Popverse's top stories

• Critical Role star Sam Riegel didn't know FCG's fate before the moment happened - but he did know it was "a good way to go"
• X-Men actress Famke Janssen doesn’t own an action figure of herself as Jean Grey, because they don’t look like her
• DC's Batman #1 has already outsold 2024's best-selling comic of the year

And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

Anytime someone releases a game on PC, you can expect industrious gamers to crack it open and find its secrets within about half an hour. Players of Doom: The Dark Ages dove into the code for the game and discovered an unused gun with the help of console commands. The new gun appears to be a variation of the Chainshot that comes from the Cosmic Realm, which suggests that dimension could be the subject of future DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages.

You’ll have to install a couple of mods to take advantage of console commands in Doom: The Dark Ages, but doing so will allow you to spawn an unnamed new gun in the game. Reddit user Naïve_Lab_5189 helpfully posted a video of the gun in action, which appears to function similarly to the Chainshot but with an obviously different design. It looks more like the artifacts you find in the Cosmic Realm, a new dimension of terror introduced in Doom: The Dark Ages.

Unused assets in a game are pretty common – developers often leave things in (sometimes for years) because removing them could break code in untold ways. However, the fact that the clip posted to Reddit shows that this gun is fully functional in the game seems to suggest that it was further along in development than a mere unused asset. That is what makes the theory that this gun is related to upcoming DLC so credible. Since the Cosmic Realm has only been introduced in this new entry in the Doom franchise, it would make sense that the developers would want to explore it more with future storylines.

This is all speculation at this point, but there is a strong case that the first batch of DLC for Doom: The Dark Ages will focus on the Cosmic Realm and will give the Slayer a shiny new gun along the way.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

• All upcoming games in 2025 and beyond
• Gamify My Life, our weekly gaming column designed
• Popverse Picks: The best Assassin's Creed protagonists
• How to play every GTA game in order
• Why the GTA 6 budget isn't as crazy as you think
• The Magic: The Gathering x Spider-Man crossover set wouldn't exist without the Spider-Verse

And be sure to check Popverse regularly for the latest gaming news.