1win swept Spirit 2-0 in the ESL Pro League 24 group-stage decider to reach the playoffs with a 3-1 record. The series opened with a 13-5 win on Cache and closed with a 13-9 victory on Anubis. Spirit dropped into the 2-2 bracket, with its next opponent to be announced later.
Xbox Game Pass announced its first batch of October 2026 additions, with Battlefield 6 joining the subscription for the first time on October 13, a year after launch and just as its Las Vegas-themed season 5 begins. The same wave brings indies including Echo Weaver, Neon Abyss 2, and Chained Beasts between October 8 and 16. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, out this month, will not come to Game Pass at launch because of Xbox's ongoing reset.
Retrofiction Games has announced Dead of Darkness 2, an isometric 2D survival horror sequel coming to PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC, with console versions published by eastasiasoft. The game follows Jun Takehara as she searches for help in the sinister town of Goldren Creek, and features a cast of 28 characters plus character switching between up to three characters.
FairyTale, a prolific PC-98 studio from the '90s, has struck a deal with Fakku to bring Dead of the Brain to Steam just in time for Halloween, with additions like autosaves and optional quality-of-life improvements. The game previously only had a fan translation by the group WINE, making this an official release of a fan-translated PC-98 title. Fakku seemingly bought the publishing rights to FairyTale's entire catalog, potentially meaning dozens of PC-98 games could come to Steam in the future.
Publisher Top Hat Studios and developer 13th Street Games announced that BECROWNED will launch for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Steam in Q1 2027, a delay from its previously planned fall 2026 window, with the console versions newly announced. A new trailer shows the psychological survival horror game's darker direction, drawing on 1970s and 1980s grindhouse cinema, 70s French horror's surrealist dark satire, and Russian cultural and literary references. Players take on the role of Richard Torrance, navigating his relationships inside and outside a strange dimension to determine his ultimate fate.
World of Warcraft: Forever drops the PvP grind so normal people can have fancy titles too
We earned as much gold in WoW: Forever as we could in 2 hours—which caused at least one crashout
Nivalis Nights review: An avalanche of fascinating characters carrying a decent shop sim on their backs. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/life-sim/nivalis-nights-review/
The Outlast Trials has broken its concurrent-player record with over 120,000 players, more than four times its previous high of 36,000 set when it launched in Steam Early Access in 2023. Red Barrels credited a $4 Steam Autumn Sale discount, roughly half of players coming from China, and the Halloween season. The co-op horror game launched version 1.0 in spring 2024 and will follow with its annual Geister event and Season 8 in December.
PC Gamer reviewed Nivalis Nights, an Ion Lands-developed, 505 Games-published cyberpunk shop sim released September 29, 2026 for $25 that blends life sim decorating, shop management, open-world exploration and farm production into a story-heavy quest structure. The reviewer found the management, decorating and romance systems each lacking, but praised the characters, with at least 121 portraits in the known characters menu and many fully voiced NPCs whose stories range from corporate satire to people crushed by debt. The reviewer expected shop management and decorating to be the main draw, but instead the city and its cast kept them exploring for the next thread.
Blizzard outlined PvP changes for World of Warcraft: Forever in a blog post, removing the weekly leaderboard race in favor of an Honor currency and point-based progression. Players earn Honor from killing enemy players, completing battlegrounds, and finishing PvP quests, with Honor gains normalized across battlegrounds, and Rank points unlock 14 tiers of rewards including PvP gear and titles like High Warlord and Grand Marshal. Rank points have a weekly cap, and the system runs in PvP seasons that reset, with weekly tasks granting bonus Honor, Rank points, and a Legacy Point.
Three PC Gamer editors competed to make the most gold in two hours in World of Warcraft: Forever's beta, starting as level 1 horde characters with 20 silver each. One sold roleplay "wisdom" at a zeppelin tower for tips, another leaned on his journalist fame and slandered his rivals while begging, and the third had a secret strategy. The run included a mugging, an insult, a fall from the tower, and at least one crashout.
Developer Serafini Productions announced that BrokenLore: ASCEND will launch for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam on January 7, 2027. The first-person psychological horror game follows two renowned rooftop climbers, Ren and Yui, attempting a forbidden nighttime ascent of Japan's tallest building, Elysium Tower, where a supernatural entity called the Rokurokubi haunts them.
Publisher Serafini Productions and developer Mike Ten announced that The Hambagu Shop will launch for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch, and PC via Steam on January 11, 2027. The cozy horror simulation game casts players as Mari, who inherits her late grandfather's Japanese hamburg shop and must grill patties, serve customers, and upgrade the business while haunting visions suggest the shop is haunted.
SEGA announced that the Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds downloadable content "Avatar Legends Pack" will launch on October 14, and it is also available as part of the $29.99 Season Pass. The pack includes Aang and Katara as playable characters, a Gliding Air vehicle, and the Lion Turtle Island course. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is available now for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.
River City Girls (Steam) w/ 12 more games is $14 on Humble 2D Rewind Collection Bundle https://buff.ly/YKVufJQ #ad
Skate has been de-live serviced by ReSkate, a modding platform downloaded 350,000 times https://www.pcgamer.com/games/sports/reskate-modding-platform-released/
A fan-made modding platform called ReSkate makes EA's early access free-to-play skateboarding game Skate playable offline, with support for private servers, custom maps and other mods. It had been downloaded over 350,000 times from GitHub as of Tuesday. Its two creators told PC Gamer they will comply if EA sends a cease and desist, but ReSkate is open source and already has more than 70 forks on GitHub.
Final Fantasy XIV's Evercold expansion is set for a January 2027 release, and what has been shown so far includes two new jobs, expanded character customization, a main story players can progress in their chosen order, an evolved combat system, and a reborn mode. The first revealed job is bastion, a tank wielding the skyltborg, while the second job is unconfirmed and said to be ranged physical damage. Evercold also reworks endgame grinding with weekly self-paced quests instead of daily ones, lets players reflect their highest item level gear onto other max-level jobs, and allows chocobos to join dungeons as combat party members.
Hell is Us is $11.99 on US PSN https://buff.ly/EAVeQ73
The next Halo game will be handled by a completely new team under Activision, while Halo Studios, formerly 343 Industries, keeps a small team for released titles and lays off 268 people. In the final issue of the Canon Fodder blog, Halo Studios community writer Alex Wakeford shared the first full look at the Endless, called the Xalanyn, children of Abaddon, after the faction was teased in Halo Infinite through the Harbinger. The blog also includes Zeta Halo environments that may have once been planned for Halo Infinite DLC.
Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor said it has started bringing some furloughed staff back to work. CEO Greg Foertsch said around 80% of staff had been sidelined without pay before release because the studio was running out of money, and the return process began this week. According to Game File, the studio's pay-rolled headcount is still less than half of what it was before the furloughs, while Newzoo ranked Zero Company as the sixth-best PC game of August by revenue in six major Western markets.
Blizzard moved Overwatch's pesky, perpetually banned hacker Sombra from damage to support, and the rework turned out far better than expected. The author, initially ready to scoff at the change as a concession to players unwilling to learn the game, admitted being proven wrong.
IGN reviews TOEM 2 from developer Something We Made, saying it keeps the photo-puzzle framework of 2021's TOEM as players travel three monochrome isometric towns and earn bus tickets by helping townsfolk. The roughly four-to-five-hour game adds camera features like target lock that make shooting easier, but the review finds its puzzles less engaging than the original's and its 3D-modeled world no real step up.
The Humble Indie Fighters Bundle is priced at $16 and packs in multiple fighting games. Included titles are Lethal League Blaze and Rivals of Aether 1 and 2.
The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe is available at its historical low price during the Steam Autumn Sale. Players can grab the deal before the sale ends.
Humble has released the Beyond Reality: Sci-Fi & Survival VR Bundle, featuring seven games. Six of the seven titles have never been bundled before.
007 First Light has passed 7 million Steam wishlists, and IO Interactive has added Jack the bulldog to the game via its TacSim lobby for all players, where he can be petted. The free Extended Operations DLC is out now with New Game+, a new 00 difficulty mode, and a Photo Mode, plus a new Vietnam mission. The game is 30% off on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S at $49, with a Switch 2 version coming in March 2027.
Developer Wales Interactive announced that co-op survival shooter Hazard Levels will leave Early Access and launch for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam on November 12. The game first entered Early Access on Steam on April 30 and supports one-to-four-player co-op with proximity chat, sending players into procedurally generated rifts to harvest otherworldly ingredients for a secret brewery beneath a British pub.
Publisher Serenity Forge and developer Fullbright announced that Springs, Eternal will launch for PC via Steam on November 11. A demo is available now. The lo-fi first-person narrative exploration game is set at a mysterious hot springs in the dead of night and takes around two-to-three hours to fully complete.
DF's STAR WARS: Galactic Racer Development Doc Is Now Live https://www.digitalfoundry.net/news/2026/10/dfs-star-wars-galactic-racer-development-doc-is-now-live
Thunder Lotus has pushed its action-adventure game At Fate's End from 2026 to 2027, saying the game needs more love and care. The studio said on Steam that a more precise date will come later, and the game is still headed to Xbox Game Pass. A new demo is now available on Steam for players to try for the first time.
LUNAR Remastered Collection is $29.99 on US PSN https://buff.ly/3jQ34qj
Xbox Game Pass is adding Neon Abyss 2, Valor Mortis, and Battlefield 6 this month, but the bigger story may be the games leaving the service. Polygon says one of the departing titles is the best RPG on Xbox Game Pass.
You wanna see some real speed? 👀
World of Warcraft: Forever beta players have repeatedly pushed back against updated high-definition character models and character portraits, preferring the game's original look. Developer Blizzard originally planned to use only HD models but added an option for original character models after testers stressed its importance, and a quilboar boss mistakenly using its modern WoW model was quickly reverted to its WoW Classic appearance. Earlier this week the character-creation screen also switched back to WoW's original portraits.
Humble Games Bundle: Beyond Reality Sci-Fi & Survival VR ($15 for all) https://buff.ly/2wTU920 #ad
During the final hours of Amazon's October Prime Day sale, the Gamesir G7 Pro Wireless PC Gaming Controller is available for $63.99 with free shipping, a 20% discount. The controller features TMR analog sticks, Hall Effect triggers, micro-switch D-pad and ABXY buttons, wired and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity with a 1,000Hz polling rate, and a 1,200mAh battery rated for up to 10 hours of playtime, plus an included charging dock.
Warhammer Survivors has a new demo out ahead of its November launch. It can be tried now on Steam and Xbox.
Valve has updated its tournament operation requirements exceptions list to assign BC.Game to the Asia region and make the team eligible for a Major invitation. The exception comes after Valve adjusted its VRS region swap rules, which had disqualified BC.Game from a Major qualification run. BC.Game's spot at the Singapore Major is now all but confirmed.