Month: October 2026

Castlevania is back: Konami says this is just the beginning

Konami has put a date on Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse. The new 2D Metroidvania is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 15, 2026, and Konami is calling it the series’ first major new release in more than 10 years.

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Konami says Belmont’s Curse is only the beginning. It’s the first of several new Castlevania projects and the starting point for a broader reboot. Just as important for longtime fans, the company is going back to the 2D Metroidvania format people have wanted to see return, not another remaster or a mobile spin-off.

According to Konami, the story heads to Paris in 1499 and follows Rose Belmont, the daughter of Trevor Belmont and Sypha Belnades. She uses the Vampire Killer both in combat and for traversal, along with extra weapons and Arcana powers earned from bosses. Evil Empire is leading development, while Motion Twin is advising after the boost from Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania and ahead of the brand’s 40th anniversary music and concert plans.

If you’ve been waiting for Konami to bring back classic side-scrolling Castlevania, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse looks like one worth picking up when it arrives.

You’ll be able to download Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 15, 2026.

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Quartet of Time has been announced: a fan-made Ocarina of Time album

The Legend of Zelda: Quartet of Time has been announced as a fan-produced album from ZREO: Second Quest. It’s performed by ATLYS and built from the music of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but it isn’t an official Nintendo release. What sets it apart is the scale. Rather than going bigger with electronic production or full orchestral remixes, the album takes one of Zelda’s most beloved scores and pulls it into intimate string quartet arrangements. A full release is on the way, though there’s still no confirmed launch date.

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The announcement lands in the middle of a larger wave of Zelda news. Ocarina of Time is still the most musical game in the series, mostly because its songs are something you actually play, from “Zelda’s Lullaby” to “Song of Storms” to “Epona’s Song.” Earlier reports also said Nintendo’s 40th-anniversary plans include a Switch 2 remake on November 5, 2026, followed by a 2027 concert tour, plus themed hardware, amiibo, and LEGO and Hasbro merchandise.

If you follow Zelda music, or just have a soft spot for Ocarina nostalgia, The Legend of Zelda: Quartet of Time is one to keep an eye on, even if it belongs more to the broader anniversary moment than to any official companion release. Early tracks are available through ZREO: Second Quest’s Patreon, and you can sign up on the group’s website if you want updates.

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Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is out now on PC: you lead a fragile survivor fleet

Released on May 11, 2026, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes puts you in charge of an unnamed Gunstar Captain trying to hold together a fragile survivor fleet after the fall of the Twelve Colonies. It’s a PC fleet-management roguelite, and it throws you straight into the kind of desperate command situation the Battlestar name promises.

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The game runs parallel to the events of the 2004 TV series instead of replaying them from Galactica’s bridge. What you get is a survival-heavy fleet-management roguelite built around that familiar Battlestar tension, where every call costs you something. Away from combat, your turns are limited, so you’re constantly choosing between sending out expeditions, upgrading ships, training crew, and keeping healthcare, maintenance, and fleet politics from sliding off the rails. Then the game piles on equipment failures, epidemics, faction infighting, and even the possibility of a Cylon infiltrator, any of which can upend your plans fast.

Combat shifts into paused real-time tactical battles. You can direct squadrons, fire the Gunstar’s weapons, and stop the action long enough to map out your next move. And sometimes that’s all it is: hang on, take the hits you have to take, and survive long enough to make the next FTL jump.

If you’ve been waiting for a new Battlestar game since Peacock killed the Sam Esmail-led reboot in 2024, this one looks like a good pick. Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes lets you unlock four starting fleets, each leaning into different strengths, including squadron control, electronic warfare, and long-range bombardment. Early response on Steam sits at Mostly Positive across more than 1,000 reviews, according to the store page. Alt Shift developed it, Dotemu published it, and it launched on May 11, 2026 for $24.99 on PC through Steam and GOG. Some players are already comparing it to FTL.

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Game of Thrones: War for Westeros reveals the Night King’s ice spiders

PlaySide slipped one of Westeros’s oldest creepy details into the recent Game of Thrones: War for Westeros gameplay trailer: ice spiders marching with the Night King’s army. After the trailer dropped, game director Ryan McMahon confirmed they aren’t just there for atmosphere. They’re real White Walker units.

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That’s a big deal if you follow HBO’s Game of Thrones, because Old Nan mentioned ice spiders back in season 1 and the show never actually showed them. War for Westeros is still built mostly around HBO’s version of Westeros, right down to actor-based heroes like Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen. But PlaySide is also pulling from George R. R. Martin’s books for smaller details, including army composition, and when the books and the show don’t line up, the game defaults to TV canon.

You’ll also get a fully playable Night King, now with a redesign that looks more grounded and realistic. His side isn’t built like the others, either. It’s an asymmetrical faction centered on White Walkers, undead giants, and those now-confirmed spiders.

If you’re after an RTS that starts from the show and adds enough book material to keep lore fans interested, this is one to keep an eye on. In PlaySide’s Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, you’ll be playing a sandbox campaign across Westeros with territory conquest, alliances, betrayals, shifting outcomes, non-canon matchups, role-based heroes, resource-driven skirmishes, and minor houses or neutral factions you can do more with than just wipe off the map.

Game of Thrones: War for Westeros is currently slated for PC in early 2027, based on the release window announced so far, after originally targeting 2026.

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World of Warcraft: GPT-6 Astra clears the Orc starting zone without dying

A GPT-6 Astra demo tied to Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft went up today. In it, a fresh Orc starts at level 1, clears every quest in Valley of Trials, the Orc starting area, and reaches Sen’jin Village in roughly 40 minutes without dying a single time.

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What makes it interesting is roughly 40 minutes. According to the developer, the model wasn’t looking at the game through rendered graphics at all. The setup worked off raw server traffic and quest data pulled from AzerothCore SQL files, using a custom module that captured about 28 server message types, plus a Python script that polled memory and sent actions back through the protocol layer.

That’s the part that matters. It points to a model that, in this setup, can deal with navigation, combat, target selection, quest sequencing, and resource management when it has direct access to game state. The developer’s next step is to push that well past a starter zone, first to an entire server, then eventually to Icecrown Citadel on heroic.

Anyone tracking AI in games should probably keep an eye on this. Market forecasts now put the sector above $50 billion by 2033. Surveys also say 90% of developers already use automation, while another survey found that 52% of game professionals think generative tools are actively hurting the industry. On top of that, some analyses connect disclosed AI use to 53% fewer Steam reviews. Then there’s the longer list of worries: botting, cheating, job loss, privacy, bias, addictive design, and what this kind of tooling could do to MMO economies.

One limitation, though. You can only see this setup on the open-source agent-wow client and AzerothCore 3.3.5a running on a private or local server, not on Blizzard Entertainment’s official World of Warcraft realms.

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Metal Gear Solid Delta: Naked Snake statue is now up for pre-order

Forbidden Planet has opened pre-orders for the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater Naked Snake statue, a merch tie-in for Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake. The retailer’s listing puts the release date at October 26, 2026. You’re getting Naked Snake in dark green tactical gear with his black bandana, done as a roughly 20 cm PVC statue with a display base and printed box, priced at £26.99.

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For a straightforward shelf piece tied to the remake, this seems like a solid pickup if you’re not hunting for some premium collector’s item. The catch is the wait. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater launches on August 28, 2025, and this statue doesn’t arrive until more than a year later, so it reads less like launch-day merch and more like part of a longer rollout.

As for the game, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is Konami’s Unreal Engine 5 remake of 2004’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It’s being co-developed with Virtuos and appears to stay pretty close to the original, right down to keeping the original voice recordings. Early preview coverage has landed in that mixed-but-positive range: people have praised the visuals and controls, pushed back on the idea that the remake may be too conservative, and Screen Rant gave it an 8/10.

Pre-orders for the statue are live at Forbidden Planet now. Konami says Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will be playable on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and the rest of the project’s orbit keeps getting bigger too, with more merchandise, Fox Hunt multiplayer, and even growing interest in Hideo Kojima’s Physint riding alongside it.

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Pokémon Scale World brings back Hoenn legends: three figures arrive in 2027

Bandai Namco has revealed a new round of Pokémon Scale World Hoenn figures. Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza are coming back as collectibles, with a May 2027 release date, and this isn’t tied to any new Hoenn game announcement. Preorders are already live at BigBadToyStore.

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The Pokémon Scale World line has been around since 2021, and even with all the social media talk about Hoenn showing up again in 2027, Nintendo, Game Freak, and The Pokémon Company still haven’t announced a new Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon Sapphire, or Pokémon Emerald release, remake, Nintendo Switch port, or any other Hoenn-related project.

Pokémon Ruby and Pokémon Sapphire first hit Game Boy Advance in 2002, then Pokémon Emerald followed in 2004. Those games introduced Hoenn, 135 new Pokémon, Double Battles, and Contests. Hoenn came back in 2014 with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire. As for the late-2026 Nintendo Switch rumors tied to reported code references and official Japanese footage, those are still unconfirmed.

If you collect Pokémon merch, this is the part that matters. BigBadToyStore has Groudon listed at $164.99, Kyogre at $129.99, and Rayquaza at $107.99, plus roughly 10% non-refundable deposits, so these are premium pickups.

You can preorder all three now through BigBadToyStore ahead of their May 2027 release.

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Excalibur is now available in 4K from Arrow Video: John Boorman’s epic returns 45 years later

Arrow Video has just put out a new 4K restoration of John Boorman’s 1981 Arthurian epic, bringing the film back in front of audiences 45 years after its original release.

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The movie grew out of Boorman’s abandoned attempt to adapt The Lord of the Rings, and you can feel that ambition all through it. Excalibur takes Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and treats it as myth, not modernized prestige drama, with sudden leaps through time, performances pitched well above realism, dreamlike logic, clear echoes of the Fisher King and The Golden Bough, and Boorman following what he called “mythical truth, not historical truth.”

You’re also getting Alex Thomson’s Oscar-nominated cinematography, Wagner, and “O Fortuna”; the film’s 1981 Cannes win for Best Artistic Contribution; a $35 million U.S. box office haul off an $11 million budget; and early appearances from Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Patrick Stewart, and Gabriel Byrne. Some of the energy onscreen was sharpened by the offscreen tension between Mirren and Nicol Williamson. And its influence is still easy to spot in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, even if most people know the aftershock better than the film that caused it.

If darker, more psychological fantasy is your thing, this restoration is an easy recommendation.

You can pick up Excalibur in 4K from Arrow Video now.

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Rockstar’s GTA 6 collector’s edition is here: influencer freebies outshine it

Rockstar Games announced the $399.99 Grand Theft Auto VI: The Goodtime State – Vice City Collection on September 25, and the GTA 6 marketing campaign is already catching heat as videos of free influencer merch packs spread online. The bundle itself includes Oakley sunglasses, a Macca the Gator figure, apparel, a New Era cap, and other accessories, but the game still isn’t included, so you have to buy that separately.

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Reports and creator unboxing videos suggest those free influencer boxes also contain unreleased T-shirts, tote bags, a money clip, and, in some cases, a Zippo lighter. On X and Reddit, a lot of fans are saying those extras look more useful, easier to wear, and closer to what they’d actually want to own. Some have gone further and said they’d rather have the free creator kit, or just cancel their orders outright.

If value matters to you, this collector’s edition looks more like something to watch for now than something to buy immediately. A lot of the frustration on X and Reddit comes down to influencers getting free items that look more exclusive than what paying customers get, on top of comparisons to the better-received Red Dead Redemption 2 collector products. YouTuber MoistCr1TiKaL has also reportedly singled out the nearly $400 package, with no copy of the game included, as one of the worst recent examples.

You can pre-order the Vice City Collection from Rockstar Games now. At the same time, some leaked references on Rockstar’s website suggest a few of the influencer-only items may eventually be sold to the public as the promotion grows, including a wider push in Miami and a Miami Heat Vice City tie-in.

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Stan Lee’s first Marvel Captain America story still holds up 85 years later

Stan Lee’s first Captain America story for Timely Comics, the publisher that later became Marvel, appeared in May 1941 in Captain America Comics #3. It wasn’t a comics story in panels, but a two-page prose piece called “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge.”

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This was long before readers knew Stan Lee, born Stanley Lieber, as Marvel’s public face. He was 18, working as a Timely office assistant and handling odd jobs for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. He didn’t create Captain America; Simon and Kirby did. He got this assignment partly because prose pages helped publishers qualify for cheaper second-class postal rates, and that small break gave Stan Lee both a byline and a foothold at Timely Comics.

In the wartime story, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes expose Captain Curtis, a treasonous officer trying to kill his commander. What makes it interesting now is how much of Captain America already feels fully there: duty, courage, loyalty, moral clarity. It also features what’s widely credited as an early, and possibly the earliest, ricocheting shield throw.

If you follow Marvel history, this one’s well worth tracking down in reprint. Some period language and wartime tropes come with it, naturally, but it still plays like a World War II adventure. Marvel later adapted “Captain America Foils the Traitor’s Revenge” into sequential art in 2014 for the company’s 75th anniversary.

You can find the original in Captain America Comics #3, and the later adaptation through Marvel’s back catalog.

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