Treyarch has released its first post-launch Dev Talk video to reveal some major changes the studio is preparing for the launch of Season 1 next month. This discusses the community feedback regarding Black Ops 7's aim-assist, weapon balancing, and more.

Black Ops 7's assault rifles feel really powerful in multiplayer, while most of the guns in the submachine class have struggled to feel viable. Treyarch associate design director Matt Scronce confirms that a buff is coming across the entire submachine gun class. Scronce says no plans are made for adjustments to the marksman rifles or snipers, but the team is monitoring the data.

"The overall goal with those weapons in Black Ops 7 is that they are a bit more present without being too dominant," Scronce says.

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You'll need to take a trip to the Spaceport map to complete the A Lay of the Land quest in Arc Raiders. This quest tasks you with finding multiple items in a single trip to the map, so you'll want to come prepared to make a long trek and survive for quite some time. Let's take a look at everything you'll need to do to get this quest wrapped up.

Knowing that you'll have a lot of traveling and surviving to do on Spaceport for the A Lay of the Land quest, we'd recommend you bring guns you're comfortable with, as well as plenty of healing items. Additionally, it's a great idea to bring in an augment that has a safe pocket, as you'll need to extract with a specific item to complete the quest back in Speranza.

When you're ready to head out and begin A Lay of the Land, follow the guide below.

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As part of the November Xbox Partner Preview, developer Cybernetic Walrus announced that Roadside Research is coming to Xbox and will be a day-one release for Game Pass. What is Roadside Research? Few things in life are certain, but I feel confident in saying you probably won't guess the hook for this game.

What even is Roadside Research?

Roadside Research is a 1-4 player co-op gas station simulator. Simulator-type games are everywhere these days, but this one differentiates itself because you play as an alien. More specifically, you're an undercover alien who tries to act like a human and do human-like things that a gas station attendant would do like stocking shelves and assisting customers. "Just don't get caught," reads a line from the description.

All the while, players are trying to gather intelligence on humans in preparation for an upcoming alien invasion. "If you arouse too much suspicion, the government will show up, jeopardizing your Earthly mission," the description adds.

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Gearbox's new content update for Borderlands 4 is getting into the holiday spirit by releasing Bounty Pack 1 for free. The first Bounty Pack, How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, is now available on consoles and PC. As the title implies, this is Borderlands' version of a Christmas story as filtered through the lens of the game.

The DLC allows players to team up with the leader of the Outbounders, Rush, for some holiday cheer by giving "the miserly Minister Screw" a proverbial kick in the butt. The DLC comes alongside new gear and cosmetics, as well as some fresh missions. Gearbox also explained why this update was released for free.

"As a holiday-themed Bounty Pack, it was important that players receive it by the end of the year," wrote a Gearbox rep. "However, with the continued efforts to improve the Borderlands 4 experience, the team ran out of time to stuff as much mayhem-fueled content into the Bounty Pack 1 stocking as originally planned."

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Transformers & Bumblebee 6-Movie Steelbook Collection

$50 (was $79) | Includes 4K, 1080p, and Digital

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Transformers fans can score an incredible Black Friday deal on a collectible 4K Blu-ray box set. The Transformers 6-Movie Steelbook Collection is discounted to only $50 at Amazon. This box set collects all five live-action films directed by Michael Bay as well as Bumblebee. With six steelbook cases and a fancy display box, the Steelbook Collection breaks down to $8.33 per movie. Needless to say, that's a pretty awesome deal.

Paramount just rereleased this box set on November 11 with a $79 MSRP. The original version of this set released in 2023 with a $154 retail price, so fans who waited have been rewarded for their patience.

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Vampire Survivors developer Poncle has announced a new game, Vampire Crawlers, and while it has no release date yet, one of the game's developers is keen for it to avoid GTA 6.

Poncle's Luca Galante told GameSpot that he originally wanted to launch Vampire Crawlers in 2025, but this proved unrealistic after the studio decided to add more deckbuilding elements. Adding this feature pushed the release of Vampire Crawlers to 2026, which is also when GTA 6 is launching.

Rockstar's highly anticipated open-world game debuts on November 19, 2026, and for now, Galante is "not 100% sure" when he wants to bring Vampire Crawlers to market. But he hopes to avoid releasing the game near the release of GTA 6.

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Vampire Survivors developer Poncle just announced a new game, Vampire Crawlers, and it emerged after the studio tinkered around with multiple different ideas.

Poncle's Luca Galante told GameSpot that making Vampire Crawlers, a deckbuilding game, was not the team's first choice for a follow-up to Vampire Survivors. "We actually started off with a set of five different projects. We worked with several indie teams, experimenting a little bit, and what happened is simply that Vampire Crawlers was the game that immediately jumped out at us," he explained.

"From the initial prototype, the team just nailed it. It was great immediately. They immediately understood the idea, the concept, and so that's the one that progressed. It wasn't some kind of strategic decision; it's just the one that naturally, organically went faster than any other."

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Castlevania might not be cracking its whip in video games as often as it used to, but there's still a lot of love out there for the IP. One studio that has carried the torch for the cult-classic Konami series is Poncle, the developer behind the hit game Vampire Survivors and the upcoming Vampire Crawlers. Castlevania was a big influence on Vampire Survivors creator Luca Galante, and as he explained to us, it's one series that he'd love to revive if Konami ever handed him the keys to it.

Speaking to GameSpot, Galante explained how Poncle settled on Vampire Crawlers as its next game. While talking about Vampire Survivors, Galante also remarked how the game could have been a natural fit for not only the metroidvania genre, but for the Castlevania franchise.

"It just makes so much sense. It makes too much sense. It would almost have to be called Castlevania, right? If we were to do something like that--which I would love to do something like that, by the way--but if I were to do it, I would just go to Konami and ask for permission to use Castlevania at that stage. It just makes too much sense," Galante said. "That or, honestly, if I were to do a metroidvania, I would probably do one with the Legacy of the Moonspell characters and setting. Or Tides of the Foscari. I would try to move a little bit away from Vampire Survivors."

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Each Arc Raiders map has a few intriguing puzzles to figure out, and they'll usually provide you with some nice loot for solving them. For instance, if you've come across the Ancient Fort POI on the Blue Gate map, you may have noticed a cellar door and some electrical boxes scattered around. This puzzle is easy to complete in theory, but the random battery locations add a sense of randomness to the equation. Luckily, we're here to fill you in on where to look for them.

Once you solve the puzzle and get the cellar door open, you'll gain access to a room filled with loot. Not every run will net you excellent stuff down here, but it's always worth checking out if you're in the area. So, with that said, here's how to complete the Ancient Fort puzzle and open the cellar door.

How to open the cellar door at the Ancient Fort

If you visit the Ancient Fort and poke around a bit, you'll notice a cellar door on an outside wall. It's likely to be closed when you arrive, but note the three lights above it, as they're a key to how you can pop this sucker open. You guessed it--you need to power up some electrical boxes.

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In the years since Vampire Survivors first hit PC, Poncle Games has been busy. In addition to releasing numerous updates to its debut title, the company has expanded, entered into publishing, and paired up with other studios--including Vampire Survivors' biggest inspiration, Konami--to create a slew of fun collaborations. It's been an eventful few years for the BAFTA award-winning team and its simple-yet-utterly-engrossing "bullet heaven." And based on my time spent with Poncle a few weeks ago, that's just scratching the surface.

For the past year, Poncle Games has been hard at work on its next game, Vampire Crawlers. The dungeon-crawling deckbuilder is a notable departure from the simplistic gameplay of Vampire Survivors, and yet, after spending around half an hour playing the game, it's abundantly clear that it shares much of the same DNA and the same penchant for chaotic fun. Although Crawlers is, at least initially, slower-paced and less compulsive than its predecessor, it makes up for this with increased depth and strategy, all while incorporating elements that make the game delightfully unruly.

My first taste of Vampire Crawlers began with a fun cutscene--the same one seen in the game's announcement trailer--in which Vampire Survivors is transformed into a 2.5D experience. It's an exciting way to kick things off and conveys an important message: Vampire Crawlers, at its core, largely feels like a new way of playing Survivors. Though Luca Galante, the creative director behind Vampire Crawlers, said the team ultimately did go through and update most of Survivors' original assets for Crawlers, much of the series' visual identity remains intact. A cynic might call this lazy, sure, but I'd argue it comes across more as respect for Survivors' initial vision, and it ultimately works within the context of Crawlers. Furthermore, Galante said this was a very intentional choice that placed the company's stability ahead of a need to "create new things on purpose."

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Much like Vampire Survivors' titular vampire, the game's creator, Luca Galante, is often nowhere to be found. When Vampire Survivors won a BAFTA for Game of the Year back in 2023, it was a handful of Galante's colleagues at Poncle who took to the stage to accept it. At convention panels, Galante is known for using screens and decoys rather than addressing the audience himself. In the NoClip documentary chronicling the success of Vampire Survivors, Galante opted to have a Muppets-esque puppet resembling the game's iconic vampire mascot made so he wouldn't have to appear on camera himself. And it is a very cool puppet.

Even after I arrived in the small, walled city of Lucca, Italy to preview Poncle's new game, Vampire Crawlers, the myth-making of Luca Galante continued. Several Poncle devs I spoke to recounted, with sheer amusement, how they loved playing up Galante's mysterious persona. When fans asked if Galante was around, they'd sometimes remark, "He could be. He could be me." Matteo Sapio, the chief strategy officer at Poncle, laughed as he told me, "It's all very funny because honestly, yes, he is brilliant, but he's also a very kind and normal guy. He just really values his privacy."

Imagine my delight then, when an hour after meeting Luca, I found myself sitting beside him on an old couch, both of us chatting animatedly about our love of Final Fantasy while playing Vampire Survivors together on a hulking CRT TV.

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Poncle Games, the studio behind the critically acclaimed "bullet heaven" game Vampire Survivors, has announced its next project: Vampire Crawlers. Set in the same world as Survivors, this "Turbo Wildcard," as Poncle describes it, reimagines its predecessor as a deckbuilding dungeon-crawler with roguelite elements. Crawlers is slated to release next year.

Announced as part of November's Xbox Showcase, Vampire Crawlers marks a significant departure from the simplistic gameplay of Survivors, adding increased depth and strategy via its strong focus on deckbuilding while still retaining a similar visual style and a penchant for chaos. Other notable features include the village, which serves as a central hub for your Survivors, as well as a shift to a 2.5D perspective.

"Build busted decks, explore familiar dungeons from a new perspective, and unleash world‑ending combos," Poncle wrote in Crawler's official press release. "Either take your time and be tactical, or play turns as fast as you humanly can: the outcome is always accurate."

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Agent 47 has met several famous faces--and even killed a few of them--throughout his journey in the World of Assassination, but for his next mission, he'll be taking on one of the greatest rap artists of all time: Slim Shady. To be specific, the new Elusive Target mission coming to Hitman will see Agent 47 tasked with killing Eminem's younger alter-ego by none other than Eminem himself. We promise we're not making this up.

Thanks to Slim Shady being a separate--and violent--entity, the real Eminem is fearful that his creation will eventually come for him. It's up to Agent 47 to step in and take down Slim Shady so that the real Eminem can keep on rapping till he collapses.

If you're new to them, Elusive Targets are one of the more interesting challenges in Hitman. Your targets don't show up as a red glow when you use 47's instincts to search for them, as you'll have to rely on intel and surveillance to keep track of your mark. You usually get one shot to take down an Elusive Target--as bungling a mission does have consequences--but IO has brought several of these popular contracts back in the past.

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Xbox Series X|S owners were left out when Bloober Team released its remake of Konami's Silent Hill 2 in 2024. Previous reports indicated that the game was a timed exclusive for PlayStation 5, but the one-year anniversary passed without an announcement of an Xbox port. Now, Silent Hill 2 has popped up on one of Xbox's international storefronts, which seemingly confirms that it will be heading to other countries soon.

Silent Hill 2 is currently available for half off on Xbox's Australian store. Konami has yet to formally announce it for Xbox Series X|S in the United States, but the game was recently certified for those consoles by the ESRB. It will remain an M for Mature title.

Silent Hill 2 available on Australia Xbox Store (50% off) https://t.co/mq5W4nIjp6 pic.twitter.com/3gc6kQCo3H

— Wario64 (@Wario64) November 20, 2025

The ESRB page for the game doesn't have any indication that a Switch 2 port will follow. It's also unknown if Silent Hill 2 will get a physical release on Xbox consoles or if it will be digital only.

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In 2021, Resolution Games released Demeo, which brought the classic Dungeons & Dragons style of tabletop RPG experience to virtual reality on the Meta Quest, and eventually to PlayStation platforms both in and out of VR. Today, the RPG changes from "D+D-like" to simply "D+D," as Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, launches on PS5, PC, and VR platforms.

Battlemarked lets up to four players join together in one of two campaigns set in the Forgotten Realms, with each player choosing between six classes: Bard, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, and Sorcerer. Persistent character progression will allow players to level up and set ability points as they see fit, and those characters will not reset once the campaign has ended, so players can choose them as much as they like.

Gallery

The two campaigns launching today with Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked are as follows:

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8BitDo Pro 3 Bluetooth Controller

$56 (was $70) | For Switch 2, Switch, PC/Mac, Mobile, SteamOS

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The 8BitDo Pro 3 Bluetooth Gamepad is up for grabs for only $56 (was $70) in Amazon's Black Friday 2025 sale. At the time of writing, the GameCube-inspired purple and G Classic editions were eligible for the 20% price cut, but the gray and possibly even Spice Orange are likely to go on sale, too. There are numerous authorized sellers of 8BitDo controllers on Amazon, and prices tend to fluctuate between them. That's why the button above leads you to an Amazon page with a bunch of different 8BitDo Pro 3 listings. We'd recommend scanning the prices before making your purchase.

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World of Warcraft's upcoming Midnight expansion is bringing sweeping changes to the MMORPG's transmog system, but they look to be far more expensive than players were led to believe.

Earlier this year when Midnight was fully revealed, developer Blizzard announced it would be overhauling the game's cosmetic outfit system in a way that would save players gold. Instead of having to pay gold to transmog individual gear pieces, players would instead transmog gear slots. That slot would then retain its appearance regardless of whatever item was equipped, useful as players level up and equip new gear over the course of an expansion or season.

Sounds good on paper. However, the system is now testable on the WoW: Midnight beta, and as broken down by Wowhead, players are discovering these supposedly cost-saving changes are actually extremely expensive.

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Embark Studios has released the patch notes for the latest Arc Raiders update, which details map adjustments, a nerf for the powerful Venator, and ammo changes. It also includes a welcomed surprise for duck collectors.

The most notable change in this Arc Raiders update is the nerf to the game's powerful Venator pistol. The developer says it was aware that the fully upgraded Venator was over-performing and "capable of outgunning full squads using close-range weapons." The gun's nerf includes a reduction to the fire rate gained from upgrades, and it also receives an increase in weight. The developer says the weapon's weight was not previously in line with the other pistols in the game, so the weight was increased from 2 to 5.

Another major nerf in the update affects the game's powerful Deadline mine. Players have been taking down the game's largest Arc enemies with the Deadline mines, and the developer seems to think it's been too easy to utilize, as the update makes it harder to obtain the mines. The buy value of the Deadline has been increased from 8,100 to 15,000 Coins, the crafting materials needed have also increased, and traders will now carry less stock of the mine.

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Minor spoilers for Hades and Hades II to follow--read at your own discretion.

Since its inception, Supergiant Games has built up a reputation around high-quality story experiences with deep gameplay systems to match. Yet while all the San Francisco-based studio's games are worthy of praise, it was the first Hades game that raised the bar when it came to roguelike games and their storytelling. It only makes sense, then, that it also became the first Supergiant title to earn a sequel.

Hades II carries over a lot of the features that made its predecessor such a beloved title, with one exception: its protagonist. This shift presented Supergiant with an exciting opportunity to explore new themes, making it disappointing that the end result instead plays into matronly stereotypes. While the first game had a protagonist who started out a cocky, sarcastic jackass before undergoing a deep and meaningful character arc, Hades II forgoes this in favor of making its female protagonist overtly stoic and duty-bound, playing into the misogynistic societal expectations for female-identifying people.

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Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero

$30 (was $60)

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Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Daima Edition

$30 (was $50)

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Dragon Ball fans have eaten well lately with a feast of games based on the hit manga and anime series, and if you're looking to relive the adventures of Goku and his allies, you can get a great Black Friday deal on two excellent games in the franchise. Amazon has discounted Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Daima Edition to $30 (was $50) for the PS5 version, while the massive fighting game Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero has gotten a 50% discount and is available for $30 on both PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero $30 (was $60)

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is the most recent video game release in the franchise, and it's an anime-inspired slugfest with a massive roster of characters pulled from every era of Dragon Ball. Everyone from Goku to Vegeta is included in the game's lineup, and while the combat does have a steep learning curve, once you nail it you'll be throwing out Final Flash and Kamehameha attacks like a pro. The game also looks stunning in action, and if you grew up playing the Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi games, then this will appeal to you as it's a continuation of that series.

• PS5 -- $30 ($60)
• Xbox Series X -- $30 ($60)

See at Amazon See at Best Buy Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot - Daima Edition $30 (was $50)

In comparison, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is an action-RPG that blends fast-paced fisticuffs with level-grinding. The game also gives you a world to explore as you take part in Goku's greatest battles across the Dragon Ball storyline, and since launch, publisher Bandai Namco has expanded on the game with several story DLC drops inspired by classic OVA series and Dragon Ball Super. The Daima Edition does not include those expansions, but it does come bundled with the two-part Daima DLC, which is based on the Dragon Ball Daima anime series. One thing to note here is that only the first part has been released so far, and Part Two will arrive in early 2026.

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Video Game Deals

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