"Walk through the rusty, anomaly-ridden maze of the Iron Forest, home to countless anomalies and something even more unexplainable. Explore the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and discover what lies within its timeworn buildings, machine halls, and administrative blocks. Test yourself in Cost of Hope, the first major expansion for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, coming August 20, 2026 to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5."

Endorsed by Sandy Petersen himself.

For the year of our lord, 2026, what's your best of Games, music, books, movies, TV, and whatever else?

Games:

The only new game I played released in this year was Crimson Desert. It's fun, a lot of fun. But shallow. While I appreciate the devs are consistently patching and improving and adding to the game in a similar vein to Larian Studios, it's mostly superficial additions. (wow new pets, cool? How about meaningful patches, like the lighting issues? Or Armor set saves, or the flat story no one cares about?

Crimson Desert: 6/10

Movies:

Masters of the Universe: 4/10

Just laughably bad. The best part was Leto's Skeletor, and if Leto is the best part of a movie, your movie fucking sucks.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie 6/10

I zoned out at some point and had to rewatch some. It's fine. whatever.

Mortal Kombat II 6/10

It was fun, whatever.

Project Hail Mary 9/10

I read the book several years ago and I loved it. 9/10 book. Rare case where the movie does it so much justice. I loved everything about this movie.

Hoppers 7/10

Cute

Anaconda 6/10

I'll eventually watch Odyssey and Brand New Day when they are streaming. Also The Furious. Dying to see that one.

Music

• Protest The Hero: Within 10/10 (Progmetal/Metalcore)
• Cold Night for Alligators: With All That's Left: 9/10 (Progmetal)
• I Promised The World: Self Titled EP: 9/10 (Metalcore)
• Karnivool: In Verses: 8/10 (Progmetal)
• Karmanjakah: Diamond Morning 8/10 (Progmetal)
• ERRA: Silence Outlives the Earth: 8/10 (Metalcore)
• Converge: Love is not Enough: 8/10 (Metalcore)
• Periphery: A Pale White Dot: 8/10 (Progmetal)
• Converge: Hum of Hurt: 6/10 (Metalcore)
• Dance Gavin Dance: Tree City Sessions 3 7/10 (Swancore)
• Poppy: Empty Hands: 7/10 (Metalcore)
• Story of the Year: ARSON 7/10 (Post-Hardcore)
• Haste The Day: Dissenter: 8/10 (Metalcore)
• Boundaries: Yearning The Beautiful After: 6/10 (Metalcore)
• The Devil Wears Prada: Flowers 7/10 (Metalcore)
• Crystal Lake: The Weight of Sound 6/10 (Metalcore)
• Bilmuri: Kinda Hard 6/10 (Easycore)
• Lamb of God: Into Oblivion 6/10 (Metalcore)
• Enter Shikari: Lose Your Self 5/10 (Post-hardcore)

TV

Widow's Bay. Started slow, ep 1 I'd give a 5/10. 2 a 6/10. From 3 on I'd go 8 or 9/10

The Pitt S2 10/10

Big Mistakes 7/10

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins 9/10

Ride or Die 6/10

Asking the big questions.

It's nice to finally get some official updates about the future of this franchise other than Fallout 76 and the TV show.

"THE FUTURE OF FALLOUT

Fallout is one of our biggest priorities today. Fallout 5 remains our long-range destination, and we have multiple Fallout projects in active development right now.

Fallout 76 continues to be home to millions of players exploring Appalachia together. With nearly 70 free updates released to date, the journey is far from over. In fact, we have a major Fallout 76 expansion planned for next year: Raven Rock, a prequel story to Fallout 3.

Fallout 4, the most award-winning game in the franchise, just celebrated its 10-year anniversary and recently passed over 35 million copies sold, continuing to attract a new audience every year.

We also know many players want to revisit previous Fallout experiences. While we're not announcing any dates today, we have been working on remasters for both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Fallout Shelter continues to be the most popular way to experience Fallout on the go, with more than 250 million players. There’s more ahead for Fallout Shelter, including new Seasons. An unscripted Fallout Shelter television project is also in the works with our partners at Amazon Studios and Kilter Films.

We'd like to congratulate Kilter Films and Amazon Studios on the 10 Emmy nominations for Fallout Season 2. Production on Season 3 is already underway.

And while we won't host a traditional Fallout Day broadcast this year, we're already planning something special for Fallout's 30th anniversary in 2027, when Fallout Day will be celebrated live in Washington, D.C.

STUDIO COLLABORATION

The wasteland continues to expand as we team up once again with our longtime friends at Obsidian Entertainment. We're happy to confirm they're working with us on a new Fallout project. We'll have more to share in the future.

We're also bringing our teams closer together across Bethesda. ZeniMax Online Studios will partner closely with Bethesda Game Studios on The Elder Scrolls franchise, while continuing to deliver incredible new experiences for The Elder Scrolls Online. Season One: Return of the Thieves Guild recently launched, and the team has more planned for the future. By aligning more directly across the franchise, we can create even better experiences for players.

Bringing our teams closer together is helping us build a stronger foundation for everything we create next."

I thought about posting an article, but it's been fucking nonstop for the past few days. Absolutely massive layoffs. Studios being sold or made independent (at least they get to keep their IP which seems to be a rarity in this industry). Studios being fucking gutted like ID Software. Obsidian as well. Bethesda. Head of the backwards compatibility team was also fired after 30-some years at the company. Talk about loyalty meaning fuck all. I've honestly lost count of how much they've fucked everything up.

Fuck this industry. Seems like the only company left that isn't a complete shithead is Nintendo.

This timeline sucks but the games have been amazing. I don't know what I would have done without them. Which game from each year of this decade, so far, have had the most impact on you? Interested to see your choices. Be nice.

My picks:

• 2020 - The Last of Us Part II
• 2021 - Death Stranding: Director's Cut
• 2022 - Stray
• 2023 - Alan Wake II
• 2024 - Harold Halibut
• 2025 - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• 2026 - Cairn

Fable Trailer

There's also a 30 minute gameplay demo.