Duvaling Deeper GTA 6 trailer 2 is here, so when‘s GTA 6 trailer 3 gonna drop? Don't worry, we've been rubbing our hot braincells together Forget all that new info, I’ll never put away my diagram of lunar phases. Image credit: Rockstar Games Article by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 10, 2025 Do not laugh. These are words on the internet. They’re serious business. We might have finally gotten that second trailer, the one I spent months on end staring at the moon 24 hours a day and electrocuted Nintendo’s nipples in anticipation of. We might have gotten a whole website worth of screenshots and character bios to dissect like forensic scientists scraping one of Trevor Phillips’ victims off the freeway. But it’s never enough. It’s never enough, when GTA 6 now isn’t arriving until May 2026. From my bunker on Mount Chiliad, I’ll scour these morsels we’ve been thrown, I’ll hold the gun of truth up to their foreheads, just like Niko Bellic did to Vlad in that GTA 4 mission. I’ll find evidence of a drop date for GTA 6 trailer three. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. You might argue that there’s no evidence we’re even due a third GTA 6 trailer - that we’ve already had two, and gotten all the info we could want ahead of the release date that’s now set in stone. I disagree. There has to be one. There’s always more when it comes to the biggest game launch since the fall of Constantinople invented the RTS genre. Besides, GTA 5 had three protagonists, as did GTA 4 if you count the DLCs - the angels at Rockstar know the power that a holy trinity wields over us puny mortals. So, I fire up trailer two for the seven thousandth time this week, because what if - I ask myself, in a voice that’s still some weird, monstrous amalgamation of every GTA protagonist ever - the GTA 6 trailer two/delay info drop has anything to tell us about a third GTA 6 trailer? Trailer two begins with a joke. As I’ve told you, this is no laughing matter, but it’s Rockstar making a gag about those leaks, so I must - in my capacity as their devoted servant/fan who spends 22 and a half hours a day on Twitter - giggle for at least 20 minutes. The joke, though, serves a purpose. It’s convinced me that Rockstar knows the game’s afoot. There’s a racoon in the background emerging from a bin. Frantically, I google which time of year the critters typically mate. Late January to mid-March. Could this be when GTA 6 trailer three is conceived ahead of deployment in the run up to that May release? Could it be when the trailer slinks out of the trash can onto our feeds? Maybe, but we’ll have to keep working. He's just too much, man. | Image credit: Rockstar Games Jason Duval is shirtless. I start counting the individual hairs on his very sweaty chest, which I’m staring at in an entirely respectful manner, because he’s a GTA protagonist and we are not worthy. I hold a ruler up to the screen and try to measure the exact diameter of his nipples, in the hope that maths might yield a clue. I have to give up. He’s just too damn sexy for me, a straight man in a basement, to concentrate. We see Jason, now mercifully with a shirt on, driving, and then robbing a store. The cash register. Written on it is a number, upside down. Oh Rockstar, you shouldn’t have, you know I love dialling random phone numbers I find scrawled on walls around town. 305-555-0145. I ring it. There’s no answer, perhaps because I’ve stopped paying my phone bills in order to finance seven separate GTA+ subscriptions at once. I panic, and resort again to maths. 3 + 5 is eight. 5 x 3 is 15. 1 + 4 + 5 is 10. 15 + 10 is 25. 2025. That just leaves the eight. The eighth month. August. AUGUST 2025 FOR GTA 6 TRAILER THREE? It seems implausible, but that’s never stopped me before. Hang on. The moon phases! The old reliable we relied on to predict trailer two. NO WAY. August 8 will see the moon appear as a WAXING GIBBOUS! The very moon phase we thought would point to the second trailer’s arrival. This is incredible, I’ve cracked it. I must have. I can’t stop, though. There must be more info sneaking about like Michael De Santa during that mission for Solomon Richards if that’s cropped up. You don't want to know how many coffees it took for me to work all of this out. | Image credit: Rockstar Games Let’s see. There’s a freeway sign that hints at coming off at exit three to reach 9th Avenue in Southside Peacock Bay. Exit three = trailer three? Rockstar certainly has been peacocking with these trailers. Argh, is it trying to confuse me, to throw me off the scent and lose the five star wanted rating? Further on, there’s a sign in a shop that reads “A new billionaire every week”. A new bit of GTA 6 info every week from now until May 26 next year? No, no, it can’t be. We’d all die from GTA 6 hype overload, foaming at the mouth like many of the numerous victims of substance abuse the GTA series has portrayed over the years. There she is. Lucia Caminos. ‘Hot Together’ by The Pointer Sisters starts to play. Hang on. The Pointer Sisters. Hot Together was released in October 1986. It was their twelfth studio album, and eighth collaboration with producer Richard Perry. There’s that eight again, but this time with a twelve. The song was also used in the soundtrack for the 1987 movie Spaceballs, which came out on June 24. Could that be the time when we get something? The reveal of a GTA 6: Spaceballs edition? As I try to work it out, I forget to press pause and the trailer keeps going. When I look back, Lucia’s bottom in a nice dress is filling the screen. Once again, I’m paralysed because things are just getting too sexy. Her bum swings from side to side as she walks. Once, twice, three times before the camera cuts away. THREE. Did Lucia’s derriere just confirm trailer three is coming, beyond all doubt? As if to re-emphasise it, Jason then says “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right.” I swear, I'm not pulling all of this out of my own rump. | Image credit: Rockstar Games I move on. The threes keep coming. Bae-Luxe of Real Dimez says ‘brrraapp’ three times while doing finger guns. People yell ‘Vice City, baby’, which is three words. Cal Hampton humps the air three times while urging someone to hook him up with something. Does he want early access to trailer three? It’s all too much. I crash out and turn to the website. I try calculating the mean value of the number of screenshots of different characters and locations that Rockstar’s shared. It somehow adds up to five, which doesn’t seem to support my theory, so I disregard it as irrelevant. I end up scrolling just past the bio of Lucia - the woman with the prophetic posterior. “Jason’s friend and a fellow associate of Brian’s, Cal feels safest hanging at home, snooping on Coast Guard comms with a few beers and some private browser tabs open,” reads the bit about Cal Hampton. His name is three letters long, and there are two references to trios in the passage that prominently features a list of three. “What if everything on the internet was true?”

Tripwire has remerged to bring co-op shooter fans everywhere - many of whom have waited years for a sequel to Killing Floor 2 - some major news about the release date of Killing Floor 3. Now, you may remember that the game actually had a March 25 release date for a while, before Tripwire suddenly took it off the calendar without providing a new date. Read more

You call that a fief Doom The Dark Ages review: The road to hell is paved with hypertension Stressful, but in a good way, Doom The Dark Ages thunders along a well-trodden path but fails to break any new ground. Image credit: VG247 Review by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on May 9, 2025 I like heavy metal. I have loved it since I was a kid. The best heavy metal albums all have this structure to them, a certain style that is as predictable as it is compelling. They start with a killer opening track - Blood and Thunder by Mastodon, Battery by Metallica, Aces High by Iron Maiden - designed to set the scene, establish the mood, install presence. Then you get the second track; bigger, nastier, longer, harder. Using those same albums as an example, you have I Am Ahab, Master of Puppets and 2 Minutes to Midnight, respectively. By now, you’re hooked - and that’s just as well, because usually what comes next is a couple of duff slices of mid-album filler that keeps edging you until the gnarly stuff at the end of the tracklist. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. That is Doom The Dark Ages. I feel like the developers at Id Software have taken the series’ metal inspiration to its logical conclusion with this game, wrapping up the Doom (2016) trilogy with a tribute act that’s so akin to a classic metal album, you’d expect to see its boxart on the shelves at your local indie record store. The intro track (sorry, ‘first level’) is the Aces High of Doom maps. It throws you in without hesitation, some nice thrumming riffs chugging along in the background as you’re given a shotgun, a shield, and an insatiable thirst for demon flesh. If you’ve played 2016 or Eternal, you know the drill; cycle through all the tools available to you, stay mobile, and improvise. Giving you a gun is that catchy riff being laid down, your movement is the bass with its thudding rhythm, and the shield… the shield is the drums, underpinning the whole thing. The biggest gimmick in The Dark Ages is the shield; a heavy, satisfying buckler on your left wrist that can slam into enemies, close distances on remote threats, and boomerang into fodder demons to thin the herd and farm ammo for you. It’s a damn sight more interesting and malleable than the flamethrower in Doom Eternal. It’s fun to use, and as the game opens up, you can slot Satanic runes into it to make it more powerful. Just like in real life. It also opens up another incredibly pleasing mechanic: the parry. The hordes of hell will fill the screen with green projectiles - missiles, floating shields, screaming skulls - and if you hit the parry button at the right time, you’ll send these hazards flying back to sender. This will also confer buffs; certain perks will let parries restock ammo, add projectiles of your own into the mix, coat you in armour. Parrying, shooting, punching, running, shield-bashing, shooting again, and parrying again summons a Tetris Effect-like feeling in me. It massages my brain into a sense of flow-state that leaves me enraptured, which is quite at odds with the cartoonish super-violence that’s happening on-screen. In the shield, Doom The Dark Ages finds its heavy, stompy feet. Pinky, but no brain. | Image credit: Bethesda But the shield can only do so much to add variety into the mix. It’s like your favourite 80s hair metal band adding a new guitarist to the roster, 12 studio albums in, to spice things up a little. You can hear them, trilling along in the mix, but it’s more of the same, really, and doesn’t add a lot to the overall flavour. Doom The Dark Ages is good. Very good. But halfway into its 22 levels, it feels like you’ve seen and heard all of its best licks. Enemy variety starts to slow down (with a focus on numbers, rather than variety, seeming to take over in the padded-out middle sections) and level design devolves from the lofty to the predictable. Doom and Doom Eternal have already stormed across such a lot of ground that The Dark Ages really needed to do something incredible to stand out in the trilogy. Sadly, the medieval world so heavily leaned upon in the marketing feels more like set dressing than a character in itself. Luckily, the core tenet of the nu-Doom series remains as moreish and compelling as ever. In fact, I think The Dark Ages has nailed the flow and integration of combat better than either other game in the series. It’s because the weapons are so variable, and have upgrade paths and variations that actually feel different enough to make them viable. Take the ‘launcher’ archetype; you can bounce very pleasing balls of exploding death right into a demon’s face, or opt to blast a rocket square into its chest with an RPG instead. d Ah, it's knights like these that make life worth living. | Image credit: Bethesda If you prefer the pure, dizzying aggression of getting up close and personal with enough explosives to take out a small country, good news! There’s a perk that lets you heal damage with rocket splash damage, instead of eating it in the crossfire. But only if you parry first. So you make the combat encounters fit around you, baiting out projectiles and then whipping yourself into an incendiary frenzy, laughing as you cannibalise all the poor hellbound f**ks that thought it was a good idea to get in your way. Though the middle levels are a bit uninspired and repetitive, I was in constant awe of the scale and spectacle of the combat situations you’re thrown into. There’s the odd boss that slows things down a bit (there’s one too many baddies equipped with mandatory shields that stay erect as you play a bullet hell-like game of footsies with them), but for the most part, gunplay and traversal feels great. Figuring out how to melt armour of one big bastard whilst thinning out the fodder, avoiding an incoming hail of projectiles, and going toe-to-toe with axe-wielding brute is FPS heaven. It’s like trying to solve a Sudoku in a moshpit. But then it all candy-wrappers together by the end. The best albums will weave in all the themes, styles, energy, and creativity on the track list and focus it into the last song- an uproarious, nearly unbelievable summary of the band’s personality in that space and time. That’s what the end of Doom The Dark Ages does. It almost - almost - makes up for the shortcomings in the middle (middling) sections with a bombast and balls-to-the-wall run of set-pieces that feels like it was three games in the making. Doom The Dark Ages will get your blood pressure up. It will test your reflexes, your problem-solving skills, your aim, and your ability to solve problems on the fly. It’ll probably test your patience a little, too, when the chugging, uninspired, padded-out sections in the middle start to wear a bit thin. But when it does manage to get your adrenaline pumping, you’ll be champing at the bit and thumbing shells into your shotgun so fast that the princes of hell themselves shaking in their boots.

As pretty much everyone even vaguely interested in video games surely knows by now, there was a new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer released earlier this week. While that trailer has already broken records, standing firm as the biggest video launch on YouTube ever, it's also had a massive impact on the music front. Namely, the accompanying song, which saw a 182,000% boost on Spotify. This all begs the question: why is the world so invested in this new trailer? Obvious point first, it's a new trailer for the most anticipated game right now. It may be the most anticipated game we've seen since Cyberpunk 2077, for a sequel to the biggest video game series of all time no less. The fact the trailer has broken all these records isn't particularly surprising, especially when you consider just how many people have bought and played Grand Theft Auto 5 over the years. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In my head there are two major reasons why this new trailer has gone wild, though. The first is Rockstar's ability to not overplay its hand. It knows it's holding aces, the world knows it's holding aces. R* doesn't need to sprinkle out teasers, trickles of gameplay tidbits or little breadcrumbs to remind people that GTA6 exists. Everyone and their mum knows GTA6 is real and coming. Rockstar dropped that original trailer back in December 2023, and since then has left people to ruminate on it. They let folks scour the trailer down to the bone, taking in all the landmarks, all the references to pop culture. Every car a tease, every model a potential character. They let people build the mythology around GTA6 themselves, passionate flames that didn't even need fanning. What other companies would have done is bring developers out to elaborate on what was shown in that first trailer, but Rockstar doesn't need to do that. Such is the privileged position it has built itself with GTA5. Unaddressed hype can prove a dagger sharpened at both ends for games, but in GTA6's case people can already kind of guess what the bones of the gameplay experience will be like. What's left is to fill in the gaps, and no amount of marketing spend or peeling back the curtain can beat that magic. The only issue is that GTA6 ends up disappointing folks who've set expectations so high, which, c'mon. Believe it or not, people have been pulling early images like this apart for crumbs of new info. The second major reason for the trailer's absurd popularity is Grand Theft Auto 6's unique position in the video game industry itself. If you're reading this, you're almost certainly a video game enthusiast, meaning someone who cares enough about games to be willing to read about 'em. Being the well-read and intellectual gamer that you surely are, you'll know that GTA6 has been this iceberg of sorts throughout the year. Everyone knows that when it comes out, it'll swallow up the month it's in. Everyone knows that all eyes are on GTA6, and that almost everyone even vaguely enticed by open world shenanigans will be playing it. That energy is tangible, and it's spread far beyond the walls of the typical video game bubble. You could have argued that Baldur's Gate 3 had a similar electricity buzzing around it when it launched into Version 1.0, but the waiter in town probably wouldn't have heard about it. Maybe the cool lady in the bookshop did, her sister at the tabletop store certainly did. Helldivers 2 broke out of the cage and into the general populace a bit more with its incredible launch, winning over the normals. I had a TSA Agent ask about it last year. Usually they only ask about Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty, or, well, GTA5. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. If Helldivers snapped off a bar and squeezed out of that cage of seperating the video game scene and wider popular culture, GTA6 will shatter it into a thousand pieces. You could argue it already has. My mum, a nurse in her 50s, knew the game had been delayed. She heard it on the regional British radio. That is mental. No one on the ward knows that Borderlands 4 had its release date moved forward, and that game will probably be one of the biggest hits this year. When you consider this absurd level of prominence GTA6 has in not only the minds of the gaming enthusiasts, but also the casual gamers, and ultra-casual normal people who might not even own a console or PC capable of gaming, it's no secret at all why the second trailer has drawn in so much interest. If you imagine every video game trailer you watch on YouTube as an advertisement you'd watch in a cinema, usually the kinds of people sitting beside you in the theatre are likeminded gamers. For GTA6, the person sitting next to you could very well be Jonathan Smith, age 68, retired investment banker. GTA6's second trailer, and its ridiculous performance, is no shock at all. It's a once in blue moon kind of thing, we probably won't see another game trailer do so well until GTA7 or a mythical curveball like Fortnite 2 (or Half-life 3...) gets revealed. You, I, and untold millions are excited for a new video game. When you consider the full scale of it, you can understand the obsession.

The final Dune Awakening beta is now live, which will allow thousands of fresh-faced players to hop into Funcom's open world survival MMO for the first time. This beta, which is running over the weekend, will cover the first two major zones of the game, giving folks a peek at the early game experience. Read more

Facing The Truth Created an Oblivion Remastered character so freaky-looking that even Sheogorath's weirded out? Well, a new mod'll let you easily give them a makeover on the fly Maybe a fresh trim is all they need to fit in with Cyrodiilic society. Or not, as the case may be. Image credit: VG247/Bethesda News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 9, 2025 We've all done it. Loaded up Oblivion Remastered, wondered if we can make a character as wacky-looking as the original, cranked all the sliders up to max, and produced a face not even a Night Mother could love. If you're now experiencing a bit of weird face buyers' remorse, a new mod might help you avoid having to start a fresh playthrough. To be fair, it also very much looks useful to those who haven't sculpted a visage that violates the weird face concordat, offering you the chance to pick a new hairstyle or give your beard a trim to match whatever kind of hero/murderer/mage/errand person your character morphs into at the various stages of your journey. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The mod's called 'Character Editor - BETA' and is the work of nathdev, who's decided to develop a means for folks to change their characters on the fly that's a bit less complex to deal with than 'RaceMenu Utilities'. The latter's a lot more advanced feature-wise, but also tougher to get to grips with if you're new to modding due to relying on console commands. Nathdev and RaceMenu Utilities creator Animandan also reckon both their mods should work fine together, if you fancy having both at your disposal. As you'd expect from something with beta in the name, Character Editor's still very much a work-in-progress, but right now it'll let you edit the head and facial hair and eye colour of your character at any point in your game via a handy UI menu, as you can see in the showcase video below. Any changes are saved instantly in real time, so as soon as you close the menu you'll be good to go right on with your adventure. Watch on YouTube So, not a way to make hugely in-depth changes to your face like you can when you first design your Hero of Kvatch in the proper character creator at this point, but already a handy way to switch up your quiff and see if that helps you make more of an impact on the Cyrodiilic dating scene. It works with all races, and is even compatible with appearance-changing mods like custom hairdos. "I will add more as I understand how other presets work," nathdev wrote, "[I'll] also try to do something to add new presets instead of [it being a] replacer." If you want to try the mod out, you'll need to grab the 'Blueprint Mod Loader' the same modder's developed to get mods like this working without the need for a DLL hook, UE4SS or console commands. Make sure to check out the rest of our cool Oblivion Remastered mod coverage, including our recent interview with the modder who managed to make the first ever tweak to its world just one day after release.

UPDATE (09/05/25, 11:20 AM BST): This tease looks to be all about cracking codes ARG-style, with the stream updating as players on the Discord server solve them and enter different commands into the "s81-input" channel that's been added to the server, alongside an output one that's providing responses. As of right now, the livestream has moved past a stage of initial boot-up code entering to comuting byte ingresses, with a "primary directive" to come, which we assume might be an actual -in-game order Read more

At a time when video game budgets continue to bloat, with new games getting increasingly expensive to create, Control 2 will reportedly by made with less budget than Remedy Entertainment's previous game: Alan Wake 2. Read more

Helldivers 2's lastest Warbond has just arrived. It's dubbed Masters of Ceremony, is going for what in my eyes is a very World War One-ish look, and has earned fairly mixed reviews from players at first glance. Read more

Sicily Storytime Mafia: The Old Country won't ask you to surrender your entire real life to the Cosa Nostra this August, and it'll only charge you $50 of tribute unless you want a limo Yes, we're still making all of the mob jokes possible, to do otherwise would not be the Don thing. Image credit: 2K News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 8, 2025 Mafia: The Old Country's release date has now been confirmed, along with the prices of its standard and deluxe editions. If you plump for the standard edition ahead of release on August 8, 2025, 2K says you'll be getting a lean, mean tale than won't swallow up all of your free time. That release date isn't technically brand new news, even if we hadn't had it confirmed until now. The Old Country's suffered a few leaks since its reveal last summer. The most recent of those was that release date accidentally slipping out in April via a Steam announcement. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So, yep. The Old Country will launch on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 8, with GTA 6's delay having done nothing to change the best laid plans of mice and mafiosos. There'll be a stardard edition for $49.99/£44.99, or you can pay an extra tenner ($10 for any non-brits who use that currency) for the deluxe edition. Naturally, the more swanky edition comes with some extra in-game stuff in the form of the Padrino Pack, Gatto Nero Pack, a digital copy of the game's score, and a digital artbook. Those packs are mostly made of extra outfits and weapons, but there are a couple of cars and a horse thrown in. One of the rides is an Eckhart Speciale Limousine, which definitely sounds like a way to pull up to your omerta oath taking in style. It may get you killed for upstaging the boss, but that's a risk worth taking. Pre-orders of both editions also get some extra stuff of their own with the Soldato Pack. Watch on YouTube As for what to expect from the game itself, you can check out the fresh gameplay trailer above, which features plenty of mafia hijinks. You know, hanging out with overgrown bambini, shooting overgrown bambini, stabbing overgrown bambini, and racing against overgrown bambini. If I ever actually get around to travelling to Italy, they're going to throw me in jail for crimes against the culture, and they'll be right to do it. Anyway, 2K President David Ismailer said of the game that "there’s a large audience for compelling stories that don’t require massive time commitments", which is why his company is backing this "linear highly-polished narrative experience that can easily complement the other more persistent games our players also love and engage with on a more consistent basis". Are you planning on picking up Mafia: The Old Country this summer? Let us know below.

Not Tariffic Nintendo isn't ruling out a Switch 2 price rise depending on those pesky tariffs, as it predicts the new hardware will outdo the uber-popular OG Switch's launch sales "If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make." Image credit: Nintendo News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 8, 2025 Nintendo has made its projection for the Switch 2 launch sales numbers public, and while analysts are suggesting the console maker's erred on the "conservative" side, it's still expecting its latest hardware to bag some impressive numbers. Though, its president has said that the price of the console could potentially still rise, depending on how the whole US tariff situation. The sales estimate comes as part of Ninty's forecast for the coming fiscal year, which is set to conclude in March 2026. How well does it think the Switch 2 will do? Well, 15 million units sold during the launch window is the number it's touting. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. That - along with 45 million games sold - is the bar Ninty set itself for this first year. The 15 million units sold figure would mean the Switch 2 outdoing the original Switch, which sold 14.87m units during its debut year. Though, while these numbers might look big to the untrained eye, plenty of analysts think Nintendo's being a bit cautious with its estimates due to the US tariff uncertainty that's in the mix. "Conservative forecast from Nintendo here," tweeted Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, "Likely factoring in unpredictability around tariffs, pricing and production despite the positive pre-order momentum. "For reference, our forecast was 14.5 million units by the end of December 2025, and that was already considered conservative by most of the industry. For what it's worth, I do think Nintendo will raise its forecast if (big if) the tariff situation is reversed. However, main issue right now is knock on effects that are already in motion and creating a difficult environment for a console launch." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Speaking of those pesky tariffs, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa hasn't ruled out the possibility of them potentially leading to a Switch 2 price rise, depending on how things play out, according to report from Yahoo News translated by Genki. "At this time, the top priority is to quickly popularize the Switch 2 hardware," the exec said, "If the assumptions regarding tariffs change significantly, we would like to consider what price adjustments we should make and implement them after considering various factors." Damn, given fans have already called on Ninty to "DROP THE PRICE", one can only imagine how ballistic things will go if the tariffs are deemed to necessitate a price change. How are you feeling about getting hold of a Switch 2 right now? Let us know below.

House-ro of Kvatch Forget the Lucky 38, an Oblivion Remastered modder has added a swanky penthouse suite to the Imperial City's tallest tower, delivering the best view in Cyrodiil Just don't look down, whatever you do, otherwise you might need a change of armour. Image credit: VG247/Bethesda/RBDinteractive News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 8, 2025 Yep, an Oblivion Remastered modder has done the thing all of us have secretly wanted for years. They've stuck a penthouse at the summit of the Imperial City's White-Gold Tower, so you can live far above the potato-faced NPC masses and take in the views like a Cyrodiilic and pre-computer version of New Vegas' Mr House. As player home mods go, it's possibly the least subtle bit of design placement I've ever seen, but let's face it, you didn't splash out for an remaster with gorgeous UE5 visuals not to be able to take in a stunning panorama of central Cyrodiil from your character's digs. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The modder behind this goes by RBDinteractive, and their 'Champion Penthouse' is designed to finally deliver a reward for ending the Oblivion Crisis and saving the entire world that isn't just some admittedly cool armour you might not even end up using. The concept's very similar to a classic Oblivion mod - Vince Bly's 'Top of the World'. Based on the fact RBDinteractive's credited the fix and port script for OG Oblivion mods that modder Haphestia (whom we've recently interviewed about Oblivion Remastered modding) has developed for the remaster, it looks like there's even a chance one could be loosely based on the other. Though, there are plenty of differences, with Top of the World's square wooden room atop the tower could seemingly only be fast-travelled to, while the Champion Penthouse is a rounded stone suite that slightly more closely matches the design of the tower itself, and can be gotten to via a ladder found to the right when you enter at ground level. Not a bad place to crash, eh? | Image credit: RBDinteractive/Bethesda The furnishings and architecture are different, but the view's the same breathtaking one that's prompted both modders to decide to perch a house that's open to Cyrodiil's wider worldspace here, so you can take in the views from any angle in all their glory. It's worth noting that as for right now the Champion's Penthouse is accessible at any time for free, since it's free and there's no quest attached, but RBDinteractive's suggested that might change soon. "I’m gonna try to learn how to edit quests and [have] homes be purchased," they wrote in the mod's comments section, "I’ll let you know if I get it working. My idea would be to get the penthouse when you beat the main quest, because everyone refers to you as Champion." So, there you go. A house ideal for those who love nice views, and the literal worst nightmare of those who're afraid of heights. Hey, you've fought your way through legions of Daedra pouring out of a not-quite-hell, surely you can handle the terror of knowing you might plummet to your death if you sleepwalk ten feet.

No Small Task GTA 6's huge trailer two info dump leaves its community-made map having to be updated "in smaller intervals" so we aren't left "waiting for hundreds of new things to be added" "We're all hard at work connecting the dots!" Image credit: Rocksar Games News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 8, 2025 If you were feeling a bit overwhelmed in a good way by the barrage of fresh GTA 6 info we've gotten this week, thanks to trailer two and the game's website's smorgasbord of screenshots, spare a thought for the fans who've been busy trying to mock up what its map might look like. These keen cartographers have been building up an approximation of Leonida through the info we'd got already and some carefully-considered speculation - then boom, all of a sudden they've got a whole treasure trove of new info to sift through and work into their creation. It's ok though, they've got a plan. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. In the first announcement of an update to the GTA VI Mapping project's over-2000 user strong Discord server since trailer two dropped, one of the mappers has made it clear that the team isn't going to try and deal with all of this fresh info in one go. "Rockstar has delivered us a bounty of information for GTA VI, and we're all hard at work connecting the dots," mapper DuPz0r wrote, "I thought since there's so much content to get through, I would update the map in smaller intervals so we're not waiting for hundreds of new things to be added to the map!" Image credit: VG247 That's not to say these folks haven't already started making changes, with this announcement having revealed version 0.050 of the map, complete with a decently beefy list of changes. As you'd expect, a lot of the most noticeable tweaks have come from the info dump's location info, which have necessitated little stuff like the addition of a speculative location for an entire mountain - Mount Kalaga. Meanwhile, there's been a lot of re-naming and re-labelling as the likes of Leonida Keys, Mariana County, Leonida State, and Gloriana State have been confirmed as the monikers for certain areas, some of which the mappers previously had plotted under different titles. Ambrosia's another location that's seen a sizeable change, having been shifted to the east and made much more prominent above a slightly smaller Lake Leonida. Naturally, some individual buildings have also been re-christened now we know what their signs say. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Arguably the coolest change in my eyes is the addition of a location for protagonist Jason Duval's safehouse in the Leonida Keys, with trailer two's intro having allowed the team to zero in on that. We may have to wait until next May to find out for sure if this is really where Jason lives, but damn if just knowing where one of the character's we'll be playing as could live doesn't make the whole thing feel more tactile and real. As outlined earlier, the mappers are far from done, with DuPz0r writing that they've even "overhauled the naming of buildings, trailers, coordinates, etc, so that it is now listed beside the map key instead of all over the map" in order "to make things look cleaner and easier to make changes going forward". If you want to check out all of these community maps for yourself, you'll need to head over to the Discord server here. Stick a certain resurgent hit by the The Pointer Sisters on in the background if you want to enjoy max GTA 6 vibes as you take a look.

EAsy Money As the GTA 6 price debate keeps bubbling away, EA suggests it has "no changes" planned in terms of jacking up how much its games cost right now Execs talking, so very much pay attention to the phrase "at this point". Image credit: EA News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 7, 2025 Game prices and their potential to get a bit steeper have been big talking points so far this year, but EA says it doesn't have any plans to change how much it charges for its games "at this point". This soundbite comes as the debates as to whether GTA 6 might become a harbinger of industry-wide price rises, should Rockstar and Take-Two opt to market it at on the higher end of the 'gimme your money' scale, as well as in the aftermath of Nintendo provoking entire chats worth of calls to 'DROP THE PRICE' with its Switch 2 stuff. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So, EA's execs were naturally asked about price points during the company's latest earnings call, which saw it reveal that Split Fiction's shifted four million copies and provide an update on the next Battlefield. After noting how "pricing power" (there's one for your corporate jargon bingo has changed over the years, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the following: "At the end of the day whether we're doing something that costs a dollar or we're doing something that costs $10 or we're doing something that costs $100, our objective is always to deliver incredible quality and exponential value for our playerbase. And what we've discovered over the course of time is whether we can marry quality and value together, our business is strong, resilient and continues to grow." Then came the bit you'll actually want to pay attention to, with CFO Stuart Canfield having added that EA has "reflected no changes in our current strategy at this point". So, no big price jack up as of right now. You'd hope so, given this is a company that continues to make plenty of cash as is, boasting in these latest earnings that its EA Sports section recorded "another record net bookings year" during the 2025 financial year. "The incredible success of College Football and the enduring strength of FC drove another record year for EA SPORTS, while The Sims capped FY25 with a historic Q4," Wilson said in the release about these latest results, "As we look to the future, we’re confident in our ability to execute across a deep pipeline — beginning this summer with the highly anticipated reveal of Battlefield, a pivotal step in delivering on our next generation of blockbuster entertainment." Cool, man. Couldn't you have let Codemasters keep making rally games in that case? And maybe not laid off those BioWare folks? I get it, I get it, that money's somehow different to this money.

Boomer Stabber Rip and Tamriel: Doom's Praetor armour has been modded into Oblivion Remastered, so you can practice for The Dark Ages by duffing up Daedra By Azura, by Azura, by Azura, it's the Doom Slayer, standing here, next to me! Image credit: iD Software/Bethesda/VG247 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 7, 2025 You hear that? It's the sound of heavy metal punctuated by the sound of demons being shot, stabbed, and splattered beginning to pick up, because Doom: The Dark Ages is nearly here. If you fancy getting some practice in before it does, but are still busy with Oblivion Remastered, you're in luck, as a modder has brought a set of Praetor armour to Tamriel. Yep, what better way to get yourself in the mood for Doom than to massacre a bunch of angry critters emerging from spooky doorways to a place that's hotter than Ibiza and has just as much terrifying orangeness rushing about. Plus, the weapons you'll have at your disposal are still pretty medieval, even if they've not got mini-chainsaws built in. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Enter modder RuneOracle97, who's managed to mod a Praetor armour set into Oblivion's remaster, in their words "bridging the gap between Cyrodil and Hell itself". Right now, their creation - the aptly-named 'Slayer of Kvatch' - adds the suit to the games a standalone heavy armor set you can find when you rush to aid of Kvatch and close its Oblivion Gate. "The armor is slightly lighter than Daedric, but offers slightly more protection, with x2 the armor health value," the modder explained, "While the model is split into multiple parts so you have each piece of equipment, unfortunately with the way the model is shaped, it won't look right if you equip partial pieces. Everything but the Cuirass and Greaves can be worn independently without making your body invisible." While the mod's pretty much just the armour at the moment, with adding new content still being in its infancy as folks continue to push the boundaries of what Oblivion Remastered modding can do, RuneOracle97 has big plans for it going forwards. "There are no other hidden items (yet)," they wrote, "I'm still working on it and will eventually change the acquisition method of the armour entirely with a fully featured quest revolving around the Doom Slayer and how he might end up in Cyrodiil." If in doubt, I'd say you can excuse just about anything Elder Scrolls-lore wise by just blaming Sheogorath, so maybe this armour is a set he forged during a fever dream and decided to let you use to batter Mehrunes Dagon's forces because of an ongoing neighbourly dispute over the acceptable height of corpse hedges made from piles of dead bandit hedge wizards? So, there you go. If you fancy a tougher fight than post-level 10 Kvatch usually is, NaiadGirl's 'Quarantined Oblivion Gates' looks like another mod worth grabbing, since it beefs up the amounts of Daedra and Imperial soldiers you'll find fighting around open gates.

Unreal Cool The 00s is back, baby: EVE Vanguard, CCP Games' ambitious MMOFPS, channels some of the best bits of Quake, Unreal Tournament and classic Halo A Flak Cannon, a Beam Rifle, and a charge pistol… why players of a certain age are going to lose their minds over Vanguard’s throwback weaponry. Image credit: VG247 Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on May 7, 2025 “What’s cooler?” asks Scott Davis, recently-promoted game director for EVE Vanguard at CCP Games. “What’s cooler: fantastical sci-fi weapons, or militaristic guns in the real world? I think the weapons from the games that we remember playing in what we've been calling ‘the golden age of shooters’ are cooler, right?” I’ve just finished playing the most recent build of EVE Vanguard, an MMOFPS that is setting out to redefine how we think about MMOs and FPS games in one broad stroke. Last time I played Vanguard, there was one fairly unassuming assault rifle and a bunch of featureless enemies roaming the map. CCP has been fixated on the idea of ‘having the community along for the ride’ with the development of this game (perhaps so that it doesn’t evaporate into vaporware, like many other EVE-related projects), and so we’ve been able to see the game in various states of undress. Now, though, it feels like it’s started layering up - and let me tell you, I think the underwear might be designer. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. “I’ve got [senior game designer and weapons and combat design boffin] Anthony Massey asking me ‘what's your favourite pistol, in any game?’” continues Davis. “And I'm not going ‘oh, it's the 9mm from Call of Duty’ or whatever. No, I'm saying ‘it's the Deagle from Counter-Strike’ or ‘the Plasma Pistol from Halo’.” Let me break down these three, new, amazing weapons for you. First up, there’s the shotgun; heavily inspired by the Flak Cannon from Unreal Tournament, its bouncy projectiles interact with level geometry to ricochet off walls, floors, and ceilings. After about five minutes of practice, I was already shooting AI drones around corners: it’s inutitive and impossibly fun. Next, there’s the pistol, which gets more powerful (and has more kick) the longer you charge it up. It’s got strong Halo vibes, but feels like it has more bite than the Covenant small arms from the mainline games. I didn’t get to use this one against a human player, but I’m hoping it’ll strip them of shields in one fully-charged hit. Finally, there’s the sniper; a phenomenal bit of kit with a deeply satisfying UI that scratches something in me on a primal level whenever I get a headshot. “When Massey goes ‘hey, I've been working on this shotgun, what do you think?’ and then we go into a map and we're just running around shooting each other with this weapon… We're having a brilliant time,” Davis smiles. “And it reminds us of what that was like to be in Unreal Tournament, back in the day, and just have fun running around killing each other.” It’s not just lip service, either. This really is what Vanguard feels like now. In my past demos, the game has felt fine: fun, with an interesting hook in the connected, not-quite-an-extraction-shooter way. But now, with these arcade-y guns and a more distinct personality, it feels special. This isn’t just ‘Tarkov in space’ or a pretender to the throne, it feels unique; drawing from retro inspirations but not defined by them. It looks all dark and seroius, but it's a very fun play. | Image credit: CCP Games I tell Davis that I can’t really think of a game - with this budget and scope - that is doing what Vanguard is doing right now; high production values, Unreal Engine 5, but with guns and combat that feels bombastic, a little goofy, and that prioritises fun over a fixation on real-life ballistics. “I don't know if we'll see more from Marathon on that front, because it is still quite sci-fi,” he muses. “But so far, it’s very archetypical: there’s an ACOG scope on a weapon that very much feels like an AR-15, and so on. Maybe Bungie’ll innovate a bit more there. Then, even Destiny is still sci-fi, but it's still got that militaristic edge to it, too, you know? And anytime Bungie does sci-fi, it goes a bit too space magic, which is something we kind of want to avoid.” Davis namechecks the Killzone series (“they had some interesting weapons, even though they were all very metal and very chunky”) and we decide that, maybe, the closest example we have to Vanguard right now is Gears. “Funny you should say that,” he smiles. ”We've got a few people who worked on the series in CCP Massey and CCP Vipex: both worked on Gears 4 and Gears Tactics, I think.” He wonders if, maybe, a little inspiration has “silently crept in”. But other than these three stunning guns, what can we expect? Well, Davis confides that his favourite weapon of all time is the DMR from Halo - and something inspired by that gnarly gas-operated bullpup rifle is “absolutely going to make it” into Vanguard at some point. And you know what? It sounds like it’s only going to take the team a week - a week! - to get it into a build. “I’ve been saying this a lot: we're trying to min-max game development,” says Daivs. “We're a tight team, and so we've been coming out with ways that to be efficient by, honestly, not wasting our time on stuff that's crap [laughter]. “This is what the open development's like, right? Those weapons that you played today, they’re a week’s work, not a month’s work. And that's how we like to work! We'll build something out of paper mache, held together by sellotape, and we'll go ‘is there something in this?’ We say to the players ‘what's missing? What do you like? What don't you like? What would you improve?’ And then we go and build it. We don't spend nine months working on a feature that hasn't gone through that cycle of validation. And that process is working for us. That's how we're spending so little time on the stuff that doesn't work.” You play in squads of three, and friednly fire is always on- you've been warned. | Image credit: CCP Games This is all well and good for players who want shooters that remind them of LAN parties when they were 16 years old, but what about the EVE faithful? As much as CCP wants to tempt new players into the ecosystem with a game that promises to be persistent, respectful of your time, and - importantly - fun, it’s going to be dead in the water without the EVE community’s embrace. To that end, the devs like to summon the spectre of the much-loved, long-lost Dust 514. “I have a memory of everything that happened on Dust,” adds CCP Rattati - also known as Snorri Árnason, game director for EVE Online and executive producer for EVE Vanguard. “So I carry that responsibility, and I sit there and say 'that's not EVE enough'. It's my responsibility to make sure that Vanguard is as authentic as possible, and builds on the great ideas that Dust had.” The EVE loyal like to ask why CCP Games doesn’t simply port Dust 514 to new hardware; the players are a loyal bunch, and are fuelled by nostalgia. That’s what you get when you build your community around a game that’s been alive for 22+ years. “You can't ask a team to port a 17-year-old game,” says Árnason, simply. “You have to give people creative freedom to say ‘okay, we can do better. We can do something differnet, but better’.” Árnason goes on to say that CCP Games already has “all of the components of Dust in the game” and then “like 50 more.” He notes that Dust couldn’t deliver on some key ideas the developers wanted: procedural generation was very limited; there was no pathfinding or NavMeshes, so AI and PvE were incompatible with the game from the off; manufacturing and resource gathering didn’t make it in. “We're just delivering the bucket list of what people wanted at the end of Dust,” laughs Árnason. “It’s like, ‘oh, if we ever make Dust again, we should start with this stuff’.” Looks like Crysis, plays like Quake - good feedback, ey? | Image credit: CCP Games That’s why Davis and Árnason are drawing, deeply, from wells that aren’t just in the same sphere as Vanguard. That’s how it’s going to connect to EVE, with its focus on player-informed decision-making and narrative. “That’s why we have EVE players in right now,” says Árnason. “EVE players are there for the EVE authenticity. It's their world. They're kind of first adopters. They're fact-checking us. They're helping us with the interactions, the social systems, the depth, and all that stuff.” “It's been really refreshing to make a shooter and not have to go ‘what is Call of Duty doing? What is Apex Legends doing?’” adds Davis. “We're making a game now where we're drawing parallels to MMORPGs: asking how does player progression from a locational perspective [work]? Referencing things like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14." EVE Vanguard is a while out, yet. It’ll only drop in early access in Summer ‘26 and - if the old release schedule I was shown last year still holds up - it’ll come to consoles sometime in 2028. Maybe. But every time I play, I see this game come more into its own skin, and there’s a newly-bolstered confidence in CCP that I think is well deserved. The developer had nine stations running the game at EVE Fanfest this year, as if to say to the dubious, long-standing EVE players ‘look, it’s real, and it’s good’. If we keep on getting weapons that put me in the mind of the golden era of Halo, well… I think Vanguard is going to appeal to way more than just a handful of folks that miss playing Dust 514 on their old PS3s.

LFG, Team LFG A new PlayStation studio which "originated at" Bungie is working on “a team-based action game” inspired by life sims and “frog-type games”, but what the frog does that mean? Sorry, until it tells us otherwise, I'm assuming teamLFG's game is a Crazy Frog-themed hero shooter. Image credit: Team LFG/VG247 News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 7, 2025 It's Wednesday (as I write this), and PlayStation has a new studio it'd like to you to meet. Come on, don't be shy. They won't bite. Only execs do that. This group of devs that's just been granted full PS studio status goes by teamLFG, and it's working on a multiplayery game that also claims to be inspired by "frog-type games". All of these teases were dished out by a PS Blog post, which sees Sony Interactive Entertainment studio business group CEO Hermen Hulst introduce his newest child like a proud dad. Well, one that may well cut you out of the family will if you don't manage to keep your head above water in the very deep and scary live service seas. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. The studio goes by the name teamLFG, which stands for Team "Looking For Group", rather than the cooler sweary alternative. It's based in Bellvue, Washington, features a mix of newbies and vets who've worked on the likes of Destiny, Halo, and League of Legends, and is being spun out from Bungie. "We are passionate about exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds," it wrote, adding that its name is all about being "driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging". Basically, in line with PlayStation's definitely going 100% hunk-dory so far live-service push, it'll be working on live-servicey multiplayer games underpinned by action, with the first one being an "incubation project" that's previously been mentioned in, well, announcements about layoffs at Bungie. "Our first game is a team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games," teamLFG wrote of this upcoming title, "Players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe. We can’t wait to reveal more." Frog-type games? Seemingly not straight-up frog games like you'd consider Frogger and Frog Detective, but Frog-type games. We have no frogging idea what that means, but consider us intrigued. Will we get a team-based hero shooter that's somehow a bit Tekken, a bit Mario, a bit Dota 2, a bit InZOI, and in which all characters are mid-2000s viral sensation the Crazy Frog - possibly the only creature on Earth that fits the 'frog-type' label in my book? Probably not, but it definitely seems like it'll be getting some early access playtests, as teamLFG's pretty clear about the stock it places in those and gathering player feedback here. Do you think some kind of Crazy Frog Overwatch/Fortnite/insert other flavour of the half-decade here is what PlayStation needs, and are you keen to see what teamLFG cooks up? Let us know below.

It’s becoming increasingly clear with each passing week that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the most beloved games of 2025 so far. It sold over two million copies in under two weeks, and has been getting nothing but acclaim from players and critics alike. Read more

Battlefield Wait We still don't have a release date for the next Battlefield, but we're at least sure that we're going to see it this summer Battlefield fans don't have to wait too much longer for a proper reveal of the next Battlefield. Playing it, however, is a different matter. Image credit: EA, DICE. News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on May 7, 2025 EA has low-key announced that the next Battlefield will be revealed this summer. As part of the publisher’s Q4 earnings report, CEO Andrew Wilson said that Battlefield is a major component of the company’s strategy for FY26, but didn’t shed any more light on it beyond that. This is the first time that EA has solidified a reveal window for the game - which has yet to be even given an official title. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. EA hasn’t said whether it’s going to be hosting a summer showcase of its own this year, so it could be that Battlefield simply gets its own reveal event. The publisher certainly has a history of giving its biggest games their own events in the summer. Unfortunately, the earnings report did not offer any new information about the expected release date of the game. The next Battlefield remains on track for release in FY26, meaning it’s going to arrive between now and March 31, 2026. This is what we’ve always known about the expected release date. Though EA doesn’t typically like to delay its big fall releases too much, it’s very possible the next Battlefield won’t be released until close to the end of the first quarter of 2026. One would hope, of course, that EA has learned its lessons from the terrible launch of Battlefield 2042, as many see the new game as the last chance for the shooter series to make a comeback. There's precious little - officially - out there. | Image credit: EA Outside of what’s publicly available, EA’s various studios continue to test new content as part of Battlefield Labs. Those invited to test are under NDA, so we can only work off the leaks that make their way online. There’s been a new map, new vehicles, and several tweaks compared to the initial build. Generally speaking, sentiment is very positive - I’ve even seen enough of it to be excited that the team is getting one fundamental thing right, but there’s been a bit of worry about some of the information datamined from the various builds. It’s hard to read too much into that, however, as so much remains in flux. It’s clear DICE and its cohorts know they have a killer game on their hands, which explains why the leaks have been plentiful, and it doesn't seem like those responsible have faced consequences for breaking their NDA. So it all bodes well.

GTAyyyy, A Trailer Wahey, GTA 6 has finally gotten a trailer 2, and you can watch it here The moon theories may have been bollocks, but we've gotten one! Image credit: Rockstar Games News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Updated on May 6, 2025 GTA 6 has just gotten a second trailer. Yep, I repeat, trailer two is here, this is not a drill. Of course, it does come after the game's release was delayed last week. After all the speculation it might be pushed back and Rockstar sticking to that vague Fall release window for ages, GTA 6'll be dropping on May 26, 2026. Watch on YouTube You can check out our latest look at it above. It starts off with one of our two protagonists, Jason Duval, fixing some leaks on a roof, but the action really picks up when he goes to pick up the Bonnie to his Clyde, Lucia Caminos. With her fresh out of prison, they're off and running to get up to a whole bunch of the kids of GTA shenagians you'd expect around Leonida, with some extra romance sewn in. Alongside this trailer, the game's website has been populated with a bunch of new stuff, including a whole smoargasbord of fresh screenshots, videos, and bios for eight characters - Jason, Lucia, Cal Hampton, Boobie Ike, Dre'Quan Priest, the duo Real Dimez, Raul Bautista, and Brian Heder. "Jason and Lucia have always known the deck is stacked against them," says the game's official description, "But when an easy score goes wrong, they find themselves on the darkest side of the sunniest place in America, in the middle of a conspiracy stretching across the state of Leonida — forced to rely on each other more than ever if they want to make it out alive." "Jason wants an easy life, but things just keep getting harder." reads Duval's bio, "Jason grew up around grifters and crooks. After a stint in the Army trying to shake off his troubled teens, he found himself in the Keys doing what he knows best, working for local drug runners. It might be time to try something new." Meanwhile, Caminos' bio reads: "Lucia’s father taught her to fight as soon as she could walk. Life has been coming at her swinging ever since. Fighting for her family landed her in the Leonida Penitentiary. Sheer luck got her out. Lucia’s learned her lesson — only smart moves from here." There are also peges that introdice six locations you'll be visiting across Leonida - Vice City, Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia, and the Mount Kalaga national park. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. What do you think of this second GTA 6 trailer, and which bits of the new info are you most keen to learn more about? Let us know below!

Deploy The Slogan As Gears of War: Reloaded gets ready to hit PS5 day one, PlayStation reveals Xbox probably made Phil Spencer's mouth water by dominating its console's April best-sellers Flinging as many big Xbox games at Sony's wall as possible last month looks to have been damn effective. Image credit: Xbox/PlayStation. News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 6, 2025 Well, wouldn't you know it. Microsoft's strategy of deploying a whole bunch of big Xbox games onto PS5 last month looks to have had the exact result the green brand was looking for, with top of the console's April best-seller list featuring Forza Horizon 5, Minecraft, and Oblivion Remastered. As we pointed out at the time, it seemed like Xbox might well have nailed its timing with this bout of cross-platform pushing before it'd even deployed the games I just mentioned, as well as the likes of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the heavily Xbox-pushed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. After all, there wasn't going to be that much competition for them in terms of imminent Sony-published stuff. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Cue the list of PlayStation Store's most downloaded titles for April 2025 that Sony's shared. At the top of the ranking for Europe, Forza led home Oblivion Remastered, while Minecraft rounded out the podium places, making it an all Xbox-affiliated top three. US-wise, Oblivion Remastered led the way, with Minecraft P2, and Forza P3. Indy, meanwhile, was eighth on the EU list, and eleventh on the US one, which is a bit surprising to me given its name value. I guess most of the uber-interested people played it on Xbox back in December or January. Also, Clair Obscur came fourth in Europe and sixth in the US. Days Gone Remastered, arguably the biggest PlayStation-backed game to hit the platform last month, ended up eleventh in the EU chart, and twelfth on the US one. Pretty solid for a remaster I don't think many people were anticipating taking off like wildfire. So, Xbox's multi-platform strategy - the one it has to make work in order for the hit of turning what would previously have been straight-up console exclusives into timed exclusives that'll hit other platforms not that long after release be worth it - looks to be going well for now. Speaking of, we've just learned of another title that'll be joining in on that fun this year. Gears of War: Reloaded - a remaster of an Xbox classic in the original Gears of War - will be hitting PS5 and Steam as well as Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass when it releases on August 26, 2025. It's been developed by The Coalition along with Sumo Interactive and Disbelief, will cost $39.99, and it features all the content you get from the game's Ultimate Edition. "From faster frame rates to deeper visual fidelity, every detail has been tuned to bring the original game into the present with clarity, smoothness, and immersion that matches the power of today’s hardware," reads Xbox's announcement/sales pitch for it. Have you or will you be grabbing any of these quite Xboxy games on PS5? Let us know below.

Twice As Vice? GTA 6's second trailer includes a weird not-quite PS5, so of course people are already hoping they'll be able to play OG Vice City in new Vice City Don't worry, Xbox fans. Everything's an Xbox now, so this is also a not-quite Xbox. Image credit: Rockstar Games News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 6, 2025 GTA 6 finally got its second trailer today, along with a whole bunch of fresh details and screens showing off its key characters and the world of Leonida. As you were watching that trailer, though, you might have clocked a detail that's already get players hoping they'll be able to play some classic GTAs inside GTA 6 itself. They'll have to wait until May 26, 2026 to find out after that delay, but if nothing else it's the kind of speculation that's gonna keep us all going for the next year. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Anyway - here's what's gotten them going. At around the two minute and 14 second mark of trailer two, we get a shot of Jason and Lucia hanging out at their pad. Just before Lucia drops herself on top of her relaxing heist buddy/lover like a lavishly-animated sack of potatoes, we see what they're watching on TV. Take your eyes off the advert for Phil's Ammunation a second, and look down to the left of the TV. Boom, it's a PS5! Well, a parody PS5, a royalty-free PS5, a fictional console that just happens to be very PS5-shaped, and boast a white and black colour scheme augmented by blue lights. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Is it somehow an early look at the PS6? Almost definitely not. I think what I'm going to settle on is that it's a NayStation. Anyway, having clocked this and its controllers, folks are already adding 'be able to play some games in a video game' to their GTA 6 wishlists, assuming that wasn't an entry already. Hey, it's far from an unprecedented concept- the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series had made packing in SEGA arcade games a staple, and GTA Online did something similar by putting playable parody arcade games in its own arcades. What these fans are hoping for is a bit more advanced than that though. "What are the chances we get Vice City emulated in game," one user with the handle PastorPoppyseed asked in a GTA 6 subreddit thread about the not-PS5. Meanwhile, another fan going by AveryLazyCovfefe declared that if GTA 3 was playable, they'd pause their exploration of Leonida to do a whole run through Claude's adventure. Others just joked about Jason being a relatable protagonist. "Muscular MLG gamer who gets with thick latinas? Bro is literally me," one wrote. A likely story. What do you think of the second GTA 6 trailer, and are you hoping to be able to GTA 6 will somehow pack in some classic GTAs for you to play? Let us know below!

Good Lock "This mod feels like a threat" Oblivion Remastered's lockpicking is already perfect for masochists, but here's your chance to experience a new world of pain "I've lockpicked multiple doors IRL and even I think this is brutal." Image credit: Bethesda/VG247/SquigM News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 6, 2025 Uh oh. Oblivion Remastered's lockpicking minigame can be just as brutal as the one you remember from the original, but if you've managed to master it, there's a new mod that'll add an extra layer of challenge. Fancy not even being able to see the pins you're trying to flick up? Well, if you decide to grab modder SquigM's 'Blind Lockpicking', that's exactly what you're in for. Better pack all those neat cheesing tricks you've unearthed yourself or read about online, you're gonna need them, plus the patience of a Saint Jiub. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. This mod does exactly what it says on the tin, slapping a big bit of metal in the way of the part of the lock that houses those pesky pins. So, every time you go to pick a lock, no matter whether it's an easy chest containing some yarn and a broom or the most secure doors the Thieves Guild can throw at you, you'll have to rely on your spidey senses. Hear the lock, feel the lock, smell the lock, taste the lock, whisper sweet nothings to the lock. Get sued into Oblivion by the lock for subjecting it to all of that. You'll need to do all of the above to tease it open. As someone who routinely breaks 10-20 picks per very hard lock with my current level 20 character, I'll be resorting to prayer. It sounds like I'm far from the only one to draw that conclusion either, here are just some of the comments SquigM's creation has amassed since it picked its way into Nexus Mods late yesterday: "This mod feels like a threat." "You are a devil." "Great for my masochist playthrough, gonna use this with the ball clamps." "I've lockpicked multiple doors IRL and even I think this is brutal." "Man you need therapy, you don't need to hurt yourself this much." "You're a complete bastard and I love you." Stellar reviews so far, then. For the record, we here at VG247 don't recommend playing Oblivion while wearing ball clamps. Not that we've tried it. Ok, maybe once. Brought a whole new meaning to the jaws of Oblivion. Are you Cyrodiil's foremost break-in artist/masochist and planning on adding this to your load order? Let us know below, and make sure to keep checking out our coverage of Oblivion Remastered modding, as well as our array of useful guides that can help both newbies and veterans in need of a refresher.

Hold Stations "They are coming" Helldivers 2 players reckon their latest mission is the "epilogue" to this act of the Galactic War, and they're ready for another big twist Some Super Earth soldiers reckon Arrowhead's next press of the LIBCON ONE button could come midway through this order. Image credit: Arrowhead News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 6, 2025 We know Helldivers 2's due for some fresh content soon, and some players think their latest mission is a pretty obvious countdown to a new phase of the Galactic War kicking off with a bang. It makes sense - the Meridian Singularity finally being stopped in its tracks and the big Illuminate retreat it signaled certainly had all the hallmarks of a climax to this lastest cycle of the war. So, ahead of the next Warbond being revealed later this week, they're keeping their supplies stocked in case Arrowhead scrambles the jets. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. So, what is this order that folks reckon is the "epilogue" to the latest act in the game's never-ending mashing together of space baddies? Well, it's a bit more of a create-your-own-adventure than a lot of orders - which push the player base towards fighting on certain planets or towards certain goals. This time, Super Earth just has to liberate more planets than it loses during the order's duration, with the two good old foes of the war having been mobilised as the opposition. There's the Jet Brigade on the Automaton side, while the bugs have whipped out their predator strain variants. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "These offensives cast a tyrannical pall over the joy of our citizenry in the wake of our victory over the Illuminate," Arrowhead wrote in its MO briefing, "The citizens of the Federation deserve to celebrate the eradication of our enemies free from the thought of violence." Depending on whether you view your galaxy's liberty meter as half-full or half-empty, it's either a bit of a filler MO or something cool to do while you wait for the next big thing to drop - something those in the latter camp reckon might happen midway through what they see as the "epilogue" to this phase of the war. "This exact type of MO always appears after major events signaling the end of an arc," user 231923 argued in a thread on the subject, "It appeared after the Reclamation ended and the Bots took a foothold after taking Cyberstan. It appeared after we destroyed Meridia and it appeared after we built the DSS. This MO marks the end of the Illuminate invasion arc." "I'd expect another LIBCON ONE announcement in the middle of this MO," wrote another player, and they weren't the only one to suggest that this order might not even run its entire week-long duration. We'll just have to see whether it does, but Super Earth's forces are definitely ready for a fresh challenge - be it a big return of the Illuminate, or something totally different coming out of the woodwork. What do you think the next twist in the tale of Helldivers 2's Galactic War will be? Let us know below!

Good Stuff Bruma-ing Oblivion Remastered has the potential to show us “the pinnacle of Elder Scrolls modding”, reckons the pioneer behind the first mod to edit its worldspace “The bed showed up, floating, but the docks were nowhere to be found, and I realised the game was afoot.” Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 Article by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 5, 2025 Ever since Oblivion Remastered ceased being the worst kept secret in gaming and shadow-dropped into our lives, I’ve been gleefully watching mods for it roll in at a hugely impressive rate. I was already well aware that the Elder Scrolls/BGS modding community was full of talented folks who’d be driven to figure out how to do all sorts with the latest morsel that’s been thrown their way, but the sheer speed at which they’ve begun to unravel a fresh mystery has still been amazing to me. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. While hundreds of folks have been a part of the effort, all contributing in a myriad of different ways, one of the projects that first really caught my eye as was modder Haphestia’s demo for an Oblivion Remastered randomiser, because it was the kind of experimental attempt at something advanced I’d expected to have to wait a while to start seeing. Instead it arrived on April 24, just two days after the remaster was released, and roughly 24 hours after its creator also put out ‘Starter Camp’, the first mod to successfully edit Oblivion Remastered’s worldspace. They also released one of the game’s very first player home mods that same week and recently added pride flags to the Imperial City. So, I decided to reach out to Haphestia for some insight into how all of these creations came together, as well as what it’s currently like for modders working on the cutting edge to push the boundaries and expand what’s possible modding-wise with Oblivion Remastered. Here’s my conversation with her: VG247: What drew you to modding Oblivion Remastered, and how did you go about making the Starter Camp and Abandoned House? Haphestia's Starter Camp is no-frills, but its true value was as a proof-of-concept. | Image credit: Haphestia Haphestia: I've been modding games for years. Decades, now? Huh. I've always been fascinated by things that both challenge me and seem potentially within reach, if a bit of a stretch. And a new Bethesda Softworks title is always a splendid arena. I started by installing the OG Oblivion game, installing the construction set, and throwing down a bed atop some newly placed docks outside the starting dungeon. The bed showed up, floating, but the docks were nowhere to be found, and I realized the game was afoot. The bed proved something was possible, and the missing docks meant there were some new rules in play. First mission: Create something. What works? I gracelessly plopped objects of various types all around the starting area to see what showed up in game, and what didn't. I managed to get a player-owned bed, a non-respawning chest, and a light source working, and called that a mod. Second mission: A house. It was impossible, which made it interesting. I saw someone else mention that there were new records on objects that weren't yet understood - I wish I could remember who to credit this to, but I don't. So, I managed to get a hold of a version of xEdit that could show these unknown records, and began studying them. Poking random stuff into them managed to get some things working that didn't work before, and soon enough we had a handle on how to use them (and a couple days later, fully understood them). I couldn't make interior cells, but I managed to share a cell with another building by building way out of bounds, off to the side to make a ‘new’ house work, and that was that. And the war goes on, capturing one new feature at a time. Truly novel interior cells remain a holy grail. We're close - we can make them now (finally), but we're trying to make a tool to share this capability with everyone, because it’s non-trivial. I know, Martin, this is all music to my ears too. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 VG247: Generally speaking, how have you found modding the remaster so far, has it been any easier or more difficult to make what you’ve wanted than you might have expected going in? Haphestia: It's exactly as difficult as I'd hoped it would be. Well, okay, maybe slightly more difficult. But I wanted a challenge, and it rises to meet the occasion. It's probably going to be very off-putting to a lot of classic TES modders, because it's so different. Even to Unreal Engine modders, it does some things in new ways that take time to unravel. For me, I have a pretty well-rounded skill set so I just keep attacking the problems from different angles until I find a way to accomplish my task. In short, I'm loving it. It's hard, but enjoyably so. I do predict that in the long term, modding Oblivion Remastered is going to become the pinnacle of Elder Scrolls modding; Unreal Engine is considerably more flexible than Creation/Gamebryo. It can be stretched farther. But the barrier to entry is higher, so it will take time to reach its potential. VG247: What was the process of creating the randomiser demo like, and where is development of it currently at? Do you have any long-term hopes/plans for your randomiser tool - is the goal to eventually deliver something as ambitious as Elden Ring’s fog gate, gear and enemy randomisers? Haphestia: I use a framework called Mutagen to manipulate the game records from [the] C# [programming language]. This allows me to make passes on the content procedurally, and generate an ESP with the changes. I had to update it by hand to get compatibility with the new records, and at the present moment, I still have to clean up the output with an xEdit script for now, but it's just a matter of getting more tools upgraded so I can integrate those parts of the puzzle directly. Here's Haphestia's unreleased Skyrim randomiser mod in action. Yes, it solved Commander Caius' harline issues. | Image credit: Haphestia At present, I have it shuffling all the load doors. I've written the logic for item swaps and randomized item/NPC scales. There's a lot more I can do, but I'm still on the front lines for expanding the horizons for this game for myself and other modders to be able to do more, because it's fascinating to explore. As for goals, I haven't set any specifically just yet. I don't know what's possible - other than more. I'll continue to... do. To create. To challenge myself. And to share the results. I expect that armour and weapon randomisation should be very achievable. In my Skyrim randomizer, I also randomized hair colours/styles, clothes (for each outfit), and a bunch of other silly stuff. It was a fun time. I'll see how much of that can be done here - but a lot of it waits on further infiltrating the Unreal side of things. I never released the Skyrim randomiser publicly, and by the time I considered it, someone else had beaten me to it. Figured I'd reserve my spot early this round by sharing some early test output. VG247: And finally, it’s still early days, but what do you hope Oblivion Remastered modders will be able to accomplish going forwards - are there any other tools/projects you’re keen to see pop up or take on yourself as people continue to push the boundaries? Haphestia: My primary focus right now is custom cells. That's a big one that a lot of folks in our Discord community would love, so I'm trying to get it for them. The technology involved in toolworking that should enable a number of other new features as a side effect. I'm fascinated by the potential this game has. Mixing Unreal Engine into things slows down a lot of what the TES modding community already knows; but brings with it new, never before seen opportunities. Unreal Engine has tons of tech out there for every genre of gaming, and there's no telling how much of that can be brought into play. I'm excited to see what people do with it.

HoYoverse finally announces Honkai Star Rail x Fate release date with 5-star Archer and 5-star Saber – plus Archer is free With a Fate-themed story written by Kinoko Nasu Image credit: HoYoverse News by Josh Broadwell Contributor Published on May 3, 2025 HoYoverse finally announced the Honkai Star Rail x Fate collaboration release date during the second HSR concert, including details about which characters will join the space game's roster. HSR x Fate kicks off on July 11, 2025, in an event called Sweet Dreams and the Holy Grail, and it adds two new 5-star characters from the Fate series to HSR's list of playable characters. One of them is Saber, a 5-star Destruction character with wind as her element. Saber, aka Artoria Pendragon, is one of Fate's main characters and first debuted in 2004's Fate/Stay Night. Saber will run for the usual length of time in a limited event banner. The second Fate character in HSR is Archer, another long-time favorite. Archer is a 5-star Hunt character with quantum as his element, and anyone who logs into Honkai Star Rail during Sweet Dreams and the Holy Grail will get him for free. Get your very own free man for a limited time | Image credit: HoYoverse HoYoverse said the free Archer giveaway will last through the end of Honkai Star Rail 3.6. Based on the game's current update calendar, that'd be sometime in November 2025. Assuming the free Archer event is like the time HoYoverse gave Dr Ratio away, you'll probably only need to be at the story's beginning, at the point where you unlock the warp function. Saber will have "exciting" interactions with the Trailblaze crew during the event's associated story missions. Fate writer Kinoko Nasu penned the crossover event's story, and artist Takashi Takeuchi created the Honkai Star Rail versions of Archer and Saber. HoYoverse also teased a new Honkai game during the concert, though had no further information to share at the time. If you're just tuning in for Honkai Star Rail's second anniversary, make sure to grab your free Ruan Mei or Luocha while the event lasts. Check out our HSR codes page for some freebies, too.

Take A Lachance The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered review - An ultra-faithful remaster I wish had gone full remake Returning to Cyrodiil’s always nice, but I’m not sure this re-packaging’s added much to the experience. Image credit: VG247 Review by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 3, 2025 Oblivion’s a great game, but does it really need a remaster? It’s a question I joined plenty of other folks in asking as the rumours and leaks bubbled away, while Bethesda and Virtuos Games maintained radio silence to an almost hilarious extent. In many ways, it’s a useless question to ask – there are very few video games we’re anything close to needing, aside from maybe a new entry in the Burnout series. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Remasters invite these kinds of existential questions by their nature – the nagging thoughts asking whether all these resources and all of this time from talented devs might be being wasted in delivering a slightly re-decorated version of a cake we’ve already enjoyed – and in the case of Oblivion, can go for a second bite of the original whenever we like. On the one hand, you could argue it’s verging on entitled to suggest that a game shouldn’t get a remaster just because you personally want something else. Then again, we’re on the weaker end of this power dynamic as consumers, and surely there’s nothing wrong with wanting your favorite studios not to keep releasing the same old thing again and again, rather than trying something that might be more interesting. I thought that once I got my hands on Oblivion Remastered, once its scamps and Dremora dragged me back through the gate to Cyrodiil, these clouds of doubt would just float away. Of course this was a remaster worth making, just look at it! They haven’t, though. Having put over 30 hours into a game that’s familiarly unfamiliar so far, the clouds of doubt are still hanging about. Oblivion Remastered, as you’ve no doubt heard, is ultra-faithful to the original game. More so than any of us who feared it might just end up being carved up into something a lot more Skyrim-cloney could ever really have hoped. As soon as you fire the remaster up – after waiting however long it takes to download the mammoth 120-ish GB that it’s ballooned to – you’ll be struck by the fresh coat of paint. The Isles have always looked funkily beautiful, and they do here too. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 It’s the exact same province you remember, rendered with all of the extra fidelity that you’d expect from its Unreal Engine 5 icing. All of the vistas that blew you away back in the day, when your expectations for good graphics were far less close to the near-photorealism a lot of today’s big games boast, they’ll throw your socks at the ceiling again. There are distant mountains you can see looming in much better detail as soon as you exit the Imperial City sewers. If you emerge at dawn or dusk, you might catch the kind of impressive sunset or sunrise modern tech can deliver, or if you wait till nightfall, you’ll be under a detailed starscape and possibly able to make out the Aurora Borealis we all loved in Skyrim if you glance towards Bruma. As you roam near the centre of the map, you’ll find your eyes drawn back to the glimmering spires of the Imperial City and the White-Gold tower, which dominates the landscape just as much as it did in the original. Cyrodiil was pretty breathtaking in 2006’s cartoony, near-potato vision, so of course it still is, especially since the remaster hasn’t toned down the vibrancy of the colours in the way some of us had feared. It’s enough to make you want to open up the photo mode this remaster surely has, so you can show all your mates how good it looks and maybe put together a few new desktop backgrounds, right? Nope, there isn’t one, and I struggled to even find a way in the settings to make the HUD temporarily disappear. As a result, most of the screenshots I’ve taken are of Oblivion Remastered’s NPCs, which are by far the best part of this facelift; more realistic in a way that matches their revamped surroundings, but still regularly misshapen or just plain weird-looking in ways that perfectly match the flawed visages of their OG twins. There are still plenty of faces that’ll give you a good giggle, and I’d have it no other way. Some of them have beards and moustaches now! When it comes to your character, the stubble options look properly wacky if you dye them a non-natural colour. Of course, that only makes it easier to create an absolute monstrosity to rival the original’s famous array of horror show protagonists. Sadly, the freaks and weirdos of Cyrodiil aren’t the only janky bit of the original to have remained intact in this game, which very much might be a terrifying Frankenstein’s monster of UE5 and classic under the hood. To be clear – if this remaster had sucked all of the jank out of Oblivion, that’d have been a travesty, but as I’ve played it, I’ve found numerous examples of not just the classic loveable jank we all remember so fondly, but the annoyingly buggy kind that you’d hope a revisit would finally fix. You ok there, brother? | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 The most prominent example was during the Thieves Guild quest, Ahdarji’s Heirloom. You can read a full rundown of what happened to me here, but the short version is this – I had to steal a ring, the ring didn’t spawn in the box it was supposed to (an OG Oblivion bug). Cue scrabbling around online for an old jury-rigging strategy that, luckily, still works in the remaster, otherwise I’d have been locked out of doing most of one of the game’s best faction questlines. Also still a thing is it being borderline impossible to flee from combat -- on a few occasions I put what felt like half of Cyrodiil between myself and any remaining hostile threat. Much closer to the realm of funny jank, but still a bit immersion-breaking, were issues like NPCs wearing skirts having those garments disappear, leaving them walking around with invisible pelvic regions. Also, why does poor Vicente Valtieri keep suddenly popping up totally bald and with eyes that won’t open? I get that Vampirism’s got some gnarly side-effects, but by the Nine! Aside from these, there’ve been a few occasions when characters I had to talk to or barter with would briefly spawn in a state where doing so wasn’t possible, which isn’t ideal. Moving on from the stuff that’s still there to the rest of the new additions, there’s a short list that I’ve felt have actually had a tangible effect on my enjoyment of this game I already loved in its previous form. It’s nice to be able to sprint, but I wouldn’t say it was something I’ve been crying for, given Oblivion’s acrobatics skill makes it ten times more fun to jump everywhere like a rowdy toddler on a bouncy castle. Bow and spell combat using the third person camera now works like it should, meaning that aiming and actually being able to see the thing you’re trying to hit without your character’s body flopping into the way have been greatly improved. Melee feels pretty similar and still very 2006, despite the addition of hit reactions more complex that just an auditory ‘UUUUOOAGGGHH’. The most handy tweak is that the levelling system, while still something you’ve got to grind up through by doing -- hello, all of that unnecessary bouncing – is much less punishing in terms of which skills you designate as major and minor. Being able to see the other side's a nice touch. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 You don’t need to be locked into having to focus on just those core strengths that may well turn out to not be as useful or key to your build as you start to progress, minor skills will help you progress, too. In my case has this been really useful, as I’ve naturally ended up levelling the likes of mercantile and speechcraft pretty high just by selling gear and doing quests, despite not having gone in with the intention of being an especially charismatic Dark Elf assassin. That said, you could argue something’s been lost by the game no longer forcing me to stick as rigidly to the unique path I’ve chosen. I’ve yet to try a second playthrough of the remaster, but there’s a chance my characters will end up being more Skyrim-esque masters of most but not quite all, in a manner that’s more power fantasy than the original. Freely assigning specific skill points when you level up is less likely to come with any potential downsides in my book, so we can file that one away under the purely positive column. Meanwhile, it’s a huge boon to hoarders that being over-encumbered – something you will inevitably be many times during any Oblivion playthrough – no longer renders you totally unable to move, instead just forcing you to walk. The refreshed sneak detection UI, grab mechanics, and addition of empty container notifiers are all very Skyrim, but also very much no-brainer changes to make here. One specific change that I’ve not been a fan of is how you access local maps. It takes zooming in all the way on the full province map, then pressing the same button again to go a step further. Once you know that’s how to do it, it’s fine, but the fact it took me ages to figure out what I needed to do meant my struggle felt just as down to the new method being a bit unintuitive as it did me being an idiot. Aside from that, I’d say the rest has, for better or worse, blended into the background of the one thing this remaster is deliberately putting front and centre - all of the good stuff Oblivion already did. This was always the goal, Bethesda even put out a statement post-release confirming it. About four years of development time that saw it and Virtuos use today’s tools to create an enhanced carriage to carry a 20-ish year old game that it has complete and unwavering reverence for. That thing’s fun, just like the original was, but it comes in the context of a years-long wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 - the follow-up to a game that came out only five or so years after Oblivion did. It's nice to see you again too, Boromir. | Image credit: Bethesda/VG247 Oblivion Remastered deliberately stops short of going full remake – something that I’d have loved to have seen its creators (or curators) back themselves or more likely be allowed by Bethesda to do. After all, it’s the whole fresh interpretation of an old game aspect that’s central to my intrigue about the other Oblivion return we’re getting this year, Skyblivion. If you’re going to take all of this time and resources and use them to re-release Oblivion, rather than trying to remaster games like Morrowind or Daggerfall – which I can tell you from experience are far more alienating to newbies with the sensibilities and expectations modern gaming instils – or do a spin-off that’d add something fresh to the Elder Scrolls series, shouldn’t you at least try and make the most of it? Use all of that new tech to deliver not just a polished version of something we’ve all played or could play at any time, but to unleash the version of that game you’ve always wanted to make. Don’t be afraid to make the battle at the Great Gate a proper spectacle, show us the massive and bustling trade hub that the Imperial City is in all of the glory you can, and make the conclusion to the Fighters Guild questline more than one person slaughtering five goons and then setting fire to a tree. Properly breathe new life into the ageing creative elements you – and all of us -- clearly hold in such high regard and view as so central to the identity of your studio as it exists now. Sheogorath invented music, and you had the chance to write a new symphony that builds on the narratives and adventures we fell in love with, and in so doing, help prove that TES 6 is going to be the return to the all-star form we’re all hoping for. The original Oblivion’s a great game, and this remaster’s a good re-packaging of it. It’s an excuse to fire up an Elder Scrolls title that doesn’t feel a million miles from contemporary yet again, but I’m still not sure we needed one. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered is out now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was reviewed on PC using a copy provided by the publisher.

Dw, We Cool GTA 6's delay is no biggie, it's only prompted Take-Two to tell its investors to chill and sent the game's subreddit into temporary lockdown Don't worry. Quiet morning. Nothing happened. We've just been chillin'. Image credit: VG247/Rockstar Games News by Mark Warren Senior Staff Writer Published on May 2, 2025 If you've somehow not heard, GTA 6 has officially been delayed. It'll now be dropping on May 26, 2026, rather than this Fall. Naturally, this hasn't been big news, as you can tell by the fact it's prompted Strauss Zelnick to whisper sweet nothings in investors' ears and sent r/GTA6 into a temporary posting lockdown. For those who missed the announcement of the delay, you can check out what Rockstar told us regular video game players here. The short version is that it's sorry, and don't worry, it promises the game will still blow your pants off. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Alongside that, Take-Two has put out a press release specially aimed at its investors, who've all probably crashed their mega-yachts in a panic about having to wait a bit longer for this big windfall they all definitely need to avoid having to sell their fourth supercar. "We support fully Rockstar Games taking additional time to realize their creative vision for Grand Theft Auto VI, which promises to be a groundbreaking, blockbuster entertainment experience that exceeds audience expectations,” Take-Two CEO Zelnick has told these sweet summer capitalists. "While we take the movement of our titles seriously and appreciate the vast and deep global anticipation for Grand Theft Auto VI," he continued, "we remain steadfast in our commitment to excellence. As we continue to release our phenomenal pipeline, we expect to deliver a multi-year period of growth in our business and enhanced value for our shareholders." GTA VI coming May 26 2026 by u/ToppleToes in GTA6 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Meanwhile, over in the place full of people who're even more invested in GTA 6 than the people who've actually invested in Take-Two, things are fine. The GTA 6 subreddit isn't full of posts - its moderators have smartly instituted a temporary lockdown and pointed everyone towards one giant megathread where they can vent their frustrations and scream into the void. What are those in that thread saying? Well, the majority just seem a bit bummed out that this delay announcement hasn't at least come with a fresh glimpse at the game to help them feel a bit better. "Damn, not even some screenshots to soften the blow," wrote a user with the handle ewankirky, "Guess the marketing campaign won't start until late 2025 now at the earliest." "Thank god they’re finally officially saying something," reasoned another with the maybe a bit creepy, but quite fitting in this case, handle of just_holdme, "Been feeling like GTA 6 was turning into a myth lol. 2026 is a wait, but at least we’re not completely in the dark anymore." How do you feel about having to wait until next year for GTA 6? Would you feel better if you had some fresh screenshots to dissect? Let us know below.

Another Elden Ring Nightreign trailer has been released, this time giving an overview as to what the world of Nightreign actually looks like and what a typical run will entail, as well as the environment changes between each session. That last one can get quite wild, including the occasional erupting volcano and meteor strike. Read more

Hot Ship “Staying beautiful isn’t about chasing trends” Eve Online developer CCP explains why looking good is more than just skin deep for a ‘forever game’ in 2025 It’s all change in the world of GPU and graphics, these days. That’s why CCP Games is preparing “the foundations of Eve for the next decade of graphical tech” Image credit: CCP Games Article by Dom Peppiatt Editor-in-chief Published on May 2, 2025 “Eve Online is a game about spaceships, and what would a new expansion be without… new spaceships?” asks CCP Snorri - also known as Snorri Árnason, game director for Eve Online - as he shows off a video of a ‘pretty, white beast’ of a new ship at Eve FanFest 2025. It’s like an advert for an expensive car; all sweeping shots, slow pans, light glinting off hard, metal edges. “It’s a best-in-class marauder, and people are going to freak out about it!” He’s right. The sizzle reels of the ships that CCP Games shows during FanFest 2025 get the biggest reaction from the crowd that I see all day. And by some margin, too. People stand up from their chairs, whooping and hollering. I’m pretty certain I see one person cry. People that love Eve really love Eve. These ships will be landing in EVE Online: Legion, the next expansion for the legendary sci-fi MMO, which launches on May 27, 2025. For those well-versed in Eve Online, the ships are a pretty big deal. First up, there's the Babaroga, a cutting-edge Triglavian Tech II marauder, that channels devastating entropic disintegrators and activates a bastion module that delivers game-changing subcapital DPS - perfect for those who dominate through precision and power. Then there's the Sarathiel, a fierce and agile Angel Cartel dreadnought, that rains down long-range capital-class destruction with massive bonuses to projectile damage and fall-off. CCP Games tells me that it's the only dreadnought capable of using a Capital Micro Jump Drive in siege mode, making it "a true terror in fast-moving frontline warfare." To see this content please enable targeting cookies. “Every ship we create is a work of art,” says Georg Hilmarsson, art director for Eve Online. “We pour our heart and soul into every design. Modernising your ship fleet is always on our mind, and we’re bigger, more impactful packages than ever before as part of the Legion update.” Hilmarsson explains that all cruisers are getting a lighting and VFX upgrade, and all ships will get “dramatic” new damage visualisation effects that include smoke, fire, and particle effects to better show when your vessel is taking on damage. It sounds like a small thing, but this is catnip for Eve folks: it makes the ship-to-ship combat that forms the bread-and-butter of the whole experience more dynamic, realistic… it’s a better realisation of the spreadsheet that underpins all the action. But it’s not just new ships that are keeping the game alive. Eve has been alive for over 20 years, now - first releasing way back in 2003. It’s safe to say the game, and the client you access it with, has changed a lot in that time. It’s important for a game that wants to attract new players (and keep older players on-board) to move with the times, but that’s not an easy thing to do whilst keeping your project online at, effectively, all times. Just ask Final Fantasy 14 (and its controversial grapes). “Recently,” says Adrian Gurney, game engine producer and development manager at CCP, “we released a major update to our graphics engine, Trinity. This update unlocked more performance from your graphics card, delivering a smoother, more responsive experience in space, with higher frame rates and improved visual fidelity. This is just one step in the journey to ensuring the foundations of Eve are ready for the next decade of breathtaking visuals that our artists will bring to life”. These are two of the new ships arriving in Eve Online's Legion update. | Image credit: CCP Games Gurney says that the CCP team has already started taking advantage of this upgrade to Trinity, and has started working on “a complete renovation of the game’s fog system” (which, being in space, is a much bigger part of the overall project than you’d expect. Gurney insists that these updates enhance the sense of depth and mystery in space. CCP is also adding ray-traced shadows into the game, resulting in the “most realistic shadow rendering [the team] has ever seen.” This update, apparently, paves the way for even more ray-tracing features in the future. “Carbon continues to evolve, and alongside our talented artists, we remain committed to delivering even more stunning visuals for Eve Online.” Relatedly, there’s a big new graphical update scheduled for later this year, too. The various nebulas you see around the universe have always been part of the visual identity of Eve, and this new update will introduce more realistic lighting, a wider dynamic range, richer colours, and finer details to all lighting conditions. This means, for the layman, that there will be a more dramatic and immersive feel to the various nebulae you navigate towards and around in Eve Online. Simply put; it looks more like space. And that’s what you want in a game like this. There are a lot of graphical overhauls coming to old ships. | Image credit: CCP Games One of the things Snorri said to press fairly early on at Eve FanFest 2025 has stuck with me. “There’s a lot of competition in games right now, and without getting new players or keeping people sticking around, we cannot be a forever game.” Eve has long been the sort of game that just is; its players love it, and it seems perennial in the minds of people that have been in the industry for a pretty long time. But it’s not a given that this will always be the case. By the developer’s own admission, Eve is different to most games. And CCP is keenly aware that it cannot simply rest on its laurels and expect things to stay the same. It needs to proactively, and intentionally, give reasons for players to join the fray, or keep coming back. “Staying beautiful isn’t about chasing trends,” says Snorri. “It’s about keeping New Eden alive, keeping it current, and for us to be able to keep players telling the stories that they come up with.”