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Playing for the Planet to host Green Game Summit and awards ceremony this November

by admin September 6, 2025

Playing for the Planet has announced a day of events this November to bring together climate experts, policymakers, and games industry leaders.

Hosted at BFI Southbank on November 6, 2025, the event will include the Green Game Summit followed by the second annual Playing for the Planet Awards.

Run by the Playing for the Planet Alliance – an initiative supported by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) – the Green Game Summit aims to “explore what progress is being made and what more can be done to protect nature and reduce carbon emissions”.

As for the Playing for the Planet Awards, this will celebrate the winners of the sixth annual Green Game Jam.

Playing for the Planet has partnered with the BFI, Bastion, and Liquid Crimson for these events, with support from Ukie, Video Games Europe, Video Games Poland, Verband de deutschen Games-Branche, Dutch Games Association, and Syndicat National Du Jeu Video.

“This year, we have seen some bold, big, and ambitious activations for nature engaging billions of players by some of the biggest games in the world,” said UNEP chief of youth and education Sam Barratt.

“This event is a chance to share and scale what’s working, get leaders and experts on stage so that this industry explores how to work harder and faster to cut emissions and engage their players. It promises to be a great event.”

BFI head of environmental sustainability Keir Oldfield-Lewis added: “We are proud to be partnering with Playing for the Planet to bring this summit and awards to BFI Southbank for the very first time.

“As the UK’s lead body for film and the moving image, the BFI is committed to embracing video games as we enable a just and green transition for the screen industries. This is a significant moment to celebrate the trailblazing games businesses working on green tech and climate storytelling worldwide.”

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September 6, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

You Can Earn Bitcoin By Playing These Free Games

by admin September 3, 2025

In brief

There are many free-to-play games that pay players real Bitcoin rewards.
You’ll typically earn amounts in satoshis, or the smallest denomination of Bitcoin (1/100,000,000 BTC).
Such games are often loaded with video ads, but that’s the trade-off for earning Bitcoin.

Bitcoin pushed to yet another all-time high price mark in August, maintaining recent momentum as analysts project another record surge in the near future.

If you’re keen on stacking satoshis however you can, then here’s one way that won’t cost you anything but time: You can earn Bitcoin by playing a bunch of free games. Decrypt’s GG has been covering the rising trend of free-to-play mobile games and apps that offer up small bounties of Bitcoin for playing levels and seeing ads all the while.

While the amounts given are historically tiny, in our experience, the rising price of Bitcoin means that they are becoming… well, less tiny. And if your goal is amassing Bitcoin in any way that you can, then these are certainly among the most enjoyable ways to earn a bit of free BTC. Here’s a look at some of the games you can play, with links to our coverage on each.

Learn Botanix, earn Bitcoin

Here’s the latest addition: Bitcoin layer-2 network Botanix launched its mainnet on July 1, and alongside the rollout was a browser-based game, Bitcoin 2100, that lets you earn real Bitcoin on the scaling network.

According to Botanix, Bitcoin 2100 is an educational game that lets you earn satoshis for completing quests. They’ll teach you about Bitcoin and Botanix, plus there will be partner quests over the next couple months that explain more of the Botanix ecosystem while handing out more BTC. It’s real Bitcoin that you can cash out to your wallet, so give it a whirl.

Bitcoin 2100 is an immersive experience where you can explore a city built on Bitcoin.

Play games, Complete weekly quests via Intract (Soon), discover ecosystem partners, and earn rewards.

Connect your wallet, bridge to Botanix, and start the journey. pic.twitter.com/w4xA3WM20A

— Botanix | Mainnet LIVE 🟢 (@BotanixLabs) July 3, 2025

Mine fake Bitcoin, earn real BTC

Here’s a fun riff on the concept of crypto mining: Bitcoin Miner for iOS and Android tasks you with building an elaborate mining operation across all sorts of cryptocurrencies, including Dogecoin and those that don’t even have mining capabilities in real life, like Solana. And the reward? Real Bitcoin, in the form of satoshis that you can stack up while playing.

Screenshots from Bitcoin Miner. Image: Decrypt

This idle game is simple and colorful, with an appealing pixel aesthetic and a fun sense of humor. It’s a game you can play for a couple minutes here and there, but you’ll also keep earning in-game coins and potential rewards all the while.

Granted, Bitcoin Miner does turn repetitive after a while and the full-screen video ads are obnoxious, yet this is one of the rare play-to-earn games that we keep coming back to time and again. And with a new mid-week limited-time event added in addition to the usual weekend one, it is implementing more variety over time.

Mining asteroids for Bitcoin

Here’s an amusing iOS and Android game that you can pop into for a few minutes at a time to stack sats. SpaceY is an idle asteroid-mining game for phones and tablets, and it’s decidedly straightforward in approach: You tap asteroids to scan them, tap again to mine them, upgrade your ship and tech over time, and then repeat as you hop across the galaxy.

What’s refreshing about SpaceY is that it doesn’t force you to watch obtrusive, full-screen video ads. Instead, it rewards you for watching them in the form of free bonuses or resource boosters. It actually makes you want to watch them to get ahead faster, and all the while you’ll earn satoshis that you can cash out to a ZBD wallet.

Into the Bitcoin mines

Launched in fall 2024, Idle Mine! Earn Real Bitcoin is one of the latest iOS and Android titles from Fumb Games. And while it certainly sounds similar to Bitcoin Miner, it takes a different approach to a similar theme.

Here, you won’t mine (fake) digital coins. Instead, you’ll mine physical gems and resources, like ruby and sapphire, continuously upgrading your mine and workers while earning real Bitcoin along the way. It’s packed with video ads, but they’re all optional—and pretty beneficial too.

Screenshots from Idle Mine. Image: Decrypt

We’ve earned thousands of satoshis from playing this game, and while it’s not as exciting or whimsical as Bitcoin Miner, it’s an easy game to fire up and half-play while working, making dinner, or watching TV.

Bitcoin Sudoku

If you dig sudoku and want to earn a little bit of crypto while playing, then Bling Financial’s Bitcoin Sudoku will do the trick. It’s a solid mobile recreation of the number plotting puzzler, and because each puzzle takes longer than in many of the other Bitcoin-infused games on this list, there are fewer annoying ads that pop up along the way.

Bitcoin solitaire games

There are a couple iOS and Android solitaire games that let you stack sats as you stack digital cards. Club Bitcoin: Solitaire and Bitcoin Solitaire basically do some variation of the same thing, but vary in presentation, tolerability of ads, and amount of Bitcoin you might actually earn. Click here to read a comparison of the mobile games and find links to download each.

Bitcoin bubble shooters

There are plenty of bubble-matching puzzle games like Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move on iOS and Android, but Bitcoin Pop and Bitcoin Bay are unique in that they let you earn Bitcoin while you play. Which game offers the best balance of fun and earning funds? Read our head-to-head review to see which bubble popper we liked best.

Bitcoin puzzle games

We also reviewed a pair of mobile puzzle games that both pack in Bitcoin earnings: Sweet Bitcoin and Ethereum Blast. Sweet Bitcoin is a pretty straightforward Candy Crush Saga clone, but among mobile puzzlers in this category, it’s solidly entertaining. And despite the name, the block-clearing puzzle game Ethereum Blast actually does give you the option to cash out your rewards in Bitcoin.

Another fun mobile puzzle game that pays out Bitcoin rewards is Word Breeze, which serves up a familiar premise—part anagram solver, part crossword filler—and doles out points that you can exchange for satoshis. It’s hardly mind-blowing and the ads are a bit overwhelming, but it’s one of the most fun play-to-earn Bitcoin games we’ve played to date.

Bitcoin mobile games

Thanks to a collaboration between ZBD and advertising platform Adjoe, you can earn Bitcoin by playing more than 100 different Android games—including hits like Match Masters and Dragon City. You’ll have to play them through the ZBD Android app to earn satoshis as you watch ads between games, however.

Bitcoin walking app

sMiles is a mobile app that lets you earn Bitcoin for being active, and its Bitcoinverse feature is a location-based game that rewards you with BTC for walking to various preset destinations on the map. Powered by Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, sMiles aims to motivate users to get out and explore via BTC incentives.

Need more?

While we’ve played and covered numerous games that let you earn Bitcoin, there are even more out there that might be worth checking out. For example, Bling Financial has games like Bitcoin Food Fight and Bitcoin Blocks, while the Android version of Fumb’s Merge Monsters offers Bitcoin rewards; the iOS version does not, as of this writing.

ZBD is also continuously adding new games to its Bitcoin rewards app too. Stay tuned as we’ll continue to cover Bitcoin play-to-earn games as they emerge.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on November 10, 2023 and was last updated with new content on September 3, 2025.

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September 3, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Silksong Still Feels Like One Giant Mystery Even After Playing It

by admin August 31, 2025

Hollow Knight: Silksong has a lot in common with Grand Theft Auto 6. Fans have been waiting on it for years. Each new crumb of information is quickly devoured. Competitors are scrambling out of the way. And after years of fermenting hype, the most wishlisted game on Steam now has to deliver something bigger than the all-consuming cultural distortion field surrounding it. No small task. I’ve now played 15 minutes of the final demo and I still could not tell you which way it’s going to go. That’s because everything that can make a Metroidvania Soulslike like Silksong truly pop is precisely what Team Cherry is keeping most under wraps.

I played the Gamescom 2025 build of Silksong on the Xbox Ally PC gaming handheld during a PAX West-adjacent event at Microsoft and it felt like eating a Dunkin Donuts Munchkin: easy, sweet, and over way too soon. That’s by design. Team Cherry said in a recent interview that the game took seven years to make because of all of the new areas, characters, and secrets it wanted to pack into the Hollow Knight sequel. And it also clearly didn’t want to ruin any of those things by actually talking about them before the game’s September 4 release date on PC and console, or by showing them off ahead of time in the demo.

The only portion of Silksong that anyone has played so far takes place near the beginning of the game. Hornet, the new protagonist, awakes in an underground glen full of bright moss and easy enemies. A short platforming section introduces players to the familiar Bloodborne-inspired combat (you need to deal damage to get health back) and the game’s exploration which has you exhausting dead-ends until you find the path forward. It wraps with a simple mini-boss fight that’s intent on scaring any newcomers away.

Team Cherry

The second section takes you to smoldering caverns with more deadly enemies to navigate. Ensembles of flying, fire-ball-spitting wizards and knights with big shields make you work to survive and gesture toward the ambient, elevated threat level that fills each path you choose to go down with just the right amount of tension.

This is all classic Hollow Knight so far. The only thing that really sets Silksong apart in the demo is Hornet. The character’s a bit faster, has a down diagonal attack to speed up aerial recoveries, and can heal more quickly but only after more energy is gathered from dealing damage. It’s a different, more aggressive flow than the original game’s, and could take on an even more distinct identity once players start unlocking their full arsenals.

Will Hollow Knight: Silksong really cost $20?

All of which is to say that while there were certainly no red flags in my brief hands-on time with Silksong, it’s impossible to know from the 15-minute demo whether Silksong can deliver on what fans have been hoping for over the last eight years. It’s slick and prettier than the original, but what will ultimately matter is the cleverness of its secrets, exploration, and later-game boss fights. One other bit of potential good news ahead of the game’s launch next week is that it might not be very expensive either.

Hollow Knight launched for just $15 back in 2017. You can currently buy it on PC for just half that price leading up to the sequel’s release (act now and you might be able to beat it in time). A leak yesterday on the GameStop website suggested Silksong will be $20, only $5 more than its predecessor at a time when Team Cherry easily could have charged $30 or more. The store listing has since been taken down and might have just been a speculative placeholder.

According to Dealabs‘ own leak, the $20 price for Silksong on PC is accurate. No physical editions of the game have been confirmed yet, however.

All eyes will be on Steam for when the actual price drops. So far Team Cherry hasn’t actually confirmed how much it will cost. Like almost everything else about the game, the small indie team is keeping that close to the vest. Not that it will matter. Just like the lack of reviews ahead of launch, Silksong doesn’t have to play by conventional rules. It’s in a league of its own. In less than a week we’ll finally know if it truly belongs there.

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August 31, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – cat chases, ninja nostalgia, and wobbly oblong spaceships

by admin August 30, 2025

30th August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, Victoria searches for cats in Paris, Dom practises for Silksong on Shinobi, Ed enjoys the Rogue Prince of Persia, Marie calms herself by building ramen houses, Matt makes a wobbly oblong spaceship, Bertie goes ghost hunting, and Connor blasts through an old Resi.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Hidden Cats in Paris, Switch 2

Found one!Watch on YouTube

Last week was a busy one, and when I got back from Gamescom I just wanted my mind to switch to idle animation for a while. So rather than jumping into a game that would require me to use more brain power than I was in possession of, I decided to take a browse through the eShop for something cheap, mindless (in a good way) and that could be played while cocooned in bed. What I landed upon was Hidden Cats in Paris, which I scooped up for 89p, and ahhh, it ticked all of the necessary boxes.

Hidden Cats in Paris begins with a monochromatic illustration of a Parisian scene, with cafes, a cabaret, the Eiffel Tower and other French fancies. Hidden within this scene are – you guessed it – cats! The aim of the game is simply to find all of the hidden cats, and as I did so, the scene gradually coloured in. When I found the last cat tucked behind a railing, the French music that had been soothing me in the background swelled, and fireworks lit the inky blue night sky.

Honestly, it was the perfect tonic for the end of a very busy week. I think I may try Hidden Cats in Rome next.

-Victoria

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, PS5

Watch on YouTube

Silksong who? I’m a 2D action platformer sicko, me. And I think this year is shaping up to be a golden year for the genre. We’ve already had the pulpy nonsense of Ninja Gaiden Unbound to drool over, and now we’ve got Sega coming back with a compelling, modern take on one of its most storied icons (no, not Sonic) in the form of Joe Mushashi.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is one of those games that I installed out of a sense of curiosity, but then promptly lost about seven hours to in one evening as I went sniffing out secrets, unlocking upgrades and Ninja Flipping my way over a rogue’s gallery of demons, commandos and rival shinobi. It’s fast, it’s flexible, and it’s hard without being unfair. A perfect training ground for my ageing hands as I try to wake up my synapses and reflexes ahead of Silksong’s launch next week.

-Dom

The Rogue Prince of Persia, PS5

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It’s not often a 2D game demands you interact with the background, but it’s one of the things I love about this new roguelike Prince of Persia game. As Matt eloquently put it last week, the series has always been known for its movement but this new game from the team behind Dead Cells is “beautifully balletic carnage”. Part of that is squeezing the left trigger for the Prince to run up and along walls, creating a pleasing rhythm to platforming and an opportunity to dodge attacks too.

Having spent plenty of time in Dead Cells, The Rogue Prince of Persia has proven easy to slip into and to while away a few hours in. I’m having a great time with it. I just wish it was better optimised. Loading often takes an age, and after a recent update I lost a chunk of progress. Thankfully, it was fun enough to do again – and isn’t that the point of roguelikes anyway?

-Ed

Minami Lane, Switch 2

Watch on YouTube

Existing is stressful at times, and while I do have other hobbies to help me relax, sometimes 15 minutes on a calming game is what I need. That’s how Minami Lane found itself in my routine this week.

Management games give me a space where I am completely in control, and for some reason I find that relaxing. Not only are the soothing colour tones and whimsical soundtrack enough to lull me into a calmer mood, but being able to create a small street with an Onsen on, and a Ramen Shop, that the townsfolk are enjoying, makes me breathe deeper and focus better on what I’m doing.

Somehow it tells my mind everything is OK. I don’t know how and I don’t need to know how. Minami Lane has a magic to it and it works wonders on me.

-Marie

No Man’s Sky, PC

It’s happening again! Firstly, this was the week I finally wrapped my rewatch of Twin Peaks: The Return, so – still haunted by the sound of Carrie Page screaming into an unknowable oblivion of an unfamiliar world – today’s WWBP entry is very much served with a side helping of unshakeable existential nightmare. Which is actually pretty appropriate, given the similar vein of bleak philosophy that continues to haunt No Man’s Sky and its doomed universe. Not that I’ve been dipping back in for such lofty matters!

Instead, this week finally saw Hello Games’ exploratory sci-fi sim introduce fully customisable ships, complete with multi-crew capabilities and functional interiors. And while they don’t fundamentally change No Man’s Sky’s familiar survival rhythms, there’s something deeply, wonderfully satisfying about getting to explore the cosmos in a gleaming vessel – or in my case, an awkwardly assembled eyesore – that you’ve carefully (hastily) assembled to meet your own idiosyncratic fancies. So, if you happen to see a garishly coloured oblong teetering through space on your travels, do come and say hello!

-Matt

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, PC

Watch on YouTube

I genuinely don’t know how this passed me by – and props to the Eurogamer Discord for encouraging me in its direction. It’s a Don’t Nod game, a studio known for Life is Strange, though its vampire game, um, Vampyr is probably more relevant. Banishers is similar, you see. It’s a different concept – you’re a ghost banisher working in the 17th century in what Europeans would call the New World, or New England, or New Eden in this case – but the thoughtful adult tone and darkness of the world to me feel exactly the same. I’d even go as far as to say Banishers is a slow game, but slow in a mature way, by which I mean ‘given time to develop, given time to breathe’.

It’s really interesting and creatively brave. On the surface it looks like a lot of other games but underneath are many points of difference. I don’t remember another game revolving around a deeply-in-love couple from the start. I don’t remember a game with ghost-banishing ideas like this, or with such consistently engaging quests. The English language vocal performances of the two main characters are also superb, from Russ Bain and Amaka Okafor. The vocal performances are strong across the game, actually.

Banishers is a surprise package – the sort of game I imagine many people would say they would want to see, if asked. But it didn’t do the business for publisher Focus Home – Banishers performed “well below” expectations, even. Will it mean Don’t Nod simply won’t attempt something like this in the future? Because that would be a shame. A great shame indeed.

-Bertie

Resident Evil 3 Remake, PC

I’ve redownloaded the RE3 Remake while I wait for another game to review properly, or for 2XKO to launch on 9th September. I needed something fast but chunky. Moreish, explosive, and replayable. What better game than the RE3 Remake?

The truth is there are likely 50 games better than the RE3 Remake in this regard, but I already owned it on Steam and it’s like 20GB to download, which isn’t bad. And I’d forgotten how great Jill is in this, and I love Nemesis so much. Carlos is also great, though the hospital defence segment isn’t. I hit credits last night with a B rank, and all but one of the little doll collectables found.

Now I get to go through again, with a bunch of points to spend on little bonuses. I’m going to go for either the fiery knife to save ammo, or a fancy new pistol as I work my way through the pistol kill challenge. Wish me luck.

-Connor

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August 30, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Elden Ring Nightreign’s evil Deep Of Night mode gets a release date, but some people are already playing it

by admin August 28, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign will get a new rock-hard Expedition mode called Deep of Night on 11th September. “Rock-hard” is a cliché worn to uselessness, of course: to be more specific, this is at least tungsten-carbide-hard, possibly even as hard as stishovite, though the exact degree of toughness is variable.

It’s variable because Deep of Night gets statistically harder, the more you win, with a difficulty rating or “depth” that fluctuates based on wins and losses. Enemies are tougher than usual by default, and you can’t specify which Nightlord you’re hunting, so be prepared for nasty surprises. There are new special Depth Relics, exclusive to this mode, which sadistically bundle together additional buffs and debuffs.

Hungry for more d33tz? Lucky for you, dataminers managed to unearth Deep of Night from the existing game’s files a whole three weeks ago, as written up by Mark. It looks like there are five “depths” in total, and there is mention of “magmafied” enemy variants.

Following the aforesaid datamining, Elden Ring Nightreign modders have contrived to get the mode operational and begun posting videos that show off some of the new gear. Kotaku have a write-up of those videos in which we are exposed to the harrowing truth that rats in the starting camp take three hits to kill, not two. Seriously, this is the kind of switch-up that could wreck a whole expedition. There’s also talk of one of the new gear items, a Sentry’s Torch that increases lightning damage negation while increasing the damage taken from the peripheral Night’s Tide.

Watch on YouTube

Seems fun? I find that every From game gets harder, the more I play it, but then again, that also applies to getting up in the morning as I age. I’m pretty sure datamining wasn’t what From Software had in mind when they talked about hidden depths. I’d ask them to comment, but they might get mad and throw a paperweight at me (+10 poise break).

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August 28, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Playing Gears of War On My PS5 Is So Weird

by admin August 27, 2025

Earlier this month, Xbox sent me a code for Gears of War: Reloaded on the PlayStation 5. That’s a weird sentence to write. But it’s true. And despite knowing this port was coming and previously writing about it as well as the end of the console wars on Kotaku, I still have to admit: It was really bizarre to nail an active reload on a PlayStation gamepad.

Out today on Game Pass, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation, and PC, Gears of War: Reloaded is a remastered version of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, which is itself a remastered spin on the original Xbox 360 Gears of War game, complete with improved textures and extra content that was exclusive to the barely-talked-about PC port of the first game. Wowza, what a lineage! Anyway, this latest remastering of the original Gears game that started it all sports some new improvements, including 4K/120FPS support for multiplayer, improved shadows, and full crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms. And it looks great, even if I encountered a few quirks in my playthrough. But no matter how much better it might look, Gears of War on a PlayStation console is still strange to this grizzled Gears vet.

Loading up Gears of War: Reloaded on my PS5 was strange enough to begin with, but then I hopped into the game and linked my Xbox account and saw that my Xbox profile picture appeared in the menu instead of my PlayStation profile pic. Odd! Then I started playing, and Gears of War prompted me to hit triangle to look at something instead of the Y button. Peculiar! And once I got into a firefight, I was told to smash the R1 button to begin a reload and then hit it again at the right time to reload my Lancer assault rifle faster. I did as told, but I think I made a weird face while doing it. Even Sony acknowledged how odd this all is via a tweet of Marcus reloading with the comment: “Press R1 to Active Reload.”

Press R1 to Active Reload 💥

Gears of War: Reloaded is out today on PS5 pic.twitter.com/IIFIIsxkvB

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 26, 2025

When I unlocked my first trophy in Gears of War on PlayStation 5, something really bizarre happened: My phone buzzed to let me know that I had also just earned an Xbox achievement. I’ve not played any other Xbox games on PlayStation yet, so I’m not sure if this is just normal or whatever, but it caught me off guard. Earning Xbox achievements on a PlayStation? We truly live in the weirdest timeline.

As someone who has exclusively played through the entire Gears of War franchise and racked up many hours chainsawing people in multiplayer on Xbox consoles, it never stopped being eerie and uncanny to be playing the original game again, but this time on Sony’s home console. I thought that before the credits rolled on Gears of War: Reloaded, I’d have forgotten I was even playing on a PS5. Nope. It was weird from start to finish. But not in a bad way! I’m not mad Gears is on PS5 in 2025. I just think it’s going to take a few more weeks or months, or longer, for me to get used to it.

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August 27, 2025 0 comments

Nightreign characters embark on a new expedition.

Game Reviews

Elden Ring Nightreign Fans Are Already Playing The Unannounced Hard Mode

by admin August 26, 2025

Elden Ring Nightreign‘s final Everdark Sovereign arrived last week and die-hard fans are ready for a new challenge. FromSoftware hasn’t officially revealed what’s coming to the multiplayer roguelite spin-off next, but that hasn’t stopped some players from diving into the secret new ranked mode that was added to the game’s files earlier this month and discovering what’s there for themselves.

A reference to The Deep of Night was first discovered in Nightreign by dataminers shortly after its Duos update arrived in late July. Other details hidden in the files suggested it was an endless mode with skill-based matchmaking that would give hardcore players a new challenge to overcome. It would even add slots to their existing vessel so new types of relics could be added to help them with these tougher runs, it seemed.

Weeks later, some players have been taking advantage of mods to try The Deep of Night out for themselves, even as publisher Bandai Namco remains silent about what it has planned for Nightreign‘s future. It can only be played on PC solo on a separate save file and play is limited to the first round. But that hasn’t dissuaded the game’s sweatiest Nightfarers from dipping their tarnished toes into this new version of Limveld.

While some mods unlock the mode itself, others unlock the new Deep relics for purchase from the signboard. People have been uploading their expeditions to YouTube, showing some of the new gear exclusive to The Deep of Night and their unique trade-offs. Unlike regular loot found during runs, each piece of gear in the Deep comes with additional debuffs to add to the difficulty. A Sentry’s Torch, for example, might improve lightning damage negation and boost damage negation from getting hit, but also dramatically raise the damage you take from being out in the Night’s Tide storm which, as someone who frequently spends half of the run out there, would be an instant death sentence for me.

Enemies are also way tankier in general. Rats in the starting camp will take three hits to kill instead of two. Some enemies also look like contaminated versions of themselves. Otherwise, it’s mostly the same game people have been playing for months, at least in the first round. Deep of Night runs thus far haven’t revealed any new weapons or secrets, though that could change if players survive into the later rounds or manage to get their rank high enough to unlock access to things not currently referenced in the datamined files.

We won’t know for sure until FromSoftware makes the mode official. That could come as early as this week or sometime later in September if it decides to wait until the last batch of Everdark Sovereigns have cycled through a second time. According to datamined leaks, there are also new character classes coming to Nightreign at some point. Whether they will be part of a free update or a paid DLC is unclear. The game’s biggest fans remain hungry for anything new the developers can throw at them. Hopefully, that ends up being sooner than later.

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August 26, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Original Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater voice actor says playing Snake was “the definitive role in his life”

by admin August 24, 2025

David Hayter – the original voice behind one of gaming’s biggest characters, Snake – says portraying Hideo Kojima’s stealthy creation “was the definitive role in [his] life”, and if he was asked to reprise the role, he’d be “down” to voice him again.

In an interview with Inverse alongside fellow Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater voice actors Lori Alan and Cynthia Harrell, Hayter – who was dropped from the role and replaced by Kiefer Sutherland for the fifth instalment, The Phantom Pain – called it “the definitive role in [his] life”.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – Launch Trailer | PS5 Games.Watch on YouTube

“Anytime they ask me to be Snake, I’m in,” Hayter said. “It’s the definitive role in my life. It’s so complex and so profound, and there are so many different aspects to both him and Big Boss. So anytime it comes up, I’m down.

“I get so many people coming up to me now saying, I just got into Metal Gear last year because of the Master Collection, and it’s so cool to see 18-year-old fans and younger kids discovering it for the first time,” the award-winning Hollywood writer added. “A great game should be like a great movie or like a great album – it should live on. And a lot of times, because consoles and technology change, a lot of great games disappear. And so I’m just grateful that Konami is behind this in the way they are.”

That said, if given the opportunity, Hayter was candid enough to acknowledge he wouldn’t have minded re-recording some of Snake’s lines for the remake.

“I do feel that I’m a little better of an actor now than I was then,” he admitted. “It was fine back in the day, but I would have loved to bring some of the knowledge that I’ve picked up over the past 20 years to it. But you don’t want the controller lines to be better acted all of a sudden, because that’ll take you out of the game.

“I’ve been working in Hollywood for quite some time now,” he added. “This is a beloved franchise, a huge world with massive worldwide appeal. So I’m never surprised when something like this comes back. But I didn’t anticipate it would be this. But to start with, Snake Eater is very cool, because it’s generally considered the pinnacle of Metal Gear.”

We recently learned that Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater has brought back the secret Guy Savage mode. But it wasn’t made by Konami alone – Platinum Games, perhaps best known for its Bayonetta and Astral Chain series, is responsible for the surprise action minigame.

Connor had a great time with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, awarding it five out of five stars in our review, writing: “A legend is brought back to life with Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, in a surprisingly sensitive remake from Konami featuring developers from the original.”

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August 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – the fabled Hollow Knight, the much-anticipated Bloodlines 2, and more

by admin August 23, 2025

23rd August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, our away team returns from Gamescom and our home team recovers from Gamescom. What a week! Have you had your head turned by anything?

More importantly, what have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, PC

Watch on YouTube

I’ve been waiting for this for years and now that I’ve finally played it – a few hours of it in a preview – I’m disappointed. It’s not so much that the concept has been narrowed to fit an action game template, because that can work really well – though it’s a shame not to use the outrageous wealth of RPG depth in the existing tabletop RPG game – but being narrower means there’s more pressure on the content that remains. Having less to do means the things you actually do need to stand out more.

The characters need to really impress, the combat needs to really impress, the corridored sequences need to really impress; and they don’t – or at least they didn’t in what I played. The preview build fell a bit flat. With the notable exception that it did make me feel like a very powerful vampire. The action felt great, which does count (Dracula) for a lot.

I still hold out hope for the game; there’s every chance it might broaden into a more fulfilling experience as the campaign goes on. But my confidence has been knocked.

-Bertie

Mina the Hollower, Switch 2

I’ve been looking forward to Mina the Hollower ever since Shovel Knight developer Yacht Club Games announced its oh-so-adorable looking release all the way back in 2022. Cute? Yes! Nostalgic? Yes! Pretty darn Gothic? Yes! This game had Victoria written all over it. Now after more than three years, the studio has released a demo, offering a bitesized piece of what players can expect. And I am pleased to say that so far, things are looking good.

Story wise, it turns out titular mouse Mina previously created devices known as Spark Generators, but they are now failing. Not only that, it seems more is afoot than just some technical issues. So, Mina sets off to look into the situation, but before she can arrive at the city of Ossex, her ship is attacked by a sea beast off the coast of Tenebrous Isle. Picking a weapon (I went for Nightstar, which is a mace on a whip-like chain), Mina soon let that Kraken creature know she meant business, but alas, the ship still made a less than graceful arrival to the shore. However, Mina and I remained undeterred, so we made our way through the Blighted Docks…

While only a snippet, I loved my time with Mina the Hollower’s Switch 2 demo. I collected Bonestone, I popped off various goblins and bats, I burrowed my way underneath enemies to spring up excitingly from behind and I negotiated perilous pits, all while bopping along to a gloriously retro-infused soundtrack. It reminded me of a classic Zelda game, but with an extra touch of Castlevania deliciously laced through it all. Oh yes, I am certainly looking forward to Mina the Hollower’s full release this October.

-Victoria

Hollow Knight, Switch 2

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After getting wrapped up in the Silksong hype, among other things, I went back to Hollow Knight. And honestly? I get it. I get the excitement, I get the celebrations around Silksong finally receiving a release date this week.

I stopped playing years ago so it all feels new again now. So far, I’m finding the most joy in going down holes I probably shouldn’t go down yet, because I’m not experienced enough to handle what’s there. But I do it anyway because I want to. My number of deaths so far? I’m not saying.

Somehow 10 minutes turned into an hour and I’m itching to get back to it. It’s a feeling few games have given me recently.

-Marie

Rocket League, Xbox Series X

I think I now see myself how my son must see me: old and out of touch. I’ve been playing more Rocket League with him, and I hadn’t realised just how far from the original idea of the game the whole thing had gone. That core car football experience is still the main bit, I guess, but we were playing a mode the other night where the ball was being pulled around in a circular arc, presumably by magnets or something, and the cars could leap into the air and hover there to intercept and push the ball back to the other team. My poor brain can’t take it. What will these people think of next?!

-Tom O

Until Dawn, PS4

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Somehow, Supermassive’s cinematic horror game Until Dawn is ten years old next week, and to mark the occasion (as well as for other reasons), I’ve been working my way back through the PS4 original. I always liked Until Dawn (and I absolutely adored creator Will Byles’ summer camp follow-up The Quarry), but I’ve been completely blindsided by just how well the whole thing still holds up today. The 60fps PS5 patch helps a bit, of course, but even without that, Until Dawn is an impressive piece of work. It absolutely nails the distinctive high-gloss slasher vibe that was particularly prevalent the 90s, for starter, Supermassive making the most of its stylish camera angles and wintery ambience. But more than that, it’s just a fun ride, and – as it slowly starts to subvert expectations, taking its slasher tropes and character archetypes to unexpected places – far smarter than I originally gave it credit for. It’s brilliant stuff, even ten years on, and I’m hoping this’ll finally be the run-through where nobody dies.

-Matt

World of Warcraft, PC

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I recently learned that World of Warcraft has added a one-button spell rotation to the game, allowing players to put out pretty decent damage without having to memorise anything or take time to learn their class. This I’m sure will have long-lasting impacts on the skill of the average WoW player, but for me it’s wonderful news. Not only as an accessibility feature for those who struggle to play WoW, but also for incredibly tired WoW refugees like me who have been burnt out the game several times now.

Years ago I made a Warlock called Goondan, but having reached level 10, I didn’t have the heart to play on, so I banished the Orc to a lonesome digital hell. Now that I don’t actually have to learn the class, I’ve been blasting through the leveling process, and Goondan may actually hit max level. He may even see the light of day in the upcoming Midnight expansion. Who knows!

-Connor

Balatro, Ballz, and NFL Fantasy Football

Being out in the field at Gamescom, I’ve obviously been playing a slew of things – but half of them I’m not yet allowed to talk about, and untangling the safe from the NDA-breakers is far too much for my con-frazzled Friday brain to handle. But me being away can only mean one thing: being back on my Balatro BS. It’s still as good as ever, and whenever I’m forced to spend time idling on board or waiting for planes, trains, and automobiles, it’s my go-to. It feels like it’ll stay that way forever, as I chip away at that 100 percent completion that still feels a million miles away. I also played a bit of a dumb ad-filled mobile game called Ballz, which is a bit like Breakout. Finally, I’m spending any last spare moment each day doing mock drafts as my NFL Fantasy Football draft is next weekend. For me, that’s one of the most important ‘gaming’ moments of the year. There is pride on the line, after all!

-Alex

Donkey Kong Bananza, Switch 2

I feel like this year I’ve spent a lot of time on very serious games. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and its themes of death. Death Stranding 2 and its themes of death. Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and its frequent deaths. So this week I decided to change things up and finally start Donkey Kong Bananza after my partner won’t stop going on about it. And what a contrast! I love its musical themes and catchy tunes, and those brightly coloured worlds are a joy to just smash through – I’ve barely progressed at all as instead I just lay waste to entire levels hunting out those bananas. I hate bananas – they taste and smell repulsive to me – but I can’t stop going “ooh banana!” at every opportunity.

-Ed

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August 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

What we’ve been playing – we’ve made a change but don’t panic

by admin August 18, 2025

16th August

Hello and welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we’ve been playing. This week, we’re making a slight change in an effort to get you a wider view of what the team – the entire team – has been playing. Expect to read more opinions on what we’ve been playing, but slightly shorter entries so we can fit them all in.

What have you been playing?

Catch up with the older editions of this column in our What We’ve Been Playing archive.

Mafia: The Old Country, PC

Don’t be Sicily!Watch on YouTube

I’ve been excited about this for a while because who doesn’t want to live their Al Pachina Sicilian Mafia dream? Those al fresco lunches are to die for. Sometimes literally.

The set-up here is turn of the 20th Century Sicily and you’re a hard-up miner who: has a mine collapse on them, gets into a fight, goes on the run, and ends up working with a Mafia family. So far it’s been linear and a bit boring. Gorgeous though – that scorched Sicilian landscape is to die for. Sometimes literally. (It’s the same joke Bertie.)

But I haven’t been able to experience anything else because the game keeps crashing on me. Six crashes in a row I had so I gave up. I expect it’ll be patched soon, but that a game can perform like this at all, at launch, is outrageous, and definitely not to die for.

-Bertie

Rocket League, Xbox Series X

In an attempt to prove to my son that I’m not an inept old man who can no longer accomplish things in my life, I played a few games of split-screen Rocket League with him. Of course, he won, but importantly I wasn’t rubbish and I did score quite a few goals. Well done me! Not time for the scrapheap yet.

-Tom O

The House of The Dead Remake, Switch 2

It’s been a very busy and stressful time, as you can imagine, getting ready for Gamescom and helping the new, updated version of Eurogamer get to its feet. So as I was browsing the Switch 2 eShop and saw The House of The Dead Remake was going for less than the price of a pint, I snapped it up. There’s nothing quite like the cathartic release of furiously tapping on a screen to blow the heads off zombies. It works just as well with your index finger as it ever did with a light gun.

-Dom

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, PS5

Wuchang, Wuchang.Watch on YouTube

I’m not sure if the Wuchang developers’ interest in sexy ladies with feathers and wings is down to the iconic status of Elden Ring’s Malenia boss battle, or if they just like sexy ladies with feathers and wings. Regardless, it’s a repeated design across the game, though it certainly speaks to the somewhat derivative nature of the game as a Soulslike. However, as I pointed out earlier this week it does have enough ideas of its own and a peculiar rhythm to combat that makes it stand apart. Annoyingly, I finished it a couple of days ago before the most recent patch came to console, with its much-needed balance tweaks and more controversial story adjustments.

-Ed

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, PC

Yes, Drangleic has called to me once more.

I don’t know exactly what it is about FromSoftware’s games, but there’s something about the intricate spaces it creates – the sheer totality of their design – that worms so deep into my brain. Every now and then, I get a yearning that feels impossible to ignore, and this time around it was the melancholy song of Dark Souls 2 calling me back to its blighted peaks and forsaken shores.

I appreciate I’m an outlier here, but I adore Dark Souls 2, warts and all; its sheer ambition, its idiosyncratic invention, and, yes, an atmosphere so overwhelmingly forlorn it practically seeps into your bones. This, I should say, is my very first dance with Dark Souls 2’s Scholar of the First Sin do-over, and it’s a lot like coming home after a long time away and seeing everything with brand-new eyes. Right now, I’m venturing hole-ward into Majula’s suffocating, accursed depths – perhaps the closest From has ever come to full-on horror. It’s good to be back, even if there’s still plenty of pain to come.

-Matt

Silent Hill 4: The Room, PC

This is the video Ian was making that prompted him to play The Room. While he was working in A Room.Watch on YouTube

During a recent edit for a video feature about Silent Hill f, I had to source some gameplay for Silent Hill 4: The Room. I remember playing The Room on the original Xbox at an ex-girlfriend’s house back when it released, but for some reason I never completed it. I’ve long since lost my original copy, but looking back at that footage inspired me to pick it up on GOG and give it another spin.

And you know what, I love the first-person stuff in room 302. It’s kind of a proto-P.T. with its slight, sometimes unnoticeable changes every time you return to the room, which adds more mystery to the experience. There’s some really neat touches too, like looking out of the window to see neighbours going about their business, through the windows of their homes across the street, or seeing handprints appear on the wall outside your room every time someone meets a tragic end.

The Otherworld stuff is definitely on the weaker side of the Silent Hill spectrum though, demonstrated in both its repetitive level design and the fact the game is full of bizarre stock sound effects that really don’t fit the atmosphere. Special shout-out to the nurse monsters that emit echoing Homer Simpson burps every time you hit them.

Despite its flaws, I love that The Room is doing something a bit different. I’m about five hours in and determined to see it through to the end, mainly to finally finish what I started 20+ years ago. But also because I severely doubt this one will get a Bloober remake!

-Ian

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, PC

I picked up this returning classic yesterday after work and am, so far, a very happy chap. I remember being a teenager and blasting through Dark Crusade on my friends PC, so seeing a lot of those old models reworked with shiny new graphics, in a proper resolution, has been wonderful.

I’m not too far through it yet, having only completed the first three missions of the base games’ campaign, but I do reckon this’ll be a game I’ll chip away at over the next few months. Special shout out to the legendarily horrible yell during the game’s opening cinematic, a relic of the original game the folks at Relic Entertainment could have justifiably removed. It’s a proper AAARGH, one of the all time greats. Also, Chaos Space Marines forever.

-Connor

Tiny Bookshop, PC

Tiny Bookshop has been sitting at the back of my mind ever since I played the demo way back at EGX 2022. Yet, the more I longed for its release, the more a worry grew inside of me – would I enjoy the full game as much as I loved the demo?

Thankfully, the answer is a resounding yes. I’ve easily become completely absorbed in the world of Bookstonbury. In fact, it’s to the point that some evenings I’ve forgotten I can go outside and read at a real beach rather than sell books in a virtual one. Still, it’s a worthy price to pay if it means I can continue selling books and solving the occasional mystery in my little bookshop wagon. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to sell this pile of travel books and discover who destroyed the shopmarket mascot at the same time…

-Lottie

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Definitive Edition, PC

After reading above that Connor is a Chaos Marines guy I had to include this one, if only so I could comment on how appropriate that is. Anyway, it’s an absolute treat of a game – look forward to a thousand-plus more words of waffle to the tune of that from me very soon. Alongside this I’m still chipping away at Pokémon TCG Pocket, and a couple of very, very good things that are under embargo, oooohhhhhh (sorry I realise that’s actually really annoying to do that and not say what it is, promise I won’t make it a habit).

-Chris T

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August 18, 2025 0 comments