Square Enix has announced that the full Kingdom Hearts saga so far is being upgraded and ported to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2, launching on 8th October 2026.

As part of this, the KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I~III] will be sold as an all-in-one bundle for people that want the whole lot,  but you can also buy each chapter separately. That’s KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX-, KINGDOM HEARTS HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and KINGDOM HEARTS III + Re Mind (DLC).

I know I’m not the first one to say this, but the way these remastered collections have been named over the years is beyond ridiculous.

The big news for Switch 2 buyers is that these will now be running natively on the console, where the Switch 1 releases were all ‘Cloud ver.’ and played remotely. That was Goofy at the time and it’s still pretty quackers, if you ask Donald me. A demo of Kingdom Hearts 3 is available today for Switch 2 featuring the start of the game through to Olympus (with save data that can carry across to the full game), and then jumping ahead to Toy Box World (where save data will not carry over)

Upgrade pricing is also available, with a 50% discount on digital purchases from last gen to Switch 2, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Switch 1 to Switch 2 will also be able to transfer save data, but this is a mysteriously absent feature on Xbox and PlayStation. I see no good reason why it shouldn’t be possible, given that there’s countless other games that have a save transfer between generations.

Square Enix also released a new teaser trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV, confirming that it will now also be coming to Switch 2.

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With Capcom announcing that Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, they’ve also confirmed that the Dark Arisen Expansion is also coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, both as a new combined release and as separate DLC for the base game. Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is launching on 9th October 2026.

The Dark Arisen Expansion shares its name with the enhanced release of the original game, and aims to bring similar improvements and added content to the game.

It will feature a new Northern region of Norgan, where you will join forces with Eir to reveal the secrets of a Fallen Dragon. Along the way, you’ll also be able to find and appraise forgotten relics to gain new weapons and skills. There’s also twelve Lost Rites Dungeon Challenges to test your skills against, and the Character Creator is getting new hairstyles and tattoos.

Prior to the Dark Arisen Expansion, Capcom will release two major updates for existing platforms to improve the experience. Yesterday saw an update that made fast travel more accessible with the reusable Eternal Ferrystone and some other quality of life improvements. A second update will arrive in August and promises improved frame rates and additional save slots.

Those optimisations will be important, with the game notoriously being rather taxing on the original launch and needing every ounce of performance it can get to run on the Switch 2 in reasonable quality. But the quality of the game shone through for us, and in our Dragon’s Dogma 2 review, Jason said, “Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a triumph of a game that wants you to just take your time and see everything you possibly can. You’ll be constantly pulled from your path by a new cave, a random quest, a chest one of your Pawns has found, random fights, and it’s all part of the experience. I adore this game, and while it has some aspects I think some will find too clunky, it’s a masterpiece.”

Source: press release

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UPDATE 15/2/23: PowerWash Simulator’s free Final Fantasy DLC arrives on 2nd March, and will be accessible here in the UK from 5pm local time.

Five levels requiring your cleaning attention will include the Hardy Daytona motorbike and Shinra Hauler, the Scorpion Sentinel, the Seventh Heaven bar, the Mako Energy Exhibit and the Airbuster.

As with the game’s previous Tomb Raider DLC, this pack will be available to all owners at the game for no extra charge. Which is kind! Developer Futurlab could really have cleaned up.

ORIGINAL STORY 31/1/23:
Final Fantasy 7 is the next game to receive DLC in PowerWash Simulator.

The Midgar Special Pack will include the Hardy-Daytona – Cloud’s motorbike from the iconic city escape sequence – as well as Tifa’s bar Seventh Heaven, and Guard Scorpion – the first boss encountered in the game.

There’s currently no release date for this DLC, which has been announced by Square Enix Japan.

This will be the second free DLC following the Tomb Raider pack that’s released today, which will allow players to clean Croft Manor as part of a new five-level mini campaign.

No doubt Lara fans will be eager to discover as many Easter eggs as possible.

This DLC comes alongside a release of the game for PlayStation consoles and Nintendo Switch. Until now, it’s been available only on PC and Xbox (including Game Pass).

The game is published by Square Enix – creators of Final Fantasy and previous owners of Tomb Raider, until rights were sold to Embracer – so perhaps more themed DLC could be on the way.

What game would you like to see get the PowerWash treatment next?

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Square Enix have announced the third part of their Final Fantasy 7 action RPG remake trilogy. It’s called Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, and it’s out on all platforms including PC in spring 2027. Yep, there’s no wait for a port this time. We get to live out the closing act of Cloud Strife’s journey and participate in the associated Discourse at the same time as those console gremlins.

The publishers dropped a trailer for Revelation at this year’s Summer Game Fest, revealing two additional/returning playable characters – Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind. They’ll join Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Red XIII, Yuffie and Cait Sith on a mission to avert an apocalyptic Meteor spell and defeat swishy bad boy Sephiroth, who is on the brink of godhood. They’ll also jump out of airships a lot, in curious echo of the battle royale genre.

“The entire planet is freely explorable via the iconic Highwind airship,” explains the press release. “Players can drop in via parachute anywhere, seamlessly transitioning from air to land. With Meteor descending and enormous Weapons unleashing terror, the planet’s conflicts are many, and the party will need to divide and conquer.

“Choose where to go, who to help and in what order as the planet itself fights for survival,” it continues. “Make one last stand alongside a beloved cast of legendary heroes, making decisions along the journey that can impact aspects of their stories. Customize combat by switching between real-time action and Tactical Mode in the series’ acclaimed hybrid battle system, now expanded and perfected with new playable characters and powerful new abilities.”

New areas in Revelation include the Mideel archipelago, the nation of Wutai, and the ice-locked Northern Continent. As for those new characters, Vincent is still the nimble gunslinger of yore, while Cid is a brute with a polearm, “quickly closing the distance for powerful single-target lance strikes or sweeping area-of-effect damage.”

There are some warm words from individual developers. “All the stories and emotions accumulated over the years will culminate in the most satisfying way with this experience, brought to you as the series’ final chapter,” enthuses director Naoki Hamaguchi. It’s certainly been fascinating and, at times, alarming, watching Square Enix explore the knotty extended universe and legacy of the 1997 RPG in the Remake trilogy.

I confess, I fell off the remake train after finishing the original FF7 Remake, released in 2020. I’ve yet to touch the second instalment, Rebirth; everything I know about it comes from Nic’s (RPS in peace) absolutely stonking review of the PC version, which doubles as a dissection of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. To boil his fine words down to the bones, he characterises it as project made with love yet cruelly stretched between eras in game design. Now I face the grim ordeal of deciding whether I have the time and energy to play Rebirth, with all its flaws, in order to play Revelation next year.

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Until Dawn 2 has been revealed by Sony and developer Firesprite, coming exclusively to PS5 in 2027.

The game features the hallmarks of the original Until Dawn and the group/teen horror tales that have become fellow UK studio Supermassive’s calling card. Until Dawn 2 sees Liverpool-based Firesprite taking up the mantle after 2024’s Until Dawn remake.

Until Dawn 2 features a team of ghost hunters who will go face-to-face with real horrors for the first time. They’ve just signed a TV deal with a network willing to ship them off to an abandoned tropical island… or so they think. Brace yourself for an awful lot of people meeting grizzly ends when you make a poor choice.

Looking back on the remake, Tuff said, “Until Dawn remains a fantastic horror game with great acting and plenty of jump scares to get you out of your seat. While not essential for anyone that enjoyed the original game, this remake brings it to a new audience and is a solid update to what was already a great game.”

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Crimson Desert developers Pearl Abyss have outlined the tweaks they plan to make to their very wide open world game between June and September, as part of continued and relentless efforts to morph it into a shape which can please everybody. Notably, they say they’ll be acting on feedback about Red Pudding’s rather forgettable story with some changes designed to “strengthen the narrative flow” and stop people falling asleep mid-cutscene. They’ve also teased some more substantial DLC coming further down the line.

“We have been carefully reviewing the story-related feedback you have shared with us,” the studio wrote in a rundown of tweaks coming to the game over the summer. “To further strengthen the narrative flow of Kliff’s journey and to make it more engaging, we are working to refine and improve the coherence of key scenes. We hope these improvements will offer something new even for those who have already experienced Pywel.” I’m not sure anything they’ve got up their sleeves can suddenly turn around a tale put together over years, but hey, fair play for trying.

Beyond that, new combat encounters will be added, allowing folks to “prove their true strength as a Greymane” and the re-blockade system which sees enemy strongholds reset so you can clear them out again is being added to. “A new phase is being developed to make the flow before and after a blockade more natural, along with ways to defend certain strongholds from the threat of invasion,” Pearl Abyss wrote of the latter. “Rewards will also be improved to make the process of liberating strongholds feel more rewarding.”

Cross-save across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox is also incoming, as are rather vague improvements to playing as Crim Des’ two other protagonists Damiane and Oongka and tweaks to the likes of trading/farming.

Finally, Pearl Abyss revealed that some more substantial DLC is in the works, which they promise will be “a meaningful addition to your journey”. No concrete details were shared beyond that.

If the DLC boasts more sexy towers and/or ghost trains, I may well give it a whirl.

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