Announced at Summer Games Fest, Chronicles: Medieval is an exciting freshman effort from brand new developer Raw Power Games. While this is their first title as a studio, the team is made up of legacy talent from games like Hogwarts Legacy, Hitman, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and more. The trailer debuted today gives a small taste of what Chronicles: Medieval is about, but we were able to take part in a special presentation to dive further into Raw Power Games’ ambitious history-carving title.

Set in 1313 AD Europe, players assume the role of a created character with little to no social influence on the world around them. It’s the player’s goal from the outset to take this character, perhaps just a lowly craftsman hailing from a no-name village, from rags to riches to ultimately become the most influential and powerful person of the age. While said craftsman may start from meager beginnings, nothing is stopping them from one day picking up a sword and becoming a mercenary, turning to a life of banditry for economic redistribution of a five-fingered variety, or joining the King’s Army to seek glory on the battlefield.

As the player climbs social ranks through honors and tournament wins and eventually achieves a leadership position, the game then tasks them with growing their sphere of influence over as much land as possible. While an empire may be made at the end of a sword, that is not the only way to gain control over much of Europe. Engaging in diplomacy, building trade routes, and forging alliances can all help you create a bloodless bridge to other nations. For players who are feeling a little malicious but do not quite have an appetite for war, subterfuge and espionage are also on the table. Chronicles: Medieval is about letting the player decide how they will build their legend and watch the world react to their actions.

Over the course of the campaign, proprietary simulation technology throws the occasional wrench into the players’ best laid plans by hoisting the unexpected. Famine, plagues, and other kinds of natural disasters will blaze their way across Europe and could either become a mutual enemy for the player and allied countries or an opportunity to grab more land. What better way to win a war than to strike when your opponent is at their weakest?

Of course, this isn’t to say that war is always a bad option. Raw Power Games wants to simulate the large-scale battles of yore by letting players prepare, command, and fight alongside armies in giant conflicts. The developer describes these clashes as a pillar of Medieval equivalent to the sandbox storytelling and is aiming for them to be equal parts historical and compelling. While the campaign is single-player, players who wish to have a friend join them in the brutal knight-on-knight melee battles can do so in the co-op mode made up of custom battles.

A major focus for Chronicles: Medieval is the ease for players to mod the game. Community Manager Clemens Koch insists that modding is not just supported, it is part of Raw Power Games’ DNA. “A hundred Thomas the Tank Engines vs. one Master Chief?” Koch pontificates. “That’s only doable by modding.”

Raw Power Games is aiming for an Early Access release for Chronicles: Medieval in 2026 on PC, hoping to build the game alongside the community playing it. While many things could happen in the meantime, the current plans are to stay in Early Access for about 12 months before officially releasing, then thinking about things like the console releases. Raw Power Games does not quite consider it a Game as a Service, however, as it is a premium title that intends to make full use of its time in Early Access.

And by the way, for those curious how The Dark Knight Rises and Inception actor Tom Hardy ended up narrating the trailer, the answer is quite a bit simpler than one would expect: they emailed him and asked. After Raw Power Games showed Hardy the trailer, identifying him as the ideal voice to introduce the game, Hardy loved it and agreed to lend his dulcet tones for the narration.

If Chronicles: Medieval makes good on all its promises, players should have a fantastic time exploring every narrative nook and cranny in rising to the top of 14th century Europe’s socioeconomic landscape. Whether it be through aggression, defense, or diplomacy, the crown of an emperor awaits players ready to take on the world in this ambitious title.

If you enjoyed the Dying Light: The Beast gameplay that was just shown off at the Summer Game Fest Showcase, good news: we've got a LOT more! That starts with a 30-minute exclusive extended gameplay video (watch it above) as the kickoff to our all-June-long coverage of Dying Light: The Beast through our IGN First "cover story" editorial program.

Dying Light: The Beast is the upcoming new standalone entry in the first-person melee- and parkour-fueled zombie-fighting franchise, set in Castor Woods decades after the zombie outbreak that turned the world into...what you see on screen.

Keep checking back all June long for more exclusive IGN First coverage!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Following last year’s genuinely excellent Batman: Arkham Shadow, Meta is moving from DC to Marvel for this year’s big superhero VR game effort with Deadpool VR, the just-announced first-person action romp due out exclusively for Meta Quest 3 and 3S in late 2025. I got a chance to swing by one of Meta’s Bay Area campuses last week to don one of the wireless headsets and become the Merc With a Mouth in a 30-minute hands-on session, and I learned several things I wasn’t expecting from the first Deadpool video game since Activision’s mediocre attempt in 2013.

1) Neil Patrick Harris voices Deadpool

Perhaps you had the same thought I did as you watched the announcement trailer: “Gee, that Ryan Reynolds soundalike sure sounds an awful lot like Neil Patrick Harris.” And sure enough, it in fact is NPH himself, whose snark we’ve seen weaponized on film time and again going all the way back to When Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The one-time Doogie Howser M.D. isn’t shy about letting the f-bombs fly as Deadpool, and assuming Reynolds’s price tag was too high, Harris sounds like a solid substitute.

2) It’s being developed by Twisted Pixel

If that name sounds familiar to longtime Xbox fans in particular, it’s because the studio made its name with a string of absolute banger Xbox Live Arcade games in the Xbox 360 days: The Maw, ‘Splosion Man, Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Comic Jumper, etc. It even made one of the few legitimately great Kinect games: The Gunstringer. After a fairly brief and uneventful period where they were acquired by Microsoft and subsequently parted ways with Microsoft, Twisted Pixel was picked up by Meta in 2021 after they made one of the best early-gen VR games: the black-and-white horror thriller Wilson’s Heart.

So what does all of this have to do with Deadpool VR? Simple: Twisted Pixel has a long track record of delivering good – and comedic – smaller-scale games, making them a potentially great fit for bringing the Merc With a Mouth to life in VR.

3) Marvel not only didn’t hold Twisted Pixel back, they encouraged more violence

There’s some give and take with Marvel when it comes to getting studio approval on the developer’s craziest ideas, admitted executive producer Jody Coglianese, but she told me that if they say no to anything it’s more about the character than any gameplay actions. But she said Marvel pushed Twisted Pixel more than the other way around, playing builds and then leaving feedback like, “What if holding your controller at a certain angle with one of your swords equipped enabled ‘x’ action?” And then the developer would put that new move into the game.