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Пользователи форумов ResetEra и социальной сети Reddit обратили внимание на подозрительные графические элементы в шутере Battlefield 6. Игроки обвинили студию DICE в использовании генеративного искусственного интеллекта для создания изображений, что противоречит прежним официальным заявлениям руководства компании. View the full article

2025 was a great time in the gaming industry, especially for indie titles, but for games across the gamut of genres and development. While indies like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hades 2 racked up the accolades, AAA games still brought some bangers like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, Battlefield 6, and more. Basically, no matter what kind of game you're into, 2025 had something for you. As the calendar is ready to flip into 2026, we are in for some more excellence. While Grand Theft Auto 6 looms at the end of the year, there are a myriad of games coming out beforehand that should fill the time with lots of fun and excellence along the way. Table of contentsGames to look forward to in 2026Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Switch 2 Edition (Jan. 15)Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven (Jan. 22)Mario Tennis Fever (Feb. 12)Resident Evil Requiem (Feb. 27)Pokémon Pokopia (March 5)Mouse: P.I. For Hire (March 19)007 First Light (March 27)Marathon (March 2026)SAROS (April 30)Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (May 29)Phantom Blade Zero (Sept. 9)Marvel's Wolverine (Fall 2026)Grand Theft Auto 6 (Nov. 19)2026 TBAGames to look forward to in 2026Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Switch 2 Edition (Jan. 15) Image via Nintendo New content is coming to one of the biggest and most popular casual titles of the past 10 years, along with enhancements for the Switch 2 version. Let's just hope our villagers aren't too upset (who am I kidding, they hate me). Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven (Jan. 22) Image via Devolver Digital More cozy DLC? Sign us up. One of 2022's best games' new expansion is focused on the new Woolhaven area, surviving winter, ranching, and exploring a new mountain area. Mario Tennis Fever (Feb. 12) Image via Nintendo Mario and pals are hitting the court again for more tennis fun, including new power-ups and 38 playable characters. And hopefully soon, Nintendo can bring Mario and co. back to the baseball field (seriously, it's been way too long). Resident Evil Requiem (Feb. 27) Image via Capcom Gaming's worst-kept secret is finally out, and I can't wait. Leon S. Kennedy returns to star alongside Grace Ashcroft in one of 2026's most anticipated games. And it's now just a couple of months away. Pokémon Pokopia (March 5) Image via Nintendo This Pokémon and Animal Crossing hybrid looks to be yet another fun time for cozy gamers when it drops at the beginning of March. You play as a Ditto posing as a human, gathering Pokémon from around the area and making the land habitable for them while using their abilities to do so. Mouse: P.I. For Hire (March 19) Image via PlaySide This one's been on my radar for a few years. It's an incredibly stylish FPS with the visuals of a 1930s cartoon, and it's one of my big titles to keep an eye on for sleeper surprises of the year. 007 First Light (March 27) Image via IO Interactive James Bond's origins will be explored in this action title that's sure to combine driving, gunplay, and cinematics to create what should hopefully be the start of a new awesome franchise from the makers of Hitman. Marathon (March 2026) Image via Bungie Bungie's extraction shooter is locked in for some time in March, and it's one of the more interesting titles to keep an eye on in the first half of the year. Can the Destiny and Halo studios come back from a lot of negative press and bad vibes to deliver on a game in the genre that's been invigorated by ARC Raiders? SAROS (April 30) Screenshot by Destructoid SAROS looks to evolve the formula of Returnal with some twisted visuals and exciting roguelike gameplay on PS5. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight (May 29) Image via WB Games The new LEGO title looks to take Batman's adventures into an open world LEGO Gotham City, inspired by recent movies like The Dark Knight and more. Phantom Blade Zero (Sept. 9) Image via S-GAME This incredibly promising action title is described as "a fusion of classic Wuxia storytelling and exhilarating action powered by Unreal Engine 5," coming to PS5 and PC in the latter half of the year. Marvel's Wolverine (Fall 2026) Image via Insomniac Games One of the world's best dev studios in Insomniac Games is back with the man who's the best he is at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice. Expect gameplay and more to be revealed throughout the year. Grand Theft Auto 6 (Nov. 19) Image via Rockstar Games The big one. THEE big one. The biggest one? Yeah, GTA 6 has the entire industry (and world, really) watching. After multiple delays, Rockstar Games says Nov. 19 is when the long-anticipated sequel is finally due to arrive. Let's hope it actually happens, because the industry (and world, again) needs it. 2026 TBA Image via Crystal Dynamics As of now, there are a couple of dozen other games due to launch sometime in 2026 that we don't know more about yet. For the full list of 2026 games, check out our 2026 games calendar, but here are just a few more that we're looking forward to: Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis (PC, PS5, XSX)The Duskbloods (Switch 2)Lords of the Fallen 2 (PC, PS5, XSX)Fable (PC, XSX)Gears of War: E-Day (PC, XSX)Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra (TBA)Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls (PC, PS5)Control: Resonant (PC, PS5, XSX)Star Wars: Zero Company (PC, PS5, XSX)Star Wars: Galactic Racer (PC, PS5, XSX)Phantom Blade Zero (PC, PS5)MUDANG: Two Hearts (PC, PS5, XSX)Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy (PC, PS5, XSX)Atomic Heart 2 (TBA)Halo: Campaign Evolved (PC, PS, XSX)Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 (PC, PS5, XSX)Chrono Odyssey (PC, PS5, XSX)Forza Horizon 6 (PC, XSX)Total War: Warhammer 40,000 (TBA)Ace Combat: Wings of Theve (TBA)Deltarune: Chapter 5 (PC, Mac, Switch, Switch 2, PS4, PS5)Scott Pilgrim EX (PC, Linux, Switch, PS4, PS5, XSX)Valor Mortis (PC, PS5, XSX)Crisol: Theater of Idols (PC, PS5, XSX)Warhammer Survivors (PC) The post 2025 was a banner year for video games, but it looks like 2026 is set to somehow surpass it anyway appeared first on Destructoid. 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Updated: We last updated our Jujutsu Zero clan tier list on December 22, 2025. Clans in Jujutsu Zero grant you permanent stat bonuses that can be very impactful both early and later on. Now, even though the rarest clans, such as Tengen and Sukuna, are the best, obtaining them can be very difficult. With that in mind, we prepared the following Jujutsu Zero clan tier list to help you use your rerolls wisely and know which clans are worth keeping in your bag. Jujutsu Zero Clan Tier List S A B C D In the Jujutsu Zero clan tier list above, we ranked all clans currently available based on the passive bonuses they provide your character with. Expectedly, Sukuna and Tengen are at the top, justifying their extremely low drop rate (1 in 5,000), and they should be one of your end-game grinding goals. Depending on what cursed technique and weapons you are using, decent alternatives are Geto, Gojo, Zen'in, and Abe. Jujutsu Zero Clan List Below is a list of all clans and their passive bonuses in Jujutsu Zero, which should help you when choosing which clan to roll for next: S-Tier ClansClanStats Sukuna (0.02%)⚔ ATK: +50% ⟡ CR: +25% ✦* CD: +85% ✦ CDR: +25% Tengen (0.02%)❤︎ HP: +150% ✦* CD: +115% ⟡ CR: +15% ༄ CE: +50%A-Tier ClansClanStats Geto (0.25%)⚔ ATK: +40% ༄ CE: +35% ✦ CDR: +20% ❤︎ HP: -20% Gojo (0.25%)⚔ ATK: +25%, ⟡ CR: +15%, ✦* CD: +50% Zen'in (0.25%)⚔ ATK: +35% ⟡ CR: +15% ✦ CDR: +30% ༄ CE: -20% Abe (1.45%)⚔ ATK: +30% ༄ CE: +55% ༄ CER: -10%B-Tier ClansClanStats Fushiguro (1.45%)⚔ ATK: +45% ✦ CDR: +10% ༄ CE: -15% Okkotsu (1.45%)⟡ CR: +10% ༄ CE: +35% ༄ CER: -10% Todo (27.78%)⚔ ATK: +25% ✦* CD: +30% ⛊ DR: -5% Kamo (1.45%)✦* CD: +40% ⛊ DR: +20% ❤︎ HP: -15%C-Tier ClansClanStats Inumaki (27.78%)⚔ ATK: + 20% ༄ CE: +35% ❤︎ HP: -10% Kugisaki (27.78%)✦* CD: +25% ❤︎ HP: +20% ༄ CE: -10% Itadori (70.5%)⚔ ATK: +20% ❤︎ HP: -10%D-Tier ClansClanStats Nanami (27.78%)⟡ CR: +10% ⚔ ATK: +10% ❤︎ HP: -10% Fujiwara (70.5%)⚔ ATK: +12% ⛊ DR: +10% ❤︎ HP: -5% Miwa (70.5%)❤︎ HP:[/u] +20% ༄ CER: -10%How to Reroll and Store Clans in Jujutsu Zero You can reroll your clan using clan rerolls in Jujutsu Zero. You can store clans in your bag for later and switch between them whenever you want. If you try rerolling a Grade 1 or better clan, you will be prompted to confirm your choice. [/url] [/url] [/url] You can reroll your clan in Jujutsu Zero in the Clans section of the main menu. When rerolling, the new clan replaces your current one. If you try to reroll a Grade 1 or rarer clan, you will have to confirm your choice, which prevents you from rerolling a rare clan by accident. To save your current clan, press the Save button, which will move your current clan to your bag. You can switch between clans by clicking on any of them in your Clan Bag. How to Get Clan Rerolls in Jujutsu Zero Buying clan rerolls with Lumen is a F2P way to reroll your clan. Bundles offer a better reroll-to-Robux ratio. [/url] [/url] [/url] You can get clan rerolls in Jujutsu Zero by redeeming codes or by purchasing them using either Lumens or Robux. Lumens are a currency you can earn while in-game, but they can be challenging to obtain. So, farming Lumens to get the best clans in Jujutsu Zero should be one of your end-game goals, unless you were lucky enough to obtain Sukuna or Tengen early on. That does it for our Jujutsu Zero clan tier list. Let us know which clans you think are the best and why in Jujutsu Zero in the comments below. For more of our Roblox guides, make sure to check out the Roblox hub here on Destructoid. Jujutsu Zero Clan FAQsWhat are the best clans in Jujutsu Zero? The best clans in Jujutsu Zero are Sukuna and Tengen. Good alternatives are Geto, Gojo, Zenin, and Abe. Can you store clans? Yes, you can save a clan and store it in the Clan Bag from where you can switch between them at any time. Do clans give any unique abilities or moves like cursed techniques do? No, clans in Jujutsu Zero grant you just passive stat bonuses. The post Ultimate Jujutsu Zero Clan Tier List [BETA] appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek has finally relented and played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Seven hours later, he concluded that he likes the game, marking a slight change of heart compared to his earlier comments that sparked controversy among Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fans. View the full article

Valve has begun rolling out the latest version of the Steam client, which users will receive the next time they launch the application. While the update includes several changes, the most consequential is the end of official support for 32-bit versions of Windows. Read Entire Article View the full article

This major update brings in the Galaxy & LBX DLC alongside a lot more for Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road on all platforms today. View the full article

WWE 2K24 is about to get the Gunther treatment, which is to say that 2K Games is going to mercilessly choke it out: As noted by Delisted Games, the Steam page for the rasslin' game that was released less than two years ago—on March 8, 2024—says it will be removed from ***** on February 1, 2026, and will lose all offline functionality on March 31... Read more.View the full article

2025 gave us all-timers like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is what most people will likely remember down the line, but it's not entirely representative of this year. Despite great games, the industry lost countless developers and studios, and adopted some incredibly disappointing strategies. Let's list them, lest we forget. ****** Ops 7 Image via Activision The Call of Duty: ****** Ops subseries began as an examination of the darkest parts of warfare. ****** Ops 7, however, ditches all of its themes to have players fighting off ridiculous monsters that players have compared to Skibidi Toilet, a series of silly YouTube shorts for kids. Also, the game is full of AI slop. I absolutely get why a corporation would use AI to create bland iconography for achievements and whatnot. Still, Microsoft jumping on the bandwagon of copying Studio Ghibli via AI slop to create calling cards that have nothing to do with CoD months too late felt especially cringe-inducing. The EAcquisition A few months ago, we learned how video game giant EA is being acquired by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Now, most wealthy countries are responsible for unforgivable stuff. I don't care that "a" Saudi Arabian company now owns a considerable percentage of the biggest games out there; I care that "the" people directly responsible for all sorts of human rights violations are the ones acquiring EA. Was the Mass Effect series somehow getting an even worse conclusion on your bingo card? Well, too bad. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 Don't get me wrong: no one is saying Bloodlines 2 is a terrible game. It's actually a decent game, which is, somehow, worse. Let's clarify. The original Bloodlines went through a gruesome development cycle that culminated with the release of an unfinished game. It only became a classic because fans reworked it to the point of making its great mechanics, story, and world not just playable, but greatly enjoyable. Bloodlines 2 went through an even longer and more gruelling development cycle, which saw publisher Paradox going as far as to swap development studios for the project. The result, after so many years of waiting, was ok. Bloodlines 2 provides an incredibly diluted experience when compared to the original, but it plays well. Fans had spent these past dark years getting ready to fix this one when it came out, only to come to the dire realization that there's just not much below the already functioning surface to save. Microsoft leaves us in the dark Microsoft had been acquiring game studios as if they were Infinity Stones in the past few years. This is never a good sign, but, in this case, at least, it would likely point out that they were at least really serious about making new games, right? Well, not really, as 2025's version of Microsoft seemed hellbent on layoffs, studio closures, and, naturally, game cancellations. We often hear about the cancellation of games that the public had never witnessed past the screenshot format, but that was not the case with Perfect Dark. It was one of the many games that Microsoft killed out of nowhere, and it looked great. [Hidden Content] If you don't know much about Perfect Dark, it's a series that conquered the hearts of many back in 2000 on the Nintendo 64 before fumbling it with the 360's Perfect Dark Zero in 2006. Then, for nearly 20 years, it was just a promise Microsoft dangled in front of our eyes out of what now seems to be just pure cruelty. Civilization VII The Civilization series has usually been a slam dunk, the rare series whose perceived errors are fun enough to become the stuff of legend. That, however, didn't ring true to Civilization VII, a new entry that made the baffling decision to remove many of the series' beloved mechanics, and to add a bunch of confusing bloat that nobody really liked. Even before Civ VII was out, there were already mods out to try to bring it closer to the glory of Civilizations past. Borderlands 4 After ****** Ops 7 and Civilization 7, Borderlands destroyed its winning formula at just the fourth attempt. What a great year for "worst in the series" 2025 has been! Fans complained how the game was demanding on their wallets with its $70 to $80 price tag, and on their PCs, as it struggled on most systems. Gearbox boss ****** Pitchford downplayed the game's issues and claimed "real fans would find a way to make it work." The good news is Borderlands 4 has a good game underneath all the bad coding, if you can still stand the series' juvenile humor, that is. If not, just try out the best game in the series. Deus Ex Remasterhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1RdKezTYNk The original, and only the original, Deus Ex is one of the most celebrated games of all time. Fans were hyped for Aspyr's remaster as they'd done a stellar job with both the Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver reworks. They absolutely didn't do a great job here, considering how almost parody-level bad this looks To end on a better note, Aspyr has recently removed Deux Ex Remastered's presence from the Internet, which seems to point to an attempt to do the game justice. The post The biggest disappointments in the games industry in 2025 appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Ultimate Gauntlet 7 is live in FC 26 Ultimate Team, and it's headlined by a fantastic card that you can obtain for free. The new Gauntlet is modeled on older versions of the game, but there are a few differences. This guide will help you complete all the tasks so that you can unlock the complete set of available rewards. FC 26 Ultimate Gauntlet 7 guide The Ultimate Gauntlet 7 has nine tasks in total. All nine tasks have distinct conditions that you have to complete, offering individual rewards. TaskHow to CompleteRewardsPlay 1Play 1 match in Ultimate Gauntlet 73X 81+ Rare Gold Players PackPlay 2Play 2 matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 785-87 Rare Gold Player PackPlay 3Play 3 matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 785-89 Rare Gold Player PackScore in 3Score at least 1 goal in 3 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 7 to earn an EVO ConsumableEvo UnlockScore in 5Score at least 1 goal in 5 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 75X 82+ Rare Gold Players PackScore in 6Score at least 1 goal in 6 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 7 to earn an EVO ConsumableEvo UnlockScore in 7Score at least 1 goal in 7 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 710X 82+ Rare Gold Players PackScore in 9Score at least 1 goal in 9 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 710X 83+ Rare Gold Players PackScore in 11Score at least 1 goal in 11 separate matches in Ultimate Gauntlet 73X 86+ Rare Gold Players Pack Completing the full set will fetch you the Winter Wildcards Marcos Llorente item for free. This is undoubtedly one of the best items to obtain in Ultimate Team. The 87-rated card has some fantastic stats, playstyles, and roles. He has the stats to dominate multiple positions. Since there's no task where you need to win a certain number of games, all you have to do is complete the games and make sure to score at least one goal. The post All FC 26 Ultimate Gauntlet 7 rewards and tasks appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Sebille is happy to get a little weirdView the full article

2025 had a number of phenomenal games. From breakout indies to AAA releases, some of these excellent titles just flew under the radar. For whatever reason, it feels like not nearly enough people are talking about them, which is why we're hoping to give more attention to some of the best games of 2025 that many people may have missed. View the full article

This number combines the worldwide physical shipments and digital sales of the first Octopath Traveler, Octopath Traveler II, and Octopath Traveler 0. View the full article

Baldur's Gate 3 is probably a good call, thoughView the full article

Real wolf hoursView the full article

Year 2026 might finally have good news for FC 26 players as EA Sports is all set to make some much-needed changes to AI defending. AI defending has been a massive frustration for the community. It's been so overpowered that many players simply don't control their defenders or attempt to make manual tackles at all. Thankfully, the upcoming changes promise improvement, and EA Sports spoke about what they plan to do. FC 26's AI defending changes could finally sort out an old issue On Dec. 22, EA Sports briefly explained changes it plans to make in Ultimate Team. The AI defending will be nerfed to a great extent from what we have now. In the current meta, the AI-controlled defenders move too quickly, especially when moving sideways. [Hidden Content] This allows the defenders to effortlessly close down opposition attackers without much influence from players. In some ways, this completely reduces the need for you to defend manually. In many cases, it's better to let the AI-controlled defenders make the tackle to win the ball. However, the upcoming changes will greatly reduce the movement speed of AI-controlled defenders. This includes the speed at which they move sideways, and also the rate at which they can close down attackers on their own. Once the patch goes live, the meta should shift significantly as the slower movement will definitely affect AI-defending as we know it. In other words, manual defending should be making a comeback soon. However, plenty of promises have been made in the past, and it remains to be seen whether these changes will have the effect that EA hopes for. The post FC 26 set to begin the new year on positive note with drastic changes to AI defending appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Stephan Bugaj, chief creative officer at Genvid, announced the commercial release of The Seeker, an emotionally compelling sci-fi film created using generative AI. Bugaj was the winner of last year’s Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation in Emerging Media. He used GenAI for all visuals and music, and all but two of the voices in the film. It’s a pioneering work, but it’s also the kind of thing that will cause conversations, given the controversy around the use of gen AI in gaming. .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{ -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent); } Read This Article Free Get instant access by joining the GB MAX Access tier — it’s free to sign up and unlock premium content.Join Now to Start ReadingAlready a member? Sign in The post Genvid releases sci-fi film The Seeker made with generative AI appeared first on GamesBeat. View the full article

Since first releasing in 2022, open-world racing game CarX Street has gotten countless updates and pieces of new content, but the update it just dropped is one of its biggest yet. Titled Showdown, it adds a brand-new PvP team mode that pits street racers against pursuing law enforcement. The mode can be played by up to 16 people at a time, eight on each team. On one side, street racers need to reach a designated area to earn points and then deliver them to a garage. On the other side, police officers are rewarded for neutralizing racers in several different ways, which we’ll cover in detail in a bit. Each match is played in two rounds, with everyone randomly assigned to either the racers or police, then switching sides between rounds. So you’ll always play as a racer once and a police officer once. The racers have HP, and if their HP is brought down to zero, they lose all their undelivered points and respawn at the garage to try again. Racers lose HP when they run into environmental objects or other cars, so you can’t drive recklessly. But speed is still very important. If a racer drives too slowly while police cars are nearby, their HP will gradually be drained. So you need to make use of your nitro boosts and consistently drive as fast as possible while still keeping your car under control. While racers earn points for safely reaching certain parts of the map, police officers earn points for actions that prevent it. They can score points for ramming racers’ cars, arresting racers, or using their unique ability to deploy spike strips that puncture racers’ tires. Plus, they can get points for assisting their teammates, so if you ram a racer that’s later arrested by someone else, you’ll still get points. Police cars can also teleport between police stations scattered across the city, meaning they can strategize and cut off escape routes. But the police aren’t the only ones with a trick up their sleeves: Racers are equipped with an EMP that can temporarily disable any police cars caught in its radius. Both the police’s spike strip and the racers’ EMP are on cooldown timers, so be careful not to waste them. And for the sake of a fair match, cars in this mode are restricted by class, and tire wear and fuel are both ignored. So it’s all about driving skill and strategy, not raw vehicle stats and durability. Each round lasts for about 10 minutes, and whichever team manages to score the most points after two rounds wins. Developer CarX Technologies has said that the dev team dreamed of creating a cops-and-racers mode since before the game originally launched in 2022, but it was too labor-intensive and complex to develop in tandem with the open-world experience the rest of the game offers. And the inclusion of unique features and visual effects makes it clear how much work went into this mode. Police cars have flashing lights and sirens, arrests are accompanied by voice lines from a police radio channel, and collisions and EMP activations feature unique glitch-like effects. The gameplay experience of this mode is in stark contrast to the rest of the game, which sees you travel around the fictional Sunset City and its outskirts, facing off against local racing clubs that each have their own unique identity and narrative. You fine-tune your car, from the body kit and brake discs to the engine and suspension, gradually upgrading so you can qualify to take on more difficult opponents. A lot went into the development of that core gameplay loop, which then needed to be polished for each platform CarX Street released on. It came to mobile first in 2022, then PC in August 2024, then finally PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S earlier this year. Its multiplatform approach resulted in success, reaching more than 1 million sales across Steam and consoles. Once they had it successfully running on all platforms, the dev team was able to focus on development of the new mode, which started about six months ago with the first concepts and prototypes. It was meant to feel unlike anything else in the game, and police chases were always the primary focus. However, after extensive internal testing, the dev team realized police chases alone weren't enough. That’s how the unique abilities arose, resulting in the addition of spike strips and EMPs. It’s safe to say that the result accomplishes the goal of introducing a mode with completely different gameplay, but this is far from the end of the game’s evolution. CarX Technologies has stayed engaged with its community and gets regular feedback that helps guide their updates and new content, and that won’t stop anytime soon. Based on that feedback, they’ve previously mentioned that their future plans include additional competitive multiplayer modes, a dedicated highway network added to the open-world map, and a full story campaign with quests. On top of the new mode and other planned updates, CarX Street is also currently on ***** on Steam and Xbox, and it just launched a special promotion on PlayStation as well. So there’s never been a better time to get behind the wheel. If you’d like to join the community, you can follow CarX Technologies on Instagram, X/Twitter, or Facebook. Or you can check out the official website to keep up with the latest info on all their games. View the full article

2025 has given us plenty of entertainment worth celebrating, but it’s also gone and brought us consoles that cost more now than when they were first released, a Tron movie featuring Jared Leto, and an even ******* hole in our lives where Grand Theft Auto 6 was supposed to be. From price hikes to lowlights, and missed expectations to cruel cancellations, these are the biggest disappointments of 2025. Box Office Blunders Marvel may have kicked off 2025 by sending a brand new Cap into a Brave New World, but audiences clearly had more than a few gripes with Anthony Mackie’s turn in the Stars and Stripes. Despite what pre-release trailers had suggested, Captain America: Brave New World held back Harrison Ford’s transformation from President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross into a scarlet shade of Hulk until the final few minutes of the film, which certainly had fans seeing red – just not in the way the filmmakers had intended. All told, Captain America: Brave New World suffered a 68% drop-off at the box office in its second weekend and is yet to break even on its estimated $425 million budget, making it closer to a Hulk shrug than a Hulk smash. Meanwhile Tron: Ares turned out to be yet another lacklustre system reboot for a franchise that should have probably been shut down, boxed up, and sent to an e-waste disposal center by now. The latest instalment in Disney’s videogame-inspired sci-fi series may have featured a certifiably ******** soundtrack from Nine Inch Nails, but audiences weren’t exactly burning doing the new Tron dance. Not since Jared Leto’s Morbius had a Jared Leto-led movie performed so poorly at the box office, with Tron: Ares’ mustering up just $60.5 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Despite its disastrous reception, Tron: Ares features a mid-credits scene that seemingly sets up a potential fourth film. Just don’t expect it for at least another 15 or so years, which appears to be the typical Tron cycle. (Not to be confused with one of those ********’ motorbikes.) Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off live-action Disney remakes that audiences seem to have gone, or at least that’s how it appeared after the middling performance of 2025’s Snow White. To be fair, a tick over $200 million in global box office revenue is nothing for Sneezy to, well, sneeze at. However, there was clearly only one live-action adaptation about short people carrying pickaxes and singing catchy songs that most families wanted to see this year, and that was A Minecraft Movie, which hit theaters just two weeks after Snow White and completely dwarfed its performance at the box office. Disney would live to live-action again, though, since its Lilo & Stitch reboot would crack a billion dollars just a couple of months later, possibly due to the fact it was actually a good film. So who’s the fairest of them all? Moviegoers, it would seem. Elsewhere, The Alto Knights proved that drafting in the writer of Goodfellas, the director of Rain Man, and a double dose of Robert De Niro, didn’t guarantee a good time at the movies. In spite of positive reviews from critics (IGN gave it a 9/10), Elio suffered the worst opening weekend of any Pixar movie ever. (Yes, even worse than The Good Dinosaur.) Sony videogame adaptation Until Dawn managed to both fumble its source material and fail to properly credit the series’ creators. And Dwayne Johnson’s The Smashing Machine failed to punch above its weight, returning $6 million on its opening weekend against A24’s reported budget of $50 million, not including “many millions more on promotional efforts”. It seems fair to say that The Rock is no longer cooking. Now it seems he’s just cooked. Streaming Piles The bombs weren’t confined to the big screen, though, and there was certainly no shortage of disappointment conveniently streamed directly to our televisions, tablets, and toilet televisions (that’s what we call our phones). Anyone who made the mistake of watching Star Trek: Section 31 must have been begging Scotty to beam that stream back up to Paramount+’s servers, because this intergalactic block of generic sci-fi schlock was so surprisingly awful it left audience faces set to stunned. IGN handed it a rare 2/10, stating that “Section 31 will infuriate Star Trek fans and bore everyone else.” Star Michelle Yeoh, coming off an Oscar win in 2023 for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, was forced to concede that “it’s very hard to please all of your audience all of the time.” We’d argue that Section 31 didn’t even manage to please some of its audience any of the time, and that this particular Star Trek would have been better off lost in space. Unfortunately, Star Trek wasn’t the only legendary sci-fi property to be completely mishandled in 2025. In July, Prime Video went back to the well – or specifically, H.G. Wells – to produce a modern-day adaptation of The War of the Worlds. The century-old classic novel has previously inspired radio plays, feature films, comic books, and video games, but in the hands of director Rich Lee, The War of the Worlds was reimagined as… a 90-minute-long Ice Cube reaction GIF. To be fair, we can’t say that this braindead disaster didn’t deliver on its promise – at least if you took the “It’s much worse than you think” tagline from its trailer as an honest appraisal of the movie’s quality rather than a reference to the alien invasion in its plot. War of the Worlds debuted with a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although has since skyrocketed to a whopping 4%. Meanwhile its producer insisted that there wasn’t any product placement in the film, despite the fact that it’s a movie on Amazon’s streaming service that makes a hero out of an Amazon delivery driver and hinges its climax upon the daring piloting of an Amazon drone. You couldn’t get product placement more intentional than that if it was a package left on your doorstep. Dropping a US president into Die Hard-style scenarios is nothing new, see Harrison Ford in Air Force One or Morgan Freeman in the Has Fallen films, but despite its lack of originality, Amazon’s G20 still had a couple of big positives going for it – namely Viola Davis as the *****-kicking commander-in-chief, and The Boys’ Antony Starr as Homelander turned hammy Hans Gruber. Sadly neither had an approval rating high enough to elevate the dopey dialogue and choppy action sequences of this formulaic action flick. IGN awarded the film a 3/10, stating that “G20 isn’t just another streaming movie that feels designed to be half-watched; at times, it only feels half-made, too.” The Electric State could also be accused of being half-made, at least by human hands, given that it was seemingly a co-production between the Russo Brothers and Netflix’s machine-learning algorithm along with help from some AI-based post-production tweaks. The controversial practice of using AI in film is widely assumed to be a way to keep production costs down, yet despite that the budget for this thoroughly disposable hodgepodge of superior sci-fi stories still spiralled to a reported $320 million, making it the most expensive film Netflix has ever made. IGN handed it a 4/10, stating that The Electric State “feels calculated to remind you of something you’ve already enjoyed.” For all that money and in spite of the star power of Chris Pratt and Millie Bobbie Brown, The Electric State failed to really spark. Game and Shame Any year in video games is invariably going to be a bit like a Guns N' Roses album. That is, chock full of absolute bangers but, shortly after you’ve worn out your neck headbanging to You Could Be Mine, My World arrives and promptly ruins the good times. Like the infamously terrible final track on Use Your Illusion II, 2025 has had us leaping for the eject button faster than a flaming fighter jet pilot on more than one occasion. With a pile of performance issues and a complete lack of freedom, substance, and… an ending, MindsEye was far and away one of 2025’s most disappointing games. Unfortunately, its June launch went so badly that more than 90 staff at its developer Build a Rocket Boy later referred to it as “one of the worst video game launches this decade” in an open letter to company management. The letter called for change at the studio, apologies for not listening to staff concerns about the game, and “proper compensation for laid-off employees.” On the topic of compensation, 2025 marked the year when Nintendo decided it ought to be compensated in some way for instructional tech demos of its new products, leading the company to release Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour as a paid product, also in June. You want a tutorial about the console you just bought? Better cough up some more cash. Want to fully complete it? Better cough up some more for the required accessories. Remember the much-celebrated free pack-in Wii Sports? Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aimé does, and he certainly posted about it on social media at an intriguingly coincidental time. Of course, just because a game is free, doesn’t mean it’s good. For evidence of that, look no further than EA’s reboot of the much-loved Skate series. 2025’s early access, free-to-play Skate is just like the old Skate games, only without the style, the atmosphere, the pros, the customisation, the campaign, the music, the varied maps, the humour, or the intro movies. It did, however, have a cardboard costume inspired by the Isaac Clarke’s Dead Space exosuit that cost around $35 to secure. Call of Duty went back-to-back ****** Ops in 2024 and 2025, but the only thing to come out of the decision is backlash. Containing what’s quickly becoming regarded as the worst Call of Duty campaign in the long history of the series, ****** Ops 7 has been widely shredded to pieces following its November release for its unwelcome reinvention of campaign mode. Now always-online and co-op focused, ****** Ops 7’s campaign mode has none of the rollercoaster-like pacing of a cinematic Call of Duty story, and opts instead for multiplayer-inspired maps and progression, with no checkpoints, and no ability to pause (even when you’re playing alone). The result is quite baffling, which is some result considering the fact ****** Ops 7 is intended to be a direct sequel to ****** Ops 2 despite releasing immediately after ****** Ops 6 is already confusing enough. In the weeks that have followed, the Call of Duty team has promised no more back-to-back releases of sub-series like Modern Warfare or ****** Ops, but this guarantee feels unlikely to help ****** Ops 7 at this stage. Sales figures or player counts are still yet to be discussed, which strongly suggests ****** Ops 7 is deep in the red. This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the games that disappointed in 2025, and we haven’t even touched on FBC Firebreak, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, Football Manager 26, Project Motor Racing, or the grammatically abhorrent Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game. Have we missed any? Let us know in the comments. Rainchecked Release Dates Some of the biggest gaming disappointments of 2025 weren’t the games that came out, but rather the ones that didn’t. After its public alpha test in April drew a heated response from fans and even accusations of plagiarism, Bungie decided to delay its live-service shooter Marathon from its intended September 23, 2025 launch to a March 2026 release window. In a post on its website, Bungie stated “we know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion.” To be fair to the former house of Halo, it is a Marathon and not a sprint. Meanwhile, Microsoft made the call to hold back its Fable reboot for another year. The fantasy RPG series that hasn’t been seen since the Xbox 360 era is currently being reimagined by the talented team at Playground Games, best known for its Forza Horizon open-world racing series. We’re keen to find out how the developer makes the adjustment from speed racers to chicken chasers, but for now Fable is a tale that won’t be told until sometime in 2026. At least Fable was only delayed just once, though, unlike Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. In May, the planned release of the narrative-driven adventure featuring Captain America, Azzuri, and the ****** Panther of the 1940s, was pushed out of 2025 and into early 2026. Then in November, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was delayed again, this time to the somewhat vague sounding window of “beyond early 2026.” Considering we haven’t seen anything new from the single-player superhero story since an Unreal Engine 5.4 tech demo way back in early 2024, we’re inclined to assume that this one is still a ways off. Will it be worth the wait? Well, the fact that it’s being directed by the creator of the Uncharted series fills us with more optimism than a pep talk from Steve Rogers. Of course, the most devastating delay – and arguably the most predictable – was that of Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar Games proved with Red Dead Redemption 2 that it was prepared to take its time in order to produce the best game possible, and that steadfast approach clearly paid off. Still, given that we’ve been waiting for a new GTA game since Ben Affleck was Batman, Game of Thrones didn’t yet *****, and everyone was still doing the Harlem Shake, it certainly left a lot of fans crying in their Pißwassers when the series’ long awaited return to Vice City was pushed back from Fall 2025 to May 26, 2026. Things only got all the more agonising when that date slipped again, with GTA 6 currently not expected to launch until November 19, 2026. Beyond leaving fans feeling the lowest of Lazlows, the further postponement of Rockstar’s landmark launch will likely cast major ripples across the games industry, with analysts predicting everything from frantic release schedule reshuffling by competing Q4 2026 titles looking to get out of GTA 6’s way, to even a potential delay to the arrival of the next console generation. Will GTA 6 live up to the unprecedented level of hype and expectation? Will GTA 6 suffer another delay? And why do men have nipples? We’ll have the answers to at least a couple of those questions in a little less than a year’s time. Unhappy Endings While game delays are frustrating, they’re typically a considerably more tolerable option to the alternative: cancellation. That is, being postponed is better than never arriving at all. One is steaming into New York a day or two late, the other is hitting an iceberg and becoming James Cameron’s favourite holiday destination, two-and-a-half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean. In July, Microsoft cancelled the long-gestating Perfect Dark reboot and completely shut down The Initiative, which was the development team behind the troubled project. The Initiative had been developing the game alongside Crystal Dynamics, which was revealed to be partnering on the project in 2021. Xbox officially revealed Perfect Dark’s return at The Game Awards 2020, but it had established The Initiative back in 2018 as the company’s first “AAAA” studio. Unfortunately, it appears AAAA appears to have simply been shorthand for, “AAAArgh, it’s all gone wrong.” Perfect Dark actually didn’t completely cease development at that time, however, and remained in production at Crystal Dynamics up until August. Crystal Dynamics was reportedly close to securing a deal with Take-Two to save the game, but this fell through. This resulted in an unconfirmed number of layoffs at Crystal Dynamics as the lights finally went out on Perfect Dark, permanently. Avalanche Studios’ Contraband was also shut down at this time. The studio behind Just Cause and Mad Max had been developing Contraband in conjunction with Xbox for four years, but it appears we’ll never see it. A co-op, open-world smuggling game set in the 1970s, Avalanche confirmed at the time that active development on the game had stopped while it evaluated the project’s future, but since then Avalanche has laid off staff in Malmö and Stockholm in Sweden, and closed its *** studio in Liverpool. Legendary *** studio Rare’s Everwild was also cancelled by Microsoft during this same *******. Everwild was announced way back in November 2019 during Xbox’s X019 presentation, but little concrete information about how the end product was going to play was ultimately revealed over the nearly six years that followed. These cancellations were associated with mass layoffs at Rare and elsewhere around Microsoft as the company grappled with… record financial performance levels in 2025 and a 15% increase in revenue, at $281.7 billion. These layoffs also hit Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10, with some reports claiming that the Forza Motorsport team was essentially “no more.” It’s since been clarified that Forza Motorsport will apparently continue to see support in spite of the staff cuts, but whether the racing series will have any future after 2025 remains to be seen. Sadly, one racing game with no future is EA Sports WRC, with Codemasters confirming in May that there will be no follow-up to its official WRC game and that the team has “reached the end of the road” working on the series after just one game. Unfortunately, alongside this news came the additional confirmation that the EA-owned studio is also “pausing development plans on future rally titles,” which is a big dose of dirt to cop in the face from a team that’s been at the forefront of rallying video games for almost three decades, dating back to 1998’s iconic Colin McRae Rally. WRC wasn’t the only victim at EA, either; the company was swinging the axe quite liberally in 2025. In March it was reported that EA had quietly cancelled an unannounced, multiplayer first-person shooter from Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, although the game in question was apparently only in extremely early development. It’s not at all uncommon for things like this to happen, however, and if you poured one out for every unannounced, unnamed project that didn’t make it out of incubation you’d die of thirst. That said, a month later it came to light that EA had also reportedly cancelled an unannounced Titanfall game, which does hurt slightly more than usual considering Titanfall 2 contains what’s widely considered to be one of the very best FPS campaigns in the history of the genre. We’re officially living in a world where Bubsy 3D can have a sequel announced in 2025, while Titanfall 2 has one cancelled. Nothing makes sense anymore. This unknown Titanfall game appears to have been a victim of EA layoffs that hit 300 workers, around 100 of which came from Respawn Entertainment. No other details regarding what this Titanfall project was are known. But wait, because EA wasn’t done: in May it cancelled its ****** Panther game and shuttered Cliffhanger Games, which was producing ****** Panther as its debut project. ****** Panther, which was announced back in July 2023, was set to be a single-player open-world game. EA claimed at the time that the decision to ditch the project was made in order to “sharpen” the company’s focus and put its “creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.” We’re guessing EA’s spreadsheet squad were unenthused by this single-player game’s lack of a Wakanda Ultimate Team mode. ****** Panther isn’t the only superhero to have the rug pulled out from beneath them in 2025, either. In February 2025 it was confirmed that Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman game was cancelled and developer Monolith would be shut down. In a horrible twist, Wonder Woman would have been Monolith’s follow-up to its much-loved Middle-earth series and was expected to feature Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War’s excellent and patented Nemesis system. First announced at the 2021 Game Awards, Wonder Woman was a victim of a Warner Bros. decision to restructure its operations around “building the best games possible” with its “key franchises.” Of course, despite an overt focus on more Warner Bros. franchises than you could poke a carrot at, this restructure also didn’t involve the survival of WB brawler MultiVersus, either. The free-to-play fighting game was taken offline permanently and delisted in May. A Price To Play Rising prices are impacting plenty more than just video games. Hell, if supermarkets get any more expensive, groceries better start coming gold-plated. In the context of video games, however, 2025 has been like Quentin Tarantino sitting down and watching back-to-back Paul Dano movies: it’s just one massive disappointment after another. In April, Sony raised the recommended retail prices of PlayStation 5 consoles across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, citing “a challenging economic environment, including high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates” as the catalyst for the increase. Following similar price hikes made back in 2022, the PS5 was now considerably more expensive in many territories than it was at its launch. Sony subsequently also pumped up the price of all PlayStation 5 models in the US, with the RRP of each of these jumping by 50 bucks in August. Microsoft raised the prices on Xbox consoles and various accessories back in May, and in October it kicked Game Pass prices into the stratosphere, with prices now reflecting a 50% hike in subscription costs since the previous 2024 price bump. Microsoft tempered this October surprise by stressing that there'd be no further price increases for Xbox… outside the US. Inside the US, however, Xbox console prices climbed by a further $20-$70, for the second time in less than six months. Xbox Series X|S? More like Xbox Series Excessive. Not to be outtrumped, Nintendo also announced a range of price increases in August – for the eight-year-old original Switch and its proceeding Lite and OLED models. Pricing for the Switch 2 was left alone, but Nintendo’s move did come with a warning that price adjustments to things like the Switch 2, physical and digital Switch and Switch 2 games, and Nintendo Switch Online memberships “may be necessary in the future.” Nintendo is likely trying to prepare us for the worst here, but there’s no escaping the fact it sounds like the kind of ultimatum you typically get from two heavyset guys carrying baseball bats, driving a 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. That said, Nintendo president Shuntaru Furukawa recently indicated Switch 2 pricing should stay put for now, saying Nintendo believes it can “maintain the current level of profitability for hardware for the time being unless there are significant changes in external factors, such as a shift in tariff assumptions, or other unexpected events.” It’s already been widely discussed how US tariffs have resulted in significant adjustments to how companies balance the books, with increased costs unsurprisingly being passed onto consumers. Inflation pressure is also a contributing factor; after a long ******* of stability since the global financial crisis in 2008, global inflation surged dramatically in the wake of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The frustrating part, however, is that this remains all quite unprecedented. That is, this generation Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft have completely flipped the script on console pricing trends that date all the way back to the ’70s and ’80s. Over many decades, consoles have reliably and traditionally dropped in price over their lifespans – first via slow but natural erosion in value caused by the effects of standard inflation, and then by overt price cuts that bring the price of entry right down. This current crop of consoles, however, is not dropping in price – in fact, they’re going the complete opposite way. Unfortunately, if people keep buying them at these prices, console price drops may go the way of old-timey bicycles and the funniest two-digit number between 60 and 70 being 69: a thing of the past. Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN's Sydney office. Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. View the full article

Taking a slower approach with inspiration taken from the likes of Aliens, the Doom II conversion named Siren looks really awesome for retro FPS fans. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

По решению Роскомнадзора (РКН) популярная среди детей и подростков игровая платформа Roblox от американской компании Roblox Corporation была заблокирована в России, но, похоже, готовит почву для возвращения в страну.View the full article

Battlefield 6 players have accused EA of using generative AI for one of the cosmetics in the new Windchill bundle. The use of AI in game development has remained a controversial topic across the industry as more studios announce plans to utilize it and fans notice what appear to be AI-generated assets in a wider range of games. While Battlefield 6 has not taken a hard, formal stance for or against the technology, some users think AI is responsible for at least one new cosmetic. View the full article

A new free PC game on Steam is a perfect blend between Resident Evil and Call of Duty, which will likely please fans of either game franchise, even if for a limited amount of time. The end-of-the-year ******* has arrived with several goodies for players on the platform. In addition to the deals of the Steam Winter *****, you can also get some titles for free, like a free festive game on Steam called This Winter of Ours. View the full article

If there's one good thing to come out of this year, it's the huge influx of horse-brained sickos (hello) who are now well and truly engrossed in the ******** of retired racehorses thanks to gacha game and anime series Umamusume... Read more.View the full article

Inspired by British and Irish folklore, Hungry Horrors is a deck-builder with an unusual purpose - to have you feed the monsters to keep them away. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

The director of Cyberpunk 2 wants to make sure we know how good Red Engine isView the full article