The first few minutes with Star Wars: Galactic Racer at Gamescom had me thinking I was playing a very pretty, very modern take on Wipeout. Then the race properly kicked off, and the Burnout DNA came roaring through.
That makes perfect sense, considering Fuse Games was founded by former Criterion developers. But knowing that on paper and actually feeling it while racing are two very different things. This is an arcade racer that really doesn’t want you to sit back and admire the scenery. You’re boosting, dodging, ramming rivals, dealing with power-ups and trying to pick the right racing line, all while the track throws hazards and shortcuts at you. It’s loud, chaotic and, occasionally, wonderfully messy.
The Gamescom demo gave me roughly 25–30 minutes with the game and, importantly, let me try all four repulsorcraft classes: the Landspeeder, Speeder Bike, Skim Speeder and Podracer.
Unsurprisingly, the Podracer stole the show for me. It feels blisteringly fast and genuinely handles really well once you get a feel for it. The Landspeeder, meanwhile, feels heavier and is particularly satisfying when you’re drifting through corners and throwing its weight around. The Speeder Bike is quicker and more nimble, offering a more agile, high-risk style of racing.
I didn’t get quite as much time with the Skim Speeder, but it definitely has its own personality, with its Knife Edge ability allowing it to tilt and attack tighter corners. And that’s perhaps one of the more interesting things about Galactic Racer: your vehicle choice actually matters. You’re not simply picking whichever machine looks the coolest. The different handling characteristics can change how you approach a track, which is something you don’t always get with futuristic arcade racers.
The tracks themselves are packed with choices. You can take a longer, safer route, dive for a tight inside line, attempt a shortcut, or even launch yourself over an obstacle. But here’s the thing: jumping isn’t automatically the smart move. Sometimes, the best racing decision is the boring one — stay on the ground, maintain your speed, and don’t turn a flashy shortcut into a spectacular faceplant. Racing veterans will know exactly what I mean.
And then there’s everything else happening around you. Rival racers aren’t shy about pushing and attacking, environmental hazards can derail a run, and power-ups add another layer of chaos to an already frantic race.
The combat is where I briefly found myself thinking about Blur, particularly because of the power-up-driven action. But that comparison only goes so far. Blur isn’t really the game’s identity. At its core, Galactic Racer feels much more like a collision between Wipeout’s futuristic speed and Burnout’s aggressive, smash-happy arcade racing.
If the trailers made you think this would be a breezy arcade racer where you simply hold down the accelerator and enjoy the Star Wars scenery, the demo quickly proves otherwise.
Even with a tutorial, it took me a little while to get the hang of everything. There’s a lot happening during a race, and learning when to use your power-ups, how aggressively to attack opponents, and which parts of the track to risk takes some practice. One bad decision can quickly turn into a terrible lap, so understanding your vehicle and the track is crucial. That makes the racing considerably more competitive than I initially expected.
And honestly, that’s what impressed me most.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer doesn’t feel like just another Star Wars game with racing bolted onto it. There is genuine depth in how you approach each race, from picking the right vehicle to deciding whether that tempting shortcut is actually worth taking.
Thirty minutes across the demo’s different experiences obviously isn’t enough to understand the full scope of the game, particularly its larger campaign and progression systems. But as a showcase of the core racing? This was a very good first impression. I came away from Gamescom genuinely impressed, and already looking forward to getting back behind that Podracer when the full game launches on October 6.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?
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.”