gaming

Earlier this week, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma put the following question to fans on social media: "Xbox" or "XBOX" ? Out of the 19,176 votes cast, all caps XBOX was the clear winner with 64.8% of the total. Now, Microsoft has seemingly taken that to heart by rebranding the Xbox account on X with all-caps XBOX. The Verge was one of the first outlets to notice the change, and it notes that Xbox's Bluesky and Threads accounts have yet to reflect the slight renaming. When reached for comment by The Verge, Microsoft directed readers back to Sharma's poll on X. When the original Xbox console was released in 2001, its name was in all caps. The subsequent logos for its successors were also in caps, but the brand was spelled normally by Microsoft. Earlier this year, Sharma reverted Microsoft Gaming's name back to Xbox, so it's entirely possible that the XBOX spelling is back as well. This may be an exercise in branding and nostalgia for a time when Xbox was at its peak before the significant declines that the company has recently suffered in hardware and game sales. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Video game adaptations can be a tricky beast. They can either go the prestige route like The Last of Us with its Emmy-nominated television series, or be a dreadful reference marathon such as The Minecraft Movie. While 2021’s Mortal Kombat film had a myriad of issues, such as the lack of the tournament that serves as the game series' centerpiece, and a focus on an original character created for the film rather than one of the franchise's existing cast, it had its heart in the right place by trying to honor the original game series. With the expansion of a sequel, the series had the opportunity to course-correct to deliver not only an engaging film, but also one that fans of the series deserve. I’m pleased to report that despite some near-fatal flaws in the storytelling department, Mortal Kombat II is mostly a success. Mortal Kombat II opens with a flashback depicting Outworld ruler Shao Kahn usurping control of the realm of Edenia, and right off the bat, establishes itself as more in tune with the lore of the Mortal Kombat series than the previous movie. The 2021 film struggled in this regard because the film followed Cole Young (Lewis Tan), an original character who served as an audience self-insert. While that route might have worked to bring in audiences who had no prior experience with the games, the decision felt like it went against what Mortal Kombat is: a battle between the six realms for complete control. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Fanatical's May 2026 Bundle Fest is still going strong, and one of the best ones to browse is the Capcom Classic Bundle: GOG Edition . If you're a fan of retro games, this eight-game collection offers some of Capcom's best, covering a few different genres like survival horror, fighting, and RPGs. Like with other build your own bundles through fanatical, you can start with choosing any three games for $8, or $3 each. Then if you get five or more games, they're down to $2.80. If you want all eight titles, they're each $2.75. That's eight games for just $22 compared to the $96 full-price value. See at Fanatical One of the biggest draws here is the first three original Resident Evil games. These may have no aged the most gracefully, but it's hard to deny the charms of the cheesy voice acting and the tense fixed camera angles. I know we all remember the first time the zombie dog crashed through the window in the Spencer mansion in the opening moments of Resident Evil, and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' Clocktower section is an iconic location that sadly wasn't included in the 2020 remake. You can also pick up Dino Crisis and its sequel, which take the fixed camera, tank-controls, and other design sensibilities from Resident Evil and pits against new prehistoric threats. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Crunchyroll Ani-May Discounted Memberships $2-$3 monthly | Available until May 22 See at Crunchyroll Keeping up with an endless pile of streaming subscriptions can feel almost like a second job--not to mention how expensive it gets to pay for them all. That's why Crunchyroll's limited-time subscription deal during its annual Ani-May event is such a steal. You can snag three months of ad-free access for less than $10 in total to access popular shows like Dr. Stone, Solo Leveling, Witch Hat Atelier, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more. See at Crunchyroll Crunchyroll's deals include two of its tiers: Fan and Mega Fan. Fan, which normally costs $10 a month, is $1.99 for the first three months when you sign up before May 26. This tier includes no ads, streaming to one device, offline viewing, 5% off select items in the Crunchyroll store, and access to new episodes shortly after they air in Japan. The Mega Fan tier is normally $14 a month, but you get this one for $3 per month for three months when you sign up during May. This tier gets you everything from the Fan tier and adds the ability to stream to three additional devices. It also bumps the discount at the Crunchyroll store up from 5% to 10%. But maybe most impressive of all, it grants access to Crunchyroll's Game Vault , which features everything from shooters to visual novels, all playable on mobile devices. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Fanatical and Humble Bundle are easily the most popular bundle sites online, offering countless games, books, software, and more over the years at great discounts and benefitting good causes. This month, it both sites have a vast and eclectic of indie showcase bundles available for you to peruse. The Humble 15th Anniversary Indie Icons Showcase bundle gets you 8 games for just $10, with titles like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Citizen Sleeper as part of its catalogue. Fanatical, on the other hand, has the Build Your Own Indie Showcase Bundle , which has a variable pricing model where you can buy as many of the 20 listed games as you want. The more games you add, the more you'll save in the long run. Regardless of which bundle you pick, every game included is given as a digital Steam key. These can expire, so be sure to redeem them before it's too late. Check out the full lists below. Humble 15th Anniversary Indie Icons Showcase While this indie showcase bundle doesn't quite have nearly the same quantity of games as the Fanatical version, some of the best indie games in recent years are included. Celeste is a super challenging 2D platformer that will tug hard at your heartstrings, while Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (a personal favorite of mine) is a Castlevania-adjacent adventure developed by small indie studio ArtPlay, which is headed by Castlevania legend Koji "Iga" Igarashi. There's a sequel coming soon, so it may be a good time to jump in now. If you like narrative-centered RPGs, Citizen Sleeper is a gorgeous tabletop-inspired story set in a Cyberpunk world. You can pay as much as you want, but if you want the full 8-game bundle, a minimum of $10 is required. Any extra amount you decide to donate goes directly to the corresponding charity. Continue Reading at GameSpot

The Humble Choice lineup for May 2026 is available now, with offering members eight PC games they can download and keep forever at no additional cost. This month's selection is an eclectic bunch featuring AAA RPGs like Diablo IV and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, city builders like Mini Settlers, and even the remaster of the 2013 first-person shooter Crysis 3. Check out the full lineup below. Sign up for Humble Choice If you're unfamiliar with Humble Choice before, it's a monthly subscription that gives you a curated collection of PC games for just $15 a month. Members also get other exclusive perks, like up to a 20% discount on new releases. Not only are all the Humble Choice monthly games yours to keep forever--even after you cancel your membership--5% of your subscription is sent directly to charity each month. Each game comes as a digital code and they do eventually expire, so make sure to redeem them before too long. Humble Choice May 2026 Crysis 3 Remastered Cubic Odyssey Diablo IV Heroes of Hammerwatch II Mini Settlers Nordhold Rogue Waters Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Diablo IV is easily the biggest draw for this month's collection of great titles. Blizzard's iconic action-RPG just saw the release of its newest expansion Lord of Hatred mere weeks ago, earning a 9 out of 10 from GameSpot's Jessica Cogswell in her review-in-progress . After originally launching in April of 2023, Diablo IV has seen a slew of updates and two massive story and content expansions, and is currently on Season 13, titled the Season of Reckoning. Notably, getting Diablo IV through Humble Choice this month is done so through direct Battle.net redemption in order to play. Continue Reading at GameSpot

Unknown Worlds removed the option to fight fish in Subnautica 2, which gives the survival game a stronger identity distinct from its peers

Best Buy has dropped deals on a select few Switch and Switch 2 games, including Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment on Switch 2, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond on Switch, and more.

Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has shared some of Bungie's plans to improve its divisive extraction shooter, which include the introduction of PvE and PvP-lite game modes as alternatives to the "overwhelming" core experience. Read more

Sci-fi 4X strategy game Stellaris is getting a Nomads expansion on June 15th that lets you jettison traditional ideas about territory and play as a wholly mobile civilisation - travelling around the galaxy in Arkships that serve as colonies, shipyards, and military or science vessels. You know the old Terran saying: home is wherever you park your trillion tonne hermetically sealed artificial habitat. Here's another, related Terran saying: a trillion tonne hermetically sealed artificial habitat parks wherever the hell it pleases. The expansion will launch alongside free Stellaris update 4.4, named Pegasus. Developers Paradox have put together a choice of nomadic lifestyles, with inspirations that appear to range from the Mongolian Empire through Eldar Craftworlds to the work of Douglas Adams. Read more

How to use Solar Panels, Hydroelectric Turbines, and Bioreactors for power

Subnautica 2 has sold 2 million copies within 12 hours of its early access launch, developer Unknown Worlds has announced. It’s a huge start for the underwater survival and crafting adventure game after a turbulent road to release.

Subnautica 2 splashed into Steam early access yesterday, sending tidal waves of money into the bank accounts of developers Unknown Worlds and publishers Krafton. You planning on paying that $250 million performance bonus , then, Krafton? Now that the game has been on sale for a whopping 17 hours – roundabouts how long it takes to clean out the current early access build - it's time to start squawking like seagulls for patches, updates and expansions. Fortunately, creative media producer Scott MacDonald told RPS and other journalists a little about Subnautica 2's first patches in a roundtable interview last week. The short version is that the initial update will mostly add stuff to the progression and base-building systems, alongside tweaks to the voice logs, some extra lore , and an on-foot sprint mechanic. After that, there's a co-op-focussed update with proximity voice chat, emotes, and player revives. And after that, we enter the realm of proper expansions with new vehicles, biomes, leviathans, tools, resources, and the continuation of the story. Read more

Forza Horizon 6 ’s bootful of PC-specific tech features was apparently stuffed enough to warrant a big, colourful blog post about them . Ultrawide support? Yes. DLSS 4 and FSR 4 ? Both. Ray tracing? A resounding hai , those souped-up lighting and reflection effects escaping FH6’s car-ogling mode and adorning its open world for the first time in the series. Actually playing the thing, however – and/or spending enough time in its benchmarking tool – reveals that its PC performance highlights mainly concern the absolute basics. On standard settings this is most definitely a smooth-running game, one that’s capable of scooting along on budget builds and handheld PCs while zooming through frames on powerful graphics cards . But, that’s not necessarily with the help of bleeding-edge tech. Upscalers like DLSS disappoint more than they impress, and the performance tax levied by those RT effects will drag you down from supercar luxury to framerate poverty. Read more

It's been more than a decade since the original Subnautica dove into early access. The deep sea survival game spent four years there as developer Unknown Worlds Entertainment added new features, biomes, and polished the whole thing up with the game's players. It may be difficult to remember just how incomplete it was in 2014. As Subnautica 2 releases into early access today, its developers are very aware that players may be expecting a game much closer to completion than they'll get their diver's gloves on. Read more

Filming for the third season of HBO's The Last of Us adaptation is currently underway, with recent footage showing Kaitlyn Dever's Abby and newcomer Kyriana Kratter as Lev , and now showrunner Craig Mazin has shared more about what viewers can expect from it. Read more

There is this idea that, for a long-running series to remain as consistently popular as Forza Horizon has been, it needs to diminish itself somewhat with each new entry, gradually losing more and more of its edge in a bid to appeal to the widest possible audience. Read more

I blast out of Tokyo, off into the countryside. At first, the roads run alongside waterlogged rice paddies, through flat and open country. Soon, though, I hit the coastal highway which winds its way over deep blue sea and past fishing villages. Carving north, I navigate snaking passes straight out of Initial D and slide upwards through their narrow switchbacks. Then, as I climb, everything opens up again. Wide alpine roads sweep past green hills offering a spectacular view of Tokyo far to the south, the snow-capped peaks to the north, and Mount Fuji sitting stoically to the west. For a moment, it reminds me of the fabled alpine spaghetti you can find if you tour central Europe’s most breathtaking regions. Continuing my ascent, I soon hit snowy ski trails, steep stretches encased in permafrost and banked by looming snowdrifts. Read more