Title: GTA 6 Had A Really Busy Week Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:00:55 +0000 Link: https://kotaku.com/gta-6-had-a-really-busy-week-2000739409 We are less than 50 days away from the release of Grand Theft Auto 6 and marketing is kicking into high gear

Title: In Praise Of World Of Warcraft’s God-Awful Polygonal Prairie Dog Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 22:30:54 +0000 Link: https://kotaku.com/in-praise-of-world-of-warcrafts-god-awful-polygonal-prairie-dog-2000739427 I love you, you're perfect, never change

Title: Netflix Says Cloud Gaming Makes More Sense For It In A ‘Post-Console World’ Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 22:00:13 +0000 Link: https://kotaku.com/netflix-says-cloud-gaming-makes-more-sense-for-it-in-a-post-console-world-2000739416 Post-what now?

Title: Grab The Sci-Fi Classic That Inspired BioShock For Free This Weekend Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 21:15:34 +0000 Link: https://kotaku.com/grab-the-sci-fi-classic-that-inspired-bioshock-for-free-this-weekend-2000739384 The System Shock 2 remaster is good

Title: Amazon’s Very Good 4K UHD Blu-Ray Sale Is Back, But This Time Filled With Horror And Spooky Movies Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:45:50 +0000 Link: https://kotaku.com/amazons-very-good-4k-uhd-blu-ray-sale-is-back-but-this-time-filled-with-horror-and-spooky-movies-2000739388 You can get some fantastic horror films like Nope, The Thing, Sinners, and The Shining for about $13 each

Title: Monopoly Go x The Simpsons crossover is almost here Date: Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:41:21 +0000 Link: https://www.vg247.com/monopoly-go-the-simpsons-crossover-details Monopoly Go players have been looking forward to a major crossover event for what felt like months, and though most of the details ended up leaking, nothing actually beats official information. Read more

Title: Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.3 will take us deeper into the World in Canvas and make Mortenax Blade playable Date: Fri, 22 May 2026 13:43:44 +0000 Link: https://www.vg247.com/honkai-star-rail-version-4-3-all-details HoYoverse has today delivered full details on the next major update for Honkai: Star Rail. Version 4.3, dubbed The Lethe Below the Living, will be available for all players on June 1. The upcoming update adds a new chapter to the Planarcadia arc, and introduce a new playable character. Read more

Title: Forza Horizon 6 explodes on Steam even before it's officially out Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 11:00:02 +0000 Link: https://www.vg247.com/forza-horizon-6-steam-numbers-big-launch Steam is abuzz this week with a couple of long-anticipated launches, but in Forza Horizon 6’s case, at least, the game isn’t even out for what will be most of its players. The anticipated sequel in the open-world driving game series doesn’t officially launch until May 19, but owners of its most expensive version - the Premium Edition - can play it right now. Read more

Title: Mystic Messenger's most loyal players are getting banned in droves for seemingly playing the game too much Date: Fri, 15 May 2026 10:02:10 +0000 Link: https://www.vg247.com/mystic-messenger-ban-wave-thousands-of-hourglasses-anniversary Mystic Messenger, arguably one of the best dating sims around, has been dormant for about seven years. Despite not receiving new content or any meaningful updates in all that time, the game remains popular with its core fans, many of whom just woke up to some shocking news about their accounts. Read more

Title: Forza Horizon 6 review - The driving game for everyone still can’t seem to escape its car-collecting legacy Date: Thu, 14 May 2026 12:00:03 +0000 Link: https://www.vg247.com/forza-horizon-6-review There is this idea that, for a long-running series to remain as consistently popular as Forza Horizon has been, it needs to diminish itself somewhat with each new entry, gradually losing more and more of its edge in a bid to appeal to the widest possible audience. Read more

Title: End Of Abyss Patch Fixes Most Of My Complaints Just One Day After Launch Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:26:26 +0000 Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/end-of-abyss-patch-fixes-most-of-my-complaints-just-one-day-after-launch/ I spent a few days playing Section 9 Interactive's creepy metroidvania and writing my End of Abyss review, and ultimately concluded it was a fun but inconsistent experience hindered by a few particular issues. Now, just a day after it launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, the studio has already cleared up most of those issues with a newly released patch. If you missed the review, my main concern was how the in-game map would sometimes share incorrect information, like telling me a door was locked when I had unlocked it, or failing to signify when I'd found the key to a particular door. In a metroidvania, this means a whole lot. End of Abyss is a game about exploration, including lots of backtracking via roundabout paths, so when I'd plan long treks across the world based on a faulty map, it was really frustrating to find out too late that I'd essentially been lied to. But a patch has fixed that, among other problems, and it presents an uncommon issue for me. My review only went out two days ago. The game only launched yesterday. Now much of my review is already outdated. In this era of live-service games and post-launch updates, it's common for games to change shape over time, but for End of Abyss's patch to fix many of its lesser parts essentially right after the deadline isn't normally how it goes. Usually big, important changes happen in one of two ways: In one common scenario, a game that critics are playing for review may be patched during that pre-release review period. It's often the case that critics are made aware of bugs we might see, and we're usually told when they've been patched out, or that those fixes are in the "day one" patch that comes with the game's public launch, leaving us to confirm as much once the patch drops. This even applies to End of Abyss. I bumped into a few bugs during my time with the game, and the very worst of them--in which a boss failed to drop a quest item--was patched just a few hours before I had to write my review, allowing me to beat the game on time. This made the issue irrelevant to my review, and thus I didn't even specifically call it out.  If the public wasn't going to experience it, then I take it as my job to basically erase it from my memory of the experience--or at least, if I do mention it, I should explain how it's no longer a concern for players jumping in at launch. In another common scenario, a game changes shape much later in its lifespan, and probably over the course of several updates. Games like Sea of Thieves, Overwatch, and Fallout 76 are great examples. These kinds of games often become the subject of re-reviews years later. But it's not just multiplayer games that do this. Games such as Starfield, Mass Effect 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 have been affected by such major changes that they merited follow-ups, too.  But End of Abyss is a much rarer case. The game just came out. My review could only speak to my experience, and so it does, but I'd planned to revisit it once my biggest problems with it were addressed and write something like what I've written here--something that says, "Hey, it's better now!" when I could recommend it with more confidence. I just didn't expect that would be a mere 48 hours after I published my thoughts on the game. Section 9's debut landed in a weird gray area, where some important fixes came neither early enough for my review to consider them, nor late enough for my review to feel like it accurately reflected the experience of playing the game for a reasonable period of time. As it stands, only the players who jumped in yesterday--likely a relative few compared to the many more who will play the game over the next several years--bumped into the map issue I had during my time with it. No one else will ever have to deal with it.  That's good for players, and good for the studio, even if it leaves reviews like mine feeling more swiftly outdated than anything I can remember writing.

Title: There Are 2,800 Fortnite Skins, But Only The FNAF Skins Have This Special Feature Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 22:24:45 +0000 Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/there-are-2800-fortnite-skins-but-only-the-fnaf-skins-have-this-special-feature/ There are thousands of Fortnite skins, but not many of them have anything unique to offer beyond their visual designs. The skins in the Five Nights at Freddy's Set--Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy--are among those rare exceptions, though, in a way that we haven't seen before. These skins don't just look uncannily great doing Fortnite dances--they also do something that no previous Fortnite skins do. A small proportion of Fortnite skins are "reactive," meaning they can respond in some way to what's going on during a match. Some relatively common examples are a character lighting up when music plays, like many of the music Icon skins, or making a sound when you get a kill, like Heatwave PJ from the Chapter 7 Season 3 battle pass.  But the Five Nights at Freddy's skins introduced a new one: When you take damage during a match while wearing one of these skins, pieces fall off the character model, permanently damaging it. The damage stays until you die or the match ends, even if you heal up. You can turn this effect off in the locker, or even choose to always have them look beat up. Check out the difference here. There have been other skins in the past that react to damage--like Isaac Clarke, whose health bar flashes red, or Synth, whose jacket glitches out, or Spider-Punk, who flashes different colors--but they were temporary effects, not permanent ones. And we have several examples of the opposite thing, where a skin changes permanently when you get kills--like any of the Midas or Marigold skins that turn gold. The closest I've seen to the Five Nights at Freddy's damage effect I know of for any Fortnite cosmetic is Botch, the Dumb Ways to Die backbling which becomes wounded when you lose HP. But in that case, the wounds are healed when you heal yourself.  The damage effect is a neat feature for these skins to have, since the beat-up versions of these animatronics are important pieces of imagery for the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, and this new type of reactivity is a very creative Fortnite way to bring both the clean and beat-up versions together.

Title: GTA 6 Screenshot Suggests It Won’t Be Shy About Movie References Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 19:41:02 +0000 Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gta-6-screenshot-suggests-it-wont-be-shy-about-movie-references/ A new screenshot from Grand Theft Auto 6 has arrived, and fans immediately noticed that it appears to be referencing the iconic opening scene from Quentin Tarantino's 1994 crime movie Pulp Fiction. The image was shared by Love magazine on Instagram. The GTA 6 Countdown social media account put it next to the diner scene from Pulp Fiction, and the similarities are there, especially in the framing. In Pulp Fiction, Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer's characters, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, go on to rob the diner, and given that Lucia and Jason are criminals as well, it's not a stretch to think that could happen in GTA 6. Maybe they're just enjoying breakfast, but that seems unlikely given the image clearly shows both gripping their pistols, with Lucia seemingly ready to fill the empty duffel bag next to her with cash and other valuables. https://twitter.com/GTAVI_Countdown/status/2106042257443049741 GTA 6 tells a Bonnie and Clyde-style story of two lovers who are also criminals. Things did not end well for them, and many are speculating as to how GTA 6's story could wrap up for both Lucia and Jason. It also wouldn't be surprising to see GTA 6 reference Pulp Fiction given how GTA games in the past have featured very overt references to movies, like how Vice City had Scarface references and GTA 5 had nods to Heat. "We wanted both protagonists to be vulnerable, tough, flawed, right sometimes, wrong sometimes, able to learn from each other,”GTA 6 writer Elizabeth Gauvey-Kern told Love magazine. “That’s what we felt made them authentic, and a great team.” Jason and Lucia in GTA 6. Another GTA 6 game writer, Alexa D’Agostino, told the magazine, “When you are focusing on writing a fully realized person with their own wants, you’re going to get something perfectly imperfect--with clichés, but also undeniably real.” GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. On November 18, the Miami Heat will wear GTA 6-inspired jerseys and play on a court that references Vice City, the game's setting, and a stand-in for Miami. GTA 6 will take players outside of Miami to other places in Florida, just don't expect to go to Rockstar's version of Walt Disney World.

Title: The Xbox Cloud Gaming Controller Is Not Dead, Apparently Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:25:57 +0000 Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-xbox-cloud-gaming-controller-is-dead-apparently/ Microsoft agreed to several big changes to appease regulators in its effort to get the blockbuster $75.4 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard approved, including tweaks to its cloud-gaming projects. Now, more than a year later, we're still learning more about this, including a new claim from The New York Times that Microsoft canceled plans for a new Xbox controller "devoted to cloud gaming." A spokesperson for Microsoft denied that the controller concept was abandoned due to the regulatory process. Separately, sources told Windows Central that "rumors that Microsoft has canceled upcoming Xbox Cloud Gaming controllers are false." Microsoft never formally announced or unveiled any controller for cloud gaming, but an image of it leaked this year, prompting raised eyebrows for its ... unique design. Microsoft cut deals with a variety of companies--including Ubisoft, Nware, EE, Boosteroid, Ubitus, and Nvidia--to help mitigate concerns from the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) that Microsoft might give preferential treatment to its own cloud gaming networks. Former Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, who led Xbox during the sale process, said such deals freed up one of the concerns the CMA had and helped bring more games to more people. The Xbox cloud-gaming service showed some initial signs of growth, but the program suffered a setback recently when Microsoft announced that it will soon put limits on how much people can use the service, and then charge them more to keep playing. Additionally, Windows Central recently discovered that the dedicated cloud gaming app for older Samsung TVs will go away soon due to a compatibility issue. The site later reported that the support for older Samsung TVs is due to "the lack of updates those sets are getting" as Samsung focuses on its newer units. Additionally, sources told Windows Central "there are absolutely no plans to decelerate on Xbox Cloud Gaming" generally. Access to cloud gaming is one of the perks of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, allowing people to stream their games. Later this year, people will be able to buy game time for cloud gaming on Xbox without a Game Pass membership. One of the appeals of cloud gaming, at least in theory, is that it requires no expensive local hardware like an Xbox or PC, both of which are more expensive than ever due to the AI-fueled demand for memory and components. People need a consistent and fast internet connection for the best experience. In other Xbox news, CEO Asha Sharma recently stressed that Xbox is "not for sale," following rumors and reports that Microsoft could unload the struggling company.

Title: 50 Video Game Movies In The Works: How Many Of Them Will Actually Come Out? Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 12:22:00 +0000 Link: https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/video-game-movies-in-the-works/2900-5059/ Like the seemingly unending comic book movie craze, Hollywood loves to find a type of film that it can turn into the next big cultural touchstone. Over the years, we've seen movies based on video games attempt to reach that level, with varying levels of success. We've seen adaptations of games for decades, but, to be fair, a lot of these were awful adaptations. Many of them missed the point of the source material and were clumsily executed--although we'll always have a soft spot for the 1994 Street Fighter movie--but lately, we've seen some big changes in this genre. The Super Mario Bros. Movie took the world by storm when it was released, earning an obscene amount of cash at the box office, while the Uncharted and both Sonic the Hedgehog movies were also successful. With fresh new IPs to option, dozens of video game movies have been announced over the last couple of years, and while production is moving swiftly on several of them, many more appear to be trapped in the lowest levels of development hell. We're hopeful that we'll see some progress on these long-in-development films, but until Hollywood says otherwise, here's a deep dive into the video game movies that could be showing at your local cinema in the future. If there's not an attached release date or it's not a sequel, though, keep in mind these could also just never be made in the end. Elden Ring Release date: March 3, 2028 Not only is an Elden Ring movie officially in development at powerhouse distributor A24, but the project will be written and directed by Alex Garland of Ex Machina, Annihilation, and Civil War fame. Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin--who helped to develop the lore of the Elden Ring video game--is also involved as a producer on the movie project. Scheduled to hit cinemas in 2027, the Elden Ring movie has also found its cast: Warfare's Kit Connor has been confirmed to star in the film, and he'll be joined by Ben Whislaw, Tom Burke, Havana Rose Liu, Sonoya Mizuno, Jonathan Pryce, Ruby Cruz, John Hodgkinson, Jefferson Hall, Emma Laird, and Peter Serafinowicz. With production underway, some leaks have emerged from the set, like a closer look at Queen Marika Advertisement Helldivers Announced at CES 2025, Helldivers is one of two projects currently in development through Sony and its subsidiary, Columbia Pictures. Helldivers is essentially a spiritual successor to Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers film, and is set in a future where humanity worships freedom and the concept of managed democracy. The games have a cheeky sense of humor, and the studio behind them would love to see several A-list celebrities in the movie--provided that they're killed off in hilariously over-the-top scenes. The film project has also found its director in Justin Lin, who helmed several Fast and Furious movies. Originally scheduled to launch in November 2027, Sony recently pushed the movie back to June 2028. Advertisement Watch Dogs More than 10 years after it was first announced, filming finally began on Watch Dogs in July, a series of open-world games published by Ubisoft and featuring hacktivist gameplay. Directed by Mathieu Turi (The Deep Dark), the film Tom Blyth and Sophia Wilde. Additional casting details or a release date have yet to be revealed. Principal photography wrapped up in September, and the project is now in its post-production phase. Advertisement Gears of War One of those video game movie adaptations that has been stuck in development hell for years, it looks like the next stab at making a live-action Gears of War film is happening at Netflix. The streaming giant has partnered with Gears of War developer The Coalition to not only make a big-budget movie, but also an animated series based on the series of games featuring burly soldiers waging war against the merciless forces of the Locust. Advertisement Sonic the Hedgehog 4 With Sonic the Hedgehog 3 being massively profitable, another sequel was inevitable. Earlier this year, Paramount has announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 will be racing into theaters on March 19, 2027, but details are being kept under wraps for now. Advertisement El Paso, Elsewhere First announced in 2024, the feature film adaptation of El Paso, Elsewhere is already lining up some big talent to potentially headline it. Academy Award nominee LaKeith Stanfield was said to be in talks to star in and produce the movie alongside Di Bonaventura Pictures (Transformers), but since then, there has been nothing but radio silence on the project. Advertisement Death Stranding Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding takes place in a fascinating universe, one where an extinction-level event has almost wiped out humanity and where being caught out in the rain is a painful death sentence. It's also weird as hell, packed with some very recognizable Hollywood faces, and it has no shortage of material to explore. The feature film adaptation was announced back in 2022, and in December 2023, film and television company A24 officially revealed its partnership with Kojima Productions to bring Death Stranding to life… or Death. Kojima has big plans for this IP, as not only is he involved in the production of the Death Stranding movie, but he's also planning to create a Death Stranding film universe. Advertisement Death Stranding: Mosquito [Working title] Not only is a live-action Death Stranding movie in development, so too is an "adult-targeted" animated movie. This one is still in the early stages of development, but what we do know so far is that Aaron Guzikowski--writer of the 2013 Denis Villeneuve movie Prisoners--will work on the screenplay and it'll be tonally similar to both Predator: Killer of Killers and the upcoming John Wick animated prequel. Advertisement Call of Duty Call of Duty has been one of the biggest video game franchises for decades now, and at long last, that blockbuster action is headed to the big screen. Paramount will develop, produce, and distribute a live-action feature film based on Call of Duty, and the film company says that it's "committed to honoring the brand’s rich narrative and distinctive style" of this adaptation. It's still early days for the project, but Paramount has recruited some of its best writers for the project, including Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. Since then, we've also gotten confirmation that the film will be set in the Modern Warfare continuity, which focuses on contemporary storylines inspired by real-life conflicts and wars. Advertisement The Legend of Zelda Release date: April 30, 2027 A live-action Legend of Zelda movie is on the way, and the co-production between Nintendo and Sony Pictures is scheduled to arrive on May 7, 2027. The movie has also found its lead actors, as Zelda will be played by Bo Bragason, and Link will be portrayed by Benjamin Evan Ainsworth. The film will be directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner series and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), and the filmmaker says he wants to blend live-action with Hayao Miyazaki aesthetics so that the project feels realistic and fantastical. "I've been thinking about it for a long freakin' time, of how cool a Zelda movie would be… I want to fulfill people’s greatest desires. I know it’s important, this [Zelda] franchise, to people and I want it to be a serious movie. A real movie that can give people an escape," Ball said in an interview. Advertisement A Minecraft Movie Squared Release date: July 23, 2027 Scheduled to arrive in July 2027, A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess will return to helm the sequel. Advertisement Split Fiction One of the best games of the year has only been out for a few months, and Hollywood is already looking to bring it to the big screen. Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney is currently set to star in it, with Jon M. Chu directing. Work has begun on a script, with Deadpool and Wolverine screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick working on it. Advertisement BioShock Netflix announced a BioShock movie back in 2022, and while the project appears to be in limbo, and The Boys and Novacaine actor Jack Quaid recently said that he would "love" to be in it. Other than that tidbit of dream casting, details on the movie have been locked up tight, but a 2024 report did claim that budget cuts at Netflix had forced the movie project to be "reconfigured" into a smaller and more personal film. Advertisement Just Cause Just Cause, a series of open-world video games where character development takes a backseat to gloriously over-the-top explosions, is the perfect vehicle for a gratuitously violent popcorn blockbuster with a bloated pyrotechnics budget. It has been a long time since we've heard any news on the project, as in 2017, the film was set to be directed by Brad Peyton and would star Jason Momoa. Peyton eventually dropped out and was replaced by Michael Dowse (Stuber), but since then, there's been nothing but radio silence on this project. Advertisement Just Dance While the heyday of dancing movies is long over, there might still be room for Ubisoft's infectiously fun Just Dance series to shine on the silver screen. The only problem here is that after production company Screen Gems won the motion picture rights to Just Dance all the way in 2019, we've heard next to nothing on the status of this project. Advertisement Untitled Sonic Universe movie Paramount announced a new Sonic-related movie project for release in theaters on December 22, 2028. Details on it have yet to be revealed, but the company is referring to it as a "Sonic Universe" movie. Advertisement Martha is Dead Don't let the title fool you, because this isn't a Batman prequel movie! Instead, Martha is Dead is a creepy thriller set against the backdrop of Italy during World War 2. As the twin sister of Martha, who was recently discovered drowned and dead in a lake, players had to navigate a tangled web of mystery as the Allied war machine edged closer to home. The game developer, LKA, has teamed up with UK publisher Wired Productions and Swedish film production company Studios Extraordinaires for this film project. Advertisement Metal Gear Solid Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts's Metal Gear Solid project has been gestating for close to a decade now, and it looks increasingly likely that it's stuck in development hell. Updates have been few and far between, with the last notable mention of the film being in 2022 when Oscar Isaac--who is attached to play Solid Snake--mentioned that the focus was on finding a good story to do the legendary game justice. Advertisement Bloodborne A Bloodborne sequel might not ever see the light of day, but at least fans of From Software’s dark horror adventure can look forward to an animated feature film. Sony Pictures is set to release the film, and according to reports, the R-rated Bloodborne movie will remain "very true" to the bloody spirit of its source material. YouTuber and gamer Seán McLoughlin--AKA JackSepticEye--is also on board as a producer, and he's aiming to do justice to the cult-classic game. Advertisement Pac-Man We've had Pac-Man cartoon series, a starring role in a Futurama episode, and a villainous turn in an Adam Sandler film, and at long last, Bandai Namco's pellet-chomping hero is ready for top billing. A live-action project based on an original idea from Sonic the Hedgehog movie producer Chuck Williams has been announced, but there have been no further details revealed yet on the potential cast, director, or a release date since the 2022 announcement. Advertisement Pokemon: Detective Pikachu sequel 2019's Detective Pikachu had a great box office run, sleuthing up an impressive $433 million worldwide. A sequel starring the gumshoe electric rat was a safe bet, but several years later, details on the sequel have been hard to come by. A representative for Legendary Entertainment said that the film is still "in active development," but beyond that, details on this movie are scarcer than a shiny Pokemon in the wild. Advertisement Poppy Playtime We might be looking at a new boom in horror movies starring sadistic mascots after the success of Five Nights at Freddy's, and you can add Poppy Playtime to that list. The original game is set in an abandoned toy factory inhabited by killer collectibles, and for the film adaptation, Studio71 is handling production duties. The studio is well-known for its work on the recent VHS horror movies, making this company a good fit for the unique terror of Poppy Playtime. Advertisement Portal It has been a long time since there has been any movement on Portal, Valve's wonderfully challenging game of interdimensional puzzles, but producer JJ Abrams really wants you to know that the film project isn't dead yet. Or at least, it was definitely still being worked on in 2021 when Abrams mentioned that a script was being written. Is the film cake a lie? Only time will tell. Advertisement Rabbids It was only a matter of time until the Minions of video games, Rabbids, were optioned for a film deal. Film production company Lionsgate landed the movie rights to Ubisoft's Rabbids in 2019, but like several other video game movie projects, this appears to be another gaming IP stuck in development hell, much to the relief of parents across the world. Advertisement Outlast An incredibly terrifying series of first-person survival-horror games, Outlast is coming to the big screen as part of a deal between Lionsgate and developer Red Barrels. Still at an early stage of development, writer JT Perry--who has worked on the stories for the games themselves--will be penning the screenplay. Advertisement OutRun An adaptation of Sega's classic racing game series is in development, and while details on it are slim, we do know that Michael Bay is attached to direct. The first game originally debuted in arcades in 1986 and was subsequently ported to Master System, Genesis, Saturn, and PC over the years, with several sequels following in its wake. The last entry in the series was OutRun Online Arcade, which was developed by Sumo Digital and was released in 2009. Advertisement Saints Row Another video game movie possibly stuck in development hell, there have been zero updates on the Saints Row project for several years now. At the time, writer Greg Russo said that his script was inspired by The Warriors and Escape from New York, and F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious) was set to direct it. Advertisement Sifu John Wick creator Derek Kolstad announced his plans to adapt the hard-hitting action game Sifu to the big screen in 2022, bringing the bone-crunching brutality of this martial arts epic to life. While the story of a martial arts prodigy out for revenge is fairly standard stuff in the genre, Sifu's added twist is that the vengeance-driven protagonist is in possession of a magical talisman that can bring them back to life, but they'll age after each use. Kolstad envisions the film as John Wick meets M. Night Shyamalan's Old, which should make for an interesting action film if it ever gets greenlit. Advertisement Slime Rancher Slime Rancher is one of the most adorable games around--and one of the highest-rated on Steam--as the core pitch of wrangling cute blobs on a distant alien planet makes for some engaging fun. Not much is known about this project yet, but what we do know is that the story of young rancher Beatrix LeBeau is being adapted by Story Kitchen, a production company set up by John Wick writer Derek Kolstad. Advertisement Space Channel 5 One of the defining games of the Sega Dreamcast, Space Channel 5 might sound like an obscure property to revive as a movie, but this wacky game has an equally weird pitch that could put butts in seats. The film version has been described as a mix of comedy and dance, all set to the story of a hapless fast-food worker who is recruited by a freedom reporter from the future to save the world from aliens. How? By using the power of viral dancing to save the day. So basically, TikTok: The Movie. Advertisement Space Invaders Invaders! From space! New Line Cinema announced in 2019 that the classic Taito arcade game was headed to a movie screen near you, but several years later, it looks like those hostile extraterrestrials might have gotten stuck in a black hole on the way. Mortal Kombat writer Greg Russo was hired to write the script back then, but there's been no word then about the status of this alien invasion project. Advertisement Stray Currently in development at Annapur(r)na Animation, Stray is another recent game destined for a silver screen debut in the future. The original game mixed stealth and post-apocalyptic vibes, but with the neat twist of controlling an orange tabby cat looking for a way back home. Along the way, the cat crosses paths with the flying drone B12, an ally who helps the furry creature escape a city of robots and parasites. Advertisement Street Fighter Release date: October 16 After Talk to Me directors Duo Danny and Michael Philippou dropped out of making the Street Fighter movie, it looked like this project would remain stuck in development hell. The good news is that production kicked off properly once Kitao Sakurai stepped into the role of director, and the film features a stacked cast of actors and professional wrestlers. Jason Momoa, Roman Reigns, Noah Centineo, and David Dastmalchian are just some of the actors in the massive cast, and so far, it looks like the Street Fighter movie is an unapologetic love letter to Capcom's revered fighting game franchise. Advertisement Streets of Rage Yet another project with a John Wick link to it, Sega's rough-and-tough Streets of Rage adaptation is once again a film that Derek Kolstad is involved with. An action-packed staple of the '90s, Streets of Rage was successfully revived several years ago for a fourth outing, and a new game in the series is on the way as part of Sega's new initiative to flex some retro muscles. Advertisement Talking Tom If there's one thing that Hollywood has proven over the years, it's that anything can be a movie--even a collection of mobile apps featuring anthropomorphic animals talking back to you. The jury is still out on whether a good Talking Tom movie is possible, and to make things even weirder, this live-action project from Outfit7 has recruited Assassin's Creed producer Jean-Julien Baronnet to help it make the leap from mobile to big screen. Baronnet is also the producer of the Rabbids Invasion television series, so this looks like a good fit. Advertisement Bendy and the Ink Machine What if Walt Disney ditched Mickey Mouse for blood-curdling horror? You'd have Bendy and the Ink Machine, a delightfully macabre send-up of classic animation full of devious puzzles to solve. With Five Nights at Freddy proving to be a huge hit at the box office, horror games are quickly being optioned by studios and this adaptation will be handled by Radar Pictures, the company behind the Jumanji reboots. Beyond that, not much else is known about the project other than Bendy creator Paul Crawford's pledge to make a "quality" film that honors the source material. Advertisement Comix Zone Comix Zone, a game for which advertisements were plastered over pretty much every Marvel and DC comic book in 1995, is another retro game property coming to the big screen eventually, maybe. First announced in 2022 and described as a loose adaptation of the game--which was inspired in turn by comic books of the era--the film will follow "a jaded comic book creator and a writer who find themselves sucked into the final issue of his popular series and must fight their way out of the printed pages to stop a supervillain hellbent on destruction”. Written by Mae Catt (Young Justice), the film is also aiming to explore the power of storytelling. Advertisement Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 Before the game's arrival on PC and console, it was announced that a live-action adaptation was in development. While Clair Obscura: Expedition 33 has drawn eyes to its turn-based RPG action thanks to its impressive visuals, the game does have a fascinating plot that revolves around a deadly goddess awakening once a year to cause calamity amongst the surviving humans. "Once a year, the Paintress wakes and paints upon her monolith. Paints her cursed number. And everyone of that age turns to smoke and fades away," the official synopsis reads. "Year by year, that number ticks down and more of us are erased. Tomorrow she'll wake and paint 33. And tomorrow we depart on our final mission--Destroy the Paintress, so she can never paint death again." Advertisement Horizon Zero Dawn Sony is looking at a feature film adaptation of one of its biggest IPs, as while Horizon was originally lined up to get a live-action Netflix series, last year it was reported that the project wasn't moving forward due to workplace misconduct allegations surrounding The Umbrella Academy showrunner Steve Blackman. Set in a post-apocalyptic future where human civilization has reverted back to a primitive state following a cataclysmic robot uprising, the film follows the outcast Aloy as she looks to unite the tribes of humanity to prepare for a massive threat that could wipe out all life on the planet if left unchecked. Advertisement Duke Nukem Is the world ready for Duke Nukem's return? A relic of the video game past--for good and bad reasons--the legendary gunslinger is making his way to theaters in a film project from the producers behind Cobra Kai. This will be an entirely new production when compared to the ill-fated Duke Nukem project that was set to star John Cena, and it was first announced in 2022. Since then, there has been radio silence on the project and it has no names attached to direct, write, or star in it. Advertisement Firewatch Campo Santo's story-focused and solitary adventure game Firewatch might sound like an odd choice for a film adaptation, but producers Snoot Entertainment are aiming to bring the interactive piece of art to the big screen. No other details, such as casting announcements or tentative release window, have been revealed since the 2020 announcement, but at the time, Camp Santo co-founder Sean Vanaman had nothing but high praise for the project and the people attached to it. Advertisement Ghost of Tsushima Back in 2020, Ghost of Tsushima arrived to send off the PS4 generation in grand style. A samurai tale with gorgeous visuals and intense action, the game attracted the attention of John Wick director Chad Stahelski and was quickly added to his slate of projects. Don't expect to Ghost of Tsushima on the big screen soon, as the director is currently focused on a Highlander reboot starring Henry Cavill as the legendary swordsman. Stahelski intends to create an "epic" atmosphere of samurai action while also seeing just how far he can "push the color palette" on this project. We also know that Sony is developing a Ghost of Tsushima anime spin-off, with this adaptation being handled by Demon Slayer studio Aniplex. Advertisement Gravity Rush Gravity Rush has managed to escape the pull of development hell since it was first announced in 2022, as work steadily continues on it. Anna Mastro (Secret Society of Second Born Royals) is reportedly the director, and at CES 2024, an entire five seconds of footage was seen during Sony's press conference. Unlike the anime-inspired 2012 game, this version of Gravity Rush appears to be taking a more realistic approach as it brings the gravity-defying world of Hekseville to life. Advertisement Dark Deception Survival-horror game Dark Deception is being adapted for the big screen, with development being led by writers Adrian Speckert and Cory Todd Hughes. The original game is a story-driven first-person horror maze game in which you must run, hide, or die at the hands of mysterious monsters. Advertisement Rider's Republic Ubisoft's extreme sports live-service game Rider's Republic is also getting a feature film adaptation, and it'll be helmed by Bad Boys: Ride or Die directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. Rider's Republic doesn't have much of a story to adapt, but the setting for the game--an extremely sporty festival set in the Alps where players can take part in a wide variety of activities--is being expanded on for this movie project. Advertisement Dead by Daylight For anyone yearning for a good ol' slasher horror movie, you might want to keep your eyes peeled for Dead by Daylight. The longrunning multiplayer horror game has long been considered a love letter to cinematic terror, and its feature film adaptation will be produced by Blumhouse and James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious). Advertisement Days Gone Days Gone was an interesting--but flawed--first-party game when it first launched on PS4 in 2019, and while it didn't reach the same levels of success as Marvel's Spider-Man or Ghost of Tsushima, it might be better suited for the silver screen. A tale of love, bikers, and zombies in a post-apocalyptic world, the script for this adaptation has been written by Sheldon Turner (X-Men: First Class and the Road House remake) and is said to have a modern-day Western feel to it. Sam Heughan (Outlander) is reportedly attached to play the protagonist Deacon St. John. Advertisement The Medium Horror games make for great movie adaptations--like Silent Hill and Five Nights at Freddy's to name a few--and Bloober Team's 2021 game The Medium is also headed to the big sccreen. This project is currently in development underUntil Dawn writer Gary Dauberman's Coin Operated production company and a search is now on to find a writer and a director. Advertisement The House of the Dead Based on Sega's zombie-slaying shoot-'em-up series, The House of the Dead will be written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who previously helmed the Resident Evil and Monster Hunter movies. Superman and Alien: Romulus star Isabela Merced has been cast as the lead, and Anderson plans for this production to be an immersive feature that plays out in real-time, giving viewers a "full-on terror ride" that will drop them straight into the action. Advertisement Atari classics For a blast from the past, you can soon look forward to several new movies based on classic Atari video games. Universal Pictures and Entertainment 360 have inked a deal to bring these games to the big screen, and the list so far includes several--probably forgotten--hits of yesteryear: Asteroids Adventure Berzerk Breakout Centipede Crystal Castles Millipede Missile Command Pong Yars’ Revenge Advertisement

Title: There’s Literally Never Been a Better Time to Get Into Tactics Games Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 23:00:18 GMT Link: https://www.polygon.com/tactics-games-2026-best-year/ The tactics genre is undergoing an undeniable renaissance right now, and has been for a little while. However, I'm someone who, until recently, never gave it a fair shot; I played a lot of Worms as a kid, not to mention the incredible Hogs of War, but those were as close as I got to the genre. Despite hearing great things about the XCOM series, the first time I properly got stuck into a tactics game was with Marvel's Midnight Sunsin 2022.

Title: 10 New Movies to Watch this Weekend on Prime Video, HBO Max, and Hulu (October 2-4) Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 21:00:16 GMT Link: https://www.polygon.com/new-movies-streaming-this-weekend-prime-video-october-2-4/ Happy weekend! It’s a big one for theatrical releases, with Tom Cruise’s Diggerfinally out. While divisive, Cruise is expected to be featured somewhere in the awards conversation, although an abysmal box office performance could torpedo those dreams. On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Verity, a throwback to the beloved erotic thrillers of years past, following an affair between a struggling writer and a hot dad. Somewhere in all of this, there’s his paralyzed wife.

Title: New Fast and Furious Release Now Streaming on Peacock Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:58:51 GMT Link: https://www.polygon.com/fast-and-furious-lego-how-to-train-your-dragon-peacock/ The Fast & Furious franchise has been around for so long that it's difficult to find a corner of pop culture it hasn't somehow collided with. What started as a movie about street racing has expanded into video games, toys, theme-park attractions, and crossovers with everything from Fortnite to Rocket League. At this point, it might feel like there isn't a crossover left that could surprise you.

Title: How to Get Pokémon's Special Mewtwo 30th Anniversary Card Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:57:37 GMT Link: https://www.polygon.com/pokemon-30th-anniversary-cards-release-date-mewtwo-promo-how-to-get/ The hyped release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game's 30th anniversary set is nearly here, and fans intent on catching them all have one more item to add to the checklist. In addition to securing pre-orders, beating the overnight lines, and avoiding scalpers, dedicated fans may want to seek out a special Mewtwo card that won't come in any of the standard 30th anniversary products.

Title: 5 TMNT Episodes That Prove the Original Was Better Than 'X-Men: The Animated Series' Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:06:20 GMT Link: https://www.polygon.com/best-tmnt-episodes-better-than-x-men-the-animated-series/ X-Men ’97 now has two full seasons available to stream on Disney Plus, and the show has proved that Marvel’s animated revival is much more than a nostalgia exercise. The series remains the epic, comic-book-faithful action fest fans hoped it would be, thanks in large part to Marvel’s decision to make it a direct continuation of the original X-Men: The Animated Series rather than “just another X-Mencartoon.”

Title: Fall Into 25 New Games on GeForce NOW This October Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:00:54 +0000 Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/geforce-now-thursday-october-2026-games-list/ Spooky season is streaming in. Alongside falling leaves, pumpkin spice and everything nice, 25 new games are joining GeForce NOW throughout October, including six ready to play this week. From a new CONTROL Resonant reward for Performance and Ultimate members to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered joining the cloud, this GFN Thursday is packed with fresh reasons to play. Claim Rewards A new reward from a world gone sideways. CONTROL Resonant is streaming from the cloud for GeForce NOW Performance and Ultimate members. Explore a warped Manhattan on the brink of paranatural annihilation as Dylan Faden harnesses extraordinary powers to battle the Hiss, the Mold and other reality-bending threats while searching for his sister, Federal Bureau of CONTROL Director Jesse Faden. Performance and Ultimate members can claim the Third Ice Baseball Cap reward for CONTROL Resonant. After claiming the reward code, launch the Steam or Epic Games Store version of CONTROL Resonant, select “Options” from the main menu, navigate to “Gameplay” and choose “Enter Redeem Code.” The reward can be equipped after completing Act 1. Cap it off: Claim the reward from Thursday, Oct. 1, through Sunday, Nov. 1, at 11:59 p.m. PT, before it slips into another dimension. The White Wolf Rides Again The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered launched Tuesday, Sept. 29, and is now streaming for Performance and Ultimate members. Follow the iconic tale of Geralt of Rivia, a monster slayer for hire, as he tracks down the Child of Prophecy in a war-torn, monster-infested open world. The remastered adventure brings Geralt’s beloved world back at refreshed specs across nearly any device. GeForce NOW handles the rendering, downloads and storage in the cloud, so there’s no expensive hardware upgrade or lengthy install standing between the trail and the next contract. Ultimate members can take the Continent further with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud — high-end horsepower worthy of the White Wolf, with no local hardware upgrade required. In addition, members can look for the following titles streaming this week: Minecraft Dungeons II (New release on Xbox, Sept. 29), available on Game Pass Nivalis Nights (New release on Steam, Sept. 29) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered (New release on Battle.net and Xbox Play Anywhere, Sept. 29), available on Microsoft Store Bookshop Simulator (Steam) Megastore: Tidy Up Together (Steam) Planet Coaster 2 (Xbox), available on Game Pass And look forward to the games coming throughout October: Gears of War: E-Day (New release on Steam, Oct. 6) STAR WARS: Galactic Racer (New release on Steam, Oct. 6) Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival (New release on Steam, Oct. 8) Order of the Sinking Star (New release on Steam, Oct. 8) Silver Pines (New release on Steam, Oct. 8) Permafrost (New release on Steam, Oct. 9) Deep Dish Dungeon (New release on Steam, Oct. 13) Planet Zoo 2 (New release on Steam, Oct. 13) Total War: SHOGUN 2 – Complete Edition (New release on Steam, Oct. 13) Valor Mortis (New release on Steam, Oct. 13) Among the Trolls (New release on Steam, Oct. 14) over the hill (New release on Steam, Oct. 14) Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 (New release on Steam, Oct. 14) Beyond These Stars (New release on Steam, Oct. 16) Tenebris Somnia (New release on Steam, Oct. 16) Dimraeth (Steam) Graveyard Keeper 2 (Steam) Solasta II (Steam) Tyr (Steam) More from September In addition to the games announced last month, 11 more joined the GeForce NOW library. The Blood of Dawnwalker (GOG.com) Death Stranding Director’s Cut (Epic Games Store) DragonSword: Awakening (Steam) Dune: Awakening (Xbox) Everything Is Crab (Steam) LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (Steam) Over the Top: WWI (Steam) Roadside Research (Steam) RuneScape: Dragonwilds (Xbox) Stick It to the Stickman (Steam) Wild West Pioneers (Steam) Dates listed above reflect when games are released on their respective stores. GeForce NOW availability may vary, as games are onboarded after they are released and added throughout the week. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW channels and GFN Thursdays for availability updates on announced titles. Gamers who want to test out high-performance GeForce NOW cloud gaming can start with a day pass to try premium cloud gaming before committing to a membership. Better yet, the cost of the day pass can be applied toward a first monthly membership — making it easy to try GeForce RTX-powered cloud gaming with the latest releases, then level up for more. What’s on the playlist this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

Title: Contain the Chaos: ‘CONTROL Resonant’ Launches on GeForce NOW Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:00:36 +0000 Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/geforce-now-thursday-control-resonant/ A warped Manhattan is waiting in the cloud this week. Remedy Entertainment’s CONTROL Resonant brings Dylan Faden’s extraordinary abilities and a paranatural crisis to GeForce NOW at launch. With the release comes the final days of the CONTROL Resonant Ultimate Membership Bundle. Purchase a 12-month GeForce NOW Ultimate membership through Sunday, Sept. 27, and receive CONTROL Resonant at no additional cost. GeForce NOW support is coming soon to Googlebooks, a new category of laptops bringing together the best of ChromeOS and Android. To top it off, DragonSword: Awakening leads nine new games this week, bringing an anime-style open world to supported devices. Take Control on the Cloud Explore a warped Manhattan on the brink of paranatural annihilation in Remedy Entertainment’s CONTROL Resonant. Harness Dylan Faden’s extraordinary abilities to battle the Hiss, the Mold and other reality-bending threats while searching for his sister, Federal Bureau of CONTROL Director Jesse Faden. Dylan must master his new powers and the ever-changing forms of the Aberrant, his paranatural melee weapon, to face a cosmic threat that has escaped the Oldest House and swept through the city. Ultimate members can stream the next chapter of the CONTROL franchise with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud, including NVIDIA DLSS 4, ray tracing, NVIDIA Reflex and Cinematic Quality Streaming technologies, with up to 5K high dynamic range on supported devices. Skip the 100GB local install and expensive PC upgrades, and step into the chaos the moment the mission begins. The clock is ticking: the CONTROL Resonant Ultimate Membership Bundle ends Sunday, Sept. 27. Cloud Gaming Meets Googlebooks GeForce NOW support is coming soon to Googlebooks — Google’s new category of laptops, and the first designed for Gemini Intelligence. Googlebook is crafted with premium materials for powerful performance. Secure by design, its Titan C chip and multigrade protection keep viruses out and hackers away. It also lets users jump from phone to laptop without skipping a beat, and access files and apps from phones directly on the laptop. As Googlebooks begin rolling out this fall, GeForce NOW support will bring the cloud gaming library to the new laptop category, making it possible to stream the latest PC games with GeForce RTX-powered performance — and without local installs. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW social channels for more availability details later this year. Awaken the Dragon Sword A dragon has awakened after 60 years, and the legacy of six heroes waits to be uncovered. Hound13’s DragonSword: Awakening transports players to the radiant, anime-style continent of Orbis, where Lute’s journey to become the hero known as the Dragon Sword begins. Explore meadows, secret cellars, deep seas, caves and dungeons alongside trusted allies and collectible Familiars. Build a team from 19 heroes, stack Status Ailments with Active Skills and chain Signal Skills into spectacular tag-team combos. Each character carries a story of their own to uncover along the way. The journey travels across supported devices, including Steam Decks, Firefox browsers and Amazon Fire TV devices, making players ready for the next adventure in Orbis. The Dragon Sword awaits. In addition, members can look for the following games joining the cloud this week: Dune: Awakening (New release on Xbox, Sept. 22, available on Game Pass) Stick It to the Stickman (New release on Steam, Sept. 23) CONTROL Resonant (New release on Steam, Sept. 24) Wild West Pioneers (New release on Steam, Sept. 25) DragonSword: Awakening (Steam) Everything Is Crab (Steam) LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (Steam) Over the Top: WWI (Steam) Roadside Research (Steam) Dates listed above reflect when games are released on their respective stores. GeForce NOW availability may vary, as games are onboarded after they’re released and added throughout the week. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW channels and GFN Thursdays for availability updates to announced titles. Those new to GeForce NOW can start with a day pass to try premium cloud gaming before committing to a membership. Better yet, the cost of a day pass can be applied toward a first monthly membership — making it easy to level up with GeForce RTX-powered cloud gaming. Which cloud-bound adventure is calling this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

Title: Cute Critters Come to the Cloud: ‘Aniimo’ Launches on GeForce NOW Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:55 +0000 Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/geforce-now-thursday-aniimo/ A new creature-catching adventure is ready to stream from the cloud this week. Pawprint Studio’s Aniimo arrives on GeForce NOW at launch, inviting gamers to explore the vibrant continent of Idyll across supported devices. Also this week, 007 First Light receives a path-tracing update on GeForce NOW, alongside a smashing limited-time Deluxe Edition sale on Steam and Epic Games Store. Gaijin Network’s fractured-multiverse action game Active Matter and Annapurna Interactive’s acclaimed space mystery Outer Wilds are also among 11 new titles joining the cloud this week. Explore Idyll With the Cutest Companions The path to Idyll begins now. Aniimo is a free-to-play, open-world creature-catching role-playing game where every creature encountered can become a companion. Catch Aniimo with Aniipods, then Twine with them to take on their form and use unique skills to solve puzzles, win battles and overcome challenges. Glide, dive and burrow across Idyll, then return to a personal RV to build a warm, interactive Homeland alongside Aniimo companions. Stream Aniimo on a Steam Deck, in the newly supported Firefox browser and across any other supported devices — without waiting through its 45GB download or making room in local storage. There’s always room in the Homeland for one more Aniimo. Choose Your Path Licensed to render. In the critically acclaimed, multimillion-selling 007 First Light, follow James Bond as a young, resourceful and sometimes reckless recruit in MI6’s training program, and discover a reimagined origin story of the world’s most famous spy. Incorporating IO Interactive’s signature stealth gameplay with world-class Bond action, players can embark on missions in breathtaking locations around the globe, drive iconic vehicles and dive into a cinematic adventure in pursuit of a rogue agent who’s always one step ahead. Path tracing has now been added to 007 First Light, introducing extra-detailed lighting, shadows and reflections, making its levels and set pieces even more cinematic, immersive and realistic. And NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction ensures the fidelity, clarity and accuracy of these additions are at their absolute best. Ultimate members can stream with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance, with up to 5K high dynamic range and cinematic-quality streaming. DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and Dynamic Frame Generation accelerate frame rates and enhance image quality. A limited-time opportunity awaits: the 007 First Light Deluxe Edition is on sale on Steam from Sept. 15-29 and on Epic Games Store from Sept. 3-18. The mission is on sale. The getaway car is in the cloud. Matter of Time Gaijin’s Active Matter, a realistic military shooter set in a fractured multiverse, has launched on GeForce NOW. As an operative stuck in a time loop, join dangerous raids for loot or intense player vs. player battles. Fight against rivals from other timelines, survive physics-breaking anomalies and try to stay alive. Harvest active matter, gather loot and extract to a safe place before the whole zone ceases to exist. Ultimate members can take on each raid with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud, delivering high frame rates, advanced graphics features and low latency across supported devices. The zone won’t wait — and neither does the next loop. Let’s Get Loopy Every loop holds another secret. Outer Wilds joins the GeForce NOW library this week. As the newest recruit of Outer Wilds Ventures, search for answers across a strange, ever-changing solar system trapped in an endless time loop. Gamers can trace mysterious signals, decipher alien writing and discover hidden locations before an underground city is swallowed by sand or a planet crumbles beneath their feet. There’s even more to stream this week: Active Matter (New release on Steam and Gaijin, Sept. 15) Aniimo (New release on Steam, Sept. 15) RuneScape: Dragonwilds (New release on Xbox, Sept. 15, available on Game Pass) Train Sim World 7 (New release on Steam, Sept. 15) The Guild 1 Remake: Europa 1410 (New release on Steam, Sept. 17) The Blood of Dawnwalker (GOG.com) Mixtape (Steam) Neon White (Steam) Outer Wilds (Steam) Stray (Steam) What Remains of Edith Finch (Steam) Dates listed above reflect when games are released on their respective stores. GeForce NOW availability may vary, as games are onboarded after they’re released and added throughout the week. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW channels and GFN Thursdays for availability updates to announced titles. Ready to take this week’s new games for a spin? Start with a day pass to try premium cloud gaming before committing to a membership. Even better, the cost of the day pass can be applied toward a first monthly membership — making it easy to level up with GeForce RTX-powered cloud gaming. What’s on the playlist this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

Title: Boots on the Ground: ‘WARDOGS’ Goes All Out on GeForce NOW at Early-Access Launch Date: Thu, 10 Sep 2026 13:00:18 +0000 Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/geforce-now-thursday-wardogs/ Gear up: The latest PC games and major updates are ready to play on GeForce NOW this week. WARDOGS drops onto the cloud at early-access launch, alongside the Valheim 1.0 Deep North update and Bus Simulator 27 — part of nine new titles joining the cloud. The newest PC releases can demand serious hardware, storage space and upgrade budgets. GeForce NOW puts GeForce RTX-powered performance in the cloud, so members can jump into the newest titles across supported devices without needing expensive PC upgrades to keep up. From a 100-player tactical firefight to a frozen Viking frontier and a growing bus empire, every adventure is ready when members are — no downloads or storage management required. Who Let the ‘WARDOGS’ Out?   Take on the Control Zone: WARDOGS launches on GeForce NOW today, bringing BULKHEAD’s large-scale tactical first-person shooter to the cloud at early-access launch. Up to 100 players across three teams battle to control randomized zones in a large-scale military sandbox, where tactical gunplay, combined-arms combat, building and destruction can change the course of a match. There’s no single route to victory. Outfit a loadout, coordinate a squad, fortify a strategic position or take the fight to the enemy in vehicles. Every team play action earns cash, giving players more ways to invest in gear and vehicles that can turn the tide. Ultimate members can stream the fight with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud for a tactical advantage. Pick up the battle across supported devices without waiting on a huge game install or clearing local storage first. Ice, Ice in the Deep North, Baby Sharpen the axes and raise the shields – Valheim has left early access with its 1.0 update, letting members stream the final biome in Iron Gate’s Viking survival saga through Steam and Xbox Store.  Set sail for the Deep North, a frozen frontier filled with new enemies to face, weapons to craft and strongholds to build before the cold closes in. The 1.0 launch also arrives alongside new platform versions with full crossplay support, making it easier to rally the clan. Whether returning to a long-running world on a PC or Mac or beginning a fresh voyage on a Steam Deck or Amazon Fire TV Stick, members can head to the Deep North across supported devices without waiting for downloads. The Wheels on the Bus Go ‘Round in the Cloud The route to the top starts here. Hop into the driver’s seat. Bus Simulator 27 is now streaming from GeForce NOW.  Drive a fleet of more than 45 officially licensed buses from 13 manufacturers through Felicia Bay, a sunny region with two cities, 20 districts and a full day-and-night cycle. Build routes, manage timetables and grow a successful bus company in Story, Career or Sandbox mode. And there’s even more to stream from the GeForce NOW library this week: Bus Simulator 27 (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Halloween: The Game (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Honeycomb: The World Beyond (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Wanderburg (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Shroom and Gloom (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) Train Sim World 7 – Advanced Access (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) WARDOGS (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) Welcome to Elderfield (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) Death Stranding Director’s Cut (Epic Games Store) Dates listed above reflect when games are released on their respective stores. GeForce NOW availability may vary, as games are onboarded after release and added throughout the week. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW channels and GFN Thursdays for availability updates on announced titles. One GFN community member recently returned after six years, saying NVIDIA DLSS 5 technology renewed their interest in GeForce NOW cloud gaming. Ready to try it out, too? Start with a day pass to test premium cloud gaming before committing to a membership. For those who decide to keep playing, the cost can be applied toward their first monthly membership. What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

Title: ‘NBA 2K27’ With NVIDIA DLSS 5 Leads 28 New Games Coming to GeForce NOW Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:00:35 +0000 Link: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/geforce-now-thursday-september-2026-games-list/ September is here with 28 more games streaming on GeForce NOW this month, led by a slam dunk: NBA 2K27 with the NVIDIA DLSS 5 3D-Guided Neural Rendering feature. Through NVIDIA’s close collaboration with Visual Concepts and 2K, DLSS 5 brings a new level of lifelike lighting and material detail to the court — tuned by developers to support the game’s authentic broadcast-style presentation. Members can also walk the line between human and vampire in Rebel Wolves’ The Blood of Dawnwalker and step into genma-haunted Kyoto in Capcom’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword — part of the 10 games joining the GeForce NOW library this week. Take the Court With DLSS 5 Showcase your moves. NVIDIA, Visual Concepts and 2K have brought DLSS 5 3D-Guided Neural Rendering to NBA 2K27, delivering a new level of sports realism for players streaming from the cloud at launch.  DLSS 5 enhances and tunes lighting and materials to make the action feel even more lifelike — from how light catches hair and skin to the detail preserved in the facial geometry of real-world athletes — achieving new levels of authenticity.  GeForce NOW Ultimate members in NVIDIA-operated regions can stream NBA 2K27 across PCs, Macs, handhelds, mobile devices, TVs and more. DLSS 5 is available when streaming from a GeForce RTX 5080-powered rig in the cloud. Tip off without waiting for downloads or managing storage, and experience NBA 2K27 from the cloud with the visual fidelity of DLSS 5. Walk the Line Between Day and Night Human by day. Vampire by night. Rebel Wolves’ newly launched The Blood of Dawnwalker is streaming from GeForce NOW. The open-world, dark-fantasy action role-playing game transports players to 14th-century Europe, where war, plague and rising vampire powers have reshaped history. Play as Coen, a young Dawnwalker fighting to save his family while caught between his humanity and cursed vampiric strength. His abilities — and the choices available to him — change between day and night, shaping how players explore, fight and uncover the secrets of the world around them. Sink teeth into the fresh adventure from nearly any supported device, with Ultimate members tapping into GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud. Skip the installs and let GeForce NOW handle the heavy lifting, leaving more time to take a bite out of everything Coen’s new world has to offer. Skip the Downloads and Sharpen the Sword Pick up the Oni Gauntlet. Capcom’s Onimusha: Way of the Sword arrives on GeForce NOW at launch, giving members a way to jump straight into the series’ return instantly from the cloud. Fight across a twisted vision of Edo-period Kyoto as a lone samurai wielding the mystical Oni Gauntlet. Master precise swordplay, unleash powerful abilities and absorb the souls of fallen enemies while battling relentless Genma beneath mysterious clouds of Malice. Ultimate members can stream every clash with GeForce RTX 5080-class performance in the cloud across PCs, Macs, handhelds, mobile devices, TVs, the newly supported Firefox browser and more. Cut to the chase by skipping any downloads and storage management and step into battle. In addition, members can look for the following titles streaming this week: Breathedge 2 (New release on Steam, Aug. 31) Serious Sam: Shatterverse (New release on Steam, Aug. 31) Crimson Moon (New release on Steam, Sept. 1) The Blood of Dawnwalker (New release on Steam, Sept. 2) NBA 2K27 (New release on Steam, Sept. 3) SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed (New release on Steam and Xbox, available on Game Pass, Sept. 3) Onimusha: Way of the Sword (New release on Steam, Sept. 4) How to Fish (Steam) Shelves and Sorcery: Tidy Up the Enchanted Shop (Steam) VHOLUME (Steam) And look forward to the games coming throughout the month: Bus Simulator 27 (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Halloween: The Game (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Honeycomb: The World Beyond (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Wanderburg (New release on Steam, Sept. 8) Shroom and Gloom (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) WARDOGS (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) Welcome to Elderfield (New release on Steam, Sept. 10) Active Matter (New release on Steam, Sept. 15) Aniimo (New release on Steam, Sept. 15) Train Sim World 7 (New release on Steam, Sept. 15) The Guild 1 Remake: Europa 1410 (New release on Steam, Sept. 17) CONTROL Resonant (New release on Steam, Sept. 24) Nivalis Nights (New release on Steam, Sept. 29) Mixtape (Steam)  Neon White (Steam)  Outer Wilds (Steam)  Stray (Steam) What Remains of Edith Finch (Steam) All the Extras From August In addition to the 26 games announced last month, 18 more joined the GeForce NOW library.  Cat Mail Co. (Steam) Monster Hunter Wilds Prologue Demo (Steam) Stars Reach (Steam) DIVE or DIE – Children of Rain (Steam) Escape the Backroom (Xbox, available on Game Pass) Hell Is Us (Xbox, available on Game Pass) Parcel Simulator (Steam) The Thaumaturge (Xbox, available on Game Pass) Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered (Epic Games Store) STAR WARS Zero Company (EA app and Steam) Baldur’s Gate 3 (GOG) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (GOG) Cold Fear (GOG) IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator (Steam) Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (GOG) Mount & Blade: Bannerlord II (GOG) No Man’s Sky (GOG) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (GOG) Dates listed above reflect when games are released on their respective stores. GeForce NOW availability may vary, as games are onboarded after release and added throughout the week. Keep an eye on GeForce NOW channels and GFN Thursdays for availability updates on announced titles. New to GeForce NOW? Start with a day pass to try premium cloud gaming before committing to a membership. Better yet, the cost of the day pass can be applied toward a first monthly membership — making it easy to try GeForce RTX-powered cloud gaming with the latest releases, then level up for more. What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

Title: Official PlayStation Podcast Episode 549: Friendly Ghosts Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 17:58:44 +0000 Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/10/02/official-playstation-podcast-episode-549-friendly-ghosts/ Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com! Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here Hey, y’all! Tim and Kristen are back this week to chat through news from the week and games we can’t stop playing. Plus, Gillen stops in to interview Ghost of Yōtei actor Erika Ishii to celebrate the release of the game’s Complete Edition and its one year anniversary. Stuff We Talked About Next week’s release highlights: Kingdom Hearts I-III | PS5  Star Wars: Galactic Racer | PS5  Deck of Haunts | PS5  Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition The Blood of Dawnwalker (Kristen gets its name right this time) Silent Hill: Townfall Onimusha: Way of the Sword God of War Laufey pre-orders available now, editions detailed – All the juicy details on pre-order bonuses, Digital Deluxe Edition, some peeks at Faye’s armor coming in those editions, and a highlight of Faye’s Serpent Bow combat. How Control Resonant’s art design and tech shaped its bosses, paranaturally-twisted Manhattan and more – Deep dive into Remedy’s inspirations, how they designed Dylan and his combat animations, the twisted version of Manhattan, liminal spaces, boss fights, and PS5 features PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for October: F1 25, Hunt: Showdown 1896, Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 Kena: Scars of Kosmora launches 2027– Ember Labs offers a development update, as well as a new look at Kena’s spirit companion The Cast View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Tim Turi – Content Communications Manager, SIE View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Kristen Zitani – Content Communications Manager, SIE Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. [Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

Title: Share of the Week: Marvel’s Wolverine – Logan Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:00:10 +0000 Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/10/02/share-of-the-week-marvels-wolverine-logan/ Last week, we asked you to share portraits of Logan from Marvel’s Wolverine using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured. Here are this week’s highlights: calisarah1998 shares Logan growling in front of some wreckage Gib84G shares Logan surrounded by money from the casino PurplePampano shares Logan with his hat tipped lets_gaming.vp  shares a black and white portrait of Logan peering through his claws PatmanGames shares Logan with a shredded shirt abd23.gameframes shares Logan leaping into the night Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme, or be inspired by other great games featuring Photo Mode. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week? THEME: Marvel’s Wolverine – Allies & VillainsSUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on October 7, 2026 Next week, share moments fighting alongside Team X and Jean Grey, or against various villains in Marvel’s Wolverine using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.

Title: Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition – Erika Ishii interview Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:00:05 +0000 Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/10/02/ghost-of-yotei-complete-edition-erika-ishii-interview/ Atsu’s hunt is not over. A year after the original game launched, PS5 players can dive into the Ghost of Yōtei Complete Edition. Available now on PS5, this brings together the story campaign, the Ghost of Yōtei Legends multiplayer mode, and two new major additions: the roguelike mode Most Wanted, and the narrative expansion Echoes of Sekigahara. The story is split between the present day and flashbacks to Atsu’s time on the mainland. To mark the Complete Edition’s launch, and celebrate the game’s first anniversary, we welcome back the voice of Atsu, Erika Ishii, to talk about the game. Note: The below interview is condensed for clarity and brevity. You can listen to the full chat on the latest episode of the PlayStation Podcast, available later today. Play Video PlayStation Blog: It’s been a year since the game originally launched. What has Atsu brought to your life since? Erika Ishii: I still can’t get over it, you know, because again, this was my dream. I played The Last of Us and I said, I want to do that. I already knew I wanted to act. I already knew I loved video games. But I said specifically – that. That is what I want to do. And… yeah, being on my PlayStation home screen, playing the game, getting to travel to Tokyo Game Show, which was another dream of mine. And to have a beautiful professional cosplay made for me of Atsu so I could be Atsu on the Sony PlayStation stage in Japan… it really does feel like a fever dream sometime. I was curious to know whether your dialogue for the expansion was recorded after the fact or part of the bundle together with the original recording. Sounds like you came back. So what’s the time gap there between that last piece of dialogue you recorded for the main story campaign and then coming back to the expansion? There were at least a couple of months between. They had to work really hard on polish to get the game out, then take a very well-deserved little bit of a break. But as we were nearing the end of production, I was inquiring constantly. “Are we doing DLC? Because Iki Island was really great and really fleshed out some stuff that I wanted to know about in Atsu’s backstory…” And I did have a list of pitches for them [laughs] They didn’t go with anything that I suggested. But even at the launch party I was talking with Courtney Woods, the writer for Echoes of Sekigahara. And we were scheming. We thought “Atsu needs a little romance in her life”. Like, there’s no way she didn’t have any romance. She mentioned [as such] in one of the onsen scenes. So you know she’d had bedtime bed companions at least. But what’s the deal with personal attachments? Is this the only time in her life up until now she’s had them? And so I got my wish. You had that little bit of time away. Did that time increase your awareness of the character, or anything you experienced outside the role that helped inform your performance of Atsu further? Pretty much playing the game. It’s wild because, you know, most of the time voice actors don’t get to play the game until after it comes out. I was fortunate enough [to do so] during production. But playing through the finished game and literally being hands-on and in her shoes. Because a lot of times, if it’s been a while since you’ve played a character, they’ll play you reference audio. But I could go directly to being Atsu, go right into the booth. It was such a gift. There are flashbacks. So it’s two periods of Atsu’s life. So how do you get into that headspace where you’re having to switch? A couple of things helped. We had done a lot of flashbacks with young Atsu. And so extrapolating what happened. Most of the time in acting you have what is called a prior moment. Before any scene starts you have to know where you were. You have to have a whole lived life experience prior to this moment. I already had to have it in my head and sort of know what she had been through and what this huge informative point in her life felt like. For an actor, you have to have [to be able to] drop in at any moment and be like, okay, well, I think that her time doing this probably informed how it’s going to be in the quote-unquote present day. Play Video This roguelike mode, Most Wanted. Did you record new dialogue for that? Yes, there is some new dialogue for that. Because it is a new mode and non-canonical, it has a slightly different feeling to it, more mystical, in the way that the multiplayer is more mythological. There’s a heightened quality to it. You’re not the only character in Most Wanted. There’s some familiar faces, but a surprise face is… Jin, who is returning, and I believe Daisaku Tsuji recorded new voice lines for this as well. I understand you didn’t crossover during the recording sessions but you folks must have got together to talk all things Ghost and just compare experiences? I got to chat with him [when he was in Los Angeles] and we chatted a little bit about it. And that was actually before the game had launched. I told him how much his work meant to me and how I’m grateful to be accepting the Ghost torch. In a lot of ways he was new to video games with Ghost of Tsushima. But since then he’s appeared in many other games. I think almost all of which I am also in. We joke that we’re bound together forever, and one of us will follow in the other’s footsteps. Last year I asked you where launch day would find you. You mentioned it was a gathering of folk from the game. So where does the first anniversary of Yotei find you? Oh, my gosh. I think the big thing is that the Complete Edition is out. I didn’t know the launch date until the rest of the world did. We all had a little betting pool as to when we thought this was going to drop. And I said, I guarantee it’ll be on the anniversary. I was one day off [laughs]. I feel like this is the one year celebration. It’s very bittersweet to me. It’s been four years of my life being her face, her movements and her voice, and helping to develop her and working with just like some of the greatest team of all time is…  Atsu is going to be a part of my heart forever. And, you know, when they have the PlayStation logos, they’re going to have a picture of Atsu, a picture of my face there. I still see cosplays at conventions. I… This is, again, to bring it back around to the beginning, this was my dream. And I think that what do you do when you accomplish the big thing when you get to the top of the mountain is you just got to keep going there. There are more mountains to climb, I think. I have the great privilege of, in addition to Atsu, having other characters or work that are a part of my oeuvre. I don’t have to be defined by Atsu, but she is… gonna always be so special to me.

Title: AI upscaling is coming to PS5 Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 16:00:09 +0000 Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/10/01/ai-upscaling-is-coming-to-ps5/ Since the launch of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) on PS5 Pro, players and developers have asked whether similar image-quality improvements could be brought to the PS5 console. PSSR analyzes game images pixel by pixel and uses AI to upscale them with more detail and stability than conventional approaches; until now, its computational demands made bringing that experience to PS5 impossible. Today, we’re excited to announce Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR): a new performance tier of AI upscaling. Born from Project Amethyst, our AI graphics collaboration with AMD, this quick new evolution of PSSR is built on two key innovations: A streamlined neural network architecture A hand-tuned implementation that maximizes performance on PS5 With these, we are bringing the benefits of AI-guided upscaling to PS5. While PSSR remains the gold standard on PS5 Pro, QSSR provides some notable improvements to both image detail and image stability on PS5. The first titles to use this innovative new library are Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. Both are being patched today to offer QSSR as an additional graphics option on PS5.  Here’s what Insomniac Games and Sucker Punch Productions have to share about the benefits of this new technology: Play Video “Our team at Insomniac works hard to make sure each of our games is a showcase of PlayStation hardware, and we’re excited for Marvel’s Wolverine to be one of the first titles to bring this new QSSR technology to players. QSSR adds more pixel-level clarity and stability to our environments, bringing out extra detail amidst the busy streets of Madripoor, the dense alleyways of Shinjuku, and many other areas across Logan’s epic journey. It’s a perfect companion to the launch of Marvel’s Wolverine, and it brings a great taste of the PS5 Pro experience to our players on PS5. Personally, I love seeing how the PlayStation tech teams continually improve the PS5 platform, and I’m excited for more games to make use of QSSR in the future!” – Mike Fitzgerald, Head of Technology / Insomniac Games Play Video “At Sucker Punch, we’re excited to bring QSSR to Ghost of Yōtei players so that they can experience the world we’ve created with even more clarity and detail. QSSR excels at resolving the fine details in our characters and environments and does so with a level of temporal stability that hasn’t been possible on the PS5 console until now. We’ve long wished that all PS5 players could experience the incredible image quality that PSSR brings to PS5 Pro, and QSSR is a positive step towards that goal!” – Jasmin Patry, Lead Rendering Engineer / Sucker Punch Productions QSSR will be offered broadly to all PlayStation developers, and we look forward to seeing these improvements in many more titles going forward! 

Title: Martial arts meet fluid platforming in Elta: Defy All Gods, with a free PS5 demo out today Date: Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:00:44 +0000 Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/10/01/martial-arts-meet-fluid-platforming-in-elta-defy-all-gods-with-a-free-ps5-demo-out-today/ Take the punchy, fast-paced combat of a brawler, the tight platforming and exploration of a search-action game, and a cute dragon companion (who’s also the millennia-old god you worship), and blend everything together with a dash of anime flair. That is the recipe for Elta: Defy All Gods, our upcoming game here at Afterburner Studios, launching February 2nd, 2027. Dive in with us as we explain how our action-platformer brings back the best from the classics while making it a fresh experience, what inspired us, and why you should jump into the free demo on PlayStation 5 today. Play Video A new take on action-platformers Action-platformers have had a resurgence of interest in the last few years, providing an interesting mix of combat, exploration, and story, but few have tried blending explosive hand-to-hand fights with labyrinthian, non-linear exploration. Elta: Defy All Gods provides just that: impactful melee action, mixing martial arts and magic, broken up by flowing aerial platforming and discovery across three winding sci-fi worlds. The challenge lies in mastering both combat and navigation; juggling enemies in dynamic encounters across sprawling worlds that won’t always hold your hand. The best way to explain our unique take on the genre is to coin a new term. We like to call Elta: Defy All Gods a “brawlervania”. Brawler enthusiasts will enjoy three martial art stances, each with their own skill trees, alongside magic systems to unleash built-up energy in massive attacks. Platforming players, on the other hand, will get a growing set of movement abilities with classic moves, such as the double jump, dash, wall run, and grapple. That’s not all though; Elta, your dragon, will be key, by giving you new unique abilities to hit harder and reach previously inaccessible locations. The inspirations behind Elta: Defy All Gods Veteran players will definitely catch nods to series we grew up with, like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, God of War, Darksiders, and Jak and Daxter. We take a lot of pride in honoring these classics, but we wanted to do more than just rehash them. To carve out our own identity within that familiar formula, we traded traditional weapon-based hacking and slashing for fluid, hand-to-hand martial arts. By weaving your dragon companion’s abilities right into your fights and platforming acrobatics, we hope to bring something fresh to the table. To find that specific energy, we also sought creative inspiration outside of the gaming realm entirely. Moving to TV screens, shōnen anime, and especially Dragon Ball Z, have been a massive inspiration for us, echoing the power fantasy you can experience playing the warrior monk Victus. With such a heavy focus on melee combat, we also turned to Hong Kong martial arts movies, ranging from the Ip Man saga to Shaw Brothers’ classics. These influences have been wrapped in a painterly art direction that makes each vista look like living concept art. The sense of power you get while playing echoes the sense of scale you feel when taking in each landscape. Reaching high ambitions as an indie team Despite the big-budget games listed above, we are not a large studio by any means. With three co-founders and a dozen core members, delivering on this game’s promise has been a real challenge for us at Afterburner Studios. It’s one that required us to lean heavily on our background in indie development. We’ve taken lessons from our previous game into Elta, finding clever ways to achieve bigger things with our small-sized team. While we’ve stayed true to our vision of a modernized take on classic mechanics, Elta has gone through constant iteration over the course of the last five years to allow us to deliver the best versions of this game to players – both in world, gameplay and tone. This was also made possible through a partnership with Focus Entertainment, the folks behind Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy. By lending us their design, production, and QA experience, they allowed us to expand our vision and tackle a dream project – one that would only be possible with their support. Instead of getting slowed down by our ambitions, this fruitful partnership allowed us to double down on what we do best: crafting satisfying game feel. Game feel as our main priority At every stage of development, we’ve gotten the same feedback: this is a game that must be felt, controller in hand, rather than just watched. All our mechanics, in both combat and platforming, have been tuned to be as satisfying as possible. By using the haptics of the DualSense controller, landing punches and hitting platforms has a real tactile weight, resulting in a more immersive experience for PlayStation players. Ultimately, we want to create an action-packed adventure that puts fun first and continues to defy your expectations for what a small indie team can pull off. And you don’t need to wait to try it out for yourself: our free demo is available today on PS5, allowing you to experience the very beginning of Elta: Defy All Gods. Retrieve the lost dragon-god you worship, brawl corrupted enemies in intense melee combat, and explore Lerna, a glacial world filled with hidden secrets, ancient ruins, and industrial remnants. The full game releases on February 2, 2027, and if you pre-order, you can get the Vanguard Armor, a special cosmetic skin for Victus. Find Elta, face off against the gods and start the journey to bring salvation to your people with the free demo, available today on PlayStation 5.

Title: Desktop and handheld prices going out of control means PC bargain hunts lead to my old enemy: gaming laptops Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:15:00 +0000 Link: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/desktop-and-handheld-prices-going-out-of-control-means-pc-bargain-hunts-lead-to-my-old-enemy-gaming-laptops I don’t know if memory shortages have permanently killed off the concept of 'cheap' gaming PCs, but they have at least beat it into a coma. On the desktop side, inflated RAM, SSDs and graphics card prices continue to inflict karmic pain for our years of "It's cheaper to build it yourself" smugness, while formerly affordable handheld PCs are either suffering 40%-plus jackups or launching above £1K from the off. And the Steam Machine! The poor, square Steam Machine. Every few weeks, possibly in denial, I’ll skim through the shops to see what budget games kit actually looks like in this day and age. Across the last five or six rounds, little has changed: the entry point into decent, more-or-less current-spec 1080p play remains stuck in the low quadruple figures, particularly if you’re fully new to PC ownership and need to factor in a monitor and peripherals. There is one exception, assuming you don’t fancy your luck on the secondhand market, but giving it a hands-on appraisal means confronting an ancient hardware foe of mine. And you all know how little I like to have my prejudices challenged. Still, research suggests that yes, this truly is the most gaming PC you can get for under £999. So, um. Here it goes. May...maybe gaming laptops aren’t so bad. Read more

Title: "Support modders, not AI": Total War: Warhammer 3 mod "deliberately corrupted" by its own creator in protest of AI-infused unauthorised reuploads Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 15:37:33 +0000 Link: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/support-modders-not-ai-total-war-warhammer-3-mod-deliberately-corrupted-by-its-own-creator-in-protest-of-ai-infused-unauthorised-reuploads Cheesed off with unauthorised reuploads of their Total War: Warhammer 3 overhaul which make use of AI, the main modder behind SFO: Grimhammer 3 has opted to purposefully corrupt the mod. The aim is to ensure that the modders maintain more control over where and when the latest version of Grimhammer 3 can be grabbed, with creator Venris threatening to make the mod private if the situation doesn't improve. Read more

Title: RAM shortages are only getting worse and will last until at least 2028, Micron boss declares from atop a mountain of money Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:09:50 +0000 Link: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ram-shortages-are-only-getting-worse-and-will-last-until-at-least-2028-micron-boss-declares-from-atop-a-mountain-of-money Another day, another company declaring that the current memory crisis driving RAM prices through the roof is far from over. This time it's Micron, one of three firms - Samsung and SK Hynix are the others - which have been accused of worsening the RAM crisis via price fixing by a US lawsuit. Read more

Title: AI-generated Fallout: New York browser game full of utterly cursed faces slapped with Bethesda cease and desist, its slop prompter claims Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 11:45:53 +0000 Link: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ai-generated-fallout-new-york-browser-game-full-of-utterly-cursed-faces-slapped-with-bethesda-cease-and-desist-its-slop-prompter-claims In perhaps the least surprising Fallout news since Raul from New Vegas confirmed that ghouls with dodgy knees don't enjoy sneaking, the person behind an AI-generated browser game dubbed Fallout: New York has claimed to have recieved a cease and desist message from Bethesda parent company ZeniMax. Their creation, if such a term fits, was generated using Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 tech. Read more

Title: PUBG extraction shooter Black Budget canned less than a year from reveal, after Krafton decide it won't "deliver an experience players could enjoy over the long term" Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2026 09:26:02 +0000 Link: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/pubg-extraction-shooter-black-budget-canned-less-than-a-year-from-reveal-after-krafton-decide-it-wont-deliver-an-experience-players-could-enjoy-over-the-long-term PUBG: Black Budget, an extraction shooter spin-off of Krafton's battle royale, has been cancelled after just under a year of closed alpha testing. Krafton cited a lack of faith that Black Budget's "current direction" would lead to "an experience players could enjoy over the long term" as the reasoning behind their call to end development. Though, they insisted PUBG Studios have learned valuable lessons that'll serve future games. Read more