Samson, the 1990s-set, gritty open-world action-adventure/brawler directed by Just Cause creator Christofer Sundberg that suffered a buggy release on PC earlier this month, is coming to consoles this fall (Editor's Note: IGN asked if "consoles" included Nintendo Switch 2 in addition to the presumed PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, as Unreal Engine 5-based games like Samson have for the most part not shown up on Nintendo's new console so far, but a game representative could not confirm which consoles this does or does not include as of now). In the meantime, developer Liquid Swords has announced a comprehensive patch and content update schedule.

We were excited about Samson after playing an hour of it for preview, but unfortunately bugs and repetition marred its launch on PC, and IGN gave it a 4 out of 10 in our review, even though we recognize it does some really cool stuff that even GTA doesn't do and can make you feel like Ryan Gosling in the 2011 movie Drive. Now, Liquid Swords has detailed what the rest of the year looks like as they try to fix and improve on the path to a console launch this fall.

According to the developer, patches will continue to roll out weekly into early May, "with Updates 3–6 focused on combat refinements, new car variants, performance optimization, and community-driven fixes." As far as adding more content to Samson, Content Update 1 due in mid-may will be "a dedicated combat expansion bringing new depth to the game's grounded, physical fighting system," while Content Update 2 in mid-June will deliver "a vehicle-focused expansion adding to the driving experience."

Liquid Swords told IGN that the team "is dedicated to ensuring Samson will grow significantly across quality, gameplay, and content. The studio is actively taking in player feedback on Discord and forums to inform its priorities for updates."

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The idea of a battle-centric Pokémon game that lets trainers duke it out without all the breeding and badge collecting has been around since the early days with Pokémon Stadium, so it’s exciting that Pokémon Champions looks to continue that legacy 26 years later. This “free-to-start” (Nintendo’s words, not mine) turn-based battler puts its full focus on online PvP using the series’ classic combat system. That being said, while it may look and play like Pokémon, Champions’ lack of substance keeps it from being the very best way to battle with your Pokemon.

If you have played any of the mainline Pokémon games, Champions will feel like slipping back into a slimmer pair of your favorite Running Shoes. You and a single opponent build teams of six Pokémon to pick from for either 3v3 single battles or 4v4 double battles (sorry to anyone hoping for four-player team matches), pick your moves simultaneously, and slug it out until one team is entirely knocked out. It’s turn-based nostalgia fuel, and Pokémon’s mix of reading your opponent, clever strategy, and a bit of luck are a big part of why I have kept coming back with each new entry for nearly 30 years.

Despite occasional bugs – which, to developer The Pokemon Works’ credit, it has been tackling since release – Pokémon Champions’ battles make for a solid foundation (which is good when that’s really all there is to it). I often found myself swearing I would do only one more battle before calling it quits before inevitably staying up for a few more bouts. I really enjoy this combat system even without all the catching and leveling that usually accompanies it, so the fact that this is all there is wouldn’t be an issue… if the content available at its launch wasn't so – dare I say – Gloom-y?

For being a dedicated battling game, it’s shocking to me just how few options there are to do that. The option to fight with one Pokémon at a time or two is pretty much the only choice you are given. Champions doesn’t even provide an option to bring your full roster of six into the fray. And why no single-player challenges or any single-player offerings, period? Bring back the Gym Leader Castle gauntlet, or let trainers face off against super-powered legendaries, anything that could be played offline, or ways to test your ideas. As is, it’s online PvP, or nothing at all.

This disappointing lack of content, unfortunately, also extends to the pocket monsters themselves. Champions features a paltry pool of only 186 to battle with. The ones that have been included remind me of the “popular cool kids club” from grade school days. You have the captain of the football team, Charizard, and head cheerleader, Sylveon, hanging out at the lunch table, but the nerdy Porygon or the weird Lickitung that eats glue are nowhere to be found. In fact, basically all early evolutions are absent, and baffling omissions like Rillaboom, Mewtwo, Mew, or most of the other Legendaries leave glaring holes in the roster. We can expect some gaps to get filled in over time with live service updates, of course, but how fast and to what extent is still a mystery, and what’s available right now leaves me feeling like Psyduck – confused and with a headache.

In addition to missing plenty of fan favorites, the competitive community has taken a particularly hard critical hit due to a lack of both Pokémon and held item options. For example, out of the 22 monsters that made up the various teams at 2025’s Pokémon World Championships Masters Division tournament, only three are currently usable in Champions. The unique goodies that you can have your team hold are nearly as uninspired, with a vast majority either being healing berries or items that improve certain move types (not including the Mega Evolution stones), with outliers such as the Scope Lens, Light Ball, Mental Herb, and Shell Bell being the saving graces. Heavy hitters like the Power Herb, Choice Specs, Air Balloon, and many others used by the most hardcore players are all absent, which could make Champions a tough berry to swallow at the moment. With this year’s Pokémon World Championships rolling around at the end of August, it's hard to say if this will be in a good enough place by then to serve as the de facto battling platform it’s meant to be.

To get your favorite Pokémon onto your team (assuming they made the cut, that is), you have two main options: Bring them over from a previous game via Pokémon Home, or recruit them from Champions’ farm. The Home route I found to be a straightforward and relatively painless process, both when I was importing them into Champions as well as when I sent them back. The recruit method is also fairly simple, but as you can only get Pokémon that happen to be in a rotating pool of seemingly random options, finding one you are hoping for is a bit of a gacha situation. You get one free pull each day, as well as the ability to either spend a resource called Victory Points (VP) to permanently add them to your collection or rent them, for free, for week-long stretches. The countdown to pull again can also be shortened using special tickets you earn by completing objectives. If this all makes Pokémon Champions sound like a mobile game, that’s because it is – or will be later this year, as it’s only available on Switch 1 and 2 as of this review.

Even still, that scent of your typical mobile game app is already all over this. From how the menus and UI are laid out to the various currencies you can earn that speed up timers and expand your storage, the DNA of its mobile-focused business model comes through loud and clear. Thankfully, at least right now, I haven't found myself hindered by sticking to the free version of Champions – typical of a gacha game, beginner gifts are plentiful in the early hours, even without the $7 (USD) paid Starter Pack bundle that’s being offered. Since the basic casual, ranked, and private battles are all free, I haven’t yet felt the need to put money into continuing playing. And at least for the time being, the primary VP currency can only be earned by completing daily, weekly, and special missions or by competing in ranked battles, so things don’t quite feel as predatory as other mobile games can.

From a visual standpoint, for a game that is all about battling, Champions falls on its face harder than Brock did whenever he tried to flirt with the latest pretty face in the TV show. Instead of being the stars of the show, the Pokémon lack texture and detail. Moves themselves fare a bit better overall, but can swing wildly in quality – for example, Hyper Beam vaporizes the opponent like a scene out of Dragon Ball Z, but Body Slam sees the user simply rise up and come back down, flattening their opponent while remaining in an idle animation. And is it so much to ask that attacks originate from somewhere that makes sense? It’s 2026; it would be great if Bullet Seed didn’t just spawn a few feet in front of my Pokémon.

The Pokémon series isn’t exactly known for its looks, so as much as I would love it if Champions looked like last year’s Digimon Story Time Stranger, I didn’t expect it to – but for a game all about the fighting, I hoped a bit more effort would have been spent on making it all look cool at least. I tried to compare the models to games as far back as 2018’s Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee to see what (if any) changes or updates had been made, and I’d be hard-pressed to point out any major tweaks. Simply seeing your Pokémon in 3D no longer holds the same majesty or gravitas that it did when the mainline games were all 2D sprites, and Champions fails to push the bar any higher to bring back some of that excitement.

While there are many aspects of Champions that doused my excitement a bit, I have found the Training Room and what it offers to be quite successful. By spending your VP, you are able to not only boost a Pokémon’s individual stats, but (far more excitingly) swap out moves, its special ability, and even its nature. All of these alterations stay locked to Champions and won’t carry over if you send them off to another game, but this sort of fine-tuning does provide room for theory and strategy crafting that I appreciate. That said, requiring you to pay VP to make those changes does blemish it somewhat. I worry that if Nintendo ever decides to allow players to purchase the resource directly, it will quickly spiral into a pay-to-win situation.

Developer Embark Studios has once again announced tweaks to the Arc Raiders Expedition window, and players who have spent months saving millions of credits are feeling left behind.

The developer behind the ongoing extraction shooter published a long list of adjustments for its prestige feature, which allows players to start over with bonuses depending on their performance, in a blog post on its website today. Instead of requiring the last-season switch of 3 million credits worth of stash value for the maximum amount of bonus skill points, Embark is removing the credit stipulation for the third Expedition and will now reward points based on damage dealt.

The studio said it made these changes because "grinding for monetary value isn’t the most exciting experience," a point many fans seem to agree with. The catch is that players now have a five-day window from April 28 to May 4 at midnight to participate in and complete the challenge if they want to earn all five available skill points. While those using the catch-up mechanic to earn skill points from previous Expeditions will still earn them through stash value, those on the third window who have spent their time gathering resources since the last Expedition ended March 1 may have done all of the collecting for nothing.

"Above all, we want expeditions to be fun and not an endless grind," Embark continued. "We believe these changes create a fair and engaging challenge that keeps everyone active across the full 5 days."

It’s the fact that such a major change has arrived without warning that has most players fired up. Adding insult to injury is the lack of clarity on how much damage will be required to meet the five-skill-point mark, leaving players left to wonder if they'll be able to get all five – or any at all – in time.

"Sure is nice that every time an expedition comes around, they wait until the last possible second to let people know what to expect and what has changed," one Reddit user commented.

"My friends and I will coincidentally be on vacation for 4 of the 5 day window," someone else said. “Are we cooked?”

The fear that players won’t have the free time to dedicate to Arc Raiders during the window seems to be the prevailing concern in the community, but some do have suggestions for how the situation could be rectified. A few players who like the idea of damage instead of stash value say they’d be open to the change if Embark had announced it for Expedition four instead of Expedition three.

"I really dont get why they cant just do the same as previous expedition for this one, and then next expedition it tracks damage for the entire season to get the skill points," someone suggested. "This seems like they wanted to get rid of the 3 mil requirement, but decided it too late and now put this half ass 5-day requirement in."

This idea sounds like it can be solid but changing part of the expedition right before it starts just doesn’t make sense?

It’s also very strange not knowing how much damage you need to dish out. Will that be announced right before the expedition closes?

Good idea, bad execution https://t.co/MS41HUobfm

— EmbarkBulletin (@EmbarkBulletin) April 17, 2026

"I saved up 3 million credits throughout this entire season to 'chill' on the last phase of the expedition. It’s practically worthless now because of the lack of communication," another player added. "I do like the new change but this needed to be implemented in the BEGINNING on the season… People have lives, on vacation, or have important stuff scheduled… like wtf, Embark. A 5 day window is absurd."

Arc Raiders is facing an important point in its post-launch rollout as players await its Riven Tides update. Set to go live later this month, the content drop is expected to be its biggest yet, with a roadmap shared earlier this year saying it would include the first new map in months. Embark has yet to comment on how it may respond to those disappointed with the new Expedition changes.

We gave Arc Raiders a 9/10 review when it launched October 2025. Recent updates have added new enemies and map conditions, as well as balance changes for some of the most powerful weapons taking over the PvP scene. For more, you can keep up with the BAFTA Game Awards 2026, where Embark managed to win for Multiplayer. You can also check out our interview with CEO Patrick Söderlund.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

The BAFTA Games Awards 2026 saw big wins for Dispatch, Ghost of Yōtei, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. But there were some surprises in there, too - in true BAFTA style. Ghost of Yōtei winning best music over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, for example, came as something of a shock. Daredevil star Charlie Cox didn't get the chance to big up the Fench motion capture performer behind Clair Obscur's Gustave (something he almost certainly would have done had he won best performer in a supporting role). That went to Jeffrey Wright, who played Chase in Dispatch. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lost out to Kingdom Come: Deliverance II in the best narrative category, and to Microsoft's South of Midnight in the New Intellectual Property category, too.

Sandfall Interactive won't be too down, however; the French studio won best Debut Game, and Jennifer English, fresh from her big The Game Awards 2025 win, continued her run by taking home the best Performer in a Leading Role award for her performance as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. And, of course, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won the biggest award of the night: Best Game. I'm not sure there was ever going to be another winner.

Elsewhere, Rebellion's Atomfall won British Game, Hello Games' No Man's Sky won Evolving Game, and Embark's Arc Raiders won Multiplayer.

A huge congratulations to the Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 team who take to the stage to accept the BAFTA for Best Game at the #BAFTAGamesAwards with @GooglePlay🌟 pic.twitter.com/DyTQifTlam

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

Jennifer English walks away with the BAFTA for Performer in a Leading Role at the #BAFTAGamesAwards with @GooglePlay🏆 pic.twitter.com/ktIx4mMhCi

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

The team behind Arc Raiders accepts the Multiplayer BAFTA at the #BAFTAGamesAwards with @GooglePlay 🏆 pic.twitter.com/FLUN9z0tzB

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

An incredible moment as the whole team behind No Man's Sky takes to the stage to accept the Evolving Game award at the #BAFTAGamesAwards with @GooglePlay 🏆 pic.twitter.com/y4NHFaV3tq

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

Blue Prince takes home the BAFTA for Game Design at the #BAFTAGamesAwards with @GooglePlay 👏 pic.twitter.com/G0F76KVgFC

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

Congratulations to the Atomfall team for taking home the BAFTA for British Game🏆 pic.twitter.com/1AqMvO0QJx

— BAFTA Games (@BAFTAGames) April 17, 2026

Check the roundup below to see the winners list in full.

BAFTA Games Awards 2026 Winners: The Full List

Animation: Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)

Artistic Achievement: Death Stranding 2: On The Beach (Kojima Productions)

Audio Achievement: Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)

Best Game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive)

British Game: Atomfall (Rebellion)

Debut Game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive)

Evolving Game: No Man's Sky (Hello Games)

Family: LEGO Party! (SMG Studio)

Fellowship: Ilkka Paananen (CEO & co-founder of Supercell)

Game Beyond Entertainment: Despelote (Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena)

Game Design: Blue Prince (Tonda Ros)

Multiplayer: Arc Raiders (Embark Studios)

Music: Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch)

Narrative: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Warhorse Studios)

New Intellectual Property: South of Midnight (Compulsion Games)

Performer in a Leading Role: Jennifer English (Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)

Performer in a Supporting Role: Jeffrey Wright (Chase in Dispatch)

Technical Achievement: Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch)

BAFTA Games Awards 2026 Nominees: The Full List

Animation

• Battlefield 6
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Dispatch
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Artistic Achievement

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Dispatch
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• South of Midnight

Audio Achievement

• Arc Raiders
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Dispatch
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Best Game

• Arc Raiders
• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Dispatch
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

British Game

• Atomfall
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
• Mafia: The Old Country
• Monument Valley 3
• PowerWash Simulator 2
• Two Point Museum

Debut Game

• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• Dispatch
• The Midnight Walk

Evolving Game

• Fallout 76
• Helldivers 2
• Hitman: World of Assassination
• No Man’s Sky
• Vampire Survivors
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Family

• Donkey Kong Bananza
• Is This Seat Taken?
• Lego Party!
• Mario Kart World
• PowerWash Simulator 2
• Two Point Museum

Fellowship

• Ilkka Paananen (CEO & co-founder of Supercell)

Game Beyond Entertainment

• The Alters
• And Roger
• Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
• Consume Me
• Despelote
• Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Game Design

• Ball X Pit
• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hades II
• Split Fiction

Multiplayer

• Arc Raiders
• Dune: Awakening
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Lego Party!
• Split Fiction
• PEAK

Music

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Dispatch
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Narrative

• The Alters
• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

New Intellectual Property

• The Alters
• Arc Raiders
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Dispatch
• South of Midnight
• Split Fiction

Performer in a Leading Role

• Aaron Paul as Robert Robertson in Dispatch
• Ben Starr as Verso in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Erika Ishii as Atsu in Ghost of Yōtei
• Jennifer English as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Tom McKay as Henry of Skalitz in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Troy Baker as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Performer in a Supporting Role

• Alix Wilton Regan as Lea Florence Monad in Lies Of P: Overture
• Charlie Cox as Gustave in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Jane Perry as Lia Cain in Dead Take
• Jeffrey Wright as Chase in Dispatch
• Kirsty Rider as Lune in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Troy Baker as Higgs in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Technical Achievement

• Arc Raiders
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Doom: The Dark Ages
• Ghost of Yōtei
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Split Fiction

Photo by Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

You’ll likely be aware of Catan, the board game phenomenon that bought the novelty and imagination of German design into worldwide awareness, selling 40 million copies along the way. You’re perhaps less likely to be aware of the dizzying number of expansions and spinoffs the original has spawned, such as the Catan: Histories line of historically themed games or the Rocketman EXE version released on the Japanese market.

The newest, smallest and cheapest addition to the range is Catan: On the Road which, like Catan: The Card Game, uses only a few decks of cards but boasts all-new mechanics.

What's in the Box

Rules and How it Plays

If you’re familiar with the original Catan board game, you’ll immediately understand the concepts underpinning Catan: On the Road. Each player receives resource cards which they can spend on building cards, with different buildings requiring different combinations of resources. The most common is the Settlement, which is worth one victory point. City cards, which have to be placed atop Settlements, are worth two points, and let you get an extra resource each turn. Metropolis cards have to go atop cities, are worth three points, and get you two extra resources each turn. First to seven points immediately wins.

The most obvious difference is that there is no map. Resource cards are simply drawn randomly from the deck. Roads are another building type which function like ports in the original game: as you accumulate more of them, you can cash in groups of matching resource cards as if they were a single card of a different type. There’s no robber piece, either. Instead, every time a Settlement is built players draw an event card, one half of which are robbers, resulting in everyone with more than seven resource cards discarding half. Knights are another building type that lets you keep more resources when you’re hit by the robber. Having more Road or Knight cards than anyone else gives you a hefty two-point bonus.

While the lack of map is striking, the biggest functional change between this and the original game is that there are only five face-up building cards at a time, so you can’t build whatever you want whenever you have the resources. Rather, you can either try to work with whatever is available to build a strategy around, or you can gather the required resources for the build you want and hope you’re in pole position when one gets added to the queue. This, together with the random resource draw, makes the game feel decidedly less strategic, but compensates by adding flexibility and excitement.

Another compensation is that, without the interactive blocking that happens on the map, trading is instead emphasized as a more positive means of player interaction. Whenever a successful trade is concluded, the accepting player gets a bonus resource card free off the top of the deck. This makes trading much livelier and very desirable, resulting in plenty of bargaining and verbal jousting rather than the miserly tendencies engendered by the original game. Yet you can still refuse to trade with players when they’re close to winning.

The result is, astonishingly, a game that feels an awful lot like Catan without needing a huge box and an hour-plus play time: the fifteen-minutes boast on the box is a little misleading, but only a little. The feeling of slowly building up from humble beginnings to a thriving civilization is still there as your tableau of buildings and flow of cards expands. You’re energetically driving trades and deals with your opponents for valuable resources. The excitement of the dice roll is perfectly substituted with the excitement of the card draw.

One thing that’s missing is that, without the two dice, there’s no element of playing the probability curve to strategize around. In many ways that feels as emblematic of Catan as the robber, or offering your wood for sheep. While it’s perhaps a small price to pay for the simpler rule set, kinder gameplay and vastly compressed time investment, it still feels like a loss.

A bigger problem is that the replacement Robber mechanic seems to be a bit toothless. Because you’re pulling cards at random rather than receiving resources next to your existing buildings on the map, and because trading is so strongly rewarded, you have access to a wider spread of resources than in the original. As a result, accumulating the resources required to buy a building is much more straightforward, and players are rarely stuck with more than seven cards when the Robber strikes. This, in turn, renders Knights pretty much useless as anything other than a route to bonus victory points.

There are, however, definitely multiple other ways you can approach Catan: On The Road. Trying to increase your resource income through Cities and Metropolis upgrades is the obvious one, but it’s expensive. Roads in this version are surprisingly powerful, not only offering a point bonus but the ability to swap matching resource cards for others provides enormous flexibility. Or you can potentially roll with whatever the building deck and turn order gives you, attempting to reach the winning tape through Settlements and the Knight bonus.

Once you’re used to the different paths to victory, you can mix things up by using the alternative Metropolis cards. Rather than giving two resources per turn, each of these offers one extra card and a different effect that you can pick which you want when you build it. Two of them give extra resources depending on how many Roads or Knights you have. The other two let you win ties for the bonus points awarded for the most Road or Knight cards. These are a worthwhile addition: two-resource Metropolis cards feel a little overpowered, and these variants offer a bit of extra strategizing. But Metropolises are not built frequently enough for them to be a major game change: since each is worth three points, by the time anyone builds one, the game is almost over.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at Catan Shop

I’m no master deckbuilder just yet, but Secrets of Strixhaven (Magic: The Gathering’s next set) just gave me a pair of ideal Izzet (Red/Blue) cards to drop into a deck I already felt was finished.

As with many, I loved how powerful (read: broken) Vivi Ornitier was in last year’s Final Fantasy set, so I took a pair of spellslinger decks, mashed them together, and put together something that’s all about casting as many spells as possible.

Maybe I’m Not Quite Done With This Deck After All

There will always be tweaks to make, of course: Spellslinger decks tend to get swamped by big stompy creatures if the draw doesn’t go your way, but after somehow packing a Confetti Foil version of Omniscience, if I can ride out potential awkward mid-games, I can start playing cards without their mana cost.

So, what’s new in Secrets of Strixhaven? First up is Primari, the Inspiration. It’s a 7/7 with Flying, and makes up one of five Elder Dragons in the set. The Ward cost is 5 life, which is the kind of transaction no one wants to make in the late game, and it gives Instant and Sorcery spells Storm.

That means pairing it with my Omniscience can mean an awful lot of spells at once.

Prismari looks to be a shoo-in for the next version of my Commander Deck, then, but it’s not alone. Colorstorm Stallion is a 3/3 with Ward 1 and Haste, with the keyword Opus. This means it powers up until the end of the turn when I’m casting spells (a little like Prowess), but with the added bonus that big spells (of five or more mana) will create a token of it, which will also have haste and be ready to hit hard.

Get into the late game with Vivi Ornitier generating mana, or having Omniscience on the board, and that Opus keyword could really come into its own - giving me a fleet of Colorstorm Stallions as I cast bigger and bigger spells.

The challenge now will be removing two cards to make way, but I think these could be really fun new cards to include. And, with a whole host of cards likely to be revealed, that challenge could only get tougher to navigate. Have any cards have caught your eye so far? Let us know in the comments.

For more on Commander, be sure to check out some of the most powerful precon decks in the format so far, as well as a look at some currently on sale.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.

In an out-of-left-field collaboration, Square Enix is teaming up with Filipino fast food chain Jollibee to bring Final Fantasy XIV content to the game and, well, to real life, too!

During the latest Live Letter from the Producer detailing the upcoming Patch 7.5, FFXIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida revealed the partnership and what exactly you can get from it. While you can get the six-piece chickenjoy or combo meal in the specially made FFXIV-themed box, the brand-new item is the blue raspberry drink with clear boba. There's also a limited-time FFXIV x Jollibee apparel lineup with t-shirts and sweaters. However, the big ticket item is a new, exclusive in-game emote called "Eat Chicken" where your character will whip out a bucket of chicken and start eating.

The collaboration begins on April 21 and will run through May 31. Additionally, the Anaheim, CA location near FFXIV Fan Fest (happening on April 24 and 25) will be decorated as a popup event during this period with exclusive stickers to give away. Below are all the details on how to participate.

How to Get the FFXIV Eat Chicken Emote

To get the Eat Chicken emote, you must either purchase a qualifying meal (the collaboration meal, to be exact) at a participating Jollibee location in the US or Canada or purchase one of the clothing items from Complex (when it goes live), then and submit your order information on the Jollibee redemption page. It'll then be validated and an item code for the emote will be emailed to you, which you then punch into your account via the Mog Station.

Limited-Time FFXIV x Jollibee Merch

Yoshida, along with FFXIV composer Masayoshi Soken and community manager Toshio Murouchi, showed off the shirts and sweaters from the collab on stream. There's a crew neck sweater and a t-shirt with the Jollibee mascot riding a chocobo, along with a hooded sweatshirt and t-shirt with Moogles eating various Jollibee food items. The back of each of these also contain the wise words of Hydaelyn herself: "Hear...feel...think...Jollibee." These will be sold on Complex.com.

What's New on the Jollibee Menu

There are two FFXIV-themed meals. One is a box meal that includes a chicken sandwich (original or spicy), regular fries, a peach mango pie, a one-piece Chickenjoy with a side of gravy, and the blue raspberry aether drink with crystal boba (or pineapple quencher for Canada). The other is a six-piece Chickenjoy that also comes with three of the aforementioned drinks. Again, the only new item is the blue raspberry boba drink (which mimics the look of FFXIV's aetherytes), but these are the qualifying meals to get the emote.

The chicken bucket and meal box also feature unique artwork, and also have the disclaimer: "No chocobos were harmed in the making of this meal." Well, that's good to know considering the box features precious baby Alpha holding a drumstick.

Personally, I'm hyped for the crossover growing up as a Filipino kid hitting up my local Jollibee in National City and as someone who has proclaimed FFXIV as his favorite game of all time. It's pretty crazy screaming "Uy, Philippines!" clapping my hands watching and covering a Live Letter. Speaking of which, I have all the details you need on FFXIV Patch 7.5 which goes live on April 28. Shortly before that, I'll be at FFXIV Fan Fest covering the finalized details for the patch and the expected reveal of the next expansion.

Michael Higham is an editor at IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and news in written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering long RPGs and tech products, but he's got range when it comes to games. You'll also catch him at events and hosting video content, including IGN's weekly podcast Unlocked.

Pokémon fans have spent weeks accusing Pickmos of being a rip-off, and now, publisher Networkgo has stepped in, starting by taking down its Steam page.

The company backing developer PocketGame took to the official Pickmos X/Twitter account to clear the air after players noticed that its Steam page was nowhere to be found. Its message was clear: "Networkgo has officially intervened in the development of PocketGame."

Networkgo says it will be "supervising" the development of Pickmos “from a player’s perspective.” The goal, as outlined in a follow-up post, is to steer away from the controversy that has plagued most conversations about the game regarding its clear Pokémon influence for the last month.

Hello players, this is the publisher, Networkgo. We’ve heard your feedback regarding the removal of our Steam store page and want to clear things up. Networkgo has officially intervened in the development of PocketGame.
We will be supervising the Pickmos team from a player’s… pic.twitter.com/ckqt4AEYUj

— Pickmos / Pickmon / ピックモス (@PickMon_EN) April 16, 2026

"We are revising the game to ensure a controversy-free experience," one message from the Pickmos account said. "It will be re-released once our publisher gives the final approval."

Conversation around Pickmos picked up in early March when players began to call out developer PocketGame not only for how it has pulled from Pokémon but also from other games, such as The Legend of Zelda, Overwatch, and even Palworld, too. Its initial reveal, which saw it announced with the name Pickmon before dropping its "N" for an "S," included plans to launch for PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch soon. With its Steam page now, at least temporarily, shuttered, it’s unclear when or where Pickmos will arrive, or what it will even look like.

Meanwhile, Pickmos has also been under fire for what many believe is "stolen art." The design in question involves a piece created by X user @ElpsyFake01, which depicted concept art for an alternate Mega evolution for the Pokémon Meganium.

"Hello, I am an editor from the publisher, and we are currently gathering some information," Networkgo said regarding the allegations. "We will be actively reaching out to @ElpsyFake01."

For now, there is no word on how Pickmos will evolve to dodge any future controversy. For more on creature-collecting in video games, you can read about Nintendo's recently rejected Pokémon patent.

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

There have been hundreds of ways you could fight dragons in Skyrim, but have you ever tried engaging them in the marketplace of ideas? Well, a bizarre mod will finally let you do just that.

This is far from the first wild mod to be made for Skyrim, which has basically built its entire legacy on its modding scene. But, still, every now and then a mod comes out that completely boggles the mind. Skyrim modder BlurbsTV just made like six of them, and turned them all on at once.

As spotted by GamesRadar+, Blurbs asked his Twitch chat to give him a bunch of unhinged ideas for mods, and just made them. Dragon shouts shooting chickens everywhere, a self-replicating Nazeem, randomly spawning Khajiit that make you ragdoll, and of course, the ability to debate dragons on Tamriel geopolitics and memes. Exactly what I want out of a modded install in 2026.

I modded Skyrim so you can only defeat dragons by debating them on the geopolitics of Tamriel.

Unfortunately, Twitch chat forgot the geopolitics part almost immediately... pic.twitter.com/Ad6Grw87ZR

— Blurbs (@Blurbstv) April 15, 2026

The debates with the dragons take the place of combat: a dragon will spawn and then a text-to-speech bot will ask a question. In classic debate style, the Dragonborn gets 20 seconds to respond, with the dragon getting time to issue a rebuttal. The catch is that chat decides who won the debate, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

In the clip, there was one dragon debate that Blurbs was able to actually win, which involved a question about banning the internet due to Stormcloak propaganda. But, once the debate was over he trips over a randomly spawned Khajiit and flies off the side of a cliff. Incredible.

Unfortunately, none of these mods are available on Nexus Mods or the Steam Workshop, so you can't download them yourself, but BlurbsTV's video is absolutely worth watching for a laugh. If for nothing else, it'll remind you just how weird Skyrim can still get, 15 years and more than a dozen releases later.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Recent Slay the Spire 2 Steam reviews have fallen to "Mixed" after a new update triggered a second wave of review bombing.

The sequel to developer Mega Crit's popular roguelike deckbuilder, which launched in Early Access to "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews March 5, received its first major update (version 0.103.2) yesterday. It’s a patch that introduced updated art, a range of UI and UX adjustments, tweaked writing for clarity, and more, but not everyone is pleased with the host of balance changes it added.

It’s resulted in an influx of negative reviews and, at least temporarily, left Slay the Spire 2 with the mustard-yellow Mixed recent reviews label. Unfortunately, it also appears to be something Mega Crit expected, with its patch notes beginning with a warning in bold: "This is still an Early Access game, so just because something made it from beta to main does not mean it's set in stone."

"Be sure to pay close attention when embarking on your next few runs: many things that you've grown used to have been re-balanced, reworked, or even removed (in a couple rare cases)," the Slay the Spire 2 patch notes added. "However, quite a few new pieces of content have also been added for you to dig into."

At the time of this piece’s publication, a whopping 4,800 negative reviews have been posted today alone. Steam filters show that users sharing reviews in Simplified Chinese have fallen to Mixed, with most other languages reflecting a "Very Positive" or "Overwhelmingly Positive" reception.

Running many of the more popular reviews through Google Translate reveals that players appear to be disappointed in balance changes. Some have suggested Mega Crit hastily pushed out the version 0.103.2 update without consideration for fans.

"This is no longer the Early Access title I supported financially," one user, who translated their own review, said when requesting a refund. "This is a hostile, gutted shell of what was promised. I am genuinely nauseated by every minute I have spent with this build of the game."

As you may have noticed in the graph above, this is the second time Slay the Spire 2 has faced some level of review-bombing. The first instance happened following an earlier update in March, with many of the negative reviews posted in its wake also criticizing balance changes. As pointed out by Kotaku, Steam users in China will often take to review-bombing as a result of restrictions on social media across the country. Valve’s digital storefront in turn offers a place for players to voice their frustrations.

Some users have also started leaving positive reviews not only to share their appreciation for Mega Crit’s work but to speak out against the flood of negative reviews.

"Why are we review bombing the game????" one user said during the first wave of review-bombing in March. "The balance patch is not that bad, the game is still fun, the game is in early access and you should expect many balance changes, and THE PATCH ISN'T EVEN ON THE MAIN BRANCH ITS ON THE BETA FOR TESTING. You should ignore all the recent negative reviews complaining about the balance patch."

As Slay the Spire 2 faces a string of negative reviews, player numbers on Steam seem to be holding strong. After launching to a staggering peak of 574,000 concurrent players early last month, the sequel currently has a 24-hour peak of 286,000 players (via SteamDB).

We gave Slay the Spire 2 a 9/10 review upon the arrival of its Early Access release. We said at the time that it "doesn't radically rethink the original's deckbuilding roguelike successes, but it does build on top of them in a way that reinvigorates its captivating gameplay."

Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He's best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).

Magic: The Gathering is about to head back to Strixhaven, marking the second trip to a familiar plane this year after Lorwyn Eclipsed.

While we’re very excited about our return to the magic college’s hallowed halls, Amazon has cut the price of one of the Lorwyn Commander precons to a new low. Better yet, it’s possibly the most interesting deck of 2026 so far, and it can be yours for under $40.

One of the most challenging parts of playing a new game is knowing whether or not the endgame experience will have the legs to sustain itself when measured in months instead of days. I fell prey to this particular pitfall myself after Diablo 4’s vanilla debut in 2023, when I said some things about the endgame experience that I later regretted. Sometimes an endgame experience seems like it’s great in the moment, then a couple weeks roll by and that content begins to feel thin, repetitive, or not nearly as fleshed out as you originally thought (again, my bad). I’ve generally really enjoyed the endgame activities Diablo IV has had so far, whether it’s the tree of whispers bounties from the base game or the super unique raid-like activity from Vessel of Hatred. But Diablo 4 is a game that practically begs you to play it every waking moment of your life, and each version of the endgame so far has failed to remain compelling more than a few weeks after launch, largely due to the fact that each iteration has directed you to a small number of activities that, while fun, just weren’t enough.

It’s with all this in mind that I approached the endgame of Diablo 4’s upcoming expansion, Lord of Hatred. Could Blizzard finally give us an endgame that was not only fun at launch, but also offered enough variety to keep folks engaged in the long term? After playing a few hours of it recently and talking to the developers about what they’re building, I can confirm that Blizzard appears to have received the feedback in this area, and has created an endgame structure that, at the very least, has a much better chance of keeping my attention.

After you’ve finished going to war with the Lord of Hatred himself, the main way you’ll grind for all that delicious loot is through War Plans, a structured playlist that points you to various endgame activities and removes the barriers to entry those activities might normally have. Maybe you’ll spend some time looting a Helltide event before teleporting over to a Nightmare Dungeon to find and kill the boss, then rounding it out with a trip to the good ol’ Pit for some time trial action. The specific nature of the activities you play are determined by a branching tree where you can pick from a few options before teleporting to each activity to take it down, and with six options pulled from the existing endgame activities in Diablo 4, there’s quite a bit of variety baked in.

The best part of War Plans is how quickly it gets you into the action from activity to activity. You no longer have to hunt for Nightmare Dungeon keys or figure out where on the map a Helltide is going on – once you complete one activity, you just teleport straight on over to the next activity and keep slaying. It also means that you spend less time figuring out which activity to focus on, or if you’re new or haven’t played in a while, what even are the endgame activities you’re supposed to be funnelled into if you want to continue your loot and leveling climb. This all made working my way through each new branching checklist fast, quick, rewarding, and a lot more replayable than focusing on a single activity like an uber boss or the raid from Vessel of Hatred.

Another new part of War Plans are the upgradable trees that come along with each activity, from the Tree of Whispers to Infernal Hordes, which customize each of those events, either by modifying a specific behavior within it, or allowing you to control the type of rewards you’ll earn from them. For example, in the Nightmare Dungeons tree, you can buy a perk that guarantees treasure goblins will drop a specific kind of loot when killed and in the Helltide tree, you can buy a perk that will double the rate at which your kills increase the threat level when affected by a shrine. You won’t be able to earn enough points to buy all the perks, and some are pretty explicitly mutually exclusive anyway, which means you’ll need to pick and choose which to buy depending on how you want to play and how you want to be rewarded for all your hard work.

Beyond War Plans, I also tried out the new horde mode called Echoing Hatred, where you’re thrown into an extremely challenging mode that goes on until you drop dead, offering loot equal to your level of success. This unending arena starts off at the lowest difficulty tier and ups the ante every time you’ve wiped the floor with enough enemies, throwing a boss or two every now and then and eventually a whole bunch of them at the same time. Not only must you survive, but you’re also required to continuously score kills, as the “Overwhelmed” meter fills up every time a new enemy spawns and if you don’t cut them down to size quickly, that meter will put an abrupt end to your run.

Obviously the main draw of this mode is how mindlessly straightforward it is, allowing you to simply push your build as far as it can go and engage in nonstop action for as long as you can possibly keep standing. The fact that it offers rewards equal to your effort and skill is also a pretty efficient way to level. But one of the other really cool things about this mode is that since it’s agnostic to whichever world tier you’re currently in and moves you through them as you progress, it’s an awesome way to test if you’re ready for the next world tier. After all, if you can make it through this constant onslaught in the tier after the one you’re currently playing in, it’s a pretty good sign you’re probably ready to advance to the next bracket. This is especially important since Lord of Hatred is going from a maximum world tier of Torment 4 to Torment 12, which is honestly pretty insane. With so many difficulty options to choose from, this mode feels like the perfect way to figure out where you stand with your current build.

One thing I didn’t get a chance to get a feel for in my time with Lord of Hatred’s endgame is how it feels when played with friends, as all of my time during the demo was spent solo. I’ve got some questions about how it’ll feel, specifically activities like War Plans, where your specific playlist of things to do is unlikely to match up with the other members of your crew perfectly. I was told that friends would still receive credit (and of course the rewards) for running War Plans together, but I’m curious if it might feel like being a second or third wheel when following the party leader around. I prefer to play Diablo 4 with my fellow Wanderers, so this will be a pretty important piece of the puzzle that I haven’t seen firsthand just yet.

It would be downright irresponsible of me to omit the most serious addition to the endgame coming with Lord of Hatred: fishing. Call me crazy, but an activity most common in cozy games somehow feels right at home in Diablo 4, and I spent a good chunk of time with my fishing pole visiting each region in search of fresh pools of water or lava to find new gilled friends. Seriously though, this addition is pretty much just a bit, and from my limited experience didn’t seem like there was a lot to it, with only a few different fish to find in each zone that came to me quite quickly, but still, it’s pretty amusing that they added this and I’m all for it. I do wish they’d have made the minigame for catching fish something a bit more engaging than just tapping a single button once the fish bites onto the hook, but hey, this is Diablo – I’m not expecting them to go full Animal Crossing here.

After a few hours with Lord of Hatred’s endgame, I’m more optimistic than ever that the new War Plan system will be a format that goes the distance and keeps me engaged at least a bit longer than past iterations. And anything that gives me more excuses to keep dungeon delving in this awesome ARPG sounds alright by me.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

This past March, tabletop publisher WeirdCo launched their Kickstarter for the brand new Cyberpunk Trading Card Game. Officially blessed by CD Projekt RED, the project was highly anticipated, but few could have predicted just how explosive its funding period would actually be.

In the span of mere minutes, the campaign passed a million dollars. Now, less than a few weeks later and as the campaign draws to a close (officially on April 17, 2026, at 3 PM PST), this game of cardboard rectangles comfortably sits at over $25 million (and the rest), with over 43,000 backs to boot.

Speaking in a Japanese parliamentary session today, Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Toshimitsu Motegi, called out the White House for using Nintendo Wii Sports footage without permission in a pro-war X post last month.

In March, the official White House X account posted a clip containing Wii Sports footage interspersed with what appears to be military footage from the U.S.’s Operation Epic Fury airstrikes on Iran.

UNDEFEATED. pic.twitter.com/Jt69bcag5y

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 12, 2026

As reported by Japan’s Kyodo News agency, Motegi referenced the White House’s post in the lower house session on April 17. He commented in Japanese that, “Generally speaking, it’s inappropriate even for public institutions to reproduce copyrighted materials without the rightsholders’ consent.”

This is not an isolated incident. The U.S. government has been posting many images and clips on social media that contain copyrighted IPs, including Nintendo’s. More recently, on April 1, the White House X account posted a mash-up of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and NASA footage to celebrate the Artemis II mission.

🚀🌕 pic.twitter.com/p4RmUgRgww

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 1, 2026

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s social media accounts posted Ice raid footage juxtaposed with the Pokémon anime and its theme tune. Then, in March, the White House X account jumped on the Pokémon Pokopia cover art trend, creating their own version of the meme with the game’s title replaced by ‘Make America Great Again.’ The Pokémon Company spoke out against both incidents, stating that they were made without the company’s permission or involvement. “Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda,” said The Pokémon Company at the time.

Many others have made statements against The White House claiming that copyrighted materials or likenesses have been used without consent. This includes Yu-Gi-Oh’s official account and Master Chief voice actor Steve Downes.

As pointed out by The New York Times, Trump administration spokesperson Abigail Jackson has previously commented to double down on their social media strategy. “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s extremely popular agenda,” Jackson said. “There’s a reason so many people try to copy our style — our message resonates.”

Although Nintendo has yet to issue an official statement regarding the White House’s use of its IPs, it is currently suing the U.S. government on a different matter, seeking a refund for Trump’s tariffs, which impacted the company’s Switch 2 launch plans.

Japan’s minister for foreign affairs is currently working to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran conflict and restore stability in the Strait of Hormuz, as reported by The Japan Times and others.

Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

Starfield does tend to feel like a marmite game; you either love it or hate it.

I, personally, love it, and have sunk hundreds of hours into the game even before the recent Free Lanes content update (which has been like a breath of fresh air for my new playthrough).

The Galaxies Showcase was filled with tons of games, seven world premieres, exclusive reveals, demo drops, and so much more, including Echoes of Aincrad, Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, Northgard: Battlegrounds, Kitaria Fables 2, Phasmophobia x Alan Wake 2, and much more.

There were so many wonderful-looking games during the show, and this guide has gathered them all into one place to ensure you don't miss any of them. Be sure to let us know which games are your favorites!

Echoes of Aincrad

Step into the Sword Art Online universe with Echoes of Aincrad, and upcoming action RPG where players risk their lives with every battle. Players will also quest to conquer the floating castle of Aincrad, level up their skills and choose their own playstyle, and "rise and claim your destiny or fall to foes stronger than you imagined."

Echoes of Aincrad will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on July 10, 2026.

Construction Simulator: Evolution

Step into the world of Construction with Construction Simulator: Evolution, which features Volvo equipment and other licensed partners, two new maps, manual labor, and demolition works.

Construction Simulator: Evolution will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Kitaria Fables 2

Kitaria Fables 2 is an action RPG that stars new heroes Alice and Dusty, who must embark on an adventure across the mysterious Arkadera Peninsula while also farming and crafting along the way. Develop combat skills, forge powerful items, gather rare materials, and you can even do it all with a friend!

Kitaria Fables 2 will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC.

Northgard Battlegrounds

Northgard Battlegrounds is an upcoming PC city-building auto-battler that's set in the Viking world of Northgard, where "every building you place shapes your clan's fate."

Stardream

Stardream is a story-driven investigation game where you play Darlene, an ordinary taxi driver who is "unwillingly drawn into an affair that gradually shakes the balance of an apparently perfect space society and paves the way for a possible revolution."

Stardream will be released on PC and a demo is available now.

Wall World Strategy

Wall World Strategy is an upcoming colony sim game set in the Wall World universe. Build a colony on a sheer vertical surface and make decisions that will be the difference from making the wall your home or your end. Manage resources and people, develop new tech to defend against zyrex attacks, and send robo-spiders to gather important resources.

Wall World Strategy will be released on PC and a playtest is now available on Steam.

Mojo Party

Mojo Party is a fast-paced multiplayer party game where "pop culture knowledge meets friendly competition." The game is built for 1-16 players, and it aims to turn conversations we already have into interactive challenges.

Mojo Party will be available on PC, but players will be able to use their mobile devices to play.

When Sirens Fall Silent - Act 2: The Station

Watch a new trailer for When Sirens Fall Silent - Act 2: The Station, the next chapter of the dark psychological thriller set in 1990s Italy. Players become Mila, a troubled policewoman who is drawn into a high-profile case of kidnappings and murders.

When Sirens Fall Silent - Act 2: The Station will be available on PC.

Yerba Buena

Dive into the surreal 1970s in Yerba Buena and save San Francisco from a sinister threat. You'll play as Barb, and use the Oscillator to capture and reapply the physical traits of objects to solve mind-bending environmental platforming puzzles.

Yerba Buena will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on May 26, 2026. A demo is out now.

Atomic Heart DLC Blood on Crystal

Atomic Heart's fourth and final DLC is called Blood on Crystal, and it's now available. In this DLC, P-3 and the Twin must travel to the Crystal Complex to face CHAR-les in an "all-out bloody showdown against new enemies - Polymorphs - and the most insane bosses of Facility 3826.

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire

MOUSE: P.I. For Hire is available now on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Switch 2, and you can watch a brand-new trailer to learn more about this first-person shooter that features an animated style inspired by classic 1930s cartoon.

Directive 8020

From the creators of Until Dawn and The Quarry, Directive 8020 is a new tale about our Earth dying and humanity running out of time. We must travel 12 lightyears to Tau Ceti f to survive, but when the colony ship Cassiopeia crash lands on the planet, everyone quickly discovers they aren't alone and that "death takes many forms."

Directive 8020 will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on May 12, 2026.

Hell Let Loose Vietnam

Step into a brutal war in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam, where you will play a decisive role in 50v50 player battles. If you are to emerge victorious, you'll need teamwork, tactics, and destructive weaponry, and you'll be able to play i on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Wardrum

Lead a tribal warband and time your attacks to the beat of the titular Wardrum in this tactical turn-based roguelite. Band together to stop the dark sorcery from infecting the lands.

Wardrum will be available on PC on May 7, 2026.

Bus Bound

From the creators of Bus Simulator 21, Bus Bound lets players explore a vibrant city and drive officially licensed buses. You'll also need to work to transform this city into a "pedestrian-friendly parade - one stop at a time." Bus Bound will be released on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S on April 30, 2026.

ReVamp

ReVamp is a tower-defense strategy roguelike where players will need to fortify their defenses in their castle to keep mortals from taking your throne. Become Dracula and expand your home, get upgrades, and turn the "labyrinth into a weapon."

ReVamp is coming soon to PC.

SpaceCraft

The universe is yours in SpaceCraft, an online space exploration and building game where you'll need to explore, mine and craft resources, design and build ships, automate planetary bases and interplanetary logistics, and much more.

SpaceCraft will be released in Early Access on PC on May 20, 2026.

Farever

Embark on a journey in a forgotten realm in the online co-op action RPG called Farever. Carve your own path through an expansive fantasy world when Farever launches in Early Access on PC on May 6, 2026.

Frostrail

Enter a frozen, corrupted world in Frostrail alone or with friends, and operate and upgrade a steam-powered train where every choice is a life or death one. Check out the latest gameplay trailer to learn more and sign up for a playtest on Steam right now to try it for yourself.

Hotel Architect

Become a hotel owner in Hotel Architect, a game all about designing, building, and managing grand hotels around the world. The game is currently in Early Access, but it will launch with Version 1.0 on PC on May 14, 2026.

Task Time

Task Time is a gameshow-inspired competitive party game where eight players will be able to jump into six rounds of "unpredictable tasks and physics-fueled chaos to finish top of the leaderboard."

Task Time is now available in Early Access on PC, and it's free to play for 48 hours. Oh, and a collaboration with Peak allows you to unlock Bing Bong cosmetics in game.

Huntdown: Overtime

In Huntdown: Overtime, corporations turned crime-infested streets into profit margins for bounty hunters, and you'll become John Sawyer and "make a killing." Hunt, die, upgrade, and repeat in this explosive roguelite prequel where "every strategic upgrade strips away more flesh and builds a cybernetic fighter on chrome limb at a time."

Huntdown: Overtime will be released on Steam Early Access on May 7, 2026.

33 Immortals

33 Immortals, which is currently out in Early Access and is set to launch in Summer 2026, has received a new demo. We were also treated to a gameplay trailer that shows more of the co-op action-roguelike for 33 players that see players rebelling against God's final judgment.

Rivage

Rivage takes place in the 25th century and finds humanity in a place where it needs to expand beyond its own solar system. When we discover Vesta as a potential new home, we send the A.R.E.S space station into orbit to see if it will be a good fit. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and players will need to find a way to make things right in this sci-fi puzzle adventure game.

Rivage will be released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and a demo is available now on PC.

World of Tanks: HEAT

World of Tanks: HEAT is the first-ever hero-driven tank action game, meaning you'll need to choose an agent, customize a tank, and dominate the battlefield.

A beta for World of Tanks: HEAT is now available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Sovereign Tower

Become the Sovereign of a magical tower in the story-rich, Round Table management RPG known as Sovereign Tower. Recruit knights, assign quests, and balance egos while keeping your kingdom's destiny in mind. Don't worry, if things go wrong yo ucould always turn back time and try to rewrite fate again and again.

Sovereign Tower will be available on PC in August 2026, and a demo is available now.

Scramble Knights Royale

Scramble Knights Royale is a top-down co-op adventure battle royale where players will need to slay monsters, complete quests, and conquer dungeons while competing against up to 31 other players. Be the last knight standing when Scramble Knights Royale is released on PC and Xbox in 2026. A Beta is out now on Steam.

Second Stone: The Legend of the Hidden World

Second Stone: The Legend of the Hidden World is a story-driven adventure game that fuses platforming with fast-paced RPG combat. You'll need to jump between two world as Shiren, a young treasure hunter from Arimaya Village who is looking for the secret behind the dark hidden world.

Second Stone: The Legend of the Hidden World will be available on PC.

Casual Loop

Casual Loop is an upcoming game that blends mind-bending mechanics with a rich sci-fi story about time, consequence, and survival. Players will need to solve puzzles using the game's 'Echo' mechanic that lets them record, replay, and interact with up to three versions of your past self.

Casual Loop will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on April 23, 2026.

'83

'83 is a 40v40 squad based, objective focused online tactical first person shooter set in a Cold-War-Gone-Hot scenario, and it's going to be available via PC Early Access on April 23, 2026.

Forever Skies

Forever Skies is a first-person survival game set on a post-apocalyptic, ecologically ruined Earth, and you'll have to survive by yourself or with up to three friends to find a cure to save humanity. Build, upgrade, fly, scavenge, craft, and more in Forever, which will be on Xbox Series X/S in Summer 2026 alongside the Final Echoes Update.

Forever Skies is currently on PS5 and PC.

The Merlies

The Merlies follows a tiny bird community that's trying to find harmony in a world where the remains of an ancient civilization still looms large. Build your village amidst the ruins in this cute, post-apocalyptic adventure when The Merlies arrives on PC and Mac in 2026. A demo is out now on Steam.

Witchspire

Witchspire is a survival-crafting adventure game in a "world brimming with magic and peril." You'll need to befriend and battle creatures, conjure up a sanctuary alongside other witches in co-op or single-player, and much more.

Witchspire will be released on PC Early Access on June 10, 2026.

Akatori

Explore diverse realms across different eras in Akatori, a 2D metroidvania where you'll need to help Mako stop the Amber Storms that poison all living things. Akatori will be available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.

Old School Runescape - Leagues VI: Demonic Pacts

Leagues VI: Demonic Pacts is a limited-time game mode for Old School Runescape and it's a faster-paced variant of the original where everyone has a brand-new character. There are also a new "demonic pacts" skill tree, boosted XP rates, new mechanics, unique drops, and more.

Old School Runescape is available on PC and mobile, and the Leagues VI: Demonic Pacts mode is available now.

Lysward

Lysward is a single-player survival adventure set in a vast and unforgiving desert on the planet of Umbra. To survive, you'll need to explore, craft, team up with a companion, and use Amri magic to survive the heat.

Lysward will be released on PC and you can play a demo right now.

The Caribou Trail

The Caribou Trail is a game about WWI that doesn't want you to kill, but simply survive. The story follows three soldiers who learn the harsh realities of war through reckless missions, digging trenches, collecting dog tags and ghostly whispers in the dark, and more.

The Caribou Trail will be released on PC and PS5 on May 14, 2026.

Swan Song

Swan Song is a cozy puzzle game that really wants you to slow down, listen, and reflect. The game is set inside a magical music box and you'll be tasked with placing notes on a musical scale. When you turn a key, the composition will play and that will activate platforms and paths that guide a small swan to safety.

Swan Song will be available on PC on June 4, 2026, and a demo is out now.

Glasshouse

Glasshouse is a feudalpunk CRPG with turn-based combat that is set in a lockdown apartment block at the dawn of a World War. As if that wasn't enough, you'll need to investigate a triple murder that took place next door, fight the Political Conspiracy, and even make terrible choices before your flatmates make them for you.

Glasshouse will be released on PC.

The Backworld

Jump between reality and explore a world where "danger awaits at every turn" in The Backworld. You'll need to collect strange items, unlock new abilities, and recruit companions when The Backworld launches later on PC. If you are curious, a demo is out now on Steam.

A Study in Blue

Become a private detective named Kenneth and a runaway searching for answers named Blue in A Study Blue, a game where you'll have to explore a semi-open world, solve cases, make moral choices, and much more. A Study Blue will be available on PC in the future and a demo is out now on Steam.

Delivery Must Complete

Delivery Must Complete is described as a high-speed acelike roguelike with ssstyle, and you can see why in the trailer above. Engage in thrilling dogfights in procedural locations and battle with aircraft, blimps, dragons, and mechs.

Delivery Must Complete will be available on PC.

Dawn of Defense

Build up your war economy in Dawn of Defense, an upcoming RTS-tower defense roguelite where you'll have to defend against endless waves of foes and lead counterattacks to gain ground, secure resources, and expand.

Dawn of Defense will be available on PC, and a demo is out now on Steam.

EchoBreaker

Echobreaker requires lightning-fast precision and high-level speedrunning skills, as it casts you as a pilot in an armored wig that can manipulate time itself.

Echobreaker will be released on PC in 2026.

Pecking Order

Pecking Order is a chaotic multiplayer game where "worms flee, birds hunt, and getting eaten flips you to the other side mid-match." The games are set up for up to 16 players, and you'll need to be smart to survive to the top of the food chain.

Pecking Order will be available on PC, and a Steam Playtest will run from May 1 to May 3.

Prime Monster

Prime Monster is a political roguelike card-battler where "you fight for votes in a government of literal monsters." There will be turn-based debates, card-driven encounters where you'll have to manage scandals and build influence, and much more.

Prime Monster will be released on PC on May 4, 2026.

Silent Road

Drive through Japan's most haunted forests in Silent Road, a game where you become a night-shift taxi driver. Pick up strange passengers, fulfill their unsettling requests, and see how dark this road can get.

Silent Road will be released on PC.

Name of the Will

In Name of the Will, players are trapped in HOPE, a masked cult where "pain is salvation." This hand-drawn daylight horror narrative adventure game from Zeitgeist studio will be available on PC, Mac, and Linux, and a demo is out now on Steam.

Sucker for Love: Crush Landing

Sucker for Love: Crush Landing aims to "put the 'love' in 'Lovecraftian horror!'" This horror-comedy visual novel follows what happens when a comet named Hheily crashed into your apartment and draws you into an interplanetary conflict between light and dark.

Sucker for Love: Crush Landing will be available on PC.

Phasmophobia x Alan Wake 2

Phasmophobia is crossing over with Alan Wake 2 and the free event will begin on May 12, 2026.

We're in the home stretch leading up the next expansion for the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, and as is tradition, director and producer Naoki Yoshida detailed everything in the next wave of content during a Live Letter from the Producer stream.

FFXIV Patch 7.5, called Trail to the Heavens, goes live on April 28 and is the first part of a two-part story update series before the upcoming expansion. It includes a new dungeon and trial boss fight for the main scenario quest, and a ton of updates to side content as shown in a hard-hitting trailer for Patch 7.5 itself (see below).

I'm breaking down all the important details from the Live Letter to make sure you're ready for FFXIV Patch 7.5, whether you're in it for the Beastmaster Job updates, the Crystalline Conflict PVP content, or the next Alliance Raid, or all of it!

FFXIV 7.5 New MSQ Details and Dungeon

While this is closing out the Dawntrail patch series, 7.5 seems to be deeply rooted in story threads from Endwalker. The next dungeon, called The Clyteum, takes us and the Scions back to the snowy ruins and abandoned factories of Garlemald, and the Garlean character Jullus seemingly plays an important role in this stretch. MSQ will also take us back to the moon, Mare Lamentorum, as the new baddie Halmarut and her stuffed toy with Calyx's soul drags the Scions there.

Yoshida mentioned that lore enthusiasts will have a lot to pick apart from The Clyteum as the dungeon is designed to show remnants of Garlemald before its destruction. The new Trial boss, Enuo, is said to be more difficult and fast-paced than usual but with fewer environmental gimmicks compared to Patch 7.4's Doom Train fight. Yoshida said this'll be especially true for the Extreme version that's also part of this patch, as you can see with the moving AoE attacks and pathing mechanics shown in the trailer. More surprising is seeing the characters Zero and Golbez involved as hinted in the trailer (and perhaps makes sense since we're on the moon again), calling back to Endwalker's patch series.

Although the story arc will close out with part two in Patch 7.55 in early September, Patch 7.5's MSQ will be the typical length as other patches in the past.

Echoes of Vana'diel Alliance Raid Preview – Windurst: The Third Walk

Closing out the 24-player Alliance Raid series for the Dawntrail patch series, Windurst: The Third Walk goes further in this Final Fantasy XI crossover. Yoshida jokingly likened this to an HD remastered version of FFXI as it pulls directly from the old MMORPG. This new instance has a few new gimmicks and mechanics as seen in the opening boss fight against Shantotto, who's a Tarutaru Black Mage from FFXI, but much bigger this time. Those who play Black Mage will notice Shantotto using the Job's abilities in raid form and manipulating the arena's platform.

This will close out the Echoes of Vana'dield raid series and conclude the story of guest characters Alxaal and Prishe. We also got a look at the new gear set you can earn for all Jobs from Windurst: The Third Walk.

New Crystalline Conflict PvP Map – Archeia Harmonias

PvP players can get ready for the new map for the payload-pushing mode Crystalline Conflict. Archeia Harmonias takes place in a library and Yoshida mentioned that the team has worked on its map design, tinkering with lines of sight and spaces where fights tend to happen. It also has unique on-map mechanics. A few examples:

• Healing glyphs are in front of each spawn point that will reduce damage by 50% and heal over time when standing on it.
• Aetherometers are checkpoints at the halfway point between the map's center and teams' spawn points, and the payload will stop at the aetherometer. The team advancing the payload standing in its proximity will charge the aetherometer, and the payload will move again once it reaches 100%. This number will reset if the advancing team leaves the payload's proximity or if an opponent enters the proximity. After fully charged, it'll create a bridge and a jump glyph for players to advance. Yoshida showcased how the meter fills fast to keep up the match's pace.
• Jump glyphs act as shortcuts for teams that activate it and will be at teams' spawn points to help them get back into action. These will remain for the rest of the match.

Beastmaster (BST) Limited Job Coming to FFXIV 7.5

Let me preface this by saying that Beastmaster looks like a very complex Job. It's the next Special Job in the vein as Blue Mage. It can only be used in specific instances and has its own unique mechanics, progression, and quests. It's categorized as a Melee DPS starting at level 1 and with a level cap at 50. You need to have a normal Job at level 50 or higher, completed A Realm Reborn through 2.0, and Dawntrail registered on your account in order to access Beastmaster.

The core concept of the Beastmaster is to capture monsters in the open zones and summon them into battle; there will be a total of 50 capturable beasts, which will go into the Master's Bestiary. You can choose to summon one of three beasts during combat and use their abilities in fights, the types of beasts you have active will change your tactics and the Instinct system dictates what you can do alongside them.

Beastmasters can progress through what's called Crucible of the Unbroken, which is single-player content akin to Job quests, and this kind of thing hasn't been seen in FFXIV before. Some monsters are capturable in party-based content like Alliance Raids, but there will be ways to get all 50 as a solo player. Yoshida showcased the Job in action during the stream, so check out the FFXIV 7.5 Live Letter if you want to see Beastmaster gameplay.

How Beastmaster Works in FFXIV 7.5

You have specific actions for capturing beasts – Gauge to see if you can even capture it, Weaken to attack it and bring its HP down, and Catch to finish the process (you'll still need to defeat the enemy). It'll be added to the Master's Bestiary with lore details in the log.

You have three Battlehorns to assign beasts to from the bestiary and set on your hotbar. While you can only have one active at a time, you'll be able to swap between these three during battle. Once it executes its Finisher action, the beast will go on cooldown and allow you to summon another beast on your battlehorn.

Beasts have four different actions – Finisher to end the rotation with a powerful AoE attack and send it back on cooldown, Trick which is a unique utility skill depending on the beast, Tempered Release for another unique attack, and Nature's Gift to draw power from the beast for the player's own attack. All beasts' specific skills will be laid out in the bestiary.

Beastmasters will manage two different meters, one for the player themself and one for the beasts, and when they both reach 100 or higher, you can execute an Instinctual tandem attack. The more meter you accumulate past 100, the stronger the attack. Instinctual skills will set up Instinctual combos, which is what you'll build towards in a rotation – there are four elemental affinities you can attain from Instinctual attacks to create the combo. At higher levels, you will have more actions that will speed up the accumulation of affinities to trigger combos faster.

Additionally, combining two affinities will open Light or Dark effects, as seen on the Beastmaster's Job gauge, and you'll have a brief window to use them before the effect wears off. These are the basics of the Job and I'll be looking deeper into the mechanics as more information comes out.

Additional Side Content Coming to FFXIV 7.5

The Live Letter went into greater detail on all the new features mentioned above, but there are significant pieces of content included in 7.5 or 7.5x incremental patches. The biggest one being the teaser at the end of the FFXIV 7.5 trailer showing Kefka (the villain from Final Fantasy VI) being part of the next Ultimate Raid. Ultimates are incredibly difficult fights that require a fully coordinated, dedicated eight-player party to stay locked in through a series of challenging mechanics. Sure, it hasn't been exactly confirmed, but it's the only mysterious piece of content left to unveil, and Yoshida himself pointed to the trailer ending as a hint for the upcoming Ultimate. Kefka was previously a boss in the Stormblood patch 4.x raid series, and seems to be returning in some form.

The FFXIV Patch 7.5x series will also include the following content:

• Shinryu's Domain, Unreal Trial
• The Occult Crescent: North Horn, new zone for the Field Operations content
• Phantom Weapons, the new line of Relic Weapons
• Thavnair Ocean Fishing as a new route
• Auxesia and Tool Enhancement quests for Cosmic Exploration content
• Aunt Tii's Tacos as a new Custom Delivery
• Manderville's ridiculous questline continues in Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures
• Gold Saucer updates
• New Dawntrail Allied Society Capstone quests

Other Gameplay Updates in FFXIV Patch 7.5

Many of the system-level changes coming to Patch 7.5 are for convenience such as consolidating dyes and making glamour outfits easier, which were made simple for A Realm Reborn in 2013, but FFXIV outgrew a lot of those UI elements. Here are the notable changes:

• Duty Support system comes to The Dusk Vigil and Shisui of the Violent Tides dungeons.
• Lots of gear will now be storable in the Armoire.
• Dyes will be consolidated to color groups to save inventory space; current dyes will not be functional once Patch 7.5 goes live and can be exchanged for the new dyes.
• Updates to the Housing system include increased limits for indoor and outdoor furnishing, new interior fixture designs, and an option to adjust the number of character models rendered within housing.
• Sightseeing Log's log message will display the emote required to complete it and if specific time and weather conditions haven't been met, if required.
• Outfit Glamour update includes gear from FFXIV 3.0 onward being able to be stored as outfit glamour, and individual gear pieces can be removed from outfit glamour.
• Crafting is being made more convenient – players can now change Jobs, use food and potions, move items in their inventory, and join/leave parties and use linkshells while on standby with the crafting log open.
• Chocobo companions have new animations associated with companion rank and they will now react to the Pet and Poke emotes.

FFXIV Is Collaborating With Jollibee (Uy! Philippines!)

Starting on April 21, you can get limited-time FFXIV-themed meals at Jollibee in the United States and Canada, and you can get the Eat Chicken emote in game. There's also a merch lineup at Complex.com that includes t-shirts and sweaters with special artwork of the collaboration, featuring the Jollibee itself riding a Chocobo and Moogles eating various menu items. The special meal box has the disclaimed, "No chocobos were harmed in the making of this meal."

Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest is happening in North America on April 24 and 25, and we're expecting additional details on Patch 7.5 as well as a reveal of the next expansion. Naoki Yoshida will be giving a lengthy keynote to open the show, so stay tuned for coverage on everything coming to FFXIV. Expect a breakdown of the FFXIV 7.5 patch notes ahead of its April 28 release as well. In the meantime, check out my Dawntrail review from back in 2024 and let me know if you agree with me 2 years later!

Michael Higham is an editor at IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and news in written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering long RPGs and tech products, but he's got range when it comes to games. You'll also catch him at events and hosting video content, including IGN's weekly podcast Unlocked.

Daredevil actor Charlie Cox has finally played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, having previously admitted to feeling like a "total fraud" whenever fans brought up his appearance in the game.

For Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the Marvel star only provided the voice of Gustave rather than full performance capture for the character, which meant his time actually spent recording for the project was minimal, while motion capture was separately filmed by another actor.

In June last year, Cox said he felt like a "total fraud" anytime someone gushed to him about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and admitted he had recorded all of his lines in around four hours.

The following month, Cox was asked about Clair Obscur again and admitted he was still to play it, and needed to buy a new games console first. "I remember being in the studio and thinking, 'This is beautiful, the visuals are extraordinary,'" Cox said. "They've come a long way since Mario 64, which is probably the last computer game I played."

Then, in November, Cox said that any awards he might win for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 should really be given to his character's French motion capture artist instead. "Yes, I'm thrilled for this nomination," Cox acknowledged. "I've said this before and I think it's important to say: there's an amazing French actor, by the name of Maxence Cazorla, who did almost all of the motion capture for that role in that game.

"So any nomination or credit I get, I really have to give to him — I believe that the performance of that character is really down to him, and my voice was just part of that process." Cox had been nominated for Best Performance at The Game Awards 2025 for his role in Clair Obscur. The award went to fellow Clair Obscur co-star, Jennifer English.

Now, speaking to GamesRadar+, Cox has provided another update, saying he’s finally given Clair Obscur a try.

"I've since played a bit of it,” he said. “Not the whole thing, I haven't completed it." Then: "I've played the opening bit for a while and kind of walked around and met the people and garnered the information and all that kind of stuff. Not very well."

"I'm not very good, because obviously, it's a skill set, but I've played it,” he continued.

Last month, it emerged that Cox was working on a new video game project. Speaking to YouTube channel Agents of Fandom, Cox said his Clair Obscur role — his first in the realm of video games — had "opened a new avenue for my professional work" and inspired him to take on another video game project this year, one that he was "much more involved" in.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Finding a great deal on a PlayStation 5 has become significantly harder since Sony's brutal price hikes just a few weeks back. Yet, quite bizarrely, the price changes have also inadvertently turned a Ghost of Yotei PS5 bundle into a surprisingly strong offering for late adopters of the console.

In some ways, Samson reminds me a little of 2025’s MindsEye. That is, like MindsEye, it’s regularly gorgeous, has some neat vehicles, and is intentionally narrower and far less GTA-adjacent in scope than it may look like at first blush. However, also like MindsEye, Samson is pretty bad. With extremely janky combat, predictable car chases, and a small pool of constantly repeating missions, this open-world driving-brawler hybrid became a dull and annoying slog long before I reached the end of my 12-hour stint with it. Worse, even though I’ve cleared the mammoth $100,000 debt that drives Samson’s daily grind of crime, a game-breaking bug has left me soft-locked out of actually finishing the main missions and rolling credits. It’s as if this game doesn’t want me to finish it properly any more than I do.

Samson’s setup is simple: you are ex-con Samson McCray, who’s recently returned to his neighbourhood of Tyndalston. It’s the 1990s, but disappointingly the choice of time period has virtually no impact besides forcing McCray to use payphones. There’s certainly no ’90s music on the car radios. In fact, there’s no car radio at all, so there isn’t even anywhere players could potentially mod or dump their own.

McCray has a $100,000 debt being held over his head by an out-of-town crew using his sister as leverage, and must make daily payments to keep them both alive in the long-term. Parallel to this, there are 14 story missions involving some criminal rivals of McCray and his Tyndalston pals, of which Samson served me up seven before getting gummed up by some kind of bug that has prevented me from seeing the rest.

There’s a finite amount of jobs you can take on per day, and the sense of urgency and pressure this places on your actions is quite compelling for a brief time. Before I grew weary with the general sloppiness of the brawling, the bugs, and the overall repetitiveness of the missions themselves, chipping away at the huge sum was an admittedly compulsive loop.

Each day is broken up into three sections – afternoon, evening, and night – and you initially have six action points to devote to taking on missions that cost two or three apiece. You must complete jobs to scrape together enough cash to service your debt every single day, and if you come up short you’ll be greeted by hired goons paid to pound it out of you the next morning.

Damn, Son

Allow me to note that I’m well aware Samson is not exactly a big budget game and, on the Venn diagram of open-world action-driving games that operate on the fringe of Grand Theft Auto’s turf, there admittedly isn’t exactly a ton of crossover. At its core, Samson is really a straightforward open-world brawler with a basic driving component, and that’s it. However, its narrow scope isn’t its problem; the problem is how drastically unfinished and unrefined it all is.

Make no mistake: Samson is regularly very good-looking. From the way the midday sun pierces into McCray’s crumbling apartment, to the wafting steam emanating from manholes on the rain-slick streets, Samson’s visuals have truly been wonderfully realised. Tyndalston itself is also a genuinely fascinating place to inspect, thanks to its remarkable level of detail. The world is better described as more of a single neighbourhood rather than a city on account of its small size, with the main part of town just a few blocks wide and flanked by two waterside industrial zones – plus there’s a thin strip of freeway across a river accessible via several bridges. However, keeping it small has clearly allowed developer Liquid Swords to dress it with layers upon layers of credible urban grime. From the piles of garbage and stripped-down cars to the splashes of unique graffiti and hastily scrawled slogans, Tyndalston feels lived-in in a way that not all open-world games manage.

Unfortunately, Samson’s admirable aesthetics can’t counteract the shonkiness of its combat, the dullness of its driving, or the dreariness of having to do the same missions over and over for no measurable payoff.

Samson’s strictly hand-to-hand brawling is clunky and graceless – and there’s no firearm combat at all, which begs the question of whether this whole game might have been better off set in a different country altogether. Cops will occasionally fire on McCray, but they often forget they’re armed. At one point I killed a man surrounded by police in the forecourt of a precinct, and not one of them thought to pull a pistol. Enemies appear to have very little environmental awareness, struggling with tight spaces and doorways, and getting hung up on props and clipping through parts of the world. Sometimes they just ignore your presence altogether.

With no lock-on available, fights typically devolve into spamming McCray’s light attack button and swinging the camera around as you swipe at the air trying to connect with opponents. There’s also a slow and highly telegraphed heavy attack that lands with a pleasing-enough meaty crunch, but it’s not something you can use much when surrounded by enemies.

Combat isn’t particularly responsive, either. For instance, staggered opponents will have a prompt appear above them for a finishing move – but getting this to trigger feels inconsistent. I often found myself simply spamming the button with no result, before subsequently giving up and windmilling another salvo of punches out ahead of McCray until his fists find some face flesh by accident.

Extracting him from combat is even more frustrating. Mashing the dodge button is effective enough, but his ability to actually sprint away is seemingly blocked when being swarmed by thugs – that means trying to turn and slowly jog in the opposite direction will just get you punched in the back of the head a bunch.

Some fights can be avoided by staying in your car, but there’s a limit to what you can achieve behind the wheel. A bit of this is the result of Samson’s habit of having invisible enemies drag McCray out of his vehicle and toss him several storeys into the air – just far enough away that you’ll automatically fail the mission. This may well be a trade off for all the times enemies will go through the animation of yanking him out of his car without actually doing so, leaving you able to continue driving.

More annoying, however, is how enemies generally have a supernatural ability to simply skate out of the way of your speeding vehicle – like animals and pedestrians in licensed racing games that aren’t permitted to let you run down living beings. Unless the environment prevents it, your car will often just push enemies out of danger like identical poles of a magnet. This is not only annoying, but it looks awful and unfinished, particularly when trying to mow down large groups. For some reason, however, enemies are completely oblivious to reversing cars – so if you back towards baddies, they’ll simply run mindlessly toward your rear bumper until you smear them onto the asphalt.

Magnum Bogus

Unfortunately, the driving pillar of Samson’s action isn’t any sturdier. There are a smattering of driving-specific missions – including checkpoint races, deliveries, takedowns, and getaways – but none of them are especially enjoyable.

Getaways are probably the most disappointing, since the wanted system transparently cheats to get a fix on you. Even when you’ve broken line of sight, if you stop, police will continue to make all the correct turns to get you. Failing that, Samson will simply spawn in a new police cruiser out of nowhere directly behind you. Think you’re safe tucked away down an alley, far from the initial pursuit? So did I, until a police car blinked into existence metres away and slammed straight into me – seconds before the cooldown timer had finished.

Takedowns are disappointing, too. Despite Samson’s trailers hinting at the prospect of thrilling crashes as enemy cars wipe out and tumble alongside you, this doesn’t really happen much. What we typically get is rival vehicles bumbling around town on predefined routes. You’ll know when a T-bone is on the cards because, after a few takedown missions, you’ll know exactly where your targets are going to turn. Watching your rivals doing the same laps of the neighbourhood makes for very formulaic chases.

Occasionally they’ll get hung up for no apparent reason and refuse to proceed, giving you an easy target to smash into. However, sometimes that takes too long and the moment you wreck that car, the other vehicles are too far away and you’ll instantly fail. Other times your own car won’t survive long enough, meaning you’ll have to hoof it to the closest parked one – Samson bafflingly doesn’t let you carjack vehicles with drivers in them already. If you’re lucky, there’ll be one close by. If you’re not, you’ll be running for a while.

Takedown missions often end the millisecond you cause enough damage to your final target. At that point, the action will freeze to congratulate you on your success, but the moment play resumes the target car will disappear off the face of the planet. Sometimes all the cars in the area will disappear.

Much like the 2015 Mad Max game’s Magnum Opus, there’s an overt attempt in Samson to have players become attached to McCray’s personal vehicle. It’s perhaps not a coincidence considering there’s a good deal of talent at Liquid Swords who formerly worked at Mad Max developer Avalanche and, as a total car dork, it’s something I fundamentally understand.

In practice, however, it just doesn’t work. The cost of repairing McCray’s car is roughly as much as a typical mission will pay out, so the requirement to constantly do so in order to keep using it is too big a burden – and an unnecessary one at that. I quickly pivoted to using stolen cars to complete missions. Aside from mild variations, excluding McCray’s one-of-a-kind muscle car, I think there are only about four different traffic cars in Samson. That’s really very low for the genre, however (with the exception of a few checkpoint races with particularly unforgiving time limits that I quickly learned to avoid), I eventually found I could reliably complete missions in any one of them.

I took down the same street racer on several occasions in an old Ford Econoline-style van, and at one point I disabled a whole four-car convoy in a boxy old off-brand Chevy Caprice. The ’90s European and Crown Vic-inspired sedans don’t feel appreciably slower than McCray’s car, and I completed plenty of checkpoint races in them. I see what Liquid Swords was trying to do, but it pushed me away from McCray’s car rather than increasing my desire to nurture it.

Tyndals-done

There’s a whole XP system with perks and upgrades, but none of them feel meaningful. They largely just increase attributes like health and power and such, which means little when enemies get similarly stronger alongside you.

Reaching the end of my loan repayments only took me halfway through the XP levels, so I can’t really say if you’ll eventually outpace your enemies if you level up all the way. That said, there’s simply no good case to keep playing Samson after hitting that point. Clearing the debt got me a giddy phone call from McCray’s sister, Oonagh, and… that’s it. From that point on it’s noted McCray can keep what he earns, but there’s no purpose to have cash on hand other than to afford car repairs – and I have no desire to keep playing the same recycled missions I’ve already completed three or four times each.

If you want an open-world brawler with a little drama baked around it, play Sleeping Dogs, where the hand-to-hand combat drastically outclasses Samson in every way. If you want satisfying car chases in hefty American land yachts, play Driver: San Francisco. If you want an open-world action driving game designed to foster a relationship with a single vehicle (that simultaneously showcases the best of what a core part of the Liquid Swords team is capable of), play Mad Max. And if you want an open-world crime epic that actually feels like it's set in the ’90s, just dust off a copy of GTA: San Andreas.