The developer shared the final update to his 'Kjun's Concerns' column on the official Inzoi Discord (thanks, PC Gamer) and reflected on the two years since he started work on the game.

"Looking back at myself two years ago, when I first decided to embark on this project, I can't help but smirk knowing how recklessly brave I was to even think about creating a game of this scale," said Kjun. "Now, I understand why so few companies have attempted to develop a life simulation game. The challenge isn't just additive the more you try to build—it's exponential. At a certain point, finding bugs in this vast world we've created feels like playing tag with invisible ghosts."

Kjun recently put some distance between Inzoi and The Sims, saying his game isn't a "competitor" to EA's juggernaut but instead "another option" that has "in-depth customization" and AI-powered tools. Basically, it sounds like Kjun sees Inzoi as an even deeper and more customizable life sim than The Sims, which is saying something indeed.

In his latest Discord musings, Kjun heaped praise on The Sims yet again, writing, "The Sims team deserves endless praise for their incredible achievements. As a longtime game developer, I can only express my deepest respect and admiration for what they accomplished in this genre."

Kjun also said the final development stretch to release "will be the most intense development period for the game," joking, "by the time I return to writing, Kjun's Concerns may have turned into Kjun’s Remorse."

The Sims rival InZoi has 300 people hanging out in each of its in-game cities and they all "interact with each other in real-time."

If this sounds like deja vu to you, it isn't. It's just that that many AAA console games play like crap when they make their way over to PC. Capcom's Monster Hunter Wilds is just now starting to recover from its rough PC launch last month, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 committed a similar offense in January, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 did it in October, I could go on and on. Point is, it's pretty much expected that PC ports of big games are going to be skewered at launch, but unfortunately it's also expected of me to report on stuff like this.

Yes, Rise of the Ronin is taking a beating in Steam reviews, mostly due to poor performance, technical issues, bugs, whatever you feel like calling it. It just doesn't seem to be optimized very well at the moment. Of the 715 reviews currently on Steam, only 44% of them are positive, and almost all of them are either centered on performance issues or make mention of them. The review at the top of Steam's "Most Helpful Reviews" column reads: "Is it really that hard to not make bad PC port? Stuttering on a 4090 is just... no."

"Breaks my heart to do this, but I just can't recommend the game in its current state," reads another user review. "The optimization is as bad as everyone is saying. If you played Wo Long at launch and remember the optimization problems that plagued that title at launch, this is actually worse. It really is a bummer. Likely going to refund and wait for a patch."

"The fact that the game performance is INSANELY bad is unacceptable," reads another.

Obviously, your mileage will vary when it comes to PC performance on any game depending on the hardware you're rocking, but it's pretty damning to hear that some 4090 rigs are struggling, especially considering Rise of the Ronin isn't a particularly graphically intensive game.

It's a shame, because Rise of the Ronin's open world is an underrated gem of last year.

Yasuda's comments are noteworthy in the wake of Rise of the Ronin's PC launch, which is currently being skewered on Steam due to apparent performance and optimization issues primarily. With that in mind, a Rise of the Ronin Switch port seems like a disastrous proposition, but it does sound like Yasuda and co. are at least weighing the audience they could reach on future Nintendo hardware.

"In terms of consoles, there has been a long-standing situation in Japan where there is a significant number of Switch players, and I am closely watching how this will change with the release of Switch 2," Yasuda told RPG Site.

Yasuda also echoed what Monster Hunter lead producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently said about the growing number of PC gamers in Japan.

"For games like the ones we create, there are many PS5 players, but I also feel that the number of PC players has significantly increased in Japan over the past few years."

To be clear, there really isn't anything we can explicitly infer from Yasuda's words here. Team Ninja has released games on Switch in the past and it'll probably continue to do that, but it is interesting that Yasuda seems to be particularly keen on the upcoming Switch 2 market. Depending on how powerful the console ends up being, it's possible it'll be able to support big AAA open-world games day and date with their PlayStation, Xbox, and PC counterparts. We'll have to wait for the April Switch 2 Direct to learn more.

New Nintendo Switch 2 filing answers my prayers: both USB-C ports can charge, and NFC support suggests those 223 Amiibo are about to have new friends.

"I’m working on 'Castle Village,' which is an entirely new mod," FlashShifter explains in an interview with Nexus Mods. "It was originally supposed to be included in the Stardew Valley Expanded 2.0 update, but I recently decided it was best to split it off. This project is even more ambitious than SVE, featuring a new city, dozens of fully developed NPCs, dungeons inspired by The Legend of Zelda, boss monsters, magical artifacts, new music, and much more."

FlashShifter adds that monster combat will be a big focus on this mod, and that he's designing "unique sprites for everything in this region to give it a distinct feel." There's no ETA yet on when the Castle Village mod might launch, you can at least find a couple of screenshots to peruse at the link above.

Stardew Valley Expanded is arguably the best Stardew Valley mod out there. FlashShifter famously got a job working with ConcernedApe after the success of SVE, and while the idea of a modder parlaying that experience into a proper job isn't wholly unique, it is unusual to see someone continuing to do such excellent mod work in their spare time.

FlashShifter says that while he's very excited for ConcernedApe's next game, he "won’t be making mods for Haunted Chocolatier. My attention is drawn towards my work at ConcernedApe LLC and developing Castle Village." I think that's fair given everything he's already built for Stardew fans.

Stardew Valley creator says he had his reasons to announce Haunted Chocolatier so early, and "if I don't post for a while, it doesn't mean I have abandoned the game."

Public U.S. records reveal that, since Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami directed the Jurassic massacre back in the '90s, Dino Crisis has been getting renewed trademarks; Capcom last filed and was approved to renew the game's original 1999 trademark in 2021, and that renewal will last for another decade.

Then, in 2019, Capcom issued a new trademark filing in Japan for Dino Crisis, just like it did this spring. Because it was fresh, that filing triggered fans' quivering suspicions that they'd soon be blissfully near more homicidal velociraptors and Regina, Dino Crisis' gun-wielding, redhead protagonist. There hasn't been a Dino Crisis installment in over 20 years.

But, aside from Dino Crisis and its 2000 sequel joining GOG's pile of cult classics in a recent bundle deal, Mikami's disaster series has sadly remained untouched.

Mikami expected that to be the case. Actually, he can't understand why anyone would think otherwise.

In 2024, Mikami told Eurogamer that he was "very surprised" to hear that fans wanted more Dino Crisis, dismissing their cravings by saying that the "awesomeness of dinosaurs, and the stuff you can do with dinosaurs – that's been kind of really nailed down by Monster Hunter in recent years."

"So even if I were to decide to make a remake or a new version of Dino Crisis," he continued, "I don't really feel like there's a whole lot of space for that kind of game right now, just since Monster Hunter has become such a big game."

To his point, Monster Hunter Wilds has been enjoying massive success after its recent release, proving that it might really be the popular angel to Dino Crisis' goth, dino devil.

Dino Crisis is finally getting the resurrection it deserves – and it's still a blast.

How to unlock the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

To unlock the Common Fortnite Outlaw Keycard, you need to contribute to the Community quest that all players are working towards. This involves robbing vaults and Cases to deplete Fletcher Kane's gold reserves, and there are two main ways to do this:

• Crack the vaults at Crime City, Lonely Lair, Masked Meadows, and Seaport City
• Rob the Smash N' Grab Jewelry Stores in various POIs

The Smash N' Grab Jewelry Stores will be protected by a couple of Alpha Guards, but once they're taken out you should find a safe behind the counter to empty as well as several Cases to interact with and Rob Valuables from. Keep an eye on the Outlaw Keycard section of the Fortnite quests screen to track the Community's progress towards 100% completion.

How to upgrade the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

Once you've unlocked the Common Outlaw Keycard, you'll then need to complete further Outlaw Keycard quests to earn upgrades for it. Including that initial Community quest, these are the upgrades you can unlock:

• 5 Quests - Uncommon Outlaw Keycard
  Grants access to Black Market backrooms where Exotic items are available to purchase, and some also contain Fortnite characters.
• 10 Quests - Rare Outlaw Keycard
  The Outlaw Chests in backrooms can be opened to get free Bars.
• 15 Quests - Epic Outlaw Keycard
  Premium loadouts are available to purchase from Black Market shopkeepers for a large number of Bars:
  • Joss' Loadout - Holo Twister AR, Pump & Dump, Rocket Drill, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
  • Keisha's Loadout - Falcon Eye Sniper, Outlaw Shotgun, Gold Splashes, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
  • Skillet's Loadout - Sticky Grenade Launcher, Mammoth Pistol, Kneecapper, Chug Jug, Gold Ammo Boon, and Greed Boon.
• 20 Quests - Legendary Outlaw Keycard
  Opening Outlaw Chests in backrooms also drops a Legendary item and Dill Bit.

How to use the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard

To use the Fortnite Outlaw Keycard, you simply need to visit one of the Black Markets found near Crime City, Magic Mosses, or Masked Meadow then look for a locked door at the far end, like the one pictured above. Once you have the upgraded Uncommon Outlaw Keycard, interact with the door and it will open for you, granting access to the backroom where you can find additional weapons, characters, Outlaw Chests, and more.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

"How was the DS2 trailer?" Kojima asks on Twitter after Death Stranding 2's SXSW showcase.

"It was good, feels like just yesterday," says the top reply. "Dark Souls 2 is the best Dark Souls."

"I love DS2," retorts another popular comment, tacking on an image of Dark Souls 2's Bearer of the Curse protagonist looking mysterious and war-worn.

Another fan chastises Kojima: "Don't you dare using that acronym for Walking Simulator 2."

In Kojima's defense, Death Stranding 2's most recent trailer – if you're willing to watch past the mechanical baby – demonstrates machine gun fire and kaiju stomping, which you probably wouldn't get involved in on a more typical stroll through the neighborhood.

But Dark Souls 2's trailer from 2012 is, admittedly, more spartan in nature. It doesn't bother with long talks and meaningful kisses like Death Stranding 2; it begins with blood spilling quietly over the Bearer's gauntlets and ends in a sudden blast of dragon's breath to the face.

It's pretty medievally awesome, but, as one fan informs Hideo Kojima, "Dark Souls 2 trailer was nothing like the actual game." Our GamesRadar+ Dark Souls 2 review disagrees, but I'd even say that the FromSoftware game is by far the worst in the Dark Souls trilogy.

So, in this battle for the perfect acronym, may the best DS2 win.

Hideo Kojima is still hung up on his ex, as Death Stranding 2 features a Metal Gear Solid doppelganger the director says is the spitting image of Solid Snake.

"A bit sad to see that the naming 'Minecraft: Pocket Edition' is completely gone nowadays, but understandable," tweets Daniel Kaplan, a founding member of Mojang, co-founder of Coffee Stain, and current CEO of Keepsake Games.

"Why Minecraft was called Pocket Edition and not Mobile Edition on mobiles? Because I’m a Nintendo nerd, and it was a nod to Game Boy Pocket."

I'll be honest, this is the first I'm hearing of the Game Boy Pocket. Turns out it was a refinement of the original Game Boy that was smaller, lighter, and had a better display. I only started with the Game Boy Advance, but I did have a Color too.

Now, Minecraft's mobile version is called the Bedrock Edition, so named because there are two versions of the game; the Java Edition runs on Java while the Bedrock Edition runs C++. This is why some farms work on one version of the game but not the other, the underlying code itself is different.

Nowadays, it's quite common for mobile games to have the Pocket subheading. Pokemon TCG Pocket is the most recent example I can think of, and that game's been consuming a lot of my waking hours this last month or so. I just can't get enough of the card collecting, and now that I have a proper Darkrai and Weaville ex deck, I'm unstoppable in PvP.

If you're looking for something similar to play, check out our list of all the best games like Minecraft you can get stuck into.

Before Monster Hunter Wilds' launch, some hardened action RPG veterans were left concerned that the latest installment in the series might be a bit too easy. While Capcom was quick to reveal that "a new level of challenge" is coming in the game's first title update in April, seeing certain screenshots of hunt times on social media claiming that players have smashed through quests in mere seconds, you'd think that turning up that difficulty ought to be a major priority. However, not all is as it seems, as some have been taking advantage of a handy little trick involving poison damage to get a head start on their hunts.

As reported by VG247, it turns out that hitting monsters with poison ammo doesn't actually start hunt quests, despite them taking damage from the ailment. This is probably because, in general, monsters can be injured by their environment even without you having a hand in it, but this doesn't force quests to start because, let's face it, that'd suck. Anyway, it's probably because of this that you can freely poison your foes without triggering a quest, so long as you don't hit them with actual attacks beyond that.

This is where the magic happens, and an incredibly drawn out process gets translated into what appears to be (to the game itself and your social media followers) a near instant win. By waiting for the poison damage to build up as the monster's health depletes, and then jumping in right at the end to either finish it off for good or swoop in to capture it, you can make it look like you're some kind of Monster Hunter god. Or at least, you will until everyone finds out this is what you've been doing – the magic sort of vanishes from this 1.53-second Tempered Chatacabra capture once you realize it actually takes around nine minutes to do it, for example.

Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it satisfying to see the game proclaim your victory in under two seconds? Also yes. Beyond this and simply showing off, there's not really any reason to do this, but hey, it's good fun.

Be sure to check out our Monster Hunter Wilds review and read our guide to the best Monster Hunter Wilds weapons if you want a hand in hunting monsters the proper way.

After requesting "tips for beginners" before hopping into Capcom's latest action RPG, which Gemma actor Kristen McGuire admits is her first-ever foray into the Monster Hunter series, fans provided all sorts of advice. Upon securing the best Monster Hunter Wilds weapons for her play style, however, McGuire has returned to her original thread on Reddit to share her frustrations with the game's notoriously challenging menus.

"The true battle is the menus," comments one fan, to which McGuire agrees. "This is honestly what I'm struggling with the most," writes the actor. "The menu is like looking at something written in a foreign language." Underneath another response, in which a player advises she get "used to the grind," McGuire explains that grinding isn't a problem at all and mentions the game's hard-to-navigate UI once again.

Hi, I’m the English VA for Gemma, and I would love your tips for beginners from r/MHWilds

"I actually like grinding, so that doesn’t bother me, haha," she says. "The overall menu is just kind of confusing." It's a sentiment all us Monster Hunter players share in, I'd argue as a fan myself – but thankfully, players are offering both solidarity and some words of wisdom to help mitigate how painful navigating Wilds' menus can be: "Trust me when I say everyone was confused with the menu for the first few days."

Hopefully, developers hear this sort of feedback and clean things up a bit. Capcom did reveal that it's working on the first free update, after all, cooking to bring fresh content and some behemoth beasts to what our own Monster Hunter Wilds review calls "the new peak of the series." If the past entries offer anything to go by, though, it's likely that Monster Hunter will never lose its infamous menu-related jank.

After you finish playing one of the best Monster Hunter games to date, here are some of the other most exciting new games this year and beyond to keep an eye on.

When talking about the original Death Stranding, Kojima said, "The game was about connection," which we knew. However, Kojima wasn’t the most confident about his future, adding, "I thought I lost everything when I became alone nine years ago," referring to his exit from Konami back in 2015 following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. It may have been a given that people would follow Kojima wherever he went, but I get it. When you’ve been working on one series almost exclusively for almost two decades, I imagine it’s easy to think that’s what people like. Hopefully working on his new Espionage game Physint will help him get things out of his system.

As we know now, Death Stranding was highly anticipated after it was revealed and turned out to be a big success, and Kojima realized that his fans were willing to follow him. "I had something very important, which was [a] connection with people," the director said. Although the new Death Stranding 2 trailer features a screen saying. "We should not have connected," read into that one how you will.

Kojima is clearly very excited to be working with actor Luca Marinelli for Neil (the aforementioned Solid Snake lookalike), as he chose the actor to "surpass" Mads Mikkelsen.

A kiss between the two characters is a particularly notable romantic consummation here, since Sam suffers from aphenphosmphobia, or the fear of being touched. "Sam has this phobia, but finally kisses Fragile," Kojima explained during a SXSW panel. "But this is their first kiss, so it was very difficult to direct in that way."

Asked about his experience performing the scene, Reedus had pretty much the response you'd expect from anybody getting to smooch an attractive film star: "It was niiice." And somehow, the experience reminded him of acting alongside Mads Mikkelsen in the first Death Stranding.

"The first time I had to go face-to-face with anybody, I think it was Mads. I mean, not that same face-to-face, but a different version of that face," Reedus explained, indicating an image of the romantic mocap session being shown on stage. "You see the helmets that we're wearing, they usually have cameras on them," Reedus added, miming two heads bouncing off of each other. "Mads and I were like 'toing! toing!' So we took the cameras off for this."

Reedus noted that he tends to be a "very subtle" actor, which makes performance capture harder. But he was inspired by "this video tape of Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lion in one of the Lion Kings or something, and he's like 'rooooaaaar!' And I was like 'wow, he's really good at this.' So I'm learning, I'm trying to get better." Since Cumberbatch has never been part of a Lion King cast, I suspect Reedus was actually referring to that viral clip of the motion capture for Smaug in the Hobbit films.

The actor says he also took big inspiration from fellow DS2 star Troy Baker, who has plenty of experience with serious performance capture acting in titles like The Last of Us. Baker's take on Higgs is going way over the top this time – Kojima says he'll "apologize beforehand" – so it looks we're getting a pretty wide array of acting styles in this sequel.

Hideo Kojima says he chose Death Stranding 2's Solid Snake lookalike because he needed an actor who "would surpass" Mads Mikkelsen.

Mat Piscatella, an industry analyst at Circana posts on Bluesky that "it's impossible to selectively 'find' and fund the one next massive viral hit indie game." When a game like Balatro sells over 5 million copies, publishers obviously want to find the next one, but who would have predicted a poker roguelite would be nominated at The Game Awards?

"'Find the next Balatro' – c'mon now," Piscatella adds. "Fund a bunch of new games and hope to stumble upon the next big thing that the dumb money will chase after it's been released." I agree. I'm no CEO, but I think it makes more sense to fund lots of small games and hope one of them hits the big leagues rather than pumping all that money into one game that's just trying to capitalize on a trend.

Indie dev Rami Ismail posts: "All advice is bad, but not meaningless," and claims people can look to others for inspiration, but "treating advice as dogma" isn't the way to succeed.

LocalThunk himself replies: "I really hate when people in my position don't see the absurd bias we have – it's useless for me to give out advice because all I have is one data point. I spoke about this in my first blog post. I'll share what I do/did, not preach that everyone should do it too."

The video game industry moves rapidly, and what worked for one developer or team one year isn't guaranteed to work for somebody else the next year.

The reverse is true too. Some games are ahead of their time. Think about Brink, the multiplayer parkour FPS that launched during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, when online capabilities weren't as good as they are now. It bombed, but I bet it would kill it today.

While you're here, check out all the must-play indie games from 2024 and marvel at how different and wonderful they all are.

The studio moved away from the titular white dog-spirit-thing to create a Diablo-esque action RPG – No Rest for the Wicked – which launched into early access last year. The game was published by 2K Games’ subsidiary Private Division, but after 2K sold the publishing arm (which resulted in the closure of Roll7 and Intercept Games), many were unsure about how things would pan out for the game, especially since the studio went silent for several months. However, it’s good news as Moon Studios has announced it’s now fully independent and has secured the publishing rights for No Rest for the Wicked.

In a brand new episode of the Wicked Inside Showcase, Moon Studios explained that the sale of Private Division spurred the studio to start "months of negotiation" to buy the rights to No Rest for the Wicked. And this isn’t an announcement of intent; Moon Studios’ co-founder Thomas Mahler confirmed that the deal is done and that the studio is now "fully independent."

However, the studio wasn’t just sitting on its hands while negotiations were going on, with co-founder Gennadiy Korol saying, "We’ve used this extra time to create something truly special," before introducing the game’s latest update, ‘The Breach.’ The new update – launching on April 30, 2025 – is set to bring pretty much more of everything to the game. New areas like the Lowland Meadows and Marin Woods, new weapon archetypes with Gauntlets and Wands, as well as some visual and performance upgrades.

However, it’s the refinements and emphasis on replayability that make the update more exciting, giving a ton of quality-of-life updates like being able to teleport directly to your house and an overhauled storage system. On top of that, there’s a new Hardcore mode to give those of you looking for a challenge a new reason to go back to the game.

Alongside the new split from Private Division, Moon Studios is getting back together with Ori and the Blind Forest composer Gareth Coker, who has contributed some new tunes to No Rest for the Wicked’s The Breach update.

Gareth Coker is also contributing music to Dotemu’s recently announced roguelike brawler Absolum, which is set to launch later this year.

As the lengthy wait for Patch 8 rolls on, the RPG's cast is making appearances at conventions like Seattle's recent Emerald City Comic Con. While there, Astarion actor Neil Newbon came face to face with a Funko Pop figure of his character – one that's about five feet tall – alongside Shadowheart voice Jennifer English and Lae'zel actor Devora Wilde. The cast can be seen posing beside the Funko masterpiece on Instagram, with Newbon looking to be in awe.

"Wow, it's amazing," laughs Newbon, beholding the massive figure. "It's ridiculous!" The actor then falls into character, leaning against the adorably intimidating Astarion Funko: "Hello, darling. Hi, how are you?"

Before he can continue, the rest of the cast, along with performance director Aliona Baranova, enters to poke fun at the figure. "As if your ego isn't big enough," jests English, holding the Funko's hand.

She proceeds to ask the question all Shadowheart stans are probably asking, too: "Where's Shadowheart?" Wilde chimes in, "Where's Lae'zel?" As a dedicated Baldur's Gate 3 stan myself, I'm inclined to agree – in fact, where's Gale? Wyll? Halsin? Karlach? We need more behemoth figures of characters from Larian Studios' Dungeons & Dragons RPG, stat – and none of the $22,000 sex doll variety, preferably.

The Baldur's Gate 3-arization of Dungeons & Dragons continues as Astarion gets 2 official mentions in the new source books

Revealed today, Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE is bringing back the beloved, classic gameplay consisting of "roll katamari into objects, create increasingly massive orb" that everyone has loved for over 20 years, except this time there's a modern twist, with the focus being on building the King of All Cosmos's livestreaming career. No, really – an Apple blog post announcing the game reveals that creating stars from rolled up stuff will "energize" his streams. It adds: "As users advance, comments from in-game fans appear, and the longer they play, the larger their audience grows."

You can see this in action in the screenshots on its App Store page – TikTok-esque comments appear down the right side of the screen as you play, which say everything from "roll up more plz" to "I stan the King" and "why was this in my recommendations?" It's very silly, but I honestly love it – the fact that we've been waiting so long for a new game makes it all the more exciting, too. It was late 2017 when the last totally new game – the endless runner mobile title Amazing Katamari Damacy – released worldwide, and since then, we've only had a couple of remasters. However, this all makes the fact that Rolling LIVE is an Apple Arcade exclusive all the more unfortunate.

Apple Arcade subscribers across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV will be able to play Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE when it launches on April 3, but those on other platforms are all out of luck. With that being said, not all hope is lost. After all, Hello Kitty Island Adventure launched as an Apple Arcade exclusive in 2023 before it eventually made its way to Switch and PC earlier this year (and the lives of Sanrio fans everywhere are much better for it). With that in mind, hopefully the new Katamari game might just be taking a temporary pit stop here before rolling onto different platforms in the future.

Be sure to keep up with everything releasing this year and beyond in our roundup of new games.

At The Game Awards last year, Vincke gave a speech addressing the state of the industry, calling out everyone, including publishers. "I've been fighting with publishers my entire life, and I keep on seeing the same mistakes, over and over and over," he said. "It's always the quarterly profits. The only thing that matters is the numbers."

As it would happen, it's not only Vincke who feels that way. Talking to PCGamer, Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley says the story was "very much" familiar to him too. "It cuts across every industry," Kingsley says. "But I am aware a lot of my colleagues get frustrated from time to time by people who are potentially very good managers but aren't specialists in the computer games area.

"There are horror stories of people having external producers saying, 'Look, you just need to make fewer bugs, because then it'll be faster to make.' And everybody's going 'Yeah, you're right, yeah. We really shouldn't have decided to put 1,500 bugs in'."

It is, indeed, a rough climate in which to release games. Vincke's comments came off the back of a year stuffed with studio closures and headcount reductions showing little signs of slowing down. It all comes from a myriad of economic elements, sure, though the chase of infinite growth and short-sightedness among many decision-makers does little to help the situation.

Despite it all, Rebellion's next effort, Atomfall, will be released on March 25.

Playing Atomfall for 90 minutes booted me out of my comfort zone more than any other survival action game, and that's a very good thing.

Without much time to consider your options or really process what's unfolding, you're pushed to act fast. I can remember every instinct in me screaming against it. I felt uncomfortable, torn, and utterly at a loss as to whether I should follow Cerys' instructions, but I was living for it. On the surface, it seems like an unforgivable act, one that no one in their right mind would want to ever commit. But as with all choices in The Witcher 3, you never quite know what will lead to the best outcome, or whether or not you're doing the "right" thing. And that's the crucial point. There are so many scenarios that throw your very notion of right from wrong out of the window, because the choices you can make frequently straddle the line in between.

You're often asked to do what you think is best in a world that's varying moral shades of grey over clear cut black and white. It's those shades of grey that make The Witcher 3 one of the best RPGs around, and I've been reminded of that fact thanks to Avowed and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2. While Obsidian and Warhorse's adventures offer up distinctive RPG flavors of their own, they too present questlines and choices that teeter on the edge of moral ambiguity.

Ends justify the means

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, in many ways, is about survival and what you're willing to do in the name of it. Sometimes that means toeing the line between right and wrong in favor of making the best of any given situation. The medieval world is unforgiving, brutal, and will do everything it can to push you to retaliate in kind. Early on, committing crimes is constantly dangled in front of you as a man of no means, but the dubious dealings keep coming your way even when you have groschen to your name. Of course, you have the freedom to choose not to do them, but the world will also toy with your ideals, make you question what you're doing, and sometimes lead you to do things that, in my case, I'm not always completely comfortable with in the hopes of finding a peaceful resolution in the bigger picture – not unlike The Witcher 3.

When it comes to morally grey scenarios that test me, the quest Necessary Evil immediately comes to mind. Just before you go down to a chamber holding prisoners that you're about to interrogate and torture to get information for a lord, Hans says a line to Henry that turns out to be pretty pertinent: "You know how they say, ''The ends justify the means'? That applies exactly to our situation." As it turns out, that statement could arguably be applied to a lot of situations you're faced with in Bohemia, but it's especially true in this questline.

While I try my best to avoid outright torturing the men being held captive, I do get a little rough, threatening and harranging them both until I get what I need. During the whole ordeal, I constantly question what I'm doing, with no way of knowing where this is all leading or if I'm going too far, which immediately reminds me of the questionable choice in Geralt's curse-lifting quest. Just as the outcomes in The Witcher 3 are full of twists and unexpected turns, my actions in the torture chamber – as unpleasant as they are – actually allow me to prevent further bloodshed later on. I'm still not exactly sure "good" really means in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, but I love it all the more for the way it pushes me to examine my choices.

Two sides of the same coin

While there's thankfully no torture to worry about in Avowed, Obsidian's RPG constantly pushes you to think about where your loyalties lie and which side of yourself you want to listen to or lean into more. As both an Envoy of Adeyr who's tasked by the emperor to look into the plague spreading across the Living Lands, you're also trying to piece together more about the mysterious deity who blessed you as a godlike. There's a constant tension between the two sides of yourself, and it really is a role-playing dream to be able to approach situations that can feed into either side, or even in some cases, both aspects of yourself.

But this divide does often mean that I've constantly been questioning if there is a "good side" in the world of Eora. Will Adyr's influence actually benefit the Living Lands or do more harm? Can the god who speaks to me in my dreams be trusted? Or are they actually planning something nefarious? As these questions constantly shape my experience in Avowed, there are also lots of choices that tap into the ethically-ambiguous magic of The Witcher 3, with one major choice pushing me to question if there's even such a thing as the "right choice" in this story, and that's what constantly makes it so compelling.

In fact, my companion Giatta echoed this sentiment to me recently in the wake of one of my choices. "I don't believe there's a right or wrong choice to make here. Just the one you believe in". That idea, right there, is stuff dreams are made of in RPGs. Sometimes your decisions won't always lead to the best outcome, and maybe the outcome was less than ideal, but when you're thrown into morally grey scenarios with no cut and dry answer in terms of good vs evil, you just have to go with your gut. Just as I choose to trust Cerys, I choose to trust that I can help Eora by trusting this mysterious patron god.

I've always been a huge fan of the way The Witcher 3 and its world deals in shades of grey. You may not always know where your decision will lead you, and your own morals will be tested, but everything you do will be far more memorable because of it.

I'm obsessed with Avowed's made-up curse words, which have a surprisingly practical purpose in the world of Eora.

Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead and an executive producer on both Limbo and Inside writes: "My old partner has threatened me with an IP lawsuit because I used a publicly available picture, in a LinkedIn post three months ago, of the game Limbo that we created at Playdead together. Arnt, last time you tried to bully me, I told you I’d make it public."

The Arnt he's referring to is Arnt Jensen, a former IO Interactive developer who co-founded Playdead with Patti and is the director of Limbo and Inside. Patti addresses him directly and claims the "hard truth" is: "You know I was a significant part of building Playdead from the ground up—I know it too. Those first years were a battle like no other. We fought, built, and pushed through together. Without me, Playdead wouldn’t have existed. That’s not ego. That's a fact [...] You can’t rewrite the past just because of a bad breakup."

Patti is no longer at Playdead. He left in 2016 after the launch of Inside and created his own studio, Jumpship, which released Somerville in 2022. Playdead is working on its third game. Since the split, it seems Patti's role at Playdead has been downplayed, and he writes, "You [Arnt] have a gift. You are a genius. I know you refuse to recognize my role—or anyone else’s. That isn’t just a flaw in leadership. It’s a flaw in character."

Playdead has responded in a statement to Game Developer, writing: "We have found it necessary to take this action to protect our trademarks and copyrights, which are essential to Playdead's business and reputation."

Patti concludes his LinkedIn post with the following plea: "Arnt, please stop the bullying. I will not stop being who I am."

While you're here, check out some of the must-play indie games of 2024 that you may have missed. Hopefully they don't come with as many arguments attached.

By freeing the Lenovo Legion Go S from the gimmicky removable controllers and needlessly large screen, the company has created the device I wanted back in 2023. Had I ended up testing the SteamOS version first, I’d likely be about to dive into one of the next best gaming handheld options. Instead, I’m looking at a device that has unbalanced specs, plenty of Windows 11 caveats, and a dreadful $729 price tag. That inflated MSRP is actually tied to a weird specific US decision to only sell the 32GB / 1TB version, as those of you in the UK can pick up the 16GB / 512GB model for £549. Hmm.

Even the base model is more than what I’d want to pay now that I’ve tested the Lenovo Legion Go S. In a nutshell, its new AMD Ryzen Z2 GO chip shares more similarities with the custom chip in the Steam Deck OLED than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme within the OG Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with that, but if I’m being real, you can’t slap a premium price tag on a handheld wrestling within the sub $400 ring.

Design

Let me make one thing clear – the Lenovo Legion Go S gets almost full marks for design. It almost feels like someone listened to me moan about the original’s laptop vibes, as this model packs an 8-inch IPS display into a much sleeker package. Gone are the removable TrueStrike controllers, aggressive angles, and smooth plastics of the OG portable. Instead, we have plenty of ergonomic curves, pleasing grippy texturized sides, and far nicer buttons than last time around.

It’d be weird if the ‘S’ Legion Go didn’t weigh less, but I’m pleased to report it’s 740g (1.63lbs). That’s a noticeable difference compared to the 854g (1.88lbs) weighing down the original, even if it’s still a chonker compared to the 580g Asus ROG Ally. Shifting the heat naturally helps the handheld feel nicer to hold, especially when paired with a slimmer back and more pronounced grips.

The main thing that gave me the ick with the original Legion Go was how hollow the back felt. It’s a design choice that’s often the result of cooling techniques, and while the S model also has big vent grills at the back, there’s far less space between the innards and shell. Perhaps I’m being picky, but I like handhelds to feel pretty compacted, and this new version feels just as solid as the ROG Ally in that regard.

I’d argue that the biggest improvement to be found with the Legion Go S is on the gamepad side of things. Lenovo has gone back to the drawing board with all of its buttons, resulting in more tactile thumbsticks, a drastically improved circular d-pad, a thoughtfully placed set of back toggles, and decent shoulder buttons. The only element that’s still not quite to my liking is the shallower-than-average face buttons, but even those are pretty serviceable and not what I’d call a deal breaker.

You’ll perhaps have noticed that I said the Legion Go S almost gets the design right. That’s largely because I’m a little miffed at the tiny touchpad that’s included for mouse inputs. The sensation of using this thing is a bit like the little keyboard nipple included with classic IBM Thinkpads, and that’s sort of amusing since Lenovo now owns that brand. Simply put, the pad is so small that moving the handheld’s cursor around Windows 11 is more frustrating than convenient, and I’d rather just use the joysticks to click around the OS when needed.

On the aesthetic front, the Legion Go S is rocking a new white shell with contrasting black buttons. The accents prevent it from looking too clinical, but you can bet this handheld will end up pretty grubby and prone to marks. That’s less a criticism of Lenovo’s newfound tastes and more a fact of owning lighter colored devices, and it could be another reason to wait for the “Nebula Violet” SteamOS version.

Features

Gaming handhelds and flamboyant features go hand in hand, and while the Legion Go S cuts back on gimmicks, it comes with a few new tricks. Some of its evolved elements feel a little lacklustre, like that comically small touchpad, but the new all-in-one design has allowed for an adjustable trigger system that adds a nice hint of versatility.

Lenovo isn’t first out the door with adjustable handheld triggers, that accolade goes to the Zotac Zone,but it’s a feature that will help make the system more comfortable for a bunch of players, including myself. Sometimes, clicky hair trigger presses are a much better fit and can save larger handhelds from feeling unbalanced in the hands, whereas I’ve got friends who can’t stand not having full action when playing shooters. I’d personally rather click shots in Cyberpunk 2077 and save full presses for racing games or scenarios that need sustained input, but everyone will have different tastes when it comes to portable play.

On the connectivity front, the Legion Go S is armed with two USB-C ports, which is slowly becoming a standard at this point. The idea here is that you’ll be able to charge up that chonky 55.5Whr battery while hooking up a gaming monitor using DisplayPort 1.4 output. I’m in two minds over whether this is actually useful, as you’re still going to want one of the best Steam Deck docks if you’re aiming for full integration with your desktop accessories, but it will mean you don’t need any add-ons out of the box for quickly hooking up to a gaming TV.

I can take an extra USB-C port, but I’ll absolutely leave features like a dual array built-in mic. Maybe I’m a grump who just has no friends to talk to, or maybe I’m just struggling to see why you’d use something like that over a gaming headset on a handheld. Either way, squeezing audio capture into a device like this feels like it’d impact the end cost, and I’d skip on it even if it only cut Lenovo’s MSRP down by a few dollars. Simply put, don’t stick needless extras in your handheld if it’s already sitting at a risky price point.

Technically, Windows 11 is also a “feature”, even if it’s one I think sours the experience. Perhaps that’s a bit harsh since we’re talking about an OS that’ll allow you to run practically any game your PC can, but it’s still nowhere near being handheld friendly, even with Lenovo’s LegionSpace app attempting to bridge gaps.

It doesn’t help that the version of Microsoft’s operating system installed feels immensely bloated and has some irritating tweaks enabled, like a taskbar that’ll auto-hide no matter what you tell it. Plus, vital elements like sleep mode are janky at best and unusable at worst, with the Legion Go S outright refusing to properly nap when plugged in. These flaws aren’t even just an inherent part of the Windows 11 handheld experience, as rivals like the Ayaneo Flip DS and other similar devices come with far less frustration before launching into games.

That’s not to say Lenovo isn’t trying to enhance its Windows 11 experience, and LegionSpace has come a long way since 2023. It still doesn’t do enough to stop me immediately launching into Steam Big Picture mode, and the side quick settings menu is unsettlingly temperamental and laggy. I’m also not a fan of Lenovo thrusting its digital game store in your face rather than providing a clearer hub. But, it’s pleasant enough to navigate when the itch to change RGB thumbstick colors or play with in-depth power settings arises.

Performance

Price and performance go hand in hand, and oh boy, the Legion Go S doesn’t punch like a $729 handheld. Frankly, launching into a new generation with the Ryzen Z2 Go was pretty foolish of Lenovo, as I knew it wouldn’t come close to matching the Z1 Extreme based on its specs. Now that I’ve taken the handheld for a proper spin, I can confidently say that it should be trading blows with the Steam Deck in the sub-$500 ring, as its benchmarks get bludgeoned to a pulp in the premium pit.

I kicked things off by running a few test games at 800p on the Legion Go S to see how it directly compares to the Steam Deck. The handheld managed at 45fps average while running Cyberpunk 2077 with low settings enabled, which isn’t atrocious at a glance. My issue is that it’s not a huge uplift compared to Valve’s handheld, as the Deck reaches 43fps in the same test scenario. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t smell like a $729 boost.

Hitman 3 still stresses out entry-level PCs to this day, so I always install it on new handhelds. The Legion Go S managed to nudge playable results by sticking to around 41fps at 800p. The Deck isn’t far behind with a 36fps average and, while it’s still a win for Lenovo, it’s not what I’d call a graceful victory.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider manages to fare well on the Legion Go S with a 70fps average – a nice lead compared to 53fps on the Deck. A nicer result, but one that’s worth paying over $300 more for? I don’t even have to say it. Keep in mind that these benchmarks are designed to squeeze the highest frame rates possible out of the handheld, and unplugging the system and using it at lower wattage naturally produces far lower results.

Stepping away from the Steam Deck fight and focusing on the Lenovo Legion Go S vs the original is even more harrowing. If my figures reaffirm anything, it’s that the new handheld is very much a light version of the OG, despite technically using a next-gen Ryzen APU. You’re looking at 25fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1200p versus 38fps on the 2023 model, and Hitman 3 widens the gap further with respective 34fps and 51fps results.

Not to pile on Lenovo’s device, but there is another huge issue with this handheld – it wields next-gen hardware without solving our current battery dilemma. I could look past Steam Deck-level frame rates if I could grab the Legion Go S for $400, but the closer I get to the $1,000 mark, the more I’m going to expect an fps boost with runtime to match. Not only are you not getting the same frame rates as the original Legion Go, but you’re only going to be cutting the cord for the same length of time as Valve’s portable.

In proper gameplay sessions, and with brightness sitting half way, the Legion Go S lasted around 1.5 hours. That was my average when exclusively adventuring around in new releases like Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Avowed, but I managed to keep the portable running for around 3 hours when wrestling with Windows 11. You’ll realistically be looking at that latter figure if you set “Thermal Mode” to Balanced and mix up playing games with general use activities, which is similar to my experience with the Steam Deck OLED.

At this point, I feel like I’m bullying the Legion Go S, so I’ll touch on another con followed up with some praise. The first is that Lenovo’s handheld likes to get noisy, and its fans are noticeably louder than the Steam Deck OLED or the ROG Ally. It’s not as intrusive if you keep your wattage down low, but that’s not going to do the Ryzen Z2 GO APU any favors.

On the other hand, that promised praise relates to the 1200p 120Hz IPS display and its accompanying speakers. The screen’s nice contrast levels, decent brightness, and respectable colors cheered me up during testing, while the surprisingly punchy front-firing speakers helped mask fan noise without remotely sounding tinny.

I found myself pretty absorbed in the Souls-like indie caper FlyKnight while testing the Lenovo Legion Go S, and it's a good example of a scenario where performance, refresh rate, and resolution all feel like a good fit, even if running a game that takes visual queues from old Runescape isn't exactly a feat.

If the device was even just a bit more powerful than the OG Legion Go, I could see myself using it over an OLED handheld even if it meant compromising on vibrancy. I do rank Lenovo's choice of display among the best within the portable PC scene right now, and while not convinced we need to be pairing lower spec Ryzen chips with anything over 1080p, playing lighter romps at 1200p does produce crisp visuals.

Should you buy the Lenovo Legion Go S?

No, you shouldn’t buy the Lenovo Legion Go S right now. Trust me when I say it pains me to say that, as I fully believe that the cheaper SteamOS version will make for a great Steam Deck when it eventually arrives. I actually think the Windows 11 model could have ranked among the top premium handhelds if it wasn’t rocking that underwhelming Ryzen Z2 GO chip. But alas, this specific device isn’t worth $729, and there are countless options you could pick up for a chunk less that pack a more appropriate frame rate punch.

Ultimately, the Lenovo Legion Go S is a contradiction. Its name suggests it’s a light version of the first model, but its price and additional specs point towards it being a successor. My heart aches for this mixed up handheld and, since I truly believe the company is onto a winner with this formfactor, I hope its blueprint helps the eventual SteamOS model thrive soon.

How I tested the Lenovo Legion Go S

I used the Lenovo Legion Go S as my everyday handheld to assess its performance, battery life, visuals, and audio in general use for two weeks. In addition, I also used Cyberpunk 2077, Hitman 3, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider as benchmark games to compare performance to the Steam Deck OLED and Windows 11 alternatives like the Asus ROG Ally and original Legion Go.

For more information on how we test handhelds and other portable gaming devices, swing by our full GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

Looking for add-ons for Valve's handheld? Take a peek at the best Steam Deck accessories. Alternatively, check out the best retro consoles for a portable system that'll run the classics.

Monster Hunter Wilds has been an absolute behemoth for Capcom, selling 8 million copies within the first three days of release and becoming Capcom’s fastest-selling game of all time in the process. While it was bound to do well by virtue of having the words ‘Monster Hunter’ in the title (World and Rise are currently Capcom’s number one and two best-selling games of all time, after all), Monster Hunter World sold 5 million in the same time frame, so Wilds’ success is even more impressive. And the producer of the series, Ryozo Tsujimoto, reckons the increased focus on story has something to do with it.

Speaking to The Nikkei (translated via Google), Tsujimoto – when quizzed on how Monster Hunter Wilds had become such a success – said "we placed emphasis on the story and increased the immersive feeling with the voice actors' voices." Later adding that he believes players were able to "get a feel for the world of Monster Hunter" and that was done by depicting "how the hunters are seen by others in the world of Monster Hunter… and what the hunters are thinking."

While Wilds definitely has the most robust plot in the Monster Hunter series, it hasn’t gone down so well with some of the fanbase. Some players called the game’s story "relentless on-rails handholding," with specific criticism aimed at the walk-and-talk scenes. Meanwhile, others were big fans of the characters – namely Rove and Gemma – although almost everyone can agree that the lead-up to Low Rank’s final boss is peak.

However, the story can’t take all the credit. Tsujimoto also mentions in the interview that another factor of Wilds’ success is because Capcom "made it possible to link play between different game consoles." Not only is this the first time in the series that the PC release (which outdid both PS5 and Xbox Series X in the US) is available at the same time as the console launch, but it’s the first Monster Hunter game with crossplay, which undoubtedly allowed some more squads of hunters to team up for the first time. I personally believe the simultaneous PC release and enduring popularity of Monster Hunter World are likely the biggest reasons for Monster Hunter Wilds doing so well out of the gate, so the crossplay focus rings more true in my eyes.

Gemma is one of the most beloved characters in Monster Hunter Wilds, and her voice actor has been requesting tips for beginners so that she can get into the series.

WWE 2K25 Store Unlocks

There are 80 wrestlers who you can add to the WWE 2K25 roster using the in-game store. Here’s the full list…

WWE 2K25 MyRise Unlocks

MyRise is great this year, although you’ll need at least two playthroughs to unlock every character. Here’s how to get each of them.

WWE 2K25 MyFaction Unlocks

MyFaction Persona Cards are back. Unlock these characters in that mode and you can use them across the rest of the game, too.

WWE 2K25 The Bloodline Showcase Unlocks

The Bloodline Showcase serves up a selection of characters, attire, arenas and championships. Here’s everything you can unlock, in match order.

Yokozuna vs Hulk Hogan

• Yokozuna
• Hulk Hogan
• Hulk Hogan Wrestlemania 5 Attire
• Hulk Hogan KOTR ’93 Attire
• Mr Fuji (Manager)
• Jimmy Hart (Manager)
• Jimmy Hart KOTR ’93 Attire
• King Of The Ring ’93 (Arena)
• WWE Championship ’93 (Championship)

Headshrinkers vs Steiner Brothers

• Rick Steiner
• Scott Steiner ’93
• Headshrinker Samu
• Headshrinker Fatu
• Afa (Manager)
• WrestleMania IX (Arena)

Rocky Maivia vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley

• Rocky Maivia
• Hunter Hearst Helmsley
• Intercontinental Championship ’97 (Championship)
• Thursday Raw Thursday 1997 (Arena)

“High Chief” Peter Maivia vs George “The Animal” Steele

• George “The Animal” Steele
• “High Chief” Peter Maivia
• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase reward

Nia Jax vs Lyra Valkyria

• Nia Jax
• Lyra Valkryia ’24

Rikishi vs Stone Cold Steve Austin

• Rikishi 
• Stone Cold Steve Austin ’00
• Stone Cold Steve Austin ’00 No Mercy 2000 Attire
• No Mercy 2000 (Arena)

Umaga vs John Cena

• Umaga
• John Cena ’07
• Armando Alejandro Estrada (Manager)
• WWE Championship ’07 (Championship)
• New Year’s Revolution 2007 (Arena)

3 Minute Warning vs AOP

• Jamal
• Rosey
• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase Reward

Tamina vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch vs Carmella vs Natalya

• Natalya
• Tamina
• Carmella ’17
• Becky Lynch ’17
• Charlotte Flair ’17
• Money In The Bank 2017 (Arena)

The Usos vs The New Day

• Big E
• Kofi Kingston ’17
• Xavier Woods ’17
• Jimmy Uso ’17
• Jey Uso ’17
• Tag Team Championship ’17 (Championship)
• Hell In A Cell 2017 (Arena)
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward x2

Naomi vs Bayley

• Bayley ’20
• Naomi ’20
• Smackdown Women’s Championship ’20 (Championship)
• Super ShowDown (Arena)

Wild Samoans vs Dudley Boyz

• Afa
• Sika
• Captain Lou Albano (Manager)
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

Solo Sikoa vs Carmelo Hayes

• Solo Sikoa ’22
• Carmelo Hayes ’22
• Trick Williams ’22 (Manager)
• NXT 2.0 2022 (Arena)

Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins

• Roman Reigns ’22
• Seth Rollins ’22
• Universal Championship ’22 (Championship)
• Royal Rumble 22 (Arena)

The OG Bloodline vs The Rogue Bloodline

• MyFaction Sapphire Showcase Reward
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

The Islanders vs The Street Profits

• Islander Haku
• Islander Tama
• Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan
• Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan Alternate Attire
• MyFaction Emerald Showcase Reward

The Tribal Gauntlet

• Jey Uso ’10
• Jimmy Uso ’10
• Tamina ’10
• The Tribal Hall Of Acknowledgement (Arena)

For even more wrestlers, check out our WWE 2K25 DLC guide.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

I absolutely adore FTL. It's my Steam game with the most hours pumped into it by far. It never got a sequel though. Instead, developer Subset Games moved onto Into The Breach, which is still good, but it just doesn't give me the same je ne sais quois. I played the free Void War demo and am happy to report back it's basically just FTL with a Warhammer 40K vibe.

Now, it might not be quite as good as FTL, but that still makes it a pretty fun game to play. Just like FTL, Void War sees you taking your ship through various space nodes and fighting a galactic war. There are subsystems that you have to assign power to, various weapons you can equip to your ship, and each node you visit has a random event. It could be good, like some free scrap you can use to upgrade your reactor, or bad, like an ambush.

Unfortunately, Void War doesn't have some of the quality of life features FTL does, like clearly displayed shortcuts for assigning subsystem power, and it's also a lot easier than FTL ever was.

Where the Warhammer 40K comparison comes in is with the story and overall aesthetic of the game. While the HUD and gameplay are essentially copies of FTL, the whole vibe of the game is decidedly Warhammer. There's a dying Imperial empire, a fallen God-King, and several cults that exist throughout the star systems. If you think that sounds like Warhammer's Imperium, God-Emperor, and cults of the Chaos Gods, you'd be right.

There are also mechanical units called Husks, which are "crudely built servants made of flesh and steel," whose "brainstem has been surgically altered for reliability and ease of maintenance." These are just Servitors from 40K. The spaceships you pilot are also described as ancient, just like all the Imperium's technology. It's all dripping with that grim-dark sci-fi style.

All in all, it's a decent little game, and I'm excited for the full thing to come out in Q2 of 2025 – that's sometime between April and June. It may not be quite as good, but Void War feels like the closest thing we'll ever get to an FTL sequel. Check it out on Steam, right here.

While you're here, you should check out all the must-play indies of 2024 that you may have missed out on.

Speed, Balance, and Control are the order of the day, with each of SteelSeries' new gaming mouse pads offering a slightly different feel based on texture, stitch patterns, and fabric weave. I've had all three on my testing deck over the last few weeks, swapping each out for different genres and use-cases to see if they can become the new best mouse pads for gaming.

All of the mouse pads in the SteelSeries QcK Performance line come in either L or XL sizing, featuring the same MSRPs ($39.99 and $49.99 respectively). They're available right now via SteelSeries and select retailers.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Control

I started my testing with the Control pad. Like most, my gaming setup needs to put on a suit and tie during the day as I work, and between smaller photo editing adjustments and the sheer number of times I accidentally close a tab this felt like the most natural choice for everyday use. The surface is considerably coarser than the Speed model, with a rough feel under the arm during use. That never grew uncomfortable, though - in fact, it provided a pleasant sense of control and grip even before I placed my hand on a gaming mouse.

The Control pad is designed to provide better stopping power, more accurate mouse sweeps, and finer precision in smaller movements thanks to this textured design. It absolutely nails the brief. I'm glad I chose to slap this one on the desk first, because it's easily my favorite.

The rough surface never feels too cumbersome for flashes of faster movement, I was still able to zip through Avowed's more frantic combat moments and keep a solid pace in CS2. However, there's just enough granularity in this surface to keep a high DPI at bay, still keeping clicks tight and controlled during slower moments.

I'm currently using a Razer Basilisk V3 Pro, and combining the mouse's DPI-slowing sniper button with the SteelSeries QcK Control's grainier texture made for particularly precise sniper shots. Ramping up the DPI on something lighter like the Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX was also far less manic, allowing for faster sweeps without the jittery over-extension I usually experience when running at sensitivities higher than around 8,000.

There is a little extra drag, that's what this mouse pad has been designed to offer, which does compound the feeling of extra weight in a larger mouse like the Basilisk. If you're using a lightweight speedster but still want access to a greater sense of accuracy this is a fantastic pickup.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Speed

At the other end of the spectrum we have the Speed pad. This is an almost-slick surface that provides the same kind of glide feel as a hard pad, but with the comfort and malleability of a traditional soft design. That's a potent combination, and while I preferred the Control pad for everyday work and most of my games, faster assaults like Apex Legends and CS2 do benefit from the additional slip of this surface.

I was able to move much quicker across the pad and still maintain some degree of control over my movements, though there was definitely less precision in my gameplay than on the above model. Both the heavier Basilisk V3 Pro and lighter Logitech DEX moved nicely over the finer-weaved surface, though the particularly low-weight Razer Viper V3 Pro was particularly swift on this surface. That sometimes translated into a little more of a flick than I was expecting, and I had to adjust my muscle memory accordingly, minimizing my right-hand movements compared to the wider gestures I would make on the Corsair MM700 Extended (my daily driver).

If you're a particularly fast competitive player this is going to be a massive win. Smaller movements means less time spent actually making your plays, and increasing the tracking specs of your mouse's sensor can get those flicks and twists down to simple twitches. However, I'd recommend the reliability and stopping power of the Control or Balance models for the majority of players out there.

SteelSeries QcK Performance: Balance

Finally, we have the happy medium. The SteelSeries QcK Balance gaming mouse pad aims to provide a better halfway point between controlled movements and faster glides. This is essentially the next generation of the standard SteelSeries QcK mouse pad we've all come to know and love, combining speed, comfort, and control into one Goldilocks mat. It's the model most players are going to gravitate towards first, and the one we should see the most action out of.

Like both the Speed and Control, the new generation is thicker, with edged stitching to better protect against frays in the longer term. The SteelSeries logo has also been darkened into a gray rather than the stark white we saw in the original. The actual feel of the pad sits more on the control side than speed. There's a less effortless glide here, with more attention paid to stopping power and finer movements. Being a fan of the QcK Control, this is a lean I'm happy to support. It's much more comfortable for everyday work tasks and more game genres overall.

There's a much less noticeable drag compared to the full texture of the Control model, which is going to keep those who use a heavier gaming mouse particularly nimble.

Should you buy a SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pad?

SteelSeries is well known for the durability and glide of its mouse pads, it's why the original QcK has stood at the top of our ranks for a couple of years now. The latest iteration keeps the all-in-one nature of the original with the Balance mat, but also brings new options for speed-focused and more precision-minded players. Of the three, the Control pad is the most refreshing. Very few mouse pads are confident enough to actually add an element of drag to their feel, but the extra accuracy it brings to both gameplay and everyday productivity has been a real benefit in my testing. If you use a heavier mouse, the Balance model still offers a grainier feel than the previous generation but provides a smoother glide for a more comfortable experience overall.

The Speed model is certainly fast, and is going to give competitive players looking to milk high DPI settings an edge. The vast majority, though, should be looking to the two more tactile models for a real sense of control.

Right now, only the square Large and Extra Large models are available, whereas I naturally prefer an XXL or an Extended design. It means that, during testing, I have to keep my keyboard veered slightly too far left to truly be comfortable for day to day typing (lest it overlap with the pad itself). In-game, I tend to angle the keyboard anyway, and there's no swapping my right hand between devices, so there's less of a sizing issue if you're buying for a dedicated gaming setup.

Other than the size, the only feature I found myself missing during testing was the RGB lighting of my Corsair MM700 Extended. It does mean I had fewer wires trailed around my setup, but I did enjoy the extra pzazz brought to my setup, and the relatively simple-looking SteelSeries model didn't bring the same level of flair to my desk top.

How I tested the SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads

I used the SteelSeries QcK Performance Speed, Control, and Balance mouse pads over the course of two weeks. I split my time evenly between each pad during that time, while also comparing against the previous generation QcK and QcK Heavy on the desk as well. I used both a heavy (112g) Razer Basilisk V3 Pro gaming mouse and lighter Razer Viper V3 Pro (55g) and Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX (60g) mice in both wired and wireless mode. For more information on how we make our recommendations, check out the full GamesRadar+ Hardware Policy.

I'm also rounding up all the best wireless gaming mouse models and hunting down the best left-handed mouse for gaming. Or, take a look at the best gaming keyboards for a full setup refresh.

Spider-Man is a duelist who is designed for maximum mobility. Players can swing around entire maps within seconds, which makes Spider-Man a pesky opponent. He can quickly deal damage and find shelter before you even know what's happening. A good Spider-Man will thus have you sounding like J. Jonah Jameson – especially if you have the misfortune of being a fragile character who hangs out in the back lane. Heck, a good Spider-Man can kill you without ever throwing a punch: all he has to do is pull you off the map with a well-placed web.

Web-slinging woes

Spider-Man's deadliness, combined with his mainstream appeal – he's one of the most recognizable heroes of them all – make picking him tempting for nearly anyone trying out Marvel Rivals for the first time. The hero shooter also offers some of the highest number of skins for Spider-Man, which include excellent costumes like the one where he wears a paper bag over his head. This would all be well and good, except Spider-Man also has a high skill ceiling; the game rates him as one of the more difficult characters to master. As a result, people who are nowhere near ready to try Spider-Man are flocking to him, much to the dismay of their teammates.

Spider-Man relies on his close range punching ability to deal damage, which often means getting right in the middle of the fray. Without much health to speak of, however, an unskilled player can die repeatedly at a speed that other heroes can't match. You'd be surprised at how many deaths someone can fit into a single minute if it only takes them two seconds to get to the enemy.

It's gotten so bad that people will quickly take to chat if they spot a Spider-Man on their team. And if that team loses, Spider-Man will get blamed for it.

"I had a couple of games where I'll lock [Spider-Man] in and have people immediately ask me to switch," one bewildered duelist main remarked on Reddit. The top response? "If he's on your team, he sucks. If he's on the enemy team, he's a backline killing god."

Adding insult to injury, Spider-Man also enjoys a team-up with Venom that gives him an extra attack. You know, just in case he didn't immediately kill you with his basic arsenal.

When you can't force a teammate to switch, the next best thing you can do is have a laugh about it. Unsurprisingly, the trials and tribulations of players who have to suffer playing with or against Spider-Man has become a fantastic meme within the community.

@renbito

♬ original sound - DA Francisco

"Healers working a double shift with no break," reads one of the top comments on a TikTok about nonchalant Spider-Men who won't switch even as they've netted 0 kills and 15 deaths. Then again, you could argue that this is merely Spider-Man following his ideals: like Batman, the hero isn't supposed to kill anyone.

Even when your Spider-Man doesn't suck, he's likely still proving the nightmare axiom true. "Had someone get mad I picked Spidey and I proceeded to get MVP with 20 kills 6 deaths," remarked one player on Twitter. Pour one out for the other team. You'd think things would be better in Ranked, but no. People still complain any time Spider-Man appears on their screen. As someone who is currently learning how to play the character, I now begin every Quick Play match by apologizing to my entire team.

"Any time I see him on the enemy team I know I'm going to have a bad time," a Redditor complained in a thread breaking down why it's so awful to go up against a skilled Spider-Man player. "Yes I know I made a post like this before, but this guy is really really getting on my nerves and I can't stand him," they confessed.

But if it's any consolation at all, the new clone Marvel Rivals mode–where everyone plays the same character–is about to give a bunch of Spider-Man mains a taste of their own medicine. For everyone else, clone mode will be one of the few havens safe from the tyranny and disappointment trailing the infamous webslinger.

Check out our Marvel Rivals characters tier list and the best heroes.

The surprise sequel only launched yesterday, currently sitting on Steam with a 10% discount as an introductory offer and "positive" reviews overall so far. Beyond the Ice Palace 2 ticks all of the nostalgia-inducing boxes boasted by genre classics like the old-school Castlevania games, featuring engaging level design, brutal bosses, challenging combat, platform puzzles, pixel-perfect visuals, and, of course, a whip.

While it hasn't been out very long, Metroidvania fans are already praising it for such features. "If you're a fan of Castlevania and Blasphemous, you'll enjoy this," reads one Steam review. Another praises the sequel's "superb graphics and soundtrack," noting that "this one is more in the style of Castlevania" than the first Beyond the Ice Palace title was and "the whip has many fun uses and combat combinations."

It sounds like a solid follow-up to a Commodore 64 gem, and while the original might not be remembered as one of the best retro games of all time, Beyond the Ice Palace 2 sounds as though it's not only bringing the OG back into the limelight but also giving the title a fresh reputation with gameplay enjoyable by both longtime fans and newcomers alike. As one Steam player writes, it's "a great throwback to the SNES action-adventure genre."

If you're interested in platforming your way to victory while whipping some behemoth bosses back into shape yourself, you can snag Beyond the Ice Palace 2 now on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, or on the Nintendo Switch.

Looking for something else to play? Here are some of the best Metroidvania games around.

That's $20 cheaper than the lofty MSRP of the previous model. The first PowerPlay mouse pad hit the shelves all the way back in 2017 at $119.99, and while we're talking about small change considering this is still a pretty expensive mouse pad for gaming, that two-figure sum could squeak it into the budgets of Logi fans who already have compatible rodents under their hands.

Spending over $100 for a mouse pad always felt ludicrous, but discounts in the coming months could drop the PowerPlay 2 to around $80 if we're lucky, and the similar original model could well nosedive after this release. Considering you're spending that cash to stop charging your mouse all together, it's not a completely unreasonable value proposition.

This is more than an optimized surface to improve glide, after all. Low-frequency electromagnets keep a small puck in compatible mice charged up the entire time they're on the pad - whether they're moving or still. It's a system of never-ending battery that, as I sit and watch my current pointer blinking red at me, I can't help but envy. After all, I seem perfectly happy to drop more than that on a portable charger for my phone and other accessories, and this is a device I use constantly for between seven and ten hours a day.

It's a small / medium pad (anything extended would be unnecessary considering its charging capabilities), but the 344 x 284mm footprint still gives you a good amount of space for sweeps. Thickness is par for the course, with all components coming together for a total of 3.5mm depth. That's still thinner than the original thanks to the surface cover cutting its waist line.

There are currently eleven Logitech gaming mice that are compatible with the PowerPlay 2 charging system:

• Logitech G309
• Logitech G502 X Plus
• Logitech G502 X Lightspeed
• Logitech G502
• Logitech G703
• Logitech G903
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX
• Logitech G Pro X Superlight
• Logitech G Pro 2 Lightspeed
• Logitech G Pro Wireless

It's worth reiterating that these are the only gaming mice that can be charged via the pad's electromagnetic system. Even if you have the best gaming mouse on the market, if it's not on that list it's not going to be charging. Similarly, the surface is designed to work with the included puck, which fits neatly into the above devices, so there's no Qi charging for phones or other peripherals available here.

Where to buy the Logitech PowerPlay 2

I'm also hunting down the best wireless gaming mouse models as well as the best gaming keyboard. Or, take a look at the best Razer mice for more from the competition.

Fortnite may not have been the first game to do a battle pass, but it’s safe to say it's the reason why what seems to be every game has one now. I personally don’t mind them too much, but the absolute worst thing about them is that once they’re gone, you can’t get anything from them (what do you mean I can’t get the Spider-Man skin?). One such skin was Lara Croft, who appeared in the Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 6 Battle Pass back in early 2021.

Since that season ended back in June 2021, there’s been no way to get Lara Croft in Fortnite, but that could be changing in the near future as Fortnite leaker extraordinaire ShiinaBR has revealed on Twitter that a new version of Lara Croft is set to arrive in Fortnite. While the skin itself hasn’t been found, a description saying "A globetrotting archaeologist with a penchant for dangerous adventures" was in today’s update.

While Epic Games did confirm that Battle Pass skins will now return to the game’s Item Shop after an exclusivity window, it only applies to skins from Chapter 5: Season 4 onwards, meaning that Lara Croft’s original skin won’t be back. Considering this version featured the 2013 reboot version of the character, the Tomb Raider: Legend-era design, and a low-poly version that looks like those Lucozade ads, video game versions of the character seem less likely.

That leaves some options like Alicia Vikander or Angelina Jolie’s movie variants of the character, one based on the recent Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft animated series, or maybe the clad-in-black version seen in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness.

Lara Croft had the honor of being the first video game crossover character to be included in a Fortnite battle pass. Since then we’ve had the likes of Solid Snake, Doomguy, and old Gerry from The Witcher make an appearance. Most recently, Mortal Kombat’s Sub-Zero is available in the current Chapter 6 Season 2 battle pass, so if Lara returns, she’ll be able to team with the master of ice (and the iconic Big Dill).

If you’re excited for Lara’s return but haven’t played any of her games, we’ve got you covered with a list of the best Tomb Raider games.

The video – which has now been taken down from YouTube following a copyright strike – was revealed by The Verge (after being shared by an anonymous source), and is presented by Sharwin Raghoebardajal from PlayStation Studios Advanced Technology Group. He explains that the tech demo uses OpenAI's speech recognition model, Whisper, to turn voice into text, as well as Llama 3 and GPT-4 for "the conversation and decision making."

Furthermore, it uses Sony's own Emotional Voice Synthesis system to generate Aloy's speech, although Raghoebardajal adds that none of the "emotional settings" have been touched yet (and you can definitely tell). Finally, an internal system called Mockingbird is used to power Aloy's facial movements, converting audio to animation.

All that's to say that this is an AI-powered interactive character, through and through. The prototype, which we see running in Horizon Forbidden West, allows users to speak to Aloy both in an "interview" setting and during gameplay, to ask her questions about herself, her surroundings, and general gameplay mechanics. For example, while roaming the world, she's asked if she can see any enemies around her, and further prompted to explain what their weak spots are, and what weapon she's currently holding.

The whole thing feels slightly less unnerving while used in the game itself (largely due to the facial movements seen in the interview mode just looking a bit off), but the obviously synthesized voice is very offputting regardless. At least in this video, none of Aloy's personality comes across in her responses, either – there's certainly no illusion that it's actually Aloy responding to the questions, but perhaps that's due to the lack of "emotional settings" Raghoebardajal mentions. Not everyone was a fan of the actual character's quips and remarks in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, but I'd personally take those any day over this.

Of course, it's worth keeping in mind that, at this stage, this is just a tech demo to give an idea of "what is possible," according to Raghoebardajal. He acknowledges that "we will not go into whether this is fun for games, whether it even makes sense to talk to Aloy when you're her when playing the game, whether we even want to talk to the controller, or where we're going to get the memory from to run this all on a consumer console." Needless to say, there's no guarantee that this sort of thing is ever going to make it into an actual PlayStation game.

While you're here, be sure to check out our picks for the best PS5 games you can play now.

The news comes from Square Enix's socials, where the company asks you to sit tight and "please look forward" to more information as it comes over the next year.

"Today marks the 30th anniversary of the release of "Chrono Trigger" in 1995," a tweet reads. "This timeless masterpiece that transcends generations and is still talked about today was born from a dream project by Yuji Horii of 'Dragon Quest,' Akira Toriyama of 'Dragon Ball,' and Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of 'Final Fantasy.'

"As we mark the 30th anniversary, we will be launching various projects that go beyond the world of the game over the next year to express our gratitude to everyone who has played Chrono Trigger so far."

We'll have to wait and see what those plans look like in full, though it has been revealed that the Square Enix Music Channel on YouTube is hosting a special livestream spotlighting Chrono Trigger's soundtrack on March 14.

Maybe that's the gist of what we'll get in the future, maybe not. Me? A way to play Chrono Trigger beyond PC would be lovely. The PC port has improved over time following a rocky launch, but the option to play the beloved JRPG on the PS5 or Nintendo Switch would be dandy, just like we can with follow-up Chrono Cross.

Final Fantasy 7 concept artist Yoshitaka Amano's new gallery exhibit summarizes everything I love about the Square Enix games, even though he might have stood me up.

In a lengthy post on Twitter, Kojima reveals he first became aware of the actor when watching 2015’s ‘They Call Me Jeeg,’ and the two were put in contact with each other in 2020 when Kojima was asked to help promote the 2020 film ‘Martin Eden’ for its release in Japan. Marinelli told Kojima, "I grew up with Metal Gear. I am a big fan of yours. I am very honored that you saw the film I starred in." And two years later, in 2022, when casting Neil for the game, Kojima "decided that Luca was the only choice for the role."

And while it was hinted at in the trailer that Neil would be taking on a similar role to Mads Mikkelsen’s Cliff from the original Death Stranding, Kojima outright confirms that "Neil would be an important role that replaces Cliff from DS1." But the director is confident that Marinelli will take things to the next level, saying, "the fans would not be satisfied unless the casting would surpass Mads."

Kojima also revealed that he asked the actor for advice on who should play the character of Lucy, who is seen sharing scenes with Neil throughout the trailer. Marinelli then introduced him to his wife, Alissa Jung, who has been acting in German TV series' since the 90s. Neil and Lucy seem to be in a relationship in the game, so a husband-and-wife duo seems like a natural fit. Kojima also revealed that both actors had signed on to be in Death Stranding 2 "when we didn't even have a script yet."

If you’re as excited as I am for Death Stranding 2 and happen to have a spare $1,500 sitting around, you can buy a replica of Neil’s watch in the near future.

Druckmann got his start in video game development at Naughty Dog, and Garland has written both movies and video games and more recently turned to directing films like Annihilation, Ex Machina, and Civil War. Garland also wrote the script for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, a fantastic video game starring Andy Serkis. It's a Western retelling of Journey to the West, the story Black Myth: Wukong is based on.

In the Sony Creator to Creator video, the two chat about being lonely in Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog's upcoming video game, and how it's still evolving and changing during the development process. Druckmann also jokes about how this game about faith and religion will surely get less hate than The Last of Us Part 2.

Towards the end of the conversation, the two get a little more existential. "I've heard you say in some interviews you need to take a break from directing," Druckmann says, adding that some people have "misinterpreted" this as Garland retiring. "I'm curious, asking for a friend, when is it enough? When is it time to stop the compulsion?"

"Compulsion is the word," Garland responds. "Writing is the product of compulsion. For that reason, it's not a free will issue. You either have the compulsion at that moment or you don't. I do find that even when I am not working, I have nothing to work on, I'm just jotting down story ideas. I don't know why. It's quite either zen or existential or something, because I write these things down, I save them somewhere, like on a bit of paper, and then I never look at them again, ever."

Does this mean Druckmann is considering leaving the industry? He's been around for the best part of 20 years, so maybe he wants to do something else with the rest of his life. Maybe he'll go into movies or TV, or maybe he'll just take a step back and do something else entirely. Or maybe he'll just retire.

We can't know for sure, so for now, why don't you check out our list of the best Uncharted games.

Three weeks ago, Solution Knights managed to clear Futures Unwritten, Square Enix's most recent Ultimate raid in Final Fantasy 14, without any healers at all. A full video showcasing the impressive feat is up on YouTube, highlighting the successful party's composition and the strategies employed by the players to manage the no-healer clear. The group consisted of four Paladins, a Reaper, a Dancer, a Red Mage, and a Pictomancer.

As if that wasn't mind-blowing enough, three days ago, Fuures Rewrien (yes, that's a clever play on Futures Rewritten without any "t") did something similar – except this time, without any tanks. The static's composition was markedly different than Solution Knights' aside from its inclusion of a Pictomancer, with a Scholar, Astrologian, Sage, Monk, Dragoon, Ninja, and Bard instead – and no tanks in sight at all, of course.

Now that the raid has been cleared by a group with no healers and a group with no tanks, fans are wondering what's next for the Ultimate. A recent Reddit thread highlighting the no-tank run proves as much, with players discussing the possibility of a no-DPS clear. "Homies better hit us with the no DPS run before 7.2, complete the trifecta," jokes one commenter. Another fan adds, "Now it's time to clear without DPS."

The community is going as far as theorizing compositions and methods for a no-DPS run (or one close to it): "7 tank/healers + 1 Picto." Not everyone is happy about the prospect of such an "easy" Ultimate, however, with some saying Futures Unwritten "will be another UCoB in a few years where you will see kills with 30 deaths." As a longtime raider msyelf, though, I'd argue the Unending Coil of Bahamut is still an impressive clear – as is Futures Unwritten.

What's next for Final Fantasy 14 when its biggest post-Dawntrail patch yet drops later this month?

The latest Xbox handheld round of rumors comes from Windows Central, as a new report claims a new device dubbed codename "Keenan" is set to arrive in 2025. Rather than entering the best gaming handheld race as an entirely new system, it instead looks to be a collaborative effort with an OEM, meaning it'll likely closer resemble an Asus ROG Ally with themed buttons rather than something entirely new.

Microsoft has allegedly stated that project Keenan will look "unmistakably Xbox" and will seemingly feature elements like a guide button and similar "design sensibilities." Simply put, if you picture a portable in your head with those familiar colored face buttons, you probably won't be far off, but I'm more interested in the fact it'll apparently "almost certainly" run Windows.

Let's be real, Microsoft is dragging its feet when it comes to Windows 11 handheld optimization. It did drop some changes to the Game Bar last year that makes the UI feel a bit friendlier, but systems like the new Lenovo Legion Go S really fall short due to the operating system. That's where the new Xbox handheld comes in, as the current rumors are making me think that a big update could arrive alongside the portable PC.

For starters, the ball will be in Microsoft's court when it comes to software bloat. I'd like to think the PC giant would whip up a bloat-free Windows 11 handheld edition at the very least. I mean, I highly doubt anyone is going to use tools like OneDrive on a device like this, so seeing some of the packaged apps streamlined would be a start.

The other biggie is finding a way to make Windows 11 easier to navigate without relying on a third-party middle-man app. I've yet to use a management program that isn't flawed in some sort of a way, and while Valve's Big Picture mode makes for a nice way to pretend every device is a Steam Deck OLED, I'm willing to bet Microsoft is cooking up something that doesn't require overlays.

Alternate modes aren't something Microsoft has played around with much since the dark days of Windows 8 live tiles. But, the core idea of having a touch-friendly mode that's designed to work with specific devices makes sense in the context of handhelds. You're still retaining full PC compatibility, but having a restructured view of the OS that isn't going to randomly freak out and abandon you on a desktop that's near impossible to touch-navigate without fumbled presses would make a huge difference.

It'd also make for a sensible place to better integrate the Game Pass and store features, in turn feeling into that "everything is an Xbox" sentiment. Rather than feeling like a secondary place you need to go to download your subscription games, the handheld could instead make it your primary home for PC downloads, which is naturally going to help the brand's presence in the ruthless world of portable rigs.

I'd still take any Xbox handheld rumors making the rounds right now with a big old grain of salt. Microsoft's involvement in the portable gaming scene right now feels pretty experimental by nature, and even if we do get a branded device by a well known manufacturer, it might not to anything spectacularly different compared to current contenders.

What I am hoping is that Windows starts evolving to become more handheld-friendly as a result of project Keenan. It's probably a good time to note that it's widely believed Windows 12 could show up at the end of the year or early 2026, so it could be that the new portable PC is set to arrive at the same time as Microsoft's latest operating system.

Already got Valve's handheld? Swing by the best Steam Deck accessories and best Steam Deck dock for excellent add-ons. Alternatively, check out the best retro consoles if you need something that'll run the classics.

There's four stages that line up rather nicely with the usual progression of expanding a small business. With each one, you'll be growing your business, becoming a dreamer or schemer and making sure you've got a flurry of happy returning customers. As with any The Sims 4 aspiration, each milestone requires you to carry out tasks, successfully, to achieve it. Here's everything you need to know about completing The Sims 4 Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration in Businesses and Hobbies.

How to choose the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

Like any aspiration in The Sims 4, you choose Esteemed Entrepreneur by selecting it in Create A Sim or during gameplay via the star icon in the bottom right of your screen. For this particular aspiration, you'll need to head to Popularity. It'll be the first option under this category.

The tasks in each of the four stages of this aspiration will require your Sim to become wealthier and well-liked. Without these goals achieved, you'll struggle to complete your aspiration. Fortunately, we've outlined everything you need to do below for each milestone.

How to complete the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

There's four parts to The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration, and for each milestone there's three separate tasks to complete. Firstly, to reach the Friendly Founder milestone, you must do the following:

• Grow your small business to a hopeful hustle: Impress your customers and increase Business Renown by successfully completing business activities, selling goods and services of high quality, setting discounts, and making friends with your customers
• Have 20 customers visit your small business: Increase your Business Renown further by opening your business, talking it up to other Sims, and using small business perks to attract customers
• Acquire a small business perk: When you increase your Business Renown by simply running a great business, you'll earn Perk Points. You can then spend these points on a small business perk. But choose wisely, some of them can affect your alignment (which is about to become important)

For the Popular Operator milestone, you must:

• Grow your small business to a striving startup: Keep earning that Business Renown by opening your business regularly and keeping up with customer reviews to make sure they're happy
• Reach the first level of dreamer or schemer alignment: In your small business menu in the bottom right corner, you can view where you are aligned - a flying duck for dreamer and a purple cat for schemer. Depending on how you want to run your business, you can perform required interactions with customers
• Hire an employee and become friends with them: You can manage your employees under the same small business menu and pick friends or family to run the business with you

For the Honored Home Businessperson milestone, you must:

• Get a happy customer: When you've reached the second level of alignment, you can start getting happy customers
• Grow your small business to a neighborhood gem: Keep on keeping on with running your business in a sufficient and friendly way - this will earn you Renown and eventually level you up
• Reach the second level of dreamer or schemer alignment: Continue carrying out the required interactions with customers to level up and then you'll also get your first happy customer

For the final Esteemed Entrepreneur milestone, you must:

• Grow your small business to a local legend: To reach this level, you need to take your time. Meanwhile, focus on the other two tasks to keep this one ticking along
• Get 5 more happy customers: Interact with customers in a friendly manner, deliver great service and high quality goods and they'll be sure to leave with a smile on their face
• Reach the third level of dreamer or schemer alignment: Carry on with your interactions and the odd moral dilemma will give you an opportunity to level up further, as long as you choose the right alignment option for your Sim

Rewards for completing the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

Congratulations, you've achieved the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration and now you'll receive a reward for your trouble – the Beloved Brand trait. This means whenever your Sim runs a business, they'll immediately be popular and receive positive reviews. Basically, it'll be a lot easier for your Sim to run a successful business and customers will keep returning to your brand time and time again.

Are you enjoying running your own virtual life? Then here's 10 games like The Sims 4 to try next.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Naughty Dog announced The Heretic Prophet at The Game Awards in December 2024, but it's been in development since 2020. That said, if you were hoping to get your hands on it any time soon, you might not want to hold your breath.

"We still have a ways to go and I'm very excited to see [where it goes,] Druckmann said in a new episode of Sony's Creator to Creator video series (timestamped here). "Again, these things are so complex and big and there's so many people involved. It's like, I still don't know exactly what this thing is going to look like at the end. I have a theory, I have an idea, but it's still evolving and changing as we're making it."

Druckmann's words are a little too ambiguous to make any clear-cut call on where The Heretic Prophet is in development, but I would imagine that if it were in the later stages he wouldn't be using conceptual terms like "theory" and "idea." For what it's worth, The Last of Us 2 spent six years in development from 2014 to 2020, although it's worth noting that the Covid-19 pandemic caused a months-long last-minute delay.

Despite a generous four-minute reveal trailer, we still don't know a whole lot about The Heretic Prophet, aside from the fact that it's a sci-fi action game set roughly 2000 years in the future. We do also know it stars a brand new protagonist, a bounty hunter named Jordan A. Mun who finds herself stranded on a dangerous planet that kills anyone who enters its orbit and thus is cut off from the rest of the universe.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is "a game about faith and religion," which Neil Druckmann jokes will surely get less hate than The Last of Us 2.

What is FC 25 FUT Birthday?

Ah, where have you been for the last decade and a half? FUT Birthday is the annual celebration of Ultimate Team, to mark its launch back in March 2009. That’s right, this year the biggest mode in sports turns 16, and naturally it means a shedload of flash new cards to grab off the transfer market, or claim by submitting SBCs. Icons, Heroes and contemporary players all get new items in the promo, which runs for a fortnight.

Who is in FC 25 FUT Birthday Team 1?

FC 25 FUT Birthday Team 1 landed on Friday, March 7, picking up where the FC 25 FUT Fantasy FC tracker left off – although there is still time for cards during that campaign to score upgrades, so keep checking back. FUT Birthday cards can’t score additional boosts like FC 25 RTTF, but they don’t need to anyway. These are already some seriously OP players.

Top of the Team 1 Icons list is Brazilian great Ronaldinho (LW), with a new overall rating of 94. French talisman Patrick Vieira (CM) runs him close, on 94. From the Heroes contingent, a trio of past Premier League favourites are tempting: Ramires (CM, 94), Jay-Jay Okocha (CAM, 93), and Ledley King (CB, 91). It’s another Prem star who fronts the modern-day player list: Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (ST), with a fresh 95 OVR. Sophia Wilson (ST, Portland Timbers-Thorns) is the best female player in the campaign, with a rating of 94. All Team 1 players can be seen on the card list at the foot of this guide.

What is the FC 25 FUT Birthday Team 2 release date?

The FC 25 FUT Birthday Team 2 release date is Friday, March 14, and we’ll list all its cards here during the following weekend. Need more FUT content while you wait? Explore our FC 25 best badges guide.

What’s so special about FC 25 FUT Birthday cards?

Traditionally this is always a massive campaign, but there’s an extra twist this year. Every single FUT Birthday card gets both 5-Star Skill Moves, and 5-Star Weak Foot. And you can make the most of that new upgrade using GR’s FC 25 skill moves guide.

Where can I see the full FC 25 FUT Birthday cards list?

The full FC 25 FUT Birthday cards list, correct as on Monday, March 10, is below. Icons are marked with two asterisks, while Heroes are marked with one. If you’ve just packed a FUT Birthday player and now want him to look swish on the pitch, venture to our FC 25 best kits guide.

• Ronaldinho (LW, Brazil) - 95**
• Patrick Vieira (CM, France) - 94**
• Marco van Basten (ST, Netherlands) - 92**
• Michael Essien (CDM, Ghana) - 92**
• Emmanuel Petit (CM, France) - 91**
• Ramires (CM, Premier League) - 94*
• Celia Sasic (ST, GPFBL) - 93*
• Jay-Jay Okocha (CAM, Premier League) - 93*
• Claudio Marchisio (CM, Serie A) - 92*
• Ledley King (CB, Premier League) - 91*
• Alex Scott (RB, WSL) - 90*
• Erling Haaland (ST, Manchester City) - 95
• Sophia Wilson (ST, Portland Timbers-Thorns) - 94
• Antoine Griezmann (ST, Atletico Madrid) - 94
• Jude Bellingham (CAM, Real Madrid) - 94
• Aitana Bonmati (CM, Barcelona) - 94
• Rafael Leao (LW, AC Milan) - 94
• Ruben Dias (CB, Manchester City) - 93
• Selma Bacha (LB, Lyon) - 93
• Salma Paralluelo (LW, Barcelona) - 93
• Kai Havertz (CM, Arsenal) - 92
• Kai Havertz (ST, Arsenal) - 92
• Chloe Kelly (RW, Arsenal) - 92
• Trent Alexander-Arnold (RB, Liverpool) - 92
• Marcus Thuram (ST, Inter Milan) - 92
• Alejandro Garnacho (LM, Manchester United) - 92
• Isco (CAM, Real Betis).- 91
• Lena Oberdorf (CDM, FC Bayern) - 91
• Moussa Diaby (RM, Al Ittihad) - 91
• Adrien Rabiot (CM, Marseille) - 91
• John Duran (ST, Al Nassr) - 91
• Alexandra Popp (ST, Wolfsburg) - 91
• Ruben Neves (CDM, Al Hilal) - 90
• Nicolas Jackson (ST, Chelsea) - 90
• Serhou Guirassy (ST, Dortmund) - 90
• Jose Reina (GK, Como) - 89
• Stanislav Lobotka (CM, Napoli) - 89
• Dejan Kulusevski (RM, Tottenham) - 89
• Bryan Mbuemo (RW, Brentford) - 88
• Wilfried Singo (CB, Monaco) - 88
• Jota (LW, Celtic) - 88
• Marco Grull (LM, Werder Bremen) - 88
• Nicolas Raskin (CM, Rangers) - 88
• Emily Sams (CB, Orlando Pride) - 88
• Christian Benteke (ST, DC United) - 88

It's fairly common knowledge that Microsoft lost more than $4 billion dollars on the OG Xbox, and it's probably also pretty common to infer that that's the reason it was killed ahead of schedule to make room for the Xbox 360, but now we know that to be explicitly true thanks to the guy who was in charge of Xbox at the time.

Former Xbox boss Peter Moore appeared on the Gamertag Radio podcast (timestamped here) and at one point was asked why Xbox decided to end its first console early.

"We were losing money right left and center on the original Xbox," said Moore. "When your install base and your attach rate to the install base are so out of sync… We knew where we were going with high definition, with broadband in particular, and the legacy platform, the original Xbox, wasn't going to deliver that."

Microsoft clearly learned from its mistakes with the Xbox 360, which was the best-selling console of its generation in the US despite the prevalence of the infamous "Red Ring of Death" that plagued a massive number of early-gen units and cost Microsoft more than a billion dollars. There aren't many companies that can take such a staggering financial loss and keep going, and thankfully Microsoft is one of them.

"There's an inflection point," Moore continued. "There's a law of diminishing returns in video games that if you haven't sold in enough units, and even worse if your attach rate of software to hardware is below where you were projected, you're just hemorrhaging cash. And we were. I mean the good news is we were Microsoft, so we could afford to hemorrhage cash, taking the long view of where we wanted to go in the industry, but at the same time it just made no sense [to keep going with the original Xbox]."

A GTA streamer is trying to beat every single 3D entry without dying, and in 33 hours he's made it as far as San Andreas but keeps getting caught in Vice City purgatory.

"Monster Hunter: Wilds enjoyed a great launch in the US market," Mat Piscatella of US market analyst group Circana says on Bluesky. "Launch week dollar sales were the largest for a title since the debut of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6" last October, Piscatella continues, and the game ranked top in weekly dollar sales across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series consoles.

Most notably, however, is this: "PC was the lead platform" in sales. Monster Hunter has historically been a console-first series, and Wilds is the first entry in the series to have actually launched day and date with its console counterparts. But it seems the new fans on PC generated by the staggered releases of World and Rise were more than willing to jump into Wilds on day one.

Every version of Monster Hunter Wilds suffers from some less than ideal performance, but PC is certainly the biggest offender in that regard since so many players are going to be trying to run it on lower-end hardware. The game debuted to mixed Steam reviews because of these performance problems, and only recently managed to claw its way back up to a 60% positive response, but it's still a GPU-melting proposition for most computers.

If you're looking for the best Monster Hunter Wilds mods, you know where to click.

Druckmann spoke about Intergalactic's fictional timeline with 28 Days Later writer and Civil War director Alex Garland as part of Sony's Creator to Creator podcast series. "I joke about this with the team," Druckmann said. "With The Last of Us 2, we made certain creative decisions that got us a lot of hate. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people hate that game."

"Who gives a shit," Garland quipped.

"Exactly. But the joke is like, you know what, let's do something that people won't care as much about. Let's make a game about faith and religion," Druckmann concluded.

While the statute of limitations for spoilers from a 2020 video game might be up, I'll still refrain from speaking too directly about the "creative decisions" Druckmann is alluding to, since a lot of new Last of Us fans are presumably about to experience them as part of season 2 of the TV show.

But when it comes to spoilers, Naughty Dog took some extreme measures to keep the story of The Last of Us 2 from getting ruined the first time around, too. "I've gotten in trouble, actually, because of trying to protect the story," Druckmann told Garland. "We released a trailer for The Last of Us 2 where we faked a shot, and we showed Joel somewhere where he would never make it to because of things that happened in that story as a deliberate way to throw off the scent. People that didn't like the game accused that of being false advertisement."

"Again, who gives a shit," Garland responded.

For his part, Garland is quite a fan of Druckmann's work, saying that The Last of Us is "better" than 28 Days Later.

"You're playing a bounty hunter that's chasing her bounty, and she crashlands on this planet," Druckmann says of Intergalactic's companionless plot in a new episode of Sony's Creator to Creator series, this one joined by 28 Days Later movie writer Alex Garland. The planet you land on – Sempiria, steeped in mist and shadow – is a shell of its former self, as you yourself are about to be after being forced to brave its strangeness alone.

Intergalactic takes place 2,000 years in an alternate future, Druckmann explains, which deviates from our timeline beginning in the late '80s after a new religion is born on Sempiria. Things thrive, get bastardized, and change, but, at one point in Sempiria's history, everything stops. Communication from the planet ceases, and no one knows why.

"I really wanted to make a game about faith and religion," Druckmann says, "but also about just being lonely. So many of the previous games we've done – there's always, like, an ally, with you. I really want you to be lost in a place where you're really confused about what happened here."

As Intergalactic protagonist Jordan, you'll wonder "Who are the people here? What was their history?" Druckmann continues. "And, in order to get off this planet – no one has been heard from [on] this planet for 600 years – so if you ever hoped to have a chance to get off, you have to figure out what happened here."

Nothing, not even brain-mush zombies, are as terrifying as being so hopelessly alone.

"Don't bet on there being more of Last of Us": Asked about The Last of Us 3, Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann says "this could be it."

"I JUST REALIZED THIS TRICK AND I'VE BEEN PLAYING SKYRIM FOR YEARS!!!" says a Reddit post by u/PibardoAnasheIinsta with 25,000 upvotes as of writing ("Gamerant article incoming," one comment with over 4,000 upvotes quips – as the writer of this GamesRadar+ article, I'd say they have good intuition).

"Has it ever happened to you that you enter a cave, loot the entire place and find yourself with the misfortune that you do not have more weight available to carry more things?" the post continues. "Well, NO MORE!! Find one of the bandits/skeletons you killed along the way, open its corpse and deposit all that damn extra weight."

Next, u/PibardoAnashelinsta says, perform some light necromancy on the body with conjuration, pilfer the loot, then scamper off to a nearby city like the shameful puppy you are.

"Upon arrival," the Reddit user continues, "the reanimated corpse will be in pieces next to you, with all your extra loot!"

One commenter adds that the trick "works like a charm with the Dead Thrall spell," which semi-permanently raises humanoid bodies to act as allies. "No timer running out, and if the body is killed again on the way, it won't disintegrate and can be reanimated again."

But other Skyrim players were less willing to engage in such crass scheming.

"Filthy necromancer," one popular comment scoffed. "You would desecrate the bodies of valiant Nord heroes solely to carry your loot?" Yeah, I guess so.

Skyrim is still an all-time great for asset reuse: this hunk of human flesh could be some poor guard's glute, or probably just a piece of repurposed beef.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle hits PS5 on April 17, according to the historically reliable Billbil-kun at Dealabs. The report suggests that there'll be both a $70 standard edition and a $110 premium edition offering two days of early access, and both of these versions will be available physically. That premium version will, presumably, also include the DLC that came as part of its Xbox counterpart.

Billbil-kun previously leaked such news as the Civilization 7 release date, the existence of Lego Horizon Adventures, and even the $230 Death Stranding 2 collector's edition. This report also comes just after Indy's PS5 version appeared on the official ESRB ratings site, and that's all got me more than willing to believe this date is the real deal.

I tried Indiana Jones and the Great Circle more or less on a whim when it hit Xbox Game Pass last year, and it quickly rocketed up my personal Game of the Year rankings. While it wasn't my absolute favorite game 2024 - that's a tough ask in a year with Astro Bot, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and UFO 50 - it was an excellent reminder of just how great a no-BS AAA action-adventure can be.

All this is to say that PS5 owners are in for a treat when Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does finally hit the platform. Here's hoping the launch means we'll also get some news on the story DLC that's still on the way, too.

Harrison Ford says Troy Baker's "brilliant" Indiana Jones and the Great Circle performance is proof "you don’t need artificial intelligence to steal my soul."

ClaudePlaysPokemon is a Twitch channel where you can tune in to watch the LLM Claude play Pokemon Red and Blue, badly. It's like TwitchPlaysPokemon but worse. I will admit the set up is rather interesting, as Claude spits out reasoning for each decision it makes on the screen as it plays. Unfortunately, its reasoning is atrocious.

After defeating Misty and visiting Bill, you need to get out of Cerulean City and go South to Vermillion. To do this, you need to go through a house and down a path on the right. Claude has spent dozens of hours trying to do this, and after finally getting through the house it decided to jump down a ledge and trap itself in the city once again.

Claude (plays Pokémon) jumps back to Cerulean City, right when it found its way out after being stuck in it for tens of hours. from r/LivestreamFail

The reason being was it wanted to interact with an NPC right outside the gym. It's almost certainly spoken to this person before if it's been in the city for hours on end, so this was a complete waste of time and, at the time of writing, it's still stuck, this time in a back garden to the West of the city.

Since the LLM is using a screenshot reader to "see" what's going on, it might be trapped in this garden for some time, as there's no visual indication of where the exit is. A human would at least get frustrated and defiantly try to walk through walls, which in this instance would actually work as the exit is in the back of the houses, but an AI may never attempt that.

At one point while I was writing this, it stood right next to the exit of the garden and after a few moments of processing decided to go West, becoming stuck at the barrier between the garden and the river. Even fish can play Pokemon and discover new bugs. After watching this, I'm really not worried about ChatGPT or any other LLM taking my job any time soon.

If you're keen for more Pokemon news, check out everything we know about Pokemon Legends Z-A.

I, frankly, can't remember the last time a Pokemon game was released and someone didn't complain about what it looked like. Remember when some people thought Black and White's animated battle sprites looked bad? (They were so good, too.) Anyway, the tradition has returned with Legends: Z-A, and former Nintendo Minute hosts Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang (also Nintendo of America's former director of social media marketing and original content, and former senior manager of creator relations and original content, respectively) don't have high hopes about the RPG looking significantly better at launch.

In a new video on their YouTube channel, Ellis says he "was not really expecting a huge leap" in the visuals since the last installment, although he "obviously wanted it to run better than Scarlet and Violet," which were widely criticized for their performance issues. The two agree that they ultimately felt "very middle of the road" about the visuals – being neither blown away nor horribly disappointed, although both noted that the graphics ultimately weren't what they were focusing on when the new gameplay was first revealed.

Of course, we should keep in mind that the game isn't finished yet – it has a vague "late 2025" release window, and obviously the devs are going to remain hard at work on it until that day finally comes. Can we expect a huge visual overhaul, though? While Yang is "hopeful that maybe they can polish it a little more," Ellis isn't so optimistic, as he points out: "This is the company that has yet to fix Scarlet and Violet. So I think pretty much what we're seeing is mostly what we're going to get with maybe some small optimizations."

We know Pokemon Legends: Z-A is heading to the OG Switch, and at the time of writing, no word has been given on whether it could also be given a souped-up Switch 2 version of sorts. Speculating that developer Game Freak could be at the limits of what it can do without having "some complete overhaul of their of their engine or their tools or the foundation of how they make these games," Ellis adds: "With the Switch 2, one would hope they can go back to the drawing board and come up with something that's more detailed, [and] can better support more detailed types of games."

We'll just have to wait and see if that'll ever be the case – with Z-A specifically, Yang thinks it's "wishful thinking" to imagine a Switch 2 version of the game coming out. In fact, she thinks there'd only be "a very small chance" of the game being given a higher resolution on the Switch 2, speculating that it's something that "would not be at the top of [the devs'] list" to do.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our roundup of the best Pokemon games you can play right now.

"Higgs is not like twice or thrice better – it's 100 times better than DS1," Kojima said via translator at the SXSW panel where the new Death Stranding 2 trailer was revealed. "So at the end, you're gonna watch Higgs and say 'what is this?' And you'll probably throw the controller, it's so ridiculous. I'll apologize beforehand."

"Mission accomplished, if you do," Baker himself coyly added. There's not a whole lot of Higgs in the new trailer, but we do see a squidlike tentacle emerge from his mouth to threaten Norman Reedus' Sam, so that's something. Add to that the electric guitar lightning gun Higgs wielded in last year's trailer, and I think we've got a decent idea of the kind of ridiculousness that might be in store for us.

"Higgs was so popular last time I thought 'I can't kill him,'" Kojima said during the panel. "So he's coming back, apparently. But Higgs is not a normal villain. He's a loved character. So I thought I would raise two, three steps higher for this character." Kojima says that he was inspired by Baker's guitar and vocal performances on Instagram during the pandemic to give a more musical bent to Higgs in DS2.

"Especially when you're creating a world like Hideo is doing, everybody is just trying to hit the world that is up in that head," Baker said, pointing at Kojima while discussing the performance capture process for the game. "It's a mind-blowing world with mind-blowing characters, and all we have to do is just play it beat to beat and scene to scene."

Hideo Kojima reveals Death Stranding 2: On the Beach release date, and the Collector's Edition includes exactly what I predicted it would.

In a post on Bluesky, Hazelight shares the impressive sales for the game, saying, "The love you all show for our game is overwhelming! Everyone here at Hazelight are beyond happy – and we can’t stop enjoying your amazing reactions!"

Not only is 1,000,000 copies sold an incredibly impressive feat by any means, but also, when you consider that Split Fiction allows a second player to download a free version of the game with the Friend's Pass, it becomes likely that the number of people playing the game could be close to double.

Hazelight's previous game, It Takes Two – which won Game of the Year at the 2021 Game Awards and a Golden Joystick for Best Multiplayer Game – took just under a month to reach the same figure.

Four years on, Hazelight director Josef Fares (the "Fuck the Oscars" guy) recently revealed in an interview with The Washington Post that It Takes Two has sold 23,000,000 copies, so if Split Fiction keeps up its massive momentum, it could easily surpass that number in even less time.

If you’re one of the million players who already have Split Fiction and are looking for another co-op game, be sure to check out our best co-op games list (which spoiler: has Split Fiction on there).

As we reported during last year's Steam Next Fest, Erenshor has the aesthetic of old school RuneScape, complete with yellow usernames above everyone's head, but they're all NPCs made to emulate real players. The game's Steam page describes it as a "single player nod to the MMORPGs of the past."

The reason for the single-player approach is so you can enjoy it "on your own schedule and without the time commitments" and partake in the "thousands of items, quests, raids, and secrets" Erenshor has to offer.

A press release reveals that there will be 35 zones, four classes, and more than 1,000 items to collect and craft when the game launches into early access next month. It's in the top 800 most-wishlisted games on Steam, so even though you'll be surrounded by NPCs, know if you do play it, there will be plenty of others elsewhere.

You'll still be able to do group activities like raids and take on dungeons in a party, you'll just be playing with simulated players instead of real ones. The NPCs in the trailer do really seem to act like actual players. It's uncanny the way they all crowd around quest-giving NPCs.

These faux players will also evolve alongside you, leveling up and finding new gear as you play and explore. Maybe you'll grow as attached to them as you do the real players you play MMOs with.

This is a fascinating idea because it's become harder to organize my friends as I've gotten older. Getting a squad of three or four people together to tackle quests isn't easy, and Erenshor allows you to skip the planning stage entirely and just go at your own pace. It's also cool that it's made by a solo dev. It's not enough to work alone, people must play alone too.

While you wait for Erenshore to come out April 14, check out some of the best single-player games you can play right now.

PS5 players won't get the benefit of CRKD's new guitar controller though, because it only comes with official licensing for Xbox consoles and support for PC. Meanwhile, the Riffmaster has compatibility on both sides of the console war, and PS5 players are reaping the benefits. Amazon is listing the PDP Riffmaster controller for just $99 right now, which is the lowest cost it's ever been since its launch in early 2024.

A $30 saving is a nice thing for any of the best PC controllers, but for a niche, specialist one like this, it isn't always common. Now that there's more competition brewing, we may see some more discounts as PDP and CRKD try to entice more virtual musicians. Regardless, it's nice that PDP is catering to PS5 players with this current deal - it is a bit odd that CRKD's new Axe hasn't chased Sony's console, since its PS5 player base is undoubtedly larger than Xbox's.

Should you buy the PDP Riffmaster controller?

Other than the fact that, if you play on PS5, you don't have an alternative, is the PDP Riffmaster Guitar Controller worth spending money on? Well, compared to the best PS5 controllers and the best PS5 steering wheels, the Riffmaster won't set you back much. Most pro gamepads like the Victrix Pro BFG or DualSense Edge cost over $150 / £150, and any racing wheel and pedal setup will be well over $200 / £200. For a specialist controller, the Riffmaster's $129.99 MSRP is actually very reasonable, and getting it for just $99.99 is a bit of a steal when you think about it like that.

That said, it probably isn't going to be worth it unless you play a lot of Fortnite Festival. Games with compatibility for the Riffmaster, or any guitar controller in this day and age, are few and far between. Other than Rockband 4, you're going to struggle to find wider uses for PDP's Guitar. If you play on PC, you've got lots of emulators, Clone Hero, and wider compatibility with other rhythm games. If that's you, you may want to wait until CRKD's Les Paul Guitar hits the shelves.

From hands-on time with the Riffmaster, though, it's a controller worth having. For me, the quality of life design elements are what sells it. There's a foldable neck meaning you can store and take it on the go as needed, the thumbstick at the end of the neck makes it easier to navigate menus, it's wireless, it's got a headphone jack, and the list of great features goes on.

I'd hope that the arrival of Fortnite Festival and an influx of Guitar controllers inspires more game developers to remember how much we all loved the Guitar Hero era. If we see a revival of these sorts of titles, the Riffmaster will allow you to jump in straight away.

If you're an Xbox player, check out the best Xbox Series X controllers, the best Xbox steering wheels, and the best Xbox One controllers.

It's no secret that Fallout: New Vegas is a big inspiration for Atomfall, but how do developers feel about the upcoming survival-action blend being compared to Bethesda Game Studios' RPG series so often? According to Fisher, it makes sense.

"Fallout is an obvious point of reference for some people," he admits, "because it's got that post-apocalyptic quarantine zone atmosphere."

"It's almost like a micro genre in itself," continues Fisher, "because you've got Fallout, Metro, Stalker – they cover similar ground, but from different cultural perspectives. There's touches of lots of different games in [Atomfall]."

Some of these include other gems published by Bethesda, like Prey, while others diverge into entirely separate genres – even Soulslikes, thanks to their "open structure where the player's trusted to piece things together themselves."

Fisher goes on to cite Dark Souls as an example of a game in which players "might wander into trouble and die" even after seeing warning signs – much like in Atomfall. Ultimately, as the dev describes, a game like Atomfall ends up a product of many other predecessors and not just one, despite the similarities. "When you're trying to piece together something new, you pull from as many different reference points as you possibly can."

Do fans taking note of such similarities and drawing comparisons cause resentment? No, says Fisher – the devs are cool with that.

"As long as people are interested enough to come along and take a look at the game and then make their own judgment call based on what's actually in the game, definitely."

There's thankfully not long left now until players finally do get to experience Atomfall, either, with March 27 right around the corner.

Here are some of our most exciting new games this year and beyond to keep an eye on.