There’s a lot of expectation built up for Exodus, the big new sci-fi RPG coming from some of the key creative minds behind Mass Effect and KOTOR before it. At the Future Game Show, the team at Archetype Entertainment shared a long look at the gameplay, revealing a lot of new details about the game ahead of its planned release in early 2027.

Characters

The game casts players as Jun Aslan, an orphan from a once powerful family who is surviving as a salvager at the start of the game, but who ends up being humanity’s last hope to fight back the Celestials thanks to a genetic gift that lets him interact with ancient technology. To save your homeworld, you’ll have to steal Celestial tech, bring it back to your world, and give yourself a chance to survive.

At the start of the game, you get to pick Jun’s gender as male or female, and with “several options” for visual customisation. You’ll also choose an initial alignment, either as a Virtuous Paladin or Viscious Immortal.

Alongside Jun is his giant talking space wolf, Houston – immediately my favourite – but he soon builds up a broader crew of allies, including mech pilot Elise, and experienced Traveller Tom, who teaches Jun some about the job as one of those. Salt is then an Awakened octopus in a tentacular mech suit – immediately my second new favourite character – and there are other Awakened animals who you can converse with. Later in the video we meet Feydra Nath, a genius technician who suffers from blindness, but has developed new sight using drones.

Periodically, you’ll run into C.C. Orlev, voiced by Matthew McConaughey, who can give you aid in the form of upgrades and other helpers.

Combat

Combat definitely has a lot of the third person with a team style combat of Mass Effect, with Jun taking cover and blasting with guns, calling in attacks from allies, and making use of special abilities like a Scramble cloaking device that allows for closing distance quickly, an energy spear and more.

While an RPG with big ol’ health bars, it has a good bit of punch to it. You can spot and mark enemies while scoping out a mercenary camp with a turret in the middle. Careful not to raise the alarm, Jun’s upgraded Cycler gun for single-hit headshots. The turret was then weakened with a thruster grenade and taken out with further fire.

It’s agile third person combat, making use of grapple points to swing across gaps, using explosive barrels to deal elemental damage and more.

In addition to mercenaries, one of the main enemies you’ll face are the robotic Ghosts.

Celestial Tech

With his ability to tap into Celestial technology, Jun is able to manipulate ancient devices and machinery in various ways. This can play into key decision points, such as when (having already disabled turret defences) being given the choice to open an airlock or not, potentially killing dock workers.

On the planet Sang, you’re able to manipulate the shapeable livestone to cross sulphur lakes and other ancient Celestial formations. This ability to shape the world can also be used in combat, shooting out a rapid growth from the ground.

A lot of this is dependent on Jun’s gauntlet, which was passed down to him and can be upgraded with technology found on the journey, unlocking new abilities, such as the aforementioned Lance, which can pierce and destroy the Bramble, which is a byproduct of the Rot.

The Story

Jun’s homeworld of Lyden is at risk of being consumed by the Rot, a Celestial virus that is able to rewrite and use Celestial tech in its own way. Between missions you’ll return to this world and the main hub city of Persepolis to pick up new missions, meet new people and advance the story. One factor here is that, with Exodus leaning on the theoretical science surrounding galactic space travel, you’re subject to time dilation, so years can pass while you and your team experience days. Your choices can shape this city over time.

You have to travel across the Centauri cluster to find a possible cure for the Rot. You’ll be following in the footsteps of other Travellers that went before you, such as Feydra’s grandfather, Elijah, who disappeared decades ago. Following this plotline eventually leads to a difficult choice that can lead to a key death in your party.

Exodus’ showing looked excellent, and while the morality system is as classically polar as it gets, the story intrigue, the moment-to-moment decisions, the combat and Celestial abilities all look brilliant. We look forward to seeing more as the team close in on their Early 2027 release window.

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That’s right, folks, Rayman Legends is back again in an all-new package. Rayman Legends Retold was just announced for the Switch 2, and we have already been lucky enough to play it.

Above, we have shared a closer look at some gameplay footage, showcasing the detailed new visuals across some of the early levels. All of the above is taken from the PC build of the game (the only version we were able to go hands-on with), though we did get the chance to see the Switch 2 build in action and ask about the all-important specs.

“I think we are pushing [Switch 2] to its fullest,” Ubisoft Brand Producer Loic Gougnon told us with a laugh when we asked what he makes of the system so far, but it seems to be holding up pretty well, nonetheless — thanks to a returning collaboration with Ubisoft’s German team that worked on the Switch 2 port of Star Wars Outlaws.

The game is still in development, though Tech Director Thibaut Assandri assured us that the team is aiming for 60fps on all platforms. We only saw a brief section of the first level running on Switch 2, but noticed no drops from this target in my short time, which bodes well.

Of course, the resolution has been dropped in handheld mode to make this smoothness possible. “By reducing the resolution, we’re able to reach [frame rate] numbers that work better — not as good as expected, but much better,” Assandri told us. “To reach the remaining numbers, we needed to tweak the level of detail of the environment or the characters”.

Fortunately, the team is still aiming for 4K resolution in docked mode, with DLSS coming into play to upscale the resolution accordingly.

Admittedly, this is all target talk for the time being, though there’s still plenty of time to tweak things before the full release date on 1st October, so our fingers are crossed.

You’ll find our full thoughts on Rayman Legends Retold so far (and more dev interviews) in the deep dive feature below.

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Nintendo shared a lengthy slice of gameplay for Star Fox, their new reimagining of Star Fox 64 with new visuals, improvements, and more.

Here’s a rundown on the new details, plus the new gameplay:

In Star Fox, the Lylat System is thrown into chaos following a surprise attack by the evil scientist Andross. The galaxy’s last hope is the Star Fox Mercenary Squad – comprised of young leader Fox McCloud, ace pilot Falco Lombardi, engineer extraordinaire Slippy Toad and veteran pilot Peppy Hare.

Today’s overview trailer gives fans a sneak peek at the game’s freshly revamped stages, thanks to a complete visual overhaul, and dives into a variety of new and returning modes. In Campaign Mode, you’ll soar across the Lylat System as you accept dangerous missions and discover branching paths to uncover every piece of the story. This mode can also be played online through GameShare 2 or via local co-op, where one player is the Pilot and the other is the Gunner. Plus, use Mouse-Controlled Targeting with the Joy-Con 2 controller for intuitive aiming. And Challenge Mode offers new challenges and a variety of objectives you can complete when replaying cleared stages from the campaign.

Battle Mode features 4-vs.-4 aerial combat online3 with friends or random players across three stages. If one person has the game, up to four players can play Battle Mode locally with GameShare, or online using GameShare via GameChat. With a compatible USB camera, you can also appear in GameChat4 as Fox McCloud or his crew using an interactive avatar that mirrors your facial expressions and movements.

Now’s the perfect time to start building your Star Fox playlist! A special release of 10 tracks from Star Fox has been added to Nintendo Music5. All of the tracks available through Nintendo Music can now be enjoyed on a wide variety of devices, including tablets, computers, and even in the car via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Additionally, the new My Mix feature for Nintendo Music can generate a playlist based on your play history.

Star Fox is in development for Nintendo Switch 2 with a global release set for this summer, on June 25th.

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