Author: Zach Barbieri

Developer Playground Games has confirmed the upcoming global release times for the launch of Forza Horizon 6, both for early access and the full release. This confirmation comes following the title suffering a significant leak over the weekend, in which the game became available in its entirety for many players. Playground and Microsoft have been actively at work to patch the leak, even issuing several Pirates lifetime hardware bans, leaving many to wonder if this would alter the release schedule. As we now know, it did not. This was confirmed via a post to social media, in which it was…

Starbites is a weird game because, and this is true, I can’t remember what exactly it reminds me of. There is a certain nostalgia to the title that makes it compelling, maybe of the 3DS era. Something I probably played while bored at work when your choice of portable games was limited. As a NISA-published game, this feeling is weird because the game has that old-school vibe of an American game simulating Anime but through a Western style. The studio behind the titles’ development, Ikina Games, is based in Seoul, so it still has that outsider vantage, but I guess…

Pragmata starts in a way you are probably familiar with. In fact, the trope is so common that there is a name for the sub-genre, Sci-Fi Robinsonade. Main protagonist Hugh and company land on the Lunar colony to investigate an incident that occurred there, and don’t even get out of the entrance way before an earthquake, maybe, sorta, kills everybody and leaves you as the sole survivor on a space station that wants you dead. I say that because, through your exploration, that is one of the main things you’re trying to solve. What comes next is that Hugh only…

It’s been 5 months since Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic was announced at the Video Game Awards with a CGI teaser trailer, and we are now getting some of our first information, which was in preproduction at the time of that trailer. In particular, Game Director Casey Hudson, who previously worked on the classic BioWare RPG series, this is meant as a spiritual successor too, has promised that this isn’t a bloated single-player game that will take over half a decade to develop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmkl1jL0fo In an interview with Bloomberg, Hudson reaffirmed that the plan is to have Star…

*This guide contains minor spoilers for Directive 8020. About halfway into Episode Two: Best Laid Plans of Directive 8020, the player takes control of character Laura Eisele, who is investigating the sleep crew. She sneaks off to investigate the Crew Quarters to try to figure out what happened, which is probably a bad decision in a horror game. You definitely know something bad is coming, but hey, somebody has to get the ball rolling. Right before the staircase up to the crew quarters, on the left, is a door you can walk into and find a locker room. On the…

The former director of the popular Tekken fighting series, Katsuhiro Harada, has established his own game development studio, VS Studio. Harada oversaw the series since Tekken 3 in 1997, having worked on previous entries, until departing Bandai Namco near the end of 2025. VS Studio is being founded in conjunction with Japanese developer SNK Corporation, known for fighting titles like King of Fighters, and the recently revived Fatal Fury. While the VS in the name might mean that Harada will continue doing what he is best known for, fighting games, the studio itself claims there are “various meanings” behind the…

Originally confirmed to be in development in 2022, it has been a long and winding road for Subnautica 2, but the end is almost here. The long-awaited game is finally set to release on May 14 for PC and Xbox Series into Early Access. Subnautica 2 is a survival crafting game in which you can play alone or with friends on a hostile alien planet covered in water. Discover georgous biomes, contend with docile and threatening creatures alike, and craft everything from bases to vehicles to help you survive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EZhCzFaQuw&t=3s As an Early Access title, Subnautica 2 will remain a…

Xbox and Discord have officially announced the new Starter Edition of their Xbox Game Pass that will be available to Discord Nitro Subscribers at no extra cost to them. The reveal, made today, comes a month after Xbox’s new head, Asha Sharma, confirmed that the two companies were working together on a new offering for fans. Shortly after this, the first mentions of an Xbox Game Pass Starter Edition started showing up on the internet. Both companies are referring to this service as a “Starter Edition,” differentiating it from the versions of the service that were available prior (like Ultimate),…

Mixtape works best when its powerful vignette moments express intimate moments of its titular young characters. In the opening cutscene, protagonist Stacy Rockford talks directly to the camera, informing the audience to “make memories to good music, invest in high-quality headphones, and always make a soundtrack.” Why? “Because pretty soon you won’t be listening to music; you will be listening to who you were.” This narration, a simple setup, reverberates through the entirety of Mixtape and becomes, oftentimes, painfully relevant. We all have that track, those lyrics that act like a memory in a bottle, transporting us from who we…

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, much like ZA/UM’s predecessor Disco Elysium, starts in a room. A small slice of paradise is getting worse by the minute. There are differences, though, the most obvious being that this time you are a spy rather than a cop. Ironically, the confusion as you try to get your bearings remains. Cascade was meant to meet a contact here. Instead, the mission has already gone sideways when they discover that the person they were meant to meet is instead catatonic, not alive but definitely not dead. If you put your time into Disco, you probably…