The post VR Modder Luke Ross Removes All Mods Following ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ DMCA Takedown appeared first on Road to VR.

Workstation upgrades don’t have to break the bank.

The post AMD Ryzen 7 Just Dropped Again Overnight to 43% Off After the Ryzen 9 Clearance Deal on Amazon appeared first on Kotaku.

Game better without spending a ton.

The post Xbox Wireless Gaming Controller (2025) Gets Restocked at Its Lowest Price of the Year, Headed for Another Clearance appeared first on Kotaku.

Horizon 6 will feature over 500 cars, a massive map, and new ways to play with friends, and is coming to PS5 later this year

The post <i>Forza Horizon 6</i>: Everything We Know About The Open-World Racing Game Set In Japan appeared first on Kotaku.

There are compromises but fewer than you’d think

The post <i>Final Fantasy VII Remake</i> On Switch 2 Is A Good Way To Play A Great Game appeared first on Kotaku.

Game Freak appeared on Xbox’s stream to talk about Beast of Reincarnation

The post It Took An Xbox Showcase To Get A Rare Look Inside The Makers Of <em>Pokémon</em> appeared first on Kotaku.

Beast in Reincarnation looks pretty ambitious, especially given Game Freak’s track record

The post Game Freak Addresses Your Valid Concern About How Its Non-<em>Pokémon</em> RPG Will Run appeared first on Kotaku.

The long-awaited sequel has survived the recent cancellation of multiple Ubisoft games

The post <i>Beyond Good & Evil 2</i> ‘Remains A Priority For Us,’ Ubisoft Says appeared first on Kotaku.

Also: Beyond Good & Evil 2 still lives

The post <i>Metroid Prime</i>‘s 40-Year Nintendo Veteran Is Reportedly Done With The Franchise appeared first on Kotaku.

Microsoft also showed off new games from Double Fine and from Pokémon developer Game Freak

The post <i>Fable</i>, <i>Forza Horizon 6</i>, And More: Everything We Saw In The First Xbox Showcase Of 2026 appeared first on Kotaku.

Dread Meridian is an H.P. Lovecraft-inspired survival horror with a moody atmosphere held back by janky combat at launch.

Scary scenes such as the ones vividly described in H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness” can leave readers in a disconcerting mood. Dread Meridian features all the elements of this winning formula, but technical drawbacks ultimately prove its undoing.

It all starts with the story as straightforward as can be. As Daniela, you begin your journey on a boat, narrating your missing sister’s letter indicating she went on a research expedition because of mysterious artifacts they found. A poster of a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde movie can be seen on the walls of Dani’s room, as well as several books to interact with.

Her one-track mind allows for the game to explore narrative set pieces without much explanation as to why you are there other than to search for your sister. Eventually crashing into a frozen wasteland, a gorgeous aurora borealis lights up the night sky over what is otherwise hell on Earth.

Each of the game’s five chapters is short enough to be finished in about an hour or less. Showing varied environments like a seemingly abandoned research base, a cabin in the woods with a horrifying secret, and the infested cave where mutated monsters abound, the frantic search stays unpredictable throughout. Turns out messing with eldritch horrors beyond human comprehension can mess with researchers’ minds.

The levels are easy to understand for survival horror enthusiasts, with simple puzzles where the solutions can be logically solved or found close by. In that regard, Dread Meridian seems to do everything well, but the crux of the matter is how it plays, and that is where it squanders any goodwill thus far.

Wiggle Fest

A well-known term within VR communities that comes to mind when describing this game’s combat is a “wiggle fest.” While it is possible to use a gun, an SMG, and more firearms, these weapons are flimsy, not to mention the lack of ammo. That leads to only being able to use a knife, which, although extremely effective, has you hacking away at the air with no thought, praying you will defeat every monster without being damaged.

To have the enemy freeze in place at times is more hilarious than alarming. There are no difficulty settings, and the checkpoints are few and far between; this can easily lead to frustration. Being killed by an enemy cheap shot that is unpredictable to register after spending 15 minutes running around a research base is a tough pill to swallow.

There are hints of brilliance in Dani’s journey. When not struggling with the unwieldy combat, exploring the infested areas is quite unsettling. If Dread Meridian excels in something, it is that it is dripping with Lovecraftian atmosphere. Whispers are heard in Dani’s head telling her to complete a forbidden ritual; hallucinations of otherworldly landscapes assault her, and fleshy, grotesquely mutated corpses adorn the halls of every place you visit.

The abundant documents and voice recordings of the researchers’ descent into madness are as intriguing as they are eerie. It is honestly difficult to dismiss what is witnessed on-screen because there was clearly effort put into it, but the issues that creep up in the moment-to-moment gameplay cannot be ignored.

As a seasoned VR player, I seek lasting experiences that go beyond rolling credits. Great horror games have the potential to do that, especially late at night. Media based on H.P. Lovecraft’s work is among the most interesting due to its source material. Dread Meridian comes close to achieving this with its unnerving setting, but imprecise enemy hitboxes, punishing checkpoints, and buggy non-player character behavior ensure it becomes memorable, negatively. Down the line, with patches and the help of player feedback, perhaps it could arrive at the goal the developers had.

Editor’s Note: UploadVR is publishing this hands-on writeup based on advance access to Dread Meridian. We are making no immediate plan for a formal review or update to this article, though we’ll link to future coverage here if we are able.

The upcoming Xbox RPG will feature a massive open world version of Albion for the first time

The post <i>Fable</i> Reboot Features ‘Seamless’ Open World And Is Launching This Fall appeared first on Kotaku.

Golden Gloves VR is available now in full release on Meta Quest after a lengthy early access period.

I jumped into Golden Gloves VR and, while it’s still pretty spare graphically, there are some good ideas here about virtual fitness and boxing. I saw three gym maps to train alone or in multiplayer sessions. When you start, you teleport into a gym map where you can find access to Career Mode challenges, training bags and minigames.

The gym’s training bags are realistically responsive to punching. Training stations range from speed bags to various hanging bags and other targets. There is also an arcade machine that gives access to a Space Invaders-style game where you practice boxing form, shooting glove-shaped bullets at enemies.

I spent my time in the game’s Career Mode where I fought AI boxers increasing in difficulty every time I won a match. I initially found the fighting to be too easy, but was quickly surprised when the difficulty began to ramp up as the enemy got smarter. Smarter boxers timed their moves better to counter my swings. Their increased skill highlighted areas of my body I failed to defend in a fight, often dealing damage to my blind spots and revealing areas of improvement in reflexes and strategy.

Golden Gloves VR has an impressive set of training equipment in its gyms. Training bags can be used either within VR or with passthrough mode. In passthrough mode, equipment can be placed around your room to train while being able to see your physical surroundings.

Despite the good fighting experience, the graphics are extremely plain. Lighting overall isn’t set up well and there’s a lot that could be done to add more mood and immersion. Still, there’s good equipment and plenty here to get good cardio.

Golden Gloves VR is available now on Quest headsets with developers boasting that it is the “official esports platform for USA Boxing” built from “real input from boxers and coaches.” The full official launch of Golden Gloves VR includes an optional Esports USA Boxing membership.

UploadVR will keep an eye on this project as it continues to develop past full release for further updates.

Your justification for starting as a salmon man in a barrel is that you are trying to get up the waterfall. This is, of course, something actual salmon do. So it follows from developer Valem Studio that it is something a salmon man in VR should do too.

Salmon Man blends genuine fun and desire to keep going with the gut-wrenching pain of a tiny mistake ruthlessly chopping away at swathes of progress in a helpless instant. Paddle locomotion, it seems, has a frustrating charm almost tailored for the viral Internet landscape of modern gaming. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy took over the gaming zeitgeist from its release in late 2017 on Steam and its inspirations here aren’t subtle. You can play the same basic style of game in your browser right now, or take a look at what this idea is like in the trailer below.

As you’re not walking around each level yourself, you traverse by way of boat paddle, using it to push yourself from the ground and latch yourself from place to place across increasingly death-defying obstacles.

Far from the first game to take this style of game to the format, Salmon Man finds a thematic way to justify its concept and embed it into the core gameplay loop of this rage-inducing platformer. With the minimal introduction of simply being the titular Salmon Man in a barrel, you’re dropped into the beginning and left to your own devices to get through the perilous journey ahead. That’s a rough way to start what is a challenging game and not very accessible.

What gives Salmon Man additional depth and difficulty is the jump to 3D for this genre. It creates a new layer of depth to the formula as you aren’t solely trying to use momentum and physics to get to the next platform, you instead push yourself off side walls and use the full space to get that extra bit of distance. It increases the flair and excitement of each bit of progress, but it makes things somehow more challenging, never mind the steep learning curve for these controls. As you physically move a full rod through your hands in order to grasp onto platforms at your side, behind or in front, lightning-fast reactions are necessary to get by even some of the earlier obstacles, while later ones pose even more of a threat.

It’s rewarding to make it through to a new section, especially knowing there’s always a risk of losing more than a little bit of progress if you hit the water as you helplessly flow with the current. Yet that risk also brings with it a degree of frustration that steps beyond the awkward, challenging charm one would expect from these games. Even after clearing the game the first time and facing numerous setbacks, I never found myself fully accustomed to the shape of the paddle that serves as your way of movement and projection through the environment. It never impeded the game to the point of making me want to quit, but there were occasions where the punishing loss of progress didn’t feel like my fault, or times where it sometimes seemed more useful to wave my arms aimlessly and hope for the best rather than logically try the correct method and hope I could execute it.

I also found the lack of any external narration, dialogue or secondary recognition of your progress to be a notable absence. This is a developer choice and far from necessary, sure, but one that can make the journey feel a little lonely and lacking a bit of character and charm. Beyond a few tinges of music in themed areas (pirate music near the wrecked ship, for example), I found myself even hoping I could hear one of those dreaded, all-too-common sarcastic self-quips from a player character cracking awkward jokes, just to break the silence.

If you do clear the game, a lava difficulty replaces water with lava ensuring a forced restart for failure. That wasn’t for me. With the noted lack of comfort to the controls, I can only imagine any mistake would be exacerbated when attempting the latter areas in particular in this mode. I experimented with some early sequences and the first death left me satisfied with the fact I did, at least, clear it once in the normal way.

That being said, even if, like me, a lava-infused playthrough isn’t your speed, there’s still plenty to keep you coming back beyond the initial challenge. Standard route through the game seems a bit too simple? Why not see if you can jump off the main path to more off-beat areas to find an array of hidden rubber ducks! The initial clear isn’t enough? There are achievements with in-game rewards and, if you want to brag, there’s a leaderboard for time trials where you can compete with other players for the best time. You can lose 45 minutes or an hour trying to make progress without even realizing, or keep retrying to get the best time possible. Hidden under the surface is a surprising amount of stuff to get to, but it’s not perfect.

Salmon Man – The Final Verdict

Salmon Man is a worthwhile use of your time if you’re in the market for this sort of game. It’s somewhat ironic to say this as a games reviewer, but more than most titles, you can tell at a glance whether this is for you. Did you enjoy Getting Over It? Can you handle a turbulent VR experience? Do you want to combine those ideas? This is for you. If not, perhaps it’s ok to give this game a miss. If you do give it a go though, there’s a good degree of value and fun to be had here.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.

It seems like a technical issue is causing the spot to look bad and a modder may have already fixed it

The post <i>Yakuza 3</i> Remake Ugly Alleyway Has Fans Concerned appeared first on Kotaku.

A government-backed visual novel fails at its one job

The post Anti-Extremism Game Accidentally Spawns Far-Right ‘Cute Goth E-Girl’ Meme appeared first on Kotaku.

CD PROJEKT RED executive Jan Rosner posted on X that the Luke Ross Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod could return as a free release.

After being issued a notice to take down a Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod, the mod on the Luke Ross Patreon was removed and Ross made an announcement that was shared widely. Rosner, a CD PROJEKT RED executive, confirmed that they had issued a strike because it was infringing on their Fan Content Guidelines, which prohibit “monetization” of their work. In other words, according to the developer of Cyberpunk 2077, the critical issue here is that Ross placed the mod behind a subscription paywall.

“We’d be happy to see it return as a free release,” Rosner wrote, noting The Witcher 3 publisher is a huge fan of mods.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you are within your rights in demanding that my software needs to be free,” Ross replied. “That said, I’m all for finding a win-win solution that makes it possible for your fans to keep enjoying Night City from the inside, in VR.”

Other VR mods from Ross previously released include Doom Eternal, Ghost of Tsushima, Elden Ring, and more. Flat2VR, meanwhile, known for porting flatscreen games to virtual reality, made a passionate plea to CD PROJEKT RED to officially port Cyberpunk 2077 to VR, calling it “a dream game to port.”

Tim Sweeney is preaching the virtues of competition while its partners are struggling

The post Remedy Defends Tim Sweeney: ‘There Would Be No <em>Alan Wake 2</em> Without Epic’ appeared first on Kotaku.

I’ll take my information on this new Bond video game shaken, not stirred. Can you do that?

The post <i>007 First Light</i>: Everything We Know About The <i>Hitman</i> Devs’ James Bond Game appeared first on Kotaku.

It’s time to say goodbye to the cord clutter at your workstation.

The post Anker Goes Full Liquidation on Docking Stations, Its 14-Port 160W Dock Crashes to an All-Time Low appeared first on Kotaku.