Let’s start this one with a definition: Lethal Company is “one of those kinda games.” By that I mean it’s a four player co-op title that doesn’t really adhere to a particular genre, predominantly prioritising mechanics that allow you and some friends to get up to some shenanigans. Like Content Warning, or REPO, you know, one of those kinda games! Now we’ve got that out of the way, let me introduce you to Roadside Research, one of those kinda games, except this time you are an incredibly poorly disguised alien running a gas station in order to research humans. See what I mean?
Resolution Games has revealed a debut gameplay trailer for Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, and confirmed a late 2025 release window and launch platforms.
Resolution Games, best known for digital fantasy tabletop adventure Demeo, is working with Wizards of the Coast on the first virtual reality game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, called Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked. It’s due out on PC via Steam, and PlayStation 5, with a VR version available on PlayStation VR2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest 3.
Battlemarked adapts D&D classes, actions, and lore to Resolution Games’ Demeo action role-playing system, which is DM-less and focuses on social strategy rather than social roleplay. This, Resolution Games said, encourages group tabletalk focused on tactics and decision-making.
“While the world of Demeo is rich with lore, our previous titles focus primarily on tactical action over motivation and narrative,” said Tommy Palm, founder and CEO of Resolution Games.
Resolution Games is working with story designer Matt Sernett as the project’s narrative lead. Sernett previously worked as a designer of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game and contributed to Dungeons & Dragons video games including Baldur’s Gate, Baldur’s Gate 2, and Icewind Dale.
“When Dungeons & Dragons launched fifth edition back in 2014, the first adventure that many players went on ventured into Neverwinter Wood, and I can think of no place better for Battlemarked players to begin their journey,” said Sernett.
“The first adventure in Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked will take players to familiar locations including Cragmaw Castle and Mount Hotenow. The world of D&D is just as much a part of the story as its characters, and we can’t wait for players to immerse themselves in its dangers and delights.”
Battlemarked’s second adventure, which will be included at launch, will be revealed later this year.
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.
How do you follow up a game like Umurangi Generation? Maybe move from photography to videography, or go full shooter (which developer Origame Digital do appear to be making too, that one’s just not had a full reveal yet). Perhaps instead of either of those things, you’ll make a game about penguins, which, yeah, no more beating around the bush, that’s exactly what they’ve done. Introducing: Penguin Colony, a narrative adventure game based on H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.
When Nintendo properly revealed the Switch 2 back in April, it also confirmed that a new Pro Controller would be accompanying the console as an optional peripheral.
Now, most of us here have gone hands-on with the new controller at some point or another, but the lovely Alex has spent quite a bit of time with the ruddy thing playing the likes of Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour. In his latest video, he has a good ol’ natter with Felix about whether or not the new Pro Controller is actually a necessity.
This mystery sets the stage for Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, Bungie’s upcoming expansion to the FPS looter shooter launching July 19. Guardians receive an invite to new planetoid Kepler via a time-displaced train car, seemingly from modern-day Earth. Kepler is precariously held together by a black hole, which threatens the entire solar system if destabilized. The resulting quest introduces time distortions, new enemies, and novel abilities unique to Kepler.
I spent hours with Bungie’s upcoming expansion, which includes a robust single-player campaign and other game-changing updates. I adventured across Kepler testing out a powerful new arsenal, transformed into a nimble ball of energy, teleported through traps, and much more. I also tinkered with Destiny 2’s new Portal system, SoloOps, and Arms Week updates, which will be available to all players (no The Edge of Fate purchase necessary).
Let’s dig into some of the highlights.
Kepler’s unusual terrain: The new planet’s exterior is rocky and dusty, overgrown with a yellow webbing and bulbous growths evocative of alien fungus. Time distortions affect the environment, features abandoned facilities and technology. Trains seemingly from Earth have mysteriously crashed on Kepler, hosting portals into unknown realms.
New friend Lodi: This fresh face greets players on Kepler, who seems mighty interested in the Guardian’s ties to Earth and a possible path back. Consistent with Kepler’s time distortions, Lodi looks and talks more like someone more from our time, dear reader, rather than the world of Destiny. He also serves as a handy narrative device for Bungie to introduce the universe of Destiny 2 to new players.
Explore with Matterspark orb: Guardians can tap new energy reservoirs and hold Square button to morph into a crackling Matterspark orb. This new contextual ability lets you zip around the battlefield, blast enemies with electricity, and explore nooks and crannies. During one combat encounter I disabled a miniboss’s shields by overcharging generator pylons hidden in the battlefield. It’s an energizing and novel change of pace. Guardians can eventually summon this power at will for even more combat and exploration options.
Teleport with the Relocator: This new piece of tech lets you take aim in third-person on distant nodes and create a temporary portal. This transportation tool lets you squeeze through narrow openings or traps, and cross vast distances to continue the quest. Bungie combines this new device with the Matterspark to create fun, inventive environmental puzzles to change up the pace.
Change the environment with Mattermorph: Pluck a chunk of potent fungus to imbue yourself with a curious Dark Matter ability – Mattermorph. Hit R1 (melee) to throw strand projectiles at glowing environmental objects like rocks and wall panels, which morphs them into new pathways through the air and across the environment. Players eventually combine these abilities to assemble craft paths through complex environments.
Potent new Exotic weapons: I experimented with three of The Edge of Fate’s intoxicating new exotics:
Graviton Spike: A hand cannon with arc and stasis modes – one charging the other as you shoot.
New Land Beyond: Stack up precision hits with this sniper rifle to stack up massive damage multipliers.
Third Iteration: My favorite. A heat-vete scout rifle that rewards precision by erupting fallen enemies in a blast of energy and making you temporarily invisible.
Desperate mission to restore power: The “Charge” mission is the latest campaign mission I played, and it was also my favorite. The quest to restore generators is sprinkled with a mix of environmental puzzles and intense fights. Stitching together Matterspark, Mattermorph, and Relocator abilities to power generators resulted in some tricky-yet-satisfying obstacles. The mission culminates in a battle against two bosses with shields that can only be destroyed by the Matterspark’s powered-up overcharge ability, activated with L1 + R1 buttons.
Power Plant siege: The “Transient” campaign mission tasks players to disable the House of Exile’s power plant. This cavernous facility hosts tech drawing energy from the planet’s fungal colonies. At one point in the mission enemies rig explosives that must be defused by defending a radius for a set time period. The ultimate goal is to overload the station’s core to disable an enemy warship with an immense power surge.
Portal menu: This new menu offers all players a new option to dive quickly into Destiny 2’s most popular content. Bungie’s goal is to spotlight modes with guaranteed paths to growing Guardians’ power and arsenal. This quick-play shortcut highlights modes like SoloOps, Fireteam, Pinnacles, and Crucible. The World map still provides the traditional interactive galaxy map Guardians are used to.
SoloOps: These new single-player challenges let players customize challenge modifiers (e.g. enemy melee attacks slow you, you take more damage in mid-air, enemies drop fire hazards, etc.) to increase chances for valuable rewards. Below are three of the Solo Ops I played:
The Salt Mines: Hunt and destroy Splinter targets throughout a cavern and blast through a gauntlet of bosses in the final stretch.
The Conflux: Clear entrenched enemies from a cave network, then fight a shielded boss across floating platforms in the final section. Disable its shield by throwing fallen energy orbs at it.
K1 Logistics: Venture beneath the Moon’s surface to exterminate old enemies. Deactivate a series of shielded control panels to carve a path to the end boss.
Armor set bonuses: New set bonuses entice all players to collect matching gear for extra benefits. For example, the Aion Renewal armor characteristic rewards two matching set pieces with a weapon-based speed boost, and four matching set pieces with a reactive speed boost when afflicted with slow or stasis.
Arms Week and the Shooting Range: This event launches shortly after The Edge of Fate, available to all players. The marquee feature is a new Shooting Range on The Tower that lets one to six players test their arsenal, calculating damage numbers as individuals and as a team. Arms Week also features new weapons and mods to chase, events to complete, and more.
Set your Fireteam’s course for Kepler when Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate launches on July 19.
Earlier this year, Palworld developer Pocketpair announced their intent to get into games publishing using some of that Scrooge McDuck-size swimming pool of money they’ve acquired over the past year. They already had a game signed up too, from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU developer Surgent Studios, and today said indie dev has offered a small tease of a reveal at their upcoming psychological horror game Dead Take.
The challenge of playing Elden Ring Nightreign solo has been a hot-button issue since the game’s launch, but director Junya Ishizaki has confirmed solo clears are quite doable. He knows, because he’s cleared every boss in Nightreign already, by himself.
Speaking to CNET in a recent interview, Ishizaki was asked whether he has beaten every boss, including the final one, himself.
“Yes. I can hopefully give you reassurance to know that I have beaten all of the game’s bosses,” said Ishizaki. “I’ve seen everything it has to offer, both in multiplayer and as a solo player. So I want you and players to know that this is very possible, and I want you to have the confidence to give it a try yourself.”
CNET followed to clarify that Ishizaki was saying he had soloed every boss in the game. “Yes,” Ishizaki confirmed. “And without relics.”
While that’s a pretty dang impressive accomplishment in and of itself, I do like the notion that Ishizaki’s clears are also meant to be encouraging for other players. If he can do it, essentially, then you might be able to as well. I don’t know about the “without relics” part, though. You can give yourself a little bit of leeway on that.
There have been other players who have been clearing both individual bosses and the full roster of Nightlords solo as well. Still, the solo experience of Nightreign has been under scrutiny, and not just for its difficulty, but also for how some mechanics (like revival) feel more oriented around teamplay than solo.
Even if the difficulty is getting tuned down, though, Ishizaki’s clears can still be inspiring for those struggling against the Nightlords in their own runs. When the rains pick up and the storm closes in, you can know someone else has already done it, and so can you.
The State of Unreal 2025 showcase has just offered us a first glimpse at what playing The Witcher 4 might look like, via an Unreal Engine 5 demo build that featured Ciri exploring the wilds and a village in Kovir. Kovir was also confirmed to be a location you’ll visit in the final game, so start packing your bags.
Without question, the biggest discussion surrounding Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour has been its price point – meaning, that it has one at all. Welcome Tour will sell for $10 on the Nintendo eShop on Switch 2 launch day, and for a piece of software mostly focused on teaching players about the new console they just spent at least $450 on, many people – myself included – have argued that it should have been a pack-in game. Price drama aside, I recently spent about 45 minutes with Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, and to be completely honest, came away somewhat intrigued and maybe even a little bit excited to play the full thing on June 5.
Before you call me a shill in the comments, let me be perfectly clear: I’m not totally in love with this game, and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is not going to interest most players, in my estimation. But if you’re a mega Nintendo enthusiast like me, who follows the company’s quarterly financial results, reads every Ask the Developer article on Nintendo’s website, and could tell you the differences between a DS, 3DS, New 3DS, 2DS, and New 2DS XL, this is for you. Welcome Tour is an edutainment game with the goal of teaching you everything about Nintendo Switch 2 through exploring, minigames, tech demos, and quizzes, and it has just enough of that Nintendo charm to make it work.
After selecting my character from a seemingly endless line of honey-I-shrunk-the-kids-sized avatars (I really wish Welcome Tour featured Pikmin running around the console instead!), I was set loose to explore the left Joy-Con 2 and the Nintendo Switch 2 console itself. To progress to the next area of the console, I needed to find all of the hidden stamps in these locations, which are tied to specific parts of the unit like the touch screen or the cooling vents. But during the search, I stopped by activity stations laid out on each part of the map.
In true Nintendo fashion, there is a completionist element to all of it.
One minigame had me test out the mouse controls by piloting a UFO trying to survive against an endless stream of spiky iron balls. In true Nintendo fashion, there is a completionist element to all of it, where I was awarded one or two stars depending on how long I lasted in that endless challenge. The mouse controls felt good, and after just missing out on the top rank, I felt the drive to try again for the high score. Earning more stars grants access to harder minigame difficulties, and the menus indicate there are plenty of medals to hunt down.
The most memorable tech demo so far had me play World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. from the NES in 4K, in its original resolution. Since the NES worked with so few pixels compared to modern technology, this results in the entire level stretched out across the 4K TV screen I was playing on, and it’s a cute way to look at how far we’ve come. This demo had five achievements to complete, which should be a breeze for anyone familiar with the course. Other demos showcased Switch 2’s HD Rumble, 120fps, and HDR capabilities. It’s clear Nintendo is very proud of the new technology it’s embracing this generation, and Welcome Tour shows it off in a way that’s accessible to all audiences, including those who aren’t super tech savvy.
Elsewhere, Welcome Tour’s Insight Quizzes shared some fascinating information about things like why they settled on the U-shaped kickstand and how Switch 2’s front-facing speakers are an improvement over the OLED model. Nintendo doesn’t want us to show you the information in these quizzes before launch, but I found it genuinely interesting to get a look at Nintendo’s thoughtful design behind multiple aspects of the new hardware. Again, your mileage will greatly vary depending on how much you care about these minute details, but as someone who covers this company that’s generally incredibly secretive, this level of knowledge and transparency was refreshing. After Welcome Tour’s announcement, I assumed the information presented within the software would be common knowledge to hardcore Nintendo fans and come across as an advertisement for a product you already bought, but it legitimately doesn’t feel that way in practice thanks to how in-depth and niche some of the details are.
Even though I enjoyed Welcome Tour more than I expected to, I walked away feeling more strongly that it should have been included with the console. It’s a charming, light experience that grants fascinating context to the hardware it’s designed around, and it’d be great if all Switch 2 owners could check it out in between Mario Kart World sessions on launch day. Instead, everyone has to decide if it’s worth their $10 to learn about the Switch 2 cartridge slot and watch an HDR fireworks display, and the whole conversation surrounding Welcome Tour has suffered because of Nintendo’s irritating decision to charge for it. To help you decide if you want to spend your $10, stay tuned for our full review of Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour coming shortly after launch.
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN’s Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find him online @LoganJPlant.
