During today’s Kojima Productions 10th-anniversary livestream, Hideo Kojima unveiled a poster for forthcoming PlayStation-exclusive Physint. Unlike Death Stranding or OD, it’s set to embrace the “tactical espionage action” of Kojima’s classic Metal Gear Solid series.
The poster below shows the game’s deliberately-shrouded protagonist. According to Kojima speaking at the event, casting of the main character was delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, but he did reveal three confirmed cast members.
These include Don Lee (or Ma Dong-Seok) who has appeared in Eternals and Train to Busan. Charlee Fraser, best known for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, will also star alongside Minami Hamabe, who appeared in Godzilla Minus One.
Here’s the poster:
(Image credit: Kojima Productions)
Physint will use an advanced version of the Decima Engine that powers Death Stranding, as well as Horizon Zero Dawn and others. It’s further out than even OD, which itself doesn’t have a release date, though Physint is expected to release within six years.
“[Physint] will be both a game and a movie at the same time,” Kojima said in February 2024. “Of course it will be a game. However, if your mother walks in on you playing this game, she’ll think you’re watching a movie. I’m not sure how far we can take it yet.”
Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are celebrating the studio’s 10th anniversary with a big Beyond the Strand livestream that promises to “offer a glimpse into future projects” in development at the studio behind the first two Death Stranding titles.
We’ll be covering this event live and updating this article with all the big news and reveals!
Hideo Kojima Reveals First Trailer for Xbox Game Studios Title OD
KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS 10周年記念イベント 「Beyond The Strand」速報
During the Beyond the Strand livestream, Hideo Kojima and Xbox head Phil Spencer helped share the first trailer for OD, Kojima Productions’ Xbox Game Studios horror project.
The footage begins with an ominous red door and a red card being used to try to unlock it. We then get some redacted text that reads: Ten years since the [REDACTED] Horror [REDACTED], “[REDACTED].” The Cursed [REDACTED] Have Once Again [REDACTED] Into the Forbidden.
We then see the back of the card, which says, “Light the Fires to Celebrate Their [REDACTED] [REDACTED].
More Text: This Building Was [REDACTED] From a 3D Scan of an [REDACTED] Found in an [REDACTED]. And then, [REDACTED] Were [REDACTED] In a Sinister Ritual.
More gamplay was shown of someone entering a room on a stormy day. There is a shrine of sorts, and the characters pulls out a match from a box that says “missing.” They then proceed to light candles, including one that looks like a baby. When they light that last one, a baby starts crying. They then light another candle shaped like another young person’s head and it starts bleeding. We then see our character, who is played by Sophia Lillis, and she looks absolutley terrified as something approaches her from behind and then grabs her.
It then cuts to credits and we see OD will star Lillis, Udo Kier, and Hunter Schafer, oh, and that it is for “all players and screamers.”
Kojima Productions Partnering With Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group On a Credit Card
Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are collaborating with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group on a brand-new credit card that is aiming to be released in the second half of 2026. This card will also have a smartphone app and digital card to make payments, and it will let users accumulate points and exchange them for merch and goods. The team is working on what themed goods and merch can be used alongside game characters and themes for the card itself.
Kojima Discusses the 20-Year Plan for Kojima Productions
Kojima discussed a bit more about the 20-year plan he set out for Kojima Productions, and it is very much reminiscent to the building and launching of a spaceship into the stars.
First Phase (2015-2019)
Goal: “Build a spaceship, assemble a crew, install engines, and head for the outer space creating our own new IP.”
Details: This also included Death Stranding, “focusing on connections with fans,” merchandising, a fan event, and an anniversary event. The spaceship is the office.
Second Phase (2019-2025 and to 2030)
Goal: “Transfer to the long-range spacecraft and head into space.”
Details: This includes Death Stranding: Director’s Cut and Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and the team wants to enhance its own IP, go into “multi-platform, film, anime, comic, novelization, and music,” further adventures and challenges | beyond the universe,” create new IP and transcend the “boundries between film and games,” and expand the connections with fans.
Celebrating 10 Years of Kojima Productions
Beyond the Strand began with a look back at Kojima Productions, including a timeline of the studio, which you can see below;
December 12, 2016: Kojima Productions Established
2016: Official Mascot “Ludens” Revealed
2016: New Office Established in Shinagawa
2016: Death Stranding Revealed
2019: Death Stranding Special Stage at Tokyo Game Show 2019
2019: Launch of Death Stranding
2020: Fellowship Award at the BAFTA Games Awards
2021: Launch of Death Stranding Director’s Cut
2022: Partnership with Xbox Game Studios
2022: New Office Completed
2022: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Announced
2023: Praying For a Safe Production With Microsoft at Kanada Myojin
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Fallout: New Vegas offers one of the largest mod libraries of any game, making it difficult to discern which are the best mods to download. After all, you have your pick from dozens of texture packs, weapon add-ons, and quality-of-life mods that all look like fantastic additions for your playthrough. While you’re free to browse the 800+ pages of New Vegas mods on Nexus Mods yourself, you could also let us do some of that heavy lifting for you. We also did the same for the best Skyrim mods and best Fallout 4 mods in case you want to try out another Bethesda RPG.
In the list below, you’ll find the 25 best Fallout: New Vegas mods that we believe to be worth downloading for one of our picks of the best RPGs to play right now. A variety of mod types are represented, giving you a solid selection to pick from that will enhance your playthrough in one way or another. Some do require specific mods or game versions to run properly, so make sure to check the Nexus Mods page before downloading one.
A newly discovered bug in open-world looter shooter Borderlands 4 is letting players use a specific legendary gun to fling themselves across large sections of the game’s map. It looks wild and could be useful for speedrunners. But Gearbox is watching the glitch and might, if needed, fix it to avoid technical problems.
On September 19, Twitch streamer and content creator Bahroo shared a video of himself playing Borderlands 4 while pulling off a technique known online as “Cricket Jumping.” The bug relies on a legendary handgun known as the “Noisy Cricket” and its powerful kick, which sends players flying backward. The gun itself is a reference to the tiny gun with the same name seen in the ’90s sci-fi comedy film Men In Black. Normally, this isn’t the most useful trait. But if you tab out or pause the game at the right time while charging up a shot with the Noisy Cricket, you can send yourself flying for miles. It’s wild to watch in action.
Cricket Jumping has been a known bug since at least September 16, as demonstrated in this short video uploaded by YouTube user Platinum. But it wasn’t until Bahroo and other bigger streamers and creators began sharing videos of the technique that it caught on more and became more publicly known. And that attention eventually got Cricket Jumping spotted by Borderlands 4′s creative director Graeme Timmins. While you might assume someone from Gearbox would not be happy about this bug, Timmins seemed open to not patching it out, provided it doesn’t break the game.
“I’ve got my eye on this,” replied Timmins to a video of the bug on Twitter. “My only worry is streaming issues or if this introduces instability. Not out to ruin people’s fun, but can’t have it cause tech issues. For now, tho, not going to do anything until proven issues arise.”
So for now, it seems like Gearbox is going to let people Cricket Jump all around Kairos, assuming it doesn’t ruin the game for other players or introduce some nasty, less cool bug. Besides, I imagine Gearbox has a lot more to fix in Borderlands 4 right now, like horrible console performance problems, and isn’t too concerned about a silly super jump bug.
Henry Cavill busted up his leg real good earlier this month while training for the Highlander reboot nobody asked for, and in fine fashion he’s using his recovery time to remind us all that he really, really loves Warhammer 40,000.
As is the way in our social media obsessed world, Henry posted a picture of himself, his dog, and his busted-up leg on Instagram over the weekend. Instead of writing, “Wow, look at my busted-up leg,” however, he shared a poem:
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
He did not write that himself: That’s Invictus, written in 1875 by English poet William Ernest Henley. More on that later, though, because first, clearly visible on the coffee table upon which Henry is resting his leg is a Warhammer: The Horus Heresy rulebook—Liber Hereticus, I’m pretty sure—laid atop several other, presumably also Warhammer books.
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It’s much less distinct but in the other photo you can also see, just above Henry’s head on a shelf in the other room, a copy of the Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan box set.
Now, Henry is probably the world’s most famous WH40K nerd, and so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that he’s got lots of WH40K stuff in his house. But IGN sees something possibly deeper: That maybe he’s teasing the backdrop for the Warhammer 40,000 cinematic universe he’s heading up, the setting for which hasn’t been officially revealed yet. (It’s been 40,000 years, there’s a lot to sort through and figure out.)
The Horus Heresy rulebook could possibly point toward a retelling of the foundational historical event of the Warhammer 40,000 setting: The civil war that took place 10,000 years prior to the game’s current era, which essentially set the stage for events as they currently stand.
But that’s complicated and deep, great for committed fans but possibly too dense and arcane for the rest of us. A simpler approach might be hinted at by the Leviathan box set, which features the Ultramarines chapter of the Space Marines, who also happen to be the stars of the very successful (and more mainstream) Space Marine videogame series.
And that brings us back to the poem, which you’ll recall is entitled Invictus. Saul Invictus was the captain of the elite 1st Company of the Ultramarines, until he was killed in the Battle of Macragge during the First Tyranic War. A good role for Henry to play, perhaps?
Perhaps. But now we swerve over to the Poetry Foundation to throw some cold water on the whole thing. Henley, the author of Invictus, had one of his legs amputated just below the knee when he was young, the result of tubercular arthritis; some years later, the other leg was only saved through radical surgical intervention. Henley began writing poems, including Invictus, while recovering from that surgery—basically, the 19th-century equivalent of “Wow, look at my busted-up leg.”
So where does this leave us? Using strategically-placed stuff in the background of photos or livestreams to hint at future goings-on isn’t new—Phil Spencer has a reputation for doing it—but in this case, I don’t think this is a tease so much as a reminder that Henry really, really loves Warhammer 40,000. He talked about it during Covid-19 lockdowns, he talked about it on The Witcher, he talked about it when he was supposed to be hyping extremely expensive watches in Switzerland: The man’s just a fan—a fan who just happens to have a big WH40K thing cooking. Can’t really blame him for being excited about that.
Also, he busted up his leg. But he’s going to be okay.
My first major memory of Indie Games on Xbox platforms is a pleasant one, and it’s precisely the sort of memory I feel most appropriate for the medium. This was a tiny self-published affair – nary a publisher in sight, what I assume was a solo developer, and an extremely limited scope. I’m not talking about Hollow Knight, or Balatro, or Braid, or Limbo or what have you. I’m talking about Curling 2010.
Curling 2010 was exactly what it sounds like: a very simple indie recreation of the sport of curling. It was a drunken discovery, and in my circle of friends was almost exclusively played competitively when very liquored. To me, Curling stood alongside Mount your Friends as the absolute poster children of Xbox Live Indie Games, a rather brilliant little service that allowed pretty much anyone to develop Xbox 360 games using Microsoft’s XNA framework. Games would get peer reviewed and then could go live for a few bucks.
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This service was surprisingly simple, shockingly democratised, and was the first signal of how serious Xbox was about allowing independent developers access to its platform; they let one person indulge their interest in Curling and put their game on Xbox 360.
While Xbox Live’s Community Indie games service never left the Xbox 360 and Microsoft never quite embraced such chaotic openness again, that system’s founding spirit was later channeled into Xbox One’s ID@Xbox program, which continues to this day. In 2025, ID@Xbox has seldom seemed more important to Xbox’s fortunes. The platform holder finds itself in choppy waters: first-party studio layoffs, second-party game cancellations, botched rescue deals and boycott calls fuelled by the actions of Xbox’s parent company. But you know what part of the Xbox ecosystem has been consistently rather good? ID@Xbox.
A glance around Xbox’s Gamescom stand last month serves as quite firm confirmation of that fact. The longest line was, of course, for Silksong. Even before the show opened to the public, I watched media and influencers denigrate themselves dashing to that queue, which ran for over an hour. On the other side of the stand, games like Super Meat Boy 3D and There are No Ghosts at the Grand dominated as partner titles. Some might uncharitably suggest that this stand is more representative of a particularly quiet year for Xbox’s first party games – but the truth is, Xbox shows have featured booths like this for a long time; each appearance a demonstration of an indie and third party relations setup firing on all cylinders.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a big deal, and got the full-on “chosen one” treatment from Xbox, but not all indie games are as fortunate. | Image credit: Eurogamer/Team Cherry
“Some years there’s more indie games, some years there’s a few less – but every year it’s a discussion,” ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla tells me in the midst of the bustle and noise of the Xbox stand. We chat in a small aisle of the booth just adjacent to an indie-focused section where an early-morning queue is beginning to snake. The breadth of third-party titles on the booth, from late Japanese ports to all-new indies and hotly anticipated sequels, is meant to send a message.
“It is just really a recognition by Xbox of the absolute crucial need for diversity in our portfolio,” Charla adds.
Case in point: There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, the quirky debut title of Bristol-based developer Friday Sundae. Distinctly British, it took pride of place at Xbox’s Summer Games Fest and Gamescom presences.
“We never in our wildest dreams thought that we would be there,” shares Anil Glendinning, creative director at Friday Sundae on No Ghosts at the Grand. “And if we did, we thought it’d be in some tiny little booth hidden at the back of a distant hall, where nobody gets to see us! We did not ever in a million years expect to be right there, as part of Xbox, right there, hall 7 – and to have people waiting, like, an hour to play our game.
“Not as big as the queues for Hollow Knight, of course,” Glendinning laughs, “But it was extraordinary, and surreal, and a real item off the bucket list. As an indie dev, you couldn’t hope for a better start for introducing the game directly to gamers.”
The section towards the back-right of Xbox’s stand where No Ghosts at the Grand made its debut serves as a perfect example of the breadth of the relationships Xbox is trying to foster outside of its first-party ecosystem. Alongside No Ghosts there was Silksong, the indie that is so massive it no longer quite fits the term in the same way. Then there’s Invincible VS, which has a more traditional publishing arrangement but via the smaller-scale Skybound Games. PowerWash Simulator 2 is a sequel to a smash hit published by one of gaming’s biggest multinationals – but this time developer Futurlab is going it alone. Chinese developer Pawprint Studio showcased its Pokémon-alike Aniimo, and just off to the side were some of the fruits of Xbox’s development outreach efforts in Japan with a few late-but-welcome ports from Square Enix.
The point is, the stand paints a picture of a direction of travel for Xbox even as other aspects of their business appear much less certain. From smaller truly independent studios to start-ups with a little external investment and support, the word tends to be pretty universal, too: those who have had the opportunity to ply Xbox’s resources have found it invaluable.
“We’re an indie studio and small publisher so getting this level of support during key marketing milestones is huge for us,” says Mike Willette, executive producer on Invincible VS at new startup studio Quarter Up. “Having that kind of reach – especially during such a big-scale event – meant that fans around the world could connect with the Invincible VS. It was a big moment for the game and the reaction has been amazing to see.”
The enthusiastic attitude towards Xbox’s support raises a question, of course: how exactly Xbox decides which games are the chosen ones and which are less lucky. Even the most passing of glances at Steam’s statistics tells us there are now more games than ever – and the process of discovery is thereby ever more complicated. That’s true for the media, as we try to dig out cool games for readers – but it’s also obviously true for publishers, and consumers themselves. Charla says Xbox’s approach hasn’t changed in over a decade, however.
“We find them everywhere,” Charla says. “We find them by spending time in the Indie Arena [at Gamescom]. We find them by people sending us direct messages on BlueSky… We find them from people all around Microsoft being like, hey, have you seen this game? And we find them from having friends who make games who say – hey, you need to see my friend’s game. And from people just emailing us!”
In the end, Charla’s team works with hundreds of partners each year, reviewing what’s next in the world of indie or indie-adjacent gaming. This is a team that isn’t just looking for the next Hollow Knight, either – the hunt is on for all sorts of titles, in large part to ensure the breadth of releases on Game Pass. And while the idea of Game Pass as a universally ‘good thing‘ remains in dispute, with some developers going as far as to call it unsustainable and damaging, Charla is bullish on the service – and its successes with indie developers.
Securing a deal to get a game on Game Pass can be a huge financial safety blanket for indide developers. | Image credit: Adobe Stock, Microsoft
“The majority of partners who’ve had a game in Game Pass want to bring their future titles to the service,” Charla notes. “As a result, we’ve signed deals with more than 150 partners to expand the catalogue. We continue to engage with hundreds of partners each year to review upcoming titles.”
“Last year, we worked with over 50 teams to sign their first Game Pass deal. This year marks our largest investment in Game Pass to date, and we remain focused on delivering the most exciting and diverse catalogue in gaming.”
The pathway of gradually ending up intertwined with Xbox and landing a Game Pass deal matches up to that described by Friday Sundae for No Ghosts at the Grand. In that case, the studio had put together a demo and had been showing it off to various potential partners, which included a submission to the Xbox team via a developer-focused website and form entry. It was, by Glendinning’s own admission, a “strange demo” – which tempered expectations.
“We didn’t expect to hear back,” Glendinning admits of that early No Ghosts at the Grand demo. “We went through those channels and then promptly forgot all about it. And in fact, when we got an email back… we thought it was spam! We weren’t completely sure it was real. But it was – it was someone within the Xbox team saying, yeah, we like your demo, we played it, we think it’s interesting, and we’d like to jump on a call. Since then, it’s been a blur.”
That whirlwind of Xbox’s involvement has been described to me variously by developers as useful from a nuts-and-bolts development perspective – in terms of gathering feedback and enjoying technological support – but also as a confidence-booster for the small teams involved. The attention of a much bigger partner can be useful or scary – but it can also be validating.
Image credit: Friday Sundae
“We had to show Xbox progress during key milestones, i.e. demo the game for their partnerships team at critical moments to inspire confidence that we belonged on their support roster,” says Mike Willette of Invincible VS. “It was a good exercise for our dev team as well as something that helped us constantly elevate our own bar.”
“I just remember that Xbox was so curious about our creative process,” says Friday Sundae’s Glendinning. “They wanted to know where we wanted to take it, where our creativity was coming from, our vision for the game. Everything that we said to them, they came back with this enthusiasm. We’d keep sending – another email, some more screenshots, more videos, more content. Time after time, we were getting encouragement, support, and the thumbs up to keep on going.
“Having that kind of support was a huge confidence boost, y’know? We weren’t sure what we were making or whether anyone would be interested, or really like it. Hearing people within the Xbox team being excited, being encouraging, wanting to see more – that was a real shot in the arm of confidence for us. It really spurred the team forward to think: hey, you know what? We might actually have something here.”
There was another, secondary benefit, of course. “The biggest thing for us was getting access to those dev kits,” Glendinning notes. “It’s still hugely important for us knowing that we have Xbox there, having our backs if we run into any issues or problems. But the truth is, it’s actually been smooth sailing so far.”
A smooth journey for indie developers is something that is clearly a focus for Charla and his team. When asked about his team’s journey over the years – aside from the games themselves – the ID@Xbox boss instantly zeroes in on the technical changes that team has managed to institute across the Xbox platform, making adjustments that in many cases benefit everyone, indie or triple-A alike.
Indie games have a strong history on Xbox, as evidenced by this absolute classic, Mount Your Friends. | Image credit: Stegersaurus Software Inc
“It was really hard to publish on Xbox. It was our job to make it easier,” Charla says. “So when we first started ID@Xbox, we had a lot of asks.
“We had a lot of asks that were really indie specific, and we would go into these meetings with all these engineers – and we didn’t know anybody, right? These are business people. And we show up like, ‘Errr… ahh… we’re from ID’ – but as soon as we said that it was like ‘Oh, you’re the Indie guys! What do you need?!’ That level of support internally at Microsoft for independent developers has been off the charts forever from day one, and it continues today.
“Y’know, if we can save 12 hours on a game… hey, that’s great for everybody. It’s great for big publishers, but for an indie or maybe a solo dev – 12 hours is like a day and a half of work that you can use to theoretically materially make the game a day and a half better. There’s a lot of former developers on the team, and we really take that kind of thing to heart.”
Over the years, the focus has been on trying to make the act of getting games onto Xbox easier. But Charla now sees a new challenge. With an explosion in the sheer number of games, plus an ever-growing number of games in Xbox’s subscription service, it’s now about making sure games don’t get lost in the flood. His team is looking to make similar optimisations in this area as they once did to the process of onboarding developers in the first place.
“What if we put that discovery question on its head?” Charla asks. “How do we as a game platform help developers to discover their audience? So if you’re making a game of a certain quality… there’s an audience for that out in the world. Whether that audience’s total addressable market is 30 million or 3 million, or 300,000, or 30,000… How do we as Microsoft help you get in front of that total addressable audience?
“We want to show that audience your box art. Now, whether or not they click on the box, whether or not to buy the game, that’s a little dependent on the developer – on the box art, on the game, etc. But I think our job is to think about Discovery in a new way, which is, how do we ensure developers can discover their audiences?”
Some of this brings us full-circle. When I speak to Charla and the developers featured here, it’s either during or off the back of an Xbox Gamescom presence that has been all about connecting directly with players in-person. At Gamescom, from the perspective of these developers, Xbox’s support was invaluable.
“Having the opportunity to showcase Invincible VS on a global stage – especially in Europe – was huge,” says Mike Willette. “It was our first time seeing international fans interact with the game in-person, and that was incredibly rewarding. Seeing people’s reactions, watching them get a feel for the mechanics and feeling the excitement build up on the show floor – there’s really nothing like experiencing that.”
The challenge, then, appears to be taking that sort of energy and that discovery available in person at physical events and finding ways to deliver that on digital storefronts and the like. Charla’s vision – that discovery is a two-way street, as much about games finding audiences as it is about audiences finding games – is clearly a key lynchpin. As with ID@Xbox driving storefront and development backend changes that helped all, though, it’s clear that Xbox’s indie support will be key to this. Then there is the broader position in which Xbox finds itself, much of it undesirable – making this bright spot one whose continued luminescence is vital. Charla, at least, appears to believe he has the support and buy-in needed to do that.
“I remember one year, we had a bunch of games ready but we just weren’t showing them at this particular internal review. And a very senior executive, halfway through the review, looks at me and is like ‘where are the indie games?’,” the ID@Xbox boss recalls.
“I was like, ‘oh, don’t worry, they’re coming – next review! You know, the trailers tend to come along a little later for indies…’ But, it was cool for that question to be asked. It was a real moment where I reflected on it later and was just like – okay, I’m working in the right place.”
The Black Ops 7 Beta — divided into the Early Access and Open Beta periods — runs from October 2 to October 8.
The Early Access Beta launches at 10AM PT on Thursday, October 2 for those who preorder the game, and runs for a period of 72 hours.
The Open Beta launches at 10AM PTon Sunday, October 5 for all players on all platforms, and runs consecutively after the Early Access period, for another 72 hours. The Black Ops 7 Beta is scheduled to conclude at 10AM PT on Wednesday, October 8.
Early Access Beta*
Available to players who have pre-ordered the game on any platform (console or PC), as well as eligible Game Pass subscribers, the initial part of the Beta is planned to launch on Thursday October 2 at 10AM PT, and concludes 72 hours later when the main Open Beta begins on Sunday October 5 at 10AM PT. The Beta is available on all platforms at the same time.
Open Beta*
The second part of the Beta is open and free for all players on all platforms, and is planned to begin on Sunday October 5 at 10AM PT. The Black Ops 7 Beta is scheduled to conclude 72 hours later, on Wednesday October 8 at 10AM PT.
Internet access is required for participation.
Accessing the Beta and Beta Codes
Your path to access to the Beta Early Access period depends on the version of the game you preordered:
If you preordered any Digital Edition version, you do not need a “Beta Code”, as you’ll be automatically allowed entry into Beta Early Access (and subsequently, the Open Beta).
If you preordered a Physical Edition (consoles only), you should have received a “Beta Code” at the point of sale (at select retailer locations), enabling entry into the Beta Early Access.
If you don’t preorder Black Ops 7, you can still access the Open Beta period.
Preorder Black Ops 7 Now! Additional Intel to Come!
Be sure to stay danger close with the latest official Black Ops 7 information by checking the Call of Duty Blog as further communications are scheduled, including a massive intel drop of Round-Based Zombies coverage later this week, as well as even more information at Call of Duty: NEXT, details on the Black Ops 7 Open Beta, and the countdown to launch.
Preorders are available now at participating retailers, in-game, on platform stores, or at CallofDuty.com.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Development Credits
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is published by Activision. Development is led by Treyarch, in partnership with Raven Software.
Additional development by — in alphabetical order — Activision Central Design, Activision Central Technology, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games.
(* Actual launch date(s) and platform availability of MP Beta subject to change. See www.callofduty.com/beta for more details. Minimum Open Beta duration is 2 days. Limited time only. Internet connection required.)
Techland’s Dying Light: The Beast launched last week and is, sources say, “a good Dying Light game, and a fine open-world zombie game in general, full of crunchy combat and simple but satisfying number-go-up loops”. Being a new videogame, it also has some bugs. The most dramatic of these appear to be problems with its day/night cycle and weather system.
It is written that when the Sumerian king Gilgamesh first beheld the gleaming ramparts of Uruk‐Haven, many centuries ago, he said unto his architects: “be sure to save up gaps for those long straight ones, and try your best to start a multiplier”. But then Gilgamesh realised that, by means of temporal fluctuations too nonsensical to explain, he was actually looking at the submissions page for Falling Block Jam 2025, the latest Itch.io “make a thing with a theme” festival, which ran from last week till today.
A new trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has arrived, and this one is focused entirely on multiplayer. The trailer shows off all 18 multiplayer maps that will be available at launch and all footage was captured in-game. The trailer is set to the song “FE!N” from Travis Scott ft. Playboi Carti.
Stardew Valley creator Eric ‘Concerned Ape’ Barone has warned fans that it will “be a while” before the highly anticipated Stardew Valley 1.7 update is ready.
Barone confirmed we’d get a Stardew Valley 1.7 update last month at the Stardew Valley concert, although at the time, he stressed there was “no release date, no estimate, but it’s happening.”
Now, however, Barone is working to contain the excitement, responding to fans asking for “maybe a sneak peak [sic]” to say “more will come, I just don’t want too much hype at this point.”
Last time, PC players were able to jump into the free 1.6 update several months before those on console and mobile, but for 1.7, Barone says he will “do my best to minimize the delay between [releasing on PC and other platforms] so as not to have the same problem as last update” and keep Haunted Chocolatier on track, too.
Back in May, Barone admitted that he “didn’t want to just be the Stardew Valley guy,” explaining that was why he’s currently working on Haunted Chocolatier. We shouldn’t expect a release date anytime soon, though — there’s “still a lot to be done,” Barone recently admitted, particularly as he feels it’s “got to be better” than Stardew Valley.
We enjoyed our time with the farm simulator when we reviewed it way back in 2016, awarding it 8.8 “Great” in our original Stardew Valley review. When we revisited the game in 2024, however, we hailed it a 10/10 “masterpiece,” writing: “Stardew Valley is not only the best farming game I’ve played, it is one of my favorite games of all time. That myself and others keep returning to this eight-year old gem each time it gets even the smallest update speaks to how it’s truly a masterpiece in the genre it both reinvigorated and has come to define.”
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.
Survival horror took a step onto chilling new ground when Silent Hill first emerged from the mists in 1999 on PlayStation. Since then, each return to the titular fictional American town has been hotly anticipated, leading to this latest instalment which adds a keen new perspective to its bleeding edge. I got to explore the fictional Japanese town of Ebisugaoka in the final version of Silent Hill f to discover what’s new to the series, as well as familiar elements that fans will love.
Four ways Silent Hill f changes the series’ formula:
1. Combat is more modern
Intriguingly, there are a couple carryovers from the remake of Silent Hill 2, with a new spin. It pays to be strategic with your light attacks (R1) and heavy attacks (R2), the latter capable of a staggering counterattack against some enemies, letting you strike them without risk. It feels responsive without overpowering the vulnerability essential to the genre.
On the flip side, protagonist Hinako Shimizu is a little more agile than your typical Silent Hill main. Time your press of the Circle button just right and you’ll activate a perfect dodge, replenishing Hinako’s stamina. Attacking and dodging saps stamina, making perfect dodges crucial to master.
2. Unusual Yokai will break your sanity…
Memorable monster design is key to any horror story, and Silent Hill f delivers in blood-soaked spades. Where things differ here is the use of Japanese folklore and mythology to inspire many of its brutal antagonists. References to the slit-mouthed Kuchisake-onna spirits and tentacle god-beast Akkorokamui were creepy enough, but there are a number of enemies that warp the visuals of traditional Japanese dolls and figures, too.
Adding more anxiety to these scuttling monstrosities is Hinako’s sanity meter, which drains from psychological attacks, reducing your ability to use Hinako’s powerful Focus strikes (charging with L2 then hitting R1 to execute) and eventually eating into her health.
3. …But Faith helps repair it
Keeping within the theme of healing from psychological trauma, Faith is a mechanic which offers some hope for Hinako. Dotted around the intimidating environment are items such as drinks, snacks and desserts. While they’ll help restore health or stamina, you can also convert them at hokora shrines for Faith, which you can use to help recover sanity, and trade for omamori trinkets which offer buffs such as decreasing an enemy’s line of sight. You can even pray with blank ema tablets to increase maximum health, sanity, stamina, or omamori slots.
4. Different themes and a fresh perspective
Silent Hill f’s 1960s Japan setting gives the series a chance to delve into societal and cultural expectations of gender roles, something reflected in ever-present dolls both as artefacts and part of its monsters, and the complicated and sometimes toxic relationships between the characters.
This bleeds into the series’ examination of trauma, isolation and decay, but is also present through Hinako’s journal, accessed by pressing the Up Directional Button, which details some of the lore, characters and puzzle clues. Hinako’s descriptions change over time to reflect her experience, which plays into the story both on a literal and meta level.
Four ways Silent Hill f stays true to the series:
1. It looks and feels like Silent Hill should
It might be set in a different country and time period, but Silent Hill f remains as powerfully creepy as you’d expect. The minimal UI, muted colour palette and atmospheric compositions (partly crafted by long-time series composer Akira Yamaoka) all make for a classically chilling experience – along with those narrow, claustrophobic, misty maze-like areas.
You’ll also feel a slight heartbeat-like tremble from the DualSense wireless controller when Hinako runs or is close to death. Unsettling.
2. Despite its combat, this isn’t an action game
Like Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Downpour, your scarce weapons deteriorate over time, their condition handily referred to by their visual state and Hinako’s comments, so evasion rather than combat often offers better chances of survival.
There were times where I was overwhelmed by just two enemies, and there were visual puzzles I had to solve while being stalked by brutish beasts in the dark. That traditional survival horror vulnerability is still very much present.
3. An Otherworld awaits
Hinako’s hellish journey isn’t limited to Ebisugaoka. Just like many other Silent Hill games, you’re transported to a mysterious Otherworld which acts as a dark reflection of Hinako’s psyche. There, the puzzles take a more mythical tone, such as discovering and correctly placing sacred items, while my first monster encounter continued the traditional Silent Hill trait of not having a clearly visible face – in this case, a hollowed out, maggot-infested head cavity.
4. New Game Plus and multiple endings
No spoilers here, but Silent Hill f features five different endings, unlocked via the New Game+ mode after first completion. And yes, one of those endings features some classic Silent Hill humour in it. If you know, you know.
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Can you already feel the fear? It’s not long before you’ll see the horrors of Ebisugaoka for yourself when Silent Hill f claws its way onto PS5 on September 25.
The ultra-chalenging Deep of Night mode has only been available in Elden Ring Nightreign for about ten days, but players have already identified a couple of areas where it could improve, and unfortunately ran into a nasty bug that could rob you of your victory.
Deep of Night is a mode designed for longtime players, offering multiple tiers of higher difficulties that you can climb through. It also changes some of the game’s rules to make it more exciting and challenging for veteran players.
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The biggest issue that Nightreign players have been having with Deep of Night is one that touches the core of it. After earning a win at a certain Depth level, the game lets you go a rank higher. Unfortunately, some players have been stuck, without being able to increase their rank.
FromSoftware confirmed that, while it works on a permanent fix, a temporary solution will arrive in the game in an update soon. Though we don’t have a date for that update, the developer also revealed that it’s also taking this opportunity to add a couple of welcome quality of life features to the mode.
First, players will soon be able to decrease their Depth rank by one level. Those who aren’t interested in going lower, however, will be happy to know that the developer is adding rank demotion protection, too.
Upon reaching Depth levels 3, 4, and 5, you’ll be protected against losing a level after your next defeat. This protects you from a single defeat at level 3, and two defeats at levels 4 and 5. The even better news is that the protection is refreshed when you reach the same Depth level again after a demotion.
FromSoftware is also making it so players at level 1 Depth who join matches at level 2 and above won’t lose points upon defeat, which makes sense given that they’ve been matched into a game with a higher difficulty than they can handle.
Finally, if you’re playing on Steam on PC, you’ll soon be able to continue your session if Steam itself disconnects. This only applies to Steam’s servers, of course, and assumes Nightreign’s own servers are live when that happens.
Whether you just picked a copy of Nightreign and you’re nowhere near ready for Depth of Night, or you’re a seasoned veteran who’s finally done with all the Nightlord bosses, our Elden Ring Nightreign guide offers a wealth of information you absolutely need.
You’re telling me you can choose between being an alien and human, and people actually pick humans? We are losing the plot, which is why these Alien Prototype codes are going out to my alien appreciators around the Milky Way.
For more fun titles with free rewards, you can always visit our dedicated Roblox Codes section.
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Use Tsunami Experiment codes or get hit by a level 999 tsunami and torn into pieces without a way to save yourself.
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Published: Sep 22, 2025 05:43 am
Updated: September 22, 2025
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Can you reach the end of the road without getting hit by super-strong tsunamis that will blast you into pieces? This is the question that the Tsunami Experiment is all about, and you could surely use some codes to be able to afford potions and other survival essentials.
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Hit the shopping cart button on the left.
Scroll down until you get to the Codes section.
Input a working code into the textbox.
Hit Redeem to collect your free goodies.
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The breathtaking battle racing game has finally broken through the limitations of the race, and has been completely revamped as an all-rounded robot competitive sports game. Robot customization now has even more freedom and more options than ever! BREAK ARTS III (BA3 for short) is an action game built on the concept of Comprehensive Mech-Customizing Competitive Sports that features the following Incredibly detailed customization options, where anyone can make their very own unique robots Strategic decisions that challenge you to customize robots suitable for the terrain, environment, and game plan, and also put your skills as a pilot to the test Stunning graphics and a photo mode with all sorts of handy functions. Synthwave Burnout
Compete in tournaments, earn prize money, and unlock over 200 modules, plugins, and pre-set frames. If you’re having a hard time defeating your rivals, it’s time to customize your robot. Create your very own custom combinations and strategies to tackle every situation, and you’ll emerge victorious! What awaits at the end of all your battles…? Will you build the most lightweight robot possible, or add every thruster you can to blast across the circuit? There’s no determined race track in Battle Mode. Move around the field freely to fight against your rivals. You lose points if you get knocked out, so you’ll have to avoid your opponents’ attacks while taking them down!
Features and System Requirements:
Co-op Mode — team up with others for multiplayer or shared mech piloting experiences.
Customization isn’t just cosmetic; it impacts performance. Your choice of parts, weight, thrusters, etc. factor into how well you race, fight or survive.
You build your own robots by attaching modules to connector points on a base frame.
Screenshots
System Requirements
Recommended
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows11
Processor: Core i5 13400
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce RTX 2070
DirectX: Version 12
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 20 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
Installation Guide
Turn Off Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
Synthwave Burnout is an arcade journey designed to give you an enjoyable visual and sound experience. The aesthetics of good old fiction, pleasant, uncomplicated supercar control gameplay – all this is created for you. Feel like you’re inside your favorite 80s sci-fi movie! Movement is life. In our case, the correct control of the supercar allows its unique generator to extract energy from the surrounding world. When your supercar picks up the right speed and the wind blows in your face, you won’t want to stop. It will be akin to anticipating the future – the sensations that cult films and music of the 80s evoke. You will soon realize that the soundtrack and the movement on the neon-flooded highway make up a single whole. Marisa of Liartop Mountain
How the fire burns, how the water flows and how you tame the futuristic road in your elite sports car – out of time and fuss, among the neon glare and synthwave sounds. A creative game for connoisseurs of retro style and arcade entertainment, which will give us pleasant visual and sound impressions, as well as allow us to feel like the hero of our favorite retro film of the VHS era. All that is required of us is to get behind the wheel of a supercar and embark on an exciting race along bright tracks, and our goal is to complete all levels avoiding collisions and collecting bonuses, while enjoying the aesthetics and soundtrack.
Features and System Requirements:
5 playable locations with varied gameplay.
80s neon atmosphere.
Various racing tracks.
Stunning retrowave / synthwave soundtrack.
Screenshots
System Requirements
Recommended
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10, 11 (x64)
Processor: Intel core i5-10xxx
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: GeForce GTX 1630
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 8 GB available space
Support the game developers by purchasing the game on Steam
Installation Guide
Turn Off Your Antivirus Before Installing Any Game
1 :: Download Game 2 :: Extract Game 3 :: Launch The Game 4 :: Have Fun 🙂
When the previews started coming in I was worried that Silent Hill F seemed like it emphasized the combat more than I prefer in my games of dread and slow-burn tension. What I want from a Silent Hill is an in-depth psychological portrait of someone who is deeply unwell. If I have to shoot a few mannequins to get it that’s fine, but it’s not why I’m here. I don’t want a combat system where I can master the timings and get into a flow state, I want it to be janky and panicked like it’s simulating what it would be like for an ordinary person to be handed a plank with a nail in it and thrown in a room with a monster made of nightmares.
To cut a long story short, Silent Hill F is not that kind of game. It’s the kind with an involved combat system it really wants you to get to grips with. You may be playing a teenage girl in the 1960s, but by god you’re going to have to master the blade.
(Image credit: Konami)
It’s not just a matter of “light attack, heavy attack, maybe a dodge if you ask nicely.” In Silent Hill F you can time a heavy attack right to do a counterattack, and can spend focus to broaden the counterattack window. Stay in focus mode till a bar fills up and you can launch a special focus attack. Dodge at the right time and you’ll get your stamina back, because of course there’s a stamina bar, that’s the kind of game this is.
By the time I unlocked something called “awakened mode” I realized I’d hit the limit of combat mechanics I could be bothered internalizing. Silent Hill F keeps tutorializing new combat ideas even in its final act, well after the point where I’d bothered caring about them.
There are times when you can avoid fights, which is good. The weapon degradation system—yeah, it has one of those as well—means in theory you could end up unarmed because your crowbar, lead pipe, and kitchen knife all break while you’re in a field somewhere whomping undead scarecrows dressed as high school students. So being able to run past and around enemies is an option, but unfortunately it’s only a sometimes option.
(Image credit: Konami)
At other times you’ll need to kill someone to unlock a box holding a crest you need to solve a puzzle, or just to be allowed into the next area. This seems particularly true in the dark shrine world that is Silent Hill F’s replacement for the usual rusty chainlink hellscape otherworld. In the dark shrine world weapon degradation is disabled and you get to wield a naginata like you’re in Soul Calibur 6. But combat eventually stops being optional back in the foggy world as well, with a gauntlet of enemies who have to be killed to make skin walls go away before you’re allowed into the underwhelming finale and inevitable twist ending.
Early on, there’s a moment where you have to get a key out of a well while being menaced by a monster who is like the Hulk wearing the flower outfit from Midsommar. You don’t actually need to fight him, though. Get him to chase you around the other well in the yard and you can buy time to turn the crank and raise the bucket, eventually getting the key you need without having to master another enemy’s precise counterattack window and perfect-dodge timing.
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I wish Silent Hill F had leaned into that style of play, but it’s just not that kind of game. It’s an action game with a horror veneer, and that’s something I go to Resident Evil for rather than Silent Hill.
Immersing yourself in Silent Hill f is like drinking a powerfully fragrant tea steeped in bloody metaphor and symbolism. The first new, full Silent Hill game in 13 years, f wields a powerful, standalone narrative about the expectations of gender-based roles, the challenge of maintaining relationships in the presence of such roles, and the foggy nature of transitioning from teenage life into adulthood.
The game satisfyingly eschews surface-level storytelling through its various twists and turns. As if retreating into its own mysterious fog, f isn’t easy to fully understand at first. Various plot threads and themes intersect and overlap in a dreamlike fashion. By the game’s ending (of which there are multiple), I had so many questions that weren’t answered–in a good way. I walked away unsure of what I had experienced, where the metaphors began and ended, and just what exactly happened in this sleepy mountainside village. Silent Hill f is a gorgeous and exquisite work of psychological horror that had me desperate to relive its narrative again after the credits rolled. And I don’t think I’ll stop until I squeeze every drop out of this game.
In its moment-to-moment gameplay, Silent Hill f challenges you to fight or evade various horrifying monsters, solve cryptic puzzles, and attempt to piece together a complicated, bi-directional narrative of resistance and submission, both against supernatural horrors and the pressures society places on people, particularly women. Silent Hill f takes a few big risks in its relocation of the series to a new setting and in its slightly more action-focused combat, but these elements all pay off and earn their stay. Its story, though ripe for pitfalls in how it depicts violence and subjugation of women, manages to deliver a shellshock of a horror experience with a rich atmosphere and unsettling tale that entertains on its own terms, and terrifies with depictions of violence and repression that are all too resonant with our experiences of the real world.
Developed by a studio new to the series and following the successful remake of Silent Hill 2, f sees Silent Hill pack its bags and take us on a trip to a fictional rural mountainside village in Japan called Ebisugaoka. Set in the 1960s, the game’s narrative centers the experience of living as a woman in a society that values us only for our potential to be married.
Silent Hill f casts you in the role of teenager Hinako Shimizu as she navigates an unfolding and perplexing set of ghastly horrors. Somewhat of a tomboy, Hinako is at odds with what the rigid expectations her society, and family, place on her as someone assigned female at birth. Early on, we learn that Hinako’s sister has left home after being married off, and that her alcoholic, abusive, and financially reckless father has similar wishes for her.
After a bitter argument with her parents, she leaves home to find her village slowly being overtaken by a thick fog; strange floral and fleshy overgrowths; contorted, animated mannequins wielding massive kitchen knives; and all sorts of other unspeakable horrors.
Hinako quickly realizes that the only solution is to escape the town she once called home, now transformed into a hellscape. Puzzles and hostile creatures stand in her way as she travels through foggy streets and alleyways, abandoned buildings, and a nightmare-esque realm known as the Dark Shrine.
The monsters stalking the oppressive alleyways of Ebisugaoka and the mire of the Dark Shrine aren’t the only things keeping Hinako company. She’s joined by three friends: two other teenage girls named Sakuko and Rinko, and a boy named Shu. Together, the four of them must survive an indescribable nightmare as they search for a way out of the altered town. Hinako also comes to meet another individual who promises to help her, a mysterious and charming gentleman referred to in writing as simply Fox Mask.
f’s narrative ups and downs can inspire a bloodlust in you that makes Hinako’s maneuverability and lethality–which far exceed those of her generally clunky predecessor protagonists–all the more rewarding. A sometimes-frustrating weapon degradation system keeps the survival part of the horror grounded, but in moments when the story filled me with an emotional urgency, I was excited to be a more nimble and deadly fighter.
A steel pipe and the audacity to persist
In combat, Hinako is on her own when it comes to dealing with the menacing creatures of the fog. Far more mobile than protagonists in survival horror games usually are, I worried that Hinako’s dexterity might dilute the shambling dread often associated with the genre, but f earns its right to a more action-focused combat system.
It’s not that Hinako feels like an elite soldier or something; the camera controls, quick dodge move, and stamina meter make her feel locked in to her survival, but the combat retains a sense of vulnerability essential for communicating terror and dread. f’s combat can be rather fluid and snappy when it wants to be. As in modern soulslikes, you can target a single enemy at a time which keeps the combat focused and intense. Hinako’s generous and speedy dodge costs her stamina, as do her light and heavy attacks.
Still, weapon scarcity and degradation make any scuffle with the game’s various monsters risky. Not every fight with a random wandering monster is worth having, but during scripted battles or when it makes sense to dispose of a creature, you’ll have to do so while managing your stamina meter as you sprint, dodge, and attack. Dodge at the right time when an enemy strikes and you’ll refill your stamina to resume your assault or expedite your retreat.
Hinako also has a meter for her “Sanity,” which allows her to use special “Focus” moves such as a counterattack and a charged-up version of her light melee strike. As you progress, you’ll be able to increase your health, stamina, and sanity meters by offering various objects at shrines which double as save points. You can also augment Hinako’s abilities with omamori found in the environment or drawn from a shrine; these benefits include boons like increased max health, recovering health when defeating an enemy, a quicker charge of Hinako’s attacks, and more. These gentle augmentations of Hinako’s abilities offer a welcome micro level of adjustment over the difficulty that I’m sure I’ll lean into more in my Hard mode run.
You can consume various items to replenish your meters, though while it worked fine when playing with mouse and keyboard, I found that even after 20 hours, item management while using a controller felt cumbersome.
Aside from some creatures that waited around corners to jump me, I would typically hear monsters before I saw them, their presence usually revealed by the sounds of painful moans, clanking footsteps, or the gentle and satisfying static that plays when you’re in the proximity of an enemy. The audio cues reminded me to check my health level and weapon condition, all while observing a few exit strategies if I suddenly found myself in over my head. In each scuffle, aside from the scripted scenarios that have you fighting bosses or enemies you have to defeat before you can proceed, combat remained as intense and methodical as I like it in a survival horror game.
Back-of-the-box quote:
“The f is for fun! Freaky! and Fuuuu….”
Developer:
Neobards Entertainment
Type of game:
Third-person action horror.
Liked:
Powerful story, dark and evocative visuals, satisfying combat.
Disliked:
Weapon degradation is a bit too fast, item menu can be confusing.
Platforms:
PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC (Played)
Release date:
Standard edition: September 25, 2025 / Deluxe edition: September 23, 2025
Played:
22 hours covering the main story once through and about a third of the way through New Game Plus.
There’s a touch of build crafting in f, but it doesn’t dominate the game the way you’d find in Dark Souls or other similar games. Aside from your three meters, you won’t need to worry about Hinako’s stats or fuss too much over which weapons you’re carrying. And unlike more action-focused games, your central task isn’t to defeat enemies, it’s to survive them. That sometimes means killing them, but it’s not wise to spend all your time and resources on every monster in your path. In fact, you’ll quickly find yourself screwed if you take that approach.
Dealing with enemies is still a challenge despite how quick Hinako can be, and weapon degradation was an early sore spot for me. Fragile weapons combine well with the sense of dread the game’s aesthetic conjures and nicely limits your capabilities within the otherwise rather smooth combat system. This grounds the game, though some later sections let you cut loose on monsters in a satisfying, vengeful way. The game offers two kinds of difficulty at first, “Story” and “Hard,” and you can set the combat difficulty and puzzle difficulty independent of each other. On my first run, I played “Story” for combat and “Hard” for puzzles.
This choice let me be pretty sloppy in combat and still only die a handful of times. My second run, on Hard mode, has proven a tougher challenge, though it rarely feels unfair (my Hard mode run is a little bit easier given that I’m taking advantage of the stat carryover from New Game Plus). That said, I can already anticipate some late-game segments might border on frustration. We’ll see how that goes for me.
At first, I found the unexpectedly speedy combat to be a little discordant with the premise of being a teenage girl taking on vicious, otherworldly monsters, often with little more than a steel pipe. The beautifully dark and lush atmosphere of the game filled me with the dread I desire from this genre, but once combat started, I found myself feeling almost a bit too superhuman in how deftly I could dodge out of the way of a bloody knife.
As Hinako’s story and struggle progressed, however, I found f’s combat system to mesh well with her emotional state. Hinako makes it clear early on that she won’t go down without a fight, and a childhood spent mostly playing rough with boys along with her experience in track and field show she’s not afraid of a scuffle or two. The combat also, at times, gave me a sense of power over some monsters in a way that satisfyingly intersects with the game’s themes. I was skeptical of its approach to combat in those early skirmishes, but f earns its speedier battles with satisfying emotional arcs.
Fighting off bloody bastards isn’t the only challenge ahead of you in Ebisugaoka either. True to its form as a Silent Hill game, f features an assortment of puzzles you’ll have to solve, each one a treat containing some wonderful 3D models and mental challenges that aren’t easy to brute force your way through. You’ll collect clues in your journal which aren’t always the most obvious, and many of these puzzles stumped me at first. In two cases, I was forced to get help from people to figure them out, but this was mostly out of a need to finish the game in a timely fashion.
While I often love survival horror games for the unique intersection of terror and challenge they provide, I typically find the struggle of survival only as interesting as the environment they’re set in and the story they weave. And in this regard, Silent Hill f does not disappoint.
To be honest, the less I say about the particulars of Silent Hillf’s narrative, the better. You can only experience this game the first time through once, and as soon as you do, everything you just experienced gets reframed, and not in a concrete, easily digestible way. f resisted my attempts to understand it, left me with horrific depictions of violence strung up on narrative threads that involve real-world, relatable struggles of being a woman in society, what the value that society ascribes to her even means, the impact of cultural traditions, and a fear of the unknown. Throughout the game, mythology creeps into reality to make you doubt your own reasoning mind. This is all set to a captivatingly dark yet beautiful soundtrack from series composer Akira Yamaoka.
And while the game features difficult and lasting depictions of violence and suffering, Silent Hill f never feels like torture porn. Its gore never feels frivolous. That it manages to pull this off in a game focused on the violence imposed on women in a conservative society is a testament to the quality of writing on display here. Silent Hill f delivers gut-wrenching metaphors and symbols of resistance and submission that terrify and excite all at once.
I felt this acutely during the game’s Dark Shrine segments. The realm’s imposing and ominous fox statues and masks inspire an alluring sense of empowerment and protection, but they also felt like a clear warning that I was seconds away from being snatched up in their jaws. The same is true of Fox Mask, who appears early on as a heroic figure, but soon seems to have an agenda of his own that may not have Hinako’s best interests in mind. His piercing, glowing eyes and soft-spoken voice had me hypnotized as much as they did Hinako. As she followed him into the depths of the unknown, so too did I.
f’s narrative remains satisfyingly hard to predict throughout the whole ride. As soon as I thought I had a sense of what was going on, the story would resist falling into the predictable plot patterns I’d begun to anticipate. Even the premise of rebelling against the gendered expectations of womanhood is handled in a far more complex way than you might expect. It’s not just a story of Hinako giving the proverbial middle finger to what society asks of her. Though she is rebelling and is conscious of how her gender renders her a second-class citizen, themes of commitment, of holding onto who you are as you form bonds with other people, and just what it means to sustain any kind of relationship in the face of struggle swirl around in the fog in ways that I often found deeply relatable.
One scene in particular involving a bloody reconfiguration of a character’s body parts struck me so squarely in its depiction of commitment and physical trauma that it’s become a new metaphor for how I view a particular chapter of my own life. Though it depicts people of a different culture and time, there’s a universally human story at the core of f.
Even when f hits its narrative climax, when I thought I understood as much as I possibly could from a single playthrough, the ending that I ended up triggering based on what seemed a normal, non-consequential decision early on revealed one of the most unexpected twists I’ve encountered in recent memory. And still, true to the lush depths of obfuscating fog Silent Hill is known for, I barely understand what happened. But I couldn’t look at the story the same way twice after experiencing it. My own innocence was robbed.
In addition to what’s revealed through your interactions and encounters with other characters and your journey through Ebisugaoka, a considerable amount of worldbuilding is also found in collectible notes scattered throughout the game’s world and in other bits of environmental storytelling. No meaningful playthrough of Silent Hill f will be complete without collecting and reading as many of them as possible–and New Game Plus will offer you new surprises here, too. These notes are all concise, written well enough, and don’t feel overbearing. They’re well worth pausing the action for.
These documents include women’s etiquette magazines, beer ads that promise a certain status of masculinity to those who consume it, and meditations on kitsune no yomeiri and other elements of Japanese culture and folklore, as well as fictional accounts of the history of the game’s setting. It all strings together a dark, kaleidoscopic narrative web that stirs intrigue and sparks the imagination. That it’s set in the 1960s also positions the characters and the town itself between a rural, agrarian environment with conservative cultural values and affectations, and an encroaching layer of modernization through expanding industrial development and scientific medicine. Silent Hill f is never about any one of these things individually, but its various narrative layers let you drift among them as you would a sequence of thematically similar dreams.
Silent Hill f is ambitious in its desires. It asks for permission to deviate from the series’ traditional setting while offering up quicker, more action-focused combat. It leaves behind its titular setting in favor of a new horizon. It succeeds on all these fronts as a spin-off that explores Silent Hill’s classic gloom and internal psychological struggle, toying with themes of friendship, gendered expectations, commitment, and individual worth like a cat, or a fox, playing with its prey. It is a horrorscape I was terrified of and yet unable to look away from, one that’s resonated with me long after the credits rolled, and that quickly pulled me back in for another trip down the miserable foggy alleyways of this strange mountainside village.
On September 18, GSC Game World released a patch for its Legends of the Zone remaster of the original Stalker games that adds Nvidia DLSS support, a seemingly absurd addition to the ancient shooters that makes more sense when you dig into the specifics of the remaster.
Once Nvidia’s magic “make it run better” juice, DLSS and its alternative AI upscalers have become worryingly mandatory to run many of the most graphically demanding games, so why add it to Legends of the Zone, a remaster pack whose oldest game, Shadow of Chornobyl, came out all the way back in 2007?
User Avdievs in the Steam discussion page for the patch points out that DLSS’ texture filtering and antialiasing components can be desirable even in a game that should be easy to run—and Legends of the Zone can be much more of a performance hog than the original releases.
“That DLSS is the perfect option for the ones wishing to play with their insanely taxing indirect lighting in 4k 60+ fps,” wrote user Spleen, referring to a new graphical feature introduced with Legends of the Zone’s enhanced global illumination. In another, Russian language comment (translated via Google), Spleen wrote that “My 5080 is fully loaded at 4K 120 fps and is dropping frames with their new indirect lighting. Questions? So I’m not against DLSS at all.”
Perhaps the cutting edge Nvidia tech has a place in this old warhorse of a game engine after all. It looks like GSC Game World has been turning things around after a rocky launch for Legends of the Zone: Its recent Steam reviews are Mostly Positive, in contrast to an overall Mixed status. PCG news writer and resident Stalker sicko, Joshua Wolens, was already chuffed back in July when GSC fixed an infinite quicksave bug that was brutalizing his PC.
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Published: Sep 22, 2025 05:43 am