We all have our favorite Baldur's Gate 3 companion. It normally follows a similar pattern: Shadowheart and Astarion lead the pack, with Karlach also lurking near the top. Minthara has etched herself into history as yet another one of gaming's 'gothic baddies,' Gale is the cutesy UwU romantic, and we'll never forget that Halsin trailer. The one person we do often forget about, however, is Theo Solomon's Wyll, the infinitely good Blade of Frontiers. But I'm not innocent here, either: as much as I wanted to find a spot for Wyll in my party, between Astarion's deft hands (minds out of the gutter), Shadowheart's healing, and my consistent lack of tankiness, I never quite found a spot for the troubled yet heroic Warlock.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Larian is "sorry" that Baldur's Gate 3's most underrated companion didn't get a "fulfilling arc," with romance on its improvement list

It's not a new League of Legends season if something doesn't go wrong. As the MOBA kicks off 2026 with a bang (the For Demacia cinematic slapped), there are plenty of huge changes to contend with, including the massive adjustments to each of the game's roles, the removal of Atakhan and addition of Crystalline Overgrowth, and changes to pacing to ensure that you get into game faster. But, as part of the Demacia-themed Act 1, all eyes have been on Demacia Rising, a brand new, city builder-inspired minigame that casts you as a young Lux trying to carve out a place in the world. It's the thing that I was most excited to try out, but, unfortunately, it's not working.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Riot disables League of Legends Demacia Rising following loading issues, with no signs of when it'll return

All we want is a good new pirate game. Yes there's always Sea of Thieves, and the rumors of an Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake grow more solid by the day, but who knows when it'll actually appear. Sister title Skull and Bones failed to capture any of Black Flag's magic, and while Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord's War Sails update lets you wage terror on the high seas, at its heart it's still very much a gritty, no-holes-barred strategy game. That's where Sea of Remnants comes in. A sprawling, free-to-play open-world title published by NetEase and created by Joker Studio, its new gameplay footage has me sold, and now it's one of the only games I care about.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Sure, the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake sounds great, but Sea of Remnants is the only pirate game I want right now

The 007 First Light system requirements have arrived, and honestly, I'm slightly shocked. For what looks to be a cinematic experience that could rival the likes of L.A. Noire and Mafia: The Old Country, IO Interactive's latest won't take a colossal toll on your rig. Running the game at a setting that meets the minimum requirements isn't going to look amazing, but it'll be something the vast majority of gaming PCs can manage, and if your machine can manage the recommended specs, you'll get to enjoy the snow-covered Slovakian mountains and gilded halls of Kensington at a smooth 60fps, at 1080p.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: The 007 First Light system requirements aren't as terrifying as I expected

I love a good ol' fashioned product campaign. Buy a pizza, get a free Call of Duty skin (we drove halfway across Glasgow for that one); buy a boba tea, get a free Final Fantasy 14 cosmetic (I stopped us driving to Birmingham for that one) - there's something fun about seeing your favorite game on a Burger King bag or a Subway sandwich. Sure, it's capitalism at its finest, but bluntly, we all like free things. The latest such crossover is a new Pringles and Xbox campaign, which lets you grab four free rewards for some of the best PC games out there. There's gear for Fallout 76, The Outer Worlds 2, Sea of Thieves, and, of course, World of Warcraft, and I want all of them right now.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: You can get a free, snazzy bow tie in World of Warcraft, but you might need to get creative

I've said it before and I'll say it again: L.A. Noire is, in my opinion, the greatest videogame ever made. Sure, it's janky by modern standards, and its open world is perhaps a little less open than a lot of people expect from a Rockstar-backed game. But, for me, its story, soundtrack, and then-ground-breaking visual performances bring it to vibrant life. All these years later, nothing quite has the same aura as Team Bondi's rusty detective game (pun entirely intended).

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Gears of War veteran would take LA Noire 2 "over any other game in the world," and he's already thought of a plotline

You can't swing a metaphorical, potentially otherworldly cat these days without hitting something related to Stranger Things. It's all over my Netflix; it's dominating my social media timelines: it's everywhere. As the Duffer Brothers' long-running saga finally draws to a close, Dead by Daylight has just dropped its second Stranger Things-inspired chapter on the PTB, adding both Jane 'Eleven' Hopper and Dustin Henderson as survivors, and a new take on classic D&D villain Vecna, who enters the fray for a second time.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Dead By Daylight's Stranger Things Chapter 2 just hit the PTB, and its new Vecna is even scarier than the last one

January 8, 2026: 9:12am PT: Riot has since confirmed the legitimacy of the email, noting that "a delay in production" led to the Arcane boxes' late shipping. It has also provided more information on Spiritforged's rollout. Riftbound, Riot Games' League of Legends card game, has had an odd start to life. While the TCG itself is genuinely fun, with a unique identity that sets it apart from competitors like Magic: The Gathering, Lorcana, and Star Wars Unlimited, Riot has consistently struggled to meet demand. The first lot of packs went out with missing rares (something Riot has confirmed will impact Set 2, Spiritforged's, release as well), with the developer admitting that it "missed the mark" on supply and demand.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Riot delays League of Legends Riftbound's Arcane box, so here's how long you'll need to wait

Band of Crusaders is a game with a lot of moving parts. Taking visual inspirations from Diablo and religious iconography, and blending it with Heroes of Might and Magic-style exploration and Age of Empires' RTS combat, it's a strategy game quite unlike any other. There's base management, buildcrafting, boss battles - it's a delicious abundance of chaos that has to be seen to be believed. Virtual Alchemy CEO Dominik Sypnicki and art director Kamil Mickiewicz walked me through it all at Gamescom, and while my coffee-fuelled brain initially panicked at the sheer volume of content, I found myself falling in love with their wider vision of the game and its demon-infested 1300s Europe.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Blending Diablo's horror with Age of Empires' real-time combat, Band of Crusaders just got a new demo

I've been with my partner for almost four years now, and one of the games we initially bonded over was Final Fantasy 14. She was a pugilist, he was... also a pugilist: can it get anymore obvious? While we've spent hours meandering through Eorzea, taking in the sights and punching beasties on the nose, we've never quite cemented our in-game relationship by getting married. It's a system that's dear to the hearts of many, and one that few other MMOs replicate. But eagle-eyed World of Warcraft players have spotted that we can take our smooching to the next level as part of Midnight's housing update.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: World of Warcraft's housing has finally arrived, but thanks to a new teaser I've now got my eye on marriage

Some games carry a certain Unreal Engine 5 look, just like some games looked like UE3 games (Gears, Arkham Asylum - I'm looking at you). The dramatic Lumen lighting, water that sparkles, dirt that looks like it'd part beneath your boot. While Epic's engine helps bring countless visions to life, some of us do love to rag on UE5 for its perceived performance issues. But, love it or hate it, Unreal Engine 5 is a staple of both triple-A development and often ambitious indies. Enter The Wayward Realms, an upcoming open-world adventure pitched as a spiritual successor to The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, hailing from developer OnceLost Games and headed up by Bethesda veterans Ted Peterson and, until his passing in July of this year, the late Julian LeFay. Now, the studio has decided to drop UE5 for its own proprietary engine.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Ex Bethesda devs' ambitious Elder Scrolls Daggerfall successor ditches UE5 for its own engine to make "a far better game"

Lies of P was the first soulslike game I ever loved. I'd dabbled in the likes of Bloodborne, Dark Souls, and even Code Vein, but a younger me simply couldn't handle the punishment. Older me manages slightly better, but while I love the atmosphere and setting of Elden Ring, I simply can't bring myself to plow dozens of hours into its brutal, vast open world. Enter Lies of P, with its wickedly divine steampunk stylings and bizarre yet intriguing fairytale plotline. If you, like me, refuse to decrease the difficulty (in the wake of its Overture DLC, you can do just that), then perhaps recruiting a pal is a better call, and this new mod has you covered.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Lies of P finally gets Elden Ring-style co-op, and I'm heading straight back to Krat to replay my favorite soulslike

I remember trying out The First Descendant at Summer Game Fest. As someone who enjoys Warframe, I felt right at home in Ingris, as did over 260,000 players when the shooter first dropped. But Nexon hasn't managed to retain a lot of those players post-launch, and while recent reviews are in the green, its lifetime Steam score sits at 64%, or 'Mixed.' Complaints cite issues with aggressive monetization, the constant addition of new content that feels hard for the sake of being hard, and a repetitive grind that often ends in disappointment as drop rates for important materials are low. In 2026, however, Nexon is taking aim at a lot of these issues, hoping to lure fans back to its sci-fi world.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: The First Descendant delays its next season by six months as it lays the foundations for much-needed redemption arc

League of Legends has become a very different game in 2025. With the introduction of the battle pass system and ever-changing seasonal Rifts, it's taken a moment to get used to Riot's new and 'improved' LoL, and I'm still unsure whether or not I like it. 2026, however, is dropping radical, much-needed adjustments to balance, game time, and epic monsters, hopefully making things a bit smoother for top laners and ADCs. There are 11 new items - two of which are fan favorites - and we're being transported back to Demacia at the peak of its power. On paper, this season looks like it solves a lot of the MOBA's problems, and it's honestly quite exciting.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: League of Legends is giving every role a transformative rework as part of the best slate of changes I've seen in years

There's something about dark, winter nights that makes them perfect for horror games. Perhaps it's the fact that, by 4pm, the streetlights are casting eerie shadows across the sidewalk, tempting your imagination to run wild. Or maybe it's those cold nighttime breezes that tickle the back of your neck and make your hairs stand on end. In the grim darkness of winter (whether it's this millennium or the 41st), anything feels possible. So, if you feel like getting into the mood and scaring yourself to death, Fireshine Games' new survival FPS, AILA, is perfect for you.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Grab a free Steam key for AILA, the new survival horror FPS that's a perfect warm-up for Resident Evil Requiem

In the past year alone, I've plowed well over 50 hours into Warframe. Whether it's farming materials, decorating my Orbiter, or going back and forth on what color really looks the best on Oraxia, it's very easy to find yourself awake at 3am bopping Grineer and watching the damage numbers soar. But, as a newer player, I found the initial grind to be quite the hurdle - while things pick up with the Natah quest, the initial Awakening missions feel like a series of disparate parts that have no real rhyme or reason to them. As someone who has been desperate to get to the Warframe 1999 content and is invested in the MMO's world, I'm happy to put up with the grind, but I understand why some others would play a few hours and call it a day.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Warframe's The Old Peace skip is "sh*tty" for some, but it's Digital Extremes' "survival strategy" in a busy crowd

"War is hell," Warframe's creative director Rebecca Ford says as community director Megan Everett tears through the hordes in the new Perita Rebellion mode. It's a phrase the duo continue to repeat during our preview of The Old Peace, the latest chapter in the MMO's saga. In many ways, it's fitting: while the 12-minute war that Everett finds herself embroiled in certainly is hellish, the quest's adjacent plotline, The Devil's Triad, adds the new 'devilframe' Uriel and Descendia mode, both of which are inspired by classical depictions of Dante's Inferno and other religious iconography. "It's not a coincidence that there's a devil Frame, and that an Orokin has an unfortunate relationship with that devil Frame," Ford says with a smile. "None of this is an accident."

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Warframe 1999 was the "furthest stretch of the rubber band," but The Old Peace offers "the most soulslike thing" DE has ever done

As someone who grew up playing online multiplayer games, I'm no stranger to toxicity. From League of Legends to Overwatch 2, I've been told get back in the kitchen many a time, and while it doesn't really get to me anymore, I can see why those who are new to videogames play three rounds then uninstall the game. Whether you're immune to bad actors or not, they're straight up annoying, and will always find a way to ruin what should be a fun experience. As an amalgamation of MMOs like World of Warcraft and MOBAs like Dota 2, Fellowship has suffered the same fate as the videogames that have come before it, but while the team has some ideas about how to combat toxicity, it wants to be careful.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Fellowship's dev knows you're sick of toxic players, but it refuses to "whack on a leavers penalty" and call it a day

Honestly, there are a lot of disappointing things about Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Having waited far too long for a game that maybe would have been better left to our collective imagination, its performance issues, lack of stakes (pun intended), and weak RPG systems left me cold. But, as I say in my Bloodlines 2 review, the lack of connection to the first game is what kills it dead for me. Bar a somewhat meaningless throwback towards the end of the narrative, there's literally nothing connecting the two games bar disparate lore snippets scattered around the map that no one is really reading. Bloodlines 2 is a sequel in name alone, and sadly not a good enough RPG to move the needle.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Chinese Room co-founder wanted Paradox to drop the 'Bloodlines 2' name, because "no one would be happy" with the final game

For all of my musings about Vampire: The Masquerade and high fantasy adventures like Dragon Age, my university degrees are in genocide history and war studies - you probably expected English literature, but don't worry, I get that a lot. My primary focus for six years of my life was World War 2; it's why I struggle to watch movies about it or thrust myself into many triple-A shooters; my inner perfectionist just knows they're not real. But of all the historical titles that have passed my desk in my years at PCGamesN, Brass Rain might be the one that's interested me the most - not least because it's an MMO, and man, I love MMOs.

Read the full story on PCGamesN: Hyper-realistic WW2 MMO is "going beyond War Thunder," and it's got this historian's seal of approval