The Castlevania: Belmont's Curse demo hides a secret weapon called Cestus that makes protagonist Rose strike poses referencing classic fighting game characters like Ryu, Chun-Li, and Akuma. The free demo launched on October 1, 2026, and the full game releases on October 15.
Remothered: Red Nun's Legacy launches later this month, featuring legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka and Red Nun voiced by Resident Evil alumna Maggie Robertson. Its latest trailer premiered during the Horror Game Awards showcase, showing the weathered stone buildings and marble fountain angels of the game's Sicilian setting. Developer Stormind Games, based in Sicily itself, says the trailer is a visual journey through the real places, textures, colors, and cultural details that shaped the game's world.
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.
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.
The author played roughly 40 minutes of FF7 Revelation's first chapter on a PlayStation 5 Pro, entering the Northern Crater and trying out the newly playable Cid and Vincent. The author remains mostly unconvinced that the remake's newest combat tweaks are necessary, but came away wanting more.
A leaked Famitsu review gives Castlevania: Belmont's Curse all 8s. The reviewers describe it as a traditional exploration-type game with no equipment collecting or money from enemy drops, and note its high athletic difficulty centered on aerial movement with whips and other weapons. The story continues from Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse and follows the Belmont family protagonists.
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.
Some furloughed staff at Star Wars Zero Company developer Bit Reactor have returned to work. CEO Greg Foertsch told Game File the studio has started bringing more of its team back but did not give specific percentages or figures. Game File's sources said headcount is now more than half of what it was before the furloughs, and it remains unclear whether more staff will return; a lawsuit involving Foertsch and co-founder Alison Kelly is ongoing.
Milestone's anime-styled arcade racer Screamer has received a fresh patch that adds an option for single stick sliding, switchable in the options menu before a race. Game director Federico Cardini said twin stick remains the recommended way to play since the ECHO System was designed around it, but the new option suits players who prefer something more familiar. The patch also removes some unnecessary suspension lines, changes how certain characters unlock, tweaks default camera distance detection, balances on-track powers, and moves an invisible wall next to a shortcut on one track.
Beijing-based studio S-Game's action RPG Phantom Blade Zero will launch on PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam on October 29. It is an entry in the Rainblood/Phantom Blade series and was announced at the August PlayStation State of Play. The studio describes it as inspired by a mix of wuxia, fantasy, and folk horror, and coined the term kungfupunk for it.
Screamer's latest PS5 update is out now and adds a "single stick" control mode that puts both steering and drifting on the left stick, turning off the default right stick drift input. The patch also lets players unlock Tournament Crew characters in any game mode and makes balance adjustments to characters including Roisin, Keiji, Gregor and Ritsuko.
Silver Pines is Wych Elm's debut, a Twin Peaks-inspired neo-noir detective mystery published by Team17 that blends survival horror, 2D Metroidvania exploration and point 'n' click puzzling. Its moody town and missing-musician story work well, but once the town opens up it becomes a backtrack-heavy maze of dead ends and item hunts. The author got stuck on a puzzle requiring a swim across a river and asked the developers for directions; Wych Elm said they were looking at reworking that scene.
An IGN opinion piece argues Star Wars: Galactic Racer replaces the familiar championship checklist with a run-based career mode where too many losses eject you from the whole championship and send you back to the start. Fuse Games co-founder and CEO Matt Webster says gaming is risk-reward and the risk has to have a consequence, with the game borrowing randomized rewards and build choices from other genres. The piece contrasts this with the iRacing-style PvP focus and the failure-proof Forza Horizon model.
A writer on Resident Evil Requiem has teased the first details of the game's story DLC, saying it will continue the base game's focus on series antagonist Oswell E. Spencer. Capcom had already confirmed that story DLC is coming, but had shared little officially beyond that. The direction may also say a lot about an eventual Resident Evil 5 remake.
Black Myth: Wukong is now available at its lowest price since launch. The 2024 action-RPG from Game Science casts players as the Destined One, who must recover six relics tied to Sun Wukong's senses, with combat and boss fights as its standout features.
Annapurna Interactive is publishing Forever Ago, a narrative adventure game from developer Third Shift. Its protagonist, the aging grouch Alfred, takes a grief-stricken road trip while flashbacks reveal a long life rerouted by rainstorms and engine failures. It is Third Shift's long-delayed debut.
Push Square reviewed Order of the Sinking Star, Thekla's PS5 puzzle game with nearly a thousand puzzles, multiple endings, and four separate Sokoban-style worlds that eventually overlap. The reviewer calls the puzzle design lean and polished, but says the sheer scale, verbose dialogue, and lack of a compelling hook made it hard to stay interested after dozens of hours, so it is hard to recommend.
Rainbow Six Tactics creative director Elie Benhamou says destruction was a key feature from the very beginning, letting players create physical gaps in walls to fire through and open new lines of sight. This changes the usual turn-based tactics solution of flanking enemies behind cover, and makes cover feel less safe for both sides. Every operator can destroy scenery, though Ash and Sledge can destroy almost everything while Nøkk must get close and spend ammo, and there is still no release date.
Crymellight producer ISOBE Takumi explained in an interview that the game's narrative of sin and confession was established first, and the Roguelike action format was chosen because the story itself centers on repeating time. Combat revolves around building poker hands from five cards to strengthen card abilities, forcing players to choose between completing a hand and taking a stronger card. The confession system both powers up Alice and lets her bear the sins and final thoughts of the dead, while the tea party reveals these girls' pasts.
Patience is a Virtue is a "cozy-meets-creepy" conversation puzzle game from teaisfortoby! in which some interactions require players to answer using only the words spoken by the other party. Protagonist Louis is chronically ill and neurodivergent, and the constrained dialogue reflects his lack of privilege, including a distressing hospital check-up scene. The full game is built around a supernatural mystery involving a cassette tape, with no release date announced.
Resident Evil Requiem writer Haris Orkin said in an interview that the upcoming DLC will further explore Oswell E. Spencer's story arc. A DLC expansion for the game has been confirmed, but no release timing has been announced. Spencer is the founder and CEO of Umbrella, and Requiem reveals that protagonist Grace Ashcroft is his adopted daughter.
Netflix is releasing The Conjuring: Unspoken, an interactive game set in the universe of the horror film series. It is developed by Supermassive Games and becomes available on Oct. 13.
Developer King Art Games says Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 ships with four full single-player campaigns, one each for Space Marines, Orks, Necrons, and Adeptus Mechanicus, totaling over 70 campaign missions at launch. Creative director Jan Theysen told IGN each campaign is bigger than the entire Dawn of War 1 campaign in both mission count and playtime, and said the game may have more single-player content at launch than any other RTS. Branching storylines mean a single playthrough skips missions, such as the roughly 18-mission Ork campaign where a run covers about 14 to 15. After the December release, Crusade Mode, map packs, a mission editor, a Blood Ravens story prologue, and the Aftermath campaign expansion with a new faction are planned.
Resident Evil Requiem screenwriter Haris Orkin said in an interview at Meadowlark Comic Con that he is working on DLC for the game, with plans to flesh out Oswell E. Spencer. He also discussed writing villains and FBI analyst Grace, adding, "I probably shouldn't say that, but yeah." Director Koshi Nakanishi had confirmed plans for a major story expansion in March.
After blazing through the first half of Halo: Campaign Evolved, the author found it still largely feels like the same game as 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. Despite modest gameplay upgrades and a complete visual overhaul, the iconic sci-fi shooter's opening missions remain propulsive and its horror atmosphere still stands out.
Remedy has released Control: Resonance, the second entry in the Control series, seven years after the original. The podcast hosts report on its shift from TPS to ARPG combat and the protagonist change from Jesse to Dylan, praising its art, environmental storytelling, and SCP-flavored side content while criticizing frame drops, stuttering, repetitive gameplay, and boss level design.
Wolverine PS5's Controversial Fart Trails Can Now Be Toggled in Story Sequences https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2026/10/wolverine-ps5s-controversial-fart-trails-can-now-be-toggled-in-story-sequences
Insomniac has released a new Marvel's Wolverine PS5 patch that lets players toggle narrative-related scent trails on and off by pressing R3 during story sequences. The studio said players now have more control over the visibility of Scents, Audio Cues, and Nightmare Roots based on community feedback. The update also fixes some minor crashes and bugs.
Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine update 1.002.001 lets players toggle story-related scent trails on and off with a Hint button, mapped to R3 by default on PS5. The October 6 patch also gives more control over the visibility of Scents, Audio Cues, and Nightmare Roots, and fixes community-reported crashes and bugs. Insomniac said the change came directly from community feedback.
Early access survival game Novus Inceptio received a major update this week, its first since 2018. The map has grown from 9 km² to 64 km² of "pure wilderness," combat has been rebuilt, and the game is now singleplayer with co-op planned. Solo developer Martin Markus Mastný says "the energy and the will to finish the project are back" and asks players for one more chance.
Something I really liked in Gears E-Day is how the studio played with how missions are discovered
A GameSpot editor argues there has never been a better time to play Fire Emblem: Awakening. The piece contrasts it with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, whose tactical gameplay is excellent but buried under tedious chores that drain the player's energy.
In Remedy's recently released open-world action game Control Resonant, the boss The Dancer has a first phase that serves as a rehearsal for the real fight. After repeated failures, the author slowed down and matched The Dancer's pace to defeat it with health to spare. The fight challenged how the author played and showed that boss fights can offer something only possible in games.
PC Gamer reviewed Gears of War: E-Day, calling its third-person cover shooting the best the series has felt while finding the 20-plus-hour campaign one-note and overstretched. The prequel covers the day the Locust emerged, with Marcus and Dom written much as they were in the original. The multiplayer fares better, with the 4v4 modes and Horde Siege described as a worthwhile expansion of what Gears can be.
PC Gamer published its review of Gears of War: E-Day, calling the shooting terrific while describing the campaign as sluggish. The full review is available on PC Gamer's website.
In Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, players as an Inquisition acolyte can accuse any suspect the moment they log evidence against them, even if all they have is a feeling, according to senior narrative designer Veronika Larionova. Digging further can reshape the accusation's wording, add proof, or clear the suspect, and choices have no right or wrong answer but can affect story paths, rewards, NPC attitudes, and additional endings. No release date has been announced, but the game can be wishlisted on Steam.
007 First Light has quietly rolled out a 60FPS mode for Xbox Series S in recent days, after last week's free DLC patch notes mentioned it but incorrectly said the Series X version had added the 60FPS update. The mode runs relatively well on Series S but with low graphical settings and a frame rate that mostly hovers around 50-60FPS, so a VRR-supported display is recommended. Players can now choose between "Quality" and "Performance" modes on Series S.
Square Enix released new Final Fantasy VII Revelation clips showing hot-springs scenes where male party members get unlockable swimsuit skins usable throughout the game, per director Naoki Hamaguchi. Barret has chest hair in the footage, but Cid is as smooth as Cloud, prompting the author to ask Square Enix to fix it. The game launches April 8 on PC, PS5, Switch 2, and Xbox Series X/S.
Gears of War: E-Day's near-perfect opening hour feels like it was designed for Xbox Game Pass. Even first-party games struggle to stand out in the subscription catalog, where name recognition and word-of-mouth matter greatly.
Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis will shut down in fall 2026. Players will not have much longer to keep playing the game.