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Get ready for a new adventure, Octopath Traveler fans. Octopath Traveler 0, the third installment in the JRPG franchise, has arrived with the confidence only a series this established can have, and it's welcoming back players who’ve been hungry for another epic HD-2D journey. We're travelling back to the continent of Orsterra this time around, but the franchise doesn’t just return to its old ways and slap a new number on it. Octopath Traveler 0 is full of new features, companions, and collectibles to find, making for a gameplay experience that truly pushes the series in a new and exciting direction. In 0, you create your very own character instead of taking on the role of one of eight premade characters—a franchise first. Customization options are limited, but you can select your hair, voice, victory pose, class, and a few items to start your journey with. You play as a resident of the small village of Wishvale, which is tragically burned to the ground. That’s when the real story begins, and it’s one of vengeance and rebirth as you hunt for the villains responsible for the destruction of your hometown. You get to choose one of eight classes. Screenshot by Destructoid Set prior to the events of the original Octopath, the game is split into two main narratives: one to get revenge, and one to rebuild Wishvale. The first evolves into something much larger than you originally imagined, circling themes of greed, self-sacrifice, and companionship as you take on the role of the Ringbearer Chosen. You’re bestowed a powerful ring from Aelferic, one of Orsterra’s many gods, and you must hunt down and seal away other rings that have fallen into the wrong hands. Though the story’s pacing can be odd at times and some key players are introduced without much buildup later in the game, there’s plenty of twists and turns, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t audibly gasp at certain reveals or shocking moments. The narrative line to rebuild Wishvale involves gathering residents, erecting homes and shops, and decorating the town. It’s not a free-for-all, though; you have to progress through the questline to unlock various structures, decorations, and building areas. Certain residents won’t appear until later on in the questline, but their return transforms what was scorched earth and piles of rubble into a bustling town full of life. This slow build makes the storyline successful; it really does feel as though you’re rebuilding the town one house at a time. Your version of Wishvale evolves in front of your eyes, and it’s a heartwarming story of perseverance that you play an active role in. You can decorate your town to make it your own. Screenshot by Destructoid Rebuilding Wishvale makes for a wholesome and satisfying experience. Screenshot by Destructoid Octopath games are known for their companions, but in 0, the teammates just don’t seem to end. With over 20 companions, you’re not just assembling a team—you’re building a small army. Just when I thought I was done enlisting characters to my cause, another one would pop up on the map, and by the 15th, I started to feel a little fatigued from my recruiting efforts. There are about two to three companions for each archetype, with a few new classes thrown into the mix (though these new classes are more like a combination of older ones). You don’t have to recruit all of the companions—or any of them, really. But if you’re like me and want to experience everything the game has to offer, you’ll be parading around Orsterra with what feels like, at times, a literal parade of people. With so many teammates, you’re sure to have an A and B team, and likely even a C team. On one hand, this leads to experimentation with tons of different playstyles and party compositions. On the other hand, keeping up with equipment and distributing attribute nuts becomes a hassle. There’s also always going to be a character who’s under-leveled and ends up sitting in your reserve as your A team sweeps up. The Training Ground, a structure at Wishvale that trains up allies while you battle from afar, helps alleviate this issue slightly, but it didn’t prevent the constant need to juggle your companions if you want to make use of all of them. Unlike other Octopath Traveler titles, very little of the main story involves your teammates outside of the core cast. Sure, they’re there to accompany you on your own travels. But most don’t have their own questlines, or the ones they do have when you first recruit them are very short. It doesn’t defeat the purpose of an Octopath game, but it deviates from the norm and could frustrate franchise fans who enjoyed the emphasis on companions. At times, it feels as though the only part of the game that retains the “Octo” is the fact you fight with a maximum of eight party members at a time. For the combat experience, you’ve got the same turn-based system, backline and frontline mechanics, weak points, and stats that influence your power or speed in battle. 0 spices up the formula by introducing a new weapon type and allowing you to mix and match attacks with the use of Masteries, equippable skills you can find around the world or by spending JP to purchase them from your teammates. The game also adds Ultimate Techniques, powerful attacks that generate slowly the longer a character spends in battle. If you enjoy the gameplay loop from the previous games, you’re sure to appreciate it in 0 since the core mechanics have remained the same outside of these few new additions. Alexia's Ultimate Technique, Ancient Magic. Image via Square Enix What’s hard to appreciate, however, is the lack of difficulty, especially in the earlier stages of the game. I had battles where one character would singlehandedly mollywhop an entire group of monsters with just one attack while my other companions looked on. Roads connecting the first few towns where a third of the story takes place all housed extremely low-level beasts, and I found myself fast-traveling more often than not to avoid the repetitive and often annoying random encounters. But when I hit the later stages of the game? Oh, how the turn tables. Suddenly, I was the one receiving a beating, as all my teammates were one-shot. Perhaps it was my inability to properly distribute stronger armor across my company of companions, or perhaps it’s just an issue with the game's balancing. Either way, it was a jarring transition from earlier in the game, and suddenly I was grinding encounters and spending all my hard-earned Leaves at local shops to outfit my teammates in the best gear—gear that I had, up until that point, almost completely ignored. What 0 loses in the series’ companion-first narrative focus, it gains in customization options. From building your team to altering your character’s look, 0 gives you the reins and lets you tailor your experience to your own desires. Now, don’t get me wrong, the options aren’t endless. I could spend hours decorating my town, meticulously landscaping and readjusting buildings to get them to look just right. But with each town level, you’re capped to a specific number of decoration items and structures you can have at one time, meaning you can’t just decorate to your heart’s desire. Limiting the number or types of buildings you can have? Fine, I get that. We have to play along with the story, after all. Preventing me from planting the flower garden of my dreams? C’mon, devs! While it encourages progressing through the game’s storyline and completing challenges to raise your town’s level and up the number of decorations, it’s still a head-scratching limitation. Town-decorating isn’t the only place where the developers pull back on the leash. On multiple occasions, the game gives you dialogue options in a quest. An NPC will ask you to assist them in fixing their problem, and you’ll have the option of telling them to kick rocks. But don’t be fooled—you don’t actually have a choice. If you reject them, you get stuck in a dialogue loop until you agree to help. Why game developers waste resources on adding this illusion of choice is baffling. It adds nothing to my experience if I choose to help someone when I know I’m going to have to if I want to progress the storyline. And if I reject them, skipping through the same lines of dialogue to get back to the original choice is no fun either. Despite all this, I found myself hooked on this game for the several weeks I spent with it. With the first Octopath Traveler, the experience dragged on. But with 0, there was always something to do. Want to take a break from the story? Go hunt for some lumber to build your next house. Done tweaking your town to your liking? Stop by a neighboring town to pick up your next companion. You can cook, recruit NPCs to live at Wishvale, hunt mega beasts to fill the Monster Arena, or search for collectibles to fill your museum. There's plenty to do, and I never found myself bored while exploring Orsterra, even when my time with the game ticked past the 60-hour mark. Your companions and fellow Wishvale residents are there to see your journey to the very end. Screenshot by Destructoid Whatever you choose to do, it's done against an incredibly gorgeous backdrop. If you’ve played an Octopath Traveler game, you’re more than familiar with how far Square Enix has pushed the boundaries of what it can do with pixelated, 2D graphics. The scenery is truly breathtaking, and there were plenty of moments where I stopped just to take in the visuals. How the development team gets that water looking so crispy or those snowflakes so beautiful is an enigma to us all, but boy, is it striking. All in all, Octopath Traveler 0 is a delightful experience that offers something new to the franchise. Though it deviates from the franchise’s narrative formula, it’s worth picking up if you want a solid, turn-based JRPG experience. And if you’re already a fan of the series? Start packing your bags, friend, we’re heading back to Orsterra. The post Octopath Traveler 0 review – A triumphant return to Orsterra that feels fresh, personal, and unforgettable appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

The $55 billion leveraged buyout which will see Saudi Arabia, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner become the new owners of EA will reportedly lead to the Saudi Public Investment Fund owning a whopping 93.4 percent of the game publishers. That's assuming the deal goes through as planned. Read more View the full article

Octopath Traveler 0 review: "The strongest entry in this retro-styled JRPG series yet, I love the greater focus on tactical battles"View the full article

Fern "Antireal" Hook, the artist who found her own designs and graphics in Bungie's Marathon, has confirmed she has "resolved" the issue with the studio and its parent company Sony. In a brief update posted to X/Twitter, Hook wrote: "The Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction." She did not provide details of any settlement. Destiny 2 developer Bungie found itself battling accusations of plagiarism back in May after Hook accused the studio of lifting aspects of her artwork for its upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon. In screenshots taken from Marathon's alpha playtest accompanying the tweet, Hook alleged she could see distinct icons and graphics she designed, some of which were originally shared on social media years ago in 2017. bungie is of course not obligated to hire me when making a game that draws overwhelmingly from the same design language i have refined for the last decade, but clearly my work was good enough to pillage for ideas and plaster all over their game without pay or attribution. [Hidden Content] — N² (@4nt1r34l) May 15, 2025 Shortly afterwards, Marathon game director Joe Ziegler and art director Joe Cross apologized on a painfully uncomfortable livestream that featured no Marathon art or footage at all, as the team was "still scrubbing all of our assets to make sure that we are being respectful of the situation." The studio commenced an "immediate investigation," eventually acknowledging that a "former Bungie artist" had indeed used Fern Hook's work without compensation or credit. And then, of course, Marathon was delayed into 2026 as Bungie worked to respond to feedback from playtests. Things went very quiet until Marathon reemerged in October, when Bungie announced the extraction shooter was ready for a limited, invite-only playtest for players in North America and Europe across PS5, Xbox Series X and S, and Steam. The art issue continues to cast a shadow, though. Last month, the director of the Marathon reveal cinematic short expressed his disbelief that he felt forced to come out and defend the work as "not AI." Marathon has certainly endured a troubled development and has suffered multiple delays. The pressure is on for Marathon to succeed amid Destiny 2’s high-profile struggles. Earlier this month, parent company Sony said Bungie had failed to meet its sales and user engagement targets, resulting in a $200 million impairment charge. Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky. View the full article

Lengthy RPGs are one of the great joys in my life, but it can sometimes feel a bit daunting to pack one into just a few weeks for the review process. As of writing this, I have played just over 70 hours of Octopath Traveler 0 and am nearing the final few chapters in its main questline – and having played these kinds of RPGs most of my life, I already know those "final few chapters" will be anything but short. However, I'm eager to wrap them up in the coming days because it's been a worthwhile journey so far. Between the new wrinkles in its dynamic combat system and some fantastic music that uplift its big battles, Octopath Traveler 0 is hitting the right notes and delivering the things I seek from RPGs. The tales told within its various quest branches have been hit and miss, though, and I'm still waiting to see if the story will come together and hit its stride in this last stretch before I settle with a final, scored review. With Octopath Traveler 0, Square Enix has adapted the 2022 mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent into a more traditional package, serving as both a prequel to the original and a reconfiguration of what's already available on phones. Regardless of where I land in my final review, I'm glad it exists in this form at all since it ditches the gacha/microtransaction elements that were used to build your party and instead has you recruiting team members through sidequests. Thus, the better parts of the mobile game come to the forefront and highlight that the foundation of the series held up then and still holds up now. Story is where most of my reservations are since it hits some pretty high highs and fairly low lows. While I'm not expecting it to be the most beautifully written script or deepest character study, I've found several plot beats to fall quite flat due to some shallow storytelling, rudimentary dialogue, or things that happen just because. Comically evil villains make for bosses I get fired up to absolutely destroy, but when their cruelty and thirst for power is the main hook, I'm not coming away with a sense of satisfaction I've felt elsewhere (namely, Octopath Traveler 2). Like the rest of the series, godly powers linger in the background and slowly reveal themselves as you uncover the real purpose behind the eight divine rings, one of which is assigned to "the chosen one" who is your created protagonist. Despite the inconsistent quality of its storytelling across this long runtime, Octopath Traveler 0 runs at a decent pace and propels you forward without sitting on any one story thread for too long. A big part of this is in how the main questline is structured; after a tragic prologue where your hometown is burned to the ground, you're given three story branches to pursue the trio of villains responsible. Themed around power, fame, and wealth, respectively, those three paths then converge into a conclusion for what is roughly the first half of the overall story (at about 40 hours). It then splits into three new questlines that pick up those themes once again, and although they retread similar territory, the stakes get higher as more of Octopath's world gets involved. That's a lot to chew on, but it's able to keep momentum rather than trying to build eight separate stories that have to run in parallel. Octopath Traveler 2 was very successful in this regard and made for some of the most memorable RPG stories in recent memory, but this is a smart direction considering that this (and the mobile game) centers around recruiting a lot of characters to swap in and out of your party. Unfortunately this means most party members feel rather disposable, so the disonance it creates is just the trade-off that gets made. So far the story has hit some pretty high highs and fairly low lows. While I haven't experienced the same compelling, emotionally resonant character arcs I saw in the second game, specific moments remind me that there's still some heartfelt stuff tucked within. Whether it's a character wielding their pain from tragedy to summon a new power mid-battle or a quiet, reflective cutscene back at town to remind you what "home" really means, Octopath Traveler 0 has brief moments of greatness. The big picture is solid, too – the alliances and betrayals of various kingdoms don't get bogged down in exposition and deliver good old fashioned drama. The stories around Octopath's world religion get a bit unwieldy when it comes to the greater lore, but it's not incomprehensible and makes the mechanism of the church quite clear. Like the previous game, class warfare and going from nothing to something remains a prominent motif, and even though it fumbles the messaging at times here, it's willing to talk about those topics with enough clarity. Whether or not all these threads pay off, well, that's what's left for me to determine as I finish the main story. Now, that's the A-plot. There's a B-plot that revolves around rebuilding your hometown through an independent but related questline that's tied to the town-building system. In the process of bringing your hometown back to life narratively, you actually rebuild it in a similar vein to Fallout 4 or even Ni no Kuni 2. You collect crafting materials naturally throughout which then allow you to build housing, shops, and decor wherever you like within certain parameters. It’s an enjoyable side activity, with tangible benefits that come from constructing new buildings and recruiting new residents you invite from across the map. You get perks such as discounted shop prices, a self-sufficient flow of materials, and a training ground for inactive party members to continue leveling up, among other things. Town building may seem optional at first, but it becomes almost essential the deeper you get, especially when you consider the story's broader message about what home means to you and the people you care for. It's a bit cheesy at times, but its heart is in the right place as it gets sentimental about what it takes to rebuild after losing everything. You get a ton of sidequests thrown at you as you progress in the main game, many of which are a short series' of objectives to unlock new party members – some of which are cast members from the original game. It's super cool to see, but don't expect them to have any particular depth as the main story is largely focused on specific, non-optional characters. One thing I do enjoy about Octopath games and RPGs like them is the sense of discovery and stumbling upon secrets or locations you wouldn't visit otherwise, and the sidequests, if anything, have been a good way to pull you in those directions. I've been on record saying Octopath Traveler 2 has one of my favorite turn-based combat systems ever; it shines here as well and for slightly different reasons. The Boost and Break systems give the typical dynamic of hitting elemental affinities extra depth. Playing the guessing game of discovering what enemies are weak against gets a little tiresome, but once that part is solved, scheming for your plan of attack based on turn order to Break enemies and tee up the big hits is oh so satisfying. Building each party members' Boost points to add extra hits or increase spell potency gives you something to plan around for turns well in advance. And lining up all these variables while juggling the threat of hard-hitting bosses who impose some impactful status ailments have me feeling like a genius tactician. Octopath might be playing on our nostalgia with its HD-2D retro-style visuals, but I honestly believe it has continually set a higher bar for turn-based combat systems in modern gaming. This series has continually set a higher bar for turn-based combat systems. Party composition is quite different this time around since you have eight active party members at all times – four in the front row and four in the back who you can swap between mid-turn. With 30-something characters in my current roster, it's an overwhelming amount to process and manage. But while the fundamentals of Octopath's combat system are familiar, pairing characters as duos for the column they occupy is a unique strategic layer that allows for a lot of flexibility in combat. And because they build Boost points individually, you can dole out the big hits more frequently and keep up a brisk pace in battle. You sacrifice individual character depth, however, as each party member has just one Job to progress through (aside from your protagonist), but you can at least master specific Job skills to then equip on other characters to diversify their moveset. I'm not quite ready to say whether I like this combat more or less than Octopath Traveler 2 since I found its character growth more meaningful, but it’s still been a welcome change of pace that hits the turn-based highs that've made the series special. The slow-motion cinematic camera cuts for Max Boost attacks and tide-turning limit breaks still get me hyped up, giving combat the visual flair that truly makes the HD-2D style stand out when the action picks up. The confluence of thoughtful gameplay, fantastic graphics, and a ******** soundtrack that contends with some of the RPG greats, showcases why the genre is still in good hands. Octopath Traveler 0 has so much firing off in parallel with its separate story branches, overarching themes, and complex-but-satisfying RPG combat system, and I'm excited to see how it all concludes as I inch closer to the end. Great RPGs live or die by how their final acts play out – with the expectation of wild boss battles, story revelations, and resolution to an 80-hour-plus journey, a lot is riding on it. And I'm just as eager to finalize my thoughts and feelings on Octopath Traveler 0 soon after. View the full article

Picking a first job for your protagonist in Octopath Traveler 0 can be tough, as there are several options to pick from, and they all offer different pros and cons to your party composition. The new entry in Square Enix’s RPG series is about to be released and will offer a new take on the franchise while retaining the central aspects of its gameplay. There are new features in Octopath Traveler 0 that aren’t present in the previous core games. View the full article

Using the best party combinations in Octopath Traveler 0 can be what determines if you beat enemies or are defeated in battle. The new installment in Square Enix’s RPG franchise has a different take from previous entries. In addition to the life-sim gameplay module, in which you’ll rebuild your hometown, you’ll also craft a custom protagonist in Octopath Traveler 0, and have the Ringbearer unlock various jobs as you progress through the campaign. View the full article

Octopath Traveler 0 is the newest entry in Square Enix’s series of RPGs, and it comes with significant differences in comparison to the two core games that preceded it. The latest installment is Square Enix's AAA take on the free mobile gacha game, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, and it has some special features that didn’t appear in 1 and 2. View the full article

"We forgot to LOD those rivets"View the full article

s much as I love Disney Dreamlight Valley, getting around by foot can be tedious. You don't really think about it when you've only got the valley to explore, as each of the biomes feel so close you don't need to make a massive journey to get where you need to go. However, the sheer size of the game now it has received three expansions, alongside all the unlockable biomes in the Dream Castle, means there's a lot more ground to cover. And frankly, running around on foot doesn't cut it. Of course, you can glide, but I don't keep on top of my stamina enough to constantly do that... Read more.View the full article

The Warhammer 40,000 setting contains some pretty advanced technology. Blackstone Fortresses can destroy entire solar systems. The Aeonic Orb contains the power of an entire sun. And — get this — the Speranza, a massive vessel the size of a continent, can actually manipulate a ****** hole and fire it. Ouch! So yeah, the Warhammer 40,000 setting has galaxy crushing might under its belt. But, it seems, the various races of the 41st millennium still don’t know what’s going on inside a ****** hole. And that’s not just the Imperium of Man letting the side down, either. It seems no-one — not even the incredibly advanced Necrons — have managed to work it out. Confirmation comes from one of the latest Warhammer 40,000 novels, Guy Hayley’s Archmagos. It stars the much-loved 10,000 year-old dominus of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Belisarius Cawl, who travels to a Necron tomb world trapped on the event horizon of a ****** hole. And so, Belisarius Cawl ends up talking about ****** holes in general, and it’s this bit that surprised me as I was reading the book. Warning! Spoilers for Warhammer 40,000 novel Archmagos follow: Early on in the book, Belisarius Cawl ruminates on the big knowledge gap the races of the Warhammer 40,000 universe have when it comes to ****** holes. During this metaphysical ponder, he speculates that humanity, even during what’s called the Dark Age of Technology (the largely unexplored time ******* in which humanity was at its technological zenith), had no idea how they work. And, most surprising of all, neither do the Necrons. Necrons, for the uninitiated, are terrifying mechanical warriors who wiped out an entire race of star gods long before the Emperor was even conceived (if he was, indeed, conceived). They’re meant to be the most technologically advanced of all the xenos, and use weapons far beyond our understanding. And so I was somewhat surprised to learn that the physics at play inside a ****** hole are a mystery to the Necrons, as they are to us in the real world. Here's what Belisarius Cawl, "the galaxy's pre-eminent mind," as he puts it, has to say about ****** holes: Nobody really knows what these things are, even me. If we were to fall within, would we be destroyed, or would we emerge in some other place? I have never come across a satisfactory answer from any species. I doubt our ancestors at the height of their technology understood them. Some ancient Necrontyr records I... came into posession of by completely legitimate means, say they believe them to be the graves of their mightiest star gods. Maybe that is true. Why not? If a star can birth something with the power of a god, then why wouldn't an astronomical body like this harbor similar secrets? There was something grounding about reading this section of the book, something that made the often bizarre and unknowable Warhammer 40,000 universe ever so slightly relatable. The human race today does not know what goes on inside a ****** hole. I mean, we have theories, but we're largely stumped. A ****** hole could lead to a new universe. Some think a ****** hole could lead to a white hole. Personally, I love the ****** hole leads to a 4D representation of a magical bookshelf idea. The point is we just don't know. And it felt comforting somehow to learn that even 40,000 years in the future, we still haven’t worked it out. A glance online at my usual 40k hideouts threw up a debate over this. I know — shock horror! — Warhammer 40,000 fans have something to say about the realism of the sci-fi universe they love so much. Some are pointing out that the C’Tan — those star gods I mentioned earlier — are said to have been able to call ****** holes into being. So if the Necrons defeated the C'Tan and ripped off their tech, shouldn't they have ****** holes all figured out? And others are pointing out that the Necrons, as they've been described to us in prior Warhammer 40,000 novels, are able to use ****** holes pretty effortlessly. "But... we have literally entire cryptek branch of ****** hole science called Voidmancers, they can just make ****** hole with wave of a hand... wear them as capes... it's just author who didn't know anything about it," declared Mastercio before quoting from a book. "So we have entire group of them being able to just channel ****** holes, but this book just say that they can't... *********." But Belisarius Cawl is not saying that the races of the 41st millennium are unable to use a ****** hole or interact with one in various ways, just that they don’t really understand their inner workings — literally what’s going on inside of them. Which leads me onto the next thought: in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, what is going on inside a ****** hole? Having a bit of fun here, perhaps Warhammer 40,000 ****** holes have something to do with the warp, the alternate dimension hellscape in which the Chaos gods rile each other up and demons plot to tear into realspace and end all life as we know it. Maybe if you were to actually venture into a Warhammer 40,000 ****** hole, you’d end up in Grandfather Nurgle’s garden for a spot of (probably very bad for you) tea. Or perhaps you’d find yourself the inadvertent star of a Slaaneshi sex show. The mind boggles. As with most things Warhammer 40,000, not knowing the truth of a thing is all part of the fun. Belisarius Cawl's drive-by lecture on the nature of ****** holes should be considered as reliable as 90% of the lore fans like me fuss over on a daily basis. That is to say, not very reliable at all. And Games Workshop, as is its want, could one day decide to contradict everything Cawl says here and show us that someone somewhere in the Warhammer 40,000 universe knows exactly how ****** holes work inside and out. Perhaps Trazyn the Infinite has had a peek. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

Fallout Season 2 begins on December 17, which'll be 20 months after we saw Season 1 back in April of 2024. You're forgiven for forgetting details of a show that came out so long ago Joe Biden was still president and Abiotic Factor didn't exist. If you need a refresher, here's a rundown of all eight episodes... Read more.View the full article

The newest Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows gameplay trailer showcases the Undertaker playable character and skills. View the full article

Survival FPS adventure Ferocious is finally going to launch on PC via Steam, and not long is left for it to go live. After several delays, we will finally be able to play in December 2025. This guide will help keep track of the upcoming launch, allowing you to jump in once Ferocious goes live globally. Ferocious release countdown Ferocious will be released exclusively for PC players on Dec. 4. The release date was announced earlier by OMYOG and tinyBuild. The following countdown will expire once the game goes live. [hurrytimer id="1150216"] The countdown is based on the following timings. 9am ET11am CT12pm PT5pm GMT6pm CET2am JST (Dec. 5)3am AEST (Dec. 5) As of writing, you can wishlist Ferocious on Steam. There's no pre-order or early access, and everyone begins playing at the same time. The game will be priced at $24.49, pending regional pricing as applicable. The countdown and timings mentioned above are based on the information available from SteamDB. Ferocious is a hardcore survival title where you'll wake up on an uncharted island. The island has its own share of threats, which include apex predators and ancient dinosaurs that have come back to life. However, the creatures aren't the only threats, as enemy mercenaries and mechas will aim to end your life. Your ultimate aim is to survive on the island against all odds. Discover hidden areas, master the terrain, and raise your chances of survival with limited resources. Exploration is key as it will allow you to gain access to secret areas with valuable loot that will help you survive. There are plenty of weapons available for you to craft and use, allowing you to fight how you want. It even involves a control device that will allow you to get the dinosaurs on your side. It will be interesting to see if Ferocious can excite fans in a month that doesn't have a plethora of major launches. The post Ferocious release countdown: Exact date and time appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Valve recently told The Verge that it has spent years funding the development of emulators and translation layers to make x86 games playable on Arm chips. Work by developers both inside and outside the company could make Windows titles run smoothly on Android and other platforms without porting or streaming. Read Entire Article View the full article

You need to literally spin the slots and collect adjacent items to buff the Sorcerer in this roguelite deckbuilder. View the full article

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Preview/Beta channel. General Selecting Sleep in the Power menu will now prompt the user to enter Display-off downloads when appropriate. View the full article

The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes: Windows 64-bit Fixed regression causing Steam ****** when launching or verifying certain 32-bit games. View the full article

Life would be so much better if our digital world was more like the one in Digimon Story Time Stranger. Unlike real life, where logging on can feel like walking straight through the gates of hell, my first trip to the land of ones and zeros in Time Stranger is the happiest a game's made me all year. Beautifully paying off several slow burn hours spent exploring the hyper-modern cleanliness of Tokyo and its grungy concrete sewers, the so-called Digiworld is a joyous explosion of life, color, and personality. And it owes every ounce of that joy to its oddball citizens... Read more.View the full article

"All this stuff that really matters, where the value is created, is just completely forgotten"View the full article

I woke up this morning in that weird post–Cyber Monday haze where you assume all the good bargains have packed their bags and vanished. Turns out they have not. Stores are still absolutely lousy with deals. If you're anything like me, you might want to dive back in before the shops realise the discounts should have actually ended days ago. Plenty of stuff worth snagging if you are quick! Contents RetroNintendoXboxPlayStationPCPC GearLEGOThis Day in Gaming In retro news, I'm using an HECU Marine's welding torch to light a 26-candle cake baked for Half-Life: Opposing Force, the gritty expansion that dropped 1999-me into the boots of a Marine caught in the same ****** Mesa disaster from a whole new angle. I cannot overstate how cool it was to witness the defecation meet the oscillation from an arguably crazier perspective. Playing as Adrian Shephard meant engaging familiar Xen horrors (plus new Race X ones and CIA assassins) in unfamiliar ways, teaming with AI squadmates, and wielding oddball weapons that gave the firefights their own flavour. Opposing Force did more than add levels. It proved expansions could be ambitious, story-rich, and mechanically surprising, and, for many of us, it was the moment when Half-Life stopped being a GOTY and started becoming a universe. Aussie birthdays for notable games. - Half-Life: Opposing Force (PC) 1999. Get - Muramasa: The ****** Blade (Wii) 2009. eBay - The Saboteur (PC,PS3,X360) 2009. Get - PS4 20th Anniversary Ed. console, launch 2014. eBay Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (-23%) - A$69Metroid Prime 4: Beyond NS2 (-24%) - A$84Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (-44%) – A$60Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (-13%) – A$78NBA 2K26 (-59%) – A$49EA Sports FC 26 (-51%) – A$45Sonic Origins Plus (-48%) - A$32.90It Takes Two (-35%) - A$39 Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card. Switch Console Prices How much to Switch it up? [/url] Back to top Exciting Bargains for Xbox Battlefield 6 (-37%) – A$69EA Sports FC 26 (-55%) – A$49NBA 2K26 (-63%) – A$44Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (-49%) - A$19Split Fiction (-36%) – A$45 Xbox One Assassin's Creed Mirage (-70%) - A$24Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 plus 4 (-51%) - A$37Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6 (-74%) - A$29 Or just invest in an Xbox Card. Xbox Console Prices How many bucks for a 'Box? [/url] Back to top Pure Scores for PlayStation EA Sports FC 26 (-55%) – A$49Ghost of Yōtei (-25%) – A$94Ghost of Tsushima DC (-43%) – A$54Death Stranding 2 (-54%) – A$57Battlefield 6 (-37%) – A$69 PS4 Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (-60%) - A$40.20Gran Turismo 7 (-60%) - A$44Assassin's Creed Mirage (-65%) - A$28 Or purchase a PS Store Card. What you'll pay to 'Station. [/url] Back to top Purchase Cheap for PC Winner: Metaphor: ReFantazio[/b]For years, Atlus’ cult-RPG Persona went from being a cool underground RPG series from Japan to one of the biggest franchises in modern gaming. But with Metaphor: ReFantazio, it’s clear the developers behind Persona were seeking to push themselves to new heights. Trading in the modern-day Japanese high school setting for a pure fantasy world full of long-eared knights and bat-like ninjas, Atlus’ Studio Zero has created an incredible and timely meditation on political strife and demagoguery. After the death of the King, the United Kingdom of Euchronia, divided by racial prejudice among its citizens, begins the process of holding its very first popular election that kickstarts a grand, cross-continental adventure. For anyone familiar with the Persona series, you’ll find familiar hallmarks here. Players split their time crawling through difficult dungeons full of horrifying monsters, while spending free moments building up relationships with various party members and inhabitants around the country.But while the Persona games took these quiet moments to reaffirm the virtues of youthful friendships, Metaphor uses these times to tackle headier questions. What defines a knight’s duty, or the responsibilities of those born into wealth? Can one ever heal from the pains of racism, and is religious tolerance a foolhardy endeavor? These aren’t easy questions to address but are asked plainly throughout Metaphor’s 70-hour playtime.While Studio Zero refrains from giving clear-cut answers to these questions, it instead acknowledges the virtues of empathy, kindness, and strength in the face of overwhelming fear and hatred that can take root in an uncertain world where leaders promise salvation in exchange for unwavering loyalty. Wrap these philosophical musings in a stylish, turn-based RPG that looks and feels stupendous — complete with beautiful character designs from artist Shigenori Soejima and music from Shoji Meguro – and you’ll quickly understand why Metaphor: ReFantazio is IGN’s pick for Best Game of 2024."/>Metaphor: ReFantazio (-55%) - A$51.70Humble Bundle Dec 2025 (-93%) - A$20.90Persona 3 Reload (-61%) - A$39.40Hogwarts Legacy (-86%) - A$12.30Doom: The Dark Ages (-58%) - A$50.90The Witcher 3 Complete (-80%) - A$15.70 Or just get a Steam Wallet Card PC Hardware Prices Slay your pile of shame. [/url] Legit LEGO Deals Just like I did last holiday season, I'm getting festive with the LEGO section. In Mathew Manor, my sons and I are again racing / rating 2025's batch of LEGO Advent Calendars. Basically, we open the City, Harry Potter, Minecraft, and Star Wars ones daily and compare the mini-prizes for "Awesomeness" and "Actual Xmas-ness". 2024's winner was the Lego Marvel one, but, weirdly, there's no 2025 equivalent. So it's anybody's race this year. Here are the cheapest prices for the four calendars we're using. Score them yourself or just live vicariously through our unboxings. LEGO CIty Advent 2025 - A$59.95 $45LEGO Harry Potter Advent 2025 - A$59.95 $45LEGO Minecraft Advent 2025 - A$59.95 $45LEGO Star Wars Advent 2025 - A$59.95 $45 Adam Mathew is a passionate connoisseur, a lifelong game critic, and an Aussie deals wrangler who genuinely wants to hook you up with stuff that's worth playing (but also cheap). He plays practically everything, sometimes on YouTube. 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Deus Exfans have been begging for a new game for some time now, and while they finally received a Deus Ex Remastered announcement scheduled for 2026, rumors hinted that a new mainline game in the immersive cyberpunk RPG franchise was possibly in the works. View the full article

The Yakuza series has spawned well over a dozen games since it debuted in 2005, and I haven't included any of the substantial remasters in that figure. As prolific as Ryu Ga Gotoku is, they're also remarkably consistent: the same bonkers mix of melodrama and absurd humour is threaded through every one of these games, even the ones set in the 17th century... Read more.View the full article

Almost seven months after the initial claim was made, artist Antireal has taken to Twitter to announce that they have reached an agreement with Marathondeveloper Bungie and its parent company, Sony, in regards to a serious plagiarism issue. After finding huge success with the Destiny franchise, Bungie is now attempting to reboot its Marathonshooter from 1994, but the studio suffered a huge setback earlier this year when an artist came forward with accusations that the title was using assets from them without prior permission. View the full article

Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10, 2020, which means that the fifth anniversary is just over a week away. Despite that age, and the fact that it's a singleplayer RPG with no live service grind, its peak concurrent player count today on Steam—and only Steam—was nearly 44,000. That's genuinely astounding, especially when you consider that the game was such a mess at launch that it literally wiped 75% of CD Projekt's valuation off the books... Read more.View the full article