Bruce Straley, the game director behind The Last of Us and various Uncharted games, finds modern AAA games to be "boring."

As part of an Edge magazine story about the state of the games industry, Straley spoke about the AAA landscape. He noted that he finds the big blockbuster titles to be "boring," partially because of the lack of risk-taking. Straley pointed to God of War Laufey as an example of a game that obviously takes a lot of effort and skill to achieve, but may not innovate in notable ways.

“God of War Laufey, I look at that game, and every pixel is mindblowing," he said. "The amount of work and skill that’s gone into every single frame… I’ve made those kinds of games, and I’m still blown away. But when I actually look at what you’re doing in the game? I’m not excited. And that’s nothing against the God of War team. Just, across the board in triple-A, it feels like there’s no opportunity to inject fresh, innovative ideas.”

The irony, as many people on the internet will surely point out, is that Straley may be the source of inspiration for a lot of modern AAA games. Uncharted and The Last of Us are the blueprint for the hyper-cinematic, third-person action games that are coming out in droves these days. That's especially the case for PlayStation and God of War. The 2018 soft reboot of God of War was jokingly criticized by gamers for being a Kratos-led version of The Last of Us.

Straley left Naughty Dog in 2017, following the release of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The game director received special thanks in the credits of The Last of Us Part 2, but it's unclear how much he contributed to the final game, as it went through nearly four years of development without him. Straley left the company after experiencing extensive burnout from the intensive AAA development process.

Now, Straley is working on smaller games at his own studio, Wildflower Interactive. His first game under Wildflower was announced at the 2025 Game Awards Coven of the Chicken Foot and appears to be a big depature from his work at Naughty Dog. It has no release date at the moment.

If there's any game you should get from the under-$10 bargain bin, this would unquestionably be a truly worthy pickup. From now until September 30, Nintendo eShop is offering a digital copy of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Switch 2 edition for $9.99. That's already a stellar deal since it's currently selling for $39.99 everywhere else. But there's a way to get it for an even better price. Head on over to Amazon and pick up a $10 Nintendo eShop digital gift card for just $8.98. Use that gift card on this purchase and you're effectively paying $8.98.

Final Fantasy VII Remake was the first installment of the completely overhauled FFVII trilogy. It originally launched on PlayStation 4 back in 2020. The "Intergrade" edition was released in 2021 for the PlayStation 5 console, with enhanced 4K graphics, higher 60fps frame rate, faster loading times, and most importantly, new DLC content starring FFVII fan favorite Yuffie. Not until January of this year did the Intergrade edition port over to the Nintendo Switch 2 console. In his Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Switch 2 re-review, he noted that the Switch 2 handles the game quite well.

This sale is the perfect opportunity to starting catching up on the FFVII trilogy. Earlier this year Sony announced the final chapter - Final Fantasy VII Revelation - with a launch date in April of 2027. This time around, Switch 2 gamers won't have to wait because the Switch 2 launch will coincide with all the other platforms. Revelation will close the loop on Cloud's story and will culminate in clashes with the gargantuan Weapons and the final battle with Sephiroth himself.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is being advertised as the "epic conclusion," suggesting an end of an era for the franchise.

In the social copy for the latest trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Activision stated that the game will be an "epic conclusion" for the Modern Warfare saga. It's unclear if this is the permanent end to the current Modern Warfare universe, or if this is just the end of the ongoing storyline that began back in 2019 with the rebooted Modern Warfare.

Although it's likely just a marketing buzz term, the branding comes at an interesting time. Earlier this week, Treyarch design director Kevin Drew stated that the studio was ready to "make something new and something that nobody's ever experienced before." The comments come as the studio waved goodbye to two back-to-back Black Ops games, with the most recent one being regarded as an underwhelming misfire for the series. The comments led fans to speculate that the Black Ops series may be coming to an end, or at least taking a break, allowing Treyarch to make its first new subfranchise in nearly 20 years.

Some fans are already waving goodbye to the current Modern Warfare series. "Reboot it again," joked one fan in a post on the Call of Duty subreddit. "They should do a COD Ghosts 2 or Infinite Warfare 2, both underrated campaigns," suggested another who may or may not be joking.

If Modern Warfare and Black Ops are truly coming to an end, it will be the first time the series hasn't had at least one existing sub-franchise in the rotation since the creation of Black Ops in 2010. Although we don't know what Sledgehammer Games is working on, it is likely a brand new subfranchise as Advanced Warfare and the studio's subsquent World War II games failed to catch on.

The original Modern Warfare series came to a close after just three games back in 2011. Although the team kicked around ideas for a fourth game back then, they didn't get very far and opted to create something new with Call of Duty: Ghosts.

After Ghosts and Infinity Ward's subsquent game, Infinite Warfare, failed to please fans, the studio went back to old faithful and rebooted Modern Warfare. 2019's effort is largely credited for pulling Call of Duty out of a multi-year rut where fans were beginning to lose faith in the series. It also gave birth to Warzone, the massively popular battle royale mode that has helped carry the series since launch.

During the Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 broadcast, Activision confirmed Death Stranding star Mads Mikkelsen is a major antagonist in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. It's due out on PC and consoles - but not Xbox Game Pass - on October 23.

For more, catch up on everything announced during today's Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2026 broadcast right here.