CD Projekt’s mysterious Project Hadar is now their research focus, as Cyberpunk 2 and Witcher 4 gather steam

The headcounts of both The Witcher 4 and Cyberpunk 2‘s dev teams continue to steadily climb, as the two RPGs inch closer to our fingertips. Meanwhile, CD Projekt have confirmed that their research division are still busy deciding what the mysterious original game codenamed Project Hadar will look like.

All of these details, plus some Nintendo Switch stuff we’ve avoided hearing by sticking our mouse and keyboard-focused fingers in our ears, were revealed in the Polish publishers’ financial report covering the first half of 2025.

Read more

Rally Point: Crop to Selection

Sometimes, readers, it’s tempting to do the popularity thing, and ask what you’re playing, or thinking of buying. There are countless popular games I never mention, surely I should be doing those? What if I am terrible actually and should write about the things that are making a big splash instead?

But that way lies Views Brain. You can already get that everywhere. Moreover, I suffer a curse where if you chose a game I hated or found dull, it would ruin my life. Especially given the time investment that even lightweight strategy games so readily demand (I don’t get paid for the 6-hours-in “Oh, this is really limited/bugged/regurgitated” games, you know).

My compromise was a shortlist you could pick from, and I’d do a piece on the winner. Naturally I’d have to play them a bit first to be sure, and you already know what happened, don’t you. We’re doing a roundup, and it won’t be the last. There are no rules in the Rally Point.

Read more

Over 450 Diablo developers vote to unionise, because “passion can’t protect us from job instability”

A group of more than 450 Diablo developers have voted to form a union at Blizzard, under the banner of the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

According to a CWA press release, the new union is made up of game developers, artists, designers, engineers, and support staff across the Diablo series, and has already been formally recognised by Blizzard parent company Microsoft. These workers join the over 500 World of Warcraft and almost 200 Overwatch devs who each formed their own unions earlier this year.

Read more

Elden Ring Nightreign’s evil Deep Of Night mode gets a release date, but some people are already playing it

Elden Ring Nightreign will get a new rock-hard Expedition mode called Deep of Night on 11th September. “Rock-hard” is a cliché worn to uselessness, of course: to be more specific, this is at least tungsten-carbide-hard, possibly even as hard as stishovite, though the exact degree of toughness is variable.

It’s variable because Deep of Night gets statistically harder, the more you win, with a difficulty rating or “depth” that fluctuates based on wins and losses. Enemies are tougher than usual by default, and you can’t specify which Nightlord you’re hunting, so be prepared for nasty surprises. There are new special Depth Relics, exclusive to this mode, which sadistically bundle together additional buffs and debuffs.

Read more

Coffee convos, demonic detectives, and cow life simming are part of a pro-Palestine charity bundle coming to Itch.io

A bundle of games aiming to raise money to aid the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in their efforts to help Palestinian refugees is set to go on sale via Itch.io next week. Just over 380 games are part of it, including the likes of Coffee Talk, Lucifer Within Us, and a cow life simulator that features an alligator who’s really into arson.

Organised by Junch and the South East Asian Games for Good initiative, the bundle’s dubbed Play for Peace – Games for Palestine. It’s taken over 10 months to come together. The result’s a 382-game strong bundle that includes a huge variety of creations that contain not a whiff of AI or NFTs.

Read more

Atomfall’s second expansion, The Red Strain, unleashes its crimson tendrils next month

Dig your finest cricket bat out of the loft – Atomfall developers Rebellion have revealed its second story expansion is set to arrive in September. It’s dubbed The Red Strain, and looks to star a not-Robobrain who’s connected to a bunch of crimson plantlife filling the Cumberland quarantine zone.

This second DLC follows Wicked Isle, the first Atomfall expansion that you got automatically if you plumped for the deluxe edition of the radioactive pasty survivathon. I still need to go back and play that expansion, and this next add-on looks like an intriguing excuse to do so.

Read more

“A culture of intimidation, retaliation and oppression”: How Microsoft’s Gaza stance fuelled an industry-spanning boycott

Every October, Microsoft host an Employee Giving campaign for charities chosen by staff, with the company matching any funds they raise. During last October’s Giving month, a group of Microsoft workers organised a vigil for Palestinians killed by the Israeli military during the current invasion of Gaza, stumping up donations for organisations such as the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, while paying tribute to fellow tech workers who’ve lost their lives in the war.

Read more

Bioshock successor Judas emerges from hiding as Ken Levine explains how you’ll choose the game’s final villain

You know when you’re friends with three people, then one of them suddenly pulls a Robbie Rotten and morphs into a real villain who terrorises your existence? No? Just me then, and also the protagonist of Ken Levine’s Judas, whose main foe you’ll get to dictate the identity of through your actions in the game.

It happens via a villainy system, which Levine and the crew at Ghost Story Games discuss in the first ever Judas dev log they’ve just put out. We’ve only seen this non-corridory BioShock-like with evil dentist chairs and an evil Brum in spits and spurts since the announcement in 2022. This looks to the first sign of more regular updates in the offing.

Read more

Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics lay off more staff, say the series’ future is “unaffected”

Tomb Raider developers Crystal Dynamics have laid off an unspecified number of staff, their second round of jobs cuts this year. The studio say that the future of the Tomb Raider series won’t be affected by this latest taking away of folks’ livelihoods.

The news comes not too long after the Perfect Dark reboot Crystal Dynamics were working alongside The Initiative was cancelled amid Microsoft’s mass cuts in July. The Initiative were shut down as part of that culling.

Read more