Video games

Video games

In June, Ubisoft noted that the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake is set to launch by March 31--the end of the company's current fiscal year. That was the second time Ubisoft stuck to that release timeline, too. However, it's been a bumpy road for the game since being announced in 2020. For instance, in 2022, the Prince of Persia remake switched developers to Ubisoft Montreal, the original team behind the Sands of Time series.

If the success of Switch 2 is any indication, 2025 was defined by the launch of Nintendo's latest console. Yet Nintendo is surprisingly absent from the top trending games of 2025, with only a single title making the cut: Pokemon Legends: Z-A. Google has shared its annual report about the top trending search topics, including which subjects changed in the year since the previous disclosure.

The Story So Far As The Guild claws its way back from the ashes of defeat at the hands of David Mason, Alden Dorne, once the trusted right hand of CEO Emma Kagan, seizes his moment. His vision is merciless: capture David Mason at all costs and unlock the secrets buried within the C-Link, the cutting-edge neural tech possessed only by JSOC's elite.

Santa Ragione said Epic notified the studio of its decision just 24 hours before the game was released on Tuesday, despite approving Horses for sale on the Epic Games Store weeks earlier. "Once again, no specific indication of problematic content in the game was given, only broad and demonstrably incorrect claims that it violated their content guidelines," the studio wrote in an FAQ. "Our appeal was denied twelve hours later without further explanation."

He told me that, 15 years ago, he was doing press interviews for the Grand Theft Auto IV expansion packs when he had something of a revelation about the series. I was talking to a journalist from Paris Match, a very cultured French guy and he said, Well, the Grand Theft Auto games are just like Dickens'. And I was like, God bless you for saying that!

Recently, CD Projekt published a social media post about Cyberpunk 2077 that some took to be a teaser for some kind of announcement on December 10, the game's fifth anniversary. This was not a teaser for anything, CD Projekt's Marcin Momot has now clarified. The developer publishes these kinds of posts every 30 days to celebrate birthdays for Cyberpunk characters, and for December, the 10th was mentioned as well to celebrate the game's fifth anniversary. "It's not a teaser. Hope this clears things up!"

On December 3, Void Interactive announced a new limited-time free trial for Ready or Not. The trial is available now on PlayStation 5 (with a PS Plus subscription), Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S. Once downloaded and installed, players will have access to the entirety of Ready or Not, including every mission. Players can enjoy the game for three hours before the trial ends.

Bringing big-budget console games to mobile devices has always been something of a gamble. Although a lot of ports may look the part, the moment you try to move, aim, or react under pressure, the seams start showing. When it comes to a franchise as popular as Hitman, the margin for error is microscopic. Such games thrive on precision, improvisation and tension, and the whole experience falls apart if any of those do. Yet Feral Interactive has been steadily proving that modern mobile hardware is no longer a limitation but an opportunity.

The developer of Cozy Grove and Alphabear is leaving Netflix. Spry Fox is being sold back to its original founders, Game File reports, and will continue to work on its upcoming "cooperative village life sim" Spirit Crossing as an independent company. Unlike other shuttered Netflix games studios Team Blue and Boss Fight Entertainment, Netflix will remain involved with the studio as Spirit Crossing's publisher on mobile.

Earlier this week, a post on the official No Man's Sky subreddit highlighted what clearly looks like some digital theft. Some premium cosmetics in the free-to-play survival game Once Human look virtually identical to teleporters in space exploration game No Man's Sky. While a circular object that can teleport someone has been a staple of science fiction since at least the film Stargate, the more you look at these two 3D assets, the more similarities you'll spot; they're virtually indistinguishable save for a different color theme.

"I just [didn't] have the money or the time to build a big open-world game like that," he said. "You know, it's either a passion project you spent 10 years on, or you just need a bunch of money to be able to hire people and resources."

Tencent has agreed to stop promoting and publicly testing Light of Motiram as a lawsuit with Sony works its way through the courts, according to a report by TheGamePost. This is Tencent's game that looks suspiciously similar to Sony's Horizon franchise, so much so that Sony sued the publisher. Sony wants the court to block the game from sale entirely, but as the case continues Tencent has agreed to keep Light of Motiram out of the spotlight.

While Black Ops 7 is sticking to thematically appropriate operator skins, Season 11 of Call of Duty Mobile includes a major crossover with Street Fighter, which allows players to transform into the popular fighting characters and use their iconic fighting moves. This new season also adds a DMZ extraction mode, new loadout items to unlock, and special events. Season 11 starts on December 11 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET.

I'm a humble man with simple needs. It turns out what I really look for in games is a really good bumpity-bumpity-bumpity noise while sliding down a flight of stairs. If it weren't already packed with a squillion other good reasons, this would still be enough on its own to have me booting up Arc Raiders. Let's not mince words: sliding down a flight of stairs is great.

For a game that's been in development since 2012, it was a surprise when Escape from Tarkov finally emerged from early access in November. And now that it's possible to really escape from Tarkov, someone's done it and shared the video to prove it. A streamer who goes by Tigz has been acknowledged by Battlestate Games as the first player to find a way out of Tarkov in this first-person-extraction shooter. In a post captured on Instagram, the devs wrote, "Congratulations to Tigz on being the first to Escape From Tarkov. You survived. But at what cost."

The pace of online gaming evolution has been tremendous - from single-player browser-based games to multiplayer immersive digital worlds. Online gaming is now an indubitable cornerstone of the entertainment industry and has fundamentally transformed how individuals engage with, consume, and learn digital content. As the advancement of technology continues to evolve, the impact of online gaming will continue to propel gaming to heights of modern entertainment that were inconceivable two decades ago.

As demonstrated by this clip, new update adds a "Music Volume" option in the racer's settings that lets you adjust how loud the music is while you're driving around and throwing blue shells at each other. However, the only options you have in this setting are "Normal" and "Loud." You can't tweak these presets at all, and most people who adjust the music volume in video games aren't making it ; they're usually trying to balance it so they can hear audio cues, voice acting,

Nintendo has rolled out another new update for Mario Kart World. This patch brings the Switch 2 racing game up to version 1.4.0 and includes a swath of quality-of-life improvements and other adjustments. Among the numerous tweaks, Nintendo has added a "Custom Items" rule to the game, allowing you to adjust which items appear during a round. The Custom Items rule can be applied to VS Race, Balloon Battle, and Coin Runners modes. In addition, Nintendo has tweaked some of the course layouts leading to and from Koopa Troopa Beach. The company has also changed it so that every race heading toward Koopa Troopa Beach will now require you to complete two laps after reaching the course.

Slay the Spire redefined the roguelike‑deckbuilder genre by combining persistent runs, branching paths, and card‑based combat into a compact package with high replay value. Its appeal lies in the loop of building a deck, upgrading it while ascending the spire, reacting to relics and events, and seeing how far you can climb.

"Built on custom technology, handcrafted environments, and a play philosophy that rewards mastery across survival, PVP, creativity, and hardcore challenges, Vernearth launches with four major game modes: Oblivion, PVP/Event, Plotworld, and Challenge Mode. Together they form a unified ecosystem that supports every type of player. These modes will be rolled out starting at launch systematically to ensure a smooth player experience, so some of these modes may not be available right away. Explorers and builders to streamers, competitors, and high-stakes achievers will all have something innovative to experience in Vernearth."

I waited over a decade for Raichu to get a Mega Evolution, so I sympathize with anyone who has a beloved Pokémon they're hoping might get one in upcoming Mega Dimension DLC. Now that my favorite electric rat has not just one, but Mega Evolutions, the title for "most oppressed Pokémon fan waiting for a Mega Evolution" now goes to the Flygon stans, and they're really going through it.

Every year when we look back at all the games that dropped, trends reveal themselves. For 2025, you might boil it down to a year of innovation. Yes, there were many big, anticipated games that overdelivered. But, from Donkey Kong Bonanza to Death Stranding 2, no two looked alike. The further you go, the more creativity you see. From a co-op storytelling game like no other in Split Fiction to the mysterious and completely unique puzzlers in Blue Prince .

Neon Genesis Evangelion fans: Here's a chance to live the series, so to speak. Pixelity, developer of an upcoming XR game trilogy based on the classic anime, will hold on-site focus group tests this month. The playtests will take place in Japan from December 19 to 21, and in California on December 19. Pixelity says it will use the same number of players at each venue. If you're near either location, you can apply for access today on Pixelity's X account.

In a suitably festive Holiday-themed trailer for Assassin's Creed Shadows' final 2025 updates, a cute and cryptic teaser for some upcoming content briefly interrupted associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois' rundown of everything coming to the stealthy ninja sim. Eagle-eyed fans of the series, however, were quick to point out a few interesting tidbits, namely the presence of what looks like a pirate ship.

Earlier this year, Bungie found itself in the center of an unexpectedplagiarism scandal. The studio's upcoming extraction shooter, Marathon, was found to have included work lifted from online artist Antireal without her knowledge or consent. Bungie fessed up and apologized, claiming it was an accident. Now, five months after the controversy, the artist, Antireal, has posted on X stating that the " Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction."