The TOP Gaming News Stories Of The Week

Although it was mostly another nothing burger of a showcase, Opening Night Live with Geoff Keighley did still have some interesting updates on upcoming games as well as some promising reveals, even if none of them were quite on the scale many fans might have been hoping for.

Geoff kicked off the showcase with the official reveal of the recently confirmed in production next mainline entry in the Borderlands series which Gearbox has claimed is the “definitive looter shooter experience” with a cryptic teaser that seems to reveal the series will finally move beyond the planet of Pandora. Gearbox President Randy Pitchford stated there were numerous easter eggs in the teaser and some eagle eyed fans seem to think the fourth game will see the return of series favorite baddie Handsome Jack as well as the possible inclusion of the Eridians, the ancient alien species that has long been alluded to throughout the franchise. The game is currently teasing a 2025 release window for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles so we’ll likely get many more details very soon.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 continues to impress with a new gameplay demo showcasing the numerous ways players will be able to approach missions as well as continuing the series trend of iconic and bombastic over-the-top set pieces. The Call of Duty franchise has long been in need of an update to its gameplay and alongside the open ended mission structure and the new free-form movement system, Black Ops 6 is shaping up to be just what the series has been needing for years.

Along with some smaller reveals such as the original Goat Simulator getting a remaster while shamelessly lambasting all other “remasters”, Techland revealed a new entry in their Dying Light series subtitled “The Beast”. The game, according to Geoff clocks in at around a solid 20 hour campaign, and includes a new region to explore and of course many new undead killing tools at your disposal. The Beast will also see the return of the original Dying Light’s protagonist Kyle Crane as the parkour zombie killing machine.

Dune Awakening got a deep dive reveal, showcasing the upcoming MMORPG’s many systems and multiplayer features players can use to survive the harsh deserts of Arrakis including the ability to summon a Sand Worm, as well as revealing an early 2025 release date with PS5 and Xbox versions to follow.

Former Little Nightmares developer Tarsier fully revealed their upcoming project after their mysterious teaser a couple weeks ago and it doesn’t appear the developer is straying too far from their wheelhouse. Set on a horrific island, 2 orphans must navigate their way through innumerable mutated creatures hunting them in their upcoming Reanimal. Ironically enough, a new teaser was also shown off shortly after for Little Nightmares 3, this time headed by Until Dawn developer SuperMassive Games and with both titles seemingly targeting 2025 release windows, fans of the genre will have plenty to keep them up at night.

Starfield might not have set a new benchmark for Bethesda games, but the developer is still diligently working on patches and additional content leading up to their Shattered Space DLC on September 30th. One of these improvements comes in the form of the much requested vehicle support for planet exploration which Bethesda previously claimed “wasn’t possible”. After initially being teased in a developer update, Bethesda shadow dropped the dune buggy the REV-8 which should make those long boring treks across the empty planets a little bit more bearable.

The Batman game everyone wishes they had gotten instead of Suicide Squad, Batman Arkham Shadow had its first full gameplay reveal and the game lets players suit up in the cape and cowl far more than the last VR experience Arkham VR, although the game is still only exclusive to Meta Quest 3. Roger Craig Smith who voiced the Dark Knight in the too often overlooked Batman Arkham Origins will reprise his role for the VR title which releases on October 30th for the few of you out there with a Meta Quest 3.

In probably the most shocking reveal of the show, Geoff brought out infamous video game creator Peter Molyneux to reveal his next upcoming God-like game “Masters of Albion”. It would seem the creator has been extremely humbled over the years due to his habit of over-promising and under-delivering as Masters of Albion is a very back-to-basics style game for the developer. Retaining the same name as the Fable series location, although Molyneux claims there’s no relation, players will build up their settlements and can micro-manage as much or as little of their town folks’ lives as they want, while also being able to take direct control of some characters whenever they wish. Funded by Molyneux himself, the game is nowhere near the scale of his previous works and the rough build made it clear the game is still early in development. Let’s just hope Peter lets the game speak for itself this time.

Finally, as is tradition, Geoff revealed there was “one more thing” he wanted to tease before closing out the show and Hanger 13 unveiled their next entry in the Mafia series, “Mafia: The Old Country” which seems to be taking the series all the way back to its beginnings. Although the teaser was brief, the developer has promised there will be more information about the game coming before the end of the year, likely at the Game Awards on December 12th.

After formally announcing a partnership with Amazon earlier this week, Love, Death & Robots creator and Deadpool director Tim Miller showed off his new animated series coming to Amazon Prime on December 10th. Developed by Miller’s own Blur Studios, it will feature stories from a very impressive lineup of established characters and video game properties. These include but are not limited to Armored Core, along with the surprising reveal of Keanu Reeves, Sifu, Warhammer 40K, Mega Man, Unreal Tournament, The Outer Worlds and a number of “various PlayStation Studios games.” Players are already catching glimpses of Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai as well as Kratos in what seems like a modern day setting. Not much else is known about the series besides the stories taking place within the game’s respective worlds, but given the quality of properties involved and the success of Miller’s Netflix animated anthology, we’re intrigued to see what new stories can be told within our favorite video games.

The hits just keep coming and this news story is starting to become a staple of these videos. Ubisoft announced earlier this week that they were laying off another 45 employees, this time from their San Francisco and North Carolina offices. This is in addition to yet another 45 employees the global developer had already let go back in April of this year. The developers let go from the North Carolina offices, also known as Red Storm Entertainment, had primarily worked on Tom Clancy titles as well as the recently canceled The Division Heartlands which seemed to be nearing completion before its untimely end. Ubisoft’s San Francisco offices had most recently worked on South Park: The Fractured But Whole as well as Ubisoft’s most recent attempt to break into the live service market, X-Defiant. Ubisoft has had no shortage of canceled projects and massive rounds of layoffs despite claiming record sales and pre-order numbers for their upcoming titles Star War Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, both of which release later this month and later this year respectively. We can only hope this is where the cost-cutting measures end but we all also know this is a trend that will likely become more frequent as the industry continues to overspend and hemorrhage money despite record profits.

Ever since its reveal back in 2020, we all knew that Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong was going to be big, but we had no idea just HOW big. The action RPG based on the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West officially released earlier this week to not only positive reviews but an overwhelming number of players taking up the staff of the Monkey King. According to Steam, Black Myth: Wukong has already become the 2nd most played game of all time on the platform as of the time of writing, surpassing both Elden Ring and Cyberpunk 2077 and even recent mega-success of Palworld, and is currently sitting with an all time peak player count of almost 2.4 million players. These numbers also don’t account for the game releasing the same day on PS5 as those sales numbers likely won’t be revealed for some time, but the game has reportedly already sold over 5 million copies in the days since its release. This is absolutely not only an incredible win for gamers who are looking for nothing more than a solid, fun, and polished game, but also for first time developer Game Science.

Xbox also debuted a new trailer and behind the scenes look at the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, with Indy actor Troy Baker describing his love for the character and showcasing some of the mechanics for the upcoming game which is currently scheduled to release on Xbox and GamePass on December 9th. Troy described how putting the game in first person allows the player to fully inhabit the role of the intrepid explorer and also allows players greater freedom in how they explore the world and engage in combat. Although the new look at the game was brief, Geoff ended the trailer with the not entirely surprising reveal that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will also be releasing on PS5 in Spring of 2025. While this was expected by the gaming community, ourselves included, the release window is a lot quicker than expected as the last time Microsoft gained the “exclusivity” rights to another globe trotting adventurer, Rise of the Tomb Raider didn’t come to Sony consoles for a full year after debuting on the Xbox One. While there is no concrete release date confirmed as of yet, dataminers seem to think the game will release around the end of April 2025 for PS5.