Quick-time events, despite everyone's best efforts to spice them up, remain pretty meh. When you first begin Dispatch, the new episodic superhero adventure game from AdHoc Studio, you're asked if you want to enable quick-time event prompts as an optional game mechanic. It says something that these QTE prompts only really appear in the first and last episode of Dispatch's eight-episode run.
As impressive as the teams of developers that create games are, sometimes I am more blown away by the passion of the communities that build up around them, and what comes out of them. As more and more games are being made with software that is more available for general public use, like Unreal Engine, Blender, and Unity, this means that fans are able to try their hand at making custom creations to add into their favorite games, or even full-blown tools that help others do so. From clever randomizers to giant adjustments to the base game, these are some of the best fan mods and creations released in 2025.
All throughout Donkey Kong Bananza, DK and Pauline are battling Void Company and its leader Void Kong. However, with each new level, there's a reptilian presence permeating the experience. Some enemies bear a striking resemblance to the Kremlings of DK adventures past, hidden treasure chests are green and bear what look like crocodile teeth, even the Banandium Root--Void Company's main goal in digging through the planet--has a certain familiarity to it I just can't put my finger on.
If you're wondering what games are coming up in 2026, we've put them all in one convenient location. This list will be continually updated to act as a living, breathing schedule as new dates are announced, titles are delayed, and big reveals happen. This should help you plan out your next year of gaming and beyond. As the gaming calendar is constantly changing, we highly recommend you bookmark this page.
Three generations have grown up with video games since home consoles with swappable game cartridges were first released in the mid-1970s. These systems brought versions of popular arcade games, such as Space Invaders and Pac-Man, into people's living rooms. At about the same time, tabletop fantasy role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, made their appearance. This fantasy genre would also lead to the development of card-based games, such as Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon.
While the concept of the multiverse has been explored in film and TV even before Marvel's takeover, it quickly became the narrative foundation of choice. When done right, the potential is undeniable--works like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once are heartwrenching displays of interpersonal relationships, making characters face the reality of what-if scenarios, reconciling with their choices and what could have been if they had turned the other way instead.
With the best games of the year duly noted (yours and ours), I'd like to highlight some of the work we've done covering them. Reviewing the top-performing articles that we published in 2025, I see a portrait of a conflicted year: plenty of great works and games that captured the imagination and the world's attention, but also growing anxiety about their place in the real world, and the political circumstances they reflect.
My favorite moment in Skin Deep, an immersive sim and stealth game about rescuing cats and fighting your evil clone in deep space, was always the one immediately after a thoroughly developed plan inevitably went sideways. The skittish way that I was forced to sprint and crawl under a table or into a vent. The manner in which my strategy devolved into simply batting things off of shelves in order to incapacitate a roaming guard
"From the start, the core vision was a buddy-action experience where you would control two distinct characters with a single controller," Pragmata director Yongchee Cho tells me. The team explored giving protagonist Hugh a small drone that aids him in combat, but once the developers landed on the android Diana as a second protagonist, this idea evolved into the hacking system. This created various layers of gameplay that all happen at once, and when coupled with the mysterious narrative and various locales warped and twisted by Luna Filament, the name Pragmata makes a lot of sense.
BetterVR is a newly released mod for the Wii U-emulated version of Breath of the Wild that lets you play through the entirety of the game through the eyes of Link himself. You'll need a copy of Breath of the Wild on Wii U, a somewhat powerful PC, the Cemu emulator, and, of course, a virtual reality headset like the Meta Quest 3. But if you have all that, you can now virtually explore Breath of the Wild in a whole new way.
First things first: This is not a comprehensive feature of all the best video games of 2025. Loyal readers of this site will know that we don't "cover the waterfront" when it comes to games, usually choosing to focus on games with what could be called cinematic influences or ties to films/TV like " Resident Evil," " The Last of Us," and " Uncharted." For this feature of the best
Throughout the events of Promise Mascot Agency, I was Pinky's ride. Anywhere that she needed to go, I had to ferry her in my crappy little truck. As a matter of fact, I was responsible for the transport of any and every mascot that stumbled through the doors of the Promise Mascot Agency and came under my employ. When Kofun needed to go to a nearby graveyard, I was the guy for the job.
The holiday celebrations continue as we step into a new week with a catalog reshuffle at The Division 2 vendor shops. The last week of 2025 brings new gear sets, brand sets, weapons, and mods to choose from. Found at all major settlements across DC, New York, and Brooklyn maps, these NPCs are your go-to sources for Proficiency level rankup or loadout minmaxing. This article lists all the items that are available from The Division 2 vendors from December 30, 2025, to January 6, 2026.
The creator economy gives, and it can also take - suddenly. That's one lesson behind the abrupt exodus of talent from the esports and marketing company FaZe Clan last week. Building a business led by an influencer or celebrity can make you a boatload of money. Just ask the teams behind Kim Kardashian's Skims or George Clooney's Casamigos tequila, which both crossed $1 billion in value.
As artificial intelligence has seeped more into daily life, it's been met with a mix of acceptance and repulsion. The technology has been used to modify photos and improve productivity, but it has also threatened jobs and created havoc with the truth. When it comes to video games, players abhor AI. It's associated with slop and the deluge of nice-looking but cheaply made games. That has created a hunger for authenticity.
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Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter from Embark Studios so, a game where you deploy into a map full of other players and do as much shooting and looting as you can before making an escape. This is my first real go at the genre, and it's excellent. It has smooth, only occasionally cumbersome combat, sound design that scratches the brain just right and robotic enemies that genuinely terrify. And it satisfies my constant need to sift through my inventory and rifle through every drawer.
YouTuber compiled all his findings in the Teraleak into a feature-length video that goes chronologically through 's development files dating back to 2022, shortly after work on Legends: Arceus had wrapped up. Some files are from so early in the process that Game Freak was using Legends: Arceus ' Irida as a placeholder for the player. These screenshots and videos show some cut content and features, like additional building interiors to explore, being able to use overworld abilities around Lumiose City ,
What do you think of when you think of a woman in pain? There are no tidy universalisms here, but for many of us, even most of us, pain is private and domestic. You could think of a mother shouldering burdens alone while her husband is at work. The father in the waiting room while the mother screams with strangers. A woman going to the doctor about an ache, only for him to tell her to lose weight and deny the problem is even happening.
Game eldest daughter played the most: Just Dance 2024/Horizon Zero Dawn/Pikmin Can't you pick just one? It's not my games column. On her phone, meanwhile, she's been playing Cityscapes and trying to find decent healthcare. In the game? In real life. Overwatch respect. Photograph: MJB/Blizzard Game middle son played the most: Overwatch I don't play games on my phone. He was offended that I even asked him that question. I respect that. Resident Evil Biohazard. Photograph: PR Company Handout
See, Cast n Chill is a fishing game with an idle mode; if you don't feel like actively playing it yourself, you can just have your little pixel-art fisherman work the rod and the reel all by himself, catching some fish and selling them for cash so that, when you do come back to the game, you've got some more money to spend in the bait and tackle shop on new fishing rods, boats, licenses, and so forth.
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