Video game news digest: Tuesday, October 20, 2026

Housemarque gives Saros a big free update, PEGI re-rates games with loot boxes and three release dates land, from Faraway to Among Us Story: On Guard. Here's what mattered on Monday.

Saros: the Zenith update adds New Game+ and a boss rush

Since Monday, October 19, the free Zenith update has made Saros both easier to get into and harder to master. If enemy fire overwhelms you, a new setting slows the action down to give you time to react, and auto-fire shoots as soon as you aim at a hostile (reloading is still up to you). Once you finish the story, Eclipse Layers restart the game in a tougher version that requires several difficulty modifiers before you set off again. Overlord Rush pits you against the game's bosses against the clock, up to all eight in a row, with an online leaderboard. Housemarque is also adding ten modifiers that make runs more forgiving and ten that make them harder.

Digital-only games with loot boxes move up to PEGI 16

Digital-only games rated PEGI 3, 7 or 12 that sell paid random items, such as loot boxes, are being re-rated PEGI 16 with a "Paid random items" descriptor. PEGI announced the change on October 6, after applying the same criteria to newly rated games since June. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the Games Rating Authority, which runs PEGI in the UK, began updating ratings last week and will keep going throughout October. The ESRB, its North American counterpart, said in March it would not follow suit.

ReVamp drops its public Steam playtest over cloning fears

Digital Sun, the studio behind Moonlighter, is replacing ReVamp's public playtest with a smaller one on Discord, opening in waves from Thursday, October 29. The studio worries its game could be reverse-engineered, cloned and published before launch, as others have been recently. A playtest open to everyone is now hoped for around January. The tower defense game, in which you play as Dracula, still launches on Thursday, March 25, 2027 on PC. Drunken Goddess Reflux scrapped its public demo last week for the same reason.

Final Fantasy VII Revelation: Hard Mode from the start

In Final Fantasy VII Revelation, Hard Mode will be available from your very first playthrough, whereas Remake and Rebirth locked it behind finishing the game. Director Naoki Hamaguchi confirmed it to Hardcore Gamer, in comments picked up by Eurogamer. He explains the change by the wide range of content waiting after the credits roll. A Dynamic Mode that keeps battles challenging throughout will also be there at launch, as in Rebirth.

Directive 8020 now supports five-player online play

Supermassive Games added online multiplayer to Directive 8020 on Monday: up to five players, each at home or several in the same room, can now play through the story together. In Custom mode, everyone picks a character and takes over when that character is on screen; in Round Robin, control passes from player to player at set intervals. At key moments, you see who voted for which choice and can follow the majority or go your own way. The update also scatters 13 collectible Premonitions, the glimpses of a possible future that are a Dark Pictures staple. There's no cross-play, and every player needs their own copy.

Faraway, PAYDAY: Aces High and Among Us Story: On Guard get dates

Faraway, Steph Thirion's arcade game in which a shooting star links stars into constellations to stay alive, launches on Thursday, November 5 according to its Steam page, with PS5, Xbox Series and Switch versions the same day, as GameSpot revealed. The same Thursday, PAYDAY: Aces High, a cooperative VR heist game, comes to Steam and Meta headsets at $24.99, with a PS VR2 version possible later; its demo stays playable until Monday, October 26. Innersloth has set Wednesday, February 17, 2027 for Among Us Story: On Guard, a solo adventure in which a wrongly accused guard has to unmask the Impostor. A demo is already available on Steam. Gamekult reports it is also coming to Switch 2, iOS and Android.