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It takes a moment to adjust to the fact I'm using a DualSense controller and my PS5 to play a Halo game – something which seemed like heresy only a few years ago. But from the moment I fire the iconic M6D Magnum pistol in Halo: Campaign Evolved, my muscle memory from years past kicks right back in. Navigating space cruiser Pillar of Autumn's rat's nest of corridors before ******-landing onto Installation 04 and mounting up in a warthog remains one of my favorite openings for a video game, and Halo Studios has recreated it with stunning accuracy. Despite being a ground-up remake of the game that started it all for Halo (and arguably Xbox) 25 years ago, it's impressive not only how instantly familiar Halo: Campaign Evolved feels but also how well it holds up. But, after a full run of the campaign and its three new bonus missions, I can't help but feel that such a faithful approach might be to Halo: Campaign Evolved's detriment. It certainly looks the part, but there are so few flourishes that I also can't find many reasons to play it over what's come before. Sacred Icon (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) Key info Release date: July 28, 2026 Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S Developer: Halo Studios Publisher: Xbox Game Studios Playing through the opening half of Halo: Campaign Evolved reminded me that The Pillar of Autumn through to Assault on the Control Room really is an all-timer sequence of levels. You get to see almost the whole gamut of Halo environments, from claustrophobic spaceships to lush landscapes, rugged canyons, and esoteric Forerunner facilities. These have all been beautifully and vibrantly rendered in Unreal Engine 5. Levels like 343 Guilty Spark and The Library benefit greatly from some significant visual improvements. Advanced lighting, a ghostly knee-high fog, and plenty of Flood goop all add to the mysterious atmosphere of these ancient installations, break up the monotony, and even amp up the horror. I also can't deny that such dedication to realism means Campaign Evolved lacks a certain charm compared to the polygonal and yet timeless look of its precursor. Even so, it's also much kinder on the eyes compared to the brightly lit and overly detailed Anniversary remaster in The Master Chief Collection. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) The visuals for Halo: Campaign Evolved are where the most obvious changes to the original lie, though there are a few mechanical additions to bring the original up to modern Halo standards. Namely, Master Chief can use smart-link aiming with any weapon and is now allowed to sprint. I found that both can be safely ignored for a classic feel (there's even a Skull that fully disables sprinting if you hate it that much), with sprinting being a nice addition to simply get around some of the larger levels a bit faster. It hardly dictates the flow of combat with the only foes that really pushed me to sprint mid-combat being aggressive chargers like Hunters, energy sword Elites, and the hulking Pure Form Flood. Although, I was a little disappointed to see health packs have been cut in favor of Chief regenerating health. This always felt like a nice separation between his Mark 5 and Mark 6 Mjolnir amor, with the latter appearing from Halo 2 onwards along with fully regenerating health – a reminder that Master Chief isn't quite so invincible that encouraged you to play a little more tactically rather than charging in like a barbarian. [Hidden Content] With that said, going in guns blazing at all times on Normal difficulty is where Halo: Campaign Evolved really shines, feeling closer to the original game's Heroic difficulty. Measured aggression in the face of the Covenant and using every tool in Chief's arsenal means you can play more like Doomguy, strafing around and filling each enemy with lead or pistol-whipping them before charging to the next. And it’s still as satisfying as ever to perfectly Hail Mary a plasma grenade into a cluster of Grunts, sending them wailing and flying. So, with the 2001 classic acting as such a solid foundation, it's practically impossible to not have a good time playing Halo: Campaign Evolved, at the very least. I was initially apprehensive that these relatively simple 25-year-old design principles just wouldn't hold up in a time of fast-paced movement shooters and vast open worlds. Surely such a basic feel would make for a terrible first impression for PS5 players who may have no idea what Halo even is, let alone never played it before. But I think it's this simplicity that makes it shine. As such a faithful remake of its forerunner, Halo: Campaign Evolved is a first-person shooter in its purest form. Unnatural formation (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) The more I play Halo: Campaign Evolved the more I also realize that this commitment to faithfulness is a double-edged sword. How can a game titled "Campaign Evolved" claim to be an evolution if it sticks so closely to its source material? Sprinting, regenerating health, and other modernizations are joined by minor tweaks to level design and dialogue, and an expanded arsenal. The Energy Sword, Sentinel Beam, and Wraith tank, all previously tantalizingly out of reach for Chief in the original, can now be wielded to great effect on the ring – they're even joined by the Needle Rifle, SMG, and Fuel Rod Gun, further fleshing out the already excellent weapon sandbox. The Library, my least favorite level in Halo: Combat Evolved for its monotonous and labyrinthine structure, has been redesigned a little to trim the **** and inject a bit of variety to its vast halls. You go down instead of up now! That vastness certainly had its own appeal, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad that it's a considerably more intuitive place to navigate in Halo: Campaign Evolved. It still feels maze-like without you getting lost, providing a greater sense of momentum even as the incessant monitor orb Guilty Spark dawdles and spouts nonsense. But it's a crying shame that Cortana no longer tells him to "sod off" at the start of Two Betrayals. (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) The stunning scenery that is arguably one of the main draws of Halo: Campaign Evolved also comes at the cost of Unreal Engine 5 choppiness. I noticed that whenever there were lots of enemies on screen or plenty of particle effects going off at once, animation frame rates would noticeably plummet. Nothing game-breaking, but hardly what I'd expect from something that is so otherwise polished. Hopping back into Halo: Combat Evolved via The Master Chief Collection made me realize that this remake's changes are unfortunately quite inconsequential. Halo Studios has imitated the original so well that there is little that Halo: Campaign Evolved does that makes it an essential play. Obviously, if you only have a PS5, then Halo: Campaign Evolved is your sole option – that's also ultimately who this game is for too – but I find it difficult to recommend to anyone else when The Master Chief Collection, and therefore the original Halo, is widely available. I think we're just getting started (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) Remake City (Image credit: Ubisoft) Halo isn't the first time we've pondered the task of being too beholden to your source material. ****** Flag Resynced should have followed Resident Evil 4's lead – risks make a remake stronger. Of course, Halo Studios already thought about this and so Halo: Campaign Evolved also includes a new three-mission prequel campaign, Operation Meteorite. These bonus missions see Master Chief teaming up with his best non-AI pal and fan-favorite Sergeant Johnson to investigate a mysterious research vessel to hopefully learn the location of the heart of the Covenant. To be blunt, these missions are quite unremarkable. Despite taking place one year prior to the main campaign, what transpires is of no real relevance whatsoever. It essentially just establishes that Johnson and Chief are two bros who like to kill aliens together and find themselves in an almost Rogue One-style plot-hole-that-didn't-need-explaining story. Narratively, these missions end up being more relevant to Halo 2's story, so Halo fans can do the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme while it flies right over the heads of PS5 greenhorns. These missions are also the only place in all of Halo: Campaign Evolved where you'll get to use the Battle Rifle and fight Brutes. Couple that with the limp narrative and Operation Meteorite ends up feeling more like a chance to deploy some fan service in the form of mild banter between Chief and Johnson, who wears Chief's 1999 MacWorld demo Orion armor, while also testing some things for the surely inevitable Halo 2: Evolved – there's even a gondola section! (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) Halo Studios clearly has a lot of respect for Bungie's legacy but has also avoided doing anything particularly interesting or new with it. I would have liked to have seen more substantial structural changes to levels given that the developers aren't bound by the technical limitations of the original Xbox. That resulted in recycled environments and backtracking through levels, which are neatly woven into the narrative, but it feels like a wasted opportunity to leverage such modern technology and then not put your own spin on those classics. However, after trying to go bold with Halo 4, Halo 5, and Halo Infinite and having to go back to the drawing board every time, I'm hardly surprised that this is how Halo: Campaign Evolved turned out. A modern recreation is certainly the safest option for Halo Studios and Xbox Game Studios, and it's a solid effort that resurrects what feels like a bygone era of single-player shooters. But, only because it copies the genre-defining Halo: Combat Evolved so closely. Why iterate on near-perfection? Yet, the promise of an evolved campaign experience, like Installation 04 itself, rings hollow, and I'm left wondering if playing it safe is really what Xbox should be aiming for with Halo right now. Halo: Campaign Evolved was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher. Halo: Campaign Evolved is one of the best FPS games you can play this year, and if you're interested in the rest of the Halo series, take a look at our list of the best Halo games. [/url]View the full article

There's nothing worse than feverishly awaiting a new release within a popular anime or IP, and that's doubly so for IPs like Dragon Ball and its various iterations, but at least one wait is finally coming to an end. Dragon Ball Z fans are getting treated to something they've been long waiting for on July 30. View the full article

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty: Complete Edition is priced at $59.99. View the full article

After giving fans a first look at the campaign, Microsoft and The Coalition are finally ready to show what Gears View the full article

The next Helldivers 2 Legendary Warbond, this time a collaboration with Warhammer 40,000, is getting a full reveal on July 30. Arrowhead Game Studios tells fans to tune in next week with a short trailer showing nothing but a handgun, a date, and a couple logos. A trailer for an incoming trailer two months after the crossover's announcement trailer, then. "Attention, Helldivers," the developer tweets. "July 30 has been designated as a date of operational significance. Update your calendar accordingly. Further briefing to follow." Attention, Helldivers.July 30 has been designated as a date of operational significance. Update your calendar accordingly. Further briefing to follow. pic.twitter.com/ekfvkBsWFcJuly 23, 2026 Not much is known about the forthcoming Warhammer 40,000 Warbond, but if it follows in the footsteps of the Killzone and Halo collaborations, then we're likely to get some sick cosmetics and cool weapons that would almost fit right into the sci-fi settings of both universes. Squashing legions of juicy bugs and spreading democracy to all corners of the galaxy with the light touch of ultra-violent, ultra-deadly, sometimes fascist soldiers is common ground for both Helldivers and Warhammer, making this a match made in heaven. Here's hoping the Legendary Warbond can live up to its potential. Arrowhead actually had another Warbond planned to release this summer, but the developer needed "more time to cook" and "would rather hold back" than apparently launch something half-baked. The unannounced Warbond doesn't have a new release date yet, though the studio says it'll keep players posted once the package nears completion. Elsewhere in the bug-alien-killing video game world, July 30 is also the same day Gears of War: E-Day plans to show what it has in store for its multiplayer modes. Big day ahead for fans of chainsaw-adjacent weapons and meat-grinding shooters. Helldivers 2 targets Super Credit cheaters with "radically improved" tools, but not everyone's on board with Arrowhead's announcement. [/url]View the full article

Vermila Studios, the team behind Crisol: Theater of Idols, appears to be laying employees off, with the status of the View the full article

Get free stars to spend on boosts and cash to increase spawn rates and hole caps when you redeem these new Merge a ****** Hole codes. Read the full story on PCGamesN: Merge a ****** Hole codes (July 2026) View the full article

Helldivers 2 will reveal its hotly anticipated Warhammer 40,000 crossover on July 30, Sony has announced. But in the meantime, we have confirmation of one weapon that will be included in the Legendary Warbond. The brief teaser video, below, shows a Bolt Pistol, lifted straight from the Warhammer 40,000 armory. Bolt Pistols are used by many different factions and units in Games Workshop’s grimdark far future setting, but it’s particularly fitting in the hands of an Astra Militarum (formerly the Imperial Guard) soldier. Attention, Helldivers. July 30 has been designated as a date of operational significance. Update your calendar accordingly. Further briefing to follow. [Hidden Content] — HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) July 23, 2026 Even before the Warhammer 40,000 crossover was announced, fans had spoken about how it would be the perfect fit for Helldivers 2, which sees groups of four soldiers essentially play the role of cannon fodder in the endless galactic war against horrible alien monsters. You can quite easily equate Helldivers’ alien bug race, the Terminids, to Warhammer 40,000’s Tyranids, for example. The Automatons aren’t a million miles away from the mindless mechanical Necrons, either. Warhammer 40,000 is something Arrowhead is often asked about in interviews, and by that I mean that I have asked the team about it in interviews because I love this stuff. In April last year, I asked Alex Bolle, production director on Helldivers 2, about a potential Warhammer 40,000 collab, and he said there was discussions being had. "Obviously Warhammer 40,000 is something that a lot of guys internally love to death," he said at the time. "So the devs are discussing, the devs are proposing stuff, and the hype is building. So these are discussions internally that we are having. Warhammer 40,000, I can't really tell you. Maybe. Who knows? We'll see!" Indeed, in 2024, Arrowhead's Johan Pilestedt published an extended list of IPs he “really would love to do a take on," and Warhammer 40,000 was right up there alongside the likes of Aliens, Starship Troopers, and Terminator. As for what the Helldivers 2 x Warhammer 40,000 Warbond will include, after the Bolt Pistol reveal we can speculate about what else we’ll see. A Chainsword seems like a safe bet, as does the Astra Militarum’s iconic Lasgun. A Boltgun, however, might be a step too far for Helldivers 2 — it’s usually used by the genetically enhanced super soldiers known as the Space Marines, although there are versions of the Boltgun that can be used by standard humans. As for armor, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cadian-style Kasrkin and Scion armor sets for the soldiers of Super Earth. Cadia is one of the most famous planets in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, and its people some of the toughest in the Emperor’s human army. Cadia is no more (that’s a whole thing all its own), but its people live on, as do their wargear. We’ll find out on July 30. 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

Until I played Warframe, the MMO had always been a hard sell for me. The constant updates and endless narrative expansions as seen in World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 intimidate like nothing else in the video game world. I almost always crave the comfort of knowing I'm progressing towards a logical end point – at least when it comes to story-driven games – and the best MMOs, as a rule, seek to go on for eternity. So despite my efforts, games like ****** Desert Online, Fallout 76, and Genshin Impact lose me soon after I start, simply because I can't accept the potentially limitless experiences on offer. How am I supposed to feel satisfied with my progress if there's no end destination? Well, one game recently changed my mind. Never too late to try again (Image credit: Digital Extremes) I first tried Warframe over a decade ago on Xbox One but quickly bounced off it. This was a different time in my life, before I could appreciate single-player live service games like Diablo 4 and arguably Fortnite. Even the original Destiny didn't hold my attention, so maybe it was a sci-fi thing? No, that wasn't it – what futuristic FPS could compare to Titanfall back in the day? Or now, for that matter? But when I went to TennoCon earlier this month, I saw Digital Extremes' long-running epic in a whole new light. The game's community is held in high regard, and it was almost immediately clear as to why. The fans attending the convention were enthusiastic, friendly and generous, praising cosplays and handing out stickers in the name of Warframe and Soulframe, the latter being Digital Extremes' latest work currently in early access on PC only. As I breathed in the atmosphere, I knew I had to try Warframe again – so I installed the free-to-play title on my Xbox Series X when I got home and jumped in. I chose my first playable biomech warframe (Volt, if you're curious), and began exploring the numerous planets, enemies and loot all crying out for my undivided attention. (War)frame of Mindhttps://content.jwplatform.com/players/uEKkF8UT.html Unlike many of the new games I've been playing in recent years, Warframe is 100% a power fantasy. Right out of the gate, I was blasting foes to bits with firearms, cleaving through them with blades, and electrocuting them with my warframe's unique abilities. It all felt wonderful. There was no immediate challenge like Elden Ring, or intrinsic sense of vulnerability like Resident Evil Requiem (the Grace sections, anyway). This isn't to say I don't enjoy FromSoftware and Capcom games – because I do – but the change of pace is refreshing in 2026. Digital Extremes Digital Extremes Digital Extremes Digital Extremes As for the all-important narrative element that usually leaves me frustrated in an MMO, I was saved from my usual despair by simply not knowing what was happening. This tracked with what creative director Rebb Ford told GamesRadar+ when we interviewed her recently: "You will have no idea what's going on, and that's okay," she said with a smile, and she was right on the money. Luckily for me, the old adage of 'ignorance is bliss' rang true, because I was having too much fun dishing out damage to care who or what a Tenno was. So why couldn't I stop worrying and learn how to love the MMO before? In truth, I don't entirely know, but the satisfyingly slick combat and traversal of Warframe certainly plays a part. Each time I begin a mission, I hurl my warframe head-first into the mayhem, shooting, slicing and ability-ing my way through the enemy hordes without a care for why I'm doing it. Yes, I have the guiding voice of Lotus, the game's matriarchal figure (and voiced by Rebb Ford), for support, but I don't pay too much mind to the why, merely the what.. And yet, my mind wanders from time to time. I think about Lotus, Teshin, and the other NPCs I've made contact with in Digital Extremes' universe, and I want to know their histories, motivations, hopes, and everything else about them. The thing is, I'm in no rush. Warframe has enough content to keep players occupied for a long time – between 114 and 1,556 hours according to How Long to Beat – so I'll find the answers when I'm ready. My newfound appreciation for Warframe has doubled my excitement for action-RPG Soulframe, which I had the pleasure of dabbling in a few years back as part of an Alpha test. Now knowing what the developer is capable of in terms of gameplay and longevity, I can't wait to see it grow over (hopefully) a similar timeframe – only now, I intend to be there from launch day. And if I do end up taking a decade to fully commit to Soulframe, its predecessor (and creative director) has reassured me that it's okay to be late to the sci-fi party after all. Related Stories: Warframe lead Rebecca Ford says Destiny 2's death is "horrible news" for everyone: "Not the first time it's happened, and it'll happen again" After Destiny 2's death, Warframe head's advice for anyone in live services is to "make a good game before they kick you out" All available Warframe codes for July 2026 to unlock free boosters, glyphs, decorations, and more [/url]View the full article

Human ingenuity is a powerful—sometimes terrifying—thing. Throughout history, no matter how basic the tools available to us, we have always found a way to build the weird obsessions that appear in our minds. You know, like Stonehenge, or the Pyramids, or Doom (1993)... Read more.View the full article

A former Disney CEO can only barely remember the name Kingdom Hearts, and he definitely can't recall what made him give Square Enix's (or SquareSoft at the time) pitch the thumbs up. Kingdom Hearts' entire existence already seemed like an impossible Disney miracle come true. Some of the company's biggest mascots, Mickey Mouse included, being deeply involved in a nonsensical JRPG's twisty storyline for over two decades, while crossing over with Final Fantasy characters, I might add, doesn't sound like it would've made Disney loosen its usually tight grip on its IP. (This preceded Fortnite's bonkers crossovers, mind you.) Trying to get to the bottom of what turned Square Enix's wish upon a star into a long-running video game franchise, The Game File's Stephen Totilo managed to get a hold of Michael Eisner, the man who ran The Walt Disney Company for over 20 years. According to the outlet, Eisner apparently didn't remember Kingdom Hearts at all until it was referred to as the "Final Fantasy plus Disney characters" project. "Oh, I remember now," he then says. Asked if he recalls why he green-lit the first game, he simply says, "I don't." Ouch. As the story goes, famed character designer Tetsuya Nomura and producer Shinji Hashimoto were early in development on a game that would try to emulate the free-flowing movement of Super Mario 64. When Hashimoto found himself in an elevator with a Disney executive, conversations about what eventually became Kingdom Hearts began in earnest. Finding out what convinced Disney to relent and have its most iconic characters fight darkness alongside an anime protag wearing clown shoes and a key-shaped sword would've been fascinating, but Eisner likely signed off on many deals during his tenure, so all is forgiven here. Even well before Fortnite, Disney wasn't a total stranger to wacky video game ideas, either, between Disney Infinity and Epic Mickey. Kingdom Hearts has had a life of its own many years after Eisner's departure, too. Kingdom Heart 4 is up next, with a "deep dive" into the series also scheduled for next month's D23 event. Canceled Kingdom Hearts spin-off's intro apparently leaks online and not even veteran fans understand what's going on: "Why does it look like Pacific Rim but with Keyblades" [/url]View the full article

Following a recent update to Assassin’s Creed ****** Flag Resynced, fans noticed that a popular feature was no longer working as it was previously. Despite being one of the worst kept gaming industry secrets earlier in 2026, it didn't manage to dampen any of the excitement from fans as Assassin’s Creed ****** Flag Resynced has quickly become a major hit for Ubisoft. View the full article

Call of Duty has just announced that some big changes are on the way for Call of Duty: ****** Ops 7's matchmaking, and it's possible that those changes will make their way to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 as well. It's not currently clear how ****** Ops 7's matchmaking is changing exactly, but the "new system" is said to be inspired by those found in classic Call of Duty games. View the full article

Independent developer Yangyang Mobile has announced the release of High Times, a dating and cooking simulator which is now available on PC, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch & Nintendo Switch 2. Featuring a hand-drawn comic-book art style, High Times puts players in the shoes of a customizable protagonist managing a quirky, high-stakes café. But according to the press release, this isn’t a typical restaurant management game: the food you prepare can directly alter your customers’ emotions, moods, and desires. In High Times, players must “master a fast-paced, multi-layered cooking mechanic to prepare unique comfort foods and avant-garde dishes tailored to a diverse cast of local regulars”. Every ingredient chosen impacts the emotional state of the character eating it, giving players the power to mend broken hearts, calm stressed minds, or spark unexpected creative genius. [Hidden Content] High Times features a branching, dialogue-driven narrative with multiple romanceable characters, each with their own distinct storylines, personal struggles, and secrets. Players will have to make critical choices that lead to drastically different narrative conclusions. The press release confirms the game’s key features below: Donut Therapy: Pay close attention to your customers’ stories to cook the perfect mood-altering treat. The right ingredients at the right time can solve even the most complex emotional problems.Cafe Progression: Grow your business by creating and evolving recipes. Earn tips to purchase more than 100 store decorations, and unlock advanced tools to tackle more elaborate culinary challenges.Relationships with Consequences: Discover the stories of 30+ diverse customers. Six of these characters are romanceable, allowing you to use “donut woo” to win their hearts. With multiple endings per customer, your choices lead to genuinely different outcomes.Premium Visual Novel Presentation: Experience a rich, immersive world featuring a full English voice cast, a catchy theme song, an original soundtrack and fully animated cutscenes. Yangyang Mobile is an indie game studio based in the Philippines. Founded by couple John and Danni Pineda, in 2015, they’ve focused on narrative games. Previously, they’ve released four titles, including The Letter and Love Esquire. Devoted to diversity, nearly half the studio are women and/or members of the LGBTQIA community. The post Yangyang Mobile releases High Times, a dating and cooking sim appeared first on GamesBeat. View the full article

Lead developers of Castlevania: Belmont's Curse have spoken about the process that led to the creation of Rose Belmont, the game's protagonist. Initially, they didn't have a specific gender for the protagonist in mind, but after developing the story, they wanted to base it around the strong bonds between mother and daughter. In an interview with Famitsu, as translated by GamesRadar+, director Yukiko Hokao explains how the process of developing Belmont's Curse began without a specific protagonist in mind. "At the start we hadn't decided that the protagonist would be a woman," she says. "While we were building the world and the story, we thought the role would best suit a woman, and it was decided that it should be Trevor Belmont's daughter." She goes on to explain how the original concept for the game had the protagonist's mother die before the beginning of the game. After discussing the game's world with Motion Twin and Evil Empire, it was agreed upon that the main character should be a woman. Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi expresses how the game's world didn't feel right for a male protagonist. "For example, if this story featured a male protagonist, we'd have to consider the type of world depicted, and I think that could be cool," he says. "However, for this story, it was naturally decided that a female protagonist would be the best fit." Creative director Emmanuel Nouaille further explains how the protagonist's gender fits into the game's themes. "Particularly, considering her mother Sypha's curse would be inherited by her daughter, there's a bond between parent and child," he says. "There is a strong connection between the two, and it gives her a clear motivation to avenge her mother's death and face her cruel fate. From this, the protagonist became Rose Belmont, and the role was best suited for a woman." Castlevania: Belmont's Curse wants you to find the "joy" in the difficulty and it won't be "simple or easy": "That's not Castlevania." [/url]View the full article

I really wanted to like Agefield High: Rock the School. It wasn’t shy about wearing its Bully influences on its letterman jacket, and Rockstar sure doesn’t seem interested in a sequel. But six missions in, I think I’m ready to drop out of Agefield High. Bathed in hollow early-aughts nostalgia, it feels like the adolescent hallucination of someone who’s never set foot inside of a suburban American high school. Its faux-punk, juvenile tone felt more like a sauceless ChatGPT redux of American Pie-era comedies filtered through a No More Heroes sidequest than a cheeky, Rockstar-style lampooning of Anytown, USA. I’ve biked from corner to corner of Agefield, delivering food, fighting bullies, maintaining my GPA, and learning to fit in with my fellow rejects. And after dabbling in as much main and side content as possible, I’m struggling to find anything redeemable about this game beyond a gag. The stuff I saw was unpolished, uninspired, and flat. I don’t see the big-picture stuff improving, even if Agefield High’s rougher edges – namely its buggy gameplay and wonky physics – get sanded down before its rapidly approaching August release date. Groundhog Day Agefield feels like it’s about to bubble over with appropriate angst. Adults are stuck in dead-end jobs and loveless marriages, teachers don’t know what they’re doing, the elderly are constantly complaining about “kids these days,” and everyone at your school is shaking the bars of their fluorescent-lit enclosure, ready to get on with life. But compared to some of my favorite coming-of-age comedies, it’s all skin-deep. It doesn’t engage with culture, time, or place in a way that measures up to the movies it’s borrowing from. I was two years old in 2002 and even I can tell you this is a hollow knock-off. I’d feel insane too if I lived in a town the size of four city blocks and heard the same few lines of dialogue everywhere I go. I didn’t keep a strict count, but I think most kinds of NPCs (divided by age and sex) each got about five lines. Some characters like your mom, the school bully, or specific teachers get their own. I swear I’d heard them all within an hour. I think I’ll lose my mind if I hear another “[sound up]” “[sound up],” or “[sound up].” Are We on SNL? That should give you a good understanding of the kind of script Refugium Games are working with. Its derivative ideas and un-cartoonish caricatures offer nothing to set this specific shade of grey apart; each cutscene will leave you sighing and rolling your eyes at its parade of cliches. And what is memorable or noteworthy is bad. At the very least, sometimes it’s funny-bad. This is all made worse by Agefield High’s dogged attempts to undermine each cutscene with uncanny valley characters, whose faces and mouths move and change just enough to be unsettling, but not nearly enough to be taken seriously. Naturally, this is all framed with some of the worst cutscene camera choices I’ve ever seen in a video game. Nearly every cutscene or mission will start with a close-up of a character’s face that lasts seconds longer than it needs to – every time. And every time, they just stand there, staring blankly, often directly into the camera. It’s hilarious, just not for the reasons the writers want. Nice Bike I could forgive poor tone or a bad script for some fun gameplay, but Agefield High cast no such lifeline. I spent most of my time with the demo biking around town. Sometimes I was running from a bully or racing against a clock; other times I was meeting up with my friends in the park. You can do tricks on the bike you earn early on in the game, but I was never really encouraged to take advantage of them aside from a few ramps scattered around town. There’s also a skate park close to the center of town, so I have a feeling the final version of Agefield might lean more into that. If there’s anything redeemable in the chunk I played, it’s this. The cycling isn’t necessarily amazing, but it’s really the only part of the demo that felt right. Crashes even end with that goofy, GTA-like ragdoll, just with wonkier physics. But every once in a while, failing a mission or getting knocked out would respawn the bike in a place that softlocked me from completing the mission. Luckily, Agefield is filthy with bikes you can pick up should your bike spawn in a bad spot. Solid (Garter) Snake When you’re not hell on wheels, chances are you’re sneaking around somewhere you shouldn’t be. Most missions ended with some kind of stealth, in fact. This kind of teen comedy almost begs for some stealth-comedy with its panty raids and teachers’ lounge burglary. Unfortunately, these sections aren’t very polished. There’s always an indicator somewhere on-screen telling you when you’re visible, but I swear I’ve been seen while outside of the clearly broadcast vision cones on your HUD, sometimes even through a wall or on another floor. It’s just frustrating how fast-and-loose this stuff felt. Thankfully, these sections are all pretty short, so slipping up – or getting caught by someone with X-Ray Vision – won’t set you back too much. But sometimes you’ll get caught and need to fight back. This is by far the most egregious part of the gameplay, and also the most frustrating. The fights I played all went the same way: throw punches while locked onto your target, block a few blows, push your enemy to break their guard, kick a few times, and hope that everything connects. While there is a lock-on, there’s no tracking, so each attack is disjointed from every other action, including movement. So you stop moving while punching or pushing. This breaks any momentum or link between attacks you throw out, causing a lot of punches to whiff even though they look like they’d connect. It’s kind of a miracle of physics that the punches are weightless and the movement is heavy. Study Hall Your misadventures contend with a rigorous academic schedule that’s lined up with an in-game clock. English, *******, Geography, Math, and Music classes all come with a minigame to complete, each ending with a letter grade based on your performance that determines how much of your allowance you actually make. All of them, except for music, are the exact same multiple choice quiz just with ******* vocab swapped out for identifying countries on a map or filling in missing letters in a word on a spelling quiz. The minigame for music class, which also gets used in one of the last missions of the demo, is a shoddy Guitar Hero-like rhythm game whose inputs don’t hit with any oomph and generally feel offbeat. You don’t need to attend class, but missing classes will make it harder for you to earn an allowance, thus giving you less money to spend on new clothes, a haircut, or a snack from the hot dog cart. The tutorial even suggested that you might get the attention of the police if you miss enough classes. If you cut class, it’s probably to check out the other side content that’s equally repetitive. I saw two different chore-like missions: a lawnmowing minigame that’s ripped straight from No More Heroes, and a food delivery minigame which is a great way to earn some extra in-game cash. There are also some one-off sidequests that take you to new parts of town, but they follow the same structure as the main stuff. Grimacing-Face Emoji Every inch of Agefield feels grey, flavorless, and flat in a way that makes me wonder if AI was used. That’s not an accusation, to be clear, but it’s at the very least an indictment of what’s being presented. There’s no sense of originality or style like in the games and movies it’s so clearly ripping off. It doesn’t help that some characters bear uncomfortably close resemblance to real-life people, like the old man in town named Clint who will look familiar to any fan of Westerns. I could see this attaining cult status… but probably more like The Room or Book of Henry than Superbad or Napoleon Dynamite. A lot of the mechanical wonkiness could potentially be fixed or built upon, but probably not in time for launch, as this game is out next month. I just don’t see its feeble skeleton of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing-level references and unbearably bad writing improving in any meaningful way over the remaining handful of missions. I could see this attaining cult status… but probably more like The Room or Book of Henry than Superbad or Napoleon Dynamite. I have a feeling that fans of the long-sidelined Bully franchise who hoped Agefield High would recapture even a little bit of that classic’s magic will be thoroughly disappointed when Agefield High: Rock The School releases on August 12. Charlie is a freelance contributor for IGN. You can reach them via Twitter or Instagram at the handle @chas_mke. View the full article

Amazon has announced that its cloud gaming platform, Luna, is now available on Prime Video — as long as you’re in the U.S. or *** and are using the streaming service on a Fire TV. The rollout is part of a wider push from the corporation to get the games that Luna offers into as many hands as possible. Luna is included with Prime at no additional cost, and there’s nothing to download or purchase to start playing. Amazon said Prime members can find games the same way they discover everything else on Prime Video, just by looking for the new “Games” tab and starting playing in seconds on your TV, using a controller or your phone. On Luna, Prime members get access to a library of games that includes Hogwarts Legacy, EA Sports FC 26, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, as well as party games like Clue, Ticket to Ride, and Taboo. Amazon said it plans to add new games ever month. "For a lot of people, games have been harder to find than they should be,” said Jeff Gattis, GM of Gaming at Amazon. “Bringing Luna inside Prime Video allows Prime members to discover games more naturally, and if they see one they like, they click it, and they’re in. That’s less time searching and more time playing great games included with their Prime membership.” More details on “additional devices, countries, and games in the months ahead” will be revealed in the future. IGN spoke to Gattis about this new approach for Luna, cloud gaming in general, and in particular, why both have struggled to gain a widespread audience over the years. Amazon with Luna, Google with Stadia, and Microsoft with Xbox Cloud Gaming have all tried and failed to achieve breakout success. “I was at Xbox when we were pushing out X Cloud,” Gattis said. “I think part of the problem is cloud gaming was sort of positioned at core gamers as you don't need a console. There were marketing campaigns around no console required. And in many ways I think that the core gamer who's invested in a console, who's invested in a $3,000 graphics card, not only is committed to that hardware, they love that hardware. They love that fidelity. "So I think part of it was a product market fit problem where we were marketing clouds, and I mean collectively as an industry, at the wrong people, whereas I think there is a much broader audience that will probably never own a console or never own a game PC and never get a chance to play a lot of these games. That's where I believe in the cloud.” Not only does Gattis now think that the right audience is being catered to with cloud gaming, but that the tech has caught up with the ambitions of the platforms. “The technology's only getting better,” he insisted. “Several years ago, you would notice latency in certain people’s connections, and you just weren't getting the fidelity that you needed. A lot of that has been removed. So now it's almost like you have to rebuild trust in people who had a bad cloud experience five years ago.” In terms of Luna, specifically, Gattis believes its current level of popularity is down to how it was positioned when it first arrived on the scene. “I'd say Luna in some ways was trying to compete at the high end of the market with the notion that cloud gaming is just magically going to happen,” he said. “And when it does, everybody's going to come to Luna and start turning in their consoles and their PCs,” he continued. “That hasn't happened yet. I'd argue if that does happen, they're not automatically going to jump ship from Xbox and PlayStation's team. “That market is extremely well served. One might even argue it's overserved today where they're all just competing for the same customers, same players; the pie's not really growing. Let's not compete. They can have that at least for now. But what we saw was a broader opportunity where Amazon, we think, can add real value. 3 billion people in the world play games; only about 500 million own consoles and PCs. So we have a lot of people out there that actually like to play video games, but aren't playing in the highest fidelity setting, aren't playing in a living room on a big TV or on a PC monitor. "We've taken all these games that were previously in a premium subscription with Luna, and we've taken most of them and pushed them all into our standard tier of Luna, which effectively is a Prime benefit. So there's literally close to 100 games in Prime right now that if we're one of the 100 million Prime members worldwide, we have access to all of this. So part of our big challenge is, how do we actually let people know they have this benefit?” Gattis explained how Luna’s integration into Prime Video will, in theory, aid discoverability: “You launch Prime Video to watch your favorite show, there'll be a games tab right on the top, and that's all the Luna content that you're entitled to be there for you. And so that's a first step in terms of just driving more awareness, and hundreds of millions of people use that app and watch video there." “And so you can imagine this future where you're going to go to a page, say in Prime Video, and instead of it just being a bunch of things you can click on and play, it's almost a fandom type page," he continued. "If you're a fan of Tomb Raider, here's the show, here's the TV show, here's the game, here's past games, here's a Twitch feed, here's merchandise you can go buy on Amazon.com. So I think that's the vision for us where you start to bring all these things together and think more of general entertainment as opposed to video games being this entirely separate thing from other views.” This synergy between Amazon’s video game, movie, and TV show output is something Gattis clearly sees as a big part of turning Luna into a success story. “I fundamentally believe you're seeing a continued intersection between TV video and video games, interactive entertainment,” he said. “So I really think of the future, you'll see every TV or movie is going to have a video game story attached to it, whether that's a AAA game or just some sort of extension of the experience. I think it's going to be just part of how films and TV IPs go to market. And so for us, we want to take advantage of that. So you'll see us invest a lot more in making things alongside MGM properties or other Prime Video shows. Obviously Tomb Raider is coming out next year, there will be a Tomb Raider TV show on Prime Video.” Amazon highlighted the Masters of the Universe film, which is now streaming on Prime Video, and how you can now play co-op card battler Masters of the Universe: Legends Unite all from the same subscription. "See the movie, then play in its world, same screen, same night, same membership," Amazon said. Another example, per Amazon, is its AI party game, Courtroom Chaos: Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, where you argue absurd cases in front of Arnold as the judge. Later this year Schwarzenegger will appear in Prime Video holiday movie, The Man with the Bag. "Watch him one night, play against him the next," Amazon said. Only time will tell if Amazon’s new approach to Luna will buck the cloud gaming trend and build a big enough player base to be considered a true success. Getting it in front of many more eyes is a logical first step, of course, so let’s see if Prime Video holds the key to unlocking the platform for millions. Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social. View the full article

With over 2000 blocks of altitude, six weapon types, three enemy factions and interesting world generation, Everwind is the procedural RPG sandbox I always wanted modded Minecraft to be. I’m sure someone could make a Minecraft mod that is very similar to Everwind, but it’d still be Minecraft underneath. Everwind has the benefit of having […]View the full article

Transformers has seen several adaptations over the years, spanning just about every form of media imaginable, but longtime fans will argue that nothing compares to the original G1 animated series from 1984. While Beast Wars is often regarded as one of the franchise's finest and most influential series thanks to its groundbreaking storytelling, and the more modern Transformers: Prime earned widespread praise in its own right, nothing taps into the nostalgia quite like the original cartoon, which introduced Optimus Prime, Megatron, and the Autobots' war against the Decepticons to a generation of fans. View the full article

Good news everyone, I now have a Steam Machine in the GamingOnLinux house and I have some initial thoughts. Read the full article here: [Hidden Content] View the full article

The latest Xbox Game Pass library update brought Hell is Us, which is now available on three tiers of the service. Its arrival marks the 12th addition to Xbox Game Pass in July 2026, with three more titles scheduled to join before the end of the month. View the full article

The Gameplay Group and PM Studios release a new message to the Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game community, providing an update to the Nintendo Switch 2 version as well as an unfortunate last-minute delay for the Xbox Series X platform. Alongside the launch of a full-length movie, the Avatar franchise continues to grow with a brand-new video game called Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game. View the full article

A D&DBeyond blog post reveals the final form of Arcana Unleashed's eight new subclasses. Wizards of the Coast hasn't given us the full rules rundown, but the summaries highlight more than a few changes since playtesting. Generally, it seems like these D&D character options were granted a last-minute buff. Read the full story on Wargamer: D&D reveals last-minute buffs to new Arcana Unleashed subclasses View the full article

Japanese brand Taito is releasing one of the strangest mice I've ever laid my eyes on that's officially licensed for anime fans: the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood PC Mouse. As discovered by Siliconera, this new mouse doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the best gaming mice and is a simple plug-and-play wired rodent, but instead, Taito has put all of its focus on recreating the iconic cursed item, down to its haunting illuminating eyes and stone-textured face. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of thing you can just walk into any old tech store and pick up, but an exclusive Japanese arcade prize item. Yet, I can only hope that anime fans alike can still find a way to get their hands on this official piece of JoJo tech - I just hope there's no vampirism side effects that come with it. (Image credit: Hobby Genki/Future) While it's always disappointing to see neat pieces of tech like this remain prize figures that require a costly trip to Japan to find, it might not all be doom and gloom. Jenni Lada at Siliconera pointed out that there are listings for it across some retailers, including at Hobby Genki, which states it will be available on July 31, 2026. Though there is a massive "out of stock" banner across the photo too. It's also not entirely impossible to get your hands on Taito prizes and other merch that's typically reserved for prize machines in Japan. Personally, I regularly use online stores like Surugaya to import items like it that would otherwise be out of my reach. However, with stores like it, you do have to be okay with accepting that you'll be getting a second-hand item, rather than a brand-spanking new gaming mouse for your PC. If you're a hardcore JoJo fan though, I imagine that won't stop you. I've only watched the first few series' of the anime, and even I'm contemplating adding this mouse to my setup as I'm infatuated with the fact that it's not just got official JoJo art printed across like MSI's Frieren Beyond Journey's End accessories. Instead, the entirety of the surface of this mouse recreates the various nooks and crannies of the mask's surface. (Image credit: eBay/Future) The Hobby Genki description describes the mouse as "highly ergonomic" but I'm not entirely sure it'd be all that comfortable to actually use. Though who knows, maybe having a nose poking into the palm of your hand would actually be pretty comfortable? As a heads up to fellow anime enjoyers, this isn't the first time an iconic piece of anime history has been transformed into a mouse. Shuichi Shigeno's well-known Initial D series (which you may know more from its memes if you aren't an anime fan of a certain age like me) has resulted in a series of bizarre mice of its own. Rather than being based on a mask, naturally, these are based on the iconic cars used in the series, and can regularly be found on the likes of eBay. They're not cheap by any means, and you can expect to pay $124.80 (eBay) for the privilege of having your mouse shaped like a Toyota AE86 car. But it's got Bluetooth connectivity over Taito's wired Stone Mask mouse, and the *********** even pop up and actually light up. It doesn't get any more anime than that. View all anime PC gaming accessories at Amazon Our team has rounded up the best gaming keyboards, the best gaming headsets, and the best gaming chairs if you want to give your setup a boost. [/url]View the full article

The update brings in support for the Switch 2 Edition with pre-loading now live. View the full article