Romeo is a Dead Man, Grasshopper Manufacture’s eccentric new hack ‘n’ slash, is out today. I quite like it. I especially like its main menu screen, a strangely hypnotic fish tank in which captive planets float alongside a coral ballet trophy, and the menu’s text strings try to escape when you’re not looking. There is, precisely, one fish.
Much to like.
Last week, Square Enix had us all scrambling to wrap up Remake as quickly as we could, as it announced that it’ll be bringing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to Switch 2 in just a few months on 3rd June.
We only caught a brief glimpse at how the ambitious follow-up will fare on Nintendo hardware in the Partner Direct, but it was more than enough footage for the tech experts over at Digital Foundry to take a look and suss out what we can expect from a performance perspective.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Hello to all bikers out there! The wait is finally over: Ride 6 is out tomorrow, and it’s time to rev up and start a new adventure. Over the past two years, we’ve poured our hearts into creating an experience that celebrates every aspect of motorcycle culture. Today, we’re excited to pull back the curtain on one of the pillars of this new chapter: how we brought over 40 tracks to life in the game.
As you know, Ride 6 features both real-world and fictional tracks, each crafted with utmost care. Our teams worked hard to recreate iconic locations that have shaped motorcycling history, while also designing completely original tracks that are just as memorable and fun to ride.
For real tracks, the process starts on location. We map the entire circuit from above using drones, capturing anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 photos depending on the size and complexity of the track.
Before flying, we set up 20–25 Ground Control Points (GCPs). These are PVC panels marked with an “X”, and we record their exact positions with high-precision GPS antennas. Once the photos are taken, we link each GCP to every image it appears in, attaching the corresponding GPS coordinates. This method allows us to generate point clouds with an impressive margin of error of just 2.5 cm.
The resulting point clouds don’t just capture the asphalt, curbs, and paddock; they map everything inside and around the track. This detail is crucial for faithfully recreating vegetation, run-off areas, asphalt, and structures like grandstands. Once the point cloud is ready, it’s handed to the Art Team, who use it as the foundation for building the 3D model.
Creating fictional tracks is a whole different story. Here, imagination takes center stage. The design process begins with the experience we want to deliver and the type of bike that suits the track best. The Design Team works closely with the Physics Team to ensure each track highlights the bikes’ strengths while also challenging riders in the right ways, striking the perfect balance between fun and skill.
Some tracks are designed to be fast and flowing, ideal for newer players eager to unleash the full power of their bikes. Usually, these tracks feature long straights, wide corners, and generous lanes to help players get comfortable with the gameplay. In this sense, the Kapadokya Rally is a great example: a gift to off-road enthusiasts, offering a nearly rally-like experience.
Other tracks are tighter, more technical, and aimed at experienced players. The environment we choose plays a key role in this sense, as it strongly affects the overall feel of the track. A circuit winding through a dense forest, for example, gives a far stronger sense of speed than the same layout in an open area. This is something we consider from the very beginning of the design process.
Once the design is finalized, we move on to practical testing. This is a unique phase: the Gameplay Team rides on a completely empty environment, a strip of asphalt floating in space with no reference points. The goal is to give the Design Team feedback on how to refine the layout and make the track as enjoyable as possible. Reference points like a house, a road sign, or a curb are now added to help players find racing lines, learn braking points, and fully immerse themselves in the ride. From here, the Art Team takes over to bring the track to life in 3D.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you learned something interesting. See you on the track when Ride 6 launches February 12!
Milestone S.r.l.
Live the RIDE
RIDE 6 isn’t just about riding – it’s about who you become on your bike. It’s where passion turns into identity, and every race becomes a statement. It’s time to prove what it really means to be a rider – to yourself and to the world.
Beyond the asphalt
Collect and ride 250+ bikes from various categories, including Baggers and Enduro. Leave the asphalt behind and feel the thrill of the dirt on new off-road tracks for an even more complete riding experience.
Join RIDE Fest
Celebrate your passion for two wheels: start your career in the atmosphere of a motorcycle festival, choose your path, and challenge 10 legendary champions, from Casey Stoner to Guy Martin. Each will push your skills to the limit, testing you across different disciplines, bikes, and tracks.
Do you have what it takes to claim your place among those legends?
Ride your way
Whether you want to master the basics or you’re looking for the ultimate challenge, RIDE 6 adapts to your gaming style. The Arcade Experience gives you the thrills of instant riding, while the Pro Experience delivers full control and simulation depth. And with the new Bridgestone Riding School, you’ll be ready to face every challenge at your best!
Online, no limits
Race online in full cross-play, claim your spot at the top of the leaderboard, and show off your custom bikes, suits, and helmets.
The post Crafting Speed: The Technology, Creativity, and Art Behind Ride 6’s Track Design appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Last year was a big year for No Man’s Sky. Even we struggle to know how we pulled off so many large updates last year – Worlds Part II and Voyagers were both transformational and released in the same year, interspersed with smaller but significant updates in Relics, Beacon and Breach. As we head into our 10th year post release, our small team is excited for our first update of the year.
Our new update is called Remnant and it introduces something that we’ve been wanting to give players since the very beginning – a gravity gun!
The Gravitino Coil is a powerful new anti-gravity module for your multi-tool. It turns No Man’s Sky into a physics playground. Allowing you to grab large objects and fling, toss or carefully carry them around the world.
Salvage and debris that could always be found on planets can now be collected and recycled for rare and highly prized resources. New trucks, tipping flatbeds and haulers can be constructed, to transport resources back to industrial yards for reclamation. You can work alone or join a salvage crew with friends.
It creates this really fun and tactile new loop of searching for wrecks, loading trucks full of cargo and hauling across the alien landscape to industrial yards to gain new loot and rewards.
Sorting and depositing materials in these all-new Waste Processing Plants will reap great rewards. Some of the scrap is highly volatile though and must be transported extremely carefully. It’s hard to resist over-stacking your truck, finding one more piece you think you can cram in, and then trying desperately to transport this house of cards on the back of your flatbed.
Our gravity gun is an industrial tool, but it can also be used as a ballistic weapon, grabbing sentinels or fling heavy objects, turning them into projectiles.
Vehicles can be hugely customised, to create bespoke trucks and haulers for your needs. Build your own brightly coloured incinerators, spider legged sci-fi explorer or heavily armed military vehicles with tank tracks.
The Remnant Update comes with a limited-time community expedition. It brings travellers together in convoys to clean up and reclaim a planet covered in wrecks and salvage. Perhaps you’ll be a hauler, or the gravity gun wielding ground crew or maybe a scary yard operator.
There are beautiful rewards, including dozens of new vehicle parts, and an all-new beautifully crafted armour set, with plush, padded fabrics and ornate steam punk detailing.
2026 represents 10 years since we launched on PlayStation and I couldn’t be prouder. For any game to reach such a milestone is a privilege. It wouldn’t be possible without your continued support and we genuinely appreciate it.
Our journey continues.
Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games has set expectations ahead of tomorrow’s big State of Play broadcast from PlayStation, as anticipation mounts for a fresh look at its upcoming Wolverine game.
Sony’s State of Play show is due to air tomorrow, February 12 at 2pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern / 10pm UK time, and run for at least 60 minutes — suggesting PlayStation has plenty up its sleeves.
But will we get a new flash of adamantium during the showcase? Perhaps not. Overnight, Insomniac Games has posted on social media to lay out when we’ll next see more of Marvel’s Wolverine — seemingly ruling out any big reveal this week.
When asked “when more info” by a fan, Insomniac Games’ official account has now responded: “spring 2026.”
With spring not due to start for another month, that answer seems decisive. Still the news is perhaps surprising, considering the fact that Insomniac appeared to drop a pretty obvious hint at Daredevil being in the game only last week, and the fact that this month’s leaked PlayStation Plus games apparently will include Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 (which would have been a nice chaser to a new Wolverine trailer). But perhaps Sony is instead planning a dedicated Marvel’s Wolverine State of Play to show the game in the months to come?
Sony’s last major State of Play broadcast, held back in September 2025, finally treated fans to a proper reveal of Wolverine gameplay, at least. The game is likely PlayStation’s biggest first-party launch of the year — and, of course, we’re already tracking all of its Marvel Easter eggs. As a reminder, Wolverine currently sits with a vague-ish launch window for the second half of 2026 — though when this will be narrowed down further, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Look at all the mess lying around. You can’t move for discarded detritus on the planets of No Man’s Sky. Good news, then, that the space sandbox’s latest update delivers a gravity gun and interstellar rubbish collection lorries that’ll help clean those worlds up a bit.
The developer behind voxel sandbox Allumeria claims Microsoft have withdrawn a DMCA takedown filed against the game over alleged copyright infringement. According to an email posted on Discord by Allumeria developer Unomelon on February 10th, the strike accused their work of using content from Minecraft without Microsoft’s permission.
Have you ever fallen in love?
I did nearly a decade ago, with Overwatch, Blizzard’s hero shooter of near-immaculate design. But that relationship sadly became strained, distant even, ever since its decision to move on from those initial glory days and reinvent itself as a sequel. Well, now Overwatch has gone and seduced me all over again, like a Hanzo scatter arrow delivered straight from Cupid’s bow. And it’s all thanks to one woman: the corporate villainess tank, Domina. And it has absolutely nothing to do with those thighs.
This week saw the launch of a new era for Overwatch. Blizzard has ditched the “2”, implemented a long-overdue menu overhaul, kicked off a brand new, year-long story, and, crucially, added five brand new heroes to the roster. You’ve got Anran, a fire-fan-wielding damage-dealer; Emre, a tactical operative equipped with more firearms than actual arms; Mizuki, a cursed ex-yakuza member with a healing hat; and Jet Pack Cat, who is, well, a cat with a jet pack. And then last, but certainly not least, is Domina, an incredibly destructive tank with a deadly pulse-action laser beam, explosive crystal bombs, and a giant extra pair of mechanical arms that erupt out of her shoulders. I think I love her.
Vaira, if I should be so bold as to use her real name, is the sort of aggressive tank character that I’ve always been drawn to in Overwatch. With nearly 300 hours clocked in dive tank D.Va alone, it’s pretty clear that there’s nothing more satisfying to me than launching a behind-enemy-lines attack on an objective and absorbing all of the opposite team’s attention as I try to cause as much chaos as possible. Domina isn’t a dive tank, though. Yes, she can cause huge amounts of damage like everyone’s favourite South Korean mech enthusiast can, but if I were to compare her to anyone, it would be a powerful combination of the reworked Orisa and Reaper.
Domina is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to taking the enemy head-on, thanks to a couple of skills that deter foes. One is a very large shield that looms high over her and her teammates. I have to say I was initially worried about this ability, since I still carry mental scars from that period when Overwatch was a complete shield-fest five or six years ago — never again do I want to see a Bastion and a Torbjorn turret sitting behind an Orisa and Reinhardt shield combo on that dreadful first Paris choke point. But Domina’s force field has a fun wrinkle that plays tactically into both teams’ approach, as squares can be punched out of it with a moderate amount of damage, creating literal windows of opportunity for those faced with it. It’s a smart approach to shielding in Overwatch that, at least right now, feels balanced for both attackers and defenders.
Then there’s her sonic repulsors, a pair of energy blasts fired from the palms of her extra mechanical hands. They not only deal a bit of damage, but also boop people away from her. I’ve already had maybe too much fun pushing players off the edge of Illios and Lijiang Palace’s perilous points like a super-sized Lucio. Combine that with a crystal grenade that floats through the air towards enemies before detonating, and a laser beam that fires off a shotgun-like burst at the end of a trigger pull, like a devilish combination of Symmetra and Reaper’s weapons, and you have a hero who can single-handedly run an entire match. I did tell you it wasn’t about the thighs.
Look, I’ll admit that she’s probably too powerful right now and will, in all likelihood, be subjected to a nerf in the coming days or weeks. But while she’s here in all her glory, I can’t recommend Domina enough.
That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of fun to be found elsewhere in Overwatch right now — this entire update is a genuinely incredible shift for a game that only a short time ago faced an existential threat, and it’s inarguably more enthralling to play now than it has been in many, many years. That being said, I do still yearn for those glory days of 2017 to 2019, and find myself queuing to play its unranked 6v6 mode more than any other. It still feels the most balanced, satisfying way to play Overwatch, and if Blizzard was ever to fully revert back to the two tank, two support, two DPS team structure of old, I think Overwatch would truly own my heart once again.
As for now, I fear my beating chambers belong solely to Domina and her stacked set of skills that simultaneously feel fresh, but also referential to the Overwatch of old. As I’m writing this, I’m counting down the hours until I can play as her again and send people falling to their doom down an Illios well, or imprison them in her explosive Panopticon ultimate ability.
I can’t help but smile when I see that Overwatch is benefitting from its highest concurrent player numbers in over a year, and feel happy for the developers who have worked so tirelessly to make sure this universe that people love so much will not die. This update has made me fall back in love with a game I once held closer to my heart more than any, and a large part of that is down to how fun its five new heroes (but mainly Domina, let’s be honest) are. If Overwatch carries forward this momentum into the rest of 2026, it may become a problem for the rest of my social life.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
The cherry blossom arrives.
Japan’s cherry blossom-filled sakura season may still be a month away, but Marvelous is bringing the petals in early with the new Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar update.
The ver. 1.4.0 patch is now live on Switch and Switch 2, introducing two new cherry blossom-themed gliders (the ‘Ceremonial Glider’ and ‘Leaf Glider’) alongside new deluxe bingo cards, bonus hair and eye colour options, and a couple of other tweaks and bug fixes.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
We already knew that Overwatch fans were returning in their thousands with the advent of its new name and “story-driven era,” but Overwatch hasn’t just matched its original Steam release-day fervor, it has smashed it, more than doubling the platform’s concurrent peak set back in 2023.
You’ll remember that Blizzard’s sequel unfortunately stumbled out of the gate, and while it saw a massive surge of players at the start, those numbers dropped in the following year. As time went on, user reviews complained about a number of issues such as monetization and controversies around the cancellation of the game’s long-awaited PvE Hero mode.
Now, however, with the launch of yesterday’s (February 10) first year-long storyline, The Reign of Talon, Overwatch — the game formerly known as Overwatch 2 — smashed its original concurrent Steam peak of 75,608. And while we’d already seen a spike in players over the weekend, Sunday’s peak of 69,135 simultaneous gamers has been almost tripled, with SteamDB recording 165,651 concurrent Steam players overnight, marking an excellent start for the rebooted hero shooter.
The Reign of Talon focuses on the antagonistic faction Talon as it takes over around the world, while Overwatch continues to fight back. In-game events, hero trailers, animated comics, short stories, and map updates will tell a story across six seasons rolled out throughout the entire year, beginning with the launch of five new heroes as the new season kicked off yesterday.
New heroes include Domina (tank), Emre (damage), Mizuki (support), Anran (damage) — who some of us met over the weekend — and Jetpack Cat (support). More heroes will join in the future, with a new hero added in each of Season 2-6 to come. A new story arc is planned to begin with another Season 1 in 2027.
We’re also getting a Hello Kitty-themed in-game event from February 10-23, a new Meta Event called Conquest, where players choose to align with either Overwatch or Talon over five weeks to compete for rewards including lootboxes, skins, and titles. There’s also a major UI and UX overhaul with a new hero lobby and a promise of faster navigation on the way.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
