Yesterday, The Pokémon Company teased the premiere of some kind of horror-themed video, using the caption "viewer discretion advised." As it aired this morning, we learned that this advisory was, unsurprisingly, a little overkill, as "The Case of the Sweet Scent Incident" showed two trainers exploring a dark mansion in the brand's typical G-rated style. Despite that, the video's ending was quite a surprise, as it revealed Victreebel, one of the original 151 Pokémon, will get a mega evolution in Pokémon Legends Z-A.

The video was followed up by a more standard reveal trailer, showcasing the sentient flycatcher bouncing around and chasing smaller monsters around the streets of Lumiose City. A news post on the Pokémon website confirms that Mega Victreebel will keep its Grass/Poison typing, and says that its dizzyingly sweet acid is strong enough to melt through steel. Terrifying!

For more Pokémon Legends Z-A, check out our hands-on preview from Gamescom, where senior associate editor Wesley LeBlanc wrote that it could be "the best Pokémon game in years." You can also check out our recap of the Pokémon Presents stream back in July, which revealed Mega Dragonite, along with some other new details about the game.

NBA 2K26 is right around the corner, and as is often tradition for sports games before launch, developer Visual Concepts is continuing to share what's new with this year's entry. A couple of weeks ago, we learned about a host of presentation upgrades coming to NBA 2K26, and today, 2K released a new post detailing the changes arriving in MyGM and MyNBA, the series' long-term franchise mode. On top of that, we learned who the top-rated players in this year's game at the start of the season will be.

This year, GMs have a wider array of scenarios that can play out in the 2025 offseason. Once you pick a team, you can choose between three goals that are distinct to that team's roster and history. The tasks can include picking draft picks, signing free agents, or leading your team to the NBA Finals. Some of the scenarios involve building around a number-one draft pick, while others force you to choose between trying to make one more run with your aging superstars or holding a fire sale and starting the rebuild process.

As you play through MyGM and MyNBA, your achievements will be chronicled through dynamic banners that accurately update based on when you win championships. The experience is also highly customizable, thanks to Unranked MyGM, which lets you edit players, use custom rosters, import custom draft classes, and adjust sliders however you want. With MyPlayer DNA integration, you can even bring your MyPlayer into your franchise experience regardless of your Era. 

If you're more on the managerial side, the simulation mechanics have received various improvements based on player feedback, including giving players greater control over strategic decisions. As GM, you also start each season by meeting with your team's governor to set the budget, goals, and core directives for the upcoming season. These will shape how secure your job is, as well as influence top free agents' decision-making processes. Updating your team facilities can also go a long way to attracting top talent, and you can allocate Facility Points to update team training and recovery facilities, luxury box amenities, and perform arena renovations. Budgets have also been updated to accurately reflect the budgets of specific eras of teams.

On top of these announcements, we also got a list of the top 10-rated players in NBA 2K26 at the season's start. 

1. Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets – 98 OVR
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder – 98 OVR
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks – 97 OVR
4. Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers – 95 OVR
5. Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves – 95 OVR
6. Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors – 94 OVR
7. LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers – 94 OVR
8. Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics – 94 OVR
9. Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs – 94 OVR
10. Kevin Durant, Houston Rockets – 93 OVR

NBA 2K26 arrives on September 4. To read our review of last year's game, head here.

How do those player ratings look to you? Is anyone over- or underrated? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! 

After years of waiting, today’s Hollow Knight: Silksong presentation gave fans what they’ve been clamoring for: a release date. The long-awaited sequel will launch on September 4.

The brief showcase presented an impressive gameplay montage showing off protagonist Hornet’s solo adventure. Check it out below. 

Hollow Knight: Silksong was first announced in 2019, originally envisioned as paid DLC for Hollow Knight before developer Team Cherry expanded its scope to a full-fledged sequel. Silksong stars Hornet, a hunter and supporting character in the first game, as she explores a new kingdom boasting over 150 new enemies to slay. The game has spent years quietly coming together, with only the rare trailer or update during this time, lending to its near-mythical status. After suffering several delays, Xbox announced this summer the game would arrive by this holiday season; turns out they were correct. 

Silksong is currently playable for attendees at Gamescom, and senior editor Wesley LeBlanc has played it. You can read his impressions of the game’s first level here.

Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. The game will also be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch. 

Admittedly, from what I've seen of newcomer developer Rebel Wolves' upcoming first game, The Blood of Dawnwalker, it's given off some heavy Witcher vibes. That's not completely misplaced, considering Rebel Wolves was formed by former CD Projekt Red devs with experience working on The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. Sure, there are vampires, but it's still a medieval dark fantasy where the protagonist is a gruff swordsman with one goal in mind. 

After an hour-long hands-off preview with Dawnwalker, though, it's clear this game is much more than just The Witcher with vampires. Sitting in the room, themed to look like a 14th-century chapel, I frantically took notes of what I was watching on screen, wishing the entire time I was the one playing the game. 

The demo begins in the valley of the Carpathian mountains, sometime during the 14th century. A plague has swept the land, weakening humanity, making them easier than ever to be overtaken by the Vrakhiri, or a race of vampires. Our protagonist, Coen, is what's called a Daywalker, and though details on what that entails are still murky after my preview, it's clear he is at least part vampire. 

Rebel Wolves showcased this by running us through the same quest twice: once during the night, when Coen is tapped into his vampire side, and once during the day, when he can't use his vampiric abilities but can utilize magic. Though this quest ended on the same note both ways, there was an impressive amount of variation between the day and night versions. 

Rebel Wolves began with the nighttime version of the quest. 

Immediately, I'm impressed with the visuals. Sure, the game has been Epic's baby for demonstrating Unreal Engine 5 in recent showcases, but the art team is doing some gorgeous work with lighting. The way the full moon above illuminates the central cathedral's stained glass reminded me of the stained glass I witnessed myself at the Dom cathedral here in Cologne. Alongside the full moon high above in the sky is a red full moon, indicating Coen can tap into his vampire abilities. 

Coen infiltrates a cathedral and sticks to the upper floors as, down below, a blood ritual is happening. He uses Plane Shift to walk on walls and ceilings like Spider-Man, albeit on two feet. He also utilizes Shadowstep, which allows him to teleport short distances by transforming into a moving shadow. In the cathedral, he searches nearby Frescoes painted on the ceiling, looking for a clue as to the whereabouts of St. Mihia's crypt, which houses a sword he's after. 

After a bit more exploration, Coen fights off some enemies using his claws. It's fast, visceral, and extremely gory, with dismemberment galore. He also uses Voracious Bite to suck their blood and regain some health. Rebel Wolves says this is useful in battle but even more effective outside of combat. Rebel Wolves also uses this encounter to show off the options to switch between a far and close camera in combat (and a separate option to customize this viewpoint in exploration, too). 

We eventually reach the crypt, and this portion of the demo ends. 

In the daytime version of the quest, Coen is unable to tap into his vampiric abilities, so he must investigate things more closely. To keep it somewhat spoiler-free, instead of climbing walls and ceilings and Shadowstepping to different platforms, Coen speaks with a local monk and agrees to help them find a missing person. This leads him to an abandoned portion of an asylum, and it turns out the person he's after has become The Almshouse Monstrosity. This person is neither undead nor alive, stuck in the transition from human to vampire, and their mind is essentially gone, driven by an instinctual desire for blood. 

In this form of combat, Coen uses a sword instead of claws, and it's here that the game looks most like The Witcher. However, Rebel Wolves is doing some interesting things here. Combat features directional blocking, like what's seen in the Kingdom Come: Deliverance series, and magic, too. After defeating this monstrosity, Coen uses the Compel Soul hex to speak with a corpse and learn what happened in this asylum. This corpse yields some useful information that eventually takes Coen to the same crypt from the conclusion of the nighttime demo, except this time, Rebel Wolves showcases what happens next. I won't spoil it here, but it's an awesome boss fight against an undead warrior, and it's clear you'll need to tap into all of Coen's abilities to come out victorious. 

Our demo ended here, and a day later, I'm voracious for more. It just looks awesome, and a great score heightens the entire experience. Like The Witcher, the score in Dawnwalker relies heavily on a high-pitched female chorus, and it rules. I can't wait to hear more of this and see more of the vampires that run this part of the world when The Blood of the Dawnwalker launches sometime next year. 

It's not often I'm thrown when previewing a video game. But thrown is exactly what I was when I stepped into the unassuming Xbox Room #10 in Xbox's business hall booth during Day 1 of Gamescom 2025. There were six seats, a small table, and a television showcasing Keeper, the upcoming adventure game from Psychonauts developer Double Fine Productions centered around a walking lighthouse and a bird. Oh, and the studio's CEO and games industry legend, Tim Schafer. 

Nobody told me the person showcasing Keeper would be Schafer, and it's kinda wild to walk into a room and be surprise-greeted by a developer you massively respect. Of course, Schafer is a true gentleman, kind, and genuinely hilarious, so the nerves quickly disappear as he walks me through three previously recorded gameplay segments of Keeper. 

I promise I'll talk about those segments, but everything Schafer told me beforehand was just as interesting (possibly more). First off, it's his first time doing press since 2021 with Psychonauts 2, so Schafer explains that he's nervous – ahhh, even ground – and his first time at Gamescom in 16 years! Though he was here in person to talk about Keeper, he mostly speaks about Lee Petty, the game's director (and Brutal Legend and Broken Age art director) and the person behind the wild idea that is Keeper. 

Schafer says Keeper wouldn't exist without Double Fine becoming an Xbox studio. "Around the time we had just joined the Xbox family, we were wondering what we should make next," Schafer says. "We have support; we have money; and we don't have to worry about going out of business every day, and we don't have to pitch to publishers, 'Please make our game, it's very commercial.'" 

At the same time, Petty was busy thinking about his time during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. He was locked in his home like the rest of us, but he found solace in nature hikes amongst the hills around San Francisco. He couldn't get an idea out of his head: what if humanity didn't survive this, but nature did and took over in our place? It's here that Schafer explains Petty is a "weird dude who loves strange images, and grew up loving Dark Crystal and Salvador Dali." 

The result of all that pondering is Keeper – weird and chill, like Petty and his interests, Schafer says. He then describes the game as an adventure game with puzzles – light puzzles, though, because Keeper is about the "atmosphere and vibes and companionship between these two." The two he's talking about are Twig, a sea bird, and an unnamed lighthouse. After a violent sea storm isolates Twig from her flock, she perches on a lighthouse. For some reason, this awakens the lighthouse, it tips over, and in the resulting crash, it grows legs. Typical lighthouse behavior. 

Awakened and the new owner of legs, this lighthouse feels immediately called to a giant mountain peak atop the island it's on. So, it begins heading that way, with Twig in tow. Controlling the lighthouse consists of moving through surrealist and fantastical landscapes and shining your beam on things. You can shine your beam on plants and sometimes they'll grow; you can shine your beam on gears and sometimes Twig will fly to them and rotate them to unlock gates; you can shine your beam on strange pot creatures that crash to the floor beneath them, sometimes revealing objects for Twig to interact with. 

Your primary method of interacting with this world is your beam, and second to that is Twig. This might just be a me thing as someone who lives a couple hours away from Disney World and has a fondness for the technology of animatronics, but Keeper most reminds me of a Disney dark ride. If you're unfamiliar with that term, dark rides include Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. It's less about thrills and more about experiencing the things around you, watching animatronics move to tell a story, and soaking in the vibes. That's Keeper. 

I love that shining your light on objects causes them to emote or come to life with animation. It might not affect your journey forward or be part of a puzzle every time, but that's okay – it's about the vibes! It's about watching the animatronics of this world, as it were, do things that make the surrounding area feel real, like it has its own story to tell. 

The puzzles I see seem simple and quick, but I can't help keeping an eye on the things outside the primary focus of these gameplay videos. I see sunflowers dance as light grazes over them, carrots come to life and dive bomb into the soil below, and more. It really feels like a Double Fine dark ride in the most complimentary way. 

Of course, I see some other things that catch my eye. At one point, Twig becomes a giant egg atop the lighthouse for some reason. I see a village of tiny lil guys that are rusty watches. I see the lighthouse prance through pink pollen that gives it a light, low-gravity effect when it jumps. Everything I see looks vastly different from what I witness moments before, but it's all oozing with Double Fine and surrealist Salvador Dali-inspired charm. 

Some areas are more linear, designed around puzzles, Schafer says. Other areas are more open, prime for exploration. Regardless of where you are in the lighthouse's journey to the mountain peak, Schafer says Keeper is ultimately about change; how nature changes, how Twig changes, how the lighthouse changes. Every character, including Twig and the Lighthouse, has a story arc, he adds. 

When I ask Schafer why Petty decided to have players control a lighthouse, Schafer laughs – he doesn't actually know. He says the lighthouse was one of the game's side characters, but when he saw it walking with legs, he told Petty that needs to be the game. "It was compelling," Schafer says. "It really looked like something from a surrealist painting." 

Schafer ends my presentation further explaining Double Fine's love of nonsense and the bizarre, the type of work directors David Lynch and David Cronenberg are interested in making, he says. I see the vision. 

Keeper is a weird game, but it has that undeniable Double Fine charm. I can't wait to actually play it when it launches on October 17 on Xbox Series X/S and PC.