I do most of my gaming on the PS5, but I still think the Xbox has the superior controller because it's more comfortable and intuitive. If you're a fan too and want to pick up a new one for your console, PC, or mobile device, you'll be pleased to see the Xbox Wireless Controller is down to £39.99 (was £59.99) on Amazon.

This is a return to the lowest price I've seen this year, and so it's a price that's unlikely to be beaten until Black Friday in November. Even then, I expect it will only be up to £5 cheaper than this, based on previous price history during major sales events, so there's potentially only a slightly smaller saving up for grabs if you want to be patient.

While the white and black versions are down to this low price, you can also get the Shock Blue, Velocity Green, Pulse Red, and Deep Pink colourways for £42.99 if you'd prefer to add a bit of pizzazz to your gaming setup. That's just £2 more than previous record-low prices for these more adventurous colours.

Today's best Xbox controller deal

A gamepad that "offers a more premium feel without the price tag," is how we described it in our four-star Xbox Wireless Controller review. As I mentioned up top, our review also praises the design and feel of the controller, making it a very comfortable and satisfying gamepad to use.

And while more premium options from the likes of Razer and Turtle Beach may offer more fancy features and stylish touches compared to the relatively plain official controller, it simply gets the job done — and does it well. All for a reasonable price, too, especially after this current discount.

The A Plague Tale series has become one of the finest in video games since the first game, A Plague Tale: Innocence, released back in 2019.

Its historical background, immersive and deeply compelling yet bleak and miserable narratives, as well as its memorable characters and robust mix of stealth action and survival, are perfect for thoughtful, enjoyable, and deeply memorable experiences.

As a result, with the third and latest game now out in the wild in the form of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy — there's never been a better time to celebrate the bleak and gripping series with a quiz.

As a long-time A Plague Tale fan, I've crafted the quiz below just as Amicia did with her ammo: deliberately and with great thought and care. It's somewhat hard to get three excellent video games' worth of trivia into a short quiz, but I think I've picked some more straightforward teasers and some deep-cut brain ticklers to appeal to fans of all kinds of the series.

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on!

What did you make of our A Plague Tale quiz? The right balance of more obvious questions and tougher ones? Let me know in the comments, and come back for more quizzes soon — and also let me know what other video game quizzes we could do!

Charles Cecil wants to make one thing clear: “I'm not anti-AI.”

The veteran British developer behind the legendary 1996 point-and-click game Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars speaks to TechRadar about AI's divisive role in modern game development - and, in particular, how it was used in the upcoming remake of the sequel, Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged, due out in 2027.

The original, a commercial success selling 759,000 copies, sees American tourist George Stobbart team up with freelance journalist Nicole Collard to track a mysterious Mayan stone across Paris, London, and Central America. This remake doesn't use AI, and, according to Cecil, there's a very good reason for that.

AI don’t think so

“I think AI has its place,” Cecil says. “It's just not relevant in our games because we want human animation, human characterization and human expression, and that's much better done by humans.”

A perfect example of that lies in the game's hand-drawn art, all of it redone for Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged.

This hugely labor-intensive process encompassed roughly 55,000 frames of animation, more than the 30,000 of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars’ 2024 remake.

“George opens the newspaper and kind of just glances at the screen,” says Cecil, referring to the actions of the game's protagonist in an early scene. “He's looking at the viewer, and that's what human beings do. That is not something that AI can do.”

In low-res, eyes were just dots on a face. In high-res, eyes are windows to the soul and therefore have to be animated with precision and intent. Where applicable, artists were free to add flourishes, using their own interpretation to fill in the gaps.

For instance, the painting of Professor Oubier hanging on the wall in the rapidly burning study was always too pixelated to see clearly. Now, however, you can make out exactly what he looks like in 4K, at 36 times the original resolution, all while a visibly uncomfortable George jostles his rope bindings.

Developer Revolution Software didn't stop there. The team redrew scores of items that never really made much sense. Take the poison dart, which now looks less like a playing dart and more like something shot out of a blowpipe.

Human revolution

Despite the decision to abstain from AI use for the most part, it wasn't entirely absent. AI was used for the initial round of upscaling before artists added detail by hand, with backgrounds scanned as black-and-white layouts for them to build on using the originals as references. AI was more of a tool than a creative device.

“We experimented with AI for the first one, and we used AI to upscale and then redraw the characters. And as I say, it can upscale, but it can't put any character in.”

That's largely thanks to the luxury of time. The first game needed to be made in a year or risk cancellation. Revolution Software sprinted to the finish line, but made a few shortcuts along the way.

One oversight was 40 voice lines that were recorded and packaged in the game's files but never used. Now, in Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged, fans can finally hear them (one line involves George asking the Parisian waiter about the tequila worm in his pocket).

Another infamous example occurs in the Game Boy Advance version. “You have a choice to go to Spain or Syria,” says Cecil. “If you do one, you can finish the game, and it's fine. If you do the other, it takes you there, but you can't then finish. There's a bug that doesn't allow you to finish…It's an awful, awful bug. I mean, it's absolutely shocking.”

An AI might have spotted such mistakes, but then again, you could argue mistakes are what give art humanity. If nothing else, they make for a great story.

But the remake is far from a bug-fixing exercise. Instead, it's an opportunity to make the game better. Where most remasters seek to preserve the subject, Broken Sword - The Smoking Mirror: Reforged is almost an act of excavation.

“All of these things we now have the time to do,” says Cecil. “Because what Revolution has done for the last 15 years is we've self-published all our games. And I can decide when we’re going to spend a little bit more time getting this, right? Is it worth it?”

The devs found time to add features, too, like a new three-tier hint system that actively monitors your progress and feeds you steadily more obvious tips so you're not stuck for too long. The final tip tells you outright what to do. Thankfully, purists can turn it off.

Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch 2 players get four different control schemes: touchscreen, gamepad, one Joy-Con 2 detached and used as a mouse, or a versatile combination of everything.

Plus, there’s something Cecil has personally wanted to add for 30 years: a beautiful, detailed map of Paris. This is used to aid player navigation instead of having them rely on clunky icons. With everything in the game, these feel like choices made by humans, not AI.

“We've really gone out of our way to produce something that, in my view, is completely future-proof, because people were playing the first one 30 years ago, and millions and millions of people have played that game. And my ambition is that in 20 years' time, a fourth generation will be playing again.”

“Going forward,” he continues, “people are going to seek out human-crafted art. You know, there's going to be that sense, because obviously we all have a human connection with each other.”

Control is easily one of my favorite games of the last decade or so, and I've played through it a few times and secured the Platinum trophy on both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

As a result, I am incredibly hyped for Control Resonant, the upcoming sequel from the masterminds over at Remedy Entertainment, and have created this short quiz in celebration of the first game — and to test fellow fans' knowledge.

Ranging from, I think, pretty straightforward questions to one or two deep cuts, and with some questions that are bound to revive some brilliant memories of the first game, I've tried to balance my Control quiz for everyone, from long-time fans and re-players to those who played the first one at launch and have patiently waited for the sequel since.

Good luck, and let me know how you get on!

How did you find my Control quiz? Too easy? Too tricky at points? Too short, perhaps? Let me know ion the comments as well as what other quizzes we should do, and check back in the future for more trivia tests on fantastic games.

September has been an absolutely mega month for games, and we're barely past the halfway mark!

With the weekend just hours away, you're probably wondering which new games are actually worth your money and attention. That's exactly why I've put together this little personality quiz, which is designed to match you with a recent release that you are almost certain to enjoy!

Of course, this isn't an exhaustive list of all the latest games, and there are sure to be some big releases that I've missed. Still, I've tried to include a wide range of genres from platformers to horror games and open-world adventures so that many different tastes are catered to.

What result did you get? Do you agree with my recommendation? You can let me know in the comments and share what you'll be playing this weekend.

• Creative Assembly says Alien: Isolation 2's exterior setting will force players to adapt to their surroundings
• The game's Xenomorph will also adapt at the same time to both player and environment
• Things like the weather system will impact the cat-and-mouse experience, forcing players to "improvise"

Alien: Isolation 2's exterior setting will increase both tension and danger, according to Creative Assembly, because as the player adapts to the new environment, so will the Xenomorph.

Unlike the first game, where players were isolated in a space station and actively hunted by the Xenomorph, the sequel will have an expanded setting, spanning an outdoor colony world and the confines of the Weyland-Yutani outpost.

Players will once again be caught up in a cat-and-mouse experience as they navigate their new environment, but the alien's intelligence will raise the stakes.

"I think the contrast between claustrophobia and pressure versus vulnerability and exposedness, it will make the player have to think on their feet," said principal UI artist Laura Mouther.

The game's weather system will also affect how players approach the outdoors, since storms will impact the sound of the approaching alien, and players will need to "improvise."

"The alien is the perfect hunter," Mouther added. "It will adapt to those situations, to those environments. And you will have to adapt to our environment."

She added that it will feel like a "new experience," but the game will give players the time to understand the mechanics of the game and the world, even if they didn't play the first game.

"It's not unfair," Mouther said. "This alien is also not cheating. If it can't see you, it can't see you, right? If it can't hear you, it can't hear you. We will give players enough time to get to grips with it. But it is an intense experience and a tough game, and that is what the community loved about [the first game]. And we will stick through to that."

Alien: Isolation 2 is now in development and will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

How do you approach a sequel? Do you refine the predecessor’s mechanics and stick with the main character? Well, Control Resonant chucks those out the window.

Instead of an open-zone map like the first game, Resonant goes full open-world. You play as Dylan Faden, old protagonist Jesse’s brother, who was (mostly) freed from the Hiss’s evil influence towards the end of the last adventure.

Now, Jesse has disappeared somewhere in an otherworldly Manhattan, and it’s his job to find her.

Like brother, like sister

Control Resonant’s story is markedly improved over its predecessor. The sibling bond between Dylan and Jesse provides an emotional anchor to latch onto. Learning about their childhoods through the main missions was engaging enough and made it much easier to follow this time around. It kept my attention in ways that Control didn’t.

The small cast of support characters also smartly keeps the character development focused mainly on Dylan. Zoe De Vera is assigned as Dylan’s handler, and I like how their relationship starts off rocky with her viewing him as just a tool to fight the Hiss. But as the story progresses, Zoe starts considering Dylan as more than that, asking him personal questions about his favorite music.

Emily Pope returns from the first game and acts as an important linchpin for Dylan to discuss Jesse. As Emily helped Jesse throughout the entirety of Control, Dylan can confide in Emily, giving him hope he’ll eventually find his sister. These powerful relationships make Resonant a less lonely trip.

As someone who’s fascinated with sci-fi and the occult, Resonant plays around with common tropes to great effect. In one particularly memorable main quest, Dylan is tasked with figuring out what happened to a missing crew, and its implementation of time dilation and alternate timelines really had a grip on my attention. It’s moments like these that make Resonant’s story emotionally satisfying, but narratively absorbing too.

Go big or go home

Going from Control to Control Resonant feels similar to how Final Fantasy 7 Remake transitioned to Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It’s a high-risk endeavor, as creating an open world can add a lot of unnecessary bloat compared to a more streamlined experience.

Thankfully, Resonant’s exemplary art direction and traversal mechanics make its distorted version of Manhattan a treat to run around in. Rather than the brutalist architecture of the first game that took place entirely indoors within the Oldest House, Resonant doubles down on the more kaleidoscopic and parallactic aspects in the open world.

As part of the main quests, you’ll also be given objectives to find “Faults,” which are areas where remnants of Jesse could be residing. While they’re not very combat-heavy, they offer a lot of story exposition exploring Dylan and Jesse’s background. At the very end, you’ll be awarded a new way for Dylan to move around.

These include being able to shift his gravitational orientation around so the wall next to him becomes the floor, or the intriguing take on the traditional grappling hook, which looks more like an invisible magnet pulling Dylan by the waist.

Control Resonant is also reminiscent of Elden Ring, in that you’re able to tackle tough side bosses called Resonants all across the Big Apple. By defeating them, Dylan is able to unlock more of his offensive move kit. You’re incentivized to go for it, as it’ll give you more options to fight against the Hiss and other enemies.

You only need to take out a few to advance the story, but afterwards you can actually complete it without taking the rest of them on if you want. This open-endedness comes in handy if you get stuck on a certain story boss. You can explore more, get stronger, and return later.

There are also plenty of other interesting activities to tackle, and these often bring a more down-to-earth tone to Resonant’s paranormal twists. In a multi-part side quest, Dylan is trying to help a girl find her way home from an alternate dimension. And he has to play “spot the difference” with different taxi cabs to take the right one back. There’s another side quest where Dylan helps a colleague find their invisible cat, which ends up in the cat actually helping out against a mini-boss fight in a humorous conclusion.

These side quests reflect Dylan’s altruism and the guilt he harbors for his actions from the first game, allowing him to redeem himself in small, yet meaningful ways. They also reward massive amounts of EXP and useful ingredients to unlock new skills and abilities.

Close quarters combat

As opposed to the first game’s third-person shooter gameplay, Control Resonant is a melee-focused action game. It’s an interesting switch-up that certainly helps this sequel differentiate itself.

The basic gameplay loop you’re going for is to stagger enemies and then perform an execution. Doing that causes Dylan to temporarily enter Dominance, which astronomically ups his attack power and allows him to kill enemies quicker. It’s a gratifying process that’s just as exciting as it looks cool.

The big issue here is that it’s incredibly difficult to falter enemies when you first start out. Dylan’s weapon, the Aberrant, can morph into different forms for both his light and heavy attacks. At the beginning, you can pick one form, and the rest you can create later on with the proper drops and materials.

If you’re like me and picked a heavy weapon choice that didn’t fit your particular playstyle, then you’re going to have a tough time. You can use limited reset points to rechoose your points and abilities, but the fact that it’s not free feels like it’s discouraging experimentation, especially at the start before eventually unlocking everything.

After initially selecting the spear as my heavy weapon and being disappointed, I reset my build and opted for the slow but powerful hammer instead. I found that it fit my approach much better, and suddenly I was enjoying it more. Beforehand, combat felt like a slog as enemies seemed to just be damage sponges, as it took forever to falter them.

A little later on, after defeating the giant fire Resonant, I unlocked the ability to cloak my weapons in flame, increasing both the damage and falter output. Now even my light weapon attacks with the multi-target scythe-like glaive inflicted a decent amount of stagger. I was able to enter Dominance faster, and the combat became more frenetic, explosive, and most importantly, fun.

It just takes a while to get to.

Should I play Control Resonant?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Control Resonant has an impressive suite of accessibility features. These options include text, subtitles, colorblindness adjustments, and toggles.

It also has an Assist mode, which lets you change gameplay parameters to your liking. For example, you can change how fast Dylan’s Power meter replenishes, which lets him fire off special abilities. You can also make him invincible.

There’s even an option to OHKO enemies with just one attack, and it works on bosses too. None of the options disable Achievements either.

How I reviewed Control Resonant

I played 25 hours of Control Resonant on Xbox Series X with the standard Xbox Wireless Controller on my 1080p LG Sharp TV, finishing up the main campaign while completing some side quests.

After witnessing the ending, you can go back into the open world once again to mop up any remaining collectibles and quests.

First reviewed September 2026

• Diablo 4 game director Brent Gibson tells fans not to worry about support for the game ending because of Diablo 5
• He says that even though the team is excited for Diablo 5, "we're going to be making content for a long time"
• Gibson says, "The end is not nigh"

Not to worry, Diablo 4 fans! Despite the announcement of Diablo 5, Blizzard swears it will continue supporting the popular action-RPG "for a long time."

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon, game director Brent Gibson quickly put concerns to rest and stated outright that players don't need to worry about the game's future, even though the studio is already working on the sequel.

"If you're wearing the sign in the middle of Times Square that says 'The End is Nigh', the end is not nigh," Gibson said. "We have a lot coming," he added before acknowledging the Amazon class pack, coming to Diablo 4 in 2027.

"The train isn't stopping," he continued. "One of the things that I love about our world is we're not a series of games. We are a universe. We are even adding to Diablo 2 with that of the Warlock. It's one of the few franchises where we have the luxury to continue to play, and we know our communities are there multiple communities that make us a whole."

Gibson reiterated that if you're a fan and you're worried, "don't sweat it," because even though the team is excited about Diablo 5, "we're going to be making content for a long time" and "we've got a lot of things coming," including the Netflix adaptation.

"The train is not stopping," he said. "Hold on tight. Gone are the years of waiting 10 years for more content, right? So it's a great place to be at."

Diablo 5 is slated to launch in 2029, so there are few years to wait. In the meantime, Diablo 4 fans can sink their teeth into Season of Hell's Legacy, the game's 15th season, which arrived on September 15.

• Diablo 4 game director Brent Gibson says it's "liberating" that there are no expansions to work on or have the narrative tied to
• The team will continue the game's story through seasons instead
• Diablo 4 - Season of Hell's Legacy is the game's latest update

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 4 won't receive any more expansions, as it will continue the game's story through seasons, something the team is glad about.

BlizzCon 2026 has officially wrapped, and there were plenty of announcements for fans across the board, including the huge reveal of Diablo 5, slated for a 2029 launch, as well as Diablo 4 - Season of Hell's Legacy, the game's 15th season and the centerpiece of Blizzard's 30th Anniversary celebration for Diablo.

"Amid the dead rising from Pandemonium, the lost soul of the legendary Horadrim Deckard Cain returns with dire news," the questline description reads. "Three dark wanderers have returned, each leaving a trail of death in their wake. Confront them and delve into the nightmares of their horrific past. Only there can you defeat the Prime Evils that torment them and lay their souls to rest."

No additional expansions are planned at the moment, and although Lord of Hatred was the big conclusion of the overarching narrative, the team will now use seasons to continue the game's story, presumably until Diablo 5 is ready for launch.

The game will likely be supported for a good few years to come, just like Diablo 3, but the new direction the team is working on removes the constraints it had before.

"I think it's liberating," game director Brent Gibson told TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon. "So we completed the story, but the butterfly effect can take us anywhere, you know? And we've got season 15 with all the events of pandemonium leading to someone else taking the mantle of death," before teasing, "Who is it? I'm not going to answer that today."

He added, "But it allows us to be really creative with all the pieces that we have, now that we hit the beat that we were all looking forward to with confronting Mephisto. So, I say it's liberating."

• Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely says the team is "trying to make it for everyone who loves Diablo" for specific reasons
• He says the team used "deferred complexity" to help balance the game's systems for endgame players and campaign lovers
• Narrative director Jennifer Hepler says there are like-minded developers on the team who are "passionate advocates" and are creating the content for these fans

Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely has said Blizzard is making a sequel for all fans, but it has to find the right balance for players who love the series for specific reasons.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon 2026 after the game's reveal, Shely explained that the team isn't trying to make a Diablo game "for every human on Earth" or "literally everyone" but is "trying to make it for everyone who loves Diablo, and people who love Diablo love it for specific reasons, and those reasons are knowable."

He and the team know some fans play Diablo and are most interested in the storylines and exploration, while other, more hardcore players spend time with the complex systems that come with itemization, designing builds, and racing to the endgame.

"We can talk to players and understand why individual players or groups of players love Diablo and what they love about it, and from what game they associate with Diablo," Shely said, "and so that allows us to tailor our systems and experiences, campaign and progression in a way that can be satisfying to different kinds of talent players."

This is where the developer brought up "deferred complexity," an idea the team used to help balance the game's systems for those who enjoy taking their time, while also delivering on "our commitment to have a complete end game for those players at launch." This means that some complex systems have been moved to the endgame.

"By deferring some of the complexity of the systems and itemization later into the endgame," Shely said, "we can deliver the depth and mastery elements that our players who love the endgame enjoy without overwhelming our players who are enjoying spending a lot of time in the campaign and exploring the world."

Narrative director Jennifer Hepler added that all types of Diablo fans are represented on the development team; she said they are like-minded, "very passionate" about the series, and understand what players enjoy most.

"People who love campaign are working on campaign, and the people who love systems are working on the end game," Hepler said. "And so every group of players has passionate advocates on the team who are not only speaking for them but are actually creating the content for them."

Diablo 5 is in development and is slated to launch in Spring 2029.

• England and Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer was temporarily banned on Twitch this week
• He was streaming the upcoming EA Sports FC 27 ahead of an agreed embargo
• He responded in a light-hearted manner on Instagram, asking the streaming service to “unban me pls."

Cole Palmer, everyone’s favorite straight-talking Chelsea and England midfielder who loves his chippy-chips and a basic builder’s tea, took to Twitch earlier this week to livestream the upcoming EA Sports FC 27. There was just one problem: he wasn’t supposed to be showing off the game this early and was given a temporary ban by the platform.

As spotted by ESPN, Palmer was given early access to the upcoming football sim and decided to livestream it on Tuesday afternoon to a fairly significant audience. However, he was supposed to wait until after an official EA Sports showcase took place later that evening.

After an EA rep popped up in the chat to remind Palmer, the stream ended, and his Twitch account page was updated to show that it had been suspended.

In response to the gaffe, Palmer characteristically posted on Instagram that, ”I was only giving the people what they wanted.” He followed that up with a simple request: “unban me pls.”

Genuine mistake or not, any potential leniency from EA probably wasn’t forthcoming after he started complaining about his rating in-game during the untimely stream. EA Sports FC 27 has given Palmer an overall score of 85 out of 99 in the latest edition. He was 87 in the previous entry.

"I need a word with EA. They took two ratings off me," Palmer said during the stream.

In fairness, he did call out that he spent a lot of last year out with various injuries, which he joked had effectively left him with “one leg for 10 months last season.”

His ego also took another small knock when he saw that long-time friend and Chelsea teammate Morgan Rodgers had been given a pace score of 76. Palmer's pace rating is listed at 75. Savage.

Fortunately, his account has now been reinstated, and he’s already been back streaming as if nothing had happened, bringing an end to another hilarious aside in the footballer’s career that's already been full of meme-worthy moments. This one is my new favorite.

EA Sports FC 27 officially launches on September 25, with early access starting September 18 for those who pre-ordered the Ultimate and Ultimate Plus editions.

• Take-Two Interactive says GTA Online support will continue after Grand Theft Auto 6 has launched
• The publisher's latest comments suggest that an online experience associated with GTA 6 is still a long way off
• Fans speculate that GTA 6 Online could be a separate, paid title

Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that Rockstar Games will continue supporting GTA Online after the launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, suggesting the title's rumored online experience could be a long way off.

During the Take-Two shareholder meeting on September 17 (via ResetEra), it was reported said that "GTA 6 is a single-player title and is due to release this November. We will continue to support GTA Online after GTA 6 release and beyond."

While we already knew GTA 6 is launching as a standalone single-player experience, it's speculated that the game will eventually receive an online mode, similar to how GTA Online released soon after GTA 5.

The language used during the shareholder meeting suggests fans shouldn't expect an online experience associated with GTA 6 anytime soon, if it indeed exists, as Rockstar will continue supporting its current money-making machine for the foreseeable future.

According to Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier during a discussion about GTA 6's pre-order period and earned revenue, Take-Two "have not talked at all, and they are not planning to talk anytime soon, about what the new GTA Online will look like."

Despite Take-Two's avoidance of the topic, and the publisher's latest comments, fans believe this could mean GTA 6 Online could be a separate, paid service.

"Looks like the next variant of GTA Online is nowhere near ready as Schreier already reported," the original ResetEra poster said. "And it's a high likelihood they will launch it as a big standalone title, whether F2P or for like $30. They will want to give it all the resources and spotlight it will need and not be an "add-on" this time."

Others support the standalone concept, while others believe it could be another $70 experience.

"I wouldn't be shocked if it costs $70 or more lmao," one user replied.

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S,

• Rockstar Games has announced 'Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album'
• The official soundtrack features 34 original tracks, and the first six can be listened to today on all major streaming services
• The 'Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album' - Limited-Edition Vinyl has already sold out, but a separate exclusive vinyl and CD are still available for pre-order

Rockstar Games has announced 'Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album', GTA 6's official soundtrack that will launch alongside the game.

The upcoming soundtrack album is now available to pre-save on all major music streaming services, and will be released on vinyl and CD, including three exclusives available only for pre-order here.

Featuring 34 original tracks that "capture the electric energy of Grand Theft Auto 6’s world of Vice City and Leonida", the album features "a genre-defying roster of the most exciting artists in the world", with tracks from artists like Yung Lean, Travis Scott, PinkPantheress, Morgan Wallen, Keith Richards, and more.

As a small teaser, Rockstar has also released the first six singles featured on the album. We'll list them below.

• Yung Lean – That's It (feat. Future & Metro Boomin)
• Travis Scott – RHYNO (prod. by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) 
• CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, PinkPantheress, Fred again.. & Etienne de Crécy – Sexy Magic  
• Morgan Wallen – Last Thing You Need  
• Rauw Alejandro – Macacoa 2000  
• Keith Richards – Bright Lights, Big City 

Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album - CD costs £10.99 / $19.98, while Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album - Vinyl costs £44.99 / $49.98.

Then there's the more expensive Grand Theft Auto 6: The Album - Limited-Edition Vinyl priced at £108.99 / $124.98, featuring two transparent magenta discs filled with blue liquid, exclusive new artwork, and packaging designs.

Unfortunately, this edition quickly sold out after its announcement, and it's unclear whether more stock will be available. All editions are expected to ship November 20, one day after GTA 6 launches.

Rockstar noted that "exclusive vinyl disc colorways, each featuring unique new art" will also be available at Blood Records, Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, Urban Outfitters, and indie retailers.

"Stay tuned for more details about the music of Grand Theft Auto 6, including the dynamic score, the next evolution of in-game radio, and more," the studio said.

• Fable will have a 60fps performance mode on Xbox Series X
• Playground Games associate game director Craig Littler says it didn't want to compare the PC and Xbox versions
• However, he adds that "It will look great wherever you go"

Playground Games is being a bit cagey about Fable's graphics settings across PC and console, but has confirmed the Xbox Series X version will have a 60fps performance mode.

Fable has been in development for a very long time, but fans can finally expect the fantasy role-playing game (RPG) to launch on February 23, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

While there have been plenty of trailers and, most recently, new gameplay footage showcasing the game, Playground has yet to share the PC specs and how Fable will run on console.

However, during a Q&A session at Gamescom attended by TechRadar Gaming, associate game directors Will Kennedy and Craig Littler did reveal that the game will look "great" on all platforms.

"What we will say is that our approach to all platforms is really the same, in that we want the game to look great wherever you're playing it, and for it to be appropriate for the platform later on," Littler replied when asked to elaborate about the console edition graphics settings.

Without giving away too much, the developer then confirmed that the Xbox Series X version will offer a 60fps performance mode, but said, "I don't really want to get into the like in terms of what PC versus Xbox will be like."

"It will look great wherever you go," he added.

In the same interview, Playground also confirmed that Fable will take up to 20 hours to beat, but promises the game's life systems offer "limitless" replayability.

• Diablo 5 will tell stories of the past, present, and future, the latter of which Blizzard calls "terror forming"
• Players can visit biomes that are taken over by Diablo's Dread Commanders
• Narrative director Jennifer Hepler says these biomes can change depending on who's in charge, and "it's a whole new experience" every time you revisit them

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 5 will tell stories involving the past, present, and future of Diablo's takeover of Sanctuary, which will visually affect explorable biomes.

The next installment in the isometric dungeon crawler series has been announced and will find players back in the mortal realm of Sanctuary. However, humanity has fallen into an apocalypse and the land has been conquered and reshaped by Diablo and his army.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon after the game's reveal, senior game director Joe Shely shared how different Sanctuary will look to players and said they will travel across the Western continent, seeing all different biomes that have been overrun.

Shely said Diablo 5 has "three stories that we're telling" within this changed world: the stories of the past, the time when Diablo took over and when he and his Dread Commanders emerged into Sanctuary, and the "desolation" of the present.

"There are no people around," he said. "There are very few survivors. Occasionally, you may find a human to add to your caravan, and they can bring something to support you."

There's also the future, which is being actively turned into an outpost of hell by Dread Commanders, something that the team has dubbed "terror forming."

"We call it terror forming because these Dread Commanders will actually transform the environment, transform the biome into a version of hell that relates to personal powers and powers at station," Shely explained.

Players will be able to revisit these occupied areas, and if a different Dread Commander is stationed there, "it's going to look totally different."

"The procedural world gives us a lot of levers to pull for that," added narrative director Jennifer Hepler. "You can go to a place, and it is under the control of the Dread Commander of Undeath, and it's going to be full of zombies and things like that. And then later in the game, you could return there, and it's either been reclaimed by humanity or taken over by a different Dread Commander, and the environment will be totally different as a result of that.

"So each time you go somewhere, it's a whole new experience and just constant new discoveries."

Diablo 5 is in development and is slated to launch in Spring 2029.

When I first saw the IKEA x Xbox collaboration at this year's Gamescom, I was struck by two conflicting ideas.

With its multi-functional side table, TV stand, and decorative controller box, this is some smartly made furniture with some genuinely helpful uses. Then, with a thumbstick stool and a D-pad cushion, it's also one of the silliest things I've seen.

Taken as a whole, you can see it's a mix of the playful and the practical. After I spoke to designers at both IKEA and Xbox at the show, it turns out that was the point all along.

"That was present throughout the journey because it's important," explained Philip Dilé, product developer for IKEA of Sweden. "Playing games is playful; it is fun. Solving people's needs connected to that can be very functional and practical. We tried to balance that, for sure.

"We wanted to make things that are relevant for people who play games. Something that reflects you, or that you feel allows you to express yourself...but the object itself is a beautiful piece of home furnishing."

It's a philosophy echoed by Carl Ledbetter, partner head of design at Xbox: "Just like when we design a console, it can be as quiet as people want it. They can put it back and let it recede into their environment. Or they can pull it forward and have it be very expressive. And I think some of those same qualities are in these products in the YXSTABY collection."

Ledbetter used the controller display box and the TV stand as examples of this. With the former, it's ideal for enthusiast gamers who like to collect controllers and show off their favorite designs in a dedicated gaming space. Meanwhile, with the latter, it serves a "dual life" — whether it's sitting in the corner while you're watching shows and movies, or wheeled front and centre for an intense gaming session.

"That was a big part of our philosophy: how do we make products that can adapt to how people want to use them? Either be as expressive as possible, or just be part of your world," summarised Ledbetter.

You can see that approach clearly in all of the more practical products from the collection.

Take the side table. Closed up and next to your sofa, it could be mistaken for another piece of clean and minimalist furniture you'd find in IKEA. Open up the sliding doors on the front, though, and inside there's space specifically designed to store controllers, headsets, and battery packs — plus the all-important cable management and power connectivity options you need to keep your tech charged between sessions.

"This came up time and time again: cable management, charging stuff — where do you put it when you're done? People don't want it all over the place," said Ledbetter.

And Dilé agreed: "We looked at it from the perspective of: what does gaming throughout the home look like? Because, of course, people play at their desks, in the living room, on the couch. In so many different ways. For us, it was important to cater for a lot of these different needs.

"And there's one never-ending challenge working for IKEA: cable management. It always comes up over and over again. I think it's a very real frustration for people.

"Take the TV stand, for example. Yeah, you need to have the console there; you need to have somewhere to charge the controllers, somewhere to put a headset. That was one of the benefits of working together with someone like Xbox that knows gaming, and the hardware, and the players. That made the brief really, really clear."

And even though designing for gamers was a big part of their brief, both teams were also well aware that they wanted products that a non-gamer would be happy to live in their home. This meant offering something that wasn't bedazzled with RGB lighting and garish colors.

"You need to cater for gamers, but also for non-gamers or people who are living with gamers, or people who want to have the functionality but still want to have a nice home," said Dilé.

"[We wanted to create] things that maybe your spouse or the people you live with also want to put in your home. These aren't just things that you accept because of your hobby. That was an important balance for us.

"There are so many people who play games, so it’s incredibly diverse. We really wanted to showcase that you can have that [gaming] experience and still have beautiful products that blend into your home to create a nice environment that you want to live in."

That led Ledbetter to reminisce about the first meeting between both parties, where they both discovered they shared very similar design philosophies and were keen to get both of their respective design teams together to bounce around ideas.

The result is this YXSTABY collection — nine products encompassing everything from stools, seats and cushions, to TV stands, storage and display cases — set to launch in October later this year. A weird and wonderful mix of items that speak to both the fun side of gaming and the practical needs in the home.

Ledbetter summed up his hopes for the collection as follows: "Think about it: we create these controllers, and we sell millions of controllers, but we're not in charge of the controller’s home. We make the controller, and then where does it go? We don’t know. So, now, there's this opportunity between IKEA and Xbox to build that home. It felt like a completion of that journey."

• StarCraft general manager and creative director Dan Hay says the series' stories and characters are "remarkably topical" today
• Hay says StarCraft and the real world are both like a "frontier"
• He adds that while StarCraft is science fiction, its "themes and characters" are very similar to "the headlines in our world"

StarCraft general manager and creative director Dan Hay has compared real-world events to the series' stories and characters, calling them "remarkably topical."

In a sit-down interview with TechRadar Gaming following the reveal of StarCraft, a first-person, open-world shooter slated to arrive in 2030, Hay discussed the CGI trailer that debuted at BlizzCon and explained that the team wanted to portray the "tension" that will come with this new story-driven adventure.

The developer also said that building the "stakes" was just as important; he couldn't dive too much into the narrative details, but Hay touched on the series as a whole and its storylines that explore "imperfect" characters, suggesting the new StarCraft will examine similar topics.

"The way in which you are a hero is that you are going to learn how to become one," Hay said. "The way in which you are a hero is that you are going to learn how to become one. So it's not perfect, right? And that's the thing about StarCraft: a lot of the characters are not perfect; they're imperfect, and even the villains are.

"They have an idea of what you think they are at the beginning of the game, and then by the end of the game, you realize, oh, they were something completely different. And I think what's powerful about StarCraft."

Hay continued, saying that when you look at StarCraft's stories and the characters you meet, they're "remarkably topical" to the events unfolding in the real world.

"When you think about our world today, and you think about what is StarCraft? It's a bit of a frontier," he said. "It's obviously a frontier. There's asymmetry in terms of factions that don't agree with each other. There's brinkmanship going on where one faction is being used against another. [In] a lot of cases, it's just over resources.

"A lot of the cases there's politics, and there's intrigue, and there are people being left behind and betrayed, and when you look at that, and then you look at the headlines in our world, it's not super far [apart] in terms of how it feels sometimes. So you feel that tension, and you felt that tension in the teaser [trailer]."

Hay concluded: "I think what's remarkable about StarCraft is that it feels real, and it feels like it translates quite easily into today. And even though it's science fiction, and even though it has this sense of being in this other universe, it feels very close in terms of themes and characters and moments that you could experience today."

• StarCraft's first-person perspective will offer a new sort of "tension"
• General manager and creative director Dan Hay says the tension is "subtly different" from the original RTS game
• Since the game is in first-person, "You have to protect yourself"

StarCraft general manager and creative director Dan Hay has explained the process of designing a new game in first-person, revealing that "tension" was crucial.

Blizzard's next StarCraft game won't be a real-time strategy (RTS) title, but a story-driven, open-world first-person shooter, which will be a fresh direction for the beloved series.

Hay, who discussed the game's inspirations with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon, explained that because of the new perspective, this meant the team had to think carefully about how to manage a combat system, the world, and enemies of StarCraft in a new way, while still being faithful and familiar to the original RTS game.

"The combat has to feel very, very clean and dangerous and mean and dark," Hay said. "I think StarCraft does that well. The mood is dark, but also, in a strange way, hopeful."

Without giving away too many details, the developer said that the team has to make the enemies the player is fighting "feel real" while also balancing the challenge of what it's like being inside 10-foot armour that weighs 1000 pounds.

"It's because the thing that's out there is going to try and shuck me like an oyster," he continued. "The thing that's out there is going to try and just flay me open, and eat my insides. And so we have to build it in such a way that it all makes sense, which means when you move, when you attack, when you shoot, it has to feel real, and then whatever it is that's attacking you — which we all know what's probably going to be attacking you — it has to feel like it's an onslaught where you have to stem the tide, you have to figure out a way to stop that biomass from attacking you, and it has to feel real."

Hay said the "key" to designing this experience was "tension," which players got a glimpse of in the CGI trailer, adding that it's the same tension from the RTS "but it's subtly different."

In the RTS game, players would be confronted with a wall of Zerg enemies, and that would be the tension, but in StarCraft, a first-person experience, the top-down perspective is gone.

"Now your boots on the ground," Hay said. "We have to give you the tension of deployment, and you saw us actually do that in the teaser, and then we have to give you the tension of there not being a whole bunch of marines around that you can just go through. It's you. You have to protect yourself. You have to figure out how to fix your armor. You have to figure out how to push back against it.

"Every shot matters. Everything you do matters. So the tension feels even greater."

StarCraft is currently in development and is set to arrive in 2030.

• Diablo 5 will have features inspired by Diablo 2 and Diablo 2: Resurrected
• Senior game director Joe Shely says the team was able to look at Resurrected for modern inspiration because it's so recent
• He says the team can "look at it through today's lens"

Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely has said that the success of Diablo 2: Resurrected has enabled Blizzard to use the game as modern inspiration for the upcoming sequel.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon following Diablo 5's announcement, Shely shared how previous games helped the team find modern inspiration for Diablo 5.

Instead of going back 20 years and just looking at Diablo 2, the team used its 2021 remaster, Diablo 2: Resurrected, for ideas. The developer said the game was brought to life thanks to the passionate fanbase, and the continued work on it has benefited Diablo 5's development.

"Certainly we've been very happy with the response to Diablo 2: Resurrected," Shely said. "The reason that Diablo 2: Resurrected exists is because of the continued passion of players in the first place, because of the continued passion of players for Diablo 2, and so both the honor of having a game that players love and the ability to add new content to it has given us the opportunity to look at it in terms of inspiration."

Resurrected's itemization system, from weapons, loot, and armor, is one of the core features that Blizzard used as inspiration; Shely also said the game's modern features were just as important because it was created and released so recently.

"Because Diablo 2: Resurrected exists today alongside Diablo 4, we can look at it through today's lens, and not just have to go back to, you know, 20 years ago, and think about how to bring lessons forward from 20 years ago. We can bring lessons from D2, but lessons from today."

Diablo 5 is in development and launches in Spring 2029.

• StarCraft general manager says that approaching the concept of scale was one of the biggest challenges in switching to the shooter genre
• The shift from real-time strategy to an open world also introduced a huge change in perspective
• But one of the biggest individual challenges was simple

The next StarCraft game will shift to an entirely new genre, jumping from real-time strategy (RTS) to an open-world shooter. The change led to some broad development challenges — as well as some very specific ones.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon 2026, when asked about the development challenges in taking the RTS to another genre, StarCraft general manager Dan Hay gave one very particular example: "Was there a specific challenge? Doors."

Yes, doors. Literal doors.

"If you're 10 feet tall and you're wearing something that weighs 1,000 pounds, doors are a challenge, and we had to figure out how to make our doors [work in] that perspective," described Hay. "It's like, how does it all work?"

Hay went on to say that devs need to make "sure that the world feels logical" and that it "doesn't feel weird" to players.

Hay added: "You've got to be able to play with that perspective, and so from the standpoint of building the world and making sure that the world was logical, and that when I walked up to a door it [opened] and also worked for somebody who's in armor or not".

Beyond the simple challenge of doors, however, Hay did add that size and spectacle were a sticking point: "I think you got to think about scale, right? Because the moment you adjust a perspective, [everything] looks completely different to us".

Annalee Hartling, associate manager of development operations for StarCraft, went on to talk about the sense of scale being very impactful.

"When I saw the trailer, the most impactful portion of it for me was the barracks. The barracks flying in and seeing it from the perspective of every nook and cranny, not looking at it from above.

"I'm not seeing just the top of it. I'm looking at it from the point of view of it landing landing [in front of me], and those jets are going to come out, and the feet are going to come out, and they're going to they're going to touch the ground."

That sense of perspective and scale in an open-world shooter game was "incredibly powerful for a player," said Hartling. "It's emotional, it's fascinating, and it's beautiful," they continued.

StarCraft is set to launch in 2030.

• PUBG: Dednet was revealed at Gamescom 2026
• The upcoming shooter has roguelike elements and crazy abilities
• Creative director Dave Curd says the game is meant to bring the franchise "to an audience that hasn't historically connected with it."

Upcoming PUBG: Battlegrounds spinoff Dednet is intended to bring the franchise to a whole new audience. Revealed at Gamescom 2026, Dednet is a multiplayer shooter with a smattering of roguelike elements.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming at the show, creative director Dave Curd explained how Dednet fits into the wider battle royale franchise.

"We're already getting into what PUBG is as an IP and what makes PUBG, PUBG," he said. "For me, it's not necessarily a closing circle or a level three helmet. PUBG is desperate survival. It's a dark sense of humour. It's survival of the fittest.

"Dednet is kind of my attempt at spreading the gospel of PUBG to an audience that hasn't historically connected with it."

Curd also said that the game is being "developed console first" with matches that unfold at a much faster pace. "We're faster, leaner, and meaner, taking more fights and coming back."

Persistence is an important part of the formula too, with each match progressing you in a way that carries forward into the next.

He continued: "Between every match, you're gaining crazy abilities like sliding like a snake or having blade hands, and you're also gaining funny injuries like fumbling your weapon or sneezing in smoke. All on your way to chase a perfect build."

He described the team's overall mission as "to create an unhinged, f***** up adult sandbox" that allows "players [to] tell interesting stories."

In the same interview, the creative director also touched on how the '90s-inspired multiplayer shooter stands out with its zany abilities and unique style.

Although there's no official release date yet, players can pre-register for the closed beta now for an early taste of the action.

• StarCraft will have the same "gritty" vibes as the original real-time strategy (RTS) game
• General manager and creative director Dan Hay says the game was also influenced by the "interstellar western" of the original
• Associate manager of development operations Annalee Hartling says watching the trailer was "emotional"

StarCraft will adopt the same "gritty" atmosphere of the original real-time strategy (RTS) game, according to Blizzard Entertainment.

If you missed it, a new StarCraft game was announced at BlizzCon 2026, but unlike its predecessors, the title will take a new turn for the franchise and is a story-driven open-world shooter.

Speaking to TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon, StarCraft general manager and creative director Dan Hay discussed the action-packed CGI trailer that debuted at the event and revealed the team's inspirations for the sequel.

"What I loved about StarCraft, the original, was that it was gritty, that it felt like it was on a frontier," Hay said. "It felt like a western. It felt like an interstellar western. That's what it felt like to me."

He continued by reminiscing about his time playing the original RTS game, explaining that he wanted to adapt the experiences he had in the new StarCraft, including the music, characters, and lore.

"From the music, to the characters that I met, to the people that I ran into, to the moments that I had, to the entire lore of it, it felt like a gritty, sometimes dirty, [and] not ] perfect world, and it made the asymmetry of the different factions feel even better because it felt very real. Because our real world has asymmetry to it.

"And so I think leveraging that and putting that into this world was key for us."

Associate manager of development operations Annalee Hartling also shared her reaction to the trailer, saying that the moment you see the barracks flying in and touching down, not from a top-down perspective, but a more intimate angle, was "the most impactful portion of it" for her.

"Living that moment was like my childhood, you know?" Hartling said. "My early days of gaming had come alive. I'm like, 'This is what I've been waiting for.' I wanted to see that and have that emotion of, like, this barracks hitting the ground and then opening up, and I'm able to walk out and look. Oh my goodness, that is incredibly powerful for a player.

"I think, at least from my point of view, it's emotional, it's fascinating, and it's beautiful. So having that perspective of being boots on the ground down there, seeing it all happen, and then whatever else happens to be outside those doors when you come through the barracks."

StarCraft is slated to launch in 2030.

• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis experience director Jeff Adams confirms "no old code exists" for the original 1996 game
• This meant Crystal Dynamics had to build the game from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5
• Adams says the engine also allowed the studio to create its own custom tech for the "reimagining" of the classic title

Crystal Dynamics has explained why it chose to build Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis from the ground up, instead of doing anything close to a remake of the 1996 game, revealing that no source code exists.

In a Q&A at Gamescom following an exclusive presentation that TechRadar Gaming attended, experience director Jeff Adams discussed what he's previously called a "reimagining" of the original Tomb Raider game and what it meant for the development team, who built the game from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5.

"We are in Unreal Engine 5," Adams said, "no old code exists. We are basically taking it and remaking it, or not remaking, reimagining it. We are bringing it from the ground up."

When asked to talk about how effective Unreal Engine 5 has been for the team, Adams explained that it enabled them to "have our own custom implementation for physics in the engine," which means engineering their own features, custom physics, and general upgrades; this made Legacy of Atlantis a true, modern reimagining.

"Unreal creates a really great sandbox platform for building a game, but when we're making a specific type of experience, we're going to have things that we really want to target and get to a right fidelity level where we're happy with it," the developer continued.

"So while things like Nanite and Lumen [UE5's technologies that offer realistic graphics capability] allow us to make a beautiful game environment, there might be some things that we're saying, 'Hey, we wish it could do this a little bit better.' That's when we'll break out and say, our engineers will create something custom that helps solve that issue, so that we can make sure that we're delivering an authentic Tomb Raider experience on Unreal."

He added that Lara Croft's long braid, which reacts to her movement, is "a perfect example of that."

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis launches on February 27, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

• Krafton announced PUBG: Dednet at Gamescom this year
• The '90s-inspired shooter features some bonkers abilities
• "We're kind of finding our own way here," explains game director Dave Curd

Players slithering along the ground like snakes, swords for hands, a tiny doll wielding a power drill driving in a toy car — some of these wild sights seen in the debut trailer for PUBG: Dednet seem completely at odds with the realistic and reserved approach the defining battle royale series is known for. When I bring this up to the game's creative director, Dave Curd, he tells me that is entirely the point.

"If you want to excite and delight people, you have to give them something fresh," he says me in an interview at Gamescom. "If you want a cool, stoic, mil-sim, take your pick; they're everywhere. But what everyone else can't do, and maybe they don't want to, is my take on this world, this lore, these characters, these abilities."

Curd explains that the tone of PUBG: Dednet is like "my version of the 90s filtered through a meatgrinder," and you can certainly see that from the debut trailer. It's zany, over-the-top, and drenched in color, with gunfights taking place in arcades, car chases through rural towns lit up by neon signs, and a grungy, punk vibe throughout. Safe to say, it stands out.

"The audience will forgive almost anything but being bored," suggests Curd. "So, I think this trailer will get a lot of love and hate.

"As long as they're feeling something passionately, I think we've done a good job," he continues. "But if people look past that and their eyes glaze over, then that would be worrying."

While Dednet is still effectively a battle royale, pitting multiple teams of three against each other in a contest to be the last ones standing, it continues to mix things up not just in the tone and character abilities, but also in how your game progresses over time with several roguelite elements.

It starts with the concept of runs, where you might nominate how many wins or placements you can achieve before you hit a certain number of losses. Win or lose, at the end of a match, you're presented with choices that can alter or upgrade your chosen character's abilities and play style.

Perhaps you'll lean into more of a support role to assist your teammates with heals or protection with a riot shield made out of a car door? Or maybe you'll take that aforementioned doll, who can ride on your back into battle or stealthily sit on your opponent's shoulder and be a nuisance.

"I'm pretty confident this isn't going to be in this year's Battlefield update," jokes Curd, when explaining how they came up with abilities like this for the multiplayer shooter. "I think our internal test is: does it make us laugh? Does it sound like an interesting challenge? And do we think about it the next day? We're kind of finding our own way here."

That neatly summarises how Dave Curd and the team are experimenting for PUBG: Dednet to create something unique and interesting in the space. It definitely caught my eye during this year's Gamescom, and if it got your attention too, you can pre-register for the closed beta now.

• Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons has a smaller spell set, each with multiple uses, for controller accessibility
• Invoke studio head Dominic Guay says this also means the combat won't slow down if there were a spell wheel
• He says there's also a bit of "resource management" to spells, and players will need to blend melee and magic combat

Invoke Studios has confirmed that Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons has a smaller spell set, with each spell offering multiple uses, rather than a large variety, mainly for controller accessibility.

That's according to studio head Dominic Guay, who told TechRadar Gaming in an interview at Gamescom that a smaller spell set opened up new playable opportunities, making combat more approachable on a controller while also keeping the action fast-paced.

This meant abandoning a classic spell wheel and narrowing its spell options, so they're all accessible on the gamepad.

"The breakthrough for us, it started with making direct access to these spells on the controller," Guay said. "A lot of games in the past where you had powers or spells, you had a lot of stuff to select from, and that's cool, and that was even our first reflex. But when you do that, you slow things down, and there's a limit to going through a wheel and choosing powers. There's a limit to that."

He added, "By making everything accessible on a controller, we started playing with our spells a lot more."

During the same interview, Guay explained why the team chose a warlock protagonist, saying "creative magic" was central to the story and gameplay.

The studio head also said it was a challenge to manage the game's magic system because, when you consider Dungeons & Dragons, "it can do everything," and Invoke needed to pick its spells wisely.

"Instead of adding like 100 spells, we thought, let's have less, which makes sense for a warlock also," he continued, "and let's make them more multiple-use cases, connect them, one to another. Connect them with some enemies. The way these enemies behave in a challenge."

Spells, which are anchored to magic objects, tomes, monsters, and more, also have their own upgradeable skill trees and can be used alongside melee combat. This creates a "rhythm," with Guay explaining that players can't just stick to long-range spells and will need to go into close quarters with enemies, which works well for protagonist Kaatri, a warrior-turned warlock.

Players can use spells to set up enemies, giving them an "advantage" for critical hits, and there are various ways to do this with different types of enemies.

"There's a bit of resource management too. You can't just do spells forever," Guay said. "There's a point where you're going to be low on ability to cast spells, so you're going to have to get in there at some point."

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

• StarCraft is making a shift from the real-time strategy genre to the open-world shooter genre
• The development team realised during early discussions that "we weren't talking about a game from above"
• According to StarCraft general manager Dan Hay, "it was boots on the ground every time" when the team was talking about the game

The process of StarCraft shifting from real-time strategy to open-world shooter emerged naturally from repeated team discussions about "the story we wanted to tell," as well as in-game moments, armor, exploration, discovery, and the desire to experience the world from ground level, according to the game's general manager, Dan Hay.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim, Hay went on to describe the process that will see the series' perspective change entirely in the next StarCraft game: "Every time we drew a picture or every time we talked about it, it was boots on the ground every time."

These conversations then snowballed, gathering up other game features and elements, it seems, which kept the direction of travel going towards taking StarCraft into being a shooter. "We started to talk about perspective and how that's going to work; we started to talk about the armor, and we started to talk about what could attack that armor and how it could rip it apart if it needed to.

"We would talk about things with the characters [too], and we started to very quickly realize we weren't talking about a game from above; we were talking about a game down on the ground where you felt every inch of the game," described Hay.

He added, giving a nod to the narrative in store for players when StarCraft releases, that it was obvious that the game would be "down on the ground, and that just made sense for the story."

But as well as changing the player's perspective from looking down to looking out and around, the team looked at this change for the series to embrace the open-world exploration and discovery aspects of the upcoming game.

"[We wanted to] make sure that there is an opportunity to explore. Make sure that there's an opportunity to discover. See a thing off in the distance and go — 'is that something that I saw from the first game? Is it?' And then head off to it."

StarCraft was teased with a cinematic trailer at BlizzCon 2026 and is slated to release in 2030.

Drakong Challenger: One-minute review

The Drakong Challenger takes aim at the budget controller market by offering a basic but high-performing pad. On the style front, the Challenger is very much a case of function over form. You’d be hard-pressed to tell it apart from your run-of-the-mill Xbox controller, although the green rings around the thumbsticks are one notable point of difference.

Just like that controller, the Challenger is very comfortable in the hand. It’s also surprisingly well-made, with a solid shell and planted buttons. What’s more, it’s pleasingly light, making it easy to use for long periods. All this makes it one of the best Xbox Controllers at the budget end of the sector in terms of construction.

Although there’s no software to accompany the Challenger, you can assign the back buttons quite easily using the M button. A rumble notifies you when your assignments have been confirmed, which is a useful indicator.

The Challenger impresses in action. The triggers and sticks are as smooth and precise as you would expect from their Hall Effect technology, while the D-pad and face buttons are satisfyingly damped and quick to respond and rebound. The back buttons are a little less tactile, but they suffice nonetheless.

Given how inexpensive it is, you’d seriously have to consider the Challenger over a standard Xbox controller or any other, for that matter, so long as wireless connectivity is something you’re willing to sacrifice.

Drakong Challenger review: Price & availability

• $34.99 (about £25 / AU$50)
• One month of Game Pass Ultimate included
• Good price-to-performance ratio

The Drakong Challenger costs $34.99 (about £25 / AU$50) and is available now. It comes with a USB-C cable, as well as a code for a one-month free trial of Game Pass Ultimate.

The Challenger is cheaper than the official Xbox Wireless Controller, although that gamepad has the advantage of wireless connectivity. However, it doesn’t include a rechargeable battery as standard, nor does it have customizable back buttons.

If you want something a little more feature-packed, but don’t want to spend a huge amount, the Turtle Beach Pacific Skyline is a good alternative. It has companion software that can be used to remap buttons, as well as adjust vibration intensity and thumbstick dead zones. Also, the controller itself is far more vibrant than the Challenger — and many other controllers, for that matter.

Drakong Challenger review: Specs

Drakong Challenger review: Design

• Classic Xbox controller design
• Light yet solid construction
• No accompanying software

As far as looks go, the Challenger barely departs from the traditional Xbox design. It has the same shape, size, and layout, with the only additional flourishes being green rings around the sticks and a subtle outline around the two halves of the pad. There’s no RGB lighting, despite what those aforementioned stick rings may lead you to believe.

However, all this isn’t to say the Challenger has a disappointing construction. After all, to many gamers, the Xbox controller form is comfortable and practical. And despite the plastics not feeling particularly premium, the Challenger is surprisingly solid and pleasingly light at the same time, which is always a winning combination.

What’s more, the sticks and buttons are well fitted with no play in them at all, which isn’t something that can be said about most budget controllers. The back of the handles is textured for added traction, but the improvement is marginal given how subtle this texture is.

There’s no software available to customize the Challenger, but there are two mappable back buttons. I couldn’t find information on how to map them anywhere, but thankfully it’s a fairly simple process to figure out. You simply press the M button and a back button simultaneously until you feel a rumble, then press the button you want to assign and another rumble will confirm its activation.

The Challenger has no wireless connectivity, which is a shame but understandable at this price point. The included USB cable is quite long, but it isn’t finished in a braided fabric, which is something you often find on the best gaming mice to improve flexibility and reduce drag. It does at least seem quite durable, and the connection at either end was solid in my experience, despite the small amount of superficial wobbling at the controller end.

Drakong Challenger review: Performance

• Solid and responsive buttons
• Precise and tactile triggers and sticks
• Easy connectivity to Xbox and PC

The Drakong Challenger might be a budget controller, but that’s not something you’ll notice when gaming with it, as every input is smooth, solid, and precise. The face buttons are also well damped and very responsive, rebounding quickly to allow for easy spamming when needed. The same goes for the D-pad, and despite its traditional four-pronged hat, it felt comfortable in my thumb, even when performing rolls and frantic inputs in Tekken 8.

On the shoulder buttons, the texture is subtle but noticeable, and feels quite nice on the fingers, although I’m not sure it provides much in the way of traction. The Hall Effect triggers are light but offer a surprising amount of control, which was especially helpful when accelerating and braking in Assetto Corsa. The Hall Effect thumbsticks were accurate and responsive when steering, too, as well as when aiming in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. I also appreciated their soft, grippy coating and textured rims for added purchase and feedback.

The two back buttons are easy to reach, but they don’t feel quite as tactile as the other inputs, lacking depth of travel and dampening by comparison. Also, I found them quite easy to trigger accidentally, even when I didn’t have a particularly tight grip on the pad.

Surprisingly for an inexpensive controller, the Challenger features a headset jack. The cable connection is solid, and I didn’t notice any loss in audio quality relative to connections made elsewhere.

As for the pad itself, I had no issues connecting it via the USB cable to either an Xbox Series X or to my PC, being just as easy to use with the latter as the best PC controllers.

Should I buy the Drakong Challenger?

Buy it if…

Don't buy it if…

Drakong Challenger review: Also consider

How I tested the Drakong Challenger

• Tested for several days
• Played a variety of games
• Experienced with many other gamepads

I tested the Challenger for several days, using it for a variety of games and on both PC and Xbox.

I played Assetto Corsa to test the triggers, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl to test the precision of the sticks. I also played Tekken 8 to test the responsiveness and comfort of the D-pad and face buttons.

I’ve been gaming for decades and have used a wide variety of systems and controllers in that time. I’ve also reviewed a range of them, from simple budget-friendly affairs to feature-packed premium offerings.

• Read more about how we test
• First reviewed: September 2026

• Diablo 5 devs confirmed a new class for the game at BlizzCon 2026
• The Plague Knight will spread and then consume disease across the battlefield to their advantage
• Two returning classes are already confirmed as well

Three Diablo 5 classes have already been confirmed, and the developers behind the game have even shed light on a brand-new one coming to the game during the Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel, which we watched at BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim.

"The Plague Knight is the first new class that will be joining Diablo 5," said Joe Shely, game director. "This is a heavily armored class; it's a walking death."

Adding more detail, Shely said, "You're going to be roaming the battlefield, spreading disease and consuming it for power." This sounds incredibly deadly, poison-y, and downright unclean.

As well as confirming that the Demon Hunter and Monk classes will be returning for Diablo 5, Shely also added that "Diablo 5 is going to launch with more classes than ever before, and I don't just mean more classes than another Diablo game at ship. I mean more classes total."

The returning classes are likely to be very well received by the community

Finishing the description of the classes, Shely reinforced the key characteristics of Diablo classes, saying that "they're approachable. You can jump in; you can immediately have an exciting time playing them. But there's also deep ARPG mastery there, and a multitude of builds to explore."

I expect more classes and more class info to drop in the coming months as we hear more about the game in the long run-up to its release in Spring 2029.

• Devs say that they're "really doubling down on darkness" with Diablo 5's setting
• This will build on Diablo 4's bleakness and darkness
• And continue to contrast the relative vibrancy of Diablo 3

After the somewhat vibrancy of Diablo 3 that some fans raised an eyebrow at, the bleak darkness and misery of Diablo 4 was a welcome change of vibes and atmosphere for many players — and it sounds like the developers are going to continue this into Diablo 5.

During the Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel, which we watched at BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim, some of the game's devs spoke openly about the dark and bleak setting that Diablo 5 will have.

"I think that's really the tone, the atmosphere," said John Mueller, senior art director. "We're really doubling down on darkness, and what this means for the art team is we really get to explore all of what we learned from Diablo 4 and expand on it further. You know, that desolation that we're going to see in the world is really the setting for the survivors of this story [in Diablo 5]."

This is something that I'm absolutely here for; Diablo games thrive and are at their bleakest best when they embrace a dark and miserable tone and atmosphere, and help to cement the sense of place Sanctuary has, as well as the overarching richness of the story and narrative.

This doubling down, to the extent of embracing a setting of defeat and one where Sanctuary has fallen, already makes for a compelling starting point that I can't wait for.

However, narrative director Jennifer Hepler went on to add that in the process of "making Sanctuary so, so dark, [and] trying to double down on this darkness of Diablo winning in this apocalyptic setting; we still need to make Sanctuary a place that's worth defending."

So there's a balancing act in play here, then, with the darkness and hopelessness of the setting being somewhat offset by the devs still wanting to make Sanctuary a "place that you want to save."

This narrative conflict and tension is something I'm really looking forward to properly and fully when the game releases in Spring 2029.

• Total War: Warhammer 40,000 battle product owner Dave Petry says it was important to implement player customization in the game
• He says it was a "big deal" to bring those customization options from the hobby forward to the game
• Petry adds that it was "awesome" to bring in the "core" features from the hobby

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 offers plenty of player customization options, which Creative Assembly has now revealed was an essential feature it wanted in the game from the start.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, battle product owner Dave Petry, alongside lead designer Joy Dey, said player customization in all aspects was always a "must-have," as the studio wanted to simulate the same experience for fans of the tabletop Warhammer game and beloved hobby.

"The second we picked this up, we knew we had to make a big deal of being able to tell your own story within this universe to bring in your own identity and get to be part of all of it," Petry said.

The developer also told TechRadar Gaming that it worked closely with Games Workshop to ensure the player experience was as "authentic" to the tabletop game as possible. This included simulating the tabletop's combat the way that fans are familiar with.

"We're trying to create an authentic sense of the lore and the kind of combat that's there, but the love for the tabletop absolutely is present," Petry said.

As for customization, Petry told us that it was "awesome" to bring in the "core" features from the hobby, and teased aesthetic unit personalization, loadout customization, and late-game progression.

Petry also confirmed that the game will feature the actual real-life paint colors used by Games Workshop too, so fans will be able to use the same ones they know and love and recreate their real-life armies or favorites in the game.

"In terms of what you can do, not just the aesthetic customization, colors, etc, etc," he went on, "but being able to specialize your units throughout a campaign and, over that campaign, take your intercessors, specialize them towards using, say, like bolt rifle, auto bolt rifles, or stalkers, leveling them up, kitting them out in different ways, and you know potentially ultimately getting them to be like stern guards.

"All of that sort of stuff is absolutely part of that core hobby that you experience this way."

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

• Diablo 5's player character is the Heir of Westmarch, a fugitive from the forces of hell
• Not much is know about them apart them having a "unique bond with Diablo"
• This bond will apparently give us an "insight" into the big bad Diablo

During the Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel, which we watched at the conference, Diablo 5 devs revealed a couple of key details about the player character.

Instead of stepping into the shoes of another Wanderer or similar protagonist archetype, we now know you'll play as a character known as the Heir of Westmarch.

Not much is known about the Heir, aside from them being a fugitive on the run from the forces of hell, but what is particularly interesting and exciting is that the Heir will have a "unique bond with Diablo that you find out over the course of the game, why and how it came to be", according to Jennifer Hepler, narrative director.

This will allow the Heir of Westmarch to have some form of "insight into him [Diablo], but also a unique vulnerability to what he can do to you," which will apparently give us the chance to "spend the game defining yourself in opposition to the Lord of Terror." Does this imply there's some sort of mental connection between Diablo and our hero? Or some kind of means of direct communication or even control?

To make it even more intriguing, and provide possible insight into the closeness of this connection, Hepler added, "Can you resist his influence? Can you turn his powers against him? That's what the story and the gameplay are going to let you answer." Color me curious.

Also, according to Hepler, "the story really begins when you find out that you can enter the terror realm and survive."

This paints the portrait for a really interesting starting point for the player character, and I can't wait to find out more in the run-up to the game's release window of Spring 2029.

• Diablo 5 developers confirm that Sanctuary is overrun by hell in the upcoming game and has become an "outpost of hell"
• Humanity has fallen and "some humans have been corrupted or raised to become dread commanders"
• Diablo 5 was revealed at BlizzCon 2026 with a Spring 2029 release window

After the reveal of Diablo 5 in the BlizzCon 2026 opening presentation, developers of the upcoming action role-playing game took to the stage to discuss several aspects of the game. The picture of Sanctuary that the devs painted in this Diablo 5 — Forging the Next Era panel that we watched live at BlizzCon 2026 was not cheery at all.

"All of it [Sanctuary] has been overrun. It's become an outpost of hell," said Joe Shely, game director. "There are hardly any humans who haven't bowed or become cultists." But wait, it gets worse, as "some powerful humans have been corrupted and raised to become dread commanders. They have the power of the Dukes of Hell, and anyone who has resisted gets put into a soul cage or pulled into the terror realm."

Make no mistake, the narrative and setting for Diablo 5 isn't one that's built around the risk of the forces of evil entering Sanctuary, or the danger of the spread of evil: Sanctuary has fallen, and everything is on fire.

The official Blizzard blog post describes the world further by saying, "This is not Sanctuary waiting for the apocalypse. It is already living through one. In Diablo V, humanity has fallen into ruin," and that it's a "haunting, desolate land shaped by despair, resilience, and the few survivors fighting to endure another day."

This full embrace of defeat, darkness, loss, and misery as the starting point for Diablo 5 is really interesting, and extends the aforementioned doubling down on the darkness of Diablo 4, and makes for a deeply compelling setting, and one I can't wait to explore when it releases in Spring 2029.

In quite a big surprise at BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard has confirmed Diablo 5 is in development and is on for a Spring 2029 release.

And not content with simply maintaining the previous game's darkness, threat, and edge-of-apocalypse vibes and setting, Diablo 5 looks to go fully bleak, fully miserable, and fully void of hope.

We're on the ground at BlizzCon 2026 in Anaheim and watched the teaser trailer live, which was full of fire, death, and bleakness, as you can see below, and has already set the tone for the next game.

Diablo has always had a specific brand and type of darkness, and almost always soaks its world and settings in a tangible sense of misery, darkness, dread, and hopelessness. And that's one reason why I love the games.

I'm not just being gloomy. That edge-of-apocalypse threat and sense of darkness give the Diablo games an excellent atmosphere and complement the universe's rich lore, as the place of Sanctuary in the battle of good vs. evil.

Diablo 3 received a little pushback when it came out due to it being a bit colorful and vibrant (literally), and while Diablo 4 brought a strong sense of bleakness, death, and darkness to Sanctuary, this early look at Diablo 5 seems like it's doubling down on that original darkness and bleakness to return the series to its roots — as well as welcoming back the series' big bad bossman.

This seems true in both the setting and story. The trailer shows a world on fire, heroes being murdered and their bodies being gruesomely displayed, and, as Blizzard describes the game, instead of continually being on the edge, this is the first time that "players will enter a Sanctuary where Diablo has triumphed, and its heroes have been defeated."

The description goes on to say, "At the heart of Diablo V lies a defining question: what must you become when the world has already fallen?"

It sounds, frankly, awful, full of sorrow, sadness, and relentless bleakness. I can't wait.

Switch 2 players finally get to go to hell

Alongside the Diablo V confirmation and teaser, Blizzard also confirmed the long-running rumor that Diablo 4 is indeed coming to Nintendo Switch 2 — and will do so on September 15, just a few days from now.

In one of gaming's worst-kept secrets in recent times, Blizzard confirmed that the game will come to the handheld in the form of a new edition: Diablo IV: Age of Hatred Collection, that bundle in the base game along with the Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred expansions.

It's a natural fit, with the Diablo 3: Eternal Collection arriving on the original Nintendo Switch and proving a great success and a fantastic way to play the game.

• Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis has three difficulty-scaling options
• Players can switch between hardcore, medium, and easy across combat, puzzles, and traversal
• Flying Wild Hog creative director Michał Kuk says players can individually tweak each setting for a personalized experience

Crystal Dynamics and Flying Wild Hog have confirmed Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will feature difficulty-scaling levels, offering players a personalized experience.

During a Q&A attended by TechRadar Gaming, following an exclusive presentation at Gamescom, experience director Jeff Adams and Flying Wild Hog creative director Michał Kuk discussed how the game was built from the ground up using Unreal Engine 5 and the game's modern features the developers were able to implement.

Legacy of Atlantis won't be a simple remake or remaster of the classic 1996 game, but a "reimagining" for current-gen platforms, which means all-new upgrades and features that weren't available in the original.

Among these are three difficulty levels across three core aspects of the game: combat, puzzles, and traversal; players will be able to individually scale each setting to their preference, giving them more control over their experience.

"With difficulty levels, we have prepared it in a way that I'm pretty sure everyone can set it for their own pleasure," Kuk said.

He explained that players can, for example, set the puzzle difficulty to hardcore if they want something more familiar to the 1996 game, or switch combat to easy or medium, and traversal, personally, to medium.

"You can adjust the game basically however you want," he added.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is set to release on February 27, 2027, for PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

• Alien Deathstorm head of design Ben Fisher says the game's engineer protagonist "felt like a natural fit" in the game's environment and narrative
• He says Rebellion wanted to match an interesting character with "interesting mechanics" and landed on an engineer
• Producer Martin Willingham says "the motive was making the player feel immersed in the experience and exposed"

Rebellion has revealed the influences behind Alien Deathstorm and explained why it chose an engineer protagonist for its first-person survival horror game.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, producer Martin Willingham and head of design Ben Fisher shared that the team was, of course, inspired by the iconic Alien movies, but also looked at the broader influence of "90s cassette futurism" to create "that gritty, grounded sci-fi atmosphere."

"A lot of the tone came from our own 2008 comic series as well," Fisher said. "That kind of broad, pulpy, accessible sci-fi storytelling."

When discussing the intention behind having Deathstorm's protagonist be a protagonist instead of a typical soldier, Willingham explained that the studio wanted to find an interesting character that matched "interesting mechanics," and an engineer "felt like a natural fit."

The perspective also enabled Rebellion to "explore the elements of the sandbox gameplay," and an engineer working to diagnose the problems within a dangerous environment surrounded by monsters worked well.

"So part of the motive was making the player feel immersed in the experience and exposed," Fisher said, "because if you're an engineer trying to survive in that situation, you're less trained than a space marine or something like that [or] some kind of future soldier.

"You're going to feel more at threat. So it amplifies that feeling of being isolated, doing the best in a difficult situation."

While that's one aspect, the developer also said that the other is the added "moments of anticipation" that come with the engineer role, like the build-up you get in a horror experience while trying to complete your objective.

"You've got to slow down and observe the space, so you're not just rushing to the next objective," he added. "You're actually getting immersed in the experience, and that means that when you start hearing the roar of a distant alien, that split of attention builds up a whole load of anticipation and a load of fear."

Alien Deathstorm launches in Spring 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

• CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory say there were narrative challenges when developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past
• The expansion is about Dandelion, but they didn't want him to "steal the show" from Geralt
• There was also "pressure" to live up to the "legacy" of The Witcher 3's previous expansions, but "pressure is what makes us better"

CD Projekt Red and Fool's Theory have said that developing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's third expansion, Songs of the Past, came with some narrative challenges and pressure to deliver.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, where Jakub Rokosz, CEO of Fool's Theory and game director on Songs of the Past, and senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki offered new details about the upcoming expansion, the pair revealed the process of developing a new story about Dandelion without stealing the spotlight from Geralt.

Songs of the Past will be The Witcher 3's final expansion and centers on Dandelion, Geralt's best friend, as the monster slayer unravels a new mystery within the bard's homeland of Letten.

Rokosz and Anetaki discussed how the expansion will "complete" The Wild Hunt's story by giving Dandelion the spotlight he deserves, a chapter that CDPR felt was missing from the base game; however, it came with some challenges in how best to center the bard without losing the focus on Geralt as the protagonist.

"The narrative challenge of Songs of the Past was the biggest challenge; we knew we wanted to do an expansion about Dandelion, but he cannot steal the show, right? Because it's a game about Geralt," Rokosz said.

"So, all of us, straight away, we discarded certain ideas because they were too overwhelming. But then, at the same time, if it's a game about Geralt, there is a very fine line between when it's about Geralt and Dandelion and when it's about you just running around Dandelion's home, right?"

The former Witcher 3 senior quest designer also said that the narrative approach was something his team at Fool's Theory spent "absolute days and weeks discussing."

He added, "So there was a very big effort put into this fine balancing of the narrative, where you are there for your friend, but it's still your adventure. But it is about him and his family's matters, you know. And your relationship with Dandelion as well."

Anetaki said another big narrative challenge was "living up to the legacy" of The Witcher 3 and its critically acclaimed expansions, Hearts of Stone and, "especially," Blood and Wine.

"It's difficult to make something that is just as good or, if not better, right?" the developer said. "So it was really important for us, if we were to make an expansion, to make sure it's a compelling story, right?"

While Anetaki acknowledged that this came with a lot of pressure, "pressure is what makes us better."

"It's motivating," Rokosz continued, "we always try to outdo ourselves, both Fool's Theory and CDPR. When you're working on a AAA game, there's always something that you want to improve, right? Even if you release a very good AAA game like The Witcher 3, you know there's something we'll improve 11 years later in it, right?

"So we always try to outdo ourselves," he added, before referencing Songs of the Past's demo, which premiered at Gamescom and showcased the many visual and technical improvements.

"Everyone always tries to improve their own discipline, right?" Anetaki said. "Cinematics. A lot of them [developers] have a background in movies, and they try to hone their craft as the years go by, make it better. Same for quest design. We never rest on our laurels. We try to always improve our craft, make stories more nonlinear, more compelling, more memorable for our players.

"Writers have a background. A lot of them have published books, so they're excellent at what they do. They always try to tell amazing stories together with the quest designers and the cinematic designers. Art always tries to push the boundaries, tries to make everything fit the narrative and look as beautiful as possible.

"There are technical challenges that we always try to overcome, so it's always a journey upwards, right? We always try to push the quality."

Songs of the Past is scheduled to launch in 2027.

• Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York says Grand Theft Auto 6's Jason "seems quite deadpan and monotone"
• York hopes Jason will show more personality, like Grand Theft Auto 4's Niko Bellic
• He also suggests co-protagonist Lucia will contrast Jason's more subdued personality

Former Rockstar Games developer Mike York has shared his thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 6's big gameplay reveal, including his initial impressions of co-protagonists Jason and Lucia.

In an exclusive interview with TechRadar Gaming, York, who previously worked on GTA 5 and GTA Online, said Jason appeared to move around "very slow and methodical," almost like a "robot" or "a Terminator," and showed very little emotion.

The developer compared the character to other GTA protagonists, such as GTA 4's Niko Bellic, a "great character" and one of his favorites in the series, who was "witty and had some great lines", and hopes GTA 6 will show Jason in a similar light.

"I hope we see more of that because right now, Jason seems quite deadpan and monotone," York said. "Rockstar usually gives us a bunch of neat characters who are funny and have their own flair. I don't know if we're going to see that with Jason, but I hope we do."

Jason will serve as co-protagonist to Lucia, his partner in crime and girlfriend — if you choose to romance her properly, that is. From the extended gameplay footage, it's clear that Lucia is much livelier than Jason, sometimes taking the lead in certain situations; York agreed that as switchable characters, Lucia could serve as the Yin to Jason’s Yang.

"I think that's what they're going to do," he said, and addressed the cutscene where the duo arrives at the Effluvia rooftop bar in the trailer.

"There's that moment in the trailer where they get in an elevator, and he says: ‘Sometimes I'm just more comfortable when I have to use a gun’. She replies: ‘Just be charming!’ Lucia's got this attitude where you can tell she's trying to break him out of his shell. She's the one that probably goes into missions gung-ho, all guns blazing.”

GTA 6 launches on November 19 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. Rockstar has confirmed that it will run at 30fps on consoles at launch.

• Alien Deathstorm producer Martin Willingham says the game is "not another corridor shooter"
• Head of design Ben Fisher says it's a "dynamically generated" survival horror game
• The Rebellion developers say it's a 360-degree sandbox experience

Rebellion Developments has said players can't expect its upcoming first-person survival horror game, Alien Deathstorm, to be another linear corridor shooter, calling it a "rare beast."

Alien Deathstorm was revealed earlier this year by the developers behind the Sniper Elite series and Atomfall and is described as a "visceral first-person action horror experience, where second-to-second survival hinges on responding to a monstrous, constantly shifting threat on a storm-blasted off-world colony."

TechRadar Gaming recently went hands-on with the game at Gamescom and then later caught up with some Rebellion developers, who talked more about it at length, including the concept and design influences, replayability, and player freedom.

While Alien Deathstorm may look like your run-of-the-mill survival shooter with typical survival horror features, the team considers it a "dynamic" experience with sandbox elements where the player's actions can affect unscripted enemy encounters.

Producer Martin Willingham said this means, "the horror, the tension, can happen at any time in different ways between playthroughs and between difficulty camps as well.

"For me, that's one of the most exciting parts of the game because in horror games the experience is typically kind of very, very choreographed because it has to be to build up that anticipation set of those jump scares. But it means you can only play it once."

He continued, saying the team values replayability and sandbox freedom, which means "we had to do something dynamic," and "building the encounters around the player and the player's activities means it's a different experience."

Ben Fisher, head of design, called the game "dynamically generated," where levels are played sequentially, and each has its own sandbox, adding that "It's a rare beast."

"It's not another corridor shooter," Willingham added later. "You're in that sandbox. It's 360 degrees. The action could be coming from anywhere, rather than just at the end of that corridor."

Alien Deathstorm doesn't have a release date yet, but you'll be able to play it in Spring 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

Not long into Marvel's Wolverine, protagonist James "Logan" Howlett is joined by fellow mutant and Team X member Mystique. The blue-skinned shapeshifter is eager to share a shocking discovery with him: a sinister secret hidden behind a closed door. But I ignore her request, instead continuing down the hall to soak in the game's stunning visuals.

It's the natural-looking rain streaming down a window that initially catches my attention. But beyond the pelting precipitation, I also spy equally impressive smoke, flames, and burning embers spewing from a fiery explosion – the apparent fallout of Wolverine's enemy-eviscerating entrance.

The destruction below is contrasted by beautiful moonlight above, which is occasionally punctuated by eye-pleasing flashes of lightning.

Production values as sharp as Wolverine's claws

Of course, if you've played any recent first-party PlayStation game, these realism-rivaling effects probably won't come as a huge surprise. As expected, Insomniac Games' latest superhero romp is obscenely pretty, polished, and packing the sort of production values that've come to define Sony's single-player, story-driven output.

This level of quality extends to Wolverine's characters and storytelling as well. Supported by incredibly layered, emotional performances (Liam McIntyre and Troy Baker especially stand out as Logan and Nathaniel Essex, respectively), the former features unmatched facial details and visual fidelity.

And while the game's narrative doesn't quite achieve the extreme highs of its technical and artistic excellence, it works surprisingly well, spinning an engaging tale that'll please Marvel enthusiasts while also welcoming complete newcomers into this potentially complex universe.

There are a ton of familiar characters, both friends and foes, that fans will love spending time with. But the game's pre-X-Men tale also does a great job introducing these favorites without boring the established audience or relying on exposition dumps.

In Wolverine's universe, for example, Logan and Jean Grey meet for the first time, challenging its writers to not only introduce these well-known characters to each other, but also to a potential new audience. The task is handled elegantly, however, in an early mission at Team X's HQ that sees the pair naturally sharing personal details while searching for drawings a mischievous mutant child has hidden for them.

Slice and dice with cinematic style to spare

This is a single instance, but the lengthy story often leverages these quieter, absorbing – and interactive – scenes to flesh out its nuanced characters and connect the larger story to the obscenely over-the-top bloodbaths that fill the rest of the campaign. While storytelling and characterizations certainly have their place in Wolverine, the game is, first and foremost, a visceral, action-packed power fantasy focused on showing fans what it feels like to get behind the titular mutant's adamantium death-dealers.

Of course, considering Logan is virtually indestructible and his signature retractable claws are capable of turning even a tank to ribbons, the developers also faced the daunting task of balancing the combat difficulty. How exactly do you ensure encounters are challenging and consequential when you're playing as someone who can return from the brink of death and cut through steel like it's warm butter?

Using a variety of creative systems and mechanics, Insomniac has mostly found a nice balance between allowing the beast-like protagonist to be the absolute badass you'd expect, without being ridiculously overpowered. At its core, the combat is an absolute button-mashing blast. Complemented by intuitive, snappy inputs, immersion-ratcheting DualSense effects, and environments filled with destructible items, simply shredding through hordes of enemies feels fantastic.

Reducing goons to piles of lopped limbs and red plasma is also as easy on the eyes as it is on the thumbs. Slick animations, cinematic finishing moves, and more blood and gore than you'll find on the floor of a slaughterhouse ensure every kill is as fun to watch as it is to execute.

The visual abuse Logan suffers is also a surprising highlight, as he too becomes soaked in viscera. But it goes deeper than that, literally, as his clothes become increasingly tattered, exposing ugly wounds and the highest fidelity sweat and body hair I've ever seen – enter photo mode at your own risk.

Whether you're taking on Bolivar Trask's cybernetic soldiers, chipping away at a towering Sentinel, or sinking your claws into any number of baddies and bosses we won't spoil here, slicing and dicing from behind Wolverine's shiny skewers is endlessly entertaining. But the game's attempts to deepen the combat beyond the animalistic amnesiac's rage-fueled hacking-and-slashing are a bit hit or miss.

As Logan levels up, you can invest points to unlock new moves and special abilities, dubbed "Techniques." The former are primarily flashy skills and combos that build on the character's base attacks, parries, kicks, staggers, jumps, dodges, and other core skills. Adding these to your already considerable arsenal definitely has benefits, from delivering more damage and disarming enemies to recovering some health and even flinging foes into each other.

Most of all, these moves – which require specific button inputs to pull off – inject a ton of cinematic style into your kill sprees. But more often than not, that's exactly why I used them, as their offensive and defensive benefits alone didn't feel impactful enough, especially when I could achieve similar results by spamming basic "barrage" attacks, dodging from danger, and unleashing specials as they cued up.

Those latter attacks, however, do make a huge difference. Working off cooldown timers, these devastating moves put you a button-press away from barreling through targets like a human drill, spinning through hordes with the force of a tornado, and performing other table-turning abilities.

These special attacks can be upgraded and also include a nice healing option when you're at death's door. Speaking of Logan's regenerative superpower, he also has access to "Rage," a resource he builds during combat that supports a second wind-like mechanic and – as advertised – allows him to go full-on feral, ventilating targets even more viciously than usual.

When combined with the specials – and some other late-game enhancements I won't spoil here – both the basic and rage-fueled skills make for unquestionably thrilling encounters, albeit battles that aren't as deep as their designers intended.

Snikt!-fueled style over substance

Similar sentiments can be applied to Wolverine's non-combat content as well. You'll spend most of your time in this globetrotting adventure painting cities and towns – across Canada, Japan, Madripoor, and more – plasma-red, but when not shish kebab-ing baddies, you'll retract your claws for some less violent activities.

In addition to the excellent story interludes, Logan does some investigating, chases fleeing enemies – on foot and while straddling a motorcycle – and a surprising amount of platforming.

None of these tasks are optional, and while they don't offer anything particularly special, they do deliver the occasional fun distraction. The bike chases, for example, are practically on rails, but it still never gets old slashing a pursuing vehicle's tires with your claws.

The platforming sections, meanwhile, generally get the job done, but sometimes kill the immersion when the mutant – who can often scurry up trees like a cat – suddenly can't scale a fence, crate, or wall.

Wolverine makes no apologies for being a linear, scripted action-adventure, a quality that often works to its benefit. But it can also be a detriment, like during those fickle platforming moments. This heavily directed approach does afford players some freedom, encouraging them to sniff out collectible bottles of whiskey and timed challenges accessed in Logan's creepy "Nightmare Cabin." These mini-games, unfolding in his haunted memories, also shed a bit of light on his dark, foggy past.

Whether hunting for booze or conquering these timed tasks, you'll collect DNA strand-altering "Adaptation" points, a currency that feeds another character progression path. But these passive perks don't feel all that meaningful among Logan's already considerable arsenal. Toss in the fact that these cabin-diving diversions have you partaking in the same gameplay you're already doing on the critical path – only against a clock – and they feel like an undercooked attempt at optional content.

Suit crafting feels similarly half-baked. The game contains 30-plus costumes and accompanying claws, a fantastic, fan-pleasing inclusion. But the suits are purely cosmetic, and accessed by investing the same "materials" hidden around the world.

Donning Logan with a cowboy hat or dropping him in this hyper-realistic world as his anime-inspired Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls persona is awesome, as is the permanent health bump you receive as you buy more suits. But with just the same single resource used and no gameplay effects added, calling it "crafting" is a stretch.

As a linear, single-player action-adventure, Wolverine works brilliantly, delivering a visually striking, cinematic blockbuster supported by engaging characters and emotional storytelling. It's also brimming with stylish, blood-soaked combat that kept a smile stretched across my face until the credits rolled.

When it strays from its heavily scripted path, however, attempting to layer strategic depth into its arcade-y encounters – as well as engaging, optional activities into its carefully crafted world – it does reveal some undeniable cracks in its adamantium armor.

Should you play Marvel's Wolverine?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

Accessibility features

Marvel's Wolverine includes an impressive suite of accessibility assists, beginning with plenty of options to tailor the blood, gore, violence, and profanity to any player's comfort level.

Beyond that, there are various difficulty settings, as well as ample gameplay assists to further tweak and tailor the challenge within those defaults. In addition to the expected inclusions for customizing subtitles, UI, and HUD elements, a huge selection of audio and visual assists are also available.

While a variety of high-contrast modes and color customizations are included, dedicated protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia selections seem to be absent.

How I reviewed Marvel's Wolverine

I spent just over 25 hours with Wolverine, completing its campaign before replaying many missions to seek out collectibles and attempt optional time trial challenges.

I played the game on my PS5 Pro using my budget TCL 4K 65" TV, with HDR enabled. For audio, I tested with both the display's onboard stereo speakers and Sony's PlayStation Pulse Elite headset.

First reviewed September 2026

• PlayStation cuts ties with Kojima Productions for upcoming Physint game
• Hideo Kojima states PlayStation tried to cancel Physint, so he decided to look for a new partnership
• Xbox and Kojima Productions now have a partnership for Physint and future projects, including OD

Sony dented its reputation in the gaming industry with its announcement that it would be ending the production of physical game discs — and the trend of controversial decisions is still going strong.

PlayStation has cut ties with Kojima Productions for its upcoming game, Physint, and Xbox has swooped in as a replacement in a new partnership with Hideo Kojima's video game and film production studio.

In a statement on X, PlayStation says: "After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from collaborating with Kojima Productions on its project, Physint. We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima's vision for the game."

From that statement alone, it's not exactly clear why the split has occurred. However, Hideo Kojima took to X to weigh in on the matter himself, stating: "We unexpectedly received notice from PlayStation Studios that they would cancel the Physint project," which is PlayStation in form, at least based on its cancellations of multiple projects from its first-party studios.

"Physint is an important project both to me personally and to Kojima Productions. Determined to keep the project alive, we have spent the last three months searching tirelessly for a new partner. We found Xbox, a partner with whom we share a common vision for the future, and we have decided to team up with them once again."

Unsurprisingly, Xbox is more than happy to partner with the critically acclaimed developer, as its CEO, Asha Sharma, says: "We're honored that Kojima-san has chosen Xbox to work with Kojima Productions on Physint. His ambition to challenge conventions reflects the kind of creativity we want to support at Xbox."

Sony's Physint cancellation attempt hints at bigger concerns

Fortunately, Physint is in fine condition, with development still underway, as Kojima confirmed, calling it Kojima Productions' "genre-defining action-espionage title", which many have lauded as the next Metal Gear-style franchise since Kojima left Konami in 2015.

However, the bigger question remains: is the split between the companies solely due to the PlayStation's Physint cancellation attempt? Considering Kojima's stance against a digital-only future, which Sony has greenlit for games, it's hard to imagine that this didn't play a role in the partnership's collapse.

Kojima highlighted his sadness about Sony's decision to end the production of physical PlayStation game discs, considering the loss of ownership, which he described as a company suddenly stating, "You can turn on the tap for a certain amount of money each month."

That points towards fears of subscription services and how media will only be accessible by using them, and easy access to favorite movies and games will cease to exist.

It's not hard to imagine Kojima getting cold feet about launching Physint on PlayStation as an exclusive, without any physical game discs, as it directly highlights his fears of an all-digital future. It may not have been the direct factor behind the separation, but the timing (a few months after Sony's disc-axing announcement) certainly doesn't appear to be coincidental either.

Whether the blowback from this new decision will push Sony to reverse course is to be seen, but if Kojima's pushback on an all-digital future has anything to do with the disbanding, it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see other developers eventually do the same.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve played the original Final Fantasy 7, and the thought of soaring through the skies aboard the airship Highwind with Midgar, Junon, the Gold Saucer, and Wutai scrolling past below in this level of detail always felt like an impossible dream. Now I’m watching it unfold in front of me in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation — and it’s glorious.

I cruise around for far longer than is even necessary, just soaking it all in. It’s a moment that finally fully realises what we expected when Square Enix first announced that it would be remaking the iconic 1997 RPG.

This journey has been a long one: from the restricted but well-focused part one of Remake, through the expansive and a little more erratic part two in Rebirth, and now this monumental finale to cap off the trilogy.

After a quick introduction to the cast for this demo section that takes place at the start of Chapter 4, I’m given the controls of the Highwind. I’m told the next destination for Yuffie, Barret, Red XIII, as well as playable newcomers Cid and Vincent, is Wutai. But I don’t need to go there right now. And I choose not to.

I zoom over to see what’s changed at the Costa Del Sol: this world’s happening holiday resort and lively town. How do I make my final approach? Not by landing the airship, but by parachuting off the edge, watching the terrain and the town grow larger as I approach the ground. It’s an impressive feat that this is possible, with such huge freedom given to how and where I land.

When I reach the Costa Del Sol, it is, effectively, exactly as it was in the previous entry. Folks are soaking up the sunshine in swimwear, popping to the bar to pick up a drink, and enjoying all sorts of entertainment by the seaside. The detail and density still impress and define the approach that Square Enix has taken with the trilogy as a whole. It’s bigger, bolder, flashier, expanded, and extended. There’s just more to everything.

I step out into the outskirts of the party playground, and I’m immediately hit by how Square Enix has taken this approach in other areas of the game. Sometimes, I feel, for the worse.

The demo was not afraid to impress upon me the sheer number of side activities that are going to be available in Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. Photo hunts, monster hunts, the Queen’s Blood card game, environment investigations — all of these and more popped up as soon as I landed in a new location or were added as I explored. With an AI assistant, MAI, also trying to explain them all, it almost overwhelmed me.

I get why we played this section of the game, but hot-dropping into a location while completely fresh to the game and getting barraged by all of these notifications instilled in me equal levels of excitement and dread. Yeah, there’s going to be a heck of a lot to do in Revelation if you want it, but I don’t know how much of it is going to be compelling.

What does still shine, though, is the combat. Zipping over to Wutai for a change of scenery, I ran into several monsters on the path to the village, and my muscle memory from the dozens of hours I sunk into Remake and Rebirth started to come back.

Cid and Vincent both seem like excellent new additions to the roster. I gravitated more toward the vampiric ex-Turk after a couple of battles, enjoying the rhythm of how he’s played. Effectively, you build up attacks over time, before eventually being able to unleash his ferocious Galian Beast mode to deal more devastating damage. Even against unthreatening monsters, he was very satisfying to play.

What I didn’t get to explore too much was the new FITS mechanic, which gives your characters more focus by taking on a specific class. I could see how these roles help you refine your party and add another layer to the already strong combat system. For example, Barrett could be set as a Knight in some impressive, shiny, and slightly absurd mech armor, elevating his job as a defender and protector.

Intrigued by both the new characters and mechanics, I found myself seeking more combat, so my journey through Wutai was full of distractions, including accidentally wandering into a boss monster that was about 40 levels above me and destroyed me in a matter of seconds. One of the many, many, many side activities in the region that I’ll no doubt have to return to in the full game, if I don’t get burnt out by them again.

And then, even with those doubts in my mind, I did find myself in awe of Revelation again just as quickly after seeing the scale and glow-up given to Wutai village. The pagodas and the familiar Turtle's Paradise bar have gone from half-memories of pixelated and blocky buildings to stunning and expressive environments that I could never have imagined.

Overall, there was just so much that it felt impossible to wrap my head around even half of it in just the short 60 minutes I had to play Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. I’ve barely had a chance to mention all the new pieces of equipment you have to navigate the world and interact with it.

What I want to make clear, though, is that all of these features haven’t put me off the game at all. It might not have settled some of the worries I had after tiring of the deluge of mostly throwaway content in Rebirth, but I left wanting more time with Revelation.

More time cruising through the clouds of the Highwind, more time testing how easy it is to jump out from pretty much anywhere on the overworld map, and more time digging into the combat system with new characters and how the FITS system mixes it up. And that’s before we see what direction Square Enix takes the story after the controversial ending to the previous entry.

Whatever happens, I have the feeling that Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is going to be a huge game when it launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on April 8, 2027.

• Fable associate game director Will Kennedy says the game's combat system will be "faithful" to the classic RPG series
• However, Playground Games wanted to make the game "approachable" for modern audiences
• Kennedy says the game's "Style-weaving combat" offers more "breadth and depth" to achieve that

Fable's "style-weaving" combat system is designed for a modern audience, while remaining faithful to the classic role-playing game (RPG) series, according to Playground Games.

That's according to associate game director Will Kennedy during a Q&A session at Gamescom 2026, where he discussed the game's humor and how that has also been woven into the battle system by allowing players to turn enemies into chickens.

Speaking more about the design intention behind what Playground Games calls "style-weaving combat," which lets players mix and match different weapons and spells, Kennedy said the team wanted to balance what long-time fans of the series are familiar with, while making combat approachable for new players.

"When we're talking about being faithful to the classic franchise, we thought about how there was an approachability to combat there, and we knew that we wanted to be able to capture some of that for our game as well," Kennedy said. "But at the same time, we're making a game for gaming today."

He added, "We wanted there to be breadth and depth to it, so we landed on wanting to have style-weaving combat. We wanted to be able to move from move to move really smoothly and easily, and that combined with the level expression that you've got."

Kennedy explained that players can customize every element of their loadout, including ranged and melee weapons, and the four spell slots, which can be upgraded, and "by the time you play the game for even a little bit of time, you have a really broad, deep, rich suite of options to choose from."

"But being able to move so freely between the moves, and it feeling so responsive and so satisfying, is something we're really proud of," Kennedy continued, "because I think we've landed somewhere that is still approachable but has that depth that we want and so therefore is faithful but works in gaming today as well for players, which is sometimes to be proud of."

Fable is set to launch on February 23, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

Kennedy also confirmed that Fable's main storyline will take up to 20 hours to beat, but the game's life systems are "limitless."

• Fable's main story takes between 15 and 20 hours to complete
• Associate game director Will Kennedy confirms additional side content can also take between 15 and 20 hours
• However, the game's life systems are "limitless"

Playground Games has confirmed that Fable's main story will take up to 20 hours to beat, but promises the game's life systems offer "limitless" replayability.

Speaking during a Q&A session at Gamescom 2026, associate game director Will Kennedy discussed the scale of the upcoming role-playing game (RPG), saying, "So the main story obviously depends on how you play, but the main storyline is around 15 to 20 hours."

He added, "But then we've got around probably about 15 to 20 hours again of open world and side content to engage with."

While not a massive amount of hours compared to other open-world RPGs, that at least gives fans an idea of what to expect when the game releases next year.

However, it's what Kennedy said later that confirmed that, while Fable will have a good-sized story with plenty of side content, the game's life systems, like interacting with the over 1,000 unique non-player characters (NPCs), buying real estate, committing crimes, and more, will offer up even more playtime.

"Honestly, with the life systems which we [shared an] in-depth look at and showcased earlier on in the year, that's limitless, and you can engage with it as much as you want," he said.

Fable has been in development for a very long time, but will officially launch on February 23, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

• CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3 Remastered and its many upgrades helped realize Songs of the Past
• Game director on Songs of the Past, Jakub Rokosz, says the team had a "certain vision" for the expansion, but there were technological challenges
• He says the remaster "helped with applying optimization" to the expansion

According to CD Projekt Red, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, may not exist without The Witcher 3 Remastered and its many upgrades.

If you missed the bombshell news the Polish studio dropped during Opening Night Live, The Witcher 3 Remastered is a massive free update arriving on September 29. It offers many improvements to the base game and the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions, such as upgraded visuals, a refined combat system, new Witcher Signs, transmogrification, and more.

The remaster will essentially rework the game in its entirety, giving fans of the 11-year-old role-playing game (RPG) an excuse for another playthrough, ahead of the upcoming expansion Songs of the Past.

Now, in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, Jakub Rokosz, CEO of Fool's Theory and game director on Songs of the Past, and senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki shared that without these technological improvements, their vision for the expansion may not have been fully realized.

"The stars had to align, so to say, because a few things had to happen," said Rokosz, who was also one of the original senior quest designers for The Witcher 3. "The Songs of the Past expansion and Letten itself, the area that it takes place, it had a certain vision. We had a certain vision for it, and it posed us certain specific technological challenges that was impossible to realize without the remaster changes.

"So the conditions had to grow for the remaster to appear on the horizon for us to be able to realize this, so this is actually two things meshing together to make it a reality."

The developer explained that Letten's lush vegetation, small bushes, and dense forests caused issues during development, but were resolved with the remaster's advancements.

"One of the challenges when we started prototyping the area was [that] it was impossible to ride with a horse through it, basically," he continued. "So we had to do some improvements on the horse handling side, right? So it feels more organic or more natural."

Letten also features a big lake in the middle of its map that allows players a view of the horizon, and as Rokosz explained, having this huge amount of open space where you can see fishermen fishing "posed a challenge in terms of how the engine was handling this. So the remaster helped with applying optimization."

Songs of the Past is due to launch in 2027.

• The final season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been revealed
• It includes a Doom crossover and lots of Halloween content
• Only one new multiplayer map is being added, however

Activision has lifted the curtain on the content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in its final season ahead of the Modern Warfare 4 launch.

With a new game on the way, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this update is going to be a smaller one. Still, it includes plenty of spooky Halloween content as part of the series' annual The Haunting event.

This includes a bombastic Doom crossover, allowing players to unlock loads of Doom-themed rewards in a new limited-time event pass. As usual, this pass will be divided into two tracks: a free one and a premium option.

The free track contains new operator skins for Wei Lin and Falkner, plus an adorable Mini Slayer weapon charm and a range of other rewards. Completing the entire track will grant you the Roc 20mm special weapon — a massive, almost cannon-like rifle that fires devastating 20mm rounds.

The premium track, on the other hand, unlocks the Doom Slayer himself as a playable operator in the JSOC faction. By default, he's wearing his Doom: The Dark Ages attire, but the premium track's final reward is an alternate classic 1993-style skin.

Other weapons introduced in the upcoming season include the TR41 Para Assault Rifle, which will be available at launch, and the Arcblade melee weapon added later on. There are also some new weapon attachments on the way for the VS Recon Sniper Rifle, Dravec 45 SMG, and Sokol 545 LMG.

Unfortunately, the offering is pretty sparse on the map front, with only one new one being introduced. It's called Quantum, and it looks like an appropriately ruined laboratory. There is at least also a new version of the existing Homestead map, called Bloodstead, for you to explore as well.

The cool Hordepoint mode will be returning from previous games in season too, challenging players to face off against a rival team and spawning waves of zombies.

All of this comes alongside a fresh battle pass full of new skins and unlocks, not to mention additional content for the Zombies and Endgame modes, plus the free-to-play Warzone battle royale.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Xbox One.

• Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay says Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons' imp companion Skev provides narrative and gameplay assistance
• Skev will provide lore to the player as they explore Darkon, but can't be controlled in combat
• Guay says the imp is "his own character" with his own personal motivations

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons' imp companion Skev serves multiple purposes for the player, but was designed to be "his own character."

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay offered more insight into Skev and his relationship with the warlock protagonist Kaatri, revealing that the imp will assist the player as they navigate the open world of Darkon both narratively and with his utilities.

However, while Skev will act as a companion to Kaatri, Guay stressed that he still has his own motivations, including seeking out his lost master, just like how Kaatri is searching for someone too.

"We iterated a lot on him. So he actually is his own character," Guay said. "That was important to us. He wasn't born to be a sidekick. That was the mentality. He used to be the advisor to the ruler of Darkon, so in a way, he had a really important role in that land before his master vanished, and his quest is to find his lost master, and Kaatri's quest is to find someone too.

"So, he tags along, and Kaatri's kind of like, 'Oh well, he knows this place, and that's useful.' So he gives you a lot of insights as you travel around. You find new places."

The studio head said Skev will offer lore about new locations as players explore, adding that he thinks of the imp as "your unreliable guide to Darkon."

Skev won't be controlled by the player either, Guay confirmed, so he won't die in combat or get in the way, but will sometimes help in certain instances, like by picking locks.

"You can actually decide how you want to upgrade his abilities throughout the adventure," he added, "So [there's] some practical application."

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons arrives in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past spotlights Dandelion and will tell a "complete" story
• Jakub Rokosz, Fool's Theory CEO and Songs of the Past game director, says CD Projekt Red wants to "give justice to Dandelion"
• Senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki adds that "it felt like a chapter was missing"

CD Projekt Red has said The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's third and final expansion, Songs of the Past, will "complete" the game's story by giving Dandelion the bard the spotlight he deserves.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, Jakub Rokosz, Fool's Theory CEO and Songs of the Past game director and former Witcher 3 senior quest designer, explained that rather than the expansion serving as a bridge to The Witcher 4, as some fans might have expected, it actually completes Wild Hunt's story by delivering a new chapter that the team felt was missing.

However, the developer declined to comment on whether the expansion will have any direct connection to The Witcher 4, so we'll have to wait and see.

"We always wanted to give Dandelion the proper spotlight he deserved," Rokosz said, acknowledging that it's odd for an 11-year-old game to receive a new expansion. "So we knew that there was no space in the base game to give him justice. That's what I wanted to say: Give justice to Dandelion."

Songs of the Past will center Dandelion in Geralt's final journey in The Witcher 3, where players will explore Letten, the bard's homeland, and be wrapped up in another supernatural mystery.

"We knew that at some point we wanted to address this thing, because Dandelion is a very important character in Geralt's life," Rokosz continued. "There's a misconception of him being this comedic relief, and this is his only role in the Witcher series, whereas that's not true. He's a very deep and intelligent character. He used to be a professor at Oxenfurt [Academy], and he writes beautiful poetry, so we want to show the players what's behind that mask of a joker, where he came from, what his family is about, what's the world [like] where he grew up."

Senior quest designer Despoina Anetaki added that it doesn't matter that the expansion arrives 11 years later, only that the whole story has been told.

"What's really important to us is not so much like should we release an expansion 11 years later; it could be, I don't know, 20, 100 years later," Anetaki said. "What matters is that the story we tell is complete. This is part of The Wild Hunt, and it felt like a chapter was missing, like something was not there. One more thing we wanted to tell, right? And Dandelion's story was one of those, right?"

The developer revealed that the team went back to the original Witcher novels and used the source material to make something that could "excite fans" and "something that could excite us most of all, because it was a difficult question when this idea was first pitched to the team."

Anetaki explained that the team had to figure out what would pull Geralt out of his retirement, and it had to be important enough to warrant a full-length expansion. That reason was Geralt's best friend, Dandelion.

"Once we identified that important thing," the developer added, "it all clicked together, and it became very clear that yes, we need to make this expansion because it makes us as fans of The Witcher really excited about it, and I hope that the players will also feel that."

Songs of the Past doesn't have a release date yet, but it's slated to launch in 2027. In the meantime, fans can look forward to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, which arrives this month on September 29.

• Creative Assembly has explained how it designed a faithful Warhammer player experience for Total War: Warhammer 40,000
• Battle product owner Dave Petry says the team didn't directly recreate the tabletop systems, but tried to "authentically simulate" them
• Creative Assembly continued its "trusting" relationship with Games Workshop, which shared its "infinite knowledge"

Creative Assembly worked closely with Games Workshop to ensure the Total War: Warhammer 40,000 player experience was as "authentic" to the tabletop game as possible.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, lead designer Joy Dey and battle product owner Dave Petry discussed the upcoming strategy game's combat system and shared how it was able to faithfully translate the feeling of Warhammer's tabletop systems.

Rather than a complete one-to-one recreation, Petry explained that the goal was to "authentically simulate" the feel of the tabletop's combat.

"We really, really care about trying to authentically simulate the feeling of the type of combat, whatever period or kind of warfare that it is, right?" Petry said. "So in a historical, obviously, war on Earth, and generally we have the sorts of weapons that you have on Earth. When it's fantasy, it's magic and mages and all that sort of stuff, and obviously, with the science fantasy and 40k, the biggest reference point you have to that is the tabletop.

"But it's not necessarily like the be-all and end-all of it," he continued. "We're not transposing the tabletop, right? We're trying to create an authentic sense of the lore and the kind of combat that's there, but the love for the tabletop absolutely is present."

Petry said that, like so many fans, he's been playing and collecting Warhammer 40k since he was young and confirmed that references and nods to the universe, like names, abilities, and lore, are in the upcoming strategy game. However, he said some elements of the tabletop game "just don't fit" with the game's real-time simulation

Creative Assembly also focused on making the game feel "familiar" to the Total War franchise; combat has also been scaled up, and he explained that macro positioning, where the player's forces are, flanking, and enemy morale are all things that come into play.

Petry said positioning in particular is being treated as "an interpretation of the lore and the universe, with the tabletop being one of the most important references."

The developer also added that Creative Assembly continued its long-standing collaboration with Games Workshop to ensure authenticity, saying their "special relationship" has helped the studio combat issues it was dealing with.

"[If] we can't find the thing that quite works for [the game], or this piece of lore sounds similar, but doesn't quite work," Prety added, "And for them to be able to come back with their infinite knowledge of all of this stuff and go, 'Well, you're right. This doesn't quite fit, but over here we have something that actually might be able to do the job.'

"And that close or trusting collaboration has, I think, enabled us to create something that captures that authentic feeling."

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.

• Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay confirms Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons will have a toggleable HUD and minimal waypoint guidance
• Guay says this is to encourage exploration and reduce the "hand-holding" experience
• With these options, he says the game will be "immersive"

Invoke Studios has said Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons will encourage players to explore Darkon's open world by offering a toggleable HUD and minimal waypoint guidance.

That's according to Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay, who told TechRadar Gaming in an interview at Gamescom that the upcoming D&D action-adventure game will ease up on the "hand-holding" you often find in other open-world role-playing games (RPGs).

"It helps that we're trying to go easy on the hand-holding, so that allows us to pull back a little bit," Guay replied when asked why the hands-on demo had such a minimal HUD. "In this case, I'll be honest, though, we turned off some elements of HUD so that it wasn't overwhelming for people watching the demo."

The studio head confirmed the team will add "some" elements to the HUD to help players, but it can also be turned on and off in the settings, adding that there was a time when it "felt the need to put a lot of things in the middle of a screen."

"We realized that players, because they're being eased in with the number of spells they have, the number of things they can do, we don't need to overwhelm them," Guay continued. "And then we will give you some guidance. So the example I always give is, if the quest was to find me, you know, at Gamescom, and you open up the map, then you'd see it.

"We'd put a highlight around [the area], and we say, 'Well, he's somewhere in there, right?' So then you have a compass; you can get there, but we don't want to overwhelm you with too much information. [We want to] keep it immersive."

During the same interview, Guay explained why Invoke chose a warlock protagonist for the game, explaining that the concept of "creative magic" was central to gameplay and story.

Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.

• Total War: Warhammer 40,000 will be accessible to hardcore fans and new players
• Lead designer Joy Dey says the tutorial will cover everything from story and lore to gameplay mechanics
• Battle product owner Dave Petry adds that the game is "a good entry point" for new players, and Creative Assembly wants to reach as many people as possible

Creative Assembly has confirmed that its upcoming strategy game, Total War: Warhammer 40,000, will be accessible to experienced fans and first-time Total War players.

That's according to lead designer Joy Dey and battle product owner Dave Petry, who discussed the game's onboarding process in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom.

The pair shared that they want to reach as many players as possible, so the team made sure the game's tutorials eased newcomers into the experience, while also offering an "appetizer" for hardcore fans.

"We are expecting there will be players who've never played Total War before, and there will be players who don't know the lore," said Dey. "So we have a story within the tutorial that has named characters from the universe, and it's going to ease you in. Like, what is a Space Marine? What is their motivation?"

The tutorial will focus on the Space Marines, the developer added, and players will learn the mechanics "on a step-by-step basis," adding, "It should be a gateway into 'What is 40K?'"

Dey acknowledged that the battles can be "quite complex" but said that every gameplay system, from the pause and play function, how to take cover, analysing the battlefield, and how to use height as a tactical advantage, will be introduced and taught to the player during the tutorials.

Petry added that many new and "reformed battle features" either needed reintroduction or tweaking for the new game, but reiterated how the tutorials will benefit both newcomers and long-time fans.

"So all of those concepts need a gentle reintroduction," he said. "Personally, I view the tutorial for an experienced player as kind of like an appetizer, where, if you know both of these things, you can go in there and be like, 'Yeah, teach me some of the new stuff and get me warmed up with a bit of juicy lore stuff.'

"And if you know nothing, it's just such a good entry point for both of these things, right? And we really want to make sure that we can bring as many people to Total War and to 40,000 as possible. Obviously, 40,000 is absolutely gargantuan, and it's a really wonderful time to be part of that fandom, right? So I think it's also a wonderful opportunity to show people how cool and great Total War is."

Total War: Warhammer 40,000 launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Series S, and PC.