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! Helldivers 2 studio CEO Shams Jorjani is teasing something huge in the nastiest way possible, and you're going to need bigger pants. You're going to need bigger pants, because Arrowhead lead Jorjani says you're going to shit them again. Yeah. Sorry. Jorjani is continuing a long-running community joke that started in 2025, when Jorjani told a fan wondering what was next for Helldivers 2, "You'll shit your pants" – except, now, Jorjani has delivered the omen in even more frightening binary code. Fragile cracks are forming in Super Earth's usually solid democracy. As of February 5, official Helldivers 2 accounts have been sharing obtuse, coded Swedish messages, proclamations with no context like "SUPER EARTH PEOPLE. DO NOT BE AFRAID. WE ARE NOT HERE TO CAUSE HARM" (via Google and DeepL). Jorjani reflects these messages in his own February 5 Discord post, in which he writes "01011001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101110 01101110 01100001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01100001 01101110 01110100 01110011." Do I need to repeat what that says when it's decoded? You already know. Your pants are very sick. Helldivers 2 grunts speculate Cyborgs might be back as binary messages claim Super Earth leaders have been deceiving us After Helldivers 2 boss teased chaos in upcoming update, new Illuminate structures appear in Super Earth media "A lot of Helldivers will die," Arrowhead CEO says of the next Helldivers 2 major update, teasing roadmap update And Helldivers 2 grunts are seething. They've realized that all these ones and zeroes are signs that the Cyborg faction from Helldivers 1 have taken over Helldivers 2 socials – and Jorjani's mind, apparently – so they demand retribution. But I think what they really should be doing is investing in a bidet. Helldivers 2 grunts speculate Cyborgs might be back on the menu as mysterious binary messages assert brazen lies, claiming Super Earth's leaders have been deceiving us.

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! This week, Blizzard announced that Overwatch 2 is now just Overwatch again, but it's not ready to call its seemingly failed attempt at a full-blown sequel a, well, failure. The newly 2-less Overwatch was announced as part of a substantial rebrand ushering in a "new story-driven era" for the shooter, and it's all kicking off with a year-long narrative arc called The Reign of Talon, consisting of six seasons that'll release over the course of the year. Season 1, which comes out February 10, will add a whopping five new heroes to the roster, and a further five will be added throughout the year. This is a very different Overwatch than what Blizzard outlined back in 2022 when it first revealed Overwatch 2, which would've shifted focus from PvP matches to a PvE co-op campaign, and yet, the studio says it needed to experience this transitional period to land where it has today. You know, every failure is a step to success and all that. Blizzard renames Overwatch 2 to Overwatch years after deciding Overwatch was Overwatch 2 which was still Overwatch "Marvel Rivals is the best thing to happen to Overwatch": Fans react to Blizzard's big changes and 10 new heroes Overwatch 2 canceled its story mode, but Blizzard teases "to lean further into storytelling and character development" "It was a necessary period of challenge that we had to get through to get to where we are today," said Blizzard live service chief Walter Kong during a press conference attended by Eurogamer. "I don't think we could jump straight here. Just thinking back to what we experienced during those years makes me feel a bit exhausted, but it is what's allowed us to take Overwatch into the future." Although what Blizzard's doing is essentially a soft relaunch of Overwatch, it insists the dropping of the 2 isn't tacit admission of wrongdoing on its part. Really, it's more about assuring players that they aren't about to be blindsided by another sequel and forced to migrate away from the game they're already enjoying, according to director Aaron Keller, who called Overwatch a "forever game." "From our player's point of view, they'll tell us, 'Hey, Overwatch is in the best state it's ever been in.' And a lot of times we even hear like, 'Overwatch has finally earned the two," said Keller. "So I don't think this is us trying to admit there was a failure here, especially when we start hearing from the community that we've earned it. "But for us what this is saying is that because Overwatch is this forever game," Keller continued, "we don't want our players worrying about when it's going to get replaced by Overwatch 3." Blizzard says Overwatch's sexier heroes are more down to "technical hurdles" than a desire to make everyone hot, but fans would rather devs focus on finally fixing "same face syndrome"

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! These days, it's pretty much a given that you'll kill God – or at least some conception of an almighty deity – at the end of any given JRPG. In 1998, when Xenogears launched on PS1, the idea was the source of a lot more controversy. It was particularly troubling to translator Richard Honeywood, who describes his time working on Xenogears as something of a nightmare – and not just because of the religious content. "You have to remember that the content was quite formidable: it's not only packed with references to Jungian and Freudian psychology, but it's also a game about killing god," Honeywood tells Time Extension. "At the time, I was a Jehovah's Witness, so that part of the subject matter was already kind of hitting my conscience, but some US staff were also scared about what the response would be." Square's US branch, for example, "wanted us to remove the word Church, with a capital, because it might appear to be the Catholic Church. So I was even having to go to the development team before the Japanese version launched, and I was telling them, 'Please tone down some of this stuff.'" Dragon Quest 8 translator's decision to make the JRPG British English didn't go down well with Square Enix's US office Before Final Fantasy 7 blew up, some Square Enix leadership thought there wasn't "real money" in English translations Romancing Saga, a Square Enix JRPG released in 1992, remade in 2005, and remastered in 2022, gets yet another re-release: "I had always wanted to make a grand fantasy RPG in the style of The Lord of the Rings" This isn't the first time Honeywood's spoken about concerns over the religious imagery in Xenogears. "One of the translators was a bit worried about this and was like, 'I don’t want to have fundamental Christians or other religious groups being upset and blowing up our office,'" he explained in an older interview. As a result, two other members of the localization team walked off the project and Honeywood was "stuck there by myself." Xenogears ultimately didn't generate much mainstream controversy (it did generate a reputation as one of the best JRPGs ever made), but Honeywood still had his work cut out for him trying to translate it with such dwindling resources. Handling the literary references in the game proved particularly challenging. "Because I was in Japan, I didn't have access to English books, let alone German books," Honeywood explains in the new interview, "so I had to go to the National Library, where some of these foreign books were housed, to research these concepts and try to find out what they were in English." Internet access was rare at Japanese companies at the time. "We couldn't just go on Wikipedia and research some of this stuff," Honeywood adds, "so, as you can imagine, it was a total nightmare!" "In the end, I nearly killed myself on that title, and people knew it," he concludes. "People saw me sleeping in the office every night and coming up like a zombie. We got to the point where I hardly ever went home, and I was just trying to get that out. At that point, they realized, 'This guy really is passionate about our titles and cares about them.' So we're not giving it to some foreigner who will just turn around a shoddy translation." Chrono Trigger writer and Xenogears composer's new JRPG, also starring a sick frog warrior, is coming to Switch and PC this summer.

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! Bethesda chief Todd Howard says he gets the "anxiety from fans" regarding the studio's dead silence on Fallout 5, which has continued even amid peak Fallout TV show hype, but maintains that work is happening and news will come. In Game Informer's excellent oral history of Fallout, Howard joins other Bethesda veterans in evaluating the future of the series. For years, the only concrete information we've had for Fallout 5 is that it will come out after The Elder Scrolls 6 – another game with next to no details available, and no release date in sight. Not terribly comforting, you could say, but Howard is optimistic. "Looking at {Fallout 76], we’ve never stopped developing Fallout," he says. "We’ve had a full team on it for a long time, so Fallout, as a franchise, is the one that we’re still doing the most work in, above anything. Now, the majority of our internal team is on Elder Scrolls 6. We are doing other things with Fallout that we haven’t announced. And, you know, there’ll come a time for that. Bethesda's Todd Howard says "we are doing other things with Fallout that we haven’t announced" Todd Howard knows it's "disappointing" there's no Fallout 5 to release with the show, but "it'll do great" when it gets here Bethesda design director wants a Fallout 5 you could play for 600 hours because "that's the kind of games we make" "I get the sort of anxiety from fans, like, 'What else? Feed me!'" he adds. "But, look, we’re working on stuff. And, you know, we do like to wait. And so, I think there will be a moment to talk about [the future of Fallout], and we want to make those special moments for our fans." Longtime quest designer Emil Pagliarulo, who most recently led design work on Starfield, offers some broad goals for future Fallout games. "I would be happy with a game that is as successful as the previous Fallout games that continues to give fans what they love," he says, later specifying the type of game you don't just play for 20 or even 100 hours, but "200, 300, you know, 600 hours, because that's the kind of games we make." He also seems to tip his hat to the long, still-growing gap in Fallout releases and how games have moved on in that time. He uses Oblivion Remastered as an example of Bethesda acknowledging the times. "People forget, in the original Oblivion, you couldn't sprint," he says. "So, of course we're going to add that in the Oblivion remaster. Things like that. The industry moved on, and so, we want to move on with it." In his conclusion, Howard reiterates the importance of "role-playing games where you can put yourself into it and spend a lot of time," and how fans "want to revisit it in new ways." They're crumbs, folks, but with enough milk and eggs and patience, you could almost cobble them into something vaguely resembling bread, and frankly we've got to eat something while we continue the wait for Fallout 5. Fallout 3 remaster is reportedly still happening as Bethesda aims for Oblivion Remastered-level polish, but personally I think it should aim a little higher.

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! "We've heard about the alternative community punishment," the Bungie Twitch account said in a comment shared to X/Twitter. "We will not be typing that out on the branded account." The challenge, you may have gathered, boils down to killing The Witness, the final boss of the Salvation's Edge raid released in Destiny 2's Final Shape expansion, all by your lonesome. A fair few people have done this, and I've seen at least four do it recently under penalty of pee, but it remains exceptionally difficult to pull off even after the addition of all the new weapons and ability changes released post-Final Shape. Arc Raiders martyr spends "2 months and 300 hours" on awful achievement only 14 other people have managed to secure Presumably praying people have room for another extraction shooter after Arc Raiders, Bungie opens Marathon signups for December playtest Arc Raiders devs have discussed special raids like high-value rounds where you have to bring in good gear, but "don't want to segment the player base too much" The Witness fight is set in a complex arena filled with enemies and delicate mechanics, and the central big bad is among the most threatening raid bosses in Destiny's history. Where many bosses sit back and, at most, if they can be asked, occasionally lob an energy grenade in your direction, the Witness can very easily kill you if you get negligent. The fight is a lot to juggle even in a full team, and every raider lost increases the difficulty, and reduces the margin for error, almost exponentially. Even if you can navigate mechanics well enough solo to reach DPS phases reliably – and solo raiders generally cannot due to the random nature of most fights, so they get by through the determination to roll the dice enough times – you still have to do roughly six players' worth of damage to kill the boss within the rage window that will automatically end the fight. To most people, it's a grueling, unpleasant, utterly unthinkable experience to opt into – not unlike the penalty for this challenge. Bungie fixes Marathon pre-order glitch that caused Destiny 2 to start installing on Steam, to the amusement of everyone: "Like something out of The Onion."

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! Ask any writer who's used both British English and American English, and we can list a multitude of differences between them. They're the same language, but with lots of contrast in execution. Long-time video game translator Richard Honeywood opened a can of slimes by opting for the British end of the spectrum when translating Dragon Quest 8, to stand-out from the distinctly more American Final Fantasy localizations, and the developers weren't happy about the change. "I knew we needed to be careful because sometimes we're going to have references across games, and we need to keep the names consistent," he explains to Time Extension. "I needed to solve those types of issues. Because it was a comical, lighthearted fantasy, I really wanted to use British humor, which didn't fly with the American office; they couldn't understand it, and they really hated it." To him, Final Fantasy was "basically cyberpunk" in English-speaking territories, and that leaned quite naturally into the US approach. Dragon Quest had "more traditional fantasy" elements, and there was a "faux-Shakespeare feel," despite the American localization, that he could lean into. The cynicism was real. Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii says Final Fantasy protagonists "speak a lot," forming a "key difference" between the two iconic JRPG series: "You're not necessarily becoming the protagonist" Final Fantasy 7 writer says Dragon Quest taught him that protagonists should be "self-insert for the player", but realized "I shouldn't be so set on the idea that a silent protagonist is the only way" Before Final Fantasy 7 blew up, some Square Enix leadership thought there wasn't "real money" in English translations Yutaka Sano, then-localization manager at Square Enix, believed it'd alienate players in the US, and compromised by saying they could only use two out of punctuation, spelling, and phrasing, with the third being kept American. "Which is like the dumbest rule ever; it's either British or it's not," Honeywood remembers. He mentions Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime as an example, where the punctuation and phrasing were British, but the spelling was more ambiguous, avoiding words with regional alterations. This all led to a greater presence of experts in British English among Honeywood's staff, but a mandate required one voice on the American English side. Matt Alt, who'd worked on Dragon Quest 7, became the squad's US representative. "He was our barometer, such as in the case of Cash and Carrie, who are in a town called Baccarat," Honeywood recalls. "These were two characters who we characterized as very in-your-face Americans, basically British people taking the mickey out of Americans. Matt thought it was hilarious, and he actually helped us turn those Americanisms up to 11." Dragon Quest visionary Yuji Horii is getting his own RPG-style manga detailing his journey to creating the iconic JRPG series

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! Former Skyrim lead and Bethesda Game Studios veteran Bruce Nesmith would look to RPGs like Baldur's Gate 3 for inspiration while developing new games like The Elder Scrolls 6, if he were working on them. Or, at least, he seems to reveal as much during a recent interview with Press Box PR. He begins by explaining how Bethesda's games have evolved over time – and how they still could. "Bethesda games in the last decade have become less dynamic in order to meet the needs of what the games needed and audience expectations," he describes, "but to be able to have the world be more fluid, I think that would be very cool." He then cites Baldur's Gate 3 as an example of a game that ticks all the boxes – and, honestly, I'm not surprised he picked it. It made history with all of its GOTY wins and smashed just about every number possible. It also currently sits with an average rating of 96 on Metacritic, so… yeah. It is the RPG that comes to many minds, I'd argue. As Nesmith puts it, Bethesda could "look at Baldur's Gate 3 and draw lessons from that smash hit." He says that "part of what made it so popular is that it felt like all choices were meaningful because you made a choice and it made a big difference in your play." Bethesda, according to Nesmith, has "maybe pulled back from doing [those meaningful choices] a little bit." The studio's focus has shifted from such choices, but this takes away from the "impact" a game can ultimately have. Skyrim lead thinks Mass Effect 5 would benefit from looking to Baldur's Gate 3 or being more of a "Bethesda-style game" Skyrim lead thinks it's "wiser" for Bethesda to use its Creation Engine for new games like Elder Scrolls 6 The Elder Scrolls fans fire back at Skyrim lead's fightin' words: Morrowind "manages to hold up better than Skyrim" "The focus is on putting your toys away, but in these games, you do something in the Thieves Guild quest line that completely changes what becomes of the Mages Guild, for example," he continues. "The world and the game are changed because of your choices. Have it make a real impact." Although Nesmith himself no longer works with Bethesda, he would try to bring the sort of spark Baldur's Gate 3 has to its upcoming RPGs. "If I were in a position of being able to make the decisions, that's something that I would look to be doing because I think the gaming community has spoken and said they want games like Baldur's Gate 3 where their actions feel like they have impact in a broader sense," as he concludes. While I do personally enjoy Baldur's Gate 3, I also feel The Elder Scrolls has a unique vibe of its own that keeps players hooked. I just hope The Elder Scrolls 6 has the same – and I wouldn't be opposed to seeing some of that decision-making flair Larian Studios' own RPG is so beloved for, either. Only time will tell, and sadly, there'll be a lot of it still to come. Skyrim lead thinks it's "wiser" for Bethesda to use its Creation Engine for new games like Elder Scrolls 6, with Fallout 76 an example of why it's "extremely difficult" to swap

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! After sweeping The Game Awards and capturing our hearts wholesale, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's plaudits continue still. Studio Sandfall Interactive has now received an award from the government of France for creating a milestone in the country's game development scene. "We were received yesterday at the Ministry of Culture to celebrate our game, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33," Sandfall Interactive says in a LinkedIn post, as spotted by VideoGamer. "As such, the members of Sandfall Interactive were awarded the Order of Arts and Letters. This distinction honors us, and our deepest thanks go especially to our team who shaped this world and to the millions of players who have brought it to life." Getting the respect of your peers is an impressive feat, but getting noticed and picked for a cultural nod from your country is something else, especially for video games. Despite the scale of the industry, games don't always attract the same prestige and attention within the arts as film or literature. French President congratulates Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 a second time after the RPG's record-breaking awards haul "After Baldur's Gate 3, I didn't think we'd be in this position": The team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 can't quite believe they've matched Larian's award wins Not even Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 devs can believe it's the most-nominated Game Awards title in history: "There are so many deserving, precious games from this year" That said, Clair Obscur's success didn't go un-noticed within the French political sphere. President Emmanuel Macron called the JRPG-inspired game a "great price" for the team's home city of Montpellier, and the country as a whole, while congratulating them on being the first Game of the Year winner at The Game Awards to be from France. Rachida Dati, the Minister of Culture in France, noted Sandfall's achievement on Twitter, saying the country affirms what games bring to it culturally. Now the studio joins legends such as Nintendo icon Shigeru Miyamoto, Rayman creator Michel Ancel, and Frédérick Raynal, who made the original Alone in the Dark, as recipients of the Order of Arts and Letters, placing them in extremely strong company. After Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was snubbed at the Grammys, legendary Journey composer Austin Wintory dedicates his win to Sandfall's "once-in-a-generation-level rarity"

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! Chrono Trigger writer and Chrono Cross director Masato Kato is back with a new turn-based game, but he couldn't help himself, this one also has a badass sword-wielding frog in your party. Another Eden Begins was announced at yesterday's Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase as the next project from lead developer Masato Kato (who has credits on too many JRPG classics to name) and composer Yasunori Mitsuda (Xenogears, Chrono Cross), coming to PC, Switch and Switch 2 sometime this summer. If the name sounds familiar, that's because Another Eden has actually been around for years in the form of a free-to-play time-travelling RPG with a very similar look. (It's one of the 112 games to collab with Persona 5, if that helps whittle it down at all.) Another Eden Begins seems to be the next step in the "timespace-bending multiverse," this time with 18 companions, full English voiceover, revamped combat, and much more. Square Enix reveals $230 The Adventures of Elliot Collector's Edition, so I can only assume the demo did its job "I really love the Persona series – especially Persona 3," says Dragon Quest 7 remake dev, director names Final Fantasy JRPG icon behind Persona and Shin Megami Tensei breaks his 16-year hiatus from games with an upcoming "school life RPG" Developer Wright Flyer Studios says the game has a branching narrative "where New Game+ content invites a new character into the main story, opening up multiple narrative threads leading to ten different endings." I'm all for another time-travelling Masato Kato joint, especially one that'll have you throwing it down with an almost extinct dino boss one second and then running through a sci-fi utopia the next. The super cool frog doesn't hurt, either. "Aldo and his younger sister, Feinne, enjoy a peaceful life in the idyllic village of Baruoki, until one day, when Feinne is taken by the Beast King. Aldo pursues them into the Moonlight Forest, but following a fierce battle with a beast, he is sent through a tear in spacetime—and finds himself in a world 800 years in the future," is the hook, according to its Steam page. While you wait, why not check out the best JRPGs to play right.

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 – the new cat breeding roguelike from the creator of The Binding of Isaac – is the first game in 2026 to score in the 90s on Metacritic and Opencritic. After 13 years since its original announcement, Mewgenics has finally been released. And while the game went through a cancellation and reboot in that time, against all odds, it's both managed to live up to the expectations of the long wait and the expectations of following up one of the best roguelike games ever made in The Binding of Isaac – which was apparently just the devs testing out roguelikes before making Mewgenics. The Binding of Isaac creator's new roguelike Mewgenics already has over a third of the achievements of Isaac despite it being 11 years and 3 expansions ahead 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" "Mewgenics borrows much from its iconic predecessor with an imaginative and rewarding gameplay loop," Ali writes. "Occasionally harsh RNG can be a buzzkill, but doesn't prevent this from being a worthy successor to The Binding of Isaac". Other reviews have so far also been overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of scores from sites like IGN and GameSpot hovering around nine-out-of-ten, with a few 10s and eights sprinkled in the mix. This reception has made Mewgenics the first game to cross the threshold into the 90s for 2026, and it is currently sitting at 90 on both Metacritic and OpenCritic (although it was very briefly the second-highest rated game ever on the latter, behind Mario Odyssey). I've also been playing Mewgenics since review codes went out, and I've put in 105 hours at the time of writing. I can tell you, it's well worth the hype it's getting, and it's a worthy follow-up to my most-played game of all time: The Binding of Isaac. Mewgenics will be hard to unseat as my 2026 Game of the Year – and even harder to unseat for the best soundtrack of 2026. The Binding of Isaac creator's new roguelike Mewgenics already has over a third of the achievements of Isaac despite it being 11 years and 3 expansions ahead.

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! Danganronpa and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy mastermind Kazutaka Kodaka has some words of wisdom for any aspiring developers – if you want to have an especially out there or creative project approved, lie. Well, that's a bit of a crude summary, but it's pretty on point regarding Kodaka's actual words. As translated by Automaton, a new online post from the developer in response to a fan asking for advice on how to have their more ambitious or "out there" ideas approved by companies sees him suggesting people "deceive" their employers. Yes, you read that right – and in a way, it does make sense. Lie your way to the top and all that. "You've got to deceive the company," Kodaka writes, amusingly. "Pursuing creative work while in a company is impossible if you're someone who does whatever the company tells them." He's not entirely wrong here – not all studios are willing to push boundaries, after all, and should devs simply comply without finding a way to incorporate their own creativity, they may never see it come to fruition… although, I suppose that's true of all jobs. The Hundred Line's "Spiderverse"-inspired 100 endings might continue to grow, the Danganronpa creator tells me: "You'll end up with quite a Frankenstein's monster of a game in the end – but I absolutely have the ambition to make that" These devs are basically making their own Danganronpa that began as "100% a fan game" Danganronpa creator's massive tactical RPG has actually been two games in one all along, which, y'know, makes sense Kodaka continues, concluding that should things take a turn for the worse following a proposal… well, that's on the company. "Even if it means that you have to pretend to obey, keep doing what you like," he advises. "Use your company. And if something goes wrong, the one who hired you is to blame anyways lol." As funny as it is to read, comments show folks agreeing with the Danganronpa lead. Many point out that such a bold attitude is the right way to approach your work, and I'd say Kodaka would certainly agree. This is the same man who previously admitted he only makes games he likes, stating, "I don't care if they sell well or not" – a legendary line if I've ever heard one, honestly. So, you've heard it here. Should you have a particularly *unique* idea you want to bring to life, maybe try a fib or two? In the face of countless live service shutdowns, Danganronpa creator believes devs should be "taking responsibility" to give "players a sincere conclusion"

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! Silent Hill is a spreading sickness, and Konami is determined to keep propagating it in a variety of great, fine, and startlingly terrible ways. The publisher has just confirmed that – shortly after the disastrous Return to Silent Hill movie, alongside Bloober's promising Silent Hill 1 remake – it's also currently working on the new Silent Hill: Townfall. Don't confuse it with middling Silent Hill: Downpour from 2012, or the awful interactive TV series Ascension from 2023 – though Townfall was originally announced at the same time as the latter, in a 2022 stream. Konami hasn't spoken about the mysterious game at all in the four years since then, though it's told Japan gaming news site Gematsu that Townfall is indeed its "brand-new Silent Hill title" currently in development. Otherwise, Konami simply vaguely referred to the game as "a continuation of our ongoing efforts" in its latest earnings report, and even Townfall's reveal announcement was obscure. In a one-minute teaser, an unknown voice commends you for being "here to be punished" while indistinct images of bloody hands and empty hallways flash onscreen. Konami is aiming to release "about one" Silent Hill game per year after getting the horror series "back on track" Silent Hill legend doesn't think the franchise has changed, since Konami's "philosophical approach" is still the same "Silent Hill is not just the name of a place, it is a phenomenon": Silent Hill f writer doubles down on theory Konami is co-publishing the game with Annapurna, the Outer Wilds and Stray publisher, and Screen Burn Interactive (formerly known as No Code) is handling development. That's all fine. But as a long-suffering Silent Hill fan, what am I supposed to think? In a 2025 post announcing its name change, Screen Burn explains that Townfall was first conceived in 2020. "We keep saying 'we can’t wait to share more' and it's still true," the studio behind sci-fi drama Observation says. "We're getting closer and closer, but we're a small team making a big game." So, Townfall is in approximately its sixth year of active development, with no release date, gameplay, or more than a minute of trailer footage behind it. I feel neither enthusiastic nor concerned. Konami raised my expectations for its games with the elegant Silent Hill f, then mashed them into the ground again with Return to Silent Hill. I'm going to give up and see if Pyramid Head will give me his number. Silent Hill legend Akira Yamaoka doesn't think the franchise has changed as much as you do, since Konami's "philosophical approach" has always been the same.