The 1994 JRPG The Legend of Heroes 3: The White Witch, which you might know by another name (more on that below), is being revived by Neowiz, the publisher behind the acclaimed Soulslike Lies of P.

If you haven't heard of The Legend of Heroes 3 until now, that might be because you're not a giant JRPG sicko and simply haven't encountered it until now. After all, the English localization released in North America in 2006 on the PlayStation Portable, and it remains exclusive to that platform to this day. The Japanese version is available on the Nintendo Switch eShop via publisher D4 Enterprise's EGGCONSOLE series of retro ports, but again, that's just the Japanese version with the option for English text in menus. That means the only way to play the official English localization is on PSP, and online discussion around that version is far from encouraging.

I promised I'd explain why the game is known by another name, so let me do that quickly. As is the case with a lot of Japanese games that are part of wider series that eventually come to the West, they aren't always released perfectly sequentially. The Final Fantasy series is notoriously confusing for this reason, but in this case, The Legend of Heroes 4 released in North America in 2005 as just The Legend of Heroes, so when its predecessor was localized the following year, it was titled The Legend of Heroes 2, a complete reversal.

It seems the remake, or remaster, or whatever it is (Neowiz calls it a revival and recreation), is sticking with the original Japanese naming convention and releasing it as The Legend of Heroes 3: The White Witch, on "PC and console" at an undisclosed date. Not much is known about the project, but Neowiz says it's aiming for a polished, updated adaptation.

"The White Witch has been cherished by RPG fans worldwide for over 30 years," reads a statement from a Neowiz spokesperson. "We want to bring a polished experience that recaptures the emotional experience of the original game, while inviting new and old players to immerse themselves in an updated adaptation. With this agreement, we are looking forward to building a strong partnership with Nihon Falcom." 

You also might know The Legend of Heroes series by its more well-known association, the Trails series, which spawned from the former with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky in 2004. Coincidentally, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, the second release in a remake series of the whole Trails series, is launching this week to fantastic reviews putting it even above critical darlings Resident Evil Requiem and Pokopia.

With that extremely nerdy history out of the way, here are the best JRPGs you can play right now.

It's taken 26 years, but modders have finally defeated the PS2 security chip. The MechaCon chip, which controls the console's disc drive and governs the system's anti-piracy measures, has now been dumped, opening up a world of new possibilities for modding and homebrew on the platform.

"After 4 years of effort, I'm happy to announce that one of the final secrets of the PS2 has been broken wide open! It's been a long process of decapping, optical dumping, and now at last a software solution," explains developer DiscoStarslayer in a Bluesky post, as spotted by our friends at Tom's Hardware.

This wasn't a solo effort by DiscoStarslayer, who specifically credits another modder named Libby with finding the exploit. But they describe this one as a "personal white whale" in another social media post.

After 4 years of effort, I'm happy to announce that one of the final secrets of the PS2 has been broken wide open!It's been a long process of decapping, optical dumping, and now at last a software solution.Thank you @libby.bsky.social for finding the exploit from our dirty optical dumps!

— @disco.camp (@disco.camp.bsky.social) 2026-09-16T21:36:38.529Z

This all means that the contents of the MechaCon chip have now been preserved, allowing other devs to study its contents and use the knowledge to further improve future hacks and emulation. The more information modders can squeeze out of the original hardware, the more resources other devs will have to make their work even better.

Perhaps the most exciting possibility is that we'll finally get a proper optical drive emulator, or ODE, for the PS2. Many other disc-based consoles now have ODE mods, which replace the original disc drive with an alternative that's more durable and can be loaded with numerous games. There are already plenty of other mods and devices that let you play games without a disc on a PS2, but in the wild and wooly world of console modding, more options are always a good thing.

These are the best PS2 games of all time.

As we await the rest of the 2026 game flood, including the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake and GTA 6, there's suddenly a new and very unexpected game of the year contender. That's Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, a new remake of a 20-year-old cult classic JRPG, which is launching to the best reviews of any game this year.

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter officially releases tomorrow, September 17, but critic reviews are slowly trickling in. On Metacritic, the PC version has earned a 93 based on 10 reviews, while the PS5 version has gotten a 92 based on 13 reviews. Either score puts it as the best-rated new release of 2026. (The Switch 2 version is a fair bit lower at 84, but that score is based on fewer reviews.)

Over on OpenCritic, which puts all platform reviews into a single pool, Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter has earned a 92. Across either site, that puts the JRPG ahead of all the best games of 2026, from big publisher releases like Forza Horizon 6, Resident Evil Requiem, and Pokemon Pokopia to indie breakouts like Mewgenics, Mina the Hollower, Titanium Court, and Big Walk.

For decades, developer Nihon Falcom's Trails series was something of an underground sensation – one for the hardcore JRPG sickos. But in recent years, the pool of sickos has either gotten much bigger, or the series has started to find a much larger audience. And with extensive world-building, robust combat systems, and memorable characters, it's no wonder the Trails fandom is growing.

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, as the name suggests, is the second in a line of remakes that are reviving the series from the beginning. Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter launched in 2025 to similar acclaim, and Falcom's president says the success has the company "hoping to continue the remakes for a while." Given the time investment it'd take to play through the entire Trails series at this point, these remakes might just be the jumping we all need.

These are the best JRPGs you can play today.

Destiny is not being merged with Marathon in a bid to revive the series after the end of development on Destiny 2, Bungie has confirmed as rumors make the rounds.

Bungie veteran Julia Nardin, now Marathon creative director but also known for myriad Destiny releases, addressed this rumor on Twitter in a post shared by principal community manager Cozmo.

"As someone who’s worked on both Destiny and Marathon, I can confirm that the 'leak' about us merging the two IPs is fake," she says. "They share a lot of the same Bungie DNA, but like siblings they’re also their own independent entities. Please don’t believe everything you read online."

Nardin seems to be shutting down a detail pulled from a lengthy post (shared to the Marathon subreddit) from a user or group claiming to have insider knowledge of upcoming Marathon plans.

"There has been some vague testing the waters internally to rework Marathon and Destiny into a single IP with Marathon representing the beginning of Mankinds Golden Age and to foreshadow more threats to be used in a future Destiny project," it reads.

"Expect many ideas in Marathon that were planned for the many Destiny 3 preprod vertical slices [former CEO Pete Parsons] kiboshed and shut down," the post adds.

The problem with this purported leak, of course, is that a majority of the people who made Destiny have been laid off. Never mind just how ridiculous the Golden Age tie-in would be, and the fact that this post is originally from famous knowledge bastion 4chan.

The far-reaching post also claims that Marathon "is going F2P in December," adding a PvE mode called Investigations with "Destiny raid style bosses," introducing Destiny-themed cosmetics, getting a new runner called Shrike, dividing stored loot between PvE and PvP modes, and at this point, let's give everyone a free car too.

Bungie ends Marathon's seasonal schedule, delays a September update to December, and makes it more like Destiny 2.

PS5 Linux forerunner Andy Nguyen is dropping the whole project "after pouring my heart and months of my life into it" over frustrations with AI vibe coders in the open-source space.

In March 2026, Nguyen shared a clip of normal GTA 5 gameplay running in a very abnormal environment. "I ported Linux to the PS5 and turned it into a Steam Machine," he declared. Ever since, he and other modders been working to expand, test, and polish a PS5-compatible version of Linux. The end goal was to create a way to convert a PS5 into a Linux PC. Not anymore.

In a new Twitter post, Nguyen says "I am stepping away from the PS5 scene and stopping all my work on PS5 Linux."

The reason is no secret. Nguyen laments that homebrew projects have been invaded by hapless AI users contributing untested, misunderstood creations.

"The scene used to be a group of highly talented researchers, but now it is just a bunch of noobs using LLMs and writing hacks they don't even understand," he says. "Slop kiddies found the only hypervisor bug left, which I had also found a while ago, and decided to report to Sony."

This hypervisor bug, an apparent vulnerability in this spliced operating system, was known and would be addressed, Nguyen suggests. "I asked them to at least wait for GTA 6 to come out so that people would have the opportunity to legally purchase the game and also enjoy Linux," he says, apparently speaking to the slop kiddies. "They agreed to wait, but not a day passed and they decided to waste it instead."

Between the risk of waking the Sony dragon and the exhausting onslaught of AI slop, Nguyen is out.

A similar situation boiled over for PS3 emulator RPCS3 in May, with project leads telling people to "stop submitting AI slop code."

"Learn how to debug, code, and leave behind something useful to humanity when you're gone," RPCS3 leads said in a post.

"Good games will get cloned and buried" – AI vibe coding is one of the biggest threats on storefronts like Steam, analyst warns.

A few weeks ago, we learned that Terranigma would finally get a modern re-release, bringing the classic Super Nintendo JRPG out in North America for the very first time. Today, remaster dev Clear River Games has confirmed that the new edition of Terranigma will launch on January 14, offering a host of details on the in-game updates and the first look at a super-deluxe $200 collector's edition.

Terranigma was originally developed by Quintet, a now-defunct studio responsible for numerous SNES classics like ActRaiser and Illusion of Gaia. Like many of those games, Terranigma was published by Enix – now one half of Square Enix – and has seemingly been trapped in some kind of licensing limbo ever since. Now it's finally coming out of the vault in style.

The Terranigma remaster launches across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, and PC via Steam and GOG on January 14, with physical editions available for all current console platforms. You can put $200 into the Gaia Edition, if you're so inclined, netting you a Yomi figure, music box, art book, cloth world map, soundtrack CD, and more. Pre-orders are available through Limited Run Games in the US or straight from developer Clear River Games in Europe.

But for me, the real news today is the remaster itself. Terranigma will feature an "original mode" offering "untouched balance" and the "original save system" for the classic experience. Even in this mode, however, there's a new sidebar alongside the 4:3 game window that shows your current money and experience, as well as a new set of quick access controls letting you quickly swap equipped items.

You can also swap to the "arranged mode," which promises "enhanced progression" and "adjusted difficulty," along with modern retro gaming conveniences like quick saves and rewinds. Best of all is a new minimap that shows your position in the current location.

These are the kinds of features I wish Square Enix itself would invest in for games like the OG Final Fantasy titles. The Pixel Remasters have turned out to be decent ways to play the originals, but those games have aesthetic and gameplay "improvements" that are questionable at best, and even the upgrades don't go as far as Terranigma's minimap and new inventory controls do. Getting the option of going back to the original experience and game balance offers the best of both worlds.

I'd be happy enough getting an official US release of Terranigma in just about any condition, but the remaster devs here are clearly going above and beyond to make sure this will be worth the three-decade wait.

These are the best SNES games of all time.

It's only just settling in that GTA 6 is actually coming out this November. After 13 years, the sequel will actually be here, and we have the extended look on Netflix to prove it. In light of this preview, a former Rockstar animator has shared his perspective on what we've seen and what it could lead to.

Mike York worked at the studio for a number of years, contributing to GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2, and his first impression is the duality of the two leads, Jason and Lucia. "Rockstar usually gives us a bunch of neat characters who are funny and have their own flair," he tells TechRadar.

"I don't know if we're going to see that with Jason, but I hope we do," he says, before adding Lucia is a contrast to Jason's stoicism. "There's that moment in the trailer where they get in an elevator, and he says, 'Sometimes I'm just more comfortable when I have to use a gun.' She replies: 'Just be charming!' Lucia's got this attitude where you can tell she's trying to break him out of his shell. She's the one that probably goes into missions gung-ho, all guns blazing."

That seems like what Rockstar wants us to believe. He's more of a strategist; she wants to go for it and figure it out as they do. Missions might involve both skill sets in different ways. In discussing the level of secrecy, York mentions that Rockstar operates under a complete information lockdown, to the point that having social media can feel like stepping out.

"They try to instill in all their employees that you don't say anything anywhere," he explains. "If you look up most of the people at Rockstar, they don't have any social media presence because they're scared to. I was. When I worked there, I didn't say anything ever."

As impressive as the showcase was, some parts didn't land especially well for him. Certain aspects are "a bit outdated and weird" and demonstrate shifting internal priorities. "The whole UI doesn't really match the style of game and what we're used to. Rockstar has a big and very talented team. If they wanted, they could go in and change those elements before a final release," he comments. "Will they do that? That's another question because there’s probably a lot of other stuff they're sweating about."

Ultimately, what comes out will be updated and patched for years afterward, and any niggling problems will likely be ironed out. "It will perform really well and become something we'll be able to play for a decade later like GTA 5," York adds. "Online will come out and probably be an ever-evolving metaverse which will carry the franchise forever."

Rockstar boss says GTA 6's police "can be harder" to shake off than before, "but it's fun" because it forces you "to think more"

Aniimo, the stunning open-world creature collector unveiled at Summer Game Fest 2025 as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, is finally available to play on PC and consoles – but it's not proving too popular just yet.

Many of us Pokemon and Palworld fans were downright blown away by Pawprint Studio's adorable little creatures and vibrant visuals when Aniimo first came to light – heck, it's been on my wishlist since. The reviews so far, however, aren't exactly stellar.

As of right now, the free-to-play game sits with a "Mixed" rating overall on Steam… and, yes, much of the more negative feedback has to do with microtransactions, purchases, and the like.

"Behind all the flashy visual flair is a mind-numbingly easy, boring gameplay loop built solely to push you toward aggressive monetization," reads one such review. "The sickening amount of predatory gacha mechanics and aggressive pay-to-win walls completely ruin any sense of genuine progression. Don't waste your time or money on this hollow cash-grab."

Oof – and there are countless others like it, disappointingly enough.

One person writes, "It's very much a gacha game. When I see that you're able to spend money to obtain rare items and end-game Aniimo, it turned me away from the game. I don't mind paying for cosmetics or features that don't affect gameplay but it's disgusting how you're pushed to spend money here, so disappointed."

Others slate Aniimo for its awkward writing and "hand-holding" – a complaint many modern games are no stranger to.

Not everyone finds Aniimo a disappointment, however. There are plenty of positive reviews, with fans celebrating the creature collector as an especially "cute" gem.

I see quite a few comparisons to Infinity Nikki as well, with one review noting how Pawprint Studio's debut game is "giving Palworld x Infinity Nikki vibes." I'm personally sold on that, honestly… even if the whole microtransaction and gacha thing has me a bit wary.

Thankfully, Animo is free to download and try out. Furthermore, it's topping the charts even if its reception offers a mixed bag of negative and positive reviews – in fact, it's currently the sixth-most-played game on Steam, as per Valve's charts… so, yeah.

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

Balatro creator LocalThunk has leaked a few substantial details about his poker deck-builder's upcoming 1.1 update, which he admits has gone way past its initial 2025 due date, assuming one can truly leak information about their own beloved game.

Let LocalThunk have this, though – "I'm going to give a real honest to goodness leak," he announced to Discord on September 14, "a proper 1.1 leak." Highlights include more Jokers, more vouchers, and a new voucher system fine-tuning how often Tier 2 vouchers appear. The developer apparently has "the current iteration of 1.1" downloaded on his phone, so he should know.

"If people will indulge me," he begins to say about his new voucher system. The current version of Balatro includes 32 total vouchers, half of which are considered strong Tier 1, while the other half is an even stronger Tier 2 that corresponds to the first type of card. So, "if you take a tier 1 vouchers in ante 1 (say, paint brush)," says LocalThunk, "you would have a 1 in 16 chance of finding the corresponding tier 2 in ante 2 (palette)."

But, "If I were to add 32 more vouchers (not a leak, for arguments sake)," the developer continues, "you'd have a 1 in 32 chance of finding palette in ante 2"

"NO BUENO," he continues. "So what if there was a system that kept track of all the tier 1 vouchers you’ve taken and it rolls an N in 16 chance (N being the number of tier 1 vouchers you have without their corresponding tier 2) to spawn the upgraded tier 2 voucher? That way, if you take paint brush in shop 1 you still have a 1 in 16 chance to get palette shop 2." Hm, what if!

As for what new Tier 2 vouchers will be available, LocalThunk gives only a tiny leak – a sprinkle. The developer shares art for the new Tier 2 voucher called Lunker, whose card is emblazoned with a powerful green fish flapping its tail while fighting off the hook stuck in its mouth.

"This fish is my proof of life, yes I'm still working on 1.1!" LocalThunk says. "I'm not leaking the effect btw." Similarly, the developer reveals a new blue stake – currently, the difficulty modifier enforces -1 Discard – but, "Dw I'm not leaking it."

Except, LocalThunk can't help himself from teasing, "It's pretty interesting, and there are some weird implications I would love to break into a blog post. I had to use the quadratic formula ona whiteboard to solve something to implement it." Ah, yes. I'll pretend to understand the implications of using the quadratic formula here.

More straightforward is the new "when card is drawn to hand" mechanic, which "also applies when you open tarot or spectral packs," says LocalThunk. There's a 1.1 content checkbox you can toggle so that 1.0 modders can retain their work, and LocalThunk says he'll "add a new branch on steam well ahead of launch for current 1.0 version."

This last piece of information made everyone on Discord freak out – "I thought [the] lunker was the big ticket item," says a confused LocalThunk – but LocalThunk has one more announcement before taking his last bow: "at least 4 new jokers in 1.1," he writes in a September 15 Discord post.

By now, you're probably frothing under your Joker mask with anticipation for the long-awaited 1.1 update, but you should grab a handkerchief and prepare for more sitting around. LocalThunk says, "I'm happy the leaks are going over so well," but "I never should have given a release window."

"I don't want this to be half baked and wreck Balatro," LocalThunk continues. "I love the game too and I want to play a fun game not a rushed botch job." At the moment, he can only promise more progress updates and the occasional leak or 15, and let you know he's grateful.

"This past year of dev has been probably the most fulfilling work I've ever done," LocalThunk concludes.

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 adds Balatro's Jimbo in a surprise new quest with a huge addition to the RPG's best minigame.

When Sony announced its plan to discontinue physical games by January 2028, players responded by orchestrating a week-long boycott. Meanwhile, I went out and bought a PS5 disc drive.

Boycotts can and do work, but this one felt futile. An analyst confirmed that the boycott made "no significant change at all" in PSN's player count numbers over the course of the blackout. In fact, Sony's stock price mostly trended upward during the period.

Players' hearts were in the right place, but it's time to accept that we're going to see the end of physical games for PlayStation. But as I move toward acceptance myself, I've decided to return to my hard copy roots in 2026 to see what I've been missing.

Physical upbringing

When we were kids, my brother and I would visit GameStop together. We had no particular games in mind that we wanted to pick up, but the promise of finding something new always drew us back. We almost exclusively played used games, emblazoned with the pre-owned GameStop price sticker. Every game we had was on a disc or cartridge, kept in well-loved cases that were popped open and clicked close so often that I could still recognize the sound from a mile away.

I grew up in the GameCube era, with physical memory cartridges you could swap out, CD-ROMs to play on the family computer, and VHS tapes that required you to be on channel three to watch. I have the majority of The Sims 3 expansions in a box with no disc drive to ever return to, original Xbox games that are no longer backwards compatible with the current generation, and a handful of Xbox One games collecting dust on a shelf. Physical media is in my DNA, but somewhere along the way, I traded it in for the convenience of digital gaming.

Nowadays, the majority of my gaming library is on Steam, and until recently, I hadn't purchased a single physical game for this current generation. I bought a PS5 Pro right after the God of War Laufey announcement; I have no intention of missing out on the next God of War instalment now that PlayStation will stop porting PS5 exclusives to PC, and was more than ready to retire my near-obsolete Xbox Series X (the big boy simply can't fit in my room alongside the PS5).

It wasn't until I was in the car, PS5 Pro buckled into the passenger seat, that I was informed of one crucial detail. My friend asked me if I had also bought a PS5 disc drive, to which I responded similarly to Jennifer Lawrence in her infamous Hot Ones meme: "What do you mean?"

I laughed, because the thought hadn't occurred to me that, even in an age where physical media is being pushed out, a current-gen console wouldn't include a disc drive. I bought one a few months later, because I still wanted to use it as a media player – I have the 10th anniversary edition of Interstellar, after all.

When I finally put in that order for a PS5 disc drive, I was excited, and not just because I could use the physical media I already owned. I had just unearthed muscle memory that had been buried in the instant gratification of digital media.

Back to my roots

So I went out and performed my years-old ritual. I found a local used games store, filled to the brim with old and new games, hardware from every generation, countless DVDs and CD-ROMs. The place was a testament to the preservation of physical media. Suddenly, I felt like a kid again.

I walked out of that store with Ghost of Tsushima for $35, as well as two more spontaneous purchases. . All said, I spent $79 on three games – just $3 more than what I spent on my pre-order copy of Marvel's Wolverine. As I got into my car, I remembered being a kid in the backseat, opening up the case of the game I'd just purchased just to stare at the disc or cartridge, look through the booklet, anything to keep me satiated until I got home and could play it.

It's a lost tradition nowadays, especially since now I'm the one driving the car and games rarely come with any sort of booklet. But holding a physical game in my hands, I experienced a level of fulfillment you just don't get when you buy digital.

We can't sway a multi-billion dollar company by pointing out that we're losing true ownership, more affordable options for games, and the age-old tradition of sharing copies of games with friends and family. Those responsible for pruning physical media don't measure it by the same values. But we can still embrace collecting and playing hard copy games while they're here. I certainly intend to make the most of the time I have left with physical games, and you should too.

Check out all the best GameCube games to pick up and play while you're reminiscing.

The 9-year-old boy behind YouTube channel Mighty Mike Plays has allegedly been forced to make some budget revisions after his dad noticed $118,000 in charges on his company credit card, which, the dad claims, was used without his knowledge to promote Minecraft, Roblox, and other Let's Play videos in comically long advertisements.

An increasingly viral video titled "Message from Dad...Mighty Mike Plays is Over" sees an exhausted father take the microphone to explain what happened here. Now ranked seventh on YouTube gaming trends, the video has gained nearly 400,000 views in a day.

On August 7, Mighty Mike (as I'll call him) began uploading videos, mostly from Roblox but with an occasional Minecraft snippet. As the dad, Dave, explains, the videos didn't get much traction, as you'd expect of the hobbyist clips of a kid thrown into a sea of Roblox. So, Dave says Mighty Mike, likely eager to stand among the YouTubers his generation adores, asked about ways to reach more people.

This led to a small advertisement campaign for the Mighty Mike channel: $20 just to get his videos in front of some eyeballs via YouTube ads. Unbeknownst to Dave, his payment and login information were saved to the Mighty Mike YouTube account, granting his son access to a unified Google account linked to a credit card.

That payment information, tied to Dave's business credit card, was then used by Mighty Mike to push Minecraft video ads in front of hundreds of thousands of people. The ads appear to have included a 34-minute video in its entirety.

You might be wondering how this wasn't caught sooner, how a parent could leave a credit card in the hands of a Roblox-happy kid, or whether this whole thing might be a (successful) bid for virality to drum up the channel. How did the company card get folded into this? Why would you ever use a company card on this account? How did the company, payment controllers, bank, and YouTube overlook what looks to be weeks of blatant fraud? Is Dave just an AI-generated voice?

There's reasonable doubt here, but this wouldn't be the first time a child spent a fortune online while their parent wasn't looking, and there is evidence orbiting this case. A separate video from NeverMyFault, a Minecraft YouTuber with 2.1 million subscribers, was uploaded several days ago. It captures one of these Might Mike video ads in the wild, lending credence to this whole arc. "It's just a kid playing Minecraft for 30 minutes straight," NeverMyFault says. This, in turn, inspired a response video from Mighty Mike.

Several Minecraft videos on Mighty Mike Plays do have unnaturally high view counts for such a fresh, amateur channel. Some of those views were surely a knock-on effect from this newfound virality, but the view spike is centered around three videos: "Minecraft part 1 {new series}," "Minecraft ultra starter guide," and "Minecraft Hardcore part 1 wait for end."

"Minecraft part 1 {new series}" is 34 minutes long and was the target of the wholesale ad shown in NeverMyFault's video. The comments on Mighty Mike's video are filled with users saying they found it through an ad, and I doubt Mighty Mike has the kind of pull to enlist a massive network of bot accounts.

"Apparently my son has been running some high-budget campaigns on YouTube that I was pretty much unaware of," says Dave.

"We just thought he was having fun, playing video games, uploading them to YouTube," he continues. "But basically, today I got called into the office at work. I walk in and we got the corporate manager, we got people from finance. They pull up a laptop, show me some tables on the screen, and basically ask me to explain why there's $118,000 missing from the company card that was assigned to me."

Dave's comments suggest he did intentionally use his company card for that first ad, limited campaign: "I put in the card information myself. Figured that was that. End of story. What I didn't think about, not even for a second, was that saving my company's card meant it was just going to sit there afterward, ready to go, pretty much available anytime he opened an app on his own."

The dad says the situation is nowhere near as funny when it's happening to you, but he stresses he isn't blaming his son for just doing 9-year-old things. "He didn't fully understand what a company card meant or that a large number on the screen represented real money," he says.

NeverMyFault estimated that one Mighty Mike Minecraft ad could run upwards of $6,000. "Not quite, brother," says Dave. "Six figures."

Nevertheless, "this is not a haha funny story, everything worked out fine kind of situation," Dave adds. "I mean, not yet at least. There's a real, genuine chance that I end up personally having to pay some of that, or all of that, back out of my pocket." This, you can imagine, would be a crushing expense.

While Dave sorts this out, he says Mighty Mike will be pausing his burgeoning YouTube career, and probably "mowing lawns until he's 18" to help pay for this.

He also says the magic words: "Moving forward, for anyone who's been asking in the comments already, we're going to set up some real, actual parental controls, spending caps, no more saved payment information on any accounts."

The next Minecraft update, Wilderness Bound 26.3, is here.

As The Blood of Dawnwalker sinks its fans into the community, I've been keeping an eye on player sentiment. Some, like me, have been transfixed by the plethora of choice available. I love how the vampire RPG's open world unfolds at your own pace despite the 30-day timer – which isn't as punishing as I thought it would be. Others have bones to pick with its design elements, from wrestling with awkward camera angles in combat to the curious lack of proper stealth.

While I find it an impressive effort from a non-triple-A studio like Rebel Wolves and am more than happy to forgive its maiden voyage a few teething problems, there is a more simple reason many players might expecting something different to what they get. Namely, I think some were expecting more than just Witcher 3 vibes in The Blood of Dawnwalker.

Twinsies?

Ever since the game was first revealed in January 2025, discussions around The Blood of Dawnwalker inevitably bring CD Projekt Red into the conversation. Reddit is still awash with very similar questions today: how much like The Witcher 3 is The Blood of Dawnwalker, really, and does liking one mean you will love the other?

Well, the answer really depends. As a project created by ex-Witcher 3 developers – a tagline that, admittedly, has been done to death by myself and fellow games journalists in the leadup to the game's launch – it does share some DNA. By that, I mean both Geralt and Coen exist in medieval high-fantasy worlds, and that dialogue choices shape the story you will experience.

The game director himself is "really comfortable" with the comparisons, but having played both The Blood of Dawnwalker and The Witcher 3 to completion, let's be real. The two RPGs are mechanically and tonally alien to one another.

While playing Dawnwalker for the first time, I thought back to the closed-doors Witcher 3: Songs of the Past demo I was privileged to attend at Gamescom 2026.

Watching Geralt run barefoot through the leafy countryside town of Letten before punching a dude in the face to get his best friend's lute back, all in time to swan into a mansion wearing last night's gladrags – it's the kind of lighthearted opening fodder Coen of Laslea couldn't dream of. We never get a glimpse of a happy Coen; the game starts in a black plague fever dream throwback, and things never get better for the unlikely hero.

Even when Songs of the Past's mysterious drama starts unfolding – companion Dandelion has vanished, and it's up to his sister and Geralt to search for him – there's a warm, almost self-aware familiarity about it. There are tough decisions to be made in The Witcher, but this world is as much a campy fairytale as it is imperiled. Case in point: Geralt gets so stoned in one mission that his horse can converse with him.

That tonal balance can be seen in Geralt's new-and-improved combat capabilities coming in the DLC. Not only does he still have his trusty steel and silver swords at his back, for man and monster respectively, Geralt will have a silver hook on a chain for fancy ranged attacks. It'll be a new stand-in for the crossbow come the expansion's 2027 launch, a throwback to the source novels that gives Geralt even greater combat diversity and shows off his status as a tried-and-true battle master.

But then, there's Coen in The Blood of Dawnwalker. Anyone who comes to Rebel Wolves' RPG expecting a Witcher 3-like combat experience will be sorely disappointed. Without his witchcraft or vampire abilities, Coen is all melee, all the time. The directional blocks and dodges are another fresh challenge, requiring keen reflexes and even greater dexterity since Coen cannot simply dodge-roll around the battlefield and buttonmash to success. So why are we all comparing Dawnwalker to The Witcher 3?

Separate ways

I'd say the exact same thing even with combat put aside completely. Coen has a time constraint. Geralt does not. Coen's actions in the open world get punished by edicts, increasing pressure on the player as you fight back against vamp lord Brencis. Geralt's are not.

When I see prospective Dawnwalker players asking how lively or dense the open world of Vale Sangora is compared to Geralt's Continent, I wince. Coen's world is not the size of a literal country. It does not have the enemy or mission variety of The Witcher 3, which had a book series and two games to draw upon, and as the first game in a would-be saga, nor did I expect it to.

I feel partly responsible for the constant hat-tipping to The Witcher 3 that set The Blood of Dawnwalker up for these comparisons. It was a way into the new IP that, at the time, created an immediate touchstone for players to better understand the overall vibe and style of the game before we knew much about it.

But now that Dawnwalker is out in the wild, hear my plea: It's time to leave Geralt alone and appreciate Coen on his own merit. Comparing the first in a potential saga to a soon-to-be four-part video game series sets up unrealistic expectations for everyone. I wonder if the comparisons will hold up when The Blood of Dawnwalker closes in on its modern day timeline, or if Cyberpunk 2077 will be the new chosen one?

Check out all the upcoming RPGs for 2026 and beyond if you've had your fill of Vale Sangora.

While these Bloxnote codes might not award you with anything that will provide a competitive advantage, it's always handy to have some fresh emotes to communicate how you're feeling or perhaps show off when you're playing well.

Inspired by Deathnote, Bloxnote is a social deduction game in which you have to figure out who's killing people as Kira - or play the notebook owner yourself as you try to avoid detection. Either way, you can see how emotes might come in handy. Most of these Bloxnote codes give Apples (iykyk), which you can use for emotes or titles in this Roblox Among-Us-like.

While you're not writing in the Bloxnote, check out our list of the current Roblox promo codes for more general rewards that can be used across all experiences.

All Bloxnote codes

These are the Bloxnote codes you can redeem right now:

• ABASAIYANWALK500K - 1,000x Apples, Saiyan Walk Emote

As I've mentioned, and as you can see from the list above, most Bloxnote codes grant apples, with a few bonus codes sometimes offering special emotes. While you can spend apples on emotes and titles, you could also save up for the Rem skin if you're willing to put in the time.

Bloxnote codes aren't case-sensitive, so you only have to worry about spelling them correctly. You can always copy and paste them from above to be safe, since some codes are complex.

How to redeem Bloxnote codes

To redeem Bloxnote codes, click on the Settings button in the top left-hand corner of the screen, then scroll to the bottom of the Settings window to find the redemption box. Enter a code from above and click the green Redeem button to claim your rewards. You can do this during a game at any time other than in the meeting room - but you probably shouldn't.

Expired Bloxnote codes

• VISITS200K - 1,000x Apples
• SORRYFORSHUTDOWN - 500x Apples
• SRRYFORSHUTDOWN - 500x Apples
• RELEASE - 500x Apples

There are already some expired promos since Bloxnote launched in September 2026, so we can expect codes to come and go very quickly, meaning you should redeem any valid codes as soon as possible to avoid missing out.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

My PS5 has been collecting more dust these days after Sony's decision to back out of the physical game market, but the newly announced PlayStation Pulse wireless and Pulse Edge wireless headsets could be the trick to drive me back.

The new era of PS5 headsets was announced yesterday on the official PlayStation Blog, by Joe Bentley, the Vice President of Engineering at Sony Interactive Entertainment. There, he revealed that they have been equipped with larger planar audio drivers than the previous Pulse pairs to create "fuller, deeper bass" while maintaining a clean sound for PS5 players. Better yet, the Edge is equipped with ANC, which is entirely new for PlayStation's Pulse headset lineup.

The PlayStation Pulse Edge is the higher-end of the two newly announced PS5 headsets, perhaps as it has the edge over the other with its extra features?

Not only has it got ANC and a planar magnetic driver in tow, but Joe Bentley iterates that it has "double the magnet" volume compared to the PlayStation Pulse. If you're wondering why that's a good thing, the drivers in question are made up of a thin diaphragm with conductive wire across its surface. Magnets sit on either side to create a magnetic field that moves the diaphragm when sound (like from the best PS5 games) travels through.

With more magnets at your disposal, like the 8 per planar driver of the Edge, the more evenly air can move, which helps produce clear and enhanced bass. The downside to this is that headsets like it can be a lot heavier as a result, but there's no indication of how weighty we can expect the upcoming cans to be just yet.

What we do know for certain is that the Edge is also set to include a detachable boom mic for voice chat, AI-enhanced noise rejection, and PlayStation Link support when it launches in "early 2027" - all features you can expect to find on the PlayStation Pulse too.

The Pulse is expected to launch "this holiday season," so you'll have less time to wait. It won't have ANC in its corner, nor a fancy carrying case, or built-in game audio and chat balance control, which you can expect from the Edge. It also only has 4 magnets per planar driver in its midst, but you'll still be able to connect it to your PS5 or PS Portal via PlayStation Link, and pick it up in a White or Midnight Black colorway when it's ready to ship.

For now, PlayStation has yet to drop the prices for the new Pulse headset line-up, but I'll be sure to let you know as soon as those details drop, which should be "soon" according to the blog post. For now, there's still time to pre-order the Pulse Elevate wireless speakers for $219.99 (via PS Direct) / £199.99 (via PS Direct) if you're after some planar magnetic driver-powered sound.

• View all Pulse PS5 headsets at PS Direct

Can't wait for the new PlayStation Pulse and Pulse Edge headsets? Our best gaming headset guide is full of the best PC headsets for gaming, which are also compatible with Sony's current-gen pixel-pusher.

Marvel's Wolverine lead actor Liam McIntyre has thanked Insomniac Games and the Wolverine fanbase as his performance finally reaches the world.

Sharing a post on Twitter from Insomniac community and marketing director James Stevenson of the team celebrating the launch of Marvel's Wolverine with the actor, McIntyre congratulated the team on the release, adding, "Insomniac, you've given this nerdy kid more than he ever dreamed of. No amount of thanks will ever express my gratitude."

McIntyre later followed this up with a video message thanking fans of the game, saying, "Thank you for all of the incredible words and all the amazing support we've had on this really awesome launch day."

The Wolverine actor adds, "we've spent years and years trying to build something that we're really proud of." He also shouts out the team at Insomniac, saying, "you guys are just the absolute best." McIntyre also spoke about his role in the game, saying, "I can't believe it. This has been the honor of a lifetime."

While Wolverine is the worst-reviewed Insomniac Games title since the studio was acquired by Sony – as far as critic ratings go – so far fan reception seems to be positive, with the PlayStation Store reviews sitting at 4.84/5 stars on launch day.

McIntyre is especially receiving praise for his role, with responses to his posts full of positive comments about his performance in the game, and some calling for him to be given more projects as the character.

Marvel's Wolverine dev Insomniac has "been cooking hard" in response to negative feedback: "We have been 100% listening"

No video game is perfect, regardless of how popular or enduring they are. The Witcher 3 is no exception, and on the back of the upcoming remaster, one lead developer makes it clear he'd revisit quite a bit of the massive RPG.

"For me, The Witcher 3 is not a monument and is not untouchable. It is still vivid in my memory, and it is still something that is not maybe a point of reference, but something that still may be improved," Marcin Blacha, lead writer on The Witcher 3 and now vice president of narration at CD Projekt Red, tells PC Gamer.

"When I'm playing The Witcher 3, I still find some places that I think maybe nowadays, I would do it differently."

I can understand this mentality. There's a lot to do in Wild Hunt, and since it's been over a decade, Blacha's now got the value of hindsight in what could've been more efficient or better.

Not only is the base game about to get a sizable lick of paint, but there's an expansion coming too, Songs of the Past. They provide a decent amount of changes and additions to the 11-year-old game between them, and Blacha found the whole process to be invigorating creatively.

"Adding a new expansion is not such a huge deal," he explains. "In fact, discovering we still have it, you know, we have this thing, and we are still able to create a story that fits not only vanilla Witcher 3 but also Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine. It is still a very uplifting feeling – a time machine that brings me 10 years back, when I was younger and maybe more passionate and more enthusiastic."

To compound what he's talking about, the chain weapon Geralt uses in Songs of the Past was an idea for the base game the team couldn't figure out in time. It seems like the devs still have more to say in The Witcher 3, and more power to them for making good on those opportunities still.

And it helps that Songs of the Past will take the edge off waiting for The Witcher 4.

The Witcher 3's Songs of the Past expansion wouldn't be "possible" without the RPG's remaster, says CD Projekt Red: "The stars had to align."

Bad news if you live in Europe and you're still without a PS5 Pro ahead of the release of GTA 6 – stock issues have sent prices skyrocketing, as it appears everyone has had the same idea of grabbing the console before the launch of Rockstar's blockbuster this November.

As reported by Heise Online, asking prices for the PS5 Pro have increased significantly over the last few weeks, coinciding with the GTA 6 Extended Look. A price tracking chart on the site shows a major upward trend in prices in Germany, with things remaining steady at the €899.99 recommended retail price in early August before jumping up at the end of the month into the thousands around and beyond the big GTA 6 showcase.

The site currently lists asking prices for the console from sites like Notebooksbilliger going as high as €1,399.99. Many of the inflated listings come from third-party sellers on eBay, and there's a seemingly good reason for that – a lack of stock elsewhere. The PS5 Pro is listed as unavailable on PlayStation Direct in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and the UK. In Germany specifically, reports from late last month show this has been the case for weeks.

Is this really GTA 6's fault? Well, we can't prove it for sure, but there's certainly a correlation if nothing else. And it makes sense – Sony and Rockstar previously proclaimed that GTA 6 "plays best on PS5," and, well, the PS5 Pro is the better PS5. It'd make sense that GTA fans would want to prepare for launch by buying the strongest available platform.

This demand-driven price surge is even more unfortunate than it could have been as it also comes after an official price hike from Sony earlier in the year. In Europe, the PS5 Pro jumped to €899.99 this April – a €100 increase from its €799.99 launch price. That'd be a significant enough surge as it is, but to see the consoles now go for hundreds more than that as folks become desperate to get their hands on one? It's rough out here.

GTA 6 teasers keep popping up on celebrity social media as Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, and more hint at Rockstar collaboration.

Diablo 4's 15th season, Season of Hell's Legacy, is officially live following a brief delay apparently caused by server issues.

Blizzard fully lifted the lid on Season of Hell's Legacy during BlizzCon 2026, showing off a nostalgic seasonal questline celebrating the entire history of the Diablo series coinciding with its 30th birthday—and confirming a September 15 release date. It's definitely one of the meatiest seasons so far for Diablo 4, so it's not a huge surprise that players had been reporting server issues all day today, leading Blizzard to delay it altogether without confirming a new time/date. Well, thankfully that turned out to be a brief delay, as Blizzard has announced that Season of Hell's Legacy is officially live "now."

I have also logged in and created a character in the Seasonal realm without issue. It is worth noting, however, that Solo Self Found mode has been temporarily disabled and there's no known timeline for its return.

In advance of the new Amazon class next year, Diablo 4 is whisking players off all the way back to the series' roots with a new seasonal activity called Waking Nightmares, which are essentially quests recreating the most iconic boss fights in the series' history. Longtime players will appreciate the return of beloved characters like Deckard Cain as well as some less beloved but equally familiar faces like Mephisto, Baal, and at long last, Diablo himself as Diablo 4's long-awaited final, final boss.

There is something of a horned elephant in the room with Diablo 5 having been announced at BlizzCon and the implications for Diablo 4. And yes, Blizzard has confirmed there will be no more full-blown Diablo 4 expansions as it turns to focus on Diablo 5, but it has also confirmed that seasonal updates like this one will continue to drop for the foreseeable future.

Diablo 5 goes back to a pre-Diablo 4 world of "constant discovery" and procedural dungeons: "The only thing beyond the fog of war is more questions"

Destiny's Taken King expansion is officially 11 years old, and former Bungie studio vice president Mark Noseworthy marked the occasion by saying what many Destiny players have thought a million times: this game is so good, but it could be so much better.

In a post on Twitter, Noseworthy, who left Bungie in 2024 along with some other senior staff amidst layoffs, describes The Taken King as his personal pinnacle.

"Of all the parts of Destiny I’ve worked on, this remains my personal favorite as a player and the one I’m most proud of," he reflects. "We knew Destiny 1 was so close to great; it was just missing some ingredients and a different preparation. 'I love playing Destiny. I hate that it’s not better' was our mantra while making [The Taken King]."

The early days of Destiny were some of the series' messiest, with players and Bungie both unsure of what the game was meant to be. The Vault of Glass, the first raid, helped crystallize the vision and, frankly, resuscitate the game, but it was The Taken King – a blast of new content, an immeasurably stronger story, added buildcrafting options, and improved progression and endgame pursuits – that really pushed the game over the top. This is what Destiny can be.

The Taken King is still remembered as one of the best expansions in Destiny's history – to some, the best, though I personally put it behind The Witch Queen and, at the top, The Final Shape. (It's no coincidence that most of the best expansions are Hive-themed, as the Hive have the best lore.) It also cemented a pattern that would come to define much of Destiny's life, and a slightly meaner mantra that many players adopted: I hate Destiny, it's my favorite game.

Throughout its life, Destiny has often felt like it's about to turn the corner, with only its finest expansions actually delivering on everything expected or imagined, and avoiding systemic missteps that another expansion would have to fix.

Looking back, a lot of Destiny expansions really were fixers. Destiny 2's Forsaken, for example, was a near shot-for-shot replay of The Taken King: after a troubled launch, Bungie stepped in to correct a bunch of errors. That became my acid test for expansions: how much of this is fixing Destiny, and how much of this is celebrating or expanding it? Is the game great now, or could it be great later?

The final update for Destiny 2, stuck in stasis after Bungie ended active development and began to really prioritize digging Marathon out of its rut, left it in arguably the best place it's ever been, with FOMO removed, loot updated, and many events available. But with the end of development, the game also stopped chasing those new horizons. We'll never turn the corner now.

Bungie ends Marathon's seasonal schedule, delays a September update to December, and makes it more like Destiny 2.

Upcoming Mass Effect-like RPG Exodus takes romance seriously, which means you'll need to get comfortable with the idea that serious romance requires sacrifice, and, sometimes, a pig pen of mess. You'll be able to date around, but not without consequence.

Exodus narrative director – and Mass Effect's lead writer – Drew Karpyshyn tells Game Informer that romance was mandatory for the sci-fi drama because "it would feel almost hollow" without it. "Romance is a huge part of the real world," Karpyshyn adds, and Exodus encourages you to be reasonable when you feel a familiar spark in-game.

So while "you can have multiple romances going at the same time," Karpyshyn says, "eventually, there might be some issues with that, depending on which companions [you choose]."

It's like any other situation where one partner wants to discuss non-monogamy and the other wants to throw their copy of The Ethical Slut into a funeral pyre. Basically, "Not everybody is comfortable with that," Karpyshyn says, "and as the story develops, your romance might go from something like a casual relationship, more of a fling, to something much deeper."

"In that case," the writer says, "most of the companions would not want you to have a very deep emotional connection with somebody else as well." You may choose to ignore your lovers' wishes if you'd like to live your life in space as an evil bachelorette, but keep in mind that Exodus' romance is connected to its affinity system. So, the more you risk your tires getting slashed – or whatever the intergalactic equivalent of that is. Your rocketship will get keyed.

Even mission scenarios can risk pissing off your partner. Karpyshyn explains, "You might get into a situation where you think, 'Well, for this mission, I actually agree with this character, but I've been romancing this character. Should I just back them anyway?"

"If you do," the writer continues, "that'll obviously get you more affinity with that character." But "if you decide not to back the character," he warns, "you might get yourself into a situation where they are not very happy with you. I'm sure anyone who's been in a relationship has experienced that."

Karpyshyn explained to GamesRadar+ in February that playing as the main character doesn't give you magic heartthrob status. Its approach to relationships, as I'm sure you've been starting to pick up on, is more realistic than that. The narrative lead said at the time, "There are some games where, literally, you can just romance anyone, because you're the hero, and you just get it." Exodus doesn't waste its time with something so easy.

"We want it to be a little bit more than that. We want these relationships to feel real, which means there's sometimes conflict, there's sometimes push and pull. Sometimes you've got to earn it" – something you should keep in mind for your time both in space and on Earth.

Exodus steps out of Mass Effect's shadow with combat that builds on BioWare's RPG and a galaxy that I'm itching to explore.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons ditches the quest and objective waypoints seen in many large games, and even lets you disable its small compass, to prioritize organic exploration. It's music to my ears.

General manager Dominic Guay of Warlock developer Invoke Studios spoke to IGN about the game's approach.

"We wanted them to engage with the world, to figure things out and feel that when they found things, it was based on their actions and not just blindly trusting a waypoint,” he says.

Guay, like the other former Watch Dogs developers at Invoke, speaks from experience. With a "heavy-handed guiding approach," he says, "a lot of players will just blindly follow the waypoint, and then you lose that agency, you lose that feeling of curiosity."

Before the launch of Red Dead Redemption 2, players gathered around a rumor that Rockstar had added pro-exploration settings that would disable waypoint-like hints and add additional, grounded clues into the game's world, like NPC comments or map details. Warlock uses a system that sounds a little bit like that.

As Guay explains, "Mysteries" can be uncovered through exploration and various interactions. "Not only are there multiple entry points, but depending on how you stumble upon them, it might change how you interact with them," he says. My read is that it's sort of an inverted tree structure: lots of branches to find, all leading back to the core.

This discussion on player agency and direction comes as Marvel's Wolverine, the latest from Insomniac Games, fields criticism of overdone guidance. Amidst the discussion, Insomniac says "we have been 100% listening" and "cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback." (Our own Marvel's Wolverine review mostly docks the game for messiness in its story and features, with combat never becoming good enough to carry the experience.)

Last month, we got a fresh, extended look at Warlock gameplay. Very different from D&D standard-bearer Baldur's Gate 3 and with hints of Dragon's Dogma 2, the game is shaping up to be, if nothing else, interesting.

Warlock escapes Baldur's Gate 3's long shadow with a very different take on D&D that I'm happy to roll my dice on.

It seems to me that no one is ever convinced that Game Pass deserves an oxygen tank while it's dying, not even Xbox executives. Having experienced what it's like to actually have your game on the sickly subscription service, Doom veteran Andrew Willis – who was impacted by the enormous job cuts at id Software in July – suggests a simple reason for all the confusion.

The former producer candidly tells Kiwi Talkz in a new interview that Game Pass is "poorly managed. Extremely poorly managed." He adds, "I think it was executed with so little foresight and so little attention to detail or understanding of the consumer market."

"So little sight there," Willis continues to say about Microsoft. "I think they just got caught in the trap of, 'Well, let's just make everything Netflix.'"

Microsoft could never decide how to measure Game Pass' success, Willis thinks. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma herself said in May that lowering the service's price to $23 was simply "a good first step" in improving it, and that Xbox staff would otherwise "have to outwork the problem in front of us in our path to restore durable growth." We know now that Microsoft's plan to "outwork the problem" includes a total of 3,200 layoffs at Xbox and, I guess, opportunistically deciding to publish another Hideo Kojima game.

Still, Sharma said as recently as July that "our business today is not healthy," partly because, "To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content."

"While those businesses have created meaningful value," Sharma added at the time, "they did not grow at the pace we expected."

Willis could have predicted this. He says, "When you start making decisions about commercial art that are investor-driven rather than consumer, or even developer driven, you're eventually going to make some pretty big mistakes. And I don't think Microsoft was ever able to figure out exactly how to measure the success of Game Pass."

"Was it hours played?" Willis wonders. "Was it games installed, was it user retention? I and many of my colleagues certainly never heard anything, like, metrics that we needed to hit. Is this a game you just want people playing in perpetuity? Do you want it to be super long? Do you just want people to see it and, like, want to install it right away, and you don't care if they play?"

This is why Doom: The Dark Ages had no business being on the platform. Willis says, "Doom should not have been on there. That was a stupid idea." While he was never explicitly told that its underwhelming commercial success contributed to id Software getting bludgeoned during Xbox layoffs, Willis wonders anyway if the game would have sold better had it not been available to Game Pass subscribers to play for free.

After The Dark Ages' 2025 launch, IP holder Bethesda was glad to tell fans, "Thank you for making DOOM: The Dark Ages the biggest launch in id's history - 7x faster to 3 million players than DOOM Eternal." But The Game Business reported at the time that a huge chunk of those 3 million players were on Xbox – over two million of them, actually – compared to just half a million fans on PS5.

"I know that sales didn't do as well as they were expected to," Willis says, "but I would suspect that's probably a huge part of Game Pass. And I guess whatever tradeoff from buying the game outright, to being on Game Pass, and whatever that metric was – installs, playtime, whatever – I guess maybe that wasn't good enough."

"I can only speculate why id was treated the way it was," the veteran producer adds. "I don't really have a good idea as to why id got chopped in half."

Unpopular and underperforming, Xbox doesn't have any answers, either.

Id Software dev says Microsoft's layoffs prove "they fundamentally don't understand" art, games, the entire business, or the destruction they just caused.

Rockstar seems to be doing something with celebrities like Travis Scott, since they keep releasing cryptic GTA 6 teasers.

The somewhat notorious Travis Scott posted art of two glittering pleaser heels leaning against a stripper pole on his Instagram, where he writes, "Phase 1. NOW ITS TIME. MY RETURN TO GAME GOTTA COME WITH RAGE AND ALOT OF DANCING LETS RIDE

"J… O. H….. to be continued. See yall soon." Travis Scott already suggested he would be involved in GTA 6 in his 2025 music video for the song "2000 Excursion" with Don Toliver and Sheck Wes, as a GTA 6 fan on Reddit noticed.

So far, joining Travis Scott in ruining GTA 6 fans' days with speculation is Morgan Wallen – the seriously controversial country star – who suggested on Twitter he was a part of GTA 6 with an image of a crumbling poolside in GTA 6's typical pink and pulp-y art style. Then, the rapper Future, producer Metro Boomin, Yung Lean, who is one of the great loves of my life because I was weird in high school, as well as Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Latin music star Raúl Alejandro, and Argentinian trap group CAR7IEL & Paco Amoroso also have all hinted at a GTA 6 collab.

"Wtf is going on lol," frets a popular Reddit comment in a thread about Future's teaser.

My personal conspiracy is that there's a difference between the musicians who have posted the same picture of a shiny, sunset-colored Corvette (Future, Metro Boomin, and Yung Lean) and those with unique images.

Keith Richards, for example, got to release a GTA 6 teaser of an iguana looking pensive in yellowish light. I'm inclined to think that this means that he, and the others with special images, like Travis Scott, will have character roles, while those who are posting that Corvette will be featured on GTA 6's radio. The GTA games have never been too modest for a celebrity cameo, after all, and they've hosted a huge variety of artists – like Twin Peaks actor Kyle MacLachlan in GTA 3, model Cara Delevingne in GTA 5, and late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who played himself in GTA 4.

But the real point of GTA 6 marketing is to push fans to the fine edge of the cliff leading to a mental breakdown, so Rockstar hasn't yet offered any peace with an official explanation for the open-world game's latest blast of teasers.

King of '00s nightclub music T-Pain previously revealed his involvement with GTA 6 in 2024, and Widow's Bay actor Stephen Root just confirmed he'll appear in the game. So Rockstar is definitely unrolling a 1,000-foot red carpet for GTA 6, but we don't know why yet.

Rockstar boss says GTA 6's police "can be harder" to shake off than before, "but it's fun" because it forces you "to think more."

Sometimes, developers like to have a little fun with cheaters. Valheim developer Iron Gate Studio has decided to throw people who use console commands a bone by still allowing them to log achievements – if they enter another, comically long cheat code, that is.

Prior to an update on September 11, players using developer commands in-game relegated them from getting any of Valheim's achievements. A simple, but effective way of accepting this is how some fans choose to play, and making ramifications clear.

Valheim recently entered 1.0, bringing 50 new awards people can gather, and what seems like a review of the community policies regarding those who use these exploits. Now, there's a way to re-enter the arena of in-game trophies, and it's hilariously on the nose.

If you have devcommands turned on, enter the following: "yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway". All that, no full stop or quotation marks, and you're back achievement hunting like normal.

I mean, what other phrase would you use? Might as well be straightforward about it. Funnily enough, I wouldn't guess this if I were trying to figure it out, because it seems too obvious, which just makes it more fun.

"The fixes include a function to let you opt into using achievements even though you have been blocked from doing so because of previous usage of devcommands," read the patch notes. "We will leave it to your own judgement whether or not to activate this function – Oden will surely know if you use it dishonourably."

Your path to Valhalla is in question here, just be cool and all will be well.

Palworld studio calls Valheim "an inspiration to everyone in the genre" as devs of the survival game drop their own 1.0 update.

The developers of Fable are confident that they have stuck the landing when it comes to the ending of the upcoming RPG.

The Fable series is home to some fairly beloved games when people get past the perhaps overhyped pre-release comments about everything you can do in them, with Fable 2 generally being the favorite of many. However, Fable 2 simultaneously has one of the worst endings ever put to a game. Spoiler alert: the final boss confrontation against Lucien, who you have been chasing the entire game, boils down to you playing a music box, shooting him once, and him falling off his pedestal dead – or with someone else shooting him if you let him talk too long. It's comedic for sure, but given all the horrible stuff your protagonist went through at his hands, it's a bit too anti-climactic.

Thankfully, Playground Games co-founder and Fable (2027) game director Ralph Fulton seems to be assuring an ending that bad won't be repeated. Speaking to The Guardian, Fulton explains that the main quest won't feel quite as urgent, to push players into messing around in the world, and to allow more meaningful player choice. He adds that the finale is the only time a player will be locked into the story, and promises that "most importantly, we stick the landing.

"It's easy to look at industry metrics saying 100% of people start a game and only 25% finish, and decide not to invest heavily in the finale," Fulton explains, adding: "We relentlessly pursued quality here."

What that ending is remains to be seen when the game releases next February, but Fulton teases that "in great Fable fashion, it culminates in a choice that really challenges you to think about who you are, with a real personal cost to weigh against the outcome."

Amid relentless layoffs at Xbox, Fable lead says "so many people" at the company see the RPG as "vital to the DNA of the platform," which "protected us over a long development cycle."

The Helldivers 2 Ironclad Democracy Warbond looks to be a spiritual sequel to Democratic Detonation, with even more explosive and incendiary power (and if you saw the trailer go live early, no you didn't). If you choose to spend your hard-earned Super Credits on this Warbond, you'll be able to unlock five weapons for your loadout, including a pump-action grenade launcher and an assault rifle with an underslung shotgun – lots of Helldivers 2 firsts. It all sounds pretty fun, so here's a breakdown of everything we know about the gear in the Ironclad Democracy Warbond.

Helldivers 2 Ironclad Democracy Warbond release date

Ironclad Democracy releases next week on September 22 at the usual time of 9AM UTC – that's 2AM PDT / 5AM EDT / 10AM BST. From then, you'll be able to buy the Warbond for the usual 1,000 Helldivers 2 Super Credits or one Helldivers 2 Warbond Token if you have one. I'll be adding it to our list of the best Helldivers 2 Warbonds in the days following, and it looks like it could be one of the best ones yet.

All Helldivers 2 Ironclad Democracy Warbond gear

The Ironclad Democracy Warbond is one of the most packed Warbonds we've ever seen. It holds a ton of stuff for you to spend your Helldivers 2 Medals on, including a whopping five loadout weapons and two Helldivers 2 Boosters. Here's the full list and what we know about each item so far:

• Weapons:
  • AR-11 Arbitrator: A rapid-fire assault rifle with an underbarrel shotgun, letting you switch between two firing modes.
  • GL-15 Evictor: Explosive power in the form of a primary weapon grenade launcher with a single-round reload and pump action.
  • P-34 Breacher: A missile pistol that fires a sticky incendiary payload – it's essentially a thermite pistol!
  • G-60 Anti-Tank Seeker: Exactly what it says, an anti-tank grenade that can seek towards enemies. After deploying, it hovers near you before flying to a nearby target.
  • G-8 Immolation: A Molotov-style firebomb grenade that carpets an area in fire.
• Armor:
  • BFM-220 Ironclad heavy armor and helmet: Comes with the Blunt-Force Mitigation passive which provides a higher armor rating, makes you more resistant to being knocked over when under attack, and reduces damage taken from impacts and collisions by 30%,
  • BFM-16 Ironclad light armor and helmet: Also comes with the Blunt-Force Mitigation passive.
• Boosters:
  • Integrated Extinguishers: Reduces the time to extinguish flames if you catch fire. Handy if your team is going all in on incendiary weapons and explosives.
  • Surplus EAT Allocation: Provides two uses of the Expendable Anti-Tank support weapon Stratagem in your current mission. With two rocket launchers per Hellpod, that works out as one launcher per player in a full team of four.
• Cosmetics:
  • Standard of Rapid Evacuation Cape
  • Shroud of the Juggernaut Cape
  • Standard of Rapid Evacuation Player Banner
  • Shroud of the Juggernaut Player Banner
  • Verdant Camouflage Tank Pattern
  • Glacial Polymer Tank Pattern
  • Executive Onyx Tank Pattern
  • Helmet Durability Check Emote
  • Treadhead Player Title

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Wardogs isn't quite like anything else that I've ever played. It is, at first glance, nothing more than your standard multiplayer FPS. It has the same guns that you've seen in Call of Duty or Battlefield. It has many of the same vehicles, even. Then you play it a little bit, and then a bit more, until the differences become entirely obvious.

Above and beyond winning matches or killing foes, your aim in Wardogs is to earn cold, hard cash. You're a mercenary, explicitly so, drafted into one of three Private Military Companies (PMCs) vying for control over the map. There are many different ways to make your daily bread. That's good, since you'll need money for almost everything from progression to buying your loadout each time you respawn. You could opt to go to the frontline along with most people, directly battling your opponents and netting a tidy sum in the process. The gunplay is satisfying, and the time-to-kill/time-to-die is rapid enough to make it an exhilarating experience. You can also make a heap of cash up on the frontline as a medic.

But if you don't fancy that, there's an almost Foxhole-like bevvy of support roles that you can step into.

All about the Benjamins

From flying helicopters full of newly-spawned players to the combat zone, driving trucks laden with supplies to your team's Forward Operating Bases, or putting those supplies to good use by constructing defences, there's no shortage of lucrative possibilities in Wardogs.

You're ranked on the scoreboard by how much cash you've made, so it's not unusual to see top-ranked players with no kills; they're probably working as a dedicated air taxi service and getting paid well for it

The maps are large enough that you really do depend on these non-combatants, too. It reminds me of MAG back on the PS3, or the sprawling landscapes of the Arma/Operation Flashpoint series. You don't always have to wait for a taxi, though, as a vehicle parked in your FOB can be spawned at once your team racks up 20 points. To get those points – 100 of which wins your team the match – you need to have more players in the circular Control Zone than either of the other teams. Every 30 seconds, a point is awarded to the team with the most players in the zone.

It's strange, really, that in two of the best games of Wardogs I've played so far, I've not actually been playing offensively. In one, I was a driver, ferrying supplies back and forth to keep my team stocked up on ammo, building supplies, and fuel. In the other, I was technically playing recon, but spent most of my time with a virtual eye glued to the spotter scope, keeping watch rather than using my rifle.

Scoping it out

There are definitely issues with the game as it stands. The lack of Linux support is a big one, and is particularly frustrating since Linux users are able to play earlier playtest builds from before the anticheat software changed.

Another issue is tied to the game feeling unnecessarily harsh for your first few levels. You can't buy body armor or a helmet right from the get-go, so your lives tend to be as nasty, brutish, and short as any envisioned by Thomas Hobbes. It's immensely discouraging. The fact that your starter weapons, while technically lethal, feel as effective as a peashooter doesn't help. Luckily, you'll likely be able to buy such essentials after an hour or so of play. The vehicles feel pretty wonky on keyboard, too, giving the impression that you're sliding around an ice rink.

Having 100-person servers split into three teams is also a little odd, resulting in two teams of 33 players and one of 34 given that the science of making one person take up a third of a player slot yet evades us. Short of the developer just upping the server count to a number more easily divisible by three, this slight imbalance is just one of the game's many quirks right now.

Playing with friends or a clan is probably the best way to go. But once you dig into Wardogs, especially if you're happy using a mic and joining random squads, you'll find a generally very pleasant community even going in solo. There have been a few of the inevitable exceptions, but I've felt more welcome than not so far.

Players come here for different purposes, because Wardogs really is a mishmash of genres. Depending on your role, you could be playing it like a stripped-back survival game, a truck simulator, flight sim, or an FPS. You could quite easily dedicate your entire playtime to becoming a fantastic driver or pilot, saving lives on the frontline while barely firing a shot. You could also become a saboteur, a sniper, or special forces operator. Whichever roles you choose to take on, there's always a way for you to make money as a mercenary.

Time will tell if its diversity will be enough to keep players coming back for more. But since Wardogs launched into Early Access, I've struggled to play anything else.

Load into the best FPS games to play next if you were hoping for a first-person shooter with, well, a little more shooting...

It's no secret that the video game industry isn't exactly being kind, even to the best of folks – including Kurt Kuhlmann, Bethesda Game Studios veteran and legendary Elder Scrolls "lore master" who worked on gems like the original Oblivion and Skyrim.

Although Kuhlmann hasn't been at Bethesda for quite some time now, having reportedly left over Bethesda's "bureaucratic" baggage, in his own words, and broken promises from Todd Howard about leading The Elder Scrolls 6.

He landed on his feet after leaving the company, however, moving on to work as a principal world designer at AAA studio Lightspeed LA… only to lose his role following a wave of layoffs earlier this summer.

Kuhlmann discusses his situation in a post on LinkedIn, putting into perspective just how difficult the industry is for developers right now – old and new.

"Along with most of the Last Sentinel team," he writes, alluding to his job at Lightspeed LA, "I was laid off in July, so I am back on the job market." He then flags potential employers: "If you know of anyone looking for a senior/principal/lead designer, please let me know or pass them my information."

It hits hard, honestly, seeing an industry veteran of his measure with literal decades of dev and leadership experience seeking work – but it's sadly not surprising.

Heck, just take a look at what's been happening all over, from the relentless layoffs at Xbox (which are ongoing, with Microsoft's plan to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox having commenced in July) to those elsewhere, even at indie companies, things aren't easy… anywhere, it seems.

And, as Kuhlmann proves, nobody is immune. He's got loads of know-how in the industry, and then some, as he lays out in his thread: "I spent the majority of my career at Bethesda Game Studios (BGS), and I've done pretty much every design-related thing for BGS games – narrative design and writing, world-building, combat balance, character systems, minigames, crafting, gameplay scripting, etc."

All of this and his time at Lightspeed LA. Kuhlmann concludes that he's "prioritizing jobs that allow remote work but I'm open to any opportunities that are a good match for my skills and experience" – and I sure do hope some come his way soon.

Fallout co-creator tells new devs terrified of layoffs they're "wrong" to expect making games to be a "stable job": "Art itself is inherently unstable."

Last Stop codes are a great way to increase your chances of survival while you're on the road, fighting zombies and bandits in this apocalyptic experience. It's not only you that's need to be powered up with the best class, weapons, and gear, but you bus also needs to be kitted up to defend.

Fortunately, these Last Stop codes give you tickets to unlock new recipes, which can be used to buff your bus, making you stronger against the enemies you'll meet on the road in this Roblox game. Alternatively, you can spend them on a new class for your character. Whatever you want to spend your tickets on, here's the latest Last Stop codes.

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

All Last Stop codes

These are the Last Stop codes you can redeem in-game right now:

• FRED - 500x Tickets
• UPDATE1 - 250x Tickets

Last Stop tickets so far have generally rewarded players with Tickets, and these can be used to unlock crafting recipes or buy a new character class. You can only spend tickets in the lobby, so make sure you kit up before heading out on the road.

Codes aren't case-sensitive, so just make sure you've got the spelling right, or copy and paste from the list above.

How to redeem Last Stop codes

To redeem Last Stop codes, you must first reach level 5 by completing a few rounds and some quests. Once at the right level, you can redeem codes by clicking on the Codes button in the top-right corner of the screen. You can then enter a code from the list above into the box, then click on the green check mark to claim your rewards.

The codes box is at the bottom of the settings menu, so you can also navigate to the redemption box via the settings cog in the top left-hand corner.

Expired Last Stop codes

• There are no expired codes.

Given the recent creation of Last Stop, there are currently no expired codes to list here, but it will only be a matter of time before the current codes become invalid, so redeem them now.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

A new Metal Gear Solid 5 mod has been released which aims to bring back the feeling of the series' classic games by allowing you to go in with nothing.

Metal Gear Solid changed pretty drastically with its final entries. Metal Gear Solid 4 sowed the seeds with the Drebin shop, but Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker and 5 took the series in a different direction.

The original MSX2 games and Solid trilogy had you infiltrating enemy bases with only the clothes on your back (or very little supplies) and every important item and extra weapon had to be found during your mission. Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain, on the other hand, feature the Mother Base, which allows you to develop your own weapons, meaning that every single time you went into a mission, your bag was packed to the brim.

Well, clearly someone longs for the good old days of stealth, as modder mohtalgear has released Metal Gear Solid 5's "definitive subsistence" mod. The big focus of this mod is On-Site Procurement (OSP) , a concept introduced in Metal Gear Solid 1, where Snake must secure his equipment at Shadow Moses. However, to launch a mission in Metal Gear Solid 5, you need to have some weapon equipped, so this mod removes that hurdle while reworking the game itself to make the experience work.

Crucially, every base weapon in the game will now be available to find on-site, whether that be from enemies or found on the map. This includes re-introducing concepts from earlier games, like having enemies drop their equipment or looting them when they are down and out. This extends to MGS 5's suite of extras too, as it introduces radios that allow you to call in support from your buddies like D. Dog, D. Horse, or Quiet.

On top of that, the mod introduces new bionic arms and weapons that were previously unavailable for main missions, and allows you to play as multiplayer-exclusive characters like Ocelot and Quiet in the open world. And, of course, you are able to still dispatch with your developed weapons with no issue.

Hideo Kojima intentionally designed Metal Gear Solid's box art to look confusing and grab attention, but stores ruined his plan by "trying to be helpful."

Fable has been a long time coming, with its development spanning several waves of layoffs at publisher Xbox, as well as the cancellation of high-profile projects. But the RPG's director suggests that the RPG has been unscathed because it's viewed as "vital to the DNA of the platform."

A new interview with The Guardian really puts into perspective how long Fable has been in the works, with production apparently starting as far back as 2016. We wouldn't see Playground Games' reveal trailer until 2020, but even then, fans have been waiting over six years for the RPG, during which time there have been major changes at Microsoft and Xbox, as well as across the industry as a whole.

We've seen thousands of layoffs at the company over the last few years – only in July, a further 1,600 roles were eliminated, with another 1,600 to come throughout the 2027 fiscal year as part of what CEO Asha Sharma called "the most significant restructure in Xbox history." A number of games have also been scrapped – last year, the Perfect Dark reboot was canceled as developer The Initiative was closed down amid a different wave of layoffs. ZeniMax Online Studios' new MMO, Project Blackbird, was also lost at this point, which led to former Elder Scrolls Online boss Matt Firor leaving the company.

Needless to say, there's been a lot of instability at Xbox, but thankfully, Fable is still set to release next year. "I genuinely think Fable is an important game. What has protected us over a long development cycle is that so many people within Xbox view Fable as vital to the DNA of the platform," says Playground Games co-founder and Fable director Ralph Fulton.

"I would go a step further and say it's important to video games as a whole," he continues. "It offers a combination of elements that simply doesn't exist anywhere else."

It's appropriate, then, that this Fable game isn't just releasing on Xbox Series X|S and PC; it's also coming to PS5 – a plan that's not changed since Xbox outlined its recent plan to "reevaluate our approach to exclusivity" after its prior move to let more of its titles fly the nest to competitor platforms.

Unfortunately, the RPG was also recently delayed – avoiding GTA 6, it'll now be launching on February 23, instead.

Fable is "15-20 hours" long, Xbox confirms, but you can "literally play it forever" if you treat it more like a life sim than an RPG.

Grand Blue codes can give you an advantage in this epic pirate adventure, as you travel the lands searching for Cursed Fruits to add to your collection and increase your abilities. There are also rare weapons and equipment to discover and craft, as you increase your strength through battles so you can defeat the tough bosses standing in your way.

While this experience is still in Early Access there are plenty of promos being released, offering free Trait and Race Rerolls to modify your character along with other useful items to get a boost in this role-playing Roblox experience. If you're setting sail for adventure, then these are the codes for Grand Blue and how to redeem them.

If you'd prefer some more general promos with rewards that apply to all of your experiences, then take a look at the recent Roblox promo codes.

All Grand Blue codes

The following Grand Blue codes are currently active to be claimed:

• AnchorsUp – 15x Trait Rerolls, 13x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• StarShower – 15x Trait Rerolls, 10x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• LuckOfTheSea – 10x Trait Rerolls, 10x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest

There are currently a few Grand Blue codes available, offering a selection of Trait Rerolls, Race Rerolls, and Fruit Chests, while previous promos have also included Celestial Coins. Keep in mind that these benefits are often split into items that are awarded immediately and pending rewards that unlock after a certain amount of time, so you may not receive everything listed above all at once.

How to redeem Grand Blue codes

There are two different routes you can use to redeem Grand Blue codes, with the first being to access the Customize Character option from the main menu and then use the Enter code... text box at the bottom of that screen. If you're in the game itself then you can also hit the Settings button to bring up the menu, then select the Codes tab before using the Enter code... text box there. Codes for Grand Blue are not case-sensitive, so just make sure you use the correct spelling.

Expired Grand Blue codes

• OmegaCode – 1,000x Celestial Coins, 15x Trait Rerolls, 15x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• RollWithIt – 30x Trait Rerolls, 5x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• PocketOfStars – 15x Trait Rerolls, 10x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• GrandBlueCode – 1,250x Celestial Coins, 15x Trait Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• NewYouNewCrew – 20x Trait Rerolls, 5x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• CelestialBlessing – 3,000x Celestial Coins
• FruitBasket – 10x Trait Rerolls, 5x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• 10KCCU – 4,000x Celestial Coins
• SorryForBreakingGame – 20x Trait Rerolls, 10x Race Rerolls
• HappySunday – 15x Trait Rerolls, 20x Race Rerolls, 2x Fruit Chests
• TwitterGoalReached – 20x Trait Rerolls, 5x Race Rerolls, 1x Fruit Chest
• Release! – 10x Trait Rerolls, 5x Race Rerolls
• WorldBossBroke – Rewards

Although the experience is still in Early Access, there are already plenty of expired Grand Blue codes on this list. That means they don't tend to stick around for long, so make sure you've redeemed any active codes as soon as you can.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Wolverine Omega Red fight is a tricky battle after facing relatively weak Trask soldiers and Reavers, but once you understand how it works, it should become much easier. Unlike the regular enemies you've been fighting in Marvel's Wolverine until this point, Omega Red can't be bombarded with erratic attacks, and you need to take a much more reactive approach to combat, with parrying and dodging being critical to success. But there's more to bear in mind, so I've laid out some tips for beating Arkady Rossovich, AKA Omega Red – the first boss fight in Marvel's Wolverine.

How to defeat Omega Red in Wolverine

To beat Omega Red, you need to get used to dodging and parrying as this is the game's first true test of both combat mechanics. You'll really struggle to beat this mutant boss without getting to grips with them as you'll deal the most damage when Omega Red is staggered, so make sure you focus on perfect timing and bear these tips in mind:

1. Don't be too aggressive at first and focus on parrying: In the first phase where you fight Omega Red in the hangar, his attack patterns are quite limited so use this as a chance to learn dodge and parry timing. He'll either throw out a three-hit combo, where the first two hits can be parried and the final one must be dodged or will leap into the air and throw objects at you, which much also be dodged.
2. Kick through Omega Red's tendrils: When he uses his metal tentacles as a shield, hold Square to kick them and break his guard, then attack rapidly during this short window of opportunity – mash Square or throw in a combo ender (Square, Square, Square, Triangle) to deal high damage.
3. I strongly recommend having the Stagger Leap and Healing Strike Wolverine Techniques unlocked: You can use the charged-up leap of the former to quickly close the distance with Omega Red while also dealing solid stagger damage, and you can use the latter to deal high damage and heal slightly.
4. Use Knee Breaker to interrupt unblockable attacks: This Special Technique also inflicts massive stagger damage and is one of the most useful abilities in the game for any boss fight and not just Omega Red.

5. In phase 2, Omega Red's gains a brutal grab attack: If you get caught by this, it initiates a button-mashing quick-time event, which should be executed as quickly as possible. The longer the grab lasts, the more damage Wolverine takes and the more health Omega Red regenerates, so it can undo a lot of your progress.
6. Wait for Omega Red to attack after leaping away: Omega Red quite reliably uses this grab move after leaping away from Wolverine, telegraphed by him preparing to throw out his tendrils with a red circular unblockable indicator. Whenever Omega Red repositions, wait for him to throw out an attack (he reliably uses the above grab attack after leaping), dodge appropriately, then close the distance with a charged-up leap attack – the number of times I leapt at him only to get grabbed mid-air was silly, so do as I say, not as I do.

Follow those tips and you should be able to beat the disgraced former Team X member for good. This also effectively marks the end of the game's tutorial missions, and now you'll start noticing things like Wolverine whiskey bottles to find in most missions. During the next mission, you'll also unlock the ability to craft Wolverine suits, letting you dress Logan how you want.

Wolverine isn't just about non-stop fighting as there are also a few puzzles to solve, with the Marvel's Wolverine Shiro lock code being one that has a chance to stump you. And there's plenty to see in all the levels when it comes to Wolverine Easter eggs and references.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Don't expect dealing with the police in GTA 6 to be a walk in the park, one Rockstar lead warns, as law enforcement has been given a significant upgrade in the upcoming entry to keep you on your toes when you've been up to no good.

A deep-dive video from content creator TGG (below) explains the changes made to the police system in GTA 6. Notably, police will no longer have such a short memory when it comes to recognizing you after a crime, meaning you'll have to put a bit more effort into staying undetected.

"We wanted to get past that thing we used to have where you could lose the cops instantaneously, and then they forget about you instantly," explains Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson. "And we wanted them to have a bit more persistent memory."

To enable this, Rockstar has introduced a new mechanic called 'heat.' Several icons may appear below your wanted level, indicating what information about you the police know and can recognize. For example, they might be aware of what clothes you're wearing or what vehicle you're using, so even if you manage to get out of their line of sight during a chase, then they're still going to spot you later on if you've not addressed those factors – even after your wanted stars have disappeared, according to TGG.

Speaking of breaking the police's line of sight, though, another big change has been made here. On your mini-map, you won't see the police show up on your radar when you're being chased.

"It can be harder, but it's fun, depending on the wanted level," Nelson says. "You have to think more. You can't just play the game and avoid their little vision cones anymore. [...] So, they don't show up on the radar, they show up when you use Focus."

TGG notes that Focus lets you see the cops through walls, so you'll definitely have options up your sleeve for detecting and avoiding the law, but you won't be able to rely on the mini-map as much.

As you'd expect after so many years of development, GTA 6 has seen lots of tweaks and refinements compared to previous entries in the series. You can't so easily stroll around the city carrying guns anymore, either – NPCs will now react accordingly depending on what weapons you're swinging around, with Nelson noting that they're "more nuanced than before."

Rockstar wants GTA 6's Jason and Lucia to inspire the same sort of "emotional connection" that Red Dead Redemption 2 fans had with Arthur.

After Sony made its decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 public earlier this summer, fans gathered to boycott the company – but it's not exactly having any impact so far, apparently.

A few weeks back, various posts were circulating the web about a "PSBlackout" – a boycott of PlayStation and all things Sony in honor of physical media, which folks feel the company is sidelining in favor of digital purchases.

As one thread on X worded it, "We want physical games to stay! A digital-only future without ownership and customer protection law is unacceptable!" The boycott then officially "started" on August 23.

Now that it's been a little while, some users are left wondering if it made any difference in engagement with Sony's media… and, well, it sounds like it didn't – in the United States, anyway, although that seems to be largely where the boycott took off, too.

Veteran analyst and Circana games lead Mat Piscatella confirms as much in response to a curious player who questions if he's noticed "any change that could be attributed to the PSBlackout."

No. There was no significant change at all in player count or engagement in our tracking.

— @matpiscatella.bsky.social (@matpiscatella.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-09-15T10:08:00.801Z

"No," writes Piscatella. "There was no significant change at all in player count or engagement in our tracking." In other words, the blackout wasn't as fruitful as many had likely hoped.

I'm honestly not too surprised myself, though, considering the sheer scope of Sony's reach in both gaming and outside – plus, there's the fact that the company has made clear it's not budging on its decision to move away from physical releases.

In late July, Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao doubled down on the plan to end PlayStation discs despite "strong views" against it, saying, "We don't see that there will be any negative impact on our business" – and, unfortunately, it appears that she wasn't exactly wrong in believing that, judging by Piscatella's analysis.

I'm still personally hopeful that Sony will see the reaction to Microsoft's own disc-to-digital conversion plan with Xbox and take note…

But, I also do highly doubt it. At the least, I'll keep my fingers crossed that we're able to find a nice middle ground in the future that allows for both digital and physical purchases on all platforms – and better consumer rights, too, please.

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

Insomniac Games community director James Stevenson says the team is listening to the feedback the game received ahead of its launch.

Marvel's Wolverine has picked the worst possible time to be mid – being the worst-reviewed Insomniac game in a decade. Not only is it releasing in perhaps the most packed September to date, right after the critically acclaimed Onimusha: Way of the Sword and The Blood of Dawnwalker and sure to be smash hits Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave and Control: Resonant, but it comes amid a string of bad decisions from Sony.

PS5 consoles are becoming prohibitively expensive for many, Sony abandoning physical games has been a constant in the discourse for months now, and right before Wolverine reviews dropped, it was revealed that the publisher wanted to cancel Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear spiritual successor Physint – with the game falling in Xbox's lap. Basically, Sony needed a win.

And while it doesn't seem like Wolverine is by any means a bad game, it clearly has some issues that have been picked up by players and reviewers over the last week. But in a post on Twitter, Stevenson acknowledges its shortcomings, saying, "We have been 100% listening over the last few days," adding that "the team has been cooking hard today in response to some of the feedback."

While multiplayer or live-service projects overhauling themselves and turning things around isn't too new a concept – see No Man's Sky – it's also started to become a thing in single-player games in recent times. Most notably, Crimson Desert, released earlier this year, has been constantly updating itself based on player complaints, with a full story overhaul patch being released last month. So in some cases you really are better off waiting a few years for things to get changed.

Check out the GamesRadar+ Marvel's Wolverine review to see what we thought of Insomniac's latest.

There was one thing that we knew for certain going into Insomniac Games' latest title: we'd have a bunch of Marvel's Wolverine Easter Eggs to dig our adamantium claws into. After all, this is Marvel we are talking about, folks, and with that level of history and pop cultural influence, there was no way that we wouldn't get a bunch of references and cheeky little comic book nods.

However, I will say that even as a Marvel veteran, and having played through the entire game (read our Marvel Wolverine review next for a complete deep dive) at this point, some Easter Eggs are tricky to find here. While some are obvious, others rely on optional interactions. There are also more than a couple blink-and-you'll-miss-it kind of moments as you fill the shoes of an amnesiac Logan. So with that in mind, we've rounded up all the references, subtle nods, and direct comic call-outs in a handy guide for you.

Below are all 32 Marvel's Wolverine Easter Eggs that we have found so far, complete with a short description explaining each and where you'll be able to find them if you want to check them out for yourself too. Warning: spoilers ahead!

1. The Daily Bugle

While the Daily Bugle is a New York publication, you'll be able to find an Easter Egg of the front page of an issue during the mission "The One That Got Away" that takes place near Vancouver. Found in Leech's hideout, the front page of the paper has been pinned to the wall. Said front page is about a baseball team winning, a team which seems to be called the Maelstroms. Now, granted, I don't know Marvel's baseball teams off by heart, but I do know about the supervillain called Maelstrom, who tries to destroy the universe, so it looks like we have two Easter Eggs in one here, folks.

2. Gambit's card

Gambit is an X-Men staple, and considering how he doesn't make an appearance in the game (he is probably off with Rogue somewhere, right, gang?) I couldn't help but smile after spotting a Gambit playing card during my playthrough. You can spot this during the mission "One Last Mission" on a side table to Walter's right while you look through records for him. If you need a quick refresher, playing cards are Gambit's weapons of choice on most occasions as he charges them with kinetic energy and uses them as basically explosive projectiles. I would have loved to get a chance to throw some destructive aces myself, but at least the charismatic character got a nod.

3. A Dazzler poster

Dazzler may not be part of Logan's team in the new Wolverine game, but she is at least there in the form of an Easter Egg thanks to a poster in-game. If you aren't familiar with this absolute icon, Dazzler is a mutant who can convert sound vibrations into light and energy beams. She also made her first comic book appearance back in the '80s in Uncanny X-Men #130. She does have a kind of on-again, off-again relationship with the X-Men, as she occasionally joins the team. But considering that she is a big-time singer as well as a hero, it does make sense why we get to see a dedicated poster here vs. another mutant. This poster can be found during "One Last Mission", you'll see it after going up the stairs to the bar Jean is in.

4. A Devil Dinosaur in Tokyo

Stepping through the red gates of Kabukicho in the "Get Angry" chapter doesn't just feel like you're playing Yakuza – this is directly based on Tokyo's real red-light district. The huge tower in real-life contains the Hotel Gracery Shinjuku, and is famous for having a massive Godzilla head on the side. Here, the equivalent is reimagined as a T-Rex with distinctive crimson red skin, which seems like a direct reference to Devil Dinosaur from the '70s comic, who is usually partnered with either Moon-Boy or, more recently, Moon Girl – including as a Marvel Rivals character.

5. Alchemax

What better place to reference the evil, cyberpunk megacorporation from Spider-Man 2099 and the wider Marvel 2099 universe than among the neon lights and bright posters of Tokyo? Several locations throughout Kabukicho advertise the company, hinting that they may have offices nearby. Not only is their illegal drug-testing responsible for turning Miguel O'hara – who you may know from Across the Spider-Verse – into a Spider-Man, but also for creating Degen mutants, who populate the futuristic universe.

6. Sable Security

Sable Security (also known as Sable International) makes an appearance in the game, meaning we have another Spider-Man link here. If you aren't familiar with this already, Sable Security is a security force that is founded by Silver Sable, the princess of Symkaria. It's a group that is meant to help out countries dealing with rising crime rates, but they have a habit of pushing boundaries and often civilians around. Several advertisements can be spotted around Shinjuku, but most prominently this appears near the start of "Bad Blood" as Logan and Jean approach Shiro's building, where Wolverine can comment on her attempt to recruit him.

7. Roxxon

Roxxon is one of the staple villains in the Marvel Universe and is also one of the largest conglomerates in that world, so I was very pleased to see it pop up while playing Wolverine. While this company has appeared in other Marvel storylines like Spider-Man, it is famously very anti-mutant, so seeing it in an X-Men game is very fitting and also serves as a reminder that a ton of people don't like Logan and friends. Signs for Roxxon are throughout Tokyo's urban settings, from "Get Angry" through to "We Were Wrong".

8. Hammer Industries

Iron Man fans may be more familiar with the name Hammer Industries, but I was very pleased to see this Easter Egg pop up on a billboard during the mission In The Shadows. It is a weapons manufacturer that surprisingly has a history with the famous group of mutants. Firstly it's logo has been shown in Marvel Animation's X-Men '97 series, and in the comics, the X-Men saved one of Its weapon manufacturing firms from Magneto. It's also a nice bit of world building to see mention of Hammer Industries in tandem with Trask Industries, and Roxxon being mentioned.

9. Jean Grey's green dress

In Marvel's Wolverine, we see Jean Grey wearing an outfit which is very much reminiscent of her X-Men #39 costume. The comic saw the hero wearing a green mini-dress with yellow accessories and a pointy yellow mask. As you can see from the screenshot above of the outfit sorted in the game, there is a very clear reference being made here as Jean Grey dons this classy outfit to blend into a party in "Death Comes To Death" while Logan sneaks in through the rooftops.

10. Angel, Worthington III

Angel Worthington III is a mutant and the founding member of the X-Men, and also comes from a wealthy background – which makes it appropriate to catch a glimmer of his presence in the "Roll the Dice" mission during the opening section where Logan and Jean infiltrate a classy Uptown Madripoor casino undercover. Near the dance floor which you need to approach to progress the story is a reserved spot at the bar for Warren Worthington III.

11. J Jonah Jameson's autobiography book, 'My Life in Words'

Marvel's Wolverine is set in the same universe as Insomniac Games' Spider-Man games, even if they haven't explicitly crossed over thanks to being in different locations. J Jonah Jameson has wide market penetration, however, with multiple copies of his autobiography, My Life is Words, present in Nathaniel Essex's mutant institute where Team X is based, complete with JJJ's mug on the back – first able to be seen during the "Homecoming" mission. Essex, you need better reading material.

12. Henry McCoy (Beast) research

If you have a poke around Trask's lab, you'll see that on display is Henry McCoy (Beast) research. This is a nice little find considering that we don't get to see Beast otherwise. It is also a fun tie-in for some comic book lore, considering that Beast's backstory did once upon a time involve him working as a researcher for the Brand Corporation, where his research was also the target of thieves. I was personally a bit sad not to see Beast in the fold during the game, so finding at least a mention of his name and history was a nice surprise. The reference appears on one of the monitors Logan can interact with during the "Mutant Detected" mission in Madripoor, after Mystique suggests you nose around while she obtains some data.

13. The obelisk of dead names in the institute

Nathaniel Essex's institute features a striking black obelisk in its lounge area – a reference to members of Team X and fellow mutants who have fallen, and it's sadly not a short list. This can be observed in "Homecoming" and other missions set there. All of these names are references to mutants from the comics, spanning some classics to much more modern additions. Oddly, the obelisk's reverse side repeats a portion of the list.

• John Wraith: Kestrel
• Kodiak Noatak: Harpoon
• Sidney Green: Onyxx
• Myles Alfred: Vivisector
• Michael Baer: Blockbuster
• William H Thornton: Potentially Harry Thornton, AKA Harry Heck, he's in the Punisher 2004 movie, but not a mutant, so we might be missing something here
• Robbie (Prism): Prism, believe it or not
• Carl Aalston: Rain Boy
• Christoph Nord: Maverick
• Trevor Hawkins: Eye-boy
• Lazaro Kotikash: Kidogo
• Benjamin Deeds: Morph
• Sarah Vale: Network
• Roxanne Washington: Bling

14. All the other mutants' gear in the Arsenal from former Team X members

Several of the former members of Team X memorialized on the black obelisk still have space in the arsenal for their gear. Clearly, the team isn't recruiting new members quickly enough to have to hurry up with clearing those up. At various points, Logan can comment on the members here. They include Maverick's mask and pistols; a water tank containing Rain Boy's gear; Eye-Boy's many-goggled nightvision specs; a heap of Vivesector's books; and Onyxx's training weights. Wolverine must walk through this room in "Homecoming", but some of his comments about them come during later sections.

15. Young Dragons in Love book

At the institute (during "Homecoming" and some others), you can find a Young Dragons in Love book, which comic book fans may understand is a reference to the same-titled storyline in Uncanny X-Men 181. That story is set after the events of the original Secret Wars, when the X-Men have returned to Earth; however, they are followed by a kaiju-sized dragon. This is also another Easter Egg about the X-Men's past adventures in Tokyo that we see in the game, so it's nice to see that the game has taken the time to build up a sense of subtle history in the locations you visit here.

16. Along Came a Spider book

Also during "Homecoming" and other missions at Essex's institute, you can spy he has a few copies of a book named Along Came A Spider, though it's harder to get a good look at the full model. Black, with distinctive red linework across it, this is likely a reference to Venom: Along Came a Spider (1996). Though it's not the only Spidey media to use the name, this feels like a reference to the Venom symbiote from Spider-Man 2. A Venom spin-off game has been long rumored. Could this mean anything?

17. Skull and engine motif on Sabertooth's Barbed & Wired poster

OK, so this is an Easter Egg that may be nothing, but it did make me double take so it is worth putting it on this list. In Marvel's Wolverine, you'll be able to see Sabertooth's Barbed & Wired poster as you sneak through his room as part of the main story in "Homecoming", which does feature a skull and engine motif. Now in the Marvel universe, a skull and engine can only mean one thing: Ghost Rider. It is a bit of a reach, considering that Ghost Rider and Sabertooth don't often cross paths, but there is a connection between the two through Wolverine, as Logan and Ghost Rider have teamed up to face Sabertooth in past comic book storylines. I may be reading too much into this, but it would be cool if my hunch is correct, especially as one of Logan's more impressive unlockable skins, earned through surviving challenging combat gauntlets, is a Ghost Rider suit.

18. Osmium

During the mission "The One That Got Away" Wolverine discovers Trask is shipping Osmium to Madripoor. This is a fun Colossus Easter Egg, as the Russian mutant's body is made up of an "organic steel" that is very similar to Osmium. Although we don't know his full body composition, it's pretty likely that Osmium is a big part of it so seeing it pop up in the game is a nice little nod to the missing X-Men member. The next mission, "Raise Some Hell", takes place in a refinery, and the reavers have set up indestructible osmium locks that force you to find more creative ways around the refinery. This is also the mission where you find the head of a prototype Sentinel, which is presumably what all the osmium is for.

19. William Stryker's autobiography

William Stryker is a big name in the X-Men universe as a massive anti-mutant force. In fact, most iterations of the character have him viewing his opposition to mutants as some kind of crusade, as he believes that mutants are the forces of satan trying to kill humanity…very healthy. This warped mindset comes as an Easter Egg in the game, as you can find Stryker's autobiography (titled 'My War') in the Trask power station in the mission 'Knock Knock'. Another fun fact about William Stryker getting a shout-out is that in the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine's version of Weapon X (which he leads), he convinces Wolverine into receiving adamantium implants and then shoots him in the head, making him suffer from long-term amnesia. A fun similarity to the game's amnesiac hero, isn't it?

20. Trask's cerebro-like tracking device

Marvel Wolverine is missing a lot of familiar X-Men and other mutants. However, even though we don't see them on screen directly, at least we do get some kind of mention of them in this particular Easter Egg. In the game, we see a Trask Cerebro-like tracking device that lists several known mutants indirectly, which Mystique accesses during the "Mutant Detected" mission. For example, there is information about an individual with absorption powers which is pretty much pointing at Rogue since Caldecott Country is also mentioned (aka where she is from). Another example is an entry mentioning very Kitty Pryde-like intangibility, while another mentions optical blasts, which points to the Summers family. I'm sure there is more here that I may have missed, so I highly recommend comic book fans pay attention to this Easter Egg to see if you can pick out any more covert mutant mentions.

21. Princess Bar

The Marvel Presents storyline from the '80s in which Logan goes undercover in Madripoor as Patch, his eye-patch and white tuxedo-wearing alter ego, also features the Princess Bar, where Tyger Tiger works. This is almost too direct to be a true easter egg, but it's worth noting how much Marvel's Wolverine seems to pull from the iconic Marvel Presents 'Save the Tiger' run even in terms of pure aesthetics and tone. It first features in "One Last Mission" as Team X debriefs, and appears in later sections in Madripoor as well.

22. A Angar and the Screamers poster in Madripoor

There is a poster in Madripoor featuring "Angar and the Screamers," which is a very fun little nod to the character Angar the Screamer (aka David Angar). Angar used to be a social activist; however, after he volunteered to undergo some experimental research, he developed a very unique set of vocal cords that allows his screams to have hallucinogenic effects. He is a villain in the Marvel Universe, and often pops up as a baddie for hire in the comic books. You can see this as you explore around the Princess Bar in "One Last Mission" at the nearby theater, and in later missions in the same area.

23. The Crick-Hits

This poster is an easter Egg of an actual band in the Marvel comics (not just a fun parody of a villain). They are a rock band from Earth-1611 and are a Beatles parody in-universe. Considering how Earth-1611 is a divergent of Earth-616 set in the 1960s, the Beatles reference is very fitting. Another fun fact is that this timeline is also where The Age of Sentry storyline takes place. Posters for the band are across Madripoor Lowtown, but feature most prominently alongside other references at the theater near Princess Bar, which you can see earliest during "One Last Mission".

24. Starry

For a while I thought the Starry jewelry ads in Tokyo were just chic designer wear, but the mix of Starry with jewels feels like it could be a nod to the Starry Wisdom Cult from Journey Into Mystery #4 (the same strip that introduced Thor), itself based on the Church of Starry Wisdom from HP Lovecraft's The Haunter of the Dark short story. In the comic, the church believes that gazing into the Shining Trapezohedron could awaken their Old One deity. Given the strangeness of the Helix Engine, it's not off-base. Perhaps there really is more to this seemingly innocuous jewelry brand than it seems.

25. A Backwards Santa ad in Tokyo

Backwards Santa, advertised in Tokyo, and potentially a movie of some sort, could just be a wacky reference to an evil version of the Father Christmas character to fill billboard space. However, it's worth remembering that in the comics Santa is confirmed to be a mutant who uses his powers to deliver presents to children, which is in Marvel Holiday Special 1991. If this were a poster for Backwards Cyclops I'd include this as an Easter Egg, so it's only fair to embrace Santa in the same way.

26. Tokyo kissing toilet

The bizarre kissing toilet in the basement of the bar Wolverine and Jean burst into, which hides a collectible whiskey bottle, isn't just a random invention. No, this is pulling from a real Japanese toilet where a similar mask will make strange kissing noises at you as you do your business. It's just one of many interestingly extra Japanese toilets that continue to prove how advanced their bathroom technology is. Seriously, once you've used a good one in a hotel, you won't be able to forget it – and no toilets back home will satisfy.

27. The Mission select screen

The mission select screen in Marvel's Wolverine has an Easter Egg to the (at this point) iconic meme of a sad Wolverine sitting on his bed and looking at a picture frame. The moment is originally from an episode of the animated X-Men TV series called "Captive Hearts", which had Logan acting all forlorn while looking at a picture of Jean Grey and Scott Summers. While the original source is pretty heartbreaking, the reference is hilarious and a great little addition to see in the game.

28. Archibald Corrigan

The logo for Archibald Corrigan's freight company can be spotted on the side of a building during Way Down Low, which is a fun little reference to the Vietnam War pilot. Archie has a history with the X-Men, having worked for Tyger Tiger and with Patch (Wolverine's alias). A lot of their interactions revolve around Madripoor, so again it is nice that the game gives us a sense of history with that place. Another fun Archibald fact is that Charles Xavier also purchased a plane from him at one point, so the X-Men lore goes deep here.

29. "Where is Baran?" Graffiti

There's plenty of graffiti in Lowtown with the odd bit referencing something appropriately Wolverine-y - during Way Down Low, you can find several instances of 'Bub' sprayed artfully on a wall, referencing Logan's catchphrase. But during I'm Still Here, you can spot a more obscure reference to Prince Baran, a previous ruler of Madripoor who is descended from a long line of pirates. As a key player in Madripoor, he therefore has links with Tyger Tiger and Wolverine in the comics, overseeing plenty of crime, and even dividing the city state's criminal enterprises between Tyger Tiger and General Nguyen Ngoc Coy.

30. Whiskey bottles

All the Marvel's Wolverine whiskey bottles reference something to do with Marvel and Wolverine – most of them nodding to specific Wolverine alternate names or story arcs, such as The Old Man or Patch, and even deeper cuts like Revolto (as in, The Clown, when Wolverine was in Frankenstein's Monster's Murder Circus). Incredible 181 is particularly notable, however, as a reference to Incredible Hulk 181, where Wolverine first made his appearance as a villain of the week hired to take down Bruce Banner as a mercenary. Later, he was retro-fitted to be a mutant, recruited to join the X-Men on an emergency mission in the legendary Giant Size X-Men 1, which introduced many of the core team we know and love today including Storm, Nightcrawler, and others.

31. Wolverine's Costumes

Like the bottles, Marvel's Wolverine suits contain so many nods to Marvel and X-Men lore that we've given them their own deep dive. Stand-outs worth mentioning include a crossover skin with Marvel Tokon, a cel-shaded Animated skin that nods to the legendary '90s TV show, Future Fugitive, which puts a Marvel 2099 spin on Logan's look, and the Ghost Rider-inspired Hellverine. Others spotlight fan-favorite arcs or looks, such as New Leather nodding to Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, and the Midnight look from the original Midnight Suns comics (no, not the tactics RPG Marvel's Midnight Suns – though, please, Insomniac Games, we're begging for the gold all-over look to return).

32. Daredevil's connection to Shiro

The Hand have become a recurring Wolverine threat, but they have their origins in Daredevil 174, and are frequently antagonists for Daredevil, AKA defense attorney Matthew Murdoch. Their New York presence featured in both Netflix's Daredevil TV series, and in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In Marvel's Wolverine, Shiro is a collector of The Hand artefacts, and helps Logan and Jean track them down, including some crucial clues provided to him by "some lawyer in Hell's Kitchen" just before they take the fight to their base at the end of the Japan section of the game. There's a The Hand reference in Spider-Man 2, as well, which for a while was thought to be a nod towards Daredevil featuring in Spider-Man's future as well. The connected universe continues to grow for Insomniac Games.

For more superhero goodness, we have a list of the best Marvel games that you should play today. Or for more stories, head on over to our list of the best Wolverine comics of all time.

The code for Shiro's closet lock in Wolverine can't be worked out like the other similar puzzles, where you can just sense the fingerprints to get it. That's because it's just been changed recently and there are too many traces on the keypad to pin down the numbers you need for this Marvel's Wolverine puzzle. The solution is literally right around the corner, but if you don't know what to look for, or click through the solution too quickly, you might miss it and not be sure what to do.

So, below, I'll explain the Wolverine closet code and what you need to use the keypad and open it up.

Wolverine closet code combination

The closet code combination is 1924 in Marvel's Wolverine.

The solution is found on the bookshelf around the corner, where you can examine some books to get it. It's not super clear though as there are two sets of books: one that is apparently normal and all in order, and a second set that is not, but Logan doesn't really add much to that:

While it's not immediately obvious, the arranged books give you the code, made up from the disorderly books sticking out from the shelf. Where it can get confusing is that Wolverine comments on the books but makes no direct link to the code you need. You also can't re-examine the bookshelf again once you've left it. Which can be an issue if, like me, you immediately forgot the number the second you stopped looking at it.

Fortunately you can still see the '1924' standing out from the rearranged books if you walk up to it, so its not like you can't see it. You just don't have the zoomed in view accessible after the first look. Now, take that number, use it at the closet and you'll open up the way to the [SPOILERS] inside.

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How long does Wolverine take to complete? The answer is going to depend on how you play but most people will spend about 15 to 20 hours hacking and slashing their way through. Despite having 30 levels, Marvel's Wolverine isn't an especially big game and is very linear, so there aren't many chances to get lost. Instead, the two biggest determining factors in how long it takes to complete are how you get on with combat and how many collectibles you seek out. Bearing all of that in mind, here's a quick rundown of the length of Marvel's Wolverine

How long is Marvel's Wolverine?

The average length of a full playthrough of Marvel's Wolverine is about 16 hours. That's assuming you're spending a bit of time hunting collectibles, watching all the cutscenes, and dying a few times as combat can be a bit tricky. However, different playstyles mean different completion times, as follows:

• Quick: 12-15 hours
• Average: 15-18 hours
• 100% completion: 20+ hours

You might be able to complete Wolverine in under 15 hours on your first go, but only if you're playing on a low difficulty and are largely ignoring extra challenges like Nightmare Trials and collecting whiskey bottles. The game also has a ton of cutscenes so, assuming you aren't skipping them, completing the game much faster than this isn't really possible.

It's much more likely that you'll wrap up Wolverine in upwards of 15 hours, with a bit of collectible hunting and some deaths adding to your time to beat. My own playthrough, which included completing every Nightmare Trial to Adamantium level and collecting almost all the Wolverine Whiskey Bottles and Material Crates on 'The Mutant' difficulty took about 18 hours, with the writer of GamesRadar+'s Wolverine review also having a similar experience.

But if you want to see everything Marvel's Wolverine has to offer – at minimum that's completing every Nightmare Trial, unlocking every Marvel's Wolverine suit and upgrade, and collecting every bottle and crate – you'll easily spend 20 hours or more playing. If you want to go the extra mile, there's also a New Game+ mode that lets you replay the whole game with all your unlocks and features an increased level cap and four more Wolverine Adaptations and Wolverine Techniques.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Finding Marvel's Wolverine whiskey bottles is important if you want to boost your Adaptation Level and unlock all the suits in the game, but some of them are much harder to find than others. A few of these bottles very easy to find, being practically impossible to miss as you move through a mission in Marvel's Wolverine, while others are much harder to find since their guiding scent trail can be hard to pick up. So, I've laid out the locations of every Wolverine whiskey bottle below to help you sniff them all out swiftly.

Since this guide includes some light descriptions of most of the levels in the game, be aware of some very minor spoilers.

Wolverine whiskey bottle locations

There are 21 whiskey bottles to collect in Marvel's Wolverine, with most levels having one bottle to find and a couple having two bottles. All whiskey bottles have a scent trail that leads directly to them, but they can be quite easy to miss as they're either not that obvious or blend in with other objectives.

Each bottle you find provides two Adaptation Points which help you unlock and equip more of the best Wolverine Adaptations – while there is a Whiskey Finder adaptation, I recommend sticking with this guide. Find all 21 bottles and you'll also unlock the Midnight suit for your Wolverine suits collection.

Here are the locations of all the whiskey bottles in Wolverine in each level in order:

Homecoming whiskey bottle

This Wolverine whiskey bottle is impossible to miss as finding it is part of the mission. Follow the scent trail into Logan's store cupboard bedroom and the Uncanny Whiskey bottle will be right in front of you. The name of this bottle riffs on the first X-Men comic series, Uncanny X-Men.

The One That Got Away whiskey bottle

Near the beginning of the mission, once you start properly tracking Jean Grey, you'll reach a point where you jump off a building and then sniff a patch of ground affected by her purple telekinetic power. Follow the scent trail ahead of this but bear right and go towards the boarded-up garage. Smash the wooden cover and grab the Incredible 181 Whiskey Bottle from the tool trolley. This references Wolverine's first ever appearance, which was in the comic Incredible Hulk 181.

Raise Some Hell whiskey bottle

In the courtyard area with the yellow crane and the Nightmare Door, follow the scent path towards the grey brick wall. Once you pass the containers, turn left and you should spot a yellow door on the far wall. Crash through it to reach a rec room where you'll find the Cold Lake whiskey bottle. Cold Lake in Alberta, Cananda, is where Logan is from.

Strays whiskey bottle

Head inside Walter's lab and go towards the far-right corner of the room. The Blood Debt whiskey bottle is on the metal bench next to the table. 'Blood Debt' is the name of a Wolverine comic book storyline.

Something Much Stronger whiskey bottle

Follow the river upstream and into a cave. Climb the rocks on the left and you'll spot the Not Dead Yet whiskey bottle on a wooden crate. This is another reference to a Wolverine comic book storyline.

Knock Knock whiskey bottle

After you destroy the signal relay and get out from the rubble, immediately follow the scent trail to the damaged building on your right. There's a slab marked with white paint you can climb to get inside the building. Once you're in, the Tenth Man whiskey bottle can be found on the long counter.

"Tenth Man" is a play on Wolverine being an X-Man because X is 10 in roman numerals. In the same sense, it could also link to being a test subject for the Weapon X program, the tenth Weapon Plus program.

Mutant Detected whiskey bottle

After surviving the propulsion tunnel near the end of the level, start following the objective markers through the facility. You'll soon pass through a doorway that leads into a more open section with several forklifts and large containers lying about. In this area, immediately head left to find a locked door with a nearby keypad (there's a wooden crate in the way that you can smash).

Interact with the keypad and enter the code 5413 to get into a small lab. Follow the scent trail to the floor grate, interact with it to dive into a vent, then walk through and climb out the other end. The Fist of Legend whiskey bottle will be right in front of you on the lab counter – Fist of Legend is one of Wolverine's many aliases.

One Last Mission whiskey bottle

Speak to Sabretooth on the balcony of the Princess bar as the mission objectives direct. During the arm wrestle argument cinematic, Logan will put Sabretooth's whiskey bottle on the balcony railing. When the cinematic ends, make sure you pick up the 'The Old Man' whiskey bottle afterwards to add it to your collection. This seems to just be a reference to Old Man Logan, the old and weathered version of Wolverine from a universe where supervillains rule Earth.

Get Angry whiskey bottle

After going inside the Japanese bar from Jean's vision, go to the far end, take the stairs down to the basement, then follow the corridor and scent trail around to the right. Head inside the bathroom then press Triangle to get the creepy kissy head to move out (this gets you a trophy!). When it moves back, grab the Patch whiskey bottle from the shelf.

Patch is the name of Wolverine's alias in Madripoor that helps him remain anonymous in the criminal haven. This disguise is also one of Wolverine's many suits you can wear in the game.

Bad Blood whiskey bottle

When you're climbing up the under-construction building to reach Shiro's Penthouse, there's a point where you climb into the building and then destroy a pair of yellow grate doors to proceed. From here, carry on straight ahead and drop down – there will be a material crate right here – then follow the scent trail around to the right. Climb up to the next ledge and you'll spot the Fatal Attractions whiskey bottle on a blue tarp crate. The name of this bottle is the same as a famous X-Men comic series from the 1990s.

In the Shadows whiskey bottle 1

After destroying the second mutant detector, go back out onto the building rooftop to spot the final cluster of detectors. Facing the detector, drop down onto the lower rooftop ahead, then turn right and jump towards the rooftop balcony area with some electronic billboards in the corner – it's attached to the tall, blue building. You'll find the Best There Is whiskey bottle on a small table on this balcony.

The name of this whiskey bottle comes from a famous line of Wolverine's: "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn't very nice..."

In the Shadows whiskey bottle 2

This Marvel's Wolverine whiskey bottle is pretty much impossible to miss. When you meet up with Jean and infiltrate the Hand's secret party together, you can grab the Berserker Brew whiskey bottle from one of the tables in the first room. This just seems to be a reference to Wolverine's berserker rage.

Death Comes to Death whiskey bottle

This bottle is also difficult to miss. Just follow the mission normally from the start and you'll eventually follow a scent trail that leads upwards into a sort of maintenance corridor. You'll find the Hand of God whiskey bottle on a tool trolley along the scent trail in this upper area.

'Hand of God' is a reference to a Wolverine comic storyline in which he is implied to be the Hand of God, sent down to punish the Ba'al-worshipping people of Gehenna thousands of years ago, or at least connected to it in some way.

We Were Wrong whiskey bottle

After talking to Essex, follow the objective markers to track the Hand mutant that took the Helix Engine. You'll eventually reach a T-shaped junction with a white truck on the left. Go to the back of the truck and you'll find the Revolto whiskey bottle on some cinderblocks. This bottle is named after Revolto the Clown who Wolverine becomes in a comic after getting brainwashed and forced into Frankenstein's Monster's Murder Circus.

Hell Followed With Him whiskey bottle

While climbing the cliff, there's a point where Jean will rescue Wolverine by telekinetically grabbing some falling boulders that must then be climbed. Once you get onto the wooden walkway, go forward and look for the white cloth hanging on the railing on your right. Hop over the railing where the cloth is and you'll land on a lower cliff ledge. Follow the scent trail down and you'll find the Itsu Single Malt whiskey bottle on a barrel. Itsu is the name of Logan's Japanese wife in the comics.

Way Down Low whiskey bottle 1

After opening the lockup, follow Jean and use the crane hook to zip up onto a roof. At the top, immediately head left and get onto the narrow balcony of the turquoise building. Follow the scent trail around the corner and you'll find the Wild Canadian whiskey bottle – a simple reference to the fact Wolverine is Canadian.

Way Down Low whiskey bottle 2

After Jean gets on the mic to rally the people of Lowtown, follow her using the zipline, then climb onto the roof ahead (this is the one with a Nightmare Door on it). Leap over to the next rooftop below, then follow the scent trail down the stairs to a balcony and the Little Uncle whiskey bottle on a table. This is a reference to Natasha Romanov's (Black Widow) nickname for Wolverine in the comics, "Little Uncle".

Roll the Dice whiskey bottle

Once you're inside the party, head upstairs and walk around to the bar. Press Triangle when prompted to stand at the bar and get a drink. Wolverine will then pocket the Blood and Bourbon whiskey bottle as another collectible. This is seemingly not a reference to anything aside from Wolverine's proclivity for bourbon and bloodshed.

Field Test whiskey bottle

After chasing the flying Sentinel and then getting hit by a car and fighting more Sentinels in a warehouse, follow the objective marker outside via the upper door. As you head toward the fish market, the Captain Terror whiskey bottle will be in clear view on top of an AC unit vent on your left.

Dan Kane, also known as Captain Terror, is a Marvel character that Wolverine once disguised himself as for a time travel mission.

I'm Still Here whiskey bottle

After fighting the first MK2 Sentinel, go down the short but winding path in the rubble – this eventually emerges into a split path where you can go either left or right to reach the next area.

Go left and head through the broken walls in the turquoise building, then continue down the path and go through the large hole in the pink wall on your left to get inside the Princess bar. Climb the stairs to reach the upper level then continue straight to find the Ol' Canucklehead whiskey bottle on a table. Ol' Canucklehead is a nickname for Wolverine that combines Canuck (a nod to being Canadian) and knucklehead.

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The best Marvel's Wolverine Techniques are real game changers that noticeably amp up Logan's killing power. The problem is that there are quite a lot to choose from and, while you can unlock every Technique in a single playthrough of Marvel's Wolverine, it's worth knowing which ones you should get as early as possible – from enhancing his leap attack and parry to brutal flying knee and passive healing abilities. Unlock the top Wolverine Techniques I've laid out below and you'll be on your way to becoming the best there is.

Best Techniques to unlock in Wolverine

There are 36 Technique nodes to unlock in Marvel's Wolverine (40 if you include the additional Unstoppable Force Techniques in NG+), and you can unlock all of them in a single playthrough. To do so, you need to earn enough XP to reach Level 36 and spend your Technique Points - it's a completely different system to the Marvel's Wolverine Adaptations you can unlock.

Admittedly, levelling up that much isn't that easy, and it doesn't help that Techniques are locked behind level caps before they can even be unlocked, but you will at least have every Technique available by Level 29. For that reason, it's best to spend your Technique Points on the best you can get, then unlock any remaining until you get access to the next batch by levelling up – in short, don't save your Technique Points, but make sure you unlock the following as early as possible:

• Special Techniques:
  • Tornado Spin (unlocked automatically): A powerful attack that hits multiple enemies and gets substantially better with each upgrade. Good in pretty much all combat encounters and is great for getting you out of a sticky situation where you're surrounded.
  • Knee Breaker (Level 4): A staggering flying knee to the head that interrupts all enemy attacks and leaves the victim vulnerable to things like Healing Strike. Hugely useful in any fight when used at the right moment.
  • Relentless (Level 7): Gives you constant health regeneration at an increased rate for a short time, which can help you live through some devastating fights. It's good to quickly use as soon as your health gets low, particularly if you've not yet reached Rage Tier 2 and don't have Last Stand ready. If you're not taking enough damage to warrant using Relentless, you could swap it for Overwhelm instea
  • Brutal Assault (Level 25): Dash to an enemy and viciously slash at them. Since it also breaks through all defenses, it's a very good single-target attack that can rip through weaker enemies and substantially weaken larger ones, especially when fully upgraded.
• Techniques:
  • Savage Sprinter (Level 2): It's one of the first Techniques you can unlock and is worth doing and using when you can, especially early on. It's like a mini Tornado Spin that's great for opening a fight as you sprint at enemies and helps you build Rage.
  • Stagger Leap (Level 2): Wolverine's leap attack on Triangle is an incredibly useful basic attack, and this makes it even better, adding some staggering power by charging it up.
  • Healing Strike (Level 3): This is one of the most useful techniques in the whole game, letting you not only deal potentially lethal damage to a staggered enemy (especially if you use it to end a Barrage) but also instantly regenerate a chunk of health.
  • Sprint Block (Level 3): A great early-game Technique that helps to reduce some incoming damage.
  • Unblockable Ender (Level 11): A high-damage attack to round off your combos that also can't be blocked. Pairs well with Adaptations that add additional effects to Combo Enders.
  • Advanced Parry (Level 17): Allows Wolverine to deflect multiple incoming melee attacks at once, making parrying a lot more useful in general. Pairs very well with the Extended Parry Adaptation.
  • Staggered Throw (Level 17): Use this to throw staggered enemies into other enemies and potentially interrupting their attacks. It's also good for throwing enemies into walls and other hazards.
  • Charged Helix Blast (Level 23): A strong ranged attack that hits a wide area in front of Wolverine and can therefore hit multiple enemies.
  • Helix Combo (Level 23): Allows you to perform a second attack after using Helix Claws, dealing heavy damage. I've found that sometimes the initial Helix Claw attack can knock enemies so far away that the second attack doesn't actually hit, but it's good damage and ability to interrupt larger enemies mostly outweighs this.
  • Helix Counter-Shot (Level 23): By the end of the game, there are lots of enemies with ranged attacks, so being able to dodge them and automatically retaliate with Wolverine's own ranged blast is very useful

Bear in mind that just because a Technique isn't mentioned on this list, doesn't mean it's not good. Most of them are at least slightly useful but there are some that I very rarely had a reason to use, either because they weren't as effective as existing abilities or because they're very niche. The best examples of this are any of the Stealth-related techniques. All of them are quite good but since stealth is completely optional, you can entirely ignore these Techniques if you aren't planning on being sneaky.

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Wolverine Adaptations function like perks, and the best ones are real game changers for combat. You start with four Adaptations and a single 'Strand' (or slot) you can equip one in and, as you find whiskey bottles and complete Nightmare Doors in Marvel's Wolverine, you'll unlock new Adaptions and more Strands to equip them in. I've completed the game and unlocked them all, so here what I think the best are overall, and what to equip as you progress through the game and get more.

The best Wolverine Adaptations

There are 25 Adaptations in total and you can eventually equip 10. You'll start with a single slot initially, and each time you unlock some more skills you'll get a new slot for the first nine Adaptations levels, with the tenth level just unlocking the final slot.

These are the best Wolverine Adaptions overall, from the full list of unlocked options and slots.

1. Expanded Crit
2. Extended Parry
3. Healing Parry
4. Tough Skinned
5. Rage Intimidation
6. Enraging Ender
7. Tier 2 Crit
8. Chain Crit
9. Rage Longer
10. Enraging Barrage

Most of these options are built around boosting your Rage - increasing damage, how long it lasts, how much you can do with it, and more. With Rage maxed out Wolverine can clear hordes of enemies in seconds, and level the battlefield. You should also be spending your Technique Points on the best Wolverine Techniques as these will boost your combat power a lot too.

The best Adaptations to equip as you get them

When you first unlock Adaptations, you'll get four options and a single slot, or Strand you can use to equip one. As you complete Nightmare Doors and find Wolverine Whisky Bottles to increase you Adaptation level you'll gradually unlock more options, and increase your Strand count by one each time up to a maximum of ten - doing both can also get you some Wolverine suits.

Let's a take a look now at what you unlock at each level and what you should equip as you go.

Adaptation level 1

• Healing Dangerously - Successfully reacting to Power Attacks or Reckless Attacks restores health
• Expanded Crit - Critical Strikes can be performed against enemies with higher remaining health
• Barrage Recharge - Recharged the Special Technique assigned to L2 + square faster
• Enraging Sprint - While Sprinting enemy ranged attacks build Rage

As this point Expanded Crit will probably be you best option as it will increase the potency of you Rage ability when powered up. However, if you're having trouble staying alive then Healing Dangerously can be useful.

Adaptation level 2

• Enraging Stealth - Stealth Takedowns build extra Rage
• Bullet Sponge - Ranged Attacks deal less damage to you

You'll now be able to equip two Adaptations and at this point I'd equip whichever of the Expanded Crit or Healing Dangerously options you didn't from last time. Stealth isn't really a huge thing so there's not much point using that, and, while Bullet Sponge can be useful in the early game, I wouldn't prioritise it.

Adaptation level 3

• Healing Dodge - Dodging an enemy attack restores health
• Extended Parry - Parries are successful within a larger time window

With three Strands to equip I would add Extended Parry to what you have. Parrying is such a vital part of the game that you want to boost it every way you can. At this point you might want to consider swapping out Healing Dangerously for Healing Dodge, as you'll likely make much more use of that while fighting.

Adaptation level 4

• Tough Skinned - Melee attacks deal less damage to you
• Combo Ender Recharger - Combo Enders recharge the Special Technique Assigned to L2 and Triangle faster

Add Tough Skinned with your extra Strand at this point, so you'll be able to take more of a beating.

Adaptation level 5

• Healing Parry - Parrying an enemy attack restores health
• Rage Intimidation - Entering Rage Tier 2 causes Intimidation on a nearby basic enemy, enabling a critical strike
• Crate Finder - Enhanced Senses can detect material Crates at a greater range and through obstacles

Rage Intimidation is probably the best option here, as it will increase your Rage options and let you take down more enemies faster. At this point you might want to consider swapping Healing Dodge for Healing Parry as well, as you'll be parrying more than dodging.

Adaptation level 6

• Healing crit - Critical Strike restores Health
• Parry Recharge - Parrying an enemy attack recharges the Special Technique assigned to L2 and X
• Enraging Ender - Combo enders build extra Rage

Again, your best option here is to build up your Rage potential with the Enraging Ender Adaptation, letting you fill your meter quicker.

Adaptation level 7

• Dodge Recharge - Dodging an enemy attack recharges the Special Technique assigned to L2 and Circle faster
• Enraging Barrage - Barrages build extra Rage
• Tier 2 Crit - In Rage Tier 2, against a staggered enemy with low health, you can perform Critical Strikes

There are two good options here so its up to you what you want. Enraging Barrage will let you build Rage faster, while Tier 2 Crit will let you do more with Rage when you have it. Your call really.

Adaptation level 8

• Desperate Regeneration - When Health drops below 35% passive regeneration increases until back up to 50%
• Chain Crit - Critical Strikes will ensure a nearby basic enemy is Intimidated. taking the follow up Critical Strike does not ensure an additional intimidation
• Whisky Finder - Enhanced Senses can detect Whisky at a greater range and through obstruction

Go for Chain Crit here as the extra Intimidation will increase your potential attacks once you're in Rage mode. You could also equip which ever one you didn't for the last level, depending on how you're using your Rage ability.

Adaptation level 9

• Enraged Recharge - In Rage Tier 2 the passive recharge rate of all Special Techniques is faster. In Rage Tier 3 the recharge rate increases further
• Rage Longer - Rage Tier 3 has reduced Rage decay
• Leaping Crit - In Rage Tier 3 against basic enemies hold Triangle to perform a Critical Strike

Out of these three, Rage Longer is the most useful, letting you stay in Rage mode for greater periods of time. Obviously that ups your damage potential immensely.

Adaptation level 10

You won't get anymore new Adaptations at this point, just a new Strand to equip an extra one. I would recommend Enraging Barrage, which you unlocked at level 7 as it's one of your core methods to build Rage so you might as well get the most out it.

How long is Marvel's Wolverine? That depends on how you play but you can definitely complete it in under 20 hours. There's a chance you might get stuck on the Marvel's Wolverine Shiro lock code puzzle as well, but I've laid out the solution in the linked guide.

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Unlocking all the Wolverine suits and claws can be difficult as you've got to overcome some tough challenges, grab almost every collectible in the game, and craft some of them. But by the end of Marvel's Wolverine, you'll have access to almost 30 costumes in which to dress Logan up, covering the entire history of the character - and you might have even more if you've got the Digital Deluxe Edition. From deep-cut comic costumes and Insomniac Games originals to suits from movies and TV, here's a rundown of every suit in Marvel's Wolverine and how to unlock them.

Bear in mind that a few of Wolverine's suits are relevant to the game's story so, while I've kept things vague, be mindful of possible spoilers below.

How to unlock all Wolverine suits

Marvel's Wolverine features 27 suits and 22 claws, with an additional five of each if you own the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game. You'll unlock most suits and claws just by playing through the game's missions (if you want to know how long that'll take, I've explained how long it takes to beat Marvel's Wolverine here) but some require you to complete specific challenges instead – unlike the Spider-Man 2 suits, they are not tied to levelling up.

Furthermore, to actually wear some of them, you also need to spend materials you've gathered from Material Crates in missions to craft them – this is explained in the early mission 'Homecoming'. While all the suits and claws are just cosmetic options with no gameplay effects, crafting suits is quite important as the more you fill out your suit collection, the more you'll increase Wolverine's maximum health, up to double its base amount. For that reason, keep an eye out for Material Crates as you play, but don't worry if you miss any as the game includes more than enough to craft every suit and you can always replay missions - keep an eye our for Wolverine whiskey bottles as well as material crates as you replay.

Besides the Marvel Tokon and Animated suits, you can mix and match any combination of suit and claws to your liking. Just be aware that certain missions will force Wolverine to dress a certain way which can't always be altered during the mission.

Team X Tactical

• Unlocked by default.
• Wolverine's military-grade uniform that he wears at the start of the game, which is based on a Team X comic book look - a black suit with yellow webbing. His typical Adamantium Claws are unlocked from the start too.

Tank Top

• Unlocked by default.
• The white tank top and jeans is a classic look for Wolverine, appearing in various comics and movies - very prominently in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Battle Reborn

• Becomes available to craft for 75 materials during the "Homecoming" mission.
• Wolverine's iconic cowled costume re-imagined for Marvel's Wolverine with yellow and black coloring.

Gold Standard

• Becomes available to craft for 75 materials during the "Homecoming" mission.
• Includes Bone Claws.
• This is Insomniac's rendition of Wolverine's Astonishing X-Men outfit, which features a mix of the classic yellow and blue and even has an X-Men belt buckle.

Fang

• Becomes available to craft for 150 materials at the start of the "The One That Got Away" mission.
• Includes Savage Bone Claws.
• A classic costume from Uncanny X-Men #107. The costume's namesake, Fang, is the name of an alien warrior Wolverine defeated and the costume's original owner. Wolverine dons it because his own costume gets damaged.

Old Man Logan

• Becomes available to craft for 150 materials at the start of the "The One That Got Away" mission.
• Includes Savage Bone Claws.
• Old Man Logan has appeared in several forms over the years, and this is Insomniac's version of their Wolverine all grizzled and aged, featuring the usual long brown coat.

Ultimate Red

• Becomes available to craft for 150 materials at the start of the "The One That Got Away" mission.
• Includes Hooked Claws.
• This is a relatively new costume for Wolverine from the Ultimate Universe in which he serves as the Winter Soldier under Colossus, Magik, and Omega Red.

Ablation

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "The One That Got Away" mission.
• Includes Notched Claws.
• While it doesn't look especially durable in the game, this slightly orange-tinted costume is based on Wolverine's armored Ablation suit from the 'Wolverine' comic series. It was gifted to Wolverine by Spider-Man after a Microverse alien virus caused him to lose his healing factor and ability to use his claws. The suit therefore had built-in claws.

Weapon X

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "Something Stronger" mission.
• Includes Curved Claws.
• Insomniac's interpretation of the classic Weapon X look, which sees Logan covered in experimental tech that make him an adamantium-infused, brainwashed killer.

Future Past

• Unlocks at the start of the "Something Stronger" mission.
• Inspired by Wolverine's X-Men: Days of Future Past comic costume, this outfit dresses Logan in a more casual outfit comprising jeans, a grey henley top, and a large brown coat with a fleece inside.

Dressed Down

• Unlocks at the start of the "One Last Mission" mission.
• A casual red flannel shirt and jeans fit for a Canadian lumberjack, and an outfit that's very similar to one Hugh Jackman's Wolverine wears in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Leather Jacket

• Unlocks at the start of the "Jetlag" mission.
• I don't think this suit references a specific costume but a leather jacket, flannel shirt, and jeans is just something Logan would wear on his days off. Again, Hugh Jackman wears a similar combo in the 2000 movie X-Men.

X-Force

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "Get Angry" mission.
• Includes Angular Claws.
• Wolverine's black ops X-Force suit designed for stealth, from the X-Force comic series.

Blue & Gold

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "Get Angry" mission.
• Includes Thin Claws.
• An X-Men training uniform suit made by Moira MacTaggert in Uncanny X-Men #273.

Ultimate Yellow

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "Get Angry" mission.
• Includes Crescent Claws.
• A simple black combat suit with yellow accents that Wolverine first wears in Uncanny X-Men #423. Ultimate X-Men Wolverine also wore this outfit around the same time for a (briefly) consistent Wolverine costume.

Accursed

• Becomes available to craft for 250 materials at the start of the "Get Angry" mission.
• Includes Natural Bone Claws.
• Wolverine's Madripoor costume from Marvel Comics Presents #8. It's a black sleeveless outfit and this version features all the accessories, including a red belt and black face paint.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

• Becomes available to craft for 300 materials upon entering the arcade in the "In the Shadows" missions.
• Wolverine's cel-shaded costume from the 2026 fighting game Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls. Also includes Fightin' Souls Claws but they can only be used with this suit.

Classic Brown

• Pre-order bonus that unlocks at start of the "The One That Got Away" mission.
• Includes Reflective Claws.
• The brown suit is a classic look for Wolverine that debuted in Uncanny X-Men #139.

Black Tank

• Becomes available to craft for 250 materials at the start of the "Way Down Low" mission.
• Includes Ragged Adamantium Claws.
• This seems to be an Insomniac original that riffs on the Tank Top costume. Wolverine's top is black, he's got a hat, and his sideburns are even more extreme!

Yellow Variant

• Becomes available to craft for 250 materials at the start of the "Way Down Low" mission.
• Includes Variant Claws.
• Wolverine's costume in the 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine. Thankfully, Deadpool isn't here too.

Animated

• Becomes available to craft for 200 materials at the start of the "Way Down Low" mission.
• Wolverine's simple appearance from the original animated series and reboot, X-Men '97. Also includes Animated Claws but they can only be used with this suit.

Patch

• Unlocks at the start of the "Roll The Dice" mission.
• An alias used by Wolverine when hiding in Madripoor that first appears in Marvel Comics Presents #10, dressing him in the iconic white tux and eyepatch combo. You might also recognize it from a Marvel Rivals costume and a brief appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Feral

• Becomes available to craft for 300 materials at the start of the "I'm Still Here" mission.
• Wolverine has gone feral and looked the part in various ways over the years, but this suit matches his wild look in the very first cutscene of the game where he is rescued by Essex.

Midnight

• Collect all Whiskey Bottles.
• Includes Scarlet Claws.
• This suit is ripped straight from Midnight Suns #4, giving Wolverine a black, magically forged, armored suit with red accents, including scarlet claws. Unfortunately, his black-and-gold suit from the Marvel's Midnight Suns game isn't available.

Future Fugitive

• Achieve Gold level in all three Gauntlet Nightmare Trials.
• Includes Techno-Organic Claws.
• This is a costume Omega Wolverine gets in the 'X Deaths of Wolverine' comic series where he is infected with Phalanx's techno-organic virus, which turns organic material into animate machinery. That's why his suit is covered in glowing circuit board-looking tiger stripes. He still lives because of his healing factor, which slows the virus' consumption.

Hellverine

• Achieve Adamantium level in all three Gauntlet Nightmare Trials.
• Includes Charred Bone Claws.
• The Hellverine is a recent comic character that is a crossover with Ghost Rider. Specifically, he's the result of a demon called Bagra-ghul possessing Wolverine, giving him a rather infernal look. Bagra-ghul also went on to possess Wolverine's son Akihiro in a Hellverine mini comic series.

Death

• Complete all missions
• Wolverine's Death costume is modelled after his appearance as Apocalypse's Horseman of Death in Astonishing X-Men #1, featuring the same red head covering and blue metallic armor.

Age of Apocalypse

• Digital Deluxe Edition bonus that unlocks at start of "The One That Got Away"
• Includes Thick Claws
• This is Wolverine's look in the Age of Apocalypse timeline where he goes by Weapon-X, wearing a black and red suit, and is missing his left hand (the claws remain).

Incredible

• Digital Deluxe Edition bonus that unlocks at start of "The One That Got Away"
• Includes Smooth-Edged Claws
• This is the costume Wolverine wears in his first ever appearance, which was in The Incredible Hulk #180 when the Hulk and Wendigo were having a scrap.

New Leather

• Digital Deluxe Edition bonus that unlocks at start of "The One That Got Away".
• Includes Tapered Claws.
• At a few points in Wolverine's history, he has donned a full black leather outfit with some yellow X-Men embellishments. This New Leather suit seems to reference his New X-Men #114 outfit, but it's also reminiscent of the leather costumes in the early 2000s X-Men movies and his costume on the cover of Wolverine #171.

Savage

• Digital Deluxe Edition bonus that unlocks at start of "The One That Got Away".
• Includes Hollow Blade Claws.
• The Savage suit is an original design for Marvel's Wolverine by comic artist Adam Kubert, who has worked extensively on Wolverine, the X-Men, and many other Marvel heroes throughout his career.

Night Hunt

• Digital Deluxe Edition bonus that unlocks at start of "The One That Got Away".
• Includes Serrated Spine Claws.
• Night Hunt is another original design for the game, this one created by comic artist Iban Coello. He's worked on plenty of Marvel characters beyond Wolverine, including Venom, Carnage, and the Fantastic Four.

Flat-Edged Claws

• Achieve Silver in the Last Stand at Cold Pines Gauntlet Nightmare Trial.
• From what I can gather, these claws are an original design by Insomniac.

Gold Claws

• Achieve Silver in the Crucible of Tears Gauntlet Nightmare Trial.
• These gold claws are made from the divine metal Adamantine, a refined version of Adamantium. The claws appear in a few different comic runs, notably Astonishing X-Men. In this series, James Howlett is given Adamantine by Hercules, which is later bonded to his skeleton.

Diamond Claws

• Achieve Silver in the Savage Showdown Gauntlet Nightmare Trial.
• I think these claws are also an Insomniac original and are just an extravagant-looking reward. But there's a point in the Infinity Wars comic series where Wolverine and Emma Frost's souls are merged. Together they form Diamond Patch who has diamond claws.

Now that Logan hopefully looks the part in one of his dashing costumes, make sure you're the best there is in combat with the best Wolverine Techniques and best Wolverine Adaptations. But if puzzles aren't your style, then we can help with this guide on the Marvel's Wolverine closet code combination in Shiro's apartment.

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TCG Card Shop Simulator took Steam by storm when it hit early access back in 2024, offering players the thrill of collecting Pokemon-style cards without the burden of actually buying packs and keeping binders full of colorful cardboard. Now, after attracting millions of players and garnering overwhelmingly positive reviews, it's finally gone 1.0.

"TCG Card Shop Simulator was made because I was bored out of my mind after burning out from solo mobile game development back in 2023. I felt aimless and wasn't sure what to do with my life," developer Ding Shen Sia explains in a Steam news post. Having already built a TCG-themed game on mobile, the dev decided to expand the concept with a Steam game.

"From then on, I was a madman. I worked on it everyday and spent at least 90 hours every week for 6 months. And on 15 September 2024, I managed to launch TCG Card Shop Simulator on Steam Early Access, a month earlier than what I've planned. I had no big expectations or plans for it other than making the Steam Trading Cards work, but I would have been really happy if it sold 100,000 copies in a year (it somehow sold that amount in just 3 days!)"

As confirmed in a press release, the game has now reached 4 million players, and they've clearly found something to love. TCG Card Shop Simulator has nearly 50,000 reviews on Steam, and 96% of them are positive. Broadly, it seems that players are taken by the cozy vibes of running a small business – but some of the top reviews also thank the game for helping them kick their pack-ripping habits, so maybe there's a benefit there, too.

The biggest news in the 1.0 update is the launch of PS5, Switch, and Switch 2 versions of the game, alongside the existing Steam and Xbox Series X/S editions. But for existing players, the important part is that Tetramon TCG is no longer just a Pokemon-inspired theme for the products you're selling in store. It's now a real TCG that you can actually play in-game.

Nearly 2,000 new cards have been added in the 1.0 update, bringing the total up to 4,436, so there's at least plenty of variety to be found in the TCG. We'll see how much depth the game-within-the-game has soon enough, but for now, well… I bought my first Pokemon card packs in decades recently. Maybe I should check out TCG Card Shop Simulator myself before this new hobby gets out of hand.

Here are the best simulator games you can play right now.

Once Final Fantasy 7 Revelation comes out on April 8, 2027, the entire Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy will likely total at least 150 hours of Cloud being tormented – assuming the final installment is as long as the two before it. That's already a lot of Final Fantasy 7 remake, but Square Enix company director Yoshinori Kitase might be craving more, and he wouldn't rule out a spin-off, or 12.

He had the same open approach to the original Final Fantasy 7 game in 1997, Kitase tells Malaysia-based games news site GamerBraves. That RPG was meant to be a one-and-done experience until fans' sleepless enthusiasm led to years of related games, like the popular Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII from 2007, which also got remastered in 2022 as Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core Reunion.

Kitase says, "In terms of the remake series with [Final Fantasy 7], we really wanted to feel like, and we really have put so much work into this to feel like we've done everything we possibly can to make this [newest] title have the best quality it possibly can have." At the moment, that assessment seems honest – GamesRadar+ senior producer James Daly writes in his recent Final Fantasy 7 Revelation preview, "I wonder how Naoki Hamaguchi and Square Enix so masterfully manage to weave nostalgia into something so obviously new in so many ways. Maybe I'll never truly understand."

At the risk of sounding cynical, I think it helps that Square Enix developers are so willing to squeeze every single molecule of inspiration from Final Fantasy 7 until it's dry and crackling. The developer learned this approach 30 years ago. "When we created the original Final Fantasy VII," Kitase says, "we really thought like, 'Okay, we're done now. We can move on.'"

But fans of what many consider to be one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time weren't ready to let go. "The characters were so popular and so lasting," Kitase recalls. "The fan reaction to these characters really is what brought on the spinoff games as well like Advent Children and Crisis Core.”

Now, Kitase says about Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, "We can confidently say it's the end of the series." But there's a giant, shining asterisk assigned to that statement. Square Enix is fine with walking away from its remake trilogy, but the overall concept of Final Fantasy 7 might still be holding a few cups worth of spin-off ideas.

"Who knows what's going to happen with fan reaction and how people come to enjoy this series and this finale," Kitase says. The door is open.

After countless memes, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation boss confirms that, yes, Fortnite partly inspired jumping out of the Highwind.

Arc Raiders Expeditions have been paused until early 2027 to create added fix-it time for developer Embark Studios, which now suggests the game's soft-wipe system may be redone altogether.

Executive producer Aleksander Grøndal spoke to PCGamesN at Gamescom, commenting on the decision to put Expeditions on hiatus right as Arc Raiders rolled out a patch addressing a longstanding complaint about the system.

"Was the system perfect? No, probably not," Grøndal says. "We want to make some significant changes to the Expedition system. But I think right now we're focused on, 'Yeah, they are what they are,' but the intent is to have them change."

Embark has adjusted Expeditions in some shape or other with every major Caravan window, but the needle hasn't really moved since launch. This time, it seems the devs are properly going back to the drawing board, and that may seemingly include doing away with Expeditions as we know them altogether.

"Maybe we'll scrap the whole system altogether. That is on the table, too," Grøndal adds. "Right now, the team is trying to figure out what the next steps for Expeditions are."

Expeditions represent one of the biggest and most casual-friendly differences between Arc Raiders and more hardcore extraction shooters. As a wipe mechanic, Expeditions are totally optional and positioned as an endgame prestige pursuit rather than an economy balancer. So far, the problem has been making Expeditions rewarding and fun enough to pursue, with a fairly small portion of the player base actually participating in the system.

For now, Embark has all hands on deck for Frozen Trail, the big, wintry update set for October 8. This, too, has been described as a moment for the devs to pause and deliver larger changes after a period of minor seasonal adjustments. Expeditions won't resume until months after Frozen Trail at the earliest, but we may get some inkling of what Embark has in store this fall.

Arc Raiders still has a cheating problem because cheats are an $8 billion industry and "we'd need thousands of developers" to counter it, says Embark engineer.

Bungie has delayed a September 22 Marathon update to December 8 as part of a larger live service overhaul that will end the game's "strict seasonal schedule" in the hopes of delivering more significant content drops – on the surface, not unlike the strategy Arc Raiders has pivoted toward.

In a blog post, Bungie agrees that "Marathon needs more depth, more variety, stronger progression, and better reasons to keep playing over the long term." Destiny 2 players may feel a strange sense of deja vu toward this line: "Addressing that feedback requires us to change both what we're building and how we deliver it."

"The content originally planned for September will now arrive as part of our Symbiosis update on December 8," Bungie writes. "Alongside the new Runner shell, permanent PvE experience, and refreshed Perimeter zone, the update will also include a social space/firing range, an experimental TDM mode, and improvements to new player onboarding."

That December update, Symbiosis, is called "the first major step in Marathon’s next chapter." I have to wonder if it will ultimately be positioned as a relaunch of sorts.

"Symbiosis is an important milestone for Marathon and the beginning of a broader evolution through March and beyond, shaped by what we learn from players along the way," Bungie says. This timeline is roughly in line with Marathon's original season roadmap, but content drops will now move more freely as a way of "giving the team the time needed to deliver the larger experiences."

In addition to the above Symbiosis features and additions, players can expect an updated Perimeter map that, hopefully, makes the dang thing worth playing past the opening hours of Marathon. Bungie is also looking to add "the first of several improvements to the new-player experience."

Between the PvE, social space, and team deathmatch PvP, Marathon is looking more like Destiny 2 by the day. It's even got the new-player struggles down. Bungie's flagship MMO ended development just months ago, but it still averages upwards of 8x Marathon's daily peak Steam concurrent player count, reflecting the struggles the studio's new game has faced post-launch, despite delivering a genuinely compelling shooter experience. In our Marathon review, Andy calls it "my favorite multiplayer shooter in years."

A smaller update is now planned for October 6 to help refresh the game. It very literally "refreshes rewards," Bungie says, and it also resets progression and the in-game economy much like a seasonal wipe.

Additionally, the October update will bring a tuning and balance sweep, a new rewards pass, and miscellaneous quality-of-life improvements. Marathon's recent PvE experiment, Vault Breaker, will also be revived, albeit only for another "limited time" run. Between this and Symbiosis, Bungie is seriously looking for a way to ensure "PvE fits into progression," seemingly in response to Marathon's intimidating PvP.

Shrugging off concerns about Marathon's health and its own – the studio has listed enormous chunks of its floor plan for sublease, which isn't a good sign at the least – Bungie reiterates that this is "only the beginning of what we’re working toward. As players spend time with these updates and share their feedback, we’ll continue refining and expanding Marathon."

Bungie reportedly had "5 or 6 games" in development, including Marathon and Destiny 2 – but most fell apart after Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition.

There are many, many, many new games being released in the next few weeks, and up until a few moments ago, you could've counted Rayman Legends Retold among them. Ubisoft has just announced that the platformer remake has gone gold, but it's also been delayed out of the absurd game rush that we're currently being crushed under.

"Rayman Legends Retold will release on December 3rd," Ubisoft says in a message on Bluesky. "While the game has officially gone gold, we have decided to take extra time to make sure every detail gets the care it deserves."

I'm not sure I've ever seen a simultaneous announcement that a game's both been delayed and gone gold. Historically, going gold meant that a game had been finalized as its discs went off to manufacturing, but the term's come to mean a lot less in the modern era of digital distribution and day one patches. As with many Ubisoft titles, the front of Rayman Legends Retold's box warns that "internet is required to install the game," so I'm honestly not sure how gold any of this really is.

The game had previously been set to launch on October 1, right in between the likes of – deep breath – Marvel's Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Gears of War: E-Day, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, and many more. Even as somebody who absolutely loves 2D platformers, I'd have had a hard time justifying putting my time into Rayman given that competition.

Ubisoft's statement suggests that the game's delay is more about polish than avoiding the competition, and it's now one of very few games willing to brave the post-GTA 6 weeks of 2026. Who knows – maybe the adventures of Rayman and the crew will be just the palette cleanser we all need in between whatever shenanigans we're getting up to with Jason and Lucia.

Rayman Legends Retold has me struggling to justify its place as a remake, but with platforming this good I can't complain.

If you're wondering how Halloween the Game crossplay works or whether you can save your progress across platforms, I've got all the answers for you right here. If you get a little confused between these terms, you're not alone, as they sound similar while meaning quite different things.

While crossplay refers to your ability to play with others on different platforms to yourself, cross-progression is to do with your own progress, and whether that carries across if you own a game on multiple platforms. With Halloween the Game available on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, both are fair questions, but only one has a good answer, as you'll see below.

Halloween the Game crossplay

Halloween the Game does have crossplay, enabling you to play with others on different platforms to yourself, be they friends or strangers. Therefore, there are two elements to crossplay, and I'll explain below both how to turn crossplay matchmaking on and off in Halloween the Game, as well as how to add friends on other platforms.

If you want to toggle crossplay on or off, head to the Multiplayer Tab, then press Tab on keyboard or the Menu button on any controller, before selecting the Settings option. In Settings, tab across to General, then toggle cross-play matchmaking on or off as you wish.

To add crossplay friends, meanwhile, head to the Multiplayer Tab, then press Tab on keyboard or the Menu button on any controller, before selecting the Friends icon, indicated by three silhouettes of people. Here, you'll see only friends on the same platform as you, whether they own the game or not, so you need to tab across to the Crossplay menu, the second tab on the menu bar, where you'll find your friend code and a box to enter others' codes. On this page, you can either reveal your own unchanging code to send to others, or enter someone else's to send them a friend request.

Halloween the Game cross-progression

Unfortunately, unlike crossplay, there is no cross-progression in Halloween the Game. That means that, if you're playing the game across multiple platforms yourself, your progress, including unlocked customization items, does not carry across. You'll need to complete challenges on all platforms to unlock items on each, and your player level also increases separately.

This also means that any Halloween the Game codes you redeem should be claimed on all platforms separately as well.

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Strikeborn codes can be used to collect some extra items that can modify your combat style in this fighting experience inspired by manga series such as Berserk and Jujutsu Kaisen. You'll need to hone your skills and level up your fighter if you don't want to find yourself outclassed by your opponents in the battlegrounds.

The promos released so far during the Early Access period unlock random rewards, which could be an emote so you can show off some new moves or a spin to reroll your abilities in this Roblox experience. If you're all set for the fight, then here are the current codes for Strikeborn and how to redeem them.

If you're looking for some generic promos for rewards that span all of your experiences, then check out the most recent Roblox promo codes.

Strikeborn is currently only available in Early Access, which requires a R$400 pass, though it should be free-to-play when it reaches general release.

All Strikeborn codes

The following Strikeborn codes are available to claim:

• 15KLIKES – Random Emote or Spin
• SBUPDATE1 – Random Emote or Spin

There are a couple of Strikeborn codes that have been revealed during the Early Access period, which can be used to pick up several randomized rewards. The developer states that "content and progress may change" so there's no guarantee that anything will carry over to the full release, but if you have access now then it won't do any harm to grab these rewards.

How to redeem Strikeborn codes

To redeem Strikeborn codes if you have Early Access, you can tap the Shop button at the top of the screen to bring up the STORE menu, then hit the Codes tab on the right-hand side. This will show an Enter Code here text box below, where you can type in a promo before using the Redeem button to collect your reward.

Expired Strikeborn codes

• No expired codes

As the experience is still in Early Access and promos have only just been introduced, there are currently no expired Strikeborn codes to report. This situation is never permanent, however, so get any active promos claimed as soon as you can.

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