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Grounded

As Battlefield 6 commits to ‘keeping it grounded’ with skins, Call of Duty director makes an unconvincing promise to ‘calibrate’ cosmetics in Black Ops 7

by admin August 19, 2025

We’re set for another Call of Duty vs. Battlefield face-off this year, and it’s already been fascinating to watch how these two military shooters present themselves. When it comes to one of the most incendiary topics in multiplayer games at the moment, the rising prevalence of goofy Fortnite-style skins, Call of Duty has become the poster child of ugliness run amok.

The growing exhaustion over incongruent cosmetics that erode Call of Duty’s art style is what prompted Battlefield Studios’ stance on skins in Battlefield 6: “It has to be grounded. That is what BF3 and BF4 was—it was all soldiers, on the ground. It’s going to be like this. I don’t think it needs Nicki Minaj. Let’s keep it real, keep it grounded.”

Time will tell if Battlefield 6 actually sticks to that mission statement—the allure of tacky crap might be irresistible when enough players are eager to buy them—but it’s telling that, given the same opportunity to renew its stance on cosmetics, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 developers were decidedly wishy-washy about the whole thing.

“We have thought about this, and I think if you look at us, we’re always looking at community feedback”, Treyarch associate creative director Miles Leslie told IGN in an interview ahead of today’s Blops 7 reveals.

“We always try to make sure that we are trying to touch the widest audience. I’ve had the pleasure of working on Call of Duty now for almost 20 years, and we’re constantly looking at ways to push into different audiences and fans, and that’s what you saw with that; there are fans that really love it. Obviously, there are fans who those may not be their favorite. We’re going to try to calibrate that as we move forward, and we take that feedback seriously. But again, we are trying to make sure that all fans feel represented in the game and figuring out that tight balance is something we’re paying attention to.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Direct – YouTube

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It’s the usual marketing-approved gobbledygook that almost sounds like something meaningful was said, but wasn’t: Activision has heard the complaints, is taking them “seriously,” and will “calibrate” going forward.

What sort of calibration it has in mind is open to interpretation, and non-specific enough that Blops 7 can still comfortably cash in on collaborations with cartoons, ’80s action heroes, and Amazon Originals without going against its stated stance.

My read on it is that, while Call of Duty’s full-bodied embrace of goofy skins probably isn’t loved by many of the developers actually creating the art that gets slopped over by the Store tab, the backlash is not a particularly pressing concern for Activision at large. There are two sides to this, after all—lots of people enjoy uglifying their operators (to the tune of $20 per bundle).

There’s another wrinkle to Blops 7’s “calibrated” cosmetic plan: Starting with Season 1 of Blops 7, all weapons and cosmetics from Black Ops 6 will carry forward, inviting a tidal wave of fashion nightmares introduced over the previous 12 months to the new game.

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August 19, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Grounded 2 will have less frequent, much larger early access updates

by admin June 21, 2025

Obsidian will be shaking up its early access strategy for the release of Grounded 2 next month. Rather than the monthly micro-updates that were the norm when Grounded launched, the developer has decided that something more like every four to five months will be the norm.

In an interview with GamesRadar, Grounded 2 game director Chris Parker laid out the studio’s thinking.

“When we started with Grounded 1 in early access, we were trying to do almost monthly updates. That was a hassle and it didn’t work. It didn’t make the community happy and it didn’t make the team happy. So we are looking at longer, meatier updates that are in the four to five month range,” he said.

It’ll more directly mimic what Obsidian’s strategy was later on in the first Grounded’s early access development cycle, “where the team was getting out a huge chunk of whatever area of the yard, with all-new creatures, armor, new equipment, new mechanics, or whatever it might have been,” said Parker.

Grounded 2 will also include more of a storyline to follow, he noted. The team wants to preserve the fun survival-build experience of the first game but at the same time wants there to be some “narrative flair” to follow along with. That shouldn’t be impossible, I expect, given that Obsidian is much better known for making heavily story-driven roleplaying games rather than survival craft sandboxes.

You can find more about Grounded 2 on our page for that, which is conveniently called everything we know about Grounded 2.

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June 21, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Grounded 2: Key details and latest news, summarized by humans

by admin June 20, 2025

Grounded 2 is just around the corner, and it’s looking like you can expect big things from this tiny survival-crafter.

Five years after its predecessor entered early access, Grounded 2 was announced at the recent Xbox Games Showcase and promised to deliver even wilder miniaturised adventures for fans of the original game. Hey, we’re even wandering beyond the confines of the back yard this time.

I’ve brought together all the need-to-know info on Grounded 2, so you can stay up to date with all the key details on the upcoming sequel. Whether you’re looking to be filled in on Grounded 2’s early release date, gameplay, story, or story, it’s all here.

Grounded 2 release date and platforms

Early access for Grounded 2 begins July 29 on PC and Xbox Series X|S, meaning it really won’t be long until you’re ant-sized and battling bugs once again. That said, it’s difficult to say exactly how long the game will be in this early access period.

Grounded spent about two years in Xbox Game Preview before the full version’s release in 2022, if that’s anything to go by. However, what’ll really be the deciding factors behind when the 1.0 release drops are how the development team’s early access roadmap pans out, and how the existing build is received by players.

Will Grounded 2 be available on Xbox Game Pass?

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Grounded 2 will be available on PC and Xbox Game Pass during early access. Given that the small print doesn’t specify a particular Xbox Game Pass tier, it’s safe to assume that all subscribers (from Core to Ultimate) will be able to play Grounded 2 as part of their subscription.

When is Grounded 2 coming to Playstation and Switch?

As of yet, there hasn’t been any indication of Grounded 2 coming to Playstation 5 or Nintendo Switch 2. For reference, it took two years after Grounded’s full release for the game to come to a platform other than PC and Xbox. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Grounded 2 receive a similar timed exclusive treatment.

Grounded 2 trailers

Grounded 2 – Official Announce Trailer – YouTube

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Grounded 2 was the big surprise during Xbox’s Summer Showcase this year. We got our first look at the Grounded sequel just over a month prior to its early access release.

The announcement trailer opened with an in-universe TV commercial for a new Yoked Girth toy (Grounded’s silly, muscle-bound parody of He-Man) before cutting into a breaking news segment. Here, we learn that—two years after their original ordeal at the hands of Ominent—the four teens from Grounded have mysteriously vanished.

What the authorities don’t realise is that the teens are still in the park where they went ‘missing’; they’ve just been shrunken to approximately the size of an ant… again. The rest of the trailer shows the teens fighting and exploring through the abandoned park, taking on everything from battling scorpions to climbing giant mountains of ice cream.

Grounded 2 story

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Grounded 2 takes place in 1992, two years after the events of Grounded. As far as the public are concerned, Ominent—the malevolent corporation behind the events of the first game—is undergoing a bit of a redemption arc, as the company dedicates a statue to the four teen heroes that turned Dalton Schmector into the authorities. However, the reality of the situation is a bit more complicated than that.

During the unveiling ceremony in Brookhollow Park, an explosion erupts (a distraction or a malfunctioning SPAC.R?) leading to the apparent disappearance of the kids and Dr. Tully.

In actuality, the teenagers have been shrunken down and are fighting for survival in the grass below everyone’s feet. You take up the role of one of these puny protagonists and work to embiggen yourself once more, all while taking on the deadly threats found within the park and discovering who exactly is behind the plot to shrink you in the first place.

Yeah, yeah. That’s cool and all but will Grounded 2 finally reveal the identity of the fifth teen?

Grounded isn’t all base building and figuring out how to perfect block; there’s a surprising bit of lore too. A lingering question that has bugged players since the release of the first game is who exactly emerged from that fifth slot in the kid case. While the remains of a camp that seemingly belonged to the fifth teen in the first game, their fate is unknown. We don’t even know if they survived the challenges of the backyard.

That said, there are some clues that suggest the missing fifth kid might play a role in Grounded 2. For one, the Steam page for the game reads, “something else is out there, and it hasn’t forgotten you,” which leaves room to theorise that the fifth kid could’ve survived to hold a grudge against the other four for leaving them behind. So, we might see the fifth teen in Grounded 2… but they could be a friend or a foe.

Grounded 2 gameplay

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

While Grounded 2’s gameplay will feature the same mix of building, exploration, combat, and survival, there are a couple of key changes in the sequel that we’ve already gotten a glimpse at.

For starters, Grounded 2’s map is three times bigger than the first game’s. With such a big world to explore, your little legs can only take you so far before your stamina starts to take a hit. To help lighten the load and get you where you need to go faster, Grounded 2 introduces a new variety of insect mounts called buggies.

Alongside helping you to get from A to B(ee), buggies also offer support with exploration, building, and combat, with each species having its one set of unique abilities. We haven’t gotten a full picture of every kind of buggy the game will include, but we do know you definitely can pop a saddle on a red ant or opt to ride an orb weaver spider for some hardcore arachnophobia exposure therapy.

Another new addition in Grounded 2 is the Omni-tool. While inventory management may be some folks’ idea of meditation, it can also be an unwelcome distraction from the real business of surviving and/or crafting. To save you the hassle of juggling a shovel, an axe, a hammer, and a wrench in your backpack all at once, Grounded 2 graces players with the Omni-tool, which does the job of all four tools in one.

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June 20, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Obsidian Entertainment has big ambitions for Grounded 2’s small world

by admin June 16, 2025

Obsidian Entertainment has been an incredibly versatile game developer over the years, even venturing outside its RPG comfort zone with the original Grounded. As a survival adventure game where you’re shrunken down and explore the hidden, vast world of a backyard, it became a well-loved hit, and it evolved even further throughout its early access period. But now, the developers have big plans for Grounded 2, which has new features and a larger scope that was too big for the original to contain.

Shortly after the reveal during the recent Xbox Games Showcase alongside Summer Game Fest 2025, I got to play the opening of the sequel, which sees the familiar crew of teenage scavengers, now a little older and wiser, shrunken down once again to survive a new small world hidden in the town’s park. Even as a new iteration of a familiar premise, which is essentially the survival gameplay of Rust by way of the whimsical Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Grounded 2 is already showing some promise as the bigger and better sequel.

Grounded 2, which will also launch in early access, already feels like a bigger game, even from the confines of the tutorial zone. For starters, there’s a larger focus on building up the experience of the four teenage scavengers and how they fit into the larger story. It’s not quite Yellowjackets when it comes to teen drama, but the crew exploring the small world of the park have colorful language and quips at their disposal. There’s a generally stronger sense of personality in Grounded 2, which is bolstered by some more character-driven writing and opportunities to take in the lore of the company responsible for the experiments in town.

The experience of playing Grounded 2, much like the original and other survival games, is all about gathering resources from the land and acquiring knowledge to stay alive. Along with collecting materials to build weapons, armor and structures, you’ll also have to keep your characters fed and hydrated. You’ll also need to defend yourself against the various critters roaming about, such as the ants and the spiders. Also returning is the arachnophobia accessibility option to make them appear less disturbing for players. Thankfully, you can now use a dodge to avoid attacks – a first for the series – and combat is generally more responsive and fair.

Grounded 2 feels like a more well-rounded and refined take on the original, which is a solid game in its own right. One great addition that I got to play with was the new ant mount, or buggy, as the devs call it. You’ll be able to ride on top of a friendly ant that can attack enemies, move faster throughout the world, and even collect material far more quickly than the human scavengers.

Obsidian Entertainment

Shortly after my hands-on experience, I sat in on a roundtable discussion with game director Chris Parker and producer Miles Winzeler from Obsidian Entertainment, who explained how early access feedback from players helped bring the game to its current state. In order to fully implement their vision for Grounded, though, they would need a new game.

“Almost everything in Grounded 2 comes from feedback from the community that we had gathered from the first game,” Parker said. “We had to look at what was important to work on with the sequel. People always want more stuff to do. They wanted to have the buggies, which was a huge one and our number one most requested feature from out the gate on Grounded 1. We then had to work on new creatures, armor and weapons, among other things. How can we further develop our progression systems? So those were all the things that we took on from the beginning for Grounded 2.”

Grounded 2 felt like a more fully realized game, which leveraged years of work on the original. Along with a more developed story campaign focusing on helping the kids survive the portion of Brookhollow Park they have to explore – which is more than three times the size of the original’s map – The game will also launch with creative mode, which was a popular feature that let players focus on exploring and building up structures at their leisure.

Obsidian Entertainment

“We’re always trying to challenge scale and how we can create a sense of awe and mystery by having something that’s supposed to be normal but is now this gigantic thing,” Parker said. “That’s always the fun when making this game.”

I really took to the added scope of Grounded 2. Not just as a shrunken person trapped on the grounds of a park but also for the new features and ideas at work for the sequel. With the game coming out in July for early access, Grounded 2 has already got me invested in making a return visit to this small world with big ambitions.

Grounded 2 will release in early access on July 29 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

3 things I liked and 2 I didn’t after 30 minutes with Grounded 2

by admin June 12, 2025

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but it’s the year of Obsidian: Microsoft’s fastest-working studio already has one 2025 RPG under its belt in Avowed, and it’s putting out another one in October with The Outer Worlds 2. Completing the trifecta of 2025 Obsidian launches is Grounded 2, the odd duck of the portfolio. Not only is it a survival game rather than an RPG, but it’s also the only Obsidian series that gets to release in early access.

Grounded 2 was one of the meatier demos I went hands-on with at Summer Game Fest. Microsoft let me loose at the beginning of the game with a timer, so I sped through the tutorial and made it to the new open world map ASAP—a city park that, when shrunk down to the size of an ant, looks like an alien planet.

I never got around to the original Grounded, so my impressions of the sequel might have some overlap with the first game. Below are a handful of likes and dislikes after 30 minutes with Grounded 2.

Cool 👍 – Ant mounts

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Mounts are new to Grounded 2, and they were by far the standout feature of my demo. Obsidian calls its rideable bugs “buggies”, and they’re a lot more than just a faster way to get around. The ant buggy I rode, which Obsidian spawned in since you don’t usually get mounts so early in the game, could run, sprint, attack, and crucially, carry around stacks of huge grass blades for construction projects.

I got the sense that hatching your first buggy is a big moment in Grounded 2, like building a sub in Subnautica or hatching a dinosaur army in Ark. Once you have a buggy, you’ll never be roaming alone again. Yes, you can pet them.

Meh 👎 – Combat

(Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment)

Seeing the combat from the original Grounded in action is one of the reasons I never played it. Grounded 2 did not feel like a huge step up. Stabbing tiny ants with a makeshift spear was slow, janky, and lacked any satisfying feedback. Of course, I only messed with the weakest stuff in the tech tree, so maybe there’s a sick plasma ray I can craft after 20 hours, but I don’t think killing stuff will be the highlight of Grounded 2.

(Image credit: Obsidian)

The first tool you pick up in Grounded 2 is also the last one you’ll ever need. Like the Gerber multitool my dad kept clipped to his belt my entire childhood, the Omni-Tool is a shovel, axe, wrench, and hammer all in one. Unifying all the tools sounds like the sort of simplification that would annoy survival fans, but I think it’s more about freeing up inventory space for less permanent resources. You still need to enhance each individual tool through an upgrade tree.

Meh 👎 – Voice acting

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Adults doing their best impressions of young teens ain’t doing it for me. The nasally whine of the character I chose, Max Smalls, was so over-the-top that, 10 minutes in, I wondered if there’d be an option to turn off all dialogue in the final game.

Cool 👍 – Brookhollow Park

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

Surely the whole “whoa, everything is big” trick will feel like any old day in the park for returning players, but I spent a lot of my demo time craning my neck up and admiring the scale of Obsidian’s shrunken world. Chopping down grass “trees”, slurping up individual dewdrops, and climbing random pieces of litter like they’re mountains felt like stepping into a Bug’s Life.

Obsidian says the opening area of Grounded 2 is the size of the entire Grounded 1 map, which is exciting. You’ll definitely need more ground to cover with the speed boost of buggies. I didn’t manage to reach the edge of the map before my demo was over, but I made it far enough to find what might be the chillest part of the map, a roughly 3ft by 5ft tunnel running under a couple of wooden boards.

Despite being revealed last, Grounded 2 is coming sooner than The Outer Worlds 2. Early access begins July 29 on all platforms (except PlayStation) with a large chunk of the final map (but not all of it) and the first chapter of its story.

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June 12, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Grounded 2 will have an arachnophobia mode, even for its rideable spiders

by admin June 11, 2025

I used to think arachnophobia was overblown. Okay, you’re scared of spiders, whatever, get over it. Then one day, many years ago, I saw what happened when my boss at the time—a genuine arachnophobe—came within inches of touching a small spider as he was walking through a doorway. It was as if someone had mashed up an Olympic 100 meter dash, John Travolta’s most frenetic disco moves, and the inhuman noises of a mutant demon from the fifth dimension tearing through the fabric of reality as it crawled into our own world, and then stuffed it all down the throat of my very surprised, very distressed pal—all of it over a spider you could barely see without squinting. And on that day, I was convinced: Okay, maybe there is something to this arachnophobia thing.

Respect for arachnophobia has also taken on greater importance in videogames in recent years, as a growing number of games either launch with or add arachnophobia modes, accommodating players who simply cannot tolerate being in the presence of spiders. Grounded was one of them, and speaking to Polygon, game director Chris Parker confirmed that Grounded 2 will have an arachnophobia mode as well.

The arachnophobia mode in Grounded 2 will be based on the one established in the first game, which according to PC Gamer’s favorite spider-hater Mollie Taylor is quite good: It actually offers a slider that lets players adjust how spider-like they want the in-game critters to be, to the point that they can be turned into near-literal balloon animals.

Grounded 2 has “more challenges,” because spiders can be used as mounts. Parker said applying an effective arachnophobia mode to a rideable spider is “tricky,” but probably not as bad as you might think—and it sounds like the team is largely sticking with what worked in the first game.

“We really just go onto the skeleton and put cute-looking spheres where claws and eyeballs and abdomens used to be,” Parker said. “And as long as we take it far enough away from that eight-legged insect, that seems to work for people. So yeah, it’s not all that crazy.”

For the benefit of players who aren’t full-on arachnophobes but still get a little creeped out by the hairiest, hissy-est eight-legged crawlers, Parker also said developers at Obsidian are careful not to go too hog-wild with its in-game creations. “I think in general, we try to just push that as hard as we can, and at some point we go, ‘Oh, I think we pushed this too far.’ And we do bump into certain assets that we’ve created where we’re like, ‘Well… I don’t really know. Let’s take that out.’ Or, ‘Let’s put it in there, and see what user research has to say about it.’

“Now that we’re finally able to talk about the game and we’re going into early access, we can talk to the community about it. But those are the kind of conversations that we want to have with the community out there, see what they have to say about it too.”

Grounded 2 is set to launch into early access on July 29 and is available for wishlisting now on Steam.

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June 11, 2025 0 comments