New Game Preview

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Get a sneak peek at the most anticipated games of the year. From action-packed adventures to mind-bending puzzles, we've got something for everyone. Stay ahead of the game with our exclusive previews!

Samson Hands-On Preview – Taking It Day-By-Day Platform: PC Publisher: Liquid Swords Developer: Liquid Swords Have you ever walked through a run-down part of town and imagined the potential that exists? For Samson, who grew up in the roughest part of his hometown of Tyndalston called The Ditch, that is his day-to-day life. However, as someone who got his hands on Liquid Swords' Samson, it ended up being my experience for more than an hour as I fell completely into the enthralling gameplay loop, but was left to imagine how great the experience could be if it were a bit more polished. As Samson, you return home to The Ditch with a mountain of debt to repay. To keep the debt collectors off his back, he hooks up with an old friend who happens to be a major player in the streets of Tyndalston, Carter, to take on some jobs around the city. These range from beating down the door of a local business and roughing up the owner who owes him money to chasing down some rival gang members who just robbed a gas station that Carter oversees. The gameplay is varied and kept me on my toes; one sequence had me brawling through a warehouse, while another had me engaging in vehicular combat, while another, still, tasked me with helping an ally escape the cops after robbing a pharmacy. It's safe to say you're not playing a hero in Samson, but each mission I played delivered excitement in spades. The gameplay typically felt great as I tested out the various mission types on offer. My favorite missions involved heavy hand-to-hand combat; Samson squares up against various enemies with light and heavy attacks at his disposal, as well as the ability to parry and smash enemies with environmental objects. Though this is very much a brawler, you can't just swing for the fences. Instead, I approached each encounter with caution and intentionality. Light punches, heavy punches, parries, and grabs often sufficed in my early-game encounters, but using the Adrenaline Rush meter, I could wail on rivals with slowed-down time and increased damage. I got myself out of more than a couple of sticky situations thanks to effective managing of Samson's Adrenaline meter. It's a brawler at heart, but it's far from the only style of gameplay players can expect. Several of the missions also involve Samson getting into the driver seat, whether to help an ally flee the scene of a crime or to take down rivals who just robbed your friends. Escaping from the police involves leaving their patrol circumference and laying low until they call off the search, while taking down enemies on the mean streets of Tyndalston requires you to ram them using some rudimentary vehicular combat mechanics. I was less sold on this part of the game, as Samson's vehicle is also highly susceptible to damage, and when I smashed my rivals into the rails or even oncoming traffic, the enemies often drove away after sustaining less damage than I expected, while Samson's car took on more than I thought he would. I assume this will be fine-tuned for the final release, but it led to some frustrating restarts. Perhaps the most novel part of my hands-on session presented itself in the game's structure. Rather than having unlimited time in The Ditch, Samson must effectively watch his calendar. Each day is split into three portions: morning, evening, and night. Each of these three times of day has a set number of Action Points (AP), and each job requires AP to attempt; if you fail a job, you can retry it, but if you end up abandoning it, you lose those Action Points and your day moves on without profit or experience. Each day, you need to earn and pay a set amount of money towards your overall debt, or else debt collectors will wait for you by your car or apartment to try and beat the money out of you. Because of this structure, I needed to be judicious about which jobs I selected and when. Some jobs, like one where I stole a stash from a rival gang, can be completed any time, while others, like a story mission that takes place at a bar, can only happen at certain times of day. As someone who loves calendar-based RPGs like Persona and Metaphor, as well as action-crime games like GTA and Saints Row, this feels like a beautiful melding of the genres' conventions. But it's also important to note that, despite my positive thoughts on the gameplay loop, this is not a triple-A game, despite the triple-A inspiration. Liquid Swords is a smaller team with a smaller budget, and while Samson will draw inevitable comparisons to Grand Theft Auto, it is not the multi-billion dollar franchise that Rockstar has under its belt. Samson is a much more focused experience by design, a way to navigate the seedy underbelly of an East Coast-inspired fictional city, set in the '90s, with intentionally designed areas that are meant to push you forward not only in the level, but the story as well. And though much of your spare time in Samson is spent doing side-missions to raise money to pay off the main character's debts, this is not some massive game full of padding and activities to take part in. Each GTA feels like an action-packed season of prestige television, while Samson – though I only played the first segment of the campaign – feels more like a movie with far less padding that you can sit down and enjoy in a much quicker fashion. Sadly, much of my experience was hindered by glitches. While this is common in pre-release builds, when Liquid Swords told me that Samson is set to release in just over a month from this publication, it made me a bit more nervous. Games come together at the last minute all the time, but nearly every mission I played had a different type of noticeable bug, ranging from the annoying audio and visual bugs to glitches that required me to exit and re-launch the game. Hopefully, this is just a symptom of playing an outdated build, and that a more recent version of Samson is a lot more stable, but I can only preview what was put in front of me. There is absolutely still time for developer Liquid Swords to shore up the core experience of Samson, but we're coming up on launch in just over a month, so we are coming down to the wire soon. But ignoring the lack of polish, my time with Samson was a ton of fun, with a compelling loop that I could see myself engaging with for hours. My greatest hope for Samson is that, when it launches on PC on April 8, we won't be talking about the game's potential, but rather that the hooks that grabbed me during my gameplay session do the same to the wider player base, uninhibited.

Game Informer PreviewsFeb 26

Life is Strange: Reunion offers plenty of classic series nostalgia, but is Chloe's return anything more than a cynical play to the fans? It's said you will not necessarily remember a person's exact size or shape - does it really matter that they had a bit of a tum, no tum at all, multiple freckles, skin like a blank sheet of paper? So what if they were taller than you or shorter than you? These metrics become less and less important as a relationship and your memories together grow. You also probably won't remember everything someone has ever said to you. Snippets, but not every word. Read more

Eurogamer.net Previews FeedFeb 25

Life Is Strange: Reunion Preview—Blast From The PastAfter a hands-on preview of Life Is Strange: Reunion, it seems Max Caulfield may be taking on her biggest mystery yet—but at least she's not alone.

Previews – CGMagazineFeb 24

Overwatch Rush Preview – Blizzard's First-Person Hero Shooter Goes Top-Down Platform: iOS, Android Publisher: Activision Blizzard Developer: Blizzard Entertainment During my recent trip to Blizzard Entertainment’s headquarters, I received a discreet invitation to a small gathering with a new team that’s been working on a secret project set in the Overwatch universe. The new game, Overwatch Rush, is a top-down multiplayer twin-stick shooter in early development for smartphones and tablets. Helmed by Blizzard’s Barcelona team, the standalone spin-off manages to smartly convert Overwatch’s essence into a surprisingly easy-to-control mobile adaptation. Despite the genre shift, Overwatch Rush is surprisingly similar to the main game, incorporating many of the same characters and mechanics (exact copies, in several cases), but offers the ease of access mobile games are known for. The free-to-play shooter features intuitive touch controls, including tap and hold buttons to activate character abilities, a dedicated virtual analog stick for movement, and a secondary directional stick that doubles as the character’s primary fire. There is a small amount of auto-aim present, but you’ll still need to master the fundamentals to reach the top of a surprisingly high skill ceiling. While the team’s goal is to introduce more heroes from the base game slowly, Overwatch Rush’s launch roster currently includes Tracer, Reinhardt, Kiriko, Soldier: 76, Lucio, Pharah, Mercy, and Reaper. Many of these heroes are one-to-one adaptations, but characters like Mercy have undergone significant changes. In Overwatch Rush, Mercy channels her battle medic persona, swapping her primary fire from her signature Caduceus Staff to her typically secondary blaster. You can tap her Blessing ability to self-cast or attach a simultaneous damage and healing boost to an ally. Additionally, Mercy has a directional boost that allows her to reduce or increase her distance from battle at will, and notably, enables her to fly alongside airborne heroes like Pharah. While Mercy has an area-of-effect resurrection ability, Blizzard has completely reworked her ultimate ability to be a damage and healing aura that affects players in proximity. Repeatedly playing a hero earns you mastery levels, which unlock new mods and talents. Mods include minor hero improvements like decreased ability cooldowns, bonus health, and heal boosts. In contrast, talents offer more significant game changes, like causing Reinhardt’s Fire Strike to trigger a fiery tornado that sucks opponents into a central area. Alternatively, talents can alter Tracer’s recall to grant overhealth or imbue her Blink ability to deal damage if she passes through an enemy. While you can’t swap heroes mid-match, which are over in under five minutes, you can change loadouts if your selected build isn’t performing well. Players compete across multiple modes, including familiar staples like Control Point and new ones like Nano Grab. The latter pits two teams against each other, requiring them to collect 100 green tokens, called Nanos, and deposit them in scattered banks that activate for only a short time, similar to a King of the Hill ruleset. Killing other players causes them to drop the Nanos they’re carrying, creating a satisfying risk-and-reward element. While I’m still skeptical as to whether the project can stand on its own legs without any progression ties to Overwatch, it does feature substantial cosmetic rewards you’d expect from the series’ signature loot boxes. Overwatch Rush won’t release anytime soon, but I’m curious to see if Blizzard can capture a new, casual audience for one of its flagship series.

Game Informer PreviewsFeb 24

WWE 2K26 Preview – This Fire BurnsAlways The post WWE 2K26 Preview – This Fire Burns appeared first on WellPlayed .

Preview – WellPlayedFeb 23

WWE 2K26 Feels Bigger and Bolder at Creator Fest Preview EventCGM attended the WWE 2K26 hands-on preview from WWE Headquarters. New matches, updated modes, CM Punk’s 2K Showcase, and Creator Fest highlights.

Previews – CGMagazineFeb 23

WWE 2K26 Preview – Maintaining A Status Quo Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, PC Publisher: 2K Games Developer: Visual Concepts Release: March 13, 2026 Rating: Teen Annual franchises have the difficult task of staying fresh and exciting within a development cycle that doesn’t allow for gargantuan changes each year. It’s a reality fans should keep in mind when measuring their expectations for the next release, but it’s also understandable to desire major shakeups. After playing a few hours of WWE 2K26 at 2K’s Creator’s Fest at WWE Headquarters last week, I felt conflicted by its overwhelming familiarity while still acknowledging some neat additions and subtle improvements. During my session, I toured most of the usual modes. I peeked at the CM Punk-focused Showcase, began a new campaign in the story-driven MyRise, drafted a pool of superstars in MyGM, and took a return trip to The Island. I also sampled the four new match stipulations: I Quit, Inferno, Dumpster, and 3 Stages of Hell. And finally, I briefly checked out the new Ringside Pass, 2K26’s battle pass equivalent. Positives that stood out to me immediately are the superstar models. These games have always looked great, though that quality varied by superstar. I certainly didn’t see everyone on the 400+ character roster, but the active stars I did see looked impressive. Cover star CM Punk looks fantastic, as do several others, including Randy Orton, Penta, Rey Fénix, Guilia, and Blake Monroe. Hearing the action called by the new commentary team of Michael Cole, Wade Barrett, and Booker T is a refreshing and long-overdue change. Another cool addition is AAA, the Lucha Libre promotion WWE acquired in 2025. Getting to control wrestlers like Mr. Iguana and El Hijo Del Vikingo is unexpected and awesome. Developer Visual Concepts touts improvements to stamina and reversal systems, but I couldn’t tell you if I noticed a marketed difference. Executing reversals still feels like they require the same timings and inputs as previous entries, and my WWE 2K muscle memory didn’t need any adjustments. I feel similarly about managing stamina. That said, I am tickled by little additions such as the new pre-match interactions like choosing to rush the opponent before the bell, offering/rejecting handshakes, or hyping the crowd. Messing around with the more interactive entrance mechanics is also a small, goofy treat. Incessantly pressing the d-pad commands to trigger stage and ring pyro like I’m 2009 Randy Orton trying to blow up John Cena made me chuckle. The new match stipulations are fine additions, in that it’s always great to have more gameplay options. However, I didn’t find any of them to be as exciting as, say, adding WarGames a few years ago. In 2K’s defense, some of the stipulations are weak in real life, too, so they worked with what they had. The Inferno match, which unfolds in a ring surrounded by fire, involves hitting enough big moves to fill a meter that causes the flames to rise. Once this meter is full, you can then attempt to set the other player ablaze, which plays out similarly to nailing a Royal Rumble elimination by tossing them over the ropes using grapples or hard Irish whips. Some fun back-and-forth can be had in these moments. It is odd, however, that before filing the meter, you can exit the ring and even bring weapons inside. Cool on one hand, but the point of Inferno bouts is to keep the participants inside, and only a spectacular move, like diving over the top rope a la the Undertaker, can see a superstar escaping the flames unharmed. Dumpster and I Quit matches fall squarely into the “nice to have, but I’ll rarely play it” category. Dumpster is essentially a Casket match, with players fighting to toss each other into the bin positioned at ringside and trying to out-button-press each other to close the lid. I Quit involves beating your opponent down and hitting a button to trigger a stop-the-needle mini-game, with the victim trying to nail multiple safe zones in succession to refuse to quit; missing too many leads to quitting. 3 Stages of Hell, the 2-out-of-3 falls match with each fall taking place under a different stipulation, is my favorite match addition. There’s nothing mechanically unique since you’re simply playing three match types back-to-back, but the endurance factor makes it a fun challenge since body damage carries across the matches. It’s tough to get a true sense of how the other modes shape out when under a time limit. Since I need to hop around, I could only sample the early portions of Showcase, MyRise, MyGM, and The Island. From what I did see, don’t expect dramatic changes from each one. The Island’s addition of voice-acting is a big improvement, and the premise of players aligning with one of three themed factions led by CM Punk, Rhea Ripley, and Cody Rhodes may have some silly promise. One of my main criticisms of the mode last year was how much it pushes players to buy Virtual Currency (VC) to purchase expensive cosmetics and character stat points using real money. Although I didn’t get a look at how or if these prices are adjusted, getting control of my character on the Island and immediately seeing nothing but name-brand stores like Nike still feels icky. Showcase is usually one of my favorite destinations, and chronicling CM Punk’s career is a great choice. You can proceed through Showcase either through a timeline or in a gauntlet format; I chose the former, more traditional route, so I couldn’t tell you what the latter entails. Right off the bat, the mode begins with Punk’s early days on Raw, seemingly skipping his ECW run. There’s always a chance Showcase unfolds in non-chronological order, but as a Punk fan, I was disappointed to see his first two years in WWE referenced only in a video package. Outside of that, Showcase appears to be Showcase: play historical matches (with Punk adding contextual narration), complete optional objectives to trigger in-game cutscenes that unlock additional rewards afterwards. MyRise and MyGM offer expansions to the familiar template. MyGM now allows players to book matches involving up to eight participants and includes intergender bouts. This is always one of my favorite destinations, and I’m sure I’ll still enjoy playing the booker in this year’s iteration. MyRise has a new, likely goofy storyline starring a superstar returning from a years-long absence (at least on the male side). This is also very familiar, as you’re still roaming backstage between matches to scroll a social media feed and chat with superstars in choice-driven conversations that influence a face or heel alignment. The bones appear to be the same, but the narrative meat will ultimately dictate how entertaining MyRise is this year, and the jury is out on that for now. Ringside Pass is probably 2K26’s most significant new addition, adding battle pass progression that replaces the series’ usual DLC packs. Like every battle pass you’ve ever engaged with, it features free and premium (paid) tiers offering two sets of unlockable superstars, cosmetics, and other rewards. I appreciate that you can earn XP by playing any game mode, and I quickly unlocked the first batch of rewards of both tiers, netting me the playable Vikingo right off the bat. Depending on the game, I don’t mind battle passes as a concept; there’s an undeniable satisfaction in constantly gaining rewards simply by playing. But like everything else in the game, I’ll need to spend much more time with 2K26 to see how much longer it takes to unlock the later tiers, how much VC is required to buy tier skips, and the overall quality of the rewards themselves. I decided to skip Universe Mode and the Creation Suite due to time constraints; these destinations require much more than a cursory glance to appreciate what Visual Concepts cooked up this year. As I scanned the rest of the package, the phrase that kept popping into my head was “Yep, it’s another WWE 2K game.” That’s neither terrible nor overtly exciting. I’ve largely enjoyed the last few entries, and 2K26 feels on track to at least maintain a status quo of quality. But much like the current TV product, the status quo is growing increasingly stale. Unless 2K26 hides more surprises or mechanical nuance than I could glean, fans are likely in for a perfectly enjoyable but extremely familiar package.

Game Informer PreviewsFeb 23

Aramatus Preview — A Gothic Roguelike Worth Checking OutAramatus features fully realised 3D graphics powered by Unreal Engine, set in a post-apocalyptic Paris overrun by demons

Previews – CGMagazineFeb 20

Denshattack! Preivew – Shinkan-Send ItOn-rails skater The post Denshattack! Preivew – Shinkan-Send It appeared first on WellPlayed .

Preview – WellPlayedFeb 20

Aphelion Hands-On Preview—Journey To The Savage PlanetCGM sat down with DON'T NOD for a virtual and hands-on preview of their upcoming narrative adventure game: Aphelion.

Previews – CGMagazineFeb 19