Genre News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Even in its early alpha state, my extensive hands-on time with Eternal Strands gave me a lot to be excited about. Whether it’s the Monster Hunter-esque boss fights against giant creatures, the interesting and flexible physics-manipulating magical powers, or the obvious dedication to telling a wholesome story filled with lovable characters, this upcoming indie repeatedly surprised me by being very different from its action-adventure peers. By combining a hodgepodge of some of my favorite elements from different genres into one action-packed package, developer Yellow Brick Games hopes to pull off something wholly unique with its inaugural title. After numerous hours climbing atop fiery dragons and freezing pesky knights in a block of ice, I think Eternal Strands stands a good chance of delivering something really special, and I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on it.

No Rest for the Wicked is tedious by design. Healing items in the action RPG have a 10-second hold period after use, so you’re bound to die often. Equipment loses durability each time you die, and the cost of repairs quickly adds up. Bounty missions you take on to cover them pay like shit, but that’s the job. Over and over, the game punctures any confidence you build over the course of your adventure, increasing enemy numbers and introducing new, vicious foes often to shake familiarity. That frustration complements the story’s themes. When you consider the project’s development, however, it’s almost justified.

PlayStation 5 owners who are looking for the next game to play or are searching for titles to add to their collection should check out the offers in Best Buy’s PS5 game sale. With games that span across all genres and prices that start at $10, you wouldn’t want to miss the bargains here, and we’ve picked out our favorites to help you make a quick decision on what to buy. Feel free to browse through the dozens of PS5 games that are available in the sale, but you’ll still have to act fast because there’s no telling until when these discounts will stay online.

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

The Dead Boy Detectives are a cult favorite that never quite found a cult. Introduced in the pages of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, the undeniable strength of the premise — a ghost boy from the 1910s is best friends with a ghost boy from the 1990s; they solve ghost mysteries! — regularly lures in comics creators, but rarely for longer than a single story arc every five to 10 years.

Do you know what dimidiation is? Unless you happen to be a scholar of medieval heraldry, you probably don’t. It’s an older method of combining two or more coats of arms into a single shield to denote a union of, say, two families. In dimidiation, the two coats of arms would be cut down the middle, so you might end up with a shield featuring a griffin’s head stuck to a horse’s rear. Later on, it became more common to simply feature the two coats of arms side by side (a practice known as impalement), which is less confusing and more aesthetically pleasing, but also less funny.

Today, Berlin-based developer Tarock Interactive announced Lost Legions as its debut title. This is another entry in the increasingly crowded open world survival crafting genre, but at least it has a decidedly different setting: the Roman Empire.

Another Crab’s Treasure is a fantastical soulslike set deep under the ocean where danger lurks around every corner. And like other games in the genre, it’s often brutally difficult to overcome the various challenges you’ll encounter. As such, you may find yourself wanting to backtrack for level grinding, to uncover new secrets, or to buy additional items in the game’s main hub. However, you may notice early in the game that you haven’t yet unlocked the ability to fast travel between the multitude of Moon Snail Shells (aka “bonfires”) you’ve found. Here’s how and when you’ll unlock fast travel.

It’s wonderfully ironic that the biggest breath of fresh air the soulslike genre has received in years comes from an adventure that takes place entirely underwater. Where most dodge-rolling action games are drab, bloody, and edgelordian, Another Crab’s Treasure is bursting with bright colors, cartoonish sea creatures, and silly humor. That extreme departure from serious and spooky vibes makes it standout in an increasingly crowded space, even when it follows the formula extremely closely in every other regard. It suffers from overly simplistic combat, a general lack of challenge, and some bugs and camera wonkiness now and again – but with memorable characters, an extremely enjoyable story, and lots of original ideas, Another Crab’s Treasure had me grinning all throughout my 20-hour tour of the ocean floor.

Developer FromSoftware minted a new genre when Demon’s Souls first released on PlayStation 3 back in 2009. The “Soulslike” genre was born, inspiring developers across the globe with its risk/reward mechanics, thoughtful melee combat, and connected world design.

As I sat down to write this review, I saw that Stellar Blade developer Shift Up had officially announced that the game would be “uncensored” in all regions. Predictably, there was much rejoicing from folks who had been drawn to Stellar Blade protagonist EVE’s shiny buttocks like moths to a flame. To be honest, I can’t blame them; she’s a shockingly attractive virtual person, a trait she shares with pretty much the entire cast of the game, who are all either incredibly hot, badass cyborgs, weird fleshy monsters, or a particularly delectable combination of two or even all three elements. However, as someone who had finished the game earlier that afternoon, I couldn’t help but laugh my sadly unshiny butt off.

Story details for 's canceled story DLC have emerged, and it sounds like it would have leaned into the espionage genre with perhaps the last character anyone would have expected: Trevor. It has long been known that single-player story DLC for the game was in the works, much like 's and, and 's before it, but with the monumental success of, which launched a month after and made over $500 million in microtransactions alone by 2016, and development of the massively detailed, Rockstar's priorities changed, resulting in the DLC's cancelation.

No Rest for the Wicked's director has cited Baldur's Gate 3 and Hades 2 as examples of how early access launches can be fantastic, and said releasing in early access is "one of the best decisions we could've made."

Who would’ve thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max–like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late ’90s, and yet we’ve had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team’s focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again.

As the weather (hopefully) turns nicer and the days get longer, it’s hard to think about being inside watching TV. Which is why it’s good that this week’s offerings are so easy to pop on at your leisure: Whether it’s the charms of Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives — based on a comic written by Neil Gaiman — or the hard-won pleasures of Shōgun’s final episode, or even the fighting spirit of We’re Here season 4 or Knuckles, there’s a lot to love this week.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau MSRP $20.00 Score Details Pros

There's something about playing Tales of Kenzera: ZAU that never feels quite right. Whether it's the slow, sluggish controls or frustratingly frequent one-hit kills, reaching any sort of flow state where you're vibing and jiving with the latest EA Originals title is nigh-on impossible. It's a very stop-start experience at odds with the usual hallmarks of the Metroidvania genre, instead spotlighting a touching, personal tale of parental loss. Such a heavy narrative focus is no bad thing, but with little gameplay satisfaction to count on between plot points, it feels so lopsided that anything else comes across as an afterthought.

There is arguably no more idiosyncratic descriptor in the entirety of gaming than “Metroidvania.”

Accompanied by strains of vocal-led orchestral music, the Moon Studios title rises into view. For many, this is reason enough to sit up and take notice of No Rest For The Wicked. For the studio behind the sublime Ori series, a visually arresting and emotional pair of platformers, this is the tricky third album: a new IP, a new direction, and a launch into Early Access along with it. Taking a swing at the action RPG genre, there’s echoes of From Software alongside Diablo here, and yet, Moon Studios’ enigmatic outlook shines through. On first impressions alone, there’s nothing to be worried about for fans of the studio – excusing the decadent horrors that lie within.

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

Moon Studios may be known for its hit Metroidvania games, but its new action RPG, No Rest for the Wicked, is now available in early access, and former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra believes its "bold direction" is what the genre needs to "stay relevant."

Indie slam dunk Vampire Survivors has officially been confirmed for a PS5 and PS4 release and is expected to enthral millions when it arrives this Summer. Trophy Hunters will be glad to know the devs have confirmed a Platinum Trophy awaits those willing to undergo a true nightmare to obtain it.

Baldur's Gate fans, new and old, will remember where they were when they first heard that dark horse Larian Studios would not be developing the next game. How could any dev walk away from an achievement like Baldur's Gate 3, a masterpiece which teased a vanishingly rare «10» out of this stingy scribe, one of only two ever given? Sadly, this is the reality in which we live, and IP-holder Wizards of the Coast has already moved on, actively courting other developers, with RPG studios lining up to throw their hats in the ring.

Helldivers 2 players have been issued a new directive as the Galactic War effort again devolves into a grinding stalemate. The Automatons have deployed increasing numbers of Factory Striders to break the impasse, but for now, the line holds. To amass the necessary fuel to fire a Super Earth counterattack, billions of Terminids must die to acquire enough of that sweet, sweet oil E-710.

The director of upcoming Sims competitor Life By You says life sims are "the most complex" RPGs and crafting games ever made.  

In a world where so many games send you on missions with tense action and high stakes, sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and relax a bit. That’s where the cozy genre comes in with calming exploration, crafting, and decorating that give you a sense of purpose without all of the stress that comes from more action-oriented games.

After proving themselves in darn near every genre under the sun, the devs behind the incredible SteamWorld series are finally returning to the format of their fantastic XCOM-style strategy game with a proper sequel set to launch later this year.

The long, long wait for a new Homeworld title is finally coming to a close. This classic RTS series once stood toe-to-toe with the titans of the genre such as StarCraft and Command and Conquer, but aside from a more recent prequel, it hasn’t been seen since the sequel in 2003.

Zack Snyder and director's cuts go hand in hand, though there's one film in particular that the director still feels he has unfinished business with. 

After the launch of the excellent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at the beginning of 2024, no one was expecting a second game in the franchise so soon. And yet, The Rogue Prince of Persia was revealed during the Triple-I Initiative as a roguelike take on the genre. Coming from the developer of Dead Cells, this game was one of the highlights of the show thanks to it's slick gameplay and unique and fluid art style. There was no release date given, but the game is entering early access May 14. However, you can get your hands on it even earlier if you apply to participate in the alpha test.

The (unofficial) theme of new TV this week: reality.

American comedy has strayed from the light of its ancestors. Gone are the days of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers, when jokes and visual surprises flew at a mile a minute and were matched by the cinematic creativity and physical daring of the auteurs behind them.

When it comes to the game studios known for their level design, you don't get much better than FromSoftware. Over the course of the past two decades, the studio has been responsible for creating some of the most intricate and complex levels in the gaming history, and FromSoftware fans recently went back through the developer's soulslike catalog to name their favorite level from each.

Every joke possible has already been made about Netflix Games being — or not being — “the Netflix of games,” so we won’t waste your time trying to come up with another one. In the end, Netflix Games is doing its own thing rather than following the lead of other subscription services, and considering that nearly everyone has access to a Netflix account already, there’s no barrier to entry for its huge audience to check out its library of games. All you need is a smartphone and the Netflix app, and you’re all set.

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

What does Taylor Swift have in common with a group of improv comedians pretending to be wizards? They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans kind of hate Ticketmaster now).

Video games are all about dying. Be it Pac-Man failing to escape a ghost and bursting into pixelated oblivion, Mario melting himself by accidentally leaping into a pool of lava, or being one of the 99 that fails to win in a battle royale, gamers worldwide have died a thousand deaths. Thankfully, the grim reaper is a mere inconvenience in these digital realms, another obstacle you must traverse in order to do a Cody Rhodes and ‘finish the story’. Far fewer games explore the topic of Death in real life, the one with a capital ‘D’ that we all try really hard not to think about and desperately hope doesn’t apply to us or our loved ones. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, however, well, that takes a long and hard look at death. Indeed, death, sorrow, and loss, is the very reason for this metroidvania’s existence.

Ah, the Sega Genesis days. A simpler time when you didn’t need to purchase a season pass or coordinate time zones with your friend in Japan. No, if you wanted to play, you’d fire up your console and get to it. Back then, the superhero genre, or the superhero game genre, wasn’t as massive as it is now. Sure, people knew all about Batman, Spider-Man and all the rest of them, but it wasn’t the mania we have now. There was still a plethora of superpowered video games to play. Truth be told, most of them were okay, while only a handful stood out. So, let’s take a look at those Marvel and DC superhero games on the Sega Genesis that deserve to be revisited.

The past year was the Legend of Zelda series’ moment to shine thanks to the excellent Tears of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, there’s something bittersweet about that: It means we’re likely not getting another Zelda game for a long time. While Switch ports of some classic 3D games have been long-rumored for Switch and we could always get a surprise remake à laLink’s Awakening, Link isn’t currently scheduled to set off on his next journey anytime soon.

Miniclip has bought UK developer FuturLab for an undisclosed sum.

Slay the Spire 2, a sequel to the beloved roguelike deck-builder, has been revealed at the Triple-i Initiative and is launching in Early Access at some point in 2025.

While the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X might dominate the gaming news spotlight, the PC continues to be one of the best gaming platforms out there. 2024 saw a variety of high-profile releases, and there’s still more to come.

A team led by the former creative director on Destiny announced Tuesday that they’re working on a new game under parent company ProbablyMonsters, the studio founded by former Bungie president and CEO Harold Ryan. That new development team is named Hidden Grove, and is working on an original “multiplayer competitive adventure game” built on Unreal Engine 5.

If you ask co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo about the subtitles of their FX adaptation of Shōgun, they’re going to tell you about it in depth. As they should; like with so many decisions in making Shōgun, the details are crucial.

Beat Saber is not stopping! Hip Hop has long been one of the most requested music genres and the least represented within the game, but the wait is over: the Hip Hop Mixtape is out now on Beat Saber for PS VR2 and PS VR. The track list includes some of the biggest names in Hip Hop like Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, and 2Pac, covering different eras and styles of this influential music genre.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

It’s a big week for TV! By which I mean, to me, there’s a lot of bangers this week.

, from developer Shiny Shoe, is the studio's follow-up effort to the award-winning. While they're starkly different, they do exist within the same roguelike genre, and it appears that lessons learned from the previous game have colored what's available in. What's here is a remarkable roguelike that successfully captures the «one more time» gameplay that characterizes the greats, all the while captivating with metaprogression that keeps things fresh enough to warrant deeper exploration.

I don’t envy anyone who sets out to make a roguelike. The genre presents a wide range of challenges that can make or break a game. How long should a run take? What’s the right amount of challenge? How do you keep people coming back for one more run? The answer to one of those questions could be the wrong solution for the others. It’s the most delicate of digital balancing acts that only a handful of studios have down to a science.

Sports anime and manga remain one of the most popular genres, with new ones coming out every season. That doesn't mean the classics are not popular now, however, and one manga is continuing to be published more than forty years after it first debuted. After more than forty years, though, it is going to try something really new to keep fans interested, and keep the manga alive.

There's no denying Baldur's Gate 3's massive popularity, and its director of publishing, Michael Douse, has drawn comparison between it and the survival crafting game Palworld for finding success with a game that not all investors might have taken a chance on. 

Greetings, Polygon readers! April is here, and you know what that means. That’s right: There’s a slew of exciting new films coming out in theaters this month, like the sci-fi drama The Beast starring Léa Seydoux, Alex Garland’s Civil War, Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, and more. All of those look great, but if you’re looking to enjoy a fantastic movie from the comfort of your home, there’s a wealth of great films to watch on streaming in April.

You'll struggle to find anyone that wasn't surprised by Baldur's Gate 3's rampant success over the past year. It's an excellent RPG and one of the most ambitious the industry has ever seen, but many assumed that its genre would have been too significant of a barrier for the game to break into the mainstream.

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Spoiler Warning: This article features minor spoilers of an enemy which appears in a late game mission of Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion.

BattleJuice Alchemist, an action RPG that combines the isometric combat of games like Diablo and Hades with the intense one-on-one battles popularized by JRPGs, puts an intense spin on the genre formula: instead of relying on weapons gathered from the world or looted from your foes, you'll have to make all your combat tools yourself.

Sugar star Colin Farrell talks his first reaction to the script – and what made him sign on to the role.

At GDC 2024, New Zealand-based developer A44 (known for 2018's Ashen) provided an updated look at Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, its upcoming action RPG that sits between God of War and a lite, more accessible version of the Soulslike genre.

When I got the chance to review Stardew Valley for Polygon in 2016, I had no idea how huge it would become. What I found during my review period was a quiet, succinct, and engrossing game about doing chores, which didn’t feel all that genre-defining. It was a great game, and over the years I would get it on two additional platforms (Nintendo Switch and mobile), but I didn’t look at it as a “game of the decade” contender.

It’s been a long few years for Hollow Knight fans. The Metroidvania’s long-awaited sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, was announced five years ago. Since then, we’ve barely heard a peep about it outside of one high-profile trailer in 2022 that claimed it would launch within 12 months. That didn’t happen, and we’ve been in the dark ever since. Maybe it’ll surprise drop this year. Maybe we won’t see it until 2025. All we can do is wait.

Dead Cells is officially finished after seven years of support, and based on what I've seen of it so far, developer Motion Twin's next game may quickly take its place in the hearts of many fans and join the ranks of the best roguelikes. Windblown is an isometric action roguelike with support for up to three-player co-op, it's hitting PC early access later this year, and it looks like a compelling mix of modern genre staples and Dead Cells DNA.

A mysterious found footage short titled Exposure shot entirely on home security cameras has randomly appeared on YouTube, and it's the most terrifying thing we have seen today. 

Indie publisher tinyBuildannounced a brand-new game called that mixes ducks, destruction, and survival. The game was announced on April 1, and despite its bizarre concept, is not an April Fool's joke. tinyBuild is best known for its niche games like , a horror puzzle game, and a management Sim. This will be the publisher's first foray into the survival genre, and is said to be a mix of popular survival games like and .

It’s April Fools’ Day, but this post is no joke: There is a lot of new TV to watch this week. In a lot of ways it’s a showdown of tense situations — “tense,” here, being used to cover things like Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott, in the new adaptation) trying to con his way into high society, American Horror Story: Delicate’s Anna (Emma Roberts) attempting to figure what’s a real haunting and what’s in her head, Mark (Steven Yeun) trying to live up to the title of Invincible while he protects his family, or Larry David (Larry David) just trying to make it through the end of Curb Your Enthusiasm alive.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the most widely accepted authority on the English language, and is updated quarterly with revised meanings and new words as our language continues to evolve. Sometimes these words are entirely new creations, and sometimes they are words from other languages that have been adopted for common use in English. This past quarter, 23 new Japanese words were officially added to the OED, showing how much of an impact Japanese culture has even outside of Japan.

Grandia HD Collection bundles together two classic JRPG adventures from the tail-end of the genre's golden age, a series that has long since fallen by the wayside. Grandia, initially released on the SEGA Saturn, would make its way to PS1 in 1999, and its narratively unconnected but mechanically superior sequel, Grandia II, first came to Dreamcast before arriving on PS2 in 2002.

The South Park franchise has an eclectic history of genre choices, trying (and mostly failing) everything from FPS to kart racer. 2014's South Park: The Stick of Truth and its comic-book-themed follow-up redressed the balance with an excellent comedic spin on the old-school RPG. Now it takes another genre pivot, becoming the latest property to wade into a heaving pool of co-op roguelikes.

Things haven't been easy for Fullbright, the company that most famously produced Gone Home back in 2013, a slice of indie narrative heaven that won plaudits. After the excellent (but less virally successful) Tacoma in 2017, it's now back with another long-awaited game, Open Roads — except, in fact, the name Fullbright has been scrubbed from the final product after allegations of a toxic workplace culture sprung up a few years ago. The game's instead credited to the 'Open Roads Team'. Delays and slow progress have seen it slip years from its original release window, but the game is here at last: a short and sweet story-driven road trip.

When Stardew Valley first came out in 2016, it was positioned as a Harvest Moon-like. The comparison was the only way at the time to describe a low-stakes farming simulator with a village of locals to meet and perhaps marry. It’s difficult to remember that now, in an era where “cozy gaming” has taken on a life of its own and “wholesome” games have their own showcases with hundreds of thousands of viewers, but Stardew was released into a different world. And then it made this one. Its latest major content release, the 1.6 update, is a testament to the game’s longevity in the genre that it shaped.

When asked about his inspiration for Cataclismo, Game Director Vicent Ramirez has a simple reply: “Legos.”

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

A few hours into my time with Dragon’s Dogma 2, I was struck by a critical question that appeared simple, but was unusually difficult to answer. It was this: Does the combat suck?

Brandon Sanderson is one of the most successful and prolific fantasy and science fiction authors of all time, with a devoted following that funded the most successful Kickstarter campaign to date and has pledged over $20 million on Backerkit for his latest crowdfunding effort. His expansive bibliography can make it difficult to figure out where to start if you want to jump into his many worlds and series, so we’ve put together a primer to help guide you through the Cosmere and beyond.

It is no secret that Square Enix's Mana series has impacted the JRPG genre immensely since it debuted in 1991. It's a franchise rich with deep stories and memorable combat that has stood the test of time. Despite the last mainline game releasing 18 years ago, fanfare has yet to die down, as seen with the success of the 2020 remake of Trials of Mana. The question is, can a brand new Mana game replicate the same success as a remake? If this two-hour hands-on preview is any indication of the rest of the game, then Visions of Mana's fresh take on battle and class systems not only gives it the potential to meet the success of the originals but possibly even the chance to surpass them.

Don't Nod has announced a new studio organisation structured around its three genres of predilection: RPG, narrative adventure, and action adventure.

Earlier today, developer NetEase Games revealed Marvel Rivals, their take on the hero shooter genre that Overwatch popularized, but with actual heroes. Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man and many more classic superheroes will compete in 6v6 battles across a variety of maps, duking it out to stop Doctor Doom and his 2099 counterpart from taking over the multiverse. Your typical Marvel plotline.

Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studio's highly successful sequel to 2015's Helldivers, was the highest-growing title on PC and PS5 in the US and UK in February 2024.