Ever wanted to manage your own rock band of dysfunctional, anthropomorphic musicians? Well now you can, thanks to Lichtund and Team17 Digital’s band management sim, ROCKBEASTS. Step into the shoes of band manager as you assemble and guide your band through the 90s dive bar scene. Iggy Pup, the lead singer, is voiced by Iggy Pop, but the rest of the crew is fully voiced as well and darkly comedic. Written by Jakub Szamalek, the senior writer of The Witcher 3 and Principal Writer of Cyberpunk 2077, ROCKBEASTS is a story-driven management RPG with mature themes, and even more mature humor. Branching storylines mean that your choices truly matter, drastically affecting the future of your band along the way. Do you sellout for fame, or stay true to your music? That’s, like, totally up to you, dude.

ROCKBEASTS is releasing in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Check out the announcement trailer below:

Of course, the headline above is a bit cheeky, but I am running into a problem of sorts with Donkey Kong Bananza: every level in the game is so fun that I don't want to move forward. Let me explain:

Each level in Donkey Kong Bananza is a smorgasbord of activities. There is gold to mine, skill point-giving bananas to discover, and of course, story beats to achieve. Much of the world is covered in smashable material, and by punching down, the player can dig their own system of tunnels through the levels, creating shortcuts like an overgrown monkey-ant. Exploring underground, you'll find all sorts of hidden chambers, gold deposits, buried chests, and a bounty of other goodies that cause your dopamine needle to bury itself on the far right of the meter. Digging around is extraordinarily fun, and once started, difficult to stop. 

As usual, Nintendo is on point with getting the player to where they need to be. The game smartly guides the player to the areas most littered with rewards with little visual cues, so if you see anything glittering a little, or sticking up out of the ground, it's a good idea to head that way and smash everything in sight. So far, so good, right?

My problem comes with the fact that there are limits to how deep you can go. Intrepid diggers will eventually run up against solid barriers that can't be breached, which means that every diggable area contains a finite amount of material that can be mined. The issue? I want to mine ALL OF IT. The fact that these barriers exist implies that it is theoretically possible to completely clear everything from within their boundaries. I literally want to stay in every level and smash every single smashable molecule of material, uncovering every secret the game has hidden from me.

Of course, that's no way to play a game. Being the design geniuses they are, I'm certain that Nintendo took into account the fact that psychos like me exist, and figured out ways that the levels can still be beaten after players have completely destroyed the very floor they were intended to walk on. But that doesn't mean it's the right way to play.

Finding the balance between "smash everything" and "advance the game" is much harder than I expected. My son and I finished the first real level last night after a significant amount of dorking around, and I looked at him and said "Ready to move on?" and he said "Nope." So in some cases, it seems, "smash everything" might win the day. Eventually I suppose we'll move onto the next level. Eventually. 

Donkey Kong Bananza is now available in physical and digital editions on Nintendo Switch 2. Watch for my review next week, but for now, trust that it is every bit as good as everyone says it is. 

Icelandic developer Myrkur Games has announced that its debut game, Echoes of the End, will release on August 12^th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S for $39.99. A release date is not all they shared today, as a new 17-minute gameplay video shows an extended look at an early part of the game. The new video shows off the two main protagonists, Ryn and Abram, as well as the gorgeous Icelandic folklore setting and some of the enemies that inhabit it.

The story of Echoes of the End takes place across 10 chapters, beginning with Ryn on a routine border patrol when her and her brother, Cor, are attacked by the rival kingdom of Reigendal – the first offensive in a surprise invasion of Ryn’s homeland that sets the game’s events in motion.

You can check out the extended gameplay video below, and you can also wishlist Echoes of the End now on your storefront of choice.

I couldn't wait. I used the $30 Father's Day gift cards and bought a digital copy of Donkey Kong Bananza. The praise is out there, and beyond "performance issues" I think this game is really really fun in my first impression for the Nintendo Switch 2.

I say that, mostly because in the first 10 minutes of the game, I proved that Donkey Kong is indeed a monkey that smashes things, contrary to his movie counterpart. I smashed everything I could. Donkey Kong moves fluidly through the caves, caverns, walls and everything else, because he can smash the vast majority of things in front of him. He has a regular punch, a downward punch an upward punch, and a jump, and that's just for starters. 

Once you get into the game a little more, the game starts teaching you that you can grab rocks, to smash other rocks. The gold that you can grab can be used for bigger explosions, while the sand up clump up can be used to build platforms.  DK can punch enemies into oblivion. He can collect gold and other in game currency using a hand slap with a touch of a button, and that also sends out a little sonar to show you where hidden things are. Later later, as you progress in a semi linear story, Donkey Kong can change his fur color, and his tie and shorts even have attributes tied to him. 

The game is called Bananza, and are filled with Bananas, and Donkey Kong loves em. So much so, that for every 5 crystalized ones will net you a skill point. Those skill points can be used on a skill tree for more power, or even more range for the hand slap. You meet your companion, who is Odd Rock, and find out that you and "it" have a musical connection. All this is jam packed within probably the first half hour. 

When I say that Donkey Kong can navigate almost anywhere, I absolutely mean it. As deep as he wants to. As high as he can get. He can roll into a ball and even smash through rocks in that form. There are NPC's, side quests, teleporters called "eelevators", and treasure behind every rock. If a rage room were a video game, Donkey Kong Bananza is it. Listen to the universal acclaim. They're right. I do wish Pauline was more of a surprise though. That would've rocked. (See what I did there?)

I don't want to give too much more away. It's out. Critics love it. People love it. It's sitting at a 91 based on 87 critic reviews already. Grab it. I'm not reviewing it. Ya'll don't need my opinion. But it's good. I'm going to play it more now. 

The genre that I like to call the “escape room simulator” has been getting a lot of new entries in the last couple of years. Liminal Exit is preparing to enter the fray with a third quarter release this year, combining elements of survival horror, walking, and immersive sims. You are trapped inside a building with three floors, tasked with reporting anomalies across liminal spaces that keep repeating if you miss something out of place. Adding a dash of survival horror, Liminal Exit looks to test your awareness, as well as your mental fortitude, with an eerie AI attempting to trap you forever.

There’s no firm release date just yet, but you can check out the spooky new trailer for Liminal Exit below:

We’re getting more firefighting simulators than you can shake a hose at these days, but one is starting to stand out more than the rest. Rescue Ops: Wildfire was first revealed back in May by developer Exkee but now we have our first look at real gameplay, and it looks very promising. A new gameplay video is a brief yet beefy peek at the game’s various systems, driving, fire physics, and just how deep the simulation goes. You can check it out below.

There’s no firm release date yet for Rescue Ops: Wildfire, but the plan is for it to hit PC Early Access in early to mid-2026. As of right now, there are no console versions planned, but I won’t give up hope for us console simmers.

Fans of tactical shooters on console have been waiting a long time for this one. Ready or Not is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, putting players in the boots of SWAT officers in the fictional city of Los Suenos. Alongside the console launch comes the addition of cross-platform play so you can squad up no matter where you play.

The base version of Ready or Not features 18 missions that can be played either solo or in online co-op for up to five players. It also includes two missions as part of the Los Suenos Stories free DLC update. Additionally, for an extra $20, you can grab the Dark Waters and Home Invasion DLC packs which include more missions, a UH-60 support helicopter, and more. Each DLC can be purchased separately as well.

I played my first two missions last night with a friend and, so far, it is scratching a major itch that I’ve had since playing SWAT 2 and SWAT 3 on PC way back in the day, when I would get kicked from my online matches every time the house phone rang. I am currently reviewing Ready or Not on PlayStation 5, so stay tuned in the coming days for my full breakdown.

Announced only a month ago, Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is out now. Neverwinter Nights 2 originally launched in 2006, nearly 20 years ago. It was removed from Steam in 2012, likely due to licensing issues between Atari and Hasbro. Then it was quietly delisted from GOG sometime in late 2020 or early 2021, leaving no official PC storefront selling the game. If you already had it, you had it. But if you didn't have it, you couldn't buy it.

Jump to July 15, 2025, and Neverwinter Nights 2 is back—albeit in "enhanced" form—thanks to prolific game porters and enhancers, Aspyr Media. 

This was top-notch roleplaying back in the 2000s. Our review (yes, Gaming Nexus has been around that long; longer, actually) gave it an 8.5, noting developer Obsidian's pedigree, but acknowledging janky AI—back when "AI" simply described NPCs' and enemies' behavior on the battlefield—a middling artistic aesthetic, and, even then, one of the worst cameras to be found in video gaming.

Our review of the Enhanced Edition is forthcoming. And we'll see just how great or merely good enough the following new features are:

Experience the Complete Saga with All Classic Expansions Included: Journey through the cursed Shadow Realm in Mask of the Betrayer as a Shard-Bearer battling an insatiable spiritual hunger. Lead your shipwrecked crew through a hostile jungle in Storm of Zehir, uncovering a plot that threatens all of Faerûn. And delve into the treacherous underbelly of Mysteries of Westgate, where secrets and danger lurk around every corner.

Steam Workshop Support: Dive into a world of community-created content with full Steam Workshop integration. Discover and download new adventures, modules, and more to expand your Neverwinter Nights 2 experience.

First Time on Consoles with New Controls: Experience Neverwinter Nights 2 on consoles for the very first time! Enjoy tailored controls with full controller support, as well as the option for classic mouse-and-keyboard gameplay.

If you've never played Neverwinter Nights 2, this is the perfect time to jump in, even with a $30 price tag. The jury is still out whether this Enhanced Edition is worth that same price to previous owners of the game, however.

Neverwinter Nights 2: Enhanced Edition is out now on Steam, GOG, Switch, PS5, and Xbox S|X.

EVO 2025 is only a few weeks away and Quarter Up have announced that they are bringing Invincible Vs. to the show, but have also announced a new character for Invincible Vs. with Rex Splode. Check out his gameplay trailer below. 

There will be 16 demo stations set up at EVO with 3 stages and six playable characters. Those five of them have been announced including... 

• Invincible
• Atom Eve
• Thula
• Bulletproof 
• Rex Splode

The sixth playable character is currently a mystery so I think we will be getting a character reveal at the event. 

Invincible Vs. is scheduled for release in 2026.

It's no secret that as soon as I got my hands on Street Fighter 6, I was happy to shoryuken Street Fighter 5 to the promised land. This means I didn't even get to play with Sagat, because while he was in the game way before then, I had my fill with the game, and decided I would play it on special call outs. This has all changed with Street Fighter 6, and though I still haven't played anything with Elena, Sagat is the game character to remind me I've been away for too long. 

Since the last time I've played, we've had Elena, a Switch 2 release, and an entire Season 3 patch. Now we wait for Sagat to be added, as the first Season 3 character. Capcom released his gameplay trailer today, and I'm very scared of the Emperor Sagat. He's learned a thing or two up in the mountains. 

I saw Sagat with more reach than I've ever seen him have. He looks HUGE. He has a slew of new tech, that look familiar if you're a Ryu or Ken user. He has knees and kicks similar to Ken's Jinrai kicks. He has a medium jumping punch that hits twice. His level 1 super, Tiger Shot goes right through a Shinkuu Hadouken. His Tiger Uppercut seems to hit anything that moves. He has what seems to be a charging tiger uppercut that comes with an additional hit, that then results in a wall splat. He even has a Level 2 super that he can modify up to 4 different ways, depending on how you want your opponent to land.

I spent a lot of time oohing and ahhing during this trailer, and it's time you take part in it, if you haven't already. And remember, the fighters pass is all about Street Fighter 1 as you get ready for Sagat, with an EX color for Ryu and Ken, along with new challenger screens, an outfit for your avatar, and even the sound effects from the very first game. Check it out.