Mark Delaney
Verified
As seen in:
GameSpot,
Medium,
Yahoo Entertainment,
Aol,
IGN,
Digital Trends,
Flipboard,
TechRadar,
GamesRadar+,
PC Gamer,
Bloody Disgusting
and
Covers:
Video games, sports, movies, TV, podcasts, comics, books, hardware, tech, and more
editor @gamespot ✨ inactive account | find me on bluesky, discord, and instagram
Articles by Mark Delaney
Meet The Bike-Riding, Mail-Delivering Raccoon Who Dares To Challenge GTA 6
This November doesn’t look like other Novembers, not on the game release calendar anyway. Typically, this month is reserved for the release of a few of the biggest games of the year, strategically timed to drop just before the holiday season and events like The Game Awards. But in 2026, nearly every big publisher and even lots of smaller ones backed away from November for one obvious reason: Grand Theft Auto 6.
Exterminauts Is Like Helldivers 2 Starring Home Depot Dads
I’m not sure Exterminauts is different enough from Helldivers 2. Behaviour Interactive, the team most famous for Dead by Daylight, told me during a roundtable discussion with the press that the idea of what has become Exterminauts was swirling around in the studio for a decade, with the game being roughly “half” done when Helldivers 2 launched in February 2024. But if you didn’t know that, you’d probably think it was made in reaction to Arrowhead’s breakout hit.
2026’s Games You Should Play Before The Game Awards, Described In One Sentence
As is always the case, there is no shortage of great games to play. That can make picking your favorites–or voting for categories in something like The Game Awards–a challenge. With this year’s awards just about a month away, we’re reflecting on what games we’ve loved this year to offer up some quick suggestions on what you should consider playing before casting your votes. Below, we’ve rounded up one-sentence recommendations from our staff.
The Best Zombie Game Of 2026 Just Went From George Romero To Jason Voorhees
Being obsessed with zombie fiction for as long as I have been, I’m comfortable saying No More Room in Hell 2 is the year’s best zombie game. Since I first played it in early access two years ago, I’ve loved its Romero-inspired vibes and slower, more punishing take on a Left 4 Dead-style game–doubling the co-op team size to eight players is a fun wrinkle, too.
Don’t Make Me Pick A Favorite Dog In This Co-Op Game Original
Before I jumped into Gravhounds, the new third-person co-op shooter from Octopus Panic, the most pressing questions on my mind were centered on gameplay. In trailers, it seemed to have touches of both Helldivers 2 and Deep Rock Galactic, so I wondered which it resembled more. I saw elements of physics-based gameplay, so I was curious how chaotic that might get. With its alien worlds, I was eager to know what exploration was like.
Fortnite’s Plan To Survive GTA 6 Is Finally Revealed: Make Everything Free Original
Fortnite is a free-to-play game, but you probably already know that doesn’t mean everything in Fortnite is free–not usually, anyway. But this month, pretty much everything in Fortnite’s Item Shop will be free for a limited number of players and for a limited time. As part of its new Treasure Hunters mini-season that began on November 1, players can find a rare in-game item that makes everything in the Item Shop free for 14 days, just in time for Epic to combat losing players to GTA 6.
The Games We Couldn’t Stop Playing In October 2026 Original
All eyes may be on Grand Theft Auto 6’s release in November, but this fall has kicked off with plenty else to play. Be it a new friendslop horror game, a relaxing driving experience, or a Mission: Impossible-style deception simulator, we’ve been enjoying a wide range of games in October. As usual, you can check out our staff picks for October below.
The Scariest Game Of The Year Is This Demo For A Game That Isn’t Coming Out
It was a devastating gut punch when I sat down earlier this year to write about Paranormal Activity: Threshold only to discover it had been canceled and I’d missed the news. I’m not a huge fan of the movie series, though I do like the first few entries. Instead, my enthusiasm came from who was making the game: DarkStone Digital, creator of The Mortuary Assistant.
Putting Control Resonant Under A Microscope Is Rewarding In An Unexpected Way Original
Over many years, I’ve written tens of thousands of words covering the Remedy Connected Universe, the Finnish studio’s world tying the Alan Wake and Control series together. This is a team that loves rewarding players who notice the smaller details and go off the golden path in search of morsels of understanding. Connecting dots is often much of the fun in a Remedy game. To my surprise, that side of the developer wasn’t on display much in Control Resonant.
Dead By Daylight Delistings Continue As Developer Reveals It Must F**k With The Chuck
Dead by Daylight features dozens of characters, including many licensed heroes and villains from beloved horror franchises, but every once in a while, some of them get delisted. Behaviour Interactive has revealed that Chucky will soon suffer such a fate; he’s being delisted on November 24 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Until then, players can grab him and any related cosmetics on sale. Chucky, whose in-game nickname is The Good Guy, debuted in Dead by Daylight in November 2023.
EA Has A New Plan For Madden, And It Leans Into Everything The Company Gets Wrong Original
Electronic Arts is developing an American football experience unlike anything it’s made before, the company said in a memo shared publicly after closing BioWare and laying off 400 people across the company. In trying to spin the news positively and toward the future, the memo’s attributed writers, chief studios officer Cam Weber and chief operating officer David Tinson, spoke about several of the publishing giant’s upcoming games, including something EA is calling Project Gridiron.
While You Wait For The Phasmophobia Movie, Don’t Miss This Hidden Gem
An official Phasmophobia movie is on the way; we learned as much last summer. But what if I said you could watch something quite like Kinetic’s ghostbusting co-op game right now? That’s the elevator pitch I bring you, fellow horror fans, less than two weeks out from Halloween. The movie is Never After Dark, a gorgeously shot, cleverly creepy ghost story that Phasmophobia fans shouldn’t miss. Never After Dark tells the story of Airi, a young woman who can commune with ghosts.
No Publisher Wanted Outlast. 60 Million Players Later, The Horror Juggernaut Is Doing Just Fine.
Let’s play Family Feud. Poll 100 people on the scariest game they’ve ever played. What’s on the board? Surely a Silent Hill, and a Resident Evil, too. Alien Isolation seems likely. One of the Fatal Frames has a good shot. Those who know ball may call out a deeper cut like Siren, Sylvio, or Visage. One name I’m certain makes it on the board–to the tune of my family cheering me on with “Good answer! Good answer!”–is Outlast.
No Publisher Wanted Outlast. 60 Million Players Later, The Horror Juggernaut Is Doing Just Fine.
Nintendo Switch 2 19 hours ago Resident Evil 2 on Switch 2 is my new favorite way to play Capcom's horror masterpiece Polygon - Josh Broadwell • 19h I've tried playing Resident Evil 2 remake many times over the years and have never quite managed to finish the thing. It's good — very good — and I enjoy it.
Marvel Darkhold Destiny Is Magic: The Gathering’s First Universes Beyond Set Of 2027 Original
Today at New York Comic Con, Wizards of the Coast announced the first 2027 Universes Beyond expansion set for Magic: The Gathering. Marvel’s Darkhold Destiny will pit Doctor Strange, Thor, Ghost Rider, and more against cosmic villains like Hela and Dormammu in 2027. The set will include normal and Collector booster packs, and four pre-constructed commander decks themed around Marvel heroes and villains, including the Midnight Sons.
Arc Raiders’ Big Update Has It Surging To Numbers It Hasn’t Seen In Months
When Embark said it would take several months to deliver the major Arc Raiders update it envisioned, days like today were probably the goal. The extraction shooter is once again high up in Steam’s charts for both best-selling and most-played games.
Three Years Later, The Outlast Trials Just Smashed Its Concurrent-Player Record
The Outlast Trials, Red Barrels’ co-op horror game set in its wider Outlast universe, just broke its concurrent-player record, eclipsing 120,000 players. The previous high came when the game launched in Steam Early Access in 2023 and the player count climbed to 36,000. Today’s new record means the indie horror game reset the bar with a total more than four times higher than its previous best. Red Barrels credited a few big factors for the record.
Three Years Later, The Outlast Trials Just Smashed Its Concurrent-Player Record
Hasbro 9 hours ago 'Dungeons & Dragons' creative teams join union as concerns mount over pay discrepancies and 'forced AI use' Fast Company - BY Sarah Fielding • 9h Designers, artists, writers, and producers who work on Hasbro’s popular card and role-playing games are now represented by the CWA. The creative workers behind Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gatherings, Duel Masters, and other games have come together to unionize. On Tuesday, the workers informed …
14 Horror Games It Would Be Terrifying Not To Wishlist Original
The Horror Game Awards ceremony kicks off in November, but the team’s latest showcase event has arrived, highlighting 100+ horror games. The latest showing, Harvest of Terror, is the brand’s first event since June’s Midsummer Night’s Scream showcase. As I did for that summer show, I watched every trailer featured in today’s event and pulled out a handful of those I’m particularly excited about.
Arc Raiders’ Huge Update Introduces Its Best Gadget Ever
Arc Raiders was an incredible game when it launched almost exactly one year ago. It joined Sea of Thieves and Left 4 Dead as one of my favorite co-op games ever. Many others loved it too, and it quickly surged to become one of 2025’s best sellers and biggest stories. But in the months that followed, a large portion of players fell off the game’s live-service carousel–or maybe “jumped off” is a better way to put it.
7 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Played Star Wars: Galactic Racer Original
Soaring spaceships are no stranger to Star Wars video games, with thrilling dogfights at the core of both EA’s Battlefront and Star Wars: Squadrons. Yet very few George Lucas gaming adaptations have swapped aerial showdowns for laps around the intergalactic racetrack–until Galactic Racer.
Halloween’s First DLC Reveals Even The Bad Sequels Will Get Some Love Original
Halloween’s first paid DLC is coming on October 27 in the form of a new skin for the game’s killer, Michael Myers, and it’s pulling from a source you might not expect: Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. A free update on the same day will also add a fifth map, The Tower Farm, inspired by a location in the same film. It may seem odd to jump to the fifth movie for the game’s first DLC, but it’s not the only piece of new content coming that day.
End Of Abyss Patch Fixes Most Of My Complaints Just One Day After Launch Original
I spent a few days playing Section 9 Interactive’s creepy metroidvania and writing my End of Abyss review, and ultimately concluded it was a fun but inconsistent experience hindered by a few particular issues. Now, just a day after it launched on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store, the studio has already cleared up most of those issues with a newly released patch.
How Silent Hill: Townfall’s “Creepy Game Boy” Weaponizes Nostalgia For The Better Original
. I have a complicated relationship with the 1990s, an era remembered for its hazy pre-HD tech and early signs of broader connectivity without the mentally taxing standard of an always-online world. Lately, I’ve found the aesthetics of that era calling to me in the books I read, the shows I watch, and even in my social media feeds that regularly spit out “remember when?” reels that dredge up imagery of classrooms and malls that I never actually set foot in yet feel familiar.
You Can’t Play Ghost of Yotei’s DLC Until You Beat These Missions
Ghost of Yotei is inviting players back to its expansive world with the Echoes of Sekigahara paid DLC, out now on PS5. If you’re wondering how to start the DLC, you’re right to do so, as there’s a short checklist of things you must do before the first DLC mission becomes available. Here’s how to start the Ghost of Yotei DLC. The Ghost of Yotei Echoes of Sekigahara questline opens up once you’re roughly 10 hours into the main story.
Turn Off The Lights And Play These 11 New Horror Games Releasing In October
I’ll take a new horror game any day of the year, but I love it when a studio releases one specifically in October. For a few years now, I’ve been highlighting the new horror games launching every October, and there’s always an exciting handful thanks to the teams that feel as I do; Halloween season just feels so right for sinking into a new horror game. October 2026 is much like past iterations, with lots of new experiences ready to give you bad dreams.
End Of Abyss Commits A Metroidvania Cardinal Sin – Video Review
I liked much of my time with Section 9’s horror-themed debut, but definitely not all of it. Featured In This Story End of Abyss First Released Oct 1, 2026 Platforms PC, PS5, XBSX View Game Hub
End Of Abyss Commits A Metroidvania Cardinal Sin
End of Abyss pulls from a lot of inspirations. It has the same texture to its creepy world as Little Nightmares, which makes sense, given the team at Section 9 Interactive includes some former creators of that series. It borrows a bit from soulslikes, with its towering bosses who pack a mean punch if you don’t time your dodge-roll well. Its fixed camera angles are reminiscent of Resident Evil, especially when you can hear something monstrous in a room before you can see it.
End Of Abyss Commits A Metroidvania Cardinal Sin - Video Review
Gaming 2 hours ago Resident Evil meets Little Nightmares in terrifying new horror game Polygon - Giovanni Colantonio • 2h I’m small and I’m lost. For nearly a decade, that sinking feeling has haunted Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares series.
End Of Abyss Commits A Metroidvania Cardinal Sin
2 hours ago I’m small and I’m lost. For nearly a decade, that sinking feeling has haunted Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares series. Created by Tarsier Studios (the team behind this year’s fantastic Reanimal), Little Nightmares first caught fire in 2017 because it captured a very real kind of terror — one you …
The Best News For Saw: Genesis Is We Have To Wait Longer To Play It
Saw: Genesis was set to be the next asymmetrical multiplayer horror game to debut, but its 2026 early-access launch has been pushed to 2027, developer Bloober Team announced. The horror-focused studio said it needs more time to get Saw: Genesis to a place the team is satisfied with. It’s an interesting admission, since some teams use Steam Early Access for exactly that purpose: to get the game in good shape.
I Only Play Arc Raiders As A PvE Game, But PvE Servers Miss The Point
Arc Raiders will soon feature a trial run of Player-versus-Environment (PvE) servers, which would seem to be great news for a player like me, who exclusively plays the game as a PvE experience. In actuality, PvE servers ignore one of the game’s best traits. Embark Studios said that PvE-only servers are coming in a limited testing phase for one week beginning on October 13. Whether they come back after that isn’t known yet, not even to the studio itself.
Steam’s Punk Games Showcase Hates AI Slop, Loves Blowing Up Nazis Original
Punks are taking over Steam starting on October 9 with the Punk Games Showcase, a week-long, curated digital festival celebrating games made with and expressing a punk spirit. Over 400 games were submitted for consideration, and the final list includes over 100, with the intention of filtering out any that included generative AI, among other factors. Many featured games have already been released, while others are still to come. A few of them are even out this month or during the event.
Silent Hill: Townfall’s Pharmacy Locker Code Will Be The First Puzzle To Stump You
One of the earliest Silent Hill: Townfall puzzles that’s likely to stump you is in the pharmacy. Simon needs a locker code to continue the story, but the answer is hidden behind some rather obtuse clues–the kind this series made its name on, frankly. Here’s what you need to do to solve the Townfall pharmacy puzzle and get the locker code. Silent Hill: Townfall pharmacy puzzle walkthrough Standing inside the pharmacy, Simon will be met with a tall locker that needs a four-digit code.
Arc Raiders’ Battle Pass Won’t Be Totally Free Anymore, But It’ll Pay For Itself
When Arc Raiders’ next major update, Frozen Trail, goes live on October 8, it’ll introduce lots of changes and additions, and while the update itself will be free, the new battle pass system that comes with it won’t be–at least not entirely. To date, Arc Raiders has featured three battle pass-like Raider Decks in the game. Players could complete dailies to unlock Creds that then got them rewards like new cosmetics and in-game items.
How Long Is Control Resonant – Mission List And Hours Played Original
Control Resonant is a huge game in general, but in terms of Remedy’s games, it’s certainly the biggest one the studio has ever made. Set in a zone-based semi-open-world version of Manhattan, it’s a huge action game with RPG-like depth in its combat build system. It’s also full of main and side missions that will take you dozens of hours to complete in total. Here’s how long it’ll take you to beat Control Resonant.
Comparing Games Like Halloween To Dead By Daylight Doesn’t Make Sense, Illfonic Says
Halloween is the latest in a long line of asymmetrical multiplayer horror games to release over the past decade, and like all the others, it’s faced lots of comparisons to Dead by Daylight (DBD), the decade-long leader in the genre. It’s an “easy” comparison to draw, Illfonic chief creative officer Jared Gerritzen said, but ultimately it’s inherently flawed. “It’s literally cricket versus baseball. It’s so easy to see an image of cricket and say it’s exactly like baseball; it’s like, really, is it?
Here’s Why A Nightmare On Elm Street Game Hasn’t Happened In Decades Original
With Friday the 13th, Halloween, and other horror franchises getting video game adaptations in recent years, you might wonder when it’ll be Freddy Krueger’s turn, but according to Illfonic, the team behind those games, the task is harder than you might think. To do it right, one aspect of the films creates a big roadblock.
Silent Hill: Townfall Excels To Complete The Series’ Comeback
Tamoor Hussain is the Managing Editor of GameSpot. He has been covering the video game industry for a really long time, having worked in news, features, reviews, video, and more. He loves Bloodborne and other From Software titles, is partial to the stealth genre, and can hold his own in fighting games too. Fear the Old Blood.
Silent Hill: Townfall Completes The Series’ Comeback With Another Great Entry Original
Only a few years ago, the Silent Hill name was considered a relic of the horror genre. Its best efforts were its earliest from 20 or more years ago, and it had since lost its way. Lately, though, it’s found its footing again, first with Bloober Team’s remarkable remake of Silent Hill 2 in 2024, then with 2025’s brilliantly rule-breaking Silent Hill f. Now, with Screen Burn’s Silent Hill: Townfall, the comeback feels complete.
Silent Hill: Townfall Completes The Series' Comeback With Another Great Entry
2 days ago The Disney+ debut of “Toy Story 5” and a new album from Kenny Chesney are some of the new television shows, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: the “A …
Control Resonant’s Best Aspect Left Me Utterly Speechless Original
Remedy Entertainment’s signature style has often made gameplay feel secondary to story. Games like Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Control had fun gameplay hooks, but the depth mostly lived in their narrative puzzle-boxes, where the answer to each strange mystery created three more questions. Control Resonant breaks from tradition magnificently, revealing a whole new side to Remedy.
Control Resonant’s Best Aspect Left Me Utterly Speechless – Review
Mark is an editor at GameSpot. He writes reviews, guides, and other articles, and focuses largely on the horror and sports genres, as well as live-service games. He also enjoys reviewing movies on his Letterboxd , chasing Circa Survive around the country, and competing in his Madden league
NBA 2K’s Best Mode Is Even Better This Year Original
NBA 2K has long been the standard-bearer for high-quality sports games. It’s the pinnacle that other series like Madden, FC, and even the oft-beloved MLB The Show aspire to emulate in whatever ways their respective sports allow. That’s not to say it gets everything right, but it often feels like the team at Visual Concepts is competing against itself. It creates trends; it doesn’t chase them.
NBA 2K's Best Mode Is Even Better This Year
Me: You can now run DLSS 5 on AMD GPUs. My RX 9070 XT: Please stop, it hurts us A new app allows you to inject DLSS Neural Rendering deep into games even if you're running an AMD card. You probably won't want to, though. Another …
I’m Begging You To Stop Obsessing Over Player Numbers And Just Enjoy Games Original
Horror fans are confused. Every time a licensed multiplayer horror game gets brought up, two things tend to happen: commenters wonder if it can dethrone Dead by Daylight, and they speculate that the game will shut down quickly. It’s happening again today, as I’ve recently published my Halloween review. Comments on YouTube and in Discord servers are already repeating the sentiments I’ve seen for many years now.
Halloween Cleverly Carves Its Own Path Through Horror Multiplayer – Review
Michael Myers comes alive in IllFonic’s latest asymmetrical haunting grounds. Featured In This Story Halloween First Released Sep 8, 2026 Platforms PC, PS5, XBSX View Game Hub
Arc Raiders Prioritized The Game And Its Devs’ Health. It Could Cost Them Dearly. Original
Arc Raiders‘ next big update, Frozen Trail, is set to arrive sometime in October. For Embark Studios, it means more than it probably should. The team announced back in the spring that it would move to semi-annual major updates, pivoting away from the monthly content cadence that Arc Raiders’ executive producer Aleksander Grøndal told me wasn’t good enough for players or developers.
This Horror Game Is Having A Dino Crisis Of A Different Sort Original
Athanasia, the indie horror game that traps you in a mysterious facility full of dinosaurs, is launching in the ideal horror-game window: just before Halloween. GameSpot can exclusively reveal Athanasia’s release date; it comes to PC on October 19 via Steam Early Access. In Athanasia, players find themselves trapped in a South American research facility swarmed by dinosaurs that have somehow traveled through time to the present day in the game’s story.
Halloween Cleverly Carves Its Own Path Through Horror Multiplayer
Among horror royalty, there is perhaps no greater icon than Michael Myers. First appearing in 1978, the slasher helped ignite a trend of similar movie monsters that defined the next decade and beyond of the horror landscape. Halloween: The Game displays a keen understanding of his special place in that lineage, and IllFonic has brought his unique sense of unrelenting menace to video games in a way I can’t get enough of.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Mark
Contact Mark, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack