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PlayStation opened a cloud streaming beta for its PlayStation Portal remote play device, allowing PlayStation Plus Premium members to play select PS5 games from the Plus catalog without needing to connect to their own console at home. Now, PlayStation is rolling out cloud streaming as a full feature for the Portal. Starting today, PlayStation Plus Premium members can stream thousands of games via the cloud on a Portal connected to WiFi. Games available with the feature's launch today include Astro Bot, Borderlands 4, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Fortnite, Ghost of Yōtei, Grand Theft Auto V, and thousands more – you can view the complete list of games here. Games available to stream include both titles you own in your PS5 library as well as compatible games from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics Catalog. "Enjoy a game side-by-side with a friend who's using your PS5 under a separate account, or stream your favorite game while someone else watches a movie on the console," a PlayStation Blog post reads. "Cloud Streaming also makes it easier to enjoy PS5 games on the go – at a hotel, cafe, friend's place, or anywhere else with a high-speed internet WiFi connection – since you can keep playing even when your PS5 console back home is powered off or is in use by another account." Alongside this update, PlayStation has implemented a new UI for the Portal, including a Remote Play home screen, a Cloud Streaming home screen, and a search screen. You can check it out in the image below: Elsewhere in today's update, the Portal now supports 3D Audio during Remote Play and cloud streaming on supported games, but you need to use either a wired headset or a PlayStation Link audio device like the Pulse Explore earbuds and Pulse Elite headset. There's also a new passcode lock for Portal devices and a network status screen that displays information about your internet connection. And finally, when cloud streaming on your Portal, you have access to in-game stores and transactions, accessibility options, and game invitations. This new cloud streaming update for Portal devices is available starting today. Do you use a PlayStation Portal? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below! View the full article

Fireproof Games' Ghost Town took home two accolades at the 2025 TIGA Awards last night, including Best Puzzle Game and Game of the Year. Read more View the full article

Cemetery Warrior 4 is currently free on IndieGala for a limited time, so grab it while you can! Cemetery Warrior 4 is ... View the full article

Celebrate Fanatical’s 30th Birthday with a giveaway! That´s right, Fanatical is giving away free Steam keys for Super ... View the full article

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups. Read more View the full article

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups. Read more View the full article

The Switch 2 has achieved the highest global sales figure of any Nintendo platform in the first four months of launch. Read more View the full article

Sega Sammy's fiscal year ending March 2025 reveals a dip in net sales and operating income across the period, despite "strong sales" from its video game business, particularly in regards to Sonic X Shadow Generations and Metaphor: ReFantazio. Read more View the full article

The head of the U.S. Patent Office is reexamining a decision to award Nintendo a patent that protects a common gameplay mechanic wherein an in-game character summons another sub-character to support it in battle in one of two battle modes. Read more View the full article

We interviewed the general manager of Marvel Games for insight into several of the big projects the team has been working to bring to life, and where the games division is headed next. Our recent issue of Game Informer included a big look at some of the major game projects currently in development connected to Marvel Games. As the entity overseeing and partnering with studios to bring those efforts to life, Marvel Games has an impressively wide selection of connections across the games industry, with games the run the gamut in terms of genre, gameplay style, and artistic direction. We had a chance to ask Haluk Mentes, General Manager of Marvel Games, about several of the games we featured in our magazine rundown, as well as briefly ask about Marvel Games’ intentions as it continues to expand in new directions. Check out our full interview below. Subscribers can dive into full in-depth features for the games discussed below in our digital or print issue 372, featuring The Outer Worlds 2 on the cover. Marvel Rivals Marvel Games has a number of projects in the works right now, and with several different developer partners. What have been some guiding principles to those collaborations, in particular as it relates to letting developers find some freedom to shape these familiar characters into new and interesting genres or variations? Haluk Mentes: So glad you asked this. Our north star is deceptively simple: make great games that are authentic to Marvel, whether it’s on console, PC, mobile or VR. The challenge is more complex: authenticity doesn’t necessarily mean one-to-one fidelity to source or reference material, whether it’s comics or animation or movies. It’s much deeper in that we allow our collaborating teams to reimagine "familiar yet original" incarnations of our characters based on their own creative DNA, whether it’s Insomniac Games with Marvel’s Spider-Man or Marvel’s Wolverine, NetEase with Marvel Rivals, Motive Studio with the forthcoming Iron Man game, Arkane with Marvel’s Blade, and many more. We absolutely do not want to be derivative. Otherwise, what’s the point of working with some of the best talent out there? In full transparency, our games can only achieve the necessary level of creativity when we as Marvel Games have 100% cultural alignment with our collaborators. In fact, we actively seek people who have the same passion and ambition as us, who dream the same dream, as in: "wouldn’t it be cool if we made THIS character in THIS genre in THIS style?,” and then we let them, for the lack of a better word, cook. We do actively help, guide, and enhance, but it’s unmistakably their voice. There have been so many moments where creative teams on both sides have said: “We’ve been dreaming of this all our lives.” That’s when you know magic is about to happen. Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls Marvel Tōkon Fighting Souls is distinct among many historical Marvel fighting games, as it is squarely focused on Marvel characters. What was the working relationship like with the Arc System Works team, and what has it been like seeing the studio explore a Japanese art-and-culture-informed take on some of these classic comic characters? HM: Others have said it better, but I’ll repeat here: working with ArcSys and PlayStation has been a dream. From inception, the goal was to reinstate Marvel as a pillar of the fighting game community, and to do it with a unique, anime-inspired art-style and some of the best tag-team fighting mechanics out there. From the get-go, we collectively started pushing the envelope in terms of design to bring out that unmistakable ArcSys identity. I particularly love how Iron Man looks in the game - super unique but instantly recognizable. We’re incredibly proud of Marvel Tōkon and I think players are in for a real treat when it comes out next year. Marvel’s Deadpool VR Deadpool VR provides a chance to bring a largely comedic character into the VR gaming space. Given that Deadpool is traditionally irreverent, mature in tone (or immature, depending on perspective) and fourth-wall-breaking, how did Marvel Games approach approvals for jokes and visuals in that game? HM: It speaks yet again to our yearning for authenticity. We were culturally aligned with the teams at Twisted Pixel Games and Oculus Studios from the get-go and all agreed that we simply wouldn’t make the game if we weren’t going to all-gas-no-brakes deliver on Deadpool, which encompassed everything from the frenetic gameplay to the comedic, mature, fourth wall-breaking tone. Filtering the "Merc with a Mouth" was never an option, as it would betray what makes the character unique. Then there’s the added benefit of working in VR: the humor and gags hit harder when it’s literally in your face. The result is a game that’s unhinged, slightly manic, and, most importantly, fun. Marvel Cosmic Invasion Marvel Cosmic Invasion focuses on bringing the Marvel characters into a decidedly old-school retro aesthetic. Why was that setting attractive? Were there older Marvel video games that helped inform the desire to make that project happen? HM: We all grew up with these games, so it was a no-brainer! My own first-ever Marvel game was X-Men: Children of the Atom, followed by Punisher and X-Men Arcade, and I didn’t even grow up in the United States. The rest of our team has similar memories and origin stories, whether at the arcade or at home. What we now call retro games were pretty current in their time and carried the torch for Marvel where comics didn’t always permeate. Add to that the amazing opportunity to work with Dotemu and Tribute to help make Marvel Cosmic Invasion after all the hours poured into TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge, and it was truly yet another “this has to happen” moment. Marvel’s Wolverine Given the breadth of announced projects on the way for Marvel Games in the coming months and years, can you share anything about the philosophy guiding Marvel Games in the interactive games space? What factors help to inform whether you want to move forward on a project? HM: We’ve spent upwards of a decade building the Marvel Games portfolio, and it’s been fun watching the tapestry unfold game-by-game and to see players' reactions. There’s been a tremendous level of thought that went into the games we decided to pursue. We've almost instinctively operated from this place of “no regrets,” meaning if we projected ourselves 20 years into the future and looked back, we don’t ever want to say “we should’ve made that game” or “why did we not push harder to make this happen?” There’s a great sense of responsibility at play here: Marvel is an almost 90-year-old creative brand, yet it’s as fresh as ever because during all that time, each new generation grew up with Marvel, ultimately became creators and left their mark, and then passed the torch to the next generation. We happen to be here now, carrying this torch, and we feel we have a debt of gratitude to deliver for the players and future creators, whose first encounter with Marvel might well be one of our games. We also actively seek collaborators that want to take on the same mantle. As is usually the case, once we complete a project together, they, too, become “Marvel.” Marvel’s Wolverine with our dear friends at Insomniac Games is perhaps the epitome of this philosophy. We have been working together for more than a decade and developed such a shorthand across multiple Marvel’s Spider-Man games that when the time finally came to bring Logan back in spectacular and visceral fashion, it was obvious to everyone on our team that Insomniac was the perfect choice. It was our shared culture and values that brought us together, and we’re so proud to continue collaborating for many years to come. View the full article

T-Minus Zero Entertainment, a former NetEase studio shuttered in September, has been saved and acquired by a "small group of veteran directors and founders." Read more View the full article

The Switch 2 continues to be a sales juggernaut, as Nintendo has announced that it has sold over 10 million Switch 2 consoles in its first six months. In its 2nd quarter fiscal year report, Nintendo states 10.36 million Switch 2 units have been sold from its June 5 launch through the end of September. Although Nintendo frames this number as an overall decrease from the Switch 2’s hot start, which established it as the fastest-selling home console ever, it has remained a strong performer. This number now means that Switch 2 is selling more than twice as fast as the original Switch did during the same launch period (4.7 million in its first six months in 2017). The Switch 2 has also outperformed the PlayStation 5's sales during its first six months (7.8 million), albeit that console also suffered from supply shortages. Mario Kart World The report also reveals sales figures for the Switch 2’s marquee first-party titles, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza. Mario Kart World, a launch title that was also a pack-in for the $499 Switch 2 bundle, has sold 9.57 million units, with 8.1 million from the console bundle. This means nearly every Switch 2 owner grabbed a copy of the latest Mario racer. Donkey Kong Bananza, which launched on July 17, has sold 3.49 million copies. Overall software sales for Switch 2 in the first half of the fiscal year sit at 20.62 million. With the holiday season approaching, the recent launch of Pokémon Legends Z-A (of which sales data is not yet available), and the highly anticipated release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on December 4, it’s likely the Switch 2 will continue its strong momentum heading into 2026. In fact, Nintendo has modified its sales forecast for the next fiscal year; it now expects to sell 19 million Switch 2 consoles before the end of March 2026, up from its previous forecast of 15 million. For more on Switch 2, you can see what remaining games will hit the console this year with our Switch 2 release calendar. You can also read about the newly announced Switch 2 Edition of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. View the full article

Sid Meier's Civilization VII: Tides of Power Collection DLC is free on Steam until January 5, 2026. This collection includes 2 new leaders, 4 ... View the full article

Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is gracing the cover of the latest Game Informer issue, and the digital version of the issue is live today ahead of physical copies hitting mailboxes starting next month. As such, you can expect all kinds of coverage about the game from our time visiting Square Enix's Shibuya, Tokyo, offices to play Reimagined for two hours and interview various leads on the development team. That coverage begins today! While talking to Reimagined producer Takeshi Ichikawa about this remake – Square Enix's second remake following the release of the original Dragon Quest VII in 2001 (in the U.S.) and the Nintendo 3DS remake in 2016 – he spoke about some of the changes happening in the main scenario. We'll have more on that this month, but for now, I want to focus on something that might excite players already familiar with the narrative of Dragon Quest VII: a new ending. "[Reimagined] follows the narrative of the original story, but depending on some of the [...] player choices, players will get to see a new conclusion that's never been seen before in previous iterations," Ichikawa tells me. "So, even players who have played previous versions of Dragon Quest VII, they'll still get to have this fresh narrative experience with Reimagined." Unfortunately, I couldn't glean much more from Ichikawa about this new conclusion, but Reimagined launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, Switch, and PC on February 5, so we don't have to wait too long to learn more. In the meantime, check out this article breaking down everything in the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined issue of Game Informer, and be sure to subscribe here if you haven't yet so you can access the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined cover story, our deep dive into Dragon Quest history with creator Yuji Horii, and so much more. View the full article

New to Raid: Shadow Legends? Jump into the action with a free Legendary Champion, Tholin Foulbeard, plus receive a free ... View the full article

The digital version of Game Informer magazine Issue 373, featuring Dragon Quest VII Reimagined on the cover, is now live! Subscribers can read the full issue right here, with print issues arriving in mailboxes starting in December. If you subscribe to Game Informer before November 25, you'll receive this latest issue highlighting Dragon Quest VII Reimagined across 12 pages in our cover story. And, because this is somehow the first-ever time a Dragon Quest game has appeared on a Game Informer cover, we have an 8-page deep dive into the history of the Dragon Quest series, as told by the man who created it, Yuji Horii. In addition to that historical retrospective and a 12-page Dragon Quest Reimagined cover story, which features my thoughts after playing the game for two hours alongside words from the game's various development leads, this issue is jam-packed with excellent features. Senior Associate Editor Marcus Stewart spoke with Edmund McMillan, the creator of The Binding of Isaac, about his new game, Mewgenics. Freelancer Luis Joshua Gutierrez plugged a hole in Game Informer coverage with an awesome look at the culture surrounding the mega-phenomenon that is Five Nights at Freddy's. The entire GI crew banded together to create a round-up of the best co-op games to play during the holidays! Speaking of holidays, Editor-in-Chief Matt Miller scoured storefronts to bring you 10 pages of great gifts for the gamers in your life. Elsewhere in this exciting issue, we have a look at the history of games that Game Informer has awarded the prestigious 10/10 review score (because this issue features a review for a game we gave a 10!), the top five dragon quests, a look at Riot's upcoming League of Legends card game, Riftbound, a look back at 2025 aka The Year of the Ninja, and even a post-launch Ghost of Yōtei interview with Sucker Punch Prodcutions. In case you haven't seen it yet, here's another look at the beautiful and vibrant Dragon Quest VII Reimagined cover, which features Prince Keifer, Hero, and Maribel avoiding the gaze of a stone golem in the game's unique visual style, which is based on real-life dolls Square Enix created: And it wouldn't be a Game Informer issue without the usual previews, which includes Marvel's Wolverine, Saros, Chronoscript: The Endless End, Skate Story, Halo: Campaign Evolved, and more, and reviews, where you can read our thoughts on Absolum, Ninja Gaiden 4, Hades II, The Outer Worlds 2, Battlefield 6, and so much more! We're really proud of this issue, and we hope you'll see why as you pore through its pages. By subscribing to Game Informer, you'll receive 10 issues a year in both physical and digital editions. We also offer a digital-only subscription for a reduced price. Read the digital issue View the full article

A 10/10 score is an honor we at Game Informer don’t bestow often, but it’s a big deal when we do. It involves careful consideration and conversation with the other editors, ensuring that it’s not a number we hand out lightly. Across our outlet’s entire history, only a few dozen games have been awarded the score, and they’re included in this easily accessible list. However, there are also some fun “almost” 10s throughout Game Informer’s history. By scouring through the magazine archive, we uncovered a handful of instances where 10s were sort of handed out that make for interesting edge cases. The Games That Almost Got 10s The Games That Almost Got 10sThe most common instances of “almost” 10s were in Game Informer’s early days. For the first nine years of the magazine’s lifespan, each game had three reviewers whose scores would be averaged into one "bottom line," which is generally recognized as Game Informer’s final score. Even then, individual reviews were broken down into numbered scores across five categories (Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, and Entertainment), so it was extremely difficult for any game to get a 10. It would need to get perfect (or near-perfect) scores across the board from three separate writers. This, as far as we can tell, never happened. However, there are instances where one of the three writers scored the game a 10. In issue 3, editor Marianne Morgan gave 10s to Lemmings (SNES) and Shatterhand (NES). In issue 6, Ed Martinez awarded a 10 to Out of this World (SNES). Finally, in issue 40, Paul Anderson gave Super Mario 64 a 10. If they had been the sole reviewers, like most outlets have now, these games would all have 10s, but the other editors’ scores ultimately pulled the average down. The only one of these games close to a 10 was Super Mario 64, which scored a 9.75. Another edge case comes in issue 43 from October 1996, in a now-retired Classic GI segment on “The Mascot Wars,” chronicling the rivalry between Mario, Sonic, and the then-new Crash Bandicoot. In it, the writer quickly scores the mainline entries of each mascot’s games and gives Super Mario Bros., a game that predates Game Informer by several years, a retroactive 10. It’s far from an official score, however – not only does the game not go through the traditional, rigorous review process, but the list also includes scores inconsistent with the outlet’s published scores. Super Mario 64, for example, is incorrectly given a 9.5. GI Classic struck again in October of 2000. In issue 90, they revisited Super Mario World, which launched just a few months before the first issue of Game Informer, and gave it a 10. This instance is more formal than before, part of a monthly section fully dedicated to retro reviews, but it’s still abnormal. It was only one opinion, it lacks a byline, and is generally formatted differently than a standard review. If we want to reserve the “first” title for a game to receive a 10 upon release, that honor goes to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, which we reviewed in the very next issue, 91. It happens to coincide with an overhaul of Game Informer’s design and structure, with a new logo and a new review process. Each game now receives a primary review and a “second opinion,” which is also scored, but only gets a paragraph or so of text. Category scores are also no more, replaced with short blurbs breaking down the writer's thoughts on the subject. There were far fewer barriers to score a 10/10 now, and the staff wasted no time doling one out. There is also one instance of a game receiving a score higher than a 10… though it was an April Fool’s joke. In issue 84, a made-up game called Virtua Laundromat 3: Rinse Cycle for the “Mega Dreamblast” (a parody version of the Sega Dreamcast) scored a 10+. Published in April 2000, this was just seven months before the actual first 10/10 score. For all 32 of our 10/10 scores, along with the issue each was published in, you can check out the list below. To see them in their original print layouts, you can access most of them* in the Game Informer magazine archive by making a free account and clicking right here. *(Note: Our free magazine archive includes issue 368 and earlier. To read newer issues, including Astro Bot and Hades II, you can subscribe to Game Informer here.) Every Official Game Informer 10 Every Official Game Informer 10, In Chronological Order 1 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 Issue 91 – November 2000 "Very few perfect scores have ever been given out by Game Informer, and I've never scored anything a 10, but games just don't come better than this." – Jay Fitzloff 2 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty Issue 104 – December 2001 "If there is a birth of the next generation of gaming, it is here with this title." – Matthew Kato 3 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Issue 116 – December 2002 "If every other publisher in the country has been waiting for Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto's reign of chart dominance to come to an end, or wishing that GTA III would prove to be a fluke hit – they better be ready to wait another year." – Matt Helgeson 4 Metroid Fusion Issue 117 – January 2003 "From beginning to end, Metroid Fusion is everything you could want in a Game Boy Advance title – high-powered original content that surpasses the old 8-bit and 16-bit games that they are derived from." – Andrew McNamara 5 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Issue 120 – April 2003 "The Wind Waker blows every Zelda game out of the water and stands as the video game event of a lifetime. It's an absolute necessity for anyone who considers themselves a gamer." – Andrew Reiner 6 Grand Theft Auto III/Vice City (Double Pack) Issue 129 – January 2004 "Yes, Halo is more refined and Zelda is more ingenious, but only Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City has that genre-busting, nonlinear sensibility that the development world is trying to catch up with." – Matt Helgeson 7 Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal Issue 139 – November 2004 "After a long and successful history, Insomniac Games has finally created its masterpiece, a tour de force that is the zenith of a trio of titles that I feel should be held up in action/platform history alongside the original Super Mario Bros. trilogy on the NES." – Matt Helgeson 8 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Issue 140 – December 2004 "San Andreas breaks the video game mold and emerges as something far greater. This is more than a game. This is entertainment at its best." – Andrew Reiner 9 Halo 2 Issue 140 – December 2004 "Simply put, Halo 2 is by far the greatest first-person shooter the console world has seen to date." – Andy McNamara 10 Resident Evil 4 Issue 143 – March 2005 "There are no flaws in Resident Evil 4. It is the greatest horror game to date. I never thought that a game, or movie for that matter, could deliver pulse-pounding action in such an awe-inspiring way." – Andrew Reiner 11 God of War Issue 144 – April 2005 "While playing God of War, I honestly found it difficult to resist the urge to simply genuflect and be humbled to be in the presence of such digital divinity, this god among games." – Joe Juba 12 The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Issue 165 – January 2007 "The debate that has waged for decades over which Zelda game should stand as the series' best will at long last come to a satisfying conclusion, as this is unquestionably the greatest Zelda yet." – Andrew Reiner 13 BioShock Issue 173 – September 2007 "It's ingenious, enthralling, and a masterpiece of the most epic proportions." – Andrew Reiner 14 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Issue 176 – December 2007 "Everything has come together brilliantly, from the nonstop intensity of the offline campaign to the endlessly replayable multiplayer offering. Simply put, Call of Duty 4 is one of the absolute best games to grace any platform to date." – Adam Biessener 15 Grand Theft Auto IV Issue 182 – June 2008 "Grand Theft Auto IV doesn't just raise the bar for the storied franchise; it completely changes the landscape of gaming." – Andrew Reiner 16 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Issue 183 – July 2008 "As the crowning achievement of the series' 20-year history, Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear Solid title may not be what you expect, but it is everything you could hope for in a video game." – Joe Juba 17 Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Issue 199 – November 2009 "Uncharted 2 is a ringing testament to the power of both games and storytelling. It pulls you in, keeps you engaged, and concludes with a thunderous bang." – Andrew Reiner | Full Review 18 God of War III Issue 204 – April 2010 "Not even in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a powerful, cinematic, and breathtaking conclusion to the saga of the Ghost of Sparta." – Joe Juba | Full Review 19 StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Issue 210 – October 2010 "This is a sublimely engineered game with a simple, elegant core design and all of the rough edges ground away." – Adam Biessener | Full Review 20 Batman: Arkham City Issue 223 – November 2011 "Arkham City not only lives up to the standards set by Arkham Asylum, it bests its predecessor in every way and stands tall as one of Batman's greatest moments." – Andrew Reiner | Full Review 21 The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Issue 224 – December 2011 "As what’s likely to be the last major Wii release from Nintendo, Skyward Sword is a fitting finale for the console. This is the first game I’ve played that delivers on the promise sparked by that initial Wii remote showing." – Phil Kollar | Full Review 22 Mass Effect 3 Issue 229 – May 2012 "I guided Shepard across three massive games spanning over 100 hours, and feel BioWare has delivered one of the most intricately crafted stories in the history of the medium." – Andrew Reiner | Full Review 23 BioShock Infinite Issue 241 – May 2013 "No matter how many parallel realities I ponder, I cannot imagine one in which BioShock Infinite is not among the best games I’ve played." – Joe Juba | Full Review 24 The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds Issue 248 – December 2013 "This isn’t just a tribute; as amazing as A Link to the Past is, I can’t think of a single thing A Link Between Worlds doesn’t do better." – Dan Ryckert | Full Review 25 The Last Of Us Remastered Issue 258 – October 2014 "If you never played The Last of Us at all, this is absolutely the way to do it. But be careful - you'll never want to go back to the PS3 original again after reveling in all the improvements." – Tim Turi | Full Review 26 Overwatch Issue 279 – July 2016 "Blizzard has taken its masterful art of polishing and perfection to the team shooter, and things will never be the same." – Daniel Tack | Full Review 27 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Issue 288 – April 2017 "I was entranced by this version of Hyrule, and it surprised me at nearly every turn, from its wealth of discoveries to the way it shuns the established tropes of previous Zelda games. It represents a profound new direction for one of gaming’s best franchises and a new high point for open-world interactive experiences." – Kyle Hilliard | Full Review 28 Red Dead Redemption II Issue 308 – December 2018 "The up-close portrayal of the outlaw Van der Linde gang’s unraveling is a compelling companion story that blends seamlessly with the original game, and depth and breadth of the open world is a technical triumph that every gamer should experience." – Matt Bertz | Full Review 29 The Last of Us Part II Issue 327 – July 2020 "I can safely say this is the best narrative game I have played. I felt the loss. I felt the confusion. It is a game that turned me inside out with each twist of the screw." – Andy McNamara | Full Review 30 Elden Ring Issue 344 – March 2022 "Elden Ring represents a truly amazing combination of various game elements that all come together to create something fascinating, special, and unforgettable. Elden Ring isn’t just the best game this year; it’s one of the best games ever made." – Daniel Tack | Full Review 31 Astro Bot Issue 369 – June 2025 "Astro Bot has always been good at propping up its contemporaries, but the adorable little robot can now proudly stand beside the PlayStation icons it so fondly celebrates." – Marcus Stewart | Full Review 32 Hades II Issue 373 – December 2025 "Hades II is the pinnacle of the roguelike genre, a position I previously granted its predecessor, but one that its sequel has handily earned." – Charles Harte | Full Review To read these reviews in their original print format, you can make a free account and browse the Game Informer archive right here. To read issues published since our relaunch, you can subscribe here. View the full article

Publisher NetEase is planning to shut down Fantastic Pixel Castle, a studio it founded in 2023 and led by Greg Street, formerly of Blizzard and Riot Games. The studio was developing a triple-A MMORPG codenamed Ghost. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Street announced the impending closure on LinkedIn yesterday. He states Fantastic Pixel Castle (FPC) will be shuttered on November 17, unless it's able to secure funding to continue working on its MMO project independently. “Fantastic Pixel Castle will close its doors on Nov 17," reads Street's statement. "While there is still a chance we can secure funding after that date, it will depend on how much of the team remains. While we'd love to make our game, our first priority is to help our developers find employment, whether that's at indie studio Fantastic Pixel Castle 2.0, or at many of the other fine (and hopefully stable) game and tech companies out there.” This news comes a few weeks after Fantastic Pixel Castle announced it was parting ways with NetEase. A community blog post published today on the studio's website expresses cautious optimism for securing last-minute funding, saying "we still believe Ghost has a fighting chance." "We are still 100% focused on finding new funding to make our game," reads the blog post. "Even if the state of the industry feels fairly dire we’re encouraged by the conversations we’ve been having and fortunate that we have a great playable demo already! So there is still some hope to be had - hold onto that hope because now we’re going to get kinda real." Fantastic Pixel Castle is the latest casualty of the China-based NetEase's gradual shift away from funding international studios. This change in strategy has forced partnered developers such as the Vancouver-based Worlds Untold, the Austin-based T-Minus Zero, and the Seattle-based Jar of Sparks to either close or pause development in a scramble to secure new funding. Concept art of "Ghost' Though it never had a formal reveal, Fantastic Pixel Castle’s “Ghost” project was planned to be a fantasy MMORPG. Despite its genre, FPC’s website states Ghost would “avoid the tropes of fantasy that you've already seen hundreds of times,” and was centered on a setting called the Shardlands, with players alternating between realms known as Blue and Red Shards. These functioned as player servers, with Blue Shards designed for private play with friends while Red Shards offered a more traditional, massively multiplayer experience. Ghost would feature a chapter-based narrative, character classes, and a more streamlined approach to make playing with friends easy, regardless of their character level and progress. For more on NetEase, check out the June reveal of the publisher's first triple-A single-player title, Blood Message. View the full article

Vampire Survivors is one of the best indie games of recent memory, distilling the risk/reward formula of roguelikes into a concentrated rush of challenge and achievement. Its success has prompted it to cross over with all sorts of games, like Contra, SaGa, Balatro, and Castlevania, but today we learned of the first fully new game to take the formula and run: Warhammer Survivors. It's exactly what it sounds like. The standalone game stars characters from Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar in the classic Vampire Survivors format, complete with hordes of enemies, simple, pixelated graphics, and treasure chests that make you feel like you hit the jackpot in Vegas. The game is not developed by Poncle, which created the original Vampire Survivors, but by Auroch Digital, the developer of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, using Poncle's engine. Warhammer Survivors content is pretty evenly divided between the world of 40,000 and Age of Sigmar, with several maps, weapons, and characters from each universe. According to a press release, the characters revealed so far include Malum Caedo, Cadian Shock Trooper Kozlowski, Space Marine Intercessor Brother Luca, Neave Blacktalon, Gotrek Gurnisson, and Stormcast Eternal Vanquisher Sharynn Azurwrath. Each character comes with unique abilities and a different starting weapon, which include the Boltgun, Astartes Chainsword, and Whirlwind Axes. Warhammer Survivors is set to launch next year. For now, you can wishlist it on Steam here. View the full article

More than half of developers feel they rely too heavily on Steam to distribute their games, with 72% believing the platform has a monopoly on the PC games market. Read more View the full article

Dispatch sells 1m units in 10 days | News-in-briefView the full article

A new study has found that buying physical copies of games is "100 times more carbon-intensive" than buying the digital version. Read more View the full article

Nintendo has released its financial results for the six months ended September 30, reporting major increases in hardware and software sales following the Switch 2 launch. Read more View the full article

Download BFF or Die for free via itchio! BFF or Die is a fun couch co-op puzzle-action game for one to four players. View the full article

A number of Japanese publishers, including Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and Kadokawa have publicly called for OpenAI to stop using their creative works to train its genAI tool, Sora 2. Read more View the full article