Coliseum

Reviewed on:
PC

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

Publisher:
Messhof

Developer:
Messhof

Release:
August 25, 2026

Rating:
Mature

Talking about Blood Dungeon is impossible without making at least some reference to Vampire Survivors. Blood Dungeon is clearly born from Vampire Survivors’ undeniable loop and sense of progression, but developer Messhof addresses arguably the primary shortcoming of the 2022 Bullet Heaven game (I think that’s what we’ve agreed to call these, right?): movement. Moving in Blood Dungeon is fun and it sets the game apart within the genre and demands enjoyable skill from the player, but some balance annoyances keep the game from soaring.

Blood Dungeon is a functional platformer before you are even awarded the first upgrade to your starting weapon. The nine characters play similarly (though there are two that feel fairly different), and they leap with ease, can climb any wall or ceiling, clamber along fences, and even swim. If there weren’t sometimes hundreds of enemies on screen, I can confidently say that Blood Dungeon would probably work in the platformer genre.

Despite the quality platforming, however, Blood Dungeon is more about powering up and staying alive. Like Vampire Survivors, you defeat enemies, collect the titular blood, level up your weapons, acquire new ones, and choose between a series of passive upgrades that appear randomly. If you’ve played a game in this genre, you know what to expect, and it does the style well. Some upgrades feel useless, but many more are easy selections when they appear in the roulette. A few, however, feel required. I don’t know that I ever beat a final boss without the basketball (which sends a flurry of orange balls bouncing around the environment) or the upgrade that doubles everything. I hit a point where I was rerolling frequently to get those two upgrades, and when I couldn’t, it often led to disappointing failure. I would have preferred the weapons to feel similarly powerful, even if they all played differently, which I recognize is a difficult balancing act.

Blood Dungeon is also surprisingly challenging, which has its pros and cons. The genre is successful at rewarding players who make smart decisions more than their ability to dodge enemies. The power fantasy is staggering at the end of a great run in a Bullet Heaven game, but I never quite felt all-powerful here, even when I successfully defeated the three bosses of any given level (which is how you beat a level). That’s the con, but the pro is that Blood Dungeon is a much more active and intense game, and when your platforming skills are what save you more than randomly getting the basketball, that is rewarding.

Bones awarded at the end of each run can be used for permanent upgrades, which is great; I eagerly invested in the elements of my characters I wanted to improve, but I hit a wall earlier than I expected. I ran out of upgrades to buy, and the requirements to access the few unlockable upgrades were unclear. This led me to amass a large bank of unspent bones while I hoped I’d triggered something to unlock the other purchasable upgrades, which felt random rather than rewarding.

The final element of Blood Dungeon that sets it apart from comparable games is its art style, which I don’t love. The characters are purposefully ugly, and it all feels intentionally gross. The fart cloud, which casts a very useful periodic cloud of poison, for example, is an upgrade I would sometimes avoid just because I wasn’t eager to hear my character fart every few seconds. But all that said, it is undeniably unique and perfectly fits the game’s overall mood and tone. The style just isn’t going to work for everyone, and I happen to technically be an everyone.

Blood Dungeon is a refreshing take on the genre Vampire Survivors popularized only four years ago, and it effectively establishes its own identity both with its art style and platformer-focused mentality. It is fun to play, whereas many of these games are ultimately fun to experience passively – a build to the point where you can put the controller down and watch chaos blaze across the screen. You can’t ever put the controller down in Blood Dungeon, and that’s why it’s so easy to spend your bones (if you haven’t already purchased everything) and jump right back in for another run.

Score:
8

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The Witcher 4 is officially launching in 2028. The news comes via a video posted to the official Witcher social media accounts, wherein  CD Projekt Red joint-CEO Michał Nowakowski gives an update on the gaming series ahead of Gamescom. The Witcher IV will not be present during Opening Night Live, nor will the RPG be playable on the show floor, but understanding fans’ hunger for an update on the highly-anticipated sequel, Nowakowski confirmed the launch window.

“While we’re not showing the Witcher 4 at the event, and we’re not ready to share an exact date, I can tell you this: The Witcher 4 is targeting a 2028 release window,” Nowakowski says. “I know it’s a bit of a wait, and you’d love to play it sooner, but let the team cook. It will be worth the wait.”

The reveal in the video is preceded by CD Projekt Red’s Gamescom plans, which center around showing off 2027’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Songs of the Past, new DLC for a game that initially launched nearly a decade ago. It’s confirmed by Geoff Keighley himself that it will be shown during Opening Night Live, and Nowakowski says it will also be showcased at CD Projekt Red’s Gamescom booth.

The Witcher IV was first shown off at The Game Awards 2024. It will star Ciri, Geralt’s daughter, after she’s grown into a seasoned Witcher in her own right. The upcoming DLC, Songs of the Past, will likely link the mainline entries together.

For more of The Witcher, check out our review for Wild Hunt here. For more news on games similar to The Witcher, you can check out the latest update from the developers of The Blood of Dawnwalker, a game being made by many former Witcher developers. For more CD Projekt Red, check out the trailer for season 2 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

Gamescom kicks off this week at the Koelnmesse convention center in Cologne, Germany, with its annual stage show, Opening Night Live. Taking place Tuesday, August 25, and hosted by Geoff Keighley, the event is the second of the three annual Keighley showcases (along with Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards) that will feature two hours of video game trailers. Expect to watch world premieres of new titles and updates for previously announced games. Here’s where and when to catch the event.

Opening Night Live kicks off at 8:00 p.m. CEST. For viewers watching in the U.S., that’s a start time of 11:00 a.m. PT/1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET. A 30-minute pre-show will air before the main show. You can catch the event streaming live on YouTube and Twitch. 

While the majority of the show’s line-up of games is a mystery, Geoff Keighley has confirmed that these eight titles will make an appearance: 

The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past
Final Fantasy VII Revelation
Gears of War: E-Day
Ananta
Tides of Annihilation 
Metro 2039
Game of Thrones: War for Westeros
Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons

What do you hope to see at Opening Night Live? Let us know in the comments!

Rebel Wolves, developers of The Blood of Dawnwalker, put out a trailer last week showing off console gameplay of their upcoming action role-playing adventure, but the new footage ended up backfiring. The video revealed that PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game would not be able to run at 60 frames per second, instead targeting 40, which frustrated many, as 60 frames is considered the standard for action games like this. Today, developer Rebel Wolves issued a new announcement: The Blood of Dawnwalker will run at 60 fps after all, thanks to a day one patch coming to consoles.

“Performance Mode was already in the works, but it was still being tested,” a post on the official Dawnwalker social media pages reads. “We simply weren’t ready to promise it yet. We heard your feedback. It was clear how much this mattered to many of you, so we focused on finishing the next round of tests. Those results gave us the confidence we needed to confirm Performance Mode for Day 1.”

The developers go on to state that the patch will now allow the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game to target 60 fps in Performance Mode, 40 fps in Balanced Mode, and 30 FPS in Quality Mode. The PS5 Pro version of the game will include “overall visual enhancements,” though Rebel Wolves doesn’t elaborate exactly on what that means. Finally, the less-powerful Xbox Series S will be stuck at 30 FPS.

Personally, I hope Rebel Wolves succeeds on this day one patch, though I do find it surprising that it expects to turn this around by September 3, the game’s release date – it seems like a tall ask in a short window. Still, I (and most everyone else, I assume) would prefer to play The Blood of Dawnwalker at 60 FPS, so I’m looking forward to seeing the studio pull it off.

Rebel Wolves was founded by developers who formerly worked at CD Projekt Red on beloved games like The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, so the hype around its upcoming project is substantial, even alongside the fall’s other major releases. For more on The Blood of Dawnwalker, subscribers can check out our exclusive cover story from a few issues ago, and all readers can check out our suite of follow-up coverage.

It’s a new week on The Game Informer Show, and we’ve got a new FromSoftware game to sink our teeth into. The Duskbloods is a new multiplayer Switch 2 exclusive from the makers of the Souls series, and Marcus has some hands-on impressions to share on its elaborate multi-phase multiplayer mayhem.

Then, we dig into The Sinking City 2, another Lovecraftian mystery from Frogwares, and check in with Fields of Mistria’s 1.0 launch. Then, the trio answer some of our listeners’ most burning and pertinent questions. Grab a beverage and settle in.

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!

Watch or listen here:

Listen to “The Duskbloods Preview, Plus The Sinking City 2” on Spreaker.

Follow our hosts:

• Alex Van Aken (@itsvanaken)
• Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
• Marcus Stewart (@marcusstewart7)

Jump ahead using the following timestamps:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:53 – The Duskbloods
• 53:30 – The Sinking City 2
• 1:09:42 – Fields of Mistria
• 1:22:57 – Listener Questions

Happy weekend to you! Look – usually I try to have some kind of relevant detail in this opening paragraph related to what happened this week, or what to look forward to this weekend, but there is simply no time today. Have some links. Have some recommendations. My brevity today and the clear need to leave and prep other things will make sense next week, I promise. We have a busy (but exciting) one ahead of us.

• Onimusha: Way Of The Sword Shines A Light On One Of Japan’s Most Important Women
• The Duskbloods Preview – A Hands-On Breakdown Of From Software’s Exciting, Surprising, And Dense Take on Competitive Multiplayer
• FromSoftware Closes The Duskbloods’ First Closed Network Test Session Due To Rampant Server Issues
• Riot Games Will Cease Active Development For League Of Legends Fighting Game 2XKO In December
• Everything We Learned Playing The Duskbloods At FromSoftware | New Gameplay Today
• You Can Help Decide Double Fine’s Next Project In Its Upcoming Game Jam Livestream

The Sinking City 2

Marcus Stewart

I’ve always heard The Sinking City described as a respectable but flawed survival-horror experience (though practically a must-play if you love H.P. Lovecraft). I never played it, but that’s okay because The Sinking City 2 is a completely standalone story starring a different protagonist, making it a perfect entry point. I’m several hours into the adventure and am generally enjoying its eerie atmosphere and its 1920’s Lovecraftian art direction, even if its Resident Evil-inspired gameplay, while serviceable, is a step or two below the lofty bar set by Capcom’s flagship horror series. I like the game’s emphasis on puzzle-solving and connecting clues to solve investigations, letting me test my noggin in a more detective-like manner. Lovecraft fans will be happy to know this game is appropriately strange, quirky, and often disturbing. If you’ve already played Resident Evil Requiem this year and need to scratch another survival-horror itch, The Sinking City 2 offers, from what I’ve played thus far, a totally solid experience.

Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter Demo

Eric Van Allen

It feels like just last year that we got a remake of the first Trails in the Sky game, and that’s because it was! Nihon Falcom is back with the second entry in its remade Sky saga on September 17, but a demo is out now if you want to dip in early.

The Trails 2nd demo will let you carry save progress forward into the main game, as the best of demos do, so it’s a nice way to get a little taste of what’s to come in the next entry. I do highly recommend you play all of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter before playing any of the 2nd Chapter; some big plot revelations happen in the final hours of 1st Chapter, and you wouldn’t want to spoil yourself on them. But for Trails fans, this is pretty exciting. I’m very eager to return to Estelle’s journey as an up-and-coming Bracer prodigy, and to finally start uncovering some of the broader mysteries surrounding all the drama in Liberl that played out in 1st Chapter.

Dogpile

Charles Harte

When Dogpile came out on PC in December 2025, I had a blast playing it, but mostly found myself wishing it was on a different platform. Its bright art style and straightforward design seemed like a perfect fit for Switch or a mobile app, but it wouldn’t be until this week that that wish would come true; as of yesterday, Dogpile is out on iOS, Android, and Switch 1 & 2.

 

The easiest recent game to compare it to would be Suika Game, where players combine matching fruits by dropping them in a tank and hoping physics will help you drop them in the right place. 2048 is another easy comparison, though it lacks the physics element. Dogpile takes this idea, but trades fruit or numbers for various breeds of dog – combining two of the same fuses them into a single, larger dog. But Dogpile stands out with its roguelike deckbuilder mechanics. It feels like a silly, borderline nonsensical fusion, but in practice it makes perfect sense. You have a “deck” of dogs that randomly appear to be dropped on your board, and you can even give them modifiers. A dog might bark, for example, and shake up the other dogs, moving pups around to combine. But other dogs can have negative traits, like one that prevents them from fusing for several drops. There are also dog tags to collect and different decks to amass. It’s a tad overwhelming to list the mechanics here, though – the thing I like most about Dogpile is how intuitive it is, and if you decide to check it out, I think you’ll feel the same way. It also helps that it’s free to start on mobile.

1000xResist

Charles Harte

I love 1000xResist, and I wrote a whole review explaining it, so I’m very happy to see the game launched on Switch 2 earlier this week. I played the original on Switch 1, and while it was powerful enough of a console to bring me through to the credits, the performance struggles at times. Textures are blurry, load times are long, and I even had a handful of crashes. I haven’t had a chance to try the Switch 2 version yet, but developer Sunset Visitor claims it brings the game to a level of performance on par with PC, which would make for a much better experience. That said, whether you play it on Switch 2, PC, or even a Switch 1, it’s a fantastic game worth checking out. With wonderfully written dialogue, intricately-woven themes, mind-boggling world-building, and memorable, flawed characters, I stand by the statement that it’s one of the most ground-breaking stories in video game history.

The freshly independent Double Fine Productions has announced a new Amnesia Fortnight, a game jam that will be livestreamed to Kickstarter backers to decide which of its game ideas will be made into its next title. The event will also be filmed as part of a new documentary on the studio behind Psychonauts, Keeper, and Brütal Legend. 

Amnesia Fortnight 2026 – Indie Reboot: A Double Fine Productions Game Jam, Documentary and Kickstarter Campaign begins on August 31 and runs through “most of September,” according to Double Fine. The studio’s Kickstarter post reads, “We’re going to do a Game Jam, live on the internet, in which our backers will get to choose which of our myriad of ideas get made into four new prototypes– and which of those final four will become a real (small) game. You may even snag some sweet merchables and rarities along the way.”

Double Fine adds that 2 Player Productions, the film crew behind the critically lauded documentary series Double Fine Adventure and PsychOdyssey, will have their cameras rolling during the event to produce another documentary. 2 Player Productions’ previous works have earned praise for their raw, intimate looks at everyday life at Double Fine, capturing the entire development cycles for Broken Age and Psychonauts 2.

The announcement is a bit of good news after a tumultuous summer for Double Fine. In early July, it was one of five studios Xbox cut from its internal roster as part of the publisher’s ongoing massive restructure. Double Fine became an independent studio once again and retained its IP and game catalog. Unfortunately, the shift led to layoffs at Double Fine as it regroups and reorients itself.

China-based developer Eclipse Glow Games revealed last month that Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 voice actor Jennifer English was stepping away from the protagonist role of Gwendolyn in Tides of Annihilation. Since that departure, and especially in light of new gameplay released earlier this week alongside hands-on previews of the action game, many have speculated about who could take over the role. While we still don’t officially know who, we won’t have to wait much longer. 

That’s because an Elipse Glow Games representative tells Game Informer that the new voice of Gwendolyn will be revealed at Gamescom next week. Presumably, this announcement will arrive alongside a new trailer during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, the game-reveal showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley that kicks off the conference on Tuesday at 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET, though that’s speculation. That Eclipse Glow Games rep also says that, despite “erroneous reports” stating that “Jennifer Prime” is a Gwendolyn mocap artist confirming the character’s new voice actor, those reports are false. As such, there is no official word on who the new voice actor is, but it sounds like we’re just days away from finding out. 

In the meantime, read Game Informer’s Tides of Annihilation preview from our visit to the studio in China last week, and then check out this all-new gameplay in Game Informer’s Tides of Annihilation New Gameplay Today. 

Who do you think the new voice actor is? Let us know in the comments below!

The closed network test for FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods kicked off this morning, but it’s off to a very rocky start. Server issues have plagued this initial test, to the point that the studio ended the first session early. 

The first session for The Duskbloods’ closed network was scheduled from 3:00 a.m PT/6:00 a.m. ET to 7:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. PT. However, many of the players who signed up to participate have found themselves stuck at the main menu screen, unable to log in. These problems persisted to the point that FromSoftware has decided to cancel today’s session as it promises to work on improving the servers. Here is the studio’s full message, posted to their X account:

“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to everyone due to the game server issues during the first “The Duskbloods” network test. We are truly sorry for this disruption while you were eagerly waiting, but we must regrettably conclude today’s network test at this time. We will continue working on server improvements, and we will provide further updates regarding future sessions.”

Closed network tests are scheduled for tonight starting at 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET and on August 22 and 23 at various times, but it’s unclear how those sessions will be affected in light of these issues.  Until things are sorted, you can read a ton of new details about the Switch 2 exclusive PvPvE multiplayer game in our extensive hands-on preview. Be sure to also watch new gameplay footage in this episode of New Gameplay Today.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, the standalone sequel to the acclaimed Netflix animated series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, is arriving in time for Halloween. A new trailer reveals the show will premiere on October 20.

The series was first announced in July 2025. Like its 2022 predecessor, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is a collaboration between animation studio Trigger and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. The 10-episode series follows four new characters with intertwining stories in Night City. The show’s official synopsis reads,

“Weak, a washed-up cyberpunk legend, is now forced to live without chrome as he searches for a sense of purpose in a world that’s passed him by. Meanwhile, the deadly nomad D sets out on a path to revenge that brings him close to corpo secrets never meant to be found. Across this ten-episode series, uncover a story of family, obsession, legacy – and how your lens reflects the stories of the people around you. “

Check out the latest trailer below.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our reviews of Cyberpunk 2077 (on PC and last-gen consoles) and its expansion, Phantom Liberty.