Word about the next Subnautica first surfaced back in 2023, and with the highly anticipated sequel set to release in early access at some point this year, hype is building. With that in mind, you can understand why some particularly excited underwater explorers might not hesitate if they were sent a link to a playtest via Steam, but Unknown Worlds is making it very clear that it would "never" reach out to anyone this way.

"We've been made aware that fraudulent links to a Subnautica 2 playtest are being sent to our community on Steam," a new tweet reads. "Please be aware that we will never contact anyone by Steam DM for any potential playtests. Stay safe out there, Subnauts!"

Unknown Worlds has elaborated slightly on this situation in the official Subnautica Discord server, where community manager Donya Abramo clarifies: "Any contact regarding studies or playtests will only ever be sent by email from an Unknown Worlds address." Furthermore, while the devs recently invited players to sign up for a "User Research Participant Pool," the official link to it is only available on the Discord server.

If this warning has come too late for you, Abramo advises anyone who's already clicked one of the fake Steam playtest links to "change your password immediately to secure your account" and consider enabling two-factor authentication for some extra security.

For now, anyone eager to dive into the sequel will just have to hold on a while longer – in the meantime, there's no doubt that dedicated fans will have their eyes on its predecessor for more hidden teasers like we saw last year.

You can also check out our roundup of the best survival games for even more to play.

Yes, Escape from Duckov is a real game (proof here) that's geared for release sometime this year. It's billed as a single-player top-down looter-shooter where you "loot, escape, build, and eventually become a mighty bird soldier." It's obviously pretty blatantly inspired by Esape From Tarkov, the at-times controversial first-person extraction shooter that's been kicking around in beta since 2017.

Everything about Escape from Duckov essentially sounds like a sillier (Glocks are called Glicks), more casual (no multiplayer) take on the extraction shooter genre, and frankly, I would be 100% on-board with that idea if it weren't for that ducking name. Escape from Duckov?! It's not even punny!

Anyway, despite the name of the thing, people seem to really be vibing with Escape From... y'know what, I'm just gonna call it the duck game. IGN reported that it was the top Steam demo at the time of its reporting, and right now it's the fourth most-played demo on Steam, according to Valve itself. That's pretty impressive for any game, much less an Escape from Tarkov clone about ducks.

The story puts you in the unfortunate shoes of someone who's woken up from a strange dream and found themselves with li'l webbed feet instead of the aforementioned shoes. You're in Duckov now, and it's a highly dangerous place for ducks. Tread carefully when you venture outside your base, kill things, loot everything, and then return to upgrade your weapons and expand your settlement. Quack quack.

Here are all of the upcoming indie games that should be on your radar.

"The team is already hard at work with adding a few new bits" in 2025, the devs explain in a new State of the Game blog post, "tweaking and balancing what we have, and fixing the usual bugs that crop up. We still plan to have an ideation session to be sure there is nothing that we have left on the side that shouldn't be there – and that meeting should lock in what there is left to do."

Re-Logic has already admitted that the 1.4.5 update's been pushed back because they keep adding more stuff to it, but who can complain about more free content? Today's blog also teases a handful of new additions, like rock candy – literally candy made out of gemstones – as well as a fairy transformation that'll let you fly around in a tiny, adorable form at will.

The devs have hinted that the update will launch in 2025, and, according to today's blog, they remain "hopeful that this year will bring the long-awaited update." After that, they'll be turning their attention to implementing the long-awaited crossplay feature, which I believe will mark us down for Terraria's seventh final update. It's getting increasingly difficult to keep track.

"Terraria will never die as long as there is one last final update," creator says as its 6th final update approaches at long last.

Is Dune: Awakening akin to Final Fantasy 14 or World of Warcraft? Is it entirely multiplayer or is it enjoyable as a single-player experience within an online game? I ask Ryborg this, who responds with exactly what I was hoping to hear – how someone plays is entirely up to them. "The main story is very much a single-player experience. You're playing in the multiplayer world, obviously, but it's something that you kind of drive and do on your own."

"We've got more story content apart from just the main story, with factions that you can try and align yourself with, training that you do for specific disciplines, and so on," he continues. "But apart from just the story, [there's] just building bases and the like. I'm a big fan of building and decorating and things like that. I think it's really fun. That is absolutely something you can do, both solo but also co-op."

You can also enjoy Dune: Awakening with a close friend or two, "collaborate and build your own thing and just hang out and enjoy the survival mechanics for what they are," rather than pair up with strangers. The only time you absolutely have to lock into any more multiplayer-aligned gameplay is for the MMO's "endgame" or so-called "hardcore" content.

"A lot of the endgame loops are strongly multiplayer," says Ryborg. "So if you really want to kind of engage with things like the political endgame or the big spice harvesting operations, then you obviously need a lot of people – but you can still engage with and enjoy a lot of the other mechanics entirely single-player if that's your preference." As someone who doesn't always enjoy MMOs' more social features, I breathe a sigh of relief.

A whole new (but still sandy) world

When it comes to Dune: Awakening's less MMO-inclined mechanics, Ryborg says that the studio's experience producing Conan Exiles has been a boon. "We've been making jokes about it internally," laughs the dev, "but we started out making the oldest sand tech for Conan because we started in the desert. Now we're just upgrading it here for Dune because we're back in the desert, right? But even apart from that, we're quite familiar with general survival mechanics. And with Dune, we've had the pleasure of being able to upgrade the quality of it. So in Conan, it's very focused on food, of course, because that's the normal kind of go-to survival mechanic."

However, Arrakis is anything but normal. "Here we have an IP where food is, of course, a thing, but it's really not the most interesting focus," explains Ryborg. "Water is the most important thing on Arrakis apart from spice, so building our survival mechanics around the water and water retention instead has been really exciting." Water isn't the only way in which Awakening strays from genre predecessors, though – Funcom is evolving survival in other ways, too.

"Things like shadow play, having to hide from the sun and thinking about that, and being able to harvest water best at night, and things of this nature have allowed us to take not only our experience and kind of use it but also to evolve it into something that's more interesting and more fitting to the IP," reveals Ryborg. "So yes, absolutely, we do feel it. We're well positioned to make a strong survival game because of experience, but it's also fun to be allowed to evolve it with the help of a new IP."

With hundreds of hours in other survival games, I'm particularly interested by the other mechanics or systems that might set Dune: Awakening apart from titles like Conan Exiles. He tells me about the MMO's mind-boggling shield feature – one that hardened Dune stans are sure to enjoy. Shields aren't a force that can be whittled away over time, but impenetrable defenses that players can only break through via the slow use of a dagger.

Ryborg also mentions sandstorms, but the strangest thing in Dune: Awakening will almost certainly be its spice – "the most important thing in the entire universe." and "also something that you're going to use to fuel your own ability." That's right – spice can be used to enhance players' abilities, but its use comes with a catch.

"If you want to be able to use [abilities] at your absolute peak, you're going to need some spice," says Ryborg. "But if you keep taking spice all the time, you're going to start getting addicted, then you start needing to deal with addiction symptoms." It's yet another way Dune: Awakening tries to stay true to Herbert's lore, and its devs love it. "Finding ways of taking things that are classically Dune and turning them into gameplay mechanics has been really exciting."

A tale (not quite) as old as time

Funcom isn't able to recreate Herbert's universe word-for-word, however, and that's largely due to Denis Villeneuve's 2021 and 2024 film adaptations. Dune: Awakening follows an "alternate timeline" of sorts, but this has allowed devs a sense of creative freedom they might not have otherwise had. As Ryborg puts it, "The alternate timeline really changed a lot of things and made it a lot easier to work with."

With the different storyline, which sees Paul of House Atreides never born, Ryborg says the studio had "a lot of cool things we were able to do thanks to the alt timeline." Paul being absent means other characters who were killed off are alive in-game. "These are really cool, iconic characters we still want to be able to see, right? And so our little changes to just that little bit, Paul not being here, lets us keep all these characters around – lets you interact with them directly."

Duke Leto, Duncan, the Baron – all of them. "You get to speak with them, interact with them, help them, harm them – depending on how you want to play the game," says Ryborg. "And that's been super exciting for us to be allowed to work with so I would say [the alt timeline] really just helped. It's given us a ton of creative freedom." This freedom doesn't see devs straying too far from the source material, though, which Ryborg jokes the leads treat "like a bible."

Circling back to Dune's more recent film adaptations, I ask the producer how their popularity has affected Awakening's development. Ryborg tells me the movies are "absolutely helping" production. "It's fantastic to see the films kind of come to life, and then note you are working on that very same IP. And you know, we got our own little sneak peeks of things in advance, which has helped us kind of maintain some of the visual language from the movies."

Villeneuve's films were still in pre-production when Funcom started its work on Awakening, "so there will be deviants between the two of them" – especially as Ryborg states "we're not making the movies, we're making our own version based on the books primarily but with a lot of inspiration from the great work [Villeneuve] and his team did." As for any challenges presented by the films, Ryborg points to the necessity for an alternate timeline but asserts once more that it hasn't been all bad.

Aside from the "freedom" provided by the rewritten story, the dev admits that "normally people step on each other's toes a lot" in similar situations with simultaneous adaptations – but Funcom hasn't had to worry about doing so with its own version of Herbert's lore. It helps that "the IP holders have been super cooperative and really helpful in making sure we get all the info we need," too.

"A game with its own identity"

As a longtime fan of both Herbert's books and now Villeneuve's films, I'm now even more curious about Dune: Awakening's identity as a game and how it stands out in either the survival or MMO genre. It has its unique mechanics and quirks like the lore-friendly shield system, sure, but is there anything else that makes Funcom's new title shine? "So many things," according to Ryborg. From its fantastical side to its attention to Dune's setting, many factors help set Awakening apart – its "sheer size" included.

"There's a lot of world to cover. The multiplayer aspect, letting you see how other people build, getting to ruin their spice race and get your own in, or be collaborative and build your bases and raid eco labs together, and things of that nature," says Ryborg. "[It's] a game with its own identity, and I think it stands up very well."

How will this one-of-a-kind identity evolve after launch, though? I wonder this aloud, asking Ryborg what evolutionary direction Dune: Awakening might take. "The world is very big," he tells me, "so there are definitely opportunities even beyond Arrakis. I cannot confirm or deny anything beyond that, but it's a big universe, and we want to showcase a lot. We've made choices already on Arrakis to try and help bring this up."

Could this mean expansions or trips to other planets? Only time can truly tell, but Ryborg assures me that we'll "get to see a lot of Dune in the future" as Funcom still has "a lot of cool ideas". They're ideas I'm keen to see play out, and by the time our interview wraps up, I'm itching to sink into the unforgiving sands of Arrakis right now – dehydration, sandworms, and Sardaukar ships be damned.

Need even more to look forward to now? Here are the biggest new games for 2025 and beyond.

While I only spent around eight hours playing the new Dune game, it was enough time to grow properly acquainted with (and genuinely hooked on) the ways that Fucnom's unique MMO-survival blend stands apart from its predecessors. I went into it ready to grapple with pesky hunger bars, translucent building screens, and vicious beasts. Instead, I found sandworms.

Besides the subterranean monsters shaking the ground I walked on, I was also met with a relentless thirst that called for some seriously creative solutions, and an unforgiving desert planet inhabited by ever-warring cultures. This is no Conan Exiles – this is Dune, through and through, in all of its parched, political glory. This was the lore I grew up with, the lore my father grew up with – 60 years of world-building, reimagined for a video game I can't wait to play more of.

Beginnings are such delicate times

While Dune: Awakening aligns itself well with Herbert's books and, of course, Denis Villeneuve's films, it follows its own alternate timeline in which Paul of House Atreides was never born. Lady Jessica instead birthed the daughter she was meant to birth for the Bene Gesserit, which also means that the Duke never died.

It's an exciting spin on the story many of us already know and love, offering Funcom a degree of creative freedom it wouldn't otherwise have. Everything is familiar enough to dedicated Dune fans while also feeling new – a breath of fresh air for the beloved setting. The choices I had in character creation proved as much, where I gave myself a Harkonnen background marked by deception and nobility: "A place for every man and every man in his place."

I also opted to walk the Bene Gesserit path, because who wouldn't want to have the Voice on their side? I felt all the more comfortable with my decisions after surviving the gom jabbar test and embarking on my sand-swept journey, too. Not everyone on Arrakis can compel others to stop in their tracks and accept their death without so much as a peep, after all, but I was thrilled to find that I could do so with ease – and much more besides.

From water does all life begin

As producer Nils Ryborg tells me, "water is the most important thing on Arrakis." You don't need to worry about food while playing Dune: Awakening, but you sure as hell have to worry about water. Arrakis is a dry planet with unrelenting sandstorms – the game doesn't need a hunger mechanic to feel like a survival experience, because before you know it, you'll find yourself parched in the middle of nowhere with no water in sight.

Upon wrapping up in the character creation menu and leaving the tutorial cave, I immediately learn what it means to be thirsty to the point of death. My cyberpunk-esque white hair and cool, black irises can't save me in the dunes, unfortunately – not from hot worm summer. I desperately drink the dew from scattered plants in caverns for a small bit of hydration, but it wasn't until later on that I truly mastered the art of gathering water.

Once I discover and advance the in-game technology tree, a menu fellow survival stans know well, I unlock the ability to harvest blood from foes and transform it into clean water. By drinking the blood of my enemies, I potentially have a handle on my thirst – but most importantly, it would be by choice. You don't have to take the morally gray route and drink refined blood, but doing so made more sense than gathering dew as a hardened Harkonnen.

Such person-dependent choices are core to Dune: Awakening and how true the game stays to the pre-established universe. They're not the only way Funcom's survival MMO is loyal to its source material, however –  one feature in particular not only proves Dune: Awakening's attention to Herbert's lore, but also separates the experience from any other in the survival genre: massive, largely unavoidable sandworms.

I expected them, as any longtime Dune fan would, but I didn't expect them to be as much of a game-changer as they are. Dune: Awakening doesn't boast the enemy variety other fantasy or survival titles do, but the sandworms make up for it and then some. There's sand everywhere (this is Dune, after all), which means that getting around the map is a constant internal battle between your own fear and powering through it to progress.

Once you step onto the sand and off the safety provided by cliffs and caves, the brilliant sound design coupled with the sandworm's whale-like groans make you feel as though you're in Jaws – you're being circled by a monster that can destroy you and everything you've built or gathered in one simple move. You might get a warning vocalization or two, or you might not – but you'd better hope you do if you want to survive.

Fear is the mind-killer

Sandworms present me with another obstacle. How and where will I set up my base? Base building is one of my favorite survival game features, just as decorating homes is one of my most beloved MMO mechanics. I couldn't just set up shop anywhere, though. I'd risk losing everything to a sandworm's gaping mouth. I knew that I'd have to settle for a base elsewhere, away from the sea of sand encompassing so much of the map.

Thankfully, there are trusty red rock formations and hanging cliffs scattered about Arrakis. I found a spot I liked and tried not to worry too much about wanting to move later on, as the game features a handy copy-and-paste system for builds. Building is so much fun with all of the customization and Funcom's attention to detail in design, I lost literal hours to it. The grid and snap systems were finicky at times, but as an Ark veteran, I can safely say they could be much worse.

I could've spent all day tweaking my base, unlocking better recipes, building more floors and layers, decorating to my heart's content, and coming away with the base of my dreams – which I feel speaks to the quality of Dune: Awakening's more survival-aligned gameplay. I'm looking forward to the day I can build a guild house with my friends now, and perhaps even dominate a portion of the map in PvP if I'm lucky.

When it comes to PvP, it's as unique as everything else on Arrakis. In Dune, killing isn't necessarily power. Taking on enemies is important in PvP, of course, but something else is even more important: spice. He who controls it controls it all, as fans know - and Dune: Awakening offers no exception. From collecting to selling, players can establish a true monopoly over it.

There's more to the PvP than just spice, but spice is a big deal in both PvP and PvE. You can use it, sure, but are you ready to deal with the reliance upon spice that comes with its use? It may help you become more capable momentarily, but you'll end up needing more of it, and going without it will hurt, to put it lightly. I'd find myself enjoying spice melange one minute, only to have none left on me the next. It's the sort of balancing act not found in other survival games – a thought-provoking mechanic unique to Funcom's MMO.

Dune: Awakening is "a game with its own identity," according to Ryborg, and I'm inclined to agree. Between the sandworms and the spice, blood-drinking, and constant danger of Arrakis, there are so many special features that make it a delight for both older Dune fans and general survival genre stans searching for something new alike - and boy, can I not wait to dive back into the sandy depths. Wriggling worms and all.

Need even more to look forward to now? Here are the biggest new games for 2025 and beyond.

Despite being founded in 2015, it wasn't until early last year that Pocketpair became somewhat of a household name with the breakout success of Palworld. And with the game proving exceedingly popular, racking up more than 25 million players only a month after launch, the studio has decided to put those funds to good use, opening Pocketpair Publishing to provide funding and publishing support to indie developers.

Understandably, this is a major opportunity for smaller developers, as the publisher's communications director and publishing manager John Buckley (better known by many as Bucky) found out almost immediately.

Taking to Twitter, he posted two screenshots taken 15 hours after the announcement of Pocketpair Publishing, showing that he had already received 68 emails from prospective developers, as well as a whopping 1577 invitations on LinkedIn. "My inboxes were 0 before then," he explains, "I think I might have underestimated how much interest there would be."

Despite the mountain of work on his plate, Bucky is clearly passionate about the project, stating that Pocketpair are there to help devs out where they're needed, but that how the game comes together is up to them, stating matter-of-factly that is

"If you want help with marketing or something we'll help out, but otherwise do whatever you want. We're giving devs the financial freedom to make games they want so they DON'T have to get wrapped up with stinky rule makers and bullies," he concludes. The first, and so far only game confirmed by Pocketpair Publishing is a title from Abubakar Salim's Surgent Studios, the developer behind 2024's Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, though it's clear there's much more to come down the line.

If you're after more of that Palworld experience, check out the best survival games you can play right now.

In a new interview with Eurogamer, Bucky admits: "There were so many challenges, to be honest." This wasn't just after the game actually released, though, as he explains: "Pre-launch, we started gaining traction online, which was new for us and brought its own difficulties. Post-launch, we faced server problems, bug reporting issues, countless accusations... It was a lot to handle."

The "accusations" in question likely revolve around the many comparisons to Pokemon that were made by players. Even from its reveal, people were quick to unofficially rename Palworld to "Pokemon with guns," and, after it actually released, certain Pal designs were scrutinized online as fans pointed out similarities between them and existing Pokemon. For example, the fox-like Foxcicle turned heads after being compared to Glaceon and Alolan Ninetales.

Developer Pocketpair has – on multiple occasions – shut down accusations of the team using generative AI to create its Pal designs, with CEO Takuro Mizobe saying "we do not use it," and "our artists draw thousands of sketches." Bucky himself also previously stated: "We didn't AI generate any Pals. Our artists are fantastic and we're so lucky to have them."

While Nintendo and The Pokemon Company ended up filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair, it's worth keeping in mind that this wasn't over any issues with Pal designs. Instead, it was alleged that Pocketpair had infringed on three patents, one of which essentially seems to describe Pokeball-like catching mechanics. An update to Palworld last month made a few small tweaks to the survival game's Pal Spheres (basically, Pokeball equivalents), which appeared to distance it more from Game Freak's creature-collecting RPG series.

Thankfully for Pocketpair, even though Bucky says the issues he mentions "haven't entirely gone away, they've definitely become more manageable." The company even announced its own publishing business yesterday – its first project is a horror game from Tales of Kenzera: ZAU developer Surgent Studios.

Palworld's roadmap includes a final boss and crossplay, but fans still want bigger bosses and more quests.

In fact, I'm delighted to say that I'm looking forward to Aloft's venture out of Early Access and how its journey to 1.0 will unfold. After all, there are many things I love about the game - its cozy gameplay loop, sense of never-ending freedom, and vibrant visuals are highlights. It's off to a solid start, and my only real complaint aside from bugs that are likely to be ironed out over the coming weeks is that I wish there was more - and with time, there will be.

So much to do, so much to see

The first thing that caught my attention when I started Aloft was how it leans into the survival genre so comfortably with its Raft-esque aesthetic and familiar mechanics. I gathered stones and twigs, explored the cave I awoke within, and messed about with the crafting menu until I made the three most essential survival game tools - an axe, a pickaxe, and a hammer. After building a bridge out of the cave and learning a nifty new recipe, I set out to explore.

I was taken aback by the lush island I found myself on outside of the cave. With rolling green hills, long-forgotten structures, and rushing waterfalls, it was a serene paradise that looked as though it had only briefly been touched by humanity - and I loved it. I searched every nook and cranny before acquiring my handy dandy glider, a tool for island hopping that transported me back to other beloved, equally stunning games like Tears of the Kingdom.

From that point on, Aloft seemed to largely hand me the reigns. I could fly to any island if I so chose to - left, right, up, down, you name it. There were corrupted environments to tame decorated with spores straight out of the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3 along with a plethora of mysterious anchors and secrets to uncover. I captured bugs, gathered blueberries, and most importantly, I picked my favorite island and turned it into a massive airship.

Taking the wheel

In all of my Howl's Moving Castle-esque glory, I was finally ready to embark on a whimsical ride through Aloft's endless sea of clouds. Much like in Sea of Thieves, I could map out where I wanted to go and view where I had already been. It was enchanting in a way, albeit a bit "empty" at times - I wanted, and still want, more to see. More variation in islands and in enemies would be brilliant, as would a greater sense of purpose among it all.

While I do wish I had found more motivation to explore after the initial humor of it dancing from island to island, sky to sky, had passed, that doesn't mean I didn't find plenty to do yet. I was enamored with the idea of caring for and raising adorable animals while flying, and I loved getting to exercise my hardened Stardew Valley muscles by collecting and farming. When I felt that I was becoming bored of the more survival-y bits, the sim-y features were there.

Overall, I'd suggest fans of laidback gaming experiences keep an eye on Aloft or give it a go while it's in Early Access. It never hurts to support an indie developer, and this rings especially true with a title as already rewarding as this one. Whether you're hoping to soar the skies aboard your very own island airship, or you enjoy tending to your crops and pets, you may just discover that Aloft is the perfect cozy gem to start 2025 off with.

Aloft is out now in Early Access on PC. For more, check out these other upcoming indie games on the way or head over to our Indie Spotlight series.

The Twitter account in question posts, "Palworld is still successful, but Helldivers 2 flopped and lost the majority of its players," alongside a screenshot showing the former game with 84,961 concurrent players and the latter with 23,794. Both games did phenomenally well when they launched last year and have seen their player counts slowly stabilize to more consistent levels, but if you look purely at peak player counts, Palworld did fare far better, with over four times as many players at its most popular – it beat Cyberpunk 2077's player record and even surpassed 2 million concurrent players.

"Why do you think PlayStation is a failure at making [multiplayer] games," the account asks? "Palworld peak success was during Xbox console exclusivity." While it's certainly true that PlayStation has been struggling with some of its multiplayer projects as of late, reportedly cancelling a Horizon MMO, it has always been more well-known for its single-player offerings.

Palworld's community manager, Bucky, didn't like the post. "I don't like you," Bucky writes in a quote tweet. "Console war baiting in 2025 is beyond stupid. Palworld never signed an exclusivity agreement with anyone. Stop using us in your shitty bait tweets. I promise you no one cares about this faux discourse other than you, and even then I doubt you do either."

Well, that's them told. When asked why Palworld was on Xbox and PC first if there was no exclusivity arrangement, Bucky replies, "We just didn't make a PS5 version, that's all. None of our games have ever been on PS before and it wasn't until we saw so many PS fans asking for it that we decided to try porting it over."

Bucky admits he shouldn't give these kinds of posts any engagement, but writes "I'm a weak man and Twitter always shows me these posts the instant I wake up… when I'm at my weakest."

As for the console wars, one market research firm believes Nintendo will be the "clear winner" of the next generation thanks to the Switch 2, and Sony and Microsoft will be battling it out for second place, with whichever comes third struggling greatly.

Instead of worrying about console wars, check out our 50 most anticipated games of the year – they're releasing on everything.

With that in mind, below I'll show you how to link your Twitch account and Once Human account, as well as the different Twitch drops and what you need to do to receive those rewards. Oh, and those drops are time-sensitive, so get on it quick!

How to link your Once Human and Twitch accounts for Twitch drops and rewards

To link both your Once Human and Twitch account to make yourself eligible for the Twitch drop rewards, you need to do the following:

1. Go to this website
2. Scroll down to the "Step 1" and log in to your Once Human account
3. After that, go to "Step 2" and log in to your Twitch account
4. Confirm that you want to link the two accounts.
5. After this, go to Twitch and fulfil certain criteria to earn Twitch drops.
6. After having completed these, the in-game rewards should appear in the Once Human in-game mailbox within 24 hours (it may not be immediate.

At time of writing there are several rewards that players can obtain through the Twitch Drop system. However, aside from the Sub Drop, all of these are time-limited and will not be earnable after Feb 11 2025! You need to earn them before that point, though it's likely that there'll be more Twitch drops in the future.

• Sub Drop (Subscribe to a Participating Streamer who is playing Once Human)
  • Cradle Skin: Rocky Charm
• Time-Based Drops (Watch a Participating Streamer who is playing Once Human)
  • Auspicious Beast Sticker (Watch 1 hour)
  • Keepsake Coin Backpack Charm (Watch 2 hours)
  • Elegant Guest Emote (Watch 3 hours)
  • Serpent’s Hold Gloves (Watch 4 hours)

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

Now that a beta for Build 42 is finally available to play, I've been using Project Zomboid to sate my mole-ish tendencies. But I have just enough self-awareness left to appreciate that for most people, the best bit of this update will likely be the addition of wild animals and animal husbandry. The beta's full breadth is staggering – it also introduces blacksmithing, new towns, and a fantastic shooting rework among many other things – so while there's certainly something for everyone, my something is living like a goblin beneath the sun's domain.

That is, until I met Gary Charles.

Hunkering down

To get the full Build 42 experience, I opted to spawn in the newly-added town of Echo Creek. A rural middle-of-nowhere sprawl, Echo Creek is Project Zomboid's most remote start to date. My first day there was grueling: combat has been overhauled to be much more physically demanding, with muscle strain and exhaustion kicking in after killing just a few zombies with the classic push-and-stomp method. In search of somewhere to rest, I bounced between a few isolated homes before finding one safe enough to put my feet up.

You can actually sit on furniture now – praise The Indie Stone – and after a quick sofa-slump, I'm once again in fighting shape. But wait – what's this? A cupboard- no, a staircase? Going down? Oh sweet Spiffo, my first basement. Lighting has been reworked, so it's pitch-black down there until I fumble for the lightswitch to reveal the most daddish room I've ever seen, complete with a poker table, well-stocked bar, and darts board. It's everything I ever wanted – nay, more.

Unfortunately, I don't get to enjoy it for long. I spend a measly three days stocking my new home with food before calamity strikes. While on a loot run I'm cornered by zombies in a kitchen and underestimate just how tiring fighting is now. Too exhausted to properly swing the baseball bat I've found, I try to speedwalk away from the zombies and inadvertently step in a pile of broken glass, lodging shards in both feet and slowing my survivor to a crawl. Too slow to escape, I'm bitten in the neck, bleed out, and fall dead in a bush. As is the Zomboid way.

I spawn my next character in Echo Creek and by pure chance, almost immediately spot keys to a nearby truck that I'd overlooked earlier. I've barely been able to explore the area on foot because of how spaced-out it is, so I hop in for a joyride. Besides the occasional barn, there's absolutely nothing to see until, a little further out of town, I spy a chainlink fence teeming with zombies. But it's what I spot behind the fence that causes me to slam the brakes: chickens. So, so many chickens. Before I've even clocked the gorgeous farmhouse sprawling behind the chicken pens, I've already decided to settle down here.

That's easier said than done. The farm is teeming with overall-wearing zombies, and with combat being more tiring, I can't simply hop out and get to work stomping. Instead, I use my truck's horn to start drawing them out to the road, drive a little ways up, and then floor it back into the horde. Rinse and repeat until the road is so clogged with bodies that even with the truck's windows rolled up, a status moodle tells me the resulting smell is unbearable. It takes me a few more days to clear up stragglers and barricade the farmhouse's many smashed windows, but it's all worth it when I unearth a massive basement beneath my new home. Sometimes, good things happen to strange people.

Clucking around

Somewhat settled, I turn my attention to the tens of chickens in my yard. Zombies have torn one pen's fence down, which means a bunch of my feathered friends have already run to freedom. It also hits me that I have literally no idea how to care for chickens. Will they eat three-day old highway mush? How about burgers? Upon poking around, I piece together that I'll need to fill each pen's troughs with food and chicken feed if I want to keep the eggs rolling in.

Unfortunately, I can only find a few sacks of feed kicking about, which means hopping back in my truck – which now struggles to start, presumably choked with the farm's ex-management. My plan is to drive around in search of nearby farms to loot, but as I take off down the road, a single chicken struts in front of my car. I screech to a halt and just avoid smearing it with my bumper, but the chicken is remarkably chill about the near miss and patiently waits for me to jump out and collect it. Already forming an attachment with this runaway diva, I pause Zomboid to ask my friends to help name him. Through two competing cries of "Gary" and "Charles", Gary Charles – already the light of my post-apocalyptic life – is born.

The game won't let me put Gary Charles in the passenger seat of my truck (boo), so I detour to drop him off in an intact pen before setting back out. But things are different now. While this playthrough started with an urge to find every basement possible, I realize my new calling is to protect Gary Charles and his egg-laying coworkers at all costs. But as I drive along rural country roads, I spot more and more farmyard animals that the apocalypse has forgotten. Sheep graze in abandoned fields, while pigs stand in front of troughs that will never be filled again. It occurs to me that they all need help, not just Gary, and if I can find some rope and a livestock trailer to transport them, my farm is big enough to house them all. My purpose is clear: I need to transform my base into Knox County's largest animal shelter.

I didn't think anything could trump my unshakeable goblin urge to burrow, but Gary Charles and Knox County's soon-to-be rescued farmyard animals have stolen my heart. Though I wasn't expecting Build 42's beta to be so fulfilling right out of the gate, additions like animal husbandry have already added much-needed purpose to Project Zomboid's later stages. Perhaps one day, I'll find the perfect basement and hunker down – but for now, there's too much to live for on the surface.

Introducing my friends to Project Zomboid ended in disaster, but it's given me a newfound appreciation for the best zombie survival sim around

"He was trying his best," Palworld global community manager John Buckley tells Polygon. At the time, the game's entire dev team was just 35 people, and that's with external developers included. None of them expected the runaway start that made Palworld the third-biggest Steam launch of all time, to say nothing of the Xbox audience which broke 7 million total players by the end of January, and nobody on this planet is ever truly prepared for a launch of this size. Big online games always break for a reason.

Palworld's player count quickly blitzed past 100,000 after the game went live, and that's when the technical problems started to compound. "Throughout the night it kept going," Buckley recalls. "And there was a point, definitely after midnight because a few of us had gone home who lived far away, that the servers broke. That was around a million."

Server host Epic Games worked with Pocketpair to help stabilize the game, and despite some connection and lag issues, Palworld was generally playable for most players outside its absolute lowest dips. "It was a lot of intense lag, but Epic was amazing," Buckley says. "They super quickly allocated more resources to us and they helped out."

Recently, Pocketpair has been wrangling a different Palworld problem: a Nintendo lawsuit which has already seen the dev issue two updates that seem to quietly distance the hit survival game from the patent infringements alleged by Nintendo. Capturing and deploying Pals works a bit differently now, but the game is largely the same mix of survival-craft shooting under the hood.

Despite Nintendo's Palworld lawsuit rumbling on in the background, developer Pocketpair releases its old roguelike card game on the Switch.

"We are back to work tomorrow and I’ve got one single mission: releasing the final update," lead developer Andrew 'Redigit' Spinks said on Bluesky yesterday, which I guess means the studio is back to work as I write this. "My game face is on." In response to a fan making the obligatory 'final update' joke, Spinks added that "Terraria will never die as long as there is one last final update."

Terraria's final update meme goes back to the launch of the Journey's End patch in 2020, which was billed as the last big addition to the game. But then the updates just kept coming, occasionally with teasing names like Journey's Actual End. If my count is correct then the upcoming 1.4.5 patch would be the sixth final update since the game started getting final updates, and I can't help but suspect it won't actually be the last.

1.4.5 has suffered some delays because the devs keep adding more to it, and confirmed it wouldn't make it out in 2024 because they're "committed to being a quality-first studio." That kind of commitment is exactly why the game's fanbase is so devoted.

Palworld and Terraria have a crossover coming in 2025, but the community manager is upset the AI accusations "will stick with us for years."

But hey – look on the bright side! If you're new to Zomboid, agriculture is something you'll not have to worry about for a long time, because you'll be dead long before those broccoli bloom. As someone who's played Project Zomboid for years – I sincerely think it's the best survival sim around – I've taken for granted many of the accumulative skills and tricks that make staying alive easier. The same can't be said for two of my friends, who have just picked up Project Zomboid and are having A Time trying to survive for longer than a day. I've been trying to help them, teaching them the ways of Knox County while trying to keep my own character chugging along, and it's given me a newfound appreciation for Project Zomboid's brutal realism.

This is how you died

In the time it takes me to join our server, both of my fledgling wards have already died. One doesn't realize it yet – he got away from some zombies with "just a bite" and I have to break the bad news – while the other has been torn to shreds in a parking lot. To their credit, the opening minutes of any Zomboid playthrough are often the hardest. You've got no real weapon, your character's skills are still low, and trying to fend off individual zombies creates noise that larger hordes are drawn to. When you're a new player, that's all made worse by the fact that you have no idea where you are (random spawns, baby!), and are yet to learn how to fight zombies without getting bitten.

Through sheer luck, my friends respawn near the two-story house I've started in. I gather both of them and for the next in-game day, our suburb in the town of Muldraugh becomes an unlikely survival bootcamp. Because Zomboid has so many mechanics in play, a lot of its systems aren't the easiest to understand. We start with basics like opening containers and managing inventories (yes, you need a can opener to crack open that tin of beans you're clutching like gold), before moving on to killing zombies.

Because fighting is so inherently dangerous – a single bite is lethal, but even smaller scratches still have a chance of transmitting the infection – dealing with the undead requires an awkward dance of pushing and back-stepping until they fall over, at which point you can stomp on their head until they're dead again. Even then, limited stamina means you can't do this infinitely, and fighting multiple zombies compounds everything, which means our next tutorial is on cleaning and dressing scratches. A lot of this is second-nature to seasoned Zomboid fans, but teaching my friends to keep their bandages clean and watch for signs of infection makes me appreciate just how deep Zomboid's systems have become over the years.

With those basics locked down, it's time for our first real test: a supply run on a nearby warehouse, where I'm hoping to arm us with axes and find the building supplies necessary to fortify our house. It's only a few blocks away, so by avoiding main roads and cutting through gardens we get there fairly easily. Zombies have torn down part of the warehouse's chain-link fence, which I'm told is what led to my friend's last death. As proof, the flayed body of his last character lies between us and the warehouse. In hindsight, I should've clocked that bloody mess as the foreshadowing it was. More importantly, I should have made sure the horde responsible wasn't in the area.

But neither of those things happened. Eager to get axes in the hands of survivors, we flock to the warehouse's main building in search of a way in. Our elation at finding one turns to horror, as clambering through an unlocked window sets off one of the randomly-generated house alarms that are created every time you make a new Zomboid save. In seconds, the fence gap we came in through is clogged with undead drawn by the noise, while the road onto the premises is quickly filling up with tens of infected. Surrounded on all sides, everyone panics and sprints in different directions. One friend runs headlong down the road and – through sheer luck – trips and falls through a small gap in the horde, getting through with only a few cuts. Another sticks by me and we play high-stakes Marco Polo, circling and ducking through zombies until there's an opening in the fence to run through.

But when a new Project Zomboid playthrough begins, it doesn't just sprinkle house-alarmed death traps through Knox County. It also plasters the message "This is how you died" across your screen, warning of a single inescapable truth: whether you've played this game for years, days, or minutes, there's only one way it ends. The friend that escaped on his lonesome was chased into the wilderness outside of town (an honest-to-god impressive feat of running) before being caught by a zombie hidden in shrubbery. The pal that stuck by me through the fence makes it home to our suburban paradise, only to realize that he's been bitten in the chaos. We've also lured a sizable horde back home, which falls to me to deal with. But hours spent passing on my wisdom has unwittingly given me an ego – the worst thing to have in Zomboid – and I bite off more than I can chew, which isn't a problem shared by the crowd that eats me.

The basics of Zomboid are easy to teach. But the game's single unshakeable truth – that you will die, no matter what – is insidiously hard to learn. The more you know about Zomboid, the less you feel it applies to you. But that's not true, and perhaps it took me dying to impart that. Since then we've all made new characters and we're having a blast trying to build the fortress of our dreams. I'm also about to try Zomboid's newly-added Build 42, which doesn't yet have multiplayer enabled but does have basements, chickens, and pigs – which I'm excited to discover in that order. But as I get to grips with grander concepts like animal husbandry, I'll have a newfound appreciation for the smaller details that got us here in the first place. Yes, you need a can opener to eat tinned food – and that's wonderful.

Besides Project Zomboid, here are the best PC games to round out your Steam library with

"Right from the outset, you can do whatever you want. You can follow whatever lines of investigation that you want. Now, given that you'll be poorly equipped, some choices may lead to bad results," says Ryan Greene, art director at Rebellion Developments. "Eventually, maybe you'll understand what the cause of the accident was, and why it may have been hushed up. You'll meet a lot of characters along the way who will have their own angles on that too, and you're free to believe them if you want to. Even though we don't feed it to you in a nice, sequential way, our setup makes for a really rich story. It's kind of like one of those 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books we read as kids."

Into the wilds

Atomfall doesn't have a traditional quest system. It's one of the largest differentiators between this new Rebellion IP and Bethesda's Fallout. The studio – known for its Sniper Elite series, as well as its production of 2000 AD comic books – has been influenced by serialized storytelling which underpinned classic science-fiction. "We like to think of it as the X-Files in the Cold War Lake District," Greene laughs. "It can be difficult to wrap your head around what this game is. There are RPG-ish elements, but it's definitely not an RPG. Atomfall is a detective game. It's a survival game. There's weird stuff happening and you have to adapt to it. You have to talk, you have to research, and you might have to do violence."

There are no quests, only leads. Put another way, there are questions – a lot of questions, and few distinct answers. You awake in 1962, five years after the historic Windscale disaster, without any memory of who you are or where you came from. Leads intersect with one another, contest with, and ricochet off from one another; there's friction inherent to the storytelling as every character you encounter offers their own perspective on the world around them, and present their own leads that you can pursue, leading to different outcomes. Follow the leads you want to, disregard the rest – maybe you'll form a perspective of your own, and get some sense of how this radioactive quarantine zone came to be.

Rebellion has gone out of its way to remove all unconscious bias from Atomfall's story. There's no indication of your character's race, gender, or age; you're a true blank slate by design, an amnesic detective in search of answers. Leads don't cast judgment on a situation, only provide context, allowing you to follow your intuition and form a moral compass. As for how characters around you respond to your actions, well, results can vary. "There's a giant spider web of leads. There are situations where you might do something that befriends one person or upsets another, and there's loads of that happening all the time," says Ben Fisher, creative director for Atomfall. "We signpost that you've found a lead, but we don't tell you if you've lost a lead."

A journal full of lines of potential investigation, dead ends, and perceived misinformation is a key detail in Atomfall, particularly as no inhabitant of this world is safe. "Theoretically, you could play through the game by killing every single character and still find enough leads to uncover a route through the game and understand what's happening," teases Fisher. Greene tells me that there are around "five or six" core ending permeations within Atomfall, and that it's how you choose to pursue leads that will bring each into focus. "You can kill people at certain times of the game that will potentially sever a line to complete an ending," he says, with Fisher adding: "but there are also routes to reconfigure some of them by talking to certain characters, making smart choices, or bartering with traders for different information."

"We want players to question everything, to not trust anyone. We want players to make their own decisions, to adapt to their surroundings, and follow whichever leads they want to," says Greene. Atomfall is open-ended by design, then. Your ability to move through conversation routes isn't defined by underlying character stats, as it may be in a game like Fallout, but is as open-ended as the mission system. If I were to stretch to make a comparison, Atomfall may have more in common with L.A. Noire in this respect, with responses categorized by emotional markers such as 'curious', 'angry', or 'desperate' – giving you the space to play up (or conceal) certain pieces of information or pursue specific lines of investigation based on leads you have accrued so far. The demeanor of characters will change over time the further you submerge yourself within the world, so too can the populations of villages and towns depending on your aggression or apathy.

Follow your intuition

There's a lot to praise about Atomfall's world design. The Lake District in Cumbria setting is visually distinct from your typical American post-apocalyptic setting, with arid expanses swapped out for lush rolling hills and verdant horizons. It's a picturesque scene captured in the aftermath of an atomic incident. The setting has allowed Rebellion to indulge in some traditionally British high-strangeness, best evidenced by the decaying red telephone boxes strewn across the landscape. You'll hear the distinctive ringing tone from afar, a voice on the other end typically offering some sort of cryptic clue once the receiver is brought to your ear: "Oberon must die," the voice may say, before the line clicks dead, a new lead added to your journal.

"Part of the idea for this whole thing was this one time Jason had been out walking in some natural area," says Greene, recalling a story about Jason Kingsley, one of the enigmatic (and somewhat eccentric) co-founders of Rebellion who spends his spare time living as a medieval knight. "He heard this ringing, and there really was a phone box out there in the most unexpected of places. He thought it was the eeriest, weirdest thing, so we knew it would be super fun to get that into Atomfall, because it speaks to that whole English Weirdness vibe."

Atomfall has been in production for around six years, and the decision was made early on to set it within a series of sprawling, interconnected sandboxes rather than a true open-world. "That decision was partially made based on our existing technology at the time," says Greene. "It was going to be a little bit of a heavy tech investment, so we decided to go with this linked sandbox approach." This means that you'll have lushly decorated spaces to explore before encountering a loading screen to the next area, although Greene maintains that Rebellion is going out of its way to make the world feel consistent. "We really tried to make it feel like you're still part of a bigger world. Even if you're in one sandbox you can actually see the neighboring sandboxes around it."

Greene says that there's a whole "network of connections" linking these spaces to one another, encouraging exploration as you wander the wasteland following visual points of interest, and venture below the surface to explore mysterious, deadly military bunkers. Some ways may be blocked by locked doors, the keys accessed by locating it as part of a lead you're following or bartering for the key with a trader. "They might give you a bit of information on the side, or they might have a lead that they will literally trade with you," says Fisher.

As contact in the quarantine zone is cut off from the wider world, there is no currency in place. You'll need to barter with anything and everything you have in your small backpack; weapons and scrap, ammunition, and resources. Although you'll need to be conscious of a trader's predispositions – there are a variety of factions within the world, from pagan cults to military forces, and not everyone will be as willing to part with what they're holding as others might: a pacifist isn't going to see value in an old rusty shotgun, but a member of Protocol might. "We wanted this game to be multidimensional," Greene teases.

Tread carefully 

The non-linear approach to mission and narrative design also applies towards combat. Like Sniper Elite before it, Atomfall gives you multiple routes to approach an objective, and circumvent danger should you want to. Rebellion may be best known for creating first-person shooters, but the barrel of a gun is just one point of interaction within this world. You'll find weapons strewn across the landscape, and wielding a knife or cricket bat could be preferred given how scarce ammunition is – the cascading noise created by gunfire attracting a mass of unwanted attention, a challenge in a game world where even three or four enemies can prove to be insurmountable. "It's more like a bar brawl than a warzone," says Fisher.

You can only quickslot up to four weapons at any one time, and scouring the environment for crafting materials and ammunition will be a constant concern. Rebellion has engineered a light skill system, where military and survival manuals can be unearthed – and combined with a rare Training Stimulant material – to help improve core proficiencies in conditioning, melee, ranged, and survival. That said, the studio is taking a somewhat open approach to difficulty as well. "We don't have traditional difficulty settings, but play style settings instead," says Greene, explaining that the team is keen to support players in the ways that they want to play Atomfall. Fisher adds: "Because the game isn't just about combat we allow the player to choose different play styles that influence the amount of resource scarcity, the intensity of combat, and the amount of guidance for their exploration."

Rebellion believes that the most interesting way to engage with Atomfall is to accept the fine-tunings where "combat is brutal and intense, where exploration is open and unguided, and where resources are scarce. But we don't want to dictate that for people," says Fisher, "we want as many people as possible to play the game." That even extends to the way you can interact with perceived enemies; it's possible to disengage or avoid combat entirely, a small window of opportunity to walk away from a confrontation before blood is spilled, and you'll even see other characters attempt to back away from you too. "You are meeting characters who are doing their best to survive this situation," Fisher adds. "Nobody's right or wrong, they've just got different perspectives on what's happening. It's up to you to decide who you trust. We didn't want the world to feel like a gung-ho warzone, we want it to feel as if everyone is just as desperate for resources as you are."

Atomfall isn't what I was expecting it to be. Rebellion has struggled to separate itself from this idea that it's creating 'Fallout: Cumbria' but the truth is that the studio has set its sights on something far more creatively ambitious. The open-ended approach to combat and world navigation shares DNA with the Sniper Elite series, but the wider scale presented by Atomfall means that there's potential here for something quite transformative – unlike anything we've seen from Rebellion in its 32 year history. Layer the non-linear approach to progression, the potential for something quite special suddenly emerges onto the radar for 2025. "It's all about player choice," says Greene. "You're going to have a lot of options for things to do and see, and then you can piece them together in any order you want to make the story that you end up with. We're so excited to see how players engage with Atomfall."

"I'd put this idea off for so long because of one simple reason: it's impossible," Grazzy says in a recent video explaining how he brought Nintendo's wistful cel-shaded world to the land of cubes. "Replicating every patch of ruins, every settlement, every Guardian – that would be hard enough on its own, but how would I even replicate the terrain of Hyrule itself?"

With help, it turns out. Grazzy used the open source Minecraft map editor WorldPainter, which allows users to sculpt and draw detailed landscapes, to convert a map of Hyrule to stacks of Minecraft blocks. 

From there, Grazzy and a tiny group of Minecraft friends dedicated over 2,000 hours to shading, terraforming, and birthing many trees.

"One of the most tedious tasks at the [beginning of the project] was placing in all of the trees," Grazzy says in his YouTube video. "I was literally placing every tree one at a time." 

By 2024, Grazzy's map was appropriately full of forests and flying dragons, and he became more determined to complete it. 

"Being so close to the end," he says, "I was more motivated than I ever had been. My schedule was cleared, and I put everything else aside to solely focus on finishing this project."

The result of all this brain-melting work is what turned out to be a spectacular Breath of the Wild replica. You can now download the miraculous map for free, and Grazzy notes on Twitter that it can be played in Survival mode.

Want something more custom? Here's our full Minecraft grade to building the best world possible. 

As reported by PCGamesN, the mobile game is incredibly popular already. It contains the original island map as well as five expansion packs, and you can still tame and ride dinosaurs into battle and play with and against others in the game's multiplayer.

As a free-to-play game, it does offer in-app purchases, like a subscription that gives you monthly bonuses or buying all the current and future expansion packs that will be added to the game through 2025.

As with a lot of mobile games, the reviews are very mixed. One one-star review reads: "The interface is absolutely dreadful. I have to press things multiple times, it is very unresponsive [...] They also removed the classic HUD and movement and replaced it with the most unintuitive mobile controles I have ever seen, they don't even make sense."

The writer of a three-star review is enjoying the game more, but notes that "even on the lowest [graphics settings] my phone is crazy hot after 10/15 mins of gameplay," so be wary of that if you want to play for a long time.

A five-star review reads: "This isn't just a port; it's a fully-fledged survival experience that rivals its console and PC counterparts." It also notes there are some lagging issues and a controller is the better way to play the game, though.

I visited my older cousin in his care home today and saw Jurassic Park 3 on the television, which really gave me the itch to get into some dinosaur action, so I downloaded Ark: Ultimate Mobile Edition to give it a quick go, but it's a chunky game. The initial download on my Android was over 1GB, and as I write this I'm waiting for an update of over 3.5GB.

There is a fun little minigame called Download Dodo to play while you wait, though. It's a lot like the little pixel game you see on Chrome browsers when the internet is down, only you have to chop down trees to find berries for the dodo and kill komodo dragons and use their meat to distract larger predators.

If you're waiting for the game to download too, check out our list of the best Android games you can play right now.

Palworld had an incredibly impressive debut, peaking at 2,101,867 concurrent players on Steam back at launch, the third-highest on the platform ever. Since then, the number has gradually dwindled and settled, but as reported by Forbes, Palworld's concurrent player count shot up by nearly 800% this weekend. 

The Feybreak update launched just before Christmas, and this is the first weekend after the holiday, so most of the family festivities are over and a lot of you are probably back home with your games.

At the time of writing, the concurrent player count is 137,309, which is huge for a game that isn't live service. The 24-hour peak is 212,817. The number of you actively playing the game shot up on December 23 when Feybreak released and has been steadily climbing every day since then, although it looks like it's about to hit a plateau.

It's no surprise Feybreak is what brought a lot of you back to the game, it's a huge update. It added built-in Nuzlocke and randomizer modes, a new island, new faction, new Pals, new level cap, new resources, new everything.

Palworld has also had its catching mechanics updated, making it a bit more different from Pokemon, maybe in an effort to appease Nintendo and stop its lawsuit.

A lot of you are very pleased with these changes. "This lawsuit hasn't stopped you, I see," one fan says. "Lesser studios would have crumpled in fear by now. You show bravery in the face of oppression, and I respect you for that."

"I speak for everyone here when I say we are proud of you for making this the best game of its genre," concurs a comment on Steam. "Palworld is everything Pokemon should be, but unfortunately the franchise is in the hands of greedy [...] people. I really hope Nintendo loses! I want justice for Palworld."

While you're here, check out some of the best games of 2024 that you may have missed.

The Feybreak update acts like a mini earthquake for Palworld, shaking up and rearranging many of the early access game's most key features. Along with introducing the new island Feybreak, the update alters how Pal Spheres work, which Pocketpair began differentiating from Pokeballs earlier this month, by adding "modules" that alter a Sphere's trajectory and, in turn, its capture success rate. 

Among a host of other changes to weapons, skins, bug fixes, and more, the Feybreak update also notably adds Vicious Predator Pals that roam Palworld offering the opportunity for extreme battles, a Random Pal Mode for randomized spawns, and a Hardcore Mode that enables permadeath. 

Generally, fans are reacting like they're all seeing snow for the first time. 

"This lawsuit hasn't stopped you, I see," one popular comment on the Feybreak update's YouTube trailer says. "Lesser studios would have crumpled in fear by now. You show bravery in the face of oppression, and I respect you for that."

"I speak for everyone here when I say we are proud of you for making this the best game of its genre," concurs a comment on Steam. "Palworld is everything Pokemon should be, but unfortunately the franchise is in the hands of greedy [...] people. I really hope Nintendo loses! I want justice for Palworld."

Nintendo is notoriously litigious. As just once example Switch hacker Gary Bowser ended up having to serve 14 months in prison and pay $14.5 million in damages. The developer is currently worth over $70 billion, while Bowser is still in the process of returning to some sense of normalcy with the help of a GoFundMe page. 

Palworld has revealed what a Pokemon game should be capable of – here's everything we want to see from Gen 10.

If you haven't played Core Keeper yet, it's an open-world sandbox game in which you explore caverns, investigating an ancient mystery. The game has been a smash hit for developer Pugstorm, releasing on 27 August after two years in early access and reaching 3 million players in less than a month. During The Game Awards earlier this week, Pugstorm announced a new title, Kyora, another pixel-art sandbox game, this time ostensibly inspired by indie titan Terraria.

In a post on Twitter sharing their reveal trailer from The Game Awards, the Swedish developer describes Kyora as having "pixel-by-pixel terraforming", as well as 1-8 player co-op, a procedurally generated open world, and "bosses and dangers and fun". The game takes on the 2D side-scrolling presentation of Terraria, with players building settlements and exploring mines deep in the ground beneath them, again, quite similarly to Terraria.

Unfortunately, if you're excited about the game and were hoping to try it out soon, you may have to wait a while. A release date for Kyora has yet to be announced, with the game's store page on Steam simply listing the release date as 'Coming soon'. Frustrating as that may be for those of us excited to try it out, that simply means we'll have to make do with Terraria and Core Keeper for now, which let's face it, is not exactly much of a hardship.

If you're struggling to keep up with all the upcoming releases, check out our list of games releasing in 2025.

The new Palworld patch notes on Steam detail  "changes to player controls." While it's not immediately clear what that means, players note that something previously flagged by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company as patent infringement now looks quite different. Rather than chucking a Pal Sphere to summon a Pal, much like one would toss a Pokeball for a Pokemon, Pals are now "always summoned near the player." The new animation simply shows a Pal Sphere being unpocketed and a Pal subsequently appearing nearby.

The patch also contains a minor UI change altering how the reticle works, causing it to "now only be displayed while aiming." The tweak to how Pal Spheres and summoning work most certainly seems to be the more significant update, though - and even if it isn't necessarily tied to Nintendo's patent lawsuit, it's a handy adjustment nonetheless. As one player writes in a comment on the patch notes, it's a "nice quality-of-life change."

There's more in store for the survival game, too, with Pocketpair currently teaming up with Re-Logic for a Palworld and Terraria crossover in 2025. A massive new update said to be six times bigger than the Sakurajima patch is also in the works right now and is set to be released sometime later this month. There's no telling what else the future holds, or how Nintendo's lawsuit might continue to shape Palworld's path out of early access.

"I guess it's just easy to be anti-Palworld": Pocketpair developer responds to latest round of controversy as the survival hit squeezes past 20 other games at the TGAs

Revealed during the PC Gaming Show, Greene and his studio confirmed "an ambitious three-game plan" that kicks off with a Steam page for Prologue: Go Wayback! Described as "a single-player open-world emergent game," Prologue: Go Wayback! appears to be the evolution of Prologue, the project that Greene announced in 2019 with a mysterious trailer. A press release confirms the survival and terrain generation that Greene discussed five years ago, and announces that a series of playtests are on their way ahead of an early access Steam release in the second quarter of 2025.

If you want an early look at some of what Greene and his team have been working on before those playtests, however, you'll want to look at Preface: Undiscovered World. A free tech-demo that's available today on Steam, Greene says that Preface shows off "an Earth-scale world generated in real-time." It sounds as though there's not much to see right now, but the feedback provided here will eventually power future games, like third and final announcement: Project Artemis.

Artemis is the least-defined of the three reveals Greene is making today. In a press release, he says his vision for the project is "challenging, but we plan to take it one step at a time." Once the three games are complete - two more "are planned for release in the coming years" after Prologue - Artemis will ensure that the studio will have "a solid tech foundation on which to scale up." Prologue, it seems, is just the start, an attempt to "introduce" players to the emergent worlds that Greene is creating.

On its website, the studio says that the goal of Artemis "is to be able to procedurally generate realistic worlds thousands of kilometres wide as rich and textured as the real world," and the proceed "to let thousands of people loose onto these giant maps." I'm reminded of Light No Fire, the new game from the No Man's Sky team, which similarly intends to create giant worlds to allow players to explore with minimal limitations.

Check out our list of the best survival games - even if next year will offer up some new challengers.

Light of Motiram was revealed last week and promptly gave everyone déjà vu with its concept and visuals. Set in a lush, open world "overrun by colossal machines" called Mechanimals, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were looking at another of Aloy's adventures at first glance. While it'll feel different to play, with it boasting what sounds more like a Palworld-style combination of survival, crafting, and creature collecting elements (you can tame and befriend the Mechanimals), that's not stopped people from calling it "shameless," and even former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has spoken up about it.

Given how similar Light of Motiram looks to the Horizon games, you might have expected that its existence could have raised a few eyebrows over at Sony, but as it stands, that doesn't seem to be the case. As Gematsu reports, a new trailer for the game confirming its release on PS5 has been shared across Chinese PlayStation social media accounts on Bilibili and Weibo, suggesting that the company doesn't mind that Polaris Quest's upcoming release looks like a close relative of one of its main, iconic franchises. 

It was previously confirmed that Light of Motiram would be coming to PC as a free-to-play release next year, but Gematsu also reports that it's slated for a mobile release across Android and iOS– when translated via Google, the video descriptions of the aforementioned PS5 trailer mention that "mobile test recruitment" will be happening soon. It'll be interesting to see what it's like when it launches – on paper, the mechanics and concept sound like potentially loads of fun, but it remains to be seen if similarities and comparisons to existing games like Horizon will weigh it down. 

You can check out our roundup of the best survival games to play now for some new recommendations in the meantime.

Developer Re-Logic's side-scrolling crafting game has become legendary since its 2011 debut thanks to more than a decade of free post-launch support, popularity that had it surpass Super Mario Bros' sales record recently, and, of course, just how damn good the actual game is. But we'll need to wait a while longer before its next beefy update.

"The work on the final lists from each dev team member is nearing its conclusion, which is a great measure of progress," the studio writes in a recent blog post. "That said, we are pretty certain that there is no way that we will see Terraria 1.4.5 release this year. To make a long story short, end-of-year releases (especially if you are trying to sync launch across PC-Mobile-Console AND do so globally at the same time) are fraught with peril due to review cycles, people leaving early for the holidays, etc." 

Re-Logic says it doesn't want to have its own team "or anyone else's team" work overtime to hit an "arbitrary deadline," hence the delay. "We are sure that will not be welcome news for many - but we remain committed to being a quality-first studio, so we will take the time necessary for each update to feel 'just right'... and we think that once the update is out, everyone will appreciate that time and care. Apologies for this one taking so long for sure, but it will be well worth it."

Terraria's popularity hasn't stopped each update from becoming somewhat of a meme, though. The game's 1.4 update was supposed to be the "Journey's End" four years ago. That was until we got the "Journey's Actual End" in update 1.4.1. And then update 1.4.2. And then... you get the gist. 

Originally planned for a 2023 release, Terraria 1.4.5 is taking a while longer than its predecessors as the studio recently claimed it kept adding more and more stuff to it. (If you're going to actually close the chapter on Terraria, you might as well do it in style, I guess.)

See where Terraria dug itself in our best crafting games list. 

Yesterday, the official Palworld Twitter account announced its upcoming 2025 collaboration with Terraria and also suggested there was another update for the game on the way this year. Community manager Bucky gave a not-so-subtle clue that the news would be revealed today, and it was.

We don't know the name of this new update yet, but we do know it's coming in December, so it could be here in just a few days. The Palworld Twitter account writes: "Survive on the largest, harshest, and most mysterious new island in Palworld! The size of the new island is about six times more than Sakurajima!"

The pictures shared certainly do evoke a sense of intrigue. There are large crystals poking up from trees and cave floors, as well as what appears to be a new Pal - a golden version of Warsect. It has menacing bronze horns and three sharp claws on both hands. I hope he's good at mining.

The game's previous major update, simply called the Sakurajima update, added a new island and even more Pals, so it stands to reason this one would follow the same formula. That update saw its player count go from 15,000 to 140,000, but the devs say the figures don't matter at all as long as someone is having fun with the game.

If you've not picked it up yourself yet, now is a good time, as it's 25% off. I first started playing Palworld at launch writing guides for it, and I was surprised at how feature-complete it felt for an early access survival game. It has its fair share of bugs and glitches, sure, but I sank a few dozen hours into it easily. With the holidays around the corner, it might be time for me to strand myself in its world again.

"No, I don't think Palworld was snubbed": Palworld community lead responds to Game Awards backlash, says "Not everything is a conspiracy."

As Gematsu reports, developer Polaris Quest is a subsidiary of Tencent Games, and to its credit, its survival and crafting game looks very pretty, with lush and vibrant environments. But something about it feels rather… familiar. It's set in a "world overrun by colossal machines," and, well, anyone who's played Horizon Zero Dawn or Forbidden West will know that concept well. 

The machines populating Light of Motiram's world are called 'Mechanimals,' and they look like they could be direct relatives of Aloy's mechanic foes. You'd be forgiven for mistaking one bull-like Mechanimal for one of Horizon's Broadheads, for example. Their placement in the aforementioned lush world makes everything seem even more similar, too – the Horizon vibes are undeniable, and onlookers have been quick to point that out.

"I am colossally amused there is no shame left," says Dr. Serkan Toto, the CEO of Japan game industry consultancy Kantan Games. 

Game news account @Genki_JPN similarly calls it "shameless," while another says it's like a combination of "Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, and Frozen Wilds all together."

Despite this, it sounds like it'll play differently than Guerrilla's Horizon games. In fact, if we're making comparisons, its gameplay actually seems quite akin to Palworld. Players will be tasked with building a base and can tame and train over 100 Mechanimals – customizable to be given "exclusive battle modes and production traits," making them helpful companions regardless of whether you need "combat support or a boost to production."

Additionally, players can explore the world with friends in "seamless" co-op, which will support up to 10 players. It also mentions cross-play, although at the time of writing, the game has only been announced for Steam and the Epic Games Store. 

Anyway, it appears that the Palworld developers over at Pocketpair are aware of the comparisons between Light of Motiram and their own survival game, but they're certainly not complaining. Responding to one person calling Polaris Quest's upcoming title a "Horizon x Palworld style game," Pocketpair community manager Bucky simply says: "Palworld mentioned – POG." 

We'll just have to wait and see if Light of Motiram can set itself apart a bit more when it's actually launched – for the time being, no release window has been given.

In the meantime, be sure to check out our recommendations for the best survival games and best PC games you can play now.

No Man's Sky has been receiving far more positive Steam reviews than negative since about 2017, when the game's chain of major, free content updates really got going in earnest. But those positive reviews had not been enough to counterbalance the tens of thousands of negative reviews that piled on at its mediocre launch.

Earlier this year, Hello Games founder Sean Murray celebrated on social media when No Man's Sky reached 78% positive reviews. Murray said at the time that he "never thought it possible, but guys we might hit Very Positive one day." That day, it turns out, was not so far in the future.

"Holy shit you guys - it happened," Hello Game founder Sean Murray said on Twitter today in a message of gratitude to fans. "You have no idea what this means to us."

While No Man's Sky disappointed prospective fans at launch, it's become the go-to example of a game elevated from 'disappointment' to 'stone-cold classic' thanks to a dev team that never stopped responding to the community's feedback. The next (and final) milestone would be the "Overwhelmingly Positive" label, which would require No Man's Sky to reach 95% positive reviews. Averages being what they are, every new percentage point is going to be that much harder to claw back - but hey, Hello Games has already put eight years into No Man's Sky. Who's to say another eight aren't on the way?

The next project for Hello Games is Light No Fire which - dare I say it? - looks even more ambitious than No Man's Sky.

Stalker 2 Drowned gun location

The Stalker 2 Drowned weapon is right on the edge of the pond in front of Boo, propped up against a ruined bit of concrete. While it sounds like it would be somewhere deep in the pond, it’s actually right in the open – somehow, the lazy bastard can’t just walk down and grab his own weapon, but this gives you a good opportunity to keep Drowned or hand it over.

Should you keep the Stalker 2 Drowned gun?

When you return to Boo with his beloved Drowned AKM, you’ll have the option to either give it back to him or say you’ll keep it. Saying you’ll keep it is generally the better option as Boo offers no rewards for giving to him and doesn’t fight back if you keep it, and what kind of Stalker would turn down a free gun? With that said, Drowned is far from perfect and needs a lot of work, so you could consider it useless if you think you’ve got something much better already.

Firstly, you’ll find that it’s at zero durability and therefore needs a technician’s touch for some Stalker 2 gun repairs but this will set you back 11,500 coupons. Poor durability also means you can’t sell it for profit either. Next, you can only use the underbarrel grenade launcher if you’ve got the correct VOG-25 grenades to load into it, which is another resource to both gather and manage, taking up inventory space and weight – though certain Stalker 2 mods can help with this.

Overall, I think Drowned is certainly worth keeping, but it’s not something you should expect to use to its full effect for a while. There are other Stalker 2 guns that will help you out more reliably in the early game, so it’s best to store Drowned and come back for it later when you’ve found grenades and adequate coupons for repairs and upgrades.

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How to turn on your flashlight in Stalker 2 and stop the game being too dark

To turn on your Stalker 2 flashlight, press RB on Xbox or Tab on PC and press the same button again to turn it off – that’s it! Thankfully, you don’t even have to worry about batteries, so you can leave your flashlight on all the time. The game has some incredibly dark areas, particularly at night as in the Stalker 2 There and Back Again prologue.

The flashlight is admittedly not very powerful, so if things are still too dark in Stalker 2 you might want to adjust some in-game display settings. To do that, pause the game, open the “Options” menu, then switch over to the “Display” tab. Here you can adjust brightness and gamma settings, as well as HDR if you’ve got that running.

Obviously turning up brightness and gamma will improve visibility though might make the game look a bit more washed out. Turning off HDR will make your game less vivid but should also push shadows and darkness a little further from true black. Although, if you’re wondering why the Stalker 2 compiling shaders message pops up every time, that’s its own issue.

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How to use a bolt to escape the anomalous field in Stalker 2

To get out the anomalous field in Stalker 2, look at one section of the field’s edge and throw a bolt at it – you can quickly equip bolts by selecting them at the bottom of your equipment radial menu. It doesn’t matter if you do an overarm or underarm throw, so once the bolt hits the field, it creates a temporary gap that you can sprint through to get out.

It seems simple but if you keep getting killed by the anomaly, it’s probably because you’re running through the gap too early, too late, or aren’t getting far enough away from the field on the other side. The gap you create in the field only stays open for three seconds or so, which means you have to really run like hell, as Richter says. The field also has a sort of area-of-effect damage zone that can be lethal, even if you don’t touch it, so keep running a little further after you’ve made it through.

For whatever reason, the anomalous field also features an anomaly tornado that, if you happen to wander into, will strip off about half your health. If that happens to also be harming you, watch out for the swirling leaves while figuring out your escape.

Importantly, hazards like these anomalies appear a lot as you explore the Zone in Stalker 2. You’ll randomly happen across warped anomalous field barriers and tornadoes as above, as well as patches of electricity and acid pools, so bear our Stalker 2 tips in mind and listen out for your detector and keep a vigilant eye out for danger! There's also a big one you'll encounter when you have to find the dog collar near bulba in STALKER 2 that's a whole thing.

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How to repair your weapons in Stalker 2 using a technician

To repair weapon durability in STALKER 2, you can get a Technician to fix your guns in exchange for coupons. Technicians are a merchant you can find in larger settlements, like the starting town of Zalissya (not long after escaping the first of the STALKER 2 Anomalies), where a character called Lens will fix your weapons (in the building next to Warlock's bar).

To get any technician to repair your STALKER 2 weapons, speak to them to open dialogue, then press X (on the Xbox controller) to open the Technician menu. Once there, select a broken weapon and press X again to fully repair it, bringing its durability back up to 100. The lower a gun's durability, the less accurate it is and the more likely it is to jam while you fire, so keeping weapons in good shape is very important.

Repairing a gun is only free for the starting Skif's Pistol (and then that too starts to cost money after the first upgrade), and all other weapons will cost you a surprisingly high amount of money to see them fixed - the cost of repairs increases based on the amount of durability that needs to be restored, so more significant repairs for a weapon will set you back more cash, as with the Stalker 2 Drowned gun, which costs over 10,000 coupons to repair!

Since weapons degrade through firing them and through carrying them around in hazardous areas of the zone, there's not really a way to prevent wear and tear, so it's always best to ensure you've got a sufficient coupons for emergency repairs. And since STALKER 2 fast travel only works between settlements, if you get caught out in the Zone with broken gear you've got a long and perilous walk head of you.

What to do with broken guns in Stalker 2

While you can sell damaged weapons with a yellow shield icon, weapons with a red cracked shield icon cannot be sold for coupons in Stalker 2. That means, in the early game, it's often better to just find new guns in the world to replace broken ones instead of shelling out exorbitant amounts of money to fix the unremarkable weapons you've found so far. If your weapon has any attachments on it, make sure you remove those first and, as our STALKER 2 tips say, make sure you unload any ammo too.

Your other option is to obviously just pay the fee to get it repaired if it's a weapon you really like. However, you could instead drop it or put it in a stash, then put a map marker on that spot. That way, you won't be carrying a deadweight gun and you can easily grab it later once you've got the required coupons to get it repaired.

It's not long after reaching Zalissya where you'll have the choice to kill or help Squint in STALKER 2, the consequences of which we've explain there.

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It's not the most straightforward side mission in STALKER 2 Heart of Chornobyl given it’s really not quite clear what difference you’ll make. But, there is a reward. This STALKER 2 The Lost Boys walkthrough will tell you how to complete the quest, as well as what the best choice is between the Ninth or Dew.

Mastiff's group last location in Stalker 2

Firstly, you need to find where Mastiff and his gang went missing. The blue waypoint will guide you there, but you essentially need to head south of Zalissya for a few hundred meters until you find a concrete bunker-like entrance. Head inside and you'll now need to figure out what happened to the gang.

Loot any bodies you see and keep heading deeper into the facility - watch out as you'll come across plenty of electrical Stalker 2 anomalies - until you find an incapacitated man called Max Saturday. Heal him up then speak to him to learn that a Monolithian took Mastiff. Next, turn on the power using the level behind Max, then use the nearby door to escape the facility.

Find Mastiff in Stalker 2

Now you need to find Mastiff, which means you've got to head southeast of the facility you were just in for several hundred meters, following the blue waypoint. You'll eventually reach a small collection of buildings, one of which is a house which Mastiff is in as you can hear him groaning in pain. However, the door inside is locked and there's no way to open it.

To get inside, head to the smaller shack next to the house (it's to the right of the front door) break the yellow padlock to get inside the shack. You'll notice a large hole in the floor which leads into an underground tunnel that conveniently ends on the other side of that locked door in the house, and you'll also find Mastiff lying on a bed here.

He's babbling about checking the attic, so doing that leads you to finding the Ninth. Speak to him, and you'll eventually be interrupted by Dew and his cronies. At this point, you've now got to choose if you'll help the Ninth fight Dew, or if you'll kill the Ninth now or agree to help Dew do the same.

Choosing the Ninth in Stalker 2 The Lost Boys

If you side with the Ninth and defend him from Dew's forces, you'll have to kill the mercenaries outside, though the Ninth will help you do this. This isn't an easy fight - there are several of them with strong weapons, though if the fight goes inside, the Ninth should help you (though he risks getting killed in the process).

After the shootout, speak with the Ninth again to get a little information about him and his faction, as well as the Rubber Layer blueprint, an upgrade you can apply to improve certain equipment at any Technician (the merchants where you go to repair weapons in STALKER 2).

Once you go back to Lens, he'll still pay you 500 coupons for finding Mastiff, though warn you that the average character in STALKER 2 won't even be as tolerant towards Monolithians as he is (and he gets off some nasty words about them along the way).

Choosing Dew in Stalker 2 The Lost Boys

If you choose Dew, you'll have to fight the Ninth. He's only one man, but he has notably more health than any of Dew's forces, acting as a kind of tank. Still, once you bring him down, you'll see that he doesn't have much in the way of loot.

Instead, the value to this choice comes when you go back to Lens, who will give you 1000 coupons for completing the quest, double what he gives you otherwise. Still, this choice means you don't get the blueprint, so there are pros and cons to doing so.

Can you stop Dew from attacking the Ninth?

Trying to get a non-violent route through the Lost Boys quest where you talk down Dew from attacking the Ninth is impossible, despite the Ninth suggesting that you could try doing so. If you try to tell him the house is empty, he searches it anyway (leading to a firefight where he attacks the Ninth) and if you tell him the Monolithian is telling the truth, he decides you're a traitor and begins combat. It means that going the dialogue route won't save anybody - one way or another, either Dew and his team or the Ninth have to die.

Want more choices laid out? See if you should help or kill Squint in STALKER 2, or who should you give the religious icon to in STALKER 2.

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How to find the Stalker 2 Poppy Field root cellar

Your first objective in The Poppy Field side mission in STALKER 2 is to find where the root cellar is, and it's on the western side of the poppy field not too far from one of the derelict houses - see the above map image. What you're looking for is a simple hole in the ground at that point with a ladder leading down into the cellar - the Religious Orthodox Icon is down there on a shelf.

However, when you reach the poppy field marked on your map, you'll get hailed by Pomor who we recommend speaking to before you go for the cellar to help you get maximum rewards for this side quest. It's also a good idea to bring lots of energy drinks with you as you'll need them to counter the field's sleep-inducing effects!

Speak to Pomor in his shack on the eastern edge of the poppy field and he'll tell you that he knows where the root cellar you're seeking is - obviously, you can just tell him you'll find it yourself. Importantly, Pomor will suggest that you could give him the icon instead of Mityay for some rewards.

With that, you can head into the poppy field root cellar and grab the icon, but then you'll need to decide if you'll go back to Pomor or Mityay.

Who should you give the Stalker 2 Poppy Field Religious Icon to?

The best choice for the Religious Icon in the STALKER 2 Poppy Field side mission is to give it to Pomor, kill him, take it off his body, and then take it to Mityay. As brutal as this is, it means you can get both rewards and effectively get the benefits of both choices, and as we've seen so far, there aren't any downsides or negative penalties to killing Pomor (who is already characterised as a slightly shady grave robber who is, at the very least, not warning people about the dangers of the Poppy Field so he can loot their bodies).

If you give the Religious Icon to Pomor, you get the Unknown Stalker's AR416, a full auto assault rifle. It's fair as an early game weapon, but there's one issue - despite the description saying it's been well-taken care of, it's at a mere 10% durability and jams with use. You'll need to bring it to a technician (which is how to repair weapons in STALKER 2, if you weren't aware), though this is an expensive repair job - over 7000 coupons when we tried. You can even raid his locked back room with the key on his corpse.

If you give the Religious Icon to Mityay, you simply get 1000 coupons and Mityay's thanks. If you killed Pomor before this, it doesn't even get mentioned - the dialogue is the same regardless. Giving the icon to Pomor then Mityay means you get the gun and the coupons, so that's definitely the best course of action for this STALKER 2 side mission.

The Poppy Field isn't the only side mission with a choice involved. Find out about the STALKER 2 The Lost Boys choice here.

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Full walkthrough and guide for There and Back Again in STALKER 2

The full walkthrough for the STALKER 2 There and Back Again tutorial mission is laid out below, but one thing to keep in mind ahead of time is that you should quicksave from the pause menu often, especially just before and after major challenges. This is one of our main STALKER 2 Tips generally, as the Heart of Chornobyl is pretty merciless and the game will force you to reload a save if you die - and you will die often. When it happens, better to only have to go back a few minutes than anything further.

Cross the Perimeter

Once STALKER 2 is done Compiling shaders and you've spoken to Hermann outside the wall, you'll climb over the top and have to progress forward, having now officially started There and Back Again and STALKER 2 itself. Here are the first steps you need to take:

1. Head straight ahead to the crack in the high perimeter wall, to the left of the glowing anomaly. Make sure you turn on your STALKER 2 flashlight too.
2. Climb through the gap so you're inside the wall itself.
3. Follow the path right for some optional supplies at the end (you'll need to break them open with your knife). Then head back left and take the other path that slopes down into the sewers.
4. Before you head on, loot the wall cabinet next to the boarded up door for medical items.

Go through the Sewer Tunnel

This section is where you'll first start encountering dangers, and the medkits you found can come in useful.

1. Use your knife to break down the wooden boards blocking the door.
2. Head down the corridor until you come to a door with a yellow padlock. Hit the padlock with your knife to open it.
3. Go through into the sewer pipe, climbing over the obstacles ahead of you. Follow it around; you'll hear some chatter from the South Checkpoint.
4. There'll be a soldier's body on the right with an SMG and PDA. Loot it. You wont't get to keep any STALKER 2 guns you get at this point but you'll still need it for now.
5. A ball of electricity is moving around the sewer on a loop. Follow it closely down the pipe (without getting too close) past another lootable body until it raises up.
6. At the end of the pipe, turn left. From that point on, follow each turn that brings you in the direction of the main objective marked on your compass until you reach the opening and emerge back into the open world.

Get to the Mobile Lab

Now you're out in the wild, you need to find the mobile lab structure.

1. Follow the objective marker, circling around radioactive spots (marked by radiation signs).
2. You may encounter enemies along the way. Back up and fire in controlled bursts for the best chance. There'll also be ruined houses you can loot for more items.
3. The mobile lab is a large, stone bunker. Use the yellow ladders on its side to climb to the top.
4. On top of the mobile lab, look for the red light - there's a hatch underneath you can use to climb down into the lab itself.
5. Make sure to interact with the ladder! Fall damage in STALKER 2 is significant, and you risk death if you fall down.

Finding Nehoda and Scanning Points Data

The lab isn't dangerous, so feel free to explore and loot everything. If you need help with the quest within, here's what to do.

1. Follow the path around to the West side of the lab to find Nehoda's body. Loot the PDA off it, and turn on the fuse box right next to the body.
2. Head back around to the ladder you came in through. Next to that is a room with a body and a laptop - interact with the laptop to trigger a radio message.
3. You can now leave the lab by the North East door next to the body in the orange hazmat suit.

How to find the Artifact in the Anomalous Field

To find the artifact, you need to walk into the green acid swamp with the detector in hand. The artifact itself is invisible until you get close enough - specifically head to the fallen barrel in the middle. Once the blue light on the detector goes solid, the artifact will appear near your feet in a little flash of light. We've got a picture of what you're looking for just above, and it's called The Slug - grab it and equip it in your inventory.

Scanning the Different Points

The next step of STALKER 2 is about Scanning several different points. Follow the objective markers, but look out for enemies. Both bandits and mutants will appear randomly - right now it's better to stealth around them, but otherwise run away from mutants/animals while shooting behind you, while using cover to fight the bandits.

When you get to the first of the objective markers, there'll be a swirl of blue energy with the option to "set scanner" in the middle. Immediately back away! There'll be a circle of blue energy around the scanner. Keep out of it until it's done making glowing lights before getting it again (otherwise you risk taking damage).

The second scanner is inside a cave, so make sure you head down one of the attached tunnels to get to a safe distance. This time, there'll also be jets of fire from the ground for you to avoid.

The third point triggers a cutscene where Skif hides inside a house. We won't spoil what happens, but you're moved to a different location when it's done.

How to get out of the Anomalous Field

Once you're in the new location and meet a friendly dog, you'll be surrounded by anomalies and given some bolts. We actually put together a full guide on how to escape the anomaly in STALKER 2, but if you want the quick version, you're surrounded by lethal singularities. Throwing a bolt at one shuts it down and makes it safe for about two seconds before it becomes lethal again - that gap is your chance to sprint through the area you triggered with the bolt.

Once out of the area, speak with Richter, the man who threw you the bolts. At this point you're basically out of the tutorial and in the main game. There are still gameplay features to be explained, and we recommend following Richter's advice and going to the town of Zalissya for the clearest path ahead - this eventually leads you to the STALKER 2 Squint choice too. Otherwise, you're now officially in STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl - and best of luck to you.

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This is just one decision of many in Heart of Chornobyl. Getting this far in the game means you’ve already decided whether to help or kill Squint and who you should give the sensors to in STALKER 2. And while Squint doesn't really change anything, apart from maybe your own moral code, the sensor choice decides how you get to Solder and goes on to affect where you go after.

Stalker 2 Solder choice explained

Both shooting Solder dead and knocking him out in Stalker 2 seemingly have no immediate consequences, so it’s up to you how you deal with him. You get the information you need before this choice, so you’re effectively just tying up a loose end. Whatever you decide, make sure you loot the entire room and his bunk afterwards for healing items, food, and the High-Capacity PTM Magazine attachment,m a useful addition to your STALKER 2 guns.

In the confrontation before this choice, Solder admits that he just marks anomalies on maps and occasionally sells that information on the side, so he did not intentionally stitch up Hermann and yourself with bad information. He also explains that he has no idea where the Scanner has been taken as a person known as Nestor oversees the “Scanner business”, not him, and he reveals that Nestor is north of Zalissya.

It might be that this Solder choice is more significant if knocking him out causes him to reappear later in Heart of Chornobyl, but no one on the GamesRadar+ team has seen him again. Solder also admits he’s small fry in his work as an IPSF technician and that Nestor is more important, so it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll make a significant comeback. You also don't get anything for either option, unlike something like when you have to choose who to give the religious icon to in STALKER 2, a choice that comes with very different rewards.   

 
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Our STALKER 2 There and Back Again walkthrough will have gotten you to this point, hopefully. So let's take a look at what's next in STALKER 2’s second mission.

Should you kill Squint in STALKER 2

You can attack Squint almost as soon as you meet him in STALKER 2, but this is not a good option as it will limit who you can give the Ward Sensors to in STALKER 2 afterwards as you'll only be able to return them to Captain Zotov. Additionally, you also miss out on the Piece of Cake side quest, which leads you to an artifact. It's far better to go along with his escape plan (for now) until you can at least get something out of him, for the Zone is a harsh place in STALKER 2.

Should you help Squint in STALKER 2

Choosing to help Squint in STALKER 2 with his escape plan will have you heading off to a cave to find an artifact he says he can use to get away. This starts a side mission called Piece of Cake, where you'll have to find a cave entrance inside a house, which is here on the map:

Be careful in the cave as you'll get attacked by an invisible bloodsucker when you enter, so be ready for a fight. Once it's dead, move through the cave, being sure to search several bodies you'll find along the way for healing items and ammo.

The artifact can be found in the part of the cave full of acid pools and gas. Use your detector to locate it, by finding where the bleeps are fastest. It appears to be a little fiddly and the artifact might only appear when you're more or less right on top of it. For me it was here, right by the exit out of the acid area:

Once you have the Mold artifact you can head back to Squint. The only thing he can give you as a reward for getting it are the Ward sensors, admitting that he doesn't even know what they are.

Help Squint then kill him in STALKER 2

There is a third option that's actually the best depending on your attitude to simulated betrayal and murder... thought so. If you get the artifact for Squint and then say you're keeping it, he will attack you and you can kill him with no repercussions. Collect the Ward Sensors, the artifact you retrieved, and all his other gear, making this the best option - for you at least.

This is far from the only time you'll have to decide someone's fate and this mission thread will eventually lead you to deciding if you should shoot or knock out Solder in STALKER 2.

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The crate is certainly worth the time and effort though with a new pistol and superior body armor just a few well-timed leaps away. Here’s everything you need to know about getting the STALKER 2 Journalist Stash in Zalissya, so that you can walk away smugly with some stellar new gear.

STALKER 2 Zalissya Journalist Stash location

The STALKER 2 Journalist Stash in Zalissya is found in the roof of a house with a blue flatbed truck parked around the side, just beyond the northern edge of the town. To reach the stash, you need to sprint and jump onto the front of the truck and then jump onto the roof of the house. From there, you can drop down onto the balcony above the front door and then walk through the hole in the wall to get inside the roof where you’ll find the blue stash trunk.

That sounds simple but jumping onto the truck’s hood is incredibly finnicky as you can’t mantle onto it (for whatever reason, you can’t climb onto the perfectly good flatbed at the back of the truck either). You need to sprint at one of the headlights and time your jump so that your feet catch the bodywork as you’re at the apex of your jump. After that, it’s just a case of hopping onto the truck's roof and then the roof of the house. If you're having a lot of trouble it might be worth checking your weight, as that can stop you jumping entirely if you're carrying too much.

STALKER 2 Zalissya Journalist Stash rewards

For your gymnastic efforts, you can claim the following items from this STALKER 2 Journalist Stash in the Zalissya house roof:

• PTM Monolith pistol
• Mercenary’s Light Suit body armor
• Journalist’s message #2
• 36 rounds of 9x18mm PST ammo

The Monolith pistol is a decent upgrade on Skif’s starting PTM, packing a little more penetration, while the Mercenary Light Suit is a substantial improvement on the basic armor Skif has. There are plenty of other Journalist Stashes to be on the lookout for and, as our STALKER 2 tips say, it’s always a good idea to plunder these as you venture across the Zone as they contain some solid gear.

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The short answer is that when STALKER 2 is compiling shaders, it's reworking a bunch of graphical tricks and turning them into something your PC can use. While you might be used to seeing this message happen once, in STALKER 2, it’s a repetitive task. Shaders are basically fancy maths that moves and changes pixels on the screen to manipulate different visual effects, and covers everything from textures, lighting, and shadows that you’ll experience throughout the game. It's an extra layer on top of basic shapes and lights that makes things a whole lot look better.

However, to ensure STALKER 2 runs smoothly, shaders need to be converted into as simple a form as possible, and specifically to suit your set up - different PC components, GPUs, drivers and so on mean a unique compiling process. It can take an annoying amount of time, so games often compile shaders right at the start of the game. If they tried to do it as and when, it’d cause stuttering and slow down the game, which is arguably even more annoying.

How Stalker 2 fast travel works

Fast travel in Stalker 2 is only possible through Guides – special NPCs you can find at established settlements, such as Zalissya, the Chemical Plant, and the Slag Heap. They’re marked on the map with a green crosshair icon.

Approach and tell them that you’re “looking for a guide” and you’ll be presented with several locations that you’ve previously visited and have their own guides that you can be taken to, as well as the price in coupons for the trip – from my experience this is typically at least 1,500 coupons, so it’s not particularly cheap. Pick whichever destination you want to reach, then you’ll pay the fee and will be teleported there after a black loading screen.

It's a simple system but does have quite a few somewhat realistic limitations in that you must visit locations to unlock them as fast travel destinations, and you can’t fast travel from anywhere as you must physically speak to a Guide. Obviously, you’ll only find helpful Guides in non-hostile territory, which means they’re quite rare given how dangerous the Zone is, so don’t expect to have lots of options when it comes to fast travel in Stalker 2.

The first Guide you’ll come across is Uncle Lyonya in Zalissya, but you won’t be able to use his services until you’ve found other places to visit that he can take you to. For example, having pursued the Ward path after giving the Stalker 2 Ward Sensors to Captain Zotov, I later found a Guide called Toadstool just outside the Chemical Plant, letting me travel between the two settlements.

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Stalker 2 workshop entrance and keycard locations

The locked keycard door in the ransacked Stalker 2 workshop is actually the exit, with the real entrance being a concrete tube with a big hole in the side. It should be quite easy to spot on the north side of the workshop building. Jump through the hole in the concrete tube and then knife the yellow wooden planks to fall into the basement.

Now, you’ve essentially just got to loot the place to find the clue you need for The Price Goes Up. Start by heading right towards the Scanner and chuck some bolts at any dangerous fire anomalies – just like with the Stalker 2 anomalous field at the start of the game.

Deactivate the Scanner by approaching its control panel and following the “turn off” prompt, though watch out for its periodic electrical outbursts. After that, head up the stairs just beyond and loot the dead body. You’ll find a blue keycard on this poor sod’s corpse, which is conveniently both the keycard to get out of this Stalker 2 workshop and the clue you need for the mission.

Finally, head back the way you came, passing the Scanner, then go down the corridor roughly straight ahead with a ladder at the end. Climb up then interact with the keycard swipe panel to get out. Don’t forget to also loot the room to the right of the door through the smashed brick wall, but otherwise, you can head back to Diode to hand over the Stalker 2 workshop keycard.

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Speaking in a recent thread, Buck addresses the rumors from players alleging that Palworld should've been nominated. "No, I don’t think Palworld was snubbed," he writes. "Twitter has become such a banterless place. Stop being so overdramatic gamers. Not everything is a conspiracy." He then jokes that while Palworld may not have been "snubbed," that doesn't mean other games weren't - like Satisfactory, for instance.

"That being said…Satisfactory was 1000% snubbed," jests the community lead, "and I’ll be voicing that opinion ad nauseam at The Game Awards in person." Amusingly, Satisfactory's own community manager and programmer Snutt Treptow has left a comment under Bucky's post since, writing that "the award was all the friends we made along the way!" In response, Bucky leaves an emoji depicting eyes and says "So true…but also…"

Other replies are just as humorous, offering a breath of fresh air amid the conspiracies that Bucky was originally addressing himself. "I talked to every judge and said 'Don't nominate Palworld or else' and then I pounded my fist into my palm to show them what 'or else' meant," reads one from Kinda Funny's Greg Miller. Overall, it's a wholesome thread in my opinion - stemming from a level-headed approach to quite a heavy topic, too.

Balatro creator reacts to The Game Awards noms by telling you to play other indie games that weren't nominated: "I just happen to be the lucky one to be propped up

I love Starbound - so much so, that I've waited patiently for news of fresh content for years now. When I saw the notification on Steam that an update was rolling out for the indie gem, I thought my dreams were finally coming true. Nope, the update is a very minor hotfix containing a "tiny changelist" with just one little tweak "to resolve a launch issue" apparently: "Fixed issue preventing launch on new MacOS since Sequoia 15.1 update."

No words could've pained me more to read, as a hopeful longtime stan. After learning that the sci-fi sandbox game was finally coming to Xbox recently, I really thought that Chucklefish might have more up its sleeve - and not a hotfix. It seems I'm not the only one who feels this way, either. On the official "patch notes" post on Steam, if you can call it that, fellow fans are sharing their surprise (and disappointment) about the update.

"Now this was unexpected," writes one player. Another declares that they "want some more content" - a statement I feel we can all agree on. "No way," read countless others. Maybe the update we've waited years for will come one day, or maybe, if we're really lucky, we'll even get some news regarding the developer's upcoming game - the adorable and magical RPG Witchbrook, a whimsical experience reminiscent of Stardew Valley that looks enchanting.

Check out these other upcoming indie games for even more to look forward to.

However, rather than gaming's usual solution of killing everything that moves to restore peace to the land, there's a rather neat eco-friendly slant that sees you rebuilding damaged biomes, planting seeds, growing trees, and helping the animals that start to re-inhabit your new Eden-like gardens. Don't worry, you still get to kill scuttling monstrosities too. Win-win.

It plays out as a third-person adventure, as you control a young, mute human, handily the only one who can use and transfer the power of "Amity". Think of this like The Force from Star Wars, only without the levitation. Amity runs through everything, so if you kill an innocent creature – which is necessary sometimes for hunting – you lose Amity. Conversely, destroy a Withered Nest, feed animals, or heal injured ones, and you gain Amity. It's spent on leveling up trees, shrines, and fast travel portals, so you'll need lots of it.

Rock Aghasba

To begin with, you're not even armed, allowing you to just wander off and explore the more gentle island you start on, perhaps throwing stones at Withered spiders. Towers of Aghasba's prologue area is still impressively large and you'll soon discover some rather beautiful architectural elements, remnants of the lost civilisation that came before. The naturalistic graphics are particularly great when drawing stonework, which is lucky because there's a lot of that. The dynamic lighting moves from day to night, with gorgeous shadows and some pretty phenomenal close-up detail. It's a visual feast.

However, after the first couple of hours spent swimming in crystalline waters and climbing mountains in order to jump off and seamlessly glide down with your parachute or glider, things start to get fetch quest-y and much darker, and the experience becomes all about crafting with occasional town building as a reward. Now, it really must be stressed, the game is not really like its trailers for at least tens of hours – that's all very late game stuff they're showing off. The huge animals, glistening citadel, and flying beasts you can jump on are way, way into the game, and must be earned. And that really does mean hard work.

The crafting system feels artificially tight-fisted, almost as if it's deliberately padding out the run-time by making you scavenge for hours. If all you're walking on are broken branches, you should be able to pick up a stick, yet supposedly common items are sometimes scarce when you really need them. You end up in a vicious cycle of crafting items that you need to craft items that you need to craft items, so sourcing the materials for the bridge fix alone – a fairly early yet vital task – can take four hours. It doesn't matter how pretty it is or how organic the game world, eventually that's just not fun.

Sadly this isn't an isolated occurrence, with some ingredients even locked away behind citadel upgrades that require yet more items you haven't got easy access to, so it can get rather frustrating. And so you start to industrialize, which is surely counter-productive given the game's eco stance and, either way, all takes so much time.

Teleporting over troubled water

There are also some bugs, which is expected given the game's Early Access state as well as its ambitious complexity and scale, but we accidentally warped to the middle of the mainland before we'd built the bridge because we tested the "warp to Multiplayer Gate" option on the pause menu. Oops. It autosaved there too, but drowning off the broken bridge eventually fixed things. Aside from that, items falling on the floor instead of going into storage, traders not delivering gold nuggets you've paid for, and occasional clipping issues while climbing make for a slightly messy experience at times.

Even so, Towers of Aghasba is an impressive and involved adventure, even in this unfinished state. The ability to change and develop its vast world is enjoyable, crossplay is due to be added soon for multiplayer co-op if that's your thing (and it doesn't need to be), and the larger creatures and enemies you see as you progress do look superb. The magical realism of the environment and its bizarre cast of characters means you're never quite sure what you'll bump into next, which is great – the family "with the fingers" is a standout.

That said, considering Breath of the Wild has crafting and breakable weapons yet never feels like a chore (and arguably has more memorable sights to see too), this still has some work to do. Still, you can't play Zelda on PS5 or PC, so that will make this attractive for many. Just clear your diary if you plan to go big with this one, it's very long and doesn't give you anything for free.

Looking for some chiller vibes? Check out our games like Animal Crossing list for something a little similar. Or want simmier? Our guide to the best city building games has you covered!

That comes from the Nikkei Business Online Edition (as translated by Automaton), which cites an expert from Japan-based Patent Attorney Corporation Siarasia, who says the mod may offer a decent defense against one of the three patents Nintendo has pulled Palworld developer Pocketpair up on.

Earlier this month, Pocketpair publicly disclosed how much money Nintendo was seeking and which patents it alleges explicitly have been infringed – and it was the very patents some legal experts thought it would be. Nintendo and the Pokemon Company reportedly filed three new divisional patents – smaller offshoots of larger and pre-existing patents – following Palworld's Early Access release to strengthen their legal claim.

One of those patents relates to throwing a ball to catch creatures, and that's where GTA 5 comes in. The representative patent attorney cited points to a fan-made GTA 5 mod that brings Pokemon to Los Santos. The mod was released in 2016 and features the tried-and-true mechanic of throwing a Poke Ball-like object at a character in an attempt to capture them. The mod itself isn't named, though Automaton says it's likely to be this Pokemon GO-inspired one right here.

So why is that relevant? The GTA 5 mod in question features a Pokemon-like capturing sequence similar to the one described in one of the divisional patents mentioned early and predates both that patent and the parent patent registered in December 2021. As such, "there is a possibility that the GTA 5 Pokémon mod will be recognized as a precedent by the court." If that happens, one of the patents Nintendo is leaning on for the lawsuit will be knocked over.

Legal experts still predict this one will rumble for a while, and there are other patent infringement claims to defend against, though it looks like there are a few twists and turns to come yet.

On the bright side, the Nintendo Palworld lawsuit didn't stop the survival hit from debuting at the top of Japan's PS5 charts over Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Forever Skies is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi survival game set on a ravaged planet Earth, which looks seriously worse for wear after an "ecological disaster." Players must scavenge for resources in order to survive, while upgrading and piloting an airship to get around, and balancing finding a cure of a strange disease, to boot. There's a lot going on, and it was released in early access on Steam last June to a plethora of glowing reviews, solidifying a 'Very Positive' rating on the platform (we had plenty of praise for it in our own Forever Skies review, too). 

Over a year on, the devs at Far From Home are gearing up for Forever Skies' 1.0 launch, which is hoped to release simultaneously across both PC and PS5 next year. Existing players can expect changes to progression, random encounters, and more. In the meantime though, PS5 owners can dive into a demo right now that'll give a taste of what's on offer, and unlock a PlayStation-exclusive skin for your airship if you complete all the objectives available. 

In a PlayStation Blog post, Far From Home community manager Greg Cummings says that the demo will probably take players between an hour and a half to two and a half hours to complete – you can expect it to take nearer an hour if you just follow the objectives. There's obviously a lot that the demo can't show in that amount of time – notably, you can't explore below the toxic dust during it – but the "vertical slice" aims to offer "a streamlined introduction to some of our best features."

There's still no exact release date for Forever Skies on PS5, with it simply slated for next year at the time of writing. However, a Steam blog post says that the survival game's 1.0 launch is expected to arrive within "the first few months of 2025," so if the devs are able to release that simultaneously across both platforms like planned, then it sounds like there won't be too long to wait. 

For more games like Forever Skies, be sure to check out our picks for the best survival games you can play now.

Palworld made its debut on PS5 in a surprise launch on September 26 in 68 countries, although a short delay meant that it came to Japan slightly later on October 4. Clearly, a lot of PlayStation owners were eager to give the survival game a go because it's number one in October's PS5 download rankings in Japan and number 10 in the US and Canada, according to PlayStation's official roundup. 

It had some fierce competition for those places, too. In Japan, it managed to beat both Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero and Metaphor: ReFantazio – two enormous October releases, as well as the likes of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the Silent Hill 2 remake, and more. The ranking in the US and Canada is quite different, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on top and Undisputed in third, although Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero is notably still in second place. Palworld also managed to beat Metaphor: ReFantazio a second time to squeeze its way into the top 10. 

"Palworld didn't do too bad on PS5 in October it seems!" Palworld community manager and game designer Bucky writes on Twitter, sharing the charts. "Thank you PlayStation gamers!"

Nintendo and The Pokemon Company filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in September, and it's now been revealed which exact patents the Palworld developer is alleged to have infringed upon. Pocketpair says it will "continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings."

Palworld developer responds to Nintendo lawsuit, says "we will do our utmost" to ensure that indie devs "are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas."

In a report shared today, it's revealed that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company allege that Pocketpair has infringed upon three patents - patent numbers 7545191, 7493117, and 7528390. All of these patents were applied for between February and July this year and registered between May and August. Notably, all of these applications came after the release of Palworld, which launched in early access on January 19. 

Pocketpair confirms that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company are seeking "an injunction against Palworld," in addition to 5 million yen (around $32,846, at the current exchange rate) as well as late payment damages to both plaintiffs. That means that the survival game developer could end up paying out over 10 million yen if Nintendo and The Pokemon Company win the legal battle. This would be "compensation for a portion of the damages incurred between the date of registration of the patents and the date of filing of this lawsuit." Although this number wasn't previously known, one IP expert previously suggested that Pocketpair could "easily" afford the legal battle.

But what do these patents cover? Notably, they were all previously flagged by experts after the lawsuit was first announced. The first one, 7545191, was called a "killer patent" by Japanese patent attorney Kiyoshi Kurihara for Yahoo Japan (thanks, Automaton), and it essentially describes Pokeball-style catching mechanics, wherein you aim and throw a capture item in order to make a creature your own.

Also related to capture mechanics is number 7493117, which as Patent Attorney Corporation Siarasia previously pointed out (translated by Automaton), describes an in-game indicator that shows you how likely a capture is to be successful before you actually throw the capture item.

Patent Attorney Corporation Siarasia also detailed the third patent, 7528390, which describes (translated by Google and DeepL) mechanics related to boarding and riding characters - basically, the sort of thing present in Pokemon Legends: Arceus with the likes of Ride Pokemon Braviary and Basculegion. 

Notably, it's worth pointing out that, as Kurihara previously explained, all three of these patents, despite being applied for after Palworld's release date, are divisional patents of a parent patent. This parent was itself registered in December 2021, over two years before Palworld's release. Regardless, Pocketpair seems to be standing its ground, and says: "We will continue to assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings."

"I think this will end bad for Pocketpair": Analyst says Nintendo's "feared" legal team wouldn't sue Palworld unless it was confident of victory.

Dream team

Over the years, my dad and I have played lots of games together and whenever we can manage to make some time, Deep Rock Galactic is our most recent co-op adventure of choice. But State of the Decay 2 is the one I think back on the most fondly. The way it encouraged our camaraderie and brought us together to take on foes we've become so acquainted with in other types of media has always stayed with me.

I can still remember the first time I played, feeling a bit sheepish at the prospect of diving into a zombie-infested world. Taking on the role of my first survivor, it wasn't long before I was joined by my dad, who set about showing me the ropes as we began working through the campaign. The first thing to do is find food, weapons, and anything useful to keep yourself alive. As I quickly learned, however, anytime you scavenge for supplies in stores or abandoned houses, you create noise, meaning there's always a risk that you might draw unwanted attention from any undead shuffling by. Doing this as a solo survivor can be a tense ordeal, but my dad would keep watch outside to alert me if any hordes or particularly dangerous zombies were in the vicinity. I then returned the favor as he sifted through drawers and boxes, providing a level of relative safety for one another. From the get-go, it always felt like we were really working together to keep our survivors alive and well.

What I enjoy most about Undead Labs' open-world survival game is the way it allows you to switch between the survivors you recruit to build up your community. The more you play as a particular person, the more adept they'll become in their areas of expertise, and the more skilled they'll be overall as you scavenge and fight. During one of our play sessions, my dad and I had been so successful as the pair of survivors we were playing, we'd become very skilled individuals and gotten our hands on some excellent loot. In fact, I'd even found myself becoming attached to the characters we were playing, because together, we'd been through so much in the world already.

That's entertainment

But of course, the more you play as one character, the more chances you take, and every time you step away from your safe haven, you're only one bad zombie bite or horde attack away from kicking the bucket. Death is a big part of State of Decay 2, and it can be absolutely devastating to lose a survivor you've put so much time into. I don't think I'll ever get over the death of my initial survivor who was learning the ropes right alongside me with the help of dad, but it's also what makes the series so rewarding to play; you really feel like you earn every day you make it through unscathed.

Naturally, when State of Decay 3 was first officially revealed back in 2020, the very first thing I did was text my dad. "We have to play this together when it comes out!", I declared, practically buzzing about the prospect of trying to survive another zombie apocalypse with dad at my side… something I never thought I'd feel. Fast forward to 2024 and we're still waiting to do just that, but our excitement hasn't died down. Along with the news that the team behind it is bigger than ever, the latest look at the third entry this past summer appeared to really tap into the individuality of the survivors, which only makes me more hopeful about what's to come.

Whatever shape State of Decay 3 ends up taking, it matters more that it hopefully signals some more quality time with my dad, taking on the undead and bonding over survival strategies. Nothing brings us together quite like a zombie apocalypse, after all.

See our pick of the best survival games.

Undead Labs today published a developer diary to explain its new rebrand that came earlier this year. It was mostly a logo change from the old, quirky green one with a zombie hand stuck in a jar, to the more serious, dour, minimalist one they have now. But studio head Phillip Holt explains it was a change in line with the company's growing ambition and raw size.

"State of Decay was built with, I mean, it shipped when the company was maybe 20 people," Holt said of the 2013 sandbox game. "State of Decay 2 shipped with a company size of about 60, 65. I mean they were really small teams. Here we are today, we're double that size or greater." 

Reading between the lines, that means Undead Labs now has at least 120-130 developers working to crank out the upcoming State of Decay 3 - six times as many hands as the first game had, which eventually became the second-fastest selling XBLA game after Minecraft back in the day. It probably helps that the company, founded by World of Warcraft co-creator Jeff Strain, was eventually acquired by Microsoft as part of its mega studio spending spree.

"You know, we're a first-party organization, we're a part of one of the largest content-producing organizations in the world now," Holt continued. "And well on our way to making State of Decay 3 with a much greater level of ambition and support behind us." Undead Labs isn't the only Xbox-owned subsidiary working on the threequel either since both The Coalition (Gears) and Obsidian (Avowed) are helping with State of Decay 3's "shared open world."

The rest of the developer vlog is mostly fancy marketing around a new logo, breaking down what 'Undead Labs' really means - so, it's probably not the most thrilling casual watch. Though it's at least interesting to see in plain numbers how an acquisition changes a previously indie outfit, albeit one that always had its sights set on a zombie MMO from the get-go. The most recent State of Decay 3 trailer certainly looked more expensive than its predecessors, but hopefully it can retain the series' chops for quietly heartbreaking ambient storytelling (or loudly heartbreaking if your favorite character happens to get permanently ripped to bits by a van-sized mutant zombie.)

Check out our Xbox Games Studio list to see every studio Microsoft owns and all its upcoming games. 

BioWare veteran and Inflexion Games' CEO Aaryn Flynn announced the dour news via social media, where he explained that the past few weeks "have been incredibly challenging." The former Dragon Age and Mass Effect developer previously opened up about the game's troubles, financial and otherwise, but things seem to have gotten worse in the time since.

"Like many other studios over the past few years, we have been hit by the stark realities of the industry, and after exploring every possible option, we've had to make the difficult decision to let go of some of our remarkable and talented team members," the announcement post reads.

"Although we're proud of what we've accomplished with Nightingale to date - as well as the enthusiasm and support from our community - the Early Access release hasn't been commercially successful enough to continue development at our studio's previous size," it continues. "As a result, we're undergoing a restructuring process in Canada, and we will also be closing our UK office. Our priority is to support each member of the team affected by the reductions as they search for new opportunities. We thank them for their invaluable contributions to Nightingale - it would not have been possible without their immense talent and passion for adventuring in the Faewilds."

Flynn assures players that the team "will continue to work tirelessly, alongside our players, as we move forward as a studio." Nightingale will continue to receive updates during its early access tenure as the studio seeks to reverse its bad luck, but for now, you can check it out on Steam.

Check out some other upcoming indie games to not miss a single release.