We're closing in on the 20th anniversary of Peggle, and since then, nothing has come quite as close to matching the pure, joyous sensory overload of Popcap's little peg-clearing masterpiece. Can Hyperdrop fill that gap for juggling skill and luck to clear stages? Maybe!

Coming soon to PC, Hyperdrop is the debut game from developer Dark Dark Goose and publisher Devolver Digital is billed as a pachinko roguelite. The setup is deviously simple, as you're tasked with turning an empty pegboard into an unstoppable scoring machine. You'll be able to do just that by upgrading pegs, allowing you to activate physics-defying gravity wells, explosions, and multiball buffs whenever they're struck.

You can also upgrade your balls, making them bigger and filled with volatile energy. You can take things a step further by making them sticky or extra-bouncy, or you can use unique balls that have different properties and physics behaviors--please stop giggling. Like any good roguelite, you can expect to fail upward until you achieve that perfect run, harmoniously combining upgrades and buffs as you bounce around the stage. Once you've finished a level, you can take on increasingly difficult stages, face off in boss battles, and tinker with your builds.

https://youtu.be/lucjM70_d4c

The other big influence that you might have noticed--visually, at least--is Geometry Wars. If you're a fan of that particular aesthetic, Hyperdrop has plenty of neon-soaked visuals for your eyes to absorb. You can try out a demo for the game right now on Steam, and if you're a fan of this genre, then you can also check out all the other related games as part of Steam Pins and Pegs Fest. Like its other themed Fests, there'll be discounts on games that incorporate pins and pegs into the design. Steam Pins and Pegs Fest is now live and runs through August 20.

Hyperdrop isn't the only game in recent memory to address the Peggle-shaped gap in the market. Other titles include Peglin, which remixes Peggle with Slay the Spire-inspired gameplay, and Roundguard, which is a pretty fun bouncy dungeon-crawler. Both of these games are on sale during Steam Pins and Pegs Fest, so you can score a pretty good deal on these Peggle successors.

Mistfall Hunter has been out for almost three weeks now, with the extraction brawler launching on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on July 29. Dating back to even its open beta, the community has been begging developer Bellring Games for one addition: a dedicated mode for teams of two.

All over the game's official subreddit are posts from players asking that the developer include a duos mode.

"I need duos," Redditor broman510 titled an August 11 post. "In this, duos vs trios seems so hard and almost impossible; most of the time [one] of us is getting jumped by 2 and poked down by one."

"We need duos," Matta114 posted on August 17. "I don't care if the game is balanced for trios. I'll take unbalanced duos over trios with some random 3rd dude that runs the opposite direction every game."

"Upvote for duos," wrote PuwudleRS in an August 8 post that generated 1.3 upvotes. "I am addicted to this game, but I CRAVE the duo experience this game has to offer. Please devs, I am begging with my life."

The common complaint from the community is that duos would allow friends more flexibility when playing together. Not everyone has two other people online at the same time and willing to play the same game. You can queue into trios, but you and your bestie will get a random third fill-in--and randoms are oftentimes unpredictable and unreliable.

"Between the lack of comms from randoms, to people flaking out in fights and leaving their teammates die, to the ******* stealing all the loot (especially if the third is a melee and they can grab the bodies first)," Redditor kennypeace wrote on August 5. "The amount of times I've died, watching someone loot a dead player, whilst their teammates are fighting for their lives, is unbearable. [Three] stack is miserable at the moment, and I'm not even gonna mention the bloody lag (in Europe, hope you Americans are faring better over there) that may be helped by lowering the team count."

Unfortunately, the community's call may never be answered. Back in March 2026, developer Bellring Games took to X to share that it currently has "no plans" to add a duos mode to Mistfall Hunter. Even though the studio knows it's a "highly requested feature," duos would impact the game's matchmaking efficiency.

"More importantly, it would exacerbate balance issues," Bellring Games said. "It is difficult to ensure balanced gameplay for duos while also maintaining balance for trio and solo modes. For now, we are prioritizing other areas of development."

Redditors have called for users to "make a suggestion for duo queues" in the Discord, and now the support-hub server is rife with users begging the team to add duos. Aside from the official statement posted on X, Bellring Games hasn't said anything else regarding a duos mode. It appears this tug-of-war will probably go on for a while.

At least Mistfall Hunter is a cool experience, a fascinating amalgam of souls-like combat and extraction shooter elements to create something of an extraction brawler. It's made me a believer in extraction games as a whole.

Sony is flexing its video game muscle with a new "It Happens On PS5" ad campaign, and the one-minute video features arguably the most anticipated title ever: Grand Theft Auto VI. Now, to be clear, there are only snippets of old footage for the open-world experience. But you should know by now that won't stop the internet from poring over every single little detail.

For example, the X account DriftRespawn notes that letterboxing has been removed in the new PS5 promo from a clip where Jason Duval is hanging on to the back of a convertible, with Lucia driving the car. This scene first appeared in GTA 6's Trailer 2 from May 2025. The "It Happens On PS5" video is full screen instead of having black horizontal bars at the top and bottom. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6Su0IfHRms

That's not all, either. The scene does seem lighter in the PS5 ad, and Lucia's face has a few minor differences. Her eyebrows are less pronounced and her hair color appears browner, though this might be because of the changed lighting in general. 

It's important to keep in mind that video games change as development proceeds, so these tiny differences could just be part of that process for GTA 6. We shouldn't be shocked to find out about other alterations when the GTA 6 "Extended Look" trailer hits Netflix on August 27, either.

We're now fewer than 100 days away from GTA 6, and the hype train shows no signs of slowing down.. GTA 6 won't arrive on a disc, and Sony is killing disc production in 2028--which has caused a major backlash, at least on social media. However, it doesn't seem to be impacting GTA 6 preorders. 

Last but not least, it's not just GTA 6 in the new PS5 commercial. Marvel's Wolverine and God of War Laufey also get some of the spotlight. Meanwhile, GTA 6 is set to launch November 19.

GTA 6: 241 Screenshots To Ease The Wait View Images

After Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, one of the first things people theorized was that the company would have one of Activision's numerous Call of Duty studios work on Halo. That already happened, according to a new report, and though it hasn't led to anything yet, that could change down the road.

According to Rebs Gaming, who has accurately reported on unannounced Halo news before, Microsoft enlisted Sledgehammer Games to help develop a Halo multiplayer game.

Halo Infinite

Sledgehammer reportedly began work on a prototype in June of this year, but whatever this was ended up getting canceled in July--only basic gameplay elements like player movement were said to have been tested.

That doesn't mean the idea of a Call of Duty studio working on a Halo game is gone forever, however. The report said, "Microsoft is still exploring the proposition, but they have not greenlit anything yet."

In July, Windows Central reporter Jez Corden said he heard a "crazy rumor" that Microsoft "might put Halo under Activision." He said this wasn't a sure thing, but it could be part of a larger restructuring to help Halo "start delivering on the level of potential that it actually has."

The Halo series has fallen from its heights, with many fans saying the series, under Halo Studios, has been unable to achieve the same critical and commercial success as it did under Bungie. The latest game in the main series, Halo Infinite, was a disappointment to many.

The latest remaster of the original Halo game, this July's Halo: Campaign Evolved, didn't resonate with everyone, either, and the lack of multiplayer support cofounded many, including the franchise's co-creator. Campaign Evolved didn't get off to the best sales start, either, it appears.

No new Halo games have been announced, but Halo Studios is said to be working on a new Halo multiplayer game that is "like Fortnite" in terms of its live-service approach.

It appears Sony is preparing to remove an entire studio's library from the PlayStation Store after August 23, according to Ukrainian developer Ternox Games.

The developer behind Stonks-9800, a stock market sim with an '80s vibe, took to X on August 16 to reveal the news. Ternox Games stated that, without any reason, their contract with Sony was "unilaterally terminated" and all of their games will be pulled soon. And now, Stonks-9800--which has been in Steam Early Access since July 2023 and has an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on the platform--will no longer make its way to PS5 as a result of this termination.

https://twitter.com/Taimumari/status/2089021552012525708

"Sony PlayStation unilaterally terminated my PlayStation developer and publisher agreement without giving me any reason," the developer wrote. "My existing games are scheduled to be removed from the PlayStation Store after August 23."

In a follow-up X post, Ternox Games said PlayStation Support "refuses to listen to my arguments or even respond to my emails in any way." As a result, Stonks-9800 is no longer launching on PlayStation 5, and they will no longer be able to self-publish on PlayStation. 13 games, some of which Ternox Games published, will be pulled after August 23.

"I had hoped to release the PS5 version in 2027 and make a physical disc edition while that was still possible," the studio continued. "Sadly, that will not happen--but I'll do my best to create a physical edition for PC and Switch. I'm really sorry that this happened and that I failed the developers whose games I published. But there's nothing I can do about it now, unfortunately. I still have a tiny bit of hope that this decision will be reconsidered, so please share this message if you can."

It's unclear why this is happening since Ternox Games' titles doesn't appear to fall under the shovelware category. However, due to Sony's "stricter guidelines" on shovelware, and the company's intent to remove as many of these games as possible, some online have suggested that Ternox Games got caught in the crossfire.

Sony has been in hot water lately, especially following the announcement that the company plans to stop producing physical PlayStation discs in January 2028. Under just about every post and video the company puts out are comments from netizens decrying Sony's decision. It's come to the point where over 220,000 people have signed a petition urging the company to change its mind.

The Switch version of the dinosaur-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved is ramping down its online support. Developer Studio Wildcard announced "with wistful hearts" that official servers for the Ark: Survival Evolved and its Ultimate Survivor Edition will shut down on August 31.

The game reached "over a million players" on Switch since the game launched in 2018. The Ultimate Survivor Edition is a remaster made by Grove Street Games.

"We want to thank everyone who has been a part of this journey," the developers said.

Ark's single-player modes and unofficial servers will remain "fully playable" after the official servers go dark on August 31. That's a nice silvering lining, though playing online with other people is one of the game's main appeals.

Unofficial servers will help people keep playing online, but it might not be as easy or the experience as consistent.

Ahead of the shutdown for official servers, Survival Evolved is available for $5 on the eShop, while the Ultimate Survivor Edition is marked down to $12.50. Both games are playable on Nintendo Switch 2 via backward compatibility.

The latest Ark game, Survival Ascended, is not available on Switch, but Studio Wildcard is working on it.

There's no shortage of Star Wars games in development right now, but one game set in a galaxy far (far!) away that you won't be playing is an AAA action-RPG set in that sci-fi series. Developed under the codename Magellan--it's worth noting that Zynga has never officially confirmed this project--the project would have allowed players to pick up a lightsaber and play as a Jedi, or, if they wanted to be cool, a Mandalorian.

According to official development materials seen and uploaded by MP1st, Magellan was in development at Echtra Games, but the studio was shut down last year by its owner, Zynga. NaturalMotion was also assisting on the game's production, which reportedly kicked off in 2021. Some footage shared by a former Echtra Games developer shows off a third-person ARPG with plenty of shoot-and-loot gameplay, featuring two character classes: Jedi and Mandalorian. Jedi have their signature lightsabers and the ability to use the Force, while Mandalorians can use their jetpacks to get around, flamethrowers, and ranged weaponry.

https://bsky.app/profile/mp1st.bsky.social/post/3mta2kmdefc2u

Both classes could use gadgets like electric grenades, and the core gameplay loop seemed to revolve around obtaining "Booster Gear" from enemies and opening reward chests. An "NPC Bond System" would also have allowed players to build relationships with NPCs when they weren't fighting Stormtroopers and droids. Magellan was originally targeting a PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S release, but work on the project ceased, and Magellan joined a long list of canceled Star Wars games, like Star Wars 1313, Visceral's Project Ragtag, and a Republic Commando sequel.

While Magellan is currently one with the Force, the wait for new Star Wars games is paying off with the release of the XCOM-like Zero Company on August 27 and Star Wars: Galactic Racer on October 6. This year's D23 also had plenty of reveals for the wider Star Wars franchise, including a new look at Ahsoka's second season, the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter movie starring Ryan Gosling, and the recent release of The Ninth Jedi, a standalone spinoff of the Star Wars: Visions anthology.

The Best Star Wars Games Of All Time View Images

Over the weekend, Disney's D23 expo not only revealed that Kingdom Hearts 4 will feature Pixar's Coco, but also that the action-RPG is set to arrive in late 2027. Now, it's been a long time since we've seen a new mainline installment in the Square Enix series--already over seven years at this point. So people are expressing skepticism about the release window, but franchise co-creator Tetsuya Nomura is promising Kingdom Hearts 4 will come out next year.

VGC reports that Nomura, who's co-directing Kingdom Hearts 4, appeared on stage Saturday at D23 to discuss the new title. "We announced that the game is going to be coming late 2027, and I saw online that some people were saying, 'Oh, you know, maybe the actual release date might still get pushed back,'" Nomura said through a translator. "I just wanted to set the record straight: That is not happening."

Along with the release window, the world of Coco looks to have a major presence in Kingdom Hearts 4. In fact, Sora is even seen fighting alongside Hector in the new trailer for the RPG (seen above). It was also confirmed that Donald and Goofy will be playable characters for the first time ever in the franchise.

Kingdom Hearts 4 was originally announced over four years ago for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, during the franchise's 20th anniversary in 2022. In June, the game was announced for Switch 2. Kingdom Hearts is one of Disney's nine gaming franchises to generate over $1 billion. Hilariously enough, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner has no memory of giving the first game his approval almost a quarter of a century ago.

The Best Way To Play Kingdom Hearts View Images

Disney invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic Games to help create synergies between Fortnite and the company's lucrative theme park business, and now how that integration works is coming to light.

As revealed at Disney's D23 event this weekend, Fortnite is integrating with the Smuggler's Run ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. For anyone just catching up, Smugglers Run is an interactive motion simulator attraction that has six people piling into the Millennium Falcon as they work together to collect crates for the fan-favorite pirate, Hondo. With this new Fortnite collaboration, those crates will now unlock content in the game.

Here's how it works.

Connected to this, Fortnite is adding a new Fortnite island called Smugglers Gambit, which takes place around Mersa Veta Station on the planet Ord Ryla.

"You’ll team up with friends, take on co-op missions, battle pirates and Imperial remnants, encounter dangerous wildlife, unlock new gear, and build your reputation across the Outer Rim," reads a line from the description. "And because this is Hondo we’re talking about, there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wonderfully right… or spectacularly wrong."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7__yYz8kg4o

People need to connect their Epic Games and MyDisney accounts for this to work. This integration is already live, having launched on Sunday, August 16 at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. One of the first perks is the Forsworn Trooper Outfit, which you can see in the image above.

Disney's CEO, Josh D'Amaro, is a big believer in video games and was personally spearheading the company's investment and collaboration with Epic Games. Beyond this new partnership, D'Amaro has said one day people may be able to buy Disney Cruise Line tickets inside Fortnite or watch a Disney movie.

Additionally, Disney is said to be working on an Arc Raiders-style game to be released in Fortnite.

Marvel's Wolverine looks like it could be a major highlight of a stacked September, but if you look online, many people are already calling the game dead on arrival for a number of reasons. One of the primary complaints stems from Marvel's Wolverine being a linear single-player action game instead of an open-world one like Marvel's Spider-Man 2--which ironically, was chided for being just that prior to release by people online who claimed to have open-world fatigue.

That's hardly surprising, given how platforms like X literally pay users for manufacturing drama that, in turn, drives engagement. Insomniac's community and marketing director, James Stevenson, has called out the toxic nature of these websites, and how they reinforce negativity loops.

"I think the wild way this algorithm amplifies and forces negativity upon you has me reconsidering my philosophy on telling devs to look or post here," Stevenson wrote. "It's a relentless onslaught that I cannot believe is good for anyone's mental health nor representative."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i247qa_YL_A

Stevenson also pointed out that X was flooding his feed with negative content, which he attributed to the site's algorithm. A recent study by the University of Toronto found that X's recommendation algorithms heavily favor high-engagement content, inflammatory political posts, and polarizing posts, something a number of users have become experts at generating. The more engagement they create, the better their odds of generating revenue through the monetization of their profile via the Original Content Rewards Program. It's similar to the seedier side of YouTube, where engagement-baiting thumbnails and bad-faith takes are explored through various videos.

Insomniac was also on the receiving end of toxicity back when X was known as Twitter, as prior to the release of Marvel's Spider-Man, Reddit users claimed one shot of the game included fewer puddles than were shown in the same scene at E3 2018. Insomniac would later poke fun at "Puddlegate" with an update that allowed players to add as many puddles as they could ask for via stickers in the game's photo mode.

It's also not too surprising to see Marvel's Wolverine caught up in online toxicity, as just about anything related to PlayStation has become a focal point for people to vent their frustrations at following Sony's decision to end disc production in 2028. As other replies have pointed out, online hate-- manufactured or genuine--doesn't equate to real life, and the best option might be to just ignore the haters, not exactly easy when you're trying to find constructive and thoughtful criticism from players instead of a social media dogpile for various flimsy reasons. 

Marvel's Wolverine launches on September 15 for PS5, and so far, early previews suggest that it'll be a rock-solid entry in Insomniac's library of superhero games. "It's undeniable that Insomniac's take on Logan is firmly planted in familiar game design, but Wolverine is clearly doing more than just fitting a typical story of the character in it," managing editor Tamoor Hussain wrote in GameSpot’s Wolverine preview.

Sony also announced a limited-edition Marvel’s Wolverine PS5 bundle, console covers, and a new DualSense controller inspired by the game, which will be available to preorder soon.

Mortal Shell 2 features most of the familiar hallmarks of the souls-like genre: It's set in a dark fantasy world and incorporates gothic, medieval, and otherworldly themes into its aesthetic. Its combat is deep, challenging, satisfyingly hard-hitting, and will punish you for being overzealous. There are bonfires (called beacons) where you can rest and recover lost health at the expense of respawning enemies, and you also drop the level-up currency each time you die, forcing you to retrieve it in the next life or lose it completely. 

On the surface, Mortal Shell 2 might sound like your standard run-of-the-mill souls-like–quite possibly too derivative for its own good–yet developer Cold Symmetry's sequel is more than just a safe and simple copycat. It manages to stand out in an overcrowded genre by taking familiar aspects and transforming them in a multitude of meaningful ways. 

As someone who quickly bounced off the first game, I came into Mortal Shell 2 with no expectations and was left constantly thrilled by its unique approach, which essentially deconstructs core elements of the souls-like experience to make them feel fresh and exciting.

The most immediately obvious of these is the absence of a stamina meter. You're free to attack and dodge as many times as you want without needing to stop, catch your breath, and wait for a meter to replenish. This gives Mortal Shell 2's combat an aggressive cadence, whether you're on the attack or defending for your life. Rather than backing off after avoiding a flurry of enemy attacks, you can instantly launch into a barrage of offensive strikes yourself, or carve through weaker enemy mobs without gasping for air halfway through. 

This doesn't mean it's a mindless hack-and-slasher either. You can't cancel out of any attack animations, so each forward strike needs to be deliberate and considered to avoid overcommitting and leaving yourself wide open, especially when using slower weapons like the Great Martyr's Blade or Obsidian Hammer. 

The decision to forgo stamina makes a dynamic difference and is one of the most notable ways Mortal Shell 2 improves upon its predecessor's combat–which was often marred by gratingly sluggish battles. It's still not particularly fast-paced by any stretch, but the combat animations are much snappier without losing a sense of weight and visceral brutality.

The minutiae of stabbing, slicing, and bashing enemies to death with various melee weapons can best be described as "meaty," creating a satisfying crunch as you cleave through flesh and lop off heads, limbs, and non-human body parts amidst a torrent of crimson rain. It's great stuff, bolstered by a diverse variety of weapons and enemy types. From a large scythe and rangy spear to dual katanas that transform into an axe, each weapon type feels distinct, and there's plenty of joy to be found alternating between light and heavy attacks to fluidly launch into different combos. 

I only wish it were feasible to experiment with more weapons as your growing arsenal gradually expands. By the midway point in the game, I was drowning in upgrade materials but only ever had enough money to fully upgrade a single weapon. It would've been nice to use some of the others beyond just testing them out, but trading a weapon with multiple upgrades for one without any made no sense when I was never going to be able to improve it as much.

You're also equipped with a sidearm, starting out with a short-range shotgun before moving on to more experimental armaments, such as a miniature Gatling gun and a lute that causes enemies to fight amongst themselves after a forceful strum. Each shot costs Resolve, which is replenished by connecting with melee attacks, so sidearms are an intrinsic part of combat, adding to its dynamism with another gratifying way to dismantle enemies. 

Meanwhile, the enemies you'll face come in all shapes and sizes. There are armored knights–wielding either a sword or spear–fleet-footed assassins, religious fanatics, large bearded human skulls that scuttle around on four legs, insect-like creatures with deadly pincers, rock-throwing giants, and everything else in between. 

This variety does plateau a tad during the game's second half, as it introduces more variants of familiar enemies rather than entirely new ones, but there are so many different opponents to fight that repetition rarely rears its ugly head. They're not just visually distinct, either. Each enemy type is meaningfully diverse in how they approach you, typically mixing things up with multiple attack patterns and feints to throw you off. 

While you can always dodge incoming strikes, Mortal Shell 2 also gives you access to a few unique defensive maneuvers to suit different playstyles. The Harden mechanic from the first game returns–letting you calcify to absorb an enemy attack–only now it's tied to a specific Seal. Seals are new items in Mortal Shell 2; you can only equip one at a time, and each one contains what would normally be a standard souls-like mechanic.

Blocking, for instance, is tied to a Seal that also lets you parry, dealing break damage to eventually make them vulnerable to a powerful riposte. Another Seal removes the ability to block but tightens the parry window, introducing greater risk for a greater reward by dishing out more break damage if your timing is perfect.             

This opens up the game's build variety, especially when combined with the titular Mortal Shells. Similar to the first game, you play as a faceless husk known as the Harbinger, a relatively weak entity that has the power to inhabit fallen warriors. There are eight Shells in total, and each one can be found at their character's final resting place, whether that's hunched over and impaled on a greatsword, hastily stuffed into a shallow grave, or displayed in a mausoleum beneath the Royal Keep. 

Every Shell adheres to a rigid character archetype with predetermined stats that can be upgraded but not changed. This might sound restrictive, but it allows for tangible differences in how each Shell plays–especially when factoring in their unique abilities–with variety coming from your choice of weapons, Seals, and Tarstones. 

I mostly played as Eredrim, a knight with the ability to lunge at enemies with a devastating shoulder bash that deals significant break damage. He also has a passive ability aptly named Executioner, allowing you to instantly execute enemies who are at low health. By performing ripostes, this ability also stacks, with each stack raising the low-health threshold at which enemies can be executed. If you like playing on the front foot, Eredrim is particularly satisfying to use, but the other Shells are no less interesting. 

Tiel is a thief who can turn invisible for a short duration, lunging out of the shadows to strike with a dagger. While any Shell can equip the relevant Seal to parry attacks, Tiel excels as a nimble character, with perfectly timed dodges turning you invisible and dealing stagger damage to the enemy. 

Sariel, on the other hand, fires parasitic thorns that hunt down nearby foes, nullifying their next melee attack while also inflicting Pain on Sariel himself. Pain affects your health bar, adding a grey portion that can be lost in a single hit or cured by dishing out melee damage. When Sariel has no Pain, a huge 50% of incoming damage becomes Pain. However, reaching the Pain limit lets you dodge faster, putting you in the role of a masochistic character who excels when it hurts the most.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQXkfdhk7E

Tarstones add another layer to the development of your build, unlocking everything from specific buffs to powerful special attacks. They can be found by exploring the world, completing dungeons, and defeating bosses, so once I had discovered enough, I eventually geared mine towards dishing out as much melee damage as humanly possible. With each Tarstone fully maxed out and upgraded, I increased my critical damage by 100%, raised my critical chance probability to 18%, and was guaranteed a critical hit every five attacks. It's an incredibly flexible system, creating a greater discrepancy between the usual strength or dexterity options and ensuring that build variety remains at the forefront of the game's ethos.

With so many tools at your disposal, Mortal Shell 2 still manages to strike a decent balance with regard to its difficulty. For the most part, it's a challenging game, but one that hits the souls-like sweet spot where it rarely feels unfair. Deaths are typically your own fault, and there's always room to improve, both as a player and by upgrading your character. 

There are a couple of difficulty modifiers you can utilize as well, with a specific Seal making things easier at the cost of disabling Achievements, and another item that lets you increase the difficulty while also opening up a few areas that are otherwise locked. The fact that this isn't just a binary difficulty choice fits the genre, though disabling Achievements feels egregious, even if most of its contemporaries refuse to offer an easier alternative.

The game's default challenge comes saddled with a few caveats, too. While it mostly feels fair, falling to your death is too common for my tastes. The entire open-world map is suspended in the air, so there are numerous areas where you can slip off the map, particularly when a lot of attacks will knock you several feet backward. I can place some of the blame for this misfortune at my own feet, but there were still dozens of situations where toppling off the side of a cliff felt cheap and frustrating. Dying more to fall damage than the game's own bosses is a travesty.

This is partly due to the game's level design and partly because some of the bosses are overly simplistic in their attack patterns. It's a problem that afflicts mini-bosses more frequently than the game's headline foes, but it also doesn't help that the basic parry window is exceedingly generous. When you're fighting regular enemies, and typically dealing with more than one, this isn't much of an issue. It's just much more prominent when facing a mini-boss that's too predictable to be compelling.

Aside from the abundance of dangerous ledges, Mortal Shell 2's open world is a fascinating place to explore. It's not as expansive as something like Elden Ring's The Lands Between–you won't find any vast open fields, for instance–but it's densely packed. Each area feels like a dedicated level from a more linear game, except they're all interconnected with more than one way in and out. 

Its castles and murky swamps can feel a tad derivative, but there are typically more than a few visual flourishes that stand out in even the most familiar locales. There's an abbey where the colors are muted to the point of looking almost monochrome, yet the red leaves wrapping around its cold, stone walls create this striking burst of color. Elsewhere, you'll find unsettling human teeth carved into cave walls, monolithic structures that punctuate the horizon, and what was once a picturesque village now plagued by rabid cultists. Material rewards are available for those who deign to explore, but the sights themselves are often a reward of their own.

Mortal Shell 2 constantly surprised me, whether it was the mechanics behind a newly discovered Shell, the layered improvements to combat, a bulbous monstrosity of a boss fight that was more mouth than anything else, or the ways you can tinker with a build and make it wholly your own. It stumbles at times and could use some fine-tuning to really hone its balance issues, but even if it can be irritating or too simplistic at times, these moments are overshadowed by its unmistakable strengths.

2003's The Simpsons: Hit & Run is a cult-classic, GTA-inspired open-world game. Fans have been clamoring for a remake, remaster, sequel, or some kind of revival for years. It may finally actually be happening, as series creator Matt Groening offered a tantalizing tease at Disney's D23 event this weekend.

A fan in the audience said since Disney is producing a The Simpsons Movie sequel, might that also mean Hit & Run will get a follow-up? Groening, admitting he might be "speaking out of turn," teased, "I think the original game is coming back in some form."

This led to cheers from the audience. However, longtime series producer Matt Selman quickly chimed in with, "Or not."

The suggestion here is that Groening may indeed have spoken out of turn and shouldn't have said what he said. In any event, Selman agreed with fans that a new Hit & Run game "would certainly be a treat."

Also during the panel, Groening shared some history about an earlier The Simpsons game, 2001's Road Rage, saying he was told by higher-ups that calling a game "Road Rage" might lead to more road rage incidents in real life. After that game sold well and was received positively, no one had a problem with the Hit & Run title, Groening said.

Selman went on to say another issue that had to be sorted out was that Road Rage's concept was obviously inspired by Sega's Crazy Taxi series. Selman said an exchange of money fixed the problem.

"The lawyers of Crazy Taxi said, 'you can't rip off Crazy Taxi.' And, money changed hands," he said.

https://youtu.be/L0xCNt00gAE?si=D6sBvkR8ab1yGU24&t=1378

In March this year, Selman said he knows people love Hit & Run and the team has a "never say never" attitude about a possible revival of some sort.

He helped write the game, and admitted he had “no idea” it would become such an enduring success. In 2021, Selman told IGN that he would “love” to see a remaster of the game, but said such a project might be a challenge due to the “complicated corporate octopus.”

The original main cast of The Simpsons came back to voice their characters for Hit & Run, and it probably wouldn’t be cheap to have their voices either re-recorded or re-licensed for a potential remake/remaster project. And that’s just one consideration, as The Simpsons has different stakeholders and beneficiaries who would presumably need to sign off in some way. Another issue at play could be how Disney bought many of Fox’s entertainment assets, including The Simpsons, since Hit & Run was released.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run was developed by Radical Entertainment, a studio that closed in 2012. One of the studio’s founders, Ian Wilkinson, started a new company, New Radical Games, which offers services like work-for-hire and co-development for mobile and console projects. The studio’s website also states that it does porting and remastering.

The Simpsons: Hit & Run was originally released for PS2, GameCube, and Xbox, with a PC port following. Presumably, any new game would be released on modern platforms.

After Saber Interactive unveiled its upcoming title Rideshare Stimulater, former lead writer Stella Sacco came forward and said that she had been replaced by ChatGPT during development. Saber CEO Matthew Karch denied Sacco's allegation that she had been replaced by AI, but the company has now shared previously undisclosed details about Rideshare Stimulator's AI usage.

Rideshare Stimulator casts players as a driver who can pick up a seemingly infinite number of passengers and interact with them while getting them to their final destinations. According to the new disclosure on the game's Steam page, Rideshare Stimulator uses AI tools for "voice generation and some localization" and AI-generated passenger missions that can be skipped if players only want "human-written narrative content."

It also adds that the game will have radio stations with "human-made music and AI-generated music," with the latter being clearly labeled in-game. However, Saber flatly states that "the main campaign story, characters, and dialogue are written by a team of human writers."

Earlier this week, Sacco said that she was replaced as the game's lead writer by AI "midway through development."

https://bsky.app/profile/antlervel.vet/post/3mssv7pyows2l

"They took me off the project to use ChatGPT to write the rest of the text, including planned live updates," Sacco told PC Gamer in a subsequent statement. "If they changed plans in the intervening years, that's great. But again: I was there, and it was my job to write the game, and then it wasn't once Matt Karch decided using ChatGPT would be great publicity for the game."

Karch released a statement of his own with This Week in Videogames that added greater controversy to the story by claiming that Stella "violated" her agreement with the company.

"Stella who? I had to ask Claude because I have never spoken to her or seen her. We have already said we are using AI for certain parts of the game and will update the Steam page once we have finalized the feature set. Let me clarify that the entire story script, were it to win an award, would go to someone who can walk up on stage and receive it. It was always our intention to reveal this until Stella violated her confidentiality clause and revealed this before we were ready."

Karch added his belief that "our use of AI in this particular game, which will be a lower-priced title, [will be a plus] for consumers." So far, the game's potential players don't appear to share that sentiment. The discussions page on Steam has several comments calling out Saber for its AI use on this game.

Rideshare Stimulator will be released on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. This game doesn't currently have a release date.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is set to receive its first major patch next week, one that will give players more control over the game's visuals as well as make improvements to Jackals and Sgt. Johnson.

As outlined by the Halo Support X account, a patch coming sometime next week will fix a few pain points for players of Halo Studios' remake. The update should make graphics purists happy, as it will add the ability to disable the game's very noticeable film grain and chromatic aberration. The patch will also include "additional stability improvements across multiple platforms."

On the gameplay front, Jackals are receiving some changes so that they can be staggered more reliably when targeting their hands and feet, as has always been the case in Halo. Sgt Johnson is being updated so that he no longer blocks mission progress. This sounds like it will mostly affect the three new prequel missions included as part of the remake, where Johnson occasionally needs to hack open doors before Master Chief can proceed. Marines and Flood Marines will also correctly fire their Assault Rifles with the Magnified Skull turned on.

https://twitter.com/HaloSupport/status/2087947309334012346?s=20

It remains to be seen if the patch will address other issues players have spotted since release, including unresponsive enemy AI and cutscenes that lock up and fail to play properly. Halo Studios states there will be more details in the full patch notes when the update is released. It's also worth noting that any mid-mission saved progress will be lost upon downloading the new update, though unlocked missions and rally points will remain.

The launch of Halo: Campaign Evolved may not have gone as well as Halo Studios would have liked, with reports indicating the game is off to a slow start on PlayStation 5 and has sold a combined total of 1.2 million copies across all platforms so far. 

According to one analyst, Halo: Campaign Evolved's greatest competition, particularly on PC, might be Halo itself. The franchise's compilation package, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, released over a decade ago and contains almost the entirety of the Halo franchise, including online multiplayer, and can be bought for $40 at the high end or much cheaper when on sale. When compared to Halo: Campaign Evolved, which only features the first game's campaign, no multiplayer, and retails for $50, it's not hard to see why some players decided this was a fight that didn't need finishing. 

Given the remake's performance, it's unclear what is coming next for the franchise, though Halo: Campaign Evolved does seemingly tease a Halo 2 remake.

Deborah Ann Woll plays Faye in the upcoming PS5 game God of War Laufey, and she had quite a memorable first day on set. At San Diego Comic-Con recently, she shared a story about how, on her very first day, she broke a famous prop from The Last of Us due to her strength and tenacity--only she didn't know the significance at the time. And now, footage of the event has arrived.

"Unbeknownst to me, this was a very famous prop that they had used on The Last of Us," she said, going on to joke that it was "some sort of sporting equipment." It was actually a golf club prop, and you probably know what that means...

"They gave it to me and I was supposed to use it like an axe. And I broke it," Woll said.

Game director Ariel Lawrence added, "She swung it so hard, it cracked. And it echoed throughout the volume. And we were like, 'Hot damn, let's go.'"

https://twitter.com/SonySantaMonica/status/2088280064974635337

God of War: Laufey is in the works now for PS5, and it's arriving in February 2027. Starring alongside Woll is The Boys actor Jack Quaid, who plays a gelatinous cube named Phranque.

A new Kratos-led game is coming after that, and it will pick up where Laufey left off.

US Senators Josh Hawley and Dick Durbin have announced that Roblox will be the subject of a congressional investigation amid claims that the gaming platform is a threat to child safety.

"You trumpet Roblox as a safe digital playground for children as young as five," the pair wrote in an open letter. "But the public record raises serious questions about this promise of safety. Over the past decade, police have arrested numerous individuals for committing serious acts of violence and harm against children they met via Roblox, including grooming, sexual abuse, kidnapping, rape, and even murder. Roblox is being used to trade child sexual abuse material, participate in sexually explicit--and often violent--virtual 'experiences' with children, bribe and extort children into producing explicit content, and lure children into in-person meetings. It is heartbreaking."

"Roblox appears to prioritize revenue and engagement metrics over the safety and well-being of our children, and the alleged criminal activity on Roblox warrants congressional scrutiny. Let us be clear: children on your platform are hurting. Congress will not look the other way."

Roblox

Hawley (a Republican from Missouri) and Durbin (a Democrat from Illinois) added that Roblox reported 65,381 instances of suspected child sexual exploitation to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025, more than doubling what it reported in 2024. Headed by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, Roblox Corporation has been instructed to preserve its records and turn over certain documents by August 31.

The investigation will also require Roblox CEO David Baszucki to provide evidence as to how Roblox will better police itself.

"Roblox is built on the foundation of safety. We do not compromise on that commitment," Roblox’s chief safety officer Matt Kaufman said in a statement (via Politico). "We look forward to sharing the facts about how we protect children on the platform."

Roblox has been the subject of significant scrutiny recently. Australian lawmakers have it in their crosshairs over reports of grooming and sexual content, Florida’s Attorney General has described it as a breeding ground for predators, and the Attorney General of Texas sued The Roblox Corporation over child-exploitation accusations.

Earlier this year, Roblox Corporation agreed to pay more than $12 million to the state of Nevada as part of a move to create a safer environment for its young users, but other regions, such as the United Kingdom, have suggested drastic solutions to protect children online.

Activision has announced that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta will have more than just multiplayer content. The MW4 beta will also include access to the campaign mission, Entrenched, along with the upcoming Warzone mode, Resurgence Zodiac.

Activision will show off some of this content during the Call of Duty: Next event on August 21. As announced previously, the beta begins with an early access period August 21-25 for people who preorder, before opening up to everyone to try August 28-September 1. The early-access beta will not be available on Switch 2, as preorders for the Switch 2 version don't begin until August 28.

The MW4 beta approaches.

Activision also revealed all the maps, modes, and content in the beta. You can find the full details in GameSpot's rundown of the MW4 beta.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 releases on October 23 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch 2, and preordering grants access to the campaign a week before launch. The game coming to Switch 2 is notable since the franchise hasn't appeared on a Nintendo platform since 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts.

MW4 is also the first entry since Ghosts in 2013 to skip PS4 and Xbox One. Infinity Ward is leading development on the game, which comes after back-to-back Black Ops releases, the latter of which, 2025's Black Ops 7, had the worst sales ranking in the US since 2008.

Also noteworthy for Modern Warfare 4 is that it will not launch directly into Xbox Game Pass, as both Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 did.

Disney has outlined just how powerful and important video games are to the company's future. In a blog post ahead of D23--where Kingdom Hearts news is expected--the company's gaming boss, Sean Shoptaw, revealed that games are now a "fundamental part of the broader entertainment landscape."

He said Disney has reaped the rewards, with nine of its gaming franchises grossing more than $1 billion at retail so far. "So, it’s about telling truly original stories that really are unique to this medium, specifically," he said.

Some of these include Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Strike Force. Shoptaw added that more than half of the nine franchises have only appeared in the past 12 years. Disney runs multiple game outfits, including Disney Pixar Games, Marvel Games, Lucasfilm Games, and 20th Century Games, just to name a few, all of which live under the broader Disney Games banner.

Disney Games has reached about $3.5 billion in consumer spend annually for the past four years, exceeding $4 billion in the past fiscal year alone. Shoptaw said this helps hammer home how gaming will be a "key part of Disney's storytelling strategy in the present and the future."

He added that Disney isn't necessarily all that interested in doing things like movie tie-ins, which were popular in the '90s and early 2000s. Instead, he said Disney wants to create original games that tell new stories, with Shoptaw citing Marvel's Wolverine as a prime example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0llQ8tuYRU

One of Disney's biggest bets in gaming in recent years has been through its partnership with Epic Games and Fortnite. Disney has invested more than $1.5 billion into Epic Games, and Shoptaw said its partnership is a "really important one."

“Our partnership with Epic is a really important one,” Shoptaw said. “What Epic has built with Fortnite has really created one of the most important social entertainment platforms in the world, and certainly for us, we see a ton of opportunity to bring our great characters, stories, and worlds into that universe and build something truly unique to Disney.”

"Our ambition is to create something truly transformational. A space that people can come play, watch, and create, and a space that we bring all of Disney together in one connected universe."

Disney has brought many of its franchises to Fortnite already, and its Simpsons collaboration was particularly successful. Looking ahead, Disney is planning even more in Fortnite, reportedly including an Arc Raiders-style game.

Disney's new CEO, Josh D'Amaro, is a big believer in games and has suggested gaming could be Disney's next big growth-driver, after the company's stock price has been flat over the past decade. Some have theorized that Disney could buy Epic and Fortnite to help grow the business, but nothing has materialized as of yet.

Disney was, at one point in history, a developer of games itself with its Disney Interactive Studios label. This unit of the entertainment giant produced a number of games over the years, including the Disney Infinity "toys-to-life" series. However, Disney shuttered Disney Interactive Studios and now focuses more on licensing. Former CEO Bob Iger spoke candidly about Disney’s struggles making and publishing games internally, admitting, “We haven’t been particularly good…”

High on Life is coming to a new platform, as the irreverent first-person shooter with talking alien guns is getting a VR port. Announced during the VR Games Showcase, this new version of High on Life will launch for Meta Quest, PlayStation VR2, and SteamVR headsets in 2027.

Originally developed by Squanch Games, the VR port of High on Life is being handled by Flat2VR Studios. The developer says that it is essentially rebuilding the game so that it can take advantage of VR tech, allowing players to interact with their talking--and opinionated--guns. The trailer below shows off some of these new features, like being able to stroke your weapons and feed them, and we bet they'll have something to say about that.

"As we're adding all of these fun, manual VR interactions, it's really important that they make sense in gameplay and that they're maintaining the fast, fluid, and powerful feeling of combat," High on Life VR game director Emily O'Neil said in the reveal trailer.

https://youtu.be/EQziBgQgrJI

First released in 2022, High on Life saw players take on an alien cartel that invaded Earth and turned the populace into recreational drugs. As an up-and-coming bounty hunter armed with Gatliens--sentient guns that could be used to solve all kinds of problems--the game was a hit thanks to its weird sense of humor, fun gameplay, and an extremely Australian knife hellbent on stabbing everything. A sequel was released earlier this year, but reviews were lukewarm, thanks in part to various technical issues that hampered its launch.

VR fans can also look forward to a port of System Shock from Flat2VR Studios. Not much was revealed about this project, but the teaser trailer suggested that the VR version will be based on the superb 2023 remake of the cult-classic 1994 game.

Christian Allen, who was on the leadership team at Warner Bros. Games when 2011's The Lord of the Rings: War in the North came out, has commented on the recent re-release, saying he's happy the game is coming back because it didn't get a "fair shake" upon its original release. Why's that? He said he "argued vociferously" not to release it at the same time as Bethesda's iconic RPG The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

"15 years ago I argued vociferously not to release this up against Skyrim, as it wouldn't get a fair shake. I got overruled," he said (via VGC). "Nice to see it get a proper release."

War in the North is back.

War in the North was originally released on November 1, 2011--just 10 days later, Bethesda released Skyrim. In addition to launching around the same time as Skyrim, War in the North launched on the same day as Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and a week before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Allen did not work directly on War in the North in a development capacity, but he was on the studio leadership team. He said the developers at Snowblind, which has since shuttered, "deserve all the credit." He said when War in the North was originally released in 2011, it got "lost in the wash," while "every review just compared it to Skyrim (as I predicted they would)."

Allen went on to say War in the North had "hardly any marketing." He theorized that the executives either "wrote it off or thought hardcore Lord of the Rings fans would just know about it, somehow."

While not discussing War in the North's release date specifically, Allen theorized that higher-ups at publicly traded companies may be discouraged from shifting release dates because of how such changes could affect bonuses.

"Quarterly revenue motivations drive more decisions than people realize. It's a big challenge with stock-price driven organizations," he said. "Must be hard to be an exec and go 'Well, this game will do better if we hold it until March, but my bonus will take a 50% hit,'" he said.

Aspyr Media licensed War in the North from WB and re-released the game this week in the Legacy Edition. The publisher is planning to re-release more Lord of the Rings games in the future.

After spending time in the US military, Allen joined Red Storm Entertainment in 2002, where he became the creative director and design director for the Ghost Recon games. He then moved to Bungie, where he was the design lead on Halo: Reach. In 2009, he joined WB Games as design director. He later started his own company, Serellan, before joining Epic Games to become its lead Unreal Engine evangelist. He's now the design director at Project Zomboid developer The Indie Store.