There are two sides to every game delay coin. On the one hand, it’s a shame when you’re looking forward to a thing only to have to wait even longer for said thing. On the other, there’s too many damn video games these days and, oh, gods, don’t we all just have a laundry list of things to attend to right now? So make of it what you will that Nivalis, the cyberpunk restaurant sim set in the world of Cloudpunk, has been delayed.
You know, with the original Paranormal Activity steadily approaching two decades of existence, it’s becoming harder and harder to recognise what it actually was and is as opposed to the cultural consensus around it. First and foremost you probably think of it as a cheap, jump-scare-filled kind of horror movie, when in actuality the first entry in the series is a slow, tense window into the world of gaslighting and, obviously, the paranormal. Being as removed as we are from this means one thing: IP expansion, which we’re viewing today in the form of the first proper trailer for Paranormal Activity: Threshold, the video game adaptation from the developer behind The Mortuary Assistant.
Play through ‘Book 2 episodes 1-4’ today.
In case you missed it, Nintendo shadow-dropped the new mobile game Fire Emblem Shadows in September. If you haven’t given this free-to-play title a go just yet, now might be the time to take a look.
A new story “and more” has been added in a free update. Book 2 – Wolf Brother adds episodes 1-4. You can unlock the chapters by collecting Story Fragments earned as battle rewards. You’ll also need to complete Book 1 before you can dive into this new content featuring the character Joachim.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Last month, something a bit surprising, and perhaps concerning, took place in the games industry: a deal was made which saw that a mixture of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, equity firm Silver Lake, and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners had privately acquired EA. There’s a whole host of reasons why this is worrisome, but one reason in particular is the way that it might affect The Sims.
We’ve rounded up the best deals for Saturday, October 25, below, so don’t miss out on these limited-time offers.
NBA 2K26 is on sale this weekend for $49.94, just in time for the start of the NBA season. Play kicked off this week with the OKC Thunder and Houston Rockets, and if you haven’t yet picked up 2K26, this deal can make every day game day. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, “Ball Over Everything” is a fitting description for NBA 2K26. The smooth on-court action is better than ever and MyCareer’s excellent started-from-the-bottom journey to the pros story make it so the imperfections are easier to ignore.”
Best Buy has open box models of the ROG Xbox Ally X already on sale, allowing you to save on this brand new device. The Xbox Ally X is an excellent choice if you’re looking to take your Xbox experience with you wherever you go, as you can instantly access your library and Xbox Game Pass with the press of a button.
PlayStation 5 copies of Madden NFL 26 are available for $49.94 this weekend at Amazon. This latest entry brings new updates that make a noticeable difference, particularly when compared to entries of the last few years. In our 8/10 review, we wrote, “There’s always room for improvement, but it’s hard to overstate what a leap Madden NFL 26 feels like both on and off the field.”
Apple AirTags are some of the best products out there for numerous reasons. While they aren’t necessarily exciting, AirTags can make your life so much easier. Throw one in your luggage, backpack, or even Nintendo Switch 2 case for easy tracking.
The Logitech G502 Gaming Mouse has been around for a long while, but it’s still one my favorite gaming mice on the market. Some of its best features include a Hero 25K sensor, an adjustable weight system, mechanical switch button tensioning, and a total of 11 customizable buttons. This is an amazing mouse for competitive games, single player games, and even just daily web browsing.
There is nothing worse than losing power due to a storm or outage at a critical moment. A full backup generator can be very expensive to install, but Anker has a portable solution on sale this weekend for $397.99. The SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 Power Station has a 2,000W power output, which is perfect to set up as a UPS. With 100% battery available in under one hour of charging, this can be a game-changing device to your home.
This weekend, you can score the Logitech G515 Lightspeed Gaming Keyboard for $109.99 – that’s 31% off the MSRP! This TKL keyboard is quite slim, making it fit into any setup with ease. The Red Linear switches with double-shot PBT caps offer durability and performance, with a 1.3mm actuation distance.
Baller.
Hello folks, and welcome to that wondrous occasion commonly known as ‘The Weekend’.
Before we dive into what we’re playing, let’s quickly recap this week. First up, Masahiro Sakurai presented another hour-long Direct for Kirby Air Riders, and it was a doozy. We’ve compiled all the major announcements in one place, so be sure to check it out if you missed it.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Launching this November.
Although there are no current plans for Kirby Air Riders DLC, during the recent broadcast, game director Masahiro Sakurai has confirmed there will be a day one update.
Yes, like many other games nowadays, this patch will apparently be adding some of the “things” discussed during the latest broadcast. We don’t know the exact specifics, but when Nintendo shares the patch notes, we’ll provide an update.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Space Age DLC also confirmed.
Since the launch of the Switch 2 in June, many developers have been announcing upgrades for existing Switch releases.
With this in mind, the construction and management title Factorio will be getting a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition. This title was originally released on the Switch in 2022, and the Switch 2 version will be a free upgrade for existing owners.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
First impressions matter, right? Full Metal Schoolgirl throws you into its third-person shooter action shortly after a blazing fast anime-inspired opening to the tune of a J-rock banger. It immediately establishes its irreverent attitude and goofy anti-capitalist satire in a futuristic world where robots are exploited and referred to as “the working dead” – and with the goal of taking down a CEO villain, I thought to myself, “Hell yeah.” But about halfway through a second run of this roguelike, it dawned on me that there just wasn’t much to Full Metal Schoolgirl; it’s a dull and repetitive shooter whose gameplay foundations aren’t quite good enough to save it from the largely tedious, unrewarding grind up its 100-floor tower.
During the intro sequence where you break into the evil Maternal Jobz Corporation, you choose to play as Ryoko or Akemi, two cyborg anime girls who are functionally and aesthetically human – the one you pick winds up being the lead character and the other gets captured and plays into the story as you progress. They’re seeking revenge on the company and its CEO for working their dad to death, and the story’s initial disdain for corporate bullshit is sharp in a way that reminded me of Hi-Fi Rush. However, that’s as far as it goes before things devolve into annoying quips and no real intrigue to motivate each run; like most parts of Full Metal Schoolgirl, it doesn’t build on its good ideas and its shallow execution on them wears thin rather quickly.
I have a high tolerance for anime tropes, and here, it teeters between charming and eyerolling, and more frequently leans toward the latter. It’s not just for its crass innuendos, but also in its incessant yapping that doesn’t exude any memorable personality into its interesting premise. I’m not here to handwave the attention drawn to upskirts or the creepy actions of the doctor who upgrades your skills, either – it’s just unnecessary. The moments its tropes really do work are at the very beginning and the very end, and it’s as if everything in between was overlooked in the process, which is where you’ll spend most of your time.
Each floor is made up of a series of narrow hallways filled with enemy fodder alongside environmental hazards, as well as square office building rooms that function as small combat arenas. The latter throws optional challenges at you like clearing the room within a time limit or without using heals for extra money for upgrades. But this overall formula does not fundamentally change across its 100 procedurally generated floors. The scenery may change slightly for each block of floors, yet the structure stays the same. While they may throw different enemy types at you like drones, bomb-strapped robots, turrets, and mechanized dogs, no amount of mixing and matching them can make up for mediocre implementation.
It’s easy to see how the procedural generation clashes with itself when certain doors lead to a completely empty room or the combat challenge prompts just don’t align with the way encounters are set up. This haphazard level design feels very basic at best and frustratingly messy at worst, and it persists through the large majority of the 14 hours I put into finishing the campaign. Boss fights act as endcaps to blocks of floors, and while they’re relatively refreshing after blasting through the same areas over and over again, their attack patterns are quite telegraphed and simple to overcome. Still, I’ll take dodging area-of-effect explosions and dumping my ultimates (or Punishment attacks, as it’s called) into a spongy boss over thoughtlessly repeating identical floors of enemies, so I do wish these kinds of battles weren’t so few and far between.
Defeating a boss grants you a key to start a subsequent run at their floor, which is a godsend to cut through the needless repetition – but, they’re one-time-use. If a run goes sideways after using the key and you don’t defeat the next boss 20-something floors up for the next key, get ready to start at a much lower level, buddy. While this raises the stakes, as any roguelike worth its salt should do, the disappointment of having to trudge through the most boring parts to make it back to where you left off doesn’t feel worth it. Even though it gets easier on account of upgrading your stats and abilities from the materials and money you earn from each run, ascending chunks of floors still takes a lot of time.
I was excited that this is an anime-style shooter at least, which is something I’ve been seeking since Freedom Wars and Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet (which didn’t quite capitalize on the premise). More often than not, playing through Full Metal Schoolgirl felt like a chore, but I can appreciate the mindless fun its mechanics sometimes offer. With a handful of specific guns and melee weapons I vibed with, I was able to get into a groove, turn my brain off, and just mow down mobs of enemies. Although most guns are pretty counterintuitive for the way encounters are designed, a high-level electric chaingun or chunky plasma ball launcher carry the right kind of weight and feedback you want from a shooter. That said, movement itself is a little too sticky for this style of game, especially when there are annoying platforming sections. And melee attacks and jumps are a tad unresponsive, even if cutting through a crowd with a katana’s dash attack or the Labrys axe’s aftershocks can be satisfying.
It’s moments like these that started to shine though more frequently in the final chunk of floors. The rate at which genuinely challenging encounters presented themselves, and the confluence of weapons that were fun to use showed up, let Full Metal Schoolgirl finish on a higher note than the absolute slog it took to get there. It didn’t exactly flip the script or break away from the conventions established at the start, but it began to make the most of its basic pieces by throwing almost everything at you at a brisk pace.
As I progressed, I naturally figured out which types of guns worked for me – slow shotguns and rifles never made sense to use, but a strong SMG that’d overheat quickly became a favorite. Learning to manage my energy meter for big axe combos, dodging, and hoverdashing became more important in the late game. And weaving in your auto-attack drone (which you summon on a cooldown) was key to salvaging a few runs. Being smart with the scarce battery supply (which is your healing item) factored into how I approached combat as well.
Rarity of gear you’re rewarded with from challenge rooms is random, which leads to moments of pointlessness where I’d clear a challenge room only to be met with common level rarity items that pale in comparison to rare and legendary gear from much earlier floors. At least this makes the modifiers meaningful as they can affect how your health, energy, movement, and damage output works, especially when the shields you equip have a sizable impact on your survivability.
It’s official; Halo marks the next chapter for the franchise with Halo: Campaign Evolved, a complete Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original campaign from Halo: Combat Evolved, including some brand-new surprises.
The original Halo: Combat Evolved is a stalwart of gaming history, a cultural icon that helped define the first-person shooter experience. For Halo Studios, bottling the impact of that original campaign and all of its special moments is the ultimate goal – for new players and long-time fans alike.
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a modern evolution of that iconic story, thoughtfully brought to life in Unreal Engine 5 with stunning new 4K visuals, updated animations, remastered music, and re-recorded voice lines. Halo Studios is also bringing in a roster of beloved weapons and vehicles from later Halo titles, and adding three new bonus campaign missions, all designed to expand and celebrate the adventure that started it all.
Halo’s legacy of cooperative play continues here, supporting the original two-player local split screen experience on console, and, for the first time, up to four players in online co-op across Xbox, PC, and PlayStation 5.
Ahead of announce, I was able to speak to several key leads at Halo Studios, and gathered up some unique insight on how the team seeks to capture the tone and feel of the original game for a new generation, all the new lore and gameplay additions, and ultimately, while staying true to what has always made Halo special at its core.
Halo: Combat Evolved is where it all began, and for the team at Halo Studios – who have gone through an evolution of their own – there was no better place to start building this new generation of Halo. As Executive Producer Damon Conn puts it, remaking the very first campaign from the ground up was a perfect opportunity to craft an ideal entry point for new players and modernize areas that could better match today’s expectations for pacing and clarity (yes, we mean The Library, and we’ll get to that shortly).
“We wanted to start where it all began, with the original campaign that defined Halo,” Conn explains. “Starting here means people that have never played the game before will be able to understand the story from the very beginning, and that can help us chart a course forward with new Halo stories.”
“Focusing on the campaign experience means we can concentrate fully on really capturing the atmosphere, tone – the emotional impact of what made the first campaign so special and iconic.”
Keeping that classic Halo “feel” is of course of prime importance, and capturing that took the team all the way back to the source material – the original Combat Evolved campaign as it was first presented in 2001. TThe goal was to understand how modern updates to systems and environments could complement, not replace, the essence of the original experience – to make it feel just as players remember, only smoother and more seamless than ever before.
“The campaign has been rebuilt to feel handcrafted and immersive, true to what players remember, not just visually, but emotionally,” adds Conn.
Preserving the Halo spirit means the team has taken great care to not modernize for the sake of modernization. It’s not about rebuilding Halo: Combat Evolved’s story and spaces to ‘fit in’ with a roster of today’s games, but to ensure that its original feel has evolved to suit modern players. Every change has been shaped by the same question: Does this still feel like Halo?
“Because this is a remake, we’ve been able to carefully rebuild almost every level and every encounter with more fidelity,” says Max Szlagor, Creative Director. “As we’re building the technology for this game, we’ve had to do it piece by piece, which included reevaluating all of the individual elements as we’re revisiting them in the original game.”
“And now the campaign supports up to four-player co-op, we had to think about how all of the original encounters and spaces can scale to accommodate that many players.”
The Library is a perfect example to demonstrate how the team is thoughtfully enhancing existing spaces in an authentic way. Halo: Combat Evolved’s seventh campaign mission is a key example of where it felt right to make tweaks to several areas to create a new experience that balances nostalgia with the expectations of today’s gamers.
“We learned from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary that there was still an appetite for things like better wayfinding, navigation, and diversity in enemy encounters,” Szlagor says. “In The Library specifically, which features several Flood encounters, we wanted to reevaluate the pacing and enhance the environmental storytelling. We’ve added new lines to Guilty Spark, which guide players through the level, and there’s new dialogue that gives more insight into the narrative as it plays out.”
“We’re not changing the stories, it’s about refining and adding context to this moment, and other levels like it, so players can stay on track.”
In Halo: Campaign Evolved, you’ll be able to wield nine additional iconic weapons from across the Halo series inside the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, including the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle and Needle Rifle, giving you more ways to approach every encounter.
“Some of the weapons we’re bringing in could be used against you in Halo: Combat Evolved by the enemy, but you weren’t able to pick them up yourself.” Szlagor says. “Now, you can, and it feels natural because of how you can do that in other Halo games, it reflects the evolution of the series.”
Players can also look forward to two firsts for the campaign — you can now hijack vehicles and even pilot the Covenant Wraith tank for the first time in Halo: Combat Evolved.
For challenge seekers, Halo Studios is also featuring the most Skulls ever in a Halo campaign, for even more ways to modify the campaign experience.
And perhaps most exciting, the team has added three brand-new prequel missions set before the events of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign, which introduce entirely new environments, characters and enemies, which we’ll find out more about very soon.
Oh – and you can sprint now, if you’d like, or disable it if you don’t.
The Halo spirit is not just about the debut’s impact – the studio is effectively incorporating 25 years of player feedback and technological advancement into Halo: Campaign Evolved. The latter is supported by the team’s pivot to Unreal Engine 5, which, with the foundation of Halo’s legacy code, will support the game’s development. It’s not an entirely new ecosystem for Halo Studios – they’ve dabbled quietly with Unreal projects in the past – and that has only reinforced that the tools on offer, combined with original resources, are what Halo needs to futureproof itself for the generations to come.
“Given that Halo: Campaign Evolved is a remake, it is critical that we deliver gameplay that is 100% authentically Halo at its core, ” says Greg Hermann, Game Director on Halo: Campaign Evolved.
All of the new content created in Unreal Engine 5 is layered on top of code and systems carried directly over from the original games. That legacy code is instrumental in maintaining that authentic “Halo feel” within gameplay. It means that Halo Studios can achieve the desired visual goal with Unreal’s photorealistic rendering capabilities, with the simulation systems of Halo living and breathing beneath it, Hermann adds.
“For future titles, we will continue to push the boundaries of technology while ensuring the core Halo gameplay for that game can be seen, felt, heard, and evolved where needed.”
While the team knows its tools best, it’s the Halo community that plays a fundamental role in how Halo Studios moves forward.
“Our player-first approach has informed so many decisions for the better,” Szlagor adds. “When we introduce new features or make creative choices, we’re constantly checking in with players through our user research studies and our Halo Insider program. Their feedback helps us stay grounded in what feels authentic to Halo.
That commitment to player input also extends beyond the studio walls. Halo: Campaign Evolved will be playable for the first time at the Halo World Championships, giving our players an early hands-on look at how the game is coming along. Halo: Campaign Evolved doesn’t seek to replace the original game, but instead, offer a modern experience that can stand proudly beside it. When new players launch the game for the first time, it must recapture the indescribable feel of picking up Halo for the first time 25 years ago on the original Xbox. That’s the moment we all remember so fondly, a moment that the Halo team recalls as “transformative”, that it wants to share with as many players as possible.
“We’re so excited about bringing Halo to those who may not have had chance to play it in the past,” Conn adds. “At its heart, Halo is about connection, we’re thrilled to meet a new generation of players on their platforms of choice to fall in love with Halo the same way we did. We’re not trying to rewrite Halo’s legacy – we’re trying to immerse you in it like never before.”
“This is Halo for everyone.”
Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming in 2026 to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam, PlayStation 5, supports Xbox Cloud Gaming and Xbox Play Anywhere and arrives day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.
Xbox Game Studios
Halo: Campaign Evolved is a faithful yet modernized remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s campaign. Experience the original story rebuilt with high-definition visuals, updated cinematics, and refined controls, plus three brand-new prequel missions featuring the Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson. A broader arsenal of weapons, vehicles, enemies, and gameplay-modifying “Skulls” – optional modifiers that change combat in fun and challenging ways – add fresh tactics and endless replayability.
Play it your way: solo, in 2-player split-screen co-op (console only), or up to 4-player online co-op with full crossplay and cross-progression support. Whether you’re discovering Halo for the first time or returning to the ring after 25 years, Halo: Campaign Evolved delivers an adventure that feels both timeless and brand new.
Discover the Ringworld
After crash landing on a mysterious ringworld known as Halo, the Master Chief is tasked with helping the remaining humans survive against overwhelming Covenant forces. Alongside his AI companion Cortana, he uncovers Halo’s dark secrets and fights to avert the annihilation of all life in the galaxy.
Key Features
The Complete Campaign, Rebuilt
Battle through the original missions, newly rebuilt with enhanced level design, updated cinematics, and improved wayfinding, refined to keep the pace moving without losing the wonder, tension, or heroism of the original.
Cinematics and Audio Overhauled
Iconic vistas, alien architecture, and sci-fi wonders are reborn with all-new visuals, cinematics, and animations. The soundtrack has been remastered, the sound design updated for greater immersion, and new voice performances recorded with the primary cast.
Combat and Weapons Expanded
Classic Halo combat feels instantly familiar yet sharper than ever. Sprint, aim, and engage with refined precision. For the first time in Halo: CE, you can wield 9 additional iconic weapons from across the series, including the Energy Sword, Battle Rifle, and Needle Rifle, giving you more ways to approach every fight.
Three New Prequel Missions
Join the Master Chief and Sgt. Johnson in a brand-new arc set before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, featuring new environments, gameplay, characters, and enemies.
Play Solo or with Friends
Experience the full campaign in 2-player split-screen co-op (console only) or 4-player online co-op, complete with crossplay and shared progression across console and PC.
Drive, Hijack, Wreak Havoc
Whether you’re racing across the map in a Warthog or flipping it over with friends, vehicles have always been at the heart of Halo’s fun. Now they go even further: for the first time in Halo: CE, you can hijack enemy rides and pilot a fully drivable Wraith, creating unforgettable chaos.
Remix Your Campaign for Endless Replayability
Use the campaign remix feature to return to any mission and remix the experience with the most gameplay-modifying “Skulls” ever in a Halo campaign. These optional modifiers add challenge and variety with randomized weapons, enemies, and environments.
The post Halo: Campaign Evolved – Answering the Big Questions About This Ambitious Remake appeared first on Xbox Wire.
