Star Wars: Galactic Racer is out and scored a firm 76 in PC Gamer's review, packed with funny little guys—none funnier than Biddy Blas. Lucasfilm Games executive producer Craig Derrick noted on X that the algorithm continues to properly prioritize Mister Biddy Blas. Blas is a Crocin, a species that previously appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone said in a GQ interview that his upcoming game Haunted Chocolatier is "more of an action RPG" than a farming sim, focused on adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful, with monsters and boss fights. He described it as a more "metaphysical" experience and said it's for "the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines." There is still no release date, with Barone saying no one is playing the game until he's ready to show it.
Shogun 2: Complete Edition launches on Steam on October 13, with existing owners getting all legacy faction DLC for free and a month-long 75% discount at launch. The author argues the remaster's 50 new minor factions lack unique bonuses, its trade system doesn't account for single-region island factions, and additions like the bird's eye battle view and diplomatic quick deal go unused, while old issues such as unit merging, siege pathfinding, and naval AI remain unfixed. Shogun 2 still plays well and is worth recommending, but the author believes it deserved a more extensive reworking.
Radiance, the fifth set of the League of Legends TCG Riftbound and its final set of the year, introduces the Disarm, Show Off, and Deploy mechanics. Executive producer Chengran Chai said in a joint interview that Deploy will likely disrupt the meta by changing how players think about defending. The author went hands-on with the set at a Pre-Rift tournament, where a player kit typically costs $35 USD and includes a promo card, five booster packs, and a 15-card seeded deck.
Fuse Games prototyped Star Wars Galactic Racer's roguelite progression system as a board game to validate how it feels. The system hands out tuning points for one of three random stats and parts that affect a speeder's abilities or grant status-effect bonuses, with credits spent after several races on upgrades, parts, or a new ability. Creative director Kieran Crimmins said a board game was the fastest tool for validating the emotion behind upgrades and meta progression.
Star Wars Galactic Racer's devs tested it by turning it into a board game https://www.pcgamer.com/games/racing/star-wars-galactic-racers-devs-tested-its-roguelite-progression-system-by-turning-it-into-a-board-game/
The Order of the Falling Star, developed by Jonathan Blow, launched on October 9 for Steam, PS5, and Switch 2, reaching 97% positive reviews on Steam but a peak of only just over 6,300 concurrent players. The game took ten years and roughly 200 million yuan to make, and its best PS5 bestseller chart placement was 40th in North America. It offers four parallel worlds and about 500 hours of content with no difficulty options, and the official Chinese voice-over is confirmed to arrive about a month after launch.
Seamless Landing mod looks set to bring Starfield another step closer to No Man's Sky https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/seamless-landing-mod-looks-set-to-bring-starfield-another-step-closer-to-no-mans-sky/
Frederik Wessberg's work-in-progress Seamless Landing mod for Starfield lets players descend from orbit and land anywhere, including on water, without picking a landing spot or watching a loading screen. It replaces the game's floating planet textures with 3D rendering based on Starfield's biome and surface data, using clouds only to mask the final cell switch. The finished mod will be freely available on Nexus Mods, with manual low-orbit flight or autopilot that lets you walk around the ship during descent.
Bumper Bout is a two-player competitive pinball game that was featured as the final game of the Omegathon at PAX Australia. Players compete on split halves of the screen and can flick balls across the divide to harass their opponent, with bumper hits earning attack balls that unlock character ultimates when four are stored. The game will launch on October 29 with singleplayer arcade and survival modes planned, plus online multiplayer in the final version, and a demo is available on Steam.
For the first time in the series, Grand Theft Auto 6 lets you use headphones to listen to radio stations and podcasts https://bit.ly/4AUMUtr
Escape from EloHello has me reliving my worst online PvP nightmares in roguelike-form https://www.pcgamer.com/games/roguelike/escape-from-elohello-has-me-reliving-my-worst-online-pvp-nightmares-in-roguelike-form/
Star Wars: Galactic Racer devs on how they bottled Burnout's magic 'game feel'. https://bit.ly/4yasTwv
Escape from EloHello is a strategy roguelike in which players collect MMR while climbing from Iron 4 to Challenger, rank 1, within 60 matches before the season resets. MMR can only be gained by winning matches, and players must gamble on their ability to win to earn long-term effects. In the writer's first season, 48 wins and 12 losses only reached Bronze 3; a second run climbed to Silver 1 before falling back to Bronze 3.
This Control-inspired action game set in a 'planet-scale alien mind' looks absolutely stunning https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/this-control-inspired-action-game-set-in-a-planet-scale-alien-mind-has-one-of-the-most-stunning-art-styles-ive-seen-this-year/
LA-based Studio Lifeforms has revealed Etre, a narrative-driven action game set on Orbis, described as a "planet-scale alien mind on the brink of awakening," where you play as Xyle searching for his soulmate Atel. Its visuals draw on '70s and '80s graphic novels, while its semi-open exploration and movement-based combat cite Remedy's Control as the primary influence. No release date has been announced, though the game has a Steam page.
A Pure Xbox editor reflects on a year of daily use with the ROG Xbox Ally X, saying the hardware still feels great with no obvious wear on buttons, sticks or triggers, aside from a d-pad issue that resolved itself. He now uses it mostly in docked mode as a Windows PC, prefers Xbox Series X for AAA titles and the handheld for AA and indie games. Software has improved over the past year, but he says it still requires some tinkering like any Windows PC.
Deadlock's City Never Sleeps update makes Valve's MOBA my favorite videogame setting in years
Valve's Deadlock has received the City Never Sleeps update, which reworks the entire map, adds new neutral monsters, and gives the lanes and mid-map districts new looks. The update also introduces new heroes including Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, and Baba, plus many new conversations and voice lines for the existing cast. The author, who has put in 350 hours, calls the reworked Cursed Apple one of his favorite game settings in years.
Krafton's Wisconsin studio PUBG Madison is developing PUBG Ded.Net, a third-person battle royale shooter in which players are contestants in an ultra-violent gameshow. Its twist is a pick-three-style roguelite system that carries across consecutive matches, where upgrades and injuries from one game affect the next. Creative director Dave Curd says chasing that power-up fantasy is meant to take the edge off losing.
Valve's upcoming Deadlock added the chess grandmaster hero Solomon in its recent "City Never Sleeps" update, alongside five other heroes. Each time Solomon reloads, the pieces on his board rearrange into a layout based on his remaining ammo count, with every position taken from an actual historical game. Fans have picked up on the detail, which references matches including the 1851 "Immortal Game" and Deep Blue's 1996 win over Garry Kasparov.
Sword Sage: Awakening feels like a breezier kind of Soulslike, and it's not just the adorable tea-serving panda that's got me intrigued. https://bit.ly/4y3y5SP
Nivalis Nights lead writer Thomas Welsh says the game has no player death, shooting or boss fights, but that doesn't mean it's a cosy game. He says life in its cyberpunk world shouldn't be relaxing at first, and players will have to earn a cosy existence in the city. Welsh also said the dating mechanics are meant to be messy, so players never quite know why a romance didn't work out.
Digital Foundry has analysed the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, calling it a generational shift in visuals. It says players will need optimised settings, and the piece offers those settings.
Final Fantasy Resonance feels so good to play because Square Enix 'experimented' with combining the best bits of FF5 and FF6. https://bit.ly/3VjMpZV
Medium Rare, a Resident Evil-inspired dungeon crawler RPG about rescuing your wife from a human meat factory, uses real stock photos run through Photoshop and dithered into crunchy, pixel-art-adjacent assets. Combat places enemies on a three by three grid where distance affects damage, with dice rolls and weapon choice determining survival, plus tile-based inventory management and infected enemies hunting you down. A demo is available on Steam, with release set for 2027.
WoW: Forever, by casting off convenience, has horseshoed back around to being casual friendly again https://www.pcgamer.com/games/world-of-warcraft/wow-forever-by-casting-off-modern-convenience-has-horseshoed-back-around-to-being-casual-friendly-again/
A PC Gamer MMO column argues that World of Warcraft: Forever, by casting off modern conveniences, has become casual friendly again. The author, who has a 9-5 job and doesn't consider himself a hardcore WoW player, says leveling in Forever is chill, built around 40-minute adventures that don't change if you come back a month later. By contrast, retail's seasonal structure demands intense play and resets much of your progress at season's end, often pushing casual players away.
Nintendo is releasing its Ocarina of Time remake in November, making it the only publisher bold enough to bring a major new release to retail in the same month as Grand Theft Auto 6. A Saturday Night Live sketch framed the two games as a gaming Barbenheimer, though their release dates are actually two weeks apart and the Ocarina remake is a dramatically smaller production. If the culture-clash event catches on, Ocarina of Time could ride GTA 6's slipstream to wider awareness.
The Lost Art Museum -Eirei Shūshūroku-, an adventure game published by Happynet, offered a prologue demo at TGS2026 in which players take the role of Vince, who wanders into a museum world and restores the lost memories of "Eirei" born from famous paintings. Producer and planning lead Honoka Ohara said the game's theme is passing down memory through paintings, aiming to bring more people closer to art rather than simply teaching art history. Each chapter focuses on one Eirei, while the reason they lost their memories and whether Vince can return to his own world form an overarching mystery.
Nivalis Nights is a cyberpunk shop and life sim whose Steam user tags include relaxing, but lead writer Thomas Welsh says a cozy existence in the city has to be earned. The volume of quests and story content can feel overwhelming at times.
Developer Mike Lacher's Triple-A Minesweeper spoofs excessive handholding in blockbuster games with unskippable title cards, yellow diamond markers showing where to click, and a Sweeper who constantly vocalises his thoughts. Hitting a mine doesn't kill you—the Sweeper just exclaims "Oof, a mine!" and the game continues. It takes about five minutes to play.
Nivalis Nights : 'If you want a cozy existence in this city, you're going to have to earn it' https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/be-warned-nivalis-nights-may-not-be-the-cozy-game-you-expect-if-you-want-a-cozy-existence-in-this-city-youre-going-to-have-to-earn-it/
Triple-A Minesweeper is a gleeful send-up of blockbuster gaming's worst habits https://www.pcgamer.com/games/puzzle/triple-a-minesweeper-is-a-gleeful-send-up-of-blockbuster-gamings-worst-habits-from-yellow-paint-to-characters-who-talk-too-much/
Aspyr has brought Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Game of the Year Edition to Switch 2, sold separately or bundled with its sequel as the Middle-earth: Shadow Bundle. The Game of the Year version includes all previously available DLC, including the Bright Lord campaign, but the game remains locked to 30fps and a max resolution of 1080p in both handheld and docked modes. The Nemesis system still stands out, giving procedurally generated Orc and Uruk-hai Captains unique names, appearances and rivalries that make each playthrough feel different.
The author played part of Sonic Racing CrossWorlds Season 2 at TGS2026. The Evangelion crossover adds Rei Ayanami and Asuka as racers, Unit-00, Unit-01 and Unit-02 as speed-type cars, and a new Third New Tokyo City track where Unit-01 appears and Ramiel fires beams at players. The Godzilla crossover turns Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah into cars and adds an Escape from Godzilla track based on a Sonic Adventure city route, where Godzilla's destruction and atomic breath affect the race. The demo also includes Bayonetta, Aigis from Persona 3 Reload, a McLaren collaboration car and Super Shadow.
Heathen is an upcoming indie first-person dungeon crawler from solo developer Christoper Yabsley, set in the fantasy town of Saltgrave. Its latest trailer reveals a new enemy dismemberment system that lets players chop off a monster's head, kick it midair, and kill another monster with it. The game will support online co-op when it launches into early access, with no release date announced yet.
This indie first-person ARPG will let you defeat monsters by kicking severed enemy heads at them https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/if-youre-skilful-enough-you-can-chop-the-head-off-a-monster-kick-it-midair-and-then-kill-another-monster-with-it-consider-me-sold-on-this-indie-first-person-arpg/
Eurogamer's regular What We've Been Playing column returns with editors Dom and Bertie sharing their current games. Dom is back in Gears of War: E-Day on Xbox Series X, praising the Horde Siege mode's open-ended maps and cross-squad interplay as "pure video game popcorn movie stuff." Bertie is stretching out The Blood of Dawnwalker on PS5, reloading a save to explore more of the world and making a deal with the vampire Xanthe before Brencis' coronation.
"Elite Legion," a tactics card mini game published by Nanjing Yuanrong Network, has stayed within the WeChat mini game best-selling chart's Top 20 since launching during National Day, peaking in the top ten. The game features a Red Alert theme with tactics card PvP and human-vs-AI combat, and monetizes through in-app purchases and rewarded video ads.