Analogue is back with another hit of N64 nostalgia, but with colorways that are deep cuts for even the biggest Nintendo nerds. Analogue announced its latest run of limited edition versions of its 3D console, this time drawing inspiration from a batch of prototype colorways for the original N64 that were manufactured but never hit the market. Now, the Analogue 3D will come in Ghost, Glacier, Extreme Green, Ocean and yes, even Atomic Purple. It may just be a cosmetic upgrade, but it's worth noting that each of the colorways has matching cables, power adapters and 16GB SD cards that come preinstalled. Analogue even partnered with 8BitDo again to create color-matched controllers that complete the colorful retro experience. As usual, Analogue said this latest run will be available in "highly limited quantities," starting on February 9 at 11AM ET. Be sure to set a reminder because the first Analogue 3D drop sold out quickly and the Funtastic colorways went out of stock just as fast. According to Analogue, the consoles will go for $299.99 and start shipping 24 to 48 hours after orders are completed. 8BitDo said the $49.99 controllers will be available for preorder at the same time as the 3D console, but see its first shipments starting in April.

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! The Mass Effect alum over at Archetype Entertainment don't want to bloat their upcoming sci-fi RPG Exodus with side quests that feel "tacked on." The new developer is instead trying to make sure players are compelled to take on side quests regardless of the reward. "We don't want things to feel tacked on," he continues. "We definitely don't want you to feel like you're doing it because you're obligated, like 'I need those three points to get my next level on this skill, so I guess I'll do it'. We want side quests to be something you would do even if you weren't getting a reward - you're going to get rewards, of course, it's a game, but we want you to feel like 'This is something I'm interested in, this is something I want to explore.' And a lot of that means it's tied to the themes of our games. It's tied to the companions you have, it's tied into interesting aspects of our game that maybe don't get explored as much on the critical path, but you can see them." Mass Effect veteran says new RPG Exodus won't be a game where "you can just romance anyone because you're the hero" More than Mass Effect's spiritual successor, Exodus wants to pull decades of player choice into a single story Mass Effect veterans "don't have plans to use generative AI for any element" of their sci-fi RPG Exodus Karpyshyn elaborates that deciding what to focus on during development is tricky, "but the nice thing is there's always other things we could add." Even that is a fine line, mind, since the developers "can't add everything into one game" or risk it becoming "thousands of hours [long], which sounds great in theory, but isn't realistic." Mass Effect veteran says new RPG Exodus won't be one of those games where "you can just romance anyone because you're the hero"

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Fallout is a series that's changed drastically since Interplay Entertainment's original two isometric CRPGs, as Bethesda acquired the franchise and took it down the first-person, open-world route. And, now, we know what Fallout's OG creators think about where the post-apocalypse is at. Game Informer recently talked with three developers who were pretty instrumental to Fallout's creation - lead programmer Tim Cain, art director Leonard Boyarsky, and executive producer Brian Fargo - about what's happened to the series since it was passed onto another group of game makers, and their opinions are mixed. The Outer Worlds co-director and current Obsidian Entertainment dev Tim Cain said he likes what Bethesda's done with the series, although it's not what he would've had in mind. "We would have gone in a different direction, but obviously, sales say people love what they did, and I'm looking at my glass cabinet full of Fallout goodies, some of which are from 1 and 2, and some of which are from 3 and 4," Cain said. "I don't think Bethesda hates Fallout," says New Vegas lead, "they just don't fully understand its roots" After Morrowind and Oblivion, hardcore RPG fans didn't want Bethesda on Fallout 3 Fallout was a "B-tier side project" compared to the D&D "money teams" at Interplay, says series co-creator Tim Cain Boyarsky chimed in to say he enjoyed both Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, although the former had "a little bit of that green overcast thing, and I feel like it wasn't as crisp as I might have wanted it to be, but this is hindsight talking." He also thought Fallout 3 was "closer to what we would have done with it in terms of RPG-ness" since Fallout 4 sanded down a lot of those roleplaying systems. "I would say it's almost like [Bethesda has] treated the games like they treated the Amazon series, which is, 'Let's focus on the world's sensibilities and feeling. And if we nail that, then the audience who came from before will appreciate it for what it was,'" InXile Entertainment boss Brian Fargo said. "I think that's what you've got to give them credit for, because it was between the music and the aesthetic and everything else, you could tell, they placed that up on the forefront. And then, they did whatever they wanted with it, which, whether it was Fallout 76, Fallout 4, or the Amazon series, it all led with the vibe and aesthetic of what the original games were. I believe that was their focus, and you've got to say, it worked." Fallout was a "B-tier side project" compared to the D&D "money teams" at Interplay, says series co-creator Tim Cain: "We're off in the corner"

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! As with any successful multiplayer game, Arc Raiders has attracted a number of bad apples and cheaters over the last few months, but developer Embark Studios' boss says he can tell the company's anti-cheat efforts are bearing fruit by the amount of people "trying to get to the studio." "We have been pretty aggressive on this," Embark CEO Patrick Soderlund tells IGN of the developer's anti-cheat measures. "The game wasn't prone to so many cheaters in the beginning, but as with all multiplayer games that get successful, this becomes a component, unfortunately. For us as developers, just like a DDoS attack, it's one of these things that you just have to try and be a step ahead." Soderlund says it's "not always easy" to block bad actors because the second Embark Studios comes up with a solution, cheaters will cook up something else. "The banning process is obviously delicate because we need to make sure that we ban people that deserve to be banned, if that makes any sense," he adds. "If you take general figures, anywhere between 0.1% to 1% of any multiplayer crowd in a large-scale multiplayer game is cheating, and therefore, to some extent, should get a temporary or a longer, or permanent ban." Arc Raiders players say there's "cheating like crazy," former FPS pro says it "might be worse than peak Call of Duty" Arc Raiders cheating and "out of map" exploits acknowledged by Embark: "We are implementing significant changes" Arc Raiders GOTY advocate and former FPS pro Shroud threatens to quit the game due to cheaters "We've started banning players, and why do I know that? Because I see an influx of people trying to get to the studio, and to me. 'Oh, I didn't do anything.' We're seeing a pretty substantial change in that, but I know that we have banned probably tens of thousands of players so far, that I know. Again, we need to make sure that we get it right. That we are fair, and that, in the case where it's clear that we didn't get it right, that we can quickly remedy the situation so that player isn't affected in an unfair fashion or way," Soderlund continues. Just this week, the developer put restrictions on how Arc Raiders is able to be shared across Steam accounts in order to stop nefarious loopholes. Reported Arc Raiders budget of $75 million is "not too far off," says Embark head: "We can live for a long time on the money that Arc Raiders has been generating"

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Horses developer Santa Ragione has called out an Epic Games executive for making what it calls "provably incorrect" comments about the surreal horror game that was banned on multiple storefronts late last year. Italian developer and well loved horror maker Santa Ragione found itself in hot water a few months ago after Steam blocked its latest game, the aforementioned Horses, from release on the storefront. The Epic Games Store got similarly cold feet, and being cut off from a huge percentage of PC gamers meant the studio is unlikely to have enough money to fund any future projects, according to its producer. Now speaking to Game File about the situation, Epic Games vice president Steve Allison said "We love that studio" and claimed the ban was a result of content that "was against our policies on a couple fronts." Banned by Steam, $100,000 in the hole, and facing shutdown, graphic horror game dev now dropped by Epic Games Store "roughly 24 hours before launch" One week after an acclaimed indie studio said it faces closure following a Steam ban for its surreal horror game, Humble joins Epic in banning Horses at the last minute GOG shades Steam in support for horror game banned by Valve: "We've always believed that players should be able to choose the experiences that speak to them" Santa Ragione has now responded to those comments on social media, writing: "Epic made provably incorrect statements about the game's content, refused to provide details supporting their claims, and has not shared their claimed [Adults Only] IARC certificate, which normally includes a link for the developer to appeal. They do not ‘love that studio’, they have effectively ghosted us." After 5 years, GOG lead says removing cult horror game Devotion from the store is a situation that "remains difficult to reflect on"

Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As always, we've got a bunch of neat games to tell you about. Perhaps I'll tear myself away from playing as Chappell Roan in Fortnite or Jetpack Cat in Overwatch long enough to check more of them out. Thanks to the folks at Aftermath, I learned about a short, text-based game from Woe Industries from a while back called You Have Billions Invested In Generative AI. Surprisingly enough, you take on the role of a venture capitalist who has plowed gobs of money into genAI technology and might be starting to have doubts about that investment. Other characters warn you about the dangers of the tech and real-life headlines showing the impact of genAI hallucinations pop up. It's tagged as a horror game, for what it's worth. It's both satirical and all too real, and it's pretty funny. Plus, any game that allows me to yell at Noam Chomsky is A-OK in my book. You can play You Have Billions Invested In Generative AI for free on Itch.io. Tackle for Loss had a very timely arrival this week, just ahead of a certain other big, real-life game. This is a football-themed take on action-heavy, top-down games like Hotline Miami. Developer Indifferent Penguin took some inspiration from the Taken film series as well — you take on the role of a CTE-afflicted former football player who sets out to rescue his kidnapped daughter. The combat sounds pretty interesting here. You need to clear out all of the bad guys on each floor of a multistory building before you can progress, but you only have four offensive actions at your disposal each time (this draws from the four-down format of football). You'll need to plan things out before you go on the attack, not least because your character and the enemies all die in a single hit. Tackle for Loss is out now on Steam. It'll usually run you $11, but it's 15 percent off until February 12. Trust Me, I Nailed It is an intriguing turn-based strategy game from Team Afternoon and publisher Jungle Game Lab. A useless warrior hires you as a video editor to make them look like a true hero capable of slaying any beast. Enemy attacks and other actions appear on the edit timeline as pre-recorded footage, and the idea is to plot out the warrior's movements around those. You have post-processing visual effects tricks at your disposal, so you can let the warrior teleport and convert low-power strikes into critical hits. It's a fun idea, and a reminder (as if we should need one in the current climate) not to always take videos at face value. Trust Me, I Nailed It is on Steam now and it's free-to-play. Tomb of the Bloodletter is a spin on the roguelike deckbuilder genre that I haven't really seen before. Your deck consists of magic powers that are applied to letters of the alphabet. Spelling out words using these Magicks can result in powerful combinations, particularly if you use the same letter multiple times. That's right, this is a typing game — a roguelike deckbuilder that the likes of Wordle players might be interested in. It's really about coming up with words that put the right letters in a specific order. For instance, certain letters are more effective if you place them at the end of a word. So, this should get your brain ticking. Tomb of the Bloodletter — from Ethan's Secretions and indie.io — debuted during the Steam Typing Fest. It'll typically cost $8, but there's a 20 percent discount until February 19. Shadowstone is an upcoming turn-based tactical co-op roguelike for up to four players from developer Secret Door and Dreamhaven (Blizzard co-founder and ex-CEO Mike Morhaime's company). It's set in the same universe as Secret Door's Sunderfolk. The action plays out on a hexagonal board with randomized rooms and enemies. Positioning will be key, and finding synergies between the abilities of the playable characters will put you in good stead. Shadowstone will hit Steam in early access later this year for $15. It's also coming to the Epic Games Store. Meanwhile, a major update for Sunderfolk is set to go live on March 10. It will introduce a new tank-style character and two fresh sets of missions. Secret Door will also add two much-requested features to PC versions: online multiplayer and — so you don't have to use your phone to play the game anymore — mouse and keyboard controls. I really loved Planet of Lana and the sequel is among my most-anticipated games of this year. There's now a release date for the upcoming puzzle platformer. Wishfully and Thunderful Publishing are bringing it to Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on March 5. It'll also be on Game Pass on day one. A Planet of Lana II: Children of the Leaf demo will hit Steam, Xbox and PlayStation on February 11. It will arrive on Switch a bit later. Is Sticker/Ball the first Ball x Pit-like? I'm not entirely sure. Still, it is now firmly on my radar. Instead of firing balls at a horde of constantly-advancing enemies, here you'll shoot them at dice to earn points. You'll unlock stickers that can be applied to said dice and they’ll interact with each other too. For instance, spiders can create webs and these can catch flies that are attracted to poop stickers. The trailer describes another interaction, "frog jumped and triggered cigarette pack." Frogs can also hijack spaceships, apparently, and there's a bouncing DVD (well, "VID") logo. There are more than 100 types of stickers and dozens of different enemies. I don't really understand what's going on in the trailer, but it's somehow making my brain happy, so this is going on my wishlist. Solo dev Bilge is behind Sticker/Ball, which is coming to Steam soon through the help of publisher Future Friends Games. A demo is available now, so that's my weekend sorted. Skate City has long been one of the best games on Apple Arcade. Its creator, Daniel Zeller, (Zellah Games) has revealed a new project. Skate Style is billed as a "next-gen skateboarding game with high-end graphics." You'll be able to take to the virtual streets of Barcelona and Prague to show off your best moves. What could help Skate Style really stand out from the pack is the animation editor, which enables you to create completely new tricks. The game is slated to have an "advanced" character creation tool as well as mod support, so there'll be a high level of customization available. A Skate Style demo is available on Steam now. The full game should land on PC later this year. Here's hoping the soundtrack can match up to those from the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series. Crimson Capes is billed as a 2D Soulslike action RPG with four playable characters, elemental magic, more than 25 bosses, swordfighting, lots of secrets, co-op, optional hunts with randomized dungeons and invasions from other players. That all sounds neat enough, but most exciting to me here is the pixel-art, rotoscoped animation work. It looks modern and retro at the same time, and I'd love to see this sort of style in more games. I also dig that you get a PDF instruction manual and game guide as well as a printable world map when you buy the game. You (and I) won't have to wait long to play Crimson Capes, which is from Poor Locke. It's coming to Steam on February 12 for $15, though you'll get 10 percent off if you pick it up within the first nine days. Console versions are in the pipeline too.

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! A new Overwatch voice actor is giving a well-deserved shoutout to the Reddit community that's been waiting for his character to be added for eight years. Over on r/EmreMains, Overwatch players have been labeled hopium huffers for eight long years. See, they've been clinging on to the hope that a niche character from Overwatch lore, the Turkish mercenary Emre, would one day be officially added to the roster. And as we learned this week, it turns out that whatever they were huffing on wasn't hopium after all, as Blizzard has confirmed Emre is indeed coming to Overwatch in season 1 alongside four other heroes. Yeah, in case you haven't been following, there are some changes happening to Overwatch. As you can imagine, the folks over at r/EmreMains are beside themselves with excitement. It's pretty much all they want to talk about now. Seriously, I tried bringing up Jetpack Cat and they weren't having any of it. "Marvel Rivals is the best thing to happen to Overwatch": Fans react to Blizzard's big changes and 10 new heroes New Deadlock update adds adorable hero who specializes in naps, sees Valve's shooter soar to nearly 100,000 players Blizzard insists its Overwatch rebrand isn't "us trying to admit there was a failure" Anyway, Kerem Erdinc, the actor voicing Emre in Overwatch, took it upon himself to congratulate r/EmreMains for finally getting what they've wanted for so long in a video message shared to the subreddit, and it's simply a wholesome moment to witness. "I just wanted to set a heartfelt congratulations to the r/EmreMains subreddit for eight years of dedication and patience in waiting for what you have wanted, and I just want to tell you that I've been right there with you for these last eight years, and the wait is finally over," Erdinc said. "Search and destroy," he added in his character's voice. A Special Message for R/EmreMains from r/EmreMains Erdinc seems like good people, as he took the time to engage with both English-speaking and Turkish-speaking members of the Emre community in the comments section, sharing neat little insights and general celebratory vibes. Emre is a fairly straightforward damage character with a health regen passive and a burst rifle as his primary fire. He seems like he'll make a great beginner character, although it's unclear right now how well he'll scale for higher level players. Blizzard insists its Overwatch rebrand isn't "us trying to admit there was a failure," it's about easing fears over "when it's going to get replaced by Overwatch 3"

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! TES Renewal Project, the volunteer dev team behind the unofficial fan remake of Oblivion, Skyblivion, has emerged from the shadows a few weeks after announcing the project's last-minute delay with some new screenshots. They're predictably very pretty. The ground-up Oblivion remake has been in development for almost 14 years, and it really looked like it was primed to release in 2025, but in December project lead Rebelzize announced that the date had been pushed back to 2026 so that the devs had time to overcome various "challenges." We haven't heard anything from the developers since, but this week they shared a few new screenshots to the project's official Bluesky account. The images show a dimly lit Ayleid ruin called Wendelbek. Check 'em out: Don’t mind the mess! 👷 We’ve been a bit quiet since our last update, but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped our work. More and more of the project is entering its final state, including Wendelbek, a massive Ayleid ruin to explore. Credit: Hinimoto #Skyblivion #ElderScrolls #Oblivion #PCGaming— @skyblivion.com (@skyblivion.com.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T00:00:22.044Z Don’t mind the mess! 👷 We’ve been a bit quiet since our last update, but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped our work. More and more of the project is entering its final state, including Wendelbek, a massive Ayleid ruin to explore. Credit: Hinimoto #Skyblivion #ElderScrolls #Oblivion #PCGaming "We’ve been a bit quiet since our last update, but that doesn’t mean we’ve stopped our work," reads a message from the dev team shared alongside the images. "More and more of the project is entering its final state, including Wendelbek, a massive Ayleid ruin to explore." Skyblivion delayed to 2026 as devs behind the unofficial Oblivion project made using Skyrim's engine say their "initial goal" of launching this year "is no longer possible" Elder Scrolls 6 fans yearn for news as Skyrim turns 14, instead get Todd Howard saying it's "still a long way off" despite being announced 7 years ago: "Bethesda has had us hanging by a thread" After trying Unreal Engine, new fantasy RPG led by ex-Elder Scrolls leads goes back to its Bethesda roots with a unique proprietary engine that's "already more than doubled our development speed" Not much more (read: anything) was shared beyond this very vague update, but it's good to see the remake hasn't lost its looks. As a longtime Elder Scrolls fan, I'm really impressed with how the art team has managed to perfectly capture the very distinct vibe of the original game while dramatically increasing visual fidelity using the Skyrim engine. Good stuff. There's still no exact release date for Skyblivion just yet, but here's hoping we get a more substantial update soon. In the meantime, here are the best RPGs we recommend playing in 2026.

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Mewgenics has been in various stages of development for well over a decade, and if the early scores are any indication all that dev time has resulted in a uniquely deep strategy RPG. But the devs themselves might've had an easier – and more financially viable – time making a straightforward follow-up to The Binding of Isaac, widely regarded one of the best roguelike games ever made. "I've been making games since I was a teenager," McMillen's co-conspirator, Tyler Glaiel, adds, "and I definitely had tried to make RPGs or strategy games when I was younger. They're very difficult to get right because you can't rely on reflexes to balance fights. Reflexes are a very analog thing. You can be like, 'This fight is 2% too difficult, let's slow it down 2%.' You don't get that with a turn-based game because it's very discrete. The actions are very careful and thought out. The systems need to be solid, they need to make sense. There's just a lot that goes into it. A bunch of attempts – I think we both had tried it." Mewgenics review: "The Binding of Isaac collides with Into the Breach in a smart strategy roguelike" You may just see "a turn-based game with cats f****ing" in new strategy game Mewgenics, but led dev says it’s actually "very D&D" I'm not surprised The Binding of Isaac creator's new cat breeding roguelike Mewgenics is the highest-rated game of 2026 McMillen says he "tried twice" to make a game along these lines before, but those projects were never released. Glaiel estimates his own RPG graveyard contains even more abandoned titles. "I had like four unfinished RPGs that never saw the light of day. It's a very hard one to get right," he says. But as work on Mewgenics got underway, Glaiel says working in an inherently more ambitious genre started to make sense. "It did feel like we had made a lot of games," he explains, "we learned a lot from all the other games that we had made, individually and together, and then it's like, 'OK, we can try this genre again. It seems like a monumental task, but why shouldn't we be able to do it?'" "What else are we gonna do?" McMillen muses. "What else are we gonna do?" Glaiel agrees. "We gonna make another fucking platformer? We gonna make The Binding of Isaac 2?" "Exactly," McMillen says. "We could have just made The Binding of Isaac 2. That would be very easy." "That would have gotten 20 million wishlists like one second after announcing," Glaiel reckons. Check out our full Mewgenics review to find out why it's "a worthy successor to The Binding of Isaac."

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Like the first two games in the series, Nioh 3 can feel a little fiddly out of the box but is easily improved through a bit of settings snooping. If you're diving into Nioh 3, I strongly recommend adjusting a few settings for the controls and UI, if only to try them out and see how you like them compared to the defaults. On page 1 of the controls sub-menu of the options page, for instance, you'll find an option to "configure controls," and within that you'll find different templates. You start with option A, and I would suggest giving option B a try. This makes martial arts and combo extenders easier to use by tying them to the left shoulder (guard) button, and the only trade-off in my opinion is getting used to activating spirit skills with the D-pad. See how you like it. I would more emphatically recommend poking through the game settings sub-menu. On page six, for example, you'll find options for auto-disposal of items and settings for which rarities you want to auto-dispose of (common, uncommon, etc.). I wouldn't turn this on immediately if you aren't used to the loot system or you're hellbent on farming an armor set bonus, but there may come a time where you don't want common or uncommon items clogging up your inventory, so these settings can become useful. I was going to play the Nioh 3 demo for 30 minutes – I played 5 hours, and this Soulslike is blowing me away at 120 FPS Nioh 3 review: "Brutal clashes across wide maps avoid retreading Elden Ring – this is all demon killer, no filler" I need every developer currently making a Soulslike to stop what they're doing and add this handy feature from Nioh 3 Nioh absolutely showers you in loot, which is why I also recommend trying the auto-pickup setting on page five of game settings. It does what it says on the tin: your character will pick up anything you walk over without any additional prompts or inputs. You'll save yourself a zillion clicks in the long run, and I personally don't find it any less satisfying. I actually like the rush of shiny items leaping into my pockets when I open a chest. Another late-game consideration is found on page two of the menu settings. Here, you can increase the number of item shortcuts available – the D-pad menus in the bottom-left corner where you use things like elixirs and spells. You start with two sets, or eight slots worth, but you can bump that to three or four sets. When you get a lot of different items and spells rolling, this can come in mighty handy. A technique I've found useful in the past is putting the elixir in the top slot of every set so you never have to cycle back to healing and you can still use nine other items or spells total, but your mileage may vary depending on your build. Finally, have a gander at page three of menu settings. There are options for when and how to remove the "!" marks indicating new entries in main menus like your inventory, titles, and story progress. Nioh 3 hits you with a lot of tiny little updates whenever you find or complete stuff, and if errant exclamation marks bother you as much as they bother me, you may spend a lot of time cleaning them up. By adjusting these settings, you can very easily clear any notifications and return peace to the realm. If there's something else bothering you about Nioh 3, it's worth investigating the settings related to it. Odds are good there's a way to customize it, and frankly some of the default settings have never made a lot of sense to me. Better options exist; you've just got to find them. Start with these and dial things in until they're just right. Our Nioh 3 review has a full rundown on what makes Team Ninja's latest samurai soulslike great. Nioh 3 shatters record for the series' highest Steam concurrent player count through the power of actually launching on PC simultaneously for once.

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone is already preparing himself for a world of hurt when his next game, Haunted Chocolatier, comes out and people realize it really isn't Stardew Valley 2. To his credit, Barone never billed Haunted Chocolatier as a sequel to Stardew Valley, but the comparisons were always inevitable. Stardew Valley is one of the most beloved cozy games of all time, and despite Haunted Chocolatier being officially described as "more of an action RPG" than Stardew, Barone's name will always be synonymous with the farming sim space. Talking to IGN, Barone said fan expectations from Stardew Valley lovers keep him up at night. "I am not going to abandon Haunted Chocolatier," says Stardew Valley's Eric Barone Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone still feels "like an amateur" even with nearly 50 million copies sold Haunted Chocolatier: Everything we know about the Stardew Valley creator's next game "It's been a huge struggle for me actually," he said. "See, what I want to do is just not care and just make the game however, just whatever, not worry about it. But it's basically impossible because I can't help but think about how this will be received. And I know that there's going to be a lot of people playing this game who are expecting it to be a Stardew Valley 2. And are they going to like it or not? And it's like, yes, I want to just make the game I want to make, but I also don't want a bunch of people to not like the game because they were expecting a certain thing. That's not going to feel good. I know that." I personally think Barone is worrying a little too much about this, from the sound of things. He's made it clear in the past that Haunted Chocolatier is still a life sim at its core, despite some added action RPG elements and a darker, more mysterious vibe, and visually it shares the same general pixel art aesthetic as Stardew. I've found, perhaps unsurprisingly, the cozy games community to be among the least fussy, and if there's one thing Barone has proven, it's his ability to make a damn good cozy game. The bad news is that it sounds like Haunted Chocolatier is still many years away from releasing. While Barone has a small team of developers helping him, he's still the main creative force driving development on both Stardew Valley, which we now know is getting a massive 1.7 update at some point, as well as Haunted Chocolatier. In the same interview with IGN, Barone committed to making the game he wants to make, without compromise, no matter how long it takes. "I would say it's coming along," he said of Haunted Chocolatier. "The progress isn't as fast as I would like. Nothing is ever as fast as I would like. The main important thing about Haunted Chocolatier is I'm not going to release anything that I'm not happy with. If I don't think it's a great game, I'm not going to release it. So even if that takes years and years, so be it. That's just what I want to do. Fortunately, I don't feel like there's any real pressure. I haven't received funding from anyone or crowdfunding. There's not going to be any pre-orders. "I don't actually owe anyone the game. It's like when I want to do it and when I want to release it, it'll get done. I mean, it's true that I've announced the game, that does create a lot of pressure on me because I do feel like I don't want to disappoint the fans by taking too long, but there's no real physical obligation with it. It's more just mental constructs, you might say." Haunted Chocolatier, in case you haven't been following along, is a game where you take on the role of a confectionary store owner. Like Stardew, you'll mosey around town, hang out with its denizens, and romance people, and unlike Stardew, there will also be ghosts rummaging around. You will also whack at things with weapons and use shields to block, but it's unclear how deep the action elements are at this juncture. Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone still feels "like an amateur" even with nearly 50 million copies sold, but he hopes that'll help Haunted Chocolatier keep its "indie soul"

Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Every Thursday GTA 6 O'clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts. Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon. Every Thursday The Setup Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Every Saturday The Watchlist Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! There was a time when Fallout was seen as more of a cute, playtime project than the multi-bajillion-dollar IP Bethesda ultimately helped turn it into, says the RPG's co-creator Tim Cain. Speaking to Game Informer for its massive new Fallout oral history, Cain recalls the early days of Fallout at Interplay, the franchise's first home before Bethesda purchased it in 2004. But it wasn't a particularly warm home to the original Fallout devs, it seems, as Cain remembers feeling like "we were a B-tier side project at Interplay." "They got the D&D license about six months to a year after we started, and they're like, 'Okay, that's the A-tier. Those are the money teams,'" Cain says, "And we're off in the corner." After Morrowind and Oblivion, hardcore RPG fans didn't want Bethesda on Fallout 3 Explore the history of the Fallout games with some of the devs who helped bring the iconic RPG franchise to life Fallout creators wanted to buy the IP, but Bethesda sniped them with a $6 million bid: "They would have laughed" Fallout designer Leonard Boyarsky remembers it similarly, agreeing that "it was very much like, here's our team off in the corner, and there's the rest of Interplay" – but he's grateful for it. "I was aware enough to know this is weird in a really good way," he muses. "This is like we're making an indie game, but we have a steady job, and we have steady paychecks, and we're not trying to find a publisher for it, because once they saw what we were doing – and they appreciated what we were doing – they're just like, 'Well, we have these much more important games! The Dungeons and Dragons games are licensed to print money. Just don't bother anybody. Just go over there and do your thing and it'll be great.'" And, well, it was great. Todd Howard knows there's "anxiety" about Fallout 5, admits "we do like to wait" but reassures fans "we never stopped developing Fallout."