For Analogue, the boutique gaming brand that made its business in mining the emotions of the cash- and nostalgia-rich grown-up hardcore, the game has surely changed. When the company burst onto the scene in 2015, the use of FPGA technology to run old games was relatively new. Now, everybody is at it - and so Analogue finds itself needing to more precisely carve out and defend its corner of the market.

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Later this week marks 20 years since the release of the Xbox 360, and with it comes a slew of related gaming anniversaries of varying importance.

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It's fair to say that upon its initial release, Sid Meier's Civilization 7 rather split opinion. I don't think anybody would argue that it was the best-ever Civ game out of the gate. Nobody sane would, anyway. But for a breadth of opinion you only need look at my review on VG247 when compared to the verdict here on Eurogamer. On release, those two opinions were two stars and worlds apart. One considered the game to have a fundamental problem, being too boring. The other considered the base release a creaky but firm-enough foundation for a new generation of Civ.

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It's difficult to believe, but it has been the better part of two decades since the last new Metroid Prime. The third game, Corruption, hit the Wii back in 2007. The good news for those who have been eagerly waiting for more Prime is that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond certainly appears to be a confident expression of that. It's more Prime. In that, it'll give you what you want. On the other hand, I've come away from a hands-on session concerned that it has also fundamentally misunderstood part of Metroid's appeal.

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The most fascinating thing about Valve's newly-announced Steam Machine, in a sense, is its status as a halfway house. It is certainly one thing, but it is also clearly pressing at becoming another. Maybe it is neither? Is this a new category emerging? Or is it simply lines that were once indelible now becoming scuffed, worn, and permeable?

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Many people are very eagerly awaiting the return of Fable next year, and rightly so - it's a British classic and at this stage of the gradually unravelling disaster clearly an increasingly important piece of Microsoft's gaming portfolio. But if I think about the games and series spawned by the late Lionhead Studios, Fable has a rival at the top - 2005's The Movies, which turns 20 years old today.

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Chances are you already know what you're getting with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. This is the third time we've seen The Legend of Zelda cross over with Koei Tecmo's Warriors franchise, and truth be told the two partners have become remarkably good at making these games - which are by their very nature a rather known quantity.

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I'd argue that there was probably no greater poisoned chalice in games than taking on the job of remaking Final Fantasy 7. Hyped for years before it was announced, its reveal part of the so-called 'E3 of dreams', and it is of course a reimagining of one of the most important and beloved role-playing games of all time. Even if it was brilliant, there would inevitably be grousing from some quarters.

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I know precisely what I was doing on this week 25 years ago, give or take. While the exact release date of games wasn't always as set in stone back then, especially on PC, we know that roughly this week marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. One of the greatest games of its kind, it today inspires sorrow and joy in me in almost equal measure.

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For all the struggles that Xbox has suffered over the last year, one thing that can't be said is that gaming's biggest publisher hasn't enjoyed some bright spots. One such gleaming piece of their unwieldy portfolio is Obsidian Entertainment. The California-based studio, most famed for role-playing adventures, has already enjoyed success this year with Avowed and an early access release of Grounded 2. They've saved the best for last, though - The Outer Worlds 2 is the best of this hearty trifecta.

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It's quite rare that we deign to give a game multiple bites at the preview apple here on Eurogamer, especially over such a short period. But Pragmata is an interesting case. Each time Capcom has presented it, the publisher has teased a small glimpse of what the game might be - meagre but enticing at the same time. Back in the summer, we saw its unique mixture of hacking and shooting presented in a very stripped-back demo. A few months later, we saw a tiny bit more - but no matter how intriguing, it still felt like more concept demo than game.

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The new collaboration between Xbox and Asus, the cumbersomely named ROG Xbox Ally X, is a strange old thing. As Tom elucidates in Eurogamer's review of the device, it is many things at once. Marketing will tell you that it is 'an Xbox'. The reality is that it is a PC, of course, albeit one with an Xbox interface grafted on. It's something of a Frankenstein's Monster in that sense, though like the monster it is also hardy and functional. One can see the case and audience for it.

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Last week marked 15 years since Dead Rising 2 made its debut. For my money, Dead Rising 2 is one of the best unlikely success sequels going, but whenever I think of it, I can't help but remember its prologue even more fondly.

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It's fair to say that the Tokyo Game Show is back. This may have been the case over the last few years, to be honest - but this year marked my first post-pandemic return to Japan's premier gaming festival - and in honesty, walking around the venue, I was shocked.

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While Super Mario Galaxy has appeared on Nintendo Switch before, via 2020's Super Mario 3D All-Stars, this week's re-release is still momentous. For one, 3D All-Stars was bizarrely only for sale for a limited time - so this will be the first time this game has a 'standard', ever-available Switch version. More importantly, this is the first time that Galaxy 2 is on Switch, meaning we now have one of gaming's finest duologies reunited and available on modern hardware. All of this is great news.

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My first major memory of Indie Games on Xbox platforms is a pleasant one, and it's precisely the sort of memory I feel most appropriate for the medium. This was a tiny self-published affair - nary a publisher in sight, what I assume was a solo developer, and an extremely limited scope. I'm not talking about Hollow Knight, or Balatro, or Braid, or Limbo or what have you. I'm talking about Curling 2010.

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If you had to push me for criticisms of Donkey Kong Bananza, there aren't that many I can level at it. It's a smashing time - hur hur - and though it perhaps doesn't have that jaw-dropping impetus of a Mario Odyssey, it is nevertheless something special. Here's one, though: the post-game offering is over way too quickly. Nintendo has now addressed that with a new downloadable content, DK Island & Emerald Rush.

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Getting your hands on an iconic and beloved entertainment property is surely a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you get the opportunity to mine the history of the franchise and its stories for your own gain, and get to leverage the interest of a dedicated congregation of existing fans. On the other hand… there's a lot of expectation. People know this franchise. They know this character like a friend. They know how they want it.

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When IO Interactive first announced it was uptaking work on what was then known as 'Project 007', the internet collectively cheered. There was one practically unanimous reaction: this is a match made in heaven.

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While it admittedly was plainly obvious to anyone who has seen his face on TV or in film, Danish developer IO Interactive has now made it official: their video game exclusive iteration of the world famous Agent 007 is to be played by Irish actor Patrick Gibson.

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There's something special about Final Fantasy Tactics. It's one of those games where it's difficult to ascertain and harder to elucidate, but it just has… something. An X-Factor. A je ne sais quoi. I have vaguely fond memories of the game in general, but sitting down to play just 45 minutes of upcoming remaster The Ivalice Chronicles, it doesn't take long for that secret sauce to sink its claws into me. I should play this whole thing, I think. I hadn't really planned to play it in full again. But 45 minutes later, there I was - mentally rejigging my October weekend plans.

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Gamescom is different from a lot of industry trade shows for a variety of reasons, but one of my favorite is how approachable it is. Even when you put the hundreds of thousands of public attendees to one side and consider only the more sterile business-to-business area, it has always been an easier show to gain access to - which has myriad benefits.

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Is there anything more British than turning on the telly at 11pm and finding an old Bond film on ITV? There's an opening that I probably couldn't get away with on any other major games site, hey. But, really: that moment of channel-hopping and catching the smirking visage of Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or Pierce Brosnan as a bit of late-night terrestrial TV filler is as British as fish and chips, smashing up your shiny new alloy on a pothole, and needing to do a blood sacrifice for his majesty's government in order to send a DM on social media.

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"I don't really want to delve into previous concepts," Pragmata producer Naoto Oyama tactfully offers, after I prod at the prickly topic of the lengthy development of Capcom's latest weird and wonderful offering.

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Resident Evil 9: Requiem's director wants you to know that it may very well be the most extreme title in the series. But not in the way you might think. When he talks of extremities Kōshi Nakanishi isn't talking about blood, guts, and gore - he's talking about pacing. And your heart rate, for that matter.

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Let's kick off with a confession: I never really rated 2003's Kirby Air Ride. I'm well aware that some regard it as a GameCube classic, but I'm not one of them. When a sequel, Kirby Air Riders, closed out the big Switch 2 blow-out Nintendo Direct, my reaction was rather apathetic. A sequel to that is their grand finale?

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Games events are always packed with a shed load of marketing bluster. Companies figure out the most impressive way to showcase their wares and then, well, deploy that. Some of that is more strait-laced; other times the truth is stretched.

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At first blush, it'd be easy to take Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days as just another third-person action shooter of the Xbox 360 era - a period absolutely replete with such games. To be honest, that description is certainly true of its predecessor - a game probably now more broadly remembered for its role in one of games media's largest scandals. But the sequel is something more - something special, unique, and worth remembering.

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I hate to start a review with a cliché, but reader, I'm doing it. Mafia: The Old Country is that occasional sort of experience that is 'more than the sum of its parts'. On paper, I don't think I should like this game as much as I do. When I stop and really think about it - y'know, squinting a little with concentration - I actually think I really do like it a little less. But on balance, in my heart, I greatly enjoyed the whirlwind of mob tropes developer Hangar 13 has strung together here.

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Every now and then, something comes along in my video gaming life that I feel the need to evangelise. Even if I’m super late to the party - as I am here. So picture me, knocking on your door. Or ringing the bell. Whatever. Ding-dong. Hello! Can I talk to you about GeForce Now on Steam Deck? It might just change your life.

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Let's kick this look at Super Mario Party Jamboree's new Nintendo Switch port off with a wonderful example of what Eurogamer isn't - a one-opinion monolith. So while I greatly respect the brilliant Katharine's opinion that Jamboree is fine and agreeable but equally compromised and frustratingly random, that respect comes with a head-shake of disagreement. I actually thought it was rather good!

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As you might've read elsewhere on the site, I really rather like Donkey Kong Bananza. It's a tremendously creative and clever take on DK as a character, and does a great job of both expanding the existing DK universe and building something all-new for a younger generation - one that's also about to get to know DK's world properly for the first time, given this is all just in time for an upcoming movie. It's brilliant.

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To properly encapsulate how I feel about Donkey Kong Bananza, you almost have to start at the finish. No spoilers here, obviously, but I have to say that I think this game has one of the finest finales of any Nintendo game ever. There's a delightful build-up of adrenaline as story beats and experimental mechanical evolutions are gleefully layered atop each other. It's difficult to not have a great big smile on your face as the game hurtles towards its finish. It's pretty masterfully done.

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When you think of James Bond, you probably think of product placement. You might not realize it, but this is an iron-clad fact: the world's most beloved spy is always associated with a product. You might think of the Walther PPK, a compact German pistol whose distinct profile is evoked in the '007' logo. You might think of Omega, or Rolex. Aston Martin, of course. Bond is a consumerist. He is what he uses.

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When I first played Donkey Kong Bananza at the Nintendo Switch 2 reveal, I enjoyed it but was nevertheless left vaguely apprehensive. The core destruction mechanic was fun, I reasoned. I jokingly referred to the game as 'Red Faction Gorilla', referencing another destruction-driven game that is jolly good fun. But… was that it? Is that all - smashing stuff up?

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While I'm yet to really appreciate any major benefit of the Nintendo Switch 2's GameChat feature, I'm nevertheless always hardware-curious. I'm a tech nerd; I want to know what companies are shipping and how good it is. With that in mind, let me sound the alarm with a warning: do not buy that cutesy Switch 2 camera shaped like a Piranha Plant. If you buy it, to be blunt, peripheral company Hori is absolutely pantsing you.

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I have next to no idea what Invincible is. I know of Omni-Man, though only through osmosis and crossovers and such - but that’s the extent of my knowledge. I admit this to one of the developers of Invincible VS when I sat down to play the new game based on the comic book series, just revealed at Xbox’s most recent showcase. Briefly, they look a little crestfallen.

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It's arguably the perfect time for the return of Onimusha. If we're discounting remasters and strange Japan-exclusive spin-offs, it's been almost twenty years since the last entry in the series - and it does feel a lot like that time has seen the ground prepared for the return of Capcom's demon-slaying samurai series.

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Sonic the Hedgehog has been on a redemption arc.

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I love it when Capcom experiments. It's true that with a staple of franchises and characters like those it has, there isn't all that much pressure on Capcom to experiment. It has most of what it needs to make that corporate profit line go up, in truth. But every now and then the company nevertheless experiments with something new - and usually, backed up by those successful franchises, the company can strike gold.

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If you're well into following video game news, you're likely going to see a lot of new information about Resident Evil 9/Requiem today - to be clear, Capcom has done its usual trick of giving the game a title, but changing a letter (q in this instance) to the entry number in its reveal trailer. Over the weekend, hundreds of critics and influencers filed into a darkened theatre to witness a pre-recorded first gameplay video of Summer Games Fest's biggest reveal. But hidden just meters away was something even better: a hands-on demo that only a handful of people got to play.

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When I saw that the hands-on demo for Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds at Summer Games Fest was a full hour long, I was sort of taken aback. An hour? For a kart racer? Our time is pretty limited at these events, and in the interest of trying to squeeze as much in as possible one always tries not to spend more time with a game than is strictly necessary to get a broad idea of what it's trying to do and how it's coming together.

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It's that most thrilling time, the dawn of a new hardware generation. It's gaming Christmas! As a critic, that means it's time for that finest tradition - an intense period of bedding in with a new piece of hardware, vigorously road-testing it so that we can inform you, our delightful readers, if this thrilling new piece of tech is worth your money.

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