The PlayStation Network (PSN) is down. That means all of its online services, such as account management, the PlayStation Store, and gaming and social content, are unavailable to players, leaving only offline services in effect. PSN has been down for more than six hours, interrupting online gaming for many, including the highly anticipated open beta for Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, which was set to begin today.
With PSN down, PlayStation players are unable to check out the PlayStation 5 console-exclusive title. “We’re aware that some PlayStation players are experiencing login and network issues,” the Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls X account posted this morning. “Our team is actively investigating the problem and working to identify the cause. We’ll share updates as soon as we have information.”
While PSN being down is never great, the timing couldn’t be worse – PlayStation just earlier this month announced that it is ceasing production of physical discs for new games in January 2028. During PSN outages such as this, a physical disc often ensured players could at least access offline-playable content stored on the disc, while some digital games, even single-player ones, require an online check to play, leaving players unable to access those games when PSN is down. This move by PlayStation to end physical disc manufacturing is just another way the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S generation has been a race to the bottom.
Game Informer will update this story when PSN comes back online.
Over the past few years, video game adaptations have gone from “almost always bad” to “sometimes pretty good,” so it’s no surprise that more and more of gaming’s biggest (and oldest) companies are looking to turn their digital properties into box office hits. According to Deadline, the latest instance of this comes from Atari (partnering with production company Entertainment 360), which just signed a deal with Universal Pictures to adapt ten of its most iconic games into film adaptations. Those games are:
Asteroids
Adventure
Beserk
Breakout
Centipede
Crystal Castles
Millipede
Missile Command
Pong
Yars’ Revenge
The first screenplay will come from a duo of writers, Matt Reilly and Carl Hampe, both of whom will also produce said picture. Reilly reportedly penned a spec script that kicked off the whole Atari/Universal negotiation process. Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady, who will also be a producer on the film, said, “The best Atari games dropped you into a world and let your imagination do the rest. Carl and Matt saw an opportunity to take that same spirit and build an original, large-scale adventure around it. From the moment we read the screenplay, we believed there was a great movie here.”
Reilly is best known as a studio executive, working in leadership roles at Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox, though he was most recently the executive vice president at Universal. According to LinkedIn, Reilly is currently president of production and creative at The Arena, a film-producing division of SNK, which Game Informer readers will most likely recognize as the company behind games like Fatal Fury and King of Fighters. SNK has also been scrutinized in recent years due to its acquisition by the Saudi government-owned Electronic Gaming Development Company. Meanwhile, Hampe is better known as a producer and production supervisor, working on films like 2019’s Hellboy, Jungle Cruise, and most recently, 65. Neither Reilly nor Hampe seem to have prominent writing credits.
While Atari has been out of the console game for quite a while now, it’s still around in the modern scene, publishing games like Bubsy 4D and co-publishing Total Chaos. Atari is perhaps best known through its subsidiary, Digital Eclipse, which we recently learned would be releasing retro collections of classic Barbie and Toy Story games.
We’re just weeks away from the release of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, but developer Arc System Works intends to support the game well past launch, and they demonstrated that yesterday by revealing the game’s first DLC character. Phoenix Cyclops is the first character in the game’s upcoming wave 1 DLC, and you can check him out in action below.
“Phoenix Cyclops” isn’t exactly the name of a superhero, to be clear; this is an iteration of X-Men’s Cyclops being inhabited by the Phoenix force, a powerful, fiery cosmic entity, and a nod to the character’s appearance as a member of the Phoenix Five in the Avengers vs. X-Men comics. The character is voiced in English by Ray Chase, who also plays Cyclops in Marvel Rivals and X-Men ’97.
“In addition to powerful Optic Blasts and exceptional hand-to-hand combat abilities that define the character, this Cyclops also possesses the Phoenix Force, so expect Scott Summers to bring the heat!” Takeshi Yamanaka, producer of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, wrote on the PlayStation blog. “We’ll have more to share about how these abilities are incorporated into his gameplay, so please stay tuned for future updates on his fighting style.”
Phoenix Cyclops is the first of four characters in the Year One DLC pack, which will also include a new stage and a set of result screen character poses. The Year One DLC is also included in the game’s ultimate edition, which also includes alternate chromatic colored skins for each character, one skin each for Spider-Man, Storm, Iron Man, Captain America, and Doctor Doom, and cosmetics to be worm in the game’s explorable lobby.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer, and after playing it for a few hours, experiencing never-before-seen parts of it, it’s one of the more titillating releases on the horizon for me. It helps that it’s the first Onimusha game in 20 years, reviving a franchise that many others and I considered abandoned by publisher-developer Capcom. It also features one of Japan’s most celebrated samurai, Miyamoto Musashi, as the protagonist – a bold but exciting decision in a series with some beloved leads.
While using Musashi, a legendary samurai in Japanese history, seems like an obvious choice for an Onimusha game, Capcom chose the historical figure because of his life (and the stories about it) and how it could connect to Way of the Sword mechanically.
“In terms of picking Musashi for the story, obviously we wanted to have a samurai as the lead, and when we were thinking about famous samurai and the masters of the sword, Musashi’s name came up,” director Satoru Nihei tells me. “But looking more into his background and the elements of his real history, where he would use any means necessary to claim victory or use the environment around him, these are things we thought would feed in very nicely to the gameplay to introduce new elements into it. And then also, Musashi is a hero that wants to rise to the top on his own strengths, so him being paired with the gauntlet, this power that he doesn’t want, we thought it would provide an interesting contrast to the previous heroes we’ve had in our Onimusha series.”
While he isn’t using his famous dual-sword stance in Onimusha: Way of the Sword, as he’s portrayed in his 20s here and hadn’t yet developed that combat style, Musashi’s real-life stories are already evident in their inspiration for Capcom’s action game. Speaking to environmental “help,” we’ll call it, Musashi has no problem picking up a pallet of wood, for example, to use it as a shield for incoming arrows. And of course he’s going to kick it toward surrounding Genma to gain an upper hand – there’s no honor when fighting a demon, right? He can also kick large wagons into a cohort of enemies for a surprisingly damaging entrance.
There are explosive barrels I utilized when fighting Genma in Dokyo’s underground lab in Kyoto, and though all of this was just a taste of using what’s around me in combat, I can already imagine the other boons in each stage I’ll use to defeat enemies.
Dokyo
When I ask Nihei how Musashi compares to other heroes of the Onimusha series, it’s his reticence to use the Oni Gauntlet. Onimusha: Warlords’ Samanosuke uses his gauntlet to rescue a princess; Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny’s Jubei uses his newfound demon powers to stop Nobunaga (again) and get the girl; Musashi just wants to get the dang thing off his wrist. It’s why he kills demons using it – he suspects the only way forward is through (hordes of Genma). Ultimately, using the gauntlet gets in the way of his quest to be the best swordsman in Japan, with Nihei likening it to an athlete using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs – Musashi wants to prove he’s the best on his own merits alone.
Musashi is based on deceased Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune’s likeness; Mifune famously portrayed the samurai in director Horishi Inagaki’s 1950s Samurai Trilogy, which consists of Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954), Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955), and Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956). That tracks with the aforementioned Samanosuke and Jubei, with the former played by Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and the latter modeled after late actor Yūsaku Matsuda.
All this said, I’ll be diving deeper into Capcom’s iteration of Musashi, including how it went about using Mifune’s likeness, in upcoming stories. We’ll be publishing exclusive gameplay and behind-the-scenes videos (as well as a Rapid-Fire Interview) on the Game Informer YouTube channel too, so keep the Onimusha: Way of the Sword coverage hub bookmarked to ensure you don’t miss any of it.
In the meantime, here’s some additional Onimusha: Way of the Sword reading for you:
Star Wars Zero Company is a turn-based tactics game set in a galaxy far far away, and today, ahead of a July 25 panel at San Diego Comic Con, we got a rundown of the actors in the game’s voice cast. It includes returning favorites, like Dee Bradley Baker as a clone trooper and Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, reprising their respective roles from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but it also introduces plenty of new voices to the Star Wars universe. Here’s the full list:
Zero Company Operatives:
Captain Hawks: Jonathan Freeman (M) (Goliath, Children’s Hospital) / Erica Luttrell (F) (Star Wars: Squadrons, Steven Universe)
Trick: Dee Bradley Baker (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Kabb Uppercut: JB Blanc (Arcane)
Jae Mordant: Judy Alice Lee (Marvel Rivals, Hades II)
Cly Kullervo: Alex McKenna (Red Dead Redemption 2)
Luco Bronc: Jason Spisak (Arcane)
Other Cast Members And Cameos:
Bennic Halloren: Leo Howard (Kickin’ It)
Runa Blask: Vic Michaelis (Dropout, PONIES)
Neesh Renark: Jim Pirri (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2)
M-3VO, “Meevo”: DC Douglas (Mass Effect, Resident Evil 5)
Anakin Skywalker: Matt Lanter (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)
Gorga: Kevin Michael Richardson (The Super Mario Bros. Movie)
Fathom: Rekha Sharma (Star Trek: Discovery)
Typhon: Hunter Smith (Monster Hunter Wilds)
Visser: Dylan Kenin (Mayor of Kingstown)
It’s a pretty large cast with some fun pre-existing connections. For fans of Arcane, the animated adaptation of League of Legends, the cast includes the actors for both Silco and Vander (Jason Spisak and JB Blanc, respectively), two of the show’s earliest rivals. The cast also includes video game actors like Jim Pirri, who played Kraven in Spider-Man 2, Judy Alice Lee, who played Melinoë in Hades II, Alex McKenna, who played Sadie Adler in Red Dead Redemption 2, and DC Douglas, who plays Albert Wesker in the Resident Evil series. (Speaking of which, a new trailer for the movie came out today!)
If you’re my age, you’re especially delighted to see Disney’s Leo Howard, who previously had a role starring in the Disney XD sitcom Kickin’ It, and Vic Michaelis, star of Dropout shows like Very Important People.
“In Star Wars Zero Company, former Republic officer Hawks gathers unconventional allies and forms a diverse squad that operates in the shadows of the Clone Wars,” the cast reveal article on starwars.com reads. “Work alongside ranks of recruits from across the galaxy, known as Operators, as you race against time to hunt Kundri Fathom, the dangerous leader of the Infinite Coil, a Separatist-aligned cult.”
Star Wars Zero Company launches on August 27, a little over a month from today, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s being developed by Bit Reactor, a development studio founded by people who formerly worked on the XCOM series, and so far, it looks pretty good.
Halo: Combat Evolved is a foundational game whose influence and reach are hard to encompass. 25 years ago, that game established an array of mechanics, control systems, story tropes, and gameplay flow that rippled outward across the genre and beyond. In crafting a rebuild, Halo Studios opted to strip out the competitive multiplayer that helped establish part of that reputation, which is a real shame. Even so, Halo: Campaign Evolved does a phenomenal job of capturing what made the 2001 original so much fun while updating certain elements to better suit modern sensibilities. The core game shows its age in some notable ways, but there’s no mistaking the magic that made this formula work all those years ago is still very much intact.
Behind the wall of clever sci-fi world-building, Halo’s triumph has always been its insistent fun at all times, sometimes at the cost of perfect balance or sense. Brightly colored weapon flashes trigger chains of plasma grenade explosions. Warthog vehicles careen over cliffs in improbable arcs. Rocket launchers appear in your path at suspiciously opportune moments for maximum destruction. Enemy grunts are almost gleefully eager to charge into your shooting gallery line-of-fire. The action is constant, the set-piece moments and cinematics are bombastic, and the power fantasy never relents. Halo Studios manages to capture that persistent exuberance, and it’s the highest compliment I can offer for this remake.
I’m also a fan of the selective efforts to update gameplay to contemporary expectations, including the integration of features like sprinting, equipment, and additional aiming options that didn’t come until later installments. Enemies are more dynamic in their actions, especially as they reveal more nuanced and distinct behaviors on higher difficulty levels. Four-player online cooperative play joins the original fun of two-player local. Either way is ideal for sharing the experience with friends.
On the gameplay side, the tough choice not to go further in rebuilding the game keeps the campaign’s original flow mostly intact. It must be said, though, that it includes a degree of repetition, backtracking, and narrow-corridor navigation that feels at odds with modern shooters. While it’s no doubt a product of its time, that limitation might help the game feel true to its source material if it didn’t make it feel dated and frustrating to navigate today. I also appreciate the efforts put into offering customization of weapons and armor, and the huge number of unlockable skulls that let you tweak your play experience, including a remix option that offers major changes, like new enemy and weapon placements – a significant bonus to replayability.
The original Halo presented an alluring and mysterious setting that combined alien ruins with Pacific Northwest-inspired natural grandeur, but the level of detail back then simply hadn’t yet caught up with the imagination. That’s resolved here, with a gorgeous visual update that makes the whole campaign pop with excitement. Unfortunately, I encountered several instances of framerate chugging and stuttering when the screen got especially crowded, even if the game otherwise ran smoothly throughout my playthroughs. The remastered audio is stellar, featuring excellently re-recorded dialogue and scoring of all those memorable musical tracks.
For those who, like myself, find some aspects of the campaign to be feeling their age, the three new bonus missions are a welcome addition. This standalone story, set before the events of the main game, gives us more time with fan-favorite Sergeant Johnson, as well as some of the weapons and enemies that came along later in the series. I enjoy the new location aboard a unique Covenant ship, especially the expansive concluding event, though the scope of these three missions feels less impactful overall compared to many Halo adventures over the years.
Master Chief and Cortana’s journey across the ringworld of Halo was an integral experience in my gaming life, and I’m certainly not the only one. Campaign Evolved is a superb update and rebuild of what made the original great, but it stops short of a complete restructuring of that landmark game. Even constrained by some of the features that defined the 2001 classic, this new version nails the roiling current of chaos that made it so fun all those years ago.
Resident Evil, a movie adaptation of the massively successful video game franchise directed by Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian), comes to theaters on September 18, and today, Sony Pictures Entertainment put out its first full-length trailer. You can watch it for yourself below.
While earlier teasers introduced the protagonist and the general vibe of the world, this trailer gave us our first look at the plot and some supporting cast members. Bryan, played by Austin Abrams (who you might recognize from Weapons or Euphoria), transports transplant organs for a living. The reason he’s out at night in the snow is because he’s bringing some kind of extra special package to Raccoon City, which we happen to know from series lore is about to get absolutely devastated by a zombie outbreak.
The trailer includes a few nods to the game series, including the way Abrams scrounges for ammo (which is the brand from the games) and a mysterious typewriter in the house he visits, but it’s otherwise a completely original story so far.
The movie also stars Zach Cherry (Succession), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), and Paul Walter Houser (The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Inside Out 2) as scientists working for Umbrella, the Resident Evil universe’s corrupt research corporation, though this trailer only gives us a glimpse at Houser’s character Carl.
Poinpy is free, now. There’s nothing holding them back.
For the unfamiliar, Poinpy is a mobile platforming game developed by Moppin, also known as Ojiro Fumoto, the creator of Downwell. Poinpy, the titular green blob, has to climb the screen with a limited number of bouncy jumps, collecting ingredients for juice to satisfy the hungry beast pursuing them. It was originally exclusive to Netflix’s game subscription, but left the service last summer. Now, it’s been re-released for free on iOS and Android devices.
Fun fact: Poinpy’s soundtrack was composed by Calum Bowen, who recently did the sound design for The Mermaid Mask, a mystery game I’d highly recommend. Poinpy’s creator was also one of the developers behind UFO 50, and directed Seaside Drive.
There has been a giant SSX Tricky-sized hole in my life for many, many years now, which is why I became immediately interested in developer byteparrot’s Carveout 2160, which I saw a post about on Bluesky this morning. It’s an extreme-action snowboarding game set in Space and is “inspired by SSX, with tricks, combos, and boost.”
After watching the trailer, I’d take it a step further and say it must be specifically inspired by 2001’s SSX Tricky. From the fantastical tracks filled with exuberant neon, half pipes, rails to grind, ramps, and more, to the way each snowboarder performs tricks, Carveout 2160 might be the snowboarding game that finally fills the aforementioned SSX Tricky void. There’s no release date for it yet, but you can wishlist the game on Steam right now.
Check out the Carveout 2160 trailer below to see what I’m talking about:
“Carveout 2160 is a snowboarding game centered around the most dangerous competition in the universe, because this tournament is not on Earth,” the game’s description on Steam reads. “Land risky stunts to earn boost, use it to burst into shortcuts or wipeout the competition and rocket yourself around the planets and onto the podium.”
The game’s Steam page highlights arcade snowboarding mechanics, including tricks, combo systems, and rail sliding. Plus, you can utilize earned boosts to take down opponents and break barriers. Players can also use gadgets like a grappling hook or rocket thrusters to get first place.
When Carveout 2160 launches, it will feature splitscreen multiplayer for up to four players and online multiplayer for up to eight.
What’s your favorite snowboarding game? Let us know in the comments below!
More specifically, it reveals that the X-Men don’t exist yet.
“Marvel’s Wolverine, which will release on PlayStation 5 consoles this Sep. 15, is set in a world where the X-Men don’t yet exist,” the article reads. “While humanity knows about superheroes like Spider-Man (hence, the events of the previous games), mutants are still largely living in the shadows.
“Those that do know of them, either fear them or see them as subjects for extermination. Wolverine works for Team X, a black-ops group (inspired by the team from the comics) fighting for mutant survival.”
Based on what we’ve seen in the trailers, this makes sense – Wolverine is generally acting alone, and while he’s familiar with other mutants, we’ve yet to see anyone with a matching yellow suit. Even Jean Grey, who appears in the Summer State of Play footage, wears blue and black, and her relationship with Logan is pretty vague. Still, it’s a bit disappointing for folks who have wanted to see a narrative-driven game featuring the X-Men team, but hopefully this paves the road for Xavier’s Academy in the future.
As for Team X, the team Wolverine is a part of in the game, it’s not clear exactly who’s on the roster. Sabretooth, Omega Red, Lady Deathstrike, and Mystique have all been members in various adaptations of the group, and they’re all confirmed to be in the game, but Wolverine also seems to be battling each of them at some point or another, so either he has a falling out with his teammates (very likely), or they’re enemies of Team X (also likely).
Aside from that detail, the interview largely focuses on Insomniac’s take on Wolverine as a character, as well as actor Liam McIntyre’s performance. McIntyre tells EW that he watched footage of rabid dogs to get in touch with Wolverine’s feral side, a level of commitment his collaborators called “terrifying.”
“I guess that’s good, right? Being terrifying,” McIntyre told EW. “But, suddenly, I was like, ‘I’m really scared to go all out with this,’ but they’re such a good team that you feel safe. They will help me if it’s not gonna work. They will tell me. They won’t just let it happen. So I got to take some really huge swings with my character as a result of being able to trust them so much.” Later in the piece, animation director Brian Wyser says that trust makes the final product “look good.”
