In what may be one of the year's least surprising stories, Microsoft's VP of Product Design, Diego Baca, has explained how AI is being used to help designers after being asked whether it's possible to launch a "fleet of viable agents" to address issues in Windows 11.

Now, this all comes shortly after an Xbox Business Strategist spiraled on X over how everyone is using AI, expressing frustration with the pretense that people aren't. That said, I do appreciate Baca’s honesty here. I always find that kind of candor refreshing.

Windows 11 still has a consistency problem

Interestingly, Baca's post on X (formerly Twitter) also acknowledged something Windows users have been complaining about for years in his reply to tech enthusiast Chris Pirillo, and that's consistency:

“Consistency across Windows is something we all want, and it’s an active workstream we’re continuing to accelerate,” he explained.

And to be fair, I have to agree. Windows 11 is now five years old (that's made me feel so old), yet parts of the operating system still feel like they're lacking the modern stylings, almost as though some of it still belongs in Windows 7, or even earlier, as Windows Latest points out in its own take.

Don't get me wrong, Microsoft has made progress, particularly with its efforts to modernize Windows Search, Run, and other legacy interfaces using WinUI 3. But I do wish these inconsistencies had been addressed before Windows 11 launched, though perhaps I’m wishing for too much.

Baca also acknowledged the criticism, admitting, “Finally, I completely recognize that people expect more from Windows. We expect more from ourselves, too.”

Finally, he added that Microsoft hopes to “earn back your enthusiasm for Windows through what we deliver, not just what we say.” It’s a refreshingly open response, and one I massively appreciate. How do you feel about Diego Baca's comments? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered launched last year to massive success, surpassing nine million players in its first three months and selling over two million copies on Steam, according to SteamDB.

Despite the sales figures, fans have been vocal about the game's performance. Stuttering, frame spikes, and poor optimization have been common complaints, often attributed to the use of Unreal Engine 5. However, one fan on Reddit decided to take matters into their own hands and "vibe code" a fix.

Yes, people are now using AI to generate performance patches for games. User u/LTSharpe, posting on the r/ChatGPT subreddit, explained that they are a huge Oblivion fan who was struggling with the game’s performance despite running a high-end PC setup featuring an AMD 9070 XT, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Ryzen 9 5800X processor.

Can AI really fix Oblivion Remastered's performance issues?

Opting to use Claude instead of ChatGPT, LTSharpe managed to boost the game’s average FPS by 37%. If you’re interested in trying the patch yourself, you can try the GitHub repository (using proper precautions, of course).

I played the Oblivion Remaster on Xbox, and even on that hardware, I noticed stuttering and frame spikes. While I’m usually cautious about how AI is used in development, I think this is a pretty clever use case, one that most people likely won’t mind.

Seeing someone take their framerate from 30 to a stable 60, while also fixing bugs that the developers missed, is impressive, even if an AI did the heavy lifting.

We are, of course, in the midst of an AI wave in the gaming space. Community-driven projects are cropping up everywhere thanks to these tools, whether it’s mashups between games or impossible ports. We’re seeing it all lately, and it’s enough for Xbox to take notice, having launched Xbox Labs to explore these emerging AI technologies.

Let me know if you agree or disagree with me on whether this is a good use case for AI. Both views are valid, so do share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Xbox Game Pass is, by far, one of the best deals in gaming. It gives players access to hundreds of titles at a relatively affordable price (at least after the price cut a few months ago), but PC Game Pass has always been tied to needing a Windows-based device. That meant handhelds running SteamOS were out of luck.

That has now all changed, thanks to Xodus Nexus, an independent and unofficial project that lets you natively play Xbox games on your Linux devices, including the Steam Deck and Steam Machine.

Could this convince Xbox gamers to switch to Linux?

You might be wondering how this works. Well, essentially, it lets you sign in to your Microsoft account, browse your library, and then use Proton as a translation layer to play your games natively on Linux.

According to the project documentation, you can browse the Store, install games you own or access through a subscription, and play with one shared runtime. Xbox sign-in and cloud saves are also available for supported games.

Right now, it can’t play every Xbox game on Linux, but the list so far is still impressive. It includes titles like Gears of War: E-Day, Deep Rock Galactic, Minecraft Dungeons II, Forza Horizon 6, No Man’s Sky, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Sea of Thieves, all with the usual Xbox bells and whistles and multiplayer support.

The full list of compatible games can be found here.

I always hoped Xbox would release their games on Linux at some point, though I understand how that could be a bit counter-intuitive to Xbox’s plans for Windows and their own gaming hardware. Despite Linux being home to a small number of players, it’s still a competitor in the space. And well... Xbox porting to competing hardware didn’t really go over all too well last time, with Xbox consoles now returning to exclusivity.

Still, seeing community projects like this is great, and I hope to see the project continue to expand. The Steam Deck used to be a great bit of kit, at least before the price hike, and whilst the Steam Machine seemingly released, never to be spoken about again, it is still awesome to see the community tackle Game Pass on hardware it was never meant for.

Do let me know: do projects like this mean you’d switch from Windows to Linux, or is it more of a novelty? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day has come and gone, and the game appears to have been a success. At least, that’s what the reports suggest, and ot’s hard to deny that people are genuinely enjoying it.

Critics and players alike have praised both the campaign and multiplayer modes, and if you haven't already you should check out our review here. As for E-Day, we’ve already started to see mods crop up on PC, including one that turns your entire squad into characters from Halo. Letting us see Noble Team and the Master Chief in E-Day, and having them look as good as they do is fantastic.

Speaking of mods, one user, @rockonthehillc, took to X (Formerly Twitter) to show off an extremely impressive virtual reality mod for E-Day. It features full body tracking, manual weapon reloads, and more.

Is it time for a first-person Gears of War game?

The short demonstration uploaded to YouTube has seriously made me consider dusting off my Oculus Quest 2. But perhaps more surprisingly, it has made me want a first-person Gears of War game. To some, that might seem sacrilegious, but hear me out. Gears has already expanded into turn-based strategy, and I’m a firm believer that Xbox needs to do more with its IP. Experimenting with different genres is a smart move.

Halo is the perfect example of a mishandled IP. It should have been expanded into third-person shooters, horror, and other genres long ago. I think Gears of War could equally be turned into a first-person horror game set around the Locust.

E-Day does a fantastic job at making the Locust a terrifying threat. Seeing that unfold from a different angle would be incredible.

For now, though, fans will have to make do with the virtual reality community project, which is extremely impressive in its own right.

With that said, let me know your thoughts. Would you play a virtual reality Gears game, or even a first-person one? Leave a comment down below and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Recently, I covered how the Xbox One could run a PlayStation 5 emulator, or how Original Xbox and Xbox 360 titles were being played on a jailbroken PS5. Now, the tables have turned, and we have Xbox One games running on iOS (and macOS).

In fact, just a few months ago, I wrote about an Xbox 360 emulator for iOS. At the time, that was impressive enough on its own, particularly given it could run games like Halo 3. This new development feels like a natural progression, especially considering how recent advancements in AI have seemingly propelled emulation and modding to a whole new level.

It is a wild timeline we are living in. I do suspect AI is a major driver behind this acceleration, but regardless of the cause, it is still pretty cool to see.

Utsuro, the project bringing Xbox One games to iOS and Mac

The project, created by @leviidev01 on X, works not through traditional emulation, but rather as a translation layer. It runs the console’s own "Windows-derived userland as x86-64 under FEXCore", supplying the system components that the hardware would normally provide. I will admit, some of the deeper technical specifics are lost on me, but the fact that it works at all is fascinating.

For now, the project has been shown running Minecraft with touchscreen controls relatively well, and it does include controller support.

Thinking back to the Xbox One era, it was around the time Xbox began porting its games to PC. That makes it hard for me to pinpoint exactly which Xbox One titles I would want to take on the go. However, projects like this serve as a stark reminder of just how shortsighted Microsoft was in shuttering Windows Phone.

Given the sheer volume of IP at Microsoft’s disposal now, having a dedicated smartphone capable of legitimately playing Original Xbox, Xbox 360, and even Xbox One games with full cloud saves and achievement support would have been a unique selling point.

I do think it could have really given Microsoft a genuine edge. Instead, we are seeing community projects fill that void, while Android devices are busy running full-blown Steam games. All I can do is shed a tear over what could have been.

Still, I’d be interested to know what you think. What Xbox One games would you like to see running on iOS or even Android? If anything comes to mind, let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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It feels almost like Halo: Combat Evolved is becoming the new "Can it run Doom?" benchmark. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen the game run on everything from iOS and Android to Linux and even the Nintendo 64. Now, we have it running on the SEGA Dreamcast, one of my favorite consoles growing up.

The project, dubbed Halo: Dreamcast Evolved, is quite ambitious, aiming to port the entire game to the Dreamcast. That is a considerable ask, given that the console is significantly weaker than the original Xbox. The Dreamcast has four times less memory, and if we look at the FLOPS metric, it comes in at 1.4 GFLOPS while the original Xbox clocks in at 20 GFLOPS, roughly 14 times more.

Halo on Dreamcast shouldn't be possible, yet here we are

Despite this massive gap in raw power, developer @JiltedValkyrie has managed to hit around 60 FPS in certain areas, which is impressive in itself. However, I wouldn’t call the game fully playable just yet. Outside of those brief moments, you are generally looking at frame rates between 10 and 20 FPS.

The developer does mention that the build is still extremely early, with culling, lower LODs, and the math pass still needing review. The CPU is the primary bottleneck here, as the Dreamcast’s processor is more than three times slower than the Xbox’s, and the game’s animations and enemy AI eat into those resources massively. To help smooth out gameplay, dead enemies and marines now despawn instead of staying on screen, something that doesn't happen in the Xbox version.

Still, I’m considerably impressed, and I urge you to check out the 24 minutes of gameplay uploaded to X to see for yourself.

It’s truly bizarre for me to see the Dreamcast capable of running Halo. Back in my day, the Dreamcast was my main go-to console until the original Xbox released with Halo. Since then, I have admittedly been an Xbox guy, but I’ve always had a lot of love for the Dreamcast. Being a Sonic fan, how couldn’t I? Seeing a game that basically went on to define my entire early childhood now run on hardware that defined another part of my childhood is truly insane to witness.

Of course, this is likely hot on the heels of all the recent AI modding and decompiling efforts, something Xbox itself has acknowledged with the sprouting of Xbox Labs to explore projects very much like this.

Enough babbling from me, though. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you share the same feelings towards this as I do, or do you find it an abomination? Either view is fine, but let me know what you think in the comments.

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I recently covered how PS5 games are now running on the Xbox Series X, made possible by Xbox’s Developer Mode and an AI-driven port of KytyPS5, a PC-based emulator adapted for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps.

Performance on the Series X leaves a lot to be desired, with Astro Bot running at around 10 FPS. The project is still early in development, so we can expect performance to improve over time. But 10 FPS on a Series X isn’t exactly playable, which raises the question: How does the Xbox One fare?

Somehow, PS5 emulation works on the Xbox One

Over on X (formerly Twitter), @Maccosomo, the person responsible for porting KytyPS5 to the Series X, has also managed to get the emulator running on the Xbox One. They’ve been playing lighter titles like Quake II and Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which don’t demand as much from the hardware.

It’s worth mentioning that you likely won’t be able to play demanding PS5 titles like Astro Bot on an Xbox One; the CPU and GPU power just isn’t there. But with a PS5 emulator now running on an Xbox One, I’d be interested to see what else is possible.

Maybe PS4 emulation on an Xbox One? To me, the PS4 was Sony’s last great console, packed with fantastic games like Spider-Man and The Last of Us. That doesn't exist yet, but given the AI-driven modding we’re seeing, it feels only a matter of time. Xbox has even acknowledged this trend with Xbox Labs, a new initiative focused on exploring AI-driven games and mods.

That said, as cool as this is, it’s mostly for the novelty of it. I wouldn’t expect much else to emerge in this specific scene. However, I could see Nintendo Switch emulation appearing on an Xbox One, especially since we already have it working on the Series X and, I believe, the Series S.

Do let me know your thoughts. Is all of this getting out of hand, or is it exciting? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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Senior Business Strategy Manager at Microsoft (Xbox), Brandon Stirrup, has recently taken to social media to address the elephant in the room: AI. Having spent his weekend creating what he calls his “little bad game” with no prior experience in game development, Stirrup has made a bold acknowledgment that Western fans likely won’t be happy to hear.

It is true, mind you, that you can prompt a game into existence. The quality of those games will always be up for debate, but it’s no secret that the barriers to entry for game development are shrinking, whether for better or worse, as Stirrup says, with an apparent sense of unease.

"Watch and see" — Is Stirrup breaking rules?

Stirrup argues that the gaming industry is uniquely resistant to this shift. “Gaming is the only industry slow-walking the transition because users have negative sentiment. Everyone else accepts reality,” he claimed.

He also added, “Gaming is the only industry where leaders are afraid to talk about ai. Users want the truth. We’re using AI.”

It’s quite the admission, but it doesn’t come as a surprise, at least to me. While Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has been rather hesitant to fully embrace AI, we did just recently get Xbox Labs, an initiative to explore AI-driven game development and modding.

For what it’s worth, I hope Stirrup doesn’t get fired over these comments. As weird and scary as AI can be, I imagine many developers are using it, even ones you might not expect, like Capcom, which has admitted to its use.

The issue comes down to how AI is being used. As good a tool as it is, developers still need to understand what is being created by AI; otherwise, you end up with a hotbed of spaghetti code, which just leads to more issues down the line.

Do let me know how you feel about Stirrup’s comments. Do you agree, disagree, or land somewhere in the middle? And don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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My favorite game of all time and the title many consider the best Fallout entry are now seemingly merged. I assume this is another vibe-coded mashup, but honestly? It looks annoyingly cool.

Seeing Master Chief drive a Warthog around the Mojave Wasteland, or even fly a Banshee above the ruins, is genuinely bizarre. Not only that, but you can also seemingly play through the entire Fallout: New Vegas campaign with full dialogue options; only you’re playing as Master Chief, armed with an energy sword, battle rifle, grenades, and, why not, a gravity hammer.

Two completely different games, somehow running together?

It’s kind of difficult to know where to start, given what’s been happening in the space recently. We’ve seen Skate in Call of Duty, Minecraft in Elden Ring, and Mario in Halo, among all sorts of other monstrosities. I do feel a bit weird covering these things, but given Xbox’s latest venture in essentially approving of these AI mashups through Xbox Labs, I can’t feel too bad about it, I guess.

It’s genuinely unprecedented times for gaming. If this is what AI is capable of now, it’s a harrowing thought to consider what it might be capable of just a year from now. But I digress.

The Halo 3 and Fallout: New Vegas combination is cool, and I wouldn’t mind playing it myself. Of course, you can’t right now, because that would be too much fun. The developer, Reveries on YouTube, does say this about the project:

“An integration of Halo 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, allowing both games to run simultaneously and bringing Halo's original gameplay into the Mojave... Still in active development, planned for release on GitHub soon... Not a rewrite or decompilation, inspired by Chasm's SkyCraft project.”

So, unlike other AI mashups, this one isn’t available yet, but the video does a good job showcasing what you can get up to.

With that said, let me know how you feel about these AI remixes that combine games. Do you care? Is it too far? Or do you have other thoughts entirely? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll below:

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It feels like the emulation scene is having a moment. Not long after reports surfaced of a PlayStation 5 emulator running on the Xbox Series X, we now have a Nintendo Switch emulator appearing on the platform as well.

Similar to the PS5 port, this requires you to be in Developer Mode. The emulator appears to be based on Eden, with gameplay footage showing Super Mario Odyssey, Super Mario Wonder, and Metroid Prime Beyond successfully booting.

I covered the possibility of a Nintendo Switch emulator arriving on Xbox just a few months ago, though that specific project never really materialized. However, given the current landscape of AI-assisted development, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a straightforward UWP port of Eden, brute-forced into existence through vibe coding.

Emulation is always a tricky topic to discuss. Many people get a bit cagey about it, and it’s no surprise, given that the scene is rife with piracy. But emulation itself isn’t illegal. Assuming you can legitimately source your copies of the games, this could actually be a great way to experience titles that would otherwise be exclusive to Nintendo hardware.

As for the state of this specific emulator, not much is known yet. I just happened to stumble across a post on X (formerly Twitter) showcasing it. If I had seen this a year ago, I would have jumped out of my seat in shock. But honestly, it’s par for the course given the current technological landscape, and even Xbox’s own admission of these AI-driven experiments through Xbox Labs.

It is a wild timeline to have both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 capable of emulating a Nintendo Switch. I must admit, that is a shock. But with that said, I’d love to hear how you feel about this.

Would you emulate a Nintendo Switch on your Xbox console, or would you rather stick to the proper hardware? Let me know in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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It looks like the early-stage Halo 2 and Halo 3 remakes were planned to far exceed the bare-minimum content that Halo: Campaign Evolved offered. It’s no secret that Halo: Campaign Evolved was a polarizing remake, releasing with very little content and bonus missions that I’d describe as on par with Halo 5's level of bad storytelling.

But I’m not here to pour my heart out over that. In a new report from @Mr_Rebs_, he provides us with some insight into how vast in scope a Halo 2 and Halo 3 remake was going to be before Halo Studios was gutted and the mantle of responsibility was handed over to Activision.

Multiplayer, Forge, Firefight, and more: What could have been

According to Rebs, Halo Studios reportedly conducted a survey among select community members regarding what they wanted from a Halo 2 and a Halo 3 remake, with the studio allegedly referring to the trilogy of remakes as “Project Manihi.”

For the Halo 2 survey, Halo Studios reportedly asked the following questions:

• Bringing back dual wielding and how important it was to the experience.
• Including a full multiplayer component retaining Halo 2's classic gameplay.
• Having a complete selection of multiplayer playlists available at launch.
• Adding Firefight.
• Reusing Blur Studio's Halo 2: Anniversary cinematics.
• Potentially introducing entirely new bonus missions.

Rebs claims that participants pushed back against reusing Blur cutscenes because Halo Studios wanted to reuse assets from Campaign Evolved, creating a visual mismatch. Respondents also believed that dual wielding was essential to a Halo 2 remake, and on that, I do agree.

As for multiplayer, participants reportedly wanted the classic gameplay preserved while ensuring it remained appealing to casual and competitive players, with a full selection of playlists available from day one.

For Halo 3, however, Rebs alleges the studio's ambitions were even greater, with Halo Studios looking to take everything it had learned from Campaign Evolved and the proposed Halo 2 remake and apply it to Halo 3.

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The survey reportedly evaluated how important it was to deliver the complete experience, and participants essentially said yes to everything: multiplayer, Forge, Theater, and additional modes like Firefight.

One of Rebs' sources suggested that Halo 3 was intended to become the flagship project of the entire remake initiative, with Halo Studios apparently looking to invest more resources into making it the most complete experience of the three.

It is also reported that Halo Studios were planning to do more bonus missions similar to what we got in Campaign Evolved, and that these next two remakes would also exist alongside the next mainline Halo game.

Since the layoffs at Halo Studios, though, all these plans are pretty much dead in the water, and I can’t say I’m not happy about that. I had zero faith in Halo Studios' ability to even remotely deliver one more remake, let alone two remakes alongside a new mainline entry, but maybe that’s just me.

Let me know how you feel in the comments. Would you have been excited for the prospects of a Halo Studios crack at a Halo 2 and Halo 3 remake, or are you like me and glad we’ll never see them?

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This is all becoming very commonplace now, and I am even starting to not be surprised when something like this comes across my feeds. This time, it's Halo: Combat Evolved running on a Nintendo 64, of all things.

The project, known as Halo-64, is playable, but it does require the Nintendo 64 8MB Expansion Pack. You also need a copy of the original Xbox version of Halo: CE to get it working. The setup process seems a bit complicated if you are uncomfortable with the Command Prompt, but the project itself is really cool and appears to be working pretty well.

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We are in the midst of pretty unprecedented times, what with all the AI modding happening and Xbox itself essentially jumping on the bandwagon with Xbox Labs. However, there’s currently no indication that this project uses AI, and I thought that was important to mention before I dive into what you can expect from Halo-64.

Halo on the Nintendo 64 shouldn't be possible, yet here we are

The game supports all 13 multiplayer maps with up to four-player split-screen, including game modes we’ve all come to know and love, like Team Slayer and Capture the Flag. It also supports bots in-game, with up to 8 AI players at four different skill levels. In a nice touch, those bots take random names from a "list of about 300 Mario, Zelda, GoldenEye, and Rare N64 characters."

Most impressively, the game features a Firefight mode. For those who don’t know, Firefight is Halo’s PvE mode featuring wave-based enemies, and it’s something that Halo: Campaign Evolved, the latest remake, doesn’t even have. The port also includes Rumble Pak support, so you can feel the shots and such on your controller.

Unfortunately, there’s no campaign, and I’d be surprised if we ever did get something like that. It’s crazy enough that we get multiplayer and Firefight, but Halo: CE’s campaign on a Nintendo 64? Now I do think that would be impossible.

I do love little projects like this, and I’ve been doing my best lately to highlight community-driven Halo creations, whether it’s Halo 5 on PC, Halo 3’s resurgence thanks to a new launcher, or Campaign Evolved getting multiplayer. It’s clear now more than ever that Halo’s community is what is driving the game forward, at least until we see what Activision cooks up with the franchise.

Do let me know your thoughts on Halo-64 in the comments, and don’t forget to take part in the poll above!

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Gears of War: E-Day is off to a fantastic start. The game has hit the top of the charts across the globe, becoming the second biggest Xbox launch this year, and that’s without even mentioning how well it has been reviewed across the board, including here on Windows Central.

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I’m not here to hype up how great the game is; fans who’ve played it already know that much. Instead, I’m here to explain the latest updates. The Coalition, the game’s developer, took to X to reveal that the game is finally getting Ranked Versus. The team says:

“It's time to lock-in, Gears. Ranked Versus is available now in E-Day... Gather your squad, choose from four playlists - Demolition, Crucible, Conquest, and Team Deathmatch, and grind your Rank for exclusive rewards.”

The Coalition rolls out dozens of E-Day fixes

The introduction of Ranked Versus came with a caveat, however. The Coalition quickly noticed an issue with placement matches that resulted in some players being placed in the wrong skill division. That issue has now been addressed, so placement matches should accurately determine your rank moving forward.

That’s not all, either. Alongside the new mode, the team has deployed a second patch for the game that addresses a range of bugs impacting the entire experience. I’ll do my best to highlight the ones I think are most important.

On PC, Xbox, and handhelds, the patch includes numerous improvements to stability and optimization across devices. It also makes multiple memory improvements to address crashing and performance degradation during long play sessions.

It also addresses multiple account linking and login issues, fixes problems with the Social Menu and friends list, and makes further improvements to server anti-cheat protection. Plus, it fixes an issue causing certain colorblind settings to not display as described, and in both Campaign and Horde Siege, it corrects multiple issues causing certain Weapon Mods to not perform as intended.

What about the story mode?

For Campaign players specifically, the patch fixes multiple issues causing parts of the War Journal and Achievement progress not to track, which is something that actually happened to me in my playthrough. It is worth mentioning, however, that missing collectibles are unable to be automatically re-granted.

Players will be able to see which collectibles are missing in order to re-collect them. Similarly, missing in-game rewards, such as skins and titles earned through Campaign completion, cannot be automatically re-granted. To work around this, players can start a new campaign from a completed mission and replay that mission to re-earn the missing rewards.

You can, of course, read the full patch notes linked here. For now, though, that’s the update. It’s great to see The Coalition hot on the heels of the launch with these updates, addressing important issues. When I played the campaign, I did come across a few bugs here and there, but nothing game-breaking.

Let me know your thoughts on E-Day’s patch notes and the introduction of Ranked Versus in the comments.

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I’m sure we’ve all seen the socials by now. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney is proudly claiming that Linux support for Fortnite was “vibe coded,” and the official @EpicGames account on X (Formerly Twitter) is doing the same for the new Epic Games Launcher. They’re boasting about faster speeds than Steam, citing improvements of up to 46%.

I will admit that it is impressive on paper. Steam takes roughly 10 seconds to boot, while Epic’s new launcher clocks in at around five seconds. At least, that’s what Epic says, and that was likely true 48 hours ago. But on the same day Epic decided to vibe code their way to success, Valve had already decided to update Steam.

Somehow, Valve managed to cut that 10-second startup time down to around five seconds as well. Which does put a bit of a damper on Epic’s bold claims.

Is the new Epic Games Launcher actually better?

As for Epic’s launcher itself, it does look rather buggy, though it is still a work in progress. I don’t have the technical know-how to know or understand what they’re cooking under the hood, and I imagine neither do the people making it, since the code is written by AI.

I'm joking, of course, but as silly as people make vibe coding seem, I do wish Epic the best in making a better launcher. At the end of the day, all we can hope is that it will push Steam to be better too, because competition is good for the industry.

I would love to see a battle of the launchers, including Xbox, which is in the middle of releasing a new and improved launcher. My colleague Jez Corden recently broke news about it, and I must admit that launcher is looking better than what we have had to put up with from the current Xbox PC app, which by all accounts is awful.

Do let me know your thoughts on the battle of the launchers. Do you appreciate Epic’s vibe-coded efforts, or will you be sticking to another launcher? Let me know in the comments and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Big Walk is one of the biggest indie game releases of this year, selling over 1 million copies in just six days following its release on August 4, 2026. It's a light-hearted, co-operative adventure game that requires friends to work together to explore its world and solve puzzles.

The game is currently available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2, which has led many fans to wonder why the Xbox release hasn't arrived yet. Well, now we have our answer. Developers House House have broken their silence, citing a line that the studio refuses to cross.

House House is boycotting Microsoft and Xbox

In a new blog post, the studio behind Big Walk and Untitled Goose Game has explained its decision not to bring the game to Xbox:

“We have made the decision not to release Big Walk on Xbox, in accordance with the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement’s call to boycott Microsoft, and their designation of Microsoft Games (and Xbox) as a priority boycott target. If you need help understanding our motives, we would recommend reading about why Microsoft is a BDS priority target, the successes this kind of pressure has already had on Microsoft, and especially, watching this great introductory piece by People Make Games.”

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement that calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel and companies it considers complicit in violations of Palestinian rights. Since the announcement, I've seen plenty of discussion online about the decision. Ultimately, it's up to the developer to decide which platforms it wants to release its games on.

How is Microsoft connected to this?

According to BDS, Microsoft is considered a priority boycott target because of its provision of Azure cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, which the movement alleges have contributed to Israel's military operations. House House goes into some more detail in its statement, acknowledging that the decision will prevent some Xbox players from enjoying Big Walk with their friends:

“It has always been our intention for Big Walk to be played by groups of friends, and we know that keeping the game off Xbox runs counter to those intentions. This decision means that some people will miss out on playing Big Walk with their friends, and we understand the disappointment we’re causing. We are disappointed too. We would love for people to be able to play the game on Xbox, but not until Microsoft and/or Xbox have been removed as BDS boycott targets.”

For now, Xbox players hoping to jump into Big Walk with their friends will have to look elsewhere for an alternative, as House House has made its position clear. Whether that changes in the future is unknown, but the studio hasn't ruled out bringing the game to Xbox forever. However, unless Microsoft or Xbox is removed from the BDS movement's boycott targets, it seems an Xbox release of Big Walk is off limits.

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Halo 5: Guardians is, to my knowledge, the only mainline Halo title that hasn’t been ported to PC. It remains confined to consoles, with the sole exception being Halo 5: Forge, which is essentially just the custom game editor and isn’t the full experience. Fortunately, if you’ve been waiting for Halo 5 to arrive on PC, one determined fan is putting in most of the legwork.

I’ll be the first to admit that Halo 5 is probably my least liked game in the franchise, and that might even include the mobile spin-offs. In my opinion, the campaign was disastrously terrible by every metric. What wasn’t a disaster, though, was the multiplayer. While I will die on the hill that Halo 5 is a flawed game, the multiplayer was, annoyingly, pretty fun.

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Warzone was a great addition to the franchise, which makes the fact that it was missing from Halo: Infinite all the more frustrating. But alas. Now, a community-run effort is aiming to get the entire Halo 5 package working on PC, with all the PC bells and whistles you'd expect, like higher FOV, increased FPS, and more.

How 'Halo 5: Reforged' actually works on PC

Halo 5: Reforged uses a custom PC runtime built around Halo 5: Forge, adapted to work with content you supply locally. This does mean you’ll need to source your own legitimate copy of the game to extract the necessary files.

It is still a work in progress, but the campaign, multiplayer, and Warzone are all playable in development builds. All 15 campaign missions currently load into gameplay, and two-player co-op is working. On the multiplayer side, they've even managed to support up to 32 players, something Halo 5 didn't originally have. On the Warzone Firefight side of things, testing seems to be going smoothly too.

Regardless of my personal feelings toward Halo 5, I do think this is great. I genuinely believe the game’s multiplayer would have been better served on PC rather than being locked to console, and if you are interested in this project, I suggest you join their Discord here.

Will Xbox shut down this community project?

As for whether this project will get taken down, it’s sort of up in the air. Prior to Halo Studios essentially being closed down, with few staff remaining, Ske7ch, the Community Director for Halo Studios, commented on the project.

Ske7ch says that from their loose understanding, it felt potentially problematic, but after getting more context, they realized it was a wrapper of shared components with players needing their own personal copies, but they do say that they couldn't know for sure.

Now if I were to speculate, I would say that given the recent announcement of Xbox Labs and Xbox embracing all this weird and wacky game porting and mashups happening, I could see this port sticking around without much issue.

Let me know your thoughts. Are you happy PC players can get disappointed with Halo 5’s campaign and enjoy the game’s multiplayer, or are you a genuine fan of this entry? Leave a comment and be sure to take part in our poll!

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I’ll be honest, this one slipped under my radar. I didn’t even realize it had been released nearly two weeks ago, but it seems the community has taken on the mantle of responsibility for Halo lately in more ways than one.

First, there’s Project Reclaimer for Halo 3, which is everything Halo 3 on PC should have been. It features full custom server browsers, mod support, and a massive expansion to the sandbox with up to 128 players in a single match.

Not only that, but in Campaign Evolved, while it was reported that the remnants of Halo Studios are working to bring Theater and Firefight to the game in December, some community members have already taken it upon themselves to start testing Firefight within the game, to varying success, mind you.

Now onto the main attraction, Mjolnir Core, a community effort to bring multiplayer to Halo: Campaign Evolved. I must say, so far it’s pretty impressive. The project supports 19 maps, including classics like Blood Gulch, Battle Creek, and Hang ‘Em High. The mod also supports up to 16 players, pushing past the initial four-player limit it had at the start of development.

The mod itself is in alpha, but those working on it have put together a pretty hefty amount of documentation for those who wish to help and get involved. From what I can tell, the mod works pretty effortlessly.

You get the launcher, install multiplayer, and you’re ready to go. That said, I don't believe there’s any public game browser in the game yet, so you’ll need to invite friends through your fireteam to play together.

Seeing the community put this much effort in really pains me. Halo: Campaign Evolved needed some sort of multiplayer content at release, even if it were just Firefight. And whilst projects like this are great, they’ll likely sadly remain rather niche, as people have already moved on to other games like Gears of War: E-Day, which actually outperformed Halo on launch.

Regardless, I can’t stress enough how cool this is and how I hope the team behind it continues their hard work. So let me know your thoughts: is this cool, too little too late, or do you have any other thoughts? Drop them in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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I’ve sat here for 10 minutes now, staring at my PC, because I really just don’t know what to say about how this is even possible, but here goes. Yes, PS5 emulation is now working on the Xbox Series X via Xbox’s Developer Mode as a UWP app.

The emulator in question is KytyPS5, which has been ported by @maccosmo to Xbox. If you’ve been keeping up with the emulator on X (formerly Twitter), it's probably the main PS5 emulator making the most progress right now. Most notably, the emulator can play Demon’s Souls and Astro Bot at over 60 FPS, while Wolverine is bootable but runs at a much lower frame rate that isn’t really playable (these figures are for the PC version of the emulator, not the Xbox version).

You’re probably wondering what performance is like playing a PS5 game on an Xbox Series X, and well, it’s not great. Astro Bot sits at around 10 FPS, but there’s a lot going on under the hood. The Xbox fork of KytyPS5 includes a Direct3D 12 renderer that uses Mesa’s spirv_to_dxil to translate shaders, meaning there's a lot of code translation happening to make this work.

It’s a work in progress, but it’s not crazy to imagine Astro Bot eventually reaching a level where you can play it comfortably. For myself, I’ve made it known that I have no interest in PS5 hardware. That’s just my preference.

But Astro Bot has always been one of the few PS5 exclusives I thought genuinely looked good. If I thought I could purchase a copy of the game and play it on my Series X somehow, I think I probably would.

As I said, I’m just bewildered here. But the progress that’s been made, whether forced through thanks to AI, is cool to see. I mean, thanks to PS5 jailbreaking, we’ve already got Xbox Cloud Gaming on PS5, and there’s even one developer attempting to get Windows running on PS5, with some success too, as Hades is currently playable.

Let me know your thoughts. Is this something you’d try, or do you think this is all getting out of hand and regulators need to step in? Leave a comment below, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Gears of War: E-Day is seemingly still full of surprises, and according to the latest Xbox US store data, the game is flying off (digital) shelves. It has secured the number one spot, overtaking titles like Minecraft Dungeons 2 and the critically acclaimed Star Wars: Galactic Racer.

Gears of War: E-Day reaching the top spot in the US isn’t the only news, too. The game also topped the UK store and many others across the globe, which is great to see.

I will say, I am a bit surprised, obviously given the games on Game Pass, that does come with a certain, how would you say, online drama? Especially as it's often thought Xbox gamers don’t buy games, which of course has been debunked time and time again, but I digress.

We also know, thanks to reporting from TrueAchievements, that Gears of War: E-Day is 2026’s second-biggest Xbox launch. It surpassed Halo: Campaign Evolved by 8.6% but fell just shy of Forza Horizon 6, managing only 67.3% of Forza’s player count at launch, which of course was a massive success on both Xbox and PC.

I’m impressed with how well Gears of War: E-Day has done, and it's honestly well deserved. Having beaten the game myself, it has given me the Gears itch, and I am probably going to run through Gears 2, 3, 4, and 5 on Insane, just like I have done with the first game and E-Day.

Hopefully, everyone has enjoyed E-Day as much as I have, and I hope the game continues to perform well. There was, of course, reporting from Alinea Analytics, which estimated 230,000 copies sold across both Steam and Xbox. Steam accounted for 168,000 of those, with Xbox (console and PC) selling 62,000.

Alinea also estimated that 1.7 million people played the game via Game Pass, and of that 1.7 million, 722,000 paid for the five-day early access upgrade. Alinea also reported that the game grossed $37 million in revenue, and they called for the game to be released on PlayStation 5 too to help recoup development costs.

I won’t dive into that drama, though. Don't worry. For now, let me know your thoughts on E-Day, how it's performed, whether you're impressed, or if you expected it to do better, in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll!

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Following Xbox's recent push to simplify development for its platform, we have a new engine joining the party with official hardware support: Defold. For those unfamiliar, Defold is a game engine originally created by King, the studio behind Candy Crush, which is now owned by Microsoft.

Naturally, given its origins, the engine was heavily utilized for mobile titles like Blossom Blast Saga. However, it has since evolved into a solid option for indie developers, with existing support for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation consoles.

While Defold might not be the first engine that comes to mind for most people, I’m a strong believer that making development easier across whatever engines people choose is a fantastic move. In this case, it seems Defold has managed to make Xbox support as straightforward as possible.

According to its creators, Xbox support is now available in Defold 1.14.0, provided free of charge to approved developers. This completes a major expansion of the engine’s console capabilities, meaning it now supports all three major platforms.

Developers must first be approved for Xbox console development through programs like ID@Xbox before they can access the specific resources. Once approved, they can request access to the Xbox extension, which includes platform integrations such as user management and game saves, along with the necessary tools and workflows for building and testing Xbox games.

The engine itself has been around since 2008, so it’s been a long wait for official Xbox support. When asked why it took so long by @Danielon5538 on X (formerly Twitter), Defold responded:

“We (at Defold Foundation) developed Xbox support alongside our ongoing work on Defold, using the Foundation's own savings. Defold is free and all its console ports are completely free for approved developers too. We sustain development through partnerships and community donations. It took some time and sweat, but we're happy to finally make it available!”

You can also help fund Defold, which helps pay developers, and support core services, donations can be made here.

Hopefully, this is a sign of more things to come to make development easier for Xbox. While I can’t speak to what other engines might be lacking in the Xbox development space, lowering barriers in any way possible is one of Xbox’s best chances of getting as many developers on board with their platform as possible.

Let me know in the comments if you use Defold, if you’re glad it now has Xbox support, or if you just heard of the engine today. And, as always, don’t forget to take part in our poll!

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