NACON and its RIG audio brand announced today the R5 SPEAR PRO HS, an officially licensed wired gaming headset for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. It will be available for $69.99 ($79.99 Euros) on October 10^th in Europe and on November 1^st in the United States exclusively at Best Buy. If you don’t game on PlayStation, fret not, as additional models, including a PC version, are scheduled to release in the coming months as well.

The R5 SPEAR PRO HS has been developed with first-person shooters in mind, featuring 40mm graphene drivers that are super lightweight and rigid to eliminate audio distortion while producing a clear sound, and include support for Sony’s Tempest 3D Audio technology. In game, this means the ability to pinpoint threats with deadly accurate precision.

Additionally, it features proprietary “SNAP+LOCK” mod system which includes swappable magnetic earcups and cushions. There is also a 6mm precision boom mic with a 50Hz-15kHz frequency range and flip-up mute functionality. An in-line volume slider on the 3.5mm connection has a feature that locks audio at max volume for use with controllers that can control volume separately, which sounds neat.

Brazilian developer Hermit Crab Studio has partnered with behemoth publisher Ubisoft on multi-sport arcade game Sportia, which is coming to PC and consoles, though no release date was announced.

Sportia features vibrant stylized graphics and easy to pick-up arcade gameplay across a wide range of sports. In the reveal trailer alone I spotted tennis, soccer (futbol), rock climbing, archery, break dancing, skateboarding, volleyball, football, baseball, parkour running, ATV racing, and (maybe?) cheerleading. And we’ll be doing all these activities in the connected world of Sportia, which is filled with additional secrets and minigames to find.

In terms of game modes, there will be a single-player story mode, as well as local co-operative and competitive game modes. Come on, Ubisoft, we need online functionality as well!

This looks great, doesn’t it? Have a look at the reveal trailer:

I’m currently reviewing one of the year’s big-name releases, and that’s all fine and dandy, but sometimes I just want to play a badass-looking twin-stick shooter from an indie developer. So, imagine my delight when I perused the Gaming Nexus news chest this morning and found Sektori, a twin-stick blaster from Kimmo Lahtinen with a thumping techno soundtrack and kaleidoscopic visuals. Kimmo worked at Housemarque for 13 years making games like Resogun, one of the best twin-stick shooters ever, in my opinion. So yeah, sign me way the hell up.

Sektori is launching November 18^th for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S with a surprising amount of content. In campaign mode, you can blast across five evolving stages that change in layout as you battle waves of enemies. You can even encounter the bosses in various stages depending on how you progress. Defeating bosses unlocks upgrades for your ship such as faster speed, more shields, and additional firepower. You’ll also gain power-ups from a customizable deck of perk cards. And before you worry about difficulty (as I did), there are three difficulty levels to make Sektori accessible to everyone.

If the campaign doesn’t sound like your thing, you can also jump in to Classic mode, which lets you configure missions to your own parameters; Surge, where you rapidly swap between underpowered and ridiculously overpowered ships; Crash, which only lets you defeat enemies by dashing into them; Assault, where you decide when to up the difficulty of incoming enemy waves against a countdown timer; Gates, where you can only harm enemies by crossing rotating lasers; and finally, a Boss Rush mode.

This looks great. Check out the new trailer below:

Originally released on PC in 2023, the DLC expansion for the game Ion Fury titled Ion Fury: Aftershock, is finally being released on consoles. 

I played and reviewed Ion Fury when it was first released and I absolutely loved it. If you are a fan of old school FPS like the original Doom and of course Duke Nukem then you should absolutely give this game a try. The game uses the a modified version of the Build engine and plays like a spiritual successor to Duke Nukem 3D. Duke Nukem voice actor Jon St. John also voices the main villain in the game which is awesome. 

Ion Fury: Aftershock launches on October 16th 2025 for PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Despite releasing on last gen consoles, these games are fully playable on PS5, Series X and Switch 2. 

FINALLY! What is hands down, one of my most anticipated games of 2025 has been given a release date! You can laugh if you want to, but I will be relaxing and enjoying my time making the world a much cleaner place when Power Wash Simulator 2 launches on October 23, 2025.

Yes, I said Power Wash Simulator… 2. I have spent WAY more hours than I care to admit in the first game, both on my PC and in the stellar VR version. I can only imagine that the amount of time will be even higher with the new edition which looks to take everything that made the original great and expand, giving you a more robust campaign and plenty to do.

Seriously, the game is insanely addictive and relaxing, and it is simply about finding every speck of dirt and grime in the various environments and removing it with a little hydro-power. Plus, there is a major push on cooperative play this time around, so who wants to join me?!?! The game will be available on pretty much every platform imaginable: PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch.

Milestone is one of the most respected development houses in the racing world, with a ton of racing franchises in its stable that should be familiar to gamers – everything from Hot Wheels Unleashed and Ride to MotoGP and the Monster Energy Supercross series. But when setting out to add another franchise to the list, the team at Milestone wasn’t happy with the same old. Milestone worked to create some unique vibes with its new title Screamer, and – in addition to the singular look and feel of the title – is also rethinking racing controls and mechanics as part of the project.

Screamer – due out on PC and consoles next year – is the follow up to a series of games released on MS-DOS back in the mid-90s. The success of the original Screamer in 1995 resulted in four sequels, but after Screamer 4x4 in 2001, the series went dormant. Milestone has picked up the franchise, dusted it off, and given it a fresh coat of paint in its project to bring Screamer to modern gaming audiences.

The new Screamer is set firmly in a neon-lit anime world, and the art style of both the drivers and the cars reflects that setting. With lens flare galore, the art style of the racing is locked squarely in a beautiful animated universe that looks like it just peeled off of an 1997 bootleg Japanese VHS tape.

With inspiration from modern fighting games, Milestone has created a roster of unique drivers with a focus on creating a narrative world that players can deeply engage with. Each driver in the game has not only a unique personality, but also a slightly different style, and they each have their own perks and benefits that help set them apart from the pack.

In addition to the focus on characters, Milestone has also made some fairly dramatic changes to the driving mechanics – while still keeping things close enough to normal that they are recognizable to racing fans. The most immediate change that players will notice is the twin-stick driving system, which allows players to initiate and control drifting with the right analog stick.

I got access to an early pre-alpha build of Screamers, which gave me access to a few drivers and several tracks. While I didn’t think I would be able to control the cars at all, I found that I actually adapted to the right stick-drift controls very easily. By my second race, I was controlling the trajectory of the car naturally and found that the extra control allowed me to enjoy the drift mechanics more than usual. The combination of steering and drift control allows the player to really thread the needle; if you are getting too close to the side of the road, you can let up on the drift and punch the gas to kind of reset yourself.

In addition to drifting, Screamer has a few more game mechanics that players will need to come to terms with. There is an optional active gear shift mechanism that can be triggered with the left bumper button, which in turn earns the player boost. Boost is also triggered by holding down the left bumper button, and if you let up at the right moment, you get a “perfect boost”, which sends you surging forward on the track. There is another mechanic that has players blasting forward into opponents and causing their cars to explode, and a corresponding shield mechanic to protect yourself from opponents attempting to knock you out.

It all sounds super complex on paper, but once you get your hands on the game, this all feels quite natural. After a few rounds with Screamer, I really appreciated the thought that has gone into making the game feel interesting and unique; there is a lot going on here that sets Screamer apart in the sometimes cluttered racing genre. If you still aren’t catching onto the vibes I’m describing, maybe think Akira meets Burnout, and you’ll get the picture.

While I’ve enjoyed my time with the Screamer alpha, it has been restricted to single races. This has left me very excited to see what the overall structure of the game looks like. With characters as well-designed as this, there must be a lot of connective tissue to this game that Milestone has yet to reveal. The menu system in the game is absolutely slathered with options and modes that are obscured in my build, and I’m dying to see what all of those goodies are when the game is fully revealed.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep practicing with my alpha build as long as I have access. There is a bit of a learning curve here; while I’ve adapted nicely to the controls and have become somewhat competent, I can’t exactly say that I’m good at Screamer. Hopefully by the time the game fully releases next year, I’ll be whipping around the neon-laced tracks with the best of them.

It's great to see any game get significant continued support two full years after release, but when it's a beloved franchise like Assassin's Creed and a giant studio like Ubisoft sinking resources into it, all the better. Assassin's Creed Mirage is about to enjoy a free story expansion, The Valley of Memory, in about a month. Despite the franchise's primary attention having moved on to this year's latest release of Assassin's Creed Shadows this expansion adds another six hours of gameplay as the protagonist heads off on a journey to chase down the rumors that his father might yet be alive. This story beat takes place just before the existing game's finale and introduces  place in a new region and map, as well as new assassination targets, side quests, and contracts.

The Valley of Memory also adds some nice improvements that carry over into the base game. The press release for the expansion notes the following:

• Replayable Missions and Challenges – All black box missions and contracts in Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Valley of Memory will be replayable after you complete them once. Accessible through the “Animus Sequences” section of your objective board or directly within the world, each replayable mission will offer distinct challenges, forcing you to play in new and creative ways. You may have to avoid using Eagle Vision, kill only your main target, remain undetected, or complete the mission in a certain amount of time. Completing these challenges will unlock exclusive in-game rewards.
• Parkour Updates – New features in the gameplay will strengthen your parkour experience in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Players will now be able to toggle on the ability to manually jump, allowing them to weave together free-running parkour sequences that were previously impossible. A new control scheme is also being introduced to smoothen the experience of leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Players will also be able to customize side and back ejects. Previously side and back ejects could only be performed when Basim had a clear landing spot or handhold. Now, Basim can side or back eject regardless of the landing spot. These new updates allow for more creative parkouring than ever before in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. 
• New Skill and Tool Customization – A new skill called Engineer 2 has been added to Basim’s skill tree that will allow him to equip all level 1 modifications to his tools and a new level 3 modification has been added to all Tools as well.
• New Difficulty Levels – Two additional difficulty levels have been added, allowing you to customize the challenge to your liking.

Valley of Memory launches November 18th. Assassin's Creed Mirage is available on all the things: PS4 & PS5; Xbox One & Series X|S; Amazon Luna; iOS; and PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam, or the Epic Games Store. 

John Cena's career as a WWE wrestler will unfortunately be coming to a close in December and he is well into his farewell tour, but 2K will be getting in on the celebration as well with a new DLC pack for WWE 2K25.

WWE 2K25 got a new update today and with it added four new characters to the roster however they are locked via them being DLC that's not on sale yet. 2K posted a teaser trailer on their Youtube page confirming the pack and the release date. With it we will be getting Heel John Cena from Wrestle Mania 41 including a brand new entrance with the black screen and plain text just reading "John Cena". The pack will also include Basic Thuganomics John Cena from 2003 and a returning Brock Lesnar as a DLC character as well.

Here is what's coming in the DLC pack....

• John Cena (Wrestle Mania 41)
• John Cena '03
• R-Truth "Ron Cena"
• Brock Lesnar '25

The Farewell Edition Tour DLC will launch on October 16th.

Somehow, it’s been over six years since Control first released for PC and last-gen consoles. Today, Remedy Entertainment has released a significant update for its stellar shooter set in the “Remedy-verse”. And yes, you read that headline correctly – the update includes Hideo Kojima.

The free update to the ultimate edition of Control on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S includes numerous graphical updates, such as HDR support, PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution support on PS5 Pro, the ability to unlock frame rate, and support for VRR and 120Hz displays.

Additionally, all players now have access to the mission called “Dr. Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience” after picking up a specific collectible, with Dr. Tokui being voiced by none other than Hideo Kojima. It was previously locked behind some exclusivity.

You can peruse the entire changelog on the Control website. Also, a PSA that the game is on deep sale on Steam for $4 right now and it is more than worth the price of a coffee. The Remedy games are getting quite a bit of run here at Gaming Nexus lately. Myself, Randy, and John jumped into the new Breakpoint update for FBC: Firebreak the other day, I'm trying to finally sit down and play Alan Wake II, and now a big update to Control. I'm about to lose control to this universe of games.

Alien: Rogue Incursion was another step into immersive horror with VR, taking players into the detailed and thrilling world of the Alien franchise. It wasn't a perfect implementation, but it wasn't bad either. Eric gave it a solid 7 in his review. This week, Survios released a version of the game free of the need of a VR headset (or VR motion sickness amirite?) with Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition. It's the same game, but designed for controllers or mouse and keyboard over regular old nothing-broken-don't-fix-it televisions and monitors. 

The game is billed as a "cinematic action-horror experience," meaning it intends to tell a coherent story but is likely going to top out at 5-7 hours of unpadded playtime. The game understands what it is and lands at a $30 price point to match its ambition. This version has upped its visuals to land on the big screen with 60 FPS, 3D audio, and DualSense controller integration for those on Sony's platforms. The idea here is for a sprint, not a marathon, that delivers on a promise of a straightforward narrative sprinkling action and terror in equal parts. 

Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition is available now for PS5 and PS5 Pro, Xbox Series X|S, or PC via Steam or the Epic Games Store.