Coliseum

Reviewed on:
PC

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

Publisher:
Bandai Namco

Developer:
Bandai Namco

Release:
October 2, 2026

Rating:
Teen

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve flies on the tailwinds of its predecessor, which brought life back to the series in 2019. Yet it also dips deep into the series’ wealth of mechanics and themes – wingmen, huge mission areas, memorable rivals – to forge what feels like the ace of aces, and one of the series’ best entries.

In the wake of an invasion of your homeland, you go down in a dogfight with Sotoa’s elite Shadow squadron alongside the “Wings of Theve,” a folk hero for the FCU that you discover is a little more tall tale than living legend. You don his identity and become the new “Wings of Theve” to help keep the war effort alive.

Though Ace Combat is certainly no stranger to stories about war, politics, and their effect on the world at large, Wings of Theve takes it to a new height thanks to its focus on your wingmen and the crew of your carrier, the Endurance. Over 30 missions, you build a small band of surviving fighters aboard your meager fleet, all hoping to make it to the conflict’s resolution. From your Joker Squadron and sister Queen Squadron to enemy aces and crew aboard the Endurance, the cast is both packed and memorable.

Though there are still some odd story wrinkles, specifically when asking for an arbitrary button press to advance the scene, and the voice of the former Wings pilot Cope speaking to you from the beyond lays on a little thick at the start, Ace Combat 8’s story soars thanks to its new first-person perspective and focus on the squadron around you and other members of the Endurance. Big moments in missions hit that much harder when you’ve spent time around these pilots, seen their struggles up close, and then have to desperately battle alongside them for your life in the skies above.

Each mission is a brilliantly laid-out box of objectives and tasks, an impressive feat given the variety of what Bandai’s Aces team asks you to accomplish. In one, you soar across a vast desert, taking out strategic reserves of power, ammo, and hangars full of planes to whittle down an invasion force’s resources. In another, you jet toward an island at high speeds and low altitudes to avoid radar detection; then, several missions later, you’re trailing massive cargo planes in the sky, following their contrails because radar jamming masks their exact position.

A wealth of planes and weapons are available, and all feel fantastic to fly. The jets feel a little heavier than in Ace Combat 7, but it’s a good heft; in the midst of a high-G turn, it appropriately feels like you’re wresting the nose of a giant mass of steel at sonic speeds. You can also pack two special weapons at a time, which lets you specialize more and opens up more options in your hangar for each outing. I still found myself beelining straight for the F-35C, but enjoyed several of the other options as well; one special section involving an A-10 bomber was a particularly fun break from the whiplash-inducing missile rodeo of other missions.

It’s not just missiles the enemy will throw at you, either. Get used to hearing “Rail Gun Warning” in your headphones, as Sotoa’s fleet of land battleships and other terra-naval units make ground forces especially troublesome in Ace Combat 8. Sotoa’s Lux Lunae, or the Shadows as your squad calls them, are also a highlight. From their sleek black paint jobs and open-comms chanting as they enter the battlefield to their mid-air maneuvers, the Shadows continually push you to the edge and beyond. Besting the Lux Lunae’s aces was a consistent source of improvement and achievement as a virtual pilot.

Multiplayer pushes even further, with modes for those who just like to chase high scores and those who want to dogfight other human pilots. Modes where your four-flier squad compete for score, either alongside or against an enemy squadron, make up the bulk of multiplayer playtime. The star attraction is the emergency sorties: special missions that fire up every so often for all players, pitting them against Ace Combat superweapons like the Arsenal Bird. It’s a solid base with room to grow for future support, though a lot of menuing, grinding for specific plane upgrade needs, and cosmetic monetization options put speed bumps on my playtime more often than I’d have liked.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve perfectly represents why fliers have stuck with this series. A fantastic campaign, filled with missions I want to replay over and over again, is buoyed by a compelling cast and story, excellent flight controls, explosive dogfights, and encounters you can’t wait to scream through at supersonic speeds. Ace Combat 8 proves the series is no museum piece; Wings of Theve soars with the best of the best, and it’s a blast to play again and again.

Score:
9.25

About Game Informer’s review system

Epic Games has reportedly delayed the release of an upcoming shooter game featuring Marvel and Star Wars characters from March to an unspecified date, according to Bloomberg. According to the publication’s sources, Epic is delaying the release because it is shifting to an “AI-first” production model using tools like Anthropic’s Claude. 

“No more hand-written code” is something one of the shooter’s directors told staff in an internal email reviewed by Bloomberg alongside instructions that all art for the game will be “generated with full AI workflows.” Two days after Bloomberg published the article, Epic revealed that its new Epic Games Launcher is available for preview and that it was “vibe coded” because “programming is hard.” Notably, Epic is the company behind arguably the world’s biggest live-service game, Fortnite, and the world’s largest game development toolkit, Unreal Engine. “Programming is hard” is a strange thing to read from said company. 

“Programming is hard [so] instead of doing that, we vibe coded a new Epic Games Launcher that’s way faster and more responsive than the current one, and has a new look,” a blog post reads. 

Epic claims this new launcher launches 46% faster than Steam, its biggest competitor, and that Epic can “restore from system tray to library” 14% faster than Steam. However, users of the new launcher in Preview have seen less-than-stellar results that don’t match Epic’s findings. In this video posted to Bluesky by Aftermath’s Chris Person, the new launcher appears to be laggy, buggy, unresponsive at times, and slow. 

Regarding the unannounced Marvel and Star Wars shooter and its reported “AI first” development, Epic Games communications director Jake Jones told Bloomberg, “We’re embracing AI-accelerated development, led by Epic developers who are the visionaries and creative drivers for everything we do.” That said, Epic laid off more than 1,000 employees in March. 

Bloomberg says Epic’s behind-the-scenes plans for its “AI first” approach are to have human hands guide the code and art that AI creates. 

This Marvel and Star Wars shooter is likely part of Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic, announced in 2024. Beyond Fortnite skins, little has come of this investment so far, though game development timelines are longer than ever.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Platform:

Publisher:
Nintendo

Developer:
Nintendo

Release:
November 5, 2026

Rating:
Everyone 10+

For nearly 20 years, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was my favorite game. While it was eventually supplanted by The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time remains a formative, treasured gaming experience that laid the foundation for the wider 3D action genre. However, I am the first to admit that while the original Nintendo 64 version – the only one available on Switch and Switch 2 – has aged better than most games of its era, much like its iconic hero, it doesn’t take long to realize it’s from a bygone era. 

For years, I wanted Nintendo to bring the 2011 3D remaster to Switch, but it’s doing me one better: a full, from-the-ground-up remake with lush visuals, several quality-of-life improvements, and even voice-acted cutscenes.  We are just weeks away from the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Nintendo Switch 2, and ahead of its November 5 release, I spent over an hour exploring Hyrule as both Young and Adult Link.

The moment the opening cutscene begins, I feel a smile spread across my face. Seeing Navi and the Great Deku Tree talking about the tree’s impending doom and Link’s destiny through a fully voiced cutscene is a little jarring at first. But the voice acting, along with the incredibly sharp, detailed visuals, definitively hammers home that this is an all-new experience despite being a remake of a 28-year-old game from 5 generations ago. That is further exemplified by Navi’s initial flight, which is no longer in first-person. Instead, we see her say hello to each villager in Kokiri Forest (as she does in the original opening cutscene) before smashing into the fence outside Link’s house and entering to join up with the Hero of Time. 

Following a brief conversation with Navi and Saria, who also ran up to Link’s treehouse, it’s time to retrieve the Deku Shield and Kokiri Sword so Mido will let me past to see the Great Deku Tree. As increasingly endearing as Saria is thanks to her improved facial and body animations, as well as her more fleshed-out dialogue, Mido is just as increasingly obnoxious; I was definitely happy to make him eat his words after he mocked Link for previously being the only one without a fairy.

Running around Kokiri Forest is nearly enough to sell me on this remake. The visuals are absolutely stunning. The new jump button and ability to sprint out of a roll make it feel like an all-new game. The freely controlled camera adds to this feeling, even with some relatively basic level design. And while I never had a problem with how Young Link looks in this remake, I’m even more impressed and comforted by seeing him in action in the actual game. In fact, everything surrounding Link also looks great; Kokiri Forest is much more bustling than its previous forms, light fog dissipates as you run through it, and swinging your sword looks better than ever before. Though I love Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom’s stylish anime-inspired art style, the sheer amount of detail present in each and every character, enemy, and environment accentuates the masterfully executed maximalist approach Nintendo took with this remake.

After finding 40 rupees to buy a Deku Shield, I crawl through the tunnel to the area where you get the Kokiri Sword. This time, however, there’s added verticality as you dodge the rolling boulders to reach a ladder, which you climb and then jump across a gap to reach the chest that contains the blade. This is indicative of small changes dedicated fans will find scattered throughout; I didn’t uncover anything monumentally different from the original game, but eagle-eyed viewers of last month’s Nintendo Direct will notice that Lon Lon Ranch is now on level with the rest of Hyrule Field rather than up on a plateau, and that Kakariko Village is now slightly rearranged. Outside of some small upgrades to the diversity and placement of foliage, I didn’t notice many more differences, but it’s also been several years since I last fired up either the N64 or 3DS version of Ocarina of Time, so it’s entirely likely they were subtle enough that I didn’t notice. 

After entering the Great Deku Tree and completing the first part where you jump off the ledge and break through the spiderweb, I must jump to the next part of the demo. Still as Young Link, I watch as Saria gifts Link the Fairy Ocarina through a touching, fully voiced (outside of Link, obviously) cutscene. From there, I’m dumped into Hyrule Field. It doesn’t feel nearly as impressively endless as it felt in 1998, but it is definitely way more beautiful. After a brief conversation with the owl, Kaepora Gaebora, I sprint across Hyrule Field, catching passing yet impressive glimpses of landmarks like Lon Lon Ranch and Death Mountain. One new addition is apparent as I navigate the menus: The Threads of Time. Here, a tapestry tells the story of the Hero of Time in real time; I can look back at what has already happened in Link’s adventure, as well as see how much is still on the horizon. Additionally, if you get lost, the tapestry can give hints for where you’re supposed to go.

After a brief exploration of Hyrule Castle Town, including a short tour of the Temple of Time, it’s time to jump ahead to the final segment of my demo: the Forest Temple. This section lets me try out Adult Link, who is equipped with the hookshot, and later, the Fairy Bow. This was the one place where my memory felt fuzziest, as I struggled to speedrun the puzzles that I last played through more than a decade ago.

Fighting Wolfos, Stalfos, and Skulltulas is more straightforward than most modern third-person fights, which may be the one area that fell slightly short of my admittedly lofty expectations. Using the lock-on targeting allows Link to dodge and counterattack, but I didn’t find a simple way to swap targets when you’re fighting multiple enemies at once. Instead, I had to release the left trigger, move the camera, and squeeze the trigger again. I get that this is how it worked in the original game, but I would have liked switching to the next target without going through that. Maybe there is an easy way to accomplish that, but I didn’t find it in my nearly 90 minutes fighting through Hyrule.

Regardless of that one reservation, there is no doubt in my mind that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will consume my life when it comes out. And with October already halfway in the rearview, we really don’t have long before a whole new generation gets to experience what could very well be Link’s greatest adventure. This remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes to Switch 2 on November 5.

Reviewed on:
Xbox Series X/S

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

Publisher:
Konami

Developer:
Konami, Evil Empire

Release:
October 15, 2026

Rating:
Teen

Castlevania has been a dormant franchise for years, but Belmont’s Curse revives the series with fiery passion. There are hundreds of indies inspired by Konami’s gothic vampire-hunting games, putting a lot of pressure on the publisher to live up to its far-reaching legacy. Konami’s surprising, yet effective solution is to bring in a new developer: Evil Empire, best known for its work on the Castlevania-inspired Dead Cells. The resulting game has a fresh perspective, a brand-new protagonist, and whip-smart execution.

Rose Belmont and her father Trevor have been summoned to Paris, a city under supernatural siege. Rose is eager to prove her worth, partially to impress her father, who killed Dracula 23 years ago, and partially because she wants revenge for her bewitched arm, a curse from Dracula, passed down from her late mother. It’s a solid premise, and while the narrative is not particularly complex, Rose’s character arc has standout moments that will stick with me.

For newcomers, Belmont’s Curse stands alone perfectly fine, though it is technically a sequel to Castlevania III, which the first two seasons of Netflix’s Castlevania are based on. Arguably, it’s a better sequel to the show than the game; the art style and character designs have clear anime inspirations, and many voice actors, including Trevor Belmont, reprise their roles. I enjoyed seeing them in a new light, especially as they passed the torch to Rose.

The best example of this torch-passing is a deck of tarot cards, gifted to Rose by her late mother, Sypha. It’s my favorite mechanic in Belmont’s Curse. Each is a specially crafted vessel to hold the power of Paris’ most powerful figures, friend or foe. As you approach each target, Rose will gather clues from her surroundings to aid in hunting them down or besting them in battle. This investigation ranges from just-okay, linear moments in the early game to cryptic, map-spanning missions in the late game. Creatively designed quests to chase down the last handful of tarot cards were my favorite moments in the whole game.

Once you find your targets, you absorb their souls into a tarot card, allowing Rose to speak with them. What starts as a lonely journey becomes almost like a road trip, as Rose has a packed backseat of antagonists and allies who can chime in whenever they see fit.

Each card also unlocks a spell, ranging from fireballs and a magic cross to a blast turning foes to stone. They also come with a list of Works of Mercy: achievements that upgrade your spells upon completion. These range from “Use This Spell 20 Times” to “Kill 44 Skeletons” or “Find All The Rooms In The Clock Tower.” It provides a fun reason to use abilities you might not otherwise, which is especially nice when you become overwhelmed by options in the game’s closing hours. I was swayed on more than one spell after achievement-hunting for upgrades.

Speaking of combat, the action in Belmont’s Curse is magnificent. Rose is light on her feet and only becomes lighter as she gains new abilities, becoming a whirlwind of death by the game’s conclusion. Between six weapon categories, a variety of perk-granting relics, and your deck of cards, players are flooded with choice in how to approach encounters. I constantly switched up my loadout, often mid-fight, to adapt to the enemies that appeared. Fights were tough enough to keep me on my toes but never insurmountable, and a forgiving checkpoint system keeps repeated deaths from becoming frustrating. Inventive and intense boss battles against Dracula’s coterie of minions are also a major highlight.

After 16 hours, I ended my playthrough with 92 percent completion. I just couldn’t resist doubling back to earlier zones to see the new areas I could access with my newfound traversal abilities, and Belmont’s Curse never failed to reward me. Between two dozen weapons to find, upgrades to health and mana, and even some huge, optional areas, I’m excited for the satisfaction that awaits me as I dive back in to reach 100 percent.

Belmont’s Curse is a strong reminder of why the Castlevania series is so influential, with a rich world, tense combat, and a map chock-full of secrets. While this latest entry certainly pays homage to the Castlevanias of yore, it also breathes fresh life into the franchise, making me excited for its future. Castlevania is back, and between Rose Belmont and Evil Empire, it’s in great hands.

Score:
9.25

About Game Informer’s review system

A couple of months back, we learned that Phoenix Cyclops would be the first DLC fighter to join Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls. He was just the first character in the game’s Year 1 DLC roadmap, however. This weekend, the next three characters were revealed. Jane Foster as Thor, Venom, and Jubilee are coming to the game over the next year, and Jane is coming this Winter. Check out the reveal trailer below.

Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls has an interesting roster, because in many cases, they opt to take a lesser-known alternative to a popular character. Black Panther is Shuri instead of T’Challa, Robbie Reyes is Ghost Rider instead of Johnny Blaze, and now they’ve opted for Jane Foster over the original Thor Odinson. The reveal doesn’t show any gameplay, so we can probably expect a more in-depth character showcase as her launch approaches. Jane Foster Thor is scheduled to drop in “winter 2027,” which likely means January or February of next year.

The trailer also reveals the game’s other two Year 1 DLC fighters, though they’re not presented in engine. Instead, they’re drawn in comic artist Peach Momoko’s signature watercolor style. Venom drops next spring, while Jubilee joins in the summer. Venom’s release will also include a new stage: Klyntar, the alien home world of the symbiotes.

For more Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, check out our review of the game, then watch the reveal for Phoenix Cyclops, who joins the fight on November 2. 

Reviewed on:
PC

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

Publisher:
Lyrical Games, One More Level

Developer:
One More Level

Release:
October 13, 2026

Rating:
Mature

Valor Mortis is a brave new game from developer One More Level. It competes not only against the studio’s excellent Ghostrunner series, but also the ever-expanding Soulslike subgenre of action games. Fortunately, Valor Mortis largely succeeds on both counts, creating a new world I hope to see more of from this team and a unique first-person stab at its action. It is too often unfairly challenging, largely because of brutal balance issues in the first half, and it doesn’t take its compelling narrative premise anywhere unexpected. But its beating heart is the combat and how it intersects with exploring this nightmarish 18th-century France, and that provides an enticing playground for trying, dying, and trying again.

William is just another soldier in Napoleon’s continent-stretching army, but when he dies, he somehow reawakens on a destroyed battlefield with the Emperor speaking directly to him, seemingly telepathically. He moves forward at Napoleon’s command and, over 25 hours, gains BioShock-like control over fire, time, and more that you control with your left hand. These powers are few, but they complement your combat kit nicely, which relies primarily on swords and guns to get the job done. By the end, you’ll have multiple firearms, like a pistol and long-range musket, to use alongside different blades and psychic powers to kill the zombie remnants of Napoleon’s army and the ravaged and cursed citizens of the land his war has left behind. 

The answers to questions like how and why Napoleon is in your head, why you can stop time, or why a magical, bedeviled chemical agent is reanimating the corpses of soldiers and villagers are less interesting than where your imagination will likely take you. It’s a straightforward story to follow and far less exhausting to understand than others in the genre. Sidequests add bite-sized flourishes of humanity and mystery, but ultimately, Valor Mortis’ exciting premise left me simply whelmed by the end. 

Fortunately, playing Valor Mortis is far more enjoyable, though balance issues mar the action. I’m no stranger to the Soulslike genre, typically defined by ultra-hard boss fights, dropping your primary currency upon death (and having to pick it back up to regain it), and rest points that reset the world state of enemies. That’s all here in Valor Mortis, and it pairs well with One More Level’s first-person combat, honed with sharpened experience from the Ghostrunner games. But too often, Valor Mortis’ difficulty veers into the realm of the unfair. Boss fights should be skill checks, exams to ensure you’re paying attention to everything in your toolkit, but the first half of Valor Mortis’ difficulty is poorly balanced, giving you no space to learn and react to enemies. Getting whacked once and dying provides no room to understand what I did wrong, and though this issue showed its face most in boss fights, even standard mob enemies felt like they had access to random insta-kill moves, too. 

I’m not sure if the second half is better balanced, or if my upgrades to stamina, health, and weapons gave me the fighting chance I was missing in the early hours, but there is a point where Valor Mortis settles nicely into the type of challenge that encourages just one more try. 

Parrying is your best friend, though you can block at the cost of some health or dash out of the way, and learning how to counter hulking soldiers, zombie dog-things, and lab experiments gone very, very wrong is satisfying. So, too, is using my kit of psychic powers like fire to light enemies aflame or stasis, which allows me to freeze enemies with explosive effects. Mixing and matching my saber, rapier, or claymore with my shotgun-like blunderbuss or pyro hand encouraged me to use everything I had to win. It’s impossible to get through Valor Mortis without using every tool in your kit, and it’s clear One More Level is confident in the combat it’s crafted here. 

There are sequences where William must wall-run, grapple, swing off poles, and jump from a shrinking platform to the next, and it’s a blast of fast adrenaline in the otherwise intentionally slow, focused gameplay. It’s no surprise One More Level displays masterful command over this type of action – it’s what makes Ghostrunner so good – but it also reminded me of what I like about that series over Valor Mortis; I imagine this is an unwanted side effect. The same can be said for Valor Mortis’ best feat of storytelling: a B-plot centered on the Mice, orphaned children who seek a different kind of leader after what Napoleon has done to their homes, which is clearly inspired by BioShock’s Little Sisters storyline. It even includes a purposefully obfuscated mortality system to help the Mice, which affects a few small sequences later in the game. It’s done well, but not as well as its source material. 

This B-plot with the Mice, which largely plays out in side quests, is easy to discover because Valor Mortis keeps veering off the golden path in enticing and rewarding ways. There are countless items to find, like grenades or extra-powerful bullets, as well as myriad minibosses and side quests to take on, and reaching these pick-ups, enemies, and more will often require you to explore this beaten landscape in ways your main path forward won’t. It’s a testament to One More Level’s chapter design, as each takes you to a new location that builds on the last while leaving its own unique mark on William’s adventure. 

I definitely died more than 100 times from start to finish. I wish a good portion of those deaths were fairer – I would have liked to learn from them rather than feel my annoyance mount higher. When Valor Mortis’ various systems coalesce into a French army-uniformed package in the second half, however, it becomes a game that demands a lot from you and returns your efforts in kind with satisfying rewards, or at the very least, the lantern to rest at you’ve been begging to see. One More Level’s first go at the Soulslike falls short of its premise, but it’s a confident step into the genre that leans on the studio’s prior expertise to deliver something tense and novel. 

Score:
7

About Game Informer’s review system

This week on The Game Informer Show, Giant Bomb’s Will Crosby joins us to discuss the recent launch of Gears of War: E-Day. Does a return to the past for Gears mean good things for it? Spoilers: yes, it does. 

And after the break, we dip into the latest entry in another long-running series, as Eric shares his review impressions of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Plus, Charles shares where he’s at in his Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave journey. Grab a cold beverage and stay awhile, it’s 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 “Gears of War: E-Day + Ace Combat 8 w/ Giant Bomb’s Will Crosby” on Spreaker.

Follow our hosts (and guest):

• Charles Harte (@chuckduck365)
• Eric Van Allen (@seamoosi)
• Will Crosby (@hunt270)

Use these timestamps to jump around:

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:45 – Gears of War: E-Day
• 28:14 – Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
• 56:10 – Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

We’re in the thick of the busy holiday review season, and there’s no shortage of new games trying to capture your attention. As you head into the weekend looking for your next gaming love affair, we’ve got an impressive variety of new titles to keep on your radar. 

And if you’re simply looking to catch up on what’s happening in gaming this week, we’ve got you covered on that as well. 

• Phantom Blade Zero Preview – Potentially The Best Ladder Climbing In All Of Video Games
• Paramount Is Making A Live-Action Cyberpunk 2077 Movie
• Grand Theft Auto VI: Here Are All The Songs We Heard In Rockstar’s In-Game Radio Preview
• Muramasa: Revenant Blades Preview – The Best Way To Experience One Of Vanillaware’s Best
• Nintendo Switch Sports Resort Preview – A Return Visit To Wuhu Island
• We Got A Deep-Dive On The Dungeons And Monsters Coming To D&D: World of Warcraft

Star Wars: Galactic Racer

Wesley LeBlanc

Star Wars: Galactic Racer launched this week and it is worth your time, regardless of your thoughts on Star Wars these days. It is absolutely a Star Wars game, with familiar locations, music motifs, and characters throughout, but the IP is honestly the least interesting part. It is a truly fantastic racing game, with a sense of speed and tension that will bring you back to the days of Burnout (and it makes sense, because much of the team over at developer Fuse Games worked on the Burnout series). Don’t let the roguelite campaign scare you; it works really well and moves at a brisk pace that keeps the experience from feeling repetitive. And within that campaign is a great story, better than most in the racing genre. Once you finish the campaign, there’s still plenty of game left for you. With a standard Arcade mode, miniature campaigns in the Scenario mode, and an expansive suite of multiplayer races and tournaments, you’ll likely have Star Wars: Galactic Racer on your hard drive long after you pick it up. 

Read or watch our full review. 

 

Echo Weaver

Matt Miller

If you’re like me, you’re always on the look for new gear- and ability-gated exploration games that recall the joy of early Metroid and Castlevania games. Echo Weaver offers a new twist on that idea, by keeping the exploration element, but making progression be tied to knowledge acquired over the course of play, rather than new equipment. It’s a clever twist that has me intrigued from the early hours I’ve played. 

Our reviewer, Kyle Hilliard, has already had a chance to experience the full game, and had this to say: “Echo Weaver’s unique approach to the Metroid structure is admirable, unique, and well executed. The sense of discovery is fantastic, and though I realistically probably won’t immediately play the game again, the idea that I could start with knowledge of basically all of the abilities to rip through the game at high speed is an enticing one.”

Check out his full review here. 

Gears of War: E-Day

Alex Van Aken

Gears of War: E-Day rewinds the clock to depict the events of Emergence Day, in which protagonists Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago first encounter the monstrous Locusts. The series has referenced E-Day since its first entry in 2006, so fans (including myself) are eager to witness its portrayal in The Coalition’s new release. In his Gears of War: E-Day review, Game Informer executive editor Brian Shea praises the release for delivering “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.”

Read the full review here. 

Order of the Sinking Star

Matt Miller

Thekla’s new puzzle game is a massive project with hundreds of distinct puzzles that fit together into a larger narrative and puzzle framework. It’s an overwhelming, impressive collection of brainteasers created by integrating several distinct puzzle games into a larger, coherent whole. In my mind, I’ve come to think of it almost like the video game equivalent of a frame story. No matter how you look at it, Order of the Sinking Star is a puzzle game built for experienced, patient puzzle gamers, featuring complex logic challenges that will push any player to think outside the box.

Deadlock

Eric Van Allen

We’ve once again got a great reason to dip back into Valve’s unreleased-but-popular MOBA-shooter Deadlock. The Cursed Apple got a major makeover with its latest update, and a new slate of heroes is looking to join the roster, with playtime counting toward votes on which character joins each week. We’ve already seen the Rat King and the sweet old Baba win the vote, but four more are still on the way. The graphics overhaul is huge, though; not only do the streets and boulevards of this cursed New York look phenomenal, but small UI and indicator tweaks have made Deadlock even easier to read at a glance. Deadlock remains the most impressive game not officially released, and if you can get an invite, it’s worth diving in this weekend to see what the team has been cooking up.

The Old King’s Crown

Matt Miller

One of the most intriguing and tactically rich games of the last several years, The Old King’s Crown is a true triumph for integrating numerous mechanics into a thematically rich narrative framework. Each player takes on the role of a potential inheritor of the monarchy after the old king dies. Using bluffing, card management, and control of the game board, each player controls a faction that is subtly distinct from the others, leading to a fascinating emergent narrative, like a rebellious uprising seizing control from the old nobility. Unfortunately, the biggest challenge for your weekend enjoyment of the title might be tracking down a copy; Eerie Idol’s excellent game is so celebrated it can be hard to find a copy. But if you’re lucky enough to find a way to play, I think you’ll be happy to add it to your shelf. If you can’t, it was just one of the titles that won accolades in our list of the very best board games of 2025, and you could try to snag one of those instead. 

Reviewed on:
PC

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

Publisher:
Jagex

Developer:
Jagex Games Studios

Release:
September 15, 2026

Rating:
Teen

RuneScape: Dragonwilds strikes a respectable balance between a fantasy RPG and survival crafting game. The variety of environments and hidden lore for those who want it give depth to an otherwise nondescript setting and offer many hours of content for those who can tolerate its crafting system. But, without having an attachment to the RuneScape series, or a love for chopping wood or mining ore, it’s difficult to enjoy past the opening chapter. Though there is fun to be had, I wish certain parts of it didn’t feel as tedious or locked behind a grind for materials.

Dragonwilds expands the RuneScape world and brings back familiar faces to ground players in the dragon-infested continent of Ashenfall. It revolves around the history of Ashenfall’s early settlers and the takedown of Dragon Queen Kuldra, told indirectly through glowing blue books and side quests. Those stories of grief and greed are interesting, but mostly a backdrop for common tasks like plundering temples and stabbing rats.

Most activities tie back to the crafting system, whether that’s foraging for food or smithing swords. You can build tools, weapons, armor, jewelry, furniture, structures, and more. Dragonwilds lets you spend as much time as you want farming materials, though some, like ores, are more necessary than others. Magic spells can speed up some of the monotony, but that also requires leveling up your skills enough to learn those spells. 

Even with crafting at its core, Dragonwilds is bloated with workstations and items that are more laborious than fun to collect. I blame the increasingly high number of materials needed to craft higher-level weapons and armor, and the multiple station types that could have been combined into one. As you get stronger, the number of materials you need for your gear increases, too. For example, my gear now needs Fine Cloth woven from threads and gold bars. By the time I reached the halfway point of the game, I had separate stations for tools and weapons, armor, jewelry, bows and arrows, and magical weapons like wands.

Classes don’t really exist in Dragonwilds. Instead of explicitly choosing a class like in a traditional RPG, you swap between roles by switching your gear – like swapping from armor to robes to switch from melee to magic. Changing classes felt pointless because I could force my way through most challenges with a sword, and bows and wands are less effective given the circumstances. Many confrontations involve flanking from multiple sides, so long-range combat isn’t ideal. Magic isn’t bad, but not many creatures have magical weaknesses and melee can easily do more damage with attack speed and buffs.

Dragonwilds is massive. Just the first arc took 20 to 30 hours to finish before I slew my first dragon. Fellhollow, the second arc, took about the same time to complete its story quests, and it didn’t make me any more excited to reach Dowdun Reach because I adapted so quickly to expectations. At the start of each region, I expect to grind for materials for three to five hours before I could expect to survive an “expedition” from my base, let alone bungling around uncharted territory to complete a quest with vague instructions. Thankfully, this steep on-ramp can be smoothed over through a setting that eases the experience grind, but the base way to play encourages the tedium to set in. To its credit, Dragonwilds spices up exploration in each region with gimmicks like “soulrifting” in Fellholllow, which unlocks alternate planes and invisible bridges.

Ideally, you avoid dying in any game, but Dragonwilds twists the knife as much as a Soulslike; when your health depletes, you drop your entire inventory and teleport back to the last place you camped. To avoid the inconvenience of refilling your bag, it’s easier to run back to the gravestone to retrieve your inventory. I’m grateful that I don’t just lose all the items, and that Dragonwilds spawns gravestones outside of dungeons instead of making me go back inside to claim them. Still, it’s annoying to be unexpectedly overpowered and then need to dive back into dangerous territory just to avoid another crafting spree. You can turn this annoying convention off in the settings, but playing the game as intended leads to cumbersome situations.

For better or worse, Dragonwilds brings back the “old school” feeling of discovering what to do without overt handholding. An NPC may suggest a general direction, but won’t tell you that you need an Iron Pickaxe to mine a dragon’s teeth to complete your quest. Players who have trouble understanding these hints could spend hours trying to decipher exactly how to find the items they need to progress. 

Dragonwilds prioritizes the journey of completing quests over how easy they are to finish. After all, that means more time in the crafting system and discovering more about your environment, like rocks you didn’t know you could mine or hidden lore from a side quest you might have missed. Alternatively, it could lead to hours of repetitive grinding for materials, trying to unlock new clues or power-ups without getting any closer to the next objective.

RuneScape: Dragonwilds freshened my perspective on survival-crafting games with base-building and farming under dragon-dominated skies. I floundered for answers on how to progress to the next story quest without clear direction, and while I could explore in the meantime, other games in similar genres can offer the same thing with more entertainment along the way. In a genre full of compelling modern classics like Valheim, RuneScape: Dragonwilds is a difficult game to recommend.

Score:
6

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Platform:
PlayStation 5, PC

Publisher:
S-Game

Developer:
S-Game

Release:
October 29, 2026

I played Phantom Blade Zero at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, back in August, which, at the speed of the internet, means it feels like I had my hands on the controller about five years ago. The memory is vague and dreamlike, but it’s a strong one that left an undeniable impression. I also made sure to take thorough notes because I knew it would be some time before I could write about it.

For my Phantom Blade Zero play session two months ago, developer S-Game Studio offered up the opportunity to basically play from the beginning of the game, encouraging a long play session. I played through the intro and initial tutorials, meeting protagonist Soul, and learned his backstory as it relates to training with his brother, Zuoshang, as a young man. Once I had the basics squared away, however, the game fast-forwarded to a balletic clash between Soul and Zuoshang without much context as to why they were now fighting as adults, beyond my basic understanding that they now fundamentally disagree on something.

A major selling point for Phantom Blade Zero since its reveal has been its use of motion capture for its animation. When our own Wesley LeBlanc visited the studio in China last year, they put him in the motion capture rig to showcase how important the motion capture process was to the game’s development. My admittedly dismissive reaction to this selling point has always been… all modern triple-A games use motion capture for gameplay and cutscenes. I have seen video game performers like Troy Baker dressed in grey leotards more than I have seen him dressed in clothes whenever behind-the-scenes footage of game development is shared. What’s the big deal?

I am not fully removed from that camp, if I am being honest, but I admit that getting my hands on Phantom Blade Zero and controlling the movement and action did highlight the overall smoothness of playing what is essentially a Chinese martial arts film. It really does feel like you’re playing a game that borrows the beauty of human movement showcased in movies like Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Acrobatic dance applied to the art of swinging a sword.

After completing that opening combat encounter, it is revealed that Soul suffered a heart wound and a healer cryptically named The Flesh Sculptor gave him a replacement: a tainted heart that will only let him live for 66 days. And then I am whisked away to a high-speed carriage ride where the charismatic old man driver warns me that no one visits my destination because of a plague.

Enemies with chain and claw weapons ambush the carriage and Soul ejects the driver from the cart before things get too dangerous, as the driver’s yell of, “You still owe me for the ride!” echoes in the distance. This whole sequence is very “style over substance.” Pulling off counters and delivering sword slices to enemies as they leap from the nearby cliff face walls isn’t particularly challenging, but it looks impressive while feeling closer to a series of QTE moments. There is no QTE, however, to save the horses as the carriage careens off a cliff and crashes in a valley. When Soul comes to following the crash, I am surprised to see the dead horses hanging from the trees. A gruesome image now etched onto the map screen presumably serves as a memorable visual reminder of this location, but I can’t help but feel bad for the poor animals.

The whole sequence impressively sets up a chance to finally explore without training wheels, and I am happy to report that the level design is interesting and circuitous. With such a focus on combat and combat choreography, I was worried the action would be a series of arena fights. But Soul can sneak up on enemies, open shortcuts, and find characters that need help and offer missions. I hesitate to place the game in the Souls-like genre – it seems generally more forgiving – but the level layout recalls that structure in a way I like.

Soul may also be the fastest ladder climber I have ever controlled in a video game. Ladder climbing may be an odd mechanic to highlight, but I have climbed up and down thousands of ladders in my video game career and they always bring pacing to a standstill. You push up on the control stick and wait. If you’re lucky, sometimes you can press the sprint button to make your character climb a little faster, or slide down. That’s been the best-case scenario for decades. Soul, however, bounds up ladders like Spider-Man sprinting up the side of a building. Much like the player eager to get to the next memorable moment, Soul doesn’t have time to gingerly step on or grab each rung one by one. The UI loudly proclaimed that Soul officially only has 65 days to live once he woke up from the crash. There is no time.

And speaking of no time, mine was also literally limited during my Gamescom appointment, so S-Game Studio fast-forwarded me to the incredibly impressive Lion Dance boss. The Lion Dance is a traditional Chinese dance where two performers wear a joined lion costume and perform acrobatic feats often on high pillars. Here’s a good example. Seeing the real-world version of the dance is entrancing, and for Phantom Blade Zero’s Lion Dance boss, the team motion-captured real performers.

Just seeing the technically-two characters move around in the boss arena is impressive, but the second stage of the boss fight (which you jump to if you die – no need to replay the first stage of the boss fight) is where it gets really impressive. Pillars appear from the ground and the Lion dances among the tops of them while shooting fireballs at you. And while that is happening, small lion head minions appear to distract you. However, defeating the last minion means you can grab a lion mask, jump on the pillars yourself, and shoot your own fireballs at the boss.

The reports from everyone who has had a chance to play Phantom Blade Zero have basically been universally positive, but I still went into the demo expecting a potentially forgettable, but well-executed action game. It ended up being one of my favorite hands-on experiences at Gamescom, despite the long wait to talk about it. The game feels great to play; I am eager to explore the levels; and the Lion Dance boss, in particular, showed me that the boss encounters (unless the Lion Dance is the notable exception) will be full of unexpected surprises and impressive animation.