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Ok, so Elden Ring Nightreign players have beaten all the Nightlords, they've come to the end of the Remembrance quests, and everyone's running through the few Everdark bosses we've released so far. How do we keep the remaining players interested? We could, hear me out now, make them fight the first three Everdark bosses again? Genius, someone give this person a raise.

"From the Night, familiar terrors rise anew," FromSoftware says in a social media post. "The Everdark Sovereigns' Gaping Jaw, Sentient Pest & Darkdrift Knight Nightlords will come back in pairs over the next three weeks."

From July 10-17, Gaping Jaw and Darkdrift Knight will be on the chopping block. Then from July 17-24 it'll be Sentient Pest and Darkdrift Knight, and finally from July 24-31 Gaping Jaw and Sentient Pest are back for the fight.

I didn't think we'd reach the bottom of the idea well so quickly. I'm really only excited for the return of Everdark Gaping Jaw. This boss was the only Everdark to present a real challenge, so much so that it gave our Harvey Randall an existential crisis. It also had the most creative third phase, creating tornadoes and utilising self-healing, which felt genuinely different from its previous movesets.

The Sentient Pest and Darkdrift Knight Everdarks, on the other hand, did not hold up to Gaping Jaw. They both had rather predictable and even sluggish third phases that could be beaten on the first try. Players ran through them perhaps faster than FromSoft expected, which is probably why we're returning to previous Everdarks instead of getting new ones.

From the Night, familiar terrors rise anew.The Everdark Sovereigns Gaping Jaw, Sentient Pest & Darkdrift Knight Nightlords will come back in pairs over the next three weeks in #ELDENRING #NIGHTREIGN.We are thankful of your valiant expeditions against the Everdark. pic.twitter.com/3jpauUxg2XJuly 8, 2025

Although FromSoft has confirmed that new Everdark Sovereigns are on the way—they just need a bit more time in the oven. "The Everdark cycle continues, and the Night grows deeper still," FromSoft says in another social media post. "The Everdark Sovereigns Tricephalos, Augur, Equilibrious Beast and Fissure in the Fog will be the next abominations to lay waste to Limveld. The timing of their arrival will be announced at a later date."

While I've loved all 100 hours I've put into this game so far, runs do begin to wear thin and become repetitive when the Nightlords stop being the monoliths they used to be. I did a quick run last night where my team and I toppled Libra in a few minutes—that poor goat didn't know what hit him.

"The lack of content is terrible and frustrating—there is nothing to do after finishing the game, and nothing else after defeating the Everdark Bosses," one player says. It's easy to become slightly disillusioned with Nightreign and its cadence of new content. FromSoft may not have promised a game that would get the live service treatment, but it has sold players on more post-launch content like Duo expeditions, alongside extra Nightfarers and bosses.

We did this to ourselves—we got too good at beating Nightlords into a bloody pulp, and we defeated the Everdark Sovereigns too quickly. Now, the only way for FromSoft to keep us occupied is just to throw it all back in our faces again. I bet it won't be long until we're fighting all of the Nightlords at the same time.

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I consider myself an insufferable Persona 5 fan, but even I'm beginning to tire a little of the Phantom Thieves. If there's one thing Atlus knows how to do, it's milk the ever-loving god out of a videogame, which I presume is how we ended up here: Persona 5: The Phantom X, a gacha game co-developed alongside Perfect World subsidiary Black Wings Studio.

Need to Know

What is it? A new band of Phantom Thieves in a gacha'd-up JRPG.Release date [June 26, 2025]Expect to pay Free-to-playDeveloper Atlus, Sega, Perfect WorldPublisher SegaReviewed on Nvidia GeForce RTX3070, AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, 32GB RAMSteam Deck PlayableLink Official site

It's bizarre, because The Phantom X looks like Persona 5 (and sure does play like Persona 5) until I dare to delve a couple menus deep and its iconic stylised UI starts to drown in all the information-dense gacha nonsense I have a love-hate relationship with.

Yet, despite my exhaustion with the setting and all-too familiar formula, I gotta admit: The Phantom X is pretty freakin' good.

Take your time… again

After all, it really is much of the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, yada yada. Hell, the game even opens with the same cutscene as the original game, albeit with a couple visual tweaks to transition it nicely into its gacha counterpart.

(Image credit: SEGA)

There're palaces to explore, Mementos to dive into, personas to fuse, bonds to form, social stats to grow, and calling cards to send as… once again, the Phantom Thieves. Though with a different cast of high schoolers to take up the mantle this time.

Even when The Phantom X does things differently, it's more a switchout than something brand-new. The obligatory animal sidekick is now an owl named Lufel—who also hangs around in your school bag and accompanies you to every place you visit—while Shujin Academy has been sacked in favour of Kokatsu Academy.

This made the opening hours of The Phantom X a little frustrating for me, as someone who has sunk hundreds of hours into the original JRPG across half a dozen playthroughs. It covers a lot of old ground, and it doesn't help that the first several hours of the game are spent with what is one of the corniest villains to ever be mistakenly promoted from sidequest fodder to big bad.

(Image credit: SEGA)

Thankfully, The Phantom X keeps things interesting enough with its new band of rag-tag rebels, even if their stories mostly backtracks over Persona 5's main narrative beats. Protagonist Wonder is a similar blank slate to heroes of Persona past, but they're joined by the likes of spunky baseball prodigy Motoha Arai, standoffish foodie Shun Kano, and disciplined class president Riko Tanemura.

Motoha in particular absolutely carries the early story, connecting her narrative to the first boss (which prevents it from being a total flopfest) and giving her plenty of establishing plot to make me care about her by the time her persona awakening comes around, something not always necessarily afforded to the first recruit in this series.

Something especially interesting about The Phantom X, however, are the Phantom Idols: characters that aren't canonically Phantom Thieves or persona users, but are manifested as such through the protagonist.

(Image credit: SEGA)

It's essentially The Phantom X's way of being able to gacha itself up without having to narratively tie every single banner to the story, and I think it's the perfect way to do it. It certainly helps that the game at least attempts to make sure you're clued up on these people, or give you the opportunity to know them more.

The Phantom Idols are mostly side characters I was already encountering out in the world, like exchange student Yaoling Li or even Motoha's best friend Tomoko Noge. Not only is it a relatively easy way to dump new characters into an ever-growing gacha pool, it also allows the game to do something I'm really fond of: turning not-teenagers into persona users.

I've already got a massive weak spot for Kayo Tomiyama—a 44-year-old housewife whose vocab is still chock with painfully old lingo, remnants of her former life as a gyaru which we get to see in her Phantom Idol design. It goes the other way, too, like ultra smart 10-year-old Haruna Nishimori. And they're not in the game right now, but future updates should see new recruits like the 75-year-old Chizuko Nagao, who I am unbelievably excited for.

Steal your heart (and your wallet)

Both Phantom Idols and Phantom Thieves are put to use in classic Persona combat. Turn-based, weakness exploitation, and a modified Once More system that has selected characters doing an automatic follow-up attack instead of Persona 5's more manual skill selection. It'll be a familiar system to veterans, and it feels just as good here as it does in its more traditional JRPG format.

(Image credit: SEGA)

Battles can be played out manually or sped through and auto-played similarly to Hoyoverse's Honkai: Star Rail. I found myself fighting a lot, so it was a handy tool to get through some of the more sluggish fights and power through my dailies.

That's because combat is tied to most of The Phantom X's more gachafied systems, of which there are a staggering amount. There are a dozen different currencies for all manner of progression. Want to level up characters? Spend your stamina on one fight. Want to upgrade your weapons? That'll be more stamina spent in a different fight.

There are also more challenging modes for me to flex my built-up characters: Velvet Trials throw all manner of strong shadows my way, with my performance usually scored based on how quickly I can end the fight and do it with relatively little damage to my own squad. Some of them have special effects that run throughout each battle too, like gaining stacks of buffs every time I hit a weakness, or increasing specific elemental damage.

(Image credit: SEGA)

Not to harp on too much about Honkai: Star Rail, but the two feel very much the same in this regard, so if you have any experience in Hoyoverse's turn-based JRPG, you should feel fairly comfortable with its battle mode overload. If you don't, though (or like me you've been out of those trenches for a hot sec), The Phantom X throws an awful lot at you very quickly and it's a touch on the overwhelming side.

The sheer density of it—combined with the fact that The Phantom X lacks any sort of calendar or narratively time-sensitive scenarios—does mean that it takes a while to figure out the flow. All of the different modes, quests, and other options are tucked away in a myriad of menus and it took me a few days just to figure out where everything actually was and how I should structure each of my play sessions.

Days are still broken up into parts, but I can freely zip between times to complement whatever goal I'm trying to achieve. If I need to spend my action points, for instance, I can skip to the afternoon to up my social links and work part-time jobs.

(Image credit: SEGA)

Side quests that require specific times or weather conditions let me freely jump ahead, too, almost removing the need to have that requisite in the first place. It's incredibly convenient, which I ultimately prefer, but I do miss some of the more rigid scheduling I've become accustomed to.

Once I was able to dig beneath all that gacha BS (I say that endearingly, as someone who is forever imprisoned by at least one of these monsters at any given time), it ultimately became more of the Persona I knew and loved.

Would I prefer a Persona 6, or anything that doesn't involve some gang of Phantom Thieves? Sure, but The Phantom X has mixed it up just enough to stave off that weariness I've been feeling for a bit longer.

(Image credit: SEGA)

Swapping out the OG squad for a new cast of strong, well-written characters keeps things feeling fresh. They don't feel underbaked or like they were purely designed to push monetisation, and certainly wouldn't feel below par if they'd been starring in a full-price Persona entry instead.

And once all of the Persona 5 nostalgia bait and questionable first villain subsides, The Phantom X begins folding more of its cast into a far more interesting story (with better-written villains to root against). I'm still navigating my way through it, but I've really been appreciating the way it tries to explore themes around apathy and the loss of desire, rather than the 'rotten adults' throughline of Persona 5.

If you're looking for something new, you're certainly not going to find it in The Phantom X. But if you're cool with gacha games and are down to see a different set of Phantom Thieves, this game'll carry you through at least a few months of fun. Budget-friendliness depends on you, of course.

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Grow a Garden, one of Roblox's most popular experiences, has addressed concerns from players regarding its last few updates on its Discord server. In a message shared to the announcement channel, developer Jandel said that "a lot of people have been critical of the last few updates," saying that they feel "rushed and not very inspired" resulting in a huge number of players requesting older updates be brought back, such as the Hungry Plant or the Bee event.

To combat these concerns, Grow a Garden has increased its team size and created two dedicated events teams so that they have "more than one week to create an event" and can work on two different events at the same time.

Jandel went on to share "we hope having two teams working on different events gives us more time to polish and create things that are unique and more time to work on cool new features." Hopefully this does make future events and updates more exciting than they have been—as much as I love the Prehistoric update and having dinosaurs roam around my yard.

The message isn't just an apology either, and there are quite a few features for players to get excited about. Firstly, Pet gifting has been reintroduced to the experience following its removal earlier this month. In the same message, Jandel shared the reason behind why this feature has taken so long to make its way back into the game, stating: "We actually had to completely rewrite our data backend to bring back Pet gifting. People were using an exploit to dupe pets, and we believe we have fixed that now. The good news is that this was the work that was required to allow for trading, so trading should be ready to go very soon."

A new feature is going to be introduced regarding Pets as well. Over the next week, a new machine will be available to put any level 100 Pets you have into it in return for unique mutations with "passives, buffs, and cosmetics." But if you're concerned about how slowly your pet is levelling up, don't worry, craftable and buyable XP boosts for your animals are being added to help you get ahold of those mutations too.

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Buying secondhand laptops and PCs might be about to get a little less scary as HP is looking to roll out a new feature that collects data around the use and life of a PC for future owners. The new feature will be implemented at a firmware level to store these life-cycle records securely on the SSD inside the device. Thus allowing new users the chance to see just what this PC has been through before landing in their laps.

According to IEEE Spectrum, HP got the idea from the motor industry's CarFax reports. These allow potential buyers the chance to check the maintenance history and usage of any vehicle before buying. By applying the same sort of mandatory record keeping, HP is hoping to make reusing old machines a little bit easier, and thus cut down on e-waste.

Modern PCs are already monitoring themselves constantly and reporting data, so all the censors required for this new PCFax are already in place. HP only had to work on a way to collect and store the data securely, so it can't just be edited by anyone looking to make a quick buck flipping machines. To do this a write-locked section of the SSD has been set up to store the gathered data which is powered by the Endpoint Security Controller firmware already included in the brand's business-class computers.

But the log system isn't just restricted to data collected within the PC. It will also have access to other information HP deems necessary such as supply records, diagnostic logs, customer support records, and more. It even includes data from partner companies in case of third party repairs. Hopefully this will paint a clear picture of the condition and history of a machine for whoever gets their hands on it next.

This is clearly designed with enterprise solutions in mind, given the use of business-class PCs. It makes a lot of sense for a business that likely owns hundreds of computers that are constantly passed around users to have a tool like this so they can check the status of these devices. HP's desire to cut down on e waste here is also interesting, hoping the data will empower businesses to seek repairs for specific faults or outdated parts as opposed to replacing the whole system.But I'm not sure this matches up with the high turnover of consumerism in basically all tech devices. For many businesses it's cheaper to buy new machines thanks to tax write-offs than it is to get them repaired, which is especially true with how fast technology moves. Unless HP is looking to release far more modular laptops and business PCs, like what they've done for the OMEN gaming PCs, I'm not sure how much this will help.Still, I like the idea of being able to check the previous use of a PC and actually get some solid answers that might be trustworthy. With folks out there still mining crypto despite how unprofitable BitCoin mining has become, it'd be nice to have some peace of mind that my secondhand unit hasn't been hauling ascii in a mining rig before making its way to my home.

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Nostalgia makes people do crazy things in an effort to rekindle that feeling of warmth from the past. We see all sorts of mods around nostalgic tech, especially for enjoying old media like the swathes of retro consoles I saw at Collect Fest last weekend. A lot of this is about celebrating physical media for the certainty it brings us in ownership, and also for the memories it evokes.

That's not just limited to gaming. Right next to the muscle memory for blowing into a NES cartridge before a game, lives the feeling of inserting VHS tape in preparation for home cinema experience. One person who missed this feeling more than most is Dillan Stock of The Stock Pot, who has put together a project that puts a modern spin on the old video tape machines.

The NFC and ESPHome powered device was featured by Hackaday thanks to the incredibly well thought out design of the project. It uses custom designed 3D cartridges housing NFC tags to trigger the NFC reader and ESP32 sitting inside the equally bespoke reader. If programmed correctly, this will then call that content from whatever server you point it to and play it. The experience is attempting to recreate that feel of putting a VHS tape inside the player as a way to trigger content to play.

It's not a particularly complicated setup, nor is it that much like a VHS player, but it's the beauty that sells it. Those cartridges for instance, were specially designed to print in two pieces and then snap together to avoid wasting support material or glue. They also are the perfect ratio to sport the relevant movie poster front and centre, revealing the secrets of their enclosed NFC chip.

The player also holds well thought out secrets. At first glance, it's unassuming both inside and out, thanks to the tiny amount of tech it actually needs to hold to work. But nifty features like a purpose built setting for the ESPHome as well as springs to give it some tactile approximation of VHS use elevate it to a super nifty device.

I also enjoy that because it's using ESPHome you could make carts to do heaps more than play movies, it could be a game launching machine, or do basically anything else your smart home needs could want. You could have a cart that controls your washing machine if you want to.

For those who are inspired to do their own nostalgic tinkering after watching the video at the top of the page, The Stock Pot has a complete blog post explaining the whole process including a materials hub and GhitHub repository. There you can even grab the files for those 3D printables, though sadly, they won't have that classic VHS smell.

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In news that will have you thanking your local deity of choice, in this the year 2025, retailers are listing a GPU at below MSRP. It's probably not a card most PC gamers are after, but several RTX 5060 Ti 8GB GPUs listings have been spotted where the card is actually cheaper than what the recommended retail price is. It's not much, but it still feels like something to celebrate.

WCC Tech (via VideoCardz) has spotted three retailers who have listed Nvidia's latest GPU at between $10 and $30 below MSRP. That's a small discount, but it's also the only one we've seen on Nvidia's new cards in the United States. So for anyone after it, you can grab the PNY RTX 5060 Ti card for $350 from BestBuy or Amazon or the MSI Ventus RTX 5060 Ti from NewEgg for $390 with a $20 gift card.

We've seen these cards at MSRP, but never below it. Which is why this feels like an event, despite not exactly being a card that is in particularly high demand.

The RTX 5060 Ti released in both 16GB and 8GB variations and it's no surprise that sales of the models with more VRAM have come out on top by a huge amount. With only $50 USD between them at launch, most found it worth paying the extra for double the memory. This discount broadens that gap a little, potentially making picking up one of the 8GB models a bit more worthwhile.

8GB of VRAM is a pretty small offering in 2025, but our reviewer for the RTX 5060 Ti ended up finding the 16GB felt a little wasted. That plus a fair boost in power over the previous generation meant that these did make a fair upgrade for anyone coming from an older card. It also made for a nice little overclocking unit with plenty of overhead.

For anyone owning a GTX this discount could mark the perfect time for an upgrade. You'll get a new card that games far better than what you had at a reasonable price. You just won't have much room to move or future proofing. These could also make a nice little GPU to power a Fortnite machine or something similar for the kids room.

While not attached to Prime Day sales, the discount could be spurred by the massive retail event, so it might not be around for long. Still, a little bit of money off the price as opposed to on top of it when it comes to a new GPU gives me hope that maybe one day these parts will be affordable once more.

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The rumours around an Arrow Lake refresh from Intel are back! Again! And this time they're focussing on AI. This generation of chips launched with more of a plop than a cheer leaving gamers disappointed with their new CPU. Intel could be looking to correct this, though as the company hasn't come out and confirmed the next set of Arrow Lake cards, we've been hearing rumours all year, and the latest give more weight to an improved NPU to target AI.

The Verge spotted an article on ZDNet Korea, which reiterates the idea that the Arrow Lake refresh won't change much, but will deliver an NPU for AI performance. According to the article, these chips will use the same architecture we saw on the Lunar Lake laptop CPU that allowed them to receive the Copilot Plus AI update last November. With this NPU4 design, the new Arrow Lake chips could be the first Intel desktop CPUs with the ability to run this tech.

Weirdly, this looks like the only real change Intel is planning for this refresh, which is sad news for gaming. With no expected change to clock speeds, you will probably get more from enabling Intel's 200S Boost Mode than upgrading to a refresh. Which you should absolutely do if you're running an Arrow Lake CPU.

Instead, the focus on the NPU means these new Arrow Lakes indicates a reliance on the AI abilities of this chip. While its likely not aimed at PC gamers, that doesn't mean it won't have some extra functionality in there to improve your games. If it is the same NPU4 architecture then they should at least be able to run Microsoft's upscaling tech, Auto Super Resolution, which was originally only available on Snapdragon powered Copilot+ machines.

It's a bit different to Nvidia's DLSS4 or AMD's FRS4, but this upscaling tech could still help a bunch when it comes to making games look better and run smoother. Unlike the other two, Auto Super Resolution is handled entirely by the CPU, and has a toggle that can be turned on in Windows to run it. Though, the list of compatible games still isn't exactly huge, for now.

It will be interesting to see how these refreshed chips do in desktop machines, but I'm not expecting them to be the top pick for gamers by any means. If you are super keen on Microsoft's upscaling tech then you might be better off holding out until its available on a more gamer-favoured CPU.

Microsoft has said the Copilot Plus features will be coming to Intel Lunar Lake and AMD Strix Point PCs at some point in the future too, so maybe the updated Arrow Lakes will make for a perfect testing ground for the software.

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Just over six months after the free-to-play mech shooter Steel Hunters was revealed to the world with a spectacular trailer at the 2024 Game Awards, and three months after launching into early access, developer Wargaming has seen enough, and it's pulling the plug.

"Today we share difficult news: we've made the decision to sunset Steel Hunter," the studio wrote on Steam. "You've given us so much passion and support but unfortunately we've come to the conclusion that continuing development is not sustainable. We know this isn't the news anyone wanted to hear and we genuinely share in your disappointment."

It's an unfortunate end to a game that showed some real potential. PC Gamer contributors Rick Lane and Aron Garst both described Steel Hunters as a "more tactical" take on the genre than is seen in many other mech games, with unit mobility taking a distinct back seat to considered movement and coordination. But Rick felt the game was "undermined by boring loot," while Aron preferred the more action-focused approach of Mecha Break.

In the end, it seems that Steel Hunters simply failed to resonate. SteamDB indicates that it hit a peak concurrent player count of 4,479 at launch, which quickly tumbled down to just a few hundred at a time, and more recently even less than that. That's nowhere near the biggest live service failure of all time—Concord lasted just a couple weeks before the axe fell on it in 2024—but as Wargaming said, those numbers are definitely not sustainable.

The Steel Hunters servers will stay online for the next 90 days—until October 8—and every mech in the game will be unlocked for all players, including some that still haven't been publicly revealed. Support for custom games is also on the way, "so you can play with your friends, set up community matches and create some final memories together," and a "goodbye tournament" is also being planned. Details on that will be shared "soon" on the Steel Hunters Discord.

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Blue Prince is a phenomenal puzzle game about methodically, meticulously excavating a fractal web of interlaced mysteries and metanarrative plots to navigate a shifting labyrinth, a geopolitical intrigue, and a troubled family legacy.

It's also, it turns out, a hype as hell competitive event capable of filling a conference hall with cheering spectators, as proven by a Blue Prince speedrun race at SGDQ 2025 this week.

For mere humans like you and I, progressing through Blue Prince is a process involving dozens of hours of randomized runs, note taking, misguided speculation, and realizing how bad you've gotten at math while staring at a dartboard. For SGDQ runners Radringtail and Bobbyburm, however, it's an hourlong head-to-head sprint testing each competitor's mastery of the Mount Holly Estate.

Oh, and it's bingo. They're doing bingo in this one.

Let me explain: Radringtail and Bobbyburm weren't just racing towards a single finish line. They were competing to be the first to complete a series of hand-selected Blue Prince objectives, arranged on a 5 x 9 bingo board mimicking the floorplan of the Mount Holly Estate.

(Image credit: Raw Fury)

Some of these objectives, like "solve 2 parlors" or "use an elevator" are fairly simple. Others deeper into the board, like "light four blue flames" or "7+ allowance," involve completing multi-stage puzzles or postgame progress.

Unlike a normal bingo board, Radringtail and Bobbyburm didn't just need to claim five squares in a row. Beginning on the bottom row, they had to chain together adjacent objectives to create a path through the entire length of the board, much like a Blue Prince player has to draft a path through Mount Holly to reach its legendary 46th room.

And it ruled. Four minutes into the run, when both runners were simultaneously completing one of the game's more obnoxious logic puzzles in just seconds, I knew I was in for a show.

These are players who've built a deep, internalized pool of knowledge about Blue Prince and its puzzles, turning what's typically a steady, contemplative affair into a contest of high-stakes, high-speed calculation. It's a staggering display of improvisational problem-solving, requiring both runners to weigh probability and time investment across in-game runs—all while needing to dynamically alter their strategy based on their competitor's place on the board. Brains have never been bigger.

(Image credit: Raw Fury)

I won't spoil the outcome, but I hope it communicates how worth a watch the race is when I say that, at 20 minutes and 26 seconds, the audience starts cheering over a runner making a contraption. Everyone loves a contraption.

SGDQ 2025 runs until July 13. You can watch it live on Twitch. As I write this, a pair of runners are frantically collecting emeralds in Sonic Adventure 2. What more could you want?

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Destiny 2 is free to play so you can unleash your divine genocide of alien races at anytime without spending a dime, but naturally some pretty big parts of the game are locked behind expansions that cost money.

For the next two weeks, though, you can see everything it has to offer thanks to the newly-started "open access," which makes "all currently available Destiny 2 expansions," along with all three currently available Destiny 2 Episodes, free to play for everyone.

I don't see this as a huge deal for complete newcomers to Destiny 2, because believe me there's plenty to do in the parts of the game that are normally free anyway. But if you've been in for a while, you're not sure if you want to make a financial commitment, but you're curious, well, these next two weeks are for you.

Even better, you'll retain all currencies, gear, Title, Triumphs, and cosmetics earned during the open access period after it's over, even if you opt not to pay for any of the premium stuff. That's a pretty sweet deal.

If you are ready to make the move from free to paid player, this is a good time for it: A big pile of Destiny 2 content is currently on sale on Steam for up to 92% off, so you can snag the excellent Witch Queen expansion, for instance, for $2.39, or the saga-ending The Final Shape and its annual pass for $20. Note that those sale prices are only good until July 10 though, when the Steam Summer Sale comes to an end, so if you want to take advantage you're going to have to move quickly.

Bungie held a Destiny 2 open access period in 2024 ahead of the release of The Final Shape—this year's freebie comes ahead of the release of The Edge of Fate expansion, "the biggest change to Destiny 2 since it launched," which is set to go live on July 15. Destiny 2's new open access period runs until July 22.

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Speaking to Bithell Games founder Mike Bithell on the release of the studio's latest game, Tron: Catalyst, I had to get his take on the current state of licensed games. The days of every movie getting a PS2 tie-in have long past, and we seem to have settled into a new era of smaller-scale spin-offs like those made by Bithell, and monster triple-A projects like Insomniac's Spider-Men.

"It has fully split. Like, there is that big gulf between the games," said Bithell. "That's more generally just a theme of the industry right now, in terms of there isn't a middle class anymore." But another factor, according to Bithell, is that the companies in charge of licensing properties out have a fundamentally different view of them than back in the '90s and '00s.

"The companies who own this stuff want interesting stories in their worlds," Bithell said. "I remember going for my first meeting on John Wick, going into a room full of classic⁠—exactly what you imagine when I say 'Hollywood boardroom'—a bunch of execs all sat there, very fashionably dressed, very cool execs, and the guy who's in charge is like, 'So Mike, we want to make a good game like GoldenEye.'"

To be clear, they didn't want him to make some kind of 'GoldenEye, but John Wick' type of game. "'We like your strategy idea, but it needs to be good, like Goldeneye was,'" is how Bithell characterized the counter-pitch.

"It was this moment that I had in that room just going, 'Oh, so the people who played licensed games are now bosses in the companies that are licensing IP.' I remember that being very exciting to me, because now it was this generation of gamers who had actually grown into those roles, and we're now in charge.

"It definitely feels like we're not a lunchbox tie in anymore. We're not just, 'I'll put something on a shelf so the gran can buy it for the kid who likes the movie.' I think IP owners see this as a way of expanding and exploring the worlds that they create."

Bithell also points to the maturation of developers from the late 2000s, early 2010s indie scene to explain the rise of smaller-scale licensed games like the ones he makes. "There is the generation of indies who've professionalized to an extent, where they can work in the processes of working with an IP holder," he said. "We are able to show up to a meeting and act professional."

Bithell freely admits that this can be a double-edged sword, though: "There is a horrible thing to realizing that you are the exact dinosaur that you were rebelling against 15 years ago," he said. "I love that the new generation of indies probably doesn't think it's cool to be making the kinds of games I make. That's how it's meant to be.

"And one day they'll get old as well, and another generation will come along. And it's cool. It's how we as an industry move on, and how, more importantly, as an art form, we move on, because you have these new voices doing cool stuff."

Tron: Catalyst is available now on Steam, and while it released too late to get a price drop in the Steam Summer Sale, the rest of Bithell Games' catalogue, including Thomas Was Alone and John Wick Hex, are all on sale for steep discounts.

2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

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Pope Leo XIV is a pontiff of firsts: He's the first American Pope, his love for Wordle makes him the first gamer Pope, he's the first Pope to declare war on AI, and now he's the first Pope in human history to both own and have signed a Pokémon card.

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that one either. The holy surprising news came courtesy of a reddit post from user ReptileCake, who was one of a group of folk from the Diocese of Copenhagen, Denmark, attending a Jubilee Year celebration event in the UK (first spotted by Polygon). At such events there are opportunities for young Catholics to meet the Pope and have items blessed, and our enterprising Poké-fan knew exactly what to bring.

It somehow gets even better. The two cards that ReptileCake presented to Pope Leo were Popplios: this was a minor meme in the Pokemon community around the papal appointment, because "Pope Leo" and "Popp-Lio" sound alike. ReptileCake described the interaction to Polygon like this:

"How I’d describe the experience: 'Your Holiness! It is a great pleasure to meet you, and thank you for your speech. I have brought you a gift! *takes out a reverse holo foil Popplio* It’s a Popplio, it sounds like Pope Leo!'

"The Pope laughs, probably more of a courtesy, at least I thought that until he began showing it off to the guards around him.

"I reach into my pocket to bring out the second card and a pen: 'And can you sign a copy for me?' I asked and he obliged 'Of course!'"

A man got his “Popplio” pokémon card autographed by Pope Leo from r/interestingasfuck

I'm no expert, but the Pope's touch is considered by Catholics as a blessing so... does that make this Pokémon card a relic of the Catholic Church? The world needs an ecumenical council to answer this question. Either way it's good to see a Pope that endorses evolution.

Jokes aside, this is not the Vatican's first brush with Pokémon. Way back in 2000 there was a minor moral panic around Pokémon games and what they were teaching children. Step up Pope John Paul II, who told worried Catholics that the games had no "harmful moral side effects" and were built around "ties of intense friendship." In other words, let the kids play with their damn Pokeymans and help me finish off this communion wine.

"I’ll never get rid of the card," said ReptileCake. "It is my personal artefact and I will cherish it in sleeve and one-touch UV slab. I don’t want to grade it, it’s just a funny joke that his Holiness indulged in with me, that’s worth more than any monetary value can satisfy." Amen.

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As a longtime Dwarf Fortress devotee, the last few years of DF development have felt like a wonder. For most of the procedural fantasy sim's history, there could be years between updates as development progress was subject to the circumstances affecting the Adams brothers' lives and attention.

Since joining with Kitfox Games for the Steam release and hiring on additional developers, however, Bay 12 Games is now expanding its simulation's scope at an unprecedented pace. It's even able to address bugs that have been tormenting players for 15 years.

In a YouTube video published yesterday, Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams spoke about a DF update that landed at the very end of June to bring a change that, to any Dwarf Fort veteran, sounded like a miracle: Marksdwarves actually work now.

I'll give you a moment to catch your breath.

For almost half of my life, trying to get a dwarven militia to use ranged weaponry has been a futile, sisyphean endeavor. Long-standing peculiarities with interactions between military stockpiles and dwarven behavior meant getting your marksdwarves to train with their crossbows—let alone field them in actual combat—was like trying and failing to solve the logic of an arcane, inscrutable machine.

(Image credit: Bay12Games)

Often, the best I could hope for was getting my militia to loose a single barrage of bolts. Otherwise, I'd usually be left watching in dismay as my marksdwarves refused to fill their quivers and instead tried to bludgeon the oncoming goblin invaders with their ranged weapons.

The June update changes all that. As a prelude to an upcoming revision of Fortress mode sieges, Adams said archery has been overhauled, righting a decade and a half of marksdwarf wrongs.

"We changed archer behavior so that they'd better use fortifications that you set up to protect themselves," Adams said. "They will also run off and get ammo, keeping their distance from enemies even when they're out of bolts instead of leaping over walls and clubbing people with their crossbows. So that's an improvement."

Tarn has a talent for understatement.

(Image credit: Bay12 Games)

Ammo customization should now work properly, too, so you can designate cheaper wooden and bone bolts for crossbow training and save your valuable metal bolts for the sieges where they'll matter most. The game now models nocking arrows and loading bolts, too, and marksdwarves can now aim at specific body parts—all of which is affected by an individual dwarf's stats and skills.

With archery becoming yet another vector of Dwarf Fortress's increasing complexity, Adams said even he's caught himself underestimating how many factors influence a dwarf's ability to land a shot.

"Things like weather have always mattered for ranged weapons. When I was testing, I was reminded of this because my test was taking place in a snowstorm, and I was wondering why they were shooting so late," Adams said. "But it's because they couldn't see as far. Lots of little things matter."

(Image credit: Bay12Games)

The June update also brought new visuals for the game's Forgotten Beasts, adding procedural sprite variations for the primordial horrors with colors and decorations matching their randomized descriptions.

In addition to the looming siege rework, Dwarf Fortress's Lua scripting update is on the horizon. It's currently available for testing on DF's beta branch, where it's surfacing code governing the generation of random creatures and objects for modders to play with. As part of an ongoing process to convert more pieces of Dwarf Fortress into moddable scripting material, Adams says the Lua updates will "blossom into a modding renaissance."

Terrifying. Can't wait.

Dwarf Fortress is available now on Steam. The classic ASCII version is—as ever—free to download from the Bay 12 Games site.

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The Great Hobbit Run is a Lord of the Rings Online tradition based on a simple premise: What if, instead of adventures and experience and becoming the savior of Middle-earth, a bunch of newbies just showed up at Chez Bilbo and then booked it straight to Mount Doom? It sounds like a terrible idea, at least in the very serious in-fiction context of saving the world from enslavement to evil. But as a silly good time in a very long-in-the-tooth MMO, it actually seems pretty great.

Organized by Twitch streamer BurkeBlack, the Great Hobbit Run (via GamesRadar) is an express trek from Bilbo Baggins' house to the fiery heart of Mount Doom, specifically for level one hobbits. That's not a hard-and-fast rule: Pre-run conversation mentions the LOTRO tutorial putting players to level 5, and someone in the party is judged rather harshly for joining in at level 41.

Low-level characters are obviously more in the spirit of the thing, but nobody's going to put too much effort into enforcing any rules, in part because the mob of non-stop hobbits attracts no small amount of attention, and latecomers, as it goes.

"It usually happens," one person said near the start of the run. "You'll see a few people in chat like, 'Hey, 400 hobbits just ran by me. What's going on?'"

Perhaps predictably, the first two runs did not go well. In 2023, the group apparently met its demise in the dark depths of Moria, and in '24 the wheels came off in Rohan.

At least they met their end with noble dignity.

The Great Hobbit Run of 2024 finished, and got as far as Rohan before the fellowship fell apart, this is further than Moria last year. Next year more streamers, more community! To Mt Doom! pic.twitter.com/9fbvD0ttI8July 8, 2024

In 2025, though, after more than six hours of struggles, the humble hobbitses finally pulled it off. Mostly, anyway. It turns out that the interior of Mount Doom is dark and scary and a little confusing, and there was some debate about where exactly the whole thing was headed.

Eventually, amidst anguished cries of "You led us here!" (well, one cry, anyway), someone took the initiative and jumped into the lava. Shortly thereafter it was decided that the adventuring party was "Mount Doom adjacent," and that was close enough: A group photo was taken, and BurkeBlack shared some inspirational words:

"This is great. Three years in the running, here we are before Mount Doom. This is a nice juicy bit of lava. Just throw in the ring and there's gonna be more than enough, and Sauron can kiss my butt!"

Not exactly St. Crispin's Day, no, but it was sufficient for the moment—and then BurkeBlack and everyone else jumped into the lava, mission happily accomplished.

Well, almost accomplished.

After 3 years of attempts, the Hobbits finally made it to Mt Doom and threw ourselves into the lava! Thank you tobthe helpers and everyone that joined this year long, but saddly I forget the ring back at the shire so we'll try again next year! pic.twitter.com/SaKSDuYQ7iJuly 8, 2025

Someone in the stream said there is a way forward from this point, but they forgot what it is and apparently it's "very difficult." A new goal for 2026, perhaps. Until then, you can enjoy the entire epic adventure below.

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Time Extension has a new interview with Tomohiro Nishikado, the designer known for his long career at Taito and in particular the creation of Space Invaders. The 1978 arcade game has a good case for being the single most famous videogame ever, and upon release became a craze and phenomenon (a popular urban legend claimed it caused a shortage of Japan's 100-yen coin), swiftly becoming the best-selling arcade game of all time and cultural icon.

Nishikado's career began at a Taito subsidiary working on early arcade games, which did have electronic elements but were also mechanical in construction: the first project he worked on, Sky Fighter, used mirrors to reflect model planes at the player and create the illusion of flight. It was a smash hit.

"Of course, the first wave of electronic video games also came from America, such as Pong from Atari," says Nishikado. "Due to my electronics background, I had a strong interest in these video games, so I brought a copy of Pong to the office, analyzed it, and tried to make something different from it. This was because I strongly believed in the potential of electronic video games for the future. Unfortunately, the sales team thought differently and didn't want to do any of these more modern electronic video games. Always saying that 'these things will never sell.' After figuring out how Pong worked, I made a soccer game."

Nishikado focused on soccer because the market was flooded with Pong clones, so having two 'players' on each side of the screen (a goalkeeper and a forward) and smaller goals differentiated it. "Following the soccer game, I did basketball," Nishikado recalls. "This had a basket at each end and added a more human-like character, rather than just a bar. I was later told that this was probably the first time in video game history that a human-shaped character had been used like that."

Over this 4-5 year period before Space Invaders, Nishikado worked on several titles in different styles: a driving game called Speed Race, multiplayer racing game Fisco 400, a first-person jet fighting game called Interceptor, and the 2D duelling game Western Gun. None of these were coded, but built using various electronics and integrated circuits soldered together.

"For Space Invaders, that was the first one to use code, and I wrote that in assembly," says Nishikado. "There was a CPU called 8080, and that CPU came with its own assembler. I studied it by myself and then wrote the game… I saw the very first software-programmed game in America, and I knew then that this would be the future of video games, and we need to catch up."

The benefits of the software approach were obvious, primarily that the same hardware could now be used to run different games. "As for how Space Invaders came about, the first reason was that the game Breakout by Atari, I was shocked by its simplicity," says Nishikado. "This was because back then, video games were all trying to look more authentic or realistic, but Breakout was very simple and abstract. That made me realize that the fun factor is the most important part of a game, and not necessarily its graphics.

"I felt that if you switched the blocks in Breakout into a character, it might be more fun. The other idea was, why not change Breakout into a shooting game? The most satisfying element of Breakout was deleting all the blocks. That feeling was what I wanted to recreate. That meant the basic concept of Space Invaders was to similarly clear the screen of enemies."

Nishikado toyed around with what the blocks should become, trying the usual tanks, airplanes, and even soldiers. The way the latter were animated made them look fun but Nishikado had "a sense that it wasn't right to have a game where you shoot people with guns. Around this time, Star Wars was about to be released, and that meant space or sci-fi elements could be used. That made me think of aliens, and that it would be okay to shoot aliens. They're not human after all."

The young creator took inspiration from HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, where the aliens are described as looking something like an octopus ("that's why you also have crabs and squids as aliens in the game"), and added a demo loop so players could see how the game played.

Space Invaders became one of the biggest smash hits in videogame history, but Nishikado was just bummed that hardware limitations meant he couldn't move the aliens faster. "I do feel proud to have contributed to the history of video games, but back in the 70s and 80s, I didn't feel that way."

In a move that seems bizarre, but was rather typical of some corporate cultures at the time, Nishikado's success saw him put to work on various versions of Space Invaders, before being moved off game development entirely to work on things like "robots for amusement facilities." In a real 'what if' moment for Taito he even "made a prototype for a new games console, but that was not approved by the sales team as they were purely focused on arcade games."

The Taito sales team, as it was back then, hovers in the background of Nishikado's recollections like a ghost: it clearly exerted great influence on what the company would allow the creatives to make.

"I think it's very important for creative people and developers to try and make something on their own, and then see if it's fun or not," says Nishikado. "The game development process in Taito eventually changed, and we, the game creators, were increasingly expected to listen to the sales team, which came up with new title concepts they thought it would sell. Then we started game development based on that.

"Personally, I don't think that is the correct approach. Creators should try to make a game on their own first, and then it should expand into a larger project. This is what I've felt throughout my whole career.

"The point is that it needs to be creatively led first, before the management gets involved. If you don't try to make something first, you will never know if it's fun or not. Younger people who want to make games should play really old games. They may not have good graphics, but there is something shining within them in a playable sense. There's definitely something to be learned from those games and also to inspire people to make something new. Forget about the graphics, focus on the core design. What makes it fun."

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I've lived a thousand lives in GTA 5 roleplay. From robbing banks in the guise of a journalist, to singing The Proclaimers on a fake reality TV show, feasting on flesh as a vampire nightclub promoter, and trying (and failing) to clear a serial killer of murder while posing as a lawyer—I've seen it all.

I've played on servers that host 32 players, mirroring the official GTA Online base game blueprint, and I've nearly lost my mind in the roleplay scene's user-made 2,048-player spaces. Yes, the latter are as utterly chaotic as they sound.

With the GTA 6's console release date now peeking its head justabove the horizon (May 26 of next year on the off-chance you've been hiding out in a Chiliad cave), internet rumours regarding the next evolution of the crime sim's enduring online offshoot are gaining pace. The usual amount of salt should be pinched with each passing one—as you might expect, Rockstar has kept its lips sealed tighter than Franklin and Lamar's friendship—but the latest faint rumblings regarding prospective online server player counts have grabbed my attention.

According to a chap named Fravilys, a one-time editor on French fansite Rockstar Mag, a so-called "inside source" reckons the in-development GTA Online 2.0 is currently working with 64-player servers behind the scenes—double that of regular GTA Online as it exists today—with the goal being to push that number to 96.

As per Fravilys' latest Medium post: "According to an inside source, the upcoming multiplayer game, codenamed 'GTA6MP', is currently at an advanced stage, much more so than it was during the original GTA Online, which was developed between 2008 and 2013.

"One of the most significant advances would be the ability to perform free-roam multiplayer activities with players from different sessions, without ever having to leave your own environment or experience loading times.

"The next version of GTA Online is said to be aiming for a seamless and immersive gaming experience, with the ambition of reaching up to 96 simultaneous players per session. However, according to my latest information, this figure is currently limited to 64 players."

(Image credit: Rockstar)

Again, the veracity of those claims is a matter of debate, but if we were to assume Rockstar is indeed pushing for that 96-player number, I'd personally be delighted. A full GTA Online server at 32 players can still feel isolated depending on where on the Los Santos and Blaine County sprawl you're conducting your business at any given moment.

A cursory glance at FiveM's active servers right now shows a number of maps hosting 200, 300, 700 and 800 players, with a few of the aforementioned 2,048-player spaces on the list. At the time of writing, the most populated server is occupied by just over 650 players.

Having sampled pretty much everything FiveM's slant on Grand Theft Auto roleplay has to offer over the last several years, I'm a firm believer that 100 players is the sweet spot. It is, of course, worth noting that GTA 6's online offshoot will unfold inside an entirely different playground, but throwing in hundreds, even thousands of players into the same space will quickly become unhinged in any event.

In light of Rockstar's official acquisition of FiveM a couple of years back, you can bet your boots enterprising players will still strive to stuff as many freewheeling virtual criminals into the same killbox as possible nevertheless, however it seems all but certain Rockstar will aim for something a wee bit more measured on its official servers. Measured, but hopefully greater than what we're used to. And if that's the case, I'll all but certainly live a thousand more lives in this new-age interpretation of Vice City whenever it lands on PC.

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World of Warcraft: The War Within is in its home stretch, as Blizzard starts prepping for the next step in its trio of announced expansions, Midnight. Arriving August 5, Ghosts of K'aresh will very, very likely be the last major content update before the expansion hits.

While the official blog doesn't state this, all signs point towards it. Blizzard's already stated it's doing slightly shorter, content-dense expansions, we know Midnight'll be getting revealed before the summer's over. This patch is also explicitly the end of The War Within's story—referred to directly as a climax.

Dragonflight was four seasons long, but it still had three raids and three major zones—with its fourth season being a rehash of content released throughout the expansion, a stopgap that keeps players getting new rewards while also giving the devs a breather.

Basically, unless Blizzard changes its entire game plan (and why would it, it's been working out fine so far, except for a couple hiccups) it's the last major one. If it isn't, I'll eat my four strength, four stam, leather belt. Mind, there'll still be pre-expansion events, story quests, and the like. As for now? We're going to the void, baby.

Or, well. A void-touched world—which is like the void's holiday home. K'aresh is the original homeworld of the Ethereals, before Dimensius rocked up and messed everything up for everyone. Some mad lads have had the bright idea to try and bring him back, so we'll have to stop them:

"With shadowy forces working toward bringing Dimensius back into the world, players will need to gather their allies in a bid to put a stop to him and his followers. You'll fight alongside Alleria Windrunner and her mentor Locus-Walker among others to end the clear and present danger he poses."

This'll also include a new hub from Shadowlands*,* of all places. Say what you want about Blizzard, I respect its determination to not simply toss out one of their worst-received expansions. Tazavesh, the Veiled Market is back, plucked from narrative obsolescence and plonked onto K'aresh.

While there, you'll also be able to do something called "phase diving"—taking a jaunt into a mirror dimension with a bunch of goodies in it. Goodies you'll need to upgrade your Reshii Wraps, an artefact cloak that'll be part of the patches' progression system.

Players will also be sprucing up the place a bit with eco-domes: "Help Ve'nari bring life back to K'aresh with her eco-domes. You'll help fill them with creatures that thrive within the ecosystem. You'll scour previously traveled zones to bring back animals to live within the eco-domes and aid them in adjusting to life on K'aresh."

It seems a little mean to go snag some perfectly happy animals and drop them into a reserve on hell (note: void) planet, but hey. Maybe they'll be rescues. Other than that, it's the usual suspects—a new delve, a new raid and dungeon (coming August 12), and more quests to wrap up The War Within's story. I'll be keen to see if Blizzard sticks the first landing in its ambitious triple backflip, and if not? Hey, player housing still looks pretty good.

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With the Happy Ghast out in the wild now, Minecraft is working on its next drop for the year. Details about the contents of the drop are thin on the ground right now, but we have seen the first new mob - the Copper Golem. It's not quite the towering beast you'd expect, especially after we're so used to the Iron Golem, but according to its announcement there are multiple ways you can use these little guys' skills to your advantage.

Originally, the Copper Golem was one of the three mobs players could vote for at Minecon Live in 2021, but didn't win. Hence the delay in its release. But now, the mob has essentially been reimagined and will be joining the roster permanently when the third drop launches later this year. Here's what you need to know so you can prepare for its arrival.

When does the Copper Golem release in Minecraft?

There isn't a concrete release date for the Copper Golem drop yet, or even a name for the update, but we do know it will come in the Fall update this year. The last two drops, Spring to Life and Chase the Skies, both launched around the start of the season and in the middle of the month, so I'm hopeful that the Fall drop will be the same, potentially launching in mid-September or early October. However, if you can't wait, you can test out the Copper Golem by enabling previews/beta for Bedrock Edition. Full details on how to add these features to your game can be found on the official blog post announcing the Copper Golem.

What does the Copper Golem do in Minecraft?

(Image credit: Mojang )

Interestingly, the Copper Golem won't spawn on its own like its iron counterpart. Instead, similarly to the Snow Golem, it can only be summoned by players. To create one you need to place a carved pumpkin on top of a copper block, and the Golem will spawn alongside a copper chest. When you create your first Copper Golem, you'll unlock the crafting recipe for its coinciding copper chest too so you don't have to worry about creating new friends each time you need some extra storage.

A copper chest is essential to making the most of the Golem's abilities too. Once spawned, Golems will open the copper chests, pick up whatever they can carry, and sort the items into the chests in your base. If you're prone to your storage turning to chaos, then this new mob will be your gateway to keeping things neat and tidy.

This is particularly handy for anyone who tends to mine away from their base, since you can fill a copper chest with items you find along the way and have them transported back to your humble abode without having to keep traipsing back and forth. You'll keep your inventory clear and your stores organised, plus you'll have a little friend to accompany you along the way.

As a result of this mob being added, copper is also becoming an equipment tier. It sits between stone and iron, so it's not exactly the strongest, but it definitely helps if you find yourself in a pinch and need some armour or a weapon a bit stronger than stone to face any mobs with. If you're using a copper pickaxe, you'll still need to upgrade to iron before you can get your paws on any higher-grade materials. But, if you're planning on strip mining for a while, you won't have to worry about your tools breaking as quickly as stone would.

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Remember Steam Greenlight? That was the user-voting system Valve briefly implemented to judge whether or not it would let a game release on its platform, before it just gave up and decided it'd put up what-the-hell-ever if you tossed it a hundred bucks.

Greenlight wasn't long for this world, but one of its earliest success stories—one of the games that ginned up enough popularity with voters to guarantee itself a spot on the storefront—was Routine: moon-base horror filtered through the hazy, VHS-y lens of '70s sci-fi. It looked great, won over a bunch of Greenlight voters, got a 2017 release window (after an initial 2013 release window), then vanished off the face of the Earth.

Which was a shame. Then, out of nowhere in 2022, Routine was back. Re-revealed at Summer Game Fest, it looked as cool as ever and promised to wow us in the near future. Then it disappeared again.

Which was, um, which was a shame. But guess what? Routine is back! In a post on Steam, the three-dev team at Lunar Software said that a "huge undertaking" like this meant "it was important to keep our heads down and focus entirely on finishing." Thus, the radio silence.

But good news: "Routine is still very much in active development, and we are beginning to approach the finish line for the game," say the devs, who wisely note that "We’ve learned a lot from past experiences, one of those is not to commit to a release window before we’re absolutely sure we can hit it." So they're not saying when it's due, but are "confident that we’ll be able to share more news on that front soon."

We’re excited to share that Routine is still in active development and nearing the finish line.The incredible team at @LunarSoftware has been hard at work and just posted a new devlog update.Check it out and enjoy these fresh new Routine screenshots: https://t.co/r5BE1yuBzv pic.twitter.com/WQmL4zZg7nJuly 8, 2025

To which I can only say, with the best will in the world, that I'll believe it when I see it at this point. To tide us over on the news front, the devs showed off a couple new screenshots (yay) and announced that Mick Gordon left the project last year (boo).

"In July 2024 Mick made the difficult decision to leave the project because of conflicts in his schedule," says the studio. But fear not, "Mick created many outstanding audio assets that will be featured in the final game and provided invaluable audio direction for Routine," which will now be handled by a new—unnamed—audio designer and team.

God willing, this will be Routine's final resurrection before release, not just because I'd like to finally play it, but because any game that stays in development for 13 years has probably inflicted enough psychic wounds on its devs that not releasing it would disintegrate them all where they stand. And I don't want that to happen. They seem nice.

I am curious if the game will truly hit as hard as it might have back in 2012. Alien: Isolation kind of ate its aesthetic lunch in 2014, and I wonder if that might dull the impact a little. Still, I want to play it, and I want to never write another news post about it returning from the grave. So here's hoping the work that's left to do is pretty, uh, routine.

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I want to introduce y'all to an excellent low-pressure city builder that I've become smitten with, Dystopika, but first I need to get some stuff off my chest. Sorry (I am not sorry).

Among my many questionable opinions, one in particular tends to elicit the most ire from my colleagues: that cosy games are bollocks. I'm not coming for any specific game, but rather the weird meta-genre that's sprouted up over the last bunch of years.

There are plenty of games that have been slapped with the cosy moniker that I absolutely love—Stardew Valley, A Short Hike, Wilmot's Warehouse—but the label has also given us an endless cavalcade of pastel-coloured repetition smeared in toxic positivity.

(Image credit: Voids Within)

Even among the good 'uns, I'm not convinced cosy is the right descriptor. Stardew Valley, for instance, pulls you in all sorts of directions—you've gotta make new friends, buy gifts, solve mysteries, participate in festivals and competitions, delve into dungeons and murder slimes, and this is all while you're trying to run a farm, which is famously one of the most stressful and thankless jobs around.

You're just free to be creative.

The vibe and aesthetic might elicit cosiness, but schedule management and endless tasks sure don't. So: great game, wrong label.

Dystopika, though, seems to get it. Like Townscaper and Tiny Glade, it's an extremely chill, goal-free builder where you just make cool things with incredibly simple tools. There are no challenges, no demands placed on your time, no expectations at all. You're just free to be creative.

(Image credit: Voids Within)Cozy Corner

(Image credit: Adamgryu)

If you're constantly looking for a cosy game fix, I'd be remiss not to mention Cozy Corner (despite the objectionable American spelling), our cosy video series hosted by Kara—who is, you'll be pleased to know, a lot less jaded than I am.

Now, Townscaper and Tiny Glade are cute and bright—undeniably happy games. But cosy is not just a singular aesthetic, and Dystopika proves that. It's dark and gloomy, letting you craft megacities full of imposing monoliths, gaudy holograms and bad weather. But what's more cosy than being safely tucked away in your home when it's miserable outside?

I used to live in Dubai, and while the image that immediately conjures up is one of blue skies and gleaming towers, it's still a city surrounded by desert, and that means sandstorms. Now, sandstorms absolutely suck. But when you see huge buildings sprouting defiantly out of the orange gloom, promising sanctuary from the hostile environment, there's something strangely reassuring about it. It's cosy. And that's the kind of cosiness that Dystopika offers.

Dystopika recognises that cosy is broad and means different things to different people. A sweet, queer dating sim; a gentle, low-pressure puzzler; or a dystopian city builder. These all tick different boxes, but they're equally valid.

(Image credit: Voids Within)

There's not much to Dystopika, as it strips away all of the complexity inherent in city builders. You click through placeable buildings, filtering them by selecting a distinct district aesthetic, and then flesh out the city with props, like gargantuan walls, or motorways that weave between impossibly tall skyscrapers.

You can place some props on the buildings themselves, and you can raise or lower your towers, but there's a bit less flexibility than what's on offer in Tiny Glade, which lets you get more granular with your creativity.

But sometimes that's all you need. When I'm burned out, I don't want more tasks or fiddly activities. I just wanna make something very cool, very quickly, only engaging the tiniest part of my brain.

(Image credit: Voids Within)

And I should add that this doesn't mean you can't put your stamp on a city. There's some prop customisation, for instance, letting you tweak the colours, text and size of a prop, and you can upload your own images, which is how my cockapoo became the mascot for the Tyrell Corporation.

This way, it feels like you're growing and nurturing a city, rather than just building it brick by brick.

Even with its limitations, Dystopika still has the power to get its hooks in you. I spent a wee while the other day creating a megacity that was really two cities: one filled with massive spires and twinkling lights, the other grotty and disheveled. And between them I built a sprawling wall, physically dividing the classes. With only the ability to place premade buildings and some custom props, I was still able to craft a simple story in my noggin.

There's also some light proc-gen at work, too, as smaller buildings sprout up around your monoliths, almost feeding on them. Just some little baby buildings. You'll start to see traffic appear, as well, flying between megastructures or using your serpentine motorways to get to the next heist or corpo meeting. This way, it feels like you're growing and nurturing a city, rather than just building it brick by brick.

(Image credit: Voids Within)

While it launched a year ago, developer Voids Within has continued to take good care of its community of relaxed architects and city planners. Last month saw the release of the Meditations update, introducing new districts, like the high-tech Labber's Row, lots of extra props, and an appropriately synthy new soundtrack from composer Sascha Dikiciyan.

There's a lot of joy to be had in quickly rustling up a city and just sitting back and watching it thrive to the sound of old-school Berlin electronic music. It's soothing and comforting—like you're flying back home and watching the twinkling city beneath you come into view.

It's also extremely cheap! You can grab it for less than £6/$7. You're absolutely gonna get your money's worth, even if you don't pour hours and hours into it. It's the kinda game you dip into for 20 minutes when you just need a breather. Pure, uncomplicated escapism.

I love it.

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Hold up folks: games industry analyst Chris Zukowski has cracked it, and knows exactly what you're all like. Nothing but a bunch of hoardy hoarders! Yes I'm looking at YOU with your huge Steam library, bulked-out greedily during every big sale, and which you've only ever played half of (and that's being generous). The truth… is in there.

"The amazing thing about Steam and its player base is that they buy games they aren’t going to play," says Zukowski in a new post (first spotted by GR+). "More than likely the person buying your game is not going to play it."

I resemble that remark. Zukowski conjures up the spirit of Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, and specifically his remarks that the streaming platform isn't just competing with the likes of HBO, but also things like Fortnite and, in the extreme cases where you get hooked on a box set and it's past 1 am, sleep. In such a scenario, what chance does a poor little indie game have of snatching an hour?

Zukowski reckons that's just not the issue: "The reason Steam makes indies so much money compared to all the other platforms is that they have built up an audience that is full of super die-hard hobbyists… Basically, hobbyists buy stuff not because they actually want to consume it, but because they are collecting it."

This is illustrated by the so-called "pile of shame" from various hobbies: great stacks of Lego sets waiting to be built; a room crammed with Warhammer model kits; the Everest-like mounds of yarn that knitters call their "stash." Apparently the Japanese even have a word for those who buy books and pile them up knowing they won't read them: "tsundoku."

We make a brief stop by an older article from Simon Carless that analysed Steam collections and found the median player on there has 51.5% of their collection unplayed. The take-home message?

"Valve cracked the problem that Netflix was struggling with: how do you sell to people who have so much entertainment at their fingertips that they don’t have enough hours in the day to play and watch it all," says Zukowski. "Valve basically added infinite hours to a gamer’s day, it is a theoretical future day where gamers might someday spend hours playing your game (but let’s be honest, won’t).

"The reason game developers are willing to give Valve 30% of their revenue is because the Steam marketplace is packed with super gamers who throw money at games they have no intention of playing."

(Image credit: Valve)

While there's no denying Zukowski has a point, I would just slightly put the brakes on before applying this to Steam as a whole. Player habits are constantly changing, and so are players themselves. I'd definitely have fitted this description of Steam players years ago, and remain guilty as charged when it comes to the tsundoku label, but these days am much more careful about what I buy on Steam: purely because I've had that experience of blowing $40 in a Steam sale on a dozen games that I never played, multiple times. I agree that most of us are hoarders of some sort: I'm just not sure that behaviour persists across our lifetime on Steam. Anyway.

"Steam players get satisfaction out of finding a hidden gem and adding it to their collection," posits Zukowski, because "...hobbyists find satisfaction in collecting. Even if they know deep down that they will never actually play it." The fact that loads of people will buy a game but never play it is actually, drum roll please, a massive boon for developers.

"If Steam shoppers were rational and only bought games they were going to play, we would sell a lot fewer games," says Zukowski. "Half this industry would be gone.

"Knowing Steam players are hoarders explains why you give [Valve] that 30%: you get access to a bunch of drunken sailors who spend money irresponsibly."

There are a lot of common sense observations Zukowski makes about this: developers can't really take advantage of such information, and ratios of played / not played aren't worth obsessing over. If a game is either popular or in some sort of bundle, it's also more likely to have higher numbers of owners who haven't played it. Zukowski also has a pet theory, which I find persuasive, that having a clear genre helps games do better on Steam: because people know that they like, for example, open world survival crafting games, and will buy yours even though they've got 20 more in their library to get through first.

Zukowski ends with a mea culpa, showing that he hasn't played 2/3rds of the games in his Steam library (you can check your own stats via SteamDB's calculator).

"It’s just important developers have a more realistic understanding of who their audience is," says Zukowski. "You should probably be more jaded. Not everyone who buys your game is a ravenous fan who will join your discord, do cosplay of your main character, and participate in art contests. Your game is just another brick in their tsundoku pile."

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Like clockwork, Marvel Rivals' Season 3 comes around and throws a new OP hero into the cage fight of superhumans, gods, and (checks notes) man with gun. This time, the new arrival is Phoenix, and while she may not be as all-powerful as her comic counterpart, she'll still tear through your divers and Strategists.

Every new hero that gets added to Marvel Rivals is strong. The pattern tends to see NetEase add someone first and patch later, so I wasn't surprised to see Phoenix dominate most of the matches I got to play during early access.

Phoenix is a hitscan Duelist with impressive firepower and reactive mobility, a lethal combination. If you're able to hit headshots, then Phoenix will be able to cut through the obnoxious amount of healing that Strategists can dish out.

I was able to deal more damage than Strategists like Luna Snow, Cloak and Dagger, and Ultron could heal. It was more work than it should've been, but it was easier than trying to cut through the backline as Hela or Hawkeye.

One headshot and a body shot will kill Strategists and Duelists, but you can also whittle Vanguards down with her flaming passive, building burn up on a target and then exploding them when you land enough hits. But Phoenix's monster strength alone isn't what makes this character an unstoppable server admin.

(Image credit: NetEase)

Phoenix is strong because she is the complete package. Like Hela, she can deal a ton of damage and has the mobility of a fly that somehow manages to swerve every attack you send its way.

Her shift is a directional teleport, which I tend to use as a quick way to dodge an incoming lethal attack or just disorientate enemy players; it's a reaction that has been built by years of playing Moira in Overwatch 2. Phoenix may not travel very far with this teleport, but it tends to be enough to get out of danger, and even leaves behind a bomb.

Then there's her other ability, which sees her harness the power of the Phoenix and fly in any direction. This covers more ground than her teleport, and while she still stays visible to enemy players as long as you zigzag a bit or take an unconventional route, you'll also be able to escape from a coordinated attack scott-free.

But her movement isn't just useful for backing out of a fight. Many of Marvel Rivals' maps have a ton of verticality, or at least a spattering of perches that you can sit on and dish out damage from an unexpected off-angle. Phoenix can get to all of these.

(Image credit: NetEase)

In some of my matches, I ended up flanking, and was able to take out a couple of Strategists (and the odd Duelist) and retreat before the other team knew what hit them. It'll likely be this kind of scenario that'll make Phoenix so troublesome, especially with self-healing whenever she triggers Spark explosions.

If you want to stay extra safe and bombard the enemy team from behind your ranks, then you can do that as well. Phoenix seems quite adaptive, depending on how you want to play her. During another match, I simply stayed behind my Vanguards and threw damage at anyone who came close; they disintegrated before even reaching the objective.

But all of this isn't to say Phoenix is infallible. Before long, the enemy team caught onto my tactics and proceeded to focus their firepower on me. Now, this isn't a bad thing, especially if you're able to slither out of oncoming attacks and you have a team that can take advantage of the change in focus, but it did make it a lot trickier to keep consistent pressure on the enemy.

Phoenix will likely cause some mayhem for half a season, at least until a patch rolls through and nerfs her a little bit. But in a game full of broken and OP heroes, one more added to the mix won't likely make that much of a difference. Although I'll certainly enjoy her firepower until she's inevitably brought down to earth with the rest of the Duelists.

Marvel Rivals characters: The super-charged rosterMarvel Rivals tier list: Strongest superheroesBest Marvel Rivals crosshairs: The right reticlesMarvel Rivals codes: Grab new freebiesMarvel Rivals ranks: Dominate the competition

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Summer's here, and you know what that means: swimsuit skins, swimsuit skins everywhere. And this year, Marvel Rivals is coming out swinging with five new skins, all of which look amazing and are just as scandalous as you'd expect from NetEase.

"The legendary Marvel Swimsuit Special returns on July 9 in 'Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals' #1 at your local comic shop," executive producer Danny Koo announces on social media. "This issue will spotlight designs for new costumes coming soon to Marvel Rivals this summer."

The legendary Marvel Swimsuit Special returns on July 9 in 'Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals' #1 at your local comic shop!This issue will spotlight designs for new costumes coming soon to Marvel Rivals this summer. Check it out! #MarvelRivals pic.twitter.com/ndtS9Lc9cvJuly 7, 2025

As part of this announcement, Koo also shared some designs of swimsuit skins for Punisher, Psylocke, Luna Snow, Loki, and Thor. While NetEase is definitely not beating the gooner allegations, even I will admit that these skins are pretty cool.

Psylocke's costume is my favourite, mostly thanks to the pretty colours, but Punisher's super soaker-themed gun colour palette, Thor's bag full of Loki and Hela plushies, and Loki's alligator with sunglasses are also top contenders.

But the feature that is clearly drawing the most attention from fans is, without a doubt, Punisher's skull codpiece. "I can't believe they really did the skull Speedo for Punisher," one player says. While others point out that this is actually a reference from one of the old Marvel Swimsuit Specials: "Keeping history alive!"

Unfortunately, there are no further details about where these costumes will land, whether they'll be rewards for an event, or just appear in the shop. I'm hoping that at least one of these skins will be free to earn for players. It'll likely be one with less detail, like Thor or Luna Snow, while the more extravagant skins will likely end up in the shop and cost anywhere from £20-£15, although I'm crossing my fingers for a small miracle and them being even cheaper.

There's also the possibility of even more swimsuit skins gracing Marvel Rivals' screen in the upcoming months, and while it may be greedy of me to ask for this, all I want is another Jeff the Land Shark summer skin. But instead of dressing him in flowers and a funky hat, I think he needs to have a rubber ring, you know, to help him stay afloat. Thank you, I will not be taking further questions.

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I'm downright curious about Borderlands 4—having played most entrants in the series, it's been interesting to see it mostly capture a good narrative essence with Borderlands 2, then spend the rest of its library uh… not doing that. Which is why this sequel's been intriguing to me, given promises the game'll be cutting back on "toilet humor" and irreverent meme culture.

A recent story explainer in Beyond the Borderlands #2 looks like it's delivering on that promise. And while I went in skeptical, I can't help admitting that I'm kinda sold.

Now, obviously, writing is more than just having good ideas. There are plenty of stories out there with excellent concepts but terrible execution: But the ideas are still kinda important, and these aren't half-bad.

Borderlands 4 takes place on a prison planet named Kairos, after Elpis shows up in its atmosphere—the moon was previously teleported away in Borderlands 3's baffling ending, wherein Lilith randomly sacrifices herself before Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys plays. I wish I was joking.

Anyway, Kairos sucked before the moon got there and it sucks even more now. It's being ruled over by someone called the Timekeeper, who's implanted something called a "bolt" into everyone's neck, a remote killswitch that also lets him see through their eyes.

The video then goes on to describe a few factions—like the crash-landed Outbounders, the mining Augurs, and the temporarily embarrassed billionaires the Electi. Each zone has one of these factions, plus a Timekeeper general boss you'll have to kick over, too.

Dare I say it, this is all sounding… well, kinda cool? Borderlands 3's tedious streamer villain pair isn't a low bar to surmount, but if a DM came to me with this thing as a setting for their TTRPG campaign, I'd be excited to play around in it. Which, in my book, is a good sign.

The words of Lin Joyce, managing director of creative, give me some hope as well: "When we were approaching how to write the Timekeeper, we certainly looked back on all of our previous main villains and considered how we wanted to approach the Timekeeper differently."

Sam Winkler, narrative director, continues: "We wanted to go back to this sense of dread about the villain of our game … We wanted a villain who was a new type of character in the franchise who is ever present and not overstaying his welcome."

I'm reading into Winkler's words, here, but that certainly feels like a subtle dig at Handsome Jack, a halfway-decent villain that the series was never quite able to replicate.

Anyway—I've never played Borderlands games for their stories, but rather the same, ol' reliable, boilerplate-competent looter shooter fun. I had a great time with Borderlands 3, even with its outdated memes yapping in my ear. So if Borderlands 4 winds up having a semi-decent story? All the better.

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When I booted up the Marvel Rivals preview build for Season 3 for the first time, I was, of course, dying to try out Phoenix right away. New heroes are always the stars of the show, and that's no different here. However, after hours of hands-on with the anticipated update, including the Season 3 patch notes that bring some much-needed balancing changes, I've actually been appreciating the mundane tweaks much more: an overhauled challenge system and new end-of-match interface, most of all.

With seasons being crushed down into a two-month affair from Season 3 onwards, cutting down the time you have to complete a battle pass by a third, I was worried the battle pass grind would get worse. After all, the more time you have to dedicate to playing one live service game, the less time you have for any competition. Thankfully, my worst fears didn't come true this time, and there have been some pretty sweet changes to accommodate this faster pace. I'll probably continue to play every day, but that's not the point...

Firstly, daily missions are no more. They've been snapped out of existence, and their Chrono Tokens have been redistributed to other weekly missions and challenges. Similar to changes made in Season 2, this tweak relieves a bit of the pressure to play every day in order to keep up. I have a life outside of playing Marvel Rivals, including a full-time job, so it's nice not to have to worry about efficiently grinding Chrono Tokens. And before you say that battle passes don't expire in Marvel Rivals, I know, but I doubt most have time to complete a new battle pass alongside finishing off a previous one, especially with two-month seasons going forward.

(Image credit: NetEase)

With the removal of dailies, weekly missions have been upgraded across the board. Not only is each one worth more now, but unfinished weekly missions now roll over week-to-week, and can be completed until the mid-season refresh. Unfortunately, yes, these don't stack all the way up through the entire season like Overwatch 2 does, but a maximum of four weeks of challenges rolling over is still significantly better than none if you miss a few weeks.

My favourite change is actually the new (and removed) mission types, so it all feels like less of a slog to complete. New missions have been added, like one tasking you with completing three matches where you spend at least 50% of the game as a specific class, such as Duelists hero. Yes, any hero of the given class; NetEase has finally wiped those god-awful challenges to play as specific heroes out of existence.

You don't have to cross-reference tasks to figure out which hero you should play to tick off multiple in one go or play someone you don't want to anymore. Hallelujah. It's much easier to quietly chip away at challenges naturally, and it makes for an experience more focused on playing for the fun of it, rather than completing an arbitrary task.

(Image credit: NetEase)

All these great changes come together in a lovely new end-of-match overview screen (and a slightly modified main menu for better challenge tracking). At the end of a game, you can see at a glance how much progress you made towards hero proficiency, the new accessory points system, any active events, and battle pass challenges. It's quick, it's simple, and it's clean, which is something Marvel Rivals' user interface often lacks in favour of style.

Marvel Rivals characters: The super-charged rosterMarvel Rivals tier list: Strongest superheroesBest Marvel Rivals crosshairs: The right reticlesMarvel Rivals codes: Grab new freebiesMarvel Rivals ranks: Dominate the competition

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