UHQBot
-
Posts
39,331 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
25
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Downloads
Posts posted by UHQBot
-
-
Rest easy, videogame trailer-lovers: this year's Gamescom announcements from Opening Night Live 2022 are here to keep you fed.
The week formerly known as E3 has come and gone and The Game Awards show isn't until December, but we can't go too long without Geoff Keighley introducing a world premiere, so let there be Gamescom.
The games festival is back on as an in-person event in Cologne, Germany, this year and we'll be sharing our hands-on impressions of games in attendance throughout the week. While you wait for that, here are the announcements that were fired off on opening night.
We've grouped some of the biggest games and announcements here at the top if you just want the highlights. Down below, you'll find everything else that turned up for Opening Night Live, small trailers and incremental announcements and all. Here are all the Gamescom announcements for 2022.
Biggest Opening Night Live announcements
The Callisto Protocol
What's new: New gameplay showcase with a mutating enemy type that will regrow body parts as you fight if you don't kill them quick enough.
Release date: December 2, 2022.
Sonic Frontiers
What's new: A new gameplay trailer that leads with some classic-looking Sonic 'evels in its open world.
Release date: November 8, 2022.
Hogwarts Legacy
What's new: A story trailer focused on a Slytherin student and preorder date announcement for August 25.
Release date: February 10, 2023.
Gotham Knights
What's new: A villain lineup that includes Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface.
Release date: October 21, 2022. (Four days earlier than expected!)
Dune Awakening
What is it: An open-world survival MMO in the Dune universe.
What's new: A reveal trailer. Beta signups are open.
Dead Island 2
What's new: An actual gameplay trailer, developer interview, and release date.
Release date: February 3, 2023.
Everything else announced at Gamescom
(Image credit: Embark Studios)
Everywhere
What is it: A metaverse-sounding game coming in 2023.
What's new: Initial reveal with a debut teaser trailer.PlayStation Dualsense Edge
What is it: Sony's version of an Elite controller with customizable parts.
What's new: First announcement and trailer.The Lords of the Fallen
What is it: The new name for Lords of the Fallen 2, sequel to a not very good soulslike.
What's new: The name, and a cinematic trailer.Moving Out 2
What is it: Sequel to the co-op party game.
What's new: A gameplay trailer and 2023 launch window.New Tales from the Borderlands
What is it: A Telltale-style followup to the game everyone loved, but by Gearbox.
What's new: A new story trailer and October 21, 2022, launch date.Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties
What is it: DLC for Dying Light 2.
What's new: Reveal trailer featuring the Carnage Hall arena.Tortuga: A Pirate's Tale
What is it: A turn-based strategy pirating game.
What's new: Reveal trailer.Marauders
What is it: A multiplayer FPS set in the alternate 1990's.
What's new: A new trailer and early access launch in October 2022.Destiny 2: Lightfall
What is it: The next Destiny expansion.
What's new: A reveal trailer and February 28, 2023 launch date.Under the Waves
What is it: An underwater narrative adventure published by Quantic Dream.
What's new: First reveal trailer and 2023 release window.Goat Simulator 3
What is it: The deliberately misnumbered sequel to Goat Simulator.
What's new: A new gameplay trailer with the slapstick physics you'd expect.Return to Monkey Island
What is it: A sequel to the classic adventure game.
What's new: September 19, 2022 release date and a pre-order horse armor joke (but it is real).Moonbreaker
What is it: A turn-based sci-fi strategy game with paintable digital miniatures in the Unknown Worlds setting, collaborating with author Brandon Sanderson.
What's new: New gameplay trailer and Early Access date of September 29, 2022.Friends vs Friends
What is it: A competitive card game and FPS published by Devolver Digital.
What's new: A gameplay trailer.Lies of P
What is it: Bloodborne, but it's about Pinocchio.
What's new: New gameplay trailer, also coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch.Stranded: Alien Dawn
What is it: A strategy survival sim on another planet.
What's new: A gameplay trailer and Early Access coming in October 2022.Atlas Fallen
What is it: A "semi open world" co-op or solo action RPG that looks a bit like Monster Hunter.
What's new: A gameplay trailer and 2023 launch window.Homeworld 3
What is it: An outer space RTS.
What's new: A new gameplay trailer, now coming in the first half of 2023.Genshin Impact 3.0
What is it: A story trailer for the 3.0 launch.
What's new: Nothing, really. But it does launch today.Honkai Star Rail
What is it: The turn-based strategy RPG by Genshin Impact's developers.
What's new: A new trailer showing off that space train.High on Life
What is it: An FPS from Rick & Morty's Justin Roiland
What's new: A first gameplay trailer, and December 13 launch, and it will probably never shut up.Hardspace Shipbreaker
What is it: A spaceship deconstruction game.
What's new: September 20 console launch on PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S.The Expanse: Telltale Series
What is it: A narrative game based on the TV show by the new Telltale studio.
What's new: New trailer and summer 2023 launch window.Killer Klowns From Outer Space
What is it: A competitive multiplayer horror game based on the '80s movie.
What's new: A new trailer and Early Access coming in 2023.Scars Above
What is it: A third-person shooter on an alien planet.
What's new: A reveal trailer with a bit of gameplay.Wyrdsong
What is it: An RPG from a new studio Something Wicked Games including former Bethesda and BioWare developers.
What's new: A teaser trailer that tells us well, mostly nothing, honestly.Age of Empires 4
What is it: The already launched strategy game.
What's new: New free civilizations the Malians and Ottomans, and October 25 anniversary update.Where Winds Meet
What is it: An open-world action RPG with martial arts.
What's new: A quite pretty reveal trailer.Hideo Kojima's podcast Brain Structure
What is it: A "deep dive into his brain" related to the game development creative process, apparently also including sections from Geoff Keighley.
What's new: It's launching on Spotify on September 8 and will have an english translation.Park Beyond
What is it: A park-building sim with big ol' roller coasters.
What's new: New trailer and a 2023 launch window.MINI Aceman Electric concept car
What is it: A BMW electric car with "gaming features" and a Pokemon partnership.
What's new: Cars for gamers, apparently.Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
What is it: A Warhammer 40K co-op action shooter.
What's new: A character creation and gameplay trailer, though the November 30 launch date was known.Blacktail
What is it: An action adventure and archery game about the origins of Slavic myth Baba Yaga.
What's new: New trailer and December 15, 2022 launch date.Phantom Hellcat
What is it: A third-person hack 'n slash combo-chaining action game.
What's new: First reveal trailer.CrossfireX
What is it: The Babylon update for the Xbox-exclusive FPS.
What's new: New trailer and August 23 launch date.Dorfromantik
What is it: The strategy puzzler about building towns.
What's new: A new trailer announcing a Nintendo Switch launch on September 29.The Outlast Trials
What is it: Outlast, but with up to four players online.
What's new: A new trailer and closed beta announcement from October 28 - November 1.The Finals
What is it: A destruction-heavy FPS from former Battlefield devs.
What's new: A new trailer and playtests on Steam starting soon. -
1980s horror films have had something of a resurgence in videogames over the past few years. From Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger in Dead by Daylight to Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: The Game to Ash Williams in Evil Dead: The Game, we can't seem to get enough of combining the multiplayer horror formula with memorable 1980s slasher flicks.
Now another nightmare from the '80s is throwing its multicolored fright wig into the ring. Cult horror comedy classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space is becoming a 3v7 asymmetrical horror game from Randy Greenback, executive director of Friday the 13th: The Game, and developer Teravision Games. In KKFOS:TG, a team of three Klown players will hunt seven human citizens as they gather weapons and gear to try to repel the goofy invasion.
If you're not familiar with the film, the Klowns were aliens (looking an awful lot like disturbing rubber clown puppets) who came to Earth in a circus-tent shaped spaceship and invaded the small town of Crescent Cove, killing dumb teens and skeptical adults and drinking their blood with silly straws. It was a notoriously low-budget film created by the Chiodo Brothers, three special-effects artists, and while it never spawned a sequel it remains a beloved C-list classic and even got a restored special edition Blu-Ray release in 2018.
I'm really interested to see the Klowns' various powers translated in the game. In the film, they could do all sorts of weird stuff, like cocooning people inside giant wads of cotton candy with their ray guns, casting dinosaur-shaped shadow puppets onto walls that then came to life and ate people, using the dead body of the sheriff like a puppet, burying a cop in a barrage of acidic cream pies, and occasionally just going old-school and punching a biker so hard his head flew off and landed in a garbage can. Their only weakness seemed to be their round red noses, which was the spot you had to shoot them to kill them.
Here are the official features of Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.
- SEND IN THE KLOWNS: Take on a role of the iconic Killer Klowns – cooperate in a team of three players, utilize outlandish abilities, hunt humans with zany weapons, and plan your own alien invasion to harvest the citizens of Crescent Cove.
- PROTECT HUMANITY: Fight back as a team of seven brave citizens of Crescent Cove – pick your class, explore the city for valuable loot and weapons, avoid getting captured by Klowns, and try to survive – or sabotage – the alien invasion.
- WELCOME TO THE TOWN: Crescent Cove is a sprawling arena for unique 3v7 fights between Klowns and humans – boasting various locations, randomly generated map layout and a multitude of tactical opportunities for both teams.
- EVOLVING THE HORROR: Unique approach to hide-and-seek gameplay, customization & respawn systems, PvPvE, dynamic objectives leading to multiple match results – Killer Klowns evolves the online horror formula in new ways.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game is planned for PC on Steam in early 2023. And if you missed it the first time around, please enjoy the trailer for the film itself below.
-
FYI: Alan Wake 2 is a sequel to an earlier game, called Alan Wake.
ALAN WAKE II IS A SEQUEL TO OUR EARLIER GAME CALLED ALAN WAKE. @remedygames @alanwakeAugust 23, 2022
See more -
In December, the new Telltale—a studio built from some of the pieces left behind when the developer went bankrupt—announced that it's making an adventure series based on The Expanse, the six-season sci-fi show (based on novels) that was recently concluded by Amazon Studios.
I thought it was smart to make Camina Drummer the main character (who would rather play as pouty-boy James Holden?) and now that we have a peek at The Expanse: A Telltale Series via the Gamescom trailer embedded above, I'm mildly excited to play it.
In the trailer, game director Stephan Frost says he's "super excited" for the zero-G bits of the game. I was glad to hear that, because I've always loved a good zero-G section myself—it's the best part of the first Dead Space—and you really couldn't make a game based on The Expanse without some floating.
The show (and I presume the novels, which I haven't read) is all about imagining the weird problems involved with interplanetary travel and space life, such as how human bones might develop differently in low gravity, how ships might be designed to use acceleration as gravity, and how people would survive the G-forces caused by extreme space maneuvering. The latter problem is solved with magic liquid, so it's not all science-ey, but I enjoy the bits where The Expanse doesn't cheat too much. It looks like Telltale sees the same appeal in the source material, and there may be some pretty big wrecks to explore—not something Telltale is known for, and perhaps an indication that we're not completely getting more of the same here.
I also like that it looks pretty gross. You're not going to scavenge from wrecked spaceships without seeing some floating bodies, and indeed, there are floating bodies. Floating heads, too. For some reason, I have a kid-friendly image of Telltale in my mind—maybe because I associated it with a cartoon dog—but that's not what Telltale was. The series that earned it mainstream fame, The Walking Dead, was also pretty gruesome.
There's a lot of activity around Telltale and its past right now. Another Telltale game, Tales from the Borderlands, is getting a sequel called New Tales from the Borderlands, but that's being developed by Gearbox (with some devs from the first game). Meanwhile, a studio formed by ex-Telltale devs, called Adhoc, is working on a sequel to Telltale's The Wolf Among Us with support from the new Telltale.
I'm glad the plate of intellectual property spaghetti formed by Telltale's closure seems to be working out, at least for now. The Expanse: A Telltale Series is scheduled to release in Summer 2023 (or the first episode, at least, if they're released over time).
-
One of the most tragic death scenes in Final Fantasy 14 is now a little more heart-wrenching thanks to a stealth change in patch 6.2 Buried Memories.
For the spoiler averse: The change adds in an additional line of dialogue to explain why neither our hero or their allies can save the injured character. Square Enix didn't include it in the lengthy patch notes, but the dungeon where the cutscene plays got updated to support NPC parties for solo runs, which could explain why the change was made.
FF14 players who have finished the main story of the Heavensward expansion (which is available to play with the game's free trial) will immediately recognize the pivotal scene that changed. Fan favorite character Haurchefant spends most of the expansion helping your character settle into Ishgard and, after the city's leader reveals his true evil intentions, he makes a heroic leap to save you from a spear of light, ending in his death.
Ever since the expansion's 2015 release date, fans have mourned Haurchefant and, if that wasn't enough, future expansions kept reminding us through flashbacks and references. It's a loss that FF14 doesn't want anyone to forget. Some were frustrated that there wasn't a way to heal his wounds, especially if they played one of the game's support classes—something FF14 occasionally acknowledges in cutscenes with unique dialogue options. The altered scene doesn't go that far, but it does have Alphinaud, one of your longtime healer companions, comment (fully voiced too) on how the "wound is too deep" and that it "refuses to mend."
No...they added more voiced lines to THAT scene with Alphinaud explaining why we can't just use heal and Aymeric's reaction oh noooo it's even sadder
#FFXIVspoilers pic.twitter.com/uB8BS8ou2dAugust 23, 2022See moreIn response to the news, FF14 players have been reminded of how heartbreaking the scene is and how much they miss their Ishgardian friend.
Twitter user Gelgumi explained why this addition lines up with how healing in the game's fiction works: "Heal spells can only heal wounds that will naturally heal." And others in a Reddit thread about the new scene think the change helps clarify this early in the game's four-expansion-long storyline.Not me watching it at the dinner table and having to explaine to mum why I am crying https://t.co/nN3UgDJQJTAugust 23, 2022
See morecries in white mage
I can’t believe they did this to me all over again https://t.co/CbzVMnaNNAAugust 23, 2022See moreThe new 6.2 patch includes some other slight cutscene changes and new dialogue for old dungeons along with a pseudo farming sim. It's not that common for Square Enix to go back and change things like this, other than when it makes playing the game's early questlines a little less tedious. There's no quality of life here though; in fact, it's the opposite.
-
I've had my eye on Embark Studios, a new studio led by ex-EA boss Patrick Söderlund and ex-DICE developers, since it announced co-op robo shooter Arc Raiders at last year's Game Awards. Two weeks ago, Embark announced that it has delayed Arc Raiders because it wants to release the other game it's working on first.
That game is The Finals, a free-to-play, destruction-heavy FPS announced today at the Gamescom Opening Night Live show. Watch the brief teaser above.
The Finals is, by the sound of it, a competitive shooter themed around a game show. It's not the most original setup for a shooter in 2022, but what does sound original is the game's focus on reshaping its maps to fit your needs. Embark describes it as a game where "if you think something will work, it probably will."
Matches take place in "virtual arenas based on iconic real-world locations that contestants can alter, exploit, and even destroy in chaotic PvP matches." It's hard to tell exactly what degree of destruction we're talking about based on a few seconds of rapidly-cut gameplay, but if all that rubble is accurate, we may be freely blowing holes into walls like Rainbow Six Siege.
Beyond the promise of crumbling buildings, we don't know anything about the kind of shooter The Finals will be. It sounds like it'll probably be team-based, but will it be yet another battle royale? Maybe it'll be on a smaller scale with several 3-4 person squads, or maybe The Finals will join the burgeoning extraction shooter genre.
Embark will have more to say and gameplay to show from The Finals in September, which is also when the first closed playtest is happening. You can sign up for that right now on the game's Steam page. The page currently lists the game as "coming soon," but considering Arc Raiders got pushed to 2023 to give this shooter more room, The Finals may be out for real by the end of the year.
-
Once upon a time, everyone and their mother was making a Soulslike game. That era has passed, and things are getting goddamn weird now. Like simulator games delving into odder and odder jobs, studios working on Soulslikes are tossing the formula at the goofiest settings they can possibly imagine. Case in point: Korean developer Neowiz is making a grim, Bloodborne-like Pinocchio game and I regret to inform you that I'm psyched about this edgy little liar boy, actually.
If I made a list of stories that would support a Dark Souls-like video game spinoff, Pinocchio would not appear on it. And yet, a new gameplay trailer for the soulslike action game Lies of P popped up at Gamescom. It just gets relentlessly, unapologetically edgier every time I see it.
This puppet lad has an ability called Deus X Makina for goodness sake.
He's slowly opening heavy doors with his mecha hand. He's taking elevators. He's fighting giant bosses. You know, soulslike stuff. Also, he's very pretty for some reason, as is his old man Geppetto. Why not?
In Lies of P's first gameplay trailer last year, we got a look at some extremely soulslike action combat with its fantasy 1800s setting. Today's new trailer includes the game's interface and hot damn that sure is Real Boy Bloodborne. Your puppet pal has two equipped weapon slots, what look like healing items to cycle through, along with different skills based on his equipped left hand.
"With Pinocchio being a doll, you can change parts of his body to gain new skills and hopefully an edge in battle," Neowiz explains. "But not all of the enhancements are for fighting though, they can also provide several other unique and useful features."
In the new trailer, you can spot abilities called Deus X Makina, Puppet String, Flamberge, Fulminis, and Falcon Eyes. I've not quite worked out what they all do, but Puppet String looks to be a grappling ability for pulling Pinocchio towards large bosses and getting in a special attack.
The only thing throwing me off is his extremely supportive talking hip lantern that yells "Alright buddy, I'm here for ya. Don't worry!" Just when I thought I'd absorbed all of the cognitive dissonance of a Pinocchio soulslike it throws me a cheery companion device out of left field. I hope it delivers the lantern buddy with as much austerity as everything else.
I'm not the only weirdo psyched about edgy Pinocchio, it turns out. Gamescom Opening Night Live happened to include a couple awards during its show, mostly fluffy "most wanted" fan picks. But hey, Lies of P took home "Most-wanted Sony PlayStation game" over The Devil In Me and One Piece Odyssey. It is coming to PC though, don't worry.
Lies of P doesn't have a release date yet, but it's planning to launch sometime in 2023.
-
Gamescom continues apace, and as it does we've had a new look at the next Outlast game from Red Barrels: The Outlast Trials.
The game is set during the Cold War, and involves a private company—the Murkoff Corporation, which sounds like it was named by Charles Dickens—running all sorts of brutal, MKUltra-esque experiments on a gaggle of abductees and prisoners to achieve new breakthroughs in mind control. In an event no one could possibly have predicted, it looks like those experiments went a bit awry, and it's now up to you to navigate your way out of the prisons and testing facilities.
It's grim and gory, trading in all the straitjackets, clamps, razors and scalpels that you've come to expect from these games. There's even someone who looks a bit like a clown wielding a dental drill, if you're keeping your phobia bingo cards updated. It honestly feels a little bit Bioshock: the rosy-hued 20th century rhetoric of scientific progress and the common good covering for a material reality shot through with suffering and repression. It's got a shot of pulling it off, too, at least insofar as its portrayed in the trailer.
The experience looks, well, terrifying. As terrifying as the last two Outlast games, neither of which I've been able to bring myself to play because I'm such an enormous baby. I might not have to venture alone this time, though: Red Barrels are promising a campaign that can be played solo or in a group of up to four players. "It’s always better to 'frack' your pants in good company," the devs rather bluntly state on the game's Steam page.
The game doesn't have a release date yet, but Red Barrels will be running a closed beta from October 28 to November 1, if you're that desperate to mentally scar yourself. You can sign up for that over at its Steam page. As for me, I feel reasonably confident predicting that one day I will play the first hour before "taking a break" that never ends. At least I can watch someone stream it.
-
After a long, long wait, Dead Island 2 is finally happening: The leak that appeared on Amazon last week has been made official by a new trailer that finished the big Opening Night Live showcase at Gamescom.
The tone of the trailer isn't too far off the one that was released to announce Dead Island 2 all the way back in 2014—that is, horror mixed with goofy, gory slapstick. With good reason: Dead Island 2 will be set in Los Angeles and will feature a "pulpy and irreverent tone" that aims to pay homage to "classic cult Hollywood horror B-movies."
"Dead Island 2's gameplay is all about experimenting with your preferred zombie-slaying methods, just kind of going nuts," lead narrative designer Khan explained on the ONL stage. "It's a combat toybox of close-quarters melee brutality, with a few guns for fun."
Along with solo play, Dead Island 2 will also support co-op action for up to three players. The trailer above is a cinematic, but Deep Silver also showed off a bit of fast-cut gameplay too:
Dead Island 2 is set to come out on February 3, 2023, on the Epic Games Store. Have a look at a handful of new screens below.
Image 1 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver)Image 2 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver)Image 3 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver)Image 4 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver)Image 5 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver)Image 6 of 6(Image credit: Deep Silver) -
At tonight's Gamescom opening show, host Geoff Keighley once again introduced his best bud Hideo Kojima for a prerecorded announcement. It wasn't about the games that Kojima Productions is currently working on, sadly, but the news that Kojima has signed up to do a Spotify exclusive podcast that will be in both English and Japanese.
Currently, Kojima has a podcast that is Japanese-only. It's unclear whether this new endeavour will replace that.
"While I am working on my other games," says Kojima. "Today I am here to share some other news. I am pleased to announce that my podcast program will be available exclusively on Spotify in September."
Kojima then rather charmingly went "ohhhhh!" in mock-grandeur while clapping his announcement. Well, I thought it was charming.
"We will be providing both English and Japanese versions of the show with simultaneous interpretation, as this is a podcast not only for fans in Japan but all over the world," Kojima continued. "Geoff's entertainment industry news section will also become a regular feature.
"Our first episode is scheduled for September 8. This program will also include very special guests from various fields."
It's nice to see Keighley getting a bit of extra work in between hosting Gamescom's Opening Night Live, putting together an E3 rival, and producing the yearly The Game Awards. The show is called 'Hideo Kojima presents Brain Structure', and the thumbnail image for it is... well, see for yourself.
(Image credit: Spotify)As with much of Kojima's work, the title and image could be self-aggrandising irony, or they could be dead serious. You never really know, which is half the fun.
Spotify does, though: the press material accompanying the announcement is heavy on use of the word "genius" and also includes the unfortunate phrasing that this podcast will "take a deep dive into his brain."
In all seriousness, Kojima is undeniably one of the pre-eminent creative forces in the games industry, and has now been so for multiple decades. Over this time he has also consistently contributed to various outlets with essays, book and film reviews, and seems to like keeping his hand in as an observer of the culture as well as a shaper of it. Yes, Kojima can sometimes seem close to disappearing up his own fundament, but he's also an individual of rare perception and creativity.
I'll give it a go, anyway. The blurb says the show will feature "talk show–style discussions on a wide range of his favorite topics, including games, movies, books, art, philosophy, and the social landscape." Guests will "both local and global leaders as well as top creators from a variety of backgrounds such as business, technology, and entertainment."
Here's the show's Spotify page, which currently hosts a short preview where a robotic voice breathlessly intones about Kojima's genius before the man himself gives the insight that he uses his ideas when creating stuff. I'm sure it only gets better from here. You too can take a deep dive into Kojima's brain when the first episode launches on September 8.
-
With the world overrun by zombies, you'd think the last thing anyone would be asking for is a place where human survival becomes even less likely. But this is Dying Light 2, where the bloodthirstiness of the infected usually pales in comparison to that of human beings. It's almost like we are the walking dead, or something.
Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties is the first story-based DLC for the open world zombie parkour game, and as the teaser last week suggested it's gonna take the focus away from skipping across rooftops and gliding around skyscrapers to plop you into a gladiatorial arena. The centerpiece is Carnage Hall, where warriors battle each other to the death in front of a cheering crowd. Hey, there's no Netflix in the zombie apocalypse. People need their entertainment fix.
In the trailer above you can get a look at the carnage, which doesn't just include human-on-human violence—there appears to be a fighting pit beneath the fighting pit, so if you get knocked to the lower level it looks like you'll have to battle mobs of infected just to get back up to the main floor where the other fighters are waiting to kill you.
What's the actual story in this story DLC? Good question, and I haven't found a good answer yet. "In Bloody Ties, players will embark on a new story adventure, you will reach the epicenter of death, wealth and absolute splendour in a stunning location; The Carnage Hall," reads the trailer's description. "This old opera building is full of challenges and quests, surprising new weapon types, character interactions, and discoveries to uncover."
Does "kill or be killed" qualify as a story? I'm not sure, but we'll find out if there's more going on when Bloody Ties is released on October 13.
-
Batman's dead, chaos reigns, but Gotham's vigilantes are hitting the streets a few days earlier than planned to kick, punch, and baton crime in the face. After a major delay pushed it out of 2021, Gotham Knights was set to hit PC and consoles on October 25.
The release has now moved up to October 21.
I feel like I've seen a whole lot of Gotham Knights' heroes and action by this point, so the Gamescom trailer's focus on villains was a welcome change. Harley Quinn's appearance here looks a bit boring compared to Margot Robbie's gleeful energy in Birds of Prey or the sharply funny HBO Max animated series, but the game also stars Clayface. Who doesn't love Clayface? (Again, you should really watch that Harley Quinn cartoon).
Mr. Freeze is another major baddie in Gotham Knights, and if his boss fight is anywhere near as clever as the one in Arkham City, we're in for a good time. The Court of Owls round out the villain lineup that Warner Bros. has shown off so far, but surely there will be some surprises, too. My bet's on a depressed, despondent Riddler who just hasn't been the same since Batman stopped solving his riddles. Maybe we'll be able to do something about that.
Both Steam and the Epic Games Store are still currently showing the old release date, but Gotham Knights should be available on both October 21.
-
We got a look at Focus Entertainment's upcoming Atlas Fallen during Gamescom Opening Night Live, in the form of about two and a half minutes of CG trailer and 10 seconds of gameplay. It looks a lot like a Monster Hunter game if the Monster Hunter games were more about hunting down and killing God instead of cooking fun meals with your cat pals.
There's not a lot to be gleaned from the trailer, but what we can tell is that the game revolves around a conflict between the inhabitants of a ruined-looking fantasy world and the pantheon of corrupted gods that rule over it, represented by stained glass windows and Church Latin. It feels like a strange aesthetic choice for a distant and desolate fantasy world to me, but I suppose that's why I haven't earned my own place on a pantheon of vain deities.
The announcement promises a campaign that can be played fully cooperatively or solo, and promises to let you "gather the essence of your enemies to shape your own custom playstyle". I'm going to take a stab at interpreting that statement and say you're going to gather experience from defeated monsters that will let you spec your character into specific builds.
Focus is promising a "semi-open world" filled with all manner of goodies and secrets to stumble across, and the brief looks we get at the combat make it look very splashy and colourful. I can't emphasise enough how very Monster Hunter it all looks: the trailer shows the main character moving from settlements out into combat areas, fighting oversized monsters with enormous hammers, and also literally says you'll spend your time hunting "legendary monsters" in the description. How this factors into your overarching plan to assassinate the demiurge is unclear at this point.
It looks alarmingly pretty, and in fairness there's quite a bit in there that you won't find in Capcom's latest monster wrangler. Traversal looks like it consists of Tribes-style skiing across the sandy environs of whatever this setting is called, and it sounds like the developers are emphasising an almost archaeological component of the gameplay loop: poring over the mysteries and relics you encounter out in the wastes in between hitting monsters with hammers.
There's no solid release date yet, just a vague goal of 2023, but the game already has a shiny new Steam page set up. You can check it now if your interest is piqued by the Monster Hunter part, the warring with gods part, or the part where there's finally another game with Tribes-style skiing.
-
Parallel Studio has announced Under the Waves, a single-player narrative-driven game developed with the assistance of Quantic Dream and releasing on PC and other platforms next year. As one might expect from the Quantic Dream involvement, this will be a heavily narrative-driven experience and visually lush.
Under the Waves is apparently an adventure "about the engulfing power of grief." It's set in a techno-futurist 1970s and players assume the role of a submarine-assisted diver called Stan, who's "struggling to overcome a life-changing loss and embrace a new future."
If a grieving diver going deep strikes you as a rather on-the-nose metaphor, the game's blurb makes it explicit but promises that things will begin to take a more surreal turn as Stan explores further and deeper: "The isolation of the deep sea is a fitting manifestation of his state of mind, and as Stan retreads further into his self-imposed solitude, he starts to experience strange events far beneath the waves."
In terms of how this will all work in the hands, you'll be both piloting a submarine through the abyss, as well as swimming through caves and wrecks. The crafting sounds like it will be a major element, with players salvaging waste to build new tools and explore further.
"This is the most personal and intense work we have ever done as a studio," says Ronan Coiffec, CEO and game director of Parallel Studio. "We are an indie team of a dozen members, and everything we want to convey is poured into this game, very passionately. From art to writing, from sound design to tech, we all got a chance to leave our mark on Under The Waves. We truly hope you will like it as much as we loved creating it!”
The Quantic Dream partnership involved Parallel Studio having access to various creative tools such as motion capture, voice recording, animation, quality assurance, localization and more. Both studios are based in Paris; such a partnership is a first for Quantic Dream.
"We are thrilled to present Under The Waves to the world, a unique experience created by a very passionate indie team here in Paris," says Guillaume de Fondaumière, co-CEO of Quantic Dream. "We’ve been able to work closely together to give them all the means they needed to create a game that lived up to their expectations, and achieve their most ambitious project to date. We are also very proud to support Surfrider Foundation Europe, whose message and actions are core to the theme of Under The Waves."
The game's partnership with Surfrider Foundation Europe, which is a non-profit involved in marine protection, means an unspecified donation from Quantic Dream, and the studio will carry out further activities to support the organisation both before and after launch. This will apparently include an in-game element of 'activations', cross-communication and internal activities.
-
I don't know about you, but my fingers weren't built for combos. Put me in front of a fighting game or literally anything developed by Platinum and my hands turn into useless slabs of ham, just barely capable of feebly hammering the light attack button as I'm smashed to paste by my far more competent enemies.
Consider me nervous, then, about Phantom Hellcat, a third-person action adventure game that just got announced during Gamescom's Opening Night Live. The devs say they want to "bring hack-n-slash titles back to their roots" with a combat system based around chaining together combos and utilising your environment to take down rooms full of enemies. I'm doomed.
The story revolves around Jolene, the phantom-of-the-opera-with-a-sword figure you can see slashing and dashing in the trailer above. When Jolene mistakenly breaks the seal holding back all manner of otherworldly evil in a cursed theatre, demons emerge and kidnap her mother, forcing her to hack and slash her way through a series of haunted stageplays to save her family and—one has to imagine—the world.
The devs are keen to draw your attention to their level design, which they boast will transition seamlessly between 2D and 3D perspectives (the former for platforming and the latter for combat, if the trailer is anything to go by) and offer you different possibilities for smiting your enemies. You can knock enemies through walls, use props as weapons, and otherwise wreak havoc on your foes Sleeping-Dogs-style using the tools that are littered around your various arenas.
Combat looks like it depends a lot on your ability to act quickly, dodging away from enemy blows and punishing them for their hubris with follow-up combos. As I've mentioned, I can't do this, but the devs say you can upgrade and mix up Jolene's abilities by switching out her masks. So long as there's a mask specifically designed for lumbering idiots, I'm golden.
The aesthetic is very Tim Burton. Everything has a Corpse Bride plasticine vibe to it from Jolene's glowy sword to her SPORTS brand Walkman, and combat proceeds in puffs of smoke and streaks of ichor. It's pretty—and the devs promise more levels beyond those featured in the trailer—but whenever I look at it I can't help but think of American McGee and I honestly cannot tell you if that's a bad thing or not.
Phantom Hellcat doesn't have a set release date yet, but you can find its fresh-baked Steam page right here.
-
Sony dropped a surprise hardware announcement at GamesCom Opening Night Live 2022. The Dualsense Edge is the Playstation 5's "first-ever high-performance, ultra-customizable controller" that could finally rival Xbox's excellent Elite Series 2 controllers.
While it features everything a standard Dualsense controller offers, Sony is packing the Edge with a bunch of welcome customization features. This makes one of the best PC controllers gaming even more appealing.
The buttons on the PS5 Dualsense Edge can be completely remapped, stick sensitivity, and dead zones can be tuned to your liking. You can even reduce the trigger travel for faster inputs in shooters, much like the Xbox Elite Series 2 wireless controllers.
That's not the only similarity; the Edge's changeable sticks and back buttons can be swapped anytime as your comfort dictates. It'll be packaged with three swappable stick caps (standard, high and low dome) and two sets of back buttons (low and high dome).
The controller and all of its bits and bobs live inside its carrying case with a braided USB-Type-C cable which can be locked into the controller using a special connector housing.
The Edge will feature the ability to save multiple control profiles that you can swap on the fly using the on-controller interface. That same interface manages your in-chat balance and game volume, as well.
PlayStation will sell replacement stick modules, so if you wear them down to the nub, you won't need to buy an entirely new controller.
Daisuke Kurihara, art director, told the PlayStation Blog that they wanted to "build on the legacy of iconic PlayStation controllers by creating a controller that empowers players to experiment and personalize elements based on their own unique playstyle."
While no release date or pricing was revealed, more info should be coming in the next few months about the Dualsense Edge wireless controller. We'll be sure to keep you posted. And here's hoping we get some fun new colors, too.
-
High on Life, an FPS from Rick & Morthy co-creator Justin Roiland, predictably looks to be a new member of the "never shutting up" game club. The cartoony shooter includes a gun that constantly talks to you (Roiland, whose voice is instantly familiar) and a knife that is absolutely giddy to do a murder (also Roiland, doing a decent imitation of a deranged Taika Waititi). The knife also doubles as a grappling hook, which is a neat bit of mobility, though its bloodthirsty schtick may get old after about five minutes.
High on Life showed off a single uninterrupted boss fight during Gamescom's Opening Night Live. Here's a curse-filled transcription of everything the knife had to say during that fight:
"Hey, I'm still here, you can still use me if you want. I can deflect attacks, did you know that? It's not just all about stabbing. Well, I'm mostly all about stabbing and tethering, but I can also deflect attacks."
"I'll slice them to 'frelling' death. I'll cut their 'frelling' heads off and I'll 'frelling' rip their 'frelling' limbs off, do everything. Oh I'm gonna 'frelling' cut right into them, I'll cut their 'frelling' 'wookie' off and eat it."
"Bet you're just as nice and squishy on the inside as the rest of them."
There's also lots of banter between your gun and the boss you're fighting, which doesn't stretch much further than the repartee of:
"You're gross" 
"'frell' you" The knife's foul mouth is inexplicably censored in the trailer above, but it was gleefully unbeeped during the Opening Night Life stream. Maybe High on Life's voice actors are working overtime in this boss fight because it's early in the game and it's our first introduction to their personalities, but if this level of banter keeps up through the whole game, I think it's going to be a bit much. The shooting also doesn't look too hot: the boss takes a lot of shots and doesn't really react much to being hit. Maybe the fact that you're saving the galaxy or whatever with a pea shooter is part of the joke.
High on Life is hitting Steam and the Epic Games Store in December.
-
A new trailer for Homeworld 3 appeared during the Open Night Live showcase at Gamescom, giving us a look at some of the advanced combat tactics that will be available to players when Fleet Command returns to action.
"Our team has been hard at work creating the Homeworld experience we’ve always dreamed of and we hope after watching this trailer, fans will believe we are making THEIR game,” Blackbird Interactive CEO Rob Cunningham said. "Homeworld 3 will deliver deeper strategy and decision making with easier controls. Players will explore ancient megalithic structures and experience space at an extraordinary level of detail while following an epic narrative fit for the biggest sci-fi fans."
It's a very pretty video, as you'd expect from a Homeworld game, and it sounds right, which is important: Music and audio effects play a huge role in generating the unique Homeworld ambience.But I wonder if it's perhaps a little too Homeworld for its own good. The new game is set well after the events of the original, as the galaxy faces a brand new threat known as The Anomaly, but aside from the more advanced tactics—using cover to evade attacks, moving through massively large structures to attack from unexpected angles—and very impressive visuals, it all looks very much like the first game: Defend resource harvesters from attack, gather enough space dust to build better ships, capture an enemy ship or three, and then move on. Space tactics are great, but what struck me (and stuck with me) about Homeworld was the epic story of escape and survival through a gauntlet of unexpected and exotic locations. Compared to that, watching an enemy carrier explode doesn't carry a whole lot of weight.
That's just me though, and obviously it's impossible to make any sort of meaningful judgment based on a single trailer—a trailer which, my own personal feelings about space opera adventures aside, looks very good. Homeworld 3 is set to come out sometime in the first half of 2023, and yeah, misgivings aside, I am very much looking forward to it.
-
Bad news, folks. Batman's dead. Or at least, in Gotham Knights, the latest Batman universe game developed by WB Games Montreal, that's what we're meant to believe. But while Bruce Wayne might have been bat-murdered, you've got four other chiropteran vigilantes to make up for it. In Gotham Knights, you'll play as Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood, and Robin, an extended Bat Family trying to pick up Gotham's pieces after the loss of the caped crusader.
Developers WB Games Montreal were involved with Arkham Origins in 2013 and some parts of Arkham Knight in 2015. Though Gotham Knights is separate from the Arkham universe, it's a good sign that the game has such a solid pedigree behind it. As with any DC game, you can expect to meet some familiar and ominous antagonists, such as Mr. Freeze and the organized crime group, the Court of Owls.
Here is everything we know about Gotham Knights, including its release date, the game's story, and how to play co-op.
Gotham Knights release date
When is the Gotham Knights release date?
Gotham Knights will release on October 21, 2022. It was originally planned to launch in 2021, but in an update in March 2021, the developers announced that Gotham Knights had been delayed from its original launch window, saying that the game needed "more time to deliver the best possible experience for players."
For a time it was also expected four days later on October 25 but announced a slight more up in date during Gamescom opening night live in August.
Here's the new Gotham Knights trailer from Gamescom
Gotham Knights turned up to Gamescom in August to show off another story trailer and, for some reason, move up its release date by four days.
Gotham Knights trailers
Here are all the Gotham Knights trailers
The original reveal trailer for Gotham Knights sets up the backstory and the heroes you'll be able to play as during the game. Batman has blown up the Batcave and has entrusted the safety of the city to four of the other Bat Family members.
The second big story trailer for Gotham Knights is all about the big villain syndicate the Court of Owls. Despite what Nightwing initially says, they're clearly not just a myth. Introduced in a popular 2011 comic book storyline, the Court of Owls are the secret rulers of Gotham City. As this trailer shows, they also have well-armed assassins at their disposal.
This short Nightwing character trailer from Summer Games Fest 2022 gives an idea of how the original Bat-son's vibe will translate into gameplay. He's nimble. He's hopeful. He wants the best for the city that raised him, and he'll do however many acrobatic combat flips it takes. We also get a sense for how varied the aesthetic options are for each character, as Nightwing shuffles into different outfits throughout the trailer. Fans of the Dick Grayson ponytail: you're welcome.The Robin character trailer highlighted Tim Drake, the young sidekick who earned his place at Batman's side after deducing both his secret identity and that of his predecessor Dick Grayson. He uses the Justice League's teleport technology to zap himself around the battlefield and fights with a staff. Barbara Gordon got a chance to shine in the Batgirl character trailer, where she took on thugs with an electrified tonfa, zipline-kicks, and stun-batarangs.
Gotham Knights story and characters
What's the Gotham Knights story?
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)Gotham Knights kicks off with Bruce Wayne dying in an explosion. Prior to his demise, Batman had planned to leave Gotham in the hands of some other Bat Family members. The Bat Cave has been destroyed, by Bruce himself no less, and he's left the team the Belfry tower as a base of operations instead.
Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, and Nightwing assemble to protect Gotham despite being on bad terms with the Gotham City Police Department after the death of former commissioner Jim Gordon.
Gotham's secret society, The Court of Owls, will play a role as well. By the looks of all those rows of frozen containers at the end of the reveal trailer, it seems there may be quite a number of their Talon assassins to contend with around the city.
Don't be fooled—Arkham Knight ends with what could be a setup for a similar storyline, but WB has confirmed that Gotham Knights is set in a different continuity. The Arkham mantle is being picked up by Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League instead.
Is Batman really dead? According to creative director Patrick Redding, yes, Batman is really dead. Well, we'll just see about that. What's more, according to Redding, the Joker won't appear in Gotham Knights, though Harley Quinn might, and there will be "exactly one" Riddler trophy.
Which characters appear in Gotham Knights?
Gotham Knights features four members of the Bat Family who've been tapped to keep Gotham safe without big guy Bruce himself. Gotham Knights definitely isn't an origin story, featuring several of the vigilante crew pretty far into their character development after a couple name changes.
One of the most interesting new details about the heroes is that they level up while you're not playing them. During GamesRadar's interview with Gotham Knights' creative director Patrick Redding and executive producer Fleur Marty, it was confirmed that all four characters share their story progression. This means that it should be easy to switch between characters without it feeling like you're at a disadvantage when you don't pick your favourite.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)Robin - Tim Drake
The Robin of this Gotham story is Tim Drake, the third inheritor of the Robin moniker. Drake is the young one of the group, but also the smartest and a master sleuth.
As of Gotham Knights, Tim is "an expert fighter armed with his collapsible quarterstaff and skilled in the art of stealth, Tim also possesses a background in combined psychological warfare and behavioral sciences, all of which sets the stage for him to accomplish any mission."
The reveal trailer shows him in action with his preferred staff. You can also catch a couple possible costumes for Robin between the reveal trailer and gameplay breakdown below.
(Image credit: WB Games)Batgirl - Barbara Gordon
Batgirl aka Oracle aka Batgirl again, Barbara Gordon is another member of the Knights. She's the daughter of deceased GCPD commissioner Jim Gordon and a tech wiz with martial arts chops.
WB says that in Gotham Knights she's "highly trained in a variety of fighting styles, such as kickboxing, capoeira, and jiu-jitsu. Her signature weapon is the tonfa. Barbara also displays great skill when it comes to hacking or coding in computers and technological systems to dig for information."
You can spot a wheelchair in the foreground of Batgirl's hideout in the reveal trailer, marking the game as taking place after her tenure as Oracle during which she was paralyzed. She's now recovered and returned to her Batgirl name alongside the veritable flock of Robins.
(Image credit: WB Games)Nightwing - Dick Grayson
Original Robin Dick Grayson, now Nightwing, is the acrobatics master of the group known for fighting with his two escrima sticks.
Gotham Knights calls him "a natural leader, an optimist, and the most charismatic of the Batman Family. He grew up in an unorthodox but loving circus family, so he values close personal bonds."
Dick and Barbara have a romantic history that would be neat for WB to tap into a bit while throwing them together on the Knights crew.
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)Red Hood - Jason Todd
Robin number two, Jason Todd, joins the group under his later name Red Hood. He's got a pretty complicated relationship with the Batman Family, especially his Robin successor Tim. His death, resurrection, and a lot of resulting personality changes put him at odds with Bruce and co. for a time. By the time of this story, he's fully reconciled with the Bat gang, WB sas, though that history could potentially be another source of conflict.
As for his other skills, Gotham Knights says "Jason has trained to reach the peak of human strength, and he’s proficient in multiple combat techniques with all manner of weapons—both traditional and high-tech. After reconciling with the Batman Family, he has embraced Batman’s non-lethal combat methods." Nevermind those dual pistols. They're definitely not deadly, we hope.
Gotham Knights gameplay details
What's the gameplay in Gotham Knights like?
(Image credit: WB Games Montreal)The first gameplay walkthrough released alongside the reveal trailer shows a pretty good slice of Gotham Knights combat. You can spot a bit of stealth, some of Batgirl's moves, traversal around the level, and a boss fight with Mr. Freeze.
These 'Villain Encounters' will change depending on what level you are. Boss fights won't just have increased health totals and other stats. The kinds of moves they use during fights will change to match your character's level as well. There's loot to collect, with a few different equipment slots to modify your stats. You'll still be able to choose the visuals for your character's gear setup.
You can take on Gotham Knights entirely as a singleplayer game or two player co-op. WB also says that Gotham is totally open-world, without enemies of higher levels blocking your exploration.
A second gameplay demo from May 2022 jumps between Nightwing and Red Hood gameplay, showing how differently each character can play. Nightwing’s fighting style leans more towards acrobatic melee brawls, while Red Hood has a more gun-oriented combat philosophy. Also, Red Hood has infinite double jumps after being resurrected by a cult of wizard assassins, which apparently lets him manipulate “soul energy.” Sure!
We then get a glimpse of crafting and gear management, complete with power scores and green arrows. We’re shown the return of using AR bat-vision to investigate crimescenes, which Nightwing uses to look at some blood and confirm that yes, it’s blood.
How big is Gotham in Gotham Knights?
(Image credit: WB Games Montreal)By the looks of things, Batman's home turf as imagined in Gotham Knights is going to be pretty expansive. As the playable Bat-family glides, grapples, and bat-cycles their way across the city in released gameplay footage, Gotham seems like a genuine sprawl.
In an interview with Game Informer, Gotham Knights executive producer Fleur Marty claimed that the game features "the biggest version of Gotham that has been represented in video games. The most important thing for us is its density and verticality. It has a lot of layers."What kind of costume options will Gotham Knights have?
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)According to executive producer Fleur Marty, each character in Gotham Knights will have 11 different "suit styles" available for their craftable gear. The style for your currently-equipped gear determines its overall silhouette. For example, the "Year One" suit style shown in a Nightwing gameplay overview has a "throwback to my first solo vigilante days" vibe, while his "Shinobi" style imagines a Dick Grayson who's an otaku without any tasteful restraint.
In addition to your suit's style, you can also customize it further with a "colorway," or equippable palette that'll recolor specific portions of your suit. Think Destiny armor shader, but for brooding superhero orphans.How does co-op work?
It sounds like Gotham Knights will offer a decent amount of freedom in co-op. During the gameplay reveal, we spotted Robin dropping into Batgirl's session seamlessly. In fact, Gotham has been specifically designed to accommodate a duo, so its likely best experienced with a buddy by your side. That said, WB Games has said that you won't be attached at the hip to your co-op partner either. You're free to explore around a bit, even while in your friend's session.
You can also play as the same hero as a friend. WB say that you're free to drop in as Batgirl while a friend is already playing her and that the skills available for each hero will let you both player her a bit differently. There's no level-gating in Gotham Knights, so you should be able to play along with a pal without worrying about their level too much either.
So what's the Belfry?
(Image credit: DC)According to the comics, The Belfry is a hideout built by the game's current Robin, Tim Drake. It was built in the bones of the old Wayne Tower with a ton of law enforcement monitoring tech.
In Batman's farewell message during the Gotham Knights reveal trailer, he says "some of the technology is outdated but it has the gear you need and all of my files."
Functionally speaking, WB Games said that this is where players will return during the day to manage gear and hang out costume-free. "The Belfry is super-central to our game because it's your base of operations," WB tells IGN. "You get to go back there, analyze all the clues that you've picked up during your previous night, have a little chat with Alfred, craft your gear, and really prepare yourself for the next night of crime fighting. So yeah, daytime is Belfry, and then at night you're roaming the streets, fighting criminals and unraveling the mystery."
Is Gotham Knights a live service game?
Nope, sounds like Gotham Knights is focused on its campaign and co-op experience rather than endless content. "This is very much not designed as a game-as-service," producer Fleur Marty told IGN. "There is an ability tree, which is different for each of the characters, and then there's gear that you craft—and so choices that you're going to be making—but that does not mean that this is a game-as-service."
Other Gotham Knights info
What does the Warner Media split mean for Gotham Knights?
The short answer is that we don't know yet. In May 2021, AT&T announced that it will spin off WarnerMedia and merge it with Discovery in a $43 billion deal. From what we know so far, part of Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, but not all of it, will be sold off. Gotham Knights developers WB Games Montreal fall under that umbrella of course. Some studios under WBIE will stay with AT&T while others will head to the new company.
Can I also watch Gotham Knights?
Funny you should ask, because CW has a pilot spinning up for a Gotham Knights TV show. Though it's not related to the game directly, it's based on the same story and is in the middle of casting now. Between this coming up and The Batman recently released, there's plenty of bat-goodness to tide you over for now.
-
For years Fallout fans have been clamoring for another team-up between Bethesda and Obsidian Entertainment to produce a new Fallout game. That's still not in the cards (despite Microsoft now owning both studios), but an announcement at Gamescom's Opening Night Live might be the next best thing.
Bethesda veteran Jeff Gardiner, lead producer and project lead on open world RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, has formed a new game development studio called Something Wicked Games. Joining Gardiner is Charles Staples, design director on Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds and lead level designer on Fallout: New Vegas. That's a lot of Fallout DNA in one studio.
Along with the announcement came an animated teaser trailer for the new studio's first game, and it's not a Fallout-like post-apocalyptic shooter. Something Wicked is making a gothic RPG called Wyrdsong, which is a "dark preternatural, semi-historical open world RPG set in Middle Ages Portugal," Gardiner told me during a Zoom call last week.
Details about Wyrdsong (pronounced 'weerd-song') are pretty sparse at the moment. The game is in "early pre-production" and Gardiner isn't ready to share much more about it. While it's being built in Unreal Engine 5, he wouldn't even confirm if it's a singleplayer game. He did open up a bit about the choice of setting, however.
"So the last vacation I took before Covid was to Portugal," Gardiner said. "And as I'm sure everyone is aware, in Covid you really remember that last vacation."
Along with his visit to Portugal, Gardiner found inspiration for Wyrdsong in the country's past. "I started reading an alternative history book about the Templars, that postulates that they actually originated as part of the forming of the nation state of Portugal," he said. "And as I'm reading this book, I realized a lot of these locations or places I have visited in Portugal, so there's some synchronicities and serendipities there."
(Image credit: Something Wicked Games)Gardiner also cites Elden Ring as a "huge inspiration" for the Wyrdsong team, saying he initially bounced off the Dark Souls series before realizing the games weren't about punishing the player but rewarding patience. And while Wyrdsong might look nothing like Fallout, that doesn't mean the post-apocalyptic RPG won't have some influence on it, too.
"I think the focus is on the lessons, not the setting and the theme of Fallout, but the RPG nature of those games. 'There's choice and consequences' is an easy thing to say. But we want to make sure the player feels those lessons we took from those games, in terms of how to craft an unbelievable story, and yet give the player the freedom to sort of make their own decisions within that story, and sort of engage with it or not," Gardiner said.
"Charlie and I are big believers of giving players tools and letting them have fun in the game the way they want to. If they want to just grind through the main quest and then step away, that's great. If they never want to touch the main quest, and they just want to go into the corners of the realm and scour for caps and and screws. That's great, too."
Something Wicked currently has approximately 15 employees, and as production moves forward on Wyrdsong Gardiner expects to expand that number to thirty in the next few years and potentially up to 70 by the time the game is ready for release. "And we were lucky enough to get a seed funding round of $13.2 million from NetEase," said Gardiner.
As you might have guessed, there's no release date or even a release year announced for Wyrdsong yet. In the meantime, you can visit the official website here.
-
Return to Monkey Island, the long-awaited return of Guybrush Threepwood's swashbuckling adventures, will be out on September 19, which just coincidentally (or maybe not) also happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which, yes, is an actual thing.
The trailer, narrated by sketchy sales rep Stan S. Stanman, showcases a number of the game's locations, characters, and snappy dialog, and of course the new art style that's proven unexpectedly controversial: The "personal attack comments" that came in response to the initial reveal led co-creator Ron Gilbert to declare that he was done sharing information on the game. His Monkey Island compadre Dave Grossman stuck with it, though, and Gilbert didn't seem to mind too much.
Personally I like the new look. It's a real change and I can understand why diehard Monkey Island fans might be a little put off by it, but it's well over a decade since the previous Monkey Island game, Telltale's Tales of Monkey Island, and it's not as though the series was previously committed to visual realism. More important is this writing and scripting: If that's sharp and solid, the rest will follow.
Return to Monkey Island preorders are live now, and everyone who lays down their money up front will receive the Horse Armor item for free. Do note that horse armor "has no practical use in game, and in no way will contribute to gameplay, puzzles, or narrative of Return to Monkey Island." It'll look pretty sweet in your inventory, though.
-
Delicate Tomb is the new season pass weapon for the Season of Plunder, and this fancy arc fusion rifle is the perfect accompaniment to the new arc 3.0 subclasses. Slightly different from your run-of-the-mill fusion rifle, this bad boy fires horizontal waves of arc that disintegrate opponents and grants a chance to drop Ionic Traces from them.
Ionic Traces only used to be available to Warlocks, but collecting them grants energy for all your abilities. If you pick up an Ionic Trace and then shoot another enemy with Delicate Tomb, they'll become Jolted, which basically means they'll start sending out arc to other enemies, electrifying them in turn. If you're a warlock using the Electostatic Mind aspect, you can also become amplified whenever you pick up an Ionic Trace, which is very strong.
So, if you're planning to go all-in this season, here's how to get the Delicate Tomb exotic fusion rifle and its catalyst. If you missed the big Bungie livestream, you may also be interested in the new destination of Neptune, the Strand subclass, and the announcement that Bungie are adding loadouts and an LFG-style fireteam finder with Lightfall.
Destiny 2 Delicate Tomb: How to get the season pass exotic
Image 1 of 3Delicate Tomb in the first slot of the premium season pass. (Image credit: Bungie)Image 2 of 3Delicate Tomb is a strong arc fusion rifle. (Image credit: Bungie)Image 3 of 3You can get Delicate Tomb's catalyst from Banshee once you have the weapon. (Image credit: Bungie)In order to get Delicate Tomb, you have two options: you can purchase the season pass for the Season of Plunder for 1,000 Silver and get it immediately. You can get Silver from Tess Everis at Eververse in the Tower or in the store in your menu.
1,000 Silver is approximately $9.99, but it gives you access to the lower track of the season pass, which features unique rewards such as a sparrow, a ghost, a cosmetic armor set, and of course, Delicate Tomb. The second option is getting to level 35 on the free season pass, which will also unlock it for you. The best way to do this is by completing bounties from vendors as well as activities.
Once you have Delicate Tomb, you'll also unlock the ability to get its catalyst, improving the weapon's performance. Head to Banshee in the Tower and he'll give you the mission. Catalysts are usually a bit of a grind, and require you to kill lots of enemies using that particular weapon, but once you unlock it, Delicate Tomb will gain a powerful secondary ability.
-
Last year's announcement of Goat Simulator 3 was a big surprise—in no small part because there was never a Goat Simulator 2. And at last you can witness the goat simulation's simulated goats going absolutely ape in the four player co-op sandbox. Have a look at the chaotic new gameplay trailer above, shown at Gamescom Opening Night Live.
Run, jump, headbutt, and even jetpack your way through a world filled with hapless humans and everything else from hammerhead sharks to angry rhinos. It looks like there will be plenty to keep you and your fellow goats busy, with soccer games, car chases, tractor duels, jousting, hang gliding, and the wanton destruction of the unfortunate town that is home to these violent goats.
Goat Simulator 3 launches on November 17 on the Epic Games Store and Microsoft Store. There's still no word on when we might get Goat Simulator 2.
-
I remember liking 2014 dark fantasy action RPG Lords of the Fallen, but it turns out I gave it a 58% in my review. I guess I didn't like it that much, but for reasons I can't entirely explain, I'm excited for its sequel, which until today was called Lords of the Fallen 2.
As of Gamescom Opening Night Life, however, Lords of the Fallen 2 is now called "The Lords of the Fallen." On Steam, the original is now called Lords Of The Fallen 2014 to make it clear that it's the old game, if the word "the" was somehow not enough of an indication that there are two different Lords of the Fallen games.
Like all good dark fantasy games, the Lords of the Fallen trailer at Gamescom—sorry, the The Lords of the Fallen trailer—includes an '80s heavy metal song. This one features Mother by Danzig. Groans were expressed in our work chat when it started playing. To myself, quietly—even though I'm alone in my apartment—I said "nice."
I really can't explain this, but I'm going to play The Lords of the Fallen, and I'll probably play it before I finish Elden Ring. I know it won't be as good, but no one can stop me from doing this. It reminds me of when that HBO show Rome was popular. I told one of my friends to watch it, but he was so tired of people telling him that Rome was good that he refused. (I have no idea if I think it would be good now. Maybe he made the right call.) That's me with FromSoftware games. There's no good reason that I've played and reviewed Lords of the Fallen but never got into the Dark Souls games.
It's preposterous—almost as preposterous as changing Lords of the Fallen 2 to The Lords of the Fallen. Maybe we're alike, somehow, me and Lords of the Fallen developer HexWorks. (A new studio created by the developer of the original, CI Games.)
"The first game that we are proudly developing is Lord of the Fallen 2," HexWorks wrote before the name change. "This sequel will shift from the original's power fantasy to a dark fantasy world and it will also have more challenging combat than its predecessor, staying truer to experiences that the Soulsborne communities enjoy. This combat will be paired with amazing visuals and gameplay supported by the power and performance of the latest Unreal Engine as we target next generation console platforms and high-end PCs."
The Lords of the Fallen now has a Steam page, and will be out sometime next year.
PC Gamer wants to hear about the hardest games you've played
in Gaming News
Posted
Some PC games are so unfair that they stick with you. Whether it's a brutal boss in a singleplayer game or a PvP game that requires an immense amount of skill, some games demand a lot. Even if you don't end up overcoming the odds, the hardest PC games drill their way into your brain and stay there.
The PC Gamer staff already clenched their fists and wrote about the hardest games they've played. Elden Ring's infamous boss almost made us lose our minds and Ghosts 'n Goblins, while full of amazing music, was a nightmare to play.
Now it's your turn to pick the hardest games you've played.
In the survey below, we want to hear about the hardest games you've played and why they gave you such a hard time. We ask that you give us the name of the game, one or two sentences about why you chose it, and your name so we can quote you in a future article. If you don't have an answer for one of the prompts, feel free to skip it, and please keep your responses civil.
Here is the survey form for you to fill out.
View the full article