Put together this month's Top 10 + Bonus 5 for July 2026 — new releases across PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch 2. Halo Campaign Evolved takes the top spot this month, but there's a solid spread underneath it worth checking if you're deciding what to pick up.
So many game IPs have been just laying with publishers who just hold on to them. I have been thinking about IPs which would be great if they have a new game now. For me I have a few that come to my mind.
Ultima: I personally tried to get into the Ultima series but the older games and their gameplay has always been just so clunky imo. But the world and the concepts are so cool, Honestly the games are in the prime territory for a remake but sadly EA seems to have no interest in it.
Myth: If you asked me before I would have said I would love for Marathon to be back as it is my fav Sci Fi world in fiction. But now we have a new game, and I personally love it many ways even as it is divisive. It got me thinking of another Bungie IP that I loved...Myth. The story and concepts of the 2 Bungie Myth games are just so good. The horror of the undead and the player experinceing it as a group of common soldiers in a RTS is so cool. But right now Take-Two seemingly has fully forgotten about it. They did try to make Myth 3 but it was not as good, they seemingly have abandoned the IP since.
Quake: This is simple, I love Quake...I love the atmosphere of the OG Quake, Quake 2 and 4 are literraly a different story and world. Quake 3 and Champions are multiplyer only and also completely different games. I would love to see the continuation or addition to the first Quake. The Remasters of Quake and Quake 2 did add campaigns connecting and following up on Quake 1 but honestly I would love to see a new Quake by ID Software. They still have the IP, I just wish they use it to nake new games.
I would love to know what other Game IP others wish would be back/revived
"So you're killing gods to save a stone?" - "Yeah, basically."
Okay, listen. I tried to explain what I was playing to my mom. That was a mistake.
"So it's like… I'm a detective with no memory. And he talks to his clothes. And his clothes talk back. And it affects the city's economy. "This is a video game?" "Yeah." "And you paid money for this?"
Or this. Elden Ring. "So it's an open world. I die. A lot. That's like the point. I learn to die properly." "Why?" "So I can die a little later next time.".....Mom looks at me like I need help.
Or Death Stranding. Try explaining Death Stranding. "So like… I'm a delivery guy. In a post-apocalypse. And I connect cities. Walking." "That's it?" "No, there are also ghosts made of people's grief and rain that ages you."
When I try to explain a game in words - I realize how weird it actually is. And at the same time, I understand why I love it. Because there's nothing else like it. Not in movies, not in books. Only in games can you say "I die a lot to learn" and it's both gameplay and metaphor at once.
Drop a comment on how you explained a game to someone who doesn't play.
>👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
Years ago I played God of War 2 on PS2, but I had already played other games like Ninja Gaiden (my favorite hack-and-slash game), Devil May Cry, etc., and I didn't find God of War 2 that fun, or rather, there was something about it that didn't quite click with me. Then I played God of War 2018 and loved its gameplay, and when Ragnarok came out, I realized how damn good the gameplay was. So I decided to play God of War 3 again, and honestly, I found it quite disappointing in many aspects. I think the camera is awful, and I couldn't get into it. And when you try to play it on the highest difficulties, the combos aren't a good idea. That's where the famous square-square-triangle spam comes from. It bored me, and I decided to go back to Ninja Gaiden 2, and honestly, the gameplay of that hack-and-slash completely crushed God of War 3. I've played the God of War saga many times because I find it fun, but when I try the original God of War, I just can't connect with it. I don't understand those people who dislike the change in Gow, in my opinion it's more fun.
He said the aesthetics and eerie imagery from the video influenced the development. He remembered the gloomy mental hospital and the disturbing movements of the patients - all of which became Brookhaven Hospital in the game and part of the monsters' behavior. That's truly unexpected.
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
This post is about a game I spent developing between 2014 and 2019 that I recently uncovered on an old hard drive. It was called "Hostile: Haven Bay".
This was made back when indie games were having their moment, such as Minecraft and Hotline Miami. I had entire scenes already planned out in my head, music and all, before writing any line of code. In the end, it looked like this:
The idea was to make a fully cinematic game but top down. I always enjoyed the art side of development and learned the code as I went along. Unfortunately, the code became so bloated that fixing one thing would break the other, so all that ambition went out of the window.
The game was inspired by GTA Vice City and set in the Mediterranean. The city was supposed to be a drug trafficking route where the story would take place. All this was watered down to just one core loop, wherein you earn points through finding and delivering hidden packages to the docks, or cause havoc to earn points that you can exchange for better weapons.
This club has a chainsaw and people dancing
Points also allow you to access more areas of the map and interiors such as the club, coffee houses, or play mini games on the arcade machines or even as a barisa at the cafe:
this was an unfinished sidequest but a game in and of itself
Graphical assets exist for scuba diving missions that require you to shoot and attach packages to the body of a ship, so the world wasn't intended to just be top down. Unfortunately we never got to that stage because the code became so bloated.
Perhaps the coolest feature is being able to free and control a bull that tramples over people for some extra points. However, mind you, the collision boxes are pretty atrocious.
After so many years, it's pretty cool to feel like a player playing the game rather than the developer. I was also surprised at the attention to detail, such as NPC's smoking, sitting on benches, painting on a canvas, fighting with each other, etc. Other features include:
I am working to decompile the demo and simply add in all features from the get-go. I'm yet to backtrack and understand my own code after so many years, but there is a playable demo you can download on GameJolt here: Hostile − Haven Bay : A video game inspired by Grand Theft Auto and Hotline Miami by LV154 - Game Jolt
There are some things I dislike about the project with the main one being the awful sound engine. To be fair this entire game was built on Gamemaker 8.1, though the NPC profanity in Spanish and weird vaporwave music radio stations are kind of cringe now. If copyright wasn't an issue, I'd definitely have a list of 80s summer hits to play, though.
But anyway, I'm not looking to sell you this game because it's by all measures a commercial failure. However, the feeling I got when uncovering my old hard drive and diving back into this forgotten world is indescribable. It symbolizes a time when I had far less things to worry about, far more motivation, patience, ambition, and optimism in my life. I'm a 30 year old dude now who is doing completely different things, so if I were to give advice to current indie developers, I would say: motivation and passion are good things, but don't do it all alone if you can avoid it. I was gatekeeping a failed attempt at something that could have fared better with a team. I hope one day someone else can create a better vision than I did, but I hope you get a giggle out of the demo anyway.
Note: If you wanna play the demo, please have a mouse on hand. The game uses old school WASD tank controls, and you press "Q" to interact with objects.
A dark fantasy FPS slasher, built by a single human - Nikita Sozidar. You play a grizzled warrior cleansing the land of monsters. And it's all about one thing: ultra violence, old school style.
Players call it "Diablo in first person." Tons of weapons, flexible builds, flashy abilities - it's pure joy to tear through hordes of twisted creatures. Perfect for blowing off steam.
Still in Early Access, and one dev can't pump out updates fast. But even now, it's a solid, addictive slasher. And on sale, it costs less than a fancy coffee.
If you love speed, blood, and buildcrafting - VOIN is a hidden gem. Check it out before everyone catches on.
What's your favorite under the radar game that deserves way more love?
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
Just curious what the general consensus is, since a lot of YouTube grifters are making videos about how CD Projekt is done and stuff. But honestly? I have a gut feeling that the majority of people are fine with her, just as I am.
The most legendary Wesker line in Resident Evil history wasn't written to become a legend.
>"Seven minutes. Seven minutes is all I can spare to play with you."
Every RE fan knows it by heart. But few know why it was even written.
The answer is surprisingly simple: it was just a timer explanation. Nothing more. A throwaway line to justify the gameplay clock.
But then something unexpected happened. Wesker's charisma, his voice, his sheer theatrical menace - they transformed a mundane gameplay note into one of the most quotable, meme-worthy lines in the entire series.
A mechanic became a legend. Just because it was delivered with style.
>👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
The rules are simple and slightly uncomfortable.
Tomorrow you stop. For whatever reason - doesn't matter. This is the last day you'll ever play a video game. Twenty-four hours. One final session.
What do you play? How do you spend it? Do you try to finish something? Revisit something old? Start something you always meant to get to? Or do you do something entirely different - make a character, explore without purpose, sit in a world that meant something to you?
There's no right answer. There's only your answer.
I've thought about this more than I should have.
My twenty-four hours: I spend the first hour in the Nexus in Hollow Knight. Not fighting anything. Just sitting in the music for a while. Then I go to Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls and walk around. Then I load up Outer Wilds and fly to the Ash Twin Project one more time. I want to see the sandfall. And then for whatever time is left - I go back to a save I have from 2015 in Skyrim. A character I never finished. I walk north until I can't see anything. And I stay there until the time is up.
Not because those are the "best" games. Because those are the places I'd want to leave from.
Where do you spend your last day? What does that say about what gaming actually meant to you?
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
Kratos' design is iconic: pale skin, the scar across his eye, and that crimson tattoo stretching across half his body. After two decades, any change is spotted instantly.
But look closer in God of War Ragnarok and cracks start to show.
For example: a massive scar on Kratos' belly - the wound from impaling himself with the Blade of Olympus. The tissue regenerated. The tattoo? It runs right over the scar like nothing happened.
Lore reminder: the tattoo isn't decoration. It's a tribute to his brother Deimos, who was born with a red birthmark. An oracle foretold Olympus would fall by a "marked warrior." Ares and Athena took Deimos as a child. Kratos later tattooed himself with the same pattern - literally fulfilling the prophecy.
Here's the catch: the tattoo is just paint. The pale skin? That's ash from his family, magically fused into his skin by Hephaestus. The ash is cursed - it persists. The paint? Not so much.
If the tissue regenerated, the tattoo should've gone with it. The most boring answer: over a thousand years, Kratos simply had it redone.
One fan joked: Faye did it before she died. Strangely, that sounds more believable than anything else.
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
At first glance, Inscryption looks like a simple card based roguelike. Resources, creatures, attack and defense - all pretty standard. But it's the small details that make it brilliant.
The game keeps throwing new twists at you - just when you think you've figured it out. You start paying with one resource, then discover you can use another. You get used to creatures, and suddenly flying units appear - and then blockers for them. Every time you think "okay, I've got this," the game says "not quite."
Then you get items - completely independent from your cards, but capable of flipping the board. Later, an exploration mechanic is introduced, something that wasn't there before. And if you miss something, the game gently reminds you through NPCs - naturally, fitting the world and atmosphere.
The game doesn't just hand you free bonuses. Many events and cards give something - but take something away too. You decide whether to sacrifice or take a risk. That's a simple but powerful move: it puts control back in your hands and forces you to think. The harder the choice, the more interesting it gets.
Inscryption shows how you can build deep mechanics and a dark atmosphere without overwhelming the player. Everything is introduced in layers, at the right time. That's what makes it more than just a card game - it's an experience.
What game surprised you with its mechanic delivery and kept you hooked until the very end?
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
Gamers are debating again how CD Projekt RED makes the worlds of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 feel so alive and massive. One forum user asked: "What's the secret?" and the comments poured in.
The first thing fans point to is the artistic approach. CDPR still handcrafts their environments. While the industry loves to generate terrain with algorithms and only tweak it manually, the Poles stick to the old-school method. Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 were built on their own REDengine, which could do things Unreal or Unity just couldn't at the time.
It's not just "because engine." For Cyberpunk, they actually hired a real urban planner to help design districts and traffic flows. They placed key landmarks first and then built the city around them.
Not everything is flawless, though. Some reminded that Skellige's mountains are more like big hills, Toussaint feels like a decoration rather than a capital, and Novigrad is mostly facades. Most NPCs are extras with one line. In that regard, Bethesda still wins: you can enter almost every house, and every NPC has a name, inventory, and schedule.
But fans rightly pointed out: CDPR isn't alone in this. Other studios know how to do scale too:
The key takeaway: CDPR's mastery isn't one single trick. It's a sum of decisions - handcrafted art, smart verticality, and the illusion of scale. And no, they don't have a monopoly on this anymore. But with studio closures and the hardware crisis, massive open worlds like these might soon become exceptions rather than gifts.
What do you think? Is it CDPR's craft or just a clever visual trick?
👉 Guys, help us out! Subscribe to "It's About Games" on other platforms! Support us!
