Category: Video Games

The next mainline Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon game is moving into internal alpha testing in the coming months.

That’s according to Insider Gaming, which claimed the shooter, codenamed ‘Over’ internally, will commence alpha testing in the Fall (Q3). With testing thought to take around 12 months, IG estimated Ghost Recon may release Fall 2026.

News of a new Ghost Recon broke around the time the developer/publisher confirmed it was ceasing all new development on 2019’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. It has reportedly been in development at Ubisoft since then, although at the time, it was clear the series was undergoing a full reset, which would necessitate a lengthy development cycle.

In a statement to IGN, an Ubisoft representative said: “We do not comment on rumour or speculation.”

IGN’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint review returned a 6/10. We wrote: “Breakpoint offers initial fun following Ubisoft’s open-world structure as gospel, but a lack of variety and conflicting pieces leave it devoid of personality.”

Earlier this year, Ubisoft created a subsidiary company based on its Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six brands, with a €1.16 billion (approx. $1.25 billion) investment from Chinese megacorp Tencent.

The news came hot on the heels of the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which just passed the 3 million player mark. Ubisoft suffered a number of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations in the run up to Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ release, and there was enormous pressure on it to succeed after the company’s share price hit an historic low.

In 2022, Ubisoft canceled development on Ghost Recon Frontline a year after it was announced. It was meant to be a free-to-play battle royale spin-off with 102-players, but never saw the light of day.

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

What’s next for Halo? It looks like fans will get a further tease this October at the Halo World Championship 2025.

In a blog post, Tahir “Tashi” Hasandjekic, Esports Lead for the Halo franchise, suggested fans attend the event October 24-26 in Seattle to find out what Halo Studios has been working on.

During the same event last October, Halo developer 343 Industries announced it had changed its name to Halo Studios and confirmed multiple projects were in the works. In the same breath, Halo Studios said all its future games would be developed on Unreal Engine, leaving behind the Slipspace Engine utilized by Halo Infinite.

The announcements were unveiled in a seven-minute video shown ahead of the Halo World Championship’s grand finals. This showcased the results of Project Foundry — an experimental project designed to show a Halo game built using the Unreal Engine — and offered a glimpse at a fresh beginning for Xbox’s flagship franchise in the wake of 2021’s Halo Infinite.

In the blog post, Tashi referenced last year’s announcements and teased more to come this October.

“Over the past few weeks, there’s been a fair amount of speculation about when and where more details might emerge about any of the multiple projects Halo Studios is actively working on,” Tashi said. “We don’t usually comment on such matters, but this time we want to enter the chat and share a little more perspective for Halo fans who might be on the fence about whether to attend this year’s event.

“Last year at HaloWC, we premiered ‘A New Dawn’ where we talked about the switch to Unreal Engine, gave you a behind the scenes look at Project Foundry, and debuted our evolution to Halo Studios as we enter a new chapter for Halo. For us, ‘A New Dawn’ was just the beginning — at this year’s HaloWC, we look forward to continuing the conversation.

“Speculation is always fun, but if you want the official scoop on what Halo Studios has been working on, you won’t want to miss this year’s Halo World Championship. We really hope you’ll join us in Seattle this October!”

So, what could Halo Studios have up its sleeve for the announcement? It seems unlikely we’ll get a full-blown gameplay reveal for the next big Halo title, but we may get a more detailed tech demo showing Halo running in Unreal Engine. Earlier this month, Microsoft was reported to be readying a Halo: Combat Evolved remaster for release in 2026. Perhaps we will get a look at that. The so-far unannounced remaster is apparently under consideration for release on rival platforms including PlayStation 5.

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.

I’ve been keeping a close eye on the Pokémon TCG market this month, and we’re seeing two very different stories unfold. On one side, Surging Sparks cards are going through a steep correction.

On the other hand, Crown Zenith cards are showing early signs of what could be a long-term value surge. The bottom line? If you’re a collector or investor, now is the time to buy into both.

I’m picking up what I can from both sets. The current dip in Sparks is a glimmer of hope for long-suffering 2024-2025 collectors. And Crown Zenith is a train I want to be on before it leaves the station. Let’s go into more detail:

Pokémon Card Crashers

PUBG: Blindspot is a cheeky little PUBG: Battlegrounds spin off that’s currently in development, and was playable on the show floor at IGN Live. It’s a 5v5 top-down tactical shooter that has a classic team deathmatch mode – one we got hooked on even in the chaos of the gaming show floor – and a Demolition mode, that will see teams using traps and obstacles to outwit the enemy. It’s been compared to a top-down Rainbow Six Siege and with good reason: to rack up the kills you’re going to need to use your brain as well as your trigger finger.

1. Think ‘Peekaboo with bullets’

Forget all your FPS muscle memory, this is a top-down strategic PvP game where your cunning is as important as your reaction times. You’re dropped into a map full of corners, windows, doorways – basically anything you can think of to make line of sight a key part of gameplay – and you have to hunt down your opponents before they pop one in your back. You can see the whole map, but you’ll only see enemies if they’re in your cone of vision or your teammates, which sounds simple until someone snipes you through a window while you’re focused on the doorway at the end of a corridor.

2. Demolition Mode is on the way

While we didn’t get to play the Demolition Mode, it sounds like a step up in complexity from the 5v5 deathmatch, adding a greater need for planning and teamwork. Production Director Seungmyeong Yang explained more about it at IGN Live. “Demolition Mode can commonly be found in other games such as Counter Strike or Valorant,” he said. “In this Demolition Mode there is an attacking team and a defending team, and the defense team basically tries to block the attacking team from coming in and the attacking team tries to breach the building. It was really fun to see how the gamers react, they seem to really enjoy the game!” Demolition Mode is the inspiration for those Rainbow Six Siege comparisons, albeit it from a whole new top-down perspective.

3. Start your WASD warmups

The keyboard and mouse controls are more like a twin-stick shooter set up, and it’s going to take your brain a second to catch up to how they work. You control movement with WASD and your cone of vision with the mouse, while to aim and fire weapons you hold down the right mouse button. That will slow your movement, though, so it’s always a balance between moving quickly to avoid enemy detection and choosing when to take your shots. Once you’ve mastered that you can focus on being more accurate, using the mouse wheel and keyboard to go for head shots, body shots, or aiming specifically at any crouched enemies.

4. Character choice is key

Like any team game, who you have in your five-person kill crew is going to matter. The build I played had 10 characters to choose from, each with pleasingly distinct looks and loadouts to keep things interesting. I’m not exactly a subtle operative, so I gravitated towards those with weapons that could cause carnage up close and personal, like bearded cowboy Collision, who packs a Winchester 1300 shotgun and booby traps; or Kayak, who has a semi-automatic O12 combat shotgun and a remote sticky bomb. Support players can go for Fanatic with her P90 and First Aid Kid, or sniper Buddy with her scanning drones. Some you might want to play just because of their character designs – I’m not usually one for Toxic Gas Grenades, but Dropdown has a sort of Dystopian Harley Quinn vibe that’s hard to resist.

5. You can play it in August

There’s no official release date for the full game, but there is a PC beta planned for August. Keep an eye on the game’s official Steam page for updates.

Rachel Weber is the Senior Editorial Director of Games at IGN and an elder millennial. She’s been a professional nerd since 2006 when she got her start on Official PlayStation Magazine in the UK, and has since worked for GamesIndustry.Biz, Rolling Stone and GamesRadar. She loves horror, horror movies, horror games, and French Bulldogs. Those extra wrinkles on her face are thanks to going time blind and staying up too late finishing every sidequest in RPGs like Fallout and Witcher 3.