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PREVIEW | GUILD WARS 3 | A NEW QUEST IN AN OLD WORLD

More than a thousand years before Orr became a drowned ruin, its cities were still alive, its guilds were fighting for influence and the human gods had not yet abandoned the world. ArenaNet is taking the franchise deep into that forgotten age, before the First Guild War gave the series its name and shortly after the former God of Death was overthrown. The Order of the Vael is struggling to hold its position, while players enter this unstable period...

PUBLISHED | 22.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | SHADOW OF THE ROAD | STEEL, SPIRITS & SAMURAI

A weathered temple stands beneath the shadow of an industrial machine that should not exist in nineteenth-century Japan. Samurai move through villages shaped by tradition, while mechanical soldiers, foreign technology and yōkai turn a historical civil war into something far less predictable. Shadow of the Road uses this collision as more than decoration. Its reimagined version of 1868 places the Tokugawa Shōgunate against Emperor Mutsuhito and the technologic...

PUBLISHED | 2O.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | MANDATE ORDER | CITY BUILDING WITH CONSEQUENCES

Mandate Order approaches the city-building genre from a harsher direction than the usual settlement fantasy. Its ancient Chinese stronghold is not being raised simply to grow, decorate and prosper; every farm, workshop, warehouse and defensive wall exists under the possibility of invasion. Set during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Digital Sky’s strategy game combines free-form construction, resource management, government policy...

PUBLISHED | I4.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | TOTAL WAR: MEDIEVAL III | THE BANNER RISES AGAIN

The wait around Total War: Medieval III does not feel like normal sequel anticipation. This is not just another entry in a long-running strategy series, because Medieval II: Total War became one of those old PC games that kept breathing long after its own generation ended. Mods, campaigns, faction stories, crusades, collapsing kingdoms and messy diplomacy kept the medieval setting alive for years, even while the official series moved through Rome, Warhammer...

PUBLISHED | O6.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | THE BLOOD OF DAWNWALKER | SUN, BLOOD & CHOICE

A medieval valley under vampire rule, a family running out of time and a protagonist trapped between human weakness and monstrous hunger give The Blood of Dawnwalker a sharper identity than another dark fantasy RPG with swords, castles and blood on the stone. Rebel Wolves is not selling only mood here. The studio is building its first major game around pressure, dual nature and consequence, with Coen moving through a world where daylight and night...

PUBLISHED | O5.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | SOLASTA II | WELCOME SOLASTA, WE MISSED THE DICE ...

Solasta II enters the CRPG conversation at a strange but useful moment. Baldur’s Gate 3 made the genre bigger, louder and more visible than it had been for years, but it also created a problem for every smaller tactical RPG that follows it: comparison is now unavoidable. Tactical Adventures cannot simply pretend that shadow is not there. The smarter move is to step around it, and that is where Solasta II becomes interesting. This is not a game trying to win with...

PUBLISHED | O4.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | COMPANY OF HEROES 3: FINAL STAND | THE RTS SHAKE-UP

Company of Heroes has never been a series that chases trends, and that's one of the reasons it has remained relevant for so many years. Instead of relying on massive armies or flashy spectacle, it has always rewarded smart tactics, careful positioning and making the right decision when the battlefield is at its most chaotic. Final Stand keeps those familiar foundations intact, but it also introduces one of the biggest changes the franchise has attempted in...

PUBLISHED | O3.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | STRANGER THAN HEAVEN | FIVE ERAS, ONE JOURNEY

Stories about organized crime have been part of video games for decades, but very few attempt to capture how an entire lifetime can be shaped by the world around it. That is the direction RGG Studio appears to be taking with Stranger Than Heaven, a project that immediately separates itself from the developer's previous work through its historical setting, ambitious timeline, and unusually personal approach to storytelling. Rather than focusing on a single...

PUBLISHED | O3.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | TUROK: ORIGINS | THE DINOSAUR HUNTER RETURNS

A dinosaur shooter name from another PC era is coming back, but not in the exact shape many older players may expect. Turok: Origins is not being presented as a simple return to the old first-person formula. Saber Interactive is bringing the series back as a third-person action shooter with solo play, online co-op and a stronger focus on team-based combat. That already makes it more interesting than a normal nostalgia revival, but also more risky. When a classic...

PUBLISHED | O1.O7.IIO26

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PREVIEW | THE RELIC: FIRST GUARDIAN | DARK FOLKLORE, HEAVY BLADES

Rain, ruined villages, heavy weapons, monsters with sad histories, and a hero who looks like he has walked too far into someone else’s nightmare. The Relic: First Guardian immediately has the kind of image that works for an action RPG. It does not look clean, heroic or bright. It looks wounded, as if the world was broken long before the player arrived and every road is only leading deeper into old damage. The atmosphere is not built around simple darkness, but...

PUBLISHED | 29.O6.IIO26

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