Spaceship interiors in Starfield, as well as interiors of space stations, look very believable, made with attention to details. With high quality graphics and textures almost look like a render of real spaceship. Too bad spaceship is just fast travel location with extra loot storage. It's not even good hub location. There's seems to be fuel mentioned somewhere, but you never have to refuel. Fuel capacity just limits distance of single gravjump, then fully replenishes. No wonder people spending thousands on Star Citizen, players craving detailed space travel simulators. Starfield is too casual. The only realistic thing there is that you need to undock before making gravjump. But eventually this just becomes annoying.

Would have been weird not to have space flight in a game built around space exploration, so naturally Starfield had to have that. Unfortunately, space flights in the game are superficial. You can't really travel anywhere in space. When you travel to a planet, it's just a fast travel to a tiny location with 360 degree skybox and invisible walls. You can't fly to another planet, can't even fly a bit closer to the planet you are currently orbiting. Of course all the key aspects of space flights are technically there: docking to a space stations, shooting at other space ships, fast travel using something called gravjump. Also it's possible to survey the planets for resources, to mine them when you land. Never mined any resources in 2 playthroughs. That sounds even more boring than all side missions in the game. One of the most disappointing things in a game about space is dead sky. Skybox in space is just a picture, stars are drawn, no shimmering at all.

Visually Starfield is exceptionally good: hi-res textures, models, lipsync and facial animation in general. Very admirable achievement for a game engine as old as gamedev industry itself. Extra credit for level design - those underground compounds, space bases and spaceships - are believable and fun to explore. The rest unfortunately is inherited from previous Bethesda games: animations, visual effects, NPC AI and cut-scenes came directly from early 2000s.

Bethesda’s Starfield launching November 11, 2022 exclusively on Xbox Series X/S and PC

The team behind Olden Era has revealed a new Arena mode, designed to bring fast, dynamic battles to the forefront of gameplay. Responding to community feedback, this mode skips traditional elements like castle building, resource gathering, and map exploration. Instead, players jump straight into the action, drafting their heroes, troops, artifacts, and spells in a quick five-minute setup before diving into a decisive battle. Inspired by the Hot Seat Duel Mode from HoMM 5, Olden Era’s Arena takes the concept further with full customization and balance improvements. Players can draft from a selection of heroes, level up skills, and pick artifacts, all while ensuring fairness through carefully balanced systems. Whether battling AI or other players, the mode is designed to provide exciting, bite-sized gameplay sessions that are perfect for newcomers and veterans alike. Arena also introduces competitive features, including a separate rating system and matchmaking, adding a fresh challenge for seasoned players. It’s a fast, accessible way to enjoy the game, whether you’re short on time or want to sharpen your skills in quick, intense battles. More details on Arena’s competitive ladder system will be shared in an upcoming devlog.

That feeling you have when you just finished an amazing game. With StarCraft II that feeling I have once in a while when I replay all the campaigns. Too bad the story is over and in a way I'm glad there are no spin offs or some other crap like World of StarCraft. There is not much space for story rich games in the modern gamedev. There is also less and less demand for competitive real-time strategy games, all that market was consumed with MOBAs. Not many players out there want to spend hundreds of hours just to even stand a chance against other players. Having such good in size and quality single-player part is too expensive nowadays. Those shy attempts to revive an RTS market don't even try to include campaign or a story because creating balanced PvP game is already challenge on its own. I will revisit StarCraft story in the future, hoping there won't be any Reforged failures that will take the original game from me.

Valve has released a major update for Counter-Strike 2, introducing weapon charms and new skins as part of the "Arsenal" operation. They added over 100 new cosmetic items, including stickers and a new case. Players can also acquire charms through the Arsenal Pass, which costs around $15, and attach them to weapons. Additionally, gameplay animations were improved, and bugs were fixed. On the downside, some users have reported performance issues following the update, with frame rates dropping by around 14%.

Frostpunk 2 has been released. 11 bit studios released their game in Steam and Microsoft Store. City builder also available in PC Game Pass since day one. Reviews claim the game is bigger and better its predecessor in every way. In Frostpunk 2 players control a city in postapocaliptic setting where eternal winter rules the world. You have to develop the city, deal with problems of its citizens and political factions. The game offers long campaign and sandbox mode where yo can play with no limits. Frostpunk 2 also offers full mod support that allows community to create their own maps, models and scenarios.

God of War Ragnarök is now finally available on PC after almost 2 years being available exclusively on PlayStation. Porting to PC was done by Jetpack Interactive, the same studio that was also porting previous God of War game. God of War Ragnarök on PC received several improvements compared to console version. Among other things developers added image upscaling support, support of ultra-wide displays and unlimited framerate. Action made by Santa Monica continues the story from God of War (2018). Kratos and Atreus are traveling in every of Nine worlds to prevent Ragnarök, the end of the world. Initial release of God of War Ragnarök happened in 2022. Average rating on Metacritic is 94 out of 100.