Old Diablo heads will remember the Annihilus charm from Diablo 2 as one of the iconic ARPG's most powerful and coveted items. Even in its worst-rolled form, having one in your inventory granted +1 to all skills, +10 to all attributes, +10 to all resistances, and +5 to XP gained. It's the only small charm in the game that grants bonuses to all skills and attributes, and because it's small, it only takes up a single inventory space. It's the crown jewel of Diablo 2's endgame, and now it's in Diablo 4 as a Unique Horadric Seal.

The unfortunate thing about Annihilus in both games is that it's really freakin' hard to get. The exact parameters required to initiate the encounter in Diablo 4 are still being figured out by the community, but we know from various reports on Reddit as well as an in-depth video from Diablo creator Rob2628 that one of the ways you can get your hands on the Annihilus seal is by triggering an encounter with Uber Diablo, which in every case seems to follow a battle with the World Boss Azmodan. After that fight is over, an on-screen message warns, "Diablo walks the earth." Annihilus recipients say Diablo Clone drops the item when slain, just like in Diablo 2.

Also similar to Diablo 2 are the ridiculous passive buffs you get from the item. At max roll, this gloriously, stupidly over-tuned seal grants +20% to all stats, +20% resistance to all elements, +10 to all skills, and +10% bonus XP. Best of all, you can re-roll it at the Cube until you get the stats you want, although reports indicate it becomes account-bound once you do so. If you manage to get your hands on one of these bad boys, that's a genuine game-changer for literally any build.

While I don't have anywhere near the patience to try my luck at spawning Uber Diablo, much less beating him, I'm very much enjoying seeing all of these callbacks to older Diablo games in Diablo 4. The recreation of Diablo 1's campaign as a new Waking Nightmares activity was heavily marketed from the jump, but it seems there are still plenty of more niche discoveries to be made in season 15.

A broken Diablo 4 charm is dominating Season 15, but Blizzard has "decided not to make changes to it" for now

For almost two years, I've watched various friends, family members, and co-workers adopt the PS5 Pro, and I've largely been managing my jealousy with one notable exception: PSSR. The PS5 Pro's AI-powered upscaling tech is genuinely next-gen stuff, and makes games that already look exceptional on the base PS5 appear noticeably sharper and more detailed. It's not so impressive that I want to spend $900 to upgrade to the PS5 Pro, but it's enough to make my six-year-old PS5 look even dustier than it really is, and let me tell you folks, it's pretty dusty up in there.

Anyway, my face turned an ever-so-slightly milder shade of green today when Sony announced that "AI upscaling is coming to PS5." At first, I thought, the PS5 console family already has AI upscaling, it's just limited to the PS5 Pro, but no, Sony is bringing the tech to the base, vanilla PS5. It's not PSSR though, it's "a new performance tier of AI upscaling" called QSSR, which stands for Quick Spectral Super Resolution.

"Since the launch of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) on PS5 Pro, players and developers have asked whether similar image-quality improvements could be brought to the PS5 console," says SIE principal engineer of graphics R&D, Daniel Craig in a new PlayStation Blog. "PSSR analyzes game images pixel by pixel and uses AI to upscale them with more detail and stability than conventional approaches; until now, its computational demands made bringing that experience to PS5 impossible."

Sony says QSSR is made possible by two key innovations: a "streamlined neural network architecture" and "a hand-tuned implementation that maximizes performance on PS5," which work together to provide "some notable improvements to both image detail and image stability on PS5."

If you, like me, are keen to know exactly how "notable" these improvements are to the naked eye, here's a good comparison video showing Marvel's Wolverine in Fidelity Mode with and without QSSR. Watching the video, I'm encouraged that I don't have to squint even a little bit to see a very obvious increase in detail and clarity in background environments.

Only two games are confirmed to be taking advantage of QSSR right now: Marvel's Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei, which Sony says are both getting patches today. No other titles have been confirmed for QSSR support.

"QSSR adds more pixel-level clarity and stability to our environments, bringing out extra detail amidst the busy streets of Madripoor, the dense alleyways of Shinjuku, and many other areas across Logan’s epic journey," says Mike Fitzgerald, head of technology at Insomniac Games. "It's a perfect companion to the launch of Marvel's Wolverine, and it brings a great taste of the PS5 Pro experience to our players on PS5."

Meanwhile, Sucker Punch lead rendering engineer Jasmin Patry says "QSSR excels at resolving the fine details in our characters and environments and does so with a level of temporal stability that hasn't been possible on the PS5 console until now." You can see how the tech upgrades character models and environments in Ghost of Yotei in the below video:

I'm eager to see how quickly other games and developers adopt QSSR and how widely the tech is applied to the PS5's back catalog, but for now I'm giving Sony its flowers for what seems like a genuinely meaningful upgrade to the base PS5 even as it nears its sixth birthday. It's not all too often you see a hardware manufacturer add new features to a console with a newer, pricier successor, as usually they want to encourage people to adopt the most current version, so I'm tentatively encouraged by this.

It's also worth drawing a very significant distinction between PSSR and QSSR and something like Nvidia's DLSS 5, which is rightfully drawing sharp criticism for using gen-AI to dramatically retool a game's actual assets, lighting, character designs, environments, etc. Basically, PSSR and QSSR sharpen up what's already there, while DLSS 5 can tinker with artistic intent, which is where the controversy comes from. The fact that all three of the above-listed features are AI upscalers has the unfortunate effect of tarring an otherwise innocent and impressive console feature with the muddy, stinky brush of gen-AI.

Amid PS5 Pro shortage, Sony implements a lottery system in Japan that requires 60 hours of playtime

PlayStation and Xbox are both pulling back from multiplatform releases and reemphasizing exclusive games. At the same time, Sony recently dropped Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear successor, Physint, leaving Microsoft to pick up the project. The console warriors might be drawing battle lines, but Xbox CEO Asha Sharma says the publisher's collaborations with PlayStation will continue.

Xbox still has several ongoing projects with PlayStation. Forza Horizon 6 and Fable are both set to come to PS5, and franchises like Call of Duty and Minecraft remain multiplatform affairs. As Sharma tells the New York Times: "Competition and collaboration can coexist."

According to the NYT write-up, Sharma "laughed" at the idea of apologizing to Sony for the whole kerfuffle over Physint which, hey, fair enough. The outlet additionally reports that Xbox's agreement with Kojima was "substantially below" development costs for a AAA game, and includes film and TV rights for the project.

Rumors have been floating around that Kojima was seeking something in the neighborhood of $400 million for Physint, but a new edition of The Game Business suggests that "Xbox is paying far, far less than that number," potentially less than $200 million.

For years, Xbox had been pursuing a multiplatform strategy that ultimately culminated in several major first-party games receiving ports to PS5. That strategy was one of many things that turned around when Sharma took over Xbox leadership from Phil Spencer, but there are still plenty of games under the Xbox banner which are still set to come to PS5.

For its part, PlayStation never embraced multiplatform the way Xbox (briefly) did, though a certain few games – like Bungie's Marathon – were released on the competing console. But Sony's big experiment was on PC, which is a platform it's now pulling back from. Competition and collaboration can, indeed, coexist, but it continues to feel like both concepts are a little one-sided in the modern console war.

Here are the PS5 exclusives and Xbox exclusives you need to know about.

The Elder Scrolls Online is changing as ZeniMax Online Studios moves the MMO further away from its old annual DLC formula toward new content drops that incorporate a greater variety of playstyles – a "renaissance" of sorts, if you will.

It's no secret that The Elder Scrolls Online has suffered a difficult year following Microsoft's plan to cut over 3,200 employees at Xbox, with Bethesda's union representatives reporting a loss of "dozens of programmers, artists, designers and testers."

Its remaining developers are pushing on with work on the MMO, however, with game director Nick Giacomini having said that it's "here to stay" with extra help from Bethesda along the way.

As work carries on, the game is making a move away from its usual yearly expansion release, bringing a new season system to The Elder Scrolls Online with less combat-focused content.

I got to sit down with Giacomini and discuss this path forward myself, which he describes as a "renaissance" for the MMO "where we took a look at this game that's been going for 12 years and decided to make some changes."

It hasn't come "just for the sake of making changes, but because it was something the players were asking of us," as Giacomini says. Folks wanted the devs "to excite them" and "surprise them again" – something that was lost in the old "formula," so to speak.

That's why "breaking that formula was really important for us to excite our players." How, though? Seasons, sure, but also new types of content like the Nowhere Vault, Rumors, and High Seas of Tamriel.

"Games haven't stood still," after all. "New games have come out. Great games have come out. That's raised the bar of expectations for players." That led to ZeniMax having to "evolve and revise our own design ethos," and it's a welcome change, in my opinion.

Some more chaotic Morrowind-esque exploration, brain-scratching puzzles, and community events slot nicely into Tamriel, helping gap the bridge between expansions.

Because, you know – even though the studio is trying a new path, it's not entirely abandoning everything we've grown to love the MMO for.

Associate design director Jason Barnes tells me as much, alluding to the mysterious return to Skyrim that ZeniMax is cooking. "There's still a time and a place for some of the like kind of the bigger, more grand type of releases," as he says – "like the new Skyrim zone that we're working on."

That, Barnes describes, won't be "a return to form" entirely as "it's definitely not the same as our traditional zones" – but "it's going to be that kind of spectacle that the chapter model essentially gave us."
Honestly, I'm personally thrilled they're retaining a bit of ye olde Elder Scrolls Online goodness, while also making room for something fresh… and it's already upon us. Heck, we just got Update 51 and the High Seas of Tamriel.

I'm ready for more, and I'm equally as ready for more Skyrim – whatever form it might take.

Massive bit of Elder Scrolls lore from Morrowind is actually because of "a typo," former Skyrim designer believes: "Someone just typed a date wrong in the timeline"

After months of fans begging for a native Switch 2 version, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse has been confirmed to be running at 60fps on the console.

I don't know how everyone else feels about it, but Metroidvanias are a handheld game for me. While some of the best Metroidvania games have been exclusive to consoles, there's something about exploration on that scale that feels perfect for playing on a handheld.

So it was especially disappointing to hear that Castlevania: Belmont's Curse wouldn't be arriving on Switch 2, as the choice would be picking a hindered 30fps version on the original Switch or playing on a TV (or a Steam Deck, I guess, but still). The lack of a Switch 2 version has been a hot topic in the community since its announcement, but it looks like we might not need one.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything, despite Konami not saying so before, the Castlevania: Belmont's Curse demo released on Switch earlier today actually runs at 60fps on Nintendo Switch 2. Granted, the lack of a native version does mean the resolution is reportedly not as hot as you would want, but for an action game like Castlevania, 60fps is always a bonus.

Konami previously went back and updated Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 on Switch with an update that let the ports of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 run better on Switch 2, so hopefully something similar could be arranged for Castlevania. That is, assuming the devs aren't planning on making a native version a year down the line like Sega did with Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.

The most underrated Castlevania games could be making a comeback as a Konami teaser gives fans hope for a 3D collection.

After three whole installments of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, battle director Teruki Endo still isn't sure what the right balance of turn-based and real-time combat is, but as he heads towards the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, he reckons this is why he's still not "tired" of working on the revamped JRPGs after all these years.

Speaking in an interview in Edge magazine issue 429, Endo notes that "whenever I've worked on a sequel, I've always faced this dilemma. If the game becomes too complex, that's a problem. But if there are no entirely new elements, or if we only make minor adjustments, we risk failing to meet players' expectations and not giving them that sense of freshness when they play again."

Endo's approach is to "always make a point of considering the purpose, significance, and role of every element from the ground up, and then rebuilding them for the new game." When it comes to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy specifically, he's taken inspiration from the "festive atmosphere" he felt in the JRPG "ever since I first played" the original, noting that "I've increasingly wanted to explore how we could make even bolder, more playful additions to the game."

One way he's done this is via the FITS system – a sort-of job system that lets you change the abilities of your party members and the way you approach combat with them. "Our approach has always been to place Materia at the center of customization," he adds. "With the FITS system, one might be concerned that it could limit the freedom players had to shape each character's strengths through Materia. Instead, we've made a conscious effort to position FITS as an element that allows players to further sharpen and specialize the direction of Materia-based builds."

As we get closer to the release of the finale of the remake trilogy in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Endo acknowledges the continual effort that's gone into the balance of turn-based and real-time combat across the three games. Remake and Rebirth both included a Classic mode that lets your party members fight automatically, allowing you to focus on selecting commands. Way back in 2019, Square Enix described this as something that would "thrill fans who prefer the original FINAL FANTASY turn-based battle systems to real-time combat."

"Across all three titles, we've repeatedly fine-tuned this balance [between turn-based and real-time] through trial and error," Endo says. "The difficult part is that I still haven't decided on a definitive 'correct answer' for myself.'"

There's a silver lining to that situation though, he adds: "I think [it] may be one of the reasons I've been able to keep working on these games across all three installments without getting tired of it."

Turn-based RPGs have been making a real resurgence lately thanks to the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Sandfall's hit game is definitively turn-based, but uses Super Mario RPG-esque real-time inputs on top of that system, allowing for parries, dodges, and powered-up moves.

It'll be interesting to see where Square Enix goes with its Final Fantasy games after Revelation, but Final Fantasy Resonance, which is releasing this month, should hopefully satisfy the cravings of anyone who's been eager for the series to get a full-fat turn-based entry again.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation lead says the original 1997 RPG "is very much enshrined within the story," but newcomers can still jump in with the Remake trilogy.

The Dead by Daylight Haunted by Daylight Halloween event is back, and I for one can't wait. There are always some changes when recurring events roll around, as well as fresh new rewards, so I'll take a look at everything coming to this year's event below.

There's loads of stuff happening in Dead by Daylight in October, including an awesome new Rift and more cool cosmetic collections coming to the Shop, but if you're most looking forward to the event, then here's when DBD Haunted by Daylight takes place, and the rest of the gory details.

DBD Haunted by Daylight launch date and time

The DBD Haunted by Daylight event takes place starting on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 9am PDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST.

The event shares a lot of the mechanics from previous years, but some things are changing, including how it looks and the removal of the Void dimension. There are also a load of cool new rewards to grab by completing quests, all of which I'll detail before.

DBD Haunted by Daylight details

The biggest thing to note this year is that there is no Void dimension, so there'll be no disappearing into portals and running around the extra location, which feedback showed left players feeling like gameplay was a little disjointed.

Instead, Void rifts still appear, but now transport players across the map quickly, which can be used to everyone's advantage - but especially chased survivors.

The most important thing to discuss though is the cool rewards that we can earn by completing event quests, so here's the lowdown. You'll be able to unlock the following free cosmetics:

• Shane outfit
• Hillbilly outfit
• Survivor shirts
• Killer masks

These rewards look super cool, and you can see the incredible Hillbilly skin at the top of the page. There will be additional outfits to purchase from the in-game store during the event, but I'm only interested in the free stuff.

If you're the same, check out the latest DBD codes for free in-game items and currency, and you should also take a look at the DBD 2026 roadmap to see what else is in store before the end of the year.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Right now, it's anyone's guess when Fallout 5 might arrive. However, we do know it's happening, somewhere in the bowels of Bethesda, and one former developer from the studio believes taking the franchise out of the US would be a welcome shot in the arm.

Chatting to Insider Gaming, Bruce Nesmith, a quest designer on Fallouts 3 and 4, lead designer on Skyrim and design director on Oblivion Remaster, believes there's enormous potential in taking the property fully international. "It can go to any city that has a really distinctive style to it. You look at the places they’ve already taken Fallout and it’s Las Vegas, Washington DC, Boston and they’re all places full of style," he says.

"It would be very tempting to go outside of the country too even though Fallout is highly rooted in Americana," he adds.

London and Paris, the capitals of England and France, respectively, are two examples that "could be amazing," he mentions. And those would definitely be easy candidates here, offering large, sprawling metropolises for the devs to turn into post-apocalyptic wastelands. But they're too easy, in my view.

Head up to the Scottish Highlands, or over to Ireland. Or maybe some part of Australia. Each would be fascinating to see in this context. His point about Fallout being firmly planted in American culture can still echo through these locales in fascinating ways.

Imagine the culture clash of a post-nuclear Glasgow, where the city's now-mayor is an Elvis obsessive. Or the locals believe themselves to be in some distant state because American culture is all they had access to for generations. In some ways that wouldn't be too far removed from modern day whenever Country 2 Country happens in the dear green place.

The possibilities are endless. Todd Howard's been clear the series is unlikely to go outside North America, but never say never. Although, really, I think we all just want the thing to happen at all, regardless of what the setting is.

Fallout's iconic Vault Boy exists because the devs were struggling to solve an old-school RPG problem

We could be waiting quite some time to see another game as impactful as GTA 6, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida suggests, and it may even be on Rockstar itself to do it with GTA 7.

GTA 6 is quite easily one of, if not the single most hyped up game of all time, with immeasurable excitement from fans who've been waiting over 13 years since the last installment, and most devs and publishers fleeing as far from Rockstar Games' November launch as they can to avoid their games getting swallowed up and forgotten. Its impending release has seemingly influenced consoles going out of stock and being sold for ridiculous prices, and people are so excited that some have even been willing to spend $400 on a box of merch including, uh, a spoon. With all that, on top of years of fan discussion, wild theories, and speculation… it's kind of a lot.

Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide studios is asked if we're ever going to see another game like GTA 6 in the future.

"After 15 years, maybe GTA 7, we'll see," he laughs. That's not to say that he thinks Rockstar is the only studio capable, though.

"Or any of these companies from China, they might try to emulate or compete, because there will be [a] 15 year gap after GTA 6," he continues. "So no one should underestimate the power of these Chinese companies."

Honestly, the mere concept of GTA 7 and the inevitable build-up to that makes me feel dizzy when we've not yet reached GTA 6's launch – this year's launch feels mythical enough as it is. But who knows what a post GTA 6 world is going to look like? Out of its shadow, could we see similar levels of hype and impact for a Switch 2 version of Nintendogs? Perhaps not, but it'd be interesting to take the spotlight away from Rockstar for a while, at least.

GTA 6's weather is completely re-engineered from Red Dead Redemption 2, and it has hurricanes, rainbows, proper cloud formations and more.

The Witcher 3 Remastered only just released, but CD Projekt Red is already addressing some of the revamped RPG's most pressing issues – on both consoles and PC, too.

Two new patches have rolled out today for The Witcher 3 Remastered, with the first arriving on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S earlier in the morning.

CD Projekt Red unveiled it in a post over on X, explaining that it addresses everything from lighting issues to problems with DLSS in the Xbox Play Anywhere version of the game. All that, plus "various other adjustments to ensure parity with the PC version" of the RPG," apparently.

The developers clarified that they're "investigating" further issues, too, and also "preparing a hotfix for PC" – a hotfix that came mere hours after the console-specific patch.

As per the official Witcher website, it tackles everything from saves not working properly to audio volume… and, yes, the NVIDIA Hairworks problem that's tanking PC performance for many players.

Unsurprisingly, CD Projekt Red isn't finished yet, either.

Global community and social media director Marcin Momot confirms as much, first covering the PC hotfix and how "the rough size of the download is 5GB."

According to him, the devs "plan to have the fix on consoles for the volume issue," too, with "no date" set as of now – but, still. "We're working on it."

Paweł Sasko, who is currently on the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel as associate game director, writes something similar in his own post. "Our work continues my dears to provide you with the best possible experience on The Witcher 3 Remastered," it reads – so, yeah.

There you have it, folks, CD Projekt Red isn't going to stop tinkering with its new remaster until every wrinkle is ironed out… and I don't think that'll be the case any time soon. If you run into any issues yourself, be sure to flag it, as it's evident the studio is paying close attention to our feedback.

Looking for more new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for some to anticipate.

The Testing Facilities in Control Resonant are all part of the Unsupervised Science quest, with six of them hidden in underground locations all around Manhattan for you to find and solve. There's two recurring puzzles that appear across the six Testing Facilities, and below I'll take you on a full walkthrough of the entire process: How to find every facility for the Unsupervised Science quest, how to solve the puzzles and challenges in each one, and what to do when they're all completed.

Want to find other challenges around the game? Discover all the Control Resonant Shum Arcade machines!

All Testing Facility locations in Control Resonant

There are Six FBC Testing Facilities hidden around the map in Control Resonant: one for every region, with the exception of the Underpass, which has none. You can find them all on the map below, along with blue arrows that mark their hidden access points.

For a bigger map with more detail, click the icon in the lower left.

1. Downtown. Entered via a pipe in the ground floor of the Deserted Area construction zone. Soda Machine puzzle.
2. Central. Entered via a hole in a construction zone East of the Field Office Station. Power Distribution Puzzle.
3. West Incursion Zone. Entered via a hole in the road in the middle of the region. Soda Machine puzzle.
4. Evacuation Zone. Entered via a hole in the road North of the Survivalist's Bunker, right next to the Fast Travel Door. Soda Machine puzzle.
5. The Park. Entered via a divergent tunnel in the sewer system, marked by an electronic sign that says "Restricted Facility: No Authorized Entry". Power Distribution Puzzle.
6. Unknown. Entered via a hole in the road on the "Ground" side of Unknown, Southwest of the Twisted Rooftops Fast Travel Door. Power Distribution puzzle. Also serves as the location to access the Threshold for the final part of the quest.

Once all puzzles are solved, you'll be given a final objective to Go into the Threshold, explained further down.

How to solve the Testing Facility puzzles in Control Resonant

There are two puzzles that appear at the Testing Facilities: Power Distribution, about moving charges around, and Soda Machines, about placing these drinks machines on marked locations. Here's how they both work and how to solve them.

Power Distribution

After pulling the console lever, you'll be shown several Power Cores attached to machines with flashing lights, some of which have charges in. If the red light on a machine starts flashing, you need to quickly install a charge. If the blue light starts flashing and sparking, you need to remove the charge. The goal is to quickly move charges between machines for a minute without any machine going without a charge for an extended period of time, or having one for too long and overloading. Once completed, all lights will turn green, and you'll get a reward.

Soda Machines

Around the facility are random objects that you can pick up, but every time they cross a yellow line on the floor, they transform into other random objects. The goal is to turn them all into "Thirst Station" Soda Machines, then place those Soda Machines on the marked squares in the Facility. There is a complex pattern to the transformations (a repeating cycle that resets by one if you go back across a line you just crossed), and with the more complex layouts and spread out squares, I suggest that you find a T-intersection of yellow lines and run in circles through the three zones until the cycle is where you need it to be, then go from there. Once all squares have Soda machines in them, pull the lever on the main console to progress.

Go into the Threshold

After all six are completed, go back to the Unknown Testing Facility and into the side room East side, then pull the lever. This will open a metal door to a tunnel filled with glitching objects. Interact with Doctor Grant's body at the end to complete the quest and get the collectible: Dr Grant's Final Report. There's also a power core charge you can transfer to open a side door and get some resources.

Finally, completing the quest for good will get you the Untapped Scrunchie artifact, which increases the damage of Primary weapons by 10% when equipped.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Arc Raiders devs are cracking down even harder on cheaters with tougher punishments and improved anti-cheat to better deal with what Embark acknowledges is an ongoing situation.

In a lengthy statement posted to Twitter, executive producer Aleksander Grøndal reiterates that Embark takes cheating "incredibly seriously," spending "a lot of time and money in the ongoing fight against unfair play." While the game's anti-cheat team is "continually working" on blocking cheats and making unfair play harder to pull off, the lead acknowledges that Embark hasn't shared much about its efforts, sometimes intentionally so not to give cheaters a heads up on the changes.

"Do know that our silence is not indifference to the issue," Grøndal says. "And today, we're going to give you a better sense of where we’ve made progress and where we’re continuing to invest our efforts."

So, where are things at? Importantly, "Our cheat detection systems are getting considerably stronger month by month," Grøndal begins. "In addition to kernel-level protection from Denuvo and detections from Anybrain, we're using a growing set of in-house models built around machine learning and other data."

These don't function totally autonomously, but the systems will help identify any weird-looking behaviors to detect cheating. Embark is also doing some small-scale testing of Elytra anti-cheat in The Finals right now, which could be incorporated into Arc Raiders in the future, too.

Then, there are the consequences for cheaters who've been caught. As well as continual efforts to make it "harder for repeat offenders to simply create a new account and return to the game," Embark will now be much quicker to bring out the ban hammer. Acknowledging that many fans were critical of the studio's initial decision to give first-time cheaters a second chance, Grøndal now says: "Permanent bans are now standard for all known cheat programs and, as a matter of policy, any account caught using cheats is permanently banned. No warnings, no second chances."

This can go beyond a simple account ban, too. Embark has recently "broadened our use of license restrictions" to stop specific copies of a game being used with a new or different account if one has already been banned on it. "We've tightened our approach to linked accounts as well," Grøndal adds. "If an account has ever been associated with a banned copy of the game, it will also receive a permanent ban."

Embark is also capable of enforcing hardware bans, outright preventing Arc Raiders from running on a system if "we have enough evidence that a single machine is being used for cheating." The studio is currently attempting to "increase the number of systems that we can target with a hardware ban," too, in an effort to prevent repeat offenders using the same systems. "We hope to implement this later in the year, and it should allow us to deploy sanctions to almost all systems caught running cheat software," Grøndal says.

Otherwise, Embark has also been making an effort to prevent players from "queue teaming, where players coordinate to land in the same solo lobby and attack Raiders who queued alone." After splitting up known offenders in matchmaking, Grøndal says that within five days, "we saw 85% fewer players engaging in this behavior. Spoiled raids dropped from around 1 in 50 to 1 in 300, with no meaningful impact to queue times."

Grøndal's conclusion might not be what everyone wants to hear – there's no way that Embark can wipe out cheating completely. But, it can certainly do its best. "Video game cheating is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it will never fully go away," he admits. "What we can do is make cheating as difficult, costly, and short-lived as possible.

"We built ARC Raiders with love and dedication to the craft, and seeing it exploited by cheaters makes us as angry as it makes you. We are making progress, and we're continuing to work to identify cheating more effectively, act on it more quickly, make it harder for repeat offenders to return, and improve the experience for Raiders who are playing fairly."

This all comes ahead of the big Arc Raiders Frozen Trail update on October 8, which Grøndal previously teased feels like a 2.0 for the game.

Arc Raiders will finally let players unlock weapons and items without hunting down blueprints.

The camo grind is a big part of every Call of Duty release, and Modern Warfare 4 brings nine mastery camos for multiplayer, Warzone, and DMZ. In addition to these, MW4 also introduces prestige mastery camos that reward you for resetting your rank and climbing the progression path all over again.

Mastery camos are some of the most sought-after rewards in Call of Duty games, and Modern Warfare 4's adds a bunch of new Modern Warfare 4 weapon patterns plus some returning favorites. These are all the MW4 mastery camos, plus everything known about their unlock methods.

Modern Warfare 4 multiplayer mastery camos

There are three multiplayer mastery camos to earn in Modern Warfare 4:

• Mercurial Drift
• Polyatomic Reforged
• Orion Reforged

Mercurial Drift Polyatomic Reforged Orion Reforged

While the specific weapon challenges haven't been revealed yet, the unlock process for MW4's multiplayer mastery camos remains the same. Unlock every single base camo for a weapon, then you'll get the challenge to unlock Mercurial Drift.

Polyatomic Reforged

Mercurial Drift is just the first step of the mastery camo journey. Once you've unlocked Mercurial Drift for every weapon in a class — assault rifles, snipers, etc. — you'll unlock the Polyatomic Reforged challenges for those weapons. Polyatomic Reforged is an updated version of the Polyatomic mastery camo from Modern Warfare 2 and 3.

Orion Reforged

Orion Reforged is another updated variant of an MW2/3 mastery camo. Orion Reforged is unlocked after earning Polyatomic Reforged on every single base game weapon. You'll be able to skip a few guns once Infinity Ward expands MW4's arsenal with post-launch updates, but you'll still need to hit the same overall weapon count to match the base game's arsenal size of 33.

Modern Warfare 4 Prestige Camos

Modern Warfare 4 also introduces prestige weapon camos. These can be earned by climbing the ranks of the classic prestige system instead of the regular prestige system that doesn't reset your unlocks.

• Pyroclast
• Pyroclast Verge
• Pyroclast Scatter
• Pyroclast Cascade

Pyroclast

Prestige camos are a new concept (not to be confused with Black Ops 7's weapon prestige camos), and there are four variants of the Pyroclast camo to earn in MW4.

Pyroclast Verge

You'll get these as you reach higher prestige levels. Pyroclast will most likely be earned after reaching first prestige, with the other versions being rewarded at larger milestones.

Pyroclast Scatter

Regular and classic prestige feature different rewards, and it looks like the Pyroclast camos will be tied to regular prestige to give you a reward for resetting your weapon unlocks.

Pyroclast Cascade

Infinity Ward hasn't revealed specific details about MW4's prestige rewards, so it's unclear if you'll be able to go back and earn the exclusive regular prestige rewards if you choose the regular route that resets you to level one while still keeping all your weapons unlocked.

Modern Warfare 4 Warzone Mastery Camos

You can earn three mastery camos by leveling up weapons in Modern Warfare 4's iteration of Warzone.

• Parallax
• Damascus Reforged
• Empyros

Parallax

With the launch of MW4, Warzone gets a third set of mastery camos following the introduction of battle royale mastery camos with the release of Black Ops 6. Parallax is the first, unlocked after acquiring every other camo for a given weapon.

Damascus Reforged

Once you've gotten Parallax on every weapon in a single category, you'll unlock the challenge for Damascus Reforged. This is an animated remix of a classic camo from Modern Warfare 2019, but it's making the jump from multiplayer to Warzone in MW4. Thankfully, the grind won't be as bad this time around.

Empyros

Empyros is the ultimate prize for Warzone camo grinders. Empyros will be unlocked after earning Damascus Reforged for every weapon in Warzone. Like the other top-tier mastery camos, think of Empyros as a mode completion reward.

Modern Warfare 4 DMZ mastery camos

The extraction-based DMZ mode includes three additional mastery camos:

• Chiral
• Ripple Tide
• Helio

Chiral

Leaving beta after its debut in Modern Warfare 2, DMZ features a trio of mastery camos to grind for. The first is Chiral, which you can earn by completing a challenge that becomes available after finishing a weapon's base camo progression. Chiral is the cherry on top for single weapon camo grinding.

Ripple Tide

Expanding the scope a bit further, Ripple Tide is available once you've earned Chiral camo for every weapon in a single class in DMZ. If you get Chiral for every SMG, for example, you'll unlock the challenges to earn Ripple Tide.

Helio

Lastly, Helio is the ultimate DMZ mastery camo. You'll unlock Helio by getting Ripple Tide on every single gun in DMZ. If it's anything like the previous top-tier mastery camo rewards, there won't be extra challenges required to earn Helio. You'll just unlock it automatically once you've hit the required number of weapons with Ripple Tide.

More information about Modern Warfare 4's camo progression and challenges will be revealed as the release date approaches. This page will be updated with specific challenge details across all three modes when additional details are available.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

If you've been playing plenty of Control Resonant since it launched last week, you might be experiencing the same thing a lot of us are - spongy enemies leading to the game's exceptional combat feeling a little tiresome at times. Fret not, because I'm here to help you with a few solutions you might not have thought of yet, and they both come down to how you use your PS5, Xbox, or PC controller.

I don't know about you, but the issue with the Hiss being able to take so much damage isn't so much a difficulty problem for me; it's just a lot of button mashing, which can cause fatigue if you want to explore Remedy's mind-bending version of New York in longer sessions, as I do. Moreover, too much pressing can cause injuries like repetitive strain, carpal tunnel, or even just cause your gamepad to wear down more quickly.

But that's why I'm a big believer in back buttons - in fact, I'd say that I use them more than face buttons these days, especially since it's my job to review the latest gaming peripherals and they're a common feature on most of them today. The great thing about them is that they effectively double up a function you already have on a standard controller. If you map a spare back or shoulder button to your attack button, for example, you've suddenly got two ways to inflict damage instead of one.

This would be my first suggestion to anyone who wants a "remedy" for repetitive and sometimes painful button mashing. Double up a back button to your in-game attack and then alternate which one you press if you need to. You can make this a bit more engaging by pressing both buttons in the same sequence, tapping one and then the other in an attack combo. Alternatively, you could just switch what attack button you're pressing and only focus on one as and when you need to.

The other really cool thing about back buttons is that they're sometimes called "macro" buttons. The reason for this is that many controllers allow you to map not just one function to them, but a sequence of presses. For example, if you have a go-to combo with Dylan's Aberrant, then combat finisher, then stronger attack mapped to Y or Triangle, you could program that button press sequence to one single press of your controller's extra function.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of that idea in a game like Control Resonant since it'd take away a lot of the fun, engaging combat mechanics. But if you're struggling with the game's level of difficulty, bear with me.

The benefit of doing this on a controller like the one I just reviewed last week, the GameSir Tarantula 8K, is that if you're in a giant battle with loads of Hiss enemies where you need to be absolutely on-point with your dodges, you can essentially take away your brain's need to focus on one of the combat tasks.

Pressing one single button that's macro-mapped to an entire attack sequence frees up your hands to just focus on controlling the camera, Dylan's movement, and manning the dodge button. It also allows you to concentrate more on the UI, the approaching enemies, and how you can use the environment to your advantage.

Don't forget, if you're really struggling with the game's combat, you can also head into the gameplay settings and play around with assist mode, which lets you control Dylan's damage output level, falter level, and more.

Personally, if you ask me, spongy enemies are more of a game design problem, but that doesn't mean we can't use hardware to make things a bit less irritating. The good news is that back buttons or macro functions are pretty common on both Xbox controllers and PS5 controllers these days, and won't even take you long to set up. If you're on PC and you're just looking for a cheap alternative, there are loads of options for you too.

Want to dive deeper into gamepad tech? Take a look at the best TMR controllers, the best joysticks, and the best Switch 2 controllers.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally upon us, gracing us with yet another journey through CD Projekt Red's iconic RPG – but it sadly isn't going smoothly for everyone.

Some players, particularly those on PC, have run into performance issues. With the new free upgrade and all its visual overhauls, this doesn't exactly come as a surprise, but it's still not acceptable by CD Projekt Red's high standards – so, yes, the devs are on the case.

The studio reveals as much in a post over on Twitter, explaining that it's managed to figure out the cause of some fans' performance woes on the computer: NVIDIA tech.

Or, to be more precise, the NVIDIA tech that makes Geralt's hair look oh so realistic as it renders and simulates more dynamic hair.

As CD Projekt Red writes, "We've identified an issue related to NVIDIA Hairworks that may significantly affect performance" – and, yep, that's that tech. For now, the studio has a temporary solution: "We recommend disabling that setting until this is addressed in a patch."

Although it's not a permanent fix for the problem, it's evident that the team is cooking up a more impactful update as it alludes to a future "patch" on PC following its quick advice.

Comments show unhappy players across other platforms, though – not just those using their computers for The Witcher 3 Remastered. As the top response reads, "Please fix The Witcher 3 Remastered on base PS5. The performance is absolutely horrible right now."

Others below it echo this very sentiment, outlining how even the RPG's "performance mode" doesn't properly work for them.

In other words, it seems that there may be at least a few more wrinkles for CD Projekt Red to iron out, performance-wise – but something tells me the devs will be on it fast. Who knows, the PC patch they mention might even turn into a larger patch addressing problems that console users are having, too.

Only time will tell… but, thankfully, the remaster is doing well aside from these hiccups. So well, in fact, that it's currently the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, beating out the original 2015 RPG by a solid two points.

Searching for some other new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more.

A new Uncharted game is reportedly in the works at Naughty Dog and is apparently set to be the studio's next game after Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.

Rumors have been set in motion by a new report from MP1st, which claims – according to its sources – that an all-new Uncharted is on the way (not a remake), and that it'll star Nathan Drake in some capacity, though it's not clear whether he'll be the protagonist.

Leading the project is reportedly Shaun Escayg, who previously served as lead cinematic designer on Uncharted 4 and then director on Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. More recently, he was the creative director of Crystal Dynamics's Marvel's Avengers.

While it's worth taking all this with a pinch of salt, the report has notably been corroborated by prominent leaker NateTheHate – best known for accurately leaking the Switch 2 reveal as well as the existence of the Star Fox and Zelda: Ocarina of Time remakes, amongst other things. Earlier this week on Twitter, the leaker hinted that he'd heard "minor details" about a project in the works from Escayg at Naughty Dog, and pressed on this on ResetEra following the publication of the MP1st report; he states that, "Yes, a new Uncharted is what I was referring to."

One part of the report that NateTheHate isn't backing up, however, is the claim that The Last of Us Part 3 is planned to come after this apparent new Uncharted game. Although Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann reconfirmed this week that two Last of Us projects are in the works at the studio (in the "very early stages"), NateTheHate says, "I don't know anything about the future TLOU projects at this time."

Only time will tell, of course. For now, Naughty Dog's main focus is clearly Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, which is set for a proper reveal sometime next year.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune "is rough around the edges," ex-Naughty Dog designer says, and "went through a whole lot of hell during development."

Some people just aren't built to endure the kind of bleak, unrelenting tragedy that often exists at the bottom of a great story's emotional arc. Rapper T-Pain may just have that affliction, having recently started Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on his Nappy Boy Gaming YouTube channel and noped out after its notoriously sad opening sequence.

*Spoilers for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 below. Turn back if you haven't played through the prologue yet.*

In the video just below, you can see T-Pain playing about 15 minutes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from the very start, which of course means he witnesses the awfully tragic death of Sophie in the prologue, leaving him speechless for a few seconds as he resumes control of Gustave. T-Pain eventually makes an exacerbated "shewwww" sound and exits to desktop. "Is it a sad story?" an offscreen person says, clearly noticing T-Pain's emotional exhaustion. "Yeah."

"Is it too sad?"

"Yeah, it was too sad," T-Pain responds, laughing. Just before ending the video, the rapper appears to read a comment on his stream warning him that, "it gets worse" – and anyone who's played through the game knows it absolutely does get worse, and soon – and T-Pain decides then and there, "Absolutely not."

I totally get his reluctance to continue here. Sometimes I just want to play a game, or watch a movie, or read a book, and not feel like I need to text my therapist. Unfortunately, in my view, if a story's writing and performances are effective enough to evoke such powerful emotion, it's probably worth seeing through, even if it never provides the sort of emotional upswing you want.

The Last of Us is one of my all-time favorite stories across all mediums precisely because it offers such an uncompromising, realistic account of two normal people trying to navigate a zombie apocalypse. Bad things are going to happen to good people, and there won't always be a picture-perfect redemption for anyone. Casting aside the conventional trajectories of heroes and villains makes for a much more believable, and thus absorbing story. You might not be moving your body like a cyclone afterwards, but you can always get low with something a little lighter to balance things out.

Elden Ring and Dark Souls inspired Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director's approach to the RPG's story – "I didn't want to spoon-feed the player"

Despite having little association with each other beyond sharing the D&D universe, Invoke's Warlock: Dungeons and Dragons is drawing plenty of comparisons to Larian's 2023 opus, Baldur's Gate 3. It's hard to blame anyone for anchoring the shiny new open-world D&D game to the 2023 GOTY considering just how much the latter dominated and continues to influence the conversation around RPG design, but mechanically and narratively, the fundamentals of the two games are very different.

Talking to Eurogamer, Invoke general manager Dominique Guay is keen to make that narrative distinction very clear, contrasting the fluid, branching plot of Baldur's Gate 3 with the comparatively linear Warlock.

"We're being very clear on that," says Guay. "Kaatri is a written character, so it's not like you can play evil or good Kaatri. Nothing like that. The main narrative moments you're going to go through are written down, and you're going to go through the same moment as someone else."

Another big difference is Warlock's more narrow focus on main character Kaatri. Whereas Baldur's Gate 3 features an ensemble cast of playable characters led by the player's custom avatar, Warlock is very much about one hero's journey, although there are "definitely allies you'll make along the way, kind of her found family." One of those characters is your imp companion, Skev, and Guay says "there's an ongoing story there of how their relationship grows."

In our hands-off Warlock preview from this year's Gamescom, staff writer Jasmine Gould-Wilson fell deeply "under its spell" and expressed confidence that the game might successfully escape Baldur's Gate 3's long shadow with an entirely different take on the D&D universe.

Open-world D&D game Warlock doesn't have AAA-standard waypoints because the devs want players to feel that "when they found things, it was based on their actions"

The Last of Us Joel actor Troy Baker has been singing the praises of Naughty Dog's next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, telling fans that they're going to have their "minds blown."

Even though it's been almost two years since Intergalactic was announced, we still know surprisingly little about it, but Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann confirmed this week that we can expect its full reveal sometime next year, so that's something. In the meantime, we'll just have to hope for the best, but according to Baker, the Last of Us studio is working on something pretty special.

"I'm excited to see Intergalactic. You guys are going to have your minds blown," Baker said during a panel at Ottawa Comiccon earlier this month, repeating, "You are not ready."

He continues, saying: "It's so good. We finally just wrapped, as you saw, the cinematics." That news was announced by Naughty Dog at the end of August, at which point it called the shoot "very ambitious" and said: "Cannot wait to show you their incredible work when the time is right!"

Baker also praises Druckmann for finding yet another "amazing" actor in Tati Gabrielle (who's playing protagonist Jordan), who he describes as a "spiritual successor" to Ashley Johnson and her portrayal of The Last of Us's Ellie.

"There is so much about Jordan and that game of Intergalactic that feels like, man, I feel all of it. I feel Uncharted, I feel The Last of Us, I feel something new," he continues. "They're testing the bounds of what that studio is capable of. And everything that I've seen, they are delivering. It's going to be incredible."

Although GQ reported shortly after Intergalactic's reveal that Baker would be part of the upcoming Naughty Dog game in some capacity, it's still not actually clear what role he plays. Clearly, all will be revealed in due course.

New Last of Us projects have stories "worth telling," Naughty Dog boss Neil Druckmann promises: "We wouldn't return to it unless we had something meaningful to say."

The Control Resonant Shum arcade machines are recurring side quests and unlockable minigames wherein Dylan is transported into challenges with high scores to beat for rewards. There's eight different Shum cabinets hiding around Manhattan, all of which need to be unlocked in some way, usually by increasing the Zone Level to the point where it turns on and you can play it. Below, I'll show you where to find all Shum arcade machines, as well as how to beat them and unlock the rewards involved.

All Shum arcade machine locations in Control Resonant

There are 8 Shum arcade machines in Control Resonant: one for each Zone, plus an additional one that unlocks after you complete the game. You can use the map and information laid out below to find them all.

1. Defend: Downtown. Reach Zone level 6 to unlock. Defend three crates from enemies who are trying to destroy them, minimizing damage to those crates and taking out enemies as fast as possible. Score at least 80,953 points for an Outfit reward.
2. Parkour: Central. Reach Zone level 4 to unlock. A parkour course around the outside of the Patterned Factory with multiple threats. Damage adds three seconds to your timer. Complete in at least 01:18 for an Outfit reward.
3. Entropy: West Incursion Zone. Reach Zone level 3 to unlock. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 42,503 points for an Outfit reward.
4. Entropy: Evacuation Zone. Reach Zone level 6 to unlock and complete the "Evacuation Procedures" story mission. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 25,322 points for an Outfit reward.
5. Entropy: The Park. Reach Zone level 4 to unlock and complete all three "Carbon Copy" side quests. Defeat waves of enemies as quickly as possible while the playable area occasionally contracts in size. Score at least 26,032 points for an Outfit reward.
6. Clocked: Underpass. Reach Zone level 5 to unlock. Defeat all waves of enemies before the timer runs out. Killing an enemy grants you more time. Complete in at least 00:22 for an Outfit reward.
7. Parkour: Unknown. Reach Zone level 5 to unlock. A parkour course around an Unknown island with multiple threats. Damage adds three seconds to your timer. Complete in at least 01:14 for an Outfit reward.
8. Conquest: Retro. Unlocked in Dylan's apartment after completing the main story. Go back into the Retro video game recreation of Ordinary and defeat all the enemies around town. Score at least 110,000 points for an Outfit reward.

Shum arcade machine rewards

Shum arcade machines give the player rewards that scale according to their position on the leaderboard, as well as Zone Level experience that scales to their score. Here's what else the leaderboard offers you:

• Fifth place: Nothing
• Four place: Nothing
• Third place: Outfit / customization unlock
• Second place: Power Upgrade Point
• First Place: Control Resonant Reset Item

Obviously these rewards do stack: if you get first place, you also get the rewards for second and third place. However, because Shum arcades are usually tied to the late/endgame of Control Resonant and most players will have ample Power and Reset Items by that point, you're probably in it for the Outfit and clothing at this point.

How to beat the Shum arcade machines

One thing that isn't made clear about the Shum machines in Control Resonant is that these are intended as late-game challenges and you'll really struggle to beat them the first time that you encounter them. This may make you think they're doing something wrong, but in actuality they're just scaled for high-level players who are in the endgame of Control Resonant. I definitely recommend levelling up to the point where you're level 8 minimum, or just go into the accessibility options and play with the challenge if you want the rewards early.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

As Sony reportedly pulls back from bringing its new major single-player PlayStation titles to PC, former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida suggests the company's thinking has reverted back to the "older days."

Earlier this year, it was reported that PlayStation's studio business group CEO Hermen Hulst had told staff that Sony's narrative single-player games (like Saros and Ghost of Yotei, for example) would be PlayStation console exclusive going forward. Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment worldwide studios, gives his thoughts on this apparent decision, which comes despite how some PS5 titles have "sold really well" on the platform and how "easy it is to port" them in the first place.

He explains that when he was at the company during the PS4 generation, "Sony didn't choose to release AAA games, first-party games on PC because they thought making it really PlayStation exclusive was important to appeal to console gamers."

Then, during the PS5 era, when some online games arrived on PC at the same time as they did on Sony's console (like Helldivers 2), but big single-player games instead had a tendency of showing up a while after their initial launch (like Horizon Forbidden West and Marvel's Spider-Man 2), the company seemed to be appealing to everyone in one way or another. Creating timed console exclusivity threw a bone to those PS5 users who care about getting their hands on games first, and PC players would eventually be rewarded for their patience, too.

"They felt that would be good enough to appeal to PlayStation users, but at the same time, by releasing first-party games [and] IP to PCs and [reaching] new users potentially… those users playing first-party games on PC might become a fan of that IP, [and] might in the future come to PlayStation," Yoshida says. "That kind of thinking I think they had."

Now though, Yoshida suggests Sony's thinking has reverted back to what it was in the "older days," with the company leaning more into the idea of pushing its platform with exclusives rather than simply trying to get its first-party games in the hands of as many fans as it can. Acknowledging he doesn't know for sure since he's no longer at the company, he suggests: "Probably, that first-party business versus platform business… now, platform business side is kind of winning the argument, I guess. Platform side always [wants] something exclusive, right?"

It's not surprising to hear Yoshida suggest the apparent move is a bit old-school – the former lead previously said that porting games to PC is "almost like printing money." It seems strange to leave all that behind, but then again, it's definitely more incentive for those without a PlayStation console to buy one.

Ex-PlayStation lead thinks Sony and Nintendo "should try to keep the current generation as long as possible" amid hardware price hikes: "People are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2."

Ghostrunner dev One More Level's upcoming first-person Soulslike Valor Mortis has announced more of its cast, with Game of the Year award magnet Jennifer English taking on a starring role.

Valor Mortis was supposed to release last week, before a particularly busy week caused the developers to delay the game to mid-October before it even announced its release date. But now the route ahead is clear for an October 13 launch – which has just become quieter thanks to Crimson Desert's DLC being delayed – with the devs launching it at $40 to be the game you pick up alongside the likes of GTA 6 and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake.

We previously knew acclaimed French actor Vincent Cassel – known for his roles in La Haine, the Ocean's series, and that one scene from Shrek – would be leading the game as Napoleon Bonaparte. However, the game's Twitter account has now announced the names rounding out the cast, with Dragon's Dogma 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 actor James Alexander playing the game's protagonist William Dowsett, and Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead Jennifer English playing The Shrike.

This bodes well for the game, as English and a dark fantasy RPG has been a pretty lethal combo over the years. After Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept their respective game of the year awards, many have deemed her to be a good luck charm for GOTY awards, and while Clair Obscur co-star Ben Starr said that it would make Marathon a potential contender, with that likely not happening, perhaps Valor Mortis could be a surprise contender. No pressure.

The AA games industry needs "a few more Expedition 33s" before publishers stop seeing smaller games as a major financial risk, says Valor Mortis director.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a thrilling RPG, but leaves a number of loose threads in its wake. It's one of my favorite new games of 2026 all the same, especially since I have faith that developer Rebel Wolves will shed some light on all my questions come the second game in this potential "saga".

Even though I've not long rolled credits on Coen's first adventure, I'm already imagining what might come next. There are a handful of things I'd love to see addressed in The Blood of Dawnwalker 2, from Vicho (fie on all who let him die) to the lasting consequences of welcoming every vrakhir under the moon into Coen's own head, but let's start with six of my most pressing questions after finishing The Blood of Dawnwalker.

1. What's Lacra's deal with the Arbiters and Council of Augurs?

At the end of The Blood of Dawnwalker, Coen gets a few nasty surprises: the rest of his family survived the ordeal, but little sister Lunka is now a feral half-vampire. Brencis called it a parting gift to ensure his victory even in defeat, which is pretty mean considering I forgave him after all that and invited him into my head. Anyway, right as you try to administer a potion concocted by Anca, which may or may not actually work, another one of Coen's potential flames enters, pursued by a man in a hooded cloak.

The man is an Arbiter, he explains, a fellow Dawnwalker sent to Vale Sangora on behalf of a mysterious organization called the Council of Augurs – and it sounds like Lacra is one of them as well. He tells Coen that the only cure for Lunka is to transform her into a proper vrakhir, and he also wants Coen to come with him… Somewhere.

I'm not sure if I only got this scene because I stormed the castle with Lacra instead of with Crake or going at it solo, but with so many unanswered questions (what is an Arbiter? Who is the Council and what do they want?), I'm going to need Rebel Wolves to make haste on this sequel ASAP.

2. What happened to Coen's mother?

We know that Esme, Coen's mother, suffered a terrible trauma that caused her to experience a break from reality. It happened before the events of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and while we do get glimpses of what might have contributed to it – the tragic death of Coen's little brother Alin, her husband Pieter's past as a roving merc-for-hire – there seems to be a lot more to it.

Even if we never meet Esme and Pieter again in the Dawnwalker saga, I hope that doesn't spell the end to my mission to learn more about Coen's family history. He has his little sister Lunka in tow, after all, and even a vrakhiri child will want to know more about where she came from. Some of my favorite missions in The Blood of Dawnwalker provide further insights into who Coen is and where his family came from. Even my most-hated quest of all tugged at my heartstrings and offered some of the best written moments in the whole game, so I hope Rebel Wolves isn't done with the Laslea clan's lore drops just yet.

3. What's with the confusing title?

Every games journalist I speak to about The Blood of Dawnwalker has made the same comment about its title – when you have to write it out as often as we do, it's hard not to grumble about how it simply doesn't make sense. Coen is the Dawnwalker, so if the whole game is predicated upon the unique powers granted by his tainted blood, why isn't it titled Blood of the Dawnwalker?

I think we got half the answer during The Monk and the Saint, a mission that takes Coen deep beneath Svartrau Cathedral on the hunt for the Sword of St. Mihai. The old Saint was a Dawnwalker himself, interestingly enough, and when we fight and defeat his decaying corpse, he has some words of wisdom for Coen.

It's clear that Dawnwalkers, while rare, had been around for some time. If Coen isn't Patient Zero, perhaps there is one out there who is the Dawnwalker? Then again, with Dawnwalkers not having the eternal lifespan of a full vrakhir – they do age, albeit much slower than mortals – the likelihood of this primordial being still drawing breath in Coen's age is rather slim. Unless it was St Mihai himself, and we just killed him. I'd love to see the next games digging deeper into the history of Dawnwalkers.

4. What will happen to the 30-day timer?

Rebel Wolves has already admitted that the RPG's 30 day timer will not necessarily return in a sequel. It's a great way to push urgency in The Blood of Dawnwalker; the timer counts down the days until Brencis' coronation and, consequently, the day Coen's family will meet a grisly end unless he can stop it.

It makes sense that unless Coen is under a similar time constraint in Dawnwalker 2, having an hourly currency might not make sense. But the time limit, contentious as it may be, has become something of a unique selling point for the game. It's a novel quirk that gets people talking, so if Rebel Wolves is considering doing away with it in a future installment, it'll be scrambling to find another clever way to add some friction to Coen's next adventure.

5. Will our "invited" guests stay for long?

As we slay Brencis' court in The Blood of Dawnwalker, we are given a choice: invite the defeated vrakhiri into our minds to save them from Anachora (aka, some sort of vampire hell), or leave them to be torn apart by this terrifying nothingness. I was feeling particularly benevolent – or curious – and decided to welcome every single one of them into Coen's head. Including Brencis and Isbrand.

This made for some pretty amusing epilogue comments (Brencis teases Coen about being too shy to go and visit Anca in her hut) but it begs the question: will I be subjected to this constant chorus for the rest of my time in the Dawnwalker saga? And if so, can Isbrand be a bit less shouty?

6. Will any of our romance interests show face again?

With Dawnwalker set to span a "saga" and that infamous flash-forward to Coen in modern day, it makes sense that the next games might jump into the future. But with the epilogue scene giving us a rundown on what happened to the people Coen met on the way (depending upon how you handled the outcome of each character's stories), I'm a bit confused. From Lacra to Vicho and Crake, Coen details what became of each person in the aftermath of his assault on Greifberg Castle.

Does this scene mean that we won't be seeing many of our new friends in future Dawnwalker games? Or is it meant to give us a snapshot of what happens to them in the years between this game and future ones? Because I, for one, will not rest until I get the slow burn Coen/Vicho romance I have been yearning for since I first met the unstable yet sweet, self-hating bloodsucker.

We're playing The Blood of Dawnwalker for this month's RPG Club - have you joined?

The Witcher 3 Loot Merge is a new option added to the game with the release of the 2026 remaster, but it's not immediately obvious how it works and this is because, as far as I can tell, sometimes it doesn't.

This appears to be a function rather than a bug, so it's important that you know how Loot Merge works and, vitally, when. If you're wondering whether to turn it on or off or how it works then, this is what you need to know.

What is The Witcher 3 Loot Merge?

The Witcher 3 Remastered Loot Merge collects nearby lootable items from the same type of container and bundles them together in one loot window. However, this only seems to work for certain containers.

I've found that loot merge seems to work for corpses, but not cabinets and chests. For example, in the image above, you can see that the drops for two or three wolves all appear in the same list, making it much quicker to loot the bodies. However, two nearby bags, like in the image at the top of the page, will still bring up separate loot windows.

However it works, it definitely makes looting that much easier and quicker, and I strongly recommend turning it on - there certainly seems to be no downside to doing so.

For more guidance through the Continent, check out our guides on how to transmog in The Witcher 3 Remastered, whether you should simulate a Witcher 2 save, and our general Witcher 3 tips to help you survive.

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Now that The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally here, we're all looking forward to CD Projekt Red's new expansion, Songs of the Past – but we don't need to rush through the RPG's other DLC, apparently.

Fool's Theory – the partner studio working with CD Projekt Red on the expansion – creative vision director Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz confirms as much in a new interview with VGC.

She implies that the upcoming content will actually work around the player and what they've done in the RPG so far, rather than requiring them to have completed both Hearts of Stone as well as Blood and Wine prior to engaging with Songs of the Past.

"From a practical side, people will be able to start Songs of the Past immediately after finishing the main story," she explains.

"So, you do not have to finish the expansions. However, when it comes to the timeline, those expansions were before, so we continue with the story that Geralt really wanted to retire, but then he cannot because his best friend asks him for this one last favor to accompany him."

Sounds good to me – and, again, there's no need to fear missing out. Songs of the Past works on your time, so to speak.

"And then we, of course, continue the story depending on whether the player has finished the second expansion or not," as Kuzia-Rokosz says. "We carry that in the story, in dialogue, consequences, and so on."

How? Well, I suppose we'll have to wait and see… "But you do not have to finish previous expansions to start Songs of the Past."

It's great news for those of us with a serious sense of FOMO (at the best of times, if you're me), plus it leaves time to complete everything The Witcher 3 has to offer, which is, uh, a lot.

On average, according to How Long To Beat, anyway, folks spend a whopping 27 hours and a bit enjoying the Blood and Wine expansion. That number rises to over 40 for fans wanting to 100% it – so, yeah. A lot is an understatement, really.

Songs of the Past itself releases sometime next year, with CD Projekt Red only having given us a 2027 launch window. I've got my own fingers crossed it comes sooner rather than later, though – especially seeing as we can apparently dive straight into it.

Searching for new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more to look forward to.

New Growth in Control Resonant is a quest for Doctor Underhill, in which players have to help her find various test subjects before making a final, challenging choice about whether to tell the FBC or to let her continue her experiments in secret. Below I'll take you through a full walkthrough of New Growth, as well as explain the larger consequences of the Underhill Choice you make at the end, and what it means for Control Resonant.

How to complete New Growth in Control Resonant

New Growth is a quest given by Zoe in the Watchtower after you complete the main story and speak to her again. She'll tell you about an FBC scientist called Underhill who was investigating the Mold when she went missing. Here's the steps you need to take.

1. Ask about Underhill in the FBC Base in The Park. The guard Busken will direct you to a rooftop nearby.
2. Head to Underhill's last known location. You'll find a desk on a rooftop with a Level 6 Clearance Keycard and a Resignation Letter document, both of which you need.
3. Head to the Oldest House and specifically Central Executive (the room with the Fast Travel Door) to find a room you can open with Underhill's Apartment Key and notes inside.
4. Clear out the Mold outside Underhill's Apartment building in The Park and head inside to find her. She'll ask you to help with her experiments by harvesting from test subjects.
5. Collect the Test Equipment from the laboratory inside the sewers.
6. Track down the Test Subjects by triggering the white Mold and following it as it crawls away. At times it will split and go in two directions: you need to go to all of them to find all three Test Subjects. Once you find them, simply kill them to tick this challenge. All their locations are marked on the map above.

After this, you simply need to revisit Underhill in her apartment, but things have become clearer: She's working without FBC oversight and, in fact, they're actively worried that she's going to make the situation worse, whereas she sees them as too risk-averse to solve the situation. It's up to you to decide what to do with her in Control Resonant, but what's the right answer?

What's the best Underhill choice in Control Resonant?

Put simply, there is no real consequence to the Underhill choice, so it doesn't matter what you pick. Dylan is given the choice to either report her to the FBC, give her the chance to escape, or to let her escape but keep the samples so she can't keep doing her experiments.

There are no long term consequences to any of these choices. Later on you'll have a call with Zoe where you relate to her the choice you make and she expresses an opinion on it, but the mission rewards are the same either way: the Brass Dusters artifact (Combat abilities deal +50% damage but no Falter effects), and an increase to the Zone Level of The Park region.

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Look, I wanted to like End of Abyss; and I did! Sometimes. When everything's going smoothly, it's an atmospheric and excellently-paced survival horror that's harsh but fair. The problem is that when everything isn't going smoothly – which is more often than should be the case, especially in the latter half of the game – it's a pretty good example of what not to do in the genre.

The distant camera and smoky darkness may well put you in mind of Little Nightmares (studio Section 9 is made up of former Tarsier devs), but a better comparison would be classic Resident Evil. Partly this is down to the (great) monster design – many of End of Abyss' creepy horrors wouldn't be out of place for Leon Kennedy and friends to face, with dashes of the sort of abominations that haunt The Last of Us and indeed Little NIghtmares. But, End of Abyss feels built in the Resident Evil mold right down to the gameplay.

Abyss of a problem

Though you can sprint, avoiding the lumbering pace of old-school Resident Evil (the controls are, thankfully, significantly tighter too), one survival horror element End of Abyss channels excellently is teaching you to be wary of, and respect, uncharted territory. There could be an enemy just off screen at any time, and you don't want to run in for a hug. Especially not when most of the beasties can delete a huge dollop of your health with one hit.

Your scanner also serves to reward more careful exploration, but with mixed results. Although it can provide useful info, such as what notes say or which keycard is required for which door, it's nothing that a simple button tap wouldn't achieve faster with equal efficiency. The only unique use it really has is for a bit of classic 'follow power lines through the walls' in order to find door-opening nodes to shoot.

The Resident Evil comparison comes in not just through keycard use, but intentionally imperfect combat against resilient enemies. There are also safe rooms, though saving works differently to the Capcom classics. When you die, you retain any items you picked up, and any opened doors or extended bridges stay as you left them. However, all enemies – apart from bosses and ambush setpieces – respawn. Any expended ammo, however, does not.

Combat while exploring is usually tough, just the right level of awkward, and manageable (make sure you upgrade your weapons, though). Unfortunately, End of Abyss has a nasty habit of cheaply synthesizing challenge by forcing you into a tiny arena. This is especially true of the boss fights, most of which are awful. When facing multiple enemies, this results in silly situations where you're leading monstrosities in circles like a Benny Hill chase, occasionally stopping to take potshots at them until it's over.

Bugs aside – I have a few instances of enemies hitting me through walls, an elevator that doesn't load properly, and a soft lock that loses me progress in the final area – my journey to the end of End of Abyss is frequently marred by small but cumulatively annoying gripes, a different kind of horror to where the game shines. Gloomy environs, for example, contribute to the great atmosphere, but it does mean that levers and other objects can sometimes be hard to see. At one point, I completely miss a progress-crucial destructible section of floor because the subtle pale coloring melts out of view.

My greatest nemesis is a radiated area where, without the correct (and missable) suit mod, you take minor but constant damage while exploring. Once I eventually get hold of the mod, I find that it requires four energy points to activate… and my suit only has three! Cue hours of aimless wandering until I finally stumble across what I need – wait for it – deep into the area I need it for. Doubtless I missed at least one of these energy pickups somewhere earlier, but it shouldn't have been possible for me to find myself in that situation. While there's a touch of Metroidvania – I regularly encounter doors and devices before I'm able to make use of them – the fact that there's only one piece of traversal gear to find (a grappling hook) brings me back to Resident Evil as a reference point.

A combination of darkened corners and missable items means that I spend a lot of hours wandering around in this way, and I often yearn for fast travel between safe rooms. It doesn't help that information from the scanner isn't very useful for many doors, cheerily informing me that they're locked without any indication of how I might remedy the situation.

That said, End of Abyss does hold some juicy rewards for those willing (or, in my case, forced) to stray off the main path. Not only crafting materials and snippets of lore, but meaty weapons and entire boss fights that you can otherwise roll credits without seeing. There's even a way (it seems) to soften the difficulty of the final boss by finding certain items scattered across the game, but by then I've had more than enough of running around overfamiliar areas to even consider the idea.

I spend way, way longer than I'd like doing laps of the shuttle system trying to find something to help me progress, and I'm not a huge fan of the fact that, if you run out of crafting materials for ammo by repeatedly failing a boss fight, the only way to get more is to revisit areas you've already rinsed to kill enemies you've already killed. It was bad back when Bloodborne did it, and it hasn't suddenly become good now.

However, there are enough sprints of enjoyment between the swamps of frustration to just about hold End of Abyss together. There's lots to enjoy if you live for immersing yourself in a complex environment to explore backwards and forwards with little consideration of plot; but if you're after something where you can follow the story path with relative ease, expect to make plentiful use of guides.

End of Abyss was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.

This isn't where your gaming journey ends. If you want more like this, check out our best survival horror games ranking, or keep an eye on our upcoming horror games list!

GTA 6 marketing is really ramping up now as influencers are receiving packages of merch from Rockstar Games, and I've gotta say, it looks like they got a better deal than the fans paying $400 for those Collector's Boxes.

The package in question has been shown off by content creator TmarTn on YouTube (below), who says he received the mysterious box from Rockstar with no heads up from the devs. Contained within his box was a blue baseball cap with a pink Rockstar Games logo embroidered on the front, a t-shirt with the same "welcome to Vice City" design shown on the inside of the Collector's Box, some stickers, a blue and pink tote bag featuring the GTA 6 logo, and perhaps coolest of all, a Zippo lighter engraved with both the Rockstar and Vice City logos.

While similar in vibe to the merch included in the Collector's Box, a number of GTA fans are – rather expectedly – proclaiming that they'd rather have all this than what Rockstar is charging the general public $400 for. Let's face it, not everyone is bothered about owning a bright pink cartoon alligator statue (though some fans are already getting creative and 3D printing their own to avoid paying Rockstar's price).

"Better than the good times collection box they're selling us for €400," one writes on Twitter. "I WANT THAT MERCH, NOT THE SHIT WE GET IN THE COLLECTION BOX," reads another slightly more impassioned response.

Of course, it may end up being that Rockstar Games sells the merch being sent to creators separately at some point so fans can have their fill, too. If that wasn't already the plan, this is clearly going to provide proof that there's demand, anyway.

GTA 6's weather is completely re-engineered from Red Dead Redemption 2, and it has hurricanes, rainbows, proper cloud formations and more.

Minecraft is an ever-expanding franchise, and there are frequent giveaways to celebrate this fact, including some of the Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes below. Minecraft skins have always been among players' favorite ways to express themselves (outside of creative mode), and are a popular addition even in a single-player capacity. So, with the Minecraft Dungeons 2 launch, there too came some fresh customization options.

While a few of the rewards listed below are redeemed automatically once requirements are met, one is a redemption code that needs to be claimed in-game. This differs to how you would redeem codes for the Minecraft vanilla game, perhaps leading to some confusion, so here's what you need to know.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes

These are the Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes and rewards you can get right now:

Only one of these is an actual code, and that's the Corrupted Creeper Cape, which can sadly no longer be obtained, but can still be redeemed in-game if you were lucky enough to get one or participated in the Twitch and TikTok watch reward campaigns. If you're unsure how to do so, check out the instructions below.

Rather than actually being codes, the other rewards are claimed in-game automatically once requirements have been met.

Since there is a Minecraft Dungeons codes redemption box in-game, I'd expect to see even more rewards shared this way in the future, and I'll share them here when they arrive.

How to redeem Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes

To redeem Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes, enter the settings menu from in-game, then scroll to the bottom of the General settings menu, where you'll find the code redemption box. Enter your unique code here, hit enter or controller equivalent, and you'll be granted your rewards!

There is another Minecraft Dungeons 2 reward available, the Aurora Cape, but while the reward is for watching Dungeons 2, it's only available to claim in the vanilla game, which must instead be done here. If you try to claim your Minecraft Dungeons 2 codes here, it won't work!

While you're here, why not check out our Minecraft Dungeons 2 review, which compares it to a more grown-up ARPG, while discussing how it's also better than the first Dungeons game.

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October is stacked in terms of new games releasing. In a similar vein to the mammoth month of September, October is also filled with AAA games and indies alike as they all dodge GTA 6's November launch. So, finding a title to pick up and play over the next few weeks can be pretty daunting, but don't worry, I'm here to help.

The rest of the GamesRadar+ team and I have carefully looked over every single October release and have settled on the top 5 games that we think are worth your time and attention. There are FPS darlings and a whole bunch of action-heavy titles waiting for you below. However, keep in mind that our picks are limited to just 5 in a massive wave of fresh titles. So, if you don't find something that speaks to you here, I highly recommend checking out our full round-up with our guide to all the new games for 2026 and beyond. Also, if you are after something for spooky season especially, we have an upcoming horror games list for you to check out as well.

But with that said, let's dive into the top 5 games you need to play this October and a quick overview of why they deserve the spotlight.

The best games to play in October 2026

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve

Release date: October 2, 2026
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

We gave this new game a 4.5 out of 5-star rating in our Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve review, so of course I had to highlight it here as an October must-play. This is a title where you step into the cinematic shoes of an elite pilot who takes to the skies to blast a few enemies and earn your wings. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve really does make you feel like a star in an action movie with all its intense dogfights, its rip-roaring soundtrack, and surprisingly good story. Bandai Namco's arcadey flight sim is unquestionably a strong entry in the Ace Combat franchise, and despite taking a while to fully get going, you'll enjoy every second of it. I will say there is room for improvement in terms of online features, but it's still an easy new game to recommend for sure.

Gears of War: E-Day

Release date: October 6, 2026
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S

The next main installment in the Gears of War series, Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel to the original 2006 title, letting players experience the day the Locust Horde ambushed humanity. So far, all the trailers for this one look amazing. There are emotional moments as humanity comes under threat, and there is a ton of blood, gore, and gruff voices. The Gears games hold a special place in a ton of hearts, so getting to see where and how it all began is definitely something that is worth marking your calendars for.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Release date: October 6, 2026
Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Calling all pod-racers, your time is coming on October 6. Star Wars: Galactic Racer is a new racing game, set in the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Not only is this one throwing us into one of the most popular cinematic franchises of all time, but it also features a single-player roguelite campaign and online multiplayer for up to 12 people at a time. This honestly looks like it has the makings to be a new addition to our list of the best Star Wars games of all time, so if you love Glup Shittos and some competitive play, be sure to check it out. You can also read more about this one in our Star Wars: Galactic Racer preview.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

Release date: October 23, 2026
Platforms: PC, PS5, Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S

The long-running FPS juggernaut is back with another entry in the Modern Warfare series, and the great news is that it is also heading to all modern consoles and PC. The Modern Warfare series has given us some of the best Call of Duty games, period, so I have high hopes for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 in general. The new game's campaign has a ton of international locations with the return of Captain Price as well, but the thing I'm personally most excited about is its focus on an invasion of the Korean Peninsula and the introduction of a new protagonist, Private Park. The story here sounds very promising, and of course we can all look forward to tight gunplay in both single-player and PvP modes too.

Phantom Blade Zero

Release date: October 29, 2026
Platforms: PC, PS5

It has been a long time coming, but finally, the release date for Phantom Blade Zero is heading our way in October. Revealed all the way back in 2023, and then delayed from its original 2025 release window, as massive RPG fans, all of us here at GamesRadar+ have been waiting anxiously for this one. Inspired by kung fu, steampunk, and cyberpunk styles, Phantom Blade Zero is an action-RPG where you play as Soul, a warrior with only sixty-six days left to live. With Wuxia storytelling and dark fantasy vibes, the title looks stunning and also incredibly unique. If you're looking for your next soulslike, this may just have you covered.

For more releases, check out our round-ups of all the upcoming PS5 games, upcoming Switch 2 games, and upcoming indie games also on their way.

Today, FromSoftware is known for creating the Soulslike: a particular brand of dark fantasy action-RPG that's helped to define the modern gaming landscape. But the spirit of the genre goes all the way back to the '90s, when FromSoftware's own King's Field series started endearing itself to a small cult of devotees. Now, that same spirit is influencing a new generation of indie developers, and the upcoming Queen's Domain is one of the most impressive tributes we've seen yet.

You might've heard about Queen's Domain before – like last year, when we reported about it reaching 50,000 Steam wishlists in a week. Now that wishlist number is over 180,000, and the game finally has an October 30 release date. The best part? Not only is it launching on Steam, it'll also hit PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch 2 on the same day.

Queen's Domain is a first-person RPG with "retro-fantasy" aesthetics. It doesn't actually look like a PS1 game, as the environments are far too dense and detailed to fit that old hardware, but the dithering effects, sparse UI, and chunky creature designs certainly create that vibe.

The lonely atmosphere of King's Field certainly seems intact here, as you find yourself washed ashore on a mysterious island and given little direction on how to proceed. Instead, you've got to figure out your own way in the interconnected world and build up your arsenal of weapons and powers. In other words, it's catnip for those who appreciate punishing RPGs.

And yes, of course there are skeletons. Modern gaming machines can produce mind-boggling effects, after all.

There's a demo for Queen's Domain available on Steam right now if you want to give it a spin ahead of launch. And if the idea of "King's Field but from an indie dev" speaks to you, it's become a bit of a cottage industry. We covered Lunacid years ago, which has enjoyed very positive reviews since 2023, and the more recent Verho: Curse of Faces has enjoyed similarly positive buzz. If you're the right kind of RPG sicko, it's an absolute feast out there.

Here are the upcoming indie games you need to know about.

The small details have always been where Rockstar works the most magic, and GTA 6 will be no different. Besides anything else, the weather is going to be something to watch out for, since the whole system's been overhauled from what we saw in Red Dead Redemption 2.

In Game Informer, Owen Shepherd, the vice president of art for lighting and rendering at Rockstar, divulged some of what players can expect when roaming Leonida, and it won't all be sunshine and tans. You can encounter all sorts of conditions, ranging from high temperatures to rain, right through hurricanes, all handled by a system where actual cloud formations will be floating overhead.

The entire weather system's been re-done to allow for more dynamism and unpredictability than we've seen prior. Red Dead Redemption 2 is the closest example, and apparently this iteration goes beyond what you see as Arthur Morgan.

The wind and rain are the biggest examples. You'll see the former through people's hair and ripples in the water and the like - all the minute ways you'd notice a breeze yourself. There'll be updrafts and other more specific effects as well. Extreme conditions are possible too; large-scale storms can and will happen across the area.

For the rain, there are puddles, and realistic, persistent rainbows. The notion that I could be stepping away from a hazardous mission, covered in blood both literally and metaphorically, only to hop into my sports car and drive off toward a big ol' rainbow arching over the horizon is glorious. Pure Rockstar.

As with much of GTA 6, I'll need to see this all in motion to fully appreciate it. But it's starting to sound like the studio's managed to outdo itself here. That's what 13 years of development will do.

Police arrest "one of the alleged leaders" of group behind Rockstar hack that apparently revealed how much money GTA Online makes, FBI warns "we know how to find you"

The new Transmog feature in Witcher 3 Remastered allows players to "Reforge" their weapons and armor, allowing the equipment you have to look like any other piece of gear you've found without affecting its stats. That means that if you own some Mastercrafted Witcher gear but don't like the way it looks, you can take it to be Reforged and Trasmog it to look like any other piece of equipment in your inventory! However, there's only two NPCs in the entirety of Witcher 3 that offer this service, and neither are available without a lot of work, as we'll explain below.

How to Reforge and Transmog your gear in Witcher 3 Remastered

To transmog your equipment, you need to go to either of the Witcher 3 Master Blacksmiths. To transmog armor, visit Yoana in Crow's Perch / Velen (above). For weapons, it's Hattori in Novigrad Docks (below). At either, speak to them and choose the option to 'Reforge'.

The problem is that these Master Blacksmiths need to be unlocked through their own respective chains of side quests, and both of these quests have a recommended level of 24. Still, here's how to start those quest chains:

• Yoana (Master Armorer). Speak to Fergus Graem, the Smith in Crow's Perch in Velen, and tell him you're looking for a Master Armorer. This will begin a quest called (appropriately) "Master Armorers."
• Éibhear Hattori (Master Swordsmith). Speak to any weaponsmith about finding a Master Swordsmith, or go to the Dumpling Restaurant in Novigrad, found in the open plaza halfway between the Novigrad Docks and the Gate of the Heirarch fast travel points. The first quest of the quest chain is called "Of Swords and Dumplings."

Once they're unlocked, speak to them and choose Reforge to select the option to transmog equipment. In this menu, first pick the item you want to transmog, then pick another item in your inventory that you want it to look like. Then confirm and pay the asked cost to alter its appearance.

Obviously there's limits to this system (you can't make a pair of trousers into shoes), but it means that any chestpiece you own can look like any other chestpiece that you own, as an example, without altering its stats. The only downside is that you do need both the item you want to wear and the one you want it to look like in your inventory when you head off to either smith, so I recommend making good use of your nearest stash.

To find out more about Witcher 3 armor itself and the best pieces to use, check out our separate guide. If you're playing for the first time with Remastered, or coming back after a long break, you may also be interested in our top Witcher 3 tips to get your started.

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Crimson Desert developer Pearl Abyss has announced that the Charting the Unknown DLC expansion has been delayed, but thankfully not by too long.

Crimson Desert DLC was confirmed a few months after the game dropped, with the developer confirming an expansion was in the works in June, which felt like an obvious move after the massive success of the open-world game at launch, but I don't know that many were expecting it to be dropping this year.

But despite that, Pearl Abyss confirmed it would be a 2026 release in August – with the massive Enhanced edition update being announced that same month – and less than a month later, Crimson Desert: Charting the Unknown was announced at the PlayStation State of Play, with a release date of October 15, 2026.

Unfortunately, that date was maybe a bit ambitious, as Pearl Abyss announces on Twitter that it has been delayed. But thankfully, there are only two more weeks to wait.

"We are hard at work on Crimson Desert Enhanced: Charting the Unknown to bring you new adventures to Pywel," the post reads, explaining, "we have determined that we need additional development time to deliver a more polished and stable gameplay experience."

Pearl Abyss adds, "We know many of you have been looking forward to returning to the game and we sincerely apologize for the longer wait," and promises to "use the additional time to further refine the content and do our utmost to deliver the best experience we can."

This delay moves it out of an especially busy week where titles like Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Valor Mortis, the Switch 2 versions of the Resident Evil Remake trilogy, and, of course, Bluey's Happy Snaps. Unfortunately, however, the two-week delay does drop it right next to Phantom Blade Zero and Hello Kitty Party Land on the same day, so the choice may be a tough one for some, but at least the DLC will be better for it.

Steam earned Valve $15 billion in revenue so far this year, with Crimson Desert alone topping $203 million according to analyst

It's no secret that Microsoft's plans to cut 3,200 employees at Xbox are still in action, having just affected a whopping 268 employees earlier this month, many of whom were working at Halo Studios – the team largely responsible for the Halo franchise.

At the time, chief content officer Matt Booty said the role eliminations were focused "across Halo Studios, other first-party studios, and the XGS management and central functions layer." As for the future of Halo, Activision took control of the franchise from Halo Studios with a promise to deliver "the greatest Halo game ever."

So, how exactly will it do that? Perhaps by looking to those who were laid off for ideas?

Frank O'Connor, industry veteran with nearly 20 years of work on Halo as both a writer and franchise creative director under his belt, certainly believes that the company should.

He shares as much under a new LinkedIn post on the matter, commenting on which paths he thinks that Activision could take to make a successful Halo entry – but "none of these are easy, guaranteed, or necessarily viable," as O'Connor writes.

The first path? "Make a 'classic' Halo movement/sandbox/shooter experience tailored to a core audience and scaled to be successful with that core audience and attractive to a broader one so it can grow." He adds the obvious fact that multiplayer "is better with more people playing, by mathematical default" – which, yeah.

And, the second? Well, that one moves away from what the Halo franchise is already known for for something "new."

O'Connor's second suggestion reads as follows: "Make something new, modern that reinvents the game/universe in a surprising but fantastic way. An action/sandbox game (maybe it's a new take on the FPS, maybe it's an action RPG but it's fundamentally different) and succeeds with a combination of strong story, IP use and gets a small head start based on curiosity or loyalty."

I suppose I could see it – but it's certainly riskier.

The Halo veteran's third potential path for Activision involves "translating" the IP into its new parent company's "comfort zone," with "player, progression, and business models that are proven to work" and "a big annual or semi-annual spectacle and constant content."

He does warn against tying it to hardware launch cycles and abandoning Halo's sandbox elements – and suggests hiring laid-off devs.

"Hire Bungie, Halo Studios, and other laid-off folk who are bursting with talent and ideas that got nerfed or shut down over the years," as O'Connor's comment concludes – and boy, would that be a nice idea if I thought for a moment that Activision would consider it.

Am I hopeful that it will? Of course, but the industry is shaky at best right now, and it's been a while since we've heard good news akin to O'Connor's suggestion here.

A girl can dream, I suppose – and I'll keep my fingers crossed that executives hear our (and O'Connor's, apparently) prayers and deliver a solid Halo entry… perhaps even "the greatest Halo game ever," as per Activision's own words.

Halo cinematic director "promoted and laid off in the same week" as Microsoft continues sweeping Xbox layoffs

The FBI has confirmed the arrest of "one of the alleged leaders" of cybercrime and hacking group ShinyHunters – the group that claimed responsibility for a Rockstar Games hack earlier this year.

As reported by Reuters, earlier this week, Dutch police announced that they arrested a 24-year-old man from Amsterdam on September 15 who's suspected of being part of the group. In a statement, the FBI's cyber division assistant director, Brett Leatherman, refers to the man as "one of the alleged leaders of ShinyHunters," saying: "Since last year, this cybercriminal and his co-conspirators have allegedly breached more than 140 organizations and taken at least $70 million in extortion payments."

One of those organizations is allegedly GTA 6 maker Rockstar Games – ShinyHunters claimed responsibility for a hack which took place in April this year. At that point, Rockstar stated: "We can confirm that a limited amount of non-material company information was accessed in connection with a third-party data breach. This incident has no impact on our organization or our players."

This breach shouldn't be confused with the September 2022 GTA 6 leak, nor the Cyberleek leaks that emerged last month. However, it did seemingly reveal alleged financial records, including the apparent weekly revenue earned by GTA Online.

More recently, ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen information from the FBI (thanks, BBC), allegedly including data on most agents at the organization, Reuters reported last week – notably after the arrest of the 24-year-old.

Leatherman also shares a message for anyone involved with ShinyHunters, encouraging them to come forward. "You've heard about the arrest of your colleague. We're confident you've seen or heard things in recent days that the public has not. Other groups believed anonymity, or their friends, would protect them, and they were wrong," he states.

"Arrests have a way of changing who is willing to talk, and seized infrastructure has a way of showing us who's left. The longer you stay in this, the more we learn about you. You know how to find us, and we know how to find you. I suggest you reach out first while the choice is still yours."

In a statement seen by Reuters, however, ShinyHunters claims that the man arrested has "no association" with the hacking group, and allegedly criticizes the competence of the Dutch police force.

GTA 6's $1 million billboard goes up despite protests from local police as Rockstar's real-life Miami takeover gets underway.

The Witcher 3 Remastered has finally arrived, coming as a free upgrade for players who have the original 2015 RPG – and, apparently, those who borrow it, too.

If you happen to own the old Nintendo Switch version of the game – yes, the one from 2019 – you can insert it into your Switch 2 and access the full digital version of The Witcher 3 Remastered for Nintendo's newer console.

A genius user over on Reddit figured out the real-life "hack," so to speak, sharing a screenshot as evidence that they were able to snag the revamped RPG without having to pay for it.

Yep, this also means that you can theoretically borrow a copy of the Switch game and just use it momentarily to register the remaster on your Switch 2, effectively rendering it entirely free for folks with pals who own The Witcher 3 already.

As the Redditor writes, "My brother and I were able to claim the full game virtual game card for both of our accounts with the same single cartridge!" Hey – if it works, it works.

Fans seem thrilled that CD Projekt Red and Nintendo have allowed for this, unsurprisingly.

One commenter sums it up perfectly: "That's a genuinely generous way to handle it. Most publishers would have charged an upgrade fee, and letting the cartridge unlock a digital copy for more than one account is more than anyone expected. CD Projekt keeps doing this sort of thing and it's a big part of why people forgive them for Cyberpunk's launch."

Yes, they referenced the disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 release – one that has been remedied, mind you – but they're not exactly wrong. This was a great way to handle The Witcher 3 Remastered.

As another fan says, "That should be a common thing with physical [copies], good job CD Projekt!" I'm inclined to agree myself, honestly. Here's to more companies following suit… and a Songs of the Past launch that's just as successful.

Searching for some other new games to wishlist? Browse through our roundup of all of the upcoming CD Projekt Red games for more.

There are few video game titles as descriptive as American Truck Simulator. You drive a simulated truck across America. Boom, branding perfection. It might seem like a betrayal of that core concept to release an expansion that lets you trade in the 18-wheelers for normal consumer cars, but that's exactly what the newly released Road Trip DLC is all about. Judging by the new all-time Steam player record the game just set, fans have been ready for the ride.

"American Truck Simulator's all time concurrent player record has been broken," developer SCS Software exclaims in a Bluesky post. "Over 20,000 of you are currently in-game, either behind the wheel of a truck or hitting the road with our Road Trip: Ford DLC! We cannot thank you enough for your support over the years."

As SteamDB shows, American Truck Simulator hit an all-time concurrent player peak of 21,318. That's the biggest concurrent player count since 2016, when the game first launched to 19,138 players. Those numbers might seem pitiful next to the biggest games on Steam, but few games have managed to keep an audience as consistent as the one that flocks to ATS.

The Road Trip: Ford DLC launched earlier today with a selection of licensed Ford automobiles, including an F-150, Bronco, Crown Victoria, and '67 Mustang. It's essentially an $8 pack of normal road vehicles, which you can take to either cruise at your own pace or use to take on new classes of delivery jobs.

I've been playing American Truck Simulator off and on since it first launched, and while I appreciate the simple economic challenges of buying truck upgrades and paying them off by hauling industrial cargo, the real appeal of the game is just cruising the long, lonesome highways that connect the various pieces of the US together.

In real life, that's an arduous process made all the more inaccessible by the rising cost of fuel, and each state border crossed is an unpleasant reminder of the political barriers splitting the US apart. Hopping into a virtual Mustang and cruising Route 66 as the sun comes up over the horizon, though? I can start to imagine the hard work, apple pie, and hamburger America we've been mythologizing for so long. At least for a moment.

Check out the best simulator games you can play today.

You've heard it said before that GTA 6 is expected to be the largest entertainment launch of all time in terms of budget and sales, but it really is hard to oversell the unprecedented scale of Rockstar's incoming juggernaut. Publisher Take-Two Interactive has likely spent an ungodly amount of money GTA 6, and if the finished product is anything less than a total disaster, you'll see that money reflected in its photorealistic, richly detailed visuals, gigantic open-world map, and lifelike physics. That said, making the biggest game ever comes with proportionately seismic expectations, and Rockstar isn't content with simply meeting them.

"As the pressure for us on this project is huge, we dealt with that by doing our best to overdeliver," Rockstar's head of development and co-studio head Aaron Garbut tells Game Informer. "Normally you compromise scale for detail or detail for interaction, but with this project we went the other way – everything is dialed up – detail, scope, breadth, scale, interaction and density. I don't think we have ever created anything close to this before."

Of course, it's worth acknowledging the extremely talented people at Rockstar who don't need boatloads of cash to tell compelling stories or design interesting worlds, but the technical achievement Garbut is teasing here wouldn't be possible without Take-Two money. We've yet to see what the game looks like on our living room screens or how it feels in the hands at launch, but Rockstar certainly isn't doing much to temper expectations ahead of the game's November 19 launch; instead, it's doubling down in the final weeks of pre-release build-up with a reminder that there are very few studios in the world with its pedigree, talent, and resources.

GTA 6 devs spent years "going to strip clubs," "spending time on the beach," and riding with ex-cops to research Florida life

Game development is a hard, often thankless job, where devs spend years working extreme hours while pouring their hearts into their craft, and they're often repaid with little more than a pat on the back ahead of the next round of mass layoffs. I say all this to suggest you shouldn't judge Rockstar too hard for its regular GTA 6 research trips in Florida, which saw the devs soaking up the sun and the nightlife in equal measure.

"We go and try to experience everything," senior vice president of narrative Rupert Humphries tells Game Informer, "from riding around areas at night with ex-cops, to going to strip clubs and nightclubs, spending time on the beach, in the Everglades, down in the Keys, and beyond." The team has taken a multitude of such trips for reference material over the years.

Rockstar has a number of subsidiaries based all over the world, but GTA's development is led by Rockstar North in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I have to imagine some of those devs appreciated a little extra sunlight. But honestly? Going clubbing as a work activity sounds like a recipe for a bad time.

And either way, there are plenty of locations outside of the beaches and nightlife, and the game's story will drag Jason and Lucia through many of them. "We don’t have time to take you everywhere, but we want you to be able to explore and get a feel for most of the places, cultures, and vibes," Humphries says. "This game and its stories really thrive in an environment where you have rich people and poor people right next door to each other. And crime and corruption is the thread that pulls everyone together."

Plenty of game studios go on research trips – the American Truck Simulator devs even had to make a stop in my dinky hometown at one point – but the fact that the real-life inspirations behind Leonida and Vice City are such tourist destinations and nightlife hubs does make these particular trips seem a little more enviable than most. But personally, as a resident of Missouri, I get my fill of suffocating heat and humidity six months out of the year without having to meet any Florida men.

Here are all the GTA 6 locations we've learned about so far.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is a new expansion coming to The Witcher 3, and it promises to be the last new outing for Geralt before The Witcher 4 heads our way.

CD Projekt Red officially announced the third expansion back in May following a healthy string of rumors. With only the title to go on initially, Songs of the Past's official reveal came during Gamescom 2026 following the announcement of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. The studio then showed off a demo of the expansion during a series of RedStreams, and offered more insight into the new region it will be drawing us into, as well as some story details.

Even though I personally find it hard to believe (because what is time), The Witcher 3 came out all the way back in 2015, it continues to be one of the best RPGs around over a decade later. While it's definitely exciting to know there's a slate of upcoming CD Projekt games in the works, I'm happy to have some big reasons to return to The Witcher 3 thanks to the remaster and the upcoming DLC. So, if, like me, you can hardly wait to experience a new adventure with The Butcher of Blaviken and you find yourself wanting to learn more about what's in store in Songs of the Past, read on as I breakdown everything you need to know about the expansion.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past release date specualtion

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past release date is slated for sometime in 2027.

The 2027 launch window was revealed when the expansion was first announced, but we're still awaiting a firm release date. With The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered landing on September 29, 2026, and The Witcher 4 "targeting" a 2028 release, Songs of the Past looks set to bridge the gap between the two sometime next year.

While we'll have to wait it out for an official update on the release date, it would be pretty neat to see Songs of the Past arrive in May to mirror the original release of the base game all the way back in 2015.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the past platforms

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past expansion is coming to PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X when it releases in 2027.

Since new content is coming to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the remaster and Songs of the Past, CD Projekt Red confirmed changes have been made to specs, with amended minimum requirements on PC, which are:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
  GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
  VRAM: 6 GB
  RAM: 12 GB
  Storage: 70 GB SSD
  OS: 64-bit Windows 11

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past trailer

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past location

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past takes place in the new realm of Letten, an expansive region that CD Projekt Red says is a fully realized open-world "comparable in scope" to the sizable Blood and Wine expansion.

As detailed in the Gamescom 2026 Showcase Supercut video, Letten is yours to freely explore just like other regions in the expansive RPG, and is "packed with new quests, interesting characters, places to find, and monsters to find". The area is known as "the land of the plenty", with a lush, idyllic look and feel.

Said to be heavily inspired by the Polish and English countryside, with pagan-like architecture and customs, the world setting is "sheltered from the conflicts" that affect other parts of the continent.

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine added a huge new region in the beautiful setting of Toussaint, which set the scene for a host of memorable questlines. To know Songs of the Past is echoing this scale is very exciting indeed. If you'd like a refresher on the Blood and Wine expansion, you can check out our original The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine review for more.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past story

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past's story follows Geralt as he travels to Letten to help his friend Dandelion with "a family matter".

With the Gamescom 2026 showcase giving us a look at a demo of the upcoming expansion, the new region is actually revealed to be Dandelion's homeland, and as the member of a noble family (Dandelion's real name is Julian Alfred Pankratz, with the title of Viscount of Lettenhove), you'll actually be able to visit the grand manor where the lovable bard grew up.

The footage shows all is not well at home, though, with black banners denoting signs of mourning, which speak to why Dandelion has returned after many years away.

While CD Projekt Red is keeping most of the story under wraps, the studio also teased that there's a dark secret lurking beneath the surface of Letten, and of course, we'll get wrapped up in it, too. Venturing to the Garden of Thorns, which is said to be the only flawed spot in the region that everyone avoids, you'll be joined by Dandelion's cousin Lilla as you go there to investigate an old Lettenhove family legend.

As the pair approach a thorny gate in the garden, Geralt remarks that Dandelion might be in it, which links to one very salient point: Dandelion is missing. As our guided hands-off demo of the expansion at Gamescom 2026 explores, Geralt had some kind of ominous dream after a wild night during local celebrations in a location known as Belleteyn. Upon waking, Dandelion is gone, and his absence leads the White Wolf to team up with Lilla and set out to the Garden of Thorns in search of his friend.

Interestingly, during a RedStream at Gamescom 2026, the team at CD Projekt Red said Geralt gets pulled out of retirement for another adventure, which seemingly suggests this takes place after the events of Blood and Wine.

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past gameplay

We've gotten to see some work in progress for The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past gameplay thanks to the Gamescom demo, which not only shows off some very beautiful vistas that Geralt explores by boat and on the back of his trusty steed Roach, but also some combat in action.

With the visual improvements of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Remastered bringing to the idyllic setting of Letten, the Songs of the Past will also benefit from enhancements the remaster introduces to the combat system, with an updated camera and better targeting for more precision during encounters.

As you take new quests and explore the region, you can also expect to come across new enemies. When Geralt goes through the Garden of Thorns, we're introduced to a new monster in the Swarmion, a ghoulish-looking enemy that protects itself with a swarm of hornets.

While Geralt will once again have his swords and signs, during this combat encounter CD Projekt Red shows off Geralt's new chain tool. Operating much like a grappling hook, the chain latches onto the Swarmion so the witcher can yank the enemy closer and land a hit with his silver sword. But more excitingly, the chain also features a weak point system, and should you exploit it at the right opportune moment, you can execute some bloody finishers.

For more on the changes introduced in the remaster, you can find our guide to what's new in The Witcher 3 Remastered.

The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past development

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past is being co-developed by CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory.

Known for isometric character-driven RPG, The Thaumaturge, Fool's Theory also provided support for the gameplay and tools programming for Baldur's Gate 3, and is also working with CD Projekt Red on the upcoming Witcher 1 Remake.

It's not often that you get an expansion of this scale for a game that was released over 10 years ago, but CD Projekt Red says it wouldn't have been possible without the RPG's remaster which launched in September 2026. With so many advancements in technology since 2015, it makes sense that the Remaster and its various overhauled features opened up the door to a shiny new expansion, too.

While you can snap up the remaster as a free upgrade if you already own the game (with the two previous expansions included at no additional cost), Songs of the Past will be a paid expansion. CD Projekt Red has yet to confirm The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past price, but I'll be watching out for more updates.

For more, check out our pick of the best games like The Witcher 3.

On the face of it, Arc Raiders has enjoyed a dream year for a live-service game. It launched to huge numbers, then maintained the community while developer Embark Studios maintained a cadence of updates and patches to keep things (mostly) steady. As the shooter's first anniversary approaches, leadership is now getting candid about the toll that's taken on the devs.

Aleksander Grøndal, executive producer on Arc Raiders, discusses Embark's general weariness with Game Developer. "Transitioning to live-service is going to be fucking hard," he says.

"Everyone said that to me. I've even said that to other people," he continues. "I was mentally prepared for it to be hard - but I wasn't completely prepared for how hard it was."

Prior to Arc Raiders, Grøndal worked on a number of major releases for EA, including installments of Battlefield and Star Wars: Battlefront. While these have online elements, they've got substantial offline options too, making them different animals to the fully live-service machine of something like Arc Raiders.

He mentions that the people at Embark have been worn down by having to answer to millions of players on a consistent and ongoing basis. "The team is super tired. We're putting out content as fast as we can but it's not enough, and perhaps it wasn't necessarily interesting enough as well," he comments. "I'm proud of what we achieved during the first four months of this year, but at the same time, I think we have to be honest at looking at some of the impacts of that."

Arc Raiders jumped out of the gate with monthly updates that kept the gameplay fresh, while putting out fires constantly through routine patches. But Embark has since slowed down, aiming for slower but bigger rollouts on new features.

"We didn't have the time," he says. "You also have a lot of the cost of just maintaining the game – implementing bug fixes, exploits, and other constraints. We were constantly overshooting our capacity and so it was hard to plan when there's so much to do."

He candidly adds the "team were super unhappy," for a stretch and that bled into player dissatisfaction too. Having served his time at Electronic Arts, he points toward his experience there as something he wants to avoid for any of his colleagues. "It's super important [to protect people]. I can tell you a personal story. I was burned out," he remembers.

"We'd just shipped a Battlefield game [when I was at EA] and I kept pushing so hard that I had to take a break for five months and go on sick leave because I was completely broken," he says, later putting a fine point on what he's getting at: "It's very important for us to create a framework that allows us to be creative while having a good work-life balance."

Arc Raiders say fine, here's a "limited test" of PvE co-op: "We can't ignore what the data is telling us."

Sony is skipping the Consumer Electronics Show in 2027, which marks the first time the PlayStation maker has not attended the show in its history.

As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, after only appearing at this year's show as part of its joint venture with Honda, Sony is skipping the 2027 event. A Sony spokesperson tells Bloomberg the decision is based on its current focus on "entertainment, intellectual property, and technology geared to support creators," adding, "We continuously and strategically evaluate our approach to events and communications based on the needs and priorities of our diverse business."

While CES isn't as big an event for PlayStation and games, Sony has been part of the show since its inception in 1967; it has been the site of historic announcements. Notably, in 1991 Sony announced the SNES PlayStation – and thus, the birth of the PlayStation – before Nintendo announced the following day it was not going forward with it; in 2020 Jim Ryan unveiled the PS5 logo, and in 2022 the PSVR2 and Horizon: Call of the Mountain were announced.

Sony has seemingly been stepping back from these sorts of events, as the company hasn't been present at Gamescom – the world's largest gaming convention – since 2019, while Xbox and Nintendo have been a near-constant presence at the shows. In an era when PlayStation State of Play and PlayStation Showcase streams are drawing millions of viewers, it's very likely that whenever new PlayStation hardware is announced, it'll be at one of these shows.

Ex-PlayStation lead thinks Sony and Nintendo "should try to keep the current generation as long as possible" amid hardware price hikes: "People are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2"

Today marks the release of The Witcher 3 Remastered, a big update to CD Projekt Red's monumental RPG. On the heels of this, we're also getting an expansion, Songs of the Past, next year – only 12 years into the game's life. Why? Well, because the devs simply felt they had more ground to cover.

"It was a great opportunity to tell something new about already established characters and to show them from a different angle," Karolina Kuzia-Rokosz, creative vision director at CDPR support studio Fool's Theory, tells VGC.

"What I mean is, this is still a fully-fledged expansion and a richer story first and foremost, but then we have Geralt's best friend with us, who also faces some important stuff in his life, right?" she adds.

She's referring to our old musical companion, Dandelion, whose backstory forms the backdrop Songs of the Past. You're visiting his home region of Lettenhove, where our monster-hunting hero winds up uncovering and slaying some nasty pieces of work.

Creating an entire slab of DLC sprang from wanting to dig into Geralt's supporting cast just that much deeper, and seeing what emerges. "We always wanted to say more about the people who are important to Geralt," Kuzia-Rokosz adds. "So, it isn't like we wanted to strongly conclude something, more that we still believe that there is still more to say about Geralt."

This is as true mechanically as it is narratively. The new chain weapon is actually something CD Projekt Red tried to implement in the base game, but couldn't. Geralt of Rivia's misadventures around the Continent have already given us hundreds of hours of entertainment, and it seems we'll get to enjoy plenty more before his shift is over and we get The Witcher 4.

The Witcher 3 Remastered did not, in fact, change the RPG's hilarious low-poly pigeons, much to fans' delight: "Glory to low poly."

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launched only a few hours ago, but it's already broken the 2015 RPG's all-time player record on Steam and shows no signs of slowing down.

It's been 11 years since the launch of The Witcher 3, and being the great game it is, it's had many peaks over its lifetime. Looking at SteamDB, after debuting with a healthy peak of over 92k concurrent players on Steam in its launch month, it eventually surpassed its own record five years later in January 2020, shortly after the first season of The Witcher TV series aired, bringing in 103k players.

Even though it's had its highs since – thanks to the TV show and the 2022 next-gen update, for example – The Witcher 3 has never surpassed that 2020 peak… until now. Within hours of launch, The Witcher 3 Remastered has pushed the RPG past its old record, and it keeps gaining more and more concurrent Steam players basically by the minute. It's at 120,324 at the moment, but I've had to update this multiple times since I began writing this article.

And, as you may have noticed, in many parts of the world at the moment, including the US, UK, and Europe, we're in the middle of a working day. A huge chunk of players won't have even had the chance to dive into the remaster yet, so we can definitely expect this to go up further in the hours to come, and perhaps even more come the weekend.

It'll be interesting to see if CD Projekt Red gives any insight into how many of these are returning players versus completely new ones. The Witcher 3 Remastered is available as a free update to anyone who already owned the base game, so there's a huge incentive there for veteran fans to return to the RPG (assuming they needed one in the first place).

And, so far, it's not just the player count that's looking positive. The Witcher 3 Remastered's Metacritic score doesn't just make it the best-rated game of 2026, but also the best version of The Witcher 3 to date.

The Witcher 3 Remastered did not, in fact, change the RPG's hilarious low-poly pigeons, much to fans' delight: "Glory to low poly."

The Blood of Dawnwalker, the brand-new vampire RPG headed by The Witcher 3 veterans from CD Projekt Red, plays host to one of the most controversial game mechanics out there: a time restriction that leads to some serious FOMO.

In case you're out of the loop, the game has you playing under a strict 30-day and 30-night schedule. Within those 30 days and nights, you must resolve the main story (and do as you please in between quests, of course). Everything you do can carry a time cost with it, though, making it more stressful.

It is core to the game, though, if you ask me, and implemented well – and Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director Michael "Cromwelp" Douse agrees.

The Larian Studios developer reveals as much in a new post over on X, explaining that he's nearing the end of Rebel Wolves' RPG. "I'm horribly close to the end of Dawnwalker, a game that reminds me of playing Legacy of Kain for the first time as a wean," he writes. "It's been such a great ride oozing with gothic vibes and brilliant antagonists."

That's when he brings up the whole time restriction thing – a feature he welcomes with open arms.

"I'm surprised there's any backlash to the 'time mechanic,'" Douse admits, referencing all of the controversy the feature has sparked.

Heck, the first and biggest mod for The Blood of Dawnwalker reworks it altogether, proving that it's not exactly beloved by lots of fans. The devs themselves said that upcoming sequels might scrap the feature or at least change how it works, too, stating that they actually "rebalanced" it prior to launch as well.

Douse finds it a solid feature, however. "It's a perfectly interwoven narrative tool that cleverly disguises the fact that you need not play the game like The Witcher," as he puts it.

He also has ideas for The Blood of Dawnwalker's future: "In a sequel I'd love to see Rebel Wolves double down on the gothic overtones. The world they created where humans and vampires coexist alongside low fantasy social conflict is so perfect for an RPG series."

While "it isn't going to be the series where Coen has 30 days to solve a problem," there are other ways Rebel Wolves can maintain its now-established unique identity. As Douse concludes, "I can see a dozen ways Dawnwalker could become its own massive, brilliant thing. I'm so behind these guys."

Same, honestly – and I've still got plenty of hours to pour into the game myself… and, no, the time restriction isn't getting in the way.

It's one of those things I feel sounds frightening on paper, but when you actually get into the game, it's not so bad. I've spent so much time with the RPG already, and I've never felt as though I'm left wanting for more – it's all about balance.

Interested in one of this year's most intriguing new games yourself? Be sure to read through our The Blood of Dawnwalker review to learn more about it.

The painting puzzle in Control Resonant is all set within a shadowy gallery, in which players can spotlight certain paintings on the wall. But the only clue is a note that mentions that certain paintings have been sold this month, but doesn't specify which paintings those are except mentioning their names: "Journey, Windows, Thunder and Tides". Unfortunately the paintings on the gallery walls aren't labelled in any way, leading to some rough interpretations about which ones the note is referring to, and even then, what do you do with that information? I'll explain below.

To find another of the Secret Rooms in Manhattan, check out our guide to the Control Resonant Washing Machine puzzle!

How do you solve the Painting puzzle in Control Resonant?

To solve the painting puzzle in Control Resonant, you need to interact with the spotlight controls on the gallery pillars, so that certain paintings are illuminated, specifically those that match the names on the note left on the countertop. It's not always particularly clear which paintings they mean, but I'll show you what you need to mark below.

1. Journey: Left wall, middle painting (road beneath a tree).
2. Windows: Far wall, left painting (curling, looping vines in the forest)
3. Thunder: Far right corner, left painting (tree split by lightning)
4. Tides: Right wall, middle painting (tree fallen into water)

Once you enter this correctly, the spotlights will flash and a secret door in the corner of the room will open up. Down below, you'll find several collectibles, as well as a resource container with a Health Upgrade Point inside.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

If you've started up The Witcher 3 Remastered and are wondering what the 'simulate Witcher 2' option does, I've got the answers and some advice regarding whether you should or not - even if you've never played The Witcher 2.

This option is actually quite important, as it changes some of the main story beats and even adds/removes quests depending on what you choose, so here's what you need to know about simulating your Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3 Remastered.

Should you simulate a Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3?

Yes, you should choose 'On' when asked whether to simulate a The Witcher 2 save in The Witcher 3 Remastered, as this gives you the chance to pick important story consequences from the former game, for example, whether certain people lived or died.

This option is given whether you've played The Witcher 2 or not, while players who have save data from the second game are also given the option to import their save. This automatically brings across the decisions you made in The Witcher 2.

Simulating a save instead opens a series of dialogue options during Geralt's visit to Emperor Emhyr's palace in Vizima, during which you can choose who lived and who died in the story leading to this point. The most important option relating to The Witcher 3 is whether Letho is dead or alive, which you can decide in the final question. To be able to interact with him and complete his quests in The Witcher 3, you must choose the option whereby he is still alive. If he's dead, you'll miss a section of the game.

If you turn the save simulation off, the story instead follows default options. I'll list these below, but please note that there are some Witcher 2 spoilers below (I'll leave Witcher 3 spoilers out):

• Aryan La Valette is alive.
• Henselt is dead.
• You saved Anais.
• Síle de Tansarville died.
• Letho was killed.

Again, this is a bad option to choose if you want to experience everything in The Witcher 3 Remastered as Letho is dead in this playthrough, meaning you'll completely bypass his questline.

Whether you're returning to The Witcher 3 with the remaster or playing this iconic RPG for the first time, we've got other guides to help you out, including a list of general Witcher 3 tips, the best romance options in The Witcher 3, and the top Witcher 3 Gwent cards for your deck.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Witcher 3 Remastered is finally here, bringing everything from "improved combat" to massively reworked visuals with it – reworked visuals that had fans worried the RPG would lose its iconic low-poly pigeons.

Yes, you read that right. In case you don't recall them from the 2015 release, the pigeons are exactly what they sound like: hilariously low-poly assets that are cursed… in the best way possible, of course.

Much like Final Fantasy 14's own low-poly grapes, The Witcher 3's new graphical overhaul has sparked fears of a potential loss of said pigeons. These have been all the more solidified with screenshots of the game's supposedly revamped pigeon design.

Just have a look over at Reddit, where one player shows a side-by-side comparison, writing, "Pigeons Remastered." Comments show distraught folks, and threads elsewhere online are largely the same.

One person on Twitter shouts, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," for instance, while another similarly alerts fellow fans to the presumed change.

I have good news, though – this is all "a false alarm," as Kotaku editor Ethan Gach confirms in his own post. The "new" pigeon design is actually just what the street pigeons look like. Our beloved flying pigeons are intact.

It comes as a great relief, of course – because what could be more important than the pigeons, am I right? Players are happy, anyway, that's for sure.

As one person puts it in response to Gach's welcome confirmation, "The pigeons are still there! I repeat. The pigeons are still there! Now with glorious path tracing. Share so that people are made aware." The top reply? "Glory to low poly."

Glory to low poly indeed, anon. Glory to low poly indeed.

Now that the matter of low-poly pigeons in The Witcher 3 Remastered has been settled, we can all enjoy the game. After all, it is currently the top-scoring game of 2026 on Metacritic, beating out the original RPG by two points.

CD Projekt Red isn't done with the game yet, either, with new expansion Songs of the Past arriving sometime next year – and, you know, all the other exciting upcoming CD Projekt Red games, too.

The Witcher 3 Remaster overhauls skill trees, adds new quest markers, brings a mode to "reduce cognitive load," and more, CD Projekt Red reveals in patch notes.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida reckons that platform holders like Sony and Nintendo should keep their current hardware generations going for as long as they can as prices continue to surge.

Speaking in a new episode of The Verge's Vergecast (below), Yoshida – former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios – is asked about the potential business models and pricing strategies we could see from platforms like Xbox in the next console generation. As everything continues to get more expensive, it sounds like this is a conundrum that the former PlayStation boss reckons platform holders should avoid for as long as they can.

"Sony and Nintendo have sold enough" of their current-generation hardware, he begins, before adding: "Because of the cost of goods, they might be looking [at] pushing back the launch of next gen, and I think they should try to keep the current generation as long as possible, because I think people are very happy using PS5 and Switch 2.

"People have [a] finite budget, and it feels like PC and consoles, the components very specific to these devices have increased [in] price way more than all the other [forms] of entertainment," he continues. "People who have systems like PS5, Switch 2, or PCs – you know, good enough PCs – probably will be happy to play games on them and not necessarily consider replacing."

Yoshida acknowledges his own situation, noting that he bought a new gaming PC five years ago, and more recently, when considering upgrading again, "this price hike happened. So I was late to replace it." Understandably, he regrets not making that move a year earlier before things started to surge.

"I think that kind of thinking will happen to many people," he continues. "I don't think lots of people are asking for, 'more power, we need more power!' Or even [developers], I don't think developers [are] asking, you know, 'We need better hardware!'"

With all that in mind, Yoshida muses: "I think that means that the current generation, Sony and Nintendo are going to do pretty well for many years to come, still." Xbox's circumstances are different, he acknowledges, calling the company "a team who wants to change the competing landscape, so it's going to be hard for them, but it's their time to play." He seems optimistic though, adding, "It's very exciting, you know, what's going to happen next year?"

Whether platform holders have the same idea as Yoshida remains to be seen, though. Nintendo is in a pretty different position, having only just released the Switch 2 last year and still supporting the Switch 1, but for Sony and Microsoft, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will turn six this November.

Looking at Sony, historically, the major new PlayStation releases that mark a new generation have arrived every six or seven years, so if the company were to follow that pattern again, we should expect to see the PS6 very soon. A release coming later than next November would be unprecedented, but it's fair to say that the times we're in are weird enough that it might just warrant it.

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida's highlights of Tokyo Game Show include Sonic's new indie spinoff and a game about removing hair.