skate leaves me torn, but mostly sad. The skating feels brilliant, every flick and flow just right, but it’s wrapped in such a soulless corporate gloss, unfathomably out-of-touch cringe writing, and a shop-first design. It’s tough, because there is fun to be found, but it’s buried under a product that replaces culture with monetisation.

Borderlands 4 is a blast when you lock into the core loop - snappy gunplay, meaningful loot, big playgrounds. But the bombastic, quippy aesthetic and tone now read like a bit of a relic. You almost have to meet it halfway - tune out the dated swagger, focus on the systems - then you can find the fun. In any case, if you’re looking for a shooter to turn your brain off in, there’s a lot to like.

Hell Is Us is haunting, pretty clever, and not what I expected. Combat is simple, sometimes clunky, but that’s not the point - it’s about mystery, puzzles, and piecing together scraps of story in a war-torn world. The no-map, no-hand-holding design is immersive, and rewards patience. At its best, it’s unsettling and atmospheric. At its worst, it’s repetitive and meandering. Not for everyone, but if you crave exploration over combat, give it a look.

Marvel’s Wolverine closed out State of Play with a brutal gameplay showcase and a “Fall 2026” release window. Liam McIntyre stars as Logan, with teases of Mystique, Omega Red and a Sentinel. Insomniac says we’ll see more in “Spring 2026”.

Nioh 3 has a new trailer and a release date: 6 Feb 2026. IGN’s preview suggests it’s shaping up to push the series further, building on what the first two games did so well. Keen.

More on ZA/UM’s Zero Parades - For Dead Spies: playing as Hershel, you’ll navigate paranoia, betrayal and failure, with new systems like dramatic encounters and “failing forward.” Launches 2026.

Housemarque opened State of Play with Saros, a new game (not a Returnal sequel) starring Rahul Kohli as Arjun Devraj on the shifting world of Carcosa. With ‘eclipse-powered’ weapons, abilities like Soltari Shield and Second Chance, and more brilliant bullet-hell, it launches 20 March 2026.

Death Stranding: Mosquito (working title) is an animated project from Hiroshi Miyamoto and Aaron Guzikowski. With a unique hand-drawn-to-digital style and Studio Easter (Dandadan) on backgrounds, it follows a new protagonist with a strange ability tied to the mosquito theme.

New details have emerged on PHYSINT, Kojima Productions’ action-espionage project for PlayStation. Still early in concept, it features a mysterious poster tagline “Here comes the feeling” and a cast including Charlee Fraser, Don Lee, and Minami Hamabe.

Kojima and Phil Spencer finally showed more of OD, a new horror starring Sophia Lillis, Udo Kier and Hunter Schafer. Kojima says it explores the “fear of the knock,” while Jordan Peele will tackle a different fear in his own OD story.