Marathon Season 2 begins June 2, and developer Bungie has now detailed all the ways its new Night Marsh map will have players jumping at shadows. For those who have been Marathon-curious but afraid to make the leap, the game will also be free to try June 2-9.

Playing Marathon, particularly solo, can be an intense game of cat and mouse--one that often feels like a survival-horror game as you scavenge for supplies and attempt to avoid hostile runners looking to end your run prematurely. In a lengthy blog post diving into what all is coming as part of Season 2, Bungie detailed how the game's Night Marsh map will further lean into that gameplay. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2UFxzejNNg

While Night Marsh is essentially a reskinned version of the game's existing Dire Marsh map, there are a significant number of changes between them. The map is, of course, now set at night, but other changes include the fact that exils are locked, and a new area that can be accessed beneath Complex, Complex Control.

The fact that the map will be set at night is the main change and will completely alter how encounters play out. Bungie said it's designed to be more of a "survival-horror experience," with fewer players and more environmental threats to deal with. Adding to the spook factor are some new tools players can use to cut through the darkness in the form of a flashlight, Vector ammo and grenades that highlight and illuminate the environment, signal flares, and Darksight scopes (meant to aid in traversing the map at night, not pinpointing enemies, Bungie clarified).

Escaping Night Marsh will be a challenge in and of itself, as players will need to gather Certs from fallen UESC enemies in order to access resource caches and to exfil. Those Certs will also be used to access Complex Control, where Bungie promises new "enemies, mysteries, and powerful loot awaits."

Night Marsh is just the tip of Marathon's Season 2 iceberg, with the new season also introducing a new Runner Shell, the defense-focused Sentinel. The first new shell to be added to Marathon since launch, the Sentinel is built around locking down areas and providing defensive buffs. 

Its Prime ability, Defender System, will automatically destroy enemy grenades and missiles for a limited time while boosting weapon handling for nearby teammates. Sentinel's Tactical ability puts down a proximity mine that snares hostiles in place, while their Traity ability activates a short range, motion-tracking system that pinpoints nearby moving targets on radar (not all that dissimilar from Halo by the sound of it). Lastly, Sentinel's passive, Castle Doctrine, grants increased resistances after taking splash damage as well as improved weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies. 

Both of Marathon Season 2's new weapons are designed to synergize nicely with Sentinel. The KKV-9SD is an SMG with a built-in suppressor and an extremely fast rate of fire. Season 2's other new weapon, The D54 Battle Pistol, is a three-round burst weapon designed to be great for close-range fights and 1v1 duels. 

There are plenty of other changes coming as part of Season 2 as well, including faster progression, reworked Faction skill trees, a dedicated duos queue, and the new Cradle progression system that allows players to convert unwanted loot into stat boosts. You can check out Bungie's blog for the full breakdown.

For those who check out Marathon during its free week, the game will be on sale across all its available platforms, and progress made during the free period will carry over to the full game. If you are a player returning to Marathon for Season 2, Bungie previously detailed how its seasonal wipes will work, explaining what does and doesn't carry over between seasons.

While Marathon continues to evolve, with Bungie promising new PvE modes to come as part of Season 2 and beyond, the studio's other game, Destiny 2, is winding down after nearly a decade . Bungie announced Destiny 2 would receive its final content update on June 9. The game will still remain playable but will not receive new content. With development on Destiny 2 ending, a recent report states Bungie will be hit with "significant layoffs" in the near future.

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Valve has announced a price hike for the Steam Deck OLED in the US--and it's a substantial increase.

The 1TB edition is going up from $650 to $950, while the 512GB OLED model is jumping from $550 to $790. The certified refurb models are not going up in price, but if you want a new OLED Steam Deck, prepare to pay more.

In a blog post, Valve said prices are going up due to "rising memory and storage costs." The company said the new prices "reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."

Here are the new prices:

• Steam Deck OLED 512GB: Now $790 USD; CAD 1,130; EUR 780; GBP 650; AUD 1,200; PLN 3,280
• Steam Deck OLED 1TB: Now $950 USD; CAD 1,350; EUR 920; GBP 780; AUD 1,430; PLN 3,880

Valve's decision to raise prices on its own hardware came after similar price hikes on PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Nintendo, for its part, will raise the price of the Switch 2 in September. The platform-holders cited the global economic situation for why prices are going up.

Beyond the Steam Deck, Valve's next big hardware release is the new Steam Machine, which is set for release later this year. Critically, pricing has not been announced, but with the new Steam Deck price hikes--and the global economic landscape remaining far from settled--people should likely brace themselves for a high price.

Hardware engineer Yazan Aldehayyat said the aim is to land at a “competitive price” that matches up with the value provided. This is what most companies say about their new products. The aim, he said, is to make it “affordable.”

Some of the global economic factors driving up prices on many goods these days include the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz driving up oil prices, AI-fueled demand on chips, and US President Donald Trump's controversial--and illegal--tariff program.

Around this time on the gaming calendar, you can usually count on a few things to appear: far too many gaming showcases and a new look at the next Call of Duty. Ahead of its upcoming reveal, it looks like key art for the game--and as rumored, it's Modern Warfare 4--has popped up, although you'll have to squint your eyes really, really hard to make out what it is--almost like a '90s 3D painting, taunting us with the image of a potential three-dimensional sailboat.

Billbil-Kin--who has a solid track record with leaks--has posted a very blurry image "for one of Activision's games," and we're betting it's not a Tony Hawk's Underground remaster. Look closely, and you'll see what appears to be three soldiers advancing forward. That's a considerable upgrade from your typical Call of Duty cover, which usually features a single soldier front and center.

Longtime Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward is expected to be the lead developer on this year's entry in the series, and it recently teased that its next game will be a "bold" and "relentless" combat experience. This year sees some big changes to how Call of Duty is released, as there won't be a day-one launch through Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft's subscription service is widely thought to have contributed to the worst Call of Duty sales year since 2008, and in the future, new Call of Duty games will only come to Game Pass around a year after launch.

A full retail launch for Modern Warfare 4 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S is predicted to be a massive financial success, but it'll also be facing off against Rockstar’s GTA 6 in November, which could have a significant impact on the game's bottom line. It wouldn't be the first time that a new release from Rockstar Games has outsold Call of Duty, as Red Dead Redemption 2 managed this rare feat back in 2018 when it went up against Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

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Dragon Quest celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and to mark the occasion, a new update was given on the long-in-development Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate. First announced five years ago, the game won't be out for quite a while yet, as executive producer Yosuke Saito announced that development had been restarted on the project and it has a brand-new name--Dragon Quest 12: Beyond Dreams

"We're hard at work on Dragon Quest 12, but due to a reshuffle of the team and a restart of development, it's going to be a bit longer until it's in your hands," Saito said in a Dragon Quest livestream. "Work on the original version, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, hit a lot of hurdles along the way. But as we kept talking with Mr. Yuji Horii (Dragon Quest game designer) and pinned down what a mainline Dragon Quest game should look like, we decided to move things around and start over from scratch. It was a major decision, but I believe it was the right one to ensure the next Dragon Quest game will be one that all you fans of the series will really love."

Saito then debuted a sneak peek at the game, revealing a colorful collection of scenes featuring new characters, landscapes, and monsters. One thing that has been preserved for Dragon Quest 12 is its art direction, as it's still heavily inspired by the work of Akira Toriyama. The late Dragon Ball creator was a character designer on the series since its inception and worked on every entry in the main series until his death in 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCRie0bKvtE

Development on Dragon Quest 12 hit a rocky patch in 2024, when series producer Yu Miyake reportedly stepped down due to repeated delays. Updates have been sporadic on the game, which follows the last mainline installment, 2018's Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age. Fortunately, the franchise has expanded with spin-offs over the years, and fans can look forward to Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World. Launching for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2 in the near future, the spin-off is a creature-collecting game that's not too dissimilar from Pokemon, but with a signature Dragon Quest touch.

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Kingdom Come developer Warhorse Studios has multiple new games in the works, including a game set in Middle-earth and another game set in the Kingdom Come universe. During a recent broadcast, the developer shared new updates about both projects.

The next Kingdom Come game--which Warhorse stopped short of calling Kingdom Come: Deliverance 3--is set for release during the company's next fiscal year, IGN reported. That means it is expected to arrive between April 2027 and March 2028.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Vn-OZHvIM

Not much is known about the game apart from it being labeled an "open-world RPG" and a "new Kingdom Come adventure." 

"We still continue expanding the universe of Kingdom Come," Warhorse communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling said, as reported by IGN. "That is also very dear to us. Do not forget that Kingdom Come: Deliverance always was and still is and always will be an absolute passion project here in the studio."

Stolz-Zwilling said it's important that Kingdom Come fans "don't have to wait seven years for another Kingdom Come." And while next financial year is the "aim" for the new Kingdom Come game, Stolz-Zwilling reminded everyone that game development can be messy, so the release target projection could change.

Deliverance 2 lead designer Prokop Jirsa is in charge of the team making the next Kingdom Come game, while Deliverance 2 design director Viktor Bocan leading the development of the untitled Lord of the Rings game. 

Stolz-Zwilling said Warhorse has assembled a "mind-blowing team" to make the Lord of the Rings game, and it's aiming to be "deeply immersive" and a game that has a "living world" featuring "interesting characters, memorable places, and of course a strong narrative focus."

Beyond these two projects, Warhorse is working on a movie version of Kingdom Come. 

In addition to Warhorse's The Lord of the Rings game, Tomb Raider studio Crystal Dynamics is said to be working on its own The Lord of the Rings project. Both studios are owned by Embracer, which itself owns the gaming rights to The Lord of the Rings.

A free demo for Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem has arrived, but it features a major limitation. Save data from the demo does not carry over to the full version, so anyone who likes their experience in the demo and goes on to buy the game will need to start over.

The free Requiem demo includes a portion of the game's "early stages." You can use the links below to queue up the Requiem demo on your preferred platform:

• PS5
• Xbox Series X|S
• PC
• Switch 2

Requiem released at the end of February this year and has sold more than 7 million copies so far. It ranks as the No. 1 best-selling game in the US so far in 2026. In March, Capcom announced plans to expand the game with new content and a story expansion. 

Beyond ongoing updates to Requiem, the Resident Evil franchise will expand in September with Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie. It's not based on any specific Resident Evil game, but aims to capture the essence and tone of Capcom's franchise.

Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online, did not achieve the same level of success and popularity that GTA Online did, but Rockstar owner Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick wants people to know the game overall was still a gigantic hit. 

Red Dead Online was supported with major updates in the years after the game launched in 2018. However, Rockstar dialed things back and the game no longer receives the kind of regular, meaty updates it once did or similar kinds of expansions that GTA Online gets.

Zelnick told IGN that he does not see Red Dead Online as being a "missed opportunity," and his evidence? The game sold 85 million copies and has become the No. 4 best-selling game in the history of video games, recently surpassing Wii Sports. 

"There is literally nothing about Red Dead selling 85 million units that could signal a missed opportunity. And Red Dead Online has been immensely successful and long lasting," Zelnick said.

The executive also theorized that Red Dead, as a franchise, would be seen in a different light if it wasn't made by the same company that makes GTA games.

“I think if we didn't have Grand Theft Auto here at our company, then people would just talk about the fact that we have this massive franchise in Red Dead, which we do and of which we're very proud,” he said. “I actually personally think Red Dead is just amazing and I love engaging with it. And I think the reason it continues to sell is that it's just spectacular entertainment. It's beautiful and it feels very up to date despite the fact that it's not a new title.”

Red Dead Redemption 2 sold a further 3 million copies between January and March, and that was among the highest quarterly sales total since the game launched in October 2018. Of course, the game has been heavily discounted since launch; it's now available for $15 on PS5 and $20 on Xbox Series X|S with a temporary discount. The game is also part of the PlayStation Plus catalog for subscribers. 

Red Dead Online, meanwhile, is available as a standalone purchase for $20, but it's currently 50% off right now on console. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 came to PC about a year after it debuted on console, and people have created all manner of unique and creative mods for PC.

Given the huge success of Rockstar's Red Dead games, it seems likely the developer will eventually return to the series with a new installment, but nothing is confirmed for now. Next up for Rockstar is the November launch of GTA 6, which is launching first on console and presumably coming to PC later.

With Mina the Hollower, Yacht Club Games has cemented itself as one of the premiere independent studios in the industry today. Its breakout hit, Shovel Knight, was a retro-throwback platformer that merged classic 8-bit-style action with some modern touches. Mina the Hollower looked similarly old-school, with a look and feel that obviously pays tribute to the Zelda Game Boy spin-offs. But this time, the fusion of newer souls-like design sensibilities makes it more than a freshened-up homage. It resembles those Zelda games, but it's so densely packed with secrets and intertwining cause-and-effect outcomes that at times it feels more like Elden Ring than Link's Awakening.

The comparisons to Link's Awakening, and Game Boy Color games Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages, are visually obvious. Mina has a similar color palette, the sprite artwork is familiar, and it uses an overhead camera. But whereas those games were relatively simple iterations on the template set by the classic Legend of Zelda and Link to the Past, Mina the Hollower is much darker, much denser, and much more difficult. The challenge level can be brutal and unforgiving, and there are elements of gothic horror, body horror, and gruesome violence--at least, as expressed through cute pixelated animals.

The Baron Lionel gathers his subjects in Mina the Hollower.

The story starts when Mina gets a letter from Baron Lionel, the leader of Tenebrous Isle, who requests her help with the island's power generators. Mina is a Hollower, which in this world essentially means a sort of structural engineer and earth scientist. Mina is the best of them, having invented the spark technology that powers the generators, which in turn makes all of the modern technological wonders of Tenebrous possible. But the generators have been breaking down, so Mina is asked to come see to the problem. 

After her boat to Tenebrous is attacked by a monster, Mina chooses her weapon. You're presented with just three at the start, and already, this feels like a statement of intent. Link's trusty sword has always seen him through, and Mina's twin daggers, Whisper and Vesper, offer a very similar play-feel. But this time you could also select the Nightstar, a whip-like morningstar with longer reach, or the Blaststrike Maul, a massive bludgeoning hammer. The message, which becomes even clearer as you play, is that this is a game that wants you to take combat seriously. And you'll need to.

Once you make landfall and enter the city of Ossex, you start to gain a better idea of what's going on. The generators have been sabotaged by an eco-terrorist named Thorne. Lionel tasks Mina with going to repair the six main generators surrounding the city, and you're vaguely pointed in a handful of directions to pursue. Immediately as you head out, though, you realize that this world does not spoonfeed its structure to you. It's not immediately clear where to go. The city itself is massive and bustling, loaded with named characters who all drop meaningful bits of information, though the game doesn't log these for you. What you do with that information is up to you--whether you commit it to memory, write it down, or chase a lead immediately. Like the open world of Elden Ring, the freedom initially feels overwhelming. A city newspaper points you in the direction of a dungeon, but the fact is that you can do them in almost any order.

Mina the Hollower's overworld of Tenebrous Isle.

The dungeons themselves are unique--not only as compared to a game in this template, but in relation to each other. Rather than enter into a bespoke dungeon area, they are built into the structure of the world itself. You might weave your way through crypts or caves or swamps while exploring, but there is no clear delineation between the open world and a dungeon. It's all part of the same cohesive, connected reality. There are often shortcuts and secret passageways connecting pieces of the world together, making it feel even more part of a whole. 

Even so, the parts of the world have their own distinct personalities that each feel inventive and fresh. My first quest was to Queensbury Crypt to the east, a creepy graveyard full of tombs and statues, complete with a macabre meta-puzzle that led to a boss battle with an implied tragic story at its core. Next I headed to Nox's Bayou, a poisonous swamp that tested my ability to make tricky leaps across waterways. Then I went to Septemburg, a personal favorite, a harvest-themed farm town being terrorized by a spooky monster that the local youth call the Carving Man. The Carving Man ends up stalking you, introducing a surprising survival-horror element akin to Resident Evil's Mr. X or Nemesis. Every dungeon is just packed with these kinds of surprising touches that make them feel distinct.

Unlike a traditional Zelda game, though, you aren't obtaining new items in each dungeon that help you solve puzzles. At first I missed this element, but I found that Mina the Hollower didn't need it. Items in Zelda games help to facilitate new types of puzzle or platforming challenges, but Mina manages to maintain such a constant pace of fresh reinvention without items. The world and dungeon design itself kept the same pacing by themselves. Progress isn't gated behind keys, but rather, behind skill. If you can reach from one end of a room to the other, you can proceed. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fx0aJCRRpE

That is made all the more impressive by how absolutely dense the world is. Every screen is packed with interconnected secrets and things to uncover, many of which you may not even realize are there the first time you trod past them. I've completed the game and I still don't feel like I've even scratched the surface. Playing alongside others on staff, we would frequently find ourselves surprising each other with small details we found and character interactions we uncovered. There are moments that I triggered that other players didn't, and vice-versa, and we still have no clear idea why. The world is so complex and intertwining that I suspect players will be experimenting and discovering new things for some time.

Combat is similarly nuanced. In addition to the three starter weapons, you have access to more that can be found or bought. Each one can be upgraded, and all of them have their own intricacies. I preferred the twin daggers because it felt most familiar to me with its quick short-ranged strikes, but I also had to adjust to its rhythm of two quick stabs in succession. The Nightstar has reach and flexibility, but it also means you have to commit to an attack. A gun-like weapon gives you long range but with very limited ammo. You won't need to master all of them, but they each feel precise enough to accommodate someone's playstyle.

In addition to your main weapon, you'll find Sidearms, which deplete a mana pool upon use. Those could be a heavy axe that you can toss a la Castlevania, an umbrella that blocks enemy attacks and then can be thrown, a boomerang-like throwing disc, a pet beast that follows you around on a leash, and more. There are tons of Sidearms, and it's always exciting to find a new one and see how it mixes up gameplay and adds to your combat options.

The Underlab is Mina's base of operations.

Combat is one area, and the only one, where Mina the Hollower's ambition mildly exceeds its grasp. This game admirably iterates on the form and function of classic Game Boy Zelda games, but those were never built for complex combat. Mina succeeds in giving this structure style a much higher skill ceiling, but it isn't flawless. With a flattened 2D perspective, it's not always clear when enemies are in the air, requiring a jump-attack to make contact. Many enemies charge directly at you, which makes the lack of a dodge or backstep command stand out. Instead, you can jump, or jump into a burrow and dig underground. Both of those do in a pinch--and you'll need to master their timing to withstand the combat challenges--but it does feel like combat is just slightly straining against the limitations of its homage.

On that note, Mina the Hollower is brutally difficult at times. Boss battles can be especially tricky, but even a handful of regular enemies can take you down if you're not careful. Mina is just a vulnerable little mouse, after all. Your safe spot is the Underlab, an underground base you burrow into where you can heal and swap equipment. Sometimes Underlabs are spread very thin, and you'll be desperate to find the next one because you're on the verge of death. Runbacks between Underlabs and bosses can be unforgiving and require several tries. You can crack a vial to restore your health, but you need to defeat enemies to extend the amount it will restore, and you have a limited number of uses. Dying means losing your spark, after which you have one chance (by default) to regain it before you lose all your currency.

The difficulty is certainly an intentional choice, and slight reservations about the combat's limitations aside, it does feel great to have your skills tested and slowly feel yourself improving. Like any other game in the souls-like genre, you do actually need to get good.

Unlike a souls-like game, though, you actually can make the game easier on yourself. Mina the Hollower has loads of optional modifiers--reducing damage, adding more Underlab save points, adjusting the world speed, and so on. It's generous enough to let you turn on as many or as few as you'd like, tweaking the game difficulty to your liking. You can even make it harder if you're looking for additional challenge after mastering the mechanics. And even more are added after game completion, giving you a massive array of different things to try that will either add limitations or even more freedom.

Mina faces off against Thorne in Mina the Hollower.

Bones (which are their money) accrue by defeating enemies and exploring. After you've gathered enough, you can buy stacking upgrades to strength, defense, or Sidearm mana, or you can convert your pool into Bonestone, which is kept safe in your Underlab and therefore can't be lost when you die. Bones can also be used to buy a variety of permanent upgrades for Mina, or weapons, upgrades, various items, or Trinkets. 

Trinkets are one of the most important aspects to customizing Mina to your playstyle. These have strong effects like extending your burrow time, letting you carry extra health vials, or even giving you a one-time emergency revive. None of these are strictly necessary for completion like items in a Zelda game, but many of them are extremely useful, and combining them as you find new ones is part of the joy of learning and earning your own safe path through this dangerous world. 

And again, this world feels dangerous and unstable. Even in areas where you'd ordinarily feel safe, like wandering through the streets of the central city, you may be surprised to find yourself violently grabbed by a giant shopkeeper who pulls you into his store and orders you to buy his wares. I once wandered into a boss fight in the city without even realizing it, thinking I was in a safe space, and had to fight my way out by the skin of my teeth or risk losing my precious bones. Everything about the world accentuates the feeling that it is treacherous and unpredictable.

As impressed as I was throughout, Mina the Hollower finishes especially strong with a pair of final dungeons that are somehow even more bursting with creativity. Whereas every dungeon up to that point had its own distinct flavor and personality, the last few hours packed multiple ideas and puzzle types into single dungeons, making them a feast of creative level design that honestly, at some points, felt like Yacht Club was just showing off.

Each time you finish a dungeon, you play an extended platforming sequence with a neat effect that reminded me of Mode 7 on the Super NES. The generator towers themselves are cylindrical, and you can fully run around them while climbing upward, all while avoiding a trail of electrical current coming after you. It's an exciting way to cap off the dungeon after fighting a memorable boss, and like the environments themselves, each one has its own distinct flavor that matches the dungeon's themes.

Upon restoring each generator, you find a letter--most of them from Thorne, the eco-terrorist who is always one step ahead of you in sabotaging the generators. Thorne describes his reasoning and implores you to rethink helping Lionel. For a generation raised by eco-tainment like Fern Gully and Captain Planet (RIP Ted Turner), it was clear from the start where all of this was going. However, the execution found room for surprising turns. This is a fable about environmentalism, but it's not clean or preachy. Fixing the generators has positive effects on the world, but Thorne's destruction of them does too. It seems like this world is stuck in a devil's bargain where they've become too reliant on technology to stop now without incurring heavy costs, but they can't safely continue either. Any path leads to pain. It certainly resonates.

I am awed by what Yacht Club Games has created here. Mina the Hollower is so ambitious and dense and sprawling that it is hard to believe that it is contained in such a modest presentation. It surpasses the boundaries of mere homage or retro throwback to become something new, fresh, inventive, and exciting. Shovel Knight was a well-deserved successful debut for Yacht Club. Mina the Hollower may be its masterpiece.

The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red has announced the new Songs of the Past expansion for the game, which comes 11 years after its second expansion, Blood and Wine. Co-developed with Fool's Theory--a studio that includes several Witcher 3 veterans and previously released The Thaumaturge in 2024--Songs of the Past will be revealed in more detail later this year.

What CDPR has revealed is that the expansion will launch in 2027 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S versions of The Witcher 3, and it will once again revolve around Geralt of Rivia. Rumors about a new Witcher 3 DLC began picking up earlier this year, with initial reports speculating that the DLC could see players visit the far-eastern destination of Zerrikania. New reports claimed that the DLC will instead reuse existing assets and will be set in the territories of Temeria and Redania.

CDPR has also confirmed that system requirements for The Witcher 3 on PC will be updated to "ensure smooth performance and compatibility" going forward. This means that any Witcher 3 player running the game on a Windows 10 operating system will need to upgrade to Windows 11 if they want to keep playing it. If you're curious, you can check out the updated PC specs below for The Witcher 3:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600 or Intel Core i5-8400
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• VRAM: 6GB
• RAM: 12GB
• Storage: 70GB SSD
• Operating System: 64-bit Windows 11

Curiously, CDPR also teased something else for this week. "We originally planned to make this big reveal during our REDstreams tomorrow, but let’s say we found something we didn't yet expect on RED Launcher," the studio said in a social media post that included wolf and swords emojis, symbols related to The Witcher franchise.

It's a busy time for The Witcher franchise currently, as not only is there new content on the way for The Witcher 3, but the first game is getting a remake and The Witcher 4 is also in development. Outside of that franchise, CDPR is also working on a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, and a new Cyberpunk: Edgerunners anime series is also in the works.

Best Witcher 3 Mods To Download In 2026 View Images

This week, Epic Games published a concept-art image showing what appeared to be a Porsche vehicle dropping into Fortnite. However, it was quickly removed after players theorized it had been made with the use of generative AI. And while Epic has since offered an explanation for what happened, something still seems ... off.

Almost immediately after it was posted, ResetEra users pointed out that the image in question did not appear to be made by a human. Featuring a Porsche vehicle floating alongside a whole bunch of players, the car brand's logo is illegible on the platform. Additionally, what appears to be the Riot Games logo is visible on the balloon.

https://twitter.com/UnrealEngine/status/2059256591866528033?s=20

Epic Games later said the image was provided by Porsche and, as it was shared by the Unreal Engine Twitter account, one would assume that means it was created using those tools. However, even after GameSpot talked to an Epic Games rep about the image, it remains unclear why or how the Riot Games logo made its way onto the balloon. Combined with the Porsche logo, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to infer that someone at Porsche made it via AI.

At the very least, the car configurator tool--which does make use of the Unreal Engine--looks a whole lot more impressive than the AI image. While you wouldn't download a car, it appears some would AI-generate one.

007 First Light, the new James Bond game, releases on May 27, but people who paid extra got to start playing today. Some have already beaten the game and posted all of the game's cutscenes on YouTube, including the final sequence.

We won't spoil the specifics, but the ending involves a major moment for James Bond and teases what he may do next in a sequel.

That there would be a sequel to First Light should not come as much of a surprise, as the developers at IO said they envisioned a trilogy of Bond games.

“I don’t want to speak too big about it, but I just hope we’ll do a thing that will define James Bond in gaming for years to come,” IO CEO Hakan Abrak said in 2024 before the game even had a name. “And that is not only one game, but that we create a universe for gamers to own for many years to come that we can grow with that next to the Bond on the movies.”

Many of the James Bond movies, meanwhile, wrap up with Bond preparing for another adventure, so the game ending that way was in keeping with the franchise's tradition of reminding people that Bond will be back.

First Light is getting solid reviews, boasting an impressive 87 Metascore on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. GameSpot's First Light review scored it an 8/10.

First Light unlocks on May 27 for everyone, and you can consult the game's official unlock times to find out when it arrives where you live.

The Switch 2 edition of First Light has been delayed and is now set for release sometime this summer, though a specific date has not been announced.

Beyond a possible sequel to First Light, IO is working on a fantasy game and has teased it will return to Hitman someday.

As for the James Bond movie series, the 26th Bond movie is in the works now and casting is underway for a new actor to play the lead role. Daniel Craig played the role most recently, wrapping up his five-movie run as the British superspy with 2021's No Time to Die.

Roberts Space Industries and Cloud Imperium Games have announced a massive new funding milestone for the PC space sim Star Citizen--the game has now exceeded $1 billion in crowdfunding since the campaign launched in 2012.

At press time, the game's public funding stands at $1.007 billion from more than 6.5 million people.

While Star Citizen is playable currently, the game remains in early access after some 10 years of ongoing development. Chris Roberts, the founder of Roberts Space Industries, said Star Citizen's standalone single-player game featuring many, many celebrities--Squadron 42--is targeting a 2026 release. The 1.0 version of Star Citizen is expected to follow later.

Roberts told Variety recently that it "feels pretty epic" to be so close to Star Citizen's 1.0 release. He said the studio is in the "closing stages" and that the game is "coming together really well."

"I’ve been very lucky as a creative because I’ve had the ability to take the time and have the funding to really do it. James Cameron had that when he was doing his Avatars," he said. "This is sort of like my version of it in games where I’ve had the time; I’ve been able to spend the time to get the tech. And so the vision that’s being delivered is really my imagination, my vision from the beginning, and that’s not something you always get the chance to do. So I’m pretty grateful for that, and I’m also very excited for people on the outside to experience it.”

Star Citizen has courted a fair share of controversy over the years. One backer was upset that Star Citizen was taking so long to materialize that they spoke to their state's attorney general and ultimately got a refund. Star Citizen and its developer were also caught up in a lawsuit from Crytek over the game's use of the CryEngine.

One of the ways that Star Citizen makes money currently is by selling ships, like the newly announced $5,000 Anvil Odin. This is a ship concept, and not something that can be used in the game currently--that will come later, according to IGN.

Not every ship costs this much, however, as prices in the ship store including a wide range. There are also various upgrades players can purchase for their ships, as well as $10 and $20/month subscription bundles. Star Citizen itself, meanwhile, costs $45.

The Squadron 42 single-player game features a number of big-name actors, including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, John Rhys-Davies, Liam Cunningham, Ben Mendelsohn, Gillian Anderson, and Andy Serkis.

Destruction AllStars, the multiplayer-focused vehicle combat game and Sony first-party exclusive originally slated to be a PlayStation 5 launch title before instead becoming a PlayStation Plus freebie, is now offline and no longer available on the PlayStation Store. 

Searching for the game on Sony's storefront doesn't bring up developer Lucid Games' car brawler. Players received a game-service shutdown notification (confirmed by GameSpot) that informed them Destruction AllStar's multiplayer services have been taken offline and that Destruction Points, the game's premium currency, have been removed from sale. 

https://bsky.app/profile/wario64.bsky.social/post/3mmrjpgetes2f

For those who already have Destruction AllStars in their library, the game's offline Arcade mode will remain playable, according to the notification.

Destruction AllStars was published by Sony and intended to be a full priced PS5 launch title alongside games like Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake. However, the game was delayed in the leadup to the PS5's launch, instead releasing three months later in February 2021. When it finally arrived, it was no longer a premium game, but rather a free title included as part of PS Plus for two months. After that two-month window, it could be bought for $20. More recently, it was included as part of PS Plus Extra. 

The car brawler was intended to be a live-service title, but only received one season in May 2021. That same month, Lucid Games' announced it would add bots to the game's online multiplayer to help fill matches. Unlike more recent live-service Sony games like Helldivers 2 and Marathon, Destruction AllStars never released on PC or Xbox.

Destruction AllStars is just one of many live-service games to be shut down in recent months and years, though it did technically survive much longer than most (despite only launching a single season). Other high-profile game shutdowns in recent memory include this year's short lived Highguard, from former Titanfall developers, and Sony's own Concord, a first-party hero shooter that lasted just over a week before its plug was pulled in 2024. 

Another Live-Service Game Is Shutting Down, Joining Highguard View Images

Today's not opening day for the MLB season, but it is opening day for a new MLB game. Sony has officially launched MLB The Show Mobile, so now you can keep hitting absolute bombs even if you had to take a bathroom break from the console versions.

Games won't function exactly like they do in the console versions, however. Using a card system and a Momentum resource, you'll have to pick and choose when to deploy your best players in a game, with your squad all mixed up in a deck so you are not entirely sure who will be available at the start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ4GVQhNX8w

The Seasons and Moments modes should be familiar to longtime MLB The Show fans. The former is focused on quick, three-inning games (like Mini Seasons in MLB The Show 26), and will dish out extra rewards as you progress. The latter, meanwhile is designed for quick challenges, letting you recreate famous plays or hit a certain stat target.

And, as it's MLB The Show, there is of course a multiplayer component, but it's a little different here. Head-to-head play will see you compete against other players in "turn-based baseball minigames," with the highest score winning. You're not required to be playing at the same time, either, so it should offer some more flexibility.

MLB The Show Mobile is now available on iOS and Android. Its big sibling MLB The Show 26 is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch.

The latest attempt to dethrone The Sims from its lofty perch as the unquestioned monarch of life sim games is Paralives, an indie game looking to provide much more depth of personality than we see from The Sims or InZoi. Things seem to be going well so far, with the Early Access title selling hundreds of thousands of copies and earning Very Positive reviews on Steam since it launched on May 25. But there's one thing pretty much everyone playing so far dislikes about it: that jerky and inconsistent camera. Fortunately, there's a solution to this problem, thanks to a well-known Sims modder hopping to the new game with a camera mod.

For most folks, the hinky Paralives camera won't break their games, but it's an annoyance that they'll have to regularly wrestle with while they play. The way the camera works now, it's hard to precisely control your perspective, and it loves to shift down to a lower floor while you're trying to do stuff on an upper floor. When both of those issues rear their ugly heads at the same time, it can feel nearly impossible to click on the thing you want to click on, and those who are prone to motion sickness might even feel dizzy or ill as a result of the jerkiness.

Depending on what you're doing in the game, it can goof up so frequently that it feels like the point of Paralives is to figure out how to use the camera controls effectively. Since Paralives is in Early Access and apparently doing very well, judging by those sales numbers, we should expect the devs will eventually smooth out the issues with the camera. But in the meantime, while you wait for that, there's a mod that will help. 

Courtesy of long-time popular Sims 4 modder TwistedMexi, the Sensible Camera Control mod makes camera movements more smooth, and removes some of its ability to make automatic adjustments, since it was those auto movements that caused the "falling through the floor" effect that's been driving players nuts. You can grab the Sensible Camera Control mod from the Steam Workshop here.

It's not a perfect solution, of course, since the mod has some quirks of its own. But the many comments on the mod's Workshop page agree it's a big improvement over Paralives' vanilla camera. And the fact that TwistedMexi was able to create this mod so quickly could be a great sign for the future of modding in Paralives.

Helldivers 2's next update is one players have been vocal about wanting for quite some time, and it's not new content--it's an optimization and performance update, which developer Arrowhead Studios said is "just the opening salvo" of more improvements to come.

As detailed by Arrowhead in a blog post, an update coming to Helldivers 2 on May 27 will look to improve stability, reduce latency, and add new upscaling support to the popular co-op shooter. The developer even included a massive collage of Reddit posts from players asking for upscaling support, to which Arrowhead has now replied, "We heard you." 

On the upscaling side of the equation, Arrowhead is introducing new options tailored to each platform, as well as support for dynamic resolution scaling and variable refresh rates and shading. Below is what's coming as part of the update. 

Helldivers 2 May 27 Update Features

Upscaling Support

• PC: FSR 4.0.3 (on supported GPUs), FSR 3.1.5, DLSS 4.5, and XeSS 3.0
• PS5 Pro: PSSR 1
• PS5: FSR 3.1
• Xbox Series X/S: FSR 3.1

Visual Optimizations

• Variable Refresh Rate for PS5 and PS5 Pro
• Variable Rate Shading
• Dynamic Resolution Scaling for PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC, as well as increased resolution to 1440p PS5 "Quality" preset as part of PS5 power-saving mode, as well as in performance mode on PS5 and Xbox Series X. 

Reduced Latency

• Nvidia Reflex
• AMD Anti-Lag 2

Arrowhead said the update is just the first step when it comes to the goal of improving "performance across the fleet." Next steps will include making further adjustments as necessary once the update is live, but also an additional "tech-focused update" coming later in the summer to push the improvements "even further." 

The performance and stability update comes as Arrowhead has taken flak from players for poor communication with the Helldivers community and its focus on releasing paid DLC over improving technical issues. Those complaints have seen the game's recent user-review scores dip into "Mostly Negative" on Steam, though the game still sports an overall "Very Positive" rating. In the blog announcing the new update, Arrowhead said it's "focused on being clearer, more consistent, and giving you better visibility into what's coming and why."

More technical improvements aren't all Helldivers 2 fans have to look forward to. Arrowhead recently announced the game's next Legendary Warbond crossover will be with Warhammer 40K and release later this year.

Helldivers 2’s New Premium Warbond Finally Does Something No Warbond Has Done Before View Images

This week marks the 10th anniversary of Blood and Wine, the second and final DLC for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Prior to its release in 2016, CD Projekt Red was very clear that this DLC was the end of the story for Geralt of Rivia. But now that the developer has announced a new Witcher 3 stream coming this week, players are getting their hopes up and asking for more new DLC.

CD Projekt Red announced that The Witcher 3 - Blood and Wine anniversary stream will take place on May 28 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 5 PM CEST. The social media message doesn’t promise anything beyond a return “to the land of knights, vineyards, and vampires.”

https://twitter.com/thewitcher/status/2059288819027910898

Regardless, players quickly made their wishes known.

https://twitter.com/Patoche_Rouky/status/2059316203072442704 https://twitter.com/CyberPierogi/status/2056807028224610675 https://twitter.com/Azrael007x/status/2059296703740510364 https://twitter.com/qTazzzzzz/status/2059297134340386884 https://twitter.com/RavingCO/status/2059289256942600452

There were unconfirmed reports about additional Witcher 3 DLC earlier this year. More recently, it was rumored that the new DLC may bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4. 

CD Projekt Red previously revealed that The Witcher 3 will get one last update that will let console players dive into numerous mods that PC players have created in the 11 years since the original game. However, that update was delayed and it doesn’t currently have a release date. It’s possible that the official announcement could come during this week’s streaming event.

The Witcher 4 was officially unveiled near the end of 2025, and it doesn’t currently have a release date. While voice actor Doug Cockle has confirmed that he will reprise his role as Geralt in the sequel, Ciri will be the new main character of the game.

Best Witcher 3 Mods To Download In 2026 View Images

A new batch of content is set to arrive in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Warzone with Season 4. New seasons of Call of Duty typically add more maps, new weapons to unlock, and limited-time events. With Season 4 set to arrive next month, we already have a few hints of what to expect. Here, we'll highlight all the rumors and announcements for Call of Duty Season 4 so far.

Call of Duty Season 4 start times

Activision confirmed Season 4 of Black Ops 7 and Warzone arrives on June 4. Call of Duty's big updates usually go live at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST across all platforms.

What to expect from Season 4

A new season of Call of Duty means a new battle pass packed with fresh cosmetics, more DLC weapons to unlock, new maps, and additional game modes. A season also generally includes limited-time events and new challenges to complete.

Treyarch recently released the Season 4 intro cinematics for Black Ops 7's post-launch story. This shows Karma facing off against Leon Rook, a new Guild operator who will appear in the Season 4 battle pass. This is an operator in full body armor with a helmet featuring animal-like teeth. Notably, the soldier is also wielding a gun reminiscent of the popular AN-94 assault rifle from Black Ops 2, making it very possible that this is a weapon you can unlock in the upcoming battle pass. 

Call of Duty seasons also typically bring a new season of Ranked Play and rewards for both multiplayer and Warzone.

Black Ops 7 multiplayer

We don’t have specific details revealed for Season 4 of multiplayer yet. The big update will likely include more multiplayer maps, game modes, and new challenges.

Call of Duty data miner "HeyImAlaix" suggests a few throwback maps could arrive in Season 4, with mentions of Dig, Vertigo, and Launch in the game files. Launch is from Black Ops 1, and Vertigo and Dig are both from Black Ops 2.

Zombies

A new Zombies map is highly likely, as Treyarch confirmed there are still two more new maps planned to release for Black Ops 7. However, a new Zombies map won't arrive at launch of the season, as the developer is saving Zombie map releases for the mid-season "Reloaded" updates.

Warzone

Most of the specific details of Season 4 of Warzone haven't been announced yet, but Activision has confirmed the return of the Fortune's Keep Resurgence map. 

Avalon and the Black Ops Royale mode will most likely remain as a big-map option, as the developer has previously revealed that Avalon would receive seasonal updates to gradually change the map.

Strauss Zelnick, the head of Rockstar owner Take-Two, has commented on the price of new video games, and while he did not reveal how much GTA 6 will cost, he said people are going to line up to buy it because it will be so compelling.

Speaking to IGN, Zelnick said he is "sensitive to the fact that so many people are facing economic challenges" these days with rising gas, grocery, and rent prices--just to name a few. However, he said people aren't going to skip GTA 6 just because prices of many other things in their lives may be increasing.

“If you give people what they want in the entertainment business, they will come out for it," he said.

Also in the interview, Zelnick pointed out--as he has done before--that the prices for new games have actually declined over the past 30 years. For example, the price of GTA 5 when it launched in 2013 was $60 USD. Today, that's about $85 due to inflation.

The standard going rate for big AAA games today is $70, and that price has not risen with annual inflation levels. Companies not raising prices has led to numerous developments in games that many people don't like, including more microtransactions. The thinking is that if companies refuse to charge more for games, they will find other ways to generate revenue to help offset increasing development costs. 

A Bank of America stock analyst said Rockstar should charge $80 for GTA 6 to help encourage other publishers to raise prices as well, which in turn may help the industry overall become more sustainable. People generally do not like to see prices go up (especially if their own wages have not increased with inflation), but data does show that consumers are already ready and willing to embrace $80 games. 

Zelnick, for his part, said Rockstar is trying to make GTA an experience that is "so much better than we people pay for, that they're thrilled to buy our titles." He added, "Our job is to make the best entertainment on earth and that's true across the board."

Beyond the price of GTA 6--whatever that turns out to be--people will need a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S to play the game. Both platforms have seen price increases since they launched. The cheapest way to get in today is with the $400 Xbox Series S. The least expensive PS5 model is the $600 digital system.

GTA 6 launches on November 19, 2026 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It was supposed to launch today, May 26, but Rockstar delayed the project to help improve its quality.

When IO Interactive was first announced as developing a James Bond game, people connected the obvious dots: James Bond inspired Hitman, the series IO is best known for, so the studio seemed like a great fit to take on a proper 007 game. But it's where those two experiences would need to be different that had me most intrigued. A 007 game can't just be a Hitman game with different hair. Thankfully, IO's first foray into the James Bond world proves the team knows this and leans into it, delivering a thrilling Bond experience worthy of the character, while also applying lessons learned from the studio's own international man of mystery.

Though it isn't the first to tell an original story, 007 First Light is IO's very own take on Ian Fleming's iconic spy himself. With a new leading man in Patrick Gibson, and a story that takes Bond back to the age of 26, when he's still serving in the military sans any ties to MI6, it's a natural on-ramp for people who may not be familiar with Bond or who have been waiting since 2021's No Time to Die for the next reboot. This is a fresh start, and the team makes it their own.

In First Light, the Bond we meet is younger than ever, and this invites a more stubborn, mistake-prone version of the character, whom I quickly found myself interested in. Recruited to MI6's soon-to-be-rebooted 00 program, Bond can't catch a break, making enemies of his fellow recruits and his irritable supervisor, John Greenway, played by The Walking Dead's Lennie James, who shines in his newfound role in the Bond universe. 

In the movies, I loved how Daniel Craig's take on the hero often saw him receive his fair share of beatings. I strongly prefer that to an untouchable good guy who can do no wrong. That aspect of Bond feels ramped up even more in First Light, with a version of the spy who is hardly out of the figurative cradle at the intelligence agency. James Bond is a headstrong young man, and his tendency to ask for forgiveness rather than permission is both his best and worst attribute in the eyes of his superiors.

Before long, Bond is on assignment, using his tricks of social engineering and stealth to infiltrate a lavish hotel, where the agency believes a disgruntled ex-00 agent is plotting something. While this plot thread initially sounds a bit too much like Skyfall, it quickly finds its own path forward, eventually erasing my concerns that the 20-hour story would lean too much on things I've already seen. It's also during this early mission that First Light starts to reveal its familial ties to Hitman, so to speak. Like IO's flagship game, you'll be dropped into a massive gala full of NPCs, some of whom are guardians of certain areas of the hotel. And like IO's bald assassin, Bond will need to trick, sneak past, or otherwise dispatch the security to get where he needs to be. 

Hello 47--err, I mean 007.

While the game rightly doesn't have the same level of dark humor as Hitman, many of the ways you'll move about the world feel plucked right out of it. You can distract guards, then sneak from cover to cover when they look away, shimmy across hand-holds and pipes outside the building, eavesdrop on conversations to get crucial information, and lie to people to get what you need--be it a keycard, the whereabouts of a particular person, or for them to simply step aside and let you pass, which First Light gamifies as the Bluff mechanic. It won't work on everyone, but some enemies will simply take you at your word, as Bond is a charming young man good at acting like he belongs somewhere he doesn't. Once in a while, you'll even don a disguise. In these moments, First Light and Hitman share a lot in common.

When things break down--maybe your cover has been blown, or you were spotted by enemies who don't fall for your charms--the game's very best attribute kicks into high gear. Combat in First Light is incredibly fun, especially the melee combat. Some of its systems are tried and true, like enemy attacks that must be blocked or dodged with good timing, but the things First Light does best are those that feel the most Bond-like. 

For example, you can slide over surfaces to stagger enemies, kicking their guns from their hands, catching them, then shooting your foe in the leg to cause them to kneel for a quick finisher. Alternatively, you can rush them and toss them into a computer desk, where things like a monitor and keyboard fly into the air as you buy some time with a handful of other armed villains behind you. Environments are awesomely reactive. If you throw a guy into a railing, you can then toss him over it. If you throw him into an electrical board, you'll see him get zapped and take heavy damage. Weaving in and out of combos against a group of enemies looks and feels awesome, whether you're perfectly nailing every hit and dodging every attack or you're just scraping by in fist fights that feel like trying to win an eye-gouging contest. 

Your options for stealth and social engineering are numerous in 007 First Light.

Gunplay is fun too, and though I preferred to use my fists because I felt it fit the character better at times, I love how First Light's guns never have much ammo in them, demanding you frequently change what you're armed with by taking them off defeated enemies--you can even chuck your gun at their heads when it's out of ammo. Combined with a slow-motion focus-aim mechanic, enemies who effectively flank you, and lots of destructibility, the end result makes for frenetic shootouts of precision headshots and creative explosions every time you've been given the license to kill. The exciting setpieces, once starring Connery, Brosnan, Craig, and the others, are faithfully captured in First Light, but what makes them even better is how often these moments aren't scripted. They're a result of my own improvisational input, navigating a complex battlefield and using every tool at my disposal to capture the specific biorhythms of a Bond movie.

Speaking of tools, it's funny how well a Bond story maps onto video games. Not only do you trot around the globe in a way that suits distinct missions, but Bond is always aided by Q and his Q-Lab spy gadgets. With his nearly ever-present Q-Watch, Bond can scan an area for enemies and interaction points, even through walls, using the sort of "detective vision" mechanic that Arkham Asylum popularized in 2009. Bond can also hack electronics with that same watch; he can make people feel queasy and move them off their spot using a fake phone that shoots poison darts, and he can blow stuff up with a fake pen, among several other gadgets at his disposal. 

On many missions, you'll pick which two or more of these you want, leaving you with many answers to the same question: how to get from A to B when the space between is littered with villains. I found it hard to pick which gadgets I wanted on any mission because they all had their uses. It was very common for me to get into a mission, thankful I had a particular gadget but also longing for another I had left behind, depending on the situation. A few late-game changes to how gadgets are used also shake up this system in two distinctly different but enjoyable ways.

These gadgets ensure the spirit of the Bond character is alive, and the game is rich with other true-to-form touches, like a well-rounded cast of characters, such as MI6 boss M, workplace ally Moneypenny, and a memorable villain whose quest is an interesting dark reflection of Bond himself. He's also the type of bad guy who feels plucked right out of the headlines. A Bond story is essentially a superhero story, but the best of them ground themselves in reality by speaking to the social and political context in which they've arrived, and First Light shines in this regard. 

Several missions in First Light would feel right at home in Hitman.

Watching the Bond movies recently for the first time, my wife jokingly wondered if the "Bond Girl" is always going to betray him, given how often it happens. I was glad to see First Light toy with this expectation a lot during its runtime. As for 007 himself, Patrick Gibson did so well to become the hero in my mind that, while I used to think of him as the actor who plays the title role on Dexter: First Blood, by the end of the game, he'd become James Bond first and foremost. It's hard to see him any other way.

Of all the boxes IO had to check to make First Light feel authentic, the only area where the team noticeably falters is driving sections. It's not really a Bond story without some car chases, and though First Light uses several different vehicles in several different ways, most of them feel like you're rather rigidly barreling down something close to a straight line. Nearly feeling on-rails, these flashy scenes of Aston Martins and speedboats still look and sound cool, but they're best for moving Bond from one shootout to another, while the driving sections themselves don't add much.

Another issue that stems from telling a 20-hour Bond story is that you, perhaps necessarily, lose some of the supreme pacing the best of the movies have to offer. I enjoyed seeing Bond in his MI6-provided apartment with other recruits. That felt like the sort of downtime a movie wouldn't allow for, which managed to add layers to these new versions of old characters. But there are a couple of other sections later where you're meant to solve puzzles, usually involving locked doors, and in these sections, the pacing can grind to a halt, pulling me out of the otherwise-exciting story. 

That's a hard problem to solve, given how a game necessarily differs from a movie. One area in which the pacing doesn't suffer is First Light's secondary mode, TacSim (short for Tactical Simulation). The in-universe excuse for this challenge mode is that it's Bond's way of staying frosty, beating up virtual bad guys in virtual kitchens, villas, and military installments. What this amounts to for you is a highly replayable mode that gets right down to the game's best bits: its combat. Across many levels, you can attempt to complete dozens of challenges, which is something this studio has designed very well before.

Vehicle sections look flashy, but they don't amount to much other than driving nearly in a straight line.

I like this mode out of the gate, though the rewards feel lacking for now, with some lukewarm weapon skins and outfits on offer. IO plans to support TacSim with updates, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves. But for those who wondered if this could be the equivalent of Hitman's incredible Freelancer mode, it's far from that as of now. 

In the end, IO's take on James Bond was actually more like Hitman than I expected, but that's not to say it's simply Hitman by another name. As someone who has loved that series for nearly 25 years, it's fascinating to see IO apply everything it's learned. 007: First Light wisely repurposes what works in both universes but isn't afraid to reimagine or ditch those parts that don't. Though some aspects of the game do hinder the pacing, so much else feels authentic and riveting. As Hollywood seems uncertain about where to take Bond next, IO Interactive's debut effort is supremely confident. "James Bond will return," the movies always like to say. If and when IO's Bond returns, it'll have a great first act to follow.