Piccolo gets the spotlight as both a mentor and fighter in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. He also gets a couple of cool new forms.

Warframe developer Digital Extremes is hard at work making its first game in nearly a decade, Soulframe, alongside the community in its early access “Preludes” form. To write the Soulframe cover story in the May issue of Game Informer, I traveled to Digital Extremes in Ontario, Canada, to learn more about the game, and it’s there that I learned this fantasy MMO is a response to the cynicism of the world. 

“To appeal to the sort of aesthetic or emotional reason for why we would make [Soulframe] is kind of a response to the cynicism of the world we are finding ourselves within today,” Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair tells me. “And I think that is sharper than it even was when we started it.” 

He recalls reading a 2021 New York Times article about the appeal of The Lord of the Rings. It posits that the movie trilogy resonates with audiences so much because it shows men in touch with their emotions, and that people can be redeemed. “In this genre, generally speaking, it tends to be dark and sweaty and bleak and gross, and I love Game of Thrones as much as the next guy, but I think we wanted to put a little Disney Princess spin on this whole thing.” 

That’s why Soulframe, despite all of its video game-isms, doesn’t celebrate all of the killing you will have to do; instead, it saves that elation for the moments when you end corruption in the wilderness and restore various Omen Beast animals to their former harmonious states. Soulframe is ultimately about a hero who wants to stop an extraterrestrial enemy race from mining the world of Alca of is precious natural resources.

If you hop into Soulframe Preludes today (reminder: Game Informer subscribers will receive a free code to do this as part of the issue rollout), you’ll find that your main quests revolve around saving those Omen Beasts and stopping Alca from polluting the natural wonder of this world with its machinery and industrialization. 

“We’re not going to celebrate the destruction of human bodies and celebrate decapitations and other things you might see in the genre, but instead, try to bring a sense of touching grass,” Sinclair says, noting the irony in using that phrase, which typically means stop playing video games and go outside. “That’s kind of the big emotional push for why we think it’s worth making this game, even though Warframe is doing so well.”

Soulframe creative director and former Warframe art and animation director Geoff Crookes says he believes the themes of this fantasy MMO are “a reflection of our age.” 

“It’s a reflection of how fractured we are,” Crookes adds. “There’s not a shared community anymore; there’s not a shared truth anymore. We’re not trying to heal the world, but if there are things that we can do in the game to encourage community-driven gameplay [...] that’s when we start to get excited about how the game can reinforce that.” 

Soulframe community lead Sarah Asselin says she sees comments all the time in Discord, on streams, and elsewhere that some players love to do “nothing” in Soulframe. “Even to just run around the forest and be immersed in this beautiful world we’re slowly building – it feels like this cozy and optimistic escape.” 

Sinclair says the strength of the early access Soulframe Preludes program is that Digital Extremes gets to put out various gameplay and content additions to test the waters of these themes and determine, with the help of its player base, whether the harmony the studio is looking for is present. 

Because Soulframe is the latest game to grace the cover of Game Informer, we’ll be posting behind-the-scenes stories like this alongside exclusive videos and more for the next few weeks. If you aren’t subscribed to Game Informer, you have until April 22 to do so and ensure a copy of this issue reaches your mailbox. Plus, anyone who subscribes will receive a Soulframe Preludes code to check out the game early. You can find more information about codes here. 

For more exclusive Soulframe insight, head to our hub here. 

The best video game quotes of all time span decades. Here, as determined by the Polygon team, are the 100 greatest video game quotes ever.

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Release: April 17, 2026
Rating: Teen

Third-person action-shooters have been around a long time, so it’s relatively rare that we see a wealth of new ideas at play. Pragmata’s greatest feat is successfully introducing a twist on the form, integrating two distinct mechanics –  hacking and shooting – that run simultaneously in the midst of a fight. While Capcom’s long-awaited action game has some other problems, that single innovation keeps things interesting, even while some of the surrounding game treads familiar ground.

Hugh is a specialist sent to a corporate moonbase where 3D-printed environments, bots, and other objects are researched and built at the direction of a morally questionable and profit-driven company back on Earth. After a disastrous arrival, he’s forced to partner with an uncannily advanced robot he names Diana, who just happens to look like an adorable little girl, complete with all the mannerisms befitting her appearance. With Diana capable of hacking the dangerous robots that hunt them, and Hugh equipped with ever-more devastating weaponry, the two navigate the mysterious moon habitat while blowing up increasingly towering automatons.

Pragmata Video Review:

Despite some early intimations that the story might be trying to say something about the hazards of AI or artificial experiences, Pragmata never really raises any thoughtful questions or draws any conclusions on that score. The scale of theming is smaller and more intimate here; Hugh and Diana make for a memorable partnership, and while the father/daughter dynamics are more than a bit heavy-handed, the emotional hook still lands.

The space station environment is sterile and a little stale after the first few hours, but the setting is saved by the elaborate artificial spaces players move through as the plot unfolds, from a simulacrum of New York City to a holographic ocean shoreline. The juxtaposition of stark lab walls with objects like a 3D-printed forest that looks like the real thing creates an intriguing backdrop for encounters.

Battles play out in tight arena-like spaces where several varieties of robots aim to take you out. Each foe has weak points, different attacks, and ways to protect itself. It’s fun to ferret out those characteristics and build mastery over the different encounters, even if the baseline shooting mechanics feel a little stiff and unwieldy. Diana’s hacking adds much-needed complexity. By aiming at a target, in addition to just blasting away with a gun, you can also use the face buttons to navigate a grid to hack and weaken that foe. Additional power-ups layer more ways to disrupt, delay, and destroy. It all happens in real time, so the challenge of juggling your hack with dodging and shooting foes can be a lot of fun, especially as the game throws more twists into the mix, like unpredictable enemies or grids that glitch as you navigate them.

 

Pragmata guides players through a mostly linear critical path that risks feeling on rails. As such, I appreciate the way each area of the space station hides numerous hidden rooms, extra combat challenges, minor traversal jumping, and other secrets to discover and aid in progression. Sadly, the in-game map is unhelpful in navigating those spaces, so I often got lost, especially when returning to a zone after passing it, though at least a solid radar ping system helps identify item locations while exploring.

In between battles, Hugh and Diana return to a shelter for character and weapon improvement, along with some extra daddy/daughter bonding moments. The respites are a pleasant change of pace that offers a steady sense of advancement, though I’m not crazy about having to return there every time I want to get my health, ammo, and heal charges back.

The novelty of the dual mechanics starts to wear thin after a time, and some of the battles begin to feel repetitive in the later hours, so it’s a good thing Pragmata doesn’t wear out its welcome; a robust first playthrough hits the credits around 15 hours in and nails a satisfying conclusion. Between some challenging training missions, New Game +, and an extra post-game mode focused on battles and rewards for completionists, Pragmata pads out its offering into something more than just a single run. 

Gamers often complain that big publishers refuse to roll the dice on new properties with unique systems; I give Pragmata big props for doing precisely that and experimenting with something unconventional. The story and structure as a whole feel a bit by-the-numbers, but the beautiful futuristic visuals and inventive battle system are solid wins.

Score: 8

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Developer 4A Games, publisher Deep Silver, and Xbox have announced Metro 2039, the fourth mainline entry within the Metro video game universe. We don’t have any details about the game yet, but a full reveal is scheduled for Thursday, April 16.

An Xbox Wire post accompanies a countdown video for the reveal stream. The post reads that the presentation will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific/1 p.m. Eastern. Metro 2039 follows Metro 2033 (2010), Metro: Last Night (2013), and Metro: Exodus (2019), which are post-apocalyptic first-person shooters adapted from the Metro series of novels by Dmitry Glukhovsky. The most recent game is Metro Awakening, a VR-exclusive prequel to Metro 2033 that was released in 2024. 

The games largely unfold within the subway tunnels of a Moscow devastated by nuclear war (though you visit plenty of above-ground locations as well) and usually involve players fighting to survive against enemy human factions and dangerous mutants. Given that Metro: Exodus was set in 2035, Metro 2039 takes place four years later. Whether or not it will feature any returning characters remains unknown. 

What would you like to see in a new Metro game? Let us know in the comments!