MindsEye x Hitman Collab Debuts At Summer Game Fest 2025
Build A Rocket Boy and IOI Partners dropped an all-new trailer for MindsEye during Summer Game Fest 2025, crossing over into the Hitman world.
Build A Rocket Boy and IOI Partners dropped an all-new trailer for MindsEye during Summer Game Fest 2025, crossing over into the Hitman world. The trailer surprised fans with Agent 47 from IO Interactive's Hitman franchise. Agent 47 will be a future playable character in MindsEye for a specific mission. But IOI also revealed the fan-favourite villain from the 2006 film Casino Royale, Le Chiffre, will be an Elusive Target in Hitman World of Assassination as of today. The special Elusive Target mission will be available for one month.
The new MindsEye trailer showcases the game's stunning near-future world, explosive action-packed combat, and the compelling journey of Jacob Diaz—a former soldier whose neural implant may hold the key to a global conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate corruption, and humanity's survival.
The Danish actor portraying Le Chiffre, Mads Mikkelsen, came out to talk about the collaboration with MindsEye and Hitman. 'Le Chiffre is a character I have always enjoyed—he's calculating, cold, and ruthless,' said Mads Mikkelsen. 'Bringing him into the world of Hitman makes for a thrilling collaboration. Players can expect mind games, high stakes, and twists that only this character could orchestrate. To succeed, they'll need to play their hand wisely,' Mikkelsen stated.
The MindsEye x Hitman mission is the first collaboration announced, and part of the long-term content roadmap already planned following MindsEye's launch. In addition to the scripted campaign, MindsEye will be an ever-expanding player experience, with new studio-created premium content delivered monthly, thanks to the power of BARB's Game Creation System.
Mads Mikkelsen returns as Le Chiffre, the iconic private banker to the criminal underworld, known for his mastery of games of chance and probability. A recent failed venture left him in dire straits, losing vast sums of both legitimate and illicit capital, and in a desperate bid to recover, he has arranged a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Monarchique in Paris. Agent 47 has been tasked with infiltrating the perilous event and will have to find his way to his target to prevent havoc being wreaked across the world.
To celebrate the recent reveal of 007 First Light, players who play The Banker Elusive Target and who have signed up for an IOI account will receive an exclusive suit to redeem in 007 First Light. MindsEye launches on June 10, 2025, and is available for pre-order now (which includes a free upgrade to the Deluxe Edition). Pre-orders for MindsEye are available now.
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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
‘007 First Light' Ditches Franchise Lore for a Whole New James Bond
There's a great moment in 2012's Skyfall where Daniel Craig's superspy, James Bond, is being (very sensually) interrogated by agent-turned-villain Silva (Javier Bardem). Asked what his hobby is, Bond sternly replies, 'Resurrection.' It's a dry, self-aware bit of dialogue that encapsulates the core strength of the Bond franchise that's kept the spy series going for over 70 years: James Bond always comes back, in one form or another. Whether it's being dragged out of retirement or bouncing back from a bout of amnesia in author Ian Fleming's original serial novels, or the generational reboots that allowed Bond to be acceptably recast over 25 feature films, there's always a way for 007 to start anew. In gaming, the same has been true, with multiple versions of Bond appearing across different eras and genres of titles, totaling over two dozen entries. More from Rolling Stone Woodkid Says Hideo Kojima Changed 'Death Stranding 2' Because It Wasn't 'Polarizing' 10 Years of 'Critical Role': 'We Are Never Going Away' With the Release of the Switch 2, the Original Nintendo Switch Is Marked Down Online And just like the films, Bond games have had their peaks and valleys. At their best (like 1997's Goldeneye), Bond games can perfectly embody spy fantasy action; at their worst (like 2008's 007: Quantum of Solace), they end up as run-of-the-mill copycats of other popular games wearing a 007 mask. And while most developers have opted to lean into the star power of the on-screen actors to recreate their Bond or mostly hide behind a first-person perspective to dodge the issue entirely, few studios have taken the leap to fully make their own version of the iconic agent. That's what gives IO Interactive's upcoming 007 First Light (due out in 2026) such alluring potential. Initially announced back in 2020 under the working title Project 007, First Light was fully revealed this year with a trailer during Sony's State of Play on June 4. Developed by Danish studio IO Interactive — famous for the Hitman series — it's a third person, narratively driven action game that doesn't just go back to the origins of Bond but fully creates its own version of the character and his mythos, unbound to any existing written or cinematic canon. Following a younger Bond who has yet to obtain his 00 status, First Light treads new ground for the franchise, going even farther back than the opening scene of 2006's Casino Royale where Craig's iteration earned his call sign. With a new M, Q, and entirely original supporting cast, the Hitman devs are taking a bold swing, introducing the world to the first fresh take on Bond in gaming since 2012's 007 Legends — and well before Amazon's own cinematic reboot emerges. Rolling Stone recently spoke with IO Interactive's CEO, Hakan Abrak, to understand how the studio is working to create their own vision of Bond, how it compares to their previous work on the stealth series Hitman, and why it can't all just be 'bang bang, vroom.' Those who know the work of IO Interactive are well aware of their reputation the premiere developers in stealth gameplay. The Hitman series, which began 25 years ago with Hitman: Codename 47 and continues presently with the standalone trilogy-turned-live service platform Himan: World of Assassination, is essentially the ultimate sneaking simulator. Taking on the role of the shadowy, silent assassin Agent 47, players are tasked with killing specific targets using everything from elaborate disguises to manipulating their environment like a Rube Golberg machine to create cascading emergent incidents that execute their victims in true Final Destination fashion. But while the Hitman games have closed ecosystems for each level where players are essentially solving a socially-driven murder puzzle, the world of Bond demands something very different — more theatrical and over-the-top in terms of its action and emotions. To do so, the team at IO needed to set some important ground rules and methods to follow. 'When we were thinking about how to approach this, we tried to create some pillars to be our North Star,' Abrak says. 'One of the pillars was high-octane action — you know, cinematic experience, kinetic combat, exotic vehicles.' 'There are certain things that are very strong [points] for the Hitman experience: the simulator, the open world, the freedom, right? But not vehicles, and not necessarily action,' Abrak explains. 'So, one of the pillars was [that] we really need to push more freeform, dynamic hand-to-hand combat. Seamless, going into ranged combat, aware of your environments. Everything is a weapon and opportunity. Creativity and dynamism [are] a part of this. Obviously, upping our capabilities with the cinematics and [what] we call the spectacle moments, because there's larger than life action pieces in Bond — to be able to depict that sweaty palm experience as well.' For Abrak, the second pillar was a more familiar one: globetrotting. Agent 47 may have done dirty work, but each level of a Hitman game affords a look inside a high-stakes and luxurious world. Whether it's walking the runway in a Parisian fashion show or slipping through the crowd at an F1 race in Miami, the titular Hitman is always blending into high society, but rarely ever engaging with it. But Bond? He's always going to be the center of attention, for better or worse. 'It's [coming] to the exotic places, these extreme VIP places where mere mortals like you and me maybe don't get to [go] every day and have gameplay there,' he says. 'I think this is what we do differently from many other studios. It's not only about the bang bang and the vroom, but it's also about having gameplay in social spaces and trespassing spaces where you can use your gadgets in a different way, and you can use your charm, use your wits in solving these puzzles — or solving people, really.' Delineating Bond, and differentiating him from their previous protagonist, is important. The team's final pillar of design was understanding how to approach the 'daunting' task of creating their own version of a character known around the world. 'I don't think there's a formula for it,' Abrak says. 'I don't think the movie people had a formula for it, right? It's feeling in your guts and your heart on what is the story you want to tell, [and] who is he?' When it comes to Bond, everyone has their favorite version. For some, it's Sean Connery's roguish and smarmy charmer; for others, it's Roger Moore's campy huckster. Like many who prefer a more grounded take, Abrak is partial to Daniel Craig's more recent era ('I personally think [it] was extremely strong'). But while the character itself can be malleable, there's many preconceptions on the core elements that define him. Regardless of the interpretation, he's a man of contradictions: charming but ruthless, practical yet reckless. As seen in Craig's movies, some of the polish comes with age, but the core tenets remain — and will be present in 007 First Light. 'This Bond is not a super polished diamond. He's not well-versed with his [tuxedos]; definitely not well-versed with the martinis yet,' Abrak says. 'He's a rough diamond. And it's this young man with his inner ethos. It's a young man that sometimes is maybe reckless, and it's a young man that maybe doesn't know yet when to push too much or when to stand back a bit. So, he's learning these things the hard way being introduced to the shady, dark world of espionage.' And when Abrak refers to Bond as a 'young man,' he isn't exaggerating. While Fleming's early works place Bond at being somewhere between his late twenties and early thirties, First Light's version is 26, but looks downright baby-faced. Although, as many diehard readers will notice, he also adorns the large facial scar Bond has in the novels that was mostly omitted from his MGM movie outings. Yet despite his age, the developers don't want their Bond to feel juvenile or amateur. If they're going to do justice to the character — as well as live up to power fantasy previously provided by Hitman — this 007 needs to have impact. 'I think it's a huge challenge to [be] courageous, to take on this challenge is it's not our own IP,' Abrak says. 'This is the first IP we're working on that's not our own. So, I think for us, it needed to be with a nerve. It needed to be, not doing Robin, but doing Batman.' But whether it's Bond or Batman, part of the origin story has to deal with learning the ropes, which is going to lead to missteps — especially in the harsh world of global espionage. 'There's always a twist. There's a lot of twists and surprising elements in a Bond story,' Abrak notes. 'And I think this young man having to find himself, having to find something that he can believe in, that he can be part of something that makes sense to him — it's all a part of his journey.' 'The other thing is, who can you trust? [Who] can't you trust?,' he continues. 'I think calling him naïve is completely wrong. He's not naïve, He's super smart and has his wits with him. But it is a very complex world out there. It is a very geopolitical, difficult world out there.' That world looks to be populated by a cast of both new and old characters. The first trailer for the game begins with a conversation between M, Bond's classic superior and occasional foil, and Greenway, an original character described by IO Interactive' website as a mentor figure (although no voice actors for the roles have been announced). Shortly after, there's a look at Q, Moneypenny, and more fan favorites, but one specific name is particularly exciting: 009. In the pantheon of Bond villains, turncoats from MI6 have often served as some of the best baddies. From Sean Bean's 006, Alec Trevelyan, in Goldeneye (1995) to Javier Bardem's Silva in Skyfall, former agents have a history of turning up as formidable (and deliciously played) mirror images of Bond. The trailer's narration seems to imply that, this time around, an unseen agent with the callsign 009 will play an antagonistic role, referring to them (with nongendered language!) as 'a master manipulator.' The voiceover concludes, 'Whatever the endgame is, we won't see it coming.' Although Abrak won't divulge about the nature of 009 or the game's villains ('I want to tell you so much, but I can't!'), there's plenty to glean from what he does say. In a similar way to how Craig's era as Bond dealt with the debate about the need for human field agents in a modern period of digital surveillance, First Light looks to be exploring the value of having agents the government can trust. 'I think that's interesting in itself, betrayal in the world of spies is a thing. [Also] in the real world that we hear about, double agents and all that. Without going too much into the story and revealing anything, I think 009 is a very important part of the story,' Abrak says. 'The interesting part here is that the 00 [Double O] program has been laying dormant for quite a while, and the M we meet is actually believing in the human church and believing in resurrecting the 00 program.' 'It's very exciting,' he adds. 'Why was it dormant? Why was it being restricted? What was 009's role in that?' Regardless of which Bond is your favorite, the fact that the argument persists is telling. While the books and movies always offered a feeling of escapism in exotic locations, what truly resonates with fans is the character of James Bond. There's a certain charm and heroism, sure, but the character himself is very human and vulnerable — all those traits combined have left audiences attached to who he is (sometimes literally, in terms of casting). For Abrak, that connection runs deep. The developer, who's of Turkish descent, has felt that attachment to the franchise since his childhood. 'I was born in Denmark, [but] my father came here in [1969], and there's not a lot of international movies and things that my father would watch,' he says. 'He would watch those old Turkish TV soap operas and stuff like that. But Bond was one of those things that captured so many people, and also captured my father's attention. It's one of the few things that's not Turkish [that] he would watch, and I'd watch those things growing up together with him. Some special memories there.' That personal tie is something that the creators of First Light want to instill in their players when they experience the game. While their previous experience with Hitman was more about crafting localized pockets of storytelling centering on individual missions and marks, telling a Bond story requires greater cohesion and scope. 'There is an overarching story in Hitman, but the locations themselves almost have a whole game or substory to [them] as well. So, we have this overarching [story], but really, it's the locations themselves where things are evolving and the stories are going on,' Abrak says. 'Whereas, with Bond, it's a journey. It's an evolution of a young man, and the things that happen along the way not only should be impactful, but they should have lingering effect that connect to things later in the story.' Part of that connection stems from Bond himself, who is a much more animated character than Agent 47, who's conversely a mostly emotionless fixture that's juxtaposed (to comedic effect) with the outlandish luxury and violence around him. For Bond, there needs to be more deeply explored. 'One thing that was so exciting — because Hitman doesn't speak to you, to the player — [was] that you could convey a lot of [Bond's] personality through the things he says,' Abrak explains. '[It] kind of channels that through the controller to you; that you get to feel him; that you get to understand him; that you get to laugh with him and [hopefully] get sad with him and feeling lost throughout this journey.' 007 First Light launches in 2026 for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Best of Rolling Stone Every Super Bowl Halftime Show, Ranked From Worst to Best The United States of Weed Gaming Levels Up
Engadget
5 days ago
- Engadget
Obsidian Entertainment has big ambitions for Grounded 2's small world
Obsidian Entertainment has been an incredibly versatile game developer over the years, even venturing outside its RPG comfort zone with the original Grounded . As a survival adventure game where you're shrunken down and explore the hidden, vast world of a backyard, it became a well-loved hit, and it evolved even further throughout its early access period. But now, the developers have big plans for Grounded 2 , which has new features and a larger scope that was too big for the original to contain. Shortly after the reveal during the recent Xbox Games Showcase alongside Summer Game Fest 2025, I got to play the opening of the sequel, which sees the familiar crew of teenage scavengers, now a little older and wiser, shrunken down once again to survive a new small world hidden in the town's park. Even as a new iteration of a familiar premise, which is essentially the survival gameplay of Rust by way of the whimsical Honey, I Shrunk the Kids , Grounded 2 is already showing some promise as the bigger and better sequel. To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Grounded 2 , which will also launch in early access, already feels like a bigger game, even from the confines of the tutorial zone. For starters, there's a larger focus on building up the experience of the four teenage scavengers and how they fit into the larger story. It's not quite Yellowjackets when it comes to teen drama, but the crew exploring the small world of the park have colorful language and quips at their disposal. There's a generally stronger sense of personality in Grounded 2 , which is bolstered by some more character-driven writing and opportunities to take in the lore of the company responsible for the experiments in town. The experience of playing Grounded 2 , much like the original and other survival games, is all about gathering resources from the land and acquiring knowledge to stay alive. Along with collecting materials to build weapons, armor and structures, you'll also have to keep your characters fed and hydrated. You'll also need to defend yourself against the various critters roaming about, such as the ants and the spiders. Also returning is the arachnophobia accessibility option to make them appear less disturbing for players. Thankfully, you can now use a dodge to avoid attacks – a first for the series – and combat is generally more responsive and fair. Grounded 2 feels like a more well-rounded and refined take on the original, which is a solid game in its own right. One great addition that I got to play with was the new ant mount, or buggy, as the devs call it. You'll be able to ride on top of a friendly ant that can attack enemies, move faster throughout the world, and even collect material far more quickly than the human scavengers. Shortly after my hands-on experience, I sat in on a roundtable discussion with game director Chris Parker and producer Miles Winzeler from Obsidian Entertainment, who explained how early access feedback from players helped bring the game to its current state. In order to fully implement their vision for Grounded, though, they would need a new game. "Almost everything in Grounded 2 comes from feedback from the community that we had gathered from the first game," Parker said. "We had to look at what was important to work on with the sequel. People always want more stuff to do. They wanted to have the buggies, which was a huge one and our number one most requested feature from out the gate on Grounded 1 . We then had to work on new creatures, armor and weapons, among other things. How can we further develop our progression systems? So those were all the things that we took on from the beginning for Grounded 2 ." Grounded 2 felt like a more fully realized game, which leveraged years of work on the original. Along with a more developed story campaign focusing on helping the kids survive the portion of Brookhollow Park they have to explore – which is more than three times the size of the original's map – The game will also launch with creative mode, which was a popular feature that let players focus on exploring and building up structures at their leisure. "We're always trying to challenge scale and how we can create a sense of awe and mystery by having something that's supposed to be normal but is now this gigantic thing," Parker said. "That's always the fun when making this game." I really took to the added scope of Grounded 2 . Not just as a shrunken person trapped on the grounds of a park but also for the new features and ideas at work for the sequel. With the game coming out in July for early access, Grounded 2 has already got me invested in making a return visit to this small world with big ambitions. Grounded 2 will release in early access on July 29 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available for Game Pass subscribers.
Digital Trends
5 days ago
- Digital Trends
MindsEye review: an unfinished review for an unfinished game
MindsEye MSRP $60.00 Score Details 'MindsEye is a baffling, busted shooter that squanders a campy sci-fi premise.' Pros Campy sci-fi premise Decent action Cons Dull driving Lifeless world Bizarre side content Horribly optimized Buggy beyond repair 'Why you can trust Digital Trends – We have a 20-year history of testing, reviewing, and rating products, services and apps to help you make a sound buying decision. Find out more about how we test and score products.' Imagine that you're a food critic. You're assigned to review a hot new American bistro downtown. You've been hearing a lot of buzz about it before its grand opening, with the owners even throwing around the word 'revolutionary.' You get there, sit down at a table, and order a simple hamburger. A simple order, but a baseline test to see how well the restaurant has mastered the fundamentals. The waiter comes back 15 minutes later with a plate of raw ground beef. Recommended Videos That's what I feel like as I try to review MindsEye. The debut game from Build a Rocket Boy, a new studio formed by Rockstar veteran Leslie Benzies, has a basic recipe. It's a third-person cover-based shooter with a cinematic sci-fi story. It adds a few extra spices in with the salt and pepper – a dash of gadgetry here, a heavy portion of driving there — but it's a hamburger. Or it would be, at least, had the studio been able to finish cooking it. I couldn't even take my first bite of it before pink meat spilled out of the bun. Check please! I don't know what purpose a traditional review of something as transparently unfinished as MindsEye serves. Sure, there are a few good pieces lying in the scrap heap, but it doesn't make much sense for me to tell you about the car those parts dream to become one day. Rather than spending hours painstakingly dissecting it in carefully considered prose, I feel that it's only right to match MindsEye's sorry state with my own raw, unorganized thoughts. I can't give you a proper review; I can only offer you ground beef. Story Mindseye opens with a cutscene of a drone flying around some vague ruins. Then 'Three years later' flashes on screen as if something of note happened. I'll give some credit to the world here. Redrock, the Las Vegas inspired city where the story goes down, is a fertile ground for technosatire. Rogue AI workers terrorize the streets. A Tesla-like company tries to assert its power over local politicians. Authoritarianism runs rampant. It could have been a perfect game for the moment if it didn't eventually divert from all that weighty commentary to talk about magical orbs. Our hero is Jacob Diaz. Bro has the widest stance I've ever seen, and his mouth is always open. A lot of video games strive to be movies, but that's usually a narrow endgame. Most just want to be Star Wars or The Avengers. MindsEye's ambitions are that of a straight to DVD sequel of an early 2000s action movie. Jacob is like the B-list WWE wrestler in a vehicle made to unsuccessfully launch his acting career. I kind of respect that about it. At the very least, it goes all-in on presentation. There are some suitably cinematic cutscenes, a thumping sci-fi soundtrack, and some enjoyably campy acting from a cast that largely seems to get the game it's in. Anyways, Jacob takes a security job at a big tech company so he can figure out the secret of a pyramid that gave him tech superpowers. I have no idea what Jacob's supposed superpowers are. He mostly just shoots guns. Gameplay The shooting is fine. Look, what do you want me to say? It's hard to totally screw up shooting in a video game these days. You point a reticle at a guy's head, pull the right trigger, he dies. It's unremarkable, but snappy enough to fire off some endorphins. There are, like, five enemy types in total, if I'm being generous: human, human in some armor, robot, humanoid robot, slightly taller humanoid robot. I can't really make out what I'm shooting at when things get dark, which is often. My reticle doesn't change to let me know that I'm hovering over someone. I have to rely on a scan tool that places a big red arrow over my enemies' heads instead. There's a cover system that works about as well as any cover system you'd find in an Xbox 360 game. If there's any highlight here, it's Jacob's drone controllable pal. I can fly it around while I'm in cover and use it to stun enemies or hack robots. The lifeless combat comes together a bit more in the final stretch of the story once I can send it out and blow enemies up with grenades. It's too little too late, but it's something. Enough of that, though: I'd say that 75% of the game is actually just spent driving cars and helicopters to the next objective, often miles away, while characters spout exposition. The cars are 'self-driving' but I still have to control it, so I am canonically the AI, I think. Despite being a lawful security guard, Jacob's car has a feature where it tells him how long it's expected to get to a destination and encourages him to speed up to beat that time. There is no consequence for not doing that and no reward for doing it. But you can not steal a car that is not yours, so don't even think about it bucko. You can not explore Redrock while driving. If you do not stay within the undefined bounds of the mission area while driving, you will get a game over screen. One time I got a game over screen because I was apparently doing an escort mission and walked too far away from the people I didn't know I was supposed to be protecting, because I was never given an objective. I'd say that I got game over screens on most missions for similar reasons. There's a minimap that shows where objectives are, but it only displays roads and most of the action happens in and around buildings, so the minimap is largely blank during actual missions. There is other gameplay too. And I mean that as a threat. There's an instant fail stealth mission where you have to sneak into a facility while avoiding wandering robot guards. I had to restart it after a robot got stuck on a fence, making it impossible to get around its cone of vision. Another has me flying a drone into someone's apartment and looking for clues, but I have to make sure it doesn't take too much damage. Slightly brushing up on a wall gently counts as damage and most of the mission is spent in a very tight air vent. I really do respect the fact that Build a Rocket Boy worked a lot of variety into its story and doesn't repeat any of its missions. It's a much needed change of pace from the completely monotonous driving interludes and the repetitive shootouts, even if it leans heavily on cliché mission tropes. That said, this is the kind of game where every time it introduces a new minigame, you will become conditioned to say 'oh no.' Extra content Before the MindsEye released, Build a Rocket Boy talked a big game about the project including some kind of creative tool that would let fans build and share their own gameplay experiences. That mode does not appear to exist on consoles yet. What is in the game is a 'play' menu, which features a handful of side missions created by Build a Rocket Boy no doubt using the tool. A good chunk of them are very bland 'race through the checkpoint' driving minigames. There is no tangible reward for doing any of them. Sometimes I find portals that contain side missions, not unlike Split Fiction. They supposedly let me live random people's memories. I think maybe that's Jacob's superpower? In one mission, I get to see what it's like to be a criminal. I shoot a bunch of cops with a shotgun while a character I know nothing about barks lines like 'In it to win it!' It lasts about a minute and there's no reward for doing it. A portal to the cop killing dimension now just looms in Jacob's dining room. Another mission tasks me with blowing up cars belonging to some 'gangbangers.' I quit it after I'm killed when a car phases through another and plows into me. 'These are real people's experiences,' Jacob muses. That happens less than halfway through the story. I never find another portal again. When I beat the game, I'm dropped into 'free roam mode' where I can explore Redrock to my heart's content. There is seemingly nothing to do in the world except do the few missions in the 'play' menu. In this mode, I inexplicably control a grey-haired character I have never seen before. He is wearing a bright blue tube top and a gas mask. He has a tattoo on his stomach that says 'Can't drink dust.' I am never told who this man is and I am not allowed to change a single thing about him. He is my hero. I think this is all summed up best by the fact that I get a splash screen when beating the game that tells me to enjoy the additional gameplay experiences, but the word 'additional' is misspelled. Pasta salad recipe I made a really good pasta salad after my first play session. Okay, so get a little bowl and pour in half a cup of olive oil, half a cup of lime juice. Throw in just a little bit of honey. Finely chop up some chiles in adobo sauce and mix all that together. Get a pot of water boiling on the stove and cook some bowtie pasta. While that's happening, get some ground beef or turkey going in a pan. Salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder. Cook it all through. Now get to chopping. Slice up a pint of cherry tomatoes. Dice a red onion. Chop a red pepper. Open up a can of corn and a can of black beans. Now get a salad bowl and combine everything. Pasta, meat, vegetables, corn, beef, and the dressing to top it off. Get some tongs and mix all that together. Top it all off with some scallions and Monterey Jack cheese. Delicious stuff. This cost me around $35 to make and I got multiple meals out of it. MindsEye costs $60. Performance and bugs Sigh. MindsEye feels like a video game released in its alpha state. It is completely unoptimized and even the PS5 Pro's extra power can't save it. It runs at a poor framerate that feels like a new number invented for the game. The constant asset pop-in and jagged shadows make it feel like Pokémon Scarlet and Violet trying to sneak into an Unreal Engine social mixer in a trenchcoat. Game crashes? You betcha! Anyways this is the end of my Mindseye live play through thread. I leave you with this. — Giovanni Colantonio (@ 2025-06-15T06:13:58.552Z Sometimes you will shoot at an enemy and they will vanish into cover instantly. Sometimes an entire squad will just suddenly appear around you. When they are not doing magic tricks, they are often milling around aiming at nothing. One mission had me sniping enemies while stuck in a hole, but then the enemies that were supposed to spawn stopped coming. You can not exit a sniper scope view in this scene, but I realized that you could still open up the weapon wheel and switch to another gun to return to third-person, though Jacob is permanently stuck in aiming stance. I did that and managed to clip my way out of the hole to finish the mission. Every driver on the streets has a death wish and is constantly crashing. One time, I watched a self-driving truck go tumbling down a hill into a crater. Another time, I watched one very slowly inch into a tree and then explode into a fiery blaze. In some way, MindsEye is the most accurate Tesla simulator ever. I posted a video of that tree crash explosion and someone on Bluesky said it reminded them of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force gag where everything explodes when it's thrown at the ground. That's a pretty accurate description of MindsEye as a whole. Look, I could keep going here. Pop over to YouTube or Reddit and you'll find no shortage of bug reels that show you just how busted MindsEye is. Jacob falling through the map, NPCs exploding into a mess of spaghetti limbs, you name it. There's a whole culture in gaming built around turning games like this into fascinations. MindsEye feels destined to be 2025's entry into the 'bad game hall of fame.' Is that such a terrible fate? Ironic success stories like The Room prove that it's sometimes better to be a memorable misfire than a decent slog. I'm sure that's not an outcome that the team at Build a Rocket Boy will be happy about owning. There's palpable ambition fueling MindsEye, but I can feel where it likely clashed with business decisions that forced the project out of the oven prematurely. It's the kind of game that you can only pity, holding some empathy for the artists watching an unrealized dream tumble away like a self-driving truck down a crater. No chef wants to serve you uncooked beef. MindsEye was reviewed on PS5 Pro.
