Category:

Game Reviews

This RTX 5090 graphics card draws up to 800W and looks like a model from 2008

by admin August 20, 2025

As well as a see-through 720Hz tandem OLED gaming monitor, Asus unveiled a retro-looking graphics card that draws up to 800W – a massive 200W jump over the most powerful RTX 5090 models and 215W over the base spec. A single 16-pin power cable maxes out at 600W, so the ROG Matrix uses both the proprietary BTF connector built into Asus motherboards and the regular 16-pin power input. That should make this the most powerful consumer graphics card in the world by a huge margin, and just how it’s been designed is fascinating.

In short, Asus wanted to pay homage to their past designs with a 30th anniversary edition that goes well beyond the standard “take your standard GPU and paint it differently” method of creating special models. That accounts for the unusual circular frame of the far end, which refers back to a card Asus launched in 2008, but inside there are also manufacturing and design elements from later models: 3mm copper PCBs, vapour chamber cooling, liquid metal, four fans and so on.

Image credit: Eurogamer

Perhaps most critically for the super-wealthy slash overclocking audience the limited edition card is intended for, there are sensors on every wire of each power input to ensure that none is drawing too much power – after all, with 800W on tap, this is effectively uncharted territory for a “stock” graphics card.

There’s even a sensor to check the angle of the card, alerting you if it’s starting to sag. Graphics card enthusiasts actually spotting the sensor in other high-end Asus models a while back, and now that functionality is actually going to be surface in Asus’ software.

Manage cookie settings

So with 33 percent extra power, you’re going to get 33 percent extra performance, right? RTX 5090 Ti, more or less! Well, no. Asus say that the graphics card only delivers around 10 percent higher frame-rates, even at a rated boost clock of 2730MHz – versus 2407MHz for a base 5090. It’s not clear if there are any memory clock upgrades on offer either, but the GDDR7 on Maxwell does tend to overclock without many difficulties.

Of course, an 800W rating far exceeds this generation’s power sweet spot – and presumably even with unlimited power, you’d still run into some serious issues keeping the die, tiny mainboard and VRAM/power components cool under an 800W load.

It does kind of suggest that this is about the maximum we could expect from a proper RTX 5090 Ti though, which is perhaps why Nvidia hasn’t shown any signs of releasing one.

Even if you do have deep pockets, expect the ROG Matrix 5090 to be a real challenge to find. Asus say that only 1000 units will be made, though you can enter the chance to win one on their Gamescom 2025 site. Pricing also hasn’t been announced, but presumably is well into the middle four figures given that a dead standard 5090 costs $2000 or more, even so many months after launch.

More numerous – and affordable – will be their special edition 5080 models, which include a Hatsune Miku edition (part of a distractingly large number of branded peripherals and components) and a Noctua edition with the Austrian firm’s famous fans.

Either way, I’m happy the Matrix 5090 exists, pushing out the state of the art to ludicrous excess. It’ll be fascinating to see what overclockers manage to accomplish with it – bring on the liquid nitrogen! – and the retro design really appeals. I just hope that this GPU doesn’t portend the arrival of a 800W-rated RTX 6090.

Disclosure: Asus provided flights and accommodation in Cologne for Gamescom.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Bloodlines 2 Locks Core Content Behind Costly Day-One DLC

by admin August 20, 2025

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been through a hell of a journey to reach us. At last night’s Opening Night Live from Gamescom, Paradox revealed the long-delayed game finally has a release date, October 21. What the publisher didn’t boast about was is that it is locking two out of the six playable clans behind paid day-one DLC, and it’ll cost you an extra $30 to unlock them. A third of the ways to play the game.

Expensive day-one DLC was once the most loathed concept in gaming. Back in 2012 it was the talk of the industry, as companies deliberately developed a chunk of the launched game with the intention of hiding it behind a further paywall, and people understandably hated it. Times moved on, and now we’re screwed over in all manner of different ways, most usually seeing significant portions of games sectioned off behind so-called “battle passes,” where we’re expected to not just pay once but to buy new ones multiple times throughout the year! Yay video games! But Paradox is kicking us old-school with Bloodlines 2 by deciding that a full third of how you can play the game will require you to fork out 50 percent of the original asking price again. The cheapest version of the game will cost you $60 on PC, but if you want to buy everything they developed for launch, it’ll cost you an extraordinary $90. Not even the $70 “Deluxe Edition” will secure you either of the missing clans. (Thanks RPS.)

A huge part of how the original Bloodlines played was based on the clan you chose at the start. It affected not just more common features like stats, but entirely changed how you approached the game. Different clans within the world treated you accordingly, missions were experienced differently as a result, and the means by which you could approach the RPG quests were all affected by who you were. Play as Brujah and you were a mighty warrior but very vulnerable to “frenzy,” where you’d fully lose control of your bloodlust. But pick a Toreador and you were a schmoozer, expert in socializing, but weakened by your inability to turn away from the truly beautiful. Clearly these made for very different experiences of the game. But now, in Bloodlines 2, if you want to be a Toreador and play that way, it’s going to cost you an awful lot more.

As the game’s own FAQ makes clear, these choices are not cosmetic.

“How will the dialogue options differ in each playthrough?” asks one of the questions. The answer:

The dialogue options differ depending on which clan you’ve chosen and what choices you’ve made throughout the story. When hunting for Blood Resonance, specific disciplines and outfit choices can also affect NPCs on the street.

It also notes that “each clan offers new, unique abilities, playstyles, and distinct outfits.” Play style seems a hell of a thing to lock to day-one DLC.

For a while, Bloodlines 2 did look to have become vaporware, after its original development under Hardsuit Labs fell apart in 2021 following its former leads being fired. Then in 2023 it re-emerged, now being developed by The Chinese Room, the studio best known for their walking sims, which has had its own turbulent few years. Given The Chinese Room only released their most recent game, Still Wakes the Deep, in June of last year, it seemed unlikely that Bloodlines 2 could be imminent. But here we are! It’s out in just a couple of months.

We’ve reached out to Paradox to ask what has motivated the decision to lock away such a significant chunk of the core game behind day-one DLC. (Although we can guess it’s at least in part, “We desperately need to recoup some of the costs of the last six years of development across two different studios under multiple different leaderships for the sequel to a game that came out in 2004.”) We’ll report back if they respond.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

inZOI: Island Getaway’s DLC is here, and here’s a trailer to hold you over until you can get home and play it

by admin August 20, 2025

Very much right on schedule, Krafton has released Island Getaway, the long-teased DLC pack for life sim game inZOI. The first time we got solid details of the add-on was back in July, when the developer confirmed it would be revealed at gamescom.

Later, an official release date was announced, and it turned out that you won’t actually have to be attending gamescom in person to play the DLC, because its release date is August 20. Well, that day has now arrived.

Manage cookie settings

Island Getaway launched earlier today, free to all owners of inZOI. The DLC is part of a larger patch, version 0.3.0, which brings several quality of life tweaks and other updates across the board. This also means that inZOI is now available on Mac OS.

Island Getaway adds an entirely new map to the game. It’s called Cahaya, and it’s split into two islands. The whole thing is inspired by Southeast Asian locales, and that’s what the new activities and outfits are themed after.

Lifestyle activities (farming, fishing, mining) are among the core features of this update. There’s also the arrival of vehicles to look forward to, which let you travel around faster and more easily. There’s plenty in the patch notes that inZOI players will appreciate.

Manage cookie settings

If you’re thinking of joining them, there’s a nicely-timed 20% off sale, live now on Steam. The discount is good until September 2, so there’s plenty of time to decide. If you know your PC won’t be able to handle the game, you’re probably better off waiting until inZOI comes to PS5 next year.

While you’re here, you’re going to appreciate our guides for how to change your gender and sexuality, as well as how to go to university. We’ve also updated our jobs guide with the new careers that became available with the DLC.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is one of those rare game previews that made me think ‘OK, yeah, I’m going to Platinum this one’

by admin August 20, 2025

Way back in 2016, I downloaded and played the first Nioh public alpha. Team Ninja, the veteran action game developers behind Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, working on a game that took inspiration from Dark Souls, was too much of a perfect idea to ignore. Within 10 minutes of playing that alpha – which was so bastard hard the devs had to tune down the difficulty for the next demo, and consequently the full release – I knew something to be true: I would get the Platinum trophy in this game.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: Played on PS5 Pro
Availability: Out 2026 on PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Fast-forward nine years, and here I am, sitting on a PSN account with two Platinums each for Nioh and Nioh 2 (thanks, PS5 versions). Those games struck a chord with me: the mythological fantasy setting of Sengoku-era Japan scratches an itch I didn’t even know I had, and the fighting-game inspired, stance-based combat that has grown and mutated into something deep and mechanically satisfying represents a high tide in the action-RPG genre only rivalled by FromSoft, in my humble opinion.

Manage cookie settings

I had that same sense of instant rapport with Onimusha: Way of the Sword. On paper, the Nioh games and Capcom’s reboot of its 10th best-selling franchise are very similar: linear, hardcore action-RPGs with an emphasis on combat and a deft use of horror elements to make the setting of Japan in the 1500s seem even more threatening. Onimusha – despite being packed with demons and supernatural elements – is slightly more grounded than Nioh has ever been, though: in playing as Miyamoto Musash, a legendary Japanese swordsman based on a real historical figure, your movements and reactions are more realistic than William Adams or Hideyoshi’s ever were in the Nioh games.

The result, in your hands, is a character that is lithe, responsive, and precise. In a hands-on preview at Capcom’s offices ahead of Gamescom, I got to play a 20-minute demo that pushed Mushashi through a dark, gloomy castle under the control of Musashi’s real world rival, Sasaki Ganryu. The demo culminates in a battle with the storied samurai, and it was in this encounter I thought ‘yep, I’m going to 100 percent this game’.

Image credit: Capcom

The fight itself is fast and brutal: in true Soulslike style, Ganryu gets a big health bar across the top of the screen, and – once more like Nioh – a stamina bar, too. The core mechanic in Onimusha: Way of the Blade is a light/heavy attack system, supplemented by dodge rolls and parries. Now, I’m the sort of player that basically never uses the guard button in Souls games (Dex builds for life), so the dodging/parrying system in Onimusha felt like coming home. As far as I could tell, you can parry every attack from the boss, though some (like his flying overhead stomp that looks like something out of Tekken) are often better dodged, since the ‘bullet time’ effect you get from ducking out of the way and the window it opens up are more reliable than the tight timing required to parry more effectively.

Other attacks, though, such as his more general sword slashes, are more telegraphed, and easier to time. A successful parry will see Mushashi either respond with a dedicated animation and attack that will inflict a decent amount of damage, and drain Ganryu’s poise, or set you up for a nice combo where you can risk heavy moves instead of the less-impactful flurry of light attacks you’ll be throwing his way in the general melee.

Rain on your parade. | Image credit: Capcom

Ganryu is no idiot, though. I need more time with the game to figure this out for certain, but it seemed that the samurai would get used to the strings of attacks – light, light, heavy – I’d use to poke at his defences, and respond by blocking and countering. This results in this tidal flow of back and forth that, when firing on all cylinders, looks like something straight out of a mid-career Kurosawa film.

I don’t want to say it reminds me of Sekiro (there isn’t quite the sense of choreographed ballet or scale, here) but the ebb and flow of combat certainly evokes the more volatile Soulslike encounters. Once again, I must invoke Nioh: the samurai-on-samurai elements of the battle make the playing field feel more level, and tense. I don’t doubt there will be massive oni to slay, too, but I reckon it’s in these more ‘mirror match’ encounters Onimusha is going to properly shine.

The highlights of the battle, in no particular order, were: getting an early parry in and landing a brutal overhead smash that broke Ganryu’s jingasa (big hat) which, I think, left him more vulnerable to damage taken on his upper body; breaking his poise and landing a devastating cut to the demon-powered gauntlet on his wrist with a Metal Gear Revengence-like focus attack, that I imagine will be an integral part of boss fights; and landing the killing blow by walking backwards in a wary circle and baiting the aforementioned overhead kick in order to dodge, and land one of the most satisfying finishers I’ve ever managed to pull off within 20 minutes of starting a game.

Off-guard. | Image credit: Capcom

Miyamoto Musashi is a famed swordsman. Perhaps one of the most influential folk heroes of Japanese history. His skill with a blade was unmatched, and his travels have inspired reams of lore and legend. Capcom chooses to enshrine his legacy in a different way, here, making you feel powerful, smart, and subtle in your footwork and swordplay. Nioh may have won my heart with its bombastic, jackhammer-like approach to its brutal combat, but there’s something in the precision and artistry of Onimusha’s mechanics that makes me sit here, days later, yearning for more.

I think Onimusha: Way of the Blade is going to be something quite special. I hope the full game, with its enemy variety and assumedly larger scale, can keep up such powerful momentum.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Wukong 2 Already In Development, Here’s The Teaser

by admin August 20, 2025

Today, at the very end of Gamescom Opening Night Live, Geoff had one more secret to reveal: The developers behind the super-popular action RPG Black Myth: Wukong are working on a new game, Black Myth: Zhong Kui, starring a new mythical hero.

Here’s the very short teaser for Zhong Kui, which doesn’t have a release date yet:

Black Myth: Zhong Kui isn’t a direct sequel to Wukong. On the new game’s official website, the devs explained that they wanted to “build more distinct game experiences, to challenge ourselves with bolder features” and work on “fresh ideas.” However, they did tease an actual sequel or DLC to Wukong, saying: “And to all friends who love Black Myth: Wukong, the westward journey won’t end here.”

It should also be noted that, despite a slick-looking CG trailer showing off the new mythical hero and setting, Game Science admits it doesn’t have much to show because the game is still very early in development, saying that Zhong Kui is “little more than an empty folder at this stage.” However, the devs said they love announcing new things and updating fans on August 20, so they created a CG short to “let everyone know that a new project has kicked off.” But yeah, don’t expect to be playing this game anytime soon.

According to Game Science, Black Myth: Zhong Kui, like Wukong, is a single-player action RPG that will follow “the same business model as before.” That seems to imply that this sequel won’t be free-to-play when it eventually launches.

“However, you won’t be playing a monkey role this time,” explained the studio. “That said, we’re still exploring and experimenting with the concrete differences between Wukong and Zhong Kui. So take it easy—let us impress ourselves first before we serve it to you.”

On August 20, 2024, Black Myth: Wukong launched on PlayStation 5 and PC and quickly became a massive hit. The game saw over 2.4 million concurrent players on Steam alone, beating out popular games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, and many more. It still, to this day, holds the record for second-highest number of players all online at the same time on Steam, only beaten by PUBG’s massive 3.2 concurrent players record. Needless to say, a lot of people are excited for more Black Myth, and I expect that when Zhong Kui eventually arrives on PC and consoles, it will be as big if not bigger.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Ghost of Yotei’s gamescom Opening Night Live trailer is good, but it’s made better by that Legends teaser

by admin August 20, 2025

We were promised a new look at Ghost of Yotei at this year’s gamescom, and Opening Night Live indeed kept that promise. The Geoff Keighley-hosted show was full of updated looks at previously-announced games, as well as some fresh game reveals.

Sucker Punch was among the developers in attendance, and the team brought something special for fans of the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima sequel.

Manage cookie settings

Today’s trailer was actually one of Yotei’s best so far, blending quick cuts of the game’s action combat with a couple of menacing moments with the game’s villains. Nothing too unexpected here – except, of course, for that tease at the end.

Legends, the online co-op mode that came to Tsushima in a free update, will return in Yotei. It won’t be available at launch, however, and will instead arrive in a free update in 2026. Legends will feature new story missions for two players, alongside four-player survival matches.

There’s going to be four playable character classes, and some of the bosses you’ll come up against will be fantastical, demonic versions of the game’s Yotei Six gang of outlaws. We didn’t get to see much from Legends in today’s reveal, but the news will definitely make a lot of people happy.

Manage cookie settings

For a game coming out in about six weeks, we actually haven’t seen all that much of Ghost of Yotei. Gameplay was kept under wraps practically since the moment Yotei was initially announced. It wasn’t until July that the game got its own, dedicated State of Play presentation from Sony.

Today’s showcase certainly helped keep that hype train chugging, even if we still like to see more of the open-world action RPG. That said, it continues to appear as a fairly straightforward sequel, so there may – understandably – be not much more to show.

Ghost of Yotei arrives October 2 on PS5.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Nvidia’s native support for Logitech racing wheels for GeForce Now has me excited for sim racing on a budget

by admin August 20, 2025

Nvidia has announced a huge raft of changes and improvements to their GeForce Now cloud gaming service as part of their Gamescom 2025 announcements, but it’s actually one of the smallest sections that has me most excited.

As part of their extensive press release covering exciting updates such as RTX 5080 power for GeForce Now Ultimate subscribers and the ability to play games at up to 5K2K 120fps on supported screens, one of the footnotes near the bottom mentions the following:

Support for popular peripherals also grows, with native support for many Logitech racing wheels offering the lowest-latency, most responsive driving experiences.

That’s right, folks – GeForce Now now has native support for Logitech G29 and G920 racing wheels for playing the service’s selection of sim racing titles, granting important force feedback and more analogue controls versus a mouse-and-keyboard setup or even a controller. Indeed, this has been quite the popular request on forums for a number of years, so it’s pleasant to see Nvidia respond.

At a recent Gamescom event, deputy tech editor Will and I had the chance to go hands-on with a demo rig Nvidia had set up (pictured above) using a budget Logitech G920 wheel on a proper cockpit playing arcade racer The Crew Motorfest. It perhaps wasn’t the most hardcore sim racing setup in terms of game or gear, but it was still an effetive demo that proved out the concept.

I didn’t have any issues with the gameplay experience, in terms of stutters or input latency, and was largely impressed by what’s become possible with the cloud gaming space. Of course, with the venue in Cologne offering gigabit speeds to a regional data centre, it’s easy to see this as a best-case scenario that will have to be borne out in real-world testing on less capacious connections. The main thing was that the game’s force feedback was present and correct, whether I was drifting around roundabouts, running up the highway, or crashing off-road. Having used the G29 and G920 for several years at home, the cloud version didn’t feel any different.

Wheels such as this Logitech G29 are natively supported in GeForce Now.

The big thing for me is that it involved no computational power from the host device itself – in this instance, it was some form of small Minisforum mini PC, but Nvidia also had games running natively on LG TVs (4K 120fps with HDR is now accessible on 2025/2026 LG TVs with the new GeForce Now update) or off an M4 Mac Mini. Theoretically, this means all you need is a wheel, some kind of computer or device with support for the wheel, and a GeForce Now subscription, and you can be up and running – no need for a dedicated gaming or living room PC.

Of course, that is the whole point of cloud gaming, but it adds another string to your bow if you’re a current GeForce Now subscriber and you’ve felt the lack of a proper racing experience has been a sore miss. In addition, if you’ve already got a Logitech wheel from years ago and you want to jump into sim racing without the faff of a PC and such, then you can pay the subscription, and away you go.

An Nvidia representative told me that the technical difficulty was passing through effects such as force feedback in respective games over the cloud, while the reason they chose Logitech peripherals initially was due to the convenience of their G Hub software in part, which is running in a compatibility layer of sorts to get the wheels to work. They also chose Logitech because of the wide range of wheels they do, with the G29 and G920 being the only supported models at present, with more wheels to be supported in the future.

Before I go, I’ll provide a quick rundown of the other key additions for GeForce Now:

Implementation of Blackwell architecture – RTX 5080 is now the ‘Ultimate’ tier, bringing DLSS 4 MFG and so on, plus streaming at up to 5K 120fps.
‘Cinematic Quality’ mode for better extraction of fine detail in areas where the encoder would previously struggle.
More devices supported with native apps, including Steam Deck OLED at 90fps (to match the refresh rate), plus some 2025+ LG TVs at 4K/120fps.
Support for 1080p/360fps and 1440p/240fps streams for competitive esports title, involving Nvidia Reflex and sub 30ms response times. (We saw 17ms figures in Overwatch 2, for example.)
A GeForce Now installation of Fortnite integrated into the Discord app, providing a limited-time trial of GeForce Now’s 1440p ‘Performance’ tier, requiring only connection between an Epic Games and Discord account.
‘Install to Play’ feature in GeForce Now app, which more than doubles the playable titles to some 4500, giving access to over 2,000 installable games through Steam alongside Nvidia’s fully-tested ‘Ready to Play’ games. Installs must be repeated each session, unless you pay for persistent storage in 100GB+ increments.

It’ll be fascinating to see whether Nvidia continues to expand their peripheral support over time, as I’m sure flight sim fans could also benefit from a cloud-streamed version – especially with the CPU and GPU requirements that Flight Sim 2020 and 2024 entail.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Everything We Saw At Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025

by admin August 20, 2025

This year’s Gamescom has officially kicked off. That means that today, we were treated to a trailer-laden showcase known as Opening Night Live, straight from Cologne, Germany and featuring none other than Geoff Keighley.

ONL was pretty packed this year, with some solid trailers and reveals of many awesome-looking games. As always, we’ve rounded up everything that caught our eye. It was a dense show, so read on!

Hollow Knight: Silksong

While we didn’t get a firm release date of the ever-elusive sequel to Hollow Knight, Geoff Keighley took to the Gamescom stage to officially declare that the game is coming out this year and to show off some new gameplay. A more in-depth presentation from developer Team Cherry is coming on Thursday.

Hollow Knight Silksong launches in 2025.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

The world is in a bad place in 2035 according to Black Ops 7, so it’s a good thing you’ve got a gun and a willingness to shoot people. I mean, that’s the premise for all these kindsa things, but at least the level design looks surprisingly batty! I’ll take it. I will not take this version of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” though.

You can check out an interview with the devs here, and a deeper dive into what Treyarch is cooking up for the campaign here.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches on November 14, 2025.

Lords of the Fallen 2

Gods are all cool until they do that “forsaking us” thing. Then ya gotta seek some retribution. That’s the premise for Lords of the Fallen 2, which got a gory and fancy-lookin’ trailer today. A look at some gameplay is expected later this year.

Lords of the Fallen 2 is expected to launch in 2026.

Sekiro: No Defeat

Showing off some intense sword battles, today we got a nice look at the upcoming anime adaptation of FromSoft’s speedy, parry-based action adventure game Sekiro.

Sekiro: No Defeat will arrive exclusively on Crunchyroll next year, 2026.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight

The Lego games are often a damn good time, so hopefully this next trip into Gotham city continues the tradition. This game looks way more Arkham than the previous Lego Batman releases, which is a mighty good sign. Check out a deeper dive on what to expect in Legacy of the Dark Knight here.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV

The bravado and eccentric design of Warhammer is unparalleled. Today we were treated to a flashy cinematic trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV as well as some footage of its explosive RTS gameplay.

Warhammer 40, 000 Dawn of War IV is expected to arrive in 2026.

Monster Hunter Wilds x Final Fantasy XIV

How have we not had chocobos in Monster Hunter yet? Thankfully, this upcoming collaboration with Final Fantasy will let us ride our beloved fictional feathered friends into battle against some new threats. But that’s not all, as Monster Hunter Wilds is also bringing some of its magic to FF14 with battles against epic monsters and maybe even a Palico?

The Monster Hunter Wilds and FF14 collaboration arrives in late September, 2025. FF14 will see its Monster Hunter Wilds additions arrive in October, 2025.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

I’ve never played an Onimusha game, but every time I see Way of the Sword, I’m damn sure I’m gonna play this. We saw some excellent-looking gameplay and wonderfully weird and wacky character designs in today’s trailer.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is expected to arrive in 2026.

Fallout Season Two

Fallout‘s TV adaptation was a smash hit, and while we didn’t see much footage from the upcoming new season, we did get some thoughts from the show’s talent on what to expect from the crew’s trip to New Vegas, along with a brief teaser. And yes, Mr. House is there…and yes, that was Kyle MacLachlan in a suit of power armor. Shit, now I’m gonna have to catch up on that first season…

Fallout season two arrives on December 17, 2025 on Amazon Prime.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants

Indiana Jones’incredible video game adaptation from last year, The Great Circle, is getting a story expansion. Do we want more of the game’s excellent immersive sim gameplay and puzzles? Hell yes. Also, The Great Circle is coming to Switch 2 in 2026.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants arrives on September 4, 2025. The Switch 2 version is expected next year, 2026.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando

With a trailer showing off some satisfyingly clanky guns, zombie hordes, explosive action, and some slamming electronic music, Toxic Commando definitely looks worth checking out.

Toxic Commando is expected in early 2026.

Death by Scrolling

The premise here is that you’re in Purgatory and you gotta endlessly scroll your way through looting and fighting to escape the Grim Reaper, who’s a lady this time! Girl power! It’s a pretty neat concept that looks like it’ll be hard to put down, and it comes from the mind of Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert.

Zero Parades

Things might be a little complicated for fans of Za/Um, the developer behind Disco Elysium. But today we got a look at its upcoming CRPG, Zero Parades.

The Darkest Files

With a bold and urgent political message about the increasingly frail state of our democracy, the Gamescom Cares segment was devoted to showing off The Darkest Files, a game with painful lessons about how the freedoms we all benefit from are increasingly at risk in ways that demand we actually do something about it. So go do something about it.

Ninja Gaiden 4

Today’s look at Ninja Gaiden 4 was predictably action-packed, with some thrillingly bloody-looking swordage and elegant combat moves.

Ninja Gaiden 4 arrives on October 21, 2025.

Cinder City

With an undeniable Division-meets-Warframe look as our very own Zack Zwiezen observed during the show, Cinder City is a pretty ambitious-looking MMO shooter that might deliver satisfying thrills.

Time Takers

Time Takers sends its characters to a realm featuring some genre-bending third person shooter action where you need to hunt down time to stay alive. Looks neat!

Silent Hill f

Today’s look at Silent Hill f‘s gameplay is a promising preview of what we can expect from the latest entry in this classic horror series when it arrives in September. The game looks satisfyingly grim, gloomy, and disturbing. It’s absolutely on my must-play list for 2025.

Silent Hill f launches on September 25, 2025.

La Divina Commedia

Featuring an epic showdown with…well, whatever that monster is, La Divina Commedia showed off some thrilling swordplay in yet another video game adaptation of Dante’s Inferno. Maybe this one will be good?

Cronos: The New Dawn

Cronos: The New Dawn showed off more of its moody survival horror vibes. Just please tell me that cat’s gonna make it. While two juggernauts of the survival horror genre were shown off today in Silent Hill and Resident Evil, don’t let that leave you overlooking the latest from Bloober Team, because this one looks sick.

Cronos The New Dawn arrives on September 5, 2025.

The Outer Worlds 2

Voice of Sonic the Hedgehog Ben Schwartz showed up as Obsidian’s “head of sequels” to reveal a new trailer for The Outer Worlds 2 focusing entirely on the game’s companions. Kotaku‘s Kenneth Shepard is very concerned about whether or not he can smooch them. As the trailer itself revealed, he can’t, but maybe there’ll still be somhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TsP09cZA7o&feature=youtu.bee tender moments to share with his buds in space? We’ll find out when this capitalism-critiquing space RPG arrives in October.

The Outer Worlds 2 arrives on October 29, 2025.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2

Forreal, there’s a release date, and it’s just a few months away. October 21, 2025. This game has been through one hell of a development cycle, but here’s hoping it hasn’t descended into a mess only befitting the dark mind of a Malkavian.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 finally arrives on October 21, 2025.

Cult of the Lamb: Woolhaven

If Cult of the Lamb‘s main offering didn’t satiate your cult-building desires, you’re in luck: There’s an expansion on the way in 2026.

World of Warcraft: Midnight

WoW is 20 years old…wow. World of Warcraft: Midnight is the MMO’s 11th expansion, focusing on a grave threat to the Blood Elves. Today we saw a preview of the expansion’s cinematic opening and its hard to deny the gravity this game pulls in. Here’s to many more sleepless nights for the faithful.

World of Warcraft Midnight arrives in 2026.

Project: Spectrum

We got a spooky look at Project Spectrum, an upcoming horror PvPvE experience, which is a genre I quite like. So maybe put this one on your calendar if you also dig this kind of game.

Ghost of Yotei

Gory combat, gorgeous vistas, and a gargantuan open world. It’s hard not to get sucked into this trailer for Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch’s latest samurai sim. It’ll also get a co-op expansion in 2026. Neat!

Ghost of Yotei arrives on October 2, 2025.

Resident Evil Requiem

You can just inject Resident Evil into my blood…well, maybe that’s a bad idea. What hopefully won’t be a bad idea is playing this latest entry when it arrives. Today’s narrative trailer really doubled down on the survival element of survival horror, showing off what feels like an inverse of an escort mission. Requiem‘s protagonists look sufficiently vulnerable for this kind of genre. I am so here for this game.

Resident Evil Requiem arrives on February 27, 2026.

Black Myth: Zhong Kui

Not yet, Snake, it wasn’t over yet. Closing out ONL, we got a look at the follow-up to Black Myth: Wukong, featuring a new protagonist.

And wow, that wraps up one hell of a packed show. I’m gonna go get a coffee now.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

More action than RPG, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 struggles to convince after a few hours’ play

by admin August 20, 2025

I can’t hide it: I’m a little disappointed. The wait for Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been an excruciating one. This is the long-awaited follow-up to the flawed but respected Bloodlines 1 from 2004, and it was originally announced in 2019 with a release date of 2020. But it was systematically delayed, then full-on suspended, before being resurrected at The Chinese Room (Still Wakes the Deep) where it’s been reshaped for release. Bloodlines 2 has had problems. The question is: does it still have problems and has it been worth the wait?

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2

Having played Bloodlines 2 for a few hours in a preview build my answer – frustratingly for you – is I’m not sure. I have mixed feelings. There are things I really like about it – I love how powerful it makes you feel as a vampire from the very beginning of the game; the action feels great – but I’m concerned by how narrow the game is as a role-playing experience. Too often I feel led through metaphorical corridors from point A to B, as though I’m playing a predetermined experience rather than shaping one of my own. I think it’s telling that Paradox is leaning into the “action” part of the “action RPG” descriptor; from what I’ve played, this is more like an action or stealth game, with some RPG elements, rather than the other way around. And given the extensive and exhaustive resource material involved – a tabletop RPG that’s been running for decades – that disappoints me. But there are upsides to this approach.

The things I like, then: Bloodlines 2 wastes no time making you feel cool. You do not wake as a fledgling vampire but an elder one who’s been asleep for a hundred years. From the moment you take control of this character – a character cringingly called “Phyre” (“fire”), and who likes to announce their name at every given opportunity – you can already do incredible things. You can scramble up walls like a spider, even entire buildings if you plan your route right, and leap off the other side, to the ground, and take no damage. You can move with blur-like vampire speed, float through the air, and punch people so hard they float – well, fly – through the air. You can telekinetically grab at objects and then hurl them wherever you want. You can even telekinetically grab people. There’s no gradual build-up of power here: you are, from the beginning, a beast.

Watch on YouTube

It feels great. There’s a snap and a pace and a wallop to everything you do. Even a small thing like climbing up a ladder is sped-up so that it’s like doing it on fast-forward. And as you start to unlock more powers as you level up, which differ slightly depending on which of the game’s six clans you join – I joined the Brujah clan, which are brawlers – the action gets more ridiculous still. (Note: two of the clans you have to pay to unlock, which is grubby.) I have a Lightning Punch ability that rapidly strikes, countless times, anyone who I ‘mark’ nearby to be punched. I pulverize them in a blur of action. I have a charge that makes me thunder towards anyone in my path and pick them up and slam them into whatever I’m running towards. Tactility: there’s a lot of it here.

This is the upside to the game’s somewhat obvious action focus. The more linear approach to levels and situations also means areas have been shaped specially to encourage entertaining, platformer-like traversal, and that they’ve been decorated to a high degree because designers know where the level you’ll be. Take the derelict building you wake up in, for example: there’s only one route through it as you work your way onto the roof, away from inquisitive police, so visually, the crumbling ruin of the place is writ large all around you. Developer Chinese Room showed what flair it has for environmental storytelling in Still Wakes the Deep, on that wonderfully touchable and dilapidated 1970s oil rig, and you can see that expertise here too. The dimly lit griminess of it. The posters on the wall. The graffiti. The walls smeared in blood. It’s exactly the atmosphere a Bloodlines game begs for. The detail in your home-base apartment, a kind of disgusting, makeshift laboratory, is incredible.

This is the male version of the main character Phyre, who I don’t think you can structurally customise. You can change his hair and piercings and clothing but not completely customise who you are. I guess it’s for cinematic reasons. He’s a bit annoying. | Image credit: Paradox / The Chinese Room

Nice though they are to look at, in these areas there’s little you can actually interact with – a problem that carries right across the game. Take the city of Seattle, for instance, where the game’s set. It looks nice, caught as it has been in heavy snowfall, and moody in the dark, lit by pools of streetlight or car headlights. But the only doors you can interact with are the ones that lead to specific quest objectives, of which there are only one or two in the preview build, and the only people you can interact with… Well, you can utter a few words to some people, in an effort to lead them into an alley to drink their blood, which regenerates health or regains special ability charges, or earns you a kind of upgrade currency, but that’s about it. For the most part, it feels like a place filled with non-interactive extras.

This feeling extends to the building environments you enter. There’s a hotel lobby that’s full of people at a Christmas do, but I can’t interact with any of them. Then, when I get to the more gamey areas of the hotel, which are where I’ll fight some packs of low-level vampires – thugs, really – there’s no one else around. These halls and corridors are mostly empty with only occasional clusters of enemies there. It’s a bit dull. Even the more central characters don’t inspire much excitement when you meet them. They’re nice enough to look at but predictable to the point of stereotype – with exception of Tolly, a disfigured nosferatu who injects much needed humour and charisma – and the interactions with them feel stiff. There’s not much intrigue in the dialogue. You can provoke reactions, such as arousal or embarrassment or annoyance, which suggests these things mean something in a gameplay sense, but how that plays out is unclear for now from what I’ve played.

I wasn’t allowed to take my own screenshots so I’ve had to use these supplied ones, which don’t really show the game in action very well. All the same, they highlight some of the nice lighting and atmosphere and character design, which can be very striking. | Image credit: Paradox / The Chinese Room

Thankfully the story does have some intrigue of its own – it’s literally embedded in you. You wake with not so much a voice in your head as a whole other personality, who happens to be – bizarrely but brilliantly – a noir-style private investigator, which prompts an amusing clash of styles between him and his overly dramatic inner monologues, and your surliness. It also allows you an on-board narrator who can explain the world as you adventure through it. Actually, the best part of the preview came when inhabiting the PI-style character through a memory of his, because he had access to a different range of vampire abilities – mind-affecting ones. The gameplay challenge here became extracting information through dialogue from characters who didn’t necessarily want to give it, which was much more interesting than rote battles with uninspiring packs of vampire thugs. It was a glimpse at the sort of thoughtful dialogue interaction I had hoped the game would have.

Look, there’s still hope. This, it’s worth remembering, is a preview build of a game still a couple of months from release, and it’s only the start of the experience – the part that typically lays some ground rules before opening up and letting you do what you want to do. I fully expect this empty-feeling Seattle playground to populate with places to go and people to meet. At least, I hope that’s the case. But I also expect a preview build to be designed to showcase the best parts of the game I’m previewing, and for the beginning of a game to grab and dazzle a player, and convince them to stick around. I did enjoy some of what I played, and I’m willing to give it another go. But I wasn’t grabbed or dazzled.

I’m always wary of critiquing a game for what it’s not, rather than meeting it where it is – and just to emphasise, the focus on action here makes plenty of sense. But this is a sequel to a cult RPG after all, and one based on a major tabletop RPG to boot. In this case it feels valid to crave a little more role-playing, a little more texture and depth to the game’s people and conversations. And so for now, a question mark remains.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Ghost Of Tsushima’s Underrated Multiplayer Mode Comes Back For Yotei

by admin August 20, 2025

Ghost of Yōtei Legends will bring multiplayer to Sony’s fall blockbuster, though not until next year. The cooperative online mode will arrive as free DLC sometime in 2026.

For anyone unfamiliar with the mode from the original game, Legends was a multiplayer spin-off for Ghost of Tsushima that had players team up online to take down mythical challenges in a new series of story missions, fight off waves of enemies in a horde-like survival mode, or compete with other players to see who could rack up the highest score. There were character classes, difficulty ranks, and unlockable cosmetics. It was one of those multiplayer add-ons to a single-player adventure that was way better than it had any right to be.

A PlayStation Blog post suggests things will work pretty much the same in Ghost of Yotei Legends, though this time the story missions will revolve around teaming up to take down members of the Yōtei Six, the main antagonists of the single-player campaign. They’ll be accompanied by new enemies, however, and presumably have other, more challenging tricks up their sleeves. The return of the survival mode is also confirmed, though it’s currently unclear if that will include the 2v2 contest option as well. It sounds like Sucker Punch will reveal more details once Ghost of Yotei is out on October 2.

The original Ghost of Tsushima multiplayer mode was one of Sony’s more successful first-party forays into live-service content. Its popularity among fans made it seem like a slam dunk impressive enough to justify a full-blown standalone spin-off game. But despite the literal billions Sony has poured into trying to get a fleet of live-service games off the ground, Legends hasn’t been among the projects released or canceled, at least that we know of. If anything, the success of Elden Ring Nightreign proves there’s definitely players out there who want innovative co-op riffs on traditional single-player games. We’ll see if Ghost of Yotei Legends can satisfy some of that pent-up demand when it arrives next year.

Source link

August 20, 2025 0 comments