The dark state of gaming has been mentally clawing at me — but this early‑access Xbox‑on‑PC hack‑and‑slash snapped me out of it

A fantasy illustration shows a diverse group of warriors leading a large army on a grassy hill, with a castle visible in the distant background.

I'm going to be real honest here: I've been feeling somewhat down lately.

Even though there are so many games on the horizon, it's hard to feel excited when there's been so much negativity surrounding the industry recently, what with Sony discontinuing physical media, Xbox blocking people from their Xbox accounts through no fault of their own, and rapidly rising Xbox and PC tech prices thanks to AI.