We’re still scouring every inch of explorable land we can find on Qingzhou’s coasts, and Everstone has shown off Hutuo, a new region with a very interesting storyline that coincides with the game’s 1st anniversary. It’s one heck of a birthday party too, with battles that showcase scale, wanton violence, and the cost of war. It’s clearly taking its toll on your character once you visit the region, building to a climactic battle where several heroes are set to join the fray at Zhongdu Bridge, fighting at your side on November 13th.

Everstone has already confirmed a first anniversary broadcast on November 2nd, so expect more details on what’s new in the region. But for now, the announcement trailer below should get you excited about an addition to the game that’s quite a departure from its lighter, more optimistic tone. Could Phantom Blade Zero’s debut in the world of wuxia be challenging this one’s throne? We’ve talked about that, if you’re interested. You can also check out our review of the base game, out on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, iOS, and Android.

With end-of-service looming on the horizon for Pokémon Unite, all sales of Aeos gems have been suspended in the game. Players who already own some of these gems will be able to use them up in the in-game shop, however. Similarly, the title will also end the acceptance of new players into the Unite Club subscription services. Current members will continue to enjoy benefits associated with the subscription.

While details about the special event haven’t yet been revealed, the companies have confirmed that it will kick off on November 12th and will continue until Pokémon Unite’s servers go offline. The event will include plenty of rewards for players to earn, including cosmetics, and its kick-off will be accompanied by the release of the new “Library” feature that keeps track of players’ various accomplishments throughout their time with the game.

The library will only be accessible until March 23rd, following which players who want access to their data will need to have already completed the required download. Those who didn’t manage to download this in time will be unable to use the feature.

When Pokémon Unite finally goes offline, none of its various game modes will remain playable, including single-player matches involving bots. Leading up to this date, the companies have confirmed that the planned Pokémon Unite Aeos Crown 2027 Tokyo Competitive tournament will go ahead as planned, with qualifier tournaments kicking off on December 5th.

Pokémon Unite originally came out on the Nintendo Switch to generally positive reviews, with our own giving it a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its streamlined and simplified gameplay, great onboarding, high production values, and straightforward controls. However, at the time, we noted that the title had incredibly aggressive monetization that veered towards pay-to-win, and this aspect had only gotten worse since then.

The title eventually made its way to Android and iOS in the same year, and even went on to win Google Play’s Game of the Year Award for 2021 as the “Best Game” available on the platform. The user’s choice award for that year went to Garena Free Fire Max. This award coincided with the title having surpassed 25 million downloads at the time.

Pokémon Unite is a MOBA in the vein of Dota 2 and League of Legends that takes place on Aeos Island. The player is put on the island and tasked with partaking in a variety of battles against others, all while Professor Phorus and her researcher assistant Erbie try to uncover the secrets behind the mysterious Aeos Energy. A typical game in Pokémon Unite involves two teams of five players each competing to score points by collecting energy and beating wild Pokémon.

AdHoc Studio has dropped a couple of welcome announcements to celebrate the milestone, starting with iOS and Android ports on December 9. Pre-registrations open soon, with the first four episodes free to all and the rest locked behind a $19.99 purchase.

But that’s not all, as Deluxe Edition have something to cheer about. A new update adds over 16 hours of cast and crew commentary in a new Commentary Mode, so you can hear what the likes of Laura Bailey, Aaron Paul, and many others thought about their time on set.

There’s also a new Storyboard Mode that lets you experience the game in its original “storyboard animatics”, which is a novel way to encourage another playthrough. For our part, we probably would have just agreed to one even without the new stuff.

That’s a testament to the lasting appeal of a game that left quite the impression on us when we reviewed it. The trailers below should highlight why.

The studio has explained that this launch preview for Football Manager 27 replaces what used to be referred to as the beta or advanced access typically offered through more expensive editions of the franchise. Along with this, players won’t have to worry about starting from scratch if they decide to pick up the full game, as their save data will transfer over in its entirety.

The announcement comes a year after Football Manager 26 was released to mixed reviews, sitting at an aggregate critic rating of 68 on Metacritic and a user score of 3.0. The title was widely panned due to a variety of technical issues, with many players also criticizing the brand-new interface that made its debut with the game. Players also said that the game’s simulation of football matches didn’t quite work well, with none of the players’ decisions having major impacts on the outcome of any match.

In our own review, we gave Football Manager 26 a score of 8 out of 10, praising its overhauled gameplay, matchday experience, and detail-oriented management systems, while criticizing its frustrating UI issues and a host of technical bugs and glitches. At the time, we ended up praising the game for laying the foundation on top of which the franchise can continue to evolve.

As for Football Manager 27, Sports Interactive has said that the title features enhancements to the match engine along with new layers of control throughout its various management systems thanks to the addition of new systems like Tactical Tweaks and Tactical Effectiveness. The match day experience is also getting some improvements with new dynamic cutscenes that can build up excitement during the pre-match build-up. Along with this, crowds, weather, and lighting effects have also seen upgrades.

When it comes to moment-to-moment gameplay, Football Manager 27 is also bringing in UI enhancements which the developer has noted will give players the ability to switch between various important windows with fewer clicks. This was achieved with “smarter navigation” and a “more intuitive full screen experience” that can scale with the size of a player’s display without having to hide important information.

The introduction of Tactical Effectiveness to the training system gives players a greater degree of control over the performance of their teams. Among other things, it features the return of the ability to replicate training schedules, with the interface itself providing plenty of visual cues to make sure that the player knows exactly what each one of their athletes is doing and how well they are doing it.

Football Manager 27 is making its way to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and smartphones through Netflix and Apple Arcade.

The first thing that catches our attention in this new gameplay trailer is how gorgeous it all looks, which makes us wonder what things will look like once Nvidia DLSS 5 comes into play. Those visuals bring interesting battles against clearly talented opponents to life, and we’re particularly interested in the one on a boat, which brings a side-scrolling perspective to the fight. Of course, that dark room and its many-limbed occupant are a mystery we’re definitely making a beeline for.

However, it’s those little martial-arts-based mini-games, one of which the trailer showcases, that are the real stars of the show in our eyes. We’re quite sure it’ll be hard to pass up a few quick rounds on the way to your next story beat or random destination, and it should be equally challenging. Well, that’s the mark of an open world that’s worth exploring, so bring it on, we say. Qingzhou is available now for free on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, iOS, and Android.

It’s come a long way since its not-so-humble beginnings, launching several expansions and new chapters. Everstone has chosen the perfect moment to tell us there’s a new update scheduled for next month, bringing Nvidia DLSS 5 support to the game. That means you’ll want to revisit all those stunning locales you’ve spent so many hours in, since neural rendering can give them a new look and feel when done right. It seems to be the case with Where Winds Meet, and the new trailer revealed with the announcement offers a look at various environments with DLSS 5 active.

The results are nothing short of stunning, and it should make Qingzhou, the new region launching next week, stand out even more. We’ll keep revisiting the trailer below until then, since we doubt those beautiful locations will grow tiresome anytime soon. Of course, we’ll also test it ourselves once the update drops, and spend more than a few hours clicking photos of the best vistas that catch our eye.

Among other things, Houser noted that Bully’s unique concept, which used a school as its primary setting, led to the team struggling quite a bit while developing it. While the team itself was unsure about whether or not Bully would turn out to be a good game, it ultimately “came together really well”.

“The development was hard. The game was in trouble all of the time. It was difficult. It was an out-there concept. We were struggling with it. I wasn’t sure it was going to be any good. We really wanted it to come together. It was really fun afterwards because it came together really well. The team did a great job. It was a sort of really strong game at the end. It kind of came together very late.”

Houser went on to talk about how creating a new IP was quite difficult for the studio that had become quite popular around the time it was working on Bully due to the critical and commercial success of games like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This, along with the game’s controversial name, led to quite a bit of misunderstanding amongst the populace as well.

“So I think one of the challenges with that game was it never got the attention it deserved. We were too focused on trying to at least get people to stock it or to not protest it before it even came out.”

Rockstar Games was no stranger to controversy during the mid-2000s, thanks to releases like Manhunt and even the infamous Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

“We had to spend most of 2006 diffusing it, so we couldn’t positively promote the game in the way we normally would’ve done. I think that didn’t help it. I mean, that was the same time as Hot Coffee, and it felt like things were imploding. It was very stressful. And just go to work each day, wonder who’s protesting you that day, and hope that things can shake out properly. I wasn’t directly involved. Luckily, I was just sort of right off to the side, and wasn’t directly involved in organizing most of that stuff. But it was really stressful for the people involved.”

Discussing how the core gameplay of Bully started to come together, Houser noted that members of the development team were still quite confused about what players would do in it, since it didn’t have things like guns and cars. Eventually, however, the project’s lead designer started adding concepts into the game like the school’s class schedule and lessons.

“Then, one of the designers put this thing where you could stick a Post-it note on the back of a character that said ‘Kick me’ on it. Then an NPC would run up and kick them. And just seeing that work, you’re like, that’s a great moment. So then you’re, okay, we’re starting to get somewhere. So I think that moment was probably when I always remember going, this IP that wouldn’t work in a GTA, obviously; it’s not interesting. But as a kid, and suddenly it was the scale of the school and the scale of a kid’s life, it started to feel really fun.”

Currently, Bully is playable on PC, PS2, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and the Nintendo Wii through various means. PlayStation users can grab it through the digital re-release, while Xbox One and Series X/S users can access it through backwards compatibility for the Xbox 360 version.

While few other details about the port have been revealed, it will also likely feature specially developed touch controls that make gameplay on smartphones and tablets easier. Along with this, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see the Android version of Replaced also get compatibility with gamepads, allowing for more refined control schemes even on mobile.

Replaced was released across PC and Xbox Series X/S earlier this year, and has a great critical reception, with its Metacritic rating sitting at 76. In our own review, we gave it a score of 7 out of 10 thanks to its gorgeous pixel art visual style that has been beautifully animated and well-lit, excellent world-building, and satisfying combat. Our only complaints revolved around the clunkiness of the Pickaxe in the game’s 2.5D plane and the slow pacing of its story.

Back in August 2025, Sad Cat Studios co-founder Igor Gritsay had revealed more details about why the team decided to go with the 2.5D art style that melds 3D assets with pixel art. He noted that the team wanted to make a visually striking game but lacked the budget to make a AAA-level title.

“You don’t see many of those games like Inside, maybe Little Nightmares and stuff, but those are far in between. And this is for a reason, because even if a game is fully 3D, it’s really difficult to compose everything in a cinematic way. But we shot ourselves in the leg with doing all the pixel art because, to do proper camera work so that you don’t break the illusion of sprites being 2D is a lot of work.”

Interestingly, Gritsay said that the team thought that going with the 2.5D art style would end up being easier, and ultimately concluded the discussion by saying: “spoiler alert, it was not.”

His statement was accompanied by a video that gave us a look at its gameplay. Replaced puts players in the shoes of an AI named R.E.A.C.H. as they explore the cyberpunk world to uncover deep secrets and webs of conspiracies. There is a heavy emphasis on exploration throughout the game, with several hostile encounters thrown in, allowing players to flex their melee and ranged combat capabilities.

The main setting of Replaced is a dystopian world that has a vast amount of income inequality, with an entire category of people being called “disposals”. These people were previously victims of corporations that have stolen their organs and thrown the survivors out of the city.

For more details about Replaced, take a look at our interview with Gritsay and director Yura Zhdanovich, where we discussed the studio’s inspirations, how the team managed to balance melee and ranged combat, and how exploration became one of the core gameplay pillars of the title.

While Haunted Chocolatier will certainly feature elements of living a life in a small town in the vein of Stardew Valley, Barone has said that there will be more of an emphasis on dungeon crawling, adventuring, and discovering new equipment that results in power boosts.

“It is still what I call a town game. But it’s more of an action RPG – the main focus is more about adventuring, finding equipment, and getting more powerful. There are monsters, there are boss fights. It’s for the people in Stardew Valley that go into the mines. That’s what I do, honestly.”

As for Haunted Chocolatier taking quite a bit of time to develop, Barone apologizes. Recalling the days of developing Stardew Valley when he didn’t quite have the fame afforded to him by the success of the life sim, Barone says that he misses a time when there wasn’t an audience, and expectations weren’t quite so high.

“I’ve been struggling with that because I really want to recapture that feeling that I had when I was making Stardew Valley. Back then, there was no audience, there was no precedent. Everyone’s watching me, and if I don’t do things a certain way, it might disappoint millions of people.”

Despite this, Barone is also adamant about not showcasing Haunted Chocolatier before it’s actually ready. “No one’s playing the game until I’m ready to show it. If you have a turkey in the oven. You’re not going to pull it out halfway and have the guests taste it, right? It needs to be done.”

While Haunted Chocolatier was announced all the way back in 2021, in the years since then, Barone has chosen to take frequent breaks from its development to instead work on brand-new content for Stardew Valley. In 2022, Barone said that players will need to wait for quite some time before they get to play Haunted Chocolatier, since it’s going to be “a big game”.

“I have a big, ambitious vision for it. It’s a little bit daunting, the amount of work that it’s going to be. But Stardew Valley took me four and a half years; I’ve been working on Haunted Chocolatier for about a year and a half or maybe two years now. I announced it a little bit over a year ago, but it’s still gonna be a while. But I think it’s going good. So far. There’s a lot of good things so far.”

In the meantime, Barone has kept up with support for Stardew Valley, bringing in a variety of new features and content to the game. He is also working on yet another update. Dubbed 1.7, he hasn’t revealed any details about it.

In the meantime, the company plans to continue supporting the title until it gets taken down, with its next season of content still slated for release in the coming week. When its servers are taken down, Rainbow Six Mobile will also likely end up being delisted from Google Play and the App Store since the title didn’t really feature much in the way of offline single-player content.

“One of the greatest parts of this adventure has been getting to experience it alongside you. We’ve loved seeing the memes, videos, strategies, tournaments, impossible plays, and all the countless moments that happened because you were here.

“While we are proud of what this team and community have built together, our team will move on to other long-term strategic projects.”

More details about the end-of-service for Rainbow Six Mobile will be revealed in the coming weeks, allowing players to better prepare for the game’s eventual shutdown. “Thank you for being part of Rainbow Six Mobile and for everything you have brought to this community. We are truly grateful to everyone who has played our game,” said the development team.

Rainbow Six Siege was originally announced all the way back in April 2022. The title was described as featuring the same 5v5 PvP multiplayer as offered by Rainbow Six Siege, with teams being split into Attackers and Defenders depending on the map. Along with a large roster of playable Operators, Rainbow Six Mobile also featured maps with destructible environments, and during its announcement, Ubisoft had confirmed that fan favorites like Bank and Border would be making their way into the smartphone game as well.

The title got quite a bit of testing before its eventual launch earlier this year, allowing Ubisoft plenty of time to fine-tune its various gameplay mechanics and potential balance issues before the shooter was released to the millions of Android and iOS users across the world.

In 2022, the development team had even discussed Rainbow Six Mobile with us in great detail, revealing details about its various aspects like monetization plans, post-launch roadmaps, and even how the team decided on an appropriate control scheme.

As for PC and console, Rainbow Six Siege went through a rebrand, dubbed Rainbow Six Siege X, just last year. The rebrand came alongside the shooter going free-to-play, as well as Ubisoft adding a host of new features, visual improvements, and even a new game mode to the title.

More recently, Ubisoft has announced an expansion to the Rainbow Six franchise with Rainbow Six Tactics. The title was unveiled with a trailer in August and is slated for release in 2027. Not too many details about the turn-based tactics game have been announced yet, however.