PikPok and Mattel are bringing players into a colorful new Barbie adventure with Barbie: Horse Ride & Rescue, an equestrian-focused game designed around horse rescue, exploration, customization, fashion challenges and story-driven discovery. Developed by the New Zealand studio behind the Rival Stars Horse Racing franchise, the game will launch globally on mobile on June 16, 2026, with PC through Steam and Nintendo Switch 2 versions planned for 2027. The new title combines the recognizable Barbie universe with PikPok’s experience in horse-focused game development, creating an experience aimed at older teens and adults who are looking for a relaxed, character-driven and highly customizable adventure.
I was given the opportunity to see Hasbro Games Junior Collection and its Monopoly Junior experience during a meeting at Gamescom, where I had the chance to get a much closer look at how the game translates one of the world’s most recognizable family board games into a digital format. What immediately stood out to me was just how deliberately the experience has been adapted for younger players. Rather than simply taking the traditional Monopoly formula and putting it on a screen, the game appears to rethink the way younger children interact with the mechanics, presentation and pacing of the experience. At the same time, it retains enough of the recognizable Monopoly structure to make it feel authentic. I was particularly impressed by the balance between accessibility and genuine gameplay depth, with mechanics designed for younger players without introducing the complexity that can sometimes make strategy-heavy board games difficult for children. The colorful presentation, interactive dice mechanics, character customization, familiar locations and competitive mini-games all contribute to an experience that feels designed around family play rather than simply being a simplified version of a more advanced game. After seeing it in action, I came away very positively impressed, and I am already looking forward to trying the game with my own family when it launches.
Ghost Haunting Brings Classic PointandClick Design Back to Life
During our meeting with Daedalic at Gamescom 2026, the first game presented to us was Ghost Haunting, a handcrafted 2D point and click adventure developed by Cologne based studio Creative Monkeys. We did not play the game ourselves during the meeting, but the presentation provided a detailed look at its story, visual direction and accessibility systems. The project is heavily inspired by the LucasArts adventure games of the 1990s, combining low resolution pixel art, linear storytelling, environmental puzzles, item combinations and conversations with strange characters. The developers want the game to look like something from the classic era while still benefiting from three decades of improvements in game design. Every pixel has reportedly been created and adjusted by hand, reinforcing the feeling that this is a carefully produced adventure rather than a quick attempt to imitate retro graphics.
The story follows Gigi, an unpredictable eight and a half year old girl whose grandmother was the only person who truly understood her. After her grandmother dies, Gigi is not given a proper explanation of what happened and assumes that she has simply travelled to the realm of the dead. She later discovers Baron Butternut, a demon trapped inside a talking pumpkin, as well as the truth about her grandfather’s secret work hunting ghosts and monsters. Gigi decides that if spirits can travel from the realm of the dead into the world of the living, she should be able to make the same journey in reverse and bring her grandmother home. Despite the subject of death, the game is built around absurd comedy, including a toilet dwelling goblin, an organisation of verified vegan vampires and a suspicious character named Dr. Calligraphy. The adventure is set in Germany’s Eifel region, with forests, castles, legends and real locations used to give the fictional world a strong local identity.
Gamescom is usually full of products fighting for attention with bigger screens, stronger motors and increasingly complicated specifications, but one of the sim racing ideas that stayed with me after Gamescom 2026 was surprisingly simple. During my time with Asetek Racing, I had the opportunity to experience its Virtual Button Box as part of a complete racing setup, and what impressed me was not a single headline specification. It was how naturally everything worked together once I was actually racing. The steering wheel felt comfortable in my hands, the feedback from the simulator made the car feel far more physical than I expected, and having interactive controls directly in the center of the wheel meant I could manage different functions without feeling like I was operating a collection of separate peripherals. For me, that combination made the experience feel much closer to sitting inside a purpose-built racing cockpit than simply playing a racing game with expensive hardware.
Honkai: Star Rail Version 4.5, titled To Roll the Stars in Astropolis, launches on August 26, 2026, taking the Trailblazer away from Planarcadia and into Astropolis, one of the Interastral Peace Corporation’s major strongholds. Following the appearance of the Voracity and the new crisis threatening Planarcadia, the story will focus on finding the power needed to protect the region while navigating the IPC’s upper management. Astropolis also introduces a much lighter side to the update, with Robin and Aventurine joining the Trailblazer for an interstellar summer vacation alongside the main storyline.
Two years ago, direct flights from Israel to Gamescom were canceled. My team and I found ourselves checking bizarre airlines, looking for boats, and eventually flying to Cyprus. We slept there for a night and caught a flight to Germany the next day. It was expensive. It was mentally exhausting. When we finally reached the booth, we felt like we had survived a military drill.
Then I sent a message to Elena (Olena) Lobova 🔜 gamescom on LinkedIn. Reading her answers made my Cyprus connection suddenly sound like an all inclusive vacation.
I reached out to Olena, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Burny Games , to interview her for Inside the Game. I wanted to bring a different perspective. As an Israeli, waking up for work completely exhausted because of air raid sirens all night is not a theoretical concept. Dropping a Zoom call to run to a shelter is our reality. I knew she would understand exactly what I was talking about.
The virtual trucking space has long been dominated by general haulage simulators, but my hands on time with Heavy Cargo – The Truck Simulator and its substantial Heavy South DLC along with Update 1.3.0 completely redefined my appreciation for specialized logistical simulation. Stepping into the cab for this expansion, I was immediately struck by how developers tox² interactive GmbH and publisher Aerosoft doubled down on technical immersion and environmental verticality. The base game built a foundation around specialized heavy haulage mechanics, but this southern expansion pushes driving physics, route planning, and mechanical coordination to an entirely new tier.
Navigating massive trailers loaded with multi ton industrial equipment across narrow mountain passes requires absolute concentration and precise speed control. The Heavy South DLC doubles the existing open world map, integrating 31 handcrafted unlockable missions alongside countless procedural jobs in economy mode. Sitting behind the wheel with my controller connected via USB, the enhanced haptic feedback immediately feedback loops every subtle shift in asphalt quality, curb clip, or tire slip. This is not a casual cruiser; it is a meticulous, technical, and deeply satisfying execution of heavy equipment transport.
My journey into the ash-covered realms of Cinderia started with simple curiosity, but it quickly turned into an absolute obsession. Developed by MyACG Studio, this fast-paced action roguelite takes the satisfying room-to-room momentum of titles like Hades, layers on the atmospheric charm of Darkest Dungeon, and injects a level of build freedom that feels genuinely wild. From the moment I stepped into its ruined fairytale setting, the sheer responsiveness of the combat and the depth of its mechanics hooked me for dozens of hours.
The core appeal of my time with the game comes down to its incredible fluid performance paired with deep customization systems. Every run feels like an opportunity to break the game in a completely new way, testing my reflexes against punishing enemy encounters while constantly fine-tuning active abilities, passive traits, and gear synergies.
A Camping Game That Wants You to Do Almost Nothing
I Know a Spot is one of those games that makes its intentions clear almost immediately. There are no enemies to defeat, objectives constantly flashing on the screen, timers pushing you forward, or complicated progression systems demanding your attention. Instead, you arrive at a peaceful outdoor location, unpack your camping equipment, decorate the area however you like, customize your vehicle, and spend some quiet time surrounded by nature and your dog. It is an incredibly simple concept, but after playing it, I realized that simplicity is also its biggest strength. If I had a difficult week and wanted a game that required almost no mental energy from me, this is exactly the kind of experience I could see myself launching just to relax for a while.
The world is built around forests, lakes, mountains, seasonal scenery, soft lighting, natural ambience, and carefully arranged camping locations. The audio deserves particular attention because the sounds of nature, the campfire, and the general environmental atmosphere are probably some of the strongest parts of the experience. I could easily imagine leaving I Know a Spot running on a second monitor while studying, working, writing, or doing something else. In that sense, it almost feels like an interactive background environment rather than a traditional game. You can actively decorate when you feel like it, then simply leave the campsite on screen and enjoy the atmosphere. For players looking for constant interaction, that might sound boring. For the right person at the right moment, however, that lack of pressure is exactly what makes it appealing.
I went into the OMEA.ai demo with a fair amount of skepticism. The idea of playing a narrative game built so heavily around artificial intelligence immediately raised concerns for me, especially because storytelling is one of those areas where personality, pacing, tension, and consistency matter far more than technological novelty. Still, I wanted to give it a genuine chance, and the demo gradually became much more interesting than I expected. The adventure I played follows a group of Vikings who have been shipwrecked and washed ashore, while I control a protagonist who does not even know his own name. That simple mystery gives the opening an immediate sense of uncertainty, and the plot quickly develops into something surprisingly layered and tense. Instead of feeling like I was simply sending prompts to an AI system, I started becoming curious about the world, the characters around me, and most importantly, what would happen if I deliberately tried something the game had not prepared for.
What helps OMEA.ai stand apart is the way player interaction works. After each narrative section, I could type what I wanted my character to do using natural language, with up to 512 characters available for each action. That creates considerably more freedom than a traditional RPG dialogue wheel because I was not limited to deciding which developer written sentence best represented what I actually wanted to do. I could describe an action, question someone, investigate something suspicious, lie, avoid confrontation, or approach a situation from another direction entirely. OMEA also provides two predefined choices for players who do not want to write their own response every time, although this is one area where I think the demo could improve. Two options simply feel too restrictive, particularly in a game built around freedom of choice. Having three or four suggested responses would make the experience more accessible without undermining the free text system that makes OMEA interesting.
