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Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember feels like a blast from the past thanks to its fast, stylish, and satisfying action

16 September 2026 at 02:00

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember feels like a massive step up from its predecessor, purely from a combat standpoint. With a large variety of weapons to use, several character and weapon abilities to unlock, and armor to find while exploring, there's so much to look forward to at launch.

I played a demo of Koei Tecmo's upcoming title via the Xbox booth at Gamescom 2026, and was left thrilled by just how approachable Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember feels. As a soulslike, it can certainly be punishing, especially when fighting foes above your character's level.

However, Koei Tecmo has given players more than enough ways to battle, with different deflect combinations, standard blocking, and smooth movement for evading in and out of danger zones during combat.

Using the new nunchucks weapon felt like I was stepping into Bruce Lee's shoes, easily flying through standard enemies and deflecting their unblockable attacks. The finishers and overall speed of combat are very much PlayStation 2-esque, almost reminiscent of the stylish combos and animations in Capcom's God Hand.

Enemies often spam unblockable attacks, but the great thing is the attack patterns are very well designed, as they're easy to react to without unfair or nearly indecipherable movements β€” which is an issue I've had with most soulslike games over the years.

Custom female character wielding weapon in Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember

(Image credit: Koei Tecmo)

Similar to many soulslike games, though, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember encourages players to build a build that caters to a specific play style, specifically based on which weapon one decides to use.

Levelling up different elements like wood, fire, water, earth, or metal virtues increased specific base character stats, element abilities, and ultimately improved proficiency with particular weapons.

Since I used wooden nunchucks throughout my playtime, I chose to upgrade the wood virtue, which aided me with more damage against enemies.

If you're fast enough at deflecting, Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember features some of the most satisfying back-and-forth combat against regular enemies and mini-bosses, and that's right up my alley. (Video Credit: Koei Tecmo)

Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember carries the levelling system from its predecessor and builds upon it, but the additional aspects to combat elevate it to a far more exciting level.

I never finished the first entry, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, but I was already very impressed by its fast-flowing gameplay and accessibility, which Koei Tecmo looks to be doubling down on in this sequel.

Story sequences were kept short in my preview, but honestly, gameplay is where the focus is with Koei Tecmo's upcoming entry. If my short demo is anything to go by, I can only expect Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember to deliver for stylish combat fanatics like me when it launches early in 2027 on PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

Steam achievements for multiple upcoming and unannounced games have leaked β€” and it's an ugly situation for Valve

9 September 2026 at 14:35
  • Steam achievements of upcoming and unannounced games have leaked
  • The achievements include spoilers for games like Control Resonant, Kingdom Hearts, and Persona 6
  • Valve hasn't commented on the achievements or recent prototype leak on Steam

Steam achievements for both upcoming and unannounced games may have been leaked by Valve and spotted on the third-party site Exophase.

As reported by PC Gamer, the leak includes nearly 90 games, including Control Resonant, Kingdom Hearts 4, Gears of War E-Day, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and Persona 6.

The leaked achievements are listed for each title on Exophase, including spoilers for major plot points, character reveals, and even weapon unlocks (notably for Kingdom Hearts 4), despite missing full descriptions. It's effectively created a minefield of spoilers to avoid, which is made worse since the list includes games that don't even have a release date.

It's not exactly clear how this leak occurred on Valve's end, but it doesn't appear to be a breach of the Steam platform. Instead, it may very well be an issue with Valve's API exposure, at least according to Exophase owner Mike Bendel, who claims it's a "possible screw-up on Valve's end", which makes this the second slip-up in just a few weeks.

Recently, around 12TB to 13TB of early prototypes, unreleased titles, and scrapped builds of games between 2003 and 2013 were leaked from Steam, including games such as GTA 5, The Binding of Isaac, and even some of Valve's very own games like Left 4 Dead.

Mobile phone with logo of video game distribution platform Steam operated by Valve on screen in front of web page

(Image credit: T. Schneider / Shutterstock)

It's possibly the worst spell of game leaks for publishers launching games on PC platforms like Steam, especially with the leak of builds for games like Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Forza Horizon 6 before launch.

There's clearly a major security issue at hand with Steam, and until it's addressed, game leaks seem inevitable. Game achievements, while potentially spoiler-filled, are minor in comparison to the very recent game prototype leak.

Valve hasn't made an official statement on the Steam prototype or achievements leaks, but with its impact on both publishers and consumers, it wouldn't be surprising to see both cases addressed soon.

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