Dune: Awakening's player-vs.-player-focused endgame is about to add a lot more elements that have players facing off against computer-controlled enemies, as developer Funcom has announced major changes coming to the survival MMO's Deep Desert region.

In a blog post on Steam, Dune: Awakening creative director Joel Bylos said "starting soon," the game's endgame Deep Desert zone will receive areas designed as PvE, or player-vs.-environment, where conflict-averse players will be able to obtain the game's highest tier of resources, something that was previously impossible without players subjecting themselves to full-scale competitive gameplay against other players.

Addressing the complaints of PvE-focused players who felt locked out of the endgame, Byblos laid out Funcom's goals.

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Prior to attending Summer Game Fest, I had heard exceedingly little about Heart Machine's upcoming title, Possessor(s). Admittedly, this might be because I was a bit tapped out; for as big of a fan I was of Hyper Light Drifter, the studio's newer releases--Solar Ash and Hyper Light Breaker--didn't capture me the same way Drifter's lush-yet-somber world did. It seemed to me that Heart Machine was building upon the parts of their legacy that I found less compelling, emphasizing fast, fluid traversal and breadth in exploration rather than depth. Don't get me wrong--I liked both Solar Ash and Hyper Light Breaker, but they didn't captivate me--and their trajectory made me unsure if a new Heart Machine title ever would. Fortunately, a brush with Possessor(s) has proven me very wrong.

Billed as a search-action game--a more game-neutral term to describe the metroidvania genre--Possessor(s) marks a shift to the second dimension for Heart Machine and combines fast-paced, side-scrolling action (a la Metroid) with Dark Souls-inspired mechanics to create a tense, brutal, and gorgeous adventure game that emphasizes continuous discovery. Whereas the studio has previously shipped titles with more abstract stories and characters that aren't particularly humanoid in appearance, Possessor(s) also seems to mark a pivot towards a more traditional version of storytelling, with hand-drawn, swoon-worthy characters that dish out plot beats and dialogue with accompanying character art, similarly to Hades.

Rhem speaks to Luca.

So far, this description contains a lot of comparisons to some incredibly beloved games, so I want to emphasize that despite this, in the section I played, I didn't find Possessor(s) to be overly derivative. Although it pulls inspiration from some of my favorite titles and I'd argue I didn't see anything that reinvents or refines its genres, its urban-horror setting, lustrous art direction, overall tone, and budding narrative feel both distinctly Heart Machine and like a new direction for the studio.

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After cutting its teeth on melee combat and kung fu action with Absolver and Sifu, I don't think anyone expected Slocap's next game to be an arcadey alternative to EA Sports FC. But that's precisely what the French developer has crafted with Rematch: a football game that embodies the spirit and chaotic energy of having a kick-about with friends. From the wayward passes and the goalkeeper who decides he's now a striker, to someone popping up with an incredible goal out of absolutely nowhere, Rematch constantly reminded me of my childhood and the countless hours spent playing football. When I was at school, I would forego food just so I could play for the entire hour-long lunchtime; when I was off school, I would inevitably get together with friends and head down to the local park, using jumpers as makeshift goalposts. Other games have done this kind of five-a-side style of football before, but none have come as close as Rematch does to capturing the essence of my footballing heyday.

Rather than taking control of an entire team, Rematch puts you in the boots of a single player in 3v3, 4v4, and 5v5 matches. There's a short prologue and some training minigames to play on your own, but beyond this you're always playing with and against other human players. Each match lasts six minutes, and there's a mercy rule that immediately ends the game after one team has taken a four-goal lead (I guess Slocap never saw Newcastle vs. Arsenal circa 2011). The only stoppages occur when a team scores; otherwise, Rematch plays fast and loose with the rules. There are no fouls, offsides, or handballs, and throw-ins, corners, and goal kicks are nonexistent due to the pitch being surrounded on all four sides by giant transparent walls. This quickly establishes a chaotic pace. Sometimes it's messy, while other times you feel like Messi. There's also no progression or skill points to help improve your player's attributes. Everyone is on a level playing field, so only the most skillful will rise to the top.

Gallery

There's a fairly steep learning curve to overcome in Rematch. Part of this derives from its tactile, physics-based design, which, among other things, prevents the ball from sticking to your feet when sprinting down the field. Another part is related to the game's perspective. In EA Sports FC, for instance, there's a camera option that follows closely behind your player in either Pro Clubs or its player career mode. I've never known anyone to actually use this view, though, as being able to see the full pitch from the classic sideline angle is much more effective. Rematch doesn't give you this option. You have full camera control, similar to most third-person games, but it's always positioned just behind your player, placing you directly in the thick of the action. The presence of a mini-map ensures that you don't need to have your head on a swivel like a Premier League midfielder, but it's still an uncommon way of playing a football game. Couple this with an enclosed playing field and futuristic stadiums, and there's more than a little Rocket League about Rematch. If Rocket League is football with cars, then Rematch is Rocket League without them.

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Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection for Nintendo Switch

$32 at Woot / $39 at Amazon / $34 at Walmart

See at Woot See at Amazon See at Walmart Get PC deal at GMG

Woot has restocked the physical edition of Yu-Gi Oh Early Days Collection for $32 (was $50). This Nintendo Switch deal has already sold out once, so fans may want to snag this one sooner rather than later. You can make your purchase with your Amazon account and Prime members get free shipping. Amazon and Walmart also have deals on the recently released retro compilation, but the prices aren't quite as low.

The Early Days Collection launched on February 27 exclusively for Nintendo Switch and PC. It comes with 14 Game Boy, GBC, and GBA games that originally released from 1998 to 2003. The Switch-exclusive physical edition also comes with a Secret Rare Yu-Gi-Oh trading card. Though you'll miss out on the free card, you can get a Steam key for $39 (was $50) at Green Man Gaming.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection for Nintendo Switch $32 at Woot / $39 at Amazon / $34 at Walmart

Each launch-edition physical copy includes one of two Quarter Century Secret Rare Harpie's Feather Duster cards.

Here's the full list of games, all of which originally released on Game Boy (GB), Game Boy Color (GBC), or Game Boy Advance (GBA). Five of the 14 games in the Early Days Collection were previously only available in Japan.

• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters (1998, GB) - New
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 2: Dark Duel Stories (1999, GBC) - New
• Yu-Gi-Oh Monster Capsule GB (2000, GBC) - New
• Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories (2000, GBC)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 4: Battle of Great Duelists (2000, GBC) - New
• Yu-Gi-Oh Dungeon Dice Monsters (2001, GBA)
• Yu-Gi-Oh The Eternal Duelist Soul (2001, GBA)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters 6: Expert 2 (2001, GBA) - New
• Yu-Gi-Oh The Sacred Cards (2002, GBA)
• Yu-Gi-Oh Reshef of Destruction (2003, GBA)
• Yu-Gi Oh Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel (2003, GBA)

Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters was the franchise's first big hit and the only entry to release on original Game Boy. The series really hit its stride on Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance in the early 2000s. Remarkably, all 14 games were released within a five-year window from 1998 to 2003.

Even more remarkably, that's not even all of the Yu-Gi-Oh games that released during that time. The Early Days Collection contains the first 14 Yu-Gi-Oh handheld games, but Konami also developed several console for PlayStation, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 in the late '90s and early 2000s.

See at Woot See at Amazon See at Walmart Yu-Gi-Oh! anime Steelbook Editions

If you're looking forward to the Early Days Collection, you can bide the time with a couple of recent Yu-Gi-Oh anime Blu-ray releases. The original Yu-Gi-Oh movie received a steelbook edition last September, and Amazon has it marked down from $30 to $22.49. In December, Yu-Gi-Oh Bonds Beyond Time also received the steelbook treatment. Amazon has an even better deal on this one, as you can grab the $30 release for only $19.50.

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Death Stranding was visually arresting when it launched on PS4, taking Guerrilla's Decima Engine and applying it in ways not explored by the studio's Horizon series. With the sequel, Kojima Productions has yet again delivered a game that pushes boundaries visually, with some key enhancements on some of the engine's improvements we've already seen in Horizon Forbidden West.

Death Stranding 2 crams a lot of detail into its gorgeously sparse open world, with Digital Foundry noting how high the image quality is and how far details stretch out before having to taper off to keep performance in check. It makes static images of Death Stranding 2 look pristine and almost life-like, with that illusion maintained in motion. Digital Foundry notes how impressive the various weather effects in the game are, with specific mention of how water physics have been improved on over Horizon's implementation to account for more dynamic behavior for gameplay purposes. You can watch the full technical breakdown below.

In testing, Death Stranding 2 sticks to its two performance targets, staying locked to either 30 or 60 frames per second depending on the mode you chose on PS5 or PS5 Pro. Better yet, choosing performance mode on either console runs the game inside a 120Hz container on supported displays, offering more responsive inputs in tandem with the dependable performance.

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Call of Duty's next licensed DLC operators have been announced, and they are none other than Beavis and Butt-Head from the popular '90s animated show created by Mike Judge.

The pair are being added to Black Ops 6 and Warzone as part of the upcoming Season 4 Reloaded update. Based on the current in-game countdown timer, Season 4 Reloaded should begin on June 26, but that doesn't necessarily mean Beavis and Butt-Head will be available right at launch.

Based on the imagery below, Beavis and Butt-Head are strapping on military gear for their appearance in Call of Duty. However, there is no word yet on further specifics like voice lines, finishing moves, and other items that will presumably be included in the DLC bundle. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

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More Battlefield footage continues to emerge online ahead of the new game's official reveal. This alleged leak suggests a first look at the game's single-player campaign, as it shows off in-development footage of a campaign mission.

The most recent game, Battlefield 2042, didn't feature a campaign. If this leak is legitimate, it shows off DICE's progress on the campaign for this next release. As shown below, the shared footage seemingly comes from DICE's playtest known as Battlefield Labs, and the video features "work-in-progress" footage from a campaign-mission ending centered around destroying a dam in Tajikistan.

Here's a short clip from the Battlefield 6 singleplayer campaign in the latest BF Labs update.
This work-in-progress footage shows the explosive finale of a mission to destroy a dam in Tajikistan. pic.twitter.com/n9ikBpUrmQ

— temporyal (@temporyal) June 19, 2025

Previously, a video surfaced that showed some tank-vs-tank mayhem, which gave classic Battlefield vibes with tank warfare and engineers stopping to repair one player's tank. The leaked footage has since been removed.

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Star Wars Battlefront 2 continues to reach new heights on Steam, as the game has once again broken its concurrent-player record.

On June 23, Battlefront 2 saw 35,892 concurrent players according to SteamDB, marking a new peak. That number is no doubt in part thanks to the fact that Battlefront 2 is currently on sale for $4 and is one of Steam's top-selling games. The game is also available on Xbox and PlayStation consoles, though Battlefront 2 doesn't support cross-play between platforms.

Battlefront 2 has been steadily working its way up Steam's most-played games list since early May, when the game first began to climb from its usual player counts of around 1,000-1,500 in April to 5,000 concurrent players and beyond. In late May, Battlefront 2 broke its previous concurrent-player record on Valve's platform and later peaked at nearly 19,000. Those player counts then dipped back down below 10,000 in subsequent weeks, only to skyrocket once more in the past few days to even higher heights.

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The Nintendo Switch 2 is the first piece of hardware that Nintendo has launched with support for HDR, and its implementation thus far has been a little mixed. Outside of the screen that isn't equipped to get the best out of high dynamic range content, the settings for the HDR output via the dock are confusing, making it challenging to get a good picture to your much more capable display.

The good news is that with some time since launch, a lot of these frustrations have been deciphered into raw numbers that let you calibrate the Switch 2 perfectly for your display. HDTVTest has published a guide for how to set up your Nintendo Switch 2 with a range of displays, from LG and Samsung's OLED TVs, a variety of OLED monitors, and even some brands that aren't yet supporting HGIG, which is a critical dynamic tone mapping setting that the Switch 2 seems designed with in mind.

The issue with the system-level settings menu is that it's not clear about what it's changing in the background. Outside of its sun test pattern not working correctly without HGIG enabled (which makes calibration on displays without it a bit of guesswork still), each click upwards or downwards changings a nit setting in the background. The total value that you land on is then used to determine how many nits each notch raises the console's white point in the screen that comes afterwards, making it impossible to set it between the desired 200-250 paper white value usually attributed to accurate HDR presentation.

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Batman: Arkham Knight is celebrating its 10-year anniversary today, June 23, 2015. Below, we look at how it raised the bar for not only superhero games, but for the third act in video game trilogies.

There's an old adage that good things come in threes, and that's an idea that applies perfectly to Batman: Arkham Knight. Rocksteady's final chapter in its Caped Crusader saga turned 10 years old this week, and it's still a masterpiece of superhero action that has stood the test of time. There's a lot to love about the game, from its dark storyline to its shocking twists--the Arkham Knight was a red hood herring--and more, but the lasting legacy of the game is that it solved the problem of video game trilogies a decade ago.

Here’s a familiar scenario: You fire up the third game in a beloved series, ready to be wowed. It’s good. You're having fun. But you can’t shake the feeling that you’ve done it all before. "More of the same" is a common criticism against video game trilogies' final chapters--but it's one Arkham Knight skillfully sidestepped.

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The veil shrouding World of Warcraft's upcoming Midnight expansion is set to be lifted at Gamescom 2025, with Blizzard confirming news and updates at the show about the next chapter in the game's Worldsoul Saga trilogy.

Blizzard announced fans can expect "exclusive news and updates" about Midnight "directly from the development team, along with a few additional surprises" during the five-day show in Cologne, Germany that runs August 20-24.

It isn't much to go on, but Blizzard has in recent years used Gamescom for major announcements. Blizzard revealed the release date for the game's current The War Within expansion at Gamescom 2024 as part of an Xbox showcase, for example. While it's still unclear if Midnight will be released this year, it wouldn't be surprising if Blizzard gave it a definitive release date at the show.

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Xbox's June update is here, and a new feature for Insiders on the Xbox PC app allows them to have one "aggregated game library" through the Xbox app.

What that means is that the Xbox PC app can now look at other storefronts and launchers that players have games on and let players launch them without having to leave the Xbox app. Essentially, it's a play to get people to not leave the Xbox app whenver they want to play games on PC. The Xbox Wire post revealing this feature is also not subtle about the fact that the aggregated gaming library will appear on the ROG Xbox Ally gaming handhelds releasing later this year.

While it's currently in testing, this feature is currently expected to be widely available by the time the Rog Xbox Ally launches later this year.

Right now, Microsoft directly lists aggregation support for the Xbox PC app, Game Pass, and Battle.net gaming libraries. Microsoft is committing to "rolling out support for additional PC storefronts over time," though, so the expectation is that launchers like Steam and Epic Games Store are eventually aggregated into the Xbox PC app as well.

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It's been almost 25 years since the classic comedy Meet the Parents premiered in 2000, and now a fourth entry in the series is planned to release in 2026. If you want to revisit the film ahead of its upcoming sequel, you're in luck, as a new Meet the Parents 4K Blu-ray edition launches on August 12. Preorders are available at various retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, and Target, but pricing differs between them. Walmart currently has the best price at $25, though we’re sure other retailers will price match ahead of release. Preordering makes you eligible for any discounts between now and August 12, and you won’t be charged until the item ships.

Meet the Parents 4K Blu-ray $25 | Releases August 12

Along with a 4K Blu-ray version of the movie with Dolby Atmos spatial audio and Dolby Vision HDR support, this release also includes standard Blu-ray and digital formats of the film. This new 4K Blu-ray version also includes many of the behind-the-scenes content, outtakes, and audio commentaries from previous Meet the Parents home video releases, which we've listed below.

Preorder at Amazon Preorder at Walmart Preorder at Target Meet The Parents 4K Blu-ray Bonus Features

The Meet The Parents 4K Blu-ray includes the following bonus features. Note that these are presented in 1080p instead of 4K.

• Spotlight on Location
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes
• De Niro Unplugged
• The Truth About Lying
• Silly Cat Tricks
• Jay Roach: A Director’s Profile
• Feature Commentaries with Cast and Crew

Meet the Parents stars Ben Stiller as Greg Focker, a young man who plans to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), but decides to get the blessing of her father, Jack (Robert De Niro), during a multi-day family gathering. Unfortunately, first impressions don't go well, and the weekend slowly spirals out of control as Greg fumbles his attempts to win over Jack. It was followed up with two sequels, Meet the Fockers in 2004 and Little Fockers in 2010. A fourth entry is in development and is planned to premiere in 2026.

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The layoff process has begun at MindsEye developer Build A Rocket Boy, according to a new report. This follows an absolutely disastrous launch for the studio's first title, which is currently the worst-reviewed game of 2025.

A source at Build a Rocket Boy told IGN that the company has begun the 45-day consultation process required by UK law prior to layoffs. A specific number of affected developers has not been revealed, but IGN points out that the UK law in question only applies when an employer is going to make 100 or more redundancies at their company within a 90-day period. IGN estimates that Build a Rocket Boy has around 500 employees worldwide, with 300 of them in the UK. Build a Rocket Boy has not publicly commented on the layoffs yet.

Build a Rocket Boy is a studio founded by Leslie Benzies, a former Rockstar Games producer and executive who left the studio between the launches of Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Benzies founded Build a Rocket Boy and announced a Metaverse-like project called Everywhere in 2021. Ultimately, MindsEye was the first game to be released by the studio. It's a sci-fi narrative-driven third-person shooter, but was also meant to have a tail of live-service support that would allow both the developers and players to create new content for MindsEye.

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Deus Ex is celebrating its 25-year anniversary today, June 23, 2025. Below, we chat with designer Steve Powers about how he created one of the most franchise's most iconic stages.

Steve Powers has never visited Hong Kong, but he’s been there in his dreams.

As a designer on the original Deus Ex, he walked the city’s in-game streets every day for more than two years. Development was, he says, "a bit of a haze" of hard work and at least once, when he closed his eyes at night, he saw those virtual canals and neon-lit alleys: those sides of meat hanging in the market and the fog draping a temple in the city center.

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It looks like buildcrafting is going to be a major feature in Borderlands 4, as Gearbox claims that the game has more skills per character than the previous two main games put together. At Borderlands Fan Fest, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and chief creative officer Randy Varnell were on stage to reveal more details about the game, following the debut of a new story trailer that put the spotlight on the sinister Timekeeper.

"You'll find more skills per character than in Borderlands 3 and 2 added together, it's a lot of complexity and depth per character," Pitchford said. "We're working late on Fridays for you," he added.

According to Varnell, the skill trees are so varied that players could take the same character and action skill into a fight and still be able to fulfill different roles in a firefight. This is a big departure from Borderlands 3, where action skills were generally tied to certain playstyles and didn't offer much room for improvisation.

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Ashly Burch, a prolific voice actor known for voicing Aloy in the Horizon video game series, has commented on the role of artificial intelligence in gaming after criticizing a leaked video that showed an AI-powered Aloy. Speaking to Eurogamer, Burch said she believes AI can be a "great thing" for developers to help make their jobs easier, but she is urging caution when it comes to AI and performers.

"I think that AI as a tool to make things easier on devs would be a great thing. Like, I think I've heard someone say before something like, 'Oh, if we used artificial intelligence to help with clean up between the mo-cap stage and importing it into the actual game engine, that could be amazing,'" she said. "So, things that help streamline the development process [and] help make people's jobs easier, I think is great."

For a performer like herself, Burch said she would "really have to know" how a developer would implement protections to ensure an AI-powered version of a character she played wouldn't say "something awful." This is coming up after Epic used AI to create an AI version of Darth Vader, with players able to communicate with him and have him speak all kinds of phrases in the voice of the late James Earl Jones.

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The latest Black Ops 7 teaser comes from an old YouTube channel that longtime fans will remember from Black Ops 2's marketing campaign. The video is only a 14-second teaser, but it's already creating some speculation about Black Ops 7's storyline.

Twelve years ago, Treyarch and Activision used an entirely separate YouTube channel from the official Call of Duty account to help promote Black Ops 2. Using the "Cordis Die" channel, a brief seven-second clip was posted, which featured a short message from the game's main antagonist, Raul Menendez. The video was titled "New World," and while the screen remained black, there was one line of audio. "Come my friends; it's not too late to seek a New World," Menendez said.

This was the only video ever shared on the Cordis Die YouTube channel until a few days ago. On June 20, a second video titled "The Lesson" was posted, and this new teaser features a man standing in front of several TV screens. While we only see the character from the back, it's presumed to be Raul Menendez with a new message. "2025 was just the beginning. A necessary first step. Once again, you shall know fear," Menendez says.

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Splitgate developer 1047 Games has announced a "small" round of layoffs at the studio following Splitgate 2's big launch earlier this month. As part of the staff reduction, co-founders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian are forgoing salaries for the time being, the company announced in a LinkedIn post.

"We're still perfecting the Splitgate 2 gameplay experience in response to community feedback, and we are redirecting resources to build the best game for our players," the developer said. "We are sad to see our teammates go, and we are actively working to help them secure new opportunities."

Proulx and Bagamian are forgoing salaries as the studio said it plans to "lock in to deliver the next phase of the project."

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Deltarune Chapter 5 is set to be released sometime in 2026, according to a message at the end of Chapter 4.

As spotted by IGN, beating Deltarune Chapter 4 grants players with a message that reads, "To be continued in Chapter 5. 2026." Considering developer Toby Fox went as far as to put this message in the game itself, that's a pretty firm release window for the next chapter in a saga that has been ongoing for quite a while.

Deltarune is Toby Fox's spiritual successor to Undertale, a massive indie hit that released in 2015. While Undertale was released all at once, Deltarune has been slowly been released through individual chapters, with in-game menus suggesting there will be seven chapters overall. These chapters have released at an inconsistent pace, however.

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