Outward 2 was recently delayed from its planned July 2026 Early Access launch to 2027, with the team saying beta feedback made it clear the game needed more time. What were the biggest areas of feedback that convinced you the delay was necessary, and what should players expect to feel has changed the most when they next play it?

Stability is the big outlier. Optimization and debugging takes a lot of time and Outward 2 is a very big game. Expectations for Early Access games are that it’s okay to have some bugs, but the experience should be pleasant. Crashes and disconnections while playing in multiplayer were frequent, and we’ve noticed some specific hardware and OS configurations that slowed the game’s performance to a crawl. So if you mix bad stability along with many small things that need work, such as economic or combat balance feeling off, you end up with frustrations and apprehensions in too many areas at once and instead of a sense of curiosity. We decided to extend the game’s development not to add more things, but to offer a tighter package that announces more clearly where we want to go from there.

You’ve said the goal is for there to be a “stark jump” between the beta and the Early Access launch. Does that primarily mean better stability and polish, or are you also using the extra time to rethink balance, onboarding, combat feel, quest structure, and world readability?

The biggest jump should be in making an experience that feels solid rather than holding together with duct tape. So debugging is important, but also the impact of balance changes can’t be understated. The balance in the playtests were not final, but clearly it’s been a sticking point for many players. Balance is something that is very easy to iterate on during Early Access, and it’s one of those things that is a lot easier to tweak just right when you have a dialog with your players. But we’ll need to be closer to the final intent to keep our players engaged. Something as trivial as how much stamina you recover from drinking water can impact a player’s experience.

As for onboarding or quest structure, while we do intend to improve the tutorial, it will remain a separate mode and we don’t intend to hold the player’s hand once they start their adventure. It’s part of the vision of Outward to feel overwhelmed at first. But we need to make sure we give enough tools to the player to overcome those initial challenges.That’s the fine line we need to hit in the balance.

"The biggest jump should be in making an experience that feels solid rather than holding together with duct tape."

The first Outward built its identity around immersion through friction – preparation, navigation, survival, danger, and consequences. With Outward 2, where did you draw the line between preserving that friction and making the game feel more responsive and approachable?

Essentially, we never thought about it in terms of if there was too much friction or not enough. Instead, we focused on whether or not that friction was going with or against the sense of immersion. How stiff combat was in Outward 1 was due to technical/budget constraints, not intentional friction. However, making the combat feel very deliberate was important. If we can make combat deliberate without making the player frustrated that their avatar is unable to do something they could do themselves, it’s a gain worth pursuing.

As for making the game more approachable, part of it is having a compelling carrot. In Outward, many players felt that the story was an afterthought unless they played through all factions and realized how complex of a tapestry of events and motivations the story actually was. So having more compelling characters, story beats, a better rhythm and, eventually, fully voiced dialogs should give some motivation to keep pushing initially. So if the experience is less clunky, more visually appealing, with a more involved story and a world that feels more fleshed out, I think that we’re giving a better reason to stick through the friction than we did in Outward 1.

Outward 2’s combat is noticeably more fluid, with dodge steps, rolls, cancels, dual-wielding, smoother blocks, and more flexible weapon combinations. Since players now have more control in combat, how have enemies, stamina costs, encounter placement, and punishment been rebalanced to keep the game difficult without feeling unfair?

The speed and flexibility we gave to the player had to be matched with higher aggression from the enemies, and we also gave them more ways to attack from a distance. We also still need to work on what are the proper stamina costs for actions now that they are faster, since it means there are more opportunities to land multiple hits, or more attacks to dodge in a shorter amount of time.

We want to be very careful with the number of enemies we have to face at a time. So our levers of balance are more based on behaviors and statistics.

At the end of the day though, the lesson is that real combat is not fair. You should give yourself an extra edge if you want to survive a 2 versus one encounter, or to fight against a monster that is multiple times your size. I think the worst thing we can do is to pretend that it’s fair while it’s not. If, from the outset, you understand that the world is unfair towards you, then you start approaching combat differently. That’s when it pays to be clever and prepared.

"At the end of the day though, the lesson is that real combat is not fair."

The Exercise system sounds like a major shift away from traditional XP and levels, tying growth to finite micro-achievements across combat, crafting, and survival. How does this system change the way players naturally build their character, and how much room is there for non-combat-focused progression?

I foresee two different approaches. Either the player will choose the upgrades that naturally offer themselves to them as they play with whichever playstyle came organically to them, or they’ll make a plan of where they want to take their characters and influence how they play to speed up their ascension. Both approaches are fine and viable. While some requirements are tied to non-combat gameplay, the rewards are always at least in some fashion relevant to combat aptitudes. The reason for this is that the other things we can do rely more on know-how than on statistical advantages.

I think the biggest impact is that your character will grow more slowly but also more gradually. In Outward 1, once the ball started rolling, finishing your character’s build could go very fast. Now, instead of a final growth spur, your journey will reward you gradually, which in my opinion better simulates the experience of learning and growing.

Early Access is planned to launch with three of four regions and only part of each faction questline, while the full game is targeting four regions and three major questlines. How are you structuring Early Access so that it feels like a meaningful adventure rather than an incomplete slice of the final game?

There’s custom content such as level design and story, then there’s systemic content such as character builds and mechanical exploration. At first, we will lean more into the sandbox experience to keep our players busy, but it’s our intent to prioritize the rest of the story and regions within the first big updates to come, so that they quickly get a sense that almost all of it is there. That’s when we can start surprising them with extra layers of depth!

Narrative delivery seems to be one of the big areas you want to validate during Early Access, especially before committing to full voice acting. What did you learn from the first game’s more emergent storytelling, and how much more authored, character-driven, or faction-driven will Outward 2’s story be?

The story in Outward was mostly about witnessing a series of events enacted from enormous factions, as just one among many to serve the organizations and without ever being at the center of the attention. This time around, in order to feel more the stakes of the story and get a deeper connection with the characters, we came up with smaller factions, also implying that your role is more central for that smaller group. The stakes are just as high as in Outward 1, but there is more space to intimately know who is involved. I rarely feel like the characters are really important in open world games, so this approach is our attempt to break the pattern.

Outward 2 is adding a more alive world through seasonal changes, region-specific hazards, patrols, dynamic encounters, and stronger navigation demands. How are you making the world denser and more readable without compromising the series’ refusal to rely on GPS-style guidance and hand-holding?

Honestly my only answer to this is a simple one: aside from maps, add more signs on the roads to help figure out the way

"I think the most frustrating elements are when you feel like there’s nothing you could have done to reach a different outcome."

Preparation seems even more central this time, with traps, poisons, potions, sigils, specialized gear, backpacks, mules, camping equipment, food, weather protection, and wound management all playing into survival. How do you make these systems feel like meaningful strategy rather than busywork?

In most survival games, you fill up your needs to get rid of handicaps. In Outward, that’s the first step but then eventually you do it instead because it strengthens your playstyle. So your choice of tent, backpack, food all might change based on the fact you want to play a mage, for instance. So you go from doing it because you need to, to doing it because you want to.

Of course you probably don’t want a sprained ankle and a concussion, but that’s different. For wounds or illnesses, we went with something that was more mechanically complex than just a lowered stat that can easily be healed whenever. That way, we make the player shift their mindset and acknowledge the consequence of their state, rather than just power through it.

Defeat scenarios, wounds, time skips, stolen gear, quest timers, and Hardcore mode’s permanent-save risk all sound like they could create amazing stories, but also real frustration. After the beta, how are you tuning those consequences so setbacks remain memorable and fair rather than demoralizing?

I think the most frustrating elements are when you feel like there’s nothing you could have done to reach a different outcome. For that, we need to ensure that we distribute enough tools (such as traps, potions and ammo) and enough knowledge about those tools (such as hints through dialogs, crafting recipes, early opportunities).

During the beta, I feel that we could have done a better job with that early distribution, in order to get them started. Our approach is to subtly nudge, but never to push them outright towards the answers. Some people might not catch on and that’s a risk we’re quite willing to take.

"The story of Endless Ragnarok, taking place after the Captain and his crew have already made a name for themselves thanks to their exploits throughout the base game’s campaign, introduces a new antagonist."

The general assumption with Endless Ragnarok is that you’ve basically done everything you’ve otherwise wanted to do with Granblue Fantasy: Relink, and have conquered just about every challenge and encounter it presents. With that in mind, Endless Ragnarok brings in quite a bit of new endgame content for players to tackle. Chief among these are entirely new tiers of quest difficulty, and a new roguelite game mode that largely focuses on solo play, called the Conflux.

The story of Endless Ragnarok, taking place after the Captain and his crew have already made a name for themselves thanks to their exploits throughout the base game’s campaign, introduces a new antagonist. Some strange new beasts have started popping up all over the Zegagrande Skydom. Dubbed Ragnalia, these beasts are superpowered versions of foes you’ve already fought before, and can range from demons to large animals. Coinciding with the enemy’s plot is the opening of mysterious portals to the realm of chaos, where our heroes have to deal with entirely separate threats.

Much like with the base game, there’s nothing really mind-blowing going on with the story of Endless Ragnarok. You don’t get any new interesting character arcs, and the core crew that you’ve already spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours with at this point also doesn’t get much in the way of character development or interpersonal conflicts. Rather, the expansion hangs on to what made the base game enjoyable, and focuses purely on offering engaging core gameplay.

Speaking of which, there are a few new additions on the gameplay side of things as well. Along with a host of new playable characters with their own unique styles and abilities, Endless Ragnarok also brings in the ability for players to break their weapons’ previous power limits through a new system called Transcendence. Much like you’ve done in the past, you’ll have to spend plenty of materials to upgrade your gear, and you’re going to need just about every ounce of power you can muster if you want any hope of taking on the new Chaos difficulty quests.

"You don’t get any new interesting character arcs"

Many of the expansion’s quests are set to Chaos, with more seasoned players also getting access to even harder versions of the same quests. Throughout Chaos quests, you will have to take on a host of Ragnalia enemies, and while they might look familiar on the outset, just about every single one of them has entirely new moves that will put your character loadouts and coordination to the test. Along with being engaging when played solo, the Chaos difficulty quests can also be taken on with some buddies through online co-op, bringing in an even greater layer of strategy to some of the more complex fights.

The Chaos difficulty also puts its best foot forward when you’re introduced to the new difficulty, since before you can actually take on the Ragnalia beasts, you first have to pass an assessment quest, which involves taking on Tweyen and Sandalphon in a dual boss fight, where they come at you with devastating new abilities, frequently tagging in and out depending on how well (or badly) you’ve been doing in the fights. Despite having fairly high-leveled characters in my group, this fight was an incredible challenge, and was the first time I personally had fun with Granblue Fantasy: Relink in a while, since both of the bosses kept me on my toes throughout the harrowing battle.

Continuing through the story of Endless Ragnarok also introduces one of the bigger features of the expansion: summons. Over the course of the long and challenging Chaos difficulty battles, Lyria will start saving up energy, allowing her to eventually summon large creatures that can help you out. Rather than these summons being temporary party members, however, you actually take control of them, and have to dish out as much damage as possible before their timer runs out. Lyria can also join in on your full-team attacks with her own summon-based one, dealing a massive amount of damage with an animation that, while not out of place for something like Granblue Fantasy, definitely feels over-the-top in the best possible ways.

While the core quests might be a fantastic step up in terms of difficulty, Conflux, on the other hand, feels like it was made to be played with your eyes closed. The roguelite mode pits you in a series of challenges, largely revolving around combat, where you have to take on either a single group of enemies, continuous hordes, or a miniboss. All of these encounters eventually culminate in a boss fight, winning which clears out the current Conflux run.

"While the core quests might be a fantastic step up in terms of difficulty, Conflux, on the other hand, feels like it was made to be played with your eyes closed."

Conflux is where some of Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s worst impulses start showing up again, since you’re often showered with a variety of currency as a reward, which has the tendency to turn the whole thing quite boring. The fact that it isn’t particularly difficult doesn’t help either; several combat rooms got cleared out before I could even get to the enemies since my team mates were strong enough to wipe them out quickly.

In many ways, Endless Ragnarok feels like a victory lap of sorts. Developer Cygames definitely seems to be aware that it has something special here: an entirely new way to bring Granblue Fantasy to an even wider audience. With Endless Ragnarok, the studio has seemingly hoped to tackle one of the core criticisms of the base game: the fact that it could often feel too easy. While the presence of Conflux means that players who prefer the easiest battles won’t feel too out of place, the inclusion of Chaos difficulty quests is certainly a welcome one.

The studio has also been improving its boss fight designs in interesting ways. Taking a cue from endgame raid bosses from MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, the Ragnalia beasts in Endless Ragnarok also tend to feature moves that require active coordination between a player and their team mates to avoid. Thankfully, none of the fights in the expansion can completely wipe your team out in a single hit (assuming you’re not egregiously underleveled for the quests). However, I would like to see Cygames take the core idea of Chaos difficulty even further in the future.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink is at its best when it isn’t just a mindless button-mashing action RPG, and Endless Ragnarok provides further evidence of this fact. The Chaos difficulty quests and new progression paths do a lot to breathe in new life to a game that’s well over two years old at this point, and the expansion has also made the base game feel a lot more complete just by existing. This is essentially the game in its best form yet.

This game was reviewed on PC.

What we’ve found, largely echoed by other critical analyses of the game and ranging from details like a rather ill-conceived approach to progression, half-baked new additions, and gameplay and presentation issues that crop up too frequently to discount, show many reasons to give this one a pass despite its many improvements. And that’s not even mentioning the recruiting issues that come with Dynasty Mode since EA has told us it’s working on a fix.

But what’s going wrong for a title that looked like it had a lot of potential to be the step forward that the franchise needed? Well, join us and find out as we dive deep into a title that comes with enough gripes to balance out its successes, and whether those problems could ultimately be its downfall.

The Silver Spoon In The Room

It’s probably best to get those concerns about paid progression out of the way early. Yes, different editions of the game come with Dynasty Coach Points and RTG Skill Points, with the amount you get increasing with more expensive variants. Heck, the MVP+ edition even came with all Mascots unlocked, although that’s a whole other thing we’re going to talk about a little later down the line.

Of course, it’s the Coach XP Accelerators available exclusively in Online Dynasty Mode that’s drawing a lot of fire. But is it really as bad considering the enormous 20-30 season requirement to fully get the most out of the Dynasty experience? Those boosts are optional time savers, yes, but their very presence, when considered against a progression loop that demands a lot of time and effort, is enough to make trust around fair progression systems waver a fair bit. The fact that Accelerators can be disabled by commissioners goes lost in all the noise.

"But is it really as bad considering the enormous 20-30 season requirement to fully get the most out of the Dynasty experience?"

Of course, the progression loop we mentioned earlier isn’t helping things one bit. We get what EA was trying to do with, framing the level cap for your Coach as the pinnacle of achievement within the game’s experience. But removing faster ways to get there might not have been a choice that worked well with the good one to keep the level requirements the same while switching up the journey instead. It’s especially worrying since the way it’s all been described looked like it was an intentional part of the game’s design, and one that EA has been very quiet about since the complaints started arising. It’s monitoring feedback, to be sure, but that isn’t any indication of likely fixes being deployed until there’s an official announcement.

Well, that’s a slightly altered progression loop with big ramifications taken care of. It’s now time to take a gander at what’s new with CF27, and why that’s a part of this conversation.

Mascots of Mediocrity

We’re going to nip into our review of the game for this one, since the new Mascot Mashup mode was supposed to be a headlining feature, heralding the return of a popular franchise feature that had been surely missed in the last couple of years.

But with new Mascots being unlocked by just playing a quick game with the respective teams, a lack of enough commentary and tournament options, no alternative formats other than the Quick Play one, and a lack of differentiation between the ones available for unlocking made it quite the disappointment.

It’s especially egregious since EA didn’t shy away from presenting it as one of the highlights of the experience it was offering this time around, and to have it executed so poorly leaves a very bitter taste in the mouth for those who looked forward to it and have since moved on to other modes.

It’s a damn shame though, because there were so many potential ways to make it a worthy addition to the franchise in its latest form. Why aren’t there unique ratings on Mascots, which could work well with unique challenges to claim the ones from higher tiers? Why, oh why, are there no tournaments to be had? Why couldn’t special rule sets be added to this one?

Why is such a beloved part of the franchise returning as a novelty and not a unique feature that could help it chart a course into its future? When you think about MVP+ owners unlocking all Mascots without going through the tedium of hopping into a Play Now game with the corresponding team, you begin to see how CF27’s problems seem minor on their own, but tie into each other in ways that make them feel quite glaring.

"It’s a damn shame though, because there were so many potential ways to make it a worthy addition to the franchise in its latest form."

Its progression systems might have optional paywalls included, but the fact that they don’t include enough variety to make ignoring those paywalls easier just exacerbates both problems in a way that affects perceptions around the value it offers despite them.

Gaming The System

We remember worrying about the logic of the game’s systems being unable to bear the strain they were likely to be put under by players, and it turns out our concerns were founded. It was quite evident in the way we were able to skirt around requirements to progress in Road to Glory in ways that were clearly not intended to be a part of a simulator that aimed to be as realistic as this one. Safeties calling plays? Really?

The problem here is simple. The objectives we were given were so narrowly worded, they almost encouraged finding loopholes around them instead of, you know, actually playing well and being an asset to our team. It felt like we were chasing completion of checklists instead of focusing on enjoying the game and all the good stuff that it brought to the table. It reflects a lack of polish and nuance that could reflect badly on a title that’s definitely among the year’s big releases.

That extends to the presentation, where we found misnomers in the broadcasting, overlapping text layers in the Ultimate Team mode, play art overstaying its welcome on our screens far too often, and the broadcasters often acting like our custom Ultimate Teams were just the home team at wherever we were playing that particular match.

All of that pulls you out of the experience, but wouldn’t be as annoying if EA hadn’t made specific promises about all-new commentary, better presentation and atmosphere, and a more immersive experience overall. It’s annoying because things are definitely great, but these inconsistencies add up to deter truly enjoying everything good that’s on offer.

There are also parts of the presentation that are frankly overdone, too. The Dynasty’s NIL system gives away too much information about an athlete’s chances of signing up with your team based on your offer, and it takes out a layer of unpredictability that would have served the entire thing so darn well.

"There are also parts of the presentation that are frankly overdone, too."

That unpredictability was surely needed in a menu-heavy recruiting loop, and what we’ve got instead is one in which things are too certain for them to be as interesting as they could have been. Sure, it makes getting though seasons a tad easier, which should help those of you looking to max out your Coach, but look at it objectively, and you can’t help but feel like it’s a support pillar designed for an already needlessly elaborate progression loop.

Of course, the slow-moving Ultimate Teams Interface with store access appearing in all of its menus must be mentioned, and deserves to be because it could dissuade even players who swear by it from engaging with it as consistently as it needs to land. As it stands, it’s cumbersome to navigate and isn’t something that’s as fun to engage with as it should be.

There are, of course, other issues that have sprung up during our time with the game, which other reviews have supported. The AI does need a bit of work, and the blockers have been identified as a problem area often enough for them to need some serious work. This is a game that wants you to use your knowledge of football as well as your skills with a controller, and that falls flat when your team doesn’t back up intelligent plays as well as it should.

Pair that with pop-up interactions that kind of plonk the ball right into a waiting defender’s hands, another issue that’s been reported as frequent by critical sources, and you begin to see even the gameplay loop on offer being brought down by niggles that should be minor, but add up enough to bring down the overall perception of quality that matters to a title as big as this one.

The Real Enemy

The real enemy that College Football 27 faces isn’t a lack of new content, but is one that can be a far greater threat. It isn’t a bad football game, not by a long shot. But with Mascot Mashup being the only new addition that’s so poorly executed, and only incremental upgrades to the rest of what’s on offer, it becomes easy to say that stagnation is probably going to hold this one back from achieving its own potential.

Of course, its many problems are ones that can be rapidly addressed, but the game then faces an uphill climb as it aims to shake off its poor reputation at the moment and earn back enough goodwill from its players before the next annual iteration comes along. That’s a narrow window, and a long list of things to address.

But the good news is that EA is listening, and is already addressing a few complaints. Well, let’s just hope that it turns its attention to the game’s other issues, and manages to switch things up in the process.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

But things have escalated into a larger debate around ownership, consumer trust, media preservation, retail competition, and rumors of frayed relationships with the developers, partners, and publishers that put the PlayStation ecosystem on the map in the first place. Sony’s silence on the matter isn’t helping, and might just be additional fuel to an already raging fire at this point.

We’re sailing into troubled waters this time around, but it’s still a journey worth undertaking. There’s a lot of nuance to be found when we read between the lines, and this one’s got a lot of that waiting for us. Let’s go.

Misinterpreted Metrics

If you look at things from a purely business standpoint, Sony’s move to prioritize digital production and eventually phase out physical discs is a smart move that’s backed by consumer data. A recent Reuters report indicates that 80% of full-game sales in the fiscal year of 2025 were digital, and Sony’s position that consumer preferences are skewed towards digital ownership makes sense.

But this here is the first instance of that nuance we mentioned earlier. Sony has conveniently chosen not to address legitimate concerns about not having games tied to physical discs post 2028. It’s probably fair to highlight that the company was quite clear that games released before that January 2028 cutoff would continue to have physical copies at this point, as it’s a detail that makes the next bit even more puzzling.

"Sony has conveniently chosen not to address legitimate concerns about not having games tied to physical discs post 2028."

For a company that was as thorough as to announce a comprehensive plan on phasing out physical discs, you’d think it would have at least tried to figure out solutions to lending, resale, collector’s editions, local retail, long-term access to purchased games, and a dependence on platform-controlled licensing, all of which are legitimate concerns on the consumer side of its supply chains. Digital popularity can’t be the only indicator of consumer preferences, after all, and it’s quite clear that those of prefer physical copies of their games are clearly unhappy with the decision.

Just look at the backlash on even the official PlayStation Blog post about the announcement, with a significant enough number of comments being negative to warrant a deeper look at what’s causing it. It isn’t a bunch of angry collectors, but an organized resistance to what’s being perceived as a move to take away control over a legitimate purchase from an owner while parallelly encouraging dependence on a storefront and a closed ecosystem that could make a future switch quite expensive.

There are also concerns about connectivity being an issue in verifying digital licences in regions with poor internet coverage, what happens to games that get delisted from the store, who actually owns the licence to a digital game, reductions in price-competition among retailers, and a general air of distrust towards what’s being seen as a platform attempting to control purchases, distribution, and the continued availability of its titles.

The anger is real enough to have a financial impact, too. Players are aiming to make a boycott hit Sony where it hurts: its wallet. Reports of cancelled PS Plus subscriptions are already making the rounds, covered by popular publications alongside reports of targeted retention efforts offering up as much as as 50% discount to returning subscribers. That backlash is turning into a campaign that’s voted with its wallets to ensure that its demands don’t go by unaddressed.

The ball is now firmly in Sony’s court, and its silence is another facet of the debate that has something deeper to examine. That’s where we’re headed next.

"The anger is real enough to have a financial impact, too."

A Very Loud Silence

As of this moment, there hasn’t been a peep from Sony to address the backlash it’s facing, with even the hijacking of its Flex strike wireless flight stick with negative comments about the disc situation being largely ignored. There was a lot of criticism directed at a perceived effort to just pretend like nothing was happening, even as the backlash spread to other media such as the trailer for the new Sony-produced Spider-Man movie.

Sony’s silence is even more thunderous when you factor in other prominent voices outside of gaming journalism expressing discontent with its decision. Hideo Kojima chimed in with a wistful look at a future world (at a Film Festival) in which increasing dependency on streaming services and remote servers could make access to digital libraries a variable that changes with infrastructural or political volatility. Sure, he was adopting a big picture kind of perspective, but that was what he had to offer in a debate around physical media.

Shawn Layden, who had important roles within PlayStation in the past, called Sony’s sudden announcement “fairly dramatic”, which we tend to agree with considering that he also advocated for a more holistic view of the matter instead of taking only economic factors into account. Mike Ybarra of Blizzard fame added another layer to the conversation, arguing that a strong er digital promise could help build trust in digital-only libraries, while his opinions on digital resale and open marketplaces could also be taken into consideration when thinking about a digital-only future that still gives you the same rights over your games as a physical disc does.

David Hayter was more direct, taking a ” no disc, no buy” stance that echoes a lot of the online discourse about resisting the digital-only push. There are a bunch of prominent voices, and a very noticeable lack of a response from Sony. That’s definitely making things worse, as the rest of the debate moves to a wider, yet equally relevant perspective.

"David Hayter was more direct, taking a ” no disc, no buy” stance that echoes a lot of the online discourse about resisting the digital-only push."

The Preservation of Trust

Take the issue of preservation of games (or art in general) for instance. That goes beyond reducing the conversation to a binary ” disc good, digital bad” narrative. Frank Cifaldi of the Video Game History Foundation has rightly pointed out that the copy of a game that’s on a physical disc might not be the one that exists outside of it, requiring the download of patches, digital-only content, and perhaps even a second disc if the storage needs of the game in question are too high. The argument here is that they’re imperfect vessels for the preservation of video games to begin with.

So why advocate so hard for their continued existence. Well, they help professional preservation efforts by ensuring that games operate within institutional frameworks that ensure legal access to remedies in the case of efforts to make a game obsolete. Taking a distribution network of physical distribution out of the equation wades deep into murky waters that lack dependable frameworks to address issues around digital-only games.

Sony could have, and perhaps should have, considered these ramifications, and perhaps even proposed solutions to them in order to ensure a better reception to what could be an approach it might not be able to backtrack on (more on that in a minute). But it could try to find a suitable middle ground, and retailers of physical discs are a good place to start. There’s been very vocal pushback from popular companies like GAME, Video Games Plus, GameFly, and Loot Box Gaming. It was PNP’s CEO, Jade Pearce, who launched the “Don’t Kill The Disc” campaign, after all.

Sony’s move is a major blow to their prospects, and was unilateral enough to be seen as a bit of a curve ball. Suggestions that physical and digital games can continue coexisting instead of ruining the used-game trade, rental market, collector markets, and competitive pricing on games are making the rounds, and being picked on by voices that matter. Sony isn’t just dismantling a distribution network, but an entire economy that’s supported by gamers who swear by physical ownership of their games.

It isn’t just companies in the game retail space that are showing support. Many brands have taken an opportunity to chime in on the entire situation with reactions and taglines that take a dig at Sony. It’s a bunch of satire, some of it genuinely funny, but all of it telling of a reputational impact to Sony’s decision that might be hard to recoup later down the line. It indicates that Sony has lost control of the narrative, and in such a catastrophic way that its strategic announcement is now the butt of jokes from other companies in unrelated industries. It’s indicative of a messaging problem, which only gets worse when you factor in what’s coming next.

"It indicates that Sony has lost control of the narrative"

Many sources, have alleged that there was a distinct lack of prior communication about the decision, leaving publishers, business partners, and regional PlayStation operations completely blindsided by the announcement. Reports of a rather high-handed attitude to legitimate questions, which we’d recommend taking with a pinch of salt, are still going to cause further reputational harm, and make rebuilding trust a challenge for Sony the longer they go unaddressed.

The same reports point to a lot of PlayStation brick-and-mortar stores in India being planned for a 2028 launch, plans that aimed for a lot of investment into over a hundred locations. Those stakeholders were apparently left in the dark too, and could have learned of things along with the rest of us. Of course, these are still rumors, but if they are true, Sony’s got a real problem on its hands.

There is the fact that Sony did reach out to publishers to clarify that existing games with physical copies could still be reordered after the 2028 cutoff to consider, as it shows a willingness to clarify, but perhaps a lack of it towards attempts to reach a suitable compromise.

Well, what was supposed to be a distribution decision is now a full-scale trust crisis that Sony has to manage sooner rather than later. It’s got some burning questions to answer around accountability to its partners and stakeholders, around ownership of its products, preserving them, motivating developers to continue working with it, and how it can ensure regional corporate coordination across the board.

It’s easy to see why there seems to be a digital-only future in Sony’s eyes. But what’s lacking clarity is how it aims to address the pitfalls of that vision, and do it in a way that addresses the valid concerns of a group of stakeholders who grow increasingly concerned and irate by the minute. Sony needs to find its place in what is shaping up to be a platform-controlled ecosystem fast.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

You’re a Dinosaur with a Sword

Okay, getting the obvious out of the way immediately: Dinoblade is a prehistoric action-RPG where you take command of a Great Sword-wielding Spinosaurus, setting forth to wage war against an army of rival dinos, each armed-to-the-teeth with similarly sharp weaponry. As far as concepts go, this one’s pretty out there. And whilst it is indeed a fantastical premise, Dinoblade finds its footing in familiar mechanics, where combat, progression, and exploration loops tread ground well-trodden, meaning intuition will see you through the opening exchanges. It’s just that, you know, you’re a dinosaur… with a blade. A “Dinosword”, if you will.

Its Coming From a Solo Developer

Dinoblade comes from the mind of solo creator Jean Nguyen, who is currently cutting their teeth as a Senior Gameplay Animator at Sucker Punch Productions, with credits on Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of Yōtei. The first images of Dinoblade emerged as playful experiments; animations shared to the developer’s social media accounts, where they never expected attention significant enough to warrant a fully-fledged game. Yet, just a few years later, here we are – Nguyen’s pedigree as an animator shines in the Spinosaurus’ fluid, impactful movement, with a prehistoric world thoughtfully designed to funnel you toward your next encounter, not unlike Sucker Punch’s feudal Japanese opuses.

Demo Reviews are “Overwhelmingly Positive”

There’s a free demo on Steam that’s been available to download since October 2025, and in that time the hour-long extract has garnered a significant amount of positive feedback, so much so that its current rating is “overwhelmingly positive”. For English reviews, at least, praise centres largely on the game’s solid combat, readable animations, and memorable dino designs, while citing occasionally jagged edges that’ll hopefully be smoothed out come the full release. If you’re unsure whether such an outlandish concept can work in practice, the demo’s Steam reviews should have you assured.

Story Follows a Meaningful Journey

In Dinoblade’s alternate-history timeline, the existence of dinosaurs, and the trajectory of their future survival, has been reshaped by a mysterious, cataclysmic event. As the young Spinosaurus, you’ll take your sword forged by ancient power to the throat of your adversaries, fighting tooth and nail to prevent a looming extinction. There is, also, an overarching plotline, one of a savage world wrapped in an enigma for you to unravel. The game’s description details said mystery could save your dinosaur species or doom you all for eternity. There’s more than fate at stake, then, as your exploits could have a seismic effect on your habitat’s sustainability.

Combat is Soulslike

Straight outta the FromSoft playbook, Dinoblade’s combat brings light and medium attacks, dodges, and specials, alongside a passively recharging stamina meter that refills fastest when executing a perfect parry. You’ll want to study your opponent’s moveset, be prepared to evade, and time your strikes to land when their defenses are down. Your special manoeuvres – with names like Meteor Slice and Alpha Roar – spend mana points to expel, while glowing health packs, magic points, and XP can be collected from downed opponents and scavenged throughout the environment. And some more elements of Soulslike game design: the world hides alternate paths, and mini-bosses are everywhere.

Character Progression Follows Familiar Paths

Throughout your odyssey you’ll be presented with new skills to learn and level up, alongside attributes such as overall health, damage output, mana use, and stamina power which can be independently boosted with XP. Those special moves just mentioned? They’ll need to be unlocked by spending specialist boss skill points – earned, of course, by downing one of the game’s many mini-bosses. From what’s been shown, Dinoblade’s RPG mechanics do seem light compared to others in the genre. Despite this, there’s still scope to tailor a build to your preferred playstyle; investing in mana to become a special move powerhouse, for instance, or maximising damage output over health and stamina to encourage an aggressive approach that ends fights quickly.

Bosses are Bigger Dinosaurs (With Even Bigger Blades)

So, during Dinoblade’s hour-long demo, our Spinosaurus encounters three bosses: a pair of mini-bosses Kira the Exile and Axe, the latter wielding, unsurprisingly, a serrated axe as their weapon of choice. The demo culminates with Kasei the Tyrant, a T-rex-type who stomps, chomps, and tailwhips with power and purpose. Most strikingly, during the battle’s first phase Kasei swings a poor Ankylosaurus in its jaws, using its hammer-like tail as a weapon. They eventually summon a colossal barndoor on a stick once the Ankylosaurus loses its form, and if this fight is any indication Dinoblade is set to feature a gauntlet of gruelling dino-foes to test your reflexes, spacing, and ability to handle multiple attack patterns at once.

A Posture Meter Turns Parries Into Counters

Because your stamina gauge builds most efficiently through perfect parrying, you’ll want to engage with that mechanic from the outset. But, there’s another reason too: when facing one of the game’s myriad bosses, a posture meter appears beneath their health bar. By executing perfect parries and by landing attacks, the posture meter fills until your opponent becomes staggered and vulnerable. Then you can unleash one of your specials as a devastating counter. It’s not a revolutionary system, sure, but it’ll serve you well during the game’s tougher boss encounters.

Exploration Rewards Curiosity

Whilst combat may be Dinoblade’s primary activity, venturing off the beaten path should prove just as worthwhile. Its prehistoric world is divided into numerous distinct biomes, each adorning their own aesthetic, from millenia-old canyons carved by ancient water-flow, to scorched forests, burnt volcanic plateaus, and mist-strewn jungles. Exploration, however, isn’t just for the scenery – hidden routes conceal optional encounters, valuable resources, and legendary weapons.

Each Biome is Ruled by an Apex Predator

Even though they begin as rudimentary encounters, each biome’s regular, more modestly-sized enemies grow in danger, ultimately channeling the region toward an even greater climax. See, each biome is ruled by an Alpha; an apex predator that blocks the route forward, serving as the area’s defining challenge. Again, this structure isn’t entirely novel, but it does bring a sense of purpose and escalation as you move through the world. And, if the early game is any indication, overcoming an Alpha won’t just mark the end of a level but feel like you’ve earned the right to venture forth into the next untamed wilderness.

Launching to PC Only (So Far)

Scheduled to release on July 23rd, Dinoblade is, so far, set to be playable on PC via Steam only. Depending on how sales fare, the game could find a home on consoles, but currently there is no official information on whether more platforms will ever arrive.

PC Requirements

To comfortably play Dinoblade on your hardware, the system requirements listed on the game’s Steam page detail an Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, a GeForce GTX 1050 4GB or AMD Radeon RX 560 GPU, and 4GB RAM. Storage-wise, you’ll need 13GB.

10. The 9th Charnel

There’s a sense that the development team behind this had grand plans. Multiple playable characters with different backstories, survival mechanics, stealth, “realistic graphics” (their words, not mine) – it seems intriguing enough, until you actually play it. Poor performance, terrible voice acting, awful controls – that it even runs feels like a miracle. Minimal expectations aside, there’s just a sheer lack of redeeming qualities that would make you hope for better. Which sounds like a good time to segue to…

9. Code Violet

On the one hand, what can one expect anything from Teamkill Media in this day and age? Quantum Error was awful, but at least there was some sense that the studio was trying. Failing, sure, but trying all the same to make…something. Son and Bone was a waste of time, and with Code Violet, it appears to have given up even attempting to make an entertaining game. Awful story, awful gameplay, bland characters – the only reason it isn’t higher up is because of the negative hype going in.

8. Bubsy 4D

I wasn’t much of a Bubsy fan back in the day, but I admit that he’s had a rough time of it over the years. So seeing a 3D comeback like this from developer Fabraz was a nice feeling, with some decent humor and an intriguing, if ultimately uninteresting premise. But as it wore on, it became evident that Bubsy, annoying as he could be, was the least of the game’s problems, whether it’s the barren levels, occasionally iffy platforming, or a janky camera. Knowing what the developer is capable of, Bubsy 4D couldn’t measure up, even under little pressure.

7. Aphelion

Aphelion struggles to make a strong impression. Its story may have moments that pull you in, but it never reaches the level of intrigue or emotional weight it seems to be aiming for. The bigger issue is the gameplay, which quickly becomes a drag, with poor controls making even basic interactions feel more frustrating than they should. No one was expecting a sci-fi masterpiece, but it is still surprising how flat and uninteresting Aphelion feels overall.

6. Atomic Heart: Blood on Crystal

Speaking of “uninteresting,” if this were the first DLC for P-3’s bizarre adventure, I could see the reasoning for not expecting much. But this is the finale, the one that sets up the future, never mind the conclusion to the conflict between P-3 and CHAR-les. Instead, we get repetitive combat, annoying and tiresome traversal, and the same awful dialogue that marred the base game. If anything, at least it’s over, and we can move on to better things, even if Blood on Crystal doesn’t inspire much hope for the future.

5. Kiln

Maybe this hits more personally than the others, because you can see the sheer charm and originality in Kiln’s universe. But there’s still no denying how much of a bad idea it was from the word go. I’m all for supporting a studio’s creativity, but a multiplayer arena brawler in this day and age, that too from a team renowned for its single-player efforts? Did Double Fine not see what happened with Ninja Theory and Bleeding Edge? As a whole, Kiln doesn’t even muster above interesting. It’s as insubstantial as they come and all the charm in the world can’t save it.

4. Romeo is a Dead Man

If there’s anything you should take away from its placement on this list, it’s that I very much wanted to like Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest. The style, the atmosphere calling back to Tokusatsu greats like Ultraman and Kamen Rider, and the trippy narrative, which went beyond your average intergalactic hunt for space-time fugitives into something more surreal, were all pretty strong. It’s just that the actual gameplay left so much to be desired, especially with repetitive combat, underwhelming level design, lackluster enemy variety and shoddy performance. While it’s not the worst game of all time, it definitely needed more polish to match its overwhelming sense of style, especially given what the studio has been capable of at its peak.

3. Dead or Alive 6: Last Round

Far be it from the base game to inspire much love, either from long-time fans or fighting game nerds, but you would think in 2026 that Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo would attempt a clean slate. Dead or Alive 7 has been announced, after all. Surely they could revitalize Dead or Alive 6 with revamped mechanics, balance changes, less awful monetization, rollback netcode and a Tag Team mode that fans have been craving for years and years.

Last Round doesn’t offer any of that. In fact, it demands you repurchase all those characters and their costumes at higher prices. And to rub even more salt in the wound, the 2019 version has been delisted, which means you’re paying for a buggier follow-up that’s also trying to fleece you. Is this the same Koei Tecmo that released Nioh 3 and Pokemon Pokopia, two of this year’s best games? While the controversy will likely die down when Dead or Alive 7 rolls around, it’s amazing how well the publisher has effectively killed interest in the series, making anyone who cared about it feel like an utter fool.

2. Starfield: Terran Armada

While it’s only $10 – a far cry from the awful Shattered Space that cost $30 – and Bethesda clearly wasn’t aiming very high, Terran Armada is still frustratingly disappointing. After a year of relative silence, it should have offered a worthwhile narrative to accompany Free Lanes’ many new systems and quality-of-life improvements. It should have been Bethesda overdelivering for the fans in terms of storytelling.

Instead, there’s a new faction, enemy robots, some new ships to battle and commandeer, and Incursions to partake in. Imagine if the menial tasks in Fallout 4 actually became main mission content, against the backdrop of an initially promising story that, once again, flops on the execution. And if you’re a new player, especially with the recent PS5 version, the sheer number of bugs for the DLC alone would make you swear off Bethesda games entirely. Terran Armada may not be Bethesda’s worst ever, but it should have been an opportunity to do better rather than phoning it in.

1. Highguard

Some games fail because of unreasonable expectations, which usually emerge from extensive hype. Which is what made Wildlight Entertainment’s raid hero shooter such a fascinating anomaly. Everyone audibly groaned when it closed out The Game Awards, but the sheer audacity of it all actually drove some manner of anticipation, even if it was to watch the game fail.

The lack of communication leading up to its January launch was equally interpreted as the studio avoiding backlash and perhaps cooking up something special. Then Highguard actually dropped, just as it promised, and it was…not great. A mishmash of wildly conflicting genres, coupled with mostly uninspired heroes, painfully long matches, horrendous optimization, and more, ultimately sullied some interesting environments and solid gunplay.

Less than two months and numerous layoffs later, it was dead. You would think expecting anything from yet another dry live-service title would be folly, but given the studio’s experience, the years in development, and its funding (which may or may not have come from Tencent), it wasn’t your average project in terms of scale. If it ended up enjoyable, who knows how many of those players who checked it out on day one, expecting a massive failure, would have stuck around?

So long, Highguard – we hardly knew ye, but at least you made everyone question that one last announcement at every Summer Game Fest, Game Awards and so on going forward.

From beloved franchises and characters taking to the stage, to ambitious new concepts and studios looking to make a mark for themselves, there’s a lot to look forward to on the horizon if gaming is your jam. Here are a few titles that we think come with a lot of expectations, but are more than capable of delivering on what they promise. The list starts with:

1. Grand Theft Auto 6

We thought it best to give this one its due right up top, since it carries the biggest weight of expectations that other games in the current console generation simply can’t match up to. Rockstar’s going to have to prove it still has what it takes to deliver generational leaps between its titles, beyond just nailing a title whose franchise formula is enough to make it a hit without even trying.

It’s going to have to justify a decade of waiting, most of it quite agonizing, a much-discussed delay very close to its 2025 release, and earn the aura of being the biggest game ever. It’s one of the potential benchmarks against which all open worlds that follow it will be measured, if its predecessor is any indication, and is going to be talked about well beyond its November 19, 2026, release on the PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

How much of that conversation is good remains to be seen, but we’re quite optimistic about this one’s chances.

2. Marvel’s Wolverine

Insomniac’s done pretty well with Spider-Man, capturing the tone and vibe of the comics and films, while building a narrative around Peter Parker, Miles Morales, and the rest of the franchise’s popular cast in ways that stay true to its narrative roots. But can it repeat the same with a character like Wolverine, who brings a literal polar opposite to all the things that made its last superhero effort a hit?

Logan fights differently, feels different, and is different to Peter in so many ways, it’s going to be an uphill task to avoid making him feel like Spidey with claws. But the limited glimpses we’ve been given of what’s on offer in this one show a perfect balance of the character’s near-immortality and a combat system that works well against enemies who are designed to take a beating from him.

The little bit of story that we know of is similarly well-executed, making us believe that the studio has another PS5-exclusive hit on its hands when this one hits the shelves on September 15, 2026.

3. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced

Black Flag is Assassin’s Creed at its finest, no doubt about it. Edward Kenway was the perfect vehicle for bold changes to the gameplay loop, with a pirate-themed formula that worked very well to present his character arc. There’s a reason it’s among the most beloved titles in the franchise, and was a logical choice for a pretty ambitious effort at modernising it from the developer.

But a new combat system, rebuilt visuals, and quality-of-life touches run the risk of sanding away at the very soul of an experience that could make it feel out of place. We’re quite positive about it being the same freewheeling pirate adventure that we know and love, but is it going to be too different by being less messy than what we’re used to? We don’t have too long to wait to find out, as this one’s out on July 9, 2026 for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

4. Halo: Campaign Evolved

Although everything we’ve seen of this one has been impressive, there’s still the nagging suspicion that it might not be enough to alleviate thoughts that the Halo franchise is relying on its past success when it finds itself at a creative slump. Like you, we’re hoping that isn’t the case, and that this one used Master Chief and Combat Evolved’s legacy well enough to ensure that the franchise has a future beyond the glory days of its Bungie era.

It’s a road that’s as risky as it is safe for the Halo brand, but we’re sure that this one’s a solid effort from Halo Studios. It drops on July 28, 2026, as listed by Xbox and is included with Game Pass.

5. Beast of Reincarnation

A single-player Sekiro like game with a very unique premise and a combat system that’s looking more sublime with every showcase it gets are obvious reasons to think that Game Freak might be flying too close to the sun with this one. Can a studio that’s used to making great Pokémon games suddenly take on a challenge like this one?

Turns out that this one might just have everything it needs to prove anyone who doubts it wrong, and do it with style in the process. That goes beyond the scope to specific aspects like the tech, visuals, action design, and the evident high performance requirements it’s going to bring to current-gen hardware given how its experience is set up.

The swordswoman/dog-dependent combat system is going to have to be more than just a gimmick when this one gets out on August 4, 2026, on PS5.

6. Fable

This is a franchise that Xbox should have returned to a long time ago in our opinion. But it’s better late than never, right? Well, not quite. It’s still a risky venture, considering that this modern reboot of a beloved IP has to prove that the franchise’s signature humor is still capable of drawing laughs, and that Albion feels alive enough to make the player feel like they’re indeed at the center of a much grander adventure.

Playground needs to nail down a shift from its Forza-focused approach to a full-blown RPG that’s going to live or die based on how layered it is, and how those layers balance each other out. Xbox is going to be hoping its 1000+ NPCs can make you keep coming back for more when this one drops on February 23, 2027, with Game Pass on day one.

7. The Blood of Dawnwalker

Rebel Wolves might have some really seasoned hands among its ranks, but it still needs to prove itself as a new studio. Weigh those expectations against what The Blood of Dawnwalker has to offer, and you’ve got a title that screams of ambition and innovation in a post-Clair Obscur world. That’s an uphill climb even for the rarest of talent, but Coen looks like he’s the perfect vampire-human hybrid to give this one some forward momentum.

The time-as-a-currency mechanic looks like it’s going to test his abilities quite well, just as well as it supports the story’s choice-based direction, the combat, and the emotional payoff of the consequences to all the choices you made, which are touted to extend beyond this one in a line of planned sequels to it. That’s a lot of pressure for the potential start of a brand-new saga that begins on September 3, 2026, being playable on the PC via Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

8. Phantom Blade Zero

We weren’t afraid to bet big on this one as early as last year, and what we’ve seen of it so far hasn’t changed that opinion in the slightest. But that doesn’t change the fact that those very expectations might be the biggest challenge for its versatile protagonist to beat. Can all the style, obvious substance, and slick combat and traversal mechanics manage to impress us all beyond the first few hours?

If there ever was a game that seems too good to be true, this one’s it. But we’re quite positive that it’s got enough depth and challenge that will work well with great level and enemy design and a combat rhythm that’s quite impressive when it drops on October 29, 2026, bringing its wuxia-inspired experience to the PS5.

9. Silent Hill: Townfall

Following up a very impressive last outing with Silent Hill f, Townfall has two big shoes to fill: it needs to match or exceed the quality of its predecessor, and manage to be an excellent Silent Hill game in the process. More than that, it needs to show us that the franchise has enough meat on its bones to have a future beyond remakes and banking on the nostalgia it brings to those of us lucky enough to witness its rise to fame and prominence.

It needs to show us new horror instead of repackaged trauma, which is saying something considering all the places this franchise has taken us to. But with a full-length, self-contained experience based in Scotland, and a healthy balance between its exploration, new mechanics, and puzzles, we don’t see why this one can’t succeed when it drops on September 24, 2026.

10. Onimusha: The Way of the Sword

The team behind Resident Evil has had quite a good year, but it still needs to prove that it has managed to make this one a modern action franchise that weaves in Soulslikes elements while retaining what made it special over the years. It needs to show us how the classic Onimusha franchise formula can still manage to capture an audience in 2026, with measured swordplay, counter attacks, soul absorption, and everything else that puts it on the map shines through well enough to make it stand out.

It’s releasing right beside The Blood of Dawnwalker, which means it could face some stiff competition from a rival it never saw coming, but we think it’s sure to find its takers, and anyone choosing the other title is bound to visit this one at a later time.

And that’s it for this one. We can’t wait to see if each of the games we’ve talked about here manages to achieve the lofty goals that it’s tackling. But with all the talent that’s backing up the experience they offer, we’re certain that they’re going to be very enjoyable anyway.

And that’s good news for a lot of us, as we’re going to be pretty spoiled for choice in the coming few months.

Why? Well, perks of the job aside, we’ve done that to touch upon what’s different from the original, and how that transforms the experience on offer across the board with a special focus on PC and PS5 Pro. Can the latest Anvil tech make this one go beyond an overhaul of resolutions and textures to make its world feel alive in ways that weren’t possible in the original game? Can that very impressive rendering stack manage to draw you into a familiar story well enough to make you want to do it all again?

Let’s find out!

What’s New?

The Caribbean continues to be the star of the show in Resynced, just as it was in the original Black Flag. It isn’t just the OG experience with a sharper image, and it’s so much more alive this time around that you feel the difference quite early. We’re going to just come out and say that Black Flag was no mean feat when it was first released, and managed to look and feel pretty good for a cross-generational title looking to bridge the PS4 and Xbox One with their predecessors.

But of course, it was limited by the machines it was made to run on, relying on fixed approximations about what its world should look like in any given scenario. It was an approach that worked pretty well for the game back in the day given that it was probably the only way to make such titles look as good as they did. But things have changed now, and the world itself enjoys the kind of adaptability that served Edward as well as it did over his journey from a pirate to an Assassin.

Let’s begin with the seas, since around 60% of the game’s world is made up of it. The upgrades go beyond better reflections, better-looking waves and foam, and more realistic collisions. Those were kind of taken for granted at this point given the extensive showcases the developer has given us all in the run up to Resynced’s release. But it’s in how the water reacts to you, your ship, and the world around it to present a more active sea this time around where the remake shines over the original.

Of course, the illusion of an active sea was always a part of the experience, with Black Flag weaving in wave motion, realistic responses from your ship to the pull and tug of the sea, storms that immediately made your survival a question mark and a matter of accurately reading rogue waves, great foam and how readable naval combat was once you found your sea legs. Well, each of those factors is now even better, with a physicality based water pipeline doing a lot of work under the hood to make the sea feel all the more responsive while looking like an endless vacation spot all at the same time.

New tessellation techniques, volumetric foam generation, dynamic bubble systems, and the way water responds to multiple variables like your ship, the wind, and the weather to generate accurate, realistic reactions every time make for a presentation of the sea that makes it feel like a living canvas just waiting for you to trace lines of adventure on with the Jackdaw as your brush. The seas were always where Black Flag’s best thrills were to be found, and Resynced’s take on them sets its world up for success on many fronts.

Take the weather, for example. It’s changed from being a very good take on realistic weather effects to an entire simulation that constantly works behind the scenes to make the seas feel truly treacherous this time around. You could set out with the sun shining bright on The Jackdaw’s deck, and find yourself in cloudy weather a little while later, all of which happens so seamlessly it can be hard to notice unless you’re actively watching for it.

The Atmos tech is doing its job, allowing variables like temperatures, humidity, the wind, and vapor density to intersect with results that make the weather system in Resynced a logical extension of how it impacted the world in Shadows. Those changing seasons are now a part of the world’s fabric, and it’s honestly impressive to see how the seas can turn against you as if Calypso herself took issue with Edward’s presence in them.

Of course, we’d be remiss not to talk about the new lighting system, which brings fully dynamic lighting and ray tracing to the table to light it, and everything else its rays touch, right up. You’re going to see it working its magic the second you move off a brightly lit street into a shady alley, the environment getting suitably less bright to match the scene while stray rays still sneak past thin leaves to cast thin pockets of light, surrounded by very realistic shadows.

It’s in how the world looks so drastically different and consistently beautiful at both dawn and dusk, each scene being lit up by systems that are dynamically responding to the time of day instead of being pre-rendered to present an approximation of it. The reflections of moisture off your armor or metallic surfaces are so realistically done, as is the spray of the ocean or the damage you do to enemy ships when you take them on.

Embers glide on the wind among raindrops as you unleash The Jackdaw’s might amid a raging storm, and every explosion lights up the pitch blackness of the open seas in ways that make each one feel like a glimpse into the fate that awaits you should your next shot miss. We could go on, but we’re going to say that the new lighting system is an excellent and very welcome upgrade, working well to make the world react as well to light as it does on other fronts.

Of course, the new Anvil Engine has also brought a lot of improvements to other factors like draw distances, visibility in areas where it’s a factor, and camera perspectives that work to elevate the scene being presented. SSD-backed streaming of smaller clusters is amazing on this front, and it’s evident as soon as you whip out your spyglass and peer off into the distance at an island you’re thinking of stopping at. There is no pop-in whatsoever, and the details look excellent.

Sailing towards a fort or settlement lets you see activity in the distance, instead of NPCs just hanging out statically until you alter the world state by initiating conflict. The jungle geometry is a perfect balance between the exploreable ones on offer in Black Flag, and the impenetrably dense foliage that Japan had in Shadows. Rock formations in the distance look as good as city skylines, and the entire rendering system does so well, it feels like Resynced might have needed an entirely new Animus to present a Caribbean simulation that looks and feels so real.

Of course, all of these graphical improvements would mean nothing if the performance didn’t manage to keep up. Well, there’s good news on that front as well.

PC Performance

You can bet we’ve put Resynced through its paces to see how it holds up under pressure. Our PC build includes an NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti, an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, and 16GB of RAM. That’s a reasonably powerful setup, and we set our resolution to 4K with the maximum available settings and DLSS set to Balanced. With that powering the experience, we managed a consistent 45-55 FPS which is pretty good given the recommended setups to run the game at its absolute best.

The official recommendation for 4K/60 FPS gameplay with extended ray tracing and quality upscaling requires an RTX 4090/RX 7900 XTX with a Ryzen Ryzen 7 5700X3D/Core i7-12700K-class CPU. On paper, our setup should have capped out at 1440p/60 FPS at high settings with standard ray tracing and Balanced upscaling. That makes what Resynced managed to offer quite impressive on the performance front considering everything we’ve talked about on the graphical one stretching our system to its limits.

PS5 Pro Is A Powerhouse

Well, that sorts out the PC. What about the PS5 Pro? We know that its Performance Mode offers 2160p upscaling with Enhanced PSSR, 60 FPS, and extended ray tracing while the Fidelity Mode goes for 30 FPS and Balanced goes for 40 FPS with the rest of it remaining the same. There’s specular reflections and ray-traced global illumination on board as well, with strand-based hair for Edward in all modes (you get it on nearby NPCs as well with Fidelity on), and the same across the board in all cinematics.

We tested things out across all three modes and came away impressed with the results, thanks to very little fluctuations in target goal of performance paramerers. We’d personally pick Performance Mode for that silky smooth frame rate and its impact on combat. What’s next? Well we think it a good idea to give you a comparison between the Pro’s Fidelity Mode and our PC. As far as the image is concerned, the PC handled distant geometry a lot better, and edged out the Pro when it came to fine ropes on rigging or vegetation, the foliage itself, and the general level of detail on a sub pixel level. That isn’t really a surprise but what’s surprising is that the Pro doesn’t lag too far behind.

That’s kind of a pattern here, as the ray-traced lighting is similarly effective with the PC managing to edge ahead in who interiors are lit up, how the light handles indirect bounce, transitions between different times of the day, and shaded streets. It’s the same thing with the reflections on oceans, wet floors of decks, metal surfaces, and any surface that’s showing off the aftermath of rains. You’re going to find more details on distant settlements, fortifications, and the silhouettes of cities that you’re approaching through fog or at night.

The strand-based hair tech works just as well on the Pro as it does on the PC although having it in operation at a higher frame rate output on the PC is an advantage. The latter also gets a distinct advantage in how different weather scenes play out, with storm complexity, the ocean’s response to your actions, and the chaos of the sea feeling that much better on the PC versus the Pro’s Fidelity Mode.

Once again, the most impressive part of the comparison is that aside from the lower frame rate, the PS5 Pro hasn’t been completely outclassed by its PC counterpart as far as Resynced is concerned, and you’re going to have a hell of a good time on either system if your PC can come close to the recommended specs from the developer.

With all that’s been said, we suppose you’ve already guessed that as far as graphics and performance are concerned, Black Flag Resynced is quite an impressive upgrade, and an experience that makes the remake feel like an evolution of its world instead of a mere visual overhaul.

We’ve already covered how Edward’s adventure has made the trip from our past to the present in our full review of the game, but as far as the graphics go, this is a fantastic effort at a remake. We’re definitely throwing a hat in the air for the team behind it in appreciation of a job well done.

Advanced Parkour

As smooth as parkour can feel in Resynced, especially with all the modern upgrades, long-time fans will want more control and precision. So head into the Settings and turn on Advanced Parkour. Suddenly, the whole world opens up in terms of parkour opportunities, whether it’s side ejects and back ejects from differing heights, the ability to Parkour Up and Down, and even a Manual Jump. Mastering all this – and the environment – is key to traversal, but it feels so satisfying.

Look and Observe

Eagle Vision returns and still serves the same function as in the original – namely, highlighting enemies, making it easier to track and assassinate them when the situation calls for it. However, Kenway has picked up some new tricks, including the new Observe function from Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Besides tagging enemies, it also highlights different clues and objectives, making it that much easier to get the job done (while also assassinating every jobber in your path).

Disable Alarm Bells

With the number of different stealth, mobility and combat tools available – give it up for the ability to crouch anywhere – it’s always important to remember the basics. Areas like plantations have alarm bells to alert each other when things go wrong, so it’s always ideal to disable them beforehand, thus stopping some random from escalating an already dicey situation.

Fights in Tight Spaces

Parries, takedowns, stagger bars – all that is well and good, but sometimes, you just want to toss some fool. As much as the environment is key for parkour, it’s devastating during combat. For example, an enemy kicked into a wall is subject to a quick takedown. Explosions and sweeps can ground foes before some tactical stabbing. If you’re on a ledge, kick an enemy off and let gravity do the rest, and when outnumbered, funnel them through pathways for those ideal Chain Assassinations.

The Rope Dart

The Rope Dart is a versatile weapon that became available in Sequence 11 of the original – a pretty late time. However, Resynced mixes things up by introducing it in Sequence 3. Why is this important? Because it introduces several ways to open enemies up to attacks, not to mention interrupting them and even pulling any gunmen off high ground. It also allows for distractions, like suspending foes to attract their friends while you sneak by.

The Spyglass

If there’s one thing to take away from sailing the high seas, it’s that you don’t need to attack every single ship. Is it fun? Absolutely, but if you’re seeking out specific upgrades, it’s better ot use the Spyglass. This helpfully marks the different materials each ship is carrying, thus letting you speed up the Jackdaw’s progression.

Always Be Boarding

Fighting other ships and rogue waves while priority targets hound you can make it difficult to board every single vessel. But when the opportunity is available, it’s always worthwhile, since you’ll receive double the rewards. Just make sure to take out the Scouts first to commandeer their muskets and use smoke bombs to take out heavy foes, especially later in the game.

Reach Great Inagua First

We get it – the Caribbean is beautiful, and there’s no shortage of places to explore or side content to take on. But at least hold your horses until you reach Great Inagua and unlock the Hideout later in the story. Not only does it provide access to managing the overhauled fleet, side missions and buildings that can increase maximum passive income and unlock additional slots for said fleet, but you can also take advantage of new facilities like the Treasure Dealer and Fisherman’s Wharf.

Don’t Ignore Templar Hunts

Of course, there’s also that ominous-looking door in the Hideout with a hanging skeleton, which requires multiple keys to unlock. These require completing Templar Hunts, and while they’re a returning activity, there have been a few changes (including better incorporation with the plot). Regardless, it’s worth pursuing each key because they unlock the Templar Armor, granting increased resistance to enemy attacks and more survivability in the process.

New Animus Rifts

For many, Black Flag is as much about the characters – like Blackbeard, James Kidd, and even Kenway himself – as the world, so being able to learn more about them is always a nice touch. And you can do just that courtesy of the new Animus Rifts. There are four, which are completely optional, but they might provide some much-needed narrative closure.

Improving the Jackdaw

As much as plundering other ships will grant resources for upgrading the Jackdaw, you’ll need to partake in several different activities to improve it further. For example, the Heated Shot becomes available after completing the mission “Proper Defenses.” But if you want Heavy Shot and Mortar Bombs, they unlock from the Quartermaster. In the same vein, seizing forts Charlotte and Dry Tortuga can provide Double Shot and Shrapnel. Sample a bit of everything across the Caribbean – it could lead to huge gains.

More Valuable Forts

But if you’re really looking for a priority activity above everything else, it really helps to capture Forts. Besides the above unlocks and usual rewards, they’ll reveal more points of interest across the region, thus highlighting more details. You can also unlock more missions for Kenway’s Fleet, which means even more lucrative opportunities.

Recruit the New Naval Officers

New to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced are the three Officers – Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Tobias “Deadman” Smith – who can join your crew and add new abilities. Lucy’s Perfect Brace further reduces damage taken with the right timing; The Padre’s Ram Dash allows for higher speed ramming; and Deadman lets your broadside weapons unleash another volley in aimed mode. Best of all, they can be recruited without needing to completely wrap up their respective quests (though it doesn’t hurt since you’ll learn more about them).

Dive Anywhere Often

The Diving Bell is still available for some of the existing wrecks, but Resynced now lets you dive anywhere. And while your first thought may be to explore anywhere and everywhere for sunken treasure chests, it also opens up new opportunities for stealth. Instead of sneaking around guards or trying to find the best route to reach a ship as Edward, try diving and getting the drop on them by sea. They won’t see it coming (pun intended).

Customizing the Difficulty

Last but not least, there are three difficulty settings – Forgiving, which is for those who only care about the story; Intended, which is as close as you’re going to get to the original; and Hard, a step up and a real challenge for the legendary seafarers among ye. However, Resynced lets you separately adjust these for combat, stealth, activities and naval combat. Don’t feel like getting bogged down against other ships? Want to push your fighting skills to the limit? Tweak everything to your heart’s content.

Change the crowd pattern before any game

For stadiums where classic crowd patterns exist, you can choose to have the crowd wearing whichever patterns you want at whichever games you want. From a Penn State white-out to an LSU Purple Game in Death Valley, you can decide to have as many or as few of the classic crowd pattern games as you’d like, all customizable from the ready screen.

Modular cameras

There’s an additional new setting that allows you to adjust the preferred camera angles on a number of various occurrences within a game, which vary from the classic pre-play shot to how the camera reacts to when your player scores a touchdown. Head into the Visual Feedback section of the Game Settings and select Modular Camera Settings to set your preferences.

More detailed coverage adjustments (hold L2)

There’s a lot more of an ability to control how your secondary lines up and reacts throughout a particular play. By holding L2/LT, you can now choose more detailed coverage adjustments, including allowing you to tell defensive backs which way to shade their receiver and whether to play more conservatively or more aggressively when a play breaks down.

Coach pep talks

On occasion, when a player gets in their head and goes cold, you will now have the option from the substitution menu to have the coach give the player a pep talk. By doing so, you can calm their nerves and remove the ice from their name, putting them back at the top of their game and giving the team an extra boost in the process.

Custom Adjustments

In addition to the detailed on-field adjustments you can make, there’s also an opportunity to create Custom Adjustments, which include an extensive number of options for how you want the team to respond in certain scenarios. These exist for both offense and defense, and can cover everything from which play type defenders guess to pass catching aggressiveness. Make your own in the Create & Share section from the Main Menu.

Assign TE/HB to chip on a route

Within pre-snap pass protection adjustments, you can now ask any receiver to perform a chip block on a particular defender as they run their route. By pressing the hot route button, if your selected receiver has an eligible defender to block, you can press a button to have them chip that defender and release into their route. This risks the blocker losing the battle and falling down on their route, but if they win, it’s another blocker on a pass rusher.

Coach Mode dynasty

Coach Mode is a new presentation style in Dynasty that allows you to limit your input to calling plays on offense and defense, and in turn you watch each snap play out from the sidelines. This is a nice addition for those looking for a lower-touch way to play, and it can be turned on and customized in Dynasty Settings.

Recruits can change their mind in their top 3 after soft committing

When you’re recruiting for your Dynasty program, like in real life, you can’t always be sure that a commit won’t change their mind. Once you get to a recruit’s top 3 schools, they will sometimes soft commit, which indicates the preference for a certain school but allows the others in the top 3 to continue making an effort to sway them back their way.

Don’t renege on NIL commitments in dynasty

NIL money is a huge aspect of Dynasty recruiting now, both in real life and in game, and one way to quickly turn a recruit off from your school is to promise a certain amount of it and then backtrack on that promise later on in the process. The more you can offer a recruit, the likelier they are to be interested in your school, but be sure you can afford to pay it before you promise it.

Dynasty practice control (wear & tear)

Aside from recruiting and weekly games, the other main Dynasty action each week is to set your players’ practice schedules. If you’re worried about the wear and tear on a player’s body, you can set them to a limited amount of practice to reduce the chance of injury, but players who practice in full have a better chance of starting the game hot.

Put in the work in practice (RTG)

Road to Glory returns a number of minigames that help you improve your character by scoring various medals, and this year’s has streamlined the process to make your practice the main way you earn XP and improve trust with your coaches aside from in-game contributions. If you perform well in practice, you’re more likely to get into position battles and play on Saturdays, so you’ll want to maximize your chances each week.

UT archetypes and upgrades

Within Ultimate Team, players are now more directly linked to positional archetypes, each of which has their own upgrade pathway. By using skill points, you can upgrade individual players, but the upgraded traits depend on their specific archetype, such as a Dual-Threat or Pocket Passer quarterback. As you upgrade players that start with similar traits, they will diverge into two notably different styles based on the different attributes upgraded with each level.

Reset your Road to the CFP schedule

It’s not uncommon for a college team to know their season is going to end as a disappointment before the final game ends. While you can’t reset in real life, this year’s Road to the CFP allows you to reset your schedule if you’re unsatisfied with how a certain season is going. It won’t net you anything, but it’ll save you from having to play through multiple meaningless games just to have the chance to start over.

Unlocking mascots in Mascot Mashup

EA CFB 27 comes with 10 mascots unlocked and over 100 left for you to unlock. While the team select screen shows you that any mascot can be unlocked simply by winning a Play Now game with that team, it’s important to note that you have to play the full game. If you Super Sim or quit out, the mascot won’t be unlocked and you’ll have to start a fresh Play Now session.

Trophy Room (see your progress, with some additions)

The Trophy Room returns from previous years but is built out as a better progression monitor this time. Not only are you able to see each of your save files across different modes as well as the rivalry or bowl trophies you’ve accumulated across all modes, but you can now also see all of your unlocked mascots for Mascot Mashup, all with a sprinkle of historical context. Find the Trophy Room in the More section of the Main Menu.