One of my favorite experiences in any open-world game is when something that must've been spontaneous feels scripted: when emergent moments become setpieces by happy accident. Many of my favorite games have this quality, such as State of Decay, Sea of Thieves, and PUBG. In a recent four-hour session with Arc Raiders, I saw signs that it, too, has this elusive yet irresistible trait. For the uninitiated, Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter. What interests me about extraction shooters is that the shapes they've taken have been more varied than those of battle royale games, the subgenre du jour that preceded it. Whereas Fortnite, Warzone, and PUBG are all more or less offering the same gameplay loop in different wrappers, Wildgate is just about nothing like Hunt: Showdown, and neither of those is quite like Escape from Tarkov. What they all share is a constant risk-versus-reward calculation forever running in the back of players' minds. Knowing whether to push on for some incredible loot or to escape with more modest winnings comes down to feel; it's a gutcheck more than anything. By now, any half-decent extraction shooter knows how to toy with this sense of risk, but Arc's art direction, audio design, and great pacing made me feel like my best rounds were the game telling my story. When I died early in my first two rounds, I was just a Redshirt, an NPC bad guy there as fodder for some other daring raider who braved the terrain's hostilities to escape with precious resources. But on the missions where my GameSpot colleagues and I traveled, fought, and scraped out wins for 20+ minutes at a time, those were our moments as the story's heroes.Continue Reading at GameSpot

During the Halo World Championships today, Microsoft and Halo Studios officially announced Halo: Campaign Evolved. It’s described as a "faithful yet modernized" remake of the 2001 game, and it's set for release in 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It will launch into Game Pass. And to be clear right up front, this is called Halo: Campaign Evolved because it's campaign-only. There is no head-to-head multiplayer, though online and local campaign co-op is supported. The Unreal Engine 5-powered remake promises "upgraded visuals" and "refined controls," as well as online co-op for up to four players. Halo Studios added three new missions as well, along with more weapons, vehicles, and enemies. Here is a rundown of everything we know about the new remake. "Reborn" visuals Halo Studios is promising a suite of updates and upgrades to the classic game.Continue Reading at GameSpot