Skateboarding roguelike Helskate shows off damage-buffing barrel rolls, and I'm stoked to shake off the rust

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Mortal Kombat 1 has been on a roll since it started dropping teases and trailers left and right. With each one, we get a new look at the new world Liu Kang has created, and it’s an intriguing one, to say the least. However, that’s not the only thing people have noticed about the upcoming title. It’s clear to many that NetherRealm Studios isn’t just bringing in classic Kombatants to fight, but they’re trying hard to get some big-name celebrities of both the voice-acting community and Hollywood proper to help out. One such big name is Jean-Claude Van Damme.

One of the things that made Insomniac Games’ Spider-Man title so good was that it fully embraced the mythos of the comics and other media and created something fresh through it. In this case, we didn’t start with Peter Parker just becoming Spider-Man; he had been it for eight years, and they kicked off the game by him finally taking down Kingpin. But he was merely the first of several villains to appear in the title, and that meant lots of boss fights to enjoy. With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on the way, many hope the boss encounters are just as enticing.

Not in the Need For Speed Mobile Early Access? No idea what the Need For Speed Mobile gameplay is going to be like? Don’t worry! You’re not totally in the dark.

Publisher and Runescape developer Jagex is calling time on Space Punks, a 2021 co-op looter shooter developed by Polish studio Flying Wild Hog. The game has been de-listed on the Epic Game Store, players who've made in-game purchases are to be refunded, and existing accounts will remain active until the servers are closed on November 6.

There are plenty of video games left in 2023 that will excite players and potentially keep the “Game of the Year” race wide open. One such title is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which will arrive on October 20th. The game is the long-awaited sequel from Insomniac Games, and they’ve been working hard to deliver a memorable sequel to follow up the original title from PS4 and the spinoff with Miles Morales that helped ring in the PS5. Gamers are looking forward to many of the new gameplay elements and characters that will debut, including Kraven the Hunter’s arrival.

The Vampire Survivors-inspired, vtuber-styled action roguelike Holocure – Save the Fans was released on Steam on August 16, and it's since become the 46th highest-rated game to ever hit Valve's storefront, according to the Steam Top 250. But despite its runaway success, the lead developer on the game absolutely refuses to profit off of it, insisting he's doing fine with other work and just wants people to enjoy the game. 

BERLIN—At IFA 2023, Honor presented its latest folding phone, the Honor Magic V2, which the company says is the thinnest and lightest book-style smartphone. The Magic V2 is just 0.39 inches (9.9mm) thick when folded and weighs 8.15 ounces with the vegan-leather-backed version or 8.36 ounces with the glass-backed one. For reference, the Google Pixel Fold comes in at 0.5 inches (12.7mm) folded and 10 ounces, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is 0.53 inches (13.5mm) when closed and weighs 8.92 ounces. The Magic V2 is also lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max (8.47 ounces) and just 0.08 inches thicker than that slab phone.

Despite reports it is killing Hyperthreading in its upcoming desktop processors, Intel has shown off a new chip with an unfeasible number of threads coming off each core. Traditionally, you get two threads per core with the current simultaneous multi-threading on modern AMD and Intel CPUs, but this new optical chip is demonstrating 66 threads per core.

The new Five Nights at Freddy's movie trailer finally gives a full look at all four killer animatronics from the original game - not to mention some of the absolutely gnarly ways they're going to torture and kill their victims.

We still don’t know when we’ll be able to play the unexpected - but welcome - Warhammer 40k Gears of War-a-like sequel Space Marine 2, but we can at least get a look at who we’ll be shooting in the face when it arrives. 10 minutes of extended gameplay footage have teased the appearance of Chaos marines in the upcoming shooter, along with lots of slow, stompy walking through its grimdark universe.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is teasing new VR technology that can turn any flat surface into a virtual keyboard.