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Black Ops 7’s co-op campaign culminates in a DMZ-like ‘Endgame’ activity for 32 players in an open-world map, plus it has unlockable weapon camos
Game Updates

Black Ops 7’s co-op campaign culminates in a DMZ-like ‘Endgame’ activity for 32 players in an open-world map, plus it has unlockable weapon camos

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Call of Duty is aiming for its next campaign to be a part of the “connected” experience of the overall live-service game, starting with Black Ops 7.

During a media briefing event last week, Treyarch revealed that the BO7 campaign is playable for up to four players in co-op, played over 11 standard, explosive set-piece missions. Not only that, but you will be able to unlock campaign-specific weapon camos (including four Mastery camos), reticles, player cards, and other cosmetics, all while earning XP to progress your overall level and even individual battle passes. There will even be daily and weekly challenges to complete.

Image via Activision

The campaign stars David Mason and his Spectre One team, including Mike Harper, Eric Samuels, and newcomer Leilani Tupuola, with support from BO6 character Troy Marshall who is now several decades older in this story. Some sort of red, hallucinogenic gas seems to be the main catalyst for weird visions and trippy missions, given what little gameplay I was shown.

Once that story’s 11 standard missions are completed, however, a new “Endgame” experience will unlock, featuring an open-world Avalon map for up to 32 players to explore and fight enemies in. Gamers will be able to fly into the battle royale map-like zone to fight AI soldiers and robots, complete missions, and rank up their operators with new abilities and a level-up system called Combat Rating.

Increasing your Combat Rating (max level 60) will give players access to higher-tier areas of the map, but here’s the catch: if you die, you wipe and have to start all over again, similar to games like Modern Warfare II’s DMZ mode or Escape From Tarkov. That’s right, wiping as a squad will reset your progress for that operator.

Each individual, playable operator also has their own abilities and skill specializations that can be unlocked and leveled up, such as a Grapple Hook, Mega Jump, or Drone Charmer that spawns quad-rotor drones to take down enemies.

Treyarch says that Endgame will be the “final proving ground where all of your campaign progress is tested in a new environment.” Progress is tied to “shutting down Guild activities” as you “move into the hardest regions.”

Image via Activision

A lot about Endgame is still being kept secret for now, but players looking to expand their BO7 experience and unlock everything it has to offer may find some real fun in this new co-op experience to play alongside multiplayer and Zombies modes.

BO7 launches for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC later this year.

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Elden Ring Nightreign Libra on purple background looking at camera with goggle eyes
Product Reviews

15 attempts in, I actually love that Elden Ring Nightreign’s Everdark Libra is the first FromSoftware boss who’s harder to beat in co-op than solo

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The handshake deal in FromSoftware games, the obfuscated difficulty option that’s always been there since Demon’s Souls, is co-op: Summoning phantoms controlled by other players or the computer⁠. In OG Elden Ring everybody’s best friend was the Mimic Tear, a powerful summon to make a copy of yourself to fight by your side.

This has held true in the co-op centric, roguelike spinoff Nightreign, with the sturdy tripod of a full party clearly being what the experience was catered towards. The new duos mode is nice enough but still slightly compromised, while even with post-launch patches, solo is still the worst way to play.

But now they’ve gone and turned all that on its head: The latest Everdark superboss, the ultra instinct version of Baphomet dealbroker Libra, only gets more challenging the bigger your posse is. I managed to take him down solo after just three runs, while I’m somewhere north of 15 attempts deep in duos and trios, a W still evading me at every turn.


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Everybody hates Everdark Libra. My peer, Austin Wood at GamesRadar, thinks he’s “100% getting nerfed.” Just like with the similarly loathed Everdark Augur, I disagree. I love this sick freak of a boss and how he turns all the rules on their heads.

To make Everdark Libra easier would compromise the beautiful vision at his core, the product of a sensitive, poet’s soul that’s clearly been hurt by this cruel world of ours and wants to inflict that pain right back. We’re all letting Libra down. Champions adjust. Spoilers for Everdark Libra below.

Make your choice

Yeah man, we get it. (Image credit: FromSoftware)

Libra’s already a real piece of work in his base form, tied with end boss Heolstor as the hardest in the game by my reckoning. He has an arsenal of unusual, difficult-to-read projectile attacks that all build up the madness status effect, which does huge damage and a stun if you manage to survive the initial burst.

His signature move is a delayed blast sigil that brutalizes you with madness build-up after a quick beat. It comes out fast enough that you can’t exactly respond to it carefully and can get royally screwed if you’re in the middle of an animation, while a slight delay punishes immediate panic rolling. It is deliciously evil.

Libra’s Everdark form ups the ante by summoning invader clones of the player party with all the same abilities and a number of potential weapon loadouts thoughtfully constructed to inflict the most pain and frustration. Some of my favorites:

  • Mini Malenia Executor: Equipped with the Hand of Malenia Sword and can perform a weaker, but still potentially instant-death version of Waterfowl Dance. Yes, that Waterfowl Dance.
  • Terminator Ironeye: Possesses the Jar Cannon and One-Eyed Shield (which has a built-in cannon), as well as a seemingly-permanent buff resembling the Ironjar Aromatic: He walks extremely slowly but is extra tanky and can’t be interrupted.
  • Sniper Wylder: Uses a greatbow to spam the Rain of Arrows ash of war, doing crazy damage in a huge AoE from long distance.
  • Rot Duchess: Dual wields Scorpion’s Stinger daggers for fast Scarlet Rot buildup.

Much like the player-style NPC enemies of FromSoft’s previous games, they don’t play by the same rules that you do: Malenia-Executor is particularly difficult to interrupt out of his signature move, while all of the clones are capable of dodge rolling out of attack combos a normal player could not.

The pièce de résistance is how they shuffle in: It does not feel like Libra has a consistent timer for summoning a fresh wave of evil twins. Wiping them out is not a guarantee of breathing room to DPS the boss, while it’s far more likely for them to start piling up as you fail to clear out old ones before the new clones spawn in.

The final indignity is that Libra summoning a new wave heals any surviving invaders, buffs their defense and damage, and the buffs stack. A veteran six rounds deep Executor spamming Waterfowl Dance is who I wish I was playing as.

All of this while Libra has new, more aggressive madness-inflicting AOE attacks to fling at you. A mature Everdark Libra fight is pure chaos, a field of evil clones glowing gold with layered buffs, some attacking each other, but most chasing you around like it’s Yakety Sax while Libra turns the field into a bullet hell screen. It’s utterly deranged. I don’t know how a group of randos with no coordination is supposed to beat it. It’s hilarious.

The time is ripe

The Gamer’s Gambit. (Image credit: FromSoftware)

Whether fully intentional or not, FromSoft’s classical deferred difficulty system works in reverse with Everdark Libra. It’s like a martial arts movie thing or Bruce Wayne climbing out of Bane’s house without the dang rope or something: If the enemy draws its strength from you, make yourself weaker.

Not only is one evil twin far more manageable than triplets, the singleplayer mode’s adjusted health values mean they go down quicker too. Even in the solo runs I failed, I didn’t experience the chaotic pileups of a three-player slugfest.

This inversion is another example of how flexible and surprising FromSoft’s well-worn systems can still be. Yet another boss in Nightreign is challenging in a way that took me off-guard, that wasn’t just another really tall, sad guy with a sword who moves super fast.

That has me even more excited for what the studio does next: After Promised Consort Radahn in Shadow of the Erdtree, I was worried there might be a ceiling to FromSoft’s arms race with itself to make ever greater twitch reflex challenges in its bosses. In Nightreign, the studio sidestepped this issue, proving there’s nothing stopping it from delivering spectacles, challenges, or sheer curveballs we just won’t see coming.

As for the fight itself, it’s a new favorite. Everdark Libra feels like a joke at my expense, a prank played on us players. That’s one of my favorite things to see in a game, and FromSoft is the master when it comes to this rare art.

Could they ease off the gas with the clone spawns just a touch? Maybe, it depends on how soon you ask me after a failed run. Is it kinda bullshit that Vyke’s War Spear, the only melee weapon Libra is weak to, is such a rare drop that I’ve only seen it twice in 111.8 hours (but who’s counting)? Perhaps.

I hope they never nerf Everdark Libra. He’s so stupid. It’s all so meanspirited. I love him like a son.



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climbing in peak
Esports

Viral co-op game Peak was mostly made in just four weeks: “We locked in”

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Breakout indie hit ‘Peak’ has been all the rage on Steam of late, and it turns out the mega-popular co-op climbing game was mostly made in just four weeks. As the developers put it, they simply “locked in.”

Every so often, a new indie game comes around that shatters expectations. From 2023’s Lethal Company to 2024’s Content Warning, and even the likes of R.E.P.O. most recently, these titles – often revolving around chaotic multiplayer situations – have blown up on the internet.

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Now, the latest game to replicate that success is Peak. While at first, it caught on for the humor in its name, thousands began to realize there’s real potential in the game itself. The idea is simple. Join up with friends online and climb a mountain together. With each day, however, there’s a new mountain to scale, meaning all-new challenges to overcome.

It’s become a smash hit on Steam, reaching a peak of over 100,000 concurrent players and has quickly sold over a million copies too.

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So, where did this viral success come from? Well, it turns out the developers hustled for the better part of four weeks to piece the majority of it together.

Peak is a breakout success, with the indie co-op climbing game selling 1 million copies in a week with almost no marketing

The game has gone viral because people can’t stop joking about the name pic.twitter.com/KCsrv160xp

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) June 22, 2025

Peak was mostly made in just four weeks

Amusingly enough, the motivation behind Peak stemmed “mostly from jealousy,” as studio head Nick Kaman told PCGamer. It was actually one of those aforementioned games, Content Warning, that spurred the team at Aggro Crab on.

The studio was on the verge of releasing Another Crab’s Treasure, a charming yet ever-so-punishing underwater Soulslike that took them over three years to develop. While the game did well for the team, seeing other projects like Content Warning gave them pause.

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Why spend over three years on a game for it to do decently, when “Content Warning was a much bigger success [and] one made in much less time,” as Kaman said.

LandfallWithout the success of Content Warning, we never would’ve had Peak.

Inspired by the very same trajectory, a handful of Aggro Crab developers packed their bags and traveled to Seoul. There, they plugged in their computers and well, “locked [the f**k] in for a month.

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“Basically any given moment was either working on Peak or getting food while talking more about Peak,” Kaman explained. “While it was pretty intense, it was also the most fun I’ve ever had working on a game.”

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Of course, the entire co-op experience wasn’t finalized in that stretch, but the majority of the game had indeed come together in the form we now see on Steam today. Evidently, their hustle paid off.





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A screenshot of the protagonists from Split Fiction
Product Reviews

Split Fiction Switch 2 review: an absurd co-op adventure that just needs some refinement on Nintendo’s new handheld

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Releasing a follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed It Takes Two was never going to be easy. But Swedish Hazelight Studios proved it was more than up to the challenge when it released co-op action adventure Split Fiction for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC in March 2025.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2 (and PS5)
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: June 5, 2025 for Switch 2 (March 6, 2025, on other platforms)

Split Fiction took the lauded co-op experience of It Takes Two to a new level, offering more varied environments and gameplay and a lot more explosive (literally, at times) action. Now, the hit co-op adventure has been ported to the Nintendo Switch 2, releasing as part of the new console’s launch lineup alongside titles such as Deltarune, Mario Kart World, and Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition. But does this Switch 2 port of the co-op game manage to maintain the magic?

Mostly, yes. Split Fiction on Switch 2’s brilliantly fun, character-driven story and overall gameplay mechanics remain the same, but there’s a distinctive drop in visual and performance quality compared to the PS5. Pair this with a multitude of confusing local and online co-op play options and a less-than-optimal Tabletop mode experience and there’s some frustrating niggles to this Switch 2 port.


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However, overall, this is a solid port that’s, for the most part, well-suited to the Switch 2’s versatility. Just don’t expect the same level of polish as the other platforms.

Worlds collide

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios)

Split Fiction begins at Rader Publishing, where fantasy writer Zoe and sci-fi writer Mio are summoned, along with others, under the premise that their stories are finally going to be published. What CEO J.D. Rader has up his sleeve, though, is far from a sit-down chat and contract signing. Instead, he introduces “The Machine,” which can create a complete simulation of a writer’s world. While everyone is excited at the prospect of jumping into their stories, with each becoming encased in their individual bubble simulation, Mio is (rightfully) suspicious of the technology and gets in a fight with the staff, only to fall into Zoe’s bubble.

Mio spawns in Zoe’s magical, fantasy world, much to both’s chagrin, alongside a suspicious-looking glitch. When the writers approach the glitch, they’re pulled into Mio’s story, a chaotic sci-fi thriller full of explosives, dogfights, and lasers.

It’s the perfect setup for what you should expect in Split Fiction. With each level, you jump from Zoe’s enchanting fantasy world to Mio’s explosive, sci-fi world – one minute you’re flying dragons and the next you’re lobbing bombs in a cyber game show.

As you’d expect, Mio and Zoe are, on the surface, polar opposites. From the start, Zoe is painted as an optimistic, bubbly daydreamer, while Mio is surly, suspicious, and sarcastic. But, once they realize Rader’s intentions are (as Mio predicted) sinister, they must work together to find all the glitches and escape the simulation.

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

We put a little bit of ourselves into everything we write. Through their adventure, Zoe and Mio discover this is more true than they thought. Their friendship grows as they come face-to-face with the surreal, funny, magical, and darker aspects of their lives that have made their way into their work – allowing them to see they have more in common than originally thought.

This character growth is well-paced, with some emotional twists that you’ll likely see coming a mile off, as the writing isn’t amazing. But it’s the visual interpretations, the worlds, and how they portray the story’s emotional beats that hit hardest. The metaphors may be on the nose at times, but they do help you to understand both writers without the need for words.

But don’t worry, this isn’t a heavy adventure. Instead, Split Fiction carefully walks the line between thrilling action and laugh-out-loud silliness. Its gameplay, too, keeps you guessing. As with It Takes Two, Hazelight isn’t afraid to experiment with different genres and gameplay mechanics here, throwing in platforming, shooting, puzzles, and more, resulting in the perfect formula for co-op partners who struggle to agree on what to play.

A clear split

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios)

While Split Fiction, at its core, is a great game, its Switch 2 port is a noticeable downgrade from its PS5 counterpart – and this is clear from its opening splash screen showing the title. In TV (docked) mode, the splash screen’s blacks are blocky, and the frame rates on the animation are noticeably lower than on PS5. Even sitting on the main menu, I spotted issues before playing, with the shadow renders on the Rader Publishing sign flickering. In-game, the visual drawbacks are apparent, too.

While the cutscenes look alright, the visuals are considerably less polished than on PS5, with character hair textures a bit frazzled at the ends and the graphics overall looking less refined and detailed. It’s not a huge surprise, given Split Fiction on Switch 2 runs at 1080p/30fps, a drastic drop from the 4K/60fps of the PS5. If you’ve not played Split Fiction on another platform, you may not notice these issues, but you’ll likely still clock a few.

During actual gameplay, there’s occasionally a clear blur when characters move quickly, and the shadow rendering is less than optimal, resulting in dark, poorly lit areas and flicking shadows. While the worlds and characters still look good, again, they’re nowhere near as impressive as on PS5. The visual refinement isn’t quite there, which can result in Mio looking a bit like a cartoon character at times. For the most part, this isn’t a huge issue, but the blur and darker areas can make it slightly harder to navigate certain areas where careful footing is critical.

(Image credit: Hazelight)

This is particularly frustrating in Tabletop mode. While the general visual and performance aren’t so obvious when playing in Handheld and Tabletop mode, the shadows are a killer. This is mainly because playing Split Fiction in Tabletop mode is a less-than-optimal experience. Firstly, this is because it’s really hard to see what’s going on on your side of the screen anyway when there are two of you gathered around the screen. In TV mode, I can struggle at times to keep track of my character and their footing, but on a smaller screen, it’s a much bigger challenge, especially when you hit those darker areas.

My partner and I struggled to play Tabletop in our living room, pondering if our 30+-year-old eyes were to blame while also questioning how anyone could play optimally on the go. If we struggled in our living room, huddled up on our sofa to try and see the screen, how feasible is it to play in an airport or on a train? This is exacerbated by the fact that you cannot play Split Fiction with just one set of Joy-Con 2 controllers, like you can with other Nintendo co-op games. Instead, you need to own two sets of controllers to play. This is great if you have another set, but less than ideal if you find yourself needing to shell out $95 / £75 on top of the game price to play with a friend locally.

The audio, however, in TV mode and Tabletop mode is impressively loud and detailed, especially for the latter. So, at least that’s something.

Play nice with others

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios)

Where Split Fiction confused the heck out of me was its numerous co-op play options. Trying to work out who I could play with locally and online and on what platform seriously hurt my head (even with the information boxes beside some). So, here’s what I eventually worked out.

Playing couch co-op with a friend is easy; just select the ‘Play Local’ option. The ‘Play Local Wireless’ option has three choices: ‘Host through Local Wireless,’ ‘Find and join through Local Wireless,’ and ‘Host a game using GameShare.’ Hosting and joining local wireless only lets you play Split Fiction with a friend on Nintendo Switch 2 who is in your vicinity, and doesn’t seem to require an internet connection. It does, however, seem to require your friend to own Split Fiction.

If you want to play Split Fiction with a friend on the original Nintendo Switch, you can’t do this online. Instead, you need to use the GameShare option to stream it to them (the quality will drop a bit more), but they must be in your vicinity. You can also use this option to play with a friend on Switch 2, where you can utilize the console’s GameChat feature, allowing you to see and speak to your friends while you play. Local GameShare doesn’t seem to require an internet connection, nor does the other person need the game, so it’s probably the better option over local wireless.

Playing online, you can make use of Split Fiction‘s Friend’s Pass to play the full game online with a friend who doesn’t own it. All you need to do is select ‘Play Online’, and you can invite your Switch 2 friend. You can also crossplay with those on other platforms (PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S) by entering their EA account name. If you are using the Friend’s Pass, your pal will need to download the Friend’s Pass to their console before you can play.

The number of co-op play options can be a bit overwhelming, and playing with a Switch 2 or current-gen platform player is pretty straightforward, but I was disappointed to not be able to play online with an original Switch friend.

A solid but less-than-optimal experience

(Image credit: Hazelight Studios)

Split Fiction offers the same thrilling fun on Switch 2 as on other platforms, but don’t expect the same level of polish here. While Tabletop mode, in theory, offers the opportunity to take your co-op playthrough on the go, it’s not the most optimal experience, and you’ll likely find playing in TV mode more enjoyable.

Overall, this is a pretty solid Switch 2 port, with some annoying niggles, but I advise picking up this co-adventure on another platform for the best experience all-round.

Should you play Split Fiction Switch 2?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

Split Fiction offers a solid selection of accessibility features. In the Options menu, there is an Accessibility tab that allows you to reconfigure the controls for Mio and Zoe. The options include the ability to change button-bashing prompts and toggle spinning/wiggling prompts, so you just need to hold the button, or they complete automatically, the option to turn on subtitles and closed captioning, the ability to skip gameplay areas, and to reduce enemy damage.

You can also remap controls and make adjustments to the camera and controller rumble under other tabs in this section.

How I reviewed Split Fiction on Switch 2

I played Split Fiction for roughly 18 hours across PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. During my playtime, I completed the main story as well as all the side quests I could find. Having played the game on both platforms, I was able to compare and contrast the experience on PS5 and Switch 2, primarily focusing on the Switch 2 version’s performance, visuals, audio, and overall experience.

I reviewed Split Fiction on Nintendo Switch 2, playing local co-op with my fiancé using a Nintendo Switch 2 Pro controller and a set of Joy-Con 2 controllers. We primarily played in the console’s TV mode with my Samsung Q80T QLED TV, but also played in Tabletop mode to test what effect this mode had on the experience. I tested the GameShare function by sharing my Switch 2 game with my Nintendo Switch Lite and the crossplay functionality by beginning a game between my Switch 2 and PS5.

I also tested whether I could play Split Fiction online with someone with an original Nintendo Switch by trying to GameShare and online play with a friend (this didn’t work).

Split Fiction on Switch 2, first reviewed June 2025

Split Fiction Switch 2: Price Comparison



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FBC: Firebreak.
Product Reviews

FBC: Firebreak review: this co-op Control spin-off seems designed to frustrate

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Why you can trust TechRadar


We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Is FBC: Firebreak meant to be a commentary on the monotony of labor under late-stage capitalism? It’s the only conceivable reason why a developer as esteemed and talented as Remedy Entertainment would create something that’s so fundamentally miserable to play.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, PC
Release date: June 17, 2025

A co-op shooter spin-off set in the weird and wonderful universe of the smash hit Control, FBC: Firebreak seems like it was designed from the ground up to be as frustrating as possible. From its artificially padded progression and small selection of levels to the bland cast of characters and poorly designed player abilities, there’s very little to like here.

Sure, everything technically functions and seems to work as intended with minimal bugs, but that’s damning with faint praise when stacked up against the studio’s past line-up of ground-breaking experiences like Alan Wake 2.


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Out of control

(Image credit: Remedy)

I booted up FBC: Firebreak feeling optimistic, as its core concept is certainly intriguing.

You play as a Firebreaker, specialized agents in the fictional Federal Bureau of Control (FBC) tasked with venturing into abandoned districts of the bureau’s HQ to contain rogue supernatural forces, in a team with up to two other players.

I absolutely adore the portrayal of the FBC in other Remedy games and was excited to learn more about its inner workings and explore new parts of the Oldest House (the mysterious, shifting brutalist skyscraper where the events of this game and Control take place).

Unfortunately, there’s no story content in FBC: Firebreak. You’re introduced to Hank, the leader of Firebreak, and his assistant Jerry, who exchange short quips as you navigate through the main menus, but that, on top of Hank’s occasional guidance during missions, is all you get.

Worse still, the dialogue is never particularly amusing, and the slapstick tone of these interactions feels a tad out of place. Control was not a massively serious game, but FBC: Firebreak really leans into its comedy to its detriment. It’s a game that seems more like it’s trying to ape Borderlands than actually expand on what made the source material so interesting.

It’s also a shame that the playable characters are all generic, masked goons. You can pick from a handful of distinct player voices, but it’s impossible to become invested in protagonists with no other identifiable characteristics.

Even the game’s unlockable cosmetic items fail to help them stand out. There’s nothing appealing about the prospect of grinding for hours in order to unlock a red helmet that nobody is realistically going to notice in an online lobby.

It’s like the developers knew this too, as unlocking cosmetics is often mandatory in order to reveal new shop pages with more useful items.

Dead end job

(Image credit: Remedy)

This is one of many decisions seemingly made to pad out the game’s runtime, which would otherwise be incredibly short.

There are a total of only five missions, or Jobs as they’re called in-game, with each split into three stages. The first two stages are always very basic, often taking just five or so minutes to clear.

They both feel like pointless filler compared to the third, which offers similar but more substantial objectives and sometimes a big boss fight to top it all off. The first two stages are, of course, mandatory as there would be practically no reason to endure them otherwise.

The missions themselves are at least conceptually interesting, but fail to capitalize on their most unique elements in enjoyable ways. Paper Chase, for example, seems like a slam dunk with the novel idea of offices that have been taken over by swarms of supernatural sticky notes.

Sadly, the mission just boils down to mindlessly shooting surfaces covered in sticky notes as an on-screen number showing the remaining notes ticks down for around fifteen minutes.

Best bit

(Image credit: Remedy)

The hub area is home to your living quarters, a few rooms that can be extensively customized by spending a currency obtained on your travels. Placing objects to make the space your own is quite satisfying. Most can also be interacted with to see unique animations.

During every mission, waves of Hiss, humans possessed by a malevolent entity, beam in around you. I can count the number of unique enemies on one hand, with the same few enemy models popping up endlessly with no variation.

Even with the difficulty cranked all the way up, the pacing of these waves feels off-kilter, too, as there are frequent awkward stretches where there are no enemies on screen.

I would be able to forgive most of this if the guns were actually satisfying to use. They aren’t. Generic appearances and sound effects aside, there are just six to choose from.

Poor balancing means that one, the bolt action rifle, is so terrible that you wouldn’t ever want it in your loadout. The pump action shotgun and revolver, in contrast, are by far the most effective of the bunch so there’s no real reason to ever use anything else.

In crisis

(Image credit: Remedy)

Much of the game’s marketing has focused on the Crisis Kits – the three sets of abilities that you can choose in your mission.

There’s the Splash Kit, granting a water cannon that can wash off annoying environmental effects (of which there are several) or put out fires, the Jump Kit with an electrical device for quickly charging generators, and the Fix Kit which lets you quickly repair broken items by swinging a big wrench around.

You can still accomplish all these tasks without the respective kits, but the interactions take the form of highly repetitive button-mashing that gets old quickly. Every mission has some component that can benefit from a particular kit, so there’s no strategy in which one you pick. Each match has three players, so obviously you just need one of each. There are no real advantages or disadvantages of any of the individual kits, either, so it really is as simple as that.

Each kit can be upgraded up to three times to unlock new secondary and special abilities, including a powerful attack that provides a welcome break from the endless shooting.

However, this only feeds into the biggest issue with FBC: Firebreak: the fact that the first hour is unremittingly awful.

For some reason, you start out with broken gear that’s woefully ineffective. The water cannon, for example, can only blast a few drops of water at a time. Similarly, your firearms deal reduced damage. You have to grind through a game after game in this state until you have the currency required to get everything back in working order, not to mention pick up some of those abilities and some perks to boost your stats.

I don’t understand this decision at all, as it just makes for a horrendous first impression. It’s easy to imagine most players downloading the game, experiencing one or two slogging matches with their artificially weakened gear and abilities, and then just uninstalling it to play something more rewarding.

This, unfortunately, makes it very difficult to recommend FBC: Firebreak in its current state. If you could simply log on and play around with everything right away, it might be able to provide a couple of hours of co-op entertainment before the boredom sets in.

As it stands, you’ll be sick of what’s there before even getting to experience its flagship features.

Should I play FBC: Firebreak?

(Image credit: Remedy)

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

There is, unfortunately, no dedicated accessibility menu in FBC: Firebreak. The controls can be fully customized on console, though, and there are a number of options that allow you to toggle actions like aiming down sights. The game features subtitles throughout.

How I reviewed FBC: Firebreak

I played almost ten hours of FBC: Firebreak on PS5 and DualSense Wireless Controller in the build-up to launch using a copy provided by Remedy Entertainment.

I experienced every mission that the game has to offer at least once, trying out multiple weapons and each of the Crisis Kits. I played both solo and multiplayer, using the game’s built-in online matchmaking to play with random players, and participated in a few matches with other reviewers.

Throughout my time with the game, I compared my experience with my time in other online first-person shooter games of a similar scope, including Wolfenstein: Youngblood, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction, and Helldivers 2.

First reviewed June 2025



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Donkey Kong Bananza Features Co-Op And GameShare For Switch 2 and Switch 1 Consoles
Game Updates

Donkey Kong Bananza Features Co-Op And GameShare For Switch 2 and Switch 1 Consoles

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Nintendo released a deluge of Donkey Kong Bananza in a special Direct earlier this morning, including news that the game features local and online co-op and unique GameShare features. Most surprisingly, though, Nintendo Switch 2 owners with Donkey Kong Bananza can use GameShare to let a Switch 1 player join their game and play as Donkey Kong’s companion, Pauline. This means that technically, a Switch player who maybe hasn’t upgraded to Nintendo’s latest console can still check out the game. 

During the Donkey Kong Bananza Direct, Nintendo revealed that you can share a second Joy-Con 2 controller, or a second set entirely, to let another player control Pauline separately from Donkey Kong. They can unleash Vocal Blasts using the Joy-Con 2 Mouse controls. Plus, with GameShare, you only need one copy of the game to participate in the co-op action because you can share Donkey Kong Bananza with another Switch 2 owner. This can be done locally, even to a Switch 1 player, or via an online connection to another Switch 2 owner using GameShare via GameChat. 

GameShare is already a nice consumer-friendly feature, and something we’re glad has returned from the DS era in the Switch 2 generation. The fact that it can be used to play alongside someone on Switch 1 is impressive (especially as people are still tracking down a Switch 2). 

This section of today’s Direct was quick, so there are likely some details still to learn about how this GameShare feature works specifically with Donkey Kong Bananza. We’re excited to learn more soon when Donkey Kong Bananza launches exclusively on Switch 2 next month on July 17. 

While waiting for its release, read Game Informer’s hands-on Donkey Kong Bananza preview, and then watch the game’s reveal trailer. After that, read Game Informer’s Switch 2 review, and then check out our list of the Switch 2 games to play when you’re done with Mario Kart World. 



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Phasmophobia Bleasdale Farm rework images
Gaming Gear

‘It didn’t exist and I wanted to play it’: Phasmophobia’s lead dev got tired of trawling around Steam for a co-op horror puzzle game so decided to just make it himself

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When Larian Studios’ CEO Swen Vincke took the stage at The Game Awards to present Game of the Year he also relayed a bit of advice to other studios: Make a game that you want to play yourself, and your game will do well. Something that Daniel Knight, CEO of Kinetic Games and lead developer, did years ago with Phasmophobia.

“I don’t think there’s any main inspiration [for Phasmophobia],” Knight says in an interview with Andrea Shearon at Summer Game Fest. “The whole reason why I made [Phasmophobia] was because it didn’t exist and I wanted to play it.

“I got impatient waiting for a game to come out. I was constantly looking at the Steam store and waiting for something to come out; there was never anything. So I was like, I’ll just make it myself.”


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Knight also theorises that Phasmophobia’s uniqueness was one of the reasons why it performed so well. I had certainly never played anything like it before, and I’ve played a lot of co-op horror games.

The other reason why I think Phasmo did so well, other than that fact it came out at the end of 2020 when people were still locked inside their homes trying to find new ways to entertain themselves and hang out with friends, was thanks to its odd take on horror games.

(Image credit: Kinetic Games)

Knight also told Andrea during this interview that he doesn’t even really like horror games, nor does he play a lot of them. Phasmophobia was actually made with the intention of creating a VR puzzle game which you could try and solve together with a bunch of your friends. The ghosts and scares all came second to that.

But just having the vision of something you want to create isn’t always enough. “[Phasmophobia] originally was a VR-only game, and I’d worked at a VR company so we did VR things before,” Knight says. “I took that knowledge to make a VR puzzle horror game. At the time there weren’t very many co-op horror VR games, and I was a huge fan of VR, so I just wanted to make something like that.

“But it’s very hard to make a co-op VR game on your own. So I ended up forcing it to be able to play without VR, and then I could get friends who didn’t have VR to help play test it.”

Phasmo does offer a VR mode now, but as someone who doesn’t own an Oculus or any VR kit, I’m very happy that this switch was made. It has meant that I had the chance to experience all the hilarity and horror which comes with hunting ghosts with friends.



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Peak is a small, goofy co-op climbing game from the devs behind Another Crab's Teasure and Content Warning
Game Updates

Peak is a small, goofy co-op climbing game from the devs behind Another Crab’s Teasure and Content Warning

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It’s a crossover episode! Like the great team-ups of the past (Scooby-Doo and Batman, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman), Totally Accurate Battle Simulator and Content Warning developer Landfall, and Another Crab’s Treasure developer Aggro Crab have come to make Peak. As in it’s literally called Peak, not a qualitative descriptor that’s been more widely adopted into Gen-Z slang that you have to Google because you’re not a spring chicken anymore.


Peak is an aptly named game too, as it’s all about climbing mountains. This being a game made by both Landfall and Aggro Crab, this obviously comes with a certain amount of silliness. Your virtual avatar is one that I can only describe as a “little guy”, who you can apparently customise with different outfits and accessories. It’s also playable in co-op, in fact that kind of seems to be the main selling point, but you can go solo too.

our new game PEAK is a climbing game with friends where the slightest mistake can spell your doom🗻

reach the top of the mountain as a group of scouts when it drops JUNE 16‼️ pic.twitter.com/5EADzD6gWd

— AGGRO CRAB 💥 (@AggroCrabGames) June 13, 2025

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The whole goal is to get to the top of the mountain (otherwise known as the peak of the mountain, if I need to spell it out for you), in hopes of being rescued after having crash landed on a mysterious island. There’s four biomes to wade through, and along the way you’ll have to pick up food to keep yourself going. You can get injured too, so unlike the example provided in the trailer above, you probably shouldn’t punt your med kit off the side of a cliff.


Interestingly, a majority of the game was made within a one month game jam, so you shouldn’t necessarily expect infinite content or whatever it is shareholders want these days. It just looks like a silly, goofy way to hang out with some friends for a few hours. It’s also out really soon! June 16th to be precise, so you’ve only got a couple of days to wait. You can wishlist it on Steam here.





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Survival Kids.
Product Reviews

Survival Kids review: a vibrant co-op adventure that lacks meaningful depth

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The Nintendo Switch 2 has finally arrived, and along with it, so have a handful of launch games. Some old, some new, and some, well, they land somewhere between those two categories.

Meet Survival Kids, a cooperative platformer, built on the bones of the 1999 Konami Game Boy Color game of the same name, and developed by the minds behind the wildly popular game engine Unity. Its inception is a mouthful, and yet when it comes to the reality of the game itself, it’s very simple – perhaps too simple.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 6th, 2025

In Survival Kids, you play as a (you guessed it) kid who, after being capsized in a mythic storm, must craft their way across an ancient archipelago in the hopes of escape.


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The twist on this classic survival set-up is that the islands themselves aren’t static and are, in fact, living turtles that can cause the islands to flood. While it’s an interesting premise, Survival Kids commits to a more casual play style, and the submerging occurs only when the player is ready. It’s a reasonable choice for a game built for a younger demographic — I only wish there were multiple game modes for players of all ages, or those who may be more adept.

As you progress, you’ll uncover new biomes and take on chaotic environmental hazards like purple-goo firing turrets and body-barrelling wind tunnels, using earnable tools like fishing rods, trampolines, and comically large leaf fans to best them. Much like the premise, the levels are similarly straightforward and offer an occasionally moreish workload of mindless tasks to complete with friends or by yourself.

Rinse and repeat

(Image credit: Konami)

Every level in Survival Kids begins with a capsizing, and players wash up on the shore of a new island. From this point on, the aim of the game is to consolidate resources and move your base camp to the highest point, where you’ll construct a raft and start the cycle all over again.

The parts you need to complete this objective range from easily-accessible vines and stones (which can be harnessed by chopping down trees or mining rocks) to hidden aeroplane wings and half-buried propeller parts. It’s not as complex as something like Astro Bot by any means, but the diversity of islands and the platforming challenges embedded in them were varied enough to keep me entertained as I continued to explore.

In place of any towering challenges or punishing mechanics, the biggest antagonist you’ll face here is your stamina, which dictates how far you can climb on a climbing net and whether you can unearth objects. To increase your stamina, you need to find and cook food, making sure not to burn your precious meal in your camp’s cooking pot by leaving it on the castaway-hob too long. The more food you load into the pot, the better the quality of the meal, providing you with extra precious stamina.

Beyond staying fed, there aren’t really any stakes to speak of. Sure, you can fall off a cliff and lose your items or fail to wrangle a fish. But you can simply go back and pick them up again or just cast your line at the same fish a second time.

(Image credit: Konami)

You’re never really punished for your mistakes in any meaningful way, which has its pros and cons. By keeping the workload accessible and forgiving, Survival Kids feels like a great introductory game for kids who may not be familiar with the Survival genre. Still, at times, it feels as though it’s underestimating what younger players are capable of, especially when you consider the alternatives on the market like Nintendo’s own appropriately challenging Super Mario Odyssey.

Upon completing a level, you’ll earn stars depending on how quickly you escaped the island or how many collectables — called Treasure Stones — you found in the process. Early on, these stars mean very little, and you can breeze through the game – no questions asked. However, as you near the end, there’s a good chance you’ll need to revisit an island to collect a few more to surpass some star-based progress gates.

With little else to latch onto, Survival Kids often feels a bit dry and lacks the personality to really make its mark. It says something that not even a quirky British narrator can lift the tone. In fact, their chatter quickly started to grate.

Play nice

(Image credit: Konami)

Between island hopping, you’ll also get a chance to customise your cartoon avatar with a selection of kitschy castaway garb. There isn’t a great deal of diversity at first, but it’s plenty to set you apart from your co-op collaborators, and it’s good fun to tweak your hair colour, skin tone, and ocular scenario before hopping into a level. Thankfully, this small pool of outfits is just a jumping-off point, and you can unlock more by completing challenges layered throughout the game.

Alongside meeting the essential crafting criteria, you can complete optional tasks like fishing ten times in a row or cooking with a certain number of ingredients in your pot. By achieving these optional objectives, you can unlock themed outfits to jazz up your mini-me. Many will be achieved automatically as you play, but at the very least, I was pleased to have something else to shoot for outside the confines of the repetitive campaign.

Best bit

(Image credit: Konami)

Survival Kids is at its best when played with friends. Between the simple control scheme and the plethora of comfortably mindless processes to complete, I could chat to my heart’s content without needing to maintain an intense back-and-forth to complete objectives.

Survival Kids can be played in single-player mode, however, it’s just not nearly as much fun as it is when you’re playing with friends. Aside from helping collect loot, the most fun I had was antagonising, and subsequently being antagonised by, my co-op partner. On one occasion, I led my fellow-survivor into a wind tunnel where they were gust into oblivion.

The repercussion was that after spending ages fishing and cooking up a delicious meal, they threw it off the edge and out of my reach. When playing solo, these kinds of light-hearted interactions aren’t possible, and instead, you’re just left with the workload.

It’s clear there’s been an effort to scale things back in solo mode and make the levels more approachable, like reducing the stamina needed to pull up objects. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t make up for the tedious nature of completing the same tasks alone.

When playing through the later levels in the game, I found myself frustrated, not by the turrets shooting me off the map, but rather the boring nature of carting materials back and forth with no help. It’s admirable that the team at Unity wanted to give solo players a chance, but it doesn’t do justice to the obviously communal aspects at the core of Survival Kids‘ gameplay loop.

Should you play Survival Kids?

(Image credit: Konami)

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

In Survival Kids, you can access the settings menu from the main menu or anytime in-game by pressing the pause button and selecting the Options button.

From here, you can toggle on and off subtitles and a level timer, as well as level objective arrows and banners. In the Controls submenu, you can toggle between two layout options. Where audio is concerned, you can use incremental notches to tweak Music, SFX and Narration Volume.

How I reviewed Survival Kids

(Image credit: Konami)

I played Survival Kids‘ main campaign over twelve hours in a mixture of single-player, local co-op, and online co-op.

I used a Switch 2 console in both handheld and docked modes. When docked, I used an LG OLED C2 55-inch TV, with no additional soundbar or external speaker system.

First reviewed June 2025

Survival Kids: Price Comparison



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Black Ops 7 is a sequel to Black Ops 2, and it's bringing co-op campaign back to Call of Duty
Game Updates

Black Ops 7 is a sequel to Black Ops 2, and it’s bringing co-op campaign back to Call of Duty

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Xbox couldn’t end its summer Games Showcase without teasing the next Call of Duty, which, just like rumours and reports have long suggested, is a Black Ops sequel. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is the first consecutive release within the Black Ops series, and it arrives later this year.

Also as expected, the game will be released on last-gen consoles (PS4, and Xbox One) alongside PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. No release date has been announced, but we are going to learn more later this summer.

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Treyarch, and Raven Software once again return to co-develop the game, which is essentially a Black Ops 2 sequel – though it also follows on from the events of Black Ops 6. The headline feature this time around is the ability to play the campaign in co-op, which we’ve not seen since Black Ops 3 a decade ago.

Black Ops 4 did not have a campaign at all, but reports at the time strongly suggested that an ambitious co-op campaign with open maps was in the works, before it got scrapped to make the game’s release date.

As for the trailer, it was the ‘one more thing’ shown at the Xbox Games Showcase. Only the sharpest of Black Ops fans would’ve figured out that it was David Mason being shown exploring some sort of robotics facility – but not everything is as seems. Just like every Black Ops game, Black Ops 7’s narrative will incorporate some mind-bending elements, and we certainly do some of that in the footage.

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The story takes place in 2035, a decade after the events of Black Ops 2. Psychological warfare is the name of the game, and the villan (Menendez) is a manipulator who uses cutting-edge tech to weaponise fear against their enemies.

Black Ops 7 is also bringing back round-based Zombies. As for multiplayer, expect near-future weaponry and a host of new maps – which really makes it a BO2 sequel. A full reveal will take place “later this summer,” but the teams want players to get more time out of Black Ops 6 and Warzone before everyone’s focus shifts to the new game.

Black Ops 7 is a day-one Game Pass game, available at no extra cost to Ultimate, and PC Game Pass members.



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