News and Reviews

After the release of the near universally acclaimed Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter back in September, it was revealed that developer Falcom was already well into making another full-on remake with Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter. Although we don't have an official release window for it, the remade sequel is expected to launch next year — and expectations are sky high (pun intended) given how beloved the original title is. But what happens after 2nd Chapter? Well, you'd think that Falcom's most obvious course of action would be to then remake the third game in the Sky trilogy — Trails in the Sky The 3rd. The name basically fits with the remakes and everything! Apparently, tho…

Ever since Assassin's Creed Origins, Ubisoft has pushed the series towards a live service model, opting to support each game over a long period of time with free updates and DLC. And to be fair, it's a model that's proven to be successful; Assassin's Creed Valhalla ended up being the franchise's most profitable instalment to date off the back of two whole years of support. But these major updates and DLCs do, of course, have a cost in terms of resources — and that's what Assassin's Creed Shadows director Simon Lemay-Comtois gets at in a new interview with YouTube channel Access the Animus. Ubisoft has explained its methods in the past, but Lemay-Comtois reiterates: "Micro…

Update [Thu 27th Nov 2025, 5:30pm]: SHUTEN ORDER's Switch 2 Edition and upgrade is now available today. Once again, it supports a higher frame rate, including variable frame rate between 60 to 120 fps in docked and portable modes. There is also Joy-Con 2 mouse controls in areas of the game where it's supported. The Upgrade Pack for existing Switch owners will set you back $2.49 (or your regional equivalent). And the Switch 2 and Switch versions of the full game are currently on sale in select locations. Original Story: Following the release of SHUTEN ORDER on the Switch in September, a Switch 2 Edition has now been officially announced. It will arrive later this month on …

All the way back in 2019, before the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S were even fully revealed, there was skepticism that Xbox would be ditching consoles and/or turning into a third-party publisher. The more things change, the more they stay the same! Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked about this at the time in an interview with Kotaku, and as pointed out by the interviewee (Stephen Totilo) on Game File this week, it's a fascinating look back at a strategy that still remains very relevant here in 2025. For example, Phil spent a lot of time discussing the idea of playing "the games you want, with the people you want and on the devices [you want]", mentioning the team was "dri…

It's been an ambitious year for Xbox Game Pass in 2025, with so many incredible games joining the service over the past 11 months, and it's about to deliver another amazing slate of titles in 2026 as well. In fact, Microsoft is promising 75+ "day one" games on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate per-year moving forward, which is a massive step up on what we've been getting to date - it apparently represents a 50% increase altogether. With that in mind, they're going to need a lot of developers and publishers to remain on board. Fortunately it sounds like that's the case, as explained by the Xbox GM of Portfolio and Programmes (Chris Charla) in a recent interview. Chris, who's known p…

Well, here's a welcome surprise! Hot off the back of Silent Hill 2 and Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team has shared with us the next project that it's working on for Switch 2, and it's none other than an all-new Layers of Fear package. Layers of Fear: Final Masterpiece Edition will arrive on Switch 2 on 19th December, bundling together Layers of Fear, Layers of Fear 2, every DLC expansion, and brand-new chapters into one spooky edition fully optimised for the new system. There are the added bonuses of HDR, ray tracing, and dynamic lighting, too, and you have the option to play with motion controls or touchscreen inputs if you see fit. Here's the official blurb from Bloob…

If you like your retro first-person shooters to be colorful, gory, and feature extravagant, larger-than-life characters, then Captain Wayne - Vacation Desperation could be exactly the game you're looking for. Released earlier this month exclusively on Steam, the "fast-action" shooter has previously been described by its creators as "half game, half cartoon" and features detailed hand-drawn graphics, gallons of blood, and a charismatic "cigar-huffing", "hot pink-wearing" ship captain as its lead. It is the creation of a small studio, called Ciaran Games, and was built using GZDoom, a fork of the ZDoom source port of the original Doom games. As you'll see, though, from look…

Fireproof Games, the British studio behind the acclaimed puzzle series The Room, is soon to release its latest title on PSVR2. It's called Ghost Town, and it's set for release on Sony's virtual reality hardware on 1st December 2025: You play as Edith Penrose, a witch who turns her talents to ghost hunting in this supernatural thriller. You'll use her magical abilities to solve puzzles and track down clues to the whereabouts of her missing brother. Here's the Steam version's launch trailer to put you in the mood: The Room series is held in high regard, so there's every reason to be hopeful about this new title. Ghost Town was very well received when it launched for PC VR f…

Two legendary developers have joined forces once again, and it's a game that's a teensy bit outside what they're best known for. From Steve Ellis and David Doak, two of the minds behind renowned shooters GoldenEye 007 and TimeSplitters, comes Beyond Words, a strategic, roguelike word game. Coming to PS5 in early 2026, the easiest way to describe Beyond Words is that it's a combination of Scrabble and Balatro. You'll be spelling out words in a similar vein to the legendary board game, and it seems combos, alongside hundreds of gameplay modifiers, will help you reach enormous scores. Each board will challenge you in different ways, and there are even bosses, seeded runs, ti…

Techland has unveiled update 1.4 for Dying Light: The Beast, an enormous update for the action title that incorporates brand new features and hundreds of improvements. Largely based on feedback from the community, update 1.4 brings fixes, improvements, and features requested by players. Here's a quick rundown of all the major additions in the update: New Game + mode: New Game + is added to the game, meaning you can replay the adventure while keeping all your gear, weapons, and character progression from your first playthrough. Each time you start New Game +, the level of challenge increases, but so does the power and rarity of the weapons you find. Legend Levels: This is …

PS5 console sales in Japan have skyrocketed in the past week, as the new model designed specifically for the country enters the market. Accounting for around two to three days' worth of sales, there were exactly 23,381 purchases of the PS5 Digital Edition in Japan through until 23rd November. In comparison, PS5 sales the week before slumped to just 5,855. This means that the Japan-specific PS5 model, which has launched at a lower price and is essentially region-locked to Japan, has resulted in roughly four times as many sales upon its first few days on the market. The Switch 2 is still very comfortably outselling it, with 126,000+ purchases recorded between 17th and 23rd …

It's been a few months now since Dying Light: The Beast launched on Xbox and other platforms, and the game has just received its biggest update since release today - perfect timing considering it's part of the Xbox Black Friday Sale 2025! This update adds a New Game+ mode, ray tracing on PC, three new finishers and Legend Levels that provide you with the "classic Dying Light end-game progression system". Here's a bit more on the main two features on Xbox: In addition to all this, there are over 400 improvements as mentioned above, spanning the likes of environmental & navigational fixes, gameplay fixes, graphical improvements and much more. If you're interested, th…

Fancy topping up your Microsoft Rewards earnings over the next week? Well, there's a new promotion on the Microsoft Rewards dashboard that's allowing you to "double your points" until early December through Bing searches, which you can do on PC, mobile or through the Microsoft Edge browser on Xbox. To find it, you just need to head to the Microsoft Rewards dashboard and look for the relevant banner and "activate now" button that'll hopefully show up in your region. Here's what it looks like: After this, you'll get a brief explanation of what "double your points" means: For me personally, I can see that the cap of earning 90 Microsoft Rewards points through Bing searches…

As far as micro consoles go, The C64 Mini has been a resounding success, and, according to its manufacturer, is the best-selling 'mini computer' yet released. I can certainly believe that – The C64 Mini was one of the first devices of its kind to hit the market, and the allure of the Commodore name carries significant weight among retro gamers. Now, Retro Games Ltd. is back with a new variant of the system that sports a new colour scheme and a totally new selection of pre-loaded games. While the original beige model came with 64 titles that included the likes of Attack of the Mutant Camels, Boulder Dash, Impossible Mission, Monty Mole and Speedball 2, this new variant shi…

When people rank their favorite Mega Man X games, the PS1 title Mega Man X6 usually winds up appearing towards the bottom of the list. Released in 2001 (or 2002 if you live in Europe), the sixth entry in the Mega Man sub-series is often viewed by many fans online as a bit of a rush job, with the game coming out a mere 12 months after Mega Man X5, which was originally envisioned by series producer Keiji Inafune to be the end of the story. Because of this tight production timeline, it ultimately ended up featuring a lot of rough edges and ideas that didn't necessarily come together (like the Nightmare System), making it one of the more challenging games to recommend to newc…

Well, well, well... How the tables turn. For a long time now, Atlus, and by extension, parent company SEGA, have dabbled in re-releasing their games. Typically, these re-releases feature expanded and / or improved content, and are often labelled as 'definitive' versions of the original title. Generally speaking, potential buyers have become more and more critical of this practice over the years. An increased focus on expansions, DLC, and updates has largely painted re-releases as an anti-consumer approach, as they're essentially asking fans to pay up for two versions of the same game. And according to SEGA, this once fairly common strategy could now be having a negative i…

It's actually mad to look back on the beginnings of Cyberpunk 2077 and compare that time to where the game is now. It's taken basically five solid years of updates — along with one hell of an expansion — to turn things around, but the open world RPG is now a colossal commercial success, with developer CD Projekt Red confirming that it's topped 35 million sales in its latest business briefing. That's a ridiculous achievement for any title, but in Cyberpunk's case, it just goes to show how things can (eventually) turn around. At this point it's worth mentioning that we're fast approaching the game's fifth anniversary. It first launched for PS4 on the 10th December, 2020. An…

Our good friends over at Digital Foundry have delivered their tech review of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, which shadow dropped onto Switch 1 and 2 last week, and it's something of a mixed bag. Starting on a positive note, the Switch 2 version of the game sets out to hit 60fps, and it does so consistently. DF's Thomas Morgan notes that he noticed "barely any drops" when playing in either handheld or docked modes, so that's a big bonus for fans of smoothness. What's more, the Switch/Switch 2 'Definitive Edition' boasts many of the re-release 'pros' over the PS3 original — upgraded textures, foliage placement, colour grading, etc. — and renders at 1920x1080p resolution i…

An early indie hit this year was Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders, and it's taken the best part of a year to finally slalom its way onto PS5. The game finally has a release date on Sony's system; it arrives on 3rd December, which is near-perfect timing for some cosy Christmas chill time. Here's its initial release date trailer from January to get you in the mood: Despite its name, Snow Riders features co-op, allowing you to ski down the slopes with friends. The PS5 release will include all the previously added content, and the Highlanders DLC will also be available for separate purchase. As big fans of the previous game, we're quite looking forward to zipping down the mounta…

Opinions will always be split on the best iteration of Final Fantasy, and so it's interesting to hear that living industry legend and Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii has shared his own thoughts on the franchise. Once upon a time, Dragon Quest was in direct competition with Final Fantasy; the two properties vying for the RPG crown back in the 80s and 90s. Of course, this was before Square and Enix merged to form Square Enix, causing the two titans of the genre to fall under the same publishing umbrella. But apparently, Horii didn't actually view Final Fantasy as a threat to his creation. He explains to Game Informer: "I was definitely paying attention to it because it was …

We're big fans of TimeSplitters here at Pure Xbox, and we've enjoyed playing TimeSplitters 2 and 3 via backwards compatibility in recent years, but we've also been craving some kind of brand-new project for over a decade now. TimeSplitters Rewind isn't actually new — it's been in development for over a decade — but it's suddenly released for free in early access on PC this week, containing a full remake of TimeSplitters 1's campaign (playable both offline and online), along with a full multiplayer suite that includes some hectic online shootouts. It's been a long time coming, and there's a lot of excitement from the community right now: Of course, this is only a PC game a…

It's been a while since we last saw a new free-to-play (or just entirely "free") game release on the Xbox Store, but that's all changed today with the arrival of Card Storm Idle - a game that actually has three separate versions to try. That makes it extremely lucrative for achievement hunters, as there's a potential 3000G worth of achievements up for grabs here across the Xbox One (1000G), Xbox Series X|S (1000G) and Windows PC (1000G) versions. It's really simple to complete as well, described as an "incremental experience" in which you can get all the achievements in around 10-20 minutes. You can see how it looks in the video up above. Of course, a situation like this…

At this point, we know about the awards that will be present at The Game Awards 2025, but the new game reveals are what most folks tune in for, and our first inclusion has now been locked in ahead of the event next month. Action-adventure RPG Exodus will feature during The Game Awards showcase, as confirmed by Archetype Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. Exodus was first unveiled at TGA 2023, and will be returning this year with a brand-new trailer. In the run up to the live event on December 11th, we expect host Geoff Keighley to announce even more games that will be present at the showcase. Typically, these teases are for already announced titles with new trailers,…

Remember Nintendo's short film, Close to You? The adorable baby animation with which the company kept us on tenterhooks for three days straight as it drip-fed us information about its context? Well, it looks like it'll be cropping up again, this time in an upcoming Pikmin Bloom event. As of tomorrow (27th November), anyone logging into Pikmin Bloom will receive a Gold Seedling, which promises a special Decor Pikmin inside. And this isn't any old Decor Pikmin either, oh no, this is a Seedling that "seems to have a connection to the short movie Pikmin Close to You". At least, that's how the Pikmin Bloom blog post puts it. We don't know the exact form that this Seedling will…

Neowiz and Round8 Studio created one of the best-loved Souls-likes outside of FromSoftware with Lies of P, and it sounds like the team isn't resting on its laurels. Speaking to GamesRadar following Overture's Best Game Expansion win at the Golden Joysticks, director Choi Ji-Won sounds confident about the upcoming work from the studio. Via an interpreter, he says fans "can expect the most fun that we can achieve within the game", not specifying exactly which project he's talking about. He also asks fans to "please stay tuned for it; we are working really hard, and I will not disappoint you at all." Neowiz recently announced several games it has in the pipeline, one of whic…