It’s odd that more roguelites don’t toy with time as a core concept. Hades 2 did, and that was cool, but in that case Time was a literal being, not just the concept. When time is the enemy, what are you even meant to do? There’s no stopping time, not really, but that’s not going to stop Wilbur from Clockfall from trying. Thankfully, he does have access to a magical clock which can turn back time, but it can only take him back to just before his village gets massacred, and he can’t do anything about it.

That’s a less than ideal fate, but he can go out for three minutes at a time to try and find the pieces to repair the magical clock, along with getting stronger in order to survive the nightmare onslaught that all good runs end with. The longer you last, the more upgrade materials you get. However, taking too long to get trough a level ensures you can’t actually get to the boss, because even if you do sacrifice something to give your run more time, the boss door closes after a set amount of time has passed.

Normally in a roguelite with ever-changing layouts, that would be a borderline impossible proposition, but here, the only thing that changes is you. You become stronger between runs by powering up, you become strong in each run by grabbing different buffs, and you gain new knowledge about which chests you want to go for, which fights are worth actually fighting, and how to fight different enemies.

The rooms themselves don’t change, the enemies don’t change, the paths don’t change. You change, and you need to make the most of all of that to try and get the perfect run. It’s almost like the game wants you to speedrun it, and that gets easier the more of the meta upgrades you unlock, because you keep getting more and more powerful, while the rest of the world stays the same.

It’s just a really fascinating take on a roguelite, because it’s not how it’s normally done, but it does fit perfectly into the idea of a roguelite. I do think there’s a high chance that some people will find the lack of changing levels to be annoying, since you are even more literally doing the same thing again and again. Sure, you are doing that, but you’re trying to perfect your craft every single time, and get a little bit closer to grabbing an extra chest or buff before the boss room closes.

Clockfall is doing something I think I’ve only seen once before in a roguelite, and to a far higher level. Heretical was another game which has the same room layouts and boss placements, but a lot more randomisation outside of that. Here, you’re really just trying to learn everything and have a perfect run, all while being constantly tormented by your own horrifying failures.

I just realised I haven’t even talked about how it feels to play. It’s slick, incredibly slick, and the simplicity of the combat fits perfectly when it comes to what the game is doing. Clockfall is very cool already, and it’s only just getting started.

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Well, it’s happened. The Nintendo Switch 2 has reportedly emerged into the wild ahead of time, into the hands of people on the internet who’re keen to make videos showing off the fact that you open the box and boom – there’s a Switch 2 in there. It doesn’t look like any such folks are actually able to play games on the console though, thanks to an impending update.

As spotted by IGN, a YouTuber with the handle a2dubai appears to have posted a short video of them unboxing what’s either a Switch 2 or a convincing replica of the new console on May 27. In case you forgot, the Switch 2 isn’t set to properly come out until June 5.

Said video has since been nuked via a copyright claim by Web Capio, a company which “offers bespoke anti-piracy services”.

Prior to that, a commenter had reportedly asked for “more video please” – very polite for a Youtube comments section, good work rando – leading a2dubai to respond: “Nintendo locked the Switch 2, it needs [an] update to function, so I’m waiting for June 5th to unlock it.”

So, no clips of this potentially real Switch 2 actually playing any games, with news and deals aggregator Wario64 having claimed to have heard from a second person who’s acquired a Switch 2 early. “I have no permission to post pics but can share that when they try to boot a Switch 1 game, a message prompts ‘Please connect to the internet and update your system’,” they posted, “Needs update to boot a game.”

As fellow poster Stealth40k put it, if these are real Switch 2s and the need for an update’s also genuine, that would mean the console’s “basically a very nice paperweight” until release. To be fair, that’ll at least be handy for these alleged early adopters if Ninty and its lawyers decide to hunt them down and deliver some sheets of paper that say something to the effect of ‘please don’t do this again’ in legalese.

Do you think this is all a sneaky 4D chess marketing campaign to make us all want Nintendo to start selling actual Switch 2-shaped paperweights? Let us know below, and make sure to check out the rest of our Switch 2 coverage in the run up to release. You know you’re keen to find out more about Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut’s Red Light Raid Mode.

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A little bit of space travel, anyone? Last time I checked in on Starseeker: Astroneer Expeditions, the sort of spin off of regular ole Astroneer, it had only just shown off some gameplay for the first time. Apparently somewhere along the line I blinked and now here we are on its early access release day!

But how about what you should expect from this launch? “What you’ll find on day one is the starting shape of the game,” explain System Era Softworks. “What the launch on June 11, 2026 represents is the beginning of the conversation we have been wanting to have with you for a long, long time. The game will grow. It will adapt.” What this means in practice is that you and some of your buddies can go explore an alien planet (the first of several to come), do some missions, fend off some critters, get some resources, and return to your space station before you run out of oxygen.

The early access release is already ready to go with things like cross-platform and -progression, there’s a whole bunch of missions to dive into, some story bits to discover, so it doesn’t sound like you’ll be bored in five minutes (unless, ya know, this isn’t your sort of game, and if so, that’s on you, buddy). In terms of how long the devs estimate that Starseeker will be in early access for, they’re currently saying around one year, noting that they “want to work sustainably while leaving enough time to respond to player feedback.”

There is a roadmap with various updates you can expect too, just without any dates attached to them. The first update will focus on ocean gameplay and comes with a new region, the second is more about endgame threats, the third will add in some expedition modifiers like weather, extraction pressure, and endgame station rewards, and updates four and five will build upon that with quality of life improvements and new events.

You can pick up Starseeker: Astroneer on Steam now.

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Combat and the music go hand-in-hand in action games. You don’t have the heart-pounding thrills of Doom Eternal or the unforgettable boss encounters of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance without the face-melting soundtracks those games are known for. But some games make that link an intrinsic part of the action itself, such as Hi-Fi Rush, which came out of nowhere with its rhythm-fueled character action. Now, Dead As Disco is looking to pick up that Walkman and run with it. While the eventual goal of this Early Access release is to deliver a wealth of modes, unlockables, and boss battles, the current offerings are a lot on the lighter side. Despite that, though, this is already shaping up to be another unforgettable head-bopping beat-em-up.

Charlie Disco is dead. Or, he was. At some point. He’s alive now, though, and he isn’t sure how he even died to begin with. What he does know is that his ex-bandmates have sold their souls and turned bad as part of the bargain. Charlie has to track each one down to beat some sense into them and get the band back together, but he’s also got to piece together what exactly happened to him and his crew in the first place. Unfortunately, you won’t get the full picture in this version of the game, which has been the most frustrating part of this early access debut. It’s only so frustrating, though, because what is here is really great. Every character has solid voice acting and awesome visual designs, and each story level is such a blast.

Every stage tosses you into a gauntlet of battles against fodder foes while the stage transitions, animated cutscenes play, and incredibly sick music complements every punch. Like I mentioned before, music is fully integrated into the combat in Dead As Disco. Your attacks make impact based on the tempo of the track playing in the background, creating a super satisfying effect where combat always feels perfectly timed to the highs and lows of the music you’re hearing.

It’s like a playable version of that thing movie trailers do where gunshots and explosions are timed to the percussion of the trailer’s  song. It might be a little obnoxious in those trailers, but it’s awesome here. It’s also quite unlike the way rhythm combat in Hi-Fi Rush works. In that game, you’re tasked with pressing every button to the consistent bpm of the music. In this one, you can press and mash buttons as much as you want, and the animations will play out with the timing that they need. If you do time your buttons to the beat, though, you’ll be rewarded with bonus damage and perfect dodges.

All of the levels are capped off with some pretty awesome boss fights, and there’s a really solid variety to the encounters. You’ll definitely need to invest in a good amount of upgrades to stand a chance during these battles, though. Learning that the hard way means replaying some pretty lengthy sections in order to retry the battle, which got a little grating at times. Defeated bosses end up back at your home base, where you can chat with them to piece together a little more of the lore.

Wrapping up the currently available story missions doesn’t take too long, but once you’re done there you can move on to Challenge mode and Infinite Disco mode. The former gives you some scores to chase by battling it out to each of the few dozen songs in the game. The latter, though, is a more customizable mode where you’re even given the option to upload your own music into the game to battle to. It takes a little tinkering to get songs ready to go, but it’s nothing too complicated. And it’s so, so worth the effort in order to bash some baddies faces in to anime OPs and Slayyyter.

You’ve got to make some of your own fun with Dead As Disco, otherwise your time with this current Early Access version will be over pretty quick compared to the cost of entry. If you’re in it for the long-haul, though, the development roadmap for the game promises a massive amount of new content, including an entire co-op mode. We’ll have to see if the game sticks the landing once it hits 1.0, but for now it’s already off to an incredibly strong start.

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SoftBank, it seems, is not done buying robots. The Japanese group is in early talks to back a new funding round of around $800m (€700m) for Agile Robots, the Munich startup that builds robot arms, warehouse machines, and humanoids, according to Bloomberg.

SoftBank would contribute more than $300m of that total, people familiar with the discussions told the outlet, though they cautioned that the talks are at an early stage and the amounts and terms could still change.

Neither company would comment, and the round has not been independently confirmed beyond Bloomberg’s reporting, so the figures are best read as a snapshot of a negotiation rather than a done deal. What is on firmer ground is the relationship behind it.

SoftBank led Agile Robots’ $220m Series C in 2021, the round that turned the company into Germany’s first robotics unicorn, so a fresh cheque would be a return to a name already in the portfolio rather than a new acquaintance.

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Agile Robots was formed in 2018 by researchers from the German Aerospace Center, the country’s space agency, and it now employs more than 3,200 people across Germany, China, and India.

It makes both the software and the hardware, which places it in the part of the robotics market investors have grown most excited about: machines that do physical work in factories, warehouses, and logistics depots, rather than chatbots that live on a screen.

That enthusiasm has money behind it. Global investment in robotics and physical AI reached $27.6bn in 2025, according to PitchBook, more than double the previous year’s total, as investors looked for ways to put AI to work in the physical world. The thesis, roughly, is that the software has matured and the next frontier is giving it hands.

For SoftBank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, the interest is not new. The company unveiled its Pepper humanoid back in 2014, then quietly halted production in 2020. More recently it has gone on the offensive, agreeing last year to buy Swiss group ABB’s industrial robotics arm for $5.4bn, and weighing a plan to create and list an AI and robotics company called Roze.

An Agile Robots cheque would slot neatly into that pattern, part of Europe’s quietly building robotics scene that Son keeps returning to, alongside his €75bn plan for AI data centres in France.

Agile Robots would also be joining a crowded European field. Germany’s Neura Robotics recently raised about €1bn, backed by stablecoin issuer Tether, at a roughly €4bn valuation, and Norwegian-American startup 1X was reported to be in talks for as much as $1bn at a $10bn valuation.

The money is arriving faster than the robots, which remains the recurring feature of the sector. For now, Agile Robots’ round is a conversation, with the cheques still being written.

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New details on God of War Ragnarök have been revealed by its writers, including that an early version that had Kratos end up in Hel early within the game.

Narrative director Matt Sophos and story lead Richard Gaubert were interviewed on the MinnMax podcast about their work on the game, including Kratos’ fate and the amount of puzzle assistance from side characters.

Be aware, God of War Ragnarök story spoilers follow.

Most interesting is Sophos’ discussion on the possibility of Kratos dying. Players of the previous game will be aware of a prophecy that Kratos will die, and yet this is ultimately something he overcomes.

“The earliest, earliest draft of an outline that we had come up with that we took to Eric [Williams, director]… Kratos died in the Thor fight at the very beginning of the game,” said Sophos.

“He was going to die and it wasn’t a permanent death… [but] he would get pulled out of Hel essentially by Atreus but now 20 years have passed. There was going to be a big time jump.

“That was a version of it, but it didn’t ultimately feel right.”

That’s partly due to its similarity to previous games, where Kratos dies and must escape the underworld.

“As we were developing the story, we knew that we wanted the story to be one about letting go and changing,” Sophos continued. “Knowing that Norse mythology is all about fate and prophecy, we wanted to say ‘that’s bullshit, nothing is written that can’t be unwritten, as long as you’re willing to change or make changes in your life then you’re not bound to fate’.

“When we landed on that and we knew that that was the story we wanted to tell, we knew that Kratos couldn’t die because then it would be like ‘are we just going to say that Kratos couldn’t change?’ and then that would suck.”

Of course, Thor does kill Kratos in that battle but immediately brings him back to life in a fun gameplay twist. This, however, was not related.

Elsewhere the pair discussed the amount of puzzle assistance provided by side characters, something that was widely criticised after release. However, the team was not aware of this until the game shipped.

“We just didn’t get it tuned well enough,” admitted Sophos. “And it didn’t get exposed to us really until the game came out, because even when we had playtests we never saw feedback about the characters talking too much.”

“It wasn’t until the game came out and it was like ‘shit, if we’d known that we would’ve responded’,” added Gaubert.

It doesn’t seem like a patch is in the works to address this.

You can watch the full interview with Sophos and Gaubert below to hear more about cut content and a possible romance between Kratos and Freya.

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