You sometimes don't realize how much of game design is centered around expectations until they get messed with. For those of a certain age, there's nothing more expected than the basics of how a 2D platformer and its level design work. Level Devil knows this, and it's happy to give you and your expectations a giant middle finger with each and every level.

That might sound like a recipe for frustration, but instead my time with the game has been nothing if not consistently hilarious and delightful. Despite being someone who often finds the potential for lost progress in souls-likes to be off-putting, failing a level in Level Devil and incurring a similar level of setback elicits a hearty chuckle from me rather than an exasperated sigh.

Level Devil is a game that is deliberately trying to mess with you, and it's going to succeed more often than not. The creativity of the ways in which it does so makes for a consistent joy throughout--it's nothing if not spiteful.

Another month and GSC Game World has delivered another massive update to Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Patch 1.3 for the open-world survival shooter introduces more than 1,200 changes, touching on almost every aspect of the game--including smoother monster movements, additional death screens, and fixing NPCs blocking player movement.

On the Stalker subreddit, Stalker 2 players seemed especially excited to discover that the Saiga D-12 shotgun's drum magazine can now be discovered outside the endgame. Another point of emphasis for GSC Game World was addressing main storyline bugs, which hopefully will stop people from getting stuck in the game.

Stalker 2's massive 1.2 patch focused on game-breaking bugs last month, too. So in back-to-back months, the studio has introduced 2,900 changes for the survival shooter. That's not all, either. In December, Stalker 2's first major patch featured over 1,800 bug fixes.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabian-owned mobile developer Scopely confirmed that it's buying the gaming division of Niantic, the developer behind Pokemon Go and other hit mobile games. It was a $3.5 billion deal, and one of the largest gaming buyouts in history. But for any fans who are worried about Scopely imposing certain unwanted changes on Pokemon Go, the game's senior director, Michael Steranka, wants to assure them that won't be the case.

While speaking with Polygon, Steranka indicated that he's spent months talking with Scopely's team, and he related that they don't want to rock the boat of Pokemon Go's success. For example, he indicated that Steranka won't shift the game from a free-to-play model, or force intrusive ads into the experience.

"[Intrusive ads are] not happening in Pokemon Go--not now, not ever," said Steranka. "Again, Scopely really recognizes how unique this game is, and they've told us themselves that they would be foolish to try to change the recipe of what's made this such a huge hit and a success. So yeah, absolutely not. We will not be building into our games any type of obtrusive ads or anything like that. I just really want to reiterate Scopely as a company, the way that they operate is they give all of their teams the agency to make the decisions that’s right for their games. And that is not something that we feel would ever be right for Pokemon Go."

The life-sim game InZoi is coming this month, and the game's developer has finally confirmed additional key details, including the price of the game at launch.

Game director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim said during the InZoi global showcase that the game will debut on Steam in early access for $40, according to PC Gamer. He said the game still has "a lot to improve on," which is part of the reason why it's launching in early access.

Kjun also confirmed that InZoi will receive four free updates throughout 2025, while smaller updates will add things like new outfits and furniture--the plan is for these smaller updates to come at a pace of every three months. However, the final plan is not finalized and things could change, he said.

Fallout 76 Season 20: Glow of the Ghoul is live with a massive update that lets players finally become a ghoul. The ghoul-themed season also includes a questline, a new landmark, and more.

Bethesda released a new trailer for the update, which can be viewed below, and it shows off a character's transformation from smooth skin to ghoul. It even highlights some of the options players can choose to make their ghoul unique in the game's character customization.

Players can transform their characters into ghouls as early as level 50. They'll be able to collect and equip 30 new ghoul-specific perk cards, giving new ways to build out characters and suit unique playstyles.