. However, this means you may overlook something completely obvious when an opponent is hiding in plain sight. When you start hunting, do a quick overall sweep around to see if anything stands out as unusual – especially if you're familiar with the map – before going on to examine areas in more detail.

8. Paint yourself as a hunter

This is more for fun than anything else, but don't forget that it's not just the hiders who can paint themselves. As a hunter you can still bring up all the same tools and give yourself a makeover, whether you want to make yourself look menacing or plain ridiculous! Just don't spend too long on your new look, as you'll be eating in to your hunting time...

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I've got a bunch of FNTD2 codes you can redeem for heaps of in-game rewards, letting you summon the best animatronics to add to your team. Standing out among the seemingly endless sea of anime tower defense games on Roblox, Five Nights TD2 instead pits a cast of FNAF characters against other FNAF characters.

If you want to draw the rarest FNAF faces, you're going to need plenty of Tokens and special 'presents', both of which you can get with these Five Nights TD2 codes, as well as Souls to boost your team's stats in the strategy Roblox experience.

Plus, if you want more codes for rewards you can use across experiences, take a look at our separate list of Roblox promo codes.

All FNTD2 codes

These are the FNTD2 codes that you can redeem right now:

• SORRY4DELAY2 - 50,000x Tokens, 100 raid coins, 250 Tower Coins, 1x000 Exp, Double Exp Potion (15 minutes) latest!
• UPDATE37 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 5x Season Presents
• THETOWER - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents (2.5k Faz Rating required)
• LOREKEEPER - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins. (5k Faz Rating required)
• PASSINGOFTIME - (10k Faz Rating required)
• FREEBIE - 5x Season Presents, 25x Souls, 2,500 Tokens
• CHIPSNOFISH - 50x Springlock, 50x Endo Chips
• PRIDEMONTH - Pridetime Foxy Pet and Skin

This list of valid FNTD2 codes shows just how varied the rewards are. From a new Pet to Season Presents and Raid Coins, there's so much to pick up for free here, so make sure you never miss any Five Nights TD2 codes.

How to redeem FNTD2 codes

To redeem FNTD2 codes, simply hit the Settings Cog button in the top right-hand corner of the screen in the lobby and enter your codes into the box at the bottom. Press Enter and the rewards will be yours.

The reason I highlight that you must do this in the lobby is that there is a codes redemption box in the in-match settings menu as well, but it appears this one works differently, and the codes listed above won't work there. You'll also find that some codes have a Faz Rating (AKA level) requirement, which can take a while to hit.

Expired FNTD2 codes

• 10KCCU - 100,000x Tokens, 1,000x Souls, 300x Endo Chips, 100x Springlocks, 100x Boss Raid Tokens, Clock Evo Material
• UPDATE36 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 50x Endo Chips, 5x Season Presents
• RAIDREFRESH - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• GAIACHICA - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE35 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 5x Season Presents
• QUESTSHOP - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• ELCHIP - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE34 - 5,000x Tokens, 100x Souls, 5x Season Presents
• SEASON5 - 10,000x Tokens, 250x Souls, 25x Season Presents
• LEFTY - 25,000x Tokens, 350x Souls, 50x Season Presents, 5x Raid Coins
• UPDATE33 - Rewards
• SANDBOX - Rewards
• PURIFIER - Rewards
• UPDATE32 - Rewards
• PVP - Rewards
• ANIMDUDE - Rewards
• UPDATE31 - Rewards
• NEWBYTE - Rewards
• RIDINGINSTYLE - Rewards

As you can see, plenty of FNTD2 codes have expired since the game launched - in fact, this is just a snippet of them. This means you should definitely redeem any valid codes while you can, and don't miss out on valuable rewards.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Hitman and 007 First Light developer IO Interactive has confirmed that it has "regained full ownership" of its upcoming online RPG, Project Fantasy, with plans to continue development "and fund it independently amongst our other projects" after Xbox reportedly pulled funding from it.

Last week, IO Interactive announced that "a relationship with an external partner on our own IP, Project Fantasy, has come to an end," and although the company said it'd "remain 100% committed" to the IP, there would be "short-term consequences, including staffing decisions." At the time, Bloomberg reported that it was Xbox that had pulled out of a deal to fund and publish the game – a claim IO Interactive didn't publicly confirm, but would hardly be surprising given yesterday's news of 3,200 Xbox employees getting laid off throughout fiscal year 2027.

Today, a statement from IO Interactive acknowledges the "end of our external finance partnership on Project Fantasy," adding that the company "has regained full ownership of the project and our IP. We will continue to develop and fund it independently amongst our other projects."

It explains: "With this context, we had to find a new balance for the long-term future of the studio, focused on the success of our main internal core titles instead of external projects and potential mobile game derivatives. This has meant making changes as well as proposed changes across our studios: the closure of our Istanbul studio and starting a process to part ways with colleagues who have been a meaningful part of what makes IOI what it is."

IO's "immediate focus is on supporting those affected as best we can through this period," it says, noting that it'd be thankful for any job opportunities and support that can be offered to any of the staff affected.

Furthermore, it calls its decisions "hard, but necessary" to "retain the long-term future of IO Interactive as one of the very few fully independent AAA" developer and publishers, in addition to giving "Project Fantasy the best possible foundation to succeed under our own passion and direction." It reiterates its commitment to the IP, noting that "we cannot wait to share the love with you."

Project Fantasy was first announced back in 2023, at which time IO teased that "it feels familiar, yet at the same time IOI is going on a journey unlike any we have been on before."

While yesterday's Xbox layoff news is undeniably devastating, one silver lining – per CEO Asha Sharma – is that "none of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions." Several studios are parting ways with Xbox, however, with Psychonauts developer Double Fine and South of Midnight studio Compulsion Games both going independent.

Bethesda boss says the company must focus on its "strongest franchises" as Xbox layoffs reportedly hit The Elder Scrolls and Fallout makers hard.

It's been nearly seven years now since Activision and Toys for Bob released Spyro: Reignited Trilogy – and there's a reason the well-received three-in-one remake feels so faithful to its old counterparts from the late 90s and early 2000s.

In case you've never played the remade trilogy, it's pretty solid – in fact, it plays exactly as I remember the original few games playing, striking the perfect balance between nostalgia and quality of life (I'm looking at you, OG PlayStation controls).

Toys for Bob studio head Paul Yan explains how and why the developers pulled this off in a new discussion with Kinda Funny on YouTube – and insightful is an understatement here.

According to the lead, the team first tried to find source code in-house so it could "reconstruct it" for the Reignited Trilogy.

So, instead, "one of our engineers took an open- source emulator and then modified that so that we looked at the original game and actually peered into its data, extracted a lot of the models… We extracted the levels. We measured all the metrics. We found the exact placement for every gem."

That's not all, though. "We measured the timing, the speed, and the paths of certain enemies." In other words, they delved deep into the modified emulator. "It gave us a lot of metrics that gave us the authenticity on that side of it," as Yan says.

Obviously, they did change some things so that Spyro: Reignited Trilogy wouldn't feel too "old," so to speak – the controls, as I joked earlier, are one of the bigger things.

And, honestly, I'm grateful that they did. As associate creative director Lou Studdert chimes in, after all, players tend to have "rose-tinted glasses" on when approaching retro games like Spyro.

You imagine them looking and playing a whole lot differently than they actually did – but the devs took that into account with Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, and it's better for it. I do wonder, though… how will Spyro: A Realm Beyond feel, in contrast?

We have some very exciting features – like free flight and such – to look forward to, but also the same colorful visuals that made the original games so comforting. Personally, I can't wait to give it a go… a new entry has been a long time coming.

"Going independent meant taking a massive, massive risk": How Toys for Bob split off from Activision and Xbox to help guide Spyro to A Realm Beyond

GamesRadar+ Replay is the gaming show you make by sending in your gaming clips. Incredible feats, fantastic displays of skill, or just failing in the funniest way possible - send them to us and every month we share the best on site and our social media.

Below we've got the best clips from June. There's everything there from astounding long range knife kills in Battlefield 6 to dancing cars in Forza, the true horror or Paralives, smol Batman and more. Plus there's a festival of Bond after 007 First Light was our Theme of the month (for July it's Assassin's Creed).

Take a look...

And, if you want to submit your own clips then here's a big orange button that will let you do that:

By submitting your clip, you agree to the Terms and Conditions.

If you need a helping hand, here's how to record gameplay on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch/Switch 2 to save your highlights

Apogee co-founder George Broussard has commented on the latest wave of Xbox layoffs, saying Microsoft not shutting the studios is simply "decent PR" for them while the studios now face new struggles.

As part of what it calls "the most significant restructure in Xbox history," Microsoft, is laying off 3,200 staff from Xbox over the next year, with five studios being sold or spun off as independent developers – including Bethesda studio Arkane, which is still in consultation over its future. Significantly hit from this round of layoffs is reportedly Doom and Quake developer id Software, which is with former Bethesda lead Jeff Gardiner reporting that 95 developers are being let go from the studio – which is reported to have around 200 employees per its LinkedIn.

Developer of one-time Doom rival Duke Nukem 3D Broussard also commented on the id layoffs on Twitter, reporting on what he's heard from the studio about the magnitude of these layoffs. "Tools, programming (except a couple), Quake Champions team, testing team. All gone." Broussard reports, while another quote says "seems like all they left was leadership and art/design. I think Xbox forgot Quakecon is next month."

Broussard adds, "It really does sound as if id is now a support team for Bethesda/others. Rip idTech, which was amazing. Maybe Machine Games will carry it on or maybe it will be dropped for future games? But the read is that id is essentially dead. At least for the time being. Yes, the studio wasn't closed and half still have their jobs. That's great."

As for the four studios Microsoft let go, Broussard says, "One view is this is great. For MS they get decent PR for being 'good guys'. But the truth is that in at least one case (and maybe others), retaining the IP in such a case was written into the original contract when MS purchased them."

So far, it has been confirmed that Double Fine and Compulsion are retaining their IP as part of their independence, with Undead Labs and Ninja Theory still confirmed to be working on State of Decay 3 and Senua, respectively; however, it's not clear if the studio's new owners will also own their franchises.

Broussard adds, "Second, these studios now are out of the MS lifeboat, on their own, and will have [a] short time to find new deals or funding and they will make it or not. Never mind they sold to MS originally to avoid this grind and be 'safe'."

He adds, "Yes, they have a second chance, but more layoffs may simply be deferred and outside the current umbrella of today's layoff round, so MS doesn't really get the bad PR of simply shutting studios down. This means continual worry by the employees and stress for mgmt."

id Software co-founder John Romero has commented on the layoffs, which have reportedly cut the Doom and Quake developer in half.

Xbox is laying off 3,200 staff over the next year as part of what it calls "the most significant restructure in Xbox history," with this marking the fifth wave of layoffs since acquiring Activision Blizzard for $75.4 billion. Hit especially hard from this is ZeniMax Studios – which Microsoft acquired in 2021 – with Arkane set to be spun off or sold (alongside Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games), while Fallout developer Bethesda Game Studios is reportedly losing 35 staff members.

Bethesda is reportedly pivoting to focus on its "strongest franchises," with reports claiming this is set to include Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein alongside the obvious push for The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5. However, shockingly, id Software – one-time Wolfenstein developer and current Doom and Quake shepherds – have reportedly been gutted with layoffs, with former Bethesda project lead Jeff Gardiner reporting that 95 of the around 200 staff members are being let go from the studio.

Romero – whose FPS title was canceled, reportedly by Microsoft last year, which had Romero Games potentially facing closure – reacted to the news on BlueSky, saying, "I’m thinking of everyone at id today, and everyone else affected by yesterday’s layoffs. Romero Games was there a year ago. I know how devastating it is, and my heart's with all of you."

Romero continues, "I know what it feels like to leave id while id goes on. It’s a strange and painful thing to step away from a place that holds so much of your work, friendships and history." He adds, "The people at id have done a great job moving that legacy forward. DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein are not easy names to carry on, especially in today’s industry. The last few games showed real care, skill and respect for what those worlds mean to people."

The gutting of id Software is especially confusing in the wake of the news that Bethesda wants to focus on two of its games, but on top of that, the amount of knowledge just lost from the studio with the layoffs reportedly focused on the coders working on the id Tech engine – who are regarded as some of the best in the industry – likely leaves the upcoming Doom, Quake, and Wolfenstein games in a worse place than they would have been.

Earlier this year, MSI announced a lineup of PC accessories based around the hit anime series Frieren Beyond Journey's End, and now the graphics card is finally up for grabs.

The MSI GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Frieren Edition card is a beastly GPU that comes packaged in a mimic-style box, which hopefully Frieren herself won't get stuck in. When she spots the $1,149.99 (Newegg) price tag, she might want to hide away, especially when you factor in that the launch model was $749 / £729.

The over 1K price tag is more than my physical anime collection, and I've been adding to it for decades. In fact, if you threw the combined cost of my Frieren figures, it'd likely still be more. However, as we're still dealing with the ramifications of the RAM Storage Crisis, which in turn has driven up the costs of graphics cards, it's sadly not surprising. I just wish I had the funds to invest in it and a rig fit for Frieren.

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Freien Edition card is a lofty investment even as far as the best graphics cards go, but as a Frieren fan myself, I can see why anime fans might still want to get their hands on it. The perfectly on-brand mimic-style treasure chest packaging is one thing, but it's the adorable art of Frieren and Himmel the Hero on the metal backplate that has me wishing I had the funds to put together my dream anime gaming PC right now.

The pair can be spotted sitting next to one another, while their silhouettes can be spotted throughout the Tri Frozr three-fan design on the opposite side. A closer inspection on the MSI website reveals the inclusion of a particularly emotionally devastating quote: "I'm sure you still have a long life ahead of you, far longer than we can imagine." Why would you do this to me, MSI? Why?!

As gut-wrenching as the quote on the graphics card is, I simply cannot budget for a new GPU. If you're in the same boat, fortunately, MSI also released a matching set of accessories that are a lot more budget-friendly. They're out of stock right now, but you can backorder the set for $179.99 at Newegg, which includes a Frieren Beyond's Journey End FORGE TKL wireless keyboard, a Versa wireless gaming mouse, and an Agility mouse pad.

Out of all this MSI set has to offer, I'm personally eyeing up the gaming keyboard, as it includes the mage herself printed throughout the keycaps. Not to mention, it includes a 1.06-inch display that the MSI FORGE TKL product page suggests can display chibi versions of not just Frieren, but my personal favorite characters Fern and Stark too.

I have a Frieren Beyond Journey's End bust figure on its way to me right now from Japan, and I can't help but think MSI's collection could combine to create a perfect anime-themed gaming setup. If you're considering building one of your own, I recommend getting in there quickly before stock of the GPU sells out too, and while backorders for the MSI gaming gear exist at all.

In the meantime, anime fans should also check out the new Ghost in the Shell gaming keyboards from IQUNIX.

• View all anime PC gaming accessories at Amazon
• View all MSI PC gaming accessories at Amazon

Our guides to the best gaming chair, the best gaming desk, and the best SSD for gaming are full of top-tier accessories that can give your PC setup a magical boost.