A new trailer for the long-awaited Final Fantasy XVI shows that it doesn’t just share a classic fantasy setting with games like Final Fantasy I, II, III, and IX, but a similar plot as well. The trailer, though, titled Ambition, teases an expansion on those old plotlines as well.
Final Fantasy 16 takes place in the land of Valisthea, which is shared by six uneasily peaceful factions: Rosaria, Sanbreque, Waloed, The Dhalmekian Republic, and The Iron Kingdom. Each of these kingdoms has taken plots of land near one of the six Mother Crystals of Valisthea. Now the rocky alliance of these powers is faltering thanks to the awakening of a dormant threat.
As shown in previous trailers, players take control of Rosaria’s first son, Clive, who is on a mission to protect his younger brother Joshua, the controller of the Phoenix. This trailer shows that the journey will most likely take the two and the rest of the party throughout the Kingdoms, where they’ll face off against different power leaders and their summonses like the shown Odin and Ifrit.
Final Fantasy XVI seems like it’s doing what Final Fantasy IX did for the series when it first launched. It’s looking like it’ll put the “fantasy” back in Final Fantasy thanks to its setting and story, similar to the series’ first three games. The classic elements are all here. A war between kingdoms, a new otherworldly threat, the crystal plot MacGuffins, and lots of summons. Though it seems to be expanding on that idea by bringing in more exploration and combat, too.
Final Fantasy 16 is set to release in the summer of 2023 on PS5.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.