The Game Awards are coming up soon, and now host and organizer Geoff Keighley is hyping the event with some kind of real-world teaser campaign for something people believe is connected to Diablo. Others do not believe it is connected to Diablo. Some think it's for the next God of War game. Still others think it could be for The Elder Scrolls 6. All of these suggestions may be wrong, however.

On November 28, Keighley posted the tex "regal.inspiring.thickness" along with an image of some kind of huge carving featuring humanoid people in the middle of a desert. On November 29, Keighley followed up with a Google Maps image showing the location of the marketing monolith in the California desert. People quickly found the spot and posted images and video, including the ones below. Then on December 5, Keighley posted yet another teaser, this one also very puzzling.

Here's the message: "The █████ are silent. █████ bleeds. New █████ stir."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is intended as both a continuation and a new start for the long dormant franchise. Though Nintendo has never quite said it overtly, it has seemed likely that this is meant to launch a new series of Prime games--possibly even a second trilogy, for the sake of dramatic rhyme. And the ending of Prime 4 accents that feeling, leaving the door wide open for more story--but in the process, diminishing the character of protagonist Samus Aran.

Spoilers for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond follow.

As many eager Metroid fans know from preview coverage and reviews, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond features a wide cast of Federation characters, who have been stranded on Viewros with Samus. As you explore the corners of Sol Valley you eventually meet five in total: engineer Myles MacKenzie, sniper Reger Tokabi, Sergeant Ezra Duke, Private Nora Armstrong, and mech unit VUE-995. Each talks with Samus and relates to her in different ways. Myles is out of his element and needs Samus' rescue. Armstrong is a bona fide Samus superfan. Tokabi opens up to her about his religion and upbringing.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Nvidia today is the world's most valuable company with a market cap of more than $4 trillion, thanks in large part to the AI boom of the past few years. But Nvidia's success was far from guaranteed.

CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang recalled recently how a $5 million gift following a failed business deal with Sega gave the company the lifeline it needed at the time, allowing the fledgling company to stay in business and eventually become what it is today.

Appearing on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Huang talked about how, back in the 1990s, he and his two co-founders were trying to drum up business for their start-up PC company. They traveled to Japan and pitched Sega management on the idea that Nvidia could build the company's Dreamcast console.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Earlier this week, Running With Scissors unveiled a new look at Postal: Bullet Paradise, a Postal spin-off developed by Goonswarm Games as a Vampire Survivors-like shooter. However, fan backlash against the alleged AI elements in Bullet Paradise have led Running With Scissors to cancel the game entirely.

"After revealing Postal: Bullet Paradise, a title Running With Scissors was planning on publishing--but not developing--we've been overwhelmed with negative responses from our concerned Postal Community," said Running With Scissors founder Vince Desi in a statement. "The strong feedback from them is that elements of the game are very likely AI-generated and thus has caused extreme damage to our brand and our company reputation."

Desi noted that Running With Scissors has lost trust in Goonswarm Games, which is why the project has now been killed. Subsequently, Goonswarm Games issued a statement to PC GamesN in which the studio denies using AI in either the game or the trailer shown above.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

While the gaming world eagerly awaits the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2026, Rockstar Games has announced a variety of new themed products for the holidays, including a $60 candle that smells like "Vice." This is likely a reference to Vice City, the setting of 2002's GTA: Vice City and next year's GTA 6.

Developed in collaboration with Joya Studios, the Vice candle comes in a frosted white glass with the Rockstar Games logo and has notes of lemon California, yerba mate, thyme, fig leaf, petitgrain, orange oil, and terpenes. Your nose may also notice notes of tuberose, mimosa, jasmine petals, lily, lotus, cyclamen, wild grass, and raspberry blossom. Beyond those, the candle also contains notes of Texas Cedarwood, galbanum, and smoked patchouli.

All the new Rockstar products for the holidays.

There is also a "Liberty" candle that comes in a frosted black glass with notes of blood orange, black pepper, green cardamom, cedar, and clove leaves. The burn time for these candles is about 65 hours, Rockstar said, or just under $1 per hour if you want to look at it that way.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond isn't a Switch 2 exclusive, but how it would run on the OG Switch has remained a mystery through its entire announcement and preview cycle. The preview coverage has consistently been running on Switch 2, and review codes were for the Switch 2 Edition, so many reviews including ours evaluated that version. Now that the game is out, though, we can put any lingering concerns to rest: The game plays smoothly on the original Switch.

For the purposes of this look at the game I replayed through the first two major sections: the tutorial mission with the assault on the Galactic Federation, and then the Fury Green portion on Viewros where Samus first starts to unlock her psychic abilities. Predictably, the Switch 1 version looks noticeably lower-quality than its Switch 2 counterpart, with less-detailed textures and lighting effects. It still looks decent, though, and compares favorably to the Metroid Prime Remaster that was released on Switch in 2023. Just know that you shouldn't go in expecting it to look quite as nice as the official trailers or other footage captured on a Switch 2.

Its performance, on the other hand, is very good. It doesn't offer a Quality or Performance mode selection like it does on Switch 2, but the default settings run well, without noticeable framerate dips. Switch fans who have watched recent Nintendo games outpace the hardware's limitations, especially in the cases of some recent Pokemon and Zelda titles, can be assured that isn't the case here. In my limited testing, I didn't run into any hitches, and felt the smooth performance was roughly on par with my review experience on Switch 2. It's possible, of course, that later portions may overwhelm the system, but I haven't had any cause for concern so far.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Rainbow Six Siege celebrated its 10th anniversary this month, a milestone that many live-service games haven't come close to matching. The tactical shooter launched in 2015, and it has evolved into a major attraction at esports tournaments across the globe, reaching 85 million players to date. To keep things fresh, Rainbow Six Siege's "most transformative" update yet went live earlier this year, prompting a surge of new and veteran players to hop into the game.

But will we ever see Rainbow Six Siege 2? Speaking to GameSpot, creative director Alexander Karpazis doesn't expect a sequel anytime soon, as Ubisoft aims to respect players' investment and keep the current game going for the foreseeable future.

"Honestly, I think there are tons of reasons against it, just like there are reasons for it," Karpazis said. "But for us, it's about maintaining something that has been successful and competitive and fun for such a long time. We see it where players kind of get the rug pulled out from under them, and everything they've worked towards kind of changes in an instant when they jump over to a sequel. And that's something we don't want to do to our players. So there's an element of respecting players' investment. There's also an element of, this is an amazing legacy we're building--why would we want to throw that away?"

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Dave the Diver is a modest game that has expanded like Dave's belt size. The underwater adventure and restaurant management sim mash-up was a surprise hit, and has since spawned crossover efforts with fishing game Dredge, the kaiju Godzilla, and even Ichiban Kasuga of the Like A Dragon series. Now the game is preparing to dive back in with the In The Jungle expansion in early 2026. The DLC will see Dave and his crew heading to a new freshwater biome and catching lake-dwelling creatures to make their dishes. GameSpot spoke with Mintrocket CEO and Dave the Diver game director Jaeho Hwang about the upcoming expansion, how the studio has responded to the game's success, and the delicious research that goes into making a game all about food.

GameSpot: What was the genesis of the "In the Jungle" concept? What was the team trying to achieve with this new biome?

Jaeho Hwang: In Dave the Diver, we felt we had done a fair job showcasing the mystique of the ocean, so we wanted to explore a completely different world this time.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

New Vegas will play a prominent role in Fallout Season 2, which will premiere later this month on Prime Video. So it's fitting that the developers behind Fallout: New Vegas, Obsidian Entertainment, got to visit the TV show's set, according to Bethesda boss Todd Howard.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Howard revealed that he invited Obsidian to check out the New Vegas set for Fallout Season 2. "Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian," said Howard. "Had them out to the set to see this, and they've had just an incredible year, if you look at the year they've had." In 2025, Obsidian has launched not just Avowed, but The Outer Worlds 2 as well.

Bethesda Game Studios developed Fallout 3 and 4, with Howard directing both titles. But between those two games, Obsidian created the beloved Fallout: New Vegas while Bethesda made The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Attack on Titan: Final Season Complete Steelbook (Blu-ray)

$54.22 (was $70)

See at Amazon See at Crunchyroll See at Walmart

Attack on Titan Limited Edition Steelbooks (Blu-ray)

Save up to 50% on Seasons 1-3

See at Amazon See at Walmart

Attack on Titan fans can get collectible Steelbook Editions of all four seasons of the anime for extremely good prices this week. Attack on Titan: The Final Season Complete Steelbook Edition released November 25 and is on sale for $54.22 (was $70) at Amazon. You can pair the new release with the Steelbook Editions of Seasons 1-3 that launched last December. This is the first time we've seen all three in stock at Amazon since The Final Season Steelbook preorders opened in August. More importantly, Amazon has limited-time deals that drop the price of each Steelbook Edition to nearly 50% the original $70 list price.

Attack on Titan Seasons 1-4: Steelbook Edition Deals

• Season 1 Steelbook (Blu-ray) -- $37.49 ($70)
• Season 2 Steelbook (Blu-ray) -- $35.49 ($70)
• Season 3 Steelbook (Blu-ray) -- $36 ($70)
• Season 4 Steelbook (Blu-ray) -- $55.24 ($70)

With the prices above, fans can purchase the full 94-episode series with four steelbook cases and 16 Blu-ray discs for $164 (was $280).

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Animal Crossing: Wild World is celebrating its 20-year anniversary today, December 5, 2025. Below, we look at how its modest pathing system laid the groundwork, so to speak, for what the series has become.

Animal Crossing has always balanced two fantasies: the joy of customizing a cozy little town and the simple pleasures of living among a cast of charming, slightly strange animal neighbors. Those two elements worked in tandem. Your creative expression shaped your village, but the daily routines of chatting with neighbors, fishing by the riverbank, and uncovering little surprises gave the world its soul.

Somewhere along the way, however, customization did not just complement village life--it began to overshadow it. And if you trace that shift back through the franchises' history, the turning point can be found within 2005's Animal Crossing: Wild World.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Rockstar Games has announced more details on the next big update for GTA 5's multiplayer mode, including the long-awaited return of Michael De Santa.

Michael is one of GTA 5's three main playable characters, and fans have been waiting for a long time to interact with him again after the events of the main story. A GTA Online expansion from 2021 confirmed that Michael was still alive. In the soon-to-release A Safehouse in the Hills expansion, he's back--and he looks older. Take a look for yourself in the trailer below.

All the way back in 2013, Rockstar Games said it would release more story content that extended the stories of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor. A previous DLC for GTA Online focused on Franklin, but plans for a Trevor-focused expansion were apparently canceled.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The upcoming Tomb Raider TV series for Prime Video will be an "ambitious reimagining of the Lara Croft universe," according to the producers at Story Kitchen.

In a post on the production company's website first spotted by Infinity Tomb Raider, Story Kitchen said the series represents a "landmark partnership" between Story Kitchen and Amazon MGM Studios. Story Kitchen said this partnership will "reinvent the franchise on a massive scale."

The statement added that the aim is to have the live-action show and Tomb Raider video game franchise become interconnected "into a unified storytelling experience." This could mean a lot of things, but Amazon had previously said the TV show was not going to connect to Amazon's new Tomb Raider game.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Developer Creative Assembly has announced it's working on a "truly special" Total War game that represents one of the developer's "most ambitious" titles ever, and it'll be revealed at The Game Awards soon.

"It's a project long in the making that will mark a revolutionary new chapter for the Total War franchise," the developer said.

This project, whatever it may be, will be announced at The Game Awards on Thursday, December 11. Creative Assembly will debut a trailer and show off the "first small glimpse of gameplay."

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The reviews rolling out for Five Nights at Freddy's 2 are brutal, featuring F grades and one critic saying that "there's simply nothing of value here." The sequel premieres in theaters today, December 5, and stars Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, Mckenna Grace, and Megan Fox.

On Metacritic (a GameSpot sister site), Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is currently sitting at a 32 metascore. That means "generally unfavorable," and of the 15 reviews so far, only one is positive. That review, from RogerEbert.com, called it "thoughtful and smart enough to warrant your attention." Meanwhile, the Associated Press review says the sequel has "no real horror and no real awareness that it should." That's a more widespread sentiment among critics.

The scary-bad review scores aren't new for the Five Nights at Freddy's film franchise, which is based on the popular video game series. For instance, the first movie sports a 33 metascore, barely above Five Nights at Freddy's 2. That didn't stop the original film from earning roughly $291 million in 2023, per BoxOfficeMojo. Plus, in comparison, the user score was a 7.7, showcasing a wide split between critics and general audiences. That will be something to keep an eye on for Five Nights at Freddy's 2.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Nintendo enthusiasts believe that an announcement for Mario Kart World DLC is imminent, though it takes a few steps to reach that conclusion.

Evidence, fans believe, stems from datamined information from the Nintendo Today app, which shares daily bite-sized pieces of news and offers several themes based on various Nintendo franchises. A new Donkey Kong theme came to the app recently, and per datamines (which you can see on Mario Wiki), it looks like the app will highlight a character that had a surprise appearance in Donkey Kong Bananza.

Spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza to follow!

Continue Reading at GameSpot

AdHoc CEO Michael Choung thinks most studios should avoid episodic releases, a stance he makes clear even as Dispatch--the studio’s debut superhero workplace comedy--has become a runaway success. Choung says the weekly-release format that helped Dispatch explode past 1 million sales in 10 days and put it on track to hit its three-year sales target in just three months was difficult at every turn and an actual "insane thing to do."

Speaking to technology newsletter Knowledge, Choung recalled being warned repeatedly that releasing the game week by week instead of all at once was a terrible idea. But the team believed the format was essential for the story. "What's inside that game is basically three feature-length premium animated films and a video game, all meshing and rubbing up against each other," he said. The narrative had always been structured episodically, even though it went against industry "conventional wisdom."

Despite internal debate, AdHoc settled on releasing two episodes weekly rather than dropping the game all at once, splitting it into halves, or spacing out individual episodes. The bet paid off dramatically. "There would just be a longer time period for it to be covered," Choung explained. This kind of schedule created a sense that "the train is leaving the station, but not just yet--I can still make it," which encouraged players to jump in. Contrary to expectations that week-two numbers would fall, concurrent users kept doubling with each release.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Fallout creator Tim Cain has returned to Obsidian, but what is he working on? He's not allowed to say, and says you shouldn't even try to guess. Cain also shared an update about his personal life and a new friendship with a squirrel.

In a YouTube video, Cain said he recently relocated from Seattle to southern California, and one of the first things that happened was a squirrel ran up to him with no fear. "She just sat there and looked at me, and I shrugged and I'm like, 'What do you want from me? I don't know you.'" Cain fed the critter some walnuts and continues to feed the creature every day when he leaves and comes back home.

This is how Cain started the video, before getting into his return to Obsidian. He said he's now back at the studio, in-person and full-time. While he has returned to Obsidian, you'll also see his name appear in the credits of an upcoming unspecified game that he did contract work for before coming back to Obsidian, he said.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Path of Exile 2 is playable now in early access, but the game's 1.0 release isn't ready yet--and it won't be here soon, it seems. Grinding Gear game director Jonathan Rogers said in an interview that the Tencent-owned studio will likely not hit the previously hinted March 2026 window.

"I'm fairly confident that we won't be out of 2026," Rogers told Eurogamer. "But as I said, I never want to really completely promise anything. But I don't think it'll end up being March; we'll have to see."

There is no "specific timeline" for when Path of Exile 2's 1.0 release will arrive, but Rogers said he "certainly" hopes it won't be any later than the end of 2026.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the actor who portrayed Shang Tsung in the original Mortal Kombat movie, has passed away at the age of 75. Acorrding to Tagawa's family, he died in the morning of December 4 due to complications from a stroke.

Tagawa's cinematic career spanned nearly four decades and began with a small part in Big Trouble in Little China in 1986 before taking off in 1987 with his role as Chang in The Last Emperor. Some of his other notable films included Licence to Kill, Snow Falling on Cedars, Memoirs of a Geisha, Pearl Harbour, Kubo and the Two Strings, 47 Ronin, and the 2001 reboot of Planet of the Apes.

However, Tagawa was best known to video game fans for his sinister portrayal of the sorcerer Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat. Tagawa reprised his role years later in the web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy before lending his voice and his likeness to the character again in Mortal Kombat 11 and Mortal Kombat: Onslaught.

Continue Reading at GameSpot