Brian Shea

Star Wars Outlaws won't make players climb towers in the open world to reveal parts of the map, unlike nearly every Ubisoft game since the original Assassin's Creed.

Following a mild-to-moderate outcry, Ubisoft have clarified that queasy worm gangster Jabba The Hutt isn't, in fact, a Star Wars Outlaws special edition or season pass exclusive. The apparently much-beloved star slug will appear in every edition of the game, but if you scrape together the credits for the Gold or Ultimate Editions, you'll get access to a Jabba's Gambit mission as part of the game's season pass.

Open world towers were a decidedly neat idea when Ubisoft first introduced them a decade and a half ago, but by shoehorning them into virtually every open world game it made from that point forward, the company ensured that the mechanic ended up outstaying its welcome (also thanks to the fact that several non-Ubisoft games have borrowed the mechanic as well). The next big open world game company from the company, however, won’t be sticking to that convention.

Ubisoft's next open-world adventure, Star Wars Outlaws, breaks at least one of the company's time-honored traditions: climbing towers to progress the map.

Ubisoft's upcoming game is making a major change to one of the publisher's most established tropes and players couldn't be relieved. Ever since the release of back in 2007, the concept of climbing towers and scanning the environment to reveal more areas has been a cliche in many open-world games to such an extent that it's become somewhat of a meme amongst players. Fortunately, the highly-anticipated game set in a galaxy far, far away is taking a different route and ditching the idea completely.

GameInformer has shared an interesting preview for Star Wars Outlaws, revealing just how much of a sly fox Kay Vess is going to be.

NOTE: There are spoilers ahead for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Star Wars Outlaws will feature Lady Qi'ra from Solo: A Star Wars Story, Massive Entertainment has confirmed. The Ubisoft-owned studio shared this revelation as part of a wider overview of its upcoming game, which coincided with the release of the latest Star Wars Outlaws trailer.

Star Wars Outlaws is bringing back the fan-favorite Qi'ra for another bout, but she won't be portrayed by the same actor as in Han Solo's prequel movie.

Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws is connected to the greater Star Wars universe in some interesting ways, and one of those ways will see the return of Lady Qi’ra.

Now that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out in the world, it's only natural to wonder how many chapters it has. Or you might prefer to call them missions or levels.

Overwatch 2 has had a rough road following the early success of the first game. That game, which easily earned Game Informer's Game of the Year in 2016, started with such promise and a massive, enthusiastic audience, but following the 2019 announcement of Overwatch 2, support for the original Overwatch floundered, and so, too, did the community. Last year's release of Overwatch 2's PvE elements in its Invasion update pushed the hero shooter back in the right direction, but it didn't make the splash Blizzard had hoped for. With Overwatch 2 Season 9, which kicks off next week, Blizzard is making a ton of sweeping behind-the-scenes changes to make the game more approachable for players.

When Rock Band initially launched in 2007, Harmonix touted it as a platform for players going forward. While subsequent launches and peripherals joined the mix in the succeeding years, the main pillar for that claim is the developer's steadfast support of the Rock Band platform through its aggressive downloadable content schedule. Today, however, the studio announced the end of Rock Band 4 downloadable content.

Following the events of 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake, Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, and Red XIII have escaped the confines of Midgar and gotten rid of the Whispers, meaning the possibilities as they step out into the vast world depicted in the middle portion of the original Final Fantasy VII are endless. In contrast to the corridor-heavy structure of Remake, the openness of Rebirth is immediately refreshing, but as I found out during both my hands-on and hands-off demos, the improvements don't even come close to stopping there.

Last July, Atari announced the latest revival of one of its many classic titles. Lunar Lander: Beyond takes the 1979 Lunar Lander and expands on it in myriad ways, including new visuals, new simulation and exploration mechanics, and a much more involved story. To accomplish this task, Atari tapped Colombian developer Dreams Uncorporated, the studio behind the stunningly gorgeous 2021 throwback RPG Cris Tales, to develop this reimagined classic. 

Ever since I got my hands on Persona 3 Reload over the summer, I've described it to folks as «Persona 3 redone in the form of Persona 5 Royal.» While that may be a gross oversimplification, it's also pretty high praise. Longtime fans of the Persona series point towards Persona 3 as the entry that changed the course of the series, pointing it down the path it's been on for nearly the last two decades. While Persona 3 may be the most important entry from a mechanical perspective, Persona 5 has the most mainstream relevance, particularly in 2024.

Final Fantasy VII Remake set the tone for what players could expect from this three-part retelling of the beloved 1997 Square RPG. The excellent updates to the combat system, the fantastic expansions on character relationships, and the stellar production values told us Square Enix is not taking the responsibility of remaking one of its most iconic games lightly. However, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth looks to take several components of the experience to the next level, largely thanks to its emphasis on side content.

In Final Fantasy VII Remake, players had the chance to thoroughly explore the movesets of Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith through an extended stay in Midgar. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adds several new playable party members. While we already covered how one of those new playable characters, Red XIII, controls (read more here), this time, we're talking about another playable party member: Cait Sith.

Back in 1997, Final Fantasy VII established Sephiroth as one of the most iconic antagonists in gaming history. In 2020, Final Fantasy VII Remake greatly expanded his role in the first act of the beloved RPG, and in 2024, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth hopes to give us even more context for the One-Winged Angel. We played a portion of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and spoke with several members of the development team to learn how Sephiroth is depicted in the upcoming second act of the Remake trilogy.

Just as Final Fantasy VII Remake featured a predetermined endpoint – the escape from Midgar – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth players also know when their adventure will culminate in this game. The Forgotten Capital, the location that plays host to one of the most impactful moments in any video game, is the destination for the story contained within Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

Final Fantasy VII is full of iconic scenes. Whether you're talking about the well-known sequences already depicted in Remake or the upcoming gut-punch at the Forgotten Capital, the Remake trilogy allows fans to experience these moments in their most fully realized forms. While this middle portion of Final Fantasy VII, which Rebirth depicts, focuses on Aerith and the looming specter of Sephiroth, so much of Rebirth's depiction emphasizes the deepening of relationships.

When Final Fantasy X exploded onto the PlayStation 2 in 2001, it revolutionized not just the Final Fantasy series but the role-playing genre as a whole. The tuned-to-perfection turn-based combat, the beautiful soundtrack, the heartfelt story, and the eye-popping-for-the-time visuals created one of the most important entries of one of the most important franchises in video game history. However, one element was absent from Final Fantasy X that several of the key developers involved with the project lamented: an explorable world map.

Ever since its first title 20 years ago, the WarioWare franchise has shapeshifted to take advantage of the capabilities and gimmicks of whatever the current Nintendo platform was. But the first entry on Switch, Get It Together, bucked that trend, putting you in control of the actual cast of characters in platforming-style microgames instead of taking advantage of the Switch’s unique traits. WarioWare: Move It aligns more with the traditional WarioWare experience, resulting in a better overall collection.

The ground beneath Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura's feet trembled. In his time since serving as character designer and visual director on Final Fantasy VII, his legend has grown substantially. In addition to working on nearly every acclaimed Final Fantasy game since Nomura also helped create the Kingdom Hearts series and has become a figurehead and luminary within the stacked ranks of Square Enix's stable of developers. But this 2015 trip to Los Angeles, California, was different.

Following the events of Tekken 7, the stage for Tekken 8’s story is set up to be perhaps the most over-the-top yet. In the six months since the defeat of Heihachi Mishima, his son, Kazuya Mishima, has installed a reign of terror over the planet using his devil powers. And while the setup is, quite frankly, a lot to take in, if the first four chapters I played are any indication, the level of spectacle and bombast reaches new levels in Tekken 8’s Story Mode.

I've been playing a ton of Super Mario Bros. Wonder over the last couple of weeks (in addition to the hands-on I had as a part of our current cover story), and the review embargo has officially lifted. However, due to restrictive embargo guidelines that don't allow us to discuss large portions of the game, we have opted to hold our final review until the game is available for purchase. With that said, I did want to share some brief thoughts within the confines of the embargo.

Final Fantasy VII Remake gave fans of the original game quite a shock as Cloud and the party exited Midgar. Zack, the protagonist of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and a key figure in Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth's past, appears to be alive, and helped an injured Cloud reach Midgar. This stands in stark contrast to his fate in the original continuity, where he was killed and his Buster Sword was handed over to Cloud. 

In each issue, Game Informer prints questions that are submitted by readers via email and standard mail. We'd like to give our website readers the chance to make the magazine as well.

A target appears on your back when you’re a long-reigning champ. No longer the enigma you once were, contenders begin studying your body of work to figure out the path to ending your time at the top. The best way to fend off would-be challengers is to continually build and evolve. Developer EA Vancouver seems to understand this because while no legitimate contenders have emerged in the mixed-martial-arts genre, EA Sports UFC 5 retools several key areas to show the franchise isn’t resting on its laurels.

As a series that has been around for nearly four decades, Super Mario Bros. should have shown signs of slowing down years ago. But continuous thoughtful reinvention has helped the franchise remain a genre leader. Super Mario Bros. Wonder represents the next step of evolution, delivering the tight, tried-and-true gameplay in the context of the most creative 2D entry in nearly 30 years.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League exists at a strange intersection of gaming hype. On the one hand, obviously, we are and should be excited for Rocksteady's return to the Arkham Universe that it popularized through some of the greatest superhero games of all time. Obviously. But on the other hand, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League deviates from so many of the conventions that made Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight so beloved. And so many of those conventions that Kill the Justice League embraces – such as a team-based, co-op infrastructure, and a live-service-inspired post-launch content plan – have crashed and burned in other superhero games, most notably Crystal Dynamic's ill-fated 2020 Avengers title.

More than six years after the original Persona 5 arrived on U.S. store shelves, the RPG is still spitting out successors and spin-offs that capitalize on how beloved that title is to this day. The 2020 update, Persona 5 Royal, is the best-received successor, but both 2021 Musou hybrid Persona 5 Strikers and the recently released turn-based strategy RPG Persona 5 Tactica gave players plenty to love.

When Final Fantasy VII launched on PlayStation in 1997, it revolutionized the RPG genre and gaming as a whole. The transition from pixel art to fully animated computer graphics was a massive enough leap ahead, but the beauty of this classic title was much more than skin deep. Final Fantasy VII features an incredible cast of characters, an outstanding battle system, and a story that evokes joy, awe, anger, and grief. Final Fantasy VII is well-established as one of the most iconic and beloved video games of all time, but for Square Enix, the legacy is somewhat more important. 

Join Wesley LeBlanc and Brian Shea as the two discuss Mr. Run and Jump, a new challenging platformer from developers Graphite Lab and Heavy Horse Games that originally started out as a homebrew game for Atari 2600. Wesley's played the opening hour of the game, and Brian completed and reviewed it for Game Informer – you can read his Mr. Run and Jump review here.