He’s clearly trying to extract their memories against the wishes of his masters, and it’s going to be interesting to see if The Envoy can find enough reasons to pause and lend him a sympathetic ear during one of those “hunter becomes the haunted” missions. Outside of that, he’s shaping up to be a powerhouse, using his teleportation and decoy abilities to take on enemies with far more agression that we were used to in the base game.

We’re hoping that these shake-ups on the narrative and gameplay fronts will be enough to make this one a worthy addition to an already solid base game. Perhaps it can set the foundations for future additions to the IP if there’s the space for that kind of thing. Until then, though, the trailer’s below, and we think it’s definitely worth a watch ahead of Lazarus’s launch this Fall.

Explosions blossom from their sources with smooth, natural reflections all around, lighting up splinters of wood that are blown off by the accompanying force of impact. The Jackdaw’s cannons light up the night in one fight, while taking on a particular fort brought along a very welcome lore drop from one of our crew. That’s a detail we’re almost certain wasn’t part of the original release, and it immediately lent additional narrative relevance to an otherwise regular encounter.

Of course, all of the Jackdaw’s weapons are on board in this one, while choosing to board enemy ships feels like a whole new experience thanks to the reworked combat coming into play. It’s all so familiar yet feels fresh enough to make us want to dive into this one as soon as we can when it launches on July 9th.

Indeed, you could become your own worst enemy, and a credible threat to your allies if the forces you’re up against manage to pervade your mind, and trusting even yourself becomes a costly mistake your squad might not recover from. That’s as horror-focused a premise as any, and we’re expecting this one to be a morbid kind of hoot when it drops on current-gen systems. Excellent enemy designs and an appropriately creepy vibe have us interested, but be sure to keep a light on when experiencing them.

For more details on what the island has to offer, check out this gameplay overview. We’re kind of dreading that release date a little more than we’d like to admit, but in terms of co-op shenanigans, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu could fill a decent space ahead of this Fall’s biggest releases.

The game was definitely a looker then, and the developer made good use of the hardware on offer to make it an experience that we couldn’t forget. Indeed, the story and gameplay on offer were probably why Resynced has managed to see the light of day amid a slew of other great titles in the franchise’s illustrious history. Of course, things are different now, and it looks like the developer is preparing to replicate the feat it achieved with last-gen hardware by making full use of what the PS5 and PS5 Pro have to offer.

If you’re thinking about sailing the high seas with Edward, Adewale, and the rest of the pirates on your PlayStation, we’ve got a few things you might like to keep in mind before you go ahead and pick up a copy of Resynced.

1. A Bunch of Graphic Modes For All Preferences

Beginning with what you’re going to find with respect to resolutions and frame rates on your consoles, Resynced is bringing quite a bit of flexibility to the table for both the base PS5 and the Pro.

Beginning with the PS5, you’ve got three options. There’s Performance, which targets 60fps with standard ray tracing for a smoother experience that keeps the resolution at an upscale 2160P. That’s a welcome option for those of us who want to make the most of the new combat system, which looks geared towards quick reactions to readable animations, a facet that this mode would serve very well.

There’s also Fidelity and Balanced, which deliver the same resolution as Performance, with extended ray tracing and target frame rates of 30 fps and 40 fps, respectively. We’d say that if you’re not going for Performance, Balanced is the clearly better option, although some of you might still prefer Fidelity despite the same resolution on offer.

The PS5 Pro is where things get interesting, though. We’ve got the same three modes on offer, with the same resolutions and target frame rates, but ray tracing is extended across the board. We’re diving into what that means in just a minute, as the differences are a crucial part of what sets the two consoles apart as far as this one’s concerned.

These are all factors that can work to make Resynced feel like quite a remake of the original version, which was limited by what the consoles it was played on could do back in the day.

2. Differing Approaches to Ray Tracing

It’s also important to know that while the standard ray tracing offers global diffuse lighting for the game world, extended ray tracing covers even reflective surfaces, which is sure to make a huge difference in a variety of locales where water, rain, and other factors necessitate the need for better reflections to make the entire experience more immersive as a result.

Diving deeper into what that means, the developer has elaborated on how ray-traced global illumination is going to work dynamically under the hood, ditching the original Black Flag’s precomputed lighting systems to let the Caribbean’s natural light react appropriately to factors like the weather, time of day, and the environments you’re exploring. Diffuse lighting makes light react more naturally to surfaces for better shading in various environments and once again adds a bit of realistic flavor to the entire game.

Both of these are a part of the PS5’s offerings in Performance Mode, but both Balanced and Fidelity offer Specular Reflections, which influence wet wood, the spray from the ocean, metal, and a whole lot more to make the world feel more alive and responsive to your movements as a result. It’s probably going to be tough choosing between the two approaches, unless you’re on the PS5 Pro, where all of what we’ve outlined is going to be a part of your experience irrespective of the mode you pick.

3. No Compromises on The PS5 Pro

In addition to global illumination, diffuse lighting, and Specular Reflections making up a complete ray-tracing package across all of the three graphical modes on offer, there’s also the fact that Resynced on the PS5 Pro is going to be making full use of Enhanced PSSR, which is sure to make the upscaled image look a lot better than the PS5’s take on it.

The result is that the PS5 Pro could make the choice between Performance and the other modes a whole lot easier, and any differences between them are going to be quite hard to spot unless you’re actively looking for them. Of course, there are going to be a few things in favor of Fidelity Mode in case you’re wondering if there’s any reason to go for it in the first place, thanks to that 30 fps frame rate target. Well, we’ve got something for you to cheer about if that’s been on your mind.

But it’s quite clear that the PS5 Pro’s additional firepower is going to make Resynced feel very different from the Black Flag you know and love, and that’s good news considering how excited we’ve all been to get our hands on this one.

4. Strand-Based Hair

This one’s for the PS5 Pro and is probably a reason for you to choose Fidelity Mode if total immersion means more to you than better frame rates. Strand-Based hair tech is on board in Resynced, and is going to be working its magic on Edward across all three graphical modes on offer. That extends to the cinematics as well, and it’s going to be interesting to see Blackbeard’s take on a Black Flag in action with the new tech in action whenever he takes the stage.

However, Fidelity Mode extends that offering to NPCs in Edward’s vicinity, which could make for an interesting sight in situations where the wind works its magic, which happens quite a lot in this one, considering a significant portion of your time is spent on the Jackdaw’s deck at sea.

5. A More Focused Caribbean Simulation

The Anvil Engine was vastly improved in Shadows, and is set to bring all of what it achieved in that one and more to the table in Resynced. For starters, the weather is going to be quite dynamic this time around in comparison to Black Flag, as the system is going to work with several variables like temperature, humidity, wind, and the density of vapor coming off the ocean, making them play off each other to create the sort of unpredictable conditions that the seas are known for. That makes the seas behave more treacherously as you sail along them, just like they would in the real world.

The winds are going to make things on the shore just as dynamic, affecting the movements of clouds and causing storms both on the sea and land. They’re also going to affect the flora you find around you, which could make exploring dense forests a visual treat, while cloth, particles such as leaves, the sails of your ships, and your character’s hair are all going to be influenced by its passage.

There’s also the ocean to consider, and the developer’s water physics have been drawing a lot of well-deserved praise ever since Odyssey hit the shelves. Well, there’s a lot to like in Resynced as volumetric foam generation, dynamic bubble systems, physics-based water rendering, and new tessellation techniques allow the water to react to the wind, weather, and your own movements through it with a level of realism that the original game simply could not have managed. It’s very interesting stuff, and we can’t wait to see how it all comes together to make the world in Resynced feel as lively as Edward’s personality as he engages with it all.

And that’s about it for this one. While it’s clear that the PS5 Pro is bringing a lot of upgrades over the base console for Resynced, we’d say that even the PS5 is going to bring a new layer of immersion to the Caribbean. We’re certainly going to be diving into the experience on both consoles, and you can be sure we’ll be telling you all about what we find once we set sail on the Jackdaw when Resynced releases on July 9, 2026, for the PS5, PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 Pro.

Until then, let’s hope that the developer is looking at some favorable winds in what’s been a rather tough few years for it.

In fact, we may learn about Undead Labs’ new owner this Summer. Interestingly, despite Xbox funding the development of State of Decay 3, the studio’s new owner is reportedly “not obligated” to make it a day one Game Pass release. It’s an unorthodox dynamic to be sure, and we’re interested to see how this could impact sales on Xbox.

Also, it seems that Xbox hasn’t cut Game Pass funding for third-party developers. Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Shams Jorjani claimed that “loads of people” were in “advanced discussions” for deals on the service before having the “rug pulled out from under them.” Granted, both can be true at once, especially given Xbox’s shifting priorities and lack of growth in Game Pass.

Perhaps the most curious part of Totilo’s report is that CEO Asha Sharma allegedly believes the company has “massively under-invested” in Minecraft. Despite some disappointing spin-offs, from Minecraft: Story Mode to Minecraft Legends, there’s been some success with Minecraft Dungeons. The sequel is out on September 29th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Nevertheless, with the blockbuster success of A Minecraft Movie, it makes sense that Sharma would believe even more could be done. Mojang, alongside Candy Crush developer King, will report directly to her, so stay tuned for more updates on the IP’s future.

In a post titled “Resetting Xbox”, Sharma has said that the division’s management layers will see reductions to a maximum of five layers, and where possible, the company will only have 3 layers for its various studios. Through this “flatter organization built around makers (individual contributors focused on building), player-coaches (leaders who remain deeply involved with the work while developing their teams), and directly responsible individuals (DRIs) who own key decisions and outcomes,” Sharma wants to streamline the company’s overall workflow. This will include having a cleaner code base, shared services, and vendor spend being reduced by 50 percent.

The reasoning behind this was the fact that Xbox sometimes had 14 layers of management between the studios and the decision makers. Along with this, the company also suffered from ballooning team sizes, with platform teams being 40 percent larger than they were when Xbox Series X/S launched, despite a decline in player base and play time. “That complexity has slowed decisions, blurred accountability, and made it harder to deliver for players,” said Sharma. “As we reset Xbox, we will simplify.”

Another core part of the future of Xbox is the appointment of a new chief operating officer (COO), who will have end-to-end profit and loss responsibilities across content, hardware, platform, and services. The role is being taken up by Helen Chiang, who has previously worked on building up Xbox Live and Minecraft developer Mojang. Chiang’s appointment means that former COO Dave McCarthy is retiring after having worked at Xbox for 17 years.

“She will bring our businesses together under one operating model, making sure we make clear investment decisions, learn from our successes and failures, and hold ourselves accountable for results,” said Sharma about Chaing.

Sharma went on to note that the aim of these changes is to make sure that Xbox has a “bigger future” going forward, and “not a smaller one.”

“The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”

As part of the layoffs hitting Xbox, Sharma had also confirmed that four studios – Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, and Undead Labs – are being released. While Double Fine and Compulsion Games will be going independent, retaining their IP in the process, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold. Microsoft hasn’t yet revealed any details about which company is acquiring the two studios, and whether the games they are working on – Senua and State of Decay 3 – will see the light of day.

As it turns out, quite a bit. Version 1.13 adds new armor sets, but not just any, and Damiane and Oongka have seen their functionality increased further. New crafting recipes abound – including for items that really tie the room together – and even the dying system has received some enhancements. Without further ado, let’s dive into ten new features you need to know, starting with.

Oongka and Damiane In the Abyss

If you’ve ever played Oongka and/or Damiane, and scoffed because the floating isles of the Abyss were effectively closed off, the latest update fixes that problem. Both characters are now free to enter the previously Kliff-only world – a much-welcome change, especially if you’re using the isles to explore from the sky. Of course, this has resulted in some bosses (like the Clockwork White Horn and Draven, the Crowcaller) having their positions changed when challenging them to a rematch, but it’s worth it.

Boss Armor Sets

Perhaps the biggest new addition with Ver 1.13 is boss armor. Yes, you read that right, and it’s not even just a handful. Gregor’s Knight of Carnage armor, split across five pieces; five pieces of Tarandus the Ashen’s sick outfit (antlers and all); even two pieces from Demeniss’s grand general armor are available to equip for Kliff and Oongka (the latter now able to equip most of the former’s outfits). Lest you think Damiane would be left behind, she gets two outfits and one piece of the Masked Liberator armor. Granted, some sets (like Goyen’s) are remaining, but the developer has made some pretty great progress.

Dozens of New Equipment Pieces

And that’s not all, as 16 new pieces of armor and three pieces of headgear separate from the new boss armor have been added for Kliff and Oongka while Damiane gets eight new pieces. In total, there are 39 new pieces of equipment to hunt down. The developer says you can obtain them through quests, Achievements, shops and “other sources,” and if you’ve progressed enough through the story, some should appear as unlocked rewards. You can even stop by your friendly Back Alley Vendor to find a few pieces. Suffice it to say that the fashion game, aka the true endgame, is even bigger than ever.

Kuku for Kuku Gear

But if you need even more options for Damiane and Oongka, they can now equip Kuku sets previously meant for Kliff. That includes Marni Laser Helm, the Breeze-Step Boots (which means Meteor Kicks for days in your hand-to-hand combat as Damiane) and Rishi’s Boots alongside the Lightning-Resistant, Flame-Resistant, and Ice-Resistant armor sets. Besides more build variety, the inclusion of the latter three means you can shore up any resistances during specific boss fights.

Crafting Recipes for Elemental Armor

Remember the Frostcursed Plate Armor that every YouTuber and their mother was including in Crimson Desert thumbnails for the first month or so (and for good reason because it looks absolutely sick)? You can still run around and find it on your own, but you can now craft it courtesy of a new recipe. In fact, the Scorchflame Plate Armor and Lightning Bolt Plate Armor have also received crafting recipes. While not quite as fashionable, the fact that you can more easily access them for higher resistances, especially when mainlining as Kliff, is a welcome addition.

Hiding the Minimap and Status HUD

Among all the new additions and changes, especially for the user interface – which has come a long way since launch – it’s interesting how the developer never added an option to hide the minimap or your status. It may have taken months, but lo and behold, you can now fully immerse yourself in the boots of Damiane, Oongka and Kliff by turning off both. Head into Settings, then Other and the Gameplay tab to do so. And while it may seem counterintuitive, not all who wander are lost, especially with the sheer amount available to discover in Pywel.

New Special Attacks for Certain Enemies

Of course, if we’re talking about changes that weren’t exactly on the tippy-top of fan requests, there have been new special attacks added for specific enemies. We’re talking about the Flame Knight, the Wyvernflames, the Savage Fangs, and the Goldenscale Bandits. Why? Maybe it’s to provide even more variety when tackling re-blockaded forts, ruins, quarries and whatnot while upping the challenge. Or to surprise those who thought they would have an easy time disposing of them. Either way, be careful.

Bird of Prey (and Gathering)

The Iron Eagle and Phoenix can equip the Sigil of Valor, which means they can now attack your enemies. But even more intriguing is the Hunter’s Sigil. Ever wanted to gather items or retrieve specific prey from afar with your bird? This allows you to do that. Perfect for larping as a hunter on a casual shooting/meat-gathering trip.

Dyeing Disguises, Weapons and Secondaries

Even with its sheer selection of dyes and recoloring elements, Crimson Desert was missing a few notable options. Rejoice, for you can now dye certain disguises, even if it breaks the overarching lore and purpose of not drawing attention. But even better is the majority of weapons and secondaries can also be dyed, further increasing the number of fashion options.

Slideshots with Muskets and Pistols

Beyond the usual fixes – like an issue where you couldn’t use sliding attacks with specific gear loadouts – muskets and pistols have received a much-needed quality of life change. They can now be fired while sliding, and while it might not seem like a massive overhaul, it adds another mobility option for ranged fighters, especially when low on Spirit. Besides, the sheer style of sliding towards enemies while shooting them in slow-motion is tough to deny.

There are so many other improvements, like Oongka now being able to complete puzzles with Scatter Shot, new crafting recipes for four types of carpets, and, perhaps most adorably, summoned pets now resting in bed with your character. You also don’t need to worry about Focused Aerial Roll constituting a crime near NPCs, so if you want to harass the local populace without any consequences, now’s your chance.

However, it’s worth noting that Version 1.13 has affected performance, especially on the base PS5, even if you turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, and whatnot. It seems to vary during certain sections – exploration seems better than the cities – but Xbox and PC players should also beware of potential performance hits. The issue has yet to be acknowledged, but given the development team’s quick turnaround, it should probably be fixed in the next patch, if not sooner.

It’s a shame given how much the current patch has added, but also somewhat expected, given the sheer number of variables, systems and whatnot. What else could be added, especially since the current roadmap ends in September (besides story improvements)? Your guess is as good as ours, but we’re excited all the same.

“While development has been progressing toward a 2026 release, we have decided to move the launch to early 2027,” said producer Shohei Sakakibara in a statement. “We will share a more specific release date at a later time.”

“We are continuing to work to bring you the best possible experience. We sincerely appreciate your patience as development continues, and we look forward to sharing further updates with you soon.”

While Danganronpa 2×2 was always slated to be a revamped version of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, its Slayhem mode is going to offer players an entirely new way to experience the story. Players will have the ability to pick between it and “Original mode”, which is essentially just the original story with more modern visuals. Slayhem, on the other hand, is an entirely new story based on Goodbye Despair, but with new elements.

The story of Slayhem will revolve around a specific incident that sends all of the characters spiralling into an entirely new plot thread, with all victims, culprits, and tricks being changed up. Gemdrops has noted that it will feature 20 percent more content than the “Original” mode.

Danganronpa 2×2 is also bringing in a major change to the world map. While the original Danganronpa 2 featured a side-scrolling map, 2×2 will bring in a 3D world map that gives players a better idea of the layout of the game’s island setting. It will also allow players the choice between manually running across the map and simply traveling to their destination instantly. The 3D map also includes a first-person mode that gives players a new way to experience the island.

The remake was unveiled back in September 2025 with a trailer giving us a quick glimpse at its updated visual style. At the time, Spike Chunsoft also confirmed that it will feature gameplay improvements alongside the layer of polish added by the new visuals. However, the company hasn’t revealed any details about what these improvements might be yet.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was originally released back in 2012. Rather than featuring the same cast of characters as Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Goodbye Despair instead focuses on an entirely new set of students attending Hope’s Peak Academy. Players take on the role of Hajime Hinata, who, on his first day of attending the school, falls unconscious.

Waking up in a strange classroom alongside 15 other students, Hinata is greeted by a doll named Usami, who claims to be their teacher. Things quickly start going off the rails when Usami reveals that, rather than being in an actual classroom, the group of students is instead stranded on the tropical resort island of Jabberwock. To escape, the students must work together to find Hope Fragments.

“There’s so much emotionality, there’s so much vulnerability,” he said. “There are moments in this that if you haven’t cried in the first two yet, I guarantee you’ll be sobbing in this third one.” He went on to say that the title will be “a payoff” for all of the story elements that have been building up so far.

Christian isn’t the only one who has spoken about how emotional Final Fantasy 7 Revelation will be. Just last month, director Naoki Hamaguchi spoke about how, despite having played through the title around 40 times, a certain scene still manages to make him cry. This comes down to the moments of introspection experienced by Cloud and how his fate has been bound by that of Zack and Aerith.

“There’s this scene that’s quite essential to the story of Final Fantasy 7 where Cloud goes into a moment of introspection and discovers his identity and how it fits with Zack and Aerith,” he said. “I think the way we portrayed that in Revelation turned out very well, and we’re eager for fans to see it.”

“I’ve finished Revelation about 40 times, and every time that introspective scene with Cloud made me cry.”

Without going into too many details about exactly which scene he was talking about, Hamaguchi said that it was “A key scene from the original, related to Cloud’s identity” and noted that it “is one of the most memorable experiences” in Revelation.

The emotional payoffs present in the storyline of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation may have played a role in the development team’s decision for the game’s title. Hamaguchi had previously spoken about how the story is going to offer many revelations to players.

While there were questions about whether the team would go with Resolve as the title instead, since that seems to be a core theme of the story, Hamaguchi said that it “wasn’t really a candidate for our title. We landed with ‘Revelation,’ because that was the word that was the best match for what we wanted to depict in the third instalment of our series.”

“I think a lot of fans and players were just really wondering, how this is going to go down, and how the trilogy is going to conclude,” he said. “As a response to that, this is our message, to say that this is the end of everything, this is where everything gets revealed, and this is where you will find out all the answers.”

Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, and is slated for release in Spring 2027.

Kicking things off with a naval battle, we get to see protagonist Edward Kenway before he dons his iconic assassin robes. Being just a pirate, his ship has come under fire from another ship flying the flag of England. The sequence acts as a tutorial for the ship-to-ship combat in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, with Edward having to take the helm and order his crew to fire cannons at the other ships.

While not much may have changed in gameplay terms for the naval combat, the visuals are quite obviously a major step above the original game, which should come as no surprise since Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag was first released in 2013. The weather effects as well as the frantic and stressful nature of naval battles are shown in all their messy glory, and before long, Edward, along with a mysterious hooded figure, is thrown overboard thanks to an explosion on the ship’s deck.

Once Edward is able to swim to shore, the true beauty of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is shown off in all of its glory. The tropical island he finds himself on is lush, with bright green foliage all over the place.

In terms of story, the opening moments of Black Flag Resynced aren’t really change much from the 2013 original, with the events that would eventually make Edward a prominent member of the Assassins’ Brotherhood largely playing out as you would expect. Tasked by the hooded stranger to deliver a message, Edward agrees on the condition of getting paid for his work. However, he also manages to get his hands on a set of assassin robes and manages to get himself entwined in a seemingly never-ending shadow war between opposing factions.

Ubisoft has revealed quite a few details about Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced as the company gets ready to release it on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In a recent interview, technical director Jussi Markkanen teased that the title would allow players to dive underwater just about anywhere in the open world. This also means that there will be an entirely new set of secrets for players to discover, including entirely new shipwrecks.

Markkanen has also confirmed that Black Flag Resynced will feature an evolution of the combat system we saw with the most recent entry in the franchise – Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

“We modernized the combat to be more hitbox-based, as modern combat games tend to be, and a little bit more reactive. So, Edward can still use the hidden blades, but as a takedown action in the combat, making the combat more fluid.”

Check out more details about the game’s global release timings. PC players can also take a look at details about its Steam Deck Verified status.