In 2008, Bethesda released Fallout 3, a groundbreaking adaptation of the to-that-point isometric Fallout franchise to a gameplay style close that veered close to its beloved Elder Scrolls series. Within seven years, we not only received a new spin-off entry by Obsidian Entertainment, Fallout: New Vegas, but also an all-new mainline entry from Bethesda, Fallout 4. It's now been more than a decade since Fallout 4, and though fans of the series can enjoy things like the online RPG Fallout 76, which initially launched in 2018, and the successful Prime Video series, which started in 2024, the wait for a new mainline single-player entry has proven arduous.

In 2018, Bethesda revealed The Elder Scrolls VI through a short teaser. It has been more than seven years since that reveal, and based on the recent updates the studio provided Game Informer as part of the conversations surrounding our Fallout retrospective, it sounds like the game may still have a ways to go. For years, Bethesda alternated between The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, releasing Oblivion in 2006, Fallout 3 in 2008, Skyrim in 2011, and Fallout 4 in 2015. That trend broke with Fallout 76 in 2018, and deviated further in 2023, when Bethesda released Starfield, an ambitious new IP set in space. 

"We are better developers for having made a multiplayer game, we are better developers for having developed our own IP now, because it's new muscles," studio director Angela Browder tells Game Informer. "It's tested us in a different way. It's taught us a lot of things that we never could have known otherwise. And I do think even as we go into titles that are IP we've made before that we classically understand, we're still better developers for having done it, because your brain thinks differently once you've done those kinds of things. And I think it's only going to make every title we do better."

In 2022, Howard told IGN that Fallout 5 will be the next game Bethesda sets its sights on after it finishes The Elder Scrolls VI. "We're going to do Fallout 5 after that, so our slate's going to be pretty full going forward for a while," he told IGN. " In 2021, he also told IGN that the studio has a basic idea of what Fallout 5 will be, saying the developers "have a one-pager on Fallout 5, what we want to do." 

Bethesda is currently focused on The Elder Scrolls VI, but according to director and executive producer Todd Howard, Bethesda has other projects in the hopper. "The majority of the studios are on VI, but I’ll say this: We always overlap," Howard tells Game Informer. "So, we’re very used to overlapping development."

During my in-depth conversations with Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo, and Angela Browder, I asked them what they'd most like to accomplish with the Fallout franchise going forward. Here's what they had to say:

Todd Howard
Director and Executive Producer

"I will say, first, looking at 76, we've never stopped developing Fallout. We've had a full team on Fallout for a long time. So, Fallout, as a franchise, is the one we're still doing the most work in above anything. Now, the majority of our internal studio is on Elder Scrolls VI. We are doing other things with Fallout that we haven't announced, and you know, there'll come a time for that. I get the sort of anxiety from fans, like, "Well, what else? What else? Feed me!" But, look, we're working on stuff, and we do like to wait. And so, I think there'll be a moment to talk about that, and we want to make those special moments for our fans."

Emil Pagliarulo
Studio Design Director

"I would be happy with a game that is as successful as the previous Fallout games that continues to give fans what they love, you know, and to give them a story that they can get into and systems that they love and really just an experience that they play not for 20 hours and not for 100 hours, but an experience they can play for 200, 300, you know, 600 hours, because that's the kind of games we make. That would be my hope going forward: Keep doing what we've done, and also to evolve. And evolve in a way that is where the industry has gone and where players have gone, so you're not stuck in the past. Like, in the Oblivion remaster that came out, people forget in the original Oblivion, you couldn't sprint. So, of course we're going to add that in the Oblivion remaster. Things like that. The industry moved on, and so, we want to move on with it."

Angela Browder
Studio Director

"I think every one of [our past games] is a learning experience, right? Let's take Fallout 76 – Yes, we learned how to make multiplayer; we also learned what it means when you ship a product that doesn't necessarily hit really well right away. And we learned about investing and listening to our players and strengthening who we are and what we are, our own ability to resiliency and adversity, all these kinds of things, right? When you talk about Starfield, we made the biggest thing we've ever done in our entire lives: We made space. I'm scared of space, I think space is really scary, but we made space! All of those are, while it may not be, like, "Oh I'm going to put space in Elder Scrolls VI," – do not write that I'm putting space into Elder Scrolls VI; [laughs] we're not going to put space in Elder Scrolls VI! – everything that we learned by putting space into Starfield goes into Elder Scrolls VI. It's all learning.

We're very blessed to have a very long-tenured team, as well. And so, all of those learnings from every single one just keep going with us, and I think that one of the things that you can see the natural progression as we've made our titles is we do listen to our players. When we start our big, big list, part of what we write down is everything our players want. We do listen to our players, and we do take that in, so that all wraps into this moment of what it all is going to be like. It's one of those interesting things. You never know if people are seeing the correlation between, like, "Six years ago you said this thing. I listened to you, I swear. Because, look, it's right here!" People don't always follow those very long threads, but the amount of those threads that exist are a lot. Some day, I just wish I could draw like a mind map of, like, "This guy said this thing on Reddit 12 years ago that never left our brains, and here you go! It took us a little while, but it's there!

There's sometimes this preconceived notion that we don't read or look at or listen to any of it. We read all of it. I mean, all of it. And, especially Fallout, it's interesting because as it's expanded its scope, the amount of feedback we get on it is more than just gaming now, right? And so, it can be a little overwhelming, but we do read it all."

2026 is shaping up to be an exciting year in video games, and one of the earliest scheduled releases, 007 First Light, was set to be one of the biggest games of next March. Unfortunately, IO Interactive has announced the game will be taking just a little bit longer, formally delaying it to Wednesday, May 27. You can read the developer's full statement below.

Hello everyone,

Today, we are sharing an update regarding 007 First Light, as we have decided to move the game's release by two months, to the 27th of May 2026.

007 First Light is our most ambitious project to date, and the team has been fully focused on delivering an unforgettable James Bond experience, bringing together breathtaking action, globe-trotting, spycraft, gadgets, car chases, and more. As an independent developer and publisher, this decision allows us to ensure the experience meets the level of quality you players deserve on day one.

The game is progressing well and is fully playable from beginning to end, so these additional two months will allow us to further polish and refine the experience, ensuring we deliver the strongest possible version at launch. We're confident this sets 007 First Light up for long-term success, and we sincerely appreciate the patience and continued support we've received ever since we first revealed the game. We look forward to sharing more updates regarding 007 First Light in early 2026.

Thank you again for your support,

IO Interactive/ Hakan Abrak

007 First Light will tell the origin story of the iconic British spy James Bond, showing him as a hotheaded recruit in the years before he became the agent we all know and love. It's a particularly exciting project for IO Interactive, because its work on the Hitman series makes it a perfect candidate to adapt Bond's espionage to video games. We got a chance to see the game behind closed doors last September and came away quite impressed, so hopefully this added development time makes the final product as polished as we hope.

In other 007 news, we recently learned the game's villain will be played by none other than Lenny Kravitz. For more on next year's biggest releases, check out our 2026 release date calendar.

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Apogee Entertainment
Developer: Trigger Happy Interactive
Release: November 20, 2025
Rating: Mature

Total Chaos’ headlines over the years as a public-facing project center on it being a total conversion mod for Doom II. After more than a dozen hours with it, that’s the least interesting aspect of this game. Total Chaos is about one man’s escape from an isolated and desolate coastal mining town run amok by a rotting disease that’s infected both his mind and the very town itself. Its story is vague and mysterious, but reveals itself plainly in metaphor as a fight against cancer, leaving a particularly personal mark on me as someone who’s lost family to that terrible blight. Though the voice acting sometimes fails to match the narrative momentum, the combat, with its heavy emphasis on crafting makeshift weaponry, remains an experimental blast through the end, especially for those nostalgic for the joyous gameplay feel of Doom II. Like the blood and guts that fuse to create the unholy monsters that fill its action-heavy moments, that story and combat come together to deliver a catharsis of destruction I was delighted to be part of. 

Fort Oasis, the aforementioned mining town, was once a vibrant community of industry, with hotel balconies overlooking the sea, shopping malls for spending hard-earned bucks, and all the frills of a place to call home. However, when a rot settles in, what was once home becomes a prison of torment for protagonist Tyler. I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Tyler’s plight from location to location here, and his attempt to come to terms with what’s gone wrong, and though it’s easy to miss, its wall writings and metaphorical developments speak to something dark festering deep within the mines of Fort Oasis. That something – cancer – spoke to me, forcing me to analyze why Total Chaos is so adamant about its exhausting, torturous carnage. Tyler is tearing through an insidious rot on Fort Oasis, yes; but he’s also ripping through the cancerous cells that threaten his existence.

The slaughter must not stop.

There are shotguns, pistols, a submachine gun, and even a harpoon gun, but ammo is so limited that you’ll never feel too comfortable using them, and this acts as a smart way to emphasize Total Chaos’ crafted melee weapons. As you explore abandoned and decrepit jails, plazas, apartment buildings, cemeteries, and more, you’ll collect nails, hammer heads, pickaxes, wooden poles and handles, lead pipes, wrenches, rebar, bottles, rags, and more, including various types of food and drinks. All of these pickups can be mixed and matched with each other, and the more than 30 recipes offer deadly melee combinations and beneficial chemical compounds to heal, stop bleeding, and more. The meat of the game is this crafting system, and it provides the most gameplay variety of the experience. 

However, the bones that Total Chaos is built upon sometimes break, leading to moments of frustration. Void of automatic saves like the survival horror games it’s so clearly inspired by, you can only save at vinyl record players that always feel placed just a bit too far from the places your progress is likely to be stopped with an untimely death. I lost a few hours because of this save system, thanks to instant-death segments that feel impossible to nail on the first go. As low as those moments feel, other moments, like a haunted house of hanging bat-like creatures that can only be stopped by the flicker of your lighter’s flame, go far to make you forget those problems exist. 

Between those highs and lows, there are the typical gameplay trappings of the genre, including bog-standard puzzles and predictable search-action walkbacks, and they round out an otherwise fantastic experience with moments that land as fine, nothing more and nothing less. Regardless, dealing with the various symptoms of Tyler’s health adds tension to Total Chaos’ best and worst moments. Managing health, bleed, hunger, energy, and stamina in the quiet moments served as a reminder that this was not an oasis for Tyler, despite what his home is called; instead, it’s a torture chamber he must survive. And in the louder moments, these symptoms used gameplay to further heighten the cacophony of stress Total Chaos vomits onto Tyler. Another symptom he deals with, called madness, is underused but alters moments drastically, going far to impose on the player the self-doubt and paranoia Tyler constantly feels. 

Total Chaos is disgusting, bloody, and taxing, but it’s also sympathetic and cathartic. And despite its misgivings and missteps, it is fun, twisting together horrific perversions with tension-filled gameplay in the way every great survival horror game should. Poor voice acting and repetitive gameplay/monster design dampen what makes Total Chaos great. However, its inventive crafting-focused combat and stirring story cement Trigger Happy Interactive’s sophomore release as one that will surely haunt my thoughts long after this playthrough. 

Score: 8

About Game Informer's review system

Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment co-founder and the head of EA's Battlefield series, has died at age 55. NBC Los Angeles reports that Zampella was killed in a car crash on Sunday, December 21, on Southern California's Angeles Crest Highway. 

Game Informer

The driver was pronounced dead on the scene, and the passenger later died in a hospital, though there's no confirmation on which of the two was Zampella. 

Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment in 2010 with Jason West, which has since launched games like Titanfall and Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series. Before that, Zampella was a lead at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare maker Infinity Ward. EA acquired Respawn in 2017, and Zampella has been its CEO since. In 2021, Zampella became the Head of Battlefield for EA amidst wider franchise changes that included the creation of a Battlefield universe. Zampella, alongside Battlefield Studios, helped make Battlefield 6 an inarguable success for the series, which wasn't in the best place following 2022's Battlefield 2042. 

Game Informer has reached out to EA for comment. 

The hearts of Game Informer staff are with Zampella's family in light of this news. 

The long-awaited Ark 2 was announced in 2020, and after a lengthy wait with minimal updates and a few delays, it finally has a new release window. Unfortunately, it’s still a few years away, but we now have a better idea as to why and what to expect from the upcoming sequel.

In an interview with Epic Games’ Brian Crecente, Studio Wildcard co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz confirmed that Ark 2 is now planned to launch in 2028. This was revealed during publisher Snail Games’ Investor Day. He also explains the studio’s approach to releasing Ark 2, and how it wants to incorporate the lessons learned from releasing Ark: Survival Ascended, the current and remastered iteration of the original Ark: Survival Evolved.

“One of the things about doing Ark 2 was that we felt we had to learn a lot more about how to make the kind of game we wanted to do, and to do it kind of in phases,” Stieglitz explains. “Learning about both the technology and the mechanics seemed, to us, safer than to just try to go and release a whole standalone product called Ark 2.”

To do this, Studio Wildcard is planning to use Ark: Survival Ascended, which has now surpassed 4 million units sold, to gradually prepare for Ark 2’s launch. The first taste of the sequel will come in an expansion called Legacy of Santiago, arriving in late 2027. This expansion will feature mechanics and features planned for the 2028 sequel and serves as a prequel that will help set the stage for Ark 2’s events – Santiago is, after all, Ark 2’s protagonist, portrayed by Vin Diesel.

“Legacy of Santiago will allow us to explore a lot of mechanics that we want to do with Ark 2, but it kind of derisks that, " says Stieglitz. “Essentially, if we don't do it right, if we don't do it perfectly, we're able to iterate on it with a live game and get a lot more feedback than to just release something standalone. It's much safer for us to get a lot of that feedback in a live game where we can react much more fluidly to what players are telling us.”

In terms of Vin Diesel’s role in Ark 2, Stieglitz says his total involvement is still “an open question” that will determine the full scope of ambition of the game’s plot.  

“The question is: How much performance are we going to get from him?” Stieglitz said. “Are we going to get one day, five days, eight hours? You don’t know. And the scope of how much performance we are going to get determines just how the narrative is going to play out. We have a narrative that’s if we get a lot of Vin Diesel, this is what we will do, and if we get a little Vin Diesel, this is what we will do.”

Stieglitz also explains that Studio Wildcard wants to ensure players are ready to leave the previous game behind before launching Ark 2; it doesn’t want to stop updating Ark: Survival Ascended and leave those players in the cold. Thus, it is implementing a robust content roadmap throughout 2026 and 2027. This includes new narrative expansion Ark: Lost Colony launching this week, and 2026 additions such as the esports-focused Ark: Survival of the Fittest, a pirate-themed expansion called Bob’s True Tales: Tides of Fortune, and a modding-focused update called Ark World Creator. Even when Ark 2 launches, Stieglitz states that Ark: Survival Ascended will continue to be updated as long as demand exists.

Ark 2 was announced during The Game Awards in 2020 with a 2023 launch window. The game was delayed to 2024, with Studio Wildcard releasing Ark: Survival Ascended in 2023 instead. Obviously, Ark 2 would miss this 2024 launch window, and is now slated to arrive eight years after its reveal, assuming everything (hopefully) goes as planned.