Halloween is just a week away, and the most popular Roblox experiences are continuing their hauntingly good celebrations. This weekend is packed with Roblox updates for the spooky season, so here’s a roundup of everything you can expect.

Friday October 24th Roblox Updates:

Several experiences are getting their updates in before the weekend starts, giving you plenty of time to participate in them.

Anime Eternal Update

First up is Anime Eternal, which is a fighting game that will take you through different anime-inspired worlds as you level up and build your strength to be the strongest player. This experience is planning to release Update 21 in three parts just like the previous one. The first part is planned to launch today, with the second part is due on Sunday, 26th October. The final part will conclude on Wednesday, 29th October. The new updates are set to add a new island, champions, powers, and overall quality of life improvements.

Adopt Me! Update

Following this is Adopt Me! This notoriously adorable experience that lets you collect and trade pets has already launched Halloween content. Today (October 24th) the final pets will be revealed, and you can get DJ Snooze and a Ghostly Cat pet. Adopt Me! Is also participating in the Halloween Spotlight event that Roblox is running until November 3rd.

Don’t Wake the Brainrots Update

Don’t Wake the Brainrots, which is a game where you sneak around and steal sleeping Brainrots, launched its Halloween event last week. This week, today’s event is a Secret Update, with information yet to be revealed. Following this, on Sunday, Slime Vine Studios plan to have their Admin Abuse event with special guest stars once again.

Dandy’s World Update

It’s no surprise that the survival horror experience where you work together to explore the Gardenview Center is making the most of the spooky season. Dandy’s World has had Halloween content running for two weeks, adding new Halloween toons, skins, and a limited-time Halloween floor. You can expect to see more stickers and skins arrive in today’s update.

Brookhaven Update

Brookhaven is a roleplaying game where all of the inhabitants live on an island and can use vehicles and visit stores. The simulator experience regularly releases new items, clothing, and more to customize your character. This week, it launches its Halloween Event.

Rivals Update

The first person shooter game that sees you face off against others either in 1v1 battles or in teams of 5v5 is bringing a new Halloween update to the game. The most recent update introduced a new ranked season, season pass, new weapons, and more. The Halloween Update, meanwhile, promises new skins and rewards.

Additional Roblox Updates for Experiences on Friday 24th October

Those are not the only popular experiences launching updates today, you can also find:

• Halloween content in Hunty Zombies,
• Fish ‘O’ Ween in Steal a Fish!,
• Part 1 of the Halloween event in BedWars,
• and the second part of the Halloween event for Build a CartSaturday October 25th Roblox Updates:

Heading into the weekend, you’ll see the most-played Roblox experiences launch their usual weekly content.

99 Nights in the Forest Update

99 Nights in the Forest has sat near the top of the Roblox charts for months, showing that survival horror isn’t just for Halloween. For the unfamiliar, the game involves trying to keep your character fed, warm, and sheltered while you rescue missing children and avoid a dangerous deer-like entity at night.

Naturally, the game is also keen to get into the Halloween spirit. Potion Making is coming to 99 Nights in the Forest on Saturday, October 25th. In this update, you’ll be able to combine ingredients in a cauldron to get potions that grant new effects.

Grow a Garden Update

The gardening simulator, Grow a Garden, has an abundance of seeds, pets, and mutations to discover as you plant, harvest, and sell your crops. Grow a Garden launched their Halloween event two weeks ago with Ghoul Garden. Last week, we saw Ghoul Garden Part 2, and this week, Ghoul Garden gets another extension. Though it’s not clear yet what this will involve, you can always expect new seeds, pets, weather events. This week, there’s also a special admin abuse event hosted by Glass Animals.

Steal a Brainrot Update

Steal a Brainrot is a particularly popular Roblox experience where you’ll need to capture Brainrots from a conveyor belt and keep them locked away from other players. You can steal Brainrots and have your Brainrots stolen, so we advise you stick close to that lockdown button if you want to protect your Secret Brainrots.

This week, the Big Halloween update called Frightrot is taking place. There will be a new Witch Fuse Brainrot called the Headless Horseman, a Spooky Lucky Block that contains 8 new Brainrots, and a new Trick or Treating and Graveyard event.

Plants vs Brainrots Update

This experience, which is a fusion of Grow a Garden, Steal a Brainrot, and Plants Vs Zombies, has quickly climbed the Roblox charts and is regularly releasing new content. In this game, you’ll plant seeds that attack Brainrots, helping you capture them. As you earn money, you can unlock better plants and take down rarer Brainrots. Last weekend PVB launched the story update, and currently, little has been revealed at the newest update. All we know for now is that it takes place on Saturday and there will be Admin Abuse about an hour before it launches!

Additional Roblox Updates for Experiences on Saturday 25th October

Those are not the only popular experiences launching updates today, you can also find:

• The return of the Lana Lore Quest in Dress to Impress
• A non-Halloween update for Volleyball Legends that sees the return of Taichou and masteries
• Brainrot Evolution
• Phantom’s Halloween launching in Blue Lock: Rivals
• A mystery trader arriving in Garden Tower Defense

Sunday October 26th Roblox Updates:

Sunday is a quieter day for Roblox updates. There’s just one major update we can see taking place from one of the top experiences, and that’s Fish It!

Fish It! Update

Last week, Fish It! launched their Halloween Event. The popular fishing sim boasts over 1,000,000+ variations and introduces 23 new event fish as part of their Halloween celebrations. There’s also limited skins and a pumpkin crate to find. But if that wasn’t enough, Week 2 of the Halloween Update begins this Sunday!

Additional Roblox Updates for Experiences on Sunday 26th October

Those are not the only popular experiences launching updates today, you can also find:

• A new update for a dusty trip that’s currently celebrating Halloween
• A classes update in Build a Bunker!
• Ride a Cart Down a Slide‘s new update
• And a new update and admin abuse in Shoot a Brainrot!

That’s everything for Roblox updates this weekend, but there’s undoubtedly plenty more Halloween content on the way for the rest of October.

Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.

Battlefield Studios has outlined changes coming to Battlefield 6 ahead of the launch of Season 1 and with the expected battle royale mode waiting in the wings.

In a social media post, the developer collective revealed the priority updates for the record-breaking Battlefield 6. BF Studios said its immediate focus is on improving overall performance and the combat experience. It’s looking into changes for weapon dispersion, balance, visibility, aim assist, progression, and more, with further updates due out over the course of Season 1.

Live now are changes to Custom Search to “improve how accurately matchmaking aligns with your selected map and mode preferences.” The system still maintains flexibility to support reasonable queue times, BF Studios said, so players with more specific selections may notice slightly longer waits. “We’ll keep monitoring Custom Search performance and continue fine-tuning as needed,” the developers said.

Elsewhere, BF Studios said it had recently released a fix for an issue where vehicles could sometimes fail to spawn as expected across certain maps and modes. “The current results have shown that it has greatly reduced the number of occurrences and started to improve the balance issues on some map/mode combinations,” BF Studios said. “We are aware of a few outliers that this fix did not address, and we’re working on a fix to resolve these outstanding issues. We also saw that this backend change had a slightly positive impact on Breakthrough win rates, but we are working on further balancing changes that are meant to be more impactful and bring the win rates into a better state.”

One of the big talking points within the Battlefield community since the game’s launch is Portal server availability. Earlier this week, BF Studios made XP adjustments for Community Experiences after players used Portal to farm for XP.

Now to the gameplay details. BF Studios said it’s planning to change player movement “to address areas that previously felt inconsistent, while staying true to the gameplay pace and maintaining the core feel of the launch experience.” At the same time, it’s enhancing sight stability by minimizing reticle movement during specific animations. “These adjustments aim to deliver a smoother and more precise aiming experience, all while preserving an immersive first-person feel,” the developers explained.

As for progression, BF Studios said it’s continuing to monitor the impact of the changes it made last week, but it’s already seeing “a smoother experience.” It’s tracking XP earned in Escalation and King of the Hill, which isn’t always working as intended. “We are planning to significantly increase the payout to bring them in line with other modes and will keep monitoring once the changes are live,” BF Studios said.

“We’ve seen all your feedback about the challenges and their criteria, the team’s working on a series of improvements to make challenges more straightforward to understand and faster to complete,” BF Studios continued. “Given the scale of challenges, these changes will roll out over at least two updates. Some examples of what we are currently considering are:

• Class Assignment – Assault 1 – Get kills while using the Adrenaline Injector – 30 to 3
• Class Assignment – Engineer Expert 3 – Repair Vehicles in a Match – From 6000 to 1000
• Weapon Assignment – Deadeye 2 – Get headshot kills over 200m with Sniper Rifles – from 150 to 5
• In addition, a later game update will reduce the 200m distance

Now on to visibility. BF Studios is looking into adjustments to exposure and brightness. “This will lead to improvements in places where players have experienced blinding light when looking outdoors, overly dark interiors when looking indoors, and a lack of visibility around weapon optics when zooming in,” the developers said.

When the Season 1 update kicks in on October 28, BF Studios will make several adjustments to how weapon dispersion behaves. These changes are aimed at ensuring each weapon’s accuracy better reflects its intended performance over range. BF Studios said it’s also fixed a bug that caused dispersion to not decrease as expected when transitioning from sprinting to a prone position.

“We’ll continue refining how weapon accuracy behaves in battle to make your shots feel more consistent and rewarding across all weapon types,” the developers said. “Our upcoming tuning pass will reduce the overall impact of dispersion across multiple weapon types while keeping the core intent intact. Burst-firing will remain the most effective way to control a weapon, and each weapon will still perform best within its intended range. We’ve also identified a couple of bugs that caused weapons to feel less accurate than intended:

• Post-Sprint Firing: Weapons fired immediately after sprinting while zoomed could retain higher dispersion, reducing accuracy.
• Movement Start: Dispersion was increasing faster than it should when players began moving, making even small adjustments unexpectedly impact precision. This was especially noticeable on controllers.

Battlefield Labs is taking a “brief hiatus” so BF Studios can focus on rolling out Season 1 content. This probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given the idea behind Battlefield Labs was to help shape Battlefield 6 before launch. BF Studios promised play sessions will return, “and we will continue to develop the future of Battlefield 6 together.”

The battle royale mode, which EA has largely kept under wraps despite a series of leaks, is also on the way. BF Studios said it’s made changes based on player feedback:

• Close-range TTK: We’ve adjusted time-to-kill at close range for all weapons to reward clean positioning and tracking while giving players more time to counter attacks. We’ll keep monitoring this once it’s live.
• Armor Changes: Everyone will now have the capacity for 2 armor plates at the start of the game. All players will spawn with 1 plate, so you will have the chance to upgrade as soon as you start looting, giving everyone an equal chance at upgrading their armor fully.
• World Improvements: We’ve been fixing pesky world bugs and optimizing areas to improve the environment. With these improvements, we made adjustments to the lighting as well as enhancing the visibility across the map.
• Vehicle Balance: We’ve adjusted the balance for helicopters and combat vehicles to keep them as powerful tools showing off Battlefield’s core DNA, without making them necessary to survive or win the late game. This includes significant adjustments to the heli countermeasures and ammo economy.
• We have also been working on providing smoother performance overall. We have identified and addressed a range of issues that affected performance that we simply couldn’t have done without our players’ involvement in the tests.

While you wait for Season 1, check out all of the major additions set to be introduced in next week’s content drop. Finally, be sure to check out our full list of all currently available Battlefield 6 multiplayer maps. Those looking to brush up on their online skills can also read our multiplayer tips and tricks guide.

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.

If you are interested in catching up on the Metroid Prime trilogy ahead of Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo isn’t making it easy at the moment. We think that should be remedied — and so does Metroid Prime series producer Kensuke Tanabe.

In the new book, Metroid Prime 1-3: A Visual Retrospective, out October 28, 2025, the legendary Japanese developer brings up the idea of a Metroid Prime 2: Echoes remake himself while musing on the multiplayer mode Echoes introduced, saying: “Retro completed the multiplayer mode without compromising on quality… Being of its time, it was designed for local play, so the number of players who actually experienced it might not have been very large. If it is remade, I would be delighted for more people to have the chance to experience it.”

Pokémon Legends: Z-A sold almost six million copies in its opening week.

In a statement, The Pokémon Company announced that Pokémon Legends: Z-A, which debuted on October 16, has already sold 5.8 million units worldwide, with around half of those bought for Nintendo’s new console, the Switch 2.

This means the first Pokémon game to feature real-time Pokémon battles is the fifth best-selling game of the franchise in terms of first week sales.

By comparison, that’s more than Pokémon X/Y and Let’s Go Pikachu / Eevee managed in their first weeks, but, according to X / Twitter user Pierre485, not as much as Pokémon Scarlet / Violet, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and Pokémon Sword / Shield managed.

First Week Sales for Pokemon games pic.twitter.com/VdQlBCg4bi

— Pierre485 (@pierre485_) October 24, 2025

Pokémon Legends: Z-A is set in Lumiose City, where an urban redevelopment plan is underway to shape the city into a place that belongs to both people and Pokémon and features a new battle system. It returned 8/10 in IGN’s review in which we concluded: “Pokémon Legends: Z-A finally feels like Game Freak hitting its stride in Pokémon’s 3D era, with a fun setting to explore, a well-written story, and a total battle system overhaul that works surprisingly well.”

For more, check out our guide to Pokemon Legends: Z-A’s new battle system, as well as our tips to catch Eevee, Gengar, and where to find all colors of Flabebe. You can learn more about the starter Pokémon and their evolutions in our Wiki guide, check out our Side Missions List to make sure you don’t miss anything, and ensure you’re dressed to impress with our All Clothing Stores and Clothing in Pokémon Legends: Z-A.

Did you know Pokémon Legends: Z-A has a terrifying zone called Wild Zone 17, which can be scary depending on the time of day?

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Halloween may be right around the corner, but the winter holiday season will come at us just as fast. If you’re a big Zelda fan or have special someone in your life that is obsessed, Hallmark has a handful of awesome ornaments spanning the franchise’s storied history you can buy right now. Ranging in price from $12 to $32, purchasing one of these won’t break the bank and will last for holidays to come. If you’re looking for an affordable Legend of Zelda gift to buy ahead of the 2025 Christmas season, this is a delightful option worth considering.

Legend of Zelda Hallmark Ornaments

Pretty much every era from Zelda’s history is represented with these ornaments, from the NES original 8-bit Link to 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom Decayed Master Sword. The Link with his sword and shield ornament is another notable inclusion, since it plays classic Zelda tunes at the push of a button. I personally would have appreciated some Twilight Princess love with this collection, but I can’t complain with what’s on offer here.

Each ornament is only a few inches in every dimension, so storing them efficiently in the off-season or utilizing them as year-round decor is definitely on the table. I have a game shelf that the Toon Link ornament would be right at home on. The 8-bit Link ornament is low on stock, so if you’ve had your eye on it, now’s the perfect time to pick one up.

More Hallmark Nintendo Ornaments

Naturally, The Legend of Zelda franchise isn’t the only Nintendo property receiving the Hallmark treatment. There’s an Elephant Mario from Super Mario Bros. Wonder would look great on any Christmas tree, and the winter hat Rowlet is one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

Is Hallmark a Good Ornament Brand?

Hallmark isn’t the only ornament brand out there, but it is certainly one of the most well-known. The main appeal of Hallmark Keepsake ornaments is that the brand offers yearly releases from popular IPs like Nintendo, Star Wars, Disney, and more. If you’re looking for a little piece of your favorite movie or video game to hang on your tree, it’s most likely going to be a Hallmark-branded ornament. Seeing as the ornaments are officially-licensed, they are also likely to be of higher quality than any knock-off brands you find elsewhere.

Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.

Do you remember the worst day of your life? It’s okay; you don’t have to answer. I do. I was doing something I loved, I made a mistake, and a story someone else told about it for their own purposes cost me almost everything I had. People I thought were my friends walked out of my life, doors slammed shut in my face, and everything I’d worked for evaporated. My family resorted to communication by postcard because I refused to answer the phone, and I spent the next two years contemplating suicide before finally finding some semblence of peace. Nearly a decade later, those moments, that mistake – such a little thing, really – impacts every aspect of my life. I spend a lot of time grappling with that, wondering if I’ll ever be the person I was before that moment again. I don’t know the answer.

The worst day of Clementine McKinney’s life reminded me a lot of my own, though it came inside the cockpit of a Raptor mech rather than behind a keyboard. She made a decision, one rooted in trying to do the right thing and defend people she loved, and it cost her everything she had. Clementine McKinney died that day, and Graveyard Clem was born from the ashes. Bounty Star is about who you are after the worst day of your life, about what you do when the only option is to climb back into the machine that put you there in the first place. I didn’t have a choice; neither does Clem. We don’t know how to do anything else.

Clem is a bounty hunter. Building and piloting a Raptor is all she knows, and it’s the main thing you’ll do across the roughly 15-20 hours it took me to finish Bounty Star’s story (though there is ample replayability if you want it). After her world collapses, her friend Jake Triminy, the local marshall of a post-plague future that caused the collapse of human civilization and the return of the dinosaurs, sets her up with an old workshop that has enough space to double as a farm. Nobody much trusts her after what happened, so the bounties she is offered are for small fry: local bandits and the like. You spend her money to buy food and cook it in her kitchen for stat increases before going out on a mission. The first time she gets into her Raptor after the decision she made inside one destroyed her life, she spends a long time staring at the ol’ girl, her heart beating fast. Then she closes her eyes, exhales, and gets to work. Clem sees the irony, but it might also be her only way out. Both she and I sit in that cockpit, but we are not in the same place.

Clem wears her battles on her body. There’s a nasty burn on the side of her neck, a deep scar on the right side of her face, and another on the opposite cheek. She’s not young anymore; if you leave her alone long enough, she’ll stretch and complain about the way her body is failing her, even though her physique tells the story of a woman who builds Raptors and welds steel. Her clothes are covered in engine grease and stained with sweat. Her accent bears the twang of the American South. She drinks, smokes, plays guitar, and swears like it’s going out of style – and yet, when she gets stuck on a problem, she’ll pull out a stuffed dinosaur named Jeremy and talk to him until she realizes the solution. After a completed bounty, Clem sits on her Raptor and writes down her thoughts in a small journal, a warrior poet hoping that she’ll find herself in the words she arranges on the page. She is a person, messy and flawed and glorious, and I loved her in the way you love a kindred soul, someone whose failings you understand and strengths you admire.

Once you’ve got your assignment, it’s time to outfit your Raptor and get to work. Raptors are relatively tiny mechs – think an Armored Core’s AC, but smaller, less well armed, and faster. They have melee and ranged weapons that range from chainswords and giant hammers to assault rifles and grenade launchers. You can customize them to fit your playstyle even further by popping in things like a booster for quick dodges, a burst repairer for on-the-spot healing, or a thermal computer to restore your Raptor to its base temperature faster.

There’s a lot to consider: each weapon has one of three types (Blade, Bludgeoning, Boom) that operate in a rock, paper, scissors style against different types of armor. Weapons and systems also build or reduce heat. Too much or too little, and your Raptor will shut down until it comes back under control, leaving you vulnerable. But there are benefits. High heat speeds up your melee weapon swings, while a cooler Raptor fires its guns more quickly.

Some bounties are only available in the morning, afternoon, or evening. It’s cooler at night, so weapons that generate heat are more viable than they would be in the afternoon, when you’ll want systems to keep your Raptor running cool. The right build takes your targets, time of day, and heat into account, and there is a joy in stepping into Clem’s mind, getting under the hood, and building a smooth-running rig.

In the field, a Raptor is nimble but purposeful, a force of fury and steel. It can dodge and run to avoid fire, but when you swing that chainsword, you commit to its weight and momentum. An assault rifle will kill a man in a single shot, but it will be less effective against a Driller mech built heavy for mining and repurposed by outlaws for combat. A double-barreled shotgun will chew through an unmanned Sieger, but you’ll need to be more precise against another mech. The heavier enemies – Drillers, Raptors like yours – have stability that must be reduced before your melee weapons stagger them, but once it’s gone, a hammer, chainsword, or flame gauntlet will rock them to the frame, steel grinding against steel until something breaks. But be wary of counter-attacks, which can stop your offense cold and send your Raptor reeling. To compensate, you have melee and dash tricks of your own. Cancel a swing of your hammer into an evasive maneuver while leaping backward and firing your shotgun, or dash forward into a swing of a built-for-a-mech baseball bat. To fight another Raptor is to tango, two gunslingers circling until one finds an opening.

It’s satisfying, though repetition does set in when you see the same Raptor, the same Sieger, the same group of enemies again and again, especially during the Low Priority repeatable bounties you’ll do between High Priority story missions. The environments Clem navigates, clearly a loving tribute to the American Southwest, are stunning at least. Though you’ll see some of the maps several times, many of them never lose their beauty, especially at night. Variety is found in optional objectives that offer additional cash and challenge you to take no damage, use a specific build, complete a bounty quickly, destroy objects scattered around the environment, find a hidden item, and so on. And it is always worth scavenging an area to find secret chests for additional rewards like world lore, resources, or even blueprints for new weapons or recipes for Clem to whip up in the kitchen.

Between bounties, you’ll use the money Clem earns to build up her new home and improve her Raptor. Things start small. But soon enough, you’re crafting new weapons, unlocking additional slots or loadouts, producing your own fuel, making your own ammunition, growing crops, and raising chickens. As she rebuilds herself, a place she didn’t want to be becomes a home. These chores are minor – feed the chickens, water the plants, sow new seeds, make sure the fuel producing systems have enough water, cook a meal before you head out – but I found joy in the repetition of a life lived outside of the cockpit, of seeing the real, tangible progress Clem and I were making on our journeys of healing.

A I invested more time and money into the farm, I was able to do these jobs faster, more efficiently. Carrying water to each plant will get the job done. But it’s much more fun to build a firearm-activated irrigation system, to watch empty space get filled in by the work you’ve done, slowly, piece by piece. Isn’t that a life? And my Raptor was becoming fiercer, too, the bounties bigger. At the start, one feeds the other. The Raptor. The farm. Over time, they intertwine, and it’s harder to see where one ends and the other begins.

In one of her journal entries, Clem reflects on her relationship with Raptors, wondering if she should loathe them on principle as machines of war or lean into the power and joy she feels while piloting one. It’s a question not just for her, but us as the player, too. She opts for the latter, partly because she has no choice, and partly because she feels she is making the world a better place by removing bad men from it. You can thankfully take bounties alive or scare off dinosaurs with fireworks instead of killing them (and sometimes you are paid more for it), but you’re going to rack up a lot of bodies either way. The home she builds is the opposite of that. At first, she resents it, wanting out as quickly as she can find a way. But she comes to see its potential. Soon, I was making just as much money from farming as I was from bounty hunting. What was a chore became a way of life.

And as she builds a new life, other characters come to inhabit it. She befriends a reformed bandit who offers her a way to relive past battles, useful for completing optional objectives in bygone story missions; a former thief atoning for his crimes by wearing a ridiculous steak outfit and selling meat as Mr. Meat; a miner trapped inside his suit who has dedicated himself to building an ethical mine for other miners; a weapons dealer who becomes a confidant; a giant insect driven from its colony who becomes a friend (and, when fed and watered, a weapon to be mounted on a Raptor).

Each is a mirror that offers Clem a chance to reflect on her life, her choices, to show us who she is, and who she still might be. Shall she be a woman at war with herself, reliving the battles that brought her here? There are many kinds of prisons. Some you carry with you wherever you go. Clem’s Raptor could be a cell. But it could be armor, too, the key to something else. Something better. The past is prologue, but it doesn’t have to define us. We choose who we are every day.

Bounty Star is a simple game. You would never mistake it for something with a ton of money behind it, though the writing and voice acting are excellent. And there were times it frustrated me, such as when it locked story progression behind building an engine I couldn’t afford. (Luckily, I had a pretty sizable farm at that point, and chicken eggs and corn command a premium.) It crashed on me a few times. It can be repetitive. I’m not sure I care about much of that, but it was part of my experience. But I did care about Clem, about her story, the people she loved and who loved her in return. This town takes in all kinds. I wanted her to rebuild her life, and that saw me through.

With its unsettling backdrops and detailed worldbuilding, Tormented Souls 2 may look like a contemporary horror game, but don’t let that modern dressing fool you. At its core beats the blackened heart of stone-cold classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, with all the treats — and tricks — that both endeared me to and enraged me about these formulaic survival horror games when they first gained popularity. Fixed camera angles? Check. Tank controls? Check. Insanely complex puzzles and an even more bizarre story, complete with cheesy dialogue and a manual save system? Check, check, check, and check. It makes Tormented Souls 2 a surprisingly faithful homage, bringing back all the stuff I loved about old survival horror games… as well as many of the things I loved to hate.

Tormented Souls 2 picks up right after the events of its 2021 predecessor, but you don’t have to have met the Walker sisters before to make sense of this sequel. That’s partly because it tells a standalone story, and partly because it’s so fantastical that nothing makes sense anyway. Sure, you may have questions about Caroline’s fetching eyepatch, but all you really need to know is she’s searching for answers about her little sister Anna’s terrifying visions and reality-bending drawings. For reasons that seem to exist exclusively in schlocky horror tales, that answer apparently sits somewhere in the depths of a creepy convent nestled in a far-flung location.

Before Caroline even gets the chance to shrug off her (exceedingly 90s) leather jacket, though, Anna goes missing, and it’s up to the older sibling to both find her sister and figure out what the hell is going on before it’s too late… with an emphasis on the “hell” bit, naturally. As stories go, it’s not unique, no, but the twists and turns of Tormented Souls 2’s roughly 20-hour campaign are delightfully over-the-top in the same way the original Resident Evil games are. It’s packed with cheesy dialogue, curious flavor text, and some truly bizarre encounters I couldn’t help but smile at. Caroline’s stay in the remote town of Villa Hess will take you to a number of wonderfully grim places, including a processing plant, spooky school, abandoned mall, bunker, and the sprawling convent you start off in, keeping the creepy environments feeling fresh.

And those environments are so detailed! Stuffed with interest and plenty of lore, Villa Hess and its surroundings are such fascinating, atmospheric places to explore. You never know when a key item or a helpful tool may be secreted away in a hidden room somewhere, so it’s always best to keep your curiosity piqued. While your investigation is sometimes interrupted by a bladed demon or shambling zombie, you’ll find that enemies have a tendency to stay dead in Tormented Souls 2 — once you’ve cleared out an area, you’re usually left to explore at your leisure. With little more than a flickering candle to guide the way, though, it’s a little too easy to miss things; I’ve been caught out a couple of times by overlooking a key clue or item, even in areas I thought I’d examined pretty closely.

As is seemingly the law for old-school survival horror, the more you play, the more you’ll find yourself opening up new routes to old places, providing access to rooms and entire areas that were previously blocked off. I suspect the backtracking will irk some — there’s a lot of it, particularly early on — but as the levels and fetch-quests are well-designed and usually rewarding, I couldn’t begrudge it. That said, there’s a reason fixed camera angles and tank controls are considered relics of the past. I grew up playing the games Tormented Souls 2 pays homage to (Resident Evil, Silent Hill 3, Parasite Eve, Alone in the Dark), but moving around Villa Hess is frustrating even when there isn’t a demon on your tail, with tight corridors and dead ends that make getting from one side of a building to the other unduly long-winded.

Add in Caroline’s fear of the dark: she’ll freeze and start to hyperventilate if plunged into darkness for even a split second, dying completely if you leave her there too long. You can’t even put away your lighter to shatter a porcelain pot or smash open a wooden crate unless there’s an ambient light source nearby… which there very often isn’t. The lighter sure does add to the atmosphere, though, which is almost continually tense and unnerving. As the primary source of light quite often, you’ll have to proactively step into a room to illuminate what, if anything, is hiding in the shadows, which inevitably means unwittingly getting up close and personal with the denizens skulking around the place.

It all falls apart a bit when there is something hiding in the dark, though. Tormented Souls 2’s combat isn’t clumsy as much as it is enraging. The reliance on Caroline’s lighter means you’re often unarmed when something lunges at you, and the fixed camera angles and stiff character movement make it harder than it should be to retreat or create a little distance. Caroline protects herself with a range of acquired and improvised weapons, from a shotgun to a nail gun. Some of them can be upgraded to improve their rate of fire or reload speed, but they’re still slow to use and difficult to wield accurately in a panic. I know it’s kind of a genre convention to ensure we feel weak and underpowered, but this could’ve been achieved through scarcer ammo or by throwing more enemies at us; inefficient weapons and fixed cameras don’t ramp up the tension as much as snap the immersion entirely.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, that jankiness follows you into boss fights. One of the first you’ll encounter, a giant nun, stomps around the room trying to batter you with a gigantic steel cross. But in that one single room, there are at least three different fixed camera angles, which means you may find yourself inadvertently sprinting towards your foe if the camera shifts while trying to put distance between you. This wouldn’t be so bad if your shotgun held more than two shots at a time or if the nun flinched with each hit, but she’ll keep galloping like an aggravated rhino, which made the camera feel like the real boss I was fighting.

Thankfully, for every underwhelming boss fight you’re forced to endure, you’ll happen across a good half-dozen puzzles which confuse and delight in equal measure. I never felt closer to an old Resident Evil or Silent Hill game than trying to figure out how to open a door, or decode a cipher, or prise open the jaws of a dead shark for reasons I still don’t quite understand. Often deeply cryptic, maddeningly illogical, or completely unsolvable because I stupidly missed a clue somewhere, these puzzles were exactly what I want from a game like this, all the way down to the mini-puzzles that ask you to combine specific items in your inventory. Yes, I’ll admit one or two (or five) brain teasers truly stumped me for an embarrassing amount of time, but if that isn’t old-school survival horror, then what is?

Bethesda has used Fallout Day to announce the Fallout: New Vegas 15th Anniversary Bundle, which celebrates Obsidian’s much-loved post-apocalyptic role-playing game turning 15 years old.

This edition will be available for pre-order on October 23 via the Bethesda Gear Store, and includes:

• Fallout: New Vegas: Ultimate Edition PC Code
• Victor Statue (8″ PVC): The friendly Securitron stands tall and is ready to roll
• Doc Mitchell’s Evaluation Cards (8×8 cardstock set): Straight from your first moments in Goodsprings, a true piece of New Vegas history
• Vault Boy Enamel Pin (1.5″): Vault Boy stacks the odds with poker chips in hand
• Mojave Express Patch (3.5″ × 1.9″): Woven, iron-on, and full of wasteland charm
• NCR Recon Patch (3.25″ × 3.5″): Woven, iron-on insignia of the New California Republic’s finest
• Collector’s Big Box: A throwback-style display box created exclusively for the anniversary

Gearbox has released the big Borderlands 4 Day 30 patch, which makes a number of key balance changes to the game.

This update, released October 23, includes widespread stability improvements, multiplayer fixes, UI polish, and a suite of quality-of-life upgrades across visuals, audio, and accessibility. It also addresses various reported issues for Vault Hunters including major balance tuning, loot systems, gear, and achievements — further refining late-game, mission flow, and overall player experience.

“We will monitor the community closely for feedback and respond after the changes have settled,” Gearbox said. “This measured approach to your input will provide a consistent and better experience. As a reminder, our primary goal with balance adjustments is to provide you the greatest number of viable builds.”

The update launches alongside the free Horrors of Kairos Seasonal Mini-Event. From today, October 23 to November 6, players will experience “a terror-inducing blood rain during all world boss encounters, with the added chance to loot the all-new legendary ‘Murmur’ Tediore Assault Rifle and ‘Skully’ Order Grenade.

The patch notes, courtesy of the Borderlands website, are below:

Borderlands 4 Day 30 October 23 update patch notes:

Change List:

Horrors of Kairos!

• Added support for the Horrors of Kairos! This free mini-event will be live from October 23 to November 6.
• Added the “Murmur” Legendary Tediore Assault Rifle and “Skully” Legendary Order Grenade to the rewards for world bosses across Kairos! These special drops will only be available during Horrors of Kairos, and delivered to the Reward Center. These do not change the rates on any other gear for that boss.

Read the official announcement article for Horrors of Kairos for more information on the event and a spooky SHiFT code to shoot fear into your enemies!

Progression, Loot, & Rewards

• Reduced Specialization Respec Machine cost from 5000 Eridium to 1500
• Added drops to a certain boss fight that was not dropping loot
• [PC] Ultimate Vault Hunter Level 5 Rank Up mission now correctly increases rank on Steam
• Granted missing cosmetic rewards for players who completed Kairos Speaks with 155 Echo Logs prior to a previous update
• Improved equipment handling when opening Rewards while driving
• Lost Loot Machine logic updated to better prioritize higher-quality loot in overflow situations
• Lost Loot Machine SDU upgrades now properly expand slots in multiplayer sessions
• Addressed a reported issue with the Lost Loot Machine that could cause duplications in multiplayer
• Loot enemies now drop more cash
• Golden Chests can now consistently be opened after joining a session and redeeming SHiFT keys
• Reward Center behavior adjusted after claiming the Gilded Glory Pack, to prevent it from losing function
• Break Free reward bundle redemption standardized, will now correctly apply account-wide as intended
• Adjusted unlock conditions so Rift Incompatible achievement now correctly completes for all players in multiplayer
• Cut That Out achievement now unlocks when viewing the board from a further distance.
• Level-based progression updated so Crimson Rising achievement unlocks at character level 10 as designed
• Timing adjustments made so Catch a Ride! achievement unlocks only at the intended progression point
• Challenge tracking updated so Jakobs Throwing Knives no longer count as gun kills
• Ensured that Bobblehead collectibles in Pester’s Grotto and Motherbird Node were accessible.
• Discovered locations now stay discovered when returning to single-player after multiplayer
• Various Fast Travel stations have been adjusted to unlock when they’re intended to, including concerns seen in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode
• Vault Key animations now play correctly during ECHO-4 sequences
• ECHO Log pickup in Unpaid Tab now counts properly
• Amara’s Escort to Core objective now consistently advances when replayed
• Improved various instances of mission waypoints not showing up accurately

Gameplay & Missions

• Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine is able to be interacted with reliably in multiplayer
• Legendary Vending Machine no longer closes unexpectedly during Vend of the Line
• Made general improvements to prevent enemies from getting stuck when spawning, and addressed various reported spawn point issues
• Addressed bounties Beatloaf, Grip, and Shagriculture not reliably spawning
• Addressed reported instances of Terminus Range Vault enemies getting stuck on ledges during encounters
• Addressed a reported issue in co-op during the Splashzone boss fight, leading to more consistent behavior
• The Howl Capture Station no longer reactivates after safehouse capture
• One Fell Swoop has been updated to prevent players from being left floating in the air. Bio-Bulkhead now shows the correct elemental icon and movement has been smoothed to eliminate jitter after certain attacks
• Warden Scathe no longer clips through arena walls in his boss fight
• Improved Echo Location guidance across several missions
• Patched collision gaps, holes, clipping, and invisible walls
• Corrected Order drop pod events to consistently reach that ground and no longer appear stuck in the air
• NPCs should no longer cause players or vehicles to get stuck when the player runs them over
• Pangolin enemies can now be damaged by grenades while in ball mode
• Chain Master trait now tethers to all allies in range when multiple enemies have the ability
• Mangler enemies no longer desync their position when dodging in multiplayer

Vault Hunter Changes

Harlowe the Gravitar

• Addressed some Gravitar builds that reportedly caused performance slowdowns; they should no longer prevent UI elements from updating or Fight For Your Life sequences from completing
• Gravitar passive and Augment bonuses to Gun Damage now correctly apply to Ripper Heavy Weapon barrels and the Ripper Legendary Heavy Weapon Steamer; Entanglement interactions also function as designed
• Gravitar class mods have been adjusted to no longer roll +5 Pencils Down and push passives past their intended cap

Creative Bursts

Balance Adjustments:

• Neutron Capture now converts all Gun Damage into radiation, and now only applies to Gun Shots, and not all instances of Gun Damage.
  • Dev Note: Neutron Capture is one of the best damage scalars in the entire game, but during testing, we found that this was erroneously applying to all instances of Gun Damage and was able to scale in unanticipated ways as a result. This new change will still see Neutron Capture being one of the best (if not the best) damage scalars in the game, but the power level will be much more in line with our expectations. Additionally, since all damage from the Gun is converted into Radiation, it should have more scaling vectors for clever build crafters, and allow for meaningful boosts from Gun Damage.

Cosmic Brilliance – Passive

• Flux Generator + Annihilation interaction updated so spawned grenades now scale correctly with character level

Amon the Forgeknight

• Shield visuals adjusted for improved clarity in combat situations

Trait – Forgeskill

• Adjusted interaction with Forge Master class mod so Forgeskill now respects its cooldown in multiplayer

Onslaughter – Calamity

• Camera behavior stabilized when combining Onslaughter with Order Legendary Pistol Noisy Cricket
• Attack frequency of Rocket Punch is now consistent in multiplayer

Balance Adjustments

• Seeing Red Duration restored no longer increases per point invested, and is now 4 seconds for all ranks.
  • Dev Note: Seeing Red was always meant to have huge damage scaling potential, but was always meant to be hard to maintain. We didn’t want to nerf this passive’s power, but we’re making the effect harder to maintain.

Scourge – Vengeance

• Scorched Kairos passive now displays consistent magazine size values for the Ordnance gadget
• The Forgewave no longer fires unintentionally during Glacial Rapture
• Projectiles no longer get stuck in the air when Forgemaster Firewall is active during the Fortress Indomita boss fight
• Blackout Shock Damage now properly scales with points invested
• Blackout is now 15% per point, down from 21% per point
  • Dev Note: After fixing the scaling of the DoT (damage over time), we found that Blackout was overperforming a bit, so we gave it a slight re-adjustment. This will still be an overall buff, now that the DoT properly scales.

Crucible – Cybernetics

• Visuals corrected so Forgeknight Forgeaxe no longer disappears when activating Crucible at the same time as throwing with Double-Edge
• Corrected animation of Crucible while climbing
• Raging Inferno Incendiary Damage now properly scales with points invested

Vex the Siren

• Challenge “Me, Myself, Myself, and I.” now tracks correctly in multiplayer, independent of clone duration on other players

Dead Ringer – The Fourth Seal

• Specter’s copied weapon now displays proper visual effects when firing with a Maliwan Element Switcher

Incarnate – Vexcalation

• Bleed from Bloodletter has been updated so it no longer recursively triggers itself, preventing unintended damage loops

Phase Phamiliar – Here Comes Trouble

Balance Adjustments

• Double Trouble Illusion Damage Multiplier is now 75%, up from 50%
• Double Trouble Illusion’s Duration is now 8 seconds, up from 5 seconds
• Apex Beast Damage Dealt increase increased to 15% from 10% per stack of Unsealed

Rafa the Exo-Soldier

• Free Grenade from Filantropo class mod now deals appropriate damage even when no grenade is equipped

People Person skill tree

Action Skills – APOPHIS Lance

• APOPHIS Lance changed to penalize Gun Accuracy instead of Gun Handling, resulting in projectile speed being unaffected.
• APOPHIS Lance now benefits from cooldown reduction effects

Gear

• Skills that boost Gun Handling now properly increase Projectile Speed
• Addressed reports that swapping weapons with the Free Loader Enhancement on an Order weapon with a Ripper magazine would cause all weapons to not consume the accurate amount of ammo
• Health restoration from Legendary Repkit Adrenaline Pump now works correctly when combined with Legendary Shield Guardian Angel
• Reduced critical chance on Jakobs crit knife to 30%
  • Dev Note: It had to happen, you knew it was going to happen!
• Jakobs Legendary Pistol San Saba Songbird no longer stacks infinitely when swapping weapons
• Using a Jakobs Shotgun with Torgue sticky projectiles and the Knife Launcher underbarrel no longer deals knife damage after switching fire modes
• Jakobs weapon parts updated so ricochet effects only trigger from intended damage sources
• Ripper Legendary Shotgun Golden God overheating effect now clears correctly when switching weapons
• Corrected behavior on Maliwan Legendary SMG Ohm I Got so the first three shots no longer consume ammo without dealing damage during continuous fire
• Maliwan Legendary Heavy Gun Gamma Void corrected to apply proper increased Radiation damage to enemies inside the Singularity
• Weapons with COV magazines now function correctly if a repair animation is interrupted with a Repkit in multiplayer
• Daedalus Legendary SMG Frangible removed from chest loot tables
• Daedalus Legendary AR First Impression reduced the critical damage multiplier
• Recoil behavior improved while charging and firing Order ARs and Torgue Heavy with Triple Barrel parts with Gun Handling passives
• Vladof Flamethrower underbarrel no longer deals infinite damage or bypasses Bio Armor
• Torgue Grenades with Spring and Apex Augments now always explode on its first apex
• Grenades with Spring Augment and Divider Payload now have the intended three additional bounces when paired
• Gadgets no longer reset to maximum uses after gaining Second Wind
• Healing Orbs spawned from Legendary Repkit Kill Spring can no longer heal enemies
• Order Legendary Shield Cindershelly combat voice lines now trigger at the intended frequency, less often to be less distracting
• Tediore underbarrel names now match correctly across item cards and ammo widgets
• Maliwan Lingering Payload and Splat Pack Augment projectiles no longer persist when thrown at vending machines

Gear Balance: Assault Rifles:

• Star Helix fire rate increased by 33%
• Bonnie and Clyde base damage increased by 40%; Pair of Thieves: Bonus damage granted increased to 150% from 100%
• Bugbear base damage increased by 40%; Rotary Gun: Max Damage increased to 200% from 100%
• Rowan’s Charge base fire rate increased by 100%
• Rowan’s Charge recoil reduced slightly
• Lucian’s Flank base damage increased by 50%
• Lucian’s Flank recoil reduced slightly
• Aegon’s Dream base damage increased by 35%

Heavy Weapon Ordnance:

• Gamma Void base damage increased by 450%; Singularity Duration decreased to 6s from 10s, Radiation damage amp increased to 50% from 40%, Gamma Void Cooldown increased by 100%
• Ravenfire base damage increased by 25%

Class Mods: Dev Notes: Class Mods relating to Melee Damage, Action Skill Damage, and specific one-off stats on Legendaries have been buffed to make them more desirable.

All Class Mods:

• Melee Damage Action Skill Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 60%
• Skill Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 45%

Siren Class Mods:

• Avatar’s Attunement Skill Duration on level 50 class mods has increased to 45%
• Kindread Spirits’ Command Skill Cooldown rate on level 50 class mods has increased to 45%

Forgeknight Class Mods:

• Blacksmith’s Forgedrone Duration on level 50 class mods has increased to 45%
• Blacksmith’s Legendary Effect now also increases all Forgedrone Damage by 20% per active Forgedrone
• Viking’s Detonation Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 60%
• Forge Master’s Forgeskill Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 60%
• Elementalist’s Legendary Effect now also increases all Damage Dealt by Amon by 2% per active Affinity Stack

Gravitar Class Mods:

• Bio-Robot’s Hazard Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 60%
• Skeptic’s Stasis Damage on level 50 class mods has increased to 60%

Other Gear:

Dev Notes: Gear effects that are related to Melee and Action Skill Damage have increased effectiveness. We want these builds to be pushed up a bit, but wanted to distribute the power among the various pieces of gear to make them more desirable.

Rep Kits:

• Hard Hitter now grants 50% Melee Damage Dealt, up from 40%

Firm Ware:

• Reel Big Fist now grants 25% Melee Damage at rank 1 and 2, up from 15%/25%
• Action Fist now grants 25% Melee Damage at rank 1, up from 15%
• Action Fist now grants 30% Action Skill Damage at rank 2, up from 30%
• Action Fist now grants 30% Action Skill Damage on Melee Kill, up from 25%

Shields:

• Boxer Armor Shields now grant 20%/30%/50% Melee Damage depending on parts rolled, up from 15%/25%/40%
• Berserker Energy Shields now grant 20%/30%/50% Melee Damage depending on parts rolled, up from 20%/27.5%/35%

Specializations

Groundbreaker:

• Groundbreaker now only stores Gun, Action Skill, and Ordnance damage.
  • Dev Note: Groundbreaker was causing recursive loops that could lead to infinite damage by storing “Bonus Damage” across the board. We still want this skill to be effective, but it should not be able to scale infinitely. We’ll be monitoring Melee builds after this change to make sure they are meeting expectations, and will further adjust if necessary. This ultimately had to be fixed so we can establish a baseline before we investigate further buffs/changes.

UI & UX & Text

• Sorting settings in menus now persist when switching tabs or leaving the menu
• “Toggle Junk” behavior has been corrected to target the desired item in Bank menus and Backpack
• Weapon wheel no longer sticks when opened near Guns vending machines
• Combat Radar now features a dedicated Legendary Loot Indicator, making high-value drops easier to spot in the heat of combat
• Press/Hold input now cancels correctly without triggering unintended actions
• “Apply Settings” prompt only appears when changes are made
• [PS5 and Xbox] Splitscreen updates, including number text scaling, Equipment/Backpack improvements, scrollbar behaviors, Party list layout, and “Flip Card” functionality
• Restored Fullscreen resolution controls and switching behavior
• Weekly Activities now populate after campaign completion
• Maurice’s Black Market Vending Machine timer updates to show correct cooldown
• Firmware 3-Piece bonuses (Ahoy, Oscar Mike, Daed-dy O’) now show cooldown icons; Deadeye Tier-3 stacks now appear in the passive bar
• Boss Bar spacing corrected when Combat Radar is active
• Transfer Machine naming has been standardized across the game
• Travel notification now displays the initiating player’s name
• ECHO Location path remains readable over time; made improvements to pathfinding
• Updated various UI visuals and icons for alignment, consistency, and clarity
• Updated localization and various text descriptions across the game
• Standardized/updated terminology across gear, menus, customization, and manufacturers

Visuals

• Updated various character and NPC animations
• Corrected various reported instances of VFX not rendering correctly
• Grapple Vault points now show proper models instead of placeholders
• Reduced reported instances of visual pops at cinematic starts

Audio

• Audio and VO now remain active when returning to menus after level traveling in multiplayer
• Adjusted audio mix for improved balance across gameplay and VO
• SFX volume slider now correctly applies to high HDR-value sounds
• Addressed several reported instances of VO not playing as intended across multiple missions and scenarios
• Vault Hunter battle voiceover frequency has been tuned so lines repeat less often
• Missing pain reaction audio restored for several named NPCs
• Improved various subtitle timing and text
• Background music now continues as expected during the Idolator Sol boss fight
• Unique audio cue restored for Phosphene (shiny) gear spawns

Settings & Accessibility

• Personal Cross-play settings can now be adjusted immediately after switching Party Privacy from Local Only to Public in Session Settings
• Air Dash is now fully usable on controller when Toggle Crouch is set to Off under Accessibility → Gameplay
• Individual graphics options now reset properly after making changes and then selecting Run Auto-Detect in Options
• [PS5 and Xbox] Field of View resets consistently to Default on consoles without showing mismatched values

Player Experience

• Improvements to stability
  • We are continuing to investigate and will make further improvements to stability and performance.
• Addressed multiple reported issues across multiplayer, missions, menus, and engine systems.
• Improved matchmaking and session stability.
• Addressed performance in multiplayer when there were large numbers of homing projectiles
• Refined graphics settings and shader handling
• Improvements made to patch reliability and automation processes
• Ocean could occasionally fail to load

Miscellaneous

• [Epic] Rich Presence now displays correctly in non-English languages on Epic
• [PS5] Friend list now loads properly after logging out and back in during patch checks on the title screen
• Joystick input now behaves consistently when lowering deadzones
• [PS5 and Xbox] SHiFT account linking verification codes now auto-copy and apply correctly on console

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.

Some Battlefield 6 players are up in arms after first information about Season 1 revealed what they believe is an out of place soldier skin.

Fans have waited weeks for a first look at Season 1 and its new maps, modes, and guns. However, after EA and Battlefield Studios finally pulled back the curtain with a trailer yesterday, the only thing on the community’s mind was a question: could this be the beginning of the end?

New Battlefield 6 maps like Blackwell Fields and Eastwood certainly served as meaningful attention grabbers, but it’s just one skin that has completely controlled the conversation. The cosmetic in question is Wicked Grin, a new skin for the Assault Class. A sneak peek at the suit arrived via various Battlefield 6 Season 1 previews that hit the web yesterday, revealing a wardrobe that fans feel ranges from grounded to gaudy.

PC Gamer was one of a few sites to share an image of the skin, which features dark blue highlights from head to toe. It’s Class operator also sports a toothy smile painted across their bandana. It’s been more than enough to set off alarm bells among the Battlefield 6 community, especially considering the Wicked Grin skin description teases that it can be “unlocked as a free store gift.” It suggests Assault players could flood lobbies with those standout blues as soon as next week, potentially bringing fans’ fear of goofy skins into reality. Even if this or any of the other Season 1 skins remain a far cry from the dozens of celebrity, superhero, and cartoon character crossovers present in other popular shooters like Call of Duty and Fortnite, tens of thousands of fans are clearly unhappy with what they’re seeing so far.

“So, weren’t we supposed to have realistic skins for some time?” one popular comment from a fan says. “Something that someone would really wear during a war? Yet it seems that with the start of Season 1, everything will turn to colorful mess, with no way of differentiating teams based on uniforms, the game will look more like a Paintball or [ActionSportGames] event.”

“I will not revive anyone wearing this kind of skin. My take,” one Reddit user says. “I’m gonna miss the days when everyone has default and beta skins,” another Reddit user adds. “I’m afraid this game won’t be recognizable in the future.”

EA and BF Studios have never set a hard rule describing what exactly their version of a grounded Battlefield 6 looks like. Still, the Season 1 skin is being perceived as a breach of trust after the community had been told to expect grounded visuals across the board for at least a while.

“We are a gritty, grounded, realistic shooter,” Ripple Effect and BF Studios technical director Christian Buhl told IGN last month. “That’s what we intend to be, and that’s what the game is going to look like for a while.”

Many admit that there is still much ground to cover before Battlefield 6 stops looking like the grounded military shooter that it currently is and starts introducing some of the more outrageous characters seen in other games. There’s also the fact that there are, of course, many other more grounded outfits both in the Battlefield 6 base game and coming in Season 1. As for what we’ve seen from Season 1 so far, though, fans are now more on edge than ever.

“Is it realistic? No,” another community comment adds. “Is it more grounded then Beavis and Butt-Head, Peter Griffin, Sgt. PsPsPs, Wubz, Feelin Sloothy, the list goes on… I would say yes.”

“If you want to use regular, realistic outfits, there are plenty,” someone else says. “If someone wants to wear one with a bit of colour, they can. It’s a video game, not real war.”

Time will tell if Battlefield 6 will push past the Wicked Grin skin seen with Season 1. Until then, you can check out all of the major additions set to be introduced in next week’s content drop. You can also read up on how players in the Engineer class are using the repair tool to create works of art.

Finally, be sure to check out our full list of all currently available Battlefield 6 multiplayer maps. Those looking to brush up on their online skills can also read our multiplayer tips and tricks guide.

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).