I confess that I had never heard of 2020’s pixelated arcade shooter Huntdown, but after playing (and replaying) through the demo for its upcoming prequel, Huntdown: Overtime, I immediately went back and did so. That’s because I was so completely hooked by the hour or so of roguelike action that I was fiending for more. Playing the original was also a lot of fun, but this followup seeks to improve in just about every way, making it a bit hard to go back. The cheeky retro ‘80’s tone appeals to my thirst for nonsense, the run-and-gun sidescrolling action channels the likes of Contra or Metal Slug, and the roguelike system of upgrades and repeated failure against daunting odds made it extremely hard to put down. I went from this not being on my radar at all, to eagerly anticipating when it comes to Steam Early Access later this year, making this an early contender for my most anticipated indie game of 2026.

You can infer almost everything you need to know about Huntdown: Overtime’s absurd 80s pulp action vibe by its title alone. Taking place in the dystopian, crime-ridden city of Detroit in 2084, you play a cybernetic rogue robocop who battles against flamboyant street gangs like something out of every VHS action movie you’ve ever seen. You’ll go toe-to-toe against the likes of a shirtless bouncer who pummels you with his fists and climbs around on the ceiling like a monkey, to a six-fingered rockstar called Sammy Sixfingers who tries to kill you with an electric guitar while performing a guitar solo in front of a live audience. The whole thing is just incredibly over the top in the right kind of way, making it very easy to replay each section as you try and fail to get through levels in typical roguelike fashion.

It certainly helps that even when you’re replaying through the same series of levels, things are always a little different. For one, the bosses and levels you end up with on each run have a bit of randomness to them in terms of which you’ll get and in what order, which is aided by the fact that you’re given two routes to choose from if you’d like to avoid one you’ve seen more of than you’d like. The levels themselves seem to be procedurally generated as well, and kept me on my toes with slightly different layouts and enemies never appearing in the same order. This procedural component isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, and the level layouts and enemies you’ll find are similar enough playthrough-to-playthrough that you’ll figure out the patterns pretty quick and run out of things to be surprised by (at least in the short section I played).

Combat is also not anything new, modeled after the likes of Contra or Mega Man, where you’re running and jumping through 2D levels blasting everytc hing in sight as you avoid incoming bullets and environmental hazards. That said, though it doesn’t have many new tricks, the formula it apes is extremely polished here, even in this pre-release state. While initially I was dying a lot and felt destined to be outmaneuvered by the numerous gangsters coming after me, it took less than an hour before I was sliding around, flying through the air, and shooting my way through entire sections without taking a single hit. That’s the kind of rewarding mastery I look for in games like this. It actually sort of reminded me of Hotline Miami, reimagined from a sidescrolling perspective, because although you can take more than one hit, there’s something very pleasantly familiar about the crisp gunplay and melee combat, especially when you hit someone with a baseball bat and see their pink, pixelated giblets go soaring across the screen.

The highlight of each run is when you come into contact with the larger-than-life bosses that can be found in each level. Some of these appear in regular sidescrolling levels, whe re maybe someone named Frankie Starsimmon Sr. will attack you with a big ol’ shotgun and leave you with the option to damage her before taking her alive, or just killing her for a lesser bounty. The ability to take bounties alive for an added bonus to your reward is a particularly nice touch that I’m glad to see they added after the original. But things get especially crazy during the boss fights where you go up against someone with a dedicated boss health bar. The main fight in the demo was against a rockstar who used his stage’s pyrotechnics to try and burn you alive, and always had his stagehand nearby to hand him a new electric guitar after he lost the last one trying to hurl it through the back of your head. These fights can be really challenging, as roguelikes are wont to do, and nine times out of ten when I failed a run it was the fault of one of these deadly weirdos. But they were also some of my favorite moments, and made gearing up for the next big fight that much more exciting.

The retreaded ground you’ll encounter as part of the roguelike formula feels especially easy to get through because of the steady stream of unlockables, upgrades, and buildcrafting options that come with each new playthrough. In one playthrough, for example, you might decide to forgo guns for a pure melee weapon build, grabbing perks and upgrades that enhance your close-range combat skills, while in another you might get your hands on a new plasma rifle you just unlocked and blast your way through rows of thugs with ease. Like many of its genre peers, the joy is in having a build come together perfectly so you can bring it to bear against the string of challenging bosses that have been sending you back to the beginning again and again.

The impressive thing about Huntdown: Overtime is that, at least in the full region I played during the demo, I never started a new run without a ton of new stuff to level up and try out. Sometimes that meant I’d unlock a new weapon that could then be found and powered up during runs, while other times it meant buying a certain permanent upgrade that made my healing items more potent, made me move faster, or some other useful boon to give me an edge on my next run. The pace of unlocks and progression felt perfectly balanced so I never felt like I’d hit a wall or had nothing interesting and new to bring into battle next time. It was so easy to immediately go from one run to the next, that even though I originally sat down for a 20-minute session, I ended up playing until I beat every boss in the demo in a single sitting, completely unable to tear myself away when I was sure the next playthrough would bring me victory. And even after I had my first successful run, I then was returned to base to find even more stuff had unlocked that I just had to try, and found myself immediately going straight into my next run just to try out some new stuff. I can’t remember the last time I found myself so instantly hooked!

One thing that piqued my interest after I went back to play the original Huntdown is the fact that this prequel only has one playable character versus the numerous agents you could take on the role of in the first game. While it feels weird to go backwards with the number of playable characters, Overtime’s demo was so polished and finely tuned that I honestly didn’t feel like I was missing much. It seems to be their focusing in on one specific playstyle and trying to make that work extremely well vs. the buffet-style protagonists, each with their own bag of tricks, that was in the first Huntdown.

I wasn’t expecting to end up so completely won over by such a short glimpse into Huntdown: Overtime, especially after seeing its dorky story and retro art style, but you can count me among the believers. For any roguelike fans out there, this is absolutely one to watch.

Google has begun selling access to Project Genie, an interactive world creation tool that lets you generate playable environments from a prompt — including those featuring Nintendo characters.

The technology is certainly remarkable, as Google’s Genie 3 models playable 3D spaces in real time based upon user inputs, and allows you to run, swim, fly, or ride in vehicles around its AI-generated worlds.

But the AI technology has also launched with a telling lack of restrictions around copyrighted material — which the model also appears to have been trained upon. A preview of the possibilities published by The Verge shows its reporter able to create playable 3D scenes that look a direct copy of Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Kingdom Hearts.

Step inside Project Genie: our experimental research prototype that lets you create, edit, and explore virtual worlds. 🌎 pic.twitter.com/HQr1FRNlpy

— Google DeepMind (@GoogleDeepMind) January 29, 2026

Footage published on social media shows gameplay clearly based on Nintendo’s actual Breath of the Wild, where a knock-off Link runs around a world similar to Hyrule, and accurately deploys a glider as he leaps off a cliff. Other creations include a generated world with similarities to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto.

There is no map pre-loaded in memory. As your agent explores, Genie predicts and renders the path ahead instantly. Infinite exploration. pic.twitter.com/5lZzhFS6vo

— sammy (@sumiturkude007) January 30, 2026

Right now, Project Genie is limited to generating interactive experiences it can maintain for up to 60 seconds, with a resolution and frame rate capped at around 720p and 24fps. Still, Google is selling access as part of its Google AI Ultra subscription, its top level of access to AI features that costs $124.99 per month when signing up for a three-month package. (Also, Project Genie access is currently just for U.S. subscribers aged 18 or over.)

“Project Genie is an experimental research prototype designed to follow prompts a user provides,” Google Deepmind product manager Diego Rivas told The Verge when asked why the the product generated material that was clearly based on Nintendo intellectual property. “As with all experiments, we are monitoring closely and listening to user feedback.” The Verge noted that its ability to generate worlds based on Mario had subsequently been halted, with a warning message that blamed the “interests of third-party content providers.”

IGN has contacted Nintendo for comment.

The situation feels reminiscent to the rollout of OpenAI’s Sora 2 video model last October, which initially allowed users to generate clips featuring licensed Nintendo and Disney characters, including Mario, Darth Vader, Pikachu and an array of other Pokémon. Shortly after, OpenAI vowed to give copyright holders “more granular control” over the creation of what the company’s boss Sam Altman dubbed “interactive fan fiction.” Less than two months later, Disney said it was investing $1 billion into OpenAI to officially license 200 of its most popular characters for the AI model to use, in a move that the Mickey Mouse owner described as a way to “thoughtfully and responsibly extend” its storytelling.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

The Legend of Zelda. The Witcher. Dragon’s Dogma. Monster Hunter. Street Fighter. And now, GTA 5? Every time South Korean studio Pearl Abyss shows off a new slice of its upcoming open-world, action-adventure Crimson Desert, I feel like I see a new line of influence. Over the six years since its reveal, we’ve seen a fantasy land akin to one Geralt would explore, puzzle shrines in the sky that could easily hover above Hyrule, and a complex combat system rooted in Capcom classics. But in the developer’s latest lengthy video detailing the world of Pywel, a new surprise awaited us: the addition of two new playable characters to join Scottish Jon Snow-alike main protagonist, Kliff Macduff. With whole skillsets of their own for us to now anticipate getting our heads around, I can’t help but be excited, but also cautiously wary. By trying to do so much, does Crimson Desert risk achieving nothing?

I say this as someone who has had the benefit of seeing and playing Crimson Desert more than pretty much anyone outside of Pearl Abyss’ walls, having visited the studio a few months back for our IGN First. Despite playing a good few hours of it, and having quite a lot of fun with its dynamic systems and satisfyingly flexible action, I still left feeling like I’d only scratched the surface of what Crimson Desert has in store. And I don’t mean that entirely positively – while it’s good to leave a preview knowing there’s plenty more to see, it’s not often you conclude a studio visit still unsure of a game’s big picture. If all those hours of hands-on haven’t successfully communicated what the game is, is something off?

We now know that Crimson Desert’s open world is twice the size of Skyrim’s and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2’s. I’ve put over 200 hours into Rockstar’s Western masterpiece and feel like I still haven’t seen everything, so it’s anyone’s guess how much awaits in this world. Crimson Desert’s Pywel is a gorgeous piece of geography, too, with streets filled with life and rivers running with glistening water. That water is also systemically linked to the gameplay options, conducting lightning magic to electrocute those who stand in it, and is transformed into blocks of ice when struck by freezing spells.

It’s all very impressive on a technical level, but leaves me wondering if this is all part of a “we can put it in the game, so why shouldn’t we?” mentality. From what I played, and from talking to the team, the ability to manipulate the elements won’t necessarily have puzzles or challenges built around them to make it a system you’d legitimately find worthwhile. In Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, for example, you know that if you’re taught how to make giant ice cubes, a puzzle shrine will likely follow asking you to put that lesson into action. Nintendo is a developer that has been making games like this for decades now, though, whereas Pearl Abyss is a studio in its relative infancy, having only released MMORPG Black Desert Online so far. By trying to fit everything it can think a player would like to do in a fantasy open world into Crimson Desert, I fear it may be shooting straight for the moon without learning how to get into orbit first.

It all loops back to this latest revelation that not only will we be playing through Kliff’s story, but stepping into the shoes of two new protagonists along the way. The as-yet-unnamed characters with their own (presumably) complex fighting systems look very fun to play as, don’t get me wrong — I’m particularly drawn to the quick dodging, magic-shifting, pistol-wielding woman who appears at first glance to better fit my more rogue-ish tendencies — but it’s yet another layer added on top of an already ambitious cake. I like cake, you can probably tell from a quick look at my face that that would be the case, but when it’s stacked so high that even Bruce Bogtrotter would take a pass on it, I worry it’s a sign that Crimson Desert should not be trying to have and eat it.

The other new playable hero is a hulking, giant axe-wielding brute with a machine gun attached to his wrist. If you’ve been keeping up with Crimson Desert, you’ll know that this isn’t your typical fantasy world, but one where dragons, steam trains, and mechs also roam around. It’s all very exciting in isolation, and genuinely fun to play as your giant metal monsters come face-to-face with helpless medieval soldiers holding only a shield. The power trip is there; I just worry about the rest of the journey.

Story and questing are incredibly important to me when it comes to open-world games. The Witcher’s twisting tales and many memorable side stories are what make The Wild Hunt an all-timer in my eyes. The cast of characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 and the way they weave seamlessly in and out of its world are what make it my favourite game ever. Crimson Desert has a lot going for it — the combat is exciting, the world is diverse and beautiful, and its systems are impressively reactive — but I can’t help but feel wary. Most of the missions I’ve played so far, at several different events, have been castle sieges, often ending in admittedly impressive boss battles. But, they’ve all been relatively thin narrative-wise, aside from an interesting detour to a mad inventor’s lair where he’d built a golden mechanical dragon, as you do. I’ve seen little of what’s going to be the thrust story-wise in Crimson Desert as a whole to get me hyped in that regard, nor met any characters that I feel will get close to my heart. And I can’t help but worry that there’s a reason we’ve seen so little of this world’s story.

Now, with the surprise addition of two extra playable protagonists to get to know on this adventure that is less than two months away, I worry that Kliff and his friends may well be fun to play as stylistically, but contain little substance within them. I’d be very happy to be wrong, though. I’ve been looking forward to Crimson Desert for a long time now, and have had a genuinely fun time whenever I’ve managed to get hands-on with it. I just wonder how all of these well-constructed building blocks will, in turn, create a greater whole. Will its gameplay systems overlap in interesting ways and be built into mission design? Will authorial intent come to the fore, or will I ultimately feel like a kid being dropped into a sandbox of possibilities with direction? I’m excited, just also a little afraid that by trying to be everything, it may end up achieving nothing.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

If you’ve seen Crimson Desert’s impressive 15-minute gameplay video, you might be wincing at the thought of it running smoothly on your console or PC. Well, right now, the developers at Pearl Abyss are focusing on optimization to help ensure a “smooth” experience when the game comes out in March.

Crimson Desert is set in a huge and seamless open world packed with enemies, NPCs, and all sorts of things to do. It’s dense with detail, and you can zip around quickly on the back of a dragon. Based on the video, below, Crimson Desert will be a demanding beast — it will be interesting in particular to see how it runs on the Xbox Series S.

According to Will Powers, director of public relations at Pearl Abyss America, the developers are doubling down on the “optimization phase” as we speak, telling former IGN video extraordinaire Destin Legarie in a new interview that this is the focus ahead of Crimson Desert’s March 19 release date.

“We have gone gold. Now comes further, further optimization to make the game run as good as it possibly can,” Powers said. “And that’s as important of a part. So that’s the phase we’re currently in between now and launch to make sure that the experience when players eventually get their hands on the game, is as smooth as possible.”

Powers wouldn’t go into specifics on the graphics settings that will be available on consoles, but did confirm Crimson Desert has PS5 Pro enhancement. You can also turn off the particle effects in settings, although Powers said they do convey important information during fights.

Pearl Abyss built a new engine for Crimson Desert, and Powers explained that it’s capable of providing a 4K60 native presentation, complete with ray tracing, without the aid of graphics technology such as DLSS or FSR. But of course you’ll need powerful hardware to enable it.

“Yeah, we’ll show 4K 60 native, sure, with ray tracing on, that’s not done through DLSS or FSR, that’s done natively in-engine,” Powers said. “And then if you want to further optimize then you can tweak all the settings and do all the things, but we want to show that you don’t have to… like the game itself should be able to stand on its own.”

And on that decision to go with a proprietary engine:

“I’m not going to say that the game is absolutely perfectly optimized, but within the engine it’s using every single thing. So it’s as optimized as it can be within that space. That’s not possible otherwise. And so rendering thousands of trees within draw distance, it does those things better than an off-the-shelf engine could because of that.

“Off-the-shelf engines weren’t able to deliver the uncompromised vision that the developers set forth to create with this game. So, they needed to create their own engine in order to deliver on that vision.”

Crimson Desert’s huge open world has been a topic of debate recently. Pywel is divided into five distinct regions: Hernand; Pailune; Demeniss; Delesyia; and the Crimson Desert itself. The main quest revolves around protagonist Kliff’s journey, but you’re free to explore the world in any order, taking faction-driven quests, large-scale battles, fortress sieges and smaller, character-focused missions.

Pearl Abyss confirmed that as the story progresses, two additional playable characters become available, each with unique combat styles, skills and weapons. Exploration is a big part of the game — you travel on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances, and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon. Pearl Abyss said the world is filled with hidden treasures, ancient mechanisms, puzzles and points of interest “designed to reward curiosity and discovery.” As for combat, expect to face enemy soldiers, sorcerers, beasts and machines.

Earlier this month, Powers called Crimson Desert’s open world “absolutely massive,” bigger even than that of Bethesda’s Skyrim and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.

Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open-world games around.

“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world wouldn’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor.

“The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”

Image credit: Pearl Abyss.

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.