Spoilers for all of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's story below.

Neither fans nor critics loved the game when it came out. In our own Kill the Justice League review, we wrote that "repetitive mission design, a messy confluence of combat systems, and the drive towards a cooperative live service structure ultimately undermine the game's strongest qualities."

I'm very much over live-service looter-shooters these days. They take up far too much of my time and I can't stand simply playing a game just to see the numbers go up. A good story can change that, though. I liked the move the game took with its brutal and underwhelming murder of Batman, but this ending completely ruins it.

In a two-minute-long comic strip, Harley Quinn spins a yarn that wraps everything up for us. Brainiac, the big bad who was trying to take over the multiverse, is defeated, and it's revealed that the Justice League that the Suicide Squad killed back on the original Earth was made up entirely of clones. So, Batman didn't actually actually get unceremoniously shot in the head, his clone did.

In a game titled Kill the Justice League, you didn't kill the Justice League at all. It makes the whole thing feel pretty pointless. I know the comics often have fake deaths and find ways to bring characters back to life, but 'they were clones all along' feels cliche.

For fans of Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham games, it's nice to know Batman is still alive and kicking and could return in a future game. Joyoboyogomu writes on Twitter: "As much as this is a fumble of a game, I’m glad that this essentially makes the entire game’s plot pointless and have zero impact on the story, especially revolving around Arkham Batman."

A big issue some take with the ending is its comic-strip style. Comic cutscenes can be great, especially in games inspired by the medium, but it feels anticlimactic to not even have a fully rendered 3D scene to finish the game with.

It doesn't seem like many of you even experienced the ending, as the player numbers have been dwindling for quite some time. SteamDB shows that after an initial peak of 13,459 players at the time of the game's release, only 505 are still playing today.

Now that it's over, check out all the upcoming video game release dates so you can figure out what to play next.

While some players valiantly hung onto the old servers for as long as possible to keep them alive last year – an effort which lasted a whopping 210 days for one particular Mario Kart 7 player – if you boot up your Wii U or 3DS now and try to jump into an online game, you're not going to have any luck. That is if you don't turn to other, not Nintendo-approved means, anyway. After Nintendo first announced its plans to shut the Wii U and 3DS servers down, the developers working on the unofficial Pretendo servers confirmed that they had "begun discussing our development road map internally to accommodate this," and today, it serves as a popular replacement for the online services for many. 

In a new post on its Japanese customer support Twitter account (translated by Google and verified using DeepL), Nintendo doesn't call out Pretendo or any other specific alternatives by name, but it warns against using "unauthorized services" that replace the Wii U's online functionality as "they may pose unexpected security risks." It's not clear what prompted the company to post this now – as it points out itself, the servers officially shut down on April 9 last year, and while Pretendo is still a work in progress, it's been available for quite some time now. 

The statement also comes at a time when Nintendo fans everywhere have got their eyes glued on the company's social media pages in the hopes of seeing a Switch 2 announcement. Apparently, that could be happening sooner rather than later, as one leaker recently claimed it'll happen this week – something which was corroborated by multiple other sources including Eurogamer and The Verge's Tom Warren. We're now halfway through the week, so we'll just have to watch this space to see if the reports end up being correct.

Former Switch marketing lead says "as wild as these leaks are Nintendo is going to stick to their plan," not budging on Switch 2 date "no matter what."

First spotted by GameSpot, Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree said in the company's latest earnings report that the company's success in the video game market can be attributed both to "established games" as well as the "success" of Space Marine 2, specifically. He then seemed to acknowledge the relatively niche space Warhammer has carved out for itself in the gaming segment.

"We recognise that successes like these for Warhammer are not a given in the world of video games. Clearly we are looking for the next one. We remain cautious when forecasting royalty income."

As it just launched in September, Space Marine 2's success hasn't been fully measured yet, but we know that as of October it had sold 4.5 million units. Put another way, the CCO of developer Saber Interactive said shortly after launch that the game's success was big enough that it "changes everything" for the developer, adding at the time, "you look at yourself through a different lens."

To get an idea of just why Space Marine 2 has been such a big hit, you could do a lot worse than reading our 4/5-star review, which states:

"Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is an exceptional, larger than life shooter that raises the bar for all Warhammer adaptations. A dizzying sense of scale, along with some of the slickest combat around, will leave you often breathless but always grinning."

2024 was the year I rekindled my love of shooters – and it's all thanks to Stalker 2, Black Ops 6, and Space Marine 2.

Blizzard added Diablo 4's first new class back in October with the Vessel of Hatred DLC adding the highly versatile Spiritborn class, which I've been loving, but my true heart lies in the frog-lobbing Witch Doctor class from Diablo 3. I mean, Zombie Bears, Firebat Servants, frog bombs, piranha tornadoes (literally "Piranhado"), Hexes... need I say more? That's the cheese right there.

Well, while Blizzard has yet to reveal what its next new Diablo 4 class will be, Season of Witchcraft may hold some hints. There's no new class in the season, but a new Blizzard news release reveals a ton of new Witchcraft powers that cumulate in the first new seasonal mechanic in more than a year. A lot of those new powers are taken from Diablo 3's Witch Doctor class, including all of the above listed except, sadly, Zombie Bears.

There's more than just Witch Doctor powers in season 7 - a lot more - and they're broken down into the subcategories Eldritch, Psyche, and Growth & Decay. Any class can use Witchcraft powers, but I'm partial to suiting up as a tatted up Necromancer and role-playing as a Witch Doctor. You can unlock powers by hunting down Headrotten and completing new Whisper bounties, which earn you seasonal Reputation at The Coven. From there, just head to one of the Witches' Altars and unlock your inner Witch Doctor.

Diablo 4 Season 7 faces new competition: the original Diablo, which is coming to Xbox Game Pass just a week earlier.

There's a big rolling log on Super Mario 64's Tall, Tall Mountain course that, normally, you just move slightly from side to side in order to reach the highest parts of the level. But modder and tool-assisted speedrun creator Sjmhrp discovered a very strange behavior from this log in 2024, which was more recently brought to the Mario fandom's attention by venerable trivia aggregator Supper Mario Broth on Bluesky.

"The rolling log in TTM can be made to drift through floating point rounding errors," Sjmhrp explains in the description of the YouTube video above. "This is because the float spacing of the log's speed is finer than the spacing of its position, so by manipulating its speed it can slowly drift to the side, at about 2μm/s."

How do you do this? By repeating a 34-frame loop of inputs over and over again - which, realistically, is only going to happen in a tool-assisted speedrun, or TAS. To reach the outer limits of the log's potential positions, you'd need to repeat that loop 2.8 million times over 36 days. "I didn't bother to make an entire month long TAS," Sjmhrp explains, "I just did a few cycles then used lua to hack mario to the right position each frame after."

"This has no currently known purpose," as Supper Mario Broth notes, which is a very funny thing to say about anything that would take 36 days to do. But hey, given never-ending endeavors like the A button challenge in the Super Mario 64 community, you never know - maybe someday they'll figure out how to use this strat to break the whole game wide open. Until then, well, we can all just admire the dedication to learning everything this game has to offer.

Super Mario 64 speedrunning is "dead" after one runner claims all 5 major categories in what's being dubbed "the greatest speedrunning achievement of all time."

Team Ladybug is known for Metroidvania hits like Touhou Luna Nights and – I'm serious about this – Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-. The hyphens are very important, people. WSS Playground typically plays a support or publishing role, but it's got a heck of an eye for games; you may know the company from the likes of Xemono's Needy Streamer Overload or the more recent Boyhood's End from Buriki Clock.

Blade Chimera is obviously closest to Touhou Luna Nights and Record of Lodoss War, but its sci-fantasy setting and sharpened pixel art immediately jump out. You play as a demon hunter named Shin, partner with a sentient sword spirit named Lux, and use a remarkably large arsenal of guns and skills to mop up what certainly feels like a post-apocalyptic Osaka, Japan.

Shin has about three Resident Evil suitcases worth of progressively flashier guns stashed away somewhere, but Lux is arguably the real star given her ability to create objects and cover, augment platforming, and fill a huge range of utility roles. I've only learned so much from the demo and trailers, but it's already clear that there's huge potential depth to progression, and the game feels lush so far. Team Ladybug's still got it.

The Metroidvania gods have spoken and answered my prayers with this horror game that looks like Majora's Mask if it let you play as an onion-headed freak.

Microsoft started rolling out Windows 11 version 24H2 last year, and it wasn't long before players started noticing some pretty severe issues with the functionality of several Ubisoft games. Many of those issues were fixed promptly, but for whatever reason they lingered for some time on Assassin's Creed Origins and Valhalla.

Microsoft acknowledged in November that 24H2 was causing some Ubisoft games to "become unresponsive while starting, loading or during active gameplay," and now, almost two months later, Ubisoft says the issue is resolved in dual Steam updates for Assassin's Creed Origins and Valhalla.

"This patch fixes compatibility issues with Windows 11 update 24H2," reads the text in both updates.

So, yes, the good news is that you should theoretically be able to boot up Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Valhalla on PC and, well, play them again. The bad news, at least for Ubisoft, is that two months of unplayability caused an absolute flood of negative Steam reviews that tanked both games' ratings from 'Very Positive' down to 'Mixed.'

It's difficult to say as an outsider what Ubisoft could've done differently to address the situation before it escalated, and thus tricky to pin the blame on the studio specifically, but considering both Assassin's Creed Games were basically unplayable for a lot of folks, it's also hard to blame them for simply sharing their experiences on Steam.

Anywho, there are the best Assassin's Creed games, ranked.

"We have forged a strong detection tool and couple with the keen judgment of our watchful human eyes to accurately identify those using keyboard and mouse adapters," the devs say in a new statement. "We believe that gaining an unjust advantage through such methods significantly impacts the gaming experience for our players. Therefore, whether on PC or console, we will take measures to vanquish this nefarious behavior. Penalties for users of keyboard and mouse adapters may include temporary or permanent account suspensions, removal from leaderboards, or other punishments depending on the circumstances."

Keyboard and mouse adapters are typically used on console to allow players to make use of the greater precision these devices offer over standard analog control sticks. On PC, they can also be used to fool a game into thinking you're using a controller when you're using a mouse - letting you enjoy the benefits of controller-style aim assist without giving up any mouse-based precision.

The devs call out "common adapters" including the "XIM series, Cronus Zen series, Titan Two series, KeyMander series, and Brook Sniper series," but they're making equal efforts to detect and counteract "any device enabling keyboard and mouse emulation of controller inputs." Here's hoping this anti-cheat efforts come out a little more complete than Marvel Rivals' ban on mods.

Here are the top 10 comics Marvel Rivals fans should start reading.

Marvel Rivals draws on comic stories going back decades, with a particular eye on adapting details from some of Marvel's biggest stories of recent years, including the current Marvel Rivals season 1, which takes some inspiration from summer 2024's Blood Hunt event.

That's just scratching the surface of the best comics to read if you love Marvel Rivals, so we've put together a list of 10 comics that are perfect for fans of the game with stories featuring characters from Cloak & Dagger, to Squirrel Girl, the Avengers, Moon Knight, the Fantastic Four, and many more.

The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda

Just about every Marvel fan knows about Wakanda, the once hidden African nation ruled by T'Challa, the Black Panther. But Marvel Rivals shows a different vision of Wakanda - an Intergalactic Empire located in deep space. And while the setting provides some of the most visually distinctive and uniquely interactive maps in Marvel Rivals, the concept comes straight from comic books.

In comics, the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda is actually led by none other than N'Jadaka, also known as Erik Killmonger, sworn enemy of T'Challa. As for T'Challa himself, the Black Panther ventures into space on a mission to liberate the people who have been conquered by N'Jadaka's empire. The story marks the capstone of acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates' time writing the adventures of the Black Panther, and with gorgeous art by Daniel Acuña, it's a perfect story for fans of Marvel Rivals.

Buy Black Panther: The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda on Amazon

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl has become an unlikely fan-favorite character in Marvel Rivals, even receiving some buffs in the game's most recent balance patch that make her "Squirrel stampede!" ultimate ability even more effective. And that's only fitting, as Squirrel Girl has a reputation in comics as being, well, unbeatable - to the point where she's faced down world-class baddies such as Doctor Doom and even Thanos with only her rascally rodent allies to help her.

That reputation is on full display in writer Ryan North and artists Erica Henderson and Derek Charm's long-running title Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, in which she takes on a variety of villains, including the aforementioned Thanos, all the way on up to the cataclysmically powerful Galactus, proud papa of Marvel Rivals' announcer Galacta. It's one of the funniest, most unabashedly exciting comics of the modern Marvel era.

Buy The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl on Amazon

Spider-Verse

If you've played Marvel Rivals, you've almost certainly done your part escorting Spider-Zero to the chambers of the Mast Weaver (or tried to stop her progress, depending on which side of the map you're on). And if that bit of Spider-centric storytelling strikes your fancy, there's simply no better way to whet your whistle and get your fix than by diving into the original Spider-Verse comic event, which lends the Tokyo 2099 maps their inspiration.

Written by Dan Slott, scribe of more Spider-Man comics than anyone else in Marvel history, Stan Lee included, Spider-Verse centers on not just one Spidey, but dozens of them as they come together across the Multiverse to take down a group of villains who wish to kill them all one-by-one. It's the tale that launched a whole franchise and inspired not just the Marvel Rivals maps, but the popular Spider-Verse animated films.

Buy Spider-Verse on Amazon

Blood Hunt

Marvel Rivals season 1 is all about Dracula and his vampires taking over the Earth, centered on New York City, which provides the backdrop for the new maps added to the game as part of the seasonal content. That's remarkably close to Marvel's latest big summer event Blood Hunt, in which an army of vampires try to take over the Earth after casting the world into eternal darkness. But the twist is, it's not Dracula who's leading the vampire invasion - it's another Marvel character whose villain turn is a huge surprise.

Just about the entire Marvel Universe is part of Blood Hunt, including the original Moon Knight Marc Spector, who is raised from the dead in the event. So in addition to the main story, there are numerous tie-ins - most of which don't have to be read to understand the core narrative. That said, the Fantastic Four Blood Hunt tie-in will be a real treat for fans of Reed Richards and his role in Marvel Rivals, showing how Mister Fantastic adapts to the vampire invasion of New York City.

Buy Blood Hunt on Amazon

Savage Avengers

Marvel Rivals puts players on a ragtag squad of Marvel heroes and villains teaming up on an adventure that takes them through numerous timelines and worlds of the Multiverse. And that's the exact vibe of 2021's Savage Avengers by writer David Pepose and artist Carlos Magno, which sends a team of unlikely Avengers to the timeline of none other than Conan the Barbarian as they go on the run from Deathlok, a cyborg assassin from the future sent to eliminate temporal anomalies.

With a team that's led by Elektra in her current role as Daredevil and which also includes Anti-Venom, Cloak & Dagger, Wolverine/Hulk hybrid Weapon H, and classic Avenger the Black Knight, there's plenty for fans of Marvel Rivals to sink their teeth into - including the evolution of Cloak & Dagger's friendship into a romance. And with a second volume that takes them into a team-up with Punisher 2099 (one of the coolest alternate skins in Marvel Rivals) in a dystopian future, it's the perfect comic for fans of the game.

Buy Savage Avengers on Amazon

West Coast Avengers

Jeff the Land Shark is unquestionably the breakout star of Marvel Rivals thanks to his adorably vicious presence and his meme-worthy ultimate ability (even if he's not at the top of the tier-list). If you're a new Jeff fan, Marvel Comics has more than its share of Land Shark stories for you, including his very own It's Jeff! comic. But we'll go back to the start and suggest that readers take a look at 2018's West Coast Avengers by writer Kelly Thompson and multiple artists, featuring a spin-off team of Earth's Mightiest Heroes led by Hawkeye.

Not only does the team have their first encounter with Jeff, who quickly becomes their mascot of sorts, but they also run afoul of villains such as BRODOK, a hunky clone of MODOK with a buff body to go with his big ol' noggin. It's a delightfully entertaining read and an easy breezy entry into a different side of the Marvel Universe for fans of the silly - but still exciting - bits of Marvel Rivals.

Buy West Coast Avengers on Amazon

King in Black

The symbiote homeworld of Klyntar is the most cosmically creepy setting in Marvel Rivals, with its shifting, organic walls and mountains of symbiotic slime, and a story that involves the Guardians of the Galaxy and Eddie Brock dealing with the absence of Knull, the so-called King in Black. And, of course, Knull and his reign as the lord of the symbiotes are taken straight from comics.

The 2020 comic event King in Black by writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman brings Knull and his symbiote monsters to Earth on a mission of conquest, with Eddie Brock leading Marvel's most powerful heroes in the resistance against him. The story redefined the Venom mythos forever, and even provided inspiration for the recent film Venom: The Last Dance (check out our Venom: The Last Dance review for more info on that).

Buy King in Black on Amazon

Civil War

Marvel Rivals is all about the clash of hero against hero. While there are certainly villains in the game (like the notoriously deadly Hela), top Marvel heroes like Captain America and Iron Man form the core of the team's extensive roster of characters. And when it comes to Marvel heroes squaring off against each other, there's no bigger story than 2006's Civil War, in which the aforementioned Steve Rogers and Tony Stark find themselves on opposite sides of an ideological conflict that eventually leads to blows.

The concept is familiar to Marvel fans at this point, with the film Captain America: Civil War taking its cues from the now classic comic event. But there's nothing like digging into the original comic story itself, which is even bigger than the movie it inspires. Centered around numerous Marvel heroes picking sides in the fight, recent Marvel Rivals additions Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman even find themselves on opposing sides. It's an intense and important chapter in Marvel history. And of course, if you're in the mood for the MCU after reading it, you can check out our Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline, and our guide to watching all the Marvel movies and shows in order.

Buy Civil War on Amazon

Secret Wars (2015)

When it comes to stories of Marvel's Multiverse colliding, there are none bigger or more bombastic than 2015's Secret Wars by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Esad Ribić, which takes its name from the original 1985 Marvel event. In the modern version, Doctor Doom manages to save the Multiverse from destruction by recombining pieces of it into a totally new realm called Battleworld - over which he holds omnipotent power.

Pieces of Secret Wars have already made it into Marvel Rivals, including Captain America's Gladiator skin, taken directly from one of the series' tie-in comics, so it's safe to say the story is an inspiration to say the least. And for fans of the game, it's sure to hold more than its share of thrills as Doom is opposed by Reed Richards and the Fantastic Four, as well as a Multiversal collection of heroes and villains, all leading to the entire reality of Marvel Comics being rebuilt from the ground up. Secret Wars will also be the inspiration for the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars film.

Buy Secret Wars on Amazon

Avengers Forever

Marvel Rivals season 0 set the stakes of the game as revolving around two warring versions of Doctor Doom, each enlisting Marvel heroes and villains and their variants from across the Multiverse to do battle for their opposing sides. And though it's not the most well-known of all the stories on this list, few comic events capture that energy the same way as writer Kurt Busiek and artist Carlos Pacheco's late '90s masterpiece, Avengers Forever.

In Avengers Forever, Kang the Conqueror goes to war with his variant, Immortus, who enlists a collection of Marvel heroes from across multiple eras to fight against his conquering doppelganger with the fate of the timestream hanging in the balance. As a bonus, the 2021 title Avengers Forever serves as a spiritual sequel, with a massive team of Avengers from different timelines coming together to fight Doctor Doom's Multiversal Masters of Evil.

Buy Avengers Forever on Amazon

A patch out today, January 14, brings a refreshed main menu for The Sims 4, designed to remove the "clutter" and better prioritize some key buttons. "New Game / Resume Game has moved from right to left, as have a few of the other navigation options," an EA blog post explains. "Home, Events and Store can be found at the top, along with the Options panel in the far right."

Here's another nice detail in the revised menu: "The Sims in the center are your last played household Sims, all of them!" Look at them go.

Today's update also brings miscellaneous memory and performance improvements as well as a refresh of the base game homes. Townie Homes in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs have been "updated and renovated," but you can still use the "Legacy" versions if you want via My Library. New games using these homes will automatically use the updated versions, and you can update your existing saves by manually placing the new homes via My Library.

Another update scheduled for February 4, the series' anniversary proper, promises a "huge" batch of content headlined by over 70 new in-game items which will be free to all players. The collection covers hairstyles, clothing, and accessories for a wide range of Sims, from toddlers to adults, per a separate blog post.

February 4 will also kickstart a limited-time "Blast from the Past" event packing additional items "inspired by iconic items from the 2000s, like a milk carton, telephone, alarm clock, triple-tiered birthday cake, and inflatable chair and loveseat."

Additionally, an interim patch of sorts coming Thursday, January 16 promises three new Kits: "The Secret Sanctuary and Casanova Cave Kits, which will include a mix of Build Buy and Create a Sim items inspired by iconic Sims characters, plus the Comfy Gamer Kit, created in collaboration with lilsimsie!"

After waking up to the first Sims 3 update from EA in 10 years, all fans can think about is the potential for more: "So it begins."

So far, NetEase in general has been pretty hands-off when it comes to balance in Marvel Rivals - although it did get its first balance patch with Season 1 - and that approach very much extends to the game's lovable but also very hateable anti-hero, Jeff the Shark. If you've played Marvel Rivals for any length of time, you're familiar with the uniquely frustrating and humiliating experience that is being sucked up by Jeff's ult and spat off the side of a cliff.

If you haven't played Marvel Rivals, well, Jeff is a big dumb shark with a stupid cute smile that can occasionally dive beneath the surface of the map and then resurface and swallow enemies whole. Any Jeff worth their saltwater will then swim over to the edge of the map and spit those enemies out to their swift and demoralizing deaths. It's a brutal move even by the standards of ultimates, and it sounds like NetEase doesn't have any plans to tone it down.

Asked by Metro if there are any plans for a Jeff the Shark ultimate nerf, game director Guangyun Chen dodged the question and instead offered up some advice.

"We actually have an interesting tip for how to avoid Jeff’s ultimate," Chens aid. "Make sure you keep your formation spread out and as soon as you hear Jeff saying 'Nom, Nom, Nom' before he unleashes the ultimate, you want to scatter away. And don't hesitate to use your Mobility skills if you need to.

"And, if you have a teammate or two who unfortunately gets swallowed by Jeff, and you've also done a good job spreading out your whole team beforehand, it means that only a few teammates will get caught.

"So, in that case, there's still a chance to take him down and rescue your buddy before he drags them to the end of the map. It's all about that teamwork and timing. Hitting all these specific timings will really help turn the tide."

Basically, just keep your distance from Jeff the Shark's gaping maw and you should be good. Thanks, boss.

I wish I had better advice for dealing with Jeff, but frankly, as an Iron Man main who primarily kites people from a distance and then bombs 'em with an ult every few minutes and doesn't pay enough attention to what my team's doing (yes, I'm the problem), I'm mostly immune to Jeff's tricks. But yeah, uh, running away will usually work.

Marvel Rivals will get new heroes every 6 weeks, game director says.

Lunar Remastered Collection hits PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC digitally on April 18 for $49.99 / €49.99. The physical editions will be slightly more expensive, with a $5 / €5 upcharge, featuring reversible cover art illustrated by series artist Toshiyuki Kubooka. In the US, those physical versions will be available exclusively through Amazon.

The collection includes both Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete, based on the PS1 versions of the games. Those PS1 versions are probably the most familiar to English-speaking fans of the series, but despite the series' beloved status, neither of them ever got an official console re-release in the decades that followed their original launch - perhaps stemming from their rather convoluted localization history. The first Lunar was remade on GBA in 2002, then remade again on PSP in 2010, and ported to iOS in 2012, but none of those versions quite satisfied fans' desire to revisit the originals.

No, until Lunar Remastered Collection, the only real options to revisit either game were piracy or braving the prices on eBay. PS1 copies of the originals tend to sell for anywhere between $100 and $200 apiece on the secondhand market, depending on whether you just want the games themselves or you want all the bonus goodies that were packed in.

If you wanted to play both games legally on a console, then you'd then be looking at spending between $200 and $400 for the privilege. $50 might seem a little pricey for a remaster collection in 2025, but given the alternative, that starts to sound like a downright appealing price.

These are the best JRPGs to check out today.

Given its pedigree, some people have understandably drawn comparisons to The Witcher 4 on the heels of its own full reveal, with some folks transparently looking to dismiss or divide. The devs who are still at CDPR working on games like The Witcher 4 aren't having any of it, instead stressing the mutual support between them and Rebel Wolves.

"Anyone trying to pit these games against one another is doing the devil's work," said The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 quest designer Patrick Mills. "These teams have a long history together, we hang out together, we play games together, our group chats are full of kudos to the respective teams. Nothing but love here."

In a follow-up post, Mills zeroed in on one of the louder minorities in this needless debate: "Culture war gonna culture war but these games have shared lineage and shared values." CDPR senior communication manager Pawel Burza chimed in with a simple question: why not both?

The Witcher 4 narrative director Philipp Weber echoed Mills' point in his own post, again sharing a tweet from user Michael Loda. "We joked today with [Dawnwalker creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz] about how the eyes in darkness for both our trailers used references from Midnight Mass to sell the idea early on," Weber said. "Lots of devs between our two games and studios are friends, and we like to see our friends succeed!"

Tomaszkiewicz also waded into the discussion, agreeing with Loda's post arguing that "both [games] can exist together. One doesn't mean the other is dead. It's not a competition. Have some respect." Likewise, Rebel Wolves marketing lead Paweł Panasiuk shared Loda's post and added: "Thank you for this."

The correct response to these loosely parallel RPGs is, of course, the same response to getting two cakes on your birthday – two cakes we know just next to nothing about, mind. Just enjoy having two cakes! And ignore anyone who says you have to pick one because they're too angry to enjoy two cakes.

10 years later, "around 100" Witcher 3 devs are still at CD Projekt Red working on games like The Witcher 4 .

Super Smash Bros Ultimate will be seven years old this December, if you can believe it, but I'm still in awe at the sheer amount of stuff that the devs included. Alongside the endlessly replayable main fighting mode, we got a full-fledged campaign, the return of every fighter who'd ever featured in the series, a further 12 DLC characters to pack out an enormous 82-character roster, and much, much more. It's the sort of game that could keep you busy forever if you wanted it to, which makes sense considering Sakurai's latest comments in an interview with Japanese site Nikkei Cross Trend.

In the interview (translated by Google and verified using DeepL), Sakurai talks about the importance of considering a game's "volume," noting that he plays other developers' games to the end as often as he can. This helps give an idea of "the volume of modern games," as well as how satisfying they are to complete, he says. 

Although you can certainly get an understanding of how a game works just from playing a bit of it, Sakurai argues that approach would mean you don't really know "how many hours it can be played, how much fun it offers," and how it evolves unless you complete it. 

He reiterates that a game's volume is "something that should not be underestimated," although that's clearly not just to ensure players are kept busy, as he notes that it influences manpower and the costs behind it. It's for this reason that he thinks it's "important to be able to show the approximate volume estimate" from a game's proposal stage. 

We already know that Sakurai is working on his next game, although we don't know what it's going to be, or how big it is. Based on these latest comments, though, it sounds like the developer himself must have a good idea of that by now – after all, it's apparently been in development since August 2022.

Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai says he'll make a game "even if it's the opposite of what I like," because "you have to think of it as work, not entertainment."

In a new interview with YouTube channel Kiwi Talkz, Mejillones laments that the process of designing werewolves for Skyrim was originally "going in a really south direction."

"It was bad," he continues. "I mean, it was really bad, and a lot of people were like, 'Oh man, this is bad.'" So, needless to say, it was bad. Having only seen the final product, I think that Skyrim's werewolves are a perfect encapsulation of the action RPG's balance of savagery and fantasy. But Bethesda's first design for them was more of a science experiment – Mejillones says it "just had a head of a dog on a person, on a human body, with human hands and everything."

So he took matters into his own human hands. The werewolves were about to be cut from Skyrim, but Mejillones didn't want to let go. He imagined the player's transformation into the moonlight beast as a "power trip" Skyrim was otherwise missing.

"So I created a big, brute animal werewolf, and [animator Jeremy Bryant] and I worked on bringing this thing together in the game." They worked long nights putting together a playable demo that they kept secret until the opportunity to show director Todd Howard came up.

"We literally just started the game up, gave him the controller, gave him a few instructions on the werewolf," Mejillones says. "He looked at it, and he was like, 'This is fucking awesome.'" And the werewolves were saved.

Skyrim's iconic opening was done by Starfield's quest lead, but only after he was brutally called out for "everything we're doing wrong" in front of the Bethesda team.

Warhorse reaffirmed on Twitter that the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 script is over 2,200,000 words, correcting an older figure shared by YouTuber ESO_Danny (thanks, 80 Level). Director Daniel Vávra shared that same 2,200,000 figure back in August 2024. The image of ESO_Danny standing next to the game's entire script, printed out for the benefit of the game's cast, certainly sells just how massive this thing is.

Guinness itself has verified Baldur's Gate 3's record for longest video game script at over 2,000,000 words, and I guess we'll have to wait for it or some other kind of third-party verification on the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 script before we can truly declare a winner in this race.

For its part, it doesn't seem like Larian will be too sad to lose this one. Asked by a fan if the studio's attempting to break the record again, publishing director Michael 'Cromwelp' Douse says on Twitter "I hope THEY do! Cannot wait for KCD2."

Nobody's going to have to wait much longer, as Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is set to hit PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on February 4.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a bigger, better historical medieval RPG that could do for the Czech Republic what The Witcher has done for Poland.

For me, nothing beats driving in first-person in CD Projekt Red's RPG. I feel completely immersed in the front seat of my trusty Hella EC-D 1360 vehicle – or any one of the beauties I buy from the autofixer with my hard-earned eddies – as I soak in the passing sights of NC from my windshield. I tend to go from car to car depending on what mood takes me, but I appreciate how each one provides a slightly different driving experience. From the design of the interiors to the shape of the steering wheels, or the varying sizes and max speeds of the different models, I like how larger vehicles are weightier, while the sporty numbers feel silky smooth on the roads.

But just when I thought I couldn't possibly love driving in the Cyberpunk 2077 more than I already do, the 2.2 update came along late last year to introduce a feature I didn't know I sorely wanted. Now, I'm not always cruising along in the metropolis solo, because Johnny Silverhand will often join me as a passenger as I get from A to B. And lately, I've come to appreciate the way his appearances bring a sense of companionship to my roadtrips that cuts through the inherent loneliness of Night City.

Riding shotgun

As V remarks, "friends are hard to come by in Night City". Whether you're a Corpo, Streetkid, or Nomad, you can count the number of people you can trust on one hand. While there's companionship to be found in Judy, Panam, River, Kerry – and to a lesser extent Viktor Vektor and Misty – there's really only one constant figure throughout CD Projekt Red's RPG who's permanently by your side. I am of course talking about the one and only Johnny Silverhand. His company may be forced on you since his engram is lodged in your head, and he may not exactly always have your best interests at heart to begin with, but without his presence, V's existence in the neon-tinted metropolis would be even more solitary.

It admittedly took me some time to become attached to Johnny. He's not exactly likeable at first blush, coming across as an arrogant, abrasive figure who appears to want to take over your body to finish what he started half a century ago. But over the course of my 800-some hours in the street-worn shoes of various different V incarnations, I've warmed up to the rockerboy. Rather than the antagonist I thought he was, he feels like a close, flawed friend that keeps me company as I navigate the relentless dangers of NC.

As much as I might have resisted him at first, Silverhand completely won me over – to the point that I always relish any story moments, gigs, or side jobs where he pops up and actively takes part. While that can sometimes come in the form of his construct appearing to make snarky comments, he also often expresses his opinion or offers some advice (whether it's wanted or not) about a certain conversation or event you're right in the middle of. I always enjoy how this makes him feel like a companion who's going through it all right alongside you – and he is, indirectly, since he sees and hears everything you do.

Backseat driving

I also appreciate how Silverhand feels even more involved in the Phantom Liberty expansion. Dogtown is a sea of grey, and trustworthy figures are even more scarce in the district, but it always feels like Johnny has your back… or at the very least consistently urges you to consider your actions carefully to keep yourself – and by extension him – safe. Having him appear is a small touch in the grand scheme of things, but it just makes him feel more companionable. It's not a new habit for him, since in some of the memorable quests or side jobs in the base game, Johnny joins you in your car – such as the time you drive out to help Mitch fulfill his best friend Scorpion's last request, or when he appears in the back seat of Panam's beloved Thornton as you set out to bring down an airborne convoy.

As an engram that's with you 24/7, it makes perfect sense that he'd occasionally appear during your travels. For me, Silverhand's presence is the cherry on top of my favorite pastime. There's something quite reassuring about him popping up and telling me he's missed me as I make my way through the mean streets of NC, and the way he reacts to my driving habits just adds to the sense of immersion. He's told me off for speeding a few times now, and I couldn't help but laugh when he lamentedly said "V" with such disappointment when I crashed onto the pavement. I promise, I'm a better driver in-game than this is making me sound.

Cyberpunk 2077's 2.2 update sure was a big surprise late last year, but I'll be forever thankful it enabled Johnny Silverhand to join me during my travels. Friends might be hard to come by in Night City, but at least we have our sometimes faithful rockerboy to fill our passenger seats from now on.

Every time I replay Cyberpunk 2077's most unsettling quest, I'm reminded why it's a firm favorite.

All over social media, the Mikupocalypse has begun. No matter where I scroll, I see her. I've lost count of how many clips I've seen of her hitting the Griddy. "This is the greatest game of all time," one player proclaims, demonstrating Miku's moves. "I have tears in my eyes. I have been waiting years for this moment," says another. 

Miku has two of her own official emotes – Miku Miku Beam, which uses music from Magical Cure! Love Shot! and Miku Live, which uses a portion of Anamanaguchi's 'Miku' song. Obviously, a large part of the thrill with Fortnite is how you can see crossovers within crossovers. I totally get the hype – I cannot emphasize enough the excitement I felt when loading up the game on my lunch break just to make the virtual pop star dance to Hot To Go. I'm definitely not alone, though – please, bask in the glory of her performing the Lethal Company dance and The Real Slim Shady.

Unfortunately for Miku fans, if you want to own every single one of her themed items, it's not going to come cheap. She has two skins – one exclusive to the 1,400 V-Buck Music Pass, and another in the item shop that you can buy as a standalone for 1,500 V-Bucks, or part of a bundle. 

The bundle comes with her emotes, two instruments, a song, and an admittedly incredible contrail that'll blast World is Mine when you jump out of the Battle Bus for, ahem, 3,200 V-Bucks. It's rather a lot, and that's actually been given a hefty discount, as each individual item would cost 5,200 V-Bucks otherwise. However, that's not including her upcoming car bundle, which doesn't appear to be in the item shop yet. If you want all of that stuff, well, I hope you've been saving up those Battle Pass rewards. 

If you want to get your hands on all the XP you can in the battle royale, be sure to check out our guide to Fortnite quests in Chapter 6 Season 1. 

Speaking to the Metro, game director Guangyun Chen says the seasonal model for Marvel Rivals is to roll out "fresh seasonal stories, new maps, and new heroes," but there's more to be gleaned. While each season lasts three months, they'll be split in half, and for every half of the season, NetEase wants to introduce a new hero.

"We just eventually want to continue to enhance the experience, and, you know, keep everyone excited in our community," Chen says.

Keeping up a cadence of a new hero every six weeks seems like a tall order, though NetEase has plenty of material to draw on given Marvel's back catalog. That said, as per our guide for Marvel Rivals upcoming characters, the plan is already in motion. Season 1 kicked off by introducing Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, while The Thing and the Human Torch will have to sit on the bench until the season's halfway point. It's likely we won't always get four new heroes a season, though a minimum of two is still a decent shift.

Although he acknowledges the community feedback, Chen doesn't confirm if a balance between Duelists, Vanguards, and Strategists will level out after introducing so many heroes.

"Our choice of heroes will be guided by the overall gameplay experience or theme that we want to create for each season," he says. "So it’ll revolve around the season, and right now, at post-launch, we have eight Vanguards and seven Strategists at launch. The team believes that it gives the players a solid variety for tactical match-ups or team composition. Having more Duelists at the moment will definitely enhance the Duelist experience, letting players dive a little bit deeper into that aspect.

"So lastly, big shout out to our community, as we’ve seen a lot of feedback as we look ahead to future seasons, starting with Season One, we would definitely keep this in mind when introducing new heroes, and we would make want to make sure that everyone feels heard and excited."

Unlike Overwatch, Marvel Rivals boss insists, "We believe no role queue will lead to a richer gaming experience for everyone."

The unspoken promise is that Lost Records: Bloom & Rage will take the heart of Don't Nod's most famous series, and mold it into something new yet equally mesmerizing. A narrative adventure split between two time periods, it's once again a tale that will revolve around love, choices, secrets, and danger. A group of friends in the 1990s has little to worry about apart from music, boredom, and bullies until… something happens. Something that they agree must be kept secret from the rest of the world, which leads to them vowing to live their lives apart. Until, that is, the arrival of a mysterious package forces them to reluctantly break that vow and reunite 27 years later, in the town where it all began.

Bloom box

Bloom & Rage will be an episodic release, split into two 'tapes'. This is in part to encourage discussion amongst fans between the two releases, much as fans of a TV show in the 1990s would chat about their favorite series while waiting for the next episode. "It created a sense of community around a piece of media, a piece of art," explains studio creative director Michel Koch, "but also increased the strength of storytelling, giving time to think about what we experienced. It made the art go further than just the hour-long episode, [...] A lot of today's media is done the opposite way, everything needs to be immediate, fully available, and I think it reduces the possibilities to get immersed in a work of fiction, you barely start to get in then poof, you are already out and looking at the next product to absorb".

Koch explains that the story structure incorporates a 'Bloom' element and a 'Rage' element, further supporting the idea of a two-part release. More literally, the Bloom & Rage of the title is the name of the band that the group develops as teenagers. You'll get to see them in action and, yes, listen to them play. As Swann, you encounter Bloom & Rage when the band, still in its infancy, is in the early stages of writing a song ('See You In Hell') that plays an important part in the story.

"The first demo Nora [Kelly] sent us blew us away," says studio executive producer Luc Baghadoust, "with its 90’s grunge vibes, its catchy lyrics, and a chorus that you have trouble getting out of your head. [...] Once Nora and her band completed the recording of the song in the studio, the fun part is that our audio lead Beatrix asked the band to play some of its parts badly, in order to get material for the game, to use them in different scenes and recreate the magic of a new song being composed."

In addition, there will be era-appropriate licensed tracks, and an original score featuring contributions from Ruth Radelet and Milk & Bone. While you'll get to participate in the writing of Bloom & Rage's See You In Hell to an extent, your character – Swann – is more comfortable as a music video director. Like Life is Strange's Max, she's constantly capturing life through a lens, although her weapon of choice is a video camera rather than a photographic one.

"You have a list of subjects Swann wants to cover and film before she leaves at the end of the summer," Koch explains, "and as a player you'll need to find those elements and film them the way you want. You can frame and time those at your will, do a new shot and replace a previous one, reorder the videos to create mini documentaries about various topics. [...] As the summer gets darker and more mysterious, the camcorder will become a tool to help Swann and her friends along their journey: using it as a flashlight, showing some videos to others to unlock situations, or looking through your videos to remember things."

And if you remember the 1990s yourself? The teen sections of the game will give you the most satisfying of nostalgia hits, in terms of both music and pop culture references. But there's more to the dual timeline narrative than that. "Having the opportunity to explore both timelines and ages at the same time, with the way our story and gameplay is setup, allows us for the first time to tell a coming of age story," says Koch. "We are using the premise of this story, this mystery, in a way that allows us to put the player in the shoes of both adult and teenage Swann, trying to remember this summer, and while doing so, you as a player will recreate this summer, what happened, what kind of teenager Swann was, and how you found your place within this new group of friends."

I played Lost Records: Bloom & Rage for 90 minutes and I'm already attached to its relatable cast, in love with its '90s vibes, and obsessed with the camcorder

"He was trying his best," Palworld global community manager Adam Buckley tells Polygon. At the time, the game's entire dev team was just 35 people, and that's with external developers included. None of them expected the runaway start that made Palworld the third-biggest Steam launch of all time, to say nothing of the Xbox audience which broke 7 million total players by the end of January, and nobody on this planet is ever truly prepared for a launch of this size. Big online games always break for a reason.

Palworld's player count quickly blitzed past 100,000 after the game went live, and that's when the technical problems started to compound. "Throughout the night it kept going," Buckley recalls. "And there was a point, definitely after midnight because a few of us had gone home who lived far away, that the servers broke. That was around a million."

Server host Epic Games worked with Pocketpair to help stabilize the game, and despite some connection and lag issues, Palworld was generally playable for most players outside its absolute lowest dips. "It was a lot of intense lag, but Epic was amazing," Buckley says. "They super quickly allocated more resources to us and they helped out."

Recently, Pocketpair has been wrangling a different Palworld problem: a Nintendo lawsuit which has already seen the dev issue two updates that seem to quietly distance the hit survival game from the patent infringements alleged by Nintendo. Capturing and deploying Pals works a bit differently now, but the game is largely the same mix of survival-craft shooting under the hood.

Despite Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit rumbling on in the background, developer Pocketpair releases its old roguelike card game on the Switch.

Although the Marvel Rivals devs "wanted to move away" from its Duelist, Vanguard, and Strategist roles being traditional DPS, Tank, and Support roles with different names, ultimately, teams still have to find a balance with what characters they pick if they want to fight effectively. However, simply due to the fact that there are so many Duelist heroes, a lot of people want to play as Duelists, which quickly ignited the debate within the fanbase over whether imposing role limits of some sort might be a good idea.

Creative director Guangyun 'Guangguang' Chen previously spoke out about this, noting that – as of December, at least – the team was "not considering a role queue," with the overall goal being "to offer a wider variety of team composition through team-up skills and their own designs," and not limit players. Chen has now doubled down on this sentiment in an interview with Metro, acknowledging that "the community is discussing role lock and role queue," but "At its core, it's really about the game balance."

Chen reiterates that the team wants to offer "more line-up or more team comp possibilities through our hero design and our team-up mechanic. So, we'll be taking a little bit more of a Marvel-inspired approach." He adds: "It's all about giving the players the freedom to experiment and find their unique strategies, as we've seen in many games and streams. Post-launch, people have been exploring an indefinite amount of team compositions, and we're excited about what's coming, we believe no role queue will lead to a richer gaming experience for everyone."

Overwatch also launched with no role queue – it actually took over three years for it to be added. For now though, it seems like Marvel Rivals is steering well clear of this path, and with its popularity so far, that move clearly isn't detrimental. 

For more games like Marvel Rivals, be sure to check out our roundup of the best online games you can play right now.

How to get Hatsune Miku in Fortnite via the Item Shop

The most direct way to get Hatsune Miku in Fortnite is to purchase her from the Item Shop, where you have a choice of picking up individual cosmetics or the complete Hatsune Miku Bundle for a significant overall saving. The items available and their prices are as follows:

• Hatsune Miku Bundle - 5,200 3,200 V-Bucks
  • Hatsune Miku outfit (with Lego style) and Pack-sune Miku back bling - 1,500 V-Bucks
  • Miku Live emote - 500 V-Bucks
  • Miku Miku Beam emote - 500 V-Bucks
  • Miku Light contrail - 600 V-Bucks
  • Miku's Beat Drums - 800 V-Bucks
  • Hatsune's Mic-u - 800 V-Bucks
  • Miku jam track by Anamanaguchi, Hatsune Miku - 500 V-Bucks

Note that if you purchase any of those items individually, the price of the Fortnite Hatsune Miku Bundle will be reduced accordingly, so if you decide to upgrade to the bundle later then you won't pay more than 3,200 V-Bucks overall. These cosmetics will be available in the Item Shop until March 12, 2025, so you have time to save up for them if you don't want to splash out straight away.

How to get Hatsune Miku in Fortnite via the Music Pass

The other route to get Hatsune Miku in Fortnite is to buy the Season 7 Music Pass, which will either set you back 1,400 V-Bucks as a one-off purchase or is included as part of the Fortnite Crew subscription that costs $11.99 / £9.99 per month. This will immediately reward you with the Neko Hatsune Miku outfit (with Lego style) and make other items available, though you'll need to level up your account in order to claim them. A complete list of the Hatsune Miku items available through the Season 7 Music Pass is as follows:

• Neko Hatsune Miku outfit (with Lego style)
• Miku Speaker emoticon
• Miku On Stage loading screen [also available with the free Music Pass]
• It's Miku! spray
• Neko Miku Keytar back bling, pickaxe, and keytar
• Leek-To-Go back bling
• Miku Brite Keytar back bling, pickaxe, and keytar
• Neko Miku Guitar back bling, pickaxe, and guitar
• Magical Cure! Love Shot! jam track
• Digital Dream spray
• Neko Hatsune Miku outfit extra style (with Lego style)

The Music Pass featuring Hatsune Miku is available until April 8, 2025, so again you don't have to rush into purchasing it. While you need to level up your account significantly to unlock all of the available rewards, your progress will be tracked through the free pass from the start of Music Pass Season 7 on January 14, so if you upgrade later then you should receive all of the premium items you would have unlocked up to that point.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Officially titled Pokémon Horizons: Season 2 – The Search for Laqua, the show follows the two aspiring trainers as they travel the world in search of the remaining Six Hero Pokémon, and the legendary land of Laqua. But first they'll have to face a new challenge, the Tera Training, which prompts them to hone their Terastallization skills and battle the region’s powerful Gym Leaders.

If you can't wait to see what comes next for the characters and their high-stakes adventure, we're here to offer some help with our guide to Pokémon Horizons season 2's release plans on Netflix in the US and BBC iPlayer in the UK. Get your calendar ready.

For more, check out how to watch Pokémon in order, and our ranking of the best anime movies.

Pokemon Horizons release date: when is season 2 on Netflix and BBC iPlayer?

Pokémon Horizons season 2 premieres on Netflix in the US on February 7, 2025, including the first 11 episodes.

In the UK, the first part of Pokémon Horizons season 2 is already available to watch on BBC iPlayer (from January 13). In Canada, the season will debut on February 8 on Cartoon Network, while Australian fans will have to wait until February 27 via 9Go!.

The release date for the rest of episodes of the season is yet to be announced.

How many episodes of Pokemon Horizons are in season 2?

The first part of Pokémon Horizons season 2 consists of 11 episodes, but, as anime fans know, that's only a small part of what's to come.

According to the current Japanese release schedule, The Search for Laqua will run for 37 episodes. This is likely to change, considering that the first season, released in 2023, had 45 episodes.

Where can I watch Pokemon Horizons?

The first season of Pokémon Horizons: The Series is now available to watch on Netflix in the US.

In the UK, the first season is available to stream on Sky Go, while the first part of season 2 has been released on BBC iPlayer.

For more, check out the picks for the best anime you should be watching right now, and all the latest on Jujutsu Kaisen season 3 and One-Punch Man season 3.

Koster certainly knows his stuff when it comes to MMORPGs. Beyond serving as the creative director of Star Wars Galaxies – an open world Star Wars MMO that existed long before Star Wars Outlaws, and survived for a solid eight years before its shutdown in 2011 – he was also the original creative lead of the fantasy MMORPG Ultima Online. However, when he first announced his new game, Stars Reach, he said: "This is the game I have wanted to make for nearly thirty years." 

Stars Reach has been in development for five years now from Koster's own studio, Playable Worlds, and up to this point, it's been funded by investors. Explaining the decision to launch a Kickstarter, Koster states on Bluesky: "We're doing this because the climate for games investment is terrible."

After five years of development, Koster says the team is "reasonably close to the finish line," and the game is already a hit with those who've been playing it over the last six months, as he notes: "I haven't seen feedback this positive since when I did Ultima Online." Based on its Steam and Kickstarter descriptions, you can understand why – the galaxy itself is "vast," and "no two planets are the same." Players can permanently reshape the space around them, with shared multiplayer environments "fully persistent, and fully modifiable." Whether you chop down a tree or construct a building, you're making a massive impact on the world.

Beyond exploring and living life on the various planets, you'll also be able to craft items, fight aliens, and even be elected as the "mayor of a town or the governor of a world" thanks to the leadership skill tree. It sounds incredibly ambitious, but Koster says: "We are true believers in what we are doing."

The Kickstarter campaign hasn't begun just yet – as highlighted by Massively Overpowered, it was revealed in a Fireside Chat earlier this week that it's not planned to start for another month, but those interested can sign up to be notified when it does. 

In the meantime, be sure to check out our picks for the best MMORPGs you can play now.

After all, FromSoftware has mastered the art of smartly recycling its bosses. And, loath as I am to admit it, there are few bosses as worthy of a comeback as the Nameless King. His battle – where you must dodge lightning, spears and a dragon atop a mountain's summit – is one of the studio's coolest boss fights to day, and although I'd rather watch the headlights of an 18-wheeler bearing down on me from the tarmac than see the Nameless King divebomb me once more, the spectacle is undeniable. His return also suggests that in Elden Ring Nightreign, FromSoftware will spend 2025 doubling down on one of its guiding philosophies: if something is cool, do it again.

Everyone is here!

As anyone who's killed their fair share of Tree Sentinels and Erdtree Burial Watchdogs will attest to, Elden Ring is no stranger to recycled bosses. These reused battles tend to take place in optional areas of the game, and if you're lucky, make slight tweaks to the original fight (the classic being: oh great, now there's two of them).

Done poorly, this would dilute the identity of each fight and take opportunities for discovery from players exploring The Lands Between. Instead, we get an upping of the world's stakes: we soon pick up on these minibosses being able to appear anywhere, which lets FromSoftware sprinkle boss fights into areas that may otherwise have gone without. For the most part these bosses also tend to be optional, which means that the core journey from stepping into Limgrave to rolling credits largely flows from one unique boss fight to the next. The only real exception to this is in Shadow of the Erdtree, where Radahn returns as Promised Consort Radahn. Even then, the fight is so drastically different – and crucial from a narrative perspective – that it shouldn't really be considered a rerun in any traditional sense.

Though Elden Ring is FromSoftware's boldest shot at repetition by design, it's something the studio has played with since the days of Dark Souls' Black Knights. Just look at Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which uses bosses like Genichiro Ashina and the Guardian Ape to establish familiarity before pulling the rug. I understand why some players don't enjoy returning bosses as much, but disagree with those who label it lazy – particularly for Elden Ring's dungeons and open-world areas. I can only imagine how challenging it is to keep the scope of a huge game like Elden Ring feasible, and in many cases, the alternative to a repeating miniboss is that there would be no boss there at all (that is, if we ever wanted Elden Ring to release in our lifetime).

If the cyclical nature of Elden Ring Nightreign gives FromSoftware room to dabble in wilder comebacks, I'm all for it. Is that the first Dark Souls' Centipede Demon I spy in the trailer? Will we see Father Gascoigne elbow-drop Mohg from the top rope? Hell, let's scare everyone with a shield build by bringing Gencichiro back for round four. If we're going big on the battle royale mechanics – yes, you fly into the map and have to avoid a shrinking circle – then why not go full Fortnite and make it the who's who of Soulslikes? I don't want Nightreign to awkwardly force its way into the same circles that FromSoftware's other games already dominate – I'd much prefer it uses its black sheep status to celebrate the studio's rogues' gallery of bastards.

Before Nightreign's reveal trailer, I didn't think I'd ever be happy to see the Nameless King again. But – and I say this through gritted teeth – it is incredibly cool to see him free of Archdragon Peak. By once again taking the familiar and twisting it anew, Nightreign has potential to be the most groundbreaking reinvention we've seen for Soulslike in years. That alone makes Nightreign worth counting down the days for, but it also solves a question that's been hanging over FromSoftware since Elden Ring's vast mainstream success. How do you follow up from one of the best single-player games of all time? It's simple: you don't.

Elden Ring Nightreign's blend of roguelikes and battle royales could leave other studios kicking themselves – assuming FromSoftware can overcome its biggest weakness

Anime Life Sim isn't at all what it sounds like. It's not an anime-themed game featuring some fan-favorite protagonists or settings, but rather a series of ideas drawn substantially from Animal Crossing - from the gameplay detailed on its PlayStation Store page to the colorful visuals, Anime Life Sim screams New Horizons through and through. It features no mention of Nintendo's own title, however.

"Create your perfect anime life in this charming social simulation," reads the eerily similar project's description. "Build your dream home, befriend quirky animal neighbors, and live out endless adventures in a vibrant world inspired by your favorite life sims." In other words, it plays like New Horizons as much as it looks like it - it's all about bug catching, building, crafting, collecting, fishing, and befriending animal-esque villagers.

Anime Life Sim also isn't the first controversial title to come from developer and publisher Maksym Vysochanskyy, who trades under the alias "IndieGames3000." Just two months ago, eagle-eyed Monster Hunter fans spotted a suspicious game on the PlayStation Store dubbed "Monster Hunters." A post on Reddit highlights the now-removed Monster Hunters and its clear similarities to Capcom's legitimate, long-standing series.

They’re not even trying to hide it being a ripoff from r/MonsterHunter

Upon browsing through Vysochanskyy's library of releases on PS Deals, it becomes obvious that pretty much every single game operating under his name is a near-identical clone of another title.

It's all questionable, to say the least. Anime Life Sim likely won't come to fruition and launch in 2026 as it's supposedly meant to, however, judging by the fate of Monster Hunters. After all, it's not as though Nintendo takes such situations lightly. Palworld and the lawsuit filed against its developer Pocketpair for infringing "multiple patent rights" prove as much - and Palworld is arguably much tamer in comparison when considering similarities.

Looking for something new to play? Here are great games like Animal Crossing to check out.

The Alice: Asylum Design Bible PDF – a pitch on the third and final game in American McGee's Alice series, a haunted interpretation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 story Alice in Wonderland – warns that it is "completely subject to change." Yet the ensuing 414 pages are filled with preposterously minute detail of everything that would happen in Alice: Asylum from the moment you press "start" (the Bible opens with a title screen), to the seconds after the credits roll (the Bible reveals two secret endings).

The book was published online after six years of work, or "20,000 hours of effort," as McGee writes in the Bible's introduction, and so the black pages of the Bible show you everything you could ever want to know: how to use alchemy to grow restorative butterfly wings made of sunshine; elaborate sketches of how Alice can swim, flounce, and walk tightropes with the lightness of a cotton candy wisp; a necklace that sets Alice's hair on fire, enabling special attacks with names like Scorching Blade; what Alice looks like bald…

It's difficult to think of Alice: Asylum as anything other than what it's clearly desperate to be: a game. But after EA officially canceled the title in 2023 and denied McGee ownership of the Alice IP, Alice: Asylum will never become one.

Nonetheless, the Design Bible made an impression on me like one of Cupid's arrows – "pierced to the bones and marrow," as a translation of Roman poet Ovid says. Call me dramatic, but I already felt like I had a soul connection to the Victorian torment that is Alice: Madness Returns, the 2011 sequel that [spoilers] allows 19-year-old Alice to rather proudly shove her abuser in front of a train, as any girl should. But before murdering her despicable psychiatrist Dr. Bumby, Alice only ever kills in Wonderland, a treacherous daydream she falls into like a hidden universe and spends the majority of her days navigating.

So, inspired by the complicated stages of grief, Alice: Asylum explores the bilious aftermath of the murder in a way that soothes me on my own, sometimes mountainous path to healing from abuse and mental illness.

After encounters in Wonderland with both her fading inner child and the reality of her enraged 19-year-old self, who appears as a red-eyed shadow, Alice eventually finds a cave "where memories go to be recycled into the fertilizer that feeds imagination," the Bible says, marred by lumps of hard onyx and obsidian that imprison Alice's worst memories. "The Shadow does not want these memories to be processed," the Bible explains, "because, once processed, they form the basis for growth beyond the trauma."

I feel these words stick to my mind like the Alice series' iconic Vorpal Blade stays cemented to her hand. Like Alice, I have trouble accepting reality – a place where bad men win, where I get older, where there's no choice but to cry. Even so, reaching the last page of the Alice: Asylum Design Bible brings me a profound sense of peace, a kind I've never felt after finishing another action game. It's not only because I'm desperate to wear the short, buttoned mourning gown Alice wears with ripped tights and black ribbons in the "Depression" stage of the game, dirt up her arms. Though I am.

I simply see myself in Alice's journey of slow acceptance, which luxuriates in peace as often as it descends into chaos. Eventually, Alice and her Shadow merge like spilled gasoline finding a crack in the sidewalk, and true healing seems impossible until Alice's inner child shows up to offer a more gentle path forward.

"You are me," she says to corrupted older Alice. "I am you. And now, we two are one."

Here, Alice realizes that tears, kindness, flowers, and light still flow through her, alongside the rage. With her, I admit to myself that protecting your inner child isn't as simple as meditation YouTube videos may suggest – it's a battle. But there is that little rosebud inside of me that wants to live, and so I let it.

Do you prefer action games that actually exist? Try one of the 25 best action games you can play right now.

The Sims 3 has long stood the test of time now as one of the series' greats, but one problem in particular has plagued its stellar reputation as the creative pinnacle of EA's life sim gems - the game's inability to run properly on newer PC builds. And by newer PC builds, I'm talking about any computers coming from the last seven or eight years. The Sims 3, perhaps most infamously, offers no 64-bit support, but things could finally be looking up.

Just today, the EA App version of The Sims 3 received a minor patch. It doesn't do much, but it does address a long-standing issue that prevents players running on builds with more recent Intel processors from playing. The Alder Lake problem, as it's known, stops fans from getting into the game - now, thanks to the patch, users with higher-end Intel CPUs can play. While the update itself is minor, its effect on the community certainly isn't.

Longtime Simmers, myself included, are understandably excited by the potential now that an update has dropped after an entire decade of silence. Could a 64-bit version be in the works? Could better optimization for The Sims 3's stunning open world be underway? As beloved content creator and modder SimMattically writes himself in an online post on the patch, "so it begins" - or, more realistically, so we all hope that it does.

There's no telling what EA has in store just yet, or if there's anything more coming at all. It's surprising that the developers didn't release any official patch notes alongside the new build, which bumps the game to version 1.69.47.024017. While it might boil down to the update simply being too "minor" to warrant any notes, the ever-hopeful fan within me is choosing to look forward to what may never come - other changes and fixes.

Hopping back into the game after a decade? Here are the best Sims 3 cheats for a solid start.

In a new interview with Japanese site Nikkei Cross Trend (translated by Google, and verified with DeepL), Sakurai was asked what he thinks about when it comes to manufacturing games, and it primarily boils down to the "finished image" and "the users who will play it." 

"The job of making games is to create entertainment. However, if you are going to sell them, you have to think of it as work, not entertainment," he explains. "That's what it means to be a professional. Even if it's the opposite of what I like, I'll make it if it's necessary."

This does have a benefit for Sakurai, though, as he adds that he doesn't plan games based on his own preferences but rather with the ultimate goal of making players happy.

Going back to the point he makes about envisaging the final product, he notes that having "some idea" of what a game will look like when it's done is important, "because if you're making one big game, it's going to take years of time to figure out the path forward." This is also crucial if you're working with a team, since changing things part way through could confuse people. 

Back in October last year, Sakurai revealed that in the last three years, he'd completed a proposal for a new game, which has apparently been in development since August 2022. However, he didn't give away any details about it, and instead teased: "I'm sorry I can't share more about this project, but assuming that we're able to get it made, it should be announced sooner or later." 

Super Smash Bros creator says the $600k he spent on his YouTube channel was "an investment toward a brighter future for games," so it's fine he made no money off it.

Rebel Wolves was formed almost two years ago and the studio confirmed it had a new game in development almost a year ago to the day, but a new four-minute cinematic trailer fully lifted the lid on the project. In it, we see a young man carrying his baby sister through a medieval European town ravaged by plague and bloodthirsty vampires. After being stopped by armed guards who planned to kill his sister, the scene erupts into chaos as vampires attack and kill everyone except the man and his sister, who one vampire is able to heal using its hands.

"I am life. I am death. I am everything in between," the vampire snarls. "I have been watching your little valley. Pestilence. Famine. Killing. Blood spilled carelessly like water. Things will be different now for all of you."

The trailer is largely cinematic, but at the end we get a few brief glimpses of gameplay showing the protagonist fighting a few monsters, including something that looks like a biomechanical spider. Again, it's too brief to really extract anything meaningful from, but it's something.

"The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first chapter of Rebel Wolves’ brand new role-playing saga — a single-player open-world dark fantasy action-RPG with a strong focus on story and narrative," Rebel Wolves says, suggesting the game is being planned as the beginning of a new series.

Founded in 2022, Rebel Wolves is headed up by The Witcher 3 game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, who left CDPR in 2021 following accusations of bullying (via Eurogamer), and ex-Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewic. They're joined by fellow CDPR alums Bartłomiej Gaweł, art director on The Witcher 3 and Blood of Dawnwalker, and Jakub Szamałek, narrative director at Rebel Wolves. The studio's animation director, Tamara Zawada, left in 2024.

The Blood of Dawnwalker puts you in control of Coen, the man in the trailer, who is turned into a Dawnwalker, a human and vampire hybrid.

Tomaszkiewicz and Szamałek shared a few additional details in Dawnwalker's reveal stream. The world features a day/night cycle you'll need to carefully navigate as a Dawnwalker, and you'll also need to make sure you don't get too hungry - or you'll start feeding on your friends. Adding to that sense of urgency, you'll have 30 in-game days and 30 in-game nights to save your family. Thankfully, you can somewhat manage how quickly time moves by completing objectives that move the clock forward.

A full gameplay reveal is planned for Summer 2025.

In the meantime, here are the best RPGs you can (and should) play right now.

"L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle," or "a love that moves the sun and other stars," begins Hell Maiden's teaser trailer, which borrows the sugar-soaked line from Paradiso, the final section of the Divine Comedy. A pulsing red heart appears behind it, twisted in barbed wire that holds a burning candle.

For the rest of the trailer, AstralShift flashes previews of what's to come in Hell Maiden quickly, like a twitching eyeball: haloed angels swimming around the sun, a woman's outstretched hand breaking through a white rose, a falling star – no, a girl with fire in her eyes – raining down from the snowcaps of heaven.

In other words, I'm going to lose my mind. AstralShift hasn't yet shared much information about Hell Maiden's content yet, though it provides a short description of the game on the new Hell Maiden Twitter account: "Remembered as a grand poet of the Renaissance, Dante Alighieri once again embarks on a journey through the afterlife — this time, however, as one of Hell’s many sinners." Dante, in this case, being the aforementioned anime girl, whose black hair makes the shape of a giant bow while her dress is covered in brass buckles.

As a girl, my truest dream was to become a Medieval poetess who harnessed the powers of good and evil. (Before that I wanted to be a ballerina who was a mouse.) So I'm fully expecting Hell Maiden to become the game that ruins all others for me, and I can't wait.

The Helltaker creator has a new free game with ghost girls instead of demon girls, and after less than a month it's got over 9,000 Steam reviews at 96% positive.

Dr. Doot is well known on Twitch for clearing challenge runs of various games, from the FromSoftware stable to Zelda and Resident Evil, using an electric saxophone (a Roland AE-10 Aerophone). Notes are mapped to buttons on the controller, and a pitch knob on the back of the instrument serves as the left analog stick. It's always impressive, and his AGDQ Elden Ring run was one of his greatest yet.

The goal this time was to beat a selection of bosses using a pre-prepared save. The gauntlet was Rykard, Starscourge Radahn, Fire Giant, Maliketh, Gideon, Godfrey, Radagon, Elden Beast, and finally Malenia. Stream host Xenadir set the stage with a promise: "For every boss you get hitless, I'll donate $10. If you do the full spread, I'll do $100."

Dr. Doot stumbled with Godfrey a couple of times, but the run was otherwise smooth sailing up until Malenia. Rykard aside, he used the iconic Star Fist to make short work of these legendary beings. These fist weapons deal good physical and bleed damage, immense poise damage, and can be attuned to frost for even more status damage and defense reduction. The strength of these things is most obvious in the fight against Malenia, which lasted just 40 seconds from the time the opening cutscene ended.

Malenia is a fast and imposing boss, but she has remarkably low poise and is easily staggered, making her exceedingly weak to a weapon like the Star Fists. It took a few attempts, but on the final run, Dr. Doot barely gave her a chance to move, with the Royal Knight's Resolve weapon skill buffing the impact of his strikes and quickly staggering Malenia for a critical hit. The second phase, which always opens with a big Rot AoE attack, is somehow even easier. Malenia goes down in just three hits. I know we're all obsessed with Consort Radahn fights now, but Malenia is timeless, and it's just plain satisfying to watch an infamous Souls boss get picked apart like abstract art.

AGDQ 2025's musical streak continued as a live band rocked out in sync with a chaotic 19-minute Crazy Taxi speedrun.

Awaria released last month while we were all collectively blinded by the haze of the holiday season, and impressively, it's still managed to rack up almost 10,000 reviews and Steam's coveted 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating. Although frankly, it's pretty easy to see why.

Developer vanripper bills its latest free game as "a short game about working in haunted maintenance tunnels," which is a strong enough hook alone that I instantly added it to my Steam library.

In case you need more convincing, in place of Helltaker's "sharply dressed demon girls" are ghost girls who try to kill you and, ideally upon failing to do so, become kissable. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot more to the story than that, but frankly, is that not more than enough?

As part of a tunnel maintenance crew, it's your job to fix failing generators by identifying the problem and crafting parts necessary to fix them. "It's simple," vanripper says in the Steam description, immediately contradicting themselves by warning of bullet hell-style hazards.

"Just stay clear of anything that randomly cracks bolts of electricity, spews fire, throws sharp pieces of scrap at high-velocity or radiates with ominous green light." Oh, and there's also the aforementioned anime ghost girls you'll have to contend with. "You may even... kiss a ghost?" teases vanripper.

In case you're rightfully concerned with just how explicitly these anime girls are portrayed, the game's "mature content description" only warns of "suggestive clothing and poses" and assures, "it's all tame." That's no surprise to anyone who played Helltaker, but it's always worth clarifying when talking about this sorta stuff.

Here are all of the upcoming indie games you should have on your radar for 2025 and beyond.

"We are back to work tomorrow and I’ve got one single mission: releasing the final update," lead developer Andrew 'Redigit' Spinks said on Bluesky yesterday, which I guess means the studio is back to work as I write this. "My game face is on." In response to a fan making the obligatory 'final update' joke, Spinks added that "Terraria will never die as long as there is one last final update."

Terraria's final update meme goes back to the launch of the Journey's End patch in 2020, which was billed as the last big addition to the game. But then the updates just kept coming, occasionally with teasing names like Journey's Actual End. If my count is correct then the upcoming 1.4.5 patch would be the sixth final update since the game started getting final updates, and I can't help but suspect it won't actually be the last.

1.4.5 has suffered some delays because the devs keep adding more to it, and confirmed it wouldn't make it out in 2024 because they're "committed to being a quality-first studio." That kind of commitment is exactly why the game's fanbase is so devoted.

Palworld and Terraria have a crossover coming in 2025, but the community manager is upset the AI accusations "will stick with us for years."

In a statement posted to Twitter today, FuturLab CEO Kirsty Rigden confirmed that PowerWash Simulator VR won't receive any more updates or DLC going forward, though the base game and all released DLC will remain purchasable and playable as normal. If you want to start playing the game or keep playing it, you will be able to.

"We absolutely love and believe in VR, so this doesn't mean that we won't support it in the future but we aren't able to continue with support right now," Rigden says. "We have been faced with a crossroads: we have a truly excellent and kind VR team who were working on a platform which costs us more than it makes, while also having a list of job openings that were looking to be filled on other projects. We took the decision to redeploy our VR team into those other projects/roles."

When you put it on the scales, Rigden says "I will always choose job security for my team" over maximum multiplatform support. The returns on VR simply made the platform unviable for this game – a candid assessment of technology that has grown and improved considerably since the earliest headsets, but has yet to reach critical mass or truly break into the mainstream. PowerWash Simulator is a huge success, the VR version was a standout among the Meta Quest 3 lineup, and it's well-rated on the Meta store, but even FuturLab could only keep it up for so long.

VR remains a relatively minor enthusiast market compared to traditional gaming hardware, and it's still dealing with a problem that will sound familiar to anyone who's struggled to find a job because they need experience to get a job. For VR gaming specifically, you need enough good games to attract enough players to sell enough headsets to bring in enough developers to make good games, all without pricing people out or making them fall over from nausea. It's a hard problem to solve, and it hasn't fully been solved yet. Singular experiences like Half-Life: Alyx and evergreen hits like Beat Saber have moved the needle, and options like PSVR2 at least put VR next to mainstream hardware as a cool attachment (with a fairly low attach rate), but VR hasn't yet exploded the way some emphatic early proponents probably would've hoped.

These are the best VR games you can play today.

I've been going on about games being too big for years now, so I've been glad to see several industry figures echo that sentiment. Last month, ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden argued 100-hour giants are unsustainable, and a "mismatch" for today's players anyway. Just a few days ago, former Bethesda veteran and Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen said "people are fatigued" with huge games, and now Sawyer is preaching the good word too.

Over on his YouTube channel (timestamped here), Sawyer answered a few fan questions he recently received and got on to the topic of the size and scope of his projects. Although his most recent release, 2022's Pentiment, is an outlier in this regard, Sawyer's name is synonymous with meaty RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity.

In Sawyer's view, it doesn't matter whether players actually finish games they start as long as they enjoy the time they do spend in those games. He pointed to RPG classics Skyrim and The Witcher 3 as examples of sprawling games that many players don't finish but still hold in high regard.

"Some players really need to finish the game but I would say most players, including myself, I'm not that concerned with finishing games," Sawyer said. "If I get very deep into them, I get 80% of the way through them, then I really want to see it through. But, if I have an enjoyable experience out of it, I don't need to finish it – that's not that important."

So, what Sawyer's saying is that developers should just keep making bigger and bigger games because it doesn't really matter if we finish them or not, right? No, quite the opposite, thank heavens. He made a plea for developers to have mercy on us all.

"We don't need to get bigger. Just stop," he said. "I don't think most players want games that are like six times bigger than Skyrim or eight times bigger than The Witcher 3.

"Games got bigger and bigger, and it became more and more impressive, and then at a certain point, one, supporting that volume of stuff, there's a quality dip – we're not employing eight times the number of contractors. You know, area designers and artists. And so, things start to feel less unique and bespoke."

With behemoths like Final Fantasy Rebirth, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Persona 3 Reload having eaten up the first half of my 2024, I'm definitely not hankering for even bigger games. I'm honestly hoping I can chew through more, more compact, but still memorable games in 2025... I say as I stare down the barrel of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Assassin's Creed Shadows, and GTA 6.

"I don't think we need to go bigger anymore," Sawyer concludes. "We can kind of chill out. Within a small margin we can make it a little bigger, a little smaller. Again, as long as the player feels like when they come out in the world that they have a big vast space to explore and that that is a fun experience and it doesn't feel repetitive and like a grind, I think that's good. I don't mind making big games like that. I think that's fun. I have fun in those worlds, I think a lot of players do too."

Our guide to the 50 most anticipated games coming in 2025 proves there's plenty on the way to keep you busy no matter how you like your games.

Here's the situation: it's possible that, after you long-rest multiple times in Act 3, vampire spawn will ambush your camp with the hope of returning Astarion to his sadistic master Cazador. And it is also possible that – as Reddit user Soft_Stage_446 explained in a thread – you can become Astarion soon after this, but only if you meet a very specific set of conditions.

First, there's the matter of triggering the vampire spawn ambush, with all of the long-rests. Then, you have to intentionally allow the spawn to defeat Astarion in combat, which is surprisingly difficult, considering how ridiculously simple it is to beat up Astarion's siblings. If the spawn manage to take down Astarion, they'll bring him to Cazador's grimy palace kennels

From there, even if you aren't playing with Astarion as your pre-baked Origin character, which others who have found this rare scene assumed was a prerequisite to unlocking it, you will experience Astarion's abduction from his perspective.

It's "extremely dark," Soft_Stage_446 said, "especially if you fail your rolls and see how easy, simple and perhaps even pleasurable falling back under Cazador's control would be."

"Like blood in a blister, Cazador's presence fills your mind," Baldur's Gate 3's Narrator agrees during the scene. "You accept it, bow to it, allow it to wash over you in a red tide. And then it is inside you." You know what they say – more vampires, more problems.

As the "incredible journey" to Baldur's Gate 3 wraps up, Larian Studios has its "full attention" on its next RPG: "The story ain't over yet."

In a new video collecting predictions and rumors regarding Nintendo's Switch 2 plans, Nate the Hate claims that "one title that will be there within the launch window comes from Ubisoft, and it's going to be Assassin's Creed Mirage." The mercifully compact and more stealth-focused game was originally released in 2023, and as we noted in our Assassin's Creed Mirage review, brought the series away from its mega-RPG reputation and back to its roots.

Further commenting on the Switch 2 launch lineup, Nate the Hate adds that "Assassin's Creed Shadows is one of those in-development ports, it just won't be ready for launch and probably won't be ready for the launch window. I've been told that Ubisoft is doing more than half a dozen games for the Switch 2, and a lot of them are going to be late ports. These are from a range of franchises like The Division, Rainbow Six Siege. There's also discussion and some consideration for a Mario Rabbids collection, so it'd have 1 and 2 in a single package ... I think, for Ubisoft, if they can port the game, they will port the game."

The Switch 2 is expected to bring some welcome movement and investment back to the largely stagnant console hardware market, with one analyst predicting Nintendo will run into supply issues amid a launch demand boom. With Ubisoft treading water after a few underwhelming years, and doing everything it can to shut down reports of a buyout, it wouldn't be a surprise for the publisher to pounce on the new platform as a way to wring more money out of its games. Nintendo Switch 2 will support backwards compatibility with original Switch games, but a new console launch is still prime time to bundle and repackage existing games.

Ubisoft aside, Nate the Hate says "some other third-party games I have heard [about] include Metal Gear Solid Delta," which is set to launch later this year and is currently only listed for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC on creator Konami's website. "I'm hopeful that maybe it is a day-and-date release when it does come to Switch 2, because if that game, let's say, comes out in summer of 2025, there's no reason it shouldn't," Nate the Hate adds.

The somewhat confusingly named Metal Gear Solid 3 remake doesn't have an exact release date just yet, so this summer timing is more speculative. In September 2024, we learned that the game is "already playable" from start to finish and now in more of a polishing phase. At the time, production producer Noriaki Okamura said "it's not going to be years and years" before we get to play it, though he also said "we're just not yet at the stage where we can say with confidence exactly when it will be out."

One former Nintendo Switch marketing lead reckons Nintendo probably "don't like what's happening" with all these leaks, but doesn't expect this pre-reveal back-and-forth, which only matters to a small and Extremely Online portion of the console's potential audience, to affect the company's plans.

Metal Gear Solid Delta exists because Konami was starting to get worried that the “younger generation of gamers aren’t familiar with the Metal Gear series anymore.”

I'm still getting the hang of NetEase's Overwatch-like hero shooter, so yes, the meta totally escapes me. But with my equally inexperienced friend chatting to me over comms, laughing at the mayhem before us, I've discovered that Rivals can actually be pretty chill if you roll your eyes, lean into its absurdity, and try to be the kind of player you'd hope to play with.

Squad up

Maybe it's because I play in quick bursts rather than a marathon, but there's loads to love about Rivals when you're not being griefed by teammates and semi-pro enemies alike. It's colorful, it's fast-paced, and you have very little time to be frustrated about dying (or being "knocked out," apologies) because you'll respawn in about five seconds. All of these elements factor into how much fun Marvel Rivals is when simply used as a digital hangout space.

That's not to say I don't pull my weight. I certainly do my best in every 6v6 mission, and even if I don't get as many final hits as others, I'm certain most of my teammates are thankful for Rocket Raccoon's plentiful healing bubbles. While playing the game, I keep a watchful eye on all my fellow players' health bars – not just my voice comm buddy's – to make sure none of them feel excluded from our little twosome. But between my attentive healing duties and shooting the shit with my friend, I immediately notice when we are playing with a crew of solo queuers.

I've encountered these brave souls in the past, most often in Dead by Daylight: gamers who set out on a mission to play online multiplayer games totally on their own, sometimes able to put in the work as a teammate, but most often, they're just out for themselves. The notion of soloing a game like Marvel Rivals is a baffling one to me. You can play a pretty selfish Dead by Daylight game and still not come across as actively ruining another's experience, but watching four solo Duelists march headfirst into enemy territory is another level of recklessness.

Seeing so many of these instances has me thinking over all the reasons people might play an online multiplayer game. Is it to feed your competitive streak? Are you like me and just want to hang out with far-flung friends? Or maybe you're driven by the singular goal of ruining everyone else's nice time and pumping your own score sky high, teamwork a total afterthought?

I think the lack of consistency behind player intentions is a big reason why I've never been much of an online gamer. With the exception of Dead by Daylight, Phasmophobia, and a brief stint with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, I much prefer to play single player games and avoid the toxicity altogether. That said, I'm a lot more forgiving of Marvel Rivals than I am of many other hero shooters. This could be down to the novelty factor, with it having only launched a month ago, but I think I'm just loving how totally unserious the game is at its very core. It's about comic book characters playing capture-the-flag, after all; why wouldn't I use Marvel Rivals as my own personal hangout zone, solo queue martyrs and tunneling tanks be damned?

I have no idea how long I'll stick around as a filthy Rivals casual, but for the time being, I think I'll make myself at home. It's a refreshingly silly switch-up from my usual fare, which mostly consists of the best horror games or the sweeping narratives of Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Marvel Rivals is showing me a new way to play and enjoy video games. And you know what? I'm grateful for it, chaotic bully squads and all.

Check out the best shooters to play next, from Valorant to Counter-Strike.

When it comes to unlocking new League of Legends champions, if you don't want to splash the cash on League's premium currency, RP (which can be used to quickly unlock the game's now almost 170-character roster), you can also spend Blue Essence – usually earned from leveling up, opening Champion Capsules, and completing missions. While it takes time, it ensures that even free-to-play players can get their hands on all the champions eventually. However, with the start of League of Legends' latest season, it's been suggested that it could now take around 882 hours after completing the Battle Pass to unlock a single one this way.

As explained by content creator Remus on YouTube, from now on, once you hit level 30, you'll no longer receive a Champion Capsule every level up, and on top of that, your first win of the day will no longer grant the 50 Blue Essence it once did, instead giving out Battle Pass XP. Speaking of the Battle Pass, in the current eight-week season, only three Champion Capsules are included, alongside 4,750 Blue Essence in the first 50 milestones. 

After completing the whole thing, four out of the five repeatable milestones will grant 50 Blue Essence each, which really isn't much. Thankfully, you still won't have to spend a penny to earn any of it, but for reference, champions cost you 7,800 Blue Essence on the week of their release. After dropping to 6,300 for their first two seasons, their price varies, but Riot previously claimed the "majority" are 4,800 each. With that in mind, you'll probably be able to get one new champion with this Battle Pass, unless you grind those repeatable milestones endlessly, which is probably where the supposed 882-hour figure comes from. Whether this is accurate is another matter, so I decided to do some of my own estimations. 

If we take a 4,800 Blue Essence champion, you'd have to level up 120 times after completing the Battle Pass to earn enough (that's accounting for the 24 repetitions of those same five milestones you'd need to do). As for how long that'd take, I deferred to GamesRadar+'s in-house LoL enjoyer Ali Jones, who reckons it takes him roughly between five and 10 hours of gameplay to earn one or two level ups. If we call that five hours per level up, that's 600 hours you can expect to spend after completing the battle pass. Obviously, there are various factors at play here, so that estimate is far from concrete, but all you need to know is that it's a lot. 

Thankfully, there is a glimmer of hope, as the head of League Studio, Andrei van Roon, states: "Unlocking new champions via Blue Essence wasn't meant to get harder. Digging in to understand whether something isn't functioning as intended now." With that in mind, it sounds like there could be more changes to come.

If so, it won't be the only alteration coming to League of Legends, as lead gameplay designer Matt Leung-Harrison has confirmed plans to "replace First Blood as a Feat." Feats of Strength is a first-to-two competition with three possible 'Feats' to accomplish – you can destroy the first turret, score first blood, or slay three epic monster camps – in order to receive the Blessing of Noxus bonus for a buff to your tier-2 boots (and make tier-3 boots available in the shop). 

In a new tweet, Leung-Harrison acknowledges that while Riot doesn't think snowballing (essentially, building momentum after gaining an advantage, to the point where you become basically unstoppable) is "much higher than the previous season, if at all," the "perception" is that it's higher now, partially thanks to "the visibility of the Feats reward." The team "wanted the Feats system to create more reward satisfaction, focus and tension around prioritizing early objectives," but know that "First Blood is causing too much friction for the satisfaction and clarity of gaining it."

Leung-Harrison explains: "As a result, we're going to change it either in 15.2 or 15.3. Candidly, we messed up here and it should have been changed pre-release, but we're going to own that mistake, learn from it and do better for next time."

All in all, it's not been smooth sailing so far for Welcome to Noxus: Act 1, but at least Riot seems to be aware of the main complaints. Here's hoping we get swift fixes, especially before new players commit to the ridiculous grind that can now be expected to unlock all of League's champions.

For more games like League of Legends, be sure to check out our picks for the best MOBAs and best PC games.

Speaking in a recent interview with PC Gamer, Masaki 'Mr. Ozma' Nakagawa explains why he doesn't see Square Enix ever designing the "perfect" difficulty for all of Final Fantasy 14's players. "I believe it's simply impossible to design a difficulty level that's 'just right' for all players," he says. "Each [piece of] content should be designed with a specific demographic in mind, with a difficulty that's just right for that target audience." 

Nakagawa continues, detailing how diverse he believes content should be and how different types of duties fit different kinds of players best. "At the same time, I also believe the content should still have something in store for players outside the primary target audience," says the lead. "For example, alliance raids are primarily designed for those who don't participate in high-end duties such as extreme trials or savage raids."

Alliance raids aren't necessarily fun for everyone, however. "On the other hand, those who enjoy savage raids and other high-end duties may find that alliance raids are neither satisfying nor engaging; to them, alliance raids would just be boring content. So although we adjust difficulty levels based on a primary target audience, we still try to make the content as enjoyable as possible for all players, and we apply that philosophy to all content."

The lead then looks back at some of Dawntrail's content and describes how difficulty played a part in its development. "For example, Patch 7.0 added Worqor Lar Dor (Extreme), which was designed with the target audience of 'players who are trying extreme trials for the first time.'" As a result, Nakagawa admits that "many players probably felt the encounter was easier than the extreme trials in the Patch 6.x series."

That doesn't mean it wasn't rewarding for longtime fans: "I believe many veteran players still found the battle against Valigarmanda to be a refreshing and enjoyable one, thanks to flashy attacks and mechanics like Mountain Fire." When it comes to Dawntrail's difficulty, it also wasn't all down to Nakagawa. In fact, MMO director Naoki "Yoshi P" Yoshida himself helped with the development of the battle content in patch 7.0 and on.

"The difficulty of battle content in Patch 7.0 onward was discussed with core members of the battle team, including producer and director Yoshida, and certain aspects of our direction were changed compared to pre-7.0." Before Dawntrail, the team's "policy of reducing gameplay-related frustrations was sometimes taken too far," resulting in the gameplay being "less fun" without some of its necessary "hurdles and frustrations."

Considering all of this, Nakagawa says developers "shifted to a design policy of placing greater emphasis on enjoyability." This "was a bold decision for us with a lot of unknown factors, but we're relieved to hear that people enjoyed it!" As for what's to come, he states that "the impact of this policy change will be more evident in future patches" - and I, for one, cannot wait to see how it all ends up playing out come later updates.

Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail helped players block stalkers, but the problem might get much worse with a backend exploit some mods are already taking advantage of

This is just my Tuesday afternoon sword

The general loop is to dive into a procedurally generated open world called the Overgrowth to hunt down keys that unlock the gates to bosses called Crowns. Beat all the Crowns and you'll unlock the final boss, the Abyss King, who won't be available at the start of early access. Before you depart, you build a loadout of swords and guns and other gear for your Breaker, assembled from whatever you've found and banked while exploring or purchased from the vendors at the hub, and spend a bit of energy to fire up the teleporter. There are three Breakers for now, acting like classes for the game, with more characters and more pseudo-subclasses to come. You only get your energy back if you successfully extract from the map, surviving waves of enemies at the exit teleporter. If you die, that energy is gone, as is any extra gear you're carrying and a chunk of your Bright Blood currency. If you lose all your energy before you clear all the Crowns, the map resets and you start a new cycle.

This sets up an extraction-flavored cycle of amassing and budgeting gear, all while discovering and befriending and upgrading vendors at the hub. All of the sudden, this is one of the most interesting parts of this game. As you defeat enemies on each excursion, the difficulty will ramp up and the Abyss King will start to send assassins, explosions, and other dangers your way. Things can get out of hand quickly if you stay too long, so you want to get in, rush your target, and get out. Our session ended up being multiple short trips that ended with a successful Crown fight, whereas I previously tried to do as much as possible in one run and got stomped by the boss. Bad idea, it turns out.

"It's very much an amalgamation of roguelike and extraction games," says lead producer Michael Clark. "It's unlike any specific extraction title out there, but it does have that sort of loot loop. It's not Escape from Tarkov by any stretch, but it is following that same, you know, you have a stash of items that you're gonna curate. It works with the roguelike system and feels different. We're not very direct in any single inspiration."

Hyper Light Breaker overflows with small decisions offering risk and reward, and coming from Heart Machine, its moment-to-moment play is unsurprisingly excellent. Ranged and melee combat as well as movement felt noticeably better in this build – partly because I had some knowledgeable teammates to help with mobs, and also because the parry has been updated to heal you a little bit. Delicious.

There's a palpable back-and-forth flow to fights that punishes senseless aggression. You can deal a lot of damage at once, but that's also true of enemies, so it pays to pick your moment and prioritize avoiding incoming damage. It took a while for this to click, the action roguelike part of my brain still running in Hades 2 and Windblown mode, so I may have burned more than my fair share of our healing supplies. I did, at least, do well against the boss who I'd fought once before – imagine a wisp from Risk of Rain but bipedal and a trained boxer.

Hyper Light Breaker has excited me since its announcement and hasn't disappointed since. As we finally approach launch, there's more good news too: until January 28, the game will come bundled with Hyper Light Drifter, the excellent 2016 2D action game that kickstarted this universe, for free. This is still the biggest January game launch for me, and increasingly it looks like it could be one of the standout roguelikes of the entire year.

Dev on my most-anticipated open-world game talks about the exact things I was hoping for: roguelike build-crafting and cool hoverboards in Hyper Light Breaker.

"Tired," Kojima recently wrote on Twitter, alongside a melancholy photo of the night sky and a very gloomy frowning emoji.

"The most demanding period of game development – both physically and mentally – commonly known as 'crunch time,'" he elaborated in another Twitter post. "On top of mixing and Japanese voice recording, there's an inevitable pile of other tasks: writing comments, explanations, essays, interviews, discussions, and non-game-related work. It's incredibly tough."

Increasingly, developers have been crusading against the controversially demanding industry practice; in 2024, Dragon Age writer David Gaider said in a PC Gamer interview that, if crunch was truly a necessary part of making games, "then maybe the industry deserves to die."

Kojima didn't publicly express any such doubts about crunch time himself, and his studio, Kojima Productions, is no stranger to it – the developer crunched to complete the first Death Stranding in time for its 2019 release.

But it seems that the practice is fueling some of Kojima's apprehensions about his ability to keep creating. In a separate Twitter post, 61-year-old Kojima said that "At this age, I can't help but think about how much longer I'll be able to stay 'creative.'"

"I want to keep going for the rest of my life, but is it 10 more years? 20?" he continued. "Every day feels like I'm racing against the clock."

Hideo Kojima offers another Death Stranding 2 update and a demonstration of his unique PS5 controller technique: "Building the game."

In a universe teeming with wonder and horror at every turn, Little Nightmares is at its strongest when that deft balance is achieved. "We are talking about charming horror on our side," Bandai Namco producer Coralie Feniello suggests of the game's tone. "I think [the term] fits very well, because it's a world that is really not made for you; it's a world that is made for the adults, the antagonists that you can see in the game, but you are here, and you are very small, and you are a little glimmer of hope in the middle of that. I think it's really that differentiation between charming and horror that makes it so powerful."

Stronger together

But although Little Nightmares 3 still champions an iconic creepy-cute aesthetic, it also marks a few series firsts. Most notably, the upcoming horror game finally introduces couch co-op functionality on top of its solo experience. It's something Feniello calls "the most requested [feature] by our community" following the launch of Little Nightmares 2.

"It's a challenge to develop it," she explains of Supermassive Games' creative process, "because you always have to think about multiplayer and single player while you are creating puzzles and so on. You also have to test it thoroughly to make sure that it will be working in both setups." That's because Little Nightmares 3 is governed by a key goal: to offer a complete, satisfying experience whether or not you have a Player 2 handy.

In fact, according to Feniello, solo players might have a little something extra in store. "I really like playing it [solo] because you can see small flavor animations of the other character that is played by an AI, and that's more representative of their personality," she says. These "flavor animations" sound like idle animations, with the unplayed character responding to the new environments, but just how autonomous are they? "We don't want to have the AI being too smart, because the player might feel like they are doing everything, but we don't want to have the AI feeling dumb, either." The balancing workaround sounds simple: "the first time you see an object that the AI can interact with, you have to call the AI, and then they come and they do it." In short, the non-player character learns from directions. "But in terms of gameplay, we are making sure that it's the same level of experience and as enjoyable in multiplayer [as it is] in single. But maybe in single, you will have a bit more on the narrative part," no doubt thanks to the extra animations.

Sin-amatic

With narrative and atmosphere being so intrinsic to the game, Little Nightmares 3 is bolstered by the creative chops of Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games, having taken the reins from Tarsier Studios as the lead developer on the project.

Credited with creating some of the best horror games ever, Feniello always knew that Supermassive was up to the task. But despite the horror connection, how was the transition from photorealism to a more abstract art style? Was it a challenge for the team? "They have played a lot of Little Nightmares 1 and 2 to get to know the brand and to understand how things were done by Tarsier, to make sure that they were in line with the artistic direction and everything on our side at Bandai. We also have some people that have worked on Little Nightmares 1 and 2 – for example, me," she says of both the studio's approach and the publisher's role as overseer. "On Supermassive Games' side, there are also some people that have worked on Little Big Planet – like, for example, the game director – and so that's a more similar type of setup, you know, the 2.5 dimension type of cameras and stuff like that."

This is one way that a distinct Supermassive flavor permeates Little Nightmares 3, though subtle enough that only the more eagle-eyed studio fans might pick up on it. "Maybe something that a lot of people have already seen is the cameras," Feniello says. "The way we are managing the cameras is sometimes a bit more cinematic than what was in Little Nightmares 1 and 2, and that's due to part of the team having worked on more cinematic games." But at the end of the day, this is a Little Nightmares game – not The Dark Pictures. "We are still making sure that we keep the DNA [intact] overall," says Feniello, with Supermassive's own expertise feeding into "the experience of how you build up horror, how you build up a place that will be scary, how you create these types of environments."

Little Nightmares 3 is eyeballing an as-yet unconfirmed 2025 release date, so we might not be waiting much longer for Supermassive's latest thrill – albeit this time, a much cuter one.

It's been a wild first season for Marvel Rivals so far, to say the least. Between its record-high player count and the addition of new characters like Mister Fantastic, a lot has been going on - but it hasn't all been positive. The fresh season also marked the implementation of a ban on mods following various custom anime-themed skins and the recent Trump and Biden debacle on Nexus. Considering the developers' point of view, the ban is unsurprising.

As dev Del Walker explained, there's a plethora of reasons behind the mod ban - the potential to cheat, NSFW or political mods, and possible legal problems since "lots of mods infringe on copyrighted designs or assets." None of this has stopped fans from continuing to produce and download mods, however. As one player writes in a post alongside a clip showcasing a new custom One Piece skin, "Modding Marvel Rivals lives on."

It lives on indeed, despite needing "extra steps to pull off" - Nexus Mods' "new this week" tab under the website's Marvel Rivals page proves as much. Over 200 new mods have dropped just this past week alone despite NetEase's ban, many of which include custom skins. There are all flavors of themed downloads drawing from other popular media now, too, whether it be colorful League of Legends champion or God of War skins.

Fans seem to be well aware of the ban and how to circumvent it as well, with many of the newer mods' descriptions proclaiming "full compatibility" with Marvel Rivals' first season and its accompanying patch. There's no telling what the future has in store for modders or how and whether or not NetEase will crack down once again, but one thing is likely for certain - as long as there's an active community, mods are sure to be found.

Check out some great new games coming this year and beyond for even more to look forward to.

Now I'll admit, some of Civilization 7's proposed shake-ups scare me. The new Ages system – which will essentially break campaigns into three stages rather than the series' traditionally less-impactful historical eras – could make the empire-building experience feel more fragmented, and I don't know whether the mix-and-match approach to leaders and factions will add unimaginable customization or dull the personality we've had from Civilization 5 and 6's civs.

Yes, change is scary, and I've seen a lot of the series' long-time fans eyeing Civilization 7 with uncertainty. But it's clear that these changes are a shot – and a bold one, at that – at fixing a problem that's plagued sandbox strategies for a long time: they get really, really boring.

Ancient ruins

Empire management games walk a perilous tightrope. You need to feel the satisfaction of raising a faction from ramshackle town to global superpower, which means campaigns inherently run on the long side. But at a certain point on that journey, the scales tip. Suddenly, rather than fighting for survival as a plucky underdog, you're the biggest faction on the map. Conquering whoever else is left becomes a checklist to tick through, and even if they're strong enough to put up a fight, at that point any pushback is more of a frustrating setback – a delaying of the inevitable – than a serious challenge. You have, effectively, solved the game before it's over.

This isn't an issue squared solely with Civilization – I've spent over 2000 hours in Total War: Warhammer, and the amount of campaigns that have stalled out vastly outweigh those I've finished. Paradox found a pretty neat solution in Stellaris, with end-game crises posing genuine threats capable of wiping your empire out, but even these often boil down to clearing repetitive stacks of enemies once you understand how combat works. Fighting this problem on its own turf is perhaps a hopeless battle. In truth, there's very little that isn't going to be steamrolled by the sheer amount of time that fans are going to replay these games for.

I get the sense that Firaxis knows this. Rather than spice up Civilization 7's later stages with monstrously-detailed nuclear war mechanics (don't give Gandhi any ideas) or Giant-er Death Robots, the studio has essentially taken the concept of an "endgame" out back and shot it. By breaking campaigns into three distinct Ages, Civilization 7 minimizes the risk of a playthrough devolving into one long slog or burying players in the chores that accumulate with managing sprawls of cities or moving tens of military units around.

"The number one issue that the Ages system solves for us is it helps you to get towards the end of a game," Civilization 7 director Ed Beach told Edge, pointing to players who feel "overwhelmed" by the sprawl of decisions that late-game Civilization turns require. But you can't understate just how bold a solution this is. It's a foundational change to the longest-running working formula in the strategy genre, and according to Beach, there were even people within Firaxis who weren't sure if Ages would work.

As a result, Civilization 7 will likely be this year's biggest gamble in gaming. Firaxis is staking the strategy genre's longest winning formula on being able to fix a problem that no other developer has managed to solve, and if that doesn't take courage, I don't know what does. Whichever way the developer's bet swings, one thing is for certain: when Civilization 7 launches on February 11, I'll be first in line to hit that sweet, sweet next turn button.

Depending on how high you go, where you started, and how many arches you used, you're assigned a point value that can be redeemed for cards. These cards determine how many blocks you get immediately as well as your recurring bank of blocks – but more importantly, they also have a banana point value. At the end of a Monkey Palace session, it's all about how many banana points you have; as in so many of the best board games, nothing else matters but your score.

If that sounds a bit complicated, well, yes. It does sound complicated, and trust me when I say reading the rulebook isn't going to help you consider Monkey Palace anything but fiddly. There's really no getting around it, however, and once you have wrapped your head around the rules, it can be a genuinely great time.

Features & design

• A resource management game
• Build as high as you can
• Starts simple, gets much more complex

Helpfully, because it's a board game built with Lego, the vast majority of the game's pieces are just… Lego bricks of some flavor or another. (If you're a fan of the best Lego sets, you'll feel right at home.) Mostly this is arches, columns, or single bricks with some additional decorative plants as well as a monkey, toad, and butterfly. And, of course, the base grid itself – which is covered with one of three different possible sheets to produce different kinds of maps.

Beyond the Lego bricks and the three maps, there are four different player trackers in addition to a whole mess of different cards. While the vast majority of the cards are indicative of how many Lego bricks a player should grab on a given round, some are simply meant to tally points with the game's rules being fairly clear on when that actually triggers.

As for the rulebook, there is helpfully a QR code on the box itself as well as on the first page of the rules that will likely be far more helpful than the written instructions. But for those folks that aren't able to spend time watching a video, there's honestly nothing better for understanding than playing a couple of times after getting at least a rudimentary concept of what you're supposed to do.

Gameplay

• Manage resources over several turns
• Multiple starting points for a variety of outcomes
• Earn banana points by building as high as you can

The game itself plays just fine and in a relatively intuitive way once you've actually figured it out, but if you're only using the rulebook, there might be a bit of confusion when you get started. More than once, for example, I found myself trying to puzzle out exactly what might count for points when the rules mentioned only five bricks high or more without arches but including decoration would count toward a specific objective.

The fact that Monkey Palace uses Lego bricks as such an integral part of it is both a blessing and a curse. The vast majority of people that play Monkey Palace are absolutely going to be familiar with the iconic building toy, making it rather simple to understand the fact that the main point of the game is to build up bigger and better than your rivals (making it a great board game for kids). But trying to apply a fluid framework to something that many adults might associate with explicit instructions is its own challenge, and it took multiple turns before I really began to understand all the possibilities at my fingertips that weren't simply "put this Lego brick on top of this Lego brick" over and over again.

While Monkey Palace can technically be played with just two players, I'd recommend getting as close to the full roster as possible. Because games end when you run out of pieces to grab when refilling, more players means shorter games overall. It also typically means that it's not just you and one other person backstabbing each other on every turn – there are instead multiple folks to sink the figurative knife into.

Adding more players to the mix also increases the impact of all of your decisions. Every single Lego brick you add to the growing monkey palace complicates the next player's decisions that much more. If, for example, you're able to play the little monkey on an arch end because you began in a spot that ended in a golden brick at the highest level yet, that path being blocked for multiple other players is much more significant. If it's just you and one other person trading back and forth, as my first game was, it's just as likely that you'll curse yourself with your previous decisions as you are to give your opponent a headache.

In other words? This isn't going to rank amongst the best 2-player board games anytime soon... but it's a blast with a larger head-count.

Should you buy Monkey Palace?

If you're really into Lego or want a relatively fast-paced game with familiar pieces, Monkey Palace is an easy recommendation. I'm quite picky about what games remain in rotation on my board game shelf, and Monkey Palace has settled into its own spot thanks in large part to the physicality of building wild structures.

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How we tested Monkey Palace

We played Monkey Palace several times with the different maps and optional rules. To find out more, see our guide to how we test board games. You might also read our wider GamesRadar+ reviews policy.

For recommendations, don't miss the best cooperative board games or the best family board games.

On Twitter, one loyal Helldiver directly asks Pilestedt if the dev team is involved "to ensure the [film] stays faithful to the games," to which the studio's chief creative officer admits he's "been dodging this question" up until now. Even now, he doesn't appear to have a totally concrete answer for us: "The short answer is yes. The long answer is that we'll see."

So, what does that mean? Based on the rest of his reply, it sounds like the devs might have some involvement, but ultimately not so much that they'd be able to have the "final say" on big decisions. "We are not Hollywood people, and we don't know what it takes to make a movie," he explains. "And therefore we don't, and shouldn't, have final say."

With that in mind, it doesn't sound like Arrowhead itself will necessarily be able to dig its heels in to make sure the movie stays faithful to its source material, as the fan who asked the question in the first place was hoping. Of course, this might not be a problem in the first place, but right now details are so light on the ground that it's impossible to know. 

For now, all we do know is that it's happening, and that it's a collaboration between Sony Pictures and Sony Productions. As for the plot, cast, release date, or literally anything else, that's all a mystery. Who knows, perhaps it could even include the legendary fight to liberate Malevelon Creek?

Helldivers 2 director says the reason saluting the flag makes it go faster is that all the devs did it anyway, "so one of the coders added it as an Easter egg."

When is the Elden Ring Nightreign beta?

The Elden Ring Nightreign beta will run over five separate sessions, but each of these will be limited to just three hours so you won't be able to stay online for extended periods if you get access. Each of these playtests will be available to selected PS5 and Xbox Series players only, so those on PC, PS4, and Xbox One will need to wait and see if future opportunities are added. The dates and times for the Elden Ring Nightreign technical test are as follows:

• February 14, 2025
  • 3am-6am PST / 6am-9am EST / 11am-2pm GMT
  • 7pm-10pm PST / 10pm-1am EST / 3am-6am GMT (February 15)
• February 15, 2025
  • 11am-2pm PST / 2pm-5pm EST / 7pm-10pm GMT
• February 16, 2025
  • 3am-6am PST / 6am-9am EST / 11am-2pm GMT
  • 7pm-10pm PST / 10pm-1am EST / 3am-6am GMT (February 17)

How to access the Elden Ring Nightreign beta

To access the Elden Ring Nightreign beta, you need to register by signing up on the official website, creating a Bandai Namco account in the process if you don't already have one. Currently this technical test is only available on PS5 and Xbox Series, though Steam was also briefly shown when the registration first launched so PC may be added as an option in the future. Registration is open until January 20, so don't delay signing up or you may miss your chance to take part.

Do note that registering for the playtest does not guarantee access, so you'll have to wait and see if you get chosen to participate. It's also worth mentioning that while you don't need a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass Core subscription to take part in the Elden Ring Nightreign beta, you will need one to play the full version online when it launches later in 2025.

What's included in the Elden Ring Nightreign beta?

We have very little information so far about what will be included in the Elden Ring Nightreign beta, other than the official description of the network test which states that "selected testers play a portion of the game prior to the full game launch". In the final release, three players will team up over three days in-game to get ready for a final boss battle, while fighting a mini-boss at the end of each day – so it's possible that the technical test could be limited to a single in-game day, with or without the mini-boss at the end, though it's unlikely that the final boss will be seen at this stage.

That's everything we know about the Elden Ring Nightreign beta for now, but check back later as we'll be adding new information as it is announced.

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