Coliseum

The video game industry is experiencing what can politely be referred to as a rough patch. Last week, we learned of Sony’s intention to abandon physical media, which is dispiriting, and this week, we learned leadership at Microsoft is in the process of laying off more than 3,000 developers at various studios. Stories surrounding this topic are, sadly, some of biggest stories of the week, which you can find links for below. But you will also find our review of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and previews for upcoming games like Orbitals and The Blood of Dawnwalker. And then, after that, we have some video recommendations to check out this weekend.

• Xbox Parts Ways With Five Studios, Over 3,000 Layoffs Announced
• Doom Developer id Software Reportedly Loses Roughly Half Its Staff To Layoffs
• Report: Obsidian Cancels Avowed Sequel To Begin Work On A New Fallout Game
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review – More Of Everything Is Permitted
• Orbitals Preview – Anime nostalgia meets co-op puzzle action
• The Blood of Dawnwalker Hands-On Preview  – Preserve Your Humanity

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

Charles Harte

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is exactly what Ubisoft promised it’d be; a faithful, gorgeous remake of one of the best games in the stealth series. There are new features for those particularly hungry for new content – added characters and quests for iconic figures like Blackbeard will pad out your runtime if you want them to – but it’s mostly a beat-for-beat retelling of the original story. For what it’s worth, I’m more than happy to revisit Edward Kenway’s swashbuckling adventures. The Assassin element is less emphasized in this outing, but most players don’t mind too much; Black Flag is arguably the best pirate game of all time, and that more than makes up for it.

Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review

Marvel Rivals

Charles Harte

If you’re a lapsed Marvel Rivals fan (or someone waiting for a good opportunity to get into it), the superhero shooter’s latest update is its biggest yet, effectively redefining the game’s flow for the foreseeable future. The game’s most unique feature, the Team-Up mechanic, has been totally reworked. Originally, Team-Ups only activated when two compatible heroes were on the same team. Now, Team-Ups are always available, regardless of who’s on your team, and are instead enhanced when you have the compatible ally. For example, the Hulk can select his new Captain America Team-Up when spawning into a match, giving him a new move that slams the ground and refreshes his cooldowns. If Cap joins your team, the move now adds an extra debuff, making enemies take more damage. This rework has added new abilities to the majority of the game’s characters, and even those without new moves can use their older Team-Ups whenever they like. Season 9 also completely reworks Black Widow’s moveset (an overdue change) and adds Jubilee to the game. Whether you’re picking it up for the first time or seeing how your favorites have been tweaked, it’s a great time to jump in, because everyone will be learning, and that’s the best time to play a competitive game.

Cat Mail Co.

Marcus Stewart

I have never had aspirations about working in the postal service, but chill experiences like Lake and now Cat Mail Co. make it seem like an appealing career shift. After taking over an abandoned post office, you’ll receive and deliver the feline customers’ packages while gradually improving the derelict space. Organizing incoming mail by slapping on the proper labels based on its destination, weight, and contents is a breezy and rewarding task. I also enjoy the potent satisfaction of effectively organizing the mountain of packages across multiple types of shelves until their owners arrive. Completing shifts unlocks new shipping destinations and rooms, like a space to repair damaged goods. Cat Mail Co. is a nice second-screen experience; the loop is engaging enough to keep me interested, but it doesn’t demand my full attention as I listen to a podcast or watch a show.

Don’t Let It Starve

Alex Van Aken

Don’t Let It Starve is an easy recommendation for any fan of Inscryption or Balatro. Trapped in a dark room with no clear avenue for escape, you play chef to a monster watching you on the other side of the shadowy food port. You must assemble bento boxes to satiate the beast’s hunger, lest you become the meal. The ever-growing meal demands keep climbing all while you are  slowly drafting an escape plan throughout the course of the game. It’s great!

The video game industry is experiencing what can politely be referred to as a rough patch. Last week, we learned of Sony’s intention to abandon physical media, which is dispiriting, and this week, we learned leadership at Microsoft is in the process of laying off more than 3,000 developers at various studios. Stories surrounding this topic are, sadly, some of biggest stories of the week, which you can find links for below. But you will also find our review of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and previews for upcoming games like Orbitals and The Blood of Dawnwalker. And then, after that, we have some video recommendations to check out this weekend.

• Xbox Parts Ways With Five Studios, Over 3,000 Layoffs Announced
• Doom Developer id Software Reportedly Loses Roughly Half Its Staff To Layoffs
• Report: Obsidian Cancels Avowed Sequel To Begin Work On A New Fallout Game
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review – More Of Everything Is Permitted
• Orbitals Preview – Anime nostalgia meets co-op puzzle action
• The Blood of Dawnwalker Hands-On Preview  – Preserve Your Humanity

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

Charles Harte

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is exactly what Ubisoft promised it’d be; a faithful, gorgeous remake of one of the best games in the stealth series. There are new features for those particularly hungry for new content – added characters and quests for iconic figures like Blackbeard will pad out your runtime if you want them to – but it’s mostly a beat-for-beat retelling of the original story. For what it’s worth, I’m more than happy to revisit Edward Kenway’s swashbuckling adventures. The Assassin element is less emphasized in this outing, but most players don’t mind too much; Black Flag is arguably the best pirate game of all time, and that more than makes up for it.

Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review

Marvel Rivals

Charles Harte

If you’re a lapsed Marvel Rivals fan (or someone waiting for a good opportunity to get into it), the superhero shooter’s latest update is its biggest yet, effectively redefining the game’s flow for the foreseeable future. The game’s most unique feature, the Team-Up mechanic, has been totally reworked. Originally, Team-Ups only activated when two compatible heroes were on the same team. Now, Team-Ups are always available, regardless of who’s on your team, and are instead enhanced when you have the compatible ally. For example, the Hulk can select his new Captain America Team-Up when spawning into a match, giving him a new move that slams the ground and refreshes his cooldowns. If Cap joins your team, the move now adds an extra debuff, making enemies take more damage. This rework has added new abilities to the majority of the game’s characters, and even those without new moves can use their older Team-Ups whenever they like. Season 9 also completely reworks Black Widow’s moveset (an overdue change) and adds Jubilee to the game. Whether you’re picking it up for the first time or seeing how your favorites have been tweaked, it’s a great time to jump in, because everyone will be learning, and that’s the best time to play a competitive game.

Cat Mail Co.

Marcus Stewart

I have never had aspirations about working in the postal service, but chill experiences like Lake and now Cat Mail Co. make it seem like an appealing career shift. After taking over an abandoned post office, you’ll receive and deliver the feline customers’ packages while gradually improving the derelict space. Organizing incoming mail by slapping on the proper labels based on its destination, weight, and contents is a breezy and rewarding task. I also enjoy the potent satisfaction of effectively organizing the mountain of packages across multiple types of shelves until their owners arrive. Completing shifts unlocks new shipping destinations and rooms, like a space to repair damaged goods. Cat Mail Co. is a nice second-screen experience; the loop is engaging enough to keep me interested, but it doesn’t demand my full attention as I listen to a podcast or watch a show.

Don’t Let It Starve

Alex Van Aken

Don’t Let It Starve is an easy recommendation for any fan of Inscryption or Balatro. Trapped in a dark room with no clear avenue for escape, you play chef to a monster watching you on the other side of the shadowy food port. You must assemble bento boxes to satiate the beast’s hunger, lest you become the meal. The ever-growing meal demands keep climbing all while you are  slowly drafting an escape plan throughout the course of the game. It’s great!

Ahoy! It’s the dawn of a new day on The Game Informer Show, and we’ve got a salty crew of sea-dogs ready to tackle the biggest news and games out right now. First up, the video boys Alex and Eric discuss their experiences seeing Summer Games Done Quick in person. And Wesley LeBlanc has a few opinions about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, too, after finishing a fresh replay.

Then, we dig into Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced with Wes and Charles Harte to determine whether this fresh take on a pirating classic is a treasure or not. Alex and Marcus Stewart both have some indies to discuss, too: Don’t Let It Starve and Cat Mail Co., to be specific. It’s a podcast packed to the gills, so settle in, get some grog, and sing a shanty as we debut another episode of The Game Informer Show!

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 “Is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced A Good Remake?” on Spreaker.

Follow our hosts:

• Alex Van Aken (@itsvanaken.games)
• Wesley LeBlanc (@wesleyleblanc)
• Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7)
• Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
• Eric Van Allen (@seamoosi)

Jump around using these timestamps:

00:00 – Intro

4:50 – Summer Games Done Quick 2026

16:59 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

46:35 – Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

1:09:16 – A Very Special Surprise Segment

1:25:40 – Don’t Let It Starve

1:33:38 – Cat Mail Co.

Gunzilla Games is taking a sledgehammer to its technical barriers with the latest update for its cyberpunk battle royale, Off The Grid.

For a game that thrives on fast-paced verticality and cybernetic chaos, performance isn’t just a luxury, it’s life or death. With the community demanding a smoother experience, Gunzilla has delivered a substantial optimization pass. According to the studio, lower-end PCs are seeing staggering leaps of up to 100 extra frames per second in tested scenarios. This allowed the developer to formally lower the game’s minimum system requirements, opening the door to a much wider audience of players who previously struggled to maintain a competitive frame rate.

“Performance was the most important goal for this update, and the results are far beyond a typical optimization pass,” says Vlad Korolev, CEO at Gunzilla Game Studio. “On lower-end PCs, we’re seeing performance improvements of up to three times the previous FPS in tested scenarios. That is a massive step forward for Off The Grid, and it reflects an extraordinary effort from the entire team.”

Beyond the technical engine work, the update introduces a foundational rework of the game’s core combat loop. Gunzilla has overhauled the weapon system to improve handling, gun feel, feedback, and combat variety. This is coupled with a comprehensive rebalancing of the game’s signature Cyberlimbs, ensuring that mechanical augmentations feel more consistent and better integrated into the tactical moment-to-moment gameplay.

Rounding out the patch is a redesigned “Stay as Squad” endgame flow to keep good teams together, a new onboarding tutorial to welcome incoming rookies, and a sweeping pass of UI adjustments, world refinements, and vital stability and crash fixes.

The update is rolling out across all supported platforms, marking a pivotal moment for Off The Grid as it offers a leaner, meaner, and more accessible competitive experience.

The latest Off the Grid update is available now.

In 2012, Arkane Studios launched what would become its breakout hit, Dishonored. Billed as a modernized take on the immersive sims of old, the first-person action game had players control assassin Corvo Attano, who must prove his innocence after being framed for the murder of the empress he was sworn to protect. Sporting a mix of assassin weaponry and supernatural powers, players could infiltrate areas using a variety of methods and pathways. The game also boasted a striking “whalepunk” aesthetic that stood out from other titles at the time. Dishonored was well received at launch by players and critics alike, and it would lay the groundwork for Arkane’s future immersive sims, including Dishonored 2 in 2016, Prey in 2019, and Deathloop in 2021. 

Join senior associate editor Marcus Stewart live on Twitch and YouTube starting at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET as he revisits the opening hours of Dishonored for the first time in 16 years. 

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a massive role-playing game, and not all of its quandaries can be solved with words and fetched items. Sometimes, Coen will need to draw a blade, or even his vampiric claws.

Combat, then, is an important part of The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Rebel Wolves didn’t rest on its laurels. The team has crafted a directional approach, where sword swings and stabs must be read in real-time and blocked, parried, or dodged accordingly. It’s tense, but adds a degree of immersion to the entire experience.

In our latest cover story video, hear why Rebel Wolves chose this approach, and what sort of wild things you’ll be able to do as Coen grows in strength over the course of his adventure.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is finally out, and though it’s a remake of the fourth numbered Assassin’s Creed game (which is actually the sixth mainline entry), it’s the perfect place to dive into this massive series. The same could have been said about the original Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, as it was a reset for the series after wrapping up the Desmond Miles storyline that ran through the first five games. But, because of changes made as part of this remake, like essentially removing all traces of the modern-day Assassin’s Creed storyline and enhancing the historical pirate adventure that has made Black Flag a fan-favorite, I can’t imagine a better place to begin one’s Assassin’s Creed journey. 

At one point, Assassin’s Creed was both a historical action series about the centuries-long feud between Assassins and Templars and a sci-fi one where the two organizations raced to defeat each other in the modern day using advanced technology, ancient artifacts, and more. You’d play as Altaïr, Ezio, and Connor/Ratonhnhaké:ton in their respective pasts and then flash forward to Desmond Miles’ story in the years leading up to 2012. I say 2012 specifically because, believe it or not, the Assassin’s Creed plot became about the release of an ancient but highly advanced alien and their plot to destroy the world in… 2012, which weirdly became a year we seriously/jokingly/depends-on-who-you-ask thought was going to be the year our own world ended (based on the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ending in 2012). It didn’t, and the finale of Desmond Miles’ arc came and went; it was anticlimactic, confusing, and ultimately meaningless, because Assassin’s Creed makes Ubisoft a lot of money, and this publisher was not ready for that cash flow to end. Surprise: it still isn’t ready, and we get new Assassin’s Creed games on a near-yearly cadence now. 

Anyway, for all of that to make sense, you needed to play each of the games – so Assassin’s Creed (Altaïr in 12th Century Jerusalem), Assassin’s Creed II (Ezio in Renaissance Italy), Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ezio in 16th Century Rome), Assassin’s Creed Revelations (Ezio in 16th-century Constantinople), and Assassin’s Creed III (Connor during the American Revolutionary War). And even then, it still didn’t make complete sense unless you read all of the codex-style entries, read some books, and watched some YouTube videos. 

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which first launched as a cross-generational title for PlayStation 3/PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360/Xbox One (as well as the Nintendo WiiU and PC) in 2013, attempted to start a new, de-emphasized modern-day arc, putting you in the shoes of an employee of Abstergo (the evil corporate stand-in for the Templars) tasked with exploring Desmond’s ancestry through DNA and the eyes of pirate Edward Kenway. I quite liked it, though I am admittedly a sucker for the modern-day stuff who still wishes it were a prevalent part of the games, but many argue it doesn’t land well and feels like an afterthought to the otherwise incredible pirate action game happening in the other 90% of Black Flag. 

While I’m disappointed it has been removed entirely from Resynced, replaced with a few sci-fi sequences that connect to where the series is heading as of last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows and narrative-enhancing “What If?” scenarios that provide more insight into Edward, I can’t deny that it makes this remake a better starting point for newcomers. If it was replicated in the remake, Resynced comes packaged with years of modern-day storyline baggage that feels abrupt, strange, disconnected, and ultimately pointless to anyone whose first game is Edward’s story. Completely removing it plucks Black Flag’s narrative out of the wider Assassin’s Creed timeline and sets it aside, to be enjoyed with all of, or none of, the series’ prior history. 

Yes, there are Assassins and Templars in Resynced, but Edward is as uninterested in their dealings as, say, perhaps someone jumping into Assassin’s Creed for the first time with this remake. In that sense, it feels thematically correct to start with Resynced. Edward uses the hidden blade because it’s a great tool in his pirate arsenal. He’s chasing the sci-fi MacGuffin in the Caribbean because it can help the pirates of Nassau defeat the omnipresent threat of the British monarchy, the Spanish Empire, and anyone else who stands in the way of their perceived freedom. All the mumbo jumbo you’ll hear about this MacGuffin in Resynced can be shrugged off – Edward does the same.

What’s left is one of my favorite pirate narratives, and easily the greatest pirate video game ever made. It’s a saga about the cost of greed and obsession, the strength of found family and friendship, and the ways capitalism and monarchy can push otherwise decent men into murky waters. You will laugh, you will cry, you will kill a lot of British and Spanish officers, and you will find yourself humming sea shanties in the shower. 

Mechanically, Black Flag has never felt better than here in Resynced. Can you believe Black Flag didn’t have a crouch button, instead activating Edward’s stealth in environment-specific instances? Terrible. Now, you can press a button to crouch at any time, making stealthing around the Caribbean better. Enemy AI has been improved to present decent challenges in combat; new abilities have been added to spice up Edward’s swordsmanship; and new naval officers add firepower to the Jackdaw, making being the master and commander of the seas even more exciting and explosive (literally). Additional quality-of-life updates, like the removal of insta-fail tailing missions, being able to remove and put on Edward’s assassin hood at any time (something not possible in the original, to the dismay of fans), completely reworked combat with a more intentional focus on cinematic action, various parkour movement updates, and more further improve the experience. 

It’s also a gorgeous remake, breathing new life into Black Flag, the original version of which I find quite ugly to visit today. Looking at the waves doesn’t get old.

All of this is to say that if you want to finally play an Assassin’s Creed game, Resynced is the best place to start. And if you want to roleplay a charismatic pirate with a massive Caribbean map to explore, it’s great for that, too. 

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. 

For more, read Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review here, and then read about how the remake includes eight new endgame missions that pit Edward against a historical pirate hunter. After that, read about why Black Flag was chosen as Ubisoft’s first Assassin’s Creed remake, and then check out Game Informer’s interview with Edward’s voice actor, Matt Ryan. 

Are you playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced? Let us know what you think of it so far in the comments below!

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is finally out, and though it’s a remake of the fourth numbered Assassin’s Creed game (which is actually the sixth mainline entry), it’s the perfect place to dive into this massive series. The same could have been said about the original Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, as it was a reset for the series after wrapping up the Desmond Miles storyline that ran through the first five games. But, because of changes made as part of this remake, like essentially removing all traces of the modern-day Assassin’s Creed storyline and enhancing the historical pirate adventure that has made Black Flag a fan-favorite, I can’t imagine a better place to begin one’s Assassin’s Creed journey. 

At one point, Assassin’s Creed was both a historical action series about the centuries-long feud between Assassins and Templars and a sci-fi one where the two organizations raced to defeat each other in the modern day using advanced technology, ancient artifacts, and more. You’d play as Altaïr, Ezio, and Connor/Ratonhnhaké:ton in their respective pasts and then flash forward to Desmond Miles’ story in the years leading up to 2012. I say 2012 specifically because, believe it or not, the Assassin’s Creed plot became about the release of an ancient but highly advanced alien and their plot to destroy the world in… 2012, which weirdly became a year we seriously/jokingly/depends-on-who-you-ask thought was going to be the year our own world ended (based on the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar ending in 2012). It didn’t, and the finale of Desmond Miles’ arc came and went; it was anticlimactic, confusing, and ultimately meaningless, because Assassin’s Creed makes Ubisoft a lot of money, and this publisher was not ready for that cash flow to end. Surprise: it still isn’t ready, and we get new Assassin’s Creed games on a near-yearly cadence now. 

Anyway, for all of that to make sense, you needed to play each of the games – so Assassin’s Creed (Altaïr in 12th Century Jerusalem), Assassin’s Creed II (Ezio in Renaissance Italy), Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (Ezio in 16th Century Rome), Assassin’s Creed Revelations (Ezio in 16th-century Constantinople), and Assassin’s Creed III (Connor during the American Revolutionary War). And even then, it still didn’t make complete sense unless you read all of the codex-style entries, read some books, and watched some YouTube videos. 

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, which first launched as a cross-generational title for PlayStation 3/PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360/Xbox One (as well as the Nintendo WiiU and PC) in 2013, attempted to start a new, de-emphasized modern-day arc, putting you in the shoes of an employee of Abstergo (the evil corporate stand-in for the Templars) tasked with exploring Desmond’s ancestry through DNA and the eyes of pirate Edward Kenway. I quite liked it, though I am admittedly a sucker for the modern-day stuff who still wishes it were a prevalent part of the games, but many argue it doesn’t land well and feels like an afterthought to the otherwise incredible pirate action game happening in the other 90% of Black Flag. 

While I’m disappointed it has been removed entirely from Resynced, replaced with a few sci-fi sequences that connect to where the series is heading as of last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows and narrative-enhancing “What If?” scenarios that provide more insight into Edward, I can’t deny that it makes this remake a better starting point for newcomers. If it was replicated in the remake, Resynced comes packaged with years of modern-day storyline baggage that feels abrupt, strange, disconnected, and ultimately pointless to anyone whose first game is Edward’s story. Completely removing it plucks Black Flag’s narrative out of the wider Assassin’s Creed timeline and sets it aside, to be enjoyed with all of, or none of, the series’ prior history. 

Yes, there are Assassins and Templars in Resynced, but Edward is as uninterested in their dealings as, say, perhaps someone jumping into Assassin’s Creed for the first time with this remake. In that sense, it feels thematically correct to start with Resynced. Edward uses the hidden blade because it’s a great tool in his pirate arsenal. He’s chasing the sci-fi MacGuffin in the Caribbean because it can help the pirates of Nassau defeat the omnipresent threat of the British monarchy, the Spanish Empire, and anyone else who stands in the way of their perceived freedom. All the mumbo jumbo you’ll hear about this MacGuffin in Resynced can be shrugged off – Edward does the same.

What’s left is one of my favorite pirate narratives, and easily the greatest pirate video game ever made. It’s a saga about the cost of greed and obsession, the strength of found family and friendship, and the ways capitalism and monarchy can push otherwise decent men into murky waters. You will laugh, you will cry, you will kill a lot of British and Spanish officers, and you will find yourself humming sea shanties in the shower. 

Mechanically, Black Flag has never felt better than here in Resynced. Can you believe Black Flag didn’t have a crouch button, instead activating Edward’s stealth in environment-specific instances? Terrible. Now, you can press a button to crouch at any time, making stealthing around the Caribbean better. Enemy AI has been improved to present decent challenges in combat; new abilities have been added to spice up Edward’s swordsmanship; and new naval officers add firepower to the Jackdaw, making being the master and commander of the seas even more exciting and explosive (literally). Additional quality-of-life updates, like the removal of insta-fail tailing missions, being able to remove and put on Edward’s assassin hood at any time (something not possible in the original, to the dismay of fans), completely reworked combat with a more intentional focus on cinematic action, various parkour movement updates, and more further improve the experience. 

It’s also a gorgeous remake, breathing new life into Black Flag, the original version of which I find quite ugly to visit today. Looking at the waves doesn’t get old.

All of this is to say that if you want to finally play an Assassin’s Creed game, Resynced is the best place to start. And if you want to roleplay a charismatic pirate with a massive Caribbean map to explore, it’s great for that, too. 

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. 

For more, read Game Informer’s Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review here, and then read about how the remake includes eight new endgame missions that pit Edward against a historical pirate hunter. After that, read about why Black Flag was chosen as Ubisoft’s first Assassin’s Creed remake, and then check out Game Informer’s interview with Edward’s voice actor, Matt Ryan. 

Are you playing Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced? Let us know what you think of it so far in the comments below!

League of Legends’ trading card game, Riftbound, is nearing the launch of its fourth official set, Vendetta. And true to its name, the set is embracing “enemy” color pairings; matching up both the color identities that are diametrically opposed, and corresponding Legends who love a good rivalry.

For our reveal during this preview season, Game Informer gets to show off another Overnumbered card, and it’s a doozy for those who love Arcane. Say hello to the Overnumbered variant for Ambessa’s Legend, Matriarch of War.

For those who need a refresher, Legends are the determining factor for the colors of your deck, and also add a persistent effect or presence  for you to utilize during the course of a Riftbound match. For Ambessa’s Legend, this means utilizing Empower, a new mechanic for the Vendetta set.

Ambessa’s Legend becomes Empowered when you Empower something else — usually for an additional cost described on the card — and you can then expend that Empowered state, along with recycling a Rune and exhausting her, to “ready” a unit. This means you can move creatures around the board quickly, make use of multiple exhaust effects, or any other number of potential combat tricks.

For this Overnumbered version, 196/166 in the set, we see Aliya Chen take up the pen to depict Ambessa in full battle gear. It’s a powerful visual, and I’m sure anyone running a beatdown deck with Ambessa at the helm will want this gorgeously ferocious art to match it.

Riftbound’s Vendetta set goes live on July 31 in English and Chinese. You can see the rest of the card gallery as preview season carries on here.

Octopath Traveler series developer Team Asano launched its HD-2D action RPG, The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, last month on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Though many are enjoying the game, there is near-universal agreement that Faie, the companion fairy that accompanies Elliot on his adventure, talks way too much. A new update released today across all platforms lets you turn off Faie’s voice completely, providing a fix for the game’s most annoying feature. 

The Adventures of Elliot is, no doubt, aiming to be a Zelda-like adventure, and Faie can be seen as a stand-in for Navi. Despite general grievances with Link’s fairy in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who finds Navi to be more talkative than Faie. Team Asano was seemingly aware of Faie’s communication style, giving players the option to tone down how often she speaks in the game’s options – which was available from the jump. However, listening to player feedback since the game’s launch, today’s 1.1.0 update allows you to completely turn off Faie’s voice. 

The update’s patch notes are short and sweet. In addition to adding an option to turn off Faie’s voice, this update also “adjusts tutorial behavior,” fixes FPS drops on some PCs when Faie is present, and fixes some minor bugs. The update is available to download right now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. 

In the meantime, read Game Informer’s review of The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales to learn why we enjoyed the game, despite Faie’s insistence on preventing any and all silence. After that, check out our reviews for Team Asano’s other games, like Octopath Traveler 0, Octopath Traveler II, and Triangle Strategy. 

What are your thoughts on Faie? Let us know in the comments below!