Latest from PC Gamer UK in Games

Blood Bowl's videogame rights have been acquired by Slitherine and at this point I'll take any change as a good sign

Jody Macgregor — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 02:49:05 +0000

Slitherine, the publisher of the Panzer Corps series as well Warhammer 40,000 games like Battlesector and Gladius, has picked up the rights to publish the Blood Bowl series of fantasy sports parodies.

The publishing rights used to belong to Nacon, who filed for insolvency back in February. That resulted in the death of Greedfall developer Spiders and left a question-mark hanging over its hardware efforts as well as the future of Blood Bowl 3. Developers Cyanide had previously announced a plan to update the videogame to make it compatible with the tabletop version's latest rules refresh and rerelease it under the name Warhammer Blood Bowl, a plan that's been delayed but now seems set to go ahead under the new publisher.

"We have enormous respect for what Cyanide has built over the years," Slitherine's director of publishing Marco Minoli said, "and we're excited to continue working closely with the team to support and grow the series together with its passionate community."

"We are delighted to partner with Slitherine to ensure the future of the Blood Bowl videogames," Cyanide's CEO, Patrick Pligersdorffer, said. "Slitherine has proven its expertise, publishing high-quality strategy games. We believe it is a perfect match."

Though it looked promising prerelease, Blood Bowl 3 came out in a rough state, hampered by bugs, microtransactions seemingly designed to frustrate, and a live-service push. Even now, with some of the more annoying problems quashed, simply navigating its menus is a pain and many players have returned to Blood Bowl 2 for a smoother experience.

Best Warhammer games: Fantasy epics
Best Warhammer 40K games: The complete ranking
Best Warhammer TTRPGs: Across all three settings
Best Warhammer 40K books: Grimdark novels

Valheim will get a 50% price hike when it hits 1.0, and no changes to the ocean biome

shaun.prescott@futurenet.com (Shaun Prescott) — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 02:46:28 +0000

Just over five years since its early access launch, Valheim will hit 1.0 on September 9. When that happens, the $20 Viking-themed survival crafting game will cost $30, and a new ice-themed Deep North biome will be added.

Iron Gate has confirmed as much in a new FAQ addressing most of the community's pertinent questions, among these being: does this spell the end of major content updates? The answer is ambiguous, verging "yes".

"We will continue to improve the game with bugfixes and quality of life stuff, though for exactly how long the game will continue to receive updates is currently too soon to say," Iron Gate writes. "Likewise, it is too soon to say whether or not there will be more content added to the game in the future—but as always, we will be sure to announce any news on our channels!"

The biggest sticking point among devout Valheim players—or at least, those who post on Reddit—is that the FAQ rules out an update to the ocean biome in 1.0. Given the possibility that no major content updates will roll out after 1.0, and that the ocean biome update was listed in the initial roadmap, some people are peeved. "Hundreds of km on boat just for the ocean to have three things in it and being empty for the most part," mourns one user.

1.0 will also add Steam achievements, but if you want them all you'll probably need to go and do stuff you've already done before (like killing Eikthyr, to name an example given by Iron Gate). The new biome will be available to current save files, but it's recommended you start over.

As for those with sprawling builds that tank performance, the optimisations made to 1.0 won't necessarily improve matters. "While 1.0 includes optimisations to some areas of the game, large builds in particular would not be highly impacted by these changes," the FAQ reads.

"We do however plan to continue working on making the game run even smoother after 1.0. Some of the optimisations that will make it into 1.0, however, include decreasing the microstutters that occur when loading new zones in and out of memory, faster saving, and many other minor optimisations here and there."

Valheim is currently $10 as part of the Steam Summer sale. If you're even vaguely interested in it, I'd recommend snapping it up before the September price increase.

July is a little light on the big new game releases, but your co-op horror Discord gang will be feastin'

Andrea Shearon — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 23:50:21 +0000

I won't lie to you, I initially looked at July's game releases and drew a blank trying to name any bigish new games I'm looking forward to. It's definitely quiet this month, but take the lull as a chance to catch up. New game releases for 2026 ramp up again in the final stretch of the year—so much so that I'm already trying to carve out vacation days in my schedule.

And this month is far from a total bust. Two big remakes, Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced and Halo: Campaign Evolved, are joined by a bunch of co-op indie horror games that are right up my alley.

It's good timing: We're trying something a little new with our monthly release date calendar in July, highlighting a handful of personal picks before getting to the general highlights—so you know where this is going. I hope you love terrorizing your friends with new co-op horror finds as much as I do.

July 2026 games: PC Gamer staff picks

July 16

Cursed Cooking Mama

Happy's Burgatory

Steam | 4-player co-op
There's definitely a recurring theme here of running a business into the ground with your friends. In Happy's Humble Burgatory, your crew will grind out burger orders as fast as you can make them before the restaurant's blood-thirsty mascot begins her hunt. I've heard Grimace does this at McDonald's.

July 16

After hours puzzler

Storebound 1.0

Steam | 3-player co-op
I was the kid always turning the local Sears into a panicked search for a missing child, but it turns out I'd just gone to sleep in a clothing rack. Storebound looks kind of like that—except my mom isn't coming to save me, it's full of puzzles, and there's a demon in the shoe department.

July 23

Asymmetric rabbit hunt

Carnival Hunt

Steam | 5 players
I may not play Tag much as an adult, but my fondness for asymmetrical chases fill the void recess left behind. In Carnival Hunt, one person is a monstrous puppeteer while the remaining players are a bunch of innocent bunny puppets. My advice? Put your friends between you and the threat.

July ??

Killer customer service

Shift at Midnight

Steam | 3-player co-op
Shift at Midnight finally lets me live out my childhood dream of running a questionable-looking gas station with two of my closest friends. It's kind of like Quarantine Zone, but with customers: shoot the body-snatched guys, then it's business as usual with the normal ones.

July 2026 big game highlights

July 9

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced

Steam | Singleplayer
Black Flag Resynced is the first big remake for the month, revisiting the pirate Assassin's Creed once again for Edward Kenway's story. It's "faithfully enhanced" with quality of life tweaks, new visuals, and bonus content.

July 9

College Football 27

Steam | 4-player co-op
Yearly university football rivalries return with College Football 27. EA's next sporting event includes new customization options for your Road to Glory player, revamped Dynasty features, and cartoonish mascot matchups. Go Dawgs.

July 10

Palworld 1.0

Steam | 4-player co-op
Palworld enters 1.0 with a mountain of patch notes, so I'm assuming it's a beefy update. The survival crafting Pokemon-like will add new story beats, fancy wing packs, and (of course) new pals to catch.

July 28

Halo: Campaign Evolved

Steam | 4-player co-op
Master Chief's first clash with the Covenant and Flood gets its second makeover, but it's more than just a set of HD textures. Halo: Campaign Evolved is a complete remake that even comes with a few extra missions to boot.

July 2026 gaming events and sales

(Image credit: Digital Extremes / Square Enix)

Tennocon celebrates Warframe and its community online and in-person this July 10 – 11
Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest continues its Evercold expansion tour in Germany on July 25 – 26
Steam sales keep the month going with more summer deals and themed weeks:
- June 25 – July 9: Steam Summer Sale
- July 13 – July 16: Social Deduction Fest
- July 20 – July 27: Train Fest

July 2026 game updates and DLC

July 4

U.S. National Parks update

Flight Simulator 2024

Flight Simulator 2024 (Steam) celebrates the holiday with its US National Parks world update.

July 7

Revelations expansion

Doom: The Dark Ages

Doom: The Dark Ages (Steam) will freeze hell over with the Ripatorium 3.0 update and a new campaign in its Revelations expansion.

July 8

Endless Ragnarok

Granblue Fantasy: Relink

Granblue Fantasy: Relink (Steam) adds new bosses, co-op quests, summons, and game modes with its Endless Ragnarok DLC.

July 8

Return of the Thieves Guild

The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online (Steam) kicks off its new seasonal format with its big Return of the Thieves Guild update.

July 13

Last Variable

The Alters

The Alters (Steam) keeps Jan Scientist grounded as he leads a new team of specialists to survive on the alien planet in the Last Variable DLC.

July 16

Star Wars Pack

PowerWash Simulator 2

PowerWash Simulator 2 (Steam) hoses down iconic galactic fighters and towering AT-ATs with its new Star Wars Pack.

July 21

Vault Breaker

Marathon

Marathon (Steam) starts its mid-season update with the Vault Breaker PVE mode, Cradle Evolution system, and new quality of life changes.

July 21

Willow Street rework

Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia (Steam) remodels one of its most iconic haunted houses with the Willow Street rework.

July 25

Patch 7.55

Final Fantasy 14

Final Fantasy 14 (Site) continues its Trail to the Heavens updates with new Forked Tower raids, Hildibrand Adventures, and relic upgrades in Patch 7.55.

The July 2026 games calendar

The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian (July 20) (Image credit: Schisma Games)

Everything happening in July 2026

Date	Game
July 4	Flight Simulator 2024 (Steam) National parks update	💫 UPDATE
July 7	Doom: The Dark Ages (Steam) Revelations expansion	💫 UPDATE
July 7	Moonlight Peaks (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 8	Neverness to Everness (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 8	Granblue Fantasy: Relink (Steam) Endless Ragnarok DLC	💫 UPDATE
July 8	The Elder Scrolls Online (Steam) Season 1	💫 UPDATE
July 9	Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced (Steam)	⭐ HIGHLIGHT
July 9	College Football 27 (Steam)	⭐ HIGHLIGHT
July 9	Steam Summer Sale ends	💸 SALE
July 10	Palworld 1.0 (Steam)	⭐ HIGHLIGHT
July 10	Echoes of Aincrad (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 10	Tennocon begins	📌 EVENT
July 13	The Alters (Steam) Last Variable DLC	💫 UPDATE
July 13	Ascend to Zero (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 13	Steam's Social Deduction Fest begins	💸 SALE
July 14	D-topia (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 15	Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 15	Denshattack! (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 15	The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 16	Heave Ho 2 (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 16	Funnel Runners (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 16	Moss: The Forgotten Relic (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 16	PowerWash Simulator 2 (Steam) Star Wars Pack	💫 UPDATE
July 16	Storebound 1.0 (Steam)	👻 STAFF PICK
July 16	Happy's Humble Burgatory (Steam)	👻 STAFF PICK
July 16	Wreck Runners (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 16	The Guild - Europa 1410 (Steam)	🚧 EARLY ACCESS
July 17	Desktop Explorer (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 20	The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 20	Steam's Train Fest begins	💸 SALE
July 21	Cobalt Miner (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 21	Fading Echo (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 21	Marathon (Steam) Mid-season begins	💫 UPDATE
July 21	Phasmophobia (Steam) Willow Street rework	💫 UPDATE
July 22	DragonSword: Awakening (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 22	Tears of Metal (Steam)	🚧 EARLY ACCESS
July 23	Carnival Hunt (Steam)	👻 STAFF PICK
July 23	Avatar Legends (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 23	Tormentum 2 (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 25	Final Fantasy 14 (Site) Patch 7.55	💫 UPDATE
July 25	Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival begins	📌 EVENT
July 27	Security 51 (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 28	EverQuest Legends (Site)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 28	Halo: Campaign Evolved (Steam)	⭐ HIGHLIGHT
July 29	Below, Rusted Gods (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 29	Blue Reflection Quartet (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 29	Mistfall Hunter (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 31	Corsair Cove (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July 31	Lootbound (Steam)	🆕 NEW RELEASE
July ??	Shift at Midnight (Steam)	👻 STAFF PICK

Windrose might get wind

clivingston@pcgamer.com (Christopher Livingston) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 21:34:34 +0000

As a survival game, Windrose is an extremely forgiving one. Your weapons and gear never degrade. If your pirate ship sinks you can rebuild it with a mere 20 pieces of wood. You can't die of hunger or thirst, and your NPC pirate crew, well… they can't die at all.

It's such a streamlined survival experience that when you're sailing your ship across the sea, you can go in any direction you want at top speed at all times. That's because despite the title of the game, there is no actual wind in Windrose.

That might change in the future, says Kraken Express. In a devlog posted today, the studio outlined the first major update to the early access pirate survival game that includes a new biome, new pirate ship classes, more of the main story and sidequests, and yep, wind. Maybe.

First, the studio gave players a look at the next biome, the Ashlands, a region that "suffered from volcanic eruptions long ago, leaving its mark on the settlers who lived here, and on those who came after." There, players can expect "a variety of new islands with new enemies, items, resources, recipes, points of interest, and, of course, a new challenging boss."

Also on the roster for the update are new building pieces and decorations, plus new ship classes and variants. There are also plans for NPC ships to behave more "naturally," meaning they'll actually sail in formations instead of simply steering back and forth in circles as they do now.

And also: wind, perhaps.

"We are also aware of the popular request to add wind influence on sailing to the game," Kraken Express said on Steam. "We’ll definitely be exploring this idea as well, and we originally intended to."

I expect a bit of resistance from some players at the idea of a wind system. One of the selling points of Windrose is that you can just jump in your ship and speed off to combat and adventure without a bunch of speedbumps (or whatever the equivalent of a speedbump is in the ocean) getting in the way. Sailing isn't meant to be challenging, it's meant to be fun, and it is.

One of the games Windrose is heavily inspired by, Valheim, has a wind system that means sailing directly into the wind can only be done at very slow speeds with the sails unfurled. I personally think that helps Valheim feel more like a real adventure where the ocean is a treacherous place, but at the same time, sometimes you just want to get from Point A to Point B without a bunch of drama. Valheim's wind system can sometimes turn a quick ocean voyage into a real slog.

Kraken Express is keeping that in mind as it experiments with its own wind system.

"But let us be crystal clear: we want it to be fun and simple," the studio said. "Windrose aims to be an adventure, without some of the more hardcore simulation aspects."

There's still no word when this first major update will arrive: "As always, we'll be sharing more details, including an estimated release window, as development progresses."

2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together

'There’s something we’ve been dying to tell you': The best city builder of 2023 is getting a survival game set in the same world

clivingston@pcgamer.com (Christopher Livingston) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:58:29 +0000

Ever play a game set in a world so intriguing and enjoyable you wish there were other games, even of a different genre, that took place in the same setting?

Eremite Games, the studio that created roguelike city builder Against the Storm, has announced just that. "There’s something we’ve been dying to tell you," the studio said on Steam: it's been working on a new game that is "slowly taking shape as a survival game set in the Against the Storm universe."

Even better, it looks like it might be co-op. As part of a dev diary, the studio released a short in-engine clip of the new game, though asked that fans "please keep your expectations very modest. The project is still in its earliest phase, full of placeholders, and nearly everything you see is subject (and likely) to change."

There's not a lot to see in the clip: a robed figure carrying a rifle strides through a gloomy, rainy night, and stops outside a small dwelling that looks for all the world like a building you'd see in Against the Storm. A moment later, a second figure steps into frame, which could suggest a co-op experience. See for yourself:

That's it. There's nothing else to see at the moment, and no further details about the new game including when it might come out or even what it's called.

"There’s a chance we’re showing this way too early," the studio said. "We hope you won’t hold it against us if the project evolves into something very different. But keeping this under wraps has been torture. We’re still just a small, 6-person indie team, and this kind of openness feels more natural to us."

Against the Storm was an unusual, contrarian sort of city builder: instead of building a city that lasts the whole game, the city you build gets wiped out every year thanks to a cataclysmic cycle of destructive magic—the storm of the title. But each time you begin again, you bring with you the experience and upgrades of your previous runs. It was our favorite city builder of 2023, and our reviewer Leana Hafer called it "one of the most clever, engaging, and endearing strategy games I've played in years."

Speaking of which, Eremite Games also addressed a topic I'm sure it gets asked about a lot: Against the Storm 2?

"The idea of a sequel is something we think about often," the studio said. "But this time, we wanted to experiment with the survival genre and explore new facets of the Against the Storm universe."

Netflix has finally figured out how to get viewers off their phones with its newest horror game, but it doesn't quite stick the landing

Elie Gould — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:28:36 +0000

Point and click horror can be really tricky to pull off, it can lack a sense of agency over your own actions as characters are funneled into certain choices. But it's even harder to do well when the thing you're using to point and click with is your own temperamental phone.

Instead of using a mouse and keyboard or a controller, Unhinged—Netflix's latest horror game from Zach Cregger and David Fincher—requires players to connect their phone and use that instead. It functions as Ava, the protagonist's phone as she calls her friend Claire throughout the game for help, all while running away from some creep covered in blood.

(Image credit: Netflix Games)

I see the vision with this, and to be fair it certainly makes you feel immersed when you're texting Claire for help or direction, or using its torch to help light the way through the dark hallways of your apartment building after a devastating hurricane takes out the electricity. But that immersion can also backfire.

Why was Claire calling me when the killer was stood a few feet away? More importantly, why the hell didn't Ava put her phone on silent? I actually got so frustrated at this halfway through I went so far as to put my own phone on 'do not disturb' to try and solve the issue. Unhinged is a very short horror game, clocking in at around 30 minutes long, and Claire was lighting up my phone for almost all of that.

Another area where the phone did more harm than good was using it as a mouse to point and click your way through the story. Again, I see the aim with this, to try and make players feel more immersed as if they were actually walking around the semi-abandoned building with nothing but their phone to light their way. But I also found it to be quite a temperamental tool, with accuracy being quite hard to master in some of the QTEs where you have to make a quick escape or reach for something to defend yourself before the man covered in blood finally lunges at you.

Netflix Games

It wasn't an unforgivably awful experience, but if you're going to make people use something other than a controller or keyboard then there has to be a better reason than 'it's cool', and it should work just as well if not better.

All of that aside, though, Unhinged was a pleasant point and click horror experience. The setting was suitably creepy, and while there wasn't much suspense that's to be expected from a meager 30-minute horror game.

What carried Unhinged more than anything else, though, was the acting. Zoë Kravitz stars as the protagonist, and then there's Sadie Sink as the well-meaning friend and Troy Baker as the killer. All of their performances were absolutely amazing and did a vastly better job at immersing me in this story than my phone/controller substitute.

So if you have 30 minutes to spare, a Netflix subscription, and are willing to download Netflix's controller app then I'd recommend checking Unhinged out. If it had a longer run time and actually let me use a keyboard and mouse then my praise would likely be higher, but it's still a good horror game with what it had to work with.

"You are the endgame": Total War: Warhammer's new nightmarish Chaos invasion finally gives Archaon the apocalyptic event he's been waiting 10 years for

Sean Martin — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:25:34 +0000

Endgame events are a big deal for Total War players. Most of us remember the Mongols and Timurids invading in Medieval 2—both the sense of anticipation as we prepared for their arrival, and the monumental battles that took place as we tried to survive their onslaught. They're just one of the many features that make Total War campaigns so special.

The original Total War: Warhammer did it pretty well, too, teasing Archaon's arrival and the Chaos invasion before having all the Warriors of Chaos lords unite in a sweeping tide of destruction that ravaged its way through Kislev and the Empire. Still, it never felt complete while we lacked daemons and much of the expanded Chaos roster, and truth be told, it was never all that much of a threat to the world at large.

Then Total War: Warhammer 2 arrived with its Great Vortex campaign and Total War: Warhammer 3 with its spin on venturing into the Realms of Chaos. Somewhere along the way, the iconic endgame, Archaon's invasion, fell by the wayside, and we got new scenarios revolving around everyone but Chaos, even including order factions like the Dwarfs and Wood Elves.

When playing as more evil-aligned races nowadays, such as the Dark Elves, I'll often find myself allying with Chaos and Archaon to fight against endgame scenarios, which is a strange position to be in. That said, Immortal Empires endgame scenarios always felt rather bland. Despite their wide variety, they're mainly different flavors of grinding away at endless doomstacks.

That's why I'm excited for Archaon's new Chaos invasion endgame, arriving alongside the Lords of the End Times expansion. As revealed in the recent Total War livestream, as well as a rework for the Vampire Counts and our first look at the Glottkin, Archaon's invasion will now be a genuine threat to the entire world.

Thanks to a super high ward save, the Everchosen will be functionally immortal until you weaken his Chaos host by defeating his armies or taking over the invasion fortresses dotted across the world. At the same time, any settlements razed by Chaos will remain so until he's defeated. The new Lords of the End Times devastation mechanic will also come into play, transforming entire regions into blasted hellscapes as a majority of their settlements are despoiled.

It sounds significantly more strategic than simply bashing your head against an endless tide of doomstacks, a kind of damage control last stand as you try to mitigate how much of the world is destroyed, while simultaneously working to weaken Archaon for that decisive final confrontation and killing blow.

What's even more exciting is that you can actually play as this endgame, too. As mentioned in the stream, when you complete Archaon's short victory conditions, you'll get the option to start this endgame crisis. You'll no longer be able to occupy territory, and when you destroy enough regions in a province it'll become devastated, adding to your overall power level.

Archaon will also be able to confederate every Chaos faction Norsca-style, by defeating their leader in combat, so not just the Warriors of Chaos, but every daemon faction as well. Add to that some visual updates for Archon himself, plus the Wrathmongers and Skullreapers End Times units being added to the Warriors of Chaos Warband system.

All in all, it's shaping up to be the endgame crisis that both Archaon and Chaos have always deserved, but fell short of in the original game. Now we have a significantly more fleshed out Chaos roster, as well as the daemon factions, I'm excited for all of those resources to be chucked into a proper Chaos crisis for us to try and survive.

We don't know when exactly Lords of the End Times expansion launches yet, but it's currently expected later this year.

Best Warhammer games: Fantasy epics
Best Warhammer 40K games: The complete ranking
Best Warhammer TTRPGs: Across all three settings
Best Warhammer 40K books: Grimdark novels

The cozy game launches of July are absolutely stacked with cats, even more than usual

lauren@pcgamer.com (Lauren Morton) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 15:14:43 +0000

We've survived the June deluge and… Wait, somehow there are even more cozy games launching in July? I've counted up 30 new cozy games worth taking a peek at this month. That's way too many for me or anyone else though, so as usual I've called up my cozy comrades to pick the ones they're most looking forward to that you might want to look closer at too. As ever, our full list of cozy game launches for July is at the bottom for the super studious among you.

July cozy game forecast: Cat monsoon 😺🌧️

I don't have anything super insightful to share about this month's slate of cozy games other than: Damn, that's a lot of cats! Cozy games and felines go hand and hand all the time but there are seriously a lot of cat games this month. There's cat puzzles, cat strategy, cat desktop pets, city builders, and shop sims. Cat lovers, this month is dedicated to you. Admittedly, none of our cozy collective picked a cat game as their choice for this month, but the options sure are there.

Moonlight Peaks | July 7
This month's most wishlisted cozy game comes in at spot #137 overall and #8 of this month's launches (via SteamDB). Cozy game enjoyers (me, specifically) have been waiting on this vampire farm sim for several years with its spookier vision of rural transformation.

Our cozy game picks for July

A Simpler World

July 14 | Crafting and decorating

High Times

July 23 | Comicbook-y cafe dating sim

Bookbinding

July 24 | Dark crafting shop sim

Moonlight Peaks

July 7 | Vampire farming sim

Wabisabi SushiDerby

July 15 | Sushi... training sim?

July cozy games calendar

Cat Isle (Image credit: domkegames, pixelduckoo)

Cozy game release dates (on PC) in July
Game	Release	Genre	Demo?
Cat Squeeze	July 1	Spacial puzzler	💿
Moonlight Peaks	July 7	Vampire farming sim	💿
Cat Mail Co.	July 9	Cat post office sim	💿
Curio Shop	July 10	Cursed shop sim	💿
Froggy Works	July 10	Desktop farming sim	✖️
Golfish	July 10	Leaping fish puzzler	💿
Neko Station	July 12	Desktop idler	💿
Cludoku	July 13	Mystery logic puzzle	✖️
Mysarium: Cozy Lo-fi Terrarium	July 13	Desktop decorating	💿
A Simpler World	July 14	Crafting and decorating	💿
Cat Chess	July 14	Cat strategy	✖️
Railway Routes	July 14	Train route puzzler	💿
D-topia	July 14	Dystopian puzzle adventure	💿
Paperlands	July 14	Papercraft puzzler	💿
Cozy Grove: Camp Spirit	July 15	Colectathon sequel	💿
Wabisabi SushiDerby	July 15	Sushi...training sim?	💿
Kami 2	July 15	Color logic puzzler	💿
Feather Land	July 16	Desktop decorating	💿
Sudoku Cats	July 16	Cat logic puzzling	💿
Moss: The Forgotten Relic	July 16	Puzzle platformer	💿
Puppergeist	July 16	Canine rhythm game	💿
Declutterer	July 17	Tidying and organizing sim	💿
Lured In	July 17	Fishing and shop sim	💿
Cat Isle	July 20	Feline town builder	💿
Dodo Duckie	July 23	Silly puzzle platformer	💿
High Times	July 23	Comicbook-y cafe dating sim	💿
Bookbinding	July 24	Crafting simulator	💿
Catio Simulator	July 24	Cat adoption simulator	💿
Leafy Corner	July 30	Shop management and decorating	💿
The Ranchers	July 30	Co-op farming sim	✖️

Battlefield 6 is an FPS where 'the guy obsessed with metas is having the least fun', and it's free-to-play for a week

joshua.wolens@futurenet.com (Joshua Wolens) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 14:01:50 +0000

It is time to do war crimes in a cool way. Battlefield 6, EA's big loud military-themed shooter that earned a coveted 82% from PC Gamer FPS czar Morgan Park, is free-to-try for a week. The trial period runs from yesterday, June 30, up until July 6.

The trial gives you access to five modes and four maps, which I will lay out in a conveniently bulletpointed form below.

Modes:

Tactical Obliteration
Breakthrough
Conquest
Escalation
Casual Breakthrough

Maps:

Railway to Golmud (Which, again, our Morgan really quite liked)
Cairo Bazaar
Contaminated
Eastwood

Actually accessing the BF6 free trial is a little weird. Or at least, it seems slightly odd to me, as a man to whom the live-service world is scary and alienating. You don't get it by visiting the Battlefield 6 page on your PC storefront of choice (which is Steam, let's be real), you get it by heading to Battlefield Redsec (also available on the Epic Games Store and the EA App) and downloading that.

Redsec is, ordinarily, EA's portal to its already free-to-play version of the BF6 experience, but now you'll find some of the premium, full-fat stuff in there too. For a limited time only, of course.

I think you might want to check this one out. Why? Well, let me shamelessly quote our Morgan once again, who sang the following paean to BF6's unfussy chaos: "Place your palm on the pavement, and you can feel the low rumble of a hobby yearning for what we loved 15 years ago: the spectacle of scale, the unserious chaos of vehicular warfare, red grunts vs. blue grunts, the permission to make your own rules, and an environment where the guy obsessed with metas is having the least fun."

And if you fall in love with things exploding on big maps, then whaddya know? Battlefield 6 is 50% off on Steam for the ongoing summer sale. Almost like they planned it.

EA accidentally made the right decision twice in one month and reverted it both times, inflicting psychic damage on Battlefield 6 players

Rory Norris — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:27:55 +0000

In an update early last month, Battlefield 6 accidentally made a change everyone loved. The in-game description of XP Boosters was changed to say that they would now count down only while you're actively playing a match, rather than in real time, as they have since launch. Wasting your precious boosts because you've had to log off is, unsurprisingly, annoying as hell.

Naturally, instead of formally making this highly requested change a reality, Battlefield Studios decided it didn't want the easy PR win, explaining: "We’re working to correct the in-game text in a future update and apologize for the confusion."

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of EA shooting itself in the foot and handing away the easy wins. Alongside the latest update on the final day of June, which overhauled gunplay, came a sequel to the slip-up.

Players were greeted by an official pop-up message claiming that XP Boosters would now work on in-game time. "We will track what percentage of the length of the match you have an XP Booster active, then multiply the final match bonus XP by the appropriate percentage for each," the alert reads. "Plus, for easier tracking and activation, the Booster menu is now located in the Lobby."

Earlier today, an in-game message about XP Boosters was sent in error. That message has now been removed, and there are no changes to how XP Boosters currently work.We appreciate all your feedback on this topic and will continue to share it with the team. https://t.co/U6kJWlYAmyJune 30, 2026

Battlefield Studios quickly followed up on social media with a correction: "Earlier today, an in-game message about XP Boosters was sent in error. That message has now been removed, and there are no changes to how XP Boosters currently work."

That's a neat surprise! from r/Battlefield6

"That's a neat surprise!" cheered player UltimateGamingTechie on Reddit, elated by the goodwill of such a change, only to be shot down by the revelation that this in-game message was, in fact, a cruel, cruel lie. Sorry bud.

I'm not sure how—in the span of just one month—you accidentally make the right decision twice, and immediately turn it down twice, but it's happened. The one silver lining is that the developers "appreciate all your feedback on this topic" and will share it with the team, so maybe it'll see the light of day eventually. It could very well do, given we've been living in the 'we've heard your feedback' era of Battlefield Studios, following a rocky few months post-launch.

Sure would be great if Oblivion Remastered got patched on PC to coincide with the Switch 2 release

Jody Macgregor — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 06:20:15 +0000

Oblivion Remastered is coming to the Switch 2 on August 11, as Bethesda announced with a trailer featuring a live-action Adoring Fan that conveniently shows as little gameplay as they can get away with. I would love it if, after all the work that's presumably gone into getting it to run on the Switch 2, the PC version saw just a little more love.

Oblivion Remastered was patched on PC a couple of times after release, which is why the wonky khajiit tails and the Dark Brotherhood's lore-breaking door got fixed. But it still hitches when you're roaming around, and characters have weird dark lines across their eyelids whenever they blink, and there's a whole list of other bugs at the UESP.

Even some of the bugs from the original, like Brother Holger suddenly talking like a completely different character, still haven't been fixed—despite other NPCs being revoiced. Maybe like Tandilwe's voice actor saying 'Let me do that one again' it's been left in for the meme? These are the things that start to bug me, 60 hours into a Bethesda RPG.

The Switch 2 version will apparently integrate motion controls and the touch screen and have the full game on its cartridge, which is a surprise given how many games are going digital-only these days. It'd be nice if the PC version was worth playing on the Steam Deck, but right now you're better off with a modded version of the original.

Oblivion console commands: Cheats new and old
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Oblivion vampirism cure: Rid yourself of the affliction
Oblivion thieves guild: How to join the crew
Oblivion persuasion: Master the minigame

Total War: Warhammer 3 is getting new endgames, individual victory conditions, a Vampire Counts rework, and Nurgle's three grossest champions

Jody Macgregor — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 03:01:14 +0000

Creative Assembly's recent What's Next livestream dropped a few bombshells about the upcoming 9.0 update and the Lords of the End Times DLC. It's good news for anyone who loves vampires and Chaos, and for anyone who has ever found themselves underwhelmed by the conclusion to an Immortal Empires campaign.

First things first, it was mentioned that the long-awaited siege rework will be part of the 9.1 patch, and so wasn't part of this latest discussion. Neither was any info about Neferata, who is currently being worked on. And patch 8.1 is still coming too, which we'll hear more about next week.

What was included was the reveal of new endgames themed around the End Times. Where previously an Immortal Empires campaign could build to an endgame crisis, these "do not satisfy what we wanted them to do" according to associate design director Sean Macdonald. Each one basically just spawned extra armies. Now, most of those crises are being shifted to the midgame where they'll serve to power-up factions, with End Times events as the dramatic conclusion to a campaign.

There are three of them in the works. One is an altered version of the existing Vermintide crisis, one is based on Nagash (a legendary lord who will be part of the Lords of the End Times DLC), and the one CA focused on during the livestream features Archaon, the best boy of Chaos. Whichever one you get will be introduced with a cinematic and a note explaining the campaign mechanics.

Archaon, for instance, has a huge ward save that makes him basically undefeatable until you weaken him by taking out his lieutenants. While you're doing that, he can devastate provinces after razing enough regions in them, meaning even if you take them back you won't be able to rebuild there until he's defeated. Archaon's also able to confederate with any other Chaos faction, not just the Warriors of Chaos he could previously. To help you fight back, once Archaon's invasion begins other forces will be more likely to ally against him, making for a climactic dust-up.

If you're playing a campaign as Archaon, you'll have the option of continuing as you were or becoming the endgame crisis yourself, gaining the ability to devastate provinces, each of which increases how powerful you are, and eventually leads to your victory.

On that subject, victory conditions are due for a rework in update 9.0 as well. Each legendary lord will get their own unique victory conditions, a checklist of objectives that might include ranking up thematically appropriate units, confederating with specific friendlies, constructing their most famous landmarks, and so on.

The Vampire Counts rework is good news for me, an undead player from way back, and anyone else who has been holding off on a replay until the bloodsuckers got some love. They've been basically untouched since The Grim and the Grave DLC came out 10 years ago, which is wild given how significantly some of the other factions have been freshened up in the meantime.

The rework includes changes to how recruitment works, so Raise Dead will let you replace lost troops based on how many people died in a battle, each corpse in a province becoming a potential unit for you. Vampires, meanwhile, will be more powerful but more difficult to find. You'll have to discover a lair in a settlement and then either capture it or send an agent there, after which you'll be able to customize the vampire you get, spending resources to choose their bloodline and so on. Also, Vlad and Isabella von Carstein can both become legendary lords if you play a campaign where one starts as a hero. Which is nice.

(Image credit: Games Workshop)

For a finale, CA revealed another legendary lord coming with the Lord of the End Times DLC. In addition to Nagash and Boris Todbringer (and Neferata, who will presumably be the traditional "free-LC" released alongside the expansion), the Glottkin are joining the Warriors of Chaos. The brothers Glot are a trio of heavily mutated siblings marked by Nurgle, with the monstrous Ghurk so large he serves as a mount for his brothers Otto and Ethrac. Though a part of the Warriors of Chaos faction, the Glottkin will have access to Nurgle's daemons, as well as new units like the Putrid Blightkings, Basilisk, and Chaos Siege Giant.

That leaves one more Lord of the End Times still to be announced. I'm pretty sure it's going to be Thanquol, the Skaven Grey Seer infamous for failing upwards after being defeated every time he shows up in a Gotrek and Felix book, and going through rat-ogre sidekicks at a rate of knots. If it's not Thanquol, someone's going to have to check in on the guy who's been ratposting for over 200 days in anticipation.

Best Warhammer games: Fantasy epics
Best Warhammer 40K games: The complete ranking
Best Warhammer TTRPGs: Across all three settings
Best Warhammer 40K books: Grimdark novels

Based on Meccha Chameleon's incredibly short 2-month dev cycle, its creators have already earned $1 million per day of work

wesley@pcgamer.com (Wes Fenlon) — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:57:43 +0000

Sometimes I think I understand the scale of a viral indie sensation like Vampire Survivors or Peak taking Steam by storm, selling millions of copies in a matter of days or weeks. Then I look at the numbers from another angle and it hits me all over again: Jesus, that is a lot of money.

This latest mind boggle comes courtesy of Meccha Chameleon, which, as we reported over the weekend, has sold more than 10 million copies in the three weeks since its launch on June 9. That's a whole hell of a lot for a game developed by two Japanese indie creators, but becomes borderline incomprehensible when you learn how fast the game came together. According to an interview with Japanese publication GameWith, Meccha Chameleon was developed in just two months.

Let's math that out a little bit. At 10 million copies sold as of June 25 (I wouldn't be surprised if it's now close to 11), Meccha Chameleon has earned somewhere in the region of $60 million, priced at $5.99 per copy. That's before Steam's cut, taxes, and so on. In the interview mentioned above the two developers said they didn't spend any money on promotion, so up-front costs were effectively zero.

The actual revenue would be a bit lower than $60 million on those 10 million sales, since Meccha Chameleon launched with a first week discount bringing the price to $4.79. And a decent chunk of its sales are surely from countries other than the US, including its native Japan, where the price often comes out to less than $6—you can see that breakdown on SteamDB.

Still, it's fair to say that Meccha Chameleon has been raking it in. The daily volume of user reviews didn't really pick up steam until after its first week, so more of the total sales have been at full price than not. And of the 36,810 total reviews on Steam as of this writing, 20,712 are in English. Sales in the west have clearly been very good.

Meccha Chameleon has likely already made enough money to graduate from Valve's 30% cut of sales to the 20% it takes on all revenue above $50 million. Once you factor in the extremely strong dollar-to-yen conversion rate right now, the Japanese indie devs have earned what is scientifically referred to as "fuck you money" for two months of work.

If we estimate that continuing sales since June 25 have been strong, developers Lemorion and Haganeiro should have retroactively earned a day rate of about $1 million for Meccha Chameleon's total dev cycle. If you really want to despair about your own wages, that's about $1,667 per hour, figuring a 10-hour work day with no days off for those two months. When the check clears, I hope the duo treat themselves to a very nice sushi dinner.

The secret to such lightning-quick development, according to their GameWith interview, was getting a barebones mockup built and then iterating. "We found that creating the entire thing first allows us to hit the finish line more efficiently, and the reassurance that ‘at worst, we can still release this as is’ to be a great motivator,” they said, as translated by Automaton. OK, so that's more a principle than a secret; the secret was reusing assets from earlier projects, which themselves took 2-3 months to develop.

Meccha Chameleon is the second hit of the summer to earn bonkers amounts of money for fast work. Horror film Obsession, filmed in 26 days on a budget of $750,000, has now made $371 million. That figure, however, is getting divided up between a whole lot more than two people.

Despite coming together so quickly, the hide-and-seek game is a genuinely great time. "Even with its blemishes, Meccha Chameleon's game of competitive camouflage is a multiplayer experience that exceeds its friendslop trappings," Lincoln wrote in our 82% review.

Steam is getting a jockey simulator next month that reimagines umamusume as normal horses

lincoln.carpenter@futurenet.com (Lincoln Carpenter) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 21:24:33 +0000

On June 24, 2025, Cygames released Umamusume: Pretty Derby on Steam, tasking players with scouting, training, and managing the racing careers of the titular umamusume—horse girls born for the singular pursuit of speed.

Next month—just over a year later—developer Blue Bullet is releasing its own fantastical take on the storied tradition of umamusume racing with Full Stride, a jockey racing simulator that reimagines the expected horse girls as normal horses. You know, the kind that in our world spend their time doing things like eating roughage and unsettling passersby with their inscrutable auras. How quaint!

(Image credit: Blue Bullet)

"Feel the tension as the gates open, fight for position within the pack, decide when to make your move, and experience the thrill of a head-to-head battle down the final stretch," Blue Bullet says in the Steam description, seemingly promising that players and their hoses will experience the thrill that before has been the exclusive privilege of elaborately costumed anime girls.

Evidently, it won't be enough to just drive your horse as fast as possible. Blue Bullet says victory won't be achievable if you neglect to consider a horse's racing style, stamina, sprint aptitude, pace, and preferred distance—just as an umamusume trainer would be foolish to enter Haru Urara in a late-career turf races without a diligent training regimen to break her reliance on dirt tracks.

There will also be a photo mode, allowing the player to really savor the almost dreamlike absurdity of a crowd gathering to see if their favorite horse goes fast. It's a high-concept idea, but if executed capably, there could be some real promise to it.

As long as nobody bets on anything. I can't imagine that would end well for anyone.

Full Stride launches on July 16, 2026. You can wishlist it on Steam now.

Before his death in 2025, Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov worked on one last game: A Wild West FPS soulslike that's 'coming soon' to Steam

andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 16:46:18 +0000

Visionary artist Viktor Antonov defined a small but unforgettable selection of games with his unmistakably bold visual style, including Half-Life 2, Dishonored, Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Weird West. (He also did Redneck Rampage, but that was way back when.) He died in 2025 at just 52 years old, but before his tragic passing he put his stamp on one final game, revealed today as a fantasy Wild West soulslike shooter called Guns of Eschaton.

Set in a darkly twisted 19^th century, Guns of Eschaton is "inspired" by historical figures, legends, and archetypes of the Old West, but is filled with bizarre enemies and powerful bosses who players will encounter on their journey from the West Coast to the East Coast of "a dying America."

Gunplay is obviously a central part of combat, but in typical soulslike fashion, parries, dashes, effective use of limited special ammunition, and taking advantage of enemy weaknesses will be core to success.

Guns of Eschaton promises deep character customization with "a vast arsenal of firearms, ammunition types, occult powers, talismans, armor, and consumables," and of course numerous passive and active abilities. Full co-op multiplayer will also be supported.

Which is all very nice, but for me—just as it was with Elden Ring—the real hook is the game world. I'm actually not much of a Western fan (unless we're talking about the Clint Eastwood oeuvre, in which case, maybe) but the American Frontier as envisioned by the guy who gave us City 17? Yes, I would like to know more.

Eschatology Entertainment

"We are incredibly honoured to be revealing Guns of Eschaton, the final project shaped by the extraordinary vision of Viktor Antonov," said Fuad Kuliev, head of Guns of Eschaton developer Eschatology Entertainment. "From the earliest stages of development, I had the privilege of shaping this world together with Viktor: where ideas, themes, and concepts evolved through his talent into the world players will see today.

"Viktor's imagination and creative legacy have been a constant source of inspiration throughout development, and this game is the result of an incredible collaborative effort from our entire team to bring that vision to life."

Swanky visuals don't make a great videogame, and soulslikes in particular, where precision timing, movement, and reactions are paramount, live or die on mechanics. So how Guns of Eschaton will ultimately come together remains to be seen. But one last game built on Viktor Antonov's unique vision is definitely something I can get behind.

A release date for Guns of Eschaton hasn't been announced, but it's up for wishlisting now on Steam.

Russian politician says GTA 6 carries 'the stench of Americanism,' but it's not so bad because the games are all about Americans killing each other

joshua.wolens@futurenet.com (Joshua Wolens) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:26:27 +0000

It feels like the whole world is on tenterhooks for the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, if not because they are excited for a videogame then because it feels like Rockstar is propping up that part of the global economy not propped up by AI. But I'll tell you one guy who isn't going to play: Vitaly Milonov, a deputy of Russia's Duma from the United Russia party, who recently lambasted the game for carrying "the stench of Americanism."

In a recent chat with Russian radio station Govorit Moskva, Milonov gave Rockstar a piece of his mind: "GTA, from its very first version, has been about violence and hooliganism," Milonov told the station. "The last version doesn't differ at all from those before it, in terms of deviance."

What does he mean by "deviance"? Well, a little about Milonov: a member of Russia's ruling party, Milonov has long made a name for himself as a blowhard campaigner against gay rights and 'non-traditional values' in Russian society. He has, in the course of his career, spearheaded laws banning "gay propaganda," lost the plot over gay Finnish stamps, slung anti-semitic insults at Jewish political opponents, and called LGBT rights activists "non-human". He is deputy chairman for the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children.

But despite his lifelong commitment to persecuting innocent people, Milonov actually doesn't seem worried that the GTA 6 hype will end up converting innocent Russians to lifestyles he disapproves of.

"I do not think that the game can strongly persuade anyone to adopt such a lifestyle," he continued, "if only because a normal person understands that it's about the world of the USA. There—violence, sex and drugs really reign. You immerse yourself in the stench of Americanism when you play GTA."

Milonov actually seems to welcome the regular ultraviolence of GTA's world, given that it only impacts Americans. "Any violence in GTA is violence against a potential enemy, so if they all tear each other apart—even just in GTA—it will only be for the better."

Rockstar's probably not going to put that on the back of the box.

Grand Theft Auto 6

GTA 6 guide: Everything we know
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GTA 6 characters: Your anti-hero cast
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GTA 6 PC release: When's it going to happen?

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 team reminds you it's got another Kingdom Come and a Middle-earth game on the way as it tops 6,000,000 sales

joshua.wolens@futurenet.com (Joshua Wolens) — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 14:02:58 +0000

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, PC Gamer's 2025 game of the year and absolute all-timer, has hit the 6 million copies sold landmark. If you recall, this is the game that implemented a shoe-stealing system because of a PC Gamer article. So, if you think about it, it's almost like we've reached 6 million copies sold, right? Congratulations to us (this is a joke).

For reference, the first Kingdom Come: Deliverance took six years to reach this milestone, while Henry's second outing has managed it in about a year and a half. It's no surprise: KCD2 is, in many ways, KCD1 with more spit and polish (but with just as much obsessive attention to detail and humour).

"None of this would have been possible without the passion and support of the ever-growing Kingdom Come: Deliverance community," said publisher Deep Silver. "From day one, players have ridden alongside Henry on this journey, and Warhorse Studios looks forward to celebrating with fans throughout the summer at events, concerts, and community gatherings."

Oh, and just in case that community's attention was starting to wander, it reminds us that "Warhorse Studios looks to the future with two newly announced open-world RPGs—including a new Kingdom Come adventure and a journey into Middle-earth."

6 million Henrys. An achievement we couldn’t have reached alone.Thank you for being a part of this community, we’re excited to have you with us on the adventure! 💚#KCD2 #WarhorseStudios pic.twitter.com/9SfqMPJ9NCJune 26, 2026

If you don't remember, Warhorse revealed that it was working on something new and Kingdom Come-branded last month, and also announced a new "open world Middle-earth RPG". That's all the info we have so far, but you can consider me very eager to hear more. I want to beat Feanor at Farkle so hard he declares a blutrache that lasts for 6,000 years. Then I'll utilise my high Thief skill to steal his big stupid gems, too.

Dawn of War 2’s The Last Stand mode is still the best co-op MOBA that never was

Justin Wagner — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 23:06:08 +0000

Have you ever played 'comp stomp?' When I want to arrange an RTS playdate with a mix of casual and hardcore friends with wide gaps in skill level, it's the only way to play without someone (or perhaps everyone except the guy who can time his build order) getting smoked. Load into a map against a bunch of AI opponents, form an alliance with your buds, and proceed to mercilessly gang up on the bots. There's just one problem with comp stomp: it usually sucks.

It can be fun to mow down crummy AI here and there, but it's the equivalent of getting a bunch of people together for a baseball game and then deciding, well, let's actually go to the batting cages instead and all practice our swing next to each other. RTS bots tend to either try and fail to mimic a decent human player or cheat out the wazoo, and if there's no real contest, no threat big or clever enough to push me into genuine improvisation and panic, I'm hardly playing an RTS at all.

Enter Dawn of War 2's The Last Stand, a decidedly Warhammer 40,000 answer to comp stomp. It might be an apocalyptic hell-future where everyone in the universe hates each other, but when you're down to a single measly commander unit and surrounded on all sides by waves of souped-up aliens, there's no time to be choosy about allies.

(Image credit: Relic Entertainment)

Where to play

(Image credit: Relic Entertainment)

In 2011, the popular mode was spun off as The Last Standalone on Steam, but that version is no longer available. The best way to play it now is via Dawn of War 2: Anniversary Edition, a 2024 re-release that includes all the original's expansions.

It's RTS by way of Killing Floor: take cover, work together, kill 'em all. If everyone on your team dies, it's over.

The Last Stand retains the chill vibes of comp stomp because of its cooperative setup, but it's hard enough that everyone in a lobby has to rely on one another. The first few waves are breezy, small packs of jobber orks and tyranids, but soon the game starts chucking much heftier units at you: artillery, infantry with grenades and rockets, and anti-everything monsters and bosses. The sort of stuff you can't kill with just one unit.

With enough kiting and clever use of whatever active abilities you've brought with you, getting through all 20 waves is a doable, lengthy challenge. But the game does not make it easy, and that's the best part—rather than ape strategies a real player might use, The Last Stand opts for the blunt force approach. The game tries to crush you in an avalanche of hopeless odds, with one wave going so far as to pit you against exact copies of your own characters, retaining the ability to revive each other and use whatever gear you've collected against you.

It's careful to extend a hand both to novices, who can get a feel for the game without having to worry about juggling several squads or managing the macro aspect that just becomes noise in a rushed PvP match, and to experts, for whom it becomes a de facto arcade mode. Score multipliers stack up based on how long you all go without dying, how many control points you're able to hold at once, and how quickly you best each wave. At first it’s a struggle just to see the end, and as you improve, it becomes a race to get there as efficiently as possible.

Where some casual RTS modes try to relieve the tension by making it certain you and your friends will win, Dawn of War 2 does it by making it likely you and your friends will lose, at least until you’ve taken your licks. That sort of punishment is exactly what I come to Warhammer adaptations to drink deep of; it’s the grim darkness of the far future! I don’t want the privilege of an even fight, I want to be beset on all sides, drowning in horrors, sustained by lonely rage at the futility of every spent magazine. It doesn't seem like I'm alone.

(Image credit: Relic Entertainment)

When I queue up for standard games in Dawn of War 2 these days, I tend to get bored of waiting before I find a single match. But with The Last Stand? I'm rarely left waiting for long, and you can still find people discussing the mode online these days, 15 years after Dawn of War 2's final expansion came out.

The same is true of other co-op modes in the genre, like Starcraft 2's excellent two-player missions. But I think The Last Stand has a unique quality that makes it worth going back to even if you don't play RTS at all: it mutates the genre’s DNA so much that it actually just cracks the code on a PvE MOBA, and because it's (almost) the only one, it takes the genre crown by default.

To MO-BE, or not to MO-BE

In this mode, nearly all the conventions of standard RTS play are stripped away. You only control a single hero unit, and you cycle between a few simple abilities restrained by resource costs and cooldowns. Sound familiar?

Dawn of War 2's standard PvP modes had already (controversially, at the time) done away with base-building and labyrinthine research trees to focus on lean, tactical scraps. Last Stand just takes that distillation to its natural conclusion.

You might think of this as cynical trend-chasing now that the traditional RTS is an aging carcass and MOBAs remain a big deal, but The Last Stand first debuted in October 2009—the same month League of Legends released. If anything, the mode was sort of forward-thinking for its time.

It's the perfect time for it to have come out, I reckon, because it has a lot of MOBA-esque ideas without feeling too similar to League or Dota. It feels like the result of alike influences rather than an impulse to ride the wave. As you play, you unlock wargear: weapons, accessories, and armor, each of which grants you new abilities and fundamentally alters your playstyle. Two space marine captains at the same level might play completely differently, with one toting a supportive healing aura and ranged bolter and the other tackling every witch in sight with lightning claws and heavy armor.

(Image credit: Relic Entertainment)

Even today, when there are so many great Warhammer-themed games all competing for your attention, it has a larger-than-average smorgasbord of playable xenos from the tabletop. Dawn of War 2: Retribution's base roster of factions each lend a single hero: the orkish mekboy can be anything from an oppressive rocket-wielding tankbuster to an explosive, randomly teleporting imp, while the chaos sorcerer can possess enemies (yes, even a clone of himself!) or simply melt them with hellfire. The playstyles range from gimmicky as all hell, like that teleporting mekboy, to straightforward and suitable for learning the game, like the imperial guard hero who can call in a retinue of AI-controlled soldiers.

(Image credit: Relic Entertainment)

After Retribution's release, The Last Stand was furnished with a faction selection even beyond that of the core game: the Necron overlord and (my favorite) the Tau battlesuit are a mite overpowered, but as a fanboy of the greater good who still wishes Fire Warrior was a decent game, I think I'm owed that. These factions are rarely playable in Warhammer videogames, most of which stick you in a familiar human body or its genetically super-enhanced astartes counterpart, and getting to draft your own uneasy alliance in this mode is a treat for fans of the tabletop game and its lore.

I think it says something about the hunger people have for a mode like this that it still attracts a chatty, if extremely small, group all these years later when so many alternatives exist. Darktide and Space Marine 2 might have bigger, more lavish horde-blasting modes for shooter fans, but there’s just something so very Warhammer about watching all the carnage unfurl from a bird’s eye view, anxiously wondering whether to dive behind cover or charge into melee.

It’s a smooth shot of what I dig about both MOBAs and Relic's more tactics-oriented strategy games, like standard Dawn of War 2 and Company of Heroes, while remaining accessible to newcomers as it straddles two genres notorious for their complexity. Because you're struggling against enemies you often can't solo and there's no economy to manage, no one can outscale their teammates so hard the challenge is trivialized. And there’s just enough build variety that every player gets to make their personalized mark shaving seconds off each wave.

Dawn of War 4 (Image credit: Deep Silver)

Like plenty of dweebs addled by plastic glue fumes, I am looking forward to the release of Dawn of War 4 later this year, but it is more accurate to say I am specifically waiting to see its reprisal of Last Stand. While I'm glad DoW 4 looks to give diehard fans of the first game what they've been missing for the last two decades, the sequel more or less converted me to its RPG-inspired 'ding gratz lol' way of thinking, and I'm more keen to see an evolution of its best ideas than I am a base-building blast from the past. I got countless hours out of this mode in DoW 2 despite its spartan setup for progression and nearly no baked-in replayability aside from the score attack aspect—the waves are always the same, and there are only two maps.

I'm hoping DoW 4 can remix things just enough to keep it fresher for longer, without compromising the purity nor the brutality that make The Last Stand so special.

Best Warhammer games: Fantasy epics
Best Warhammer 40K games: The complete ranking
Best Warhammer TTRPGs: Across all three settings
Best Warhammer 40K books: Grimdark novels

Xbox marketing takes embarrassing turn with new Call of Duty ads loudly disclaiming 'NOT ON XBOX GAME PASS THIS YEAR'

lincoln.carpenter@futurenet.com (Lincoln Carpenter) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:24:44 +0000

In its recent history, Xbox has accomplished few esteemed deeds worth commemorating. Even as it attempts to pivot into a new era under new CEO Asha Sharma, it's still suffering from the fallout of a persistent strategic malaise, having achieved little more in the current decade than acquiring a sizable chunk of the games industry just to lay it off, spinning up a games subscription service that served as a division-wide money pit, and briefly insisting that everything is an Xbox before realizing that gave everyone a reason not to own an Xbox.

Now, as its new leadership seems poised for another round of sweeping layoffs and studio closures, Microsoft's gaming division has released a set of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 ads—spotted by Resetera user CloseTalker—that distill its years of dysfunction into one embarrassing disclaimer: "NOT ON XBOX GAME PASS THIS YEAR."

(Image credit: Activision)

According to the Meta ad library, the ads in question started running across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads on June 27. In a vacuum, the business decision clarified in their series-standard tactical coolguy font is a defensible one: In April, Xbox announced that Call of Duty games would no longer appear on Game Pass at launch after reporting emerged in October that the service had generated an estimated $300 million loss in sales of Black Ops 6.

Presumably, that's because giving people an option to pay for a month of Game Pass instead of your best-selling series means you sell a lot fewer copies of your best-selling series. Especially once customers lose patience with the service's prior habit of maddening pricing tiers, increasing subscription costs, and arcane restrictions.

It's no surprise, then, that dropping CoD from Game Pass and lowering its pricing demands has led to improved revenue growth for the service. But while delaying new CoD entries' addition to Game Pass libraries until a year after launch should help sales figures, the fact that ads must now disclaim YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR THIS ONE NORMAL-STYLE instead of 137 NEW WEAPON ATTACHMENTS or whatever feels like a surrender, brought about by pathologically confused brand messaging that hasn't improved under the new regime. We used to have FAQs for these kinds of things.

But hey, at least we're clear on how many of the letters in "Xbox" should be capitalized in official communications.

Hideki Kamiya thinks there should be a cozy Resident Evil game, where 'retired Leon goes fishing in the countryside'

andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 21:02:04 +0000

Hideki Kamiya cut his teeth on the Resident Evil games, working as a designer on the original and director of Resident Evil 2 before moving on to other things, like Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Bayonetta. Ironically, he's not a big horror guy—he recently expressed a desire for a "non-scary mode" in Resident Evil games—and so understandably is not very interested in returning to the Resident Evil series.

But if he ever did, he would do things very differently. He would make it cozy.

"If I made it, it'd turn into a game where retired Leon goes fishing in the countryside, forages for wild veggies, bakes bread, walks the dog, tends a home garden, drives 50 km to the general store for supplies, invites old buddies over for a barbecue, fixes the neighborhood grandma's oven at her request, sells homemade lemonade at the local festival," Kamiya wrote on X (machine translated) in response to a request for a new game that continues the story of Leon and Claire. "But that'd be cool, right... ?"

(Image credit: Hideki Kamiya (Twitter))

I think it would be cool, actually. It's an aspect of videogame action heroes that's not often explored—what do you do when you're not doing this?—and it's also a fun way to introduce the series to newcomers who might not be into the usual zombie survival horror thing.

Besides, if we can have a dating simulator inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos, why not a cozy Resident Evil spinoff?

Despite a history of Twitter trolling, Kamiya does seem earnest about the suggestion. "Capcom, there are a lot of voices out there saying they want something like a [Resident Evil] that's not scary," he wrote in a follow-up tweet. "So if you have some free time, please consider making it... I want to play it too."

I'm not a Resident Evil guy myself, but I think I'd give this one a look, too. And never say never: As announced at The Game Awards 2024, Kamiya is currently working on a sequel to the 2006 Capcom classic Okami at his new Clovers studio. Even if he doesn't want to make the game himself, maybe the suggestion will give Resident Evil's current stewards at Capcom a nudge.

And a semi-relevant side note: If you think 'horror' and 'cozy' are an ill-suited match, I would urge you to check out Creature Kitchen, one of my favorite little indie games in ages: It's 20% off in the Steam Summer Sale, so just $6.39/£5.35/€6.23, and there's also a demo so you can get a good taste of what it's all about before you commit.

World's smartest Meccha Chameleon player bamboozles opponents by not disguising themselves at all: 'Hiding is for amateurs'

Tyler Colp — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 20:50:24 +0000

Most Meccha Chameleon clips that come across my feeds depict a hide-and-seek game where artistic skills rule the world. Anyone with an eye for color can blend into a painting so well that I need someone to draw a big red arrow to see them. But I found one player who has proven that you don't need any of that if you're confident enough.

There's nothing in the rules about not hiding at all, as X user RNGeezMC demonstrated in a recent clip. Against the right players (AKA strangers), anything is possible.

"I play in Meccha Chameleon public lobbies like I'm performing a Turing test on the other players," they wrote.

Instead of disguising themself as a piece of scenery, RNGeezMC coats their featureless body in white and walks around as if they were a seeker. Nobody seems to notice the slightly smaller player walking around without a shotgun in their hand, including the other hiders when they swap sides.

RNGeezMC doesn't even try very hard to stay out of the seekers' first-person camera, either. At one point they stand in front of a player who is so focused on the hunt that they just push them out of the way. RNGeezMC raises their hands like they're surrendering—a gesture that I don't think seekers can even perform—and still gets away unscathed.

hiding is for amateurs https://t.co/u9q8ehAtYx pic.twitter.com/Bc3etzjouLJune 26, 2026

The match eventually comes to an end and you can hear RNGeezMC in disbelief that it worked at all. They were right when they said "hiding is for amateurs," because you can apparently win purely by exploiting the fact that everyone is too busy scrutinizing everything to notice the imposter running around.

That's another point in Meccha Chameleon's favor, if you ask me. It's already incredible to watch people hide underneath tables and up against paintings using the game's rudimentary painting system, but it's even better to see that it's possible to ignore the point of the game and succeed anyway.

"Meccha Chameleon is the first breakout game in years where I feel like I'm applying skills and understanding with broader relevance, and as a result it's more rewarding," PC Gamer's Lincoln Carpenter wrote in his Meccha Chameleon review. Hiding in plain sight like RNGeezMC feels like the kind of clever thinking another game might punish you for. But not Meccha Chameleon: Understanding that people wouldn't ever expect someone to subvert the rules is a valid tactic.

That's the beauty of this strange little game that has exploded in popularity over the last few weeks, selling over 10 million copies. For $6, you can give the RNGeezMC method a shot and see how many lobbies you tick off in the process.

All +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes for July 2026: Extra speed

Andrea Shearon — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 20:07:37 +0000

The mechanical keyboard fervor has reached Roblox, but what good is a keeb-focused experience without a few +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes to go along with it? As you compete to become the fastest clickity clackity player on the server, keep checking in for any new codes below to score extra speed boosts and multipliers.

All active +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes

BYP4SS1 - 15,000 speed

More +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes

How to get a +1 Speed Keyboard Escape social code

You can get free, one-time-use social code for 15,000 extra speed by joining the +1 Speed Keyboard Escape Discord and verifying your membership. Here's how it works:

Join the +1 Speed Keyboard Escape community Discord
Select the social-code channel
Confirm your membership by selecting Get Code
Copy and paste your code into the Code box, just like any regular code

⚠️ Note: The +1 Speed Keyboard Escape Social Code bot is struggling a bit with the game's popularity, so you may have to check back in later when it's fixed. The BYP4SS1 code serves as compensation until then, but here's to hoping we'll get another freebie when this is fixed.

Expired +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes

There are no expired +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes at this time.

How to redeem +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes

(Image credit: SecretVerse Studio / Roblox)

There are no level or quest requirements to redeem +1 Speed Keyboard Escape codes, but you can collect an extra freebie by joining the developer's official Roblox group and liking the game. When you're ready to cash in on codes, just follow the usual few steps:

Launch +1 Speed Keyboard Escape to enter the lobby
Select Code; it's located in the upper left side near the Roblox menu
Copy and paste your +1 Speed Keyboard Escape code into the text box
Select OK and enjoy your speed boost!

New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says games can and should pull on artistic inspirations from 'anywhere and everywhere': 'Greek plays, they knocked it out of the park thousands of years ago—why not look at them?'

lincoln.carpenter@futurenet.com (Lincoln Carpenter) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:40:33 +0000

Videogames: They're cool because they make us feel things—like how cool it is to be a cowboy—or think about things—like which things are worth carrying around while being a cowboy.

Or at least, that's what Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer says in his latest YouTube video, adding yet more yield to his recent crop of game development wisdom by explaining the place of artistic inspiration in the game design process.

In the video, Sawyer responds to a question from a viewer who'd noticed that most of his YouTube uploads are primarily focused on systems design in granular, mechanical terms and wanted to know where and how much he draws on artistic inspiration.

Asked whether game design is more a process of injecting art into design systems or designing systems around art, Sawyer provided what he said is "sort of the copout answer": Artistic inspiration, he said, is a constant throughout the process.

The "heart of the design process," he says, is an understanding that "you're trying to get a person to think or feel something about something"—and not just whether or not they're having fun.

"There's a lot of things you want the player to think about or experience or feel. And I would say that's true of art and all media," Sawyer said. "That's kind of the goal. You're sharing something to evoke thoughts or thought processes or an emotional experience."

Where games differ from those other kinds of media, however, is that players often spend orders of magnitude more time with a single game than they would with even a three-hour movie. As a result, for someone like Sawyer, whose development history includes games that "are over 100 hours easily," pursuing that goal requires "constantly reevaluating" not just how major set piece sequences, climactic story beats, and companion interactions are accomplishing the intended player experience, but also whether it's being reinforced by the moment-to-moment systems and gameplay that will take up the bulk of a player's time.

That could mean adding looping reloads and hammer-fanning animations to Fallout: New Vegas to help it realize its "really cowboy" player fantasy. In a game like Pentiment, where the player's choices can lead to characters' executions, Sawyer said it was a matter of "continually going back and asking ourselves is this achieving the intended emotional effect. We wanted the player to feel like making that decision was hard—that they had evidence they were weighing and they were thinking, reflecting about 'Do I feel okay making this decision? Do I feel okay sending this person instead of that person? Am I okay with the fact that I don't really have a choice or way out of this?'"

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Meanwhile, the names of Chanter abilities in Pillars of Eternity were constructed to feel like snippets of the songs, poems, and plays that were fixtures in its cultures' collective consciousnesses to provoke the player to imagine what their plots and authors were like. Other design decisions, like those around inventory systems, are less concerned with producing emotional effects, and more about putting the player into different cognitive modes.

"Inventory systems make you stop sneaking and murdering and climbing and doing all the core, in-the-world mechanics and then look at a menu—which you could say is immersion-breaking," Sawyer said. "But it does have an effect on your cognitive activity. You're doing something else. You're thinking about things in terms of value and weight and stacks and all these other things. You're just evaluating things in a way that you aren't when you're going through the world."

All those choices, he says, are informed by artistic inspiration, leveraging the "certain symbolism and emotional connection" that we attach to images, archetypes, tropes, and aesthetic styles we've seen elsewhere.

(Image credit: Obsidian)

In his own work, Sawyer says he draws on a wide range of inspirations. In Fallout: New Vegas' Honest Hearts DLC, he said he was channeling Robert Bolt's character-writing from his screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia and The Mission. In Pentiment, he pulled on the "agonizing" moral and ethical turmoil of classical theater: "Greek plays, they knocked it out of the park thousands of years ago—why not look at them?"

Also on his list are Sondheim musicals, medieval illuminated manuscripts (surprise), the Modigliani and Wyeth art books that his bronze sculptor father had in his collection, the striking simplicity of a Rothko painting—even the misinterpreted lyrics of a Florence and the Machine song.

"So yeah, you can pull inspiration from anywhere and everywhere," Sawyer said. "And I think it can be continual—and probably should be continual—throughout the process of working on anything."

5 years after we called this Kickstarted MMO 'a giant fiasco' and just 3 months after it finally launched, it's shutting down

andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:02:10 +0000

The sandbox MMO DreamWorld raised almost $65,000 on Kickstarter in 2021—not nearly enough to fund much of anything in the way of a videogame, let alone an "infinite open world MMO" that promised to host millions of players and thousands of biomes on a single shared world. But it had the backing of startup investor Y Combinator, and development did move ahead, culminating in an early access release on Steam in March, five years after its crowdfunding campaign. And now, it's closing.

There was trouble with DreamWorld right from the start. In a deep dive into the game shortly after the beginning of post-Kickstarter alpha testing, we wrote that it had immediately turned into a giant fiasco. The developers had no real experience in making games, the project allegedly made use of stolen or improperly credited assets, servers were poorly secured and easily hackable, and the whole thing was impossibly ambitious, to the point that some accused it of being a scam.

It all became academic when DreamWorld touched down on Steam on March 10. As recorded by SteamDB, it launched to an all-time peak concurrent player count of 56 and quickly tailed off from there to, at this particular moment, a flat zero. User reviews—36 of them as I write this—are "mixed," and while even some of the negative reviews say DreamWorld shows occasional glimmers of promise, I think this one, from Steam user Dekawar, cuts closest to the overall vibe: "I do not think this is a scam but it has a ways to go before i would call it a game."

At this point, it doesn't look like that's going to happen, as a brief Steam update posted over the weekend (via Delisted Games) says it's going away. "DreamWorld is being retired from Steam Early Access and removed from sale," the update states. "The game relies on hosted online services, and those services are being shut down. As a result, online and server-dependent functionality will no longer be available.

"There are no in-game purchases, premium currency, or paid in-game items that require additional action from players."

DreamWorld is a premium-priced game, selling for $30/£25/€29, so refunds on that front will presumably be dependent on whether or not you're within Steam's guidelines. If you ponied up on Kickstarter—and some people plowed a lot of money into it—you're just out of luck.

There's no indication of when the shutdown will happen, but it might have already happened—or may even be in the process of happening. Rather like the launch, the closure is turning into a mess too: Users in the DreamWorld Discord reported that the account servers had gone down last week; the game itself is (or at least was) still up and playable, but accounts couldn't be created, changed, or recovered. According to one of the Discord mods, at least some of the DreamWorld leadership were also unaware of the shutdown message until they were notified about it earlier today.

So it's possible that DreamWorld isn't actually going to be shuttered imminently, although functionally I'm not sure that makes much difference given that literally nobody is playing it right now. Also notable, I think, is that, aside from a small patch a few days after it went live, the shutdown message is the first update to DreamWorld on Steam since it launched. I'm keeping my eyes open for further updates but at this point, I think it's fair to say the curtain has indeed fallen on DreamWorld.

We finally got our first good look at Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, and I hate to break it to you but I don't think this one's gonna have a happy ending either

ted.litchfield@futurenet.com (Ted Litchfield) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 18:51:10 +0000

A day after revealing that Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is finally coming this fall, Netflix has dropped the first real trailer for the anime's second season. It has all the gnarly neon action I was hoping for, plus enough shocked-looking, crying, or mid-cyberpsychosis main characters to have me thinking we're in for another bummer of an ending⁠—but at least we'll have fun along the way.

This may be "Teaser 2," but Teaser 1 was entirely composed of shots from Edgerunners' first season, so I don't know if that counts. The action on display has the same vibrant, gory, kinetic quality that set the original Edgerunners apart, and I love the touch of having 4:3, scanline-laden footage from the character Roman, who looks set to film much of the series' events on a little retro-futuristic camcorder.

The trailer is pure vibes, but Edgerunners 2's official website has more context for everything going on. "Weak, a washed-up cyberpunk legend, is now forced to live without chrome as he searches for a sense of purpose in a world that's passed him by," reads the site's story synopsis. "Meanwhile, the deadly nomad D sets out on a path to revenge that brings him close to corpo secrets never meant to be found."

Alongside those two, there's also Talia, a member of Cyberpunk 2077's Maelstrom gang⁠—basically nasty cyborg orcs. In the proud tradition of orc sexual dimorphism, she appears to be some kind of sexy waif in contrast to the real freaky boys like Royce we saw in-game. Rounding out the revealed cast is Roman, the aforementioned boy wonder video journalist. I'm sure nothing bad will happen to him.

It's nice to get pulled back into this world, especially with such a long wait in the cards for Cyberpunk 2, CD Projekt Red's next game in the setting. This Edgerunners 2 build-up is making me want to reinstall 2077 and finally replay it for the first time since reviewing Phantom Liberty, though I'm holding out hope CDPR might have a free DLC tie-in in the works⁠—there's precedent in both Cyberpunk itself and The Witcher 3.

With a dumpster-truck full of cash, New Vegas director Josh Sawyer would probably make a 'spiritual successor' to a crunchy 1992 RPG

joshua.wolens@futurenet.com (Joshua Wolens) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:49:52 +0000

Obsidian studio design director Josh Sawyer has made, if you don't mind my saying so, some pretty cool videogames. New Vegas is a classic, the Pillars of Eternity games are some of my favourites ever, and Pentiment is a beautiful story about history and failure that also includes the line "A whole lot of inconceivable shit happens on this hell of an Earth." Which is true.

With all those under his belt, what's he got his eye on next? Well, the answer has less to do with the content of the game than with the people he makes it with. "I don't even know anymore," said Sawyer, when asked what his dream project is on a recent episode of the Human Can Opener Podcast.

"I got to make the games that I wanted to, that I really wanted to make. I wanted to make a D&D game—which I got to make immediately. I wanted to make a Fallout game, which took me another 10-ish years. And then I wanted to make a historical game, and I just got to do that."

So, no worlds left to conquer? Maybe a little, but it's more that the ideas Sawyer has are "not big. I feel like so much now is about working with the people that I like to work with. This is the thing: working even on a game that you're not that jazzed about, if you love the people that you work with, can be awesome." Conversely, "working on a dream game in an environment that sucks—it's never going to be fun. Your dreams are gonna be nightmares."

It means Sawyer says he doesn't "carry around this idea of like here's the one game" that he wants to make. But that doesn't mean there's nothing left that he'd like to try his hand at. "I do still think it would be cool to make some sort of spiritual successor to Darklands—it's a historical fantasy roleplaying game from the early '90s… I don't know if there's any market for it at all, but yeah, if someone just wanted to throw money at me to burn, I'd probably try to make something like that."

Speaking personally, I would devour a Sawyer take on Darklands, which is set in 15th-century Germany and has a big emphasis on (a version of) realism, like a kind of proto-Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Sawyer actually discussed it pretty recently himself, as an inspiration on how he thinks about armour design. I'd be very eager to see what his approach to a full Darklands(-esque) game would be.

Yet another Marvel Rivals creator tournament gets overshadowed by drama, except this time there was $300,000 on the line: 'I got Zazza'd in a tournament 10x the prize pool'

Elie Gould — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:41:49 +0000

Marvel Rivals' Creator World Cup Championship took place over the weekend, and with a $300,000 prize pool on the line creators from around the world banded together to compete for first place. Team AMER United ended up winning top spot and the $75,000 that went with it, but their win has been slightly overshadowed by some emerging drama.

It all surrounds a professional player named Warn and the rest of Team Canada, which included aramori, Dokibird, Fanfan, xQc, and Surefour. This gist of it is Warn doesn't play as much Rivals as the rest of the team, was asked to switch heroes by his team and didn't. It doesn't sound too bad, but as others on the team will attest there was money to be had not just for the teams who placed on the podium, so every win helped.

(Image credit: NetEase)

"I got Zazza'd in a tournament 10x the prize pool as Basim," aramori says. "Kingsman was so much meaner and got a bajillion followers."

If that sounds familiar, that's because this has happened before, specifically in a creator-led Marvel Rivals tournament. Anyone remember the name Zazza? I sure do, but that's because my gamertag is just one letter off hers. That meant any match I went into for the couple weeks after the incident I was met with some wise-guy asking me if I was going to stick on sniper and suck ass for the rest of the game. Little did they know there's no 'if' about it.

But I digress. Zazza may sound familiar to some because of the drama that swirled around a $40,000 tournament after one player refused to actually try and made fun of Kingsman, their teammate who actually wanted to try and win matches.

(Image credit: NetEase)

It's certainly a little strange that this keeps happening. Although, I suppose this comes with the territory when gathering players with vastly different levels of ability, investment, and streamer income. These prize-pools and tournament wins can be worth more to some than others.

The situation took another turn for the worse post tourney after a clip circulated around of Warn blaming his teammates, saying he'd previously won a couple of tournaments with xQc. Although he has since apologised and explained how that clip had been taken out of context: "that out of context clip has nothing to do with them being women, and they're all incredible players."

Regardless of how it played out during the tournament, from what I saw it seemed like NetEase didn't put a great deal of time into balancing the team comps or even organising the event with Warn explaining that the invitation was last minute. It also doesn't help that in NetEase trying to widen its audience it brought in some creators who don't play Rivals anywhere near as much as others, again meaning the playing field wasn't exactly balanced. Hopefully, the next Rivals tournament won't see any more drama, although that's likely wishful thinking.

Despite having no clue when GTA 6 is coming to PC, 39% of you are more than happy to wait for it

Mollie Taylor — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:58:37 +0000

We're yet to see a single drop of gameplay footage, but I can promise you Grand Theft Auto 6 is very real and definitely happening. At least, I certainly hope it is. Rockstar opened the door for pre-orders last week with its $80 and $100 versions, the latter of which I'm not overly jazzed about.

But we're a mere five months out from exploring a modern-day Vice City and everything Leonida has to offer. Well… I say we. As far as PC goes, Rockstar has decided to not include us in what might be one of the most fervorous videogame events of the decade. Worse still, we have no idea when a PC version of GTA 6 is actually going to happen.

Grand Theft Auto 6

GTA 6 guide: Everything we know
GTA 6 PC release: When's it going to happen?
GTA 6 editions: What's included at each price point
GTA 6 cars: The known garage lineup
GTA 6 guns: Confirmed arsenal so far

The sad fact is that Rockstar simply doesn't deem us a core audience. I could sit here and rant and rave about how archaic that feels in the big 2026, but our own Harvey Randall has already gone ahead and done that for me.

So instead, let me go ahead and take a peek at the results of the poll I put out to you all last week: Are you going to buy GTA 6 on console, or wait for a PC version? And I say this in the least clickbait-y way possible, but the results did genuinely surprise me.

39% of you said you're simply going to bunker down and wait for the game to come to PC. And you know what, I get it, Double-dipping on a game that expensive feels ridiculous, especially when we can wait a little longer and then (hopefully) get a superior experience—from both our hardware and also months of patches Rockstar will inevitably be pumping into the game.

I do have to admire your patience though, especially as someone who suffers from a bad case of FOMO. I'd like to get up on my high horse and declare myself perfectly capable of waiting. But, erm, I won't. Because I definitely cannot wait.

(Image credit: Future)

That wasn't the result that was entirely surprising to me, though. It is, in fact, the second most-voted option that really caught my attention: 28% of you said you have no interest in GTA 6 whatsoever, and so won't be buying it.

Perhaps I've simply been spending too long in the eye of the Rockstar storm, but I had expected a good deal more of you to be in the FOMO camp alongside me. Or at least, to have some modicum of interest that had you side-eyeing a lack of PC release. Has the hype grown so feral that it's turned you off entirely, or have you never been much of a Grand Theft Auto gamer to begin with? I'd love to know why you aren't interested in the game down in the comments.

As for those of you who are interested, 16% of you said you'll be picking up a copy on console. Whether that means you've already preordered or plan to scoop up the game closer to launch, at least a few of you will be diving into the action alongside our console pals. And a further 8% of you would buy GTA 6 on console… if you had one, that is. I'll be manifesting a swift PC release for you.

A few of you are on the fence too, though—8% of you have said that you're going to wait until the game is out and then make a decision. Pretty reasonable if you ask me! A game this big certainly runs the risk of being a veritable hotbed of bugs, glitches, or external discourse, so holding out to gauge initial reaction is probably the smart thing to do. Or, y'know, you'll last a few hours before the hype train's power becomes too much and you cave on the first day anyway.

Whatever you're planning to do, let me know your reasons. Or lambast me for my terrible lack of self control and very real fear of missing out. Either one'll do.

The only fighting game I've ever been excited for is now getting a PC playtest before launch

Rory Norris — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:45:19 +0000

I'll admit I'm not a big fighting game person. I enjoy playing the likes of Mortal Kombat casually, but I don't get giddy for a new release. The one exception to that is Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, which I've loved ever since Sony revealed it at its 2025 State of Play. Despite Sony declaring it's pulling back from PC launches going forward, the superhero fighter is still on the docket for our desktops.

Developer Arc System Works has just announced that a Marvel Tōkon open beta test will take place from July 24-26, available on PC and PS5. The previous closed playtest was exclusive to Sony's console—greedy. This open beta features more stages and modes compared to the previous test, as well as Blade. ASW promises further details are coming soon.

You asked. We delivered. The #MARVELTokon: Fighting Souls Open Beta launches July 24 PT! ⚔️ Play on PlayStation 5 and PC🔥 Blade joins the roster🌍 New stages✨ More modes We'll have more to share soon so stay tuned! pic.twitter.com/SGFmvLL3grJune 29, 2026

I'm just glad to finally be able to play the only fighting game I think I've ever actually been hyped for. Honestly, it's pretty ironic that Sony's retreating from PC while I'm jumping at the bit to play one of its console exclusives on my computer at launch. Maybe the previous PC ports would have done better if they had been released on both platforms simultaneously, but what do I know?

Alongside this news, Arc System Works has also revealed the final fifth superhero team coming at launch, the Samurai Outriders. All in all that brings the full roster to 20 heroes (or villains) across five different teams:

Unbreakable X-Men: Storm, Magik, Wolverine, Danger
Amazing Guardians: Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord, Peni Parker
Fighting Avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Black Panther, Hulk
Knights of Doom: Doctor Doom, Magneto, Green Goblin, Carnage
Samurai Outriders: Ghost Rider, Blade, Deadpool, Loki

That's a pretty stacked roster if you ask me, and I'm a massive fan of how these iconic characters have been represented here—Iron Man's Gundam-infused suit is perfect. The open beta will be a good chance for fighting game freshies like me to get the hang of things before the full game launches on August 6, 2026. I'll need it.

Baldur's Gate 2's co-lead designer was asked to make Baldur's Gate 4 after Larian declined: 'Having to compete against Baldur's Gate 3? That would be insanity'

Fraser Brown — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 15:14:51 +0000

After the stratospheric success of Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro was naturally keen for a follow-up. The only problem? Larian wasn't interested in doing Baldur's Gate 4. And it turns out the second person Hasbro asked didn't want the job either.

Larian famously decided to move on from Baldur's Gate and get back to working on properties it owned. This wasn't a decision made in haste, either. When the call was made, it was still committed to supporting BG3—netting players DLC-sized updates doled out for free—and it had even started work on Baldur's Gate 4.

Swen Vincke told me that he was "vulnerable" after the launch of BG3, and in that state agreed to make a sequel. "You tend to be prone to do the obvious thing, which was really just make an add-on, or a standalone add-on, or start working on a sequel, because it's the easiest route to take."

Larian even had a partially-playable build up and running. But Vincke realised that Larian would be stuck "doing the same thing" if it continued with Baldur's Gate 4—years of working in someone else's sandbox, iterating, throwing stuff out, early access, everything the studio had just finished. So he spoke to his teams, and they agreed: "We should be looking at how we can do stuff that we get excited about." And Larian's BG4 was no more.

But Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast were lucky enough to have former Baldur's Gate developers on the payroll, working at Archetype Entertainment on Exodus, including both of Baldur's Gate 2's co-lead designers, James Ohlen and Kevin Martens.

It was Ohlen, Archetype's studio boss, who Hasbro turned to.

"The day [Chris Cox, Hasbro CEO] knew they weren't going to do it, he called me. 'Hey James, what do you think about doing Baldur's Gate 4?' And I was like, 'I don't, I would fail, and here's why I would fail.'"

Ohlen thought he'd struggle to achieve what Larian did. It had been the perfect studio for BG3, because it already had all the tools and the people. BG3 was really born out of the work done on Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel.

"I wouldn't want to compete against that. Doing Exodus is hard enough, but having to compete against Baldur's Gate 3? That would be insanity."

BG3 was built in Larian's proprietary engine, so Ohlen would have needed to start from scratch. "We're talking about at least half a decade of horror, building all that stuff." He actually asked Cox if he could get Larian to license out the engine, like Black Isle did with BioWare's Infinity Engine. But even if that had happened, he believes, it would have been too much of a challenge.

Basically: Swen Vincke is too hard to dethrone. "Swen's always going to be the master of building those kinds of things. It's really hard to take him off that throne, just because of everything—the tools, institutional knowledge, team."

Ohlen thinks the best team for the job would be one that throws out the rulebook and does its own thing. "That was me back in Baldur's Gate. I was like 'Everyone else sucks and we're going to crush it.' It was us against all the other game studios, we're going to outdo them. And because none of us had built games before, we were all like, 'We're going to do everything different.' And sometimes you need that."

It definitely sounds like the right choice for Ohlen, as he has since left Archetype, and game development, since Cox made his offer, citing burnout as his main motivation.

The fate of Baldur's Gate 4 remains unknown, but a remaster of Baldur's Gate 2, and likely the original game, is apparently in development, sources tell us. And while Ohlen is no longer working on games, it looks like his former colleague Kevin Martens, the other BG2 lead designer, is on board.

A Disco Elysium writer once told Josh Sawyer that 'we can do better than this now,' and Sawyer agrees

joshua.wolens@futurenet.com (Joshua Wolens) — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 14:18:53 +0000

Great news: if you were gearing up to deliver a searing oration against something Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and Pentiment director Josh Sawyer said a decade ago, he'd like to hear it too. In a recent chat with the Human Can Opener Podcast, the RPG vet discussed the ways that game developers all draw inspiration from one another, and how he's downright certain he doesn't have all the right answers when it comes to RPG design.

"We learn from each other," said Sawyer. "One of the writers on Disco [Elysium] wrote to me a little while after Disco came out and they were proposing a talk that was, in a way, a sort of updated response to a talk [I gave] in 2012 about narrative choice. From what I recall he was somewhat apologetic about, like, 'Hey, I'm gonna suggest this talk that's sort of—hey, we can do better than this now'."

Sawyer, of course, did not mind. "I'm like, 'I certainly hope, fuckin', 10 years we can do better!' I wrote that a long time ago and also I don't think I have all the answers on this stuff. I'm doing the best I can. If this is useful, hopefully it inspires other people."

After all, Sawyer does the same kind of critical appraisal to other devs' work. "I look at stuff and I go, 'Hey that's cool, but I have an idea how to make it better,' and then I do something and someone sees that and says 'Hey that's cool—or it's not cool—I have a way to make it better.' This is just gonna keep going on."

Sawyer points at branching dialogue as an example of an RPG tradition that feels very "locked" in terms of how RPG devs approach and structure it, but notes that, even there, "We still find new ways to do it, and other people after I'm gone are going to figure out other new ways to do it.

"We just keep inspiring each other. It's not an animosity thing. It's just, do the best you can, [and] get inspired by other people."

Eager players are pre-ordering GTA 6 for free using 98,000 Microsoft points and one super fan says it was all only possible thanks to Rockstar's delays

Elie Gould — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:19:03 +0000

Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders went live last week. To some it was a moment of joy, finally after all these years we find ourselves a step closer to the videogame that has been promised to end all other videogames. But for others the one look at the price tag was enough to reality check all previous hype.

And then there was another, smaller camp of players, who were able to have their cake and eat it too, as they pre-ordered GTA 6 and essentially paid nothing for it. Some clever folks had been planning for this day months, even years in advance, and had spent their time searching on Bing (stay with me) to rack up Microsoft points.

(Image credit: Rockstar)

Thanks to Bing's reward scheme a few players managed to save up enough points to pre-order GTA 6 at no extra cost; other than the mental and emotional cost of using Bing, which in hindsight may be greater than $100.

"I pre-ordered [GTA 6] using 98,000 Microsoft points," player HugoWheynow explained. "Thank you Rockstar for all the delays, which allowed me to have all these extra months to save my Microsoft points." While another Bing user posted their Microsoft points-paid pre-order depicting the full amount being deducted from their Microsoft account balance.

Thank you, Microsoft Rewards. 😎 from r/MicrosoftRewards

Honestly, those players deserve a free copy of GTA 6, not just for braving Bing, but also for having the forethought to min-max it over the half a year or so. At a push you could earn up to 10,000 Microsoft points (roughly equates to $10) a month, which means if you start now you could at the very least shave some money off of GTA 6's price tag. Who knows, maybe you could even turn it into a reasonably priced game?

Searching on Bing alone can get you around 5,000 points every month. Combine that with opening the Bing app on your phone, playing any game on Xbox Game Pass, complete extra tasks under the 'More Activities' category, and even selling your friend's soul by referring them to Bing and you could be on your way to getting a decent chunk of money off on your GTA 6 pre-order or flat out purchase.

Once you have enough points, or are happy with what you've earned, you can head over to the Microsoft Rewards dashboard, select get my rewards and redeem your points into an Xbox Gift Card which you can then use to purchase GTA 6. All you have to do is weigh up whether using Bing is worth it or not.

Grand Theft Auto 6

Planescape: Torment 2 was greenlit by Wizards of the Coast, 'they were really into what we were doing', but it refused to fund the sequel, and nobody else was interested

Fraser Brown — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:32:48 +0000

Baldur's Gate 3 might be the greatest D&D videogame out there, but Planescape: Torment—with its potent mix of exceptional writing and fever-dream setting—is a close second. And we almost got a sequel, Planescape: Unraveled, but nobody had the courage to fund it.

Unsurprisingly, Beamdog—which has become something of a custodian for BioWare and Black Isle's classic RPGs—was involved. Beamdog boss Trent Oster, along with former BioWare scribe David Gaider, pitched his vision of a sequel to Wizards of the Coast, and initially it went well.

"We actually had some great meetings with their creative team," Oster tells us. "We were down talking with Chris Perkins and Mike Mearls about it, and they were really into what we were doing. We were talking about how we could tie it in with a source book and everything. It was an exciting concept."

Despite the concept being well received, says Oster, Wizards wanted someone else to foot the bill and take on all of the risk.

"When we pitched it to Wizards, they were like, 'We don't have money for external development, we're not doing that right now.' Over time, Wizards has kind of gone through these cycles where they’re like, 'Oh, we'll do all the internal development.' And then, 'Oh my God, internal development's so expensive, we'll just licence it all out. We'll let partners take all the risk.' [And then] 'Hey, wait, these guys made a ton of money, let's bring it internal again.'"

Unfortunately, nobody else fancied taking the risk, either. "We searched around for funding, and nobody would fund it," says Oster. "Everybody we pitched at that time was like, 'Well, why would we spend our money making their IP worth more money?'"

Gaider shared his own perspective on the saga last year, saying, "Whatever the problem, we couldn't sell it... and by the end of 2016, we had to put Planescape: Unraveled on the shelf and start something new. Which killed me, and I almost moved on right then."

It's tragic but par for the course: we keep being robbed by risk-averse publishers. And Planescape: Torment deserves a sequel more than most. Sure, it wasn't a money-maker. Despite ultimately being profitable, it was considered a commercial disappointment at the time. But it's one we're still talking about, one we're still craving more of.

And it's a setting of near limitless potential—a creative dream. A modern sequel could better realise this intensely weird multiverse with the ever-shifting city, Sigil, at its heart. If it was given the BG3 treatment, with a stronger combat system and more tabletop-inspired roleplaying, I think we'd have a new top dog.

Maybe one day. And if you can't wait, Torment: Tides of Numenera, which serves as a spiritual successor, is more than worth your time. The likes of Disco Elysium and Esoteric Ebb also share a lot with Planescape: Torment, especially the latter, and are just exceptional RPGs as well.

The original version of Dead or Alive 6 was delisted in favor of a rerelease that's currently at 70% negative reviews on Steam: 'Tecmo just sees this as the coomer franchise'

Jody Macgregor — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 06:28:38 +0000

Back when the GTA Trilogy trainwreck happened, Dominic Tarason wrote a piece for us making the case that old games shouldn't be delisted when they're rereleased. It hasn't stopped happening, of course, and most recently Dead or Alive 6 was removed from sale in favor of Dead or Alive 6 Last Round, a rerelease so underwhelming it's currently got a 70% negative user rating on Steam. For comparison, the original version is currently 70% positive, and that's after players started giving it negative reviews as well in protest.

Forefront among the complaints is the fact the DLC is even more expensive in the rerelease, and while transferring a save from the old version will unlock most of the characters and costumes you'd already paid for, crossover SNK characters Mai and Kula aren't included and have to be paid for again.

Dead or Alive 6 Last Round is also being criticized for how barebones it is. While one stage has had its lighting upgraded, otherwise it's not a noticeable difference visually. Costumes do unlock faster in Last Round, but the addition Koei Tecmo is billing as big-ticket excitement is just a photo mode.

The Dead or Alive series has spent a long time struggling to be taken seriously as a fighting game, periodically promising to tone down the jiggle physics and focus on the fighting, but as soon as the DLC costumes roll out suddenly it's time to flog bikinis and bunny outfits to horndogs with deep pockets. Players who were hoping this would be an opportunity for Dead or Alive to actually be a better fighting game aren't impressed.

As one Steam review puts it, "It's insulting. Tecmo just sees this as the coomer franchise and thinks they can get away with the absolute bare minimum." Others complain about the install size being "40% bigger" and the fact it still doesn't have rollback netcode or crossplay, but frustration about the pandering is paramount.

"This is genuinely the biggest scam Koei Tecmo has pulled so far," another review says, "and the fact that this game's Steam Community page is already filled with horny content explains a lot of things."

Best MMOs: Most massive
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Best open world games: Unlimited exploration
Best survival games: Live craft love
Best horror games: Fight or flight

After a 4-year wait, Netflix announces Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is coming this fall

ted.litchfield@futurenet.com (Ted Litchfield) — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 21:40:46 +0000

As reported by Polygon, we now have a release window for the second season of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. We'll finally see more episodes of the explosively popular anime adaptation of Mike Pondsmith's tabletop setting and CD Projekt's 2020 RPG sometime this fall.

I had to do a double take when I noticed it's been a whole year since Edgerunners season two was first announced, but Netflix has finally begun spinning up the marketing machine for the highly anticipated continuation. The series is taking an anthology approach, following a new cast of characters after the events of the first season.

From corpo towers to the chrome-forged edge. 🦾[CREW UPDATE] // +1 EDGERUNNER // TALIA YANG█ [FEED INITIALIZING]█FALL 2026 pic.twitter.com/zWOjh9aO4VJune 28, 2026

Edgerunners played a big part in Cyberpunk 2077's redemption arc: I've long maintained that, before the game's 2.0 update actually transformed its systems for the better in 2023, the universal goodwill around the Edgerunners anime led players to approach the game with a more open mind⁠

The power of anime is greater than that of memes about bugs and console framerates, apparently. CDPR had already done some tweaking and bug fixing by the time of Edgerunners' 2022 release, but it was sheer good vibes that got people to realize Cyberpunk 2077 was always good.

I'm curious to see when this new story will be set. I'm less familiar with where R. Talsorian Games has taken things in sourcebooks, but this could be the first new story in the chronology since Cyberpunk 2077. The Phantom Liberty expansion takes place contemporaneously with the main game, but does have one potential ending set many years in the future.

Edgerunners' first season, meanwhile, took place before Cyberpunk 2077 and is referenced ingame⁠—it's equally likely that Edgerunners season two will be a pre- or interquel of some form. CD Projekt, meanwhile, is firmly in a Witcher epoch: The Witcher 4 is on its way soon, and we probably can't expect Cyberpunk 2 any sooner than 2030.

Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says Obsidian has 'Karma Police' who go through games making sure every skill gets enough cool stuff to do: 'We're not gonna leave you out to dry'

ted.litchfield@futurenet.com (Ted Litchfield) — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 21:02:33 +0000

In a recent appearance on the Human Can Opener podcast, Obsidian design director Josh Sawyer talked about how the studio approached balance in Fallout: New Vegas, particularly with skill checks in dialogue and making sure different character builds got unique, cool reactivity throughout the game.

"Some people think I'm preoccupied with balance," said Sawyer. "I want people to build characters and have a good time with them. You have to think a little bit, but I don't like it when players have a character concept that they build, and it's like 'Oh, you just built a fundamentally bad character.'"

After Troika closed and before the likes of Owlcat, ZA/UM, and Larian really took off, Obsidian was practically peerless when it came to this sort of design in RPGs. Much love to BioWare, but it would typically just rely on a persuasion skill to win conversations and avoid fights.

Obsidian's always been great at letting you deploy odd skills in dialogue and the world, like recruiting a new sheriff for Primm with Science, Barter, or Speech in New Vegas. This also extends to combat: Sawyer cited New Vegas' removal of the Big Guns skill and divvying the relevant weapons into Guns, Energy Weapons, and Explosives as an example of design supporting build diversity.

"I don't want people to have to invest in the skill, and then [we] try to support it throughout the game," said Sawyer, referring to the steady flow of relevant big guns a separate Big Guns skill would have required. "Or worse, not support it throughout the game, which is kinda how Fallout 1 worked. If you tag Big Guns in Fallout 1, you're not gonna see a big gun until The Hub⁠—good luck!"

As for skill checks, Sawyer said that he endeavors to make sure a given RPG's skills are always "useful in a really meaningful and unique way." He argued that designers have to build trust with players in this regard—I flashed back to all the times I've sat before a character creation screen and wondered "Is this a game where persuasion matters at all? Will I be punished for wanting to be a sneaky rogue?"

Sawyer pointed to how former Obsidian designer Eric Fenstermaker, who built the starting town of Goodsprings, ensured New Vegas made a good first impression to build that trust. Sawyer didn't cite specific examples, but I thought of how, in the quest Ghost Town Gunfight, a player's Sneak, Explosives, Barter, Speech, and Medicine can all be used to influence how things play out.

"We just wanted to set up the player to believe, however you built your character, it's not gonna be the same experience, but we're not gonna let you down," said Sawyer. "We're not gonna leave you out to dry and not give you something to be excited about.'

The developer caveated that "it's not about perfect balance," and went on to describe one of the practical measures Obsidian takes to ensure each skill gets sufficient play throughout a game. "We have an informal job on the design team called 'Karma Police,'" said Sawyer. "At a few points during development, we'll ask a designer to go through all the scripts⁠—usually in dialogue, but also everywhere in the game⁠—and see 'How often is Guns being checked? How often is Charisma being checked? How often is Barter being checked?

"It's not about 'perfect.' Let's say there's 40 [checks] in Medicine, and there's like, 28 in Science. Great! Get in the ballpark. You don't want to go huge stretches of the game and be like, 'Man, I invested in this skill and it never comes up.'"

Sawyer also touched on one of the great tensions in designing videogame RPGs versus tabletop ones: This sort of reactivity and accommodation is something a game master can do on the fly, rather than having to anticipate player needs years in advance. He recalled a college friend who "bent over backwards" to work with one of Sawyer's RPG characters, an architecture specialist.

"I think that what good DMs and good game designers do is, in RPGs, they want you to feel like, 'Yeah man, I did a Survival run and I got all these cool interactions,'" Sawyer concluded. "We just want players to have that experience."

Mina the Hollower will make her fighting game debut in a crossover next year

Justin Wagner — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 21:01:17 +0000

Rivals of Aether 2 isn't the only Smash Bros.-esque fighting game on Steam, but it might just be the best—unlike the first game, though, it hasn't included any guest characters just yet. Even Shovel Knight, who appeared in the first Rivals of Aether game, was effectively succeeded by an alarmingly sexy shark man earlier this year (listen, I'm just reporting the facts). But next year, Yacht Club's newest retro-inspired icon, Mina the Hollower, will join the game's roster.

Confirmation of that came in the form of a brief teaser shown during EVO, which doesn't so much reveal the character as much as it reveals that there will be a reveal of the character eventually. Mina will actually be playable sometime in 2027, where she'll join the likes of that sexy shark man and a bunch of other anthropomorphized animals. In that sense, I suppose she'll fit right in.

Developer Aether Studios also used EVO weekend to announce expanded modding tools for the creation of custom fighters in Rivals of Aether 2, as well as another new playable character who will release much sooner on Aug. 4.

Instead of a gothic mouse lady, Gouie is a goopy, slimy orb-shaped platypus who swallows his foes and rips off chunks of his slippery body to chuck all over the stage. His voice work alternates between a cheery, childlike voice and a bassy growl, resulting in a despicable little bastard that sounds as putrid as he looks. I love him.

It's nice to see Yacht Club taking some victory laps after the release of its latest game. The studio was open about the dire straits it'd be in if Mina the Hollower was a flop, but it instead turned out to be a pretty incredible game that has sold like hotcakes. In their 90% review, PC Gamer contributing writer Kerry Brunskill said the game "is a gloriously gothic combination of ferocious combat and beautiful scenery."

Josh Sawyer says the Fallout TV show is an 'amazing adaptation' of a videogame, and 'one of the best that I've seen'

Justin Wagner — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 18:16:13 +0000

There's one thing all videogame adaptations in film and TV have in common: they stink. Or at least, that's how it felt for a long time—personally, I stopped adding the caveat 'good for a videogame adaptation' after I watched the Fallout show and learned these things didn't have to be somewhere between middling and godawful. But what do Fallout's designers and developers think of the show?

We know series co-creator Tim Cain loved it thanks to his YouTube channel, and more recently, New Vegas director Josh Sawyer said in an interview with The 41st Precinct that he enjoyed both seasons, watching them as they came out—and Sawyer specifically had some love for the show's interpretation of his game's factions and setting.

"I think it's an amazing adaptation, honestly," he said in the interview. "I know that the bar is not always very high for TV or film adaptations of videogames, but I think it's one of the best that I've seen, certainly." While there are things he might have done differently, he dismissed those as personal nitpicks: "Any writer is gonna look at something and be like 'meh, I don't know if I'd do that.'"

As far as the show's take on New Vegas itself is concerned, Sawyer said he loved Justin Theroux's take on the character and wasn't "too bent out of shape" about changes that were made to suit the script, like the Dinky the Dinosaur landmark being turned to face a different direction than it is in the game (that might sound like an extremely small detail if you haven't played New Vegas, but trust me, people have opinions on this stuff).

"I get why people get upset about that, but also the scene wouldn't work at all [if Dinky's orientation matched the game]," he laughed in the video. "Maybe people will say I'm a traitor to Fallout now, or something. But I don't know, I thought it was a good representation of a lot of the iconic stuff."

That lines up with what Sawyer has said in previous interviews, where he noted he thought of himself as "a guest" working on Fallout rather than someone who'd need a say in how it's represented in a TV show a decade and a half later.

Meccha Chameleon proves an explosive hit with over 10 million copies sold

Justin Wagner — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 18:04:36 +0000

I was blown away when Meccha Chameleon, the friendsloppish PvP hit where you paint your body in an expressive game of hide-and-seek, sold a million copies in a few days. Here I am blown away again as the novelty refuses to wear off: less than a month after release, the game has sold a whopping 10 million copies, according to a Steam community news post. The proof is in the pudding—as I write this, the game has nearly 200,000 concurrent players, according to SteamDB.

This success feels like the perfect storm of a few different things. Hide-and-seek is a pretty timeless form of uncomplicated joy, as proven by long-lived games like Dead by Daylight and evergreen custom modes like prop hunt. Meccha Chameleon also feels adjacent to the friendslop craze despite its team-based format, seizing on a moment when inexpensive, low-spec multiplayer games are selling like hot cakes.

That last point has helped the game secure all sorts of free marketing and word of mouth from streamers and YouTubers, with videos featuring everything from gameplay highlights to viral clips of people putting camouflaged stick figures in real places. The game just got cloud support too, so even the lowest of the lowest specs can technically run the game. At just six dollars, it's got an extremely low barrier to entry—a salve to the sting induced by things like GTA 6's $100 mega-version.

And as if all that weren't enough, the game itself is pretty good, as it turns out. In his review, PC Gamer news writer Lincoln Carpenter said that despite its being "wrapped in clumsy software," Meccha Chameleon is an essential game for its sheer novelty. It's "the special sort of game that can remind me how much fun I can have being a top-tier bastard," he wrote.

Invincible VS devs would like to have guest characters like Spider-Man and Sub Zero: 'If we have that opportunity, we will definitely take it'

Justin Wagner — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 17:03:31 +0000

Whether you're talking about multiverse-upending event comics or that time Shadow the Hedgehog called Darkseid "pathetic," comic book stories love taking unrelated groups of characters and smashing them together. The same is true of traditional fighting games, where Ryu is as likely to be seen throwing fireballs at the Hulk or Minecraft Steve as he is at Guile.

Currently, superhero tag battler Invincible VS is limited to the world of Robert Kirkman's acclaimed Image comic—but let's say I'm tired of watching Battle Beast smash other Invincible characters into gore. I want to watch him smash my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man into gore. In an interview with MMORPG.com, game director Dave Hall and lead combat designer Bau Bautista agreed that sounds pretty neat.

"We're definitely not above that," Hall said. “We're always down for a crossover. I think it's really exciting to think about, and let's hope we can do some in the future, but nothing that we can talk about right now."

As MMORPG points out, there is precedent for that specific crossover: Spider-Man has been spotted in Invincible comics and vice versa. Invincible is itself informed by all sorts of nods to characters from DC and Marvel, so crossovers like that are more of a full circle moment than they might be in, say, Fortnite.

But it seems like guest characters in general are of interest to Hall and Bautista, who are also excited about Mortal Kombat's koterie of kharacters. “We'd love to have Sub-Zero and Scorpion! Bring them over, that'd be great," said Hall. "If we have that opportunity, we will definitely take it," added Bautista. There's precedent there, as well: Omni Man was a guest fighter in Mortal Kombat 1.

Currently, Invincible VS is focused—as you might expect—on other characters original to the Image comic. Immortal and Universa are due to join the game June 30, when its first season begins.

Here's what you want to see from Grand Theft Auto 6's radio stations: Phil Collins, conspiracy theory parodies, and… Gregorian chanting?

Mollie Taylor — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 17:00:00 +0000

Grand Theft Auto 6 feels a little more real this week after Rockstar dropped over 60 new screenshots and opened the floodgates for pre-orders. My cynical feelings around its $100 Ultimate Edition aside, it's hard to not at least have one toe on the hype train—just about everyone's talking about it, both the good and the bad.

Critical Hit

(Image credit: Future)

Welcome to Critical Hit (formerly known as Soundtrack Sunday), where we celebrate and lament all things videogame music, audio design, and the ways our favourite games make our ears tingle. Mollie is away this week, so I (Sean Martin) am co-opting the column to share my vinyl collection and chat about videogame vinyl.

So it feels like a great time to revisit a question I asked you lovely folks a few weeks back around what you want to see out of Grand Theft Auto 6's radio stations. For me, music is such an integral part of the series—its radio stations are a hotbed of parody and their music serves as wonderful time capsules for the time period each game is set in.

That's why I'm so interested to see what these stations will bring in GTA 6. As for what you guys want, you had some very insightful responses.

AgentZee is absolutely on the same wavelength as me, saying they'd love to see Something Good by Alt-J make an appearance, commenting: "This is a great song to listen to while driving". I absolutely fell in love with this track when it made an appearance in 2015's Life is Strange—a game with a soundtrack I still adore over a decade later—and I'm already envisioning late-night drives around Leonida while this blasts in my ears.

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

And speaking of Leonida, some of you want to see its Florida influences shine in its musical choices. Neogunhero said "Real Florida Jit" music is a must, citing artists like Denzel Curry (who I'm a big fan of), Kodak Black, Smokerpurpp, Trick Daddy, and Ice Billion Berg. Viddy echoed that sentiment, saying it'd "be a real shame if they didn't" have some kind of Florida roots station, including "other FL natives who'd understand the realistic absurdity this game is surely going for."

Lucky said: "I want to be able to drive the stand-in for a convertible Ferrari at night while In The Air Tonight plays," which is an image I can totally picture. Wind blowing through Lucia and Jason's hair, those classic Collins drums kicking right in. Plus, the song was already in Vice City Stories, which makes GTA 6 the perfect game to bring it back, since we'll be revisiting the iconic area in all its modern-day glory.

Grand Theft Auto 6

Some of you focused more on the parody side of things, too. XoRn said they "could drive around for hours" listening to a parody news channel, while Jimfurbath said stand-up comedian "Tim Dillon hosting a conspiracy talk show radio is what GTA6 needs!"

My favourite of the whole bunch, though, has to be what Ianik has in mind for the game: "Only radio station with monks and Gregorians chorals. Without options to turn off". Incredible cursed energy, which somehow makes it the perfect choice for a game like Grand Theft Auto 6. Bring on the chants.

The Binding of Isaac hits new all-time concurrent player count peak on Steam 12 years after release

Justin Wagner — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 16:25:08 +0000

Mewgenics might be the hottest Edmund McMillen roguelike in town, but stone cold classic The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is no worse off. In fact, more abandoned children are fending off malformed horrors in their mother's basement than ever—the game reached a new all-time concurrent player count peak on Steam today.

The new big number is a whopping 123,429. It's simmered down a bit as I write this, but it's still comfortably in six figures territory. Not bad for a game that first released in 2014, effectively supplanting the Flash original.

Even as the roguelike scene has continued to boom over the last decade, Isaac remains right around the top of the pile with heavy hitters like Slay the Spire, Balatro, and, well, Rogue.

Mods probably have something to do with it, as they helped the game bloom into all sorts of new forms once the Let's Play and Twitch streamer circuits drew countless eyes to it. But the game itself is no slouch, arguably remaining one of the most essential in its genre.

PC Gamer's Chris Thursten gave the 2011 version an 83% in his review, saying it'll "draw you in and spit you out without a second thought." Players simply refuse to be spit out, trapped in an endless cycle of punishment and rebirth not unlike Isaac's relationship to Christianity.

Notably, that new peak The Binding of Isaac just reached is a dash higher than Mewgenics's all-time peak, right around 115,000. Isaac is certainly being helped along by its long-held reputation, as well as the Steam summer sale, which currently has the game going for just $1.49—the steepest discount in the game's history.

That's Rebirth, keep in mind… the original Flash-based game is more expensive by about 5 cents just in case you want to pay more to get less. That's very in these days.

Nightdive says compatibility with fan missions was a big priority for Thief Remastered, and there's one massive mod in particular it knew it had to get working

Rick Lane — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 15:54:52 +0000

Thief: The Dark Project is a brilliant game for many reasons, among which is that it has one of the best mapping communities of any game. While the Doom and Quake mapping scenes are larger and more prolific, Thief's mappers consistently punch so far above their weight they should probably get into boxing sims rather than stealth games. They regularly deliver maps, missions and entire campaigns that are orders of magnitude more ambitious than what exists in the base game.

Hence, any remaster of Thief worth its salt would ensure the fan mission scene is well supported, and that's exactly what Nightdive plans to do with Thief: The Dark Project Remastered. Speaking on Nightdive's Deep Dive podcast, producer Daniel Grayshon delved into the significance of community creations for the remaster:

"There's been a very dedicated community that has created all sorts of wonderful additions to the game, and a lot of that has not gone unnoticed, " Grayshon explained. "Compatibility with those is extremely important, and that's what we're working on very heavily to ensure that when you buy a copy of the game on PC, you'll be able to very easily and very quickly get set up with whatever fan mission you would like to play."

Given the number of fan missions that are out there, this is pretty ambitious, and Grayshon does say that, while they want to support as many FMs as they can, Nightdive's resources are not unlimited. "We're doing our best to make sure that we have a good compatibility across the board with everything that we can test given the time that we have. There's a lot of content out there, but we're doing our best."

There is one specific fan campaign that you'll definitely be able to play out of the gate, and that's The Black Parade. Released in 2023, The Black Parade is a 10-mission campaign with its own story, overseen by Arkane Lyon level designer Romain Barrilliot. A majestic ode to Thief, each of its levels is preposterously ambitious, richly detailed, and often bloody terrifying, and I'd count it among Deathloop and the System Shock remake as one of the best immersive sim experiences from this decade.

Nightdive is very much aware of The Black Parade's reputation. "Obviously the big one in the room is The Black Parade," Grayshon says. "It won ModDB's number one mod of the year, I think, that year. And just by looking at people's reactions to our announcement, I noticed that they will talk about 'Oh, I can't wait to see how The Black Parade runs in this.'

"I knew this would be a thing that people would be wanting right from the very beginning, and the reactions to the announcement have proved that I wasn't wrong there in that. So we're working as quickly and as thoroughly as we can to make sure that compatibility is there for the things that people want to play."

I can personally attest to the fact that fan-mission compatibility is a big draw for Thief fans, and I can't wait to give The Black Parade a whirl in the overhauled game. Indeed, it's an oddly good time to be a Thief fan right now. Alongside the Remaster, Eidos Montreal just announced a graphic novel set between Thief 1 and 2, along with a bunch of other nifty merch like a new soundtrack. Now all we need is a new game from someone who understands the series. I don't hold out much hope for this, but stranger things have happened.

Creative Assembly wants to know which factions you wish to play as in Total War: Medieval 3, but whatever you do, don't ask to play as the Pope

Rick Lane — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

All eyes may currently be fixed upon Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Creative Assembly's ferociously ambitious foray into the 40k universe. But it's worth remembering that the more traditional side of Total War is looking pretty exciting too, as CA is returning to one of Total War's best settings in Medieval 3.

Medieval 3 is much earlier in development than ol' Total Warty K, but the CA has been surprisingly open with the community about its development thus far, regularly showing the game off in preproduction livestreams. Now, it's also fielding opinion on which factions should be playable in Medieval 3, asking fans to complete a survey about which nations, dynasties, and city-states they want to control the destinies of.

This comes courtesy of Creative Assembly's most recent Medieval 3 blog, which delves into the developer's faction-based decision-making process. According to creative director Leif Walter, three factors go into deciding whether a faction should be in the game. These are how well known the faction is, how unique its starting situation is and how distinctive its "potential mechanics" could be.

Naturally, there are some factions which Creative Assembly considers "locked in" by default. These are England, France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Sultanate of Rum. Where CA wants player input is on the smaller factions of the Middle Ages. How keen are you to play as Italian city states like Venice or Milan, for example? Or Kingdoms of Scandinavia? Or Muslim nations like the Almohad Caliphate or the Fatimid Empire?

Creative Assembly lists all the factions it is considering making playable in the article. There are some potential factions that CA rules out, such as the Russian Principalities, the Mongol Empire, and the Papal States. Apparently, the latter is particularly desired among Total War fans, but Walter says that Creative Assembly "discussed internally that this playstyle would be so unique and special that it would reduce focus of development too much."

Of course, the faction I'm most interested in playing as from the list is Scotland. Partly because that's where I live, but also, I think you could make an interesting mechanic out of the Scottish clan system, which developed through the medieval period. Dealing with new clans emerging, trying to stop them from infighting and stealing cattle from each other in order to deal with larger threats (mostly the English), seems like it'd be a fun and distinctive challenge.

Whichever factions end up in Medieval 3, however, you can bet that I'll be playing it whenever it launches. But I'm happy to wait, not least because Total War: Warhammer 40,000 is on the horizon. CA's sci-fi strategy got a fresh showing at this month's PC Gaming Show and, judging by what CA has revealed so far, is shaping up to be a dream 40k experience.

Spyro speedrunner says a PC port of the original game is in the works, and it's being made with 'no AI'

Rick Lane — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

PS1 mascot Spyro the Dragon has a surprisingly strong presence on PC these days. All three of the original games are available on Steam in remade form through the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Developer Toys for Bob is also working on Spyro: A Realm Beyond, the first new Spyro game in almost 20 years.

One thing you can't do, however, is play the original versions of the PS1 games on PC. At least, not yet. But a PC port of Spyro the Dragon is in the works by fans of the series, and will likely release soon.

This was revealed by Spyro speedrunning specialists lumilaura, who posted a video to X of what appears to be Spyro The Dragon running on PC (via GamesRadar). "You're not dreaming, this is Spyro 1 running natively on Windows 11," she wrote, having been asked to test the port by its creators.

The PC port is the product of an "OpenPETE decomp + recomp hybrid" by porters Amec/tyscorp. The decompilation project—the process through which such PC ports become viable—was started last year by The Moby Collective. Thus far, 88% of its functions have been decompiled to source code, as has 58% of its bytes.

you're not dreaming, this is Spyro 1 running natively on windows 11 with the brand new OpenPETE decomp + recomp hybrid by Amec/tyscorp.60fps, true widescreen, no polygon wobble, perspective correct textures, the works.a spyro PC port is coming, much sooner than we all think. pic.twitter.com/bQ9M1sSC70June 23, 2026

In addition, Lumilaura notes that the PC port is capable of running at 60FPS, supports "true widescreen", features perspective correct textures, and has "no polygon wobble" (which depending on your level of affection for those watery PS1 polys, could be a positive or negative). In a follow-up post, Lumilaura also stresses that the project is being made with "no AI", because that's a thing developers have to say, now, tragically.

The clip Lumilaura posted to X shows Spyro running around a field, collecting a few gems and battering a few enemies. The same clip was also posted to Reddit, where Lumilaura provided a few extra details in a separate reddit post. She says that while the clip was recorded at 60FPS, the game itself was "running at 320fps and looked gorgeous." That said, she also says that the port is still "very unfinished and currently presents with a lot of visual artifacting such as camera flashes" as well as "awkward camera motions that can cause motion sickness."

This is why, currently, the port has not yet been made public. But lumilaura says it's likely to arrive "much sooner than we all think". But will it arrive before A Realm Beyond? The next Spyro game is due to launch sometime in 2027, so there's every chance it might.

Skyrim's lead designer reckons releasing Elder Scrolls and Fallout games faster risks 'disappointing fans'

Rick Lane — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:00:00 +0000

It's been a long time since we last saw an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game from Bethesda. Fallout 4 is now 11 years old, while it's been nearly 15 years since Skyrim—the same timeframe between that game and the release of Daggerfall in 1996. It's wild that two of gaming's most popular series have been left on the shelf for so long, and one of Microsoft's few understandable decisions lately is a resolution to make these games quicker.

But one former Bethesda designer urges caution on this front. Bruce Nesmith, Skyrim's lead designer who also worked on Oblivion and Starfield, thinks that going too hard could end up disappointing fans, as he explained to FRVR (via GamesRadar).

"There's an adage in software development about the process having three corners: resources, time and quality," Nesmith told the site. "The studio decides two of them, which determines the third. If you lock down the resources and the schedule, that decides the quality you will achieve. If you lock down the quality and the schedule, that determines the resources you will need to complete the project."

Nesmith observed that "The three corners need to be roughly balanced. You can't ask the project to be done in a month by throwing a million people on it." Likewise, "allowing ten years for a project creates a cycle of endless reinvention and ultimate failure."

He argued that the problem faced by modern game developers—at least in the triple-A space—is that "resources in most big studios are already quite large". Modern game dev teams are typically in the hundreds, while budgets are in the hundreds of millions. Starfield, for example, had a core team of around 500 and an estimated budget between $200-400 million. At that scale, pumping more money or people into the project is only likely to make it more unwieldy.

Consequently, in Nesmith's view, if you want Bethesda to make its games faster, the only solution is to cut resources. "In my opinion, the biggest risk of shortened schedules is quality, reduced features, polish or bugs," he explained. "The things that are done last end up getting set aside to complete the game on time. And, of course, faster dev times would result in faster sequels. But that's the wrong question. Those sequels risk disappointing fans."

The obvious solution would be to hand the various licenses to different developers. Microsoft, for example, owns both Bethesda and Obsidian—the developer of what most fans consider to be the best 3D Fallout game. Nesmith concedes that "if the right studio is available, it's a great solution". But that "you can't just hand it to anyone."

He also believes that it's good to let a series "lie fallow" for a while. "A franchise that releases too many titles too quickly risks fan fatigue. Of course, too much time between releases can also be a problem."

At present, I would say that neither Elder Scrolls nor Fallout is at risk of receiving new games too regularly. But I appreciate Nesmith's points here. You can't make these games happen faster just by throwing more money and people at specific projects, which could well be viewed as the solution when you have the resources of a company like Microsoft. Managing a project like that is a huge challenge, and even if you had an entire team dedicated to each series, it would still probably take five years minimum between the start of the project and its end.

Magic's Marvel Super Heroes set fixes the biggest problems of its Spider-Man cards

Jody Macgregor — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 08:19:54 +0000

Mark Rosewater sure does wear a lot of superhero T-shirts. Magic: The Gathering's head designer and lead on its Marvel Super Heroes expansion specifically is usually seen in interviews and on stage with a comic-book T under his flannel, and apparently called dibs on a Marvel set back when the Universes Beyond concept was first floated.

That level of love is apparent in this "Avengers and friends" set in a way it wasn't in Spider-Man. Where that set had some individual cards that were fun to play if you were into the characters, it didn't have the synergies or new mechanics that make a set really shine. Marvel Super Heroes does.

Wizards of the Coast

One of those new mechanics is Plan, a kind of enchantment that needs to be advanced by stacking plan counters until it's completed and you earn a reward. Doom Reigns Supreme, for example, is a plan that advances whenever you play a Villain card and eventually makes your opponent exile the top five cards on their deck, which you can then play two of for free. Every time one of those Villains enters under your control, you also take a life point from each opponent and gain one yourself.

That synergizes with the Doctor Doom card, who is not only a Villain himself, but summons two Doombot tokens when played, each of which also counts as a Villain. That's three life points from each opponent, three for yourself, and three counters advancing your Plan. This is how he got to be President of the United States that one time. (In Doom 2099 admittedly, but it still counts.)

While Plans are limited to Villains, everyone has access to the Teamwork ability, which is all about synergy. Teamwork, found on instants and sorcery cards, lets you tap creatures in addition to paying the regular cost for bonus effects. The HULK SMASH! card normally lets you either destroy an artifact or have one of your creatures deal damage equal to its power. Cast it with Teamwork and you can do both. Hulks stronger together.

The other new mechanic available to everyone is Power-Up, which represents abilities that can only be used once. Nick Fury's is the ability to recruit someone just like he used to do at the end of almost every Marvel movie. He gets two +1/+1 counters, then you look through the top seven cards of your deck for a Hero, Vehicle, or Equipment card, and play it for free. If it's a double-faced card, you can play either face.

Which is useful because Marvel Super Heroes has a bunch of double-faced cards representing superheroes and their secret identities. Normally you'd play the weaker version first then flip them for an additional cost later. Using Nick Fury's Power-Up, you can bring out Bruce Banner and flip him to the Hulk immediately.

And while Power-Ups can normally be used only once, if you flash a card out and then in again it recharges. Which is exactly what The Mind Stone, this set's infinity stone, lets you do.

Even if you aren't building a deck themed around superheroes, this set will provide a bunch of useful cards for existing decks. If you've got a merfolk deck you'll want to add Namor to it, because his power is equal to the number of merfolk you've got on the board. Fin Fang Foom lets you copy instants and sorceries that target artifacts and land, perfect for those annoying blue/red decks.

Magic: The Gathering Marvel Super Heroes is out now both in tabletop magic, and digitally in Magic: The Gathering Arena.

Quantic Dream's Star Wars: Eclipse is struggling: 'We're understaffed,' say devs

Jody Macgregor — Sun, 28 Jun 2026 03:44:06 +0000

You're forgiven if you'd forgotten about Star Wars: Eclipse. After being revealed with a flashy cinematic trailer in 2021, all we heard about Quantic Dreams' Star Wars game was the briefest of mentions in a blog post by studio founder and CEO David Cage last year, in which he said, "Of course, development of Star Wars: Eclipse continues, and we are eager to share more with you in the future."

Quantic Dream was also working on a live-service game at the same time, a MOBA called Spellcaster Chronicles, which suffered a fate all too common in the genre when the plug was pulled on it back in May. 115 staff who worked on it came in line for the inevitable layoffs.

As reported by French outlet Gamekult, Quantic Dream's employees say those staff are needed to help with a struggling Star Wars: Eclipse, and laying them off will hurt its chances of ever being finished. They went on strike during a studio visit by LucasFilm to get their point across.

"It's far from being an act of sabotage. On the contrary, we're trying to save Star Wars Eclipse," a developer identified as Jules said, via Google Translate. "We could manage to release it with 115 additional people, and that wouldn't be 'overstaffed': it's what's needed. We're understaffed, like in many other companies in the sector, because bosses know very well that passion will lead people to crunch time and that games will eventually be released. But it's impossible to run a sustainable industry like that. "

Things are complicated by the fact Quantic Dream is owned by NetEase, having bought the studio in 2022. "We've already indicated that we want to talk to NetEase," said an employee identified as Théo, "but Quantic Dream's management is preventing us. We've explicitly asked for them to be at the negotiating table, since we're often told: 'Oh no, that decision depends on NetEase, that's NetEase's budget…' Fine, then bring NetEase in!"

Employees claim that it was NetEase who made the call to end development of Spellcasters Chronicles, while Quantic Dream's management though it was a good idea to continue throwing time and money down the live-service hole. Which certainly makes it seem like NetEase is the organ grinder and management the monkey.

The initial strike is apparently step one in a series of protests planned to run until some time near September under the umbrella of the "Summer Strike Fest" with the aim of making management aware that Star Wars: Eclipse can't be completed without the additional staff who were working on Spellcasters Chronicles. "David Cage keeps saying that Star Wars Eclipse is a particularly ambitious project. So let him give us the means to achieve his ambitions," Theo said.

Best MMOs: Most massive
Best strategy games: Number crunching
Best open world games: Unlimited exploration
Best survival games: Live craft love
Best horror games: Fight or flight

As we stare down more $80 games, it rules that Star Wars Zero Company is $50

ted.litchfield@futurenet.com (Ted Litchfield) — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 23:28:35 +0000

Amid Star Wars Zero Company's gameplay and release date reveal at the 2026 Summer Game Fest, it somehow slipped by me that the squad tactics game from XCOM veterans also got an official price tag: $50. What year is it, 2005? Not only is this what Firaxis charged for XCOM: Enemy Unknown in 2012, it's less than the beloved XCOM 2's launch price of $60 a decade ago.

I got to try Zero Company hands-on earlier this year, and it is one of my top upcoming games: Zero Company pairs the crunchy permadeath squad tactics you'd expect from its pedigree with scandalously lavish production values. Its cutscenes feel more in line with CD Projekt, boasting intricate animations and a large voice cast.

I'm also jazzed about one of Zero Company's big mechanical innovations: Exploration between fights and back at your home based is zoomed in like a third person action game, transitioning seamlessly to the overhead god view when fighting starts.

I wouldn't have batted an eye at Bit Reactor charging 60 bucks for it, and the studio easily could have justified the increasingly standard $70 price tag. Galactic Racer, another upcoming Star Wars game I'm pretty hyped for, is going the $60 route, and I can't blame its devs or publisher in the slightest.

We'll see how Zero Company stands up at launch, but even as a work in progress, it felt like GOTY material. Seeing EA and Bit Reactor ask such a reasonable price for it even as a major franchise licensee has me even more excited. Contrast with Rockstar asking us to pony up $80, even $100 for GTA6 with nary a gameplay trailer in sight, and Zero Company feels like a breath of fresh air.

It's a savvy business move: Whatever the costs of triple-A development, it's still effectively competing with $20 and even $10 indies for people's time and attention. This is a way to stand out, add value, and stave off the perpetual threat of a flop launch. We'll have the full verdict on Zero Company soon: It's set to release August 27, and you can wishlist it on Steam.

To get Thief Remastered's cutscenes right, Nightdive brought on the dev behind the 1998 originals

ted.litchfield@futurenet.com (Ted Litchfield) — Sat, 27 Jun 2026 22:37:29 +0000

In a new episode of Nightdive's Deep Dive podcast, host Locke Vincent, producer Daniel Grayshon, and studio head Stephen Kick got into some of the more granular details of Thief: The Dark Project Remastered, including that they brought on an original Looking Glass artist, Daniel Thron, to help revamp Thief's cutscenes.

"We have one of the original artists back who did work on the original game," said Grayshon. "When you look at the cutscenes [in the 1998 release], they're in a very low resolution, have a limited frame rate. But now, we have the original artist back, and he's really helping us nail down that look.

"It looks the same, but 4K⁠—so much better. The animation is smoother. I don't think there would be anybody⁠—and I'm making a bold prediction saying this⁠—I don't think anybody would be unhappy with what we're doing."

I reached out to Vincent via email, and he confirmed that Grayshon was specifically referring to former Looking Glass developer Daniel Thron. In addition to directing, animating, and producing art for Thief's cutscenes, Thron was one of three primary artists credited on Thief alongside Robb Waters and lead artist Mark Lizotte.

Thron also voiced a number of characters throughout the game⁠. Devs pulling double duty on VO was a thrifty practice of Looking Glass' that I've always found charming, Thron in particular did great work, and it also lead to iconic performances by writer/designer Terri Brosius (Viktoria, Shodan).

So it sounds like the cutscenes are in good hands. Thief has a deliciously '90s intro movie and full cutscenes at a few key story beats, all in this very distinctive, 2D-animated style⁠. I've never seen anything else quite like it.

In addition to fully animated cutscenes, there are Thief's essential mission briefings narrated by Garrett himself, the inimitable Stephen Russell. The parchment illustration motion graphics of these sequences could also use some love from Thron and the team.

The cutscenes and briefings all helped contribute to Thief's one of a kind atmosphere, but have been stuck at primeval resolutions since 1998. Thief itself ran at 480p, but one cutscene upscaling mod on the Thief Nexus cites the cutscenes as running all the way down at 320x240 and 15 fps.

I'm elated to hear of Thron's involvement, but I was never really worried about the cutscenes in the first place. Nightdive already showed its command of the Dark Engine and Looking Glass' visual style in the System Shock 2 remaster.

What's more, that remaster did a phenomenal job of recreating Shock 2's own pre-rendered cutscenes⁠ in a "the same, but better" manner, as Grayshon put it. Retired Nightdive VP Larry Kuperman informed me that this was also done without the use of AI upscaling.

Thief: The Dark Project Remastered might be my most anticipated game of the coming months: It currently has a release window of "this winter," which I'm hoping lands more toward the "this December" end of things rather than "next February."