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Tron is a world that I feel constantly surprised by its perseverance in just flat out still being a thing all these years later. And yet, I never feel upset about it given that the vibes of Tron just absolutely rule no matter the context in which they're being delivered, the upcoming Jared Leto led film notwithstanding because of that guy's whole vibe. In terms of what's actually next for the fictitious video game world, there's Tron: Catalyst from the folks over Bithell Games, and as it so happens, there's a demo out for it today! Read more View the full article

Epic Games revealed a long-awaited collaboration coming to Fortnite; it's none other than Squid Game, and fans are eager to learn more. Fortnite's Creative mode allows players to set their imagination free and make all sorts of creations. There are various kinds of maps and islands for players to try out in Fortnite Creative, whether they're playing by themselves or with a group of friends. View the full article

IGN's Summer of Gaming is back for its sixth year and there is so much to look forward to, including the return of IGN Live, exciting gaming livestreams like the Xbox Games Showcase, Summer Game Fest, Day of the Devs, and so much more. While the full scope of all the summer festivities has yet to be set in stone, we wanted to start gathering all the biggest gaming events in one place to ensure you don't miss a thing!View the full article

Rub some dirt in itView the full article

The Witcher 4 showcases new Unreal Engine 5 features in technical demo running at 60fps with ray tracing on PS5. View the full article

This release includes a variety of bug fixes and quality of life improvements for SteamVR. We continue to focus on OpenXR as our preferred API for new games and applications. SteamVR’s official OpenXR subforum is here and we’d love to hear your feedback, as well as suggestions for new features. SteamVR: Fix a ****** in vrserver that could happen during application launch. Fix a rare ****** in vrserver related to input. Fixed rendering issue with recenter iconography. Enable UI animations on all platforms. Fixed VR streaming bug, where the wireless HMD could sometimes see "invalid streaming key" (see also: the Steam Beta Client update). Improved auto-added haptics on OpenXR applications (digital actions on analog components) Fixed OpenXR freeze/****** that happened with some games (e.g. ETS2).Index / Vive: Moved quick Recenter to system button release, which allows users to power off controllers without recentering.Meta / Quest: Restored recenter button on dashboard toolbar for Meta Quest Link / Air LinkDeveloper: Fixed some log spam with some OpenXR applications that were constantly making invalid calls. Moved developer settings from legacy menu to traditional settings interface. As always, if you are interested, we encourage enrolling into SteamVR Beta by right-clicking on SteamVR in your Steam library, clicking on "Properties" and selecting "Betas" from the list on the left hand side and then clicking "Beta" under Beta Participation. Additionally, if you use Steam Link for Meta Quest, you can opt into the beta here or in-headset by going to your library, clicking the "..." on Steam Link, selecting Settings and clicking the button to the right of "Installed Version Information." Help & Information: The Steam Link for Meta Quest FAQ page is available here. If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, please include a SteamVR System Report to aid in tracking down your issue. Replies to this post are not tracked for bug reporting purposes. Please use the forum linked above to report issues.View the full article

I don't think you're supposed to do thatView the full article

A very easily missed detail that Cyberpunk 2077 fans have spotted in preview gameplay footage on the Nintendo Switch 2 might tease a surprise content update for the game to accompany its launch on the upcoming console. Cyberpunk 2077has received several substantial updates following its monumental 2.0 update in 2023, and although it was declared around a year ago that the game's development had officially ceased, it seems that CD Projekt Red really can't help but continue adding to the game. View the full article

Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6players who are fans of the John Wick action film series are now able to grab the Ballerina collaboration bundle featuring Ana de Armas' character as a playable operator. Season 4 of Call of Duty: ****** Ops 6is freshly underway and fans have been enjoying the season's new 6v6 multiplayer maps Shutdown, Fugitive, and Blitz. Treyarch has also added a new Grief mode to ****** Ops 6's Zombies suite, pitting four players against each other as they try to survive the undead horde. View the full article

Last week, I questioned whether MindsEye was a real game or not. This week, that question lingers. Why, you ask? Well, as spotted by our good friends over at Eurogamer, two executives at the studio behind the game, Build a Rocket Boy, have now departed the company. Let me just check when MindsEye is coming out… oh, that's right, literally one week from today. Surely this is only good news! Read more View the full article

"That's kind of what I like about Steam," says Chris ZukowskiView the full article

The winning designs will be actually implemented in-game in early 2026. View the full article

I don’t think I’ve hungered for a game this year as much as Holstin. This survival-horror immediately caught my eye with its gorgeous pixel art, perspective-shifting gameplay, and eerie Polish setting. So I felt super lucky to get hands-on with an all-new, two-hour PC demo, sliced right out of Holstin’s ominous beginnings. While the previous Steam demo captured Holstin’s “feel” through mocked-up puzzles and a firing-range weapons tutorial, this new build puts it all together with a meaty (pun intended) story. My friends, you’ve gotta keep an eye on Holstin – here are a few reasons why. #1: “Disgusting” Has Never Looked So Good It’s the first thing you’ll notice – Holstin is really, really good-looking, right from your sudden drop into a dilapidated train station overgrown with some weird, pulsing yellow substance. The art looks already great in screenshots, but you need to see and feel Holstin in motion to truly understand what an accomplishment these graphics are. Even the title screen is amazing. Even the title screen is amazing. What looks like 2D top-down pixel art becomes truly impressive 3D once you learn that you can move the camera around, with slick, seamless transitions through eight different angles. Even if you’re aware of this before you begin playing, swinging around for the first time is honestly one of Holstin’s most surprising moments – yes, right up there with enemy encounters! (As a side note, the top-down movement in Holstin lends itself really well to twin-stick action on a controller, but it plays perfectly on mouse and keyboard as well.) While most players won't necessarily be choosing Holstin because of its technical proficiency, it’s what really makes this aesthetic work. There’s a reason why graphics like this aren’t manifold in the industry – it’s built on the studio’s custom in-house technology, which makes it likely to cement Holstin as a standout game graphically. #2: Mind-Blowing Perspectives Okay, so you can spin that third-person, top-down camera around and view the world from multiple angles – but that’s not just an awesome-looking gimmick. Those angles go hand-in-hand with Holstin’s environmental puzzles. If you’re not looking behind boxes or checking around corners to find alleys, you may – and probably will – miss things that will help you find your path forward in Holstin’s strange world. But wait! There’s more! There are aggressive mutated people everywhere. That means you need to shoot them. But unlike other twin-stick shooters, you won’t be staying in that fixed-camera view to ready your sights. Entering aim mode transitions you into an over-the-shoulder third-person view, freeing your camera to enable pinpoint precision for your headshots. These two very different views really add to the suspense – for instance, while in top-down view, you might miss the enemy lurking quietly around a corner. I found myself constantly on my guard, switching between both viewpoints even out of combat. (And sometimes even that didn’t save me from being pounced on and grappled down by some grisly horror of a human.) The only part of combat that initially confused me was melee, as that isn’t in aim mode – but I got used to it quickly. Holstin plays with other camera perspectives too, though more for atmosphere than for gameplay reasons. Think: a god’s-eye view in an eerily silent, unpopulated area. Your cursor disappears, suddenly removing your primary sense of defense. You might not be switching into aim mode here, but you’ll sure feel like some ominous force is watching your every move. #3: Meat, Tentacles, and Gore Galore Survival horror fans will want to know how gruesome the strange environment can get, but don’t worry – the squelchy mainstays of the genre are definitely represented in Holstin. The overall goal in this demo is to find your way to a slaughterhouse, after all. The town’s dissolution into its kind of otherworld first emerges in the form of “Plasmodium,” the aforementioned yellow substance. At first, it looks like someone went wild with foam spray – but when you approach, tentacles will rise and wiggle at you. Are they saying hi or taunting you? Either way, it’s suitably icky and adds to a pervading sense of unease. And then there are the mutant enemies. Imagine glowing orange orbs taking over your body, their tendrils taking the place of your tendons. Imagine those same orbs buried in the Plasmodium, which slowly spreads through streets and parks like an aggressive, menacing *******. Something I also found unsettling was the implied gore. While you don’t see the actual slaughterhouse in this demo, you will learn how it figures into the overall narrative through conversational dialogue and scribbled scraps scattered through the world. Something wicked is going on in that place, and you know it’s not going to be pretty when you finally get there. #4: Adventure Gaming Puzzles That Don’t ***** As a gamer who grew up with classic point-and-click adventures, I was very impressed by Holstin’s approach to its puzzles. Maybe I’m getting old and crotchety, but I’ve been disappointed in recent years with how linear puzzling has become in adventure-adjacent games. Receive an objective, figure out how to solve the objective, then receive the next objective. Figuring out which are solvable in any given moment is almost a puzzle in itself. Though Holstin is strongly narrative-driven, it never feels like a linear story with disparate puzzles slapped on top. In fact, I’d almost forgotten how challenging a well-designed puzzle tree can be. In Holstin, you won’t be completing objectives in the order they’re listed. You can work on multiple objectives at once, and figuring out which are solvable in any given moment is almost a puzzle in itself. You might have to retrace your steps, which feels realistic (like searching your house thrice for your car keys). And as for the puzzles themselves – they make sense (well, as much as something can make sense in this mad world). Survival horror fans are all familiar with some of the genre’s most inane challenges – ranging from the dreaded sliding puzzle through to needing an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare to shelve books correctly in order to obtain a door code (*cough* Silent Hill *cough*). None of that nonsense here. Holstin’s asks of you are simple: How are you going to get this trapdoor open? What twisting path through town will you need to forge in order to reach the playground? How you solve these problems feels organic, and really encourages you to explore your environs thoroughly. #5: 1990s Poland Is a Trip The Polish setting forms the bones of quite a specific – and unique – narrative. It’s not exactly a great tourism ad for Poland, but even covered with the weird tentacled Plasmodium, the town of Jeziorne-Kolonia still feels like a distinctly foreign experience compared to other games set in more vague locations. This demo only has Polish voiceover, and as an English speaker myself, I found that this added to the believability and atmosphere – like watching a foreign flick. Though I don’t have the context of how the Polish language is structured, the voice acting sounded dead-on. There’s the suicidal woman, her voice filled with defeat as she hands her gun over to you. The large, childlike man, squealing, talking in riddles, and just one plot twist away from losing it entirely. The cast of weirdos here is a lot wider than your usual survival-horror game – but their convincing creepiness doesn’t detract from the suspense at all. (I sure wished they would help me out in combat, though.) And while Holstin set in the 1990s, it’s not exactly boy bands and GeoCities. For instance, your save checkpoints are decrepit-looking phone booths – and you’ll need to find physical telephone cards to actually make your save (just like the real-life anachronism of digging for change to do your laundry). Our hero Tomasz definitely does not have a cell phone for tracking objectives. Expect all the inconveniences in the pre-internet era – yet another stumbling block in your strange journey through this horrifying town. All in all, this demo honestly blew me away – and I say that very rarely of any game. If the rest of Holstin is as polished and carefully crafted, it will be considered a survival horror classic in a decade’s time. I’m that impressed by what I’ve seen and played of it so far. View the full article

EA Sports College Football 26 could become one of the biggest sports game launches this year, and we have a fair idea about when the game is going to be available. As usual, the College Football franchise is going to be exclusive for consoles (bad news, PC players). Those opting for the Digital Deluxe Edition will get to enjoy early access, so let's take a look at when you'll be able to join the party. EA Sports College Football 26 release date The upcoming title goes live on July 10, and this year, things are heating up slightly earlier. If you choose to spend extra and get the Digital Deluxe Edition, you can enjoy up to three days of early access that goes live on July 7. The same privileges are also available if you choose to opt for the MVP bundle. The bundle includes the Digital Deluxe Editions of both College Football 26 and Madden NFL 26 at a discounted price of $149.99. EA Sports College Football 26 release countdown The following countdown is based on the release date for the Standard Edition. Once we have confirmation regarding the release date of the early access *******, it will be added as a separate countdown on this article. While EA Sports has yet to put out the exact release timing on social media or their website, the best indicator is the game's official page. Irrespective of whether you opt to purchase for PlayStation or Xbox, the Standard Edition launches at the same time. Here are the launch times for different parts of the world. Screenshot by Destructoid Time ZoneRelease TimePST8:30amCST10:30amEST11:30amCEST5:30pmIST9:00pmBST4:30pm The following countdown is based on the potential release time applicable for the regions under the Chicago Standard Time. [hurrytimer id="1073869"] While the game will be a console exclusive, there appears to be no plans for a regional release. The post EA Sports College Football 26 release countdown appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

June 3, 2025 CDPR has confirmed to VGC that the footage shown is "not The Witcher 4 itself," but rather strictly a tech demo. I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but CD Projekt Red has shown off the very first The Witcher 4 gameplay. As a part of the State of Unreal 2025 showcase, the team at CDPR has given us a look at a technical demo for the highly anticipated open-world RPG, and it looks stunning. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The Witcher 4 release date estimate, trailer, gameplay, and latest news New Witcher 4 'beta test' is a scam, CD Projekt Red warns Witcher 4 director heavily teases the return of fan-favorite minigame Gwent View the full article

Japanese Pokémon TCG players have gotten their hands on the latest set, ****** Bolt White Flair, and have been sharing the spoils on social media. It's the first chance for Western fans to get a glimpse at the Secret Illustration Rares in the set, and there's a lot to look forward to when it gets an English language release, starting with a truly gorgeous Reshiram ex. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Newest Pokémon set revealed and released How many Pokémon are there in 2025? All Legendary Pokémon and Mythical Pokémon in order View the full article

An upcoming Steam game called Forty-Niner is like Valheim meets Red Dead Redemption, blending survival and exploration mechanics within a procedural Wild West world. Much like Valheim, Forty-Niner features a third-person perspective and allows players to build, craft, and fight, among other interesting features. View the full article

The Early Access version will launch with two playable mechs and several side quests. View the full article

I reviewed Douze Dixièmes' psychologically charged puzzle platformer Shady Part of Me a full five years ago, finding an impressive debut for a studio that hinted at greatness to come. Published once again by Focus Entertainment, MIO: Memories in Orbit looks to fulfill that expectation with another gorgeous and contemplative project. This time, we have a Metroidvania sci-fi platformer that expands on the graphic novel aesthetic of the studio’s debut, making MIO: Memories in Orbit a notable 2025 release for genre fans to keep an eye on. View the full article

The PC version of Stellar Blade will be released on June 11, bringing with it some new features and additional content for players to enjoy. Those playing Stellar Blade on the PlayStation 5 don't need to worry about missing out, as a free update patch will roll out on the same date as the PC launch. View the full article

Let's start this one with a definition: Lethal Company is "one of those kinda games." By that I mean it's a four player co-op title that doesn't really adhere to a particular genre, predominantly prioritising mechanics that allow you and some friends to get up to some shenanigans. Like Content Warning, or REPO, you know, one of those kinda games! Now we've got that out of the way, let me introduce you to Roadside Research, one of those kinda games, except this time you are an incredibly poorly disguised alien running a gas station in order to research humans. See what I mean? Read more View the full article

Jagex has made some significant changes behind the scenesView the full article

Less than two months after releasing the open-world survival game RuneScape: Dragonwilds into early access on Steam, Jagex has laid off an unspecified number of employees. The studio says the vast majority of cuts are being made in "non-game development roles," and won't have any impact on the future development... Read more.View the full article

The first half of 2025 has brought a torrent of new games to play, but one particularly exciting one is going to be available on Xbox Game Pass day one later in June: Remedy Entertainment's FBC: Firebreak. Remedy has largely become known for its mind-bending world-building in single-player games like Alan Wake and Control, which share a connected universe. Alan Wake 2 was one of 2023's best horror games, and Control 2 is still in development, but the studio is filling the game with FBC: Firebreak, an unexpected spin-off. View the full article

Ciri's face is "the same character model" from the 2024 Witcher 4 trailerView the full article