Tag:

player

Kaleidescape Strato E review: a must-have 4K movie player for home cinema enthusiasts

by admin September 2, 2025

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.

Kaleidescape Strato E: One-minute review

Kaleidescape is a California-based company that has been at the forefront of digital home movies since 2001. While its brand name is likely known predominantly in the custom-install market for those with the space (and budget) for dedicated home theaters, the Strato E represents the most accessible route for anyone wanting to experience the best possible video and sound quality at home.

It’s an entry-level 4K movie player, slotting itself between the Strato M 2K player and the Strato V 4K player. By this, I mean the Strato E supports 4K Ultra HD movies, along with HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR formats and is the cheapest Kaleidescape product to do so. The more expensive Strato V does the same, so to get the Strato E down to a more approachable price, Kaleidescape has dropped the internal storage from 960GB to 480GB and removed a few of the connections from the player’s rear panel.

The limited storage is something any potential buyer should think carefully about, as it’s only enough space to store around six 4K movies, downloaded from the Kaleidescape Movie Store, at any one time. The only way to expand the storage is to invest in one of the company’s Terra Prime servers, but with prices for these starting at $6,955 / £5,910 / AU$12,499, it’s a huge extra expense.

Aside from the players’ abilities, Kaleidescape’s other key selling point is its Movie Store. Not only is it the only way of obtaining content to watch, but it’s a gorgeous and fun interface to interact with. Content is displayed in rows that can be scrolled through quickly, with posters looking vibrant and sharp. It provides plenty of information for each title, including video and sound quality, cast and crew and even Rotten Tomatoes critic ratings. A nifty way of displaying related content also makes it great for discovering new titles.

As with many of the best streaming services, however, the content you have access to depends on where you live. The US gets the best version of the Movie Store, with several titles available to buy and download before they’re released on physical media. While limited, I was happy with the amount of content available in Australia, where I’m based, and I was pleasantly surprised by the cost of movies, which is comparable to (and sometimes cheaper than) 4K Blu-ray discs.

The content looks and sounds stunning via the Strato E. Colors are exemplary, blacks and shadow detail are the best I’ve seen from any home-entertainment source device and Dolby Atmos soundtracks – which are delivered in full lossless audio – more than prove why Kaleidescape demands the money it does. If picture and sound quality are important to you, you’ll notice a night and day difference between what the Strato E can offer compared to what you get from streaming services and, to an extent, 4K Blu-ray discs. You just need to be able to make your budget stretch to do so.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Kaleidescape Strato E 4K Movie Player (Black) at Best Buy for $2,995

Kaleidescape Strato E: Price and availability

Released May 2025
List price: $2,995 / £3,399 / AU$5,299

The Kaleidescape Strato E movie player was released in the US and Australia in May 2025, with a launch in the UK following soon after. It’s available in all three territories from registered dealers and select online sellers.

The Strato E has been introduced as a more affordable, entry-level 4K movie player and now finds itself sitting in the middle of Kaleidescape’s current three-strong lineup, between the Strato M 2K player ($1,995 / £2,395 / AU$3,499) and higher-specced Strato V 4K player ($4,495 / £5,389 / AU$7,999).

At $2,995 / £3,399 / AU$5,299, it’s certainly still a pricey bit of kit, but considering the quality Kaleidescape offers, combined with the fact it has a similar spec sheet as the Strato V, it does present as good value.

One of the key differences between the Strato E and Strato V is the amount of onboard storage – 480GB vs 960GB – and so if you want to download a large library of movies or TV shows, you’ll almost certainly need to factor in the additional cost of one of the company’s Terra Prime servers – which start at $6,955 / £5,910 / AU$12,499 for a 12TB HDD – or make the leap to the Strato V.

Kaleidescape Strato E: Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Built-in storage

480GB SSD

Resolutions

Up to 4K (3,840 x 2,160) 60fps

Bit rate

Up to 100Mbps

Audio support

Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, DTS-HD Master Audio

HDR support

Dolby Vision and HDR 10

Aspect ratios

1.78:1 and 2.35:1 (automatic or user interface selectable)

Connectivity

HDMI 2.1

Dimensions

16.26 x 2.8 x 16.26 cm / 6.4 x 1.1 x 6.4 inches

Kaleidescape Strato E: Design

Excellent build quality
Superb remote app
Limited connections

The Strato E adopts a slightly different aesthetic to the Strato V, yet still very much looks like a premium product. Where the higher-end Strato V is made from anodized aluminum, the Strato E is built with black perforated steel. The perforations allow you to take a peek at the circuitry inside, and upon startup, a blue light glows through them. The light turns off during use so as not to distract you from the main event.

The ventilation afforded by the perforations means the Strato E remains cool and completely silent during use too. It has 480GB of onboard storage, which is enough for around six 4K movies downloaded from the Kaleidescape movie store.

This is my first time experiencing a Kaleidescape product, and, having read reviews of the company’s other models and salivating over various images on its website, I was a little taken aback by just how compact the Strato E was when I opened the box. Its diminutive dimensions make it easy to accommodate in/on TV units, and, thankfully, an optional faceplate is available for mounting onto an equipment rack, along with a dual faceplate for use with a compact Terra Prime server. You’ll likely need the latter if you want to hold on to more than the six 4K titles that you can save locally on the device itself.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Connecting the Strato E to your TV or home theater system is via HDMI only and Kaleidescape provides a THX Certified cable in the box. The only other connections on the rear of the unit are an Ethernet for a wired connection – essential, as there’s no Wi-Fi connectivity – a USB-A port for connecting external storage devices or a disc drive, and the 12V power input. The power cable integrates a brick, and both cables at either end of it are relatively long, so you should have little issue getting everything connected in your space.

A remote control is also supplied. It’s a simple unit, although it adopts a trapezoid shape for a touch of style. It does the job well, although it would’ve been nice for it to have been backlit (my colleague Stephen Withers said the same of the Strato V’s remote), although I spent the majority of my testing using Kaleidescape’s smartphone app.

The latter offers a seamless connection to the player, provides access to the movie store and can be used as a remote to navigate menus. Plus, it has the added benefit of letting you use the phone’s built-in keyboard to type in search terms.

Kaleidescape Strato E: Features

Highest video quality
Full lossless audio
Extra storage options available

With the Strato E effectively arriving as a more affordable alternative to the Strato V, and being capable of supporting 4K HDR content, it’s ultimately designed to offer the best possible video and audio quality of any home entertainment device available. It supports resolutions up to 4K (3,840 x 2,160) at a maximum frame rate of 60p. Dolby Vision and HDR10 support is also here, as is lossless audio, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

The key factor allowing the Strato E to deliver such high quality is that it’s not limited to a file size or bit rate. Compare this to 4K Blu-ray discs that have storage limitations or the best streaming services that compress movies so they can run with minimal buffering, and you start to realize why Kaleidescape movie players command the price tags attached.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

As mentioned earlier, the 480GB of solid-state storage means there’s only enough space for up to six 4K movies, but the Strato E can upscale HD or SD movies to great effect and allow you to save more files in the bargain. For the absolute best quality, however, you’ll want to stick with 4K.

Any movies you buy will remain on your account in the cloud, so if you run out of space and want to download something new, an older movie can be removed from storage to be accessed and downloaded again at a later date.

If you want to build a larger library of movies, you’ll need to invest in a Terra Prime server, with prices starting at $6,955 / £5,910 / AU$12,499 for a 12TB HDD. Prices currently max out at $79,995 / £55,500 / AU$139,999 for 123TB. A server can provide simultaneous playback to up to 25 Kaleidescape players in one home, should you have the space, need, and, importantly, budget.

While the Kaleidescape Strato E is likely to be something only those with dedicated home cinema spaces gravitate towards, the fact that it can work as a standalone unit, and that it’s compact, means anyone who values the best possible video and audio quality can get involved.

Kaleidescape Strato E: Setup

Web-based interface provides more in-depth setting adjustments
Owned discs can be catalogued
Movie Store content is location-dependent

Kaleidescape has made the Strato E as fuss-free to set up as possible. Simply plug it into mains power, insert an Ethernet cable and connect it to your TV or AV processor via HDMI and you’re away. You’ll be met with some onscreen instructions that are easy to follow and understand, and you’ll soon be able to access the movie store and enjoy the content.

You will need to set up an account with Kaleidescape, including providing card information as a means of payment to purchase movies or TV shows from the online store on an ongoing basis. While you can access essential settings via the player itself, a web-based interface offers greater control. To access this, you’ll need to enter the player’s IP address (found in the settings menu) into a browser on your computer.

You’ll soon learn that the majority of settings on the web interface can be left as is because the Strato E can determine what your system is capable of in terms of video and audio quality, and optimize itself accordingly to perform at its best. For example, it will be able to determine if you have a 4K display with a 5.1-channel speaker system. If you use a projector, you can adjust the aspect ratio to fit a 2.35:1 screen.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Aside from the physical capabilities of the Kaleidescape Strato E, one of the biggest selling points of the ecosystem as a whole is the Movie Store, as it’s the only method of obtaining content. Where you live will determine what you have access to due to licensing agreements, but this is also the case with many streaming services. As expected, the US store has the greatest range of content, including movies that have only just left cinemas. In Australia, where I’m based and this review was conducted, I could tell early on that the library wasn’t particularly vast, although many of my favorite flicks were available.

Kaleidescape says there are currently about 15K titles on the US store, around 12K and 7K on the Canadian and UK stores, respectively, and just about 5K on the Aussie store. However, since the Australian store only launched in April 2025, the amount of content already available is commendable. The company promises it will continue to populate the store with more titles in all territories where Kaleidescape players are available.

To help build your collection, the company offers the option to catalog any Blu-rays or DVDs you already own. I wasn’t able to test this feature, but in essence, you can connect an external disc drive with the USB input to trigger the Strato E to enter a Recognition Mode. (I wasn’t able to test this feature as I don’t have an external disc drive.) Insert a disc, and the player will search the Movie Store for a digital version that you can then purchase to download.

The company says that you can usually download that title at a discounted rate, although pricing is influenced by each production studio. What’s more, if you own a DVD and the Movie Store has a 4K version, you can purchase the higher-quality version if you wish.

Kaleidescape Strato E: Performance

Outstanding picture and sound quality
Interface is simple to navigate, but not always easy to search
High-speed internet connection is ideal

As soon as you finish setting up your new Kaleidescape Strato E, you’re presented with the Movie Store. It’s a good-looking interface that’s quick to navigate using either the supplied remote or the smartphone app.

Content is logically laid out, with a selection of recommended titles along the top row, content you’ve downloaded but not yet watched on the next row down, followed by sections for paused movies, content you’ve watched and anything you’ve saved to your favorites list. After this are categories for genres, along with a dedicated section for 4K Dolby Vision titles.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Searching for something specific is mostly a fuss-free affair, especially when using the smartphone app, because, as previously mentioned, you can quickly type in a title using your phone’s keyboard. I was surprised (and a little disappointed) to find, however, that typing in ‘Dolby Atmos’ didn’t return any results. I eventually found filters when browsing the Movie Store within the smartphone app, including one for Dolby Atmos, among many others, so the search isn’t as intuitive as I had hoped.

One particularly good feature of the Movie Store is the ability to summon related content when hovering over a particular title. For example, when highlighting Top Gun: Maverick, press the Kaleidescape logo button on the smartphone app, or navigate to Explore > Related Content on the movie’s information page using the physical remote, and the Movie Store interface kicks into action, reorganizing all available and related content around it.

This includes movies similar in style and genre; for the Top Gun example, I was presented with Tom Cruise movies and other content either from the same director or starring supporting actors. It’s a quick and easy way to instantly discover new titles and a feature I found myself using an awful lot – not least for the aforementioned discovery, but also because watching poster thumbnails float around my TV screen was just cool to see.

Once you’ve found something you want to watch, then, as mentioned, you need to first download it. Due to the large file sizes, a very high-speed internet connection is practically a necessity if you want to minimize the time it takes from selecting a movie to watching it. Where I’m based in Australia, I can only achieve a maximum download speed of 100Mbps (multi-gigabit plans are available, just not in my apartment building), which made me nervous that it would take days to download a single title.

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

When I set The Batman to download, it had an immediate effect on my network, and shows I was trying to watch on other services kept buffering – all of the available bandwidth was going to Kaleidescape.

To get around this problem, I set The Batman, along with Wicked and Gravity, to download overnight and sure enough, when I woke up the next morning, they were there. Remember when you’d wake up as a kid on Christmas morning to see presents under the tree? That was the exact feeling I had that morning.

The app lets you know how long each piece of content took to download, with The Batman taking the longest at just under three hours (Gravity, being an HD movie, finished in 40 minutes). Kaleidescape says if you have at least a 1Gbps internet connection, you can reduce the download time of a 4K movie to around 10 minutes.

If you have a high-speed internet connection, you can also set the maximum download speed for Kaleidescape. For example, with a 1Gbps plan, you could set Kaleidescape to max out at 600Mbps, leaving you with bandwidth so you can continue to watch other content at the same time.

Having read reviews of other Kaleidescape products, and having a good understanding of what makes the brand so appealing to home theater enthusiasts, it’s safe to say I had high expectations of the Strato E. And those expectations were exceeded. For context, I had the Strato E connected to an 83-inch LG G5 TV and a Sonos home theater system comprising the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar, two Sonos Era 300 speakers for surrounds and a Sonos Sub 3.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)(Image credit: Future / Max Langridge)

Watching the opening scene of Wicked, the Wicked Witch of the West’s hat sitting in a puddle looked absolutely stunning. I compared it to the 4K Blu-ray version and noticed extra sharpness and detail when watching on the Strato E. Blacks were slightly deeper and the light reflection on the puddle glistened with greater intensity.

What took me by surprise the most, however, was the Dolby Atmos soundtrack. When the flying monkeys swooped in from behind the viewing position and smashed out of the window, I was blown away by the pinpoint accuracy of the movement from behind my seated position and towards the screen. It really was like being in a cinema; in comparison, the effect just wasn’t as pronounced when watching the Blu-ray version with the same home-theater setup.

It was a similar story when watching Gravity. Not only did the picture look incredible – the Strato E did a fantastic job of upscaling HD content, with the deep blacks of space well-defined and brighter lights shining with great intensity – but the Atmos mix was conveyed expertly through my speaker system. When Sandra Bullock and George Clooney’s characters are spinning out of control at the beginning of the movie, the soundtrack panned around my living room to great effect.

The Strato E truly shines with live concert recordings. As I mentioned in this issue’s lead-in, I downloaded and watched Hans Zimmer: Live in Prague — available in 4K Dolby Vision and, crucially, recorded in Dolby Atmos. I’d seen the soundtrack maestro perform in Sydney earlier this year — if you ever get the chance, grab a ticket, you won’t regret it — so I was curious whether a Kaleidescape playback of one of his shows could capture the same energy.

It did. The scale of the music hit me from the first note. My Sonos home theatre system was finally given a soundtrack that pushed its limits — I hadn’t realised how convincingly it could handle the dynamics of Zimmer’s iconic scores. When The Dark Knight Trilogy suite kicked in with Like a Dog Chasing Cars, the Strato E expertly reproduced the shifts from hushed, delicate passages — a lone violin or a subtle electronic texture — to the thunderous crescendos of the full orchestra, all without sounding compressed or strained.

That sense of contrast gave the performance real drama and made the experience feel startlingly lifelike. While I didn’t have a Dolby Atmos passive speaker system to test the Strato E’s talents — nor do I have a dedicated home cinema space — the player was able to deliver an impactful performance in my modest setup. Those with full Atmos rigs are in for a treat.

Should you buy the Kaleidescape Strato E

Swipe to scroll horizontallyKaleidescape Strato E 4K Movie Player Score Card

Attribute

Notes

Score

Value

It’s highly subjective, but as an ‘affordable’ entry point to the best picture and sound quality available, it’s worth the investment

5/5

Design

Excellent build quality and a superb smartphone app; more outputs would be nice, but the cost would inevitably increase

5/5

Features

Unrestricted file size for the best quality, and can be paired with servers for more storage

5/5

Performance

Unmatched picture and sound quality, especially content in 4K Dolby Vision and with object-based soundtracks

5/5

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

How I tested the Kaleidescape Strato E

Tested over a period of 4 weeks
Connected to LG G5 OLED TV and Sonos home theater system
4K Dolby Vision and HD content used

I tested the Kaleidescape Strato E at home in my living room, connected to an LG G5 OLED TV, partnered with a Sonos home theater system in a 7.1.4-channel configuration to take advantage of Dolby Atmos soundtracks. I wasn’t able to evaluate DTS:X soundtracks, however, as my Sonos system can’t decode it.

Kaleidescape kindly provided me with some credit to spend in the Movie Store, as opposed to preloading it with content, so that I would have the same experience as any new customer.

Left 4 Dead creator teasing new four player co-op shooter

by admin September 1, 2025

Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth has announced he is working on a new four-player co-op shooter.

In a post shared on reddit over the weekend, Booth said the upcoming game will be “built on the foundations of what made [Left 4 Dead] special”, though he stopped short of giving his new project a name or indeed any concept art.

However, in the words of the developer, “if you enjoyed the teamwork, tension, and replayability of my past games, you’ll probably find this one interesting”.

Manage cookie settings

Booth added this shooter will expand on the co-op gameplay formula in “ways I’ve wanted to explore for a long time”. Curious.

Booth currently works for Bad Robot Games, which is a subdivision of JJ Abrams’ film and TV production company announced in 2018. In his reddit post, Booth said the team is still in the “early stages” of the shooter’s development. There are, however, going to be playtests for a limited number of participants. If this sounds like something you would like to be a part of, you can join the waitlist here.

Are you interested?

From the creator of L4D
byu/M_Booth inleft4dead

Manage cookie settings

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.

Source link

September 1, 2025 0 comments

Esports

LoL player is so unhappy with a $250 gacha skin that they’re calling for government regulation

by admin August 31, 2025

A very passionate Morgana main on Reddit has spent months talking about how they want improvements to Spirit Blossom Morgana, an Exalted skin they spent around $250 USD on.

Exalted skins are only available for a limited time and have to be rolled for via a gacha system. If you get lucky, you’ll nab the skin early on without having to spend too much money. However, drop rates are astronomically low, and the majority of people who get Exalted skins should expect to pay around $250 for them.

Article continues after ad

Riot has explained that these skins are meant to be “hyper-exclusive“, that they’re made for truly dedicated fans who’d be willing to dish a ton of money for what Riot’s calling a “luxury good”.

However, one extremely dedicated Morgana main was very unhappy with the Spirit Blossom skin, and it’s not even because it was expensive. Rather, they were expecting to get more for their money and feel that its quality is far below that of other skins of its kind. After months of discussing how they’d like to see the skin get improved, they’re going to Europe’s government and seeking legal action.

Article continues after ad

Dedicated Morgana main seeks legal action

Reddit user LoveForNuWa has been documenting their journey with this skin for months. The only thing they’ve posted about since June is the Spirit Blossom Morgana skin, complaining on various Reddit threads and trying to show why they believe it’s far below the standard they expected.

Their sentiment isn’t exactly unique, either. It’s not that people don’t like the skin, it’s that they believe it’s missing features that are advertised as part of the Exalted skin experience and just isn’t worth the up to $250. This user in particular doesn’t have an issue with spending that much on a skin, they’re just disappointed by what they got.

Article continues after ad

Steve ZhangThe concept artist’s mock up for what Spirit Blossom Morgana was meant to look like in-game

So, instead of making more Reddit posts, they went to government regulators.

“With Riot’s boldness in selling this skin for €250 in the state that it’s in, and with so many players pointing out issues, missing features, as well as its clear incomparability to other Exalted skins – I felt this raised serious questions. Especially when the product fails to adhere to Riot’s own official statements about what Exalted skins are meant to represent and the standards they are expected to meet,” they claimed.

Article continues after ad

“Long story short, yes, I actually wrote an official email to the European Commission briefly outlining the situation and asking for their view on whether Riot’s handling of this release is in line with current consumer rights and digital product standards.”

This was posted on July 25, 2025 and was followed by a month of silence. But, on August 29, 2025, the user broke their silence and returned with a response from Austria’s European Consumer Center as to what options they can take.

Article continues after ad

They’re going to go with the third option, pooling as many player complaints as they can and sending them straight to Austria’s authorities to go to Riot on their behalf. This would then go to Ireland’s government (where Riot is based in Europe) and confront them directly. You can read the response from Austria’s Consumer Center in full here.

The Redditor concluded with this:

“This is not a malicious attack on Riot Games. I’m simply a long-time customer growing increasingly concerned about Riot’s direction, their failure to follow and uphold their own standards, their disregard for their official statements and their inconsistency with premium, high-end products like Exalted skins. Expecting players to accept this without question or consequence isn’t right and a company, especially one of Riot’s scale, isn’t exempt from following rules and laws – including those regarding digital content – and should be held accountable.

Article continues after ad

Steve Zheng/Riot GamesConcept art for Spirit Blossom Morgana

“Ultimately, my goal isn’t about money — I’d rather see Riot fix, adjust, polish and overhaul Spirit Blossom Morgana, bring the product up to true Exalted quality, and let everyone enjoy it for what it’s sold as.”

From here, they plan to rally the Morgana mains community and continue to pressure Riot so they can get a skin they believe is worth the full $250.

Source link

August 31, 2025 0 comments

Esports

F2P RPG Duet Night Abyss abandons gacha mechanics just weeks before launch in response to “consistent” player “dissatisfaction”

by admin August 29, 2025

Pan Studio’s free-to-play RPG Duet Night Abyss has pulled all gacha elements just weeks ahead of its October 28 launch.

In an interview with Automaton, producer Deca Bear said that whilst prior versions of the PC and mobile game had its “monetization model built around character gacha,” “consistent” complaints from fans during beta testing saw the team “scrap both the character and weapon gacha” completely.

“After analyzing player data, community feedback, and in-game survey results from the last beta, we realized that the complaints were fairly consistent,” Bear explained. “We debated the issue many times internally, and concluded that no matter how much we optimized the gacha and stamina systems, it wouldn’t be enough to address the fundamental dissatisfaction players felt.

“So, we returned to pursuing what was our original vision for Duet Night Abyss – a game that’s fun to play, easy to pick up, and doesn’t place a burden on players. To align the product with that vision, we removed both gacha and stamina. As a result, the gameplay has become more consistent and self-contained.”

Bear said that while in the short term, this may lead to a loss of “fast monetization opportunities,” in the long term, he believed it will lead to “stronger player retention, a better reputation, and a healthier, more sustainable business model.”

“From a management perspective, our aim is to create a game that can keep running for a long time,” he added. “That’s why our decisions regarding monetization are based not only on the current market, but also on what players will want three to five years from now.

“Whether players are willing to spend money depends on how much they value a product, so we’re trying not to focus on just short-term profit. We’re avoiding pay-to-win mechanics and forced spending as much as possible, instead prioritizing getting players to enjoy the game.”

The game’s characters will now be free to obtain, and “in principle,” be permanent. Pan Studios hopes it will instead be able to generate an income from Duet Night Abyss from cosmetics, animations, and accessories.

Source link

August 29, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Depth, player expression, and years of iteration: Pragmata’s producer on the key to nailing the game’s weird and wonderful core mechanic

by admin August 28, 2025

“I don’t really want to delve into previous concepts,” Pragmata producer Naoto Oyama tactfully offers, after I prod at the prickly topic of the lengthy development of Capcom’s latest weird and wonderful offering.

This mysterious game about the unlikely pairing of a spacesuit-clad bloke and a barefoot young kid (who is, of course, actually an android) has been rattling around for years. First announced in 2020, it was originally slated for a 2022 release. It was then shunted to 2023, then delayed indefinitely. Now, it’s locked in for a 2026 release. Perhaps understandably, Oyama doesn’t really want to talk about all that.

“Just verbally it might sound like, ‘oh this was great and that was great’ – even if on the whole, in the game, it didn’t work,” the amiable producer, who also worked on Dragon’s Dogma 2, explains. “So we’re going to skip over talking about what we had in the past and delve into what we have here today.”

Which, y’know, fair enough. That tracks, especially in an era where many have a low desire for context and a high affinity for outrage. At the same time, though, Pragmata’s extended development is fascinating – and arguably key to the game’s clear successes.

Watch on YouTube

As has been touched on in two separate Eurogamer hands-on previews since the game broke cover in June, Pragmata is weird, wonderful, and unique. It’s the sort of genre mash-up and mechanical melding that is seldom seen from big-budget, big-money publishers like Capcom.

Experimental concepts like this, bluntly, are usually reserved for indie games. Such a development path is often reserved for smaller-scale game jams or private, never publicly-shown experimentation in the depths of company headquarters – not for games announced with a massive splash in a platform holder broadcast. Pragmata is just that, though – and it perhaps speaks to the strengths of Capcom and its increasingly sure-footed position that it has been willing to allow a team to iterate and experiment with this strange new property.

“The first trailer we put out back in 2020, that was our first base concept trailer. From that base concept to create something that we think is fun, that we think people will really enjoy – it’s taken us a bit of time,” Oyama explains via the Japanese-to-English interpretation of Edvin Edsö, a fellow producer on the title.

“We might have had a concept in the beginning that was fun for a part of the game, for the initial part of the game – that fun might not have reached the entire, full game when we looked at the full picture of it. Having something that’s fun all the way through the game is something we reached towards throughout development.”

room with a Hugh. | Image credit: Eurogamer

That core concept which has survived for the entire development is of course Pramata’s core conceit – the collision of worlds that is the hulking Hugh the the diminutive Diana. Hugh can control a variety of weapons and blast things. Diana hides over his shoulder and hacks enemies. Diana’s hacks aren’t truly enough to take down enemies on their own, but nor are Hugh’s ballistics. Powers combined, the duo has a chance.

I don’t want to retread our previews, but suffice it to say that this results in a curious and engaging system. Squeezing the left trigger to aim at an enemy offers two options – mashing the right trigger to fire away with Hugh’s equipped weapon, or using the face buttons to solve a small puzzle as Diana in order to hack the enemy. This must be undertaken in real time – juggling movement, enemy awareness, two different mechanics, and in a manner of speaking two different characters.

“The general concept of Hugh’s shooting – action – and Diane’s hacking – puzzle – that’s been part of the base concept from the beginning,” Oyama reiterates. “But getting that concept into a game system that’s fun – that took us a bit of trial and error to get to what you see today. Early on, the hacking wasn’t as you see – it was a different sort of style.”

Certainly, one can see where all of that iterative development time went. It would be very easy indeed for a game with a setup like this to be a totally confusing hot mess – but it isn’t. Pragmata is quirky, but the short demos I have experienced so far are nevertheless a joy. The vibes exuded are those of a game that has fallen out of another, more experimental era – from a time when genres were less defined and people were inventing new ones with reckless abandon. In this I find Pragmata instantly enormously refreshing, even if its idiosyncratic core might put some players off.

For this beat, the one thing that differs in the Pragmata hands-on to the previous I’d experienced is the addition of a boss battle. I enjoyed what I had to play before, but the boss really helped to elucidate the reasoning behind some of Pragmata’s weapon design – and how its systems might work across a full-length game. Where the previous demo had me marvelling at a very neat and tightly-executed gimmick, in experiencing a boss fight I now feel I can see the path for the full experience, so to speak.

“Once you see the boss fight, you can more fully see the entire experience,” Oyama agrees when I recount my experience to him.

The world on his shoulders. | Image credit: Capcom

Let me give you an example. Hugh’s Shockwave Gun is basically a shotgun, but it’s a real slow reload even by shotty standards. I didn’t feel very inclined to use the more powerful weapon on normal enemies due to the reload speed – but in a boss battle where regular and repeated hacking is required, those long reloads actually help to give the encounter a textured ebb and flow.

Oyama gets into that a little more, explaining to me how Hugh’s weaponry works. It’s all vaguely cagey stuff – only a tiny fraction of the game has been shown, and the developers clearly don’t want to reveal any unannounced kit. Broadly speaking, though, Hugh has two ‘power weapon’ slots; one slot always dedicated to a damage-dealing beast like that shotgun, and the other home to a weapon which will offer more battlefield control. In this demo that latter weapon was a ‘Stasis Net’ which held approaching enemies still for a short time while dealing minimal damage. Diana’s hacks, meanwhile, will grow over the game via a suite of power-ups.

Manage cookie settings

Through this, there’s a hope that players can have a good amount of freedom of expression in their play. Plus, there’s no one prescription for enemies – a shooter fan might play more ballistics-heavy, while someone who gets really into the hacking might do the opposite; Pragmata has been carefully designed to work both ways.

“Depending on the player… Well, they might want to play it safe – use the Stasis Net, back off a bit, and then hack and go for careful shots,” Oyama outlines. “Or I can go in hung-ho – skip the Stasis Net, and straight up hack and shoot.

“Also, the actual hacking itself does damage. With that in mind, you can have a playstyle that’s really focused on hacking, or you can hack the enemy once and then just go for shooting outright. So there’s a sort of balance in what you can do there.”

Probably not a paranoid android. | Image credit: Capcom

Part of the challenge of a game like this, with unique and strange systems, is that they can be a difficult sell. It’s plain that it was a difficult thing for Capcom to figure out internally throughout development. Pragmata now works – I can’t wait to play it – but now an arguably even more difficult task is on the horizon – how to explain and sell these mechanics to the public. Even describing it all in a preview is difficult, other than to say: it’s strange, and I love it.

“There’s a bit of a difference in the experience between watching videos of Pragmata and actually getting your hands on a controller, knowing it, and getting immersed in the game. In fact, it’s really different,” Oyama says. There’s a passion in his delivery of this statement – and plainly a clear belief that this team has made something special.

“We’ve worked hard, long years to get something here that people enjoy. And we’re just really glad to see that people are enjoying the game that we put so much time and so much effort into,” Oyama concludes.

He’s hoping that off the back of some strong trade show responses, Pragmata’s unique blend of mechanics can find a broad audience. Honestly, based on what I’ve experienced so far, I hope so too. We need more mad, weird experiments like this, after all.

Source link

August 28, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

15 years later, Scott Pilgrim EX proves that Toronto’s most problematic bass player has what it takes to become beat-em-up royalty in 2025

by admin August 28, 2025

You know why a bass line is important in a good rock song, right? It’s the whole foundation, the beating heart of the music that underpins everything else the song has to offer. That slick riff that comes in before the chorus wouldn’t land as well without some nice syncopated bass notes to make it soar. The drum fills wouldn’t feel as at home in the transitions without the bass to glue them to the rest of the beat. Even vocal melodies, when orchestrated properly, are elevated by a nice, recognisable and reliable bass line.

Yes, that may be a clunky metaphor, but go with me on this. That’s what the combat is in Scott Pilgrim EX. The original beat-em-up from 2010 – that’s the clumsily-titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game – had an absolute solid foundation that, sometimes, was weighed down by everything else. To continue the bass analogy, it was like listening to Primus: one of the best bass players in the world surrounded by musicians that are perfectly fine, but nowhere near the level of Les Claypool.

Manage cookie settings

So, in Scott Pilgrim EX, Tribute Games has set to work correcting that imbalance. Now, it feels like all the other stuff that kept the original game at ‘Battle of the Bands’ level, rather than ‘sold out amphitheatre shows’ level, is being refined. I only played a 30-minute demo at Gamescom, but it’s like listening to the lead single off a band’s comeback album: it sets the scene, gives a sense of what’s to come, paints the sonic landscape for you, and gets you hyped.

The combat – that bass line – is as driven and insistent as ever. It’s smooth, buttery, and compelling. I wanted to keep playing. High praise during a packed Gamescom show where my next appointment was Silent Hill f. To give me a true sense of how it should be played, two devs joined me in my session, and the frantic melee on-screen as we hopped around the beaches (!?) and boardwalks of Toronto remained as itchy as ever.

In fact, it’s better than the first game. The devs and I chatted as we played, and many of the original game’s talent has returned for this one, brining new inspirations with them. Streets of Rage 4 and River City Girls were named-checked. Fights are more fluid, and given I’d never met the people I was playing with before, I was thrilled to see impressive multi-enemy juggle combos connect frequently: playing as one of two new playable characters (Roxie Richter), I juggled enemies right into the hands of Lucas Lee, who would keep them airborne for a brief thrashing until main man himself Scott unleashed a special move to finish them off. Pump it into my veins.

Lucas Lee and Roxie Richter join the fray.

In true side-scroller fashion, the various environs are littered with intractable elements: skateboards to dash in on, volleyballs you could charge and throw to ricochet violently between the fretting goons on-stage, dropped weapons you could wail on vegans with until they broke. It’s all there, and as intuitive and delicious as any of its genre rivals. I actually think I enjoy the fantasy violence on show here more than I have in recent stablemates like Battletoads (2020) or Streets of Rage 4. But that could be because of the killer pixel art or the face-meltingly good music from Anamanaguchi.

I didn’t see enough of the game to know whether it addresses complaints about pacing that hamstrung the first title. Nor did I get enough time with it to see whether the power curve is a bit more generous. But in the slice I did play, sneezing out hadokens and whipping enemies into the air with Roxie’s sword felt powerful. More enemies with less life makes everything feel hyperactive (positive), and when bosses do appear you have to figure out their gimmicks and respond with brains and brawn to succeed. It takes the themes of the source material and applies it mechanically to the game. Delicious.

It’s funny, too. Scott has grown up in the 15 years since the first game, and even some of the more… regrettable… themes in the original material have been massaged here to be a bit more palatable. Scott doesn’t come off as (as much of a) privileged chauvinist in this game. That he can team up with Ramona’s exes, this time, shows personal growth: a willingness to let things slide, and forgo his ego in favour of the greater good. Good work, Scott.

If nothing else, listen to the music.Watch on YouTube

I think, maybe, that’s the driving narrative here: Scott may be trapped in a microcosm of Millennial angst – which is now as nostalgic for Gen Z is as the 80s was for me, terrifyingly – but that doesn’t mean he can’t grow and change. As his character learns to adapt, so to do the developers. This is a beat-em-up as relevant and adapted for 2025 as the original game was to 2010.

The genre has been through something of a renaissance over the past 15 years, and it’s clear that the assembled supergroup of Tribute Games has been keeping a keen eye on what players expect from a modern attempt. The result is something I can’t wait to play more of, a sharp, acerbic action game packed to the gills with pop culture references old and new. But is that a surprise, really, coming from the team that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge?

“Hey, those green shells look familiar,” I joke as I skid a green turtle-like shell into a demon wailing on Lucas Lee. Even the spinning animation of it looks like something straight out of a 90s Mario game. “Haha, yeah,” jokes one of my dev teammates. “Just don’t tell those guys, yeah?” he winks, nodding over to the Nintendo booth across the Gamescom hall. We laugh. On-screen, a boss finally falls to the hands of a charged bomb blast that wipes out the huddled enemy masses.

Man, I think to myself, I can’t wait to do this at home.

Scott Pilgrim EX is scheduled to be released in early 2026 for PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Source link

August 28, 2025 0 comments

An in-development screenshot of World of Warcraft's player housing, which is coming in the Midnight expansion. A blue-roofed cottage covered in vines and lights sits in a valley.

Product Reviews

World of Warcraft’s player housing won’t lock out casual players: ‘We’re not gonna put a beautiful bookcase behind killing a raid boss’

by admin August 25, 2025

When I heard player housing is coming to World of Warcraft, I immediately thought of the sheer amount of stuff in the game that could find its way into your home. Blizzard could reward housing items like they do rare mounts for achieving some of the most grindy or challenging things in the game. It could be a real time sink.

But thankfully that doesn’t seem like that’s the direction Blizzard wants to go in when it comes to collecting decorations. Speaking to IGN at Gamescom, game director Ion Hazzikostas said they won’t be locked behind “content that is too hardcore.”

“There may be distinct trophies or things that you can earn for being the best raider on your server or being one of the best dungeon players in the game,” he said, “but we’re not gonna put a beautiful bookcase behind killing a raid boss.”

I for one am glad that Blizzard has drawn this line: You shouldn’t have to be good at raiding at the highest levels to have a fancy pad. Limiting high-level rewards to trophies is a smart way to let players celebrate their achievements without forcing people to play the game in ways they might not enjoy.

This theme of unrestrained creativity with WoW’s player housing is what has me and a lot of other people pretty excited for it to drop (in an early form) with the upcoming Midnight expansion. Decorations can be dyed, scaled up or down in size, rotated, and clipped into other objects in any way you want. You can take your entire house and save the blueprint to share with other players too. Other games with housing, like Final Fantasy 14, aren’t nearly as customizable.

Blizzard has spent the last year hyping playing housing up and we’ll finally get to try it with the launch of the final patch for the current expansion, The War Within. Anyone who buys Midnight will have access to it, and Blizzard says it will be updating it and adding new items to it for the foreseeable future.

Source link

August 25, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Everything We Learned About Single Player And Multiplayer In Illfonic’s Halloween

by admin August 25, 2025

October 31st, 1963. The date of the most horrific night in Haddonfield, Illinois, history. The day Michael Myers escaped the asylum and became infamous with the holiday that is Halloween. I’ll never forget the first time I watched John Carpenter’s masterpiece 1978 horror film, Halloween, at far too young an age. The result? At 30 years old, Michael Myers is still the most terrifying silver-screen slasher to me – watching one of his countless appearances in media still invites nightmares of that white mask, Michael’s uncanny ability to be anywhere and everywhere at once, and his endless desire to kill.

It’s for this reason that Halloween is my all-time favorite horror movie, and it’s a franchise I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for Friday the 13th/Predator: Hunting Grounds/Killer Klowns From Outer Space developer IllFonic to tackle in its typical asymmetrical multiplayer style. I was thrilled to learn that the time has come, with IllFonic revealing Halloween last week, and even more excited to interview the studio’s chief creative officer, Jared Gerritzen, about the game.

Everything We Learned About IllFonic’s Halloween

Gerritzen first shows me the Halloween reveal trailer, which offers a nice cinematic appetizer of what’s to come in the game when it launches sometime next year, before proclaiming Halloween is IllFonic’s biggest game yet. That’s not surprising, considering it features 1v4 asymmetrical multiplayer – typical for the developer – but also, a single-player campaign that puts you in the boots of Michael on the night of Halloween in 1963. That’s a huge addition to this multiplayer title, and something I’m eager to ask Gerritzen at the top of my interview.

Single-Player Campaign

He says IllFonic is aware that when it and other teams announce games based on popular horror IPs like Halloween, fans get bummed when they learn it’s an asymmetrical multiplayer game, and wanted to include a single-player campaign for them. But that’s not the only reason. Gerritzen tells me the single-player campaign is designed to be played first as it teaches you how to be the best Michael Myers in the game’s multiplayer mode.

You’ll play through the events of the first Halloween film, and a little after to learn more never-before-seen story about that night, and acquire different abilities and perform different kills on the citizens of Haddonfield in this campaign. “It trains you to be an optimal Michael Myers for multiplayer,” Gerritzen says. The team is working with Carpenter and longtime franchise producer Malek Akkad – he’s been it’s producer since 1985, taking over the reins from his father, who was the Halloween producer prior to that – to create this game, including the single-player campaign; so you can expect it to feel authentic to the original films. It will even emulate the 1970s movie vibe of the original film, with Gerritzen calling it a “period piece” game.

This means the visual style, the dialogue, and even the technology available to you in-game will match the time period. This applies to single-player and multiplayer content in the game, with Gerritzen explaining to me IllFonic has taken great strides to “revolutionize” this genre this time around. “We’re filling out the world with NPCs and AI, and heroes can save the town now instead of the standard do XYZ and escape alone, but you can play how you want,” he says. “If you’re saving town people, you’re slowing Michael down from killing people. On the other hand, if you’re playing as Michael, you have more things to do that might be easier than killing a hero, so the power balance is a lot more interesting and different than the same old, same old of the genre.”

Halloween will utilize the canon of the franchise heavily, but IllFonic has been given the green light to add things it needs to make it fun. For example, in the movies, Michael has the uncanny ability to appear anywhere and is seemingly inhuman in the amount of damage he can take. His gameplay abilities will reflect that.

He is not a man anymore after all, as Dr. Samuel Loomis declares in the reveal trailer; he is The Shape. Speaking of Loomis, IllFonic is working with the family of Loomis actor Donald Pleasence to use his likeness, as Loomis is the narrator of the game’s campaign. Karma: The Dark World developer Pollard Studio is helping IllFonic develop the campaign, something Gerritzen says has “supercharged” the Unreal Engine 5-developed project.

Gerritzen says Jason (of Friday the 13th fame) is a “bull in a China shop,” that the Predator is a “big cat, powerful and noisy,” and that Michael is a “coiled-up cobra that happens to be in any bush you walk by.” That will be reflected in his gameplay prowess, though IllFonic isn’t ready to dive into specifics yet.

IllFonic is still supporting its older titles – it released new Predator: Hunting Grounds content in recent weeks – but Gerritzen says this is the first time the entire team will be focused on one project in Halloween. Partly, that’s because Unreal Engine 5 allows the team to try new techniques it struggled with in the past, such as dynamic lighting and other technological feats.

Why Now?

After the release of Friday the 13th in 2017, IllFonic made a massive list of the IP it wanted to play around in, because “you can’t just grab an IP and say, ‘Okay, we’re starting on it,'” Gerritzen tells me. As you might expect, copyright and other rights issues make developing in an IP like Predator or Halloween tough. Gerritzen says IllFonic developed Friday the 13th, then Predator: Hunting Grounds, then had “a couple of projects canceled,” and while working on Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the Killer Klowns from Outer Space IP landed in its lap. During that game’s development, Halloween arrived at its doors, and “that’s when we started going, ‘Let’s work on the next project and focus the entire company on it.'” Despite this studio-wide focus on Halloween’s development, Gerritzen says it’s important that IllFonic not abandon its prior projects, which he says it hasn’t.

“We fully believe in making a game, supporting the game, and, even when going to another game, still keeping past ones going and fostered,” he adds.

As for developing a game around Michael Myers, Gerritzen says there hasn’t been much representation for him in games. I joke about owning the Michael skin in Call of Duty. “Yeah, and that’s exactly what you want for Michael, right?” Gerritzen jokes back. “No, Michael is this unknown monster, The Shape, that thing in the corner of your eye, the thing you’re afraid to look out and see at night, and everyone has a different experience with him. He is the boogeyman, and that’s why we’re really all in on this game.”

Design

“Fun” sits at the top of IllFonic’s multiplayer priorities in Halloween, but a close second is “breaking the stigma,” Gerritzen says. “We have to use this world to make it bigger. What would happen if you zoomed the camera all the way out and saw Haddonfield beyond how it was needed for a scene in the movie.” IllFonic is focused on thoughtfully adding to Haddonfield; it’s doing the same for Michael’s set of moves.

Since this game is based on the events of the first film, it places you in the same mindset as Haddonfield citizens (and movie watchers) in that a lot about Michael Myers is obscured in mystery. “We’re kind of expanding on that,” Gerritzen adds. “Is he looking for [Laurie Strode] or just coming back home to write a wrong or get revenge or something else? You don’t know what it is; all you know is he is Michael Myers and he killed his sister. Loomis has gone crazy in the film because he’s so obsessed with this thing he cannot understand, and in our game, you will be playing the thing he and you cannot understand. I think that’s definitely an interesting angle.”

For creating Michael’s moveset, Gerritzen says the team watched Halloween over and over again, “paid attention to the things he does in film, just kind of took that and determined what it means and what if you can XYZ. We essentially connected these things and presented it to the IP team, and said, ‘Hey, this is what we feel like we can do.'” Though he’s cagey about what exactly, Gerritzen says the team “cracked a mechanic I’ve never seen in any other game,” and that players will have to experience this “holy s***” moment for themselves when Halloween launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC next year.

Are you excited for IllFonic’s Halloween? Let us know in the comments below!

Source link

August 25, 2025 0 comments

Hermen Hulst, managing director and co-founder of Guerrilla Games, speaks during a Sony Corp. event ahead of the E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Monday, June 15, 2015.

Gaming Gear

After cancelling 8 of the 12 live service games Sony promised to release by 2025, PlayStation studios boss says the number doesn’t really matter: ‘What is important to me is having a diverse set of player experiences’

by admin August 25, 2025

By the time Sony started printing money releasing its exclusives onto PC, the company had made a name for itself delivering the biggest and best singleplayer games on the market. Its run of solo PS4 exclusives from Bloodborne to The Last of Us Part 2 was so strong that it blew Microsoft’s console strategy out of the water, in a way that the Xbox has arguably never recovered from. Even we PC heads with our vast Steam libraries had to acknowledge those games were pretty great.

Yet for the PlayStation 5, Sony decided it would almost completely ignore that legacy, and instead be all about live service. In 2022, former CEO Jim Ryan promised Sony would make and release 12 live-service games by 2025. As of 2025, only one of these—Helldivers 2—has enjoyed a successful launch. Seven were cancelled before release. Three are supposedly still in development (including the deeply troubled Marathon) and one of them was Concord.

It’s a strategy that has, so far, proven catastrophic, leaving the PS5 largely bereft of quality first-party exclusives. But if you thought gazing upon this virtual graveyard might cause Sony to reconsider its priorities, think again.

Concord – Gameplay Trailer | PS5 Games – YouTube

Watch On

Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group CEO Herman Hulst was recently asked about Sony’s live-service strategy by the Financial Times (via GamesRadar), as part of an in-depth article about the company’s broader business strategy. “The number [of live-service releases] is not so important,” Hulst told the FT. “What is important to me is having a diverse set of player experiences and a set of communities.”

Instead of changing strategy to avoid massive live-service failures like Concord, or cancellations like The Last of Us Online, Hulst says he basically wants Sony to fail better. “I don’t want teams to always play it safe, but I would like for us, when we fail, to fail early and cheaply.”

To change these massive failures into, er, smaller failures, Hulst says PlayStation has implemented several new safeguards, such as “more rigorous and more frequent testing in many different ways.” According to the FT, this includes a higher priority on group testing, more cross pollination of ideas within Sony, and “closer relationships” between top executives. “The advantage of every failure…is that people now understand how necessary that [oversight] is.”

I would be more convinced by what Hulst says if Sony had demonstrated its PS4-era strategy no longer worked before going all in on chasing the theoretical live-service money train. Those glossy singleplayer titles were often enormously expensive to make, and selling games in general has become significantly harder over the last five years. But while Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 seems to have been a commercial disappointment, God of War: Ragnarok was the fastest-selling PlayStation title ever on launch in 2022, and had sold 15 million copies a full year before it came to PC in September last year.

Best PC controller 2025

All our current recommendations

Source link

August 25, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Deadlock’s latest update revives the game with massive player count increase

by admin August 24, 2025

After the initial player count boom that came with Deadlock Alpha access, the player count has steadily fallen. And, sure, it’s not publicly available yet, but the player count going from close to 200k at “launch” to around 10k before the latest update isn’t exactly ideal.

Deadlock has maintained a small yet loyal following through its lengthy Alpha. If you consider 10-15k players small, anyways. There’s pretty much never been a point where queues aren’t popping, and there are some people really grinding to learn ahead of the eventual release.

Article continues after ad

However, the average player moved on. Updates take months at this point, with the dev team generally shifting away from rapid changes to work on more substantial updates.

And, around 3 months after the last big update, the team really delivered. Between releasing 6 new heroes in the span of less than 2 weeks, new music, a UI overhaul, and, for those who haven’t played since last year, a completely new map. There’s a lot to love here, and players are Deadlocked in.

Article continues after ad

Deadlock earns players back with massive update

So, why are so many people returning to Deadlock all at once if the previous updates didn’t win them over?

At the time of writing, only three of the six revealed characters have been released. But that’s a key part of why player retention has been so high: Players get to vote for the next character they want, but they have to play matches in order to earn votes.

However, this wouldn’t mean anything if the game wasn’t fun. Fortunately, the new roster of heroes has players more engaged than ever.

Article continues after ad

The proposition of fun and exciting new characters combined with the ability to earn your way toward deciding who’s next seems to be a winning formula for player retention, but that’s not all. The UI, menus, music, and many of the character designs have had some massive quality of life improvements, especially if you’re someone who hasn’t played since last year.

Article continues after ad

Between the new map, an easier to access item system, 3 lanes instead of 4, and a whole lot of quality of life changes, it’s no surprise that players are hopping in and sticking around.

Article continues after ad

DeadlockThe Doorman is the newest Deadlock character at the time of writing, and he’s probably the closest thing we’re ever going to get to Portal 3.

Deadlock went from 14k peak players to around 28k in the day after the update, but it’s since catapulted all the way to 47k. This is the biggest peak Deadlock has had in months, and there are no signs of that momentum stopping.

While the game is nowhere close to a full release yet, Valve is putting their full force into making their vision for Deadlock a reality.

Source link

August 24, 2025 0 comments