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The latest Fortnite leak has revealed the new "Pump & Dump" weapon, which will reportedly be added to the game in its next update. This new "Pump & Dump" weapon combines the power of a shotgun and an SMG, letting players duel wield one of each. This update will mark the first major one for Fortnite since Chapter 6 Season 2 launched back in February, which itself made numerous changes to both the game and how it plays. View the full article

Monster Hunter Wilds brought back all 14 weapons from previous games for players to take up in their fight against the dangerous creatures of the Forbidden Lands, but not every weapon is equal. They can all be fun, and each weapon has its own unique abilities, attacks, and learning curve that make the game complex and satisfying. Some of the new abilities and weapon changes make them even stronger than before. With enough practice, a hunter can be effective in battle with any one of the tools at their disposal. View the full article

There are many different traditions associated with playing Monster Hunter; getting a good meal before a hunt, sharpening your weapon every three seconds, grabbing all items in sight despite not needing them (you've probably got enough herbs by now). But my favorite has always been dressing up my cat companion in the most cursed cosmetics available... Read more.View the full article

Phasmophobia has confirmed that the long-awaited Bleasdale Farmhouse overhaul is set to drop on March 10, giving fans a big reason to get excited. The upcoming update will be an enormous rework of one of Phasmophobia's oldest maps. View the full article

The Epic Games Store free game for March 13 is Mortal Shell, but there's a bonus freebie for PC gamers to look forward to as well. Epic Games Store users have been treated to a wide variety of free games in 2025 so far, with plenty more on the way. While there's always a chance Epic Games will stop giving away free games on the platform, it hasn't made any indication that it plans on doing so in the near future. View the full article

Marvel Rivals has a remarkably eclectic collection of heroes, from melee bruisers to snipers and even aerial sluggers. When it comes to the best crosshairs in Marvel Rivals, then, there's no 'one size fits all'. To make the most of every hero, you'll need to tweak your reticle to suit their unique playstyle... Read more.View the full article

When I sat down to play developer MercurySteam’s latest project, Blades of Fire, I expected something of a return to the studio’s Castlevania: Lords of Shadow games, updated with the modern stylings of God of War. An hour later I thought I was playing a Soulslike, albeit one where all the stats were in my weapons rather than an RPG character sheet. By the end of the three-hour hands-on session, I realised both of those observations were simultaneously true and false: this is a game that is unmistakably built on well-worn ground, but the unique arrangement of both its borrowed components and new ideas results in a fresh and interesting approach to the action-adventure genre. While it’s not exactly a clone of Sony Santa Monica’s work, you’d be forgiven for assuming as much at first glance. With its dark fantasy world, heavy-hitting strikes, and third-person camera that stays close to the action, Blades of Fire has much in common with the Norse era of Kratos’ journey. There are certainly even more parallels that I could talk of: across a demo that took place during the game’s opening hours, I explored a twisty, treasure chest-laden map with the aid of a young companion who helped solve puzzles. Together we sought out a woman of the wilds who lived in a house mounted atop a giant creature. It can sometimes feel a bit too familiar, especially when you also factor in the many elements pilfered from FromSoftware’s library, including anvil-shaped checkpoints that, when rested at, both refill your limited health potions and respawn enemies. All of this familiarity is filtered through a world that has an air of 1980s fantasy about it. You can imagine Conan the Barbarian easily blending in among its incredibly buff soldiers, while a bunch of orangutan-like enemies bouncing around on bamboo pogo sticks wouldn’t look out of place in Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Even the story has a retro vibe; an evil queen has turned steel into stone, and it’s up to you – Aran de Lira, essentially a blacksmith demigod – to kill her and restore the world’s metal. Despite these old-school charms, though, at this stage I’m doubtful the story, characters, or writing will prove that compelling – it’s all incredibly video game-y, akin to the many forgotten stories of the Xbox 360 era. Like many of those games of yore, Blades of Fire’s best accomplishments appear to be mechanical. It boasts a combat system rooted in directional attacks that makes use of every face button on the controller. On a PlayStation pad, tapping triangle aims for the head, cross goes for the torso, while square and circle swipe left and right respectively. Through careful reading of an enemy’s stance you can use these attacks to break through defences. A soldier holding up a blade to protect their face, for instance, can be overcome by aiming low and skewering through their gut. The impact is wonderfully squelchy, with thick trails of blood erupting from the wounds you inflict. There are occasions when this system really shines. The demo’s first major boss, a slobbering troll, had a second health bar that could only be chipped away after dismembering the beast. The limb that’s lopped off is dictated by your angle of attack, so I could use my right-hand strike to detach its club-swinging left arm, quite literally disarming my foe. Even better: you can cut the troll’s entire face off, leaving it blind and aimlessly flailing until it can regrow its eyes and continue the fight. Compared to most games, your weapons demand a huge amount of attention. Interesting wrinkles like this can be found in many of the combat staples. Rather than automatically regenerate, your attack and dodge-fuelling stamina gauge must be manually restored by holding the block button. But despite these new ideas providing Blades of Fire’s combat with a distinctly different edge, the general tone of battle is undeniably Soulsian. Attack pattern recognition and slender dodge/block/parry windows are very much the name of the game here, and there’s the same sense of risk and reward – even if the punishment isn’t quite as severe. It’s enough to trick your brain into reaching for FromSoft muscle memory, but that sadly won’t save you here: the directional attack system demands a very different control map, the safety of blocking repositioned to the left trigger. After rewiring my brain to remember that none of the face buttons can be used to dodge, things began to click. The unique approaches gradually took centre stage over the Souls of it all, and I soon found the combat to be refreshingly different. Core damage dealing is elevated by a smart weapon system that allows you to wield your bladed armaments with different stances, either slashing with the sharp edge or thrusting with the pointed tip. As with the directional system, you’ll need to assess your enemy (as well as some useful HUD prompts) to determine which method is most effective. If the title didn’t give it away, your weapons are the very heart of Blades of Fire. And compared to most games, they demand a huge amount of attention. Edged weapons dull with repeated use, meaning each successive strike deals a minuscule less damage than the last. That all adds up over time, so you’ll need to use a sharpening stone to replenish your weapon’s blade. That, or switch to a different stance; the edge and the tip wear down independent of each other, which contributes to the sense that these are tangible items affected by your fighting style. As with Monster Hunter, you’ll learn to make space to sharpen your sword mid-fight. But every weapon has a durability meter that continually depletes, no matter how well you care for it. When your weapon inevitably shatters, you can repair it at an anvil checkpoint. Or you can melt it down into its raw materials to begin crafting anew in what is undoubtedly Blades of Fire’s most significant and distinguishing innovation: the forge. With your weapon design complete, you must then physically hammer out the metal on an anvil. To say MercurySteam has created an extensive weapon crafting system is an understatement. Rather than find new armaments in the world, every weapon’s life begins here in the forge. It starts with the choice of a basic weapon template, which Aran sketches out on a chalkboard. From here you tweak and modify. For instance, when designing a spear, I adjusted both the length of the pole and the shape of the spearhead. Each decision is reflected in the weapon’s stats; a longer pole increases the spear’s range, while the shape of the head dictates if it’s more proficient at slashing or piercing. Different materials affect weight and that in turn changes the weapon’s demands on your stamina pool. All this lends the sense that you are genuinely crafting your weapon. You even get to name your creation. Most crafting systems would end there. In Blades of Fire, this is only the halfway point. With your design complete, you must then physically hammer out the metal on an anvil. This is achieved via a remarkably involved minigame in which you control the length, force, and angle of every hammer strike. A curved line across the screen represents the ultimate ideal, and with each blow of the hammer you attempt to arrange a series of vertical bars, akin to a graphic equalizer, to match the shape of that curved line. Overworking the steel will result in a weaker weapon, so the aim is to recreate that line in as few strikes as possible. Your efforts are rewarded with a star rating; the more stars you attain, the more often you can repair your creation before it permanently breaks and is lost forever. I really love the idea of the forge and how it introduces a skill element to what is typically a menu-driven system. But even after several sessions at the anvil, I found the minigame frustratingly obtuse. There didn’t seem to be a clear connection between the areas that I struck and the resulting shape of the metal. Hopefully some improvements, or simply a better tutorial, are implemented before launch – it would be a shame for Blades of Fire’s most interesting feature to be marred by irritation. The idea at the heart of the forge is something that goes way beyond the boundaries of a three-hour demo session. MercurySteam wants you to feel deeply attached to the weapons you create and carry them with you for the duration of your journey – a journey the developer claims will be “no less than 60-70 hours.” As you explore the world and find new metals, you’ll be able to reforge your trusted swords, axes, hammers, and spears to enhance their properties, ensuring they’re always suitable for new and more difficult challenges. This relationship between you and your armaments is emphasised by the death system; upon defeat you drop the weapon you were using and respawn without it. It’s another mechanic inspired by Dark Souls, but built on a different, arguably more meaningful bond: lost souls can always be replenished with more killing, but a brilliant sword you’ve built a connection with is irreplaceable. Luckily your dropped weapons will remain in the world permanently, so your only challenge is to find a way to recover what you lost. I look forward to seeing how this plays out over the entire campaign, and if any kind of backtracking will reunite you with weapons from a dozen hours ago that you can reforge and rekindle your relationship with. It’s unsurprising to see MercurySteam adopt multiple ideas from Dark Souls and its siblings. That’s partly due to FromSoftware’s seemingly irreversible impact on action games, but also because Blades of Fire is something of a spiritual successor to Blade of Darkness: a relic of the early 2000s, it was developed by MercurySteam’s founding members and is considered (by its cult following, at least) to be a precursor to the Souls series. In many ways, those developers are simply picking up from where they left off, implementing the advancements made by other studios during their time away from the genre. As I played, I could feel the gravitational pull of all of MercurySteam’s apparent influences – the brutal combat of this project’s decades-old predecessor, the innovations of FromSoft, and the world design of God of War. But as much as those ideas are clear to see, they fall short of defining the studio’s latest work. Rather than craft a Soulslike or a God of War-like, those firmly established systems have been reinterpreted as part of a larger canvas of ideas. Blades of Fire has a recipe of its own that successfully distances it from any of its obvious gaming touchstones. I do have some misgivings – I’m unsure if this fairly generic dark fantasy world is up to the challenge of supporting a 60 hour adventure, and within three hours I’d fought the same gatekeeping miniboss three times, which makes me question the variety on offer. But the demonstrated depth of relationship between your forged blades and the foes you face has me totally intrigued. In a time when complex and, frankly, obtuse games like Elden Ring and Monster Hunter have become mainstream hits, I think Blades of Fire has the potential to contribute something fascinating to the scene. Matt Purslow is IGN's Senior Features Editor. View the full article For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Split Fiction director Josef Fares recently revealed that Hazelight Studio may develop a single-player game in the future, despite the studio’s history of creating popular split-screen co-op titles. While the possibility of a new single-player game developed by the Split Fictionstudio does not seem likely in the immediate future, this means that fans can at least have some hope. View the full article

Preview | MercurySteam wants to put "something new on the table," and the result is a queen-killing adventure where you'll need to forge your own weaponsView the full article

MyRISE is taking a different approach in WWE 2K25. Rather than having two different storylines for male and female characters, both genders are combined in the “Mutiny” storyline that sees NXT attempting to take over the WWE. Aligning with superstars from Raw and Smackdown, the task in WWE 2K25 MyRISE is to fend off the uprising and, while the story content may not be what you picked up the game to focus on, it’s worth putting some attention on due to the wealth of unlockables available. View the full article

It's odd to think about now, but there was a time when Baldur's Gate 3—Baldur's Gate 3—pushed its release date forward by a whole month in order to avoid clashing with Starfield, the game once feted to be the obvious blockbuster release of 2023... Read more.View the full article

Bungie confirms a new update is on the way for Destiny 2 for Episode Heresy Act 2, and with it comes a few nerfs for the popular pulse rifle known as Redrix's Estoc. The news isn't much of a surprise as the Destiny 2 community team gave fans a quick heads-up on some of these upcoming changes to the weapon, prompting a whole matter of responses in the comments. View the full article

Helldivers 2 players have recently closed out another major order, and while it ended in success on the Automaton end, folks couldn't rack up enough defeats of Illuminate attacks in time to satisfy the second element of it, meaning a mixed result. Read more View the full article

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A former Arrowhead Studios team member recently discussed the design process behind Helldivers 2, specifically regarding squads, explaining that prior to launch the studio had experimented with larger team sizes. This simply didn't work the way developers wanted, with the four-person limit in Helldivers 2 now being one of the game's defining features. This, of course, hasn't stopped players from wishing for expanded squad sizes, but considering what Arrowhead had to say on the matter, four players is likely the sweet spot. View the full article

Secret Agent Wizard Boy's early access release has no negative reviews so farView the full article

An event of size that we've never seen before coming from Roblox is soon upon us in the form of The Hunt: Mega Edition. However, if you want to increase your chances of grabbing the ultimate prize of $1,000,000, you will want to get familiar with all The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox event games. Table of ContentsList of Confirmed Games for The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox EventWhat is The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event?When does The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event Start?How to Prepare for The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox EventList of Confirmed Games for The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event Images via Roblox So far, twenty games have been confirmed to participate in The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox event, and those are: A Dusty Trip: A zombie survival co-op experience.Arsenal: Action-packed deathmatch FPS.Basketball Legends: A Basketball-themed sports game.Bayside High School: A roleplaying game set in Bayside High School.Car Crushers 2: Demolition Derby game that is all about crashing cars in various ways.Chained [2 Player Obby]: A two-player Obby experience inspired by Chained Together.Clip It: A TikTok influencer roleplay game.Drive World: An arcade racer with a lot of real-life cars.Fisch: Probably the most legendary game about fishing on Roblox.Hell's Kitchen: A cook-off game released in collaboration with Gordon Ramsay himself.Infection Gunfight: Hunters vs Zombies FPS.It Girl: A Bratz-inspired fashion dress-up game.**** Simulator 99: The most played simulator game ever on Roblox.Pressure: An SCP-inspired containment breach investigation game.Regretevator: A roulette-style elevator puzzle experience.Rivals: High-octane solo and team-oriented FPS.SpongeBob Tower Defense: A TD game inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants.Tower Defense Simulator: A legendary TD game.Untitled Tag Game: A tag game spiced up with a lot of parkour.World Zero: An Anime-inspired RPG experience with a lot of elements borrowed from MMORPGs.What is The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event? The Hunt: Mega Edition is an event hosted by the Roblox Corporation. In The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox event, players will compete to collect as many tokens as they can across 25 different Roblox games. If it is to judge by the prequel to this event, last year's The Hunt: First Edition, you can expect the first phase of the Mega Edition to look like this: You will go into The Hunt: Mega Edition event lobby experience.From there, you will be able to teleport straight to all 25 experiences and participate in the related mini-games.Depending on your success at them, you will collect tokens and get a ranking based on the total amount collected. Image via Roblox Once the first phase of the event is over, the top 10 players with the most tokens from the selected games will be invited to participate in The Hunt: Mega Final at the Roblox HQ. However, we still don't know how the Mega Final will look. It could feature the same games from the first phase, but we could also see a surprise game featured in the Final. In any case, the winner of the Mega Final will claim the $1,000,000 grand prize. The other nine players can probably expect to receive some smaller rewards as well, besides the obvious one of being able to visit the Roblox HQ. When does The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event Start? The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox event begins on Thursday, March 13th, 2025, at 5:00 PM CST, and it will last for around 3 weeks until Friday, April 4th, 2025. The first phase of The Hunt lasts until March 24th, and the second will be live-streamed directly from the Roblox HQ on April 4th. How to Prepare for The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event The mini-games through which you will be able to collect trophies in The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox event will be based on the game modes that are already available within those games. Now, you can expect other participants to try harder than ever before in their lives. So, if you want to stay competitive and get into the finals, your best bet is to start preparing by playing the already confirmed games right away. With that, you should be able to start your The Hunt: Mega Edition training arc right away. If you want to stay up to date with all of our Roblox content, including guides to some of the confirmed games for The Hunt event, then make sure to check out the Roblox guides section of Destructoid. The post Complete List of Games in The Hunt: Mega Edition Roblox Event appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's download size on the Steam Deck has been reduced by a whopping 38.8% as part of a new update. With this move, the developers at Square Enix have addressed possible player concerns about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth taking too much storage space on Valve's handheld. View the full article

Rarity matters a lot in Verse Piece, especially when it comes to Races. Some are just straight up massively better than others as you go up in rarity. I’ll show you the best races, where they rank, why they rank there, and all their stats. Let’s kick off this Verse Piece Race tier list. Table of contentsAll Verse Piece Races Ranked and ListedS-Tier Verse Piece RacesA-Tier Verse Piece RacesB-Tier Verse Piece RacesC-Tier Verse Piece RacesD-Tier Verse Piece Races All Verse Piece Races Ranked and Listed Image by Dot Esports I’ll be rating Verse Piece races from S-Tier to D-Tier. In S-Tier you’ll find the most powerful mathematical bonuses to damage and damage reduction in the game that you should be going for both for PVP and PVE. As for A-Tier, the Race options are still powerful but slightly less so. For B-Tier they’re as powerful as A-Tier but are dependent on a specific situation or build. Lastly, C-Tier are underpowered options and you should never use D-Tier races or Human. View the full article

Bleasdale Farmhouse has been part of Phasmophobia since before it was released, alongside 13 other maps, as part of the co-op horror game's early access. Since then, we've had plenty of great updates, which added more ghost types, hunting tools, and more maps, like the Lighthouse and the Campsite. But now, instead of adding something new, Kinetic Games is giving the Bleasdale Farmhouse a massive facelift... Read more.View the full article

The Logitech G Pro X TKL Rapid is cheaper than most other Hall effect flagships and still provides all those magnetic-switch features.View the full article

Buckle up, because the LEC is leaving Berlin and taking the action straight to the fans. The tier-one League of Legends tournament in EMEA is hitting the road this Spring, stepping out of its Berlin home and making pit stops in Spain and France. After teasing it last year, Riot Games has officially announced the LEC Roadtrip, a new initiative that will bring League matches directly to fans across EMEA. This initiative aims to expand the reach of the LEC beyond its usual 200-seat Berlin venue, allowing fans to experience the LEC closer to home—something many have been requesting for a long time. View the full article

The highly anticipated Bleasdale Farmhouse rework is finally here, and it’s so much better than I could have ever imagined. What used to be one of my least favorite maps in Phasmophobia has become a location I never want to leave. As an OG Phasmophobia player (legacy level 217 and proud of it), I was initially hesitant about the idea of overhauling one of the core maps. All my worries are now gone after spending some time in Phasmophobia’s first revamped house map. View the full article

With the release of Hazelight's next co-op adventure, Split Fiction, one thing to look out for is the notorious references to the studio's other works often present throughout its games. It Takes Two referenced A Way Out, and now Split Fiction contains references to It Takes Two, but one in particular was quite a startling discovery. View the full article

Erenshor is a passion project by the one-man studio Burgee Media. For the past four years, developer Brian "Burgee" has worked every night—except on Saturdays, he says—to create something gamers like him and Erenshor's fans have wanted for decades: a single-player "MMORPG." Inspired by classic MMORPGs like EverQuest, Erenshor is a challenging, exploration-driven adventure with a unique twist: its "server population" is entirely made up of handcrafted simulated players called SimPlayers. These SimPlayers level up, chat, form parties, trade on the auction house, and even possess unique personalities and playstyles. It's a shockingly convincing setup that leaves the lone human player with the uncanny sense of being part of an online community that never leaves them behind. View the full article