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.
Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab and UCL and other teams introduced Memento 3, an AI agent system built on Claude Opus 5 that cleared all 25 games and 183 levels in the ARC-AGI-3 public set without updating model weights or fine-tuning, scoring a perfect 100 RHAE. It used 7518 actions versus 17135 for humans, about 56% fewer, and also fewer than baseline1's 8347. In Atari Pong, after learning a control strategy on its own, the system stopped calling the large model and won three straight games 21:0.
The PS Store Player's Choice sale is running now through 21st October 2026, with thousands of PS5 and PS4 games discounted in North America and Europe. Push Square has picked over 50 games that scored at least 7/10 and are at their lowest price, including 007 First Light, ARC Raiders, Battlefield 6, and Demon's Souls, with some hitting new all-time lows.
DMZ for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has been released early, according to Eurogamer. Infinity Ward has also ruled out PvE content for the mode.
Stardew Valley creator's new game, Haunted Chocolatier, is "more of an action RPG" than farming sim
Shogun 2 deserved better
Nintendo Latin America vice president and general manager Bill van Zyll said the company currently has "no plans to ditch physical" media, adding that Nintendo has historically been agnostic and follows consumer preference. He noted the Switch 2 is barely over a year into its life and supports both digital and physical. The comment comes as Sony has confirmed it will cease production of PlayStation discs in early 2028, with Microsoft likely to follow.
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.
Jobs roundup: October | Playstack CEO Harvey Elliott voted chair of UKIE
Infinity Ward announced that DMZ, the extraction shooter mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, will open before the game's official launch, with digital pre-order players able to play from 20th October. The game now has three dates: the campaign unlocks 16th October, DMZ on the 20th, and the full launch with multiplayer on 23rd October. In a Reddit Q&A, Infinity Ward said the Single Squad Mission option seen in earlier footage is a developer-only playlist, and that in the shipping game players can go solo by turning off squad fill, though lobbies are not guaranteed to be solo-only.
GPASS's members-only show Recording Pen has released VOL.801, titled "Who's Smoking in the Bathroom?" The show features short recordings from the Gamecores office, runs about ten-plus minutes per episode, and its participants and content vary.
50+ PS5, PS4 Games to Buy in the PS Store Player's Choice Sale (North America/Europe) https://www.pushsquare.com/features/50plus-ps5-ps4-games-to-buy-in-the-ps-store-players-choice-sale-north-americaeurope
Stardock founder and CEO Brad Wardell discussed Clairvoyance, an app that began as an internal tool and is now free, running a team of AI agents locally on Windows, macOS and Linux on top of tools like Claude Code and Codex. He said much of game-making time goes to grunt work such as build errors, importers and hunting for assets, so AI's best use is freeing artists and designers to create rather than replacing them. He argued digital distribution, not AI, is breaking AAA economics, with around 30,000 games expected on Steam this year making attention the scarce resource.
Gamesplanet is holding a Capcom sale with big discounts on Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and other titles. Some of the discounts are hard to ignore.
BAFTA has awarded over £270,000 in grants to 112 recipients in the UK and North America through its 2026 Prince William BAFTA Bursary and scholarship programmes. The bursary supported 100 recipients, a 40% increase from last year, with grants of up to £2,000 each. UK scholarship recipients receive up to £12,000, while US recipients receive up to $60,000.
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.
A fan mod called Crowd Play Respawned recreates Telltale's Crowd Play audience-voting feature for Minecraft: Story Mode Season Two and adds it to Season One, which never had it built in. It links each game's live choices, timer, pause state and host selection to a voting server running on the host's computer, with guests voting via a phone or desktop browser using a room code, link or QR code. The first release supports specified 64-bit Windows GOG versions of both seasons and does not provide either game or restore Telltale's original infrastructure.
Nintendo Latin America VP and general manager Bill van Zyll said Nintendo has no plans to abandon physical game releases and will not follow a full shift to digital. The stance comes after PlayStation announced it would soon drop physical versions entirely, sparking industry discussion. Nintendo's Switch 2, launched last year, supports both digital and physical formats, with physical releases split between full cartridges and game download cards.
Tickets for the Saturday, October 24 session of Fusion Game Carnival 2026 Beijing are sold out, while Sunday, October 25 tickets remain on sale via Bilibili Member Purchase with limited availability. The event runs at Shougang International Convention and Exhibition Center Halls 1 and 3, with single-day tickets priced at 139 yuan full price and 129 yuan discounted, and buyers can exchange for a physical commemorative ticket on site. A GGG game rhythm night is also held during the event, with combined Fusion x GGG tickets available.
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter (PS5/Switch) is $39.99 at Best Buy https://buff.ly/SOYP8qP
Tencent announced that The Division 2's mainland China server will officially shut down at 11:00 on December 14, citing a change in business strategy after talks with Ubisoft. Recharges and new user registrations stop at 11:00 on October 12, and forums and dedicated customer support close at 11:00 on December 22. Users who recharged before 11:00 on October 12 and still hold tokens in their accounts can claim gift packs for PUBG Mobile, Battle of Golden Spatula, Valorant, CrossFire and Honor of Kings during the compensation period.
Solo developer Joe has announced We Will Die For You, a game where you guide a white blood cell through the human body to break apart debris, fight disease, and collect Protein. Each cell eventually dies, but what it collected is spent on permanent upgrades for the next one, with abilities including satellites, chain lightning, missiles, spikes, lasers, and a toxic trail. The game is targeting Q1 2027 on Steam and can be wishlisted now.
This Week's Japanese Game Releases: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, RATATAN, more https://www.gematsu.com/2026/10/this-weeks-japanese-game-releases-castlevania-belmonts-curse-ratatan-more
Castlevania: Belmont's Curse and RATATAN headline this week's Japanese game releases, with the former launching on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC, and the latter on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC. Also due out this week are Tales of Eternia Remastered, Enshrouded, and Valor Mortis.
Mick Gordon, the composer behind 2016's Doom soundtrack, said "F**k AI" when asked at PAX Australia 2026 whether he would use generative AI in his creative process. He argued generative AI is always behind humans because it is trained on what humans have already created and can never predict the new thing. Gordon has contributed music to Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2, out October 14, and is still working on the soundtrack for the squad-shooter Defect.
York Games is developing Ascend: Journey beyond the clouds, a physics-based precision platformer where players control Zeo, a tiny golden cube, using slingshot mechanics to launch across floating platforms toward the Sun. The full game will feature 12 stages and is targeting release on Steam (PC), Android, and iOS. A free playable demo with the first 3 stages launched this weekend on itch.io, playable in browser, on PC, or mobile.
The curious case of Wonder Boy in Monster Land's dubious PC debut https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/steam-week-in-review-the-curious-case-of-wonder-boy-in-monster-lands-dubious-pc-debut/
Wonder Boy in Monster Land, a 1987 arcade game that never received an official PC port, appeared on Steam on September 28 under publisher Retro Maniac with the name misspelled as "Wonderboy." Original composer Shinichi Sakamoto called the port illegitimate and noted it is unavailable in Japan, while the listing is said to be a ROM running in the MAME emulator with the Sega logo removed. The page remained live as of the article.
Game developers on Reddit are debating whether Game Jam still has meaning as generative AI spreads through the scene, with one poster saying nearly half the participants at a recent jam were "vibe coding." Critics argue AI-generated entries flood the field and undermine community exchange, noting that GMTK and Brackeys jams have disqualified a considerable number of games, while supporters say AI only removes tedious mechanical work and the goal of shipping a complete game still stands.
MMO mobile game in-app purchase revenue fell from $5.3 billion in 2021 to $2.8 billion in 2025, a 47% drop that far outpaced the RPG genre's 38% decline and the broader mobile market's 1% dip, according to an analysis by Naavik. Downloads also dropped 40%, from 345 million to 206 million, and revenue fell another 27% year-over-year from January to September 2026. The report attributes the structural collapse to engagement fatigue, spending fatigue and gameplay homogenization, compounded by open-world adventure RPGs like Genshin Impact raising the bar.
NetEase's Wildfire division has unveiled its new FPS Extreme Battlefield along with two gameplay videos showing gun feel and shooting combat. The game combines hero shooter and battle royale elements, using an in-match economy to link resource gathering, combat and progression, with its first test on PC starting October 15. The division previously made Knives Out and Blood Strike.
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.
GameLook reports that overseas AI game-creation platform Astrocade announced 10 million monthly active users, double the 5 million MAU four months earlier, with users generating playable content from natural language; it raised 56 million dollars in May from investors including Sequoia, Sea, Google's AI Future Fund and Nvidia. Tencent's Huya listed the AI game generator BinkBink on GooglePlay, Google partnered with Unity on the AI game platform Playground, and Meta unveiled Horizon Create and Horizon Studio at Meta Connect 2026. The article notes none of these platforms has settled on monetization, with Astrocade saying it is focused on user growth and will consider revenue growth sometime next year.
Re:Departure, the first game from Bilibili creator Wang Laoju's Future Technology studio, launches on Steam on October 23. It is a 2D adventure game blending light roguelike and incremental progression, where players drive a battle vehicle by working a mechanical dashboard of levers and dials. The Early Access version includes 4 world biomes, more than 30 characters, 60 devices and 100 relics. Wang Laoju announced his move into game development in 2019, started and abandoned at least three projects, and said in 2023 that he had spent 6 million yuan of his savings.
The demo of Teach My Little Sister How To Drive, a driving-teaching sim from four-person studio Easy Fox, went viral on Steam and social platforms, with playtest numbers growing more than 20-fold in a month. Because the sister's voice is generated in real time by a cloud large language model, daily AI costs exceed 160,000 yen, about 7,000 yuan, forcing the team to take out a bank loan to keep servers running and to say the demo may be taken down early. The studio says the full release will fold AI costs into its price so buyers pay no extra token fees.
The Escape the Backrooms development team announced that the "Lost & Found" update will launch on October 29, kicking off its Q4 2026 roadmap. The update includes 2 free Wanderer skins and 5 DLC skins from the "Lost & Found Appearance Pack." The team said this is only the first step, with new levels also planned and more details to be announced soon.
Global publisher Boltray Games will showcase five games spanning survival, action and adventure at Beijing Fusion 2026, including The Walking Dead: Dark Days, Hela: A Mouse's Journey, Tram Riders, This Dragon Carries a Blade and Void Diver: Escape the Abyss. The event runs October 24 and 25 at Shougang International Convention Center in Beijing, with single-day tickets priced at 139 yuan full price and 129 yuan discounted via Bilibili Member Purchase.
Some games get stuck in what the industry calls "development hell," and while titles like Duke Nukem Forever, Metroid Dread, and Skull & Bones eventually shipped, others were canceled when studio heads or publishers decided the investment was no longer worth it. Five games remain in development for more than 10 years without a release, though some are finally near the horizon.