Premium Subscribers: CheatHappens.com - 10 Free Prize Wheel Spins

CheatHappens is giving premium subscribers 10 free Prize Wheel Spins which is a random chance at all kinds of good stuff from the site. This is available to every premium subscriber of Loot Happens who also has a CheatHappens account.

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Chromagun

ChromaGun is a clever first-person puzzle game that feels like a mad science experiment built somewhere between Portal and a paint factory. Armed with a weapon that can color walls, objects, and robots, you solve increasingly tricky chambers by manipulating how WorkerDroids react to different colors, pulling them toward matching surfaces to activate switches and open pathways. The core idea is simple, but the puzzles become surprisingly intricate as new mechanics stack on top of one another. With dry humor, clean level design, and satisfying "aha!" moments, ChromaGun turns a single color-based gimmick into a consistently entertaining brain teaser.

Dave the Diver: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dave the Diver is one of those rare games that successfully blends wildly different ideas into something surprisingly addictive. By day, you explore the mysterious Blue Hole, diving deeper into ever-changing waters to hunt fish, gather resources, and uncover strange secrets hidden beneath the surface. By night, you switch gears and manage a bustling sushi restaurant, turning your daily catches into dishes that keep customers coming back for more. The constant cycle of diving, upgrading equipment, expanding the restaurant, and discovering new marine life creates a satisfying gameplay loop that’s hard to put down. Packed with charming characters, unexpected story twists, and gorgeous pixel-art oceans filled with hundreds of sea creatures, Dave the Diver delivers an adventure that is equal parts relaxing, funny, and endlessly rewarding.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'diver'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Human: Fall Flat [Steam]

More humans, more mayhem.
$̶̶22.91 $1.43

Get Deal

Assetto Corsa [Steam]

Next-generation racing simulator.
$̶̶22.91 $3.99

Get Deal

33 Immortals [Steam]

33 Immortals is a co-op action-roguelike for 33 players.
$̶̶17.07 $8.02

Get Deal

ARC Raiders [PS5]

Scavenge, survive, thrive.
$39.99 $29.99

Get Deal

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH [PS5]

The unknown journey continues....
$49.99 $19.99

Get Deal

ARK: Survival Ascended [PS5]

Respawn into a new dinosaur survival experience.
$44.99 $11.24

Get Deal

Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration [Nintendo Switch 2]

No turning back…
$29.99 $26.99

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Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun [Nintendo Switch 2]

No turning back…
$39.99 $27.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: EA Sports UFC 6

Sports games often focus on the destination. Championships, rankings, trophies, and highlight-reel moments are usually what developers build entire modes around. UFC 6 takes a different approach. Instead of celebrating only the victories, it puts equal emphasis on the punishment, sacrifice, and setbacks that fighters endure along the way. Whether you're reliving legendary UFC careers or building your own from the bottom up, the sport itself feels more personal than ever. Not every new idea lands cleanly, but UFC 6 succeeds because it understands something many sports games forget: the journey is often more compelling than the result.

The octagon still delivers

UFC 6 remains an excellent MMA simulator. The revamped controls take some adjustment, but once everything clicks, fights become a satisfying mix of strategy, timing, and controlled aggression. Every punch feels heavier, every kick carries real impact, and the visual damage system continues to be one of the series' strongest features. Bloodied faces, swelling injuries, and desperate late-round exchanges make fights feel brutal without becoming cartoonish.

The biggest gameplay addition is Flow State, a temporary boost earned through fighter-specific actions. While the idea fits certain cinematic moments, it often feels disconnected from the realism that defines the rest of the experience. Online matches can become races to activate it first, and even after dozens of fights, it's easy to forget the mechanic exists. Thankfully, the underlying combat remains strong enough that Flow State never overshadows what UFC does best: making every exchange feel dangerous.

Hall of Legends steals the show

The true highlight of UFC 6 isn't found inside ranked matchmaking or competitive ladders. It's Hall of Legends, a mode that recreates iconic moments from the careers of Max Holloway, Alex Pereira, and Zhang Weili. These interactive documentaries blend real footage, storytelling, and gameplay into some of the most memorable content the series has ever produced. Even if you already know how these fights end, recreating them yourself carries a surprising amount of emotional weight.

Career mode also receives a substantial upgrade thanks to The Legacy, a separate story-driven journey that follows an aspiring fighter's rise through the ranks. Rivalries, setbacks, and redemption arcs make the progression feel more engaging than previous entries. Not every new mode is a success, however. The Gym largely exists as a cosmetic-grind side activity that adds little to the overall package. It's harmless enough, but it feels unnecessary compared to the thoughtful storytelling found elsewhere.

Bottom line

UFC 6 isn't a perfect evolution of the series. Flow State occasionally clashes with the grounded simulation roots, and some side modes feel like distractions rather than meaningful additions. But its excellent combat, improved career structure, and outstanding Hall of Legends mode make it one of the strongest entries EA Vancouver has produced. More importantly, it captures something that statistics and championship belts never can: the human stories behind every fighter who steps into the cage.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Rezrog

Rezrog is a turn-based dungeon crawler that blends classic roguelike tension with a clever party-management twist. Instead of controlling an entire squad at once, you send individual heroes into procedurally generated dungeons, rescuing fallen allies when things inevitably go wrong. With permadeath, persistent progression, over 100 dungeon floors, and a wide range of classes, skills, and equipment to experiment with, every expedition feels like a calculated risk. Its tabletop-inspired presentation gives the adventure a distinctive charm, while the constant threat of losing your strongest heroes keeps every battle and decision meaningful.

-——OR-------

Boiling Bolt

Boiling Bolt is a fast-paced vertical shoot-’em-up set in a fractured world of floating islands powered by mysterious crystals. Playing as rebel pilot June, you battle through dense waves of enemies using a versatile arsenal of futuristic weapons while mastering a bullet-time system that rewards precision and aggressive play. Multiple game modes, co-op support, ship customization, and a variety of challenges add replayability, while flashy visual effects and anime-inspired presentation give every encounter an energetic arcade feel. It's a score-driven shooter that combines classic shmup intensity with modern mechanics and spectacle.

Nova Swarm: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers (20 keys)

Nova Swarm is a brand new compact arcade shoot-’em-up built around quick runs, constant improvement, and the satisfaction of mastering chaos. Piloting a growing roster of distinct ships, you battle through ten increasingly dangerous sectors packed with enemy formations, bullet patterns, hazards, and screen-filling bosses. While the action can look overwhelming at first, success comes from learning attack tells, reading the battlefield, and gradually turning panic into precision. With unlockable ships, leaderboards, career progression, and an endless Overrun mode beyond the main campaign, Nova Swarm delivers a focused old-school score-chasing experience that rewards skill, persistence, and one-more-run determination.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'nova'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Voidling Bound: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Voidling Bound is a fast-paced third-person sci‑fi shooter where you command and evolve powerful creatures called Voidlings across corrupted alien worlds. Combat blends shooting, melee attacks, dashes, parries, and devastating ultimates, while branching evolution paths let you shape each Voidling’s abilities, elemental traits, and playstyle. As you cleanse planets overrun by parasites, you’ll hatch rare new creatures, research upgrades, and experiment with mutations and genetics to build increasingly powerful combinations. With its mix of action combat, creature customization, and roguelite-style progression, Voidling Bound feels like a blend of monster collecting and relentless arcade combat.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'bound'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide [Steam]

As Tertium falls, rejects will rise.
$̶̶46.14 $8.27

Get Deal

Returnal [Steam]

Again and again, she’s defeated.
$̶̶69.21 $16.28

Get Deal

Alien: Isolation [Steam]

How will you survive?
$̶̶46.14 $4.49

Get Deal

ARC Raiders [PS5]

Scavenge, survive, thrive.
$39.99 $29.99

Get Deal

REANIMAL [PS5]

Horror with hope.
$39.99 $31.99

Get Deal

DAVE THE DIVER [PS5]

Join Dave and his quirky friends.
$19.99 $10.99

Get Deal

Ori and the Will of the Wisps [Nintendo Switch]

Play the critically acclaimed masterpiece.
$29.99 $7.49

Get Deal

Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

Help Madeline survive her inner demons.
$19.99 $4.99

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Pikuniku [Nintendo Switch]

Pikuniku is an absurdly wonderful puzzle-exploration game.
$12.99 $1.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: NBA The Run

Basketball games have spent years chasing realism, but NBA The Run goes in the opposite direction. Instead of simulating an 82-game season, complex playbooks, and endless stat sheets, it distills the sport into its purest form: fast-paced 3-on-3 competition where every possession feels like a highlight waiting to happen. The result captures much of the excitement of a pickup game at a local court, delivering quick bursts of energy that are easy to jump into and difficult to put down. Yet that same focus on speed and accessibility eventually becomes both its greatest strength and its biggest limitation.

Basketball at its most fun

The first thing NBA The Run gets right is its roster. Every player feels distinct, not just because of their ratings, but because of how faithfully the game recreates their styles. Stephen Curry stretches defenses with absurd shooting range, Victor Wembanyama dominates both ends of the floor with his impossible reach, and Ja Morant turns every fast break into a potential poster dunk. Switching between players constantly changes how matches unfold, making experimentation one of the game's greatest pleasures.

That variety extends beyond the athletes themselves. The Run's collection of real-world-inspired courts gives each match its own atmosphere, while rotating rule sets prevent games from becoming repetitive too quickly. One match may reward long-range shooting, while the next heavily favors aggressive dunking and paint play. These constantly shifting conditions encourage adaptability rather than relying on a single strategy, keeping the early hours surprisingly fresh and unpredictable.

The Championship grind arrives quickly

The downside is that NBA The Run rarely evolves beyond its initial formula. The first championship feels exciting. The fifth still has its moments. By the twentieth, however, the structure begins to show its limits. Despite the variety of players and courts, matches start blending as the cycle of queueing, winning, celebrating, and repeating becomes increasingly familiar.

Part of the issue is the game's heavy emphasis on rapid progression and constant action. Victories come frequently, championships arrive regularly, and rewards are handed out at a pace that can diminish their significance. Unlike a long season where every achievement feels earned through persistence, The Run often feels designed around immediate gratification. The highlights remain enjoyable, but eventually they lose some of their impact because another spectacular play is always only a minute away.

Bottom Line

NBA The Run successfully captures the energy, personality, and unpredictability of modern street basketball. Its deep roster, stylish courts, and constantly changing match rules create a multiplayer experience that's immediately fun and easy to recommend for short sessions. However, the same rapid-fire design that makes it so accessible also limits its longevity, as repeated championships and endless highlight plays begin to blur together. For players looking for quick bursts of competitive basketball, NBA The Run is a slam dunk. Just don't be surprised if you find yourself ready to step off the court sooner than expected.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Fallback

Fallback is a roguelite action game set in a collapsed underground world where humanity survives beneath a machine-controlled surface. Players fight their way through procedurally generated 2.5D levels, battling increasingly dangerous robotic enemies while unlocking new skills and gear after each run. With multiple distinct classes and evolving builds, every attempt reshapes how you approach combat, survival, and progression on the path toward escaping the depths.

-——OR-------

Bakery Simulator

Bakery Simulator is a detailed business sim that turns the day-to-day reality of running a bakery into a surprisingly engaging challenge. Players follow authentic recipes, manage ingredient supplies, invest in new equipment, and deliver fresh products to local stores while balancing costs and reputation. Beyond baking bread, croissants, and pastries, the game emphasizes logistics, time management, and business growth, creating a satisfying loop where every successful delivery helps transform a small bakery into a thriving enterprise.

Marathon: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Marathon is a high-stakes extraction shooter set on the hostile world of Tau Ceti, where every run is a gamble between profit and survival. Playing as a cybernetic Runner, you venture into dangerous zones to gather valuable loot, complete contracts, and uncover the mysteries of a lost colony while battling both AI threats and rival players. Flexible loadouts, unique character abilities, and seasonal progression allow for a wide range of playstyles, from stealthy scavengers to aggressive frontline fighters. Whether tackling the battlefield solo or with a squad, Marathon revolves around tense risk-versus-reward decisions where one successful extraction can change everything.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'marathon'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Romestead: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Romestead blends survival crafting, city building, and Roman mythology into a cooperative adventure where rebuilding civilization is just as important as surviving the undead. By day, you gather resources, recruit settlers, expand towns, and restore trade networks across a procedurally generated world; by night, hordes of the dead emerge to test your defenses. With support for up to eight players, divine upgrades tied to forgotten gods, and a steady progression from humble camp to thriving empire, Romestead offers a satisfying mix of action, automation, and settlement management.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'romestead'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Forza Horizon 6 [Steam]

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now.
$̶̶81.47 $55.70

Get Deal

Scale the Depths [Steam]

Catching fish is only the beginning.
$̶̶11.63 $8.02

Get Deal

Life Below [Steam]

The ocean is dying.
$̶̶33.74 $18.23

Get Deal

Ghost of Yotei [PS5]

Set aside the order of the Edo period.
$69.99 $49.69

Get Deal

Assassin’s Creed Shadows [PS5]

Master the deepest stealth mechanisms of the series.
$69.99 $34.99

Get Deal

Red Dead Redemption 2 [PS5]

Winner of over 175 Game of the Year Awards.
$59.99 $14.99

Get Deal

Spiritfarer [Nintendo Switch]

Spiritfarer is a cozy management game about dying.
$29.99 $2.99

Get Deal

Balatro [Nintendo Switch 2]

Balatro is a poker-inspired roguelike deck builder.
$14.99 $12.74

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Is This Seat Taken? [Nintendo Switch]

Play seating matchmaker to please picky characters and solve satisfying puzzles.
$9.99 $6.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: Mina the Hollower

Mina the Hollower feels like a game pulled from an alternate timeline where the Game Boy Color era never ended, but developers kept finding new ways to push its ideas forward. Created by the team behind Shovel Knight, this gothic action-adventure blends retro aesthetics with modern design, sending players into a cursed world filled with monsters, buried secrets, and sprawling interconnected environments. It immediately captures the charm of classic handheld adventures, yet beneath its nostalgic presentation lies a surprisingly ambitious game that constantly rewards curiosity. While a few rough edges occasionally slow its momentum, Mina the Hollower succeeds by understanding exactly what made old-school adventures memorable and finding clever ways to make those ideas feel fresh again.

A retro adventure with modern confidence

The star of the show is Mina herself, a whip-wielding Hollower capable of burrowing beneath the ground to avoid danger, solve puzzles, and uncover hidden paths. That simple mechanic transforms exploration from the very beginning. Instead of merely moving through environments, you're constantly looking for opportunities to tunnel under obstacles, bypass enemies, or discover secrets tucked away beneath the surface. The world feels dense with possibilities, rewarding experimentation in a way many modern action-adventure games struggle to replicate.

Combat also strikes an impressive balance between accessibility and challenge. Mina's whip gives battles a deliberate rhythm, while secondary weapons and upgrades allow for different approaches to encounters. Boss fights are especially memorable, demanding careful observation rather than mindless aggression. Combined with atmospheric pixel art, haunting music, and a wonderfully eerie gothic setting, the game creates a strong sense of identity that extends far beyond simple nostalgia

Exploration remains the true highlight

What elevates Mina the Hollower above many retro-inspired projects is the way its world continuously expands. New abilities unlock shortcuts, hidden areas, and optional challenges that encourage revisiting earlier locations. The interconnected map evokes classic adventure games without becoming frustratingly obscure, creating a satisfying loop of discovery and progression. Every new area introduces fresh enemies, environmental hazards, and mysteries that make exploration consistently rewarding.

That said, the game occasionally leans a little too heavily on its old-school inspirations. Some stretches involve backtracking that can feel repetitive, and a few combat encounters rely more on patience than excitement. Difficulty spikes can also catch players off guard, particularly during later boss fights. Yet these frustrations rarely overshadow the overall experience because the game constantly offers another secret to uncover, another path to investigate, or another piece of its fascinating world to unravel.

Bottom Line

Mina the Hollower is a confident blend of retro design and modern craftsmanship that understands nostalgia is most effective when paired with strong new ideas. Its burrowing mechanics, rewarding exploration, and atmospheric world make it one of the most compelling action-adventure games in recent years. A handful of old-school frustrations remain, but they do little to diminish the journey's consistent encouragement of curiosity and discovery. For players who love classic adventure games with a fresh twist, Mina the Hollower digs up something genuinely special

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Pizza Connection 2

Pizza Connection 2 is a deep tycoon strategy game where you build a global pizza empire from the ground up, balancing recipes, pricing, staff, locations, and marketing to outgrow the competition. If you like tycoon games, you will love this one. What starts as simple restaurant management quickly expands into a dense web of decisions where every choice affects profitability and survival. Rival businesses push back hard, while organized crime adds pressure through sabotage, blackmail, and shady deals you’ll need to counter with security and careful planning. Layered with thousands of variables and unpredictable situations across different countries, it’s a demanding but addictive business sim where success is earned, not given.

Moonsigil Atlas: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Moonsigil Atlas is a roguelite deckbuilder that removes energy and action points entirely, letting you play as many cards as you can physically fit onto a grid-based battlefield. Each card is a sigil with a unique shape, keyword, and effect, turning combat into a spatial puzzle of positioning, overlap, and adjacency where the right placement can trigger explosive, cascading synergies. Between fights, you can fully reshape and upgrade your deck — inscribing runes, adding keywords, duplicating key cards, or pushing simple effects into absurd, build-defining power. With over 250 cards, multiple characters, forbidden unlocks, and a randomized map structure, every run becomes an experiment in breaking the system in a different way. Boss encounters and Titan fights push it further by altering the board itself, forcing constant adaptation where survival depends as much on spatial logic as it does on raw deck strength.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'atlas'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Raiders of Blackveil: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Raiders of Blackveil is a top-down multiplayer roguelite ARPG that blends MOBA-inspired heroes with extraction-style raids, where every run is a fast, chaotic scramble for loot, survival, and increasingly broken builds. You pick from distinct Rebels tied to classes like Mage, Assassin, Guardian, or Warlock, then dive into procedural raids filled with enemies, resources, and escalating difficulty. Combat is intense, but the depth comes from a huge perk system with over 300 modifiers that let you stack synergies and build wildly overpowered combinations that reshape each run. Between missions, your base “The Liberator” becomes a hub for upgrading, trading, and managing gear, while every expedition feeds long-term progression through loot, scraps, and experimental builds. Even failed runs matter, and the game leans into constant iteration, community feedback, and the chaotic pursuit of ever more absurd power spikes.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'raiders'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Forza Horizon 6 [Steam]

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now.
$̶̶81.13 $55.59

Get Deal

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II [Steam]

Dominate the battlefield.
$̶̶46.46 $30.10

Get Deal

Life Below [Steam]

The ocean is dying.
$̶̶33.68 $18.19

Get Deal

Ghost of Yōtei [PS5]

Set aside the order of the Edo period.
$69.99 $49.99

Get Deal

Battlefield 6 [PS5]

The ultimate all-out warfare experience.
$69.99 $38.49

Get Deal

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 [PS5]

We are Expedition 33.
$49.99 $37.49

Get Deal

Dream Alone [Nintendo Switch]

It is inspired by classics, Limbo and Inside.
$1.99 $9.99

Get Deal

Hollow Knight [Nintendo Switch]

Forge your own path in Hollow Knight.
$15.00 $7.50

Get Deal

Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

Help Madeline survive her inner demons.
$19.99 $4.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: 007 First Light

Like the man himself, a James Bond game should arrive with a certain pressure in the air, a sense that everything is being judged before it even moves. There’s a long history of tie-ins that either played it safe or tried too hard, and neither approach ever quite captured what Bond really is: elegance under strain, control that occasionally snaps, and a fantasy built on precision as much as spectacle. What’s been missing is a version that understands those rhythms, that can shift from quiet observation to sudden violence without feeling like it’s switching genres. 007 First Light finally gets close to that balance, and more often than not, it holds it.

A world built like a cover identity

First Light’s strongest move is how deliberately it builds its version of Bond from the ground up, rather than treating him as a checklist of familiar traits. IO Interactive doesn’t rush the transformation into the 00-status myth; instead, it lets him exist first as someone still being shaped by proximity to power, danger, and expectation. You start with fragments, and only gradually does the silhouette of the agent emerge. It gives the early hours a strange patience, almost like watching a file being compiled rather than a story being dumped on you.

That restraint pays off because the world around him feels equally considered. MI6 isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a functioning ecosystem of routines, overheard conversations, and institutional tension. Q’s lab hums with controlled chaos, while Bond’s apartment feels lived-in rather than staged, full of objects that suggest history without spelling it out. Even the pacing mirrors this approach, long chapters that don’t rush you forward, letting curiosity do more work than urgency. It’s closer to a prestige espionage series than a conventional action game, and that shift in rhythm changes how you inhabit every scene.

The elegance of controlled systems

Once First Light opens up into its fieldwork structure, it becomes clearer that IO is essentially translating its Hitman DNA into a different fantasy. Social stealth, infiltration routes, environmental manipulation: they’re all here, but re-skinned through the lens of Bond’s tools and temperament. Gadgets replace disguises as the primary language of misdirection, turning every encounter into a small problem of timing and improvisation. A laser here, a distraction there, and suddenly a heavily guarded space bends just enough to let you slip through.

But what stands out isn’t just the systems themselves, it’s how they’re allowed to collide. The game doesn’t always force you into one correct answer. You can approach a compound like a careful observer, or you can tear through it when patience runs out, and both paths feel intentional rather than compromised. Combat, when it breaks loose, has a weight that leans into Bond’s physicality — less surgical than 47, more reactive, a little messier in the way real escalation tends to be. There’s a deliberate friction in the design, especially in how gadgets are limited, which occasionally feels more restrictive than expressive, but it also keeps the fantasy from turning into pure convenience.

Bottom Line

007 First Light works because it understands that Bond isn’t defined by spectacle alone, but by control — the illusion of ease built on careful preparation, fractured occasionally by chaos. IO Interactive has taken a familiar universe and rebuilt it around patience, systems, and character progression that actually feels earned rather than assumed. It isn’t flawless, and some mechanical choices pull against the fantasy rather than elevating it, but the core vision holds firm throughout. The result is a Bond game that doesn’t just reference the myth — it slowly learns how to inhabit it, and by the end, it feels surprisingly natural to stay there.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Impulsion

Impulsion is a fast-paced first-person platformer built around momentum, precision, and mastering physics under pressure. Armed with dual force-field guns that can speed up or slow down both yourself and the environment, you race through increasingly difficult obstacle courses that demand sharp reflexes and constant experimentation. Beneath the sci-fi setting and surprisingly playful dialogue, the game becomes a relentless test of movement mastery, especially once competitive leaderboards and speedrun modes push every second to matter.

-——OR-------

Psycho Wolf

Psycho Wolf is a bizarre stealth-action game that mixes retro 2.5D visuals inspired by early 3D titles with surprisingly tactical gameplay centered around hunting cartoonish animal enemies. Playing as the mysterious Psycho Wolf, you sneak through dangerous levels filled with fast and aggressive foes, using bushes for cover, crafting traps and camouflage, stealing valuables, and carefully planning attacks instead of simply charging into combat. Between its weird humor, looter-style progression, mansion upgrades, and intentionally strange aesthetic, Psycho Wolf feels like a chaotic blend of old-school stealth games and absurd indie experimentation. We know some early subscribers got this game in 2024, but we're giving new subscribers a chance to get it too.

Esoteric Ebb: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Esoteric Ebb is a bizarre, dialogue-heavy CRPG that blends tabletop chaos with surreal fantasy noir, casting you as a deeply dysfunctional cleric investigating a deadly explosion days before a historic election. Set in the strange arcanepunk city of Norvik, the game leans heavily into branching choices, dice-roll encounters, and constant conversations with the competing voices inside your own head, turning even simple interactions into unpredictable roleplaying disasters. Between debating drunk sphinxes, manipulating factions, and using reality-bending magic to pry into secrets or control minds, Esoteric Ebb feels less like a traditional RPG and more like an unhinged tabletop campaign where failure is often far more entertaining than success.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'esoteric'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Schrödinger’s Call: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Schrödinger’s Call is a quiet, melancholic story about regret, memory, and the final conversations people wish they could have before the end. Set mere nanoseconds before the moon crashes into Earth, the game follows Mary, a girl with no memories who becomes the “World’s Last Confidant,” answering phone calls from souls trapped between life and death. Each conversation unfolds like a small emotional vignette, exploring unfinished relationships, hidden fears, and the painful weight of things left unsaid, while the game’s soft picture-book presentation and reflective atmosphere turn the apocalypse into something deeply intimate rather than catastrophic.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'call'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before.

Blasphemous [Steam]

Explore this nightmarish world of twisted religion.
$̶̶28.99 $3.19

Get Deal

007 First Light + Early Access [Steam]

Pre-order 007 First Light.
$̶̶81.18 $62.34

Get Deal

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II [Steam]

Dominate the battlefield.
$̶̶46.38 $32.22

Get Deal

Forza Horizon 5 [PS5]

Your Ultimate Horizon Adventure awaits!
$59.99 $35.99

Get Deal

Palworld [PS5]

Collect all kinds of exciting Pals to fight, farm, build, and work for you.
$29.99 $22.49

Get Deal

Gears of War: Reloaded [PS5]

Built for brotherhood.
$39.99 $19.99

Get Deal

Subnautica [Nintendo Switch 2]

Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world.
$29.99 $7.49

Get Deal

Outbound [Nintendo Switch 2]

Explore a colorful world and build your own cozy home on wheels.
$24.99 $22.49

Get Deal

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection [Nintendo Switch 2]

Step into the arena and choose your fighter.
$49.99 $32.49

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Featured Game Review: Yoshi and the Mysterious

There’s something fascinating about a game that constantly teases greatness just out of reach. Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is packed with imagination from the very beginning, throwing Yoshi into a storybook world filled with bizarre creatures, experimental mechanics, and open-ended stages built around curiosity rather than momentum. For a while, that sense of discovery is genuinely exciting. Every level introduces some new oddball species or playful interaction that makes you wonder what the next page might hold. But the deeper you get, the clearer it becomes that the game is far more interested in introducing ideas than developing them. What starts as a charming adventure slowly turns into a checklist-heavy scavenger hunt that rarely evolves beyond its first impressions, making the experience feel strangely shallow despite how creative it often looks.

The world is full of clever ideas

The biggest strength of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is its creativity. Nearly every level revolves around a new creature with its own gimmick, whether it’s bouncing bubble creatures, giant drill-nosed beasts, or jellyfish that function like water jetpacks. Nintendo clearly had fun designing these weird little monsters, and discovering how they work gives the early hours a constant sense of surprise. Even simple experimentation rewards you with Discoveries, collectibles, and hidden interactions, making exploration feel playful and satisfying.

The level structure also helps the game stand out from older Yoshi titles. Instead of straightforward platforming, many stages feel more like miniature puzzle sandboxes with unique objectives. One level revolves around catching fish, another has you recovering stolen flowers, while others focus entirely on environmental interactions. That unpredictability keeps the adventure fresh for a long time, especially because the world itself is packed with charm and personality.

The depth never arrives

The problem is that most of these mechanics never evolve beyond their introduction. Once you’ve uncovered the majority of a level’s Discoveries, there’s very little reason to revisit it beyond completionism. The game constantly throws new ideas at you, but rarely combines them into deeper or more creative challenges. Instead of building complexity, it keeps resetting the formula with another gimmick-heavy stage, which gradually makes the adventure feel repetitive despite all its variety.

What makes this especially disappointing is that the game briefly reveals a far better version of itself late in the campaign. One standout level suddenly allows Yoshi to summon creatures from previous stages and creatively apply everything you’ve learned. It completely changes the game’s design philosophy and instantly becomes the most exciting part of the adventure. But almost as quickly as it appears, the mechanic disappears, and the game goes back to its usual structure. That missed opportunity ends up defining the entire experience.

Bottom Line

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book is charming, imaginative, and occasionally brilliant, but it rarely transforms its ideas into something truly substantial. The creature designs are wonderful, the world is full of personality, and the first half constantly surprises you with clever concepts. Yet the deeper you go, the more the adventure starts to feel mechanically thin. Its best mechanic arrives too late and vanishes too quickly, leaving behind a game that feels less like a fully realized journey and more like a collection of unfinished but fascinating experiments.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Sphere - Flying Cities

Sphere – Flying Cities is a city-builder survival hybrid where you manage a floating metropolis drifting through a post-apocalyptic Earth, keeping thousands of colonists alive while navigating geomagnetic storms, asteroid strikes, and the constant threat of simply falling out of the sky. Everything runs through your anti-gravity device — let the power slip and the whole city goes down with it, which keeps even routine resource management feeling genuinely tense. You'll expand through drone scouting, technology research, and careful infrastructure planning, all while balancing the uncomfortable reality that saving the many sometimes means sacrificing the few. It's a city-builder that actually makes you feel the weight of every decision.

Hotel Architect: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Hotel Architect is a construction and management tycoon game where you design, build, and run hotels across multiple global locations, juggling guest satisfaction, staff logistics, and five-star ambitions all at once. You can climb through a structured Career Mode or go full creative in Sandbox, with enough décor options and layout freedom to build anything from a sleek luxury resort to something considerably more questionable. Every hire, room arrangement, and amenity choice feeds into a review system that determines the caliber of guests you attract — and how quickly things spiral when you get it wrong. It's the kind of game that starts with "just one more floor" and ends three hours later with a staff crisis and a mysteriously one-star breakfast rating.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'architect'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

MIO: Memories in Orbit: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

MIO: Memories in Orbit is a metroidvania set aboard a decaying space ark, overgrown with vegetation and haunted by rogue machines. You play as MIO, a nimble robot unraveling the mystery behind the Vessel's catastrophic blackout — repairing allies, uncovering secrets, and mastering an evolving set of traversal abilities along the way. Combat is flexible and builds around a modifier system that lets you reshape your playstyle on the fly, while over 15 boss encounters keep the stakes consistently high. Visually inspired by comics and anime, with a lo-fi-meets-choral soundtrack to match, it's a world that's as absorbing to look at as it is to move through.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'mio'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Human: Fall Flat [Steam]

More humans, more mayhem.
$̶̶23.29 $1.29

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Assetto Corsa [Steam]

Next-generation racing simulator.
$̶̶23.39 $4.97

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Gothic 1 Remake [Steam]

Welcome to the colony.
$̶̶58.50 $38.03

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Gears of War: Reloaded [PS5]

Optimized for PlayStation.
$39.99 $19.99

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Horizon Forbidden West [PS5]

Join Aloy as she braves the Forbidden West.
$49.99 $29.99

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Risk of Rain 2 [PS5]

Survive an alien planet.
$24.99 $6.24

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Devil May Cry [Nintendo Switch]

The legendary stylish action classic is back!
$19.99 $4.99

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Animal Well [Nintendo Switch]

Explore the intricate labyrinth and uncover its many secrets.
$24.99 $14.99

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Hello Neighbor [Nintendo Switch]

Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game about sneaking into your neighbor's house.
$39.99 $9.99

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Featured Game Review: Forza Horizon 6

Forza Horizon 6 feels like something the series has been building towards for fourteen years, and Japan was always going to be the destination worth waiting for. It's a focused open-world racer built around the most credible and car-friendly map Playground Games has ever crafted, then layered with enough new systems to keep you exploring long after the credits roll. Not everything is reinvented, but what works, works brilliantly.

Japan was worth the wait

Forza Horizon 6 lives and dies by its map, and thankfully, it delivers. Every corner of the world blends Tokyo's dense urban sprawl with mountain passes, rice fields, snowy highlands and winding touge roads, forcing you to constantly shift gears — literally and mentally — between very different kinds of driving. Nail a tight hairpin in the Japan Alps, then drop down into a multi-level freeway overpass above the docks. It creates a constant sense of discovery where no two drives ever feel quite the same.

What really sells it is the detail beneath the surface. Parking lots are entirely bespoke to their locations. Road surfaces change texture between tunnels, backroads and mountain passes. Exhaust vapor floats in frosty air. The car audio is the best in the series — downshifting through a tunnel is an experience unto itself. Boss fights of a different kind come in the form of Showcase events, including what may be the most unhinged set-piece the franchise has ever produced. It's demanding to take in, sometimes overwhelming, but rarely dull.

A tourist who never quite arrives

Step outside the driving, though, and the cracks start to show. The campaign's framing has genuine charm on paper, but doesn't explore its own premise in meaningful ways. You're immediately handed a garage full of cars, and the interesting possibility of gradually embedding yourself in Japanese car culture gets quietly abandoned. The wristband progression structure is a welcome return from the original game, and the parallel exploration strand with touge races and barn find rumors adds real texture, but the "tourist" identity never quite earns its weight. Important atmosphere is often tucked away in environmental details rather than being part of any cohesive narrative thread, which makes the whole thing feel a little disconnected.

There are also minor frustrations — two Showcase events feels lean, and the opening hours don't fully capitalise on the new aftermarket car system's potential for more immersive world integration. They rarely derail the experience for long.

Bottom line

Forza Horizon 6 knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks to it. Japan is the map the series always deserved: credible, dense, endlessly rewarding to move through, and it carries the entire experience on its back. Even with a promising premise left underexplored and a few rough edges, the sheer quality of the world and the driving make it hard to stop, and even harder not to finish.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Train Traffic Manager

Train Traffic Manager is a fast-paced strategy and puzzle game where players take control of busy railway networks, directing trains safely across tracks, intersections, and stations without causing collisions or delays. As traffic increases, players must carefully time signals, switch tracks, and manage multiple trains at once, testing both quick reflexes and long-term planning skills. With progressively more complex rail systems, colorful visuals, and satisfying traffic-flow mechanics, the game delivers a mix of relaxing management gameplay and intense decision-making that appeals to both casual players and strategy fans.
-——OR-------

White Night

White Night is a haunting black-and-white survival horror game on Steam that blends classic noir storytelling with atmospheric puzzle-solving and psychological tension. Set in the 1930s, players explore a mysterious mansion filled with shadows, ghosts, and hidden secrets after a late-night car crash leaves them stranded. Using limited matches and light sources to survive, players must navigate eerie corridors, uncover tragic family histories, and solve environmental puzzles while avoiding the deadly darkness itself. With its striking monochrome art style, jazz-inspired soundtrack, and cinematic fixed-camera presentation, the game delivers a uniquely stylish horror experience inspired by classic film noir and old-school survival horror titles like Resident Evil and Alone in the Dark.

Dead as Disco: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dead as Disco is a stylish rhythm-action beat ’em up on Steam that blends martial arts combat with music-video energy in a neon-soaked world driven entirely by the beat. Players step into the role of Charlie Disco, a fallen music icon fighting to reunite his fractured band while battling larger-than-life enemies known as the Idols. Every punch, dodge, combo, and parry syncs with the soundtrack, creating fast-paced combat that feels both cinematic and musical. Featuring vibrant comic-inspired visuals, customizable music integration, over-the-top fashion, and an energetic multi-genre soundtrack, the game delivers a flashy, adrenaline-fueled experience inspired by titles like Hi-Fi Rush while carving out its own identity through player-driven rhythm gameplay and stylish presentation.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'disco'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Amberspire: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Amberspire is a unique science-fantasy city builder on Steam that combines strategic resource management with dice-driven gameplay and a richly atmospheric alien world. Set atop the ruins of an abandoned moon orbiting a massive gas giant, players must guide the growth of a fragile settlement while balancing ecology, faction politics, unpredictable events, and the needs of their citizens. Every building uses custom dice to generate resources, forcing players to adapt their strategies to chance while shaping a thriving futuristic city. With its hand-drawn isometric art style, immersive soundtrack, and blend of colony simulation, board-game mechanics, and environmental storytelling, Amberspire offers a fresh and highly stylized take on the city-building genre.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'amber'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Gothic 1 Remake [Steam]

Return to the Valley of the Mines
$̶̶59.09 $37.08

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Phasmophobia [Steam]

Co-Op horror
$̶̶19.99 $13.99

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Slay the Spire [Steam]

Cards & Decks
$̶̶24.99 $6.24

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Pragmata [Steam]

Adventure game from Capcom
$69.99 $50.60

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Motorslice [PS5]

Parkour through the ruins
$19.99 $17.99

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Adorable Adventures [PS5]

Play as Boris, a curious baby boar
$19.99 $15.99

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Star Wars Battlefront Classic [Nintendo Switch]

Fight in iconic battles
$35.01 $26.25

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Bubsy 4D [Nintendo Switch]

New, intergalactic, platforming adventure
$19.99 $17.99

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Featured Game Review: SoulMask

Soulmask on Steam is one of the most surprisingly deep survival sandbox games to come out in recent years. At first glance, it looks like another entry in the crowded “craft, gather, survive” genre, but the moment the tribe management systems begin to unfold, the game starts to separate itself from competitors like ARK: Survival Evolved or Conan Exiles. Instead of simply building a base alone, Soulmask makes you feel like the leader of a growing civilization, where every tribesman has unique skills, personalities, and roles that meaningfully affect your progression.

Mask Mechanics

The mask mechanic is easily the game’s standout feature. Rather than permanently controlling a single character, you gradually recruit and inhabit different tribe members, each with their own strengths and specialties. It creates an unusual but rewarding gameplay loop where the “main character” is really the mask itself. This system gives the game far more strategic depth than most survival games, especially once automation and workforce management come into play.

Exploration is another major highlight. The world feels dangerous, mysterious, and worth uncovering, with ancient ruins, environmental hazards, giant beasts, and increasingly challenging bosses rewarding curiosity. The jungle aesthetic gives the game a unique identity, and newer updates and DLC expansions have added even more ambitious environments and mechanics, including Egyptian-inspired regions and airship construction systems.

Long Term Commitment

Where Soulmask shines brightest is in long-term progression. The deeper you go, the more systems reveal themselves — automation chains, advanced crafting, farming, logistics, training systems, tribe specialization, and large-scale settlement building. It scratches the same “just one more hour” itch that the best sandbox games create. Even many community reviews point out that the game becomes more impressive the longer you stick with it.

That said, the game is not perfect. Some systems can feel overwhelming early on, tutorials are rough in places, and certain design decisions — especially around map transfers, PvP balancing, and server support — have frustrated portions of the community. Combat can occasionally feel clunky, and there are still moments where the game shows its early-access roots despite major improvements in the 1.0 release.

Bottom line

Overall, Soulmask is an ambitious and genuinely refreshing survival game that dares to evolve the genre instead of simply copying it. Players looking for a casual crafting experience may find it intimidating, but anyone who enjoys deep progression systems, tribe management, automation, and large-scale sandbox gameplay will likely lose dozens — if not hundreds — of hours to it.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Shakes on a Plane

Shakes on a Plane is a chaotic co-op cooking game that takes the classic kitchen scramble to 30,000 feet. You and your crew race to prepare shakes, burgers, fries, and more while dealing with shifting planes, impatient passengers, and constant mid-flight chaos. Orders pile up fast, forcing tight coordination and quick thinking—especially when the environment itself starts working against you. With its absurd alien twist and nonstop pressure, it’s a loud, messy party game built for teamwork, mistakes, and plenty of last-second saves.

-——OR-------

YouRiding

YouRiding - Surfing and Bodyboarding Game is a realistic, browser-based wave riding simulator that lets players surf or bodyboard some of the world’s most iconic breaks with lifelike physics and dynamic ocean conditions. Instead of arcade-style gameplay, it focuses on timing, positioning, and reading waves, giving it a more authentic feel for surf enthusiasts. Players can choose different boards, customize conditions, and ride famous spots while aiming to perform smooth lines and maneuvers, making it both a casual experience and a skill-based challenge.

Dispatch: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Dispatch flips the superhero fantasy on its head, putting you behind the scenes as a former hero forced to manage chaos from a control room. As Robert Robertson, you’re juggling emergency calls, deploying a messy team of ex-villains, and trying to keep both the city and your crew from falling apart. Choices matter—who you send, how you handle people, even casual conversations shape relationships and outcomes. It’s part strategy, part narrative drama, with a sharp sense of humor and a focus on what being a “hero” looks like when you’re no longer in the spotlight.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'dispatch'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Town to City: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Town to City is a cozy, grid-free city builder that trades rigid planning for pure creative freedom. You shape winding streets, lively districts, and scenic parks exactly how you want, watching a small settlement grow into a thriving network of towns. Beneath its relaxed pace sits a light management layer—balancing citizen needs, jobs, and expansion across an evolving region. With its soft voxel visuals and emphasis on customization, it’s less about efficiency and more about building a place that actually feels alive.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'town'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

PATAPON 1+2 REPLAY [Steam]

The two games, released in 2007 and 2008, are back as a remastered set.
$̶̶35.09 $12.80

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Tides of Tomorrow [Steam]

Shape every player’s future.
$̶̶35.09 $16.37

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Conan Exiles [Steam]

Survive in a savage land.
$̶̶46.80 $7.35

Get Deal

Hollow Knight: Silksong [PS5]

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight.
$19.99 $15.99

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Dragon's Dogma 2 [PS5]

Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
$69.99 $29.39

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Alan Wake 2 [PS5]

Experience two beautiful yet terrifying worlds.
$59.99 $17.99

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The Oregon Trail [Nintendo Switch]

The Oregon Trail is back.
$29.99 $11.99

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate [Nintendo Switch]

Unleash the Turtles in a roguelike quest to rescue Splinter from the Foot Clan.
$29.99 $2.99

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Wobbly Life [Nintendo Switch]

It's time to start earning and living your best Wobbly Life.
$24.99 $19.99

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Featured Game Review: Saros

There’s a certain kind of game that asks for persistence above all else, and Saros fits that mold perfectly. It’s a fast, punishing third-person shooter built around repetition, where every failed run sharpens your instincts just enough to push a little further next time. Set on the unsettling planet of Carcosa, it mixes cosmic horror with a looping structure that mirrors its themes—identity, obsession, and the weight of past decisions—though not always as cleanly as it intends.

Flow state combat

Saros is all about movement and reaction. Combat feels like a constant dance between aggression and survival, where standing still for even a second can get you erased. Enemies flood arenas with waves of color-coded projectiles, forcing you to read the battlefield in real time. Blue shots can be absorbed, red ones demand perfect timing to counter, and others punish hesitation by permanently chipping away at your survivability. It’s chaotic, but never random.

Weapons play a huge role in shaping that flow, and the real challenge is juggling everything at once—dodging, positioning, managing cooldowns, and reacting without breaking rhythm. When it clicks, Saros becomes almost hypnotic. Boss fights push this even further, demanding precision and pattern recognition at a level that feels overwhelming at first, then deeply satisfying once you start to anticipate instead of react.

Repetition vs progress

Like many roguelites, Saros builds itself around repetition, but it doesn’t always escape the fatigue that comes with it. Each run follows a familiar cadence, with only slight variations in layout and encounters, which can make longer sessions blur together. The challenge remains engaging, but the structure rarely surprises you.

Progression leans toward incremental upgrades rather than transformative changes. You get stronger, more durable, better equipped—but rarely different. The story tries to elevate this loop with themes of identity and psychological strain, yet it often feels fragmented, with its most interesting ideas introduced but not fully explored. What’s there is intriguing, just not as cohesive as it needs to be.

Bottom line

Saros is a game that earns your respect before it earns your enjoyment. Its combat is sharp, demanding, and deeply satisfying once you meet it on its terms. Few shooters manage to create this kind of intensity, where every encounter feels like a test you genuinely have to rise to.

At the same time, it doesn’t quite stick the landing everywhere else. The repetition can wear thin, and the story reaches for more than it fully delivers. Still, if you’re willing to push through the friction, there’s something compelling here—a tough, hypnotic loop that keeps pulling you back in, one run at a time

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Algo Bot

Algo Bot is an awesome puzzle game that turns programming into the core of its gameplay, tasking you with guiding a service droid through a malfunctioning spaceship. Using a simple visual coding system, you build command sequences, debug mistakes, and optimize solutions across increasingly complex challenges. What starts approachable quickly grows into a clever test of logic, introducing concepts like loops, variables, and recursion along the way. Wrapped in a light, slightly sarcastic story, it’s both a brain workout and a surprisingly charming sci-fi adventure.

--—OR----

Old School Musical

Old School Musical is a chaotic rhythm game wrapped in a love letter to retro gaming, packed with chiptune beats and absurd humor. You guide two unlikely heroes through glitch-filled worlds, timing every move: attacks, jumps, even space battles—to the music. Levels constantly shift styles, parodying classic games while throwing in wild surprises (and, yes, a lot of chickens). It’s fast, funny, and proudly ridiculous, blending nostalgia with pure arcade energy.

Sudden Strike 5: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Sudden Strike 5 is a large-scale real-time tactics game that drops you into pivotal World War II battles where planning matters more than raw firepower. You command hundreds of authentic units—tanks, infantry, and aircraft—across sprawling maps, using positioning, timing, and supply management to outmaneuver the enemy. Every mission offers multiple ways to approach objectives, whether through direct assault, clever flanking, or cutting off reinforcements. It’s a methodical, strategy-first experience that rewards patience, precision, and smart decision-making.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'strike'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

RimWorld: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

RimWorld is a colony sim that turns survival into storytelling, where every decision shapes the fate of a fragile group of crash-landed survivors. You build, manage, and defend your settlement while juggling personalities, relationships, and constant threats—from pirates to mental breakdowns. What makes it stand out is the AI storyteller, dynamically pushing your colony toward triumph, disaster, or something in between. It’s less about winning and more about the unpredictable, often brutal stories that unfold along the way.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'rimworld'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Tides of Tomorrow [Steam]

Shape every player’s future.
$̶̶35.07 $17.16

Get Deal

StarRupture [Steam]

Explore the deadly planet.
$̶̶23.27 $12.84

Get Deal

Sudden Strike 5 [Steam]

Somewhere near Remagen, Germany.
$̶̶58.46 $39.97

Get Deal

Hollow Knight: Silksong [PS5]

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the epic sequel to Hollow Knight.
$19.99 $15.99

Get Deal

Dragon's Dogma 2 [PS5]

Set forth on your grand adventure, Arisen!
$69.99 $29.39

Get Deal

Alan Wake 2 [PS5]

Experience two beautiful yet terrifying worlds.
$59.99 $17.99

Get Deal

Hades [Nintendo Switch]

Battle out of hell.
$24.99 $6.24

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DOOM [Nintendo Switch]

Fight like hell.
$19.99 $3.99

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Red Dead Redemption [Nintendo Switch]

Experience the epic western adventures that defined a generation.
$49.99 $24.99

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Featured Game Review: Saros

Saros is built on a familiar loop—fight, die, repeat—but pushes harder to give that cycle meaning. It’s a brutal, stylish bullet-hell shooter that blends relentless action with a more ambitious, psychological story. The result is a game that constantly pulls you in two directions: one part pure adrenaline, the other reaching for something deeper.

Flow state combat at its best

When Saros clicks, it really clicks. Combat is fast, aggressive, and demands total focus, throwing waves of enemies and layered projectile patterns that feel closer to a rhythm game than a traditional shooter. Every run becomes a test of reflexes and decision-making—dodging, parrying, absorbing attacks, and striking back in tight windows. Weapons feel great across the board, from precise rifles to heavier crowd-control tools, and the DualSense integration adds a tactile edge that makes every action more immediate.

There’s a clear lineage to Returnal, but Saros smooths some of the friction with more persistent upgrades and a slightly more forgiving structure. Even so, difficulty remains high, and boss fights in particular demand mastery. The loop works because failure feeds improvement, each run sharpens your instincts until survival starts to feel like a controlled dance instead of chaos.

Ambition vs. repetition

Where Saros stumbles is in how it balances its ideas. Structurally, runs can begin to blur together, with similar combat encounters and limited variation in how levels unfold. Progress often feels less about experimenting with new builds and more about enduring longer, tougher fights—a war of attrition that can wear thin over time.

The story aims higher than its predecessor, weaving themes of identity, guilt, and psychological collapse into its sci-fi setting. There are intriguing questions at its core, and Arjun is a compelling lead—but too many narrative threads feel underdeveloped or overly abstract. Important details are buried in logs, and key moments don’t always land with the weight they should. It’s the kind of story that hints at something powerful, without fully delivering on it.

Bottom line

Saros is at its strongest when it leans into what Housemarque does best: fast, punishing, and deeply satisfying combat. While repetition and uneven storytelling hold it back, the thrill of mastering its systems—and surviving just a little longer each time—makes it hard to walk away from.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Port Royale 2 or Slice, Dice, and Rice

Port Royale 2 is a deep economic sim set in the 17th-century Caribbean, where you build a trading empire across dozens of ports. You manage production, establish trade routes, and grow entire cities while navigating threats from pirates and rival nations. Whether you focus on commerce, naval combat, or political influence, it’s a slow-burning strategy experience built around expansion, risk, and long-term planning.

--—OR----

Slice, Dice, and Rice

Slice, Dice, and Rice is a tense fighting game built around precision instead of health bars. One clean hit can end a round, turning every duel into a careful mind game of timing, feints, and positioning. With simple controls but deep mechanics, it captures the feel of real samurai standoffs. Each fighter brings a unique style, making every match a quick, deadly test of skill, where even the smallest mistake can cost you everything.

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike turns a simple arcade concept into a chaotic, combo-driven roguelike. You drop coins, trigger chain reactions, and stack wild synergies using special coins, power-ups, and upgrades that can completely flip a run. With multiple characters, hundreds of items, and endless replayability, it’s a fast, unpredictable loop built on chasing bigger combos and that constant “one more drop” feeling.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'raccoin'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Risk of Pain 2: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Risk of Rain 2 is a fast-paced roguelike shooter built around constant escalation. You fight through alien worlds while enemies grow stronger alongside you, creating a tense race to stay ahead. Each run is shaped by dozens of items that stack into wild, sometimes game-breaking builds, while multiple survivors offer different playstyles. With randomized levels and co-op support, it’s all about adapting on the fly and surviving the chaos as long as you can.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'pain'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Dying Light Essentials Edition [Steam]

Enjoy enhanced visuals, a remastered soundtrack, and graphical improvements.
$̶̶29.44 $2.95

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Peripeteia [Steam]

Consider joining us in the lights of the Eastern Night with Peripeteia.
$̶̶28.87 $11.81

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Bread & Fred [Steam]

Bread & Fred is a challenging co-op platformer from Apogee.
$̶̶17.43 $1.03

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RESIDENT EVIL 2 [PS5]

An unparalleled adrenaline rush, gripping storyline, and unimaginable horrors await you.
$39.99 $9.99

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Days Gone Remastered [PS5]

Fight to survive an environment ravaged by a deadly pandemic as a former outlaw biker.
$49.99 $19.99

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Raft [PS5]

Survive by yourself or with friends in online co-op.
$24.99 $16.74

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BioShock: The Collection [Nintendo Switch]

There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city.
$49.99 $9.99

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Hades II [Nintendo Switch 2]

Time cannot be stopped.
$29.99 $23.99

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Sid Meier’s Civilization VI [Nintendo Switch]

Build your greatest empire.
$29.99 $5.99

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Featured Game Review: Pragmata

Pragmata feels like something pulled straight out of the Xbox 360 era, in a good way. It’s a focused third-person shooter built around a single, clever mechanic, then layered with just enough depth to keep you pushing forward. Not everything lands, but what does, hits hard.

Hack-and-shoot brilliance

At its core, Pragmata lives and dies by its hybrid combat system, and thankfully, it delivers. Every fight blends traditional shooting with real-time hacking puzzles, forcing you to split your attention between the battlefield and a grid-based interface. Crack the hack, expose weak points, and only then can you deal real damage. It creates a constant tension where positioning, timing, and quick thinking all matter.

What really sells it is how the system evolves. New nodes, tougher enemies, and more complex grids keep things fresh, while the gunplay itself remains consistently satisfying. Weapons have weight, crowd control tools feel impactful, and boss fights escalate things into chaotic, high-stakes encounters. It’s demanding, sometimes overwhelming, but rarely dull.

Missed potential beyond the action

Step outside combat, though, and the cracks start to show. The story leans on familiar sci-fi ideas: a rogue AI, a mysterious android companion, a doomed lunar facility—but doesn’t explore them in meaningful ways. Hugh and Diana’s relationship has charm in small moments, yet it never quite earns its emotional weight. Important lore is often tucked away in logs instead of being part of the main narrative, which makes the whole thing feel oddly disconnected.

Level design follows a predictable loop of corridors and arenas, and while it works, it doesn’t evolve much over time. There are also minor frustrations—awkward movement in platforming sections, some clunky controls, but they rarely derail the experience for long.

Bottom line

Pragmata knows exactly what it wants to be and sticks to it. The hack-and-shoot formula is fresh, challenging, and genuinely fun, carrying the entire experience on its back. Even with a forgettable story and a few rough edges, the strength of its combat makes it hard to put down, and even harder not to finish.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers: Deadliest Catch: The Game

Deadliest Catch: The Game puts you in charge of a crab fishing vessel in the harsh waters of the Bering Sea. You handle everything yourself, from navigating storms to operating cranes and hauling pots—while racing against time, quotas, and unpredictable conditions. It leans heavily into realism, including regulations and species tracking, so every catch matters. Between rough seas and constant pressure, it captures the grind and risk of life as a crab fisherman.

Lost Soul Aside: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Lost Soul Aside is a fast-paced action RPG built around stylish combat and a deeply personal story. You play as Kaser, fighting across fractured worlds to save his sister’s soul after a catastrophic event unleashes otherworldly invaders. Battles are fluid and aggressive, letting you chain combos, swap weapons, and adapt your playstyle on the fly. Along the way, new abilities and powers steadily reshape how you approach each encounter. It’s a cinematic, high-energy journey that leans just as much on spectacle as it does on emotion.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'soul'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

The Last Caretaker: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

The Last Caretaker drops you into a flooded, post-human Earth as a lone machine tasked with rebuilding the future. You scavenge ruins, manage fragile “human seeds,” and slowly restore systems meant to send life back into orbit. Every decision feels purposeful: resources are scarce, threats are constant, and nothing is wasted. It’s a quiet, methodical survival experience driven less by action and more by responsibility.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'caretaker'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

The Occultist [Steam]

The Occultist is a first-person narrative thriller.
$̶̶35.04 $19.85

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Gothic 1 Remake [Steam]

Return to the Valley of the Mines in this faithful remake.
$̶̶58.41 $38.43

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Lies of P: Overture [Steam]

Cross the bounds of time.
$̶̶35.04 $22.61

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Phasmophobia [PS5]

Phasmophobia is a 4-player, online co-op, psychological horror game.
$19.99 $13.99

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Poppy Playtime: Chapter 3 [PS5]

New horrors await, and they're much more than just simple toys.
$14.99 $7.49

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Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered [PS5]

Earth is ours no more.
$49.99 $20.99

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Subnautica [Nintendo Switch]

Dive Into a Vast Underwater World.
$29.99 $9.89

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Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

This is it, Madeline. Just breathe. You can do this.
$19.99 $4.99

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Terraria [Nintendo Switch]

Dig! Explore! Fight! Build!
$29.99 $14.99

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Featured Game Review: Life is Strange: Reunion

Some stories never really leave you, and Life is Strange has always been one of those. Years later, Reunion circles back to Max and Chloe, not just to revisit them, but to finally close the chapter that started it all. It doesn’t waste time either. Within minutes, the calm is gone, replaced by tragedy, impossible choices, and that familiar feeling that no matter what you do… something will break.

A story that lands

Reunion feels sharper than recent entries. The narrative moves fast, but with purpose—switching between Max and Chloe as their lives collide again in ways that feel both earned and deeply uncomfortable. There’s a constant tension running underneath everything, built around loss, memory, and that cruel “what if” the series has always leaned on.

Choices hit harder this time. Not just in the moment, but later—quietly reshaping relationships, outcomes, even entire endings. It’s the kind of structure that makes you want to go back immediately, not because you missed something, but because you felt like you did.

Still, it’s not perfect. For a story built on two characters with so much shared history, there are moments where you just want them to stop and talk longer—actually to process everything that’s happened. Instead, the plot keeps moving, sometimes a little too quickly for its own good.

Familiar mechanics, smarter twists

Gameplay sticks close to what works. Max’s time rewind returns, but it’s used in more tense, almost puzzle-like scenarios that push you to think under pressure. There’s a real sense of urgency in certain sequences—something the series hasn’t always nailed before.

Chloe, on the other hand, brings something new. Her dialogue-driven confrontations strip away the safety net. No rewinds, no second chances, just decisions you have to live with. That contrast works surprisingly well, making each perspective feel distinct without overcomplicating things.

That said, the experience feels a bit… contained. There’s less to explore, fewer side interactions, and almost no extra systems or mini-games to break things up. It keeps the focus tight, sure, but it also leaves you wishing for just a little more space to breathe.

Bottom line

Life is Strange: Reunion isn’t the biggest or most ambitious entry in the series—but it might be the most focused. It understands what made Max and Chloe matter in the first place and leans into that, even if it occasionally rushes past moments that deserved more time. It doesn’t try to reinvent the formula. Instead, it refines it, sharpens it, and finishes it. And for a story that’s been building for over a decade, that’s exactly what it needed.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Flashback

Got a fun classic game for you here (waves of nostalgia)... Flashback. In the year 2142, young scientist Conrad B. Hart awakens on Titan, a colonized moon of Saturn, after escaping a spaceship with his memory completely erased. Hunted by enemies and unsure who to trust, he must fight to survive, make his way back to Earth, and uncover a dangerous extraterrestrial conspiracy that threatens the entire planet. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, this classic game—consistently ranked among the top 100 of all time—can be rediscovered for its groundbreaking use of motion capture technology, beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds, and gripping science-fiction storyline.

-———OR---------

Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy

Nostradamus: The Last Prophecy explores the spiritual, supernatural, and skeptical through a richly immersive treasure-hunt experience inspired by the famed quatrains of Nostradamus. Set in the South of France, the story unfolds in Salon-de-Provence, where the royal family is gripped by mysterious and terrifying events. Players take on the role of Madeleine de Nostradame, daughter of the renowned astrologer, as she tracks a cunning assassin who cloaks his crimes in the guise of prophetic astrology. As past, present, and an uncertain future intertwine, even the most rational mind may begin to question what is real—and what lies beyond explanation.

Timberborn: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Timberborn is a unique city-building and survival simulation where players guide a society of highly intelligent beavers in a post-human world shaped by cycles of drought and abundance. Instead of traditional human civilizations, you manage industrious beaver colonies that harness water through dams, levees, and irrigation systems while constructing intricate wooden settlements powered by renewable resources. With a strong focus on environmental management, players must carefully balance water storage, food production, and population growth to survive harsh dry seasons. Blending creative engineering with strategic planning, Timberborn offers a refreshing twist on the genre, where mastering water flow is the key to building a thriving, sustainable civilization.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'timber'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Hozy: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Hozy is a tranquil, physics-based home renovation simulator developed by Come On Studio and published by tinyBuild. Released in late March 2026, the game follows a protagonist who returns to their fading hometown to find a new passion in restoring abandoned spaces. Unlike more frantic simulation games, Hozy emphasizes a "no-stress" philosophy, stripping away timers, scores, and penalties to focus on the tactile satisfaction of cleaning, painting, and decorating. Across nine handcrafted locations—ranging from a childhood attic to a dreamlike lighthouse—players use intuitive tools like mops, squeegees, and crowbars to revitalize rooms at their own pace. With a charming soundtrack by the composer of Stray and a focus on tiny, immersive details like lighting candles or opening windows to watch dust motes dance, the game offers a deeply cozy experience designed to let players' inner designers flourish without the pressure of micromanaging budgets or deadlines.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'hozy'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

The Long Dark [Steam]

Bright lights flare across the night sky.
$̶̶34.22 $3.49

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GigaBash [Steam]

Endless waves of enemies
$̶̶24.99 $8.74

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ARC Raiders[Steam]

Adapt and survive.
$̶̶39.99 $29.38

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HellDivers 2 [Xbox]

The Galaxy’s Last Line of Offence.
$39.99 $29.99

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Dispatch [PS5]

Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha Man
$29.99 $23.99

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F1 Manager 2024 [Steam]

Lead your team to glory.
$34.99 $3.49

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Resident Evil 3 CLoud [Nintendo Switch 2]

Jill Valentine is one of the last remaining people
$29.99 $9.99

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Featured Game Review: Slay the Spire II

The launch of Slay the Spire 2 this week has redefined the expectations for what a sequel in the roguelike genre can achieve. While the original was hailed for its mathematical precision and minimalist design, the sequel expands on that foundation with a visual overhaul and mechanical complexity that feels earned rather than cluttered. By moving to the Godot engine, Mega Crit has delivered a liquid-smooth experience that retains the series' iconic hand-drawn aesthetic while introducing much-needed flair to animations and environmental storytelling. The Spire itself feels more alive and reactive, with dynamic background layers and "Ancient" encounters that provide a sense of scale the first game lacked.

Nostalgia & Innovation

The character roster serves as the game's strongest pillar, balancing nostalgia with innovation. Returning favorites like the Ironclad and Silent have been retooled with "Enchantments," a system that allows players to permanently modify card properties within a run, offering a layer of customization that goes beyond the binary choice of a standard upgrade. However, the real draw is the Necrobinder, a character that treats the "Exhaust" pile as a secondary resource. This design forces veterans to unlearn years of instinct regarding card removal, turning what was once a graveyard into a potent engine for combos and board control.

Perhaps the most ambitious addition is the inclusion of simultaneous four-player multiplayer, which transforms the traditionally solitary climb into a collaborative tactical exercise. Players can navigate separate paths on a shared map, coordinating who visits the shop and who takes on an Elite enemy to maximize team relics. This culminates in massive, multi-stage boss encounters where players must synergize their decks in real-time. It is a testament to the game's design that this added chaos doesn't dilute the strategic depth; instead, it creates a social layer that makes the Spire feel like a persistent world rather than just a solitary challenge.

Bottom line

The game already feels more complete and polished than most full releases. The branching "Alternate Acts" and the "Regent" character—who can forge custom cards mid-climb—ensure that the replayability remains virtually infinite. There are minor hurdles, such as some placeholder assets and a steep learning curve for the newer mechanics, but these are small prices to pay for what is undeniably the new gold standard of deckbuilders. Slay the Spire 2 isn't just a sequel; it is a masterclass in how to evolve a perfect formula without breaking it.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

+25 Entries for Game-a-Day Giveaway at CheatHappens.com for Premium Subscribers

CheatHappens.com is giving all premium subscribers an extra 25 entries into its Game-a-Day giveaway!.

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

The World After

The World After follows a writer isolated in rural France during lockdown, drawn into a surreal mystery fueled by strange dreams and shifting realities. As Vincent explores a quiet village and an ominous castle, he gains the ability to switch between day and night—only to be hunted by the terrifying Nightwatcher. Blending classic point-and-click gameplay with full-motion video storytelling, it leans heavily into atmosphere and intrigue. Multiple endings and hidden details reward curiosity, making it a slow-burn mystery that unfolds piece by piece.

-———OR---------

CakeFoot

CakeFoot is a deceptively simple precision runner that quickly turns into a brutal test of reflexes. You move forward by holding a button and drift back by releasing it—easy to grasp, but punishing to master as levels throw relentless, bullet hell-style patterns your way. Each run feels like threading a needle through chaos, with instant respawns pushing you into that “one more try” loop. With multiple modes, unlockables, and escalating difficulty, it’s a tight, addictive arcade experience that doesn’t let up.

-———OR---------

Razed

RAZED is all about momentum, precision, and shaving seconds off your best run. You blast through neon levels using speed bursts, jumps, and tight movement tricks, constantly balancing risk since every ability drains your energy. One mistake,or too much hesitation, and you’re out. Instant restarts keep the pace relentless, while shortcuts and alternate paths reward mastery. It’s a pure speedrunner’s playground built for chasing perfect runs and climbing leaderboards

Way of The Hunter 2: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Way of the Hunter 2 expands its open-world hunting sandbox with larger environments, deeper systems, and a stronger focus on realism. Set across the Canadian wilderness, you track and hunt everything from moose and bears to smaller game, using tools like decoys, blinds, and high-tech gear. The addition of a trainable hunting dog adds a new layer to tracking and exploration, making each hunt feel more dynamic. Between missions, you return to your lodge to plan expeditions and showcase trophies. It’s a slow, methodical experience built for players who enjoy patience, precision, and immersion over fast action.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'hunter'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Two Realms: Whispers from the Rift: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Two Realms: Whispers from the Rift is currently in Early Access, offering a dark fantasy journey built around modernized point-and-click design. You play as Tobias, racing against time to save his brother after a mysterious encounter leaves him fading away. The game blends classic puzzle-solving with horror elements, wrapped in detailed pixel art and full voice acting. Its story leans into atmosphere and tension, with strange whispers and looming threats pushing you forward. Even in its current state, it sets up a moody, story-driven adventure with clear potential to grow.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'whispers'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Screamer [Steam]

Five teams. Five reasons to risk it all.
$̶̶69.22 $58.95

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Life is Strange: Reunion [Steam]

Losing Chloe is Max’s greatest regret.
$̶̶46.14 $39.54

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Animal Shelter 2 [Steam]

Our four-legged friends need your help.
$̶̶28.27 $5.48

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Dispatch [PS5]

You take charge of a team of ex-supervillains given a shot at redemption.
$29.99 $23.99

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Astro Bot [PS5]

Join Astro on a supersized space adventure.
$59.99 $39.59

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Helldivers 2 [PS5]

Enlist in the Helldivers.
$39.99 $29.99

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FINAL FANTASY VII [Nintendo Switch]

This game is a port of the original FINAL FANTASY VII.
$15.99 $6.39

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Little Nightmares II [Nintendo Switch]

Will you dare to face this collection of new, little nightmares?
$29.99 $9.89

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Life is Strange 2 [Nintendo Switch]

If you can reach Mexico, you will be safe, but the journey will be winding.
$31.99 $6.39

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Featured Game Review: Screamer

Screamer doesn’t ease you in; it throws you straight into neon chaos and expects you to keep up. This is arcade racing turned up to maximum intensity, blending high-speed drifting with aggressive, almost fighting game-style mechanics. It’s loud, stylish, and unapologetically different. And while that ambition pays off in some seriously thrilling moments, it also exposes cracks that are hard to ignore the longer you stay on the track.

Speed and systems that demand attention

At the heart of Screamer is its standout twin-stick driving system. Steering with one stick while controlling drift angle with the other feels strange at first, but once it clicks, it becomes surprisingly satisfying. You’re not just turning corners—you’re actively sculpting your movement, balancing precision and chaos in real time. Add in manual gear timing to build boost, and suddenly every race becomes a constant juggling act.

That complexity extends to its combat system, where boost and attack meters are tightly linked. You’re always deciding whether to spend your resources on speed or aggression, creating a constant push and pull between offense and defense. It’s a clever system that gives races a tactical edge, especially when combined with character-specific strengths and weaknesses. The best tracks (wide, flowing circuits drenched in neon rain) let all of this shine, turning races into fast, fluid duels.

But not every track plays to those strengths. Tighter, twist-heavy layouts slow everything down, exposing how clunky the handling can feel at lower speeds. Some cars amplify that issue with overly sensitive drift physics, making them more frustrating than fun. When the flow breaks, Screamer loses a lot of its magic

Sometimes too much style

Screamer leans hard into its anime-inspired identity, and visually, it works. The cars look incredible, and the presentation feels like a racing anime brought to life. Cutscenes are slick, colorful, and clearly a major focus.

The problem is the story itself. It throws a large cast at you almost immediately, bouncing between teams without giving you time to care about any of them. Dialogue is constant, often overly dramatic, and rarely engaging. Instead of building connection, it becomes background noise you’re tempted to skip just to get back on the track.

The central tournament mode doesn’t help much either. While it acts as a structured introduction, its mission design can feel oddly restrictive or uneven. Some events rely on specific conditions that break the natural flow of racing, forcing you into awkward strategies that feel more frustrating than rewarding. Thankfully, Screamer offers plenty of alternatives—custom races, online modes, and even four-player split-screen—that let you enjoy the game on your own terms without dealing with its more questionable design choices

Bottom line

Screamer is bold, busy, and refreshingly different in a genre that rarely takes risks. When everything clicks, on the right track, with the right car, and systems firing on all cylinders, it delivers a thrilling, high-speed experience that feels unlike anything else. But that same ambition also leads to inconsistency, from uneven tracks to a forgettable story and frustrating mission design. It’s not a perfectly tuned machine, but it’s one with a clear identity, and for the right player, that might be more than enough.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Of Orcs and Men

Of Orcs and Men flips the usual fantasy script by putting you in control of an Orc warrior and a stealthy Goblin on a mission to assassinate the human Emperor. Set in a brutal world where Orcs and Goblins are hunted and enslaved, the story leans into rebellion and survival. Combat mixes direct fighting with tactical abilities, letting you switch between strength and stealth. While the mechanics can feel a bit rough around the edges, the dual-character dynamic and darker perspective make it a memorable RPG experience.

-———OR---------

They Always Run

They Always Run puts you in the boots of Aiden, a three-armed bounty hunter tracking criminals across a chaotic galaxy. The extra limb isn’t just for show—it adds a unique twist to combat, letting you grab, throw, and control multiple enemies at once. Missions blend fast-paced action with light exploration and upgrades that expand your abilities over time. The story leans into conspiracy and mystery, though it sometimes takes a backseat to the gameplay. Stylish, punchy, and a bit unconventional, it stands out thanks to its creative combat hook.

No Man's Sky: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

No Man's Sky offers a massive, procedurally generated universe where every star hides new planets, creatures, and possibilities. You can seamlessly travel from space to surface, choosing your own path as an explorer, trader, or fighter. Survival, resource management, and ship upgrades shape your journey, whether you play solo or with others in a shared galaxy. Years of updates have transformed it into a deep, feature-rich experience with base building, multiplayer, and evolving worlds. It’s less about a set goal and more about carving out your own story among the stars.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'sky'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

Pizza Slice [Steam]

Welcome to the world of Pizza Slice!
$̶̶17.22 $9.42

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Barotrauma [Steam]

Embrace the deep abyss.
$̶̶28.71 $9.71

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Primal Planet [Steam]

Adapt and survive.
$̶̶21.82 $3.44

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House Flipper 2 [PS5]

Share the fun.
$39.99 $25.99

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Persona 5 Royal [PS5]

Prepare for the award-winning RPG experience.
$59.99 $17.99

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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach [PS5]

Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA.
$69.99 $49.69

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FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE [Nintendo Switch 2]

Once more begins a story that will shape the destiny of the entire world.
$39.99 $23.99

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LIMBO [Nintendo Switch]

Uncertain of his sister's fate, a boy enters Limbo.
$12.49 $1.99

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Dead by Daylight [Nintendo Switch]

Death Is Not an Escape.
$29.99 $10.49

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Featured Game Review: Crimson Desert

Crimson Desert feels like a game built from ambition first and restraint second. It reaches for everything—huge open-world freedom, cinematic storytelling, systemic gameplay, sandbox chaos—and tries to fuse it into one massive experience. On paper, it’s a dream mix of modern RPG heavyweights. In practice, it’s something far messier. After dozens upon dozens of hours, what stands out isn’t just what it gets wrong, but how often it almost gets things right.

A world that feels alive… until it doesn’t

At its best, Crimson Desert is pure immersion. You wander through stunning landscapes, stumble into side activities like fishing, gambling, or hunting, and occasionally forget the main quest even exists. Towns feel alive, with NPCs following daily routines, caravans moving across regions, and small dynamic events unfolding whether you’re there or not. There’s a genuine sense that the world exists independently of you, and when it clicks, it’s easy to get lost in it for hours.

That sense of freedom extends to how you play. One moment you’re managing a small settlement, the next you’re grilling meat before a big fight or chasing down a bounty across regions. It’s messy, but in a good way—like a sandbox that constantly throws new distractions at you. The problem is that this same world is held back by awkward systems. Inventory limits become frustratingly restrictive, forcing you to discard valuable gear, and combat encounters drag on far longer than they should, often throwing waves of enemies at you just for trying to cross a road. The scale impresses, but the design decisions chip away at the fun the longer you stay.

Combat, story, and systems that never quite click

The cracks widen once you dig deeper into the core systems. Combat looks flashy but struggles with pacing and balance, so most fights feel bloated, with too many enemies and not enough variety. Boss battles, meanwhile, shift awkwardly into punishing, multi-phase encounters that feel pulled from a completely different game. Instead of testing mastery, they often turn into endurance runs fueled by healing items and patience.

Then there’s the story, arguably the weakest part of the experience. Despite heavy focus on cutscenes and character interactions, the narrative never finds its footing. Characters come and go without impact, dialogue ranges from forgettable to outright cringeworthy, and major emotional beats fall flat. It’s especially strange given how much time the game asks you to invest in it. There are glimpses of style—particularly in over-the-top, anime-inspired action scenes, but they’re not enough to carry the overall narrative.

Bottom line

Crimson Desert is a fascinating contradiction. It’s massive, beautiful, and filled with moments that genuinely feel special, yet constantly undermined by uneven design, weak storytelling, and frustrating systems. The highs are impressive enough to keep you pushing forward, but the lows are impossible to ignore. It’s not the ultimate open-world RPG it aims to be, but it’s also far from forgettable. More than anything, it feels like a game that tried to do everything—and in doing so, lost sight of what it needed to do well.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

The Eighth Inc. c/o LootHappens.com
46 Plains Road
Essex, CT 06426

©2024 Loot Happens | hi@loothappens.com | Privacy Policy | Terms

Key Giveaway For Premium Subscribers - Choose Your Game!

Space Robinson: Hardcore Roguelike Action

Space Robinson: Hardcore Roguelike Action drops you on a hostile alien world after a crash, where a lone engineer must explore the abandoned Colony 21 and survive relentless monster attacks. The game embraces true roguelike design—procedurally generated levels, constant danger, and plenty of deaths along the way. Each run lets you gather artifacts and crystals to upgrade the colony base and improve your chances next time. You can also craft helpful bot assistants, including a combat-ready robotic pup. Tough, fast, and unforgiving, it’s a survival experience built around persistence and experimentation.

-———OR---------

Combat Wings

Combat Wings drops players into the skies above Midway during the pivotal 1942 battle for the Pacific. You take on multiple roles—fighter pilot, bomber operator, reconnaissance scout, and even anti-air gunner—while facing waves of Japanese forces. Fast-paced dogfights and varied mission types keep the action moving as you pilot different wartime aircraft. It’s a straightforward aerial combat experience focused on historic battles and arcade-style flying.

Trinity Fusion: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

Trinity Fusion is a fast-paced roguelite that blends tight combat with multiverse exploration. You control three parallel versions of the same hero, each with unique weapons, abilities, and worlds to explore, from mutant-filled wastelands to machine-ruled factories and floating cities. Runs mix procedurally generated levels with handcrafted combat arenas, keeping each attempt fresh. As you progress, you unlock permanent upgrades and new starting points, gradually pushing deeper into the story. With fluid movement, smart build synergies, and stylish sci-fi action, it’s a satisfying challenge for fans of skill-driven roguelites.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'trinity'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

OR - If you are a free member and you decide to upgrade to premium today, you will get Trinity Fusion automatically (For the first 15 upgrades)

MIO: Memories in Orbit: Key Giveaway For Free Subscribers

MIO: Memories in Orbit follows a nimble robot exploring the ruins of a massive drifting spaceship known as the Vessel. As MIO, you uncover the mystery behind the ship’s shutdown while navigating a vast, interconnected world filled with rogue machines, hidden paths, and forgotten technology. The metroidvania-style progression unlocks abilities like grappling, gliding, and wall-clinging, opening new areas and combat strategies. Along the way you’ll battle unique enemies and powerful bosses while upgrading your abilities with scavenged parts. With striking art inspired by comics and anime and a moody sci-fi atmosphere, it’s a stylish exploration-driven adventure.

If you would like to be in the running for a key, hit reply and just put 'memories'. We will pick a winner and send over the key in 48 hours

Historically Low Prices

This section of Loot Happens currently tracks historical discounts on games and throughout the industry. Our tireless web crawlers scour the web daily, sniffing out the best deals across the gaming landscape.

These aren't just any games – they're titles we adore and highly respect. And right now, you can grab them at prices we've never seen before!

StarRupture [Steam]

Explore a mysterious planet in an ever-changing open world.
$̶̶22.98 $11.80

Get Deal

Blossom: The Seed of Life [Steam]

You play as Blossom, a small but capable robot built to survive where humans cannot.
$̶̶19.04 $10.50

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DARK SOULS: REMASTERED [Steam]

Then, there was fire.
$̶̶46.18 $17.30

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Arma Reforger [PS5]

Arma Reforger isn’t just a shooter—it’s a true military sandbox.
$39.99 $27.99

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House Flipper 2 [PS5]

Share the fun!
$39.99 $25.99

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Sledders [PS5]

Rev' up your sled & dive into fresh powder in Sledders!
$34.99 $24.49

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Mortal Kombat 1 [Nintendo Switch]

It’s In Our Blood!
$39.99 $9.99

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Planet of Lana [Nintendo Switch]

Welcome to an off-earth odyssey.
$19.99 $5.99

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Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition [Nintendo Switch]

The forest of Nibel is dying.
$19.99 $4.99

Get Deal

Featured Game Review: WWE 2K26

Another WrestleMania season means another trip to the squared circle, and this year’s entry continues the momentum built by recent games. WWE 2K26 doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it refines the already solid foundation the series has been building over the past few years. Matches still look fantastic and feel satisfying, capturing the spectacle and chaos of televised wrestling. At the same time, a few lingering issues and some questionable design decisions keep this installment from delivering a true main-event performance. It’s still an entertaining wrestling sandbox, but cracks are starting to show.

In-ring improvements and match variety

The biggest gameplay tweak this year comes from the stamina system. Wrestlers can now become “winded” when their stamina runs dry, temporarily disabling running and reversals until they recover. This creates a more tactical pace, forcing players to balance offense with endurance and making reckless attacks riskier than before. It also helps tone down the dominance of the reversal system, which has long allowed experienced players to shut down nearly every attack. Alongside that change are small physics upgrades that make collisions with ropes, stairs, and other objects feel more reactive and dynamic.

New match types help expand the spectacle as well. Inferno, Dumpster, and Three Stages of Hell matches return alongside the highlight addition—I Quit matches, which introduce a clever timing-based escape system during submission attempts. The mechanic keeps tension high as the safe zones shrink and blockers appear, turning the struggle into a genuine back-and-forth battle. While some of the other stipulations feel like nostalgic novelties, they still add variety to an already deep match lineup.

Modes, storylines, and monetization Issues

Outside the ring, WWE 2K26 delivers a mixed card. The CM Punk–focused Showcase mode struggles to capture the full scope of his career, skipping major moments and relying heavily on hypothetical matches to fill gaps. Meanwhile, MyRise follows the comeback story of a former superstar known as “The Archetype,” offering branching choices and alignment changes, though much of the journey is padded with repetitive matches between story beats.

The Island multiplayer hub returns with expanded storytelling and voice acting, but it still leans heavily on grinding and microtransactions to unlock cosmetics and upgrades. The introduction of a battle pass system further reinforces that trend, splitting rewards between free and premium tracks and replacing the traditional DLC structure. Longtime fans may find the grind frustrating, especially when many unlockables used to be available more easily in previous entries.

Bottom line

WWE 2K26 remains a strong wrestling game thanks to its polished gameplay, impressive presentation, and wealth of modes. The new stamina mechanics and match types add welcome variety, and the core experience in the ring is still one of the best representations of pro wrestling in gaming. However, uninspired single-player modes and increasingly aggressive monetization prevent it from reaching championship status. It’s still a worthy title defense for the series, but for the first time in a while, the challenger feels closer than ever to taking the belt.

Next Week

Every newsletter has a lot to look forward to, and we are in active communication with several developers and studios. More to come next week!

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