Baldur's Gate 3 continues to keep its massive player-base engaged thanks to endless hours of content in the form of community mods. There's been a slate of amazing new mods lately for BG3, and if you've set the game aside for a while to play something else, you might want to consider diving back in after a recent mod fixed one of the game's most frustrating problems. View the full article
Combining elements of Slay the Spire and Luck be a Landlord, the roguelike deck-builder Roulette Hero is out now and it will likely spin your hours away. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
Gearbox Software posts a humorous clip regarding the recent Borderlands 4 nerfs made to the popular Crit Knife build. It's been an eventful week already for Borderlands 4 players, who finally received the long-awaited second major update as well as the first seasonal event. View the full article
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has added Super Fantasy Kingdom to its ever-changing library. This is the platform's 64th new arrival in October 2025, as well as the 186th new Xbox Game Pass Ultimate release since the start of the year. View the full article
It sounds as if Amazon is hoping to reignite interest in similar digital party games that experienced a boost in popularity during Covid times. Up to 16 players, depending on the title, can take part in GameNight by scanning a QR code on the screen and using their smartphone as... Read Entire Article View the full article
23 октября журналист Bloomberg Джейсон Шрайер сообщил, что руководство Microsoft потребовало от подразделения Xbox добиться уровня прибыльности на уровне выше среднего по индустрии — 30% от общего дохода. В обычных условиях выйти на подобные значения невозможно, поэтому Фил Спенсер и Сара Бонд вынуждены были запустить мультиплатформенную трансформацию бренда. View the full article
From the series’ earliest 2D entries, to Ryu's critically acclaimed foray into 3D, Ninja Gaiden has hacked and slashed its way to the top of the hyper-violent action games genre. And while countless ninja games have been released since the 1988 NES original, Ninja Gaiden still remains relevant nearly 40 years later. But why is that? Let’s take a look back to when this series found its core game design DNA, with its early use of cinematics, narrative-driven gameplay, and innovation in difficult but rewarding challenges (not to mention, one of the sickest finishers ever in a video game.) From there, we’ll chart the course of Ninja Gaiden to see how it has kept its blade sharp over the decades, and why it remains one of the most influential action series of all time. Defining The Great Line The year is 1988. Arcades are a dominant force thanks to the likes of Double Dragon, Ghouls & Ghosts, and Contra. These are all excellent games in their own right, but little did the world know that one of the most important ninja games of all time was about to be released. Ninja Ryūkenden, the game we in the western world now know as Ninja Gaiden (because, according to the game’s art director, “it sounded cool,”) launched with two dramatically different versions. The arcades saw a Double Dragon-inspired port, which while popular at the time, was dramatically different from the NES console version of Ninja Gaiden we would all come to know and love. Ninja Gaiden was an unexpected revolution in action games. Overnight, it redefined what video games were capable of thanks to its difficult but gratifying combat, narrative-driven gameplay, and one of gaming’s first uses of cinematic cutscenes to tell its story. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to find a major release without some sort of cutscene or narrative break, with some even feeling more like interactive movies than video games. In the early days, though, this simply wasn't the case. The majority of games on the NES used a single static image with text and music to bookend a game's story, something you could only very loosely call a cutscene. Games like Castlevania or The Legend of Zelda, which featured stories that demanded more explanation, would require you to open up the manual and find it yourself, rather than find it in the game. And yes, while hardware was a limitation, that wasn’t the only reason. Western and Japanese versions of some NES games varied dramatically in narrative, tone, and marketing. Such variations were due to the fact that, at the time, video games were still considered to be primarily for kids, which each territory’s version tweaked for their respective younger audiences. One of Ninja Gaiden’s goals was to change that. Developer Tecmo used a Hollywood blockbuster-like approach to elevate its storytelling for mature audiences. The game starts with a cutscene of two ninjas duelling to the death in a grassy moonlit field. Like a “big budget” movie, it utilized fast cuts, cinematic camera work, a widescreen aspect ratio, and expressive music to set up the death of Ryu’s father, the inciting incident that leads you on a game-long quest for revenge. Revenge narratives weren't new to video games, but that kind of cinematic setup sure was. In just a few seconds, we went from video games with little to no storytelling, to anime-inspired cutscenes and dialogue motivating you to complete your journey. This level of storytelling marked a major step forward in the perception of video games, proving they could be so much more than a child’s toy. Now, video games could also be an engaging platform to tell a captivating story. Cutscenes, however, aren't the only thing that made Ninja Gaiden stand out all those years ago. Tecmo’s game design also made significant strides, and Ninja Gaiden proved to be uniquely challenging to gamers of the 8-bit generation. Instead of having to time jumps and memorize level layouts like in early Mega Man and Mario games, Gaiden’s high difficulty, high reward gameplay tied progression to skill development and a player’s ability to master the game’s combat mechanics. Before Ninja Gaiden, most “hard” games were purposefully designed to be challenging because it was an easy way to pad out the run time (or, in the case of the arcade, make sure our pockets were noticeably lighter when we left.) While some games, like early Mega Man, Castlevania, and Mario games, did demand a level of skill to beat, their difficulty was mostly based on level memorization. Ninja Gaiden was one of the first games to take the idea of high-challenge, high-reward and mould it into something enjoyable. You’re going to die a lot, but after enough frustrating failure (those dogs at the start of the game are no joke, and don't even get me started on the flying enemies in later stages) you’ll quickly find yourself playing with a mix of defensive dodging and aggressive strikes, and having a lot of fun while you do them. Stage 1-1 is a masterclass in this philosophy, teaching players that challenge can be rewarding. The first stage in most games typically acts as a tutorial. Super Mario Bros. teaches players how to jump with little difficulty. Metroid forces the player to backtrack in order to gain the morphball ability, teaching players the necessity of exploration. And Sonic quickly demonstrates the need for speed. By immediately thrusting you into combat, Ninja Gaiden’s first level not only explains the game's core mechanic of kill or be killed, but also demonstrates that enemies can come from all directions, even behind you. The game's tutorial level is a trial by fire that teaches you to strike first and strike fast. That skill is continually reinforced throughout the game, requiring a lot more trial and error as things get progressively harder. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? While the first true “soulslike” game wouldn't be released for another 20+ years, it's not hard to see Gaiden's DNA in ******’s Souls, Bloodborne, and every other soulsborne game since. This challenging and, at times, frustrating game design not only solidified Ninja Gaiden’s NES adventure as one of the 8-bit era’s best games, but also helped shape the next generation of Ryu’s adventures on the Game Boy, *****’s Master System, and, a decade later, the original Xbox. Bury Me in ****** The sixth generation of video games featured some of the most influential games of all time. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Resident Evil 4. Halo: Combat Evolved. Kingdom Hearts. Metal Gear Solid 3. The list goes on and on. So, it would take a forward-thinking (not to mention generation-defining) entry in the Ninja Gaiden series to cut its own place in what many consider one of gaming’s best generations. For Ninja Gaiden, no fewer than three games kept the series sharp during a time where the competition was fierce and groundbreaking innovation was everywhere. A few years earlier, Tecmo had established a new internal studio to develop Dead or Alive. But by the turn of the millenium, that studio – now named Team Ninja – had begun work on a new Ninja Gaiden. That project would become 2004’s Ninja Gaiden, released exclusively on Microsoft’s new Xbox console. Its expanded 2005 release, Ninja Gaiden ******, is considered one of the greatest action games of not only the sixth generation, but of all time. IGN gave it an incredibly high score of 9.4, praising its fast-paced combat, its hard but rewarding gameplay, and action. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Similar to the original, this new take on the series had the goal of redefining the standards of what an action game could be. While the cutscenes looked great for the time, it’s Ninja Gaiden’s gameplay that would once again shine and raise the bar for challenging action games across the board, while still emphasizing the strike hard, strike fast precision and timing from the NES era games. Combat is more chaotic and aggressive now that Ryu can be attacked in three dimensions, and parrying incoming attacks relies heavily on timing and rhythm. You can't just button mash your way through enemies – it requires a more methodical approach with each encounter, something you hone through a lot of death. Just like in the first game, you're taught this right off the bat as you find yourself fighting two very annoying ninjas on a cliffside. Rhythm, timing, and enemy behavior are important here. Foes can attack you from all sides and quickly overwhelm Ryu. Choosing when to attack, when to dodge, and when to avoid enemies ends up becoming a meta game of rock, paper, scissors, and it’s something we’ve seen in countless games since – from the Batman Arkham series to practically every Souls game ever. For some players, myself included, Ninja Gaiden ****** was one of the first games where, even though the gameplay could get extremely frustrating at times, it was pretty hard to put down once the game's core mechanics were figured out. For me, it wasn't until I beat the first boss, timing my strikes and dodges by finding the right balance between patience and aggression, that I understood how rewarding Ninja Gaiden could be. By the time the final boss comes stomping around, I’d been trained to fight in such a way that the entire event feels cinematic based on its gameplay, not cutscenes. Instead of cheesing the boss and spamming the attack button a million times until their health bar hits zero (which is how I unsuccessfully played at the start of the game,) I found myself dodging and parrying in ways I simply couldn't early on in the game. This is a journey that's found in pretty much every high-difficulty, high-reward game to this day. But if you take a step back and think about it, by forcing the player to “get good”, or at least achieve some semblance of a flow state, the combat actually becomes a narrative device that helps progress the story. By combining parries, dodges, and attacks with razor precision, you grow alongside Ryu. You get stronger alongside Ryu. And, most importantly, by the end, you fight like a master Ninja. It’s just like what the first game achieved, way back in 1988. Never Fade Away While not as impactful as the 2004 release, Ninja Gaiden 2 and 3 went on to receive critical acclaim and multiple re-releases and revisions. These games improved on what made the original Xbox release so meaningful, pushing Gaiden’s precise combat and difficulty into the next console generation. Unfortunately, the franchise didn't cut through the competition in quite the same way Ninja Gaiden ****** did at the height of the sixth console generation. And so it wasn't until well over a decade later that indie developer The Game Kitchen would revitalize the series with Ninja Gaiden Ragebound. What’s old is new again. Ragebound took the series back to its 2D roots, adding more to the lore of Ninja Gaiden, and perfecting the series’s difficult-but-fair gameplay for a new generation of side-scrollers. It went on to be considered one of the best entries in the series, according to the IGN audience, and I concur. What’s more, it helped pave the way for the latest instalment, Ninja Gaiden 4, which looks set to raise the bar again for a new generation of hyper-violent and tough action games. It’s impossible to overstate the impact Ninja Gaiden has had on action games over the years. Its DNA can be found in hundreds of great games – echoes of its excellent combat mechanics, crushing difficulty, and use of cinematics can be found everywhere in the genre. Simply put, action games as they are today simply wouldn’t exist without the influence of Ninja Gaiden. View the full article
OCCT is a popular tool for stress-testing and benchmarking your system that recently had a Linux release, and now as of the latest update it should work better. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
From Lion Shield who created the rather great Kingdoms & Castles, their next game Nova Roma has been confirmed for Early Access release on January 22, 2026. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article
J-Jump Arena, a duel party game with Mostly Positive reviews on Steam, is currently free to play for all users. Steam offers thousands of free games, with more added regularly, but few manage to gain relevance or build an impressive player base like J-Jump Arena. View the full article
Do you ever have one of those days where you just don't want to socialize? Perhaps you've had a busy week already, filled with family birthdays or chaotic Dungeons and Dragons sessions. Or, maybe you're just having one of those days, specifically Mondays. After a day at work or school, there's nothing better than putting on your headphones and immersing yourself in a world of your choosing, free from the constraints of social interaction. Unfortunately, if you're a Delta Force player, you haven't been able to do that in its Operations mode, and let's be honest, being the random-fill player is never fun. But I have good news for you - Team ***** is testing solo ******, but if you want to try it you'll need to cancel your weekend plans. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Delta Force codes October 2025 Best Delta Force loadouts and builds All Delta Force operators View the full article
In the grand scheme of things, there really isn't that much to complain about with Battlefield 6. Especially when you compare it to its predecessor... It's a return to form for the series, and while there've been a couple of small pain points, you know as well as I do that constant grumbles surround even the best FPS games. One such frustration involves XP farm servers, which were letting players zoom through weapon and attachment unlocks but were also cluttering Portal with samey, soulless, bot-farming experiences rather than unique, creative ones. Last week, Battlefield Studios' crackdown began by increasing the XP gained in regular game modes to disincentivise XP farms, and starting to hide Portal experiences that were blatantly built for that purpose. Now, it's getting even firmer. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Best Battlefield 6 Portal codes - XP farm and bot lobby Battlefield 6 Season 1 release date and latest news Best Battlefield 6 weapons and guns - October BF6 tier list View the full article
Nerf day has arrived, but it's landed a little too strong. The long-awaited Borderlands 4 patch notes Gearbox has been promising for weeks are finally here, just in time for the Horrors of Kairos Halloween event. They're largely focused on dealing with some of the "unintended interactions" that were leading ludicrous damage scaling and boss-melting builds, although there are some buffs and performance improvements to be found. But Gearbox has already confirmed that one of the most disappointing changes, one halting the ability to speed-farm bosses for big loot drops, was unintentional and will be reversed. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Borderlands 4 Shift codes October 2025 You've got one more weekend to enjoy Borderlands 4's most broken builds as Gearbox pushes back nerfs Gearbox dates the first Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack, and Christmas is coming early View the full article
Gearbox has given out three new Borderlands 4 SHiFT codes, all of which can be redeemed for Golden Keys. Players should act fast, though, as these Borderlands 4SHiFT codes are only active until October 26. View the full article
I don't know how many hours I put into Hades 2 during its early access ******* and I'm too scared to look. Since it released, I've probably played that much again. And yet, I still haven't seen the game's true ending. That's good news for this article, because I can't spoil it for you even if I wanted to (I don't), and for me, because developer Supergiant Games has just improved it in the game's first post-launch patch. We don't count hotfixes in this sort of thing. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Hades 2 hotfix patches the final boss and nerfs my least favorite enemy Best Hades 2 keepsakes - all keepsakes and how to get them Where to find Adamant in Hades 2 View the full article
All the details about Honkai: Star Rail 3.7 have been revealed, including its release date, the livestream codes, information about the new character, banner structure, and much more. Version 3.7 is the next big update for HoYoverse’s turn-based RPG, and it should be the final one in the main Amphoreus story arc. While the patch doesn’t arrive, this is the last chance to get Permansor Terrae in Honkai: Star Rail 3.6’s banners. View the full article
Driving through the rough terrain and natural hazards in RV There Yet is no easy task, and it's crucial to know more about how to revive your teammates and respawn in case of death. While RV There Yet is a game best played with friends, you'll occasionally meet unexpected deaths. This could be due to various reasons, but your friends can always bring you back from such unforeseen situations. Table of contentsHow to respawn in RV There YetHow to revive your friends in RV There YetHow to respawn in RV There Yet The basic premise behind respawning in RV There Yet has essentially got to do with how the save system works. There are no manual saves, and you'll need to reach a checkpoint. If you die, you can't respawn on your own. You'll need a friend to bring you back to the game. The actual process is for your friends to reach where you died and revive you. However, what they can do instead is to reach a gas station. Your friends will find a grave at gas stations, which can be used as respawn points. Screenshot via Nuggets Entertainment If they reach a gas station, it doesn't matter where they have died on the map. On being revived, you'll always respawn at that location (where your friends are located). How to revive your friends in RV There Yet Reviving a teammate can be done using an EpiPen, which is usually available in different locations. You should find a bunch of them at the starting tent, and then, it's all about your luck. Once your friend has collapsed, reach near their body to use an EpiPen. If your RV has EpiPens stored in its shared inventory, one of them will be consumed, and either you/your buddy will be brought back to life. Hence, always have a few EpiPens stored (you can also craft them with the required items). Like our content? Set Destructoid as a Preferred Source on Google in just one step to ensure you see us more frequently in your Google searches! The post How to revive and respawn in RV There Yet appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article
The course of history has a habit of plucking individuals from its stream and making them, by complex processes, tribunes of a class—figureheads onto which the demands of an era are projected and through whom they find voice. Martin Luther, Maximilien Robespierre, Karl Marx: these are less individuals than they are avatars of their epochs. Now, another joins their number: Danny Trejo, Hollywood actor and, as of recently, Bethesda reply guy... Read more.View the full article
Path of Exile 3.27 is 'Keepers of the Flame,' and it's the ARPG's first-ever sequel league. While public attention has certainly been more focused on PoE 2 since its early-access launch, there are a lot of reasons to care about its continuing predecessor. The first game is much more substantial, with a decade-plus of love and development from Grinding Gear Games honing it into one of the best RPGs on PC today - and you can play it for free. Its latest update is a great reason to do so, too, because it's packed with some deliciously dark systems that let you modify your character's body or grow fleshy, warped gear. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Path of Terraria turns the indie game into an ARPG with a story and endgame maps Path of Exile dev "deeply sorry" for disrupted service during new league launch Path of Exile flies past PoE 2 as the free Steam ARPG's new update lands View the full article
After a number of leaks, Ubisoft has finally made it official: Assassin's Creed Shadows will release for Nintendo Switch 2 on December 2 priced $59.99 / £49.99. The Nintendo Switch 2 version includes all content updates introduced since the game’s release, as well as cross progression across all platforms and touch screen support, "making navigation of menus, maps, and the hideout more intuitive than ever." Ubisoft has also confirmed Assassin's Creed Shadows is Game-Key Card game, which means Switch 2 players will have to download the game before they can play. Game-Key Cards have sparked a vociferous debate because they're essentially useless unless your console is connected to the internet. In September, a Ubisoft developer who worked on the Nintendo port of Star Wars Outlaws defended the use of Game-Key Cards, saying the real reason why the Switch 2 version of Star Wars Outlaws uses a Game-Key Card was due to the console's data speeds, and how quickly the hardware can read information from its bespoke cartridges, versus games downloaded to the console's internal memory. Later in September, Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi implied that developers are choosing Game-Key Cards not necessarily from a cost perspective, but a performance one, as the format enables them to bring smoother-running games to the Switch 2. Nintendo recently launched a survey designed to poll the Switch 2 userbase on its thoughts surrounding digital and physical games. In Assassin's Creed Shadows, you choose between a Shinobi or Samurai and explore the open world of Feudal Japan, from spectacular castle towns and bustling ports to peaceful shrines and pastoral landscapes. IGN's Assassin's Creed Shadows review returned an 8/10. We said: "By sharpening the edges of its existing systems, Assassin’s Creed Shadows creates one of the best versions of the open-world style it’s been honing for the last decade." Earlier this week, IGN reported that Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté had departed Ubisoft after a career spanning more than 20 years. Just a few days later, Côté made it clear that his shock exit from Ubisoft was not his decision. In a post on LinkedIn, Côté said he bore "no resentment," but wanted to make clear to former colleagues and fans that he had not quit the Assassin's Creed franchise after 15 years of his own free will. The news came just two weeks after Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft's biggest brand, became operated by Vantage Studios, the separate business entity formed by Ubisoft with a 25% stake from ******** giant Tencent that will also now oversee all future Far Cry and Rainbow Six games. 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
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Don't Nod has also shared the launch trailer for the release of The Lonesome Guild on PS5, Xbox, and PC. View the full article