Category: IGN

Like so many ‘90s kids, I watched my fair share of monster taming TV shows growing up, Digimon included. And while an 8-year-old George enjoyed Digimon World 3 on PlayStation 2, it was 2015’s Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth (and 2017’s more refined Hacker’s Memory) that renewed my current interest in the series. I felt a sense of nostalgia playing it, and its unique evolution systems made it stand out amongst Pokemon’s omnipresent domination of the genre. A decade later, Digimon Story Time Stranger builds on that same foundation, but this time with a much bolder story that pays off well and a mostly compelling cast of characters. Combine that with engrossing turn-based combat and monster collecting mechanics, and Time Stranger shines as one of the best Digimon RPGs to date.

Time Stranger follows a nameless secret agent protagonist who, after experiencing an apocalyptic clash involving Digimon called the Shinjuku Inferno, gets transported eight years into the past in order to find a way to prevent it. It’s an explosive start to the story and one that grabs your attention immediately. Things get a little more straightforward from there as you quickly meet Inori Misono, a regular girl who just so happens to become intertwined with a humanoid Digimon named Aegiomon who conveniently has amnesia. The trio set forth to uncover his mysterious origins from there, and as sappy as the script is – both of them constantly declare that they’ll “protect each other no matter what” – Inori and Aegiomon’s bond is tested in a way that ultimately sticks the landing.

One minor disappointment is that our protagonist is silent, which oftentimes leads to the more emotionally impactful scenes falling a bit flat. Shinjuku’s law enforcement group, the Public Safety team, helps out our trio quite a bit during the story, but their personalities don’t have enough depth to carry conversations on their own, making them quite forgettable. The only one who sticks out is the scientist, Monica Simmons, mainly due to her having the most presence in cutscenes. The others, like Kodai Kuremi and Shota Kuroi, I couldn’t really tell you a thing about, much less remember what they even looked like.

However, the Digimon characters do the heavy lifting here. The story revolves around Olympus XII, a group of twelve Mega-level deity Digimon that manage the Digital World. Their personalities are larger than life and a stark contrast to the boring humans in Public Safety. I enjoyed Bacchusmon’s lackadaisical and hungry antics, as he’s based on the Roman god of wine. Vulcanusmon, based on the Roman god of fire and the blacksmith of the group, loves action figures. These interests and habits give them an immense amount of charm. Despite being literal gods, they all feel down to earth and relatable in some way.

Time Stranger also does a fantastic job of using its time travel elements to flesh these Digimon out further across its 30-40 hour campaign. For example, smaller Digimon you meet in the past end up playing pivotal roles later on, growing both physically and emotionally when the protagonist eventually has to go back to the present. You see them mature into their Digivolved forms as they tell you how much of an impact you made on their lives.

Digimon Rumble Arena

Time Stranger’s combat sticks to a traditional but amusing turn-based RPG system, playing out more like Shin Megami Tensei or Dragon Quest Monsters rather than the simultaneous choices of something like Pokemon. You can have three Digimon accompany Aegiomon out on the field at once, not to mention up to three special guest Digimon that will temporarily fight alongside you for various story reasons, as well as three more slots that hold your reserve options.

It can be a bit of a chore to manage a potential total of seven Digimon at the same time (although you can’t directly control those guest Digimon), but Time Stranger has plenty of quality-of-life features to smooth the process over when you’re not taking on its more pivotal fights. You can speed up the pace of battle and its animations by 2x, 3x, and 5x, as well as turn on auto-battle and let your Digimon act on their own in case you want to quickly streamroll over regular enemy encounters.

I really like the multi-layered weakness system Time Stranger has going on. There are three primary attributes (Data, Virus, and Vaccine) that have a rock-paper-scissors relationship with each other: Data beats Vaccine, Vaccine beats Virus, and Virus beats Data. On top of this, each Digimon comes with elemental weaknesses too, like Fire, Planet, Earth, and Water. If a Vaccine-type Digimon hits a Virus-type Digimon, it’ll do 150% more damage, but if the attack is a Light-elemental one and the opponent is Dark-elemental, then the multiplier will be even higher, up to 400% from what I’ve seen so far. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s still a fun puzzle to take advantage of these attributes and elemental systems to create complex strategies and dispose of enemies efficiently. You’d be surprised at how fast even bosses can drop when you come up with a good plan.

Fortunately, you won’t need to memorize every single attribute and elemental match up. While weaknesses are unknown when you first encounter a new Digimon, hitting them with attacks will reveal them, and you can double check that information during battle before making a move from then on. It feels like a guessing game, but a fair one. Encountering new Digimon with initially unknown combinations of weaknesses and resistances constantly switches up battles to prevent them from feeling stale.

There are more than 450 different Digimon that could potentially join your team, and each one has a few special skills which are unique to them. For example, IceDevimon’s Frost Claw is an Ice-elemental attack with life-stealing capabilities, while MegaKabuterimon’s Horn Buster is a Plant-elemental attack that also reduces the opponent’s speed stat. These moves have unique attack animations as well, giving each Digimon a bit of cool individuality.

Your Digimon can also equip up to four attachment skills using Skill Discs, which essentially function the same as TMs in Pokemon. However, there are no restrictions for which moves a Digimon can learn, so you have unlimited freedom in how you want to build out your team. My Lilithmon, for example, has Holy Light III equipped, giving her a way to hit other Dark-elemental Digimon for big damage despite them being immune to her special skill, Phantom Pain. This way, you can prepare your Digimon to be as well-rounded or as specialized as possible, whichever you prefer.

During the course of battle, you’ll accumulate Cross Points, or CP. Once your CP bar is full, your human agent can unleash a powerful move called a Cross Art. These can range from doing massive damage to all enemies, concentrating a blast on a single one, and even fully healing your party. The one baffling caveat is that you can only equip one Cross Art at a time, so if you go into battle equipped with the wrong one, you’re screwed. This could’ve easily just been a dropdown menu during battle to select whichever Cross Art you wanted in a particular situation, especially because the limitation meant I only ever switched between Burst for regular enemy encounters and Strike for boss battles. The former wipes out groups of enemies quickly while the latter can reliably break a boss’s concentration as they charge up their deadly ultimate attack. It was difficult to find a moment where I ever wanted to use the more defensive Cross Arts.

Digivolve to…

Digimon’s unique evolution mechanic, dubbed Digivolving, is core to Time Stranger’s progression. Each Digimon has multiple evolution lines that you can constantly Digivolve and De-digivolve through, but they have to meet certain requirements to do so. These can include your Agent Rank, reaching a specific stat threshold, and more. This faster approach to evolution feels much more immediately gratifying, even if there’s still some level grinding involved to get a Digimon to meet certain requirements. You’re rewarded for constantly evolving and devolving, too, as the cumulative stats are passed down to the next Digimon, and I really enjoyed clicking through the menus to see which Digimon were ready to go again right after transforming.

As for how they’ll join your team in the first place, you automatically scan Digimon for a certain percentage amount every time you defeat them. Once a specific type reaches 100%, you can convert it to join your team – however, if you wait until that progress reaches 200% first, it’ll come out more powerful. It’s nice to not have to worry about knocking out a creature by accident if I want to add it to my available roster, as I can just concentrate on what I do best instead, which is winning battles.

With only six slots in your active party, you’re inevitably going to have multiple copies of the same Digimon filling up your overflow box. But that’s a good problem to have! For instance if you have two Agumons, you can Digivolve one into Greymon and the other into GeoGreymon and see how their evolution lines divert from there. It’s almost like a fun gacha game without the predatory randomness elements. Sometimes a Digimon’s portrait is blacked out in the evolution tree, and reading the requirements makes you incredibly curious to see what it could be. And even if you’ve exhausted all possible evolution paths for a specific kind of Digimon, Time Stranger still lets you put them to good use: You can break them down into materials that grant your more useful Digimon extra EXP, or grind them into money to buy items. It may be cruel to get rid of these sentient digital beings so callously, but given the current state of AIs in the real world, I didn’t feel much sympathy.

Time Stranger also introduces Personalities that influence stat growth, acting similar to Natures from Pokemon. There are four different categories – Philanthropy, Valor, Understanding, and Heart – that each have four specific Personalities within them. For instance, Understanding revolves around the Intellect stat, which makes magic attacks stronger, but a Digimon with a Sly Personality will see boosts in both Intellect and HP while one with an Enlightened personality will gain more Intellect and SP. This nuance adds a lot more depth to party-building and tickles the min-maxing part of my brain. Thankfully, you can also influence and change your Digimon’s Personalities by replying to the text messages they’ll occasionally send you (yes, they can do that), giving you some control over that aspect.

A staple of the Digimon Story series, the Digifarm, returns to help with this as well. By placing your Digimon here, they can roam around and gain EXP on their own. You also have more direct control over how their stats and Personalities change while there. For example, my Cyberdramon didn’t have a high enough speed stat to Digivolve into its next form, so I had him run on a treadmill in the Digifarm until it was. I even sped up the process by paying in-game yen instead of waiting out the 15-minute increments. Leveling Cyberdramon naturally would’ve taken too long and waiting for it to finish on the treadmill was even slower, so I was happy to be able to pay my way out of it. (Don’t worry, there are no real-money microtransactions.) You can also feed your Digimon food here to further increase your bonds, which gives them a higher chance of executing follow-up attacks in battle, and that can sometimes be the difference between victory and defeat.

Time Stranger offers plenty of side activities to do, too. While the side missions are usually just fetch quests, they at least offer a cute glimpse into how Digimon behave in their world. The character models for all of the Digimon look sharp and pristine, with the Digital World having varied environments to explore, from the coastal beach and aquarium vibes of the Abyss to the rustic nature aesthetic of the Gear Forest. It’s a drastic improvement over the previous Digimon Story games, and I enjoyed running around and taking in the sights of Digimon just going about their day. You’ll also find Outer Dungeons hidden away, which are challenges you can take on to earn reward money – and some of the toughest ones are fun ways to test out your end-game party.

Moreover, many side quests offer a crucial reward: additional Anomaly points outside of story missions. You spend these points on skills and abilities for your protagonist, such as unlocking more Cross Arts or decreasing certain Digivolution requirements. Spending them also increases your Agent Rank, which is often a Digivolution requirement itself. At higher Agent ranks, you can start Digivolving your Digimon into their Ultimate and Mega forms, which is important in order to tackle the more powerful bosses towards the end. Tucking away such an important resource behind side missions pushed me to meaningfully engage with content outside of the main story in a way I liked. The Anomaly points earned from completing story missions are just enough to keep you on par with the standard pace of difficulty, but if you really want to discover more Digimon and collect ‘em all, the side missions are well-worth doing.

And because every RPG needs to have one, Time Stranger also features a card-based minigame that uses artwork from the actual Digimon Card Game in real life. Depending on how many rounds you win against an opponent, you can nab the corresponding amount of cards from their deck as prizes. Strangely, there aren’t any tangible rewards like items that could be useful in battle or anything like that, so it’s only really a game you’d play as a distraction.

The Nintendo and The Pokémon Company’s ongoing patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair’s Palworld has stirred up much debate among game developers and players alike. However, former Capcom game developer Yoshiki Okamoto’s recent YouTube video, in which he made comments seemingly against Pocketpair and Palworld, has sparked a strong backlash from viewers.

Current chairman of the Japan Game Culture Foundation, Yoshiki Okamoto has worked in the game industry for over 40 years, with a varied resume which includes Street Fighter 2, the first Resident Evil, and hit mobile game Monster Strike. He also created the original concept for what would become Rockstar’s Red Dead Revolver.

In a YouTube video posted on his channel on September 27, Okamoto gave his opinions on the ongoing Nintendo vs. Pocketpair lawsuit, saying that Palworld had “crossed a line that should not be crossed, and I don’t want the world to become a place where this kind of thing is acceptable.”

Later in the video, Okamoto said that “if a settlement is reached with Nintendo, then I think it (Palworld) will become a game that is officially fine to play. However, it is currently a game that’s being sued so it’s unacceptable. By playing the game you are supporting it, so please don’t buy it.”

This comment and his labelling of Pocketpair as an “anti-xxxx” (Okamoto bleeped out and distorted the last kanji character of the word in both the audio and subtitle in the video) prompted a flood of criticism in the comments — and many did not hold back. The majority of commenters interpreted Okamoto’s half-obscured term as “hansha” or “anti-social force” (an abbreviated term often used to describe criminal organizations like the yakuza, and groups that operate in ways that go against the proper and/or legal way of doing things). One commenter pointed out that calling Pocketpair an “anti-social force” could be considered defamation. They then added, “On the other hand, your argument that ‘people should stop playing games with questionable content because this equates to supporting them’ is convincing,” before announcing that these words made them decide to quit playing Okamoto’s Monster Strike after nearly 20 years. Other user reactions included, “I think assuming something is bad just because it has been sued is wrong,” and, “No matter how much you dislike (Pocketpair and Palworld), calling them anti-social is crossing a line.”

Andrezj Sapkowski, the creator of The Witcher, has said he regrets including a throwaway reference to “Witcher schools” in one of his books, which CD Projekt’s The Witcher video games have since massively expanded on.

Writing in a Q&A on reddit, Sapkowski said his single mention of a “School of the Wolf” in The Last Wish, a short story collection, had been an “unworthy” inclusion that he was now considering deleting from the book’s future print runs.

But for many fans of The Witcher, who know the franchise from its existing trilogy of video games, Witcher schools are now an important part of the franchise — and something that CD Projekt has developed into a key part of its lore.

CD Projekt has established that there are at least seven guild-like Schools: the Wolf (to which hero Geralt belongs), the Cat, Griffin, Bear, Viper, Manticore and Crane. Those within each school wear a medallion showing them as such — and indeed, the studio’s first teaser for The Witcher 4 sparked huge speculation among fans with its focus on a new school medallion, which CD Projekt later confirmed was for a previously-unknown School of the Lynx.

But while video game fans have enjoyed the series sorting Witchers into Hogwarts-like houses, it’s safe to say that Sapkowski isn’t on board.

“A single sentence about some ‘School of the Wolf’ mysteriously made its way into The Last Wish,” Sapkowski wrote. “I later deemed it unworthy of development and narratively incorrect, even detrimental to the plot. Therefore, later I never included or referenced any Witcher Gryffindors or Slytherins again. Never.

“However, that one sentence was enough. Adaptors, particularly video game people, have clung to the idea with remarkable tenacity and have wonderfully multiplied these ‘witcher schools’. Completely unnecessary.”

Fans think they’ve uncovered proof that 2009 action game Prototype could be getting a new lease of life.

While the game has mostly remained dormant on Steam since its release 16 years ago, eagle-eyed fans spotted a flurry of updates behind the scenes via SteamDB, as well as a revealing datamine effort that has discovered a mysterious change to the game’s credits that adds in remaster studio, Iron Galaxy, and a curious reference to Ubisoft Connect.

That’s not all, though. “So one of the OG modders for the game data mined the recent update and has found a lot of interesting things,” StanleyMitchel explained on the game’s subreddit. “For Prototype 1, they have added some test maps and quite a few new names in the credits. There might be some hope for a remaster after all.”

They then linked to two text versions of the game’s credit roll, which highlights the changes. These include a new “downloadable content” team, another team for “Ubisoft Connect Version,” “Activision Localization,” “Demonware,” and finally, “Iron Galaxy Studios.” In all, 753 changes were made to the original credits list.

“One of the new studios in the credits worked in [sic] the Spyro remasters,” Nixson wrote on Discord. “This is 100% confirmed. They’re remastering the games. Likely using the same engine/code or some hybrid like Oblivion. There’s a lot of new names in the credits, mainly other Activision studios,” they added. “I’m starting to think the new Prototype game in-the-works thing may be true.”

As for the strange Ubisoft Connect reference? Don’t forget that when Microsoft acquired Activision as part of its historic $68.7 billion deal in 2023, Microsoft agreed to sell Activision’s cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft. So while none of this is confirmed, it’s possible Prototype is one of the games Ubisoft will be adding to its subscription service. Watch this space.

Prototype sees you take control of Alex Mercer, a dark, genetically mutated shape-shifter with no memory of his past, hell-bent on solving the mystery of his existence as he tears through New York City. We had a good time with it when it released way back in 2009, calling Prototype a “game with many cool features [but] lack[ing] many of the finishing touches that make for a great and memorable game.”

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.

Call of Duty: Warzone has promised a “bold new experience” will come to the battle royale next spring, inspired by Black Ops 4’s original battle royale mode, Blackout.

In a message posted to X/Twitter, the Call of Duty team appended an image of players dropping from the sky and the words: “Approaching the drop zone… Call of Duty: Warzone is bringing a bold new experience in Spring of 2026 inspired by the original Blackout, set on Avalon.”

The Blackout battle royale mode was released alongside Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Call of Duty’s “responsive and forgiving gunplay, nimble movement, and creative but practical equipment fit beautifully into the trendy last man standing format,” we said of Blackout in our 2018 review. Blackout was eventually superceded by COD’s dedicated battle royale experience, Call of Duty: Warzone, which was in turn spruced up in 2022, but there are plenty of fans who hold a special place in their hearts for the OG mode given the thousands of replies and likes the Twitter tease has received.

Approaching the drop zone…

Call of Duty: Warzone is bringing a bold new experience in Spring of 2026 inspired by the original Blackout, set on Avalon. #BlackOps7 | #CODNext pic.twitter.com/TenwQesj5W

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) September 30, 2025

While there’s been no formal follow-up to any of the questions asking what, exactly, Activision means by the term “experience,” the publisher teased: “And here’s just a glimpse on what’s dropping into Call of Duty: Warzone:

• Bold New Blackout Experience on Avalon
• Rebirth Island Refresh
• Verdansk Updates
• Ranked Play
• And MORE!

“Stay tuned for more information as we have more FREE content updates all next year!”

As for the next mainline Call of Duty game? Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 officially releases on November 14, 2025, for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. Those hoping to try before they buy can test Treyarch’s updated formula October 5-8 via an open beta. Players willing to pre-order can get in on the action even earlier via an early access beta running October 2–5 — here’s when the closed and open betas goes live in your timezone.

Don’t forget, Activision recently warned PC gamers that they will not be able to play during the beta and at launch if they do not enable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot. Like rival shooter Battlefield 6, TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot are required for Black Ops 7 to run on PC as part of strict anti-cheat measures to block modified hardware and unauthorized software.

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.

Magic: The Gathering’s latest set takes us through the Spider-Verse, and while yesterday we highlighted that Amazon’s Marvel’s Spider-Man booster box deal may not have been all it was cracked up to be, the retailer is back with a bona fide deal.

The Marvel’s Spider-Man Bundle, which includes packs, land cards, and a promo in foil as well as other gubbins, is down to $54.95 – a 21% saving on the $69.99 MSRP just a week before the October Prime Day sales officially kick off.

This Spider-Man MTG Bundle is a Great Deal

Then there’s a slick deck box and a spindown life counter that comes in Spidey’s iconic red and blue coloring, making this a solid pickup for kicking off your Spider-Man MTG collection.

For more on the Spider-Man set, check out the cards players are looking for – you might find some in your bundle. I got lucky and found Venom, Lethal Protector in mine.

And, for more on Magic: The Gathering in general, check out our rundown of the long-running card game’s wildest year yet, with 2026 bringing Star Trek, more Marvel, and even a return to Middle-earth.

Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.

As a life-long lover of sci-fi battle scenes, it is always a joy to order a fleet of dozens of starships of all shapes and sizes to hyper-jump to a neighboring planet, then zoom in and watch as they burst into existence on the other side, bearing down on the entrenched enemy as they scramble fighters and bring their guns to bear. It’s something we’ve seen play out many times in Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and more, though few games let you control warfare between interstellar powers on the scale of Sins of a Solar Empire 2. It often takes hours of slow and steady management across layers of intimidatingly complex grand strategy systems to build up to those major confrontations, but the payoff is spectacular.

The important thing to know going in is that while this is a bewilderingly complicated real-time strategy/4X hybrid that lets you zoom from a view of an entire solar system down to an individual spaceship in a fleet of hundreds, you do not need to know everything about it to have a good time with it, or even win. I should know – after a few dozen hours playing largely against Unfair (the setting above hard) AI opponents, mostly in four-way free-for-alls, I’ve won more than I’ve lost even though I still have a lot to learn about the many, many differences both large and subtle between the six playable factions and how their fleets, structures, and upgrades interact. Unless you’re in this to mostly play at a high level against human opponents who’ve optimized their build orders and mastered the mechanics, once you get your head around the basics of building your economy, research, and fleet management, I’ve found that you can lean into the aspects that you enjoy most and all but ignore things you aren’t interested in, and still enjoy building your empire and crushing enemies.

Fundamentally, all six of Sins 2’s playable factions operate in a fairly similar way in that they all colonize planets, extract resources, build orbital structures for research and production, and have similar lineups of corvettes, frigates, cruisers, and capital ships, but beyond that their differences are significant and complex as hell. The two human TEC factions both generate money in part by setting up networks of trading outposts, but they come with different upgrades and bonuses that makes Enclave better suited for a defensive playstyle and Primacy more aggressive – among them, the Novalith Cannon superweapon that can bombard planets from across the solar system and the ability to earn money by sending in raiders. The Vasari Alliance, meanwhile, have no use for the TEC’s money at all and are focused on diplomacy with minor factions that let them periodically call in favors like reinforcements or upgrades, while their Exodus counterparts are the only faction that can completely destroy planets as they strip them for resources. The Advent Reborn and Wrath are big on resurrecting destroyed ships and mind-controlling enemies, respectively. All of that is a gross oversimplification, of course, but in the interest of avoiding turning this review into a mirror of the massive guides to each faction on the official site, rest assured that they’re pretty distinct. The list of unique technologies and items they all have access to means there’s a lot of replayability here just from trying out each one.

If you played the classic 2008 Sins of a Solar Empire (or its half-step sequel Rebellion) Sins 2 may seem a bit unambitious when you first begin – at least, after you’ve stopped gawking at how much better and shinier all the ships look in an updated game engine that can handle cool things like all the rotating, target-tracking turrets you could ask for. It really does look spectacular when major battles are joined and the lasers and missiles start flying, but it takes a while to get to that point. The early hours of Sins 2 play very similarly to its 17-year-old predecessor: the routine of starting from a single world, exploring the map around you with automated scouts, and racing to colonize every planet and asteroid you can clear of local defenses with your chosen starting flagship and small fleet (as you research the technologies required to inhabit each planet type) is for the most part indistinguishable.

The main new wrinkle is presented by an exotic materials system that limits how quickly you can ramp up high-powered military assets like capital ships and starbases, but later on this becomes kind of irrelevant. At first they’re hard to come by, and you have to either unearth random ones from planets and asteroids you colonize or destroy enemy capital ships and salvage them – and because most major ships and starbases require a specific material, you may have to improvise with what’s available rather than go with your favorite ships out of the gate, which adds some variety from game to game. Eventually, though, you can research the ability to build refineries that slowly produce exotics out of the standard resources of metal and crystal you’ve extracted, and then you can build whatever you like – it’ll even auto-research the technologies and then produce the materials if you have the resources available, so all exotics really do after that point is add to build times.

When you reach the midgame, Sins 2 really starts showing off what makes it different from the original by layering on so many different systems that I had to play multiple, hours-long games before I came close to engaging with them all. Even having gone through an in-depth series of tutorials (there’s no traditional RTS story campaign in which to learn the ropes) and after over more than 40 hours of practice, it’s an overwhelming amount of things to keep track of: two parallel research trees with multiple paths, numerous planetary upgrades, buildable items you can equip on your individual capital ships and worlds, simple diplomacy with both player-controlled factions and independent worlds, culture expansion, resource management, pirate raids, other faction-specific mechanics like trade routes and castable powers, and unique Titan superships, among others. With the default settings, planets will even slowly orbit the sun in the center of the map at different rates, which sounds interesting but can be annoying if you forget to check the movement preview for a while and suddenly one of your worlds has drifted to the middle of enemy territory and is cut off from reinforcements. (It is, however, very funny when this happens to someone else.)

For that matter, everything in Sins 2 appears to be moving slowly when you’re watching a fleet glide across a planet’s gravity well before jumping to the next or a progress bar for research or construction fill up, but it’s deceptive in that there’s virtually always something you can be doing to improve your empire. Once you figure out which menus to peruse to manage equipment on individual planets, capital ships, and starbases, view and expand available build slots on your planets, search for which of the dozens of technologies to research next, keep tabs on your economy growth, and more, it can feel like things are moving too quickly to do all of that and build fleets to send on lengthy journeys to where they’re needed to defend or attack. It’s workable because the tools for organizing fleets are simple and mostly intuitive, with improvements such as letting you build reinforcements directly from a fleet’s menu instead of seeking out a shipyard, but I’m still glad that I’m allowed to pause time (in single-player) to figure things out.

It’s also a good thing that you don’t really have to micromanage your ships in combat if you don’t want to. You’ll certainly get more out of your battleships if you’re zooming in to manually do things like send out swarms of nanites to do damage over time, restore allies’ shields, or launch a massive missile salvo at a particularly bothersome enemy ship, but they’ll also auto-cast those abilities for you by default (as long as you’ve taken the time to choose which ones to unlock when a ship levels up). Similarly, precise positioning certainly matters because you can do things like keep your vulnerable ships outside the firing range of a starbase or stationary defensive turrets, and it’s always wise to try to save your experienced capital ships to fight another day by withdrawing from a fight before they’re destroyed (you’ll get frequent notifications when their shields are down or their hull is crippled, so it’s hard to miss those opportunities).

But those maneuvers matter most when you’re fighting an equally matched opponent, and the key to victory is to never do that if you don’t have to: wars are won on a logistical level by making sure your fleet is well supplied and fully upgraded, and has a good composition of light frigates and heavy cruisers along with speedy fighters, corvettes, and long-range support craft all backing up your capital ships. All the micromanagement in the world can only take you so far when you’re outnumbered two to one because your enemy had more shipyards and a more powerful economy.

Granted, part of the reason I’ve been able to win most of my games without making full use of every tool at my disposal is because the rival empires’ AI tends to drop the ball in the late game. I’ve played multiple matches where enemy fleets would gang up on me by attacking on two fronts simultaneously and push me back to my core worlds, but then they’d back off while I still held enough territory to be able to rebuild my fleet. Eventually I was able to regroup and then steamroll them, even though they beat me to building the massive Titan warships at the very top of each faction’s tech tree.

It’s entirely possible that in these cases my opponents were too busy fighting each other to deal with me while I rebuilt my fleets, but the fact that neither took the time to deliver a killing blow to my home world and seize my territory when they had the chance seemed a little silly. Until that point, though, the AI puts up a good fight, with lots of opportunities for skirmishes and trading blows around border worlds.

In theory, Sins of a Solar Empire 2 works best as a multiplayer game because humans would have no such trouble going for the jugular. However, in practice I’ve never been able to actually finish a multiplayer game because of how long and involved they are. Even a “small” game of Sins 2 with two players on one of the pre-built or randomly generated maps is sprawling, involving dozens of planets and other heavenly bodies to fight over, which can take hours against an opponent who knows better than to leave his homeworld undefended; a large one can actually have multiple solar systems you can jump between and up to 10 players, so it’s quite a commitment for a group to see one through. To its credit, Sins 2 does allow for players to easily jump in and out, with AI taking over control of a faction until a human returns to pick up the reins again so you won’t be left unfulfilled if your opponents have other obligations to attend to.

All of this is before you get to the modding scene, which is busily churning out conversions that let you add Star Destroyers, Battlestars, and Romulan Warbirds (among many others) to the mix using the built-in mod manager. If the original Sins of a Solar Empire is anything to go by, that community will keep giving us new fan-pleasing toys to play with for a very long time – maybe even decades – to come.

One of the lost arts in the fighting game genre is a good, meaty single-player mode that’s there in addition to your standard arcade runthrough or story mode. And no, Street Fighter 6’s “We have Yakuza at home” World Tour doesn’t count. Think Soul Calibur’s excellent Weapon Master or Guilty Gear’s absolutely bonkers M.O.M. The art isn’t gone – Tekken 8’s awesome Arcade Quest is right there – but it’s on life support. I got the chance to sit down with My Hero Academia: All’s Justice at Tokyo Game Show, and what I played of its Team-Up Missions just might be the shot in the arm fighting games need – at least when it comes to single-player modes.

VR but Not VR

What makes All Justice’s spin on this unique is that the whole thing is an original story developed in conjunction with the creators of the manga and the anime. The other interesting thing here is that it all takes place inside a virtual reality program. But All’s Justice isn’t just doing its best Metal Gear Solid 2 impression, and this isn’t just a string of fights. You’ll be exploring the virtual world of All’s Justice, too. In fact, I found running around, doing side quests, and just enjoying The Vibe to be as compelling as My Hero Academia’s brawls. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s load up my VR tour from the start.

My journey began with Izuku “Deku” Midoriya and Toshinori “All Might” Yagi exploring the VR world of the Team-Up Missions when they get a call from Mei Hatsume, who needs your help to fix a Nomu whose programming has gone haywire. Sounds like a job for a superhero, so off I go. After a quick battle against the Nomu that serves as a very basic tutorial, the rest of Class 1-A shows up to back Deku up. From there, I was cut loose for a couple more missions and allowed to explore the world.

The coolest thing about All’s Justice is that you’re not just running from one map marker to the another looking for The Next Thing. In fact, Deku and I quickly got sidetracked. We were supposed to be training with All Might when Ochaco “Uravity” Uraraka called and asked for my help, so I whipped my way over to her. See, you can use each hero’s Quirks (If you’re unfamiliar with My Hero Academia, a Quirk is a person’s superpower) to navigate the world. That means that when you’re Deku, you’re swinging around like some kind of Legally Distinct Spider-Man. When I arrived, I found that Uraraka was helping a little girl look for her lost cat. All right, My Hero Academia. I’m immediately charmed. We saw the cat up on the roof; the only problem was getting there. While Deku’s Definitely Not Web-Slinging is great for getting around, it’s not really ideal for leaping a tall building in a single bound and rescuing a lost kitty.

Good thing we’re playing Team-Up Missions, huh? A quick switch to Uravity and one use of anti-gravity powers later, and I was up, up, and away and soon reuniting a very happy little girl with her adorable cat. Producer Aoba Miyazaki told me that this stuff was key to nailing the feeling of My Hero Academia. Battles are important, yeah, but the series is also about high school students learning to be heroes, and that means being in that world and interacting with those people was just as important.

Friendly Neighborhood Superteam

Cat saved, it was time to train with All Might. We were essentially playing Hide and Seek: we’d complete tasks assigned by Pro Heroes and get the clues we needed to find All Might. Turn us loose on the world, All Justice’s. We’re ready. And if the whole saving the cat thing wasn’t a clue, not everything’s going to be a fight.

Don’t get me wrong: All Justice’s is still an arena fighter, and if you’ve played one, you know what to expect. You’ve got your basic combos, unblockable attacks, special moves that vary between characters, a super-powered mode known as Rising, and your Plus Ultra ultimate attacks. You can also tag in your partners mid-combo when you absolutely, positively have to rearrange someone’s face. It’s great fun, even if you’re just scraping by while Endeavor is pummelling you and you’re trying to remember the controls. I was yelling “It’s fine!” a lot during the fights when it was most assuredly not fine, but I clutched them out.

But there was other stuff, too. One time, I had to race to the top of a building before time ran out, but Ochaco couldn’t just float up to it. We had to find buildings we could use as stepping stones to get us where we needed to be. And everyone has their own different traversal options. Froppy can climb up buildings because she’s essentially a frog. Bakugo can use his explosions to boost himself to higher places. Koda can speak to animals, and that can help you out, too. I didn’t get to see that one in action, but I bet it’s great for finding cats.

There are also lots of side missions, both with other heroes and regular citizens. At one point, I was walking down an alley when a random villain pulled up, looking to throw down. Let me tell you, that dude came to the wrong neighborhood. I sent him flying through like an entire rack full of bikes, which became kind of a running theme. Deku and his friends are heroes, but if you own a bicycle, these dudes are a menace. Well, at least when I’m piloting him.

Superhero Around Town

There are also buildings to heal up your team between battles, but Miyazaki told me that there are also challenge gyms if you’re looking for something tougher. In addition, the map for the main story and the Team-Up Missions are connected, so you can transfer from one mode to the other by just running around. She also told me that completing the Team-Up Missions unlocks two other modes: Archives mode and Hero Diaries. You can play out iconic fights from the series in the former, and the latter lets you see what the Class 1-A crew is up to outside of the anime, just like the Team-Up Missions. What I played of the Team-Up Missions was already charming, but it’s great that there’s more to unlock if you complete them all.

We did eventually track down All Might, and then we had to fight him. You can have up to three characters on your team at any one time, but for this battle, I just had Deku and Uravity. Against All Might, the Big Bad Booty Daddy of My Hero Academia himself. Things started… badly. I almost got happy birthday’d when I made a bad tag and All Might caught both Ochaco and Izuku at the same time, draining about two-thirds of my health with a single combo. I popped Rising mode immediately to try to stay alive, and whittled him down until, at low health, I landed the perfect hit, turned that into a tag combo, and ended with a Plus Ultra that finished All Might off on the very last hit. It was a blast, and a great way to end my time with All’s Justice.

I left My Hero Academia: All’s Justice impressed with the fisticuffs, but also its dedication to building a world where you’re actively being a hero, not just punching something. Like fighting games themselves, being a superhero isn’t just about fights; the stuff between brawls matters, too. My Hero Academia’s cast isn’t just a bunch of Quirked-up pugilists; they’re learning how to be heroes, and that means helping people. Sometimes, saving the cat is the most heroic thing you can do.

The Mortal Kombat series has been kicking around (and pulling out gory human insides) for several decades now. It spans over two dozen entries and numerous gaming platforms. It’s a cultural behemoth. To celebrate the history of this over-the-top violent fighting game franchise, Insight Editions is set to release a new book on October 21. It’s called Mortal Kombat: Flawless Victory – A Visual History of the Iconic Series, by Ian Flynn, and it’s available to preorder now (see it at Amazon).

As a Yakuza fan, I’ve recommended the series from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, otherwise known as RGG, to plenty of people, but it has long come with one big caveat: Yakuza 3. It’s not that there is anything necessarily wrong with it, but with high-quality remakes of the first games in the series, and the more modern and refined graphics and gameplay of the newer entries, it has stood out a bit as a bit of an odd duck, looking and playing worse than the games before and after. However, with the just-announced Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties, a twin pack combining a remade Yakuza 3 alongside a brand-new companion game, that might all be about to change. I had a chance to play both at Tokyo Game Show 2025, and I came away impressed by how much RGG Studio is trying to improve and expand on the original.

Yakuza Kiwami 3

Yakuza Kiwami 3 isn’t just an up-rezzed port; it’s a full remake. Everything is rebuilt, from the graphics to the combat to the new cut scenes and voice acting – including some modern motion capture to better bring the characters to life. While it will still follow the story of Yakuza 3, some scenes will play out differently or expand. It’s an ambitious agenda, but probably the right one to bring the now 16-year-old game to modern audiences.

My hands-on begins with Kazuma Kiryu chopping wood outside the Morning Glory Orphanage, where he was raised and now runs, in Okinawa. The modern graphics look great as he swings his axe, his sweat glistening in crisp 4K (for those that are into that sort of thing). After the events of Yakuza 2, he’s moved on from being a Yakuza and is trying to live a peaceful life running the orphanage. An eviction notice arrives, and Kiryu heads into town to confront the head of the Ryudo family, the owners of the land on which the orphanage is built. He runs into Rikiya Shimabukuro, a member of the Ryudo clan and, naturally, a brawl ensues, giving us our first taste of the updated battle system.

Kiriyu has two fighting styles to employ. The first is Dragon of Dojima, his classic brawling style, mixing punches, kicks, throws, and environmental weapons like street signs, traffic cones, and even the odd bicycle when the opportunity presents itself. It’s as flashy as ever, and charging Kiriyu’s Heat Gauge to execute brutal finishers like smashing a chair on an opponent’s (in this case, Rikiya’s) head never gets old. The real magic comes when I switch to his brand new Ryukyu style, however. This style is rooted in Okinawan culture, and while using it, Kiryu combos through eight different weapons, like a pair of tonfa, a weighted chain, or, my personal favorite, a boat oar. I put away my opponent with a mix of all of the above, which was enough to convince Rikiya to direct me towards where to find his boss.

This opened up an opportunity for a bit of open-world exploration, which I took full advantage of, exploring a nearby street market, beating up some ruffians with a crowbar, and taking in a quick round of a golf mini-game. Okinawa looks great on the modern engine, and getting around was a breeze thanks to the new Street Surfer Mk. 0, a Segway-like rideable that Kiryu seems to be able to summon out of thin air for some quick joyriding. Zooming around on that, hopping off to beat the snot out of some goons with my tiny shield (also part of the Ryukyu set), then making a speedy getaway was so Yakuza in the best way.

Finally, I turned my attention back to the main story. As Rikiya escorts me to his headquarters, we are interrupted by a commotion as a rival family trashes a local market, taking the shop owner hostage. Kiriyu, sweet guy that he is, agrees to help, leading to a massive nine-vs-two melee, as he and Rikiya take on the boss and his lackeys. This really showcased how much more refined the combat is, as I was able to take advantage of the smooth movement and dodging, creating windows to bash the bad guys and escape, with a slick double-team KO of one poor crony eating a massive kick to the face from Kiryi while restrained by Rikiya.

My time in Yakuza Kiwami 3 ended there, but I barely scratched the surface of everything new coming to it. There will be more personal moments with supporting characters, time dedicated to running the daily operations at the orphanage and taking care of the kids, even a new team battle mode where you build your own biker gang to fight for turf with others.

Dark Ties

The bigger surprise of the Yakuza Kiwami 3 announcement was the reveal of Dark Ties, an all-new companion story to the main game. This places you in the role of Yoshitaka Mine, the antagonist of Yakuza 3. Dark Ties covers Mine’s rise from a disgraced businessman, driven from his own tech startup, to the underworld boss that acts as Kazuma’s foil in Yakuza 3.

His story begins with Mine reflecting on his life and the loneliness that drove him to pursue wealth and influence. By happenstance, he witnesses a deadly fight between rival Yakuza families, and seeing the bond of men willing to die for their boss, Daigo Dojima, acts as a catalyst, and he sets out to see if he can find that same loyalty in the criminal underworld.

My demo takes place early in the game, with Mine tracking down Tsuyoshi Kanda, an infamous Yakuza just released from prison. Mine hopes Kanda will be his entry point to begin his own rise, though as is Yakuza tradition, you don’t go more than a few early steps before some punks decide to pick a fight. Apparently, Mine’s suitcase looks expensive, and they want whatever is inside. A bad decision.

The core battle system is roughly the same as Yakuza 3, but with a few significant twists. Mine’s fighting style is very different from Kiryu’s, relying heavily on quick boxing combos, technical wrestling moves, and new aerial attacks. He can jump and plant a foot on the chest of one enemy, then leap to another, dishing out damage all around as he delivers an array of flying moves, like springboard jump kicks or mid-air tackles. They look very cool, and make for a fun bit of planning ahead as you scope out which enemies to latch onto and jump towards.

In addition to the standard Heat Gauge that fills up to enable special moves, Mine has three chained hearts that fill up as he lands attacks. Once at least one is full, he can activate a powerful buffed mode called Dark Awakening. This functions like a new fighting style, with a different moveset unleashing extremely powerful attacks. More than one chained heart can be activated at once, increasing the potency of Dark Awakening. It’s a neat twist to make Mine’s gameplay more distinct, and tapping into the rage behind his calm exterior fits his character well.

It quickly became clear these punks picked the wrong suitcase to try to snatch, as I knocked them senseless to the cheers of onlookers who witnessed the attempted robbery. With the ruffians handled, I’m given the option to head to the prison to track down Kanda or kill some time exploring the city. This sorry mission seems important, so naturally I… immediately go find a karaoke bar to sing a song. Hey, it is Yakuza after all. I rent the room, and Mine pours his heart and soul into his solo performance, which is really funny given his normally extremely stoic nature. I nail rhythm on my button presses, delivering a perfect performance befitting a man of Mine’s talents.

Buoyed by my outstanding singing, I decide it’s time to get down to business and try to hail a cab to the prison where Kanda is being released. One more group of punks tries to stop me (nothing a fireman’s carry followed by a quick kick to the face couldn’t solve), and I find myself outside of the prison as Kanda takes out his frustration on his paltry, two-man welcoming committee. Kanda is penniless, his branch of the Yakuza family disgraced. As Mine tails him through the streets of Kamurocho, my hands-on time ends just as he rounds a corner to meet his future right-hand man for the first time.

As a sucker for a good organized crime story, I’m definitely intrigued to see how much we get to witness Mine channel his inner Vito Corleone and build his criminal empire from the ground up, especially if it means some proper bromance time with Mine and Diago. The fact that it comes as part of the package with Yakuza Kiwami 3 is great, and I’m excited to see how it all turns out when Yakuza Kiwami 3 and Dark Ties release on February 12, 2026.