Vishal Kamal has been covering video games for 7 years, writing about everything from hardware deals and new releases to esports and the business
side of the industry. He runs TheBadGamer, focused on gaming news worth your time.
Valve has broken ten months of silence on the Mann vs. Machine update for Team Fortress 2, confirming the cooperative overhaul remains in active development. The studio cites an overwhelming volume of community map and mission submissions as the primary reason for the extended delay.
Nintendo will cease production of all original Switch models for the European market in February 2027 due to new EU right-to-repair legislation requiring replaceable batteries. The Switch 2 launches at $500, removing the affordable entry point that the $200 Switch Lite provided for budget-conscious players across Europe.
LEGO has retired nearly 30 sets from its official store this month, but Amazon still carries eight of them at standard retail prices. The selection spans Star Wars, One Piece, Mario Kart, Botanicals, LEGO City, and Technic themes, including the 986-piece Robot World Rollercoaster and the discounted Lotus Flower set.
Flyway Games' Ascend to Zero launches on Xbox Game Pass with a 30-second time limit and a time-stopping mechanic that rewrites the Vampire Survivors formula. The roguelike's exponential leveling and four distinct currency types create a fascinating systems overload that keeps pulling players back.
Hidden Trap's Blueberry uses a blues bar emotion system and revisitable memory puzzles to simulate how traumatic memories hijack the body in real time. The developer consulted three psychologists to ground its depiction of depression, neuroplasticity, and family dysfunction in clinical research. Available now on Xbox, the game asks players whether healing is possible even decades after the damage is done.
Marathon game director Joseph Ziegler announced his departure from Bungie on July 17, 2026, after three and a half years leading the extraction shooter. Assistant game director Del Chafe III will take the reins alongside creative director Julia Nardin as the game moves through Season 2 toward Season 3's September launch.
Bungie has confirmed that the game director for its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon has left the studio. The departure arrives during a turbulent period marked by layoffs and leadership changes at the PlayStation-owned developer. Players waiting for the sci-fi revival will now watch closely for signs of how this shift impacts the project's trajectory.
King of the Hill Season 15 arrives on Hulu and Disney+ July 20, delivering what may be the strongest season in the show's nearly 30-year history. The 10-episode run perfects the balance between character growth and the series' timeless slice-of-life charm, anchored by a flashback finale that finally explains the 16-year gap.
A new fan-made trailer titled Final Fantasy Resonance asks what the gaming landscape would look like if Final Fantasy 7 had never existed. The project reimagines iconic characters and scenarios through a radically different lens, stripping away the legacy that defined a generation of RPGs. This creative exercise highlights just how deeply Square Enix's 1997 landmark shaped modern game design and storytelling.
Bethesda Game Studios has confirmed that Starfield remains a core franchise priority despite recent Xbox layoffs affecting 1,600 staff. Todd Howard revealed the space RPG has attracted over 17 million players who have logged nearly a billion hours, while teasing new Starborn content arriving in 2027.
