Four scouts on an end-of-year trip, flying across the world for what should be a life-changing experience. What could go wrong? An engine malfunction. The squad crash-lands somewhere in the Pacific. They’re the only survivors on a mysterious island that only grows stranger the deeper they venture and the longer they stay. This is Peak.

Sound familiar? The stories of Lost, the Emmy-winning 2004 mystery-laden drama series, and Peak feel like two parallel tracks that move in an eerily similar and magnificent way. The mystery only grows--in both depth and complexity--the further you get, whether you’re marathoning episodes or climbing up a volcano in search of rescue.

Lost worked because of that mystery. A group that crash-landed on an isolated island runs into underground bunkers, hidden groups of strangers, and a smoke monster as they try to survive and find their way home. Every new discovery widens the gap between what you think you understand and what’s actually happening.

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Spoilers for this week's episode of Fallout to follow.

This week’s Fallout episode gave audiences a look into the status quo of the factions fighting for control of the Mojave Wasteland. While gamers might have an idea of where they ended up after finishing Fallout: New Vegas, it seems that a lot has changed in the wasteland in the 15 years since. While the meter didn’t move too much on individual stories, it was great to see what some of these fan favorite factions are currently up to.

The episode opens up in a bottling plant for the infamous Sunset Sarsaparilla, the Mojave’s favorite drink. The plant is being operated under the watchful eye of none other than former Brotherhood of Steel Squire Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton), who’s taking on a far more ghoulish look than when we last saw him. After consoling a young girl who was bullied, he reminds the children to get back to work and that normally they’d “be dead by now.”

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This week’s Fallout episode traded in personal stories for status updates on fan-favorite factions from Fallout: New Vegas. While we briefly saw the Khans and primary followed the Brotherhood of Steel storyline, we finally got caught up with the NCR and Caesar’s Legion. With this expansion of the Mojave Wasteland, this episode had a healthy dose of easter eggs and callbacks for fans of the video games. Let’s take a look at what this week had to offer.

The Mojave’s Favorite Soda

This week’s episode revealed the fate of Squire Thaddeus (Johnny Pemberton) and his new life as a ghoul. Instead of exploring the wasteland as part of the Brotherhood of Steel, he’s running a bottling plant that employs an army of abandoned children. The drink they’re bottling? Sunset Sarsaparilla, the most popular drink on the west coast in the Fallout games and a common consumable item in Fallout: New Vegas.

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Lego Harry Potter 25th Anniversary Sorcerer's Stone - Collector's Edition (1,571 Pieces)

$170

See at Amazon Backordered at Lego Store See at Best Buy

Lego Harry Potter New Releases - January 2026

8 new sets launched this week, including 25th Anniversary models.

See at Amazon See at Best Buy See at Lego Store

Eight new Harry Potter Lego sets launched this week at Amazon, the Lego Store, Best Buy, and other major retailers. Longtime fans of the franchise will want to pay special attention to the 25th Anniversary sets. To mark the anniversary of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone film adaptation, Lego designed five models and playsets that call back to the 2001 movie.

The star of the lineup is the Lego Harry Potter 25th Anniversary Sorcerer's Stone Collector's Edition, a 1,571-piece display model featuring iconic characters, objects, and scenes from the movie. The new $170 Collector's Edition set is already on backorder at the Lego Store, but it's in stock at Amazon and Best Buy. If you have a My Best Buy Plus/Total membership, you'll save 10%, which drops the price to $153.

The Sorcerer's Stone Collector's Edition will remind fans of the Hogwarts Icons Collector's Edition from Lego's 20th Anniversary celebration in 2021. Both models feature Hedwig and numerous objects fro the first movie. The 3,010-piece Hogwarts Icons set is officially retired and regularly sells for well above its original $300 price, so it's worth keeping that in mind if you're interested in the new model.

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At the beginning of 2025, I fully believed I had grown tired of stories about multiple timelines. During the past decade, the Marvel Cinematic Universe pushed the classic comic book narrative device into the mainstream, fueling a film conglomerate with legally approved cameos, flashy visuals on the silver screen, and loose plots that, eventually, came together for one final pay-off.

While the concept of the multiverse has been explored in film and TV even before Marvel's takeover, it quickly became the narrative foundation of choice. When done right, the potential is undeniable--works like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once are heartwrenching displays of interpersonal relationships, making characters face the reality of what-if scenarios, reconciling with their choices and what could have been if they had turned the other way instead. But you can only hear the same tune so many times before it starts to lose its original impact.

It wasn't until The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy that my interest was reanimated. The visual novel and strategy-RPG hybrid presents itself as deceivingly linear, only to push you into a completely different story structure at the very end. It makes for a sprawling web of outcomes based on your choices, all while showcasing different perspectives on events and characters that weave absurdity and sentimentality in equal measure in a showcase of creative prowess from the development team.

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The Epic Games Store continues to give away a free game each week, and this week is another nice find with a price that can't be beaten. Every Thursday at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, Epic offers at least one free PC game (and sometimes even as many as two or three). All you need to do to claim the free games is create a free Epic account and enable two-factor authentication. You have a week to add the freebies to your library before the new one(s) take their place. At this point, Epic has given away hundreds of free games, and there's no sign that the program will stop any time soon. The company has also extended its freebies to Android devices, and you can claim a free game every week here as well. We keep this article up to date weekly to highlight both the current free games and next week's offerings.

If you're looking for more freebies, you can check out our list of the 25 best free PC games to play right now, or for more options, the 25 best free games to play on multiple platforms.

Current free game at EpicWildgate

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Obsidian's Avowed is one of the better action-RPGs released in 2025. While it doesn't reinvent any particular wheel, it benefits from an engaging campaign, fun combat systems, and charming characters. Aside from the occasional bug--a common element of Obsidian's open-world games--and an overabundance of homicidal bears, I liked nearly everything about the game. That includes Avowed's most controversial game mechanic: enemy respawns, or the lack thereof.

When it comes to RPGs, players often think of a few key elements. Some sort of leveling system, quest-granting NPCs, obtainable loot that bolsters certain "builds" or playstyles--you know, the basics. One feature that's common but maybe not as notable, considering its use in other genres, is respawning enemies. Players often expect areas to repopulate with baddies whenever they return to a given location. Avowed isn't about that life though--at least, not entirely.

Avowed is designed to respond to your actions in meaningful ways, and not just during key moments, where certain decisions can change the direction of the game's story. This also applies to Avowed's enemies. Essentially, most of the outlaws, walking mushrooms, and crazed bears you'll run into during your journey, won't return after being killed. Laid waste to a group of Xaurips while wandering through the forest? Don't worry. They'll still be dead on return trips. Slain a few dozen Spiderlings in an underground lair? They won't be resurrected anytime soon, either. Rinse and repeat--or rather, don't repeat.

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Lego Star Wars: BB-8 Astromech Droid (569 Pieces)

$90

See at Amazon See at Lego Store

Lego Star Wars New Releases - January 2026

Check out all eight new models and playsets.

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Lego has kicked off 2026 by adding several notable Star Wars models to its ever-expanding catalog. The lineup of January 2026 Lego Star Wars sets features notable starships and transport vehicles like the Venator-Class Attack Cruiser and AT-AT Walker as well as the return of the most popular droid from the recent Star Wars film trilogy. That's right, BB-8 has returned to the Star Wars Lego lineup following a lengthy hiatus. The 569-piece BB-8 Astromech Droid is available now for $90 at Amazon, the Lego Store, and other major retailers.

• See all new Lego sets at: Lego Store | Amazon | Best Buy | Target

Lego Star Wars New Releases (January 2026)

Here's a list of all eight brand-new Star Wars Lego sets as well as the massive UCS Death Star, which is no longer exclusive to the Lego Store. The AT-AT Walker and Venator-Class Attack Cruiser are part of the Lego Star Wars mid-scale display model series for adults.

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Pokemon Go's new Precious Paths season is officially underway, and the mobile game is ushering it in with a variety of events and activities in December.

On top of new Raid bosses and Spotlight Pokemon, this month will see the arrival of a few new Pokemon like Nacli and Clobbopus, while every featured Pokemon from the past year is coming back for December's two-day Community Day event.

Pokemon Go is also getting into the festive spirit this month with a big two-part Winter Holiday celebration, which will include a special Winter Weekend mini-event. And before December wraps up, the mobile game will hold a New Year's celebration to ring in 2026 in style.

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My favorite moment in Skin Deep, an immersive sim and stealth game about rescuing cats and fighting your evil clone in deep space, was always the one immediately after a thoroughly developed plan inevitably went sideways. The skittish way that I was forced to sprint and crawl under a table or into a vent. The manner in which my strategy devolved into simply batting things off of shelves in order to incapacitate a roaming guard or noisily distract them from looking in my direction. The way that I leapt onto a guard's back, dug my claws in, and careened them into surfaces in order to knock them out. If you were to close your eyes, I'd argue you could almost hear that distinctive, feline yowl mid-action.

In short, I think Skin Deep best captures the experience of being a cat, even if Nina Pasadena, the game's protagonist, is decidedly not one. And for this tremendous feat, I am rewarding it with the honor of being the best cat game of 2025. Long live Skin Deep.

In a typical Skin Deep mission, I often tried to keep to the shadows, as is the norm for a game in its genre. I would relegate myself to the ventilation, the pipework surrounding it, and the undersides of tables. Like Batman, I skulked around the perimeter looking for a precise opening that'd enable me to punch a hole in the level's defenses while keeping my cover. Of course, in Skin Deep, it almost never worked out in my favor. Because I am not, in fact, Batman. I'm just a (cat) girl.

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PlayStation has revealed this month's batch of free games for PlayStation Plus subscribers. All PS Plus members will be able to claim Need For Speed Unbound, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, and Core Keeper starting January 6 and they will remain available until Monday, February 2.

NFS Unbound promo art.

The most recent Need for Speed game, NFS Unbound, has single-player and multiplayer campaigns set in Lakeshore City, which greatly resembles Chicago. Street racing is a key part of the experience, but so is outrunning the cops. As your "Heat" index rises after each race, the police will pursue players with greater intensity as they establish their rep outside of the law. Between races, players can customize their rides and compete in weekly qualifiers to get into the ultimate street racing contest: The Grand.

Mickey unleashes his paint brush in promo art for Epic Mickey: Rebrushed.

Epic Mickey was a Wii exclusive upon its 2010 debut until THQ Nordic's 2024 remaster, Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, brought the game to modern consoles. The visuals and gameplay have been noticeably improved as Mickey Mouse is sucked into the Wasteland where forgotten characters and concepts have languished for decades. This game is one of the reasons why Disney made a deal to gain the rights to Walt Disney's previous creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. And for the first time, Mickey has to come face-to-face with his brother, Oswald, and reconcile with him if he wants any chance of escaping the Wasteland.

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Throughout the events of Promise Mascot Agency, I was Pinky's ride. Anywhere that she needed to go, I had to ferry her in my crappy little truck. As a matter of fact, I was responsible for the transport of any and every mascot that stumbled through the doors of the Promise Mascot Agency and came under my employ. When Kofun needed to go to a nearby graveyard, I was the guy for the job. When Trororo needed a lift to the local adult store, I begrudgingly told him to hop in. Be it by land, air, or sea, it became my responsibility, and mine alone, to make sure everyone got where they needed to go.

Promise Mascot Agency is a game filled to the brim with chores and mundane tasks like this. As I traveled across the isle of Kaso-Machi, drifting in and out of decrepit villages and farm fields, I found that Promise Mascot Agency's cast was filled with folks in need of some assistance. The English teacher who worked unpaid overtime shifts to put on a night school at her underfunded workplace. The nearby mechanic with an insatiable curiosity for the occult, and no time between his job and family. If a shrine needed to be swept, I was there with a broom in a split second. Whether it was the local barkeep in a gimp suit, the streamer-turned-farmer, or of course, the disenfranchised youth, I was there with an olive branch to extend.

Promise Mascot Agency probably sounds like a convoluted game. It is. In one breath, it is a title about an ex-yakuza--handsomely voiced by the same actor behind Kiryu in the Yakuza games--driving around a countryside, rounding up seemingly endless collectibles and upgrades, and sending living mascots (like a giant crying tofu block) out on jobs via a simplistic management system and card-based minigame. In the latter, you must play support cards with differing strengths and weaknesses as a mascot performs a job in order to beat a troubling interference that arises and assure the job is a success. In another breath, it is a full-throated exercise in the lengths of compassion and empathy. It is rarely sleek and sexy about it--Promise Mascot Agency doesn't feature over-the-top set pieces or hide slick new super moves to reward the player for completing its long list of chores. But real, tender empathy for your fellow man rarely does look so good, and Promise Mascot Agency's unglamorous honesty is something I've come to admire from one of 2025's best and brightest games.

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What do you think of when you think of a woman in pain? There are no tidy universalisms here, but for many of us, even most of us, pain is private and domestic. You could think of a mother shouldering burdens alone while her husband is at work. The father in the waiting room while the mother screams with strangers. A woman going to the doctor about an ache, only for him to tell her to lose weight and deny the problem is even happening.

All these things are simple clichés--tropes stolen from life and television. When Silent Hill f conjures a woman's private pain, it is with cutting specificity. In one of the most grisly moments of body horror in video games this year (or ever, really), protagonist Hinako turns into an emblem of her own sorrow, her own compliance, her own screaming rage.

Spoilers follow.

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In the cavernous convention halls of Gamescom 2025, conference attendees gawk at towering installations of fabricated castle sets and pirate ships. The massive movie set-esque booths inspire awe, but off center and to the side of these constructions rests another installation--one that has managed to draw an equally impressive crowd without a flashy monument. Wrapped around this booth are chattering fans--many who appear to be women and femmes in their 20s and 30s--all queued in a line long enough to wrap around a city block. They'll remain this way for the better part of an hour, a singular goal making this endeavor worth the wait: taking a photo with a cutout of their favorite man from Love and Deepspace.

Developed by Papergames, a China-based studio known for its work on the Nikki franchise, Love and Deepspace is a narrative-focused mobile game in which players romance and bond with a cast of five men. Since its release in January of 2024--and in the past year especially--Love and Deepspace has inspired a fervor comparable to those around the most beloved boy bands. It won Best Mobile Game Award at Gamescom 2025 and surpassed $750 million in gross player spending within two years of release.

Yet Love and Deepspace is more than any individual statistic or accolade. It is an absolute phenomenon--one that has also inspired a fandom characterized not just by its sheer size, but by the dedication of its fans. If you have been curious about the game,or rather what makes it so special, here is everything you need to know about the viral sensation, Love and Deepspace.

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Epic has spent the past few years trying as hard as it can to will the Fortnite metaverse into being--and now, at the end of 2025, it's actually starting to look like it's getting there. Things are still very messy, but Epic's moves in that direction--which frequently seem to involve trying random things just to see what happens--may have finally borne fruit.

Back at the end of 2023, Fortnite attempted to usher in its metaverse in earnest by launching Fortnite Festival, Rocket Racing, and Lego Fortnite all at once. It didn't quite work, because all three were half-baked and missing key features. The only way to play Racing was in Ranked, Festival lacked instrument support and still doesn't have a practice mode, and Lego Fortnite had the feel of a generic early-access survival game wearing Lego clothing.

Two years later, we've got a much prettier picture, but not because Epic went all in on those modes. Instead, Epic has simply kept churning out new modes, some of which have done consistently. Likewise, Fortnite Creative has produced its first blockbuster map with any staying power. Thanks to some key legal victories, Fortnite is once again available on mobile devices in most places, which has dramatically increased the game's potential footprint. And the new cosmetic types added in the past year have proven a lot more popular than the cars and musical instruments that were introduced in Chapter 5.

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Drop into the lagoon in Donkey Kong Bananza. Sure, you need to chase Void Kong to the Earth's center to save the day, but maybe you just want to soak in some water-adjacent locales as you explore this new world beneath the surface. There are plenty of secrets tucked away in each level's hidden crevices. When you first hop in there is really only one thing to do: pick a direction and start smashing.

Donkey Kong Bananza takes Nintendo's hallmark sandbox exploration and pushes it somewhere the studio rarely goes--pure chaos. Bananza is not interested in the kind of precision platforming that defines Mario's visits to Peach's Castle, Delfino Plaza, or outer space. It captures that same cheerful vibe, but lets players rip through it.

There is a long-running design idea at Nintendo that movement should feel good on its own. Shigeru Miyamoto once said he wanted players to enjoy moving Mario around an empty room. The reason Mario is so fun to control in Super Mario 64 is that Miyamoto and the small team behind the N64 classic spent months making sure he felt great to play, even if the only action possible was running around an empty space.

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SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless Headset (Gen 2)

$180 (was $200)

See at Amazon

If you're looking for a headset for your new gaming console, handheld, or PC, one of the best options for all devices is on sale at Amazon. The SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 is discounted to $180 (was $200) for a limited time. Released in October, the Nova 7 Gen 2 is updated version of one of the best wireless gaming headsets you can buy today.

You can choose between the Nova 7P (PlayStation), Nova 7X (Xbox), or Nova 7 (PC) in black, white, or magenta. The 7X offers wireless support for all platforms, while the 7P and 7 work on all devices except Xbox consoles. If you game on Switch 1/2, mobile, Steam Deck, or another device with USB-C or Bluetooth audio support, any of the three versions will work great. For a more premium wireless headset, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro is on sale for $300 (was $380).

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless Headset (Gen 2) $180 (was $200)

When considering price, audio performance, and comfort, the Arctis Nova 7 was hard to beat when it launched back in 2022. That remains true over three years later with the Gen 2 model, which offers 40% better battery life--over 50 hours compared to 38 hours--and adds support for the Arctis Companion App.

The free iOS and Android app lets you adjust audio settings and switch between over 200 custom sound profiles designed for specific games. Along with these 2.4GHz Wireless profiles, there are a handful of Bluetooth profiles, including Bass Boost and Focus, that come in handy when using the Nova 7 to listen to music.

The original Nova 7 worked with the SteelSeries GG desktop app for PC and Mac, but the mobile app is easier to use and allows you to adjust audio settings on the go. The Arctis Companion App was introduced in 2024 alongside the entry-level Nova 5 Wireless Headset, and it only works with select SteelSeries audio gear.

If you own the first-generation Nova 7, upgrading probably might make sense if you take your headset with you during your daily commute or use it frequently for handheld gaming. But if Arctis Companion App integration isn't of interest to you, you'll want to stick with the original. But for everyone else, the Nova 7 Gen 2 is a terrific all-around gaming headset that remains my favorite in the $200 and under category.

SteelSeries designs the most comfortable gaming headsets on the market, and the Nova 7 is no exception. The adjustable elastic headband and lightweight, memory foam ear cushions are superb, and the sturdy steel frame holds up well. The custom 40mm neodymium audio drivers offer rich, high-fidelity sound; the audio is even more impressive and dynamic when using the custom presets created by SteelSeries. It has a retractable boom mic with AI noise reduction to block out ambient noise like keyboard and controller clicks.

Along with 2.4GHz Wireless with the included USB-C dongle, the Nova 7 supports Bluetooth and wired via a detachable 3.5mm audio cord. It also has simultaneous 2.4GHz and Bluetooth audio streams, so you can stay connected and hear sound from two devices at once.

See at Amazon Nova 7 vs. 7P vs. 7XSteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 (Gen 2)

As mentioned, there are three versions of the Nova 7 Gen 2. In the past, SteelSeries has included green or blue accents on the headset to differentiate between the Xbox and PlayStation editions, but the Gen 2 looks the same across the board. The only tangible difference between the three is the dial on the right earcup. The Nova 7X and 7 have a game chatmix dial, but since the PS5 doesn't have this feature, the Nova 7P has a Sidetone dial for mic monitoring.

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Is there a more infamous monkey-paw wish than the collective dream that all our favorite games could last forever? Well, the finger curled, because it seems like all major game publishers in the world only want to make games that go on to infinity.

With the rise of live-service games, it's been a struggle to know when to put the controller down, especially when games like Fortnite release seasonal content like The Simpsons season pass that ask you to play long enough to unlock stupid sexy Flanders. Luckily, for us, episodic games, perfectly portioned into bite-sized morsels, have come back to rescue us from the endless grind.

In this case, I am talking specifically about Dispatch, the new episodic superhero game from AdHoc Studio. If the name is unfamiliar to you, AdHoc is a new game company founded by former members of Ubisoft, Night School, and perhaps most notably, Telltale Games, who blew up the episodic gaming scene with 2012's The Walking Dead. The studio would later close due to a variety of factors internal and external, some of which I covered previously as a reporter. But by then, the episodic-games formula was starting to feel a bit played out, and the mood appeared to be shifting towards either more complete single-player experiences, or the early live-service games we know today.

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In November 2017, Bethesda Softworks and port specialists Panic Button performed what seemed like a miracle: They released a Switch port for id Software's recent reboot of Doom. The game, a famously fast-paced, intense shooter with modern graphics, seemed ill-suited to Nintendo's handheld and its capabilities, but despite some visual blurriness and a reduction in the frame rate, the game held up well on the hybrid system. In GameSpot's 8/10 review of the Switch port, Peter Brown praised the game as "an impressive port that begs you to consider gameplay over graphics."

Doom was the first Switch "impossible port," a colloquial term that players took to using whenever a third-party game designed for much more powerful hardware arrived on the Switch in pretty good shape. Over the course of the system's lifespan, it would receive many more so-called impossible ports, including versions of Wolfenstein 2: The New Collossus, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, The Witcher 3, No Man's Sky, and Ace Combat 7--large, visually-intensive, action-heavy games, all of them translated to the system with immaculate care. Seeing how the Switch handled these games was always exciting--even when the ports were less-than-ideal, there was still something special about seeing them run on a handheld from 2017.

Prior to the Switch 2's launch this year, Nintendo, in typical fashion, did not tell us much about what the Switch 2 was capable of on a technical level. We knew that the new 7.9-inch 1080p screen was capable of displaying gameplay at up to 120fps and was HDR-compliant. Nvidia announced that the system's custom chip would allow for DLSS, which is capable of upscaling games regardless of native resolution, and that the new system would be, of course, much more powerful than the old one. For early adopters, though, the system's first six-plus months of availability has involved a lot of curiosity over what the system can and can't do, speculating on what games the system could or couldn't handle, and pondering just how close these ports can come to other console versions.

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When it comes to Roblox games, Blox Fruits might just be the biggest, and that doubles for both popularity and scope. With a level cap of a whopping 2800, working your way up from the beginning is one hell of a journey. Luckily, we’re here to help you with Blox Fruits leveling and offer some small tips that’ll help you as you battle enemies and try to get more powerful in this thrilling Roblox experience.

Table of Contents [hide]

• Blox Fruits Leveling Explained

Blox Fruits Leveling Explained

There are plenty of ways to level up in Blox Fruits, and even more reasons for doing so. Naturally, like any other RPG, you will get stronger with every level, and this is the key to taking on more powerful enemies on different islands.

For clarity, leveling up will give you access to several new things, including:

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