Steam

Halo, once the flagship Xbox exclusive, the video game Microsoft launched its first console with, has finally jumped ship. Microsoft has announced Halo: Campaign Evolved — a remake of the original game’s campaign — and it’s coming to PlayStation 5 day one. The Unreal Engine 5 remake of the Bungie-developed 2001 campaign is set for launch in 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X and S, and, crucially, PS5. It is the first new Halo game since 2021’s Halo Infinite, and the first Halo ever to release on a PlayStation console. IGN has played Halo: Campaign Evolved and has all the details right here, including first info on the new three-mission prequel story arc. And yes, if you were wondering, there’s crossplay, which means Xbox, PC, and PlayStation owners can play Halo co-op together for the first time. Halo: Campaign Evolved is the final nail in the coffin for the Xbox exclusive, then, although in truth the shooter series’ release on PlayStation does not come as any surprise. Xbox Game Studios is already one of the most prolific and successful publishers on PlayStation, and just this week Xbox president Sarah Bond called the idea of exclusive games “antiquated,” so Microsoft’s thinking on this is crystal clear. But what has prompted Microsoft’s multiplatform push? A recent Bloomberg report alleged that Microsoft is pushing Xbox studios to deliver a 30% margin — much higher than the industry average — and one of the ways studios can help bring in more money is by releasing their games on rival platforms, such as PlayStation and Nintendo Switch as well as PC. One prominent critic of the exclusive is former president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America Shawn Layden, who last year said that when a video game’s costs exceed $200 million, “exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel.” “It reduces your addressable market,” Layden told GamesBeat, before citing the success of Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, which launched on PlayStation 5 and PC to explosive success. “Particularly when you’re in the world of live service gaming or free-to-play. Another platform is just another way of opening the funnel, getting more people in. In a free-to-play world, as we know, 95% of those people will never spend a nickel. The business is all about conversion. You have to improve your odds by cracking the funnel open. Helldivers 2 has shown that for PlayStation, coming out on PC at the same time. Again, you get that funnel wider. You get more people in.” Layden said single-player games have a similar audience consideration as multiplayer games, though not exactly the same. “For single-player games it’s not the same exigency,” he said. “But if you’re spending $250 million, you want to be able to sell it to as many people as possible, even if it’s just 10% more.” Layden’s comments echo those of former Xbox boss Peter Moore, who in a recent interview with IGN suggested Microsoft will be debating internally whether to release Xbox poster-child Halo on PlayStation. “If Microsoft says, wait, we're doing $250 million on our own platforms, but if we then took Halo as, let's call it a third-party, we could do a billion… You got to think long and hard about that, right?” Moore said. “I mean, you just got to go, yeah, should it be kept? It's a piece of intellectual property. It's ******* than just a game. And how do you leverage that? Those are the conversations that always happen with, how do you leverage it in everything that we would do?” Microsoft’s stance on exclusives has become one of the biggest talking points in the Xbox community, and that conversation will only grow louder now we know Halo has gone to PlayStation. Microsoft’s approach is in stark contrast to Nintendo and Sony’s. Nintendo has the most hardline policy on its games, releasing them on its consoles only. Sony has softened its approach in recent years, releasing the bulk of its games on PC after PlayStation (and in the case of Helldivers 2, eventually on Xbox). But Sony still refuses to launch its big single-player games on anything other than PlayStation day one (the latest example of this is Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei). Be sure to check out everything announced at Halo Studios’ Halo panel for more. Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at *****@*****.tld. View the full article

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down in front of an Xbox Series X to play an early demo of Halo: Campaign Evolved, the just-announced Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original-Xbox killer app (and yes, it’s a proper remake, not a remaster like Halo Anniversary was). And I’m honestly still not sure exactly how I feel about it after playing it. I definitely wanted to be blown away by the visuals, in the same way that the original Halo: Combat Evolved knocked my socks off back in 2001. Heck, we know Unreal Engine 5 is fully capable! I also didn’t want Halo Studios (nee 343 Industries) to mess with too much. Or did I? Would Halo 1 just feel old no matter what? And will PlayStation 5 gamers even care about this 25-year-old Xbox classic when it hits Sony’s consoles for the first time ever, day-and-date with Xbox and PC? So I went in with lots of questions, and I left with, well…some answers. Let me explain. I suppose we might as well start with the obvious: how it looks. Is my face properly melted? No. But maybe yours is? I’ll be curious to read the comments on this one. Anyway, Campaign Evolved does look very nice, no doubt. It certainly doesn’t look like it’s two decades old anymore. I played a chunk of the legendary Silent Cartographer mission from early in the campaign, and the skybox is beautiful, the water looks great, the trees look very nice, and the terrain texture looks sharp and clean. Once you get indoors, the alien architecture has a unique sheen to it that the original obviously never had. Meanwhile, the weapons all look exactly how you’d expect them to look in the modern era, and the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Hunters all look convincingly new rather than reskins of quarter-century-old creatures. Everything looks clean, but not in a soulless way. At least not to me. It works as a cohesive art-directed space in the new engine. I appreciate that VO from the principal actors (read: Steve Downes and Jen Taylor, at the very least) has been rerecorded, while mocap has all been redone for the rebuilt-from-scratch cutscenes. But let’s talk about my biggest concern coming into this demo: the classic Halo feel. Movement, aiming, jumping, vehicle controls – it’s all got to have that semi-floaty Halo feel to it, and I’m pleased to report that even in this very early state, Campaign Evolved is a good bit of the way there. No doubt they’ll continue to tweak it over the coming months – this release has no official release date beyond “2026,” by the way, but I’d be stunned if it’s not timed to release at or very near the 25th anniversary of Halo: Combat Evolved in November of next year – but there have been some gameplay modernizations implemented here that have been ported back from subsequent Halos into this remake, and while purists might bristle at it, most of these seem like they’re for the best for a 2026 first-person shooter release. Vehicles are boardable and destructible now. For starters, vehicles are boardable and destructible now, as they were in subsequent Halo games. That means a Ghost can no longer torment you endlessly, nor are you effectively invulnerable in a Scorpion tank. On a related note, a fourth player can now sit on the back of a Warthog. Oh, and though I didn’t get to try it out on The Silent Cartographer, the Wraith is drivable now, too, as it first became in Halo 2. Also, any weapons the bad guys wield, you can too. As such, the Energy Sword is now in your toolbelt if you take one off the corpse of a Gold Elite. Halo Studios says there will be eight weapons in Campaign Evolved that aren’t new to Halo but are usable for the first time in Master Chief’s first adventure. On the movement front, sprint has also been added. It’s not on a cooldown; you can run endlessly. I could see this one annoying the Halo 1 purists most of all, but not only do the developers say you can turn it off, but you can also just…not use it. I found it handy when running down the beach back towards my mission objective after wandering off to go stare at more of the new Unreal Engine 5-rendered spaces. What about co-op? After Halo Studios fumbled that in Halo Infinite, you’re probably wondering about it for the remake. Two-player split-screen is confirmed, though sadly it wasn’t available in my short preview build, and the development team also promises four-player online co-op with full cross-play and cross-progression support. As for proper competitive multiplayer, though? Unfortunately, the answer to that is right in the name of this remake: Campaign Evolved. There’s no multiplayer here, which is a shame because it’d sure be fun to see Blood Gulch or Sidewinder or Hang ‘Em High in Unreal Engine 5 with online cross-play support. I asked Halo Studios about this, and Executive Producer Damon Conn gave me an extremely media-trained answer, saying the team is “very focused on recreating the original campaign that started it all” and “[Halo] Infinite and [Master Chief Collection] provide really great experiences for multiplayer.” Sure…for Xbox and PC players. That doesn’t help new PS5 players fall in love with Halo’s glorious multiplayer, though. Presumably they didn’t want to pull any players away from MCC for this, and/or adding full multiplayer support would’ve likely meant the project couldn’t get done in time for the 25th anniversary. But it’s still disappointing. That led me to wonder about pricing. Would this be a full-price $70 release (or perhaps even $80 by the time it comes out, since Microsoft already tried to push to that price point this year)? Or will it be priced lower – particularly since it’s campaign-only? The Halo Studios team wouldn’t say when I asked them directly, so that remains to be seen. Personally, $50 feels right for this, but that’s just my opinion. I also think that $20 per month feels like the right price for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate… OK, so no multiplayer, but there is one significant addition I’m legitimately excited about: a new three-mission prequel campaign that revolves around Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson. This could be extremely cool, but unfortunately that’s literally all we know so far. In fact, Halo Studios wouldn’t even tell me if it’s accessible out of the box or if you have to complete the campaign in order to unlock it. I also asked if they’d be repurposing existing music from the Halo 1 soundtrack to score those missions, or if they might commission something new (dare I dream they reach out to Marty O’Donnell himself!), and they didn’t have an answer for me there either. Getting back to gameplay, I must say that I still had fun hooning across the beaches of The Silent Cartographer in a Warthog, my UNSC Marine buddies in the passenger and gunner seats helping to mow down Covenant bad guys while I attempted to turn them into hood ornaments with my front bumper. Just like old times. I also manned the gun turret at one point to test out the friendly AI and…it still needs work. In fact, someone on the development team acknowledged this later without me bringing it up, so it’s clearly something they’re aware of. Honestly, though, it’s not something I’m even worried about when there’s still (probably) upwards of a year of development time left. It’s the same with the framerate: no doubt some folks went straight to the comments to note any inconsistencies they saw (because I definitely noticed some), and while it is certainly important, it’s not something I’m sweating this far away from the end of the project. Oh, and I should also mention that Halo Studios is adding Skulls to Campaign Evolved. Lots of them, in fact. “Dozens” was the word they used, with an emphasis on this remake having the most Skulls of any Halo campaign ever. Replayability is clearly a focus for the studio here – which is understandable, given Halo’s strong history in that department as well as the lack of adversarial multiplayer – and hopefully the Skulls will spice things up for Xbox players running through this thing for the umpteenth time. Halo Studios says this remake having the most Skulls of any Halo campaign ever. On that note, I couldn’t help but wonder if PlayStation 5 players getting their first crack at Halo are really going to care about this in a way that turns a lot of them into new fans of the franchise. It’s a genuine question; I’ve got a lot of personal history with Halo, so I simply can’t answer this one. For someone with no nostalgia for Master Chief, will those players find Campaign Evolved as compelling as I found Combat Evolved? And if they do, then what? Will Halo Studios remake Halo 2 in Unreal Engine 5? And then 3? 4? 5? Reach? ODST? Infinite? Or will they just port The Master Chief Collection and Halo Infinite to PS5 to catch those players up? I asked the team about this and again got a very media-trained half-answer: “There is an opportunity for us to grow the fanbase,” Executive Producer Damon Conn told me. “We're bringing the most players, we believe, to Halo, ever. And so that growth is what we're truly interested in, and again, I hinted before this paves the way for future stories and Halos.” And so, as you can now see, I’m still left with many unanswered questions about this remake project. But to Halo Studios' credit, this early demo did answer a couple of key ones about how good it could look and how Halo-y it could feel. So far so good there. I’m very excited about the new three-mission prequel campaign featuring Sergeant Johnson, as it will be the first new single-player content in a Halo game in, by that point, five years. Can Campaign Evolved relight Halo’s spark? That’s the biggest question of all, and it’ll have to remain unanswered for a bit longer. Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan. View the full article

Plus new/old weapons, no multiplayer, level design tweaks, and... optional sprintView the full article

"Yes, we mean The Library"View the full article

This particular can of worms remains openView the full article

Nearly four years after the launch of Halo Infinite, Microsoft and Halo Studios have revealed the next major Halo release. Last year, Microsoft revealed that 343 Studios would be rebranding to Halo Studios and using Unreal Engine 5 for future projects. Earlier this week, a rumor suggested that the series would finally make the leap to PS5, following a number of multi-platform Xbox releases in recent years. View the full article

Not meView the full article

The Counter-Strike 2 community was sent into a tailspin when its in-game economy crashed, causing a loss of almost $2 billion of real-world money. Like many other live-service games, Counter-Strike 2 allows players to obtain a wide variety of cosmetic "skins" for their weapons. Typically doled out at random via randomized collections of rewards called "Cases," players can also trade and purchase skins from a wide variety of unofficial online marketplaces. View the full article

Honkai: Star Rail Version 3.7 update brings in the finale of the Amphoreous saga, the new playable character Cyrene, and more. View the full article

For the first time since it's launch in 2013, Old School RuneScape will receive a new skill. The iconic MMORPG has been operating two separate games (not counting the board game and TTRPG) for more than a decade: RuneScape 3, the uninterrupted evolution of the game since its incarnation in 2001; and Old School RuneScape, a version of the game mirroring its 2007 state, but evolving in its own way since its introduction. View the full article

This week on Steam's top-played charts, the two new releases going neck-and-neck are Battlefield 6—no surprise there—and a top-down extraction shooter about ducks. Specifically, it's about shooting ducks as a duck. Normally my friend group would be buzzing about the meme game of the week, but it feels like I don't know anyone outside the PCG team who's actually playing Escape From Duckov... Read more.View the full article

Diablo 4 is ending October with a bang by launching the Mother’s Blessing and Seasonal Splendor events at the exact same time. These two events both arrive in Diablo 4 on October 28, making it the perfect time to jump into Season 10. View the full article

The hybrid action RPG will combine dungeon exploration actions with a bakery management system and a rhythm mini-game. View the full article

You can stream "wherever you are" by reche from Digimon Story: Time Stranger on various digital music platforms now. View the full article

How do you complete The Brain Benders of Auntie's Choice in The Outer Worlds 2? When you reach Eden, your main aim is to infiltrate the Vox Relay to chase down De Vries. To accomplish this task, we recommend completing some side quests to make your journey to the base as easy as possible. As part of your The Outer Worlds 2 adventure, you'll meet Minister Milverstreet in Fairfield, and he'll promise to help get you into the Vox Relay if you persuade Vigilant Hogarth and the inhabitants of Westport to relocate to Fairfield. Be warned: you'll need to unlock particular Outer Worlds 2 skills and Outer Worlds 2 traits before you kick off the quest. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The Outer Worlds 2 map - all planets and locations The Outer Worlds 2 The Saboteur of Paradise quest guide How to get double jump in The Outer Worlds 2 View the full article

Amid the live-service bombast of heavy-hitters such Diablo 4, Path of Exile, and PoE 2, Titan Quest 2 has so far been everything I wanted from a sequel to the classic 2006 ARPG. Grimlore Games has built a beautiful world that I love to be in, contributing massively to the fantasy of becoming a noble hero like the great tales of Greek mythology. Combat feels weighty and meaningful, the mastery system has me pondering builds in a manner unique among its peers, and the whole experience is condensed and completable, rather than a grind that sprawls into the endless horizon. It was just missing one thing: me. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Titan Quest 2 chapter two makes drops more exciting in the Greek fantasy ARPG Titan Quest 2 system requirements Titan Quest 2 roadmap plots out early access updates for the Greek fantasy ARPG View the full article

Speaking during Intel's Q3 2025 earnings call, Tan outlined the company's future plans for its client, server, and foundry businesses. On the client side, Intel will launch the Core Ultra 200S Plus Arrow Lake Refresh series in early 2026, followed by Nova Lake later in the year. Read Entire Article View the full article

Halo is looking for a fresh start, and today’s 2025 Halo Project Update livestream could give it just that. Nearly four years removed from the launch of Halo Infinite, gaming fans from every corner of the industry are looking to today’s Halo World Championship 2025 festivities for a sneak peek at the future of the flagship Xbox franchise. What exactly the developers at Halo Studios (formerly known as 343 Industries) have cooking remains to be seen, but judging by a tease shared late last month, it sounds like the Halo universe could soon head into uncharted territory. “Like last year we’ll be on the Main Stage to talk about it but this year we’ve also got a ‘deep dive’ panel planned for the Community Stage that you won’t want to miss,” Halo Studios said in a Halo Waypoint post last month. The Halo World Championship 2024 presentation served as fans’ introduction to Halo in Unreal Engine 5, setting the series up for a new direction. We’ll keep track of everything Microsoft and Halo Studios have to announce at the 2025 Halo Project Update stream here, so be sure to check in when the presentation begins at 1 p.m. PT / 4 p.m. ET for all of the latest news. Developing… Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe). View the full article

Other than the last two story chapters, the full launch update also includes a roguelike trial mode. View the full article

RV There Yet? has peaked at 51,141 concurrent players on 24 October 2025 within the release week. View charts and more statistics on our website.View the full article

The Big Fella Evolution could be your best way to spend 25,000 coins in FC 26, and more so if you need a new midfielder. The latest evolution kicks off the Ultimate Scream celebration and upgrades a CDM of your choice. Let's look at the best options for the evolution based on the upgrades on offer. Table of contentsFC 26 The Big Fella Evolution requirementsFC 26 The Big Fella Evolution upgradesBest players to use in The Big Fella EvolutionFC 26 The Big Fella Evolution requirements Here are the requirements of The Big Fella Evolution in FC 26. Overall: Max 84PlayStyle: Max 10Not Rarity: World Tour Silver StarsPosition: CDMFC 26 The Big Fella Evolution upgrades The evolution has four levels of upgrades, and there are certain conditions to fulfil. Level 1 upgrades Overall: +5|85Pace: +5|80Passing: +5|83Heading Acc.: +12|88Roles: Deep-Lying Playmaker+ Level 2 upgrades Interceptions: +8|85Long Shots: +5|86Def. Aware: +8|85Shot Power: +5|86Slide Tackle: +6|84Stand Tackle: +8|85 Level 3 upgrades Aggression: +8|85Stamina: +10|87Strength: +12|87Weak Foot: +1|4PlayStyles: Enforcer|5Roles: Holding+ Level 4 upgrades Balance: +5|83Jumping: +12|88Reactions: +5|83PlayStyles: Bruiser|5Roles: Box Crasher++ Level 1 upgrade requirements Play 2 matches in Squad Battles on min Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rush/Rivals/Champions/Live Events) using your active EVO player in game. Level 2 upgrade requirements Win 2 matches in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rush/Rivals/Champions/Live Events) using your active EVO Player in game. Level 3 upgrade requirements Score 2 goals with your active EVO player in any mode.Play 2 matches in any mode using your active EVO player in game. Level 4 upgrade requirements Win 2 matches in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rush/Rivals/Champions/Live Events) using your active EVO Player in game.Play 2 matches in Squad Battles on min. Semi-Pro difficulty (or Rush/Rivals/Champions/Live Events) using your active EVO Player in game.Best players to use in The Big Fella Evolution Here are some of my best recommendations for inclusion in the evolution. Leandro Paredes Ratings ReloadAurelien TchouameniRuben Loftus-CheekEduardo CamavingaKhephren ThuramLeon GoretzkaTyler Morton Ratings ReloadJames Ward-Prowse World Tour While the upgrades are minor, you will be able to include these cards in future evolutions to create a chain and upgrade their stats further. 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 Best players for the FC 26 The Big Fella Evolution appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Dispatch, produced by AdHoc Studio, has put out its first two episodes. And if I can tell you anything, it's that it's better than most full-blown hundred-million-dollar TV productions, both in terms of storytelling and, most surprisingly, the animation. Being so good in all aspects, I had to go back in time and revisit those games that made AdHoc into what it is today, then functioning under the Telltale Games umbrella before it went dark. Not being much of a fan of either Borderlands or The Walking Dead, I naturally chose the one game that I adored as a kid: The Wolf Among Us, based on the Fables IP from DC's comics. And man, it's been a decade since I last fired it up, but one thing hasn't changed at all. The game is still, to this day, absolute perfection. The art direction is breathtaking. Image via Telltale Games Usually, when I go back and take another look at stuff I loved as a kid, I would end up not liking it at all. Most recently, I binge-watched a lot of my childhood classic movies, including Terminator 1, a film I saw countless times as a wee lad. However, I would come to find out that the movie isn't actually that good and that I am misremembering many of its scenes, replaying them in my mind as some pinnacle of cinema that they ultimately never were. But when it comes to The Wolf Among Us, I find myself equally excited about the mysterious and intriguing story about murders in Fabletown, the reimagining of various fairytales and characters, the deep and dark and conflicted nature of its protagonist, Bigby (Big Bad) Wolf. Every aspect of the world, the story, the visuals, still enthralls me, makes me want to continue playing and uncover a story that I had already experienced and can predict. The gameplay elements, though light, also lend themselves perfectly to a more laid-back experience where following the narrative itself takes precedence, though the quick-time events do bring the player into the fold every now and again. I actually like the QTEs in The Wolf Among Us more than I do in Dispatch, but the latter includes new and unique mini-games and other elements that TWAU does not have. And though the animations are far simpler, even for the time, The Wolf Among Us manages to convey emotion and character a lot better than most contemporary games, chiefly due to its focus on facial expression and reaction. Whether a character is happy, sad, angry, or anything else, the game makes it its job to truthfully and clearly state that through animation, emphasizing the "show, don't tell" rule of narrative to the utmost. The Wolf Among Us gives a completely different take on fables and fairy tales. Image via Telltale Games I haven't ever played a game like The Wolf Among Us since. Well, at least until Dispatch. But even this latter does not offer that same feeling, a similar vibe. It's its own thing, shares a lot of DNA with its predecessors, but The Wolf Among Us truly is a one-of-a-kind game that could've gotten a sequel (AdHoc even wrote a full script for it) if it weren't for, as always, money problems. Telltale has since been revived, and with it, the prospects of TWAU 2 have also been resurrected. But we haven't heard anything of it in years, and given that it's not being handled by the most talented team for this kind of game, I'm not so confident it could ever match the first. That is, if it does come out. So, yes, The Wolf Among Us stands firm as one of the greatest games of all time, and a wild ride that you can only ever take for the first time once, but one that still never gets dull. 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 Dispatch has me revisiting The Wolf Among Us after a decade, and there’s still nothing quite like it out there appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

Multiple reports are now pointing to Battlefield 6's free-to-play battle royale mode coming next week as a shadowdrop, so the industry is on edge in waiting. Rumors about the mode's release have been swirling for weeks, and video leaks of the playtest in Battlefield Labs have inspired hope and excitement for players. But as for what the game is actually called, that's a different story entirely. Image via EA The Battlefield 6 battle royale mode will be called Battlefield: RedSec, according to Battlefield and Call of Duty news account ModernWarzone, who has been leading the charge on reporting unconfirmed info about the mode that he says will also be free-to-play. Industry reporter and leaker Tom Henderson also said this morning that he "can now independently verify" that BF6's BR mode will be coming on Oct. 28, and that it will be a shadowdrop with no prior announcement this Tuesday. "RedSec" doesn't really roll off the tongue, especially when compared to other popular titles in the genre like Warzone or Fortnite, so I'm sure the general gaming public will tilt their heads a bit at it. But honestly, if the game mode is fun, then the name itself probably won't matter in the long run. I'm admittedly not the biggest Battlefield fan, but since this mode will reportedly be free-to-play, there's no downside to giving it a try if and when it does drop next week. It feels as though the gaming industry has veered away from BR's in recent years and more towards extraction shooters when it comes to hyped up releases, but this could easily blow up in a big way when it comes to popularity if it's received right by fans. [Hidden Content] If you had any gaming plans next week (such as full releases for games like ARC Raiders and The Outer Worlds 2), then maybe leave a spot in your calendar to potentially try out what could be the next big thing in the gaming world. 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 Battlefield’s battle royale mode reportedly has a terrible name, so I hope it’s at least fun appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

With how the state of the gaming industry is nowadays, nothing comes as a surprise. All sorts of titles have risen through the ranks and conquered the market, but if you were to tell me a game about ducks with guns beating AAA behemoths, I'd never believe you. But that is exactly what has happened. Escape from Duckov, a strange extraction shooter that puts you in control of a duck in what seems a post-apocalyptic, heavily-militarized world, has smashed through Steam's concurrent player charts and even managed to beat Battlefield 6. The title peaked at over 260,000 players (thanks SteamDB), briefly overtaking EA's blockbuster to become the third-most popular shooter on the platform, just slightly behind PUBG, which is free-to-play. The weirdest game ever. Screenshot by Destructoid And yes, Duckov is a paid title, which only adds to the layers of mystery as to how this game managed to become so popular. However, it is a big thing in China at the moment, which could be contributing to the game's sudden and sharp rise, as well as its huge dips the closer we are to ******** evening hours. That's just a theory, but a probable one. Even so, Escape from Duckov came out of nowhere, catching us all by surprise with its super weird style. We gave it a 7, praising the game for being unique, but criticizing its many drawbacks, not least because we couldn't understand who the audience for such a thing might be. Many people, it'd turn out, but I still have no clue as to why you'd be paying to play this instead of a proper extraction shooter. Games really do work in mysterious ways. 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 Ducks with guns are taking over Steam, and not even Battlefield 6 can stand up to them appeared first on Destructoid. View the full article

A Borderlands 4 player with three Level 50 Vault Hunters just received their first phosphene weapon in the game. Phosphene (or "shiny," as most players call them) weapons are ultra-rare versions of legendary guns that permanently unlock a unique skin for said weapon. While they don't offer any gameplay benefits, they have still become one of Borderlands 4's most coveted items, no doubt due to their extreme rarity. View the full article