The Dungeons & Dragons team just curated an 8.5-hour playlist of music on Spotify. Calling it the "Playlist of Holding 2025" (a play on the Bag of Holding magic item in D&D), the folks at Wizards of the Coast gathered up no fewer than 108 musical track recommendations from the D&D Discord channel.

It opens with Metallica's "Master of Puppets," plants a flag at the midway point with AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll)," and wraps things up with Alestorm's "Wolves of the Sea." If these sound like songs Dungeon Master Eddie Munson would play during a meeting of the Hellfire Club, you're literally on the right track.

But there's more than just '80s rock and roll bangers on this playlist. There's '80s pop, current synthwave tracks that sound like the '80s, movie soundtracks to '80s movies (like Labyrinth), or brand-new movie soundtracks to movie series that started in the '80s (like Tron: Ares).

If you were a kid that got yelled at for blasting both Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" and Enya's "Orinoco Flow," then you and I probably grew up together. If you're an adult that can appreciate a Kate Bush resurrection because of Stranger Things and unironically appreciate a full-on Rick "Rickroll" Astley record, then you and I are probably hanging out this weekend. You might already have Tears for Fears in your favorites. But is Hildegard von Blingin and his bardcore rendition of "We Didn't Start the Fire" new to you, too?

For real, I'm adding Ayreon and Sunglasses Kid to my heavy rotation. My Slack D&D crew can expect to hear them very soon during our big bad boss fight in our Dragon Delves one-shot. Time to (gather your) party like it's 1985.

Just about all of the changes to the economies of Destiny 2 has finally been walked back with Update 9.1.5.1. They were bad ideas from the start, half-baked in preparation, and rolled out to near unanimous community disapproval. Bungie had tried to boldly refresh the game with the latest expansion, The Edge of Fate, but as I noted in my review they missed the mark badly, essentially locking the loot behind an awful leveling grind and making the entire focus of what once was an expansive game into the narrow confines and restrictions of the portal - a place where you always play at a power disadvantage and are forced to load up on negative modifiers to sap whatever fun remained in a once great franchise. But one by one the sweeping changes are being dialed back, as that update details:

• Unstable Cores - a bane to leveling up old gear is being eliminated entirely and all players are being gifted 777,777 cores to tide them over until the currency can be removed
• Reward Power - buffed across the board greatly reducing the insane time commitment required to level guardians in the game
• Techsec Supply Drop - all players who log in between now and the end of Season 27 (December 2nd, 2025) will get a free set of Tier 3 armor set to power level 300 to boost them past the initial stages of the grind

These changes aren't coming in a vacuum. Bungie knows Destiny 2 is in trouble. Player counts are hitting all-time lows. API scraping by https://popularity.report/ paints a very grim picture: 

Well, no need to kill the old gods. they are only +0 and drop +0 starsplitters, +0 worldrenders and +0 lifedrinkers. Yea they were cool but they aren't +5s so they don't have the new buffs or do the new damage.

The old world, the Starsplitter the lore...none of it matters anymore. You have killed a rat +5 and gotten a wooden stick +5 and that is the game.

Dungeons & Dragons pre-orders are now open for the Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun and Forgotten Realms: Adventures in Faerun. Singularly, the Heroes book is directed at players, while the Adventures book is directed at Dungeon Masters. Many DMs will end up purchasing both, I'll wager, since DMs  typically want to stay abreast of player options and will then also share sourcebooks with their players.

The 192-page Heroes of Faerun compendium knows what players want. That's why, to D&D 5th Edition, it will introduce:

• 8 Subclasses, to include Bladesinger and Scion of the Three
• 18 Backgrounds
• 34 Feats
• 19 Spells, all-new Circle Magic for group spellcasting
• 3 Magic Items
• 12 Items
• 2 Monsters
• 13 Maps, giving an overview of the 10 Forgotten Realms regions

In addition, eight classic and emerging Factions come forth, like the order-bound Lord's Alliance, or the secretive, heroic Harpers. Also, turn Forgotten Realms' entirely too large pantheon of 42 gods into a Renown-earning minigame. 

The digital version also comes with:

• Baldur's Gate 3 Digital Map Pack, only usable on D&D Beyond's Maps VTT (virtual tabletop)
• Astarion's Book of Hungers, with new vampire-themed player options, monsters, and adventure content
• Netheril's Fall, a digital expansion time-traveling adventure exploring the lost Netherese Empire
• Lorwyn: First Light, with Fey-inspired character options, adventures, and monsters
• Atlas of Faerun, a digital map of the entire Faerun continent

The 288-page Adventures in Faerun guide includes:

• 5 settings, each with a lore-dumping Gazetteer
• 50+ pick up and play adventures
• 40 new monsters and villains
• Lost Library of Lethchauntos: a level 1 through 3 adventure customizable for all settings
• 7 new magic items, split with the Heroes compendium, looks like
• Bastions unique to each setting, which is awesome if you can actually get Bastions going in your campaign

Those 50+ adventures come with 50+ "quickplay" maps for use on D&D Beyond. Quickplay means they come pre-loaded with monster tokens, fog of war, and stickers, in order to shrink prep time.

We're deep into the D&D 2024 version of 5th Edition now. These are meant to be played with the D&D 2024 Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual. We rated each one of those books a 9/10 based on each one's individual merits.

The Forgotten Realms bundle releases November 11, marking the end of D&D's 2025 roadmap. 

Live from Steamfest comes a brand new demo for Escape from Ever After, a colorful adventure RPG from HypeTrain Digital and Sleepy Castle Studio. This steamfest demo allows players to playtest the game before it's full version release coming soon to PC and all major consoles.

In Escape from Ever After, players get the chance to jump into a storybook and fight the monsters inside. What monsters, you may ask? Capitalism. That's right, this whimsical adventure game is ripe with wacky cartoon animation-style villains as you work to defeat the greatest monster of all - greed.

Key features from the demo include:

• A fun, fast-paced battle system that rewards experimentation and strategy;

• Full party customization where each character has their own unique set of skills that can be equipped and upgraded throughout your journey;

• Office banter, storybook coworkers to interact with, and the opportunity to decorate your office as you climb the corporate ladder;

• Additional sidequests to explore, treasures to find, and secrets to unveil;

• Stories within stories: experience a charming and lively narrative where the rules are constantly changing;

• A jazzy, big-band soundtrack that keeps the energy pumping throughout

If you're into storybooks, or into sticking it to the man, check out the trailer here:

In a big nope for me, Level Infinite has released a demo for Dread Meridian, a VR horror game. I'm not playing it. 

You play as Daniela, researching a remote island looking for her sister. In the game, you will have access to resources to solve puzzles and defeat enemies. The game promises dread filled environments, and just looking at this trailer tells me it will get absolutely no play from me. Because no, that's why. 

Don't get me wrong. The game looks great. But I'm not doing it. I'm not. No. Stop asking me. No. You can, by getting the Steam demo here. but no. I'm not going. 

Not all sequels are bad. Turtle Beach announced today, that the long named Turtle Beach Vulcan II RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, and the shorter named Turtle Beach Burst II pro ESports Gaming Mouse, are available globally right now. 

The ten keyless keyboard obviously gives you more space, but is also wireless. It is a hot-swappable mechanical keyboard with pre-lubed switches for easy maintenance, and sound dampening foam. It talks to the Turtle Beach Swarm app, for further RGB customization. You can expand the functionality of every key, and save up to five separate profiles whilst doing so.

The mouse promises 8K polling (the number of times a keyboard sends data to the computer per second), offering a wireless polling rate of 0.125ms latency, 8x faster than standard gaming mice. The mouse also features 30K DPI Owl Eye sensor, TITAN optical switches, and 40 hours of battery life. 

There's way more information on the keyboard here, and the mouse here. The Keyboard is available at participating retailers $119.99|£89.99| €99.99, and the mouse is priced at $139.99|£119.99|€129.99. 

I am brand new to the liminal spaces subgenre of gaming, which apparently goes even deeper than that, with “backrooms” and now “pool rooms” style games within the genre. Essentially, these games aim to create psychological tension in spaces normally used for transitions, like hallways or stairwells, or lots of doors. POOLS includes those things, and obviously, pools.

I won’t spoil anything about the game here, but the demo lets you play the first level, which looks like a barren old fitness or recreational pool facility. There are no objective markers, no map, no yellow paint guiding you. It’s just you walking through seemingly unending hallways and rooms, which occasionally are flooded with water, or have an actual pool. There is no music in POOLS, just the sound of your footsteps and splashing through the water. Or so I thought. There were no monsters chasing me, though I could never shake this feeling that something was right behind me. There were no jump scares although I dreaded turning every corner. I was just walking and listening and trying to find the exit of this creepy nightmare fuel space. I was always able to move but never felt like I could get out – until I did.

There’s nothing overtly scary about POOLS, but it’s the most terrified I’ve been playing a video game. Like, ever. I had a quite physical reaction to its unnerving tension that I’ve never felt before. My skin felt like it was crawling, and the room I was sitting in collapsed around me at one point. I felt an immense amount of pressure around my head, like I was underwater, oddly enough. When this happened, I was wading through waste high water in a dark hallway where I could see a light at the end, where I was going, and back at the beginning, where I came from. I had convinced myself that the POOLS boogeyman was going to get me, but the boogeyman never showed.

I was able to finish the demo level, but my apparent panic attack gave me pause to reflect. As a kid, I was often afraid of the dark. My mind would race about all the possible entities that could be lurking, lying in wait to snatch me up. It’s a common fear for kids. That childhood fear was particularly potent after watching scary movies or television shows. Combine that with my adult fear of being in large bodies of water, and I think I had my first-ever panic attack playing POOLS. It preyed on my deepest, darkest fears in the most passive aggressive way possible and it got to me. I will never forget that feeling, or the palpable terror I experienced playing this demo.

So anyway, you should totally play the POOLS demo. It is available now on PC and PlayStation 5. Just, you know, beware of panic attacks.

Ripstone is back with a sequel to 2014’s Pure Pool, titled Pure Pool Pro, launching this year for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. No firm release date has been announced, but you can check out a new demo for the game right now as a part of Steam Next Fest. The demo will let you enjoy unlimited play on one of the game’s two venues, compete against four of the 20 AI opponents, and take part in both 8-ball and 9-ball matches.

Pure Pool Pro will take full advantage of current technology, boasting native 8K resolution on supported platforms, with hyper-realistic lighting, table surfaces, and more. The full game will include a career mode with hundreds of events to play, including tournaments. There will also be fast-paced mini games such as Speed Pot, Checkpoint, and Royal Rumble, in addition to cross-platform multiplayer for both casual and ranked matches. You’ll also be able to customize your style with custom cues, balls, baize colors, and table designs, which are unlocked through progression and completing challenges.

As an old billiards soul, this is shaping up pretty well. Check out the gameplay reveal trailer below:

One of my most anticipated games of 2026, Copa City, has shared a new gameplay trailer that takes a quick yet deep dive into the various systems in the soccer match day management sim. In the abbreviated clip, we get a glimpse at the weeks of preparation taking place before a match between Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal. The clock is ticking as you deal with unexpected challenges that arise and require you to think quickly on your feet.

In Copa City, time is your enemy as you manage all aspects of game management and preparation. Shape the fan experience by building restaurants, set-up sponsorship zones with entertainment options, manage security operations, hire staff, and most importantly, ensure everything goes off without a hitch. No pressure whatsoever.

As someone who used to manage sport facilities and events for a living, this is giving me massive flashbacks. Perhaps even a bit of PTSD. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to get my hands on Copa City when it launches March 26^th, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

I am a huge fan of Avatar The Last Airbender and even if It wasn't as good I still enjoyed Legend of Korra. The one thing about being a fan of these series is the heartbreak of how we have had an endless amount of shovelware and trash level games from this series. The Avatar world is absolutely perfect to adapt to videogames and yet we still to this day we have yet a good Avatar game. There are two games that I have always wanted to see from this IP. A open world RPG and a fighting game. Well we finally have the fighting game as "Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game" has been announced.

The game will be a 1v1 fighting game and will include characters from both Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. 

The description on Steam says the game will include 12 characters at launch with more being added each season, a single player campaign with an original narrative, the ability to select support characters to help in combat, combo trials, a gallery mode and 

The confirmed roster so far includes...

• Aang
• Toph
• Katara
• Sokka
• Zuko
• Azula
• Korra 

Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game releases in 2026 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X, Switch, Switch 2 and PC.