Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 stirred up controversy among fans for its DLC strategy, particularly in how it was locking away two of the game’s six vampire clans as launch-day DLC. Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer The Chinese Room have walked this back; the Lasombra and Toreador clans will be part of the base game at release.

Originally, the Lasombra and Toreador clans were going to be offered as DLC for $21.99 and as part of the $89.99 Premium Edition. Since this extra content would be available at launch, many fans, who were already upset that the sequel features significantly fewer clans than the 2004 original, became outraged by the presumption that content was being removed from Bloodlines 2 to be sold at an additional cost. While Paradox initially explained the move as purely a business decision, the backlash led to the company issuing refunds for those who pre-ordered the game on the PlayStation Store while promising significant changes would be made before Bloodlines 2's launch. 

A new overview trailer running down the game’s base and post-launch content revealed the DLC adjustment includes a message in the video description by Bloodlines 2 executive producer and White Wolf executive vice president, Marco Behrmann. He addresses the DLC controversy by stating,

"Thanks to our community for the frank feedback on Bloodlines 2 and the Premium Edition. That feedback made it clear: Lasombra and Toreador belong in the base game, so that is what we are doing," said Behrmann. "We’d also like to thank The Chinese Room for their quick turnaround on the concepts for the post-launch Story Packs. We’re constantly impressed by their creativity and skill in weaving enticing narrative threads that expand on the main story in Bloodlines 2."

With this update, here’s how Bloodlines 2’s various editions and post-launch content schedules are now as follows:

Digital Editions
Bloodlines 2 Deluxe Edition: Base game + Santa Monica Memories cosmetic pack
Bloodlines 2 Premium Edition: Base game + Expansion Pass (Santa Monica Memories, Loose Cannon, The Flower & The Flame)

Physical Editions
Day One Edition - Base game + Bloodlines Nostalgia Jukebox bonus. Select retailers will also have a physical cross necklace inspired by the Cross of St. James.
Premium Edition - Base Game,  Nostalgia Jukebox pre-order bonus, the Expansion Pass, five character cards, a journal, and a Steelbook case, packaged in a premium box (limited quantities!)

Story Pack Release Dates
Loose Cannon (Q2 2026) - Brujah Sheriff Benny’s story + Benny outfit for Phyre
The Flower & The Flame (Q3 2026) - Toreador Primogen Ysabella’s path + Ysabella outfit for Phyre

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 launches on October 21 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. We recently featured the game on the cover of Game Informer magazine issue 370. Subscribers can read the full cover story here, while everyone can check out other behind-the-scenes coverage detailing the game’s approach to its open world Seattle, and The Chinese Room explaining what makes a Bloodlines game. 

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC
Publisher: Team Cherry
Developer: Team Cherry
Release: September 4, 2025
Rating: Everyone 10+

Hollow Knight: Silksong is an exemplar of its form. Games like Metroid and Castlevania helped establish the fun of an exploration and platforming adventure filled with upgrades that open up new paths to progression, and Team Cherry’s second Hollow Knight game takes that concept to a profound level of depth, sophistication, and scope. Pacing issues and a punishing approach to forward progression prevent a full-throated endorsement to every type of player, but those with significant patience can uncover a true masterpiece. 

While there are some scant references to the prior game, players should be comfortable thinking of Silksong’s story as a standalone installment, in which a warrior princess bug named Hornet is taken against her will to a distant kingdom called Pharloom. After escaping, she seeks to uncover the reason for her kidnapping and the secrets of the place, gradually unfolding a story of ancient mysteries and the decayed remains of a sovereignty governed through the powers of silk and music. The worldbuilding is immaculate, from the visuals of a land that has fallen into ruin to the beautifully written dialogue between characters that fleshes out the fiction. 

The environmental storytelling is backed up by rewarding exploration and traversal. Silksong’s world is truly vast, with an interconnected network of biomes that each contribute new threads to the web of understanding, from abandoned halls of long-forgotten experiments to clockwork machinery that drives the kingdom’s waning functions. Hidden paths abound, and the gradual unlocking of new shortcuts and areas that appear through the acquisition of abilities makes for a satisfying loop. 

Several platforming sequences are highly challenging, demanding split-second pad/stick control for long and unforgiving stretches. I relish those challenges for their design and canny pathing, but the distance between rest points does little to contribute to that enjoyment. Instead, I found the insistence on extremely long checkpoint placement hampered the sense of pacing in several instances, since I was forced to repeatedly redo early and manageable sections just to get a chance to practice and perfect the later ones. 

 

While combat encounters are frequent and demanding, they are tuned to reward careful attention and clever use of resources. Over the dozens of hours it takes to reach even the first of several endings, I consistently felt a sense of evolving control over the onscreen action, which is enhanced by several distinct crests, each of which alters movement, attacks, and available abilities in subtle but important ways. The distinct playstyles are yet one more way that Silksong layers in nuance.

I was especially fond of many of the bosses, which often have a wide variety of interesting movesets to learn and evocative visual themes that set each apart from the rest. In particular, bosses like Lace, Phantom, and the Cogwork Dancers feel rhythmic and intense, like impactful duels between master combatants. 

While the boss battles themselves are a rewarding challenge, I can’t say I was always a fan of the extreme damage each dealt, often ending individual attempts in mere seconds, or the sponge-like health pools of most, which sometimes feel like a chore to work through, even after nailing the mechanics of the fight. The frequent insistence on long, gauntlet-like runbacks to retry a given battle exacerbates those issues, which reads more like an unnecessary time sink, rather than a fun addition to the difficulty. 

Like many great games, all of Silksong’s systems, difficulty, and storytelling feel intentional and crafted to be as they are. Even as particular frustrations held back some measure of my potential enjoyment, I simultaneously marveled at the care that has gone into each detail of Silksong’s measured unraveling of plot and gameplay. Even beyond the credits, hours and hours of optional endings, additional zones and bosses, and new plot elements wait to be brought to light by a devoted player. It’s a truly immense game filled with hard-won moments of discovery and revelation. 

Musicians know the feeling of a piece that is woven with complexity, which takes longer to learn than most, but brings commensurate satisfaction upon mastery; Silksong is the video game equivalent, sitting ready to be played and adored, but only after appropriate levels of devotion and persistence.

Score: 9

About Game Informer's review system

Developer Pocketpair has announced that its hit creature-catching open-world survival game, Palworld, is finally launching out of Early Access and into version 1.0 in 2026. Palworld has been available in Early Access since January 2024, and centers on catching Pokémon-esque critters called Pals, which you can equip with guns to battle other monsters while aiding players in farming and crafting. 

In a developer update video, Pocketpair promises that a “massive amount of content” is being planned for the 1.0 update. However, the studio also acknowledges it wants to clean up Palworld’s remaining technical bugs before it hits 1.0.  

As such, the studio says the rest of 2025 will be “a little quiet from us” as it focuses on preparing the game for its full launch. Because cleaning up the game will be its primary focus, Pocketpair says its Winter update won’t be as big as last year’s Feybreak Island was, but stresses development will not slow down or scale back when it launches in full.

The 1.0 announcement comes amidst an ongoing lawsuit with Nintendo, which began last September. The lawsuit, filed by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, accuses Pocketpair of infringing on several patent rights.

Pocketpair publicly shared three specific patents from the lawsuit on its website, revealing they were registered after Palworld’s EA launch and were likely done to target the game specifically. These patents cover systems for capturing characters in a virtual space, an aiming system for deploying capture items, and rideable characters. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company seek payments of 5 million yen (plus late payment damages) each. Pocketpair stated it aimed to “assert our position in this case through future legal proceedings.”

Since launching into Early Access, Palworld has received five major updates introducing new Pals, raid battles,  an arena mode, new landmasses like Feybreak and the island of Sakurajima, new factions, and even a crossover with Terraria. Pocketpair has also introduced many quality-of-life improvements and mechanics, such as cross-play.

Palworld is currently on sale for 25 percent off for a limited time on Steam. Palworld took the world by storm when it first launched into Early Access on Steam and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024, amassing over 25 million players within its first month of availability and becoming the third-biggest launch on Xbox Game Pass at the time. It even has a spin-off dating sim in the works. 

Palworld is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Mac. You can learn all about the game's origin and the history of its developer, Pocketpair, in our studio profile. 

Dispatch, the narrative adventure game that puts you in charge of dispatching various superheroes and reformed villains to those in need in a city, launches next month. More specifically, Dispatch will launch on PlayStation 5 and PC on October 22, marking the beginning of its four-week release. 

Developed by AdHoc Studio, a team comprised of Telltale alumni, Dispatch consists of eight playable episodes, with the first two scheduled for release on October 22. Two episodes will be released each week for four consecutive weeks. The full season will cost $30, or you can purchase the Deluxe Version, which includes a digital artbook and four digital comics, for $40. 

Check out the Dispatch PS5 and PC release date trailer, courtesy of IGN, below: 

Dispatch launches on October 22 on PS5 and PC. 

We've enjoyed what we played of Dispatch during the June Steam Next Fest, and we learned a lot from AdHoc in our exclusive behind-the-scenes feature you can read here. For more, check out Game Informer's list of upcoming superhero games. 

Are you starting Dispatch next month? Let us know in the comments below!

Valheim, the hit indie Viking survival game from developer Iron Gate AB and Coffee Stain Publishing, is finally coming to PlayStation 5 in 2026. It's currently unclear, though, if this version of the game will be 1.0 or Early Access. 

Valheim launched into Early Access on PC back in 2021, quickly climbing up the Steam charts to become one of the most popular survival games of the year. That excitement continued well into 2022, with the audience growing in 2023 when Valheim launched into Game Preview on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, featuring cross-play as well. Now, Valheim is finally coming to PS5, and you can check out a new trailer celebrating the news below. 

Since Valheim's Early Access debut in 2021, it has garnered a 94 percent "Very Positive" rating on Steam, based on over 477,000 reviews and 12 million copies sold. Since that launch, Iron Gate AB has released various updates, including the following: 

• Hearth and Home: enhanced survival and base-building mechanics
• Mistlands: introduced a new fog-shrouded biome filled with dangerous creatures and magic to master
• Ashlands: introduced treacherous cliffs, boiling waters, and new threats
• Call To Arms: the latest update, which updated combat and added new enemies, weapons, armor sets, and crafting materials 

Valheim launches on PS5 in 2026. It is currently available on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One (including Xbox Game Pass), PC via Steam Early Access, the Microsoft Store, PC Game Pass, and the Mac App Store. 

Are you still playing Valheim? Let us know why we should be playing it in 2025 below!