• IO Interactive shares how it creates accurate Hitman World of Assassination Elusive Targets
• Senior level designer Marin Ansdal says there is no scanning involved and everything is "bespoke craftsmanship"
• Junior concept and character artist Lovisa Österman says it takes "hours" of studying before beginning the design process

IO Interactive has revealed that it hand-crafts all of its Hitman World of Assassination Elusive Targets rather than relying on traditional scanning.

With the release of World of Assassination's new Elusive Target mission, The Host, starring YouTuber JackSepticEye, TechRadar Gaming chatted with IOI about the ins and outs of designing these special updates, including how it constructs the most creative eliminations.

When asked how the studio achieves the likeness of celebrities and public figures, senior level designer Marin Ansdal said every character is created from scratch, and no motion-capture or scanning is involved in the process.

"Like many things in Hitman, it’s down to bespoke craftsmanship – we do not rely on scans at all," Ansdal said. "Instead, the character receives a hand-drawn concept and is modelled and textured by a character artist."

He added, "Oftentimes a great likeness is knowing when to supplement realism with caricature. This is a balance a real character artist can strike in a way that a scan just can’t."

Junior concept and character artist Lovisa Österman also explained how she begins the design process, revealing that it takes "hours" simply looking at references to ensure accuracy before the stages of creating the Elusive Target models.

"I spend hours pouring over videos and photos of the talent to really understand what their face looks like from every angle. And a heavy lifter is getting the textures right," Österman said.

"You can have the 3d mesh completely right and still not feel like it looks like the person. Because you really need the textures, the person's freckles and spots and flaws to really recognize them."

The studio also offered insight into its process for selecting the game's targets, confirming that the level designer and writer take over once a celebrity or public figure is on board.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves says there's a big difference between how music "functions" in multiplayer mode and in the campaign
• Graves says a campaign usually has narrative beats and "dramatic moments" to follow, while "multiplayer is completely unpredictable"
• He adds that "It's less about following a story and more about supporting the player's experience"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has explained the biggest differences between scoring a multiplayer mode and a campaign because of how the music "functions."

Speaking in an interview with TechRadar Gaming, where the composer discussed his creative process for the game's multiplayer music and what inspired him most when writing the score, Graves said writing tracks for an online gameplay experience is much different from a story mode with certain narrative beats, because you have to factor in the unknown.

"The biggest difference is how the music functions within the game," Graves said. "In a single-player campaign, you're usually following a narrative with specific characters, locations, and dramatic moments. You have a much better idea of what the player is experiencing and when."

The composer continued, saying, "Multiplayer is completely unpredictable," and suggested that it requires you to think outside of the constraints of a standard narrative score.

"You have no idea how any given match is going to unfold, so the music needs to work within a much more flexible framework," Graves added. "It's less about following a story and more about supporting the player's experience without getting in the way of the gameplay."

Elsewhere in the discussion, Graves said multiplayer mode has "a completely different vibe from the campaign" and "the music needs to make you feel like anything could happen at any point in time."

"A lot of what I was trying to capture was forward momentum and pure adrenaline," he said. "I always thought of myself as the musical equivalent of Master Sergeant Apone in Aliens, pumping up all the troops beforehand, keeping them in line and focused in combat, and rewarding them when they come back home. 'Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck's a fortune! Every formation a parade!'"

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves shares his secret tool he used on the soundtrack
• He reveals that it's "an aluminum garbage can lid that I save for special occasions"
• Graves also used it for 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has revealed the unusual, secret tool he used for creating the game's soundtrack.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Graves discussed his creative process for writing the game's multiplayer music, which he said is usually "an afterthought," and even offered some insight into the coolest technology he used for recording the tracks.

"It's definitely not considered any kind of tech, but it's definitely entertaining," Graves replied when asked what his secret weapon was.

But if you expected something along the lines of interesting studio equipment or fancy tools to capture the multiplayer's tone, you'd be dead wrong.

"I have an aluminum garbage can lid that I save for special occasions," the composer revealed, "and the last time I used it was in 2022's Modern Warfare [2]. So naturally, I had to bring it out again and play it for Modern Warfare 4."

Graves also discussed how the multiplayer music is "completely different" from the campaign, which has more story beats and dramatic moments, saying "you play a lot of multiplayer" to truly understand its tone.

"It's a completely different vibe from the campaign, and the music needs to make you feel like anything could happen at any point in time," Graves said. "A lot of what I was trying to capture was forward momentum and pure adrenaline."

"There's definitely a lot of aggressive percussion, distorted electronics, and organic textures that help give the music its identity," Graves added. "I love combining real-world sounds with electronic processing, especially when you end up with something that's difficult to identify.

"It creates a sense of energy and unpredictability that fits perfectly with multiplayer."

• Hitman World of Assassination senior level designer Marin Ansdal explains how IO Interactive designs the best Elusive Target elimination methods
• Ansdal says the elimination has to serve "the target poetic justice for their central character flaw"
• He adds that it also requires "intriguing toybox mechanics to set up the kill and a nice juicy payoff presentation"

IO Interactive has shared its recipe for constructing the most creative Elusive Target eliminations in Hitman World of Assassination.

The ongoing Hitman game just received another major update in the form of a new Elusive Target mission called The Host, which tasks Agent 47 with taking down YouTuber JackSepticEye’s in-game character, Finn Colton.

As with every new Elusive Target mission, players will be able to use their imagination to eliminate Colton with the many possibilities on offer, which is what the game is best known for, and according to senior level designer Marin Ansdal, IOI has a very specific way of designing these murder methods.

"For each mission we brainstorm a bunch of elimination ideas and choose the ones that hit the most of our success criteria," Ansdal told TechRadar Gaming following the mission's release.

Ansdal explained that the Elusive Target's characterisation and mission story factor into what makes a good elimination as much as the mechanics, despite the player being given free rein to get creative.

"A great signature elimination is a combination of serving the target poetic justice for their central character flaw, intriguing toybox mechanics to set up the kill, and a nice juicy payoff presentation," he said.

"For example, JackSepticEye’s character Finn Colton is obsessed with generating online content and has no concern for safety or ethics. So we designed a kill where you overheat and burn down his generative AI server farm with him inside. Then his employees film him on their phones as he dies."

Hitman World of Assassination's new The Host Elusive Target mission is free-to-play now until November 25.

Ansdal also shared IOI's process for selecting the game's targets, confirming that the level designer and writer take over once a celebrity or public figure is on board, and "We try to find a location which thematically suits the talent and craft a story that synergizes with the talent in tone and genre."

• A gamer took the GTA 6 'extended look' trailer and fudged it to work with DLSS 5 and Frame Generation
• The results posted on YouTube look impressive, albeit with some notable glitches
• It'll actually be possible to run the game on console, piped through a PC with an Nvidia GPU to add DLSS 5 and other visual trickery, at the cost of some input lag
• …and some believe that trade-off might be worth it

Will the best way to play GTA 6 at launch be to pipe it from your PS5 to your PC with an Nvidia GPU and then back out to your TV?

No, it absolutely won't, but a convoluted setup along these lines could be the optimal way to experience the game visually (with some major caveats) — before the PC version arrives — given that you can fudge the addition of DLSS 5 this way.

How does this work? Wccftech picked up the story of the Redditor who proposed this experiment, and actually applied DLSS 5 to the GTA 6 'extended look' trailer that Rockstar brought out a couple of months ago.

To be specific, this gamer gave the trailer a DLSS 5 makeover with 3x Frame Generation tripling the frame rate from 30 fps to 90 fps, via an app called Veyra, which is a GPU video enhancement tool for Windows on GitHub.

The Redditor explains: "I used Veyra 2.1.1, a tool that can take a video source (video files, capture cards, Remote Play) and apply Neural Rendering [DLSS 5], upscaling, and Frame Generation in real time. I also integrated MFG Unlocker into it so I can unlock Multi Frame Generation on my RTX 4080 and experiment with 3x/4x FG on 40-series cards."

MFG Unlocker is an experimental tool (again on GitHub) which the Redditor is using for getting Multi Frame Generation on their RTX 4080, in case you were wondering. (As ever, download any third-party software entirely at your own risk).

As you can see in the YouTube clip below, the results of this polishing of the official trailer are very impressive in some ways. That said, there are clear issues with artifacts and glitching in terms of the characters and lighting, with the best results seen in the background environment details.

It's pretty remarkable given that this is a fairly aggressive implementation of DLSS 5 by all accounts, fudged on top of a video with no relevant game data (the likes of vector and geometry data) to guide the neural rendering.

The Redditor's plan is to use a console-to-PC pipeline to play GTA 6 on the PS5, with the PC effectively sitting between the console and final output on the TV, adding DLSS 5 and jazzing up the visuals.

This means taking the PS5 and hooking it up to a 4K HDR capture card in the PC, running it through Veyra with the RTX 4080, then outputting to the 4K TV. It's a roundabout way of using the Nvidia GPU as an external graphics card for the console, except all the GeForce GPU is doing is applying DLSS and/or MFG to the image the PS5 has rendered — although there is a price to pay in terms of input lag, of course.

Analysis: capture capers

The Redditor doesn't actually have their PS5 yet (although they've ordered it) to try out this setup fully, but others on Reddit have run such a setup, and in fact it's not that uncommon (albeit still far from a mainstream concept).

One gamer says that they've played GTA 5 using an Elgato capture card with NitLink software, and "the gameplay was 100 times better", and while "there is a noticeable input lag" they claim that "it's completely acceptable — around 1-2 milliseconds."

That little input lag seems a stretch (to say the least), and overall, there's some dispute on whether this way of gaming is viable. Some gamers say that such a setup is just too laggy, while others claim it provides a decently playable experience. Of course, it will depend on what type of game you're playing — a fast-reaction shooter, for example, isn't going to do well with any extra lag being introduced, and you're certainly going to get some.

Really, the success of this kind of console to PC capture card to TV setup is going to heavily depend on a number of factors. The quality of the capture card (a PCIe board would be best, rather than one connected via USB) and the related software are the primary factors, and by all accounts, a higher-end Elgato with NitLink gives you a good chance of enjoying your PS5 games with an Nvidia GPU souping them up using DLSS 5 and Frame Generation.

I'm betting there will also be an element of subjectivity here, too, with some people likely to feel any latency more keenly than others.

Some gamers use this setup to play PS5 games on their PC monitor (in other words, without piping the image back out of the PC to the living room TV, which would cut down on some of the input lag), and there are guides to running this kind of setup on YouTube, like this one. Others recommend Zanit's tutorials on YouTube, but those videos are in Portuguese, so you'll need to translate them if you're not a native speaker. It's pretty cool stuff, if rather convoluted — and a good capture card doesn't come cheap (neither does a high-end RTX 5000 GPU).

Meanwhile, as far as GTA 6 on the PC goes, we may see this happen a lot sooner than expected, due to the way the emulation scene is going right now (in turbo mode thanks to AI). In other words, Rockstar may want to get the PC port on sale before PC gamers start playing it via emulation.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves shares his stance on AI being used as a creative tool for video games
• Graves says, "Nothing will ever replace the emotional depth and creative inspiration of human beings as artists and creators"
• He says music creation is based on "personal experiences" and "creative instincts

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has spoken out against AI taking over human creativity in video games and believes technology should only help artists work more efficiently.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, where Graves also discussed what it was like to create a full score for a Modern Warfare multiplayer mode for the first time, the composer shared his stance on the rise of AI in music creation, especially in entertainment and video games.

"Nothing will ever replace the emotional depth and creative inspiration of human beings as artists and creators," Graves said. "Music is not just a bunch of notes strung together."

He added that human music creation is based on "personal experiences" and "creative instincts forged by emotion and all the little decisions that give a piece of art its own unique personality."

While against AI as a creative tool, Graves said he's "all for technology that supports artists and helps them work more efficiently." However, he added, "There's a big difference between supporting human creativity and replacing that creative process completely with digital ones and zeros."

In the same interview, the composer shared his process for designing the game's multiplayer music, which he described as wholly different from the campaign and explained what inspired him most when writing the score.

"Fortunately, I have no lack of inspiration from the amazing gameplay itself," Graves said. "The incredible team at Infinity Ward, led by audio director Stephen Miller, was also such a huge creative influence."

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves says Modern Warfare multiplayer music is usually "an afterthought"
• He says it's typically "cobbled together" from "existing campaign music," and he did the same thing for Modern Warfare 2
• Graves adds that "the best soundtrack of any game is one that inspires and elevates the core ideas of the gameplay"

According to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves, this is the first time a Modern Warfare multiplayer mode has received a full score, as they are typically "an afterthought."

"As far as I know, this is the first time we've specifically composed a score of this scale for multiplayer for Modern Warfare," Graves revealed in an interview with TechRadar Gaming. "It's the first time the multiplayer gameplay itself has received so much love and attention. Normally, it's usually a bit of an afterthought, cobbled together from existing music from the campaign, maybe getting some original lobby music."

Graves, who has worked on numerous video game projects, including Dead Space, said that was what he did for Modern Warfare 2 in 2022, but for Modern Warfare 4, "we have discrete tracks for lobbies, countdowns, streaks, and after-action reports amongst other things."

The composer mentioned how multiplayer has a "completely different vibe from the campaign," and made sure to capture the "forward momentum and pure adrenaline," but believes first-person shooter (FPS) games don't have a "specific list of characteristics" versus a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) in terms of music.

"A lot of my job is simply motivation and excitement, either before, during, or after a multiplayer match," he said. "So I'm here to get you pumped up and ready for action, motivate you towards the finish line, and slap you on the back with a big swaggering beat when you complete your objective."

When discussing his intentions for composing a soundtrack and what defines Modern Warfare in particular, Graves explained that music should always enhance the gameplay.

"There's definitely an incredible history that lives in the Modern Warfare soundtracks," Graves said, "And I'm honored to have contributed my small part to two of them. I think the best soundtrack of any game is one that inspires and elevates the core ideas of the gameplay.

He added, "For Modern Warfare specifically, it should turn everything in the game that the player is experiencing up to eleven."

• Hitman World of Assassination senior level designer Marin Ansdal says Elusive Target celebrities are chosen before the level design and writing phase
• Ansdal says it's IO Interactive's "goal" to "bring talent that will bring more eyes to Hitman World of Assassination"
• Ansdal adds that the Elusive Target mission location always needs to "thematically" suit the main talent

IO Interactive has revealed the behind-the-scenes process for selecting Hitman World of Assassination's Elusive Targets and how it designs their special missions.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming following the release of the game's new 'The Host feat. JackSepticEye' - Elusive Target mission, senior level designer Marin Ansdal explained that IOI's marketing department is in charge of the talent selection and outreach process, and the level isn't designed until after they're signed.

"Their goal is to bring talent that will bring more eyes to Hitman World of Assassination as well as serve the core audience to create special missions that will make use of the talent’s persona, and adapt it to the setting of Hitman World of Assassination," Ansdal said.

Ansdal continued, explaining that the level designer and writer take over once a celebrity or public figure is on board, and "We try to find a location which thematically suits the talent and craft a story that synergizes with the talent in tone and genre."

World of Assassination has featured a variety of guests over the years, including Snoop Dogg, Sean Bean, Eminem, Milla Jovovich, and more, and IOI considers how Agent 47 can slip into these uniquely designed missions.

"47's preference for disguises allows him to jump into a wide range of genres," Ansdal said. "For example, when we worked with Jean-Claude Van Damme, we built a kitchy science fiction narrative about a super-soldier cloning facility which would fit straight into the direct to video bin in the 90s.

"And when we worked with Mads Mikkelsen, we essentially brought 47 into the iconic plot of a Bond storyline."

With the latest Elusive Target starring YouTuber and streamer JackSepticEye, the developer explained that "we crafted a psychological thriller about the darkness of internet celebrity," which "is much more contemporary in comparison to the other two examples."

Hitman World of Assassination's new The Host Elusive Target mission is free-to-play now until November 25.

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves says to capture the tone of multiplayer maps, "you have to play a lot of multiplayer"
• Graves says the mode's vibe is "completely different" from the campaign, and he tried to capture "forward momentum and pure adrenaline"
• He adds that he has to be flexible when composing tracks, "especially considering updates and expansions in the future"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has shared his process for designing the game's multiplayer music, which he described as wholly different from the campaign.

When asked in an interview with TechRadar Gaming how he captured the multiplayer mode's specific tone, Graves said, "Number one, you play a lot of multiplayer!" and explained that it has a very different atmosphere from the steady-paced campaign.

"It's a completely different vibe from the campaign, and the music needs to make you feel like anything could happen at any point in time," Graves said. "A lot of what I was trying to capture was forward momentum and pure adrenaline."

The composer joked that "I always thought of myself as the musical equivalent of Master Sergeant Apone in Aliens, pumping up all the troops beforehand, keeping them in line and focused in combat and rewarding them when they come back home. 'Every meal's a banquet! Every paycheck's a fortune! Every formation a parade!'"

As for how each multiplayer map differentiates within the score, Graves said there's plenty of ground to cover considering the number of maps the mode offers "especially considering updates and expansions in the future."

"Instead of being too granular and assigning music to a specific map, we planned things out in terms of emotional intensity and timing," he explained. "Things are a lot more flexible that way."

There isn't one strict way to compose these maps either, as Graves explained, "it's more about the overall combination of sounds" he uses that showcase the fast-paced vibe by using a combination of real-world and electronic sound effects.

"There's definitely a lot of aggressive percussion, distorted electronics, and organic textures that help give the music its identity," Graves added. "I love combining real-world sounds with electronic processing, especially when you end up with something that's difficult to identify.

"It creates a sense of energy and unpredictability that fits perfectly with multiplayer."

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has revealed some inspirations behind the game's soundtrack
• He attributes much of it to the gameplay and Infinity Ward's sound team
• He confirmed that he didn't reference previous Modern Warfare soundtracks, but there is "a little bit of vibe inspiration from the OG Modern Warfare 2"

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 composer Jason Graves has attributed the gameplay and the Infinity Ward sound team for helping to inspire the game's multiplayer score.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Graves said, "Fortunately, I have no lack of inspiration from the amazing gameplay itself," when asked where he begins when composing a soundtrack for such an iconic franchise.

"The incredible team at Infinity Ward, led by audio director Stephen Miller, was also such a huge creative influence," he continued. "And the music team, led by Jonathan Mayer, were integral in shaping the overall vibe and giving me everything I needed to be as creative as possible."

Graves, who has also composed for Warzone, Dead Space, Dead Space 2, 2013's Tomb Raider, and a host of other projects spanning video games and movies, added that it was important that the work was a collaborative effort, as scores can be years in the making.

"I can't stress how important cooperation with other creative human beings makes a difference when it comes to working on a project as big as this," Graves said. "This is the kind of thing that slowly comes together over years of work."

As for finding the basis for a Modern Warfare score, Graves explained that he doesn't listen to previous works, but admitted that "there was a little bit of vibe inspiration from the OG Modern Warfare 2."

"But nothing too granular or specific," he added, "I'm very intentional about not listening to music from previous projects in a franchise unless specifically directed by the developer. I think that's especially important here because Infinity Ward has been so supportive of trying new things and creating a soundtrack that's every bit as epic and bespoke as the gameplay itself."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is one of the best games of 2026, with "the best campaign in years and an incredible multiplayer offering," and you can play it now.

• The next game in the Elder Scrolls series is officially titled: The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel
• Bethesda Game Studios has also shared a teaser trailer hinting at the game's location, which appears to be Hammerfell
• The studio says, "It’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more" about Sentinel

Bethesda Game Studios has finally announced the name of the next game in its long-running Elder Scrolls series: The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel.

The news comes from a video celebrating the studio's 40th anniversary, which highlighted its many achievements and ended with Bethesda creative director Todd Howard offering a new look at the game.

"Everybody’s always asking about Elder Scrolls 6," said Howard. "And we thought, hey, given the moment, what a perfect time to tell you what The Elder Scrolls 6 is actually called."

The teaser trailer is short and doesn't showcase gameplay, but the camera pans over sand before a magic-looking scroll emerges. Then the game's title, as fans theorized, "The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel," was revealed.

The trailer description also provides an additional hint to the game, which reads, "The scroll offered only a shimmer, a veil thinly lifted to my eyes. A future lost. A victory undone. Sands of time scattered by fate," which is written in game lore by "Yazar, Moth Priest to High Queen Iradne of Hammerfell (4E 206)."

The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel has been in development for a very long time. Announced all the way back in 2018, today's teaser trailer and name drop are the first new pieces of information we've received about the game since.

In a follow-up post on X, Bethesda seemingly confirmed the game's location is set in Hammerfell, but it will be "some time" before more details

about the role-playing game (RPG) can be shared.

"Thank you for 40 years of shared memories," the studio said. "We can’t wait to make even more together with The Elder Scrolls 6: Sentinel. Development continues, and while it’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more, it feels great to finally reveal the name and location with you."

• Rockstar Games has confirmed players can pre-load the digital version of Grand Theft Auto 6 on November 10
• Code-in-box editions should be available in stores starting November 12
• The pre-load file will be "up to 212GB depending on your device"

Rockstar Games has announced the file size for Grand Theft Auto 6 and the dates for when players can pre-load the game depending on their edition.

In a new blog post, the studio confirmed that digital pre-loading on PlayStation 5 will begin nine days before the game's November 19 launch, on Tuesday, November 10 at midnight local time "in your respective time zone."

For Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, pre-loading begins globally on Tuesday, November 10 at 12AM GMT / 7PM EST / 6PM CST.

Meanwhile, code-in-box versions for both consoles should be available from retailers beginning November 12.

GTA 6 was speculated to be a massive game already due to its ambitious scale and impressive features, but Rockstar has officially confirmed that the pre-load file will be "up to 212 GB depending on your device."

"So make sure you've got ample space to begin pre-loading as soon as possible," the studio cautioned. Say goodbye to a fair few of your games if you want to install GTA 6.

In addition to the new details, Rockstar said it will be adding an official printable Grand Theft Auto 6 cover art poster and map of Leonida as a free digital download to the official site on November 19 for fans.

"A double-sided physical version of this poster will also be made available shortly after launch from the Rockstar Store — for $0.99 on its own or as a free gift with any purchase from the Rockstar Store," it added.

Rockstar recently released the cinematic GTA 6 launch trailer, which offers a deeper look into the game's story. Elsewhere, a new report claims the PC version could launch in early 2027.

• The Razer Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition launches November 10 for $349.99 / €368.99
• The licensed PS5 controller features a magnesium alloy exoskeleton and an open polygonal top and back plate design with chamfered edges
• The controller is also optimized for PC and boasts "reliable precision, exceptional control, and blazing-fast speed"

Razer has announced the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition, a new version of its officially licensed PlayStation 5 controller built on a decade of experience for "the highest level of performance and craftsmanship."

Launching exclusively at Razer on November 10 for $349.99 / €368.99 in an initial limited release supply of 1,337 serialized units, the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition is Razer's "most ambitious" PS5 controller to date and combines materials chosen for "strength, durability, and finish."

The jet-black controller features a strong magnesium alloy exoskeleton, and the handles are wrapped in matte black textured TPU grip that resists oils and abrasion for a pristine finish for extended play sessions.

Layered over the touchpad, the Razer logo is laser-etched on a semi-transparent, tinted glass panel, which offers a subtle view of the open-air polygonal design underneath.

The Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition also has an open polygonal top and back plate design with chamfered edges, and its nano coating leaves the internal elements exposed beneath the shell, keeping them safe from debris.

On top of that, the Razer controller boasts "reliable precision, exceptional control, and blazing-fast speed," which is achieved through its symmetrical thumbstick layout and contactless TMR thumbstick sensors for high-precision aim.

Built for PS5 consoles and optimized for PC with a 2,000Hz polling rate thanks to Razer HyperPolling Wireless for sharper movement and tracking, the controller also offers six mappable multi-function buttons, two claw-grip bumpers, and four mouse-click back buttons.

"With the Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition, we set out to illustrate what happens when Razer’s engineering and design capabilities are pushed to their absolute limits," said Charlie Bolton, Razer's global head of design. "It draws on years of experience in high-performance controllers, delivering tournament-grade responsiveness in a design that feels like a statement piece in hand."

Each Razer Raiju V3 Pro Signature Edition offers a suite of premium accessories for customization, including a premium leather carrying case, alternative thumbstick caps, four swappable back button covers, an anodized aluminium back button replacement tool, a Razer HyperSpeed Wireless Dongle, and a USB Type-A to USB Type-C cable.

Back in 2000, Bandai Namco published the third game in the beloved Tales series, Tales of Eternia. It was received very well at launch, being praised for its high-octane action combat, charming cast, and humorous script — though the Western versions on the original PlayStation and PSP were held back by their omission of skits (character-driven dialogue scenes) and slightly subpar voice acting. But now, Tales of Eternia Remastered — developed by TOSE Co. — is here, aiming to remedy these issues and refine the game for a modern audience.

I’ve spent just north of 30 hours with Tales of Eternia Remastered, playing through the main story, completing side quests, and exploring the realms of Inferia and Celestia.

So, how effectively does this remaster bring a JRPG classic into the modern era? And is it truly worth playing? Here’s my verdict.

Gimme a Boost!

I’ll speak about the core Tales of Eternia experience in good time, but it only seems right to discuss the new stuff that this remaster brings to the table first.

Arguably the main thing is the inclusion of Boost Function. This enables you to tailor your experience to your specific wants and needs, with highlights including a random encounter toggle, difficulty options, an increased item capacity setting, and an EXP gain adjuster.

My personal favorite feature was the option to restore TP (which you consume when using skills) when camping, which made grinding feel a lot more fluid and easier to manage.

The Boost Function suite is filled to the brim, and really helps to make the title more approachable for newcomers. My only real complaint here is that I would’ve loved the option to map a function — such as disabling enemy encounters — to one of the buttons on my Nintendo Switch 2. Having to open the main menu, go into the Customize Section, and then the Boost Function felt a touch clunky.

There’s a lot more to uncover, though. For instance, you can switch between remastered and original graphics and sound effects, which is sure to satisfy newcomers and long-time fans.

The visual enhancements are relatively light overall. This isn’t a transformative overhaul, and some environments still look a little rough around the edges. But still, the remaster does illuminate some previously obscured details. As you can see in the images below, detailing on the statues is far more intricate, and foliage looks sharper in the remastered graphics mode. And while some may prefer the original pixel sprites, I think the remaster does a good job of cleaning them up a bit while keeping them faithful to the original artwork.

While we’re on the topic of visuals, I unfortunately have a complaint to make: the cutscenes look pretty poor. They’ve been placed into widescreen, and it looks as if a filter has been applied; the results are underwhelming — characters and backgrounds lack clarity and definition, laying bare the limitations of the original material.

That’s a nitpick, of course, and most elements of this remaster still hit the spot. For example, the newly recorded English voice acting is great, and each character’s personality shines through perfectly. Skits are finally here in the West, too, providing plenty of humorous and emotional moments when camping or resting.

Objective icons are also introduced, which point you in the direction of the main story objective or side quests. I really appreciated this, especially as I didn’t want to miss out on side content, but if you want to figure everything out for yourself, you can swiftly switch it off in the Customize menu.

An underrated classic, reborn

So, while it’s not flawless, the remaster of this title is solid overall and successfully makes this classic more palatable for modern audiences. But just how fun is the core game in the big 2026?

I’ll lay my cards on the table: I had a spectacular time with Tales of Eternia Remastered. This was actually my first time playing the game — after all, I wasn’t even born when it was initially released. In spite of that, there was something so nostalgic about it, the warm, charming world and excellent cast totally captured my attention, and I found myself pouring countless hours into the game every single day.

Something that stood out for me was the writing. Yes, the main narrative is nothing special — the world is in danger, and a group of young heroes needs to defy the odds to save everybody. But it’s the characters that make this experience so special.

For the most part, you'll spend your time with four key heroes. Reid is a reluctant protagonist who seems to be dragged into the chaos at every turn, Farah is a contemplative, complex young woman learning herself as the story unfolds, Keele is a stuck-up academic type who delivers some hilarious moments, and Meredy is a caring and curious foreign stranger who the crew slowly begins to understand in their quest to prevent disaster.

The cast isn’t weighed down by the tired tropes and lazy writing that a lot of JRPGs faced at the time, and each party member is highly memorable.

But how about the actual gameplay? Well, the combat is pretty unique. It manifests in the form of a fighter-RPG hybrid, with a large focus on reactive action-based commands. While the combat certainly takes some getting used to and the movement can feel a little janky at times, battling your foes feels incredibly addictive. Chaining Artes together to deliver devastating combos and tinkering with formations or skills to get past tough boss battles is highly rewarding, and even random encounters gave me huge satisfaction.

The game is undoubtedly challenging, but delivering a finishing blow makes your struggle feel worth it. And if you do fall to your foes, a retry battle option is at hand to dive right back into the action.

There’s not too much grinding required, either. I kept random encounters on for the vast majority of my playthrough, and that gave me plenty of experience for big boss fights. If you do want to grab some extra experience, though, you can switch Auto mode on and have your team fight for you, helping you avoid same-y skirmishes.

Outside of battle, things are decent too. You can explore the world for items and treasure to bolster your stats, venture into shops to grab stronger gear, and even take on a few minigames. Exploration is highly gratifying as well, and you’ll often find weapons that come in handy for specific areas or recipes that restore your HP or TP when you’re running low.

A small complaint I have, though, is that movement feels clunky in the overworld. You need to be very precise if you want to move diagonally, and dragging items like statues could feel a bit awkward at times. This is still a relatively minor issue overall, but in tighter areas, the old-school movement did cause me some minor frustration.

I also have to say that the minigames, in general, are pretty bad. They typically control fine, but don’t feel very fun to play at all. Luckily, you can skip these if you’d prefer, which I often did. It was cool to see mouse mode integration for minigames on Nintendo Switch 2, though, which worked a treat in my experience.

Speaking of my experience on Switch 2, let’s take a moment to talk about performance. Tales of Eternia Remastered runs in 4K when playing docked and 1080p in handheld, with smooth 60fps across both modes — perhaps to be expected for a less demanding title like this. I didn’t notice any technical hiccups or frame drops during my whole playthrough, so Switch 2 is certainly a top-tier destination for this remaster.

So let’s address those questions I posed in the intro. Is Tales of Eternia Remastered a worthy modern take on this classic entry? For me, the answer is yes.

Some things could’ve been better: the visual enhancements are relatively light, cutscenes look a bit underwhelming, and I would’ve liked a shortcut button for disabling enemy encounters. But the Boost Function provides so much flexibility, the new English dub is great, and the ability to retry battles in an instant keeps the game's pace feeling fast and fluid.

And at a core level, this is a great game with a lot to offer, in spite of a few dated elements. The combat, while very much of its time, remains fun and surprisingly strategic; the cast is highly memorable, with skits adding some welcome depth, and exploration is rewarding too.

All in all, I had a blast with Tales of Eternia Remastered, and JRPG fanatics are sure to find a lot to love here.

Should you play Tales of Eternia Remastered?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

There are a number of ways to customize your experience in Tales of Eternia Remastered. You can turn subtitles on or off, choose to auto-advance text, remap buttons to suit your preferences, and alter difficulty. While there’s no colorblind mode, in-game elements that previously required color-based identification have been redesigned around visual elements unrelated to color.

How I reviewed Tales of Eternia Remastered

I spent just over 30 hours with Tales of Eternia Remastered, during which time I played through the main story, completed a handful of side quests, and tried out all of the various Boost Function features.

For the most part, I played the game in docked mode, with my Nintendo Switch 2 hooked up to the Sky Glass Gen 2 TV and Marshall Heston 120 soundbar. However, I did dip into handheld mode from time to time, and used the Sennheiser CX 80U wired earbuds to enjoy in-game audio.

More generally, I’ve covered a huge array of games here at TechRadar, where I serve as a Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve reviewed a number of JRPGs, including Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, as well as Switch 2 exclusives such as Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave and Nintendo Switch Sports Resort.

First reviewed October 2026

• PS5 Bazzite Deck is a new spin on this gaming-focused version of Linux
• It allows you to boot your PS5 to a Steam Deck interface and play PC games
• You need to jailbreak your Sony console to run it (via the PS5 Linux loader), and that's a risky path to take for a number of reasons

Don't want to fork out all that cash for a Steam Machine? If you've got a PS5, you could turn it into a spin on Valve's gaming PC thanks to a custom version of a Linux distro — although the major catch is you'll need to jailbreak your console.

TechPowerUp noticed the PS5 Bazzite Deck project on GitHub, which takes this flavor of the gaming-focused Bazzite distro and adapts it for Sony's console. (Bazzite Deck is different from vanilla Bazzite, as it was built specifically for handhelds to offer an experience similar to SteamOS for the likes of the Asus ROG Ally — but without some of the headaches of running Valve's OS on that portable).

When PS5 Bazzite Deck is run on a jailbroken console, it'll boot straight into the Steam Deck interface (Steam Gaming Mode), and you can play your PC games from there.

You don't need to install the PS5 Bazzite Deck OS, either; you can just run it from a USB stick (via the PS5 Linux loader). As the developer VivaLaVent explains, when you next restart the PS5, it'll boot its own operating system again, and you'll be back at Sony's welcome hub.

So the PS5 isn't modified by running this OS as such, except for the fact that you have to jailbreak the console (then run the PS5 Linux Loader).

This project is compatible with the base PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles, and you can also switch to a desktop mode running KDE Plasma on your PS5, should you wish.

Of course, game compatibility is going to be hit-and-miss, although a gamer on Reddit observed that they've successfully run Horizon Zero Dawn, Palworld, Genshin Impact, and Rimworld — although Marvel Rivals was a non-starter.

Analysis: interesting times

I should make it very clear up front that I wouldn't recommend jailbreaking your console even as an experiment. There are potential legal ramifications (depending on where you live) with doing so, the possibility of Sony banning your account, and a whole raft of risks (including the third-party software involved, of course). So, if you do want to turn your PS5 into a take on a Steam Machine in this way, proceed at your own risk.

That said, there's an increasing amount of activity around getting the PS5 to run PC games, as you might have seen, so clearly this is something that quite a few gamers are interested in. Most notably, we've seen Playden, which is a very different way of running PC titles on a PS5, by using a compatibility layer (a custom port of Wine) to pull this off. PS5 Bazzite Deck differs in that it replaces the entire OS with a new one, as opposed to running on top of Sony's system.

By all accounts, PS5 Bazzite Deck is pretty slick. One Redditor shares their experience: "I've been using this distro for 4 days, and WOW! Seriously, it's way better than the others. There are constant updates that bring bug fixes."

The DualSense controller support is also niftily implemented by all accounts, as you can pair to both Linux and the PS5 system (saving you from unpairing when switching between the two). The controller's touchpad works like a mouse on the PS5 Bazzite Deck, and seemingly waking from sleep takes only two seconds (much faster than the PS5's normal wake time).

Another gamer on Reddit declares: "If the PS5 turns out to have been the perfect Steam Machine all along, it would be so funny."

But I refer you back to my previous advice on jailbreaking (and game compatibility). Still, this kind of modding is attention-grabbing, to say the least, and we're also seeing it in reverse, with a breakneck pace of development for PS5 emulation on the PC (very much accelerated by the use of AI, it's worth noting).

That effort is, of course, generating a ton of interest given that GTA 6 is nearly here, and indeed there are theories floating around that the work on that PS5 emulator could force Rockstar to launch the PC port much earlier than intended (before an emulated version is up and running). The rumor mill reckons we could see the PC version of GTA 6 early in 2027 as a result.

I’ve been playing Final Fantasy Resonance for the past few weeks, and it is a delightful love letter to the Final Fantasy series — a beautiful turn-based role-playing game (RPG) that blends new and old across its gameplay and aesthetics to create an adventure I have adored every second of.

While it might have its roots in a now defunct mobile gacha game — Brave Exvius — don’t hold that against it. The only holdover is the core story. Everything else, from the gameplay to the wide world map to explore to the visual style, has been overhauled — the pay-to-play elements are gone too; all unlocks are completely free

The end result of this total rebuild is a classic-feeling RPG that is somehow just as at home among 2026’s gaming lineup as it would have been among one from decades ago.

There are some tweaks I’d make here and there: mostly to Visions, and to the story that’s a little predictable, but neither of these issues has sapped the joy from what is easily among the best Nintendo Switch 2 games I’ve played this year (it’s also releasing on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PS5 and PC).

Back to basics

After spending decades finding ways to mix up the turn-based action it popularized, Final Fantasy Resonance returns the series to a much more classic interpretation of it. When it’s their turn to act your party and enemies get to make a basic Attack, spend MP to perform some kind of special Skill action like casting a spell, Summon a powerful esper to fight by their side, or use an item from the party’s bag — with the order characters go determined by their speed.

It facilitates a slower and more tactical approach to engaging enemies than the action-focused gameplay of more modern Final Fantasy entries, which pairs nicely with Resonance’s less traditional combat mechanic: Stagger.

Dealing enough damage to your foes that’s a flavour they’re weak to will fill their meter and Stagger them — they’ll lose their go that turn if they haven’t acted yet, will take more damage until the next round, and whoever staggered them will get a second action.

If you Stagger every enemy at once, you enter a Sweeping Stagger — your whole party will get a second action, and you’ll be able to deliver a powerful Resonance attack. This sees one of your equipped Visions rush forward to deliver a cinematic finishing blow — showcased by a 3D cinematic that briefly takes you out of the game’s HD-2D style.

Resonance isn't just Final Fantasy meets Octopath Traveler. It might seem that way based on my description so far — seeing as it borrows Octopath’s visual identity and a core aspect of the series’ Break and Boost system

But besides the nuances of Resonance’s Stagger system, which make it different from what Octopath offers, you’ll also find this game’s plot is quintessential Final Fantasy — more on that in a moment — and it takes a different approach with its Job / Class system through Visions. They feel more like weapons you swap in and out than a Class you’ll want to perfect and stick with.

Visions are (mostly) manifestations of the core Final Fantasy games’ protagonists which aid your party in combat: performing the Resonance attacks I mentioned earlier, but also unlocking a separate list of actions and abilities for the party member they’re equipped to. Most skills you’ll only have access to while the Vision is actively deployed, but there are also permanent unlocks to earn by mastering a Vision — letting you mix and match aspects of Visions on a single party member to craft your ideal champion.

As I mentioned, this will feel a lot like Jobs from other Square Enix titles, but because so much of a Vision’s identity is lost from your character when you unequip it — most permanent Mastery unlocks are more generic, yet still useful, abilities like improving stats — I’ve found it better to see Visions as Equipment. Before entering a tough fight, you might want to swap out your loadout to best suit the challenge ahead — such as equipping your party with water attack dealers when facing off against a fiery foe.

A medley or overstuffed buffet?

Taking everything I’ve said so far, you might fear Final Fantasy Resonance would turn out to be a mess.

It combines aspects of several games (Octopath Traveler, Brave Exvius, and classic Final Fantasy). It jumps between 3D and HD-2D visuals across different cinematics. There’s just over two dozen Visions to master, each their own skills to augment the base abilities your party develops. You can call forth powerful Summons to deal even more damage to your foes. There’s a giant map to explore, bursting with secrets to discover in every corner. There are main quests and side missions to complete over tens of hours, as well as secret boss fights and a coliseum to become the champion of.

It’s a lot, yet Final Fantasy Resonance never felt like a mess.

Square Enix shows a mastery of the HD-2D art style. The world's environments are stunning, character sprites are expressive, and there are some amazing 2D spectacle across the game’s cutscenes and attack animations. The animatics feel fan-made in a good way — full of expression, and getting as much as possible from the medium.

The flashes of 3D work surprisingly well to augment special moments. Rather than feeling incongruous, the 3D Vision Resonance attack and Esper Summon cinematics give these abilities an appropriately otherworldly aspect.

Games which let you throw everything and the kitchen sink at your enemies have a habit of feeling too easy. However, playing on Expert difficulty, I found fights (especially boss fights) were a challenge — one I could overcome, but not without playing tactically. Button mashing and praying won’t save you here.

These different abilities also built up gradually over time. This let me get to grips with systems before some new aspect was thrown into the mix.

And when the gameplay is so engaging, and the visuals so beautiful, I had no problem adventuring back and forth to complete side quests and seek out every secret hiding in the world.

Close to perfection

If I must find fault with Final Fantasy Resonance, it would be in two areas.

The first is that while I love a lot of the Visions system, it struggles for much of the mid-game because it focuses too much on the main Final Fantasy protagonists who are (let’s face it) pretty samey. This is showcased by the fact that the majority of them are classified as Commando or Breaker types.

The precise builds and abilities do change, but for example there aren’t many supportive Healers amongst them — meaning building out a dedicated support character in your party is a little tough at times as you’ll either need to stick with a Vision you’ve mastered, or accept your party will be multi-classing early on.

Given how useful some Mastery abilities are, you’ll want to multiclass to some extent (Tronn’s ability to halve MP costs is one you need to unlock for as many characters as possible as soon as possible), but given the game says the Vision system offers you the freedom to customize the party however you want, I was a little disappointed that the reality doesn’t quite match this.

Secondly, I’d say the plot is Final Fantasy in its purest form. There are crystals, war between ancient mystical powers and new age technology, sacrifice for the greater good, twists and turns that reveal secrets about the characters’ and the world’s past, and an awful lot else that is a little cliché.

The story is certainly good enough to keep me engaged; it's just nothing special.

Though as I’ve said, neither of these gripes kept me from adoring Final Fantasy Resonance. Every time I sat down to write this review I had to force myself to not reach over for my Nintendo Switch 2 to play another five minutes — and like any good game my attempts to set time limits on myself never succeeded in keeping my play sessions shorter than a few hours at a time.

While it is available on several consoles and PC, my Nintendo Switch 2 has been superb. If you have a choice, this is where I’d recommend playing, as it runs so smoothly, it’s easy to chip away at quests while on the go, and you can still enjoy a beautiful big-picture experience when the handheld is docked.

Should you play Final Fantasy Resonance?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

Besides the features built into your console of choice, Final Fantasy Resonance has no accessibility features baked into it.

However, as a turn-based RPG, gameplay can be as slow as you need. It doesn't matter if you take five seconds, five minutes, or five hours to lock in an action, and unlike games such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, there are no active parry or dodge mechanics that require precise timing on the player's part.

How I reviewed Final Fantasy Resonance

I reviewed Final Fantasy Resonance for around 30 hours on my Nintendo Switch 2. Predominantly, this was with base system hardware in handheld mode — plugging away on trips, my commute, and while relaxing on the couch — but I did experience the big-screen docked mode for several hours on my 4K Fire TV (relying on an 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller for inputs).

In all modes, the game ran smoothly, and I never regretted my decision to play the game on the least powerful system it’s launching on.

First reviewed October 2026

• The next Hitman Elusive Target has been revealed
• The limited-time mission will see Agent 47 taking down an annoying podcaster
• The target will be played by real-world content creator Seán McLoughlin

The next Hitman Elusive Target has been revealed, and it's something that could happen in 2026.

As of October 29, players will be able to take out Finn Colton – a controversial millionaire content creator who goes by the online handle 'Finnvictus'. The mission will see the flashy mansion of the existing Hawke's Bay map turned into an even more elaborate space for content creation, with its own underground studio and cameras that live-stream everything 24/7.

Bald assassin protagonist Agent 47 has managed to gain entry thanks to an invite to appear on the content creator's flagship podcast and will have to contend with an environment that has eyes almost everywhere.

That's not all, however, as Colton is played by Seán McLoughlin, better known as 'Jacksepticeye', with the popular streamer lending both his likeness and voice to the character.

"I’ve been playing Hitman with my community for years, so getting to actually step into the World of Assassination is unreal," shared McLoughlin.

"Finn is loud, paranoid, and completely obsessed with content, and playing him was an absolute blast. I can’t wait to see all the creative ways you take him down."

The mission will be available for free for a limited time, though die-hard Hitman fans can pick up a themed DLC pack as well. It costs $7.99 / £6.99 and includes permanent access to the mission via the Elusive Target Arcade mode plus a new suit and some unique equipment to try.

Hitman: World of Assassination is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, Xbox One, and PC, or as Hitman World of Assassination – Signature Edition for Nintendo Switch 2.

The next generation of official PS5 audio is here, as the new PlayStation Pulse PS5 headset is now available to pre-order in the US and the UK.

This new Pulse headset feels like the formal, official, and proper replacement for the Pulse 3D headset that launched with the console in 2020. That was a great headset with a lot going for it, but this next-generation model feels like an upgrade already, for one key reason: planar magnetic drivers. This means the audio on offer here is going to be excellent and, truthfully, far superior to that first Pulse 3D headset.

It's got a sleek design and one that channels a little of Sony's Inzone headsets too, and it'll also feature PlayStation Link connectivity for lossless audio and native compatibility with the PlayStation Portal.

It'll cost you $99.99 / £89.99, will be available in white or black, and pre-orders have started in the US and the UK.

Just for clarity, this is for the 'regular' new Pulse headset that Sony revealed, not the new Pulse Edge, which is more premium. We're yet to hear more information on that high-end Pulse headset, such as price and pre-order date.

Anyway, the new PS5 Pulse headset is now available to pre-order in the US and the UK. Below, you'll find all the best links and most important info on the new PS5 accessory.

US PlayStation Pulse PS5 headset pre-orders – quick links

• 🅿️PS Direct: pre-order for $99🅿️
• 📦Amazon: pre-order for $99.99📦
• 🔆Walmart: pre-orders live soon🔆
• 🎮GameStop: pre-order for $99.99🎮
• 🏷️Check for stock at Best Buy🏷️
• 🎯Check for stock at Target🎯

UK PlayStation Pulse PS5 headset pre-orders – quick links

• 🅿️PlayStation: pre-order now for £89.99🅿️
• 🧸Smyths Toys: pre-order now for £89.99🧸
• 𝓥 Very: pre-order now for £89.99 𝓥
• 📦Check for stock at Amazon UK📦
• ©️Check for stock at Currys©️
• 🟥Check for stock at Argos🟥
• 🟡Check for stock at ShopTo🟡
• 🎮Check for stock at The Game Collection🎮
• 📱Check for stock at EE📱
• 🛍️Check for stock at John Lewis🛍️

Should you pre-order a PlayStation Pulse wireless headset for PS5?

As I always say, broadly speaking, if you're willing and able to do so, placing a pre-order is the safest bet for securing your product.

If you know you're pretty certain to be picking up the Pulse wireless headset, then placing a pre-order is the best way to ensure you'll get your item. Even items that aren't limited in stock in their lifetimes might have limited pre-order or launch stock, so to avoid any delays, placing a pre-order is the sure-fire way to know you're getting it.

PlayStation Pulse wireless headset for PS5: cut to the chase

• Price: $99.99 / £89.99
• Pre-order date: October 29, 2026; 10am ET / 10am local time in Europe
• Release date: November 19, 2026
• Design and features: The updated form factor is very 'round' in its style, with a lot of curves across the headset, while the ear cups will also rotate to allow the headset to lie flat on a surface for portability. Key features include planar magnetic drivers, PlayStation Link support, and mics with AI-enhanced noise rejection.

• Sony has announced a new range of PS5 controllers and console covers
• They come in three translucent finishes, including orange, green, and gray
• They play upon the transparent look that was popular in the 1990s

Translucent gaming hardware is having a moment right now, with the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 and Microsoft’s see-through Xbox Series X leading the charge. Now, Sony is getting in on the act with a new range of PlayStation 5 covers and controllers that take you back to a time when seemingly everything had a touch of transparency about it.

Dubbed the Prism range, the new accessories are available in three translucent forms: Flare Orange, Emerald Green, and Graphite Gray. They come with a “premium glossy sheen for a sleek and elevated design,” Sony says, and those finishes “give players a closer look into the design and craftsmanship behind our DualSense controllers and PlayStation 5 consoles.”

As Sony alluded to, it’s not just the DualSense controller that gets the Prism treatment. The PS5 console itself can take on one of the collection’s looks thanks to three dedicated console covers that can be fixed to your PS5 to overhaul its appearance.

Sony says that the Prism PS5 controllers cost $84.99 / £74.99 / €84.99, which pushes the price a little higher than the standard PS5 controller but is in line with other special editions.

The console covers, meanwhile, will set you back $74.99 / £64.99 / €74.99. You’ll be able to pre-order the products on November 10, 2026, and they’ll officially launch on February 4, 2027.

We'll be covering the pre-orders of these products live and predict that the combination of their slick finishes and the appeal to retro and long-term PlayStation fans means they will be in hot demand!

Retro revival

Many tech companies have brought out translucent devices in recent years as they seek to capitalize on the nostalgic hit the look provides for fans of ‘90s design and throwback gaming culture.

Sony is no different, with company designer Leo Cardoso saying: “We know how much our fans have been looking forward to the return of transparent controllers. We wanted to bring back the iconic see-through trend of the late ‘90s in a fresh, modern way that complements the PS5’s industrial design.”

With Sony’s main console rival Microsoft launching a translucent green Xbox Series X alongside an “OG Green” see-through controller, PlayStation bosses might not have wanted to feel left behind — or for their fans to cast envious sideways glances at their Xbox-toting friends and family members.

Now, they might not have to worry about that. And if you’re a fan of the retro aesthetic and want to bring a touch of the 1990s to your PlayStation 5, this could be one way to do it.

Surprises are rare in gaming. At first glance, Phantom Blade Zero had all the hallmarks of a solid, if middle-of-the-road, release. Now that I’ve sunk almost 20 hours into this wuxia- and martial arts-inspired roleplaying game (RPG), it’s clear S-Game has delivered one of the most thrilling action games in a long time.

A blistering opening sets the tone, with bombastic battles, dramatic visuals, and gorgeous cinematics that introduce wandering warrior Soul and the reason he’s on a battle-filled journey across the corrupted land of Wulin. The 20+ hour adventure that lies ahead may not deliver everything narratively, but it excels with a stunning world to explore and combat that sings.

It’s clear that so much effort has gone into getting this combat spot on, with detailed weapon designs, satisfying sound effects, and some truly outstanding animations. Every time I saw a new weapon or secondary Phantom Art from the impressive variety in the game in action, I was dazzled by the string of attacks and finishing-move flourishes it offered.

Of course, not all of them were bangers or suited the way I wanted to play, but the better ones stand out way more than the bad, which gave me a lot of tough choices when deciding which two I wanted to upgrade and wield. Even though I stuck with a few favorites throughout the game, I rarely tired of stringing together the intricate combos each one offered.

Having flashy weapons is all well and good, but if you don’t have decent dance partners to put them to use against, it can get dull fast. Outside of a few exceptions, fodder enemies are fairly easy to cut your way through, but Phantom Blade Zero doesn’t miss a beat with its lineup of tough and inventive boss encounters that will put your skills and weapon choices to the test.

Stop trying to hit me and hit me

What I appreciated most is that, while these bouts are often a relentless barrage of attacks from either side, combat is actually quite forgiving.

That mainly comes from the option to hold block to deflect most attacks. This will drain your sha-chi (effectively a stamina resource that’s also used for certain skills and abilities), but it lasts a lot longer and can be refilled with a quick weapon switch to keep you in the fight longer.

You can also choose to try and parry attacks with perfect timing as they land, meaning you do not lose this resource and drain more from your opponent instead, leaving them open to a lot of attacks while it recharges.

Mix in attacks with blue flashes that can be parried with perfect timing to deliver a devastating counterattack, and red flash attacks that must be dodged to avoid significant damage, and combat becomes chaotic but not overwhelming.

Key moves you need to watch out for are very readable, while the ability to block almost everything else means you have time to study the opponent’s moves, find your own windows to attack, and survive any small slip-ups — rather than being repeatedly punished for imperfect play.

That’s not to say Phantom Blade Zero is without any degree of challenge. A good handful of bosses did flatten me repeatedly, including several dramatic fights that are hiding away off the main path or in side quests, so exploration can be very rewarding if you like to test yourself.

When facing these enemies, I was especially thankful that there’s no need to trudge back to collect your resources on death if you just want to move on. With the game’s much less punishing difficulty curve, this change of pace is a blessing if you’re not in the mood for yet another Souls-like.

Memory problems

Some of that genre’s obtuseness is kept in the narrative, however. A lot of the game’s story is told in bits and pieces, mainly through flashbacks, Soul’s memories, and memory flowers found in the world that reveal the stories of the people in the places you travel through.

It makes for some fascinating moments of discovery and some genuinely engaging asides when they come together, but breaking things up this way, especially with multiple story strands in play at once, can make it harder to follow exactly what’s going on all the time. It can kill the pacing at times, too, as sometimes you stop-and-start to listen to multiple of these audio-logs-as-flowers one after the other.

The problem is only emphasised in a game that’s packed with proper nouns, making it exhausting to keep track of the who, what, where, and when as you ping between different perspectives and time periods.

At least it’s easy to get swept up in the aura and atmosphere of it all. And when you get back into combat, unsheathing a sword that gets more powerful as you get more drunk, sending enemies flying with a giant tower shield, or chopping some poor soul in half with a two-handed claymore, any niggles fall away. The action at the core is so good and an awesome achievement from the debut developers.

Should you play Phantom Blade Zero?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

There are limited accessibility features in Phantom Blade Zero. You can choose to play the game with English VO or with the traditional Chinese VO with subtitles in many languages. Subtitles can be in normal or large, although a very large option would likely be useful for some. There are three controller presets, but no option to remap specific buttons. You can also adjust the intensity of camera shaking, turn off motion blur, and reduce the level of violence.

How I reviewed Phantom Blade Zero

I played Phantom Blade Zero for around 20 hours, taking my time to complete a handful of side quests while making significant progress on the main story — and I'm absolutely going to stick with it to the end.

Again, I played on a PlayStation 5 Pro on a Samsung S90C OLED TV and Samsung HW-Q930C soundbar while using a DualSense Wireless Controller. I did play briefly using the PlayStation Portal, and found it was a perfectly fine way to run the game, too.

Phantom Blade Zero has the option to play in Quality, Balanced, or Performance mode. I stuck with Balanced mode for my playthrough, which did a good job of running the game at 40 frames per second (fps) in dynamic 4K with ray tracing, as I experienced very few and very minor stutters. Performance mode targeting 60fps is likely a better option, though, if you prefer smoothness throughout.

First reviewed October 2026.

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says the game's Showbiz system was "a real challenge" for RGG Studio
• Abe says lots of research was put into finding out what a show promoter does and how to depict that in-game
• Abe adds that "At some point we did have a small rhythm game," but the idea didn't match the team's vision

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe has revealed how RGG Studio designed the game's Showbiz narrative system and how difficult it was to get right.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Abe said the Showbiz, an entertainment management system requiring the main character, Makoto Daito, to build a business, find sources of inspiration for music, and plan productions as a promoter, "was a real challenge for us."

The director explained that RGG started by asking: what does a promoter actually do? Because "you know what a singer does, and you know what a band does, but you don't exactly know what a promoter does in the music industry," so research began from there.

Abe revealed that "At some point we did have a small rhythm game, but it didn't exactly match the feeling that you're promoting a show," so the team went back to the whiteboard phase to try different things.

"One thing that we noticed is that a promoter is the person who brings in not just the money, but also the inspiration and the whole vision of the show," Abe said. "We thought that's an interesting aspect that we can put into this game."

In Stranger Than Heaven, players can walk around cities and interact with things in the environment, like a grandfather clock or a bonfire, and collect sounds as inspiration for music. Daito can then take these samples and collaborate with a composer to create new music and plan a production for the singer and band.

"The inspiration sources are basically like when you have a certain job, you always have these antennas looking for something," Abe said. "So, if you're a musician, you always have this antenna for the music you're hearing, and that can inspire people to create new stuff, and that was no different for Makoto as well.

Abe added, "That's why this game system of finding and then using that inspiration to create music came to life in the game."

Stranger Than Heaven releases on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says RGG Studios did a lot of "difficult" research to depict the game's many cities across different time periods
• However, Abe says "historical accuracy wasn't the goal from the very beginning," and the team took creative liberties
• He says there is a lot of "fiction" woven through the cities for the player experience

RGG Studio did plenty of research for its multi-era action role-playing game, Stranger Than Heaven, but director Mikinobu Abe has said historical accuracy wasn't the end goal.

In a discussion with TechRadar Gaming about the early stages of development, Abe confirmed that a story spanning 50 years and five cities in Japan required a lot of research, which "itself was really difficult," and that RGG visited all the cities depicted in the game and libraries for material.

"No one knows what it was like back in 1915 Kokura, or 1929 Kure," Abe said. "So, we had to dig into a lot of our pictures, and we visited a lot of museums. We even bought a lot of books that were published back then, or magazines that were published back then, and read every single one of them. There was one time that bugs were coming out of them, which was not good to have in the office! We did a lot of research like that."

However, as much as research was vital to get a sense of the time periods RGG wanted to depict, the director said "historical accuracy wasn't the goal from the very beginning," and the team took creative liberties.

"We took a lot of inspiration from what we researched, but we wanted to depict the city in a way that we feel really represents the video game experience that we want the player to have," Abe explained. "There's a lot of fiction within the cities, but we wanted to capture the tone of what it could have been like or how it could have felt to be in that place."

It wasn't just historical research; Abe said he and the art director, Daishi Kanaya, researched paintings, vintage lenses, and film that were created during these decades, and that they "took a lot of inspiration from the equipment side of things," like what brush artists used when drawing at the time.

"We took a lot of inspiration from those and re-imagined how we, as creators in 2026, would use that equipment and create this new vibe or atmosphere for the game," he said. "That's just how this older colour, and the look, and the tone, and the atmosphere of the city came to life.

"I don't think 1915 Kokura was that populated or was that big of a city, but you know, we really wanted to capture the essence and humanise it in a way that we feel like it's really entertaining for people to play."

Stranger Than Heaven releases on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

You could be forgiven for having reservations going into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. After all, both last year’s instalment, the much-derided Black Ops 7, and this game’s direct predecessor, Modern Warfare III, were clearly rushed and displayed a level of sloppiness that suggested the first-person shooter franchise had reached its breaking point.

Thankfully, it’s now apparent that these were merely temporary hiccups, and Modern Warfare 4 sees developer Infinity Ward successfully bring Call of Duty back from the brink with a fresh and exciting instalment that represents the absolute pinnacle of what the series has to offer.

The brilliant single-player story campaign delivers blockbuster thrills, there’s a stellar extraction shooter component filled with tense encounters in DMZ, and the core multiplayer experience is wonderfully crafted. It’s a package that you shouldn’t miss, and if it represents the trajectory of future installments, I’m confident that we’re in good hands.

Boots on the ground

The Modern Warfare 4 campaign is simply superb and sets a new benchmark for the series’ cinematic storytelling. It truly feels like the culmination of the last decade of the Call of Duty series – and not just the Modern Warfare games.

It all kicks off in the fictional city of Hajin, South Korea, where you play as the lowly Private Park. An unwilling conscript in the country’s mandatory service program, he and his squadmates are suddenly thrust onto the front lines when a routine patrol is interrupted by the start of a full-scale invasion by North Korea. There are some genuinely shocking scenes in the opening as your team pushes through a rapidly crumbling city, dodging artillery strikes and witnessing widespread civilian casualties.

The early death of a squadmate hammers home the high stakes, and the decision to focus on newcomers rather than the established Modern Warfare cast makes it clear that there’s no plot armor here. You genuinely start to care about these new arrivals, with each member bringing a distinct and memorable personality to the squad’s dynamic. Dunn, a US Marine embedded in the local unit, is a particular highlight. His cultural cluelessness and overconfident swagger are frequently played for laughs, stopping the otherwise bleak tone from becoming too unrelentingly miserable.

It’s a big departure from the almost Marvel-movie-like silliness of the recent Call of Duty games (I’m looking at you, giant Harper mission from Black Ops 7), and the focus on a ground invasion makes for a grittier story that’s more in line with the events of the original Modern Warfare trilogy. Despite this more constrained focus, there are still plenty of memorable set-piece moments, such as an invigorating sequence that has you rapidly switching between different team members spread out across an air base, working together to fend off waves of North Korean troops.

There’s even one massive, open-world mission that unfolds similarly to a Far Cry game. It’s far more in-depth than the disappointing open-zone levels of 2023’s Modern Warfare III, with resources to scavenge, outposts to clear, and even a few puzzles to crack. It took me a few hours to clear, and since I didn’t see everything, I really appreciate being able to return to it later from the mission select screen and pick up where I left off.

Park’s story plays out mostly linearly, but it's interspersed with missions that detail the exploits of the fan-favorite Captain Price in the lead-up to the invasion. Set a few years after the events of the previous game, which, spoiler alert, ends with Price executing his long-term adversary, General Shepherd, in the middle of the Pentagon, the former SAS soldier is now on the run and travels between global locations hunting the members of a sinister cabal.

Price’s segments offer all the bombastic Mission: Impossible action that made the recent Black Ops 6 campaign so great. One minute you're infiltrating a New York nightclub, and the next you’re speeding through Paris, hanging out the side of a car chased by legions of heavily armed gangsters. Vladimir Makarov, a terrorist Price pursued throughout the previous game, is unceremoniously killed off in just the second mission, paving the way for the introduction of Archer, a new foe portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen. Unlike Makarov, he’s a compelling villain with coherent motivations and, importantly, enough screen time to appear like more than an afterthought, as his predecessor unfortunately did.

While Park’s journey sees the recruit come face to face with the horrors of war but emerge victorious thanks to camaraderie and teamwork, Price’s is all about the dangers of abandoning your morals and sacrificing those close to you in pursuit of revenge. They contrast excellently and, while the messaging certainly isn’t subtle, the way both gradually converge for a unified conclusion is nevertheless highly satisfying.

Off the books

The events of the campaign lead directly into the new DMZ extraction shooter mode, which sees mercenaries returning to the crumbling ruins of Hajin to find and extract abandoned military tech left over from the war. It plays like a simplified version of titles such as Arena Breakout: Infinite or Escape from Tarkov, with your chosen operator dropping in to the map from an upgradable field base.

This serves as a little hub world that you return to in between runs, offering limited storage for your scavenged gear, a 3D printer to forge new equipment with collected resources, a vendor for spending extracted cash, and intelligence detailing the non-player character (NPC) foes and most dangerous players active in the zone. While most extraction shooter games include base-building elements, it’s rare to see your home as a physical 3D space you can actually explore, and it makes the experience feel much more immersive.

You have three options when deploying into Hajin: Story Missions, Dynamic Ops, and Free Roam. Free Roam is the most basic: it drops you into the massive map with a few other players to pursue your own goals, whether that means finding good weapons to extract or trying to complete DMZ Orders, little challenges that guide your experience. Dynamic Ops is more guided, feeding you a stream of multi-stage objectives with increasing rewards for each that you manage to complete.

They’re assigned at random, with a good variety of options in the mission pool that range from taking out key NPC targets to taking over military camps and collecting stashed bombs to destroy marked vehicles. Story Missions, meanwhile, offer a more linear experience that feels much closer to the campaign.

One early highlight had my team of three taking on guards at an abandoned hospital, pushing our way up to the intensive care unit and wheeling a sedated enemy general to a rooftop extraction point under heavy fire. It was genuinely exhilarating, and became even more exciting when a squad of enemy players turned up to disrupt our mission.

Other players can appear regardless of your chosen mode, leading to tense PvP situations where one wrong move can mean the difference between a successful escape and losing your current operator and all of their equipment. Not every encounter has to end in a fight, though, as you can work together with enemy teams (and even opt to join them) if they’re willing to cooperate, leading to some fun emergent play.

I entered one story mission and quickly discovered that my team of randoms was absolutely terrible, with no apparent interest in actually completing our tasks, so I beelined to a nearby enemy squad shouting “friendly” until they sent me the invite to join them. I quickly led my new friends right back to my useless former teammates, and took great pleasure in helping mow them down to steal all their gear.

No two games feel the same, and if that wasn’t reason enough to keep coming back, Hajin itself is a treat to explore. It’s big, beautiful, and filled with a variety of aesthetically distinct zones ranging from freezing cold, abandoned North Korean villages to the rusty ruins of the South Korean city and even some of the barren outskirts of Russia. Even when you’ve seen it all, the dynamic weather effects can still take you by surprise, introducing challenging conditions like dense fog or heavy rainstorms that make it more difficult to navigate and spot foes.

DMZ would be a strong offering as a standalone extraction shooter game, so it represents incredible value when bundled in alongside the rest of the Modern Warfare 4 package. This is a mode that I’m going to be coming back to time and time again in the weeks and months ahead.

A fresh start

Of course, no Call of Duty game is complete without a robust suite of core multiplayer modes, and Modern Warfare 4 delivers a truly superb experience across the board in this regard. The pacing of matches is perfect: noticeably snappier than the comparatively pedestrian battles of Modern Warfare II but not as overwhelmingly rapid as the wall-jumping, hip-firing action of Black Ops 7.

Fast movement helps you navigate the smaller maps of classic modes like Team Deathmatch or Kill Confirmed quickly so you’re always encountering new enemies to fight, keeping the excitement high. Focusing on tactical positioning is still rewarded, thanks to a finely tuned TTK (time to kill) that gives the player who lands the first hit an advantage, but not a guaranteed victory against particularly skilled opponents. New traversal mechanics like a ledge grab that lets you hang off the side of buildings and objects are seamlessly implemented too, opening up new exciting opportunities on every battlefield.

As I noted in my impressions of the Modern Warfare 4 beta, the overhauled ballistic system is far more than a marketing bullet point and genuinely impacts how you engage with weapons by accurately simulating the trajectory of bullets based on the position of your muzzle. In practical terms, it means being able to reliably hit shots when quickly shooting from the hip, which gives you a chance against players that slide around corners with SMGs at breakneck speeds to try and catch you off guard.

The guns themselves are all fantastic to use, with best-in-class model fidelity, impactful sound effects, and slick animations. There’s a great variety in the arsenal to boot, which spans from modern assault rifles to the antique WWII gear used by the real-world North Korean military. GUNNY, a new automated helper smartly built into the gunsmith system, makes it easier than ever to tweak your attachments for that perfect build. While I will always prefer poring over the detailed stats, giving newcomers the ability to automatically create good attachment setups based on their specific playstyles helps keep the playing field even.

As for the maps, they’re some of the best that we’ve had in recent years. They’re definitely on the smaller side unless you dive into the massive Ground War: Combat Outpost mode (which plays almost like a Battlefield match), though none of them stand out as suffering from poorly balanced spawn points or unfair sightlines. They’re visually stunning. Those taking place in South Korea, such as Silkworm, stand out particularly with their lavishly detailed streets, while little animated intros grant each arena a distinct visual identity.

Wrap all of this up in a slick UI that finally doesn’t look like the Netflix home screen, and it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that Modern Warfare 4 is going to reshape the direction of the long-running series going forward. If I had to truly nitpick, I would fault the lack of faction divisions in the operator lineup – being able to tell at a glance which team a player is on without having to rely on the red enemy indicator would help readability.

For something this insignificant to be my only complaint is a testament to how strong the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 package is

Should I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

As with most modern Call of Duty games, there is an expansive selection of accessibility settings. This includes a wide selection of visual presets designed to enhance readability, as well as an assortment of subtitle options for the campaign.

The controls are also highly customizable, with full remapping supported whether you’re using a keyboard and mouse or a controller. You can also tweak aim assist settings and enable presets designed to reduce motor strain.

How I reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4

I played more than 25 hours of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 for the purpose of this review. This included a full playthrough of the campaign, multiple DMZ sessions both solo and with a friend, and plenty of multiplayer. I also drew on my experience playing more than ten hours of the game’s beta, and some extra hands-on time in a studio visit earlier this year.

I tested everything on PC using a 5070 Ti-powered model by retailer Sca with a compact Corsair 2000d RGB Airflow case, Asus ROG Strix B860-I Gaming Wifi motherboard, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K CPU, a 2TB WD Black SN770 SSD, 32GB of DDR5 Corsair Vengeance RAM, and an Nvidia 5070 Ti manufactured by Asus. This setup lets me play smoothly on custom graphics settings at 1080p with most options set to High.

For peripherals, I used the new Logitech G Pro X2 Rapid keyboard and Logitech G Pro X3 SuperStrike mouse throughout my time with the game.

First reviewed October 2026

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe explains why the game's story spanning decades is being told in one game instead of multiple titles
• Abe says it was "a week isn't enough to tell the story" of how a yakuza organisation is built
• The director says the era-spanning story worked best when framed around a man's life

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe has explained why RGG Studios chose to tell an era-spanning story in one game, rather than across multiple titles.

"The whole starting point was that we wanted to depict why, or how, someone would create such an organisation like a yakuza organisation," Abe said in an interview with TechRadar Gaming.

Stranger Than Heaven centers on the main character, Makoto Daito, and the origins of a Yakuza organisation spanning 50 years across five cities in Japan, and Abe explained that the initial idea of containing the story within a smaller timeframe simply didn't work for the team's vision.

"We started from there, and while we were creating the narrative, we started to slowly realise that a week isn't enough to tell the story," he added. "We then explored how much time we needed to tell the narrative of a man who's going to build a gigantic yakuza organisation."

Abe went on to explain that this story worked best when framed around a man's life (Daito's) and realized it was the best outcome instead of splitting the story across multiple games, despite how long the narrative is.

"It was really important for us that the player experience the whole life of a man, because we wanted to tell this epic story of how the organisation became an organisation," he said.

"The timespan needed for that was basically a man's life. So, if we split it, people are going to experience it separately. But again, the main focus of the narrative was to tell why he created this organisation, and the timespan needed to tell that story was a life."

The director added, "So we just decided to create it and do it in one game. I will also say that the game itself is pretty long, but I'm quite satisfied with what we’ve built."

Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

• Electronic Arts has confirmed it will "be bringing together" its "Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project"
• Multiple sources have confirmed with Variety that it is Star Wars Battlefront 3
• The confirmation comes as EA shuts down BioWare and lays off 400 staff members across all studios

Star Wars Battlefront 3 is reportedly in development after Electronic Arts confirmed that Respawn and DICE will work collaboratively on a new project.

According to Variety, EA’s Cam Weber, president and chief studio officer, and David Tinson, president and COO, have confirmed the publisher is leaning into live-service online games after seeing success with Battlefield 6.

The executives said the game was "a great success, and we learned a lot from the launch and the live service" and alongside more Battlefield titles, "we’ll be bringing together our Respawn and DICE studios to collaborate on a future project."

EA didn't specify what this project is; however, Variety confirmed with "multiple sources" that the game is Star Wars Battlefront 3. The game has made headlines recently, with initial reports claiming it was to be developed at DICE alongside Destiny developer Bungie.

Star Wars Battlefront 2 launched in 2017, but live-service support ended in 2020, leaving the popular online multiplayer game in the dust with no further content updates, and it was thought the series was on ice.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners acquired EA in September 2025, but the deal wasn't officially closed until August 2026, making the restructuring the publisher's first major move.

Alongside Respawn and DICE's project, EA will continue to "invest heavily” in the Apex Legends franchise over the next few years, with plans to introduce new multiplayer modes and other content, and has committed to delivering "our two huge launches coming up," which are Marvel's Iron Man and Star Wars Jedi 3.

It also plans to continue supporting EA Sports, with two new projects in development, The Sims franchise and Skate.

Unfortunately, it's not all good news. The executive's plan also included a major restructuring across its studios and projects, resulting in 400 layoffs and the permanent shutdown of the legendary Dragon Age and Mass Effect studio, BioWare.

Roughly 50 people were laid off from the studio, and work on Mass Effect 5 has been canceled.

Former BioWare cinematic supervisor Tony de Waal has spoken up about the studio's closure, saying that Mass Effect 5 would have offered "a level of autonomy and choice that no other game has been able to match"

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says the game's combat system was inspired by classic Ninkyo yakuza movies
• He says the action scenes in those movies were "raw and gritty" and encapsulated the feeling RGG Studios wanted to showcase
• Abe adds that the combat system also correlates with Makoto Daito, who will start as an inexperienced fighter before evolving

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe has revealed that classic yakuza movies inspired the upcoming action game's combat system, and that it will tie into Makoto Daito's character development.

Speaking in an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Abe shared how RGG Studios conceptualized the game's combat, saying that it "really wanted to make sure that the player feels this atmosphere that it’s either you kill, or you get killed," and revealed that "we took a lot of inspiration from the old Ninkyo movies."

Ninkyo is a classic subgenre of Japanese yakuza-themed movies made in the 70s and 80s. Abe said RGG was influenced by movies like New Battles Without Honor and Humanity, starring Bunta Sugawara, who also plays a character in Stranger Than Heaven, because of its unrefined action scenes.

"While we were watching these movies, we noticed that what made those movies special was how raw and gritty the action scenes are in those movies," he said. "No one throws a cool-looking fist punch or anything; it's just people rolling around and fighting. We felt that atmosphere was what made those genres special."

The "raw" action scenes also influenced the game's main character, Makoto Daito, and his gradual progression to becoming a better fighter than he starts; players will see him evolving the more they become attuned to the combat system.

"We took a lot of inspiration from that, and wanted to make sure that Daito is a character who starts out not being too good in a fight," Abe continued. "As he progresses, though, he gets more comfortable fighting people. Because of that, because the game is about one man's life, we definitely wanted to depict how the main character is evolving, or I guess more like ageing, through the narrative. We wanted to make sure that the player can also feel that, while also feeling that tension of kill or be killed."

Abe added that "It was really, really important that the combat feels intuitive to create this sense of synchronisation between the player and Daito" and to allow the player to "immerse themselves in controlling Makoto."

"As the player's skill gets better, so does Daito as a character gets better," the director said. "So that was the whole concept of what we wanted to depict through this combat system."

Stranger Than Heaven releases on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says the game's narrative is very unique
• Abe hopes that Makoto Daito, the main character, and his background resonate with players of mixed heritage and that players will engage with the narrative
• Abe says, "We put a lot of focus on telling this narrative about a man's life who starts by facing a lot of racism"

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe hopes the game's multi-era narrative and its mixed-heritage protagonist will resonate with players and those who have experienced discrimination.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Abe explained how Stranger Than Heaven's story, which spans 50 years across five distinct eras and cities in Japan, is not a concept he's ever experienced in a video game before, and believes it's "not just entertainment."

"I would say experiencing one man's life as a narrative and as a gameplay experience is something that I have personally never played before as a video game medium. I think that aspect of the game could be something that’s not just entertainment," Abe said.

The director continued to discuss the main character, Makoto Daito, who is of Japanese-American descent, and how his mixed heritage background and the racism he experiences when he first arrives in Japan are aspects of the story that he hopes players engage with.

Abe also said that while RGG Studios was developing the narrative for Makoto, it "felt it was really natural that music would be a big part of this character," and was one of the things that would help break the barriers of the racism he experiences.

"Once he comes to Japan, he faces a lot of discrimination, and people won't even talk to him just because of his race and language," he said. "So, music was the only thing for him that would break those barriers and help him communicate with people. That was really natural for us to put into the narrative.

"Of course, Captain Orpheus is the one who's going to teach him how to make money off of music. And for Daito, because he has that experience, it was really natural for him to start making money, and you know, start showbiz as his life's work. So that's why we always wanted the concept of music in this game to tell the narrative of Makoto’s life. That was the starting point of why we wanted music."

Abe continues, saying that he and Daito's actor, Yu Shirota, have both experienced discrimination and wants players to immerse themselves in the story, even if they're only playing Stranger Than Heaven for entertainment.

"Because of the way Makoto Daito’s story is written, where he starts from a mixed-heritage background, comes to Japan, and gets discriminated against, I hope that Makoto’s life journey really speaks to people around the globe who have had similar experiences," Abe said.

"I myself have had one before, and our lead actor also had a similar experience before, so we put a lot of focus on telling this narrative about a man's life who starts by facing a lot of racism. I hope it really encourages people, as well as the player who just wants to entertain themselves while playing the game can also get immersed in this narrative."

The director concluded, "So the concept of a man's life is, I think, one of the biggest things that I would love the player to experience, and I can’t wait for them to experience."

Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

• Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe says the game was always going to be different from the Yakuza or Like A Dragon games
• Abe says, "There was no conversation whatsoever about what Yakuza or Like A Dragon was like"
• He adds that RGG Studios "never compared" Stranger Than Heaven to its past titles, so it became "something new"

Stranger Than Heaven director Mikinobu Abe has explained why the upcoming role-playing action game was developed as a completely new experience from RGG Studio's Yakuza franchise.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Abe said approaching Stranger Than Heaven was "a big task" and a "huge challenge for us," but knew "from the very beginning that we wanted to make this experience different from the previous games."

Unlike the Like a Dragon games, which typically take place in one location and timeframe, Stranger Than Heaven shifts to a historical timeline by telling a story across five distinct eras and cities spanning 50 years.

It's an ambitious decision for RGG, but Abe said the team intentionally forgot everything it knew from making the Yakuza series to create something new.

"While we were developing Stranger Than Heaven, there was no conversation whatsoever about what Yakuza or Like A Dragon was like," Abe said. "We intentionally forgot what it was like in our previous games and started from scratch. We were doubting every single pixel of what we had in Yakuza."

This included everything from the game's map, the UI, and how RGG wanted to approach the world; Abe said it even applied to the narrative and cutscenes, and the team "never compared" Stranger Than Heaven to its past titles.

"Every single aspect of it, we started thinking about it from scratch, just to suit the style of Stranger Than Heaven," he added. "We were never trying to make this different because we never compared it with our previous games, so in the end, it became something new."

Stranger Than Heaven launches on January 15, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.

Stranger Than Heaven is exactly the sort of game I want to champion. It’s rare to see a team of young developers given a significant budget and seemingly generous freedom to create a half-century-spanning epic that tackles heavy themes while taking bold risks with both the combat and music-influenced management game at its core.

My four-hour whistlestop tour across several of the game’s time periods between 1915 and 1965 in this latest fantastical tale from the Japanese criminal underworld did make it hard to see just how well all of this ambition from RGG Studio will come together in the end. But I haven’t really stopped thinking about it since.

And when you’ve played and previewed dozens (maybe hundreds) of games, it’s harder to find ones that leave a mark like that — ones that genuinely leave you wanting to play and see more.

What I admire most about Stranger Than Heaven is that it knows what it wants to be and fully commits to that idea to create its own unique vibe.

Music is the throughline. On one side, it's the way the protagonist, Makoto Daito, finds his place in a hostile world, as a way for him to break down barriers and overcome prejudice he faces as a Japanese-American immigrant.

There is a level of detail and adoration in the musical performances I saw in-game that made it easy to get swept up in the atmosphere — whether it was a professional big band showstopper full of belting brass, or an impromptu sing-a-long that draws in a large crowd on the streets of Kokura.

Play it, Daito

Music is also a fundamental part of several other aspects of the game. Mainly, it’s a key part of the main management mini-game in Stranger Than Heaven. Instead of running a hostess club or a confectionery shop as we've seen in Yakuza and Like a Dragon, Daito works as a promoter in the showbiz business. That involves creating tunes, hiring talent, scoping out venues, drawing in punters, and making sure performances run smoothly.

I dabbled with putting on a show or two, and can see how it has the potential to be another all-consuming distraction that RGG is known for, diverting you away from the main story for many hours. There’s a satisfaction to tinkering with all aspects of the performance to rake in the most cash, ensuring you’ve got the best singers and musicians performing the right sort of music in the right venue to suit the audience’s mood.

What also keeps that music throughline in other areas of the game is the way you draw inspiration for your next tracks and shows from the world around you. Those sparks also come from the combat, with small flashes or cues as kicks and punches fly that you can focus in on to unlock new sounds, instruments, or playing styles.

It’s a nice way to tie the game together, although I’m very aware that combat was a point of contention for some in earlier previews. I definitely struggled to grasp it fully in the beginning, but I was starting to get into the flow of it by the time I was wrapping up my time with the game. It has its own rhythm, swapping out flashy attacks and arcade-style simplicity from prior Yakuza games for more grounded and messy fistfights.

Mastering the art

It does require a bit of controller contortion to execute fully, with actions for your left and right hands and legs split across the left and right bumpers and triggers. Throw in directional blocking, perfect parries with spot-on timing, and the need to dodge some attacks, and it’s a lot to hold in your head and execute with ease.

Weapons add another dynamic, ranging from swords, knives, and batons to more improvised weaponry such as crowbars and a giant wooden mallet. These can be found or bought and switched between mid-combat to give you a bit more fighting power against multiple foes or tougher enemies.

Oh, and there’s ‘willpower’ too: a resource that you and opponents have that can be whittled down with repeated attacks, eventually causing you or them to fall to the floor when it’s emptied. You can then punish them with more severe finishers or find yourself fending off an assault while prone so you can get back on your feet.

It is a lot. And with pretty much all of these elements introduced from the first fight, I was getting beat up fairly regularly for a while. As I say, though, I eventually grew to like it with more practice, and I found myself taking down a few of the tougher enemies that are hiding around the game’s different locations in some extended but rewarding duels.

Those fights are just one of the many distractions that are dotted around the game’s towns, which include all sorts of games to play, items to find, and arenas to fight in. Even just exploring the spaces was fascinating, especially wandering through the entertainment capital of Sotenbori. It hits you with an overwhelming cacophony and a barrage of lights that RGG fans will be eager to experience in this different time period.

I think that’s what I appreciated most about Stranger Than Heaven: it does exist within that same universe of the existing RGG games, but is its own adventure in a new and confident direction.

Yes, it’s building off the Yakuza and Like A Dragon elements that are clearly in its DNA — in terms of the mix of brawling and business management, as well as its approach to story and presentation. But it feels like its own evolution. Or, to speak in the game’s terms, it’s several familiar melodies and motifs that have been remixed into a surprising new composition.

Stranger Than Heaven launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC on January 25, 2027.

Anomalith might be one of the most interesting releases of 2026. A third-person survival shooter set in a twisted, retro vision of Japan, it’s a major departure from publisher FuRyu Corporation’s usual role-playing game (RPG) output.

It looks almost like the company’s take on Resident Evil, with 17-year-old protagonist Reona Minazuki venturing into deadly anomaly zones filled with grotesque creatures at the behest of a shadowy government organization.

Real-time gun combat, managing your small inventory, and keeping track of precious ammunition form a key part of every mission. Each run unfolds in an almost extraction-shooter-like format, and between missions you can use the resources you’ve scavenged to upgrade your gear.

There’s more to Minazuki than meets the eye, though, with the hero able to harness a mysterious set of mutant powers brought on by exposure to these supernatural environments. I spoke to producer Gai Kidokoro over email to learn a little more about how this project took shape and discover some of what’s in store for players.

Expanded arsenal

Anomalith is Kidokoro’s first original project, having joined FuRyu in the company’s anime division, which has helped produce hit titles like Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, before making the leap to its gaming business to direct some licensed titles. Working on games has “always been an area I was interested in,” he says, adding that his career has been “a little different from that of FuRyu’s other producers.”

It therefore seems only fitting that he is producing quite a unique project, with Anomalith standing apart as FuRyu’s first third-person shooter. Interestingly, Kidokoro says that the genre was chosen because both he and the director “love third-person shooters and guns” and set out to create something based on the things they enjoy.

“Rather than thinking, 'Let’s deliberately challenge ourselves with a completely different genre,' it was really more about wanting to make a game in a genre that we personally love,” he continues.

This fascination with firearms seems evident in the game’s weapon customization system, which lets players “swap out a fairly detailed range of parts,” including a variety of attachments such as “sights, grips, stocks, and more.” These help you personalize the appearance of each gun, but also provide statistical bonuses to help in the field.

The producer is also keen to highlight the player’s ability to scavenge “pieces of equipment called Artifacts that enhance your character’s stats” and change your overall build.

“These include loot-based, hack-and-slash-style elements,” he teases, “and if you manage to equip an Artifact with extremely high values, some skills have the potential to become incredibly powerful.”

The team is well aware that not everyone is going to be interested in tweaking their guns or experimenting with the nitty-gritty of their character’s stats, which is why the game offers a wealth of cosmetic options for players to outfit themselves with – some already available to try in the recent free Steam demo.

“We realized that there are quite a lot of people who don’t necessarily get the same enjoyment we do from firing their favorite, carefully customized gun,” Kidokoro begins. “We thought, 'Maybe adding character outfits and customization would make it more fun for those players,' and that’s why we ended up including such detailed character customization options. Judging from the response to the demo, I’m really glad we added the outfit customization.”

Uncanny valley

The world design is shaping up to be a treat, with plenty of intricate detail to pore over. In fact, Kidokoro highlights this as one part of the experience that he is most excited about. “The development team has put a tremendous amount of effort into designing the Otherworlds,” he explains. “There are many areas where something may initially look like nothing more than an ordinary ceiling, but if you stop and look up, you might find something that gives you a real sense of unease.”

He describes the fundamental concept behind it all as the “anxiety and fear lurking within familiar scenery” and reveals that it was inspired by popular ideas of “liminal spaces, including things like the Backrooms,” referring to the viral meme featuring endless wallpapered corridors that recently inspired a horror film adaptation.

“Within the development team, we often use phrases like ‘give it a liminal-space atmosphere’ when discussing the visual direction.”

This extends to the soundtrack. Aside from the game’s title theme, the music of Anomalith doesn’t feature any vocal tracks. Nevertheless, the producer argues fans “can definitely look forward to the soundtrack” and warns “many of the tracks are quite dark and unsettling.” He jokes: “I recommend listening to them during the daytime.”

Although Anomalith seems very different, long-time FuRyu fans will recognize some common elements shared with the publisher’s past games, such as the focus on a teenage protagonist. Kidokoro thinks the reasons behind this particular motif “would vary” depending on the title, but personally reckons “that it is easier for audiences to emotionally root for younger characters.”

“Watching boys and girls confront unreasonable circumstances and ultimately overcome them can also feel more hopeful and moving than a story centered on adults,” he continues. “Of course, we have been influenced by other games. However, we try to keep those influences as references rather than simply copying them. Our main criterion is always whether a particular element is necessary for players to enjoy the world and experience of Anomalith.”

We will be able to find out whether this formula pays off when Anomalith launches for Nintendo Switch 2, PC, and PlayStation 5 on October 29, 2026.

• Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says Rockstar Games went on trips to Miami for research for Grand Theft Auto 6
• Rockstar went on "police ride-alongs" and "wound up hovering over a Beyoncé concert" in a helicopter
• The developers also met people who revealed their past crimes when they learned the team worked on GTA

Rockstar Games did extensive research on Miami for Grand Theft Auto 6 and even encountered people who shared about past crimes when they learned the developers worked on GTA.

Speaking in a new YouTube video about his time at Rockstar North and his behind-the-scenes experience seeing GTA 6 before the general public, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier said he was told about the many trips Rockstar developers, including artists and leadership, made to Miami.

Since Miami and Los Angeles inspired GTA 6's Vice City, the team chose to do in-person research. They went on group trips and "went all over the place" for inspiration, even doing "police ride-alongs" and visiting "some scary places."

"At one point, some of the artists were in a helicopter taking photos of aerial views of the city, and they wound up hovering over a Beyoncé concert," Schreier said.

Speaking more about the ride-alongs, Rockstar also met tons of "really colorful characters" in Miami who shared their own life experiences with the developers.

Senior vice president of technology Jonathan Ashcroft revealed to Schreier that he spent his 40th birthday at a nightclub during one of these trips and said it was funny because he and some other developers were "these light-skinned Scottish people just like looking totally out of place wandering around this club" and "scrutinizing the lighting instead while everyone else around them is partying."

Returning to these "colorful characters" Rockstar met, Ashcroft said that they would divulge information about past crimes when they learned the team worked on GTA.

"As soon as they know where you're from, they just want to tell you every crime they or their friends have ever done," Ashcroft said.

In the same video, Schreier revealed that Rockstar Games reportedly spent years developing a new weapon interface for the game, but eventually stuck with the classic weapon wheel the series is known for.

• Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly suggests more Star Wars games could be made following the success of Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Star Wars: Zero Company
• Reilly says that while "huge triple-A games like Battlefront are always going to be an essential part of the strategy," the "goal" is to find "the best partner"
• This goes for both triple-A and smaller independent studios

It sounds like Lucasfilm Games wants to release more Star Wars games following the success of Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Star Wars: Zero Company, but it's not necessarily looking for triple-A studio pitches.

That's according to Lucasfilm Games vice president Douglas Reilly, who told The Game Business that games developed by independent studios "very much is part of the strategy."

"Obviously, huge triple-A games like Battlefront are always going to be an essential part of the strategy," Reilly added. "But one of the great things about Star Wars is it has all kinds of other opportunities to tell stories in different genres.

Reilly said, "The goal has been to find the best partner who makes that experience come alive inside the galaxy far, far away," and it doesn't necessarily "have to always be triple-A."

"Sometimes it can be double-A, and it’s really about the experience that we’re delivering and the fantasy we’re fulfilling," he said, adding that Lucasfilm Games has "tried to be more flexible about who we’re willing to take pitches from."

Saber Interactive is quietly working on its Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake, which it confirmed is still in development, while a new game from Arcnaut Studios and Mass Effect trilogy director Casey Hudson, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, is now in the works.

In addition, a new report has now claimed that Destiny developer Bungie and DICE are "aggressively" pursuing a Star Wars: Battlefront 3 project, but official confirmation has yet to come in.

"Good ideas can come from a lot of different places," Reilly continued. "You don’t have to necessarily be a top five publisher to make a great Star Wars game. There are some hurdles.

"We have a high-quality bar, and that means typically we work with more experienced teams than ones with no track record. But we’re exploring all kinds of things, large and small, with partners that are going to surprise folks."

I reviewed both Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Star Wars: Zero Company, and they're among the best games of the year. Galactic Racer is the Star Wars racing game I've always wanted and an exhilarating roguelike racer with endless customization, while Zero Company acts as an excellent companion story to the Clone Wars era with immensely fun turn-based tactics gameplay.

• Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says Rockstar Games spent years developing an alternative weapon system for Grand Theft Auto 6
• He says, "They wanted GTA 6's weapon system to be more like Red Dead," with a reimagined weapon wheel
• However, after years of iteration, Rockstar stuck to a classic design

Rockstar Games reportedly spent years developing a new weapon interface for Grand Theft Auto 6, but eventually stuck with the classic weapon wheel the series is known for.

As reported by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who shared a YouTube video about his visit to Rockstar North, co-studio head and head of development Rob Nelson said that the team wanted the game's weapon loadout system to be more like Red Dead Redemption 2 than GTA 5.

"They wanted GTA 6's weapon system to be more like Red Dead, where you couldn't just carry an unlimited number of guns," Schreier said, which was "a little more realistic."

In Red Dead Redemption 2, loadouts are tied to your horse, and players can only carry a certain number of weapons on their person at a time, whether a pistol or a shotgun, while the rest is stored on your saddle.

The team wanted to recreate a similar system for GTA 6 by having storage tied to the player's car and a limited loadout of weapons that players can carry at any given time, but wanted to reimagine the weapon wheel.

"So the idea that they were thinking was like, well, if we use a weapon wheel, is that just going to remind people of all these blank spots in it? It'll remind people of what they can't actually do, what they can't carry. And so maybe we shouldn't use a weapon wheel," Schreier explained.

"And so they spent months, if not years, trying a million different things that would replace the weapon wheel."

Schreier revealed that Rockstar tried "trays and webs and all sorts of different things in the UI" and other ways to replace the weapon wheel, but in the end, the team ended up back at the weapon wheel.

"They tried not having one," he said. "They tried all these different iterations on this. After all that, they just wound up back at a weapon wheel, and in the final game it's just a weapon wheel again."

Schreier believes this was part of the "dark periods" of development that "led to some problems for the game", as developers continuously reworked prototypes for the UI, only to end back at square one.

However, he added that "really ended when the game started coalescing, I would say around [the] end of 2022, beginning of 2023, something like that is where they really started to see it all come together."

"As I mentioned in the story, the first trailer that they released in December 2023 was really a guiding light for a lot of the people on the team to see, 'Oh, this is what the game is going to look like,'" Schreier said.

Rockstar recently released the cinematic GTA 6 launch trailer, ahead of GTA 6's launch on November 19. The game is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S, with a new report claiming the PC version could launch in early 2027.

• Rockstar Games has been working on Grand Theft Auto 6 for 11 years, as the artists needed to plan out the map first
• The game's roads are much narrower and denser than GTA 5's, which created "ripple effects," according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier
• Schreier says head of development Aaron Garbut told him, "All these things sort of come [back] to bite you later"

Rockstar Games has reportedly been working on Grand Theft Auto 6 much longer than realized, since the studio needed to plan out the game's ambitious map first.

That's according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who shared more details about his visit to Rockstar North in a YouTube video after releasing his behind-the-scenes GTA 6 article.

While it's common knowledge that full-scale development of GTA 6 began around 2018 and was originally planned to be made alongside Red Dead Redemption 2, pre-production on the game actually began much earlier.

"Something that I learned while talking to those folks [the developers at Rockstar North] is that there are a few artists at Rockstar who have actually been working on GTA 6 for more than 11 years since 2015, if not earlier," Schreier said. "2015 is when Rockstar started kind of planning out GTA 6 in the sense that it was conversations before like before that."

Schreier explained that the game's massive map, which is twice as big as GTA 5's world and more densely populated and interactive, was a priority for the studio and the first thing it planned.

"2015 is when they started going to Miami, actually starting working on the map of the game, which is always the first thing that Rockstar does on these big open-world games as they start planning out the map first," Schreier said.

He added that gradually over the next couple of years, top leadership then mobilized everyone to work on Red Dead Redemption 2, as the game needed a lot of help due to its ambitious systems. However, a few artists continued work on GTA 6's map.

Aaron Garbut, art director, current head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, also told him that "the roads are significantly narrower in GTA 6 than they were in GTA 5," which fans may have noticed in the trailers.

This created a more realistic depiction of a fictional Los Angeles, and less like a racing game with wider spaces to zip through like GTA 5. However, Rockstar's goal of making GTA 6's map have narrower roads and denser traffic from the beginning presented some technical challenges, or what Schreier called "ripple effects."

Garbut told Schreier, "All these things sort of come [back] to bite you later," because narrow, denser roads meant the team had to implement more surrounding buildings, and artists have worked on the concept for 11 years.

GTA 6 launches in under one month, on November 19, for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. Rockstar recently released the cinematic GTA 6 launch trailer, which offers a deeper look into the game's story. Elsewhere, a new report claims the PC version could launch in early 2027.

• 007 First Light will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18, 2027
• The edition was originally scheduled to launch this year but was delayed
• IO Interactive says it will continue "refining the game's optimisation and performance" in the lead-up to the game's release

IO Interactive has finally announced that 007 First Light will launch on Nintendo Switch 2 on March 18, 2027.

The release date is much later than initially promised — IOI originally said the Switch 2 edition would arrive this year after the game's PS5, Xbox, and PC launch in May — however, it's now said that the delay allowed the team extra time to address performance issues and that it will continue to improve optimisation in the following months.

"Since announcing additional development time to ensure the quality of experience players expect, IO Interactive has brought hands-on builds of 007 First Light to both Gamescom and Tokyo Game Show, where players and press had their first opportunity to experience Bond's world running on Nintendo's hardware," IOI said in a statement.

"Player response from both events has been positive, reflecting the progress being made across the game as development continues toward launch."

The studio added that "the development team will use the coming months to continue refining the game's optimisation and performance on Nintendo Switch 2, ensuring it meets the standard players expect at launch."

On top of a Switch 2 release date and a new gameplay trailer running on the hardware, the 007 First Light – Deluxe Edition is now available for pre-order for $69.99 / £69.99.

The Deluxe Edition offers the Gleaming Lighter, Gleaming Earphones, Gleaming Dart Gun, and Gleaming Pen gadgets, plus four additional outfits, including the Day of the Dead, the Desert Explorer, the Silent Anchor, and the Gentleman Operator.

In addition, the 007 First Light - Special Edition on Switch 2 is also available exclusively at Amazon, giving players access to the Classic Tuxedo.

Anyone who pre-orders the game on Switch 2 will also receive early access to the GoldenEye Suit at launch.

IOI released 007 First Light's first major free downloadable content (DLC) earlier this month, which included New Game Plus, Photo Mode, and a brand-new "00" difficulty level, among other activities.

• Rockstar Games co-head of development Aaron Garbut says Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks from 2022 were an "invasive" moment
• The leaks caused a huge shift at Rockstar that forced a five-day in-office work policy for security reasons
• Rockstar’s head of publishing, Jennifer Kolbe, says Rockstar plans to reexamine the policy after GTA 6 launches

Rockstar Games has addressed the initial Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks from 2022, calling it an "invasive" moment that resulted in a huge policy shift at the studio.

In a lengthy interview with Bloomberg, where Rockstar leadership discussed GTA 6's long development period, co-head of development Aaron Garbut touched on the huge leaks from 2022 that changed how the studio works today.

In September of that year, someone hacked the company's Slack channel and leaked dozens of raw, unfinished gameplay footage before Rockstar was ready to unveil anything. Rockstar released a statement about the leaks, and despite copyright takedowns, the footage quickly spread like wildfire, and though law enforcement later tracked the alleged hacker down, it was too late.

"It feels like somebody’s wading through your dirty washing," Garbut said. "It’s like they’re inside your head. You see your early work out there. Nobody’s ever supposed to see that. It’s really weirdly invasive. And so it’s quite hard to deal with on an emotional level."

As a result, Rockstar introduced a controversial policy in 2024 requiring every developer to work in-office five days a week for security reasons; developers were also banned from accessing Rockstar’s servers and tools outside the office, which forced them to take vacation days if they needed to stay home for childcare or emergencies.

The policy set back the cultural progress the studio made after Red Dead Redemption 2's release, a game made under extensive periods of "crunch." With GTA 6, Rockstar knew it couldn't repeat those mistakes; however, the new policy following the leaks meant no more hybrid working.

Rockstar’s head of publishing Jennifer Kolbe told Bloomberg, however, that the studio plans to reexamine the policy after GTA 6 launches, though she doubts it will be able to switch to the more common three-days-in, two-days-out hybrid work model.

"The idea that we would have the game in that many environments is something that I think the security team would not love," Kolbe said. “I think if we did not have a game that people wanted to steal as much, maybe it would be an easier conversation."

Unfortunately, more leaks have since occurred, notably ahead of Rockstar's GTA 6 extended look, and persist to this day, with a prevalent leaker known as 'Cyberleek' threatening to release more in the lead-up to the game's launch on November 19.

In case you missed it, Rockstar has released the cinematic GTA 6 launch trailer, which offers a deeper look into the game's story.

• Rockstar Games has released the launch trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6
• The trailer features Jason and Lucia and sets up the game's story
• We see new cinematic footage and gameplay systems in action

Rockstar Games has released the launch trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6, showcasing new story details and a deeper look at crime-duo protagonists, Jason and Lucia.

The trailer, which was captured "entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5," begins with some narration from Jason talking about his time in the army, before we see him receiving a call from Lucia in prison, suggesting the prologue will be from his perspective before we're introduced to his counterpart.

A montage of different scenes plays out, including missions with both characters, the pair getting hot and heavy in a shower, dancing in a club, fighting off bad guys and the police, as well as jumping off a building into a swimming pool.

Interestingly, we see Lucia wearing an ankle monitor, meaning she hasn't completely escaped the law just yet and some of what we're seeing is from the beginning of the story.

We also see Jason wearing tactical gear wading through water with two other men behind him, almost like he's leading an army mission; could this be a flashback to his army days?

The entire trailer looks incredibly cinematic, with footage showing a helicopter crashing into the side of a building, Lucia climbing the wheels of an airplane Mission Impossible-style, and Jason sneaking onto a huge ship; several other gameplay systems can also be seen in action, including bank robberies and seemingly quick-time events.

We also have a brand-new story synopsis provided in the description, which you can read below.

"Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them," it reads. "But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a criminal conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive."

The trailer also features a new track, 'Flower in a Hurricane,' from electronic duo Justice, the composers behind the original score of Grand Theft Auto 6, feat. Tame Impala, SZA, and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, who are also included on the Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album.

GTA 6 launches in just over a month on November 19 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. A new report claims the PC version could launch in early 2027.

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko says he likes to "go to extremes to add depth to everything" in his work
• He says each Resonant has "their own features in the concept track" that can be picked apart
• Alanko says, "Nothing is obvious and nothing is rubbed into your face, and in the end it’s all only music made with love and enthusiasm"

Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has revealed that his music features easter eggs that may take fans years to uncover, as he likes to "go to extremes to add depth to everything."

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming about his favorite aspects of the Control series and its music, Alanko said there are "layers" to each soundtrack, and some of them are only revealed "when you dive deep into my project file timelines and start digging out the details of sounds."

"One trick I’ve used about a million times with various tools is to add some string section’s 'resin' sound to something else, turning it into a resemblance of a stringed instrument," Alanko said. "Some of the tricks will probably never surface and are more or less subliminal, some of them slightly more at the forefront, but as I mentioned, I love to hide all kinds of nods and winks everywhere, pay homage to the greats."

He continued, sharing that if any hardware synth is involved in his work (which he explained is a big part of his musical arsenal), it was " reamped through a speaker setup and a pair of microphones," which was a trick he learned from the articles concerning the late Konradi "Conny" Plank, the sound engineer and producer of Kraftwerk and Ultravox.

"I learned my chops back in the day meticulously inspecting and evaluating Die Mensch-Maschine, Computerwelt, Vienna and Rage In Eden," Alanko said, adding that he "learned a good deal of studio tricks during my early adulthood" when he worked as a synth programmer and a producer for various productions, and all of that experience has "proven to be rather handy during the creation of the Control Resonant soundtrack."

Alanko went on to share some neat details about the creation of the game's enemies, the Resonant, and said each has "their own features in the concept track," with Hedron, for instance, having "clangorous, metallic, sequenced, patterned, constantly moving" sounds.

"Hiss wants to corrupt everything and especially with that entity, the pitches start going all over the place," he said. "And Mold is a triumphant spectacle of all kinds of dispersers, turning everything into some sonic goo."

Alanko said his passion allowed him to add as much detail as he wanted, which also meant leaving in small hints that listeners likely won't find until years later.

"I have, and I will go to extremes to add depth to everything," Alanko said, "and the most beautiful thing is when people realise something after, say, seven-eight years, and I get an email from someone who just realised the rhythm of a certain sound was actually Morse code for 'BEWARE'.

"Nothing is obvious and nothing is rubbed into your face, and in the end it’s all only music made with love and enthusiasm."

Alanko has discussed the early stages of Control Resonant's development, revealing that he was brought on to the project "very early" and was still working on Alan Wake 2. He explained that this proved to be a better outcome and suggested that other studios should value music more if they care about their games and avoid AI.

Funselecktor Labs Inc. is known for its minimalist yet vibrant takes on various forms of motorsport, starting with Absolute Drift in 2015, followed by Art of Rally in 2020 and Golden Lap in 2024. Now, the independent studio is tackling offroading, but rather than competing against the clock or other drivers, over the hill is about exploring an open world on your lonesome (or with a friend or three) at your own pace.

Taking inspiration from the recent wave of cozy games, over the hill doesn’t have concrete aims or objectives as such. Rather, you simply pootle around the various maps to discover various points of interest and earn Pebbles, the game’s currency, to upgrade your vehicle to better navigate the environment.

Off the beaten path

over the hill sticks to the same cardboard-cutout aesthetic of the developer’s past efforts. Textures are flat and basic, but they’re elevated by the pastel colors and lush lighting effects, with environments drenched in pinks, oranges, and greens that invite players to explore them.

There are two main regions to choose from at the start of a game: Canada and Algeria. Each has its own sub-areas (three for Canada and two for Algeria), featuring all kinds of terrain and climates; you’ll see rain, snow, and sandstorms, which naturally affect your driving and navigation abilities, adding an extra element of challenge.

The music complements the visuals perfectly. The in-game radio gives you four ‘albums’ to choose from, each representing a certain flavor of ambient, from synth-heavy pieces to folksy guitar numbers, all with gentle melodies to lull you as you play. I was impressed with the score’s production value, given that it merely serves to subtly set the mood as you play.

This is a game low on story and characters, but high in vibes — specifically of the zen variety. Aside from the Buddha statue that acts as your tutorial guide, the only other character is Crazy Günther, the hippie mechanic you visit to customize your vehicle. His textual dialogue (there’s no VO) adds a small amount of flavor to an otherwise purely functional NPC, and it chimes well with the gentle tone of the game.

Once you learn the basics in the brief tutorial, you’re left to explore the world. Campsites are the chief points to discover, as they act as the game's main fast travel hubs. You can also use them to fast-forward time, useful if you want to wait for a different time of day or skip certain weather events.

Other points of interest in the maps include crates that unlock cosmetic features for your vehicle, as well as scenic points from which to take photographs. You can also find Trial Challenges to complete, which take you along treacherous routes of varying lengths to test your off-roading skills, and find wildlife to snap. These discoveries and activities earn you Pebbles.

Pedal to the metal?

If you’re looking for a fast and furious off-roading experience, over the hill isn’t it. Instead, it takes a considered, sedate approach to the sport, one that rarely rewards harebrained driving and impatience. Speeds are slow at the best of times, with second gear being the highest. True to real life, vehicles have both low and high range gears, with the former being used to give you better control and traction on slippery surfaces and steep slopes. Such surfaces are indicated organically via the game’s visual style, without making it too obvious by overtly highlighting them.

Anyone who’s played MudRunner or SnowRunner will be in familiar territory with over the hill. As long as you’re in the right gear range, you don’t have to worry too much about being sensitive with the throttle; you’ll either make it up a slope or you won’t, regardless of how you modulate the throttle. Steering is fairly laborious as well, with the wheels being slow to turn and recenter on most vehicles, which only adds to the challenge of navigating around obstacles. I’ve never been offroading in real life, but this is how I’d imagine 4x4s to handle.

When the going gets too tough, you can use various bits of equipment to get you out of tight spots. First and foremost of these is the winch. A single button press will fire it at the tree you’re looking at (as long as it’s in range), and holding that same button will reel you towards it. You can also slacken the winch with another button, useful when you want to descend rather than ascend. If you want more control, you can use the winch in manual mode, which lets you choose which side of your vehicle to winch from and which tree to anchor to within a certain radius.

The winch can be used as many times as you like and is always in your inventory. Other tools, though, have to be selected before you enter a map; if you want to alter your loadout while playing, you’ll need to visit the mechanic. They’re also single-use items, although you select multiple instances of them, and they replenish whenever you visit a campsite. Among them are a portable anchor, which you can winch onto when there are no trees around, and two wooden planks to lay across small gaps or on the ground to give you more traction. These are a little fiddlier to use, as it can be a chore to line them up with your wheels, and misaligning them even slightly can easily result in your vehicle slipping off them. Still, they’re very useful and rewarding when you find yourself stuck. Other tools include a portable camp, a repair kit, and a car jack for righting your vehicle if you roll it over, which is easily done.

There’s a respectable number of customization and upgrade options for your vehicles. There are a variety of vehicle bodies to choose from, ranging from classic 4x4s and wagons to more utilitarian and industrial models — and yes, there’s even a campervan. The differences between them are more than cosmetic, as they each have their own speed and handling characteristics, despite the game not actually listing these stats. The selection is resolutely vintage, with no model looking beyond the 90s at best. Most are inspired by iconic real-life vehicles, too, as suggested by their menu descriptions.

You can personalize your vehicle with a large number of trinkets, unlocked via the crates you find throughout the world. Sadly, however, the paint options are more limited. As for upgrades, you can improve attributes such as speed, grip, protection, and tool capacity — all of which you’ll need to do if you want to explore every area completely. Again, though, the upgrades are limited in their stages, and you’ll find yourself maxing out your vehicle’s potential quite quickly.

Riding shotgun

While over the hill offers a good time solo, it’s more fun with friends. Having companions by your side (you can have up to four players in a server) not only takes some of the burden out of exploration, but also introduces the possibility of mischief. This is because you can winch to each other’s vehicles, which is obviously a big help when one of you is stuck in the weeds, but also allows you to pull each other off cliffs and into rivers. However, in order not to put the winch-ee at too much of a disadvantage, they can de-winch themselves at any point.

You can also explore independently if you so wish, and fast travel for one doesn’t mean fast travel for all, which gives everyone greater flexibility to explore. The whole experience ran smoothly during my testing; I didn’t encounter any problems with connectivity or lag, save for one occasion when my friend’s framerate dropped considerably, but Funselektor said this is a known issue with the preview build I played, so it’s entirely possible it’ll be rectified before launch. For most of my time in both single- and multiplayer, the game ran very smoothly, even at Ultra settings. The only real bug I experienced concerned some input clashes when I remapped certain buttons, but this was easy to work around.

Perhaps my main gripe with over the hill is that there’s just not that much to do. And while the central act of driving over rough terrain is fun thanks to the skill and problem-solving nous it requires, the mechanics lack real depth to sustain the game for long periods in the face of little additional activity. There’s not quite enough feel and feedback from slipping and sliding on loose ground to make it as engaging as it could be, and the lack of any sort of drifting mechanic — guaranteed to amplify the fun of any driving game by a factor of ten — is a real shame, especially since Funselektor has great form in this area, if its previous games are anything to go by.

I can only hope that future updates will add more to the driving and DLC will arrive to give players more to do. But for now, over the hill remains a fun time to while away an hour or so, but not much more than that.

Should you play over the hill?

Play over the hill if…

Don't play it if…

Accessibility features

There are no accessibility features to speak of in over the hill. Subtitles for dialogue are on by default, since there’s no VO, and the closest the game comes to offering any comfort features is letting you disable motion blur.

How I reviewed over the hill

I played over the hill for about 10 hours, seeing most of the main areas and features the game had to offer. I was also given a save file by Funselektor with all areas, upgrades, and customizations unlocked.

I mainly played solo, but I also tested online multiplayer by playing with a friend. I played on a gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, an RTX 5070 GPU, and 32GB of RAM. I played mostly with a controller, but I also tested its mouse and keyboard controls.

I’m a fan of racing and driving games, and I’ve played similar off-roading games, such as SnowRunner. I also played a lot of Art of Rally, one of Funselektor’s other titles.

First reviewed October 2026

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko shares what game he would like to work on next
• He says he would "love to do a proper sci-fi score one day" and enjoys "emotional psycho-thrillers a lot"
• Alanko says he would pass on any "cute cartoon-like games" like My Little Pony

Petri Alanko, the composer for Remedy Entertainment's Control, Control Resonant, and Alan Wake 2, has revealed which genre of game he would love to work on next, but insisted that "cute games" are a hard pass.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Alanko said that with "synth" being part of his musical arsenal, he would "love to do a proper sci-fi score one day," and shared his enthusiasm for thrillers.

"Just gimme a project and free hands, thank you," Alanko said. "I enjoy emotional psycho-thrillers a lot; they offer so much writing ground, but combining that with some other, say, sci-fi flavours, now that would be something I’d love."

As for what he's working on right now, the composer said he's moved on to another game soundtrack, which he couldn't reveal, and also the movie Häyhä, which is about a WW2 Finnish sharpshooter, Simo Häyhä (aka The White Death).

He explained that "scoring movies is relatively easy, really," as "you have the linear media unchanged in front of you," and compared to the average game, " you need only a handful of music for it."

"I certainly don’t want to look down on any film composer," Alanko added. "I know several of them, and they are very dear to me, but in some ways, I feel like that posse has it pretty easy in their line of work."

Alanko went on to share which genre of game he would absolutely avoid if offered the chance to compose music for, including cozy games, because they don't align with his personal tastes.

"One thing is sure: I’m not much good for a My Little Pony game," he said. "Or cute cartoon-like games. Or rally games. Nothing against them, but I don’t have that in me. I’m from a Northern faraway country, and I live with a forest behind my house, and Nordic Noir is more or less a code of conduct in my whereabouts (laughs), so that pretty much stamps my life with [a] 'psycho-thrillers ahoy' badge."

Elsewhere, Alanko suggested studios should value music more if they care about their games and avoid AI at all costs, saying, "Love your game, love your handiwork. Respect the client: the gamers, the fans, dammit."

• The PC version of Grand Theft Auto 6 will reportedly launch in early 2027, a few months after the console versions
• Some fans believe a 2028 release was possible, but Rockstar Games has moved the PC release up
• Fans speculate that Rockstar wants to get ahead of a potential PS5 emulator

A new report has claimed the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 6 will launch in early 2027, and fans believe Rockstar Games wants to get ahead of a potential emulator.

The news comes from GamesBeat, which reports that Rockstar plans to release the PC version of GTA 6 "in the first quarter of 2027," and that's according to "four industry sources familiar with the studio’s plans, all of whom requested anonymity to avoid damaging business relationships."

It's worth taking this report with a grain of salt, as Rockstar has yet to announce any PC edition; However, this is GTA 6 we're talking about, and fans are already theorizing over potential reasons a PC release could arrive mere months after the PS5 and Xbox versions, despite the PC version of GTA 5 arriving roughly two years after the console editions.

Many have speculated that Rockstar moved the PC release date up to anticipate a possible PS5 emulator, which would allow PC owners access to a "PC build" of GTA 6 without having to wait and pay for the official version. This would also allow users to avoid the "double dipping" scheme that many believe Rockstar is going for.

One redditor suggested Rockstar is "Not waiting a year with the PS5 emulator breathing down their necks." Some other fan wrote something similar, saying, "GTA 6 will probably be emulator ready a month after launch. It’s almost guaranteed at this point."

Some have also pointed out the more recent leaks from 'Cyberleek' (via GamesRadar) and suggest the studio wants to get ahead of the hacker.

"I actually believe this because of the leaks and emulator thing, they probably want the game out asap," a fan said on Reddit, as another wrote, "Im leaning heavily towards an original 2028 PC launch, but some exec has seen the speed that recomps are coming out and realised if they dont release it quick, everyone will be playing it for free."

Other fans think Rockstar hasn't announced the PC release date yet in order to maximise console edition sales; we've recently seen retailers hit with huge price hikes on the PS5 and PS5 Pro in anticipation of the game's launch.

"Not the first rumour we've heard like this," one fan said. "I find it believable - I strongly suspect the PC version is already pretty much done and the 'delay' is artificial from Rockstar to maximise the console release."

We'll have to wait for an official announcement from Rockstar, but in the meantime, PS5 and Xbox users don't have much longer to wait because GTA 6 launches next month on November 19.

In other news, new details have emerged ahead of the GTA 6's launch, which details even more gameplay features and immersive systems.

• The God of War Laufey - Collector's Box has been revealed for £130 / $149.99
• The box doesn't include a copy of the game, just like Grand Theft Auto 6's collector's edition
• Fans are frustrated with the exclusion of the game from the collection, with some calling it "greedy"

Santa Monica Studio has revealed its God of War Laufey Collector's Box, and just like Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 collector's edition, the pricey package doesn't include the game.

The studio shared the "Collector's Box" in a social media post, confirming that the £130 / $149.99 package includes a light-up Faye statue, 51-card Oracle Deck, and a mini art book, noting that the God of War Laufey game is "sold separately."

That's the part of the announcement that has fans talking, with many sharing their frustration over yet another collector's edition that doesn't offer a physical or digital copy of the game.

"I remember when collector's editions used to come with games. Not liking this new trend," one user responded, as another wrote, "'Game sold separately?' ...man, [the] gaming industry is getting greedier and greedier."

The lack of physical games has been a point of contention ever since Sony announced its plans to stop producing game discs by January 2028. The PlayStation company isn't alone; Rockstar Games is also skipping physical discs for GTA 6, the biggest game launch of all time, and players will instead receive a code in the box, a decision that initially caused an uproar.

On top of that, the studio recently announced The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection, a £349 / $399 premium collector's box featuring exclusive merchandise and no game.

"I see Rockstar is an inspiration for everyone," one redditor said about the Laufey - Collector's Box.

Another said, "We need to stop calling these collectors edition when they dont include the game and start calling them over priced cash grabs."

For now, it doesn't look like every company is cutting out games from their expensive collector's editions; Blizzard, for example, is selling its World of Warcraft: Forever's Collector's Edition with a digital download code included, and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis's version will also offer a physical copy and steelbook alongside other goodies.

Still, fans are particularly worried about the future of collector's editions, which used to typically offer more than just a pretty statue and artbook.

"They [Santa Monica Studio] soft launched this back in Ragnarok, when the collector's edition only had a download code, same for Horizon Forbidden West. Eventually the statue is going to be digital as well," remarked a fan.

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko tells TechRadar Gaming how he approached the game's musical aesthetic
• He says "human vocals" and the "significant" relationship between Dylan and Hedron helped inform his writing
• Alanko says Dylan being an "involuntary hero" provided "a lot of writing material"

Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has shared how the game's new setting and the relationship between protagonist Dylan and antagonist Hedron informed the soundtrack.

"Usually, it’s the scenery that hits best, and how the main character is related to the scenery, be that a connection or a disconnection," Alanko told TechRadar Gaming in an interview when asked about his design process. "It’s interesting, as there also are no rules whatsoever; again it’s a classic case of 'Hey, I think THAT would make you think this…'

"It’s basically psychological to an extent, really. Trying to play with your brain first, and later on with the player’s brain."

Alanko said "human vocals" was a term he and Remedy identified as part of the Resonant's core music aesthetic, "offering a whole dimension, practically." In addition, the "significant" relationship between Dylan and Hedron, a powerful Resonant entity, was another angle that "drove this first phase onwards."

"The path of the main character [Dylan] and the main antagonist’s [Hedron] relationship with him, it’s indeed a very conflicted pairing," he said. "Dysfunctional, one would say, but that provided a very human layer to the original setting.

"Dylan, being one might call 'an involuntary hero', or 'anti-hero' even, provided a lot of writing material; his path from a blank, soulless and partially mindless being into something willing to sacrifice himself just to find his sister is worth a dozen stories alone, not to mention the fact that their relationship hasn’t been exactly peaceful."

The composer went on to say that terms like "rough," "larger than life," "gut-wrenching," "human, yet inhuman," and "organic" were all on his Post-It notes at the beginning of development, concerning how he approached Dylan.

On the other hand, for Hedron, he had "strangely familiar yet frightening," "clangorous," "structured and sequenced," "mathematical and procedural" as his terms.

"And when I mention 'procedural', I mean the appearance," Alanko added. "It’s almost as if Hedron communicated with circular shapes, hence the term."

Alanko also shared his approach to the whole Remedy-verse score and musical landscape with TechRadar Gaming, saying, "There’s always the absolute evil lurking in there," at the games' core.

There’s little else quite so satisfying in gaming as a really chunky parry sound effect. When you read your opponent precisely and time a deflection to perfection, hearing that impactful audio cue as a reward is about as good as it gets — especially if you can follow it up with a devastating finishing move. Valor Mortis nails this.

I never tired of hearing the reverberated twang of blades clashing in my time with the first-person ‘Souls-like’ from One More Level. And given how much time is spent duelling with the reanimated corpses of Napoleonic soldiers, body horror monstrosities, and a few unique creatures I won’t spoil, it’s really something the developers had to nail.

So, I’m pleased to say that they have, and it’s one reason why I stuck with Valor Mortis through several of its other less successful aspects.

The opening, however, is strong. You awaken on a battlefield, surrounded by corpses, the rousing voice of Vincent Cassel as Napoleon in your ear encouraging you to move forward. But this conflict has turned into something far worse than just blades and cannon fire. A plague of sorts has torn through the land, transforming humans into monsters and unlocking mystical powers for you to use in your quest to understand exactly what’s happened while you’ve slumbered.

It’s all a setup that fits the Dark Souls-inspired core of the game, with its dangerous, foreboding, war-torn world to explore. This time, lanterns serve as the safe spaces to save your progress, level up using the blood from dead enemies, tweak your build with several skill-tweaking gems, and restart from when you inevitably die.

Your power to fight back against the horrors builds slowly and doesn’t ever get massively expansive. First, a sabre. Then, a pistol. After that, well, it’s the ability to shoot fire from your hands and put enemies in stasis. You can switch between these and a handful more melee, ranged, and magical powers at will — and will often need to do so to tackle different enemy types most effectively.

Bonjour

For example, basic soldiers can be taken out with a few sword slashes. A more imposing axe-wielding officer is better handled by keeping your distance as you burn it with fire to set off the explosive keg on its back. There’s a malformed grenadier who protects its sack of explosives with an engorged hand, but when it moves to lob a grenade at you, a well-timed shot can cause a massive explosion.

As you proceed forward, each encounter requires you to assess whichever threats you’re facing and break down the best way to take them out or exploit a weakness with the tools at your disposal. Of course, you can always go wailing in with a sword, but it’s rarely the smartest move. You have limited stamina, and the aggressive enemies can obliterate you in just a few hits.

As is the trial-and-error nature of these types of games, it takes a few encounters with some new foes to get the better of them, but I wish Valor Mortis wasn’t so obsessed with the trickery of it all. Long delayed attacks that are preceded by multiple feints and five seconds of interpretive dance before a sudden blow pulverises you is kind of funny the first couple of times, but by the dozenth time I was getting irate.

The same goes for some aspects of the level design, which is regularly full of traps and “gotcha” moments. Enemies pop up out of bushes, others surprise you from behind doors, items are placed for you to be ambushed, or trigger rocks falling on you, or make you step on sections of floor that fall out from under you. I get that these moments are meant to keep you on your toes, but when they happen repeatedly in quick succession, they start to feel cheap rather than challenging.

What I do like is that at least Valor Mortis mixes up linear gauntlets with open areas that give you more freedom in how you approach. There are opportunities to sneak up or around to get better vantage points and backstab enemies for an instant kill or significant damage. Thinning out larger groups is definitely something you’ll need to do, as even facing just two enemies at once puts you at a massive disadvantage in the game’s first-person view.

Variety is added further with some fantastic sections that combine the frenetic platforming of the team’s previous Ghostrunner series with the tight combat mechanics to create some entertaining and inventive set pieces. A section across broken-up ships that are suspended in time above the sea is a highlight, as you hop and swing between the splintered decks, take out snipers with your musket, and slash through any remaining soldiers prowling around.

Finding its footing

On the other hand, a diversion into a mine is perhaps one of the game’s most dreary and aggravating sections. Here, lots of tight, dark, and windy corridors are not the easiest to see or fight in. Then, while you’re also trying to dodge and parry different enemies, the game decides to throw freewheeling minecarts that can almost kill you in one hit down these same small alcoves at the same time. A fun idea, in theory, but there’s a point where a situation becomes too chaotic for you to assess it and react to it quickly enough, and so my approach changed to brute force and luck rather than skill.

But then I was quickly brought back again by another thrilling on-rails segment that makes full use of all abilities and weapons you’ve gathered until now, before culminating in a surprising out-of-this-world boss fight that puts the rewarding parrying mechanics front and centre.

When that works, it really works. And the flourishes One More Level adds with ranged weapons and magical abilities are welcome tactical options — even if you will have to rely on swordplay more than anything else. The fact I kept getting beat up but wanted to keep coming back to nail a parry combo shows where the strengths of Valor Mortis lie. It’ll likely scare many away, but if challenging Souls-likes are what you enjoy, here’s another with an intriguing premise and a neat twist to add to your list.

Should you play Valor Mortis?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

Valor Mortis offers very few accessibility features. In terms of dialogue, there is only an option to adjust the subtitle size between small, medium, and large. Mouse and keyboard, and controller options are available, with full key rebinding possible on the former and several control schemes available to choose from on the latter. You can also adjust the field of view, turn off or tone down camera shaking, as well as turn blood splatter and dismemberment on or off if you prefer a less gory experience.

How I reviewed Valor Mortis

I played over 10 hours of Valor Mortis on PC using an Xbox Wireless Controller and playing audio through my Bose QuietComfort Headphones. I’m using a fairly mid-range rig with a Ryzen 5 9600X, an AMD Radeon RX 9060XT, 48GB of RAM, and a Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD. My monitor is the MSI MAG 27CQ6F.

With some tweaks to the settings, I was able to play the game on High at 1440p with frame generation on and maintain a comfortable 100+ fps at almost all times. It may not be a hugely demanding game, but it looks good and runs smoothly, which is ideal for reaction-based combat.

First reviewed October 2026.

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko says every Remedy game has "absolute evil lurking in there"
• Alanko says he and Remedy rely on players' intelligence to understand the "psychological aspect to it all"
• He adds that "Remedy is not a dictating entity; we don’t do walking simulators, and we don’t hold hands"

According to Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko, every Remedy Entertainment title has a sinister aspect at its core, and he relies on the player's intelligence to understand it through his music.

When asked if there is a particular approach to the whole Remedy-verse score and musical landscape in an interview with TechRadar Gaming, Alanko explained that "There’s always the absolute evil lurking in there," with an added psychological aspect.

He said, "It affects instruments, instrumentation," as well as "the overtone series" (a sequence of musical pitches or frequencies that naturally sound above a main base note when it is played), as something so evil it "has a gravity" and "that affects the sounds, too, by bending and separating the overtones from each other."

"Its nature is very prominent, and there is a psychological aspect to it all: when you hear something familiar to be slightly off, it triggers your lizard brain into action, and with some preparation, we’re able to have a very suitable fight-or-flight reaction to introduce some action as a spice," Alanko said. "It is a very, very interesting process to affect people, to sort of kick them into action without actually telling them what to do."

As for how he and Remedy portray that "evil" across the games, he explained that they rely on players' understanding of subtext and context clues to find the meaning of what they're experiencing.

"Remedy is not a dictating entity; we don’t do walking simulators, and we don’t hold hands; we believe in intelligence and the ability to think and deduce something from the facts given," he said. "Same applies to music: a set of hints and a basic feeling may be introduced, but it ends there.

"A good mentalist always lets the audience do the magic. And everyone has seen those really awful marketplace magicians; nobody wants that for a birthday. Remedy is not that. We believe in a thinking, investigating, curious human being."

This applies across all of Remedy's games, whether it's Control, Alan Wake, or Quantum Break; however, Alanko and the studio know they can't regurgitate the same thing over and over again, but players will find a commonality between each series.

"Every new IP adds to the recipe, more or less, and though we don’t exactly want to repeat ourselves, there must be something in common and something familiar to the scores and the soundtracks, and that’s something you can’t really create overnight," Alanko said.

"The same applies with everything: it gets better with time. For instance, we introduced orchestra to Remedy’s sonic identity with Alan Wake, and it was there as is, but also as a slightly mangled version of itself, too. Then there was a very softly played grand piano, with enough compression to turn Manhattan into a peanut, with a reverb that ate half of Helsinki, basically. Quantum Break allowed for much more industrial and electronic flavours to enter the soup, and Control brought musique concrète in."

He added that those three qualities created "What I love to call 'A Remedy Sonic Bermuda Triangle', some top-notch processing," noting that a "huge amount of raw material is originated from acoustic sources, as "There’s very little 'just synths' stuff, although I do love my arsenal."

In the same interview, Alanko has suggested studios should value music more if they care about their games and avoid AI at all costs.

What could possibly be left to say about Grand Theft Auto 5?

In the 13 years since the release of Rockstar Games’ open-world magnum opus, we’ve had a nonstop running commentary from YouTubers, podcasters, and game journalists about its world, writing, and many secrets. Entire careers have flourished based on the art of talking about GTA 5.

Rockstar’s 2013 open-world opus has had such an effect on culture since its initial release that it’s hard to imagine a world without it. It’s seen releases and remasters across three console generations. It’s won the highest awards in some countries and been outright banned in others. And an entire generation of gamers has grown into adulthood knowing the streets of Los Santos better than their hometown.

Alas, GTA 6 is on the horizon – following years of trailers, teasers, and unfortunate leaks, the sixth Grand Theft Auto game arrives on November 19, 2026. The fact that the game won’t launch with a physical disc version won’t stop it from dominating conversation and the sales charts on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC for years to come.

I’ve spent a good few years playing GTA 5 (in order to keep PEGI off our backs, that’s as specific as I’ll be getting) and have put in thousands of hours across various versions of GTA 5 and GTA Online.

As a final salute to Los Santos, I loaded up GTA 5 on my PlayStation 5 and PS4 to see how one of the best games of all time has evolved during its ten-year tenure at the forefront of gaming culture.

Re-remastered

Full disclosure: I’d never actually played the PS5-native version of GTA 5 before starting work on this piece, and loading up the game for the first time, I wasn’t sure if Los Santos could still surprise me after so many years spent drifting through its virtual streets.

Luckily, I was proven wrong — not in the prologue, which is showing its age at this point, but in my first drive around the open world. After speeding through the first few missions as Franklin, I stole an Aston Martin-esque sports car and blasted north on the Great Ocean Highway, stopping along the way to take in the enhanced visuals and classic San Andreas vistas, and ultimately spending around an hour just drifting through the streets and countryside trails.

GTA 5’s PS5 edition comes with a few new graphics modes, and the one that stands out is Performance RT. This combines the ray-tracing of the Fidelity mode and the 60 frames per second (fps) framerate of the Performance mode, and leaves the game looking simply gorgeous.

There’s only so far you can polish 13-year-old character models, and some textures are beginning to look a little JPEG-ish, but the environmental design, excellent weather effects, and increased framerate made GTA 5 feel more alive than ever. The game has always had best-in-class driving controls for a casual title, and passable combat and on-foot input, but doubling the framerate to a stable 60fps makes everything feel more immediate and responsive.

Speaking of driving, the PS5’s DualSense controller gets a few neat tactile responses with this version of the game — you’ll get a bump on the right trigger as your car changes gear, feel the weight of each trigger pull in a shootout, sense the rumble of passing traffic. It’s a small change, but one that pulls you even further into the game’s criminal underworld.

Not that immersion was ever an issue. I played GTA 5 on PS5 up until the end of the first heist, and I felt that, in some ways (more on that later), the writing had aged tremendously — though I’m not sure how much of that is down to my own progressing adulthood.

As I step into the latter half of my twenties, Franklin’s frustration with the everyday struggle at the start of the game comes through as incisive and relatable. Michael’s unstable ennui is, likewise, easier to imagine with the weight of the world resting a little heavier on my shoulders. I don’t quite relate to Trevor yet (maybe that’s one for my thirties). It’s quite something for a game to imprint on you as a blockbuster action experience in your teens, only to reveal some much more grounded undertones years later.

That’s not to say that GTA 5 is any less of a spectacle than it was at launch. This is where Rockstar really started presenting its games as directed, cinematic experiences, a formula it perfected with the follow-up Red Dead Redemption 2.

Even the first few missions — sneaking into Michael’s mansion as Franklin, the boat chase just a few missions later, and of course the jewel store heist — are loaded with moments ripped straight out of Hollywood. And a near-endless render distance makes launching off of Mount Chiliad on a dirt bike seem terrifyingly real.

It’s really quite amazing that GTA 5 originally launched on PlayStation 3. My original disc has been lost to time, but looking at videos, the original holds up pretty well — despite its 720p resolution and graphical patina, it’s still entirely enjoyable today. And beyond graphics, its gameplay and world wouldn’t feel totally out of place in a 2026 release.

The PS4 version holds up even better — I remember being stunned by Rockstar’s 2014 trailer for the remastered version of the game, which focused on new wildlife, non-player character (NPC) density, and graphical improvements. It’s the version of the game I’ve spent the most time in, thanks in large part to these updates, and it still feels utterly alive today.

Cultural impact

Indeed, the massive reaction to GTA 6 proves that the Grand Theft Auto series is very much alive in the public consciousness, even if the long wait for its next entry rendered it dormant for a while.

It’s worth remembering how totally dominant GTA 5’s hold over online culture has been, especially for the first five years of its life cycle. We’ve seen countless YouTube video essays debating Mount Chiliad conspiracy theories and in-game UFO sightings, let’s play channels dedicated to covering GTA Online’s endless updates, and scammy shitposters claiming to have early copies of GTA 6.

Many of us will remember the mad dash to our gaming setups the day a new heist was added to GTA Online, or endless hours spent playing minigames and missions to grind for a new sports car or apartment.

Then there are the memes. ‘Watch your jet’. ‘Davey!’. Franklin showing up to defend his home. The green vs purple alien war. The Welcome to Los Santos texts. ‘We got X before GTA 6’. As one of the most-played games in the world for its entire lifespan, GTA 5 has propped up the online nonsense industry for years, priming the algorithm for an inevitable landslide of GTA 6 content in about a month’s time.

And as one of TechRadar’s contributing music nerds, I just have to talk about the radio stations. GTA 5 introduced me and thousands of others to some of the best music of the 2010s. I will never, ever forget the first time I raced Lamar through the streets of LS in a boosted sports car to the sound of ‘Appetite for Destruction’ by N.W.A., courtesy of West Coast Classics, or driving up to Paleto Bay to Frank Ocean’s Blonded Radio station, or idling in Vinewood while listening out for Cara Delevigne’s insane quips as the host of Non-Stop Pop.

In large part, GTA 5 is responsible for my love of rap music, dance music, country music, and radio DJing, which I continue to utilise as a writer and musician today.

Where do we go from here?

GTA 5 stands as a true titan of modern gaming and holds a deep-rooted place in my heart and hard drive alike. With that said, it’s not perfect, and jumping back into Los Santos left me with a couple of things that I hope GTA 6 can improve on.

First of all, GTA 5 is, in part, a story about contemporary masculinity struggling and failing to cope with late-stage capitalism – but in telling this story, it treats its female characters horribly. The only female characters with any substance are Michael’s wife Amanda and daughter Tracey, and Franklin’s aunt Denise, all of whom are portrayed as whiny annoyances that serve as plot devices for the male characters to revolve around and objectify.

In fairness, the game is a satire of American culture, which has no shortage of problems with sexism and objectification, and there’s an abundance of annoying male characters as well – neurotic heist-master Lester Crest and TV host Lazlo come to mind. But the game’s male characters get the chance to develop through or into their flaws, even if, as in Lazlo’s case, it’s only to become more of a punching bag.

Rockstar has said it’s leading with a more grounded tone for GTA 6, and the game introduces the series’ first female protagonist, Lucia, which suggests we’ll be getting at least one fully realised female character.

Gamers’ expectations and the window for jokes about gender have both changed quite significantly since 2013, and GTA Online grew to feature several key female NPCs throughout the 2010s, so I’d be surprised if GTA 6’s other female characters don’t have a little more substance.

We already know GTA 6 will introduce a hugely expanded map and RDR2-style role-playing mechanics, so my other request concerns how we get around that new immersive world. For lack of a better term, GTA 5 has a bit of jank about it – the ‘tap to sprint’ mechanic has never been anything but annoying, and its strange approach to climbing ledges and ragdoll physics is good for a laugh but not great in the heat of a firefight or police chase. Rockstar, with its infinite budgets and massive staff, is certainly powerful enough to smooth over the few bumps left in the GTA experience.

With these complaints well considered, GTA 5 still stands tall over the gaming industry, not only as a titanic financial success, but as an enduring blueprint for open-world excellence. It remains a totally gripping gameplay experience and, despite some dated writing, a genuinely cinematic heist adventure. In short, GTA 6 has a lot to live up to.

Before brandishing Geralt of Rivia's twin blades and braving a "new game" in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered, the main menu invites you to check out the re-release's patch highlights.

Clicking the option opens a top-level list of the title's abundant updates, improvements, and enhancements, from "Upgraded Visuals and Performance" to a "Reimagined Skill System." But while these entries showcase the game's most significant and ambitious inclusions, some of the remaster's best new features are hidden under the catch-all category of "And Much, Much More."

For example, the fact that the grey-maned monster hunter no longer navigates ladders and waist-high ledges like a toddler sorting out their motor skills might impress seasoned fans more than any fancy new lighting tech. Looting resources while riding Roach – another awesome update that doesn't earn its own bullet point – will similarly delight anyone who previously endured getting on and off Geralt's trusty steed every time they wanted to pick a flower.

While these subtle tweaks aren't as sexy as, say, the stunning visual update, they are welcome, meaningful fixes that not only make the game better, but also reflect CD Projekt Red's larger commitment to deliver more than the bare minimum to make a quick buck.

Much more than a pretty makeover

Of course, while you're effortlessly gathering alchemy ingredients from the saddle, you'll indeed also appreciate the significant graphical leap the game has achieved. The Witcher 3's 2022 next-gen update was already a looker, but the remaster's response to it is a confident, "Hold my beer (or Redanian Lager).

The lighting effects – and resulting shadows – are far more realistic, textures pack noticeably sharper details, and flora-filled environments look as though they've leapt off a postcard. Overall, there's an across-the-board fresh layer of detail and depth that makes the Continent come to life like never before.

If you're tackling the Wild Hunt on a PlayStation 5 Pro, you also have some say in just how striking you want the game to look. A Performance mode uncaps the framerate, guaranteeing the game runs at 60 FPS minimum – but is capable of hitting as high as 90 FPS.

Meanwhile, a dedicated Ray Tracing mode consistently hovers around 60 FPS, while funneling more horsepower into rendering the absolute best lighting effects. Both options more than get the job done, though I preferred the slight visual bump and solid framerate offered by the latter selection.

Combat worthy of a Witcher

It also doesn't hurt that you can now soak in the picturesque sights – such as sunlight realistically filtering through dense foliage – without having to pause every few seconds to reposition Roach. That's right, another "And Much, Much More" addition addresses your mount's previously frustrating collision detection, ensuring the 1,000-plus-pound animal no longer gets caught up on jutting branches and small rocks.

Roach's smoother movements have also apparently rubbed off on Geralt, as the sword-swinging, spell-casting hero not only navigates environmental obstacles with ease, but wields his steel like a proper badass on the battlefield. Previous iterations of The Witcher 3 have been endlessly praised for their graphics, storytelling, quest design, and content-packed open world, but their combat mechanics were typically left out of those acclaim-filled conversations.

That's been remedied in the remaster, as CD Projekt Red has seemingly reworked the clunky combat from the ground up. Where the protagonist's attacks previously felt loose and lacking weight, they now pack a more precise, impactful punch. But not at the cost of speed, as enemy encounters also feel faster, more fluid, and kinetic.

Some factors – from smoother animations and smarter, more reactive enemies to new finishing moves and, crucially, a dynamic camera that no longer struggles to keep up with the lightning-quick action – combine to deliver an experience that now has me eager to breach any bandit camp or monster lair I might stumble upon.

An unbeatable, beast-slaying bundle

CD Projekt Red could have polished the visuals, improved the combat, added a few quality-of-life fixes, and then collected a fat paycheck for their efforts. But they dug deep, considered fan feedback, and made the typical remaster look like a stain on the titular beast-slayer's boots.

Speaking of Geralt's well-trodden footwear, a new style-forward transmog system allows you to wear the armor and wield the weapons you want without sacrificing any attached stats. You'll find further flexibility in the reimagined skill system, which offers newfound freedom for molding your playstyle, experimenting with skills, and generally forging a meaningful character progression path on par with contemporary RPGs.

But these inclusions, too, barely scratch the surface of a lengthy list of improvements that could over-encumber Roach's Beauclair saddlebags. Quest tracking has also been streamlined, looting is less tedious, and meditation is now more immersive and interactive. All that, and a much deeper photo mode ensures you'll spend more time snapping pics than swinging your swords.

Needless to say, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered is the absolute best, most definitive version of a game that was already a genre-defining banger when it launched 12 years ago. Toss in the fact that this impressive update also includes the base game's two massive, equally excellent expansions – Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine – and securing this bundle is a no-brainer for anyone who's yet to conquer the Continent.

Best of all, those who already own any previous version of the award-winning RPG won't pay a single Novigrad Crown for the update, as it's completely free for returning fans.

Should I play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered?

Play it if…

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

On top of standard settings for adjusting subtitles, interfaces, and HUD elements, The Witcher 3 includes an expansive suite of accessibility options under a new, dedicated section dubbed "Bard's Ballad."

This mode includes several default presets – from unlimited item durability to faster boats – meant to make the game less taxing for those who might experience mental fatigue.

But the mode's nearly 20 toggles can also be tailored to individual needs, so different options, like color-blind-friendly Witcher Senses or fisheye Witcher Senses, can be selected individually based on a particular player's needs and preferences.

How I reviewed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered

I played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered for 30 or so hours. Having already invested dozens upon dozens of hours in more traditional playthroughs of both the original 2015 game and its 2022 next-gen update, I approached the remaster differently, focusing on the many fresh features, updates, and enhancements that separate it from its previous iterations.

I played the game on a PS5 Pro using my budget TCL 4K 65" TV, with HDR enabled. I tested the platform's Performance and Ray Tracing modes, finding the latter offered the preferred experience. For audio, I tested with both my TV's onboard stereo speakers and Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset.

First reviewed October 2026

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko explains the process of developing Dylan's theme song, which is Jesse's theme played backwards
• He explains how Jesse's theme was more about power, while Dylan's is "a source of growth"
• Alanko says, "Dylan’s is more upward-reaching, as if it was asking for permission for Dylan’s existence"

Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has shared his process for developing Dylan's theme song, compared to how he designed Jesse's, his sister and the main character of Control.

In the same interview with TechRadar Gaming, where Alanko explained how he created the game's eclectic soundtrack for Remedy Entertainment, the composer said the method for writing Dylan's theme was distinct from Jesse's, because their origins start in different places.

Without going into spoilers, Alanko explained that their paths are different, but, "Due to their roots, they actually share the same theme - but Dylan’s is essentially Jesse’s theme backwards."

"It first appeared already in the original Control at a few points, but here I wanted to slap the gamer’s face properly with it," Alanko said. "They share the DNA, so the theme’s shared too. What was Jesse’s power theme is, for Dylan, a source of growth; it appears in different harmonies across the game, and depending on the events, the harmony root is changed under the melody a few times."

He added, "Jesse had her power theme played in direct conjunction with her position only in the ending, whereas Dylan’s appears all the way, texturizing his path from nothing to a superhero."

Alanko continued, explaining that "The scale of the protagonist is larger in Control Resonant," and while Jesse's theme "landed" and was "grounded" in a way that was "a 'THIS IS ME' statement," he said, "Dylan’s is more upward-reaching, as if it was asking for permission for Dylan’s existence."

"From the very early points of development, I had the feeling Dylan was asking for a justification for his release and his freedom," he added. "Dylan is an involuntary hero; although he chooses to become one, he just doesn’t know it in the beginning.

"By grabbing a walkie-talkie from a corpse hanging mid-air after having come out from the building is his knowingly made decision: 'I choose this.' He chose to walk that path, and I wanted to pinpoint and emphasize the attempt by creating a few very driving percussion patterns through the story."

While Jesse and Dylan have two different juxtaposing themes, Resonant also features a blended theme for both called 'Sibling Theme.' Alanko shared that the game's end credits track, 'The One I Once Knew,' "was easily one of my favourites," as 'Sibling Theme' "wouldn’t exist without it."

"We weren’t able to use any vocals with the 'Sibling Theme' as there was a metric ton of voiceovers happening, and we didn’t want to distract the gamer from the core feeling of the Broken Conduit, the place where 'Sibling Theme' is played through various devices and means," he said. "I had one of the music industry’s most beautiful voices appear on the end credit track, 'The One I Once Knew' (TOIOK), Amelia Jones, who recorded and edited her own vocals and sent me everything she had performed, and I didn’t have to change a thing from her selections. Awesome voice, awesome work ethic, awesome ear."

• Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko says he was brought on to the project "very early" while still working on Alan Wake 2, which he thinks resulted in a better soundtrack
• He suggested that if studios care about their game, then they should respect their soundtrack more and avoid "AI music"
• Alanko says, "If you value and respect your IP and your game - and your story - give a lot of love and time for the music"

Control Resonant composer Petri Alanko has suggested studios should value music more if they care about their games and avoid AI at all costs.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, the composer, who has a long history working with Remedy Entertainment, discussed the early stages of developing Control Resonant's soundtrack, revealing that he was brought on to the project "very early" and was still working on Alan Wake 2.

"I was still neck-deep with Alan Wake 2, and I used Control Resonant’s concept to detach myself from the Dark Place where Alan Wake 2’s events were happening," Alanko said, adding that it was beneficial to be brought on to the game during this time because, "The earlier I exist in the project, the better the outcome."

Alanko went on to talk about how he hears how other studios bring composers into the mix far too late into a game's development, which can be a great detriment to the quality of the soundtrack.

He suggested that if studios care about their project, then they should respect the music aspect more, and expressed a dislike for "AI music" specifically.

"I sometimes feel a great pity to hear a colleague was dragged in three months before the final deadline and they need to compose eight hours of music or similar," he said. "If you value and respect your IP and your game - and your story - give a lot of love and time for the music.

"And please, no library or AI music. Love your game, love your handiwork. Respect the client: the gamers, the fans, dammit."

The composer said he's been working with Remedy since 2004, and so he always has "some kind of an idea what their stories need," and the studio "also know what to expect from me," which shortens the soundtrack development process considerably, meaning less meetings and emails.

"The coherence of material increases greatly," Alanko said, "I’d say value for quality is much, much higher, not to forget the value for money. I’m known to work my ass off for a project I love, and I don’t exactly count hours - if you do this job properly, you cannot count in the first place, but one needs to remember there are no free days or free themes. And, at some certain level you need to re-evaluate your work/life balance, which I have done already ages ago. It was a surprisingly fruitful decision, and I’ve felt much better ever since. This was in 2011 already, so nothing new as such."

Alanko added, "When the time passes, you will notice 'speaking developer' (as in 'speaking French') gets easy and becomes your second nature, and you’ll start supervising your own creating so that your artistic outcome suits better to any sudden changes. And after a little time, you’ll notice how effortlessly you’re still able to maintain a high creative level and high emotional value despite what in the beginning looked like a restriction.

"Just hone your workflow into a decent order, and your ass will follow, basically. Know your tools, know the client’s tools."

In the same discussion, Alanko shared how he created the eclectic soundtrack for Control Resonant, revealing he captures a lot of everyday sounds on a recording device that he later manipulates into harmonies.