Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PC
Publisher: Hexecutable
Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken "coda" Snyder
Release: September 25, 2025

Eating disorders are an incredibly sensitive topic, so I was wary when I learned about Consume Me, a game that turns a teenage girl's insecurities into minigames and resource management. After completing the story, however, I'm so glad it exists. Consume Me is a touching, hilarious, occasionally visceral experience told from a perspective video games don't touch on as often as they should. Its meta commentary on the dangers of using game systems to measure complicated, real-life issues is poignant and unique. Its ending is disappointing, but it's rare to play a game that feels so personal to its creators, and it makes Consume Me something special.

The game opens with an interesting content warning, not just pointing out the story's potentially troubling subject matter, but clarifying that Jenny's dieting behavior – the primary gameplay mechanic – is not something to be replicated. I have never played something like this: It's a game about how gamifying real life isn't always a good idea. 

Jenny, based on the game's creator with the same name, is a high schooler about to start her senior year. After a comment from her mother about Jenny's weight, Jenny decides to start dieting, meticulously tracking her food intake and exercise habits. At the same time, she's got to manage other aspects of her life: chores, money, and homework, to name a few. Each activity is represented as a microgame, similar to something you'd find in WarioWare, where you perform simple, sometimes challenging actions in an expressive art style. For the most part, they're charming and fun, and even the ones I was less fond of are over quickly. Consume Me comes across as a narrative-first experience, but I genuinely looked forward to booting it back up and managing my toxic behaviors.

The game you'll play the most often has you build Jenny's lunch plate. Foods are represented as Tetris-like pieces you have to fit onto a grid, filling in the hunger squares while attempting to avoid the empty ones. Each food also costs a different number of bites (the game's abstract version of calories), so you have to balance the act of fitting pieces in the grid with avoiding unhealthy foods to keep your bite count low. Go over the limit, and you'll have to exercise later, wasting precious time you could use for other activities. Mismanage your puzzle pieces, and you'll fail to fill all the necessary squares, causing Jenny’s hunger meter to take a hit. Despite the upsetting goal, I enjoy this puzzle, and didn't mind playing it every in-game day.

As you get later in the story, it's incredibly easy to see how someone like Jenny can fall into harmful spirals of behavior. If I eat a light lunch – an alternate meal option I unlock that costs fewer bites – my energy level takes a hit, but if I drink an energy drink, I replenish it. However, it turns out that over-reliance on caffeine causes Jenny to develop headaches over the day, and I can't get rid of them unless I do something that raises her mood. The easiest way to do this is by eating a bag of chips, which puts me over my bite goal, bringing me back to the problem I was trying to avoid in the first place.

All I wanted to do was eat a little bit less, but it started an unavoidable chain of events that only makes Jenny's problems worse. It's a genius trap that I didn't realize I'd fallen for until it was too late, much like real life. It's a form of artistic expression and education that can only be communicated through a video game.

The art and animation oozes with personality, its pixels giving off a hand-drawn aesthetic to characters' hyper-expressive faces. The player moves Jenny through cutscenes with swipes of the mouse or joystick, but you never really know what you're about to make her do, and it's a fun surprise to watch how she nervously picks up a dollar off the sidewalk or refuses to get out of bed. The subject matter might imply a dour visual tone, but Consume Me is anything but. It helps to offset the very real stress I have trying to balance Jenny's life while also representing the ways that eating disorders can appear invisible to the outside world.

Moment-to-moment dialogue writing is also sharp, and Jenny is a memorable, endearing protagonist who's easy to root for. I had no problem seeing things from her perspective, and while I started as an outside observer, I quickly found myself invested enough to get nervous about finishing my homework and earnestly hoping a boy would like me back.

Despite loving the game's characters and early hours, its last chapter falls flat for a few reasons. First, religion is introduced as a comfort for Jenny late in the game (complete with a musical prayer sequence). Conceptually, I have no problem with this, but it comes out of nowhere and feels out of place. It's not mentioned much beforehand, and it becomes irrelevant by the story's conclusion. Jenny can pray once a day to remove mental blocks that keep her from studying, but it also slightly fills her mood, energy, and hunger bars. Improving her mood makes perfect sense, but it's the latter meters that feel at odds with Consume Me's themes. Jenny's biggest flaw is convincing herself that with enough mental effort, she can force her body to achieve unhealthy levels of productivity, whether that's staying up late or starving herself, and it's inconsistent that praying would exist as a consequence-free energy booster or replacement for eating.

When Consume Me's story does ultimately end in the disaster its content warning foreshadows, religion doesn't seem to be a solution, and despite saving Jenny in a later chapter, it's swept aside unceremoniously. It's hard to end biographical narratives, especially when the subject is still alive, because real-world events that make the compelling premise to a story rarely resolve cleanly. Still, the story's primary sources of drama sort of slip away, with Jenny ultimately outgrowing them rather than confronting them.

It doesn't help that we play as Jenny on her spiral to rock bottom, but we're stuck watching a slightly interactive montage as she lifts herself out of it. The whole game leads up to her inevitable crash, where she learns how destructive her behaviors are; however, once it finally happens, the game is essentially over. It's like Mario learns his princess is in another castle, but instead of leading to a boss fight with Bowser, we just watch him beat Bowser in the end credits. The story is still there, but as a player, I'm forced to end on a loss.

Gamifying your food habits is, indeed, an awful idea, and Consume Me lays it out in a manner I found deeply compelling and entertaining. Even if you ignore the content warning, its message is clear from its opening moments. If its ending hadn't stumbled, it might've been one of my all-time favorites, but there's still a lot to love here despite that underwhelming conclusion. Consume Me is teeming with creativity and personality, and for that, it's earned a special place in my heart.

Score: 8.25

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One of the biggest eyebrow raisers for the upcoming Resident Evil Requiem was the surname of its protagonist, Grace Ashcroft. That's because she's the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, an investigative reporter and oft-forgotten character who last appeared in the equally overlooked Resident Evil Outbreak. For the many unfamiliar RE fans, this begs the question: Who the heck is Alyssa Ashcroft, and why has she suddenly become a big deal? To prepare for the next mainline Resident Evil game, we're going to answer this tantalizing question. 

Resident Evil Outbreak launched for the PlayStation 2 in North America on March 30, 2004. Set only a couple of days after the initial T-virus outbreak in Raccoon City, the game unfolds across five scenarios across different areas of the doomed city.  Outbreak features eight playable characters, including Alyssa Ascroft, along with an RCPD officer, a Vietnam War veteran, a bar waitress, and a surgeon, among others, fighting for survival against the infected. 

Join Marcus Stewart and Charles Harte (as well as occasional special guests) for two hours each Friday on Twitch and YouTube starting at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET as they journey through Outbreak for the first time. If you can't catch the broadcasts live, they'll be uploaded to the official Game Informer YouTube channel. 

Catch up on previous episodes below:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5

As part of our cover story for The Outer Worlds 2, we were treated to an exclusive demo of the game’s first open-world area: Paradise Island. This idyllic destination is located on a moon called Eden, and while it may sound lovely, it’s embroiled in a three-way conflict between the game’s primary factions: The authoritarian Protectorate, the ruthlessly capitalist Auntie’s Choice, and the scientific church that is the Order of the Ascendant. 
Following The Outer Worlds 2’s prologue chapter, this is where players become truly acclimated with the game’s new and improved systems in an open-world setting. After exploring Paradise for a couple of hours and speaking to the developers about their approach to creating it, here are some of the most interesting facts we learned about this destination.

The Bridge Mission Is The First Centerpiece Of Branching Mission Design

Shortly after arriving at Paradise Island, you’re tasked with infiltrating a Protectorate base housing a towering transmitter called the Vox Relay. There’s only one big problem: The facility sits on the other side of a chasm, and is accessible only by crossing a heavily guarded drawbridge.

This mission offers the first big example of The Outer Worlds 2’s larger emphasis on branching mission design and player choice. A Protectorate guard may let you pass in exchange for hunting down two traitors to their organization. You can explore the surrounding area for any hidden pathways behind enemy lines. 

Fellow editor Wesley LeBlanc, who played the same demo alongside me, somehow managed to obtain jump boots that allow him to leap and boost over a secondary entrance shrouded in a deadly gas called Zyrainium, bypassing the bridge completely. Helping a nearby forward operating base may net you some well-armed backup to storm the bridge head-on. You may even choose to sell out an ally in exchange for passage. And before you ask, no, you can’t just fly your ship across the bridge because the airspace is riddled with floating mines. 

As design director Matt Singh explains, “[Game director Brandon Adler] in particular really wanted that bridge experience to exemplify 'How can we get as many different choices, different ways that the player can get across this objective, specifically' in the game?” Obsidian states there are upwards of six fully supported methods for completing this mission, and that’s not including more creative solutions you could concoct on your own. Paradise Island’s Vox Relay mission offers the first of what Obsidian promises will be multiple missions throughout the game featuring this high level of variance and flexibility. 

The Island’s Terrain Encourages Players To Use Their New Mobility Options

Traversal in The Outer Worlds 2 has been vastly improved, now allowing players to perform parkour-inspired maneuvers such as vaulting over objects, executing running slides, and more. This also inspired Obsidian to make its enemies as nimble as the player, allowing them to design more exciting combat encounters. 

But more than anything, Obsidian hopes that making exploration more fun will inspire players to poke around Paradise Island and other locales more than they would have in the previous game. “We do our jobs well of showing all the different locations that people can go and see,” says Adler. We've kind of pulled them off the beaten path, but the actual fun of traversal is the thing that I think gets them to stick around, to really want to go and try doing those things versus kind of putting their attention somewhere else.” 

You Can Spend Over A Dozen Hours Exploring It

When I ask Obsidian the scope of Paradise Island, Matt Singh states that if players mainlined the story content, they could get through it “fairly quickly.” He also added that those who want to explore more thoroughly can spend “a dozen-plus hours” doing so. I believe him. Within minutes of entering Fairfield, the first town you encounter in Paradise Island, I quickly picked up several side quests from its colorful residents as well as bounties. 

Compared to later biomes, Adler describes Paradise Island as one of the larger zones in The Outer Worlds 2. “But the other ones are not much smaller,” Adler explains. “It's just when we were doing [Paradise Island], we wanted to see how far we could push things…we spent a lot of time kind of referencing other games, looking at pacing between all of the different [points of interest], things like that. So Paradise Island ended up being pretty big and meaty.”

It Looked Completely Different Early In Development

The earliest version of Paradise Island looked less like a semi-wild tropical paradise and much more like a multicolored farmland. “[Paradise Island] had very cool, multicolored crops that were all over the place; very beautiful, very colored, different colors of the rainbow, things like that,” says Brandon Adler. The idea was to play off Arcadia’s abundant resources and largely untamed nature; Paradise Island is not a central destination in Eden, but rather a partially civilized self-contained zone designed to capture the frontier-like feel that permeated several of the settlements in the first game.

Auntie’s Choice Introduced Rapitdons To The Island

I tilted my head in surprise and confusion when I first encountered Rapitdons on Paradise Island. “Aren’t these guys only found in Halycon?” I asked myself. I’m technically correct, as the ferocious beasts players battled in the first game are not endemic to Eden. Rather, they were brought there by Auntie’s Choice as a form of biological weapon against the Protectorate. As you explore Paradise Island, you’ll likely come across the empty canisters that once contained these dangerous creatures. Naturally, Auntie executed this strategy with little regard for the natural ecosystem, as the Raptidons seem to be thriving in certain parts of Paradise Island at the expense of anyone unfortunate enough to cross into their territories. 

Mission Opportunities Can Arise Over The Radio

Radio stations play a significant role in world-building in The Outer Worlds 2. In addition to giving each faction a voice thanks to their dedicated stations broadcasting their unique forms of propaganda, venturing into specific territories of Paradise Island may trigger broadcasts offering mission opportunities. So keep your radio on and your ears open. 

The Day/Night Cycle Is Purely Aesthetic

Whether you’re blasting enemies under the sun or by moonlight, the experience of exploring Paradise Island doesn’t change. However, that wasn’t always the case. Obsidian toyed early on with having certain content restricted by time of day, such as characters that changed locations during certain times. But the team found it wasn’t utilizing this mechanic in enough places to justify it, so the decision was made to abandon the idea in favor of a more consistent mission structure. “Those things were interesting, but we felt we could do a better job of creating the content if we didn't have that additional change,” says Adler.

You Probably Won’t See Everything During Your First Visit

As you explore Paradise Island, you’ll encounter zones with enemies too powerful to deal with at your early character level. When I tackled the Vox Relay mission, the Protecorate goons I encountered were far tougher than anything I’d fought up to that point, necessitating a stealthy approach. These tougher zones incentivize players to get stronger to conquer them later for whatever rewards they may find. Additionally, expect to pick up quests that will send you back to Paradise Island to engage in new content. For example, Rifts, the tears in reality at the center of the game’s conflict, can be spotted all over the island; once you gain the ability to manipulate them, a host of new activities open up on the Island. 

“One of the things I really like about it is just a sense of discovery,” says Singh. “There's a lot of stuff to miss in Paradise Island, right? And what that means is you get a lot of different people that are going to play through that and [have] a very different experience. By the end of it, you may have different gadgets than somebody else. Maybe you discovered a pet and now you've got it on your ship. Maybe you didn't. Maybe you bartered and have certain companions, or you don't because you took a different path. All of these things kind of modify the player's story, which we think are signs of [a] good RPG.”

You can read our full cover story on The Outer Worlds 2 by visiting gameinformer.com/subscribe to gain instant access to the digital issue and receive a physical edition in the mail. 

Payday developer Starbreeze announced yesterday that it has ceased development of Project Baxter, its cooperative game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe. The cancellation will result in layoffs at the studio.

Project Baxter was first announced in December 2023 with a 2026 launch window, and was billed as an Unreal Engine 5-developed cooperative multiplayer Dungeons & Dragons game. It was also described as a live-service game, though the extent of which was never made clear. Project Baxter was slated to launch on all major platforms and would have supported cross-play.

Although we don't know what state Project Baxter was in for Starbreeze to abandon the game, the company states that after a strategic review, its management and the board of directors determined it would be financially healthier to divert the resources allocated to Project Baxter to “accelerate the growth” of its flagship Payday franchise.

“This was a difficult but necessary decision,” said Adolf Kristjansson, CEO of Starbreeze. “Our strategy is clear: Payday is one of the most iconic IPs in gaming, with unmatched reach and potential. By focusing our investment and talent here, we can accelerate delivery, engage players with more content, and reinforce Starbreeze’s position as the clear leader in the heisting genre. This is about sharpening our focus to create the strongest long-term value for our players, our people, and our shareholders.”

Payday 3

Although Starbreeze states that some of the Project Baxter development team will be reassigned to other projects (mostly Payday), it plans to let go of 44 employees and contractors in an effort to “enable Starbreeze to become cash-flow positive in 2026.”

“I want to sincerely thank the Baxter team for their passion and creativity, and express appreciation to Wizards of the Coast for their support,” says Kristjansson. Though we have made the decision to not continue forward with this project, we are proud of what was achieved in Baxter, and those contributions will carry forward into Payday and the future of Starbreeze. By concentrating our efforts on Payday we give Starbreeze and all our employees the best chance to succeed.”

Starbreeze’s last release, Payday 3, was released in September 2023 in a troubled state and failed to hit sales expectations (here's our review). This resulted in the departure of then-CEO Tobias Sjögren less than six months later. In December 2024, 15 percent of Starbreeze's staff were laid off. Kristjansson became the new CEO in March of this year. 

Project Baxter joins several high-profile cancellations this year, which include Monolith Productions' Wonder Woman, EA's Black Panther, Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts: Missing-Link, Xbox's Perfect Dark and Everwild, and Avalanche's Contraband. 

From its announcement, developer Sucker Punch has made it clear that Ghost of Tsushima and Yōtei are separated by hundreds of years. “This game is very much its own story,” co-director Nate Fox told me back in July when I asked him about the connections between Yōtei and Tsushima. “It is a spiritual sequel. You don't need to have played Ghost of Tsushima to jump right into Ghost of Yōtei.” Ghost of Tsushima takes place in 1274 and Ghost of Yōtei takes place in 1603, 329 years later. Tsushima protagonist Jin Sakai and everyone he knew have been dead for a long time by the time Yōtei protagonist Atsu begins her story. Tsushima Island is also located southwest off the coast of Japan, while Ezo and Mount Yōtei are found in the far north of Japan.

Jin and Atsu are separated by centuries and more than 1,000 miles, but the games do take place in the same universe, which means, though small, there are some connections between the two games.

I don’t offer any spoilers for the mainline story of Ghost of Yōtei, but I do talk about the ending of Ghost of Tsushima ahead. I recommend stopping here if you don’t want some fun elements of either game spoiled for you.

The first appearance of Tsushima I found comes from a document while Atsu is pursuing one of the Yōtei Six, the Kitsune. In a cave belonging to the Nine Tails, the organization the Kitsune runs, Atsu finds some paperwork about the group’s intention to create wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane was a poison that Jin Sakai used in Tsushima that his uncle frowned upon considering it dishonorable. The document Atsu finds reads, “I promise your patience will be rewarded. Centuries ago, a Mongol invasion was stopped on Tsushima Island. The Shogun would have you believe the samurai were responsible, but we know how they lie. It was the work of a single man – the first shinobi – and his use of wolfsbane.”

That first shinobi, the first samurai who thought up the idea of sneaking up behind someone and stabbing them in the back, was, of course, Jin. Atsu comments on the letter and its reference to wolfsbane, saying, "He claims it stopped a Mongol invasion." The NPC with her during that section replies, "A legend passed down through shinobi clans that Dojun latched onto. It was centuries ago."

The other big reference to Tsushima, however, is much more overt, and frankly, much more interesting. The storyteller appears throughout Yōtei, expectedly telling Atsu stories. They lead to some of the best side quests in the game, and his potentially final story (which you can tackle out of order) is about Jin.

You won’t be able to access the optional tale until late in the game, as the location is in the southernmost section of Ezo, southwest of Matsumae castle. It’s there that the storyteller will meet Atsu outside the Forgotten Shrine and say he is seeking the Storm Blade. “The sword is said to be so powerful that it contains the strengths of an unstoppable storm,” he says, following up that he doesn’t know what story belongs to it, which is atypical of his normal sidequest.

Entering the location reveals the two-triangle symbol used throughout Ghost of Tsushima that symbolized Jin’s family. There is also a gray fox there to guide you through the location, which is odd considering every fox in the game up to that point has been red. Atsu also finds and reflects on a haiku about being alone and far from home, and finds the Lost Shinobi Den, which has a house inside of it filled with old, decrepit weapons and a Stag Helmet, which looks a whole lot like Jin’s Sakai Clan Helmet from Tsushima. There is also a rusted iron hook for climbing and an old saddle that “carried its rider through countless battles.”

Nearby, there is a cave that holds a sword kit with Jin’s dual-triangle symbol on it, and in the next area is the home of the first shinobi, which Atsu comments that the owner of the storm blade must have lived there. In the house are burned adoption papers for clan Shimura, a very old flute, and an old dagger with the name Yuna carved into it. Yuna was the name of one of Jin’s partners in Tsushima. She was a skilled thief who assisted Jin in fighting the Mongols.

 

After exploring the house and participating in some action, the storyteller appears to complete the sidequest and finally share the story. Though he never names Jin, he tells the tale of a samurai who single-handedly pushed back against the Mongols with the Storm Blade by becoming the first shinobi. Having abandoned the ways of the samurai, the warrior was an outcast, so he left Tsushima, but no one knew where he went. It is here that Atsu and the storyteller theorize that the warrior came to Ezo to live out the rest of his life.

It’s a fun callback to the previous game and a fun reward. It is not the only reference, however, to Sucker Punch's previous games. I am certain I did not find every fun one of these, but I did find a few.

 

Atsu can find and wear armor commemorating developer Sucker Punch’s previous game, Sly Cooper. I also found a mural that I can’t imagine is meant to be anything other than a reference to the raccoon thief.

And speaking of the racoon thief, Sir Raleigh, a major antagonist from the fist Sly Cooper game, also makes a mural cameo.

This mural, found near the Amber Respite Shrine, showcases Infamous 2, where Cole McGrath traveled to New Marais to combat The Beast.

I also found this mural near the Budding Grace Shrine referencing Fetch Abigail Walker from Infamous Second Son, who later got her own standalone game, Infamous First Light.

I am sure there are more, and I am excited to see what others find once players get their hands on the game today.

To read Game Informer’s Ghost of Yōtei review by following the link. You can also watch our video review below.