After a few weeks of major showcases, this week brought with it some big industry changes. What will the future hold for Xbox with Phil Spencer departing and a new CEO coming in who has little to no experience of the gaming market? It’s been a downward trend for Xbox through this generation as a platform, and we’ll have to see if Microsoft is intent to accelerate this for their broader gaming approach, or if they’ll turn things around.

In the News This Week

• Phil Spencer retires from Xbox with CoreAI exec Asha Sharma taking over as Microsoft Gaming CEO
• Sony to close Bluepoint Games
• Bungie delay Shadow and Order, Destiny 2’s next big update, until June
• Pokémon Fire Red & Leaf Green are coming to the Switch next week!
• Battlefield 6 Season 2 is live, but DICE can’t make more than two maps a season
• Avowed Anniversary Update has arrived alongside the PS5 release
• Call of Duty advert banned due to ‘implied painful penetration of a man’
• Skyrim Switch 2 Update 1.2 brings proper performance fixes and a 60fps mode
• Christopher Judge (Kratos) briefly talks about God of War remakes and his next game

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Games in Review & Featured Articles

Another pretty heavy reviews week is behind us, but there was little that managed to stand out, unfortunately.

• Crisol: Theater of Idols – PS5, XSX|S, PC – 9/10
• Styx: Blades of Greed – PS5, XSX|S, PC – 7/10
• Aerial Knight’s Dropshot – PS5, XSX|S, PC – 6/10
• Don’t Stop Girlypop! – PC – 6/10
• The Prisoning: Fletcher’s Quest – NSW, PC – 6/10
• Gear.Club Unlimited 3 – NSW2 – 5/10
• The 9th Charnel – PC – 5/10

We also had some scored hardware reviews for the Corsair Vanguard Pro 96 keyboard and the enhanced Gamesir G7 Pro Wuchang Edition gamepad, before I delved back into the highs, lows and weirdness of 90s VR with the Virtual Boy for Nintendo Switch.

For upcoming games, I had the chance to checkout Milestone’s anime racer revival, Screamer, as well as the latest tycoon sim, Transport Fever 3, and Dom opined that Battle Vision Network will be the culmination of Capybara’s puzzle game craft, and called Arkheron the battle royale lovechild of Diablo and Hades. Intriguing!

We also had an interview with the developers of Abide, to talk about its new style of horror experience

Rounding out the week, What We Played featured Sons of Sparta, Planet of Lana 2 & Overwatch.

Trailer Park

Slay the Spire 2 is dropping into Early Access in March

Battle Robo-Betty in the latest Mouse PI for Hire trailer

Surprise! Xenoblade Chronicles X just got a Switch 2 upgrade with up to 4K 60fps performance

Your Achievements

Checking in with your gaming, Andrewww has got a few more runs into Blue Prince, but is yet to have it really “click”.

That’s all for the round up this week. Enjoy the weekend and we’ll carry on carrying on on Monday.

The first full week of the year is in the books, and if this is means to carry on… well let’s just say that video games will continue to provide a good bit of escapism. So let’s continue escaping with a quick look at how this week in the games industry has gone.

In the News This Week

• Xbox Developer Direct announced, will feature Fable and Forza Horizon 6
• Ubisoft close a studio weeks after the workers vote to unionise
• Obsidian’s RPG Avowed is coming to PS5 for its first anniversary
• South Park has dropped into Fortnite with a new Quints 5-player playlist
• Starfinder: Afterlight closed beta taking place in February
• Deep Rock Galactic Season 6 is called Relics of Hoxxes, begins January 29th
• PUBG Blindspot enters Early Access on February 5th
• Psychological horror Heart of the Forest release date set for February 12th
• A surprise Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo is out now

Most Wanted 2026

We’ve blazed a trail through our Most Wanted Games of 2026 lists. Here’s everything from #50 down to #6:

• Most Wanted 2026 – #50 to #46
• Most Wanted 2026 – #45 to #41
• Most Wanted 2026 – #40 to #36
• Most Wanted 2026 – #35 to #31
• Most Wanted 2026 – #30 to #26
• Most Wanted 2026 – #25 to #21
• Most Wanted 2026 – #20 to #16
• Most Wanted 2026 – #15 to #11
• Most Wanted 2026 – #10 to #6

Games in Review & Featured Articles

It’s still pretty lean right now for the start of the year, but alongside Most Wanted we did have a handful of features.

• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road – PS5, XSX|S. NSW2, PS4, NSW, PC – 9/10
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader – NSW2 – 5/10

Dom also strapped a big rumbly Woojer Strap 4 to his chest. Again. He quite likes these things.

Beyond that, I previewed Code Vein 2, and its time-hopping soulslike adventure, and I had an early look at how The Elder Scrolls Online is changing with a new seasonal roadmap.

Rounding out the week, What We Played featured the Dragon Quest VII Reimagined demo, Warhammer 40K Darktide and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Trailer Park

Orks get the perfect cinematic trailer for Dawn of War 4

Nintendo serves up a Mario Tennis Fever gameplay deep dive and Baby Waluigi

Romeo Is a Dead Man’s new trailer gives us a bonkers taste of what Grasshopper Manufacture are cooking up

Sneakily watch this 9 minute gameplay video for Styx: Blades of Greed

That’s all for the round up this week. Enjoy the weekend, check in on Most Wanted, and we’ll carry on carrying on on Monday.

It’s felt like a pretty subdued week, with the US focussing on its holiday, and Black Friday sales not being terribly interesting or exciting this time around, to my mind at least. Some good indie game sales, but when the price for a game is only coming down to £35+, it’s harder to get worked up about that. But did you manage to grab any bargains?

Outside of that, I guess we have to give in and accept that it’s Christmas. You could be strict and hold out until Monday, but I’ll be putting up a tree and decorations this weekend.

In the News This Week

Here’s our news from this week

• Dinosaur survival FPS Ferocious is launching on December 4th
• Splitgate 2 relaunches sometime next month, exiting beta for the second time
• Fallout 4 November patch detailed, console players need to take action for mods
• Sega announced discounted and free upgrades for Yakuza 0, Kiwami & Kiwami 2 on PS5, XSX|S & PC
• Battlefield 6 gets is having a free trial
• Dead By Daylight update brings back the Mindbreaker perk
• StarRupture will be getting a co-op playtest in December
• PIONER launches December 16th into Steam Early Access
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment free update adds new weapons & challenges this week
• PS Plus December 2025 Monthly Games features LEGO Horizon Adventures in a five game bonanza

Games in Review & Featured Articles

It was mainly all about the reviews this week, as we caught up on some of the biggest game launches from November, so let’s dive in:

• Cross Blitz – PC – 9/10
• GigaSword – PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, NSW, PC – 9/10
• Xenopurge – PC – 8/10
• Lynked: Banner of the Spark – PS5, XSX|S, NSW2, NSW, PC – 8/10
• ARC Raiders – PS5, XSX|S, PC – 7/10
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 – PS5, XSX|S, PS4, XBO, PC – 6/10
• Sweet Surrender – PSVR 2, PC VR, Quest 1-3 – 6/10
• Terrifier: The ARTcade Game – PS5, XSX|S, NSW, PC – 4/10

Beyond that, Dom delivered reviews for the SIVGA Robin SV021 headphones and the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds – they’re getting a bit too creative with the English language, if you ask me – and I shared a preview of the Hive Scum character DLC for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Rounding out the week, What We Played featured Terrifier, Ghost of Yotei & Assetto Corsa Rally.

Trailer Park

Subnautica 2 Voices from Beyond first episode released

Core Keeper: Void & Voltage update and Switch 2 Edition are coming in January

Bandai Namco share a Prologue trailer for Code Vein 2

That’s the round up for this week’s round up. Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll catch you for more gaming shenanigans next week!