Indiana Jones and the Great Circle picks up a year after Raiders of the Lost Ark as Dr. Jones is roused from his slumber by the sounds of a break-in at Marshall College. Though he catches the bandit red-handed, he’s no match physically and awakens shortly after to piece together the mystery of what was taken and why. All signs point to the Vatican and so, to satiate a need for adventure, Indiana sets off on another globetrotting journey, leaving his problems in his rear view. 

Considering the game’s place in the series canon, I feel The Great Circle does well to bob and weave throughout established story and character arcs to find an earned, snug place it belongs. Even in between dalliances with Marion Ravenwood, the love of Indy’s life, Gina Lombardi is a graceful addition to the lineage of “Jones girls” although it’s her self-reliance and grace through the game’s narrative that makes her such a wonderful character. As with all great adventure films, Indy travels to the far reaches of the world and back again, uncovering The Great Circle. Across the main story’s ten hours, we’re whisked away to Egypt, Siam and the Himalayas in search of truth while finding mostly danger. It’s exciting, full of thrills, and has enough spectacular set pieces to make Nathan Drake at least sit up and take notice. 

The true measure of a story’s hero is its villain, of course, and Indiana Jones has often painted its German opposing forces as equal parts menacing and comical. Emmerich Voss is single-minded and doggedly determined to beat Indy to the punch at all legs of this journey, and he’s a tremendous foil for Dr. Jones’ brain even if he isn’t the most threatening in the brawn department. Just as Baron Zemo relies on guile and cunning to sow unrest within the Avengers, Voss exudes a similar brand of quiet confidence in his calculated plan. 

Adventure is truly the essence of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and I do feel freedom to explore and unravel puzzles, ancient and new, is the game’s clear strength. Each of the game’s open zones is littered with a heap of fieldwork and investigative work Indy can complete as he skirts around the periphery of the primary goal—sourcing and keeping the stones that seem to prove the veracity of the titular hypothesis out of Nazi control. I didn’t find too many of the riddles put forth by the game to be too tricky, most solutions are often found in the same room or chamber as the puzzle itself. However, a couple included ciphers and keys that forced me to resort to the old pen and paper, which felt appropriate given Indy’s penchant for antiquities. 

I particularly enjoyed that each open zone’s main adventure is linked intrinsically with a key item that, once bought from the area’s vendor, will have a lasting importance as you continue on your way, chasing fortune and glory around the world. The camera you receive in the Vatican proves useful in snapping curios and people of interest to fill out Indy’s journal and earn “adventure points”, while the lighter and breathing apparatus from subsequent levels are integral for illuminating pitch black tombs and spending long periods underwater respectively. 

There are books throughout the game that, once found, serve as your many skills and buffs. Without a traditional upgrade path or skill tree, your aforementioned adventure points can be used to activate things like Lucky Hat, which is a second wind ability that grants a brief moment in time after being downed to collect your fedora, dust yourself off, and carry on with that trademark Harrison Ford smirk. There are others which prove more useful in the moment-to-moment, such as improved melee power or one that makes whip attacks on unsuspecting Nazis lethal. I do miss Wolfenstein’s approach which had the player meet a predetermined goal, like five stealth kills, for example, to earn the boost. That said, having to earn points through absorbing things of cultural significance is reward enough. 

Aside from the main adventure itself, each of the game’s zones does have a bevy of side content to churn through. Fortunately, if you’re like me and you storm the critical path first, you’re able to return post-credits to mop up all of the quests you missed. These range from broader Fieldwork, which I’d equate to what you’d expect from a side quest with cutscenes and the whole shabang, to Mysteries, which feel more emergent and truncated while serving to scratch that natural itch—not unlike the all-alluring map markers in other open-world titles. 

Where the experience does falter is with the combat itself and the balance the game attempts to strike between snotting Nazis in the nose or hiding from them. 

Stealth, save for a few exceptions, is a completely viable way to navigate The Great Circle, and it works due to easily dupable enemy A.I. Being able to collect so many random items within the map, from bottles right through to stone busts, and either brandish them as a weapon or throw them in an effort to distract guards, makes for a fun, emergent brand of gameplay. Relying on good old-fashioned slap stick pugilism and your whip, which can be used to disarm or trip enemies in combat scenarios, harkens back to the team’s pedigree in both Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness. The only issue I took is with the bevy of holdable items in the game is that you’re forced to drop them whenever unlocking a door or climbing a rope, and are ultimately forced to leave it behind. This is softened by the fact that things things everywhere, however it’s still a baffling choice. 

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Fist fights are an up close and personal mix of stamina management, creating space with a well-timed dash, and landing a left-right goodnight to leave your enemy laid out in the Egyptian sands. For how slow combat looked in trailers, it feels pretty good on the sticks—except for when guns are involved. Wolfenstein is one of the better shooters in modern history, and the talent at MachineGames is undeniable. For them to have to put guns aside, for the most part, for thematic reasons is a shame. Still, there’s practically no circumstance in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle where I’d recommend scooping up a fallen submachine gun off of the ground and rattling lead toward the enemy, which is a shame given that the gunplay is tight. 

It’s just that it serves as a warning bell for every enemy within a one kilometre radius, and it’s often never worth it to invite that kind of attention to yourself—especially when, as I say, the A.I. is a little thick and the hand-to-hand works as well as it does. 

From a performance standpoint, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does run rather well on console. I never noticed any significant dips in the frame rate, and unlike many other blockbuster titles of late, I noted no crashes. The team’s decision to develop the game in first-person, I feel, is justified immediately through the world’s fidelity and how hands-on you’re able to be. Of course, pulling back to see Indy in context-sensitive actions, such as swinging on or climbing with the whip, or in cutscenes is always a joy. It’s like a time machine seeing Harrison Ford looking so young without the aid of Disney’s de-aging sorcery. Having already touched on both the performances of Alessandra Mastronardi and Mario Gavrilis as the story’s co-lead and villain respectively, I must absolutely give Troy Baker his flowers. 

Having been witness to several Troy Baker performances, it’s hard not to hear when a little dash of Troy himself bleeds through. I feel like even for the most established voice actors, it’s hard to hide the self entirely. Troy Baker simply disappears into this role. What’s stunning is that he isn’t just playing as Indiana Jones, he’s playing as Harrison Ford playing as Indy and it’s a performance so nuanced and so studied, it’s going to fool so many who’ll have simply assumed they’d dredged poor Harrison up again. It’s a remarkable individual acting display from Baker, and with awards season cut-offs and the dreaded recency bias working against him, I pray voters remember this one next year. 

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a sumptuous adventure that hits on so many of the high notes we’ve long hoped for from an Xbox first-party game, especially in terms of narrative and performance. I expect the game’s combat will divide critics, however its excellent crafting of its world, and its many puzzles, should shoulder the burden and deliver fortune and glory for a game that’s made for Indy fans by Indy fans. 

The post Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Review – Uncharted Territory appeared first on Press Start.

Season’s greetings, the holidays are finally upon us.

Of course, for us Australians, that means crushing heat and a frantic rush to buy Christmas gifts, but it also means we can take refuge inside and play a few games while sitting underneath the air conditioner.

It’s also a good opportunity to get through your backlog before Grandma, with misguided love in her heart, gifts you a monstrously discounted copy of Gollum, leaving you to smile and nod like Bart receiving Lee Carvallo’s Putting Challenge.

But I digress, here are the games we can look forward to in December.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

Release Date: December 9

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered

Release Date: December 10

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Marvel Rivals

Release Date: December 6

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Nikoderiko: The Magical World

Release Date: December 6

Platforms: PC

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind

Release Date: December 10

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP

Release Date: December 2

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp Complete

Release Date: December 3

Platforms: iOS, Android

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Release Date: December 3

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer

Release Date: December 5

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Cheapest Price: Amazon – $64 (free delivery)

Resident Evil 2

Release Date: December 10

Platforms: Mac, iOS

The Finals

Release Date: December 12

Platforms: PlayStation 4

On Your Tail

Release Date: December 17

Platforms: PC

Botany Manor

Release Date: December 17

Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

The post Games Coming Out In December 2024 That You Should Be Excited For appeared first on Press Start.

If our first hands-on with Avowed back at PAX Australia served to swiftly initiate us with the game’s core loop and combat mechanics, this week’s most recent two-hour serving feels more like a grand introduction to the Avowed story, characters, and world—all of which call the Pillars of Eternity franchise home. However, as I’ve said before, this game, which remains dense and tactical in other, more user-friendly ways, will be seen as the most accessible gateway into Eora, through its northernmost continent The Living Lands. 

With that said, when you’re dealing with a grand role-playing adventure like this, two hours doesn’t feel like an enormous helping. Even if Avowed is a more truncated title when compared to huge undertakings like The Elder Scrolls and Baldur’s Gate, what we got to see felt like a scene-setting more than anything else. 

First, we got to dive into the game’s character creator, which we hadn’t seen any of in our prior go around. I wouldn’t say the options are exhaustive, ultimately I did settle on a mixture of presets in creating my own Envoy. To add a little extra bit of flair to my character, who’s billed as a “godlike” in this canon, I adorned her face with a smattering of Dreamscourge fungi in attempt to recreate just a sliver of the game’s now iconic, colourful, Alex Garland’s Annihilation-esque key art.

We were then thrust into the game’s prologue which sees our Envoy navigate being shipwrecked on an island neighbour to Paradis, where you’d been directed by an Aedyran emporer to investigate and placate the Dreamscourge plague before it spreads like wildfire. Known for twisting the souls of people, fauna, and the land itself, if left unchecked the plague would surely spell the end for The Living Lands.

This small island is a punchy mission that does a great job at onboarding the player to the game’s front-facing mechanics, namely its free-wheeling, classless combat that refuses to pigeonhole players into the regular archetypes. Getting a bit more of an overview with this slightly broader hands-on, I came away with an even greater appreciation for how user-friendly this approach to combat is, especially for a role-playing game teeming with options. 

Being able to switch on the fly between two unique loadouts by a simple button press, I’d artfully swap out my axe and shield combination for a handier-at-range, two-handed bow that I’d pick off reptilian xaurips with. And once I’d gotten my hands on a grimoire book, which introduces wieldable magic into the fold, I ran it alongside a short sword with the thought of keeping a careful distance and peppering enemies with alternating bursts of fire and ice. It’s flexible, and it surprised me quite a bit how I continued to enjoy each combat encounter here—especially after coming away from the last hands-on interested but somewhat unconvinced. 

Aided by a stout, blue creature that’s sure to drive the furries mad, I made short work navigating this island aside while the game introduced me to some of its role-playing flavours, namely the art of beautifully-written conversation and the moral conflicts you’re faced with. Here, it was whether to trust a self-proclaimed enemy to the Aedyran empire and hope that it was truth, as well as survival instinct, backing her promise of having a waiting boat to escape on. Being a big believer in second chances, I found the key to her prison cell, freed her, and was pleasantly surprised to eventually be sailing toward Dawnshore in her company. It was after I docked here that we parted ways, but I wouldn’t be destined to be alone for long at all. 

Waiting on the dock for me was a messenger, who broke the news to me that the Aedyran ambassador I’d hoped to meet had gone walkabout and would be in certain need of rescuing. Alongside the messenger was Kai, the very same companion I’d paired up with previously who had his own vested interest in tagging along, and it wasn’t long until we were off. It was at this stage I decided to peek behind the curtain and trawl the menus a little bit, which isn’t something I got a huge chance to do last time. 

Of course, there’s an inventory to manage, I’d already made note of the endless possibilities as far as loadouts go. As you climb in level and experience, you’ll earn skill points that can be funnelled in any of the character classes available, whether that’s ranger, wizard, or otherwise. Along with the ability to change out weapons regularly, it’s the steel and sorcery cocktails you’re able to mix with these skills that adds yet another fold to the game’s classless combat. Kai had his own, pruned upgrade path that had fewer, but arguably more significant, skills that greatly improved his helpfulness in the field. 

Before we could leave the townsquare in search of my ambassador friend, an irresistible exclamation point above a distressed citizen’s head lured me in: standard side quest fare. She rambled, barely coherent, about helping rid her home of the same kind of lizardfolk I’d encountered on the island not ten minutes ago. Unable to resist a bit of side action, I took a short detour to clean house, quite literally, only to discover confusing murals that spoke to a relationship of sorts between her and these squatters. Needless to say, I ended the quest far more curious about this world and its people than when I began. 

At last, I ventured onward. I came to a gorgeous, well-lit wood overrun with the same kind of fungi I’d seen all over, sure signs of the Dreamscourge lying in wait. I was glad to get a glimpse at the corruptible nature of the plague and how it can warp nature, as we encountered a powerful bear that had fallen victim to the infection. With its distinct mushroom crown, it charged over and over, making use of its powerful claws to kill me once. In our first demo, it felt as though most of the enemies were skeletons with somewhat predictable patterns, whereas this bear felt wild. I managed to fall the beast on a second pass, saving the day for the poor ambassador. 

While I got a much bigger glimpse at the the combat really feels, and how loadouts work hand-in-hand with Avowed’s approach to its classless combat, free of borders, I think what I came away most pleased with is how familiar the game feels as a western role-playing game. It’s quest design immediately feels like home, and it’s so Elder Scrolls-coded that it’s like slipping into a comfy pair of slippers. 

I’m also pleased with the direction of the story, especially as someone with no prior understanding of Pillars and its inner-workings. Being able to pull from an already rich bible of lore is great in that the team has an enormous library to pull from, while I, as the player, can lean on it too if, for whatever reason, something isn’t explained plainly to me. There’s a complicated political climate in The Living Lands that’s intoxicating and I’m so eager to peel back its several layers in just a few short months. 

The post Avowed Hands-On Preview – Into The Living Lands appeared first on Press Start.

When one considers the circumstances around the development and release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, it existing at all seems like quite the miracle. It’s a video game that has Ukraine at the absolute heart of it, and the team’s peril throughout the ongoing conflict has been well-documented, especially so in the recent documentary “War Game”. If nothing else, it provides perspective and context that’s important to the game’s story, even if it’s relatively irrelevant to the bigger picture of how the long-gestated sequel, subtitled Heart of Chornobyl, is set to be received.

I’ll preface this piece by saying that I still want to spend more time with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 so treat this as a review-in-progress, or rather an overview of my experience with this supposed forty-hour game thus far. It’s worth noting, for reasons that’ll become evident shortly, that I’m also playing on Xbox.

Whether deliberate or not, there’s a desperation that permeates this world’s Zone of Alienation. In fact, the world painted for us feels so permanently unsafe, devoid of hope, and analogous to Ukraine itself, it’s hard not to feel a lot of the team’s terrible, life-shattering experiences bleed through in the moment-to-moment gameplay of Heart of Chornobyl. You endure the Zone’s vicissitudes as Skif, a hardened stalker who, after being left for dead having been robbed of a sought-after artefact, is thrust into a branching narrative full of secret plots, warring factions, sides to take, and decisions to make.

As I’ve said I’m early doors as far as the story goes, but the mystery of who crossed Skif in the wilds and left him at the mercy of the Zone’s horrors is enough to drag the boat along for now. Skif might not be the most riveting protagonist, nor would he be any fun at parties, but fortunately many of the Zone’s other major players have starred in their small episodes within this larger journey. Conflicted scientists who pit their ethics against scientific curiosity, ravagers who’ll weaponise your own need for intel against their rivals as they look to secure their slice of slag heap region Garbage, and war-weary generals whose trust in their men is misplaced are but a few I’ve encountered in the game’s early acts.

Though I’ve enjoyed those who call it their home, the Zone itself feels like the main draw for Heart of Chornobyl. It’s a spectacularly hostile place that, despite being rooted in horror and science-fiction, feels so cruel, grounded, and ultra-real in its treatment of the player, bullets are devastating, creatures claw with ferocious efficacy. Even on the easiest of difficulties, it felt as though death crept about every corner. Spectacular emission storms turn the sky a blood red as blue, radiated lightning cracks and pings off the abandoned cars littering the fields, I definitely don’t recommend getting caught in one, however glimpsing one through a window, watching as the world near literally blows on by, is an undeniable thrill and truly sells the scariness of the Zone.

While I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 does a marvellous job reminding the player time and again that its world isn’t to be fucked with, its remaining systems managed to upend my enjoyment over and over. I constantly felt as though the game wasn’t designed with a controller in mind, which is fine in principle, so much of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. audience’s roots lie with keyboard and mouse, but so much of Heart of Chornobyl is downright painful to play on console. Inventory management, of which there’s plenty being a hybrid of both survival and immersive-sim genres, is cumbersome and slow, the gunplay is spotty and imprecise with its Bethesda-esque jank and AI pathing leading to frustratingly bad combat situations.

But these gripes aside, it’s really the performance on console that scuttles the whole thing. It’s not that I have played it on PC at all, though I’ll be shocked if there isn’t an enormous disparity between it and this console port because optimisation appears to have been an enormous problem for the team. I’ve not seen bugs of this magnitude since the launch of Cyberpunk, and there are a few that are just as egregious without being game-breaking.

Graphical hang-ups make up the crux of the concern, with unique cutscene assets, like cassette players and headphones, floating offset from their user and floating through the air, wall textures strobing on and off like an epileptic’s nightmare, and draw distance issues causing textures to pop-in at what I’d consider mid-range. Combat can be a tough pill, but it’s made tougher still when raiders magically materialise out of thin air and, in a flash, spot you and fill you full of holes. I also experienced a number of hard crashes, lines of dialogue simply not playing, and enormous plunges in frame rate that, hand on heart, would have been fortunate to register in double digits. I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 already caters to a niche audience by being a tough as nails, hard to the core apocalypse simulator steeped in realism, and having to contend with this performance shortfalls that mar that experience and render the game frustrating is disappointing.

The game tries so hard to present its world as an authentic, post-apocalyptic playground that’s super serious in tone, almost like a Fallout for masochists. I enjoyed plenty of my several hours with the game, it teaches you how to be frugal with resources and develops in you an edge that holds you in good stead for the game’s many moral quandaries. For a game crafted in a literal war zone, Heart of Chornobyl is, without question, an achievement. It’s a huge, enormously scoped game, and I admire the team’s ambition to swing for the fences despite the conflict that underpins their day-to-day lives. Sadly, I do think the console version is rife with issues that’ll hamper people’s experience at launch.

However, they’re all issues that can be ironed out and I hope Heart of Chornobyl gets its redemption arc, because bloody hell this deserves a feel-good story. 

The post S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review-In-Progress – Zoned Out appeared first on Press Start.

Miniatures is a sublime collection of short, interactive stories from Other Tales, a small developer that likes to dabble in the otherworldly eeriness of what lurks at the periphery of the known. The more impressive feat is how the team tackles such serious subject matter and frames it through a child’s perspective. 

Having the player unlock a keepsake chest, and handle four curios that plunge them into strange tales is an oh-so-curious premise, and I love how open some of these short stories are to interpretation. I’ve managed to pluck and pull at meanings I’m sure no developer intended, but that’s what art is—inflammation of thought and provoking us to ponder on the things we can’t fully reason with. There are big familial issues at the heart of Miniatures, and they’re, clearly, the source of some pain for those behind it. 

A sea shell, a screwdriver, a small stone lizard, and a moth patch each serve as catalysts for small, ten-or-so-minute vignettes about life’s challenges. 

The House of the Moon, while being about an absent mother, had me thinking about my inverse childhood that saw me grow up without a father figure and how long I obsessed with what was wrong with me, rather than what was wrong with him. Of course, that’s an extremely personal, specific use case to me, but the fact a brief peering through someone else’s lens can draw that out once again speaks volumes to how accessible, albeit strange, Miniatures is as a collection. 

Of the four, I do love Familiar the most. It’s a tale as old as time about a flat-pack cabinet that threatens to tear a family apart, to the point they hide it away once it’s together for fear it’ll collapse, leaving the evil presence within to envelope them. It’s also the best argument for each of Miniatures’ tales having its own bespoke art style, as the creepy undertones are punctuated perfectly through the crude, scratchy illustration, and each scene break’s violin screech.

It’s truly artful and feels like a worthwhile indictment of IKEA, whose only value in my household is cheap hot dogs. 

Miniatures is, without doubt, an hour well spent. It’s to the point that I’ve been ruminating on these quirky, little accounts far beyond their runtime and I felt there was a small amount of healing done, as I managed to retrospect parts of my past specifically and, with some relief, put them to bed. 

Miniatures is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile right now.  

The post Miniatures Is A Beautiful Collection That Presents Big Issues Through The Perspective Of A Child appeared first on Press Start.

We’ve seen so many IPs benefit from experimenting with ports or sequels specifically crafted for virtual reality headsets, including Half-Life and, of course, Resident Evil. Although I wasn’t an enormous fan of Metro Exodus, which dragged the series in an open zone direction I didn’t care much for, I am a big fan of the original games. Metro, on paper, reads like a title that’d be a natural fit for a format like virtual reality which is so immersive and particularly interactive. I hoped by taking it back to the tunnels, and focusing on the scrappy, survivalist elements of the originals, that Metro Awakening might feel like Metro of old. 

One thing Awakening does to separate itself from the other mainline titles is that it places you in the boots of a new character, setting Artyom aside to help build out the universe’s dense canon. Having been penned in partnership with the novel’s author Dimitri Glukhovsky, there’s an evident care in fleshing out some characters we might not have seen before. You play as Serdar, a medical practitioner who’s surviving like everyone else in post-fallout Moscow. As other Metro games have, Awakening doesn’t shy away from its spiritual and supernatural side as Yana, Serdar’s wife, is tortured by memories and apparitions of their son, who’d passed at the beginning of their life underground, and sets off into the metro chasing ghosts.

This, of course, prompts Serdar to abandon his bedside manner and take up arms against the radiated monsters and raiders of the metro in an effort to save his grieving wife from herself. Metro Awakening’s place in the canon, and what they’re doing with a certain character’s origins, is telegraphed rather early and, due to a few reasons, never ultimately amounts to feeling like the twist in the tale it should be. That said, the story told is full of heart and does well to fill in a few blanks from before our time with Artyom. 

To get it out of the way, and to clarify as it is available on multiple headsets of varying qualities, I did play this game on PlayStation VR2, having plucked it from the underdepths of my bed, like an ancient relic. 

The last time I donned the visor was for Arizona Sunshine 2 which, funnily enough, was developed by the very same team who handled this game, Vertigo Games. With that being the case, there’s a huge similarity between the two in terms of how movement, level progression, and combat is handled, at least on the user-side. It’s also a very different game in so many ways, most obvious is that it’s a hard task to bask in the hot sun when in a nuclear winter.

In terms of combat, I’d say it leans more claustrophobic and tactical. Going from the undead shambling towards you, groaning with arms outstretched, to armed raiders rattling gunfire through windows while mutated dog things nip at your back after flanking you using their makeshift tunnel systems is a huge departure, and in an effort to add grounding and grit to the disparate setting, the gunplay loses its fun a little. 

While using the guns themselves is great, as usual, I found firefights, particularly those at range, to be frustrating. I’d be popping hopeful shots off in the dark, aiming for the muzzle flashes of those who’d wish me dead, only for their perfect aim to tag me time and again, leading to either a retreat on my part or me running out of ammo, which is already scarce to begin with. When dealing with modest numbers, I’d often resort to running in and placing a swift pistol round to the dome—it felt counter to the game’s intent but undoubtedly visceral and effective.

An unfortunate byproduct of this being a VR title, but could be explained away by Serdar not being a militant fighter, is that the resourceful, makeshift nature of modifying guns from past Metro games isn’t present at all. All guns, and their bullets, are found about the metro itself, which does keep things simple, but it does feel like an extraction of something special. 

With the underwhelming gunplay hamstringing the game’s meat and bones, stealth actually felt like the most viable means of working your way through the tunnels. Taking a quiet approach works well enough because there’s plenty of darkness to hide yourself in and the enemies, like their surroundings, aren’t that bright. They’re clearly a rung above the literally brain dead zombies from Arizona Sunshine, though I’d still say they’re easily duped, until they get you in their sights. General sneakiness is only one part of the equation, however, as it begins to fall to pieces when it comes to closing the deal and bopping a bad guy on his head to knock him out. It requires you to get near enough, but not too near, and clumsily punch your arm out in the hopes you’d closed the gap enough. So often I’d misjudge the distance and simply fall short, fortunately their aforementioned stupidity meant they didn’t register my missed punch’s small puff of air on the back of their neck. 

I do like that the scrappy, survivalist aspects of Metro are well enough intact, thanks to Serdar’s all-important backpack, which can be pulled out by reaching over and grabbing behind your left shoulder. Although we never seem to glimpse its contents, all kinds of key items hang off its every corner. In an effort to keep a clean user interface, your objective and ammunition count are scribbled on a board at the top, while a trusty lighter, ever-important gas mask and filters, and crank-handled battery pack that you’ll use repeatedly to generate power for not only your head lamp, but for rusted out fuse boxes in the metro. Every item requires a tactile input that felt earned and kept immersion at the forefront of the experience, even if I would have looked like an idiot going to town cranking it in the lounge room—what?

With its combat not quite hitting the mark, the Metro in VR experience, sadly, feels best in its quieter, less action-packed moments, when you’re able to take in the signature atmosphere the series has long been known for. The sad solitude of the metro tunnels, at least the parts that aren’t teeming with nightmarish horrors, cuts a stark contrast with the stations themselves which, at several points, feel like bustling, relatively happy places. Life, albeit a heavily compromised version of it, does march on here, and the sights of people tending bar and lending their ear to the broken, people strumming guitars around fires, and people simply resting in the homes they’ve fashioned from dilapidated train cars all paint a picture and create the sense of place I’ve adored about Metro forever. 

A format like VR so rarely has wins, and although I’m far from prepared to call Metro Awakening a system seller for any of its platforms, it’s in the upper echelon of experiences available. It tells an earnest story that deserves its place in the world, cleverly uses the technology to blend immersion with atmosphere, and it’s only due to the combat’s inability to nail down the fun that it ultimately falls short of expectations. 

The post Metro Awakening VR Review – Tunnel Vision appeared first on Press Start.

With the scary season in the rearview, we can now look to November as we draw ever closer to the busy holiday period.

Although it isn’t as busy a month as October was, I do feel as though November is exceptionally well-rounded with big games coming from all of the big three with LEGO Horizon Adventures, Mario & Luigi Brothership, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 standing out as big highlights.

And, of course, we’d be remiss to call out S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The plight of this team is well-documented and for them to be rounding the corner and launching a game with all they’ve endured is huge.

Let’s see just what we can look forward to in November.

LEGO Horizon Adventures

Release Date: November 14

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5

Cheapest Price – Amazon – $99 (free delivery) 

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Release Date: November 19

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

Mario & Luigi Brothership

Release Date: November 7

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Cheapest Price: Amazon – $68 (free delivery)

Slitterhead

Release Date: November 8

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Metal Slug Tactics

Release Date: November 5

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Planet Coaster 2

Release Date: November 6

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate

Release Date: November 6

Platforms: PC

Goat Simulator Remastered

Release Date: November 7

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Farming Simulator 25

Release Date: November 12

Platforms: PC, Mac, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89 (free delivery)

The Rise of the Golden Idol

Release Date: November 12

Platforms: PC, Mac, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android

Tetris Forever

Release Date: November 12

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake

Release Date: November 14

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Cheapest Price: Amazon – $79.95 (free delivery)

Genshin Impact

Release Date: November 20

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

Release Date: November 20

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

On Your Tail

Release Date: November 21

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Nine Sols

Release Date: November 26

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The post Games Coming Out In November 2024 That You Should Be Excited For appeared first on Press Start.

There’s a lot working against Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as the game approaches its release to the world in just six weeks. Despite their exhaustive list of studios, there’s a seeming lack of goodwill around Xbox’s first-party portfolio, and there’s a portion of the audience who’d turn their nose up at the idea of a first-person action-adventure Indiana Jones game. 

However, in a world where Nathan Drake has lived his life of adventure, dominating that third-person space, I think it was the only choice. And thanks to the pedigree at MachineGames, which includes staff who worked on both Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness, I’d say they’ve got top men (and women, of course) hard at work. Better still, the game’s elevator pitch all along was to put players in both the shoes and fedora of Indy as he goes on one of his signature, globetrotting adventures. 

Based on the time I’ve spent with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I have to believe fortune and glory await those helming this authentic, charming adventure. 

Slotting tidily in between the stories of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, this original story picks up with the theft of an artefact from Marshall College’s campus drives Indiana, still licking his wounds after separating from his fiancée Marion, towards the danger of a new campaign that sees the doctor, as always, making it up as he goes. His investigation leads him to key historical sites around the globe, our demonstration alone took us from Rome to Egypt, as he stumbles across the fact all of these places are aligned around the globe by a perfect circle—a great circle, if you will. 

The Great Circle, straight from the jump, has the special sauce that makes it feel cinematic and, more importantly, totally consistent with the films. It’s clear that the people involved have a care and love for the source material. Troy Baker might be everywhere, but his performance, which sees him emulating Harrison Ford’s own, wry cadence, feels studious and selfless. I’m sure there was part of Baker who’d have loved to make this Indy his own, however, his willingness to put that aside to pay homage and find the fire Ford himself no longer has in his belly, is admirable. 

The first portion of our hands-on saw us acting as the unfortunate first responder to the Marshall College break-in, which pits Indiana Jones against a towering giant, modelled after the great Tony Todd as he attempts to defend the artefacts. Ultimately, he’s outmuscled and wakes hours later to piece together the motivations behind the theft. Being early on, it’s a pretty simple matching game that begets a revelation that points the way to Rome. That said, watching it unfold through Indiana’s naturally inquisitive lens, it stands as proof that piecing together this conspiracy and toppling the burgeoning Axis forces, is going to take much more than just brawn, it’ll take the professor’s brain too.  

I’d not thought much of how gameplay looked during the short previews we’d seen prior to getting a hold of the sticks. Thankfully, having gone hands-on, it has all become a bit clearer. Indiana Jones might be brave in the face of danger, but he’s ultimately a guy. He’s armed with a whip, a leather jacket with a matching journal, and a thirst for knowledge. He can trade blows when required, but no one would describe Indy as a marksman. While it almost stands opposed to everything MachineGames achieved with Wolfenstein, a game where you shoot a lot of shit, I do believe they do an unbelievable job at making you feel like you’re Indiana Jones.

So much of the team’s pedigree bleeds through in the hand-to-hand combat alone. It’s slow, deliberate, and calls to mind Escape from Butcher Bay, which gave heft to the prison fights you’d get into. As a scrappy pugilist, Indy can also pick up most anything not bolted down and brandish it against the Nazis in your path. As I neared the Vatican, I trashed more guitars than Pete Townsend. The enemies you snot drop guns both big and small, however, they’re very much a means of last resort as the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire is nothing more than an invitation for opposing forces to swarm in greater numbers than you can handle. Despite being one of the best in the business at developing run-and-gun, Indiana Jones flips the script and feels more like a gun-then-run setup. 

So it’s always a good idea to keep a low profile, which you can do by finding disguises that’ll help you blend in with the locals. After the disappointment with how Star Wars Outlaws handled stealth and all of its fail states, I was glad that Indiana Jones is simply allowed to comedically bungle his attempt at subterfuge because, as we all know, to err is human. So if you cock up and miss wrapping a shovel around a Nazi’s head or a captain sees right through your get-up, going loud is a more than viable last-ditch effort. 

Much like his famous fedora, Indy’s whip is very much function over fashion. It’s the player’s multi-tool in this big, scoped-out romp around the globe. It’s the great equaliser in combat whether you’re disarming enemies or seating them on their rear, it helps you swing across insurmountable gaps, and even rappel into crypts to do a bit of old-fashioned treasure hunting. And although it thankfully can’t be used to harm animals directly, a well-placed whip crack can even be used to scare off patrolling Nazi attack dogs. 

In terms of how each location is handled, Indiana Jones appears to deliver open zone exploration rather than curated, linear stages. Both Vatican and Gizeh, home of the Great Pyramids, both felt broad in scope, though it was the latter that felt like it benefited most from multiple pathing options through its map as you plumb the depths of the Nazi’s excavation of the Sphinx. Of course, it’s the main adventure and its story that brings you to these places, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a wealth of things to do and see. Each area has a heap of side quests, referred to in-world as “fieldwork”, and Indy’s curiosity will naturally lead him to more than a few age-old mysteries to unravel. 

You’re able to document key points of your investigation, as well as general curios like your local contact’s pet snake Osiris, using Indy’s camera. Most everything you capture rewards you with ‘adventure points’ which, unsurprisingly, tie into the game’s upgrade systems. Similar to The Last of Us, and in an effort to avoid messy skill trees, Indiana Jones tucks its titular hero’s upgrades behind the discovery of books scattered in the world. One such upgrade I found was called Lucky Hat, it lets the downed player crawl about in an attempt to collect and dust off his fedora, deliver a trademark smirk and use a bit of that plucky resilience Indy is known for. 

Locking down the use of Harrison Ford’s likeness aside, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle manages to nail the iconic Indy presentation. The game is truly beautiful, and the team pored over every small detail in each of the locations. Marshall College’s walls are adorned with certificates, its cabinets full of priceless wares, and its shelves bowing with textbooks, and where you’d expect a generic placeholder asset to litter the shelves, several unique, titled books sit, beckoning as though their spines were ripe for cracking. The team has also done magnificent work with lighting and shadow, especially when Indy’s lighter sparks to life in a spider-infested Egyptian tomb, and manages to dimly light the thought-lost features of the treasure trove you’re exhuming. Not only are the visuals up there, but each moment is made better for every small, nostalgic swell of John Williams’ legendary score. 

After a couple of hours going hands-on with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I’ve not only gone back to revisit the films thanks to a revitalised want for adventure, I’ve come away unexpectedly high on the project after spending so long unconvinced. Not only was I unequivocally wrong to doubt MachineGames, as their care for this IP seems second to none, but they’re set to deliver the Uncharted that team Xbox has needed, albeit through a much different lens. 

Indy once professed that “X never, ever marks the spot.” 

This summer, for a short time at least given the limited exclusivity, Xbox does mark the spot for what will be one of the year’s hottest action-adventure games. 

The post Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Hands-On Preview – Calling Dr. Jones appeared first on Press Start.

During our hands-on session with the upcoming MachineGames title, and Xbox exclusive, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, we were fortunate enough to get a few minutes to chat with the game’s lead designer, Zeke Virant.

Formerly of Avalanche Studios Group, Virant has been with MachineGames since 2020. We chatted about what went into making an authentic Indiana Jones experience, how that differs from Wolfenstein, and how the PlayStation port came to be.

How important to Machine Games was nailing the tone of the Indy films through strong audiovisual presentation? It feels like it could literally slot into place between films.

Nailing that tone, character, sound, visuals, I mean we have the blueprints from, of course, all the movies. It’s just something that inspired us. You listen to it, and it sounds so good, John Williams’ score sounds so good, you hear the sound effects, you see the way they do lighting and colour arrangements, it’s a beautiful movie and it’s masterfully done. 

So nailing that was always the ambition, I feel like it’s been quite straight forward in terms of achieving this. Once we had the audio, the visual, and the gameplay to where it was, we knew we had to add some humour to the combat for it to actually feel like Indiana Jones. If he’s having a conversation, it’s not just a back and forth, there needs to be an argument, he needs to be stubborn or grumpy. 

I think we know the movies so well, we know the characters so well, I think it’s been pretty easy and natural to get into that zone and we’ve been there for a couple of years now. 

How has the collaboration with Disney or LucasFilm been?

So we’ve been closely collaborating with LucasFilm Games throughout the whole development process, and they’ve been invaluable in terms of getting us footage, resources, and all sorts of archival stuff to work with to help make the game much more authentic. 

Did you ever toy with the idea of making the game third-person outright?

Always first-person. I mean, MachineGames make first-person games, it’s in our DNA, it’s what we do and it’s what we know how to do. 

The idea is not an Indiana Jones game, you are Indiana Jones. And with first-person it gives us so much more hands-on to be able to pick up everything and to be able to solve puzzles and if I hit some guy in the face, I can see him go slackjaw and all over. 

It’s a much more intimate experience and we never had any doubts that this was the right way to go.  

There have been plenty of other games inspired by Indy that have come and gone, Uncharted and Tomb Raider to name a couple. Was there any pressure to differentiate yourself from those?

No, I think as soon as we started working on it we were very confident as a developer. I mean, obviously with the Wolfenstein games and with the pedigree of a lot of the staff being from Riddick and The Darkness, we make very unique games in the first-person style.

Us doing a MachineGames adventure game did not make us feel any pressure, nor was there a need to compete with them. This is very much our own thing.

I feel the game finds the right balance of adventure and action. Coming from something action-oriented like Wolfenstein, was it hard to strike a balance with some quieter tomb raiding?

So, when we started developing Indiana Jones, starting from the beginning, there were a lot of new things that we needed to try and develop. 

Having these new systems, working with puzzles, and things like disguises, having more of a narrative built in to create a larger cinematic experience overall as a starting point and starting, from the get-go, creating these systems made us realise: “Okay, we’re creating something different.”

Of course, there is the idea that we’d be “stuck” in Wolfenstein with too many guns, but we were so focused on these other systems, and getting the hand-to-hand right—melee was not something you’ve seen in Wolfenstein really—required a bit more time than the guns. We’ve already proven we’re good at guns. 

We mostly focused on the “non-Wolfenstein” parts. 

We’ve obviously been able to see Fieldwork and other Mysteries during our hands-on, what other things in terms of side content can we expect to lure us from the critical path?

As you say, the Fieldwork and Mysteries are one aspect, but there are all sorts of traversal puzzles as well. There are little places you can crawl into and I think, just in general, we designed the levels so there are multiple paths and there are keys you can find and in those secret areas you might find a book. 

There are also relics you can find in each of our sandboxes there are a number of ancient relics you can collect, and comic books you can look for. Generally, there are a lot of collectibles so every area is chock-full of stuff to look out for. 

It seems there’ll be plenty of opportunities to stealth through sections and keep out of view, are there any instant-fail missions or does the game give you the opportunity to go loud if you can’t remain concealed?

We really try to give the player a lot of choice in combat, so instant fail in stealth is not something we’d ever want to do. 

Guns blazing is not always the best tactical thing, but it can be a good last resort. If you’re up against the wall and you need to make an escape, I’ve been saying we’re not so much “run and gun” but “gun and run away”. That’s how we’ve been approaching a lot of it.

I like that you can screw up stealth and be really scrappy. You can pick up weapons, fight, and then run away, use your whip, you have a lot of tools at your disposal so you can save yourself from getting beat up. 

Has a PlayStation 5 SKU always existed for the game or did that come about late in the piece?

So Microsoft came to us. We started to have the discussion about bringing this to other platforms, we were super-duper excited to take that on. So that was something that came a bit later on, but we’re excited to get to as many players as possible. 

As it has been a source of conversation for other Xbox first-party releases, what frame rate are you targeting for the Xbox Series consoles? 

We’re targeting 60fps for launch. 

The post We Spoke To MachineGames About Crafting An Authentic Indiana Jones Video Game appeared first on Press Start.

Given its penchant for science-fiction, the Black Ops canon was always a little tough to follow. Double crosses, government secrets, topped off with divergent story paths led to some of the Call of Duty series’ most enjoyable, if not batshit nonsensical, stories ever told. Black Ops Cold War reintroduced series regulars, CIA operatives Alex Mason and Frank Woods, alongside the debonair Russell Adler, as they pursued Perseus, a Soviet atomic spy, during the turbulent, early 80s. 

In terms of history, Black Ops 6 is placed nearer to the Gulf War and follows a now maimed, wheelchair-bound Woods, alongside his mentee and agency upstart Troy Marshall. When the latter is deployed on a mission to Kuwait to apprehend an Iraqi minister, the operation is turned on its ear by the emergence of Pantheon, a rogue paramilitary force that has access to a terrible bioweapon as well as apparent ties within the CIA.

Although you’ll drift between the perspectives of many over the course of this globetrotting adventure, you play a substantial chunk of Black Ops 6 as William “Case” Calderon, a handpicked member of Woods’ Black Ops faction. The goal, obviously, becomes to save the world for the umpteenth time while rooting out the mole and getting to the bottom of yet another warped, psychological conspiracy worthy of a geopolitical thriller like this.

The story is a lot of fun and dips to some expectedly bonkers places. The government’s research into mind control, MK-Ultra, has long been a lynchpin for the Black Ops narrative, and this sixth iteration is no different. Heavy artillery is, clearly, still an enormous factor in Black Ops 6, however you could make the argument the real war is psychochemical. Legacy players like Woods and Adler are given good stuff to chew on that respects where their weary characters have been, while newcomers like Marshall attack the game’s events with all the hallmarks of a conflicted leader, searching for truth in a world where the truth lies. 

And I won’t lie, seeing Lou Diamond Phillips, star of La Bamba, cameo as the agency’s figurehead got a pop out of me. He isn’t in more than a couple of integral scenes, though his gravitas is undeniable. 

As for the campaign itself, I do think Treyarch deserves a lot of credit for always trying to do new things you might not regularly associate with corridor-shooter Call of Duty. The original Black Ops felt like a revitalisation for what a story could look like within the franchise, while Cold War wasn’t afraid to holster the hardware in favour of tense, slow burn bouts of espionage that really sell the Mission: Impossible-like feel, the mission’s stakes, and the importance of the team. While I felt at points Black Ops 6 had a crisis of identity, with how radically it’d leap between mission structures and concepts, I was never bored. 

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Whether I was breaking into a government blacksite beneath a cocktail event held by governor Bill Clinton, or grifting my way into the high rollers lounge at a decadent Italian casino, I felt just as formidable in these moments as I did with gun in hand. Of course, when I did have a gun in hand, I was treated to the industry-leading gunplay the series has built its empire on. It’s as tight as ever, and made only more dynamic thanks to omnidirectional movement, the big new game changing feature of this iteration. Granted, its impact is likely to be felt more across its multiplayer suite, though I certainly felt snappy and fresh during the campaign even though, for reasons I can’t ascertain, the feature received no onboarding at all. 

All of the quiet moments in between took place at The Rook, Adler’s off-grid safehouse in Bulgaria that he cryptically leads the team towards early on. A stunning, picturesque mansion stradling an oceanside cliff, The Rook affords the player with momentary reprieves to chat with the team, solve black light riddles, and upgrade gear and perks in a very multiplayer-coded fashion. In fact, in any other campaign, Treyarch’s ability to pepper in core tenets from both multiplayer and Zombies would have fallen flat. In a game so driven by science-fiction, it manages to fit like a glove while serving as subconscious onboarding for the game’s long-life, evergreen modes.

With nearly countless studios devoting resources to it, it’s never surprising when the Call of Duty games look as good as they do. The cinematics, in particular, are rendered with lifelike fidelity, and although the in-engine action doesn’t necessarily quite measure up, it’s still one of the better looking games on the market every single year. Once again, the environment artists have gone to work creating some of the most detailed play spaces, kicking off the adventure with the stirring image of smoke plumes climbing into the clouds as Iraqi oil wells burn into the night. I can never quite expect the places these Black Ops campaigns will take us, and while photographing Clinton on-stage with bought-off senators or storming Saddam’s palace should be the peak of how buck wild it gets, I do think Black Ops fans will love a few nods to the older games. With a few instances of stuttering and muddied textures in the busier cutscenes, it perhaps isn’t as optimised as it usually is, however I’d say the frame rate held firm in the moments that mattered.  

After the misery that was Modern Warfare III’s launch last year, this campaign felt like a particularly confident foot forward for a franchise under new rule. Not only does it function as the best five-hour onboarding for Call of Duty’s multiplayer ever, it delivers the bonkers twists you’d expect from a Black Ops, a fun cast to rally behind, and it’s rooted in just enough real-world politics to serve as a compelling “what if?”

The post Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Campaign Review – A Mind-Bending Ride appeared first on Press Start.

Last year, Skull Island: Rise of Kong released to a Gollum-like reception, ultimately being deemed a buggy, half-baked mess. The Monsterverse, which has lurched tepidly through a number of films and TV adaptations so far, has turned around and declared that it’s trying again, unconvincingly, with Kong: Survival Instinct. Set shortly after Godzilla vs. Kong, the game deals with the destructive left behind after the titanic battle, similar to how the Monarch series tail ends Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla, told through a boots on the ground Metroidvania-inspired platformer.

Unlike Rise of Kong, which cast you as the greatest ape of all as he battles all kinds of bugs, native to Skull Island and otherwise, Kong: Survival Instinct shelves the titular titan for virtually the entirety of the game’s runtime. Instead, as the stodgy hero, David Martin, you explore the ruins of a decimated city in search of your daughter. 

Due to my eyes glazing over repeatedly while playing, I cannot speak at all to the story’s place within the larger canon of the Monsterverse. I can’t expect it’s going to really excite fans of the series, especially as the oft-spectacular kaiju battles are relegated to set dressing in the background. Although we’d been burned before, I can’t help but feel all of the action happening in between what remains of the city’s skyline would have made for a more spectacular King Kong title. 

Kong: Survival Instinct plays like a bog standard action-platformer that incorporates several elements of Metroidvania-like exploration. Sifting through the wreckage of the razed metropolis gradually grants you more extreme means of digging deeper into the ruins. Whether it’s a sledgehammer to open a passage to lower floors, or a grappling line that can be used as an improvised rope swing or winch cable to pull far-off items nearer, I did find the game’s progression through its stages to be one of its few strengths. 

The map design, however, feels extremely confused. It’s uninspired, largely repetitive, and what’s there feels like a developer’s attempt to slap together map elements, like drop ladders, that are fun without caring whether it’s believable. The game is rife with strange, distracting choices like this that constantly took me out. 

The combat in Survival Instinct is similarly miserable, especially if you’re stuck in encounters with relatively large patrol groups. Defending yourself hand-to-hand feels like a manageable task, it’s when guns enter the question that things can get a bit frustrating. Once you’re surrounded, which can happen quickly as enemies grapple and switch places with you, you open yourself up to a quick death. You can parry and dash to avoid knife jabs and bullets respectively, however the controls are too sluggish and inconsistent to ever feel in total control. You pick up a pistol yourself which can be a difference maker in desperate times, however I do think the game manages to make bullets feel scarce—yet, when you’re in need, it’s always made available in crates nearby to the locked doors and generators that need a well-placed bullet to proceed. 

This, I feel, negates the need to be frugal as the game tends to bail you out, and I feel the same is true of the mechanical parts needed to repair things throughout the world. It’s never really essential to stray far from the critical path, which kind of feels antithetical to the genre. In Survival Instinct, the Metroidvania of it all really only necessitates backtracking rather than genuine exploration. 

As you move from area to area by splicing together compiled audio files to lure titans like Kong and Abaddon, an enormous source of nightmares for arachnophobes everywhere, to the scene for a relatively exciting chase sequence. In a game with slicker controls, I’d remember these encounters for the right reasons. Sadly, they’re often marred by cheap deaths caused by getting snagged on geometry and awful checkpointing.  

As perplexing as the map design choices can be, the environments in Survival Instinct aren’t the worst. By setting up and sticking to everything it sets up early, like the shining glint on items of interest like padlocks and anchor points, there’s a readability to the environment design that’s pretty admirable. I also like how, depending on which titan has dominion over the district you’re in, buildings might be covered in spiderwebs or a viscous, purple sludge which, in turn, feeds into the problem-solving. Survival Instinct mightn’t have the irredeemably bad, wide-eyed, unblinking Kong of last year’s Skull Island, but ugly is as ugly does. It isn’t all bad, of course, the kaiju designs themselves, as sparingly as they appear, are a clear highlight, while the remainder of this world and inhabitants scream ‘generic’.

When you consider Godzilla, who is name dropped in this game several times and never appears, has one of the most iconic, instantly recognisable war cries in cinema, the fact this game’s sound design is so dull is a crying shame. Chatter on either side of battle is repetitive and delivered so wooden, it makes Henry Cavill look like a true Thespian. The primary frustration of dying mid-fight came not from having to start over but from having to hear the dialogue again. 

When I stop to consider why this game exists, it’s hard to land on a single good reason. Monarch proved a good kaiju story can focus on the aftermath, however the story chops here can’t carry what, otherwise, is a listless, uninspired Metroidvania game that inexplicably shelves its key attraction in favour of world-building nobody could say, hand-to-heart, they prefer over two big monsters beating the suitcase out of each other.

The post Kong: Survival Instinct Review – Monkey Business appeared first on Press Start.

This spooky season, which brings with it Fear the Spotlight’s release as the first in a very cool slate out of Blumhouse, feels like quite a culmination of a tremendous year for horror video games. After sampling the game’s horrific opening chapter back at Summer Game Fest, I was left wanting more. Fear the Spotlight really does feel like a tribute to so many of the classic games that paved the way for it, from its lo-fi, dithering graphics that leave enough doubt in your mind to jump at shadows, to its tactile, hands-on puzzle solving. 

Fear the Spotlight, which is an expanded upon iteration of its release only a year ago, begins on a stormy night as Vivian, the player-character, and Amy break into Sunnyside High to perform a seance in the school’s library. Quite predictably, things go haywire as the supernatural descends upon their night, leading to far more trouble than a simple breaking and entering should. Amy is found in a fugue state before she’s drawn in by a powerful light, forcing Vivian to descend deeper into the belly of the school, which has cracked upon a portal to its past which, it seems, has plenty of skeletons in its closet to unearth after a fire decimated the campus in 1991. 

Although they spend relatively no screen time together, it is the burgeoning relationship of the two schoolgirl leads that drives events forward. While I won’t divulge where the game goes, having seen where the original release rolled credits, I do think the direction of the expanded content is a genius move and undeniably builds out other characters within the game’s lore while servicing the story at large. The entire game might only be four hours, however not one, singular second is wasted.

Unlike Crow Country, another low-fi survival horror game that released this year, which gives its player the option to leave combat at the door entirely, Fear the Spotlight sensibly decided against turning Vivian into a super soldier who mows down ghosts and ghouls while trawling the locker bays. Although she’s resourceful, she is young, in over her head, and she’s absolutely terrified, which I think is evident through several of the design choices in the game—particularly the one to not give Vivian any offensive firepower, whatsoever. 

The character’s fear and vulnerability is integral to not only the game’s overarching themes, it also plays into the tense, hide and seek encounters with the fearsome titular antagonist, Spotlight. Leaving embers in his wake, he has sure but uncertain ties to the 1991 fire. He’s a tall, slender figure with an ominous, oscillating light for a head, which strikes a horrifying picture whenever he shows unexpectedly, forcing you to sneak behind and underneath desks toward the nearest door. Seeing the ashen ghouls, who I presume are symbolic of the students lost, peering around corners and watching you is unsettling as it is, but Spotlight’s sudden and heart-pounding appearances teeter at the periphery of being iconic. 

Where other games might equip you with herbs or bandages to patch your cuts up with, Fear the Spotlight once again leans full bodied into Vivian’s anxiety which can spike during these panicked chases. All it takes is a quick puff of her one-and-done inhalers with each hit serving as a calming cure-all for these moments of dread. 

She’s able to make use of her book smarts to solve several of the game’s riddles which, in keeping with genre tropes, often involve scouring the immediate areas for key items before backtracking and piecing the whole picture together. I enjoyed all of the puzzles in Fear the Spotlight, even if they do lean ever-so-slightly towards being too simple, there’s a satisfying flow that sees each problem Vivian faces snowball into the next, and it really helps keeping a great pace up. 

As I mentioned in the opening, there’s a wonderful, tactile feel to this game’s world and its objects. You mightn’t be able to thoroughly examine and turn items in-hand, however there’s an interactivity to everything that kept me locked in throughout. Whether it’s prying nails out of boarded windows, thumbing open the latch on a toolbox, or dialling in a phone number on a pay phone, you’re charged with every input and it’s a cool, albeit simple, touch. 

Despite an obvious, and deliberate, lack of fidelity due to the developer’s pursuit of the in vogue retro, lo-fi aesthetic, everything still has a surprising amount of detail. Obviously it carries with it the warts of the style, with plenty of clipping and blocky textures, however it’s one that lends itself so well to horror. The environment design is excellent, with the school itself getting extra credit for twisting its everyday halls into something dark and worthy of the tragedy that the school faculty swept under the rug. Darkness and shadow is used to great effect, as the dithering, the grain effect that helps cement the dated appearance Fear the Spotlight is shooting for, helps in creating optical illusions. 

Although there’s no real danger through so much of the game, you still second guess what the hard-to-see hallucination at the end of the hall could be. I also love that the game doesn’t resort to jump scares to unsettle its audience, relying solely on a slow, steady build to keep the player on edge. 

Unlike some of its contemporaries, Sunnyside High’s map isn’t an open one. This creates a feeling of linearity throughout, which itself feels like a guiding hand showing the way. By solving small, self-contained zones one at a time, it minimises the laborious, time-consuming backtracking that often plagues games like this, but it certainly shines a spotlight, so to speak, on both the game’s overall lack of difficulty and brevity. 

Fear the Spotlight might only clock in at around four hours, but it’s so well-paced and its puzzles, for the most part, feel as though they make sense in-world, which cements Sunnyside High, in my mind, as a horror spot that read the brief and passed with flying colours. It’s staggering what a team of two has been able to achieve with Fear the Spotlight, it’s a sublime survival-horror title that delivers in story and tone. 

Along with being a tremendous first blow for Blumhouse’s slate of smaller-scoped horror games, Fear the Spotlight could very well be my horror game of the year. I knew there was a reason I kept out of the library when I wasn’t to school, nothing good ever comes of it. 

The post Fear The Spotlight Review – Extracurricular Paranormal Activity appeared first on Press Start.

This past week at PAX Australia, not only did get to check out a heap of great looking indies, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Graeme Struthers, one of the co-founders of Devolver Digital.

You’d likely know the publisher from their off-the-wall pressers which have been a staple of June for the last handful of years, however the Devolver Digital journey is one that dates back fifteen years.

After breaking out with Hotline Miami, the publisher has gone on to enjoy great success in the indie scene, particularly with some of our homegrown talent having let loose games like Cult of the Lamb and The Plucky Squire.

Although Devolver has been around for a long time, things really break out with Hotline Miami, a game designed to inflame and provoke with its hyper violent action. Do you think this was the birth of the Devolver “attitude era”?

GS: Maybe externally, yes, that possibly was the thing that got us more noticed than we had been up until that point. Inside, no. It sounds a bit strange to say it like that, to us it was just a cool game we were working on with Dennaton. 

Sometimes it’s with hindsight you can look back, even until recently we’d all forgot about the issue here until PlayStation updated the game and put it on PlayStation 5 and it brought things back. 

There’s a great sense of humour about Devolver Digital, in fact its core to the company’s identity at this stage, where did the idea come from to be the most unserious publisher there is?

GS: It’s not an idea, it’s who we are I’m afraid to say. We all think we’ve got the best jobs going and we actually get to do the things we love doing so I think that maybe comes through. 

I don’t think you can take what we do too seriously. We work hard, and we do what we do.

But games should be a fun art form, right?

GS: They should be. And also, when you come to these events and you meet the people who play the games…

Or people who are getting married at your booth.

GS: People that are getting married at our booth, yes, it’s quite playful. 

I do love the showcases year in year out, featuring Nina Struthers, how far in advance do you have to start pulling those crazy productions together?

GS: I’m not making this up, I’ve no clue. I don’t know if people would believe me, but I don’t see them until you see them. I kind of steer away from it, whenever it’s talked about internally. 

But I know that Robbie and Nigel will be having ideas now for what they’re going to do next year. But, to some extent, I guess they must be aware of what’s happening in the general industry, as well.

It’s quite topical often, I think. 

Obviously it’s been a challenging year for a lot of publishers and studios out there, what is the metric for success at Devolver especially when dealing with often bespoke, indie experiences?

GS: I don’t know, let’s use a good example from this year with Children of the Sun. That’s a game that’s been in development for nearly four years from a solo dev, Rene. And not only was he doing that, he was doing things on the side while working on the game. 

So, for us, the fact that the game has come out and it’s making money means that he’s making good money, which means he gets to go again. 

That’s the kind of thing I think we get excited about is that developers become independent, and there’s many people we’ve worked with who’ve gone on to do really, really well. 

We kind of think we work for the developer rather than the other way around. 

Devolver has been tremendous at helping launch new developers to new heights, this includes our own Massive Monster and All Possible Futures—we even see Cult of the Lamb’s presence here today as a feature for the con—how enriching is it to be a part of these team’s journeys?

GS: Where we are now, PAX Australia, I think we started coming here back in 2017. This show’s been really kind to us, in terms of fans, but we’ve also met a number of developers. We’ve already released, I think, four games whose origin is here and have another two in development. 

This is a really good event, and we love to come here. 

They say you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, but are there any games Devolver passed on way back when that you went on to regret?

GS: Oh yeah, oh yeah. One game, Astroneer, was pitched to us, I dunno, ten years ago. It was one of those ones where we generally thought: “Yeah, this is pretty cool, but we’re not sure we understand this.”

We never had any pretense of knowing the world of live service and we passed on it, partly because we didn’t really have the money, which made us a little bit nervous. 

Seven years later, we acquired System Era Softworks. And in between times we’d see them at events and the exchange would be “How’s it going?” “Really well.” “Great.” 

There’s three, or four, others that have gone on to be huge. But we talk about this a lot, we don’t know, we only know that we want to be involved and be apart of this game’s journey, but we didn’t know if that’s game’s going to blow up.

Licensed games aren’t what they used to be, what was the driving force behind Big Fan?

GS: When you talk to some of the developers you work with, and we ourselves as game fans, we ask: “If you could work on anything, what would it be?”

And we got into that conversation with a few devs, like what if you could get the He-Man license, those were the conversations we were having a couple of years back, but we didn’t think of that as a business. 

Then we had a subsidiary called Good Shepherd, and it was just struggling and it didn’t really have an identity. So we got a new guy in to run it, Lincoln Herschberger, and then suddenly a lot of those conversations started to come back. 

We’ve got a load of indie devs, and we really like the idea of working on IP. Creating original content is its own challenge. 

We also looked at game IP that we could bring back, like Monkey Island. We came out of that and thought the idea strong enough to create a label. Next week, we announce one of the projects* and we’ve got a few more there we’ll be talking about in the near future. 

*  This game would go on to be Tron: Catalyst, developed by Mike Bithell, in partnership with Disney. 

It feels like Devolver and Big Fan both still occupy largely what is an indie/AA space, is there a reason you felt the need to draw a line between the two?

GS: I think so, I think we see Devolver as a company that can do eight, nine, ten games a year. Push beyond that and I feel it becomes almost too much, like we’re just around all the time. 

And Big Fan is its own label, has its own crew, they have their own editorial view on what they want to do, so we’re excited. But then it also allows them to do maybe three, or four, things a year and then over time build that up to six, seven, eight. 

What’s one IP you’d love to work with?

GS: Me? So, if I could get anything? Vagrant Story was a game published by Square right at the end of PlayStation One. 

I love that game, and I’d love to come back to that universe. And I’ve tried, I actually knocked on the door of Square Enix but I didn’t get an answer. 

So Vagrant Story would be mine. 

Your DICE Europe bio suggests you’ve put considerable time into unearthing London’s best beer, had a chance to put any effort into our local brands yet?

GS: Oh, yeah, I love it here. I’m a coffee fan so you’ve got that, and the food here is fantastic. 

And you’ve got lots of good beer, I’ve just tried Pacific Ale at the moment. 

Have you had a chance to wander the show floor and scout for any future Devolver gems?

GS: We’ve seen a few bits and pieces, our head of development is here, one of our senior producers is here. So they’ve been out and about. 

We, ourselves, went to Play Now with VicScreen, that was awesome. We’re quite a small industry, as publishers we’re all quite matey, and I think we all saw things there where I wouldn’t be surprised if three, four, five things get picked up. 

It’s just a really vibrant scene in the industry. 

The post We Spoke With Devolver Digital Founder Graeme Struthers About Their Big Fan Label And The Aussie Scene appeared first on Press Start.

This morning, Xbox held another Partner Preview, which is geared generally at showcasing Xbox’s third-party partnerships by providing updates on things we already knew about as well as a few surprises.

For those who didn’t want to get up around the 4AM AEDT mark, here’s a round up of everything that was shown.

FBC: Firebreak Is The Multiplayer Game Set In The Control Universe

Coming out sometime next year, FBC: Firebreak was announced and is the long-awaited multiplayer game set in the shared universe occupied by Control and Alan Wake.

It’s set to serve up a three-player co-op experience and, even better, it’s coming to Game Pass.

Chronos: The New Dawn Is A New Horror Game From Bloober Team

Silent Hill proved to be quite the redemption arc for Bloober Team, who’d had middling releases up until it reassured the world they’ve got the goods.

Their next game, Chronos: The New Dawn, delves is a haunting sci-fi world and promises a little time travel flavour, which I love.

Subnautica 2 Is Getting An Early Access Release Next Year

I didn’t sea this one coming. After finding plenty of success with the original, it was perhaps always a given we’d see a sequel to Subnautica.

The game is coming to early access next year for Xbox Series X/S, PC as well as launching on Game Pass.

We Got A Great New Look At Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

There’s more of these kinds of games now than I can count, and their names are so similar I’m just kind of befuddled.

But alas, it’s another action-RPG soulslike that has staggeringly nice art direction, titanic bosses, and a delicious looking stagger mechanic that should help it shine amidst a lot of company. It’s set to launch next year and is a day one Game Pass release.

Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii Is More Skull & Bones Than Skull & Bones Ever Was

During this morning’s Xbox Partner Preview, we got a pretty good look at the new Like a Dragon game’s naval combat that’ll make you feel like Captain Jack on the high seas.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii launches February 21, 2025.

Visit The Lake House Next Week With New Alan Wake II DLC

Just in time for Halloween, this Alan Wake II DLC certainly appears to be darker than the Night Springs content we got back in June.

Phasmophobia Is Set To Spook Up Your Halloween

After being an online co-op fixture throughout the pandemic years, Phasmophobia is set to launch October 29th for Xbox consoles and spook your All Hallow’s Eve right up.

Wheel World Looks Wheelie Good

If this game doesn’t make you want to just hit the open fields on a mountain bike, I don’t know what will. Along with its distinct animation style, Wheel World is set to feature plenty of bike customisation as you set off to save the world.

Get set to pedal early 2025.

Mistfall Hunter Is A PvPvE Extraction RPG, Can That Be Right?

With a melding of genres that is surely the first of its kind, Mistfall Hunter is set to have all of the Nordic-inspired creatures, loot, and third-person action you can handle when it launches next year.

Eternal Strands Looks Like The Spiritual Successor To Immortals We Didn’t Know We Wanted

With towering foes to topple and elemental magic buzzing at your fingertips, Eternal Strands looks like a fantasy action game to watch. Despite its name, it does not belong in the strand sub-genre of games popularised(?) by Kojima.

It is, however, coming to Game Pass at launch early next year.

Edens Zero Is A New Manga-Inspired Action Adventure

Look, this is a blind spot for me, however the streets are saying this has been a long time coming and vibes are, generally, pretty good.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire Looks Like The Cat’s Meow

With its old-timey Disney, but strictly not Disney, look, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is right up there on lists of games I can’t wait to get my hands on next year. It’s supremely stylish and moves to the beat of jazz.

Blindfire Seems Like A Shot In The Dark

Out in game preview today, Blindfire is actually a pretty novel concept. By competing with others in poorly lit arenas, you’re expected to keep an ear to the ground in an attempt to survive.

Animal Well Is Out Now On Xbox

The little indie that could, and a personal contender for Game of the Year, Animal Well is out today for Xbox consoles.

The post Everything Announced At The October 2024 Xbox Partner Preview appeared first on Press Start.

Although it’s still something that’s debated, there’s no question in my mind that video games are an art form. Some more than others, of course, however there’s a place that many come to occupy where their job is to kindle imagination and draw emotion from its player as though it were a bloodletting ritual. After Gris, and how it traversed the profound impact of grief, Nomada Studio has gone back to work to ensure their second project, Neva, is as much a doorway to devastation as their first.

Neva is a beautiful story, told primarily through its arresting audiovisual presentation, about the ever-strengthening bond between Alba and the titular wolf cub who journey, protecting one another, in a world on the brink of decay. Princess Mononoke feels like a lay-up in terms of comparison, especially with regards to design, however I feel the Studio Ghibli classic also shares thematic threads with Neva if you care enough to tug on and unpack them. The notion that nature is indifferent, often cruel and that living in total harmony with it might be a pipe dream is something of a through line for both. Neva is a game developed largely throughout the pandemic, so it is no surprise its world is a brutal one on its knees.

While I continue to question whether Neva quite exceeds the emotional summit of its predecessor, I’m at least glad it attempts to gamify its themes and deeper meanings a bit more. While both games are beautiful experiences from front-to-back, Neva folding combat into the formula Gris otherwise perfected on the first try is clearly welcome. On top of wonderfully designed puzzles and eking out microdoses of tension through titanic confrontations with mountainous, metaphoric tokens of Alba’s journey, being able to brandish a sword against the corrupted remnants of your dying world adds a little power to this fantasy.

Seeming to serve the cinematic feel of the game more than anything, Neva’s swordplay never really challenged me throughout the game’s adventurous, albeit modest, five hours. Even more critical, it holds back on its most interesting hooks until it’s too late, resulting in an exciting homestretch that makes the opening feel a bit limp by comparison.

Where others might have overcomplicated things, adding parries, heavy swings, and stamina bars in the pursuit of the oft-fruitful Soulslike tag, Nomada kept things exceedingly simple for their first run at combat. Alba might draw her sword with a flourish worthy of a practised duelist, however, her limited repertoire, which would prove dull in a longer game, leaves a simple, one-note attack, a downward plunge, and a dodge roll on offer for a bulk of proceedings. As the seasons roll by, Neva will mature into a magnificent, powerful wolf who evolves from travel companion to battle mate, as her paranatural abilities service both the game’s combat scenarios and late-game environment puzzles.

For those after a bit of extra credit when combing through Neva’s dying world, there are collectibles that can be found in the form of flower buds that’ll bloom with life once in Alba’s presence. A lot of them are straightforward and only require the player to veer ever so slightly from the expected path, though there are a handful that require a reasonable mastery of Alba’s platforming nous to reach. As in Gris, other hidden achievements task the player with completing small objectives throughout the adventure, whether it’s ensuring Neva, a growing cub, has had her fill of fallen fruit or startling all of the hard-to-spot birds perched upon snowy branches in winter. In a game where the story is largely inferred by the player due to a lack of spoken or written dialogue, these small moments felt like a subtle means of character building to me.

Neva marks the second coming together for artist Conrad Roset, who serves as the game’s creative lead, and fellow Spaniards Berlinist, the band behind the tender, heartrending arrangement that pairs with the game’s action better than fish and chips. As the narrative moves between seasons, Roset is able to experiment with and use specific colours so effectively, as the autumnal fall colours lead to Alba’s struggle, represented by bold, blinding reds that fill the sky before giving way to a blinding, white winter.

And while the world itself is quite beautiful, the designs of Alba, Neva, and the plagued creatures that wander it are incredibly Studio Ghibli-coded, it’s hard not to believe it’s an homage at least in part. The purity of Neva’s white coat, and her magnificent antlers, pop against the frequently colour burst backdrops, and even more so against the tortured, inky abominations that contort and shapeshift before you. So much illustration fences its colour in with bold outlines and, thankfully, that isn’t the case here.

It’s all crafted gorgeously with an express control of water colours and their painterly ways. Without spoiling it, there’s one portion of the game, about three quarters through, where Roset’s breathtaking direction for environment design feeds into both the combat and puzzle craft, it’s one of many incomparable five minute bursts that cemented Neva, in my mind, as a fascinating work of art. I can’t overemphasise how much of the game’s emotional impact stems from the marriage of Roset’s art and Berlinist’s virtuoso score. I’ve spent many hours streaming the Gris soundtrack, and I expect Neva’s will prove to be just as much an ear worm.

Although the game gets in and out pretty quickly, it lasts just long enough that its simple systems don’t get the chance to grow tiresome while its art, evocative music, and bond between Alba and her endearing wolf cub shoulder the burden of wringing out and exhausting everything from the player. By the end, as the credits began to roll, I was a glassy-eyed mess who knew full well I’d just experienced something special.

The post Neva Review – The Wolf In Watercolour appeared first on Press Start.

With another PAX Australia in the books, we’d be remiss to not spotlight many of the special indie games we got to try out on the show floor. Developers come from near and far to seize their moment at the nation’s biggest consumer event for video games. 

In years past, we’ve enjoyed looking at games like The Dungeon Experience and darkwebSTREAMER, however with neither of those games present, it left the floor open for a select few to steal focus. 

Here are the coolest indies I saw while walking the PAX Australia show floor.

Key Fairy

Key Fairy was damn near close to my game of show, thanks in large part to its alluring hand-drawn art and penchant for folkloric pacifism.

It’s one part bullet hell action-adventure, one part Undertale as you avoid enemies, reap their fallen stars, and talk them into submission. A very strange, fascinating project that’s very Devolver Digital-coded, which means it speaks to me. 

Wishlist here. 

Corporeal 

I absolutely adored the brief handful of minutes I got to spend with Corporeal, a paranormal mystery game where you’re piecing together a haunted photo album after you’re left as the sole survivor of unexplained events during the nineties in New Zealand. 

The controls were a lot and took a bit of getting used to as you peruse the game’s retro analog interfaces to manipulate reels and print photographs needed to piece together your cursed family history. 

It’s like Immortality through another, much spookier, lens. 

Wishlist here.

My Arms Are Longer Now

A terrifically funny physics-puzzle game that sees you slither your enormous snakelike arm around in an effort to pull off the perfect heist and snatch anything that isn’t bolted down. 

It gives me Untitled Goose Game vibes in that it places an emphasis on stealth, except instead of honking you’re helping yourself to people’s pockets. 

Wishlist and try out the demo here. 

Primordial Legends: Hollow Hero

Hollow Hero is a returning feature from previous expos, and it’s looking even better having enjoyed another year of polish. 

Wombats are harder than a cat’s head and, as such, I do love the choice out of Australia’s gallery of remaining native fauna. Thanks to Wombat Stew, a storybook favourite of my kids, there’s a cultural cache that Toybox can cash in on. 

Wishlist here.

Game Over

As someone who loved the quirkiness of Knuckle Sandwich, a game which blended turn-based roleplaying game elements, like those found in old school Final Fantasy games, with bespoke mini-games like in Mario Party, Game Over is for me. 

It’s not a roleplaying game in the traditional sense with the ‘R’ standing for rhythm this time around. Created by one developer over the course of five long years, I get the sense this musical take on a battle-tested genre might be a breath of fresh air. 

Wishlist here.

Dungeons and Dining Tables

After trying Tales of the Shire at Summer Game Fest, I’ve come to harbour an appreciation for games that lean whole-bodied into the realm of cosy. 

Trawl procedurally-generated dungeons as a brave axolotl in an effort to improve both the decor and morale around Kindlerest. It’s a game that hammers home the importance of community, a worthwhile message to hitch a wagon to. 

Wishlist here.

420 Blaze It 2

Look, it’s dank memes funnelled through what appears to be a shooter that plays like F.E.A.R. 

What’s not to love? It’s definitely geared at those who like to sample the devil’s lettuce, among other things, but underneath the “poggerz” of it all there appears to be a surprisingly competent shooter here? 

Wishlist here.

Doomtide

The thing that’s most immediately striking about Doomtide is its decision to filter its voxel art models through what I’m calling its mostly monochromatic “newspaper filter” because the game is black, white, and red all over. 

Beneath its alluring art is a turn-based role playing game boasting hundreds of heroes to recruit, and an entire flooded city to rebuild all in the pursuit of sailing the seas to pillage the wealth and power of anyone unfortunate enough to get in your way. 

Wishlist here.

Rose and Locket

As outlaw, Rose, you traverse the Underwest in an effort to rescue your daughter’s soul from the locket it resides in. Unlock once-lost gunslinger abilities to make short work of enemies in this action-adventure platformer gem. 

I absolutely adore the game’s graphic novel aesthetic, and the Underwest’s colourful, damned realms remind me a little bit of Guacamelee, with a small dash of Samurai Jack.

Wishlist here and take on Wrath in the short demo. 

Squat Ops

Squat Ops is a fascinating collision of ideas, taking the espionage action of Metal Gear Solid and marrying it to the fitness-focused player input of something like Ring Fit. 

Using either a webcam or a pair of AirPods, the game recognises every body weight squat you execute and converts your burnt calories into movement for Hart, the game’s protagonist. 

This is definitely one to look out for if you’re hoping to tone your legs and ass while getting your game on.

Speaking of that ass, get it over here to wishlist.  

Me, You and Kaiju?

There’s nothing more fun than frantically flailing your arms in a VR headset, so why not destroy a city while you do it! Developed by Sleepy Coast Games, the game allows you to take the reins of a giant kaiju throwing cars, trees and anything not bolted down at a team of four military opponents whose main goal is to blow you up. 

With helicopters, tanks and tactical vehicles, take down the kaiju before time is up in order to save the city from destruction.

Wishlist here.

Box Knight

Corporate life is a major drainer. I know, I’ve been there. But when your toxic workplace has turned the average employee into a creature set to wreak havoc, it’s your job to put them back in their place. 

A roguelike developed by We Made A Thing Studios, you’ll don armour and weapons made of the finest cardboard as you delve deeper into the office as you seek the CEO, attempting to dethrone them and restore order to your mundane workplace.

Not only can you wishlist here, there’s a demo for you to try out right now. 

Beyond These Stars

Almost reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s DiscWorld, you land on the back of a majestic Space Whale, seeking a symbiotic relationship as you build a city and travel through the endless void of space. 

You’ll seek to manage the needs of your ‘Peeps’ while maintaining your relationship with Kewa, constructing living spaces and seeking out more resources as your population expands. You’ll also meet strange new lifeforms along your journey, who will open up opportunities for advanced technology and abilities to trade. 

Your co-existence with Kewa is key to continuing both of your journeys through space.

Wishlist here.

The Drifter

If John Carpenter, Michael Crichton and George Miller got together in the 80s and made a point-and-click game, you’d end up with The Drifter, a thrilling experience developed by Powerhoof. 

As the drifter Mick, you bear witness to a violent murder and then pursued into your death, only to reawaken moments before you are killed. As you seek to clear yourself from being framed for murder, you’ll be haunted by your past and by the sense that something from the other side returned with you when you came back to life.

Wishlist and give the game a go right here.

The post The Best Looking PAX AUS 2024 Indie Games That You Need To Wishlist appeared first on Press Start.

What excited me the most when I got to hear about Avowed back at Summer Game Fest was that it’d serve the player with plenty of choice and agency over both how to tackle combat as well as shape the narrative. Over the PAX Australia weekend, we got to sit down for an hour with Avowed, long ahead of its February release, to get a feel for how it would empower the person on the sticks. 

The key way I was able to discern small differences and how they’d seemingly branch the story was by tackling the small quest on offer twice, opting for different outcomes, and a different build, on each run. 

The quest itself revolved around searching a seemingly dank ruin for a lost expedition team who’d been sent in search of a relic, said to be forged from the shin bone of one of Eora’s deities. The team confirmed to me it wasn’t a critical path quest, which admittedly impressed me even more because if we’re getting side content this good, I think we’re ultimately in for a treat with the final product. 

After patching up Caedmon, a self-admitted and wounded virgin left behind by his expedition team, Sargamis quickly becomes the central, and most curious, figure of this jaunt. His staunch devotion to Eothas, represented by an enormous status in the middle of the room, serves as the origin for his plan to reanimate the god. His matter-of-fact monologuing, coupled with his brilliant gold appearance, gave me a sense of unease about him. I’d ultimately buy-in to his needs and set off into the collapsed cavern in search of the missing team and the sought-after “splinter”. 

Although Avowed offers a classless combat set up, which means you’re never locked into one particular approach, I was able to choose from three predetermined builds they’d pieced together for the purpose of the demo. Of the three on the table, barbarian, mage, and ranger, I opted for mage. At the risk of being a bit “squishy” so to speak, I found the lure of dual-wielding two wands to be too exciting to resist. 

While there’s no doubt the game is more accessible from a mechanical standpoint than the Pillars of Eternity titles, I still felt a little overwhelmed by the amount of systems on show. I expect it to seem less daunting when starting anew and the game is able to onboard you, though for the purpose of the demo I feel like I didn’t really scratch the surface of what I could do. I set off into the inventory only once to swap my grimoire for a second wand, but didn’t spend any meaningful time in there otherwise. 

The demo presented three or four main skirmishes where you’d fight spiderlings, skeletal soldiers and archers, as well as a mini-boss for the short quest in the form of a godless executioner. Like many others, I didn’t have a lot of hope for the game’s combat based off early trailers, it felt dated and lacking in tactile feedback. It reminded me of the worst parts of Morrowind, and how landing blows in combat became guesswork. Thankfully, Avowed has made leaps and bounds in this area, not only is the combat pretty responsive, it arms you with so many tools to get the job done. Things like the radial dial felt a little out of reach when in the frying pan, however I felt powerful enough with two wands in hand and a few spells and necessary potions keyed to the d-pad. 

Having dabbled with both magic and brute force, in the form of the ranger’s dual-pistols and bow, I felt both approaches were as viable as the other. Throughout the quest I had Kai, one of the game’s many companions, with me for the ride, and, for an AI, he held his own during the tougher battles. 

I’m very excited to see how much more refinement the team can eke out with the time they’ve got left, it seems as though the delay to February, which had nothing to do with the game’s state and was a matter of portfolio management from Xbox, might end up being something of a blessing. 

The level design felt pleasantly sprawling, as well. The caverns offered several paths through and held more than a few secrets, as I learned on my second jog through. But not only do Obsidian manage to make this cavern system, seemingly non-essential to the main plot, feel grand and open for adventure, it’s also stunning from a design perspective. If there’s anybody that’s cooking with Avowed, it’s certainly the whole damn art team.  

Although I only got a look at one small section of these Living Lands, I was admittedly taken aback by the sense of scope. Granted, the beautiful vistas on display were unreachable within the quest’s context, however I still stopped to take in all of the splendour, from the colours used to ensure the flora pops on-screen or the most collapsed parts of the ruin that allowed just a few bands on sunlight to crack through from the world outside. Of course, this build was running on a PC as big as my car, so the jury is still out on how it’ll perform on consoles. 

The only part of the presentation I wasn’t entirely sold on was the user interface. It’s extremely busy, it was hard to read without the needed onboarding from the game’s first chapters, and it’s undeniably gaudy. Knowing Obsidian, I expect there are means to customise just how much info pops up on the screen at any given time, but if that isn’t the case and numbers are destined to be flashing in your face for the game’s entirety, I fear the ugliness of the UI could come to overshadow the game’s otherwise gorgeous art.

After retrieving the relic and surviving the desperate onslaught that followed, I returned to Sargamis to aid him in attempting to reanimate the god before him. In a sad turn of events, nothing happened and Sargamis sunk into a crisis of faith with a heartbreaking monologue that had me feeling for the guy—even if he did use me like a tool in the moments prior. 

Using intellect and other conversational skills, I was able to talk him around and convince him to return to town to help the people in need. Whether this’ll ensure he turns up at a later time remains to be seen, but I certainly got the sense I’d see him again. This possible finale exists in stark opposition to the second run I had, which saw me unearth the stashed bodies of the expedition team and outright accuse the golden godlike as a murderer—a claim he didn’t deny—and felled him in battle. 

For all of the concerns I had after Avowed’s first couple of showings, I’m relieved to have had the opportunity to go hands-on with the game and dispel pretty much every worry I had. The freedoms the game’s gifts to its player, especially in terms of combat and story craft, feels exciting to me. If the aim of this demo was to determine how the game feels, given time wasn’t afforded to dive deep into what makes it all tick, then I’d consider it a critical quest after all. 

Avowed launches on February 18th 2025 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.

The post Avowed Hands-On Preview – Spoiled For Choice appeared first on Press Start.

As we near the fifth anniversary of the much-celebrated Disco Elysium, a brand new independent studio has been formed in an effort to continue the trailblazing role-playing game’s legacy in developing a spiritual successor.

The studio, which has been named Longdue, has a staff of a dozen, including some who worked at ZA/UM on Disco Elysium as well as its eventually-cancelled sequel. Also along for the ride are industry veterans from both Bungie and Rockstar.

The team’s yet-to-be-named debut title, while drawing inspiration from beloved genre-stalwarts such as Planescape: Torment and obviously the original Disco Elysium, is expected to break new ground within the role-playing genre with its new ‘psychogeographic’ mechanic.

In short, and as worded in the official statement, “the line between the mind and the environment blur, colliding and transforming with each choice, leading players through an ever-evolving narrative landscape.”

As mentioned, Disco Elysium is a highly-decorated title within the cRPG space, garnering a tremendous critical reception which put it firmly in Game of the Year contention. Our review of the “Final Cut” release was scored a 9.5 out of 10:

“Disco Elysium: The Final Cut is the definitive version of an already brilliant game.

“It’s a melding pot of eccentric characters, thought-provoking social commentary, and a staggering sense of world and place within its setting. Its main narrative might fumble in its conclusion, but everything you’ll experience before that is some of the best stuff you can find in this kind of RPG.”

Needless to say, although this spiritual successor is likely years off at this point, we’re eager to see what Longdue is capable of.

The post Disco Elysium’s Spiritual Successor Is In Development At A New Studio appeared first on Press Start.

As reported at VGC, Tequila Works, the studio behind games like Rime and The Sexy Brutale, has taken to their LinkedIn to confirm that the cancellation of one of their unannounced titles would impact a small number of roles within the developer.

The statement, in full, reads:

“With deep regret, we must inform of the decision to cancel an unannounced game. This tough decision means we will be restructuring the studio to concentrate on the development of only one game. These changes will have an impact to a small number of roles at the studio.

“This is an incredibly difficult time, and our focus is to provide the support and guidance to those affected.”

A couple of years ago, Tencent became the studio’s majority shareholder, a move which Tequila at the time said would help the studio fund growth and development of brand new IP.

The post Rime Developer Tequila Works Has Confirmed Studio Layoffs After Cancelling An Unannounced Title appeared first on Press Start.

Sega has revealed that a sequel for 2014’s Alien: Isolation is in the works at Creative Assembly, the developer behind the original.

The announcement was made to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Alien: Isolation’s release, which originally came to consoles and PC before being porting to mobile devices a few years ago. The sequel is still in “early development” according to Al Hope, who’s returning to direct after helming the first game.

“Today, I’m delighted to confirm, on behalf of the team, that a sequel to Alien: Isolation is in early development.

“We look forward to sharing more details with you when we’re ready,” Hope said in the official statement.

The original game, which takes place fifteen years after Alien during an interesting time within the franchise’s canon, places you in the shoes of Amanda Ripley, Ellen’s daughter, as she sets out on a horrifying mission to unearth the truth surrounding her mother’s disappearance.

The rousing success of Alien: Romulus, which enjoyed a near $350 million cume at the box office against an $80 million budget, felt like a bit of a shot in the arm for the franchise, and news of an Alien: Isolation follow-up is guaranteed to delight fans.

The post An Alien: Isolation Sequel Has Been Officially Announced appeared first on Press Start.

Black Salt Games, developer of the critically-acclaimed eldritch fishing game Dredge, has announced overnight that the game will be making its way to mobile platforms and MacOS with an expected launch date of December 18th.

The game will be made available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store having been optimised for the latest iOS 18 and Android 15 compatible line of devices. The port will include all of the same content found in the PC and console versions with pre-orders receiving a special rod as a bonus.

Although it’ll feature support for external controllers, like the Backbone and other wireless devices, Dredge on mobile will fully support touch controls.

We reviewed Dredge favourably at launch, scoring it a 9 out of 10 and stating: “To use fishing terms, Dredge isn’t one you’d kiss and throw back. It’s the definition of a trophy catch. Its series of elegantly simple systems interplay nicely, blending seamlessly with an eerily stunning eldritch style and a moreish checklist of sea life to catch.”

News of this port is unsurprising as Dredge continues to capitalise on its success, having already released a couple of great expansions, paired up with Dave the Diver, and announced the development of a film adaptation.

You can pre-order now on the Apple App Store by clicking here, Google Play pre-registration is still a few weeks away.

The post Dredge Is Sailing Onto Mobile And Mac Platforms Later This Year appeared first on Press Start.

Note: I speak about Until Dawn in these remake impressions assuming a bit of prior understanding from the reader.

For a refresher on what the game’s about, and how it plays, read Shannon’s full review originally published in 2015 embedded below.

The latest in PlayStation’s bold strategy to re-release all of their previous generation’s slate in one way or another, at least Until Dawn has been rebuilt from the ground up with all of the PlayStation 5’s advantages in mind. The original was the game that put Supermassive on the map and I believe it’s still their magnum opus almost a decade later, as they managed to perfect the choose your own adventure branching narrative many others had tried.

Although rumours of a Firesprite-led sequel might be swirling, perhaps in an effort to complement the looming film adaptation, this particular remake has been handled by Ballistic Moon. Not content with developing a 1:1 copy of the torch bearing original, the team have taken a number of liberties with certain aspects of the title’s identity, which has led to a bit of ire from fans—perhaps justifiably so.

In an effort to modernise Until Dawn, the team has sacrificed a few of things that felt essential to the tone and atmosphere struck by the first.

While I’m far from being in the camp of people who rally for the preservation of fixed camera angles, it’s undeniable that so much of Until Dawn’s tension could be attributed to them. In fact, being locked into one viewpoint felt like a key deliverable in the game’s thoroughly drummed theme of fearing the unknown and to give that up in favour of a freer, over-the-shoulder perspective feels like a shame. For mine, character handling was the thing that required an overhaul and yet there’s still a sluggish, shopping cart feel to everyone as they slowly trudge their paths across the Blackwood Mountain.

Similar amendments have been made to the game’s presentation at large, which I feel is something of a mixed bag. Although character models and environmental detail are vastly improved, this pursuit for higher fidelity has seen Ballistic Moon cast aside the original’s bluer colour grade in favour of a more realistic, dynamic colour palette. This again feels like a tonal sacrifice, though I’d argue it’s a worthwhile one in this case as the game, from the improved lighting alone, looks beautiful having been rendered in Unreal Engine 5 and is clearly on a bar above the original.

The Cheapest Price: $89 From Amazon With Free Delivery

Many of the cinematics have been completely reworked, and rescored, granting us a much more televisual perspective on certain events in the story’s canon. The prologue, and indeed the prank, that sets the game’s events in motion, for example, has undergone some creative reshoots to help reframe the scene with a more considered context as it switches seamlessly between two planes of action to a haunting remix of La Roux’s “In for the Kill”. It does drill home the vibe of a schlocky, made for TV slasher series on Fox, but that’s in keeping with the cheesy camp that made the original so fun.

The remake doesn’t really capitalise fully on the DualSense’s key features, unfortunately. Although I absolutely appreciate the triggers tensing up during key choices within the narrative, providing enough feedback for me to second guess myself, I felt they could have gone harder with it. For a game that relies so much on cheap jump scares, the implementation of the controller’s speaker to heighten that alert feels underwhelming, in fact I can’t say I noticed it once. For that reason, I’d probably recommend playing with a good pair of headphones.

Ultimately, if this is your first experience with Until Dawn, the game on offer remains a classic, near genre-defining horror title that is still its developers’ best work. However, it’s hard to say it’s the definitive iteration of Until Dawn with its considered, yet perhaps misguided, sacrifices to atmosphere, along that last generation’s Until Dawn is far better optimised now for a fraction of the price.

Original Review

Until Dawn was originally slated to be released on PS3 as a PlayStation Move exclusive game. The general premise of the game surrounds eight friends who have returned to Blackwood Pines on the one year anniversary of twin sisters Hannah and Beth. The twins mysteriously disappeared after being hunted by a crazed serial killer. The beginning of the game is extremely slow paced, which is necessary as the game allows you to learn about each characters personality and relationships with other members of the group.

The story of Until Dawn follows a very familiar trend for fans of horror movies; it’s over the top, incredibly cheesy and full of incredibly gripping scenes that would almost certainly never play out in real life. It’s all of these things and more that make the game’s story a complete success and one that you won’t want to step away from. The characters mostly end up fulfilling an archetypal role, but the freedom of dialogue choices and how your character can end up interacting with others makes the otherwise cliched dialogue quite fun.

The story is broken up by sessions with a psychologist. This sets the tone of the game incredibly early and was one of my favourite parts of the game. Your sessions early on will alter gameplay. Things like picking your biggest fears or phobias or which characters you dislike most which I assume would affect the way that the story plays out. This is very reminiscent of Silent Hills: Shattered Memories in a good way and adds another layer to the story that I wasn’t expecting.

The presentation in Until Dawn is a positive experience for the most part. The environments are incredibly dark, yet all have a lot of detail and interesting areas to explore. The game positions you with a light source whether it be a torch or a lantern, which is controlled by the analogue sticks or motion controls depending on which control scheme you choose. You can use this light source to better focus on the little details that can be found within Blackwood Pines. The acting in the game is close to the best that I’ve seen in a video game with Peter Stormare playing an interesting psychologist, and Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malek rounding out an all-star lineup. The motion-cap and animations are top-tier in the gaming industry and Supermassive Games are to be commended for this.

The music and sound effects within Until Dawn were a highlight for me. The score is brilliantly reminiscent of some of the best horror movies I’ve seen. It provides a lot of atmosphere in building up to key set scenes within the game. The sound effects are equally brilliant with constant birds fluttering, screams from within the woods and other noises that keep you on the edge of your seat.

The game is broken up via a series of chapters (ala Alan Wake) which is interesting yet odd. On one hand, it works perfectly to break the game up into different sections leading up to dawn but I couldn’t help but feel that the game was initially set to be episodic or something similar. At the beginning of each chapter you are presented with a montage of previous scenes leading into the current scene. This is great for those who might play the game over a series of weeks, but it seems over the top for those who will finish the game over the weekend as most chapters are only 30-60 minutes long.

Until Dawn is an extremely interesting mix of gaming and interactive experiences. The first few hours of the game doesn’t feature a whole lot of action which will annoy some gamers who want non-stop action. This really picks up from about 1/3rd into the game and doesn’t disappoint until the ending. Until Dawn features a series of gameplay techniques that are present from the beginning to the ending. The game is seamless mix of cutscenes, quick time events and character controlled sections. I found the balance of gameplay and story telling to be almost perfect.

For the most part, you will be split into a pairing of two or exploring environments by yourself. I wish that the game placed you in larger group settings more often. I found the constant jumping between characters to be a negative experience as it would often pull you from gripping experiences and put you with another character who is in quite a relaxed environment. I understand the need to do this within a horror environment, but I did find that it relieved some of the tension felt from the more crazy set pieces.

There are a bunch of collectibles within the game which help you piece together the story. These range from learning about the killer, to learning more about Hannah and Beth as well as other characters within the game. There are also totem poles which show you possible sequences that will play out sequences that may appears later in the game. It actually surprised me with just how much time that you can spend exploring each environment to find every last clue. It’s definitely a positive and provides a reason to go back to the game.

The most interesting part of Until Dawn is The Butterfly Effect. The theory of this is that minor decisions in life can have multiple effects going forward. Until Dawn plays on this theory quite a bit. Decisions that you make within conversations will effect set pieces and scenarios later in the game which means that no two play throughs will be identical. This also means that not all gamers will have the same characters die in their game. The amount of choices and branching paths in the game is surprisingly deep, and provides endless replay value and entertainment during discussion, as players will have vastly different experiences throughout the game.

Quick time events play a huge part in the game and form the bulk of the action gameplay. When running from the psycho you’re often presented with two options, one will be a quicker escape route but will require you to press the buttons much quicker. All it takes is one wrong button to permanently kill one character which means that you always need to be paying attention.

One of the more playful elements of Until Dawn was the scare-cam. Provided you’ve hooked up your Playstation Camera to your PS4 you can have it automatically record certain ‘jump-scare’ moments which litter the game, which you can then share online. While jumpscares are usually completely rubbish and a terrible cliche of horror conventions, the addition of having your scares recorded actually makes it a fun feature and the feature plays into the craze of ‘Let’s Play’ videos of people obsessing over horror games on YouTube just to watch someone’s reaction.

I played Until Dawn with motions controls and thoroughly enjoyed it. Decisions are made by tilting the controller in either direction and there are certain sections that require you to aim and shoot by moving the controller. There is also use of the trackpad with the copious amount of reading that you will do. The PlayStation Camera is also used for ‘scare cam’ which will take videos of you in the game’s jump scare moments.

The post Until Dawn Remake Review – A New Perspective On A Horror Icon appeared first on Press Start.

Davide Soliani, a former director on Mario + Rabbids, has launched a brand new studio alongside Red Dead Redemption’s design lead Christian Cantamessa, as well as other Ubisoft alum.

The studio, called Day 4 Night, is working on a new IP, which will be co-directed by Soliani and Cantamessa. The team secured their first round of financing from South Korean publisher Krafton, as well as Ed Fries’ 1Up Ventures.

The new game is “easily the most creative thing we have seen in quite some time,” according to Fries, whose list of achievements include co-creating Xbox.

It was back in June that Soliani confirmed his departure from Ubisoft after 25 years at Ubisoft Milan, citing a desire to “embark on a new adventure”. It was during his time at Ubisoft that he served as creative lead on both Mario + Rabbids games, which collectively sold in excess of 10 million copies.

In a statement, the studio confirmed its commitment to creating new content that pushes the boundaries of storytelling and game design.

“What we are crafting at Day 4 Night is a reflection of everything I’ve ever wanted to experience as a player,” said Soliani. “Joy, adventure, poetry, action, wonder, and the pleasure of working with friends.”

The post Day 4 Night Is The New Studio From Former Mario + Rabbids And Red Dead Redemption Developers appeared first on Press Start.

Although the common outcry from gamers suggests it’s often best to separate video games and real-world politics, sometimes outside forces cause the two to collide with such spectacular ferocity that it’s unavoidable. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine brought war to the doorstep of GSC World, developer of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, including its upcoming sequel Heart of Chornobyl. The conflict birthed undoubtedly the most difficult chapter in the game’s development.

War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a sobering documentary in that it practically places the game’s development aside to focus unflinchingly on the price paid by these men and women to simply do their jobs. It spotlights the dogged determination to survive, whether that meant escaping missile fire and finding relative safety near the western border of Ukraine or remaining behind to don fatigues and bear arms to defend the homeland. It’s utterly staggering to get a sense of the sacrifices made.

There are so many heartbreaking revelations within this feature. I’m unlikely to forget images of people huddling together for warmth after Russia targeted their power plants and grids, the pictures of all of the displaced children, or the everyday people of Ukraine answering the call to fight—which sometimes meant gathering en masse, as signed off by the ministry, to craft molotov cocktails, which might be the most video game ass thing in this doco. But as distressing as all of it is, it all comes back to unity and how these atrocities galvanised this team rather than breaking them.

To uproot and move on is a tough thing, particularly for a people so intrinsically tied to their home and culture. To shift an entire studio from Kyiv, with bodies numbering in the hundreds once families were accounted for, then having to “rebuild” in Prague to get on with work is a Herculean task. But it’s clearly one husband-and-wife team Ievgen and Maria Grygorovych, the studio’s CEO and the game’s creative director respectfully, were up to. In fact, it was their intuitive preparedness around the looming conflict that saw charter buses parked out the front of their studio all day and night awaiting the inevitable.

Andrew Stephan’s ability to focus on the issues that matter and not anchor this feature down with video game minutia obviously is in service of the human story here, and with Power On: The Story of Xbox under his belt, I do feel as though Microsoft believe they’ve unearthed a capable director in Stephan. The one thing I can’t help but draw attention to might be the apparent use of AI-generated art to aid parts of the narrative where cameras might not have been rolling, for obvious reasons. I compartmentalised it to not allow it to detract from the narrative at hand, but it felt an off choice.

What I learned watching War Game is that whether S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 meets its expected launch in November or not, the fact that this team has pressed on and displayed such unwavering strength and resilience is achievement enough. While I’ve no doubt critics, and series fans, will have their say once their hands are on the sticks, the fact this game exists at all is a miracle.

It’s so uplifting to watch this team share their experience speaking into a camera lens through tired, glassy eyes, and each of their stories prove inspiring and critical to their studio’s survival, whether through staunch leadership or lionhearted service. War Game is essential viewing because although it does touch on the trials of game development, its primary goal is to give flowers to a team who have fought like hell and covered themselves in valour in the pursuit of their art, as well as our entertainment.

And they deserve the whole bloody garden.

With the war effort in Ukraine still ongoing, donations can be made to the official charity fund set up by Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

War Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was produced in partnership with Xbox, the documentary can be found on either the Xbox or GSC Game World YouTube channels.

The post War Game: The Making Of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Is Essential Viewing appeared first on Press Start.

Out of Port Melbourne’s own Playside Studios comes Kill Knight, one of the most metal games I’ve played this year.

It blends the twitch, ultra-responsive arcade-movement of something like Hades with the pulse-thumping gunplay of Doom, setting it all within an eldritch hellscape made up of five increasingly horrific layers that’ll challenge your will to survive.

The most impressive thing about this isometric-action game is how it adds fold after fold to its surprisingly deep combat systems to create what is an ultimately exciting experience.

As you come to master movement within the game, you’ll begin to understand the importance of remaining within the zen state of the “killstream” while executing enemies with a meaty active-reload mechanic that can, depending on the coup de grace you choose, replenish your heaviest ammos, draw in loot around you like a black hole, or overpower your guns leading to a temporary buff to time-to-kill.

The game is so moreish, and I appreciate that it isn’t necessarily a “roguelite” in the sense that it’s random.

In the layers I’ve played so far, enemy spawns are deliberate and consistent, leading to the learning that’s necessary for success. The first goal is surviving a layer, the next goal is climbing the leaderboards, before ultimately attempting to one-combo a full layer: an eye-watering task and not for the faint-hearted. The game presents you with objectives throughout that, when toppled, unlock new equipment that’d otherwise be gated behind a hefty blood toll, so satisfaction also comes with playing with the loadouts.

The cherry on top of it all is definitely the game’s audiovisual presentation which captures the suffocating sufferance that comes with being a desecrated corpse in an abyss. It mixes lo-fi, minimalist aesthetics of the 90s with dread-soaked brutalism and the soundtrack rocks.

Kill Knight is a tremendous surprise and feels like an appropriate kick-off for a jam-packed October.

Kill Knight releases on October 3 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. 

The post Kill Knight Is An Aussie Made Indie That Mixes Doom And Hades In A Metal AF Way appeared first on Press Start.

Devolver Digital has tonight revealed Big Fan, a small independent publishing arm of beneath the quirky publisher’s umbrella that’ll assist smaller teams in realising their dreams of creating unique, creative titles.

The twist is that they’re gearing primarily towards licensed IP and the untapped potential for delivering never before seen kinds of experiences in established worlds.

“Like you, we’re really into games,” the statement reads.

“But when it comes to “licensed games”, we think there’s room for a new approach. One where indie developers get to make the call. To take some risks and explore unique ideas that aren’t dictated by spreadsheets.”

The move feels reminiscent of Blumhouse’s move to assist indies in delivering small scale horror games, and in a time where studio closures and layoffs are rampant this is refreshing news.

Big Fan is made up of industry veterans, many of which have prior experience in delivering video games based on properties like Dune, Blade Runner, The Lord of the Rings, Power Rangers.

More recent releases that have shipped from those on board include Mike Bithell’s John Wick Hex and Hellboy: Web of Wyrd.

“It’s easy for us to make grand statements in a press release, but we like to think we can back them up.

Collectively, we’ve published a lot of different games on a lot of different platforms, some of which you might have even heard of. Our work includes collaborations with like-minded teams at Disney, Dark Horse Comics, Rebellion, Lionsgate, and more. We are actively working with these partners right now, with more on the way.”

To read more about Big Fan and their mission statement, click here. You can, otherwise, find them on X, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

The post Big Fan Is Devolver Digital’s New Indie Publishing Arm Focusing On Licensed IP appeared first on Press Start.

October is the spookiest month of the year, without doubt.

We’re subjected to pumpkin spice lattes, the thawing process for Michael Buble’s holiday onslaught begins, and it’s capped off by Halloween, the year’s most bone-chilling holiday. As it turns out, October is also going to be home to plenty of new, exciting game releases that should help you forget the brooding horror that pervades the month. I’m talking about games like Silent Hill, A Quiet Place, and Clock Tower to keep the creepies at bay.

Let’s take a look at exactly what’s coming over the next month:

Biggest October 2024 Game Releases

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Release Date: October 31

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89 (free delivery)

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Release Date: October 25

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89 (free delivery)

Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered

Release Date: October 31

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Release Date: October 25

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price – Amazon – $69 (free delivery)

Until Dawn

Release Date: October 4

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89 (free delivery)

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred

Release Date: October 8

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Silent Hill 2

Release Date: October 8

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $99 (free delivery)

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $99 (free delivery)

Super Mario Party Jamboree

Release Date: October 17

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $68 (free delivery)

Alan Wake 2 DLC – The Lake House

Release Date: TBC

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Neva

Release Date: October 15

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Fear the Spotlight

Release Date: October 22

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Throne and Liberty

Release Date: October 1

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Kill Knight

Release Date: October 3

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Mechwarrior 5: Clans

Release Date: October 3

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game

Release Date: October 4

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Disney Pixel RPG

Release Date: October 7

Platforms: iOS, Android

To The Moon

Release Date: October 8

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Europa

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Starship Troopers: Extermination

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Transformers: Galactic Trials

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Undisputed

Release Date: October 11

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition

Release Date: October 15

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Just Dance 2025 Edition

Release Date: October 15

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

New World: Aeternum

Release Date: October 15

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Squirrel with a Gun

Release Date: October 15

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Age of Empires Mobile

Release Date: October 17

Platforms: iOS, Android

A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead

Release Date: October 17

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed

Release Date: October 18

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Unknown 9: Awakening

Release Date: October 18

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Date Everything

Release Date: October 24

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven

Release Date: October 24

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5

Clock Tower Rewind

Release Date: October 29

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Life is Strange: Double Exposure

Release Date: October 29

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Post Trauma 

Release Date: October 29

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered

Release Date: October 31

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Batman: Arkham Shadow

Release Date: October 22

Platforms: Meta Quest 3

The post Games Coming Out In October 2024 That You Should Be Excited For appeared first on Press Start.

Over the course of the past week, I’ve spent a little bit of time with a game called Apartment Story, the first title from Glasgow based indie studio Blue Rider Interactive.

A large portion of the game, penned and directed by studio founder Sean Wenham, takes place within an apartment flat and resolves around Arthur, a regular dude who’s just living his until a ex-roommate by the name of Diane visits, setting in motion a gritty, crime-thriller about three entangled lives and a smoking gun.

Spent a bit of time with Apartment Story over the last week. It’s billed as a “feature-length” indie about three people, how their lives and pasts intertwine, and a gun that changes everything. pic.twitter.com/Z54dBsABV1

— Brodie Gibbons (@brodie_dg) September 26, 2024

While these narrative beats come about across the course of a few rainy days, the moments in between centre on the player trying to keep Arthur’s head above water. The game incorporates life-simulation mechanics, very similar to The Sims, to let the player prepare and eat meals, shave and shower, or slope off for a crafty spliff and wank if the moment calls for it.

It’s a game that’s marketed as “feature-length” and that’s about right, my run lasted about an hour and a half. It does lack some polish and it’s a little rough around the edges in terms of handling and how certain sequences unfold, but it’s certainly a novel application of both life-sim concepts and self-care sensibilities that I think justifies both the time you’ll take to see Arthur’s story out and its very modest price point.

You can find Apartment Story on Steam by clicking here.

The post Apartment Story Is A Clever Mix Of Crime Thriller And The Sims appeared first on Press Start.

Over the course of Xbox’s Tokyo Game Show presentation, a bunch of new games were confirmed at coming to their Game Pass services for both PC and console.

Here’s a list of all of the new Game Pass titles coming and when to expect them.

All You Need Is Help

This game looks very cute, and it’s coming today to Game Pass on both PC and console.

Overwatch 2 x My Hero Academia

Overwatch is becoming well known for its crossover content, and this one is no doubt exciting for My Hero Academia fans.

This is coming to Game Pass on October 17.

StarCraft: Remastered and StarCraft II

In what was undoubtedly one of the coolest announcements of Xbox’s Tokyo Game Show presentation, both StarCraft campaigns are coming to PC Game Pass in just a couple of months.

If you’re a real-time strategy nerd and you’ve slept on StarCraft, be sure to check these out November 5.

We Love Katamari: Reroll+ Royal Reverie

Another absolutely adorable title and a delight to boot. We Love Katamari is coming to Xbox Game Pass today.

To close out the event, Sarah Bond announced a slate of Square Enix games coming to the service.

And although hopes were high that we might see either Final Fantasy XVI or Final Fantasy VII Remake, what we got was still exciting, albeit a bit more classic.

Plus, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster was confirmed to be coming to Xbox, although it’s not on Game Pass.

Trials of Mana

First up was Trials of Mana, which is available today.

Legend of Mana

Next up was Legend of Mana, which is also out today.

The post A Heap Of New Xbox Game Pass Titles Were Revealed At Tokyo Game Show appeared first on Press Start.

During Xbox’s Tokyo Game Show presentation, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer opened the showing with a recap of the year the team are having, as well, as the one to come.

At the end of his brief, as a bit of a surprise, Spencer announced that both StarCraft Remastered and StarCraft II are making their long-awaited return on November 5.

Although the multiplayer suites for both games are free-to-play, StarCraft Remastered and StarCraft II: Campaign Collection will be made available to any PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber.

Originally releasing in 1998 and 2010 respectively, the StarCraft titles have made an undeniable impact on the real-time strategy genre and we’ve no doubt this news will be more than welcome to series fans.

The post StarCraft Remastered And StarCraft II Are Both Coming To PC Game Pass appeared first on Press Start.

Almost three decades ago, I was left with a certain sense of wonderment when Pixar proposed the idea that toys adhere to the “when the cat’s away” philosophy and spring to life when nobody is in the room. All Possible Futures, an Australian-based developer, has reframed that concept through picture books, their lesson-full tales of light versus dark, their heroes and villains, and, page-by-page, has left me with that very same sense of childlike astonishment. For me, The Plucky Squire isn’t just a game for kids, it’s a time machine for big kids like me to relive a little bit of that youth.

Jot, the titular squire with a daring disposition, is the hero of his story, and with his ragtag friends Violet and Thrash he frequently bests the nefarious sorcerer Humgrump, saving the good people of Mojo all the while. That tireless loop of gallantry remains the status quo until Humgrump learns to harness the power of metamagic, which ousts Jot out of his colourful tome and into the world that exists on Sam’s desk. 

Within the confines of the page, Jot is a flat, two-dimensional squire who adventures with a sword in hand, not unlike many of the classically-inspired action-adventure titles we grew up with. Out in the “real” world, Jot takes a plump, three-dimensional shape I’ve, in the past, likened to Homer Simpson after he explores the peculiar, rendered space in the nook behind his bookcase. It’s a shame that, thanks to the necessity of advertising, this detail wasn’t able to be kept under wraps, because when Jot is first forced from his papered home it’s a spectacular upending of everything the game had sold us to that point. 

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $58 WITH FREE SHIPPING

As Humgrump desperately tries to keep the trio at arm’s length, and the roadblocks in their path grow greater, the core loop of The Plucky Squire settles into a rhythm of exhausting the problem-solving potential of the tools you do have before having Jot venture outward into the relative danger of the desktop plains to collect the next plot device that’ll help them plough through their obstacle. Said plot devices tend to grant Jot near omnipotent control over the book, though you start by modestly retreating back to prior pages and plucking certain words from their place and giving them new context elsewhere.

That said, by the end you wield all-powerful gauntlets and stamps that let you mess with the book’s properties and physics from above, from freezing items in place to transferring certain items from page-to-page. And with each new ability, it added layers to how you’d need to combine them to meet the increasing complexity of the puzzles. It kept ramping up just enough to remain engaging throughout. 

Make no mistake, the puzzles might be crafty and undeniably wholesome, however they’re definitely designed to be intuitive and the game hand-holds quite a bit, which never took me out when I considered the intended audience. Ultimately, the solutions are one-track and while experimenting with different words can offer moments of levity, punctuated more so by the game’s pleasantly couth, and very British narration, it’s unfortunate the way forward is such a straight line.

No matter the dimension you’re occupying, the game’s swordplay feels simple and accessible. Lunging ground pounds and swirling spin attacks, which can be upgraded at vendors throughout, keep the combat from being entirely one-note though it never quite evolves from its ‘see a creature, whack a creature’ approach. Fortunately, the way the game incorporates Jot’s newfound powers into fights helped supplement what is an ultimately rudimentary attack system. 

The game geniusly subverts expectations over and again over the course of its ten decently-sized chapters. Similar to It Takes Two and its teams willingness to implement a fun, off the wall gameplay idea for a two-minute bit, The Plucky Squire juggles its aforementioned swordplay, which already feels like an homage to Jot’s capped contemporary in Link, with so many neat moments that they feel like carefully composed, copyright-evading love letters to so many other games. I couldn’t help but grin big enjoying the nods to Punch-Out, match-three games, and even Lunar Jetman. What’s great is that, while Jot is the titular hero, the story isn’t solely about him, both Violent and Thrash, through these mini-games, get their small pound of valour on offer. 

Put simply, The Plucky Squire is pretty as a picture book. It’s bold, colourful, and through James Turner’s stint at Game Freak, the similarities to something as instantly recognisable as Pokémon is clear. Creature design is fun, though I love how rich and saturated the art style is, with bold-stroke outlines and full, vibrant colours filling every inch of the page. Jot has all the makings of an instantly iconic mascot, and although the game jokes about The Plucky Squire penetrating other media, I definitely believe it could. With sections that’ll have you fighting top-down, side-view or in three-dimensional space, animation and movement remains crisp regardless of perspective.

I did play the game in full on my ROG Ally, and the game ran smoothly for the most part, I did definitely notice an amount of slowdown during transitions from book-to-desk, which isn’t exactly surprising. Having two separate instances running simultaneously, one still on the page and the other happening all around Jot, feels like magic in its own right. The only other problem I encountered occurred when I managed to break sequence and skip a fight altogether which led to some unfortunate fatal crash errors. To the developer’s credit, their autosave system made it super easy to revert back only a handful of minutes to avoid the same mistakes on a prior save. 

The Plucky Squire is a darling experience that I’m so glad exists. It’s yet another earned feather in the squire’s cap belonging to Devolver Digital, and it’s a wonderful achievement for games development down under. It isn’t quirky or weird like many of the publisher’s other gambles, The Plucky Squire simply answers the call of anyone who has wished for a charming, family-first adventure game that’s oozing with creativity.

The post The Plucky Squire Review – A Book Worth Checking Out appeared first on Press Start.

Very few crowdfunding campaigns gain my attention and even fewer see me reach into my pocket. Stoic, as it happens, is one of the few developers I’ve been happy to dig deep for. It’s a team I truly admire, they’re artists and I revere The Banner Saga in such a way, I was always going to be eager to see what came next for them. Their partnership with Xbox, a match made in heaven for me, has yielded Towerborne, a project about as far removed from what I’d expect from Stoic as it gets.

It’s as if after The Walking Dead Telltale went on to make a third-person shooter, it’s surprising. Though it’s absolutely playable solo, the game is designed as a four-player beat ‘em up not unlike Castle Crashers. And although I cherish the impenetrable long-game of The Banner Saga’s Chess-like combat, the offering in Towerborne is so easy to pick up and mindlessly slog through that it means anybody can play it.

With that said, there’s also a surprising depth to its combat classes and systems that grew on me the more I dove in. I neared a point of writing it off as mundane and one-note before something clicked and I began to unravel combos, positioning and strategy through its gear and Umbra mechanics, opening up doors once closed to me. There’s a lot that Towerborne does to keep its combat from growing stale, and much of that comes down to each of the four classes feeling rather distinct—I ultimately fell in love with Pyroclast, however it’s rewarding and recommended that you chop and change considering certain class-specific weapons boast special attacks that are super fun to toy around with and can change the flow of battle.

There’s one tiny thing that Towerborne does that’s such a small quality of life thing, it almost feels silly to note it—but I can’t help it, I love it. If an enemy slips past and threatens to flank your unprotected rear but they get clipped by your attack on their way through, they’ll rubber band back in front of you, open to receive the barrage that’s coming. Being an online game, one that could, theoretically, be scuppered by latency issues, I see this as a micro effort to remove the potential for lag-related deaths.

I must emphasise that this game is designed with co-op in mind and my experience has, so far, been entirely solo. I’m happy to report that one-out is a completely viable way to storm the grasslands at the foot of The Belfry, as the game scales based on a number of other factors like player count and level. The combat itself quickly falls into a rhythm of bearing left or right, delivering punishing combos, and carefully dodging the precise attacks of the Gobo legion. Much like there are multiple classes of Ace, the Gobo army runs deep and there’s a lot of variety that can, at times, force some consideration just as the game’s rather standard hack and slash fare is starting to wane.

It was at a certain point that I realised that I did find Towerborne repetitive, however the brawling itself wasn’t the offender at all. I’d grown bored of the core loop and of its mission structure. The game’s map, which is set up kind of like Catan’s honeycomb grid, has so many stages to trudge through, it’s disappointing a vast majority of the missions are what Stoic call “discovery” tiles, which are simple end-to-end brawls with a loot chest at the end.

The other main events they have are ventures, which are treated more like mini-raids and include matchmaking where the others do not. They’re often capped by boss fights which do look cool without prompting much of a change in approach. As your legend grows around the Belfry, you can qualify for higher ratings of Danger Level, which both broadens your literal horizons and unlocks more of the map, while letting you replay prior “ventures” at a higher difficulty, leading to a different pre-mix of settings, events, and enemies. It sounds great in theory, but it doesn’t quite achieve the replayability I’d hoped for.

All of the player “progression” occurs loot-side, there’s no role-playing elements to speak of, which keeps it clean and simple. The chase of grinding levels and having bigger and bigger numbers against your equipped items is about as exciting as things within Towerborne’s menus get—which is unfortunate, as you spend plenty of time in them. Although any agency over back story or name is snuffed out right away, there’s enough depth in character creation to inject a shred of identity into your avatar.

The Belfry itself functions as any other service game hub world. It’s the point of retreat in between missions and is a key scene in much of the game’s onboarding, of which there is plenty. It’s an enormous space, and while there are many world maps installed about the place, you’ll still do plenty of trotting back and forth to talk to everyone. Though I couldn’t see anywhere to buy weapons, you’re certainly able to upgrade them at the Belfry’s blacksmith, and there’s a personified mirror who can grant you the gift of transmogrification in the event you grow bored of your Ace’s look. Bounties give you something to work towards in combat, although they’re a rather average assortment of tasks thus far, however the coin you receive in exchange can be used in Towerborne’s item shop which teeters at the cliff face of egregious microtransaction nonsense, but we’ll likely have to wait until the game is properly live to see how bad it is in practice.

Towerborne feels like such an enormous departure from The Banner Saga both in style and tone, it’s hard to reconcile they’re from the same studio. They’re both gorgeously hand-drawn, though Towerborne feels more vibrant and family-appropriate, which feels like a cool breeze on the face after the depressing caravan-led death march the team cut their teeth on. It’s more stoic, hopeful, and triumphant and this bleeds through in both the game’s bold, colourful biomes and its original score, from frequent collaborator Austin Wintory.

Though it might lack the polish of something like Hades II, whose only similarity here is that they’re early access contemporaries, Towerborne shows just enough promise and holds just enough aces that I feel it could make something of this rather shaky, inconsistent start.

After crafting one of the most arresting tactics trilogies of all-time in The Banner Saga, which had a recognisable identity in its own right, I do applaud Stoic for venturing beyond the relative safety of their pedigree in trying something new. It doesn’t offer the same emotional resonance, however Towerborne’s seeming goal of “Castle Crashers except pretty” delivers on what is a mindless, yet moreish, brawler.

Towerborne releases on Steam in early access September 10, 2024. Find more information here.

The post Towerborne Early Access Review – A Promising Venture appeared first on Press Start.

I’d be tempted to call Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland nostalgia bait if it didn’t go ahead and nail exactly what it set out to achieve. Developed and framed from the get go as a throwback to classic, licensed platformers from the nineties, Adventures in Gameland is unequivocally a “made for Gameboy” title through and through. And that right there carries with it a bit of good, and plenty of bad as the game’s beautiful presentation struggles to bear the burden of frustrating, clunky, and dated platforming—not that the game sticks around long enough for it to grate at you.

With just six levels, carefully crafted with an understanding of Tommy, Chuckie, and the twins’ creativity in mind, as well as a keen understanding of Rugrats deep cuts, Adventures in Gameland truly encapsulates a “classic” experience with its truncated runtime of just a couple of hours.

Although I do love how each stage is framed as an episode of the series, complete with the hallmark “ba-baaaa” title treatment, each level is rather formulaic in its construct as you, playing as any of the four babies on offer, carefully crawl and jump through imaginative twists on otherwise mundane settings around the Pickles residence, recover Tommy’s trusty screwdriver, and unlock the baby gate safeguarding the level’s boss. 

There’s nothing that really sets each baby apart aside from their unique jump, and how much lift they get. Based on this, I feel like they do fit into the Super Mario Bros. roles to a degree with Tommy being reliably compact and sturdy as a squat plumber, while Chuckie and all of his trademark trepidation fits into the Luigi archetype. Phil and Lil feel similar, save for the fact that Lil has a floating glide at the tail end of her leap that makes her feel like Peach. 

And it’s not that the babies control badly, although I do feel like the input gets confused if you’re trying to do too much, it’s everything else in Adventures in Gameland that is far more frustrating. The player hit box is the size of California, checkpointing can be pretty punishing in the game’s final stage, and I don’t recall the game explaining anything. For a game where you’re able to butt slam with the crushing force of a night’s full diapie, pick up and stack blocks to climb onto, and crawl, the game really does just let you work it out for yourself.

Fortunately, for as frustrating as the finicky platforming can be, the game does at least offer a few difficulty options, which is a nice modern addition for a game that tries so hard to recreate the Gameboy’s classic sensibilities. After a few cheap deaths, I was glad to be coddled by the simplest newborn mode. 

From a presentation perspective, I don’t think Adventures in Gameland could be much better. As I’ve already touched on, the levels themselves dive deep into the enormity a child’s perspective can grant to pretty humdrum settings—for example, how a relaxing day at a backyard cookout can suddenly become an adventure throughout a tree hollow battling wind-up toys. It’s wildly imaginative and I think pays wonderful homage to some of the situations the babies found themselves in during the show’s run. 

It might not include voiceover performance, and I admit I do miss E. G. Daily’s trademark Tommy Pickles voice cracks, but the game’s scripted dialogue is extremely on point nevertheless. The game’s soundtrack more than makes up for it, not only does it open with the expected, absolutely iconic Rugrats theme tune, we get so many great renditions of the same theme throughout including an aggressive metal one that does slap. 

For those wanting an even more authentic Rugrats on Gameboy experience, you’re able to toggle between a pretty, almost true-to-animation high-definition setting and a classic 8-bit that’s more in line with how the game might have looked a few decades ago. You’re also able to switch between a full screen and bordered view, which restricts the action to a smaller share of the screen, more in keeping with the Gameboy’s original 10:9 aspect ratio. 

As a nineties kid, who absorbed more cartoons than I’d care to admit, likely while white-knuckling a Gameboy, Adventures in Gameland is an extremely nostalgic regression to a simpler time for game design. It bears the warts of the era it’s attempting to emulate, by being a bit clunky and frustrating, however as a Rugrats property it’s as authentic as it gets. In fact, to borrow a bit of the gang’s babble talk, it’s been a worthwhile ‘speriment. 

The post Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland Review – What A Baby’s Gotta Do appeared first on Press Start.

I didn’t get invited to a lot of Mario Parties growing up, so my experience with dominating the boards and gobbling up all of the stars is, in a word, lacking. As a father now, with two young kids, Super Mario Party Jamboree might be my gateway back into the plumber’s good graces and having gone hands-on with the game for a couple of hours, it’s fair to say there’s a lot going on in this follow-up to Super Mario Party. 

Anyone familiar with how a Mario Party works would know the gist, up to four players round one of the game’s boards, sabotaging and competing against one another in mini-games in the pursuit of precious, precious stars. There are seven boards in all, including two returning boards from classic titles, though for the purpose of our time with the game we played Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party—a new board that has a fun, live element at the centre of it, being the enormous Wiggler itself, which rotates like a turntable at the sound of a bell, altering the route through the board. It was pretty standard Mario Party fare, from rolling a die that hated me to competing in any of the game’s one hundred plus mini-games, that is until we were introduced to the ally system which reared its head at the midway point of the ten-turn game. 

If you arrive at an ally on the board, you’re thrust into a competitive four-player mini-game to see who gets to have said ally riding shotgun alongside them. In our instance it was Yoshi, and the player who happened upon him first got a rather helpful edge in the race to determine the venerable dinosaur’s captor. Although we didn’t get to really see the system bear any fruit in our game, each ally has perks including things like collecting double stars—which in Mario Party is the name of the game. So as a point of difference when compared to other Mario Party games, I do think the ally system provides that extra element that long-time players would be wanting. 

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $68 FROM AMAZON WITH FREE SHIPPING

The game we played was using the regular rules, though the game’s pro rules were described to us and it seems as though players will enjoy plenty of freedom in customising the rule sets to suit whoever is playing. Whether you’re someone with younger kids, or even older grandparents who mightn’t be as quick as they once were, I think this is a great move that’ll help families get more people involved than before. 

Separate from the regular multiplayer boards, we were able to sample the game’s other online modes—albeit against CPU opponents, due to the servers not being live yet. With a pang of “live service” to it, there was a sampling of shorter, rotating mini-game playlists on offer for players after something punchier than a full board. The reward for doing well here are points which can be turned in for things like reactions, a necessity in trashing opponents and revelling in their misfortune mid-game. 

We also got to spend a bit of time with Koopathon, the game’s 20-player, online battle royale that sees players race around a course to determine the last man standing. Of course, position is determined by performance in a series of mini-games. I particularly loved the games that allowed my reaction time to propel me up the leaderboard, the whack-a-mole and bread baking games were among my favourites. I love that the team is branching out beyond the standard boards to give the game a life to live online, I expect this’ll be a lot of fun in large groups. 

For those after a more cooperative flavour, Bowser’s Kaboom Squad pairs you with up to seven other players to take down an Impostor Bowser, who stands out ominously with his purple aura. No, it’s not an Among Us rip-off, it’s a strategic, action-based mode set within a small arena where the aim, at least in the stage we played, is to smash crates in an effort to load a cannon with enough bombs to whittle down Bowser’s hefty health pool. Supported by a band of Chargin’ Chucks, who are more than capable of knocking you about, part of the challenge is keeping clear of Bowser’s stomping feet while calling out crates, or carrying bombs back to home base. 

It’s a multi-round mode where your performance in the big, cooperative mini-games in between determine the perks, or power ups, you’ll take into the next round with you. You’re able to place things like dash pads to create lanes for swift movement, though I couldn’t resist opting for the banana peels which cause Bowser to hit pavement spectacularly, buying you valuable time to deliver the payload. Although I didn’t get to finish the game I’d started, I got the sense each match is well-paced, I’d made it through four of the five rounds and the last of Bowser’s health blocks was in reach, so I expect this mode to be the source of more than a few tight finishes.  

All in all, this is shaping up to be the single biggest party of the year, and quite clearly the biggest Mario Party game ever. Super Mario Party Jamboree boasts seven boards, over 110 mini-games and the biggest roster yet, including the recently confirmed Pauline and Ninji in their first playable appearance since Mario Golf: Super Rush. 

This enormous content offering is one thing, however Nintendo is clearly focused on achieving a certain longevity for the game, and I expect that modes like Koopathlon and Bowser’s Boom Squad, in tandem with the aforementioned playlists, will ensure this game puts its best foot forward.

Super Mario Party Jamboree releases on October 17th. The cheapest price is currently $68 with free shipping from Amazon. 

The post Super Mario Party Jamboree Hands-On Preview – Ain’t No Party Like A Mario Party appeared first on Press Start.

When it comes to The Legend of Zelda, I’ve never considered myself to be hard to the core. I wasn’t given a choice but to spend my late nineties in Hyrule as my friends at the time were all enamoured—understandably, Ocarina of Time is one of the greatest for good reason—by Link’s quest to overthrow Ganondorf with the help of a glorified flute. Even most recently, I fell off of Tears of the Kingdom after just an hour at the first sign of crafting for survival. 

Our hands-on picked up with Princess Zelda captive in a jail cell, on the hook as the person responsible for letting loose rifts in Hyrule which have already gobbled up the King of Hyrule and Link, the series’ traditional cloaked hero. Marked for execution, and seemingly out of options, a being named Tri reveals itself to Zelda out of the ether and gifts her, through the Trirod, the power to control the Echoes—the game’s namesake gameplay hook.

I was speculative about how freeing a mechanic like this might be, but after you’re through the hand-holding of your jailbreak, which teaches you what there is to know about the Echoes and how to harness them, it becomes clear that the mechanic is geared toward lateral thinking and problem solving.

It was made evident to me that Echoes of Wisdom, despite sharing a developer in the case of the Link’s Awakening remake and its cute art style, exists in its own canon, and is an entirely new take on Hyrule. I think that kind of clarification, especially after last week’s excitement surrounding the franchise’s most elaborate timeline, is valuable. 

You’re able to collect Echoes, both static and living, as you explore. Static items like pots, beds, and coffee tables simply glimmer within the game’s bed, and serve as a beckoning finger which calls for you to collect it. If you’re hoping to add Hyrule’s diverse fauna to your collection, however, you must first best them in battle. As Zelda can’t fight as Link traditionally would, figuring out how to best topple each of these creatures becomes a puzzle unto itself, as you’re forced to defeat the first enemy you encounter with few resources only for it to escalate from there. Of course, it’s not a free for all and there’s a pop cap for Echoes that’s managed by Tri’s power, which is indicated by the triangles that make up its tail. 

THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $68 FROM AMAZON

Whether you’re caught up in an environment puzzle, or whether you’re in the heat of battle, every Echo has a cost. Something like a table might cost one triangle, whereas a spear-wielding boarblin who brings with it some offensive firepower might have a higher price tag. What I do like is that, in an effort to retain flow to the gameplay, the game doesn’t simply say “no” to deploying a new Echo if you’ve maxed out Tri’s power, it simply overwrites your earliest Echoes up to the value of the one you’re trying to use. It’s a pretty elegant system, and I do love the fact that others in the room with me had completely different ideas for how to navigate certain situations, which I think does speak to the player’s freedom on offer in Echoes of Wisdom. 

Based on my time in this Hyrule, I definitely recommend venturing off the beaten track in search of Peahat—he’s a lovely lad, and is the first hour’s most overpowered, over-flowered destructive force of nature. 

Ultrahand, and how it left players to toy with the physics of the world, was perhaps the biggest selling point of Tears of the Kingdom. Zelda’s Bind and Reverse Bond is a pared back take on this that has Echoes of Wisdom feeling a bit like Tears of the Kingdom-lite. The former lets you manipulate items within the world but exacting force upon them, while the latter sees forces from the world impressed on Zelda herself, for example she’s able to pair herself with a floating platform and she’ll mimic its movements in real space. As with the Echoes, players can get very cute and creative in how they’re navigating Hyrule’s overworld and the mysterious Still World, a subspace quasi-underground area that’s home to the game’s tougher dungeons. 

After Zelda is forced to divert from her safehouse refuge due to the rift, she soon finds herself within the Still World, a place where anything pulled in by the force of the rift, such as uprooted trees and buildings, is left suspended in mid-air while all Hyrulians sit petrified and lifeless. It’s a creepy, eerie setting that exists in balance to the brighter, albeit troubled, overworld. It’s within this first dungeon of sorts that we encounter the demo’s trickiest noodle-scratchers and fights against a dark version of Link, which unlocks Zelda’s Sword Master power-up that sees her don the iconic tunic and cap, and a big, bashing and crashing stone golem. 

What I like is that the Sword Master Mode is treated like a temporary power, rather than Zelda’s permanent form. To incorporate swordplay in any other way would really hurt the game’s strength, which early on centres around using Echoes in problem-solving, including combat. With that said, it’s a cool moment to see her raise a sword and bum rush a hulking stone golem like she’s Wonder Woman, it’s absolutely earned. 

Though I was cautious about directing any optimism Echoes of Wisdom’s way, having gone hands-on with it for just over an hour has dissuaded any concerns I had and has convinced me that Zelda’s self-contained adventure might be the title I’ve personally been wanting. It’s a bit airy and casual, however it doesn’t sacrifice the creative ways that recent entries like Tears of the Kingdom engaged with its players. 

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom launches on September 26th for Nintendo Switch. The cheapest price is $68 with free shipping. 

The post The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Hands-On Preview – The Princess and the Peahat appeared first on Press Start.

Although there doesn’t seem to be anything releasing on the twenty-first night of September, it’s hard to not get juiced up in general for the month that Earth, Wind and Fire popularised through their disco-rock beats. While there are new releases to be excited about in September, it does seem as though the month’s theme is making the old new once more.

Ports, remakes, and the return of a popular point-and-click classic tell the story and set the tone for a relatively big month.

Let’s take a look at exactly what’s coming over the next month:

BIGGEST SEPTEMBER 2024 GAME RELEASES

Astro Bot

Release Date: September 6

Platforms: PlayStation 5

The Cheapest Price: Harvey Norman – $88

Pick Up The Controller Here: $124.95 (no deposit required, free delivery for Prime members)

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Release Date: September 26

Platforms: Nintendo Switch

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $68

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Release Date: September 9

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89

EA Sports FC 25

Release Date: September 27

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89

The Plucky Squire

Release Date: September 17

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Release Date: September 19 (digital)

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Sumerian Six

Release Date: September 2

Platforms: PC

Starfield: Shattered Space

Release Date: September 30

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X/S

The Casting of Frank Stone

Release Date: September 3

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions

Release Date: September 3

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

Release Date: September 24

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The Cheapest Price: Amazon – $89

Prison Architect 2

Release Date: September 3

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Age of Mythology: Retold

Release Date: September 4

Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection

Release Date: September 6

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

El Paso, Elsewhere

Release Date: September 6 (digital), September 20 (physical)

Platforms: PlayStation 5

NBA 2K25

Release Date: September 4

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The Elder Scrolls: Castles

Release Date: September 10

Platforms: iOS, Android

Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP

Release Date: September 12

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Release Date: September 12

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Wild Bastards

Release Date: September 12

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Demonschool 

Release Date: September 13

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Funko Fusion

Release Date: September 13

Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

Final Fantasy XVI

Release Date: September 17

Platforms: PC

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Release Date: September 17

Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Broken Sword – Shadow of the Templars: Reforged

Release Date: September 19

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

God of War Ragnarok

Release Date: September 19

Platforms: PC

Frostpunk 2

Release Date: September 20

Platforms: PC

Ara: History Untold

Release Date: September 24

Platforms: PC

Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports

Release Date: September 27

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The post Games Coming Out In September That You Should Be Excited For appeared first on Press Start.

After getting a glimpse at the game’s fourth chapter at a preview event last year, I can say I’ve now been fortunate enough to thumb even further into the pages of The Plucky Squire and have played the game’s first four chapters in their entirety. The love was already there, however getting significant hands-on time with the game has only served to strengthen the infatuation. 

There’s something inherently special about a great picture book. With formative lessons for tiny minds to be found within their hardcovers, story time in my house is always a nice closing chapter to any long day. Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are is rich with childhood empowerment, while Goodnight Thomas once felt like something of a magic spell to seal shut tired eyes. All of my kids’ favourite stories feel as though they’re ready to leap from the page and it’s this fun idea that The Plucky Squire so ably explores by presenting Jot’s exile from his own titular tome by the tale’s nasty sorcerer Humgrump, and his subsequent journey through the three-dimensional world atop Sam’s study desk to restore his place as the story’s hero. 

The one word that sums up The Plucky Squire from both a style and design perspective is adventurous. The team cleverly blends two worlds—one flat, one three-dimensional and yet running in tandem behind the curtain—with a hint of puzzle craft to create a wonderful and jovial tone that’s really suitable for all-comers. Of course, the bright colours and flashy animation, especially whenever Jot pops free from the page as though he’s Homer Simpson stumbling through his closet gateway to the third dimension, will appeal to a younger audience but I think the wit All Possible Futures exhibits through the game’s meta fantasy plot and its wordplay puzzles does enough to hold the attention of a more mature gamer. 

Although the portion of the game I’ve sampled spends time tutorialising and introducing the game’s core elements, it’s clear that it doesn’t simply rest on the fundamentals of its gameplay loop as it continually finds gears and introduces cool, fleeting, ‘see-it-for-ten-seconds’ shit that’ll leave you grinning from ear-to-ear. It reminds me a lot of It Takes Two in that sense, simply because the team have lovingly crafted whole fights as fun, throwaway gags. Whether it’s the Knock-Out boxing bout against one very tenacious badger or the Pokémon-esque, turn-based stoush against a fantastical elven warrior which takes place within the borders of a trading card that’s just distinct enough to legally not be Magic the Gathering. 

These excellent moments are often bookends to longer stints of exploration and combat which I’d probably describe as serviceable rather than anything that’s set to move the needle. Save for the quasi-guard dogs that’ll instantly death roll you during the stealth portion of sneaking around Sam’s desk, none of the enemies present enough of a concern to get into the rigmarole of Jot’s secondary spin attacks. If there’s one thing the developer has led me to believe based on four chapters it’s that there are more strings to their bow than I expected, so I fully trust that the game’s systems will fill out the deeper we get into the adventure. Even if it doesn’t, The Plucky Squire’s charms lie elsewhere for me, namely its level design and how expertly its paths, particularly through the three-dimension tabletop, are routed. 

After you learn from Moonbeard, Jot’s trusty mentor who happens to be a cool, old wizard dude, about the spiral-signed portals that allow you to, at will, hop between planes, the team go buck-wild in serving up creative uses of the mechanic. As much as I loved traversing the cardboard-crafted outer wall of Sam’s castle diorama in a moment that reminded me of Super Mario Odyssey’s retro-inspired warp pipes, I still feel the more impressive application ties into the game’s big hook that sees Jot retreat into the book’s previous chapters to cut, rearrange and give new context to words within his book to create change on any given page. 

As much as I wish we were given a bit more rope to solve the game’s problems in a multitude of ways, it seemed as though the way forward pretty much each time was a straight line. That isn’t to say the developer didn’t cater to people toying about with their word use, there are several instances where radically different adjectives can be bolted onto the front of nouns to yield funny results. So while my previous hope that they might find the resources to craft multiple endings to their puzzles, it would seem as though they met me halfway. 

Having played four chapters, which is nearly half of the game, I can only hope that The Plucky Squire continues to upend expectation with its bold, one-off gags, wonderful sense of humour, and gorgeous art design that is quite literally as pretty as a picture book. Devolver Digital’s knack for finding and funding the far out will never cease to leave me gobsmacked, but I truly believe The Plucky Squire is a winning mix of all the right ingredients to make up the archetypal hero’s journey. 

The Plucky Squire launches September 17th for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and PC, and will be available day one with PlayStation Plus Extra.

The post The Plucky Squire Hands-On Preview – Pretty As A Picture Book appeared first on Press Start.

I’m certain no good would come from typing this game’s title into Urban Dictionary, though that doesn’t change the fact that Pepper Grinder is already one of the year’s most slick, outstanding, high seas-adjacent platforming experiences. 

Pepper’s grinder, otherwise known as the big fuck off drill that rests on her arm, is, at first, a catch-all tool used for mashing and dashing alike. Bashing narwhal pirates into a pulp is certainly fun, but using the rotary implement to burrow into the sand, mud, and snow is the game’s absolute selling point. So good is the traversal via drill that it makes any moment you’re exercising traditional platform-hopping a little whelming.

Although it perhaps mirrors Ori’s burrow ability more than anything, it reminded me a lot of controlling the porpoise with purpose Ecco the Dolphin, whose head-first careening through infested waters is bound to be a core memory in the hearts and minds of SEGA kids. It feels as though the drill has a mind of its own as it bores a hole through the earth, pulling Pepper through its wake like a ragdoll. It feels tremendous, and the way the ideal path through is signposted by the buried gems you collect is a stroke of design genius. 

In fact, the level design in general sets a high bar. Although you don’t have vines to swing from like in Donkey Kong Country, bursting skyward with a well-timed rev from the drill provides a similar verticality that lets the team hide secrets and clever nooks just out of view of the screen. It’s reminiscent of the big ape’s adventure right down to the inexplicable floating cannons that fire you off, far beyond the periphery of the screen, to explore unseen wonders. 

Similar to the game’s surface-level Super Mario-like approach to its bare bones story, which is propelled forward by character grunts and enemy attire that suggests they’re overly protective pirates safeguarding their plunder from Pepper, the overworld feels reminiscent of just about any platformer from the nineties. In any other setting Pepper Grinder has a lush, colourful pixel art style that stands out despite the game’s breakneck speed, however its map is paletted with a chalkish charm and is quite crudely scrawled by hand. It’s a striking separation that’s struck between the action and the moments between that prevents Pepper Grinder’s first impression from growing stale. 

There wouldn’t be more than around twenty levels in all, spread evenly enough between a handful of clichéd biomes. Outside of the many mechanics they do introduce, I’m glad the team worked in some clever ways to make each world feel a little different. Dousing magma, found in one of the few volcanic stages, with water to see it become a crust that’s safe for stepping felt particularly inspired. 

There’s a reasonable challenge to be found with the game’s platforming, even if it doesn’t hit the punishing levels found in contemporary titles like Celeste. The boss encounters, however, are not for the faint-hearted, and the nutty escalation of their theatrics is undeniably bloody rad. And though there aren’t a huge number of levels, the pursuit for full completion of the irresistible and often out of reach treasure couples nicely with asserting dominance in the time trials to make Pepper Grinder quite moreish. It only took a few hours to complete the story and hit roughly 60% completion, it’ll be the remaining 40% that’ll really put hairs on the chest. 

And while there are no skills to unlock per se, Pepper does pick up a trick or two throughout her crusade. By the end, you’ll have swapped your drill bit out for a blunderbuss to end piracy like the Copyright Act of 1968 never could, as well as a literal rocket launcher for clearing your path of debris. Pepper Grinder does an exceptional job of doling out new things to tinker with up until its very last stage. In fact, the game presents a few particularly wild scenes that, without spoiling them, caused a few frame rate plummets that I’d not seen until that point in my ASUS ROG Ally playthrough. 

Although there isn’t a photo mode per se, Pepper Grinder gifts players with a ‘sticker book’ which functions as an arts and crafts mode where you’re able to adhere stickers of any and all things, from Pepper to the plain old wooden crates that litter the scenes. Even if it’s relatively pointless, it can be fun to slap together a few unlikely scenarios. Though it’s the unlocking of the stickers that seems naff. Thumbing thousands of coins into each stage’s Curiosity Shop pachinko machine to pursue a full set of stickers through random chance is a dumb, albeit cute, distraction. Without said machines though, the shop’s only stock would be health bumps and coloured wigs and shawls to make your Pepper your own.

If there’s one thing Pepper Grinder puts at the forefront, it’s the energy conveyed through its attitude, score, and action. There’s a crisp pace that keeps things moving along at a steady clip, and proves again and again through its retro-modern level design that a worthwhile playground goes a long way.

PS5 IMPRESSIONS (Kieron)

Having finally had the chance to play through Pepper Grinder thanks to its newfound PlayStation and Xbox release, there’s really not a lot I can say that Brodie hasn’t so eloquently put to page already.

If you, like me, have been holding off on drilling down while the folks at Ahr Ech put the final garnishes on these next couple of platforms, the great news is it’s every bit the compelling experience it was on PC and Switch. Even better for the PlayStation Players is that your adventure is augmented by the usual DualSense haptic feedback shenanigans and there’s a bevy of trophies to unlock. I was lightly surprised by how brief the experience is, but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment and, in my eyes, wanting more of a game is only ever a good thing.

The post Pepper Grinder Review – Crack The Pepper appeared first on Press Start.

Flock might feel like a cosy riff on the Pokémon formula for creature round-up, but more than anything it feels like a love letter to both flight and a keen eye. Observation and discovery are both integral to the game’s core loop and I quite enjoyed how the team found peaceful departures from Nintendo’s regular loop of conquering through force in favour of the kindness of charm, singsong mimicry, and recognising patterns and habits. 

Palworld, for all of its iron fist rule, might have been the Pokémon game people had been wanting, but I think I prefer Flock’s softer approach where no creature, sheep or otherwise, is harmed for the sake of a little fun. 

Flock is a charming take on the “catch ‘em all” formula, placing a huge trilling bird under butt to let you soar like a leaf on a breeze through a vivid, colourful uplands full of several biomes. Those nearest to your Aunt Jane and Uncle Reg’s quaint farm are made up of non-descript grassland, but with every cloudfall more of the game’s world is revealed to include mossy mushroom forests and wetlands.

The ultimate aim of the game is to use the power of your peepers to observe an enormous catalogue of curious creatures in their habitat, charm them and, ultimately, welcome them into your entourage. If you’re off-track and struggling to unearth rarer species, the encyclopaedia can offer vague hints that point generally in the right direction. In any case, the way Flock rewards a studious nature is certainly a gentler approach that, I imagine when compared to grinding your soon-to-be captive pet down through an arduous battle, delivers a better message to a younger audience. 

The game’s sixty or so critters are catalogued by species, and can ultimately be recognised from their specific characteristics and behaviour. Bewls are worm-like little cuties and Skyfish are exactly what you’d expect, the creatures feel like they’re pulled straight from page-to-screen out of a Dr. Seuss picture book. In addition to the many animals you’re able to charm, you can discover, name, and shepherd a small flock of sheep that can be let loose to graze in meadows that obscure the game’s many secrets: valuable whistles required for charming, baubles that somehow increase your flock’s capacity, and fashion catalogues full of fresh wardrobe ideas that let you convert your sheep’s shorn wool into handsome scarves and mittens among other things. 

For all of the menus Flock has, one thing I repeatedly found to be a tad obscure was the game’s narrative structure and how things like cloudfalls were triggered. It was clearly tied to the discovery of a few “legendary” variants, happening upon these quest lines felt like a happy accident more than anything else. I’m able to see so much in the menus: a hugely customisable map with more toggles than you’d know what to do with, a comprehensive catalogue of the creatures I’ve seen and charmed, what I can only describe as an “about us” team splash page for my sheep, and yet there’s no meaningful objective tracker beyond a small text box that can appear on the heads-up giving a pretty vague goal. This should feed into the game’s overall spirit of discovery, however I would have liked a little more structure here.  

I’m in two minds about the flow state of Flock’s flight. Your pitch is determined automatically by environmental contexts around you which, as you can imagine, can lead to some finicky, frustrating instances of not ending up in the optimal spot and having to circle back for another pass. On the other hand, soaring majestically above the uplands makes for some of the most crisp, satisfying movement I’ve had in a game for a while—perhaps since Marvel’s Spider-Man, which captured the web-swinging so perfectly. 

For all of its claims to have been designed with multiplayer co-op in mind, I actually much preferred my time exploring the uplands solo. It handles progress well enough in that if a player enters your game who isn’t at the same depth of cloudfall as you, they’re gated to earlier areas and, more often than not, just do their own thing. It feels more like a means to populate the world and make it seem more social, when in reality the game isolates your goals and achievements from those playing with you.

There’s a simplicity to Flock’s presentation that is rather disarming. Though it’s showy in its use of strong earthy colours and the creature design is fun, the human students and the world itself are visually kind of flat and no-frills. They mostly amount to big, saucer eyes on a shape that is vaguely human, though the animals, for obvious reasons, have defining factors beyond their animal origins. Pinning down their species literally hinges on the player’s ability to recognise the subtle differences between so many similar creatures, whether it’s darting frantically through the air or it has a tuft of fur on its chin, and I think Flock succeeds at making these minor differences readable.

Without any real voice performance in the game, Flock’s original score is forced to do a bit of the heavy lifting—I remember considering it inoffensive and pretty in the moment, but couldn’t hum a bar of it back to myself as I write. If only the player’s hunt was accompanied by the singsong melodies of the creature whistles which don’t feature as much as they could despite their heartwarming, ocarina-like tones. 

As someone who became disenfranchised with Pokémon games in the post-Silver and Gold era, Flock is the last game I expected to get its hooks in me. Obviously, it’s a wildly different take on that time-tested blueprint, placing a greater focus on bearing witness to the wild life than raising your hand to it, and I think Flock is an unexpected shepherd’s delight.

The post Flock Review – Ahead Of The Pack appeared first on Press Start.

More often than not, the survival horror genre depicts otherworldly creatures that make the hairs on your neck stand on end. Some do it better than others, but designing the perfect, alien creature to go bump in the night is an enormous part of the brief. Conscript is unique in that it presents its chilling brand of horror through the lens of World War I, where the monster isn’t some contorted, pulpy mass of eyes and limbs, it’s man. The first-hand, personal violence of conflict is illustrated so deftly in Conflict, as are the consequences of war, both direct and indirect, in a far more grounded, gut-churning manner than we’re used to.

What’s scary here isn’t the unknown terrors lurking around dark corners, it’s the mortal scar that man can cause in the name of God and country. 

Staging a survival horror game in the midst of the Battle of Verdun is novel in its own right, the tale of two brothers at the heart of it maintains a personal, relatable thread throughout what is an otherwise confronting video game that’s a matter of fact show and tell of a battle that claimed more than 300,000 lives. As André, you scour no man’s land itself in search of your brother Pierre, who’s been missing in action prior to the game’s start. You thrust yourself through hell on the hope of reuniting and keeping your family intact, and the dreamlike vignettes where you experience André’s pre-war life at the family’s French cottage are surprisingly nuanced, their quiet is juxtaposed by the thunderous bombardment that’s frequent throughout the remainder of Conscript. 

The game is formulaic as far as survival horror design goes, and remains true to the blueprints trademarked by those who’ve come before. It might not be Spencer Mansion, but Conscript’s trenches, forts, and devastated battlefields form such a memorable, multi-faceted map that reveals more of itself as you progress. It’s a big game, but Conscript’s in-game map is so easily readable I never had an issue in finding a path through the chaos. I wish the same could be said for your objectives which seem to reveal themselves through the commands of your superior officers, but are never noted within the handful of menus you have. From a UX experience, this could have been remedied, and justified narratively, through small diary entries by André as he attempts to quantify the horrors he’s seen. 

Mechanically, it definitely leans classic with a control scheme that’s kind of outdated but exists in service of tension, so I respect it. The movement feels fine, you’re even capable of short jogs and tactical rolls if your stamina permits, it’s the “stop and prop” shooting that left me a little offside at times. To reiterate, I do like the sense of urgency and fear of having to stop and aim carefully before firing, but it’s a constant frustration trying to thumb a full serving of rounds into these century-old firearms which gives the enemy ample time to close the gap. The fear is only heightened courtesy of an erratic crosshair which becomes harder to focus if you’re right in the pressure cooker, and it also speaks to the reality that the French conscripted young men who were far from marksmen. I think that instinct to survive translates to Conscript’s gameplay, regardless of the issues I do have with the weapon reloading, and there’s a brutality that’s extremely evident when you’re rearranging the features of a soldier’s face with a trench shovel. 

In terms of surviving the trench warfare, the biggest issue I faced was the bloody rats. They’re an interesting mechanic in their own right, however, as they’re a direct consequence of death in this war. Until you’re able to collapse their small tunnels, they’ll enjoy the body buffet left behind and happily nip at your heels which is so frustrating. 

While things can get a little abstract in these classic survival horror titles, Conscript’s puzzles felt relatively to the point and kept progression well on track. I’d routinely find a key or tool needed to access the next part of the map, and it never got more complicated than realising that the fire extinguisher you’d found was needed to put out the flames raging in front of the one door leading to the front. However, the need for juggling so many key items does highlight the pain of inventory management that’s prevalent here. For all of the ammo you need to carry to get bang for buck from this low capacity, turn of the century weapons, I wish there could have been a second inventory for quest items to lessen the need for frequent visits to the storage trunks scattered in the game’s handful of locations.

As stated, I do think the game’s maps,  and specifically the environments, are well done. While the bunkers and their dingy lighting are the most claustrophobic and scary parts of Conscript, there’s something profoundly upsetting about the scenes from the overworld. So many buildings reduced to cinders, bands of horses left dead in roadways, and bodies piled up or tossed nonchalantly into creeks. I feel like Conscript is the first game since Spec Ops: The Line that really depicts war as it really is, free from the glamour and “glory” it’s often dressed with. The game’s lo-fi visuals, as well as the brief fully-rendered vignettes that punctuate certain story beats, call to mind a point during the nineties where Conscript’s fidelity would be cutting edge. Thankfully, coupling pixel art with so many poorly lit scenes never compromised the readability of the action, opposition soldiers scrambling toward you were instantly recognisable and collectible items would glint as if to cry out. 

Having seen Conscript on expo floors a smattering of times in the last few years, the game is still a huge surprise for me. It makes such an inspired decision in setting that everything else is icing on the cake, and even the stuff I don’t adore still feels in service of what the developer is aiming to achieve in ratcheting the tension up several notches to create one of the most suffocating video games about war I’ve ever played. 

The post Conscript Review – They Shall Not Pass appeared first on Press Start.

As one who’s never understood the hype, Dungeons of Hinterberg is a unique case in that it single-handedly has left me wondering, based on its dungeons alone, whether I might have slept on The Legend of Zelda for all of these years. While the answer is irrelevant, I think that speaks volumes of just how fun and creative the core pillar of this weird, genres-in-a-blender Frankenstein game actually is. As a final product, it attempts to do too much and lacks focus and, more importantly, polish as each of its parts feel lesser-than when compared to the games it emulates—whether that’s Persona, Breath of the Wild, or any action game worth its salt. 

Dungeons of Hinterberg begins with a getaway for its protagonist Luisa, a law student who retreats to the Austrian Alps in search of escape and adventure. She quickly grows familiar with the townsfolk, builds a rapport with many of them, and discovers an unsettling truth about the magic-borne dungeons that mysteriously appeared in the town, transforming it into the tourist hotbed that it is. I dig the way the game frames conquering these dungeons from multiple angles—what they mean to academia, “slaying” the monsters inside for sport, and their worth to the town and how far those in power will go to ensure the magic never dies. 

Everything you experience in Hinterberg is presented through a very Persona-like four-block cycle that runs from dawn to dusk. The mornings and afternoons would basically be reserved for story beats and bookending the day’s events, while the evenings and nights would be for slaying, and shopping for resources before socialising with any one of the friends you make around town. As you’d expect, spending enough time to turn these acquaintances to friends sees Luisa reap rewards that feed into the game’s other systems, like loot and combat. Obviously it’s dependent on where you spend your time, but I found the cadence at which my combat rewards unlocked, and their proximity to the game’s ending, gave a sense of “too little, too late” in serving as a life raft for the game’s pretty vapid combat. 

While you’re able to unlock combo multipliers through one of your alliances, the meat and bones of Dungeons of Hinterberg’s combat is rather basic. It’s a standard affair of light and heavy attacks, interwoven with well-timed dodges to whittle away at a creature’s health. There are also attack conduits, which are basically special abilities that cool down after use, and they’re certainly helpful in dealing quick bursts of damage—my favourite was the ability to call down a meteor shower in the arena. That said, I definitely do not recommend punching above your weight as taking on waves of enemies several levels above you will spell a quick end for you. There’s definitely a challenge to be found in the game’s combat, it’s more that it becomes mind-numbing and never excited me quite like the puzzles did. 

Each of Hinterberg’s regions has a unique magical hook to it that is confined to that particular area after you earn it from the skill shrine. Whether it’s the hard light snowboard you can use to rail grind to upper decks of a snowy tundra, or enormous jelly blocks you’d use to get a leg up on an unreachable ledge, these powers are also woven into combat situations including one of the most frustrating boss encounters I’ve experienced in a while where I had to take advantage of the infrequent opportunity to lob a plasma orb into a hose on the big baddie’s back like it was the trench run on the bloody Death Star. Most other applications for Luisa’s powers mid-fight were great and added layers to a combat system that needed something else, however I nearly put the game down at this point. 

While the social aspects of hanging out in Hinterberg served to spotlight the magic of friendship, the real magic can be found in the game’s twenty-five, or so, dungeons. A mix of combat and thoughtful puzzle mechanics, they’ve honestly made me ponder on my likely controversial aversion to games like Breath of the Wild, as there’s been something so enriching about the intuitive nature of peeling back the intricacies of these dungeons to earn that stamp at the end—like I’d cleared customs at the border of a strange land. With a handful of biomes and their respective skills to riff on, there’s an undeniable breadth of experiences to be found, including ones that introduce once-off, perspective bending levels and shapeshifting environments with subtle, recognisable changes each loop that signal the maze’s exit. It can be very clever in its design and I definitely took joy, like a real Hinterberg tourist, in chasing all of the stamps on offer. 

For a game so intent on emulating the chic style of the Persona games, it truly fumbles the bag at a user interface level with some ghastly font choices and menus that didn’t exactly inspire me to spend any meaningful time within them. Fortunately, the remainder of Dungeons of Hinterberg is like a charming, eccentrically coloured comic resembling a paint-by-numbers gone mad. The alpine tourist town runs the seasonal gamut, offering not only beautiful snowy slopes but stunning autumnal woods, and the monsters that inhabit it are a fun design mash-up of miry goo adorned with masks inspired by Austrian fable. It might look a little stiff in action, but there’s no denying Dungeons of Hinterberg is a pretty game. 

Nearly all of Dungeons of Hinterberg’s many moving parts feels like a “something borrowed” from other video games that have invariably done that thing better. The dungeons themselves are a clear highlight and their clever design goes a long way to shouldering the spirited sense of adventure that moves the game along. Had they managed to make the loot and social rewards matter instead of routinely handing out the next leveled-up piece to practically open the door to the next dungeon on the list, I might have reflected upon my time in Hinterberg more favourably.

The post Dungeons Of Hinterberg Review – It’s A Kind Of Magic appeared first on Press Start.

While the skate. fans of the world are surviving on morsels of news and, admittedly hilarious, Tim Robinson skits that spotlight the corrupt megacorp at the centre of the upcoming game, I’m keeping an eager eye on Sam Eng’s Skate Story. A regular fixture on my radar since its reveal, this curious indie appears to balance good, honest skateboarding with the tale of one demon’s ascension from an infernal underworld. His freedom is conditional on his ability to skate to and devour the moon itself, which is a metal as fuck concept. 

Having been lucky enough to go hands-on with the game’s first half hour, which introduces the fundamentals of gnashing lines straight out of hell as well as a couple of the key players in Skate Story’s plot of lunacide, I’m definitely a bigger believer in this game’s style than I am its substance—but that’s largely due to the demo still keeping so much close to its vest. The full game is expected to feature seventy-plus tricks, while this small slice only introduces a few old faithfuls: The ollie, pop shove-it, and kickflip.

Unlike the skate. series, which utilises its patented “flick-it” controls, Skate Story’s control scheme still operates out of the “traditional” box, though it’s a little jarring at first. Shoulder buttons determine footing on the board, and combining any given stance with the face buttons determine the trick itself. You can either opt for a simple, single prompt version of the trick that’s low effort but high risk when contending with villainous, ankle-shattering curbs or you might choose to pop it higher courtesy of a timing prompt that reels around as you find your footing. I expect, as it did eventually with skate., that it’ll gradually feel like second nature and you’ll quickly lock into the game’s flow state. 

While it takes getting on the sticks to appreciate Skate Story’s take on the art of skateboarding, one of the game’s obvious lures is its stunning art direction that combines surrealist imagery with lo-fi graininess. The player-character is a spectre made up entirely of glass which indicates a certain level of vulnerability when carving lines through the underworld’s timeless, spaceless void. As a simple dude in his thirties who still harbours dreams of skating and can never resist the urge to pop a kickflip on any deck I come across, I relate with my whole self to the visceral, knee-busting brutality of Skate Story. Although the game checkpoints after each portal you pass through, each and every bail is felt as your avatar detonates with every collision, leaving a trail of glass shards behind.

It’s made all the more primal and rooted into fundamentals by its low, near to the ground camera angle that resembles fish-eye lens popularised by old school skate videography. It gives it a grounded weight and authenticity that feels prevalent despite the game’s dreamlike, otherworldly visuals. 

The journey itself is abstract and strange, as though this hell you’re fleeing from is taking the form of whichever nebulous concepts come to mind minute-to-minute. One second you’re pounding along a track, chasing a rabbit like Alice through gates adorned with all-seeing eyes, and the next you’re waxing philosophical with the chiselled, stone bust of a man, likely bearing historical significance, who presents you with your next hurdle. The half-hour ultimately culminates with you tricking your best tricks to wear down a literal moon before gobbling up its depleted body—it’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen and I cannot wait to see the places this game goes with its mind-bending story. 

Portraying a demon made of glass certainly feels like thematic dynamite, and I hope the arc presented is one that sees them hardened by circumstance as they rescue other tortured souls along the path to their own deliverance. Whatever the story becomes, it feels like solid, technique-driven skateboarding is at the bedrock of Sam Eng’s vision for Skate Story and I’m so excited as someone who has endured the best and worst of Tony Hawk, skate. and Session to get back to basics—even if that means taking the fight to a whole ass moon and all of hell’s army to do so. 

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Having played SteamWorld Dig quite a bit, it was with some arrogance I strolled into an appointment for SteamWorld Heist II. I’d figured all of the team’s games were copies of one another, interchangeably skinned to meet the brief. As it turns out, I was a flipping fool. Not only do each of their steampunk spin-offs deliver on a theme, western or otherwise, they represent several genres. Dig is a traditional action-platformer, Quest is a realisation of the team’s grand role-playing game vision, and Heist, as it happens, it’s a turn-based tactics game. 

So it’s on a humble knee I admit to the team behind these wonderful SteamWorld titles: I’m so sorry, I was not familiar with your game. 

One thing that these games always manage to do is establish a great sense of place straight off the bat, and Heist II is no exception. Set aboard a rock, adrift in space, a band of steampunk robot pirates are forced to deal with a water crisis that threatens to rust and corrode their precious circuitry. It caught me off guard that a game as tongue-in-cheek as this could broach certain, salient societal topics. Heist II manages to skirt them at a surface level but one could definitely draw parallels, staggeringly, to real world politics. 

And stashed neatly within this broader narrative of power abuse and resource conservation is a tale of Captain Leeway, a pirate who very much exists in the shadow of his mother, a legend of the high seas. As he helms her equally notable submarine through treacherous seas, enlisting crew mates at watering holes along the way, it’s his reticence to fulfil his potential amidst the great expectations of him that are shaping up to be the most interesting through line of the entire game. After four hours, my main hope is the game can see the arc through and that it builds as satisfying as it begins. 

As I alluded to, the run of Heist games really feeds into the high-seas, pirating fantasy and, much to my surprise, play like a turn-based tactics title, with all that implies. If I had to draw a comparison to something, it might be Worms except set within the confined hulls of warring ships and oil rigs. It’s a game that does feel like it’d be more palatable on mouse and keyboard as movement is very much a point-and-click exercise as each area is made up of habitable squares. However, with that said, it does work fine on the controller once you’ve got a handle on it. The free-aiming felt great, and the game gives enough control over the camera to make cross-room lobs more than achievable. The only thing that kept tripping me up, and it’s my fault because the game makes it very readable, was giving up a turn by simply moving too far and exhausting both actions in a crew member’s turn. 

But admittedly, it was a demo I walked away from overwhelmed and partially perplexed at how robust so many of the game’s systems are. It’s a lot to pack into a truncated, sub-hour long presentation, though it’s fortunate I’ve been able to, at my pace, play the game’s first few hours again and absorb everything as intended. I’ve now got an appreciation for what Heist offers that’ll propel me through the game’s remaining hours. 

Throughout the first few hours, your aim is to pull together a crew, rescue a mechanic that’s imprisoned by the corrupt navy, upgrade your vessel, and build up enough of a reputation for yourself to escape the walled off Angler’s Reef. It’s a lot, but the game hand-holds with the best of them, and I never felt like I was sinking. 

There’s a terrific variety in the missions, whether they’re integral to the plot or they exist to milk bounty and renown off of, I found I wasn’t constantly scouring levels for epic booty. While collecting treasure is a key part of the game and its currencies, I also found myself escorting hostages through levels, surviving wave after wave of naval guards after tripping an alarm, and scrapping higher-ranked officers. So I didn’t get a sense that things were repetitive, at least judging from the first four hours. In fact, thanks to the need for bounty and loot, there’s a modicum of replay value to be found in each level thanks in large part to how brief they can be. You’ll carve a path through three or four rooms, completing whatever the objective is, before coming out the other side covered in glory. 

Although I haven’t found that team composition is enormously paramount based on the first few hours, each crew member will play slightly differently as they’re funnelled into “jobs” which are determined by their equipped weapon. While assigned these jobs, experience earned will go towards unlocking skills that’ll be useful for that class—for example, one you’ll unlock for the sniper class grants a perfect aim, meaning for a turn the shot’s guideline will be steady and true. There’s a bit of freedom found here as you’re able to flip a crew member’s job at will, they’re never pigeonholed into a certain role meaning a favourite character doesn’t need to be left behind for the sake of a level’s requirements. 

I also loved how the game presents its overworld as it places you into an almost tabletop-like overview of the vast sea you’re in, where you turn navy boats into flotsam and explore for treasure. It’s like sailing on the colourful pages of an atlas. It’s reminiscent of getting around in Funky Rentals’ hovercraft from Donkey Kong Country 3, albeit far more interactive. Upgrades to the tub improve its offensive and defensive power, and story-related upgrades like boosters make the once-insurmountable currents a non-issue as the map opens up beyond the reef your journey begins in. 

I generally have a fair bit of time for tactics-based games like this—I gravitate towards XCOM and Into the Breach is one of my favourite indies of the last decade. Despite missing the first game in this Heist spin-off, there’s plenty about this sequel that I’m really enjoying early on. Its place in the wider SteamWorld legend gives it plenty of personality and humour to compliment the fun, surprisingly robust mechanics that make up the core experience.

SteamWorld Heist II launches for Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and PC on August 8th and pre-orders are live now. Find out more here.

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I’m not even a fan of The Lord of the Rings. Just like another mega-franchise in Harry Potter, it’s a bit of a blind spot for me despite growing up seeing it everywhere. I did go ahead and treat myself to The Hobbit films, but to say it compelled me to return to Middle-earth would be a bald-faced lie. Leave it to a cosy life sim to make preciouses palatable for me, as Tales of the Shire surprised the heck out of me during Play Days. 

The game takes place in the village of Bywater, and is set between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, meaning we’re in a post-Bilbo, pre-Frodo era of the Shire. Although moments from the films would make for better touchstones to a casual like me, the game specifically does pull from the novels. The game’s lead writer is something of a Tolkien scholar and would cross-reference any line referenced from the films to ensure it appeared in the novel first and foremost. Not unlike the many LEGO adaptations, Tales of the Shire puts a funny spin on the source material and kept me grinning from ear to ear throughout my thirty minute demo.

Not only is cooking a core pillar for the game’s loop, it’s far more involved and realised than I ever expected it might be. I expected something tailored towards kids, with the meat and veggies being a simple game of assembly like Overcooked. To discover it’s an involved exercise of chopping, satuéing, and balancing flavour profiles came as such a pleasant surprise. In fact, the mechanics run deeper than a hobbit’s belly. Further to that, sharing your mealtime with friends can help nurture those relationships, which is a wholesome concept, indeed. 

Whether you’re cooking for a friend or to help the local innkeeper, Marigold Potts, build out a new menu in fitting with the tale of Bilbo’s conquest over Smaug. Of course, this means using a bit of spice. Each ingredient is colour-graded to indicate whether it’s sour, sweet, spicy, among other things. Similarly, recipes themselves are by default balanced for one profile but if you’re needing to deliver something on the sweeter side, adding sugar to a rhubarb pie can tip the scales. 

There are other activities to engage in that ultimately feed into cooking for others. Fishing and farming are the big ones, and although I didn’t get to throw a line in, I got a small glimpse at how farming might work. I was particularly taken aback by how much freedom the home deco portion of the game provides. As I went to shift a garden bed full of potatoes to tidy up the yard, I noticed that, unlike other games, there was no grid at all. I was able to place it anywhere, and this freedom extended to each and every cobblestone on the path bordering the house. 

The game is so cute and adorable, and it feels like a welcome take on The Lord of the Rings after a couple of undesirable releases of late. It’s rich in colour and paints Bywater as a scenic, picturesque village of hobbits doing what they do: eating. It’s incredible how a few small animations can elevate an experience because of the unwavering care their simple presence shows. While playing, the demoist gleefully suggested I hold down the right-hand trigger to sprint and it was with quivering anime-like eyes that I watched my hobbit begin to frolic with swinging arms. I don’t believe it was any faster than walking, but it became a non-negotiable for my remaining playtime. 

Similarly, where other games might guide the player using big gaudy arrows or glowing guidelines across the ground, Tales of the Shire has a beautiful alternative where songbirds will land atop signposts in the world and point toward whichever waypoint you have toggled. Once again, it’s a small thing but it’s proof that the developer cares for nothing more than keeping you here, without compromise, in this place. 

Tales of the Shire is an unexpected joy for me. As someone who has never put any time into The Lord of the Rings, I never imagined that a cosy game about communal living and sharing, like only unadventurous hobbits can, would be one to get its hooks into me. I concede it might not be “elevenses” out of ten, but it’s very much Dreamlight Valley for those who covet the One Ring, and that’s a wonderful thing.

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In my 34 years on this pale blue dot, I’ve only ever played Sonic the Hedgehog a smattering of times. I wasn’t ever really a SEGA kid, and my exposure to the ‘Blue Speedster’ has been limited to time spent at my cousin’s house, a couple of Xbox Live Arcade ports, and his recent, and most exhilarating, foray into film. I feel like so much of his history is a blind spot, and if going hands-on with Sonic X Shadow Generations has taught me anything at all, it’s that I have been missing out for a long time. 

Granted, it was only four levels—two from 2011’s Sonic Generations and two newer stages from the brand new campaign Shadow Generations—but it was enough to prove that the Sonic I know isn’t necessarily the Sonic that would go and upend his formula in Sonic Unleashed and regale in a new audience’s love. 

As Shadow Generations is a new experience getting tacked onto Sonic Generations, similar to how Nintendo handled Bowser’s Fury, I thought I’d begin with Sonic and get a sense of where it all began, so to speak. To the initiated, the blend of acrobatic 2D and 3D platforming might not blow your hair back, but to me, a relative newcomer to a decade-old game, I found the direction fascinating. It’s wild, kinetic, and yet I never felt out of control even as the camera whipped back and forth between perspectives, or as Sonic would explode around corners during largely on-rails chains of homing attacks to move him cinematically from scene to scene. 

The cheapest pre-order: $74 at Amazon with free release day delivery

It’s hard to say without having played the original Sonic Generations whether this remaster is going to be the definitive way to experience the game, there were points where I found the screen unreadable due to blur but I’m inclined to chalk that up to the conditions of the demo set up. For my old set of peepers, I was sitting very low, and very close and I expect the game was struggling through fidelity mode which I’m hearing doesn’t hold a candle to the performance mode. But it goes without saying, this small taste has whetted my appetite enough to go back and give Generations the chance I didn’t give it back then. 

While it’s all new to me, Sonic fans are undoubtedly most eager to hear about Shadow Generations. It’s impossible to get a sense of scope for how much new content there’ll actually be, but based on the two levels I explored, it’s going to be a wild ride even if it tops out at five hours. 

Although Shadow has access to a focus power that draws off Chaos energy, which grants him a moment’s reprieve by slowing down proceedings, Shadow Generations feels in keeping with its predecessor on a mechanical level. It doubles down on the speed, attitude, and insanity present in Sonic and cranks the cool factor up to eleven because Shadow, as the “Ultimate Life Form” bioengineered by Dr Robotnik, is inherently cool as hell. 

To contend with his returning archnemesis, Black Doom, Shadow is forced to venture into his past to confront painful memories and, because of this, Shadow’s levels are far and away the most batshit crazy of the bunch. As he skirts the edge of spacetime after Doom’s Eye appears for the first time, setting the stage for an epic showdown that should carry the weight of the campaign’s story, the level begins to fold in on itself like a dream from Inception. It’s a spectacular effect that elevated Shadow’s levels so much higher than the same old Green Hill Zone that Sonic fans are so familiar with. 

Shadow’s other level was a pretty traditional boss encounter where you’re tasked with taking down a biomechanical lizard, complete with big, slapping tentacles growing from its back. It’s a regular affair of learning and dodging its attacks while closing the gap through rapid homing hits before going to town on its enormous weak spot on top of it. To reiterate, the only Sonic bosses I can recall flew about in two-dimensional space waiting for you to jump onto their head and shorten them by two inches before releasing a capsule of woodland critters. Although I’m sure they were present in Sonic Generations, soaking in these bigger, badder fights that adapt the new gameplay concepts excites me.  

So after all of that, I think I’m officially a Sonic fan. 

I might not go and buy myself a pair of Sonic-coloured Puma sneakers and get midnight tickets to the third film, but brief exposure to Generations has made me a believer in Sonic and, by extension of this upcoming release, Shadow. It’s fair to say that the blue blur and friends have the damn stuff.

Sonic Generations launches on October 25th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch and PC.

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Of the cosy games I managed to sample during Play Days, Hollow Ponds’ Flock is, far and away, the most uplifting and joyful of the bunch. With a focus on seamless flight, reminiscent of something like Flow, Flock feels like a love letter of sorts to swift movement, the magic of flight, and coasting along a gentle breeze.

With its wonderfully simple approach to moving through its globular landscapes, there’s a magic to Flock that is understated. The game itself, as judged by the small slice I saw, is all about nurturing and fostering the strange, illustrative creatures that you effectively evict as you make your way through and till Aunt Jane and Uncle Reg’s farmlands. There are shades of Pokémon, there’s no doubt about it, but instead of imprisoning these monsters they join your small convoy as you adventure through the world, which gradually grows bigger as the clouds roll back, revealing even more land to explore. 

Obviously, the loop differs from wearing these little critters down and ensnaring them within little living quarters. I only got to see the tutorial that introduces us to a lot of these elements, but it seems more about natural discovery. It’s a mix of stumbling across these animals ambling around the land and luring them with any of the whistles you’ll collect that practically cat call a creature out of hiding. You then ingratiate yourself to them through a charming, rhythmic mini-game, identify the subspecies from a set of pretty obvious descriptors, and take them along for the ride.

Although there aren’t hundreds of creatures to catalogue, I got a sense that the way you go about discovering each of them is pretty conditional and should be a decent time sink for what is a smaller scoped game like this. Although they all kind of look like flying fish and eel—at least early on—their behaviours vary greatly. I came across a thieving variant covered in stereotypical raccoon-like bandit stripes, as well as a “bewl” who hides in plain sight basking in the sun. On top of building out your encyclopaedia, you’ll have a companion sheep who’ll stay by you and function as a wool self-serve checkout so that you’re able to knit yourself a cape, beanie, or a new pair of socks—one of the best ways to differentiate yourself outside of your colourful winged mount. 

I had to finish up right as the fog curled back to reveal the lands beneath your auntie’s farm. It was unexpectedly vast and had a welcoming presence for adventurers looking to come and dig up its secrets and charm its, at times, reclusive creatures. For consumers looking for a relaxing time to spend with friends, Flock appears to offer good value for its reasonable price point. Throw in the fact that it’s on Game Pass at launch and there’s really no reason not to hop in. 

Regretfully, although Flock is set to be a big, beautiful co-op experience where the friends made along the way make the journey itself, my hands-on was a short sitting limited to solo play. I might have had the skies to myself, but I still came away with an undeniable sense of freewheeling spontaneity. 

To combine the liberation of soaring through the uplands with what is essentially a Pokémon-like collectathon feels like a wonderful fit. Not only does Flock let you knit together the wool you’ve shorn from your companion sheep, it’s full of enough serenity to darn a weary soul. I came to realise that, with its pleasing, colourful art fitting together snugly with its nostalgic creature collection, Flock is a comfort food I’ve been hungering for. 

Flock launches on July 16th for PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

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Star Wars Outlaws emerged as the big standout surprise of last year’s Ubisoft Forward. I can’t claim that it carried with it the new hope for the state of Star Wars video games because, well, Respawn’s Jedi series does exist. And while the stories of Jedi’s Cal Kestis and Outlaws’ heroine Kay Vess might share the very same galaxy far, far away, their experiences promise to be worlds apart and that’s the most exciting thing about Outlaws for me. 

Save for older shooters like Battlefront and Dark Forces, which also deliver on unique perspectives, the Jedi, along with their trusty lightsaber and ties to the Force, have been the constant in just about every Star Wars game out there. In a world where Han Solo’s cocksure charm is a thing, it’s a source of constant surprise that it has taken this long for a “scoundrel” like Han to be represented—outside of a dance floor, that is. 

But that’s exactly what Kay Vess is. She’s Star Wars’ brand new rascal who’s being pulled in all directions, good, bad, and indifferent, all in the pursuit of a better life for her and Nix. Her inexperience in the scoundrel caper makes her the perfect avatar for the player as they plunge into the game’s underbelly to rub shoulders with the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals all while looking for that last big score that might set her up for good. There’s a relatability to that, the want for a better position in the rat race and, so far, that comes through in Kay’s quick-witted charm. 

Having gone hands-on with three distinct missions from within the Outlaws story, it feels like several games rolled into one. There’s a stealth game that places importance on infiltrating strongholds while overriding locks with a Dataspike, there’s a bombastic action-shooter that falls in line with the fundamentals of Massive’s The Division franchise, there’s a rad dogfighting game full of spectacular low-orbit skirmishes against gorgeous backdrops, and there’s a crisp platforming game that feels like a “something borrowed” from Respawn’s Jedi, a sort of sister franchise for Outlaws. Most staggering of all, there’s a level of polish and production poured into each of these elements most games could only hope for—it truly has the aura of an expensive game. 

And while there might be a big galaxy to explore, the three campaign missions on offer were all linear and to the point, each focusing on the above features. 

With the team’s pedigree, it’s no surprise that the gunplay is pretty on point. It, at times, feels loose and apprehensive which speaks to Kay’s tenderfoot beginnings as a gunslinger. Outlaws is, for all intents and purposes, a western space opera and although you can’t duel bounty hunters, Kay can harness her adrenaline to hip fire on a few unsuspecting enemies not unlike Red Dead’s Dead Eye. Although you’re able to pick up half-spent guns from fallen enemies in the field, your blaster really is your best friend in Outlaws as it plays a lone hand in Kay’s limited arsenal. Fortunately, mods can be installed to it throughout the adventure to stretch out its use, both in combat and exploration. By unlocking upgrades for both your hand cannon and your speeder, you’re able to open up previously inaccessible locations much like your standard Metroidvania. The minimalist, one-weapon approach paid dividends for Control’s service gun a while back and I do expect it’ll work out just fine here. 

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I expect I’ll own him in plush form one day, but Nix really is a phenomenal companion to Kay. After all, she’s got his best interests at heart, too. He isn’t just cute, however, and really is rather versatile in the field. The left bumper serves as a catch-all call to action for Nix and highlighting certain things in the environment gives context-sensitive options for what the critter can do, whether it’s lifting a key card from a trooper’s pocket or setting off an explosive trap. One thing is certain, he’s a handy member of the team and was especially helpful during ‘The Relic’, a mission that tasks you with slipping in and out of a Crimson Dawn syndicate with a sought-after curio. 

While it mightn’t deliver on the nimble piloting found in something like Squadrons, with all of the pitch and yaw that comes with that, taking the Trailblazer out for a traipse across the stars feels like being uncaged. While you can quick turn on a dime, it’s hardly an exercise in twitch reaction timing. Sadly, the skybox I experienced felt more like a blank canvas than one splashed with life and opportunity, plus the old girl can handle like a bit of a shopping cart from time to time. The dogfights, as they are, are fine, it’s the exploration aspect that feels a little bit toothless. 

The flying might lack total satisfaction, however setting the ship back down on a planet’s surface from orbit is such a cool feature. Similar to Starfield, you select a landing spot and watch as the ship barrels through the troposphere to touch down on-world. It’s simply a clever and novel mask for loading times but I don’t care, the illusion it gives of seamless space-to-soil transit is worth it and the John Williams-esque orchestral swells punctuate the high-fantasy of these moments.

At this point, and with an admittedly limited sample size, I am not entirely sure what to make of the level design. The wrecked High Republic cruiser you explore highlights some concerns I have, from the infamous paint-splashed ledges suggesting distrust in players to work out the optimal path through to the relatively mundane objectives throughout. Where other adventure games might turn kickstarting the heart of a starship a trial unto itself, all Outlaws demands is the flipping of a few switches. It fell kind of flat especially when bookended by thrilling setpieces. 

But again, that’s a specific example from a level designed to spotlight the game’s platforming. It doesn’t nullify the fact that Star Wars Outlaws is an enormous, varied medley of action tropes and, against all odds—never tell me the odds, by the way—Massive doesn’t miss in delivering an unbelievable level of polish. After some dark times for those at the cross-section of the Star Wars and video games fandoms, we’re so fortunate to live in a time where we’ve now got two franchises that just get it right.

Brodie was a guest of Ubisoft with travel and accommodation covered for the purpose of this preview.

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In a series about an altruist brotherhood of assassins attempting to thwart a global network of magical Templars who seek to harness an ultimate power against the world, Japan has long been the fertile ground Ubisoft has neglected to explore—until now. One must wonder, in a world where Sucker Punch kind of beat them to the punch making an Assassin’s Creed-like set in Japan, whether it’s too little, too late. The series, which had remained pretty consistent up until Black Flag, has taken so many big swings in the last decade that it could be mistaken for a crisis of identity. 

With several irons in the fire, and the Infinity platform looming, Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like an ideal opportunity to concretely and proudly declare what that identity is. The lukewarm response to Mirage, Valhalla’s expansion that spun out into a full budget-priced release, likely spells the end to truncated titles and everything we saw today of Assassin’s Creed Shadows seems to confirm that big, vast experience they’ve become known for is here for good. 

More than anything, our hands-off presentation sought to demonstrate the variety of play on offer in Shadows. And after seeing the same short assassination contract executed in three distinctly different ways, I feel there’s a freedom of choice that I’ve not seen in Assassin’s Creed for a while. 

The first obvious point of difference comes from the game’s dual protagonists, Naoe and Yasuke, who fit tidily into the shinobi and samurai archetypes. The former is a slow, unseen blade that’ll serve up a death by a thousand cuts, while the latter has the crushing force of a tsunami. The contrast is clear as each character serves a different purpose with Naoe being tailored toward those more geared to the quiet, careful approach while Yasuke feels like a total validation of the raging bull playstyle that traditionally sees me come undone in stealth games. As someone who never sticks to the brief by hiding in long grass and shadows, the idea of being able to wreck shop and have it be a completely acceptable way to go about things feels liberating. 

In fact, by offering the contrasting styles, it feels as if Ubisoft is attempting to honour the Assassin’s Creed franchise in its entirety. The original games, back in Altair’s day, placed a greater emphasis on stealth than the more action-centric role-playing games ever did, and combat in general seems geared toward that crowd. The fighting feels tactile and hefty as armour breaks offer narrow paths to decimating a worn down enemy, and it’s often with spectacular brutality that their life is cut short and they’re sent to an honourable death. During his approach to the palace, Yasuke wielded a spiked club that, with powerful efficiency, removed heads from shoulders like a home run baseball. I don’t recall combat ever being so confronting or graphic in an Assassin’s Creed game, however it makes complete sense when we’re dealing with forged katana instead of Middle-Eastern sabres and Viking axes dulled from fierce pillaging.  

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With the way bladed duels with targets are presented cinematically, it’s impossible not to draw comparisons to Ghost of Tsushima. Of course, you don’t need to manage posture and balance in the same way, though it feels filmic and closes down the field of vision, creating a tense one-on-one that makes you feel like a powerful samurai. 

Yasuke can also yield a matchlock in keeping with his go loud approach, it’s obviously slow and packing it for reload leaves you rather vulnerable so it’s a good get out of jail free card rather than a primary approach. Although she can be caught up in melee combat herself, Naoe’s experience as a shinobi means a lot of avenues are available to you to operate more sneakily, such as submerging in ponds using a bamboo thicket as a breathing apparatus and using kunai at range. If you’re forced to close the distance, though, Naoe’s grappling hook just as effectively hooks its claws into flesh as it does the ceramic tile of buildings you’ll scale. 

While I’m sure advancements have been made since Valhalla, the presentation inadvertently demonstrated the imperfect nature of A.I. in the game’s guards, specifically during Naoe’s attempt to sneak into the palace under the cover of darkness. After being blatantly exposed on a rooftop, all it took was laying low in prone on the far side of the roof to cut the pursuit disappointingly short. The grand chase and scrambling up the walls to get at you I’d expect didn’t come. 

There’s no denying that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a pretty game, there’s a clear focus on dynamic lighting that leads to so many opportunities for emergent gameplay whether it’s snuffing out an oil light to remain concealed or identifying a guard’s silhouette behind a screen before plunging a blade through his back, I do love how the shadows themselves inform parts of the gameplay experience. Although old hardware has been left behind with Shadows, I’m not sure the needle has moved quite enough for that to be immediately apparent. The mountainous Tamba region, where our demo took place, is undeniably gorgeous and the blend of nature and township is perhaps as striking as it has ever been. The world itself feels populated and busy enough, as the villagers go about their lives until they’re effectively forced to stop and bow in reverence to Yasuke, whose enormous presence sees him stick out like a sore thumb.

Another way that Shadows ensures no two experiences are likely to be identical is through its change of seasons, which ticks over passively in the background just as its day and night cycle would. Where one player might encounter a pond to wade through in the warmer months, another might find that same pond iced over and therefore impossible to make use of. The way in which the world transforms under the duress of the elements doesn’t seem to extend to bigger exploration in a Click Clock Woods fashion, it merely adds an unpredictability to each and every encounter. 

There were hints at a clan system similar to the one that debuted in Brotherhood and has been a series mainstay in subsequent games, though we weren’t given a larger context outside of being able to send intel scouts into the world. I think the work done here informs the information available to you when hunting a target, for example their behaviours and patrol. 

Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a statement that these big, enormously scoped role-playing games aren’t going anywhere soon. It is evident that, through its dual protagonists, a large focus for the team has been player agency and freedom to play your way, but whether it’s going to respect your time in a way I feel Valhalla didn’t is still a question I’ve got.

Brodie was a guest of Ubisoft with travel and accommodation covered for the purpose of this preview.

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After audiences cooled on The Last Night for reasons, Replaced deftly stepped up to the plate and gave gamers a new noir-cyberpunk adventure to be excited for. In fact, the similarities are so profound I did believe it to be a bit of a rebrand at first. Replaced has showed strongly at Xbox presentations in the past, though what the game is beyond its stunning, gritty coat of pixels was, until now, a bit of a mystery. 

Getting to sit down with Replaced for around half an hour definitely gave a glimpse of what the team is hoping to achieve. And though it’s not entirely what I expected, the way Replaced blends its cinematic influences together to create irresistibly good science-fiction is precisely what I’d hoped for. 

After a risky operation goes wrong, an artificial intelligence named R.E.A.C.H. unwillingly transfers into a human host. The game is set against the backdrop of Phoenix City in an alternate vision of the eighties. The hands-on I experienced was split up into three curated stages, all designed to showcase exactly what makes up Replaced. The prologue was far and away the most cinematic, action-packed portion. After your transference, you’re chased by a paramilitary unit into the bordering woods of the facility in a tense, gripping chase that reminded me a lot of a Playdead game. 

The second, pulled from a bit later in the game, placed me in a dilapidated refuge for the hopeless as I search for a familiar face who might be able to help in restoring a piece of valuable technology. Although it was a bit of a slower burn, it served to build out the characters and settings within Phoenix City, and how it’s teeming with people who need your help, even if it’s as simple as helping barter with a street vendor to help repair a broken telescope, a last vestige of mankind’s curiosity. It might be cyberpunk, but based on my viewing, the world built for Replaced feels far more disparate, which they remind you of in creative ways. It’s presumed that resources are at a minimum, so seeing that the “hot car” you get into at the chapter’s close is fashioned to ride on rails like a tram, I felt, showcased a class of people, and perhaps a world, truly on its knees.

Although flashes of combat had been shown in past trailers for Replaced, I didn’t quite expect for combat to as systemic to the game experience as it is. Where I’d envisioned quick-time encounters you instead combine light and heavy attacks—best for cutting through armour—along with a counter and dodge trade-off that can be used to stagger an enemy or, if the attack is impossible to parry, keep you at their heels. And that valuable piece of technology in need of repair I mentioned earlier? It’s a hand cannon that, when operated by users of flesh and bone, overloads and backfires using its bio-scanner. With no vital signs to speak of you’re able to harness its one-bang firepower against most, it’s especially neat in that there’s no real cooldown to speak of for it, rather it’s tied to how efficient you are in combat.

So I love how one half of the combat system informs the other, it feels well considered and, again, surprisingly thought out for a cinematic, indie cyberpunk adventure. 

It’s no question that Replaced’s centrepiece, and the main reason I’d managed to conflate it with The Last Night at all, is certainly its art direction. It manages to combine pixel art with the bells and whistles you’d expect from bigger projects, like the dynamic lighting effects that set it on a bar above anyone that’d dare consider themselves a contemporary. Not only that, but the movements are so beautifully animated. Just bounding through the woods evading the ominous red spotlight of fly-by drones, all the while leaping or rolling over downed logs, depending contextually on how late you left the jump, looks spectacular. Plus, for anyone that keeps up with our tastes, the game has an abundance of warm, synthy vibes that aggressively drive home the cyberpunk, retrofit aesthetic.

So while the game’s combat came as a pleasant surprise, it’s still very much pushed along by its cyberpunk spirit—which riffs very much on foundational works like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Leave it to an independent, 2.5D action-platformer to absolutely capture the film noir quality after taking inspiration from the genre’s prime movers. Replaced comes away from the summer’s showings as one of the year’s more promising indies.

Replaced is coming soon to Xbox and PC, including a day one launch on Xbox Game Pass.

The post Replaced Hands-On Preview – A Promising Cyberpunk Thriller appeared first on Press Start.

There has been something of a resurgence for good, old-fashioned horror of late. It’s a mix of creatives taking bold risks, streamers dedicating their nightly schedules to the genre, and audiences just being hungry for the adrenaline spike that comes with a good scare. Whether it’s exploring liminal spaces, manning a closed-circuit security outpost, or brandishing a shotgun in a game of life and death, variety and bespoke experiences are key to making a splash in a now-crowded space. 

That’s why, for me at least, I absolutely welcome the move into video games by Jason Blum, and by extension Blumhouse. The man has prided himself on getting respectable returns on lean production budgets all the while delivering unique horror. And the fact he’s partnering with independents within the video game space to craft smaller, focused experiences that can fill out the Blumhouse Games slate feels like a small lifeline for a hurting industry. 

Granted, Sam Barlow, who is partnering with Blumhouse on a joint project with Brendan Cronenberg, enters the arrangement with an already stellar catalogue including Her Story and Immortality. But the same probably can’t be said for the husband and wife duo responsible for last year’s Fear the Spotlight, which is now the first game set to release from Blumhouse in the form of a reworked PC release alongside console versions later this year. For them, you expect the opportunity is everything.  

With its re-launch unveiled at Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest alongside many other new titles, Fear the Spotlight still managed to be a standout for me. Based on a twenty-minute demo I went hands-on with at Play Days, it’s very much a tone piece that riffs on the classic horror tropes found in games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

Interestingly, the game has no combat whatsoever. It instead relies on its stifling atmosphere and puzzlecraft, which has you interact with, and manipulate, items to carve a path through a series of roadblocks. The demo delivered on both fronts as Vivian Singh, a model student, and a friend rebelliously break into her school’s library to evoke the supernatural using a ouija board. The morbid catch is that a fire ripped through the school years prior and claimed the lives of countless students, which contributes greatly to an air of unease.

One of the brief presentation’s most effective moments comes when Vivian, along with her friend Sam, set up four candles around the ouija board. Their short seance screeches to a halt as spirits wreak havoc in the library, upending shelves and snuffing the candles which plunges the scene into darkness. One by one, using the matchsticks in your inventory, you relight them to reveal Sam is gone. I won’t spoil what happens next but rest assured it takes a weird turn that I’ll be absolutely seated for, but it does go to show how effective good horror can be in spite of a smaller scope and presentation that, while back in vogue, harkens back to the nineties.

And novel twists on classic mechanics help stamp something of an identity for Fear the Spotlight. The old guard might have had you manage the main character’s vitality through plants and bandages, Viv’s lung function appears to be the big concern here. Although I didn’t exactly see it in action, instances of her panicked breathing coupled with finding an inhaler of hers locked away in the library office nod to a clever take on the formula. 

If the remaining games in the Blumhouse slate can offer bespoke moments like the above, I do believe the future of horror is in safe, genuinely caring, and most importantly sustainable hands. Blum’s infectious excitement when simply announcing these games on stage points to an enthusiasm that’d likely be absent were it anybody else. 

In Blum we trust. 

The post Blumhouse’s Move Into Video Games Is A Welcome One For Horror Fans appeared first on Press Start.

As I sat down to play Neva, my last hands-on in a long, exhausting few days, the game’s intro began. Scenes of the its painterly, natural world – yet to be touched by the looming rot – go by, all punctuated by an emotionally-charged score from Berlinist. I turned to the Nomada Studio developer to my right and said: “I’ve got a bad feeling this game is going to make me cry.”

“We hope so,” he quickly replied. 

Neva’s original announcement trailer, which depicts a mother wolf fighting alongside the player character against the cursed darkness that attempts to claim their world, serves as the game’s heartrending opening salvo. You’re left brokenhearted as Neva, the wolf cub, nuzzles up against the young woman for comfort as both of their worlds are upended. In just five minutes, Nomada delivers the crushing, emotional deliverance it takes others hours to eek out—it’s almost Studio Ghibli-like in its utter disregard for your happiness. 

I’m looking at you, Grave of the Fireflies. 

Once the game proper begins, we naturally run rightward into the world, taking in what uncorrupted splendour is left. You’re accompanied by Neva, still no more than a pup, whose hesitance toward the foreign woods and fields is so real and endearing. The fact that she, at first, needs a reassuring pat on the snout to be drawn along on this adventure is a beautiful touch that, along with the singsong way the heroine calls out to Neva when she’s distracted taking a sip from a brook or trying to catch butterflies, speaks to the burgeoning relationship between the pair. Though I’m sure it’ll be leveraged into complete devastation the further in we go, I’m going to focus on the nicer, less traumatising stuff I got to play. 

The introductory portions, as you’d expect, and the paths designed serve as an intuitive obstacle course that teaches the player the very basics of traversal—jumping, double jumping and combining both with the hero’s dash. The other mechanics in the game, such as downward plunges with the sword and interacting with items of interest, are signposted, of course. 

Granted, being the artful experience that it is, the fundamentals of the game are kept pretty simple. That said, expanding upon their team and increasing their resources for Neva has led to a more diverse and scaled up experience than Gris was. Where that game wrapped up all in a couple of hours, we’re told Neva should last more than double that at around 5-6 hours. 

The nameless young woman is also armed with a broadsword that she uses to defend herself and Neva. In terms of swinging the steel, a light attack is really your main means of offense, but it’s obviously effective pairing it with a well-timed dodge to get in behind creatures. Surprisingly, it isn’t the hero’s skill set that expands in Neva, rather it’s Neva herself who’ll gain powers as she grows which help the player in their journey. Unfortunately, the forty or so minutes I played didn’t shed light on just what the powers might entail, but all I want is the best for Neva. 

The twisted, ink black creatures that peel themselves from the rot don’t pose an enormous threat if you’re decent at action games, but when combined with hazards, like the long ropelike arms that emerge from above and below, they can begin to overwhelm. I could gush for hours about the game’s art, but the way this corroded threat is presented, particularly the smaller grunts with their long, slender frames and ghostly white masks, is chilling. Even more disconcerting is the boss encounter against the giant, distended version of these monsters who’d, until that point, pursued you. With only a sword, the best attack becomes learning to recognise his patterns to keep behind him, slashing away at his bulbous calves.  

Outside of Neva’s worried whining and the hero’s calling out to her, there’s really little to no dialogue in the game. This is in keeping with how Gris presented its world as it was, offering as much storycraft as the player was happy to seek out and dream up based on the ruinous remains of that world. Neva similarly banks on player curiosity to fill in the blanks, like pondering who the architects of the monolithic, dreamlike totems might have been and for what purpose they still remain. It’s really the best kind of environmental world-building, it’s there if you want it but it doesn’t feel pivotal to enjoying what is simply a beautiful game.

Despite making me want to go back and play Gris again, I can already tell Neva is going to be a game that speaks to its audience. Its beginnings might be sorrowful and blue, however, as these two spirited travellers leave their imprint the gloom lifts and carves out room enough for just a sliver of optimism.

Neva is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch and PC in 2024.

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Heart Machine is a fascinating developer in that their triptych of releases, beginning with both Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash and now adding Hyper Light Breaker to the mix, all share a universe while being unique and starkly different from one another. Drifter was a moody, contemplative pixel art Soulslike of sorts while Solar Ash was a melancholic tour on skates of a ruined civilisation at the edge of a black hole. There’s an inherent sadness and loneliness to the game’s universe that looms over the often confusingly fun gameplay loop.

Despite their differences however, the similarities are clear. There’s an unmistakable iconography that cuts through everything else to create a sense of a shared heartache. Hyper Light Breaker, technically being a prequel to Drifter, is no different.

If you threw concepts found in both Drifter and Solar Ash into a blender, you’d get something resembling Hyper Light Breaker. Of course, it’s all filtered through the roguelite genre which is a first for the series. The game, which is expected to launch into early access soon, is set to be a co-op experience however the build we got hands-on with didn’t have it enabled. I did manage to walk away with a good grasp on how to construct a run, how to best navigate the map depending on how exactly it’s populated, and the game’s place within the grand sci-fi tapestry that is Hyper Light.

Though it’s greatly expanded upon, Hyper Light Breaker’s feels like it riffs on the frenetic, punishing action found in Drifter. There are new elements of strategy and customisation that greatly determine how you approach each run, plus the beauty of having a roster of Breakers to go into battle with is that there’s a decent variety in style. Unfortunately, in the build I played, all three Breakers were set up pretty similarly with guns in front of mind. After I’d settled on Goro as my go-to, I ventured into the Overgrowth for my debut run.

And it was a quick run.

In my hubris, I’d forgotten Breaker is, indeed, a roguelite and that comes with the usual baggage. You begin soft and squishy, and if you bum rush and go gung ho you’re going to be laid to rest quick smart. And I was. With my first life spent, I took a long walk back through the Cursed Outpost, which serves as the game’s central hub that’ll populate with vendors as you progress. With a restock and some sage advice from the developer watching me flail about, I got back out there.

In an effort to learn from my mistakes, I opened the map to get a picture of what this run might offer. In addition to the three boss strongholds, which require gate keys found throughout the map, several areas of interest can be seen: weapons to uncover, elite enemies to take out, and artefact fragments to activate that help peel back the layers of the narrative, which is told entirely by beautifully illustrated comic panels. The ones I got to take a look at provided context, and something of a humanising origin story, for one of the game’s bosses, Dro.

The worst thing about roguelites is that feeling of reset after dying, I feel like by having a handful of them it gives more freedom to move through a run tactically. There’s also the possibility of returning to the outpost to buy and sell gear, depending on what you’ve found in the Overgrowth. Extracting is far from a cakewalk though and involves activating a beacon, finding the extraction zone as signified by the enormous sky beam, and surviving long enough to get out. It’s a small thrill that feeds perfectly into the risk-reward nature of the sub-genre.

My last ditch attempt to take down the sole boss available in the build, Exus, ultimately fell short, but I felt I’d improved out of sight having picked the game up only half an hour prior. And that right there is the mark of a fine roguelite: live, die, live again, only with experience and know-how that’ll hold you in better stead for the next run. Linger in a run too long, though, and you’ll be pursued by an assassin, not unlike the cute ghosts who try to hurry you along in Spelunky. As a trial, they come down somewhere between the elites and Crowns, like Exus.

The game shares Solar Ash’s electrified neon aesthetic, so rich with colour. Vibrant pinks and blues, once again, feature strongly in this mind-bending that world shifts at the whim of the curse on the lands. All of the aforementioned iconography is unmistakably cryptic and nods once again to that universe Heart Machine are crafting. I can’t wait for the Adi Shankar adaptation, while we’re at it. Please, Netflix. While I think Hyper Light, as a property, loses part of its charm shifting from pixel art, its identity definitely isn’t totally lost.

With Hyper Light Breaker launching into early access, I’m sure the game I played at Play Days will look nothing like the game it becomes in twelve months. There’s bugs to squash, mechanics to tighten—I don’t particularly love the movement through the Overgrowth, for the creator of Solar Ash it feels kind of like a backward dash. But that’s also the value of a release plan like this, I expect a community of Breakers will be extremely valuable for a team like Heart Machine to organically shift and shape the game as if it were the Overgrowth itself.

Hyper Light Breaker enters Early Access soon on PC. Wishlist it here.

The post Hyper Light Breaker Hands-On Preview – Break On Through appeared first on Press Start.

After the initial reveal for Star Wars Outlaws at last year’s Ubisoft Forward, I got to speak with Massive Entertainment’s Julian Gerighty, the man tasked with helming the game’s creative direction. With a clear passion for Star Wars, we spoke about how they’d bring this particular scoundrel tale to life. 

With another year of teases and reveals, and after having some time of our own on the sticks, we were fortunate to speak with Julian once again about Star Wars Outlaws as the team races at lightspeed towards its August release date. 

There’s obviously a preconception as to what makes up a “Ubisoft game.” As Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t seem to adhere to that model, was that a focus to differentiate the game from the pack?

JG: Not really, you’ve got to keep in mind that this is a Massive game and it’s from the team that did The Division, The Division 2, and so it’s already very different to the usual Ubisoft formula. 

I think we have to be conscious of it, but there was no point where we said: “Let’s be the anti-Ubisoft game.” It’s more that this is the game that makes sense for this scoundrel open-world adventure we’re creating. 

What struck me is that parts of Outlaws feels like a space-western, especially with Kay’s Dead Eye ability—I didn’t catch what it was called. Can we expect straight up duels? 

JG: I call it Dead Eye too, so you’re not alone. It’s called the Adrenaline Shot or something.

There aren’t duels, but there are scripted situations where you’ll be in stand-off situations but it’s not in the way you’re hoping, it’s not systemic to the game. 

On the combat, how can we expect that to evolve throughout? I got the sense that your blaster is your only friend and that you upgrade it rather than broaden your arsenal? 

JG: One hundred percent. There are different modules to the blaster that allow it to be an all-in-one. You know, it’s stun, charge, it has explosions. Changing the module will obviously change the impact type of your blaster, but you can also pick up weapons from fallen enemies, whether you send out Nix or collect them yourself. 

It creates these moments of opportunity where you’ll find something and you try and use it and once it’s spent you go back to relying on your blaster again. 

And clearly if she’s close enough Kay can throw hands as well. How deep is that system, is it similar and you’re able to grab stun rods and things like that? 

JG: Yeah, that’s in the video that you’ll soon discover. 

Do you feel that Star Wars Outlaws can be approached without a working knowledge of the franchise? 

JG: One hundred percent. I think the only prerequisites are that you’re attracted to open world agency and science-fiction. Taking a space ship and going into the stars, into orbit and hyper jumping. 

If that doesn’t completely turn you away, this is a great scoundrel, outlaw adventure that isn’t exclusively Star Wars but is very faithful to Star Wars at the same time. 

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If someone wanted to get up to speed with where Kay is placed in it all, what would you say is the required reading? 

JG: It’s not even Kay’s story, it’s more about the context. And that context is the original trilogy, it’s obviously set in between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, it’s that one year period between those movies where the Empire has just slaughtered the Rebels at Hoth. There’s this power struggle within the galaxy with the Empire gaining more power, more reach, leaving the criminal syndicates to fill the blanks and take advantage of the chaos. 

So that’s the context, and it’s the perfect context for this outlaw story. It’s about someone who’s going to weave their way through the different syndicates, that’s the story we’re wanting to tell. 

When it comes to progression through the world itself, do the blaster upgrades serve to open up gated areas much like a Metroidvania? 

JG: Yes, they do! I don’t think we’re showing any of it here but there are upgrades for your blaster and your speeder that allow you to grow access.

Metroidvania is exactly what we were going for to encourage you to revisit planets and different locations to uncover all of their secrets.  

How pivotal to the core experience is the reputation system and how radically can it change your playthrough?

JG: I think, for me, the conception behind it was that even within a linear story having this very personal relationship with each one of the factions creates something where it gives you agency of deciding who you want to side with. 

Many of the quests, almost all of the quests, have a dilemma. Do I steal the information and give it to the Pikes, or to the Hutts? Doing that will increase your reputation, it will gain you access into forbidden strongholds and vendors, even more missions and contracts. That’s if you’ve got a good relationship with them, if not they’ll send people after you to keep you from these strongholds and so forth. So it changes plenty of things—your access, your equipment, your loadout, and your approach to different problems you’re going to face in the game. 

Say my reputation with the Crimson Dawn is in the toilet, is there content that I’ll miss? 

JG: Totally. There’ll be outfits, there’ll be charms, and there’ll be upgrades for your character that you can miss. 

Is there a way to double back and revisit some of that stuff? 

JG: Of course, even post-credits you’ll be able to experience the open world and you can play around with that reputation system. 

Being one of two modern Star Wars video game franchises out there, did you learn anything from Respawn to inform what you’ve done with Outlaws? 

JG: I think it’s just admiration for what they’ve done, right? I think they’re one of the best teams in the world and while I can’t say that we took anything from them, they deliver a different player fantasy, there’s definitely just huge admiration. I played all of those games, front to back. 

There’s part of the chronically online crowd online who have had quite a reaction to Outlaws and to Kay in particular. Has there been a need for the team to throw their arms around Humberly? 

JG: I don’t think so, I think everybody is going to have an opinion. That’s super fine. This game was made with a huge amount of love and passion for the original material. 

There are hundreds and hundreds of people working on the experience and I think we’ve delivered a very authentic Star Wars adventure with truly relatable characters, situations, and beautiful recreations of the world. 

So the biggest critics are ourselves and I kind of love what we’re doing so I’m happy with the way it’s going. 

You can read our hands-on preview of Star Wars Outlaws right here.

Brodie was a guest of Ubisoft with travel and accommodation covered for the purpose of this interview.

The post We Spoke To Star Wars Outlaws’ Creative Director About Crafting An Open-World Scoundrel Adventure appeared first on Press Start.

It might be one of a handful confirmed Assassin’s Creed titles currently in development, alongside Hexe, Jade, and others, however none are as imminent as Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the developer’s long overdue first foray into the culture and storied history of Japan.

Following its leak and subsequent reveal last month, we were able to partake in a behind-closed-doors, hands-off presentation on the game. 

It’s shaping up to be a mammoth project, sharing more similarities with Valhalla than perhaps any other game in the series, and we were lucky enough to speak with the man with his hands on the wheel, the game’s director Charles Benoit. 

I get the sense that, more than any Assassin’s Creed game before that Shadows is taking some big swings. Can you go into some of the things you’re doing differently this time around?

CB: First of all, we’ve got the dual characters, that’s our big thing where we’re able to split the gameplay into two parts. There’s also the dynamic world, also the seasons, so it has a new impact on gameplay but also how you see and unlock missions. 

There are also a few new things that play into the stealth, which you would have seen in the demo. There’s the grappling hook, as well as an entire dynamic perception that’s affected by light and shadows. Those are just a few of the things we’ve changed. 

I feel through Yasuke I’m validated as a brute force sort of player. I’m no good at keeping to the long grass and hiding. Did the decision to include dual characters stem from story requirement, gameplay requirement, or both? 

CB: It’s really both, when we looked at the two fantasies—the samurai and shinobi—both were equally cool for us so we wanted to have both. They come from different places, from different social hierarchies so story wise it makes total sense to have both. 

But for gameplay it’s also something I wanted for players to kind of challenge them. Because if you can fight as well as you can use stealth there’s real no consequence to trying and getting caught and so we’re able to push both respective options. 

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And what made Yasuke the most compelling lead for a game set in Feudal Japan? 

CB: There’s a couple of things. Looking at him, he’s clearly a presence. If you compare him to any other samurai, he stands out and so including him to, again, split up that gameplay experience is one of the reasons. 

In terms of story, when we were reading about this character, Oda Nobunaga, there’s a relationship there between the two so it gives one perspective on the events of the game to have one on the side of Oda in Yasuke, and the other in Naoe on the opposite side being crushed by Oda’s tactics. 

It allowed us a great perspective on this historical character. 

A lot of effort always goes into realising the cultures in Assassin’s Creed games, what lengths did you go to in realising Japan? 

CB: From day one we have a historian with us to read up and help pinpoint what’s interesting. She had plenty of expert contacts around the world—and in Japan, obviously—and we’d lean on that to validate and confirm any questions we had about the period. 

The last few games paid special focus to their mythologies—Egyptian, Norse, and so on. Can we expect Shadows to take a similar approach? 

CB: For now we’re leaving it aside because we feel like the samurai and the shinobi are kind of mythological in some way, the imagery of both are really strong so we didn’t feel like anything else was needed.

I also feel like people are already familiar with the myths of Greece, more so than they’d know of Japan. But you never know, maybe in the future. 

One of the complaints people levelled at Assassin’s Creed Valhalla pertained to the game’s content bloat. Was there an effort to trim up the experience and add value to every minute spent there? 

CB: So the way we structure the story we give the player a lot of autonomy on what they want to tackle, and in what order. You’ve got the targets you’ll need to pursue on the main path—I obviously don’t want to spoil the story—but it’s up to you to just complete what you want, whether that’s everything or focusing on the storytelling is up to you. 

And with so many irons in the fire right now for Assassin’s Creed is right now an exciting time to be a part of the franchise? 

CB: Yeah, it’s really exciting to be a part of, especially for Japan. 

It’s been a long time coming…

CB: Yeah, and I remember when I first started in the video game industry I saw the first Assassin’s Creed, and I thought: “I want to make this game.” Of course, I was imagining it in Japan all the way back then. So I’m super happy to be working on this project.

Onto the seasons and how they impact the gameplay, to be clear I’m imagining Banjo-Kazooie’s Click Clock Woods here. Can we expect variation in the map to the extent that something might be available in Summer that isn’t quite gettable in Winter? 

CB: Using the demo that you saw, I’ll give you an example of some things you might expect. You would have seen there’s a pond you can use to infiltrate. In winter, it’s completely frozen over so you can’t use this and if you run on it you can even slip. 

It does change the layout a bit season to season and switches up where you can hide, enemies have different patrols—they also have different behaviours in the winter when it is cold. But yeah, there’s little things where you’re able to use different things in your surroundings. 

So is it possible for players to play that mission we saw at different times of the year in different seasons? How fast do the seasons elapse? 

CB: Well we’re still tweaking it, but as you play in the background we have a timer similar to the day-night cycle which we divided in these chunks and so it creates the opportunity and possibility for outcomes like you’ve described, depending on the order in which you tackle things.

You can read our in-depth preview of Assassin’s Creed Shadows right here.

Brodie was a guest of Ubisoft with travel and accommodation covered for the purpose of this interview.

The post We Spoke To Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Director About Finally Bringing The Series To Japan appeared first on Press Start.

Following the Xbox Games Showcase, which featured a brand new story trailer for Avowed, we were fortunate enough to sit down for a quick chat with those who are bringing this Pillars of Eternity spin-off of sorts to life.

We spoke with the game’s director Carrie Patel as well as Matt Hansen, the art director and the man responsible for that key art.  

It’s worth noting this was a Q&A setting alongside other outlets therefore opportunity for questions was limited. However, we got to ask about departing from the regular Pillars formula, how player agency looks in Avowed, and whether developing for an audience like the one Game Pass has changes things for Obsidian. 

Avowed is looking better and better every time we see it, is the game content complete at this stage?

CP: We are already content complete, we’re just polishing and bug fixing. 

Is there a trepidation that moving away from the Pillars of Eternity formula in favour of an action RPG might alienate some of those original fans? 

CP: Personally I don’t think so. Everybody has different tastes, right? 

We were very heartened by how everybody took to The Outer Worlds, I think folks that enjoyed that style of gameplay and combat are going to enjoy Avowed just as much. 

The art direction, for me, has been personally so eye-grabbing and the response to that key art has been enormous. Is that gratifying for you as a creative? 

MH: Tremendously so, it felt so good. I mean we took a lot of creative risk with the key art and I was so grateful Microsoft supported that for us. Because at any point they could have been like: “Keep it tame,” right? 

One of the things we want to do with this game is embrace the weird of the world and that was a good opportunity to do that. Obviously with the art throughout as well, there’s a lot of commentary on how colourful the game is. That’s been a really cool opportunity to explore a fantasy setting in a non-traditional visual approach. 

And you’ve seen this throughout the franchise, Pillars was a very hero-centric, typical Western fantasy. It was very Dramanic, while in Deadfire we moved into more Polynesian flavours. In Avowed we’re continuing that trend by pulling in so many inspirations from world cultures throughout history and it’s a really satisfying process and it’s very satisfying to see people responding to it the way that they have. 

What are some examples of player agency or choice that are present throughout Avowed? 

MH: That’s a tricky one without getting into spoiler territory, suffice it to say that lots of narrative beats give you a choice where it’ll either have an immediate payoff or a ‘down the line’ pay off. 

But also, having subtle instances of that as well. Making decisions you don’t really recognise as critical decisions in the moment that have rippling consequences that kind of surprise you.

CP: One of my favourite moments, and it’s in the early game but I’ll still be kind of vague, is where you’re asked to help out this Aedyran guard—you’re from Aedyr—with something she’s investigating. 

So if you say: “I’ll look and I’ll help you,” you can find the thing she’s looking for and then you can choose whether or not to tell her about it knowing that there are going to be consequences for the other person involved in this interaction.  

And based on what you do or don’t do there, several hours later, you may come across the results of that choice in a pretty meaningful way, in a crit-path moment for that region. There are little moments that can pay off in big ways, there are big moments that pay off in really big ways, and there are moments where it’s the accumulation of choices you’ve made over the course of the game that can lead another character to trust you, compromise with you, or refuse you outright. 

Has developing an RPG like this for Game Pass, knowing it’ll be exposed to potentially millions of players it might not have before, changed your approach to development? 

CP: I mean I think every game is its own thing and you have to approach it as its own vision, its own set of goals, its own little creature that you’re nurturing. So for us, I think it’s always just been about making Avowed the best version of Avowed we can, and I think that’s true of all of our games, whether that’s Pentiment, whether that’s Grounded, The Outer Worlds, or Avowed. 

We just approach everything trying to understand and grasp what’s the vision and what’s the experience we’re trying to give to the player. 

MH: Yeah, I think the real impact of that wider audience comes after the fact. We see the reaction from a much wider swathe of perspectives and people than we normally would and we can respond to for the future and grow that much faster as a result.

And that’s super exciting, going from a tiny library to a giant, metropolitan library, going from a small number of influences to a large number of influences. And you might not go into that library going: “I’m going to check out every book there is!” But coming back to that library a second time—I’m sorry, I’m drawing this analogy and now I’m too far, but coming back to our next game and seeing the experience of so many people who are not “traditional RPG fans” that can become RPG fans if we listen to them and are consciously aware of what they want in games. 

We can pick and choose what of those things we want to experiment with, but it’s a really wonderful opportunity and I think it’s unlike anything this industry has had the chance to work within before—that broad of an audience. So it’s been very satisfying. Scary, but satisfying. 

What makes Avowed the most mechanically unique game from Obsidian’s roster of RPG titles? 

MH: We’ve learned a lot from past ones, that’s the easy answer. But I wouldn’t say it’s the most mechanically complicated, right? If you’re playing Pillars on Path of the Damned difficulty, you need spreadsheets, you need to be min-maxing every decision. 

And we didn’t really want to do that with Avowed because we didn’t want to take players out of the action. So unlike Pillars where you can pause the game and think, there’s not that level of complexity but the complexity that does exist exists in a more kinetic way. 

I think Carrie alluded to this earlier, that sensation of taking a couple of shots with the pistol, then I’m going to blast into the combat with charge and pull out my broadsword. Those sorts of moment-to-moment decisions become things the player can experiment with, internalise and make a part of their core playstyle and switch up. 

There’s a tremendous opportunity for weaving different things together and I think that’s a continuation of how the Pillars franchise has worked. But it’s more of a visceral, moment-to-moment experience rather than a high-tactics approach. 

On discussing the scale of Avowed:

CP: It’s going to be comparable to The Outer Worlds. And as with all of our games, it’s going to depend on how much you invest in side quests, how widely you explore, what difficulty you choose. 

But roughly comparable to The Outer Worlds is a good way to look at it.

At least that speaks to replayability? 

MH: Oh, yes. We’ve drastically expanded the game since we did this but we once had an extended playthrough with the whole team. And without giving specific numbers, I played the game for five times as long as some other people. 

I’m like that, I want to go do everything. There’s a wide breadth of time you can spend with it based on how you want to play the game which is one of the things I like about it. Because I’m playing it for work I’m willing to spend all of that time, but I also have a lot in my life that I want to do and this is a game that can also respect that.

Avowed is coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2024, and will be available with Xbox Game Pass on day one.

The post For Avowed Developer, Obsidian, Game Pass Is A “Wonderful Opportunity” To Get Broader Player Feedback appeared first on Press Start.

Anger Foot is a hot mess of several crazy ideas, as a sneakerhead is drawn by consequence into a city-spanning vigilante mission to snatch back his prized collection of kicks. The brogue rogue puts his best foot forward to tackle crime, legs akimbo, in Shit City, leaving gangs kicked to pieces in his wake. It’s fantastically stupid and a hell of a lot of fun. 

I’m glad that since I last played Anger Foot, its brand of frenetic, kinetic (or “kicknetic” if we can force that into being) gameplay has found some structure by being funnelled through a relatively loose plot of shoe rescue. The basic premise sees you storming Shit City’s outskirts and apartment blocks in equal measure and kicking, or shooting, the shit out of every hoodlum in your path. You’re first set upon the Violence Gang and make your way through the city’s scum from that point on through a series of relatively short stages that task you with breaching the building and clearing house.  

In addition to your crushing green quads and wrecking ball feet, you can pick up and use guns in each level, from pistols to uzis and shotguns. The gunplay itself isn’t bad, though being forced to hip-fire with no option to aim down sights feels like a huge miss and leaves the shooting feeling like an afterthought and the least preferred form of attack. Laying the slipper into waves of thugs is hilarious, though. There’s an odd, floaty acrobatic feel to performing jump kicks against gangbangers that reminded me a lot of F.E.A.R. which I concede is a weird pull, but if you know you know.

Even as I near the end of the second set of levels, with each being tied to a gang’s stronghold within Shit City, I’ve found the variety of thugs has kept me on my toes. Even if skipping gunplay in favour of kicking the ever-living suitcase out of people is a viable route to take, and some of the game’s level-specific challenges ask this of you, closing the gap can become difficult as enemies are armed with quick-fire submachine guns and grenades which, at range, can put you out of commission fast. 

This feeds into my one big frustration about Anger Foot. For all of its efforts to be a kooky Rick and Morty-esque take on the Hotline Miami formula of breach and clear, the levels ultimately felt a hair too long to draw me into repeat visits. In terms of level design, the paths through some of the more bloated levels are also so labyrinthian that the most direct path is seldom easy to find amidst a series of similar-looking rooms. The absence of checkpoints full stop exacerbates the cheap deaths and makes that rewind back to the start of a nearly two-minute level painful. 

Of course, in terms of avoiding this, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Like Hotline Miami, enemies can be baited into danger from doorways, leaving them as sitting ducks as they pile through. It’s an exploit I’m not proud of, but it’s handy in a pinch. Otherwise, Free Lives has included several accessibility toggles to let players modify the challenge, so to speak, which I do commend in a game designed to frustrate. Switching to God mode and cheating the game of its rewards might not be rewarding, but it’s there if you want to build out your sneaker collection with no fuss. 

Each of the game’s levels has a maximum of three stars to earn, with one coming at the completion of the stage, while the others are tied to certain challenges—blowing a certain number of baddies up with explosives, going barefoot, or besting a time trial are among those you’ll face. You’ll unlock a new set of perked-out shoes for every five stars you earn. None are necessarily brand names, but there are plenty of iconic shoes to pick from whether they’re Chucks, Birks, or Docs. This is where the developer manages to inject a huge amount of fun and a small amount of strategy into proceedings as certain buffs do suit certain situations, although it’s never entirely essential to the cause. I do like ‘Big Head’ mode though, it was hugely reminiscent of Goldeneye.

Out of getting kick happy on a few deros, a large portion of Anger Foot’s appeal comes from its art direction which feels like a colourful collision between a Squanch joint and the cheekily grotesque stylings of nineties Nickelodeon. It’s one of the more flashy games I’ve played in the last while, and what it lacks in overall polish it certainly delivers in intrigue. And it mightn’t have the platinum-worthy bangers that Hotline Miami did, but Anger Foot’s electronic dance soundtrack does manage to thump the house down.  

I think Anger Foot, provided it gets a bit of a marketing push, could be another win for Devolver Digital, especially with the streamer demographic. It’s geared at speedrunning and, even if I don’t particularly think a lot of the late-level design pairs well with the glass cannon character archetype, I think it could find an audience with a bit of balancing. 

It has all the off-the-wall style you could hope from a game so inherently silly, and while its current shortcomings mightn’t leave it front of mind for most people’s award seasons, it’s sure to be a shoo-in for Quentin Tarantino’s shortlist for Game of the Year.

Wishlist Anger Foot on Steam.

The post Anger Foot Preview – Best Foot Forward appeared first on Press Start.

The original Hellblade, titled Senua’s Sacrifice, saw the eponymous warrior venture deep into Helheim in an attempt to save the soul of her damned lover who’d perished during a Viking raid on their village. It was an odyssey spent largely in solitude save for the many voices in her head that guide, comfort and taunt her throughout. The team’s willingness and ability to depict psychosis and place mental health on a plinth at the forefront of their small, independent game was something I lauded then, and am unsurprised that, with Microsoft’s backing, they’ve doubled down on this long-awaited sequel which was announced alongside the Series console line all of those years ago. 

The first Hellblade wasn’t a perfect game, mind you. Players might have paid an emotional tax by helping shoulder Senua’s burden and the catharsis of battling her demons was worth the ticket price for most. However, as a game, its expectations of the player were bare bones. Plying Senua’s trade as a warrior felt modest, and forging a path through the world’s runic problems felt pedestrian at best. With Senua’s Sacrifice, I accepted the surface-level beauty before me, so the question became: could Senua’s Saga hope to offer more to players or would it plead for absolution through flashy audiovisual design, performance, and story all over again?

Those hoping for Senua’s Saga to be a grand evolution of ideas put forward in the original game, stemming from blow your hair back creativity, are bound to be a little disappointed. Hellblade II is what I’d consider to be a safe sequel. Thankfully, while clutching at safety through iteration they’ve made some important refinements to the original’s trouble areas. 

Despite being rebuilt from the ground up, Senua’s proficiency with a sword and shield feels largely unchanged from Sacrifice. Light and heavy attacks are combined with dodges and parries to put to bed the horrors of the night, which in this particular tale range from Viking marauders and draugr revenants that stalk Senua’s every step. It remains simple and uncomplicated in that there aren’t attributes to juggle, or even a heads-up display to distract from the action. Once a particular combat aid is recovered in-story its cooldown elements are all cleverly integrated into the item’s design. So often with Sacrifice, skirmishes that saw Senua outnumbered would be a breeding ground of enormous frustration as you’d constantly find yourself hit from behind and overwhelmed by a few meagre adds. Saga presents all of its battles in a way that flows very cinematically but that also never pits Senua against more than one enemy at a time. This sounds like one step forward and two steps back, but I found the scripted nature of Saga’s many filmic frays incredibly engrossing and far better served the story’s intentions than the original’s “tougher” fights. 

Unlike Sacrifice, where boss fights were the only reprieve from the general monotony of the minute-to-minute combat, Saga’s grandest moments are rooted even deeper in Norse myth than the original was. And again, the trading off of literal gods for giants might seem like a backward step in filling in the gaps on Senua’s resumé however it doesn’t feel like it in practice, so good is the emotional deliverance experienced throughout. 

Environmental problem-solving using perspective and runes was another part of Sacrifice I know people didn’t love, however, it hasn’t stopped Ninja Theory from repeating the process here—though they did mix it up by adding plinths and terrain that transforms before your eyes with, let’s say, the flick of a switch. Granted, there are no tasks as obtuse as Sacrifice’s “aligning the ravens,” the only expectation of players this time around is to hoof across large areas on foot to find the right angles. With that said, this sequel isn’t without proper, mechanics-driven puzzles as Senua uses torchlight to navigate an underground cavern by lighting braziers to stave off the darkness. This particular section, which gave me The Descent vibes, delivered some of the most effective, unexpected horror by ratcheting up the tension by several degrees in an already rife with claustrophobia. On the whole, I do believe the “gameplay” parts of Hellblade are markedly improved upon with this sequel, even if all that means is Ninja Theory refined combat to feel less cheap while appearing more movielike. 

There’s no doubt that letterboxing helps in selling the experience, but Senua’s Saga does unfold like a film. Everything, from Senua’s slave ship capsizing to spectacularly open the game to the sunsetting of this particular saga, feels so cautiously choreographed and sumptuously shot. The story itself is captivating and, once again, spotlights turmoils like grief and loss within a setting rich with atmosphere, tension, and symbolism. While Melina Juergens has proven once before that she’s capable of carrying a plot on her back, I do feel adding a small cast of characters to the metaphoric vessel she drags along adds so much. It increases the apparent stakes and cost of her choices, even if the game never pulls the trigger on the consequences it threatens throughout, and allows their stories—so analogous to Senua’s—to bubble away in the crock pot that is this narrative and feed into the messaging. Like Sacrifice, so much of what Saga puts out there is art in that it confronts and holds a mirror up to the taboo and forbidden and there’s definite bravery in that. 

It’s going to take some doing for a team to craft a better-looking game than Senua’s Saga this year. Although the console experience is locked at the dreaded 30fps, the game is staggeringly beautiful. All of its characters and their performances are rendered to such a jaw-dropping extent, taking care of even the most piffling detail, I believe it’s the new benchmark for both performance capture and model work. Juergens delivers yet another complex performance as Senua that’ll no doubt be discussed heavily during awards season, however, she’s in great company here. Chris O’Reilly, in particular, delivers a compelling turn as Thórgestr who begins this story as Senua’s slave master.  

Even more incredible is the world of Senua’s Saga. The way this version of Iceland is faithfully mapped, recreated through the magic of photogrammetry, and twisted to cater to the story’s need for fantasy is peerless and likely safe at the top of the mountain until the next Decima engine game is released. To say I gave this game’s photo mode a flogging is an absolute understatement. It’s just a shame so much of it falls into the ‘look, don’t touch’ as linearity rules over what appears to be a vast, boundless space. Exploring whatever space there is rarely serves Senua’s momentary goal, though uncovering well-hidden lorestones and the paths behind facelike rock formations can add to the tapestry of stories in Hellblade. 

A large part of the build to Saga’s release is every man and his dog bellowing from the belltower that the game is best experienced with headphones, and look that’s right. There’s an intangibility to Senua’s Furies, the name given to the voices that sow seeds of doubt into her mind, that plays so well through binaural audio. The panning from ear to ear sells the idea that Senua is surrounded, and to a degree imprisoned, by these thoughts. It heightens the panic, and it makes you question everything which is a powerful effect. Of course, being the second game, the application and design now far outweigh the novelty of hearing these disparaging whisper tones even if they work double-duty in place of a more traditional tutorial. The remainder of the game’s soundtrack is very much a baptism by Heilung, as many of the big set pieces are set to the rhythmic, almost ritualistic drums and guttural throat-singing they’re known for. It effectively connects the rawness of Senua’s story with the frenetic tempo the reformed, movielike combat manages. 

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is the only first-party Xbox game this generation that has screamed, with any confidence, “next-gen” to me. All at once it’s an audiovisual tour de force, a tremendous next chapter in Senua’s battle that strikes many disparate moods, and although it doesn’t take enormous swings to reinvent itself, its refinements make Saga a worthwhile successor to Senua’s Sacrifice. 

The post Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Review – A New Hope appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been said that sticks and stones may break your bones but words could never, ever hurt you. 

It’s a slightly hopeful, naive anti-bullying slogan we all grew up with and a complete and utter lie if you’re playing Cryptmaster, a hilariously dark dungeon-crawling “edutainment” adjacent video game where words, not guns or swords, most definitely are weapons. 

Upon booting Cryptmaster up, memories of my youth flooded back to me. Growing up I adored both educational games like Word Rescue and mature-beyond-my-years board games like Nightmare—now Atmosfear for a younger audience. Much of this game feels like a beautiful collision of those two ideas in that you use a lexicon of discovered words to wage war against underworld fiends while a sardonic skeleton, who adorns himself with the title of Cryptmaster, rallies a four-soldier strong band of undead to rise up and pull his soulstone free from the depths below. There are plenty of typing attack games, so the concept is far from novel, though it’s its place within this creepy, monochromatic Abaddon of sorts with its conversational dungeon-master that left a lasting impression.

Although the gameplay of Cryptmaster is exceedingly simple in that you explore a grid, step-by-step like a classic game of this ilk, and effectively type enemies to death. With that said, it isn’t like other typing attack titles where predetermined words pop up on screen to put your one hundred-plus words a minute typing ass to the test, you instead pull from an ever-expanding pool of words that each of the four warriors will rediscover. The words can be offensive, defensive or purely there as support, though it’s the challenge of remembering a chain of them as a sand dwindles through an on-screen hourglass only to usher in the enemy’s attack. The manner in which you “remember” words is rather elegant and ties neatly into the game’s combat. At any given time, each warrior has a single word beneath their display to try and recall which adds it to their exhaustive list of attacks or memories, which serve to build out the heroes’ somewhat inessential lore.

Besting an enemy in combat rewards you with the letters of their name, which slot into the gaps of your words and make them lay-ups of a ‘no consonants left in this Wheel of Fortune’ variety. It might sound as though combat would be as easy as spamming high damage words ad nauseum until they fall over, but it cleverly safeguards against this by enforcing long and tense cooldowns after a word is sent as well as often arming the underworld’s guards with armour that’s impervious to all but a few key phrases and a shield that protects against certain letters. The tense scramble of realising half of your words are ruled out thanks to a single vowel made way to some of Cryptmaster’s more thrilling moments, which I think is quite a feat for a game about typing.

Every word does have a cost, too, and maintaining a healthy balance of souls within the soulstone is important if you’re aiming to serve as the Cryptmaster’s sword, so to speak. You gain these back by either eating bugs and beetles from the dungeon walls or solving riddles posited by the damned, represented by a stack of bones with a chattering skull on top. As a fan of lateral thinking, these were a joyful aside, as was Whatever, a fun little game you can play with just about everybody you speak with and doesn’t draw you from the main path.

I do respect how accessible the team endeavoured to make Cryptmaster, especially for a game that seems to be so objectively geared towards keyboard and mouse. Those familiar with my PC leanings would know I’m a portable man and, in keeping with that, I did play Cryptmaster primarily on a handheld. To my surprise, an enormous amount of effort has been poured in to make a gamepad a viable choice here. Knowing that not all typists are created equal, there’s an option to toggle between real-time and turn-based combat, and the latter is a god-send for those not sitting in front of a keyboard. Dragging a cursor around definitely isn’t the ideal way to experience the game, but it’s viable and that’s everything.

From the moment the Cryptmaster’s luminous eyes peer out from the pitch black, abyssal backdrop, I got the sense this game’s artists knew they had a winner. He’s creepy, scary and undeniably rascallish in his ability to harness your cadaver to do his bidding. While so much of this game is striking and so committed to its vision, the Cryptmaster’s design is so instantly iconic that I can’t wait until I can get him on a shirt. It’s also worth noting that Lee Williams, who also wrote and jointly-designed the game, turns in a suitably dry, mocking performance and I expect he’ll get a bit of love.

Fortunately, the strength in art design remains consistent throughout. Some of the dungeons can look a little copy-paste, I’d go so far as to suggest the game’s decision to be unwaveringly two-note robs it of any ability to deliver truly different biomes and maps. But there’s just no denying that tone, it’s impossible to resist. 

Cryptmaster really is an exceptional example for how a simple idea can grow legs and, ultimately, morph into something more than the sum of its parts. It might not spawn a generation of typists or scribes, but for right now it takes an inherently dorky skill in typing and makes it about as attractive as it’ll ever be again. 

The post Cryptmaster Review – Words Are Weapons appeared first on Press Start.

Like Tinseltown, trends in gaming are starting to emerge as somewhat cyclical. What’s old is new all over again, and recent years have produced a swathe of retro-inspired titles that capitalise on the nostalgia we all share for the classics from our youth. Signalis springs to mind, along with Dave Oshry’s burgeoning warehouse of boomer shooters. 

The latest to follow the curve is Crow Country, a conventional survival horror game that riffs on all of the tropes popularised by Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and their lesser-evangelised contemporaries. Made in large part by a couple of seemingly tormented souls, what’s evident is that Crow Country cares most about being a love letter to all of the things people love about the genre. That said, it doesn’t shirk its responsibility to deliver an experience that’s true and honest to its nostalgic roots, no matter how hasty it is or how eager the developer is to spell out and spoil his craftiness.

On the surface, the game’s story is a relatively basic premise. It’s 1990 and Crow Country, the once-heaving theme park after which the game is named, has been closed for two years after a sudden and unexpected shutdown. The biggest mystery at the heart of the game is the whereabouts of Edward Crow, the park’s elusive owner and it’s with the goal of finding him that leads Mara Forest to break into the abandoned park in hopes of finding answers. One thing I don’t mention is how the park is overrun with twisted, occasionally humanoid, aberrations that appear to wear their inners on their outer—and that’s not because it’s too spooky to call attention to, it’s because Crow Country can be played as either a traditional survival horror game where danger is an ever-present fact of life, or as an adventure game where solving the mystery is Mara’s one focus. 

While one could easily find value in opting for a more exploratory mode in Crow Country, I threw caution to the wind and approached the squirmy, writhing hell beasts head-on. Being a game clearly rooted in classic ideals, Crow Country does feature the dreaded tank controls—a scheme I have always disliked. Fortunately, in a show of forward thinking, the game also lets you control Mara with more modern controls. In fact, by choosing either the d-pad, which houses the tank controls, or the control stick, you can swap on the fly with great freedom. Unlike older games of this ilk which offer a fixed camera perspective, you maintain full control over the camera here which proves helpful within what is effectively a cramped monster closet. The same cannot be said for the game’s gunplay which can be similarly toggled between classic and modern styles, but is an option confined to the game’s settings. 

I wouldn’t say the differences in the aim styles are staggering, but it’s quite incredible how a simple rebind of keys, such as making the left trigger the gun’s sights, can create a more modern, familiar feel. Whichever the case, Crow Country’s combat rewards close proximity to your target, and that, combined with a stop and prop brand of aiming lead to some very tense close-quarters fights. 

Crow Country itself feels like the perfect little world to create nightmarish traumas. Even taking the monsters lurking around each corner out of the equation, I found it to be atmospheric and unsettling. The park itself is divided into attractions, including Haunted Hilltop with its gloomy crypt and ghostly manor, and Fairytale Town which comes complete with a motorised pond ride driven by decapitated, animatronic swans. What’s beautiful about its positively labyrinthian corridors is how interconnected all of the zones feel, especially once your keen-eyed exploration opens up new routes through the park. 

While it’s incredible that so much of Crow Country is the work of two people, I think that’s made relatively clear at certain points throughout the game. The game reminds me a lot of Ravenlok, which I believe did for action-adventure what Crow Country is aiming to do for survival horror in that its challenges skew on the simpler side in a likely attempt to capture more of an audience. Older gamers like me will adore the nostalgia, while the young adult crowd will revel in the game’s often simple, heavily signposted puzzles. While the memos left behind by the park’s staff do nudge and point you in the right direction a lot of the time, certain solutions are spelled out blatantly with almost fourth-wall-shattering brutality. 

I do wonder if play testing at one point indicated some of the problems were too obtuse and a lack of resources led to what’s in the game. I personally can’t imagine anyone considering these riddles to be Monkey Island-obscure, but there’s no denying that immersion was broken more than once here. 

What I do love about Crow Country is the clear reverence it has for the genre. Despite its modernised offerings, the fact it delivers such an authentic 90s experience is a credit to its team and their attention to detail. The singular moment that sealed it for me came literally after the credits when a clear screen appeared and went on to detail my rank and what I’d unlocked for my trouble. It’s not a new or even outdated idea in terms of survival horror, but it’s an integral part to the experience that felt like the cherry on top. Even how it handles being a 90s game is masterful, with so many subtle nods to the time and place but none more clever than the arcade’s trivia machine that relies on some outdated data, such as a time before Pluto’s status as a planet was revoked or when the planet had just five billion inhabitants, to succeed. 

From its title screen, Crow Country drips with retro chic and it has all of the low-resolution, ugly polygons you’d expect from the PlayStation era of video games. Almost as if it was pulled out of a time capsule, Crow Country exists in a time before the minute detail of characters could be portrayed. Outside of Mara’s purple-dyed hair and white dress, there’s not a lot that separates her from any of the other women who frequent the theme park. There’s a lot of character in the world and creature design, though, and everything is beautifully lit no matter if it’s the spot lighting of the moody, gloomy cardboard standee woods or the refracted light from the aquarium-inspired Seven Seas arm of the park. 

Crow Country’s sound design also takes plenty of inspiration from classic horror games from almost thirty years ago. It’ll come as no surprise that the muddy lo-fi gunfire and creature groans don’t “age” as well as the visuals might, but there’s a definite charm to the game’s score which makes the most of its theme park setting with a creepy, bell-driven suite of themes that resemble a music box. Whether they’re considered source or not isn’t clear, but to think of these tunes droning out over speakers in a long abandoned park gives me the willies. 

If there exists a soft spot in your heart for the early years of survival horror, and the equally-nostalgic Signalis is either too grave or serious, Crow Country is more than worth your time. It makes a special effort to cater to both purists and those with more modern tastes, however, the challenge presented by its puzzles is next to nothing. 

The post Crow Country Review – Fright Nights At Eddie’s appeared first on Press Start.

Plenty of video games have benefited from releasing into early access in recent times. It provides an ideal direct, and in my opinion healthy, feedback channel between developer and audience that means each patch and fix can be delivered with breakneck efficiency. The audiences who helped shape both Hades and Baldur’s Gate III were all beneficiaries of this model, and it’s clear from its first week that Moon Studios’ No Rest for the Wicked should unearth a similar vein of crude oil. 

As someone who finds both of the Ori games to be enormously charming and challenging, I was excited for Moon to attack the action roleplaying game space, and attack it they have. It’s far from perfect at this point in time, however it’s extremely malleable and Moon is a team with one ear pressed firmly to the ground. What excites me most is the idea of going on this journey with a new community while getting to, in a small way, shape what Wicked, as it’s shorthanded to by the team, ultimately becomes. Before us now is just one act of what could eventually be a fantasy epic of Tolkienian proportion. 

What needs to be established right away is that Wicked isn’t an ARPG in a Diablo sense, and I think those hoping for something that can be played as casually as that game allows are going to be crestfallen to discover that Wicked borrows more from the Soulsborne model than expected. The combat, which is the centrepiece of the entire experience, is tough, tactile, and it does demand excellence from the player. Fortunately, despite most tough fights being a white knuckle struggle for someone like me who never got into Soulslikes, Wicked isn’t exactly punishing. Pretty much all of the toughest slogs so far have been near to a whisper, the game’s checkpoint equivalent, and there’s no real consequence for death save for your gear’s dwindling durability, which is bound to whittle down with each failure. 

Experimenting with different weapons and enchantments doesn’t quite offer the limitless freedom you’d hope for yet, and I haven’t even bothered to replicate the meta builds seen online due to the loot pools and drops being rather stingy for me. The inability to respec isn’t going to be favourable for anyone who perhaps poured points into the wrong attributes, especially with how Wicked gates your ability to equip gear through both level and seemingly random stat prerequisites. I do expect Moon to incorporate respec and vastly expand the enchantments pool, which is a basic suite at present, which would remedy the kind of stifling grind of the moment having perhaps made the wrong choices and left myself underpowered for the bosses. 

And on levelling, it’s an area that feels somewhat underwhelming right now. For a game that’s shaping up to tell a great tale of fantasy, full of characters to actually give a shit about, there’s no skill tree that services your hero’s character. Unlike other games where buffing your intelligence leads to clever dialogue options, feeding into the roleplaying daydream, stats in Wicked play only into weapon handling which is sort of disappointing as I’d love to be able to build out a personality for my hero. Perhaps it’s just not that sort of roleplaying experience. Even turning plague ichor in to The Watcher, an weary old timer accompanied by a man with candles glued to his hat, doesn’t yield exciting reward. Instead of unlocking once dormant supernatural abilities, each ichor lets you expand your inventory capacity.  

There are also several quality of life things that I’m sure Moon will iron out and, in due course, render these complaints moot. Things like improved inventory management, more readability in both menus and heads-up display, and the ability to rebind keys are undoubtedly coming and will make the experience so much better immediately. As stated earlier, the team are doing a mountain of work addressing everything however a game like this will be a marathon, not a sprint. 

I must say I love how Moon has presented us with this living world to uncover and explore. Even after combing through once or twice, I’m constantly finding new nooks and shortcut paths through to adjoining zones. It’s a big sprawling, seamless map that takes you from your shipwreck in The Shallows all the way through to the Nameless Pass, and beyond. Gradually the map opens through story beats, however even after you’re given free rein to roam you’ll need to be mindful of a zone’s threat level. I didn’t get the sense that this scaled with my character’s level, as the Nameless Pass itself reduced to a moderate threat after first presenting as dangerous. Unless you’ve got a supreme handle on combat, don’t do what I did and beat your head against the wall in a dangerous area. Death will greet you plenty and you’ll get nowhere fast.

The beautiful thing about Wicked’s world is that it is all on a refresh timer, meaning slain enemies and opened chests will repopulate, allowing you to return, grind for experience and loot to better prepare for trouble ahead. At the centre of these winding paths is Sacrament, a bustling township that serves as the central hub for Wicked. It’s full of all of the vendors, bounties, and narrative jumping off points you’d expect from the world’s meeting point. 

As addictive as it can be, I do expect this core loop and the gameplay to evolve quite a bit. I do think with those few quality of life issues addressed, and with a more generous ability to shape a hero’s build, Wicked could, by mixing together some of their features, nail down a rather unique appeal to fans of both Diablo and Souls games. While I expect the nuts and bolts of the game to shift constantly, where the game has won me over already is in its story, atmosphere, and characters. 

There’s plenty of mysticism around the player-character as a Cerim, a holy warrior who assumes the stranger in a strange land role to help rid the world of a returning pestilence. Despite this, the game’s first act doesn’t do a heap to paint the hero as anything other than an avatar. It’s all of the others on the periphery of this story that are making the journey one of grandeur. The land’s King Harol has perished, which has created a power vacuum that Madrigal Seline is looking to fill, using her army’s aid against the plagued as a front for her annexation of land. Then there’s Odessa, a pirate revolutionary who you nearly clash blades with in the game’s prologue before the ship runs aground. She’s the rebellious, punk daughter of Sanctuary’s meekish governor who spends the whole act in captivity.

Even considering the people manning the streets of Sacrament, all of the game’s performances are tremendous so far. Odessa’s brattish, frustrated turn is kind of the tinder box that sets in motion a large part of the game’s story, while everybody else’s stately performances feel in keeping with a fantasy setting. Moments of nuance are captured and showcased beautifully through the game’s stunning cut scenes which really place the visuals front and centre. 

The Ori games have such a distinctive, rich and colourful oil-painted aesthetic that I think No Rest for the Wicked recaptures with a more attentive, grounded approach. A lot of it comes down to the game’s lighting which never fails to give just a lick of bloom to an often dark setting. With a dynamic day and night cycle, you’d regularly see the moonlight reflecting off the canopies in the glade, and then the sunlight creating a sheen atop the babbling brook that divides Sacrament’s districts. It really is a beautiful game that looks great in stills, but even better again in motion thanks to slick animation and movement, which is hardly a surprise from the team behind Ori, where movement through the world was everything. 

While excusing its current warts and issues, I’ve spent over twenty hours with No Rest for the Wicked, and I’m completely drunk on its amazingly fertile fantasy beginnings. The promise these stories and characters show is so exciting to me. It’s clear the team’s focus for now is refining the gameplay experience, and rightly so, there is some work to do there, but I fully expect Wicked to bully any of its contemporaries in whichever year this game achieves 1.0 and once its full suite of features, multiplayer included, are released. 

If it took the ideas of Metroid and Castlevania colliding decades ago to create the genre known as Metroidvania, well perhaps there’s an argument to be made that No Rest for the Wicked is the first “Diablosouls” game—and there’s something badass about that.

No Rest for the Wicked is out now on Steam via Early Access. Find it here.

The post No Rest For The Wicked Might Be The Very First “DiabloSouls” Game appeared first on Press Start.

A house is often built of brick and beam, though that isn’t the case for Harold Halibut, whose home, the only one he’s ever known, is a ship made up of steel and supports. A home, however, is more than that. It’s hope, it’s purpose, it’s a feeling, and the pursuit of it serves as perhaps the most pivotal theme at the centre of Slow Bros’ hand-crafted adventure aboard an ark-like spaceship. 

The only home Harold has ever known is the Fedora I, a city in the stars serving as the last vestige for humankind after they fled a waning Earth to colonise the stars. It’s here he was born, and if the great minds aboard the Fedora can’t concoct a way to reignite the ship’s thrusters and continue their voyage out of the alien ocean they’re trapped in, it’s here that he’ll die. While that mission is a catalyst for Harold Halibut’s adventure, it’s his longing for purpose and a place to really call home that carry the emotional burden of the game’s heartfelt plot.

Harold, as a character, struck me as a fairly content and happy-go-lucky guy. He never seems intimidated by the fact his immediate circle aboard the ship are the community’s sharpest minds. He’s a bit of a fixer and follower who sleeps beneath a lab, and at times I got the sense there wasn’t a lot going on behind the eyes of Harold Halibut. Sure, he might log important life moments by drawing them in his diary with the proficiency of a preschooler, but he proves to have complexities in that he’s sensitive, innately caring, and longs for a grand purpose beyond the menial responsibilities he’s given. I think Harold’s journey, by the end, is one of satisfying growth and it was easy to root for him as an underdog. 

The other characters who take refuge within the Fedora are also a largely endearing bunch by the end, even if they seem to take the mickey out of Harold for a bulk of his time in their company. Though they each have baggage, there’s one lad aboard that seems wholly good and that’s the station’s postmaster, Buddy. By the end, he’s really the grounding for Harold to introspect and his is a beautifully crafted story start-to-finish.

The first thing that’ll ensnare you right off the rip is that Harold Halibut’s gorgeously cinematic stop-motion aesthetic, complete with handmade assets from the characters to the sets, is a throwback to a classic era. I cut my teeth on adventure games like The Neverhood growing up and for this claymation style to find a place in video games once again, and to such great effect, is heartwarming. The Fedora itself is expertly realised and feels like a living diorama as you work from set to set, however it’s the oh-so-subtle imperfections on the characters, such as the missed spots of paint on Harold’s hair, that help create an authentic, artful escape. 

In The Neverhood, and even films that use claymation, the illusion of the world is never broken because some poor artist adjusted each and every frame of the animation painstakingly by hand. With Harold Halibut, however, it’s clearer that what we’re dealing with is traditional, modern game animation where a model is scanned in, skinned onto a rig and, to be dangerously reductive, it’s job done. That’s not an issue, of course, work smarter, not harder. But as the team are beholden to the same technical niggles as everyone, the immersion fast shatters as we observe textures pop in, entire scenes render slowly, and the unnatural way that Harold ascends and descends staircases with a stride worthy of the Ministry of Funny Walks.

I suspect this is the downside of developing this game as a relatively freeing, exploratory experience while The Neverhood was more controlled with its point-and-click nature. That said, I never once found myself thinking this could have been done better, what the team has achieved with clay models remains a wonderfully bold feat of design that does separate Harold Halibut from its contemporaries.

Unfortunately, it’s that game that Harold Halibut is beneath its pretty exterior that ends up falling relatively flat. One might think that, with the setting being a multi-storey city under the sea, things might get a little claustrophobic after a time, however it was simply the banality of the tasks you’re given that causes boredom to creep in. Fetching samples, checking in on fellow Fedorans, and delivering mail can get old quickly, even if the latter letters deliver some of the story’s more tender, meaningful beats. It might tie into the game’s themes of purpose and frittered potential though it does not make for a joyful experience. 

So many times when Harold would go to seek help or rope someone in on a plan, they’d simply rebuff his offer and cause the story to pivot and go in an entirely different direction. In this sense, the design is a little odd and didn’t ever achieve a satisfying flow. You’re given a side task early on to find the Fedora captain’s pet bird and I’m convinced it’s not something you can actually seek out to do, rather it’s a scripted scene that simply happens to you. Briskly jogging through the Fedora’s halls from point A to B, off to C and back again, at no point feels rewarding as the novelty of the station’s set up, along with its mode of tubular transport, quickly wears thin.

When the story arrives at its most tender or reflective beats, Harold Halibut’s score is a beautiful arrangement that moves from a soft, lonely piano to a haunting theremin that undoubtedly meets the science-fiction brief. It perhaps isn’t present enough to carry the whole narrative, but the moments it punctuated were certainly memorable. 

From top to bottom, Harold Halibut has the disarming melancholy of a Wes Anderson film, it’s textbook indie, it’s textbook arthouse, too. It’s a wonderfully compact sci-fi tale about the call of home and purpose, however it takes place entirely within one of the most disappointingly sterile games I’ve played in some time. I wish the mechanics were up to standard with the absolutely gorgeous, homespun art that, on its own, justifies a decade of toil.

The post Harold Halibut Review – No Place Like Home appeared first on Press Start.

It’s been one hell of a renaissance for video game-to-screen adaptations in the last handful of years. Most recently, The Last of Us snatched eight Emmy awards for its relatively faithful conversion. Modern Fallout titles are such big, sweeping role-playing games there’s no guarantee those quest lines, which are so reliant on player input and agency, would translate well to Hollywood and so, very wisely, they didn’t even try. 

This Amazon-produced Fallout is a wholly original, albeit thematically familiar, tale set within a recognisable west coast wasteland that introduces viewers to an entire cast of new additions to the franchise’s canon. It succeeds at cherry-picking just enough “if you know, you know” nods to satiate those after a bit of fandom bait, though it never feels egregious or out of place. I definitely believe those in charge of helming this series definitely care for, and showed reverence to, everything that has come before for Fallout—particularly the games under Bethesda’s umbrella. 

Over the course of eight roughly hour-long episodes, Lucy scours a cruel, transformative wasteland overworld that, as someone who has lived her entire life in the safety of a Vault-Tec shelter, is alien to her and puts to test her mettle and morals. She’s searching for her father Hank, portrayed by the incomparable Kyle MacLachlan.

There is a minor disappointment in the fact that the series’ most veteran talent turn in smaller, undeniably effective, roles. The likes of MacLachlan and even Michael Emerson are seldom used, though their impact on the series is felt throughout the first series run. Emerson’s singular monologue in front of a campfire, which sets in motion the series’ key ideas of how the big, bad world can force change to good no matter how incorruptible, was shades of Benjamin Linus himself on Lost—an absolute favourite of mine. 

As an original story, I think it achieves everything it set out to do. It establishes the stakes, how it matters to all of the new, key players in this mean old world, and maintains a sense of mystery about how all of the pieces fit until the penny drops in a great finale. 

The only actor of significant renown that shoulders an enormous portion of the franchise is Walton Goggins, whose complicated turn as Cooper Howard is nothing short of terrific. He’s an actor I’ve rated highly since first being exposed to him on Sons of Anarchy as Venus Van Dam and his role feels like such a Jekyll and Hyde dual-performance as ‘Coop’ the boujee, fifties Hollywood star and The Ghoul he becomes in the two-century fallout of the world’s end, whose atoms are remaining intact courtesy of an enormous cocktail of drugs. 

That isn’t to say the new kids on the block, relatively speaking, in Ella Purnell and Aaron Clifton Moten don’t carry their share of the series’ emotional gravitas. There are long, pensive scenes of emotional release and I think the pair do hold their own in a pretty big, expensive looking production. That is when the script isn’t calling for weird jokes about cousin-on-cousin incest and “exploding cocks” which I can’t even attempt to excuse. When the humour doesn’t sink to such juvenile depths, it can absolutely add an air of levity to what is a pretty desperate situation these characters constantly find themselves in. Matt Berry in particular, who pops up in a stroke of genius stunt-casting that to me, a fan of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, is a pitch-perfect source of comic relief. 

With multiple leads to focus on, the show does hop around a bit from person-to-person. At first, it’s a little off-putting and did a bit to disrupt the pacing in the season opener, though once it settles into its groove and motivations become clear I feel as though Fallout handles its multiple planes of action well. 

As a production, it really seems as though expense wasn’t an issue for Amazon, who have clearly backed Fallout heavily to succeed. Marketing alone tells a story, I feel as though I’m seeing Fallout far more in its build than I ever saw The Last of Us. Save for a few iffy, dodgily-keyed green screens and a mutated bear, or yao guai in wasteland speak, everything about Fallout is all-in, full steam ahead commitment to authenticity.

The costumes are all terrific, never feeling like a cheap cosplay in the way other shows with power armour can come across, while the sets are perhaps the highlight of the entire eight-episode run. The more places we’d visit, whether they were pulled from the video games like Super Duper Mart or not, the more I’d be awestruck by the world this team built out. By placing the focus on the Californian side of things, a seldom seen slice of “New Americana” in the games, I feel like there was a bit more freedom to craft new stories than somewhere like Boston or Washington D.C. would have allowed, being prolific Fallout hubs. 

As someone who sank big hours into the modern Fallout games, a lot of this series felt very nostalgic to me. The way some of the fan service is handled can be a little cringy, though on the whole it’s brilliant. Whoever shot the scenes of Lucy fleeing from her vault to go after her dad deserves a pat on the back, because it recaptured the sense of blinding awe that accompanies those iconic “leaving the vault” beats. The violence and gore is comically graphic and over the top at points, which I think really works when you recall how V.A.T.S. would routinely pop heads and tear raiders limb from limb.

At first, I found the constant use of slow-motion to be a little excessive and bordered on Snyder levels of fetishisation, though the show’s licensed soundtrack is so note perfect I could watch a T-60 power suit clad Brotherhood knight club their way through the wasteland to Nat King Cole all day. There are a number of songs players of the games will instantly recognise, and all of those fond memories will come flooding back in an instant. Outside of the era-appropriate bops, Ramin Djawadi’s original score thrives most when it uses motifs penned by Inon Zur, the game’s composer, though can be rather forgettable outside of these moments.

What impressed me the most with Fallout is how it manages to remain earnest in the original story it crafts for this big, pre-established universe, complete with characters that’ll grow on you and set pieces that riff on the franchise’s most iconic moments. Not only that, it’s a lot of fun. The humour might not always hit, but for it to cut through the solemn tone of the world’s end and deliver some of the most absurd, video game ass moments I’ve seen in a television series pays dividends. 

While it might not necessarily be made to directly adapt the wasteland stories we’ve heard before, the creators have delivered fan service to a level that is sure to please Fallout fans who are hungry for Bethesda to return from the stars and serve another trip to end-times America. 

Oh, and that season two tease that it all climaxes on is a sure bet to excite many.

With a surprisingly riveting original story to tell, Fallout is a rollicking ride through all-too familiar wastes. It might not prove to set the world on fire, though with enough fan service to shake a Ripper at, it’s assured to start a flame in the hearts of long-time fans.

Fallout premieres exclusively on Prime Video with all episodes dropping on Thursday, April 11th at 11AM AEST. Watch it here.

The post Fallout Series Review – One For The Vault appeared first on Press Start.

Children of the Sun, the new Devolver Digital score attack gauntlet concocted by Rene Rother, certainly approaches the “murder puzzle” sub-genre that Deathloop popularised through its marketing very differently, but I’d also argue more effectively. You approach each scene with a singular rifle round that’s expected to rip through, with calculated precision, a band of acolytes, all serving the cult leader who betrayed you and left you with hunger pangs for the coldest dish of all—revenge. 

During my earlier preview for the game, I described it as being this year’s answer to Neon White, a game which took the industry by storm a few years back. The similarities end at the games both being score attack gauntlets, however, as Neon White’s sun soaked, heavenly vistas are juxtaposed aggressively by the oppressive bleakness of Children of the Sun. And while Neon White played like an acrobat’s wet dream through an anime-afterlife of sorts, Children of the Sun is about sadism and voyeurism as you stalk from a scene’s perimeter to ultimately surmise and execute both your plan and prey alike under the cover of darkness.

Rather than nimbly parkouring through a level as in Neon White, Children of the Sun’s core loop interestingly propels you, as a singular rifle round, at gathered ritualists in an attempt to “clear the board” so to speak. The cool thing is that, as the round, you have a staggering scope for agency, being able to freely re-aim upon each successful impact, whether that be into a cultist or a nearby environmental hazard to create a chain of carnage like a murderous take on Burnout’s Party Crash mode. As you draw closer to vengeance, you unlock some neat abilities that really do escalate the challenge and strategic aspects of the later stages. 

Although you’re able to bend a bullet’s trajectory mid-flight pretty early on, by the end you’ll be able penetrate armoured enemies with an express bullet that bends space-time with an intoxicating, kaleidoscopic majesty that’s punctuated by a gorgeous orchestral clash. Not only that, but chaining together shots targeting weak spots, signified by a mirrored disco ball effect on the limb, lets you re-aim a round mid-flight without the need of a successful impact. These do well to ensure the game’s established formula remains fresh throughout, though it’s the careful layout of each level, specifically the enemy placement, that makes it an engrossing puzzle to piece together on the fly (pun intended).

Having played the entirety of the game on a handheld, it’s unlikely I’d ever get near the leaderboard leaders with my “controller” set up. Speed is essential to maintaining multipliers and, with such a focus on reconfiguring trajectory, quick-turning is likely to be much snappier using a mouse. There is certainly enormous replay value for anyone looking to study the lay of the land and find the narrow, optimal path through the carnage to challenge for said top spots. The completion of each stage culminates with an overhead angle of the path your bullet took through it, it might not account for verticality and presents as two-dimensional, but capturing these charts can be handy for reference if you’re downing tools for the night but have a good thing going. The only thing better might be a means to save video replays directly, but this is certainly elegant enough. 

The game’s story is doled out through animated storyboards that pop up and give context to most of the twenty-odd stages. It’s uncompromisingly violent and definitely ventures into dark, weird territory, but I think it ultimately paints The Girl with a sympathetic brush, framing her crusade as an archetypal war of good and bad even if she’s presented as an emotionless, detached killing machine who wouldn’t be out of place emerging from the waters of Crystal Lake. Although one could question how this game has its anti-hero process their trauma, I’d argue that the air of pure evil is so thick around her once-father figure that it almost excuses the grotesque revenge plot and justifies the body count that racks up along the way. 

In terms of presentation, Children of the Sun has a distinct and clear vision that’s communicated through what I’d call an economical graphics model. It isn’t the best looking game by a long chalk, but there’s an identity to it that’s irresistible, albeit a little tough to read given how dark things can be. There’s a visual language that emerges early on that’ll help with that however—the differently-coloured crosshairs to help distinguish targets, for example. And while I do feel The Girl’s model can look a little bad at times, the animation of her jogging the perimeter with an enormous fucking rifle on her hip never failed to make me chuckle—a rare moment of levity in what is ultimately a bleak title. And it’s a random thing to call out, but I adore Rother’s Old English font choice in this game because it lends so much to the tone struck which feels, at times, to riff on old-world barbarism. 

Children of the Sun’s audio design is visceral and in keeping with the unsettling vibe established by the rest of the game. The gunshots, of which you play an integral role as the bullet round, mightn’t be as frequent as your standard shooter but have a velocity to them that’s sold through the rifle’s bark, the way you cut through the air and, ultimately, the way you decimate your target. I do also love the swells that flourish and cymbals that crash dynamically with every head you pop. 

Children of the Sun is a phenomenal, moreish score attack gauntlet that is going to scratch the same itch that Neon White did in its time. It also serves as a home to a pretty uncomplicated tale of paternal vengeance that does enough to rationalise the ruthless violence at the black heart of Rene Rother’s indie hit.

Find it on Steam here.

The post Children Of The Sun Review – A Dish Best Served Cold appeared first on Press Start.

Although it’s been well noted that Fallout’s showrunner for the Amazon series isn’t exactly setting out to please the ardent fans of the long-running video game franchise, it isn’t going to stop said enthusiasts from speculating on what aspects of the series might make their way to the silver screen.

So often I find myself lost in the worlds of Fallout whether it’s California, the Mojave Desert, Washington D.C. or West Virginia with those famous “Country Roads”, they’re intoxicating places to spend hundreds of hours roaming like the wasteland nomad you’re cast as. 

The series’ trailer suggests it takes place, at least partly, in a post-apocalyptic California, though it’s not known whether Lucy, a dweller who leaves the safety of her Vault, will be pursued to the farthest reaches of the show’s lawless land by the ghoulish bounty hunter played by the venerable Walton Goggins. If the show ventures beyond California, it has an opportunity to pluck bits and pieces from Fallout’s bottomless lore and include some of the weirder, social-experiment Vaults that turned their denizens loopy—at best. 

Here are six of the most outlandish Vaults that we’re hoping turn up in the Fallout television series.

Vault 11 

Like many of the vaults that’ll appear on this list, Vault 11 served as a Vault-Tec conducted social experiment to test the inhabitants’ resolve and conformity. This particular one, however, had a rather grisly end.

Once a year, dwellers were made to nominate one of their own to partake in a ritual sacrifice to prevent the Vault’s computer from eradicating the entire population. Although these decisions were arrived at diplomatically at first, it was really a simple test to see whether the inhabitants would value human life, as well as their own morality, above the vault’s dire handbook. Abstaining once would have spared the entire population and unlocked the door, setting them free to the wilds. 

That’s, of course, not what happened though. Nominees were routinely killed off annually until a power struggle between The Justice Bloc, a faction that formed within the vault, and the overseer led to a coup that saw only five survive. A mixture of shellshock and newfound solidarity led to them defying the vault’s guidelines and accepting the consequences of inaction, which ironically was their freedom—though most of the group took their lives seeking atonement.

Vault 12

After learning that the country’s remaining vaults had already been sealed, the people of Bakersfield fled desperately for their local fallout shelter in hopes of securing refuge for themselves and their families. The vault’s door worked, more or less, as intended: it couldn’t hold the radiation at bay as it did the raiders. 

Painfully, the surviving population were transformed into ghouls. Years later, many of the inhabitants would leave for the wastes while those remaining founded the city of Necropolis—I’d say the name was on the nose except, well. 

Vault 15

A social experiment vault that forced groups from three distinct ideologies to live together. To prolong the exposure to other ethnic and religious groups, the opening of this vault was delayed by several decades. 

The friction between the groups led to the formation of three raider gangs made up of exiled dwellers who left en masse with vital equipment after the vault’s doors eventually opened. Those who remained, on the other hand, went on to found Shady Sands, the capital of New California. 

With California being at least the series’ opening setting, I think it’s entirely possible Shady Sands is paid a visit by the vagabond protagonist—so perhaps a recap of the vault’s failure is on the cards. 

Vault 21

Fallout: New Vegas is regarded as one of the best entries in the franchise and it’s for good reason. Its characters, quests, and lore stand out as some of the most thought out and considered in Fallout’s storied history. 

Vault 21 is particularly fun because, in keeping with the City of Sin, it was created with equal opportunity in mind outside of conflicts and problems being solved through gambling. The only arbiter in these cases is Lady Luck herself and if she isn’t on your side, you stand to lose big. 

In his resurrection of the Vegas strip, Robert House would claim ownership of this vault in a drawn out game of blackjack. After he secured the deed, he ordered it to be filled with concrete save for a couple of its upper levels where a hotel would be established as another source of income to buff New Vegas and its burgeoning economy. 

Vault 92

Like pretty much all of the vaults on this list, this one suffered a rather bleak end so for it to show up in the series would require a bit of a revision at the very least. 

“Set up” as a haven for the brightest musical minds to preserve musical talent through The Great War, in reality this vault studied the subliminal implantation of messaging into the minds of dwellers through white noise. 

After a spate of mental breakdowns and murders as a result of the subtle mind control, the vault was left in ruins with half its population fighting for life against the other half, who’d gone mad. Nature would, for the most part, reclaim this vault after the project ceased to be and it became a haven for wildlife, mutated and otherwise. 

Vault 118

This one kind of just feels less like a social experiment and more like a facsimile for what the greater reality is, as ten ultra-wealthy inhabitants are granted absolute and total authority over a much larger, impoverished population of a few hundred working class. 

The “experiment” never really made it to full flight, however, after construction of the facility was abandoned completely due to lack of funds, presumably due to their misappropriation. 

Remaining members of “Group A” were compelled by Dr. Riggs, whose research for General Atomics in the field of advanced robotics was noted, to explore the transference of their brains into Robobrains to give themselves the best chance of surviving the Great War to come.

All episodes of Fallout premiere on Prime Video on April 11th. Find out more here.

Images: Fandom/Bethesda

The post 6 Vaults That We Hope Turn Up In The Fallout TV Series appeared first on Press Start.

Road tripping plays a pivotal role in so many landmark works of popular culture. Some people’s minds might go to the journey of decadence in Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, mine races to one of the finest films ever put to celluloid, A Goofy Movie. Whatever the application, the open road is inherently conversational, providing the downtime for a deep and meaningful jaw session. Save for a few important pit stops, Open Roads is a back and forth between a mother and daughter with plenty to work out, least of all being the mystery that emerges as a convenient distraction in a moment of mourning and change for the pair.

As Tess Devine, portrayed with an unguarded, charming youthful exuberance by Kaitlyn Dever, you unearth decades-old correspondence from a man that isn’t your grandfather while packing up the remains of your grandma’s home after her recent passing. Along with her mother Opal, voiced by the venerable Keri Russell, you follow a breadcrumb trail through a series of your family’s abandoned, ruinous homes—each with its own buried memories—that eventually leads to Canada in hopes of figuring out the truth of this supposed affair.

In the end, the mystery and its resolution feel unremarkable yet wholly lifelike. I did expect an Edith Finchian twist toward the fantastical, however the story grounds itself right at the last beat and places focus back on its characters, on the circle of life, and how children can be doomed to inherit the misfortunes of their parents. Like a Richard Linklater film, it’s decades-spanning in its scope and serves up an emotional resonance that I didn’t expect at all. 

Russell and Dever’s chemistry throughout flourishes as more and more dirty laundry is aired, and while Russell shoulders more of the dramatic work, I do think they make for a believable mother and daughter duo that’s sold through both writing and performance alike. Hearing the weary Opal endure her sarcastic teenage daughter’s goading and ribbing serves as a surprisingly frequent comedic break in the drama.

Conversation is only half of the Open Roads experience, the other half is made up of areas to explore that feel as calm and contemplative as a Fullbright title. It manages to tick all of the regular “walking simulator” boxes within these beautifully lit, gorgeous slices of autumnal suburbia. There are plenty of items that contain their own miniature, self-contained narratives that build out the world at large and serve as kindling for the bigger picture. And there are even more items to simply inspect and turn over in Tess’ hands, all of them rendered with lovely detail.

It’s on top of these rendered vistas that your person-to-person chats will take place with Opal, with both characters presented as hand-drawn, seldom animated sprites. It’s a juxtaposition of detail and minimalism that shouldn’t work as well as it does, and I admire the choice having seen it in practice.

The story unfolds like a puzzle of several steps which are all, in-world, catalogued in Tess’ journal which is an elegant means of tracking the adventure. Oftentimes, it’s a mundane task like finding a use for the key found inside a long lost diary, or finding a safer path through the collapsing mobile home. There’s no duress in what Open Roads demands of you, it simply is what it is. Pretty much every break in play leading into dialogue comes from finding an item of interest and calling out to Opal, who invariably delivers a greater context. The game does little to veer from this gameplay loop before credits roll, though it doesn’t have a chance to grow tiresome with the game only being a couple of hours long. 

And with no branching dialogue options to revisit, there isn’t really a lot of reason to replay the game at all. Although certain dialogue choices do expose character flaws not before known so there may be some value to be found in fully understanding these women. 

While the few days in Open Roads pass in a couple of real-time hours, it’s absolutely a road trip worth taking. It showcases nostalgia and emotion in a way I didn’t exactly expect, its characters bare their souls as we pick apart and leave open the wounds of their lives. But it’s the many small details, like using the radio to drown out the deafeningly quiet fallout from an argument, that makes Open Roads an evocative impromptu jaunt.  

The post Open Roads Review – Family Matters appeared first on Press Start.

March 14 is celebrated, in the United States at least, as Save A Spider Day in a confusing attempt to reduce arachnophobia and other negative preconceptions about our planet’s little, eight-legged freaks. While most Australians would sooner burn their houses down than show mercy to a single huntsman, I think there’s definitely some merit in celebrating the best, often creepiest, spiders in video games to help the movement along. 

To give a sense of how many spiders there are in the world, the spider-to-person ratio is said to be about 2.8 million. 

That’s right, 2.8 million spiders all to yourself. 

And I have to believe half of those at least are featured in video games because there are a lot of them. They’re a staple of survival horror, serving as fuel for a cheap scare when rounding the hall of a dimly lit mansion. But here are the six most clever, memorable or downright chilling spiders to feature in our fair medium.

[Editor’s Note: Some pretty gnarly-looking video game spiders below]

Limbo

The opening hour of Limbo is methodical slow burn of simple, monochromatic platforming that’s punctuated by one of the most exhiliraring chase sequences that sees you, as the unnamed boy thrust into Limbo’s morbid afterlife, escape one big fucking spider. 

As you scramble over unsteady logs and take refuge in nooks, the enormous arachnid plunges its dagger-like legs at you in an attempt to impale you and cut short your journey. The game’s oppressive tone really does the heavy lifting in what is a relatively basic encounter, but it’s undeniably terrifying. 

All’s well that ends well though as you pluck the spider’s legs from their sockets and proceed to roll its bulbous abdomen onto the nearby spikes to cleverly forge a path forward. 

Choo-Choo Charles

There’s something unnerving and sinister about taking an idea regularly aimed at kids, like a friendly-faced locomotive, and distorting it with horrific intent. It’s a tale as old as time, especially recently as Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse entered the public domain. 

Choo-Choo Charles is exactly that. He’s a twisted take on Thomas the Tank Engine, and his murderous intent is as evident as the creator’s wish to tarnish childhood innocence. To make matters worse, he’s not just a train. He’s a spider-train. 

Although the game didn’t experience any critical success, its relevance and perhaps subsequent commercial success as a viral hit has led to updates and console ports. One thing is for sure, the image of an eight-legged coal train scrambling towards me in the woods is one that’s burned into my mind. 

Mora from Ori and the Will of the Wisps

After the death of Niwen’s Spirit Willow, corruption and darkness plagued the farthest reaches of the land, including Mouldwood Depths. The decay soon afflicted Mora, an enormous spider residing within the depths, as well as her many young, leaving Ori with the singular task of drawing her back to the light. 

Mora puts up one of the most memorable fights in all of Ori and the Will of the Wisps, combining the game’s spirited combat system, which harnesses light against the dark, with the signature escape sequences the game is partly known for. 

As one of the most stunning games of its generation, the entire encounter is a spectacle—which is especially surprising for one that takes place in the soggy underground. That said, luminous fungi and Mora’s glowing eyes cut a harrowing image against her den’s otherwise blackened surroundings. 

Rom from Bloodborne

As someone who lacks the fortitude to make it through a FromSoft game, I’d honestly never heard of Rom, the Vacuous Spider. Unlike some of the freakier bosses in Bloodborne, Rom isn’t optional and is no doubt nightmare fuel for the thousands whose weapons run slick with her blood. 

A sure fire way of knowing whether a boss is cool as hell or not is whether their death triggers a world event like a Blood Moon. Hint, Rom’s does just that. 

Part of Rom’s unsettling appearance is that she isn’t very spider-like at all, closely resembling a caterpillar for much of the encounter. Make no mistake, however, her spiderlings are distinctly eight-legged and will bum rush you with bite-happy abandon.

Image: Fandom

Grounded

There’s not a lot that’s inherently scary about a daddy long legs making its way through a beautifully trimmed lawn. That is unless you’re in the midst of Obsidian’s “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” inspired sandbox game Grounded, which sees you eye-to-eye with ants in an example of science gone mad. 

The enormous, ominous spiders in Grounded were so triggering for some, it prompted the team to introduce an arachnophobic mode where you could use a slider to hide a spider’s layers until it’s no longer horrifying. For some, it might appear as a featureless, legless abdomen.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

This feels like a bit of a cheat code, but there’s no denying that Insomniac’s Peter Parker, as well as Miles Morales, meet the brief for pretty incredible spiders of video game fame after being nommed on by transformative arachnids. 

They might not spin their own silk, lay eggs, or have eight legs but there’s plenty of other incredibly rad things they do within their New York City playground.

Marvel’s Spider-Man, its sequel, and its spin-off are obviously not Spidey’s first foray into the interactive space, though there’s no question that the trilogy is damn close to the greatest superhero saga on console, but I might talk about the other contender on Save A Bat Day.

Bonus Round – Half-Life’s Headcrabs

This one shouldn’t count, and it kind of doesn’t, because head crabs are, well, crabs. 

Or are they? They resemble an uncooked chook more than they do a crab and their horrifying beak and clawless legs do little to clear up their species. 

But their wily movement, ability to leap several feet into the air, and tendency to zombify anyone whose head they manage to park themselves on puts them up as a “special mention” in the video game spider category. 

The post The 6 Best Spiders In Video Games In Celebration Of Save A Spider Day appeared first on Press Start.

As someone who’d harass my Civic Video clerk on a weekly basis for new wrestling tapes, I grew up entrenched in both the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression eras of professional wrestling. Similar to many others, my interest did wane somewhere in the mid-noughties, after the Invasion angle, and I’ve never really thought I’d look to recapture that formative part of my youth. Though somewhere between the Bloodline’s combustion and Cody’s near-miss in “finishing the story”, which has led to a captivating, year-long crusade to end Roman’s reigns over both his family tree and the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship once and for all, I found plenty that pulled me back in.

During the lead-up to Wrestlemania 39 last year I did dabble with 2K23, which featured a showcase mode built around John Cena, whose near untouchable career is enjoying its twilight years. As with all sports franchises, this video game is iterative when measured against last year’s. However, with it celebrating forty years of Wrestlemania, which is considered to be the grandest stage of them all, and the countless moments it has given fans, this one does feel special.

Of the few modes in WWE 2K24, none deserve your time more than the Showcase mode that combs through four decades of showstopping bouts to put together a who’s who in a roster of immortals. Of course, due to licensing, the never-ending and seismic shifts in talent, and only having some twenty spaces to fill, there are a few curious omissions but there’s no question that every match showcased here is a banger, to borrow a Sheamus-ism. Each match gives a checklist of objectives to hit that recreate key moments within the bout, using its incredible Slingshot tech to seamlessly blend real footage with gameplay.

It’s an astounding trip down memory lane for people who’ve followed wrestling forever and a valuable history lesson for those who haven’t. The whole thing is presented by a relatively new kid on the commentary block, Corey Graves, and features a lot of behind the curtain stories from the legends themselves, including Hulk Hogan and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, so it’s quite a compelling package for marks and fans alike.

Other modes that people will likely gravitate to are MyFACTION and MyRISE, which won’t feel out of place for people who play other 2K franchises. For those that don’t, they’re analogous to FIFA’s Ultimate Team and ‘The Journey’, which speaks to the breadth of experiences one can have in this game.

MyRISE is a two-pronged story mode where you take a created superstar through a couple of hypothetical futures in the company’s programming. The men’s path, for example, posits a timeline where “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns vacates his Universal strap and makes off for Hollywood to follow in the footsteps of his cousin. After being plucked from the Performance Center, you shock the world by overcoming a one-night tournament and being crowned the new champion after Reigns, once again, prolongs the last chapter of Cody’s so-called story. It’s then up to you to navigate locker room life, shield yourself from the barbs of social media, and emerge from Roman’s shadow as a fighting champion. It all sounds rather cool, and it can be, however, it’s scuppered in part by cheesy dialogue, second-rate performances, and eye-watering lip-syncing.

What I cannot get enough of is MyFACTION. So often I’d pass over these often predatory quasi-live-service modes, but this one gets plenty right. Although I am early doors, I get the sense that the game doesn’t actively wall players out and force them down the path of microtransactions. I received enough cards to supplement my faction, as well as plenty of currency, by merely exploring the weekly challenge towers and proving grounds. I expect that once I become a force in the Faction Wars, a more competitive online arm of the mode, my collection of cards will grow even stronger. If history is any indicator, there’ll be great support around premium live events, so it should give us all more than enough reason to log in regularly.

Another small touch that serves as a bridge between all of these modes is the fact some of the rewards you unlock, like the ones you get for finishing the Showcase for example, serve your goals in other modes, like MyFACTION. It makes the whole package feel like the greater whole, rather than something slapped together piecemeal. 

The spectacular implosion after the release of 2K20, which saw the series take a two-year hiatus before returning bigger and better, will surely go down as a stroke of good fortune because it’s arguable that these games have never felt better. As is ever the case, your vitality and momentum are represented by a few hard-to-miss bars at the bottom of the screen alongside a silhouette that signifies any limbic damage received. Finishing moves are earned over time and can be banked, while signature moves are intrinsically tied to the roll you’re on. With this basic concept being perhaps the one constant throughout the decades of wrestling games, it leaves a lot of room to focus on the wrestling itself. 

The core mechanics remain largely unchanged from last year’s outing, which is a choice worthy of the Wise Man himself considering the goodwill 2K23 earned its developer. Of course, being an iterative experience, there have been a few small features tacked on in an attempt to build out a more cinematic experience in-ring. Ending exhaustive bouts with a “super finisher” can lead to wild finishes, even if the visual flair is nauseating, while the trading blows mini-game doesn’t prove to be as frenetic as promised, often grinding the bout’s pace to a halt. And unlike the other timing-focused quicktime events, Trading Blows is a tad unreadable with its elements shaking and moving across the screen like they’re in a Ric Flair promo. With that said, while the iterative changes aren’t groundbreaking or even good a lot of the time, the mat work and wrestling in general feel terrific and it speaks volumes of the work that has gone into reinventing this franchise. 

In terms of letting loose your creative juice, 2K24 features just about the most robust creation suite I’ve ever seen in a wrestling video game. 

From superstars to signs, entrances to match types, championship belts to the moves themselves, this game lets a willing player deep dive through a seemingly endless stream of options to hand-craft just about every facet of their experience. I spent far too long poring over my star’s move set, and even longer knocking together a worthy entrance for the man who’d fast become a megastar. 

This kind of freedom of creativity extends into the game’s Universe mode, which serves as a sort of sandbox for people to book matches, spots, and rivalries at their leisure. As much as we hear about “finishing the story” it turns out that creating your own can be more fun. If there exists a story in your mind, you can practically bring it to life in this mode. It’s big, it’s overwhelming, and it feels kind of like playing God (of sports entertainment). Universe is an unshackled version of the game’s MyGM mode, which thrusts you into the thick of a ratings war against rival brands as you manage talent relations, programming, and a dastardly shoestring budget. As someone whose day job is operations-based, MyGM very much tickled the logistics centre of my brain. 

Post Malone is, unquestionably, a strange cat. If he were any more relaxed he’d be dead, and that shines through in his song choices for the soundtrack he had a hand in curating for this game. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more eclectic assortment of tunes and, somehow, Colter Wall’s soulful country song “Motorcycle” which seems to wax lyrical about rural hardship feels in step with Turnstile’s hardcore-punk stylings. The original soundtrack is one part of the presentation I do love, even as the visual fidelity feels like a mixed bag. 

I feel like there’s never been a bigger night-and-day departure in graphics within a single game before. It’s almost as if all of the budget has been poured into entrances and ensuring the spectacle itself is lifelike, leaving the in-ring work to look somewhat lesser than. It isn’t a bad-looking game, but painted-on expressions, stiff hair, and some likenesses that don’t get close to the mark should, in this day and age, be a thing of the past.

Though I’m sure not everything on offer in WWE 2K24 is going to please everybody, I’d expect there’s at least something for everyone. As far as grand stages go Wrestlemania is the industry’s summit, and revisiting so many defining junctures felt momentous and I do think a certain level of reverence was achieved. And wrestling, so beautifully, casts such a wide net that it’s easy to offer a breadth of experience like this, even if the polish level ebbs and flows.

The post WWE 2K24 Review – Showcase Of The Immortals appeared first on Press Start.

Before Josef Fares was a Game Awards-decorated lead on It Takes Two, and long before he ever voiced his displeasure of the Oscars over a hot microphone, he cut his teeth on a little game called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which was developed by the now-defunct Starbreeze Studios. Unlike Fares’ later works, including A Way Out and the aforementioned award-winning It Takes Two, which have all been built around cooperative play, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons tasked the player with controlling the siblings in tandem, using a novel twin-stick approach to create a sort of “single-player co-op” experience. 

Your objective is to navigate a solemn fairy-tale world controlling both brothers at once. The left stick and trigger controls the older, stronger brother who can utilise his braun, while the right side of the controls is for the younger, more world-weary brother who’s far nimbler and wily. Much of the game’s design is puzzle driven, with the tasks being regularly designed with a turn-based approach in mind as to not overwhelm the player with over-complicated scenarios, including luring and evading a snarling farm dog and trading off being an anchor point for the other brother as they swing on a hip-attached rope.

In its time, it achieved so much through how it handled interaction and drilling home every thoughtful meaning given to it. Despite being very much together throughout, the particularity of each brother’s own capacity managed to create a believable symbiotic reliance on the other that made the journey utterly engaging and wholly sold their brotherhood. 

Though it’s absolutely viable and, I’d argue, recommended to enjoy Brothers as a single-player experience, local co-op features as a rather special addition in this remake. It’s a lovely story to share with somebody, however once the charm of controlling both brothers at once is gone, A Tale of Two Sons becomes a rather humdrum two-player puzzler that offers little that feels new, especially in a world where Fares has gone on to expand upon Brothers’ foundations in his work with Hazelight. So while options are a fine thing, I do think co-op does rob the game of part of its impact because you no longer feel the kinship of Naia and Naiee through your dual-command. 

I do acknowledge there’ll be people who found, and maybe still find, Brothers’ rather atypical control scheme unplayable or unnecessarily challenging. Even my own lizard brain suffered from occasional misfires where I’d lose track of my thumbs, as silly as that sounds, if the brothers drifted to opposing sides of the screen. Obviously it’s already a test of motor skills and coordination, though there’s definitely an element of spatial awareness that’s tested constantly. And perhaps if all of that feels too much, therein lies the use case for local co-op though I’d encourage players to try and experience the game as originally released first and foremost. 

As a remake, A Tale of Two Sons really does feel like a beat for beat recreation, and if it veers from the established path it’s hidden well enough that it didn’t catch me off-guard as new. As is always the case, it’s a bit of a rose-tinted glasses situation because it feels like the same experience, however Avantgarden’s remake does seem more refined in terms of AI and other physics behaviours that have naturally improved over the last decade. Outside of bringing it up to standard, Brothers is a sterling recreation of an earnest, solemn fairy tale that still, a decade on, has several emotional highs worth exploring. 

An ailing father might serve as the impetus for the boys’ adventure in Brothers, but there are so many stories you’ll encounter along the road that really service the game’s many throughlines including, but not limited to mourning, grief and adversity. For a short game, Brothers makes its shots count and wrings feelings from every microcosmic story that’s pulled into the orbit of a rather simple tale of two boys trying to save their dad. What impresses me the most is how it manages to do all of this through the power of gesture and a handful of disposable lines read in a gibberish blend of dialects. 

Having sampled parts of the original again prior to reviewing the remake, it’s clear that there’s a day and night difference when it comes to the game’s presentation. Though improved, I wouldn’t call it a stellar looking game. The people you encounter throughout are so-so, the beasts of myth that darken your path look fierce and worthy of panic, while the world itself is the clearest improvement in terms of the game’s fidelity. Things like foliage and lighting create a striking backdrop for the journey. Of course, things are a little pared back when opting for performance mode but that’s likely to spare you the pop-in and juddering that can mar the experience in fidelity mode. 

When it comes to delivering on the story’s devastating moments, there’s a huge assist on the soundtrack’s score line. Reimagined and re-recorded by a full orchestra, the arrangement is more than serviceable when it comes to tugging on the heartstrings during the game’s many powerful moments. 

Although there’ll be people hesitant to double dip, there’s no question that this remake of Brothers is the absolute number one course of experiencing this quaint, heart rending fairy tale. As a faithful recreation of the decade-old original, the premise of Brothers still holds up today and, in a lot of ways, feels like a blueprint for Josef’s duology that reinvented what it can mean to be a co-op game. 

The post Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Remake Review – Sibling Revelry appeared first on Press Start.

Just as we’ve established what’s in the pipeline this year for PlayStation and Nintendo in terms of console-exclusive releases, both first and third party, we now arrive at Xbox’s green machine which, at times, has put out a software line-up most would describe as lean. 

I feel like a broken record in saying that, after Bethesda shouldered a bulk of last year, the dominoes finally seem to be set up for Microsoft themselves to deliver a pretty robust line-up of games this year and deliver on the quarterly releases they were aiming for. Which is obviously great, it’s nice to see the fruits of some of their acquisitions from way back. 

The wonderful thing is that subscribers of Xbox Game Pass, which is still arguably the best deal in video games, are expected to get every single one of these releases as part of their patronage. 

Of course, so many questions remain about Xbox’s slate. We’re still relatively fresh from the closure of Activision Blizzard’s takeover and don’t know the full extent of how that’ll play into things, and of course there’s the recent move to push some of its first-party titles across to PlayStation and Switch. There’s also still a host of games we know exist without knowing when to expect them, like Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, and Fable.

With all that said, here’s a list of the games coming exclusively (as far as we know it) to Xbox’s ecosystem in 2024. 

Towerborne 

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC

The Belfry stands as a beacon of hope and safety amongst the ruins of humanity and the City of Numbers, with monsters lurking right outside the tower’s walls. You are an Ace, born anew from the spirit realm with the skills, the grit, and the determination to protect the people of the Belfry.

Avowed

Release Date: Q3/Q4 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger.

Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment. 

You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate rumours of a spreading plague throughout the Living Lands, an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, and choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. 

Ara: History Untold

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: PC

Build a nation and lead your people throughout history to the pinnacles of human achievement as you explore new lands, develop arts and culture, conduct diplomacy, and go head-to-head with your rivals to prove you are the greatest ruler ever known. It’s your world now. 

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II

Release Date: May 21, 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without.

Sink deep into the next chapter of Senua’s story, a crafted experience told through cinematic immersion, beautifully realised visuals and encapsulating sound.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Uncover one of history’s greatest mysteries in a first-person, single-player adventure. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them.

Indiana Jones.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Join the aviation adventure in a groundbreaking simulator developed for Xbox Series X|S and PC.

STALKER 2

Release Date: September 6, 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Discover the vast Chornobyl Exclusion Zone full of dangerous enemies, deadly anomalies and powerful artefacts. Unveil your own epic story as you make your way to the Heart of Chornobyl. 

Make your choices wisely, as they will determine your fate in the end.

33 Immortals

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

33 Immortals is a co-op action-roguelike for 33 players. Play a damned soul, and rebel against God’s final judgement. Pick-up and raid, cooperate to survive hordes of monsters, defeat massive bosses, and face the wrath of God in a fight for your eternal life.

Dungeons of Hinterburg 

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Armed with a sword and a tourist guide, explore the beautiful alpine village of Hinterberg and uncover the magic hidden within its dungeons! Master magic, solve puzzles, slay monsters. 

All this and more await you in Hinterberg.

Replaced 

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC

Replaced is a 2.5D sci-fi retro-futuristic action platformer set in an alternate 1980s America, with free-flow action combat and a deep, dystopian story.

You play as R.E.A.C.H. – an artificial intelligence trapped in a human body against its own will, striving to adjust to human life, in and around Phoenix-City.

Dead Static Drive

Release Date: Q3 2024

Platforms: Xbox One, PC

Grand Theft Cthulhu. 

Dead Static Drive is a horror survival adventure. You’re on the road. The world begins to fall apart in front of you. Your friendships will make every bit of difference as order collapses and the people you meet fight for their own survival.

Ark 2

Release Date: Q3/Q4 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC

Survive the past. Tame the future.

Suddenly awakened on a primal world filled with dinosaurs and humans struggling for dominance, you must team-up with legendary heroes to confront powerful dark forces. Saddle up, and join the definitive next-gen survival experience with Ark 2.

Routine

Release Date: TBA 2024

Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, Mac

Curious exploration turns into a need for survival when a lunar base goes completely quiet. Searching for answers puts you face to face with an enemy who is certain the main threat is you. Discoveries lead to deeper unknowns and the only way to go is forward.

The post Xbox Exclusives To Look Forward To In 2024 appeared first on Press Start.

Right on the heels of the Persian Prince’s comeback tour, Ultros is undeniably another in a string of releases that are delivering the metroidvania genre back into the limelight. Although El Huervo’s distinct art is more than enough to capture a player’s attention, the game’s ability to hook them in with its creative, roguelike sensibilities is unparalleled. 

Adrift at the edge of a black hole and set aboard the Sarcophagus, a pulsing, living mess of organic matter, you carve out a path within the vessel, leaving behind a beautiful network of scandent stems that persist even as time resets with each loop. The ship itself serves as a space-uterus for an ancient being called Ultros, whose rebirth threatens the fabric of everything, but it’s shrouded inside a mystery that unfolds piecemeal as you meet the ship’s inhabitants, hostile and friendly, alike. 

What I enjoy most about Ultros’ narrative is how it obfuscates the truth of things, wrapping it up in layers of deep lore that you’ll need to peel back throughout the first fifteen hours in hopes of understanding your role in everything. It’s riveting sci-fi and even after rolling credits on the first ending, I find myself returning to rediscover more deep-planted secrets. 

Along with it being a metroidvania, which brings with it all of the things you’d expect, Ultros has an intimate close-quarters brand of combat that reminds me somewhat of Hollow Knight. While it feels disappointingly one-note for the first hour or two, the combat does begin to open up as you encounter more strategic enemies and explore more branches of your skill tree. It integrates systems that reward precision and offensive variety as the entrails of fallen fodder serve as fuel for both your upgrade tree and as compost for the world’s fertile soil.

And it’s in that fertile soil that you can also plant one of several seeds that can grow into trees, vines, bushes, and so forth. Although they’re not the only means of aiding traversal in Ultros, how these seedlings grow is a large part of the environmental puzzle craft, both in terms of opening up once-locked paths and connecting all things to the ship’s living network which builds towards the true endgame.

Some of the pathing you’re expected to take can be a tad obtuse if you assume that the game is going to hold your hand throughout. It does guide you at first, tutorialising the combat and Ultros’ basic tenets, but very much leaves you to explore its labyrinthian and winding corridors before too long. 

The main loop of Ultros revolves around locating and killing eight stasis-bound shamans who safeguard the continuum and keep the demonic threat bound to its humidicrib. And it’s with each kill that the loop occurs and takes you back to the beginning. Like all good roguelikes, some ideas and mechanics persist, such as gardening and ever-expanding tool sets like your Extractor, creating a great flow of discovery within the world. 

The Extractor is arguably the most important tool in aiding practically all of the game’s mechanics outside of roughhousing. Not only does it include a double-jump by default, it also services the serene gardening aspect of Ultros. Piece by piece, with each shaman slain, it’ll evolve to trim, uproot, and quite literally Frankenstein plants together to birth unique paths through the world. It makes the slow build from novice green thumb to Costa Georgiadis believable and less daunting.  

With upgrades being tied to dormant memories, your skill tree is something that, like everything else, resets with each loop. That is until you uncover special cortex locks that fix the memories in place so that they, too, persist across loops. It’s a cool system that, similar to Dead Cells’ semi-titular cells mechanic, doesn’t make defeat in battle too devastating to bounce back from, not to mention Ultros has a generous save system that lets players climb into orbic bunks to either safely mark progress, purchase skills or, much later in the game, travel to other bunks across the Sarcophagus which are connected to the living network.

It’s all elegantly executed and does make Ultros feel less daunting than other games of its ilk, giving players the freedom to explore its intoxicating, kaleidoscopic vistas and drink up the strangest of fiction. 

As someone who’s an enormous Hotline Miami enthusiast, it’s hard not to adore El Huervo’s beautiful art direction for this game. It’s distinct, it’s alien, and it’s staggeringly rich in terms of its colour use. The world exists in starburst technicolor and feels full to the brim of many-splendoured psychedelics, it does feel like art that’s worthy of its space on the wall. To capture the vibe of a writhing cosmos, Oscar Rydelius’ ethereal score walks hand-in-hand with the game’s artwork to create a vibe that is the centrepiece of a game with so many strings to its bow already. 

For a game of its scale, I was also impressed by the accessibility options Ultros presents. Some soften the backgrounds and dim some of the visual stimuli to make the game’s vibrant visuals more palatable for sensitive players, while you can also tinker with damage sliders to make combat easier if you’re finding it troublesome.

While it’ll ultimately prove fortuitous that the metroidvania has found itself back in the spotlight, Ultros demonstrates that even a few novel ideas can transform the most tried and true concepts into something clever, creatively fertile, and profoundly beautiful.

The post Ultros Review – Savage Gardener appeared first on Press Start.

There’s nothing that whets a gamer’s whistle more than a good trailer. It’s exactly why so many of us get up in the wee hours of the night to watch things like Summer Games Fest, it’s the one side of game’s marketing that’s pure, unadulterated hype. 

Of course, being marketing, trailers can be fickle in the sense that they don’t always represent the final product. Never forget the stupidly named ‘puddlegate’ when players realised the puddles in Marvel’s Spider-Man weren’t as reflective as they could be. Or when Redfall’s trailer made the game look great? 

That said, even as some trailers obfuscate the reality of a game’s production, they can still stand out as key moments of a game’s reveal, launch, and history. 

Here’s why these six trailers are some of the more iconic video game trailers that have ever aired. 

(And god, I know, six trailers could never come close to covering all of the hype that has graced our screens. So drop a comment wherever you clicked through from and tell me which trailer I cruelly overlooked.)

Dead Island 

I’ve had some rough family holidays, our first ended in a bout of spicy flu and a six hour car ride home with two screaming kids. But the trailer for the first Dead Island goes a long way to putting that into perspective. 

Opening on a young girl’s lifeless face, this three-minute-long trailer runs in reverse showing the story of this young family falling victim to the infection sweeping the game’s titular island of the undead. It’s a heartbreaking trailer that’s bound to hit harder a decade on for the gamers who’ve grown up and had kids of their own. 

It’s no surprise that this particular trailer will likely be remembered far longer than the game itself, which was a pretty mindless slasher-action title with none of the emotional impact of its masterful marketing beat.

[Note: This one’s pretty graphic]

Gears of War 

When kicking around the concept for this particular piece, Gears of War’s first trailer instantly sprang to mind. In the days when you’d download the trailer from the marketplace and strain your eyes to enjoy it in its full 480p glory, I remember watching this one over and over. 

A tentpole title for Xbox 360, Gears of War was already a spectacle from a visual standpoint while Gary Jules’ “Mad World” served as a haunting, sad soundscape for the troubles on Sera. Even now, watching Marcus rear his Lancer toward insurmountable odds against a gentle piano line makes the hair on my neck stand on end. 

What’s even crazier is the lad who directed this iconic trailer just put out a little film called Top Gun: Maverick, so tip of the cap to Joseph Kosinski. 

Uncharted

No, I’m not talking about Nathan Drake’s first adventure, I’m referring to the gritty Amy Hennig story that eventually got stripped for parts and became A Thief’s End. 

Premiering back in 2013, this teaser painted a far darker story than the one we’d eventually get and, honestly, I think about what this game could have been a lot despite the fact I did enjoy Drake’s presumed swansong. A story that melded the Rafe and Sam characters into one would have made for some significant Drake family dramas. 

So, if there’s anybody reading this who has any insight to how Nate’s story originally ended, my channels are open. 

“You owe me.”

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Any fair-weather Kojima fan knows I could have used his works to curate this entire list, there are few better than the auteur visionary at putting together riveting, confounding glimpses at his projects. 

The entire reason this piece exists is because of how fucking bonkers the On the Beach trailer is. A standout from PlayStation’s most recent State of Play, it won my heart the second I saw someone using an electric guitar to arc lightning. It’s that kind of, well, nonsense that makes Kojima irresistible as a creator. 

What’s exciting for us as consumers is that Kojima’s marketing builds are generally quite drawn out, so I expect we’re going to get quite a lot more craziness in the months to come.

Halo 3

After the groundbreaking success of Halo: Combat Evolved, which in a lot of ways reinvented what a shooter could be on console, plus a globe-trotting sequel that helped validate Xbox Live as a service, there was an enormous, industry-wide desire for Halo 3. 

Although it would go on to be one of the biggest entertainment launches of its time, the marketing build for the game was something else. “Believe” became the one-word slogan for the entire trilogy, with the man in the iron pants becoming a figurehead for both humankind and Microsoft’s gaming arm. 

There were few bigger characters in the mid-to-late noughties than the Chief. 

Few trailers are as epic as the “Starry Night” trailer that first debuted during the Super Bowl ahead of the game’s September launch. From the stargazing children wondering whether they’ll ever meet those who dwell among the stars, to Chief leaping headstrong into battle, this trailer was Halo operating at 11 out of 10. 

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Every single character reveal for Ultimate’s bulging roster felt special in its own right, I’ll never forget the fervour around Banjo-Kazooie being announced. 

However, the original reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate itself was pretty much the definition of event viewing. Like Kim Kardashian’s champagne bottle trickery, Mario and company damn near broke the internet. 

Starting out as a Splatoon misdirect, the trailer shows Inklings running a muck against an all-white backdrop. After a few moments, the lights dissipate, leaving the Inklings in absolute darkness save for an enormous, ominous burning effigy in the sky. Beneath it wait Mario, Link, and a whole cast of Nintendo favourites.

Running it back today, it was like gazing upon the face of God.

The post 6 Of The Most Iconic Video Game Trailers Ever appeared first on Press Start.

A couple of years ago, Neon White took over the video game world for a hot minute. Obviously its manga-inspired presentation was a big part of the appeal, though I’d argue it was the flashy, fleeting moments of glory that were so frequent in what was ultimately a game about conquering a speedrunning gauntlet. 

Children of the Sun, the new joint between Devolver Digital and solo Belgian developer René Rother, very much recaptures this addictive, enormously replayable brand of gameplay and I think it has potential to be the year’s indie gem that critics flock to. In spite of confronting concepts and violence that drive its enigmatic plot forward, it’s such a moreish blend of action and puzzle-solving. 

I can’t get enough. 

Although it’s hard to gauge just how much of the game the preview build contains, I got to play a good couple of hours of Children of the Sun and, straight away, it hooks you with a clever, yet simple, idea. Not only do you control The Girl, a tortured and ruined soul, in her revenge plot against an exploitative cult and its leader, you’re also in control of a single round fired from her rifle dispensed after scouting the perimeter of each scenario for the best path through the fodder cultists. After an explosive exit from the barrel, you guide the bullet to your first unsuspecting mark, and it’s with every successful kill—both direct and indirect—that you’re able to gain your bearings, re-aim and fire off again with physics-defying precision.

If you miss, however, it’s curtains and you’re forced to try again. Coupled with the grisly task at hand, each level has a challenge that’s generally tied to an element found in the scene. A memorable one tasked The Girl with shooting the fuel tanks on the cars that the cultists are congregating around, resulting in a spectacular explosion of fiery limbs. Not only do these add a unique spin on each stage, they add another thing for score chasers to go for.

Obviously, the puzzle elements come from scouting an area, marking all of the targets within it, and then formulating the quickest and most efficient way to return them to their makers. As far as the game’s scoring goes, and it does appear to be a competitive leaderboard early doors, you’re rewarded for both speed and planning. The closer your journey draws you toward the cult’s leader, you’ll not only meet tougher, shielded enemies that require a shift in strategy but you’ll even gain abilities that border on magic such as curving a round’s trajectory mid-flight. Clearly, the more mechanics that are layered in the more taxing hunting the top-percentile on the leaderboards becomes, but that’s the beauty and fun of the hunt. 

While I, at times, got hints of themes surrounding female empowerment in Children of the Sun, purely due to The Girl’s ceaseless crusade that seems to harken back to that famous cold dish of revenge, I also feel as though the implied torture and punishment that has pushed the protagonist to the point of breaking sees these themes land less gracefully than something like Kill Bill. I expect its intent is to challenge, though by untethering The Girl from reality and painting her as mad as a hatter, living off of the land as she stalks the figurehead of this group that promised so much yet delivered so little in terms of spiritual contentment, her payback is left feeling more tragic than anything. 

Perhaps it’s that this two-hour slice didn’t reveal enough of The Girl’s history to make her seem like anything other than a forever-wild-eyed instrument of malice who’s incapable of any other emotion except perhaps the arousal that comes from polishing her gun—which, yes, is an actual, interactive scene that slots inexplicably between the carnage. 

There’s no denying that Children of the Sun is a fun, albeit bleak, game presented as a checklisted road trip of retribution for the protagonist. It has an irresistible visual flair that calls to mind the digitised-degradation of old video tapes, and it’s drab and cheerless taking place almost exclusively at night or, if you’re lucky, dusk. The shooting gallery and its inherent cruelty is ushered along by a cacophonous industrial soundscape that’s jarring and uncomfortable. I do adore much of the imagery in Children of the Sun, from the cult’s almost luminous uniform that sees them pop like targets against the dark woods to The Girl’s hand-crafted mask, which is nondescript and featureless except for the crude cut out holes that her feral eyes peer through. 

If your aim is to be a contender on the leaderboards, keyboard and mouse will clearly be the way to go. That said, I pretty much exclusively played on Steam Deck and found it to still be a comfortable layout for controls, far more so than I found Neon White on a handheld. General performance on the Steam Deck was sturdy, and the game’s replayability feels so suited to hardware you can take with you on the go. 

There’s so much odd curiosity that makes up Children of the Sun that it could be mistaken for an arthouse snuff film when it isn’t ruling so damn hard as the year’s lethally replayable response to Neon White.

Children of the Sun launches on PC in 2024, you can wishlist and download a demo on Steam here.

The post Children Of The Sun Hands-On Preview – If You Had One Shot… appeared first on Press Start.

The Last of Us Part II was a baffling beast of a video game when it launched just a few years ago. It was the recipient of critical acclaim, ridicule, and several polarising viewpoints that fell in a vast chasm between those two. It’s no secret that I loved the game, we scored it well and even opted to do a spoiler cast on the narrative which isn’t something we frequently do. 

However, despite wanting to rave about and dissect the game in the weeks and months that followed, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to slog through the game again after just three years. It isn’t a bad game, though it demands an emotional tax that I wasn’t sure I’d be good for. That said, replaying The Last of Us Part II in its remastered form has done nothing but cement for me what a masterpiece it is. Its subversion of expectations, its grounded rules of cause and effect, and undeniably hefty character work all set the game on a level above most.

If you never experienced Part II at launch and your only exposure so far to The Last of Us is either the remake of Part I or HBO’s adapted television series, then picking this game up remains a no-brainer. If you’re one of the ten million to have already bought this game, however, it’s a slightly harder sell. Were it not for the fact there exists a generous upgrade path between versions, with this release being accompanied by cut level content and an entirely new roguelike mode, I’d find it hard to recommend Part II Remastered ahead of its pre-existing patch that brought its PlayStation 4 counterpart up to 60fps.

With all that said, it was much easier to enjoy my replay for Part II with all of the benefits of newer hardware. Things like unlocking the frame rate to get nearer to that upscaled 4K and 40 fps setting that has become the norm for other PlayStation first-parties is nice, however I felt the benefits of leaner loading times much more. Of course, there’s wonderful DualSense integration that serves up tensile response on Ellie’s bow, the traps she sets, and how taut her bandages are pulled. Even Shimmer’s gentle gallop through the early Seattle parts can be felt rhythmically in hand, and it all just serves the immersion of what is ultimately a harsh, unforgiving world. 

Where the remaster’s value begins to shine through is when you uncover a lot of the behind-the-scenes extras. I’m a sucker for a commentary, regardless of how self-assured it can all sound after the fact, as it offers up fascinating insight into development and managing expectations. Similarly, the ‘Lost Levels,’ which give us looks at three cut stages at varying degrees of completion, are a rare glimpse behind the curtain and feel like unprecedented access for a game of this profile. I can certainly see why the levels were left on the cutting room floor, it’s just interesting to see the processes of creation and iteration on full display.

The main draw for many returning players will be the game’s No Return mode. Although it doesn’t have the narrative allure of God of War Ragnarok’s Valhalla roguelike that launched recently, it remains a pretty engrossing showcase of the game’s visceral and confronting combat. Even though stealth is a big part of The Last of Us, I am a bit of a run-and-gun player and, as such, don’t think the slow approach translates quite as well to No Return and it felt more fulfilling when opting for a more seek and destroy tactic. That said, having mods that buff and debuff areas of your character’s output keeps it a level playing field, regardless of the setting you play on. 

It’s kind of strange to enjoy a mode like this so shortly after the franchise’s live-service multiplayer game got put on ice. Especially when No Return, with a bit of building out, could have filled that void easily. There’s enough framework here to imagine something more robust, with creative objectives, raid-like dungeons, and cooperative play. 

But I can’t criticise the mode on what it could be. No Return, as it is, is an enjoyable distraction from the game’s enormous campaign that serviceably showcases all of the game’s gritty action. Being able to explore combat as the game’s other characters, like Lev and Dina who weren’t previously playable, is cool as they’ve all got their strengths and weaknesses. Take Abby for example, she’s an absolute brick shithouse in the campaign and that’s no different here as her brutal hand-to-hand output makes short work of most. Plus it’s fun taking on the game’s many factions in so many new contexts. And with things like competitive daily runs and fun outfits to unlock, there’s enough reason to return for at least the time being. Whether the allure remains once the well of unlockable content dries right up remains to be seen. 

I guess the beauty is that even without No Return and all of this extra content, The Last of Us Part II is still a phenomenal title that warrants playing if you haven’t already. However, if you’ve already clocked it once, the generous upgrade path still makes this package a no-brainer as Naughty Dog continues to celebrate the history and myth of these tentpole launches that have made them one of PlayStation’s lynchpin studios.

I originally scored The Last of Us Part II as a 9.5/10 when it launched for the PlayStation 4 stating:

“Though it’s destined to displease those who built Ellie and Joel up as infallible, as an observation of impermanence, tribalism, and the terrible cycle of violence that exists at the centre of what’s left of the human experience in this world. The Last of Us Part II is a spectacular sequel, it’s a brave and unexpected direction for the series, expanding on the world both narratively and mechanically, producing a far sounder and rounded experience that never falters or gets in the way of the game’s clear storytelling strength.”

To read the full original review, click HERE. 

The post The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered Review – I Would Do It All Over Again appeared first on Press Start.

The below guide has been repurposed from our original guide content for The Last of Us Part II and contains images from the PS4 version of the game. Everything contained with in will still apply to The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PS5. Please note that there are spoilers below for anyone yet to play the game.

After the midway pivot-point, the player will take over as Abby to relive the three harrowing days in Seattle from her perspective. It’s narrative dynamite, plus it offered Naughty Dog the chance to mix up the collectibles a bit. The first half of the game had Ellie finding scattered trading cards with superheroes ironed on, Abby’s is a more refined taste. 

Abby has been working on a coin collection and her levels have small, hard to spot coins with American states pressed on them. So we’re here to hopefully help out and provide a little insight into where to find them. 

If you’d prefer to try your best at finding these or any other collectibles before coming here as a last resort, we’d highly recommend replaying chapters with use of the game’s optional Enhanced Listening Mode and/or High Contrast accessibility settings to make it easier on yourself.

WHERE TO FIND ALL THE COINS IN THE LAST OF US PART II

Click on any of the chapters below to see the list of cards, and click a card to be taken straight to its spot in the guide.

Tracking Lesson

Virginia

This particular coin introduces the collectible to the player and, as such, is unmissable. After exiting the forest and finding the first signs of civilisation, you’ll have to break and climb through a bathroom window to proceed. Turn to your right after you land, and you’ll spot a coin on the tine-pocket of the dumpster.

The Stadium

Alaska

After collecting your pack and leaving your corporate box-turned bedroom, take a left and find the coin on the ground.

Maine

Before following Mel and Manny down the stands to continue the ‘baby talk’, push past the stairwell to find this coin on a bench.

New Jersey

As you follow Mel and Manny from the field, you’ll go past a relax guard and a memorial wall for fallen Wolves. The coin is on the ground just in front of the mural.

Vermont

After checking out your guns, truck, and trouncing Manny in the firing range, you’re meant to follow your team to the right around the bend and leave. Though, if you turn left you’ll find a coin nestled in a head-high shelf of a metal cabinet.

On Foot

Kentucky

At the very start of the chapter, in the dark warehouse, stray slightly from following Manny through the racking and you’ll find this coin on a card table.

Massachusetts

As soon as you enter the greenhouse, head for the rear left corner and find another coin on a desk.

Ohio

You’ll encounter a puzzle into the boat repair yard that requires you to balance the ladder on the side of the boat to bridge the gap. Before doing this, lean on the wall next to the door that Mel opens for you to find a table with plenty of supplements and a coin.

Indiana

After escaping the boat repair yard, you’ll be in an open area littered with truck bodies and trailers. Head to the left side of the trailer in the middle of the area, smash out a window with a brick, bullet, or bottle and hop inside to find the coin on a desk at the far end.

The Forward Base 

California

After disembarking the truck, but before you head through the checkpoint, this coin will be on the ground to the right, on the elevated part of the concrete. From the starting point, it’s obscured by a talking group of soldiers.

New Mexico

Once passing through the checkpoint, take a hard and sharp left around another group of chatting soldiers. You’ll find it on a crate.

South Carolina

Once a chat with Nora, you’ll enter the main building in search of Isaac. Manny will make small talk with a pair seated at a bench before heading around to the right, past the holding cells. The coin is at the far, darkened end of the table that Manny initially approaches.

Hostile Territory

North Dakota

Once splitting up with Manny, you’ll trek through a few small shops before emerging into a larger area. Climb atop a truck body and make your way through the window to proceed. Before going through the door, go forward in this small room to find the coin in the bottom drawer of the television cabinet.

The Coast

Alabama

As you proceed past the yard of shipping containers and infected, you’ll climb a collapsed bridge to get to higher ground. If you go straight ahead once at the top, toward the dead end, you’ll find the coin next to a sharp-dressed corpse.

West Virginia

After collecting the crossbow and heading upstairs on the cruise ship that ran aground, take the next two rights and you’ll find a suitcase in the far nook with a teddy bear sat on top, next to the coin.

Utah

As you ultimately progress to leave this hell ship, you’ll climb a ladder and see the path forward signaled by a conveniently collapsed fin of the ship, granting passage over the fence. Before you leave, head the other way and find the coin behind the central fin.

Mississippi

As you near the aquarium, there’ll be a water fountain out front with a breaching whale statue. Someone thought this was a wishing well because you’ll find the last level’s coin on the floor of the fountain.

The Shortcut

Nevada

As you first enter the area with the rushing water, there’ll be a barbershop called Franklin’s Barber Shop on the right-hand side that you can slip into. By the cash register is the coin.

Colorado

Following a hectic fight with a bloater and its company, you’ll leap from one building to another over the rapids and arrive in an optics store. If you take a right as you climb in through the window, you can exit through another to land on the blue awning for the store. Turn left, proceed to the end of the awning to find the coin.

The Descent

Illinois

After falling through the skylight into the hotel pool with Lev, simply cannonball back in to discover a coin hiding at the bottom of this murky pool.

Oregon

After dropping down a few levels after fetching Lev his gas mask, instead of taking the beam to the left, walk forward and you’ll enter a room, be attacked by a wall-womb infected, and then leap across a short crevice. Glance right after the jump and you’ll spot a coin on a little sill.

Wisconsin

After jumping down to the lower elevator and slipping through the ajar door, there’ll be a vending machine just to your left that’ll return a coin in its slot once you smash the glass on it.

Rhode Island

Once you take your mask off, you’ll arrive in an outdoor courtyard. In the middle will be a bar area, head for the left-hand side of it and you’ll find a coin tucked in under the counter next to an old monitor.

Missouri

After leaving Lev behind to search for the supplies as a Wolf in plain sight, you’ll be granted passage through the gate. After you’re in, turn immediately to the right and enter through the two large broken windows and the coin will be at the end of the corridor on the ground.

Ground Zero

Washington

Go downstairs with Nora and head toward the surgical and trauma wards. Before following her down the corridor, double back and check behind the cafe counter to find a coin next to the register.

Hawaii

After fighting The Rat King in the lower levels of the hospital, you’ll lift a roller door and make your way under it into the A1 level of the parking lot. You should be facing the rear of a truck, turn left and smash out the glass of the ticket booth and snatch the coin from the table within.

The Marina

Kansas

As soon as you take over control of Abby in the level, you’ll notice a little lookout to your right and you can hop over the guardrail to get to. The first coin of the stage is on the ground just here.

Louisiana

You’ll soon come to Lenora St Station. Rather than climb onto the platform and proceed through the train carriage, follow the right path down the side to find a coin on the ground.

The Island

Idaho

Not long after landing on the island, along with Yara, you’ll climb a ladder to get onto an overpass. To your left is an open truck body that you can climb in to find some goodies. There’ll be a training manual plus the level’s first coin tucked in the rear corner.

North Carolina

After the island’s warning bugle blows, you’ll come to a drop. Before hopping down, head around the far side of the car wreck to the left. You’ll find a book in the grass with a coin sat on it.

Montana

When you’re trying to clear a path to the lumber mill, you’ll find another coin on the upper floor of the building opposite the mill. Reach the second floor by mantling over the stacks of wood. The coin is to the left near some hessian sacks.

The Escape 

Arkansas

Not long after you sneak through the basement area as Isaac’s troops search on the ground level, shining their lights in, you’ll slip through a doorway. Though instead of following Yara and Lev under the truck trailer, turn left and pick up the coin hidden behind the shopping trolley.

Congratulations, if you followed our guide through to the end you’ll have earned yourself a gold trophy called “Numismatist.”

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered: Where To Find Every Coin appeared first on Press Start.

The below guide has been repurposed from our original guide content for The Last of Us Part II and contains images from the PS4 version of the game. Everything contained with in will still apply to The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PS5. Please note that there are spoilers below for anyone yet to play the game.

As soon as I uncovered Nathan Drake’s ring at Westlake Bank back when The Last of Us Part II originally launched, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Naughty Dog would go so far as to plant a monument to Jak and Daxter, their franchise that doesn’t nearly get the love it deserves. I was pleased as punch to discover that they had, slipping it into a chapter in the game’s second half, and of course the same can be said about the remaster.

WHERE TO FIND THE STRANGE ARTIFACT IN THE LAST OF US PART II TO UNLOCK THE ‘RELIC OF THE SAGES TROPHY’

The chapter falls under Abby Seattle Day 1 – Hostile Territory and focuses on Abby’s search for Owen. Under the glare of a setting sun, the goal is to simply head west and follow the light. A handful of minutes after being left alone, you’ll hop a fence and round the corner into a small Asian strip mall. The shops offer a few secrets, a safe among them, but most importantly, this is the area that a Precursor Orb can be found, a sly nod to the Jak and Daxter franchise.

You’ll proceed down the alley and go upstairs in the last store on the left. After crawling beneath an obstructing table, only a couple of Clickers stand between you and this peculiar, alien relic.

Leap across to the adjacent balcony and once you explore the upstairs rooftop, proceed on the intended path. Don’t jump down the hole just yet.

Before you descend to the ground floor, turn around and check the desk. You’ll spot the orb under a desk fan.

Much like Drake’s ring, you’ll receive a bronze trophy for your trouble called ‘Relic of the Sages’.

The game now expects you to jump down the hole to become a veritable bull in a china shop, destroying infected and pottery alike.

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered: Where To Find The Strange Artifact And Unlock The Relic Of The Sages Trophy appeared first on Press Start.

The below guide has been repurposed from our original guide content for The Last of Us Part II and contains images from the PS4 version of the game. Everything contained with in will still apply to The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PS5. Please note that there are spoilers below for anyone yet to play the game.

The Last of Us had comic books scattered throughout the city ruins, while Part II has superhero trading cards. It’s clear that whoever it was living around these parts of Boston and Seattle before the outbreak, they were big ol’ geeks.

Though they’re not as small as Abby’s antique coins, these trading cards are still hard to spot with infected biting into your neck, so we’re here to hopefully help out and provide a bit of insight into where to find them.

If you’d prefer to try your best at finding these or any other collectibles before coming here as a last resort, we’d highly recommend replaying chapters with use of the game’s optional Enhanced Listening Mode and/or High Contrast accessibility settings to make it easier on yourself.

WHERE TO FIND ALL THE TRADING CARDS IN THE LAST OF US PART II

Click on any of the chapters below to see the list of cards, and click a card to be taken straight to its spot in the guide.

Waking Up

Seismicayla

As you turn into the main part of town and seek assurance from Jesse that everything’s okay between you, take a left and find a trading card pinned to the notice board.

The Keene Twins

After meeting up with Maria and enduring Seth’s apology, turn back and continue around through the bar to find a trading card on the counter next to the dart board.

Patrol

Tesseracter

Once you arrive at the small settlement and decide to start searching houses, climb up on the pick-up truck in front of the last house on the right and climb in through the hole in the wall and turn left to find this card on a bookcase in the closet.

Laurent Foucault, CEO Spark

After arriving at the library, which you discover was a base of operations of sorts for Eugene, you’ll go through a door and see an “unlock imagination” poster in front of you. Take the next left behind the counter and in the store room you’ll find a trading card on the shelf.

The Gate

Motivator

Once Dina proclaims that there are cars nearby, you’ll see a bus stop on the right hand side of the brush. The trading card is pinned to the inner right wall of the structure.

The Starfire Kids

In the trailer where you discover the map of Seattle, find a trading card on the corkboard in the trailer’s other compartment.

Chessmaster

After climbing over the hole in the top of the gate and proceeding along the catwalk, there’ll be a ladder inside a circular tower that will take you to the ground. Before you do, turn around and find a second ladder, hidden from sight, that leads up to the top of the tower where a trading card is waiting for you.

Oozer

After you’ve started the generator, pick up the extension lead and take a step back and to the right so that you’re aiming it over the edge of the trailer, behind the sign. If all goes to plan, you should be able to proceed through the gate and scale the wall. You’ll find a deck chair on the roof surrounded by loot, including a trading card.

Downtown

Dr. Uckmann

Next to the bank there’s a skeletal remnant of a building, Dina even questions its safety as you climb it. Break a window and jump across to the other ledge to access the stairs and make it to the top level. One of the crates will have a funnily named trading card inside.

Big Blue

At the top of the map, near the courthouse, there’s a small diner called Ruston Coffee and it’s in here that you’ll find a trading card inside the drawer under the coffee machine in the back corner.

<Das Wort

Once you find the music shop and take in Ellie’s rendition of A-ha’s “Take On Me”, head downstairs and check the drawer beneath the counter with the cash register on it to find a trading card.

Flo

Find Gate West 2 behind the music shop on the corner of Madison and Fifth. Slip through the gate and find the safe inside, written on the wall above it instructs whoever seeks the goods inside to simply use the gate code. Enter 0451 and find the trading card inside.

Know It All

As you walk up the stairs within the Serevena Hotel and spot the body next to the open door, go straight through there and keep on going to the adjoining room. There’ll be two beds here with a cabinet between them, the trading card is inside of it.

Eastbrook Elementary

Cardio

After leaping from the school rooftop into the nearby apartments, go through the blinds and hop over the upended couch to find another trading card in the bedside cabinet in the bedroom.

Capitol Hill 

Kinnard, Esq.

Once out of the school and back on the ground, you’ll be given a branching path through the neighbouring houses. Take the right path and then turn around once you reach the barbeque area to spot an open door on the blue house, go in and search the drawers in the living room to find a trading card.

Rockafella

You’ll arrive at a motel block and find that the door for unit 03 is locked. Fortunately, you can cut through the neighbouring unit, sneak out the rear window and climb in from the back. You’ll find the trading card on the ground at the foot of the bed.

Doctor Stem

You’ll encounter a second patrol near a gas station, enter the book shop across the street from it and continue through to the back rooms. Look for the record player, because the trading card will be right next to it.

Sergeant Frost

After the third encounter, you’ll be near another group of establishments including a bank. Find the Olive Street Market and, for your safety, kill the infected in there before exploring the staff area at the back of the store. In a metal locker you’ll discover another trading card.

Candelabra

Once you first see the trip mine in action, head into the liquor store that the Clicker came out of. Head toward the back left corner to find a trading card underneath its own marquee poster, Society of Champions.

Bizarrebra

Dina will alert you to tripwires near the end of the level, as you follow the path around you’ll see a thrift store on your left called Wellwishers. Navigate the tripwire out the front and find the level’s last trading card on a bookcase that lines the left wall of the store.

Channel 13

Kimimela

Once you precariously walk along the ledge to search the rest of the TV station, head straight past the bodies toward the back right office and you’ll find this level’s lone trading card on the desk.

The Tunnels 

The Imp

After you escape the Clickers and crawl underneath the train carriage, proceed down the dark tunnel and instead of heading, as intended, through the door with the red hue, crouch down next to the train to collect a well hidden trading card.

Dr. Daniela Star

In the tunnels, if you follow the main path, you’ll eventually arrive at a room labelled ‘Storage’ with a locked cage inside. If you hug the right wall of it, it’s easy enough to hop the desk and crawl under a cut out piece of the wall. The trading card will be on the desk inside the cage.

Bastet

After you pass the area with the dual Shamblers and barge through the door into the tunnel where daylight is in sight, you’ll cut through a carriage along the linear path of the level. Instead of following the path forward and climbing atop the wrecked carriage with Dina, turn left and crawl underneath the gap of the overturned carriage to find a trading card on a piece of luggage.

The Theatre

Mortem

From the couch where Dina is resting, head toward the back of the room and hop the curved countertop. Smash the right side of the glass cabinet and crouch to find the trading card on the bottom shelf.

Beyond

Once you reach the upper level of the theatre, stay true from the stairwell and head down the dark hall. Follow the bend all the way around and find an upturned couch at the end with a trading card on the ground before it.

The Birthday Gift

The Nighthawk

You’ll enter a display room full of dinosaur fossils once you arrive at the museum. Walk straight ahead and you’ll notice a foyer that leads to some bathrooms, the trading card is on a bench in the foyer.

Saura

Once Joel boosts you through the window, follow the path around to a room with a statue of a moose being overcome by wolves. To the right of it, along the wall, is a bench seat, under which you’ll find another trading card.

Hillcrest

Wachumero

From your starting position, simply turn around and climb down the ravine and head for the pick-up truck, and a keen eye will be able to spot the trading card through the rear window. Hop down, smash the side window and reach in to snatch another card for your collection.

Sahir The Sorcerer

After seeing the truck full of Wolves driving away and up the hill, the natural path would be to cut through Ruston Coffee. Instead, turn left and head down toward the van covered in overgrowth and the running sewer pipe. Hop up the ledge and enter Caroline Paper Co. and head toward the back of the store to find a trading card in a box.

Naledi The Youthful

After using the dumpmaster to climb over the garage and make your way into a bike shop, turn right immediately to find a bike in the corner with a trading card wedged in its spokes.

Brainstorm

After hearing the explosion and dealing with the infected in the next immediate area, you’ll hop a fence and find yourself in a residential backyard. To your left will be a small kid’s cubby house and around the rear side of it will be a trading card balanced on the sill.

Reverb

After your practice session with the bow, you’ll hop another fence into an area heavily populated with Wolves. After dealing with them, head for the top end of the street and explore the last house on the right with the grey door. Head straight up the stairs, turn around and go through the door immediately in front of you. You’ll be in the ensuite of the bedroom that’s hiding a trading card under the bed.

Finding Strings

The Austringer

After setting off with Joel and leaving the horses, you’ll discover your shortcut to the music store isn’t as straightforward as you’d hoped. Before you double back and cut through the hotel, check inside the broken down car at the base of the short hill, there’ll be a trading card on the back seat.

The Seraphites 

Randy Styles

As you bypass the turnstiles by hoping over the roofing, you’ll come to a sacked convenience mart. Follow the shelves along the right hand side and near the end you’ll find the trading card on the backside of one of the shelves.

Shift

Enter the foyer of the conference centre that has “Feel Her Love” written in blood on the wall, turn left and climb up the elevator shaft. Once upstairs, smash out the window and throw the nearby cable over the bent up awning to create a rope swing for yourself to gain access to the locked conference room. At the back, on a couch, will be another trading card.

Star Sign

As you progress down the road, the rear left corner of the area will have an apartment block there. The most direct route, the front door, is locked so if you head around the side, there’ll be a small truck you can climb onto to make your way in through the window. Once inside, head into the bedroom. You’ll know you’re in the right way based on the safe in the closet, so just collect the trading card from the bedside cabinet.

Arch Enemy

After you climb down the scaffold inside the Comic Expo, head around to the area left of the scaffolding. You’ll spot two windows that lead into a locked office, simply smash one of those out and check the filing cabinet inside for another trading card.

Doppelganger

After your narrow escape from the first sighting of the Seraphites, you’ll be forced through another building of apartment suites. Follow the stairs up, and go around to your left. In a corner you’ll spot some kid’s toys and along with them will be a trading card.

Bhat M’Andarr

As you’re swimming the last stretch toward the hospital, don’t take the right path at the end. Look left and head up those stairs and you’ll find yourself in a pharmacy, right at the other end of the store you’ll find the trading card on the other side of the counter.

Road to the Aquarium

Esquire

You’ll leave the prop area at the very beginning and step onto the stage, curtains drawn. Look near the equipment on your left to discover the trading card.

Tormentra

As you find your way through the shipping store with Jesse, you’ll reach the end of the corridor. The left door leads to your objective, but you’ll want to crawl under the filing cabinet jammed sideways in the doorway first to discover a workbench and a trading card on the opposite table.

Tanager

After you finish the swimming section, you’ll arrive at a double-level bookshop and proceed to climb down to the ground level by using the broken pieces of balcony. The lowest part has a channel underneath where you’re able to find a trading card still on the shelf.

Tatuaje

Right after plotting to steal the boat, you’ll drop down a level that has branching paths. You can either hop the bookshelf to the left, or crawl under the overgrowth on the right. Go left and then turn around and find yourself a trading card inside the shelf.

The Flooded City 

Seff-L’ho’phad

In the boat, you’ll come to a room where you’re forced to get out and raise a roller door. First, turn back and head toward where the water is breaking, you’ll find a door on the left which leads into an office. Inside a desk drawer in the corner is another trading card.

Khazakh Bright

After the Shambler fight at the W&B Arcade, pry open the shutter door to the Prize Zone. Climb over the counter and find the trading card on the inner wall inside a shelf.

Pushing Inland 

CBB-73

Throughout the early stages of the level, you’ll climb up onto a rooftop and climb in through the window to be at the top of the stairs. Rather than go down, turn toward the right and cut through the bathroom to find yourself in a dimmed, green bedroom with a nautical theme. The trading card is on the desk.

The Resort

Hero

After you clear the Rattler’s compound out, you’ll walk through the entrance of a house and straight ahead you should see a well-lit mosaic of a map on the far wall. To your right will be a stereo on a hall table, the trading card is hidden behind it.

Congratulations on finding all of the trading cards in The Last of Us Part II, your efforts should have earned you a gold trophy called “Master Set.”

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered: Where To Find Every Trading Card appeared first on Press Start.

No Return, for returning players especially, is as good a reason as any to be picking up The Last of Us Part II Remastered this month when it launches for PlayStation 5. 

It’s a jam-packed roguelike mode that time and again recontextualises and presents the game’s visceral and stark combat in so many different lights. I always found it novel to be fighting a faction like The Rattlers in one of Seattle’s dilapidated parking garages, as they only feature in the game’s closing chapters far away from the so-called Emerald City. 

Another thing I love about No Return is how it places us in the shoes of so many different characters from within The Last of Us Part II’s universe. I refrain from referring to them as good or bad as the game is deliberate in its attempts to humanise all sides in this grey world, so I’ll do as they do and refer to the characters as either Ellie-aligned or Abby-aligned. 

Here’s a rundown of all of the playable characters, their unique skins, and how to unlock the lot. 

These all presented as challenges from within the No Return menu. It’s also worth noting that unless a character is specifically mentioned, these challenges can be completed by any character. 

Ellie-Aligned 

Ellie

Complete 2 encounters with Ellie

Unlocks Dina as a playable character

Upgrade all Perseverance skills as Ellie

Unlocks Ellie’s ‘Plaid’ skin

Kill 4 enemies with Molotovs in one encounter

Unlocks Ellie’s ‘Rain Jacket’ skin

Collect every gun in one run as Ellie

Unlocks Ellie’s ‘Savage Starlight’ skin

Dina

Complete 3 encounters with Dina

Unlocks Jesse as a playable character

Kill 4 enemies with trap mines in one encounter

Unlocks Dina’s ‘Hangout’ skin

Craft 10 times in a run

Unlocks Dina’s ‘Casual’ skin

Craft a health kit, Molotov, trap mine, and stun bomb in a run

Unlocks Dina’s ‘Patrol’ skin

Jesse

Complete 3 encounters with Jesse

Unlocks Tommy as a playable character

Purchase 10 items from the Trading Post in one run

Unlocks Jesse’s ‘Festival’ skin

Kill 3 enemies with pipe bombs in one encounter

Unlocks Jesse’s ‘Patrol’ skin

Tommy

Complete 4 encounters with Tommy

Unlocks Joel as a playable character

Kill 5 enemies in one encounter while zoomed in with a scope

Unlocks Tommy as an ally in No Return

Complete a run with only your initial gun or guns

Unlocks Tommy’s ‘Patrol’ skin

Complete an encounter where every kill is a headshot

Unlocks Tommy’s ‘Sweatshirt’ skin

Complete an encounter without missing a single shot

Unlocks Tommy’s ‘Winter’ skin

Joel

Complete an infected encounter as Joel

Unlocks Joel as an ally in No Return

Kill 6 enemies using the same gun without reloading in an encounter

Unlocks Joel’s ‘Casual’ skin

Kill 3 enemies with shivs in one encounter

Unlocks Joel’s ‘Salt Lake City’ skin

Hit 5 enemies with a bottle or brick in one run

Unlocks Joel’s ‘Winter’ skin

Complete a bloater boss encounter as Joel

Unlocks Joel’s ‘Boston’ skin

Abby-Aligned

Abby

Complete 2 encounters with Abby

Unlocks Lev as a playable character 

Gain 50 health from melee kills and attacks in one encounter

Unlocks Abby’s ‘Vintage Naughty Dog’ skin

Upgrade 3 melee weapons in a run

Unlocks Abby’s ‘Bomber’ skin

Complete an encounter with all melee kills

Unlocks Abby’s ‘Badlands’ skin

Lev

Complete 3 encounters with Lev

Unlocks Yara as a playable character

Get 7 kills with explosive arrows in one run

Unlocks Lev’s ‘Santa Barbara’ skin

Craft 20 arrows of any type in one run

Unlocks Lev’s ‘White Shirt’ skin

Complete an encounter with all bow kills

Unlocks Lev’s ‘Abby’s Jacket’ skin

Yara

Complete 3 encounters with Yara

Unlocks Mel as a playable character 

Complete a Seraphite encounter as Yara

Unlocks Yara’s ‘Safehouse’ skin

Defeat 3 Seraphite brutes

Unlocks Yara’s ‘Aquarium’ skin

Mel

Complete 4 encounters with Mel

Unlocks Manny as a playable character

Craft 8 health kits in a run

Unlocks Mel’s ‘Aquarium’ skin

Heal 80 health with one health kit

Unlocks Mel’s ‘Seattle’ skin

Manny

Fully upgrade any gun

Unlocks Manny’s ‘Winter’ skin

Kill 5 enemies with incendiary shotgun shells in one run

Unlocks Manny’s ‘Firefly’ skin

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post How To Unlock All Of The Skins In The Last Of Us Part 2’s No Return Mode appeared first on Press Start.

The below guide has been repurposed from our original guide content for The Last of Us Part II and contains images from the PS4 version of the game. Everything contained with in will still apply to The Last of Us Part II Remastered on PS5. Please note that there are spoilers below for anyone yet to play the game.

The Last of Us Part II was an enormous technical feat on the PS4 and continues to be in its new PS5 iteration. Downtown Seattle, in particular, is a tremendous spectacle of design as Naughty Dog encourages players to pore over every inch of the city made famous by Nirvana and a romantic-comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It’s also home to a neat easter egg referencing another of Naughty Dog’s massive franchises, Uncharted, with a hidden collectible to find and even a handy PlayStation Trophy to pop along the way.

WHERE TO FIND THE ENGRAVED RING IN THE LAST OF US PART II TO UNLOCK THE ‘SO GREAT AND SMALL TROPHY’

To find this collectible you’ll need to head to the Ellie Day 1 – Downtown chapter. It’s here in downtown Seattle that Ellie and Dina, atop of their faithful steed Shimmer, set out to retrieve enough gas to fuel the generator-powered gate keeping them from the Serevena Hotel, a WLF den. While there are plenty of places of interest here, one you’ll immediately gauge is the Westlake Bank. Naughty Dog’s latent, guiding hand will lure you there eventually, though there isn’t anything keeping you from making it your first port of call.

Inside the collapsed bank, you’ll encounter a small swarm of infected. After fighting them off, you’ll be drawn toward the vault where you’ll find a note on the ground detailing a mislaid plan to rob the bank during Outbreak Day, a fool’s errand if there ever was one. Said note offers up the vault’s secrets, a combination of 60-23-06.

It’s inside that Ellie discovers the pump shotgun on a corpse. Fortunately, that isn’t all this room has to offer. If you find your way to, using the door as a starting point, the back-right corner, you’ll spot an ajar wall deposit box next to a trolley of cash. Opening it revealed a familiar piece of jewellery.

Inscribed with “Sic Parvis Magna,” it’s clear that this is the ring carried by Nathan Drake throughout Naughty Dog’s beloved Uncharted franchise. It counts as an in-game artifact and collectible plus it also unlocks a bronze trophy titled “So Great and Small.”

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post The Last Of Us Part 2 Remastered: Where To Find The Engraved Ring In And Unlock The So Great And Small Trophy appeared first on Press Start.

Although there’s no doubt that Laura Bailey’s Abby Anderson, co-protagonist of The Last of Us Part II, will go down as one of the most divisive and perhaps misunderstood video game characters of all time, her fate during the game’s closing act is far from the one originally written for her. 

Caution: The remainder of the article will include story spoilers for The Last of Us Part II, do not read on if you’re yet to play the game. 

As anybody who has played The Last of Us Part II would be aware, despite revenge leading to the grisly deaths of all of her friends, Abby spares the lives of Ellie, Dina, and Tommy after a showdown at the theatre. She instead heads back into the world with Lev, the Seraphite boy she’d saved and become guardian to, in search of the Fireflies in hopes she could leave obsessive hatred behind to rekindle that part of her humanity. 

The pair are ultimately taken hostage by human slavers in coastal California, and things look pretty grim for them until Ellie—still hellbent on squaring the ledger for Joel’s death at Abby’s hands—arrives to set them free from their captivity. 

What follows is one of the more uncomfortable and conflicting scenes of the game where Ellie bludgeons a reluctant Abby in knee-deep water. After being plagued by traumatic memories of Joel’s murder throughout the campaign, she instead sees a flash of him perched up with his guitar. At this moment, she lets Abby and Lev leave. 

It’s been revealed in the commentary tracks for The Last of Us Part II that it was originally planned for Abby to die at Ellie’s hands here in a moment that certainly would have brought the cycle of violence full circle. 

“So originally, the concept was that Abby dies here,” explained the game’s co-writer Halley Gross as the scene depicts Ellie pinning Abby underwater. 

“I did not know that Abby died here originally,” revealed the character’s voice actor, Laura Bailey, in bewilderment. Bailey’s work on the game would ultimately earn her a Game Award and a BAFTA. 

“Originally, I think, both Yara and Lev died and this was just Abby by herself when you meet up with her,” expanded Neil Druckmann, creative director. 

“And then Ellie kills Abby.”

“I think leaving Ellie with three percent of the humanity that she got from who she was, that scrappy kid that Joel helped shape—I think if she killed Abby you’d never see that kid again,” continued Gross. 

“And this gives a hope that she’s still in there a little bit and could be revived in the same way that Abby was revived. In the right circumstance.”

With two big themes of the game being forgiveness and redemption, I do feel as though following through on killing Abby would have left Ellie in a dark, inescapable place. At least we know watching her walk away from the farm right before the credits roll that there’s hope for her still.

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post The Last Of Us Part 2’s Abby Originally Had A Much Different Fate appeared first on Press Start.

One great thing that I love about The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s bonus content is that it unearths fascinating tidbits about the creative process, even going so far as to shed light on alternate directions the game was expected to go at one point or another. 

Caution: The remainder of the article will include story spoilers for The Last of Us Part II, do not read on if you’re yet to play the game.

During the commentary that’s present during the infamous, staggeringly missable, record shop scene where Ellie sings a mournful, acoustic rendition of a-ha’s “Take on Me” to Dina, it’s been revealed, through the team discussing how they wanted to remind the player of Joel throughout, that one of the early ideas kicked around for The Last of Us Part II had Joel appearing throughout the game as a ghostly apparition. 

“There were versions where we talked about having ghost-Joel talk to Ellie, but it felt a little too campy for this story” explained the game’s creative director Neil Druckmann. 

Though it’s likely a coincidence, this makes some amount of sense when one considers the game’s original reveal, which itself spawned countless theories that Joel was already dead. 

Although it wasn’t to be, Joel appearing to Ellie as a literal representation of the survivor’s guilt she carries with her would have been an interesting angle, for sure. Of course, the pursuit to craft a more grounded world led to the team taking the route they did. 

See our full review, more guides and other content for The Last of Us Part II Remastered right here.

The post Early Drafts Of The Last Of Us Part 2 Had A Very Different Role For Joel appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Remedy has been a household name at Press Start since we declared Control as one of our games of last generation, but there’s no question that the long-anticipated sequel to Alan Wake is a step above even that after reinventing itself as a narrative-driven, survival-horror juggernaut. 

And for it to land a spot higher than the remake of one of the formative survival-horror games in Resident Evil 4 speaks to the quality of Remedy’s craft.

Though the story of Alan feverishly penning his escape from the Dark Place while Saga Anderson investigates a string of ritual murders in Bright Falls makes for a tense thriller, weaving their duelling narratives together into a staggeringly obscure, yet somehow cohesive, campaign will forever remain an enormous achievement. 

And let’s not forget the “We Sing” chapter, which struck an incredible chord with players. 

In his review, Brodie scored Alan Wake II a 9.5 out of 10 saying:

“While I’m sure there were countless drafts and edits throughout the journey to this point, this Alan Wake II is proof that great things come to those who wait. Like breaking through after a thirteen year stretch of writer’s block, I can only imagine the sense of relief in letting this monster of a game loose.”

Kieron said:

“Alan Wake 2 is the kind of game that a studio delivers when emboldened with the time, experience and technology to chase a vision relentlessly. It’s a shot in the arm to multiple genres and storytelling techniques that somehow blends survival horror with art house in a way that makes cheesy heavy metal dance numbers feel right at home next to haunted nursing homes.

There are components of the thing that rub, lake-worn struts left to prop up mechanics abandoned in favour of perfectly crafting the next mind fuck, but I think that’s what I love most about Remedy and this game. I rarely feel the urge to replay a game at all, let alone almost right away, but with Alan Wake 2’s big New Game+ update out that’s absolutely how I’m spending these holidays.”

James B said:

“So much has already been said about Alan Wake 2 but there’s no denying that the game combines a compelling narrative and immersive atmosphere to deliver a horror experience like no other. Delving deeper into the horror genre than its predecessor, it’s a gripping and intricate story that’s engaging from beginning to end. It doesn’t hurt that the game is visually stunning either, offering up just a glimpse into what Remedy are able to achieve with their now signature Northlight engine and the power of the new technology afforded to them by next gen hardware.

The attention to detail, the haunting soundtrack and the meticulously crafted environments all help to create a sense of immersion that’s, quite frankly, unparalleled in videogames. And that’s what makes Alan Wake 2 so impressive. From a core gameplay perspective, it’s not doing a lot new and liberally borrowing games like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. But it’s the way it takes this formula, twists it, and adds its own unique spin to the proceedings to offer up an experience like no other.”

At the time of publishing, Alan Wake II (for Xbox Series X) stands at a 94 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

1. Alan Wake II

2. Resident Evil 4

3. Baldur’s Gate III

4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Congratulations to Alan Wake II, as well as the other games in the top ten, for being crowned Press Start’s Game of the Year.

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #1 – Alan Wake II appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Capcom has been a force to be reckoned with in the past few years and although every project they touch seemingly turns to solid gold, their Resident Evil remakes, beginning with the venerable Resident Evil 2, have been an enormous part of that. 

To take what is already heralded as one of the most important and influential survival-horror games ever and improve upon it by bettering combat mechanics, overhauling the audiovisual design, and improving the narrative without throwing it out entirely is quite a feat. 

The package has only been made more compelling since the arrival of the Separate Ways mini-campaign, while the game’s iOS port and looming VR mode give players even more ways to experience this essential classic. 

In his review, James B scored Resident Evil 4 a 10 out of 10 saying:

“Resident Evil 4 translates a game already revered into an absolute masterpiece. The tension is heightened and the combat is stronger than ever, all while still maintaining the corny dialogue and humour that the original game was known for. While there are a few minor aspects missing, Resident Evil 4 is a strong example of what any remake should be and is well worth your time.” 

Toby said:

“Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake was special, bringing the game to the modern masses in a way that remained true to the source material while drastically improving the game across the board. They managed to do it again in 2023 while not receiving as drastic an overhaul as Resident Evil 2.

Resident Evil 4’s remake is incredible in so many ways, effortlessly incorporating the signature silliness of the original while modernising the gameplay. This, combined with the excellent Separate Ways DLC, makes for one of the best Resident Evil games to date.”

Camilla said:

“The Resident Evil remakes have been everything a remaster or reimagining of a classic game should be, and Resident Evil 4 is no different.

This remake perfectly embodies the spirit of the original title with beautifully overhauled visuals and modernisations that take full advantage of current technology without sacrificing any of the charm that made 2005’s Resident Evil 4 such an iconic entry in the franchise and the horror genre at large.”

At the time of publishing, Resident Evil 4 (on PlayStation 5) stands at a 93 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

2. Resident Evil 4

3. Baldur’s Gate III

4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #2 – Resident Evil 4 appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

As soon as word reached people’s desks that magical bear sex was to be a big part of Baldur’s Gate III, the world sat up and paid attention. After a long graft and a stint in early access, Larian Studios only went and put out one of the most comprehensive role-playing games of all-time. 

By adapting a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for video games, Baldur’s Gate feels like a tabletop night with friends come to life. It’s mechanically dense and has such amazing scale, it’s a game genre purists and Dungeons and Dragons veterans can find equal joy in for hundreds of hours. 

The very idea that there’s a whole other game inside of Baldur’s Gate III that most people won’t ever see is nuts, but the player agency granted through narrative branching profoundly impacts the plot and creates an experience that’ll likely be unique to you. 

In his review, Harry scored Baldur’s Gate III a 10 out of 10 saying:

“Baldur’s Gate III is a landmark achievement for CRPGs and gaming at large. The only thing more staggering than its immense scope and density of systems is the quality in which it’s all presented. Its unwavering flexibility and accommodation for player choice is intoxicating, and the replay value on offer here will no doubt cement Baldur’s Gate III as a timeless and regularly revisited masterpiece.

For a game as rich and complex as this, it also works surprisingly well on console.”

Toby said:

“Baldur’s Gate III is exceptional in so many ways. As someone who’s only dabbled in Dungeons and Dragons over the last year, I was initially hesitant to invest time in a game built so heavily on those foundations.

That said, Larian Studios has made the formula and format of D&D so bloody easy to approach and sink your teeth into in Baldur’s Gate III. It’s a game that’s packed with incredible stories, lore and content that’ll keep you going for hundreds of hours.”

Josh said:

“It’s hard to praise Baldur’s Gate III without taking note of the journey Larian took to this point, improving and expanding the RPG in early access for three years after gaining the rights to develop the sequel by blowing people away with their highly acclaimed Divinity: Original Sin series. The studio put all their knowledge and experience into Baldur’s Gate III, with no restraint on time or cost, with the result stunning in every way from visuals to systems to writing.

Not only does the story lead you on an enthralling quest across the Sword Coast but the companions you come across are right up there with the most compelling in the genre, especially with such high quality performances on display from start to finish. The game is a monumental achievement that is unlikely to be topped for a very long time.”

At the time of publishing, Baldur’s Gate III (for PC) stands at a 96 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

3. Baldur’s Gate III

4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #3 – Baldur’s Gate 3 appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Never has a game embodied its title more than Super Mario Bros. Wonder, as it’s a genuinely wonderful time. Even as it had been a long time between drinks for side-scrolling Mario, over a decade in fact, it’s been longer still since the plumber that calls Brooklyn home has instilled such a feeling of amazement in us.

It always leaves us stupefied when a developer pours countless man hours into ideas that pop up for less than a minute, and that’s true of all the creativity that comes with the Wonder Flowers. Wild, unexpected flashes of brilliance right at home within Mario’s standard fare of exemplary platforming. 

Not only that, but the game served as a lovely footnote to another strong year, and perhaps the last if hardware rumours are to be believed, for the Nintendo Switch. In fact, we haven’t had a year like this since the last time our overalls and tunic clad friends suited up. 

In his review, James B scored Super Mario Bros. Wonder a 10 out of 10 saying:

“Super Mario Bros. Wonder is just that. A wonder. It leverages tight and concise platforming with a robust set of power-ups and skills to offer a degree of flexibility to players like never before. While it’s still slightly easier than I’d like, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is an incredibly engaging Mario game and one of the best platformers available on the Switch, if not ever.”

Harry said:

“Super Mario Bros. Wonder is further proof of Nintendo’s ability to push the creative envelope and reinvent their iconic franchises. A 10 year plus break since the last mainline entry has resulted in one of the most inventive 2D platformers since Rayman Legends.

The way that an idea like the Wonder Seeds can completely flip any given level on its head is always exciting, and the whole experience is wrapped in an eye-catching new art style with incredible attention to detail. An all-round sublime return to what makes 2D Mario so special.”

Brodie said:

“In what was my first leap into a two-dimensional Mario game since Super Mario Bros. All-Stars in my youth, Wonder has been an absolute delight and a breath of fresh air. In an age where it’s bigger, open-world Mario games getting all of the plaudits, I’m so pleased that a game like this exists to prove that there’s still plenty of life left in those overalls.

The effort and love poured into each and every Wonder Flower moment, no matter how fleeting, is stupefying.”

At the time of publishing, Super Mario Bros. Wonder stands at a 92 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

4. Super Mario Bros. Wonder

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #4 – Super Mario Bros. Wonder appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Although this sensational sequel might have gone oh-from-seven at the Keighleys this year, it certainly earned its place on our end of year list with its bigger combat, bigger playground, and bigger story that brings together two Spider-Men to take down one of webslinger’s most ominous villains. 

By telling two intertwined stories, it gives both Miles and Peter satisfying arcs all within one monster video game. This propelled Insomniac’s Spider-Man trilogy, which is expected to undoubtedly expand, to a level where it absolutely stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Arkham games, which have long been the pinnacle of comic-to-game adaptations. 

All in all, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is an exceptional return to a New York that’s now home to more superheroes than can reasonably be counted. It’s denser, more exciting to explore, and refines just about every problem people had with the original. 

In his review, Kieron scored Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 a 9 out of 10 saying:

“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 cleverly pairs its added width and breadth with more depth and meaningful new gameplay and story opportunities. There’s rarely a moment here that doesn’t feel thrilling, enchanting, heartbreaking, awe-inspiring or some combination of it all. Beyond untangling the finer threads of its design or narrative ambitions though, it’s genuinely just the most fun, gorgeous open world superhero game out there.”

Shannon said:

“Not a lot needs to be said here. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 successfully built on the first game in every way. Insomniac managed to up the ante with double the superhero power, higher stakes and a better realised open-world.”

Brodie said:

“Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 definitely fixes one of the minor issues I had with the first game by delivering more varied and interesting side content, but most importantly it delivers yet another enormous, bombastic superhero game that doubles down on everything rad from the first game.

The way the game takes dissonant narrative beats like something as mundane as Pete’s mortgage and crushes it together with something as emotional as Miles’ unwillingness to accept the past and still walks away with a staggeringly cohesive journey is a feat of its own. And oh, the swinging is somehow even better.”

At the time of publishing, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 stands at a 90 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

5. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #5 – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Although it was the year’s most anticipated game and, at one point, a short-priced favourite to take out the ultimate gong, Tears of the Kingdom was met with unprecedented competition in what has been an unbelievable year for video game releases. 

Nevertheless, Tears of the Kingdom absolutely built a technical marvel atop the promise of Breath of the Wild and delivered one of the best games that the series has ever seen. It takes the original’s retrospective plot line and places Link in the fray while offering the same sense of unstructured, joyful discovery. 

And don’t forget Ultrahand which helped make almost any intrusive, creative thought a possibility within the game’s Hyrule. It really does seem fitting that the Nintendo Switch’s life cycle has been bookended by two generation-defining The Legend of Zelda titles.  

In his review, James B scored The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a 10 out of 10 saying:

“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom builds upon Breath of the Wild’s robust systems to offer an experience that eclipses the original in practically every way. Not only that, but it works incredibly hard to restore some of the things lapsed players might’ve missed from the traditional Zelda experience, and it pays off in droves. While the novelty of its design will never be as impactful as Breath of the Wild’s debut, Tears of the Kingdom is one of the best Zelda experiences you’ll ever have.”

Harry said:

“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom feels like an immensely fitting swansong for the Switch as a follow-up to Breath of the Wild. A staggeringly ambitious open-world experience with myriad systems that boggle the mind in their complexity and ability to afford creative player choice.

The inclusion of the Sky Islands and The Depths are genius expansions to already vast open world, that add new layers to exploration and the general gameplay loop that encourages the player to make the most of the tools available to them. A worthy sequel, and one of the greatest games in this legendary franchise.”

Steven said:

“The addition of an innovative construction mechanic adds an entire new level of freedom to what was already one of the best expressions of ‘open world’ in the medium. The return of more traditional dungeons complements the small scale shrines wonderfully.

In the history of hard acts to follow, the follow-up to Breath of the Wild must be near the top of the list. Somehow Nintendo’s effort with Tears of the Kingdom manages to improve on Breath of the Wild in almost every way.”

At the time of publishing, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom stands at a 96 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

6. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #6 – The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

Like a buoy bobbing on a troubling sea, Dredge kept its head above the competition this year on the indie front. It combines commercial fishing with the macabre eldritch horrors of lore to create a surreal, eerie fishing game unlike anything we’d seen before. 

There’s an intoxicating gameplay loop here that sees you venture out in your modest vessel with all of the trinkets you can afford, and pick the ocean clean before nightfall welcomes to the waters all kinds of twisted, nightmarish creatures. It offers peace and panic in equal measure and filling out the bestiary gives hints of Pokémon. 

Although we won’t go so far as to claim Black Salt like our nation did Phar Lap and ‘Rusty’ Crowe, it’s no secret that Dredge’s success has been an enormous boon for homegrown Australasian game development. 

In his review, Brodie scored Dredge a 9 out of 10 saying:

“To use fishing terms, Dredge isn’t one you’d kiss and throw back. It’s the definition of a trophy catch. Its series of elegantly simple systems interplay nicely, blending seamlessly with an eerily stunning eldritch style and a moreish checklist of sea life to catch.”

James W said:

“Such great things from such an unassuming little game about a boat, Dredge charts developer Black Salt Games’ first voyage, seamlessly collaging a compelling fishing game with ethereal horror and one of the most striking art directions found in a 2023 title.

Bucking the emerging visual stylings of other “cosy” experiences, Dredge revels in the muck and the grime, each encrusted barnacle and mutated fish somehow still of a piece with the game’s oddly soothing, mildly haunted boating adventure. Beyond the aesthetic and esoteric though, the game’s escalating systems and constant loop of exploration and reward mean Dredge runs a tight ship through and through.”

Camilla said:

“Dredge is as charming as it is unsettling, and I loved every moment of Eldritch horror on the high seas, including the game’s short DLC expansion.

With a perfect balance of narrative-driven adventure, grinding and skill-check challenges, Dredge has something to delight everyone. I only wish I could play it for the first time again.”

At the time of publishing, Dredge (for Xbox Series X) stands at an 85 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

7. Dredge

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #7 – Dredge appeared first on Press Start.

It’s time for our annual countdown to award the very best games this year had to offer. Over the next ten days, we’ll count down our top ten games of 2023.

As always, the votes of each Press Start team member, weighted from #10 through to #1, were collated to compile our collective very best for the year that was. Games worthy of one’s top spot would be awarded the maximum of 10 points and the values would descend down to their tenth selection, which would receive a single point.

A round of rapid polls were utilised to settle dead heats and finalise the top ten.

When you consider the reception to Final Fantasy VII’s remake, and how regularly brilliant the expansions for XIV have been, it’s not as though we can say the franchise has been in peril. On the contrary, it might be healthier than ever, especially thanks to the bold, gritty direction for its latest mainline entry, Final Fantasy XVI.

It’s a specular, epic tale that takes what we expect from a Final Fantasy and houses it within a corrupt, hopeless world of refugees and deliciously dark, medieval fantasy. Within the story are incredible character arcs, big and small, and even better performances, especially that of the award-nominated Ben Starr. 

With its beautiful environments and curated cinematic shots, the game also serves as a jaw-dropping technical showcase for the PlayStation 5 and it’s one that’s only getting better with a recent expansion drop, and the promise of more to come. 

In his review, Harry scored Final Fantasy XVI a 9 out of 10 saying:

“Final Fantasy XVI is an epic in every sense of the word. Consistently sharp writing, a captivating cast of characters, exhilarating combat, and a timeless soundtrack coalesce into an experience that showcases what the PlayStation 5 is capable of at the highest level. It constantly finds ways to top its own scale in remarkable fashion, but never loses sight of the intimate journey it’s built around.”

Ewan said:

“No other game in 2023 got close to the grandiosity of Final Fantasy XVI’s set pieces. The climactic boss fights with their stellar soundtrack and incredible art direction left a last impression. Eikon battles punctuated the dramatic character-driven plot, the game escalating in epicness with every successive fight.

Although pacing suffered with rather mundane fetch quests between these gargantuan story beats, the highs of Final Fantasy XVI greatly outnumbered the lows.”

Josh said:

“Despite being a proper main entry in the long running series, Square took a massive risk by shaking up the expected formula with Final Fantasy XVI, taking a real time action approach to role playing while still embodying the primary tenants of the franchise with stunning visuals, an epic story, massive larger than life creatures and captivating music.

Stepping away from the modern sci-fi aesthetic for a return to a fantasy based world felt fresh and the entire world of Valisthea felt rich with history and characters with vivid stories to tell. Clive, his friends and his antagonists are all brought to life with fantastic performances, each given the time to transform over the journey.”

At the time of publishing, Final Fantasy XVI stands at an 87 on Metacritic.

Press Start’s Game of the Year 2023

8. Final Fantasy XVI

9. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

10. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

The post Press Start’s GOTY 2023 #8 – Final Fantasy XVI appeared first on Press Start.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. 

Delicious eggnog is fresh on tap, while Michael Buble and Mariah Carey claw their way free of their nests for yet another festive season. Over the course of this Christmas there will be belly-bursting lunches, plenty of family time, gifts, and a little bit of game time for the fortunate.

Everyone talks about Home Alone and Die Hard as quintessential Christmas films, but no one ever considers the video games that fill people’s stockings and hearts during the holiday period. 

So, here are six of the best games you might indulge in this Christmas. 

Dead Rising 4

Not only did this fourth installment of Capcom’s zombie murderfest welcome back original protagonist Frank West despite ultimately sealing the franchise’s fate, it brought Christmas joy and cheer to the streets of Willamette. 

There’s so much trademark silliness in this game, right down to the fact that one of the maniacs Frank has to best is Sadistic Claus and his elves, all presumably former mall workers who’ve simply gone mad amidst this undead outbreak. Not only that, but the holiday content that dropped nearer Christmas was bonkers.

It featured a Santa suit to paint redder still with the blood of zombie elves and snowmen, as well as a baseball bat known as “Candy Pain.”

Like A Dragon

Although I was oblivious to the fact, a great number of the Like a Dragon titles take place during the month of December. Of course, it still showcases unbridled silliness and hunky men fighting more than it features Santa Claus—although some in the series lean whole-shouldered into Christmas schtick—but there’s still an undoubtable undercurrent of the seasonal joy that’s present throughout much of the Like a Dragon series. 

Aiding those in need and altruistic attitudes are also core to the experience, which is obviously fitting for a time of year where people more willingly go out of their way to selflessly help others. 

So if bashing criminals against a white Christmas backdrop is your idea of a holiday well spent, the Like a Dragon games, of which there are many, could be a wonderful substitute for Carols by Candlelight this year. 

Tom Clancy’s The Division 

Although The Division doesn’t strictly take place during Christmas itself, it takes place at a point in time where Manhattan stands frozen in time as the city, on the back of Thanksgiving, ramps up for a holiday unlikely to ever arrive courtesy of the pandemic.