Kotaku reviewed Valor Mortis, a first-person Soulslike from developer One More Level, launching October 13 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The review praises its unsettling atmosphere and creature designs but finds its combat, platforming, and other mechanics stretched thin. The author estimates 12 to 15 hours to reach the credits.
WW2 real-time strategy game Battleplan launches on Steam today, with orders issued by drawing on a large pseudo-paper map based on geographical survey data while thousands of troops, tanks, planes and artillery try to turn those doodles into conquered territory. Players don't control units directly, but can draw curved breakthroughs, planned withdrawals, preparatory bombing runs, reconnaissance and counterattacks, and organise divisions, corps and companies before redrawing frontlines. The launch version includes a single-player campaign of 11 historical missions from the D-Day landings to Operation Varsity on the Western Front, plus tutorial levels, and developer Foolish Mortals Games says it plans post-launch system updates, gameplay improvements and additional theatres of war.
Fourteen years after release, The House in Fata Morgana remains one of gaming's scariest ghost stories and is still worth playing. The article places it alongside classics by M.R. James and Shirley Jackson, ranking it among the top tier of ghost literature.
IGN reviews Valor Mortis, the first-person soulslike from developer One More Level, calling its mix of swordplay, spells, and firearms in an alternate Napoleonic era a genuinely original idea. You play as William, an undead soldier with three melee weapons, three guns, and three hand powers, each with its own upgrade tree, plus a skill tree and Amber mods that change how the character works. The review notes few and underwhelming boss fights, unpolished platforming, and technical problems including hard crashes and missing environment pieces, though the 20-hour campaign still offers plenty worth playing.
Twin Swans has announced the voice cast for Hunter's Moon, a first-person historical narrative folk-horror game featuring 48 actors across more than 100 roles. The fully voiced story follows Lilith Thorne, an accused "witch" pursued by the Witchfinder General over the night of the Hunter's Moon. The game is due out for PS5 on October 26.
Eurogamer has published its review of Valor Mortis, the new game from Ghostrunner studio One More Level. The review describes it as a Napoleonic alternate-history Soulslike that fuses fluid sword- and gunplay with parkour, and calls it a delight.
Push Square reviewed Valor Mortis, calling the first-person Soulslike from One More Level a standout for its Napoleonic alternate history and strong level design, with satisfying combat and weapon upgrade trees. The reviewer finished most side quests in about 18 hours and expects the Platinum around the 22-hour mark. The review also notes flat visuals and unremarkable music, indistinct boss fights, and a frustrating final stretch with low health and inconsistent checkpoints.
Rock Paper Shotgun's James Archer reviewed Valor Mortis, calling One More Level's Napoleonic first-person Soulslike a game that strikes out on its own in perspective and combat design. The review says its parry timings are well judged and the first-person view makes one-on-one fights more personal, though it notes falls off cliffs while backstepping, a narrow weapon and talent selection, and repeated minibosses in later stages. The game runs under 20 hours and includes grappling hook and wallrunning parkour, with platforming falls costing neither catalysts nor a trip back to the nearest lantern.
Eurogamer reviewed Valor Mortis, One More Level's alternate-history Napoleonic Soulslike starring Grande Armée soldier William Dowsett. The review calls its first-person swordplay solid and notes the gradual addition of pistols, shotguns, rifles, parkour and grapple swings across a roughly 20-hour run that is more forgiving than genre peers. It faults the later stages for repeated enemy types, similar environments and a predictable story.
GameSpot's review says Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike with snappy combat that rewards parries and patience, but it is held back by a weak story and a sluggishly paced opening. You play as William Dowsett, a member of Napoleon's army who returns from the dead to find former allies twisted by corruption.
GameSpot's review finds that Valor Mortis is much more than a first-person soulslike, often to its own detriment. The game's attempt to do too much beyond the soulslike formula ends up hurting the experience.
Game Informer reviewed Valor Mortis, a first-person Soulslike from developer One More Level, with the author finishing it in about 25 hours and dying more than 100 times. Set in Napoleonic France, it follows William, who is reawakened by Napoleon speaking in his mind and wields left-hand powers like fire and stasis alongside swords and guns. The review calls the first half unfairly balanced with frequent one-hit kills, while the second half settles into a rhythm that encourages another attempt, with parrying, blocking, and dashing at the core of combat.
The Valor Mortis review roundup shows an 80 average and 81% recommended across 43 reviews on OpenCritic. The first-person Soulslike from Ghostrunner developer One More Level is set in an alternate Napoleonic-era Europe, and critics broadly praise its sword-and-gun combat, parkour and level design while faulting repetitive enemy variety, forgettable bosses and technical issues. It launched on PC on September 24, 2026 at $40 and is available Day One on Xbox Game Pass.
"Review: Valor Mortis (PS5) - Imperial Ambitions, Largely Realised https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps5/valor-mortis"
Gameloft's Bluey's Happy Snaps is out on Switch 2, tasking players with photographing specific objects and creatures across the Heeler house, beach, park and more, collecting at least 15 stickers to unlock each new area. The game runs at 60fps with three special photo minigames per location, and every menu option features voiceovers from Bandit and Chilli's voice actors. Touchscreen support is included but doesn't work properly, though analogue stick controls function well.
Squadron 42, the singleplayer spinoff from Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games, now has a Steam page listing a planned launch in the second quarter of 2027, between early April and the end of June. A new trailer shows the player as a rookie in the UEE Navy and lists cameos including Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill, Gillian Anderson, Andy Serkis and Henry Cavill. The game is now wishlistable.
ConcernedApe (Eric Barone) said Haunted Chocolatier is more of an action RPG than Stardew Valley, with its main focus on adventuring, finding equipment and getting more powerful, plus monsters and boss fights. It is set in a more "metaphysical" locale and is aimed at Stardew Valley players who go into the mines. The game still has no release date, as does the Stardew Valley 1.7 update.
Push Square rounds up the 30+ games launching on PS5 from 12th to 18th October, including Planet Zoo 2 on 13th October and Castlevania: Belmont's Curse on 15th October. Other highlights this week include Valor Mortis, The Witch's Bakery, Ratatan, Tales of Eternia: Remastered, and two Toy Story re-releases.
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.
EA has announced Wing Commander 3: 30th Anniversary Edition, featuring fully restored FMV sequences taken from the original tapes. The new version will also include a frame rate boost of up to 60 frames per second, an enhancement patch made with the Wing Commander fan community, and "Kilrathi Saga integration." The original 1994 release presented its two hours of FMV in 240p and heavily compressed, and unlike its 1996 sequel, never received an improved video re-release.
A group of veteran Fallout 4 modders have added a new town called Detour to the wasteland, positioned as a new quest hub that will grow over time. It features over a dozen voiced characters with more than 600 lines of dialogue, plus shops, room rentals, a purchasable house, a ghoul sheriff, a mayor and a thief named Randy. Playing it requires Fallout 4's Nuka World DLC, with an optional patch for the Reputation mod.
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/
Cloud Imperium Games' Star Citizen spin-off single-player game Squadron 42 has launched its Steam store page. Players join the UEE Navy as a recruit for a cinematic single-player space adventure, living and fighting alongside an all-star crew. The story spans from fighter cockpits to capital ships, space stations to frontier outposts, with rank promotions earned through battle and key choices.
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.
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
At a retrospective panel at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, EA producer Jim Vessella announced a 30th anniversary remaster of Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger. He said master tapes from the game's production have been unearthed and that the remaster will clean up video compression, run at 60FPS, add post-release community enhancements, and include "the Kilrathi Saga," suggesting all three of the initial trilogy. The game's live action sequences feature performances from Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, Tim Curry and others.
Enchanted Pumpkin Co. has revealed The Christmas Bakeshop, a bakery shop simulator set in a touristic mountain village where players supply festive breads, pastries, and sweet treats. The game features a dynamic bakeshop rating (45% product variety, 33% decoration, 22% cleanliness), 60 unlockable recipes, staff hiring, loans, advertising campaigns, and bill management, with up to 12 awards to earn. It is coming to Steam.
Alnutmob's arcade-style single-player cooking game Burger Smash gets a free demo on October 12 at 12:00 PM EEST as part of Steam Cooking Fest, covering the first 5 levels with the tech tree included. Players plan kitchen layouts, grill burgers and keep orders flowing under pressure, unlocking playable characters with their own perks between shifts. The game is coming to PC via Steam with single-player and full Xbox controller support, and a full release is planned for January 2027.
Silver Pines, the search-action survival horror, is out now on PS5
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.
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.
Actor and YouTuber SungWon Cho says Balatro is his most-played game on Steam at 354 hours, and he has 100%-ed it. He describes the hardest achievement as getting gold with every joker, with the Obelisk joker nearly driving him to despair. Cho also says he avoids early access and waited for Hades 2's 1.0 release, playing it for around 120 hours.
Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, from Arc System Works and PlayStation, launches with 21 playable characters, with more to come via post-launch DLC. Announced DLC characters include Phoenix, Cyclops on 2nd November, Thor (Jane Foster) in Winter 2027, Venom in Spring 2027, and Jubilee in Summer 2027. Seven stages have been confirmed, with Klyntar arriving as DLC in Spring 2027.
Cloud Imperium Games announced on 10th October that Squadron 42, the single-player spin-off of Star Citizen, is now available to wishlist on Steam ahead of a planned Q2 2027 release, alongside a new trailer. Set in the year 2945, the game casts players as a rookie in the UEE Navy aboard a capital ship, mixing space combat, ground operations and stealth sections, with full performance capture from a cast including Mark Hamill, Gary Oldman and Henry Cavill. It has been in development for over a decade and has slipped repeatedly, most recently to Q2 2027, which studio boss Chris Roberts attributed to avoiding competition with GTA 6.
EA producer Jim Vessella revealed at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo that Wing Commander 3 is getting a remaster, after he found 600 source tapes while digitising EA's video archive. Called Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger—30th anniversary edition, it will include source and upscaled FMVs, Kilrathi Saga integration, 60 FPS, controller support, and releases on Steam, GOG, and the EA app.
Air Combat Legends is a single-player retro-inspired combat flight sim set in an alternate 1990 Cold War conflict, inspired by classic PC flight sims like F-29 Retaliator and F-16 Combat Pilot. Its main focus is a dynamic procedural campaign where you recon the battlefield, plan the mission, pick your pilot and aircraft, then fly it yourself, with permanent pilot losses and aircraft suited to different jobs. It is coming to PC via Steam with a release date TBA, and an announcement trailer is out with wishlisting open.
Squadron 42 has a Steam page https://www.pcgamer.com/games/fps/squadron-42-has-a-steam-page/
Millions return to The Witcher 3 as the Remastered game records another Steam personal best and sales skyrocket. https://bit.ly/3VMQ3LS