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← Previous Week (Sept 27 - Oct 3) |
This Week (Oct 4 - Oct 10) |
October's first full week brings a mix of updates and reveals. 2XKO is gearing up for its last content drop, Netflix is betting on a cloud-based game with a major horror film franchise, and Rockstar gives a closer look at how GTA 6 wants players to plan their crimes. Warhammer Survivors is also lining up a November launch, while Silver Palace is recruiting testers for future content, and live-service anniversaries and festivals continue to line up for the months ahead.
Our game reviews this week found themselves revisiting familiar genres and titles done with confidence. Strong gameplay carried each of them, from weighty dogfights to tense survival horror and breakneck racing. Some issues with multiplayer, clunky controls, and repetitive mechanics kept them from landing a perfect balance, but the pros still outweigh the cons.
Nevertheless, here's a quick look at some of the week's biggest gaming headlines.
Gaming News At A Glance
GTA 6 Puts Robberies and Partner Getaways Front and Center
The Conjuring: Unspoken Brings Interactive Horror to Netflix on October 13
2XKO Drops Sett as an Extra Surprise Champion
Silver Palace Opens Recruitment for the Private Investigator Project
Warhammer Survivors Brings Bullet Heaven to 40K and Age of Sigmar
Other News and Developments This Week
Review Roundup: Oct 4 to Oct 10
Classics With a Coat of Fresh Paint
⚫︎ Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
⚫︎ Silver Pines
⚫︎ Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Other Reviews This Week
Gaming News At A Glance: GTA 6 Details Robberies and Partner Getaways, The Conjuring: Unspoken Heads to Netflix, 2XKO Adds Sett to Its Final Update, Silver Palace Recruits Testers, Warhammer Survivors Offers a New Bullet Heaven
GTA 6 Puts Robberies and Partner Getaways Front and Center
Rockstar North's Rob Nelson walked through a 30-minute GTA 6 demo where robberies took center stage, with players able to hold up everything from shops to banks and choose between cracking a safe's combination or blowing it open with an explosive that can damage the loot. Escaping is riskier than before, since crimes are only reported when a witness or alarm raises the alert and driving too slowly can set off a vehicle tracker, though players can swap between Jason and Lucia so the partner takes the wheel while they shoot at pursuers. Missions also leave more room to pick a route, although some story moments will stay tightly directed.
The Conjuring: Unspoken Brings Interactive Horror to Netflix on October 13
The Conjuring: Unspoken, an interactive horror game from Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games, launches exclusively on Netflix on October 13 in 17 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. It runs through Netflix's cloud setup on a supported TV or web browser, with a smartphone serving as the controller and doubling as ghost-hunting gear like an EMF reader, infrared camera, and spirit box. The story follows a grieving Cooper family staying at the centuries-old Red Lion Inn, where a failed séance pulls in demonologist Francesca Noakes, and players don't need to have seen the previous films for this to follow along.
2XKO Drops Sett as an Extra Surprise Champion
Riot Games has revealed that Sett will join Samira in 2XKO's final content update on October 27 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5, a surprise since Samira was the only new champion left on the roadmap after Riot announced in August that active development would end in December. Players are split between welcoming the long-requested League of Legends pick and wishing Riot would keep supporting the game. The October patch is the last content update, with a bug-fix release in December, a Competitive Series wrap-up in November, and servers staying online beyond 2026 with no set end date.
Silver Palace Opens Recruitment for the Private Investigator Project
Silver Palace is recruiting players for its "Private Investigator" Project, a long-term program that will periodically invite selected testers to try unreleased content in confidential sessions. Each session starts with wiped data and includes no in-game purchases, and submitting the recruitment survey doesn't guarantee a spot. This project is separate from the Dichotomy: Retrace test, which focused on technical performance, as this one aims to check gameplay and how content still in development is designed.
Warhammer Survivors Brings Bullet Heaven to 40K and Age of Sigmar
Warhammer Survivors, a Vampire Survivors-style game from Auroch Digital, Poncle, and Games Workshop, splits its bullet-heaven action between the Warhammer 40K and Age of Sigmar universes. A Steam demo is now live before the November 10 launch on Steam, GOG, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and Switch 2, Android, and iOS, with day-one Xbox Game Pass availability. It promises over 75 weapons, relics, and Arcana cards, more than 40 characters to unlock through a paint pot system, and a squad mechanic where a character who can't wield certain weapons can recruit allies able to use them.
Other News and Developments This Week
⚫︎ Arknights: Endfield Gears Up For 1st Anniversary Festival With Round1 and ZONe Energy Collabs
⚫︎ Goddess of Victory: NIKKE 4th Anniversary Livestream Announced for October 24
⚫︎ Aion 2 Devs Promise to Not Be Merciful
as Illicit Currency Buyers Risk Account Bans
⚫︎ RuneScape Reignited Is a Fresh Start for New Players, But Veterans Aren't Happy
⚫︎ 2026 Steam Autumn Sale: The Best Games and Deals
⚫︎ FF7 Revelation's Hot Springs Come With Swimsuit Skins For Cloud, Barret, and More
⚫︎ DbD x NieR Automata Adds 2B and A2 on October 7 Amid Packed October Horror Event Schedule
⚫︎ PHYSINT Star Bill Skarsgård Is So Enthusiastic He's Already Looking for The Unfinished Script, Shares Kojima
⚫︎ Arknights: Endfield Gears Up For 1st Anniversary Festival With Round1 and ZONe Energy Collabs
⚫︎ AION 2's Character Deletion Policy after Six Months of Inactivity Scares Players
⚫︎ Epic Seven Steam Demo Live Ahead of Full Launch and New Server
⚫︎ FF7 Ever Crisis Shuts Down and Fans Push for an Offline Version
⚫︎ Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Teases Tekken 8 Crossover, Fans Speculate Reina
⚫︎ Dave the Diver x Subnautica 2 Final DLC Arrives for Free in Early 2027
⚫︎ Azur Promilia EN Breaks Twitter Silence With Kibo Teaser
⚫︎ Stellar Blade: Blood Rain Main Menu Revealed in The Weeknd’s Studio Visit Photos, Fans Speculate Cameo
⚫︎ GTA 6 Brings Back Flash FM Alongside New Radio Stations and On-Demand Podcasts
Review Roundup: Oct 4 to Oct 10
Classics With a Coat of Fresh Paint
This week's reviews revisit games that honor older genres and titles. Ace Cobat 8’s arcade flight combat, classic survival horror mixed into Silver Pines’ metroidvania style, and PS2-era arcade racing all got a modern spin thanks to Star Wars: Galactic Racer, with strong gameplay and atmosphere doing most of the heavy lifting for all. Online problems, clunky combat, and repeated content is their downside to a degree, but each still managed to keep a clear identity.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve puts players in the cockpit of a pilot who inherits a legendary callsign after its owner is shot down. The first-person storytelling keeps the focus on the squadmates around them, giving the campaign more emotional focus than the series usually carries, even if the pacing is uneven.
Flight combat balances arcade handling with a heavier feel, and the soundtrack and recurring musical themes help carry the story. Multiplayer is where it stumbles, with unstable servers, an FOMO-driven Ace Pass, and PC performance issues. The single-player campaign is strong enough to make this an easy recommendation.
Silver Pines
Silver Pines sends PI Red Walker into a fog-soaked small town to find a missing musician, blending survival horror with Metroidvania-style exploration. It's David Lynch and Resident Evil influences are obvious, but the game uses them to build a mystery that pulls you back for multiple endings.
The interconnected map, environmental storytelling, and painterly rotoscoped visuals make the town an atmospheric place to get lost in. Clunky melee combat, fuzzy hitboxes, and forgettable enemies do hold it back, and its old-school style may not suit everyone. Though, for fans of vibes and classic survival horror, it's a standout in its own right.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer
Star Wars: Galactic Racer pairs Burnout-style arcade racing with a roguelite campaign, sending ex-cargo pilot Shade up the ranks of the Galactic League toward champion Kestar Bool. The story is serviceable, but the rivalry never delivers the payoff it sets up, and the supporting cast steals the show.
The real draw is how fast and satisfying the racing feels, along with upgrade builds that change how you approach each run. Stellar audio and visuals add to the thrill. Repeating the early races after a failed run gets tiresome, and the track variety and sub-10-hour campaign feel thin for its $59.99 price point. Still, its run loop is considerably hard to put down.
Other Reviews This Week
⚫︎ Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival First Impressions Review | Disturbingly Good Time in Hell
⚫︎ Truckful Review | One Rough, Bumpy Ride That Has Plenty of Heart Under the Hood
⚫︎ Blue Archive Review | It's Got More Heart Than Friction
