Author: Game Infliction

There’s an old idea that second efforts generally aren’t as good as the first. It’s called the sophomore slump, and there are a dozen reasons for it. Sophomore students don’t care as much as freshmen; bands have less time to write, practice, and record a second album than the “breakout” hit they worked on for years before anyone knew who they were; athletes who have exceptional rookie years regress to the mean; and so on. There’s no denying the power of new car smell. I think part of the reason College Football 25 popped off as hard as it did (and trust me if you’re unsure: it popped off) was it’d been more than a decade since NCAA 14 and people really, really wanted a new game based on college football. It didn’t hurt that it was also a good game, but the yearly “it’s the same game as last year” fatigue of the sports genre hadn’t set in yet. That makes College Football 26 the real test.

I’ll be honest, reader: I haven’t had a ton of time with this sequel yet (I’ve been busy finishing up my review of Mecha Break, which I thought was pretty great), so these impressions are going to be pretty light. One of the things I’m interested in as I play more is how this car handles after we’ve put some miles on her, and if it falls into the same slump so many games, bands, and students have hit before it. But while that remains to be seen, I’m having a pretty good time so far.

Part of that is College Football 26 is built on a really firm foundation. College Football 25 was a good game, and it still has that infectious spirit and sense of tradition that made it a nice change of pace from the more straight-laced Madden. From what I’ve seen, College Football 26 builds on that in good ways. One of the things I’m appreciating most is the Trophy Room, which tracks the real world trophies you’ll accumulate across your entire career, no matter what mode you’re in. It’s cool to see stuff like the Heisman Trophy, the Unitas Golden Arm Award, and the Orange Bowl Trophy collected in one place, and be able to learn about them, too. There’s a lot of history to college football, and I appreciate that EA has tried to capture that.

So far, most of my time has been spent sneaking Quick Play games in where I can, so I haven’t really dug into College Football’s major modes too much yet (something I plan to remedy this weekend), but I have noticed some on-the-field stuff that makes me happy.

The little change I’m happiest about is to how defenders play the football when it’s in the air. If you’ve played College Football or Madden in the last few years, you’ve probably been intercepted (or had one of your defenders intercept) a pass that they can’t see without turning around. They’ve essentially got eyes in the back of their heads, and it could be very frustrating. EA has said they’ve changed that, and in my testing, it’s proven true. Now a defender has to see the ball to pick it off, and you’ll notice defenders turning their heads (or not) before the ball arrives. If they don’t, however, it doesn’t mean that defender can’t make a play on the ball. They can still swat it. It’s a good change because it’s two-fold: you now actually have a reason to swat the ball down instead of going for the pick every time, and better defenders can now make plays average ones can’t.

I’m also a big fan of dynamic subs and custom zones for defenders. The former allows you to swap players on the field and not just on the playcall screen (thank God), though you may have to wait a play for the substitution to take effect, and the latter is the defensive version of last year’s custom stems for routes on offense. I enjoy the defensive game more than the offensive one, so being able to set where I want my zones to be on the field in real-time and not in a menu is welcome. I’m enjoying playing around with this stuff, and I imagine I’ll be using it quite a bit.

Now that I have the time to really dig into College Football 26, I am excited to see all the new additions to Road to Glory, where I’m really looking forward to being able to play my high school career, as well as all the new bells and whistles in Dynasty, which is where I imagine I’ll be spending most of my time. But the on-field stuff is where it counts. I can’t say yet if EA has avoided the sophomore slump with College Football 26, but I’m going into this year optimistic, and that’s not nothing.

Some of my favorite childhood memories come from playing co-op games with my friends over summer break. Now, as an adult, summers don’t quite hit the same. Whether it’s the weight of the world bearing down on me or the severe lack of couch co-op games, I’m not sure. But, every once in a while, a special game comes around that brings me back to that feeling of pure joy.

Split Fiction, the follow-up from It Takes Two developer Hazelight Studios, launched earlier this year and features another amazing co-op adventure designed specifically for two players. Despite being only a few months old, the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game are already discounted to just $35 during Prime Day. Don’t wait too long, though, as Prime Day ends tonight at midnight PT.

Split Fiction Drops to $35 on Amazon

Looking for active Parasite Testing codes? We’ve got all the working codes for this Roblox experience, so you don’t have to search for them. Redeem each one for rewards like credits to buy weapons or leveling up to access the armory sooner!

Working Parasite Testing Codes (July 2025)

Here are all the current active codes you can redeem in Parasite Testing as well as the rewards you’ll get from them:

• PUPPETEER – 50 Credits, 10 Levels

Expired Parasite Testing Codes (July 2025)

The below codes have unfortunately expired and will no longer work. We’ve included them here so you know not to bother trying to redeem them:

• ACOLYTE
• 2KSERVER
• 1M VISITS
• 1KSERVER

How to Redeem Parasite Testing Codes

Redeeming codes in Parasite Testing isn’t too hard once you know where to look. Follow these simple steps to start getting those rewards:

1. Launch Parasite Testing
2. Interact with the laptop in the first room you spawn in. You can see it in the screenshot above.
3. Enter a code in the box that says, “Enter a code…”
4. Press the big green Submit button to redeem your code.

Why Isn’t My Parasite Testing Code Working?

If you’re having trouble redeeming a code, there are two common reasons why it may not be working:

• The code is expired
• The code has been entered incorrectly

If a code has been entered incorrectly or has expired, you’ll see a message that says, “Not a valid code”. In order to avoid this, we recommend copying and pasting the code directly from this article. As long as you don’t accidentally get an extra space in there when copying it, it should work if it’s active. We make sure to check and test every Parasite Testing code before we add them to this article.

Where to Find More Parasite Testing Codes

We always recommend checking our article here for up to date codes since you can rely on us to verify which ones are working. But, if you’d prefer to search for some Parasite Testing codes on your own, you can check the dedicated Discord server.

What is Parasite Testing in Roblox?

Parasite Testing is a Roblox experience that revolves around shooting eldritch creatures. A large red biomass will keep spawning parasites that evolve when attacking players. If you let them get too close, you’ll become infected and have to worry about your teammates taking you out. Depending on the parasite type, you’ll either respawn or can fight researchers while infected.

Eliminating creatures and infected players will give you credits and level you up. This will help you unlock new weapons for taking on tougher creatures. But you can also use traps to wipe out hordes of parasites via decontamination or electricity.

Jeffrey Lerman is a freelance game journalist for IGN who has been covering games for over a decade. You can follow him on Bluesky.

Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller has addressed criticisms that Blizzard Entertainment “dropped the ball” when it comes to things like story content, PvE, and animated shorts.

The face of Blizzard’s popular hero shooter opened up about the team’s struggles during an interview with content creator Jay3 and Overwatch 2 voice actor Conor McLeod. Although the multiplayer title is largely known for its team-based gameplay, Keller recognizes that some story content will need to “come back” for Overwatch 2 to be “firing on all cylinders.”

“One of the things that we hear our players talk about a lot, you see online… it feels like Overwatch has dropped the ball when it comes to story and lore,” Keller said in response to a question from McLeod. “You kinda see that. We used to put a few more of the big animated shorts out than we do nowadays.”

pic.twitter.com/gLo6fdyWhQ

— Laurence @ Drawing💙 (@volskayadottxt) July 11, 2025

Overwatch animated shorts are a sore spot for fans. Blizzard originally built excitement with a series of high-quality cinematics from 2016 to 2023, with each highlighting abilities for characters like Reinhardt, Hanzo, Genji, Mei, Bastion, and more while also showing how many of its 43 playable characters fit into the larger story. What began as somewhat frequent lore drops eventually started to fizzle out around the release of Overwatch 2 in 2022. It’s been nearly two years since fans received a 3D-animated cinematic.

Frustrations with the lack of animated shorts reached a boiling point when Blizzard announced it would be scrapping its PvE Hero ambitions in summer 2023. With a long-promised story-driven mode canceled and animated short releases crawling to a halt, Blizzard had to start from scratch. Although it’s been years without a significant update, Keller says the Overwatch 2 team hasn’t completely left story behind.

“To speak frankly about it, we did have a big plan to go after story in the game. That was the PvE side of it with the campaign and everything like that,” he added. “That didn’t work out. So, it was kind of a bit of a reset moment for us when that happened, and we would like to get back to it. I think one of the best parts of Overwatch is the universe and the characters that are there. That’s definitely a goal of ours to get back to it. There’s been a bit of a step backwards that we had to take in order for us to be able to start moving forward on it again.”

Blizzard announced a gameplay facelift for Overwatch 2 in February of this year. During its breakdown, the studio announced a major new PvP game mode called Stadium as well as the return of free loot box cosmetic rewards, two new Heroes, and a gameplan for the next year of content. Many of these additions, including a fundamental gameplay change called Perks, have launched since, signaling that Blizzard has found its footing as it makes good on significant promises.

Many of these changes have been accepted with open arms by the Overwatch 2 community, but as new players flock to see why fans are suddenly talking about the 2016 hero shooter again, the desire for story content still echoes across Reddit threads and X/Twitter posts.

One idea many fans – including McLeod – would love to see is an Overwatch TV series. Keller says he’s not opposed to the idea, going as far as to say “we’d love to do that.” It’s unclear how, when, or if Keller and the Overwatch 2 team will be able to enter another golden age. One thing is clear: Keller knows Overwatch fans want more story content.

“I think for us to say that Overwatch 2 is firing on all cylinders, we need to have some of that come back,” Keller said.

Overwatch 2 is currently in the midst of Season 17: Powered Up, which features a selection of retro-gaming-inspired skins, Mythic cosmetics for Reaper and D.Va, new Stadium Heroes, and crossover content with G.I. Joe. Time will tell if Blizzard is able to regain lost ground, but in the meantime, you can read about how many players are finally enjoying Overwatch again after years of downtime. You can also check out the 2025 Stadium roadmap for a closer look at some of the content set to arrive in the near future.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor 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).