The Most Compelling Lovecraft Video Game Is About Hundreds Of Adorable Penguins

Penguin Colony is probably the best pisstake of Lovecraft and Lovecraftian horror I've played. It's the best because it places Lovecraft's universe at a creaturely remove, amplifying its absurdity without having to drop any punchlines. Entering a ravaged polar campsite, I advance among burning tents and uniformed corpses to a pioneer seated on a crate, who is busily sawing his own face off. Ice and snow shrill overhead and Lenval Brown's narration rumbles in my bones, speaking of eldritch relics and unquenchable ambitions, of "queer creatures" and inexplicable deaths, of madness and glory, of "scientific explanations" and empires from other dimensions. I consider all this, and say: Fnaaarp. Another man standing at the top of a pile of sandbags catches my attention. I waddle up to him and his head explodes, emitting a gory spark that resolves into the word "sex". I regard the body gravely and say: urk urk urk. Then I flop on my belly and slither out of camp, chasing the whistling wires of the wind. For I am a penguin. These creatures, their flags, their words and their elder gods mean little to me.

Lord of Hatred wraps up the arc that began with Diablo 4, as Blizzard so deftly delivers a campaign that will forever live on as one of its best work Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred has, without question, been one of my most anticipated releases of 2026. Diablo 4 is likely my most played game ever by sheer hour count, so it’s easy to see why this expansion is so high up on my list. However many rakes Blizzard has stepped on over the course of the game’s live service, however many seasons or events it botched, I maintain that no other ARPG matches Diablo 4 in either game feel or production value.

When the major AI models updated in September, it seemed to usher in a tide of vibe coded havoc. The use of it in the modding community was divisive enough. Now dedicated platforms have been flushed and flustered by this new unprecedented wave. One popular platform, decomp.dev, has opted to throw in the towel. Not just because of how pervasive AI entries have become in their space, but for more philosophical reasons. They are a decompiling community, and they feel AI does not foster community. “It is now clear that, with the right guidance, human input, and code reviews, AI can expedite the decompilation process in a significant way,” writes the site’s farewell message. “What is also now clear is that the community aspect of decompilation has been broken.” Founded in 2024, the site became a popular destination in the rapidly accelerating modding space. New tools and growing communities have made the rate of long-awaited translation patches and decompiles far more frequent, but the invasion of AI-generated decomps have fractured the scene. Decomp.dev’s reasoning isn’t anti-AI per se, but mournful in nature. Decompiling, in short, means disassembling and reassembling a game’s code.

Austin Manchester is a writer and editor living in New York City. At Polygon, he covers gaming and entertainment news, reviews new video games, interviews behind-the-scenes talent, and more. He enjoys discovering hidden gems and sharing them with Polygon's audience. Previously, he was the gaming editor for AIPT Comics and has written for other outlets like XDA, How-To Geek, and The List. He enjoys soulslikes, character-driven RPGs, and third-person shooters plucked straight out of the Xbox 360 era. He also likes to flex his non-video game nerdy knowledge sometimes, whether that's explaining who's who in the new Wolverine game or recommending a comic book series about a sentient sword.

Silent Hill developer Bloober Team wants to make physical versions of its games "for as long as possible. "Studio CEO Piotr Babieno opened up about the company's appreciation for physical media and collectibles during an interview with GamesRadar. He started his thoughts by touching on how the gaming landscape and player desires have changed as technology has advanced over the years, explaining that "we have reached a moment where you can't really do much more" in terms of visual and auditory fidelity. "Like, OK, the game can have a slightly higher resolution and maybe better lighting and whatever, but will it make it a more engaging game? I don't think so," Babieno said. The CEO for the studio behind the Silent Hill 2 remake and its in-development original Silent Hill remake also talked about how stats show "the majority of players are playing on hardware which is five, seven years old, if not older. " He continued, saying, "But are they less interested in games because of that? I don't think so. "As AI shapes a new, controversial future in the gaming industry, the Bloober executive seems to be more interested in "thinking about other senses.

With Hollywood veterans Jan-Michael Vincent and Ernest Borgnine in the cockpit, Airwolf spectacular aerial action, and pure '80s escapism. The coolest helicopter ever defined this '80s TV classic