Whether you agree or disagree on how generic it looks, the decision to feature it last apparently wasn’t the developer’s. Forbes’ Paul Tassi recently heard that, “Highguard did not actually pay for that Game Awards finale spot.” It was apparently “just the show putting it there.” Some theorize that it’s due to host and producer Geoff Keighley enjoying the game and wanting to highlight it.

There have certainly been worse reasons, but whatever the case may be, it would make sense. Established in February 2023, Wildlight is fairly sizable (over 100 developers) based on its official website, but Highguard doesn’t have the backing of a major publisher. It probably didn’t expect such a harsh response, tempered as it is by those expecting Half-Life 3 or some other bombshell announcement, but alas.

If the release is still indeed on for next week, Highguard will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

As far as world premieres go, there’s none more coveted than The Game Awards’ closer. But, being the headliner comes with huge expectations. It’s a billing usually reserved for legacy franchises, seismic returns, or ambitious new adventures which justify the evening’s crescendo. Yet, this year, Geoff and co’s climactic showcase was unfamiliar.

And this is the first problem. See, no amount of studio pedigree, flashy gunplay, or horseriding ballistics can heat up Highguard’s chilly response. It walked onto a stage warmed up for a giant, but instead of awe it drew collective whiplash. Look – the community, hyped earlier in anticipation, is now colder than the Antarctic Peninsula’s Winter. You wanted Bloodborne 2, Half-Life 3, or maybe even The Elder Scrolls 6. But, instead, you got this.

But here’s the kicker: is it fair to label Highguard DOA already? Scroll through forums, Reddit threads, and comment sections and you’ll struggle to find a positive word. No-one has locked in their favourite role, yet disrelish is spilling everywhere. Surely there’s more to this than the deflation in Highguard’s premium place in The Game Awards’ running order. Yes, you’ve grown to expect something else from the closer, but the timing of a reveal doesn’t indicate a bad game.

Maybe there’s another problem: genre fatigue. Put simply, Highguard is another multi-player PvP with guns and magic. You’ve seen it already, and you’ve seen it fail.

A decade ago, hero shooters were all the rage. Now, every one of their shared traits carries the weight of decline. However, this announcement shouldn’t be seen as the first step towards Highguard’s failure, but as a referendum for where the industry is. Are hero shooters out, or is it possible there’re miles left in the tank?

Maybe you’re just tired of shooters, or perhaps you’re fed up with monetisation. Certainly, given the underwhelming reception, everyone seems exhausted by the prospect of investing in a new roster of heroes who may not survive six months. Whether the team behind it have crafted some of the finest, most exhilarating shooters of recent memory is irrelevant at this stage – players are burned out. We know veterans bring talent, but this does not guarantee relevance.

Despite falling numbers, ziplining across Apex’s Outlands still feels superb, while Titanfall’s fluid mech-FPS hybrid is legendary. On paper, fans should be ecstatic, but the multi-player space has shifted.

Surveying hero shooters: Blizzard are scaling back Overwatch as confidence in its content roadmap and now-abandoned PvE matchmaking continues to dwindle. Coming from Bungie, Marathon should be hitting home runs, yet despite the studio’s reputation for class-leading gunplay it’s struggling to even find a foothold. Concord’s full price wasn’t its downfall; it’s well-known that the genericism of its character design and lacklustre marketing drew the most negative attention. Every hero shooter exists in a saturated market, where new entrants face an environment tougher than ever. If you’re going to be playing Highguard, what other already-established game are you dropping in its place?

But we have seen absolutely nothing from the game since its showing last month. No deep dive, no teaser, no gameplay trailer..absolutely nothing, and that’s a massive red flag. There are only a couple of weeks left before the game launches and time is clearly running out. But that’s not happening, is it?

The bottom line: any pushback Highguard receives, at this stage, is rational, not cynical. You might think you’re rejecting it because it sucks but, really, you’re protecting yourself. Years of broken promises, slow innovation, and overwhelming emphasis on loot boxes and other bits to scrape more cash out of you leaves every new hero shooter facing an uphill battle for your time, attention, and money.

But, the truth with live-service launches is this: no-one truly knows which way the wind will blow. Games with lukewarm receptions have gone on to become juggernauts – just look at Apex. Still, does Highguard have what it takes? Can it find an audience? Will it retain players? If you re-watch the reveal trailer, perhaps you’ll see it’s not all bad.

There’s hope in this DNA, with fast, kinetic movement seeing you zooming over arenas, firing explosive rounds, throwing daggers, or target-locking rockets – it’s exhilarating stuff. The art direction, while a little generic, is bright, bold, and colourful, with clear silhouettes and sightlines amidst the sensory overload.

However, mechanically, it’s unclear if Highguard brings anything new to the table. It’s competent, sure, but Wildlight Entertainment, the game’s developers, are promising an “all-new breed of shooter.” Yet, its gunplay, hero identities, synergies, match flow, objectives, and tone all feel familiar for the genre. Likewise, Highguard seems a copycat to Overwatch in both archetype and tempo. Heck, even the name Highguard sounds like a synonym for Overwatch. The trailer’s structure, all staccato cuts introducing heroes and spotlighting abilities, is a reel assembled out of the genre playbook rather than a manifesto of something novel.

Worse, the trailer doesn’t communicate a hook. There’s no real sense of worldbuilding, no indication of what makes these characters distinct, and no attempt to explore unclaimed space. Forgetting about its Game Awards reveal entirely, no matter when or where it was announced Highguard should be answering the inevitable questions: Why this? Why now? And why should we care? By dodging these questions, Highguard becomes even less convincing.

Despite kneejerk negativity being common amongst games, where downbeat comments are a regular fixture, this doesn’t just feel like a community being overly-reactionary. On YouTube, Reddit, and anywhere else you can leave an opinion, rarely is it this unanimous.

Perhaps, if we reframe the discontent to a community needing reasons to believe instead. You want to know that your expectations for originality are realistic. You may have the time and the motivation to dedicate to a live-service experience, thereby proving that genre fatigue is a myth peddled by non-players and critics. You don’t want to see the industry continue to eat itself, with countless titles suffering low performance, leaving talented staff without a job after years of hard work. You want to see success, but you don’t want to get burned in the process. All of these things are possible, so why not with Highguard?

Look, Wildlight Entertainment could surprise us. Despite the community’s resignation, oddly, there’s an opportunity for Highguard here. If Wildlight focuses on iterating the high-skill, high-movement gunplay of Apex Legends and if they lean further into Titanfall’s sense of verticality that you’ve seen in the trailer then this game could come out swinging. Also, if the roster introduces genuinely fresh roles and the game avoids aggressive monetisation then it could capture its audience and retain them. These are big ifs, as right now the characters appear familiar and we have no indication of what the long-term live service model will be. Again, though, anything’s still possible. Right?

See, while these conditions to Highguard’s success are not met at present, the pedigree of talent who’ve been working in secret over the last four years at least indicates its possible to get there.

So, maybe you are absolutely not ready for Highguard – not because it’s set to blow your mind but because it’s landing at a time where even the best ideas can suffer through hardship before turning things around. The challenge is set, and Highguard has everything to play for. With a January 26th release date though, the countdown has already begun. If Wildlight Entertainment uses that short time to demonstrate a clear, confident identity for Highguard – to answer “why we should care” – then all the widespread resignation could still be flipped to belief.

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.

The premise involves fighting other Wardens for the Shieldbreaker, which you then use to destroy their territory. Of course, it’s not a matter of simply bringing it down – you destroy the shield guarding an enemy base and then summon a massive siege engine before mounting an attack.

Touted as a “PvP raid shooter” – no extraction, which is a good sign – players can wall-run, obliterate walls to reveal new routes and much more. Characters have different skills, from throwing knives to ripping out opponents’ hearts. Even more intriguing is the addition of mounts to travel from one objective to the next. Stay tuned for more details on Highguard in the coming weeks.

Alongside showcasing some new weapons, like a massive spear and hook swords, the trailer highlights new bosses, like a massive ogre-like creature. Though they’re wielding some heavy chained objects, the player can turn them against his foe. Even more notable is the ability to combine the Drunken Fist with flying swords, and it’s as exaggerated as it is stunning.

Phantom Blade Zero was first announced in 2023, promising a “kung fu punk” take on the hack-and-slash action-adventure genre (which S-Game has clarified is not a Souls-like). As assassin Soul, players embark on a John Wick-like quest for vengeance. The main story takes about 20 to 30 hours to finish, though there’s plenty of side content and replay value.

Pre-orders are also now available with the Standard Edition costing $69.99. If you pick up the Digital Deluxe Edition for $79.99, you’ll receive three armor sets – the Onryo Armor, Astra Armor and Midgard Armor – for free alongside 48 hours of early access. And yes, you’re not the only one to notice that two of those armor sets tie into other PlayStation Studios franchises.

Saros launches exclusively for PS5. As a spiritual successor to Returnal, it features a rogue-lite gameplay loop where players traverse the same environments again and again, searching for a way to escape Carcosa. Despite being developed in Unreal Engine 5, you can look forward to the same “tentacle technology” that Housemarque uses for its monstrosities.

He certainly knows how to make an impression, dangling James Bond and his ally over hungry crocodiles. As unexpected as Kravitz’s role seems, he’s a natural fit for the calm, collected and wildly unpredictable Bawma.

As noted before, however, it’s likely he’s not the only villain in the upcoming spy thriller. We haven’t seen anything yet on 009, aside from his daring escape via airplane from Bond. Perhaps Bawma can provide some clues on how the would-be 007 can find 009? Time will tell.

007 First Light launches on March 27th, 2026 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2. No word yet on whether Lana Del Rey is singing the main theme, but there’s still time to launch.

Tomb Raider: Catalyst is coming to Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC with Amazon Game Studios serving as publisher. While its gameplay has yet to be showcased, the trailer does see Croft desperately navigating a collapsing tomb, wall-bouncing and clinging to massive terrain shifts. She quickly emerges to overlook an ancient city and it sure does lend credence to rumors that this could be an open-world title.

Stay tuned for more details on the Unreal Engine 5 title and announcements from The Game Awards. Thus far, we’ve seen a new Divinity, Control Resonant, Leon in Resident Evil Requiem and much more.

With horror legend John Carpenter also involved in the game’s writing, Toxic Commando pits you and three other players against hordes of zombies that are out to get you in the wake of a failed experiment that has the scientists who created it scrambling to contain its adverse effects. It’s a simple premise that sets up the gameplay loop well, and the game brings a lot of potential to the table.

With the title garnering many positive impressions at Gamescom 2025, the new game makes solid use of Saber’s proprietary Swarm engine that has delivered solid results in titles like World War Z and Space Marine 2, Toxic Commando is definitely a title to look out for when it releases in March 12, 2026.

So what’s happening since The Hiss infiltrated the Oldest House and the Federal Bureau of Control? Well, Manhattan is officially in crisis thanks to a parantural threat. It’s not Jesse Faden who answers the call, but her brother Dylan. He’s also capable of telekinesis, though he relies more on melee weapons, from dual-wielding objects to a giant two-handed sledge.

Of course, Dylan is capable of flight, battling threats in mid-air. Overall, it looks like a brand-new gameplay take, complete with all the presentation hooks and atmosphere of the original. And we dig it. At any rate, it’s a massive step up from FBC: Firebreak.

The new trailer highlights the various heroes that will assist Batman, including Robin, Catwoman, Nightwing, and yes, even Commissioner Gordon. Of course, Gotham City deserves a better class of criminal, which is why The Joker is present, but you’ll also have to contend with Bane, The Penguin, and Poison Ivy among other iconic foes.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the latest in the TT Games’ series. However, it has no connection to previous titles, focusing on an original story inspired by the Caped Crusader’s various adventures through the years, from the Nolan-verse and The Batman to Adam West’s beloved TV series. Stay tuned for more details and announcements from The Game Awards.