Dying Light: The Beast Inspired by... Pac-Man?

Plus: All the Pokemon news you might have missed.

Author

Rutledge Daugette
July 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Writer Luis Gutierrez got some hands-on time with Dying Light: The Beast, the next chapter in the zombie-apocalypse series. During his time with it, he also interviewed Franchise Director Tymon Smektala and learned some interesting things about the game’s influences and direction.

For example, the titular beast transformation was inspired by Pac-Man, specifically the power pellet mechanic. You can learn more about how that game feels and plays in Luis’s preview, but if you’re eagerly waiting for the game, you’ll have to wait a little longer. It was just delayed to September.

Yes, that also includes the next Black Ops installation, too. It’s a pretty quick about-face after living in their capitalist truth of raising prices to $80, a choice spearheaded by the ironically anticapitalist Outer Worlds 2.

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If you want the lowdown on Pokemon Legends: Z-A or the upcoming stop-motion movie by the Wallace & Gromit studio, we have everything you need to know in the story linked above. There’s also updates coming to various Pokemon mobile games and apps, and if you’re local to Tokyo, there’s a new Kanto-inspired amusement park fixture opening next year.

Oddly enough, the new Pokemon TCG Pocket expansion, Wisdom of Sea and Sky, wasn’t covered in that presentation, but we have a story all about it, too.

Riot Games’ fighting game based on its ever-popular League of Legends IP is getting a closed beta in two months. There’s still no official release date yet, and the beta will only be for PC as of now. Personally, I enjoyed the bit I played during the latest alpha, and I’m curious to see how it’ll stack up next to its MOBA monster.

The Game Manufacturers Association is joining up with other companies in totally different industries as well, making this a more broad coalition. This is after the first wave of tariffs caused closures and disruptions across the tabletop industry (among many others, of course).

How’s the saying go? “Go woke, go broke?” Well, turns out invoking MAGA as part of your marketing cycle isn’t exactly a savvy move, especially considering the gameplay hasn’t lived up to fan expectations.