Actor Adam Driver played Kylo Ren in the new Star Wars trilogy, but don't expect him to return to the sci-fi series anytime soon. He said on the SmartLess podcast recently that he's aware that Lucasfilm is producing more Star Wars content, "but not with me."

Driver went on to say, "I'm not doing any more." Asked if he was finished with Star Wars because of Kylo Ren's death in The Rise of Skywalker, Driver confirmed that is indeed the case (via ScreenRant).

Before this, Driver discussed how Kylo Ren's arc in the new Star Wars trilogy was not originally set to unfold the way it did. In the finished movie, Kylo Ren refined himself as Ben Solo. But the original plan was for Ben to lose himself as the sith lord more and more throughout the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

CD Projekt Red has confirmed that it has no interest in being bought out or part of a larger corporation, and wants to maintain its independence.

In an interview with Parkiet, CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kicinski said, "We are not interested in being incorporated into some larger entity. We have worked all our lives to reach our current position. We believe that in a few years we will be even bigger and even stronger."

Kicinski also confirmed that CD Projekt Red don't have any acquisitions itself planned at the moment, and isn't interested in mergers where the only goal is to consolidate financial results as he doesn't see the value in that. This has been CD Projekt's Red stance for several years so Kicinski's continued insistence about independence aren't surprising.

The earliest version of Mickey Mouse is now in public domain as of January 1, 2024, and as many guessed, a game developer has announced its own twist on the character in a spooky setting.

Nightmare Forge Games has announced Infestation 88, an episodic 1-4 player co-op survival horror game set in 1988. You play as an exterminator called upon to rid dwellings of "twisted versions of classic characters and urban legends." And yes, Mickey Mouse is one of those characters. The game is set to release later this year on Steam as an Early Access title.

The version of Mickey Mouse that went into public domain today, January 1, is the character's earliest appearance, dating back to 1928's Steamboat Willie. Newer versions of the character remain under Disney's control. Legal experts expect Disney to remain highly protective of its brand and Mickey Mouse specifically, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the days, weeks, and months ahead as inevitably more and more Mickey-related projects come to light due to the public domain status of Steamboat Willie.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is fairly formulaic as far as sequels go. The reunion of Insomniac Games' take on Peter Parker and Miles Morales builds upon past foundations, adding just enough to reach new if unsurprising heights. It's in the efforts to stay close to its predecessors, however, that a key differentiator sets in. With the focus on bringing back lesser-known characters while fleshing out self-contained depictions of the friendly neighborhood spiders, the story sidelines Marvel Cinematic Universe expectations in structure and spirit, creating a stronger narrative as a result.

Editor's note: Marvel's Spider-Man 2 spoilers to follow

Avengers: Endgame was released a year after Marvel's Spider-Man, with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales following a year later. Ever since, the MCU has attempted to rekindle the spotlight, to varying results. It's safe to say the film conglomerate doesn't draw the eyes it once did. But its influential tidal wave, for better or worse, still ripples over Marvel-related media, including the video game space.

World of Warcraft will be 20 years old in 2024. After two decades, one might think that players of Blizzard's MMORPG have seen it all. But 2023 proved that Blizzard still has plenty of ideas about the game's future, and if the last year is any indication, that future certainly looks bright.

The latest expansion for the modern version of WoW, Dragonflight, launched at the tail-end of 2022 to positive reviews, alongside an ambitious content release roadmap for 2023. The expansion itself proved to be a well-crafted, return-to-basics affair that the game sorely needed after 2020's widely disliked Shadowlands expansion. All that goodwill, however, could have easily been squandered if Blizzard failed to deliver on its promises to deliver more content on a more frequent basis in the year ahead.

Considering how the release schedules for expansions like Warlords of Draenor and Shadowlands went, when six or more months could go by without any substantial additions to a game users pay $15 a month for the privilege to play, I think it's safe to say many players were skeptical Blizzard could deliver on its promises. Two major content updates alongside four minor ones over the course of 2023 sounded ambitious, to say the least.

Following the lukewarm reception to its latest horror game Ghostwire: Tokyo, few might have expected the next game from the Shinji Mikami led-Tango Gameworks to be a brightly colored, rhythm-based character-action game. Hi-Fi Rush saw a surprise release early in 2023, arguably kicking off the stellar year of unexpected brilliance with its tightly designed combat, incredibly likable cast of rebels, and standout boss fights. Each one of Hi-Fi Rush's numerous boss fights is memorable for one reason or another (the scale and complexity of the final fight against Kale is as awe-inspiring as the first fast-paced duel with antagonist-turned-ally Korsica), but none come close to comparing with what might be the most adrenaline-fuelled three-phase fight of the year: Roquefort.

Like much of Hi-Fi Rush, Roquefort isn't memorable because of his outright challenge. The character-action presented in Tango Gameworks' latest pairs rhythm-based sensibilities with the flow of traditional character-action, equipped with an engaging scoring system that judges your aptitude at balancing both. Smart touches around each stage consistently remind you of the beat you need to keep when inputting presses for combos, while enemy attacks (mostly) adhere to the same beat, only breaking out in half-steps when trying to trip you up. Roquefort is the culmination of everything you've learnt about this blend of genres to that point, acting as the penultimate boss that is meant to gatekeep your progress from the game's eventual most-challenging foe, both figuratively and literally.

A mysterious fog-covered town, a tropical paradise covering up something deadline in the great below, and vast ocean canyons that sailors rarely make it out from. Every section of Dredge's sizable archipelago is full of secrets that could easily sink your fishing ship as soon as you slow down to investigate.

Except your ship never stays at the bottom of the salt for long. As soon as you die in Black Salt Games' Dredge--a Lovecraftian horror adventure about a fisherman finding work in a mysterious archipelago--you find yourself right back in the nightmare once again. There is no escape, which works wonderfully as both a story and lore mechanic.

Dredge isn't a horror game about survival or bloodthirsty creatures who are hunting you. It's about a world that's already miles deep and full of questions that will never have answers. Spending hours running and getting killed by sinister sealife isn't nearly as compelling as simply spending more time near though. The questions slowly pile up, and it's satisfying to just try and answer them.

Remnant 2 has a fair few bosses. There's a corrupted alien wolf that's got altogether too many eyes and really wants you to kill off a magical deer. There's also what I can only describe as a night terror turned into ethereal flesh, which crawls out of walls trying to kill you while opening a portal from its chest to spit spiders at you. There's even a giant alien baby thing that blurs the lines between realities and tries to kill you using a mixture of black holes and laser beams to protect its home from careening into an event horizon.

Note: Spoilers for Remnant 2 ahead.

Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars is one of my favorite games of all time. I've played it once a year for over a decade, and as such I am very familiar with this offbeat take on the Mario universe. I loved the characters, I loved the battle system--my first foray into turn-based RPGs, in fact--and I loved the idea of expanding on a franchise I'd been visiting since I was three years old. Before SMRPG, the Mushroom Kingdom and its surroundings was a collection of flat worlds where I'd move from left to right. This time, however, it actually felt like a kingdom, with towns and cities populated by people to speak with, not just enemies to jump on.

On June 21 of this year, Nintendo made the announcement I'd waited on for 27 years: Super Mario RPG was coming back, rebuilt from the ground up with new visuals, new mechanics, and a revamped soundtrack by the original composer. My initial reaction was my brain melting out of my ears coupled with actual tears of joy, but once I settled down and really started to process this news, that joy gave way to a small bit of anxiety: What if the game's personality gets lost in restoration?

Part of what endears me and many other players to Super Mario RPG is just how silly the whole thing is. It revels in physical comedy, like Mario's pantomimed retelling of events to the Mushroom Kingdom's Chancellor. Characters and bosses are inherently weird, from the affable idiot Booster to a battle against a literal two-tiered wedding cake where each tier is a separate enemy. Some of the jokes and puns are dated--show of hands for those who know what the giant knife named Mack was referencing. The mountain of obstacles looked to be the size of Everest; would this remake make it to the summit?

Xur is back in Destiny 2 this weekend, giving you one last chance to pick up new Exotics and Legendary gear before the end of The Dawning. Here's where you can find Xur this weekend and everything he's selling.

This week you can find Xur on Nessus, in the Watcher's Grave area.

Xur is offering Skyburner's Oath for his Exotic weapon this week. Hunters can snag the Orpheus Rig leg armor; Titans have the Hallowfire Heart chest armor; and for Warlocks, Xur offers the Contraverse Hold gauntlets.