The headlining feature of the update is the new U-Bahn questline, which revolves around the player discovering secrets hidden beneath the game’s setting of Grand Chien since World War 2. The quest brings with it new challenges for mid-game, as well as new scenarios that players can take on in their late-game campaigns.

Along with the new questline, the update also brings with it a new underground transport system, seven new maps within a laboratory complex, a new revamped Conflict screen, the ability to select multiple items in the inventory, an overhaul to the Sector stash, tweaks to Operators, and general fixes and adjustment.

Jagged Alliance 3 has been out on PC since July, with a release on consoles coming in November. For more details on the game, check out our review.

There are two trailers, with one showcasing the Xbox controller and the other showcasing the PlayStation controller. Both videos essentially act as tutorials for how the game will play without the use of a mouse and keyboard combo. This ranges from explaining camera movement, to more minute aspects like navigation, conversations, and even the use of the Command menu.

The console release for Jagged Alliance 3 was announced back in September. The release will include cross-generation multiplayer, allowing PS4 and PS5 players to play together, and similarly, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S players to play together.

For more details on the original PC release of Jagged Alliance 3, check out our review.

The console release of Jagged Alliance 3 will include cross-generation multiplayer, which allows PS4 players to play with PS5 players, and similarly, Xbox One players can play with Xbox Series X/S players. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be an option for cross-platform multiplayer.

Jagged Alliance 3 is the first major release in the franchise since Jagged Alliance 2 over two decades ago. While there have been smaller releases in the Jagged Alliance franchise between the release of 2 and 3, they have been largely forgotten due to middling critical and commercial response.

For more details on Jagged Alliance 3, check out our review of the original PC release of the game.

For those among us who might have missed out on playing the previous Jagged Alliance games, the series essentially revolves around you hiring a group of mercenaries and leading them into battles against some sort of cartoonishly-evil villain. What makes the series standout, however, was the general tone in the games bordering on being parodies of classic hallmarks of action, like the Soldier of Fortune magazines or the movie Commando. Coupled with in-depth brutally-realistic combat for its time, the Jagged Alliance games were incredibly unique takes on a genre that is typically dominated by either military realism or left to the realm of high fantasy.

Despite not being developed by the now-defunct studio Sir-Tech, Jagged Alliance 3 still manages to continue the series tradition of offering turn-based combat that makes good use of more realistic concepts, while still bringing in an incredibly level of levity from its tone, and how over-the-top just about every single thing can be. This includes the cartoonish motivations of the antagonist known only as The Major, how time can be spent between missions, and even the fact that you can essentially hire highly-skilled mercenaries over the Internet.

"Jagged Alliance 3 still manages to continue the series tradition of offering turn-based combat that makes good use of more realistic concepts, while still bringing in an incredibly level of levity from its tone"

At its core, while Jagged Alliance 3 can be compared to something like XCOM 2, these comparisons fall apart once you get into the nitty-gritty of the game’s various mechanics. For example, rather than being randomly-generated, the mercenaries in Jagged Alliance 3 actually have a lot of personality, which helps quite a bit in some of the game’s more RPG-centric aspects. Outside of battle, you’ll still find yourself taking on a fair bit of management work, however, from making sure that your captured outposts are safe and secure, to training your mercenaries, all the while keeping an eye on your ever-dwindling cash reserves.

When you start out, Jagged Alliance 3 doesn’t take too long to kick things into high gear. You’re given the basic setup: the president of the country Grand Chien has been kidnapped by The Major. The president’s family decides to pool their resources and hire you to take their country back from the paramilitary group The Legion. You’re quickly thrown into the fray; hire a few mercs depending on what you think you’re going to end up needing and go rescue the president.

While Jagged Alliance 3 doesn’t have many of the rougher edges of its predecessors—earlier battles aren’t really going to be too difficult as long as you don’t go in guns blazing—it still rewards strategic thinking to quite an extent. Stealth is an incredible tool, for example, and can allow you to set up intricate ambushes before you take your first shot.

"You’re quickly thrown into the fray; hire a few mercs depending on what you think you’re going to end up needing and go rescue the president."

When it comes to the core gameplay in its battles, Jagged Alliance 3 offers plenty of depth, both in terms of choices as well as in outcomes. Depending on your mercenaries’ equipment, you can have a number of options to deal with enemies, from taking them out with a silenced pistol while maintaining stealth, to going for a quick, tactical kill with the precision of a sniper rifle, to just going in guns-blazing while your medic throws grenades all over the place. When it comes to outcomes, you can leave your own mark on the battlefield by, among other things, destroying cover, turning your enemies’ weapon encampments against them, or even just by doing something as simple as avoiding most enemies and focusing on your main target instead.

Quite a few things can affect how battles play out, from the availability of cover, the general visibility in the area due to buildings or foliage, or even just the simple fact of whether or not someone’s wearing the right kind of armor. Couple that with the level of weapon and equipment customization, and the number of options in just about every aspect of how you might want to handle missions.

Outside of battles, Jagged Alliance 3 more closely resembles an RPG than anything else. You’re going to spend quite a bit of time talking to people, gathering supplies, and taking on side-quests that will ultimately reward you with greater funds and equipment. You’re also given quite a bit of control in just how you go about outfitting your mercenaries, be it in terms of weaponry, armor, or other equipment. You’ll also be doing quite a bit of management work. Aside from acquiring all of your weapons and equipment, you’ll also be juggling the contracts of your various mercenaries, dealing with their training, as well as having them conduct extra operations like scouting or training local militia, and negotiating with them when their contract is up.

"Outside of battles, Jagged Alliance 3 more closely resembles an RPG than anything else."

Unfortunately, some of the managerial aspects of gameplay might start feeling a bit tedious. After all, who enjoys having to do financial forecasts and analysis to decide whether training a militia is the best financial option for your group of mercenaries right now. Couple that with the fact that running low on funds can be especially crippling if it also coincides with the contracts of your mercenaries running out, renegotiation can be expensive, and that cheaper mercenaries might not have the skills to match your current needs.

Thankfully, the unique personalities all of the mercenaries show off makes dealing with their nonsense almost entirely worth it. While not particularly deep characters, the mercenaries are essentially parodies of just about every action movie trope you can imagine. From the mysterious Dr. Q being adept at using medicine, to the well-defined muscles of Steroid, to the utter insanity of Ivan’s skills with a gun, just about every action movie archetype, trope, or cliche you can imagine is represented in some shape or form in Jagged Alliance 3.

On the technical side of things, Jagged Alliance 3 is a decent looking game. It does a great job of making use of a vivid color palette, making just the right things pop while keeping other things obscured. In terms of performance, I was able to maintain a steady frame rate while pumping just about every graphical option as high as it could go. For context, the game was reviewed on a mid-range PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti. The game also managed to hold its own on the Steam Deck after tinkering with the settings, but at the time of writing, it lacked a good control scheme option, leaving you with the trackpad and triggers as your best choice.

"It does a great job of making use of a vivid color palette, making just the right things pop while keeping other things obscured."

Jagged Alliance 3 does a great job of bringing a classic franchise to a modern audience. While managing to hold on to the depth of gameplay the franchise is known for, it still does a great job of introducing new players to its many systems and nuances, and the over-the-top writing is difficult to not enjoy. The RPG and management aspects work quite well with the minute-to-minute combat gameplay to make Jagged Alliance 3 an incredibly unique title, with maybe BattleTech and Phantom Brigade being the only other similar options.

If playing a turn-based take on classic action movies, complete with the silliness in terms of writing and characters that the genre is known for appeals to you, Jagged Alliance 3 is definitely something you want to check out.

This game was reviewed on PC.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie

While many may see this as yet another Trails title in the long-running series, for many, it’s the conclusion of a journey that ended somewhat abruptly in 2020. The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie takes place after the events of Cold Steel 4 and sees Erebonia at peace. However, trouble begins to stir once more. This time, there are three different character paths to pursue. Lloyd Bannings and the Special Support Section seek to protect Crossbell; Rean Schwarzer and Class VII deal with the aftermath of the Great Twilight; and a mysterious individual named C butts heads with both.

Players can switch between each protagonist with the Crossroads system and venture into the True Reverie Corridor, a randomly generated dungeon with its own side content, characters, and events. Even if the wait for the next entry is long, fans can finally see the Erebonian saga come to a close when The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie launches on July 7th for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals

Oxenfree fans can finally continue the mind-bending journey that began in 2016. Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals is set five years later and sees protagonist Riley returning to her hometown. Mysterious events are occurring again, thanks to strange electromagnetic waves, and she’s determined to find the cause. Once again, conversations play out in real time, and your choices influence the story’s direction, the bonds forged, and Riley’s personality.

You can use the new walkie-talkie to speak to (or ignore) the locals and maybe learn more about the mysterious Parentage. Space-time travel, bigger stakes and more await as everything rests on your shoulders. Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals launches on July 12th for PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android, and we can’t wait to see what twists await.

Exoprimal

There have probably been enough jokes about someone at Capcom thinking, “But what if Horde mode Dino Crisis with power suits?” Nevertheless, Exoprimal looks very interesting. Set in 2040, where outbreaks of thousands of dinosaurs occur constantly, players join a squad of exosuit pilots to stem the tide. An AI known as Leviathan is used to predict the outbreaks, but before you know it, time travel is involved. What is Leviathan’s goal with its simulations, and can players resolve the mysteries of the dinosaurs?

The story unfolds through the co-op Dino Survival mode, as two squads of five players compete in various maps to complete objectives. Sometimes you may go head-to-head, but you can forgo PvP entirely. Gather clues to learn more, and pilot several different Exosuits, each with unique roles and capabilities, whether healing allies with Nimbus, tanking damage as Murasame, or taking down hordes of enemies with Zephyr.

Exoprimal launches on July 14th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC, and is also coming to Game Pass on day one.

Pikmin 4

What happens when Captain Olimar crash-lands on a planet and the Rescue Corps sent to retrieve him also crashes? It’s the job of a recruit, aka You, to save everyone, once again corralling and commanding hordes of Pikmin to help.

Releasing on July 21st for Nintendo Switch, Pikmin 4 allows for customizing your character, collecting treasures and exploring the environment to rescue any castaways. A new dog-like creature Oatchi helps out, serving as a mount and also battling some of the hostile monsters that abound. Players can also explore at night, tackling tougher threats and using the new Glow Pikmin.

Throw in a mysterious individual who also seems to be after the castaways, leading to Dandori Battles, where you compete to gather the most objects, and Pikmin 4 seems to have a lot in store for series fans. Newcomers can download a free demo from the eShop, allowing them to sample the gameplay and transfer progress to continue in the full game.

Remnant 2

Defying expectations, Remnant: From the Ashes went from relatively no buzz to a beloved third-person shooter Souls-like that sold over 3 million copies. With Remnant 2, Gunfire Games is going much bigger with new worlds, weapons, armor, enemies, bosses and an increased scale. Taking place nearly 20 years after the events of Subject 2923, Ward 13 is at peace. However, with The Root continuing to spread to other worlds via The Labyrinth, players suit up to try and stop it.

Instead of classes, players have Archetypes, which allow for multi-classing and mixing and matching Skills and Traits. The random world generation is also kicked up a notch, as you’ll explore new biomes with unique quests and enemies on each playthrough, leading to more replay value. Remnant 2 is out on July 25th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PC)

Roughly two years and several other PS5 titles on PC later, Insomniac Games’ Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is finally coming to Steam and the Epic Games Store. Launching on July 26th, it supports 21:9 and 32:9 Ultra-wide displays. For the triple monitor owners, it even has 48:9 support. Ray-traced reflections are a given, but you also get unlocked frame rates and ray-traced shadows for exteriors.

There’s support for the haptic feedback and dynamic triggers on DualSense in addition to the keyboard and mouse (not to mention other controller options). Upscaling solutions like Nvidia DLSS 3, AMD FSR2, Intel XeSS and Insomniac’s Temporal Injection are also supported. If this isn’t enough, you can also use DLAA to improve the image quality and Reflex for more responsive controls.

Honestly, just hearing that Nixxes is handling the port is good enough for us, as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart is an incredible dimension-hopping 3D platformer.

Disney Illusion Island

Remember that gorgeous-looking 2D platformer starring Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy that Disney announced? Good news – it’s not dead. Disney Illusion Island recently received a new trailer ahead of its July 28th release, and it looks as sharp as ever. The story sees Mickey and the crew venturing to Monoth Island to recover three books. Along with platforming challenges and puzzles, they’ll take on bosses with their unique abilities and delve more into the island’s various mysteries.

The hand-drawn animation, familiar voices and charming soundtrack will draw you in, and there’s also four-player couch co-op support with unique skills for helping each other out. With its adorable visuals and sleek presentation, Disney Illusion Island could fill the hole that Rayman Origins and Legends have left for party platformers.

F1 Manager 2023

It’s easy to be wary of F1 Manager 2023, especially considering how Frontier Developments handled the post-launch support of its predecessor. Nevertheless, with 23 races, new tracks like the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, and the new Race Replay for reliving the 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship, there are some interesting bells and whistles. You can also embody a team during big moments in the season using Race Moments.

Frontier also promises better drive AI and “refinements to racing lines, overtakes and incidents.” F1 Manager 2023 launches on July 31st for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. Hopefully, it’s a step up from its predecessor.

Jagged Alliance 3

The latest entry in the classic squad-based tactical strategy series, Jagged Alliance 3, sees players assembling a team of mercenaries to rescue the President of Grand Chien and defeat The Legion. Mercenaries come with different personalities and quirks, and some familiar faces are returning. However, all tactical decisions rest with the player, whether you’re customizing weapons and load-outs, battling enemy forces or capturing territory.

Jagged Alliance 3 offers an open structure with plenty of freedom, and you can experience the campaign alone or with a friend in co-op. It’s out on July 14th, exclusively for PC. Will it end up with fewer issues than developer Haemimont Games’ Park Beyond? One can certainly hope.

The Expanse: A Telltale Series Episode 1

Telltale Games is working with Alcon and Deck Nine Games for a new narrative adventure based on the popular sci-fi series, The Expanse. As a prequel to the TV series, it sees Camina Drummer (played by Cara Gee) and her crew on the Artemis exploring The Belt, salvaging space ships and having all kinds of run-ins.

As with classic Telltale titles, your decisions matter and can be the difference between valuable supplies or your crewmate losing a leg. The Expanse: A Telltale Series launches July 27th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store. However, this marks the debut of Episode 1 – four more episodes are coming, each releasing two weeks afterwards.

Synapse

Among the many new titles coming to PlayStation VR2 is Synapse, a first-person shooter from nDreams starring David Hayter and Jennifer Hale. As an operative tasked with investigating Colonel Peter Conrad, who is threatening a world-ending catastrophe, you venture into the latter’s mind, battling through surreal environments while gathering clues on his weapon.

The Heart of Darkness inspiration isn’t exactly subtle, but seeing Hayter play Conrad, lending his signature charisma to what should be an intriguing villain, will be interesting. It also doesn’t hurt that the shooting and visuals look good. Synapse is out on July 4th for PlayStation VR2.

Ed-0: Zombie Uprising

From Lancarse, the team behind duds like The Diofield Chronicle, comes Ed-0: Zombie Uprising. Though it has some role-playing elements, this is a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler with randomly generated environments where you slay hordes of zombies in the Edo period. Play as a Samurai, Sumo Wrestler or Ninja, discover over 150 items and skills, and battle bosses.

Will this result in the zombies not turning Japan into a deadman wonderland? Probably not, but it should make for some mindless fun. Ed-0: Zombie Uprising is currently available in early access for PC but exits on July 13th while also being available for Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

Atelier Marie Remake: The Alchemist of Salburg

You may be familiar with the Atelier series, specifically Ryza and Sophie, but how about returning to where it all began? Atelier Marie: The Alchemist of Salburg kickstarted the RPG series, and it’s getting the remake treatment on July 12th on PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. The visuals are updated, with cute 3D character models and stages, while event illustrations are now animated.

Thankfully, the tutorial, exploration and collecting of materials have been improved. Long-time fans can look forward to new events and characters, but if you’re dreading the five-year time limit that past Atelier games are known for, don’t worry, as the new Unlimited Mode lets you play at your own pace.

Blackout Protocol

A twin-stick co-op shooter with rogue-lite elements vaguely based on the SCP? That’s Blackout Protocol in a nutshell. It launches on July 20th for PC as an early access title and sees the S2P Corporation venturing through Sector 13 to deal with supernatural entities. Shrouded in darkness, you must deal with randomly changing environments and friendly fire, using light to guide the way.

Some entities react differently to being illuminated, further adding to the unpredictability and your Panic Gauge, which can result in debilitating conditions. With skills that carry over between runs, you have to survive more than a few deaths to reach the bottom.

Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara

If you’re looking for a more laid-back platforming experience, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara may be worth checking out. It sees Koa and Napopo journeying through the world of Mara (which some may recognize from Summer in Mara) and discovering all kinds of things, from pirates to volcanoes. There are collectables to collect and secrets to uncover, but those keen on speedrunning also have options.

With eight different levels, skins to unlock, characters to meet, and sailing, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara promises a fun, colorful adventure. It releases on July 27th for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.