Love it or hate it, Wizards of the Coast has leaned hard into its Universes Beyond subset of Magic: The Gathering cards as a way to collaborate with all manner of brands and IP, including Final Fantasy, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Marvel's Spider-Man, and soon, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This TMNT-themed set is an expansive release hitting card shops on March 6, and it includes the usual gamut of play and collector boosters, a Commander deck, chase cards, and more. 

Ahead of its launch next month, I attended a virtual preview to learn from the card game makers behind this set about its narrative design, its video game-themed deck, a new multiplayer cooperative format for four players, and so much more. There's a lot here, and I have a lot of card previews to show you, so get your pen and paper ready, turn on your deckcrafting brain, and enjoy!

Wizards of the Coast senior narrative designer and TMNT narrative design lead Crystal Frasier began the preview explaining her role in designing this set, stating, "We're incredibly lucky with TMNT that a lot of our artists were already huge fans of the property, so a lot of them went above and beyond." As Magic: The Gathering fans already know, every card has just a hint of storytelling happening, even outside of the sometimes-included flavor text, and that hasn't changed with this set. 

In the Vanish Lands pictured below, you can see that these basic land cards showcase various places around New York City, the metropolis the Turtles have always called home. However, if you look closer at the scenes, you'll see remnants of the Turtles – that's because these scenes showcase parts of NYC where the Turtles were just at, disappearing into the night to be heroes, according to Frasier. In the full-art Rooftop Lands, pictured in the gallery below, you'll see the Turtles' silhouettes as they leap from rooftop to rooftop, inspired by various TMNT media. 

Vanish Lands and Rooftop Lands

 

Frasier says one of the best parts about designing this set was the breadth of TMNT iterations to draw upon for card art, and in the card below – Turtles Forever – you can see that on display as it features a different iteration of each turtle: 

She adds that Nickelodeon, which owns the Turtles IP, was "incredibly supportive" of Wizards of the Coast creating its own iteration of the Turtles, and if you see art that isn't from a previous iteration, it's Magic's own take on the mutants. Wanting to ensure every pack comes with a Turtle, Frasier says, "We gave a Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic that charts the Turtle's alignment," which is why you have Raphael, Tough Turtle; Raphael, Most Attitude; Raphael, the Nightwatcher; and Raphael, Ninja Destroyer, for example, with flavor text of quotes from Master Splinter that speak to the Turtles' training. Some of them, as you'll see, are special silhouetted versions of the Turtles, too. Check them out below: 

Common, Uncommon, Rare, And Mythic Turtle Iterations

 

Every Turtle gets a Team-Up card, too, with each of their brothers. Frasier says, "The vibe is to understand them as brothers and see how important that is to their family." Donatello and Leonardo are the more serious and studious brothers, so you'll see them on a team-up card, while Raphael and Michelangelo are the troublemakers, and that's reflected in their team-up card, too. Here, Frasier shared the Turtle Van (an Artifact – Vehicle card) as well: 

Turtle Team-Ups

 

There are various villains featured in this TMNT set, but the designers wanted to highlight Krang, "an eccentric little weirdo who has all the resources to make his mad schemes everyone else's problem," according to Frasier. Senior game designer and TMNT set design lead Eric Englehard says the blue Rare Krang is meant to capture his mad scientist vibes (and in the background, you'll see various artistic iterations of his mecha-suits from the design team), while his Utrom Warlord Mythic card highlights how much of a threat Krang can be to the Turtles. 

On the vigilante side, Englehard highlighted Casey Jones, Vigilante, describing him as Raphael's BFF. Frasier adds that they have a lovely bromance occurring throughout the set, and Casey is the only person/card to make Raphael seem reasonable by comparison. On that front, the team took an effect that started with a blue card from Seekers of Kamigawa, a 2005 set, and turned it into a red card effect creature in Casey Jones, Vigilante. And finally, the team highlighted Cowabunga, a green sorcery card, here; Frasier says it emphasizes the idea that despite being heroes, these brothers are still teenagers. "They go on really cool adventures, fight aliens in space [...], but they also hang out with each other, pick on each other, share meals, and find things to do. They're just a couple of poor kids in New York City finding fun ways to hang out," she says. 

Englehard adds that, mechanically, the design team couldn't capture the teenager vibe, so it relied on Frasier and the narrative design team to emphasize that, at the end of the day, they're still teenagers. Check out all these cards in the gallery below: 

Cowabunga, Casey Jones, and Krang

 

Magic: The Gathering- TMNT Mechanics

At this point in the preview, the design team switched from highlighting the cards' storytelling elements to the mechanics associated with the set. There's a brand new mechanic in this TMNT set: Sneak. Englehard says it captures the Ninja aspect and can appear on instants, sorceries, and creatures, adding that anything can happen in combat because of this mechanic. 

Something else new to this set is Mutagen Tokens, which read as the following: "1 (Mana), Sacrifice this token: Put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature. Activate only as a sorcery." 

In terms of returning mechanics, Englehard says Alliance, which triggers when another creature enters the battlefield under your control, returns and pairs nicely with Sneak, "so you get unexpected triggers at unexpected times." Slash, Reptile Rampager, is the headliner card for Alliance. The Krang & Shredder card features the Disappear mechanic, which is an old mechanic with a new name – Revolt has become Disappear, and it triggers if something you control leaves the battlefield during your turn, which Englehard says will pair nicely with Sneak and Mutagen tokens.

Two more things: classes return, after a successful introduction in the Bloomburrow set of 2024, and I can show you the Ninja Teen class card in the gallery below. Other creatures rely on adjectives from the classic 1987 animated series theme song, so expect class cards for "Party Dude" and more. The second thing here is Casey's hockey bag, and if you read the description, it might sound like a familiar Planal card. 

 

Bundles

Below, I'll break down the various bundles you can purchase when this set launches next month. 

Turtle Power Commander Deck

Where the main cards of the TMNT set lean into the various comic, TV, and movie iterations of the Turtles, the Turtle Power Commander Deck – Partner With Allies, Buff Your Team – is based around the mutant teenagers' video game adventures. This deck features 43 new cards separate from the main set, which is quite large for a Universes Beyond Commander deck, and you'll find all sorts of video game-inspired cards, from both old and more recent adventures. See what you recognize in the gallery below: 

 

Turtle Team-Up: A New 2-4 Player Co-Op Game Mode

Turtle Team-Up is a brand-new multiplayer cooperative mode best played with four players, though it can be played solo (with some challenge). Englehard says Turtle Team-Up was "designed from the ground up as an approachable and exciting way to learn Magic," adding, "You're not competing against each other as you and your friends or your kids play together to defeat a horde of Shredder's minions and 11 of the Turtles' worst foes that live inside a boss deck." You can use the included decks to fight each other; however, after you've grasped how they work, the primary mode is the co-op adventure. 

It can be tuned to raise or lower the difficulty, and the bundle includes four player boosters in addition to four 60-card decks and a boss deck; there are 29 new-to-Magic legacy legal cards among the decks, with roughly eight new ones in each box. 

Draft Night

You know the deal here: this bundle includes everything you need for a pick-two draft night with you and up to three friends. It comes with 12 play boosters and one collector booster, 90 basic land cards, and a bunch of tokens. 

Pizza Bundle

This special edition bundle is the only part of the Magic: The Gathering – TMNT set that is not launching on March 6; it hits stores on March 27. It is a set of thematic pizza cards described by the team as a traditional bundle that comes in a themed pizza box with nine play boosters, a collector booster, and a TMNT spin-down die, alongside an entire set of Pizza Lands. You'll even find Food Chain in this bundle, a classic Magic: The Gathering card tweaked to fit the theme of this Pizza Bundle. 

 

Chase Cards, Special Editions, and More

Like every other Magic: The Gathering set, there are chase cards fans of TMNT will be hoping to find, and this time around, keep an eye out for Borderless Signature Kevin Eastman cards, Borderless Pixel Cards, Borderless Silhouette Cards, Source Material art cards, and Japanese Showcase cards. Check them out below: 

 

Magic: The Gathering- Arena

Let's wrap things up with a quick little Arena recap: there will be a new TMNT battlefield in Arena; not every card from the Commander Deck will make it to Arena, but every legendary creature of the Commander Deck will head there, and various bundles come with Mythic Turtles, special sleeves, and more. 

 

Alrighty, if you made it this far, thank you for reading! This is a new type of feature for us here at Game Informer – while many of us here on staff love and play Magic: The Gathering, we haven't really covered it much on the website (though we do post videos about Magic: The Gathering sets from time to time). We're looking to cover this card game more here, and today's preview is an example of how we might go about doing that.

With that said, please drop a comment below and let me know what you think of this preview style – Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you like the galleries? Do you like the explanations and behind-the-scenes details? 

Welcome to Friday the 13th – the spookiest day of the year! In honor of the occasion we're playing mostly... not scary games. Unless you consider failing a nongram puzzle scary. Or you don't like cats? The new God of War game has some monsters in it. That's something right? Crisol, actually, is pretty dang creepy, so that counts. There you go.

In any case, it's time for the weekend and our usual recommendation of games and things you should check out! But before that, here's a recap of the biggest stories of the week:

• Everything Announced At The February PlayStation State Of Play
• Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Made By Konami And The Dead Cells Devs, Launches In 2026
• Santa Monica Studio Is Remaking The Original God Of War Trilogy
• Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 Finally Frees Guns Of The Patriots From Its PS3 Prison
• Blizzard Is Bringing The Warlock Class To Diablo IV: Lord Of Hatred, Diablo II, And Diablo Immortal
• Highguard Developer Wildlight Entertainment Confirms Layoffs At The Studio

The Games You Should Check Out This Weekend

It's February, which in recent years has become an unexpected battleground for big new releases. Resident Evil Requiem is right around the corner, as is the Switch Virtual Boy peripheral – two video games experiences that are inspiring equal amounts of hype. The good news, is we have played both, which you can read about below. But more importantly, you can read about what we're playing this weekend, and what we think you might want to check out, as well.

It's Friday and it's time for the weekend and our usual recommendation of games and things you should check out! But before that, here's a recap of the biggest stories of the week:

• The Oral History Of Fallout
• Dragon Quet VII Reimagined Review
• Overwatch 2 Is Just 'Overwatch' Again And Five New Heroes Arrive Next Week
• I Played The Virtual Boy Games On Switch 2, And It Was Actually Kind Of Cool
• I Played Resident Evil Requiem And Pragmata On Switch 2 – And They Ran Surprisingly Well
• Mewgenics – Review In Progress

The Games You Should Check Out This Weekend

For the past several weeks, I've been hacking away at Mewgenics, the latest game from The End is Nigh Duo Tyler Glaiel and Edmund McMillen, the latter of which is also known for creating The Binding of Issac. That said, Mewgenics is absolutely massive, and while I'm not finished with it yet, there's plenty to talk about already. My dozens of hours so far have been quite enjoyable, thanks to incredibly varied and engaging combat and an all-timer soundtrack. Though it's frustrating at times and the humor doesn't always hit, Mewgenics, which has been in the works in some form for over a decade, has been worth the wait so far.

The adventure puts the player in charge of an ever-changing house full of cats, and you command up to four of them during roguelike runs. Combat is turn-based and grid-based (like Fire Emblem or Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy), and you assign each cat a classic RPG class to determine their pool of stats and abilities. Some are straightforward, like the defensive Tank or the ranged Hunter, but others are more unique, like the weapon-crafting Tinkerer or animal-summoning Druid. Each starting ability set is randomly generated, so with my current set of ten classes (and there are more to unlock), every run feels truly unique.

Combat keeps you on your toes (and your cats on their toe beans). Cats usually heal a little at the end of each fight, but heals are otherwise inconsistently found, so it's crucial to battle as carefully as possible. Most of my failed runs come from fights that fall apart in just one or two rounds of combat against especially dangerous foes I've underestimated. Since your cats' starting abilities are randomized, each run also introduces variables to keep track of on the player's end, too. Passive abilities can make enemies' difficulties fluctuate, and sometimes two cats in your party have abilities that can hinder you if you're not paying attention. Every run has unique, often silly specifics that you're unlikely to run into twice. Some are helpful, some are not, but they're always entertaining.

Partly because of that randomness, Mewgenics is very challenging and unforgiving. There's no undo button to avoid misclicks or moves gone horribly wrong, and while you can quit the game without saving to restart a battle, a Mr. Resetti-like character only lets you do so once per run. Dying means you permanently lose your current party of cats and all the items in your inventory at the time. This makes a huge difference in subsequent runs. Good cats from past runs give birth to high-stat kittens for future attempts. Meanwhile, items give cats new abilities or improve their stats, and starting a run with a full inventory of equipment from past encounters sets you up for success.  Losing doesn't just prevent you from progressing – it sometimes even sets you back.

This stands in stark contrast to other modern roguelike conventions, where each failure is a step forward in some way, either because you're leveling up some stat, collecting resources, or progressing a story. Mewgenics has macro-progression, but it moves more slowly, especially on a loss. This is not an inherently bad system, and I like knowing each fight has life-or-death stakes. Still, it is frustrating to get stuck in a losing cycle, especially if you're expecting a more relaxed experience.

Before you embark on a run, however, you have to assemble your team of cats, either by adopting strays or by breeding existing cats. Your home base, a customizable house, is decorated with furniture that alters its stats, which factor into how often cats breed and what the kittens' base attributes will be. So far, I'm fine with this system, but not really in love with it. Decorations and furniture are expensive enough that you can typically only buy one item each time you come home, and interior design is strategically irrelevant – an effective room is crammed full of as many items that boost a house's stats as possible.

The breeding itself is mostly a passive system, where you place compatible cats in a room together and hope they mate and make a new kitten that shares some of their traits. Fair warning, though – with the default settings, you're going to have to watch a lot of cat humping animations. You can thankfully turn these off, and the game is a lot better for it, because they're replaced with varied, creative, goofy ways the cats have children, like by summoning them from a pentagram or having them delivered by a stork.

Mewgenics' crude humor is one of the biggest obstacles keeping me from truly loving the game, especially its emphasis on fecal humor. If it were rarer or used more sparingly, I would find it more tolerable – funny even – but it all comes across as juvenile and gross. Still, there's plenty here that is funny, including the randomly generated cat names (you're just as likely to find one named "Jake" as you are "Ethernet") and each cat's distinct meow sound (one of my favorites has auto tune; the other swears in English when taking damage and goes "oh, I meant, 'meow'").

Most of my criticisms of Mewgenics are admittedly minor because you spend the vast majority of playtime in combat, and combat is absolutely stellar. There's plenty more for me to experience before coming to a final verdict, but the fact that I'm itching to hop back into the game dozens of hours in is a great omen.

I’m knee-deep into playing Nioh 3, and though the review embargo has lifted, I still need more time to complete this densely packed threequel. But after playing for a couple of dozen hours, I can confidently say I’m having a fun time slicing apart yokai in this time-hopping adventure. While the game remains a deliciously difficult action game, especially thanks to its new Ninja style, I’m arguably most impressed with its rewarding approach to exploration.

One of Nioh 3’s big additions is the Ninja Style Shift, which effectively gives you a shinobi-flavored class that feels like controlling a wholly different character. While its opposite Style, Samurai, offers the more traditional Nioh combat experience (complete with the four weapon stances), I much prefer the speed and agility of the Ninja Style. Slashing apart foes using the Ninja’s bespoke weaponry like dual swords, splitstaves, or tonfa, while swiftly dodging around and behind them to take advantage of the Ninja’s stronger backstab damage, is thrilling. I also enjoy experimenting with the Ninja’s impressively deep suite of unlockable tools and magic.

Regardless of whether you favor Samurai or Ninja, swapping between them with a button press allows for a dynamic shift in gameplay styles that keeps combat fresh and strategically engaging for hours. I’m enjoying mastering each style’s inherent traits and the many weapons they offer.

I’m also enjoying Nioh 3’s approach to open-world exploration. While not a true open-world game, players visit different expansive hubs, and a single landmass can take 15-20 hours to fully explore. Nioh 3’s approach to exploration smartly threads the needle between the overly guided icon-littered maps of most open-world games and the more cryptic "pick a direction and see what you find" design ethos of Elden Ring or the recent Zelda games. Upon entering a region, the map is a blank slate. But the more you uncover, the more you unlock tiers of exploration rewards, such as stat bumps to attack/defense; more importantly, however, the map begins displaying icons of the goodies you were in the vicinity of but missed the first time around.

These include side quests, loot chests, hidden Kodama spirits, Jizo statues, Guardian Spirit traversal sections, and much more. Nioh 3’s world may not boast jaw-dropping emergent moments, but it constantly incentivizes exploration because everything you find improves your character in some way. You’ll gain new weapons, gear, skill points, passive upgrades, and more simply by wandering, and it’s an effective hook when the game still pummels players with its high difficulty curve.

Another of Nioh 3’s big destinations is Crucibles, demonic realms that present a higher overall challenge befitting their hellish landscape. Usually presented as a climax to a plot milestone, I like Crucibles as self-contained challenges and breaks from the overworld. I also like the unique Crucible weapons they reward, which bear special, unlockable skills and inflict more damage, but cause the player to take increased damage.

Nioh 3’s encounters, especially its boss fights, remain challenging affairs. However, overcoming a seemingly insurmountable foe has never felt more feasible thanks to the more freeform exploration. Nioh 3 allows players to explore and get stronger should they hit a wall, and as I previously established, there’s no shortage of things to do or find. This is much more enjoyable than grinding the same corridor-like route ad nauseam. But even if you technically surpass a region’s recommended character level, boss battles demand a high degree of reflex and pattern recognition – plus the savvy to know when to switch combat styles – that sheer number grinding can’t solve; and that’s where success tastes the sweetest.

Still, when your dexterity isn’t up to snuff, Nioh 3 offers plenty of ways to help pick up the slack. From having two completely different loadouts between the Samurai and Ninja styles, multiple systems for recycling unwanted loot and strengthening preferred equipment, expansive skill trees for each weapon (with free respec), and other features still revealing themselves, it’s impressive how much you can customize your character to prepare for any given fight, even by this series’ standards.

Naturally, you’re going to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of options at your fingertips – I certainly am – but the game does a solid job of easing players into these systems between playable tutorials and a glossary succinctly explaining each feature. Nioh 3 also allows you to get accustomed to an initial batch of features for a good dozen or more hours before unlocking new options and expanding existing ones, and I’m grateful for that. Unfortunately, it means a lot of downtime is spent in menus inspecting/recycling dozens of pieces of loot, as well as checking the boxes for numerous rewards across multiple menus. While it feels good to continually grow, pausing to do so does feel like having to shove a mouthful of veggies when I just want to get back to devouring my juicy steak.

I have a good way to go before rolling credits in Nioh 3, but I’m having a blast so far. The action remains slick and satisfying, the game’s customization allows overwhelming agency in how you build your hero, and the open world offers compelling reasons to explore every nook and cranny. I hope the world’s offerings continue to compel me to explore, and much of that will depend on how much tougher the bosses become going forward. As of now, I’m eager and willing to tackle whatever remaining challenges lie ahead.

For the last 25 years, developer IO Interactive has been known primarily for the lauded Hitman franchise. In that series, players take control of Agent 47, a blank-slate killing machine who travels the world to hunt down targets and take them out in ways that either look like an accident or are untraceable back to him. The series, particularly the World of Assassination trilogy, saw IO Interactive reach new heights, delivering some of the most engaging sandbox stealth experiences the medium has ever seen.

Though markedly different experiences, many of the skills that IO developed transferred to the development of 007 First Light. However, IO Interactive CEO and 007 First Light game director Hakan Abrak credits Hitman with helping to establish the studio's identity. “It’s defined many things for us throughout the years, from the technology we’ve been doing to the communities we’ve built,” IO Interactive CEO and 007 First Light game director Hakan Abrak says. “When it comes to creating a spy or agent fantasy that travels the world – the globetrotting, contemporary world fantasy – we have spent a lot of hours traversing in that area, which, I think, has given us a certain expertise and know-how over the years.”

That very DNA influenced the direction IO Interactive took with 007 First Light, informing the studio's approach to the more open-ended sequences of the game. "Whenever we can, we try to open it up; in the gameplay trailer, you have to infiltrate this chateau," narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg says. "This is where we try to bring that IOI DNA that we have from Hitman, where you represent it as a way where there are different paths into this chateau, and then you have to go from here. And then, we have the Kensington level, where we have several segments, especially going through the trespassing segments where combat is involved, where you have a much wider range of choice: You can go stealthy or you can go combat, or anything in between. It's actually up to you, and all these routes or play-style choices should all be viable and fun to use."

However, even with Hitman's influence and DNA permeating 007 First Light, they still look, flow, and play completely different. "Obviously, we've had a lot of learnings from our Hitman titles, especially because we knew we also wanted to have some kind of stealth in this game," gameplay director Andreas Krogh says. "It was very obvious for us to just say, 'Okay, we have a stealth loop in Hitman, and a way of approaching that with environment interactions and the moment-to-moment, second-to-second gameplay that we like and saw users like.' It was obvious for us to bring that to the table. But on the other hand, we knew we had a new game here, with a new protagonist that we knew we had to do some of the areas we weren't good at in Hitman."

In addition to the structure being much more linear, with a combination of set-piece action moments and sandbox creativity sequences, in the Hitman games, there is no driving, and combat is often a last resort if you're made by the enemies. In 007 First Light, you'll be expected to embody all parts of Bond's persona, including his expert driving ability and skilled bravery within the chaos of a firefight.  

"There's obviously experience from [Kane & Lynch and Freedom Fighters], but there are certain things where, you know, new blood, new talent to IO from the outside," Abrak says. "There are things that we're really, really good at, and there are things where we had to get new expertise that helped develop our engine, our technology, and our game features to deliver above the benchmark for an action game, because Hitman does give you the freedom to go guns blazing. However, even though we give you that freedom, [...] the full experience in Hitman is premeditated; you're planning, you're observing, it's not impulsive, necessarily. It's very thoughtful with pre-planning that goes into that, understanding the wants and motivations, the patrolling patterns, and where the different opportunities are before you make your move for a perfect execution and getaway. Bond is different."

For 007 First Light, IO Interactive wanted to establish a consistent forward momentum for players. "An important difference is that in Bond, we are striving to do forward momentum gameplay all the time, both in combat and in stealth," Krogh says. "Where in Hitman, we had some setups where we wanted you to use some time to stake out the situation and maybe poke a little bit at it to see what happens. In Bond, you can use time to observe a situation, but it’s very evident there are options you can use right away, and you can just use them and see what happens and come forward. We want to reduce that decision-making time to always keep moving forward and be a little bit faster."

And then there's the driving sequences, which are unlike anything IO Interactive has ever released. In my time watching a live demo of an intense driving sequence, I was surprised by how smooth the controls look – way more smooth than you might expect from a studio with seemingly no experience with driving mechanics. "It’s true that we haven’t released any game with driving and vehicles,” Abrak says. 'However, we’ve done numerous IPs, and luckily, a lot of them saw the light of day. Some of them haven’t, and some of the prototypes… we always have incubation going on in IO Interactive, and in some of the incubation groups we’ve done vehicles and driving. With that said, getting that from prototype into a fully finished game, it’s a long journey. We also spent almost six and a half years on 007 now, so it’s a great amount of effort going into creating these vehicles, their behavior, their physics."

On top of that, Bond has a much more prominent personality, which, from what I saw, is performed admirably by actor Patrick Gibson. "There are a lot of good things going for us, going from Hitman, but I will say in the same breath that retraining your brain creatively from doing an agent that is an antihero, Agent 47, to create a fantasy that is a hero, and is a charming, talkative one, to the audience, to the player, that has a completely different demeanor and way about him. That has been the creative challenge that we had to crack."

From everything I've seen, IO Interactive has risen to the occasion with its transition from the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy to the superspy action of a James Bond game. However, we won't know for sure until we get ahold of the final product when it arrives on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC on May 27.

Early Access games have been around for a while now. The trend of launching a game into Early Access to allow curious of players to check out an in-progress game and get their feedback for 1.0 continues to grow. But knowing what I'd be playing is unfinished and could change has always kept me at an arm's length from these games. I even skipped Hades II's Early Access period, despite adoring the first game and knowing developer Supergiant Games is good for its in-development word. 

I'm starting to wonder if I've been throwing a wet blanket on this type of release after playing Witchfire, an Early Access game that has me hooked. I started it yesterday and already have a dozen hours in it. It is fantastic. But Game Informer Editor-in-Chief Matt Miller has been singing its praises alongside thousands of other early adopters for years now; I'm not saying anything surprising here, and if you want to read about why this game is good, there's lots of great writing out there for that. 

Having put aside the mouse and keyboard that control my Preyer's arsenal of destruction, I'm stuck thinking about how many other games I've dismissed sight-unseen because they're in Early Access. I know I'm checking Witchfire out years into its Early Access life at this point, which began in 2023, but I'm bewildered by just how much is here, and how much of it is so polished, too. 

I'm still overwhelmed by how many systems and synergies are at play in Witchfire – various build types, leveling and progression systems, weapons, magic spells, enemy types, biomes to explore, and bosses to fight. I'm not even sure what I want to see in a 1.0 build; if the version of Witchfire I am playing right now launched today, I wouldn't question a thing about all there is to do in the game. That makes it all the more exciting that a 1.0 launch is happening this year, promising even more to come for this so-far excellent FPS roguelite adventure. 

I'm sure there are examples of Early Access games that are significantly more feature-lite, and to be clear: I think that's okay. I just know I'd rather wait for the full 1.0 release at that point. But there are also probably just as many feature-rich Early Access games I'd likely enjoy as much as The Astronauts' shooter, where I'm left wondering how the game isn't a content-complete 1.0 release. 

I suppose this is less a dive into the gamut of Early Access games and their role in game releases (typically in the PC ecosystem) and more so an admission of me being plain ole silly. Of course, I check out Early Access games from time to time for work, but prior to Witchfire and outside of work, I only played 1.0+ releases as if Early Access was a black mark unworthy of my free time. But I know all too well how game development works and how Early Access allows developers to accomplish goals they would otherwise never reach. Games like Hades might never have been the success they are if not for what Supergiant learned during its Early Access period: understanding what its players like, love, dislike, and hate, and shaping the game into something both parties enjoy. 

The same goes for Witchfire, and there's a world where I might have missed the fun and excellence that is this game had I brushed it off as just another Early Access release. The potential of one day checking out its 1.0 release was always there, but that potential has now metastasized into a thrilling excitement – anticipation for changes, an eagerness to dive into what's new, and a newfound enthusiasm for a game I almost ignored.  

If you're like me and haven't given Witchfire a go yet, it's available in Early Access on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. In the meantime, you can read our preview here to learn why it's one of our most anticipated games of 2026. After that, read about the Webgrave update that added a new region, new enemies, and more last year. 

What are some of your favorite Early Access games? Let me know which ones I need to check out in the comments below!

You know his name. Bond, James Bond. But who is the man behind one of the most infamous three-digit numbers in the world? That is the question IO Interactive needed to answer going into the development of 007 First Light, a game that tells the origin story of Agent 007. During our trip to IO Interactive's Copenhagen headquarters for the latest issue of Game Informer's cover story, we sat down with the team to learn how they went about crafting a young version of James Bond.

007 First Light development took place during an unusual time for the James Bond film franchise; it's been nearly 14 years since the last James Bond game, and there is currently no live-action James Bond actor, giving IO Interactive the opening to do what they wanted to do: craft their own original story starring their own original Bond. "It’s very important for us to have part of ourselves in the story and in the characters that we create, yet still being very respectful to the source material, to the IP," game director and IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak says. "I don’t think we would have necessarily had the same energy and the same vision and the same results if we were to do a gamification of a movie. That freedom of creativity was very important to us, and we are so, so grateful for our partners that we’ve been given that opportunity."

In adapting a new version of the iconic superspy, IO Interactive needed to walk a fine line between creating something new and distinct while honoring the legacy of one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. "Everyone knows Bond," narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg says. "It's a generational thing by now: 63 years of movies, books from the '50s… it's huge. Everyone knows how he takes his drink, everyone knows what he drives, and what he wears. So, it’s really interesting to do an origin story. 'Who is the character? Who is the man behind all this stuff?'"

But rather than drawing inspiration from iconic depictions like those of Connery, Brosnan, or Craig, IO wanted to examine the consistent attributes across all media, not just the films. Emborg tells me that as soon as he learned IO was making a Bond game about six and a half years ago, he went out and bought the box sets of the movies, books, and even read the comics. 

"Bond is a character where there's been versions of him through the decades," Emborg says. "I think it's not particularly helpful to look at how other people have interpreted the character. It's better to look at the DNA and then say, 'How are we making a contemporary version of this character?' Obviously, yeah, you look at the movies [and books] – how could you not?"

Through this process, IO successfully drilled into what makes him James Bond, regardless of age. Then, the tricky part: How do you create an inexperienced version of a man whose experience defines him? IO Interactive tried to find what his most defining traits are and then envisioned how those would be expressed through youth. "I think his core traits that he's born with are he has a lot of wits, he's a very smart guy, he has guts, obviously," Emborg says. "All these qualities are changed by the virtue of him being a young man. Wits, in this case, he’s a hungry mind. He’s whip-smart, but he doesn’t have that kind of experience. Yet, in terms of guts, you can definitely say, as a young man, he skews more reckless, whereas with a more seasoned 007, it’s a calculated risk. Yes, he will jump out of an airplane, but this guy does it just because that seems like the next best thing to do to catch the bad guys."

Another quality IO Interactive identified in James Bond is a coldness that permeates many of his interactions. Though I get a glimpse of how IO's Bond remains cool and collected under pressure during my hands-off demo, he doesn't yet have a full grasp on how he comes across. "Our guy isn’t there yet, so I think, if anything, he has more heart in this version than he might have as a seasoned man," Emborg says. "Charm – the quintessential Bond quality – he has in spades, but it’s not weaponized yet. An older Bond will use that tactically, and I think a younger Bond, maybe isn’t even aware that he’s projecting all this charm."

To depict this version of Bond, IO Interactive cast Patrick Gibson, who most recently played a young version of Dexter Morgan in the Dexter prequel series, Original Sin. "He has a great youthful energy to him," Emborg says. "He has a kind of built-in impatience, which is perfect for the character. Like, 'Okay, what’s next? What are we doing now?' But he also has a great gravity that he can tap into. He can get really insanely focused at the drop of a hat, which is really, really impressive. And then he has great comedic timing, and he’s just a lot of fun to be around. I think he checks all the boxes."

We'll have to wait and see how well IO Interactive's version of James Bond pans out, but in our demo, he felt like a fitting transposition of the famous Bond attributes to a younger version of the character. Thankfully, we don't have terribly long to wait, as 007 First Light arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC on May 27. For more on 007 First Light and our other most anticipated games of 2026, be sure to check out our latest issue. If you're a Game Informer subscriber, you can read the full issue right here.

Wildlight Entertainment is a new team with a strong pedigree of talent, including team members who worked on Apex Legends. That experience is clear from the earliest moments of Highguard. The new competitive shooter showcases agile, precise shooting mechanics and enjoyable, fast-moving map navigation, meeting expectations many players may have if you’ve played Apex Legends. And once you get into real matches, it’s clear that the game has a rewarding new match structure at its core. Even so, I’ve struggled in my early hours to find the fun amid some confusing systems, limited variation in the play experience, and little visibility into the seemingly richly imagined fiction and setting on offer.

Highguard is an unusual title at launch, arriving as a free-to-play shooter with big ambitions to grab an audience, but with little to no detail about the game shared ahead of launch. That’s certainly not an obligation for game makers, but it has left the audience, myself included, scrambling a little bit in these early days to understand what the project even is.

After several hours of play, the picture begins to take shape. Players control Wardens, fantasy-inspired warriors of magic and elemental powers, but who also wield high-powered weaponry alongside their mystical capabilities. For reasons that don’t seem to be explained clearly, small groups of Wardens are battling each other, laying siege to the enemy team’s stronghold in the name of – well, that’s not entirely clear.

I love the colorful art style and the melding of fantasy and modern aesthetics that Wildlight explores here. But, without a PvE component or any especially clear accompanying storytelling or setup, I’m stymied a bit in this first day of play, trying to understand what’s happening and why. It is a competitive shooter, of course, and those elements are likely best left as background material, regardless. Here’s hoping the days and weeks that follow help to illuminate the lore and clarify that part of the project.

No matter why these Wardens are fighting, the main 3v3 raid mode is certainly novel. Each match is neatly separated into distinct phases of play. Players select between a number of base layouts and proceed to fortify that base with additional protection before venturing out into a large open map to gather weapons and armor, gear up, and even mine resources to buy additional upgrades. After a designated time window elapses, a Shieldbreaker relic spawns somewhere in the open field, and open conflict with the enemy team begins in earnest, as each allied squad aims to pick it up. Once in hand, you can deploy that Shieldbreaker against the enemy base, open its energy shield, and attempt to raid the interior in an effort to detonate explosives and take out the stronghold. If that effort fails, things reset, there’s another chance to gear up (this time with better gear), and the process begins again.

Taken piece by piece, there’s nothing there that’s profoundly complicated. But I’ll admit that I felt completely lost for the first several matches I played – unsure where to put my attention, when to engage in combat, what to prioritize when defending, and how to even meaningfully contribute to my team. In the long term, it’s possible that the very confusion I felt might be the game’s saving grace – a slightly more complex and freeform match structure that rewards creative play and strategy.

However, there are some other factors that hold back my endorsement at this phase. The single 3v3 raid mode is currently the only way to play the game, and at present, something about it just feels a bit barebones. The maps are, to their credit, very large and cleverly designed. But it means that I spent a lot of time wandering the environment, punctuated by very brief moments of exciting shooting exchanges. If the fantasy is one of besieging an enemy fortress, my initial impression is that the small player count feels out-of-sync with the concept and the map size.

While I don’t understand who they are or where they came from, the small roster of available characters all look and play splendidly. I like the asymmetric powers that come into play in a given match, depending on who I’m up against. And the mix of unique fantasy powers – like magical invisibility or a character who transforms into a massive beast – makes me eager to try everyone out and zero in on a favorite. I also really enjoy the speed and fun that comes from different mounts you can summon to gallop across the battlefield. These work great, add a sense of speed and momentum, and lend something new to the shooter equation.

Highguard is a thoughtfully designed game with strong movement and shooting fundamentals, and it’s trying something new within the genre. For that reason alone, I’m interested and excited to play more and better understand the flow of a given match. But it’s not an easy game to understand at first glance, and it lacks a breadth of play options I’d expect from a title that has ambitions to break into the scene.

We’ll have a full review after several more days of matches, so check back in for a more comprehensive rundown. In the meantime, Highguard’s free price of entry means you could give it a shot for yourself and see whether this new raid shooter concept might gel with your desires.

Highguard is available now on PS5, Xbox, and PC.