The wonders of Paldea.
You know we’re closing in on the end of the month when The Pokémon Company lifts the lid on its next Trading Card Game Pocket booster set, and today, we’ve got just that.
The Paldean Wonder themed booster packs will arrive in the app next week on 26th February from 1am GMT / 2am CET / 5pm PT (25th). As you’d expect from that name, this set is all about Scarlet and Violet‘s Gen IX and the Paldea region.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Death Howl launches –today, available Day One with Xbox Game Pass. Step into a spirit world that shows no mercy. And honestly? That’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.
But here’s the thing: despite being brutally difficult, Death Howl doesn’t feel unfair. At least, that’s not how I experience it, and I hope you won’t either. Let me explain why.
Most deckbuilders follow a familiar loop: start a run, die, start over from the beginning. It’s effective, but it can feel repetitive – especially when you hit a wall and keep banging your head against a particular encounter. Death Howl takes a different approach. Because it’s set in an open world, when you stand next to a battle you can’t win, you have options. You can wander into a different biome, hunt new spirits, craft stronger cards, experiment with fresh deck synergies, and then return when you’re ready.
We tried to avoid grinding in the traditional sense and instead aimed for exploration with a purpose. At the same time, the world doesn’t reset. Your progress persists. You’re not starting over; you’re adapting and learning.
Death Howl earned its “no mercy” reputation honestly. Enemies respawn when you rest at Sacred Groves. Every mistake gets punished. Common encounters, not to mention Boss fights, demand pattern recognition and tactical precision on a grid where positioning matters as much as cards and decks tailored to match the given enemy type.
But the game is fair. When you die – and you will die a lot – you respawn right before the encounter that got you. You keep your deck. You keep your knowledge. You drop “Death Howls” (our version of well-known souls), but you can retrieve them, just like in… well, you know what I’m talking about.
But you’re not locked into one path. If a particular enemy type is giving you trouble, you can experiment. Start with the battle itself – position yourself differently on the grid at the start, or, in some cases, walk around the location and approach that group of foes from a different side. But you can also pivot entirely. Explore further, build a poison deck instead of a strength-based one. The spirit world and the challenge are yours to navigate, however you choose.
I’ll be honest – we never set out to make a soulslike. We wanted to create an open-world alternative to traditional roguelite deckbuilders, something inspired by Dream Quest, Magic: The Gathering, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Breath of the Wild.
But as the design evolved, soulslike elements emerged organically. Testers kept telling us, “This feels like a soulslike.” At first, I was confused – I wasn’t even that familiar with the genre. But they were right.
The Sacred Groves that heal you but respawn enemies. The emphasis on learning enemy patterns – dodging a boar’s frontal charge, or positioning yourself behind foes with an exposed back to deal more damage. The way death teaches you rather than punishes you. It all clicked.
So we leaned into it. We embraced the tension, the deliberate pacing, the rewarding loop of observation and adaptation. But we did it our way – turn-based, tactical, card-driven.
Underneath all the mechanics is Ro’s story. She’s a mother who’s lost her son, and she’s willing to walk through the spirit world itself to bring him back. It’s a deeply personal narrative about grief, resilience, and unconditional love.
The world reflects that sorrow. And the minimalist, woodcut-inspired pixel art uses shadows and negative space to create a realm that feels haunting, ethereal, and alive. We wanted the gameplay to mirror Ro’s internal struggle. The punishing difficulty isn’t arbitrary – it could be perceived as the weight of her journey. Every victory feels earned because it is.
Whether you’re a deck-building veteran, a soulslike enthusiast, someone who just loves tactical combat with meaningful stakes, or enjoys bold genre blends, Death Howl has something for you. And with Day One availability in Xbox Game Pass, there’s never been a better time to step into the spirit world.
Our small, three-person team poured everything into this game – art, music, design, emotion and a lot of love. It’s a reflection of our creative journey as indie creators. We hope you’ll find something here that resonates.
See you in the Spirit World.
11 bit studios
Master Your Deck-Building Skills
Craft over 160 cards and fashion synergistic decks that focus on poison, strength, sacrifice, retaliation, backstabbing, blocking, movement, and more. Discover shamanic totems with unique effects to enhance your deck. Each new element allows you to tailor your tactical style as you prepare for your next deadly encounter.
Engage in Grid-Based Combat
Face a host of restless spirits – Skulldogs, Crackle Bursts, Woeful Seashrooms and more – in grid-based battles where each move is crucial. Test your wit by fighting unique enemy types, powerful bosses, and mini-bosses, all while taking into account environmental hazards and boons. Grow stronger, adapt your deck, and choose your battles as you explore a vast world filled with dangerous challenges.
Journey to the spirit realm
In forgotten lands shrouded by myth, Ro – a hunter from a small tribe – is overcome by grief following the death of her beloved son. Guided by voices from another world, she transcends into the realm of spirits, in hopes of bringing him back. Meet strange spirits and help them with quests and challenges that affect your deck – although not all of them may have your best interests at heart. Discover a mysterious world of forgotten lore, where darkness whispers secrets and invites you to unearth buried memories.
The post Death Howl: Building a No-Mercy Deckbuilder That Doesn’t Feel Unfair appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Epic Games has cast Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 actor Ben Starr as a key in-game Fortnite character, following in the footsteps of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Brie Larsen and Joel McHale.
Starr’s turn as dashing Clair Obscur hero Verso is arguably his most famous role to date, and earned him a second nomination for best performer at both last year’s Game Awards and the forthcoming BAFTA Game Awards. You may also have heard his vocal talents as Clive in Final Fantasy 16 and Prometheus in Hades 2.
Now, Starr’s set to star in Fortnite as The Visitor, one of the game’s key NPC characters who will finally rejoin the battle royale mode’s storyline (and speak!) later this month.
The Visitor is one of Fortnite’s heroic Seven, a band of intergalactic heroes who often turn up to save the day during its memorable live events. Indeed, the character of the Visitor was actually the focus of the game’s very first live event — 2018’s rocket launch — although he has seldom been heard, until now.
Over the years, players were introduced to more of the Seven, including its lead member The Foundation (played by Johnson), The Scientist (McHale), The Paradigm (Larsen), The Origin (Rahul Kohli), The Imagined (Cherami Leigh) and The Order (Laura Bailey).
After being written out of the game’s story in 2022, players were reintroduced to the team following the events of last year’s climactic Zero Hour finale, which also featured a recap video setting up Fortnite’s current Chapter 7 era — offering a quick reminder of who the Seven were and what they were up against. You can watch that again just above.
I’m joining Fortnite as The Visitor.
I’m so excited to bring back this iconic member of The Seven. I imagine I’ll be very normal about it. pic.twitter.com/cUNBkr2gWG
— Ben Starr (@The_Ben_Starr) February 19, 2026
Alas, not all of the Seven are still standing, and Starr’s incarnation of The Visitor is a different one to the original. In a clever twist, the game’s OG mode, which offers Fortnite’s original battle royale map, is considered a separate multiversal reality. It’s from here that Starr’s version of The Visitor will arrive in the coming days — following the OG version of that original rocket event — in order to help save the day and speak for the first time.
Today’s Fortnite update included datamined dialogue lines where Starr’s voice is unmistakable. Long-term Fortnite fans will also be pleased to hear the return of the Seven’s AI assistant AMIE, who sounds like she is once again voiced by the prolific voice actress Erica Lindbeck.
“I’m joining Fortnite as The Visitor,” Starr confirmed today on Twitter/X. “I’m so excited to bring back this iconic member of The Seven. I imagine I’ll be very normal about it.”
Image credit: Ben Starr
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
When the website of Highguard suddenly began blaring that it was “unavailable” not long after news broke of layoffs at developer Wildlight, you could have been forgiven for thinking a Concord-style pulling offline might be in the shooter’s near future. That doesn’t look to be the case, though, with the studio having just announced a couple of new additions set to arrive in the game this week.
Resident Evil Requiem has been fully leaked online, with videos showcasing the game’s finale and major spoilers now spreading across the internet.
Earlier this week, IGN reported that early physical copies were now out in the wild, and spoilers would inevitably follow. Days later, full details of the game’s plot, villains, major deaths and ending mechanics are now everywhere — with little sign that Capcom is able to stop the flow.
On reddit, a lengthy thread lists a series of plot reveals beat by beat, with links to off-screen images and even lengthy clips of footage that leave no doubt that the spoilers are real. There’s mention of unrevealed characters, various lore connections, and yes — the mechanics and details of game’s ending.
On the main r/ResidentEvilRequiem reddit, spoilers have completely taken over — with 17 of the top 20 posts discussing the leaks and already turning under-wraps plot details into memes.
That said, considering the huge anticipation for Resident Evil Requiem’s release, none of this really comes as a surprise. As noted Resident Evil leaker Dusk Golem wrote on X/Twitter yesterday:
“RE9 starting to leak 10 days away from release is actually super good for the series. RE:4 & RE8 leaked 14 days away, RE:3 was 16 days away, & f***ing RE7 was almost a whole month before release. I see people asking, ‘How could it leak a whole 10 days before release’, and over here I’m all like, ‘Huh, Capcom did better than usual this time. Good for them.
Resident Evil Requiem’s February 27 release date is now just a week away, and we’ll be keeping spoiler free here on IGN as much as possible.
“After getting hands-on with a total of about four hours of Resident Evil 9 Requiem at this point, and sharing that experience with colleagues, I’m more excited for the series than I have been in recent memory,” IGN wrote after going hands-on with Resident Evil Requiem recently. “It’s the old mixed with the new, but all in a modern package with two protagonists I already like a lot.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
There’s now a mod for Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties which swaps out the likeness of actor Teruyuki Kagawa. Kagawa’s casting in the remake, which saw him lend both his voice and likeness to secondary villain Goh Hamazaki, caused fan backlash due to a 2022 report from Shukan Shincho detailing sexual assault allegations against the actor.
Kagawa apologised at the time, but didn’t specify what he was apologising for or confirm the events reported in the article. Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties director Ryosuke Horii recently said Kagawa’s casting was the result of developers RGG Studio having “tried to think of someone who makes you go, ‘This guy’s a creep'”.
Let’s get liminal.
Finnish dev Tensori’s POOLS (sorry, POOLS) is a self-proclaimed walking sim with uncanny vibes. It launched back in 2024 on Steam and has racked up nearly 3000 user reviews in the time since, leaving it in the rarified “Overwhelmingly Positive” range on Valve’s platform, and it’s coming to Switch on 26th February.
As you can see from the trailer above — running native Switch footage, we’re told — it looks pleasingly minimal and rather lovely, but don’t go in expecting pure cosy vibes, or much else, for that matter, because the list of things this “liminal fever dream” doesn’t feature is sizeable.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Hello again, PlayStation VR2 players! We’re bringing Rager to PS VR2 on March 5, and we can’t wait for you to feel what rhythm-driven combat really means.
Rager is a music-driven VR brawler where the rhythm is never background noise. Every strike, block, and dodge is tied directly to the soundtrack. Enemies attack in sync with pounding basslines and war drums, and your survival depends on whether you can match that timing with precision.
This is combat built on control and awareness. You step into a shifting digital arena as robotic adversaries close in from every direction. The world forms around you as the music builds, then collapses back into the void when the fight is over. The next track begins, and the pressure starts again.
At launch on PS VR2, Rager includes a full campaign of 12 hand-built levels and three boss fights that escalate the pressure with every track. Each level locks you into a specific weapon and forces you to commit. There is no switching mid-fight. You adapt or you fail.
The weapon in your hands changes the fight completely. Sword and Mace demand precision, striking independently with clean, deliberate timing. Axe and Hammer require both hands and full-body movement, rewarding committed swings with crushing impact. Claws and Fists pull you into close range, where attacks come faster and hesitation disappears. Every weapon shifts your stance, your reach, and your rhythm. You are reading the beat while reading the enemy, adjusting your timing in real time as attacks come from every direction.
Freestyle mode opens another 12 levels from the start, giving you the freedom to choose your weapon and push your limits. Online leaderboards track every run. When a fight ends, you know exactly where you lost time. If your timing slips, you feel it. If you land clean, you feel that too. Rager rewards discipline. The tighter your movement, the harder it hits.
Rager is built around clarity, feedback, and physical commitment. On PS VR2, those elements come through at full strength.
The game runs at a native 90Hz, keeping movement smooth and responsive during the fastest exchanges. When attacks come from multiple directions and the beat accelerates, you need stability. Native 90Hz ensures that what you see and what you feel stay locked together, frame by frame.
HDR support deepens the contrast of the arena, sharpening silhouettes and impact flashes against the darkness. Dynamic foveated rendering powered by eye tracking keeps your focus crisp exactly where you’re looking, so telegraphed strikes stay readable even in chaotic moments.
Then there’s the feedback.
Advanced haptics in the PS VR2 Sense controllers reinforce timing in your hands. A clean strike lands with weight. A blocked attack sends resistance through your grip. Headset rumble adds force to heavy blows and boss slams, grounding you in the center of the arena. The result is combat that feels anchored. When you commit to a swing, you feel the consequence.
For players who chase mastery, Rager includes a full trophy list, culminating in a Platinum trophy that rewards precision, discipline, and complete control of the rhythm.
On PS VR2, every strike carries weight, every block carries resistance, and every mistake carries consequence.
Rager rewards players who stay sharp under pressure. When the tempo rises and attacks close in from every direction, hesitation costs you. Clean timing wins fights. Control keeps you standing.
We’re proud to bring Rager to PlayStation VR2, and we’re excited to see how this community rises to the challenge. If you’re ready to test your timing, your stamina, and your control, we’ll see you in the arena on March 5.
The legendary voice behind God of War’s recent iteration of Kratos, Christopher Judge, has teased that we’ll likely get more news about the franchise in “late summer.”
According to a recording from streamer and YouTuber Fuzhpuzy at Canada’s Fan Expo, Judge, who may not have known he was being recorded at the time, confirmed that while he would not be “playing in the remake” — that role is for Kratos’ original voice actor, TC Carson — “you’ll be hearing about what we’re doing probably late summer.”
The suggestion here is that Judge is back working with Sony Santa Monica on a separate God of War project unrelated to the studio’s early work beginning to remake the franchise’s original trilogy (and the new side-scrolling spin-off Sons of Sparta, which was largely made elsewhere).
Interestingly, Judge also explained that the recently announcement remake starring TC Carson will boast “all the new technology in it, add more stuff, a new fighting system.”
It’s our biggest clue yet that an all-new Sony Santa Monica God of War game is on the way. It’s been pretty quiet ever since 2022’s God of War: Ragnarök in which Kratos and Atreus set out on a mythic journey for answers before Ragnarök arrives, visiting each of the Nine Realms in the brutal and epic sequel.
There had been a live-service multiplayer game in the works, but at the beginning of 2025, Sony canceled two unannounced live-service projects that had been in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, with the latter thought to be a multiplayer God of War game. Then, towards the end of the year, details and images of the canceled game leaked online, confirming the rumors had been true.
As for Amazon’s upcoming adaptation of Sony Santa Monica’s God of War series? The live-action Prime Video TV series based on the popular ancient mythology-themed video game is picking up speed. Ryan Hurst will play Kratos, Callum Vinson will play Kratos’ son, Atreus, and Teresa Palmer, Max Parker, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alastair Duncan, and Mandy Patinkin join as Sif, Heimdall, Thor, Mimir, and Odin, respectively.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
For months, I’ve been keeping an eye out for Denshattack!, an enticingly loud stunt-action game that’s somewhere between an autorunner and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, if Tony Hawk was an electric locomotive and not a man of mortal flesh. I played it last year and was instantly smitten with its speedy, tricksy rail riding, and now that there’s a newly released Steam demo, perhaps you will be too.
