EA Closes BioWare and Cancels Mass Effect 4 — While a Valve Composer Whispered "HLX" in Public

October 24, 2026 · 13 sources

Quick Hits

BioWare is gone. VGC reports that EA has closed the studio and cancelled Mass Effect 4 — and Commander Shepard herself, voice actor Jennifer Hale, tells GameSpot she's "holding hope" the series will live on.
HLX strikes again. Half-Life 3 speculation is red-hot after a Valve composer uttered the rumored codename "HLX" about an hour into a public panel about video game sound (Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer).
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is fully live with its new DMZ extraction mode — and players who pre-ordered are already up in arms over a perk that lets you self-revive.
Shigeru Miyamoto makes history, becoming the first game developer to receive Japan's prestigious Order of Culture, with the award ceremony set for next month.
Phantom Blade Zero hasn't even launched yet and it's already shifted half a million copies on Steam alone, outperforming the likes of Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant.

The legend grows: Shigeru Miyamoto will receive Japan's Order of Culture next month, a first for any game developer and, as Nintendo Life puts it, an addition to "surely the most stacked roster of lifetime achievements" in the industry.
VGC's latest podcast also drops a treat for UK trainers: a Pokémon store is coming to London.
Review verdict of the day: Nintendo Life says the farming-sim genre needed Village in the Shade on Switch 2, praising the horror-tinged cosy game for playing "all the right beats" while cleverly toying with cosy tropes.
Europe's Halloween Sale has followed North America's 'Screaming Deals,' and Nintendo Life has rounded up 61 Switch 1 and 2 recommendations — every game they scored 9/10 or higher, plus a personal pick.
iam8bit's Legacy Cartridge Collection for Sonic and Sonic 2 on Sega Genesis is undeniably stunning, but Nintendo Life's gallery verdict is that they're worth the money "for a select few, potentially."
Six weeks into Nintendo Life's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time dungeon crawl, we've reached the one we've all been waiting for — the sinking-boots dungeon — and the verdict is "forget the hate, it still floats my boat."
Community corner: gorgeous Mega Absol fanart, a moving Wally & Gallade piece at the end of Victory Road, a Humandex take on Spearow and Fearow, and proof that yes, people are still happily playing Pokémon Quest in 2026.

Epic Games is running an 'Unreal Engine AI MegaJam' contest that will award cash for AI "vibe-coded" games — and Destructoid pulls no punches, calling CEO Tim Sweeney's AI push a new "embarrassing low" following last week's Epic Games Store news.
For Final Fantasy Resonance players, Destructoid has a character tier list covering all eight party members, plus a Vision tier list for the game's 20+ Visions, whose stat bonuses and passives can thoroughly change your playstyle.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has fully released, but the drama is in DMZ: Eurogamer reports players are furious over the "Playing Possum" perk, which allows downed operators to self-revive — prompting reactions like "Why the f**k would they add a perk like that?" just two days into pre-order early access.
Good news for PC players: PC Gamer confirms Modern Warfare 4 runs "pretty smoothly" on Activision's recommended RTX 3060 Ti, and has shared the exact settings for the best performance.
GameSpot has you covered on the grind: a DMZ guide to the best hot spots and loot locations for scavenging guns and gear, plus recommended multiplayer loadouts for the new year of guns and attachments.

Steam Next Fest's most-played demos so far include Fart Together, Emberville, and ArcheAge Chronicles, per Valve's new top-20 list — the event runs through the weekend and wraps Monday, October 26 at 10am PT/1pm ET, so get downloading.
Leave it to Double Fine: GameSpot profiles the studio's latest as the first single-player "friendslop" game, a cheeky spin on the co-op slop flood dominating recent Steam Next Fests.
Hidden gem alert: Abyssal Lapidary is making the social media rounds, and PC Gamer can confirm that cutting gemstones is every bit as satisfying as it looks.

The HLX hype, explained: Rock Paper Shotgun and Eurogamer both report that a Valve composer dropped the three rumored codename letters mid-panel about video game noises — 19 years after Half-Life 2: Episode Two, the clamour for a Valve game with a '3' in the title rages on.
Eurogamer says Chinese action game Phantom Blade Zero could be "one of the year's breakout hits" — it's days from release, already has half a million copies sold on Steam alone, and is outperforming Gears of War: E-Day and Control Resonant.
Total War: Shogun 2's remastered Complete Edition was pulled from Steam last week after an avalanche of complaints about technical problems and AI-generated art — and the Total War boss is now pointing the finger at an external partner, insisting "this was not a Creative Assembly developed game."

More on the BioWare shutdown: Jennifer Hale was reacting to a leaked Mass Effect trailer when she addressed the studio's closure and Mass Effect 4's cancellation, telling GameSpot she's "holding hope" the game — and the series — will live on.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer's tiniest competitor is having a moment: GameSpot chronicles how Biddy Blas, a racer who "could probably use a booster cushion on his speeder," has made a massive impression on the internet.