PowerWash Simulator is no stranger to crossing over with major franchises. From Final Fantasy and Warhammer 40K to Shrek and SpongeBob, there are few corners of pop culture the series has yet to touch. Today, developer FuturLab announced the series is adding one more crossover to its wheelhouse, this one from a galaxy far, far away.
Check out the teaser trailer for the PowerWash Simulator 2 Star Wars pack below:
The teaser shows little gameplay, but it looks like players will visit a handful of destinations from Star Wars’ original trilogy: the icy planet Hoth, the desert planet Tatooine, and the hangar of an Imperial Star Destroyer. A press release says the pack will also include “a smattering of stops along the Outer Rim.” It also says you (and your friends, if you choose to play in co-op) will play as “P0-W2, a humble Class Five cleaning droid” to spray down Star Wars-themed buildings, vehicles, droids, and more.
While the original PowerWash Simulator has numerous DLC packs available, this is only the second released for PowerWash Simulator 2, the first being five levels set in the Adventure Time universe.
Sega released Alien: Isolation nearly 12 years ago, in October of 2014, and to celebrate Aliens’ 40th Anniversary yesterday, developer Creative Assembly released a teaser trailer for the sequel. Yes, a sequel is actually/finally happening more than a decade later, which is just enough time for Alien: Isolation, which received mixed reviews at launch, to reach cult-hit status amongst fans of Xenomorphs and retro-sci-fi tech.
The video is titled “False Sense Of Security,” and given its teaser nature, it doesn’t reveal too much at all. We see a menu pad with a low-battery light, which turns on with a new battery, before a large hangar door opens, suggesting this sequel might take place on a planet (rather than on a single ship as in Alien: Isolation). That’d be a fitting change for the Xenomorph-stalker horror game, given the first one takes place on a ship (like the first Alien movie) – the sequel movie, Aliens, took Ripley onto an actual planet to open up the horror playground of the infamous Xenomorphs, so we’d love to see the Alien: Isolation sequel do the same.
Check out the Alien: Isolation sequel teaser for yourself below:
Though this teaser doesn’t necessarily indicate it’s for a sequel to Alien: Isolation, Disney Games sent along a press release to say that it is, in fact, for Creative Assembly’s sequel to Alien: Isolation, putting any doubt to rest.
Elsewhere, for Aliens’ 40th Anniversary, Disney Games highlights that developer Survios recently released Alien: Rogue Incursion – Part One Evolved Edition for Nintendo Switch 2, noting that a PlayStation 4 version will arrive soon. Plus, Behaviour Interactive announced the Bloodbound Pack for Dead by Daylight, and it will feature Private First-Class William L. Hudson as an Ellen Ripley Skin alongside colonial marine gear when it goes live in-game tomorrow, on April 28.
There are some very exciting games coming out next week that we posted reviews for this week that you still need to wait for. I am sorry it worked out this way. We are not trying to brag that we already played Saros and Diablo IV’s Lord of Hatred expansion. But we do want to let you know that they are good, we promise! We also reviewed Tide of Tomorrow, though, and that one you can play right now.
Thankfully, there is still plenty to get excited for this weekend. But before that, here are a bunch of the week’s links that we recommend checking out.
As a diehard Vampire Survivors fan, I was intrigued to see Poncle’s next project emerge as a dungeon-crawling deckbuilder. Vampire Crawlers brings over many of the same characters, weapons, powers, conventions, and enemies, but through recontextualizing them in this way, it flips the entire experience on its head. I’m having a blast exploring these maps in the first-person view, taking on swarms of enemies, pilfering loot, and building an ultimate deck en route to my ultimate demise at the hands of the monsters with whom I’ve spent tens of hours slaying in Poncle’s previous smash-hit title. I haven’t spent enough time in Vampire Crawlers to render my final verdict, but my early impressions are positive.
Sayonara Wild Hearts & Lorelei And The Laser Eyes
Kyle Hilliard
Earlier this week, Annapurna announced its plans to release some of its games on Switch 2 and that two would be available immediately: Sayonara Wild Hearts and Lorelei And The Laser Eyes. I reviewed both of these games and you can find them by following the links. I like Sayonara Wild Hearts and listen to its soundtrack often. I particularly like its rendition of Clair de lune. The game feels like playing through an interactive music video.
I feel stronger, however, about Lorelei And The Laser Eyes. When it was released in 2024, I booted it up not with the intention to play and beat it, but rather just to check it out so I could talk about it a little on a podcast. I was so quickly enamored with it, however, that I played through the whole game and wrote a review for it, which is not something I often do. It’s just a great, moody, rewarding puzzle game with an interesting story that examines the ideas behind creating art and the value of doing so. If you happened to miss it in 2024 and you have a Switch 2 (and you like puzzles) I can’t recommend it enough.
Diablo IV
Marcus Stewart
With the impending launch of Diablo IV’s second big story expansion, Lord of Hatred, next week, this weekend is a great opportunity to return to Sanctuary. Whether it’s to shake off any rust, catch up on the story via the base campaign or the Vessel of Hatred expansion, or to stop Lilith for the first time, the existing package is already a strong experience worth playing. It’s also a good chance to re-familiarize yourself with the available content and features to appreciate what Lord of Hatred brings to the table (spoiler: it’s a fun expansion, as explained in my review).
Titanium Court
Kyle Hilliard
I often contend to anyone who will listen that 2015’s You Must Build A Boat from designer Luca Redwood, to this day, is my favorite mobile game. It is the sequel to the also-excellent 10000000 and combines a great-feeling match-three puzzle game with some simple base building and RPG mechanics. Since playing those games, I have always been on the lookout for games that take match-three mechanics and combine them with rewarding upgrade systems in a comparable way.
I am not far into Titanium Court, but it has the potential to hit those same high notes that I loved from Redwood’s games, and it is wrapped in a clever narrative package that I am already fairly charmed by. In Titanium Court, you play a match-three puzzle game to collect resources and defend your home castle. Moving tiles feels good, and watching the defense battles play out as a result of the arrangement of the tiles is an interesting palette cleanser. I need to play more (and can now that Saros is kind of behind me), but I am enjoying it so far.
And while we’re kind of on the topic of Luca Redwood games, you should also check out Photographs, a great little puzzle game with small short stories that have really stuck with me even after all these years.
It’s a big week on The Game Informer Show, as Saros reviews are live! Marcus and Eric are joined by our own reviewer Kyle and Restart.run’s Jesse Vitelli to break down the reaction to PlayStation Studios’ latest release.
After the break, three of the fellas stick around to discuss the latest Diablo expansion, previews of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, and poncle’s new hour-stealing monster Vampire Crawlers. Grab a cold drink and get comfortable, it’s a new 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!
Square Enix has revealed that its long-running MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV will be coming to Nintendo Switch 2 this August – yay! But, there’s a catch: to play it on Switch 2, you will need to buy a separate subscription even if you already have one to play the game on other platforms. Yes, playing FFXIV on Switch 2 plus other platforms like PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, or PC will require paying two separate subscriptions.
Despite the subscription shenanigans, your Switch 2 account will feature cross-progression with your other accounts. Plus, Square Enix and Nintendo say you will not need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play FFXIV on the Switch 2.
Though Larian Studios has moved on from its colossal 2023 hit RPG, Baldur’s Gate 3, to work on Divinity, the world of Baldur’s Gate continues forward. And later this year, fans of the game can gain new insight into one of the game’s fan-favorite characters, Astarion, in a prequel novel written by fantasy author T. Kingfisher, hitting shelves on September 29.
That’s according to the exclusive reveal over at Polygon, which writes that “Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion” takes place prior to the events of Baldur’s Gate 3 and follows the High Elf during his years serving the vampire lord Cazador Szarr. Baldur’s Gate 3 senior writer Stephen Rooney consulted on the book to ensure it aligns with the world/game lore, and Astarion’s voice actor, Neil Newbon, who won Best Performance for this role at The Game Awards 2023, will narrate the audiobook.
Here’s a look at the book’s cover:
Wizards of the Coast, Random House Worlds
Over on Bluesky, Kingfisher writes, “FOR THE RECORD – this character has a super f***** up abusive backstory. We handle it well, I think, but CONTENT WARNINGS. The book is DARK. Also, it’s a prequel, so it ends in a really dark place.”
“Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion” is one of four titles to be published by Random House Worlds as part of a new collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, centered around the game’s immersive lore and unforgettable characters, according to Polygon. The other projects are as follows:
“Baldur’s Gate 3: The Necromancy of Thay” on July 21: a reproduction notebook of the in-game item of the same name.
“The Official Baldur’s Gate 3 Coloring Book” later in the Summer: 40 black and white drawings of characters, settings, and more.
“A Feast for a Tenday: The Official Baldur’s Gate Cookbook” on November 3: a cookbook inspired by the game with 65 recipes.
“Baldur’s Gate 3: Astarion” hits shelves September 29.
Longtime Mission Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie is teaming up with Sinners’ lead and Hollywood star Michael B. Jordan for a film adaptation of EA’s Battlefield franchise. That’s according to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, which states McQuarrie will write, direct, and produce the feature while Jordan will also produce and possibly star in the film.
This news comes after a big 2025 for both names – McQuarrie’s latest Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning, hit theaters and might be the last in the series (at least for now), while Jordan won an Oscar last month for his (incredible) performance as the duo-leads of 2025’s Sinners, brothers Smoke and Stack. And it arrives after the biggest year for the Battlefield franchise in some time, following the massive and well-received launch of Battlefield 6 last year.
Details remain sparse on the adaptation, and there’s no word on whether the film will adapt a specific Battlefield game or even fit into one of the series’ various branches, like Bad Company. THR reports that Jordan could star in the film, “depending on several factors” that seemingly remain unknown for now. EA will produce the film, and THR sources tell the publication that McQuarrie and several others pitched studios and streamers like Apple and Sony yesterday and today; THR writes that a theatrical release is a priority for the adaptation.
There’s no word on when to expect this adaptation in theaters, but Game Informer will keep you updated if we learn more about the movie.
Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold has been revealed, and it’s the latest expansion coming to the long-running MMORPG from Square Enix. It will launch in January of 2027, and promises to begin a new era of storytelling for the game as part of the Godless Realms Saga.
Revealed during the 2026 FFXIV: Fan Fest opening keynote ceremony, developer Creative Business Unit III, which is also the developer behind 2023’s Final Fantasy XVI, and publisher Square Enix, debuted a nearly four-and-a-half-minute cinematic trailer for the Evercold expansion. In it, we see a grandmother telling her granddaughter the story of a world enshrouded in frost, frozen over until a man from the sky (whom she calls the Wanderer, but we know as the player-character Warrior of Light) came down to save the realm. It’s a gorgeously rendered trailer and shows the Warrior of Light as a Reaper, one of the jobs added to the game with 2021’s Endwalker expansion. We won’t spoil anything here, but using an Endwalker job is fitting given this is the start of the Godless Realms Saga.
Check all that out and more in the Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold expansion reveal trailer for yourself below:
Evercold will hit FFXIV in January of next year, though an exact date was not revealed. The expansion will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PC, or, in other words, everywhere the MMORPG is currently playable.
The main scenario of Evercold will be set on one of the universe’s reflections: The Fourth. There are plenty of ways to describe these reflections and you’ll see the community use words like pocket dimension, alternate reality, and localized world to do so. We’ll likely learn more about what an expansion taking place in The Fourth means for FFXIV as Square Enix reveals more about this expansion in the lead-up to launch.
After the reveal during the keynote, Square Enix revealed the MMORPG will receive “significant updates that suit the busy lifestyle of today’s players,” alongside a new Season system that will be implemented in the game as part of a change in FFXIV’s game design for Evercold. One season will be two patches (an even and an odd patch). For example, Dawntrail’s Patch 7.0 and Patch 7.1 make one season, while Patch 7.2 and Patch 7.3 make a second season. Evercold will also feature an expanded character customization toolset, giving players additional options to further customize their Warriors of Light.
Square Enix teased that it will be improving public fields and quests and evolving battles as part of what it calls “ever-evolving content,” but said we won’t learn more about these updates until future Fan Festivals.
Final Fantasy XIV: Evercold launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, and PC in January 2027.
Discovering a powerful (and profitable) new element on a faraway planet is a sci-fi staple that is especially prevalent in modern media, but Saros embraces this trope by making Lucenite’s home planet, Carcosa, the stuff of inescapable but wholly engaging nightmares. Protagonist Arjun fights to maintain his sanity, find a lost love, and stay alive (failing often) against an onslaught of lasers and monsters while the people around him descend into vague madness. All this while your AI-driven corporate overlords demand results. The premise is strong and surprisingly relatable in the modern landscape, while the action is dangerous, joyful, and demanding of your attention in a way few games can compete.
Tonally and sometimes directly inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ Lovecraft-adjacent short story collection, The King in Yellow (which I can confirm through experience is not required reading), Saros follows a collection of astronauts on a one-way trip to an alien planet that is, to be blunt, a no-good place. Arjun is a soldier among scientists there to save lives, but is perhaps selfishly focused on saving one in particular. The opaque nature of the story is sometimes unsatisfying, and though there are plenty of literal threats Arjun must dodge, counter, absorb, and defeat, the narrative is mainly focused on an existential danger. The result is that the cast feels mostly disposable, which is perhaps intentional, but I wanted to know more about them before their recorded monologues found throughout Carcosa descended into borderline incoherent ramblings about The Yellow Shore. The larger story leaves you with much to think about in a way I appreciate, and I eagerly continued the game after seeing credits to learn more, even if I wasn’t completely emotionally invested.
But frankly, even if the story was a complete dud, I would have struggled to put down Saros as its action is impeccable and challenging without ever bordering on the overwhelming. Saros is not a sequel to Housemarque’s excellent 2021 game, Returnal, but it does use its gameplay as the baseline and re-examines it to foster a more welcoming and rewarding system. The shield, which allows you to take in the energy of certain projectiles to power strong weapons, creates myriad worthwhile options in how you approach staying alive in the chaos.
Controlling Arjun is flawless. He leaps and dodges with precision that should make Mario take notes. Firing off all of Saros’ weapons feels powerful and exciting, though you will quickly gravitate towards a personal favorite (shout out to the Smart Rifle). The Power Weapons, which are managed with the shield, are completely satisfying and available when you need them most.
Outside of the action, another of Saros’ primary strengths is the Armor Matrix. Attempting runs is a familiar process for rogue genre fans in that you will quickly gain temporary strength as you explore and fight, but between attempts is a massive skill tree where you can drop your collected Lucenite and Halcyon for permanent upgrades. Plenty of rogue games offer permanent upgrades, but Saros is particularly satisfying as its upgrades offer worthwhile improvement choices that cater to specific playstyles. Even just one solid run unlocks dozens of upgrades at once. The process feels fast and less incremental making the good attempts feel even better and the abysmal failures not feel like wastes of time. Saros is a challenging game, but the Armor Matrix makes the whole experience much more approachable. If you are intimidated by the genre or were scared off by Returnal, know that Saros is much more welcoming.
The structure of Saros, which is much friendlier to shorter sessions and allows you to leave and pick up a run later, is also thoughtful in a way that makes it all feel much more doable in the face of challenge. At the expense of being less powerful (but still very strong), you can teleport to specific locations. I love this feature as it eliminates two of my primary ongoing personal frustrations with the genre: replaying the same areas over and over and refighting the same bosses. Of course, you can attempt runs from the starting line and fight the bosses again, and there are incentives for doing so, but I want the option to skip the bosses and areas I already beat in every rogue game. I am an impatient gamer, and Saros is okay with that.
Saros’ biggest shortcoming is that I was not as emotionally invested in its narrative and characters as I hoped to be. The plight of team Echelon IV did not move me, but I was fascinated by the abrasive world, the heartless Soltari corporation, and I was intentionally and successfully left wanting more from its engaging mysteries. I don’t share this sentiment for the gameplay, however. Moving, shooting, improving (both in stats and skill), winning, and even losing is an unequivocal joy, and I only wish I could write this final sentence faster so I can hurry up and get back to planet Carcosa and attempt another run.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Ubisoft’s worst-kept secret, has finally been revealed, and it’s hitting PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on July 9. You can read all kinds of new details about the from-the-ground-up remake in our coverage here, but if you’re planning to check out Black Flag Resynced on PC, we have the system specification details you need.
There will be four presets for Black Flag Resynced, according to Ubisoft: Minimum, Recommended, High, and Extreme. There will likely be a custom option to mix and match settings as you wish, but below we’ll break down the PC specifications you need for each of the aforementioned presets.
Here Are The PC Specs And Requirements For Black Flag Resynced
Below, we’ll list each preset and the required specs for them:
Minimum
Resolution/FPS (using dynamic resolution and upscaling): 1920x1080p at 30 FPS
