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Oct 8Thu
  1. IGN34

    From Minecraft Survival Games to Fortnite: How Live-Service Turned Games Into a Battle Royale for the Top Spot

    IGN traces the history of live-service games, noting the battle royale market was valued at $11.2 billion last year and is expected to reach nearly $30 billion by 2035. Norwegian YouTuber Dennis Vaeride is credited with launching the first Minecraft Survival Games server in April 2012, while Brendan Greene's shrinking-circle concept led to PUBG's Steam Early Access launch in March 2017 and Fortnite's free-to-play battle royale mode later that year. Ex-BioWare producer Mark Darrah says you have to believe you can dethrone one of the top two players in the genre, or you shouldn't be doing it.

  2. IGN36

    Live-Service Games Keep Getting Cancelled — Is This the Beginning of the End?

    15 of the 19 major live-service games launched in 2025 had lost over 80% of their initial playerbase by the end of January this year. PlayStation has halted or cancelled over a dozen live-service games in the last decade, and Naughty Dog cancelled The Last of Us Online. Veteran developers say enough cancellations and shutdowns have created a trust issue among players.

  3. PC Gamer27

    Red Echoes preview: a political sim set in Germany at the end of World War 1

    Red Echoes is a political sim set in Germany at the end of World War 1, where the demo has you move three characters—a dockworker, a journalist, and a mother—around a board to use their abilities, while visual novel choices shift revolutionary fervour and reactionary zealotry. Its map uses Weimar-era graphic design, and the full game is expected to release early next year with a playtime of three or four hours.

  4. Rock Paper Shotgun22

    Hellraiser: Revival's 'Real-Life' Bondage Club Makes the Rest of the Game Feel Embarrassing

    Hellraiser: Revival, developed by Saber Interactive, casts players as Aidan as he descends into Cenobite dungeons and the Scarlet Church cult after losing his girlfriend Sunny. An early "everyday" S&M club, complete with safe-sex signs, a recovery room, and chatting NPCs, highlights the absurdity of the game's bloodier torture and sexual themes. The author finds the club scene more restrained than the rest of Revival, making its violent gameplay feel embarrassing by comparison.

  6. Eurogamer22

    Star Wars: Galactic Racer Was Prototyped as a Board Game Covered in Post-It Notes

    Fuse Games CEO Matt Webster and creative director Kieran Crimmin said Star Wars: Galactic Racer was prototyped using a board game covered in Post-It notes, which the team used to map out upgrades and meta progression systems. Crimmin said the team picks whichever prototyping tool validates the intended emotion and game-feel fastest, then gets it into players' hands. Eurogamer previously gave the racing game five stars.

  7. PC Gamer42

    Spiritfarer Dev's Next Game, At Fate's End, Is One of the Prettiest Things I've Ever Seen

    Thunder Lotus, the studio behind Spiritfarer, is developing At Fate's End, a hybrid of visual novel and action adventure starring protagonist Shan Hemlock, who is named Princess of Swords and must gather her family's blades with her god sword Aesus. The game features a hand-drawn storybook style, an equippable card system where each card has a reverse side, and combat based on positioning and Arcana energy. At Fate's End is planned to release sometime in 2027.

  8. Kotaku40

    After Playing Final Fantasy VII Revelation, I'm Convinced Square Saved Some Of The Best Stuff For Last

    A demo of Final Fantasy VII Revelation shows Cid Highwind and Vincent Valentine as playable characters for the first time in the Remake trilogy, with Cid's mobile Dragoon spearplay and Vincent's Galian Beast transformation standing out. The game adds a FITS system that equips job-based abilities on any character, letting Cloud summon Shiva and Titan as a Summoner. The author found Cid and Vincent more engaging than the previous roster but worries mini-game bloat could get in the way.

  9. IGN37

    Hellraiser: Revival Review

    IGN reviews Hellraiser: Revival, a survival horror adventure in which Aiden makes a pact with Pinhead to slaughter members of a local death cult and feed their hearts to his murdered girlfriend's remains. Its roughly nine-hour campaign borrows heavily from the Resident Evil series in weapons and inventory, but drawn-out exposition, repeated chase sequences, and flat boss fights hold it back. Doug Bradley returns to voice Pinhead.

  11. Game Informer41

    Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival Review – An Angel To Few, A Buggy Demon To Many

    Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival delivers the franchise's signature gore and darkness but is undermined by a slew of bugs and technical problems. The roughly 10-hour first-person survival horror game suffers from weightless combat, a broken resource economy, and enemies that frequently get stuck in geometry. Doug Bradley returns as Pinhead in a story about Aiden Lynch rescuing his girlfriend Sunny from the Labyrinth.

  13. Push Square42

    Review: Hellraiser: Revival (PS5) - Faithful Adaptation Let Down by Severe Gameplay Woes

    Push Square's review says Hellraiser: Revival is a faithful adaptation of Clive Barker's horror series, with brutal gore and recreations of film elements, but its gameplay is a frustrating mixed bag. The roughly eight-hour campaign suffers from a severe lack of resources, leaving players short on ammo and health packs, while melee weapons have limited durability and repairs only partially fix them. Boss fights are among the most frustratingly designed, and even in performance mode on PS5 and PS5 Pro there are frame rate dips when transitioning between areas.

  14. GameSpot62

    Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival Review: The Best Entry in the Franchise Since the Original Film

    GameSpot's review calls Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival the best entry in the franchise since the original film. The first-person horror-action survival game runs about 10 hours and stumbles through an identity crisis early on before becoming a beast of its own. Set 20 years after the first movie, it follows Aidan Lynch and his girlfriend Sunny, and no prior knowledge of the franchise is required.

  16. Reddit · r/Games62

    Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival Review Roundup: OpenCritic Average 75 Across 37 Reviews

    Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival launched on October 8, 2026 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC, developed by Saber Interactive. OpenCritic lists 37 reviews with a 75 average and 65% recommendation rate. Critics praise the atmosphere, Labyrinth sequences, and Doug Bradley's return as Pinhead, while faulting combat, enemy AI, and some level design; one review notes progression-blocking bugs on Nintendo Switch 2.

  17. Kotaku60

    Hellraiser: Revival review: caught between copying Resident Evil Village and honoring the source

    Kotaku reviewed Hellraiser: Revival, a first-person horror survival game from Saber Interactive that continues the setting of Clive Barker's Hellbound Heart, released October 8, 2026 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. After 17 hours through the credits, the reviewer found the early gunplay unsatisfying with little stagger or feedback, and the structure closely imitating Resident Evil Village. The game improves once Aidan gains Cenobite abilities and enters the Labyrinth, though the reviewer says its biggest flaw is chaining itself to imitating more popular games.

  18. Eurogamer22

    Star Wars: Galactic Racer devs on how they bottled Burnout's magic "game feel"

    The developers of Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Fuse Games spoke to Eurogamer about how they captured the "game feel" of the Burnout games. CEO Matt Webster said game feel is central to their work and that they invest enormous time, effort and money into the quality of interactions. Creative director Kieran Crimmins described the vehicle-building system as a "player story generator" aimed at creating moments of emotion.

  19. Eurogamer44

    Hellraiser: Revival review

    Saber Interactive's Hellraiser: Revival is an FPS adaptation of Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart, following protagonist Aiden as he fights through an extreme BDSM cult to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from Hell. Its combat leans on scarce ammo, breakable weapons, and a puzzle box that doubles as a gravity gun, though the narrative is messy and unevenly paced. Still, the game shows an earnest love for its source material.

  22. Reddit · r/Games17

    Ace Combat 8 Has Been Out for a Week — What Are Your Thoughts?

    Ace Combat 8 has now been officially out for a week, and a Reddit user is asking for others' thoughts on it. The poster rates it 10/10, calling it their favorite in the series and praising its story, characters, and soundtrack, which they have listened to in full about 10 times in the past week. They say it might genuinely be worthy of Game of the Year at TGA.

  24. 游研社33

    No One Else Makes Tactical RPGs Like Fire Emblem: Wanlv Qianxi

    Fire Emblem: Wanlv Qianxi got its first 120-hour completion record on How Long to Beat 11 days after release, with the other seven records close behind and only one player finishing in 74 hours by skipping the war chapter. The game splits its story across four routes, each with a roughly two-hour prologue plus Part 1 and the Part 2 "War Chapter," requiring players to finish all four to see the whole narrative. Between battles it adds life-sim activities such as dining, training, recruiting, node-based world map exploration, and mount raising.

  28. Game Informer60

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades Preview: The Best Way to Experience One of Vanillaware's Best

    Vanillaware is teaming up with publisher Marvelous to bring the full history of Muramasa: The Demon Blade to modern consoles as Muramasa: Revenant Blades, a 4K remaster combining Muramasa Rebirth and its Genroku Legends DLC. The author played roughly an hour at a Marvelous office in Tokyo's Shinagawa district, clearing the first two acts on Moral difficulty and facing bosses Kurozaru and giant centipedes. The remaster is fully redrawn by Vanillaware's artists and promises over 100 swords to forge, dozens of skills to upgrade, and five more stories with new localization and English voiceover.

  30. Gematsu58

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades one-hour hands-on preview: weapon durability and branching maps

    A Gematsu writer spent one hour with Vanillaware's side-scrolling action RPG remaster Muramasa: Revenant Blades at Marvelous' Shinagawa headquarters, where the demo limited players to Kisuke or Momohime while the full game will have six playable characters. Combat felt fluid with dashing, dodging, jumping, and ground and mid-air combos, and each weapon has its own special move; weapons lose durability and deal less damage as they degrade, forcing swaps the author found more distracting than engaging. Later areas open into Metroidvania-style branching paths across villages, caves, and beaches. The game is due out for PS5, Switch 2, Switch, and PC via Steam on February 4, 2027.

  31. Nintendo Life55

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades preview: Vanillaware's gem remastered for Switch

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades arrives on Switch 1 and Switch 2 on 4th February 2027, combining the 2013 PS Vita version Muramasa Rebirth with the Genroku Legends DLC so all six stories are available at launch. The author spent an hour with a PC build at publisher Marvelous' Tokyo headquarters, playing as the possessed noblewoman Momohime through branching paths, three-weapon durability management, samurai blocks and ninja deflections, and the first Blue Monk boss. The remaster keeps the original visuals in HD, adds new English voice acting, and offers a skill tree with three ground and three airborne slots.

  33. PC Gamer62

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades on PC hands-on: a skill system for 108 swords and fixed enemy levels

    Muramasa: Revenant Blades is Vanillaware's first PC release, 17 years after the game launched on Nintendo Wii as Muramasa: The Demon Blade. The PC version adds a skill system for all 108 swords, letting players equip three blades at once with three ground and three air skills each, and skills can be moved to another sword only after it has drawn blood. Enemies no longer scale with the player and instead have fixed levels per area, while higher difficulties add more and tougher foes and blocking wears down your sword until it breaks.

  35. IGN62

    Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Review

    IGN's review says Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen matches the ambition and world design of the first expansion but is less transformative, since many of Dragon's Dogma 2's biggest issues were addressed through incremental patching after its 2024 release. The roughly 20-hour main quest follows rumors of another Arisen and sends players to the frozen Norgan region. The review notes Norgan is smaller than most regions but dense with verticality, and adds Spoils gear, obelisks for learning new skills, and 12 repeatable Lost Rites dungeons across Vermund and Bathall.

  37. Reddit · r/Games72

    Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen review roundup: 86 average on OpenCritic, 90% recommended

    The Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen review roundup shows an 86 average and 90% recommended across 20 reviews on OpenCritic. The expansion launches October 8 on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, and October 9 on Nintendo Switch 2, adding the Norgan region, a new loot system, and extra skill slots. Several outlets note improved technical performance, while others say it leaves the base game's core shortcomings in place.

  38. Push Square71

    Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen PS5 Review: A Meatier Expansion

    Push Square's review calls Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen a large expansion, with its main story and numerous side quests taking around 50 hours before a full endgame. It takes place in the new northern region of Norgan, where players need thermal armour and items like Heatstones against the cold, and set up increasingly northern base camps as the story progresses. Loot is randomised, with spoils appraised back at a southern hub, while the new Lost Rites dungeons scattered across the base game's map vary in quality and length.

  39. Nintendo Life65

    Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen (Switch 2) Review: An Action RPG Great Returns In Fine Form

    A review of Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen finds the release marks the series' Nintendo debut and bundles the summer's updates with a new expansion. The new region of Norgan is an icy waste with snowy versions of existing foes and 12 Lost Rites dungeons, suggested for level 20, some with special restrictions. The Switch 2 version performs far better than at launch but still has longer loading times, occasional frame rate dips and a visual downgrade compared with PS5 Pro, with FSR 3 Frame Generation, a 30fps lock and a variable frame rate option in the settings.

  40. Kotaku76

    Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen Review: The Norgan Tundra and 12 New Dungeons

    Kotaku's review calls Norgan, a snowy region north of the original map, the centerpiece of Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, with one settlement, buried ruins, and environmental hazards like cracking ice and blizzards. The expansion also adds 12 new dungeons to the existing world, which the reviewer found unremarkable on a New Game+ character around level 70 but likely fine for first-time players. Most monsters are variants of base-game foes, such as ice-casting saurians and yeti-like ogres, alongside a few new bosses; the reviewer says the DLC does not dramatically change the game but stays true to it.

    Why this: Based on roughly 20 hours with the expansion, the reviewer weighs the Norgan region, 12 new dungeons, and monster variants to help readers judge whether the DLC is worth returning for.