Pokemon Legends: Z-A will see players return to Pokemon X and Y's Kalos region, and fittingly, one of the major gameplay features of those games will make a return: Mega Evolutions. Ahead of its release next month, The Pokemon Company has shown off one of the new Mega Evolutions debuting in the game, as the Luchador-inspired Pokemon Hawlucha is getting a serious upgrade when it jumps into the ring.

A Fighting- and Flying-type Pokemon, Hawlucha's Mega Evolution sees the Pokemon transform into a creature that has even more ornate plumage, which makes it look like a Pokemon version of famed wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger. "After bathing in the energy of Mega Evolution, its whole body has grown more muscular. Its signature move is Flying Press. It spins to increase the momentum of its dive when attacking. It shows off its muscular chest--both to its opponent and to its Trainer," Hawlucha's Mega Evolution Pokedex entry reads (via Serebii).

Hawlucha is the third new Mega Evolution reveal so far for Pokemon Legends: Z-A. The first one was Mega Dragonite, a power-up that adds massive wings to the powerhouse Pokemon's head, and recently, we got a brief taste of what a Pokemon horror movie would be like with the debut of Mega Victreebel.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

While proprietary engines aren't all that common at many studios--given the fact that they're just simply difficult to make--Capcom has found a lot of success with its own one, RE Engine. It's been used across all of the studio's games since 2017's Resident Evil 7, with the upcoming Pragmata being no different. However, a small thing you might not think about being important is that Diana, the game's deuteragonist, has very long hair. According to producer Naoto Oyama, the RE Engine actually had to be changed to even make this possible.

When asked about any new features that could be used in future games in an interview with VGC, Oyama explained that Diana's hair is one example. "The RE Engine is, first of all, something that we've all really built to create something that's important for us as a backbone for our games," he said. "And so, with that, we also have the ability to always request stuff when we want to add this or that to the RE Engine. One of these which is visually easy to understand is Diana's hair, which is made up of strands."

He went on to note how in previous games they've generally used technology more suitable for shorter hair, Diana's long hair is "something that we've finally been able to do with Pragmata, so we've had the help from the RE Engine team to create this." When asked if we might see any zombies sporting some luscious long locks or not, Oyama replied, while laughing, "It's hard to say."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Developer Crystal Dynamics is laying off more members from the team, though not detailing the total number of people impacted. This is the second round of cuts at the Tomb Raider studio within the last six months--and the first since the Perfect Dark reboot was canned.

On LinkedIn, the official Crystal Dynamics account announced the layoffs. "This decision was not made lightly," the post reads. "It was necessary, however, to ensure the long-term health of our studio and core creative priorities in a continually shifting market." The language is pretty similar to what Crystal Dynamics stated after 17 people were laid off in March: "We did not make this decision lightly."

The biggest known project at Crystal Dynamics currently is the next Tomb Raider. The game starring Lara Croft will be published by Amazon Games, and Crystal Dynamics noted that "the future of Tomb Raider" is "unaffected by this decision."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Ever since Resident Evil 7, the horror series' non-remake games have opted for a first-person perspective over the third-person perspective Resident Evil 4 set as the de facto choice in 3D games. Resident Evil Village was made with first-person in mind, though it did get a third-person camera mode post-launch. When Resident Evil Requiem launches next year, it'll do so with first- and third-person modes right out the gate. But according to the game's director, the latter was only added in so it wouldn't be too scary for some players.

Speaking to GamesRadar, director Koshi Nakanishi explained how he implemented Resident Evil 7's first-person perspective to make it "more immersive and more scary than ever before," noting that he thinks "media and players agreed it was an incredibly scary game, but it was possibly too scary."

He went on to say that because it felt too scary, he believes some players weren't able to finish it, or even start it in the first place. In turn, with Requiem, he wanted to make sure there was a way to let as many people play the game as possible. "If you started the game off in first-person perspective, and you're finding it's too much, then-third person is almost a way to step slightly back from that level of horror and make it slightly easier to deal with by having the character on screen as a kind of avatar of yourself," Nakanishi explained.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

What's the most important thing that EA's new Skate game needs? Contrary to popular belief, polished gameplay and fun environments aren't at the top of the list, because that's a spot reserved for the soundtrack. If we're talking sub-genres within the playlist itself, then naturally, we have to know just how much of it is reserved for the best music to power a kickflip: ska. So just how much ska is in Skate? That's a question Skate's developers aren't quite ready to answer yet, although they are tooting their horns about the game's upcoming release on PC and console.

"I know ska is really polarising. I love Ska, I love Rocksteady (another genre of music), so I don't know how to answer this. I'm also bad at math, so I'm going to say it won't be a high percentage but I won't rule out ska being on the soundtrack," senior creative director Deran Chung said to VideoGamer. Skate head of creative Jeff Seamster added that the game definitely features "some" ska, which might be reason enough to grab your old Mighty Mighty Bosstones T-shirt out of your cupboard and dust off your Reel Big Fish CDs.

Of course, you're free to have as much ska as you want while playing, thanks to the integration of streaming services on console and PC. Pull up a playlist of Fishbone and Madness on Spotify, and you're good to go.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Battlefield 6 testing program, Battlefield Labs, is ramping back up this week following the end of the game's popular open beta earlier this month.

A leaked document reveals that the next Battlefield Labs test will begin on Friday, August 29, across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The Labs test will include a lot of new features, including the debut of the server browser and bigger maps.

If you took part in a Labs test before the open beta, you're automatically in for future tests. Everyone else, however, has to sign up for Labs and hope to be chosen. You can sign up for Labs here.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Activision has brought Call of Duty: World War II back to the Microsoft Store and Xbox PC App after it was removed more than a month ago, though the company has still not said a word about what happened.

A statement released on August 27 confirmed that the 2017 game has returned, and is once again available for PC Game Pass players. However, there was no explanation as to anything else related to the game's removal on July 4. At the time, Activision said it pulled the game to investigate "an issue."

While Activision never confirmed what happened, fans believe they worked it out. Call of Duty: WWII was reportedly overrun with Remote Code Execution attacks that had players losing control of their PCs via a security exploit. A similar attack happened to Dark Souls 3 back in 2022, which led to the entire trilogy being taken offline while the security issue was addressed.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Earlier this summer, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima laughed when asked if he would play the remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, before flatly replying, "No, I won't." Regardless, the creative team behind Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is hopeful that their former colleague will get a chance to see that the remake was created with great reverence and respect for the original.

"We are not sure what [Kojima] would want to do, but we want to deliver this game whilst being very respectful of all the people that we previously worked with," said MGS Delta producer Noriaki Okamura during an interview with Inverse. "We would love for [Kojima] to see it too."

Kojima parted ways with Konami in 2015 after spending decades as one of the top creative minds in the company. Since that time, Kojima has launched his own company and released two Death Stranding games. Okamura has openly shared his admiration for Kojima and expressed his desire to work with him again on MGS. However, Kojima has his own MGS-like game called Physint, which may still be a few years away. The director recently confirmed that Physint is still in a conceptual phase.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

While players are still enjoying Peak's brand-new Mesa biome, the game's latest patch is here to address some technical concerns--specifically making it easier to run Peak on lower-powered computers.

The latest patch, which brings the game to version 1.27.a, introduces a new Texture Quality graphics setting. The new option, which Team Peak says has been much-requested, allows players with low VRAM to lower the texture quality, reducing the incidence of low framerates, missing graphics, and potential crashes. The developer notes that the lower texture quality "doesn’t even look much worse," so it's worth checking out for anyone who's been experiencing performance issues in Peak.

The developer has also added support for DX11 graphics API, alongside existing options DX12 and Vulkan. "It might be better, it might be worse," the patch notes warn, but suggest players who have had issues with the other options give it a try anyway. "We can’t really confirm which exact configurations of graphics cards this will work better with, but if it can improve it for some of you that’s fantastic!"

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Cult filmmaker John Carpenter seems to have been having a moment at Gamescom 2025. Not only does his name grace the title for Toxic Commando, Saber Interactive's fun evolution of the zombie co-op FPS, but his sci-fi horror, The Thing, is also a key influence of the upcoming Directive 8020. Topping it off, it was during the show where the previously announced Halloween, based on the horror classic with Carpenter himself attached as executive producer, had its first trailer it was announced that his defining slasher horror classic Halloween is being turned into a game, with Carpenter himself attached as an executive producer.

Given it's being developed by Illfonic--the studio behind other licensed horror or horror-adjacent games like Friday the 13th, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Predator, and Ghostbusters--in collaboration with Gun Media, Compass International Pictures, and Further Front, it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that this will consist of asymmetrical multiplayer. But this isn't just going to be Friday the 13th: The Game swapping out Jason Vorhees for Michael Myers. For one, the announcement confirms that Halloween will be both a single-player and multiplayer horror experience.

Although Friday the 13th did technically feature single-player content, these were essentially challenge missions that featured no narrative. Sitting down with design director Jordan Mathewson, he explains that this is very much a story mode experience that the studio is working on with Pollard Studio, the Shanghai-based studio behind Karma: The Dark World. "It does have narrative and cinematic components to really give it a lot of story and exploration into what it is doing," he says. "But we've also been building a lot and iterating in a way that allows us to build a type of experience that stands apart from multiplayer and give you a completely different look at what this type of game can be."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Supermassive Games has already proven itself as one of the most popular storytellers in interactive cinematic horror--since Until Dawn's release a decade ago, more than half a dozen similar titles that focus on different monsters have been released. Directive 8020 is the latest of these as part of its anthology series The Dark Pictures, and sees the developer charting new territory in space.

Alien is one major cornerstone, the film that really showed us how terrifying space can be, while you also play as a crew on board the ship Casseopeia who are due to awake from cryosleep. There's even a touch of 2001: A Space Odyssey, given the presence of a talking supercomputer called Oracle, though playing through the first episode, I don't have enough reason to be suspicious. The grave threat instead is a meteorite that's breached the ship's hull, which has also brought some kind of alien fleshy matter on board that can mimic the appearance of the crew. This is essentially The Thing in space.

While that will no doubt open up to paranoia among the crew when you're going to question who is or isn't human, at this point the ship only has two monitoring crew up and about, Tomas Carter and Sims, so when the latter suddenly starts behaving murderously aggressive, it's no surprise that something's not right.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Bethesda is not finished supporting 2023's spacefaring RPG Starfield. Lead creative producer Tim Lab said in a new video that fans can look forward to many new updates to the game over time, including a second story DLC.

"I'm really excited for players to see what the team has been working on. We have some cool stuff coming, including free updates and features that players have been asking for, as well as a new DLC story," he said. "I can't go into all the details just yet, but I will say part of the team has been focused on space gameplay to make the travels there more rewarding. We're also adding some new game systems, and a few other smaller delights."

Starfield's first story DLC, Shattered Space, was released in September 2024. It added a new planet, along with more weapons and gear. There is no word on what the next story DLC might entail.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Unofficial Hollow Knight Building Set (329-pieces)

$16

See at Amazon

Unofficial Hollow Knight Building Set (370-pieces)

$18

See at Amazon

It's hard to believe, but Hollow Knight's long-awaited sequel, Silksong, is finally launching for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, Switch, and PC on September 4. If you're keeping track, that's next Thursday--so we'll be playing it soon. However, if you're looking for a way to pass the final few days until Silksong's launch, or just want a neat way to display your love for the series, you should check out these unofficial--but highly reviewed--Hollow Knight building sets available for under $20 at Amazon.

Unofficial Hollow Knight Building Set (329-pieces) $16

While the 329-piece display is not an official Hollow Knight product--and therefore does not feature any Hollow Knight branding or trademarks--it certainly looks the part. The kit lets you build a cute 5-inch Hollow Knight figure with his iconic Nail sword, a bench for him to sit on, and a 10-inch tall streetlamp that actually lights up.

The set is from BuildingBoat, which is one of numerous Lego clone companies out there, and it's important to note that the instructions may not be as easy to follow. That said, this kit seems small enough that it shouldn't be much of an issue. You can grab the kit for $16 at Amazon.

See at Amazon Unofficial Hollow Knight Building Set (370-pieces) $18

For a slightly larger kit, there's an almost identical The Knight set from another Lego knockoff brand, Mavo Brix. This 370-piece version features all the same elements as the BuildingBoat set, but scaled up a bit, with a 6.3-inch Hollow Knight figure, a 5-inch-wide bench, and a 10.6-inch light-up street lamp. This kit is $18 at Amazon.

See at Amazon

Unofficial video game building kits like these are surprisingly common these days. In fact, before Lego launched its first official Legend of Zelda display last year, several other brick building brands launched their own unlicensed Zelda-inspired sets. Like the Hollow Knight sets above, the Zelda kits don't feature official Zelda branding or trademarked iconography. But they look like the real thing--and they're also much more affordable than official Lego sets.

Some notable picks include the 1,764-piece Hyrule Horse Station Building Model Kit, which is based on the stables you visit in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The display measures 12.75 inches tall and 12.28 inches wide, featuring details such as interior rooms with furniture, chests containing food and other items, and even a floating Korok. There's also the Link & Zonai Device Dispenser play set that lets you build a working version of the Zonai Dispenser shrine from Tears of the Kingdom, and includes a blocky 3-inch Link figure. You can also grab an 800-piece set featuring five buildable Korok figures for $27 (was $30) when you click to redeem the coupon code on Amazon's listing.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Gears of War: Reloaded, a remaster of the 2006 original game, launched this week--but it didn't go over entirely smoothly. The PC version currently has a "mixed" review rating on Steam, with people reporting crashing issues pointing out how the game is missing things like an FOV slider. Some issues have been reported on console as well, including matchmaking problems.

People are also calling the game out for its lack of split-screen co-op on PC, a feature they say was advertised as a selling point (this is no longer listed on the Steam page, however).

In a social media post, Microsoft said its teams are "investigating crashes on Steam when launching." The company said it's also looking into issues relate to missing preorder character skins and matchmaking problems.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Outer Worlds was widely seen as a decent stab at mapping Obsidian's first-person RPG style onto a new retro-future sci-fi setting, but what really set it apart was its satirical sense of humor. Unlike similar series like Elder Scrolls or Fallout, the spacefaring setting gave it new avenues to mock corporations and governments. For The Outer Worlds 2, Obsidian is doubling down on those qualities with a premise that's more immediately satirical and opens more options to poke at the edges of its systems.

I played roughly an hour of The Outer Worlds at Gamescom, which looked to represent the opening of the game, from character creation and a late title card. Right away the humor shone through, as each archetypal selection had its own funny aside that helped illustrate what made it unique. I chose the Roustabout, described as a person with no skills who essentially fell ass-backwards into their role as a commander in the Earth Directorate. So you have power and influence in an elite covert organization, but you also don't really deserve it. Picture Mass Effect's Shepard mixed with Futurama's Zapp Brannigan.

The opening mission has you dispatched to investigate spacetime anomalies and coordinate with an agent on the inside of the Protectorate, a totalitarian colony government that's at conflict with a megacorp. Already you have the ingredients for rich worldbuilding, which is first illustrated with a silly propaganda show for the Directorate and continues with seeing firsthand the way the Protectorate runs its government. Protectorate workers are often portrayed as true-believer zealots in the project, though they occasionally make asides that suggest they're more afraid of reprisals than they are genuinely all-in. But you're no heroes, either, as the Directorate is an overbearing police-force-for-hire that seems mainly concerned with protecting megacorp profits. The stakes of the story felt immediately understandable, which is a nice change since the first game took a while to gain its momentum.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Judas was first revealed in late 2022, and while developer Ghost Story Games has been keeping a tight lid on the project since then, it has shared a few new details on it this week. Creative director Ken Levine has shared a dev log detailing how a major milestone on the game has been completed. To celebrate, the official key art for Judas has been revealed, which Levine says is inspired by the work of legendary movie poster artist Drew Struzan.

Similar to Struzan's work on movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Big Trouble in Little China, the key art is designed to give players a look at the primary cast of Judas:

Judas

As for that previously mentioned milestone? Levine says that it was focused on the idea of villainy, a central feature in the game. As Levine explained, your actions in the game will attract members of the "Big 3" to be potential friends, but ignoring any of them will result in these key characters transforming into villains, gaining a new suite of powers to subvert your actions and goals in the process. You'll have to decide who you want to focus your energy on, and who you might alienate along the way.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Fantasian Neo Dimension for Nintendo Switch

$30 (was $50)

See at Amazon

Fantasian Neo Dimension for PS5

$30 (was $50)

See at Amazon

Fantasian Neo Dimension is on sale for its best price yet for Nintendo Switch and PS5 at Amazon. Normally $50, the rarely discounted turn-based RPG is up for grabs for only $30. Fantasian is one of a handful of Square Enix-published JRPGs currently on sale at Amazon.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Hitman: World of Assassination launched today for iOS, and the price point is higher than some might have expected. Now that the game has gone live, players have discovered that while the first location is free, you have to pay $70 USD to unlock the full game (but not necessarily the entire experience).

The $70 price for the full game actually represents a savings over buying the 25 levels outright for $3 each--purchased that way, you'd pay more (via Kotaku). Hitman: World of Assassination includes Hitman, Hitman 2, and Hitman 3, and the developers will add the Freelancer mode in a future update. The game supports touch controls and also has support for dedicated gaming controllers.

Beyond unlocking the full game, people can pay extra for other DLC. In total, the game offers $135 worth of microtransaction opportunities. You can see a full rundown below. For what it's worth, World of Assassination on other platforms is priced similarly, and is often on sale. For example, GameSpot sister site Fanatical has the game for $23 right now on PC.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Last year, video game director and designer Hideaki Itsuno ended his three-decade run with Capcom after guiding numerous franchises, including Devil May Cry. Now, Itsuno has revealed that one of the reasons he left his former company is that he didn't want to get bogged down making the same titles he did before.

Itsuno told VGC that Lightspeed's offer to let him create a new AAA game was too good to pass up, and he felt that it was his "last chance" to challenge himself.

"For Capcom, creating Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma sequels is the top priority, and keeping in mind that making a game takes four or five years, this might be my last big opportunity ... Before you [realize it], you are working on making Devil May Cry 6 or 7. It's not like I don't want to make them, I do. But it's hard to balance the time it takes with the personal satisfaction of making them. And with Devil May Cry 5 and Dragon's Dogma 2, I already did what I wanted to make."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Animal Crossing Crocs for Women

$85

See at Amazon

Animal Crossing Crocs for Kids

$55

See at Amazon

It's officially Animal Crocsing season, as the Crocs x Animal Crossing collection is now live and ready to order. Like its other collaborations, Crocs has taken the essence of the Animal Crossing games and applied them to its signature clogs, resulting in a colorful pair of shoes. If you'd like to grab a pair, Crocs is offering its Animal Crossing clogs in both adult women and kids sizes, with pricing varying between the two--$55 for kids, $85 for adults.

Animal Crossing Crocs for Women $85

These shoes feature a calming green forest background on the top segment and a water scene on the bottom, directly inspired by Animal Crossing. Additionally, they come with several Animal Crossing Jibbitz charms of the characters KK Slider, Isabelle, Tom Nook, and Timmy & Tommy pre-installed. You can equip even more Jibbitz charms to them, but these are sold separately. The sizing for these ranges from size 1 through 11, and if you're looking to see what kind of a fit you can expect, you can check the dedicated section on this through the Crocs website.

See at Amazon Animal Crossing Crocs for Kids $55

Like the adult versions above, the Crocs for kids feature a soothing combo of pastel green and blue, as well as KK Slider, Isabelle, Tom Nook, and Timmy & Tommy Jibbitz charms. Sizing--based on the "Little Kid" criteria--ranges from size 1 through 11.

See at Amazon Don't miss out on Pokemon and Minecraft CrocsPokemon and Minecraft Crocs

This isn't the first time that we've seen Crocs team up with popular video game brands. Earlier this year, a new line of Pokemon Crocs brought gotta wear 'em all energy to the brand with an attention-grabbing design that features a silhouette print and exclusive Jibbitz charms of the three Kanto starter Pokemon: Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander.

These are still available, and you can grab a pair now for both adults and kids. Other variants include a Charizard-themed set of Crocs, and Kids Crocs with simpler designs celebrating the Pokemon franchise.

Continue Reading at GameSpot