We Speak Gaming
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse Is Out Now on Consoles and PC
The whip has a new Belmont. Konami has released Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, an exploration-based 2D action game out now on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Steam.
The game is set in Paris in 1499, twenty-three years after the events of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Its hero is Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont, who takes up the family’s Vampire Killer whip and fights through the streets of Paris and into Dracula’s castle. It is the first new Belmont-led entry in the series in years, and it returns the franchise to the 2D exploration format that defined it.
Belmont’s Curse was co-developed by Konami and Evil Empire, with Motion Twin — the studio behind Dead Cells — serving in an advisory role. That pairing explains the game’s feel: classic Castlevania structure built by a team with modern 2D action credentials.
The standard edition costs $29.99. The Midnight Edition, at $39.99, adds a Digital Sound & Art Gallery with 71 tracks from composer Daniel ASADI, Trevor Style and Sypha Style costumes for Rose, and the Family’s Grace relic. Players who pre-ordered or bought early also received an Alucard Style costume for Rose.
Anyone who wants to try before buying already can: a free demo covering the game’s first chapter has been available since October 1, and progress carries over into the full game. The game runs at 60 frames per second, dropping to 30 on Nintendo Switch, and carries an ESRB Teen rating.
Konami has been steadily rebuilding Castlevania’s presence with collections and collaborations. Belmont’s Curse is the bigger swing — an original entry, a new Belmont, and a price that undercuts most new releases. For a series this storied, that is exactly the right way back in.
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THE FINALS has always sold itself on destruction, and Season 12 rebuilds the whole system. “PRIME TIME,” live now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, is the free-to-play game show shooter’s largest update since its 2023 launch, headlined by Gradual Destruction: buildings now bend, sag and partially collapse under damage instead of shattering on cue, while Blast Waves displace objects and deform walls, and smoke and toxic gas have been reworked to interact with the geometry they move through.
The season’s new mode is Solo Showdown, launching in beta as the game’s first dedicated solo tournament. Twelve contestants play three rounds drawn from eight rotating mini-modes — Blast Off!, Heavy Hitters, Boom Brawl, Slam-A-Rama, Sniper Standoff, Winch Wars, Turbo Tussle and One and Gunned — with the four lowest scorers eliminated after each of the first two rounds.
The game show itself gets smarter with Dynamic Commentary, also in beta: announcer Scotty now calls contestants out by name for standout plays such as team wipes and revive streaks, turning the broadcast layer into part of the reward.
Light players get a full new playstyle, the Infiltrator. True Sight reveals opponents through smoke, the Mimic Device disguises a contestant as an object, and the Translocator swaps the player’s position with a marked object. Balance shifts around it: Light builds gain 25 health and Heavy builds lose 25, compressing the gap between the outer classes.
Three arenas — Monaco, Seoul and Skyway Stadium — have been remastered, the HUD and Side Panel redesigned, and sponsor rewards rebuilt around Contracts; the VR currency has been removed entirely. A Frights Galore Halloween wheel covers the seasonal beat.
Three years in, Embark is not coasting on THE FINALS’ formula — PRIME TIME re-engineers the thing the game is famous for, and bets that better destruction keeps the show on air.
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