I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that mixtapes (or Spotify playlists now) were an important part of those crucial, formative teenage years. I’m also sure that I’m definitely not alone in the shared experience of putting together the perfect playlist to share with my friends or a significant other. Simply put, those playlists tell a story. And while the ones from my teenage years may seem like nothing more than whatever cool metalcore bands I was into and in at the time, te memories created from those long lost CD-Rs and iTunes playlists still stick with me years later.

The importance of music during that formative but extremely awkward time is how we expressed ourselves and built an identity. The subgenres and scenes were as important to me as anything during those teenage years playing in garage bands, getting sunburned at the Warped Tour, and sifting through thousands of MP3s on my beat-up laptop in order to build that week’s lineup of songs.

In video game form, Mixtape does – at least so far – an excellent job at invoking the feeling of needing that perfect soundtrack for day-to-day life. From the start of the demo, I was skating in a picturesque northwestern town during golden hour while listening to Devo’s “That’s Good”. The vibe check was passed immediately when the protagonist, Stacey, breaks the fourth wall and explains the importance of good headphones and a good playlist. Mixtape’s presentation is a hybrid of a traditional point-and-click adventure similar to Life is Strange, mixed with abrupt but natural fourth-wall breaks for exposition and what the characters are feeling in that moment. While this isn’t a new thing, very few games have managed to pull it off like Mixtape does, and it has yet to overstay its welcome.

From the few chapters I’ve played, Mixtape seems best described as a blend of a video game and a stylish TV show. The camera work and intentionally low frame rate animation on the characters lend a charm to it, and the dialogue, while a bit campy, never took me out of the moment. Stacey, Slater, and Cassandra are very much your typical teenage archetypes in the best way possible. While they weren’t annoying or overbearing like some rebellious teen-fronted games tend to be, the trio are definitely written in an unrealistic way that works perfectly for the story Mixtape is trying to tell. It’s obvious that these three are meant to be stereotypical in a way that evokes a feeling of nostalgia from the player. There were a few moments where I found myself saying “been there before,” and for a story that’s clearly trying to invoke a specific feeling of anemoia (nostalgia for a time that never existed) with the player, it nails that.

Let’s talk about Mixtape’s namesake. The music here, while not necessarily anything that would have landed on one of the thousands of CD-Rs I made as a teen, is outstanding. In the little bit of the campaign I played, the needle drops included a mix of songs ranging from Devo to Silverchair, which show the potential diversity of Mixtape’s final soundtrack, and I’m glad the developers at Beethoven & Dinosaur didn’t go with your run of the mill “safe” selection of hits from the ‘90s. It’s obvious that the team is digging deep with the music selection in order to not only tell its story about music snobs hoping to craft the perfect mixtape in order to get a job as a music supervisor, but also tell the story about the final day of three teens’ high school years.

Of course, vibes and music aren’t everything when it comes to video games, and the gameplay is where Mixtape started to feel a little flat. While there were a few moments in the demo that required a bit more interactivity than finding something highlighted on screen, such as escaping from the police in a shopping cart, throwing toilet paper at Stacey’s principals house, and positioning Stacey and Slater into various poses in a photo booth, the select chapters I played felt like they were missing the welcome bit of interactivity that other point-and-click adventures offer. While the best moments had a decent amount of gameplay, a few chapters felt like I was watching a (very polished) interactive show rather than playing a video game. That being said, Mixtape’s gameplay isn’t necessarily the selling point here, because every time I found myself thinking about it, something cool would happen on screen, the needle would drop, and I would be pulled right back into Stacey Rockford’s story.

After playing 30 minutes of Mixtape, I can clearly see the direction Beethoven & Dinosaur is looking to take with this ‘90s-set teenage adventure. The visuals are striking, its sense of nostalgia and warmth are unlike anything I’ve seen recently, and the needle drops definitely made me want to play more than what the demo allowed me. Is it going to be everyone’s favorite thing? Probably not, but that’s the fun of making the perfect mixtape, isn’t it?

It Takes Two and Split Fiction director Josef Fares has posted the first photo from the set of developer Hazelight Studios’ next project.

The image shows Fares, dressed in a cosy-looking sweater, in front of three actors in performance capture suits. Clearly, work has now begun on Fares’ next game — and intriguingly, he seems to be doing his best to disguise who the actors are.

With his arm outstretched and thumb raised, Fares is successfully blocking most of all three actors’ faces — and this appears to be by design. “Next game in the making,” Fares captioned the post, with a thumbs up emoji. “We’re back in the kitchen, cookin’ up something really delicious,” the official Hazelight Studios social media account responded, adding: “Now with Strategic Arm Placement Tech.”

✌️We’re back in the kitchen, cookin’ up something really delicious! 🥘

Now with Strategic Arm Placement Tech®️

— Hazelight Studios (@HazelightGames) February 10, 2026

Fans of Fares’ games have commented on the post to say they are suitably uncertain who the actors involved might be — though many more have noted the fact that Fares is using this first sneak peek to showcase three actors being visible. Could this signify a three-player game, after the studio’s recent focus on titles featuring a pair of prominent characters?

“Three-player Hazelight Game?” wondered one fan, Spenny99. “It Takes Three?????” questioned Jcbartlett25. “It Takes Three lookin great Mr. Fares,” added hotpicklepizza.

Co-op adventure Split Fiction launched last year to rave reviews, and went on to sell more than 4 million copies. Its story focuses on a pair of writers, Zoe and Mio, who become trapped in their interweaving sci-fi and fantasy narratives.

“An expertly crafted co-op adventure that pinballs from one genre extreme to another, Split Fiction is a rollercoaster of constantly refreshed gameplay ideas and styles – and one that’s very hard to walk away from,” IGN wrote in our Split Fiction review, awarding the game 9/10.

Fares’ previous game It Takes Two also proved popular, with its story focused on a husband and wife who plan to get a divorce. We called it “a beautiful, breakneck-paced, co-op adventure that’s bubbling over with creativity,” in IGN’s It Takes Two review, which also returned a 9/10.

Before that, Fares previously released prison escape adventure A Way Out, starring two convicts, and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, starring… two sons. Should Fares actually be making a three-player game, it would indeed be a break from the norm.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Take one look at Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the upcoming RPG from ZA/UM, and you can immediately see the similarities between it and the studio’s previous game, Disco Elysium. It’s an isometric game with a striking art style, featuring dialogue-heavy gameplay where conversations are displayed vertically on the right-hand side of the screen.

Take a closer look and there are even more similarities. There’s a “Conditioning” system that replicates many of the functions of Disco Elysium’s unique Thought Cabinet. Its story aims to be deeply political and introspective. And then there’s the skills system, which manifests as a sentient inner monologue, commenting on your choices and the world around you.

For some Disco Elysium fans, this overlap may feel uneasy. In 2022, game director Robert Kurvitz and art director Aleksander Rostov – creatives key to the look, feel, and vision of the celebrated RPG – were among a number of staff who left the studio in an “involuntary” manner. ZA/UM claimed they were fired for misconduct, while Kurvitz and Rostov accused the company’s majority shareholders of fraud. Many fans believe those fired to be victims of corporate conspiracy. Those same fans may now be concerned to see the studio building a Disco Elysium successor based on such similar design foundations without the involvement of those original creatives.

In a recent interview, IGN discussed these concerns with Jim Ashilevi, writer and VO director at ZA/UM, and asked why the studio didn’t consider finding a new direction for Zero Parades.

“I think it would have made sense for us to go in a completely different direction if the entire team was comprised of new talent,” Ashilevi said. “But since such a large number of the key players that built Disco Elysium are here to build Zero Parades, it just didn’t make sense for us to just disregard that part of our experience as amateur game makers and start learning new ways of telling stories.”

ZA/UM’s head of studio, Allen Murray, estimates that around 35% of the studio’s current staff roster is made up of people who worked on either the original version of Disco Elysium or the expanded “Final Cut” release. The studio’s total staff numbers around 90.

“We’re still the same people,” Ashilevi continued. “We still have the same interests. The stuff that interests us in the world of video games, but also in other media – in film and literature and theater – that hasn’t changed. Hopefully it has evolved, but I think we’re still basically the same people.

“We’re just going by our gut, basically, and we’re following our own obsessions,” he said. “And a lot of that was present in Disco Elysium. It will be present in Zero Parades as well, largely due to the fact that those are the same people who were there to build that cool world.”

In a previous interview with members of ZA/UM, which took place just prior to Gamescom 2025, IGN asked Ashilevi and lead technical artist Nicolas Pirot how they felt about fans who may be feeling cautious about a new ZA/UM RPG following the departures of Kurvitz, Rostov, and others.

“I understand why some people might have reservations,” said Pirot. “It’s not up to me to tell them what to think or what to experience. I think what we are trying to do is tell an incredible story. And I think all we can do is hope that, when Zero Parades is ready, that people like it enough to participate and to see who we are as a group.”

“We are here to write more stories,” Ashilevi added. “That’s all we’re here for. And if that upsets people or makes them feel cautious, fair. But there is a new game coming out soon and I hope you check it out. And if you don’t like it, that’s fine. That’s completely fine.”

ZA/UM intends to launch Zero Parades this year. An espionage RPG themed around power struggles and failure, the team hopes it will stand distinct from Disco Elysium without “fully re-inventing the wheel.”

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.