Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has all the Indy trademarks you’d expect: action, adventure, the archaeologist’s iconic whip and fedora, and a long list of Nazi chuckleheads begging for a knuckle sandwich. The game will have tombs to raid, ancient mysteries to solve, and artifacts to collect. 

But Wolfenstein developer MachineGames’ take on Indiana Jones seems to have something incredibly difficult to capture without having direct access to Harrison Ford: charm.

At Gamescom this week, MachineGames and publisher Bethesda Softworks are showing off new gameplay from their upcoming Indiana Jones video game, which Polygon got to see in advance. Two moments stood out to me from watching that new gameplay because of their impressive ability to capture Indy’s character and charisma:

1. In one scene, we saw Indiana Jones try to infiltrate a seminary, dressed as a clergyman, in order to obtain some religious artifacts as part of a stealth mission. Indy will be able to wear disguises at certain points in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s story, calling back to some of the better moments in the films (e.g., Jones trying to pass as a Nazi officer in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones trying to pass as a ticket taker in The Last Crusade). MachineGames promises to let players choose stealth or direct confrontation in The Great Circle, and I’m looking forward to sneaking around as Indy masquerading (sometimes awkwardly) as someone else.
2. At some point, Indy can unlock an ability called True Grit, which will basically let him revive himself after being knocked down. In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, this is visually represented by Indy picking up his fedora off the ground and dusting himself off. I imagine doing this often — waiting for a Nazi soldier who thinks he’s just gotten the best of me, watching him turn around, then tapping him on the shoulder and handing him a knockout punch.

These may seem like small elements in an incredibly ambitious game — MachineGames calls The Great Circle “by far the biggest game we’ve done” — but they matter for a character with a giant, scene-consuming personality like Indiana Jones.

Even in first-person moments, you can feel Indy’s charm radiating, especially during the excitement that comes from a well-earned discovery. This is a game of puzzle-solving and unlocking mysteries, and Indy will have two instruments that aid him in that regard during his adventure: a journal full of notes, maps, and clues that fills out over time, and a camera with which he can snap photos of important discoveries (which will in turn lead to more discoveries). MachineGames calls the camera “one of the key gameplay mechanics” in The Great Circle. Players will find “clever, unexpected uses” for all of Indy’s tools, the developer says, including that camera and his iconic whip.

The whip can be used in combat to attack and disarm foes, and for traversal. Expect lots of climbing and swinging (which is shown in third-person view, unlike the rest of the game), as well as opportunities to lash Nazi soldiers with the whip. There’s gunplay, of course, but much of the one-on-one combat moments we saw were some combination of whip and fistfighting. Indy can block, parry, and dole out combinations of punches, all of which hit with the meaty thwack heard in the Indiana Jones movies. MachineGames says that pacifists can bypass some of these encounters by carefully using stealth and the environment to sneak around Indy’s enemies.

The story of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and features a familiar structure: Adolf Hitler’s forces, led by Nazi psychologist Emmerich Voss, are chasing artifacts of great power, and only Indy can stop them. Jones teams up with an Italian journalist named Gina Lombardi, who has a personal stake in their journey. In the gameplay shown at Gamescom, we saw Indy and Gina exploring tombs together, defying deadly traps and solving ancient puzzles — and maybe celebrating a victory a little too early, as what appeared to be a successful attempt at snatching a prized relic triggered an even deadlier trap.

MachineGames appears to be placing a great emphasis on The Great Circle‘s puzzles, which it says are “designed to fit seamlessly in the world.” The ones we were shown appeared to be pretty simple, tasking the player with surveying the environment and studying Indy’s journal for leads. One involved breaking parts of the environment to access a hidden room, and then using switches to unlock a mechanism. The puzzle in which Gina was involved seemed more complex, but she quickly — maybe too quickly — offered a helping hint about how to solve it.

I doubt Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will live and die by its puzzles. Instead, the more memorable moments of escaping certain death, sneaking through Nazi-infested compounds, and enjoying the thrill of discovery, both with and as Indiana Jones, seem like where MachineGames’ game will shine. After seeing more of Indy’s new game, I’m optimistic the Wolfenstein studio can pull it off.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to Windows PC and Xbox Series X on Dec. 9. A PlayStation 5 version is slated for release in spring 2025.

Firaxis Games gave Civilization fans their first real look at Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 at Gamescom on Tuesday, showing off an impressive globe- and history-spanning new take on the turn-based 4X strategy game series. Firaxis and publisher 2K Games also had some good news for fans itching to get their hands on Civ 7: It’s coming pretty soon, with a release date of Feb. 11, 2025 revealed at Opening Night Live.

Firaxis promises that players’ decisions will shape the unique cultural lineage of their evolving empires as they take on the roles of legendary historical leaders. “Construct cities and architectural wonders to expand your territory, improve your civilization with technological breakthroughs, and conquer or cooperate with rival civilizations as you explore the far reaches of the unknown world,” Firaxis said in an official game description. “Pursue prosperity in an immersive solo experience or play with others in online multiplayer.”

More details on Sid Meier’s Civilization 7 are coming soon as part of an official gameplay showcase.

Firaxis will dive deeper into Civ 7 later this week, as part of Xbox’s Gamescom presence, which is streaming from Aug. 21-23.

Civilization 7 will be released simultaneously on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, and Firaxis promises to empower players “to build the greatest empire the world has ever known.”

Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcase is once again here to highlight games coming your way in the near future (and beyond). Hosted by Geoff Keighley, the creator of The Game Awards, the stream primarily focused on new or first looks at previously announced games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dune: Awakening.

But there were more than a few surprises, including new game announcements and reveals, at Gamescom ONL. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest trailers and announcements that were shown.

Borderlands 4

Gearbox Software is officially back in the Borderlands business. At Gamescom ONL, 2K games and Gearbox announced Borderlands 4 in the form of a cinematic teaser. The new Borderlands game is out sometime in 2025 and, according to an official description, “players will assume the role of a legendary Vault Hunter as they blast their way through hordes of enemies in search of new treasures to loot on an all-new planet.”

Mafia: The Old Country

Developer Hangar 13 is returning to the Mafia franchise in 2025. The studio, and publisher 2K Games, revealed Mafia: The Old Country, a new entry that will send the series back to Italy. Mafia: The Old Country promises to “uncover the origins of organized crime” with a “gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily.” Hangar 13 promises the “authentic realism and rich storytelling” the Mafia series is known for. Details are scant, but expect more in December, the game’s makers say — probably at The Game Awards, if we’re guessing.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Bethesda not only gave us a new look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, we also (finally) got a release date: Dec. 9 on Windows PC and Xbox Series X. But PlayStation fans can also get their hands on Indy, with a PS5 version announced for spring 2025. For more on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, read Polygon’s preview of the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty fans got a lengthy look at new gameplay from Black Ops 6, which ran the gamut from political blackmail to stealthy close-quarters gunplay to a gunfire-and-explosion-filled street chase through Washington, D.C. on the back of a motorcycle. More to come at Call of Duty Next.

Dying Light: The Beast

Techland revealed a new game in its zombie adventure franchise at Gamescom with Dying Light: The Beast, which the developer describes as a “thrilling standalone zombie adventure set in a tightly-crafted rural region.” Players take on the role of Kyle Crane, who breaks free after years of brutal experiments and seeks revenge. Dying Light: The Beast is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms

Directive 8020

A new entry in the The Dark Pictures anthology, Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020 stars Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel, The Woman King) in an all-new sci-fi survival horror adventure. Lynch plays the ground-breaking astronaut, Young, in what Supermassive describes as “an immersive cinematic horror experience that blends intense survival gameplay with a branching narrative storyline.” Directive 8020 is out in 2025.

Goat Simulator Remastered

For the 10th anniversary of Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Publishing is bringing back the original in remastered form with upgraded graphics and lighting, as well as “many intentional features that definitely aren’t bugs, and fan-favourite DLC, all in one package.” Goat Simulator Remastered drops in 2024.

King of Meat

Geoff Keighley himself starred in the reveal trailer for King of Meat, a four-player hacking, slashing, co-op combat game from Amazon Games and studio Glowmade in which players fight through “ridiculous” user-created dungeons. King of Meat is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

Lynked: Banner of the Spark

Developer FuzzyBot announced Lynked: Banner of the Spark at Opening Night Live. It’s an “arcade-inspired co-op adventure that blends hack and slash combat with roguelike and town-building elements.”

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Life is Strange developer Don’t Nod revealed new gameplay and a release date for its next game, the ’90s-set narrative adventure Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The episodic game will launch in two parts on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Feb. 18 and March 18, 2025.

ARC Raiders

Embark Studios, creator of The Finals, brought its long-delayed shooter ARC Raiders to Gamescom for a re-reveal. The PvPvE action survival shooter is now coming in 2025 to PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. ARC Raiders’ first public tech test is now scheduled for Oct. 24-27.

Infinity Nikki

Infinity Nikki, the cozy, open-world adventure game fueled by the power of dressing up, got a new look at Gamescom — and news of an upcoming closed beta on mobile platforms.

Dune: Awakening

Funcom showed actual gameplay from its open-world survival MMO set in the Dune universe, detailing the journey from “survivor to spice hunter.” Players will expand their influence on Arrakis through combat, spice, building, and trade when Dune: Awakening arrives in early 2025 on PC. PS5 and Xbox versions are due later.

Reanimal

Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios revealed its next game, a terrifying new adventure called Reanimal. Described as a co-op horror adventure game, players take on the roles of brother and sister who “go through hell to rescue their missing friends.” Reanimal is playable solo or in local and online co-op, and it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Capcom showed off more from its impressively open-world new Monster Hunter game at Gamescom ONL, covering the new area the Scarlet Forest, new monster Lala Barina, and Windward Plains apex predator Rey Dau. Monster Hunter Wilds also has some tasty looking meat — increasingly a Capcom specialty.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7

Firaxis Games showed off first gameplay from Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, but the depth of the next Civ will warrant much more than that. Expect gameplay deep dives and interviews from Gamescom throughout the week. Firaxis also announced a release date of Feb. 11, 2025.

Marvel Rivals

Marvel and NetEase Games’ kinda-Overwatch-y team-based game, Marvel Rivals, has two new heroes: Captain America and The Winter Soldier (aka Bucky Barnes). And it has a release date: Marvel Rivals is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on Dec. 6.

Prime Video’s Secret Level

Secret Level is a new animated anthology series from the creatives behind Love, Death + Robots. It will feature original stories set in the worlds of Armored Core, Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament, Warhammer 40,000 and more.

Starfield

Bethesda Game Studios showed up with some Starfield content, including a look (and imminent release) of the REV-8 land vehicle and a tease of the Shattered Space DLC coming on Sept. 30. The free REV-8 update gives players the freedom to explore new frontiers and reach new heights, Bethesda said.

Monument Valley 3

A new Monument Valley game is coming. Monument Valley 3’s gorgeous, mind-bending puzzles will arrive exclusively on Netflix Games on Dec. 10, along with both Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2. 

Batman: Arkham Shadow

The next Batman Arkham game is for VR. Set between the events of Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum, players will step Batman’s cape and cowl as he takes on the Rat King and reunites with familiar faces Harleen Quinzel, Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Dr. Crane — before some of them become villains — in Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Masters of Albion

Fable, Populous, and Black & White creator Peter Molyneux is back and making a new game for consoles and PC. Masters of Albion will tap into some of Molyneux’s most beloved games, giving players godlike control and letting them possess characters for direct, third-person action.

Squid Game: Unleashed

The deadly survival games of Netflix’s breakout hit Squid Game are coming to mobile with a new, even deadlier series of challenges. Squid Game: Unleashed is (of course) coming to Netflix, but does not have a release date.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred

Players won’t go it alone when Diablo 4’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, goes live on Oct. 8. They’ll be joined by members of the Pale Hand, a group of mercenaries that got an introduction from Blizzard Entertainment at Gamescom ONL.

In a sea of free competitors, how will Concord not only stand out, but survive?

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In a sea of free competitors, how will Concord not only stand out, but survive?

Sony and Firewalk Studios’ Concord launches on PlayStation 5 and PC later this month, and faces an uphill battle to success. The team-based hero shooter is, unlike much of its competition, a “premium” paid title — meaning it’s not free to play like rival shooters Overwatch 2, Apex Legends, and Tom Clancy’s XDefiant.

Concord will also soon have more competition on that front; on PC, there’s hero shooter FragPunk, an upcoming free-to-play game from NetEase. Then there’s the launch of Riot Games’ Valorant (now live on consoles as of Friday) and the upcoming NetEase’s Marvel Rivals (now in a closed beta test).

The latter two free-to-play games have the kind of built-in fan bases that Firewalk would probably love to have. Valorant will launch as a mature product, with four years’ worth of content and refinement, and fans of Riot’s games know that the studio will continue to support their shooter for years to come; League of Legends will celebrate its 15th birthday later this year. About 6 million people play Valorant daily, according to Tracker Network. And then there’s Marvel Rivals, which will star more than 20 playable Marvel superheroes and villains with decades of history behind them. Marvel Rivals’ beta boasts about 40,000 peak players on Steam alone, according to SteamCharts.

So far, Concord hasn’t established a strong enough identity to compete with those powerhouses. Player numbers during Concord’s beta weekends were worryingly low. The game has been widely dismissed by a portion of its potential audience as lifting heavily from Blizzard’s Overwatch and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy characters. What does make Concord stand out from the competition is its price; it’s a $39.99 multiplayer game in a field of free-to-play rivals. It feels like a product of a time now past; Firewalk started working on its multiplayer game years ago, when the Guardians of the Galaxy were still hot, and Blizzard was charging money for the original Overwatch.

Firewalk is positioning the pay-to-play aspect of Concord as a positive. The developer has said it won’t put a battle pass into the game, and will continue to support the sci-fi shooter with new characters, maps, and modes. That would logically endear it to some players who are tired of the battle pass grind, and the ever-present monetization tactics of free-to-play games.

But Concord didn’t seem to draw much of an audience over the course of two beta weekends. The game’s first beta test period was originally intended to be for players who had pre-ordered the game, but an eleventh-hour change in plan opened it up to anyone with a PlayStation Plus membership. That signaled a lack of pre-order interest in the game, and a second beta test weekend — open to all players on PS5 and PC — didn’t draw much enthusiasm either. According to unofficial data from True Trophies, Concord’s player count dipped 8% from its first beta weekend to its second.

Image: Firewalk Studios/Sony Interactive Entertainment

I played the Concord beta and found it to be a solid shooter, with interesting hero kits, unique team dynamics, and a very slick presentation. But the beta didn’t communicate clearly how to play Concord; unlike the Marvel Rivals beta, Concord’s playtest shipped without a tutorial mode. Understanding the game’s unique mechanics required digging into a text-based guide and experimenting under the pressure of live team play. Worse, the initial deathmatch-style mode that was in the beta at launch, which Concord forced players to experience first, failed to highlight the game’s character buffs system and important team-based dynamics. I had some fun with Concord, but I mostly stuck with it and dug into the game’s systems out of professional obligation. I doubt it will pull me away from my other live-service games of choice.

I hope that Concord finds an audience, and that players who pay $40 for it (and pay for a PlayStation Plus subscription on top of that) will find many thousands of other like-minded teammates and enemies out there. If they don’t, PlayStation Plus subscribers may benefit in the long run, as Concord feels destined to become a monthly PS Plus giveaway, if early interest is any indication.

Concord is no doubt partly an experiment for PlayStation Studios, part of a larger plan to crack the lucrative live-service game space with future titles like Marathon, FairGame$, and unannounced online projects from Guerrilla Games and London Studios. Time will tell if the PlayStation fan base that’s willing to fork over cash for the likes of God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and the Spider-Man games will do so for an untested multiplayer experience like Concord.

Studio head would prefer transmedia domination instead

In recent years, fans of Sega’s Like A Dragon games — the series previously known as Yakuza in the West — have pestered the developers to allow their characters like Kiryu Kazuma and Majima Goro to appear in fighting games like Tekken or Street Fighter. The series’ former producer, Toshihiro Nagoshi, had frequently dismissed the idea, saying, “I don’t really want to see Kiryu hitting women.”

Like A Dragon series producer and writer Masayoshi Yokoyama, who took over for Nagoshi in 2021, has a different take: Please think bigger.

In an interview with Yokoyama around the upcoming Prime Video series based on the games, Like A Dragon: Yakuza, I asked him how he’d feel about characters like Kiryu, Majima, or Ichiban making the jump over to a fighting game like Tekken 8.

“I think it’s better to say that going across mediums like how we did with [the Like A Dragon: Yakuza TV] series is better, rather than just going to another game,” Yokoyama said. “We receive all kind of invitations to appear in other games, but we never actually went over to their doorstep and said ‘let us in.’ I think going cross-medium is the better way to go about it.”

That’s certainly a more flexible and more ambitious answer than the one Nagoshi gave Red Bull in 2020. So maybe we’ll see Kiryu battling Kazuya Mishima outside of a Waffle House someday.

Like A Dragon’s Kiryu has appeared in games outside of the core franchise, of course. He was a guest golfer in 2011’s Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, and he’s appeared alongside other Sega characters in games like Project X Zone 2, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.

I suppose what we really need is for Sega to finally make Fighters Megamix 2, so we can all live out the fantasy of playing as the Dragon of Dojima in fistfights against the car from Daytona USA, Bean the Dynamite from Sonic Fighters, and any other dude that Kiryu feels comfortable punching.

The quidditch video game will be a PlayStation Plus freebie

One of the more notable missing elements from the Harry Potter prequel game Hogwarts Legacy was the high-flying sport of quidditch. Publisher Warner Bros. Games will address that exclusion later this year with Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, a new single-player and online competitive multiplayer game based on the wizarding sport.

Developer Unbroken Games revealed the first gameplay from its Harry Potter quidditch video game this week, showing off some familiar faces, like Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy. There’s also a glimpse of multiple arenas, including the Quidditch World Cup Stadium.

Quidditch enthusiasts will also be able to create the young wizard of their choice. Unbroken Games shows off the Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions character creator in the video above, highlighting the choices in houses, clothing, broomsticks, and more. Publisher WB Games says there are “no plans for microtransactions in the game at this time,” which hopefully means what you see is what you’ll get, forever.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions will be released digitally for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Sept. 3. A physical deluxe edition will be available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on Nov. 8. A Nintendo Switch version is also coming, and will be released sometime this holiday season, WB Games says.

PlayStation Plus subscribers will get Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions (and a Firebolt Supreme Broom Skin) as part of September 2024’s downloadable games. The game will be available to keep from Sept. 3-30, if you have an active PS Plus membership of any tier.

Is the MGS 3 remake just the beginning?

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Ubisoft’s annual game showcase was all about Star Wars, Assassin’s Creed, and Prince of Persia

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Is the MGS 3 remake just the beginning?

Konami’s remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater sounds like it will be the beginning of a series of new projects in the franchise created by a “new team,” according to comments from producer Noriaki Okamura.

In a new video released Monday for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, the name of Konami’s upcoming MGS 3 remake, Okamura tells longtime Snake voice actor David Hayter that his team, which includes “plenty of people on the team who were part of the original games,” has “been entrusted with the future of Metal Gear.”

“We want the players to be able to judge for themselves whether this new team is right for the job of keeping Metal Gear going,” Okamura said, referring to the team’s work on Metal Gear Solid Delta and the recently released Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection compilation.

In his discussion with Hayter, Okamura opaquely addressed the departure of former Metal Gear creatives, like Hideo Kojima and Yoji Shinkawa. While he does not explicitly name them, he says, “Everyone who is no longer working on Metal Gear is pursuing their own path now, and that’s going to remain the case for these titles.” That’s a pretty solid indicator that Konami plans on (re)making more Metal Gear without the involvement of its original creator.

Okamura previously worked with Kojima and team on games like Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes. He was also a producer on the poorly received 2018 game Metal Gear Survive, the only original Metal Gear project released after Hideo Kojima left Konami.

The Metal Gear Solid 3 remake could represent a fresh start for the franchise at a post-Kojima Konami. The 2024 game was selected to be lavishly remade in Unreal Engine 5 due to its place in the overall Metal Gear timeline, Konami told IGN last year; Snake Eater is an origin story for Naked Snake/Big Boss, and the first game chronologically in the franchise. In other words, it’s a smart place to start to bring in new fans who may not be well-versed in the MGS series’ era-jumping sequels.

If Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a success, and Konami does continue to remake games, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker would be next in line chronologically. Those two early Cold War-era follow-ups to Snake Eater also star Big Boss — not Solid Snake — and would be able to build on the foundation of Metal Gear Solid Delta, using characters and assets from Metal Gear Solid Delta.

When future Metal Gear remakes will come to pass is still unknown, as is the release date Metal Gear Solid Delta. The remake was originally pitched as a 2024 release, but Konami hasn’t said anything this past week about Delta arriving this year, even as it sets pre-orders live. A 2025 release is starting to look more likely.

For now, Metal Gear fans will have to pass the time poring over new gameplay details released on Sunday in a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid Delta at the Xbox Games Showcase.

Ubisoft’s annual game showcase was all about Star Wars, Assassin’s Creed, and Prince of Persia

Ubisoft’s big games showcase, Ubisoft Forward, kept the Summer Game Fest hype train rolling on Monday with fresh details on new and upcoming games like Star Wars Outlaws, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, XDefiant, and a plethora of Prince of Persia projects — including the long-awaited return (sort of) of Ubi’s Sands of Time remake.

Here’s everything that Ubisoft had to share during Ubisoft Forward 2024.

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars fans will live out their bounty hunter fantasies this summer in a brand-new open-world galactic adventure, Star Wars Outlaws. At Ubisoft Forward, developers from Massive Entertainment walked players through what they can expect from scrappy scoundrel Kay Vess’ adventure. She’ll wrangle criminal cartels, engage in battles both in space and on planet Tatooine, and travel to locations familiar and new in the Star Wars galaxy. The 10-minute gameplay showcase was full of gameplay variety and plenty of blaster fire to get players hyped for Star Wars Outlaws’ Aug. 30 release date.

Not content to release just one new trailer for Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft released a second game overview trailer that highlights the title’s diversity of locations, alien species, and gameplay styles.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Ubisoft is taking the Assassin’s Creed series to Japan for the first time with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Players will be able to take on dual roles as either the stealthy shinobi Naoe or the powerhouse samurai Yasuke. At Ubisoft Forward, we got a deep dive into how those protagonists will play in a 13-minute gameplay walkthrough. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is out on Nov. 15.

Prince of Persia

Ubisoft came with not one, not two, but three Prince of Persia-related announcements for the franchise’s 35th anniversary. Here’s what it showed at Ubisoft Forward.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will get a free content update with revised bosses, puzzle challenges, new amulets, new outfits, and more. There’s also story DLC coming in the form of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: Mask of Darkness this September.

Evil Empire and Ubisoft also have an update coming for roguelite platformer The Rogue Prince of Persia. It’s called the Temple of Fire and it will bring even tougher challenges to the early access game.

But that’s not all. Ubisoft even brought out a trailer for its long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake and... you’re going to have to wait a lot longer. Ubisoft announced a 2026 release window for the troubled game.

XDefiant

Ubisoft’s free-to-play shooter, XDefiant, is getting its first season. That debut season will include new maps, a new Capture the Flag mode, new weapons, and a new faction: GSK from the Rainbow Six series. XDefiant season 1 launches July 2.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

Anno 117: Pax Romana, the next entry in Ubisoft and Blue Byte’s 25-year-old economic sim real-time strategy game, is coming in 2025, letting players take on the role of Roman governor overseeing their growing empire. At Ubisoft Forward, we got a pretty silly live-action trailer that highlights the challenge of governing an ancient province when your most loyal subjects are goats.

New games for PS5, PSVR 2 in 2024, plus a few surprises

Sony’s latest State of Play livestream was full of new game announcements and updates for all things PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR 2 — with a little bit of PlayStation content for PC as well. PlayStation fans got a look at a new game starring the lovable Astro Bot, a new Dynasty Warriors, a release date for the Silent Hill 2 remake, and confirmation of a few games making the jump from PC to PS5 (and vice versa).

If you couldn’t watch May’s big State of Play showcase live, here’s a recap of all the game announcements, release dates, trailers, and other highlights from Sony’s event.

Concord gets first gameplay

When Sony showed off Concord at last year’s PlayStation Showcase, we didn’t know what to expect from Firewalk Studios’ multiplayer PvP FPS. Now we do, as Sony and Firewalk showed off a cinematic trailer and in-engine gameplay from the colorful 5v5 competitive hero shooter starring a bunch of alien misfit adventurers. Concord is coming to PS5 and PC on Aug. 23.

God of War Ragnarök is coming to PC

Image: SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Kratos and Atreus’ latest adventure makes the leap to Windows PC this year. God of War Ragnarök, originally released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2022, will get its long-awaited Windows port on Sept. 19, with all the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect from Sony’s PC efforts. That includes super ultrawide display support and Nvidia DLSS 3.7, AMD FSR 3.1, and Intel XESS 1.3. Ragnarök on PC will also include the game’s Valhalla DLC.

Astro Bot is back in a new PS5 game

The star of Astro’s Playroom and Astro Bot Rescue Mission returns for a brand-new game coming to PlayStation 5 later this year from developer Team Asobi. It’s called, simply, Astro Bot, and like Astro’s Playroom, it’s steeped in love of all things PlayStation. Astro can transform into PlayStation’s most famous characters, including Kratos, Aloy, and Nathan Drake, and even turn into a PlayStation 5 console. Astro Bot hits the PS5 on Sept. 6.

Marvel Rivals is coming to PS5 (and Xbox)

Marvel and NetEase’s team-based hero shooter starring the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe is coming to PS5. Marvel Rivals is currently in closed testing on PC, with console versions slated to arrive later this year. A console beta test will be available on PS5 and Xbox Series X in July.

First Monster Hunter Wilds gameplay

Capcom and Sony gave us a new look at Monster Hunter Wilds, the 2025 open-world follow-up to Monster Hunter: World, in a new gameplay-focused trailer.

Silent Hill 2 remake release date

Konami and Bloober Team’s remake of early aughts horror classic Silent Hill 2 now has a release date. Silent Hill 2 is coming to PS5 on Oct. 8. A spooky new trailer shows what to expect from the new rendition.

Dynasty Warriors returns

Koei Tecmo and Omega Force haven’t released a new mainline entry in the historical hack-and-slash Dynasty Warriors franchise since 2018. That’s about to change with Dynasty Warriors: Origins, which is coming to PS5 in 2025. (It’s also coming to Windows PC and Xbox Series X.)

Path of Exile 2 coming to PS5

Image: Grinding Gear Games

Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2, the studio’s next iteration of its free-to-play action RPG, is coming to PS5 as well as PC. The alternative to Diablo 4 is set years after the original Path of Exile, sending players to the dark world of Wraeclast where they’ll seek to end a spreading corruption. Early access starts on PS5 sometime this fall.

Until Dawn remastered

Image: Ballistic Moon, Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Supermassive Games’ interactive horror game Until Dawn comes to PS5 and Windows PC this fall, new and improved. At State of Play, we got a look at what remaster studio Ballistic Moon has brought to the 2015 original.

Where Winds Meet

You may remember Where Winds Meet from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2022, where the ambitious, Wuxia-style open-world action-RPG was revealed. Where Winds Meet is now confirmed for PS5, with a new gameplay trailer to show off the goods.

Infinity Nikki

Open-world dress-up adventure Infinity Nikki is coming to PS5 — with a beta test expected soon — letting players explore a bucolic fantasy world with their furry friend Momo. Think Breath of the Wild, but with really cute outfits.

Ballad of Antara announced

The developer behind Pascal’s Wager revealed its new game, Ballad of Antara, a very ambitious Soulslike action game coming to PS5 in 2025. According to the game’s official description, “A faraway land is on the verge of being lost to a conflict from eons ago, and the invasion that followed it. Embark on a perilous journey, seek towering divine creatures, to reclaim the twisted and lost fundamentals of the world.”

Alien: Rogue Incursion revealed

Alien: Rogue Incursion is an “intense single-player, action horror game” — and the first Alien game developed especially for virtual reality — coming to PlayStation VR 2 from developer Survios this holiday season.

Behemoth gameplay

Skydance’s Behemoth promises an adventure through strange, otherworldly environments and battles against towering monsters, with “weighty VR combat and life-like physics.” PSVR 2 owners will be able to test those claims for themselves when Behemoth arrives later this year.

Get ready to hit the griddy in your power armor

Fallout is coming to Fortnite. Exactly how and when Bethesda Softworks’ post-apocalyptic franchise is coming to Epic’s battle royale-turned-everything game is unclear, but we’re pretty much guaranteed to get some cartoonish power armor out of it. We’re also likely to get some Vault Dweller jumpsuits, but it remains to be seen what exactly Epic and Bethesda have cooked up for the highly anticipated collaboration.

The official Fortnite social media account on X (formerly Twitter) teased the crossover on Friday, hinting that Fallout-style bases and post-nuclear devastation could be dropping in on the battle royale island. No doubt Vault Boy will also make an appearance as part of the collab.

Interest in the Fallout franchise is at a high point right now, thanks to Amazon’s Fallout TV series and the recent “next-gen” update for Fallout 4. That free upgrade rolled out for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of Fallout 4 in April, and Bethesda’s been patching it up since.

Fortnite players may get their hands on that Fallout-inspired content as early as next week. Chapter 5 season 3 of Fortnite — reportedly titled “Wrecked” — is expected to launch on May 24.

The Fallout franchise appears to also be coming to another big game soon: Call of Duty. Dataminers have uncovered references to Fallout (alongside Gundam and The Crow) that could be hints about content planned for season 4 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone 2.0. Call of Duty’s next season launches May 29.

Described as a combo of ‘Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, Orcs Must Die’

A new multiplayer hero shooter reportedly in development at Valve leaked Thursday in the form of gameplay details and early screenshots of the project, known as Deadlock. The new game is described as a blend of Valve’s own Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2, as well as competing multiplayer games like Overwatch, Valorant, Smite, and Orcs Must Die.

Valve-focused content creator known as Gabe Follower published the in-game screenshots on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The account said the images were shared by Deadlock playtesters, and show Dota 2-style heroes battling on “steampunk European city” maps. One of those maps has fast-travel lanes; players can ride quickly across the maps using “floating rails, similar to BioShock Infinite.”

Gabe Follower said that Deadlock is Valve’s next game, and that it was in development under previous names Neon Prime and Citadel. He describes it as a competitive, third-person, hero-based shooter, with two teams of six heroes — a mix of “magicians, weird creatures, and robots” — battling each other. Deadlock also reportedly features tower defense game mechanics.

Screenshots of Deadlock hint at MOBA-inspired elements like bases and guardians that heroes would attack, and collectible orbs that may offer power-ups to abilities. All of that is, of course, subject to change, as Deadlock has not been officially announced.

Deadlock was reportedly styled as a sci-fi game “inspired by Half-Life and Portal,” but feedback to the game’s aesthetic pushed Valve to “focus on fantasy.” Valve has reportedly been working on Deadlock since 2018.

Details on Deadlock were corroborated by longtime Valve reporter Tyler McVicker, who previously published under the Valve News Network moniker. In a video published on Thursday about the in-development game, McVicker said that Deadlock is currently being played in a closed alpha form by an unknown number of people outside of Valve. McVicker described Deadlock as “very personality driven” and Valve’s “next major competitive game.”

Polygon has reached out to Valve to confirm details on Deadlock and will update when the company responds.

Valve boss and co-founder Gabe Newell said in 2021 that his company has multiple games in development. Last September, Valve shipped one of those games, Counter-Strike 2, a replacement for its extremely popular first-person shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, originally released in 2012. Newell also intimated in 2021 that there was “a lot of momentum inside of the company” to develop more single-player games in the wake of shipping Half-Life: Alyx in 2020.

For now, though, it appears that Valve’s interests lie in multiplayer and blending the gameplay of its most popular team-based games.

Correction: A previous version of this story named Tyler McVicker as the person responsible for publishing screenshots of Deadlock. Those details and images were published to social media by an account named Gabe Follower, not McVicker.

Get caught up on the Marathon trilogy

The original Marathon games from Bungie are coming to Steam, and will be available to download for free, the developer behind Destiny 2 announced Friday. The first game in the first-person shooter franchise is available now in the form of Classic Marathon. Sequels Classic Marathon 2 and Classic Marathon Infinity are listed as “coming soon” on Steam.

Bungie credits the Aleph One community of open-source developers with bringing the classic Marathon trilogy to Steam. Aleph One supports the original Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity as part of the open source project, which is available to download through its official website.

The Steam versions of the classic Marathon trilogy will support both Mac and Windows PC. Its open-source authors promise “authentic gameplay” with modern conveniences: optional widescreen HUD support, 3D filtering/perspective, positional audio, and 60 fps interpolation.

Bungie has a new take on Marathon in the works for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The new Marathon will be a player-versus-player, team-based extraction shooter in which squads of cybernetic Runners compete to retrieve artifacts, implants, and weapons from a hostile environment. After revealing the game a year ago, Bungie said it planned to go dark “for an extended period” until such time as it’s ready to show actual gameplay from the new Marathon.

For now, you can catch up on the original trilogy at no cost. No doubt Bungie will stuff the new Marathon with references to the old ones, should you want to brush up on your lore.

Adult Swim Games titles will go back to their creators

Warner Bros. Discovery appears to have backed down from its plans to delist more than a dozen games published by its Adult Swim Games label from Steam and digital console stores. WBD now plans to transfer ownership of some of those games back to the indie devs that made them, according to developers who would have been affected by the planned delistings.

Plans to delist the Adult Swim Games catalog from digital stores — or “retire” them, as Warner Bros. Discovery had worded it — became public in March and were widely criticized as a cold corporate move that could make some indie games unavailable to purchase. That strong criticism appears to have played a part in WBD’s revised plan to transfer ownership of the games back to their creators.

News of WBD’s policy reversal was first revealed by developer Owen Deery, who is behind puzzle-adventure game Small Radios Big Televisions, which was originally published by Adult Swim Games in 2016. (Deery also broke the news of WBD’s original plan to “retire” Adult Swim titles back in March.) On the social media platform X, Deery wrote that Small Radios Big Televisions “will not be ‘retired’,” despite previous communication from WBD that it would be. “Ownership and store listings will return to me,” Deery said.

Developer Landon Podbielski said that his multiplayer platform shooter Duck Game, another Adult Swim Games-published release threatened with delisting, will also be reverted to its creator. “The game is being returned to Corptron along with its store pages on all platforms,” Podbielski said on X. “It’s not going anywhere.”

Other developers whose games were published by Adult Swim Games confirmed to Polygon that they’ve received similar communication from Warner Bros. Discovery, and will have their titles transferred back to them rather than be delisted. WBD told developers it “heard the feedback and concerns regarding the retirement of titles published under Adult Swim Games,” one developer said in an email to Polygon.

But other developers who had their work published by Adult Swim Games say they’re still waiting to hear from Warner Bros. Discovery. Two developers Polygon spoke to say they never received the original messaging from WBD back in March, and still haven’t heard from the company, despite multiple attempts to contact representatives there. Polygon has reached out to Warner Bros. Discovery for comment and will update when the company responds.

The media conglomerate’s planned removal of Adult Swim Games titles echoed similar cuts from its film and television business; Warner Bros. Discovery infamously scrapped plans to release nearly complete movies Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, and removed multiple series from its Max streaming services. Warner Bros. has since licensed some of its scrapped television content to other streamers; animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, for example, will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video platform this summer.

Get caught up on the Marathon trilogy

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Adult Swim Games titles will go back to their creators

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Indie devs are being told that their games will be ‘retired’ from Steam and console stores

Warner Bros. Discovery is telling developers it plans to start “retiring” games published by its Adult Swim Games label, game makers who worked with the publisher tell Polygon. At least three games are under threat of being removed from Steam and other digital stores, with the fate of other games published by Adult Swim unclear.

The media conglomerate’s planned removal of those games echoes cuts from its film and television business; Warner Bros. Discovery infamously scrapped plans to release nearly complete movies Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, and removed multiple series from its streaming services. If Warner Bros. does go through with plans to delist Adult Swim’s games from Steam and digital console stores, 18 or more games could be affected.

News of the Warner Bros. plan to potentially pull Adult Swim’s games from Steam and the PlayStation Store was first reported by developer Owen Reedy, who released puzzle-adventure game Small Radios Big Televisions through the label in 2016. Reedy said on X Tuesday the game was being “retired” by Adult Swim Games’ owner. He responded to the company’s decision by making the Windows PC version of Small Radios Big Televisions available to download for free from his studio’s website.

Polygon reached out to other developers who had worked with Adult Swim Games as a publisher. Two studios responded to say that they’d received a similar warning from Warner Bros. Discovery, but they are still in the dark about what it means for their games.

Developer Michael Molinari, who released Soundodger+ through Adult Swim Games in 2013, told Polygon he received a warning from a Warner Bros. Discovery rep earlier this week that his game would be “removed from Steam” within the next 60 days.

“I don’t know if they’re delisting it or deleting it,” Molinari told Polygon in an email. “I pleaded with the rep to transfer ownership to my company, as I still retain all IP and game rights. I sent him a link to Steam’s transfer page and explained clearly that it takes literally three clicks to transfer ownership to me. He rejected my request.”

Molinari said the Warner Bros. Discovery representative said the decision not to transfer ownership back to developers “stems from logistical and resource constraints” and “the limited capacity of our team.” (One developer Polygon spoke with said the current Adult Swim Games team consisted of a “skeleton crew.”) Molinari expressed frustration that WBD’s planned removal of his game and others would lead to “over a decade of downloads, community guides, reviews, and patch notes [...] suddenly vanishing.”

According to Molinari, Warner Bros. Discovery informed him that he’s allowed to republish Soundodger+ on Steam, but that option presents its own issues. Doing so “would erase all my wishlists, reviews, community guides, and forum discussions, along with not allowing new and old owners of the game to compare achievements and trading cards,” Molinari said.

“The other legal requirement for republishing the game myself is to remove any and all mention of Adult Swim Games,” Molinari said. “I asked for clarification, and he even wants the credits sequence altered to remove the names of the [Adult Swim Games] team. I’m a huge supporter of games preservation, and this is a direct blow to properly crediting the people that worked on a game.”

Matt Lewandowski, co-owner of studio Team2Bit, the developer behind the Adult Swim Games-published Fist Puncher, told Polygon that he’d also been contacted by Warner Bros. Discovery with a similar warning. Lewandowski said that a rep blamed the impending removal of Fist Puncher on “internal business changes.”

“We requested that they transfer Fist Puncher back to our studio,” Lewandowski said. “Their response was that they ‘cannot transfer the game’ due to the fact that they ‘made the decision not to transfer ownership due to logistical and resource constraints.’”

Lewandowski said Team2Bit remains hopeful that WB Discovery will give Fist Puncher back to the studio.

“It’s been out for 11 years and we built a community around it through Steam,” he said. “We also had an incredible experience working with Adult Swim over the years. The original team that helped us get Fist Puncher on Steam was passionate about elevating interesting and unique games from small studios.

“That said, if we do not get the current release of Fist Puncher transferred over to us, then we will likely re-release it under our own account. We still own the game and the IP so a re-release is certainly possible. And as someone who is passionate about preserving game history, I hate to see any game get lost to corporate red tape.”

Polygon reached out to 10 studios and solo developers who had their games published by Adult Swim Games to see what they’ve heard. Some say they haven’t been contacted by WB Discovery, but they expect to. “From what I’ve heard from others, I will probably be hearing from them soon,” developer Andrew Morrish, who published Kingsway and Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe through Adult Swim, told Polygon. “It’s not looking good.”

Molinari said that if and when his game Soundodger+ is pulled from Steam, he’ll republish it there “with as little downtime as possible between the two versions.” The game is also available from Molinari’s itch page.

“As an aside, I am beyond delighted I chose to self-publish Soundodger 2,” Molinari added, “as I’d be devastated to have my two best-selling games on Steam removed with such short notice.”

Polygon has contacted Warner Bros. Discovery reps for comment on the company’s plans to remove Adult Swim Games’ catalog and will update when the company responds.

You’ll need to beat Mohg before starting the DLC

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Miquella’s cocoon in Mohgwyn Palace is your key to the Land of Shadow

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You’ll need to beat Mohg before starting the DLC

In Elden Ring, Mohg, Lord of Blood is an optional boss found in a secret area that can be easily missed during a full playthrough of the game.

But for Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, Mohg is a required boss. You’ll need to defeat him to get access to Miquella’s cocoon in the Mohgwyn Dynasty Mausoleum, and to be whisked away to the Land of Shadow.

In this guide, we’ll break down our best tips on how to beat Mohg, Lord of Blood, in Elden Ring.

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How to beat Mohg, Lord of Blood, in Elden Ring

Like many boss battles in Elden Ring, Mohg, Lord of Blood is a two-phase boss fight. In the first half, Mohg will inflict standard and pierce damage using his trident, and attack with sprays of bloodflame — a combination of fire and bleed damage that will build up over time. Make sure you’ve equipped armor and talismans that negate physical, fire, and blood-based damage.

For the second half of Mohg’s boss fight, when he reaches 50% health, he’ll cast Bloodboon Ritual. This spell will heal Mohg considerably and inflict blood loss on the player, but there are ways to mitigate the devastating effect of Bloodboon Ritual with the right Crystal Tear.

There are multiple strategies for battling Mohg depending on whether you’re melee user or a ranged magic enthusiast, but here are some things to keep in mind to make the fight easier.

Get Mohg’s Shackle

Mohg’s Shackle behaves just like Margit’s Shackle — using this item will temporarily stun Mohg, up to two times and only during the first phase of the right. Use the shackle to get a few free hits in on old Mohg.

Mohg’s Shackle can be found in Leyndell, Royal Capital down in the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds sewers, where it is guarded by two giant crayfish.

Get the Purifying Crystal Tear

This Crystal Tear will purify the Lord of Blood’s curse in a mixed physick, diminishing the powerful health-draining Nihil attack that Mohg does when he is at half health. The Purifying Crystal Tear is dropped by Eleonora, Violet Bloody Finger at the Second Church of Marika in Altus Plateau. This Crystal Tear pairs well with the Speckled Hardtear in your Wondrous Physick mix.

Bring lots of healing and blood loss prevention

Mohg will drain your health using his Nihil spell, and you may wind up chugging your healing flask repeatedly just to stay alive. He also inflicts hemorrhage (blood loss), so have Staunching Boluses equipped or use the Lord’s Aid incantation to diminish the effect.

Use cold and blood loss effects

Mohg has strong resistance to fire, so inflicting frostbite and/or hemorrhage on him may be your best option. With all the blood loss going on around Mohg, you may want to equip the Lord of Blood’s Exultation talisman, which raises attack power (by 20%) when blood loss occurs in the vicinity.

When in doubt, Mimic Tear

The Mimic Tear Ashes spirit summon provides a great distraction for Mohg, letting you attack him from behind and breaking his poise to inflict extra damage. Or use the upgraded spirit summon of your choice. This is a judgment-free safe space.

Skynet’s not the only threat in Terminator: Survivors

Terminator: Survivors, a new open-world survival game set in the Terminator franchise, will launch in early access on Steam this fall, publisher Nacon announced Thursday at its Nacon Connect 2024 event.

Developer Nacon Milan did not reveal gameplay footage of Terminator: Survivors, but did offer some concept art for the game and ideas about what players can expect. The first-person shooter will be set in 2009, after the nuclear cataclysm brought about by Skynet and before the formation of John Connor’s resistance against the rogue AI’s machines. Terminator: Survivors will draw on the fiction of the first two Terminator films, its creators say.

According to Marco Ponte, CEO and creative director at Nacon Milan, Terminator: Survivors players will face “the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world, and trying to cope with the threats posed by other human beings,” as well as threats from Skynet’s machines, including the iconic Terminator T-800. At first, Ponte said, survivors in the game world will be “unaware of the existence of Skynet and the Terminator,” but later will “join forces with other survivors and discover the truth about the ongoing conflict and begin to fight back.” Players will meet “famous characters” from the Terminator franchise, in addition to new ones.

Terminator: Survivors will have base-management elements and first-person shooter mechanics, and can be played either solo or in co-op in groups of four. Based on the game’s two trailers, encounters with Terminators are implied to be rare; so far, we’ve seen just one T-800 hunting human prey, unlike the massive-scale human vs. Skynet battles shown in the Terminator movies (and in the recently released strategy game Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance). But they’ll still be a threat. Skynet’s machines “will hound you relentlessly, while other humans will be eyeing up the same resources as you,” Nacon said in a news release.

Terminator: Survivors will launch in early access on Steam for Windows PC on Oct. 24, just days before the 40th anniversary of the franchise’s launch. The game will come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X at a later date, the publisher said.

2024 has already been a big year for survival games, with the launches of Palworld, Enshrouded, and Nightingale. Hopefully, Terminator: Survivors’ unique setting and terrifying enemy will help it stand out from the crowd.

2024 will be a massive year for new games

While 2023 was a banner year for video games, with the releases of Baldur’s Gate 3, Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, Starfield, Street Fighter 6, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the year in video games for 2024 is already looking like an even match. Big new games like Star Wars Outlaws, Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, are on the docket, as are major expansions for Destiny 2, Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 14 Online, and World of Warcraft.

While video game release dates are always in flux, Polygon’s guide to the new video games coming out in 2024 will be regularly updated with new titles, release dates, and inevitable delays.

Here’s a look at what the year has in store for upcoming games coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X, and other current gaming platforms.

New video game releases for 2024

January

Image: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega

• Bulletstorm VR (PC, PS5, Quest) — Jan. 18
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Jan. 18
• Another Code: Recollection (Switch) — Jan. 19
• Palworld (PC) — Jan. 19 (early access)
• The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered (PS5) — Jan. 19
• Howl (PS5, Xbox Series X) — Jan. 23
• Enshrouded (PC) — Jan. 24 (early access)
• Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy (PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One) — Jan. 25
• Under-Night In-Birth 2 Sys:Celes (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC) — Jan. 25
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Jan. 26
• Tekken 8 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Jan. 26
• One Punch Man: World (Android, iOS, PC) — Jan. 31

February

Image: Square Enix

• Granblue Fantasy: Relink (PC, PS4, PS5) — Feb. 1
• Jujutsu Kaisen: Cursed Clash (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC) — Feb. 2
• Persona 3 Reload (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 2
• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 2
• Foamstars (PS4, PS5) — Feb. 6
• Helldivers 2 (PC, PS5) — Feb. 8
• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (PS5, Xbox Series X, PC) — Feb. 13
• Islands of Insight (PC) — Feb. 13
• Ultros (Mac, PC, PS4, PS5) — Feb. 13
• Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Starring Lara Croft (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 14
• A Little to the Left (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 15
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch) — Feb. 16
• Skull & Bones (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 16
• Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story (PC, Switch) — Feb. 19
• Balatro (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 20
• qomp2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 20
• Nightingale (PC) — Feb. 20 (early access)
• Penny’s Big Breakaway (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 21
• Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance (PC) — Feb. 21
• King Arthur: Knight’s Tale (PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 22
• Open Roads (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 22
• Pacific Drive (PC, PS5) — Feb. 22
• Pentiment (Switch) — Feb. 22
• Sons of the Forest (PC) — Feb. 23
• Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island (Switch) — Feb. 27
• Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons Remake (PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 28
• Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Feb. 28
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (PS5) — Feb. 29

March

Image: Capcom

• Ufouria: The Saga 2 (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — March 1
• The Outlast Trials (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — March 5
• Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (PC, Switch) — March 7
• Unicorn Overlord (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — March 8
• WWE 2K24 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — March 8
• Contra: Operation Galuga (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — March 12
• Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — March 13
• Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)— March 14
• Outcast - A New Beginning (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — March 15
• Hi-Fi Rush (PS5) — March 19
• Lightyear Frontier (PC, Xbox Series X) — March 19 (early access)
• Alone in the Dark (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — March 20
• Final Fantasy 14 Online (Xbox Series X) — March 21
• Horizon Forbidden West (PC) — March 21
• Dragon’s Dogma 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — March 22
• Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch) — March 22
• Rise of the Ronin (PS5) — March 22
• Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — March 26
• Planet Zoo: Console Edition (PS5, Xbox Series X) — March 26
• South Park: Snow Day (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — March 26
• Pepper Grinder (PC, Switch) — March 28
• Earthlock 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — TBA

April

Image: Surgent Studios/EA Originals

• Gigantic: Rampage Edition (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — April 9
• Freedom Planet 2 (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — April 14
• Grounded (Switch) — April 16
• Harold Halibut (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — April 16
• No Rest for the Wicked (PC) — April 18 (early access)
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — April 23
• Tales of Kenzera: Zau (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — April 23
• Another Crab’s Treasure (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — April 25
• SaGa Emerald Beyond (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch) — April 25
• Manor Lords (PC) — April 26
• Sand Land (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — April 26
• Stellar Blade (PS5) — April 26
• Sea of Thieves (PS5) — April 30

May

• Endless Ocean Luminous (Switch) — May 2
• Hades 2 (PC) — May 6 (early access)
• Prison Architect 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — May 7
• Indika (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — May 8
• Animal Well (PS5, Switch, PC) — May 9
• Little Kitty, Big City (PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — May 9
• Homeworld 3 (PC) — May 13
• The Rogue Prince of Persia (PC) — May 14 (early access)
• Braid, Anniversary Edition (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — May 15
• Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut (PC) — May 16
• Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (PC, Switch) — May 16
• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 (PC, Xbox Series X) — May 21
• World of Goo 2 (PC, Switch) — May 21
• Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Switch) — May 23
• Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — May 23
• MultiVersus (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — May 28
• Nine Sols (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch) — May 29

June

• Destiny 2: The Final Shape (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — June 4
• Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — June 4
• Assassin’s Creed Mirage (iOS) — June 6
• Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked Collection (PS4, PS5, Switch) — June 11
• Monster Hunter Stories (PC, PS4, Switch) — June 14
• Still Wakes the Deep (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — June 18
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — June 21
• Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — June 21
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (Switch) — June 25
• Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (Switch) — June 27
• Spy x Anya: Operation Memories (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch) — June 28

July

• Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X) — July 2
• Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown (Switch) — July 11
• Cataclismo (PC) — July 16
• Frostpunk 2 (PC) — July 25
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Splintered Fate (Switch) — TBA

August

• Cat Quest 3 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Aug. 8
• SteamWorld Heist 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Aug. 8
• Black Myth: Wukong (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Aug. 20
• Dustborn (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — Aug. 20
• Concord (PC, PS5) — Aug. 23
• Star Wars Outlaws (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Aug. 30

September

• STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl (PC, Xbox Series X) — Sept. 5
• Astro Boy (PS5) — Sept. 6
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Sept. 9
• Funko Fusion (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — Sept. 13
• God of War Ragnarök (PC) — Sept. 19
• Felix the Cat Collection (PS4, PS5, Switch) — TBA

October

• Silent Hill 2 remake (PC, PS5) — Oct. 8
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (Switch) — Oct. 10
• Terminator: Survivors (PC) — Oct. 24 (early access)

November

• Antonblast (PC, Switch) — Nov. 12

2024 video games with no release date

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

The following games have release windows for some period of 2024. We’ve included additional specificity, such as release quarter or season, when provided by developers and publishers.

• 33 Immortals (PC, Xbox Series X)
• Alien: Rogue Incursion (PC, PS5)
• Anger Foot (Linux, Mac, PC)
• Ara: History Untold (PC) — fall 2024
• Ark 2 (PC, Xbox Series X)
• Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure (Mac, PC, PS5, Switch) — summer 2024
• Avowed (PC, Xbox Series X) — fall 2024
• Baby Steps (PC, PS5)
• Black Myth: Wukong (PC) — summer 2024
• Blade Chimera (PC, Switch) — spring 2024
• Blue Protocol (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Cities: Skylines 2 (PS5, Xbox Series X) — spring 2024
• Core Keeper (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Creatures of Ava (PC, Xbox Series X)
• Death Trick: Double Blind (Switch)
• Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Earth Defense Force 6 (PC, PS4, PS5) — spring 2024
• Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the mist (Switch)
• Endzone 2 (PC) — Q3 2024
• Europa (PC, Switch)
• Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — summer 2024
• Ghost Bike (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• GreedFall 2: The Dying World (PC, PS5) — summer 2024
• Gundam Breaker 4 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch)
• Heavenly Bodies (Switch)
• Hotel Barcelona (Xbox Series X)
• Hyper Light Breaker (PC) (early access)
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (PC, Xbox Series X)
• John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Kill Knight (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link (Android, iOS)
• Kingmakers (PC)
• Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Little Nightmares 3 (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — late 2024
• Menace (PC)
• Metal Gear Solid ∆: Snake Eater (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X) — fall 2024
• Mewgenics (PC)
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (PC, Xbox Series X)
• Moonstone Island (Switch) — spring 2024
• Neva (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X)
• Ninja Five-O (PS4, PS5, Switch)
• No Rest for the Wicked (PS5, Xbox Series X)
• On Your Tail (PC, Switch)
• Paper Trail (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Planet of Lana (PC, Switch)
• Replaced (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Reka (PC)
• The Rise of the Golden Idol (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• SaGa: Emerald Beyond (Android, iOS, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch)
• Shadow of the Ninja — Reborn (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X) — summer 2024
• Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch)
• Skate Story (PC)
• Songs of Silence (PC, consoles) — spring 2024
• Sonic X Shadow Generations (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — fall 2024
• SpellRogue (PC)
• Star Wars: Hunters (Android, iOS, Switch)
• Stormgate (PC) — summer 2024 (early access)
• Suikoden 1 & 2 HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbox One)
• Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem untitled game (consoles TBA, PC)
• Temtem: Swarm (consoles TBA, PC) — Q3 2024
• Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• Thank Goodness You’re Here! (PC, PS5, Switch)
• The Alters (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• The Casting of Frank Stone (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X)
• The First Descendant (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — summer 2024
• The Gecko Gods (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch) — spring 2024
• The Plucky Squire (PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X)
• The Star Named EOS (PC, Switch)
• The Wolf Among Us 2 (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Thrasher (PC VR, Quest)
• Towers of Aghasba (PC, PS5)
• Toxic Crusaders (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Unknown 9: Awakening (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X) — summer 2024
• Until Dawn (PC, PS5)
• Urban Myth Dissolution Center (PC, Switch)
• V Rising (PS5)
• Valley Peaks (PC, Switch)
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X) — fall 2024
• Visions of Mana (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X) — summer 2024
• Wild Bastards (PC)
• Windblown (PC)
• World of Warcraft: The War Within (Mac, PC)
• Yars Rising (PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)
• Zenless Zone Zero (Android, iOS, PC)
• Zoochosis (PC)

FromSoftware’s huge Elden Ring expansion is almost here

Elden Ring fans will return to the Lands Between this summer with the release of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. FromSoftware’s major new expansion to its 2022 open-world action-role-playing game promises an all-new story, with new enemies to face and new weapons, armor, and spells to equip.

After more than two years, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will send players somewhere new, the Land of Shadow, for what promises to be a challenging adventure. FromSoftware’s DLC typically contains the developer’s hardest bosses and enemies, so expect a major test of abilities.

And while FromSoftware is keeping many details about Shadow of the Erdtree under wraps, here’s what we know about the DLC, based on its reveal trailer.

When does Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree release?

FromSoftware and Bandai Namco will release Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree on June 21, 2024. The expansion will be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam, just like the original Elden Ring.

Where is Shadow of the Erdtree set? How do you access the DLC?

The events of Shadow of the Erdtree take place in a new space known as the Land of Shadow. According to game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, that new land is an “entirely separate, physically separate map” that “technically occupies the same space as the Lands Between.” In other words, expect an alternate reality version of the world, similar to Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss and Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters add-ons.

Miyazaki also told Eurogamer that the Land of Shadow is FromSoftware’s “largest expansion to date in terms of overall volume.”

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

Miyazaki says that Elden Ring players can access Shadow of the Erdtree’s Land of Shadow by visiting Miquella’s cocoon. In Elden Ring, that cocoon is only accessible after defeating Mohg, Lord of Blood, in Mohgwyn Palace.

Mohgwyn Palace can be accessed by a gateway teleporter in the Consecrated Snowfield or by using the Pureblood Knight’s Medal given by White Mask Varré at the end of his questline. In other words, Elden Ring players will need to have advanced far into the game to access Shadow of the Erdtree.

What’s the story of Shadow of the Erdtree?

Players will follow in the footsteps of Empyrean Miquella and trace his journey to the Land of Shadow, which FromSoftware describes as “a place obscured by the Erdtree where the goddess Marika first set foot.” Players will encounter other characters who are also following Miquella, but have “ulterior motives.” Miyazaki likens the player’s journey of trailing Miquella to following the blessings from the Sites of Grace in the Lands Between.

What’s new in Shadow of the Erdtree?

In addition to a new land, which Miyazaki says will be filled with large-scale legacy dungeons as well as small- to medium-scale dungeons, players can expect new boss battles, new types of enemies, and new weapons, armor, and other equipment. Shadow of the Erdtree will, of course, also feature new story elements and NPCs.

One of the biggest and most important new characters is Messmer the Impaler. He shares similar features with Malenia, Miquella’s twin sister and one of Elden Ring’s most fearsome enemies. Messmer the Impaler is revealed in Shadow of the Erdtree’s trailer sitting on a throne that appeared in the boss room where players battled Morgott, the Omen King in the Royal Capital of Leyndell. Miyazaki says that Messmer “stands on equal footing to these other demigods and children of Marika who sat around in these thrones and held the rooms of the Erdtree.” In other words, he’s a big deal, and we’ll learn why Messmer appears to have been banished to the Land of Shadow in the DLC.

Shadow of the Erdtree will also introduce other bosses, including this imposing giant walking brazier. Overall, players can expect 10 new bosses in the DLC.

Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco

The debut trailer also shows off new weapons and spells, including a dueling shield and the player character getting the flying wings of Crucible Knights. Players will also have a new hand-to-hand combat option, as shown by the trailer’s flying kick attack that looks straight out of Sekiro. Miyazaki says eight new weapon categories have also been added.

The Land of Shadow will also introduce new natural threats, including what appears to be a Death Blight swamp. FromSoft does love its hellish swaps.

How can you pre-order Shadow of the Erdtree?

Shadow of the Erdtree is now available for pre-order, and will be available in a variety of editions, including:

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree ($39.99) – the standard version of the expansion, available digitally on all platforms

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition ($79.99) – a bundle that features Elden Ring on a physical disc and a digital voucher for Shadow of the Erdtree; only available physically on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Premium Bundle ($49.99) – includes the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, a digital art book, and digital soundtrack bonus content. It’ll be available digitally on all platforms

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Deluxe Edition ($99.99) – includes the Elden Ring base game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, digital art books, and digital soundtracks for both the base game and the expansion; available digitally on all platforms

• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Collector’s Edition ($249.99) – includes a voucher code for the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, a 46 cm statue of Messmer the Impaler, a 40-page physical art book, and the digital soundtrack

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is set to release on June 21, 2024, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC via Steam.

2024 will be a massive year for new games

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Yas, it’s really happening

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FromSoftware to finally reveal its expansion to 2022’s Game of the Year

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FromSoftware’s expansion to 2022’s Game of the Year arrives this June

It’s time to return to the Lands Between. Elden Ring developer released the first trailer for the open-world role-playing game’s expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, on Wednesday — and finally revealed a release date. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will be released June 21.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was announced last February, but developer FromSoftware has revealed little about its DLC for 2022’s Game of the Year. “Rise, Tarnished, and let us walk a new path together,” the developer said at the time. “An upcoming expansion for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree, is currently in development. We hope you look forward to new adventures in the Lands Between.”

That location and the major players of Shadow of the Erdtree were teased in a single piece of artwork released alongside the DLC’s original announcement. That artwork included a reference to Miquella of the Haligtree: a demigod, Empyrean, and the twin brother of the fearsome Malenia and a character we don’t really get to see in the original Elden Ring. Miquella is teased in the battle against Mohg, where he is trapped inside an icky egg sac.

Players will track Miquella through the Land of Shadow in the expansion, and come face to face with a formidable new foe: Messmer the Impaler, a powerful boss who appears to have a strong connection to Miquella and Malenia.

Elden Ring is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Shadow of the Erdtree is coming to those platforms as well.

Yas, it’s really happening

Musician, actor, and fashion icon Lady Gaga is coming to Fortnite later this week as part of Fortnite Festival.

On Tuesday, Gaga herself confirmed her long-awaited appearance in Epic Games and Harmonix’s music-focused game mode on X, where she responded to her own viral 2019 tweet that read, “What’s fortnight” with the amusing correction “*fortnite.” The new post also features an in-game shot of Lady Gaga’s Fortnite model.

Since her original tweet went viral nearly five years ago — it has more than 863,000 likes to date — Fortnite fans have lobbied for Lady Gaga to join the battle royale-turned-metaverse game. She’ll join fellow pop artists Marshmello, Travis Scott, Bruno Mars, Eminem, Ariana Grande, and others as part of Fortnite Festival season 2, “Unlock Your Talent,” which launches on Feb. 22.

Fortnite Festival season 2 will feature the following Lady Gaga songs as playable Jam Tracks, which can be played on a new Chromatica-inspired stage:

• Lady Gaga - “Applause”
• Lady Gaga - “Bloody Mary”
• Lady Gaga - “Born This Way”
• Lady Gaga - “The Edge of Glory”
• Lady Gaga ft. Colby O’Donis - “Just Dance”
• Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - “Rain On Me”
• Lady Gaga - “Stupid Love”
• Lady Gaga - “Poker Face”

The Unlock Your Talent Festival Pass, available from Feb. 22 through April 22, will let Fortnite players unlock new instruments, Jam Tracks, and more. The premium reward track upgrade for that Festival Pass (which costs 1,800 V-Bucks) will feature the following unlockables: the Lady Gaga track “Poker Face”; the Enigmatic Gaga Outfit (Lady Gaga’s purple bodysuit designed by Nange Magro, shown below); and Chromatica-themed instruments inspired by Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball tour.

Image: Epic Games

Available in the Fortnite shop in season 2 are the Chromatica Armor Outfit, the Chromatica Bass, Chromatica Mic, “Stupid Love” Jam Track, and Rain Check Emote.

Fortnite Festival launched on Dec. 9 with the addition of musician/actor The Weeknd. A variety of artist and instrument skins based on The Weeknd were released at the time as part of Fortnite’s battle pass, and Lady Gaga’s drop will follow a similar structure. More details on Gaga’s crossover with Fortnite are available at the game’s official blog.

The Fortnite Festival component consists of two modes: Main Stage, where players can form a band and play along to tracks, à la Harmonix’s Rock Band games; and Jam Stage, where players can remix multiple songs into mashed-up improvisations.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition to relaunch this spring

In 2018, less than a year after MOBA-hero shooter hybrid Gigantic launched, developer Motiga announced the game’s closure. Despite the initially positive reception to Gigantic’s colorful mash-up of two popular genres, the game “did not resonate with as many players as we’d hoped,” developers said at the time.

Gigantic will get a second lease on life in 2024, however, with the launch of Gigantic: Rampage Edition. Unlike the previous free-to-play version of the game, Gigantic: Rampage Edition will be a paid game — it will cost $19.99 — and won’t have the original’s ongoing live-service ambitions.

But Gigantic: Rampage Edition will feature new content, and will come to more platforms when it launches officially on April 9. It’s bound for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X — the original game was only released on PC and Xbox One. A closed beta will launch on Steam this Thursday, Feb. 22. Interested players can sign up for a chance to play at Rampage Edition’s Steam page.

Gigantic was a third-person shooter with MOBA mechanics. Two teams of five heroes, each with upgradeable abilities, battled each other to control objectives and take down the opposing team’s Guardian — a giant creature that was the equivalent of a Nexus in League of Legends or Ancient in Dota 2. Gigantic: Rampage Edition will retain that style of gameplay, with a few tweaks.

Image: Abstraction Games, Motiga/Gearbox Publishing

The revival of Gigantic is being handled by Abstraction Games. The Netherlands-based studio may be best known for its work co-developing similar revivals, like Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.

Gigantic: Rampage Edition will boast new features, like crossplay on all platforms, a new ranked system, quality of life features, and content that original developer Motiga didn’t get a chance to implement. Bart Vossen, senior game designer at Abstraction, told Polygon in an interview that the developers “respect what the original developers did and respect what players loved about it,” while also completing some of Motiga’s unused work.

That includes bringing new heroes to the Gigantic: Rampage Edition roster. Newcomers Roland, described as a “world-hardened man, who lost his arm, but gained unparalleled reach,” and Kajir, a feline with a taste for fighting, will join the preexisting 23 heroes from Gigantic.

There’s also two new maps, Picaro Bay and Heaven’s Ward, and a new Rush Mode that promises a “more accessible, fast-paced, and action-packed [...] streamlined Gigantic experience.” Additional cosmetics are also en route to ensure that every hero has a variety of styles. Those cosmetics will be released for free, and Abstraction has plans for rotating seasons with cosmetic rewards and gameplay balance updates where needed.

Image: Abstraction Games, Motiga/Gearbox Publishing

Abstraction and Gearbox Publishing’s revival of Gigantic also has the approval of its creators.

“I’m happy to finally let this fantastic secret out that Gigantic is back as I have so much love for the game and its incredible community,” said Christopher Chung, co-creator of Gigantic and former CEO and co-founder of Motiga, in a news release. “I greatly appreciate that Gearbox Publishing and Abstraction Games have kept the core of what made Gigantic special. It’s also gratifying to see that they have added new Heroes and a Rush Mode, which were initial concepts we had at Motiga that we knew fans would go crazy for. I can’t wait to play again with our awesome Gigantic community, and I’m positive all players, including new players who didn’t have a chance to play the original game, will fall in love with Gigantic: Rampage Edition!”

Temtem: Swarm is coming to Steam and Steam Deck first

Before Palworld combined the adorable monster-collecting appeal of Pokémon with survival and crafting gameplay, there was Temtem, the game that blended MMO mechanics with friendly monsters. Now, the folks behind Temtem are mashing up Tems with another style of game — the “bullet heaven” genre popularized by Vampire Survivors.

The game is called Temtem: Swarm, and it’s set to pair the strategic elements of Temtem combat and monster evolution with fast-paced, frenetic gameplay. In the game’s debut trailer, we see Tems like Platypet, Oree, and Pigepic battling swarms of enemies, evolving into new forms and acquiring new abilities, and laying waste to screens full of foes. Powerful Tems like Gharunder, Yowlar, and Nessla appear to be the game’s boss-like foes. Screens don’t appear to be as densely packed as they are in a game of Vampire Survivors, but they’re still plenty crowded.

Evolving monsters, à la Pokémon, fees like a good fit for the bullet heaven genre, which requires powering up and picking loadouts to progress and keep gameplay interesting over multiple replay attempts. Temtem: Swarm also includes a catching mechanic to let players add new Tems to their playable roster.

Developers Crema and GGTech Studios say Temtem: Swarm is being “built from the ground up with online 3-player co-op in mind,” and players will be able to strategize, share (or battle for) resources, and unleash coordinated attacks. Co-op features a mechanic called Ghost Mode, in which downed teammates can become a “spectral helper” who can support their teammates until they’re revived.

Temtem: Swarm is coming to Windows PC via Steam with Steam Deck support. Console versions are also in development. Crema and GGTech Studios did not announce a release date.