Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone sent ripples through the farming sim community this week when he seemed to suggest he was "open to" letting players cheat on their partners in Stardew Valley so long as there were narrative repercussions for doing so, but in a slew of replies on social media, he's now confirming he was talking strictly in hypotheticals and has no plans of doing anything like that.

The confusion stems from an interview Barone did with Game Informer in which he was asked if there were any changes he'd previously considered for Stardew Valley but decided against for fear of negative reactions from the player base. Barone replied by saying he's half-jokingly entertained requests from players to romance already married characters like Caroline and Demetrius, which would of course involve infidelity, but decided against it for moral reasons. For the purpose of full transparency, here's the full, unedited quote from Barone:

"I mean, one thing I have mentioned before, which I kind of was half joking about. It was like, people want to marry Caroline or Robin or Demetrius, and in order to do that, you would have to break up families in town. And personally, I'm against that on a moral level. But I feel like in a sandbox game, you should be able to do wicked things and then face the consequences. I wouldn't just make everyone be totally chill about it. Everyone would hate you. It would cause a lot of chaos and disaster and suffering, and people would be angry, and you would ruin the family. I would be open to doing something like that, but I wouldn't baby people about it. There would be very serious consequences. But then part of me is like, 'Well, maybe this is just too real.' Maybe Stardew Valley is supposed to be, to some degree, an escape from those kinds of things. It’s too realistic, you know?"

Many outlets and online commenters including GamesRadar+ interpreted the above quote to mean Barone hasn't completely taken the idea of infidelity in Stardew Valley off the table, even if it only exists as a hypothetical for now. That said, Barone took to Twitter to blast off a few fairly sharply worded replies to online speculation and confirmed, in no uncertain terms, there will be no cheating on anyone's spouse in Stardew Valley any time soon.

"The quotes are taken out of context, and don't capture the whole spirit of what I was saying," reads one such reply. "They make it seem like this is something I am planning on adding, but if you read the actual interview it's clear that I'm not going to add it."

In another tweet, Barone says, "the only thing I had ever 'considered' was allowing players to break up Pierre/Caroline or Robin/Demetrius, but even that is probabl too heavy and serious, and would be a ton of work to adjust all dialogue and tone of everyone in town in consequence, and Grandpa ashamed of you.

"It was just some theoretical idea I've toyed with. I don't condone doing it either. but there is precedent for things like that in Stardew, like going to the DARK SHRINE OF SLEFISHNESS to turn your kids into doves, and then they haunt you forever."

Obviously, I can't speak for any other outlets or commentators, but I can say with confidence that it wasn't our intent to present an out-of-context view of Barone's words, but I also understand that it can be frustrating when you feel something you've said has been misconstrued, especially in such a public-facing environment. Regardless, it's good to have confirmation from the developer himself that Stardew Valley couples will continue to be faithful to each other.

Better yet: Eric Barone says Stardew Valley and Haunted Chocolatier will forever be AI-free because people "should take priority over a soulless machine"

Grand Theft Auto 3 was not the first open-world game, but it laid a blueprint that the industry is, in many ways, still following to this day. Urban environments at the scale of Liberty City were practically unheard of when GTA 3 hit PS2, but Rockstar North – then known as DMA Design – managed to squeeze it all inside some impressively tiny memory constraints. Now, a dev has rewritten the game's source code to demonstrate how it all works.

The PS2 has just 32MB of memory to work with, and according to Mark Brown, the game journalist turned YouTuber turned game dev behind Game Maker's Toolkit, the assets that make up GTA 3's Liberty City constitute around 130MB of data. The devs split the city into three different islands, which each load separately, but even the opening island of Portland still features somewhere in the neighborhood of 40MB-50MB of assets.

Unwilling to compromise with a boring, bland city made up of low-quality assets, the devs eventually split Liberty City into what Brown describes as "thousands of small sectors," and the game only loads the assets for sectors near the player. Assets continue to load in as you move near them, and are unloaded as you move out. That's "streaming," a word you'll continue to hear describing this kind of data management in games even today.

Simple enough in concept, but it's a magic trick that's effectively invisible while you're playing. So, to demonstrate how it works, Brown "got the GTA 3 source code," then "rewrote several sections of the program," and "compiled a brand new executable." His new version of the game, which you can see in the video above, demonstrates exactly how the streaming works, and it's very fun seeing small chunks of Liberty City pop in and out around the player's location.

"Now you can see the trick: how Grand Theft Auto 3 loads and unloads a small number of assets into memory as you move around Liberty City," Brown explains. "It secretly builds the world in front of you, and it silently deletes the world behind your back. Basically: instead of trying to fit a whole city into memory, Rockstar instead built a moving window which shows just enough of the city to make the illusion work."

Of course, this is a very simple explanation of how it all works, and one that ignores all the problems the devs had to solve along the way. For example: wouldn't players notice the assets pop in around them as they move? To solve that, the devs implemented lower-detail versions of the assets that appear in the distance, turning into the regular models as you get close. That, of course, is another technique still widely used in modern games.

The full video goes into many of the other behind-the-scenes problems that Rockstar solved, and is well worth your time if you're interested in the technical makeup of an all-time classic. Many of the tricks the devs used to make GTA 3 work weren't unheard of even in 2001, but the game that resulted was such a massive success that the entire industry would soon be following its lead. With GTA 6 on the horizon, that legacy is impossible to ignore.

GTA 6 was delayed to avoid crunch, claims Take-Two CEO, comparing notoriously crunchy Rockstar to college: "You do your homework, you don't pull an all-nighter."

As I write this, Crimson Desert has a total of 150,814 reviews on Steam with an overall Very Positive rating. In this unstable landscape where even opt-in updates can make otherwise enthusiastic audiences turn on Slay the Spire 2, it's impressive developer Pearl Abyss has charmed its Steam players enough to keep them in good spirits even as they criticize the open-world game's story.

One positive review with 353 "helpful" ratings summarizes what seems to be Crimson Desert players' thoughts and says, "It's Ok to Love a Game and Criticize It Fairly." While Pearl Abyss' ambitious adventure starring every-yeoman Kliff is so huge, most players are barely halfway done exploring even though the game launched in March, people say Crimson Desert's narrative is not nearly as deep. Ostensibly, Kliff is a hawk-eyed adventurer trying to restore the glory of his murdered Greymane faction, but in practice, as one fan on Reddit says in a related thread, "It makes more sense if you imagine Kliff as an omniscient lobotomite that just does things because its on the left side of my screen."

Pearl Abyss might not even disagree with this characterization – the developer admitted to shareholders earlier this spring it regrets not thickening Crimson Desert's story further, but it was in a rush, and polishing gameplay was most important. Anyway, notoriously cranky Steam reviewers – who turn green at the sight of new Helldivers 2 Warbonds, and pan Cities: Skylines after 30,000 apparently excruciating hours of playtime – are fine with it, for some reason.

One positive review with almost 120 hours on record calls Crimson Desert "generally good," but also disclaims, "each time I have to do another "follow another Wolf member, especially Yann, on horseback" so they can ***** and moan - mission...I am tempted to review bomb this."

Another similarly disgruntled positive review flippantly calls Crimson Desert "The Legend of Just Cause Redemption 2: The Wild Hunt," rates its story a "3/10," yet crowns it with a final evaluation of "Fun 11/10."

"This game has a breathtaking map that rivals skyrim, [...] the bosses are some of the worst i've seen in my 30 years of gaming," says a level-headed top negative review whose language is nearly indistinguishable from a more flattering review.

What's going on? Is Kliff sliding Steam players envelopes of silver coins for these reviews? No, I think Crimson Desert has simply captivated gamers with its clever mix of every fun game mechanic ever in history, and it delivers something for everyone – even the most difficult to please.

Crimson Desert update nails a major fan request as lions, tigers, bears, and more can be tamed and turned into special mounts.

The Punisher: One Last Kill director Reinaldo Marcus Green says they quite literally doused Jon Bernthal in flames for one wild stunt.

"Legit flames, legit practical flames, and everyone was trying to walk him off the ledge, myself included," Green told ScreenRant. "I'm like, 'You sure you want to do this? But if you want to go back, we're going to go back for you to do this.' But it's not for the faint of heart to put yourself through that kind of experience, but to watch Jon, the preparation for doing that, but he didn't do it to look cool. I think that's what makes Jon so special. He did it because it was important to the story, it was important to the character."

We won't spoil you too much, as you should definitely go check out the special for yourself, but it's a pretty pivotal scene involving gasoline, an apartment building, and attempted arson. It's also immensely cool seeing Frank Castle literally walk through fire, proving to himself and everyone around him that he's back.

Continued Green: "It's one of my favorite sequences in the piece, but again, it's for the story point that it makes. It's the first time in our piece that our unreliable narrator is now real. That's real fire, and Jon is awake, and now the beast is unleashed, so to speak, in that moment."

The Punisher: One Last Kill, co-written by Bernthal, follows a PTSD-stricken Frank who has lost touch with reality. But things get pretty real after he crosses paths with Ma Gnucci, who is there to take revenge after the Punisher killed her family (though it's the Gnuccis who were responsible for the death of Frank's wife and children in the first place).

Bernthal is set to appear Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and I'm so curious as to how his dynamic with Tom Holland's Peter Parker will play out...

The Punisher: One Last Kill is now streaming on Disney Plus. For more, read our breakdown of The Punisher: One Last Kill ending and our verdict on the special with The Punisher: One Last Kill review.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the latest beloved classic to get an unofficial PC port, but it's run into trademark issues – yet somehow, the dispute isn't with Nintendo. The project was known as Dusk, but that's also the title of a beloved FPS that's got a trademark to defend. Luckily, this all has a happy ending for everybody involved.

"After talking to some cool people at New Blood Interactive," the devs behind the Twilight Princess port say in a Discord message, "we mutually agreed that to avoid any confusion between our projects going forward, we have decided to change the name of our port to Dusklight! No other changes are planned, the project will continue development as usual."

New Blood Interactive is an indie label best known for the kind of violent throwback FPS titles the world now collectively knows as "boomer shooters," and David Szymanski's Dusk is the game that established that brand. New Blood has a reputation for irreverent, community-friendly approach to publishing, but hey, it does still have to make sure there's no brand confusion over Dusk.

Which makes asking a community project to slightly change its name a pretty reasonable ask. "This also benefits the TP project by making it easier for people to search for," New Blood says in a tweet. "A win-win." Good looking out for the little guy.

New Blood also notes that Twilight Princess is Szymanski's "favorite Zelda so this whole thing has been pretty funny." While the publisher says that it "very much" owns the Dusk trademark, the devs behind the project now known as Dusklight were "super cool when we asked them about it. Their project is awesome and a crossover is not entirely out of the question…"

It's tough to imagine what kind of crossover is realistic here, since New Blood can't exactly start adding Link and Midna to its games. Maybe Dusk characters replacing Twilight Princess NPCs in Dusklight? For now, New Blood is simply offering some Dusk Switch keys to members of the Dusklight community.

But, uh… is New Blood at all concerned about offering this unofficial stamp of approval to Dusklight? After all, it has a business relationship with Nintendo, a company that's historically not been especially friendly toward these sports of fan projects. To that question, New Blood has a simple response: a shrug emoji.

A fanmade Jak and Daxter 3 PC port is now in beta, finally making Naughty Dog's most underrated trilogy fully available on PC.

Laz Alonso doesn't seem super keen on how Mother's Milk is being treated in The Boys season 5.

According to Forbes, Alonso shared a Reel to his public Instagram story with the title, "The Boys season 5 has a Soldier Boy problem." In the video, which is clipped from Our Crazy Stupid Podcast, host Esther Battle-Marston says, "I wish they would give some of the time that they're giving to Soldier Boy to MM. I really wish that this could feel like a little bit more of a continuous arc because it's feeling kind of startling. Considering that last season, he is the person who saw A-Train and was like, "'We can get him, I can appeal to his humanity.'" It also appears that Karl Urban liked a video called, "New ep of The Boys makes no sense" (via a screenshot from a fan).

In fairness, that podcast episode was posted prior to The Boys season 5 episode 7, which does spend quite a bit of time on Mother's Milk... though it's arguably the most time they've given him all season (and we finally get to learn how the Supe got his name in the first place).

However, it's also the penultimate episode of the series... so with Homelander still alive, and Marie Moreau, the only living Supe who could actually defeat him, showing up for only a few seconds in episode 7 (and likely won't be seen again, especially given that Kripke said the Gen V kids were not going to save the day or whatever), and extra time given to Soldier Boy likely to set up the prequel Vought Rising that's coming out in 2027... I'd say we're moving towards an unsatisfying series finale. Though said series finale is also screening in 4DX theaters, so at least we'll be getting hit in the face with water and wind while it's all going down.

In the meantime, The Boys season 5 continues to air weekly. See our The Boys season 5 release schedule for exact timings, and check out our The Boys season 5 recap.

Control may have been GamesRadar's 2019 Game of the Year. It may be a thrilling action-adventure game with a mind-bending world and story, but there's one thing it isn't: an RPG. Sure, there are some light RPG-style systems and character progression, but a full-blown RPG, Control is not. That said, its sequel, Control Resonant, is shaping up to be exactly that, a true-blue action RPG with dedicated buildcrafting, a bunch of meaty skill trees, stat screens, and so many different abilities as to essentially have distinct classes, according to creative director Mikael Kasurinen, who tells me a Remedy RPG was the plan from the very beginning.

I caught up with Kasurinen during gamescom latam 2026, and I was surprised to hear him say Control was supposed to be an action RPG series since before the original game was even conceived.

"When I was thinking about Control, and it wasn't called Control or anything like that, but I had this kind of thinking in my head that I wanted to create an RPG franchise," he says. "'How do I get there?' The question was, 'what would it be? What's the Remedy version of that?' The way to learn is to start by doing, and that's how Control was born."

Kasurinen points out that Control laid the RPG foundation for Resonant to be built upon with various abilities, weapon choices, and non-linear map designs, something that was entirely new to the Quantum Break and Alan Wake developer at the time.

"It was the first time we ever did that," he says. "There was a main story, but there's also these other stories as well. You had side quests. We'd never done that before. We'd never done dialog choices before, where you talk to a character [and] you can choose what to say. All that stuff was new ... My intent was, 'I want to find out what is the Remedy version of an RPG experience.' That's what Control was."

Again, I'd sooner label Control a horror game than an RPG, but it sounds like Remedy's plan from the very beginning was for Control to act as a transition between the strictly linear action-adventure games Remedy was known for, and the deep, systems-driven RPG Control Resonant is being described as.

"With Resonant, I wanted to stop calling it action adventure. Instead, like, no, it's an action RPG. This is Remedy's RPG franchise, and we're gonna kind of embrace that, fully commit to it, and so on, and go even further into that direction."

I'm a longtime Remedy fan, and I've also been known to enjoy RPGs here and there, but there's no way of knowing exactly how a Remedy RPG will shake out. I've been telling myself that Alan Wake 2, a triumphant shift into full-on survival horror, is proof of the studio's adaptability, but RPGs are a whole different beast, and Remedy isn't taking any half measures. Kasurinen tells me you'll be able to customize new protagonist Dylan's abilities to such a degree that it'll feel like there are different classes.

"You can focus more on, let's say, if you want to have a close combat brawler type of character who's quick to knock out enemies and make them falter and so on, really hands on, fighting type of a thing, you can create the character around that," he says. "Or you can be more indirect. You can summon turrets, you can turn enemies against each other and so on. You're more like the mage versus the knight. So, you can shape the way you deal with things in multitudes of different ways."

Control Resonant is out on PS5, Xbox, and PC sometime in 2026, at which point we'll learn if Remedy has the chops to make a game that stands among the best RPGs out here.

Control Resonant may be an action-RPG, but Remedy isn't veering into hellishly-challenging territory: "There are no parries, there is no back-and-forth with a single enemy."

Arc Raiders will introduce two heavily demanded features in a smaller but significant update coming the week of May 17, letting players expand their stash and carry key items like blueprints between Expeditions.

Developer Embark Studios announced the update today in the footnotes to a long explainer about the game's new release schedule, with major updates like the newly announced Frozen Trail coming twice a year (in this case, in October).

"Next week, we’re introducing a fresh mechanic designed for late-game players: a new Trader from a nomadic tribe of surface-dwellers," Embark says.

This trader is meant to solve a problem some experienced raiders have run into: they have too much stuff and nothing to do with it. With Expedition skill point payouts now tied to limited-time combat events, there's even less point to selling stuff to become a coin millionaire.

Additionally, "very few of you are going on the Expedition, either because it is not rewarding enough, or because it is too painful to part with your favorite items and Blueprints," Embark observes.

This trader, unlocked at level 25, is meant to help solve all of this, in addition to offering "unique rewards, rare items, and cosmetics in exchange for your high-value items." On a weekly rotation, you'll be able to barter for goods and answer requests for specific rare items.

Most importantly, the trader will let you purchase extra stash space, and a hotly requested way to "carry over up to five items across the Expedition, so you can set your new Raider up with your favorite items or blueprints." It sounds like you'll have to unlock all five slots incrementally, similar to earning bonus skill points, but that's just a guess.

Embark says "this is just one part of a broader set of improvements arriving later this year," seemingly alluding not just to Frozen Trail but also to the regular bug, balance, and quality-of-life updates coming in the interim.

For now, this sounds pretty darn good. More stash space is always welcome (though we don't know how much we're getting), the trader's exchanges could very well extend late-game progression, and a way to preserve blueprints ought to make the Expedition more appealing. Now the theorycrafting begins: what are the best blueprints to bring with you?

Arc Raiders preparing new kernel-level anti-cheat to blast cheaters out of the sky and "sharpen both detection and precision."

Just as Arc Raiders players began to wonder what's next after the Riven Tides update and the end of the game's early 2026 roadmap, developer Embark Studios has announced Frozen Trail, the game's "biggest update yet," alongside major changes to how those updates are rolled out.

In a May 13 blog post, Embark says "we planned to offer monthly updates" when Arc Raiders first launched. "But once the game was in players' hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates," it adds.

"Over time, we’ve found that the pressure of a monthly cycle limits how impactful these updates can be. You feel it, and we feel it too. Running at that pace isn't sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game."

With that in mind, Arc Raiders will now receive "major" updates twice a year. Embark says these will be "larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game," with "regular live updates" packing balance or bug fixes, as well as store refreshes, still arriving frequently.

Some players might balk at the idea of impactful updates coming less frequently compared to what's been released since launch, but Embark stresses that "this additional development space also allows us to invest more deeply in the health of ARC Raiders, from progression and economy balancing to fair play and anti-cheat efforts."

Carrying the banner of this new update schedule is Frozen Trail, which is set for October. "It's the largest we've released since launch," Embark says of the update, promising "to address the broader questions the community has been asking."

Here's the slightly condensed list of features and additions listed for Frozen Trail.

• "The largest map in the game" takes us to a "new landscape in the Rust Belt with layered design and new mysteries"
• New Arc "with fresh designs, and unique behaviors" appear in the "most ambitious ARC operation so far"
• "New systems of progression" introduce additional "goals and more ways to shape your Raider's progression," with a nod to players who have long since maxed their hideout and skill points
• The "origin of ARC" will be explored, finally diving into a major lore pillar
• An "improved skill tree" is coming, though it's not clear in what form
• New weapons, items, instruments, and cosmetics are also on the way

"We're refining core systems to support a more meaningful long-term experience – one you genuinely want to keep returning to. Frozen Trail is just the beginning of where we want to take ARC Raiders, and we’ll share more in the coming months," Embark reiterates.

Progression is a recurring focus in Embark's post. From Trials to the Expedition, core pursuits are going under the microscope. The studio's broadly pursuing "reasons to keep returning" to the game, which has become a hot topic among the game's maturing player base. Minor map conditions and a handful of blueprints have not kept some players as engaged now that they've done and seen it all, leaving some to wonder if it's just time to put the game down for a bit.

Waiting until October for a new major update might not be what those players were hoping to hear, but Embark is adamant that "the bi-annual cadence gives us the opportunity to develop to build future updates with more intention, ensuring that gameplay, progression, narrative, and the world itself all move forward together."

For now, we'll have to see what those not-major updates can do. Embark says it's got a hefty one out next week, adding a new trader to soak up hoarded resources and even letting players buy up to five slots to carry items over between Expeditions, including blueprints.

Arc Raiders Expedition breaks, leaving players without promised skill points and Embark "actively investigating" the problem.

Somewhere in the ether, there's evidence of the Generic Universal Role Playing System, or GURPS, version of Interplay's Fallout, in which franchise co-creator Tim Cain dumped every adjective he's ever heard of before a botched licensing deal ultimately led the 1997 game to the SPECIAL ruleset current developer Bethesda still uses. Cain is missing most of that evidence – or he thought so, before unearthing a fat list of advantages, disadvantages, quirks, and skills he shares in a new YouTube video giving us a rare sniff of what Fallout development was like 30 years ago.

"I thought these were lost," Cain says in the video posted May 13. "Well, I found written notes of the final advantages, disadvantages, quirks, and skills had it been selected to be used in the GURPS version of Fallout."

Interplay had Cain destroy his archive of the project after he left the company, and the developer apparently misplaced the separate archive Cain handed over before shipping Fallout in 1997. But that's in the past – Cain finally has some proof of the elaborate wasteland GURPS Fallout, and he's eager to share each exhausting detail.

In terms of attributes, strength, health, IQ, and dexterity are a given. "We were of course using all four of those," says Cain, but then there was a whole separate spice cabinet of advantageous and disadvantageous characteristics players could use.

He lists ingredients in a large pot of soup: "Acute hearing, acute taste and smell, acute vision; alertness; [...] ambidexterity; animal empathy; appearance attractive, appearance handsome, and appearance very handsome.

"Charisma; combat reflexes, common sense, danger sense; eidetic memory, high pain threshold, intuition; literacy, luck; night vision, peripheral vision; rapid healing," and you could have good reputation in various Fallout factions, including, in your Vault, Shady Sands, Junktown, the Hub, Brotherhood of Steel, and so on.

"We also added strong will, toughness, and voice," says Cain. These advantages would have all cost character points to purchase, and, "in essence, made the game a little easier in some small aspect," Cain adds. The disadvantage list gleefully kicks up the seesaw and balances that out.

In addition to a number of bad or enemy-level reputations you could earn among all of Fallout's major groups, including your Vault, GURPS Fallout also let you develop "Alcoholism. Odious personal habit: Bad breath. Odious personal habit: Pick nose," says Cain. "Color blindness, hard of hearing, low pain threshold, no sense of smell or taste – it's also called anosmia. One eye; overweight, skinny – those are both disadvantages in GURPS. Stuttering."

GURPS Fallout would have also made you vulnerable to various addictions, including to "physical adders" that adjusted your strength, dex, and hardiness of your health, "mental adders" that boosted IQ, or combat-specific drugs Cain calls "berserk drugs."

These, of course, are all separate to the "bad temper, berserk, blood lust" you could incur, or "code of honor – it's called, 'You Never Break Your Word,' combat paralysis; compulsive lying, delusion: hears voices; gullibility, honesty; lecherousness; pacifism: cannot kill, pacifism: self-defense only; phobia of insects, phobia of monsters, phobia of reptiles, phobia of darkness; sense of duty to the Vault, truthfulness, unluckiness; weak will." Phew. These disadvantages are starting to sound like the reasons for my therapy bill.

Cain says there were additionally three levels of ugliness, from mildly unattractive to, "You're the most disgusting thing ever born in the Vault," Cain explains. "You're lucky they didn't kill you as a mutant." And because this is GURPS Fallout we're talking about, you could also have so many quirks, they might have eventually cast Zooey Deschanel to play you in a movie. Two of my favorite options Cain lists are "hates cows" and "boisterous walker," which would make your footsteps fall like anvils.

As for skills, some highlights GURPS Fallout would have launched with are "jumping," "sex appeal," and Cain says, "savoir-faire, one of my favorite ones, the skill of good manners and getting along in a social setting."

"We had all of those in the game at some level of implementation in early 1997," Cain concludes.

"Tim, not to be too dark," quickly replies one fan on YouTube. "Can you release the source code for Fallout as your last will and testament?"

Not missing a beat, Cain says, "I'd have to have it first."

Xbox studio accidentally gave away the RPG that led to OG Fallout for free, so now it's giving everyone a way to play it legitimately.

We've been waiting over a decade now for Judas, the next game from BioShock mastermind Ken Levine. It's another first-person affair, but with different ambitions on the storytelling front, favoring player-choice and such, an endeavor he's found further inspiration for in Larian's Baldur's Gate 3.

Speaking IGN, he talked about having two contrasting play-throughs of the hit fantasy RPG. "Playing Baldur's Gate, I really understood the power of that," Levine says, referencing the depth of choice-driven storytelling on offer. "I played a second playthrough, and like one of the main characters got killed very early."

The thing is, he only understood that character's significance because he'd already completed the threequel once. Otherwise, he'd just think this is how things are meant to be.

"I only knew he was a major character from my previous playthrough, and then I did something different, and he was gone, and I saw his dead body there," Levine explains.

That kind of narrative possibility isn't something Levine's favored previously. BioShock and BioShock: Infinite are both mostly linear, with certain forks in the road that offer binary good or evil choices. System Shock isn't much different.

He's championed the "narrative lego" of Judas, the debut release from his new studio Ghost Story Games,a number of times before. It all sounds appealing, and savvy considering the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, but it's something I'm eager to see in action before getting too excited.

At the very least, I'm now wary of what can happen the second I get control of someone in the project. It seems like everyone's lives will be in my hands in one way or another. At least I won't have Big Daddies to deal with.

Baldur's Gate 3 fans behind OG Baldur's Gate remake mod revamp Candlekeep to give it "the massive visual overhaul it truly deserves"

Ken Levine, BioShock creator and the creative director behind upcoming first-person shooter Judas, doesn't think prioritizing the most up-to-date technology in game development is all that important – in fact, he finds realism doesn't "age well" at all.

The BioShock mastermind – who isn't working on BioShock 4 but rather new title Judas – reveals as much during an interview with IGN.

"I don't think we've ever been a company that was like, 'Oh my god, we need the latest and greatest technology,'" he begins, referencing what was previously Irrational Games (now Ghost Story Games). "In the rendering space, we've never been a company." They've "never really tried to do ultra realism," apparently.

Why, though? "It's expensive, and it doesn't age as well as sort of more stylistic things." That reason is also why Levine thinks games like BioShock still look so good – they prioritized their own unique style over top-of-the-line graphics.

The dev then brings up the Switch 2 and the ever-elusive Steam Machine, explaining they're "not massive technological upgrades," as it wasn't their creators' "strategy." There's a bit of stagnation regarding visual capabilities, too.

"I think people are realizing that we've sort of hit a bit of diminishing returns with that," as Levine puts it. "I think if you have the right art director and the right approach, you don't need to be on the cutting edge of technology all the time."

He then admits Judas won't be "CPU-intensive," with Ghost Story Games placing a stronger focus on narrative design and the like – similar to Baldur's Gate 3, which manages to appear stunning nonetheless.

It's certainly a perspective to think about. I'm also interested to see what director Judas takes, seeing as Levine has said it lets you "truly inhabit a character" in a way BioShock didn't – but I suppose only time will tell how the FPS does so.

Curious about what else there is to be excited about right now in the gaming sphere? Here's a handy roundup of all the most eye-catching new games coming this year and beyond.

The end of last month saw the arrival of Saros, the grim sci-fi follow-up to Returnal from Housemarque. Another tough-as-nails roguelike, some sales data reveals it's not launched quite as strongly as its predecessor, but that's partly due to the current lay of the land.

On Twitter, Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, gives a bit of insight into the game's performance thus far. He estimates it's sold over 300,000 copies in two weeks, almost a third of which were pre-orders, generating over $22 million in revenue.

According to the firm's numbers, it's lagging behind Returnal, but although that may sound negative given there are now 11-times the amount of PlayStation 5s in the world, the console's library offers a great deal of variety now compared to 2021. "When Returnal hit in April 2021, less than six months after the PS5 launch, those early PS5 adopters (the ones who inherently buy a lot of new games at full price) were dying for something to play," he writes.

"Returnal was the first big first-party PlayStation release since launch, and it made amazing use of the unique DualSense haptics and spatial audio," Elliott explains. "Many core PS5 players flocked to it almost by default."

Now, some five years into the system's life, there's a laundry list of great blockbuster releases. Several arrived within the last 12 months, in fact. Saros "launched not too long after Crimson Desert, Resident Evil Requiem, Hades 2 on PS5, Pragmata, and a whole bunch of rad 2026 games," he points out.

Elliott notes that Saros "is a more niche" game compared to Ghost of Yotei or a new God of War. It's not an established IP or an open-world action-adventure. It's stylish but frequently grueling, and even having Rahul Kohli in the lead role doesn't make that an easier sell to many players.

These returns are still disappointing, Elliott says, and "it will struggle to break even" against the purported budget exceeding $76 million. If there's one saving grace, however, it's that Saros has already outsold Marathon on PS5. Gotta take your victories where you can, whether selling video games or battling aliens on Carcosa.

Saros trophy list includes an unexpected tribute to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

After 15 years, Metal Gear Solid 2's unfinished third-person camera mode has finally been found in the Master Collection version of the stealth classic.

Afevis Solmunko – one of the developers behind the MGSFix mod, which spruces up the PC version of Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 – posts on Twitter (spotted by PC Gamer), "accidentally found third person view in MGS2MC" while sharing videos of it in action. They note "it locks the camera to overhead view when in super-tight corridors so you don't clip through walls, but otherwise... yeah, it been there for 15 years."

15 years in this case refers to the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection, released by Bluepoint Games in 2011, and the basis for the versions of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 in Master Collection.

As a user in the responses points out, series creator Hideo Kojima mentioned in an interview around the release of HD Collection that "we experimented with putting a 3D camera in there" and turns out the experiments were hidden in there the whole time. This change effectively gives Metal Gear Solid 2 the same treatment as Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, where you can turn it into a more traditional third-person shooter style of play.

It's definitely going to be fun to return to Metal Gear Solid 2 to check this out, but I can also see it being a Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes situation. The GameCube remake of the original Metal Gear Solid added in the first-person aiming from its sequel, which in turn absolutely killed the balance of the game, since the world wasn't planned for you being able to properly aim (the most notable being the Revolver Ocelot fight, which becomes a total joke). So, a third-person MGS2 could definitely see the same balance issues, but as a fun way to replay the game, I'd have loved to see an official version of this emerge for the HD Collection.

Metal Gear Solid's Snake actor didn't want to sound like the character Hideo Kojima took so much inspiration from it reportedly nearly got him sued.

The largely mysterious Assassin's Creed Hexe – Ubisoft's upcoming big flagship entry in its iconic Assassin's Creed series – was recently in the limelight as developers revealed it as a "darker" installment "set during a pivotal moment in history." Now, it's making rounds online once again, thanks to leaks supposedly unveiling its setting and more.

There's a handy post on Reddit that sums up all of the rumors neatly – rumors that have come from prominent Ubisoft leaker "Rogue," apparently – and it's a lot.
First, the new protagonist's name is allegedly actually "Anika," with Elsa simply acting as a placeholder. Furthermore, she's described as a "descendant of Claudia Auditore."

AC Hexe details and dialogue leaked by Rogue (Ubisoft leaker), says Ezio is returning from r/GamingLeaksAndRumours

Ezio is also supposedly making an appearance in Hexe, either in person or as some sort of ghost/memory. Rumored lines from the Renaissance character include: "Come. Leap with me. One last time for an old man."

Sounds like an emotional comeback, if you ask me – and one I seriously hope rings true in-game. The leak alleges that another figure known as "Wolfgang" will be in Hexe, too, along with blood pacts, ritual sites, and "lots of forests."

Perhaps the most significant rumor of all, however, is the setting of Assassin's Creed Hexe: Würzburg, Germany. Now, as somebody who grew up in Germany, I think this sounds perfect for a witchy RPG – if that's indeed what Hexe ends up being.

Folks seem to approve online as well, with one person responding directly to Rogue in a post, writing, "Würzburg is the best possible outcome I had hoped for AC Hexe." You know what? Agreed.

Others are pointing to the witch trials in Würzburg during the 17th century as an example of why the potential setting "could be good" in Hexe.

Elsewhere, people are simply shocked – understandably, many fans presumed the new Assassin's Creed might be set in Salem, as it's, well, the setting of most witch trial-related media. "I thought it was gonna be Salem Witch Trials," as one person exclaims. "IT'S THE GERMAN WÜRZBURG WITCH TRIALS!"

Only time will tell what leaks are real and which aren't, I suppose – although I do certainly hope that Würzburg truly is the setting of Hexe. Until we find out, I'll just be looking forward to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, instead.

To celebrate the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake, Ubisoft announces a global treasure hunt for $500,000 buried somewhere in the Caribbean.

Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson said it made the most sense for Andy Serkis to direct The Hunt for Gollum... and we absolutely get why.

"The film is about Gollum’s psychological and addiction," Jackson said during an on-stage Q&A at the Cannes film festival (via Variety). "I thought, ‘Andy knows this guy better than anybody.’ So I actually I didn’t think much of me [directing the new movie]. I thought the most exciting version of this movie is if Andy Serkis makes it."

The film was announced back in May 2024, with none other than Serkis set to reprise his role as Gollum... with many surprised to see him in the director's chair rather than Jackson. The Hunt for Gollum adapts the story of the same name that can be found in the appendices of the original Lord of the Rings novel. In the story, Gandalf the Grey fears that Gollum may divulge information about the One Ring to Sauron and sends Aragorn off on a quest to find him. Jackson is co-producing the film, which was co-written (among others) by Lord of the Rings veterans Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens.

Sir Ian McKellan is returning as Gandalf, with Elijah Wood also returning as Frodo, though Aragorn will now be played by actor Jamie Dornan. This is because of the timeline in which the story takes place, which calls for a much younger-looking Aragorn. And don't worry, Mortensen absolutely approves.

The Hunt for Gollum arrives on December 17, 2027. In the meantime, fill out your watchlist with our guide to all the most exciting upcoming movies of the year.

A new Star Wars book has revealed a pretty interesting fact about the galaxy far, far away: Luke Skywalker knows Cal Kestis survived Order 66.

The book Star Wars: The Secrets of the Jedi: The Chronicles of Luke Skywalker (an updated edition of Star Wars: The Secrets of the Jedi), by Marc Sumerak, reveals the news.

One fan posted the relevant page to Twitter. On it, Luke writes: "Order 66 might have seemed like a quick and efficient method of eliminating the Jedi, but not every member of the Order succumbed to this act of betrayal. A small handful of Jedi managed to escape execution, such as Master Jaro Tapal's Padawan Cal Kestis, but their numbers continued to fall during the years that followed."

This is a fairly significant development, since we don't actually know what the future holds for Cal Kestis after Jedi: Survivor.

The game is set in 9 BBY, AKA nine years before Luke blew up the Death Star on the Star Wars timeline. Cal's fate is completely unclear after the events of the game as he doesn't show up in another canon story, but Luke Skywalker has not only heard of him, but even knows the name of his Master. The book was "written" in 34 ABY, AKA 34 years after the Death Star, but it's not clear when Luke learned the news.

It's possible Luke heard of Cal through the Rebellion, since Cal works for Saw Gerrera in Jedi: Survivor. But, when Yoda dies in Return of the Jedi, he tells Luke that he'll soon be the last of the Jedi, which Luke doesn't dispute – so, to avoid retconning this moment, it seems unlikely Luke would learn of Cal and his survival until after this point on the timeline. Maybe Luke and Cal have even met, assuming Cal is still around post-Return of the Jedi. Or, Cal did face off with Darth Vader, so maybe Anakin Skywalker's Force ghost had something to say about him...

We might find out just how Luke became aware of Cal Kestis and Jaro Tapal someday, but, for now, it's a mystery.

Next up for Star Wars is The Mandalorian and Grogu, which hits theaters this May 22. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store.

You might have more luck finding a four-leaf clover than being able to buy NeeDoh; it's rough out there so far as stock is concerned. However, impossible odds have never stopped me... and you can find the hyper-viral toy if you look hard enough.

That's where I come in. I spend a lot of my time covering the best toys and working out where to get them when availability is low, so I've put that training to good use here. You'll see where to buy NeeDoh below or, if stock is kaput, an indication of where it's likely to appear next.

Because manufacturer Schylling has since put a temporary pause on sales via its own sight, these are our best chance to buy NeeDoh in the short term. That means speed is of the essence, people. Bookmark the following and act fast if you see the toy in stock at a reasonable price (more on that later).

A bit bemused by all this, on the other hand? You can find out what NeeDoh is and why it's so popular in our guide.

Where to buy NeeDoh in the US

Where to buy NeeDoh in the UK

Where to buy NeeDoh FAQ

Curious about why it's so hard to buy NeeDoh? Wondering what on earth NeeDoh is, and why everyone's so obsessed with it? Not to worry, I've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know about the viral toy.

For more of the hottest collectibles, why not check out the best Lego sets?

Nintendo's former marketing lead says that Nintendo is likely to be very unhappy that the Ocarina of Time remake has been indirectly confirmed already, ruining the element of surprise.

Earlier this year, word that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will apparently be getting a remake on Switch 2 emerged from leaker Nate The Hate as part of a massive info blowout about Nintendo. The leaker also included other claims like that Rhythm Heaven Groove and Splatoon Raiders would both release later this summer, which has since been confirmed, but the big one was the existence of a new Star Fox Game to release within a few months. And since Nintendo confirmed its Star Fox 64 remake will arrive on Switch 2 next month, fans have figured that Ocarina of Time Remake is all but confirmed.

As such, Kit Ellis, Nintendo of America's former marketing lead, says on the latest episode of the Kit and Krysta podcast, "if you're Nintendo, you're obviously pulling your hair out at this, like this is a worst-case scenario." He adds, "You're the company that banks on surprising people – the surprise being a major factor to why announcements are impactful and work – like we saw that over and over again."

He adds that typically, Nintendo is "going to sacrifice a lot of things to maintain that element of surprise, and now that has been taken away presumably, for a while." Nate the Hate's leaks also covered some of next year, most notably that a 3D Mario game is planned to release in 2027, so this leak is even further reaching than just Zelda.

Granted, as much of a surprise Ocarina remake could be, I'd argue it's far more interesting to actually see what direction Nintendo is going to take with it rather than the simple fact that it exists. Let's just hope Nintendo has some surprises in store for us that we haven't heard about yet.

As The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake rumors swirl, Nintendo boss teases "new titles beyond those already announced."

While The Mandalorian and Grogu is bringing Star Wars back to the big screen, originally, the plan was to continue the story on Disney Plus in The Mandalorian season 4.

Creator Jon Favreau has revealed that this season of TV would have helped set up Ahsoka season 2 and focused more on Grand Admiral Thrawn, though the film is very much a standalone adventure. When we met with Favreau in London to discuss the new film, we asked why he decided to make such a self-contained tale – and whether this change in plan affected Ahsoka season 2.

"I'm not sure to what extent [it affected Ahsoka season 2] – you'd have to ask Dave Filoni how, because he's been very closely in step with what we're doing," Favreau tells us. "He was one of the producers, one of the writers on this. He directed second unit, puppet unit specifically. But I had written a season 4 that did tie in to what had happened, more so to what happened before."

The first season of Ahsoka ended with Thrawn escaping back to the main galaxy (inadvertently with a stowaway Ezra Bridger, too), while Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren were left stranded on Peridea.

"And when you're telling a season of television as a story, you can operate under the assumption that you have a lot of time to play things out," Favreau continues. "You can introduce characters and weave them in and out, and you can also reference things that have happened in the previous three seasons and other series.

"When you're doing a movie, especially when it's the first movie in seven years, this is a different type of experience," he says. "You have to connect with the throughline for those fans who've been with it since the beginning. I mean, that's your core. That's why I get to do what I do, and those of us who are making it are in that group. But Star Wars is also about bringing new people into the Star Wars community, and by telling a story that was self-contained, you can drop in in the middle of the story."

As Favreau explains, this philosophy was inspired by George Lucas himself and the Star Wars creator's approach to the original film. "But you have to be aware, much like George Lucas was in Episode 4, we were in the middle of an adventure, but when he first told that story, he was dropping us into the middle of a cliffhanger, Saturday afternoon matinee, like he grew up with. And you have to make that legible, then you have to make a complete story in those two hours.

"Because when you go to the movie theater, and you bring somebody with you who's curious about it, as a Star Wars fan, you want to have them have a great experience too," he adds. "And then once the bug bites them, then you bring them in, and then you start showing them everything that surrounds it, and they understand how much respect all the storytellers have for the overall arc of the story."

Ahsoka season 2 will be released in early 2027, while The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives this May 22.

In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store.

For more from our interview, see Favreau on bringing Star Wars back to the big screen and Grogu's Jedi journey.