Coliseum

Reviewed on:
Xbox Series X/S

Platform:
Xbox Series X/S, PC

Publisher:
Xbox Game Studios

Developer:
The Coalition, People Can Fly

Release:
October 6, 2026

Rating:
Mature

It’s been nearly seven years since the last mainline Gears of War game, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the franchise is little more than a past-expiration relic from the Xbox 360 era. Gears of War: E-Day may take the series back to its early days, but it is far from The Coalition compromising on innovation. Instead, the studio delivers its finest work since taking over the franchise, giving fans ample reason to be excited for the chainsaw-riddled cover shooter once again.

Reprising their roles as the leads, Marcus and Dom visit the city of Kalona to be honored as heroes of the recently concluded Pendulum Wars. Unfortunately, the peace is short-lived, as an unknown threat known as the Locusts emerge from beneath the surface, wreaking havoc and introducing a new threat to humanity. Emergence Day is perhaps the most pivotal moment in Gears of War lore, and watching it play out is nothing short of horrifying and awe-inspiring. 

Right off the bat, Gears of War: E-Day feels like a horror game; monsters of all shapes and sizes rise from the ground, tearing fleeing civilians apart and decimating humanity’s militaristic response. Over the course of three days, you watch the human race scramble to respond to the surprise attack, completely overwhelmed by the ferocity and abundance of the Locust forces. Watching the city of Kalona fall in real time, as each of humanity’s Hail Mary attempts is thwarted by the invading force, establishes the Locusts as a true threat. Nothing can be done to save the city; no matter how many enemies I mow down, Kalona’s fate is sealed. That feeling of helplessness flies in the face of the fact that you’re controlling characters who are essentially armed-to-the-teeth walking tanks, but it works extraordinarily well.

Marcus and Dom are joined by newcomers Mags and Lucas, who remain your squadmates throughout the entire game, whether you play solo or co-op. Despite their utility in combat, they’re even more important to the story. Marcus and Dom are dealing with the loss of Dom’s brother Carlos, while Mags is a strong-willed former soldier who reluctantly gets sucked back into service the moment the Locusts emerge. Lucas stakes his personality on being the by-the-book new guy who knows a lot of useless facts. For too much of the story, Lucas is underdeveloped, but a late-game story involving the newbie elevated him to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Marcus, Dom, and Mags; I just wish it happened sooner.

Gears of War: E-Day delivers an astonishing collection of shootouts, supported by improved traversal and tactical abilities, masterfully arranged battlefields, stunning visuals, and a strong, diverse arsenal of weapons and equipment. E-Day smartly evolves how Gears of War missions play out; rather than the straightforward shooting galleries of the early games or the wide-open areas of Gears 5, Kalona presents city streets full of collectibles, upgrades, and side missions. I delighted in scouring each abandoned side street, debris-filled alleyway, or burnt-out corner shop for collectibles, and I actively went out of my way to take on side missions to help wayward survivors and find hard cases full of weapon mods. 

Those mods let you customize each gun (as well as your armor and tactical ability) to fully suit your playstyle. I loved popping heads with a Longshot sniper rifle with a mod that instantly reloads on headshots, and I relished melting those who dared to rush me with the Incinerator shotgun, modded to narrow its spread in favor of distance and damage. Then, stacking an armor mod that rewards perfect reloads with added damage and close-range kills with healing, plus tactical abilities that heal your teammates or mark enemies, made me feel unstoppable, even against insurmountable odds.

After wrapping E-Day’s incredible campaign, I couldn’t help but want more. Thankfully, the multiplayer suite will undoubtedly provide plenty of enjoyment going forward. Versus remains fairly loyal to the franchise’s pedigree; whether playing team deathmatch, zone control, or the new power core-delivery Crucible mode, it aptly brings the same level of chaos fans have come to expect. I enjoy jumping into the currently available social playlists to test my skills against players worldwide, but the matchmaking too often disregards player and class levels; I lost count of how many times I was outmatched by players way above my level. Hopefully, as player counts fill out and ranked play begins, the matchmaking improves.

Horde Siege is where I plan to spend most of my time going forward. In this fresh evolution of the classic wave-based defense mode, Gears of War: E-Day borrows liberally from the extraction shooter genre. You use the open streets of Kalona to complete PvE objectives as a squad. You can beeline toward your main objective and call for extraction, but I more often enjoyed completing side objectives with my squad to earn upgrade points for my character class. With friendly squads in the same session, Horde Siege takes the formula to new heights, opening the door for emergent storytelling as you push back against the Locust threat through distinct missions that sometimes intersect. At times, I miss the more intricate, strategic wave-based Horde iterations of past Gears games, but a standard 10-wave Horde mode is enough to whet my appetite.

Gears of War: E-Day is as close to a complete package as it gets, effectively rivaling the series’ heyday. Minor quibbles with the story or matchmaking pale in comparison to the frightening tale of humanity’s darkest hours and the intense fallout of the all-out invasion. Seeing Marcus and Dom back in action and in their prime is an exciting prospect for a longtime fan like me, but it would be meaningless if it were just a nostalgia play; instead, Gears of War: E-Day innovates in all the right ways while keeping the core and heart of the franchise intact, stamping the series’ return with one of, if not its best, entries to date.

Score:
9.5

About Game Informer’s review system

Platform:

Publisher:
Nintendo

Developer:
Nintendo

Release:
October 22, 2026

Rating:
Everyone 10+

The 2006 release of Wii Sports was a cultural phenomenon. People fought each other in the aisles of Best Buy to secure their Wii consoles before the holidays, primarily because of the Wii’s pack-in motion-control tech demo. Family gatherings often devolved into bowling or tennis matches, regardless of whose house we were at since everyone owned a Wii. Three years later, Wii Sports Resort didn’t have the same cultural impact, but it introduced the Wii Motion Plus, giving fans a reason to upgrade. 

With Nintendo Switch Sports in 2022, the novelty came from the series’ long absence and the franchise arriving on the wildly popular and far more advanced Nintendo Switch. But with this month’s release of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, the cultural significance has faded substantially with each and every entry. However, after spending an hour touring the newly renovated Wuhu Island, I’m not concerned much with how much of a mainstream impact it will have. Instead, I’m more focused on the several hours of lighthearted fun it will deliver to my friends and me. 

Nintendo Switch Sports Resort delivers a heavily upgraded version of Wuhu Island, which most famously appeared in Wii Sports Resort. The resort island is explorable on land via Skateboard, air via Prop Plane, and sea via Power Cruiser. I had the opportunity explore by all three of these extremely intuitive methods. 

Gliding across the ground on your Skateboard is as simple as holding one Joy-Con in Mouse Mode and mimicking the kick-push motion, with tilting the Joy-Con to steer and lifting it off the surface (in my case, my leg) to jump and perform tricks. The Prop Plane has you hold the Joy-Con like a paper airplane you’re ready to throw, with tilt controls and the gyroscope controlling your pitch and speed. Power Cruising has you jump into the seat of a jet ski by holding two Joy-Cons like handle bars, tilting to steer and twisting to rev the engine faster. Exploring the island is enjoyable, as you search for touristy photo areas that explain a bit about the history of Wuhu Island, as well as abundant collectibles that reward you with points to customize your Mii or avatar.

I enjoyed the exploration element of Nintendo Switch Sports Resort, and it will almost certainly add a new layer of replayability to the overall package, but the main attraction is the individual sports. Thumb Wrestling is a goofy minigame where you hold the Joy-Con upright and try to pin your opponent’s thumb, while they furiously shake their Joy-Con to escape your grasp. The Archery game’s special mode using two upright Joy-Cons lets four people aim at different parts of the same target simultaneously (with points given to your opponent if you accidentally hit their section). 

Boxing has you defending from incoming attacks and then picking your shots when you see an opening. Table Tennis has you holding the Joy-Con like a paddle and trying to get your opponent to make a mistake so they either miss the table or you smash their weak return shot. And, of course, bowling is still as fun and straightforward as ever; if you haven’t played since Wii Sports, you’ll notice it’s no longer about release timing and more about spin and aim. 

Each sport I played controlled well, even if the Boxing motion controls struggled if I threw a punch the correct way and I miss being able to cheese the release timing of the Wii Sports iteration of Bowling. You can play them in a variety of different formats, including special variants, like Bowling with a hundred pins, as well as the Island Crown mode, where you compete against 20 CPU characters in nine sports with the mission to climb the ranks and take on the Island Legend boss of that sport. Island Crown, in particular, sounds like a mode that will steal away hours of my time when the final game arrives.

Regardless of how big a splash Nintendo Switch Sports Resort is poised to make, I got what I needed from the hour I spent wailing and waggling my Joy-Cons: a fun, casual sports experience full of bite-sized minigames that will deliver enjoyment whether I’m alone or in a party setting. Thankfully, it won’t be long before I can have Nintendo Switch Sports Resort on my personal console, as it arrives on Switch 2 on October 22.

Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft are two of the biggest fantasy games around, even though they exist in completely different mediums. As such, a crossover between the two is a natural fit (I bet there are plenty of D&D groups who also run raids in World of Warcraft together), but the form of that collaboration is less certain. In a private presentation breaking down the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: World of Warcraft project, the designers made their approach clear: this book is a toybox.

“This book is absolutely a toolbox or toybox that you can use to fill your D&D game with these sorts of adventures, and I think the dungeons represent that really well,” senior game designer Joey Haeck said. “There are a lot of tools at your disposal that I think make it really easy for a DM to explore the world of Azeroth with their players.”

This isn’t a linear, pre-written campaign, but a set of curated crossover locations, character options, magic items, and monsters for players to build their own version of events. Of course, as Haeck mentions, the book also includes some of the most iconic dungeons from World of Warcraft’s history, and if your DM isn’t interested in coming up with a narrative framework to tie everything together, you’re welcome to just storm some castles together. The book also includes advice on building campaigns around World of Warcraft villains, many of which have stat blocks included.

Each dungeon is designed for parties of a certain level, defined in D&D as tiers of play. You can venture into the Deadmines and Shadowfang Keep at levels 1-4; Blackfathom Deeps at levels 5-10; Dire Maul at levels 11-16; and Azjol-Nerub at levels 17-20. There’s also the Scarlet Monastery, which is designed for levels 5-10 or 11-16 depending on which wing you’re exploring, and Onyxia’s Lair, designed for characters level 17-20 and centered around a boss fight with the dragon who dwells within. Yes, this is a dungeon with a dragon; as I said, the crossover is a natural fit.

Dungeon layouts are pretty loyal to their MMO counterparts, though Haeck mentions they’ve added new secrets and shortcuts to some, which will be a surprise even to players intimately familiar with the maps. And while most problems in World of Warcraft are solved with combat, the D&D adaptation allows for alternate solutions, like stealth and negotiation, where it makes sense. Still, if you want to go in guns blazing, you’re more than welcome to. Some dungeons include random combat encounter tables for that very purpose.

The foes on those tables are a mixture of newly designed Warcraft monsters and existing D&D monsters, some of which are re-skinned to fit the Warcraft universe. For example, there’s already a stat block for a water elemental in the 2025 Monster Manual, but if you want players to face off against a Murloc, the book includes rules to convert a table of humanoid stat blocks by adding the Amphibious trait and a swim speed.

Meanwhile, characters like Jaina Proudmoore, Sylvanas Windrunner, and the Lich King Arthas each get their own unique stats, rated at a challenge rating of 22, 23, and 25, respectively. And while there are plenty of dragons in D&D, their abilities don’t line up one-to-one with those in the Warcraft universe, so the crossover will include Green, Blue, Red, Black, and Bronze Dragonflight Dragons to square up against.

While the presentation was more DM-focused, it ended with some player-centric mechanics. Tool proficiencies (which can fall to the wayside in many D&D games) are repurposed to correspond to World of Warcraft’s professions. There’s guidance on how gathering professions can be used to collect resources and how production professions can be used to craft new items.

Finally, we saw some of the game’s factions, which parties can gain affinity with using D&D’s existing Renown system, found in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. There’s the Alliance and the Horde, of course, but the book includes “more than 20” factions total, including the Argent Dawn, the Cenarion Circle, the Earthen Ring, the Explorer’s League and Reliquary, the Kirin Tor, the Steamwheedle Cartel, and the Valdrakken Accord. Raising your Renown brings mechanical advantages – allies of the Earthen Ring can use the faction’s portals, and the closest allies of the Valdrakken Accord are granted a wish.

It’s a toybox with plenty of options, and I’m excited to see it all laid out, but it’s a pretty daunting project. World of Warcraft has decades of history crafted with a fundamentally different design philosophy than Dungeons & Dragons. Because of that, you could never fit it all into one book, and it could never feel the same as the experience on a PC. The design team knows this, however, and has structured the book accordingly.

“I’ve been trying to shift my thinking to talking about [paraphrasing],” project lead designer James Wyatt said in the presentation. “Because we’re not doing like a word-for-word translation of any WoW game mechanics. The game you’re sitting down at the table to play is still D&D in the setting of World of Warcraft, and with a lot of the trappings of World of Warcraft […] So the goal is to try to evoke the feeling of playing WoW and let you interact with the characters and creatures and abilities that you have as a WoW character, while also opening up the world for you to explore in a whole new way, because you can talk to anybody that you meet, you can interact with anything you see. Which is the beauty of a tabletop game.”

For more on the new books coming to Dungeons & Dragons, check out our recap of the publisher’s massive Gen Con presentation.

Welcome to October, or as the world of video games and movies (and all other entertainment media, if we’re being honest) refer to it: spooky season. It’s getting a little chilly; a little overcast. And that means it’s time to play video games where you count bullets. Or, alternatively, you fly a super fast jet airplane.

Before we get to our list of recommended weekend games, however, I want to share some of our most popular stories of the week. We officially unleashed our Grand Theft Auto VI cover story on the masses (subscribe here to get your copy in the mail very soon!), but I promise we offered more than just that this week.

_{But we are very proud of it and we hope you enjoy it.}

• Grand Theft Auto VI Features Tropical Storms And Hurricanes
• Grand Theft Auto VI Includes Over 170 Animal Species
• Star Wars: Galactic Racer Review – Very Fast, Very Dangerous, And Very Good
• Stone Kite Is A New Studio From Halo, Destiny Creator Jason Jones And Author Margaret Stohl, And Its First Project Is About Rogue AI Robots
• The Grand Theft Auto VI Digital Issue Is Now Live
• Dune: Awakening Review – Only The Strong Survive
• Gears Of War: E-Day Review In Progress

Ace Combat 8: Wings Of Theve

Eric Van Allen

Bandai’s Aces team returns to the skies this weekend with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, the latest entry in its arcade-oriented action-shooter series. Riding high on a tailwind of success from 7: Skies Unknown, Ace Combat 8 is a little bit more of everything: bigger battles, more intense dogfights, and a story that puts you right in the boots of a little-known pilot, thrust into a folk hero title as the new “Wings of Theve” after the current Wings is shot down. In the effort to take back your country from invading forces, you fly varied and dangerous missions alongside a charismatic crew. It’s the drama that’s really stuck with me, though. The Aces team is digging deep into ideas around the horrors of war, the losses inflicted and sacrifices made, and the intense aerial ballets you have with rival Shadow squadrons. This new Ace Combat is shaping up to be one of the better ones in the series, and anyone eager for some open air and azure skies should consider giving this entry a try.

End Of Abyss

Kyle Hilliard

End of Abyss is built by former Little Nightmare developers, and the lineage shows. The game has a mood that I would favorably compare to Little Nightmares (obviously), but also Playdead’s Inside. Mechanically, however, the game is much closer to Metroid with a large alien (at least I think it’s alien – it is intentionally unclear) map to explore and ability unlocks that let you get to new areas. You can check out some gameplay below.

 

I also spoke extensively with the developers back in May, which you can read here if you’re a subscriber. Charles Harte’s review should be online soon if it is not already, but I have been enjoying the game so far. The bosses have been more challenging than I expected and I have hit a few troublesome bugs, but it has been my go-to game to play in my leisure time, which is a big compliment considering how full my hard drive is with good games so far this year.

Minecraft Dungeons II

Kyle Hilliard

The original Minecraft Dungeons felt a bit like a family-friendly Diablo that blessedly featured local couch co-op – a rarity in the modern gaming age. The sequel keeps the train on the tracks offering more of what worked in that first game with iterative improvements. In their review, freelancer Tomas Franzese writes, “Minecraft Dungeons II proves this spin-off franchise can stand on its own and improve with subsequent entries at a time when Xbox is refocusing on its biggest IP. There’s plenty of room to expand, improve, and let me reach that endgame feeling of satisfaction much sooner, though. Right now, Minecraft Dungeons II is simply a straightforward, entry-level action-RPG.” You can read Game Informer‘s full Minecraft Dungeons II review at the link.

Toem 2

Marcus Stewart

Toem’s laid-back but stimulating blend of puzzle-solving and photography charmed me in 2021, so I’ve been low-key excited for the sequel ever since. I’m a couple of chapters in, and while I’m not a great photographer in real life, I love a good puzzle game, and Toem 2 is hitting the right notes. Solving scavenger hunt-style tasks like finding missing lawn gnomes or spotting peculiar cloud shapes by snapping pics is easy and enjoyable. New camera tools allow more unconventional interactions, such as cutting objects by lining them up in a shot. Cutting down fruit from a tree to make jars of jam for a hungry bear or slicing pieces of fabric as a seamstress frantically tosses them mid-air is good, silly fun. I’m excited to see what other tools I unlock. As my list of tasks expands with every chat with the quirky characters, I get more excited to capture every photo op, find every secret and hidden path, and fill my book with more stamps indicating a job well done. After playing so many tonally mature, violent games recently, Toem 2 is the palate cleanser I desperately need and shouldn’t be overlooked if you like cozier puzzle experiences.

Fallen Tear: The Ascension

Matt Miller

This lovely new Metroidvania from CMD Studios is likely to surprise you with its breadth and size. It’s a massive adventure characterized by a beautiful, vibrant visual style and an heroic story that is refreshingly free of pretension. While the game draws primarily on the classics of gear- and ability-gated advancement in the style of Metroid or Castlevania, its other chief inspiration is classic JRPGs. As such, the storytelling has an innocent, almost fairy-tale-like vibe, and you spend a lot of time recruiting new “Fated Bonds” that manifest as new party members that can step in during the action to lend a helping hand. Fallen Tear features gorgeous music and a surprisingly robust voiced script that carries the narrative forward. If these sorts of exploration games are your jam, you’d be remiss to not investigate if this one might be your next deep dive.

Blades & Battle

Matt Miller

Blades and Battles wears its inspirations on its sleeve. This is a pretty clear love letter to the medieval and fantasy hack ‘n’ slash brawlers of the late 80s and early 90s, like Golden Axe and Knights of the Round. Players choose to play as Arthur or Lancelot as they sword-slash their way through armies of enemy soldiers and monsters in local cooperative battles. The visuals are stylized and retro, and reminiscent of those early days of the genre. In line with its source material, the action is (likely intentionally) a bit stiff and unforgiving, but it’s great fun to line up big combo juggles that send your foes bouncing around the screen.

This is the kind of game I especially like to surface in a weekend recommendation like this, as it’s the perfect fit for a satisfying evening with a buddy, when you can’t decide what else you’re going to do with your game time. It may not have a ton of surprises, but it’s a fun and satisfying time that nails precisely what it’s aiming to do.

Heartworm

Kyle Hilliard

Heartworm released on Steam in July of last year to “very positive” reviews and this week it arrives on consoles. It’s a Resident Evil-inspired survival horror throwback with 32-bit visuals and fixed camera angles. I have been playing it on PlayStation 5 and despite having just played Silent Hill: Townfall and being in the middle of End of Abyss (see above), I am enjoying it. Today is the second day of October, after all, so it is spooky season.

One standout mechanic I like is instead of the typical video game flashlight to light up dark areas, protagonist Sam uses the flash from her camera, which leaves a lingering brightness for a few seconds. The mechanic lends to the scariness well and also just feels different from typical survival horror games. If you’re looking for something scary and nostalgic, take a look at Heartworm.

Ghost Of Yōtei Complete Edition

Kyle Hilliard

Ghost of Yōtei is one of 2025’s best games and yesterday saw the release of the game’s Complete Edition, which adds a single-player Echoes of Sekigahara DLC campaign and the new rogue comabt mode called Most Wanted (which features Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin as a playable character). You can buy Complete Edition for $69.99 and it features the full original game and the Echoes of Sekigahara and Most Wanted expansions. If you already own the game, you can add the Echoes of Sekigahara and Most Wanted expansion for $14.99.

I have not had a chance to dive into these new modes yet, but am particularly eager to check out Echoes of Sekigahara. I am protagonist Atsu’s biggest fan and very invested in her story so I will take more of that please. You can read Game Informer‘s Ghost of Yōtei review at the link.

Octopath Traveler 1 And 2 On Switch 2

Eric Van Allen

If you need more RPG hours than can fit into this weekend—literally—then Octopath will have enough for that, and many more weekends after. Both games are a love-letter to classic pixel-art, turn-based RPGs, where you hop between the stories of eight different travelers on their eight paths. Broadly, the HD-2D art is already a draw for the series, with absolutely gorgeous boss fights and locales throughout both journeys. The turn-based battles are tense, and building up your Travelers path over path is enjoyable. If you have to only pick one, play Octopath Traveler 2; the first game is good, but the second is easily one of my favorite RPGs Square Enix has produced in the last decade. Brilliant writing, an incredible score, and a very memorable cast of characters ensures you’ll always have something to go back to when the weekend comes around.

Tabletop Pick – Cozy Stickerville

Matt Miller

The “cozy” phenomenon we’ve all seen in the video game world is certainly not isolated to that corner of gaming. If anything, the concept might even have a longer pedigree in the tabletop world, and we continue to see more success stories that tap into a low-stakes, relaxing, non-violent play loops. One of the best board game releases of 2026 so far fits squarely into this camp: Cozy Stickerville tasks you with growing a small town by placing stickers out onto the board. Players work together cooperatively over the course of multiple sessions to add new elements to the village. Alongside adding in farms, shops, and other important features, you’re also managing events that form the story of the town as it plays out over years of in-game time.

You can’t really lose Cozy Stickerville; it’s more about seeing the story of your hamlet play out over time, resulting in one of several unique endings. But it’s a lovely way to enjoy crafting an interactive story together with friends or family; the whole thing is low-stakes, easy to pick up and learn, and great fun to enjoy together.

For all of our recurring weekend recommendations, head here.

Reviewed on:
PlayStation 5

Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Publisher:
Epic Games

Developer:
Section 9

Release:
October 1, 2026

Rating:
Teen

I first played End of Abyss at a Summer Game Fest demo in 2024, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. The full release is about as good as I hoped it would be, blending Metroid’s familiar formula with a survival horror flair, making it stand out even amongst an oversaturated crowd of indies. My playthrough was unfortunately infested with some major bugs, but I enjoyed the rest of the experience enough to largely brush those aside.

In End of Abyss, you play as a technician who ventures into an abandoned facility alongside soldiers and their captain. The setting is liminal and mysterious – fitting for a survival horror game – where you must seek out old notes and item descriptions if you want narrative context. The atmosphere is cold and lonely, and even your armed companions seem disinterested in helping you complete your tasks. For a game so light on plot, I found myself instantly sucked into its worldbuilding, cautiously curious to know what was around every corner.

It helps that the complex is a joy to explore. End of Abyss is clearly inspired by the Metroid series and borrows some of its best traits. The map constantly winds in on itself, and you’re just as likely to discover a shortcut back to a previous area as you are to find a rare resource. Even in the sea of similar indie games, I was consistently impressed by End of Abyss’ large-scale level design. There’s also a scanner (à la Metroid Prime) that allows you to analyze enemies and search the environment for ways to progress. I don’t know what the facility is called, and even after rolling credits, I’m not quite sure what purpose it served, but the setting is one of End of Abyss’ most memorable highlights.

While End of Abyss is structurally similar to Metroid, it’s also a survival horror game with twin-stick shooting. Your pistol has infinite ammo, but you need to craft bullets for other weapons you find (most of which are optional). Every conflict is tense, making my narrow victories satisfying, and the game has just enough enemy variety to keep things interesting, including zombies, bugs, and robots. Different enemy types also have their own weaknesses, so you’re encouraged to use your full arsenal of weapons.

Bosses, on the other hand, weren’t always as fun to encounter. These tough showdowns are balanced well from a combat perspective, but repeated attempts drain your valuable ammo and grenades quickly. On more than one occasion, I had to grind for bullets and bombs before returning. The alternative is to rely on your starting pistol, but most health bars are so large that it’s too tedious to rely on the handgun alone. This became less of an issue in the late game, when I had more weapons and therefore more types of ammo in stock.

Finally, there’s the elephant in the room; my time with End of Abyss was rife with bugs. I got stuck in walls, encountered invisible walls, and even fell out of bounds at one point. The map would also have glitches, marking unlocked doors as locked or omitting certain landmarks, making backtracking confusing. And perhaps most frustrating of all, some doors would fail to prompt me with the “open” button, leaving me unable to enter until I quit and reloaded. The bright side is you save frequently to heal, so resets don’t erase much progress. End of Abyss has also already received multiple patches during my playtime, and some issues have been resolved, but it affected my experience nonetheless.

Despite the glitches, I loved snooping through the cold, industrial hallways of End of Abyss, and the bugs did surprisingly little to affect my overall opinion. I’ve been looking forward to End of Abyss for quite some time, and I’m pleased that it mostly lived up to those expectations. 

Score:
8

About Game Informer’s review system

In this week’s episode of The Game Informer Show, we dive deep into our Grand Theft Auto VI cover story and extract the coolest details for your enjoyment. Marcus, Alex, Charles, and Kyle discuss how Leonida compares to Florida, the game’s updated weather system and how it may compare to Red Dead Redemption 2, and speculate on what may happen to players who prey on endangered species.

Later in the podcast, we discuss our time playing Star Wars: Galactic Racer and End of Abyss, the latter being a new survival horror game that reminds us of Metroid: Other M (complimentary).

The Game Informer Show is a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us every Friday for chats about video game reviews, news, and exclusive reveals alongside Game Informer staff and special guests from around the industry. Support the show by subscribing to our physical video game magazine!

Sponsored: Before ink met page, Super Heroes rose from American ideals. Now, these virtues take on a powerful new form in America’s Comic Art Coin and Medal Program – a historic collaboration between the United States Mint and DC! Collect Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman coins and medals with limited-edition designs in 24K gold and fine silver. Explore the collection at the US Mint site here.

Watch or listen here:

Listen to “The Coolest Details From Our Grand Theft Auto VI Cover Story” on Spreaker.

Follow our hosts online:

• Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken)
• Kyle Hilliard (@KyleHilliard)
• Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
• Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7)

Jump ahead using these timestamps:

• 00:00 – Introduction
• 03:25 – Grand Theft Auto VI Cover Story
• 41:06 – Star Wars: Galactic Racer
• 57:26 – End Of Abyss

Something that’s never existed before.

For generations, comic art has done more than entertain. It gave American culture some of its most enduring icons and its clearest visual language for hope, courage, justice, and equality. Panel by panel, it shaped how generations understood their own values.

In 2025, the United States Mint made that art form part of its own legacy. Partnering with DC, the Mint launched the Comic Art Coin & Medal Program, the first time in its 230-plus-year history that Super Heroes have appeared on official U.S. coinage. Rather than reproducing images from familiar comic panels, every design is original artwork created specifically for the collection, sculpted by hand and struck in precious metal.

Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman launched the series in 2025. Supergirl, Robin, and Green Lantern, continue the story in 2026, with three additional Super Heroes coming in 2027 to complete a nine-hero lineup.

Hope. Strength. Justice. Courage. Peace. Equality. Fearlessness. Loyalty. Honor.

These aren’t just character traits. They’re the values that turned comic art into something bigger than the page, and the same values the Mint has spent over two centuries striking into American coinage. 

Each release comes to life through Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna, who designs and sculpts every obverse, with the Mint’s Medallic Artists creating the reverses under his artistic direction. Available in 24-karat gold coins, 99.9% fine silver medals, and three medal sets pairing a trio of DC legends together.

Two American traditions. One extraordinary collection.

Discover it at usmint.gov/dc.

Reviewed on:
PlayStation 5

Platform:
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC

Publisher:
Secret Mode

Developer:
Fuse Games

Release:
October 6, 2026

Rating:
Everyone 10+

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is absolutely a Star Wars game, and familiar locations, musical motifs, and characters will delight fans. But mentioning Star Wars these days feels like someone playing a song I’ve heard too many times. Fortunately, “Star Wars” is the least interesting aspect of Galactic Racer. Developer Fuse Games crafted an excellent racing roguelite that’s enthralling, challenging, and hard to put down, even when minor frustrations choke its engines. This fun spills over into the game’s various other modes, too, making for a robust package with no shortage of tournaments to speed through. 

Star Wars: Galactic Racer – Video Review:

Galactic Racer’s campaign is the foundation of Fuse’s revival of the Star Wars racer. You first compete to join the Galactic League to thwart champion Kestar Bool, an alien responsible for your prior imprisonment. Once in, you compete in a multi-planetary tournament and hopefully defeat him, bringing shame and embarrassment to Kestar and the treacherous Bool family. Fun twists and turns make for a story that goes above and beyond what’s typical of the genre. Great voice performances sell the stakes, and getting to know this game’s cast of allies and villains remained interesting throughout; it helps that they have no problem ribbing me via mid-race comms or outright mocking my mistakes on the track. 

Across multiple planets, including beautifully rendered movie highlights like Jakku and Crait, with various tracks on each (with reverse alternatives for added range), I raced so fast that familiar sights blurred into uncharted territory. This was a turn-off at first; it’s downright hard to get a grip on where you are and where you’re going, and the lack of a minimap accentuates the feeling. I respect Fuse’s commitment to tracks feeling like part of this galaxy, using materials and environmental terrain to create each one, but it’s sometimes hard to tell whether a crashed Star Destroyer’s docking bay is something I should enter or avoid on Jakku, doubly so when at top speed. But this campaign is a roguelite: Accrue too many losses and you’re dropped from the tournament. Losing is part of the gig, however, and in time, confusion on the track gave way to confidence as I blitzed through razor-thin hallways and drifted around tight corners to first place. I wouldn’t blame anyone for dropping early, though, because the initial hump is tall, and Galactic Racer does little to guide you toward success. 

Each planet brings a new pitstop to talk with characters, engage with rivalries, fix damaged parts, purchase new abilities and parts, upgrade your vehicle, and renew objective-based contracts. Currency comes generously, as do upgrades and new parts earned after winning races, and crafting a new engine type each run keeps roguelite repetition from getting boring. Abilities like auto-pilot gave me moments to breathe in tougher stretches, while lock-on ion blasts, corrosion vents, and shockwaves gave me an edge against some of the more dangerous racers on the circuit. Because these racers stay the same in each tournament run, I learned how each raced, whether they were offensive or defensive, and the abilities they typically use, which adds a real sense of athleticism to the campaign. 

Upgrading stats like your afterburner, drifting capability, or battery – which lets you equip more abilities – enabled me to craft an engine that works best for my playstyle. As someone all about speed, my upgrades went into the ramjet, which is a powerful but dangerous redlining turbo; the afterburner to increase my overall speed; and the battery, so I could use additional speed-granting abilities like Surge more often. But there’s room to build a vehicle focused on offensive maneuvers, great for elimination events, or countering environmental hazards like acid or ice, and I’m still finding weird but surprisingly effective builds. 

Galactic Racer focuses its racing on drifting landspeeders, speeder bikes that can stop on a dime and burst forward with extra speed, and skim speeders, which can cut through corners using a “knife’s edge” turn style. Though landspeeders brought me the most success, speeder bikes and skim speeders bring their own amusement to the course. The Arcade mode, with time trials, advanced races, and more, and the Scenario mode, with quick, curated six-race campaigns where you play as other pre-crafted characters/vehicles, forced me to leave the comfort of my campaign-crafted cockpit and try something new. In turn, I discovered even more avenues of racing fun. The same goes for the multiplayer, which smartly brings over most of the roguelite upgrade offerings and places them within quick six-race tournaments, complete with pre-race bets against other racers to raise the personal stakes. Single quick races, an XP leveling system, and cosmetic unlocks round out the multiplayer suite with enough to chase after for dozens more hours.

There’s a fourth vehicle type too, though: the podracer. Fuse clearly delights in infusing this legendary racing engine into the game’s narrative, and there’s a lot of pomp and circumstance around just how dangerous and fast podracers are compared to the other three. The thing is, however, is that they simply are too fast and dangerous, and being forced to use them in specific campaign events at the risk of ruining an entire run remained a frustration throughout. Going from the comfort of my own vehicle for five to six races, only to be forced to use a podracer with the risk of my run ending should I lose, was the wrong kind of left turn. 

Podracing is exciting, as the associated speed and unruliness make races unpredictable. But it’s nice that it’s available in other modes, including multiplayer where you can race exclusively against other podracers. I get that a Star Wars racing game without the canon’s most popular vehicle might be a miss, but I would have preferred them to stay relegated to a bonus style of racing in other modes, not an irritating, unavoidable core of the campaign.

Twenty hours later, with the campaign behind me and plenty more time sunk into the other offerings, there’s still so much Galactic Racer left. I spent 45 minutes on one track yesterday not for the gold medal, which I already had, but for the chance to beat a fellow reviewer’s time on the leaderboard, and I don’t regret a minute. Galactic Racer is a Star Wars game, and that might be enough for some, but not for me. Fortunately, it’s an even better racing game, one filled to the brim with courses, vehicle builds, and characters that keep me coming back to the track for one more race. 

Score:
8.5

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One of the big highlights of the PlayStation 5 Pro, now priced at $899.99, is PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which analyzes game images pixel by pixel and uses proprietary AI upscaling to deliver more detailed, stable gameplay, according to the company. Now, PlayStation is bringing that PS5 Pro-exclusive feature to base PS5 models, kind of. 

Revealed today, Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), “a new performance tier of AI upscaling,” is coming to PS5 starting today with Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. PlayStation says QSSR is born out of Project Amethyst, its AI graphics collaboration with AMD, and uses a “streamlined neural network architecture” and “hand-tuned implementation that maximizes performance on PS5” to bring AI-guided upscaling to the console. PlayStation says PSSR on the PS5 Pro remains the “gold standard,” but QSSR provides notable improvements in both image detail and stability on PS5. 

Two new videos – one for Marvel’s Wolverine and one for Ghost of Yōtei – showcase the effects of QSSR, and while there’s some improvement to see, it’s not the most obvious… but you can be the judge for yourself: 

PlayStation says it will offer QSSR broadly to all PlayStation developers. It remains to be seen which games already released, or which games releasing in the future, will implement QSSR. 

In the meantime, read Game Informer’s reviews of Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei. After that, read about the new Echoes of Sekihara expansion coming to Ghost of Yōtei, along with its complete edition, available starting today. 

Nerial, the developer of the Reigns series and other games, has announced plans to shut down. This marks the end of a 13-year run. The London-based studio posted a lengthy message on social media announcing it was entering “hibernation mode” after discussing plans to end active development with its publishing partners at Devolver Digital. 

“It’s been an incredible adventure. We came into this with no expectations or ambitions and we will never forget the utter puzzlement of releasing Reigns in 2016 to so many players, the fascinating and slightly disturbed Card Shark fan art players are still sending us, the thrill of Reigns expanding with adaptations of Game of Thrones, Animal Farm, Three Kingdoms, and the latest, Reigns: The Witcher. Not forgetting our most ambitious project, The Crush House, which we remain immensely proud of.”

Nerial does not provide specific reasons for the closure, but states that while the studio may be closing, the employees will remain working in game development following a break to “reflect on everything that’s happened before coming back with a new perspective.” 

You can read Nerial’s full post below (click to enlarge):

Nerial burst onto the scene with Reigns in 2016, a card-based role-playing game where players assume the role of a monarch to rule and manage a kingdom. Reigns’ popularity spawned a series of sequels, such as Reigns: Her Majesty, and licensed spin-offs Reigns: Game of Thrones and Reigns: The Witcher (which launched this year and will be Nerial’s final release). Nerial also developed titles such as The Crush House and Card Shark.

Nerial’s demise is the latest in what’s unfortunately becoming a long list of developer closures in 2026. Meta shuttered three of its VR developers: Twisted Pixel (‘Splosion Man), Sanzaru Games (Asgard’s Wrath), and Armature Studio (ReCore). Other studios to close their doors this year include Bluepoint Games (Demon’s Souls remake), Ivy Road (Wanderstop), Intrepid Studios (Ashes of Creation), Spiders (Greedfall), Night School (Oxenfree), and Polyarc (Moss).