The high-fantasy strategy of Total War: THREE KINGDOMS and the sci-fi extraction of Wildgate have officially rotated out as of today, January 8. In their place, Epic has launched today Bloons TD 6 as the free title available to claim until January 15 at 11:00 AM ET. Following this window, the store will shift into a stealth-focused week by giving away Styx: Master of Shadows from January 15 through January 22. While the giveaway is the most resourceful way to build your library, those who prefer other platforms can find Bloons TD 6 on the Steam Store for $13.99. For a significantly cheaper alternative, G2A (affiliate link) currently lists global keys for roughly $2.45, which is a 76% discount compared to official retail.
Bloon TD 6 – Free on Epic in January 2026
Tactical Depth Beneath a Colorful Exterior
Bloons TD 6 is far more complex than its bright art style suggests. It is a massive tower defense title featuring 24 distinct “Monkey Towers,” each with three separate upgrade paths and unique 5th-tier abilities. The game also introduces powerful “Heroes” that level up automatically during a match, providing specialized buffs or massive screen-clearing attacks. Since its release, the developer has added a steady stream of content including weekly Boss Events, four-player co-op, and “Paragon” towers that fuse multiple tier-5 upgrades into a single ultimate unit. It is a resourceful pickup for anyone looking for a strategy loop that supports both quick ten-minute sessions and long-term completionist goals across nearly 90 different maps.
Bloon TD 6 – Gameplay
Upcoming Shadow Work in the Tower of Akenash
Starting next Thursday, January 15, the mood shifts significantly with the arrival of Styx: Master of Shadows. This is a dedicated stealth-RPG where you play as a two-century-old goblin navigating a massive, vertically-designed fortress. Unlike many modern “stealth” games that allow you to fight your way out of a mistake, Styx disincentivizes direct combat, forcing you to rely on cloning yourself for diversions, using invisibility, and manipulating the environment to stay alive. If you want to jump in early or grab it on Valve’s platform, Styx: Master of Shadows is priced at $19.99 on Steam. However, you can find keys on G2A (affiliate link) for approximately $2.60, representing a 92% discount for those who miss the upcoming free period.
Styx Master of Shadows – Stealth game
Managing Your January Claims
You have exactly seven days to claim Bloons TD 6 before it is replaced by the Styx giveaway. Both of these titles represent a solid start to the year for gamers who value mechanical variety over raw graphical power. While Bloons provides a social, co-op experience for up to four people, Styx offers a challenging, single-player dive into traditional stealth mechanics. Make sure to hit the “Get” button on Epic before the refresh next Thursday to ensure these remain in your library permanently, or use the Steam and G2A links to secure them for your preferred secondary launcher at record-low prices.
The biggest story of the #GOTY night is the absolute dominance of Hollow Knight: Silksong. After years of development that many feared would never end, the game launched as a massive critical and commercial success in late 2025. It managed to snag both Game of the Year and Best Game You Suck At, beating out heavy hitters like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Clair Obscur – Best Soundtrack Award at Steam Awards 2025
While Expedition 33 was a critical darling at other shows, Steam users clearly preferred the tight, punishing platforming of Hornet’s journey. The “Best Game You Suck At” category was particularly competitive this year, with Silksong edging out Elden Ring: Nightreign and Marvel Rivals. It’s a rare feat to take the top prize while also being recognized as the most frustratingly difficult experience of the year, but for the Hollow Knight faithful, that challenge is exactly why they waited so long.
Baldurs Gate – Labor of Love Award Steam Awards 2025
The “Labor of Love” Controversy
One of the most debated wins is Baldur’s Gate 3 taking home the Labor of Love award. Larian Studios has been remarkably consistent with free updates and massive patches, even rebuilding the Linux client from the ground up for native Steam Deck support in 2025. However, the win sparked a predictable amount of salt from fans of No Man’s Sky and Helldivers 2, who felt those titles—which have been supported for years (or in the case of Helldivers, fought through a rocky launch)—were more deserving. Still, the Steam community tends to vote for their current favorites, and BG3 remains the platform’s golden child.
Peak – Better With Friend Award Steam Awards 2025
Handhelds and Innovation
Best Game on Steam Deck:Hades II won this handily, proving that Supergiant’s rogue-like loop is the gold standard for portable play. It beat out Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and the sleeper hit BALL x PIT. The developers worked specifically to ensure the sequel was “verified” and battery-efficient from day one, and that effort paid off with the community.
Hades 2 – Best Game on Steam Deck 2025 Steam Awards
Most Innovative Gameplay: This went to ARC Raiders (affiliate link). It was a controversial pick for some, as many felt the mind-bending puzzles of Blue Prince or the genre-blending of Mage Arena pushed the medium further. However, ARC Raiders’ unpredictable community-driven “story generator” in an extraction shooter setting won over the masses, proving that even a crowded genre can feel fresh with the right execution.
Arc Raiders – Most Innovative Gameplay Award
Story & Style: The Rise of the New Classics
In a major upset, Dispatch from AdHoc Studio took home Outstanding Story-Rich Game. This superhero workplace comedy managed to beat out cinematic giants like The Last of Us Part II Remastered and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Players were enamored with its episodic structure and meaningful choices, showing a pivot toward tight, focused writing rather than sprawling open-world bloat.
On the visual front, Silent Hill f secured Outstanding Visual Style. It faced stiff competition from Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and DOOM: The Dark Ages, but its unique, unsettling Japanese folk-horror aesthetic resonated more than raw graphical power. This win signals that Steam players are increasingly looking for a cohesive art direction that defines the game’s identity.
Silent Hill f – Outstanding Visuals Awards at Steam Awards 2025
RV There Yet – Sit Back and Relax Award at Steam Awards 2025
The 2025 results highlight a community that is increasingly independent from mainstream trends. Whether it’s the claymation beauty of The Midnight Walkor the chaotic cooperation in PEAK, the winners reflect a year where creativity and community engagement mattered more than budget. How do you like Steam GOTY 2025 results yourself? Please leave a comment.
VR Game winner at Steam Awards 2025 is The Midnight Walk
Claiming a free title on Steam usually feels like hoarding digital clutter, but ENA: Dream BBQ represents a pivot toward high-concept exploration that feels earned. Released in March 2025 by the ENA Team, the first chapter, “Lonely Door,” remains a masterclass in using the jagged, low-poly aesthetics of the PS1 era to build something that feels genuinely alien. The world is a hyper-saturated void where corporate language and surrealist horror merge, forcing the player to navigate environments that feel both nostalgic and hostile. It avoids the typical traps of modern indie design by refusing to explain its internal logic, instead opting for a sensory blitz that rewards the patient observer. You find yourself trapped in a reality where the colors are too loud and the dialogue is too sharp, yet the lack of a price tag makes the initial friction feel like a fair trade for the visual brilliance on display.
ENA Dream BBQ is free on Steam now
Labor As A Psychedelic Aesthetic
The core loop of the experience centers on tasks that feel like a mockery of productive labor, placing ENA in a position of perpetual, confused service. Walking through the Red Outworld or navigating the “Purge Route” involves interacting with entities that speak in riddles and demand nonsensical favors. This isn’t a power fantasy; the game functions as an exploration of emotional instability through a mechanical lens. The dual nature of the protagonist—shifting between the manic “salesperson” and the melancholic “meanie”—mirrors the exhaustion of maintaining a persona in a world that only values you for what you can provide. It utilizes the Unity engine to simulate a kind of hardware instability that feels intentional, creating a space where the glitch is the point and the discomfort is the primary export. This specific focus on the mundane made strange keeps the experience grounded even when the scenery begins to melt into a kaleidoscopic blur.
ENA Dream BBQ Sureal Neon
The Economy Of Episodic Discomfort
Choosing to release the first chapter for free on Steam was a calculated move by Joel G that bypassed the traditional demo cycle to create a self-contained cultural event. While the Supporter Edition and future chapters carry a cost, “Lonely Door” serves as a complete artistic statement that doesn’t hold back on the creator’s idiosyncratic vision. It captures a specific brand of “Internet Weird” that has matured from YouTube shorts into a fully realized interactive medium. The “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews reflect a community that values vision over traditional gameplay polish, proving that there is a massive audience for games that prioritize mood over mechanics. We see a landscape where the most interesting ideas are often the ones given away for nothing, forcing the paid market to justify its existence against the high-quality surrealism found in these episodic experiments. It remains an essential download for anyone who thinks the current state of gaming has become too predictable or too safe.
Embark Studios finally stopped playing coy about how their machines sort the digital wheat from the tactical chaff. Patrick Söderlund basically handed the Reddit theorists a victory lap by confirming Arc Raiders employs aggression-based matchmaking. This system attempts to bucket the bloodthirsty PvP enthusiasts away from the folks who actually want to scavenge in peace. If you spend your time hunting players, you get a lobby of hunters. If you’re there for the loot and the atmosphere, the algorithm tries to find you a kindred spirit who won’t shoot you in the back the second a rare component drops. It is a bold move for an extraction shooter, a genre that usually thrives on the total lack of safety, but Embark is clearly trying to manage the salt levels of its growing player base.
Arc Raiders – Matchmaking tune up
Extraction Etiquette and the Predator Problem
The CEO admitted the system is hardly a perfected science. It functions as a secondary layer beneath the standard skill-based parameters and party-size filters. The logic is simple: the game tracks your propensity for violence. A week ago, this invisible hand started nudging the “kill on sight” crowd toward their own private hells. It aims to address the viral chaos of retired pros dunking on casuals, but it raises questions about how the game defines intent. If you only fire in self-defense, the system might still struggle to differentiate you from the aggressor. The tension of the extraction genre relies on that unpredictability. Sanitizing the experience too much could strip the game of its actual edge, turning a tense standoff into a predictable chore.
The $205 Billion Mirage and the Industry Meat Grinder
The numbers for 2026 look like a victory lap on paper, with global revenues projected to hit $205 billion and a player base of 3.6 billion people, but the view from the street is far more jagged. We are living through a “high-low” reality where the corporate suites are celebrating a recovery while the people actually making the games are still dodging the axe. The “video game winter” is supposedly thawing, yet we are staring at another 7,500 projected layoffs this year, adding to the nearly 25,000 careers evaporated since 2024.
Avowed Obsidian RPG
This isn’t a correction; it’s a restructuring of the human soul of the industry. The Saudi-led $55 billion acquisition of Electronic Arts is the ultimate symbol of this shift, where massive sovereign wealth is used to stabilize franchises like The Sims and FIFA while the mid-tier creative risk-takers are left to starve. The North American market, specifically California, has become a ground zero for this talent exodus, with over 50% of global cuts hitting the very region that built the modern blockbuster. We see a industry that has successfully scaled its profits while failing to sustain its workforce, a paradox that makes every $70 purchase feel like a vote for a system that is actively eating itself.
Hollow Knight Silkong
The GTA VI Messiah Complex and the AAA Anxiety
The entire 2026 calendar is basically a game of “hide from Rockstar,” as every other publisher tries to dodge the November 19 release of Grand Theft Auto VI. There is a dangerous level of “Messiah Complex” surrounding this one title, with investors and retailers praying it will single-handedly jumpstart console sales and consumer spending. It is a cultural black hole that has already forced games like Resident Evil Requiem and Wolverine to position themselves as the “early year” appetizers.
Resident Evil Requiem 2026 – Purple rain
But counting on one game to save a $205 billion ecosystem is a delusion born of desperation. We are seeing a massive “AAA fatigue” where players are tired of $300 million budgets producing 100-hour checklists. The real winners of 2025 were the “Super Indies” and polished mid-market titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, which proved that a specific, human vision resonates more than a focus-grouped live-service chore. The industry is currently split between these bloated, risk-averse behemoths and the lean, creative cells that are actually doing the heavy lifting for the medium’s artistic credibility.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
Silicon Scabs and the War for Creative Agency
Generative AI has moved past the “hype” phase and into the “practical threat” phase, with 87% of developers now using AI agents to automate everything from QA to environment art. The corporate line is that this “empowers” creators by removing drudgery, but the street reality is that it’s being used as a silicon scab to justify smaller headcounts. We are seeing a flood of “procedural slop” on storefronts that makes finding a genuine, hand-crafted experience feel like digging through a landfill. The rising cost of hardware, driven by AI data center demand spiking RAM prices, is making the entry point for high-end PC gaming even more elitist.
Max Payne I and II Remake PlayStation Xbox PC
This is pushing the global majority toward mobile and cloud solutions, where companies like Tencent and Microsoft are fighting for the 52% of the market that lives on a smartphone. In emerging markets like India, which now boasts over 500 million gamers, the “console war” is a foreign concept; the battle is over data plans and low-latency streams. The future of gaming isn’t happening in a living room in Ohio; it’s happening on a 5G connection in Mumbai, where the monetization is aggressive and the barriers to entry are practically zero.
The Hardware Shakedown and the Post-Platform Future
The Switch 2 launch and the rumored “Steam Machine” revival are the last gasps of the traditional hardware cycle. We are transitioning into a platform-agnostic era where the device you hold matters less than the subscription you pay for. Cloud gaming revenue has crossed the $10.5 billion mark, proving that the tech is finally reliable enough for the mainstream, even if it kills the concept of digital ownership. The “Xbox Cloud” and “PS Now” evolutions are turning games into a utility like water or electricity—something you pay for monthly but never actually keep.
Phantom Blade Zero Demo fighting dragon
This shift favors the massive consolidators like the Saudi-backed EA or the Tencent empire, who can afford to play the long game while independent studios struggle with the “discoverability” crisis on flooded digital storefronts. The industry is effectively killing its middle class to fund its trillion-dollar dreams, leaving players with a choice between the high-fidelity corporate theme parks of the West and the high-engagement mobile loops of the East. It’s a complicated, brilliant, and deeply broken time to be a gamer, where the best art is often found in the shadows of the biggest failures.
The holiday sprint has officially cooled down, and Epic is swapping the daily chaos for a much more manageable weekly rotation. Yesterday’s final 24-hour gift, Chivalry 2, is no longer up for grabs, but the replacement is a heavy-hitting double feature. From today, January 1, until January 8 at 11:00 AM ET, you can claim both Total War: THREE KINGDOMS and the sci-fi newcomer Wildgate for zero dollars. This shift signals a return to form for the storefront, moving away from “mystery” reveals back into a predictable schedule that actually gives you time to play the games you’re hoarding.
Total War: THREE KINGDOMS
This is arguably the most polished entry in the long-standing strategy franchise, set during the legendary collapse of the Han Dynasty. It isn’t just about moving thousands of soldiers across a map; it’s a character-driven epic where personal rivalries and diplomatic betrayals dictate the fate of ancient China. The “Romanticized” mode turns your generals into superhuman warriors capable of taking on entire units solo, while the “Records” mode keeps things grounded in historical realism. If you happen to miss the free week on Epic, the Steam Store is currently running an 80% discount through January 5, and the G2A Marketplace (affiliate link) often has keys for roughly $9.00, making it a resourceful pickup even after the giveaway ends.
Total War – 3 Kingdoms massive straegy
Wildgate
Providing a sharp contrast to the slow-burn strategy of the Three Kingdoms, Wildgate is a 2025 arrival that focuses on high-stakes PvPvE extraction in deep space. You and your crew are dropped into hostile sectors where you have to balance hunting for ship upgrades against the threat of rival players and lethal environmental anomalies. The combat is a hybrid of first-person shooting and tactical ship-to-ship maneuvering, requiring genuine coordination to survive the extraction phase. While the Epic giveaway is the best current deal, the Steam Store has it for 60% off until next week. If you’re looking for a second chance later, G2A typically lists keys around $1.80, which is basically pocket change for a modern sci-fi title.
Wildgate – Multiplayer FPS Adventure
A Resourceful Start to the Year
Securing these two titles adds over $90 of retail value to your library for nothing, covering both the grand-scale strategy and the competitive shooter niches. Total War provides a campaign that can easily eat up a hundred hours of your January, while Wildgate offers a fresh loop for your weekend squad sessions. Make sure you hit the claim button before the next rotation on January 8 to start 2026 with a significantly more valuable library.
While yesterday’s gift, the Trine Classic Collection, offered a lighthearted fantasy escape for three, today’s drop is all about the chaotic, unrefined noise of the front lines. Today, December 31, Epic is giving away Chivalry 2 as its final 24-hour mystery gift of the year. You have until January 1, 2026, at 11:00 AM ET to secure this $40 multiplayer slasher before the storefront shifts to the New Year’s Day reveal. For those who prefer the Steam ecosystem, the Steam Store has it listed at a massive 80% discount until January 5, priced at just $7.99. If you’re really hunting for spare change, the secondary market at G2A currently has keys for a couple of bucks less than Steam, though the giveaway makes that choice irrelevant for the next day.
Chivalry 2 – Free on Epic Games Store on New Years Eve
Medieval Mayhem on a Cinematic Scale
This isn’t a game about delicate fencing or precise dueling; it is a 64-player mosh pit designed to feel like a gritty historical movie. You are thrown into sprawling objective-based maps where you might be defending a castle gate one minute and charging a burning village the next. The combat system uses directional swings and parries, but it shines most when the plan falls apart—you can pick up severred limbs, heavy furniture, or even flaming chickens to keep the pressure on. It manages to capture a specific brand of dark humor, where the screams of your character are just as important as the weight of your war hammer.
Chivalry 2- Horse raiders
Variety in the Vanguard
The progression system is actually resourceful for a freebie, offering four distinct base classes that branch into specialized subclasses. Whether you want to be a tanky Knight holding a choke point or a high-mobility Vanguard flanking with a two-handed sword, there is a clear mechanical difference in how you approach the battlefield. The inclusion of the Tenosian Empire update also brings mounted combat into the mix, adding a layer of high-speed horse-to-horse melee to the classic infantry sieges.
Claiming the Final Drops of 2025
This 24-hour window for Chivalry 2 is the peak of the final stretch of Epic’s holiday promotion. Given the high player count required for the best maps, this massive influx of new users today means the servers will be packed for the holiday weekend. Make sure to grab it before the timer hits zero tomorrow morning, as the New Year’s Day giveaway is rumored to be the last “big” drop before the store returns to its weekly cadence for 2026.
While the internet keeps chasing ghosts with fake AAA leak lists, Epic is actually delivering a four-course meal of high-fantasy competence. Today, December 30, the Trine Classic Collection hit the zero-dollar mark on the Epic Games Store. You’ve got until December 31 at 11:00 AM ET to claim the first four games of a series that basically defined the “physics-puzzler-with-swords” archetype. If you prefer Valve’s ecosystem or missed the window, the Steam Store is currently running a 75% discount through January 5, though even that feels pricey compared to the secondary market. A quick glance at G2A(affiliate link) shows keys floating around the $10 range, but honestly, paying anything for this today is a failure of basic consumer awareness.
Trine Epic Mystery Game – gaming time
Cheeese, Boxes, and Grappling Hooks: How Trine Actually Plays
The gimmick is simple: you control a Wizard who conjures boxes, a Thief with a grappling hook, and a Knight who hits things. The reality is much more chaotic. Trine thrives on the fact that its puzzles are “soft.” There isn’t a single correct way to cross a spike pit; if you can stack enough conjured crates into a precarious, wobbling tower and jump off the top before the whole thing collapses, the game counts it. This collection takes you from the hand-drawn beauty of the original Enchanted Edition and Trine 2—widely considered the peak of the genre—into the experimental 3D levels of Trine 3, finally landing on the polished, back-to-basics brilliance of Trine 4. It’s a series that rewards the “street intellectual” approach to gaming—don’t follow the developer’s breadcrumbs if you can just break the engine to get where you’re going.
Trine 2D Game
Multiplayer Friction and Resourceful Cooperation
This is strictly better with friends, but it’s also a quick way to find out which of your buddies has zero spatial awareness. The three-player co-op turns every bridge-building exercise into a debate about weight distribution and momentum. It is a resourceful addition to any library because it scales perfectly; you can play it with kids who just want to swing on ropes or with a dedicated group trying to optimize every movement. Since these games are optimized for efficiency rather than raw power, you don’t need a top-tier rig to see the hand-painted assets in their best light. It’s an easy pick for the holiday break that provides dozens of hours of gameplay without demanding you learn a complex combat system or sit through endless cinematic fluff.
The annual inventory dump (until 8th of January 2026) on the Epic Games Store is less about holiday cheer and more about the cold mathematics of moving digital units. For those of us tracking the daily Mystery Games, which recently tossed out heavy-hitters like Hogwarts Legacy and Disco Elysium, the current sale is the final mathematical correction of the year. The mystery continues, but the storefront has effectively become a high-stakes clearance rack where the raw percentages finally favor the consumer.
Star-Wars-Outlaws-Speeder-ride
The AAA Market Correction
High-profile releases from the 2024 and 2025 cycles are seeing early price collapses as publishers scramble to meet end-of-year targets. We see titles like Alan Wake 2 and Dying Light 2 Stay Human – Reloaded Edition sitting at 70%, a significant drop for software that still carries a high level of technical polish. Even the much-discussed Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Mirage have hit that same 70% floor, signaling a desperate need to inflate player numbers before the next fiscal quarter begins.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage – Medieval Baghdad
Meanwhile, the latest entries in perennial franchises like EA SPORTS FC 26 and EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26 have already reached a 60% discount, proving that the annual sports cycle is a race to the bottom once the initial launch window closes. For those looking at the newest bets, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, ARC Raiders, and Borderlands 4 are holding steady at 20%, offering a minor reprieve for early adopters who missed the initial window.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human – Reloaded Edition Epic Sale Holidaz
Seeing software like Suicide Squad hit a 95% discount is a grim autopsy of a failed project, essentially offering the title for the price of a coffee. However, the real value for a cautious buyer lies in the 60-80% brackets where polished experiences like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 are sitting at price points that actually respect your bank account. Take the 20% rewards and run, but don’t expect the industry to stay this vulnerable forever.
Stop wasting your time tracking fake AAA leaks and pay attention to the high-concept genius actually sitting in your library. Today, December 29, the Epic mystery vault has opened to reveal Viewfinder, a puzzle game that makes most other first-person titles look physically unimaginative. You are handed a camera and told to break the world. You hold up a 2D photograph, line it up with the horizon, and let go—the image instantly stamps itself into the 3D geometry, creating new bridges, buildings, and paths out of thin air. It is a mechanical magic trick that works every single time, forcing you to treat your own perspective as a physical tool rather than just a way to see.
Viewfinder gameplay
From Pixelated Dread to Solar-Punk Solitude
Yesterday’s gift, SKALD: Against the Black Priory, was a gritty dive into 8-bit cosmic rot, and the transition to the bright, overgrown brutalism of Viewfinder is a massive tonal whiplash. While SKALD relied on dice rolls and grim-dark prose, this game relies on your spatial awareness and your ability to see solutions where others see a dead end. Both games represent Epic’s current strategy of highlighting titles with actual artistic backbone instead of just dumping generic shooters. It is a win for anyone who values a refined, five-hour experience over a bloated hundred-hour map-clearing exercise.
Securing Your Second Chance
If you miss the 24-hour window to claim this for free, you have a solid backup on the Steam Store, where the game is currently slashed by 65% through January 5. For those looking to squeeze the most value out of their holiday budget, G2A often has keys listed for even less than the official sale price, sometimes dipping closer to a couple of dollars depending on the seller. It’s also the final stretch to secure the Monument Valley collection on the mobile Epic store before that deal expires on January 1. This is a resourceful day to be a gamer, provided you’re quick enough to click the button before the next mystery reveals itself tomorrow.
The year 2026 is shaping up to be a total collision course of legacy sequels and high-budget gambles that might actually pay off. We are looking at a calendar where the industry finally stops leaning on the cross-gen crutch and starts pushing hardware to its absolute limit. Between Rockstar’s inevitable gravity well and Capcom reviving dead samurai franchises, the release schedule looks like a minefield of potential masterpieces and expensive flops. I’ve parsed the hype, filtered the noise, and ranked these projects based on their likely market dominance and cultural footprint.
Grand Theft Auto VI – GTA6 is always top to wait game
The Titan That Will Swallow the Industry: Grand Theft Auto VI
Rockstar is finally ready to show us where the money went. November 19, 2026, is the date everyone is circling with a mix of excitement and genuine dread for their free time. Expected to push the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S to their absolute breaking point, this is the biggest thing happening in 2026, period. It’s the kind of project that forces every other publisher to move their release dates out of sheer terror. Expect a level of detail that makes current open worlds look like a collection of cardboard boxes. It’s going to be a massive commercial beast, and we’ll see if the writing can still hit that cynical Rockstar sweet spot in today’s world.
Max Payne I and II Remake PlayStation Xbox PC
The Brutal Edge of Superheroes: Marvel’s Wolverine
Insomniac is carrying the PlayStation brand on its back right now, and this PlayStation 5 exclusive is their most aggressive move yet. We’re expecting a visceral, R-rated Logan that refuses to play nice. If you want a game that feels like a punch to the gut, this is the one. It’s got the high-budget polish and the talent to be the biggest thing outside of the Rockstar orbit. It’s going to sell millions on brand name alone, but the raw grit is what will make it stay on your hard drive. This is easily the silver medalist for 2026 success, catering to everyone who wanted the Spider-Man quality with a lot more blood.
Resident Evil Requiem
Horror Royalty and Speed Demons: Resident Evil 9 and Forza Horizon 6
Capcom is calling this one Resident Evil: Requiem, and the word on the street is that it’s the bridge connecting the entire series for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s horror for the masses, polished to a mirror finish. Right next to it, Forza Horizon 6 is finally taking the festival to Japan as a flagship Xbox and PC title. The car culture there is legendary, and if Playground Games nails the neon aesthetic of Tokyo and the rural mountain passes, it’s going to be the visual benchmark for the hardware. These two are the heavy hitters for the mid-year window that will dominate the conversation.
Forza Horizon 6 expected 2026
High-Budget Fantasy Gambles: Fable and Rise of Hydra
Microsoft needs Fable to be a home run on Xbox and PC. It’s been in the oven forever, and while the pedigree of Playground Games is undeniable, translating that British wit into an RPG is a different beast entirely. It’s a dark horse that could dominate the holiday season if it finds its voice. Then there’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, aiming for a cinematic launch on consoles and PC. With Amy Hennig involved, the expectation for a cinematic powerhouse is sky-high. It’s a straightforward action play that will move units on the Marvel name alone, even if it doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.
Resident Evil Requiem 2026 – Leon
The Thinking Man’s Games: Control, Slay the Spire 2, and Tomb Raider
Remedy doesn’t make games for everyone, and that’s why they’re great. Control: Resonant is headed to PS5, Xbox, and PC for the heads who want their brains scrambled by high-brow weirdness. It’s a specific vibe that won’t hit GTA numbers, but it will be the critical darling of the year. Slay the Spire 2 is the indie king here, likely dominating PC first. It’s pure mechanical perfection that will ruin your sleep schedule. Meanwhile, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is trying to prove Lara Croft still matters across all major platforms. Reimagining the original is a safe move, but it needs to do more than mimic the Uncharted formula to stand out in the 2026 meat grinder.
Grand Theft Auto VI – GTA6 expected in 2026
Nostalgia Plays and Specialized Hits: Onimusha and Monster Hunter Stories 3
Capcom is digging into the vault for Onimusha: Way of the Sword for PS5, Xbox, and PC. It’s a nostalgia play that has a dedicated following but might struggle with a younger audience that didn’t grow up with the PS2. Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is another specific win, likely finding a home on Nintendo’s next hardware and PC. These are solid performers that know their lanes and stay in them, providing that old-school flavor for the players who miss the straightforward brilliance of the early 2000s.
Control Resonant
The Wuxia Dream and the RPG Newcomers: Phantom Blade Zero and Blood of the Dawnwalker
Phantom Blade Zero looks incredible in motion, like a Hong Kong action flick come to life for PS5 and PC. The concern is whether the gameplay holds up under the flash. It’s a new IP from S-Game that could be the breakout hit of the year if the difficulty is tuned right. The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first outing from Rebel Wolves for consoles and PC. It’s got that CD Projekt Red DNA, and RPG fans are starving for something with that kind of depth. It’s a long shot for the top of the charts, but it has the street cred to be a sleeper hit for the hardcore crowd. So lets wayt for Phantom Blade Zero a bit to see.
Onimusha – Way of Sword
The Nintendo Guard and the Creator’s Return: Mario Tennis, Yoshi, and Gang of Dragon
With the Switch 2 in full swing, Nintendo is dropping Mario Tennis Fever and Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. They’re the reliable revenue earners—low risk, high polish. They won’t set the world on fire with innovation, but they’ll be in every household with kids. There’s also the faint hope for a Super Mario Galaxy 3 announcement to coincide with the movie, though that’s leaning more toward wishful thinking for the Switch 2.
The Blood of Dawnwalker – gameplay 2026
Toshihiro Nagoshi is also stepping out with Gang of Dragon on PS5 and PC. It’s a gritty urban adventure from the man who gave us Yakuza, and while it’s a niche appeal, the quality is usually undeniable for anyone who likes their games with a bit of street-level grime.
Tomb Raider- Legacy of Atlantis Lara is back in 2026
The Expansion Fatigue and the Valve Pipe Dream
Blizzard is trying to keep the lights on with World of Warcraft: Midnight on PC, but the real test is Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred. After the last expansion left a lot of the community feeling cold, this move on consoles and PC is starting to look like a play for a player base that’s already moving on to greener pastures. Then you have the absolute madness of the Half-Life 3 hope. Every year some optimist thinks Valve is finally going to count to three on PC, and 2026 is no different. It’s the ultimate believe-it-when-I-see-it situation, but the cultural weight of that brand is so heavy it can’t be ignored even if it’s probably just another beautiful lie.
Tomb Raider- Legacy of Atlantis 2026 gameplay
The Cult Creeps and Horror Junkie Fixes
The 2026 horror landscape is a chaotic mess of legitimate scares and nostalgia bait. Hellraiser: Revival is bringing body-horror back to consoles and PC, which carries weight if you actually care about visceral aesthetics. The Sinking City 2 is also crawling out of the woodwork on PS5, Xbox, and PC, trying to fix the jank of the first one while leaning into that damp, Lovecraftian misery. Then there is the Fatal Frame: Crimson Butterfly remake for consoles, which is basically the IP holders realizing that we’ll pay for the same trauma twice if the ghosts look high-def enough.
Fable 2026 expected game – Walking medieval downtown
You also have Ghost Master: Resurrection for the strategy nerds and Crisol: Theater of Idols, a PC-focused shooter where your own health is literally the ammo. Poppy Playtime is still kicking around too, proving that the mascot horror trend is far from dead on all platforms.
Phantom Blade Zero Demo games 2026 .jpg
Indie Grinds and Licensed Brawlers Fighting for Scraps
Mewgenics is finally looking like a real thing on PC, and anyone who knows Edmund McMillen knows that it’s going to be a disgusting, addictive masterpiece. Alongside it, we have Neverway and 1348 Ex Voto representing the smaller, more personal projects that usually end up being the games we’re still talking about five years later. On the fighting front, it’s a weird mix of licenses for all systems. Invincible VS and Avatar Legends are clearly aiming for that specific fan crossover, while Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is trying to carve out its own space in a genre that is notoriously hard to break into. These games won’t be topping the charts, but they provide the texture that keeps the industry from becoming a monotonous loop.
Control Resonant expected 2026
The Nintendo Trap and Remedy’s Backlog
Nintendo is playing the long game with the Switch 2, and their 2026 lineup is a masterclass in emotional manipulation. There’s the faint hope for a Super Mario Galaxy 3 announcement to coincide with the movie, though that’s leaning more toward wishful thinking for the new hardware. On the technical side, everyone is wondering what’s happening with the Max Payne 1 & 2 Remakes. While Remedy is pushing Control: Resonant, the shadow of those noir classics looms large over PS5, Xbox, and PC. If they manage to drop both in the same window, it’ll be a total takeover of the mid-tier market. Meanwhile, Poppy Playtime is still kicking around on all platforms, proving that the mascot horror trend is far from dead for the audience that likes their childhood toys turned into homicidal monsters.
Control Resonant gameplay in 2026
Licensed Brawlers Fighting for Scraps
On the fighting front, it’s a weird mix of licenses for all systems that feels like a fever dream for the tournament scene. Invincible VS and Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game are clearly aiming for that specific fan crossover, while Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is trying to carve out its own space in a genre that is notoriously hard to break into. These games won’t be topping the charts or making Rockstar-level money, but they provide the texture that keeps the 2026 calendar from being a monotonous loop of the same three genres. It’s the grit at the bottom of the pan that actually gives the year its flavor, even if most people are too distracted by the shiny stuff at the top to notice the real work being done here
Today, December 28, the Epic Games Store is giving away SKALD: Against the Black Priory for the next 24 hours. It is a 2024 retro-style RPG that looks like a lost Commodore 64 game but plays with modern mechanical polish. If you miss the giveaway window, you can still find it for 50% off on the Steam Store until January 5. For those looking for the absolute lowest price, G2A (affiliate link) currently has keys for approximately $4.20, which is a 72% discount from the standard retail price.
SKALD- Against the Black Priory
Pixels and Cosmic Dread
SKALD is a party-based RPG that leans heavily into Lovecraftian themes and gritty fantasy. You lead a group of mercenaries through a world filled with body horror and ancient, awakening gods. The combat is turn-based and tactical, but the story is the real draw here, featuring branching dialogue and dice rolls that actually matter for your survival.4 It avoids the hand-holding common in modern RPGs, forcing you to manage your party’s resources and sanity in a world that feels genuinely dangerous. It is a dense, high-quality experience for anyone who values strong writing and a specific, lo-fi aesthetic.
SKALD- Against the Black Priory fr Free on Epic Games Store
Free Mobile Hits: Monument Valley 1 & 2 For Mobile
Beyond the PC giveaway, you should also head to the mobile Epic Games Store to claim Monument Valley 1 and Monument Valley 2 for free until January 1. These are iconic perspective-based puzzle games inspired by M.C. Escher’s impossible architecture. They are short, polished, and rely on visual storytelling rather than dialogue. To get them, open the Epic Store on your phone and add them to your library. They usually cost around $4 each, so grabbing the pair for free is an excellent deal for your mobile library.
Monument Valley 1 – Free on mobile Epic Games Store
Final Claim Details
You have until December 29 at 11:00 AM ET to secure SKALD for your PC. The Monument Valley games will remain free for a few more days, giving you time to set them up on your Android or iOS device. This lineup is particularly resourceful because it offers a mix of high-stakes RPG mechanics and relaxing puzzle logic. Whether you are rolling dice to survive a pixelated cult or shifting golden towers on your phone, these titles offer more creative value than most of the big-budget releases that filled the rumor lists earlier this month.
Monument Valley II – Free on mobile Epic Games Store
Escaping the Chaos: Why Lobby Racing Just Isn’t Enough
I started doing simracing a couple of years ago, and after some rocky days of learning where I was basically just trying to keep the car on the black stuff and not end up in the grass every second corner, I found myself playing Assetto Corsa Competizione the most. Eventually, you get tired of the AI. They are predictable and they don’t make the kind of human mistakes that make racing exciting, so you start to play online. And yeah, that’s a big difference, especially in ACC, playing the AI and playing the people. It’s much more unpredictable, much more fun, and much more crashes, which is the darker part of it.
Low Fuel Motosport – Total LFM registered users and currently racing
But yeah, this is very good overall. Assetto Corsa Competizione provides competition races within the game itself, but this service doesn’t have much deeper something in it. It’s quite boring after a while because there is only one option in one time, and sometimes when you don’t have all the stars for the given track, you cannot even join at all. But there is another option, the lobby service, which is where most people start their e-racing career – Low Fuel Motosport independent racing portal.
There is always around 900 active servers where you can race at any given moment. A lot of them have a pretty full list of people racing, so it’s a big fun when you get a good grid, but it’s dangerous, especially when you are not experienced enough. You will lose your safety rating very quickly because people are crashing like crazy over there. You have to build up the good SA and go to the lobby server where you have to have some amount of SA to join it. Those servers are much, much better than without any restriction, which is basically like Destruction Derby and killing your rating in ACC.
Low Fuel Motosport – Racing statistics
The Independent Powerhouse: Choosing LFM on PC
So after a lot of crashes, a lot of yeeting discussions in the chat where people are just screaming, and quite a lot of races actually on the lobby, I started to look around for even better option to race. And I came across Low Fuel Motorsport as the leading independent platform for racing. Low Fuel Motorsport is mostly focused on ACC, which is excellent for me, and it’s a big service. There are huge amount of organized races, they have a system when and how to join, and so forth. I chose another option on the market. This is for PC players only. If you have a PlayStation or Xbox, you would probably choose SimGrid, which goes for the consoles as well. Another option, similar, is Pitskill.io, but Low Fuel Motorsport is the largest sim racing platform at this very moment in 2025, by far. So this should be your first option, probably, if you are on PC and you want to race a lot with kind of the same quality persons like you on daily races. So I opted out for Low Fuel Motorsport like two years ago, and here is my experience with it.
Low Fuel Motosport – FAQ is collabsible list, no search possible
The License Hurdle: Proving You Belong on the Grid
To join Low Fuel Motorsport and be able to race, you have to prove yourself as a kind of experienced driver, although you don’t need to be that super fast as the top of the race, but you have to be reasonably good. I like the system to join because it makes the good selection and those destruction derby players are filtered out with this system and this is a very good system. So if you want to join races, they have a practice server which is reachable via internet. You can find it within the free lobby servers. Just type in Low Fuel Motorsport LFM into the server selection and you got it. You have to find which is it on the server. To register you can use Steam or Discord. Then you have to go to the race and try to make 7 clean rounds and be within the range of the best times, maximum 5% on the top of the best times. This is the 107% rule they use to keep the pace consistent. After 2 or 3 attempts I was able to reach and I obtained the license to race. So my journey begins here. If you want to race Nordschleife, you have to make a similar license, but I didn’t go for Nordschleife yet. I just like shorter tracks and Nordschleife still has to wait for me. I’m not that interested to get into that.
Low Fuel Motosport – History of my races
Tools of the Trade: Technical Requirements for Serious Racing
To join the races you have to obviously sign up for the specific race in time and the other thing you must have is to download the utility which is called ACC connector which somehow translate the IP address of the server to your local IP address and then you have to go to local servers like on the LAN and the server when it goes online it will appear there. This is one extra tool you have to have when you want to race on the Low Fuel Motorsport and well this is a decision they made because you know the ACC had some outages and actually they still have the outages of the network. Low Fuel Motorsport didn’t want to rely on the public multiplayer service of the game and they are building like local servers independent of the race so when the ACC multiplayer is down you can still play Low Fuel Motorsport. This is sometimes problem because when the network is down you cannot even load your LAN server somehow so sometimes it’s struggle but it’s better. It’s more stable the servers especially those which are located in European area has a great ping and technically the servers are very good. Another thing you may want is the LFM Livery Tool.
If you don’t have this, everyone is just driving around in a plain white or carbon car and you can’t see the cool designs that teams put together. It makes the grid look much more professional when you can actually see the sponsors and the colors of the other cars. You also have to get used to their custom Balance of Performance, or BoP. LFM adds weight or restrictors to certain cars to make sure the field is even. So even if the game developers made one car too fast, LFM balances it out so you can still drive an older car and not be totally out of the race. This keeps the variety high which is good.
Low Fuel Motosport – Gamification is her as well . I got some trophies
The Daily Grind: Sprints and the Rating Struggle
So I did this basic license and I started to race. The options were to race, it’s quite big, but at the end you don’t have that much when you start. You can only race the 15 minute sprint races at the moment and that’s it because you are not building up your safety rating and your ELO enough yet. So you are doing these 15 minute races. Last year it was 20 minutes, now they push it to the 15 minutes. Well, that’s how they decided. So when you start to race you have to join the race. Every 45 minutes there is another 15 minute race. So you have plentiful options to race during the day, as much as you want, you don’t have any restrictions. You just click and wait a bit and you can join the races. So once you do that you go to practice. There is not allowed to race in the practice, it’s just to prepare your setups and so on. Then you go to qualification which is usually 7 minutes and then 15 minutes race. Races are much better than lobbies. This is the best advantage of Low Fuel Motorsport.
Low Fuel Motosport – Support via patreon
Here the races have its quality, even though when you are on the low tier the people are not trying to hit you as crazy and there are not that many accidents as there are on the ACC lobbies, especially those without SA filter. Here your journey starts, you are building up your ELO and you are building up your SA. When you reach the threshold you can join another races which are only filtered for the people with the higher ELO and higher safety rating. So ELO and safety rating decide everything. I’m not the greatest racer, so I was kind of struggling and stagnating because the ELO and SA rise slower than it falls. So you can build up for several clean races and then you have one wrong race where you get caught in someone else’s mess and it falls down instantly. But this is a fair play system which makes you focus on the safety first and then on the speed. This is the way how you should really learn driving in general. So you know your car, you know the spatial awareness and everything is much more important when racing here than when doing lobbies. So this really makes a big distinction and for those people who want real racing, they will like it a lot.
The Problem with Variety: GT4s and DLC Barriers
You are building up, and once you reach some threshold you can do the endurance racing 45 minutes or a higher league of 20-25 minutes races. They provide even the races for the GT4 cars or like specific BMW M2 races. But I don’t do that because especially those are the GT4 cars. You have to have the DLC and let’s be honest, how many people really do have this DLC? It’s a fraction of those having the base game. So if you really want to play all the races during the whole season, you have to have the DLCs actually because some tracks, some cars are not allowed in the base game so you have to pay for those DLCs of the base game. So here GT4 races are pretty empty. So if nobody is racing, it’s boring.
Low Fuel Motosport – Nobody much racing GT4 due to DLC restriction
I tried a couple of times but only a few players joined so I think this is almost useless category on the Low Fuel Motorsport. Endurance is good because and I really love to do the low tier endurance races last year. Because you have to make some tactics, there is always a pit stop so you don’t need to be the fastest but you have to think more strategically because of the pit stop and amount of fuel and it makes it really good. There is not that much players playing 45 minutes but quite enough to enjoy the race. Actually here I’m pretty angry on the Low Fuel Motorsport. They wanted to tweak it up for the ongoing season which is ending by the new year and they made a feedback and forum what to improve. I told them my way, what I want and actually everything happened was the opposite. So instead of 25 minutes like spring race, now we have only 15 minutes spring race and the 45 minutes endurance race is not yet reachable for me because I don’t have enough SA and ELO. So actually I can only do 15 minutes races right now which is ok but I was trying 45 minutes sprints and endurance like almost the same amount of races I did. So now it’s not possible for me. Yes, if I reach the level of SA, of the safety, I can join it but I’m not yet there. As I told you it’s quite tricky to improve but I’m not the best racer. What happened is that the options for me to race narrowed down pretty steeply and especially considering they were asking what to improve and they did the opposite, I’m not that happy with it.
Low Fuel Motosport – Track records and ELO evolution graph
Climbing the Ranks: Licenses and Tier Divisions
Even though the sprint races are short, the system behind them is very deep. When you join for example the 15 minutes sprint, there are a lot of people really in the tables, so it’s divided to even six divisions. So you’re usually playing the lowest tier division and as your indexes go up you are joining the higher divisions in the tier, like tier one, tier two. So there are six divisions for example. So you are not just attending more professional races, but even within those races you are divided to the division, so it’s pretty complex and you are racing against people on the similar skill set that you have and comparing to them. This leads to the actual License Tiers which are the backbone of the whole thing. You start as a Rookie and you have to grind your way through Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and eventually the Alien tier if you are fast enough. Each of these tiers has specific Safety Rating (SR) and ELO requirements. It’s a proper hierarchy that keeps the racing clean because nobody wants to lose their hard-earned indexes. But like I said, when they change the rules and lock you out of the endurance races you used to love because your ELO isn’t high enough yet, it feels like the goalposts are moving.
The Frustrating Reality of the Appeal System
Now, how to handle all these situations like accidents, appeals, and penalties. This is something which works technically, but I have to say I don’t like it very much. If you think somebody crashed you, you can appeal, but you have to make a video on YouTube, you have to put some specific information into that video, and then you can place an appeal. You spend a lot of time doing videos and stuff, and then the appeal might go wrong anyway. I didn’t do this yet because it’s a pretty time-consuming process to appeal, so I don’t appeal when I’m being crashed by people, but other people do appeal against you. I had some penalties where you have to agree with the decision of the arbiter who said that you did a mistake. Usually, you get some deduction of your Elo and you lose some seconds in the race results. But when they decide that you hit someone by purpose, like a retaliatory accident, you can get even 28 days of ban, and I actually got one. The situation looked like I really did it on purpose, but I know myself and I know what really happened. The guy who went against me in this appeal made the video in a way that looks like I was the one at fault, but actually, it was his fault. Because I didn’t make my own video, I couldn’t prove anything. What really hurts me is that there is no easy possibility to appeal against these big ban penalties. For small penalties, you can appeal right away from the form, but for a 28-day ban, you have to go to some hidden menu, create a ticket, and it really sucks. They don’t give you any guidance or a simple button to click, so they really don’t care much about this process or hearing your side.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – New Liveries for Haas RT on Audi R8 LMS evo II
Utility Over Community: The Patreon Model
The communication with the creators and the arbiters is very weak in my opinion. Even though they have a sophisticated website and a Discord server, the feedback feels read-only. You make a question, they reply, and that’s it. If the reply isn’t good enough, you have to create a whole new thread. It makes Low Fuel Motorsport feel more like a utility or a tool rather than a community-building service. They will likely have a problem with this at some point because there is no emotional attachment. They are even very strict about the in-game chat; if you say “sorry” to someone you crashed by mistake, they might penalize you for chatting, which is crazy to me. This cold environment is visible in how they handle the business side too. There are premium options where you can become a Patreon donator. This gives you things like deeper statistics and the ability to sign up for races sooner. I think the early sign-up is pretty useless because the servers usually only get full right before the race starts anyway. They probably make a couple of ten thousand euros per month from these donations and affiliations with brands like Fanatec or Syncmesh, but it’s a donation model. I don’t donate yet, especially after being angry about how they handled my ban. Most people don’t donate, and since the communication is so weak, you don’t feel like you are part of something you want to support with money.
The Road Ahead: ACC Stagnation and Future Sim Titles
The system is super reliant on ACC, and as we know, ACC is getting less focus from the developers because of the new games they are building. This might be the end of the road at some point. LFM is trying to move into games like Le Mans Ultimate or the original Assetto Corsa, but those races are often empty or feel like a beta. 90% of the players are on ACC. They are scared that the game is at the end of its life cycle and they are making petitions like the #SaveACC one to the developers, but it feels like they are just trying to save their own business model rather than the community. Everyone is waiting to see if they will move to Assetto Corsa EVO in 2026. If you are looking at this from a global perspective, it is mostly a European service. During the day, the European servers are packed, but the US servers during the night are pretty empty. I estimate only 10-15% of the players are from outside of Europe. You can still join with a higher ping and it’s playable, but it’s not the same experience. To conclude, the racing on Low Fuel Motorsport is unmatched in the current environment—only iRacing is on this level. It’s a great service for the racing itself, but do not expect to join a community. It is a utility to get clean races, and the moment a better option comes along, people will probably just jump off to that. If you want real racing, go for it, but keep your expectations low for the social side.
Assetto Corsa Competizione (ACC) received version 1.10.4 on December 22, 2025. This update introduces the official 2025 Fanatec GT World Challenge season as a free addition for PC simracers on Steam. While several major media outlets like Traxion.gg have reported this as the final content drop for the simulation, the official notes from Kunos Simulazioni does not use the word “final.” Instead, the developer describes it as a substantial update to align the game with the current real-world racing season.
Assetto Corsa Competizione New Update – Mclaren 720S GT3 Evo Optimum Motosport
New 2025 Content and Driver Rosters
The update adds a total of 95 official liveries to the simulation. This includes 86 designs for the GT World Challenge Europe and 9 for the GT World Challenge America. Accompanying these liveries is a revised driver set that reflects the actual lineups for the 2025 season. The update also integrates the 2025 GTWC Europe season as a standalone single-player championship mode. It is important to note that this update focuses on liveries and rosters rather than new car models; vehicles like the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the Ford Mustang GT3 are not included in this patch as the underlying 3D models were not developed for the ACC engine.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – Ford Mustang HRT livery for 2025
Verstappen.com Racing and Emil Frey Ferrari
A major highlight of this update is the inclusion of the Verstappen.com Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 operated by Emil Frey Racing. For the 2025 season, Thierry Vermeulen and Chris Lulham competed in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup using this car, eventually securing the Gold Cup team and driver titles. While Verstappen.com Racing has recently confirmed a multi-year partnership with Mercedes-AMG starting in 2026, the 1.10.4 update provides the chance to race the Ferrari 296 GT3 in its championship-winning 2025 colors. This is the definitive version of the Verstappen-backed Ferrari program before the team transitions to the Mercedes-AMG GT3 platform and shifts its technical partnership to 2 Seas Motorsport for the 2026 campaign.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – New Liveries for Haas RT on Audi R8 LMS evo II
Technical Improvements and System Changes
Version 1.10.4 implements GEN5 temporal anti-aliasing (TAA), which targets long-standing visual artifacts such as shimmering and ghosting in the Unreal Engine 4 architecture. This change improves image clarity on high-resolution displays. Additionally, the TV camera system has been adjusted to provide a more authentic broadcast perspective during replays. A critical technical detail for this update is the potential reset of the menuSettings.json file. Drivers will likely need to reconfigure their UI preferences and controller settings upon their first launch after the patch. The Balance of Performance (BoP) has also been revised to ensure the 2025 grid remains competitive for both league racing and official SRO esports events.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – New livery for Imperiale Racing Lamborghini Hracan GT3 EVO2
Platform Availability and Compatibility
Currently, the 1.10.4 update is available only on PC via Steam. For PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S users, the 2025 season content is expected to arrive in 2026 following the platform certification process handled by Untold Games and 505 Games. It is confirmed that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game will not receive this update. Official support for eighth-generation consoles ceased during the version 1.9 cycle because the hardware is unable to support the latest physics calculations and graphical refinements like the GEN5 TAA system. This creates a technical split where older consoles remain on a legacy version while current systems continue to receive seasonal parity.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – New livery for Mclaren 720S GT3 Evo Team RJN
Context Within the Kunos Universe: Assetto Corsa EVO and Rally
The shift in development focus for ACC is clearer when looking at the broader Kunos portfolio in late 2025. Assetto Corsa EVO, the next generation of the franchise, reached version 0.4 in early December, introducing features like the Nürburgring Nordschleife and a dedicated ranked multiplayer system. Furthermore, Kunos has expanded its reach with Assetto Corsa Rally, which launched into Steam Early Access on November 13, 2025. Developed in partnership with Supernova Games Studios, AC Rally utilizes a specialized version of the Kunos physics engine designed for jumps and loose surfaces. This diversification confirms that while the core ACC team has transitioned to newer projects, the studio is actively managing multiple simulations simultaneously.
Assetto Corsa Competizione – New livery for Mercedes-AMG GT3 2 Seas Motosport
The Outlook for 2026
The official silence regarding a hard stop to ACC development suggests that the platform may still see maintenance in 2026. As long as ACC remains the official platform for GT World Challenge esports, further BoP adjustments and stability patches are a reasonable expectation. While version 1.10.4 is the most comprehensive update for the 2025 season, the lack of a “final” label from Kunos allows for the possibility of continued technical support and seasonal minor content as the 2026 real-world championships begin.
Assetto Corsa Competizione 2025 livery for Lamborghini Hracan GT3 EVO2 GRT Grasser Racing Team
Drivers looking to enter the simulation or complete their collection can take advantage of a significant promotion currently active on Steam until January 5, 2026. The base version of Assetto Corsa Competizione is currently listed at a 75 percent discount, while the comprehensive bundle featuring all released car and track DLCs is reduced by 60 percent. This pricing represents a deeper discount than the game’s typical seasonal sales, providing the most cost-effective entry point to date for those wanting to experience the full 2025-spec grid before the offer expires on January the 5th 2026.
Assetto Corsa Competizione New liveries 2025 – Ferrari 296 GT3 Kessel Racing
The holiday season is finally winding down, but the G2A Winter Sale is actually peaking today, December 26th. If you’ve been waiting for the hype to settle before picking up 2025’s biggest releases, now is the sweet spot where prices are at their floor. I’ve pulled together the 10 best deals currently moving on the marketplace, focusing on heavy hitters and massive percentage cuts. Prices may vary over time depending on seller availability and demand. Links below are affiliate links — by using them, you support weplaygames.net at no extra cost to you.
For anyone looking for the most “bang for your buck,” EA SPORTS FC 26 is the current value king. Dropping below $20 this early is almost unheard of for a major sports title still in its peak competitive season. On the RPG front, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is sitting at nearly half-price. This is one of the most visually impressive turn-based games of the year, and seeing it under $30 makes it an easy recommendation for your winter backlog. If you’re into survival or extraction shooters, ARC Raiders and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 are the ones to watch. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 at $33 is the lowest it has been since its launch, giving you a massive open world to explore for a budget price. For the budget-conscious gamer, Project Zomboid for under $7 offers arguably the best “dollar-to-gameplay-hour” ratio in existence right now.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Smart Buying Tips Before You Checkout
Always check the region tags on the product page. Most of these links are for GLOBAL keys, but sellers often list region-specific versions (like EU or NA) that might be a dollar cheaper if you happen to live there. Just make sure it says “Can activate in your country” before you pull the trigger. Also, keep an eye on G2A Plus prices; if you’re buying two or more games from this list, the subscription usually pays for itself immediately by knocking an extra 10% or more off your total cart.
While most of the world is opening presents, you’re waking up in a trashed room with a tie that wants you to kill yourself. Epic Games decided the perfect holiday mood was a deep dive into the mind of a disaster-prone amnesiac. Today, December 25, you can claim Disco Elysium – The Final Cut for free. If the Epic launcher isn’t your thing, the Steam Store has it slashed by 90%, basically pricing it at the cost of a cheap beer. It is a bleak, hilarious, and genuinely intelligent game that makes you do the one thing most holiday games avoid: actually think.
Disco Elysium Free on Epic Games Store
Fighting the Voices in Your Head
You are a detective, though you’ve forgotten your own name and misplaced your badge. There is a corpse hanging in the lot behind the hostel, and you are technically supposed to be investigating it. However, the real “combat” happens inside your skull. The game treats your psyche like a chaotic board meeting. Your different personality traits—like your Reptilian Brain or your Limbic System—frequently interrupt your conversations to argue with you or suggest you do something incredibly self-destructive. It is a system where a failed dice roll isn’t a game over; it just leads to a more interesting, often more pathetic, branch of the story.
Building a Personal Brand of Chaos
The “Final Cut” means you get full voice acting for every weirdo and philosopher in the city of Revachol. This version of the game lets you lean into whatever internal ideology you want, whether that is becoming a “Hobocop” who lives in a trash can or a “Superstar” who thinks he can solve crimes through the power of disco. The “Thought Cabinet” allows you to internalize bizarre concepts you find in the world, which slowly bake in your brain until they change your stats or unlock new ways to interact with people. It is a mechanic that rewards curiosity, even when that curiosity leads you into an embarrassing social disaster.
Disco Elysium Hotel Room
Don’t Let the Hangover Win
You have until December 26 at 11:00 AM ET to snag this for free on Epic. This is a game for people who want to explore a world that feels lived-in, decaying, and deeply weird. It handles heavy topics like failure and political collapse without losing its sharp, cynical sense of humor. Whether you grab it for free on Epic or pay the pocket change for it on Steam, it is an essential pick for anyone tired of the standard “go here, shoot that” mission structure.
In a move that’s either incredibly ironic or just plain dark, Epic Games has chosen The Callisto Protocol as the mystery gift for December 24. While most people are settling in for festive cheer, Epic is sending us to a high-security prison colony on Jupiter’s dead moon to fight mutated horrors.
If this feels familiar, it’s because the game was previously offered for free back in August 2024. However, if you missed that window or were skeptical about the launch reviews, now is the perfect time to grab this AAA survival horror experience without spending a dime.
Callisto Protocol: Jakob Infront of the Airlock
The Spiritual Successor to Dead Space
Directed by Glen Schofield—the man who co-created the original Dead Space—this game was built to be the next evolution of sci-fi horror. You play as Jacob Lee, an inmate at Black Iron Prison who finds himself in the middle of a gruesome outbreak. The UI is integrated directly into the world (your health bar is a glowing implant on your neck), keeping the screen clean and the tension high.
Brutal, Up-Close Combat
Unlike many horror shooters where you keep your distance, The Callisto Protocol forces you to get personal. The combat system leans heavily on a rhythmic dodging mechanic and a powerful electrified baton. You’ll spend as much time parrying and bashing limbs in melee as you will firing your weapons.
Callisto Protocol: Hello Monster
The “GRP” gravity tool is the real star of the show. It allows you to pick up enemies and launch them into environmental hazards like spinning fans, wall spikes, or even off ledges. It adds a tactical layer to the encounters, making the gore feel almost like a puzzle.
A Technical Powerhouse
Say what you will about the gameplay pacing, but the visuals are undeniably some of the best in the genre. The lighting, character models (starring Josh Duhamel), and sound design are top-tier. It captures that oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere perfectly, making the “holiday” setting of a derelict space prison feel genuinely unsettling.
The Callisto Protocol: Encountering Monster
Claim It Before the Big One
The Callisto Protocol is free until December 25 at 11:00 AM ET. Since tomorrow is the actual Christmas Day reveal, the community is expecting a massive title to close out the holiday peak. Don’t let the gore distract you—make sure you add this to your library before the mystery counter hits zero.
If you’ve been holding out for a high-value title to justify checking the store every day, this is it. Today, December 23, Epic opened the vault to reveal Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This is the definitive spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, directed by the legendary Koji Igarashi. It delivers exactly what fans have been asking for: a massive, gothic castle, precise combat, and a deep RPG system that lets you tailor your character to your specific playstyle.
Bloodstained- Ritual of the Night Gameplay
The Power of Shards
The defining mechanic of the game is the Shard System. When you defeat enemies, you have a chance to absorb their essence in the form of a crystal shard. These shards aren’t just minor buffs; they provide hundreds of unique powers ranging from passive stat increases and summoned familiars to massive magical attacks. Some shards are even essential for progression, granting movement abilities like gravity manipulation or teleportation that are required to reach the castle’s deepest secrets. Because you can swap these powers and weapons at any time, you never feel locked into one way of playing.
Bloodstained- Ritual of the Night Fight is won
A Gothic Masterclass
Visually, the game uses a 2.5D style that makes the screen-filling boss fights feel cinematic and intense. The soundtrack is also a major highlight, composed by Michiru Yamane, the artist responsible for the iconic music of the original Castlevania series. It’s atmospheric, rewarding, and specifically designed for players who enjoy uncovering every hidden room and secret on a complex map.
The Deal
Bloodstained usually retails for $39.99, which makes it the most significant giveaway of the holiday event so far. You have 24 hours to claim it before it is replaced on December 24 at 11:00 AM ET. If you value games with actual mechanical depth and a pedigree of excellence, get this added to your library immediately.
The fake AAA leak is officially in the rearview mirror. Today, December 22, Epic is giving away Paradise Killer, an open-world murder mystery that prioritizes absolute style and player freedom over mindless shooting. If you’re bored of the same old gameplay loops, this is the definitive “hidden gem” of the holiday sale.
Paradise Killer -Colorful environment
It’s a bizarre, neon-soaked trip that basically invents its own genre: Vaporwave Detective.
The Mystery: A Crime to End All Crimes
You play as Lady Love Dies, an “investigation freak” summoned from a thousand-year exile. Your mission is to solve the mass murder of the Council on Paradise Island—a pocket dimension where immortal beings try to resurrect dead alien gods. The island is about to be destroyed and reborn, and you are the only one who can find the killer before reality resets.
Paradise Killer – Carmelina Silence
Why This Game is Resourceful
The game doesn’t hold your hand. You are dropped onto the island and told to find the truth. You can explore anywhere, talk to anyone, and collect evidence in any order. The most unique part? You decide when you have enough evidence to start the trial. If you accuse the wrong person because you didn’t dig deep enough, the game lets you—the “truth” is whatever you can prove in court.
Paradise Killer – The crime to end all crimes
The Aesthetic and Vibe
The art direction is a wild mix of 2D character standees in a 3D open world, drenched in 80s neon and city-pop music. It feels like playing through a high-end anime fever dream. This updated version also includes ray tracing and extra music tracks, making the island look incredible if you have the hardware to push it.
The Bottom Line
Paradise Killer usually costs $20 and has a stellar reputation for its deep lore and “build-your-own-truth” mechanics. It’s free to claim until December 23 at 11:00 AM ET. If you want a game that actually makes you feel like a detective instead of just following a quest marker, claim this immediately on Epic Games Store.
If you were hoping for another gritty shooter or a mainstream AAA title, today’s reveal might surprise you. Epic is continuing its streak of “hidden gem” picks with Sorry We’re Closed, a 2024 survival horror title that feels more like an underground art project than a standard video game.
Sorry We Are Closed Survival Horror
Forget the tired tropes of the genre; this is survival horror with a high-fashion, punk-rock soul.
The Premise: A Literal Race Against Hell
You play as Michelle, a woman living a fairly mundane life until she is cursed by a powerful archdemon. You have exactly three days to find a way to break the curse or face eternal damnation. It’s a tight, stressful narrative where your dialogue choices and actions directly influence which of the multiple endings you’ll hit.
Why It’s a Great Grab
The “Third Eye” Mechanic: Michelle can open her “Third Eye” at any time to peer into a twisted, demonic version of her world. This isn’t just for show—it’s how you find secrets, solve puzzles, and reveal the literal hearts of your enemies to hit their weak points.
Old School Meets New School: The game uses the classic fixed-camera angles of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, but shifts into a slick, first-person arcade shooter perspective when you aim your gun. It solves the “clunky combat” problem of retro horror while keeping the cinematic tension.
Arthouse Aesthetic: The visuals are a wild mix of low-poly PS1 models and vibrant, neon-soaked colors. It looks like a “Club Kid” fever dream, making it one of the most visually distinct games Epic has given away this year.
Sorry We Are Closed – Gameplay kills
Last Thoughts
Sorry We’re Closed usually goes for $20. It’s short, punchy, and perfect for a weekend playthrough. If you want something that prioritizes atmosphere and unique storytelling over budget-bloat, this is a must-add to your library.
You have until December 22 at 11:00 AM ET to claim it for free
