Build a fortress and try to help your dwarves survive against a deeply generated world. Keep your dwarves happy, grow their community and beware of digging too deeply. The deepest, most intricate…

After its liberation from Microsoft's ownership, the newly independent Double Fine Productions has been quite busy. At the September 2026 State of Play, PlayStation revealed that Double Fine's surreal adventure Keeper is shadow-dropping on PS5, and the studio added that the acclaimed game is getting some intriguing updates. Along with the surprise PS5 release, Keeper is also getting a "Psychedelic Mode," which is probably exactly what it sounds like. Considering how much bizarre imagery is already in the game, an even more "wild new way" to play the game should be a treat. And Double Fine wants to sweeten the deal with a price cut, which the studio implemented with its other recent title, Kiln. https://bsky.app/profile/doublefine.com/post/3mummzhp4ws2f Keeper launched in 2025 at a $30 price point and now sells for $20. Kiln, which released earlier in 2026, cost $20 for the base game, with a $30 deluxe "Fired Up" edition; those are now $8 and $10, respectively. Unlike Keeper, Kiln launched on PS5 along with Xbox and Steam. Meanwhile, Double Fine revived its Amnesia Fortnight game jam and already exceeded its crowdfunding goal of $400,000 for the project. The game jam, a tradition for Double Fine since 2007 (and was halted while it was under Xbox's ownership), will result in the studio's next title. But the loftiest stretch goal in the crowdfunding campaign is the promise of a Brutal Legend 2 should it reach $100 million. It's a huge ask, and one that likely won't be met pending intervention from any moguls who are big Jack Black fans. Keeper was beloved by critics, with GameSpot's Keeper review calling it a "visual feast." Since Double Fine's spin-off from Xbox, purchases of its games will directly support the studio. The split from Microsoft occurred in July, but the studio unfortunately cut 25% of its staff as a result.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has been Nintendo's golden goose for several years, as it's the company's best-selling Switch game of all time and has received various updates over the years, becoming a feature-packed experience. Even with Mario Kart World aiming to usurp its position, Nintendo isn't done dropping new content into Mario Kart 8 yet, as the game just received a new eight-player split-screen mode out of nowhere on Switch 2. It's free to download, allows for up to eight players to share the screen locally, and it looks wild in action. Alongside the new mode that segments your TV like a slab of chocolate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Version 4.0.0 also adds several more improvements that take advantage of the increased horsepower on Switch 2. In a nutshell, you're getting sharper graphics, CameraPlay support, and shorter load times in addition to smaller quality-of-life tweaks under the hood of the popular kart-racing game. Even player speed has been increased by a whopping coin--whatever that means. https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/2094968553728274749 But the expanded local split-screen is the real star of the show here, as not only can you strain your eyes while playing on TV, but you can also make your local optometrist happy by watching all those races unfold in handheld mode on the Switch 2. Considering just how much of an intensive load it is to render eight sessions in real time, the new multiplayer mode is a technical marvel to watch. This will likely keep Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at the top of the Nintendo food chain for a while yet. Mario Kart World has its charm, but as fans have pointed out, the anemic amount of content added since its launch last year has made it hard to root for. That drought might be coming to a temporary end, as with a rumored Nintendo Direct supposedly arriving later this month, players are expecting Mario Kart World to get some sort of an update. If you're looking to grab it, a new Switch 2 + Mario Kart World bundle ($550) launches in late September--albeit for $50 when compared to the original launch bundle. Here Are The Switch 2’s Best-Selling Games So Far View Images

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Physical PC games have been out of fashion for many years, thanks to the rise of digital distribution platforms like Steam. While big PC game boxes containing CD and DVD-ROMs have essentially died out, one modder has decided to bring back game cartridges to their Steam library, blending solid-state drives with Steam's flexible desktop client. Over on the PC Master Gaming Race subreddit, Jibril-sama detailed their plug-and-play approach to playing Steam games. They'd recently purchased a stack of used SATA SSDs, loaded a custom script on them, installed games onto each one, and created custom graphics to stick to the cases. Once done, a custom Steam Game Cartridge was born, with some of Jibril-sama's games being Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon 5, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2--all games with a chunky install size. If you're interested in making your own cartridges, Jibril-Sama has uploaded the code online for modders to check out. According to their post, the code "should" work with other storage mediums like SD cards, USB drives, and flash drives. "No guarantee that it's going to work for you. I only tested on my old Win10 install, but you should at least be able to take the general code and make it work or improve it," they wrote. Going with the SSD method is obviously the pricier option, as on average, you're looking at around $30-$50 for a quality 128GB SSD. Once the games start piling up, so too does the price. Memory prices have surged in recent months due to rampant investment in AI data centers and various global factors, making what was once an affordable upgrade more expensive than ever. The future is also looking increasingly digital for next-gen video game consoles, as Sony has confirmed that it will stop manufacturing PlayStation discs in 2028. Microsoft's next-gen console, Project Helix, is also rumored to be a digital-only console.

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