Gaming News — 2026-04-08#

Top Story#

Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 6 is shaping up to be an absolute showstopper, boasting a dense, highly vertical Tokyo City and sprawling Japanese Alps. Hands-on previews confirm it is a brilliantly executed Japanese driving fantasy that will easily eat up hours of exploration when it launches next month.

News & Reviews#

Fans Bash Pokémon Champions’ Rocky Launch The newly-released free-to-play Pokémon Champions is facing serious backlash on the Switch and Switch 2 for its performance issues and missing features. Players are particularly upset about the lack of local wireless play, the omission of standard 6v6 custom battles, and a limited roster of only 185 Pokémon species at launch.

No Man’s Sky Channels Pokémon in Xeno Arena Update No Man’s Sky just dropped the massive Xeno Arena update, officially introducing turn-based tactical creature battles to the decade-old space game. You can now explore the universe to collect, breed, and genetically modify alien pets to fight in multiplayer Holo-Arenas for massive rewards.

007 First Light Delayed on Switch 2 IO Interactive’s highly anticipated James Bond origin game, 007 First Light, has been delayed on the Nintendo Switch 2 until “later this summer”. The PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC versions remain on track for their May 27 release date.

Review: The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a Gacha Grind While Netmarble’s The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin delivers beautiful cel-shaded visuals and familiar combat, it ultimately bogs players down with repetitive gameplay and frustrating gacha mechanics. The game’s gorgeous open world quickly loses its charm thanks to technical hiccups and boss battles that feel disappointingly derivative.

Xbox Achievements Get Major Quality-of-Life Upgrades Microsoft is bringing some much-needed love to the Xbox Achievements system, finally letting you hide games you’re ashamed of from your profile history. The update also adds new icons and animations, plus the ability to proudly highlight titles you’ve 100%-completed.

Elden Ring Dataminer Uncovers Lost Miquella Cutscene A prominent dataminer found a fully rendered, unused cutscene hidden in Elden Ring’s files showing Miquella attempting to plant the Haligtree. While the scene was cut from the final game, it adds fascinating, straightforward context to the game’s notoriously cryptic lore.

Free Games & Deals#

For PC gamers, the April Humble Choice bundle is an absolute steal at $14.99, headlined by the massive Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion. You can also grab our 2025 Shooter of the Year, ARC Raiders, for a new low of $26.79 at Fanatical. On the console side, Persona 3 Reload is half-off at $29.99 for the Switch 2, while PS5 Pro players can score our top gaming TV pick—a 65" Samsung S90D 4K OLED—for just $1,065.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Nintendo Purging Super Mario Maker 2 Levels: Nintendo is suddenly mass-deleting user courses that contain hashtags in their titles, citing their advertising policies.
• Crimson Desert Character Creator Mod: Players tired of playing as the premade protagonist Kliff can now use a mod to build a custom female character.
• PS5 Dashboard Update Testing: Sony is rolling out a refreshed, cleaner PS5 dashboard beta to some users, sparking fan hopes for the eventual return of PS4-style themes.
• Project Hail Mary VR Game Announced: A new mixed AR/VR game based on the hit sci-fi book features an entirely original chapter written specifically for the game by author Andy Weir.