For years, Microsoft has leaned heavily into extensive backward compatibility across multiple generations of Xbox hardware as a major selling point for its consoles. Today, that effort expands past the console ecosystem, making select original Xbox titles officially playable (and purchasable) on Windows PCs for the first time. The appropriately and bluntly named "Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC" program kicks off today with compatibility for BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy. PC players can download each title for $10, but those with Xbox Game Pass subscriptions or existing digital licenses for these games on console will have instant access without an additional purchase (no such luck if you simply stick an original Xbox disc in your PC drive, alas). Playing these older Xbox titles on PC enables some bonus graphical features like Vsync support, anisotropic filtering, enhanced anti-aliasing, and up to 4x resolution scaling of the original SD signal (to 2560x1920). Games are limited to their original frame rates and aspect ratios, though, which means a 30 fps 4:3 image in most cases. Microsoft says this first batch of games should be playable with 11-year-old GTX 950 graphics hardware, but recommends a 2017-era GTX 1070 Ti with 8GB of VRAM for best performance. Read full article Comments View the full article
Valve dropped a one-two punch of Steam updates today, adding new details and functions to the store's wishlist while also simplifying the process of gifting games. Let's start with Steam wishlists. In today's update, Valve added custom wishlist categories, letting users assign tags for "games you saw featured in a cool event, games best played with a controller, or even games you have in mind for someone else." By searching for or selecting for a specific category, you can narrow your wishlist down to games of that type. If you're hankering for a JRPG but can't be asked to comb the 500 wishlisted games that you'll definitely get to one day, just search for JRPGs. Or if I filter by the Metroidvania tag, for instance, I am now forced to reckon with the fact that I have 112 Metroidvanias wishlisted. Thanks, Valve. If I want to, I can even fill an obvious gap in the Steam tag system myself: grappling hook. When you add a game to your wishlist through a store page, you can immediately assign tags to it via a new dropdown. Three default recommended tags were shown to me when I ducked my head into roguelike deckbuilder Forsaken Lands: "Birthday List," "Recommended by Friends," and "Waiting For a *****." Additionally, notifications for wishlisted games can now be tailored to different platforms and categories. So if you want to wishlist a game but don't want to be emailed about it, you can tune it out of your list. Another nice touch is the big, green "Demo Available" button that now appears beside wishlisted games. "You can also be notified when a demo is released for a game in your wishlist," Valve explains. In an added boost to visibility, wishlisted games now display the "microtrailers" seen in some other parts of Steam when you hover over them. (Image credit: Team Cherry) The biggest news may be that your Steam wishlist can now be shared by category or through a multi-filtered view. "You can already share a link to your wishlist, now you can share a link to a specific category on your wishlist, or even a filtered view of your wishlist," Valve says. "For example: you might want to share 'My Birthday List' with your family," Valve reckons. "From that shared link, your family can gift games directly to you, even if they don't have a Steam account..." This leads us to the Steam gifting changes, which have seen Valve erode a few barriers. Here's the big one: "Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam," not just digital gift cards and Steam hardware. And lo, the skies did part at these heavenly words: "You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts." Similar streamlining has come to cross-region gifting, which no longer requires digital gift cards perfectly calculated to regional pricing. Instead, "now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend's region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift." "You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves," Valve adds. "If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead." Gifting to email will send recipients a link that they can use to log in and claim a game (within 30 days) to their Steam account, and Valve says that if someone gifts directly from your shared wishlist, "the gift recipient in the cart will be pre-populated with your information." Amusingly, Valve demonstrates these changes with two screenshots showing someone buying Hollow Knight: Silksong, developer Team Cherry'****** Metroidvania sequel, for a non-Steam friend and signing the gift, "Happy Birthday! This game rules." It's true, that game rules. Valve admits it's "time to make some ******* improvements" to Steam's mod system, drops massive Steam Workshop update with "completely rewritten" pages. [/url]View the full article
For FFX's 25th anniversary, we compare every version of the remaster including Switch 2, PS4, Xbox, Switch, Steam, and Windows across PS5, PS5 Pro, Switch 2, Switch 1, Xbox Series X, Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and AYN Thor. View the full article
Lee Sang-hyeok, better known to his fans as Faker, is perhaps the most enduring and successful esports pro of all time, with—among a great many other honors—a record six League of Legends world championships to his name stretching back to 2013. When he re-signed with T1 in 2022, the team called him the "Unkillable ****** King," and fair enough because he went on to claim three of his six world titles—among a great many more honors—in an undefeated three-year stretch from 2023-25. Time included him in its 2026 list of the most influential people in sports; he's a member of the ESL Esports Hall of Fame and Riot's own LoL Esports Hall of Legends... Read more.View the full article
If you're under the age of 30, it's possible you might not know the name Fighting Fantasy or even what a 'gamebook' is - but you should. Firstly because they're a unique, excellent kind of fun, somewhere between a fantasy novel and a solo tabletop RPG. And, secondly, because the people still making them tend to be towering tabletop figures - in this case, a literal Knight, dubbed by Princess Anne of Great Britain, and one of the guys who started Games Workshop. Read the full story on Wargamer: Warhammer founder Ian Livingstone's new Fighting Fantasy book has cover art by a White Dwarf legend View the full article
On Wednesday, specialist strategy game publisher Slitherine Games showcased Warhammer Blood Bowl, an upcoming revised digital edition of the game of fantasy footbal. Slitherine acquired the license and back catalogue for the Blood Bowl videogame series in July, with long time developer Cyanide Studio still at the helm. I went backstage at Slitherine's offices in Milan, Italy, to talk to members of both teams and discover their plans for the franchise. Read the full story on Wargamer: Blood Bowl exclusive: behind the scenes on the new digital edition View the full article
With so many amazing games on Steam, players are wishlisting more and more titles. Existing options like ranking and filtering are great, but players have asked for even more ways to manage their Steam wishlists. Today we're adding categorization as well as improved search and sharing to the wishlist. Read the full post below for the details, then try out all the new tools on your own wishlist. Categories added to wishlistFirst and foremost is the ability to create and assign custom categories to games on your wishlist. You might want to create a custom category for games you saw featured in a cool event, games best played with a controller, or even games you have in mind for someone else. Adding custom categories is quick and easy... Filter to a category by simply clicking on the category name at the top of your wishlist or next to the My Categories area of each game Quickly add to your frequent categories from the "On Wishlist" dropdown on store pages Customize wishlist notifications to only be sent for certain categories Other improvementsWe've improved the search experience on the wishlist page and enabled autocomplete for faster results We now highlight when a game on your wishlist has a demo available. You can also be notified when a demo is released for a game in your wishlist. Microtrailers are now shown when hovering each games capsule image Navigating to/from your wishlist in a browser, mobile, Steam Client, or Steam OS does a better job of bringing you back to what you were looking at Plus we've made some tweaks to the wishlist page to improve contrast and legibility Sharing your wishlistYou can already share a link to your wishlist, now you can share a link to a specific category on your wishlist, or even a filtered view of your wishlist. Clicking on the share button at the top of your wishlist gives you a unique URL to share with friends and family. People with the link can view the shared list even if your wishlist is set to private. Links can be revoked at any time. This sharing link will only show the games in the your current filtered view. For example: you might want to share 'My Birthday List' with your family. From that shared link, your family can gift games directly to you, even if they don't have a Steam account... More gifting improvements...As we hinted at above, we suspect one common new category for wishlists will be games you want to buy for a friend or family member. With that in mind, we paired this wishlist change with a big update to gift purchasing on Steam. Check out all the gift improvements here! View the full article
With so many amazing games on Steam, players are wishlisting more and more titles. Existing options like ranking and filtering are great, but players have asked for even more ways to manage their Steam wishlists. Today we're adding categorization as well as improved search and sharing to the wishlist. Read the full post below for the details, then try out all the new tools on your own wishlist. Categories added to wishlistFirst and foremost is the ability to create and assign custom categories to games on your wishlist. You might want to create a custom category for games you saw featured in a cool event, games best played with a controller, or even games you have in mind for someone else. Adding custom categories is quick and easy... Filter to a category by simply clicking on the category name at the top of your wishlist or next to the My Categories area of each game Quickly add to your frequent categories from the "On Wishlist" dropdown on store pages Customize wishlist notifications to only be sent for certain categories Other improvementsWe've improved the search experience on the wishlist page and enabled autocomplete for faster results We now highlight when a game on your wishlist has a demo available. You can also be notified when a demo is released for a game in your wishlist. Microtrailers are now shown when hovering each games capsule image Navigating to/from your wishlist in a browser, mobile, Steam Client, or Steam OS does a better job of bringing you back to what you were looking at Plus we've made some tweaks to the wishlist page to improve contrast and legibility Sharing your wishlistYou can already share a link to your wishlist, now you can share a link to a specific category on your wishlist, or even a filtered view of your wishlist. Clicking on the share button at the top of your wishlist gives you a unique URL to share with friends and family. People with the link can view the shared list even if your wishlist is set to private. Links can be revoked at any time. This sharing link will only show the games in the your current filtered view. For example: you might want to share 'My Birthday List' with your family. From that shared link, your family can gift games directly to you, even if they don't have a Steam account... More gifting improvements...As we hinted at above, we suspect one common new category for wishlists will be games you want to buy for a friend or family member. With that in mind, we paired this wishlist change with a big update to gift purchasing on Steam. Check out all the gift improvements here! View the full article
Steam gifts are a popular way to send copies of games and digital gift cards to friends and family. Today we’re shipping some great new features that improve the gifting experience, making it easier to send both digital gift cards and games. These features pair nicely with the Wishlist categories and other improvements that are also now available. Guest checkoutIn 2024, we added guest checkout, which lets a family member or friend make a gift purchase without needing to create a Steam account. This feature was limited to digital gift cards and hardware purchases at the time. Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam. You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves. If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead. Gift to emailDon't know your nephew's Steam account? No problem, both digital gift cards and games can now be sent directly to email recipients. And don't worry if your nephew's email address is the same one they use for their Steam account. The email will include a link to let them sign in to their account and accept the gift. Please note that any gift email not accepted within 30 days will be automatically refunded, so they cannot be scheduled for future delivery. The recipient of the gift must also live in the same country as the purchaser. Cross-region giftingBuying a gift for a friend in a higher-priced region? In the past, digital gift cards were the solution for gifting, but that required you to know the full price of the game in your friend's region. Now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend's region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift. Direct from wishlistSending a friend or family member a link to your wishlist is a great way to help them choose a great gift for your birthday or holiday. We have made a number of share link improvements, including: You can now send a digital gift card or gift a game directly from someone's wishlist You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts You can create a shared wishlist link that is filtered to specific games When a friend or family member clicks on your shared wishlist link, if they choose to gift you a game, the gift recipient in the cart will be pre-populated with your information. And remember from above, your friend or family member can checkout as a guest, without needing to create a Steam account More wishlist improvements...That wraps it up for today's gift related updates. Check out our Steam Wishlist announcement to learn about wishlist categories and other improvements that are now available. View the full article
Steam gifts are a popular way to send copies of games and digital gift cards to friends and family. Today we’re shipping some great new features that improve the gifting experience, making it easier to send both digital gift cards and games. These features pair nicely with the Wishlist categories and other improvements that are also now available. Guest checkoutIn 2024, we added guest checkout, which lets a family member or friend make a gift purchase without needing to create a Steam account. This feature was limited to digital gift cards and hardware purchases at the time. Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam. You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves. If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead. Gift to emailDon't know your nephew's Steam account? No problem, both digital gift cards and games can now be sent directly to email recipients. And don't worry if your nephew's email address is the same one they use for their Steam account. The email will include a link to let them sign in to their account and accept the gift. Please note that any gift email not accepted within 30 days will be automatically refunded, so they cannot be scheduled for future delivery. The recipient of the gift must also live in the same country as the purchaser. Cross-region giftingBuying a gift for a friend in a higher-priced region? In the past, digital gift cards were the solution for gifting, but that required you to know the full price of the game in your friend's region. Now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend's region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift. Direct from wishlistSending a friend or family member a link to your wishlist is a great way to help them choose a great gift for your birthday or holiday. We have made a number of share link improvements, including: You can now send a digital gift card or gift a game directly from someone's wishlist You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts You can create a shared wishlist link that is filtered to specific games When a friend or family member clicks on your shared wishlist link, if they choose to gift you a game, the gift recipient in the cart will be pre-populated with your information. And remember from above, your friend or family member can checkout as a guest, without needing to create a Steam account More wishlist improvements...That wraps it up for today's gift related updates. Check out our Steam Wishlist announcement to learn about wishlist categories and other improvements that are now available. View the full article
What follows is a combination of words I never thought I’d write: Count Binface has called on ***** to make Shenmue 4. Okay, this will need a bit of an explanation. Count Binface is a man who is famous in the *** for standing in local elections while wearing a trash can (we Brits call it a bin) on his head. He never wins; rather, his goal is to make the electoral process look ridiculous, and he's pretty good at it. Count Binface standing unceremoniously in the background while votes are read out for other candidates has a habit of making even the most sincere of politicians look more than a little silly. But Count Binface is perhaps more famous now than he’s ever been, and that’s because he is the sole challenger to right-wing leader of the Reform *** party and Donald trump chum, Nigel Farage, who recently resigned as MP for Clacton, triggering a by-election in which he says he will stand. The resignation came amid allegations about his personal financing, which he continues to deny. Under increasing pressure, Farage took the high ground — or so he presumably thought — declaring that the “judges of my actions” should be his constituents. Enter Count Binface, aka the comedian Jon Harvey, who confirmed he will run in the Clacton by-election. His slogan: “'My appeal is that I'm not Nigel Farage.” This is an election showdown for the ages, and Count Binface might actually get some votes this time, because rival parties dismissed Farage’s actions as a stunt and said they would sit out the election. So, yes, we are set for Count Binface vs Nigel Farage, winner takes all (well, Clacton). Okay. Still with me? Good. So, with Count Binface doing the rounds on super serious news programs on the BBC and the like, he’s carved out the time to issue a special message for *****. Count Binface was commandeered by Shenmue fan group Shenmue Dojo, who used Cameo, a website where people pay celebrities for personalized video messages, to get Farage's political nemesis to issue a surprising call to action. “Hi, Count Binface here, intergalactic space warrior and maybe the next MP for Clacton!" he says in the video. “But, I have more important, pressing duties to do right now, because I need to say a galactic hello to ***** on behalf of the Shenmue fans. Now, I’m not just saying hello, *****. I’ve got a little bone to pick with you because the fans would like to campaign for an update — from you, ***** — about Shenmue 4. Yes, they can’t leave you guys on another cliffhanger for years! Yes, I wonder whether ***** needs to be nationalized along with Adele? “What do you say? Shall we harness the power of the Shenmue to ensure that there is no delay with updates ever again? I’d quite like the sound of that. I’d quite like to reboot SegaWorld in London’s Trocadero, and have old Sonic the Hedgehog back in his prime. Oh, that would be wonderful. “But hey, I digress. The point is, the Shenmue fans are amazing. *****, you need to get your bottoms in gear, sort yourselves out, get the update done. “Whether you’re ***** or the Shenmue, the most important thing of course is to follow me. And when everyone comes to vote, make your votes Count!” BREAKING: @CountBinface has cast his vote for Shenmue and now he has a message for @SEGA_OFFICIAL @***** . The campaign continues. The people have spoken.#LetsGetShenmue4 [Hidden Content] — Shenmue Dojo (@Shenmue_Dojo) July 20, 2026 I particularly like the drive-by request for the return of SegaWorld in Tracadero, which I used to frequent on occasion during my teen years to play arcade games. And Sonic returning to his prime? I imagine the bosses at ***** wouldn’t agree with that sentiment. In fact, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the people at the top of ***** catch wind of Count Binface’s video message, if they ever do. I suspect there would be more than a few confused faces. As for Shenmue 4, despite the power of Count Binface, it remains an unlikely project. As of now, it's unknown if a fourth major Shenmue game will ever get made, though the franchise's fans certainly hope it happens. Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki told IGN in 2023 that he wanted to create a fourth game at some point. This, Suzuki hoped at the time, would win the game a warmer reception across a wider set of platforms, after a middling response to Shenmue 3 at the game's initial launch. Honestly? It all sounds like rubbish to me. Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/Getty Images. 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
Steam users can currently claim an 8-player physics-driven game completely free of charge, with just a few steps required to pick up the Steam key. Co-op games on Steam are great for the way they can bring friends together, and the good news is that this highly-reviewed co-op game (95% overwhelmingly positive reviews after 30K reviews) has been doing that for a long time. View the full article
Some Xbox Game Pass users can start playing Shift at Midnight as part of their subscriptions starting today, July 22. The day-one indie title marks the service's 11th new release in July 2026, further expanding the Xbox Game Pass co-op catalog. View the full article
Avatar: The Last Airbender has proven to be perennially popular since it first debuted in 2005, but outside its two main animated series, the franchise often struggles to find its footing. Avatar video games are especially dodgy. Most have been released to especially tepid reviews, even when big-name studios are responsible. Aang's newest outing, Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, is off to a great start, though. View the full article
On July 17, Xbox-owned Bethesda announced a whole bunch of stuff about the future of Fallout and, more distantly, The Elder Scrolls and Starfield. That same day, studio union OneBGS says devs hit by recent layoffs at Bethesda's Montreal branch were told that their severance pay would be as low as legally possible despite the billions in profit recorded by parent Microsoft and investment in the IP they helped build. In a post on Bluesky, OneBGS - Bethesda Game Studios Union claims, "Montreal workers are being treated especially poorly by XBOX and we won’t stand for it." The union says that, when the layoffs were announced on July 6, employees "across the US and Canada were told via video call" that they would "remain employed until September while the company negotiated severance with our union." The union says the "breathing room" these terms provided evaporated on July 17. Behind the Fallout info explosion, the union says Xbox "told their laid-off Bethesda Montreal employees that they would receive the smallest severance legally possible without bargaining with the union." This news reportedly came via "termination letters" delivered via email. The union says this left affected employees with "the bare legal minimum in terms of severance: eight weeks of pay in lieu of the minimum legal notice, any outstanding vacation pay, etc." Additionally, the union says impacted staff "were to also immediately lose their group benefits health insurance." (Image credit: Bethesda Softworks) In response, the union has filed "yet another legal complaint against Bethesda," alleging it continues to "violate labor laws in Canada." "Bethesda and XBOX leadership depend on our labour to make them millions, and yet when we do, we are disposed of," the union concludes. "The cycle of workers paying for the mistakes of management ends here." This news was shared on Bluesky by Bethesda lead character artist Ben Carnow, who adds, "Microsoft did not negotiate with the Union over layoffs in Montreal as they are legally required to do. Folks lost their healthcare with zero notice. Unconscionable." The union's post also links to feedback listed under Xbox's new "Player Voice" forum. The post collectively calls out the thousands of Xbox staff and developers that Microsoft has laid off in just a few years, demands executive penalties and accountability (like "no executive bonuses when there is a layoff"), asks for an end to layoffs, and requests "transparency for players." The United Videogame Workers CWA union, an industry-wide organization, previously argued that the Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls 6 news was meant to distract from the blows dealt to Bethesda employees in the background. "The timing of this kind of press is intentional," the UVW-CWA said. "How are they going to make these games when Bethesda and Obsidian collectively laid off hundreds? Don’t fall for it." [/url]View the full article
Amid the rubble of the layoffs across Xbox, which included numerous positions at Bethesda and ZeniMax, the remaining developers on The Elder Scrolls Online are starting to struggle. The MMO is one of numerous projects impacted by Microsoft's restructuring of its games division, with only a fraction of the staff attached now as opposed to prior. To mitigate their own workload, devs on The Elder Scrolls Online are making changes to what features are available to players. As of today, July 22, that includes in-game purchases, since the ability to do so through the official site has been removed. "To help manage workload, we have decided to remove the Web Crown Store from the official elderscrollsonline.com website," reads a message from Kevin Gbolie, community manager on ESO, on the official forum. [Hidden Content] "The ability to acquire crowns via the website will remain," he says, "and, of course, this does not affect the items that will be offered on the Crown Store in The Elder Scrolls Online, you will just need to login into the game to view and purchase the latest offerings." It's noted that the blog for showing off what's in the Crown Store will change as well, due to "team bandwidth." In response to comments on these changes, Gbolie mentions that while the new version of the blog is still being sorted out, it'll definitely come with a bullet list of new items. This is unfortunate because the high-res screenshots accompanying the items were used by the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages, and Gbolie even mentions the team is aware of that symbiosis. But alas, the time and energy just aren't there any more. "The team responsible for the blog and those screenshots doesn't have the capacity to provide those at the scale we could before," he writes in another post. "But we will provide what we can for now and adjust from there." It is a sad time for Bethesda, ZeniMax, this game, and the legacy behind it. These devs deserve better, but at least the game is still going – for now. Bethesda reportedly canceled an unannounced PvP shooter, likely from Wolfenstein dev MachineGames. [/url]View the full article
For years, smash-hit board game Wingspan has been getting *******. ******* in popularity and ******* in complexity thanks to its globe-trotting expansions. If we're counting the Fins and Wyrms in the family, that's even more span for your buck. Now, Elizabeth Hargrave's game is getting smaller. Wingspan Pocket gives us our simplest, most table-shy version of the birdy board game. Read the full story on Wargamer: Wingspan Pocket doesn't beat the original board game, but it's the nest best thing View the full article
The lead designer behind pioneering MMO Ultima Online says the genre has finally broken free from the shackles of World of Warcraft. Speaking to 80LV, Raph Koster, whose MMO resumé also includes a suite of early 2000s titles including EverQuest and its sequel, as well as Star Wars: Galaxies, says that he is finally returning to the genre after several decades, in part because it no longer has to chase World of Warcraft. After Blizzard began what has proven to be an almost uninterrupted stint at the top in 2004, there was a rush to create 'the WoW killer' - a feat Koster suggests was a fool's errand. In returning to MMOs with Stars Reach, Koster says he was encouraged by the feeling that "MMOs were finally free of the fever dream of imitating World of Warcraft." That's partly because of "the rise of sandboxy gameplay in multiple genres at once." Citing the broader multiplayer options of games like Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Valheim, and No Man's Sky, Koster says that "it's clear that there's interest and demand for more than killing orcs over and over." Whether that's a fair criticism of World of Warcraft in 2026 is a debate I'm not qualified to have, but it's undeniable that multiplayer gaming has gained a lot of depth in the last decade. Fortnite and Roblox are other key examples, showing off a world in which the desire to simply spend time together is just as important as having a dedicated goal. The rise of 'friendslop' titles like Peak are other examples, even if they're not 'massively' multiplayer sandboxes. For Koster, "the unique thing" that MMOs offer is a persistent world and large numbers of players. Most of those games listed above offer that persistence, albeit with smaller populations, and their popularity meant Koster thought "the time was ripe" to make his return to the genre. [/url]View the full article
Sonic Team lead Takashi Iizuka teases there's more to come within the series' many pillars, and that keeping the series' momentum is a challenge. Sonic is simultaneously a yearly franchise and a franchise that feels like it's been missing. While 2026 is the first year without a new release for the series since 2018, it will feature a second season of DLC for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. However, fans have been wondering when a proper follow-up to Sonic Frontiers will finally emerge – possibly compounded by general disappointment with 2023's Sonic Superstars, the latest mainline entry in the series. Speaking to [Hidden Content], Iizuka explains he sees the different branches of the series as pillars – such as 2D games, 3D games, spinoffs, and collaborations. He explains, "Each of the different pillars contributes in meaningful ways to the Sonic franchise, and we're looking forward to what we have in store." As for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Iizuka says the second season of DLC for the acclaimed racing game – which features collabs with Godzilla and Neon Genesis Evangelion – "signals our long-term investment in the game," and while it seemingly underperformed, it looks like ***** is happy to keep trying until everyone realizes that it's actually pretty sick. Iizuka adds, "While keeping momentum in such a competitive market is always a challenge, our team remains dedicated to delivering content that stays true to the Sonic universe." Most recently, a collab game between Sonic and indie hit Pico Park was announced. A decade ago, ***** apparently had the character on the chopping block, but fortunately the blue blur is likely here to stay for now… I really want to hear about that Frontiers sequel though. Sonic fans couldn't wait for *****'s new alternate-reality game – until they spotted the AI training agreement. [/url]View the full article
Dungeon Crawler Carl fans have a new free game based on the popular book series to check out right now. The Dungeon Crawler Carl series has blown up among litRPG fans in recent years, so much so that it has spawned a TV adaptation and a tabletop RPG. An official Dungeon Crawler Carl video game can now be played for free as well, featuring some Easter eggs fans of the series are sure to enjoy. View the full article
The war against cheaters continues, with Activision bringing in the latest round of protections for Call of Duty: ****** Ops 7. The publisher is utilizing the Ricochet software to help handle ne'er-do-wells in the FPS, in order to better single out the more discreet exploits players are taking advantage of. Ricochet is already part of the framework for the latest Call of Duty, and Warzone 2, but now Activision's revealed the partnership is being extended. "Through June, Ricochet Anti-Cheat banned more than 293,000 accounts year-to-date while making it harder for cheaters to create new ones," a social media statement reads. "In Season 5, we're further expanding our hardware ban capabilities." This was prompted by a rash of poor behavior in Ranked, where the higher-skilled players frequent. Cheaters are getting smarter and more intricate, only using tools for specific instances, making it harder to catch them in the act. [Hidden Content] 21, 2026 Cases are getting so minute, in fact, that Activision says only a small portion of the accounts that get spotted and banned stem from video evidence captured by others. What you can see as another competitor in the same match is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the data the devs are gathering. "Public clips can help flag cases that deserve a closer look, but they account for about 0.11% of all enforcement actions," the post reads. "The remaining 99.89% are driven by detection data, investigations, in-game player reports, and internal monitoring. In other words, the work is happening well beyond what players can see publicly." Ricochet, then, "combines client protections, server-side analysis, and dedicated investigation tools" for a robust set of defences against malicious carry on. A kernel-level driver can spot third-party software that shouldn't be part of the in-game experience, layering the hurdles for cheaters. The message ends by pointing that while "bans matter," you may not see the banhammer come down straight away. Timing is taken into consideration, to help avoid exploiters adapting too quickly to the latest defences. This is a constant bugbear, but with any luck, ****** Ops 7 and Warzone 2 will see a decrease in such activity. At least, for now. Call of Duty: ****** Ops and ****** Ops 2 ports were both in the top 10 US PlayStation games last week despite cheating and DLC mess [/url]View the full article
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For years, Microsoft has leaned heavily into extensive backward compatibility across multiple generations of Xbox hardware as a major selling point for its consoles. Today, that effort expands past the console ecosystem, making select original Xbox titles officially playable (and purchasable) on Windows PCs for the first time. The appropriately and bluntly named "Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC" program kicks off today with compatibility for BLiNX: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live and Reloaded, Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, and Fuzion Frenzy. PC players can download each title for $10, but those with Xbox Game Pass subscriptions or existing digital licenses for these games on console will have instant access without an additional purchase (no such luck if you simply stick an original Xbox disc in your PC drive, alas). Playing these older Xbox titles on PC enables some bonus graphical features like Vsync support, anisotropic filtering, enhanced anti-aliasing, and up to 4x resolution scaling of the original SD signal (to 2560x1920). Games are limited to their original frame rates and aspect ratios, though, which means a 30 fps 4:3 image in most cases. Microsoft says this first batch of games should be playable with 11-year-old GTX 950 graphics hardware, but recommends a 2017-era GTX 1070 Ti with 8GB of VRAM for best performance. Read full article Comments View the full article