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Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Release: September 25, 2026 Rating: Mature When I ask Onimusha: Way of the Sword producer Akihito Kadowaki and director Satoru Nihei if they feel the pressure of having to follow two well-received Capcom releases this year, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, they candidly confirmed they do. The pair even shares that the producers for those two games routinely wish them good luck on keeping up the momentum whenever they cross paths at work. I can’t imagine how nerve-wracking that could be, especially since Way of the Sword is the first Onimusha game in many years, adding additional pressure to get it right for starved fans. But if what I played of the game during Summer Game Fest is any indication, Kadowaki and Nihei may have little to worry about. Onimusha: Way of the Sword stars a fictionalized version of the real-life master swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi (whose in-game likeness is modeled after the late actor Toshiro Mifune). When demons known as Genma invade Kyoto, Musashi becomes unwillingly bound to the Oni Gauntlet, a powerful heirloom that can also talk. The gauntlet, who identifies as Shizuka, combined with Musashi’s unparalleled swordsmanship, makes the pair the perfect heroes to purge Kyoto of this threat, much to the reluctant Musashi’s chagrin. My demo unfolds midway into the adventure, with Musashi encountering a blind woman outside of a village. The chipper lady says she can tell Musashi resents the Oni gauntlet and the trouble it's brought him and offers a solution: visit the Yasui Konpiragu Shrine in town, where all of his problems will be solved. Upon entering the village, which is enveloped in a dreamlike golden glow, I encounter unsettlingly cheery citizens who tell me how happy they are to have had their wishes granted by a mysterious god. An old man suffering from chronic knee pain sought relief, so his leg was amputated. A couple who wished to stay together forever were turned into a pair of smiling, creepy dolls. Neither Musashi nor Shizuka knows what to make of this strange place, but they know it can’t be good. Shizuka suggests contacting the soul of a heroic oni named Yorimasa, who died in battle, to help sort this place out. Unfortunately, visiting Yorimasa’s grave yields no results, so Shizuka suggests calling upon the help of the Eight Stout Pillars. These talking statues stand high on ceremony, but only five are present; three of their brothers are missing, and we’ll need to find them to receive their collective blessing. Exploring the village to find these stone figures leads to many combat encounters, giving me a chance to see how the action has evolved since I played an earlier section of the game last August. The answer is that it’s still very good. Hacking foes apart still feels somewhat deliberate yet flashy, but countering and parrying is Way of the Sword’s bread and butter. Enemies have health and stagger meters, and parrying attacks whittles down the former, which can open them up to attack. Parrying feels great thanks to satisfying feedback and smooth counter animations (achieved using motion capture using a real-life sword expert, according to Nihei), such as slicing off a limb or carving a foe in half. Projectile attacks can also be deflected back to their senders. My demo featured floating demonic heads that spat energy balls; deflecting those attacks lodged them right back into their mouths, causing them to explode into a mess of blue ooze. Auto-directional blocking allows Musashi to guard against attacks from all sides, while dodging attacks at the last moment lets Musashi shift behind them in a near-supernatural fashion, opening them up to counterattacks. Successive parries or blocks build respective meters that, when full, cause Musashi’s sword to radiate a blue aura. When in this state, Musashi can cut down multiple foes in quick succession. Filling the dodge meter unleashes a different but still devastating multi-hit attack. Break Issun attacks, flashy finishing moves that act as emphatic exclamation points to encounters, have been made even more impactful over the past few months due to player feedback, Nihei shares. Defeated enemies drop souls that I manually absorb into the Oni gauntlet by holding a shoulder button. I’m doing this a lot because I choose to rush into most encounters head-on despite having the option to stealth execute oblivious foes. I enjoy the combat that much. Plus, I want to master parrying, given how important the mechanic seems to be for success. I collect the three missing Stouts and return them home. As a reward, they use their power to condense the malice in the area into one spot, making it easy to identify the Genma responsible for granting these so-called miracles. I return to the village, which has lost its idyllic glow and is now tinted in ashen grey. I spot a black mass of energy ahead, and upon reaching it, I’m treated to a flashback. A woman is shown praying to a shadowy Genma known as Rasho-gan, who asks her if she’s “joining” or “severing”. The woman cries about how she’s been forced to play the Shamisen every day and is scolded by her mistress when she plays badly. She doesn’t want to practice playing her instrument anymore. Rasho-gan offers a twisted solution: severing the woman’s fate using her fingers. He takes out a large pair of scissors. Unfazed, the woman offers her hands, and Rasho-gan amputates her digits in one slice (off-screen, thankfully, but the sound is gross nonetheless) as Musashi watches in shock and horror. The woman barely flinches and is quite pleased to realize she’ll never have to play her instrument again. Rasho-gan admires his bloody prize as Musashi remarks about how messed up this situation is. Suddenly, what we thought to be a magical recording of Rasho-gan from the past suddenly turns and addresses Musashi directly. The creature attempts to sweet-talk Musashi into letting him remove the gauntlet by taking his entire arm; Musashi is nearly bewitched by Rasho-gan’s supernatural charms before Shizuka yells for him to snap out of it. Good thing, too, because Musashi catches Rasho-gan’s massive blade at the last moment, kicking off one hell of a boss fight. As the battle starts, Rasho-gan takes his true form: a disturbing humanoid mass of human arms and hands. A defiant Musashi tells Rasho-gan he won’t be getting anything from him. Rasho-gan wields a large sword and connects to surrounding objects using what I can only describe as spectral umbilical cords. Hacking away wildly at this boss has limited success, but I soon realize that parrying will win the day. Playing defensively and deflecting his tricky attack patterns drastically lowers his stamina meter, creating openings to retaliate. This intense sword dance reminds me of the best battles in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which is probably the highest praise I can offer. I wouldn't say Way of the Sword's parry is just as good as Sekiro's, but the intensity and satisfaction of deflecting attacks is definitely in the ballpark. Other attacks can’t be blocked, such as when Rasho-gan uses his cords to pick up large objects, such as boulders, trees, or even entire buildings, to throw at Musashi. Quickly firing Musashi’s bow to sever these connections causes the objects Rasho-gan holds to crash down on him, dealing damage. A lot is happening in this fight, but I find my rhythm parrying his attacks and interrupting his ranged moves, until I finally bring Rasho-gan to his knees. Unfortunately, I don’t get to finish him, as Rasho-gan makes a run for it. He doesn’t get far, however, thanks to a fatal intervention from a character I won’t spoil. “That particular boss, Rasho-gan, rather than being kind of born from a particular kind of monster or mythological creature, is more kind of tied to the location itself,” explains Nihei through a translator when I ask about the inspirations for Rasho-gan. “So the place that you fight him in, Yasui Konpiragu temple in Kyoto, it's a real temple. And that place has long had legends associated with kind of bonding and separating fates, and there's a lot of imagery tied to that with the threads and cords. So kind of thinking about that location and what kind of twist [we] could put on it is kind of where that boss was essentially born from.’ I loved this battle, and it ended my time with Onimusha: Way of the Sword on a high note. Every Sekiro fan has probably been chasing that game’s highs since 2019, and while I won’t say Capcom’s action game is the second coming of From Software’s ninja classic, it’s one of the closest to reach that style while still feeling distinctly Onimusha. Tack on how much of an entertaining pair Musashi and Shizuka seem to be, and I can’t wait to face everything this corrupted Kyoto throws at me on September 25. View the full article

Claim your free Lootbane Playtest Steam Key and join the playtest until June 19! Lootbane is a cool dungeon crawling roguelike with retro graphics. View the full article

Naoki Hamaguchi is ready for something new. Following more than a decade of work as the director of the acclaimed Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, Hamaguchi has more than earned his place among the acclaimed group of luminaries at Square Enix. However, with the announcement that Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the final part of the trilogy, is releasing in the first half of next year, it's time for Hamaguchi to grapple with a big question: What's next? Though Hamaguchi is often looked at as part of the "new generation" of Square Enix developers, the Remake trilogy director has been around since the PS2 days, with his first official credits at the publisher appearing on Final Fantasy XII. However, relatively speaking, when compared to his fellow supervisors on the Remake trilogy, Yoshinori Kitase and Tetsuya Nomura, who joined Square in 1990 and 1991, respectively, Hamaguchi is the youngest of that trio. "There's a deep respect among each other between the three of us, and I really feel that during our day-to-day jobs," Hamaguchi tells Game Informer. "It's really nice to feel that, because both Nomura and Kitase, respectively, are the producer and the creative director of the overall FFVII franchise, not just the Remake series, so they have a much bigger role than I do, where I'm just in charge of the Remake series in general. Nomura and Kitase both put their full trust in me in terms of putting the Remake series in my hands, and that's really nice to see. But at the same time, unlike Nomura and Kitase, I wasn't involved in the development of the original Final Fantasy VII, so whenever I feel like I'm suck in the creative process in terms of determining this particular moment or scene and what kind of weight it holds, what kind of meaning it has for the original, then it's really nice to have the two right by my side. I can just go to them and get their input if I'm ever doubting myself or anything." Hamaguchi has been laser-focused on the Final Fantasy VII Remake series since its inception, leaving little time for other projects. But with Revelation right around the corner, and Hamaguchi's work on this trilogy garnering him more positive attention than ever before, fans are excited for what he could do next. "Right in this moment, I'm fully focused on completing FFVII Revelation and ensuring we're delivering the FFVII Remake series in a perfect state, so that's where I'm right now," Hamaguchi tells me. "At the same time, I do see a lot of fans and community asking me to take on the helm for a FFVI remake [editor's note: PR later clarified Hamaguchi was talking in hypothetical terms]. [laughs] So, I'm seeing a lot of that floating online, but, you know, a Final Fantasy VI Remake or any other remake, it could be me, or it could be someone else. Personally, I think that it might be in better hands if it went to another creator in Square Enix." However, Hamaguchi has been kicking around some ideas for what might be next for him. "In terms of what I personally want to do, obviously, I think my next creative work is also going to be a JRPG," he says. "When you look at all the other titles that we have released at Square Enix, not just the FFVII Remake series, I think Square Enix, as a brand, as a company, is more than capable of delivering this grand-scale RPG that could resonate to gamers across the world. Fans might have a lot of different expectations, but for me personally, I do want to take on this new challenge with another RPG title after this, whether it be Final Fantasy or a different IP. Again, we don't know. But personally, if it's not Final Fantasy, that's also exciting, because that could be a challenge for me. So, whatever it is, I hope fans look forward to it." During that same weekend, Bloomberg ended its conversation with Hamaguchi in similar fashion, to which the director clarified that he is not interested in a remake. "It’s not going to be a remake!" Hamaguchi told the outlet. "As a team, I do think there’s an opportunity to work on a smaller scale, like a AA title, or a new Final Fantasy title or even a new AAA franchise. I think all those would be good." For now, the next game scheduled to appear on Hamaguchi's resumé is Final Fantasy VII Revelation, which will become the first in the series to launch across all major platforms simultaneously. You can read Hamaguchi's thoughts on bringing Final Fantasy back to Nintendo here. If you're a fan of Queen's Blood, the collectible-card battler minigame from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, you can read about some of the change being implemented in Revelation's version of the game here. For tons of behind-the-scenes details on the development of the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, check out our cover story for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth here. View the full article

Summer Game Fest is finally done (though we're still posting plenty of previews from our time at the show). That means it's finally time to play video games instead of just getting excited about the ones that we will be playing in September, which is apparently when all video games except Grand Theft Auto VI are releasing. Below you will find our recommendations of what to play this weekend (or watch or play on a tabletop), but before that, here is a longer-than-usual list of some of the biggest stories of the last two weeks. This really only scratches the surface. We wrote a lot of stories. The 25 Most Exciting Games Of Summer Game Fest 2026RGG Studio Head Talks Tupac's Controversial Stranger Than Heaven InclusionTomb Raider: Legacy Of Atlantis Director Discusses Use of Generative AI In The Upcoming Unreal Engine 5 RemakeThe Lost Wild Preview - Everyone's Stalked By The DinosaurThe Nintendo Switch 2 Remake Of The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Drops In 2026Kingdom Hearts IV Gameplay Trailer Revealed, Will Launch Simultaneously On Consoles And PCHere's Everything Announced During Nintendo's 2026 Summer Direct PresentationSega Confirms And Responds To Generative AI Content In New Crazy Taxi GameNaoki Hamaguchi On Bringing Final Fantasy Back To NintendoHow Final Fantasy VII's Tifa Arrived In Street Fighter 6 Onimusha: Way Of The Sword Demo Kyle Hilliard The original Onimusha: Warlords is an important game for me. It was my introduction to the power of the PlayStation 2, and for years, it lived as the game that I was never able to see to its conclusion. I played it at a friend's house with no memory card, so we just kept restarting the game, but we were happy with that because it looked amazing. I finally played it to completion when it was ported to Switch in 2019 and then played through it again for MinnMax's deepest dive in 2025. When Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny was ported to modern platforms last year, I played through that game, too (and talked to its creators in this interview), and enjoyed it as well. For those reasons, I am excited for Onimusha: Way of the Sword. I am also excited because Capcom has consistently been releasing very good video games for the last few years. The free demo, which offers about 45 minutes of gameplay, has confirmed to me that my excitement is justified. The game doesn't really feel like Onimusha 1 or 2, frankly, and instead feels just like a great samurai action game with demons, which I am totally okay with. I am curious to see if it feels more Onimusha in the full game, but even if it doesn't, I am still eager to hang with Miyamoto Musashi and fight some demons later this year. Star Fox Demo Kyle Hilliard Since its reveal, my admittedly cynical reaction to the Star Fox 64 remake has been one of indifference. I have affection for Star Fox 64, but I played it a lot back in 1997 and enjoyed the 3DS remake in 2011. Unlike many Nintendo 64 games, it's one I think is still fun to play today without the need for a remake. And I was hoping for something new from the franchise for its Switch debut. Embarrassingly, however, playing through the demo turned me around and made me confront and embrace my nostalgia. Turns out I like Star Fox 64 more than I realized and the updated soundtrack is phenomenal. The free demo includes the tutorial, which has some fun character interactions as the team trains together in VR, and Star Fox 64's second level, Meteo, which takes place in a dense asteroid field. Controlling Fox's Arwing feels great and the new visuals add to the epic scale of space battles. I felt like a kid again, blasting my way through Start Fox 64 for the fifth time like it was 1997 all over again, and now I want to play the whole thing. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Kyle Hilliard Xenoblade Chronicles is the little RPG that could. It launched in 2010 exclusively for the Wii in Japan, then made its way to Europe and Australia before finally being released in North America in 2012. And even then, it was a concession made in response to RPG fans who were frustrated that the game wasn't available in the United States. It reviewed well when it finally released and, as the myriad sequels and ports have confirmed, it found its audience, and that audience has only grown. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (which, yes, has the word 'Edition' in its title twice) is the newest port of the game and was available shortly after being announced earlier this week for Switch 2. This new version is the best the game has ever looked and adds motorcycles to make long-distance travel feel less like a slog. If you never played the game on Wii (or New 3DS or Switch), now is as good a time as any to jump in at the starting line. And if you like it, the two sequels will be getting Switch 2 ports soon, as well. 1666: Amsterdam Prologue Demo Marcus Stewart Of the dozens upon dozens of game announcements during Summer Game Fest, few have stuck with me like 1666: Amsterdam. The next title by Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey developer Panache Digital Games, led by Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Désilets, stars a witch hunting demons disguised as humans with the aid of a talking cat who, it turns out, possesses the consciousness of a human from 1999. I later learned its SGF showing was a re-reveal of sorts, as the game has been in development in some form for the last 16 years and has a tumultuous history that even includes legal battles with Ubisoft. Game Informer editor-in-chief Matt Miller wrote a great summary of the events leading to 1666: Amsterdam’s return that you can read here. Although the game is set to launch in PC Early Access this year, you can download a free playable prologue. This slice doesn’t feature any of the stylish, spellbinding combat from the trailer, but it does set the table for how Noa, the witch, and Aaron, the cat, meet. It’s very weird, and the presentation is a bit dated, but it's worth checking out to see how this fascinating and long-in-development game is shaping up. 2 Fights 2 Tight Spaces Matt Miller The celebrated Fights In Tight Spaces is receiving a true sequel, now offering an increased focus on cooperative play with friends. The original deck-building card game looked great, but this new installment overhauls the visual style in some key ways, adding detail to environments while keeping the iconic character silhouettes that helped define the prior entry. The big surprise was Ground Shatter's move to announce the game and then immediately shadow drop the early access build to play right away, so you can try out your own tight-spaced melees right now. Crushed In Time Kyle Hilliard 2020's There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension is an interesting experience. It's kind of a point-and-click adventure game that is about the medium of video games and playing video games and the fourth wall basically remains shattered from the opening moments. It's also quite funny. Crushed In Time is not a sequel per se, but if you played Wrong Dimension, you know that developer Draw Me A Pixel was never going to take things the traditional route for a follow-up. Instead, Crushed In Time follows secondary characters established in Wrong Dimension, Draw Me A Pixel's take on Sherlock Holmes and Watson. And instead of being a point-and-click in the familiar sense, you actually tug on elements of the environment to solve puzzles. For example, opening a drawer in the opening puzzle requires pulling the door knob off the door, and flinging it to the drawer so the handle can be used as a drawer pull. I haven't made much progress in my playtime yet, but I like the art style and humor and I am excited to see how it plays with preconceptions about what I think the game will be. Rise Of The Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Kyle Hilliard In my opinion, the honor of best Tomb Raider video game still belongs to the 2013 Tomb Raider game, part one of the Lara Croft sub-series, the Survivor trilogy. However, the honor of second best Tomb Raider game belongs to the 2015 sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is now available for Switch 2 with the confusing subtitle, "20 Year Celebration." The original Tomb Raider released 30 years ago and Rise of the Tomb Raider released 11 years ago. It turns out, this is a Switch 2 port of a version of Rise of the Tomb Raider that released in 2016 that was, at the time, celebrating 20 years of Tomb Raider. Confusion cleared! In any case, it's a great Tomb Raider game and this version has all the DLC, including the underrated Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch content in which Lara meets Baba Yaga who lives in a house that walks around on giant chicken legs. It's very cool. And now you can play it on Nintendo Switch 2. Among Us TV Show Kyle Hilliard The big takeaway from Charles Harte's recent review of Among Us, the new Paramont + TV show based on the popular video game, is that it's better than you think. My 14 year-old daughter quickly watched the show and offered a similar report and insisted I sit down and watch it with her. And you know what? I am inclined to agree with both of them. The performers (including folks like Elijah Wood, Yvette Nicole Brown, Patton Oswalt, Randall Park, and more) deliver enthusiastic and funny performances, the murder mystery is engaging, and the writers are clearly genuine fans of the property. Its references to the games are important plot and world-building details rather than fan service. One joke about a character trying to get a weapon from the weapons locker, only to discover it was a locker for weird aprons with certain letters covered to make it read like weapons, really made me laugh. And if you subscribe to Paramount +, you can also watch Star Trek, which is a nice bonus. Tabletop Pick – Ravenloft: The Horrors Within Matt Miller Depending on where you prefer to pick up your tabletop RPG releases, the new Ravenloft book is already available online and at many local game stores, with broader release planned for early next week. The original legendary Ravenloft adventure launched way back in 1983, and was one of the foundational modules introducing horror to the game. We've seen the setting revisited several times over various editions of D&D. This new version features some gorgeous art alongside a smartly organized collection of content for both players and DMs. There's new subclasses (like the Reanimator) and species (like the Lupin) to enjoy, as well as clear details about each of the Darklords and their respective Domains of Dread, including the new addition of a Cthulhu locale to mix in cosmic horror. The new book also includes a wealth of adventure hooks to get your group going into a horror-themed campaign, and is a welcome expansion to a long legacy of Ravenloft iterations over the years. View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Play by Play Studios Developer: Play by Play Studios Release: June 9, 2026 Rating: Everyone Everybody who knows about NBA The Run wants it to be the spiritual successor to the beloved ‘00s EA Sports Big franchise, NBA Street. The spirit is definitely there, and its brand of streetball is friendly to newcomers with enough complexities to please fans, but the insistence on its always-online structure keeps it from achieving true greatness. Created by Play by Play Studios, a new team that includes a number of EA Sports veterans, NBA The Run is a fast-paced 3v3 arcade-style basketball game that strikes a good balance between flashy and strategic skill-based play. Its knockout tournaments are its bread and butter, both as a squad and solo. Knockout Squads feature team-based 3v3 play, and Knockout Solos gives you full control of the trio you pick. Whether you choose to head online solo or with a squad of three, The Run is built around its roster and does a good job making each NBA star’s kit feel authentic. Steph can shoot a trey from anywhere, but his shots are easily blocked. Wemby is thought of as the best player in this version of the game, but keeping him away from the paint can force bad jumpshots instead of easy dunks. This is all stuff to consider when picking your ballers, and the rulesets make the metagame fun. That’s where The Run is different from other basketball games. Every game has randomized rules determined at the beginning, which gives each game a sense of balance and enhances that “one more game” hook. One such example is Triple Threat, where three-pointers are worth three while other shots are only worth one. There’s also Dunkfest, where dunks are the more valuable shot type. That often means relying on your online teammates to play towards the objective, which can be perilous. I often encountered teammates online doing nothing but dunking when the rules clearly stated three-pointers were the way to win. It’s just better with friends, so you know which players they pick and how each selection will complement your team based on the rules. Human or bot issues aside, I always had a smooth experience finding matches online. Its focus on fast matchmaking and rollback netcode is a strength, but it’s a double-edged sword. Online tournaments are all the game has. There’s no story, no create-a-player, and while the game features a nice roster of over 32 playable NBA stars and 5 fictional streetball legends to unlock, the lack of accessible lore makes the fictional legends feel like nothing more than grind rewards. If you solely want to ball online, this is a great way to do it, but for everyone else, it leaves much to be desired. With the game always online, the lack of couch multiplayer is its biggest hindrance. Couch multiplayer is obviously less common today than it was in 2003, but it is an expected arcade sports staple, and it’s The Run’s most disappointing exclusion. NBA The Run does its best to make up for what it lacks with a high attention to detail that makes it easy to see the love for streetball culture. The gameplay, art style, and overall presentation hosted by the legendary DJ, Bobbito Garcia, feel like it all belongs, and that’s what matters. The love of the game is what’ll keep me playing, and it’s easy to feel the team’s love of the sport. Play by Play made clear its plans for ongoing iteration without annualized releases, so hopefully many of these shortcomings can be rectified post-launch to make it the definitive streetball game it wants to be. As it is, it’s too barebones to wholeheartedly recommend, but there’s a great game of basketball waiting for you if you don’t mind only playing online matches. Score: 7.25 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Ever since Crazy Taxi burst onto the scene in 1999, it has been associated with American rock band, The Offspring, in particular, the band's fast-paced 1997 track, "All I Want." The music became such a key part of the package that when the original entry in the series was brought to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC without the synonymous tracks from bands like The Offspring and punk-rock outfit Bad Religion, it was a major point of criticism from fans. We spoke with series creator Kenji Kanno not long after the reveal of Crazy Taxi: World Tour on the importance of those songs and how they ended up in the series in the first place. According to Kanno, when he began developing a new Crazy Taxi game, as originally reported in 2022, the conversation often circled back to the soundtrack. "Music is very important for Crazy Taxi," Kanno says. "Every time I talk to stakeholders about the game, they ask the same thing: 'Will you have The Offspring? Will you have Bad Religion?'" And the emphasis and importance placed on music in Crazy Taxi have been significant, dating back to the very first game. According to Kanno, it was integral to the development of the original title, and finding the soundtrack has been a crucial part of development in many of the projects he oversees. "When I design a game or when I create a game, the first thing I decide on is actually the theme song," Kanno says. "I decide on the song, and then I tell [the development team], 'Hey, we're going to make a game based on this song,' and I make them listen to it on repeat. Like, they can be a designer, they can be a programmer; they have to listen to the song on repeat, and then they can work on the game with [mimicking "All I Want" while pantomiming typing] 'Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!' playing in the background. [laughs]" The exterior of Tower Records in Shibuya As for how The Offspring landed in Crazy Taxi, it all stemmed from doing what many music fans who grew up in the '90s were accustomed to doing: going to a nearby record shop and sampling new music, hoping to find something that resonated. For Kanno, that journey took place in one of the most iconic record shops: Tower Records, which is still open to this day. "I went to Tower Records in Japan," he recalls. "I listened to a bunch of songs, like, all day. A bunch of songs all day, and when I came out, what I narrowed down to was The Offspring and Bad Religion." The upbeat tempos and punk rock vibes of those songs are felt throughout Crazy Taxi's design, so it makes sense that these songs were the starting point for the original game's creation. That moment was so important that a Tower Records location became one of the destinations in the original Crazy Taxi. Songs like "All I Want" and "Change The World" by The Offspring, as well as "Ten in 2010" by Bad Religion, became mainstays for Dreamcast owners and arcade-goers, so much so that all three of those songs were present in the demo of Crazy Taxi: World Tour that I had a chance to see. From everything we saw, Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like an appropriately chaotic modernization of the original premise. However, the game has attracted some controversy upon the reveal that generative AI was used during its development. We also asked Kanno about the team's use of that technology in development. You can read what he has to say on that topic here. Crazy Taxi: World Tour arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC in 2027. View the full article

The GamesIndustry.biz Summer Party will take place Wednesday July 15, returning once again to Horatio's Bar on Brighton Pier. Read more View the full article

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Saber Interactive Developer: Saber Interactive Release: 2026 Rating: Teen My nostalgia for Turok begins and ends with 1997’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for Nintendo 64. Few things were cooler to 10-year-old me than shooting dinosaurs – or really dinosaurs in general – but I never engaged with the franchise beyond this title. Chalk it up to a lack of interest after hitting middle school, but I still raised a curious eyebrow when a new game resurfaced in an attempt to revive the franchise’s video game relevance. That has yet to happen since the N64 era, but Turok: Origins may be the best shot the series has had in decades. Developer Saber Interactive has reimagined Turok as an Unreal Engine 5 shooter that can be played alone or in co-op with up to two other players. I played the game in the latter form during Summer Game Fest, partnering with two other media members. The game is a prequel set many years before the 1997 game, starring futuristic warriors from the ancient Order of the Turok battling the Xenia, a race of alien reptilians vying for dominance across the universe. This means completing missions across several planets, many of which are inhabited by dangerous wildlife, including the series’ staple threat, dinosaurs. Across a roughly 12-hour story campaign, players blast through alien wildlife as one of three classes: Cougar, Bison, or Raven. Cougar is the weapons specialist ideal for offense-minded players; Bison is the vanguard offering defensive options; Raven favors ranged attacks. Despite their differences, all three classes pack plenty of firepower. During the two missions I played, I tried out the Cougar and Bison. Teams can feature multiple players using the same class, so if you want a flock of Ravens, you can do that. According to game designer Carlos de Maria Castillo, Turok: Origins has been balanced to accommodate all class combinations and synergies. Castillo also touts that each class is highly customizable in terms of weapon loadouts, so even two players sharing the same class can feel distinct from each other. If you’d rather play solo, Turok: Origins offers a fully offline single-player experience; you won’t be given bots to make up for a lack of teammates. Co-op play features drop-in/drop-out, and the game adjusts to teammates with different states of progression. Players keep everything they earn while playing co-op, such as currency and upgrade resources, to take back into their game. “You don't feel like you're wasting your time when playing [with] two other people that are maybe more advanced in the story,” says Castillo. Turok: Origins can be played in first- or third-person; switching between perspectives is a button press away. I played each mission from both viewpoints, and I had a good time regardless, so the choice comes down to preference. That leads into my larger compliment: Turok: Origins is very fun to play. Sporting three weapons for each class, the gunplay feels good, and gunning down waves of incoming raptors, giant insects, and Xenia warriors is a good time. The Cougar carries a shotgun-like blaster, while the Raven can fire a bow with exploding laser arrows. Each class also sports four special abilities that operate on a cooldown. The Bison can create a protective barrier for teammates to huddle under, and the Cougar can unleash a powerful sonic scream like Banshee from X-Men. When enemies are near death, they become vulnerable to an execution finishing move. In the midst of mowing down targets, smaller objectives can surface. In the first mission, we needed to disable several shield generators to expose a larger target, for example. Large boss fights, such as a rampaging Tyrannosaurus Rex armed with rocket launchers on its back, require coordination. Against these bigger foes, using a scanner can reveal weak points to home in on. As you race from objective to objective, taking time to explore can uncover secrets, including hidden areas, special enemy encounters, and collectibles such as weapon skins. Platforming challenges complement the firefights. Some revolve around using a grapple hook to zip across gaps and hazards. One mission inside an ancient temple tasked us with leaping across waterwheel platforms without falling to the watery depths below. Missions are designed to be highly replayable, according to Castillo. “There are plenty of planets, and some planets you have multiple quests on, and then you come back to them, to different parts of them, because you know they're very big,” he tells me. Castillo promises a substantial endgame that includes a new difficulty option that unlocks post-game, as well as enduring progression systems. He also confirms Saber has post-launch content planned. While there is an overarching narrative that Castillo says fits organically within the Turok mythos, I’d be lying if I said that, as I coordinated with my teammates, cheered when we took down a tough opponent, and laughed when someone mistimed a jump, I cared about the narrative. It remains to be seen if Turok: Origins tells a compelling story, but playing it gave me flashbacks to blasting through Outriders with two friends; I could not confidently tell you what happened in that game’s story because it was more fun to shoot things while chatting with my buddies about literally anything else. I can already see Turok: Origins becoming our next “hangout game”, and the demo, frankly, was more fun than I expected it to be going into it. The strong gunplay, fun abilities, and, if you desire it, enjoyable co-op position Turok: Origins as a potential sleeper hit for shooter fans this year. View the full article

There are a lot of games based on The Walking Dead, usually the AMC television show version (itself based on Invincible creator Robert Kirkman's now-complete comic book series). But hey, what's one more, especially when it's basically a Streets of Rage-type brawler. That's what the newly announced The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival is clearly going for, and it looks pretty fun in the reveal trailer. Publisher Trailmark Games and developer Odaclick Game Studio, which also developed The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, describe Streets of Survival as a "brutal arcade brawler" that will let players fight walkers as series mainstays Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, and Michonne. You will fight Saviors, walkers, Negan, and more using "relentless combos, signature weapon attacks, and crushing finishers." There appear to be various melee weapons, environmental interactivity, and guns, too. Check it out in The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival reveal trailer, courtesy of IGN, below: The game's storyline is based on the events of the All Out War arc from The Walking Dead, and stages will be set in locations such as Sanctuary, Hilltop, and Alexandria. You can expect familiar bosses, too, such as Negan, Simon, Winslow, the Well Walker, and more, and you can replay these fights and stages with multiple difficulty options and escalating challenges. There's no word on when The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival will launch, but it's "coming soon" to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam). Do you think a Streets of Rage-type brawler is a good fit for The Walking Dead? Let us know in the comments below! View the full article

A new retrospective on Maxis' creature simulation game Spore outlines the operational challenges that shaped its nine-year development cycle. Read more View the full article

Harvey Elliott, the CEO of Balatro and Abiotic publisher Playstack, has said the firm's sale to the owner of Fandom and GameSpot will not impact either, telling GamesIndustry.biz that new owner Integrated Media Company (IMC) had committed to maintaining Playstack separately from its media investments. Read more View the full article

Nintendo has implemented purchase restrictions on the Switch 2 multi-language version in Japan. Read more View the full article

Developer: Maverick Games The Forza Horizon franchise has been my favorite racing series since the release of Forza Horizon 3. The excellent racing mechanics, gorgeous visuals, and the fact that it doesn't take itself too seriously coalesce into an experience that has resonated with me on a consistent basis. So, naturally, when I heard that several key members of the Forza team (including the director of my personal favorite, Forza Horizon 5) had left Playground Games to create a narrative-style game using many of the lessons learned from their time with that franchise, my interest was instantly piqued. But it wasn't until I saw the game in action — and briefly got my hands on it — that it skyrocketed up my list of most anticipated games. Clutch is a narrative action/racing game that puts you in the role of Theo Martial, an elite driver who was adopted into racing royalty alongside his sister. The first scene I see takes place in 2010. Theo and his sister Cass, also playable, are children in the back of the car. When their adopted mother steps inside for a moment, Theo jumps into the driver seat as Robbie Williams' "Let Me Entertain You" plays. This serves as the tutorial, but also gives glimpses into the cinematic quality Clutch delivers. Through subsequent scenes, it quickly becomes apparent the kind of story Clutch will tell. Penned by Skins co-creator Jamie Brittain, Clutch looks to tell a story rooted in the realistic racing circuit, but with action-movie elements similar to what you'd see in a middle entry of the Fast and the Furious film. Following that introductory sequence, we jump to 12 months in the future, as Theo has gone full vigilante and is speeding away from the police in the south of France. Next, it's six months in the future, and Theo is participating in a street race as part of the Midnight Collective; unsanctioned races that are largely ignored by the police. Next, you slide into the driver's seat as Cass in France amidst an offroad race. This delivers a fine sampler of the content to come, but the final prologue sequence sets the stage, as Cass and Theo are set to participate in the R1K, the biggest racing circuit, in the current day. We see the two siblings joking with their friend, who is also a racer, and interacting with their adoptive father, who the team tells me is a racing legend, and a much better manager than a father. After a brief stint on the track, a massive crash occurs, and a peripheral character is killed on the track, sowing the seeds of doubt in Theo, as well as the R1K's commissioner. In a post-crash press conference, the commissioner pledges that changes are coming, including new safety measures that will add measures like brake assist and traction control, sending racing purists into a fit. The cutscenes hammer home the level of detail in the facial capture technology, as the animations are expressive and believable. Unreal Engine 5's advancements are evident, not only in scenes like this, where we get close-ups of characters' faces, but also in the world when you're driving around. The game primarily takes place in one of the racing capitals of the world, Monaco, and it looks terrific. As you speed around, Forza Horizon fans will notice similar attractions to take part in, including quick-hit diversions like speed traps, where you must pass through an area of the street as fast as possible. Back in Theo's villa, you can walk around in third person. After a sequence where Theo mentions questioning his career as a driver following the catastrophic events of the R1K race, Theo's father smashes a wine bottle on his floor and the two siblings speed away. Theo follows Cass to a meetup of the Midnight Collective, where he gets his first taste of the underground racing scene. You can also walk around in third-person at meetups, with Maverick Games hoping to establish more of a human/car connection than is typically put on display in racing games, allowing you to interact with cars in ways beyond just a floating camera. You can also walk up to a car and purchase it at these meetups, if you so choose. In R1K races, you have one goal: to finish first and claim the top spot on the podium. In Midnight Collective races, it's all about the ratings. The races are live-streamed, so your goals are much more diverse, including, yes, placement, but also style. Success is based on how many viewers you attract, with style points and racing on the track earning you more viewers. Each checkpoint you pass through earns more followers, but you can sacrifice that to cut across a shortcut, delivering a compelling risk/reward mechanic, as placing higher in the rankings also grants viewers. The hands-off demo ends with the most narrative-leading part of what I saw. After getting in some hot water, Theo seeks out a fixer at a bar in Monaco. After the two drive around, she tells him to look for an Aston Martin Valhalla in an apartment complex. After Theo searches the entire garage, avoiding security, he eventually realizes it's up in the penthouse suite. After sneaking in, he spots it, but the alarm is triggered. The only way is out through the window, but it's on the top floor. Thankfully, the supercar is equipped with a harpoon, so Theo smashes out the window, harpooning a nearby helicopter, which allows Theo to safely touch down on the ground thanks to what the team admits is action-movie physics. But it works. And the harpoon, which is the first of multiple gadgets you can equip on vehicles, looks extremely satisfying to use, either as a way to zip around corners, or on pursuing police vehicles to spin them out. I'm looking forward to what other gadgets are on offer in Clutch, but the team is remaining tight-lipped for now. That was how my hands-off demo ended, but I also had a chance to play through one R1K race. As expected, driving feels much like it does in Forza Horizon, albeit slightly stiffer. I don't know if this is because I was speeding around the track in a decked out racecar or if it feels that way across the board, but it was slightly less loose. Despite this, it still feels great, and offers many of the same control schemes and amenities as Forza Horizon, such as the driving line, which tells you when to brake and accelerate, and the rewind functionality. I appreciate that the rewind mechanic is manual, allowing you to dictate exactly where you want to rewind to, rather than Horizon's chunks-at-a-time method. Unfortunately, my time with Clutch is way too short, but I saw and felt what I needed to, so I can't be too upset. I emerge from many demos and meetings at each Summer Game Fest excited to see how the game I just saw will pan out. There are many such cases at Summer Game Fest 2026. But Clutch is a rare case where I cannot wait to play through the full version of the game. Now, a few days removed from SGF, it is almost certainly my favorite thing I saw at the show, and I can't wait to finally play the final game and see where Theo and Cass' story takes us when Clutch arrives in 2027. View the full article

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Sega Developer: Creative Assembly Release: TBA Rating: Mature Alien: Isolation has been touted as one of the best Alien games ever made, if not the best. Despite the praise, it’s taken a surprising 12 years for a proper sequel to be announced, but we finally saw the full reveal of Alien: Isolation 2 during Summer Game Fest. At the show’s Play Days event in Los Angeles, I got to play the opening section of the long-awaited sequel to see how its scares are coming together. Afterwards, I spoke with creative director Al Hope and art director Ana Sopikova to learn how their team is applying over a decade of feedback to the follow-up. Warning: This preview contains spoilers for the end of Alien: Isolation The sequel begins a few months after Alien: Isolation protagonist Amanda Ripley, daughter of the series’ hero Ellen Ripley, thwarted the Xenomorph that had terrorized the Sevastopol space station in the first game. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she managed to contain the creature in a smaller ship and eject it – and herself – into space. My demo begins in the evening forest of a remote colony planet owned by Weylan-Yutani, the feared corporation and arguably the true main antagonist of the Alien franchise. I control a woman named Blake, Alien: Isolation 2’s new lead, who works for a Weyland-Yutani survey team. Her small team locates a crashed vessel – the very ship players jettisoned in the first game – but must move quickly to investigate it for potential salvage as a dangerous storm threatens to flood the area. One of Blake’s team members doesn’t think this effort is worth the risk the storm poses, so he treks back to their vehicle and gives us 10 minutes to conduct our search before he abandons us. Blake and her remaining partner, Otto, find a way into the small vessel. Although I only get to move through a very small slice of this opening forest area, art director Ana Sopikova describes it, and the planet as a whole, as being very dangerous. “It’s a very hostile world; storms, there's weather. It's definitely not a nice walk in the park.” Al Hope adds that Creative Assembly is creating a “survival sandbox” featuring a mix of exterior and interior spaces with a narrative framework keeping it all together. While Otto waits near the ladder we used to enter the vessel, I begin exploring the dark interior. I need to restore power, but the fuse panel is damaged. Restoring it requires searching around for scattered parts and electronics. Once I gather enough materials, I fix the panel and bring the ship to life. As I enter the main control room, a prone humanoid figure awakens and lunges at me. It’s a Working Joe, the synthetic service androids that served as enemies in the first game. It’s been torn in half and malfunctions as soon as it grabs me, to the relief of a startled Blake. Sopikova teases not only the return of Working Joes but confirms that players will confront new, non-Xenomorph threats without giving away too much. I use a computer to access the ship log. Before I can dig too deep into the data, an alert hits the screen warning of a containment breach. As I look through a nearby window into the corridor, the familiar silhouette of the Xenomorph emerges. Panicked, Blake slips under a table just before the creature enters the room. She can barely contain her nerves as the alien slowly investigates the area. Blake has no idea what this thing is, but it thankfully seems oblivious to her presence. For now, at least. From here, I have one objective: escape the ship. I watch the Xenomorph from under the table until it finally moves elsewhere, stepping out once the coast is clear. I can hear its heavy footsteps nearby as I begin to formulate an escape plan. I look around and spot the familiar save station from the first game and record my progress. From here, the demo becomes extremely similar to Alien: Isolation as I use my eyes and ears to track the Xenomorph's whereabouts. Whenever I see it approaching – or at least suspect it to – I crouch behind nearby cover, or into one of the floor grates used to enter a small network of ventilation shafts. As in the first game, the Xenomorph can enter the ceiling ventilation to move more undetected, as well as slink into the same floor tunnels available to me. It was tough to tell in this small slice how much smarter the Xenomorph has become compared to the first game. Exploring exterior spaces is the biggest change from the last game, and I wasn’t able to see how Xenmorph behaves in that type of environment. Al Hope only states that the fundamentals of the creature’s behavior will remain the same, with some necessary tweaks, but declines to elaborate further and promises to share more details at a later date. I died twice during my demo. The first came when I relied a bit too much on crawling under the floor and, upon hitting a dead end, the Xenomorph slipped into the floor vents and immediately found me. It didn’t end well. The second death came when I became too bold and began speed-walking toward an exit. A door opened in front of me, and the Xenomorph spotted me standing in full view. Running doesn’t seem like a viable escape because it swiftly closed the gap and pinned me down to, presumably, bore its second mouth into my skull. At least, that’s what appeared to happen before the screen cuts to black, and I’m met with a Game Over screen. Each failed attempt reloaded me at the start of the Xenomorph’s first appearance, meaning I had to sneak from that initial room all over again. It gave me flashbacks to the lengthy runbacks between save stations in the first game. The harsh penalty for death, combined with the exhausting runtime, are among the biggest complaints when people discuss Alien: Isolation, so I ask Hope how these critiques will be addressed in the sequel. “We wanted the game to be kind of tough but fair, and so I think one of our main responsibilities is to make sure it feels balanced, that that balance of tension release fits that tough but fair approach,” Hope explains. “Just simple things, like save station placement, to ensure that it actually feels like the kind of cadence or the rhythm of the experience is maybe a little bit fairer.” Hope adds that Creative Assembly is relying more heavily on user testing for Alien: Isolation 2 to ensure a more balanced – but still challenging – experience. The third time manages to be the charm as I manage to successfully sneak back to the ladder undetected. Otto is gone; she didn’t respond to an earlier comms message, which probably means she’s completely unharmed and everything is totally fine. As Blake climbs the ladder, the creature ambushes her out of nowhere for a nice jump scare. It knocks her back down and pins her to the floor, giving me the terrifying visual of the creature’s drooling black maw pressed face-to-face with mine. Just before it ends me using its second mouth, the ship is suddenly rocked by the force of the forewarned flood waters. The alien is thrown off me, allowing Blake to scramble up the ladder to escape. My demo comes to an end at this point. Alien: Isolation is a love letter to Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic, and although two Alien films have been released since that game’s launch in Alien: Covenant and Alien: Romulus, Creative Assembly seemingly won’t be mining these modern films for ideas or references for the sequel. “We really love the IP, obviously, but again, I think our focus is that original movie,” says Hope, “and we still feel like, though we made one game, it feels like there's still a real rich vein for us to tap into. So Alien: Isolation took place a couple of years after the first movie; Alien: Isolation 2 takes place months after the events of Alien: Isolation. So there's a real close connection, both to the first game and the movie, so it feels like we're pushing our narrative and our world in that space, so we're very much still focused on that original movie.” Despite sticking to the first film, Hope gushes about the team’s excitement at seeing the Alien: Isolation save station appear in Alien: Romulus. He also shares that the film's director, Fede Álvarez, attended SGF the day before to check out the demo of Alien: Isolation 2 I’d played. Speaking of the films, Creative Assembly has once again been granted vast access to 20th Century Studios’ archive of Alien film materials as references for crafting new elements that remain authentic to the source material. “We are a team full of Alien nerds who are just really, really deep into the source,” says Sopikova. It was neat to check out this early slice of Alien: Isolation 2, but the demo didn’t feature any of the more open level design or other features unique to the sequel. The enclosed space made it feel exactly like the first game, so while it was a nice reminder of what made Alien: Isolation such a tense and memorable experience, we’ll need to wait for a more substantial gameplay showing. I’m also looking forward to learning answers to questions such as who Blake is as a person, how Weyland-Yutani factors into the plot, and how the Xenomorph behaves outside of interior areas. Alien: Isolation 2 appears to be a ways off – it currently has no release window – so Creative Assembly seemingly has plenty of time to cook. But with a strong foundation to work with, I’m confident it will deliver another terrifying stealth adventure. View the full article