Gaming

Some of the earliest gamepads with analog thumbsticks were beefy devices (I’m looking at you, Duke) with quirky designs. Modder ChaosBench pushes the limits of what can be considered a playable gamepad with a supersized version of the N64 controller that requires heavy-duty springs to get its giant buttons to pop back up after being pressed.

Sony, which acquired Crunchyroll in 2021, is launching a hub for the anime streaming service on the PS5 in spring 2027, as reported earlier by Variety. It’s still not exactly clear what this hub will look like, but Sony says it will allow players to explore anime series and games, as well as access the Crunchyroll app.

Nintendo describes it as an “NFC Reader Writer,” and I found a vague diagram in one of the files. Maybe it’s something for amiibo? An update to the old Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer accessory, for some reason?

You’ll need to bring your own PS4 game files, according to the GitHub page, but it looks like a great way to play Hideo Kojima’s infamous, delisted horror demo.

The change means that Paramount Games Studio, which was established this year, will be combined with WBD teams like Rocksteady Studios and Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, Variety reports.

The streamer has been pivoting to TV-based games of late, but some new app store listings — as spotted by RPG Site — show that a mobile version of Monster Hunter Rise is on its way to the service. The timing is particularly interesting as the mobile-focused MonHun spinoff Outlanders is also launching at the end of October.

Ahead of its third season of games launching tomorrow, Playdate is emailing users a reminder to update their handhelds with older versions of Playdate OS to more recent versions. (3.0.5 or later.) The secure certificate used in older versions of the OS will expire on October 15th preventing access to Playdate’s servers and necessitating a more complicated manual update after that date to get connected again.

I reported last month that Microsoft was planning to delay the release of Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 to early 2027. Dealabs now reports that the game will release on January 26th, a date I’ve also been hearing from sources. It’s not yet clear if there will be early access to Forza Horizon 6 on PS5 through a premium edition of the game.

I’m finally playing Wind Waker for the very first time on original hardware — with my 9-year-old along for the ride! The controls and graphics are pretty rough on GameCube, though. This static recomp “BlueWake” looks amazing and runs on iOS, Mac and Windows… should I? Should I wait for the decomp?

I might be The Verge’s part-time PC handheld reviewer… but I don’t actually have any modern Android ones! Now there’s software that easily makes an Android handheld act like a Steam Deck, I should probably try again. Or should I wait for one with the new 6th-gen Snapdragon Elite?

At Fate’s End, a new game from the developers of Spiritfarer, blew me away when I tried it earlier this year, but its release date just got pushed from 2026 to 2027. Bummer. Ahead of the official launch, though, you can now check out a demo on Steam and a new gameplay trailer.

Crossy Road Rush puts the cute blocky animals into a runner mobile game. It looks pretty charming. It’s releasing exclusively on Apple Arcade on November 5th.

Using an external mini PC called the Ultimate Vectrex Multicart 2 to actually run and render a custom version of Doom, modder Jason Kopp managed to get the shooter playable through the Vectrex’s unique vector-based display. It’s a much simpler take on Doom, but one that’s no less creepy.

Two excellent titles are launching today, and they appeal to very different audiences. You can read our reviews of both right here: Gears of War: E-Day and Star Wars: Galactic Racer.

The game has an excellent single-player campaign, though if you hit any hitches due to Luna’s cloud streaming, they could be frustrating because Galactic Racer basically requires split-second reflexes. Check out my review of the game, which I played on PS5, if you want to learn more about it.

Take a look. It was “made possible” thanks in part to Valve’s ARM port of the game it made for the Steam Frame and with some help from Claude.

As reported by IGN, starting January 1st, 2027, the game’s online modes — which include the MyCAREER mode — won’t work anymore because the servers are being sunset. NBA 2K25 is also being pulled from stores on October 30th, 2K says.

Smash Bros. boss Masahiro Sakurai recently posted a photo of a dinner featuring a who’s who of Japanese game design luminaries, including himself. (If you don’t recognize all of the faces, here’s a run-down.) The possibilities for new Smash characters is now nearly endless.

The video game decompilation movement has done it again. Not only do we have 128 player Halo across Windows, Linux, and Android , you can also just fire it up in a web browser thanks to OpenHaloCE and immediately start campaign or a huge multiplayer match. It’s not just one dev: lots of people made this happen.

Variety and GamesBeat reported on the news, though it’s unclear when the films or TV shows may actually be coming out. The two games have been big hits for Embark Studios.

Buying used PC parts to dodge price hikes could come with a catch, like the hardware ban a Reddit user claims they got stuck with after trying to run Valorant with a pre-owned Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The CPU was reportedly already blacklisted in the Vanguard anti-cheat system because its previous owner was flagged for cheating.

As of September, 42.2 percent of Steam users have 32GB of memory, with 16GB now trailing at 37.8 percent, down from 41 percent in August. It looks like some Steam users may still be upgrading their RAM, despite months-long shortages and price hikes.

The free DLC, which launches today, also adds some new missions, a New Game Plus that lets you wear the various unlockable outfits wherever you want in the game, and a harder 00 difficulty. Seems like some great updates for an already excellent game.

The former NFL coach went deep on his extremely detailed Minecraft project in a nearly 20-minute video that was published yesterday. I love how much he thinks about lighting and good views.

The studio is ending development, according to a post today. Earlier this year, the team launched a Witcher-themed version of Reigns. And if you haven’t played Card Shark, you should!