Gaming News Roundup: GTA 6 Reviews Reportedly Land Nov. 18, Battlefield 6 Pulls Its Mass Effect Gear, Elden Ring's 100-Hour Club & More (Oct 24, 2026)

Grand Theft Auto VI (image via Notebookcheck / Rockstar Games)

GTA 6 reviews may finally have a date. Battlefield 6 quietly drops its Mass Effect gear while fans fight to save the series, a new report looks at Xbox leadership's missed targets, and Creative Assembly explains the Shogun 2 remaster mess. Elden Ring hits another huge milestone, Fallout Day brings pets to the wasteland, and there's plenty more. Here's the Lanbrew gaming roundup for October 24, 2026.

GTA 6 reviews reportedly land November 18, the day before launch

We may finally know when GTA 6 reviews arrive. Notebookcheck reports that ResetEra user BlackBate, who has correctly called earlier embargoes for Microsoft Flight Simulator, Death Stranding, Pragmata and Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, says the review embargo lifts on November 18. That's one day before the game's November 19 launch. Scores would reportedly start showing up on Metacritic in the early morning US time, around 5 to 6am CT.

The same report says some sites and YouTube channels are being held until midnight ET on November 19, the moment the game launches. Review codes are said to go out the week of October 26 or in early November, and no hands-on previews are expected before that. A day-before embargo would match what Rockstar did with GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar hasn't confirmed any of this, so treat it as a solid rumor for now.

Source: Notebookcheck

Battlefield 6's Mass Effect items (image via IGN / EA)

Battlefield 6 quietly pulls its Mass Effect gear as fans push to save the series

After BioWare's closure, EA appears to have pulled its Mass Effect crossover items from Battlefield 6. IGN and Kotaku report that the N7-themed patches, weapon cosmetics and a Normandy charm, which were added in Season 5 and spotted ahead of N7 Day on November 7, are no longer in the store. EA hasn't said why.

Fans aren't letting go. A petition to save BioWare's canceled Mass Effect game has passed 76,500 signatures, and some players are calling for a boycott of EA. Jennifer Hale, the voice of the female Commander Shepard, says she's "holding hope" after footage from the canceled game leaked online.

Source: IGN; Kotaku; IGN (petition); IGN (Jennifer Hale)

Xbox (image via Insider Gaming)

Report: Xbox leadership missed its performance targets in five of the last six years

Insider Gaming, citing a report from GameFile, says Xbox's top executives missed their internal performance goals in five of the last six fiscal years. For the year that ended June 30, 2026, the target was 4.3% growth in Xbox content and services revenue. The actual result was a 6% decline.

Those targets have been tied to executive pay since 2020. The goal first tracked Game Pass subscriptions and switched to content and services revenue in 2023. The report comes in a week of big changes at Xbox, including more leadership departures and studio cuts.

Source: Insider Gaming

Total War: Shogun 2 (image via PC Gamer / Sega)

Update: Creative Assembly says an outside studio made the troubled Shogun 2 remaster

What's new: Creative Assembly has now explained what went wrong with Total War: Shogun 2 Complete Edition, which was pulled from sale after launching to complaints about its quality. CA vice president Roger Collum said, "This was not a Creative Assembly developed game." It was made by an external partner; the Steam listing names Warsaw studio Mataboo.

Collum didn't use the partner to dodge the blame, though: "We have to own that and fix it." He also said CA doesn't use generative AI to make game assets, and that the remaster's problems are being investigated.

Source: PC Gamer; Rock Paper Shotgun; Kotaku

Final Fantasy Resonance (image via GamesRadar+ / Square Enix)

Final Fantasy Resonance is already Square Enix's second-biggest turn-based Steam launch

Final Fantasy Resonance is off to a strong start on PC. GamesRadar+ reports the HD-2D RPG peaked at 27,933 concurrent players on Steam. Among Square Enix's turn-based RPGs, only Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake (45,357) did better. That puts Resonance just ahead of Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, which peaked at 27,390.

Source: GamesRadar+

Elden Ring (image via GamesRadar+ / FromSoftware)

Nearly 10 million Elden Ring players have passed 100 hours

New estimates from analytics firm Alinea, reported by GamesRadar+, put Elden Ring at about 36.4 million copies sold and close to $2 billion in revenue. Around 9.8 million players have spent more than 100 hours in the Lands Between, and about 3.5 million have earned every achievement.

Four years in, it's still selling: Alinea estimates 2 million copies sold this year, worth about $110 million. Spinoff Elden Ring Nightreign is estimated at 7.8 million players and $282 million.

Source: GamesRadar+

Fallout's Vault Boy (image via Polygon / Bethesda)

Fallout Day 2026 brings pets to Fallout 76 and baby Deathclaws to Fallout Shelter

Bethesda wrapped up a five-day Fallout Day this week, and pets were the big theme. Polygon's roundup says Fallout 76's World Pets update, the game's 72nd free update, arrives December 1. It lets you take dogs, cats, radhogs and even Deathclaws out into the wasteland. Each species has its own perk: dogs find medical supplies, cats bring better fishing bait, radhogs sniff out radioactive material, and Deathclaws drop an extra legendary weapon when clearing infestations. Pets level up over time too.

Fallout Shelter is getting adoptable baby Deathclaws later this year. Fallout 4 picked up new Verified Creations, including the hallucination-filled escape room FEVer Dreams and the robot-piloting add-on Command Override.

Source: Polygon

Shigeru Miyamoto (image via VGC)

Update: Shigeru Miyamoto shares his take on generative AI

What's new: At the press conference for his Order of Culture award, Shigeru Miyamoto was asked about generative AI. He doesn't think it will make human creativity obsolete. As VGC translates it, he compared it to how computers changed design work: as tools take over the "labor," a creator's own vision matters more. He did warn that people can confuse the fun of building something with actually making something good. "The more AI replaces these tasks, the more it provides an opportunity to reflect on what's really important, which I think is a positive thing."

He also said he's working on several projects right now, though GamesRadar+ notes those don't sound like new games.

Source: VGC; GamesRadar+; Eurogamer

Star Wars Galaxies Restoration (image via PC Gamer)

Star Wars Galaxies' fan restoration gets a huge visual upgrade

Star Wars Galaxies has been offline officially since 2011, but its community keeps it going. PC Gamer reports that the Restoration project's new "A New Dawn" update moves the game to DirectX 12 and adds volumetric fog and clouds, a new water shader, and DLSS, FSR and XeSS support. It also rebuilds the Wookiee home planet Kashyyyk and reworks the Scout and Ranger professions. The team says 13 new members joined to help.

Source: PC Gamer

Peak (image via GamesRadar+ / Aggro Crab & Landfall)

Peak's console versions ship with 208 maps, and that's why the download tripled

Viral co-op climber Peak is out on PS5, Xbox and Switch 2, and players noticed the download is about three times bigger than before. The developers explained to GamesRadar+ that instead of rotating the same 30 daily maps, the game now ships with 208 of them, which brings it to about 15GB. The console versions support cross-play, and the team has also fixed PlayStation pricing in Brazil.

Source: GamesRadar+

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 DMZ (image via Eurogamer / Activision)

Modern Warfare 4's DMZ 'Possum' perk has players crying foul

Modern Warfare 4's DMZ mode is getting strong reviews, but one perk is upsetting players. Eurogamer reports that "Playing Possum" lets downed players revive themselves, and many say it turns fights into a frustrating guessing game over whether an enemy is really out. Players want it nerfed or removed.

Source: Eurogamer

Arc Raiders (image via GamesRadar+ / Embark Studios)

Arc Raiders streamer gets hardware banned for aimbotting

Embark is getting tougher on Arc Raiders cheaters. GamesRadar+ reports that a streamer who'd been openly asking "how am I not banned?" has now been hardware banned for aimbotting. A hardware ban blocks the machine itself, so a fresh account won't get around it.

Source: GamesRadar+

Pokémon Winds and Waves (image via GamesRadar+ / The Pokémon Company)

A Game Freak programmer just published water simulation research ahead of Pokémon Winds and Waves

A water-heavy Pokémon game could have some serious tech behind it. GamesRadar+, via Automaton, reports that Game Freak programmer Fumiya Narita and University of Tokyo researcher Takashi Kanai are presenting a water simulation paper at Pacific Graphics 2026. Nobody has said it's being used in Pokémon Winds and Waves, but the timing has fans hopeful.

Source: GamesRadar+

ArcheAge Chronicles (image via IGN)

Steam Next Fest's most-played demos so far include Fart Together and Emberville

Valve has posted the 20 most-played demos from this Steam Next Fest so far, and it's a wild mix. IGN highlights the comedic co-op game Fart Together, the cozy town-builder Emberville (heading into Early Access next week) and the MMO ArcheAge Chronicles. Next Fest runs until Monday, October 26 at 12pm CT, so you have the weekend to try them.

Source: IGN