SVG

"Elden Ring," the latest Soulsborne game by FromSoftware, released back in February to widespread acclaim from critics and fans. Gamers have spent hours exploring the Lands Between and taking on the notoriously difficult (some practically impossible) bosses. They've also endeavored to unravel the mysteries of the world and find the various secrets and Easter eggs that are so common in Soulsborne games.

Want to do magic in Eorzea? "Final Fantasy 14" is back after briefly being pulled from the shelves. Once considered a huge flop, it's become one of the must-play live service games that's still worth playing today. You can start from a number of classes including Thaumaturge, Conjurer, and Arcanist, which could lead to a future magical job as a mage.

EA's "Madden NFL" is an American football video game series that prides itself on realism. But, of course, the definition of "realistic" has changed over the series' 34-year lifespan. Players have seen the series evolve, thanks to annual releases that push the boundaries by utilizing new technologies and implementing fresh features that inch the series closer to its real-life counterpart each year (per Respawnfirst).

"Death Stranding" was released back in 2019 and quickly won praise from critics for its unique concept and innovative gameplay mechanics. The first game from prolific creator Hideo Kojima after his split with Konami, "Death Stranding" was highly anticipated by fans who quickly dove into its mysterious post-apocalyptic world. Being a Kojima game, it featured an incredibly complex story and countless secrets to uncover. At the time of its release, it was also a game exclusive to the PlayStation. Only PS4 users got to enjoy the up to 100 hours of gameplay and experience Kojima's latest vision.

Historically speaking, the "Madden NFL" series has had a pretty simplistic approach to the game of football. Whether you're on offense or defense, the gameplay loop mostly boils down to pressing corresponding buttons to perform the actions you're looking for. It's this kind of simplicity that has arguably led to the series' massive sales success (per Polygon), even if some of the games themselves can be kind of a mess these days. However, EA Sports seems to have decided to up the ante a little bit with "Madden NFL 23" — at least on the offensive side of the ball — through a new system called "Skill-Based Passing."

Privat Division's "Rollerdrome" tasks players with skating around maps on rollerblades while gunning enemies down and performing tricks for points and ammo. That sounds like a lot to manage at once, but one of the game's strengths comes with its accessibility. Difficulty in video games has always been a hot...

"Dishonored" meets "Bloodborne" in "Thymesia," an indie Souls-like ARPG from developer OverBorder Studio and publisher Team17 that puts players in the shoes of a dark assassin uncovering the mysteries of a plague-ridden kingdom. Released for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, "Thymesia" follows the story of "Corvus" as he fights to reclaim his memories while harnessing the powers of disease and his raven-like abilities.

"We Are OFK" is an episodic, interactive music biopic series that follows four members of the real-life virtual band by the same name. With the game already receiving pretty great reviews on Metacritic, it's on a lot of radars, especially for players who love visual novels. NME's Andy Brown gave the game a perfect five out of five stars because of the beautiful emotions the game evokes, as well as its stellar cast of characters. In fact, some of those cast members will probably sound familiar to you, like Itsumi, who is voiced by actress Ally Maki of "Wrecked" and "Cloak & Dagger" fame.

Ice Poseidon has quite the reputation in the world of streaming, especially for someone who hasn't been active in years. He's been on various sides of some pretty challenging situations. For starters, extreme viewer harassment left the streamer with PTSD. On top of that, he was permanently banned from Twitch in 2017 due to an airplane swatting incident that received national media attention. He since moved to YouTube, but he hasn't been active since 2021.

EA made a mistake on the Epic Games Store, resulting in a few people being able to purchase "FIFA 23" Ultimate Edition for roughly six cents. The mistake was made on the Indian version of the Epic Games Store, where EA appeared to have missed a decimal point. As some Twitter users were able to see that version of the game listed for 4.80 Indian Rupees (INR), which equates to about six cents if converted to the US Dollar. According to PC Gamer, the error likely occurred when EA entered the price of the game.

"Dungeons & Dragons," or "D&D," is a tabletop role-playing game that has exploded in popularity, with over 50 million individuals reporting that they have interacted with the game at some point (per New York Times). This unsurprisingly has earned "D&D" a comfortable spot in pop culture, even spawning a movie by the same name starring Chris Pine.

"Thymesia" is a new Souls-like action-RPG from indie developer OverBorder Studio that looks to combine all of the creepiest things in "Dark Souls" with fast-paced combat centered around a unique plague-based weapon system. Taking on the role of the masked character Corvus, players must use disease as a weapon in order to battle their way through a gothic kingdom full of mysterious enemies and grotesque monsters, motivated by the pursuit to uncover Corvus' forgotten past. While many reviewers have reported it only takes about 10 hours or so to beat the campaign, others have found that the title can easily grow a lot longer.

"Digimon Survive," Bandai Namco's strategy-RPG-meets-visual-novel, has finally been released. "Digimon Survive" features multiple finales that. while not the most bizarre alternate endings in an RPG, still warrant some thought. To unlock the game's true ending, players must focus on a specific character during their time in the game. Players will also need to have already started a playthrough in the title's New Game Plus mode, which means they'll already have had to beat the 40-hour RPG at least once.

"Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered" has been a hit with critics and triumphantly ported the game to the PS5 and the PC. Bringing the webslinger to PC has opened up new vistas for fans, who have been able to dig into the game files and uncover secrets. It also created the opportunity to further mod the game. Since its release, we've seen horrifying mods, twisted mods, and even a mod that brings one of Spider-Man's creators into the game. Now, it looks like an anti-pride mod may have changed the modding community forever.

2019's "A Plague Tale: Innocence" is undoubtedly one of the most revered story-based games in recent memory. Following the protective Amicia de Rune as she guides her ill brother to safety amid the Hundred Years' War and the emergence of the black plague in the 14th century, the game earned praise from critics and gamers due to its enthralling narrative and thrilling stealth mechanics that involves evading both the French Inquisition and massive amounts of plague-infested rats. Despite many players foolishly skipping over it immediately following its release, "A Plague Tale: Innocence" got its flowers in the end and earned a countless amount of award nominations for its narrative, including a win for Outstanding Story-Rich Game at the 2019 Steam Awards. Three years later, developer Asobo Studio and publisher Focus Entertainment will attempt to add on to this brilliant piece of art with a sequel, "A Plague Tale: Requiem."

"MutiVersus" launched its open beta in July, and since then, it's received no shortage of attention. The game has attracted fighting game fans and has already replaced "Smash Bros." in a big way by taking its place at EVO this year. It's also received love from the modding community, taking the already bizarre concept of characters from numerous fictional worlds duking it out and making it even weirder. There are mods for new skins, there are mods for new characters, and even some mods that have embraced the "Smash Bros." comparison – bringing a little taste of Nintendo to "MutiVersus."

If we can agree on anything as a collective, good driving music is an absolute necessity—one that the "Grand Theft Auto" franchise has delivered on time and time again. "GTA" has had its fair share of controversy regarding its music over the years, but it's also become one of the defining aspects of the series. From Los Santos to Vice City, our driving companions have ranged from big eighties hitters like Phil Collins and Cutting Crew to contemporary greats like Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, the Creator.

The unique and playful indie dungeon crawler and dating sim "Boyfriend Dungeon" has seen great success since it was originally released as a surprise during the Aug. 2021 Indie World Showcase. Now, its fans have been granted additional content, giving them even more reason to celebrate. Though it received rave...

"A Plague Tale: Requiem," the sequel to the hit indie stealth game about the plague, releases on Oct. 18, 2022. The story follows brother and sister Amicia and Hugo as they try to evade capture as well as avoiding the plague in the fantasy title. Like many big releases, "A Plague Tale: Requiem" has a collector's edition that any fan of the series would want to get their hands on. The game is launching as part of Xbox Game Pass, but that version won't include any of the special items the collector's edition features.

While it's far from exciting news that Sony and Xbox may both be making the unpopular change of placing advertisements within free-to-play games, Sony has also been experimenting with exciting new patents that could contribute to some truly next-gen experiences on the PlayStation 5. For instance, VR could change forever with Sony's patent that would allow players to constantly change between in-game perspectives. However, some of Sony's most exciting patents are focused on what's happening in the real world.