Best Games This Week: Starfield PS5 Launch & Black Flag Remake

Welcome back to ModVC Gaming News, your definitive source for everything happening in the digital realms. It is Monday, April 20, 2026, and the industry has been delivering some massive shockwaves over the past seven days. I'm writing to you on behalf of the entire ModVC Team, and this week's gaming landscape is a fascinating mix of platform-crossing behemoths, unbelievable digital sales, indie masterpieces finally getting their due, and the resurrection of what many consider the greatest pirate adventure ever coded.

As we plunge into the heart of the spring gaming season, our backlog continues to grow at an alarming rate. Between unexpected multiplatform drops, competitive shooters taking the internet by storm, and impossibly deep roguelikes commanding our attention, this week has proven that 2026 is shaping up to be a phenomenal year for our beloved medium. Let's dive deep into the best games, the biggest news, and the titles you absolutely need to be playing right now.

Starfield Conquers PlayStation 5 (Despite the Bumps)

In a headline that would have seemed like pure science fiction just five years ago, Bethesda's massive space RPG, Starfield, is officially the best-selling video game of the week in the United States—powered almost entirely by its launch on the PlayStation 5.

According to Circana's Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella, Starfield has successfully claimed the number one spot on the sales charts, marking the first time in nearly three years that the title has seen this level of overwhelming commercial dominance. The irony, however, is that this triumphant sales milestone arrives amidst a flurry of technical controversies. As reported by our colleagues at GamesRadar+ and Kotaku, the PS5 port of Starfield has had a notoriously rocky launch.

Players taking to the stars on Sony's flagship console have encountered a series of performance hiccups, leading to widespread complaints about the game being "unplayable" in certain dense areas like Akila City and New Atlantis. Bethesda Game Studios has rolled out subsequent fixes, but the initial patches were met with disappointment from the community. Yet, in a testament to the raw drawing power of Bethesda RPGs, the technical flaws have done absolutely nothing to slow down the game's sales momentum. The allure of space exploration, ship building, and faction questlines has proven entirely irresistible to the massive PS5 install base.

Here at the ModVC Team, we've spent about forty hours with the PS5 version. Yes, the framerate stutters when you're caught in a massive firefight with the Crimson Fleet, and yes, the loading screens are still a point of contention. But the magic of stepping out onto a barren moon and watching a gas giant rise over the horizon remains intact. The cross-platform strategy Microsoft has adopted is clearly paying massive financial dividends, fundamentally changing the console war paradigm.

The Ubisoft $2 Extravaganza

If you need a break from paying premium prices for new releases, this week brought an unprecedented digital sale that feels like a glitch in the matrix. As reported by Comicbook.com, a generous handful of top-tier Ubisoft games are currently available for just $2 on both PC and PlayStation. But you have to act fast—this is a one-week-only event.

While the exact lineup rotates slightly depending on your region, the $2 sale includes some of the publisher's absolute classics. We're talking about massive open-world titles that originally retailed for $60 now being sold for less than the price of a cup of coffee. This aggressive pricing strategy seems to be a move to reignite player interest in legacy franchises ahead of major fall announcements. Whether you're looking to catch up on the Far Cry series, dive into the tactical espionage of Ghost Recon, or explore historical cities in older Assassin's Creed titles, this is the most cost-effective way to build your library.

We highly recommend grabbing The Crew 2 and Assassin's Creed Unity if you haven't already. Unity, in particular, has aged like fine wine, with its recreation of Paris still standing as one of the most visually impressive urban environments in gaming history.

Indie Brilliance and Hero Shooter Chaos

Moving away from the AAA space, the ModVC Team has been heavily invested in two very different types of games this week: Marvel Rivals and Caves of Qud. As noted by our friends over at Paste Magazine and widely discussed across social media platforms like YEET (where user @yeet sparked a massive thread on this week's top performers), the dichotomy between these two titles perfectly encapsulates the diversity of the current gaming ecosystem.

Marvel Rivals is the new superhero squad shooter that is actively challenging the throne long held by games like Overwatch. The 6v6 competitive format allows players to assemble dream teams of Marvel heroes and villains, utilizing incredible environmental destruction and unique team-up synergy attacks. Want to have Rocket Raccoon ride on Groot's shoulders while laying down suppressing fire? You can do that. The competitive scene is already forming, and the netcode has been surprisingly robust during this launch window.

On the absolute opposite end of the spectrum is Caves of Qud. This brilliantly written, incredibly complex, and utterly overwhelming roguelike has been in development for years, but its recent major update has thrust it back into the spotlight. Set in a bizarre, science-fantasy post-apocalyptic world, the game offers a level of player agency and emergent storytelling that puts most modern RPGs to shame. You can play as a multi-armed mutant turtle wielding ancient laser weaponry, or a psychic nomad who can possess the minds of their enemies. The ASCII-inspired graphics hide one of the deepest mechanical systems ever created.

The Horizon: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Perhaps the most exciting news of the week isn't a game that you can play today, but one that is officially getting revealed in just a few days. The rumors have been swirling for months, but it has finally been confirmed via official social channels: Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is getting its grand reveal on April 23rd at 6PM CEST.

Let's be incredibly clear here, as the developers have stressed this point repeatedly: This is a full remake, NOT a remaster.

Edward Kenway's 2013 Caribbean adventure is widely regarded as the peak of the franchise for many fans. The seamless transition between naval combat, island exploration, and traditional Assassin stealth created a gameplay loop that has rarely been matched—even by Ubisoft's own subsequent pirate game, Skull and Bones.

Black Flag Resynced aims to rebuild the Jackdaw from the ground up utilizing the latest iteration of the Anvil engine. We expect entirely revamped combat mechanics more akin to the recent RPG entries, ray-traced Caribbean waters, volumetric weather systems for those terrifying rogue waves, and vastly expanded port cities. The ModVC Team will be covering the livestream reveal extensively, so make sure you have our site bookmarked for the deep-dive analysis of the trailer the moment it drops.

The Open World Boom of April 2026

If you look at the broader trends highlighted by top gaming creators this week, open-world games and massive RPGs are dominating the conversation. The gaming community is hungrier than ever for expansive worlds.

To see exactly what we mean, you don't have to look far. The YouTube community has been working overtime cataloging the massive influx of titles hitting digital storefronts. Check out these fantastic video roundups from some of our favorite creators to see the sheer volume of games launching this month:

• Top 10 NEW Games of April 2026 by gameranx - A brilliant breakdown of the must-play titles that just hit the shelves.
• Top 30 NEW Open World Games of 2026 by gameranx - Looking ahead at the massive sandbox games slated for the rest of the year.
• 10 Best NEW Games To Play In April 2026 by Force Gaming - An excellent curated list if you're struggling to decide what to buy this weekend.

These videos highlight a trend we've been tracking closely at ModVC: the resurgence of the AA open-world game. While behemoths like Starfield take up a lot of the oxygen in the room, mid-tier studios are pushing out incredibly innovative open-world experiences that experiment with traversal, survival mechanics, and narrative delivery.

The ModVC Wrap-Up

From the rough but triumphant arrival of Starfield on PlayStation 5, to the ridiculously cheap Ubisoft digital sale, April 2026 is proving exactly why we love this industry. Whether you are sinking hours into mastering the intricate water-magic synergies in Marvel Rivals, dying for the hundredth time in the salt dunes of Caves of Qud, or just eagerly counting down the hours until we see Edward Kenway sail again in Black Flag Resynced, there is genuinely something for everyone this week.

We haven't even touched on the vibrant sporting and casino scenes making waves this week—from the top-tier college baseball performances tracked by ESPN to the booming live dealer casino events detailed by RotoWire—but the video game landscape alone is enough to keep our controllers fully charged and our hard drives completely full.

What are you playing this week? Did you pick up Starfield on PS5, or are you holding out for performance patches? Let the ModVC Team know in the comments below, and stay tuned for our live coverage of the Black Flag Resynced reveal event on Thursday!

Article Sources & References

• VGChartz: Starfield Was the Best-Selling Game in the US Following PS5 Release
• GamesRadar+: Starfield was the best-selling video game of the week
• Kotaku: Starfield Was The Best-Selling Game In The U.S. The Week Of Its PS5 Launch
• RotoWire: The Best Live Dealer Casino Games This Week