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
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.
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
Halo: Combat Evolved on Nintendo 64? Yes, really, and it even comes with Firefight (Image credit: JackTulli | Xbox)
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.
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.DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈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 update
“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
(Image credit: The Coalition)
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?
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)
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 fi
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.
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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2026 is coming to an end, so it's that time again for the long-running Golden Joystick Awards show to celebrate the best games of the year we've played.On September 25, 2026, the Golden Joystick Awards announced all the shortlist nominees for 21 game-of-the-year categories, including PC Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Best Indie Game, and more.DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈However, time for voting for the winners is running out
2026 is coming to an end, so it's that time again for the long-running Golden Joystick Awards show to celebrate the best games of the year we've played.
On September 25, 2026, the Golden Joystick Awards announced all the shortlist nominees for 21 game-of-the-year categories, including PC Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Best Indie Game, and more.
However, time for voting for the winners is running out, as it closes next week on October 23, 2026 at 4:00pm PT / 7:00pm ET / 12:00am BST.
Here is the full list of nominees for all the Golden Joystick Awards' shortlist categories, which you can vote for on GamesRadar.com, to see if your favorite games of 2026 made the cut.
Golden Joystick Awards — Ultimate Game of the Year
On October 26, 2026, the Golden Joystick Awards will reveal nominees for its Ultimate of the Gear award, and voting for the winner will open that day.
Additionally, journalists from GamesRadar+, PC Gamer, Future Games Show, Edge magazine, Knowledge, Retro Gamer, and Future's trusted network of freelance writers and content creators will select winners in other categories.
The winners for the following awards will be selected on the night:
Streamers’ Choice Award
Breakthrough Award
Critics’ Choice Award
Golden Joystick Awards — Where can we watch the show?
All of the winners will be announced during the Golden Joystick Awards ceremony on November 11, 2026, and will be hosted at Troxy, London, United Kingdom.
No start times or streaming platforms have been announced as of yet, but it is likely the show will be broadcast on major streaming platforms like YouTube, as it did last year.
Who will sweep this year's Golden Joystick Awards?
We are honored to be nominated for an incredible 5 categories at this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.🏆 Console Game of the Year🏆 Best Storytelling🏆 Best Soundtrack🏆 Best Lead Performer - Patrick Gibson🏆 Best Supporting Performer - Lennie JamesVoting is open now!https://t.co/n6fVfrXkF6 #007FirstLight #GoldenJoystickAwards #WeAreIOISeptember 30, 2026
This year, it seems the only games that have a chance to sweep awards are Resident Evil: Requiem and 007: First Light, as they've been nominated in five categories thus far.
Both of these are games incredible in their own right, but will they be nominated for the Golden Joystick Awards' Ultimate Game of the Year? Even if they do, will Resident Evil Requiem or 007: First Light be able to win it, or will an unexpected, underdog entry take home the gold?
Tune in on November 11, 2026, to find out when the Golden Joystick Awards announce its winners.
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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. Deve
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
(Image credit: Microsoft)
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:
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.
“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
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.
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.
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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La version Nintendo 64 de Command & Conquer, c'était une drôle de bestiole. Sortie en 1999 et portée par Looking Glass Studios, elle reprenait le RTS de Westwood avec des unités, des bâtiments et un terrain en vraie 3D. Pour ma part, je ne l'ai jamais testé à l'époque (moi j'étais sur PC) mais ça va pouvoir changer puisque c'est ce que
le projet OpenCNC3D
fait revivre sous la forme d'un programme Windows et macOS.
Pour y parvenir, le mystérieux dev qui s'occupe de ce projet,
La version Nintendo 64 de Command & Conquer, c'était une drôle de bestiole. Sortie en 1999 et portée par Looking Glass Studios, elle reprenait le RTS de Westwood avec des unités, des bâtiments et un terrain en vraie 3D. Pour ma part, je ne l'ai jamais testé à l'époque (moi j'étais sur PC) mais ça va pouvoir changer puisque c'est ce que
le projet OpenCNC3D
fait revivre sous la forme d'un programme Windows et macOS.
Pour y parvenir, le mystérieux dev qui s'occupe de ce projet, a repris la logique de jeu de Tiberian Dawn, dont EA
a publié le code source
sous licence GPL en 2020, puis y a collé les modèles 3D, les textures, le terrain et même la caméra à l'identique en les extrayant de la cartouche originale. Le tout est ensuite redessiné par un moteur de rendu écrit pour l'occasion, avec les menus et les sons des CD de la version MS-DOS de 1995.
Derrière ce projet se cacherait d'après les rumeurs,
Frederik Schreiber
, le patron de Slipgate Ironworks, le studio de Tempest Rising. C'est en tout cas ce qu'affirme le site Command & Conquer Saga, puisque le dépôt est signé freschism3000, un pseudo proche de son compte X, Freschism.
Côté contenu, vous retrouverez les 36 missions de campagne GDI et Nod, 27 missions Special Ops et 67 cinématiques d'origine, alors que
la version N64 les avait tristement remplacées
par des images fixes. Et il y a aussi du neuf, à commencer par le multijoueur en réseau dispo jusqu'à huit joueurs, que la cartouche n'avait pas, plus le mode escarmouche contre l'ordinateur et un éditeur de cartes.
La v0.8.0, sortie le 10 octobre dernier, ajoute également trois nouveaux rendus. Classic, c'est l'image plate en 320x200 du jeu de 1995, N64, celle de la cartouche, et Enhanced, ce sont les bâtiments refaits et peints à la main, les véhicules et les soldats remodélisés, ainsi que de l'herbe qui ondule et des bruits d'ambiance. Et vous pouvez passer de l'un à l'autre en pleine partie sans souci.
Je vous préviens quand même, maintenant que vous êtes bien hypé,
le dépôt GitHub du projet
, sous GPL v3, ne contient aucune donnée du jeu. Donc pour le faire tourner, vous devez en théorie fournir le dump de votre propre cartouche européenne et vos CD MS-DOS de 1995... Mais bon, comme les paquets du site, eux,
livrent le jeu complet
, sans la bénédiction d'EA, vous pourrez y jouer même sans ça. Oui, on est dans un genre de zone grise totale ce qui veut dire que ça pourrait, comme tout ce qui est beau dans ce monde, se faire shooter du jour au lendemain par les ayants droits.
C'est gratuit avec installeur pour Windows mais également une version universelle Apple Silicon et Intel pour macOS. Et ça tourne à 60 images par seconde jusqu'en 4K ! La vie est belle !
Microsoft announced (via on Xbox Wire) a brand new Xbox controller called the Xbox Nano Controller, and it will be released in November 2026 for Xbox consoles, Windows PC, iOS and Android mobile devices, and select Smart TVs.DEAL: Get Surfshark VPN 86% OFF with Windows Central 🦈The Xbox Nano Controller is an extremely small gamepad (5 inches long and 3.5 ounces in weight) that can fit into your pocket for easier portability while still packing the form factor and
Microsoft announced (via on Xbox Wire) a brand new Xbox controller called the Xbox Nano Controller, and it will be released in November 2026 for Xbox consoles, Windows PC, iOS and Android mobile devices, and select Smart TVs.
The Xbox Nano Controller is an extremely small gamepad (5 inches long and 3.5 ounces in weight) that can fit into your pocket for easier portability while still packing the form factor and standard 18-button layout of regular Xbox controllers.
Additionally, its smaller size makes the Xbox Nano Controller easier for players with smaller hands to use who struggle to use larger controllers.
Meet the XBOX Nano Controller. Smaller, lighter and shorter than most modern smartphones, and designed to fit nearly every pocket and budget. Find out more:https://t.co/reB7PdakGaOctober 14, 2026
The Xbox Nano Controller also includes a rechargeable battery, an extra reprogrammable Action Button, and Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth support.
Plus, it's designed for Xbox Cloud Gaming and casual use. It mimics a TV remote in form factor and weight, so it can sit on the sofa or coffee table without taking up space.
It will be made available in the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad & Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with additional markets to follow.
For a limited time, Xbox is partnering with Samsung to offer a special Xbox Nano Controller with two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership (for new users) in the US for anyone who purchases select Samsung TVs during the holiday season.
Additionally, Xbox is partnering with Meta to offer an Xbox Nano Controller with two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership (for new users) in the US for anyone purchasing a Meta Quest.
The Xbox Nano Controller has a cool nostalgic design, but some of its spec choices and price leave it to be desired
A full render of the Xbox Nano Controller (Image credit: Microsoft)
Upon first impressions of this controller, I got a wave of nostalgia, as its design reminds me a lot of the Super Nintendo controller I used as a kid. However, my interest in the Xbox Nano controller suddenly dropped upon looking at its MSRP and specs.
$49.99 is a lot of money for a controller these days. For that price, it better have some advanced tech like Hall Effect or TMR thumbsticks to justify such a cost.
Sadly, the Xbox Nano Controller does not have any such tech. On top of that, the Xbox Nano Controller has no direct WiFi connection for Xbox Cloud Gaming and instead relies on Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth connections, which are more laggy and unresponsive by comparison.
So on paper, the Xbox Nano Controller doesn't sound like a good controller at that price point. However, that won't stop us from reviewing the gamepad in the future to see if its performance, design, and ergonomics can make up for the Xbox Nano Controller's omissions of advanced tech and its steep price.
The Xbox Nano Controller is a pint-sized gamepad built for easy portability and compatibility with Xbox Cloud Gaming while maintaining the solid form factor and intuitive button layout of traditional Xbox controllers.
It's no secret that Microsoft's gaming division has struggled to keep pace with PlayStation and Nintendo for active console users, and this Xbox survey suggests the firm might be considering the nuclear option to fix things. Yesterday, a new survey appeared for a subset of Xbox users on the Insider Program, presumably among those who Microsoft tracks as having multiple devices. A user sent us the below survey screens, which Windows Central has verified as real. M
It's no secret that Microsoft's gaming division has struggled to keep pace with PlayStation and Nintendo for active console users, and this Xbox survey suggests the firm might be considering the nuclear option to fix things.
Yesterday, a new survey appeared for a subset of Xbox users on the Insider Program, presumably among those who Microsoft tracks as having multiple devices. A user sent us the below survey screens, which Windows Central has verified as real.
Microsoft's problematic Xbox multiplatform strategy has left many users who own multiple devices with fewer reasons to actually turn their consoles on. In that universe, it reduces Microsoft's chances to earn users in it's own ecosystem considerably, impacting both first party revenue and third party port viability. Microsoft sells mountains of games on PlayStation, but it has to pay a 30% cut for the privilege. Many PlayStation users already own an Xbox too, so Microsoft is potentially handing away potential users for no real reason.
These new surveys suggest Microsoft may be considering some drastic moves to change the situation.
Windows CentralWindows Central
The survey asks a variety of questions of users across multiple ecosystems, asking how likely they would be to invest in the Xbox platform if various games went timed, or even fully console exclusive.
Microsoft asks if users would switch to Xbox on a per game basis, including pitches of exclusivity for games like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Hideo Kojima's PHYSINT, Diablo, and even Minecraft itself. The survey even stresses that existing titles wouldn't be removed from other platforms, but would no longer receive new content.
There's even a nuclear option question, asking users how they'd change their habits if every single Xbox game (except Call of Duty, likely owing to acquisition requirements) went fully console exclusive.
It asks users to consider the hypothetical scenario, offering multiple choice responses below it.
"Imagine it was announced that all future title releases from every XBOX-developed gaming franchise except Call of Duty will be console-exclusive to XBOX," the final survey question reads. "For Minecraft only, existing titles would no longer be available for purchase on PlayStation or Nintendo consoles, and would not receive any new content updates. However, there is no impact to any of the existing titles or content you already own. Nothing changes on PC in this announcement."
It asks users if they would move to an existing Xbox console they already own, buy a new one, switch to PC, or skip it entirely in this scenario.
Going multiplatform didn't work, would going maximum exclusivity work instead?
Is Xbox looking at ditching PlayStation completely? (Image credit: Windows Central)
In the near term, even if Microsoft did create massive desire for its platform and was somehow able to make even GTA6 magically exclusive, the RAMpocalypse has driven hardware sales to historic lows. Even if there was Xbox stock available globally, they've become prohibitively expensive for many. But, that situation (hopefully) won't last forever.
If games like Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls 6, and Diablo 5 were Xbox Helix exclusive, it would undoubtedly drive masses of sales for Xbox hardware. But would the stock even be available? Microsoft has historically struggled with global distribution even before the component crisis. As much as I think Xbox desperately needs exclusive content, the risks are undeniable on paper.
But sacrificing the entire platform is just as risky potentially. PlayStation itself just massively clawed back from Steam and Windows PC gaming too.
There's little point in maintaining Xbox as an entity if it was to become a simple publisher. Microsoft is more of a hardware company than it has ever been arguably, powered by data centers and increasingly home grown silicon, like its new Maia chips which has driven the stock to new highs recently. Microsoft has already sacrificed mobile as a platform endpoint, greatly limiting its ability to distribute and train its AI platforms. I can't imagine they'll seek to make the same mistake with Xbox.
Surveys are just surveys, and it all might amount to nothing. It could also be a hint around Xbox's thought processes. Perhaps there's math that exists that proves that the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. Halo Campaign Evolved on PlayStation likely did irreparable brand damage to Xbox as a hardware entity, even though the game itself wasn't spectacularly well-received.
The future of Xbox could end up being more interesting than expected.
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xboxrecomp est un outil de recompilation qui vient de voir le jour et qui devrait vous intéresser si vous êtes nostalgique de la première Xbox. En effet, ce dernier prend l'exécutable d'un jeu de la Xbox originale, traduit chacune de ses fonctions x86 en code C, puis recompile le résultat en programme Windows 100% natif. Cela veut dire que le jeu ensuite peut tourner directement sur votre ordinateur, sans faire appel à un interpréteur ni à un émulateur. C'est ce qui s'appelle de la recompilation
xboxrecomp est un outil de recompilation qui vient de voir le jour et qui devrait vous intéresser si vous êtes nostalgique de la première Xbox. En effet, ce dernier prend l'exécutable d'un jeu de la Xbox originale, traduit chacune de ses fonctions x86 en code C, puis recompile le résultat en programme Windows 100% natif. Cela veut dire que le jeu ensuite peut tourner directement sur votre ordinateur, sans faire appel à un interpréteur ni à un émulateur. C'est ce qui s'appelle de la recompilation statique, et je vous en parle régulièrement parce que je trouve ça assez magique (rappelez vous de
Zelda 64 recompilé
).
Le dépôt de xboxrecomp ne contient évidemment aucun fichier de jeu pour ne pas s'exposer au courroux des ayants-droits. Vous devez donc avoir votre propre disque, en extraire le default.xbe, et la chaîne d'outils (du Python avec capstone, puis Visual Studio 2022 pour compiler) génèrera chez vous tout le code C du jeu. Pas de bouton magique, par contre, le premier lancement d'un jeu recompilé plantera et ensuite, ça avancera crash après crash. Notez que ce projet s'est construit avec Claude Code également.
Pour le moment, le seul jeu qui va au bout de sa recompilation, c'est Burnout 3: Takedown. Tous les modes démarrent et se jouent, seul ou à deux, mais les menus tournent à environ 14 images par seconde et les courses à 2 à 4 FPS sur une machine à 12 cœurs. Y'a pas non plus de possibilité de faire des sauvegardes et c'est manette obligatoire. Bref, c'est pas encore très jouable.
En fait le problème c'est le GPU de la Xbox (le NV2A) qui est émulé en logiciel, et c'est malheureusement ça qui fait chuter les FPS. Le "No emulation" du slogan ne vaut donc que pour le processeur, mais pas les morceaux audio ni le GPU repris de xemu. Mais ça changera peut-être bientôt.
Maintenant, si vous cherchez un jeu Xbox précis à installer, regardez plutôt du côté de
SCDA-XBERecomp
, qui est l'inverse de xboxrecomp. C'est n'est pas un outil universel mais une recompilation uniquement du jeu Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Celui-ci réimplémente le noyau, Direct3D et DirectSound côté Windows, et vous laisse régler le champ de vision ou lever la limite de 30 images par seconde.
Et si vous voulez juste rejouer à vos jeux Xbox ce soir, un émulateur comme
xemu
fera très bien comme d'hab.
Moi de mon côté, j'avance toujours sur mon recompilateur universel de ROMs
Kompote
et ça marche vraiment très bien. Là je suis en train d'implémenter le support des jeux Amiga... je pense que dans quelques jours, ce sera cuit à point.
Three years ago, we were graced with the release of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a first-person shooter inspired by classics like DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, set in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000.It was a simple yet immensely cathartic boomer-shooter with fast-paced gunplay, satisfying weapons, and charming yet grim retro-style graphics that I gave 4/5 stars.Fast-forward to today, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun's sequel is here with more heretics to
Three years ago, we were graced with the release of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, a first-person shooter inspired by classics like DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein 3D, set in the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000.
It was a simple yet immensely cathartic boomer-shooter with fast-paced gunplay, satisfying weapons, and charming yet grim retro-style graphics that I gave 4/5 stars.
Fast-forward to today, and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun's sequel is here with more heretics to slay and a new, second playable character with more weapons to purge them with.
Is it as fun as, or more fun than, the first game? Let's find out as we ready our Bolter rifles and review Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 launches on October 14, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Windows and Steam. This review was made possible thanks to an Xbox Series X code provided by Devolver Digital. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review before publication.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Story, setting, art
Vashtorr the Arkifane daemon has come for your souls. (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
The story goes that the forces of Chaos, led by the towering Greater Daemon, Vashtorr, are wreaking havoc across worlds controlled by the Imperium of Man.
In response, the righteous Space Marine, Malum Caedo, has returned from the first Boltgun game to purge the heretical daemons out of existence. Except this time, Malum Caedo is joined by the equally zealous Sister of Battle, Nyra Veyrath, who hopes to torch the daemons to cinders in the name of the God Emperor.
Just like the first Boltgun game, the story serves as a simple excuse to go blasting Chaos cultists, Chaos Space Marines, and daemons into red mist. That's cool by me, as I was in the mood for an action game without being bogged down by endless cutscenes.
However, if you're looking for an FPS with a complex narrative and character development, you're better off looking elsewhere.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 may be the first videogame I've played that has swamp levels that actually look cool. (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 continues to embody the series ' retro throwback art style of being a long-lost 1990s PlayStation 1 game (with 2D sprites set against 3D backgrounds and models), and it's beautifully well done.
The jagged, grotesque, and gothic scenery of Warhammer 40,000's war-torn fortresses, temples devoted to the Chaos gods, and environments slowly being corrupted into daemonic blemishes are a sight to behold at times in this game.
The 2D sprites (and sometimes 3D models) of enemies are crisp, detailed, and faithful to their Warhammer 40,000 tabletop counterparts, which makes them all the more satisfying to chop up as they explode in showers of gratifying pixelated blood and guts when you kill them.
On top of that, the performance is rock solid. The game ran at a consistent 60fps at 1080p resolution with absolutely no framerate drops, even when all kinds of chaotic explosions, gunfire, and combusting bodies were happening on-screen.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Gameplay
We're gonna need a bigger bolter for this heresy. (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2's gameplay structure has you running across multiple planets via chapter-based missions where you must reach the end of massive levels while eradicating any heretic and daemon standing in your way.
Along the way, you will come across a wide variety of weapons, hidden collectibles, and secret power-ups to give you an edge when taking on some of the game's tougher enemies.
Combat is just as chaotic, gory, and satisfying as its predecessor, while offering more variety with two playable characters with their own unique weapon loadouts and gameplay styles
Alex Cope, Windows Central
The first thing I like about Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 is that its level design is more varied than its predecessor.
Some of this game's levels will have you clearing out space ships and Imperium facilities of daemons; exploring dank swamplands mutated by the Chaos god Nurgle; storming daemonic fortresses dedicated to the Chaos God Khorne; and escaping collapsing, burning buildings before being melted by rising magma, just to name a few.
It helped keep the gameplay fresh, so it didn't feel like I was constantly running and gunning through linear hallways. Plus, Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 has alternating chapters you can only select once per playthrough, which sometimes unlocks secret optional chapters where you can find more hidden collectibles, increasing its replay value.
On a side note, Boltgun 2 manages to fix my biggest problems with the first Boltgun game (at last on the Xbox version): remappable controls. You can now keybind all your actions to any button you want to fit your playstyle instead of its default layout, making its controls feel more natural and enjoyable.
Be cleansed by the Melta gun, daemon! (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
Anyway, it's time to talk about the meat and bones of Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2: its combat. Combat is just as chaotic, gory, and satisfying as its predecessor while offering more variety with two playable characters with their own unique weapon loadouts and gameplay styles.
Malum Caedo is a slow-but-durable walking tank who can endure tons of gunfire while retaliating twice as hard with Bolters, Shotguns, and heavy ordnance. Malum can smash enemies to paste with a shoulder-tackle charge, lunge at enemies with homing Chainsword attacks, and throw grenades that will blow weaker enemies in an instant.
Meanwhile, Nyra Veyrath is a squishy but extremely mobile warrior who cuts down enemies with a sword while annihilating them with Bolters, Flamers, and Meltas. Nyra can also perform slide moves to dodge certain attacks while piercing enemies with her sword, and chuck slow-detonating but devastating Melta Bombs that even the heaviest armored daemon won't be able to survive,
While they're both fun to use, I ended up enjoying Nyra the most. Her fast, hit-and-run playstyle is so fitting for the boomer-shooter sub-genre; her chargeable melee attack is useful for knocking back aggressive melee fighters, and I love seeing heretics screaming in agony as I burn them to pixelated ashes with Nyra's flamethrowers and Meltas (which shoot scorching laser beams the size of cars).
Burn in holy fire! (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
Nyra's abilities and weapons proved very helpful for the enemies ahead because Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 has a greater rogues' gallery of enemies to fight this time. You will be fighting heretical cultists, iconic Chaos Space Marines devoted to every Chaos God (Khorne, Nurgle, Tzeentch, and Slaanesh), daemon hordes, massive Greater Daemons, and other hidden surprises.
They're all fun to fight, and especially challenging on harder difficulty modes where you must keep on running to survive getting shredded in a few hits. However, I did notice some enemies and bosses had some really dumb AI where they would get stuck in the terrain, leaving them helpless for me to gun them in an unsatisfying manner.
It didn't happen too often, but often enough for it to be noticeable, and it's probably the only major gripe I have with this game. The only other issue I have is the lack of Xbox Play Anywhere support, as this game would've been a killer app to play on the go with an Xbox Ally.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — Conclusion
There's nothing that can withstand the might of the iconic Chainsword. (Image credit: Windows Central (Alex Cope) | Devolver Digital)
Once again, the Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun series provides sweet catharsis to players yearning for arcade shooters light on story and heavy on pure video game violence. Compared to the first game, Boltgun 2's gameplay was more fun and varied thanks to its multiple playable characters and weapons, improved level design, and a wider bestiary of enemies and bosses.
Not to mention, it has plenty of easter eggs and cheeky references to the vast lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe for hardcore fans like me to geek out over.
An average playthrough on Normal difficulty will take you around 6-10 hours depending on if you're looking for collectibles, and possibly more if you try to beat it on harder difficulty modes.
So, if you have some spare time to kill over the weekend as we await the next DOOM game, then I recommend giving Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 a go for all your boomer-shooter FPS lovers out there.
Xbox version
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 irons out some of the issues from the first game while refining its satisfying gunplay with multiple playable characters, more varied level design, weapons, and enemies, and gorgeous 2.5D graphics that perfectly capture the over-the-top and grimdark aesthetic of WH40K.
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I've said many times that AI influence in gaming, whether it be wielded for upscaling or development purposes, isn't going anywhere. As SEGA just discovered, although my assumption might be true, the gaming world isn't quite ready for the level of AI sloppiness found in the new Total War: SHOGUN 2 "Enhanced" version.The original game launched in 2011, and after some 15 years of availability, it sits at a Very Positive rating on Steam with more than 22,000 user re
The original game launched in 2011, and after some 15 years of availability, it sits at a Very Positive rating on Steam with more than 22,000 user reviews. The game's new "Complete Edition," which launched on October 13, 2026, has already received more than 1,850 user reviews.
The problem? The enhanced version has fallen to an Overwhelmingly Negative rating on Steam, which is often a death blow from which a game never recovers.
Digging into the sea of red reviews, it appears that plenty of gamers were already disappointed in the remake's quality before anyone looked closely enough at player cards to notice some undisclosed use of AI.
Plenty of reviewers have called out the game-breaking bugs, the poor performance, and the "countless graphical issues," including dreadful lighting and HDR. I could go on.
You be the judge — does the Complete Edition screenshot look like it was upscaled using AI? Why does it suddenly look like the front of a Mercedes rather than a mustachioed soldier? Let me know what you think in the comments section below.
Gamers are used to slop ... just not AI slop
Total War: SHOGUN 2 Complete Edition sits at an Overwhelmingly Negative rating on Steam. (Image credit: Valve)
What's really sticking with me is how gamers have approached the relaunch of SHOGUN 2. At this point, I think many of us have been around long enough to not be surprised when a remake gets botched.
I was there for Warcraft 3: Reforged tragedy. I remember when the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy remake launched to backlash. AI had nothing to do with these games.
This time, though, the Total War and Shogun 2 subreddits are flooded with posts focusing on the poor quality of AI upscaling. It extends well beyond the one Mercedes-face soldier, with gamers posting images of six-fingered characters, wonky hands, odd faces, and more.
I don't think saying there's more focus on the AI aspect than the actual bugs and glitches is too far out there. And I'm definitely not saying that fans of the series have their gripes in the wrong place; I'd be upset too if one of my favorite games was given this treatment. It's just interesting to see how the outcry falls into place.
Remasters don't have to be low-quality cash grabs
The Witcher 3 remastered is a glorious upgrade, free for any owners of the original game. (Image credit: Jennifer Young - Windows Central)
What makes it so great? Well, it's completely free for anyone who already owns The Witcher 3. It doesn't overwrite the original game (great news for people like me who still game on a Steam Deck). And it comes with a host of quality-of-life fixes, upgraded graphics, and more.
It's about as good a remake as you'll find, and a far cry from the $40 Total War: SHOGUN 2 entry from this week.
For those who have played the game, is it really as bad as the reviews are making it out to be? Would it not have such an aggressively bad rating if not for the alleged undisclosed AI upscaling? Let me know in the comments section below!
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iQOO reveals Neo12 specs, including a 185Hz display, 9,000 mAh battery and cooling fan. Here’s what buyers should weigh before its expected China launch.
The post iQOO Neo12 Pairs 185Hz Display With 9,000 mAh Battery appeared first on TechRepublic.
iQOO reveals Neo12 specs, including a 185Hz display, 9,000 mAh battery and cooling fan. Here’s what buyers should weigh before its expected China launch.
The carrying handle on Jess Wiseman’s CHEKT board is the detail that makes the design click for me. Chessboards have an awkward domestic life: leave one out and it claims a chunk of your table; put it away and playing becomes another thing to unpack. CHEKT’s board design considers that friction through a clear enclosure with a handle, while giving the familiar checkerboard a visual personality closer to a desk accessory than a formal game set.
It also addresses a smaller, relatable problem: cho
The carrying handle on Jess Wiseman’s CHEKT board is the detail that makes the design click for me. Chessboards have an awkward domestic life: leave one out and it claims a chunk of your table; put it away and playing becomes another thing to unpack. CHEKT’s board design considers that friction through a clear enclosure with a handle, while giving the familiar checkerboard a visual personality closer to a desk accessory than a formal game set.
It also addresses a smaller, relatable problem: choosing a board usually means committing to one look. The supplied images show four transparent shells with different graphic treatments, suggesting a way to change the board’s appearance without replacing the underlying object. That’s a more interesting proposition than another beautifully finished slab. I like objects that leave room for your taste to change, especially when they’re likely to spend as much time sitting around as being used.
Underneath those shells, CHEKT has an eight-by-eight grid of black and pale peach forms. Rounded corners soften the geometry, and the raised surfaces make it look almost like an oversized keyboard. Circular details occupy the middle area, while square forms dominate elsewhere. The images don’t establish what those individual components do mechanically, so I wouldn’t call them buttons or switches. Visually, though, they give the board depth and rhythm that a printed checkerboard doesn’t have.
The clear outer enclosure makes those layers visible rather than hiding them behind a finished exterior. Small orange details along the edges interrupt the black-and-peach palette, and the slim, silver-colored handle gives the whole thing a faint briefcase quality. It’s playful without relying on a novelty shape. Sitting on a desk beside an orange mushroom lamp in one image, the board looks quite comfortable sharing space with objects chosen for their appearance.
The shell graphics are where the design becomes especially expressive. One uses yellow outlines around the squares, another introduces dark diagonal hatching, and a third has red, dot-built chess-piece illustrations. The fourth features large blue circles and angular linework. They offer different degrees of visual busyness, which matters. A graphic you enjoy looking at across the room might be less welcome when you’re trying to read a complicated position. I’d probably start with the quieter option.
One image shows a hand wiping drawn red arrows from the illustrated shell. That suggests a useful secondary role as a surface for working through moves, explaining a position, or marking an idea before clearing it away. It’s an appealing detail for casual learning because the discussion can happen directly over the board. The specific writing tools and surface compatibility aren’t established here, but the pictured interaction gives the transparent layer a purpose beyond changing the color scheme.
That ability to annotate is arguably more compelling than making a chessboard resemble a collectible gadget. You can imagine two people tracing a possible move rather than trying to explain everything through gestures. It wouldn’t replace learning the rules or recognizing positions, but it could make that conversation easier to follow. For me, this is where the graphic design starts earning its place: the surface becomes something you can use, not merely something to admire.
The packaging carries the same attitude. Oversized yellow CHEKT lettering, blue corner accents, chess-piece drawings, and diagrams of the layered board give the boxes a lively, almost hobby-kit character. The shell package explicitly labels its contents as a set of four, making the customization idea legible before anything is opened. I appreciate that clarity. Attractive packaging is more persuasive when it helps explain what the object is, rather than asking the branding to do all the work.
I’d still want to know how the shells attach, how easily their surfaces scratch, and whether the added graphics complicate play. Those answers would determine whether CHEKT feels practical rather than merely photogenic. But the design’s appeal is already clear: it gives a familiar game a place in a less formal room, with an appearance that doesn’t have to be permanent. A chessboard you can carry, customize, and potentially draw on offers several reasons to take it off the shelf.
World of Warcraft has been my main gaming love for over two decades; I have multiple tattoos dedicated to the game. I built my career on top of it, and met my partner of 14 years because of it. So believe me when I say it HURTS to be feeling this way about the game. World of Warcraft has never boasted the most amazing writing at a granular level, but at least it was often steeped in satisfying spectacle, leading with the "rule of cool" for better or worse. The se
World of Warcraft has been my main gaming love for over two decades; I have multiple tattoos dedicated to the game. I built my career on top of it, and met my partner of 14 years because of it. So believe me when I say it HURTS to be feeling this way about the game.
World of Warcraft has never boasted the most amazing writing at a granular level, but at least it was often steeped in satisfying spectacle, leading with the "rule of cool" for better or worse. The setting was always what made it stand out, atop genuinely immersive background lore and major story beats that feel like the product of something greater. Or at least, should be the product of something greater.
I feel like since the disaster that was Shadowlands in back in 2020, Blizzard hasn't been able to find its narrative voice with World of Warcraft retail. I've written more than a few articles on the topic, but this week's major story resolution as part of Patch 12.1.5 is already seeing significant backlash.
Has Blizzard completely lost the plot here? SPOILERS AHEAD.
World of Warcraft *has* to be an episodic soap opera to function, but the payoff almost never materializes
As I sit to write this, I'm wondering to myself if eventually I'll eat some crow. There's always a flicker of curiosity in my mind about the way the game has moved forward since its most hated story arc, which demystified Death itself, reducing the universal stakes to almost nothing. Shadowlands effectively rendered death and dying as relatively inconsequential in the Warcraft universe, and the inconsistent behavior of some of its major characters, namely Sylvanas, single-handedly undid decades of character development and expectation.
Blizzard doesn't seem to have learned any lessons about stakes, and it's increasingly maddening given how well Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, and even the recent Warcraft III: Forsaken Kingdom expansions prove that Blizzard can still write good shit. Why can't we have this in WoW retail?
In World of Warcraft: Midnight Patch 12.1.5, which launched today in Europe, Lady Liadrin, matriarch of the Horde Blood Elven paladins, dies. Her death is perhaps among the most anticlimactic, unceremonious, and understated deaths for a major character I've seen in video game history.
Xal'atath has been WoW's central evil for years now, and we still have no clue what her goals or motivations are, even slightly. (Image credit: Blizzard)
Blizzard has long held a strange joy for killing off Horde figures in unsatisfying and frankly wasteful ways. Whether it's Garrosh, Saurfang, Vol'jin, Cairne Bloodhoof ... at least some of these figures got meaningful deaths as part of an epic cutscene or CGI sequence. Liandrin simply passes out on a cavern floor, in a death that felt wholly unearned narratively and undeserved figuratively.
Throughout WoW: Midnight, Lady Liadrin has basically followed the player about, giving them quests and standing around while you did most of the busywork. Blizzard has rushed through troll and elf reunification, pushing aside thousands of years of baggage in a few relatively underwhelming quest segments that often feel pretty disconnected from the central battle against Xal'atath. That sense of disconnect extends to Liadrin in general, who hasn't really enjoyed enough build-up in my view to warrant what ultimately happened next.
I guess all my hype is just for Mega Delves and the Rexxar Set for this current patch.Cause holy shit that ending was bad. Midnight has this low record of just... upping its previous patch/story's ends by being worse. Cause this is just bad.Poor Liadrin man. https://t.co/o6bC4jAB4nOctober 14, 2026
In Patch 12.1.5, she channels her faith in the Light to deal a decisive blow to returning Old God general Kith'ix, who represents this patch's mid-season boss. The power seemingly overwhelms her, leading to her pretty unexpected demise on the cavern floor. I felt sadly bemused and mildly irritated. But not exactly shocked ... this has been par for the course as a Horde player for some time.
I saw the cutscene without any exposure to reactions online, and wondered if my immediate and overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction was simply a me problem. Apparently not. The backlash so far seems pretty palpable.
I feel as if Blizzard has tried to cram far too many characters in all at once in recent years, leaving them without meaningful story arcs. Mountains of supporting characters appeared as quickly as they then disappeared from the central narrative, robbing deaths like Liadrin's of any real sense of build-up, and therefore, no sense of payoff. It just feels awful, man. It's wild I find myself not even vaguely caring about the death of a character that has been in the game for almost 20 years ... what another miserable, maddening waste.
At least 12.1.5 has a new raid, a new "Mega Delve" to explore (which looks awesome), and other new content ... but man. For me, it has always started with caring about the setting, the roleplay, and feeling immersed in the world. Blizzard has been stripping that away with reckless abandon in recent years.
Why is World of Warcraft: Retail's writing such a mess right now?
World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth and the Shadowlands storyline seem to have broken Blizzard's ability to write for WoW retail. (Image credit: via YouTube)
I'm still trying to speak to sources to get to the bottom of what's going on with World of Warcraft's writing so far. This isn't a matter of taste or sour grapes; I'm certainly not alone in thinking that WoW's writing has completely fallen off a cliff in recent years.
There are tons upon tons of issues with World of Warcraft's story delivery right now. I've theorized it's the self-imposed 8-week patch cadence, preventing quality and iteration from reaching the live client. I've huffed copium thinking that maybe, maybe there's going to be a payoff at the end of all this ... and that stuff like Liadrin's death will lead to something more interesting later, somehow?!
If Blizzard does somehow manage to pull off a gallery of major pay offs from all of this weirdness come The Last Titan, I'll be the first in line to apologize for my lack of faith. But right now, I can't see it.
I've clung to hopium that Blizzard's appointment of franchise architect Chris Metzen might lead to somehow fixing the disaster that is Shadowlands in the wider narrative. I still have Vol'jin's urn in my inventory ...
Yeah ... I'm most likely just deluding myself at this point. And make no mistake, if Blizzard does somehow manage to pull off a gallery of major pay offs from all of this weirdness come The Last Titan, I'll be the first in line to apologize for my lack of faith. But, right now, I can't see it. After so many disappointments, cringeworthy story beats, and years upon years of unresolved plot threads — perhaps it's time for me to accept that WoW's retail writing team just isn't capable of delivering anything I find to be vaguely engaging.
The South Park team previously talked up a writing rule they follow, by which if your story beats can be linked by "and then" statements instead of "but" and "therefore" connections to denote consequences ... you've created something boring. I can't think of something more relatable to the current WoW writing style.
Things just keep happening for no real reason; "and then," it leads to no real consequences. There are too many plot threads going nowhere. Too many characters are half-baked and then sidelined, leading to various instances of "and then" instead of "therefore." Major lore points keep getting glossed over. Villains who vaguepost and scheme and tease and spend years leading us on to nowhere. Sylvanas showed up in Midnight for literally no reason. So many things keep happening for no reason.
Arator who? Turaylon when? Thrall where? There's not a single character left in WoW that isn't constantly wracked with self-doubting introspection, suffering from a terminal lack of conviction. Everything in WoW retail has become homogeneous sludge, and it's driving me crazy.
And perhaps worst of all, it's all just getting so, so boring.
World of Warcraft players deserve better.
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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, b
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.
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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It's time to finally wrap up this Gears of War: E-Day review, having now been able to grab a significant chunk of time in the multiplayer Siege mode. For the review build, Gears of War: E-Day's new PvE multiplayer Siege mode was disabled. It felt odd to me to score a game I hadn't fully experienced as I and many others likely intended to play it. As such, this had previously been a review in progress. But now I'm ready to put a final say on proceedings. Gears of
It's time to finally wrap up this Gears of War: E-Day review, having now been able to grab a significant chunk of time in the multiplayer Siege mode.
For the review build, Gears of War: E-Day's new PvE multiplayer Siege mode was disabled. It felt odd to me to score a game I hadn't fully experienced as I and many others likely intended to play it. As such, this had previously been a review in progress. But now I'm ready to put a final say on proceedings.
Gears of War: E-Day is something of an important game for Xbox. It carries the flag for Microsoft's return to exclusive Xbox Series X|S games, and likely has some oversized pressure upon it to deliver. We're not here to review that aspect of the product, though — only what is here sitting in front of me.
Even upon reflection, my feelings on the campaign are a bit mixed. Thankfully, Gears of War: E-Day is a multi-faceted game, and Siege mode is an undeniably fun and genuinely well-considered evolution on the Horde-style gameplay, vastly elevating the overall package.
Gears of War: E-Day has some of the most stunning visuals I've ever seen committed to the medium, with absolutely immaculate lighting treatment, immense and meticulous city detailing, and gorgeous character work. The gunplay is also fantastic, smoothing off some of the series' rough edges with boosted mobility, without sacrificing the Gears feel.
But the overall campaign gameplay structure does the overall game a pretty sizeable disservice in my view, preventing it from reaching its full potential. Thankfully, Siege provides a satisfying canvas for future play, and the problems are by no means unfixable. Let's get into it.
Gears of War: E-Day review — Story, Art, and Tech
Gears of War: E-Day's character work is absolutely top-shelf stuff. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
Gears of War: E-Day takes place over a decade before Gears of War 1, offering us a front-row seat to the brutal and genocidal opening to the Locust's attack on humanity.
The city of Kalona serves as ground zero for that invasion. Kalona is known as a city of science and technological progress, and was instrumental in developing the COG's weapons tech and industrial war economy during the civil war against the UIR. E-Day takes place six weeks after the UIR surrenders, and Dominic Santiago and Marcus Fenix are picking up the pieces and mourning lost friends and family.
The character work on offer in E-Day is absolutely top-shelf. The trauma of loss and the shock of the Locust invasion comes through incredibly well in every single aspect of the game's delivery. The cityscape is immaculately detailed, with interiors fully rendered with a lived-in feel, complemented by some of the best lighting I've ever seen in a video game.
I wish Gears of War: E-Day ran better on my Xbox Ally X, but it's hard to expect such a visually rich game to perform well on every potentially niche device. On its main platforms, namely Xbox Series X|S and compatible desktop PCs, Gears: E-Day absolutely sings. Make no mistake, Gears of War: E-Day is at the absolute apex of Unreal Engine technological prowess, and the game deserves awards on that basis alone, most likely.
Kalona is without a doubt one of the best city designs I've ever seen in a game. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
Rendering the city in so much detail really helps serve the story. Gears of War's more recent games take place in a ruined world, where the Locust have effectively already won and decimated humanity and most of its cities. For E-Day, The Coalition had to show a city that was still thriving and populated, and the horrors therein.
From the very first cutscene, The Coalition pulls no punches: this is a horror story, a war story, and a tale of survival and desperation. The COG army is decimated and blindsided, besieged by an unknown threat that they immediately underestimate as monsters without a plan, only to discover later just how smart and organized the Locust actually are.
Civilian NPCs litter the city, sometimes fleeing, sometimes in dismembered puddles on the ground. The reactions from the characters and their development throughout the game really help to elevate that sense of loss and fear — they're not the battle-hardened survivors of the original Gears trilogy. They're young, war-weary from fighting the UIR, and in some cases wholly traumatized already.
The destruction and devastation unravels in real time throughout Gears of War: E-Day. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
I don't want to give too much away about the story, but this very much felt like the first game in a new planned trilogy ... there were aspects of the delivery that suffered as a result. Some plot threads felt designed to be resolved in future games (or DLC?), leaving me wanting somewhat. But the fact that I am eager to learn more about this Emergence Day story arc is probably a plus. It would be far worse if I didn't care, and I find myself caring a lot about the new characters, their struggles, their past lives, and what will ultimately end up happening to them ... given that some clearly aren't present in future installments.
Gears of War: E-Day's setting, visuals, and story delivery represent its best aspects. The game's performance on Xbox Series X is top-tier, with slowdown only occurring during some particularly heavy sequences towards the end. I didn't experience a single crash, and it's great to see a modern game offer split-screen co-op in the modern age as an option.
The new characters are interesting and engaging, and finding out new layers of existing characters is also rewarding as a long-time fan. I think Gears of War: E-Day could've benefitted from leaning more into civilian-oriented side stories potentially ... but as I'm going to explain in the gameplay section, Gears of War: E-Day's campaign is let down a fair bit by its gameplay structure all up.
Gears of War: E-Day review — Campaign Gameplay
Gears of War: E-Day is at its best when it stops trying to be "open" world. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
Let's get the good stuff out of the way first: this is still very much Gears of War. Everything you've loved previously about Gears is still here, and in most cases, elevated to the 11th degree.
E-Day boosts the player character's mobility by a huge amount. Sprint is now more instantaneous and on the left stick like a standard modern shooter. Cover is far more dynamic than it was previously, with the ability to take cover in lower spaces than before, making environments feel more varied and natural. You can now also climb and vault, allowing The Coalition to build on the game's verticality. Given that Kalona is a city-state with large buildings and urban environments, having these features serves the game incredibly well.
The gunplay is also very polished. Chainsaw-ing dudes in half is more rewarding than ever, with almost embarrassingly satisfying sound treatment and chunky gore physics. Watching a severed torso flip onto the floor never gets old.
There's a variety of new weapons which are also instant classics. The Locust have been scavenging the battlefields of the Pendulum wars, adapting old UIR guns with horrifyingly inhumane enhancements. As such, that satisfying M1 Garand "ping" returns from the UIR Markza, repurposed into the axe-hilted Locust Breechshot rifle, for example.
The Coalition could've done a lot to make larger enemies feel more reactive to your attacks and less like bullet sponges. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
The gunplay lets itself down a bit when it comes to fighting some of the game's bigger enemies, though. Drones, wretches, and some of the earlier enemies are by far the most satisfying to fight, reacting to your bullets and even having destructible armor that makes combat feel more dynamic and modern. I'm not sure why The Coalition didn't extend this gameplay style to some of its bigger enemies, which is where I would argue it'd be far more crucial.
Indeed, in Act 1, Gears of War: E-Day starts so strongly, and I was sitting there wondering if this was going to end up being the best game Xbox ever shipped, but over time, that feeling began to unravel.
Reavers, Brumaks, and other larger enemies barely react at all to gunfire, making them feel like robots or bullet sponges — something Gears 4 was heavily criticized for. You end up just watching the enemy's health bar in some cases for at least some semblance of reactivity, instead of the visuals The Coalition's art team painstakingly worked towards. Towards the end of the game, these types of enemies become more common too, robbing the game of some of its dynamism.
Another irritating aspect of Gears of War: E-Day pertains to its open-but-not-actually-open world design, which to me smacks of rushed or changing game design priorities throughout development.
Gears of War: E-Day has some odd design decisions behind it, but it's still an incredibly fun game — especially in co-op (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
Kalona is a fully realized 3D city, with a huge variety of urban exterior and interior locations. It's a great canvas that The Coalition can build upon when designing future content, potentially both for Siege and Versus mode. The problem is, it doesn't lend itself particularly well to the campaign mode.
Gears of War: E-Day starts incredibly strongly, with a linear cinematic segment that really sets the tone for the game. Then, it opens up into this odd semi-open world structure that seemed interesting in previews, but in practice, it doesn't really reach further than the glimpses we got over the summer.
There's a map that offers the illusion of large explorable spaces, but in practice, all the segments are very linear. Even the side objectives take place in a structured way, undermining the need or desire to really explore. It felt like The Coalition tried to shoehorn in more reasons to explore by spreading weapon mods and collectibles around, but I just found this aspect of the game to be irritating and pace-breaking.
There's dozens upon dozens of weapon mods to find in the field, but half the time it'll be for weapons you don't really want to use. The game pings you with an annoying pop-up every few seconds saying "hardcase nearby," which just served as a distraction given that the reward was mostly just junk items. Even the collectibles were annoying to find, given that you had to jump through several menus then go manually searching for the item you just found from a huge list. There were more mods to find than there was gameplay canvas upon which to place them ... E-Day really would've benefitted from some kind of vendor system instead here, allowing you to buy mods at your leisure, rather than feeling forced into boring hide-and-seek gameplay every 3 minutes.
Instead of finding random mods in the field ... some kind of vendor system for simply buying the mods you actually want would've been less disruptive on the game's flow. (Image credit: Windows Central | Jez Corden | Xbox)
These might seem like minor gripes, but given that there's not much else "new" here on offer across the general Gears formula, they stand out a bit like a sore thumb.
It doesn't help that, as a result of the game's structure, you end up revisiting the same locations multiple times as part of the story, which felt anticlimactic and choring, particularly towards the end of the game.
The campaign does have some incredibly epic, cinematic, and deeply emotional moments — don't get me wrong. There are some fantastic sequences spread throughout the game, showcasing Emergence in all of its reptilian, subterranean horror. I just wish they'd doubled up on these moments instead of trying this odd "open" world experiment, which seems ill-conceived and poorly executed, with features that detract rather than elevate the overall experience.
Gears of War: E-Day review — Siege Mode
Invasion events bring all twelve players together in a raid boss-style gauntlet for big rewards. (Image credit: Windows Central)
Let me preface this by saying I've never been a big fan of Gears' brand of PvP combat, and you might want to look elsewhere for a take on that. Instead, my preference for Gears multiplayer has always fallen to its Horde mode, which has taken on a whole new life in E-Day.
Siege Mode takes twelve players split into teams of four, and drops them into a portion of Kalona's devastated township. Here, you take on the role of one of the Gears during E-Day in progress, tackling side objectives, battling waves of enemies, setting up killzones, and grinding upgrades. This is where some aspects of the campaign's "open world" gameplay really shines through in ways that it didn't when there was a cinematic story to tell on top of it all.
The new mobility gives Siege maps a great deal of verticality and strategical elements. Four character classes offer some soft class roles, with snipers lending cover while medics revive fallen players. As you progress, you can hybridize a bit, equipping your medic with a sniper rifle for example from the outset, while still maintaining access to your "ultimate" ability kit items that can change the tide of battle for your squad.
Battle waves of enemies in dynamic and frantic PvE scenarios in E-Day's siege mode. (Image credit: Windows Central)
It's impressive how well Gears of War: E-Day's multiplayer maps work in practice, they're incredibly large and have a lot going on simultaneously across the play space, giving it a sense of frantic urgency. As you're completing your missions, you may cross paths with another squad as is often the case in the campaign, leading to epic and emergent gameplay moments.
Invasion events spawn huge bosses like Brumaks and Corpsers, charging all 12 players to come together to bring them down. My complaint about them feeling a bit "spongey" persists here, but it's far more exciting tackling these towering behemoths in a big multiplayer setting, all while getting swarmed by lesser enemies like wretches and drones.
There's some mild and quite forgiving extraction gameplay here too. Side objectives and invasion events reward you with parts to upgrade your weapons and classes. If your squad fails to complete your mission for whatever reason, you will lose those weapon parts. Siege does give you a lot of leeway to avoid failure, though, even on the higher difficulties, detracting from the sense of urgency a bit.
A sizeable array of weapons, upgrades, powerful ordinance, and placeable defenses await in Siege mode. (Image credit: Windows Central)
I think The Coalition could've done a bit more to enhance the "emergent" gameplay moments and social interaction aspects. There are no emotes for example, which feels odd. Siege clearly takes some inspiration from Helldivers 2, but omits some of its more interactive and engaging innovations, which is a shame. But hey, it's all potential things to include in future seasons and updates, maybe?
We're not reviewing the future though, we're reviewing the now. And the now of Siege mode is already fantastic. Getting a capable squad together and putting yourself through the meat grinder is a ton of fun. Setting up batteries of mortar sentries and watching them rain down shells like an explosive hailstorm is endlessly satisfying. The potential here is clear and exciting.
What The Coalition has built here is as technically impressive as it is infectious. If the update cadence is solid, I can see me sticking with Gears of War: E-Day's Siege Mode remaining in my multiplayer rotation for some time.
Gears of War: E-Day review — Conclusion
Gears of War: E-Day is a ton of fun and genuinely incredible, but it's frustrating how much better it could've been with a few tweaks. (Image credit: Windows Central | Xbox)
I thoroughly enjoyed Gears of War: E-Day overall, and am already enjoying my second playthrough on a higher difficulty, but I would be lying if I said the game didn't have large campaign issues — particularly given how easily avoided many of them could've been.
Kalona is an immaculate canvas ripe for telling epic stories. The new, horror-laden tone is absolutely the right direction for Gears of War: E-Day. The existential dread oozes throughout every character delivery, and the city design is among the best the medium has ever seen.
The gameplay structure placed on top of the campaign becomes the problem. It could've used a lot more iteration and forethought. It felt a bit like E-Day was originally intended to be some form of open-world, but at some point, they retreated, leaving it feeling disjointed. The "open world" aspects work far better in Gears of War: E-Day's siege mode, where side objectives, upgrades, and mission rewards actually feed a far more satisfying upgrade loop. In the campaign, they feel a bit more like irritants and roadbumps.
If I were to score the game based on the campaign alone, I'd probably give it an 8/10 overall — it's still incredibly fun, and the downsides are frustrating but not game-breaking. Siege mode elevates the overall package to a 9/10 for me. What doesn't work as well in the Campaign works incredibly well in Siege, and the potential for its future is quite clear.
The Coalition could probably do a little more to think outside of the box to stave off franchise fatigue and defy expectations, but the consistency of this franchise feels like coming home every time — which certainly has its own merits in today's times.
Long may Gears live.
Gears of War: E-Day launched October 6, 2026, exclusively on Xbox Series X|S on console with Xbox Play Anywhere for PC, it's also on Steam and Xbox Game Pass.
Gears of War: E-Day is a fantastic co-op shooter that brings the franchise closer to pure horror than ever before. Some campaign design decisions frustrate the experience and prevent it from hitting its full potential, but the overall package is well worth your time.
Microsoft has been responsible for some pretty compelling innovations in the gaming space over the years, from everything including DirectX in decades past to more recent stuff like Xbox's disc-to-digital program or Xbox backwards compatibility on console and now Windows PC. Microsoft is now formalizing a team dedicated to exploring these unique and potentially transformative features. Dubbed "Xbox Labs," Microsoft is formalizing the team that will research and w
Microsoft has been responsible for some pretty compelling innovations in the gaming space over the years, from everything including DirectX in decades past to more recent stuff like Xbox's disc-to-digital program or Xbox backwards compatibility on console and now Windows PC. Microsoft is now formalizing a team dedicated to exploring these unique and potentially transformative features.
Dubbed "Xbox Labs," Microsoft is formalizing the team that will research and work on new technologies across its gaming stack. The team there will work on new compatibility layers, such as bringing Xbox games to Apple silicon and WebGL, while also exploring the rise of reverse-engineered AI mods and games such as the recent 128-player Halo title that went viral a few weeks ago.
Microsoft, like many in the gaming industry, are wondering about how to reach more users. Xbox announced "XP" recently, designed to bring more of its franchises into the real world via marketing collabs, merchandising, and even theme parks. Microsoft has also been putting its biggest franchises onto PlayStation as it seeks more users therein, and also pushing Xbox Cloud Gaming as an option for those who don't want the upfront cost of buying a console.
Today we're standing up XBOX LABS (https://t.co/dJSufI1vni). Here is the note that I sent to the team:Team,The first video games emerged some 75 years ago. In the time since, there have been booms and busts, but every year there are more great games to play, more devices to play them, and best of all, more people than ever playing. That growth helped make XBOX what it is today, and we've helped shape the industry in return, from bringing hard drives to consoles and online gaming through Xbox Live to Game Pass and cloud gaming, alongside franchises that have brought millions of people together.In recent weeks, we've seen games rapidly decompiled and rebuilt to run on hardware they were never originally designed to support. Windows PC builds have been translated to run on Apple Silicon or ported to run inside a browser through WebAssembly and WebGPU, the latter now approaching 90% global browser support. Perhaps more surprisingly, we've seen many of the biggest games in the world have been remixed into the source code of another.These experiments challenge long-held assumptions about our industry: the tether between software and hardware, the boundary between creation and play, and how people discover and experience games. While it is hard to predict the future of gaming, it is easy to see the possibilities in making great games easier to access, giving old games new life and allowing more players to become creators and co-creators. These are unmistakably good outcomes for players, even when (and sometimes because) they challenge our existing business models.To explore these possibilities, I’ve asked Scott to stand-up XBOX LABS, a small group of game makers, engineers and scientists whose job is to turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience. We'll build in the open, learn from what people do, and measure success by whether more people are playing and creating.I think XBOX has an important role to play here. Coding became the first major workload for agents because they can write, run, and test software. Games share many of those same properties, and people spend more than 72 billion hours a year playing XBOX games, roughly five times the estimated time spent writing code worldwide. We've spent 25 years learning how to make great games, and I want our game makers to help shape what these new technologies make possible. As we learn, we’ll share the tools we build with developers across the industry, just as we always have.Our priorities aren't changing. We remain committed to the 4Cs, to making great games, to our hardware and to being responsible stewards of IP and the communities built around it. LABS gives us a way to explore new technology that is game design led without abandoning the work already underway.AshaOctober 13, 2026
Microsoft has struggled to maintain pace with the growth of the PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch platform, or Steam on PC, but made a sprint of acquisitions in a bet to at least sell games on those platforms. Titles like Call of Duty, Minecraft, and Forza Horizon are dominant off Xbox, but the decline of Xbox as a platform has been painful for fans to watch.
Incoming Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is charged with reviving Xbox's fortunes in this space. There's been a lot of promises to fans, including returning to exclusive games (starting with Gears of War: E-Day), and doubling down on new updates for Xbox Series X|S consoles, which recently included the addition of Mythic completion achievements. However, it has come at the cost of thousands of Xbox job losses via redundancies and divestitures, leaving a vast trail of disrupted lives in its wake.
Sharma noted in a town hall meeting with Xbox staff last week that it can't rely on past wins as it seeks to shape the future. AI and other technologies are rapidly disrupting what gaming will actually be in the next decade, as attention and access gets disrupted by AI-borne RAMpocalypse. The content cadence is likely to vastly saturate the addressable audience too, leading to a dilution in attention and spend.
In my view, it's pretty clear Sharma is right that technological platform innovation is absolutely necessary to navigate this "new world" being foisted upon us (by, well ... Microsoft itself), but it remains unclear when Xbox Labs' first innovations will materialize for users or developers. For those interested, a bit more "wait and see" is likely on the menu.
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I grew up a SEGA and Sony kid, at least until XBOX started tempting me with exclusives. I didn't make any of my own money until the XBOX 360 era, but when I did, one studio had the killer apps in my eyes: Remedy Entertainment.During the OG XBOX era, I split my gaming between a PlayStation 2 and the family PC, which was chiefly used to play Max Payne.Its slow-motion, John Woo-esque gunfighting gameplay landed at the perfect time; I was already obsessed with The Ma
I grew up a SEGA and Sony kid, at least until XBOX started tempting me with exclusives. I didn't make any of my own money until the XBOX 360 era, but when I did, one studio had the killer apps in my eyes: Remedy Entertainment.
During the OG XBOX era, I split my gaming between a PlayStation 2 and the family PC, which was chiefly used to play Max Payne.
Its slow-motion, John Woo-esque gunfighting gameplay landed at the perfect time; I was already obsessed with The Matrix, after all.
Obsessively playing Remedy's noir shooter while dipping my toes into the PC modding scene convinced me that Remedy were icons.
Indeed, I held them in the same regard as Rockstar Games and Valve, as gaming stalwarts that could seemingly do no wrong, especially after Max Payne 2 delivered everything I had hoped. For their next adventure, I'd need Microsoft's new console, so I started saving my money.
XBOX 360 — Alan Wake
Alan Wake is all about light and dark, with a fair amount of guns. (Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)
Mechanically, Alan Wake isn't much different from Max Payne. It's a third-person shooter with a strong narrative focus, pushing me toward cutscenes and literal story scraps as I unravel a mystery of light vs. darkness. Enemies creep out of the shadows, totally invulnerable until I burn away their armor with a flashlight, flare, or whatever other luminous weapons I have on hand.
It started as a more open-world game, but the clever twist on the otherwise familiar run-and-gun mechanics drew me in. I didn't even mind giving up the slow-motion 'Bullet Time' feature that defined Max Payne, because it still lingered in Alan Wake's gameplay loop, showing up in well-timed dodges. This time, Remedy's writing was less clichéd and more sincere — I wanted more.
This time, Remedy's writing was less clichéd and more sincere — I wanted more.
Of course, I had plenty of other games on the XBOX 360 to tide me over, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Gears of War, so I wasn't bereft of choice after buying into this iconic console. Besides, Alan Wake's American Nightmare arrived soon after as the game's largest DLC expansion, but we wouldn't see a true sequel for another couple of generations.
"In this award-winning cinematic action-thriller, troubled author Alan Wake embarks on a desperate search for his missing wife, Alice."View Deal
XBOX One — Quantum Break
Quantum Break goes off the wall with time-stopping abilities, but keeps the guns. (Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)
Would another time-bending action shooter convince me to buy into Microsoft's latest console? It did, and I went all in on its unified platform with the XBOX One, a Nokia Lumia 735 running Windows 10 Mobile, and, of course, a Windows 10 PC. I even bought the console's official digital TV tuner, fully adopting the all-in-one media pitch, though I'd never get my hands on the promised DVR feature.
And what better game to start with than Quantum Break with its live-action cinematics, cut like a TV mini-series? It certainly had some interesting combat mechanics that let me completely freeze time in isolated bubbles, but it felt more like a treat for the eyes. Visually, the game was (and still is) incredible.
If Alan Wake were a Stephen King novel blended with David Lynch's Twin Peaks sensibilities, then Quantum Break is more like Tenet's time-twisting motif wrapped around the gratuitous slow-motion bullet barrages of The Matrix. It's still easy to recommend, with Remedy's refined storytelling DNA on full display, and it can be beaten in a single weekend if you have the time.
"In the aftermath of a split-second of destruction that fractures time itself, two people find they have changed and gained extraordinary abilities."View Deal
XBOX Series X — Alan Wake 2
Alan Wake 2 is an even more warped adventure than the first, but yes, there are guns. (Image credit: Remedy Entertainment)
Thirteen years after the first game, I finally had the Alan Wake sequel within reach, and I wanted to savor every moment. This is the game that not only convinced me to pick up the XBOX Series X console, but also a 4K OLED TV with HDR and all the other trimmings. It annihilated my savings, but it was worth it in the long run, since my wife and I play on this console almost daily.
Alan Wake 2 had some launch bugs, but they were soon cleaned up, and it didn't tarnish my view of this brilliant sequel. It's Remedy in top gear, running at maximum speed with a twisting story, gorgeous visuals, and layers upon layers of references and outright fan service. I loved almost every minute.
It's Remedy in top gear, running at maximum speed with a twisting story, gorgeous visuals, and layers upon layers of references.
There are some sudden stops, like a playable representation of the co-protagonist's "Mind Place" that had me connecting yarns to various photographs and clue scraps. It betters the story, but ultimately, I always wish I could speed past some of this part when I replay the game. Nevertheless, it's one of the best games I've ever played, and I easily forgave its missteps. Don't miss out.
Remedy announced a 'Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake' in 2022, and I haven't heard much about it since then. It's a partner project with Rockstar Games, and Take-Two still owns the series IP, making it the most mysterious project that I've ever felt this excited for. If this silence continues, it might just launch on Project Helix, but will it be unique (or exclusive) enough to keep me from playing it on PC?
It's almost impossible to predict, but I'd rather be an optimist when I can. With any luck, RAM and storage production costs will gradually return to more reasonable levels over the next year, which could kick-start an exciting lead-up to the reveal of whatever Project Helix calls itself. What kinds of games do you hope to see in the next generation of XBOX?
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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 n
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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