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• Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Classic Mode Won't Satisfy Purists

  17-09-2019 21:03
  Since Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s big gameplay reveal at E3 this year, fans have begun to rally into two broad camps: those who dig its new action-led combat system, and those who really wish Square Enix had stuck to the turn-based design of the original game. In what could be seen as an attempt to satisfy the latter camp, Square Enix has announced a new ‘classic’ battle mode. Yet what the studio has revealed is more likely to satisfy those already sold on the new vision for Final
  
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• Palworld 1.0 has already moved over 1.8 million copies for Pocketpair, analyst estimates, with 65% of players on Steam

  21-07-2026 23:08 via gamesradar.com
  
  Palworld recently hit the tremendous milestone of 40 million players, and its fireball 1.0 update is already sending it speeding toward the next one. Alinea Analytics market analysis lead Rhys Elliott estimates the survival game has already sold close to around 1.8 million copies since Palworld 1.0 launched on July 10.Elliott explains on Substack, "In terms of premium unit sales, our platform estimates put Palworld at roughly 30.5M copies sold, with nearly 86% of that total originating on Steam.
  
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• Clayface and Creature Commandos' Matt Hagen are officially the same character, according to DC boss

  21-07-2026 23:06 via gamesradar.com
  
  DC co-CEO Peter Safran has confirmed that the Clayface we first met in Creature Commandos is the same one we're about to meet in the live-action horror movie."Yes, it is the same Clayface," Safran told Entertainment Weekly before going to confirm that "the events of Clayface predate Creature Commandos in the canon," and that the terrifying goopy nightmare we met in animated form is indeed the same one we're about to meet in live-action.The confirmation comes just a couple of months after DC Stud
  
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• Xbox loses new exec that CEO Asha Sharma appointed just 2 months ago

  21-07-2026 23:05 via gamesradar.com
  
  As part of the C-suite house cleaning and ongoing staff bloodletting at Xbox, new CEO Asha Sharma appointed new VP of engineering Jared Palmer on May 5. Just months later, he's already leaving the company. Palmer shared the news on Twitter today, just over two months since his appointment was made public. "Personal update: I've joined [Cognition] to lead engineering," he says. "I'm grateful to [Asha Sharma] and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year."Cognition, if you're unfamiliar, describes itse
  
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• "Steam’s required AI disclosure is the right move": Devs say gen AI should be called out in games and support Valve's store mandate

  21-07-2026 22:21 via gamesradar.com
  
  Valve adding mandatory AI use disclosures to games on Steam stoked some discussion, with the likes of Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney calling the policy "really irresponsible" and unfair to game developers. I interviewed nearly three dozen game developers about generative AI for industry-facing and indie-focused reports, and several of them mentioned Steam's and similar store disclosures, arguing that gen AI use should be clear to consumers. "Gamers have a right to know how their games are made, and
  
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• "What makes an MMO truly special": Hundreds of Old School RuneScape players have become monks and started a holy war after a pilgrimage got out of control

  21-07-2026 21:29 via gamesradar.com
  
  I blinked and a holy war kicked off. Over the weekend, a battalion of Old School RuneScape players gathered together to spread the good word of Saradomin, a pillar of the game's theology, on a pilgrimage through the MMO's PvP-enabled Wilderness zone. One thing led to another, and, well, a second pilgrimage is now planned for July 25, this time targeting a home base of the opposing Zamorak faction that has rallied in response to this all godly do-goodery. On July 18, seemingly hundreds of OSRS pl
  
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• Pocketpair lead tempts fate after Palworld 1.0, asks players what Pals should get new skins and obliterates those who respond "Sekhmet maid skin"

  21-07-2026 20:14 via gamesradar.com
  
  Palworld 1.0 has been out for over a week now, giving players ample time to get to know the survival game's latest monster Pals and their, um, curves. Which is to say, Pocketpair publishing and communications lead John "Bucky" Buckley regrets putting out an open call for new skin ideas. "Theoretically, hypothetically, conceptually, and spiritually…if, with absolutely no promise of it being realized or coming to fruition ever, but if…capital I and capital F…" Buckley writes o
  
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• Clayface star Tom Rhys Harries was inspired by the Arkham games' "effective and psychologically jarring" depiction of the Batman baddie

  21-07-2026 19:22 via gamesradar.com
  
  It's well-known that DC's upcoming body horror Clayface was inspired by the classic Batman: The Animated Series two-parter Feat of Clay. But in a new interview, Matt Hagen himself, Tom Rhys Harries, has revealed that the Batman Arkham games' depiction of the shapeshifting Batman baddie was a touchstone for the DCU: Chapter One movie.According to Entertainment Weekly, Harries not only name-checked the 1989 graphic novel 'A Serious House on Serious Earth' by Grant Morrison and Dave McKean as an in
  
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• Baldur's Gate and D&D owner Hasbro is down $56 million as its strategy of canceling almost everything surprisingly fails to yield games

  21-07-2026 18:55 via gamesradar.com
  
  We're all aware by now that Baldur's Gate 3 was a huge success by every metric available. Sadly, it's a standout amid a strategy that's not bringing in many other returns for Hasbro, the company overseeing Dungeons and Dragons and Wizards of the Coast, which is now reporting substantial losses.The latest earnings report from Hasbro lists an impairment of $56 million on a "refocused Digital Games portfolio for 2028 and beyond." That's a lot of money to watch go down the sink. This comes as the co
  
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• Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced looks like it's hiding evidence of the Assassin's Creed Hexe setting

  21-07-2026 18:42 via gamesradar.com
  
  Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players have spotted a mysterious German cathedral they believe to be linked to Ubisoft's upcoming new mainline entry Assassin's Creed Hexe, in a part of the game that features landmarks from other entries in the series.Replacing the modern day segments from the original game, Black Flag Resynced features various Animus Rifts, weird pieces of terrain that allow Edward to see alternate realities. For example, one of these rifts shows Edward the life he could h
  
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• Final Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer takes emotional rewind through first three MCU films before delivering a Peter and MJ gut punch and extended Savage Hulk fight

  21-07-2026 18:26 via gamesradar.com
  
  The final trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day is here, and it sees Tom Holland's Peter Parker swinging onto screens once again. The new teaser, which can be viewed above, takes us through a brief recap of the first three films, all while Peter recites the letter he wrote to MJ that he intended to give her at the very end of Spider-Man: No Way Home (and yes, I'm still crying). As we fast-forward to the present day, we see Peter take the letter out of its hiding spot before cutting to fights wit
  
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• Palworld 1.0 brings a revelation to longtime fans who never crafted an invaluable item: "I thought they were consumable"

  21-07-2026 18:22 via gamesradar.com
  
  Palworld 1.0 is here, over two years since Pocketpair's hit survival game launched into early access, but many players are only just finding out that they've been avoiding unlocking one of the most useful items at their disposal this whole time. In a Reddit post that's amassed over 1,500 upvotes at the time of writing, one player comes to the site with a revelation: "Lockpicks are infinite," they declare, seemingly causing the bustling fanbase around them to abruptly stop for a moment and gawp a
  
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• Xbox Game Pass isn’t "viable" with so few subscribers, says former Forza lead bracing for more "studios getting shut down"

  21-07-2026 18:15 via gamesradar.com
  
  Forza Horizon 5 director Mike Brown says Xbox Game Pass simply hasn't taken off enough to be viable. Speaking to MinnMax (via Eurogamer), Brown – who departed Playground Games in 2023 and is now directing open-world racer Clutch at Maverick Games – was asked about the current wave of layoffs facing Xbox studios. Brown singles out Xbox Game Pass and says Microsoft "invested a fortune in the concept," which led to teams being acquired, games being funded, and jobs being created. Howeve
  
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• The Game Boy Pocket is now 30 years young, and I'd thank it for today's retro handhelds

  21-07-2026 18:12 via gamesradar.com
  
  30 years ago today, the Game Boy Pocket arrived to show up its '80s DMG sibling. While Ninty's OG brick started the handheld fire way before July 21, 1996, the slimmer, refined portable doubled down on everything that made the original so great while resetting the bar for what a good portable experience feels like to this very day.Alright, I'll admit that the lack of backlight makes the Game Boy Pocket feel super primitive compared to the best retro handhelds today. Nintendo was seemingly allerg
  
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• via gamesradar.com
  
  Cyberpunk 2077 is a six-year-old game at this point, but the open-world RPG probably still offers even its most committed players more tucked-away secrets to discover, according to CD Projekt Red associate game director Paweł Sasko.Responding to a fan on Twitter who hadn't yet realized they could creep through Cyberpunk musician Kerry Eurodyne's laptop and read his aspirations about being painted nude, Sasko says, "Part of our design philosophy is to provide the player with optional ways to
  

• Arc Raiders makes matchmaking even friendlier as players continue to leave, Embark warns it "may take a little longer to find a match"

  21-07-2026 18:08 via gamesradar.com
  
  An otherwise tiny Arc Raiders update released today has made what seems like a sizable change to the game's matchmaking system, with developer Embark leaning even further into its player behavior-driven algorithm. Store update 1.38.0 introduces a customary outfit color swap, but the real meat of the patch is in Embark's newest "matchmaking optimization." "We've heard your feedback on matchmaking," the studio says. "It works well most of the time, but there is room for improvement — especia
  
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• RuneScape CEO is serious about taking World of Warcraft's MMO crown: "Why not swing for the top?"

  21-07-2026 18:01 via gamesradar.com
  
  Being the second-biggest game in any given corner of the medium is nothing to sniff at. It's a competitive industry, and having enough players to stay afloat is a luxury many never manage. RuneScape studio Jagex isn't exactly dissatisfied with silver medals at the minute, but the aspiration is to take the top spot someday.The studio's CEO, Jon Bellamy, made as much extremely clear to The Game Business. "The dream is that we're not the number two biggest MMO brand in the world, we’re number
  
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• Splatoon Raiders is inching closer to shore, but there's still plenty of time to pre-order the Deep Cut-inspired Switch 2 controllers

  21-07-2026 17:42 via gamesradar.com
  
  Nintendo's latest Switch 2 Joy-Con controllers swap the usual red and blue for colors that perfectly match those of the Deep Cut trio from Splatoon Raiders.That makes sense, as these upcoming $99 (Amazon) / £72.95 (Amazon) Switch 2 controllers were unveiled alongside one of the many trailers for the game and launch on the exact same day on July 23, 20026. That's only five days away, but while the game's release is closer than ever, there's at least plenty of pre-order stock available for t
  
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• Modders remastering Fallout 3 in Fallout 4 are not bothered by Bethesda's official version: "Our project has been a community-driven passion project for almost a full decade"

  21-07-2026 17:34 via gamesradar.com
  
  A group of Fallout 4 modders who call themselves the Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland Team have released a statement saying that they intend to continue work on their mod, which aims to rebuild Fallout 3 inside Fallout 4, despite Bethesda announcing that Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters are in development.In a statement released on Twitter, the team says that while they are excited for the upcoming remasters, the Capital Wasteland mod will continue development and the project is completely
  
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• MOBA fans gobsmacked that Blizzard still supports Heroes of the Storm as the dev unleashes an army of updates

  21-07-2026 17:11 via gamesradar.com
  
  The latest Heroes of the Storm patch is here, adding a new map to Ranked, giving multiple characters a nice little rebalance, making some quality-of-life changes. However, the wackiest thing to many onlookers is the fact the game's still being looked after at all.Right up top on the patch notes, is the reveal that Haunted Mines is now part of Ranked play. A good one for anyone who enjoys all things spooky; the Grave Keeper is the announcer, which is always fun.Lucio gets a new skin, called Ruby
  
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• Lego X-Files set revealed, and you'll want to believe you have space for this set in your collection

  21-07-2026 17:02 via gamesradar.com
  
  The truth is finally out there, because a Lego X-Files set is on the way.Recreating Mulder's basement office below a forest clearing and hovering UFO, this massive Lego X-Files set is elaborate; it's effectively two scenes stitched together in 1,400 pieces that you can separate or display together. While Mulder and Scully minifigures are obviously a given here, they're not alone – you're also getting six others including a classic gray alien and The Flukeman. LEGOThe X-FilesUK: £179.
  
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• Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 ports were both in the top 10 US PlayStation games last week despite cheating and DLC mess

  21-07-2026 16:54 via gamesradar.com
  
  Despite being a bit of a terrible deal, the PS4 and PS5 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 both charted among the most played games on PlayStation in the US last week. Earlier this month, Activision released the rumored Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 ports on PS4 and PS5. And despite being the highlight of the franchise for many people, these ports haven't exactly gone down well with fans. First off, unless you have PlayStation Plus to take advantage of a limited-time discount,
  
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• Hideo Kojima says he'd like to die in a movie theater, which is a very normal thing to say

  21-07-2026 16:36 via gamesradar.com
  
  Hideo Kojima says that he always thought he'd die in a movie theater, and that's not entirely unsurprising for the diehard cinema fan."I'm someone who's always thought when I die, I want to die in a movie theater," Kojima said during a panel, in a video he shared to his own Twitter account. "I like the time before the movie starts the best. Enter the movie theater, the lights turn off, the commercials and trailers play, then just before the movie starts is when I want to pass away."This makes pe
  
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• Fallout: New Vegas director says RPGs should be messy and force players to make hard decisions: "No person can fix everything"

  21-07-2026 16:15 via gamesradar.com
  
  Fallout: New Vegas and Pentiment director, Josh Sawyer, has spoken about how he doesn't find it interesting when RPG protagonists can save everyone and fix everything. Instead, his design philosophy surrounds restricting players and forcing them to sit with uncomfortable choices.Speaking on The Examined Game (thanks Kotaku), Sawyer, who is reportedly working on a new Fallout game, explains that even if RPG players have been "conditioned" to be all powerful, he finds it more interesting when they
  
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• In a year defined by price increases, one spec of Lenovo's latest gaming laptop could suggest cheaper rigs to come

  21-07-2026 15:45 via gamesradar.com
  
  After a year of component shortages, demand squeezes, and rising prices it's refreshing to be able to talk about the tech that could well bring the best gaming laptop prices down over the next few years, and it's all in the display. The Lenovo Legion R9000P took to market last week, offering the world's first Inkjet-Printed OLED display on a gaming laptop. The 240Hz panel sits atop the more premium rig, but it's not the sharpness, speed, or vibrancy we're talking about here. Instead, it's the ma
  
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• CD Projekt Red says The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, Geralt's first expansion in a decade, will get a proper reveal next month

  21-07-2026 15:40 via gamesradar.com
  
  We'll be getting our first look at The Witcher 3's upcoming expansion, Songs of the Past, during Gamescom 2026, CD Projekt Red has confirmed.Not only will Songs of the Past be showcased to the public for anyone actually attending Gamescom in Cologne, Germany next month in the form of a "guided presentation," but Geoff Keighley's big Opening Night Live stream on August 25 will see "new information" about the expansion revealed, a press release confirms.Let's face it, it wouldn't take much to prov
  
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• The stage seems set for the Steam Frame's arrival as VR headset shipments are sitting in warehouses, but Valve is apparently still working on its "gamepad mode"

  21-07-2026 14:59 via gamesradar.com
  
  We seem to be on the verge of Valve finally launching the final piece of its 2026 hardware puzzle, the Steam Frame. We're still awaiting word on the launch date and price, but judging by the patterns followed by the Steam Controller and Steam Machine, it seems like Valve is maybe a week or two away from launching its new VR headset. In the last two weeks, we've had an update to SteamVR, the arrival of a new "great on Frame" tag on the Steam Store, and familiar rumors of shipping manifests hittin
  
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• Best Buy's Black Friday in July event brings holiday sales up the calendar for PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, and PC players

  21-07-2026 14:45 via gamesradar.com
  
  123456Shop the collectionShop the collection1Best BuyVictrix Pro BFG Reloaded$139.99$189.992Best BuyRazer Barracuda X Chroma$89.99$129.993Best BuyAsus ROG Falcata$214.99$349.994Best BuyAsus ROG Strix G16$1799.99$2299.995Best BuySony DualSense controller$64.99$74.996Best BuyRazer DeathAdder V4 Pro$149.99$169.99Best Buy's Black Friday in July sale has returned for 2026, and this year we've got a pretty solid split between PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC kit. While some heavy hitters have been left
  
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• District 9 and Gran Turismo director has made a fully AI film, and the internet is not holding back

  21-07-2026 14:07 via gamesradar.com
  
  Acclaimed sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp has shared his work on an AI film. The director behind District 9, Elysium, and Gran Turismo posted a 14-minute-long short film that he made entirely with artificial intelligence on YouTube, which is a mash-up between a military movie and a zombie thriller. Entitled 'Nightbourne', it features 32 AI characters, based on real actors, and tells the story of a helicopter pilot shot down and killed in action. However, it seems the army is actually building zom
  
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• Final Fantasy 14's Third Walk raid starts with FF11's most infamous boss being bodied in a cutscene because a raid designer wanted to show off the true strength of your first foe

  21-07-2026 14:02 via gamesradar.com
  
  Final Fantasy 14's battle content designer Masayoshi Ishikawa says that he put Absolute Virtue in Windurst: The Third Walk just to show how strong Shantotto is. He also jokes that the menace could've been the first boss of Windurst if Shantotto hadn't destroyed it in the pre-fight cutscene.In an interview with Famitsu, Ishikawa discusses the ways he tried to show Shantotto's strength in the finale to the Final Fantasy 11 crossover, Echoes of Vana'diel. Despite being the first boss of Windurst: T
  
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