Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice released back in 2017 to a ton of praise owing to the game’s narrative, music, and transformative binaural audio design. After years of anticipation, its sequel – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 launched to a more tepid reception, with a core complaint being the game’s relative lack of interactivity. It appears as though Ninja Theory are planning to right their wrongs, with a 3rd Hellblade game reportedly in development with an increased focus on gameplay.
As part of a recent episode of the Xbox Two podcast, known Microsoft leaker Jez Corden offered an update on Ninja Theory and their next project, stating:
“Ninja Theory, from what I understand, the next game is Hellblade 3, and it’s going to be a bit more interactive than Hellblade 1 and 2.”
Corden later clarified that the game in question may not be Hellblade 3 exactly, but it will be “in the Hellblade universe,” adding that “it does sound like they want to make it more of a game.”
Hellblade 1 was already a unique title which offered a memorable experience despite its relative lack of interactivity. That said, its sequel unfortunately doubled down on this aspect a bit too much, leading to it feeling like little more than a tech showpiece.
While there is no expectation for the next Hellblade to turn into a character-action title, having a bit more to do gameplay-wise would be welcome – as long as it doesn’t compromise on the game’s vision.
KitGuru says: What do you think of these early Hellblade 3 claims? What did you think of Senua’s Saga? Was it lacking in the gameplay department? Let us know your thoughts down below.
Helldivers 2 has easily been one of PlayStation’s most successful live-service projects, with the co-op focused shooter selling well over 10 million copies and continuing to see a dedicated player base thanks to strong communication and consistent updates – including one which reduced the game’s file size on PC by 85%. Coming next week, the team at Arrowhead have now announced Helldivers II’s latest update, with the Redacted Regiment Warbond launching on the 20th of January.
Available from the 20th of January, this Premium Warbond (which can be obtained through gameplay as well) offers a wide variety of new equipment focused equally on stealth and destruction including:
R-72 Censor (precision rifle with integrated suppressor)
AR-59 Suppressor (fully automatic assault rifle with integrated suppressor)
P-35 Re-Educator (dart-firing secondary pistol which shoots chemicals)
‘B/MD C4 Pack’ stratagem
TM-01 Lure Mine
‘RS-89 Shadow Paragon’ light armour
‘RS–67 Null Cipher’ medium armour
‘Concealed Insertion’ booster
Additional Capes, poses, and other cosmetics
With Battlefield 6 Season 2 being delayed from its planned 20th of January release date, now is as good a time as any to hop back into Helldivers II.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the latest Warbond? What’s your go-to tactic in Helldivers II? Let us know down below.
Following on from its official announcement at CES 2026 last week, today Nvidia's new DLSS 4.5 technology is going live to all RTX gamers via an update to the Nvidia App.
If you missed our initial coverage last week, Nvidia announced DLSS 4.5 at CES 2026, introducing what the company calls a ‘2nd generation transformer model' for DLSS Super Resolution. This follows on from the 1st generation transformer model that arrived with DLSS 4 and the launch of the RTX 50-series.
Despite some eagle-eyed comments suggesting the official update had been delayed, DLSS 4.5 is rolling out to everyone with an update to the Nvidia App, available now. The technology is backwards compatible with older DLSS versions, so users can adjust the DLSS Override setting within the Nvidia App to make use of 2nd gen transformer upscaling with Presets L and M.
It's worth clarifying that while the DLSS 4.5 suite includes both the Super Resolution update and a new MFG 6X mode, along with Dynamic Multi Frame Generation, the latter two features aren't arriving just yet, and are slated for release in the Spring.
You can read more about DLSS 4.5 on Nvidia's official blog. The Nvidia App should automatically update when you next open it, or you can manually access the latest version on Nvidia's website HERE.
KitGuru says: Have you tried out DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution already – what do you think?
There’s no denying that Battlefield 6 has been a huge success, with EA’s latest FPS entry selling in excess of 10 million copies and going on to dethrone Call of Duty for the first time possibly ever. That said, since its launch, sentiment surrounding the game has cooled down somewhat. As a result, EA have now announced that they will be delaying Season 2 in order to “keep our promise” to the community.
Making the official announcement via a blog post, the team at Battlefield Studios confirmed that BF6’s second Season has been delayed from its original release date – that being the 20th of January.
While we did not get any specifics, the team stated that “During our ongoing development, we've continued to review community feedback and, in order to keep our promise, determined that our best path forward is to extend Season 1 and give ourselves extra time to further polish and refine Season 2.”
Season 2 of Battlefield 6 is now scheduled to go live on the 17th of February. That said, in order to make up for this delay, BF6 will receive a Season 1 Extension Update on the 20th of January; introducing “new weekly challenges, a Bonus Path, and a continuation of the Season 1 Battle Pass until the start date of Season 2.”
With this delay, Season 1 of Battlefield 6 will now last nearly 4 months, and given that Season 1 was already relatively content-light it will be interesting to see how player numbers will evolve over the next 4 weeks. The full blog post including recent patch notes can be found HERE.
KitGuru says: What do you think of Battlefield 6’s post-launch support so far? Are you waiting for Season 2? Can BF6’s player numbers recover? Let us know your thoughts down below.
There have been plenty of twists and turns in NVIDIA's ongoing efforts to resume AI chip shipments to China, the latest of which involves a de facto ban by Beijing. In what could be a move to bolster China's bargaining power, people who are purportedly familiar matter told Reuters that Beijing has instructed customs agents not to permit NVIDIA's
New data from Geekbench has surfaced for Intel's unannounced “Arrow Lake Refresh”, branding the upcoming performance bump as the “Plus” series. While these chips weren't mentioned during Intel's CES 2026 keynote, the new leaks suggest that both desktop (LGA-1851) and mobile (HX) refreshes are right around the corner.
The desktop flagship, the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus (via Benchleaks), appeared on a Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Tachyon Ice motherboard paired with 48 GB of DDR5-8000 memory. The benchmark results indicate a meaningful performance uplift over the existing 285K, achieved through clock-speed increase rather than architectural changes or core-count increases. The chip maintains the 24-core (8P + 16E) layout but has a reported maximum boost frequency of 5.8 GHz. In the single-core test, it scored 3,456 points, which makes it about 8% faster than the 285K. As for the multi-core score, the upcoming CPU saw a 9% increase over its predecessor, scoring 24,610 points.
The refresh also extends to high-performance laptops and small-form-factor systems. The Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus (via Benchleaks) has been spotted in an Acer Predator Helios 18 AI (model PHN18-I71). However, unlike the 290K Plus entry, this processor wasn't running at full power, reaching a max clock speed of around 841 MHz. That's quite a bit lower than the 5.x GHz we expect from this CPU. As one would expect, the scores were abysmally low and not worth comparing with other CPUs.
Despite no official announcement at CES 2026 last week, we're expecting these chips to still be announced relatively soon. The first entries of an Arrow Lake refresh CPU date back to October 2025, and since then, we've already seen other mentions of these CPUs here and there. So it's looking increasingly like just a matter of time before they become official.
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to play The Witcher 3 with friends, well, there's now a mod for that. The “Witcher Online” has just been launched by rejuvenate, accumulating thousands of downloads already.
For a title that has recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, the ability to finally explore the continent of The Witcher 3 as a group is a game-changer. The mod (via DSOG) attempts to turn the game into a persistent, social RPG offering full campaign support, combat, movement, and gear sync. The mod also uses dedicated servers instead of peer-to-peer setups, allowing players to play with strangers or friends or to find groups.
To sell the online experience, the modder integrated and synchronised several other popular immersion mods. That includes “Custom Player Characters”, which allows you to break away from being a Geralt clone by personalising your own Witcher, and “Chill Out”, for players to share activities like fishing, sitting at taverns, smoking, or even sleeping. Moreover, you'll also need “Community Patch – Shared Imports” as a dependency, as it allows importing classes and attributes to avoid conflicts with other mods.
Since this is a massive fan-made project rather than an official CD Projekt Red update, you'll probably find bugs and issues with the mod. Moreover, you'll need a legit copy of the game on GOG, Steam, or Epic running version 4.04 (Next-Gen).
ID-Cooling is updating its low-profile and budget mainstream lineups with various models. The cooling manufacturer has unveiled the IS-77-XT Black, a direct competitor to the low-profile elite, alongside a refreshed SE-XT V2 series that maintains its ultra-aggressive pricing. However, the most surprising addition to their catalogue is the Frost X55, a high-conductivity thermal paste available in five fragrances.
The IS-77-XT Black is a 77 mm-tall top-down cooler designed for Mini-ITX builds. Despite its compact footprint, it features a nickel-plated copper base and six 6 mm heat pipes, allowing it to tame CPUs with a TDP up to 150W. This cooler comes equipped with a slim 120 mm PWM fan capable of 65.2 CFM. Notably, the cooler is designed with 100% RAM clearance in mind. It supports two fan mounting configurations, allowing PC builders to choose between a downward intake (push) and an upward exhaust (pull).
For the mainstream segment, the SE-214-XT (4x heatpipes) and SE-903-XT (3x heatpipes) have received a “V2” overhaul. These refreshed models utilise Heatpipe Direct Touch (HDT) technology and a revised folded-fin stack to improve structural integrity and thermal dissipation, allowing them to be rated for up to 220W. While the only SE-903-XT V2 announced is the ARGB variant, the SE-214-XT V2 lineup has five: Black, Plus (two fans), ARGB, ARGB White, and Auto RGB (OEM only). All models use AS-V2 PWM fans (varying sizes) rated for noise levels up to 29.1 dB(A). The SE-214-XT V2 also introduces a new top cover that conceals the copper heatpipe terminations, giving the budget cooler a more premium look that matches modern blacked-out aesthetics.
Lastly, we have the scented Frost X55 thermal paste. While its primary selling point is a high thermal conductivity of 16.2 W/mK, ID-Cooling is leaning into the “lifestyle” aspect of PC building by offering the paste in five scent variants: Core (unscented), Poma (apple), Bella (strawberry), Viola (floral), and Luna (fresh). The paste is non-conductive and non-corrosive, specifically engineered to resist the “pump-out” effect common in high-pressure mounts, ensuring it remains stable on the die for several years.
Pricing for some of these parts has already been disclosed: the SE-903-XT V2 Black costs $14.99, the SE-214-XT V2 ARGB costs $18.99, and the SE-214-XT V2 Plus costs $19.99.
KitGuru says: ID-Cooling continues to be a contender in the “bang for buck” category. As for the scented thermal paste? It's undeniably a gimmick, but if the 16.2 W/mK rating holds up well, it might just be the best-smelling way to drop your temps.
ID-Cooling continues to offer impressive AiO liquid CPU coolers, with the new FX360 LCD PE. It's MSRP is $94.99 and for that you get a 360mm radiator and a 1.48" 240 x…
If there's going to be one silver lining for PC enthusiasts in 2026, it will be amusement caused by the disconnect between reality and AI hallucination that will take place over the…
Meta says Supernatural will no longer receive any "new content or feature updates".
While we reported Armature, Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru Games joining the list of studios shut down by Meta, another product acquired by Mark Zuckerberg "will no longer receive new content or feature updates", according to a note posted to the official Supernatural group on Facebook.
Subscribers of the $10/month VR fitness app can still log in and interact with the ghosts of their coaches, like the laugh track on an old TV show, but the trainers who defined the fitness service – humans like Leanne Pedante credited by some of the service's users for saving their lives – will not be making new appearances in Quest headsets.
"What the fuck," wrote one user on the official Supernatural Community group with 60 upvotes. "I am so sorry for all the amazing coaches who are losing jobs and the people in the background. And so upset that the only thing I've consistently loved for exercise is ending. What happens when song license is over?"
Another comment with more than 600 upvotes: "If you're no longer updating the content, there should no longer be a yearly fee. If content is and will remain static, there should be a one time charge."
"As a user since the beginning, I feel like my heart's been ripped out!" wrote another.
Meta directed subscribers with questions to email support.
Article updated after publication to clarify that Supernatural's existing content will remain available.
Smash Drums’ new campaign mode, “God of Drums,” is now available on PlayStation VR2 after previously releasing on Quest in early access.
First launched last November for Meta Quest in early access, the new Smash Drums campaign mode is rocking its way to PlayStation VR2 today. The free campaign update, dubbed ‘God of Drums,’ adds more than 100 missions, along with new legendary skins for the drummer’s head and drumsticks. The gameplay unfolds in new areas, unlike the sprawling stadiums the base modes feature. As I mentioned in my impressions that “a career mode would be welcome,” this update is a nice surprise for more goal-oriented rhythm players.
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Accessible through the Arcade Mode in the Main Menu, players start as a lowly novice, making their way through a path akin to a lightning strike, all the way to becoming a God of Drums in an RPG-style progression system. Depending on the performance of every song played, new missions will be unlocked based on the number of stars obtained. To unlock the new level players gesture into the air like a real rockstar.
Each mission rotates among the Arcade, Fusion, and Classic modes. These styles change how to hit the notes: from a classic drum kit to seeing the cymbal or snare arrive from a distance to a more Rock Band-inspired style, with notes descending to respective colors to hit at a precise time. As suggested by PotamWorks, the new mode should last anywhere between three and six hours.
Smash Drums’ new campaign mode, God of Drums, is available now on Quest and PlayStation VR2.
Enthusiast sleuth Gray (@Olrak29_ on Xwitter) has been digging into the shipping logs again, and this time the rabbit hole leads straight into NVIDIA's long-rumored Arm ambitions for consumer PCs. This time around, he spotted a particularly telling entry in NBD Data shipping records, where buried in the usual logistics soup was this rather
GOG’s recent move to become an independent outfit saw the return of one its original cofounders, Michał Kiciński, and promised a continuation of the service its users know and love. Now, Kiciński is sharing what the company hopes to accomplish going forward, including challenging the behemoth of Steam that recently hit a milestone of 42 million
Khadas' latest modular mini PC, the soon-to-launch Mind Pro, will be one of the first Intel Panther Lake-powered Mini PCs on the market. The Khadas Mind Pro is the latest in a series of hyper-compact mini PCs from Khadas, with the Mind 1, Mind 2, and Mind 2S all sharing an identical palm-sized form factor and previous-gen Intel hardware. The
Chinese IP vendor Innosilicon, who we previously reported hitting 10 Gbps with LPDDR5X, has announced the first commercial delivery of its LPDDR6 memory controller and PHY IP, marking an early milestone in the rollout of the next-generation low-power DRAM standard. The company says its LPDDR6/LPDDR5X combo IP has now been shipped to initial
Meta shut down Twisted Pixel Games (Deadpool VR), Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath), and Armature Studio (Resident Evil 4 VR).
The New York Times reported earlier that Meta is laying off more than 10% of its Reality Labs division, specifically targeting teams working on VR and Horizon Worlds.
Now, UploadVR can confirm that these layoffs are being conducted today, and we've seen a document indicating the entirety of three of Meta's acquired VR games studios are affected: Twisted Pixel Games, Sanzaru Games, and Armature.
Twisted Pixel Games
Twisted Pixel Games was founded in 2006 and mostly made Xbox games published by Microsoft for the first decade of its existence. In fact, Microsoft owned the studio from 2011 until 2015, when it became an independent company again.
On contract from Facebook, between 2017 and 2019 Twisted Pixel released four VR games:
Wilson's Heart (Rift): a 2017 black & white psychological horror game with voice acting from Peter Weller, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, and Michael B. Jordan.
B-Team (Go/Quest): a 2018 collection of minigames, including a running game where you avoid obstacles and a wave shooter, ported to Quest in 2020.
Defector (Rift): a 2019 action-packed spy thriller reminiscent of Mission: Impossible.
Path of the Warrior (Rift/Quest): a 2019 brawler, essentially a first-person VR take on games like Streets of Rage, Final Fight, or Double Dragon.
In 2022, Twisted Pixel Games was acquired by Meta. And just two months ago, it released what it had been working on since then: Deadpool VR, the latest Quest-exclusive VR blockbuster.
That Meta is shutting down the studio already strongly suggests the $50 exclusive did not sell as well as the company had hoped, or that it didn't spur enough new Quest headset sales, the real purpose of Meta's high-budget content.
Sanzaru Games
Sanzaru Games was also founded in 2006, and made a combination of its own games and contract titles for companies such as Sony, porting the original God of War series to PS Vita.
Sanzaru Games was also contracted by Facebook to build VR games for the Oculus Rift and its Touch controllers, between 2016 and 2019:
Ripcoil (2016): a launch title for the Oculus Touch controllers that was essentially an active VR take on Pong, where you leaned your body to catch and throw a cybernetic frisbee.
VR Sports Challenge (2016): another Oculus Touch launch title that featured football, basketball, hockey, and baseball, hoping to be the Wii Sports of early PC VR.
Asgard's Wrath (2019): one of the meatiest made-for-VR games of all time, Facebook's 2019 Rift exclusive and Oculus Link launch title, an action-adventure RPG with over 30 hours of gameplay.
In 2020, Sanzaru Games was acquired by Facebook, and in 2023 released Asgard's Wrath 2, taking the core essence of Asgard's Wrath to Quest 2 and Quest 3 standalone, with a semi-open world and a campaign more than 60 hours long.
Exactly one year ago, Sanzaru released the last major content update for Asgard's Wrath 2, stating that it was now working on the “next big thing” with no detail released on what that would be before the studio closed.
Armature Studio
Founded in 2008, Armature Studio was mainly a porting studio, bringing PC titles to consoles and console titles to PS Vita.
Like Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru, Armature too was contracted by Facebook to build early consumer VR games:
Fail Factory (2017): a whimsical puzzle game for the Samsung Gear VR where you complete tasks in a cartoon robot factory. It was later ported to Oculus Go, Rift, and Quest.
Sports Scramble (2019): a launch title for the Oculus Quest and yet another hopeful "Wii Sports of VR", it included tennis, bowling, and baseball.
Resident Evil 4 VR (2021): By far Armature's most significant VR project was porting Resident Evil 4 to Quest 2, one of the first major traditional games to arrive on standalone headsets.
Armature was acquired by Meta in 2022, and many VR gamers had been eagerly anticipating what it had been working on since. Whatever it was, Armature too is now shut down.
Camouflaj & Others Continue
These are not the first acquired VR game studios Meta has eliminated.
In 2024, the company shut down Lone Echo and Echo Arena creator Ready At Dawn. And last year it merged Onward developer Downpour Interactive into Camouflaj, the developer of Batman: Arkham Shadow, after ceasing development of the VR shooter.
Beat Saber and Population: One are live service games, and there's no indication of a sequel arriving for either. For Camouflaj, four months ago the voice actor for Commissioner Gordon confirmed that a Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel was about to enter development. It's unclear whether this is still happening, though UploadVR can confirm that Camouflaj is not on the shutdown list.
The closure of three studios is part of a wider strategy shift at Meta seeing funding from VR reallocated toward smart glasses, a reaction to the sales momentum the company saw last year for each type of device.
Through at least the first three quarters of the year, Quest headset sales were down compared to 2024. Meanwhile, sales of Ray-Ban Meta glasses skyrocketed, with several variants selling as fast as they can be manufactured.
Last month, Meta officially confirmed "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables", and the closures of Twisted Pixel, Sanzaru, and Armature are some of the first casualties of this shift.
The Ocypus Sigma L36 BK ARGB is a 360 mm AIO cooler that delivers eye-catching aesthetics with dependable performance. It's customizable 2.4-inch IPS display is simple to setup using lightweight software. With a five-year warranty, it ends up being a compelling option that is worth a closer look.
When it comes to video games based on Anime, there is perhaps no bigger franchise than Dragon Ball, with most games released going on to sell millions of copies – sometimes in excess of 10 million. Joining the club is 2020’s Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, having now officially sold 10 million copies.
Releasing a brief video to celebrate the milestone, publisher Bandai Namco officially confirmed that Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot has now sold over 10 million copies, writing: “10 million adventurers strong. Thank you for living the story of DRAGON BALL Z: KAKAROT. The journey isn’t over yet.”
Kakarot now joins the ever-growing list of other Dragon Ball titles which have surpassed 10 million copies, with the likes of Xenoverse 2 and FighterZ both having reached the figure back in 2023. Though not quite at this level yet, the most recent Dragon Ball title (Sparking! Zero) is well on its way to the 10 million mark – currently sitting at over 5 million units sold.
Since its launch, Kakarot has received a bunch of post-release DLC, with the most recent being Adventure through the Demon Realm Part 1. With Bandai promising that “the journey isn’t over yet” expect part 2 and potentially more DLC to be announced in the future.
KitGuru says: What did you think of DBZ: Kakarot? Was it the ultimate Dragon Ball game in your opinion? Do you prefer the series’ fighting games, or more open world experiences? Let us know down below.
Arc Raiders has taken the world by storm ever since the extraction shooter officially released back in October 2025. Unlike many multiplayer experiences, Arc Raiders does not appear to be a flash in the pan, with the game continuing to sell millions of copies while maintaining high player numbers. Less than three months in and the extraction shooter has already officially sold over 12.4 million copies – while amassing nearly 1 million concurrent players.
Making the announcement via a press release, publisher NEXON confirmed that Arc Raiders “has sold more than 12.4 million units, with concurrent players reaching 960,000 in January, ten weeks after the launch on October 30, 2025.”
Speaking on its success, Embark Studios’ CEO Patrick Soderlund wrote “Hitting 12.4 million units is a huge landmark – and it wouldn’t have happened without our players. The community of raiders has been part of this journey from the start, and their ideas and enthusiasm continue to guide where the game goes next.”
As mentioned, Arc Raiders has managed to maintain a surprising high player base over the past two and half months, with Steam data showing it consistently hitting around 400 thousand concurrent players on a weekly basis – pretty much matching its peak of 481k back around launch.
Of course, Arc Raiders still has a long journey ahead of it, and while players keep coming back to the game time and time again, we will have to wait and see whether the team at Embark can maintain this momentum throughout the rest of 2026.
KitGuru says: Have you been playing Arc Raiders? What do you think of it? Will it have a long shelf-life, or will players move on the next big thing whenever that arrives? Let us know your thoughts down below.
President Donald Trump has announced a breakthrough agreement with Microsoft to shield American households from soaring electricity costs driven by the surging growth of AI server farms.
Over on Truth Social, the President declared that tech giants must "pay their own way" rather than passing the massive energy bills of their data centers
Peter Molyneux is a rather controversial figure in the video games industry. While the creator is known best for having developed the classic RPG series Fable, many of Molyneux’s more recent efforts have fallen short of their lofty claims. That said, one title which does show some potential is the self-funded Masters of Albion – officially set to launch on the 22nd of April.
Masters of Albion is said to be “a bold reimagining of the God Game genre, from the creator who defined it…Mixing strategy with simulation, town management and tower defence.”
For the uninitiated, a god game is one in which the player has near-complete control of the world and its people, allowing you to shape it to your liking.
In Masters of Albion, players will be able to observe and affect the world through a bird’s eye view while also being able to directly possess NPCs in order to control them in a 3rd-person format. With a day and night mechanic necessitating different strategies, Masters of Albion does look to be a fun time.
Of course, as mentioned, Molyneux has a bit of a controversial past, with many of the creator’s titles falling short of Molyneux’s claims. Perhaps the most famous example came from the original Fable, in which Molyneux claimed prior to its release that you would be able to knock an acorn off a tree and see it grow into its own plant over the course of the game.
That said, Molyneux has addressed and apologised in the past for his tendency to overpromise, and so here’s to hoping that Masters of Albion winds up being exactly as has been claimed. We won’t have to wait too long to find out.
After months of speculation about what partner Apple would choose to work with to improve its floundering AI efforts, there’s finally an agreement in place between Cupertino and Google. The two companies have signed a multi-year deal that will see Apple’s Foundation Models trained by Google’s Gemini models and cloud technologies.
In a joint
Researchers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have identified a vibrant, rainbow-like shock wave surrounding a dead star that technically should not exist.
The object, a white dwarf designated RXJ0528+2838 located 730 light-years from Earth, was captured by the VLT that showed the presence of a massive
Connexion
