The biggest party of the summer is back in action this weekend, with two nights of action on the calendar. With CM Punk and Cody Rhodes dominating night one's match card and Seth Rollins taking on Roman Reigns to headline night two, 2026 is already shaping up to be a big one. I'm showing you how to watch WWE SummerSlam anywhere around the world right here.

Feuds, battles for icon status, and the return of Hell in a Cell- this weekend's WWE SummerSlam has veterans and newer talents duking it out for their shot at championship status.

Yes, everyone's going to be locking eyes on Cody Rhodes' attempts to take down the old guard, and of course the next chapter of Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins' long-term rivalry is going to be top billing. But we've got Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi stepping into The Cell, the first match of its kind in two years.

Night one will also continue the Bloodline saga, and we can expect plenty of drama, twists, and turns as Jacob Fatu and the Usos go against LA Knight, Solo Sikoa & Royce Keys. Meanwhile, Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky will duke it out for the Women's World Championship title.

Whether you're new to the franchise or tuning in after decades of fandom, here's how to watch WWE SummerSlam all around the world.

How to watch WWE SummerSlam anywhere in the world

WWE SummerSlam is streaming live on Netflix internationally and ESPN in the US, but if you're currently away from home, you may find yourself locked out of your usual content. That's because streaming sites limit their content based on your location, with different libraries for different territories. If you're looking to watch WWE SummerSlam as if you were at home, though, there's a solution.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) masks your IP address, which means you can simply log into a server located back home and watch as if you were sitting right on your own couch.

We recommend Nord VPN first up. It's one of the more popular options on the market, and came out on top when we set about hunting down the best VPN for gaming. With the highest speed test results of our test pool, and 9,300 servers in over 211 locations, it's smooth, fast, and reliable. Right now, you can also grab three months extra for free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee available should you change your mind.

How to watch WWE SummerSlam in the US

ESPN has broadcast rights for WWE SummerSlam in the US, which means you'll need an ESPN subscription if you don't have the channel on cable. The ESPN Unlimited tier you need to watch WWE SummerSlam live comes in at $29.99 per month.

Coverage begins at 3pm ET with the Countdown to SummerSlam, before moving through Saturday's main event coverage at 6pm ET. The same timeline holds for Sunday's action as well.

If you find yourself away from home, your usual ESPN membership might not be available. We recommend NordVPN to circumvent those pesky geoblocks, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How to watch WWE SummerSlam in the UK

UK viewers can watch WWE SummerSlam live (and on demand if you can't quite stay up late enough) on Netflix. The weekend is available across all subscription tiers, so you'll be able to unlock access with a simple £5.99 ads plan.

Coverage in the UK starts at 11pm BST, so it's going to be a late one.

If you're away from home, you can use NordVPN to log into your Netflix account and watch as if you were back in Blighty.

How to watch WWE SummerSlam in Australia

Australian viewers can also live stream WWE SummerSlam via Netflix, with the full event available across all membership tiers. Membership starts at $9.99 per month for the base tier with ads.

The weekend is shifted slightly for Straya, with night one kicking off at 8am AEST on Sunday, August 2 and the second event running from 8am AEST on Monday, August 3.

Those travelling away from home during the weekend can still log into their Netflix accounts as if they were still in the country. NordVPN allows you to circumvent the geoblocks that will otherwise stop you watching your content abroad.

WWE SummerSlam full card

Night One

• Women's World Championship: Liv Morgan vs. Iyo Sky
• Hell in a Cell: Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar
• Undisputed WWE Championship: CM Punk vs. Cody Rhodes
• LA Knight, Solo Sikoa and Royce Keys vs. Jacob Fatu, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso
• Gunther vs. Nick Aldis
• Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and Paige vs. Jacy Jayne, Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley

Night Two

• World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins
• WWE Intercontinental Championship: Penta vs. Chad Gable
• Interim WWE Women's Championship (Ladder): Tiffany Stratton vs. Jade Cargill vs. Chelsea Green vs. Charlotte Flair vs.
• Danhausen vs. Dominik Mysterio
• Undisputed WWE Championship: Sami Zayn vs. Finn Balor
• WWE United States Championship: Trick Williams vs. Baron Corbin

We recommend VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker originally wasn't supposed to be a Mario spin-off – instead, it was meant to be a Legend of Zelda game. That fact was well publicized in the wake of Captain Toad's launch, but one more notable detail has emerged in a recently translated interview: the dev working on the concept was so distraught by Shigeru Miyamoto shooting down the Zelda concept that he burned the diorama he built by hand to sell the idea.

The basic gameplay format of Captain Toad started as a simple prototype at Nintendo. As in the final game, you'd slowly explore as a tiny character from a distant perspective, solving puzzles and finding collectables in a diorama-style environment. The concept was born within the Super Mario 3D World team, but the devs quickly realized that Mario himself was a poor fit for it.

"The thing we noticed was that if Mario could jump, the stages become pretty big, so we wondered whether it would be possible to make a game with a character who can't jump," according to 3D World director Koichi Hayashida. He was speaking in a 2015 interview with Nintendo Dream magazine, which has only recently been translated for a new Did You Know Gaming video.

So, 3D World level designer Shinya Hiratake "submitted an idea to Mr. Miyamoto, the father of both Super Mario and Zelda, to use Link as the character," Hayashida explained. To sell the idea, Hiratake spent painstaking hours in his off time to build a Zelda-themed diorama that he'd present to Miyamoto.

Miyamoto loved the diorama – but he thought it was an idea for a physical toy to be sold in stores. Once he realized the pitch was for a video game, Miyamoto shut down the idea. "If Hiratake had given a better presentation," Hayashida says, "there's a chance it would have been a different game with Zelda instead."

As for the diorama itself, Hiratake says, "I burned it. It was such a bad memory that I decided to let it die."

Eventually, the devs realized Captain Toad could be the protagonist for diorama-style levels as bonus stages within Super Mario 3D World, and they proved to be one of the best parts of that game. They even impressed Miyamoto, who suggested the devs spin off the concept into the standalone game Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – which Hiratake co-directed. Hopefully that memory is a little nicer in hindsight.

Nintendo designed the DS and Wii to normalize "being a gamer" says Shigeru Miyamoto: "We don't say 'book readers and non-book readers.'"

Nintendo executive and Mario's papa Shigeru Miyamoto says that he wants to give people as many reasons as possible to buy Nintendo consoles, and hopes parents might give them to their children as coming of age gifts.

In an interview with Famitsu that's been translated by GamesRadar+ Miyamoto talks about his philosophy on selling consoles, and imagines a world where everyone receives one of the company's consoles when they're old enough.

"I am always saying that the company should 'create reasons for people from all over the world to pick Nintendo,'" he says. "In Japan, when children start elementary school you buy them their own school bag. In the same way, I think it would be great if there was a selection to choose from like, 'Now that you're six, I've got you a Nintendo', 'Which Nintendo would make you the happiest?'"

You might be confused how buying your child a Nintendo Switch 2 is remotely similar to picking up a backpack, but in Japan the hybrid console is usually the cheaper option. This is because Japanese elementary school children have a special type of backpack that they use called a randoseru.

These are hand-made luxury goods that usually cost hundreds of dollars. Unlike a standard backpack, they have a hard shell, multiple pockets and are exceptionally robust. The cost is high, but your randoseru is expected to last your entire six years of elementary school, and if necessary, can be passed down to younger siblings.

Technically, elementary school children can bring any type of backpack to school, but you're unlikely to see young school kids carrying anything except a randoseru. In the West, receiving a bag doesn't seem like a momentous occasion, but to a Japanese six-year-old it's a sign they're coming-of-age. Receiving your randoseru means that you are about to start school, which is your first minor step into adulthood.

Getting your child a Nintendo Switch 2 might be cheaper than picking up a randoseru, but there aren't nearly as many color combinations to choose from and you can't fit an A4 file inside. However, given how long the Nintendo Switch lasted, you might get a few more years out of it.

Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto says PCs were once "held in higher regard than consoles," so the NES was made to bridge "the gap" – "It wasn't just a toy"

A now infamous hacker is reportedly going around Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 lobbies and bricking players' accounts in the game's new PlayStation ports.

Activision recently ported the first two Call of Duty: Black Ops games to PS4 and PS5 consoles, but the original games' vulnerable infrastructure seems to have been unchanged, which already led to years-old exploits remaining intact.

Things have gotten slightly worse in Black Ops 2's multiplayer, as a hacker who goes by the name 'C Isn't Sharp?' has been showing up in lobbies and messing with other people's accounts in various ways. Streamer TimTheTatMan fell victim to the hacker, who pushed his account to Level 55 and Prestige 16 - a Prestige level that doesn't even exist in the game proper. (Good spot, IGN.)

Some players have reported that being hacked has also left them unable play online matches at all since the game apparently keeps crashing thereafter. Certain players also claim their progress in other areas of the game have been reset after a chance run in with the hacker.

Right now, the only apparent fix is to look out for C Isn't Sharp's bright green name in lobbies and immediately close the game to stop your account from being altered. Hopping out of the lobby seemingly doesn't stop your stats from messing up, no matter how quick you are.

15-year-old exploits and now a boogeyman hacker haven't done much to turn public opinion around on the new Black Ops port, which were already getting side-eyed thanks to their $40 price tags - no to mention the $30 extra that it'll cost you for the map packs.

Despite all the commotion, Call of Duty is doing what Call of Duty always does: sell. Last month, both Black Ops games landed within the best-selling PlayStation games chart in the US.

Activision admits Call of Duty matchmaking used to be better, updates Black Ops 7 with a new system inspired by "classic games" like Black Ops 1 and 2

Director Naoki Hamaguchi won't leave many loose threads hanging by the time the credits roll in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, so any purely hypothetical DLC that gets made will need to focus on the "untold stories" of specific characters rather than continuing the story.

This isn't the first time Naoki Hamaguchi's discussed potentially adding to Final Fantasy 7 Revelation after launch next year, but what form that might take has been up in the air. He previously hinted that spin-off games could be folded into the game through DLC.

Speaking to Automaton, Hamaguchi's now clarified that the third and final game in his Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy will tie up the story. Don't worry about having to pay for DLC to see the true ending, then - looking at you, Final Fantasy 13-2.

"The story will be concluded within the main game," Hamaguchi promises. "We're serious about concluding the series with FF7 Revelation, and we're proceeding with development with that goal in mind."

Should that hypothetical DLC become really real DLC, Hamaguchi says the team wants to "create a kind of spin-off focused on a specific character that depicts their untold stories," similar to what they did with Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Episode Intermission DLC, which followed Yuffie in a short campaign giving the character depth that definitely wasn't seen in the original game. "So, in case we do end up considering making a DLC, this is the kind of thing that we’d likely attempt to do."

"I feel that, at this point, both the media and the fan community are expecting a DLC to come," he says. "That being said, things haven't crystallized yet, so we can't certainly say." Should there be enough of an appetite for it, the team would certainly consider an expansion, he adds.

The possibilities are kind of endless. Alternate timeline adventures in the Lifestream? Prequels focused on Vincent Valentine or Cid Highwind? A look at Tifa's gruelling, mountain-top training? Something something, young Sephiroth?

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's endgame fights may involve some minigames, but its director is more interested in using your levelled-up characters to "overcome difficult situations"

Much has been said about how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 pulled heavily from classic JRPGs - Final Fantasy, Persona, Lost Odyssey, etc - but the hit game also drew lots of inspiration from some of the best anime shows around, including Attack on Titan and Bleach.

Speaking to Automaton about the game's influences, Sandfall Interactive CEO Guillaume Broche says "one of the anime that inspired me for Expedition 33's story was Attack on Titan." Both have pretty existential themes and a cast of characters who are almost constantly face-to-face with a life-ending threat that seems inevitable.

"I really like the idea of a group of heroes fighting together, and I especially love the uniform," Broche explains. "When you see any character from Attack on Titan, you instantly know they're an Attack on Titan character because of the uniform. That's something I really wanted to bring over into Expedition 33, making the game recognizable just from its uniforms."

Broche then mentions he's midway through a series rewatch, "and really, it's an absolute masterpiece for me." Hear, hear.

Attack on Titan's instantly recognizable cast and sleek uniforms weren't the only anime-flavored well the team at Sandfall drew from. Lead character and concept artist, Alan Reynaud, shouts out Bleach as another important touchstone for the studio: "I have to mention Bleach because the character designs in the series are spectacular. One of the things we took from it was designs that are super simple yet incredibly memorable. We wanted to have something like that, with a 'rule of cool' approach. I'd say that was a big inspiration for the character creation."

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director prefers JPRGs to the likes of Skyrim, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate because their linear narratives allow for "a stronger story" and "more memorable characters"

Yet another Crimson Desert update is rolling out across each platform in what's become an almost weekly tradition for developer Pearl Abyss. New week, new patch. This one overhauls the open-world game's economy with 133 new trading posts and more ways to fatten your pockets with the weight of endless gold.

Those 133 trading posts will start popping up after progressing through quests, but what's more interesting is how players can now interact with the game's various traders. Harder-to-reach trading wagons will offer you higher prices for the same goods, for example, while royal posts offer you quadruple the price they used to for selling stuff.

Trading posts also stock a more diverse range of goods, wagons no longer disappear after delivering goods to a royal post, and "trade good prices change when too many are sold at a single location." The basics of supply and demand, now in Crimson Desert. Essentially, there's more ways than ever to get rich quick and make the stonks shoot up.

"Added 24 new types of high-value trade goods and 4 new types of regular trade goods," Pearl Abyss' patch notes explain. "Packaged trade goods can now be stacked up to a maximum of 10 or 100, depending on their price."

There's also now a 'Claim Bank Strongbox' feature. "Depositing 10 or more bonds allows you to start investing," the studio says. "Bonds can be exchanged for 10 Gold Bars." And you can buy rare items with your bonds, too.

With so many new trading outposts and ways to engage in Crimson Desert's economy, the map will also let you use filters to find posts, royal posts, wagon workshops, and wagon routes. Heck, you can even filter the map to only show you trading posts that sell the items you're looking for, which is really handy for a game that now has over a 100 vendors.

I'd recommend skimming the rest of the patch notes to get a gist of everything that's new, alongside all the bugs Pearl Abyss have squashed.

While Crimson Desert continues to receive near-constant updates with free content, Pearl Abyss is also working on paid DLC that's "substantively different" at the same time.

See what else is on the horizon with our new games of 2026 guide.

Big Hops, the extraordinarily cute indie platformer that released this year to widespread acclaim, now lets you hop, hop around with up to seven of your best amphibious friends.

In case you haven't heard of Big Hops, you probably should, because there's a lot of stressful, awful things happening in the world and, like, none of them are happening in Big Hops. No, instead of AI and layoffs and war, Big Hops is all about tip-toeing around carefully... just kidding!

Big Hops is about tongue-grappling and air-diving and being shot out of cannons while traversing mountains, sweeping deserts, and perilous oceans. That's right, you get what it says on the box with Big Hops. And now the title is even more accurate: Big Hops implies all of the hops, so many hops, and now that plural tense extends to your pals as well, as Big Hops 8-player co-op is in open beta on Steam.

There does seem to be one fairly major caveat to co-op Big Hops, in that it'll only be available on Steam at launch, leaving PS5 and Switch 2 players to bounce around by themselves, which seems a little unfair. Director Chris Wade tells Kotaku that's because it's "easier to focus" on just one platform.

Otherwise, Wade, under the banner of Luckshot Games, promises the full experience with Big Hops co-op. "Up to 8 players can play together through the whole game," reads a Steam update. "There are no concessions here, no single-player only content, no half baked version of the game you know and love. It's all there to play together."

Big Hops Together, as the co-op mode is called, will fully launch on Steam on August 9, but you can try out multiplayer now by installing Big Hops if you haven't already and launching the game via the public 'Together' branch.

Here are all of the upcoming indie games we can't wait to play.

I still have an original PC copy of the 1996 action-RPG Diablo holding down the fort in my home office, but today it's a stark reminder of how much has changed in the 30 years since it came out. Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra, who left the company in 2024, says the trend toward digital games is clearer than ever thanks to fresh data from Sony on PlayStation game sales, even if he wishes we could keep buying games on disc forever.

Reacting to PlayStation's Q1 FY26 results, which show 82% of the company's game sales are now digital, Ybarra says he's surprised discless games are dominating physical media to that extent. For reference, reputable games analyst Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners has said Xbox's digital ratio is over 90%, while Capcom is expecting 95% digital sales by next year.

"82% of games purchased are digital? Wow, that's very high. I recall when I was in the business, we passed by 50% which was a huge milestone," Ybarra shares.

"I wish physical media was here to stay, but the purchasing trend from consumers is clear. I really hope we see a digital promise of trust, transparency, and clarity soon (across all media!)."

That isn't the first time Ybarra has called for some sort of system to guarantee permanent ownership of a digital purchase, having previously expressed his desire for a "digital promise" to ensure gamers don't have to worry whether "games will work in the future or not," as well as a second-hand marketplace for people to sell and trade digital games.

Ybarra's outspoken and frequently controversial views on the industry aside, this pretty much sums up how most financially disinterested feel about the situation with PlayStation killing discs in 2028 and the industry's broader shift toward digital-only games. Calling back to my opener about Diablo on PC, it's worth noting that disc drives haven't been standard in mainstream gaming PCs for more than a decade.

Even if it means bad news for pretty much everyone, a largely discless future, in which physical games are reduced to novelties and limited releases, has seemed inevitable for a while. At least we know one high-profile games industry exec is mourning along with us when he isn't rage-baiting World of Warcraft players.

PlayStation ditching physical games is "a bridge across the bad years" of high hardware costs, analyst says, but it means "casuals and youngsters will drift off to mobile, PC, and free-to-play even faster"

Bethesda is now 40-years-old, which might inspire you to reminisce about all the incredible Fallout games the developer has released, and every astounding The Elder Scrolls game it's launched, and then you start wondering – hey, what about Fallout 5 and The Elder Scrolls 6? What's going with those guys, since Bethesda overlord Todd Howard keeps assuring everyone the projects are well underway, though he knows it's taking a while? Bethesda now replies shhh, just buy a $160 Nuka-Girl statue instead.

The 1.72-pound sculpture now available for pre-order on the official Bethesda Gear Store is the closest thing to an anniversary gift you're getting this year. It's an uncanny replica of the Fallout franchise's Nuka-Cola mascot, a woman wearing a saran-tight, white space suit, which Bethesda proves with a close photo of the statue's butt on its product page.

"Beautifully-detailed and standing 12.8 inches (32.51 cm) tall, this collectible is sure to command a lot of attention wherever you display it," Bethesda writes in the Nuka-Girl statues item description. That's certainly an efficient way to describe why someone would want to purchase an oversized PVC statue of a lady with her butt out.

For its 40th, Bethesda has also swapped its usually muted, black-text logo for a foreboding, glowing red one it says, in a Twitter post, was "inspired by our roots." Old fans are glad to see it borrows its font from '90s-era Bethesda, and the new-old logo is printed on the 40th anniversary t-shirts the company recently added to its merch shop.

As for the pin-up Nuka-Girl, she's loyal to one corporate overlord only – "Nuka-Cola" brands the rocketship she leans against. A 13-inch version of the statue from collectibles maker Gaming Heads is similarly festooned in soda pop branding, but its standard version costs $499. If you really must quench your thirst, the official Bethesda statue offers a more affordable girl. She's no Fallout 5, but – well, yeah, she's no Fallout 5.

Fallout 5 is "currently in preproduction": Bethesda breaks silence on long-awaited RPG.

When Rubinite developer Cup Dog Games posted about the game's Steam launch on July 27, it had just crossed 1,000 user reviews averaging 91% positive. As of July 31, it's approaching 1,800 reviews that are 92% positive. I thought this game would be good when I played the demo last year, and it turns out it is really good.

"We're truly grateful to every single player for your support and encouragement," Cup Dog Games says. "Every review you leave and every recommendation you make fuels us to keep polishing and improving the game."

Rubinite is described on Steam as "an extremely challenging boss rush action game." I would compare it to Titan Souls (which is 90% off right now) – an isometric, arena-based gauntlet of boss fights with extremely tight core mechanics. The main difference is that Rubinite is a fair bit larger and more complex, not to mention melee-focused. Calling it indie Sekiro, as some people have, is a little reductive – and, given the focus on dodging over parrying, inaccurate – but it does give you a decent idea of the pacing.

You play as a young princess named Ruby, whose crimson eyes allow her to see the weak points of monstrous bosses. You can sneak in quick dagger attacks, but the name of the game is charging up attacks to deal lethal damage to exposed weaknesses.

Here's the fuel that makes this whole engine work: the closer you are to bosses, the faster your attacks charge up. Equally, the closer you are, the harder it is to dodge enemy attacks. This is the knife's edge that Rubinite walks, and it's ridden it straight to the hallowed lands of Steam acclaim.

Add in upgrade and skill systems that further elevate combat, render it in lovely pixel art, and pack it all into a mercifully short game (seemingly 10 - 12 hours) and you've got yourself a stew. As of July 30, Rubinite is also Steam Deck verified, and it seems like a natural fit for a handheld PC.

Soulslike RPG Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is getting a sequel from its original director, who formed a new studio after his alleged firing following censorship backlash.

Obsession star Inde Navarrette may or may not have had another meeting with X-Men director Jake Schreier, and she wants to play Mystique.

"I thought what Jake brought to Thunderbolts was what I used to love about Marvel," Navarrette told Variety. "It was character-driven, and the whole time I just couldn’t stop yapping about how much I appreciated what he did with Marvel."

When asked what character she'd like to play, Navarrette replied: "I mean, Mystique has always been super cool."

Navarrette continues to be in high demand after Obsession earned over $400 million at the global box office against a budget of just $750,000. Directed by YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker, the indie horror follows a dude who, instead of just being normal and chill, decides to magically enchant a woman into being in love with him, and it goes just about as well as you might think.

The film's viral marketing campaign showcased some of Navarrette's acting chops as Nikki, said woman who gets unfortunately magically enchanted... though you'll just have to watch the entire film (if you haven't already) to get the full experience.

"I really want to prove that Obsession wasn't just lightning in a bottle," Navarrette previously told Nylon. "This is something that I really love and want to continue doing, but of course that’s going to take time. I want people to take that time to trust that I have that capability."

Schreier's X-Men movie just found its second mutant in Samara Weaving, casting her as the villainous Emma Frost. You'll just have to guess who the first one is...

Obsession is streaming now on Peacock. Marvel's untitled X-Men movie is set to arrive sometime in 2028. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way, as well as everything you need to know about Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

People are really out here porting Half-Life to the PlayStation 1.

Manny, of Bonnie Studios, is a self-described "software engineer, guitarist, and game developer from Sicily." His debut YouTube video promises "Half-Life on a Real PlayStation 1," and 14 minutes of glorious 1998 technology revisited with 2026 technology bears that promise out.

"Not an emulator and not a demake: a renderer and game runtime written from scratch in Rust," Manny stresses.

Manny is more broadly known for PSoXide, a PS1 development tech stack that, per his Itch.io page, covers an "emulator + Rust SDK + game engine + editor + asset pipeline." In this case, Half-Life was written fully for the Rust coding language without reliance on a traditional emulator, and is running on a proper PS1 console – in this case, "direct capture" off an SCPH-9002 model PS1.

"This is the full Hazard Course, all seven maps, start to finish in one sitting with no cuts," Manny explains in the video description. The Hazard Course is basically the tutorial prologue for Half-Life – a good sandbox for a demonstration like this.

"The deaths, the retries, the moment I get stuck inside a wall and die, and the audio glitches are all still in it," Manny asserts. "It averages around 17fps, holding 20 most of the time and dropping to 10-16 in the widest areas. The capture chain adds about 100ms between the pad and the picture, so it plays tighter on the console than it looks here."

As a quick refresher, the PS1 was released in North America by Sony in 1995, Valve dropped Half-Life in 1998, and the significantly more powerful PS2 arrived in 2000. Lauded for its advanced tech and physics, Half-Life launched on PC and only came to the PS2 in 2001.

Getting the game running at all on a system that predates it by several years is pretty impressive work, even if artifact-like graphical distortions do make it look like protagonist Gordon Freeman pounded back a few benadryl cocktails garnished with melatonin gummies before work.

I can't help but wonder if the AI-generated code that evidently went into the project played a part in that oddness, too, for all Manny's assurances that his "pre-AI coding background" and "core decision" shaped the programming. AI use in ports like this has become a battleground, with some teams targeting specific games just to outdo what they call vibe-coded slop. And GamesRadar+ has extensively covered why game developers in general don't want to use generative AI in any capacity.

Manny lays out just "some" of the workarounds necessary to fit 10 pounds of game into a 5-pound console: "BSP traversal doubling as painter's order for the ordering table, PVS culling, 16 colour CLUTs at 4 bits per pixel, LZ4 map chunks streamed into a static buffer, animation frames pre-posed at cook time because there is no FPU and no heap, SPU ADPCM audio and 27 Red Book CD tracks on the disc."

Which is all to say: squeezing blood from stone.

This being a fan effort, Manny says he's reached out to Valve "asking them to greenlight the project" before releasing the source code. "For legal reasons there will never be a downloadable disc image or a ready-to-play build," he adds. But if Valve miraculously gives him the thumbs up, or if he has "not heard back in a month or so," he says "I will take that as no objection and make it public."

Manny is doing much better than the company that promised and sold a Portal-inspired Steam Machine Companion Cube case "without ever asking Valve" for permission.

"Once released you will need your own lawfully obtained Steam copy of Half-Life: the converter reads it on your own machine and builds the disc from there," Manny adds. That, and you'll need a PS1.

On Twitter, Manny reveals that his next project hopes to get "Minecraft-style worlds running natively on PlayStation 1 hardware." That's full "chunk streaming, day/night, mobs and caves on a 33MHz CPU."

Earlier this month, a designer at Valve recreated Half-Life 2's Ravenholm in the company's new Source 2 engine, saying he was "blown away at powerful these tools are."

The "final game" from Half-Life 2 and Dishonored's late art director has been revealed: "The world's first Soulslike FPS," an apocalyptic Western at "the end of America."

The 1997 RPG Final Fantasy 7 is one of the most beloved games of all time, so naturally this decade's remake trilogy has been received, although largely positively, under intense scrutiny. A remake in every sense of the word, three distinct games have been made out of the original one, and Square Enix has been liberal with changes and expansions to the story, combat, world, and minigames, which naturally means fans have been squabbling online about all of the differences for about six years now. Naoki Hamaguchi, director on Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Revelation, sees that as a good thing.

Ahead of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation's release next year, Hamaguchi tells Automaton he's "grateful" for the remake trilogy's discourse because it means people care.

"Games are a medium, a community, and a culture. While a culture has certain unchanging aspects, I believe it only truly shapes into a culture when people discuss it from many different perspectives," says Hamaguchi. "If everyone looked at something in exactly the same way, I think it might not leave a lasting impression and could fade into obscurity over time. The very fact that the community is so active, that conversations happen, and debates keep erupting, is a kind of entertainment in and of itself."

I don't know about you, but I'm tickled by the mental image of Hamaguchi browsing Final Fantasy-related subreddits, sipping a cup of coffee, and giggling as his diehard fans argue about impossibly hot fantasy characters with big hair. In more elegant words, Hamaguchi says those heated discussions are proof of passion, which is hard to argue with.

"When people discuss and get heated about the minigames, the story, or the relationships between characters in FFVII, I think that only happens because they see value in those elements," he says. "I'm proud that this series has enough depth and capacity to inspire those kinds of discussions."

Even from game to game in the remake series, there's a lot of variation in terms of gameplay and structure, with the first 2020 entry being far more linear than the massive open world that is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Hamaguchi told GamesRadar+ in a recent interview that people "got a little bit tired" of all the side quests in Rebirth and might have "stepped away" in exhaustion, which suggests Revelation could be a little more streamlined.

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director wants "some kind of physical edition" for the RPG, but he can't promise it as Sony becomes the latest to "shift away" toward digital

Former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata blamed the public's perception of gaming as non-standard for the GameCube's poor sales, says Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto. This led to the development of the DS and Wii as a way to attract both gamers and "non-gamers."

In an interview with Famitsu, that's been translated by GamesRadar+, Miyamoto discusses why Nintendo chose such unique input methods for both the DS and the Wii. He claims that the GameCube's poor sales was the catalyst for discussions at the company about why consoles solely dedicated to video games might fail to sell.

"Before we made the DS, there was the highly versatile, simple to use, easy for any developer to make games for, cheap to buy, Nintendo GameCube, but it didn't get the reception we expected," Miyamoto laments. "Some consoles sold well for what they were, but there were also a lot of people who bought them to watch DVDs. The GameCube was only purchased by gamers."

Both of the competing consoles that outsold the GameCube, the PS2 and original Xbox, featured a DVD player. The Xbox is particularly notable as the new console on the block without a proven track record of excellent games that Nintendo had.

"At that time, we analyzed the [sales] numbers of dedicated game consoles, and [late-Nintendo president Satoru] Iwata identified that part of the reason [for poor sales] is that 'being a gamer has not been normalized all over the world,'" Miyamoto says. "If you think about it, we don't say 'book readers and non-book readers.' Though maybe people do nowadays."

Nintendo has done a lot over the years to normalize gaming, and Miyamoto says he often spoke with Iwata about how video games should be for "everyone and their mom." However, despite how widespread gaming is, it still fails to integrate into our speech as we still say gamer, but as Miyamoto points out, we don't say things like 'reader' or 'watcher,' for hobbies that are considered 'normal.'

"We were making products for one type of customer, but we were discussing how there was a time when Nintendo was a company that handled a wide variety of entertainment worldwide," he says. "The conclusion we drew from these discussions was that if we design a complicated controller like the ones currently made for consoles, then we'll never attract non-gamers. We didn't want to be restricted by making a 'video game console,' but instead make a 'new tool for play.'"

Both the Wii and DS were famous for their popularity with people who had never purchased a console before. Games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Brain Training all offered people who didn't usually play video games a more mainstream and easy to understand way to play.

"So when it came to the DS, we wrote taglines for every player like 'everyone is at the starting line' and 'play with just one pen.' For the Wii it was something like 'Use your body to play,'" Miyamoto says. "With the DS and the Wii, we wanted to spread video game consoles as a new way to play, quickly all around the world, and that worked to some extent. I think that made us conscious of creating a [hardware] interface as part of play. I think that was a big deal."

Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto says PCs were once "held in higher regard than consoles," so the NES was made to bridge "the gap" – "It wasn't just a toy."

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey player count soared for the first time in years since Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adaptation released earlier this month, according to data gathered by Alinea Analytics.

Alinea head of market analysis Rhys Elliott explains in a new post on Substack that, once The Odyssey zapped onto IMAX screens on July 17, "the cultural spillover into games was immediate." 10 days later, Ubisoft's 2018 ancient Greek adventure Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had nearly doubled its active player count, swelling from an approximate total of 122,000 players to 233,000 across platforms.

"That's a 90% surge in engagement," says Elliott, "at 1.8x the game's pre-film July baseline." But unlike the Greeks as they piled into their Trojan horse, most recent Assassin's Creed: Odyssey players are unwilling to risk more than a boring afternoon. Only 26% of the action RPG's new recruits came from Steam, while PlayStation players went off like a car alarm up 94% to 114,000 daily active users, and Xbox boomed plus-134% from 36,000 to 84,000 active users.

Probably, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's luck on console came from PS Plus and Game Pass subscribers – even with Game Pass currently limping toward death. Elliott says, "Lapsed fans jumped straight back in, while new players found a 60+ hour Greek epic waiting inside a subscription they already pay for."

Though, Nolan's The Odyssey also blessed Ubisoft's Odyssey with some fresh sales. "Software sales moved modestly at around 400K copies year-to-date," Elliott says, but the real news "is pure player engagement. The film didn't make millions buy an eight-year-old game, but it got a massive cohort playing it again. That data gives Ubisoft great ammunition for an eventual AC Odyssey Resynced."

The developer's recent Black Flag Resynced has been a gargantuan financial success for Ubisoft, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it capitalize further on Nolan fever – if it stops laying off devs long enough to do so.

Ubisoft had a very on-brand problem with Assassin's Creed Odyssey: there weren't many tall buildings in Ancient Greece even though it's a "climbing-frame game."

Samara Weaving has officially been cast as Emma Frost in the first standalone MCU X-Men movie... and this is perfect, if I do say so myself.

According to Deadline, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier met with "a number of candidates" and "landed on Weaving earlier this week." Neither Marvel nor Weaving has commented just yet.

Emma Frost has similar powers to those of Jean Grey by way of telepathy and mind control in addition to superhuman strength. Frost was initially introduced as a mutant supervillain before eventually joining and teaming up with the X-Men. Because the X-Men haven't even been formed yet in the MCU (and we can infer that the standalone X-Men movie will focus on the formation of the team as the mutants enroll at the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters), it's likely that Emma will be introduced as a villain rather than jumping ahead and skipping over a few comic book arcs.

Weaving is perhaps best known for starring in Ready or Not as the most badass final girl in a blood-soaked wedding dress, and recently kicked butt in Over Your Dead Body and Carolina Caroline. A horror-action star being cast as Emma Frost is a boss move on Marvel's part. She's also the second X-Men member to be cast in the MCU... but we'll let you figure out who that might be.

X-Men is eyeing a tentative 2028 release date. You can keep up to date with everything the MCU has in store with our guide to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows.

Today's Genshin Impact 7.0 livestream confirmed an expansion to the game's To Temper Thyself and Journey Far event, better known as the 5-star Constellation selector. With nine new characters added to the selectable roster, the free 5-star options have grown considerably as the event enters its fifth cycle.

Provided you already have the character themselves, as of update 7.0 you'll be able to claim one free Constellation for the following characters in addition to those already available in the selector:

• Lyney
• Wriothesley
• Navia
• Xianyun
• Chiori
• Sigewinne
• Clorinde
• Emilie
• Yumemizuki Mizuki

As expected, the newly added characters are Fontaine-focused, though some players have also expressed their shock at seeing Sumeru characters like Al Haitham skipped over.

Wriothesley, who was recently buffed with the introduction of the Stellar Conduct reaction, is comfortably one of the strongest picks for an early Constellation.

Standard character Yumemizuki Mizuki, who seems to benefit from the addition of the Stellar Swirl reaction in update 7.0, is also surprisingly relevant. I'll probably end up snagging Wriothesley for power, Xianyun for exploration, and Chiori and Emilie to make them slightly stronger as off-field options.

The rules of the selector haven't changed from the first four cycles. As developer Hoyoverse reiterated on-stream, players "can claim one Stella Fortuna [Constellation upgrade] for characters you own from the list above. Each character can only receive it once."

As ever, you can claim these freebies by completing daily tasks multiple times a week for eight weeks in a row, with miscellaneous bonus rewards to follow once you claim the Constellation for each cycle.

All Genshin Impact codes and how to redeem them.

Final Fantasy 14 is no horror game, standing as the MMORPG gem of Square Enix's beloved JRPG series – but it sure does have its spooky moments.

If you know the lore behind the Palace of the Dead, you're probably familiar with how creepy Final Fantasy 14 can get – but its environments and atmosphere are arguably not very eerie, even in Deep Dungeons with heart-wrenching backstories like PotD… most of them, anyway.

One Warrior of Light has discovered an area that almost feels like it should be out-of-bounds in the North Horn of the Occult Crescent, and it's spine-chilling.

I think I found one of the creepiest place SE did in a while. [Spoiler:7.55] from r/ffxiv

"I think I found one of the creepiest places SE did in a while," they write, sharing screenshots of their discovery over on Reddit. The spot comes from the MMO's recent Patch 7.55, and appears after players go through a foggy Silent Hill-esque hole in the wall – yes, hole.

"Was wandering in Occult Crescent North Horn and found a hole in the wall and got a big chill in the spine seeing this," as the poster reports.

"Reminded me of some Creepypasta Backrooms shenanigans," they add – and, yeah, I can certainly see why.

Everything is paint-white, floating against a pitch-black background. There are crawling arms reaching for nothing, forming freaky arches. Enemies prowl the strange area in the Occult Crescent, too, which commenters note are formidable foes.

"I visited there today too, and let's just say it's really risky," as one reply reads. "All enemies are rank 40+," the person responding notes – but there are "four silver chests and a survey point inside" to make it worth it.

Amusingly, Square Enix has chimed in with its own amusing comment on the matter as well, writing in its own post, "If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the…"

It's a silly little reference to the Backrooms, but I love it.

Will I explore the area for myself? Honestly, I'm not sure I can be bothered tackling the normal part of the Occult Crescent – but the new Phantom weapon does beckon…

Final Fantasy 14 is great and all, but Yoshi-P would "tackle completely new game designs and values" if he were to make another MMO.

Just five months after entering early access, the 1.0 launch of Starsand Island is coming up soon. The more tropical take on Stardew Valley will be coming out fully in August, making the transition less than three weeks away.

Developer Seed Sparkle Lab made the announcement today, July 31, on Steam. Starsand Island will go into 1.0 on August 18, with the biggest addition being four-player multiplayer, "allowing you to farm, fish, build, explore, and enjoy island life together."

The studio notes that community insight has been a major factor in getting this far. "Thanks to your support, we've added new content, refined existing features, and made island life even more enjoyable," the team writes.

"To every islander who has joined us on this journey – thank you," the post continues. "Your feedback, encouragement, and passion have helped shape Starsand Island into what it is today."

Going from early access to the full version in six months is an impressive turnaround for any game. Projects often gestate for years before moving out, if they ever do. But 88% positive reviews suggests Seed Sparkle Lab is definitely doing something right.

Looking more like Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons in aesthetic, Starsand Island takes a coastal perspective on farm life. While you're tending to your crops and animals, you can enjoy a bit of sunbathing on the beach, or even head out on a boat for a little cruise. It's all delightful and summery, making this the perfect time of year to put it out.

There'll be a special launch discount, so if your interest is piqued, you can wait until the day of to buy a copy. "Version 1.0 is just the beginning," the developers add. "We'll continue bringing new content, improvements, and exciting updates to Starsand Island in the future."

8-year-old indie game on Steam goes from "like 10 reviews" to over 500 as players use it to play an Undertale multiplayer mod, and the dev behind it just thinks it's "really cool."