Season 7 will see Reagents sent into Murkoff’s latest correctional nightmare in the Prison Farm. At the center of it all is Sergeant Coyle, returning in a prominent new role for the season’s new Trial, Locksock the Warden.

The American prison is a meat grinder, taking in sociopaths and criminals and extruding functioning members of society. But strict routine, severe conditioning, and close quarters create a crucible for power dynamics built on violence, contraband, and flesh.

With the new Trial, you are freedom. The indefinable promise that keeps prisoners at the grindstone that turns authority to profit and back again. Don’t let false authority stand in the way of real capital. Kill the Warden, and set yourself free.

Season 7 also brings with it two new MK-Challenges. In “Bribe the Judges”, you are the master, whose property is the purpose of the law. Salary reminds enforcement that their monopoly of violence only exists for your monopoly of capital. Collect the bribes in order to pay the judges. Meanwhile, “Cancel the Broadcast” has you sabotaging the broadcast and defiling the faithful with blood in order to be let out.

Then there’s the new Ex-Pop stalking the Prison Farm in The Biter. Having had its arms removed to prevent further self-harm, Biters are universal sadists, still capable of grievous harm with their mechanically enforced jaws. Though Biters are kept chained by the neck for safety, you should approach them with caution, as their augmented legs grant them unexpected velocity.

If that’s not enough content for you, from July 14 to August 11, Twitch users who tune in to participating The Outlast Trials Twitch streams can earn rewards through the latest Twitch Drops campaign. You can read up on the full details from the FAQ on developer The Red Barrels’ website.

Lastly, Project Boneyard also introduces a range of new features and improvements for The Outlast Trials, designed to “expand player expression, streamline preparation, and improve the overall experience” across key modes. That includes the introduction of Rig Customization, Knife Customization, Loadout Presets, and Mastery Tasks, giving players new ways to “prepare for therapy” and personalize their approach before entering the Trials. The update will also bring major reworks to both Escalation and Invasion, with significant changes designed to improve the flow, structure, and overall player experience of both modes.

More details on these features, and the full contents of Project Boneyard, will be revealed closer to launch.

The post Sergeant Coyle Returns in “Project Boneyard” for ‘The Outlast Trials’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Fright Train has players take on the role of one Doug Barker, who has just started working for the Paranormal Agency Worldwide, or P.A.W. for short. You’ve received an anonymous distress signal originating from the L.R.S. Great White, a mysterious research station on rails in Antarctica owned by the secretive corporation known as SHARK. It turns out that the train has become infested with interdimensional horrors, and you’ve got to stop them. Complicating matters is the fact that you need to keep the train running, as you risk freezing to death if the train ever stops.

Inspired by a mid-2000s aesthetic (as well as the fact that you’re an anthropomorphic dog), Fright Train follows the typical survival horror tropes of limited ammo, puzzle solving and inventory management. That includes hacking into encrypted terminals in order to interface with the train’s systems. You’ll need to do so in order to monitor and repair the train’s equipment as it deteriorates. There’s also that pesky threat of the cold, which will turn deadly if you’re left outside of the train for too long.

Then there’s that threat of the horrors that lurk on the train itself. Luckily, the game features a ” volatile combat ecosystem” where enemy behaviors intertwine, resulting in your foes either supporting or sabotaging one another.

The post Board Survival Horror Title ‘Fright Train’ on September 15 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With pre-orders now live on PC and consoles, players can choose from three editions, with each offering bonus content in addition to the base game.

• Standard Edition ($49.99 MSRP) – includes the base game, along with the Chthonic Arsenal pack
• Deluxe Edition ($54.99 MSRP) –  includes the base game, Chthonic Arsenal pack, and The Arkham Field Kit
• Premium Edition ($59.99 MSRP) – includes the base game, Chthonic Arsenal pack, The Arkham Field Kit, Holloway Manor, and 24-hour advanced access

The Chthonic Arsenal features mythical weapons to give you options when the abyss fights back: the “Shale Mary” handgun, the “Breakwater” shotgun, and the “Tektite Tommy” SMG, each with its own look and features.

The Arkham Field Kit adds three outfits for the main character: “The Anatomist,” “The Witness,” and “Heretic Heraldry.” It also includes three Dream Essence to learn your first Talent early and a Resource Pack with a helpful mix of ammo, healing, and crafting items to aid your first steps in the city.

Lastly, Holloway Manor is a house that belongs to an old family whose history curdled into occult practice. Rooms interlock like a puzzle box, dusty heirlooms open doors, and the house rewards your curiosity with paths you were not meant to find. See the job through, and you’ll receive the “Bucking Bronco” revolver as your reward for the main game.

Set in a Lovecraftian vision of 1920s America, in the infamous city of Arkham, The Sinking City 2 sees a supernatural flood that has driven out all but the most deranged residents, leaving decay and eldritch horrors that roam the streets. Players step into the role of Calvin Rafferty, an occult adventurer whose cavalier actions have led to devastating consequences.

After a dreaming ritual goes wrong, his girlfriend, Faye, is left trapped in a mysterious sleep. Now Calvin must navigate the drowned streets of a derelict city in a desperate attempt to bring her back. On his quest, he’ll come face to face with a plague of otherworldly creatures, the Slither, who possess and twist the dead into lethal, walking puppets.

The Sinking City 2 launches August 18 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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Pre-orders are now open for the game, which includes the “Starter Pack” and “Radiance Pack” bundles. Purchasing these packs include exclusive, limited pre-order items unique to the PlayStation and Xbox:

• Starter Pack ($9.99): Offers the Black Gold Butterfly cradle skin, 3 Midnight Rave weapon skins, a 30-day METAPASS, a special home facility skin, and exclusive profile customization items.
• Radiance Pack ($14.99): Provides an Outfit Selection including 3 character skins, a Premium Battle Pass, a 30-day METAPASS, 2 Siderite lottery tokens, and an exclusive avatar frame.

Once Human sees players waking up after a cataclysmic event where everything has become infested by an alien entity known as Stardust. You yourself have been affected, turned into a meta-human with no memory of who you were. As a meta-human, your quest is to find the truth about Stardust, find out where it came from, and what it wants. Along the way, you’ll need to navigate between the five different factions in the world, which each have their own goals.

Just because you’re a meta-human, doesn’t mean you’re invincible. Stardust has infected everything, including the soil and water. Similar to what happens in Fallout 76, if you eat polluted food and drink dirty water, it will cost you. In this case, it’s your Sanity. When your Sanity drops, your max HP will also drop.

Seeing as this is an MMO at heart, Once Human will have you and your friends (or without, if you so choose) collecting gear, finding new blueprints for weapons (about 100 blueprints spread across seven different categories), building and defending your base known as a Territory Core, as well as tackling numerous enemies that are once human. That includes challenging bosses from another dimension to reap the rewards of powerful items, and to ultimately ease the spread of Stardust.

The post Free-to-Play Survival MMO ‘Once Human’ Launches on PS5, Xbox Series on August 25 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

You’ll explore every room of the facility for resources and weapons in an effort to stay alive. Luckily, you’ll have an extensive arsenal of various firearms at your disposal, from shotguns to assault rifles.

You’ll need them in order to take down the various blight-ridden mutated horrors throughout the mega structure. As one would expect, you’ll need to scrounge for parts and ammo, so make every shot count.

Similar to what players experienced in the early PlayStation classic Alien Trilogy, BLIGHTEN sports hand-drawn enemy sprites and animation in a 3D retro world, creating a unique and dynamic atmosphere while still scratching that throwback itch.

It’s all wrapped up in a dark narrative, where an unseen evil lurks in the shadows of the facility, shaping the horrors around you as you descend deeper into the facility. As you navigate this industrial nightmare, every Blightened creature slain is a grim reminder to what you’ve lost — and the things you’re fighting for.

Look for BLIGHTEN later this year on Steam.

The post Get a Taste of the Action-Packed Terror in the Demo for FPS Shooter ‘BLIGHTEN’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The playtest includes a short tutorial before the first real spin, after which you’ll face off against four opponents, eachs with their own tricks, skills, and bad intentions. There are also unlockable items (100+, to be exact) for different builds and survival strategies. The devs hope to “tune the machine” with the playtest before the game’s eventual launch later this year on Steam.

Blending slot-machine gameplay with deckbuilding strategy, DEAD SPIN throws players into slot-machine duels against lunatic gamblers in an abandoned casino. Each run in DEAD SPIN is a deadly challenge against more than 8 unique opponents. Each opponent brings their own deck, skills, and strategy, forcing players to adapt their build around whatever random items they find. Lose, and the run starts over under new conditions. Win, and new items may be unlocked for future runs.

With seven reels symbol types, every run is about deciding which symbols to prioritize for the strongest trigger chains. When the odds turn against you, use trinkets to outsmart the rules. You can also exploit the game’s economy by choosing coins that trigger off your strategy and turn the casino’s economy against itself.

The whole thing is wrapped in a visual style that draws from late ’90s and early ’00s horror aesthetics, blended with a grimy VHS-inspired atmosphere with dark, grotesque humor.

The post Gamble for Your Life in a Horror Slot Machine Roguelike ‘DEAD SPIN’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Games like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Return of the Obra Dinn, or The Outer Wilds all have this same great feeling of progression through knowledge rather than experience points or items, making the process of synthesizing information an integral part of the equation. Last year, Evil Trout Inc added a new game to that pantheon with their remake of The Roottrees are Dead, a deduction game about filling out the family tree of a candy magnate. To follow up on that great game, they remade last year’s Type Help as The Incident at Galley House, an intriguing new mystery game with clever mechanics and an engaging story.

Something strange happened at Galley House in 1936. The mystery remains unsolved, and now, decades later, you arrive at the abandoned manor with a peculiar machine that lets you see echoes of the past. Unfortunately, the machine does not necessarily give you an unbroken chronological view of what went down, forcing you to become deeply immersed in the events in order to follow the activities in the house and solve the mystery once and for all.

The premise is fairly simple. It’s the night of a family gathering at Galley House, and an unfamiliar guest shows up, insisting he was invited by someone that no one at the residence has ever heard of. There’s a bit of commotion as everyone tries to figure out what to do with the man, and that’s when the first body shows up. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the corpses continue to pile up as things only get more confusing, leading you to conclude that something otherworldly may be going on at Galley House. While the spooky old manor vibes are off the charts, the true nature of the ‘haunting’ is unconventional in execution, leaving you with a surprising mystery to untangle.

A Murder Mystery Told Out of Order

Using your machine, you see scenes from the past play out as static images that are lightly animated, but the hook of the game involves how you access those scenes. Much like games like Her Story or Immortality, you’ll be slowly uncovering these scenes in a non-linear fashion, based on the unique setup of your contraption. In order to view a scene, you need to have the moment in the timeline, the location, and who is in the scene. At the beginning, everyone is identified with numbers, and only a handful of locations are given to you, forcing you to listen carefully to the contents of the dialogue to make connections.

For example, you may know that in scene two, person one is in the entrance with person three and four. Listening carefully to this scene may give you a hint as to where any of these people are going next, or maybe a new location to add to your list. Slowly, you’ll fill out the rooms of the house and begin to associate numbers to names or physical descriptions, giving you valuable information to continue your search. It may seem like merely watching scenes isn’t an exciting gameplay mechanic, but the level at which you need to pay attention to these details makes every sequence engaging, forcing you to lean in and fully understand what’s going on.

As I mentioned, I had a notebook with me the whole time, and front and center on that first page was the list of numbers and any information I could get about their identity and relationships. Each scene I was scribbling down new possibilities to enter into the machine based on what was playing out in front of me, giving me tantalizing threads to pull on as I pieced together what was going on. It might not be for everyone, but it’s a riveting feeling to finally figure out the relationship between two characters or finally figure out how a person ended up with a specific item.

An Interface That Makes Every Discovery Feel Earned

To make the fantasy feel complete, you’re not just simply typing in codes; you’re actually interacting with the machine in an extremely tactile fashion to input the correct information. There’s a little slide for the location, knobs to switch on for each character, and a dial to tune in the correct spot in the timeline. When you have it all set up for what you believe is the correct information, there’s a big switch to throw that brings the machine to life. A wonderful little moment of tension follows as the machine powers up, either leading you to a new scene if your inputs are correct or a disappointing shutdown if you get it wrong. I’m a huge fan of this kind of crunchy UI that mimics in-fiction machinery, and it really goes a long way in enhancing the overall experience of The Incident at Galley House.

There can be tons of information to parse at once, and even with a well-organized notebook, it’s going to feel overwhelming at times, but the game has built-in systems to help you track everything. First of all, you’re able to sort any scenes you’ve discovered by timeline, person, or location, allowing you to follow the information in whatever way you need to at the time. Need to figure out something specific about an event in the Living Room? Just tab on over to the Living Room location and it’s all laid out for you.

The timeline section in particular contains incredibly useful information, as it will show you which people you have not located yet during that moment. For example, you may be watching a scene where someone mentions hearing a conversation in a different room, and you can go to the timeline and see that there are only two people unaccounted for at that time, giving you the information you need. There’s even a handy search function that will highlight scenes that mention specific words, something that saved me on several occasions.

Helpful Tools Without Giving Away the Answers

Even with all these tools, you may still find yourself stuck, so there are a few more ways that The Incident at Galley House will help point you in the right direction. Just like in Roottrees are Dead, each scene will show a number on it if there’s more information in it that you haven’t found a way to use. The higher the number, the more information contained within, so it’s always a good idea to look at those first when you’re at a dead end and are trying to figure out where to even start.

Also like Roottrees, there’s a robust and forgiving hint system built into the game that will gradually give you increasingly specific hints when you request it. These start as simple as “where did person X say they were going after this scene” to more pointed hints, before finally just giving you the correct code if you continue to ask. The first tier of hints is so light that I would frequently use it when launching the game for the first time, just as a reminder of what threads there are to pull on if I didn’t have something extremely obvious circled in my notes.

Detective stories like this can really feel bad when you hit a brick wall and can’t figure out a way forward, and The Incident at Galley House gives you so many ways to help move you forward to the finale without taking away all the satisfaction of figuring it out.

A Memorable Cast Hidden Behind Silhouettes

There’s an excellent web of characters that you’re introduced to throughout the course of the 10 to 12 hour narrative, and they are all brought to life vividly through expressive voice acting. While each character is represented by silhouettes with numbers on them, at least until you start being able to associate images with each of them later on, you are still drawn into the scenes thanks to these performances. I felt like I got a sense of who each of these characters was and how they related to each other, making both the detective work and the narrative quality equally satisfying. The nonlinearity of the storytelling adds a layer of investment that draws you in, making the mechanics of the game an integral part of the narrative experience.

As much as I loved most of the tale I uncovered, I think the final act suffers a bit both narratively and mechanically. Without getting into spoilers, there’s a twist in the final stretch that changes things up a bit, and while the switch was initially exciting, it felt like it got the story a bit off track. Mechanically, the scenes become longer, making it a little harder to parse what exactly you’re supposed to glean from the sequence without scrolling through its long transcript. Narratively, it became a bit exposition-heavy, trying to explain the events at the expense of the characters I had grown invested in. It’s not a bad ending by any means; I just felt slightly let down by the change-up, and found the answers in the end slightly less satisfying and a little more frustrating to navigate.

I had heard a lot of great things about Type Help when it was getting buzz last year, but I decided to wait for The Incident at Galley House remake version, and I’m glad I did. The combination of the new audio and visual layer gives the game so much life, adding a solid presentation to a razor-sharp detective game. Its haunting mystery gives us a myriad of compelling characters and relationships, and the supernatural element of what’s going on is something unexpected and unique. The rush you get when things finally start clicking into place is a feeling that other genres just can’t capture, and there were some really excellent moments of revelation that were subtly revealed in a satisfying manner that made me feel like I actively figured it out.

Even with the late game stumbles, this game nails both the mechanical and narrative aspects of a great mystery, creating a compelling detective game that’s challenging while also giving you the tools to meet the challenge.

Review code provided by publisher. The Incident at Galley House launches July 14th on Steam.

The post ‘The Incident at Galley House’ Review: Supernatural Whodunit Builds Upon Its Solid Original Version appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

SENARA: The Sacrament puts players in the role of a new recruit of a religious organization that just so happens to have a massive 6,000-ton ship: the eponymous Senara. Upon setting sail you wake up to find the ship’s crew missing. In their place, horrific creatures now stalk the corridors of the ship. You’ve now got to escape hidden cult rituals, forbidden truths, and survivors with their own agendas await you in the darkness.

Calling back to classic survival horror design, SENARA: The Sacrament offers players a massive escape room where you must solve puzzles and manage your limited resources to your advantage if you’re to get out alive. In order to do so, you’ll have to know when to use your resources, employ stealth mechanics, and decide whether to fight or flee.

Using LiDAR, photogrammetry, and Unity HDRP pipelines, SENARA: The Sacrament offers a scan of a real-life documentary-level accuracy 6,000-ton ship. You’ll explore the corridors of the eponymous vessel, uncovering hidden passages, and gather clues to find the key to your escape. Along the way, you’ll also uncover just what happened about the ship. Take care, however, as the info scattered across documents, objects, and conversations between characters is open to interpretation. Depending on what you believe and how you interpret the clues, the story can unfold in entirely different directions, leading to multiple endings based on your choices.

“SENARA: The Sacrament hearkens back to the golden age of survival horror, but with a modern twist,” said No-Jin Kwak, Director at Influsion Inc. “It retains the item scarcity, puzzles, and freeform exploration of the genre’s best entries, now enhanced with a state-of-the-art recreation of real ocean liner. We believe this adds a deliberately uncanny layer to its oppressive atmosphere, offering untold immersion to its nightmarish tale of high seas horror.”

The post Open Seas Survival Horror Title ‘SENARA: The Sacrament’ Launches July 30 on Steam [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

PlayStation 5 users can also pre-order the physical “Revered Edition,” which includes the base game, a SteelBook case, art book, art prints, and the pre-order bonus skins Obsidian and Skeletal Harbinger, all housed inside a collector’s box.

Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel to the original Mortal Shell that significantly expands on the original with unrestricted combat, deeper weapon design with extensive upgrade options, and an emphasis on free exploration.

You are the Harbinger, a being prophesied to reclaim the blessed Undermether’s stolen Ova from the daunting creatures that ruthlessly guard her unborn. Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel that significantly expands on the original with unrestricted, adrenaline-charged combat, offering deeper weapon design with extensive upgrade options, and an emphasis on free exploration. The game’s immersive, interconnected open world is expansive yet deliberately compact, designed to unfold its twisted landscapes and hidden structures while respecting the player’s time.

Once again, players will be making use of Shells — dormant forms of forgotten warriors are scattered throughout the world. Once discovered, each Shell can be awakened and possessed, unlocking their innate strengths and unique abilities. Evolve your own style of combat by harnessing the diverse unique abilities of each Shell, and unravel their secrets through the discovery of lost memories.

The post ‘Mortal Shell II’ Launches August 20 for PC, Consoles [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Blast your way through an abandoned 1950s theme park, the eponymous Twisted Tower, crawling with fairy-tale mascots, twisted puzzles, and deadly traps. Uncover the dark secrets of your past as you race to the top to win the prize and the love of your life. It’s been decades since there’s been a single guest, but the park’s silly mascots will certainly be ready to accommodate you with expert fashion. They’ve been cooped up for years, so they may be looking for a hug.

Choose from dozens of unique paths up the cozy halls of the park castle as you explore its five areas. Sporting “punchy, bloody gunplay”, you can upgrade a slew of deadly weapons ranging from a whack-a-mole mallet to a skull-poppin’ ray gun, and gain new abilities as you climb your way up the tower to win a heaping pile of money and the hand of your childhood sweetheart, Charlotte.

The post Upcoming “Willy Wonka Meets BioShock” FPS ‘Twisted Tower’ Launches on August 18 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Meet Angel, a normal college student with her whole life ahead of her, and Solomon, her loyal sphynx cat. In a sudden muzzle flash of horrific violence, the two find themselves swept up in a waking nightmare of blood, conspiracy, and retribution.

Pursue all-consuming vengeance as the duo seeks answers, no matter the cost. Go on a bloody tear, crossing paths with law enforcement, the National Guard, and a sinister cult that will stop at nothing to prevent Angel from finding the truth – and how it all connects to franchise protagonist the Postal Dude.

“Angel is the first time we’ve introduced a new protagonist to the POSTAL series, and she’s already resonating with both new and long-time fans,” said Vince Desi, founder of Running With Scissors. “Her story taps into the darkness that characterized the first game in the series, and today’s new trailer gives our community a first look at Angel’s feline companion, and the atrocities awaiting in Dreamscape.”

Look for Flesh & Wire to launch in 2027 on PC via Steam, GOG, and PlayStation 5.

The post Second ‘Flesh & Wire’ Trailer Delves Into the Nightmares Within [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

To participate, simply head on over to the Steam page for SOMBRAS: negative frames and click the “Request Access” button. Slots are limited, so get in sooner rather than later. You can also join Maboroshi Artworks’ Discord server to share your opinions and feedback.

SOMBRAS: negative frames follows Shiomi Alterio, a Japanese-Spanish photography student who lives with her father in a Japanese town after her parents’ recent divorce. One night, Shiomi is engulfed by a dark dimension made of familiar streets, hungry shadows, and a cast of girls that look just like her. Shiomi must navigate these shadow-drenched streets, using her camera to capture unusual sights, and develop film rolls to upgrade equipment.

Along the way, she can befriend alternate versions of herself, collect occult trinkets, and unlock the strange doors blocking your path forward. However, she must also confront her repressed terrors in an emotional exploration of identity, youth, and dysfunctional family systems.

Look for SOMBRAS: negative frames to launch on Steam in Q4 2026.

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No-clip beyond the bounds of reality and explore haunting liminal spaces, from iconic yellow hallways and echoing pool rooms to horrific hotels and bone-chilling birthday parties. Wander solo or with up to three friends in online co-op, hunting for exits to help you descend further into the Backrooms. Beware, as those teammates who no-clip into other areas of the map leave every member of your team must find the exit alive to escape.

Luckily, you can communicate with your teammates with proximity voice chat. However, the terrifying entities that stalk your every move and hear your every conversation, so stay quiet whenever you’re near any danger.

The Backrooms are only seemingly endless… right? Find out for yourself by returning to the Backrooms to uncover secret levels and unlock new endings. Test yourself in Nightmare Mode, where a single death leads to a full restart.

You can also grab Escape The Backrooms on Steam, which currently has a 20% discount during the Steam Summer Sale.

The post ‘Escape the Backrooms’ Now Available on the Nintendo Switch 2 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Furthermore, Xbox players can now pre-order the game, where early supporters can take advantage of a 10% limited-time discount until July 9th. Nintendo Switch, Steam, and GOG launches will be accompanied by a discount upon launch.

Escape From Umbra transports players to a labyrinthine town inspired by the mountain villages in Las Alpujarras. Their iconic narrow streets and white facades have been invaded by dark roots and a dense, oppressive fog. Following the trail of enigmatic black cats, players will freely explore every corner of the town to find the way to escape from the nightmare where Umbra has locked them up.

Eschewing artificial inventories or floating backpacks, the game opts for a true “escape room” format. Players must investigate the environment, manipulate objects, and figure out how to use them within the 3D space to escape each area. To do so, they will rely on a mysterious magic book, deciphering its logic-based clues to solve every puzzle and challenge.

However, the town is governed by shadow creatures that watch for any presence to summon the mistress of darkness. Players will carry a unique flashlight capable of condensing energy and unleashing powerful bursts of light, which allow them to defend themselves against specters and reveal secrets hidden by magic.

Additionally, controller vibration becomes a living gameplay mechanic: there are no on-screen indicators; the character’s heartbeat is transmitted directly to the player’s hands, accelerating chaotically as the only radar for imminent danger.

The post New PC Demo Unveiled for ‘Escape From Umbra’ Ahead of Launch [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Meanwhile, the digital version is sticking with the September 8 release date.

Teaming up with Nighthawk Interactive, there will be two editions for the physical edition: the Standard Edition will be available for MSRP $39.99, while the Limited Collector’s Edition will be available for MSRP $149.99.

The Standard Edition of Halloween: The Game will include a copy of the game for PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, an exclusive poster, and advance access to the Michael Myers Clown skin and two civilian cosmetics.

Meanwhile, the Limited Collector’s Edition will include a copy of the game, plus an exclusive Trick or Treat Studios Shape Jump variant action figure, exclusive lenticular art, an exclusive poster, advance access to the Michael Myers Samhain and Clown skins, advance access to the two civilian cosmetics from the Standard edition and two additional civilian cosmetics, and more surprises to be revealed at a later date.

As for the Orange Grove Estates, this is an upscale neighborhood in one of Haddonfield’s affluent corners. Multi-story houses surround a playground and basketball court, and expansive yards turn every fence and hedge into a fresh hiding (or hunting) ground. The map’s open layout reshapes how players move between structures, opening up new opportunities for collaboration while widening the lines of sight that can give a hero (or The Shape) away. The larger, multi-story homes also introduce precarious upper-floor encounters that every player will need to account for.

“Every neighborhood in Halloween: The Game is designed to change how you play, and Orange Grove Estates is our most ambitious map yet,” said Jared Gerritzen, Chief Creative Officer, IllFonic. “The open layout and multi-story homes force players to rethink their every action as it could compromise their line of sight, collaboration, and escape, whether they are playing as a Civilian or Myers.  Players will learn to dip, dodge, and scan surroundings for options to find an escape route. Pairing this map’s reveal with our physical editions felt like the perfect way to celebrate the physical pre-order launch.”

In addition to the physical editions, Halloween: The Game will launch digitally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.

The post IllFonic Reveals New Map, Physical Preorders for ‘Halloween: The Game’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Cronos: Lazarus sees players return to the wastelands of New Dawn as the once-loyal Pathfinder in the process of transforming into the Warden from the base game. Isolated in the Terminal and severed from the Collective, he devotes every waking moment to awakening a lost Essence that he refuses to let fade. His sanctuary has unfortunately been compromised, as a new kind of hunter has been deployed with one directive: to find and eliminate The Warden.

Shifting gameplay to a more aggressive style, Cronos: Lazarus lets you experience what it means to be one of the Collective’s elite agents. Scarred and broken by a lifetime of survival in the wasteland, The Warden is not at full strength, but even in his damaged state, he retains the ability to move fast, strike hard and survive against mounting pressure.

The Warden is powerful, but he will not remain unchallenged for long. In this DLC, he will face off against an adversary engineered specifically to stop him. This new pursuer is relentless, highly adaptive, and fully capable of matching the Warden’s strength. Your battles will escalate into large scale, cinematic encounters that will test every skill you possess.

Look for Cronos: Lazarus later this fall on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series,  and the Nintendo Switch 2.

The post New Gameplay Teaser for ‘Cronos: Lazarus’ Released, Dropping Hints on the Story [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft‘s cosmic horror short novel, in The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, players take on the roles of explorers searching for legendary treasures deep within a hostile jungle. Before each expedition, players gather aboard the galleon to choose a contract and divide up weapons and equipment. Once they arrive on the continent, the explorers set out in search of treasures and resources to bring back to the galleon’s captain. A simple task in theory, but one that holds surprises.

As they venture deeper into the jungle, the adventurers must face numerous monstrosities, but the greatest threat will be their own minds. Their perception of reality is gradually corrupted until their mental health reaches a critical stage. Visual and auditory illusions disorient the adventurers, potentially causing accidental sabotage that could jeopardize the mission. Even death offers no respite: companions who have fallen in battle may return in a corrupted form and turn against their allies.

The explorers are inexperienced, equipped with extremely limited ammunition and breakable gear. Faced with the dangers and monstrous entities of the cursed jungle, the chances of survival are slim for adventurers who set out to slay every creature that stands in their way. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu emphasizes horror over action and encourages players to avoid unnecessary confrontations in order to successfully complete their contract and return alive from their expedition, even if that means opting for stealth or a hasty retreat.

The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu will launch July 15 on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Series.

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The fifth studio, Marvel’s Blade and Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, is set to be divested from Xbox Game Studios, though details are still being kept under wraps.

Per Xbox Wire, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the layoff and divestment plans at Xbox, but announced no plans for closures or game cancellations.

According to Sharma, Xbox is operating at “margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma acknowledged Xbox’s previous pivots to Game Pass, multi-platform, and a “broader portfolio of content” have resulted in “meaningful value”, but it hasn’t been enough.

“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined,” she said. “We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.”

As a result, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions “will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games.” Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs “have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.” As for Arkane Lyon, the studio’s management “is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.”

The 3,200 cuts will be made throughout Xbox’s financial year across departments, with some areas being more affected than others. This is expected to affect around 20% of the developer’s workforce.

In addition, Bethesda will also undergo “a significant overhaul”, and will pivot to focus on its core franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.

“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” says Sharma. “The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”

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“We came back on the setting of Cronos because we wanted players to experience this super strong character,” says Game Design Director Marc Albinet. “The second reason was that we also wanted to provide a different flavor, a different taste of the original game.”

The DLC also puts greater emphasis on the more “emotional” human side of the story, where players learn of the cost of going up against The Collective. Cronos: Lazarus sees The Warden isolated in the Terminal and severed from the Collective, where he devotes every waking moment to awakening a lost Essence he refuses to let fade. However, his sanctuary, has been compromised. A new kind of hunter has been deployed with one directive: to find and eliminate him.

Scarred and broken by a lifetime of survival in the wasteland, The Warden is not at full strength, but even in his damaged state, he retains the ability to move fast, strike hard and survive against mounting pressure. In addition to being able to deploy a decoy to distract foes and being able to turn invisible to strike against distracted foes, The Warden can also teleport, which fits with the more aggressive playstyle of the DLC. He also has a souped-up version of the Dagger PS-3713 in the Gladius.

Cronos: Lazarus is slated to launch later this fall for PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, the PlayStation 5, the Xbox Series,  and the Nintendo Switch 2.

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“We’ve been pouring so much blood and sweat into this game, and we cannot wait to get it into the player’s hands,” says the devteam in the press release. “It comes from a deeply personal place, and we sincerely hope it will resonate just as deeply with people. That’s our ultimate goal as artists, designers and creators.”

Inspired by psychological horror classics like Silent Hill and Mouthwashing, FEED IT introduces a unique twist to the formula to the genre. Instead of actively fighting against the monster, you are locked in a symbiotic relationship with it – do as you’re told… or feel its wrath. But your own needs cannot be ignored, and your choices will have consequences. Do you feed yourself, regaining enough strength to escape, or do you try to sate your guest’s hunger?

Designed as a short-form replayable experience, FEED IT leverages exploration and minimal interactions to get you acquainted with the world around you. As you scour maze-like locations in search of food, FEED IT invites you to make sense of a disturbing experience as it changes around you. Where the hell are you? Who are you? Who’s knocking at the door? And is there a way to leave and get yourself to safety?

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Launching on October 30, the Blasphemous: Martyrs’ Edition delivers the complete Blasphemous experience. Alongside the base game with all released content included on-disc/cartridge, the edition features a 48-page Visual Compendium showcasing previously unreleased artwork, a premium poster featuring an all-new key visual, a developer letter, a game manual, and a digital soundtrack with 38 tracks.

Developed by The Game Kitchen and originally released back in 2019, Blasphemous (read our review) is a brutal action-platformer set in the nightmarish land of Cvstodia, combining challenging hack-and-slash combat, exploration, stunning pixel art and a deeply atmospheric gothic world. Players take on the role of The Penitent One, battling fearsome enemies and towering bosses in a quest to break the endless cycle of death and rebirth.

In addition to being available for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, you can also grab Blasphemous on the Xbox One, and PC via Steam and GOG.

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The remastered editions of both games will introduce major visual and technical improvements while preserving the original gameplay, atmosphere, balance, and identity. According to the developers, the goal of the project is to preserve the essence of the original games while delivering a technical presentation that meets the expectations of today’s players.

Specifically, the remastered editions will feature:

• More realistic lighting powered by Lumen technology
• Richer, more detailed environments with 4K textures and Nanite technology
• Enhanced character models
• Redesigned user interface and menus
• Updated cinematic sequences built to modern production standards
• Fixes for legacy bugs found in the original releases
• Overall improvements to stability and gameplay quality

“Remothered is a franchise we continue to deeply believe in,” said Antonio Cannata, CEO & Co-Founder of Stormind Games. “After confirming that [Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy] will arrive later this year, these Remastered editions represent another step in our commitment to this universe and to the community that has supported it over the years. We want to keep strengthening the franchise by honoring its past while building its future.”

Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy is currently in development for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store and GOG.

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Backing up a bit, Where Dolls Hang is set in Mexico and inspired by the country’s folklore and the real-life Island of Dolls (Isla de las Muñecas). Blending psychological horror, survival, exploration, and detective investigation, you’ll be searching both the forest and your home, where you can stumble upon working televisions and projectors that play full public-domain horror films from beginning to end.

Rather than short clips or Easter eggs, these are complete movies that players can sit down and watch if they choose. Among the featured films is George A. Romero‘s iconic 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead, with additional public-domain horror films hidden throughout the world.

Described as a blend of The Forest, Outlast, P.T and Silent Hill, Where Dolls Hang combines survival mechanics, exploration, and crafting with psychological horror and a unique forensic investigation system. Players step into the role of a detective investigating disappearances inside a living forest overrun with mannequins, puppets, and unnatural figures that seem to appear where they shouldn’t.

What begins as a missing persons case slowly becomes personal as players search for clues tied to the disappearance of the detective’s own daughter. Investigate crime scenes, examine bodies, photograph evidence, and survive a hostile wilderness that grows increasingly dangerous after dark. Beyond the forest trails, flooded swamps, and hidden waterways can be explored by boat, leading to isolated locations filled with disturbing discoveries and hidden dangers.

Between investigations, players return to a customizable safehouse where they can craft supplies, upgrade equipment, and prepare for the next descent into the unknown. Dynamic weather systems, adaptive threats, survival mechanics, and immersive detective gameplay combine to create a horror experience where uncovering the truth can be just as terrifying as surviving the forest itself.

Where Dolls Hang is currently in development for release on Steam.

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According to the post on X, the reasoning for the delay was due to ONTOS being the team’s “most ambitious game to date, both in terms of size and scale, and in the depth and layers of our story and gameplay.” As a result, the game is being pushed to the nebulous 2027 release date. The team will be sharing more updates about the game, including its world and characters, “soon”.

In ONTOS, players will become Aditi Amani, a resourceful engineer, as she explores the repurposed moon hotel Samsara in search of the truth around her estranged father. Samsara is a vast labyrinth built atop the ruins of a failed mining colony, and players will explore this open, interconnected environment in their quest for the truth. Every corner of Samsara tells a story, and every story has something hiding beneath the surface, waiting to be found…

Players will scavenge for helpful items, manipulate intricate machinery and face intense tests of morality as they encounter horrific Experiments throughout Samsara. There is no ‘one solution’ to the obstacles players will encounter in ONTOS. Players will need to use their wits and ingenuity to reach the narrative’s mysterious conclusions and face the consequences of their choices.

ONTOS is currently being developed for release on PC via Steam and GOG, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.

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The update adds around 70,000 words of new and remastered content, with most of it expanding some of the shorter sections. The update also tweaks certain aspects of gameplay, as well as adding more dialogue (obviously) between characters, and even revamps one of the endings to the fifth episode.

The team also confirmed that writing for Episode 6 is well underway, though no release date has been announced.

Currently in Early Access on Steam, Scarlet Hollow is an immersive horror-mystery with sharp writing, impactful choices, and meticulously hand-drawn art. What was supposed to be a quiet getaway in the rural mountains of North Carolina to meet your long-lost cousin and comfort her through her mother’s funeral, has turned into a nightmare of cryptids and other supernatural horrors. You only have to survive a week. But can you get to the bottom of these mysteries haunting Scarlet Hollow before they claim your life?

If you’re keen on learning more about the game, check out Aaron’s review of the first five chapters.

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Your home, the long deceased corpse of a god, shackles many secrets beneath its icy flesh. Your people, as everything in this world, come into existence through sanguine pods which birthed you as well. However, as of late the same cradles are bringing into the world corrupted forms – abominations that are neither human nor animals. As this new threat populates the god-glacier, you and other tribes must find a new foothold. Some tribes even mention finding metal dwellings that long ago fell from the stars.

This world you inhabit changes after sunset. When certain monsters retreat to sleep, entirely different abominations emerge to hunt – opening new paths of exploration, or sealing them off entirely. As mentioned, in addition to the fangs and claws waiting in the dark, you’ll need to deal with the omnipresent, biting frost that will constantly sap your life. You’ll need to make use of campfires, which may be the only difference between life and death.

You are not the hero of this story, but you are definitely a part of the food chain. Stalk your prey and dispatch it with stealth, or stand your ground with spear in hand and boomerang on your back. In time, and with a little bit of luck, you will also have a chance to put your hands on armaments that are from out of this world.

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“We made RATSHAKER a game about shaking a rat to find your wife,” says Calvin Parsons found of Sunscorched Studios. “Now we’re making KEYKRUNCHER, a game about eating a keyboard, one keycap at a time.”

Set within the RATSHAKER universe, KEYKRUNCHER blends tactile keyboard gameplay, escalating roguelite progression, physical gambling mechanics, desk charms, and Sunscorched’s grimy, high-contrast, PSX-inspired nightmare advert aesthetic into the world’s first keyboard consumption treatment programme.

You have been “fused” to a desk in an assessment room with a scrambled keyboard, a gumball machine, and IT waiting at the end of the hallway. Almost everything on the desk is interactive. Tokens can be taken, machines fed, levers pulled, gumballs handled, and rewards eaten, banked, placed, or survived.

Press the correct keys on your real keyboard, or use the mouse to interact with them, and KRUNCH matching keycaps in-game. Obey the monitor, clear escalating treatment lessons, earn tokens, gamble them away in a sinister gumball machine, and decorate your desk with cursed rewards that might just keep you alive.

Every lesson pushes the treatment further. More keys. Stranger demands. Less time. Riskier rewards. Worse things in the hall. Each run reshuffles the keyboard, demands, rewards, and treatment conditions. Survive the Final Assessment or continue into Endless Treatment until the programme inevitably consumes you.

Players will be able to experience the game with a free demo planned for later this year, ahead of the game’s full release.

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Pre-orders for Onimusha: Way of the Sword are available now. Players who jump in and secure the Standard, Deluxe, or Premium Deluxe editions before the game’s release will receive Early Adopter Bonuses, including the “Sealed Curse” sword skin and “Lion Dog” charm. You can also check out the demo on all platforms (save for the Switch 2).

Players with save data from the demo can also look forward to claiming a Kubi Akari charm as a special bonus when the full game arrives.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword returns to a dark fantasy feudal Japan where samurai clash with the supernatural in cutting-edge combat. The game takes place in Kyoto during the early Edo period. Fusing history and myth, the story follows the journey of Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai armed with a mystical Oni Gauntlet, as he battles demons invading Edo-period Kyoto. Onimusha: Way of the Sword features intense action that combines the series’ signature Issen and Soul Absorption mechanics with swordplay that aims to take the combat to new heights.

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In addition to mobile games, they’ve also created interactive movie experiences where you use your remote to select narrative options at branching points. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch was a fairly successful version of this, but my sentimental favorite was the one where WWE’s New Day had to escape a murder house boobytrapped by The Undertaker. Even if some of these made a bit of a splash, it seems it never really hit with mainstream audiences the way their shows do.

One of the studios they purchased while trying to break into the game space was Night School Studio, the creators of the spooky narrative series Oxenfree. This struck me as a particularly smart acquisition, as this type of narrative game seems like something that would feel at home under the Netflix umbrella. While they did release Oxenfree II while owned by the streaming giant, it was released on traditional platforms, which led me to wonder when their first Netflix exclusive would show up.

While they did produce a game called Thronglets, a mobile version of a plot element from an episode of “Black Mirror”, the recently released Unhinged seems to be one of the highest profile Netflix games in a long time.

Unhinged is a first-person, narrative-driven thriller starring Zoë Kravitz, Sadie Sink, and Troy Baker. This 30-minute experience, played on your TV through the standard Netflix app, is controlled by your phone, using some clever tricks to make the whole thing feel more immersive. It’s a neat variation on the “interactive movie” subgenre, with a tiny bit of point-and-click adventure game DNA thrown in for good measure, but it doesn’t exactly offer you as many options as something like Until Dawn.

Kravitz plays Ava, a woman who is hunkering down in her apartment complex during a dangerous hurricane. As she talks with her friend Claire, who lives in a neighboring building, about possibly leaving to find shelter elsewhere, she finds herself in a desperate chase with a crazed killer that stalks her through the halls of the building. It’s a decent setup for a very contained story, but I wish there was a little more meat on the bones. The voice acting is great, but there’s not really a ton of characterization for the two leads, and the killer was a bit “generic psycho” for my taste. There’s some implied backstory with other tenants in the building, but it’s not enough to make me feel like there’s a web of relationships that would give the story more emotional weight.

To play the game, you open up your Netflix app wherever you usually watch, then select the game. This will bring up a QR code, which you’ll scan on your phone, prompting you to download a controller app that will sync up to the game. The majority of the way you’ll interact is by pointing at the screen like a Wiimote, which selects on-screen options for Ava and shines her flashlight around the environment.

While this does give it the feel of an FMV game, Unhinged is rendered in a photorealistic graphics style, and while not quite to the level of something like P.T., it does the trick of drawing you into the action. You’re still put on a pretty strict path while moving around, which is done automatically when you select a direction, but moving your phone gives you the ability to look around your environment, even if only slightly.

The real immersive part of the game is the fact that your phone also acts as Ava’s phone. The plot is frequently moved forward by calls and text messages that you answer as you would on your own cellular device. As sound blasts out of your phone, it does put you in the shoes of the main character, momentarily worrying you that the sound of the call or text is going to alert your on-screen stalker. This part of Unhinged truly takes advantage of the format to draw you deeper into the story, though unfortunately it’s so effective that I wished the game found even more ways to use it.

There are a couple clever moments that make for unique ways of delivering twists or doing extremely light puzzle solving, but most of the time it’s just used to allow your friend to give you instructions on how to move the narrative forward.

All these mechanics come together to give the illusion of tension without actually fully delivering on it. When you get to a situation where you’re under pressure, a timer bar will appear on the top of the screen, indicating how long you have to get to safety. It’s a fine gimmick, but it comes off as a little hard to gauge. Since you don’t have direct control over your character, all your actions are very heavily animated, and sometimes your choice ends up taking longer than you think it will not because of the idea behind the choice, but because of the length of the animation. Fortunately, if you die, you’ll just pick back up at a checkpoint right before the choice, and you’ll even be treated with a voiceover discussion between police officers examining the crime scene, describing how you died.

So in theory, there is tension, counting down as the killer gets closer and closer to reaching you, but what you’re actually doing almost never feels like it’s testing you in any meaningful way. Actual choices come up very infrequently, making most of your interaction with the game world just scanning your pointer across the screen looking for an interaction point to progress, hoping the animation doesn’t take up too much time before the timer runs out. I didn’t hit a ton of friction points with it, and there’s even a Story Mode if you want to take out all possibility of death, but I found myself wishing there were more ways to affect the world around me. The phone calls and texts felt really fun and clever, but the rest of the gameplay just didn’t match that, making me wish there was more emphasis on the unique interaction model rather than the more traditional one.

Even though the mechanics aren’t necessarily pushing the tension as hard as they could be, the actual content of Unhinged’s story contains some pretty brutal situations. The villain isn’t the most unique or fleshed out, but he’s responsible for some gruesome moments that raised the stakes to make the game feel more intense. It makes your fight for survival feel that much more desperate, so even if you’re just highlighting icons on the screen, it feels more visceral thanks to what Ava is witnessing.

While I appreciate the game being lean and mean, I wish it was just a little bit longer. Thirty minutes is a pretty short runtime, and it doesn’t feel like the story for Unhinged has the time to come up with something that really sets it apart from other stories of its kind. The focus on the hurricane at the beginning made me think that was going to be more integral to the plot, but it didn’t really do much aside from explaining why the apartment complex was so empty. Thrillers like this live or die on how memorable their killer is, and there wasn’t anything really clever or unique about him. If this game doubled its runtime to the length of a standard Netflix show, it might have given them more room to build character relationships that made the action more meaningful, or at least given it a bit more personality of its own.

Night School Studio is on to something with the format of Unhinged. The combination of on screen and on phone prompts makes the game feel more immersive, drawing you in even when the narrative itself doesn’t feel fully formed or unique. The short runtime is both a help and a hindrance, keeping the pacing tight at the cost of adding any depth to the proceedings. This feels like a great first draft, and I hope that Night School is given the freedom to continue experimenting with the model, as the level of polish shown here was promising.

Even with its flaws, if you’ve already got a Netflix subscription, there’s no reason not to sit down for half an hour to check out Unhinged. If you can keep your expectations in check, it’s a nasty little thrillride that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Unhinged is streaming now on Netflix.

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Per PlayStation Blog, PlayStation’s senior director of content communications, Sid Shuman, stated that as “consumer preferences” and the broader entertainment industry shift from physical media to digital, PlayStation will be following suit, ending physical game disc production for all new games starting January 2028. New games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

This transition will have no impact on games that have already been released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.

Shuman stated that the decision to end physical disc production was a “natural direction” for Sony Interactive Entertainment to go, in order to adapt to consumer trends for digital media over physical discs. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”

How this will affect other publishers producing their own discs remains to be seen.

This news also comes after Sony had announced earlier this week that their licensing agreement with StudioCanal had expired, meaning that it would be delisting nearly 500 films from its online library on September 1, including titles that customers had previously purchased and were tied to users’ accounts.

Sony has not revealed any details on compensation or refunds.

And if Xbox wasn’t already planning to slash and burn enough already, it’s now being reported that Xbox’s upcoming Project Helix console will not have a disc drive. Furthermore, according to The Verge, Microsoft is exploring a way to digitize a user’s physical game collection with a disc-to-digital feature.

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Just in case you missed it, Konami took to X to make it official, with each ending being shaped by player’s choices, with each ending “leaving a lasting emotional impact”. Of course, it’s ridiculous to reveal just how players will arrive at one of the endings, since that’s obviously part of the fun. There’s also no word on how many endings players will have to discover.

For context, last year’s Silent Hill f features five endings, including one involving the series’ long-running “UFO Ending” joke. One would hope that this trope continues with Townfall.

Silent Hill: Townfall centers around Simon Ordell, who is called back to the island of St. Amelia in Scotland to ‘put things right’. What he encounters is a town lying quiet beneath a heavy fog, seemingly abandoned but not at rest. All he has on him besides his clothes are an IV bag and a medical wristband with his name on it. He heads to the town with no leads but the voices from the CRTV he picked up along the way. Venturing deeper and driven to understand his connection to the place and its inhabitants, Simon begins to discover fragments of a past rising to the surface.

Played entirely in first person, Townfall has players exploring, evading, and ultimately trying to survive using a limited set of weapons and tools, including the CRTV, a pocket television used to tune into unstable signals. Evasion is tense; combat is frenetic, while narrative driven puzzles reveal a truth that refuses to stay submerged.

Developed by Screen Burn and co-published by Annapurna Interactive and Konami, Silent Hill: Townfall will release for PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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In Turok: Origins, players will take on the mantle of the ancient Order of the Turok, heroic guardians of unimaginable power locked in a battle for survival against ferocious creatures and a terrifying alien threat that seeks to destroy all human life in the galaxy. Battle in both first-person and third-person action, harnessing fallen foes’ DNA to upgrade your arsenal.

Fight as a team in co-op or solo against a variety of creatures, dinosaurs, and bosses that take to the ground, sky, swamps, and caves to push your skills to the limit. You’ll be able to unlock and upgrade advanced weaponry to even the odds against your enemies in battle. Wield an arsenal of plasma rifles, ray guns, snipers, bows, shotguns, and more.

As mentioned, you can extract DNA from fallen foes and the environment to upgrade your arsenal, evolve your mantle, and unlock even more abilities called EchoSyncs to gain a greater edge in combat.

Turok: Origins is slated to release this fall on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2.

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DOOM: The Dark Ages slowed things down a bit without decreasing the intensity, giving you a shield that added defensive verbs to your arsenal in a way that allowed you to be even more aggressive. It’s very clear throughout all these titles that id Software is very thoughtful about the ways they try to replicate the experience of original games in a modern context.

Recently, id hosted a virtual event to show off the latest iteration of the DOOM series, Revelations, an upcoming DLC for DOOM: The Dark Ages, which they promise will be a celebration of the entire series. Set after the conclusion of Dark Ages, the Doomslayer finds himself trapped in a purgatory, forcing him to rip and tear his way out of a prison of his own mind with the help of a mysterious ally. While they emphasized that this would be a narratively pivotal chapter for the story of the Doomslayer, they were keeping details under wraps, instead focusing on the level structure and combat feel of the DLC.

A More Demanding Challenge

One thing they wanted to make clear about Revelations is that they are going to be pushing the level of difficulty higher than the base game, challenging even the most seasoned series veterans. Game Director Hugo Martin wanted to emphasize that they’ve been listening to fans, so while it will be more challenging, the ramp-up of that difficulty is more gradual than in the DOOM Eternal Ancient Gods DLCs. The difficulty and accessibility sliders from the base game will all be sticking around, so you’ll be able to customize your challenge level however you want, if you find the game too punishing.

In order to prepare you to meet this challenge, they’ve introduced a new weapon, the chain spear. This can be swapped into your left hand, where you also use the shield from the base game, giving you a new suite of options for your tactical arsenal. Not only does it allow you to parry projectiles like the shield, but it also adds a grappling hook and dash to your toolkit, giving you ways to move around the battlefield quicker than before.

If you’re more comfortable with the shield, that will still be available to you, but Martin said by the end of the campaign you’ll need to be integrating the spear into your repertoire, as upgrades make it essential to your survival.

While id still wants to retain the slower, more brutal feeling of Dark Ages, they’re hoping that the spear will feel like strapping a jet engine to a monster truck, combining the best of the last two games into one violent package. It’s hard to say how this will feel without getting my hands on it, but a lot of the new skills appeared to add a dynamism to the encounters, particularly the clever-looking orbit ability that allows you to attach yourself to a monster and revolve around them, almost like an aerial version of the z-targeting lock-on from Metroid Prime.

The modern DOOM series has always been about finding just the right balance of giving you enough tools to make combat both tactical and reflex-based without making too much complexity as to overwhelm you. It looks to me like the chain spear will be a solid addition that adds exciting ways to close the distance or get around an arena, rather than forcing you to remember the utility of each weapon like DOOM Eternal did.

Six Levels and an Endgame Built for Experts

Revelations will feature six levels, including the hub, and will provide about 10 to 12 hours of content, roughly the same size as the two-part Ancient Gods DLC from Eternal. As Martin explained it, this will be divided between the main campaign and the endgame content, with the main campaign taking up about 60% of the overall runtime. After completing the main campaign missions, you’ll be given access to a wide variety of challenges that will continue to increase in difficulty until you unlock what Martin called the Uberboss. I’m curious to see how substantial this endgame content feels, as it sounds like it will take you on new paths through the previous levels rather than providing completely new content, but id seems confident that the challenge and spectacle of these encounters are going to be worth it.

The team said that exploration is going to be one of the highlights of the DLC, which is a fun prospect for me. The best DOOM levels are the ones that are littered with satisfying secrets, and they’ve promised Revelations will be full of them, including hidden recreations of classic levels. After hearing fan feedback for DOOM: The Dark Ages, they decided not to mark these secrets on the map, allowing you the satisfaction of finding them yourself. Every level is designed to be fairly maze-like, requiring you to retrace your steps as the campaign goes on.

There’s even the promise of Metroidvania-like exploration in the hub level, opening up more and more of the space as you gain abilities. The dragon and the mech will not be showing up in the DLC, but leaving them behind feels like a good decision to me, as they exhausted those gimmicks in the base game.

Smarter Enemies, Tougher Fights

Over the course of the presentation, they showed off a few more enemy options that are being added into the mix. In addition to an all-new Wizard enemy type, there are variants of enemies seen in the base game featuring new behaviors that change up the encounters in meaningful ways. Importantly, they said that there would be a focus on giving more enemies evasive AI, pulling you around the arena space to keep you from hunkering down in one place. DOOM has always been a fast-paced game of tactical chess, requiring you to scan the battlefield and prioritize the various targets, so hopefully adding more enemy behaviors to the mix will make for a fun way to add challenge to their already challenging combat.

In addition to the difficult endgame, id is releasing a 3.0 version of the Ripatorium, the customizable endless mode that was seen in the Dark Ages. This will add new maps, new levels, and deeper customization to the fan-favorite mode, allowing you to run through some particularly diabolical encounters. While I personally would prefer more focus on the main campaign of the game, it seems they are trying to cater to people who want more ways to push the challenge of the series as far as they can, and Ripatorium 3.0 looks like the culmination of that effort.

Final Verdict

The DOOM series is so much about how it feels in the hands, and while I didn’t get to experience that, they closed the presentation with a combat sizzle reel that looked like an exciting evolution of Dark Ages, a game that I thought felt great to play. The new grapple function of the spear allowed the arenas to have a bit more verticality than those found in the base game, and the visual design of the enemies remained consistently readable, allowing you to understand the encounter at a glance. The orbit ability in particular looked fun as hell, allowing you to dynamically move around the environment while still staying focused on offense. It’s looking extremely promising, but it’s impossible to judge until I get to play it myself.

After experimenting with the formula for over the last decade, id is hoping that Revelations is the culmination of the series from both a mechanical and narrative standpoint. They closed by saying that Revelations is to The Dark Ages what DOOM Eternal was to DOOM (2016), which is both exciting and worrying for me. In my mind, there’s a dial they’ve been tuning over the course of this reboot series. The dial felt perfect in DOOM, then turned too far up for me with Eternal, before reaching a great point with The Dark Ages, though not quite as perfect as where it started.

Time will tell where it lands on this spectrum, but the new chain spear seems like it’s going to be just as welcome an addition as the shield was in The Dark Ages. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait too long to find out.

DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations will be available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and the PC via Steam on July 7.

The post ‘DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations’ DLC Is Bigger, Harder, and Built for Series Veterans appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For Xbox, the pre-order campaign featuring a limited-time exclusive discount will begin on July 3rd. On the same day, Steam users can check out a 15-minute playable demo. Nintendo Switch, Steam, and GOG launches will be accompanied by a discount during the first week.

Escape From Umbra transports players to a labyrinthine town inspired by the mountain villages in Las Alpujarras. Their iconic narrow streets and white facades have been invaded by dark roots and a dense, oppressive fog. Following the trail of enigmatic black cats, players will freely explore every corner of the town to find the way to escape from the nightmare where Umbra has locked them up.

Eschewing artificial inventories or floating backpacks, the game opts for a true “escape room” format. Players must investigate the environment, manipulate objects, and figure out how to use them within the 3D space to escape each area. To do so, they will rely on a mysterious magic book, deciphering its logic-based clues to solve every puzzle and challenge.

However, the town is governed by shadow creatures that watch for any presence to summon the mistress of darkness. Players will carry a unique flashlight capable of condensing energy and unleashing powerful bursts of light, which allow them to defend themselves against specters and reveal secrets hidden by magic.

Additionally, controller vibration becomes a living gameplay mechanic: there are no on-screen indicators; the character’s heartbeat is transmitted directly to the player’s hands, accelerating chaotically as the only radar for imminent danger.

The post Psychological Horror Game ‘Escape From Umbra’ Launches July 10 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

According to a new report by The Verge, which cites sources familiar with the situation surrounding Xbox and Microsoft, the computer giant is reportedly considering closing Arkane Lyon, joining Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Double Fine and Ninja Theory. However, Microsoft is also considering selling the studio.

Despite that hope for Arkane Lyon, that reportedly doesn’t apply to Marvel’s Blade, which is facing cancellation by Microsoft. The game was announced back in 2023 at The Game Awards, and was supposed to debut later this year. However, the game’s release has now slipped to “late 2027”, and has also ran over its projected budget.

While all the studios involved have been trying to find buyers in order to avoid closure, South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games has already begun telling employees to look for jobs elsewhere. Meanwhile, Ninja Theory, which had its third entry in the Hellblade series announced during Summer Game Fest in Senua, has already told employees that Microsoft wants to close the studio or sell it.

Not much information on Marvel’s Blade was revealed, other than it was a third-person title to be set in a quarantined section of Paris in the middle of a supernatural emergency. Vampires have emerged, terrorizing the city of lights and forcing Parisians to shelter inside their homes at night to wait for sunrise. It’s up to the Daywalker known as Blade to investigate.

The post Arkane Lyon Reportedly Facing Closure, ‘Marvel’s Blade’ to be Cancelled appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Earlier this month, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma had announced that Microsoft was in the process of ‘resetting’ Xbox. That resulted in a report by Bloomberg during Summer Game Fest that revealed that multiple developers were negotiating with Microsoft to spin off of Xbox to avoid closing down. Now, according to the GamesBeat report, Undead Labs is now part of that group of developers negotiating to be bought to avoid layoffs.

The article states that Undead Labs could lose 110 jobs if it were shut down, while Compulsion could lose 90 jobs, Ninja Theory could lose 135 jobs, and Double Fine Productions could lose 100 jobs.

Other developers and publishers at Microsoft also reportedly face cuts, including Blizzard, id Software and Bethesda.

Undead Labs was acquired by Microsoft back in 2018, with State of Decay 3 being announced in 2020. News on the development of the game was quiet until 2024, when a new trailer was released. Updates on the game again were hard to come by until last January when then-Xbox Game Studios lead Craig Duncan revealed that development was still very much alive. That was followed up this month with an official announcement that State of Decay 3 would be coming next year to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store.

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Henrysson’s announcement comes after the latest entry in The Dark Pictures franchise was released back in May.

“It’s been a fantastic time,” wrote Henrysson. “During my years as Chairman – and later as interim CEO – for Avalanche Studios Group – we saw the studio’s revenue and profit triple. As the CEO of Supermassive Games, I was honoured to guide the studio through intense industry change, broadening its client base and establishing a culture of consistent quality across all aspects of the game development process.

Leading a studio is never a one-man job — it is the entire team’s effort. Our commitment to continuous improvement was, and continues to be, central to everything we do. To everyone at Supermassive Games, I am so grateful for everything I’ve learnt and experienced with all of you. You are the greatest storytelling game studio on earth, you rock! And I wish you all the best in the future.”

Henrysson’s departure comes after Directive 8020 received mixed reviews from fans and reviewers alike (though we enjoyed it, and even included it on our list of best games so far this year). Little Nightmares 3, which was released last October, also experienced mixed reviews.

Supermassive experienced a rough time during the development of Directive 8020, with the game being delayed from its original release window, as well as a “reorganization” in 2024 that saw the studio lay off 30 percent of its staff.

Directive 8020 is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Steam.

The post ‘Directive 8020′ Developer Supermassive Games’ CEO Steps Down appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

According to Dropper7894, they’ve been working on this mod for the past few weeks, with the ultimate goal to turn Survivor Mode into a co-op experience with your friend. For those in need of a refresher, Alien: Isolation‘s Survivor Mode sees you working to escape the small confines of Sevastopol Station while avoiding the relentless Xenomorph and hostile NPCs.

The redditor has created a Discord channel to keep those interested in the mode up to date on the mod’s progress, as well as to answer any questions.

And seeing as it’s the Steam Summer Sale, you can grab Alien: Isolation right now with a generous 70% discount. You can also grab the game on the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

Meanwhile, Alien: Isolation 2 is currently in development for Steam, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series, with the Nintendo Switch 2 to follow soon.

Thanks to DSOGaming for highlighting this.

The post Fan-Made Co-Op Mod for ‘Alien: Isolation’ Announced appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Even better, the year still has such sights left to show us (as the iconic villain of one upcoming release would enthuse). Fall, in particular, is set to lighten the wallets of many a gorehound, as we can look forward to facing off against the sadistic Cenobites in Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival, the bogeyman himself in Halloween: The Game, all manner of paranatural phenomena in Control Resonant, and the bracing weather of coastal Scotland in Silent Hill: Townfall.

With such a strong line-up of contenders, and everything still to play for, it’d be premature to declare our horror GOTY already. However, a handful of titles have debuted in the first half of 2026 that we’re pretty confident will be ranking highly come end-of-year roundup time in December.

Editor’s Note: This article was put together and written by Bloody Disgusting’s video game critics Aaron Boehm & Harrison Abbott, who each selected five games to include on the list.

With that said, here are our ten favourite horror (and horror adjacent) releases of 2026 thus far.

10) Directive 8020

Ushering in a new era for The Dark Pictures Anthology, Directive 8020 is a small step (if not quite a giant leap) forward for Supermassive Games’ ever-expanding catalogue of interactive movies. Taking what has so far been a terrestrial-bound series and launching into the far-flung reaches of the cosmos, it certainly represents a big change of scenery if nothing else.

Riffing on both Alien and The Thing, the game is a sci-fi adventure that follows a crew of astronauts as they scout for humanity’s potential next home amongst the stars (after we thoroughly ruined the good thing we had going on Earth). As you’d expect, these intrepid explorers eventually identify a viable candidate somewhere in the Tau Ceti Goldilocks zone. Alas, when they crash land on its surface, our marooned heroes soon discover that the exoplanet is already occupied by a hostile, shapeshifting organism that ain’t too keen on sharing its turf. Cue lots of twitchy paranoia, fracturing alliances, and gruesome body horror antics.

As exciting as these interstellar stakes are, the most substantial changes Directive 8020 makes to The Dark Pictures recipe are more mechanical in nature. Indeed, the team at Supermassive has really used the fallow period between this latest outing and its predecessors to their advantage. Not only have they switched to Unreal Engine 5 — lending the game a dramatic visual overhaul — but they’ve also made bold improvements to the choose-your-own-adventure formula they’ve been refining for well over a decade.

The new turning point system, for example, allows you to navigate the tangled web of Directive 8020’s narrative more conveniently by giving you the ability to rewind to key forks in the road. With this feature enabled, it’s easier than it’s ever been to witness all the different permutations of a scene, to try out the various branching paths that have been mapped out for you, and to unlock all the grisly death animations. In previous Dark Pictures entries, you’d have to go through the whole campaign multiple times in order to experience this full breadth of content, but now you can freely jump around the timeline at your leisure, gratifyingly filling in every blank node on the story tree until you’ve seen all possible outcomes.

When compared to its forebears, the game also places an increased emphasis on player agency, with interactive elements that go much deeper than the QTEs we usually associate with Supermassive. The exploration sequences are now far more sprawling, there are meatier puzzles (including one chemical mixing conundrum that feels like it’s been ripped straight from old-school Resident Evil), and real-time threats will pursue you from room to room.

There’s an argument to be made that not all of these advances are fully refined yet (the stealth is effective but one-note). Nevertheless, it still sets a high bar for the anthology’s fledgling second season, and we can’t wait to see where the developers take it from here. – Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Directive 8020 here.

9) Romeo is a Dead Man

I generally think that auteur theory is B.S, especially in the games industry where so many people touch so many different parts of the project, but it’s hard to deny the fact that I can always tell a Suda51 game at a glance. He and his team at Grasshopper Manufacture always create such eclectically strange games that feel wholly unique, even if they end up a bit more style than substance. Romeo is a Dead Man, their latest third-person melee action game, is my favorite of theirs yet, taking their signature maximalism and wrapping it around a set of combat mechanics that engaged me more than any of their other titles.

You play Romeo Stargazer, who is attacked by a monster and brought back from the brink of death by his time-travelling grandfather. He joins the FBI’s Space-Time Police in order to hunt down criminals who are abusing the broken space-time continuum, while also trying to reconnect with his beloved Juliet. As complicated as it sounds, this is the most bare-bones way to describe the events of the game, which only get weirder as it progresses. Not only is the plot stuffed to the gills with surprises and strangeness, but the amount of different visual and tonal shifts it makes throughout its 15-hour campaign makes it feel so wild and unpredictable.

Aside from the narrative, the combat keeps things interesting, with standard melee mechanics enhanced by Bastards, special zombies that sprout from seeds you plant in your spaceship’s garden. These zombies have a wild variety of powers and can be summoned into combat to help out, adding a dynamic element to battles that keeps them exciting. Everything in the game has a little twist that makes it feel clever, like the upgrade minigame where you do a driving game to navigate a maze, picking up your bonuses along the way. Romeo is a Dead Man is an ultraviolent, B-movie in video game form, with Suda51’s signature vibes baked into every corner of the game. While the brand of humor won’t work for everyone, you have to respect a game with such a clear and consistent vision that feels unlike anything else right now. – Aaron Boehm

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Romeo is a Dead Man here.

8) Project Songbird

A game so raw and intimate that playing through it feels like you’re somehow invading the author’s privacy, Project Songbird is a deeply confessional offering. One that doesn’t resemble a product meant for mainstream consumption, so much as it does a therapeutic exercise for the benefit of its creator.

Solo developer Conner Rush suffuses the title with autobiographical detail (modelling locations after childhood haunts, paying tribute to beloved relatives in its lore, and platforming local musicians from his hometown on the soundtrack), while laying bare his soul for a psychological narrative that gets uncomfortably vulnerable at times and that goes to disarmingly honest places.

The game casts you in the role of the titular songbird/indie musician, Dakota, as they attempt to brute force their way through a creative dry spell. At the urging of their manager, they’ve embarked on a retreat to the Appalachian Mountains, where they aim to go completely off-grid and regain their artistic mojo. Which works for a while, as the natural splendour of the American Southeast seemingly provides Dakota with that elusive inspiration they’ve been craving for so long and puts them on track to finish their next album way ahead of schedule.

Yet while they initially chalk this newfound productivity up to the restorative influence of the great outdoors, it soon becomes apparent that they’re indebted to a far more sinister muse. Indeed, we learn that — like many before them — Dakota has unwittingly made a Faustian bargain here with some eldritch being lurking in the woods. A wicked entity that specifically targets struggling creatives, gets them hooked on the promise of divine inspiration, and then demands that a terrible price be paid in return.

For anyone who has ever clung to artistic ambitions, Project Songbird’s script is painfully relatable, exploring the heartbreak of falling out of love with (and even growing to resent) the very thing that you were put on this earth to do. It considers how isolating it can be to define yourself by your output alone, how the pursuit of greatness can riddle you with self-doubt, and how perceived failure can lead to you entertaining the darkest of thoughts.

Playing out as an introspective walking sim by day and a more conventional survival horror by night, the game is at its best when it cleverly uses its mechanics to immerse you in Dakota’s mindset. The enemy encounters might be a tad janky, and there’s an eleventh-hour plot digression that frustratingly undercuts the main story. Still, it’s nice to play something this achingly personal and sincerely felt. – Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Project Songbird here.

7) Mina the Hollower

It’s been a long wait for Yacht Club Games to release their follow-up to their hit game Shovel Knight, but it’s finally here. Mina the Hollower is another retro-style adventure, this time taking the visual and gameplay feel of a Game Boy Color game and bringing it to life with more modern design sensibilities. It’s a top-down Zelda-like that’s mixed in heavy doses of Castlevania and Bloodborne to make for an engrossing gothic adventure that will appeal to modern audiences and retro gamers alike.

You play the titular Mina, a mouse inventor exploring a cursed island and trying to restore the generators that she helped build. After a thrilling opening sequence that involves your boat being destroyed by a kraken, you’re dropped into a town teeming with interesting and strange characters to meet, from merchants to quest givers to just plain-fun weirdos. After getting your bearings, you’re off to explore the surrounding areas, fighting your way through hordes of monsters and discovering satisfying secrets. The top-down presentation is really sharp, with distinct “screens” that you’ll move between as you go from area to area, layered in with clever soulslike-style shortcuts that make the levels feel dense and full of secrets.

What surprised me most about the game is the depth the combat is able to achieve with the relative simplicity of its options. You have a choice of some standard melee weapons at the beginning, and these are augmented with Castlevania-style side weapons like a throwing ax or deflector parasol, which run on limited ammo. The best wrinkle to the combat is Mina’s ability to jump up and burrow under the ground upon landing, which acts like a dodge during battle. It’s a clever change to the standard formula, one that requires a surprising amount of precision to pull off effectively. Once you master it, it not only becomes essential for traversal, but also feels amazing when used to outmaneuver your opponents underground. Mina the Hollower is such a deep game, providing an old-school challenge with modern design philosophies, wrapped in a beautiful aesthetic package. – Aaron Boehm

Mina the Hollower is available now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, Xbox Series, and PlayStation 5.

6) Crisol: Theater of Idols

Whether by design or happy accident, Crisol: Theater of Idols feels like a remnant of a bygone era. The platonic ideal of what I call a “Blockbuster rental” game, it would have fit right in amidst the wave of gimmicky shoot-em-ups that flooded the Xbox 360’s marketplace towards the tail end of its lifespan.

If you weren’t around to witness this cycle, it saw a string of inessential but exceedingly enjoyable, mid-budget actioners releasing around the same time, all featuring inventive twists on otherwise standard combat mechanics. Among their ranks were Singularity (a sorely underappreciated FPS with fun time manipulation), Clive Barker’s Jericho (a squad-based shooter in which you could possess your teammates), Army of Two (a Gears of War clone that was elevated by its unique co-op interactions), and Bulletstorm (wherein you were incentivised to kill enemies in gory, over-the-top ways).

Although it’s released in a completely different climate and with a completely different distribution model, Crisol feels like it spiritually belongs in the Blockbuster rental club alongside these forgotten gems of yesteryear. Like them, it is a no-frills, charmingly uncomplicated rollercoaster ride that doesn’t outstay its welcome, doesn’t get bogged down with any superfluous guff, and doesn’t preoccupy itself with anything other than its kick-ass creative hook. Or rather, it’s a pair of kick-ass creative hooks.

That’s right, developer Vermila Studios actually treats you to two gimmicks for the price of one here! First, there’s the game’s novel approach to enemy types, which sees you battling animate religious effigies whose behaviours are determined by the material they were fashioned from. For instance, wood-carved representations of holy figures can sustain repeated shots — and will even keep coming after you’ve whittled their legs down to kindling — while stained-glass wraiths have a nasty tendency to duplicate when shattered. Elsewhere, there are also stone gargoyles that act as old-timey sentry guns, waxen cherubs that you’ll need to shoot out of the sky, and sentient oil paintings that can liquify into puddles as you’re about to fire, making you waste precious ammo.

And ammo is very precious here. Which brings us nicely to Theater of Idols’ second gimmick: its use of blood. Representing more than just your health, blood is actually a multi-purpose commodity in this freaky horror shooter, and you’ll have to manage your supplies with care. Because, as well as filling your life bar, it’s also used to fill the chambers of weapons.

You see, each firearm in Crisol has a needle concealed somewhere. To reload, you’ll need to stick your palm into it and make a donation from your own vitals. The plasma will then congeal into a bullet for whichever gun you’ve selected.

It’s a fresh dynamic that changes how you strategize ahead of encounters, as you’ll have to decide what’s the best way to spend this one universal resource for the situation at hand. Maybe you’ll use blood to fill several clips for your peashooter, for instance. Or perhaps you’ll exchange it for a couple of rounds of buckshot. Or, hey, you could just decide to leave it coursing through your veins so that you can withstand more damage.

Between this clever spin on reloading, the diverse enemy roster, and the fact that the core shooting itself is fundamentally punchy, Crisol’s combat is a blast. And with a modest $18 price tag, it’s some of the most cost-effective exhilaration you’ll have all year. – Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Crisol: Theater of Idols here.

5) Mewgenics

As much as I love the gameplay of Mewgenics, the new game from The Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen, I really don’t care for the overall style. There’s a Newgrounds-style edgelord attitude to the writing that may work for others, but that I find pretty repellent. Pushing the line of good taste by having you fight fetuses in the sewers, for example, feels like something I would have found funny in college, but my tastes have changed. That said, it’s a testament to the game’s tactical loop that, despite all my reservations, I love it.

Mewgenics is a combination of turn-based tactics and a bizarro cat breeding simulator, wrapped up in a compelling roguelike structure. At the start of each run, you pick a group of four cats from your dilapidated house to go out on a quest, assigning them each a D&D-style class that alters the way they play. You’ll move through nodes on a series of maps, encountering small story beats and participating in XCOM-like battles. Once you complete your runs, the surviving cats cannot be brought out on subsequent runs, but in their retirement, they can… interact with other cats and birth new ones. As you progress, you’ll amass items, improve your house, or “donate” unwanted cats to various people in the neighborhood.

The cat breeding part is pretty good, but I think it takes a long time to feel really substantial. The real secret sauce of Mewgenics is the extremely tight combat. Much like Into the Breach, each battle is a one-screen tactical puzzle, trying to figure out the best way to optimize your turn. Unlike Into the Breach, your turns are based on initiative, so turns swap between the two sides of the conflict, and you do not have perfect knowledge of what your opponents are going to do. What you do have is a smart set of skills that are familiar, but with just enough of a twist to make your options feel substantial.

Like any good roguelike, as you level up and collect items, you will refine the build of each of your cats in a way that complements your playstyle, making for a satisfying power curve that makes you sad when your perfect run comes to an end. It’s one of the strongest turn-based tactics games I’ve played in a long time, making it extremely easy to do “just one more battle” for hours and hours. – Aaron Boehm

Mewgenics is available on Steam.

4) Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE

While not leaving quite so large a cultural (or, indeed, commercial) footprint, there was a time when Fatal Frame, aka Project Zero, belonged in the same conversation as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. It definitely got left behind in the rush to the seventh console generation, but it’s easy to forget that it used to be one of the big three in the survival horror space. Of course, that was decades ago, and Koei Tecmo’s outpaced franchise is now firmly cemented in bronze position, settling to be the Stargate to the other two’s Star Wars and Trek.

Still, Resident Evil and Silent Hill have had their rocky patches too, and they managed to stage winning comebacks. In both cases, they earned tremendous goodwill by returning to their roots and dusting off their most celebrated (sophomore) outings. So, there’s no reason Project Zero shouldn’t be able to do the same!

Enter the cumbersomely titled Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE. Like SH2 and RE2, Crimson Butterfly is something of a fan favourite within its respective canon. Heralded for an enthralling narrative, peerless atmosphere, and effective J-horror chills, it represents the undisputed peak of the series and is therefore a sound place to kick off its hopeful revival.

The 2026 remake wisely avoids messing with those strong foundations. As before, it follows a pair of twins, Mio and Mayu, who find themselves stranded in the fabled ghost town of Minakami. Said to entrap anyone who crosses its threshold, this rural settlement is notorious within the region for its history of paranormal encounters, occult practices, and unspeakable tragedy.

Prior to a devastating calamity, its residents were known to be highly suspicious of outsiders. As it turns out, they were afraid that any interlopers might uncover, and then try to put a stop to, the local tradition of sacrificing young twins in order to keep shut the gates of hell.

For years, the people of Minakami upheld this barbaric custom until, one day, the ritual was botched, and everybody was promptly spirited away. Now, with Mio and Mayu’s fateful arrival, the villagers’ revenants see an opportunity to conclude their unfinished business and rectify the terrible mistake that has caused them centuries of woe. As Mio, your only way of defending yourself (and your sister) from this spectral threat is to make use of the so-called Camera Obscura, a spirit-photography device that can exorcise malevolent souls by capturing their essence on film.

Veteran players will recognise that the key plot beats haven’t changed much in the remake, but will be heartened to learn that extra layers have been added to the backstory, and that the supporting cast is significantly fleshed out too. Whether deliberate or not, the themes also resonate differently in the 2020s. Like with Yûta Shimotsu’s Best Wishes to All, you could interpret it all through the lens (pun not unintended) of contemporary anxieties about Japan’s ageing population. There’s just something rather poignant nowadays about this tale of young maidens being generationally sacrificed to prolong the lives of town elders and patriarchal clans.

It’s an angle that the remake decidedly leans into anyway, as you get to learn more about past martyrs by completing new side quests, listening to audio recordings, and poring through reams upon reams of collectable documents. Striving to uncover all of Minakami’s secrets through these optional activities is a real joy, as it incentivises you to stray from the golden path and really get immersed in the rich, spooky setting (and boy is it spooky!).

This exploration side of things is made even more engaging by the addition of new lenses for the Camera Obscura, which can be used to reveal hidden items, detect phantom echoes, and purge festering corruption that’s blocking your path. Naturally, these attachments also factor into the game’s overhauled combat, with each lens functioning as the photographic equivalent of a different gun (be it the standard pistol, a long-distance sniper, a fast-loading machine gun, or a powerful shotgun). On top of this, there are multiple types of filmstock to consider, a quasi-parrying mechanic, the chance to take paparazzi-like combo shots, special abilities, a charm-based loadout, an upgrade system, and a mechanic whereby enemies get enraged if you give them too much aggro.

Honestly, it’s all a little overwhelming at first, but once you get into the rhythm, you’ll find that the combat has a lot of tactical nuance and that ghostbusting here truly makes you feel good. That’s not all the remake brings to the table, either, with other notable innovations being unkillable stalker enemies that hound you through pulse-pounding stealth sequences and contextual jump scares that leave you clenching each and every time you open a door.

All in all, this is a terrific package and the perfect way to experience a classic game with respectful touch-ups. Let’s hope it signals the start of a bright future for Fatal Frame going forward. – Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE here.

3) Vampire Crawlers

I liked Vampire Survivors, but it didn’t keep its hooks in me for as long as it did for many others. The aesthetics were really neat, but I eventually moved on to something that felt a little more active to me. Vampire Crawlers flipped the script and put the aesthetics and ideas of the game into a genre that resonates with me a lot more: the roguelike deckbuilder. While it doesn’t create something as deep as a game like Slay the Spire, the fast-paced, arcadey nature of the gameplay makes it stand out in the extremely crowded genre.

One of the most surprising things about the game is how well it maps all of the emotions and pacing of Vampire Survivors into a completely different format. It takes card game mechanics and makes them fast by adding a combo system, giving you multipliers for playing cards in mana value order, helping to alleviate some of the analysis paralysis that comes with deckbuilders.

As a result, turns go super-fast without sacrificing strategy. There’s still thought that goes into a turn, carefully weighing the synergies between the cards and how best to play them, but the focus is on keeping you moving by making the complexity manageable in the middle of a battle. In addition, it doubles down on the amazing audio-visual flourishes of Vampire Survivors, making every victory into a fountain of visual effects and pleasing sounds. It gives you slot machine levels of dopamine hits, while still requiring some brain flexing to earn it.

While the combo system is definitely the most drastic addition to the deckbuilding formula, there are other ways the game adds complexity that really make it sing. At the start of each run, you pick a crawler as your main character, which affects your starting deck. This crawler is also a card that can be played, and when it’s active, it grants you specific modifiers to your actions. Each card also has a number of slots that can be filled with gems, giving the card another effect when played. The combos, the crawlers, and the gems all mix into such an interesting amount of vectors for synergy, without ever overwhelming you with too much information. Deckbuilders can be a hard genre to get into, and Vampire Crawlers feels like one that I would recommend to new players as both a good intro to the genre and one of the most outright fun ones. – Aaron Boehm

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Vampire Crawlers here.

2) Saros

If you can count on Housemarque for one thing, it’s that their games always feel outstanding. Going back to their more arcade-y days, I was always impressed with just how perfectly-tuned their mechanics are, allowing you precise control as they overwhelm you with waves of enemies and projectiles.

Saros, which evolves on the formula established in Returnal, is one of the best feeling third-person shooters I’ve played in a long time, and, fortunately, it’s attached to a compellingly hostile world and a gripping cosmic horror narrative.

Dropping you in the ever-shifting world of Carcosa, Saros casts you as Arjun Devraj, an enforcer on an interstellar expedition trying to figure out what happened to the other teams sent to this planet. It quickly becomes clear that Carcosa’s oppressive eclipse may have an adverse effect on the mental status of everyone here, and evidence mounts of previous expeditions being lost to power lust and madness.

Even weirder, when Devraj dies on his many trips into the planet’s wastelands, he finds himself mysteriously reborn in the base. All this makes the perfect setup for a roguelite, albeit one that softens its commitment to the structure a bit more compared to its predecessor. For the better, in my opinion.

Each run, you select a starting biome and hit the ground running. As you blast your way through tentacled eldritch monstrosities, you’ll pick up various powerups that define your build throughout the run, while also collecting currency that will allow you to purchase permanent upgrades at your home base.

This is all well and good, and it manages to make a smoother experience than the overly punishing Returnal, but the real juice is in the core gameplay loop. Arjun moves so fast in this game, allowing you to use the hyper mobile dash to dodge your way through the bullet hell-like patterns of projectiles that are thrown your way.

Not only do you have to pay attention to the sheer volume of projectiles and enemies, but you also need to keep track of the color, as some can be absorbed to power your weapon, some can cause dangerous corruption, and others need to be completely avoided. It’s a thrilling game that puts you in a euphoric zone where you feel like you’re completely in sync with the game, making for one of the most satisfying shooters I’ve played in years. – Aaron Boehm

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Saros here.

1) Resident Evil Requiem

The last time Resident Evil tried to appease everybody, it resulted in the catastrophically compromised RE6. It was with justifiable scepticism, then, that many approached the franchise’s ninth mainline entry, as it promised to fuse two ostensibly incompatible styles of Resi game.

As touted in the marketing, half of your Resident Evil Requiem playthrough would adhere to the philosophy of the Ethan Winters saga — which pared down the globetrotting shenanigans, pivoted to a first-person perspective, eschewed super-soldier protagonists, and placed an emphasis on claustrophobic horror over bombast — while the other half was being sold as a return to the madcap glory days of RE4 — conversely characterised by its outlandish set-pieces, over-the-shoulder gunplay, campy extravagance and roundhouse kicking hero. It was literally being pitched as two diametrically opposed experiences.

Some were therefore anxious that history seemed doomed to repeat itself here, with Capcom once again trying to maximise broad appeal and cater to everybody in a ploy that would leave both camps (the horror and action fans alike) dissatisfied. After all, some people like pizza. Most people like ice cream. But only a demented crackpot employed by the Umbrella Corporation would ever dream of splicing them together.

Well, those faithless doubters (ourselves included) will just have to eat their words. Because, against all odds, Requiem is kind of magical. We’d go so far as to say it’s one of Resident Evil’s finest hours. What at first glance seemed destined to be a hideous culinary nightmare (mixing milk, sugar, bread, cheese, tomato, and candy toppings into an unappetizing sludge) instead turned out to be an exquisite pizza pie, complemented by a delicious serving of ice cream on the side!

The horror portions, wherein you control franchise newbie Grace Ashcroft, are electrifying, containing some of the series’ most frightening encounters to date. This is particularly true in the early hours, when ammunition is so scarce that you’ve got to frugally conserve your one and only high-calibre bullet, and even the garden-variety zombies pose a threat.

You see, thanks to a mutated T-Virus strain, the shambling corpses you deal with here are smarter, more durable, and more relentless than ever before. You subsequently have to use your wits to outmanoeuvre them as Grace, and the systems for doing so are surprisingly flexible. You can try and sneak around them, bait them into attacking one another, exploit their idiosyncratic behaviours (in a beautiful touch, every ghoul in the opening area has their own unique design and personality traits), or decide to expend some of your limited resources to take them down.

And because you have to seriously engage with them in this way, they’re no longer mere fodder. You even end up developing intimate adversarial relationships with some of them. I was terrified of the hulking chef and would do my best to avoid ever crossing his path. Meanwhile, I got flustered whenever the obsessive maid would follow me from room to room, and I shuddered upon hearing the telltale wailing of those shrill songstresses. It just puts the bite back into the walking dead when they don’t blend into an indistinguishable horde anymore and are instead treated like legitimate monsters to be afraid of in their own right.

Of course, they pale in comparison to “The Girl”, Requiem’s petrifying icon, who is used rather sparingly, but supplies some of the best stalker horror we’ve seen this side of Amnesia: The Bunker whenever she does descend from the rafters to menace us. Towering in stature and sporting a permanent rictus grin, she’s some of the purest nightmare fuel Resident Evil has ever given us, and tiptoeing around in the dark as she tries to sniff you out is guaranteed to get your heart racing.

In short, playing as Grace is disempowering and scary in all the right ways. The catharsis you feel when you then get to switch over to legacy character Leon S. Kennedy — who has been promoted into some kind of John Wick-esque Baba Yaga for bioweapons here — is downright euphoric. When taking control of the veteran zombie slayer, Requiem’s entire dynamic flips, and you no longer feel like you’re locked inside with the monsters. They’re locked inside with you.

Regardless of your stance on how action-oriented Resident Evil should be, you’ve got to admit the combat is ridiculously cool in this instance. The animations are silky smooth, and enemies react impactfully (and gruesomely) to your shots. There’s also a pleasing, almost dance-like, fluidity to the movement that has you grinning with glee as you chain together slick parries, axe throws, and brutal gun finishers like the trained badass you are. I especially loved the versatility of the game’s chainsaws, which can get lodged into foes’ stomachs and drag crippled zombies along the floor if they’re still clinging to them. The first time I was given the chance to go on a rampage with one of these awesome power tools, I mentally regressed into my 15-year-old self and could not stop beaming.

Come to think of it, I had that same demented grin on my face for most of Resident Evil Requiem thereafter, whether I was delighting in the meticulous level design of the Rhodes Hill Care Centre, facing off against classic Resi creatures in the throwback-heavy climax, or just marvelling at the insanity of increasingly over-the-top set pieces. On occasion, it does still feel like two mismatched games stapled together. But when those games are this insanely good, who cares? – Harrison Abbott

Read Bloody Disgusting’s full review of Resident Evil Requiem here.

Honourable Mentions:

Sol Cesto – This unconventional dungeon crawler roguelike is about manipulating the odds to kill strange monsters while getting upgrades in the form of teeth. Strong art direction and a unique gameplay hook keep you coming back for more, run after run.

Tombwater – A top-down Old West Bloodborne-meets-Zelda game that feels a bit like Mina the Hollower, but with more build options. It can be a bit easy to get turned around while exploring, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a fun one to lose yourself in.

Luna Abyss – It plays a bit like the unholy child of Metroid Prime and DOOM Eternal, casting you as a prisoner forced to explore an oppressive megastructure as part of her sentence. The first-person bullet hell and platforming combination makes for a thrilling sci-fi adventure.

Space Warlord Baby Trading Simulator – Another weird one from Strange Scaffold, throwing you into a world where people can predict the lives of babies from the moment they’re born and use this technology as a speculative market. A simple, but fun gameplay loop that uses the language of the stock market, while pointing out its inherent casual cruelty. – Aaron Boehm

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You’ve just been made a member of The Order of the Void Eaters, and your job is to track and carve up an array of Lovecraftian-inspired horrors across the galaxy, then discover what they taste like. The better you cook, the stronger you become, but there’s always something more terrifying on the menu to hunt next.

As mentioned, you’ll be dismembering limbs, tentacles, and organs mid-combat, weakening your enemies while stocking your pantry with the freshest ingredients. You’ll have a variety of weapons to help you out in getting your ingredients, but that’s only part of it.

The other part is, of course, meal prep. Elderfeast touts a “unique immersive in-world cooking grid” that rewards clever placement and creative combinations, turning your hard-earned ingredients into something extraordinary. Master the cooking system to craft dishes that enhance your abilities, turning every successful recipe into a step toward becoming a more formidable chef.

Of course, it’s easier said than done, as you’ll be facing off against monsters that will eat anyone and anything. Feed them toxic ingredients, poisoned meals, and other creatures or you’ll find yourself at the top of the menu.

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In SPRAWL zero, you play as FIVE, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier controlled by the Junta. Your directive is to eliminate SILAS, leader of the radical techno-religious group IMAGO-DEI. The city plunges into chaos as all factions known and unknown aim to take control.

Combat is described as fast-paced but grounded, where enemy squads will communicate and coordinate to fight for the advantage. They will flank you, provide covering fire to teammates, and utilize grenades to flush you out in callbacks to those early 2000s shooters.

As a result, you must outsmart and outmaneuver the opposition using any advantage possible. Luckily, you have a few tricks of your own. You can catch their bullets and throw them right back with the Gravity Shield, or bend your shots midair with Bullet-Time for inhuman precision. In all, you’ll have 40 weapons at your disposal.

In addition to Steam, SPRAWL zero is currently in development for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series.

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Yes, the Field Shower is a new buildable structure available for every Build Zone. Once constructed, the Field Shower provides Troopers with access to battlefield sanitation facilities. A shower will extinguish a burning Trooper, as well as provide a method of Health restoration.

Completing the full duration Federation Standardized Shower will also provide Troopers with a combat performance boost. Troopers who have recently showered will move slightly faster, jump higher, climb better, shoot more accurately, and gain additional Morale XP.

The update also introduces a series of rotating Critical Dispatches designed to support the war effort and reward continued service to the Federation. Additionally, every deployment cycle, Troopers will receive a fresh set of Daily Dispatches generated by Fleet Command. Troopers can do one refresh of the missions list per 24-hours. Exterminatation currently has 47 Critical Dispatches in rotation, with more to be added. Successful completion of Daily Missions will grant additional combat experience and contribute toward long-term DSV Service Record milestones.

In addition, the DSV Service Record System has been added to permanently document a Trooper’s military career and recognize exceptional contributions to the war effort. Every confirmed combat action, operational deployment, battlefield specialization, and successful mission contributes toward a growing Service Record reviewed by Federal Command. As Service Record milestones are completed, Troopers will earn Career Experience, advancing their standing within the Mobile Infantry.

For those wanted cosmetics, There’s a new Supporter Cosmetic Pack in The Tesla Giants Supporter Pack, allowing players to show their support for the Tesla Giants, the legendary Jump Ball team from Zander Barcalow’s high school. Inspired by the team’s dominance on the court, this cosmetic pack includes a Helmet Visor, Armor Uniform, Helmet Decal and Weapons Skin inspired by the Giants.

Starship Troopers: Extermination is currently available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

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Available to all Silent Hill f users who have updated to the 1.20 patch, the new new “Crimson Butterfly” cosmetic is inspired by Mio Amakura, the protagonist of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake. To use this costume, either select New Game from the main menu, or select Change Costume while resting at a Hokora in-game.

Silent Hill f is the first entry in the series set in Japan, where players take on the role of Shimizu Hinako, a high school student struggling under society’s pressure of expectations. Wandering through her hometown Ebisugaoka, a mysterious fog rolls in and covers the town, revealing a disturbing transformation. Hinako must face horrific creatures, uncover mysteries and confront traumatic decisions that will influence her fate.

Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is a remake of the 2003 PlayStation 2 and Xbox original, and centers around twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura. While visiting a forested valley in the Minakami region where they used to play as children. Mayu is led away by a crimson butterfly, with Mio giving chase and the two ending up in Minakami Village, a legendary location said to trap people who enter it. as they are trapped in a ghost-filled village cursed by a failed ritual which they are being forced to re-enact.

In addition to Steam, Silent Hill f is available on PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series. Likewise, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly Remake is available for the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and the Xbox Series.

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The Relic: First Guardian takes place on the fictitious continent of Arsiltus. You are the First Guardian, charged with embarking on a heroic adventure to save the world. The once-prosperous Arsiltus was swallowed up by the void created by the destruction of the great relic and transformed into the land of death. Now your mission is to find the pieces of the broken great relic and close the void.

Featuring more than 70 bosses known as “Brutals”, each one carries a personal tale of sorrow and tragedy of how they came to be the formidable foe that plagues the lands. It’s your task to overcome each Brutal by using a combination of unique weapons, magic, and skills that can be tailored to each playstyle or enemy interaction. As expected from its inspiration, every defence and dodge consumes stamina, requiring you to plan your attacks as well as your counters.

Players that come out victorious will inherit each unique tragic story of their enemy’s demise, along with special items, enhancements, and upgrades to progress through the story. These will aid in every subsequent fight as you explore vast environments and collect fragments to unlock more skills and weapons.

Look for  The Relic: First Guardian on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam on July 31, while versions for the Xbox Series and Nintendo Switch 2 are expected later this year.

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Details on the collaboration are being kept under wraps for now, but during the event, players will be able to participate in collaboration-exclusive in-game events that will earn them special rewards inspired by the Monster Hunter series. We do get a brief teaser trailer for the upcoming event, which in addition to teasing various monsters for players to battle, also promises new units for players to recruit.

Set in a parallel world inspired by the Resident Evil universe, the game features an original storyline and real-time strategic gameplay designed for mobile platforms. Players will build bases, secure resources, and battle creatures in a collapsed city. Iconic characters such as Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, and Jill Valentine appear throughout the game, allowing for team formations that bring together characters from across the Resident Evil franchise, enabling unique combinations not seen in the original titles.

Resident Evil Survival Unit is available on iOS and Android devices.

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The footage provides a first look at Dohatsu-ten, a terrifyingly fast and bloodthirsty Genma. After carving its way into the mortal realm, this winged warrior from the depths of hell locks blades with protagonist Miyamoto Musashi in an intense boss battle.

And in case you missed it, pre-orders for Onimusha: Way of the Sword are available now, and include the “Sealed Curse” sword skin and “Lion Dog” charm as bonuses. You can also check out the demo on all platforms (save for the Switch 2).

Onimusha: Way of the Sword returns to a dark fantasy feudal Japan where samurai clash with the supernatural in cutting-edge combat. The game takes place in Kyoto during the early Edo period. In this time of relative peace for Japan, Malice has befallen the ancient city. Twisted into an eerie and unsettling place, Kyoto has been infested by the demonic Genma.

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The Hotline Miami collaboration with ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN allows players to try on Jacket’s “Chicken Mask” and the Biker’s “Full-face Helmet” while destroying Rotters and snapping photos to show off your stylish mayhem. Additionally, for those who haven’t yet snagged the game on Steam, you can do so with a 20% discount during the Steam Summer Sale. And on top of that, a new bundle with Hotline Miami is also available with a 10% discount.

To access the new costumes, clear the game and save your data. Then, head over to Romeo’s room on the Space-Time Ship to unlock the Costume Change feature. From there, you can deck yourself out in the two Hotline Miami setups, cycle through three different masks (the OG “Dead Gear L.E.D.”, the later-game “Dead Gear – Luminous”, and the “Dead Gear – Horned” inner mask) or swap between eight jackets (including your existing jacket) to customize Romeo however you like.

As for the Photo Mode, you can access this new feature from the pause menu, granting you full control to adjust the camera, tweak color correction, manipulate depth of field, and slap on custom frame art to capture your finest action moments.

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The update addresses community-reported issues, improves performance in key areas, adds support for additional monitor resolutions, and includes platform-specific enhancements across PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. The patch also allows those who own a Steam Deck to finally take the game on the go.

Crisol: Theater of Idols takes players deep into the world of Hispania, a nightmarish version of Spain torn apart by two warring religions. Players take control of Gabriel, a soldier who uses his own blood as both weapon and lifeline, to fulfil a divine mission from the Sun God.

Uncover the chilling history and twisted folklore of Tormentosa, a beautiful but malevolent island. Players will traverse eerie landscapes, crumbling grand ruins, and labyrinthine streets as they peel back the layers of cults and blood sacrifice.

Blood is both your lifeline and your ammunition in Crisol. You must wield this power against terrifying enemies, as well as use it to solve intricate puzzles. However, you must take care, as every shot drains your life. Choose wisely—survival hinges on your ability to balance life and death.

Luckily, you can upgrade your powers that will enhance the lethality of your blood to deal more damage, fight for longer, and to gain bonuses in combat. At your disposal are a myriad of weapon options, which you must choose for the right scenario. You can also upgrade these weapons through coins found on your journey of Tormentosa.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is available on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series. And seeing as the Steam Summer Sale is on now, you can grab the PC version with a 10% discount.

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The updated roadmap for Phasmophobia prioritises quality over speed, and is being shaped by community feedback and the team’s own ambitions for the game. As a result, the roadmap includes adjusted timelines enabling the team to deliver its vision for the game’s full launch next year. That vision also involves a complete overhaul of the game’s ghost models, replacing the current roster with a cast of unique ghosts that each have their own appearance, animations, and backstory.

Following complete overhauls to the iconic Grafton and Bleasdale farmhouse, and most recently, 6 Tanglewood Drive, Willow is next on the list to be brought up to the team’s ideal development standards. This will include room refreshes, tweaked hiding spots, and integrated, never-before-seen lore, and will be accompanied by the first of two major quality-of-life updates that will bring improvements to player character models, animations and customisation options.

After Willow’s rework, players can expect a second quality-of-life update, followed by the game’s upcoming Unity 6 migration. Fan-favourite seasonal haunts including Crimson Eye and Winter’s Jest will also be returning for 2026, and ghost hunters can also look forward to Edgefield map rework, slated for December.

The 1.0 launch will also expand Phasmophobia‘s lore through continued environmental storytelling, introducing ghost-specific conduits and deeper connections to the people and places behind each haunting. Alongside these additions, significant audio improvements are planned for 1.0, including enhancements to environmental effects, weather systems, and spatial sound to create a more immersive investigation experience.

And yes, this all will include the long-awaited release of the game on the Nintendo Switch.

“I can only thank the community for the opportunities the game has given us, growing the studio to a team of over 50 people, and allowing us to work on improving Phasmophobia every day,” said Daniel Knight, CEO and Game Director at Kinetic Games. “Everyone’s feedback following our first Player Character Update showed that we have many areas to address before moving further along our roadmap. We’re going to take this time to improve and expand this update to shape the game into the refined horror experience our players expect.”

Phasmophobia is available in Early Access on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR2, and the Xbox Series.

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Growing up in the Glass River First Nation, Shane Wiigwaas was driven by a simple belief: justice wasn’t about punishment, but rather restoring balance. That conviction led him to become a defense attorney, advocating for First Nation clients and others in need.

When Shane’s cousin Derek was accused of murdering a police officer, the evidence seemed overwhelming despite Derek’s insistence that the officer had vanished into a mysterious cloud of black fog. Though Shane believed the story, he urged his cousin to accept a plea deal – something Derek refused, determined to stand by the truth. The result was a life sentence without parole. A decision that would haunt Shane for the rest of his days.

Leaving home, he traveled on his motorcycle, helping others where we could, and searching for answers about the strange fog that had destroyed his cousin’s life. His search led him to the Pacific Northwest, where he set out to investigate the unexplained disappearance of a man named Jake Park. Shane ventured into the forest, to the spot of Jake’s vanishing… and was never seen again.

Shane arrives with three new character-specific Perks designed to reward bold decision-making, teamwork, and an assertive play style.

Wide Open Throttle gives Shane the ability to gain a burst of Haste after Fast Vaulting a Pallet, while also resetting the Pallet and blocking it for a considerable duration. During this time, his teammates will be able to see the blocked Pallet’s Aura. Cross-Examination brings new evidence to light, allowing Shane to see a trail of the Killer’s Light Marks when inside their Terror Radius. Following the trail also provides a burst of Haste. Finally, Lend a Hand unlocks a special healing ability once per Trial when blessing or cleansing a Totem. Shane can activate the ability to give the teammate healing a small increase in permanent healing charges.

As for cosmetics, The Life Road Collection launches with two Outfits inspired by the experiences that shaped Shane. Shane’s Rare Law School Nights Outfit offers the casual comfort of a hoodie, joggers, and colored braid wraps worn as a student earning his degree in Northern Ontario. Meanwhile, his Very Rare Woodland Regalia Outfit, made together with his grandmother, delivers a more traditional look at his Anishinaabe roots.

Dead by Daylight: The Life Road is available now on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Xbox Series, and the Nintendo Switch.

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