Games news

• Compulsion Games Is Now Officially An Ex-Xbox Studio

  21-08-2026 18:46 via gamespot.com
  
  Compulsion Games, the Canadian game developer behind South of Midnight and We Happy Few, has officially parted ways with Microsoft. After Microsoft confirmed that Compulsion was one of five Xbox studios it was divesting of, Compulsion boss Guillaume Provost has now confirmed it's a done deal.This was hinted at recently when the Steam page for South of Midnight listed Compulsion as the developer and publisher. Now, it's official, with Provost confirming to Games Beat that its management team acqu
  
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• Pokemon Gold and Silver keep getting referenced by official accounts, and I'm willing myself to believe the classic DS remakes are coming to Switch

  21-08-2026 20:51 via gamesradar.com
  
  Over the past couple of weeks, official accounts run by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have repeatedly made references to Pokemon Gold and Silver. Maybe it's nothing more than a nostalgic tribute to some classic games. But I'm over here drinking hopium straight from the tap, and I'm willing myself to believe this is a tease for a HeartGold and SoulSilver revival on Switch.Earlier this week, Nintendo of America tweeted "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold." Atta
  
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• Mortal Shell 2’s Latest Update Alleviates One Of The Game’s Biggest Headaches

  21-08-2026 20:40 via gamespot.com
  
  Developer Cold Symmetry has released its latest souls-like action-RPG, Mortal Shell 2, on August 20 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. And not even a day after launch, the studio already dropped a patch that makes some welcome tweaks, including addressing one of the game's most annoying issues: gold farming.On August 20, Cold Symmetry shared a breakdown on the game's subreddit and Steam page of what Balance Patch 1 does.A welcome adjustment is a refund of the Glimpses--a rare currency u
  
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• FromSoftware knows what it's doing with The Duskbloods character Zork, the internet's new obsession: "I have developed a powerful, almost maternal affection"

  21-08-2026 20:31 via gamesradar.com
  
  There is nothing the internet loves more than collectively obsessing over a surprisingly cute animated character. Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. God of War Laufey's Phranque the Cube. The Overwatch hero Jetpack Cat, and his Marvel Rivals analogue, Jeff the Shark. Dark Souls developer FromSoftware knows what it's doing, and that's why we have Zork, a new and admittedly endearing playable character from The Duskbloods, the studio's upcoming Switch 2-exclusive multiplayer action game.FromSoftw
  
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• GTA 6 Could Do For Cars What Red Dead Redemption 2 Did For Horses

  21-08-2026 19:59 via gamespot.com
  
  As long as Grand Theft Auto games have been around, cars have been accessories to the crimes that players committed. A vital part of the experience, a new set of wheels was just a felony away, whether you were dodging cops in Liberty City or stealing hot rides for car dealerships in Vice City. But beyond that, cars have always just been … there. Some of them might have looked cool or were the perfect getaway vehicles during a five-star wanted spree, but that's all they were. GTA Online al
  
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• Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic Adds An Actor From The Last Of Us And Uncharted

  21-08-2026 19:49 via gamespot.com
  
  Another actor has joined the cast for Naughty Dog's upcoming new IP Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.Robin Atkin Downes, who played Robert in Naughty Dog's The Last of Us and multiple characters in the studio's Uncharted games, said on social media that he's set to appear in Intergalactic. He didn't say who he is playing, but as you can tell from the video below, he's obviously very excited about it.
  https://twitter.com/Robin_A_Downes/status/2090646298718597618
  Downes is a prolific video game
  
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• Nintendo destroys 400 more Switch emulator repositories on GitHub as it reminds pirates it doesn't appreciate "illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games"

  21-08-2026 19:38 via gamesradar.com
  
  Once Nintendo sniffs out a pirate, that miserable scallywag should prepare for the worst. The Mario creator is aggressive in stamping out copyright infringement – it's almost a hobby, as Nintendo demonstrates with yet another DMCA takedown of Switch emulator repositories on GitHub. Copyright news site TorrentFreak reports Nintendo took only one day to file a total of seven DMCA anti-circumvention notices at GitHub, impacting over 400 Switch emulator repositories. It's an old routine for Ni
  
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• Your Mortal Shell 2 Weapons Don’t Have To Get You Killed

  21-08-2026 19:29 via gamespot.com
  
  Cold Symmetry's Mortal Shell 2 is finally out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Maybe you've been bodying bosses while collecting shells and leveling up your character. Or maybe you've been getting bodied as bosses pummel you into the dirt and your weapons betray you. I can't help you with the former, but I do have some tips and tricks to alleviate the latter.When you start your Mortal Shell 2 journey, a handful of settings are on by default. A couple of these settings make your weapons
  
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• Arc Raiders is shutting down Expeditions "until early 2027" to make "major improvements" after mountains of feedback

  21-08-2026 19:17 via gamesradar.com
  
  Arc Raiders Expeditions will be on pause until early 2027 after the upcoming fifth wipe while developer Embark Studios plans "major improvements" to the divisive system. In a new blog post, Embark outlines changes made with the fifth Expedition. The footnote is the most important part: "The fifth Expedition will be the last one until early 2027, when Expeditions will return with major improvements, tackling some of the biggest player pain points."Oddly enough, this means the big October 8 update
  
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• I’ve Played (Almost) Every Zombie Game, And This New One Still Feels Excitingly Fresh

  21-08-2026 19:10 via gamespot.com
  
  For as long as I can remember, I've enjoyed zombie fiction. I've always figured it's because I saw Romero's classics at way too young an age, but I've never wavered in my enthusiasm for the undead, be they in movies, TV shows, books, or video games. By now, I feel like I've seen, read, and played nearly all of them.
  It's that familiarity with the genre that has had me so excited for No More Room in Hell 2 over the past few years, even through some early-access growing pains, and why I'm glad to
  
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• Is The Duskbloods multiplayer and PvP only?

  21-08-2026 18:42 via gamesradar.com
  
  The Duskbloods is a multiplayer-only game from Elden Ring and Dark Souls devs FromSoftware, that pits eight players against each other in vampiric combat. If you were expecting another Elden Ring: Nightreign but in the style of Bloodborne, that's not what The Duskbloods is promising – this game isn't just about bringing down massive bosses but also putting other players in their place and hopefully emerging victorious as the best Bloodsworn. It is admittedly quite a confusing game though,
  
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• Baldur's Gate 3 mod adds 6-hour campaign all about Astarion, featuring new companions, 4 different endings, and "a kitty that potentially accepts scritches"

  21-08-2026 18:41 via gamesradar.com
  
  Baldur's Gate 3 is finally seeing Divinity: Original Sin 2-style custom campaigns coming to fruition, as one new mod adds just that: a solid six-hour custom campaign.Yes, you read that right. A Dream of Silence: ReVamped, as it is oh-so aptly dubbed over on Nexus Mods, adds an alternate campaign to Larian Studios' beloved Dungeons & Dragons RPG.The mod is an adaptation of a browser-based text adventure by Abigail Corfman (which you can still access over on her official website), starring non
  
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• Sony is ditching physical discs, so here's how I'll play PS2 games using original hardware and handhelds instead of PS5 games in protest

  21-08-2026 18:30 via gamesradar.com
  
  For years now, I’ve been asked by friends and family how to play PS2 games now that the console is considered “retro.” It’s tempting to simply point towards an original console and give them a big thumbs up, but even if you do have Sony’s 2000s system to hand, replaying PlayStation 2 classics in the modern age can feel like a rigmarole rabbit hole.Jump to:(Image credit: Phil Hayton)Original hardware
  EmulationI haven’t been keeping count, but I’d say more
  
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• Marvel's Wolverine has finally "gone gold" after a 5-year wait tarnished by leaks, Insomniac confirms ahead of release next month

  21-08-2026 18:30 via gamesradar.com
  
  There's no stopping everyone's favorite adamantium-clawed mutant now. Five years since its initial announcement, and just one month ahead of launch, Marvel's Wolverine has gone gold, marking the last big milestone before release.Developer Insomniac decided to mark the occasion appropriately, with a little gif of our man Logan, all suited up, taking his claws out. It's such an eternally cool image. "Today, we're popping claws in celebration," reads the caption. "Marvel's Wolverine has gone gold!"
  
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• Nintendo’s War On Switch Emulators Continues With 400 More GitHub Takedowns

  21-08-2026 18:17 via gamespot.com
  
  Nintendo is doing what Nintendo does: issuing DMCA takedown notices to anyone who illegally offers access to any of the company's games. That's exactly what happened earlier this week, as Nintendo wiped out over 400 Switch emulators from GitHub.According to an August 21 TorrentFreak report, the Mario maker sent the proprietary developer platform seven DMCA takedown notices targeting Nintendo Switch emulator repositories. This includes Suyu (the Yuzu successor that became popular after Yuzu shut
  
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• Marvel Tokon debuts with less than 3,000 physical copies sold in Japan, well under Arc Systems' Guilty Gear and BlazBlue fighters

  21-08-2026 18:16 via gamesradar.com
  
  Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is an absolute highlight in the tag-team fighting game genre, but good reviews haven't translated into strong sales in Japan. In fact, it's reportedly one of developer Arc System Works' worst performing games on its home turf.Famitsu recently published its estimated sales data for the first two weeks of the month, charting the best-selling physical games in Japan during that time, but Marvel Tokon only managed to claw onto the chart with 2,814 PS5 discs sold for its
  
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• New Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS5 update turns the ports into Modern Warfare 4 ads

  21-08-2026 18:07 via gamesradar.com
  
  Earlier this year, PS4 and PS5 got native ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2. Now, Microsoft and Activision are turning these beloved FPS titles into billboards for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, with a big ol' pre-order button for the upcoming game stuck right there in the main multiplayer menu.These new "pre-order MW4" options appeared after recent updates to the PlayStation versions of both Black Ops 1 and 2. Call of Duty news account CharlieIntel tweets images of both the updated menu
  
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• Grand Theft Auto 6 Leaks Are Fueling A Crypto Pump-And-Dump Scheme

  21-08-2026 18:01 via gamespot.com
  As Grand Theft Auto 6 continues to leak via small snippets of gameplay, you might be wondering why each video is plastered with watermarks for a meme coin? It turns out while you're enjoying the early look at Rockstar's latest project, others are literally profiting off of the virality.Each of the leaked gameplay videos have advertised a meme coin called CYBERLEEK, named after the supposed leaker and hosted on the Solana blockchain. This coin seemingly appeared on August 16, just two days before
  
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• Marvel Snap Is Finally Getting A Draft Mode, And It’s Unlike Any You’ve Played

  21-08-2026 18:00 via gamespot.com
  
  Marvel Snap has been a huge debut success for Second Dinner, the studio created by Blizzard alumni. But if one feature has been missing since launch, it's that mainstay of card games: a draft mode. Snap is finally preparing to launch its own spin on Draft with a new mode coming Monday, August 24, and GameSpot got an exclusive first look.Draft will be a Limited Time Game Mode (LTGM) at launch, similar to other modes like Grand Arena, Team Clash, and Sanctum Showdown. That means you'll have ticket
  
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• I've fallen for GTA RP, and it shows what the future of GTA 6 Online could be

  21-08-2026 18:00 via gamesradar.com
  
  GTA 6 Online is still very much a mystery. The multiplayer sandbox is an incredibly popular part of Rockstar's ecosystem – which is impressive, considering GTAO is now over a decade old – so its presence in GTA 6 feels inevitable to me. But the fun doesn't end with GTA Online itself. That's where GTA RP comes in.GTA RP is the game's highly-modded roleplaying experience. Made by and for players, it takes what fans love most about the official (or vanilla) GTA Online and turns it into
  
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• In An Unaffordable World, The Future Is Friendslop

  21-08-2026 18:00 via gamespot.com
  
  Gaming has never been more expensive. We're here to investigate why, and help you play more while spending less. Welcome to GameSpot Cheap Week.You don't need me to tell you things are getting more expensive. Unless you're incredibly wealthy, you're already feeling the pinch. The world is less affordable, from groceries to gas to rent to, yeah, even video games. For the first time, consoles aren't getting cheaper over a generation: They're skyrocketing in price. While the price of games the
  
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• “Friendslop” Sounds Like An Insult. What Do Developers Think?

  21-08-2026 18:00 via gamespot.com
  
  There's an ongoing divide about the word "friendslop." The genre descriptor, born of games like Lethal Company, Peak, and many others in recent years, can be used in both positive and negative contexts, which can make it confusing. Personally, I was trying to reserve the "-slop" suffix for things made by generative AI, but the term has broken containment and is now used widely in conversations about co-op games of a particular type: light on mechanics, welcoming to a wide array of skill levels,
  
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• Metal Gear Solid 4's most famous joke gets updated in Master Collection Vol. 2, with Konami even bringing back the original voice actor

  21-08-2026 17:56 via gamesradar.com
  
  Some classic jokes from Metal Gear Solid 4 are not only present in the latest re-release, but have been updated for modern systems. The game's part of Master Collection Vol. 2, which also includes Peace Walker and the Game Boy Color title Ghost Babel, and Konami has included a few nice flourishes.The amount of meta-humor always made porting Metal Gear Solid 4 a difficult prospect. You've got references to the iPod and fourth wall breaks that really place the release at a certain time. Well, for
  
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• Will The Duskbloods be on PC and consoles?

  21-08-2026 17:52 via gamesradar.com
  
  Is The Duskbloods going to be on PC and other consoles? For now, it's not looking good because the game is locked to the Switch 2. That's obviously quite unfortunate if you wanted to play The Duskbloods given that many of FromSoftware's games, like Elden Ring, its Nightreign spinoff, and the Dark Souls series have all been widely available across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and even Nintendo's consoles. But there is a chance it could eventually come to other platforms, so I've explained how a PlaySta
  
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• Frustrated with GTA 6 leaks, Rockstar fans dig up Gabe Newell's "I play games to have fun" rant – and miss the most important part

  21-08-2026 17:46 via gamesradar.com
  
  A three-year-old clip of Valve boss Gabe Newell dissecting the place of realism in games has resurfaced online amidst discussions of GTA 6 gameplay leaks suggesting cars in Rockstar's universe now use a realistic gasoline system which requires players to refuel them. The response to this fuel system, even as part of a game build that may be outdated and which we've only seen a brief slice of, has been mixed. Some players embrace this added friction and detail, but others seem to worry that this
  
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• A pretend Xbox model costs over $300, and the latest real Series X will potentially be a grand, so I'd like to leave this planet

  21-08-2026 17:39 via gamesradar.com
  
  Alright, that does it; we're now at the stage where a "Lego" OG Xbox you can't play games on costs what I'd pay for a real console right now. Yes, somewhere under $400 is what I think is reasonable even for the new 25th anniversary Series X, given that it launched six years ago, but apparently if you want the latest machine that can play games (wild, I know), it might cost near a grand.I guess I see the humor in Mattel showcasing its Brick Shop OG Xbox Lego alternative in the same week as devast
  
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• The Russo Brothers' foreword to key Avengers: Doomsday comic inspiration prove they understand the assignment for Doctor Doom: "He is ambition and fear woven together"

  21-08-2026 17:19 via gamesradar.com
  
  If you were worried Anthony and Joe Russo wouldn't be able to handle the magnitude of Doctor Doom's universe-shaking arrival in the MCU, think again.In the Avengers: Doomsday directors' foreword to 'Time Runs Out' – an iconic Jonathan Hickman-penned comic that charts the end of several Marvel universes and serves as a key touchstone for Doomsday – the pair cut to the heart of Doom's psyche.The full foreword is available below, and as part of the latest Time Runs Out, but it's the Doo
  
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• Diablo 4 Isn’t Being Subtle About Who The Game’s Next Villain Is

  21-08-2026 17:19 via gamespot.com
  
  Those reaching the end of Diablo 4 Season 14's seasonal storyline are being treated to some major teases about what's next for Blizzard's ARPG, though those eagerly anticipating the return of the Lord of Terror himself might be disappointed.Spoilers for Diablo 4 Season 14 below.Season 14, titled Death's Awakening, sees players combating a death cult looking to end Sanctuary's suffering in the wake of Mephisto's defeat. That eventually leads players to none other than the Pandemonium Fortress, pr
  
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• Dark Souls fans got this one right: new Soulslike where you play as a Sif-coded dog with a sword is now and forever "Bark Souls"

  21-08-2026 17:12 via gamesradar.com
  
  With FromSoftware's ever-growing legendary library of Souls games, it's not surprising that other developers are taking a crack at the action-packed genre – but this new Soulslike about a stray dog journeying to save his rescuer might just take the cake as the most precious.If you've played Dark Souls, then you likely know (and love, because how could you not?) Great Grey Wolf Sif, the boss who faithfully guards the grave of Artorias the Abysswalker – and wields his huge greatsword,
  
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• The Lexar Play X SSD combines an M.2 2230 drive with an adapter into a handy and speedy package, but you won't find it in the US yet

  21-08-2026 17:11 via gamesradar.com
  
  Even amongst the turmoil of the RAM Storage Crisis, new SSDs haven't stopped dropping. But the Lexar Play X PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD sets itself apart from other new releases by providing storage for PC and handheld fans in one.The best SSDs for gaming traditionally come in a 2230 or 2280 form factor, and you need to decide which is best for you before you check out your online shopping basket. Lexar has instead packaged a 2230 drive alongside a 2280 bracket, so you have the best of both worlds and
  
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