It's that time of year again. A chill in the air, pumpkin lattes on repeat, and Minecraft Live, of course! Today we got a first look at new Minecraft content, including Minecraft Dungeons 2, launching on September 29.

Here's everything announced at this year's Minecraft Live.

Deep dive into Minecraft Dungeons 2

Ahead of next week's launch, the development team gave us an extensive look at what is coming in Minecraft Dungeons 2. The sequel features a bigger, interconnected world with expanded combat, deeper character customization and better multiplayer.

The segment also spotlighted the Sift, a mysterious new dimension with distinct environments, inhabitants, dangers, and gameplay. Developers shared insights into the creative process of designing and introducing an entirely new dimension to the universe.

The Fourth Dimension: The Sift coming in 2027

The Sift isn't just for Minecraft Dungeons 2 players, it's officially coming to Minecraft Java and Bedrock editions in 2027.

This will be a huge milestone for Minecraft as it's the first new dimension added in over 14 years joining the Overworld, The Nether and The End as places for the player to discover and explore.

Yep, that statement made me feel ancient too, and I felt like the Nether was much more recent, but it was actually added in 2010 and just updated in mid-2020. This is legitimately the first brand new dimension in over a decade!

Ice Caves, new zombies and new combat mechanics

Mojang teased the next upcoming vanilla game drop too, as we were shown around the Ice Caves, an all-new, rare underground extension of cold biomes filled with glowing ice crystals.

The ice crystals can be placed both vertically and horizontally for building and decoration, or even as just a light source.

We also got a whole new mob! The frozen zombie if encountered will apply a stacking freezing affect to the player with melee attacks, and he throws ice balls that deal knockback. Normal zombies can also become Frozen variants if exposed to powder snow.

Ice balls are dropped upon the death of a Frozen Zombie, or can be crafted by players and used as a weapon to deal damage and knockback, or brewed into an ice cold freezing potion!

Minecraft coming to Nintendo Switch 2

Such an absolute no brainer I'm surprised it isn't already there, but Minecraft is officially launching on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 27, 2026 with enhanced performance and visuals.

Merlin Entertainment revealed the Minecraft Hotel and Rollercoaster

I've been excited about the upcoming Minecraft-themed park in the UK since it was announced, but beyond some concept art, we haven't seen much detail, especially given its 2027 opening date.

Well today Minecraft Live showed us something to really get excited about, with these two major additions to the Chessington World of Adventures based park. There's going to be a Minecraft Hotel, and the official name of the resort's new rollercoaster is "Escape the Nether."

I'm planning to be there the minute this place opens, as my son is going to lose his mind, and we missed out on the London Minecraft experiences. I've got high hopes for this theme park; don't let me down, Merlin!

Sound effect packs and new creator platform

During the stream, Jens Bergenström (Chief Creative Officer at Mojang Studios) announced a new initiative to build a richer, more accessible, and more diverse Minecraft experience through an evolving creator platform.

Additionally, Mojang introduced Sound Effects Packs for the Minecraft Marketplace, giving players brand-new tools to customize their worlds and bring their creations to life later this year.

And that's a wrap on Minecraft Live 2026

Minecraft fans should be happy with all of those updates, but if not, let me know what you were hoping for in the comments below!

Don't forget there is an ongoing Wilderness Bound Community Challenge where players can earn exclusive character creator items and Java skins simply by placing cushions and a straw bed in-game; full details are here.

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When I first laid eyes on Tarae: The Unbound, it was hard not to think I was looking at a carbon copy of Sanctuary.

Developed by Boundary and published by Krafton, this upcoming dark fantasy action RPG hits all the familiar genre notes at a glance: the isometric camera angle, the frantic screen-clearing mob fights, and the loot-driven progression loop feel intensely reminiscent of Diablo.

Walking into my Gamescom appointment behind the scenes, I’ll admit I was deeply skeptical. The market is endlessly releasing isometric ARPG clones trying to chase Blizzard's crown, and my immediate thought was that this was a classic case of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V on the Diablo formula I know and love.

I got to sit with the developers and have a go at the game myself while chatting with the minds behind it, and actually the game has enough to differentiate it than I first thought. While the mechanical foundation is deeply familiar, Tarae is rooted deeply in Eastern mythology and Buddhist cosmology, and its lore alone sets it apart from traditional Western medieval fantasy.

Moving beyond the Western medieval tropes

The team behind the game explicitly set out to escape what they describe as the tired, overdone aesthetic of Western medieval Europe. Instead of knights, gothic cathedrals, and, well, other things you'd expect from European folklore, Tarae drops players into a world spanning the 15th to 17th centuries, shaped entirely by Eastern visuals and traditions.

The story follows a crew of seekers trying to stop Agasa from completely breaking the wheel of rebirth. Instead of a basic good-versus-evil setup, the whole universe pulls heavily from Buddhist cosmology and the Six Realms of Rebirth. You are dealing with realms like the Asuras, Hungry Ghosts, and Hell, all tied together by karma, fate, and Yin-Yang mechanics.

A familiar foundation but distinctly it's own thing

You can choose from six classes, all built around historical Eastern jobs. You’ve got a Samurai who swaps stances on the fly, a Tiger Hunter who throws down traps and blasts away with guns, and a Manshin who draws on Korean shamanic traditions.

Where it really starts feeling different from Diablo, though, is how it handles bosses and progression. The team crammed over 80 unique bosses into the game, and they aren't just stat sponges; they are multi-phase fights tied directly to old folklore that force you to actually learn their attack patterns. I will say it's also considerably more difficult than Diablo at least in early game, I died in front of the developers an embarrassing amount of times taking the Samurai for a spin, but after a few humbling deaths I got the hang of it.

Once you beat the campaign with one class, you unlock the rest for the endgame, so you don't have to grind through the whole story again with every single alt.

Not just another Diablo afterall

I went into my appointment expecting a knockoff, a good looking and glossy knockoff, but a knockoff nonetheless. Thankfully I left with the realisation that a genuinely distinct lore and aesthetic can completely change how a familiar genre feels. When it drops in 2027, Tarae: The Unbound might actually prove it's way more than just another ARPG clone.

Tarae: The Unbound is scheduled for a 2027 release, and will be on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and Steam.

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I’ve never really gravitated towards the MOBA genre. The borderline toxic finger-pointing from teammates, and the steep learning curve hasn’t made them very approachable at least for me.

While at Gamescom 2026 though, I got to check out Project Zeta, published by Krafton and developed by a group of industry veterans at NIRVANANA. Project Zeta sounds a bit like one of those insane CES Razer concepts, but it's a game that pledges to shake up the MOBA genre completely and throw out the rulebook.

Four teams and zero laning

While I didn't get to go hands-on with the game myself, I sat down with the developers to pick apart what makes this upcoming multi-team tactical arena different to the MOBAs that have come before it.

The developers opened with an interesting elevator pitch. “Imagine dropping MOBA heroes straight into a Formula One race.”

Coming to PC and PlayStation 5, Project ZETA drops four teams of three players onto the Aran Plateau for breathless, roughly 20-minute matches. Unlike traditional MOBAs that lock you into rigid lanes and slow early-game farming, ZETA features no laning phase whatsoever., you’re straight into the action.

The map is immediately open and alive from the jump. Matches are broken down into active phases where players scrap for ordinary monsters and shards to level up. The primary objective is to hunt down Prism bosses spawning on the map, grab the dropped Prisms, and haul them to the central ballast to score. The first team to lock in five Prisms wins the match.

Having four squads on the map instead of the usual two completely shifts how a match plays out. The developers pointed out a neat psychological trick they are using here: Spreading the competition across multiple teams means your frustration naturally targets the rival squads out to get you, rather than bleeding out into arguments with your own teammates.

Fighting spirit and the Art of the Deca-kill

The pacing feels entirely different too, mostly because of how death is handled. Traditional tactical games usually force people into ultra-passive habits where a single misstep gets you sent back to the lobby. ZETA avoids that entirely with unlimited respawns and manual teammate revivals.

Even cooler is the Fighting Spirit mechanic. When a team manages to completely wipe out an enemy squad, they are instantly rewarded with fully restored health, refreshed cooldowns, and revived teammates. This keeps the momentum driving forward and opens the door for rare big highlight plays like Deca-kills, where you rack up ten rapid kills in a single window. Reviewers testing the game have aptly nicknamed it the "espresso MOBA" compared to the slower, more traditional "Americano" style of its predecessors.

Shrinking maps and tweaking the scale

Making a brand new competitive game is never a straight line, and Project ZETA has changed a ton over its four years in development. After early playtest feedback, the team made major adjustments.

Most notably, they shrunk the map down to a third of its original size and cut the team count from five to four. Those were aggressive cuts, but they did it on purpose to eliminate dead space and force nonstop, high-intensity scraps.

Built for accessibility

Unlike traditional PC MOBAs that need a keyboard and a mouse packed with macros, ZETA was built from day one to feel smooth on a controller, complete with cross-play between PC and PlayStation. (So you won't need this bonkers Razer Tartarus V2 Pro to play it.)

Looking ahead, NIRVANANA wants to keep the meta alive by regularly dropping new heroes (like Nova Crush and the assassin Azrakall) alongside terrain changes and shifting boss patterns that mix up which characters have the upper hand from season to season.

Whether it turns into a massive esports staple or just the go-to fast arena fix for streamers, Project ZETA definitely isn't playing it safe. The developers are targeting an early access launch for late 2026, and you can wishlist the game on Steam.

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Fresh from the bombshell that Diablo 5 is coming in 2029, I was lucky enough to get 15 minutes with the developers to ask some burning questions. Quickest 15 minutes of my life, but 15 minutes I am very grateful to have had, let me tell you!

Diablo 5... already?

Sitting down with Senior Producer Tiffany Watt and Art Director John Mueller, my first question was the obvious one: Why Diablo 5, and why now (or rather, why in three years)?

Since the announcement however, that question has been debated to death already, and the reason comes down to scope. Mephisto and Lilith's story has been told across an epic Hatred saga spanning three installments, and we certainly couldn't expect Diablo himself to be relegated to a simple expansion. The Lord of Terror deserves his own story, and that belongs in a brand-new chapter.

Now to anyone worried that this means Diablo 4 is effectively being taken out back and put out of its misery, you couldn't be further from the truth. I sincerely advise you to watch the Diablo 4 panel that took place at BlizzCon today, where the developers not only shared more about Season 15 but also laid out the roadmap for the game's future.

While it has been confirmed that there are no more planned expansions for Diablo 4, the team is introducing a cohesive "Seasonal Arc" rather than isolated, standalone seasonal stories.

"We have an opportunity now after Lord of Hatred to chart a little bit of a story that's based on Lord of Hatred," the team shared. They noted that upcoming seasons leading up to the launch of the Amazon will feature an interconnected story thread, ultimately culminating in a confrontation with the new Aspect of Death.

The narrative journey from Diablo 4 to Diablo 5

I asked Tiffany and John about the new status quo in Diablo 5's world and how they plan to bridge the narrative gap from the current events of Diablo 4. I also wanted to know how they plan to ensure everything we just went through in the Age of Hatred saga still matters.

"Because Diablo 5 is a new game, a sequel, it gives us the freedom to start with a really big idea. What if Diablo got everything he wanted? And that's where we open the game. As you go through the campaign and the story, you are just a survivor in a very apocalyptic state of Sanctuary. You're discovering what happened, and how did this come about? Your role in it is really unique, and that's something we have more to share about next year."

But for now...

"Diablo 5 takes place 100 years after Diablo 4, and there was a Golden Age after we defeated Mephisto. In Diablo 5 you'll actually get to see how it played out, how Diablo actually conquered Sanctuary. You have the opportunity to watch that. As you're playing the story, you'll discover more about what the fallout is. When you enter it's actually 7 years after he has taken over Westmarch, you are the heir to Westmarch. You have a deeply personal connection to the story, because you have something to fight for. You're trying to win back the lands he (Diablo) conquered, but you're on the run. It's your fallen kingdom."

The devs also noted that, while the game was just announced, it's still three years out. While the early announcement might catch some off guard, it gives them a vital opportunity to talk to the community right now and gather feedback early in development while the narrative is still fluid and subject to change.

My own personal theory is that the recently announced Netflix show could do some heavy lifting here, but we are still waiting for more details on that front.

Establishing memorable side characters, and where Diablo 4 was lacking in this sense

After a brief chat about the exciting, nostalgia-packed Season 15 of Diablo 4, I mentioned to the team that it got me thinking about how Diablo 4 really failed to cement any memorable NPCs in my memory.

I can name every NPC in Diablo 3, from Shen to Kadala, and reel off their voice lines, but a blacksmith or occultist in Diablo 4 feels like a generic background asset. How can Diablo 5 bring back some of that character?

"This is something we recognize, and as we were starting to work on Diablo 5, we wanted to get back to that smaller story where you could go deeper with the characters. You know a lot of Blizzard characters have resonated over time, hey I have a cat called Deckard Cain! And everyone remembers Charsi from Diablo 2. The caravan is how we are really spending time with the characters in Diablo 5. There is an incredible cast that Jennifer and John have partnered on; we announced Zarg yesterday. He's a treasure goblin. Because it's a post-apocalyptic world, there are very few survivors. So when you come across one in your travels, it's going to be really rare that you find someone who is worth saving. That person or demon is going to be very meaningful to you when they join the caravan, and you'll learn about their backstory.

During the campaign, we'll learn how these NPCs have survived since Diablo's return to Sanctuary, their reasons for joining us, and their motivations. Essentially, we'll be given reasons to care for others outside of our own character. "We want to sort of bring back that notion that you have one character you get to know as the blacksmith, one as the jeweler, because they're like the last denizens of Sanctuary.

Of course Diablo 4 had its memorable characters in Lilith, Lorath, and Neyrelle, to name a few, but I'm happy to see that some of the flavor of Diablo 2 and 3 is coming back to the gameplay loop itself. I want to know the guy who is salvaging my gear!

Lessons learned from Diablo 4, from launch to current day

When Diablo 4 launched, I was surprised that several quality-of-life features standard in Diablo 3 simply didn't exist in the game. Things we had to wait months, or in the case of things like Armory and Party Finder, years, to be implemented.

Given the team's previous Diablo iterations and what the community liked and disliked, how did we end up losing so much in a new game, and will Diablo 5 avoid similar pitfalls?

"This is one of the reasons we are so excited to talk about Diablo 5 today. Even though it may be 3 years out, because we are starting the conversation so early we have a lot of opportunity to hear from the community about what is important. We are able to move a lot more quickly on things, and better prioritize what needs to go into the game. As a producer, I can ensure that things don't fall by the wayside. We had every intention of having these things in Diablo 4 at launch, but were frankly prioritizing some of those amazing creative system features. But it's really important we bring the whole package, and why we want to start the conversation early here with the community. Ultimately we're building the game the community wants.

As players in the game ourselves, it's important that we're hearing back from the community like, "Hey, like, you know what? Party finder, armory- these are things that are really core to our experience, that really allow us to enjoy the game at the level that we want." Last thing is, we were building a new toolset. You know, it wasn't the same foundation; it wasn't the same tech (from the Diablo 3 to Diablo 4 engine). The whole rendering engine, basically, all of it had to be modernized because it was just from a different era.

We've had our own branch now for Diablo 5, for a while now, and we've been tooling that and making that specific to the game we're building, and I think that's something that is not broadly understood how that works in game development. But it's a big deal! Because it means we can make it for our specific needs, not just what people want. We also don't want to carry over any tech debt or things we don't necessarily want in the game for the future."

Excited for what's to come, for both Diablo 4 and Diablo 5

Unfortunately I didn't get chance to ask much more, at least nothing the team are ready to answer me on yet (e.g will the game go back to peer-to-peer servers again), but I'm hoping to get more time with them as development goes on.

It's easy to be positive when I'm in the thick of the crowds at BlizzCon and absorbing the infectious atmosphere of all the fans around me, but I haven't been completely oblivious to what's been a mixed-bag response to the announcement of Diablo 5 online and back home. There are as many who are cautious and critical of getting another chapter announced while Diablo 4 is thriving, and I totally understand the sentiment. Afterall, I lived through Diablo 3 getting dropped right before Reaper of Souls was a resounding success. However, I'm so excited for both games right now.

I remember Diablo 4 being the first time Diablo had been so, well, mainstream and thrust into the spotlight; it captured the zeitgeist in a way that no further expansions are ever going to do again, and I think that magic could be struck twice with a Diablo 5 release that will bring people back once more.

Plus, Diablo 4 is getting a new class, talk of more focused seasonal content now that the team isn't split between that and work on expansions, and we still have three years to enjoy it before Diablo 5 arrives (and I will be shocked if that goal date isn't delayed).

Season 15 celebrates 30 years of Diablo, and what better time to announce a new chapter coming than on its 30th anniversary?

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Sitting in the audience here at BlizzCon, I was curious to see why CD Projekt Red was attending, given we've already had the announcement of The Witcher 3 coming to Battle.net prior to the convention. It's clear, at least to me, that today this is a statement of intent for the relationship going forward, which they've just said themselves: "more coming in 2027," but we got a bunch of other tasty announcements on the Legends Stage today.

Cyberpunk 2077 joins Battle.net

The powerful partnership between Blizzard and CD Projekt Red has just been further cemented by the announcement that Cyberpunk 2077 is also coming to Battle.net later this year, following in the footsteps of The Witcher 3. For those who prefer to keep their gaming libraries streamlined under Battle.net alongside Blizzards multiplayer staples, Night City coming to the platform too will be a massive win.

Overwatch heads to Night City

The crossover ambitions don't stop at storefront integration. CDPR and Blizzard also teased a an upcoming Overwatch collaboration featuring Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.

While full details on specific character skins and legendary bundles are still under wraps, the confirmation alone has the convention floor buzzing. Seeing the vibrant, gritty aesthetic of Night City clash with the hero shooter's roster promises some standout visual designs.

The Witcher arrives in Sanctuary

Of course, for Sanctuary fans, the crown jewel of today's reveals was our first in-engine look at the Barbarian styled as Geralt of Rivia. Available exclusively for players who preorder the upcoming Songs of the Past expansion on Battle.net.

The session is still ongoing as CDPR and Blizzard dive deep into the importance of Battle.net in linking communities together, and I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard has their sights set on other franchises to incorporate into their own launcher.

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Well, there you have it: Blizzard just officially announced Diablo 5 at BlizzCon, and we don’t have to wait long. A brand-new era for the action-RPG starts soon (well, soon by Blizzard standards) with a scheduled release window of Spring 2029.

There’s been talk recently of not waiting as long between announcements; from Diablo 3's launch to the Diablo 4 initial announcement, we had to wait a painful 7 years, and then another 4 for release. So needless to say, I’m stunned we are getting a Diablo 5 tease so soon, but I’m extremely happy about it.

Diablo? In MY Diablo game? Surely not!

The announcement trailer offered a brief teaser confirming the return of the ultimate prime evil: the Lord of Terror himself, Diablo. Yes, Diablo 5 is actually bringing him out of retirement and making him make an appearance in his own franchise! However, the most exciting thing about the upcoming sequel isn't just who is returning, but the state of the world when players step back into Sanctuary.

According to Blizzard, Diablo 5 is set roughly a century after the events of Diablo 4 and the defeat of the Lord of Hatred, Mephisto. But rather than our usual task of preventing some impending catastrophe, players will wake up in a grim reality where the apocalypse has already happened. Sanctuary has officially fallen, and Diablo has won.

This narrative pivot shifts the franchise's core thematic question. Previous titles cast players as the heroes desperately trying to forestall catastrophe. In Diablo 5, the central question is what a survivor must become when the world has already ended, and darkness has claimed total victory. Post-apocalyptic Diablo. Just when you thought Sanctuary couldn’t get much more depressing, they are taking it further into despair.

While gameplay mechanics, system depth, and specific class rosters are still heavily under wraps, Blizzard is wasting no time diving deeper into the vision behind the project.

A dedicated panel titled "Diablo 5: Forging the Next Era" is on the BlizzCon schedule today, where developers plan to break down the game's evolving story, world-building, itemization, and early development milestones.

Now don’t worry, this isn’t the end of Diablo 4; we have a few years of content to come yet. But it’s really bloody exciting knowing that Diablo 5 is already being worked on.

As the dust settles on Diablo 4’s current era, it will need to find a way, whether with seasonal content or otherwise, to shift us to the new, bleak, revolutionary chapter for the franchise when Diablo 5 arrives in 2029.

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While the Diablo 5 reveal was certainly a bombshell, Diablo 4 got its fair share of announcements at today’s BlizzCon, with huge updates to look forward to, including another new class to add to the roster. During the BlizzCon opening ceremony, Blizzard laid out their roadmap for keeping the game fresh well into 2027.

The biggest news by far is that the Amazon class is finally heading to Diablo 4 in the first half of 2027. Following the exploration of the Nahantu and Scosglen regions in Lord of Hatred, the team is bringing back the fan-favorite warrior archetype to her proper homeland of Skovos. The Amazon promises to inject a whole new combat style and tactical depth into the current roster when she arrives.

When Lord of Hatred launched earlier this year with Paladin, many fans thought the Amazon would be the second mystery class given the setting of the expansion and the class link to Skovos, but we got the Warlock at the time.

It's interesting that Diablo 4 devs seem to be striking a balance with their class rollouts, doing something completely new to the franchise (like Spiritborn and Warlock), but also bringing back some classic archetypes, starting with Paladin and now getting the Amazon from Diablo 2.

In the near term, we also have Season 15 (Season of Hell's Legacy) to look forward to. Positioned as a massive franchise 30th-anniversary celebration, Season 15 offers some neat callbacks to the series' storied history. It will feature some iconic past enemies, legacy items like In Geom, Stone of Jordan, etc., and a bunch of stuff pulled from decades of Diablo lore, including encounters involving the Prime Evils themselves.

Attendees at BlizzCon can get hands-on time with a playable version of Season 15 on the show floor in Hall B, while broader details will be unpacked during the "What's Next" panel on Sunday.

And in the worst-kept secret in Diablo, Blizzard officially confirmed that Diablo 4: The Age of Hatred collection is heading to the Nintendo Switch 2. Playable demos of the portable version are currently available in both the press center and the show floor.

There's also confirmation that the long-rumored Netflix collaboration is actually happening.

I hadn't heard a peep about this since chatting to Rod Fergusson back in 2024, I had definitely felt during our interview he held back on answering my question about this "I think that's something that could translate very well to something like that (screen). You know, I wish I had something I could talk to you about today. But in terms of just the general idea, do I think it could work? I definitely do." But even this coupled with Johanna Faires recent comments about Blizzard being Blizzard Entertainment, not Blizzard Games, didn't prepare me for an official announcement. We don't know anything else at this stage, but animated adaptation like Castlevania and Cyberpunk Edgerunners have been such a hit for Netflix, I can't wait to see how they tackle Diablo too.

Between a nostalgic heavy anniversary season, the expansion to Nintendo Switch 2 and the inclusion of the Amazon class from Skovos, Diablo 4 players have plenty of blood, loot, and lore to sink their teeth into over the coming years.

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Jumping into the deep end of a multiplayer survival game can be a recipe for disaster, as I found it in my first-ever taste of the State of Decay series. My last encounter was with State of Decay 2, where I was unceremoniously dropped into a friend's game. It was complete with fully built settlements and swarms of zombies banging down the doors while I was still fumbling with the mechanics. I felt very much out of my depth and never really revisited the game.

Heading into our closed-doors look at State of Decay 3 at Gamescom, I was a little worried I wouldn’t enjoy it and would be going through the motions. I knew I wanted to love it, and I had already planned to play it on release just to support the studio following its ceremonious dumping (aka divesting) by Xbox. In fact, I have implored the Xbox community to buy it, whether it hits Game Pass or not.

As it turns out, not only is the relationship with Xbox not completely severed (it’s now officially confirmed to be launching straight onto Xbox Game Pass alongside its 2027 release window), but the demo proved to be an absolute blast in the time I had with it. The world of State of Decay 3 is pretty fascinating to navigate even amidst incoming waves of the dead.

Alpha playtests are smoothing out the road ahead for closed beta by end of 2026

Before jumping into the demo, the developers shared some roadmap news: the current build is being pulled apart by alpha playtesters, who are providing early technical feedback before us normies jump in. Undead Labs told us that a closed beta will launch by the end of this year, with player access and platform support continuing to ramp up toward the 2027 launch.

When you strip it back, State of Decay 3 remains a community management survival game set deep within the zombie apocalypse. You control a single character at a time in an open-world third-person environment, acting as the caretaker for a fragile community. You are forced to make survival decisions such as where to live, whom to trust, and whether to let newcomers in or grow your own food.

Procedural survivors and evolving traits

One of the unique hallmarks of the franchise is its character generation, and State of Decay 3 takes it further. Survivors are procedurally assembled from a vast pool of names, cultural backgrounds, voice actors, visuals, and traits, meaning you can play for hundreds of hours and never see the same person twice.

Take Pat, for instance, a daredevil with high health and stamina who unfortunately makes a ton of noise. Pat is a rocket scientist with expertise in mechanics and demolition, but he is also easily overwhelmed (same Pat, same). New to State of Decay 3 are evolving traits. If Pat were to kill 100 zombies, that negative trait would evolve into something better, though the developers deliberately retain minor flaws to keep characters nuanced.

Then there is Queenie, a lone wolf with fatigue resistance and sniper training boosting headshot damage, but burdened with a “sketchy vibe” that makes her a bad choice for diplomacy missions. Overall, the trait names were pretty funny and add a much-needed injection of humor into what is a bleak backdrop.

Surviving the plague war

The demo picked up at Green Heart, a newly established northern settlement. The team had recently been chased out of their previous base at the fire training center due to the Plague War, a new territory-control system.

Plague nests act as large-scale dungeons and epicenters for an expanding network of infestations that organically grow and actively surround player settlements. Because the current team had fled in a panic, they had prioritized offensive firepower over food and water and needed to establish a new settlement.

To tackle their food shortage and lack of beds, the developers headed into the nearby town of Carolina to clear an infested hunting store and claim it as a second settlement. This location offered a professional-grade animal press capable of crafting far more effective ammunition than standard scavenged garage setups.

Luckily, State of Decay 3 introduces the ability to manage up to three settlements simultaneously, allowing players to expand their territory as they push back this plague network.

Now, when on the offensive, whether you go straight for the heart of the Plague is up to you, but you can approach more strategically by taking out surrounding weaker infestation sites first.

Make the game as difficult (or as easy) as you like with friends or solo

Combat in State of Decay 3 feels incredibly satisfying, and Undead Labs have worked hard to make guns feel more impactful.

Limb damage is a necessity when trying to slow down the onslaught. You can target specific appendages, blow a zombie's legs off with a shotgun blast, and gleefully watch them topple over. Players can also lean into creative environmental puzzles. The team showed us how to use stealth, or splash fuel across the streets. In one example, they placed a tape deck to attract zombies, luring hordes into a trap before clearing out the weak points of the plague heart.

I was also really happy to hear that even if you play cooperatively with three other players, you can tune sliders for combat, plague aggression, and resource management so the game matches your preferred challenge level. Want to make the higher-level zombies a rarer occurrence or make scavenging supplies a little more rewarding? You can do that and more. I’ll be tuning mine down to scaredy-cat mode, thanks. The true sickos can play on ultra hard lethal mode.

When we asked what constitutes a fail state for your game, it turns out that morale is everything. If your community morale tanks due to poor management, characters will lose faith in you as their caretaker and disband, running off into the hills. Lose enough of your community, and you fail your playthrough.

Looking ahead to 2027

Customization in general has been vastly expanded from the previous franchise entries. Players can transform standard vehicles into heavy, tank-like variants outfitted with specialized gear like gas filters, cargo expansions, extra fuel tanks, or spike wheels.

Whether you are customizing vehicle paint jobs or strapping gas tanks to your ride, State of Decay 3 is shaping up to be quite the evolutionary leap for the series.

Whether you are completely new to State of Decay or jumping in enthusiastically from its predecessor, the developers seem to be doing a great job with balancing system depth with better onboarding for new players. I’m pretty confident this is going to be exactly the multiplayer smash that Xbox needs on Game Pass.

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As someone who actually hails from Birmingham, UK, finding out there was a medieval zombie survival game set in my hometown was morbidly fascinating. Naturally, I had to check it out at Gamescom to see if there was actually anything from Birmingham in the game or if it was an unusual marketing ploy.

Playing a janky beta build under the watchful eyes of the developers while grappling with a mouse and keyboard (the real horror for my console gamer brain) was enough to scare me before I even saw my first zombie. But despite fumbling through the controls, trying to figure out how to equip an axe, and getting quickly humbled by the undead Brummies, I left genuinely looking forward to seeing more.

Surviving 14-century Brum

Developed in Unreal Engine 5, God Save Birmingham leans heavily into the deep, hardcore survival mechanics popularized by Project Zomboid. During my hands-on time, I quickly learned that fighting off the infected isn't just about mindless button-mashing. You've got to manage a web of stats and status effects while keeping a close eye on your hunger, thirst, fatigue, and many, many injuries.

I stumbled getting to grips with the combat in places, but that was mostly down to my lack of keyboard skills. Armed with some medieval tools, you can target an enemy's head for a crushing blow or take out their knees to topple them over. Items in the environment can be moved to block gaps, or a chair can be tossed as an improvised shield. I went from stumbling past box crates to hurling them at my enemies.

Of course, weapons wear down fast, doors take time to smash through (as the devs kindly guided me away from spending too long trying to break through a boarded-up window), and if you aren't careful, you'll find yourself battered, bruised, and desperately searching for shelter before night falls and Birmingham gets more horrifying.

A historically accurate apocalypse?

Now to the real reason I really wanted to attend this demo: I simply wanted to ask the team why on earth they had chosen Birmingham, of all the towns in the UK, to set their game?

The answer was simpler than I expected: not just that Birmingham already looks post-apocalyptic, but that when they were looking for a setting, it fit the bill. One that was manageable for their team size but possessed a rich enough medieval history to build upon. They settled on the humble Birmingham while sifting through extensive social research and historical materials published by the Birmingham Museum.

So contrary to my previous assumptions, it isn’t just called Birmingham for the hell of it; the team told me that they are striving for genuine historical authenticity and faithfulness to 14th-century Birmingham.

While they take some creative liberties here and there to ensure smoother gameplay flow, the city's layout, architecture, and major infrastructure are meticulously researched using floor plans and historical data from the museum. In fact, if you manage to survive long enough in the build, you can actually track down work-in-progress landmarks like the historic Bull Ring and the iconic St Martin's Church standing tall over the medieval streets.

I did not manage to last that long, which is more reason for me to actually play and see for myself when the game launches.

Offering my services for the purpose of historical preservation

God Save Birmingham is targeting an initial PC Early Access launch on Steam in 2027, with console ports being evaluated down the line. The most recent update and build on display has also added co-op mode so you can hack and slash at the dead with friends.

One small disappointment was that, while the dialogue is currently text-based, there was no Brummie accent in the game. The developers know where to find me if they want to cast a local. (I even do a pretty convincing Brummie zombie impression after a few pints).

Jokes aside, I look forward to playing it at my own pace, preferably with a controller in hand rather than sweating under a press-booth spotlight. I can't wait to dive back in, test out the survival loops and take a semi-historically accurate tour of my hometown as it goes completely to hell.

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Getting to attend Gamescom and play upcoming blockbusters can be a double-edged sword, at least for someone multitask-challenged like me.

Moving from station to station at a breakneck pace, trying to memorize control schemes while a developer watches over your shoulder, always breaks me out in a sweat. I’ve never really been someone who can juggle multiple games at once. I tend to pick a title, lock in, make it my personality, and obsess over it until completion. Simply because my brain can't easily process competing control systems. So, doing that fifteen times over at Gamescom... you can imagine my anxiety.

That being said, the moment I sat down with Fable, any lingering panic was quashed with the first swing of my oversized hammer.

Playground has absolutely nailed the combat

The combat system could not have been more intuitive or frictionless; I don’t think I glanced at the controller guide once. I simply followed the sardonic Humphrey (played by Matt King) through a series of abandoned caves, wildly weaving my hammer, calling lightning bolts from above, and firing a rapid-fire crossbow with abandon against the hordes of skeletal enemies.

Transitioning on the fly between melee, ranged, and spellcasting was a piece of cake to navigate, and I felt the impact with each ABXY input. And the utterly ridiculous Befoul spell, which turns foes into chickens, was abused on every cooldown. I made sure to kick each and every chicken I created, though I later found out you could also cook them in a flame bath.

The combat was so much fun that I genuinely didn’t want the session to end, despite it being the last appointment of my day and knowing a cold beer was waiting for me on the other side.

We played through the same demo twice with two very different character builds, and on two different difficulties. I would have happily gone for 3 more rounds. The ultimate test, of course, will be whether that loop holds the same novelty and feel across an entire campaign. But the foundation is absolutely rock-solid.

Playgrounds vision and staying true to a classic

Following my hands-on session, I sat down with the developers at Playground Games to discuss how they are steering the franchise during their tenure, specifically regarding their combat philosophy and approach to player progression.

One of the core design pillars of the reboot is to give players “total freedom of expression.” While your active combat loadout must consist of the set triple combo, a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, and a set of spells, you are completely free to mix, match, and swap components to craft a playstyle that feels entirely personal to you.

The action flows organically, allowing you to string disparate moves together in any order you want (cooldowns aside). Whether you prefer a sluggish, heavy-hitting warhammer or a swift, sharp sword, momentum remains smooth, responsive, and deeply satisfying.

The devs were emphatic about their approach to progression. It shouldn’t be about passive stat increases where "numbers simply go up." Upgrades need to feel transformative during gameplay.

Players earn experience through combat and exploration, spending skill points on a dedicated tree to upgrade spells and abilities multiple times. Weapons also get their own upgrade paths; in my second playthrough of the demo on a harder difficulty, I shot at enemies with a crossbow that fired so fast it might as well have been a machine gun.

An example we played was the Lift spell. Initially, it would levitate a single enemy, but a later upgrade would let you slam down that enemy into a violent, crowd-clearing area-of-effect style blast.

The team leaned hard into clever interactions between the spells and weapons too. Turn an enemy into a chicken, clip them with a fireball, and watch them transform into a temporary ghost chicken. If an enemy recovers from a suspension or chicken state, they will briefly stagger and flap their arms, leaving them completely wide open for a punishing counterattack.

Honoring the dark and gritty wit of the original Albion

Rebooting a beloved, legendary franchise is no small feat, and the team is acutely aware of the delicate tightrope they are walking. Balancing modern designs with the unique British charm and underlying darkness that defined the original Lionhead games is a massive task, but it’s one they clearly understand, and that fuels much of their decision-making.

The physical comedy so integral to the series' DNA extends directly into the mechanics. Shoot a skeleton's head off, and it will flail around blindly; shoot a leg off, and it will still desperately crawl toward you.

The dynamic reactions aren't just reserved for your enemies, either. The whole world of Albion responds directly to your actions. If you decide to test out your gravity-suspension spells or chicken cooking magic on innocent townsfolk in the capital of Bowerstone, you will be judged accordingly by the locals. Yet, the system's nuance shines through its reputation mechanics: NPCs form varied opinions based on their individual moral compasses, meaning a ruthless display of power might disgust some citizens while quietly impressing or intimidating others.

Under the shadow of the "Xbox Tax"

If you are just as excited for Fable as I am, this will be one of many previews you read (and thanks for reading mine too!). No doubt, many of them will sound remarkably similar, given we all played the exact same vertical slice of the game. But what has struck me since arriving home and looking at reactions is a familiar sense of foreboding about Playground’s release.

It’s hard not to notice the toxic undercurrent surrounding the game already. Long before anyone even touched a controller, the internet was already dissecting trailers frame-by-frame just to complain that the female protagonist wasn’t attractive enough…now I’m seeing an eye-roll-inducing wave of bad-faith takes cropping up online regarding Fable’s gameplay, based on a tiny boss fight clip. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised, given the current trend of spicy takes getting attention, but I also firmly believe these criticisms are a direct consequence of the game being developed under the stewardship of Microsoft.

The "Xbox Tax" has become a bit of a meme in recent years, but whether you believe it’s a real thing or not, it does represent a widespread frustration with Microsoft's recent corporate missteps. Missteps that lead people to put its first-party output under a hyper-critical microscope that is undeserved for the individual teams. There’s a worrying number of people who seem eager to sharpen their pitchforks for Fable right now. Not enough stagger animations? Campaign length too short for a long development cycle? I’ve seen it all already, and it's mainly from people with no intention of ever playing the game.

I worry that when the game finally launches, players won't judge Playground Games on their own merits. I’ve seen this exact thing play out before with major releases like Starfield and Avowed. I'm not here to argue those games are amazing by any means; they certainly had many faults, but the rabid appetite from internet fanbases to tear them down was completely out of proportion to their actual flaws. Genuine, constructive critique gets completely drowned out in a sea of toxic internet point-scoring.

Even with Fable launching on PlayStation 5 alongside Xbox and PC, I don’t think it will be entirely safe from the bad-faith warriors out for blood. I genuinely worry for the incredible team at Playground Games, who have poured their hearts into crafting something special and completely outside their usual Forza fare. But sitting here fresh off a tiny 30-minute slice of the game, I am rooting for it harder than ever. Fable deserves to be a hit, and it’s exactly what Xbox needs to shine as a flagship franchise. I just hope the Xbox tax collectors don’t bang too hard on the doors while we are all having fun.

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If you’ve already played in Neon Giant’s isometric cyberpunk world in The Ascent, the studio’s follow-up, No Law is going to blow your socks off. Now backed by Krafton, the Swedish developer is moving away from 2D action toward a first-person perspective rich in frankly insane detail and tackling something way more ambitious. No Law is a deeply systemic, immersive cyber-noir shooter set in the brutal, overgrown coastal metropolis of Port Desire, and I got a detailed behind-the-scenes look at Gamescom 2026.

Walking me through an early game mission, what I saw was far from just another by-the-numbers cyberpunk shooter, and the world-building and old-school immersive sim design were reminiscent of the original Deus Ex. No Law should definitely be on your radar for your 2027 gaming lineup.

Welcome to Port Desire (you’ll need an umbrella)

Port Desire wasn’t quite the typical dystopian aesthetic I expected in a futuristic setting. Gone are the endless sterile concrete jungles of traditional sci-fi; this city drips with lush foliage that looks even more striking at night. Carved into towering ocean cliffs at a neutral border shared by 3 rival nations, the city is choked by relentless creeping green vegetation. Every night, chemical agents are sprayed to beat back the overgrowth, and if that stops, nature wins. But it makes for a breathtaking backdrop. It was raining heavily throughout the demo too, adding to the vibes!

You play as Grey Harker, an ex-military veteran who just wanted a quiet life tending to his plants (kind of a John Wick origin story) until he was dragged rudely out of retirement. As Harker, you’ll tear through Port Desire’s criminal underworld with a thirst for vengeance.

Neon Giant has built Port Desire with an insane level of attention to detail. The city can be explored vertically, featuring authentic street addresses, floor numbers, and mailboxes that actually correspond to the NPCs living within.

All the shops have dynamic pricing, physical inventory shelves you can load by hand, and products with readable nutrition facts on the back. You can steal everything from groceries to the doorbell, though if you rob a gun store or rack up a high enough bounty, you’ll be shot on sight.

Every single character in the game can be killed too. If you murder a shop owner, their store will remain permanently shuttered for the rest of your playthrough, or if you kill a crucial receptionist who was supposed to check you into a mission location, they won’t be at their desk when you need them, leaving you to figure out the objective on your own. You can’t break the story progression by ending someone's life, but you can make it a lot more difficult for yourself if you accidentally take out someone of importance.

Zero hand-holding if that's what you wish

The most notable takeaway from the developers' presentation was Neon Giant’s commitment to player freedom and progression.

Port Desire can be explored entirely on your terms. If you want to be guided around with UI markers and waypoint arrows, you can do so, but the game can be flipped into full immersion mode. No hand-holding; you are simply given an address, and you’ll have to walk around checking house numbers and street signs to find your target. The city lives and breathes like a real city.

No Law also rejects the ethos of giving the player “busywork”. You won’t get extra XP for headshots, lockpicking, or hacking your way in. The devs explicitly said they wanted to avoid directing the player to a specific playstyle. For example, if you need to get into an apartment, whether you sneak or yippy-ki-yay your way in is up to you; there is no “best way”. The XP is rewarded simply for getting to the end destination, not how you got there.

There’s also no need to waste time selling inventory. Neon Giant wanted to eliminate tedious, immersion-breaking inventory management, so no more hoarding junk to vendor for cash. Use what you find, or leave it behind.

Choices in the game are meaningful; augmentation canisters and skill trees force you to pick a path. Respeccing isn’t a frictionless safety net for the player; choices are designed to make you feel the weight of your decisions. During the demo, the developers demonstrated two completely different approaches to the same mission. The first playthrough leaned heavily into stealth, lockpicking, and sneaking around sleeping targets. In the second run, the player had invested skill points into heavy rifles, which threw any subtlety out the window as he went in on an all-explosive, gung-ho assault. The level of detail wasn’t sacrificed, however, as an explosion in one room caused items to fall off a shelf 2 rooms away.

Both paths were entirely valid and led to the same XP reward at the end, but both felt completely organic to the world of Port Desire.

For the people who wanted 'Cyberpunk GTA', this may be your game.

No Law is targeting a release window of 2027 on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5, and its shaping up to be a monumental triumph for Neon Giant.

In our chat, the team humbly acknowledged the comparisons to Deus Ex and Cyberpunk 2077, but while elements are an ode to both of those titles, this is very much their own living, breathing sandbox where destruction, reactive AI crowds powered by Unreal Engine 5, and uncompromising player choice take center stage.

If you’re hungry for a mature and deeply interactive first-person RPG that respects your intelligence, lets you break its sequences and deal with the consequences, put No Law firmly on your radar.

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