News and Reviews

Anyone fancy a free Xbox gift card for the holidays?! Well, we've spotted Xbox giving these away to some lucky users for the month of December, and they're being received across console, PC and even Xbox Cloud Gaming. At first glance this does seem to be quite rare, although there are multiple examples online of people who have received theirs already. Here's some of the proof we've come across so far: And as mentioned, these are appearing not only on console, but on PC and Xbox Cloud Gaming as well. If you're on Series X, S or Xbox One, you'll want to press the big Xbox guide button on your controller, go over to the "Parties & Chats" section, and see if there's anyt…

As the Xbox Series X|S generation continues and another one is on the horizon, it's being reported this week that a subsidiary of manufacturing company Foxconn is planning to expand its Xbox production over in Vietnam. This report comes from Reuters, which mentions that Fushan Technology, which is part of Foxconn, is trying to obtain a permit to produce up to 4.8 million "Xbox gaming devices, parts of the consoles and other unspecified electromagnetic devices" per-year, according to a company document." "Foxconn subsidiary seeks approval to produce annually 4.8 million Xbox consoles, parts and other devices" Nothing specific has been shared about what Foxconn / Fushan Te…

Last month, Ubisoft confirmed that its Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was set to launch before April 2026, which led to rumours of the game potentially showing up at The Game Awards next week ahead of a reported January release. Well, the team has now confirmed that sadly, the title won't be showing up at TGA 2025. In a social media response this week, the Prince of Persia team says it's "sorry to disappoint", but "The Sands of Time won't be at TGA this year". We'll share this online exchange down below: Now, as far as we're aware, this Sands of Time remake is officially set to launch in Ubisoft's current fiscal year, despite this TGA no-show. The company rece…

December has gotten off to quite the start, hasn't it? With so many new games launching on Switch 2, we're sure that you're keen to find out how each and every one of them runs on the fresh hardware and, as ever, the tech experts over at Digital Foundry are here to do just that. This time, it's Assassin's Creed Shadows' Switch 2 port that's being put under the microscope. The above video sets a baseline of the Xbox Series S version and compares the technical flair of the new Nintendo hybrid from there. So, what does DF make of it? Visually, the Switch 2 has some obvious cutbacks from the Series S edition. Without SSR, the handheld version is lacking most water reflection …

IO Interactive is in our good books big time off the back of all the premium-grade assassinating they've let us do across the globe as Agent 47. Now the team has taken up the mantle (the obvious next step for those paying attention) of James Bond himself, with 007: First Light. And ahead of the game's 27th March 2026 release date, IO has dropped the very first in a series of dev diary deep dives aimed at exploring this latest Bond adventure alongside interested players. What an absolute high this dev team has been on with the majestic Hitman: World of Assassination, and it looks like it'll continue here. We've already seen bits and pieces of the game, and we know it's a r…

Metroid has rarely been able to play with the Nintendo big boys as far as sales are concerned, so it's no surprise that Samus merch drops have been a fair bit rarer than those seen for Zelda and Mario. But, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally here, Nintendo is changing that... in Japan, at least. Yes, a new wave of Metroid merch is now available exclusively at the Nintendo Stores in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka and the Okinawa pop-up. Just to really rub salt in the wound, it's also available on the My Nintendo Store, exclusively in Japan. sigh Back to looking longingly at plane tickets, it is. Update: Well, it looks like Nintendo has answered our wishes! Although it appe…

While floppy disks may not have been the best storage medium when it comes to longevity and memory, there's undoubtedly something very nostalgic about them – if you grew up in the late '80s and early '90s, at least. Industry vets Andrew and Rob Hewson are aiming to tap into that rose-tinted feeling with Hyper Sentinel Fusion, a successor to Hyper Sentinel. It's described as "Uridium and Paradroid combined with extraction shooter and roguelite elements in an explosive fusion of gameplay styles." Launching on Kickstarter soon, Hyper Sentinel Fusion is an arcade shooter which will ship on a floppy disk – only this one isn't going to work in your PC, Amiga or ST. "Slide open…

Update [Thu 4th Dec 2025, 4:30am]: My Life in Gaming and Game Sack's Electronic Gaming Monthly documentary, Pixels to Pages - The Story of Electronic Gaming Monthly, is now available to watch online for free. The 1-hour 16-minute-long documentary was released yesterday, across both My Life in Gaming and Game Sack's YouTube channels, and features interviews with former Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-In-Chief Ed Semrad, the late EGM editor Martin Alessi, and the one-time managing editor Ken Williams, among others who were involved in the creation of the landmark magazine. Images: Game Sack/My Life In Gaming Frank Cifaldi from the Video Game History Foundation also makes…

Update [Thu 4th Dec 2025, 4:15am]: Splatter World is now playable in English, thanks to the efforts of the fan translation community. "Splatterworld is several things," says Aeon Genesis, the entity behind the translation. "First, it is a cutesy RPG spinoff of Namco's Splatterhouse property. It's a sequel to the Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti cutesy platformer on the Famicom, which was never released outside of Japan. It's a parody of horror films and loves to poke fun at them. It's also a prototype. The game was never commercially released, and was only made available online on Halloween night this year (2025). Naturally, I jumped right on it." Images: Aeon Genesis Ae…

Fans have been crying out for a new Banjo-Kazooie game ever since Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released in 2008. But apart from a strange audience-controlled interactive demo at SXSW in 2015, the occasional merch drop, and a playable cameo in Smash back in 2019, there hasn't really been much to look forward to when it comes to official news regarding the bird and the bear. Instead, it has mostly fallen to the Banjo fan community to keep the series's legacy alive, with developers creating spiritual successors, ROM hacks, and fan games to offer players that classic platforming experience that they've been so desperately missing. With that in mind, we wanted to tell y…

An interesting datapoint from Circana analyst Mat Piscatella reveals the PS5 was outsold by an unexpected US-based rival in the run up to Black Friday last week. While the Switch 2 being top-selling hardware SKU for the week ending 22nd November won’t come as a massive surprise, the NEX Playground Interactive Gaming System coming second is a bit of a shock. If you’ve never heard of this product, it’s effectively a standalone reimagining of the Kinect – or the EyeToy, if you remember the classic PS2 peripheral. Primarily aimed at families and kids, the NEX Playground allows you to enjoy a variety of minigames on your TV using your body as the controller. Options include a …

Every game is getting in its final update of the year before the holiday period gets underway, and Sega has today rolled out a major patch for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. On the Nintendo front, this marks the arrival of the Switch 2 Edition as well as the Upgrade Pack for existing Switch owners. Apart from this, there's a lot of new content in this update. This includes new gadgets, an increase to the world match rating, additional friend settings, anti-cheat measure improvements and much more. Here's the full rundown of patch Ver 1.2.0, according to Sega's official website: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds - Ver.1.2.0 (3rd December 2025)Thank you all for playing Sonic Racing: Cr…

If you're looking for a reason to jump back into Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Sega has this week released the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game digitally. It's available for $69.99 or your regional equivalent, and will be released in physical form on this platform in "early 2026". If you're an existing owner of the Switch release and don't want to miss out, there's the Switch 2 Edition Upgrade Pack, which is also available. It's normally priced at $10.00 but you'll get an introductory discount (bringing it down to just $5.00) if you purchase it by 11th December 2025. Sega also notes how the Werehog DLC Pack is available to download for free for the first two weeks of t…

If you keep up with the Nintendo Music app's release schedule, you probably noticed Nintendo didn't update the app at the regular time earlier this week. Unsurprisingly, it's all linked to the release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, with Nintendo announcing it's added seven tracks from the new game as a special release. This adds up to 48 minutes of music and will give you a nice sample of the game's "main theme", environments and more. Here's the full tracklist and you can hear some of them in Nintendo's official sample below: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Music Special ReleaseMetroid Prime 4 Main Theme Fury Green The Sacred Tree Vi-O-La Ice Belt Power On Carvex Volt Fo…

Monster Hunter Wilds has had numerous ups and downs since it launched earlier in the year, to the point where it has, arguably, become one of 2025's most divisive games. On release, the action RPG was met with super strong review scores and positive player feedback; the finished product sported dramatic improvements over the somewhat disappointing beta tests that had taken place in the months prior. But as hunters made their way through the main story and eventually stumbled into endgame hunts, the cracks started to show. Wilds was quite roundly criticised for its claustrophobic campaign, a general lack of challenge, and poor optimisation (especially on PC). From there, o…

Just like September's interesting analysis of Star Wars Outlaws on Switch 2 and Series S, Digital Foundry returns with a fresh look at another Ubisoft title that's been ported over to the Nintendo system this week - and once again, this one uses the Xbox Series S version as its jumping off point. Yes, in its latest tech review on Assassin's Creed Shadows, DF notes that "this ambitious port succeeds by starting from the cut-down Xbox Series S" version, pulling back a little further than the Microsoft machine to achieve these results on Switch 2. It's an intriguing comparison that once again sheds some light on how these two systems stack up. The team goes on to mention mo…

Summitsphere is giving Antonblast fans one last hurrah, one year after the game first launched on PC. And it's a content-filled update befittingly titled 'THE END'. On 18th December 2025, The End is bringing four brand new bosses, a boss rush, multiple new game modes (including Hard Mode), new music, and new spray cans, among lots of other little additions coming to the 2024 platformer, which is heavily inspired by the Wario Land series. Let's have a look at the specifics coming with The End in just a few weeks, courtesy of Antonblast's Steam page: That's a lot for an ending, isn't it? Any excuse to go back to Antonblast, which we loved back when it launched on Switch la…

Sony's latest push into mobile territory is MLB The Show Mobile, just announced and soft launched in the Philippines. Developed in-house at San Diego Studio — developer of the main MLB The Show series — you can get a sense of the free-to-play game in the below trailer: The official website describes MLB The Show Mobile as "a new standalone experience built from the ground up to deliver realistic baseball gameplay on mobile devices". Built for both iOS and Android, the game is currently only available in the Philippines, but it'll come to more territories in future. The game will feature current and legacy players, as well as all real stadiums. You'll be able to bat, pitch…

We're still a week away from the last major gaming showcase of 2025 in the form of The Game Awards, but this Thursday's PC Gaming Show sounds well worth watching - even from an Xbox perspective. The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase is said to be "powered by Xbox Game Pass", which basically means Game Pass is the big partner here. The focus of the event is to highlight the 25 most wanted games of the moment, but we also know we're getting "new trailers, announcements and behind the scenes looks at over 50 games". Here's a list of stuff that's already been confirmed for the showcase: A new trailer from Team 17 for the soon the be released 4-player co-op shooter, Rogue P…

We were delighted to see Ustwo Games' gorgeous mobile puzzler, Monument Valley 3, make the jump to Switch earlier this year, and today the dev has given us even more story chapters to sink our teeth into — for free! The 'Garden of Life' expansion is now available on Switch, bolting four additional chapters onto the end of the main game, packed with even more of the series' signature perspective-bending puzzles. There are even some hidden optional puzzles to find in the bonus levels, for those after even more. The expansion drop accompanies the news that MV3 is now back on mobile, so you can check out all the extra content wherever you please. If the above trailer didn't d…

Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Return Special Edition now has a confirmed release date on PS5 — and it's soon! Publisher Limited Run Games announced this one all the way back in June of last year, so it's nice to see that it hasn't somehow been forgotten. It launches in just a couple of weeks, on the 15th December. This is obviously a follow up to Tomba! Special Edition, which dropped for PS5 and PS4 in August 2024. However, we should note that the PS4 version of Tomba! 2's Special Edition has been cancelled. Much like its enhanced predecessor, the sequel will feature modern quality of life features, like the ability to save anywhere and a rewind function. It'll also boast a mu…

The latest Xbox Game Studios title making the leap to PS5 is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, a highly acclaimed aviation sim landing on the console on 8th December, 2025. Aspiring pilots may be interested to know what's expected of them with regards to Trophies, and fortunately, the list has made its way online prior to release. Over on PSNProfiles, the full rundown of digital trinkets is available for your perusal, and it looks like a fairly manageable to-do list, albeit time-consuming. One Trophy requires that you spend 50 cumulative hours in the air, for example, which sounds like a lot, but it's probably quite achievable if you partake in all the game's missions and …

Some very brief — but new — clips from Resident Evil Requiem have been made public by way of a Japanese television show about the series. In the footage, we see protagonist Grace shooting a zombie on a staircase, only for it to attack her and reveal there is a second undead man nearby. Based on the decor, this scene looks to be taken from the hotel location that shall play an important part in the campaign. Catch the new gameplay below: The footage falls in line with virtually everything else we've seen of Resident Evil Requiem up until now, which is to say not a lot. The game is out for PS5 on 27th February 2026, meaning it's already only three months away. In a surprisi…

In the absence of Dino Crisis, TeamKill Media's upcoming shooter Code Violet looks set to fill the void. The PS5 exclusive sci-fi action horror title has been on the radar all year, and was expected to launch back in November. Unfortunately, it hasn't hit its launch plans, and has been delayed to 10th January 2026. However, with this delay comes some good news: Code Violet has now gone gold, meaning the game is effectively finished, and the remaining time will presumably be spent squashing last-minute bugs. All this news comes via a lengthy statement posted on the studio's social accounts: In a nutshell, the team ran into some issues relating to "unlocking entitlements" f…

Back in the summer, Xbox developer Obsidian reassured fans that Avowed's Fall 2025 update was still on track - but plans have since changed, and this update has now morphed into a bigger content drop set to arrive in February 2026. To mark the game's one-year anniversary next Feb., Obsidian says that it's delivering "our biggest update yet" for Avowed - featuring "everything originally planned for fall, plus additional features". We'll throw the team's updated roadmap down below: As you can see in the above image, this 2026 anniversary update will bring New Game+, photo mode, a new weapon type, new character presets and more - and that list is set to grow now that the te…