A reader offers his list of the top 10 games he’s most looking forward to this year, including those he intends to pre-order without any further information.

It’s 2026 now, which means many stellar and upcoming titles will grace us with their presence in the coming few months. I’ll be honest, I’m actually hoping to purchase a new phone in August, for my birthday.

But that doesn’t take away from some amazing games, that I will definitely be playing, so I’d like to take this time to list my 10 most anticipated games as, more than anything, these are the names that have intrigued me.

I will be leaving out sports games, battle royale titles, racing games, and live service debacles. Those don’t really interest me and I don’t play them. Just not my cup of tea. So here they are.

10. Resident Evil Requiem

The first major title of 2026, this is dependant on the reviews and if Capcom stick to the horror aspect. I’m exceptionally tired of action set pieces and I’m worried it will turn into what Village became during the second half. Capcom better nail this hard. If it reviews well, I will be buying.

9. Pragmata

A very curious beginning and a new IP. Also from Capcom, this is another title I will be waiting for reviews. It’s a new project and I am interested, but it could flop and it’s quite risky to pre-order. It looks great and the demo has reviewed well. So I’ll keep an eye on the reviews and hopefully I end up buying Pragmata.

8. Saros

Underrated is the word of choice for Returnal and this is dependant on the difficulty for me, personally. I don’t expect it to be easier, or a cakewalk of sorts, but I’m hoping Housemarque take it easy this time around and if it is more difficult I’ll gladly skip this experience. If it reviews well and it’s easier I’ll buy.

7. 007 First Light

Quite an appropriate number. I’m not the biggest fan of James Bond in general, but this game looks promising. I except espionage, stealth, and chilled champagne. Reviews will decide this one for me.

6. Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake

I wish it was the first game, but I understand the choice to remake the second game is the correct decision. I’m beyond stoked for this and I hope it sells well, so the first and third titles are also remade. I’ll say that I am strongly considering pre-ordering this, but I’ll wait for reviews. Hopefully it does as well as Silent Hill 2 did.

5. Marvel’s Wolverine

From a web slinger to the adamantium slasher. I will be absolutely pre-ordering this, since I hope dearly that this is an improvement, from the rushed and disappointing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. It looks fantastic and I can safely say it will be a banger of a game.

4. Crimson Desert

Ambition is the word for what Crimson Desert has showcased thus far. I won’t lie, I am very impressed by what I’ve seen so far and worried a slight bit. It seems too ambitious and it could be too good to be true. The risk is heavy and that’s why I will be buying. Because risks are meant to be taken.

3. Control: Resonant

As a player who managed to complete the first title, I’m very excited for the sequel and judging by my high love for Alan Wake 2, and the narrative, I’m absolutely stoked for what the folks at Remedy will be cooking up for the sequel. Another buy for me.

2. Phantom Blade 0

I would haven’t had this so high on a list at the start of this year, but I have been absolutely blown away by what I’ve seen so far of this game and I can’t praise it enough. It looks absolutely insane and I’m hoping this lives up to its expectations. It has the same hype as Black Myth: Wukong did, but I can see this performing extremely well. As soon as pre-orders open, I’m there.

1. Grand Theft Auto 6

What else could it possibly be? If Half-Life 3 is somehow released, that may well step up as a contender, but I can’t justify my absolute excitement and hype for the most anticipated video game of all time. Barring another possible delay, we may well be there for something special and I can’t wait to begin a new narrative and a new journey with Grand Theft Auto 6 in 2026.

Thank you so much for reading and here’s to a blessed 2026.

By reader Shahzaib Sadiq

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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With news that Switch 2 sales have started to slow, a reader is worried that complacency and poor planning is spoiling the prospects for Nintendo’s new console.

Last year, the big story was that the Switch 2 had become the fastest selling console of all time. I think a lot of people found this a little odd, because there didn’t seem to be that kind of excitement behind it, but then Nintendo’s main audience isn’t necessarily hardcore gamers, so I think some of the appeal was lost even on long-term fans.

After launch, Donkey Kong Bananza was great and… the rest wasn’t. I didn’t get Pokémon Legends: Z-A but it seems to have got only mildly positive reviews. I did get Metroid Prime 4 though and that was a crushing disappointment, even though I thought I’d still appreciate it despite the flaws.

We’re now in 2026 and the only games that have a release date are Mario Tennis Fever next month and Pokémon Pokopia in March, not the most existing of games, I don’t think anyone would pretend. Beyond that you’ve got Yoshi And The Mysterious Book and a new Fire Emblem, which I’d also venture are not the most widely popular of Nintendo franchises.

They’re niche games, basically, and so was Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors, and Metroid Prime 4. I can see the logic in that that meant you had a Zelda and Kirby game for the launch year, but I think these games are only likely to put people off the main franchises, more than anything else.

I read with interest the report this week, about how Switch 2 sales have slowed, particularly in the US, and that Nintendo thinks that because it didn’t have any big Western games. I’m pretty sure that’s not the problem, so I can’t wait for that overreaction to make things worse. It wasn’t because the line-up was too Japanese it’s because it was niche games that aren’t popular in the West. I’d say that was a distinct difference.

And now that we are out of the launch year can we just admit that having no Zelda or Mario, or even the slightest hint of one, was a massive mistake. Given how well orchestrated the Switch 1 was I would’ve thought that repeating the same tricks would’ve been easy, but Nintendo seems to have ignored every lesson of their very long history.

We’ve got the 40th anniversary of Zelda, 30th anniversary of Pokémon, and a new Super Mario movie coming up soon and, as far as we know at the moment, no major games to tie in with any of them. Missing one anniversary is a mistake, missing three super obvious opportunities like this reeks of incompetence or being complacent.

I don’t know which it is but the more you look back at the Switch 2 with hindsight the more it seems like it was all rushed, with very little planning… which makes no sense, as Nintendo had all the time they needed to get ready and were not working under any kind of time limit.

I hate to say it, but they’re exhibiting Sony style arrogance, where they seem to think a minimum effort will be enough and that because their last console did well they don’t have to try so hard with the next one. I would never have guessed that’s how they’d be with the Switch 2, but I don’t know how else to explain it.

If there is a Nintendo Direct in February it needs to unveil a new Mario, some kind of Zelda game, and ideally a new IP. I do not want to sit through a 50 minute showcase telling me that they still don’t understand what was good about Mario Tennis 64 or that they the budget for the next Fire Emblem has been increased to £10 and a packet of crisps.

Unfortunately, I would be willing to bet that the second description is a lot closer to what eventually happens and that people are going to feel even more worried about the Switch 2’s future after the Direct is done.

By reader Gordo

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Despite constant frustration and badly dated gameplay, a reader can’t bring himself to completely hate the PlayStation 2 version of God Of War.

God Of War came out in 2005. I love the film Jason and the Argonauts and since gaming’s introduction to Kratos focused on similar themes and reviewed well, 20 years ago, the landmark title developed by Santa Monica Studio was a compulsory purchase for me.

Kicking off with a spot of giant Hydra trouble in the Aegean sea, the high level of polish and artistry in this game is immediately apparent. Ancient Greek exteriors and interiors are consistently atmospheric and handsomely realised. God Of War’s core mechanic is hacking and slashing, so it’s a relief that the combat here is beyond satisfying.

This is one of those games in which you look forward to a scrap, to unleash your many moves. As well as the iconic Blades of Chaos, and the lesser known Blade of Artemis, Kratos collects various magic attacks on his journey through the game’s levels. For me the highlight in this enchanted arsenal is the Army of Hades, obtained fairly late in the day, after defeating one of the game’s bosses. Activate the Army of Hades and a fiery demonic swarm materialises around Kratos and homes in, like a salvo of guided projectiles, on any local enemies.

Everything’s upgradable by gathering red orbs, which fly out of opened chests, vanquished enemies, and smashed objects. While you run around solving simple puzzles and slaying monsters you collect green orbs to replenish your health meter and blue orbs to fill up your magic meter. These meters can be extended by finding Gorgon’s eyes and phoenix feathers.

So there’s plenty to do while Kratos embarks on an epic quest which takes him and you to Athens, to the Temple of the Oracle, through the desert of Lost Souls, and on to Pandora’s Temple. The end goal here is to quell the bad dreams that haunt Kratos. In some sort of thematic duality, Pandora’s Temple is where the game starts to turn into a waking nightmare.

I’m fairly certain that 20 years ago I did finish this game. Tackling God Of War again now, I wonder how I managed. Reading other players’ comments on the internet the following hurdles are repeatedly mentioned:

That notorious jump over a certain second lava pit. The stingy amount of time allocated in the spike room. The desperate dash past spinning saw blades to access the Architect’s Tomb, before his door shuts in your face. And what about that bit in The Challenge of Hades, when you try not to fall to your death on narrow suspended planks, while at the same time double jumping over rotating blades that you can only see when they’re seconds away from hitting you?

Climbing those rotating spike towers in the Path of Hades often gets remarked upon as a place where one’s patience is tested to breaking point, but on this playthrough I found that fighting the Pandora Guardian was worse.

How could I complete those quick time events if the developers gave me insufficient time to do so? By doing a bit of research online it turned out that controlling the thumb stick with just my thumb was probably where I was going wrong. If I pinched the left stick around its edge with my thumb and finger I could match the lightning fast QTE prompts.

The final battle with Ares also uses QTE prompts, that appear and then cruelly disappear in a blink. I could only react fast enough to these prompts by holding down every face button on the DualShock 2. A messy and botched solution. Was it deliberate?

I have more issues with God Of War other than it started to make me hate gaming. Medusa was entirely wasted. Here the snake-haired Gorgon is sold short as a mid-level boss and a way of obtaining an, albeit interesting, magic attack.

Perhaps the best scene in the rather hit and miss 1981 movie Clash of the Titans is Perseus’s fight with Medusa. The sequence almost invites a direct video game conversation. Fight a terrifying foe by relying on your wits and the reflections in your shield. Try not to be put off by those lifelike statues that stand, crouch, and cower nearby.

And the advent of Pandora’s Temple is disappointing. Instead of leaping onto the summoned titan, that carries the temple on its back Shadow of the Colossus style, a potentially epic part of your quest is handled by a cut scene.

But it seems picky to complain. There’s much to enjoy here. An ancient city under siege. A fearsome bestial roll call, straight out of Greek mythology. You’ll swim through underwater domains that are eerie and peaceful. A dramatic sense of scale is used to great effect in one sequence.

Due to a representation of perspective, Kratos shrinks down to the size of an ant and yet you’re still able to control him. And the game’s epic score suits the onscreen mayhem perfectly. Although the sound that you might learn to love is the angelic call of the save points.

I cannot wholeheartedly recommend God Of War 2005. Parts of it are the gaming equivalent of deliberately slamming a door on your hand. However, if you have a penchant for classic monsters, swordplay and high adventure then you should definitely check out a certain Spartan’s debut because it is, for the most part, a brilliantly realised classic.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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It might be a new year, but most gamers still have a large backlog of games to play before they get to any new ones, as one reader reveals his priorities – from Baldur’s Gate 3 to Spider-Man 2.

By the time you read this it will either be the new year or new year will be around the corner. Either way, happy 2026!

I thought I’d list the games I’m interested in that I haven’t yet played from the previous year and the games I intend to clear from my backlog also.

I dread to think how many games I’ve yet to finish or play. Most, thankfully, were either stupidly cheap or free. Here are six that I intend to dedicate some time to giving a good go at.

The backlog

6. Baldur’s Gate 3

I think this might be one of the worst purchases I’ve made. I was taken over by the hype at the time and bought this for pretty much full price, for the Steam Deck initially, and now have it for the Legion Go. It’s not a bad game but I just struggle, having never played any similar titles previously, and the combat confuses me. I might need to watch some instructional videos to learn the basics. However, I just don’t know when I’ll have the time, given it’s a big game.

5. Cyberpunk 2077

I’ve tried this a few times and never got far this time on Switch 2 was the furthest I’ve got into the game but got distracted by other games. I really want to like it but haven’t been gripped so far. I need to either commit and finish it or accept I’m just not that invested in it.

4. The Plucky Squire

When I first saw the trailer for this game I was sold and bought it almost as soon as it released. However, it’s kind of just fine. It looks very pretty and the gameplay is fine, although I find the stealth elements very annoying. If this was a long game I’d probably cut my losses, but I’ve heard it’s only a few hours long, so I’ll try and finish.

3. Resident Evil 7 and Village

I’ve played through these previously and in the case of Village I’ve played it twice. I have been meaning to replay Resident Evil 7 again at some point and wouldn’t mind playing both before Resident Evil Requiem comes out. Although I think Resident Evil 2, and in particular the remake, is the benchmark for the series, both 7 and Village are worthy sequels.

2. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man and Miles Morales were both games that I’ve enjoyed immensely and even have the Platinum for Spider-Man, which is a big deal for me. However, I’ve only played a few hours of the game on my Legion Go, after buying the PC version earlier this year. I don’t know why but I think perhaps I played the previous too much. I need to play it consistently over a few nights and then I’m sure I’ll get into it.

1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

I played this very briefly on my Legion Go via Game Pass. However, performance either natively or via cloud was inconsistent. Therefore, I got it for cheap at Black Friday for the PlayStation 5, as streaming it from the living room to my Legion Go via the PXPlay app works a treat. I think this will be the next game I play. My very brief first impressions are that the production, in terms of art design and soundtrack, seems very polished and the premise of the story seems intriguing but I’ve never really played turn-based games before, so worry that I won’t get through the reasonably long runtime.

My 2025 wishlist

5. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

I’ve never played any of the mainline Metroid games but did enjoy Metroid Dread. [Metroid Dread is a mainline entry; it’s the Prime games that’re spin-offs – GC] I was initially planning to get Metroid Prime 4 as I’m a bit of sucker for platform exclusives when I first get a new console. However, I’m slightly put off by some of the lukewarm reviews. I don’t know that I’ll get it for full price, but have seen it for £30 on Amazon Marketplace.

4. Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Again, I’ve never really played any in the series previously but did fancy giving this a try, especially now it’s on Switch 2. I did plan to get this with some money I’ll be getting for Xmas. However, I think I might wait. No doubt it’ll be heavily reduced in the near future and since it’s likely a hefty game I might wait until later in the year.

3. Dispatch

Although I do vaguely recall Metro’s review, this was a game that passed me by. However, after I saw it crop up on some best games of 2025 lists I watched the trailer. I haven’t played many point ‘n’ click type games but have enjoyed them when I do and I really like the look of Dispatch’s art style.

2. Ghost Of Yōtei

I played a bit of Ghost Of Tsushima earlier in the year via PS Plus and did plan on finishing it, but I had other games to play first and now my subscription to PS Plus has run out I might just splurge for the sequel instead. I haven’t played a Sony exclusive third person action game in a while and they used to be right up my street. If I’m honest though, I got a new TV free with my internet/TV package and I want a graphically impressive new game to test it out with.

1. Blue Prince

This game seems to be well regarded and I do like puzzle games and a good puzzle game isn’t always easy to come by. I might have to give this a try before my Game Pass runs out. My only slight issue is that I’ve heard you need to make notes and frankly I don’t know how feasible that is to do when playing in bed.

By reader matc7884

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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The same company that once taunted Nintendo lawyers has created an alternative to the newly announced Joy-Con 2 controller colours.

We are shocked that peripheral maker dbrand is still going as a company, considering they’ve repeatedly gone out of their way to upset Sony and Nintendo, with their unofficial accessories and antagonistic comments.

From rude messages aimed at Nintendo’s lawyers to PlayStation faceplates that already got them sued once by Sony, they don’t seem to fear other companies at all, and so far they’ve not been given any real reason to.

This time they’re back to annoy Nintendo, who yesterday announced two new colours of Joy-Con for the Switch 2. That’s the first time they’ve been available in anything but the default colours but fans were upset that the colour changes are only minor and barely noticeable when the console is in handheld mode.

The colour scheme is exactly the same as the default Joy-Cons, so it’s hard to understand what anyone expected, but dbrand has gone ahead and announced an alternative that is a different colour for the whole Joy-Con.

Nintendo’s Joy-Con’s aren’t available as a colour pair, but instead a ‘light purple’ left controller and a ‘light green’ right one. There’ll be out on February 12 and cost £74.99, the same as the standard colours.

It all seems a very harmless new option, especially as it’s not any more expensive than the originals, and is no doubt the vanguard of a new range of colours and variants that we’ll begin to see over the coming months and years.

To dbrand though, the whole situation has been like a red rag to a bull and just a day later they’ve announced new controller skins that are the exact same colour but go across the whole Joy-Con.

‘Nintendo decided to release new Switch 2 Joy-Con colorways, but once again opted to only show hints of colour beneath the thumbsticks,’ reads dbrands’ description.

‘Naturally, we’ve painstakingly colour-matched those purple and green accents and applied them to the entire surface of the Joy-Con. As per usual, dbrand does what Nintendon’t.’

The other text on their site is even more weirdly aggressive, mocking potential customers over their weight and potential baldness. You’d think there’d be a better outlet for such anarchic passion but apparently making unofficial console peripherals is their everything.

For what it’s worth, they also have a number of other skins, some of which are actually quite nice, like the fake transparent one.

Differently coloured Joy-Cons are likely to be a prelude to limited edition consoles of various types, which Nintendo generally starts to introduce in the second year of a new console, so don’t be surprised if each new big name game from now on gets one.

What big name games Nintendo has planned for 2026 is a bit of a mystery though, as even those we do know about, like FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods, don’t have a date and are likely prone to delays.

There’s speculation there might be a Nintendo Direct in February, as there was during most of the Switch 1’s lifetime, but so far they’ve not announced anything. Instead, the first showcase of the year will be Xbox’s Developer Direct at the end of January.

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By insisting that it hasn’t been sacking developers for joining a union, Rockstar has inadvertently given clues as to which GTA 6 leaks are real.

It may be the most anticipated title in video game history but there has been precious little information, either official or unofficial, about Grand Theft Auto 6 ever since it was announced.

In the last few months, it’s mostly been in the news over allegations of union-busting at Rockstar Games, where the developer claim they sacked people for leaking secrets and not for trying to unionise.

The issue was serious enough that questions were asked in Parliament, but the very obvious flaw in Rockstar’s argument is that there have been no leaks of any note in the last year or so. Or at least that’s what everyone thought at first…

According to Rockstar, they fired over 30 employees in 2025 for leaking information on GTA 6 in an external channel, whose users included a games journalist and a developer from a rival company.

In a new statement to IGN, Rockstar insists that, ‘we took necessary action against a group of individuals across the UK and Canada who discussed highly confidential information, including relating to game features from upcoming and unannounced titles, in an insecure and public social channel.’

While there’s no way to verify any of Rockstar’s claims (whoever that games journalist is supposed to be, they haven’t spoken up) they also mention a number of other specific incidents, in an attempt to prove that sacking people for leaking information is something they’ve always done.

Rockstar claims that they sacked someone in the US in November 2023 for leaking information, as well as some in Lincoln in April 2025, and an employee in India in November 2025.

“Rockstar has pointed to its well-established zero tolerance approach to leaks, highlighting that it dismissed a Rockstar employee in Lincoln, UK in April 2025, who it alleged disclosed confidential information about GTA 6 to a third party who published the information to social…

— ben (@videotechuk_) January 8, 2026

Based on those specific dates, fans have gone back through internet chatter at the time and tried to work out what that information was – information which is now technically confirmed by Rockstar to be true, or at least true at the time that they fired the employee.

The 2023 firing seems to relate to a leak posted on Reddit, which was largely ignored at the time. You can find the details here but it’s very minor stuff about the story and gameplay mechanics and it’s no wonder little attention was paid to it.

The most substantial piece of new information is that there’s apparently a new mechanic somewhat similar to the dead eye targeting system from Red Dead Redemption 2.

Rockstar is perfectly within their rights to sack people for leaking information but, as ever, you have to question why anyone would risk their job over such trivial details. Especially as most of the leaked information wasn’t widely disseminated.

It’s less clear what the other rumours were but fans have connected one or more to leaks from a source called GameRoll, who revealed the surnames of the main characters before they were officially announced.

Again, you’ve got to wonder why someone felt it was so important to leak that information to the world, but they did reveal a number of other pieces of information.

We’ll leave it up to you as to whether you want to read them, as technically some are spoilers – although none of it is especially mind-blowing and some of it is as simple as ‘driving is best it’s ever been’.

However, the most interesting detail is another mention of a mechanic similar to the dead eye system, with both sources indicating that GTA 6 takes quite a bit of inspiration from Red Dead Redemption 2 in how it plays.

There is no guarantee that these are the leaks that the employees were sacked for but there have been so few over the years that the chances are good.

That said, not all leaks always get noticed. If a leaker doesn’t have much of a following their information can end up being completely ignored, even if it’s true.

The most famous example of this, is footage of a Prince Of Persia reboot, which was leaked onto YouTube in 2012 but which nobody noticed until 2020.

So perhaps there’s also GTA 6 leaks floating around that have been similarly ignored, or dismissed as fakes. Rockstar insists that the truth is out there, but sorting the facts from the fiction is not going to be easy.

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Nintendo had a good year in the UK, but the Switch 2 had a weaker than expected Christmas in the US and Europe, as consumer preferences shift across the world.

Despite last year seeing the launch of a new console, in the form of the Nintendo Switch 2, and PlayStation 5 sales benefiting from less competition from Xbox, last November was the worst on record for hardware sales in the US.

There are a lot of contributing factors to explain that, from rising prices – brought on by everything from tariffs to AI using up all the RAM needed to make new consoles – but the overall picture for the traditional games industry is a grim one.

We already know that Xbox had its worst year ever in the UK, in 2025, and now new figures suggest that, despite being the fastest-selling console ever, Switch 2 sales have now fallen behind that of the Switch 1 during its first Christmas – at least in the US.

The Switch 1 arrived in early March, whereas the Switch 2 came out in June, so this isn’t comparing like with like, but according to The Game Business US sales over November and December were down around 35% compared to 2017, when the Switch launched.

Apart from the release times, the Switch 1 had a very different launch line-up to the Switch 2, whose two best games (Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza) came out in the summer.

Over the course of its first year, the Switch 1 enjoyed a steady stream of critically acclaimed releases, culminating in Super Mario Odyssey as its big Christmas title. By comparison, the biggest Switch 2 first party release before Christmas was the controversial Metroid Prime 4.

It’s important to emphasise that console sales are down across the board in the US, for every format, as that’s where rising prices are hitting hardest, but the picture is more positive elsewhere.

In the UK, Switch 2 sales for the last two months were 16% lower than the Switch 1 during the same period but if you add in Switch 1 purchases then overall Nintendo hardware sales were up 7% compared to 2017. Importantly, Switch 2 sales are overall 6% higher than the Switch 1 in 2017, despite the original hardware having 14 extra weeks.

The UK is traditionally Nintendo’s weakest major international market, while its strongest in Europe is usually France. And yet apparently French Switch 2 sales were more than 30% lower compared to the first year of the Switch 1.

That means the UK sold more Nintendo hardware than France over Christmas, which is highly unusual and a sign that previously accepted norms may no longer be relevant, especially if the US market does not recover.

There are no figures for the rest of Europe but The Games Business’ Chris Dring suggests that they were closer to the French results than those in the UK, with Nintendo supposedly bemoaning the lack of a major Western game launch during the period and a ‘complicated economic landscape’. Which is putting things mildly.

Japan was the only market that performed as expected, even though sales over the last two months were down 5.5% on the Switch 1’s first year. Overall, though, Switch 2 sales were 11% higher than Switch 1 for the year – again, despite the Switch 2 having less time on shop shelves.

As Dring points out, the Switch 2 first year line-up was more attuned to Japanese tastes, especially in terms of titles like the Dynasty Warriors derived Hyrule Warriors and Kirby Air Riders, which sold well in Japan but was a flop in the UK.

How much of that is on purpose, and how much just an accident of the release schedules, is unclear but so far there are no major titles with a confirmed 2026 release date that seem likely to change the narrative, especially in terms of major Western releases.

Some of these issues are out of Nintendo’s control but if the US market continues to disappoint they, and other major publishers, may reassess their output and priorities, especially in favour of newer markets such as China and India.

However, the biggest problem for all console manufacturers at the moment is simply the rising cost of RAM and other components, which may lead to continued increases in console prices or alternatively continued decreases in profit.

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Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment may finally be in the position to make a Fallout: New Vegas remaster or even a sequel, as rumours mount about their current plans.

Although it’s now taken as read that all Xbox games will also be released on PlayStation 5, Microsoft has never clarified that that’s their policy and prominent titles such as Fable are still technically Xbox exclusives.

It’s very probable that Fable will be announced as coming to PlayStation 5 in the Developer Direct this month, but Microsoft has implied that Forza Horizon 6 won’t arrive on Sony’s console until after the Xbox version.

However, that’s likely to be simply because the game wasn’t initially planned to be on PlayStation 5, so it’ll take a bit longer to make that version. That’s what happened with Indiana Jones And The Great Circle and Obsidian’s Avowed… which has now been confirmed to be coming to PlayStation 5 on February 17.

Action role-player Avowed was originally released on Xbox Series X/S and PC on February 18, 2025 but didn’t make much of an impact at the time. We didn’t think much of it but to accompany the PlayStation 5 launch all versions will be getting new content, including a New Game+ mode, new character races, new weapon types, and a photo mode.

Rather than wait for the Developer Direct at the end of the month, the news was announced at the New Game Plus showcase, where Obsidian described the so-called anniversary update as a ‘more rounded experience’ than the original game.

Apart from Grounded 2, which is still in early access, it’s currently unknown what else Obsidian is working on at the moment, and although there’ve been recent rumours of a Fallout: New Vegas remaster, there’s been nothing to suggest Obsidian themselves are making it – although presumably they’ll be involved to some degree.

Windows Central’s Jez Corden has suggested that Obsidian currently has four new projects on the go right now, although he claims not know if any of them are Fallout related.

Assuming one of them is Grounded 2 that still leaves three that are currently unknown (or possibly two, if the PlayStation 5 version of Avowed also counts). Obsidian has talked about wanting to do both a New Vegas remaster and a full sequel but have previously said that they just don’t have the time.

If their schedules have now cleared this would seem the obvious time to get back into the franchise, especially as the ongoing success of the Fallout TV show has not been supported by any new game releases. It’s been over a decade now since Fallout 4 and there seems little hope of a new mainline entry this decade.

What the other games could be is a complete mystery, but Corden suggests that some of the projects are quite small scale. Unlike most Microsoft first party studios, Obsidian has been allowed to experiment with smaller projects, such as Grounded and Pentiment, and while they’re not big sellers they have been critically acclaimed.

It seems very likely that Obsidian is working on at least one new title of a similar scale but with four new projects in development it would be surprising if at least one of them wasn’t a triple-A title.

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The Friday letters page laments the death of Guitar Hero and rhythm action games, as one reader claims Final Fantasy 8 is his favourite entry.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Perfect timing
It’s hard not to read the report on GTA 6’s progress and not be worried about another delay. My gut tells me they will hit the November release date, just because it’s a good time of the year and people are beginning to lose patience but just imagine what would happen if they released GTA 6 and it was a buggy mess or not that great.

Cyberpunk 2077 proves you can come back from anything, but the press will have a field day with GTA 6 if it doesn’t live up to expectations. And it took a long time for Cyberpunk to recover, during which there was talk of CD Projekt being sold off, so I’m going to guess that’s not the sort of reaction Rockstar and Take-Two want.

The idea that they’ve not yet started polishing does worry me though. It’s easy to assume from that, that either the game’s going to be delayed until 2027 or it will be buggy. The GTA 3 remasters show Rockstar can put out janky rubbish if they think they can get away with it, but I just hope that they have contingencies for all this and realise that not only does GTA 6 need to be perfect but it also has to actually come out at some point.
Zeiss

One or done
I really hope that Fable turns out to be good. It seems so long since the idea of a reboot was first talked about and we’ve seen so little of it in the meantime. Playground Games do good work with Forza Horizon, so I’m hopeful it’ll work, but those are two very different kinds of games.

I imagine that was part of the problem, in it taking so long, but if this doesn’t impress then that’s going to be the end of the franchise, and whatever team was making it (they’ll keep the Forza Horizon people).

It’s really terrible how so often nowadays the failure of a single game can mean the end of a whole franchise and hundreds of job losses. Here’s hoping that the Developer Direct goes well and isn’t a Suicide Squad style disaster.
Wotan

Turbo milking
Maybe I’m just slow but for me Guitar Hero was the point that I realised that the companies in charge of gaming really haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. Activision could’ve kept that franchise running forever – it was super popular when it came out and non-gamers loved it – but instead they ran it into the ground at warp speed and the whole thing was over in just a few years.

I doubt that this new game will do that well because nowadays plastic guitars are just associated with a weird fad that quickly became uncool, but that didn’t have to happen. If they’d taken their time and tried to innovate, they would be more than a one franchise company and music games might not have been killed off before their time.
Focus

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Seasonal gaming
I know it’s unusual, and there is the problem of whether you can get back the same voice actors, but I really like the idea of coming back to a game after a decade or so and giving it new DLC. A new sequel is a good excuse but I’m happy for it at any time, especially when it’s a game as good as The Witcher 3.

I’d love to see new expansions for Skyrim or anything from FromSoftware. Or definitely the story DLC that games like GTA 5 and God Of War never got. If companies are so keen on live service titles then they could create something like it just by constantly giving single-player games new content. I’d much rather that than watch them waste millions on another identikit online shooter.

I never liked the idea of episodic gaming but if they can make them more like TV seasons, where you get a new expansion every year or two, I think that would be a lot more appealing to most people. If the new Witcher 3 expansion is successful then maybe we’ll see it set a trend.
Brammo

Good publicity
I am fascinated to see what MachineGames will be allowed to get away with when it comes to Wolfenstein 3. Things are a lot different now than they used to be and for me the big question is are Bethesda going to sanitise the new game or are they going to push for it to be as anti-Nazi as possible, in order to get as much publicity as possible. We won’t know until there’s an annoucement, but it could go either way.

Speaking of MachineGames, I hope they get to make a Quake game too. It seems like they were training for that for years and I was really looking forward to a single-player game in their usual style, with optional multiplayer, just like the original game. A Rainbow Six Siega knock-off is absolutely not what I want to see from them next.
Limpton
PS: Also, where’s that second bit of Indiana Jones And The Great Circle DLC?

Power paradox
I also think there’s a reasonable (let’s say 50/50) chance of seeing a new mainline Zelda trailer this year. Something less than a minute long and not really showing much, just like they usually do. But show a new Link and a glimpse at a bit of new landscape and you’ll have fans talking for years (including me).

I do think it’s weird that the 40th anniversary is in barely more than a month, though, and there’s no new game. Come to that, Pokémon’s 30th anniversary is also next month, and they don’t seem to have announced anything for that either. Missing one anniversary is no big deal but Nintendo seem to be doing it more than not now, to the point where it just seems completely random when they do acknowledge one.

I think we have to accept that we are in a new era where Nintendo is suffering all the same problems as everyone else and they can’t put out new games as often as they used to. Things take too long now, for everyone, and presumable they’re more expensive for Nintendo too.

That’s not the end of the world, except I worry it’s going to make them more worried about experimenting. We’ve had not a hint of a new IP yet for the Switch 2 (no, Drag x Drive does not count) and I’m not sure who’d bet on when the next one will arrive.

I get that they have to pay the bills, like any other company, but I’m beginning to wish the Switch 2 hadn’t been that much more powerful after all.
Keef

Hateful eight
In all these years I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about remastering Final Fantasy 8, which confuses me as I thought it was generally pretty well liked. Was that just me and the game is secretly hated or something?

I imagine the game’s not easy to remaster, because of the pre-rendered backdrops, but 9 had them as well and there’s been lots of rumours of that getting a glow-up. Admittedly that doesn’t seem to have happened yet, but I’d rather have had 8 anyway.

Am I the only person who thinks it’s their favourite Final Fantasy? I won’t say it’s the best, because it’s probably nostalgia talking, but it is the one I think of first when I think of older games.
Molb

Unknown presents
A little late to the party when it comes to what I got for Christmas, but I wanted to share my experience of opening gaming presents in front of family who don’t game at all.

My wonderful wife got me two gaming presents this year that I had asked for. On the day, when it was my turn to open a present, I first happily opened Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the title of which alone made many eyes glaze over. I briefly explained that it was 2025’s Game of the Year and allowed the present opening to continue.

My turn came again and I open NiGHTS Into Dreams for the Sega Saturn ‘with the special controller you need to get the most out of the game’. Cue the bemused smiles and lack of follow-up questions.

Needless to say, I’m very excited to play both of my gifts. However, when the other side of the family came on Boxing Day and asked what I’d got for Christmas, I showed them the lovely dressing gown and slipper combo I’d received instead.
Ed

GC: NiGHTS Into Dreams is definitely a nice present, it’s worth quite a bit now.

Inbox also-rans
I wish I could be optimistic about the new Life Is Strange game but the last one was such a disaster I’m not sure I’ll even bother trying it. One of the worst sequels I’ve ever played.
Gibson

I’m not going to argue over Mortal Kombat Mythologies being a terrible game but I will say that the Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection was really good. I appreciate the amount of work they put into it and that even the bad games were included. Completeness matters!
Lang440bell

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Get the latest video game release date information for 2026 in our detailed schedule for upcoming titles, starting this week with Pathologic 3.

As usual for the start of the year, we don’t know too much about video game release dates beyond the next few months, but there are some that have already staked out a specific launch time, including 007 First Light, PlayStation 5 exclusive Saros, and Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight.

Of course, the biggest game of the year is set to be Grand Theft Auto 6, although that’s assuming it sticks to its current release date, which is by no means guaranteed.

We’ll update this list of upcoming titles every week, usually on Thursday, and you’ll find it’ll quickly begin to fill out with new releases, especially once Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have their first preview showcases of the year.

Friday 9 January 2026

Pathologic 3 (PC)

Saturday 10 January 2026

Code Violet (PS5)

Monday 12 January 2026

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check (PC)
Big Hops (NS/PS5/PC)

Wednesday 14 January 2026

Cassette Boy (PS4/XO/NS/PS5/XSX/PC)
Streetdog BMX (PC)

Thursday 15 January 2026

The Legend Of Heroes: Trails Beyond The Horizon (PS4/NS/PS5/NS2/PC)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (NS2)

Friday 16 January 2026

BrokenLore: Unfollow (PS5/PC)

Tuesday 20 January 2026

2XKO (XSX/PS5/PC)
MIO: Memories In Orbit (NS/PS5/XSX/PC)

Thursday 22 January 2026

Sega Football Club Champions (PS4/PS5/PC/iOS/Android)
Hermit And Pig (PC)
Arknights: Endfield (PS5/PC/iOS/Android)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade (XSX/NS2)
Dynasty Warriors: Origins (NS2)

Friday 23 January 2026

Escape from Ever After (PS4/XO/NS/PS5/XSX/PC)
Banquet For Fools (PC)

Monday 26 January 2026

Highguard (PS5/XSX/PC)

Tuesday 27 January 2026

Speedball (PS5/XSX/PC)

Wednesday 28 January 2026

The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin (PS5/PC/iOS/Android)

Thursday 29 January 2026

I Hate This Place (NS/PS5/XSX/PC)
Cairn (PS5/PC)
Dark Auction (NS/PS5/PC)
Dusk Index: Gion (NS/PS5/XSX/PC)
Dispatch (NS/NS2)

Friday 30 January 2026

Code Vein 2 (XSX/PS5/PC)
The 9th Charnel (PS5/XSX/PC)

Tuesday 3 February 2026

Aces Of Thunder (PS5/PC)
Unemployment Simulator 2018 (PC)

Thursday 5 February 2026

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined (NS/XSX/PS5/NS2/PC)
Deus Ex Remastered (NS/XSX/PS5/PC)

Friday 6 February 2026

Nioh 3 (PS5/PC)
My Hero Academia: All’s Justice (PS5/XSX/PC)
Ghost Gunners (PC)

Tuesday 10 February 2026

Mewgenics (PC)

Wednesday 11 February 2026

Romeo Is A Dead Man (XSX/PS5/PC)

Thursday 12 February 2026

Mario Tennis Fever (NS2)
Ride 6 (PS5/XSX/PC)
BlazBlue Entropy Effect X (PS5)
Disciples: Domination (PS5/XSX/PC)
ChromaGun 2: Dye Hard (PS5/XSX/NS2/PC)
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties (PS5/XSX/NS2/PC)

Friday 13 February 2026

High On Life 2 (PS5/XSX/PC)
Reanimal (XSX/PS5/NS2/PC)
Rune Factory: Guardians Of Azume (PS5/XSX)

Other video game release dates 2026:

27 February – Resident Evil Requiem (XSX/PS5/NS2/PC)
27 March – 007 First Light (XSX/PS5/NS2/PC)
24 April – Pragmata (XSX/PS5/NS2/PC)
30 April – Saros (PS5)
29 May – Lego Batman: Legacy Of The Dark Knight (XSX/PS5/PC)
9 September – Phantom Blade 0 (PS5/PC)
19 November – Grand Theft Auto 6 (XSX/PS5)

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Rockstar’s long-awaited sequel is still not content complete, with the developers of GTA 6 apparently unsure about whether it’ll be out this year or not.

After two major delays the obvious problem with GTA 6’s new release date, of November 19, is that there’s no guarantee it’ll keep that, anymore than it did the others.

Rockstar games do usually have at least two delays, so you’d hope they’ve filled their quota by now, but according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier the game is not yet content complete. That means that Rockstar still hasn’t finalised everything that is due to go into the game, implying they also haven’t started the polishing phase of development.

A game the size and complexity of GTA 6 would need around a year of polishing, just as Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom did, and if it’s not started that process yet then that means another delay becomes a real possibility.

Schreier, who is widely considered the most reliable insider in gaming, was speaking as part of the Button Mash podcast on Spotify, when the discussion turned to GTA 6.

‘This is how Rockstar works,’ he said, in relation to Red Dead Redemption 2 and its multiple delays.

‘I wouldn’t be super shocked if that is what happens again. This time around, this is a big and complicated game and the last I heard it was still not content complete. That is to say that people were still finishing things up, still finalising levels and missions, and seeing what is going to make it into the game.’

For a game of GTA 6’s size, that does not sound like the sort of state you’d expect it to be in less than a year out from release.

As Schrier points out, every game is different, but generally content complete is a specific stage in development, that comes before final fixing and polishing, even though small additions and changes to the design can be made after that.

‘I don’t think anyone at Rockstar can tell you, with 100% certainty, that they will make it out in November,’ said Schrier.

According to him, the current November date does feel ‘a little more solid’ than the previous ones but he also points out that if the game were delayed until 2027, as long as it came out before the end of Take-Two’s financial year, on March 31, it wouldn’t cause any major financial problems.

This is one situation where no rumour can be 100% accurate, simply because Rockstar, and owners Take-Two, don’t know themselves whether the game is going to make it.

Given their previous conduct, they’re unlikely to give any hint either, until the last minute, although if it starts to get close to November and there’s still no sign of a new trailer or any other details then there’s every reason to worry.

From Rockstar’s point of view, it doesn’t matter when the game launches, as it will sell just as well at any time of year. According to Schrier, what’s more important to them is that the game lives up to expectations, although the longer it take to arrive the more unreasonable those expectations become…

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The Thursday letters page wonders if Arc Raiders can continue to outsell Battlefield 6, as one reader wonders what the Final Fantasy 7 trilogy collector’s edition will be like.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Summer dreamin’
I am also resigned to Nintendo’s next big announcements being underwhelming. I’m not sure we’ll even get much this year, since they’ve actually revealed quite a bit already, even if nobody’s that excited about Mario Tennis and that weird Yoshi game they wouldn’t explain.

Add Splatoon and Fire Emblem to that and I don’t think you can really hope for a major annoucement until the summer. Of course, you can’t guarantee anything with Nintendo, but with the Switch 2 selling well and plenty of games on their cards they’re really in no rush.

Still, as a fan, I can’t help but try to imagine what they’ll announce next. I do think it could be a new Zelda. It’s three years now since Tears Of The Kingdom, and they announced that a long time before it came out. Add in the 40th anniversary and I think there’s actually a reasonable chance of a teaser trailer this year. Just to keep the pot boiling, so to speak.

I also notice that that online game they were playtesting a few years ago still hasn’t been announced. I don’t think it’s ever been clear what it is, but a new IP would be a nice thing to hear about right now.
Onibee

Three-way fight
Interesting to see how well Arc Raiders is still doing and that it’s ahead of Battlefield 6, even if that’s also done well. It does seem to me that the hype for Battlefield has cooled pretty quickly though. Redsec didn’t seem to catch on at all and it’s definitely Arc Raiders that was the biggest shooter of last year, with Battelfield second and Call Of Duty a distant third.

I’ll be interested to see how this evolves over the course of the year. Will Arc Raiders be a flash in the pan? Is the race close enough that Battlefield 6 could overtake it? What will happen to this year’s Call Of Duty? Even if it’s good, will there be too much damage to the name that it’s still a flop?

I gotta admit, when it comes to Call Of Duty I am a bit of a hater, so I’d be very happy to see it knocked down a peg or three.
Josh

Radioactive bugs
For me the problem with a Fallout remaster, whether it’s 3 or New Vegas, is that Oblivion is still in an absolute state, with no sign of it being properly fixed, and I’d bet large sums of money that any future game will be as well. Bethesda are just incapable of making a game that’s not a janky mess. Which is really annoying when otherwise they’re really good.

Nothing’s going to stop them from releasing Fallout remasters, not with the Amazon show being so popular, but please just wait for it to be finished first. The amount of time we’ve been waiting for New Vegas in particular, it’s just ridiculous to put it out and it’s a buggy mess that needs six months of updates to work properly.
Focus

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Deluxe celebration
I wonder what Square Enix will do once all three Final Fantasy 7 remake games are out? Obviously, they’ll try and bundle them up into one purchase but how much would they charge for it? Surely not £180 or anything close to it, and yet if it was much cheaper it’s going to really upset anyone that bought the originals at full price.

A part of me can’t help but hope they go whole hog though, with a collector’s edition that includes new content and characters and comes in some kind of crazy box with a statue and merch.

And before you peg me for a money wasting loony, I would say that I’d never usually buy that sort of thing. But I love Final Fantasy 7 and the first two remakes have been fantastic, so I’d really like to celebrate the end of it all in style. Somehow, I feel that Square Enix will be happy to take my money.
Coyotemac

Expensive year
40% of the world’s DRAM (RAM) output being bought Is frightening. Apparently, that will double the price of what remains and that’s how much will it cost now, as less is available; as the year goes on the price can only increase.

I can’t see, on a practical level, how the next gen consoles are not delayed but because the problem is that it’s needed for AI, the need for RAM will only increase. Just crazy times.
TWO MACKS

Technical limitations
I think the worst game I ever bought was Donkey Kong on Atari 2600. It was about £30, which was a lot back then! I saved up and sent my cheque/postal order to a mail order company, then had to endure the two week wait until it arrived. I was bitterly disappointed.

It only had two of the screens, the arcade version had four. Graphics and gameplay were pretty awful too. I should have read a review first but had to have it, as it might have taken magazines up to two months to review it! I listened to a podcast recently, where they interviewed the programmer. Turns out he had a 4K cartridge to fit it all into, which is a tiny amount of memory!

If the software company had given him 8K, he could have fit all four levels in, but more memory meant less profit for them. Also, he had to make it in about two months so they could get the game on the shelves ready for Christmas. I now understand how it turned out like it did.
Tim Keeling
PS: I’ve played Mario Kart World for 270 hours so far! That’s mainly on online Battle Mode, which is crazy addictive!

Eternal regret
RE: Badgerman. The worst game I ever bought was Eternal Darkness for the GameCube.

Despite the good reviews I really disliked it due to the instant high difficulty, confusing storyline, and frustrating gameplay. There is nothing worse than developers making your character limp and shuffle around when you are low on health, as you just become an even easier target for enemies!

The game was exchanged soon after, using GAME’s useful exchange or refund policy back in the day.
Adams6legend

Interestingly bad
It’s questionable whether it counts as the worst game I’ve ever bought, as it was hardly the main reason I bought the collection, but I recently played Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero on the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, and if anything N64 Magazine were being generous awarding it 9%.

Pretty much every decision was baffling. It’s a platform game where you press up to jump and left trigger to turn around. As you move forward your character is positioned about 80% of the way along the screen, so you can’t see what’s ahead.

Half the traps are unavoidable unless you’ve been hit by them already and memorised where they are, and there are points where the necessary way forward looks identical to one of several instant kill holes in the same area. Also, despite starring Sub-Zero, most of the bosses are completely immune to ice attacks.

At least the live action cut scenes were entertainingly camp. I also played Special Forces but that was just incredibly boring rather than even interestingly bad.
TGN Professor

GC: We’d say that counts, especially as it is genuinely one of the worst games ever.

Inbox also-rans
That Detroit: Become Human story is really weird. I get that the game’s cheap, but £3.40 isn’t nothing. Did people really not have anything better to spend their money on than that?
Joffers

I was ready to call that Red Dead Redemption 2 ‘mystery’ a stupid fan conspiracy but that is actually pretty wild. Strange it’s not been noticed before. I definitely didn’t know there was similar stuff in GTA 5 as well.
Gordo

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: What’s the worst video game you ever bought?

MORE: Games Inbox: When is the first Nintendo Direct of 2026?

MORE: Games Inbox: What video games will you play over Christmas?

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Red Dead Redemption, Cult Of The Lamb, and Planet Of Lana all come to mobile this month, along with an amazing free-to-play bargain.

January can feel pretty bleak. Christmas is over, the weather’s horrible, and it’s time to go back to work. Fortunately, this month’s mobile games should provide a fleeting distraction, with a coincidentally large number of console ports filling up the schedules.

This includes recent PlayStation 5 and PC hit Where Winds Meet, a Wuxia-flavoured free-to-play action role-player that works perfectly well on a touchscreen.

There are still some smartphone-only titles, though, such as the enjoyable Under Guild: Offence and the astonishingly generous Game Nest – Offline Games, in what is a very positive start to the year for mobile gaming.

Planet Of Lana

iOS & Android, £7.99 (Playdigious)

Robots invade a planet’s rural idyll, leaving you to fight back by solving traversal puzzles in this lovely looking 2D side-scroller, that’s at least as much about running through lush greenery and blue skies as it is about brain work.

To start with you won’t need much of that, since its puzzles take a long while to get taxing. They do eventually get more interesting, although also fairly repetitive, relying on a small number of frequently reused mechanics.

Planet Of Lana works every bit as well on a touchscreen as it did on console, although the version tested suffers a game breaking bug that stalls progress about 70% of the way through the story. It’s an enjoyable, if shallow and derivative, ramble but worth waiting for a patch before finding out for yourself.

Score: 6/10

Red Dead Redemption

iOS & Android, £39.99 or free for Netflix subscribers (Rockstar Games)

Rockstar’s stately paced epic makes its way to mobile, telling the tale of John Marston, an outlaw turned reluctant lawman, after the government kidnaps his wife and son, holding them hostage to force him to hunt down former members of his gang,

It’s brilliantly scripted and acted, and a great port, even if the complexity of its controls on a small screen makes it all too easy to put an accidental bullet into harmless bystanders – which makes a controller all but essential.

It’s tricky to know whether to drop £40 on a mobile game, which may or may not be supported in two years’ time, but Rockstar has a far more consistent record than most, not to mention Netflix subscribers can play this entirely free of charge.

Score: 8/10

Cult Of The Lamb

iOS, included with Apple Arcade subscription (Devolver Digital)

Part base builder, part dungeon looting roguelite, Cult Of The Lamb is also brutally hilarious, its small yet deeply evil ovine anti-hero building a blood-soaked death cult of disposable followers.

Originally released on PC and consoles, the iOS version plays and controls in exactly the same way but has the benefit of coming with all the game’s updates and post-launch content. That does make a positive difference but despite the humour the game is still a fundamentally shallow and repetitive affair.

It’s certainly a welcome addition to Apple’s Arcade line-up, though, and just the sort of game where you imagine the sequel will be the one to take full advantage of the premise’s potential.

Score: 6/10

Maneater

iOS & Android, £8.49 (HandyGames)

Maneater’s attitude towards marine biology resembles that of the venerable and enjoyably schlocky Piranha movie franchise. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, revelling in the buckets of gore created by wild animals devouring human prey.

Not that you’ll just be eating people in Maneater. Your mutant great white chows down on anything from giant turtles to the boats of the hunters sent to finish it off, cheerfully leaping out of the water to nosh cheeky snipers straight from the deck.

There are collectibles, and you have an amusing nemesis in the chief shark hunter but, just like the console original, combat is basic, touch controls are unreliable, and despite lasting well over a dozen hours, it doesn’t evolve beyond swimming to places and biting things and people to death.

Score: 3/10

Game Nest – Offline Games

iOS & Android, free (Rohit Madani)

There’s far too little altruism in the world currently, which makes a find like Game Nest all the sweeter. Created by someone tired of the inescapable advertising in even the simplest free-to-play title, it’s a compendium of classic games (many of which are two-player) and useful apps, in a package that’s completely free of both advertising and in-app purchases.

Snake, Noughts and Crosses, Solitaire, Connect Four, Sudoku, Minesweeper and others, are joined by a clutch of educational titles and useful tools like coin toss, die rolls, and a Pomodoro focus timer.

It runs perfectly, has a clean interface and delivers precisely what it sets out to, without ever once trying to shake you down for cash. Inspiring stuff.

Score: 8/10

Where Winds Meet

iOS & Android, free (Netease)

With its dynamic weather, dramatic scenery and huge landmass, the sweeping ambition of Where Winds Meet blends single-player exploration with MMO-style guild raids, and rarely looks less than jaw dropping.

Battles are graceful and use a range of weapons, each of which brings its own attack and defensive techniques, and there are plenty of options for PvP action to keep you on your toes.

Unfortunately, it’s also got more than a few bugs, a sprawling system of menus to navigate, weird AI chatbot characters, and so many competing ideas that none of them feels fully fleshed out.

Score: 6/10

Under Guild: Offence

iOS & Android, free (LiberalDust)

Take out waves of mobs using a hero you control, and legions of autonomous support mercenaries that you unlock as you level up, along with more attack and defensive power for your hero.

Enemies are increasingly varied, as are support troops, your choices affecting the viability of your defence in each level, with bosses in particular taking a lot of pummelling and dodging to get past.

Graphically cute, it borrows a few ideas from Archero and its ilk, but makes its own sense of them, offering a compelling and steadily evolving challenge.

Score: 7/10

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The Wednesday letters page asks when the next PS5 State of Play will be, as one reader sticks up for Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Bad idea
I’m always fascinated to read about really bad games but the problem is that, unlike a bad movie, most people never really get to play them. You can play games you don’t like, sure, but you’ve really got to be skipping your homework to end up buying the video equivalent of The Room by accident.

I don’t think even GC or most reviewers play the absolute worst games, because what would be the point? It’d just be some hentai rubbish on the Switch eShop or a broken indie game on Steam. Never anything as interesting as MindsEye, which I’d have to pay real money to experience, before presumably finding out that the reviews are truthful.

I’ve been trying to think of the worst game I’ve actually paid any money for and I think it must be The Good Life, which I bought because I really liked Deadly Premonition. I was hoping it would at least be so bad it’s good, but it was just boring and broken. There was nothing entertaining about it at all, which I guess is probably true of MindsEye too… but that thought still fascinates me.
Badgerman

One to go
Never mind about the first Nintendo Direct of 2026, I’m waiting to see the first State of Play. We know that Xbox has something planned for the early year but it’s always more of a mystery with Sony.

Although at least we have something to look forward with them this year, in Saros and Wolverine. Considering who’s making them I’m pretty certain they’re going to turn out good, which is instantly a far better line-up for the year, than Sony has had for a long time.

It’s probably just a hiccup, and I doubt Saros will sell that well, but two or three quality first party games a year is all I ask. Announce one more before the spring and this year’s quota will already be I the bag!
Purple Ranger

Shadow drop
Why are so many people saying the Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time remake is going to come out on January 16? I’ve seen that date so many times now and everyone seems to think it’s real, but as far as I can work out Ubisoft has said nothing.

I’ll be absolutely shocked if it comes out that soon, considering we haven’t ever seen anything proper of this version of it. I’d be much less shocked if the remake never happened though. It’s been so long and I’m not sure there’s really that much demand for it.

But Ubisoft did finally get Skull And Bones out, so maybe they just like to see an idea through to its end. Here’s hoping (I think, I’m a bit worried what they’ll do to it).
Demmo

GC: There was a rumour of that date before The Game Awards in December, but nothing was announced. Some people still seem to believe it though, despite the fact that it would be commerical suicide to release it in nine days, without any prior marketing.

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Hallucinating madness
I feel like the world has gone mad at the moment, when it comes to AI. Am I really the only one that notices that it doesn’t work? Sure, it can spit you out a picture of something, with gibberish language and three-armed people, but so what? Who actually wants that? Especially as it’s so obvious it is AI.

Searching on Google is now much less reliable than it used to be and ChatGPT lies and hallucinates like a drunk politician. But because it’s making some fat cats rich (it doesn’t make money itself, it’s all about the investment) we suddenly have to use it for everything.

This Sony patent about having AI watch TikTok videos to ‘learn’ how to play game is madness. Ignoring the fact that it’s clearly not going to work, why doesn’t the developer just record a run themselves and use that. It’d take them what, a few hours at most? And they’d be doing it anyway for playtesting.

It’s exactly what Nintendo did for their system which, as you rightly point out, they got bored of very quickly, presumably because nobody used it. Because why buy a game just to have the console play it for you?
The Bishop

Each to their own
I see Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour is next to bottom on Metacritic’s list of Switch 2 games.

Personally, I enjoyed the delve into the detailed workings of the Switch 2.

Yes, you do need the camera to fully explore but I had that anyway.

As a great lover of the incredible build instructions of Nintendo Labo I see Welcome Tour as a very well made insight to the Switch 2.

Nintendo Life’s review of Welcome Tour is similar to what mine would be.

Happy New Year to all.
Goldenlay

Direct excitement
Nintendo hasn’t had a Direct in February for the last two years, but I think that was just because the Switch 2 was coming. They had it pretty consistently before that, so I’m hopeful they’ll do one again this year.

The reader on Tuesday was right that Mario Kart World is a very sensible and suitable launch game, but I think most long term Nintendo fans would still say that it’s a bit of a disappointment and missing that classic Nintendo magic, even if it is still ‘good’.

My hope for the Direct is not anything specific, just that it not be the minimum effort we’ve seen so far. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza felt like the only reveals at the Switch 2 unveil, even though they weren’t. Because who ever cared about Drag x Drive or Kirby Air Riders?

We need more games to get pumped about, to make the console seem like it’s worth it, but I’m afraid we’ll just get that new single-player Splatoon game and a few more unwanted spin-offs and special editions. I realise games take longer to make nowadays but I thought Nintendo were clever enough to work around that.

I’m beginning to worry that they’re not and that this is going to be a very underwhelming generation for them.
Koffey
PS: I just remembered that new Fire Emblem game. They’ll probably talk about that too, which doesn’t seem very exciting either.

Noisy neighbours
He didn’t knock my door down, but I did have the neighbour asking if I was ‘all right’ after getting a bit overexcited with Call Of Duty a few years ago.

I hadn’t really thought of how much noise I was making, since I had my headphones on, but apparently I was ‘cussing and cursing’ and they were worried some kind of fight was going on or that I was generally just a wrong ‘un. To be honest, they were probably right.
Tez

The big five
Well, you weren’t lying about the list of top games being a depressing one. I wasn’t sure what to expect but having the exact five games be the most popular, in almost exactly the same order, from one year to the next is very worrying. What’s worse is that I doubt that it was any different going back at least… five years? Maybe more?

Even worse than that, I doubt it’ll be any different for at least that length of time in the future. Video games aren’t like movies anymore. They’re not something you do where you’re always looking for something new you haven’t played before. Now they’re just these five games, and maybe a few others, that have existed for a decade or more and will go on for so long as anyone of us can imagine.

Other games sill exist alongside them, obviously, but I worry that for younger gamers that fact is going to be increasingly ignored and that for a more casual younger person there’s absolutely no reason to bother seeking out other games that aren’t just one of the ones in the list.

And then to add another problem on top, you’ve got the fact that if something new does come along, it’s still a very similar type of game. Arc Raiders is probably the biggest new title in a while but it’s still an online shooter (and I don’t think anywhere close to Call Of Duty or anything).

It’s a very worrying state of affairs that I cannot see changing for any reason in the future.
Cranston

Inbox also-rans
I never upset a neighbour while playing a game but more than once I’ve managed to startle my cat two foot into the air when failing to beat a boss in Elden Ring. She still loves me though.
Rendel

Since Konami is trying to bring back its old games, I wish they’d do a new Yie Ar Kung-Fu. No one else ever seems to have heard of it but I have very fond memories of that on the Commodore 64.
Focus

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: When is the first Nintendo Direct of 2026?

MORE: Games Inbox: What video games will you play over Christmas?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will 007 First Light be a good game?

Comments Add as preferred source

The Thursday letters page asks if Total War: Star Wars will be announced today, as one reader is impressed by the new Mario Kart World update.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Coming soon
After the upset around Metroid Prime 4 I tried to look on the positive and see what Nintendo had coming up next, but it’s not very encouraging.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but their first game of next year is the Switch 2 version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and then it’s Mario Tennis Fever in February, and then Pokémon Pokopia in March.

That’s it for games with a date, but you’ve also got that new Yoshi game and the Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Then things get really sketchy, with The Duskbloods and Fire Emblem maybe sometime in 2026.

I know they probably have plenty of things they haven’t announced (Splatoon Raiders doesn’t seem to be down for any particular year) but I hope that do that sooner rather than later because while the disappointments this year may have been relatively small, they’re still disappointments and I don’t need the Switch 2 to turn into another PlayStation 5 situation.
Connor

GC: You left out Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Rhythm Paradise Groove, but then they are Switch 1 games.

Undead old school
Excited to hear that proper zombies are going to be in Resident Evil Requiem. I would’ve actually guessed the last time they were in a mainline game was Code: Veronica, but I guess they were also in Leon’s bits in Resident Evil 6. That game was so terrible, my brain has tried to save me but making me forget most of it. It’s so bad I think Resident Evil 7 is a bit underrated for how much it turned the series around.

Everything I’ve seen and heard of Requiem looks great and I am absolutely on board for it already. I just hope they manage to get the cheese right too. I enjoyed the Reader’s Feature about trying to make a straight-up comedy and while I wouldn’t go that far it is important for me that the game shouldn’t take itself completely seriously.

It’s difficult though, because the original’s was all unintentional and trying to copy that comes across as cringy. Hopefully they figure out something.
Janson

Retro definition
I am so over the HD-2D style from Square Enix. It was a fun gimmick at first but it’s actually pretty ugly and always seems to be too dark. I’m seeing rumours of a Chrono Trigger remake or sequel and at first I thought it might be good to do it in that style. But it really wouldn’t.

I know that Dragon Quest one was apparently good but a game of the quality of Chrono Trigger deserves a more personal touch. I don’t mind keeping kind of a retro look to it, but it shouldn’t just be a cheap job with the HD-2D engine, they need to maybe make something in 3D, maybe with voxels, to make it look unique. I’m not hopeful though.
Shatner2

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Don’t please everyone
I think we’re all going to be sick of hearing about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by the end of this month, since it’s obviously gong to sweep The Game Awards, but while we’re still this side of it I’d just like to say I think the game deserves all the praise it’s going to get.

I get that it’s not for everyone but I think that’s one of the great things about it being so successful. We need more games that aren’t for everyone. The very worst games are those bland, artless ones that are specifically designed to appeal to the lowest common dominator and end up doing nothing worthwhile or interesting, no matter how expensive they are.

It may sound odd, but I hope that whatever the next breakthrough hit is, it’s not my cup of tea. Just to prove that I’m not saying that because it happens to be something I like. Keep knocking out new and interesting games, that’s all I want. And I’ll probably buy them, to try them, even if I don’t think they’re my thing. I just appreciate the effort.
Cranston

Better late than never
Never played a Metroid game before but it’s still a shame to see a Nintendo game getting disappointing reviews. Personally, I think they’ve spread themselves too thin, given the amount of games released this year, and I think that’s very obvious in something like Drag x Drive, which was a fine enough idea but was so bare bones there was never a chance anyone was going to care about it.

I think it’s probably a mix of wanting to get as much out there as possible for the launch year and maybe having trouble adapting to a more powerful machine. That said, I’m not very confident that the new Fire Emblem will be anything special and nothing else from Splatoon has been very good in single-player so I’m not too excited about Splatoon Raiders either.

The Switch 2 could end up being a bit of a late bloomer.
Hannibal

Total secret
Just a heads-up for those that care, but there’s a Total War livestream today (Thursday) at 4pm for them to unveil new ‘historical and fantasy’ games. I know there’s been a lot of rumours of Total War: Star Wars but that doesn’t really sound like what they’re trying to hint at.

Star Wars gets called space fantasy a lot, rather than actual sci-fi, so they could be riffing on that, but we’ll see. Funny thing is, it seems to rule out Warhammer 40,000 as well – which was the other rumour. I guess you could also call that fantasy as well, but I don’t think anyone ever really does.

They could just mean fantasy in the sense that it’s not real or historical, but I guess it depends how desperate they are to put people off for the next 12 hours or whatever.

I’ve always liked the Total War games, even as someone that’s not usually that big into strategy, and the Warhammer ones have been easily the best for me, so I’m happy to see more fantasy ones.

It’s an interesting series too, because it’s one of the few that is still PC-only and given the controls and the horsepower it needs is probably always going to stay that way.

I hope whatever’s revealed today is interesting and hopefully a setting they haven’t done before.
Torsman

World of difference
Thanks to that Mario Kart World update I have finally unlocked all the bad guy characters – the ones you can only get from the Kamek power-up. I followed your advice and made it the only power-up that appears in a Vs Race and it became a lot easier to get them all.

Not only that but playing the game like that is wild. I advise anyone who has it to give it a try, as it constantly fills the course with giant obstacles, like dozens of Thwomps or giraffes or Chomps. It makes races even crazier than usual and it’s also impressive that the Switch 2 can do it all without even a hint of slowdown.
Onibee

Everybody hates Myles
Sad to see Metroid Prime 4 turn out to be only okay but I can’t say I’m very surprised. Like the other reader said, Nintendo has made almost no effort to promote it, so they obviously don’t think it’s going to do very well. More importantly, while it’s developed by Retro Studios there’s not many people left there that worked on the original.

The director left ages ago and I believe two of the tech leads died, which is sad. Sounds like they still did a good job in terms of the graphics and mimicking the originals, but not when it came to adding anything new.

I think the problem is that Nintendo doesn’t really get Metroid and if it was as niche in America as it is in Japan it would’ve been mothballed years ago. They definitely don’t know what to do with Samus Aran but it sounds like the story in general is very childish and basic, which is the opposite of what fans like me would like.

I’ll see what it’s like for real when I get my hands on it, but I’m expecting to be as frustrated as I am entertained. Although at this point I think I know what to expect, including hating Myles MacKenzie.

It really is so strange how he and the others have been added. You would’ve thought the first thing they’d identify is that that’s not what fans want, but they went ahead anyway.
Chaser

Inbox also-rans
I keep forgetting that Sega has announced Alien Isolation 2, which seemed a pipe dream for so long. Am I right in thinking they haven’t shown anything of it yet, though?
Cospe

GC: Yes, not a thing has been said or shown of it, other than saying it exists. Technically developer Creative Assembly does have a showcase planned for today, as mentioned by a reader above, but as far as we know it’s only for Total War.

I did not know they did that mech suit thing with shorter characters in Fortnite. I get why, but that is a really ugly solution to the problem. Reminds of playing as Oddjob in GoldenEye 007.
The Bishop

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Has Nintendo had a bad year for games?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 overrated?

MORE: Games Inbox: Do you care about AI use in gaming?

Comments Add as preferred source

The Wednesday letters page wonders if GTA 6 will look low-tech in 30 years’ time, as one reader offers some tips on getting better at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Come back later
So, Metroid Prime 4 is another disappointment from Nintendo. Apparently not a bad game, but not the sort of 9/10, at a minimum, game we expect from them – especially after the long wait.

For me, it has been a very disappointing year for Nintendo. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza are apparently their best games, but nobody seems to be think that they’re the top tier games we usually expect.

It all seems to be a case of quantity over quality, which is not usually the case. I feel we certainly could’ve done without Hyrule Warriors and Kirby Air Riders, if more effort could have been put into the others instead.

As a result, I will not be getting a Switch 2 this year. I’ll wait to see what comes next, which at the moment we seem to have very little idea about. It’s not a disaster but there’s nothing here that I don’t think can wait a year or two.
Thompson

Sent to die
Mostly silent, extremely long time reader. I must confess to being unsurprised by your good but not great 7/10 for Metroid Prime 4, given the relative lack of promotion it received from Nintendo.

Going all in on a Kirby racing game few people asked for, then shoving out Metroid Prime 4 in December just after the Black Friday sales have hoovered up everybody’s Christmas present budget looks a bit like sending it out to die.

Maybe I’m just too old and cynical – actually, I am both of those – but it doesn’t stop me being right in my belief that they lacked faith in it.

Since the Switch 2 is somewhat lacking in top class exclusives so far, you would have thought they would have given it a bigger push.

If this was Microsoft, we would have been hearing about layoffs at Retro Studios come January but thankfully this is Nintendo so hopefully we won’t.

Merry Christmas GC and my fellow readers.
Simon
Currently playing: Sektori (badly, very)

Any excuse
I just wondered how Resident Evil Requiem is shaping up graphically on the Switch 2? Also, do you think there is a chance that the Resident Evil 4 remake will appear on the format as well?

I saw a Switch 2 console unboxed for the first time in CeX recently and was impressed by the screen size and quality of the product, so I’m looking for excuses to fork out the 400-odd quid on one now! Thanks in advance.
Adams6legend

GC: By all accounts, Requiem is shaping up very well on Switch 2. If it and the other Resident Evil games sell well, we imagine there’s a good chance that Resident Evil 4 will be added too.

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Blocking alternatives
RE: Brand and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I too struggled with the blocking mechanics, seemed fairly random at first for me too, but there are tells in the form of sound effects or flashes on screen, that helped me figure it out a little better.

If you are still struggling, there’s a couple of other options, like decreasing the difficulty (can always change it back if you get used to it), or utilising the newer options (can GC confirm if one of the updates was less damage taken or similar as well that you can toggle?), or good old level grinding, up to a point.

Even if you aren’t someone that usually plays on story mode, I’d certainly recommend it if you have to for at least the bosses, so you can at least experience the full narrative. Some fights can go on for a while anyway if you aren’t optimised, so I really would suggest that now and again. There’s no shame in – it’s in the name!
SlideAway1983 (PSN ID)

GC: The 1.3.0 patch increased the window of opportunity for parries and dodges by 40% in story mode, and reduced incoming damage from between 10 and 50%.

Delayed opinion
Speaking of best games of the year, are you going to do a readers’ list and write-ins this year?

I know you don’t really do weekend topics anymore, but I’m always interested to hear what fellow readers have played and enjoyed and the top 20s are always interesting to compare.

Although I’ll admit I don’t usually participate, as I don’t really play games upon release (I’m currently playing Konami’s Aliens arcade game, that came out when I was seven).
ANON
PS: I’m sure I’ve heard Metal Jesus and others describe games as cute ‘em-ups. Maybe it’s a modern/YouTuber thing.

GC: If we did do it, it would be at the end of January like it used to be. But the problem is, as you demonstrate, less and less people buy new games at or near launch nowadays.

Time is a cruel mistress
I can’t believe Resident Evil is going to be 30 years old next year. I didn’t get to play it when it first came out but it is still one of the first games I played on the PS1 and left a big impression. It felt like such a grown-up and adult game at the time, to my young mind, and yet if you look at it now it’s most famous for its cheesy campness.

As time goes by, and other games get better at doing similar things, it’s funny how something that seemed so serious and mature is anything but when you look back at it. I feel a lot of Xbox 360 era games are like this, especially Gears Of War but most action games of that generation, especially any of them with tough guy heroes.

Then you’ve got the graphics. At the time Resident Evil seemed completely real to me, especially the cut scenes, including the famous one with the first time you see a zombie. But again, you look at it today and you can see just how primitive it looks.

Will that always be the case? Will GTA 6 one day look incredibly basic and low-tech to some kid 30 years from now? It seems unlikely but then I would’ve said the same of Resident Evil back in 1995.
Bootles

Compatible hardware
Need a bit of help from someone out there. My girlfriend let slip she has bought me a PS5 Pro for Xmas and I’ve decided to upgrade my TV and I’ve seen this TV, it’s a Samsung S95F 65″ OLED at Currys.

Was just wondering if the specs would suit all the PS5 Pro features. I don’t want to buy a TV and find out half of the Pro won’t work on it, if someone can please help me!
David

GC: It’ll do 4K and 120fps, we’re not sure what other features you might be thinking of.

50 shades of grey
Nice Xbox 360 games list, think it covered the bases of the direction gaming was heading in over the first half of that generation at least, you gotta laugh at Bomberman: Act Zero. Despite the Xbox 360’s obvious successes, and how titles like Bioshock, Dark Souls, and Portal pushed story telling forward… I was never a fan of this generation of gaming on the whole.

As a kid of the 90s and the bright blue skies of Sega and the arcades, there were far too many American leaning grey and brown drivers and shooters for me. Compounded by Nintendo’s experiments with the Wii meaning Mario and Zelda were off doing their own thing. Gameplay too started to turn more towards looser PC style design and systems, compared to the tight gameplay reward loops of prior Japanese-developed games.

Microsoft did recognise this, to be fair, commissioning games like Blue Dragon or getting lead format for Bayonetta, but after an initial attempt to woe the non-anglophone world by 2010 they’d given up trying. I always remember the second half of that generation belonging to the PlayStation 3.

Also, a point to make the eyes roll of many of GC’s readers… technical performance at that time was really poor overall, as developers adapted to HD resolutions. We were looking at frame rates in the mid-20s for many major titles, and performance that I think has only been accepted in one other gaming era: the early 3D of the PS1, Saturn, and N64 generation.

Can you imagine GTA6 launching at sub-30fps like GTA 5 did? There’d be riots (well if you have an Xbox Series S maybe you can).
Marc

Inbox also-rans
Would you say the new Metroid game is a bigger disappointment than Shenmue 3 was? I’m still bitter about waiting so long for Shenmue 3 and getting the most useless sequel ever as far as I’m concerned.
Mark Matthews

GC: Nothing could ever be as disappointing as Shenmue 3. Metroid Prime 4 is a decent game, it’s just not a great one.

I didn’t even realise escaping from Tarkov was not a thing you could usually do, so kudos to the guy that did, I guess.
Kelch

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 overrated?

MORE: Games Inbox: Do you care about AI use in gaming?

MORE: Games Inbox: What video game deals have you picked up on Black Friday?

Comments Add as preferred source

After a wait of 18 years there’s finally a new Metroid Prime game on Nintendo Switch, but will it live up to the hopes and expectations of its fans?

We feel certain that Metroid Prime 4 is going to make a lot of people very angry. It is not a great game, but it is certainly not a terrible one either and while at times it barely resembles a Metroidvania at all, we did have a lot of fun with it. However, it may be party to some of the most baffling design decisions we’ve ever seen in a Nintendo game, and we’re not just talking about Myles MacKenzie.

What makes this belated sequel so peculiar is that the most controversial elements are so very obviously not what long-time fans would want, such that their presence almost feels like a form of trolling. Many will, not unreasonably, accuse the game of being dumbed down but it still doesn’t seem like something that is likely to attract a mainstream audience, in what should’ve been a clear-cut case of giving fans what they want or just not making the game at all.

We’ll discuss Beyond on its own merits – which are many and interesting – but we’ll warn you now that if you’re a veteran Metroid Prime fan this is not the game you were hoping it would be.

Although it’s been a long time since a new Metroid Prime, there has been the more recent Metroid Dread, which is an excellent example of the original 2D style of the franchise. There was also Metroid Prime Remastered in 2023, which was so good it almost felt like a full remake – which is no less than it deserves, as Metroid Prime 1 is one of the few games we’d consider almost literally perfect (Super Metroid on the SNES is another).

The genre name of Metroidvania is a portmanteau of Metroid and Castlevania, although that’s always flattered Castlevania’s input. Metroid is the true root of the concept, of an action platformer where progress is regularly blocked until you have a specific tool or weapon. This often necessitates a lot of backtracking and careful exploration, as you learn to use your increasing range of abilities in unusual ways.

Apart from being first person, the Metroid Prime games have all worked in that same way and at first it seems as if Beyond will as well. After a brief introductory level, the first main area of the game is very reminiscent of the forest section at the start of Metroid Prime 1. At that point we began to assume that Beyond would follow the pattern of many other belated sequels and simply rehash the first game.

To a degree that is what happens, as there are very few genuinely new ideas or gimmicks here. You gain psychic powers early on, but this really doesn’t amount to anything other than having the word ‘psychic’ before traditional abilities like psychic grapple or psychic spider ball (for crawling up surfaces when you transform into a morph ball).

You can detect otherwise invisible platforms and perform very limited telekinesis with motes that power machinery, but these moments are rare and involve no skill or problem-solving. In fact, there’s very little in the way of substantial puzzles at all. There are obstacles but they never stretch or test you in the way the older games did. The only thing that comes close is the new control beam, whose projectiles you can control remotely, but after being introduced early on it’s barely ever required again.

Beyond’s troubled development is well documented, with the game having restarted development from scratch in 2019, but the final product gives every impression of having been patched together from multiple different versions. There’s nothing to suggest that’s actually what has happened, but it’s what it feels like.

Once you get out of the nostalgia heavy first area you then emerge into an open world desert which is filled with… almost nothing at all. There’s a (very small) handful of temples to power up your elemental beam weapons, and some ruins you have to explore before the final battle, but most of the desert is completely empty, with only a few listless enemies putting in an occasional appearance and who often disappear before you can finish them off – as if they find the area boring too.

This is a shame because the motorcycle you use to traverse the desert is a lot of fun to ride, with wonderfully bouncy suspension, but there’s nothing to do with it but drive in a straight line to where you’re going next. And while at first it seems like you can progress through the game in a non-linear fashion your options are far more limited than they first appear, as you explore each area more or less in turn.

If this is all starting to sound bad, we haven’t even got to the most controversial aspects yet. Metroid has never had much in the way of complex plots, but this one is especially simple. Basically, you’re stranded on an alien planet and you need to get five keys to get home. And that’s it.

Sylux, who Nintendo has been hyping up for years as a deadly rival to series protagonist Samus Aran, barely appears in the game under normal circumstances, just a little at the beginning and the end, and says maybe three sentences in total, none of which explain who he is or what he wants. If only everyone else in the game was as laconic though, as throughout the game – basically one per area – you meet a new ally who absolutely will not stop talking.

Myles MacKenzie, who proved so controversial in the previews, is the first and most annoying but one of the others is a pair of soldiers who escort you through almost the entirety of one of the areas, leaving no doubt as to where exactly you have to go. That’s nothing compared to the final full level though, which is completely linear, with almost no Metroidvania elements, and has the whole crew following you along for most of it.

For those not familiar with Metroid, one of the key appeals is its melancholic atmosphere and sense of isolation (the original was heavily influenced by the film Alien – to the point where one of the main bosses was called Ridley), which Beyond purposefully takes a hatchet too. If you sat down and timed it, you are on your own for the majority of the time but it doesn’t feel like it, especially when Myles, who remains your main contact, is making unwanted suggestions about what to do next on the radio.

And yet that penultimate level is actually very entertaining. It begins to take on an almost horror movie tone, as you’re pursued by hordes of monsters and the game seems to be trying to channel the film The Descent, of all things. It never comes close to exceeding its 12 age rating but it’s neatly handled and there’s some interesting plot developments that, predictably, the game undoes immediately, but which do hint at the more serious narrative it could’ve been.

One of the greatest frustrations is that the game could’ve worked with the set-up it has, except one of the primary problems is that the script and voice-acting is so basic, almost like an 80s children’s cartoon. It’s so unsophisticated you never for one moment think of the characters as actual people.

That includes Samus, who is kept mute the entire time. This seems to be in imitation of Link, but it doesn’t make sense in context. Link does talk in the Zelda games, you just don’t hear him: all the characters talk as if he’s just replied to them and it’s left to you to imagine what he said. Samus just nodding at people, or outright ignoring them, in Beyond makes her look incredibly rude or as if she physically can’t speak.

Beyond is such a muddle of good and bad ideas that even now we’re not sure what to make of it. It has some great boss battles but while there’s technically dozens of creatures in the game only one is persistently aggressive and is used so often, with minor variations, it feels like the only enemy.

The simplified exploration and puzzle-solving is so strange, given that not only did Metroid Dread not pull its punches but it was the most successful entry in the franchise so far. Beyond gives the impression of being purposefully dumbed down to reach a wider audience and yet the game has virtually no checkpointing – so you can easily lose 30 minutes of progress if you get caught out – and there’s no fast travel at all.

Retreading your steps in the opening area was beginning to turn us nuts so we can only imagine how newcomers are going to respond to it. They may be drawn in by the graphics at least, which considering this is a Switch 1 game at heart are exceptional. The Switch 2 version looks great and while the mouse aiming controls are purely optional, they do frequently come in handy, especially in some of the trickier boss fights.

When the game works it works well and Beyond makes a convincing argument for a more action-orientated spin-off series, with enjoyable action, well-designed levels, and impressive visuals. The problem is that this isn’t a spin-off, it’s a numbered sequel to one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time.

Why Nintendo is purposefully trying to rile up fans, of what has always been a relatively niche franchise, we do not know. It’s been a long wait for Metroid Prime 4 and while the end result is fairly entertaining the fallout from its release is likely to be anything but.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2 (reviewed) and Nintendo Switch
Price: £49.99/£58.99
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Retro Studios
Release Date: 4th December 2025
Age Rating: 12

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The Tuesday letters page is very sceptical about CD Projekt’s timeline for The Witcher 4, as one reader looks forward to the launch of Metroid Prime 4.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Blocked off
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is no doubt a brilliant game overall. But so far, I am finding the combat so frustrating I am about to give up.

Let me say I am very early in the game (maybe three to four hours in). I have enjoyed the design, the music, the characters, etc. are brilliant so far. I am also really interested in the story, as much as I know so far anyway.

However, I find the combat awful. Specifically, the timings for parrying/dodging. I am quite used to specific timings. I love games like Elden Ring, The First Berserker: Khazan, and Space Marine 2, which all require timings to parry/dodge/block, etc.

But in this game, when to do it just feels random and really frustrating to know. Maybe it’s just me?

I am at the point where I’m not finding the game fun and ready to stop playing, which is a shame. So just wondering if anyone else felt like this and if so, what did you do?
Brand

Eternal appeal
RE: Soldat’s feature. Enjoyed reading this but think the answer – if there is one – lies in which games you show them from the old days.

I used to have an old MAME setup, and the kids really loved Bubble Bobble and multiplayer Gauntlet and Gauntlet 2 but the undoubted winner out of the old school games was… Track & Field. They and their mates went into a frenzy trying to top each other’s high scores and beat the world records. No comments at all about primitive graphics or anything else.

I’ve always thought that graphics age, great gameplay doesn’t.

And if that doesn’t work, visiting retro arcades or the gaming museum in Sheffield might be an idea to show the games off?
Paul

Sensible choice
I do appreciate GC being outraged that Capcom are still not making a new Dino Crisis or remaking it. You would’ve thought with the Jurassic World movies still doing well it’d be more than worth the risk but apparently not.

It may not be a very exciting choice but I’m afraid Dead Rising has a much more solid history of success and, well, it’s zombies. I can’t say I’ve ever particularly liked the ones I’ve played but while more daring than most publishers, in trying risky ideas, they’re not silly.

The sad truth is Dino Crisis has never been a big hit and is about a subject that’s never really sold a lot of games. Compared to that, Dead Rising has been more successful and is about something that’s a very easy sell, whether you’ve heard of the game before or not.

We just have to hope that the next Monster Hunter is an even bigger hit and they have so much money sloshing around that they can afford to be less cautious than usual. I’m not holding my breath though.
Trent

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Running commentary
In response to your reply to Freeway77’s email about cute ‘em-ups I can confirm it’s a term I’ve heard before and there are many great games/franchises that are in that genre. I guess it was probably more of a big thing in Japan but Twinbee, Parodius, Star Parodier and the Cotton series, that the original email, referred to have been around for around four decades.

To any fans of the genre I would recommend the Super Famicom Parodius game with the OTT Japanese commentary, I can’t remember what it’s called though.
John Atkinson

GC: It’s called Jikkyō Oshaberi Parodius (aka Live Chat Parodius). These are all famous games, in certain circles, but we’ve still never heard the term cute ‘em-up before and it seems unnecessary.

Killer app
I really can’t agree Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the game of the year. I’m sorry but it’s far from perfect. I’ve played every Assassin’s Creed game to 100% and Shadows isn’t the best by a long shot. There is better games out there.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn’t on this planet as a good game; it pains me to say it, but Mario Kart World has to be, for me, that one game that sold the Switch 2. Even though people was moaning about the hardware it was the software and that one game that made gamers say yes, I want one.
David

Time paradox
As much as I love CD Projekt’s games there is something very shifty about that company. I don’t feel they ever really apologies for Cyberpunk 2077’s launch (maybe they did to their shareholders but not to us) and this whole thing about making three The Witcher games in six years makes no sense.

Unless they’ve got a time machine or going to hand the whole thing over to AI (can you imagine!) I don’t see how it’s physically possible. Even Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, which used the same map as the previous game, took six years, so what gives?

Or is The Witcher 4 trilogy going to be a kind of large scale episodic content, where each one is set in the same game world? Whatever’s going on it’s clearly not the regular way of developing a game. The fastest any of these sort of games can be made nowadays seems to be about five years, so you should really be talking a minimum of 15 years, not six.

I really hope that CD Projekt has discovered some clever new way to get over the problem of games taking to long to make but assuming they’re not using literal magic I hope it’s not something that’s only going to make things worse.

The video games business is in such a strange spot at the moment, I really don’t understand what’s going on.
Billison

GC: It seemed very odd to us too. There is no obvious explanation without more information from CD Projekt.

Milestone release
Unusual to wake to good news, but a new Dead Rising game? Yes, please.

I’m actually just waiting on the Deluxe Remaster for the Xbox to get me to 100K Achievement points. Dead Rising was the first Xbox 360 game, so I thought the remaster would be a fitting game to help me hit the milestone.

I’d actually like to get it to 99,999 but I’d have to work it out and never play the Xbox again, so I’ll abandon that plan. Anyway. Thanks for the good news guys. I just hope it isn’t a letdown like Dead Rising 4 and forces mech suits on you that break after two minutes.
Bobwallett

Indie legacy
The release schedule for this week is pretty packed with games I’m interested. Starting with Marvel Cosmic Invasion, a port of Viewfinder to the Switch, and, of course, Metroid Prime 4 finally coming out.

But among these games there’s also the Simogo Legacy Collection, which I’m hoping doesn’t get lost in the pack.

Simogo makes varied and interesting games and it’s great that they’re bringing out this collection, so their older titles are no longer locked behind legacy releases on mobile.

I’m particularly looking forward to revisiting Year Walk and Device 6 but seeing their older titles that I’ve never played and the extra content is very appealing to.

It looks like they’ve put a lot of effort into this package and it’s really cheap too. I hope GC has time to review it and bring more people’s attention to the games of one of the more interesting devs out there.
Euclidian Boxes

GC: We don’t know that we’ll get around to reviewing the compilation, but their games are great, including Device 6, Year Walk, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and Lorelei And The Laser Eyes.

Inbox also-rans
When can we expect your best games of the year list? I always look forward to it. Also, if you haven’t got one, a database of all your reviews would be great, where you can filter it down into scores, genre, year etc. It’d make it much easier to find some good new games to play.
Bobbleheaddy

GC: We don’t have a filter system like that but our Top 20 of the year is always run over Christmas, usually just before New Year’s Day.

The problem with AI is not enough people care right now but once it takes over, and everything ends up looking and playing the same, suddenly everyone will be upset, but by them it’ll be far, far too late. It’s not going to be pretty
Jonesy

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

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The publisher behind Streets Of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge returns with the greatest Marvel beat ‘em-up ever made.

Video games don’t need to be complicated to be fun or worthwhile. There’s equal artistry at play in making a good game out of a concept with only limited interactivity, as you can plainly see when comparing arcade lightgun games, 2D shooters, or the currently en vogue scrolling beat ‘em-up.

Thanks to indie developers, the idea of strolling left to right across a 2D level, punching and kicking everyone in your way, has never entirely disappeared from the video game landscape, especially as it’s never really had any kind of modern 3D equivalent. Although the genre’s current popularity is almost entirely down to one company: French publisher Dotemu.

They were behind the excellent Streets Of Rage 4 and the slightly disappointing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The developer of the latter is also making this, but while their previous work was shallow even by the standards of the genre, Marvel Cosmic Invasion is about as complex as the concept can really get, without overcomplicating things. And it’s a ton of fun whether you care about superheroes or not.

They’re not usually clearly delineated but Marvel (and DC) has different levels of superhero intrigue, from fighting bank robbers with street level characters to sci-fi adventures in space and battling godlike beings in the cosmic side of the universe. This game primarily deals with the sci-fi middle ground, with the main villain being the insect-themed Annihilus. His incursions on Earth and other planets leads to a team-up of many different Marvel heroes, with up to four people playing at once.

We wouldn’t claim to be Marvel Comics experts, but the line-up does seem slightly odd, as there’s a lot of characters we wouldn’t associate with cosmic Marvel at all, like Wolverine and Iron Man, but it’s completely missing any of the Fantastic Four, Inhumans or Eternals. The Guardians of the Galaxy representation is also very limited, and while technically there is a Captain Marvel, in the form of Phyla-Vell, there’s no Carol Danvers. In comic books everyone goes into space at some point, but this does seem a borderline random selection of playable characters.

What’s great about the line-up is that all the characters are impressively varied, with some that can fly and all of which have different types of dodge or block moves. Their standard punches and kicks are all different, but there’s also a character specific hero attack (which can usually be charged) and a special move that can only be activated when you have enough focus.

So, for example, Captain America’s shield works great at blocking and countering, but is also super fun to ping between multiple enemies at once. Rocket Raccoon’s hero attack is an increasingly large gun, depending on how long you hold down the button, while She-Hulk has a wide area of attack for her various wrestling moves. Meanwhile, Phoenix can telekinetically draw enemies towards her, before she gets her punches in, and Beta Ray Bill (Thor’s alien pal) is the tank-like bruiser of the group.

Compared to a one-on-one fighting game it’s still simple stuff but for a beat ‘em-up it’s surprisingly involved and enough so that you’ll be picking characters based on their abilities, and not just what they look like. You actually choose two characters whenever you start and can tag team between them at any point, either to give them a chance to heal a recoverable portion of health or to unleash team-up attacks.

The game is very obviously inspired by the early Marvel Vs. Capcom games, with a similar 2D art style and as many cheeky nods as it can get away with. Although various other classic beat ‘em-ups also get references, such as beating up goblin-like enemies with a sack over their shoulder to get power-ups, just like Golden Axe.

Each level has three Achievement-like objectives to complete, such as making use of a specific character’s move or navigating a section of the level without getting hit, that both adds an extra challenge and helps to teach you the nuances of each character’s abilities.

The graphics are fantastic throughout: even better than Shredder’s Revenge and all the more impressive for the constantly changing settings, from the high-tech streets of Wakanda to a very welcome trip to the dinosaur-filled Savage Land or a planet being ravaged by Galactus.

In terms of Marvel sightseeing, it’s near perfect and while the storytelling is extremely basic there’s some occasionally funny dialogue, such as when She-Hulk – who in the comics was breaking the fourth wall long before Deadpool – quips about all the monster cameos in one level.

Most of the enemies are bug-related, which threatens to get monotonous but is still much better than Shredder’s Revenge in that regard. What’s also different is that Cosmic Invasion can be fairly tricky. You need to keep your wits about you at all times, but the boss battles in particular are often quite hard.

This becomes a problem when playing on your own because there’s no checkpoints and since you probably won’t struggle with the normal scrolling sections the second or third time, it becomes a bit of a chore to wade through those only to get beaten by the boss again. That’s more a consequence of playing on your own than anything else, because if you’ve got co-op friends with you then you can divvy up the responsibilities, instead of having to do everything yourself.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion seems about as complicated as a scrolling beat ‘em-up can get without becoming something completely different (something like Absolum, in fact, which is also published by Dotemu but is more of a roguelike, with light role-playing elements). In terms of taking the original concept of a beat ‘em-up as far as it can go, this gets almost everything right.

It has lots of variety, a modicum of depth, and it can be picked up and played by anyone, no matter their gaming experience, within seconds. If Marvel Cosmic Invasion had been an actual arcade game, back in the 90s, we would’ve spent a silly amount of money on it. And there’s no greater compliment you can give a beat ‘em-up than that.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £26.99
Publisher: Dotemu
Developer: Tribute Games
Release Date: 1st December 2025
Age Rating: 12

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A remaster from last year is apparently going to lead to a brand new entry in a long-running Capcom zombie franchise, but it’s not Resident Evil.

The last few years have been highly profitable for Capcom and that’s seen them gain the confidence to bring back a lot of what seemed like dead franchises. A new Onimusha is out next year and Ōkami is also getting sequel from the original director.

They’ve made new games as well, such as Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess and the upcoming Pragmata, while promising to bring back other dormant series. They’ve not been specific about which ones they might revive, but one of the least interesting options is apparently what they’re going with next.

According to a new report, Capcom is working on a new Dead Rising sequel which will ignore all the entries in the series except the first one – which is an increasingly common thing to do with horror movie horror franchises.

The initial leak came from the generally reliable MP1st but has also been ‘partially’ corroborated by VGC. They suggest that Capcom is working on a ‘zombie action sequel’ with protagonist Frank West but can’t confirm it’s actually a Dead Rising game.

According to the original report, the new game is not a remake or remaster and has the codename Rec. It will star Frank West – always the most popular of the series’ various protagonists – and feature other returning characters, such as Isabela Keyes.

Supposedly, the game will be set in an enclosed Hollywood movie lot, with the antagonist being an ‘extravagant and deranged film director’.

Interestingly, the new game will reintroduce the time limit mechanic that made the original so distinctive, but which was removed from most of the sequels. Frank will also make prominent use of his camera and while there’s no direct confirmation of saving survivors that does seem to be the implication.

It sounds like the director is fully aware of the zombie threat and is using it to create the ‘perfect movie’ by forcing people and actors to perform special trials.

Although it is just a rumour, it would fit a recent pattern with Capcom, where they release a remaster to gauge current interest in a franchise and then follow with a new game annoucement if conditions seem favourable.

Onimusha got a remaster in 2018 and confirmation of a brand new game some years later. Covid likely interfered with that one though and after last year’s Dead Rising remaster it may be that an official annoucement, of a new entry, comes relatively soon. The game itself, though, is thought to be several years away.

If the rumour does prove true it’ll be interesting to see what happens to other franchises Capcom has remastered recently. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective didn’t seem to do that well, and the future of Ace Attorney remains unclear, but Mega Man Battle Network was apparently much more popular than expected – and yet no new game has even been hinted at yet, just a remaster of the less popular follow-up series Mega Man Star Force.

Sadly, for Dino Crisis fans like us, Capcom’s dinosaur themed survival horror still hasn’t got its first foot on the ladder, as there’s been no remaster or any indication from Capcom that they’re interested in saving the franchise from extinction.

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