Following the Xbox Developer Direct 2026 show, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan (formerly head of Rare) was interviewed by Gamesradar, with a particular focus on the Fable reboot, arguably the showcase's centerpiece. The executive called Fable 'mindblowing', sharing his excitement particularly for the Living Population feature, which will allow players to interact with the NPCs in many different ways. When I think about Playground and their history with the Forza Horizon franchise, and their desire to take on Fable as a franchise, I think it's really about this relentless pursuit of excellence. We all know what that means in […]
Beast of Reincarnation director Kota Furushima says that Game Freak's upcoming action RPG wasn't consciously developed to be in a completely different genre and style from the company's other games, such as the Pokemon series.
In an interview with Famitsu, translated by GamesRadar+, Furushima discusses how the team at Game Freak landed on the idea of creating a realistic-style action RPG, particularly since it isn't similar to anything the studio has worked on before.
"The truth is that we never had a strong feeling like 'let's make something in a different genre and style to what we've done before,'" Furushima says. "Rather, we simply had a solidified concept as a starting point, and we developed the style of play that would best realize that concept. It just happened that it was something completely different to what we'd done up until now."
Game Freak's most recent Pokemon game is the series' first entrant into the action RPG genre. Pokemon Legends: Z-A changes from a turn-based to a real-time battle system; however, Beast of Reincarnation will do something completely different by blending the two styles.
"Starting out we didn't hone in on a genre or style, but instinctively explored an idea," Furushima says. "The concept is Emma and Koo travelling alone through this harsh world, and the loneliness of surviving in this extremely harsh environment, though not really alone, but with the warmth of a reliable companion. The desire to express this feeling is at the core of the game."
While Game Freak is best known for the Pokemon series, the company has developed games of multiple different genres over the years, though none have reached the notoriety of Pikachu's popular franchise.
Aside from giving us the long-awaited first look at Yoshi, the new Super Mario Galaxy Movie trailer includes a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of an incredibly deep-cut character who we never expected to see.
Around the 1 minute 35 seconds mark, we see Super Mario baddie Birdo shooting eggs at Princess Peach, who effortlessly dodges them with her pink umbrella. But who is standing behind the Princess? Only the boss from The Super Mario Bros. 2 video game, Mouser. Watch the trailer below and see if you can spot him.
Even if you have played the best Super Mario games, you may still be wondering who Mouser is. First introduced in the 1987 game Super Mario Bros. 2 (in the west, a reskin of Doki Doki Panic), Mouser is a villain who uses his bad dream bombs to destroy good dreams. He is usually seen wearing his punk boots and gloves with his signature pair of black sunglasses, just like in the trailer.
It is not clear what role he will play in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, as we have only seen him so far in the casino alongside various other bosses and enemies. But the way he stands behind Peach makes us wonder if the big bad will end up switching sides. Nevertheless, the upcoming video game movie won't be the first time that Mouser has appeared on screen, as the villain was a series regular in the animated Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
We did know that more characters were on the way, as ahead of his new movie Mercy hitting the big screen, Mario star Chris Pratt told GamesRadar+, "I'm not allowed to say what they are, but yes, there are some really incredible ones," adding, "there's even a couple more that are not in the trailer that people should be excited to see."
Directed by The Super Mario Bros. Movie's Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, from a screenplay written by returning screenwriter Matthew Fogel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie continues Mario and Luigi's on-screen adventure, where they face new villains and meet new friends. The movie welcomes back Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and adds Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr. and Brie Larson as Rosalina.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie releases on April 1. For more on what to watch, check out our guide to the best video game movies, and keep up with new movies heading your way.
The Headwinds update arrives to Arc Raiders very soon - tomorrow, in fact - and not only does the latest tease give us the release date, it suggests a much-requested feature is coming too. You may finally be able to head in a formal team of up to four, rather than working as more informal allies.
Indeed, the official Arc Raiders social media accounts have posted that Headwind goes live on January 27. Besides that neat little bit of loot, there’s an image, containing one raider facing three others, except the encounter doesn’t seem adversarial. Perhaps they're actually a team? A squad, perhaps?
That's the meaning people are taking from the picture, void of any other context. Scanning for finer details, you can see the person whose feet we're looking at is in casual discussion with the two others closer to them. The fourth is harder to read, and could definitely be seen as someone about to light everybody up, since they have their gun drawn and ready to fire.
"The fourth player is definitely NOT on their team in that image - it's like a Western showdown," says one fan on Twitter. "Possible that it could be a 'Join Squad' feature - the three are asking the raider to join and make four," another suggests.
This seems plausible if it is, in fact, a squad feature. A way to properly become a team while on your current excursion, splitting spoils however many ways. Arc Raiders already allows people to enter rounds together in pairs or groups of three, whereas this might alter the complexion of the maps: higher rewards, but bigger threats.
The frequency of loot is a question mark among the community, since the current levels are just enough to sustain trios. "They'd need to significantly increase loot spawns, it already feels like slim pickings playing with three," states another fan. We'll see what comes when Headwinds rolls out tomorrow as the first release of the Arc Raiders Escalation Roadmap. It's also thought that the update will include the much-anticipated Arc Raiders Toxic Swamp map modifier, revealed in datamining and leaks for some time now.
You can't blame me for being disappointed in last year's Hive Scum reveal. Warhammer 40k Darktide is one of the best Warhammer 40k games around, but it's severely lacking in Adeptus Mechanicus representation. I've subscribed to the cult of the machine god since before they even had an official miniature range, and I, along with thousands of others, believed that a Mechanicus character was going to be added to Darktide last year. We were let down by the Hive Scum, but developer Fatshark has revealed another playable character is on the way in 2026, so my prayers could be answered.
On paper, new horror movie We Bury the Dead is a zombie movie; it's big on post-apocalyptic vibes, as it charts a woman's desperate search for her husband after an experimental weapon is detonated in Tasmania and turns locals into violent, walking corpses. Its moving, melancholic focus on the brain-chomper's cut-short time, though, feels more in-keeping with a ghost flick.
It's not a big surprise to learn, then, that the final thing writer-director Zak Hilditch added to the script were the undead.
"I had no business ever making a zombie movie," he candidly tells GamesRadar+ ahead of the film's UK release. "I mean, I love zombie movies, but how do you make a new zombie movie?! You can't. You better have something really interesting and new to say, or just get out of here. But this idea of grief and having unfinished business, I was like, 'Oh, well, what if I dare to have some of these zombies have unfinished business?' Once we had that final piece, it just took off in a whole new direction, and I really felt like we had something unique."
Led by Star Wars' Daisy Ridley, We Bury the Dead follows Ava, an American physical therapist who travels to Australia to search for husband, who's been missing since an experimental weapon wiped out the area in which he's staying. Mitch, the husband, was there for a business trip – but as the film progresses, we learn that being on different continents was only one of the reasons behind the married pair's distance.
(Image credit: Signature Entertainment)
Knowing all too well that if she finds Mitch, he might not still be Mitch, determined Ava finds herself in the eye of the storm in Hobart, Tasmania, and is quickly tasked with disposing of the uninfected bodies by the Australian military. On the job, she meets free spirit Clay (Brenton Thwaites), who encourages her to ditch their duties and take a trip further south to check out the resort where Mitch was last seen.
"I just love stories about ordinary people caught in the extraordinary, and I'd much rather watch a character like Ava, who isn't a scientist or a soldier," says Hilditch. "We could have followed a scientist who's here to tell you about DNA. I just don't care about those things. I love the every-person dealing with something bigger than they can comprehend, so this is me doing that on steroids."
On their way to Woodbridge, Ava is forced to reconcile with the realities of her relationship and the fact that she and Mitch may never be able to resolve their problems, while she and Clay encounter a couple of survivors struggling to adjust to the island's new normal in their own ways.
"The whole story originated from grief, after the passing of my mother in 2017, and that idea of there's no silver bullet when it comes to navigating your grief," notes Hilditch. "There is no guide, you've got to figure it out yourself. Being in charge of acquitting her estate and going through my childhood home, and packing everything down eventually, was a very cathartic thing. It was so intimately weird going room-to-room and going through all her personal belongings. I just felt like there was something quite interesting about that. I didn't know what to do with that, but I knew that it was something worth exploring as a film to further go through, like, the catharsis.
"I didn't want to make a real Debbie Downer of a movie about a guy dealing with the death of his mom," he smiles. "I was like, 'What can I put this against?' And bit by bit, that idea of grief and not knowing how to facilitate it or how to find an end to it, with these visual ideas of going into a house and going through people's belongings, sort of started meshing it all together."
We Bury the Dead is out in US theaters now, and arrives on Digital HD in the UK on February 2. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.
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