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Marvel Maximum Collection, the retro compilation of six Marvel arcade and early console games, has a release date, and it’s only a couple of weeks away. You can take a trip down comic book memory lane on March 27. The collection of classic Konami sidescrolling action games is being assembled by Limited Run Games, and it will be available in both digital and physical formats. The collection includes titles from across Arcade, NES, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis, most of which have never been ported to other modern platforms. Here is the full line-up: X-Men: The Arcade Game (Arcade)Captain America and The Avengers (Arcade, Sega Genesis, NES)Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)Spider-Man/Venom: Separation Anxiety (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis)Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge (Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear)Silver Surfer (NES) Marvel Maximum Collection is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, and PC. View the full article

The 2026 BAFTA Awards nominations have been revealed, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 receiving 12 nominations, including Best Game. Read more View the full article

The 26th annual Game Developers Choice Awards took place last night, with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 securing five accolades including Game of the Year. Read more View the full article

Download Umm Oyoun for free via Epic Games Store! The game is an episodic narrative experience with challenging puzzles. View the full article

Download Umm Oyoun for free via Epic Games Store! The game is an episodic narrative experience with challenging puzzles. View the full article

Platform: PlayStation 5, PC Publisher: GPTRACK50 Inc. Developer: GPTRACK50 Inc. Stupid Never Dies made quite the entrance last December. Its reveal during The Game Awards pre-show wouldn't have felt out of place in a late-aughts Hot Topic; a zombie boy and human girl singing and dancing to a catchy, rocking love song in a music video filled with undead imagery, comic book scribbles, and colorful bursts, with a quick punch of some action gameplay at the very end. But while it set the tone, it wasn't immediately clear how the two parts came together. After attending a hands-off preview session with developer GPTRACK50, I've got a firmer notion of what Stupid Never Dies is. It is an action RPG, filled with style-switching combat and a roguelite, structured around dives into a monster-filled dungeon. And it is absolutely saturated in pop-punk aesthetics. I asked studio head Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who has worked on numerous series including Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Dragon's Dogma, about how the team created this vision of zombies and pop punk mashed together. "When we talk about pop punk," Kobayashi says. "That's, from the very beginning of the game, as we [started] creating the concept of the game, pop punk was the tone we wanted to aim for." Stupid Never Dies follows Davy, a low-level zombie in a dungeon that's been overrun by monsters. He discovers a human girl, Julia, frozen in a freezer and is infatuated with her. He wants to see her brought back to life. So Dr. Frank, a mad genius, encourages Davy to dive into the dungeon and get the power to do so by slaying KOM – the King Of Monsters. Davy, as a zombie, is not particularly powerful compared to the many strange and dangerous beasts of the dungeon. He can, however, gain power in two key ways: he can die and come back, and he can absorb the skills of specific foes to take on their form. There are myriad forms Davy can take, and we saw a lot of them. Maybe too many. The Zombie is a base form, naturally, and plays with some standard action game tools: normal and heavy attacks, a parry, and a bite. After biting some enemies, though, Davy can turn into them during his dungeon expedition, though he can only carry two additional forms at a time. The Werewolf offers a blitz of speed and fury, while the Harpy unleashes feathered projectiles. The Golem is tough and sturdy, spinning its arms around to send foes flying. The Vampire spawns in swarms of bats, the Will-o'-the-Wisp can swap between the physical and astral planes, and the Cyclops swings hard with big, all-or-nothing strikes. The Snow Fairy might be my favorite, allowing you to freeze foes and then slice them with an ice blade, enhancing the blade's power in the process. The Merfolk form can dive into the ground and make whirlpools, the Lich is a summoner-like form with skeleton pals, and the Demon warps gravity. It's a lot to take in, but essentially, these forms make up a base of power for each run. Getting used to how they work, and especially how they can work together as you flip through them mid-combat, is a core part of Stupid Never Dies. Throw in the extra power of Body Hacks, which add weapons that Davy can employ in runs like a Missile Pod or the imposing Massive Edge blade, and you can have a pretty wide variety in playstyles between different dungeon crawls. "That kind of variety can be much broader if we made this game run-based," Kobayashi says. "That's the reason why we chose this structure." As part of the roguelite nature, Davy builds up a meter of experience growth. Essentially, each run adds bonuses to future experience gains in the dungeon, so each attempt sees Davy levelling up just a little bit faster. While an early venture might spend some time on getting to, say, level 10, he might hit level 20 in just as much time, or even faster, in future adventures. Runs do have a time limit on them, but that might be a good thing if it means later tries can become explosively, exponentially faster. "We want the player to experience blazing fast growth," Kobayashi says. "That's a fundamental system of the game, so each run, you feel different." Layered over all of this is a saturated, exaggerated style that conveys as much character as that first trailer. Davy can even amp it up a bit when he enters his Davy Burst mode, a super mode that comes with over-the-top animations and visual effects. Stupid Never Dies is a fascinating project, sometimes feeling like the action-brawler Warm Bodies roguelite we never got. But beneath the pop punk veneer, there's a fascinating mix of action combat mechanics and fast-ramping roguelite progression. It's different and strange in all the best ways, and has certainly found a place on my radar for the hidden gems of 2026. View the full article

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: 2K Games Developer: Visual Concepts Release: March 13, 2026 Rating: Teen WWE 2K26 doesn’t make the most compelling case for long-time players to upgrade. Sure, the roster has ballooned, its presentation is stronger than ever, and there are small improvements in some areas. But the subtle gameplay tweaks are neither exciting nor overtly perceptible, and certain modes take unwelcome steps backwards. Describing annual sports games as “more of the same with a few tweaks” is boring and not entirely helpful, but WWE 2K26 fits that description more than any recent entry. The usual modes are present, and existing fans can pick up and play the game with minimal new onboarding lessons. While the in-ring action still isn’t the most pick-up-and-play friendly due to how increasingly dense its systems are becoming, I appreciate additions like the ability to forcefully drive opponents into corners instead of just whipping them. Of the new weapons, thumbtacks are my favorite, and I’m impressed by how they remain stuck to bodies for the duration of matches. The new match stipulations – Inferno, Dumpster, I Quit, and 3 Stages of Hell – are nice to have and are well replicated, though I only see myself revisiting Inferno and 3 Stages beyond the review period. Superstar models for the 400+ wrestler roster range from very good to fantastic (though Legends, as usual, are the most hit and miss), and the overall presentation benefits from 2K26 being a current-gen only title. The commentary is also the best it’s been in years, thanks to the additions of the excellent Wade Barrett and the ridiculous Booker T, who bring a refreshing energy to the booth. Despite some legacy hiccups like weird physics interactions, I can still have fun with WWE 2K26’s in-ring action. Arguably, the biggest and potentially most polarizing addition is the Ringside Pass, 2K26’s take on the battle pass. Sporting a free and a premium pass with 40 tiers each, engaging with any activity nets XP that unlocks new wrestlers (with many available on the free tier for Season 1), items like championships and MyFaction cards, timed XP boosts, and Virtual Currency (VC) in a system that replaces the old post-launch DLC pack strategy. Positive or negative, you likely already have strong feelings about battle passes before laying eyes on WWE 2K26’s. As someone who doesn’t play many online multiplayer games and thus doesn’t engage with battle passes often, I’m neutral on 2K replacing their old monetization strategy with this one. I will say that, after doing some math, although the full price of purchasing every Ringside Pass tier skip is much more expensive than all of 2K25’s post-launch packs combined, it also features greater rewards. The free tiers of Ringside Pass alone unlock more wrestlers than 2K25 offered after its release, which is the main draw of these rewards. I also appreciate that tier rewards never expire, avoiding the toxic FOMO many battle passes create. Ringside Pass will be fine to some and annoying to others; I can’t deny feeling an innate satisfaction when unlocking new stuff merely by playing the game, and I gained rewards at a reasonable pace into the double-digit tiers. But the presence of Ringside Pass has some potential negative side effects on other modes in the game. This year’s MyRise, for example, is my least favorite rendition of the story-driven mode to date due to its egregious padding. Reaching new story milestones now involves playing multiple random matches in a row to earn performance stars to meet a quota. It is a grind, and it harms the pacing; an intriguing plot twist could happen, then you have to wrestle five or six opponents in a row (often from a small pool, so expect repeat foes) before the story picks back up. I can’t help but suspect this approach was done to help players earn Ringside Pass XP, since you earn more points by winning matches. Regardless of the reasoning, I miss the more brisk and eventful structure of 2K25’s MyRise. The Island, WWE 2K’s online exploration hub, returns, and while the addition of voice acting breathes some life into the destination, it’s still not an appealing excursion. The sheer assault of VC cosmetic stores makes it feel as much like exploring a digital shopping mall as it does a video game, and I still can’t get behind the idea of paying real money to upgrade my custom superstar’s stats. You can grind points by competing in lame 4-way matches at the new Scrapyard area or in dull roguelike-style runs in gauntlet towers representing the three goofy factions you align with (led by CM Punk, Rhea Ripley, and Cody Rhodes), but the squeeze to buy VC is strong. While I can only speak to the Ripley path, Order of Shadows, an early handicap match against two opponents was so insanely tough that it felt like the game was saying, “You know, if your stats were higher, maybe you could deal with this nonsense.” Call it a skill issue, but even without these headaches, the Island still feels like an icky and grind-heavy destination once you get past the cute environmental references and Easter Eggs. CM Punk’s Showcase mode is also a mixed bag. It simultaneously serves as a playable trip down memory lane that chronicles Punk’s WWE career while also having a ton of fantasy bouts against dream opponents. The historical half is lacking since a big chunk of it only covers the final year of Punk’s first WWE tenure (2013 - 2014) and his current run. Ignoring rivalries that simply can’t be covered due to opponents being employed elsewhere (like Jeff Hardy and Chris Jericho), it’s disappointing how much of the historical side is so focused on his latter work. No ECW bouts, no Straight Edge Society stuff, and, perhaps because of Vince McMahon’s involvement in the match, even Money in the Bank 2011 is a no-show. The dream match side of Showcase has some neat “What Ifs”, but it goes on for so long that it starts to lose its appeal. I am happy Showcase matches have far fewer objectives this year, making them less of a chore to fully complete if you’re chasing the unlockables. And if you’d rather skip the timeline entirely, a new Gauntlet format offers a fun but challenging alternative where you can battle all 20 opponents in a gauntlet match to instantly unlock every Showcase reward. Good luck pulling that off, but it’s a cool idea. Favorite destinations like MyGM remain enjoyable, if familiar at this point, with intergender bouts and bigger multi-man matches to book. The Creation Suite finally allows players to create even more superstars and images – double the amount, in fact – to make one of the best destinations of any WWE game even better. The sim-like MyUniverse gets the WWE Draft to add to its immersion, but the team-building collectible card mode MyFaction will probably never be for me. It’s a VC-heavy destination, and I just don’t find the wrestling/card hybrid engaging in the face of more traditional offerings. Assembling a team of superstars (whose value is based on TCG-style rarity) to complete various series of back-to-back matches under different objectives isn’t outright bad, but it’s another grind-heavy mode that still doesn't appeal to me. As the WWE 2K series churns out another game each year, they’re becoming tougher to remain enthusiastic about. Visual Concepts found a strong formula with 2K22 and has steadily iterated on that without rocking the boat too much, making for a consistent but gradually less exciting package each year. Starting with The Island’s debut last year, the VC infiltration is becoming irksome, especially in a package that already has multiple expensive editions and paid unlocks. Art is starting to imitate life – it’s never been more expensive to consume the WWE product, thanks to sky-high ticket prices and the pricey streaming subscriptions required to even watch everything. My feelings while playing 2K26 began to mirror my current relationship with the on-screen product: It’s still enjoyable, but the negatives are catching up to the positives. Score: 7.5 About Game Informer's review system View the full article

Claim your free Bandit Trap Closed Beta Steam Key and join the closed beta test until March 15. View the full article

Without warning, Square Enix launched Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD on Xbox Series X/S and PC earlier today. If you’ve been bummed that the remaster of the 2014 RPG was locked away on Switch 2, today is your day (unless you only own a PlayStation). The HD Remaster of Bravely Default, which originally launched for the Nintendo 3DS over a decade ago, features sharper visuals, an improved interface, new minigames, and expanded online features, among other improvements. The game first launched alongside the Switch 2 last June. To celebrate the launch, the game is currently 20 percent off ($31.99 down from $39.99) on Xbox and Steam. Bravely Default centers on four warriors of light who embark on an adventure to save the world of Luxendarc from an invading darkness. The turn-based battle system centers on its Brave and Default mechanics where players choose to spend points to execute several actions at once (Brave) or accumulate those points across multiple turns (Default). The game is the first in a series that includes Bravely Second: End Layer (2016) and Bravely Default II (2021). Players can pick up Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox for PC as well as on Steam. You can read our review of the original version of the game here. View the full article

As the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) rolls on this week, one of the biggest keynotes came from Xbox. That’s because the company took the stage to reveal new information on Project Helix, the recently revealed codename for its next-generation console. As previously detailed by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, Project Helix is being designed to play console and PC games. The keynote states that as part of Xbox’s multi-year partnership with AMD, Project Helix will be powered by a custom AMD SoC (basically a multi-integrated microchip) and is co-designed for the next generation of DirectX and FSR. What that means is that the hardware will deliver, according to an Xbox Wire post by vice president Jason Ronald, “an order of magnitude leap in ray tracing performance and capability [that] integrates intelligence directly into the graphics and compute pipeline, and drives meaningful gains in efficiency, scale, and visual ambition.” Or, to put it plainly, games will look more realistic, boast more dynamic worlds, and feel more immersive overall. Ronald also reveals that Xbox plans to ship alpha versions of Project Helix to developers starting in 2027. He also discusses Xbox’s strategy for “breaking down the barriers between console and PC games” to create more seamless cross-play across multiple devices. The goal is to give studios a simplified development path to help reduce production costs. To this end, Xbox is also taking a page from the ROG Xbox Ally by introducing an Xbox mode to Windows 11 in April, starting in select markets. Xbox mode lets players switch seamlessly between work and game applications, “with a familiar full screen and controller optimized Xbox experience while embracing the openness of Windows,” according to Ronald. With developers getting their first look at Project Helix next year, we probably shouldn't expect a full reveal until 2028 at the earliest. It's hard not to feel a little surprised that Xbox is openly discussing its next console already, until you realize it will be six years since the Xbox Series X/S launch this November. The flow of time is a strange and unsettling beast sometimes. View the full article

New research conducted by the University of Bristol and developer Meaning Machine shows that gamers enjoy playing with AI-powered non-playable characters. Read more View the full article

In its latest report, Newzoo projects PC revenue will surpass console revenue by 2028. PC is expected to grow at a 6.6% compound annual growth rate from 2025 to 2028, compared to 4.4% for console. Read more View the full article

Score Isonzo for free via Epic Games Store! Isonzo is a gorgeous WW1 FPS with a dynamic battlefield and six ... View the full article

Cozy time! Grab Cozy Grove free now on the Epic Games Store! Cozy Grove is a life-sim game about camping ... View the full article

Platform: PC Publisher: DrinkBox Studios Developer: DrinkBox Studios Drinkbox Studios is commonly known as the team that brought us the Guacamelee series and Nobody Saves the World, but perhaps my favorite title in its catalogue is Severed, which originally released in 2016 on the PS Vita. While that game features fun touchscreen-based combat and an intriguing minimalist story, what stuck with me the most is its striking art style. As I walked up to the station where I’d spend the next 20 minutes playing Drinkbox’s latest game, Blighted, I immediately noticed echoes of that gorgeous Severed art style, even as the gameplay deviates from it. Vibrant, contrasting colors and a psychedelic vibe permeate every inch of the isometric action RPG. And the notion of a corrupted world, which was central to Severed’s premise, reverberate off Blighted’s own. In Blighted, the protagonist comes from a culture with a fascinating tradition surrounding their dead: When someone passes away, they plant a tree seed in their brain before burying them. Then, when that tree sprouts and bears fruit, the people consume that fruit, allowing them to experience memories of their ancestors. It’s a fascinating premise and a beautiful (if not strange) tradition. However, when the Sorcisto, the game’s evil antagonist, learns that if he eats your people’s brains, he will receive their memories and mystical powers, he consumes your entire village. Unfortunately for him, this process results in Sorcisto becoming overtaken by Blight, which transforms him into a grotesque monster. As the sole remaining member of your village, you must travel the dangerous surrounding lands to recover the memories of your people and defeat Sorcisto. Despite being an isometric RPG, Blighted pulls heavy inspiration from Metroidvanias and the Soulslike genre. As the hero navigates the world, they encounter all manner of hideous creatures with distinct powers. Managing your stamina bar, you can attack, dodge, and parry enemies – or blast them at range with your gun, which operates on a cooldown – and the better you do, the more difficult the game becomes; while playing with the developers, they cranked up the level of Blight using a debug menu that won’t be in the final game to demonstrate how much more aggressive and powerful enemies become when you’re on a hot streak. However, you can expect better rewards during this time. As you fight through and explore the various biomes, you solve environmental puzzles, unlock shortcuts, and learn about the corruption of this beautiful world. You also encounter massive bosses with their own suites of powers. These huge, ungodly creations unleash powerful attacks, with color coding about which can be parried and which must be dodged. After defeating the two bosses I faced off against, I obtained their abilities. The catch? To earn it, your character must consume their brains, creating a compelling narrative about how we can sometimes become the very monsters we hate in the relentless pursuit of our goals. I can’t wait to see how Drinkbox further explores these themes in the narrative. After defeating one monstrous boss, my character earns a stomp move, which not only offers an area-of-effect attack but also a way to clear certain barriers. As someone who has played his fair share of Metroidvanias, this immediately scratched that part of my brain, as new paths were suddenly available to explore as I returned to one of the areas I was navigating before that boss battle. I played my entire demo in two-player co-op, which can be done locally or online in the full game, but it is designed fully with solo play in mind. Just like in Soulslike games, sometimes it’s just nice to have someone else to draw the boss’ aggro for a little bit. I was intrigued by Blighted ever since I first saw it at the tail end of 2025, and when you combine it with the studio’s excellent pedigree and this incredibly fun demo, it’s one I will absolutely be watching for when it comes to Switch 2 and PC this fall. View the full article

Epic Games is raising the price of Fortnite's in-game currency to "help pay the bills" because "the cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot." Read more View the full article

Jeff Kaplan, former vice president of Blizzard Entertainment and lead director on Overwatch, left the company in 2021 after it demanded Overwatch generate recurring revenue or it would lay off 1,000 employees, according to a recent interview with PC Gamer. In that time, Kaplan founded a development studio called Kintsugiyama and it has revealed what it has been working on all these years. A far cry from the fantasy of Warcraft and science-fiction of Overwatch, The Legend of California is an open-world survival shooter game set in California during the gold rush era. In the game players will survive and compete for resources in the "mythical Island of California." It is designed to be played alone, or you can survive and thrive (or die) with up to three friends. Along with expected survival mechanics, like cutting down trees to make shelter, you can also tackle outposts filled with enemies to make money. The persistent online world will also let you build a ranch, stables, and explore mines. The Legend of California is coming to Early Access on PC by way of Steam some time in 2026. View the full article

Pokémon Pokopia has sold over 2.2 million units worldwide in its first four days of release. Shortly after launch, Nintendo's share price increased by up to 10.5%, marking its largest gain since April 2025. Read more View the full article

Ballistic Moon, the developer behind 2024’s Until Dawn remake, has been dissolved. Read more View the full article

In February of this year, New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James sued Valve over the loot boxes present in games like Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2. In a report from Reuters, James said that the mystery boxes were "promoting illegal gambling and threatening to addict children" and referred to them as "quintessential gambling" in violation of New York gambling laws. Today, Valve posted a statement on steampowered.com sharing its thoughts on the lawsuit. The blog post was not attributed to anyone specific, but in it Valve writes about mystery boxes being perceived as gambling. "We don't believe that they do, and were disappointed to see the NYAG make that claim after working to educate them about our virtual items and mystery boxes since they first reached out to us in early 2023," the blog reads. "We rarely talk about litigation, but we felt we should explain the situation to you." In the post Valves equates its mystery boxes to playing cards citing Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, baseball cards, and Labubu as equivalent products. It also highlighted its efforts to shut down gambling sites taking advantage of Valve items writing that it has shut down more than one-million Steam accounts that attempted to engage with gambling activity. Valve writes that the NYAG wants to eliminate the ability to share and transfer digital items and demands that more personal data be collected to aid in age verification. "We believe it’s in our and [Steam users'] interest to only collect the information necessary to operate the business and comply with law," Valve writes, and continues saying, "It may have been easier and cheaper for Valve to make a deal with the NYAG, but we believed the type of deal that would satisfy the NYAG would have been bad for users and other game developers, and impacted our ability to innovate in game design." Valve also responded to NYAG comments made about video games as they relate to real-world violence. "Those extraneous comments are a distraction and a mischaracterization we’ve all heard before. Numerous studies throughout the years have concluded there is no link between media (movies, TV, books, comics, music, and games) and real world violence. Indeed, many studies highlight the beneficial impact of games to users." Valve wrote that it will comply by any laws New York legislature passes governing mystery boxes, but ended the post with, "Ultimately, a court will decide whose position—ours or NYAG's—is correct. In the meantime, we wanted to make sure you were aware of the potential impact to users in New York and elsewhere." You can read Valve's full statement here. View the full article

Xbox has revealed limited technical details about its next console, codenamed Project Helix. Read more View the full article

The creator of RPG Chained Echoes is suing publisher First Press Games for failing to release the physical editions promised to its Kickstarter backers. Read more View the full article

Valve has responded to New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit against the firm, stating it does not believe that lootboxes in its Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2 games unlawfully encourage minors to gamble, adding it was "disappointed" to see the action go ahead despite efforts to "educate" the NYAG about virtual items since "early 2023." Read more View the full article

SAG-AFTRA - the union that represents 160,000 actors, voiceover artists, and other media professionals - has issued a "Do Not Work Order" against Capcom's upcoming Mega Man sequel, Mega Man: Dual Override. Read more View the full article

Google has detailed the next phase of its 'Living Games' concept: using autonomous AI agents as a core component to support cloud-based game development. Read more View the full article