Steam

Had I not known in advance that I was going to be playing Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree at Play Days last weekend, I might have overlooked its trailer during Summer Game Fest. The announcement itself was less than two minutes long, and what we saw mostly looked like Hades, but with character selection. However, after playing 15 minutes of the game at Play Days, I'm far more interested than I initially expected to be in Towa's take on the roguelite genre...though I'm going to need waaay more than 15 minutes to get good at it. Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree stars Towa, the guardian of Shinju Village and a child of the gods. When a dark god begins consuming the land around Shinju with an evil miasma, Towa rallies eight villagers to fight back. These "Prayer Children" head out into the field, two at a time, to fight against the minions of darkness, with one taking on the role of "Tsurugi", or sword, and the other taking on the supportive staff role, or "Kagura." At the start of each run, you pick which of the eight characters you want in each role, with all characters having different abilities depending on which role they took on. In my preview, I selected the solumn Rekka as my sword, who attacks with short, quick slashes and a lingering spin attack. My staff was Nishiki, a Koi-inspired fish person who can summon lightning orbs to surround the player and shoot a wave of water in any direction. At the start of each run, you pick which of the eight characters you want in each role. Immediately, I struggled a bit to adapt to the twin-stick controls. Nishiki automatically followed Rekka, who I controlled with the left stick, but it was clear that for optimal play I needed to break Nishiki free of Rekka and run him around with the right stick simultaneously as I fought enemies. Easier said than done. I think this is a really interesting twist on what I'm used to for top-down games, almost reminiscent of the original The World Ends With You having you control two characters on two different screens. But I do think I needed more than 15 minutes in a demo to get used to it. Apparently, you can also play Towa in co-op, with one person controlling each character, and that's an appealing prospect, too. A second unique element that I really, really wanted more time to master was Quick Draw. In Towa, your sword wielder carries not one, but two swords, but only has one equipped at a time. Each sword has a different ability, with Rekka having her short slashes attached to one and her chargeable spin attack on the other. As you use one sword, it begins to dull until it's unusable, and you have to use a Quick Draw ability to swap to the other one so the first can recharge. Successful combat in Towa revolves around smoothly swapping between the two swords so you're never caught in a situation where you need one attack ready, but have a dull blade and are stuck with an inefficient ability. It's a cool system in principle, certainly a unique one, and I'm curious as to how it will play out at higher skill levels. Everything else I saw in Towa will be familiar to your average Hades-lover. Everything else I saw in Towa will be familiar to your average Hades-lover. You'll clear all the monsters in a room, and get a choice of a "Grace". Graces enhance your power in all sorts of ways, from straight power increases to changing how different abilities work and interact with one another. Doors to the next room may denote enemies or shopkeepers or other room types, and you'll smash stuff as you go to collect currency for upgrades at shops and special ore that can be enhance your characters' abilities when you take it back to the village. My time with Towa was cut short just as I walked into a boss battle, so unfortunately I can't speak to how that would have played out. But this preview absolutely succeeded in making me want to play more. I want to muck around with the different character configurations and see what other upgrades are available, and I want to practice my twin-stick game so my staff user doesn't die on me before I even hit the halfway point (oops). I don't know if Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree can live up to the lofty legacy of Hades necessarily, but I do think it has the potential to carve out a space in the roguelite genre all its own. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate has added EA Sports FC 25 to its content catalog. This is the sixth new title to reach Microsoft's subscribers in June 2025, as well as the 67th Xbox Game Pass release since the turn of the year. View the full article

Metal Gear Online! I'm assuming that's the first thing you thought of when you heard that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is getting an online mode, but I need you to throw that thought in the bin. The MGS3 remake is getting a multiplayer mode, but as shown off in today's Konami Press Start showcase, it'll be its own, original thing called Fox Hunt. Read more View the full article

I love Deus Ex. I love the way it looks, how it plays, the music, the writing. Even its 'imperfections' make it better - JC Denton's stiff facial expressions, the bizarrely-behaving NPCs, and the reading-from-the-page voice acting are all part of the essential Deus Ex aesthetic. Now, 25 years later, the single most brilliant PC game of all time (sorry Doom, sorry Fallout, sorry Command and Conquer) has just gotten better. A transformational new mod expands and overhauls Ion Storm's sci-fi RPG masterwork with fresh mechanics, revised systems, more difficulty options, high-definition visuals, and more-detailed environments. Although it's completely unofficial, this feels like a Deus Ex remaster. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Deus Ex may be the greatest PC game of all time, and now you can own it for free The best old games to play 2025 Deus Ex writer reveals canceled sequel that linked Mankind Divided to DX1 View the full article

Total War Warhammer 3 patch 6.2 is on the way, and developer Creative Assembly is making "extensive revisions" to magic items in the sprawling strategy game. Scheduled for launch next week, the new Total War Warhammer 3 update will also include a first introduction to the recently tested enemy AI improvements, and additional units for the Chaos Dwarfs and Vampire Counts. Senior game designer William Håkestad walks us through the changes in a fresh CA dev blog. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: The next Total War Warhammer 3 DLC is giving Norsca the attention it deserves New Total War Warhammer 3 patch notes buff Kislev and Tzeentch again The next Total War Warhammer 3 DLC finally adds a new Slaanesh legendary lord View the full article

As The Outer Worlds 2 drew attention with its $80 price tag, the game's director stepped in to address the chatter, stating that the studio doesn't set the price for its games. The comment followed the recent Xbox Games Showcase, during which Obsidian offered a closer look at The Outer Worlds 2. Fans got their first introduction to new companion Inez, plus a deeper dive into the game’s three major factions and its familiar focus on choice-driven storytelling. View the full article

MindsEye studio Build a Rocket Boy says it’s “heartbroken” over the buggy experience many launch players have suffered, as PlayStation appears to be issuing refunds to some who are dissatisfied with the game. The Edinburgh-based studio has been scrambling to fix bugs this week, after the internet filled with videos of its single-player action game breaking and distorting in unexpected ways. Build a Rocket Boy and its publisher, IO Interactive, did not supply pre-release review code to the press for MindsEye, but at the time of publishing, its Steam user reviews are around 60% negative. Read More... View the full article

Suikoden Star Leap still doesn't have a release date, howeverView the full article

Patch 1.1.0.13 is here to save the dayView the full article

The game was born from "a desire to create a Silent Hill with 100% essence of Japanese-style horror"View the full article

Some MindsEye players are receiving refunds from the PlayStation Store, despite the fact that it goes against the company's usual policy. MindsEyeis the first title from studio Build a Rocket Boy, but its launch has been somewhat of a disaster due to a huge number of performance issues, bugs, and glitches across all platforms. Players are now comparing the launch to Cyberpunk 2077, which is one of the only other games to be refunded by PlayStation due to its poor optimization on release. View the full article

We recently reported on Stellar Blade‘s forthcoming PC release, but June has arrived and so has the PC port of the ... Read more View the full article

Build a Rocket Boy developers were apparently working "tirelessly throughout the night"View the full article

The plan has not worked out perfectlyView the full article

Go back to where it all beganView the full article

Xbox is giving away free codes for the upcoming Gears of War: Reloaded a full two months before the game is even set to launch. Gears of War: Reloaded is a remastered version of the original Gears of War game with enhancements to better take advantage of modern hardware. Notably, Gears of War: Reloaded will also mark the third-person shooter franchise's debut on PlayStation consoles. View the full article

In a world where horror games are a dime a dozen, Still Wakes the Deep managed to rise above the tides. Perhaps I'm slightly biased - I am Scottish, after all - but The ******** Room's eerie oil rig-set misadventure had its hooks in me from start to finish. As someone who's far too excited about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, The ******** Room's most recent outing proved that they can make truly great videogames and, quite honestly, sparked some hope that Bloodlines 2 can be the horror epic I'm hoping for. But, ahead of the vampire RPG's release, Still Wakes the Deep is getting a new DLC, aptly entitled Siren's Rest. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Still Wakes the Deep release date, trailers, gameplay, and latest news Still Wakes the Deep review - low on scares, big on heart Still Wakes the Deep fixes the worst feature in modern gaming View the full article

MindsEye’s troubled launch has continued with reports that the developer is canceling sponsored streams last minute, and some players are securing refunds. The developer has now issued a statement, saying it is "heartbroken" over the game's difficulties. Build A Rocket Boy’s debut title came out on June 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. On Valve’s platform, it currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating, with most of the complaints revolving around performance issues, bugs and glitches, broken AI, and game crashes. Some players have reported gaining refunds — even from the notoriously stubborn Sony — rekindling memories of Cyberpunk 2077’s disastrous launch back in 2020. CD Projekt's game was eventually pulled from ***** on the PlayStation Store, but there is no indication yet that MindsEye will suffer a similar fate. PlayStation is allowing refunds for MindsEye [Hidden Content] [Hidden Content] — Wario64 (@Wario64) June 12, 2025 Meanwhile, streamers are saying they received requests to postpone their sponsored MindsEye livestreams, some last minute. As spotted by Kotaku's Ethan Gach, popular streamer CohhCarnage revealed this happened to him just as he was about to begin a sponsored MindsEye livestream: MindsEye dev canceled Twitch streamer CohhCarnage's playthrough of the game seconds before it was supposed to start. He said it was the first time that had ever happened in his streaming career. [Hidden Content] — AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) June 11, 2025 “For the first time in my streaming career, I changed my title for a sponsored stream, I put in a profile button, I put in the command, that was at eight o'clock sharp — my sponsored stream was supposed to start at eight — I opened up MindsEye, and as it was loading, my management contacted me and said, ‘The sponsor does not want to do this right now, they would like to reschedule.’ And I said, ‘Oh, that’s a first.’ So the sponsor decided not to do the sponsorship for now, and honestly, it sounds like for MindsEye that was the right decision.” Another streamer, DarkViperAU, couldn't even make it through their sponsored MindsEye livestream without breaking down in tears of laughter. Sponsored MindsEye streamer can't keep it together when telling viewers where they can buy the game. [Hidden Content] — AmericanTruckSongs9 (@ethangach) June 11, 2025 In response to the chaos of the past 24 hours, Build A Rocket Boy issued a statement on its Discord, addressing MindsEye’s community and the game's various issues. “We are heartbroken that not every player was able to experience the game as we intended,” the statement began. “Our priority is optimizing performance and stability so that every player, across every device, can enjoy an equally high-quality experience. “Our teams have worked tirelessly throughout the night to solve many of these issues, and we have now identified that the vast majority of crashes were caused by a memory leak. This impacted roughly 1 in 10 of our players. We have developed a hotfix that addresses this issue (alongside other issues that our players have highlighted), which we are working hard to deploy as soon as tomorrow on PC and on consoles once it passes certification with PlayStation and Xbox. “We are fully committed to ensuring all our players have a great experience, and we will continue to provide frequent and transparent updates. We will do our best to respond to all your comments and feedback. “Thank you for playing MindsEye. Thank you for your understanding and continued support – it truly means the world to us. We’re grateful and blessed to have you on the journey with us.” Build A Rocket Boy then outlined the hotfix schedule for the coming weeks. By the end of June, it said, players can expect ongoing performance and stability improvements, a rebalanced ‘hard’ difficulty setting, animation fixes, and AI improvements. It remains to be seen whether Build A Rocket Boy can turn MindsEye around following this troubled start. While Steam concurrent player numbers do not paint the whole picture of a game's success, particularly single-player games, they do provide us with an idea of a game's popularity on Steam's platform. On Steam, MindsEye has a peak concurrent player count of 3,302. 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

With Deltarune chapters 3 and 4 out last week, players have been eagerly mining the new episodes for more of Toby Fox's characteristic secrets and mysterious plot threads. In the process, they've found an absolutely fascinating bit of dialogue that's almost impossible to get, as it requires beating all four chapters of Deltarune on PlayStation without earning a single trophy. Warning: While this article won't spoil any of the major plot moments of Deltarune, it will talk in vague terms about some of the more common and low/no-spoiler trophy achievements. If you're someone who doesn't want to know a single piece of information about Deltarune before going in, probably better skip this one! Secret Chapter 4 Credits Text on PS4/PS5 (Trophies) byu/millsbuddy inDeltarune .reddit-embed-wrapper iframe { margin-left: 0 !important; } As shared by Reddit user millsbuddy, there's a special, hidden bit of dialogue that appears in Deltarune Chapter 4's credits sequence if, and only if, the player has completed all four chapters without earning a single trophy. This allegedly checks the player's PSN account, so if you try to get this text, fail by accidentally getting a trophy, delete your file and try again, no luck. You still have the trophy, so it won't appear. This is an even more ridiculous task than it sounds on its face, as some of the achievements are so laughably easy to get that you're almost certainly going to get at least a few by accident just through playing normally. There are achievements for taking damage a certain number of times, for using or equiping items, for getting a Game Over, equipping armor, opening too many treasure chests, interacting with chairs, and a lot more. Some achievements have multiple possible triggers. There are also four achievements simply obtained by completing a chapter, but you can avoid getting those by finding a certain secret item in each chapter that will nullify the achievement. Trophies were added to Deltarune with the addition of Chapters 3 and 4 last week, but they're PlayStation-exclusive. Fox noted in a newsletter that this was because trophies were a requirement to shipping a paid game on PlayStation, and alluded to the challenge of finding this special text in his announcement: "We were required to have TROPHIES! This time, they give rise to a pretty hard-core challenge. But - and PLEASE listen - I make no endorsement that you actually attempt it! Even knowing of its mere existence will only bring you frustration and anguish! Honestly, it may be one of the worst ideas I've ever had. Perhaps no one will even try. Maybe that's for the best after all... I think it will be too late for most of you anyway..." For the vast majority of us who either aren't playing on PlayStation or like retaining our sanity, here's the text that appears when you accompish this. WARNING: If you consider this text a spoiler, don't keep reading below the trailer! INTERESTING. YOU FAILED TO ACHIEVE ANY MARKS. WHAT ARE YOU? "(playername)" I VERY MUCH LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT. This text seems to be spoken by the same voice that addresses the player in the opening of the game and in a few other places, as well as the same voice that speaks in the end credits with a different message if you finish under any other conditions. Fans, of course, have plenty of theories on who this is, but we'll leave that to the community for now. With chapters 3 and 4 finally out, we've reviewed Deltarune so far, giving it a 9/10 and saying that its "incredible story is already bursting with hilarious charm, unforgettable characters, and an iconic soundtrack that make it worth investing your time in," even though its story is only halfway done. Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected]. View the full article

Razer has announced not one, not two but three new controllers under their new Kishi V3 mobile controller family. The lineup includes the Kishi V3, Kishi V3 Pro and Kishi V3 Pro XL. Starting with the Kishi V3 features a full-sized controller but a compact form factor, TMR thumbsticks, dual programmable buttons and works with both Android phones and iPhones via the USB-C connector. It can also be used in wired most on PC, iPads and Android tablets. [Hidden Content] Razer Kishi V3 The Kishi V3 has quiet tactile face buttons, a 4-way D-pad and hall-effect triggers. There’s also a USB-C port with pass-through charging and a 3.5mm audio jack. [Hidden Content] Razer Kishi V3 Pro The Kishi V3 Pro (directly replaces the Kishi Ultra from last year) is a full-sized form factor controller that works with iPad Mini and Android tablets up to 8 inches (or 208.9mm in length). It also adds Sensa HD Haptics (which only works on Android), mech-tactile buttons (instead of quiet tactile), an 8-way D-pad and the thumbsticks have swappable caps. [Hidden Content] Razer Kishi V3 Pro Lastly, there’s the Kishi V3 Pro XL which is a full-sized form-factor controller that can fit tablets that are 10 to 13-inches (or up to 282 mm in length). The V3 Pro XL has the same features as the V3 Pro. [Hidden Content] Razer Kishi V3 Pro XL The Razer Kishi V3 line is available worldwide starting today. The Kishi V3 costs $144.99 CAD ($99.99 USD), the KishiV3 Pro is $219.99 CAD ($149.99 USD) and the Kishi V3 Pro XL is $249.99 CAD ($199.99 USD). The Kishi V3 controllers are available now from Razer’s website. Source: Razer View the full article

Recently announced dino management sequel Jurassic World Evolution 3 already has some system requirements, well in advance of its October 21st release. You can give them a peep on the game’s Steam page, where they’re revealed as a refreshingly light list of relatively attainable cards 'n' chips, with a mere 25GB storage requirement – a welcome bucking of recent trends for 100GB-plus SSD installations and extravagant GPU demands. In less encouraging news, the same Steam page also includes one detail that the Summer Game Fest trailer didn’t mention: Jurassic World Evolution 3 makes use of generative AI, specifically to create "Scientists' avatars" among your park staff. Read more View the full article

A recent rumor suggests that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt could get a new story DLC in 2026. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt released two DLCs almost 10 years ago, which were highly successful, though the game has since remained dormant in terms of new content—so players might want to hold their breath if the rumors prove to be true. View the full article

Well well well, Silent Hill 2 remake developers Bloober Team are working on a remake of the very first Silent Hill in collaboration with publishers Konami. Please give me a few seconds to pat myself furiously on the back for asking Bloober about the prospects of an original Silent Hill remake, way back in August last year. Oracular insight, thy name is Edwin. OK, that's enough patting, my shoulders are starting to hurt. You can watch the teaser trailer now, which surfaced during Konami's Press Start showcase today. Lovely to hear that gut-twisting banjo melody again. Read more View the full article

***** and The Creative Assembly have announced plans to reveal “the next era” of Total War later this year, as part of the franchise’s 25 th anniversary plans. The companies’ celebrations will kick off in August with behind-the-scenes content including retrospective interviews, developer livestreams, multiplayer tournaments, and discounts across series, they said. Then, in early December, The Creative Assembly will hold an Anniversary Showcase video presentation, “unveiling what’s next for the franchise”. Read More... View the full article

He's barely breaking a sweatView the full article