Games

Exploring in games can be enjoyable in different ways. Sometimes the fun comes from finding hidden things like side missions, backstory details, and valuable items. Other times, simply being in the game world and experiencing it is rewarding enough. A few games, like Marvel’s Spider-Man and Forspoken, make exploration especially fun with their unique ways of moving around. While most open-world games aren’t worth playing just for exploring, some truly rely on it to be successful.

For the last six years, the Epic Games Store has consistently announced the following week’s free games right when the current ones become available. This time, it’s different. While you can currently download The Darkside Detective and The Jackbox Party Pack 4, the game for next week is listed as simply “Mystery Game” with a placeholder image. It looks like fans will find out what it is during The Game Awards on December 11th at 8pm Eastern Time. It’s unusual for the Epic Games Store to keep a free game a secret, and even more unusual to reveal it at an event like The Game Awards. This has created a lot of excitement for the December 11th free game.

Watching the first two seasons of Solo Leveling, it became really obvious that Sung Jinwoo would constantly face opponents stronger than himself. It felt like these powerful characters weren’t meant to defeat him, but rather to serve as challenges he needed to overcome on his path to becoming the greatest Hunter ever. In the second season especially, he battled a lot of incredibly strong enemies, and a few of them actually managed to get the upper hand for a while.

If you’re not completely thrilled with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, there are plenty of other immersive, first-person shooter games you can play. Some are available on the Nintendo Switch, and others are on different consoles, but they’re all relatively easy to find.

Netflix has made a huge leap into the gaming world by buying Warner Bros. Games and all of its studios. This instantly gives Netflix ownership of popular franchises like Mortal Kombat, Hogwarts Legacy, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Batman, and LEGO, along with the teams that create these games. It’s a quick way for Netflix to become a major player in the gaming industry, especially considering the company has struggled for years to gain acceptance from gamers.

GameStop may have accidentally shown that Rosemary Winters will be a playable character in the new Resident Evil Requiem. There’s been a lot of guessing about who will be in the latest Resident Evil game, but many different and often confusing leaks and rumors have made it hard to know what’s true. This new leak about Resident Evil Requiem could cause even more confusion, as it’s not clear if it clashes with a major rumor already circulating.

I’ve been keeping an eye on MineMogul, the first game from NoodleForge, which launched into Early Access on December 4th. It’s tough for small indie games to get noticed on Steam these days with so many releases, but MineMogul is trying something a little different with its mix of genres, and I think that’s smart. Honestly, Early Access feels like a lifesaver for indie developers. It lets them share their game early, almost like a pitch to players, and build a community while they continue to improve things. That’s exactly the stage MineMogul is at right now, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

I can help you quickly check how much stash you have in ARC Raiders. Currently, the game doesn’t show your stash amount directly on the screen or with a simple button, so you’ll need to check it manually.

I’ve noticed a few trainers throughout the Pokémon world who have their own Pikachu, not just Ash. But these Pikachu and their trainers are all different! I decided to take a closer look at them, comparing what each trainer has achieved and how well they’ve cared for their Pikachu.

While the new Star Warsthemed Renegades expansion hasn’t boosted Destiny 2*’s player numbers as much as some expected, both critics and players generally like it. This is a big improvement over the launch of the previous expansion, The Edge of Fate, which received a lot of criticism for its limited abilities, the Portal feature, and numerous technical issues. Despite Renegades being a better launch overall, players have pointed out one specific aspect that’s actually worse than before.