In 2021, publisher Skybound Games put out Before Your Eyes on PC and Mac (later on mobile and PSVR2), which offered an innovative control mechanic in which you primarily interacted with the game through eye movement and blinks. Alongside this cool gimmick, Before Your Eyes was lauded for its gripping emotional story, quickly turning it into an indie favourite that garnered a passionate following.
Now, the developers at GoodbyeWorld Games have created a spiritual sequel called Goodnight Universe, which both builds on some of the themes of its predecessor and introduces some cool ideas of its own. Though it currently lacks the eye control feature on Switch 2 (a Camera update is planned “sometime after launch”), it still proves a worthwhile narrative experience.
How To Survive the Alien Swarm in Let Them Come: Onslaught, Out Today
Thomas Chretien, Co-Director and Producer, Tuatara Games
Summary
Let Them Come: Onslaughtis a retro sci-fi bullet heaven game, launching November 11 for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One.
Combine and upgrade incredible weapons in order to decimate the never-ending hordes, avoid environmental hazards or use them to your advantage.
Check out these bitesize tips to learn the basics and prepare for success on the battlefield.
Brace yourself for a relentless alien assault in Let Them Come: Onslaught– launching today on Xbox Series X|S – where bullet heaven gameplay collides with the gritty spirit of retro sci-fi classics.
Each run challenges you to create the perfect build from an arsenal of over-the-top weapons and explosive upgrades, shredding alien hordes in a display of retro-fueled chaos. And to give you the upper hand on this hostile alien world – where even the planet is trying to kill you – we’ve collated some top tips to ensure victory for Xbox players everywhere.
Outlast The Onslaught
Offense Is King: In order to not get overtaken by the swarm, you must make sure your damage output is growing steadily throughout your run. There are also many offensive options to upgrade in the Armory between runs to make sure you have the firepower needed to survive.
But Don’t Neglect Defense: Although offense should be prioritized, defense is also essential in the long run. The Shield that can be equipped when leveling up will protect you from one hit and reactivates after a cooldown. Combining the Shield, Health Regen and Armor Plating can drastically extend your lifetime.
I-Frames Are Your Friend: There are a few ways to get invincibility frames: after taking a hit, after a Super Shield runs out, or after using the Soldier’s dash ability. Get used to how long you have invincibility so you can sneak through enemy waves and reposition.
Chaining Up Dashes: If you have multiple dash charges available, you can chain them in quick succession to get through huge waves of enemies. There are enough invincibility frames for you to stay untouchable as long as you chain dashes.
Hunting For Health Packs: Health packs can sometimes drop from mini bosses, but the most reliable way to find them is in common crates. It’s worth exploring the level and breaking them to heal steadily throughout a run.
Emergency Healing: When leveling up, you’ll sometimes be offered an option to increase your Max HP by 150. Selecting this option will not just increase your max health, but also heal you by that amount. When you are close to death, it can be a life saver.
Not All Enemies Hit as Hard: Bigger enemies tend to deal more damage than small ones or enemy projectiles. If you are surrounded and you know you can’t avoid taking damage, try to get hit by a small Spiderling to limit the damage received and use the invincibility frames to flee through tougher enemies.
Hunting For Credits: Credits are also primarily found in common crates, but they can be awarded from completing specific missions as well. A great way to earn more credits is to purchase the Extermination Contract upgrade in the Armory – this will randomly give you more credits for killing mini bosses. After killing the main boss of a level, you will be rewarded with a bonus enemy wave that drops credits. Finally, did you know that completing a level gives you a bonus multiplier on the credits earned? And playing on Hard Mode will also reward you with an additional credit multiplier!
Missions or Supply Drops? During runs, bonus missions and supply drops can trigger at the same time, and you’ll have to make a choice on which one to go to. There are a few factors that can help you make that split second decision.
With missions, you can see what the reward will be in the upper right corner of the screen. If you like the proposed reward, you should prioritize doing the mission first, because with Supply Drops you never know what the reward is until you break it.
Missions also usually show you how far you are from the target. So if you are about to run out of time and the mission is still too far, it’s better to change your priority and go get the supply drop instead.
Weapon Of Choice
Weapon Balance: Different weapons serve different roles. Some are good to push back enemies, but will deal less damage. Some can be aimed to target specific enemies while others attack randomly and work better when the screen is full of enemies. Some damage enemies near you while others have longer reach. The key to a successful run is to experiment with weapon combinations and find the style that fits your needs.
Invest In Your Weapons: Many weapons begin to show their potential at Level 3. For example, the Shotgun gets Double Shot, the Electric Grenades are now fired in batches of two, and the Flamethrower will make enemies catch on fire. If you find that your build is struggling, it might be because you have too many weapons under Level 3.
Shotgun Versus Repulse: Both of these weapons are specialized in pushing back enemies. Repulse is better when it comes to pushback in general because enemies get pushed all around you, but the Shotgun deals more damage and can cripple enemies, reducing their movement speed. If you have issues surviving the enemy hordes, you could try using both, but you might have trouble defeating the boss at the end of the level due to limited damage output.
Autogun Versus Blaster: Both of these weapons have low cooldown and automatically aim for the nearest enemy, making them easy to use. The Blaster requires more skill, however, because you’ll need to stand still to increase the firing speed. At low level, this weapon is a bit underwhelming, but at high level it’s a great tool to focus on bosses with nonstop damage output.
Electric Grenades Versus Rocket Barrage: These weapons share a lot in common. They both fire in random directions and deal lots of damage in a large area. The biggest difference is that the Grenades attack close to you while the rocket barrage fires further away. Depending on your build, you might want to prioritize one over the other. Or get both for huge damage output, but you’ll be relying on RNG to hit the right targets.
Let Them Come: Onslaught blasts its way onto Xbox Series X|S on November 11, 2025. Now you’re fully prepared for the horrors that await you on this hostile alien world. Happy hunting!
Brace yourself for the explosive action of Let Them Come: Onslaught, a fast-paced roguelite shooter where survival means adapting, upgrading, and unleashing devastating firepower. Battle relentless alien swarms across procedurally generated stages, unlocking new weapons and stacking brutal upgrades with every run. Whether you’re clearing the screen with flamethrowers, orbital strikes, or Photon Sabers, the power is in your hands. Experiment with different loadouts, refine your strategy, and master the retro-inspired bullet heaven loop. With an original synth-driven soundtrack by Cartridge 87 and escalating waves of enemies, this game will push you to the limit.
Games Workshop has sparked shock and anger among Warhammer 40,000 fans after it killed off two main characters from Space Marine 2 via a brief lore update posted on its website.
Captain Demetrian Titus, Master of the Watch, is now once again Captain of the Ultramarines Second Company, a position he had already held before he was taken into custody on suspicion of heresy by the Inquisition after the events of the first Space Marine game.
In the context of Titus’ promotion, fans had expressed concern over the fate of Sevastus Acheran, the former captain of the Second Company and Master of the Watch who dishes out missions (and can never spare enough men) in Space Marine 2. Now we know what actually happened.
In a lore update post on Warhammer Community, Games Workshop revealed what Acheran got up to following the events of Space Marine 2. And yes, as fans feared, he’s dead.
Confirmation comes from a four paragraph lore explanation in the article itself, which reveals Acheran went out in a blaze of glory fighting a Genestealer Cult on the hive world of Trygg. That’s that. Acheran is dead. But it gets worse.
It turns out Lieutenant Chairon, one of Titus’ squadmates from Space Marine 2 and who was conspicuous by his absence from Games Workshop’s Titus reveal, was by Acheran’s side and also died at the hands of the Genestealer Cult. Chairon doesn’t even get more than a shout out, despite being the more prominent character in Space Marine 2.
Here’s how it went down:
Every last Space Marine that landed on Trygg was slowly worn down in a series of increasingly desperate battles. When Imperial reinforcements arrived to purge the last of the cult, they discovered that Acheran, Chairon, and the rest of their brothers had sold their lives to cull untold numbers of xenos hybrids.
It’s fair to say Warhammer 40,000 fans are a tad upset not just by the news of the characters’ deaths, but how Games Workshop revealed the news. Many are saying Acheran and Chairon deserved better than to be killed off-screen, and should instead have got their moment in either Space Marine 2 DLC or the confirmed Space Marine 3. At the very least, the characters could have been dealt with in a short story or, better still, a Warhammer 40,000 novel. But no. All they get is a few pars in a Warhammer Community article most fans won’t even read.
“They had so much options,” said redditor Fit_Fisherman_9840 on the Space Marine subreddit, which is currently up in arms. “Make Chairon the new LT, or since his hate for the traitor make him the company Judiciar. And Acheran? Make it a dreadnought for f*** sake.”
“What a bummer about Acheran and Chairon,” said Thinsul over on the Warhammer 40,000 subreddit. “Killing them both off screen, especially Chairon as a Primaris that was born during the Heresy, is really low. It should have happened in a DLC or maybe a animation.”
“He died as he lived, unable to spare any more men,” Beaker_person said of Acheran’s demise on the 40kLore subreddit. “Is there anything more grimdark than to die offscreen?” joked ChaoticMat.
And what does this all mean for the other Ultramarines in Space Marine 2? Are they dead, too? In particular, fans are wondering about Chaplain Leandros, who was not mentioned as being among the dead alongside Acheran and Chairon. Perhaps he’s still out there somewhere, casting an inquisitive eye on Titus as he tries desperately to reclaim Ultramar.
All of this probably feeds into Space Marine 3 in some way, assuming the sequel picks up after the events of 500 Worlds or takes place during them. We know next to nothing about the game, but we can probably count poor Acheran and Chairon out.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
NetEase Games has published an X-Men animated series-inspired trailer for Marvel Rivals Season 5: Love is a Battlefield, revealing Rogue and Gambit as its newest playable characters.
The trailer for the latest season of NetEase’s popular hero shooter features a romance theme that puts everyone’s favorite X-Men couple center stage. In typical Marvel Rivals fashion, there’s no gameplay for the mutant heroes here yet, but it does feature a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tease featuring none other than Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops. It also sounds like original X-Men ‘97 voice actors A.J. LoCascio (Gambit) and Lenore Zann (Rogue) will be heard voicing the two lovebirds when Season 5 launches November 14, 2025.
“This season centers on Mr. and Mrs. X, Gambit and Rogue, after the Timestream Entanglement interrupted their dream wedding,” Marvel Rivals creative director Guangyun Chen a.k.a. Guangguang said in its Season 5 Dev Stream. “To make up for the disruption, Gambit has planned a honeymoon full of surprises for Rogue. But when their journey leads to a world built by the Elders of the Universe, can their love survive the ultimate cosmic test?”
Gambit leads Marvel Rivals Season 5 as its first playable hero and its next Strategist. The card-throwing, staff-wielding X-Men is said to blend his kinetic abilities and combat skills to offer a unique playstyle for players. Expect to see his powers healing allies, cleansing negative effects, and even applying anti-heal to enemies. Gambit kicks things off later this week, but we’ll have to wait to learn more about Rogue. Expect to see her and her power-absorbing abilities debut at the Marvel Rivals Season 5 mid-season update in around one month.
Alongside its new X-Men heroes, Marvel Rivals Season 5 is set to introduce a new 18 vs. 18 Conquest (Annihilation) mode in the new Grand Garden map come November 27. A new non-combat map, Times Square, is also on the way for Season 5, allowing up to 100 players to gather, dance, and mingle in between tense matches.
NetEase will also soon celebrate one year of Marvel Rivals with a special anniversary update. Those who join the festivities when they begin November 27 will be gifted 2500 Units, as well as a free, school-themed Legendary Jeff the Land Shark costume. More gameplay adjustments, accessories, anniversary costumes, and other updates will arrive as Marvel Rivals Season 5 rolls on.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has said he “scratched his head a little bit” after seeing the company’s first line-up of Switch 2 software.
Speaking to The Game Business, the ex-Nintendo veteran shared his thoughts on the company’s handling of the Switch 2 this year, as well as Nintendo’s position in the video game market overall compared to Microsoft and Sony.
Discussing the dominance of PlayStation, Fils-Aime, who left Nintendo in 2019, said he expected the company to continue to thrive alongside Nintendo as the latter would never position itself as a direct competitor. As for Xbox, Fils-Aime expressed surprise that Microsoft hadn’t already released more games for Nintendo’s new console.
“From a business perspective, when I first saw that line-up, I scratched my head a little bit,” Fils-Aime said of Nintendo’s decision to fill Switch 2’s first six months with Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby’s Air Riders, a new Hyrule Warriors game and two cross-gen titles: Metroid Prime 4 and Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
It’s not a threadbare line-up by any means, but it lacks the big one-two punch of a new 3D Mario and Zelda that the Switch received during the same time period, alongside a breakout new franchise: Splatoon.
“Certainly, what I underestimated was the enhanced Nintendo Switch 1 content, which I think has been compelling,” Fils-Aime continued. “The stuff that you get for free as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, I think that has helped drive some of the momentum. And then certainly, [Donkey Kong] Bananza was a key driver for them.”
Fils-Aimé was more complementary about Switch 2’s potential to act as a platform for the biggest third-party games, though said that Nintendo needed to ensure it was enabling other developers to take advantage of its hardware potential in the same way it did — squeezing enormous games like Tears of the Kingdom onto a tiny cartridge through intimate knowledge of the Switch’s innards.
“But let’s be clear,” Fils-Aimé stated, “Nintendo, in my opinion, will never position themselves as a direct competitor to PlayStation. It’s not in their DNA. It’s not how they think about the business opportunity. However, would they welcome some of the latest core gamer-type of content, whether it’s the latest Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty, onto their platform? Absolutely. Do I think that there’s a player base there for those games? Absolutely.
“The key, and this is something that the team there thinks about every day, is making sure that third-party developers have the tool sets so that they have the full capability to bring the best of their games onto Switch 2.”
One company that has notably held back from going all-in on Switch 2 is Microsoft, which launched a couple of games on Switch 1 (including Grounded and Pentiment) but is yet to discuss any future plans for Nintendo’s platform.
“I’m surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced Switch 2 from a software perspective,” Fils-Aimé noted. “Certainly some games could easily be ported over to Switch 2. And I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more of that. I thought there would be much more, especially during this timeframe leading into the Holiday. All through the fall, I was fully expecting some dedicated announcement,” he continued. “And I’m surprised it hasn’t happened.”
After bringing Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush to PlayStation 5, Nintendo fans have been waiting patiently for Microsoft to confirm those games, and others, for Switch 2. There’s also the small matter of Microsoft’s previous pledge to launch Call of Duty on Nintendo hardware — though there’s no sign of that happening for this year’s Black Ops 7. Perhaps 2026 will finally see Microsoft make its intentions clear.
Ultimately, Fils-Aimé said he had “enjoyed” playing his Switch 2 so far, though noted: “the company did not send me one for free.”
Image credit: Samantha Burkardt/Getty Images for SXSW.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
I think it’s fair to say we got a bit of an unexpected gift when Square Enix re-released Romancing SaGa 3 for Switch back in November of 2019.
While it may not generate quite the same level of excitement as your Final Fantasies (and that’s understandable), Romancing SaGa 3 deserves any plaudits it gets for bringing a level of freedom and randomness to the RPG genre that was quite unique back in 1995. In fact, the whole series does.
As a lover of puzzle games, what can elevate my puzzle-solving experience more than having horrifying monsters breathing down my neck and ready to snap said neck if I fail to solve their puzzle in time? I love these types of games that keep me on edge for hours on end, so Routine is exactly the type of aesthetically pleasing and brutally tense kinds of horror experience I’m always on the lookout for. And with a deeply cool 80’s-tech lunar setting and the beginnings of a story that has me interested in seeing more, I’m willing to overlook some of the things I was less impressed by during the roughly 90-minute demo, like the fact that the monsters searching for me were about as bright as the desks I hid behind and underneath. It remains to be seen if the story will pay off as much as its promising setting and compelling vibe might imply, but I’ll definitely be diving deeper in the future to see how it shakes out.
Routine is one of those horror games where you’re forced to run around solving little puzzles while absolutely horrifying monsters stalk the halls, ready to kill you on sight if you fail to avoid their notice – you know, in the same vein as something like Alien: Isolation or My Friendly Neighborhood. That comes with all the same pros and cons as its genre peers, where you have these really tense moments as you manage to solve a puzzle and rush through a door just before the bad guy you can’t possibly hope to kill catches up with you. But you then also have plenty of instances where you’re stuck in a room waiting for the dumb bad guy to turn around and walk away, leading to lots of moments where the tension sours into a monotonous waiting game. I tend to really enjoy these kinds of protracted hide and seek sequences, even if they do occasionally involve a bit of waiting, so this was right up my alley.
In this particular case, I found myself on a moon base that had been taken over by killer humanoid robots, whose lidless, unblinking eyes searched for me as I repaired various broken electrical systems and tried to get through each area unnoticed. The ambience of this dilapidated lunar base with an ‘80’s tech aesthetic really worked for me, clearly drawing inspiration from fellow retro-tech science fiction worlds like Alien. But Routine also brings with it a unique sense of humor, with silly arcade games to play in between sweat-inducing horror sequences and cheeky, non-murderous robot helpers to find along the way.
Routine’s immaculately creepy vibes, unique retro aesthetic, and tongue-in-cheek jokes in between bouts of utter terror, all coalesce in a way I haven’t seen before.
This is one of the biggest ways in which Routine sets itself apart, as its immaculately creepy vibes, unique retro aesthetic, and tongue-in-cheek jokes in between bouts of utter terror, all coalesce in a way I haven’t seen before. I didn’t get a very strong sense of whether or not the story will deliver something worth all the stress and jump scares along the way, but hopefully all this neat worldbuilding will translate into something as awesome as the setting. With some solid environmental storytelling and hints at some kind of mysterious viral disease at work, it has certainly piqued my curiosity.
The areas I explored ranged from= fairly unremarkable metallic hallways filled with busted droids and signs of something catastrophic having happened recently to really neat areas like an abandoned arcade with janky retro games to play and a shopping mall littered with debris. And, of course, since the whole thing takes place on a base on the moon, they take every opportunity to give you a nice view of the beautiful majesty of good ol’ Selene. Gotta love that. I’m a tad skeptical that they can manage to keep things interesting when you’re stranded on a fairly generic space station on a barren rock in outer space, but hey, so far so good.
Although much of the demo I played featured some fairly by-the-numbers puzzles, like finding codes around the world to enter into a keypad to unlock a door, it also had some neat mechanics built around the C.A.T device you’re given early in the story. This tool is basically just a handheld camcorder that can also do things like fire an electrical bolt at targets in your path. What’s cool, though, is that it evolved as I progressed, like when I unlocked an ultraviolet mode called the Ultraview Module that allowed me to see trace substances like bloodstains that helped me solve some of the space station’s more unintuitive riddles. I only unlocked two modes in my time with it, but it’s clear that upgrading this bad boy is going to be the primary way in which you power up, and so far I like that idea quite a bit. It’ll be interesting to see what clever new uses they find for it.
While you upgrade your C.A.T., read snippets of lore around the space station, and solve puzzles, you’ll find yourself almost constantly hunted by extremely violent robots that chase after you on sight with intent to kill. Naturally, that makes even the most simple brain teasers that much more stressful, as you spend every other second double-checking over your shoulder, or wincing when you hear a robotic sound come from somewhere nearby. It’s not exactly an original premise, but it’s certainly the classic type of horror gameplay I’ve come to know and love over the years – and something we could definitely use more of.
One thing that was a bit disappointing, at least during my extremely early time with the story, is just how easy it was to outsmart the fairly dim robots hunting for me, to the point where I never actually was killed during my time playing. They make a ton of noise as they march around electronically, give up the chase as soon as you start running away since they can’t hope to compete with your speed, and don’t do a very thorough job searching for you if you’re hidden in an obvious corner they haven’t bothered exploring yet. What’s more, one of the abilities you unlock for your C.A.T. early on, is a mode where you can tase the robots chasing you, shorting them out for a second or two to buy valuable time you need to get away, as if it weren’t already easy enough as-is. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t still as intimidating as hell – the robotic shrieks they make every once in a while made my skin crawl, and the few times where they were able to get close without me noticing sent me screaming in the opposite direction. They may not actually be very deadly killers (at least early on), but they’re still pretty damn stressful to be around nonetheless.
Last week, Game Developer reported that the organisers of Geoff Keighley-fronted industry awards show/advertising extravaganza The Game Awards had revealed that they’ve got no plans to do anything with their Future Class initiative this year. That’s left the programme, founded in 2020 with the goal of highlighting up and coming talents in and around game development, facing a black hole of a future. Even worse, those featured by the initiative during the years it did run have been left feeling frustrated and unable to access the webpage which confirms they were ever part of the programme.
Fortnite developer Epic Games has detailed how it will soon allow third-party sellers to offer “paid random items” within the game’s creator-made modes — something that opens the door to loot boxes, fans have said.
Back in September, Epic Games announced it would begin allowing third-party creators to sell in-game items in the near future. As of today, creators now have access to the tools necessary to do so, though the feature is not yet live in the game. (To be clear, there’s no suggestion that Epic Games will begin offering randomized items for use within the game’s main modes, such as Battle Royale, which it develops itself.)
An array of blog posts are now available detailing the rules that Fortnite creators must follow when selling items within their own modes — including a series of legal restrictions that blocks randomized items in certain countries and for some users under the age of 18.
“In addition to your responsibility to comply with laws, you must comply with certain restrictions that apply when offering Paid Random Items,” Epic Games wrote in a blog post titled ‘In-Island Transactions Restrictions.’ “Failure to utilize the functions described below will constitute a violation of Epic policies.”
The sale of randomized items is fully blocked in Singapore, Qatar, Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium — a list that includes several countries which have fought back against video game loot boxes in the past. In the United Kingdom (and Brazil, as of March 2026) paid randomized items are blocked to players under the age of 18.
Epic Games has also stipulated that any transaction involving a random item must disclose the odds of whatever is included within it.
“For example,” Epic Games wrote, “if you offer a health potion pack that has a random chance of granting either 5, 10 or 50 potions, you must disclose the odds of their potential award before purchase (e.g., 60% chance of granting 5 potions, 30% chance of granting 10 potions, and 10% chance of granting 50 potions).”
A wider pool of countries are restricted from seeing direct prompts to purchase (such as “buy now!). This list includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada (under 13), Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France (under 17), Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom (under 16).
General restrictions on the sale of in-game items also exist, and are fairly straightforward — there’s a whole list of rules around not copying or providing confusingly-similar items to those Fortnite does already. Clearly, Epic Games has already pre-emptively assumed some creators will do this to encourage or hoodwink players into spending money.
Back in September, Epic Games singled out Fortnite’s big rival Roblox by name when explaining how creators will get a better cut of in-game revenue on its own platform. Fortnite creators will earn 37% of in-game sales, temporarily doubled to 74% for 12 months, until December 31, 2026. By comparison, Roblox offers 25% of in-game revenue to creators. But it remains to be seen how many Roblox developers can be tempted away to Fortnite, and also exactly how creators will begin selling in-game items — even within Epic’s rules.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
