ShogunRok

One of my favourite ever games. Still get the urge to start a new playthrough every now and then, despite having beaten it about eight times.

@Silenos Ubisoft has nothing to do with third-party sales data, though. Again, it's the second best selling game of 2025 in the US, and it topped charts in Europe.

I get that having no concrete sales numbers is annoying, but saying it bombed is crazy at this point.

Plus, Ubisoft — or any company — can't outright lie to their investors and shareholders. If they're saying it did well in their financials, it did well.

@Starkei @Blaze215 @dskatter In this same financial briefing, Ubisoft confirmed that Shadows had the second best launch in franchise history, behind only Valhalla (which is still Ubisoft's most profitable game ever).

So while it's never given us direct sales numbers, they don't really matter if the game's clearly making so much money. You simply can't have the second best launch of any Assassin's Creed game and be a commercial failure — otherwise every previous AC game was also a flop (which they obviously weren't).

Shadows is also the second best selling game of 2025 so far in the US, and it topped numerous charts in Europe.

All evidence (including Ubisoft committing to two years of post-launch support) suggests that it's been a big hit — but it would have had to be an utter juggernaut on almost Rockstar-esque levels to dig Ubisoft out of its current hole.

@DennisReynolds @KundaliniRising333 Never forget the four-legged chocobo camel. Nightmarish.

@Ravix This is basically how I read the report as well!

(With mention of using AI to 'increase productivity'.)

@Fatewalker Yeah I'm guessing because it's from such a small team, they just focused on getting performance steady at 30. A shame, but maybe it'll be updated at a later time.

@Fatewalker Frame rate is capped at 30fps on PS5 and PS5 Pro. I noticed some slight dips during the review period when things got really chaotic, but that was about it.

For what it's worth, I don't think the 30fps cap makes a huge difference in a top-down, smaller scale game like this. But I probably should have still mentioned it in the review — I can add it in if people want.

@Fiendish-Beaver Haha, would love to hear what you think of the game given your experience!

@Czar_Khastik You probably won't find this helpful, but the answer is yes and no.

Yes in the sense that it's very bite-sized in terms of structure. You can do a patrol in ten minutes and make good progress. It's definitely not a game where you need to sit down for hours at a time.

And no because the controls and mechanics definitely take time to click. I would hazard a guess that they might be difficult to pick back up after a break from the game.

I do think that once you're over that initial learning curve, the game does feel quite natural (and to be fair, there are options that simplify the game slightly, including easy difficulties).

@lazarus11 You do technically get promotions but they're not story-related. Basically, as you rack up experience points, you level up, which unlocks new patrol vehicles and weapons.

And without spoiling anything, there is a lengthy side story that involves a serial killer.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I can try to answer them.

Really glad The Precinct turned out well (at least, in my opinion) — it always looked cool leading up to release!

@Oram77 We're working on one, but won't make today's embargo unfortunately.

@Ravix Hahaha, I think we might have to do it for a lot of games!

@Vectrex There are loads of 20 year old PS2 action games that play infinitely better than this.

I agree that it's nice to have Captain Blood finally be released, for preservation's sake if nothing else, but you've still got to call it like you see it.

Only a matter of time until the Chief makes the jump... That one's still going to seem surreal.

The year is 2025 and whenever The Witcher 3 is mentioned part of my brain still thinks "time for another playthrough?".

@Odium Technically you can, but you'll probably be banned across all of them (sadly).

@Lup Always felt like Odyssey's Mercenaries system would have worked perfectly in Shadows. The Guardians just feel like a really slapdash version of it.

@Andee Definitely sounds harsh to me personally, but then I tend to gel with Bethesda's formula — I just like to get lost in how dynamic the open worlds can be.

Totally understand why they might not hold your attention, though. They can be very passive games (for lack of a better word), and I do agree that they can feel a bit shallow at times — especially in the role-playing department.

@Andee If you're not a fan of the Bethesda formula I don't think Oblivion Remastered will change your mind. Oblivion is very much the origin point of modern Bethesda design.

You could always check out some gameplay videos or people playing it live, though, see if it truly tickles your fancy. But yeah, might be a tall order.

@Areus Yes, I'd like to finally try eating a mudcrab.

@rjejr Yeah you can make the text bigger — but honestly, not by much.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Must say, it's been a pleasure playing Oblivion again after all these years. Nostalgia overload. Just hoping its more annoying technical issues are ironed out soon.

@darkswabber Thanks for pointing this out, fixed!

I would love to know how much has been spent on this game's marketing compared to its eventual profit.

A new Fatal Fury game was never going to find mainstream success — it's a niche even amongst fighting games. Yet SNK and its owners have tried to brute force the commercial success to an extreme degree.

@somnambulance This is a great comment, largely sums up my feelings as well.

Oblivion has very obvious flaws even in its remastered form, but the gameplay loop is just so welcoming. I think this specific open world formula has always been Bethesda's greatest strength.

It's obviously in the modern Fallout games and Skyrim too, but I think there's something about the relative simplicity and overall freedom of Oblivion that still makes it feel special.

Guess who forgot to add the actual poll!

It's in there now, sorry everyone.

@rjejr The full review will definitely be more in-depth on things that have and haven't aged well, from a more objective angle.

Obviously very hard to separate the nostalgia since I personally poured so much time into Oblivion when I was younger, but yeah, I'm trying to look at it from a modern day perspective as much as anything else.

@Nakasan140 Honestly no idea what the Pro enhancements are because it's so hard to tell the difference between it running on base PS5 and PS5 Pro. I'm guessing the Pro's frame rate is better in some cases but it's obviously still far from perfect.

If anyone's got any questions about Oblivion Remastered I can try to answer them — just let me know.

Full review should be coming soon once I've had more time to play. Need to see the Shivering Isles for a start!

@Perturbator The badly named Berserk and the Band of the Hawk was the Warriors-style game. It's not bad and it captures the weighty feel of Berserk's fights quite well, but it's pretty limited in terms of gameplay.

I'm with you, I'd love to see a true Berserk game someday, with a decent budget and a real vision for what it wants to be. We can dream!

Sony just casually dropping a release date for one of its most anticipated games at 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

It's so pointless even trying to predict this company these days!

@reddevilcat Not sure yet, but I'll keep an eye out!

@Ilyn We'll try to get something up as soon as we can. If not in the Hands On article, it'll be in its own separate article.

@andrewsqual Looks like the soundtrack is identical, just slightly enhanced in terms of quality.

@hel105 I haven't seen any confirmation, unfortunately. The leaked marketing materials did suggest that a physical release was going to happen, but there's nothing official yet.

It's possible that it'll launch a little later.

@Fiendish-Beaver We have a main office but we're dotted all over the place, so we work from home.

And we usually review games in and out of work hours — just depends on the scope of the coverage and that kind of thing. I personally don't mind reviewing a game in my free time at all if I'm enjoying it — I'd probably be playing something anyway!

@Fiendish-Beaver I can't speak for everyone but it can often heavily depend on when we get review code and how long we have until the review embargo.

I've had to review big games in the past where I've only had a week or less to get through them, and it can be a nightmare. You obviously try your hardest to give the game a fair shake as if you were playing with no pressure, but it can be difficult.

In ideal cases, we get review code weeks ahead of launch and we have plenty of time to play them as we usually would any game in our free time.

@Fiendish-Beaver We're starting today just like everyone else. As far as we know, there were no review copies sent out at all — total shadow drop.

@Dan12836666 We'll have a Hands On preview as soon as we possibly can if that helps.

We'll cover stuff like initial gameplay impressions and how it runs on PS5.

As the article says, this is very much a work in progress as we play through the game ourselves.

If you come across anything you think should be added, let us know in a comment!

@Kanji-Tatsumi @MickOnYourFace Typo with the prices, should be accurate now!

@carlos82 Fixed!

@BanChatum It's on there now!

We'll update this article with more info as soon as we can!

@PlatinumMikey It's exciting isn't it? I am worried that my brain might explode from the sheer nostalgia overload, though.

@Shepherd_Tallon This is exactly my stance as well!

Like the article says, please let us know if we've missed anything, or if there are any other questions people want answers to.

Because this is such a weird situation, we wanted to make an article that gathers everything together for people who might not have the time to keep up with all the leaks.

Hopefully it's helpful!

@Bluetrain7 It's all good! Hope things pick up for you soon.