No Sleep For Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES is the newest entry in Spike Chunsoft’s AI: Somnium Files series and is actually a spin-off of the first two games. As a ‘mid-quel’ between both stories, No Sleep for Kaname Date is a good companion piece for fans of the series but not so much for those unfamiliar. Its visual novel elements are bolstered by new gameplay mechanics that keep the game, and series, from becoming stale.
This entry also sees the return of our original protagonist, Kaname Date. This time around, his idol friend, Iris Sagan, is kidnapped by a UFO and she’s forced to play escape room games in order to stay alive, while Kaname works around the clock to uncover the dark secrets behind Iris’s abduction.
Humble Bundle has a psycho deal for Borderlands fans. Until next Friday, July 25, you can grab every Borderlands game, as well as Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, for just $16. If you’re unfamiliar with how Humble Bundle works, the more you pay, the more you get. So while $16 gets you all eight games, you can choose to pay less to get only some of the games on the list. Conversely, if you pay more than $16, not only do you get all of the games, but you also contribute to charity and video game publishers.
Borderlands x Wonderlands Collection at Humble Bundle
This bundle (a $279 value) includes all of the mainline Borderlands games, the VR version of Borderlands 2, the Telltale games, and more. The bundle is missing the iOS-exclusive Borderlands Legends real-time strategy game, but here’s everything that comes in the collection:
Borderlands
Borderlands 2
Borderlands 3
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Tales From the Borderlands
New Tales From the Borderlands
Borderlands 2 VR
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
And for an in-depth breakdown of how to play all of the Borderlands games in chronological order, we’ve got you covered. Since this deal is specific to PC gamers, It’s also worth noting that every game on this list is playable on the Steam Deck except for Borderlands 2 VR. As of right now, we haven’t gotten any confirmation that Borderlands 4 will be Steam Deck verified or even playable on the handheld, however.
Borderlands 4 has been generating a lot of buzz in 2025, but did you forget that a Borderlands movie actually came out last year? Well, good thing I’m here to remind you that IGN’s Matt Donato reviewed the big screen adaptation, giving it a three overall saying “Borderlands is a catastrophic disappointment that plays like hacked-to-pieces studio slop, betraying everything fans adore about Gearbox Software’s franchise in derivative, regrettable fashion.”
Here’s to hoping the next game brings the franchise back to it’s full potential when it releases in September later this year.
Borderlands 4 Is Available for Preorder Now
Once you’re caught up on the entire Borderlands saga, you can preorder Borderlands 4 before it drops September 12 on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. It promises the same high-octane looting and shooting the core games are known for with some new twists and turns along the way. You can check out IGN’s Borderlands 4 preview for all of the little details we know about the game so far.
Humble Bundle is part of IGN Entertainment, the division of Ziff Davis that includes GamesIndustry.biz, IGN, and MapGenie.
Planet Coaster 2: Fuel Your Park Inspiration with Frontier’s Favorite Xbox Community Builds
Lauren May, Lead Community Manager, Planet Coaster
In Planet Coaster 2, you can push the boundaries of your creativity like never before. With enhanced and improved building tools, you can design a true water and theme park paradise that will delight and thrill your guests.
The latest free updates have included many new features for players to explore including modular souvenir shops, on-ride photos for guests to take home their memories, and tasty sit-down restaurants that can be fully customised to fit any theme in your park. Returning themes from the original Planet Coaster have also unlocked even more creative possibilities!
With this in mind, we’ve picked some of our favourite Xbox community creations from the Frontier Workshop to get you inspired and we can’t wait to share them with you!
These blueprints and park builds show off the fantastic tools and features you can use to create amazing theme and water parks in Planet Coaster 2, which can be downloaded into your game.
1. Lazy River by Baaty
Share Code – 62T-9L7-44L
A lazy river is a classic staple in any water park! The use of scenery items like the inflatables scattered around the pool add a fun moment of realism to the paradise created by the trees and plants along the water’s edge. A great example of the scenery brush, a tool that gives you the ability to place lots of objects in a short amount of time!
2. Ragnarök Ridge – Viking Themed Coaster by BluerRoosterUK
Share Code – 1NY-G28-19L
Building rides in Planet Coaster 2 isn’t only about the visuals! This epic build doesn’t just look great as a focal point for any park, it boasts excellent stats, making it ideal for Franchise Mode. It also features amazing custom animatronics that breathe life into this fierce Viking-themed rollercoaster.
3. Shabadoo’s Electric Garden by Daypass
Share Code – 3JG-Y3Y-S3Y
Dark rides are a fantastic way to play with the lighting in your park, and this ride shows that off brilliantly with a range of glowing scenery pieces and lights that really stand out! The number of lights and effects in Planet Coaster 2 allow you to create awesome dark ride experiences that your guests (and you – thank you first person mode!) can enjoy.
4. AquaAdventure World by SplashZone
Share Code – 2Z6-8J0-PJT
This theme park is what Planet Coaster 2 is all about! Using rocks, water and terrain tools allows you to add levels to the space, instead of having a flat theme park. The fantastic mix of coaster and water park elements on an epic scale looks amazing and goes down well with your guests too.
5. Fantasy Building by Birtie
Share Code – 1F2-J6W-016
Planet Coaster 2’s themes have wonderful versatility for creating details in your parks. By using the Aquatic, Mythology and Viking themes, this park building adds the perfect fantasy flair with all the little details – we want to walk around here ourselves!
If you’re looking for even more inspiration for your wonderful and wacky park building ideas, check out the Planet Coaster 2 community page to see the Featured Creators and Workshop Creations we’re loving right now.
So, what are you waiting for? Dive in and create a splash.
Create a splash with Planet Coaster 2 – sequel to the world’s best coaster park simulator!
Reach new heights of creativity, management, and sharing as you construct the theme parks of your dreams combining epic water rides and coasters to delight and thrill your park guests.
Dive in now!
EMBRACE CREATIVITY
Expand your imagination: Enhanced and improved building and pathing tools let you create spectacular, true-to-life theme parks, complete with sprawling plazas. Make your mark on the world as you shape terrain and populate your park with stunning swimming pools and thrilling rides. It’s never been easier to bring your dream park to life.
Create the ultimate theme park: Dive into a world of creativity with nine distinct themes, from returning classics like Pirate and Western, to exciting new additions in Viking and Mythology. With thousands of themed customisable pieces at your fingertips, every creation will be truly unique.
Next-level customisation: Embark on the coaster park experience of a lifetime as you push the boundaries of creativity like never before! Unleash your imagination as you build the most awe-inspiring themed creations with unparalleled customisation tools! For the first time, intuitively add scalable scenery and objects to every ride to elevate your park and give your guests a day to remember.
Combine epic water and coaster rides: Create the ultimate experience for your thrill-seeking guests using piece-by-piece construction. Build a vibrant array of exhilarating rollercoasters and jaw-dropping thrill rides. Design a seamlessly interconnected park paradise with glistening swimming pools and twisting water flumes.
Create unforgettable experiences: Surprise and amaze as you bring the dramatic flair of real-world theme parks to your guests with the brand-new event sequencer tool, while sophisticated global illumination lighting brings the theme park experience to your home with stunning visuals and striking authenticity.
MASTER MANAGEMENT
Find the secret to success: Balance thrilling your guests with managing your budget – populate your park with amazing efficiently powered attractions and the right amenities to boost your rating and become a theme park master.
Take care: Provide for your guests’ health, well-being, and happiness so your park can thrive. With all-new waterparks comes the need for shade, sunscreen, lifeguards, changing rooms, and more to ensure everyone has their best day both in and out of the pool.
Satisfaction guaranteed: Understanding the wants and needs of your guests has never been easier! The new ‘heat maps’ feature lets you understand the wider park’s needs at a glance before diving deeper into the details -simply select any guest to see how they and their immediate group are enjoying your theme park.
SHARE THE RIDE
Create together: Unleash your collective creativity in Sandbox Mode. Take turns to work on building a park with players around the world using a shared cross-platform save!
Play together: For the first time ever, collaborate with friends in Franchise Mode to create the best theme park empire and compete with others to reach the top of worldwide leaderboards!
Visit together: Soak up the fun and get up close and personal, as you experience other players theme park creations first hand – explore their worlds in first person as a park guest!
Share creations: Share anything and everything! Upload coasters, rides, or even full theme parks for other players, and download and delight in other’s creations. All are easily accessible from the cross-platform Frontier Workshop both in-game and online.
Of the many war-themed board games, Osprey Games’ Undaunted series is arguably one of the best in the current board game generation. These games’ unique deck-building mechanics, mixed with historical theaters of war, including Normandy, Stalingrad, or North Africa, have helped grow its fanbase. And the release of last year’s Undaunted 2200: Calisto took the series from the fields of World War II and into space with a futuristic science fiction entry. Now, the team at Osprey has distilled the experience of the series into a solely deck-building experience with the release of Line of Fire: Burnt Moon. And they’ve done so with a surprising level of success.
Ditching the modular tiles or fold-out boards of the Undaunted games, Line of Fire gives two players a set of five identical location boards, each with an assigned point values. Once all five get randomly placed out for both players, each side deploys forces to the various spots in an effort to hold eight points’ worth of locations, or destroy all of the oppositions land-capturing units, claiming victory.
Turns begin with both players drawing four cards, and secretly selecting one of those to offer up in a bid to gain that round’s initiative. Whoever offers the card with a higher value gets to play first. Both of those cards are then discarded and the first player takes their turn placing out their hands of cards, followed by the second player, and once they are finished, new hands are drawn and the the process starts over.
Set on Jupiter’s moon, Io, in the world of Undaunted 2200, Line of Fire has a science fiction motif. So, instead of troops on the ground, you deploy ROVs – Remote Operated Vehicles – into the warzones. ROVs are composed of four different varieties, divided into A and B forces. Each ROV type has special actions it can take. For example, the MOSS units allow you to capture locations, while the DaCU units can build fortifications that can only be activated by playing an identical unit card on a previously deployed card. Players also have access to a small selection on personnel cards which provide benefits including adding cards to your deck or disabling an opponents ROVs, further adding strategy elements to Line of Fire.
For players who are familiar with Osprey’s Undaunted titles, many of Line of Fire’s mechanics will feel identical, from the initiative bidding to removing casualties. When a unit is destroy in Line of Fire, players first try to remove a copy of that card from their hand. If none are in their hand, they then search their discard, then their deck, then the reserve, and lastly remove the unit on the board that is being attacked. I personally love this approach, as I find searching for hold cards and seeing your supply slowly dwindling away to be far more of a tense experience than simply removing the card that was attacked. It’s also through this method that if ever all of you or your opponent’s MOSS ROVs (the only unit type that can capture) are gone from the deployed regions, you lose.
Despite the box’s small footprint, Line of Fire provides a riveting strategic experience in a fairly short time frame. The matches I played rarely took even a half hour to complete, with games taking even less time the more experience both players have, as you can quickly play your three cards and be done.
The matches I played rarely took even a half hour to complete.
Even with both choices of cards being identical, there is still a good bit of strategy required in Line of Fire. Knowing what cards to add to your deck, where to deploy them, and when to retreat when a battlefield is lost are all key decisions you have to make. Being a deck-building game, there is still some aspect of luck involved, as the cards you have in hand dictate what actions you can take on your turn – but I never found that luck overpowered solid tactics and decision making. That said, I did find that some of Line’s design direction made it harder to get into than I feel it really needed to be, with much of that coming down to the card designs and naming.
Admittedly, I have not yet played Undaunted 2200: Callisto, so this may be less of an issue for some folks, but the naming of the ROVs threw my friends for a loop and never made sense. Terms like “infantry”, “tank”, and “sniper” I can grasp at a glance, but if you were to ask someone which of “MOSS”, “TIR”, “xED”, or “DaCU” was your heavy artillery unit, they would probably look at you and walk away.
Between the random names and various symbols that make almost as little sense as the names, it just makes the cards harder to decipher than they need to be, even with the handy reference cards that both players have. I get that Line is set in the future and leans into the science fiction element, but sometimes it’s just easier to say “my tank is attacking your plane”.
From a visual and component standpoint, Line of Fire is a striking game, with artwork and designs that evoke classic science fiction book covers with blocky-square robots. Both players also have unique artwork for their units, that are also clearly denoted by heavy use of either redish-pink colors or blues for their respective side. This extends even into the storage solution with each player’s cards, fortifications and location tiles all fitting snuggly into a color-coordinated box, that both then are carried in a magnetically sealed box roughly the size of a VHS tape. I’m a sucker for games with good storage solutions, and Line of Fire’s does it’s job splendidly, making it quick and easy to set up and break down, and small enough to fit in your bag to take with you.
As much as I love a good “heavy” game, one that fills my tabletop with decks of cards, a sprawling board, and colorful assortment of components, I also appreciate a small games that I can bust out at a moment’s notice, that I can teach in just a minute or two, and have a great time with. The newest game in my collection that fits that role spectacularly is Flip 7, a card game we’ve featured as one of the best cheap games you can buy. It was also nominated for the prestigious Spiel des Jahres, and won Board Game Geek’s Party Game of the Year during their Golden Geek Awards 2024. It’s very good.
Designed by Eric Olsen and published by the OP Games, Flip 7 at its core is a push-your-luck game where players race to be the first to reach 200 points by playing cards blindly from a deck of cards that range from 0 to 12. For all the numbered cards (except zero), each card has as many copies as its value – there’s a single 1-value card, two 2s, etc. A player’s turn immediately ends if they ever pull a duplicate value card, they choose to pass their turn and take the points they have earned in that round, or if they manage to flip seven value cards, which also earns the player bonus points. Rounds continue until one player has reached those 200 points.
Despite being a simple game, Flip 7 is visually striking with an Art Deco aesthetic and cards featuring bright colors and large numbers. Each number has its own color, with the modifier cards a bright honey-yellow that contrasts with the more tan-centric backgrounds of the number cards to avoid confusion. As a pleasant added touch, some of the frills and decorations on the cards connect seamlessly to one another, allowing you to create a lovely, rainbow-like collage of cards with each one you pull.
Flip 7 has such a low barrier of entry, really only requiring at least one of the players to be able to do simple math (even that you can mitigate somewhat thanks to the free tracking app), and with games only taking maybe 15 minutes, it makes it an easy recommendation for basically anyone. It’s a game that I could just as easily recommend for my friends I play heavy board games with, or my mom, who is more comfortable in the land of solitaire, and know that both audiences would have fun with it. The fact that this game scales up incredibly well, too, for parties is just an added cherry on top.
Where Flip 7 may be a bit of a turn off for some folks comes from the fact that this game is, at its core, a game of pure luck, with the only strategy coming from whether or not you’ll risk drawing another card to try for more points. Ideally, I would have loved if there was a smidge of a hint of an element that lends itself to strategy in here. Flip 7 fills very much the same spot as, say, an UNO or Skip-Bo, simpler games that appeal to a far broader market – but in those games, players have more choices they can make, as opposed to Flip 7’s only real choices it provides players is to either to draw a card or not play.
Among my collection, I have a very elite selection of games, my Glove Box Collective. These are games I like to keep in my car’s glovebox so that I always have them on hand when I go places. These are games that I can bust out at a moment’s notice, when I have a few minutes to kill, when I’m meeting friends at a local brewery, or am simply visiting family. Flip 7, thanks largely to its quick-to-teach and easy-to-play nature, has earned its spot among this most prestigious collection of mine.
I do wish that there was a bit more player choice involved but the tense “should I or shouldn’t I” nature of the game has led to some great moments of celebration where taking that risk has resulted in me winning a game, and those of frustration where I blew through all of my extra chance safety cards back-to-back only to still lose. But such is life in games of luck.
Now it’s time for video games to get in on the act. Upcoming PlayStation 5 exclusive Ghost of Yotei is getting its own official popcorn bucket as the video game crosses the divide into blockbuster movie territory.
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is working with Sony to showcase five classic samurai films inspired by Ghost of Yotei on the big screen in a programming series called Way of the Samurai, and as part of that it will launch a custom Ghost of Yotei-themed menu featuring appetizers, desserts, and cocktails “crafted to complement the mood and mythology of the films.”
But the big draw is the exclusive, 100-ounce Ghost of Yotei popcorn bucket modeled after a traditional Japanese rice bucket. The popcorn bucket launches today, July 17, at AlamoMart.com and will be available in theaters from August 2 to September 4.
The special Ghost of Yotei menu will be available at Alamo locations nationwide during the Way of the Samurai screenings.
The movies are:
LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973, dir. Toshiya Fujita) – A blood-soaked tale of revenge that
influenced KILL BILL and countless others.
LONE WOLF AND CUB: SWORD OF VENGEANCE (1972, dir. Kenji Misumi) – A
brutal, beautiful saga of a disgraced samurai and his infant son on a path of vengeance.
THE TALE OF ZATOICHI (1962, dir. Kenji Misumi) – The first installment of the
legendary blind swordsman series.
13 ASSASSINS (2011, dir. Takashi Miike) – A modern epic of strategy and sacrifice that
redefined large-scale action.
RAN (1985, dir. Akira Kurosawa) – The master's sweeping tragedy of power, madness,
and betrayal.
As for Ghost of Yotei, Sony recently revealed more information on the game during a dedicated State of Play. Ghost of Yotei launches October 2, 2025 on PS5.
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.
Summer! It’s hot. It’s ‘close’, as they say round here. And when you’re already hot and bothered, sometimes turning on your Switch 2 console in portable mode for a quick session, well, it’s not gonna make you any cooler, let’s put it like that.
Unfinished Business sees RoboCop heading to the OmniTower, the latest OCP project turned deathtrap, after a group of mercenaries has seized control and turned it into a fortress.
I’m going to do that thing people don’t like, where I remind you about the inevitable passage of time. If that’s the sort of thing that does about as much damage to you as failing to comply when ordered by ED-209, then look away now. Today marks 38 years since RoboCop’s debut and what better way to celebrate than with a double feature.
On the surface, “RoboCop” might feel like a gratuitous action flick, but that would be ignoring the deep worldbuilding, themes, and characterization explored across these movies. It’s also deeply satirical and not afraid to have fun, with some iconic jokes, gags, and one-liners.
These were a must when it came to building RoboCop: Rogue City, a first-person shooter that launched at the end of 2023 and is available today with Game Pass for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC! As RoboCop, you can hit the streets, interrogate witnesses, and complete objectives in alignment with your moral compass. If you’ve still not checked out Rogue City, now’s the perfect time.
Rogue City was a fantastic success for us, and that’s down to the passionate fans. Their support also gave us the opportunity to work on a follow-up, RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business. If Rogue City is a little more about downtime, exploring Old Detroit, and experiencing the life of RoboCop, then Unfinished Business can be considered playing a high intensity RoboCop movie.
Unfinished Business begins with a group of mercenaries tearing through the Metro West Precinct, bodies and bullets left in their wake. With components stolen from RoboCop’s chair, their objective is clear: the OmniTower. Combine these with the technology at the top, and they can seize control of all OCP technology, including RoboCop. The stakes are high and since the OmniTower is outside the Detroit Police Department’s jurisdiction, it means RoboCop is going in alone.
Unfinished Business follows on from Rogue City, and both games sit between “RoboCop 2” and “RoboCop 3” on the timeline. This gives us a lot of lore to draw from, it means we can introduce new enemies, like the katana wielding androids (those don’t look like OCP tech), or jetpack users, who rain fire down from above. These threats turn each level of the OnniTower into a puzzle that needs to be solved. How will you navigate the turrets, drones, and the small army of heavily armored mercs standing between you and the summit.
One of the most important things for players is that they feel the power of being RoboCop, we’ve kept the option to toss enemies and objects with ease, but we’ve also added powerful environmental finishers where the camera pulls back and see RoboCop in action. This was in response to feedback from our players who wanted to see more of the iconic hero.
Another thing we wanted to do with Unfinished Business is to dive deeper into the man in the machine. Humanity has always been a core theme in this series, and while the bulk of the story takes place in the OmniTower, levels that put you into the shoes of different characters present new gameplay styles that serve as a change of pace throughout the campaign.
When playing as Alex Murphy back when he was a beat cop, players will need to alter their playstyle without RoboCop’s powerful armor serving as a shield. Ammo counts become important when you can’t fall back on the Auto-9, but more than that, it’s an opportunity for us to build on Murphy’s story. The link between Murphy and RoboCop was a crux in the films, something that Peter Weller was known for doing so well, and the reason we needed to get him back for the standalone — welcome back to Old Detroit, Murphy.
ROBOCOP IS BACK ON DUTY TO SETTLE UNFINISHED BUSINESS
FIGHT YOUR WAY TO THE TOP FLOOR
Following RoboCop’s decisive victory over Detroit’s gangs, a new chapter unfolds in this standalone extension set after the events of RoboCop: Rogue City.
The New Guy in Town has been defeated, but the streets are still riddled with crime. A spark of hope comes from OCP’s latest project: OmniTower – a massive housing complex designed specifically to provide for the needs of the residents of Old Detroit.
But when a group of highly trained mercenaries armed with cutting-edge weapons takes control of the building and turns it into their deadly fortress, RoboCop must take action to put a stop to their plans and uphold the law.
FACE A DEADLIER CLASS OF CRIMINALS
Prepare to take on a new breed of enemies: OmniTower is packed with high-tech threats.
From flying drones to exploding bots and anti-personnel turrets, every floor is riddled with deadly traps, and heavily armed elite troops. Expect to face minigun-toting armoured squads, special forces equipped with jet packs or even katana-wielding foes who look more machine than man.
RESTORE ORDER WITH JUSTICE SERVED COLD
When it’s too late to shout “freeze”, you can rely on RoboCop’s arsenal to to cool down enemies’ ambitions. Choose from a wide range of powerful weapons to serve Justice, including the iconic Auto-9 or the all-new Cryo Cannon.
Unleash RoboCop’s unmatched strength to deliver devastating finishing moves – whether smashing an opponent’s skull against a concrete wall or into the nearest drinks vending machine.
PLAY AS ALEX MURPHY AND ED-209
Experience unique missions with familiar faces which reveal more of the storyline of Unfinished Business.
Before becoming RoboCop, he was plain old police officer Alex Murphy, brave and resolute, but all too vulnerable on the beat in Old Detroit. Discover a different side of the legendary law enforcer, voiced by Peter Weller.
Step into the big boots of ED-209 and make the mercs know the efficiency of the iconic urban pacifier in action. This time, criminals won’t have 20 seconds to comply.
Become the legendary part man, part machine, all cop hero and bring justice to the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of Old Detroit.
Uphold the law by any means necessary:
With your powerful Auto-9 or one of the other 20 weapons available, eradicate criminals throughout this explosive first-person adventure. Your cyborg strength and cybernetic abilities can be upgraded as you progress, to make you an even more formidable law enforcement officer.
It’s up to you to decide how to fulfil your prime directives:
Explore open areas and complete your objectives according to your own sense of justice. Finding evidence, interrogating suspects and maintaining public order are just some of your daily tasks as a police officer. But don’t take decisions lightly: your choices can determine the fate of citizens and the result of your mission.
An original story set in the world of RoboCop:
The city of Old Detroit has been hit by a crime wave, with a new enemy threatening the peace and order. Your investigation leads you right into the heart of a shadowy conspiracy in an original story that takes place between RoboCop 2 and 3, with striking locations to explore and familiar faces to meet. Peter Weller, the original RoboCop actor, is even back on duty to voice the cybercop.
The ”Alex Murphy” Edition throws you into the thick of the action for an even more exhilarating experience. It includes:
– The base game
– The ”OCP Shotgun” side arm
– The hero’s damaged armour, taken from the first RoboCop film (cosmetic)
– The ”Prototype” version of the Auto-9 gun (cosmetic)
– Early access to the game, 48 hours before the official launch
– The digital artbook containing 100 pages of images, with comments from the game developers
Julian LeFay, former chief engineer at Bethesda and co-founder of OnceLost Games, is stepping back from game development due to his ongoing battle with cancer, the company announced yesterday.
In a video from OnceLost Games, producer Victor Villareal announced the news. “Our technical producer Julian LeFay, who I’m sure needs no introduction, has been fighting a battle with cancer for the last several years,” said Villareal. “He’s fought bravely and strongly, but it seems he doesn’t have very much time left. He has stepped away from the project to spend that remaining time with his family and loved ones.”
LeFay is often referred to as the “father of the Elder Scrolls” series, as he joined Bethesda Softworks after its founding in 1987 and led the company as Chief Engineer through games like The Elders Scrolls: Arena, The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall, and Battlespire. Julianos, the God of Wisdom and Logic, and one of the Nine Divines in The Elder Scrolls, is named after LeFay.
Dabbling in various projects over the years, LeFay co-founded the studio OnceLost Games in 2019 with former Bethesda colleagues Ted Peterson and Vijay Lakshman, to work on a Daggerfall spiritual successor called The Wayward Realms.
Peterson penned a statement, released in the description of the announcement video from OnceLost games, tracing his history with LeFay.
“I could talk stories about our friendship and how we’ve worked together recently with our team on Wayward Realms as creative and technical directors, but I need to come to the point of this,” wrote Peterson. “Julian has been courageously battling cancer. His doctors have informed us that his time with us is limited, and we are preparing to say goodbye to a true legend of the industry.”
Peterson invited fans to share thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, memories, or simply the impact LeFay’s life and work has had on them.
“To me, this is deeply personal, and I regret every second I didn’t spend with one of the most charming, smart, funny, and interesting people I’ve ever met,” wrote Peterson. “It’s also a spur to action for me: I will not let down his legacy.
“That said, a final quote from the eminently quotable Julian LeFay,” he continued. “He said this at our last team meeting, and I believe it represents him and his beliefs well. ‘It is personal. And if it’s not personal, then you’re just doing work for hire and you’ll never have the motivation to accomplish a significant goal.'”
Mixtape isn’t entirely the retro 90s nostalgia piece you might be expecting from trailers – it’s also a playable job application. Protagonist Stacy Rockford is enjoying one last night in their east US hometown with childhood friends Slater and Cassandra, before Rockford sets off to chase a music supervisor gig in New York City. Mixtape is both a going-away celebration and, on some level, Rockford’s portfolio project, edited together from teenage flashbacks and waiting to be thrust into the hands of a distant producer.