Little Nightmares DNA runs strong in Tarsier Studios’ new game. So much so, in fact, that I’d assumed the trailer I watched during an online preview event last week was for a new entry in the horror cinematic-platformer series, right up until the name Reanimal appeared on the screen - shortly followed by a snippet of voiced dialogue.
It’s not just the horror setting, but the Grimm’s fairytale threat, the distorted adults-made-monsters through the trauma-tinged lens of a child’s imagination. A long-limbed man riding a bicycle in a threadbare suit chases children down an alley. A gangly, bowler-hatted pursuer scuttles down a long table like a spider. It's familiar enough territory, at least at first glance. But when Tarsier have a body of work subconsciously scarred by phantasms this vivid, recurring nightmares are just as potent.
Vroom vroom. That is the sound of 11 rivals revving their engines as they blink the sweat out of their eyes and exhale years of self-doubt from their lungs. Today is their day. We have lined up these racing games on a starting grid and are interested to see how things shake out. Will the realism-obsessed driving sims take the lead with their sublime physics engines? Might the futuristic combat racers simply destroy the opposition with explosive rockets? Or perhaps a nippy arcade crowd-pleaser will soar to the finish line, propelled by the sound of roaring cheers. It's all to play for here at our incredibly messed-up grand prix with a worrying lack of rules or regulation. Start your engines, everyone, these are the 11 best racing games on PC. 3! 2! 1! ...
Little Nightmares DNA runs strong in Tarsier Studios’ new game. So much so, in fact, that I’d assumed the trailer I watched during an online preview event last week was for a new entry in the horror cinematic-platformer series, right up until the name Reanimal appeared on the screen - shortly followed by a snippet of voiced dialogue.
It’s not just the horror setting, but the Grimm’s fairytale threat, the distorted adults-made-monsters through the trauma-tinged lens of a child’s imagination. A long-limbed man riding a bicycle in a threadbare suit chases children down an alley. A gangly, bowler-hatted pursuer scuttles down a long table like a spider. It's familiar enough territory, at least at first glance. But when Tarsier have a body of work subconsciously scarred by phantasms this vivid, recurring nightmares are just as potent.
Vroom vroom. That is the sound of 11 rivals revving their engines as they blink the sweat out of their eyes and exhale years of self-doubt from their lungs. Today is their day. We have lined up these racing games on a starting grid and are interested to see how things shake out. Will the realism-obsessed driving sims take the lead with their sublime physics engines? Might the futuristic combat racers simply destroy the opposition with explosive rockets? Or perhaps a nippy arcade crowd-pleaser will soar to the finish line, propelled by the sound of roaring cheers. It's all to play for here at our incredibly messed-up grand prix with a worrying lack of rules or regulation. Start your engines, everyone, these are the 11 best racing games on PC. 3! 2! 1! ...
Publisher THQ Nordic and developer Grimlore Games recently released a new trailer for the upcoming action RPG Titan Quest II. The trailer showcases several abilities, locations, enemies, and more. Titan Quest II will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. A release date has yet to be announced. In Titan Quest II, players “return to the classic mythology-inspired setting of Titan Quest and go toe-to-toe with the legendary monsters”.
The game’s details via the publisher:
Return to the classic mythology-inspired setting of Titan Quest and go toe-to-toe with legendary monsters as you journey across a fantastical reimagining of ancient Greece.
Nemesis, Goddess of Retribution, is out of control. She is corrupting the Threads of Fate and condemning all those who oppose her to eternal punishment—including you. Take up your weapon, fight alongside gods, and change fate itself in order to stop Nemesis, free those she’s punished, and weave your own epic tale.
From the creators of SpellForce III comes a handcrafted action RPG for a new generation of mythical heroes.
Key Features
Flexible Character System – In Titan Quest II, you are in control of you own fate. Customize your hero, then form your own class by combining two masteries. Build your character around the strengths and weakness of both masteries, exploring different combinations of skill modifiers, attributes, and items to create your own hybrid class and find your favorite playstyle. Grow your powers from those of a young mortal to a hero to rival the gods themselves!
Meaningful Loot – Every item serves a function, and every character class has many options when it comes to finding the perfect equipment. Even the most common spear can be upgraded via affix crafting, and with the right ingredients, you may even forge it into a unique item spoken of only in legend!
Challenging Action RPG Combat – Enemies form factions and work together, combining their unique skills and abilities to keep you on your toes. Use the deep character build system and access every skill at your disposal to vanquish them in this unique action RPG experience.
A Beautiful, Handcrafted World Rooted in Greek Myth – Encounter stunning vistas and deep caverns, and traverse the world with your divine mount, Areion. Use the powers of the gods to uncover secret locations and explore lovingly designed levels full of verticality.
Online Multiplayer – Join up with friends to take on the Goddess of Retribution. Like Jason and the Argonauts, sometimes you need a group of heroes for your journey.
Rich and Immersive Sound – An atmospheric soundtrack blends traditional Greek music with modern orchestral elements to create epic, memorable themes, drawing you into Titan Quest II‘s unique world.
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for more gaming news.
The post Titan Quest II Gets New Gameplay Trailer appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.
In a recent showcase, publisher THQ Nordic and developer Bugbear Entertainment announced Wreckfest 2. The game will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. A trailer was also released showing several cars and a cutscene sequence. A release date was not announced. In Wreckfest 2, you will “Ascend to the throne of full-contact racing by breaking the rules—and everything else—on your way to victory.”
The game’s details:
Ascend to the throne of full-contact racing by breaking the rules—and everything else—on your way to victory! Developer Bugbear went all out, rebuilding its true-to-life physics simulation engine to take full advantage of modern hardware. Wreckfest 2 features even higher crash fidelity, a deeper armor and damage system, more intricate component damage simulation and many more improvements across the board!
Get ready to witness the absolute best-in-class car destruction and truly epic moments of chaos, all with the signature vehicle handling from Wreckfest!
Destruction awaits on the ultimate driving playground!
Unmatched Racing Experience
Brace yourself for the most phenomenal full-contact racing action with no rules, just jaw dropping moments of chaos and destruction, powered by the completely overhauled physics engine. Race in intense head-to-head fights on high-speed circuits, face obstacles on crazy courses with jumps, intersections and oncoming traffic, or go for demolition domination in various derby arenas.
Awesome and Fully Customizable Cars
Forget pristine supercars: Our cars are old, dented and patched together. Each of them tells a story, and now you can tell your own by fully customizing your ride. The newly designed customization tool is incredibly powerful, enabling you to create the car of your dreams! Let your creativity run wild and share your designs with other racers and wreckers online.
Fully Revamped Game Modes
Play your way in the entirely reimagined career mode that supports every playstyle on your mission to become the true champion! Take it online and enjoy quick to find and smooth online races, powered by the new skill-based matchmaking system and server queues! And if you have a friend at home, try the brand new split screen mode for unbeatable local fun!
Challenges
Shake things up with special challenges putting you behind the steering wheel of unconventional vehicles that were definitely never supposed to end up on a racetrack! Various bite-sized scenarios will keep you hooked as you battle for the highest scores.
Tournaments
Earn unique rewards in time-limited events that will test not only your driving skills!
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for more gaming news.
The post Wreckfest 2 Announced for PC and Consoles appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.
Publisher THQ Nordic and developer Alkimia Interactive have released a new trailer for the upcoming Gothic Remake. The trailer showcases several elements including the story background, combat, locations, enemies, and more. Gothic Remake will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam. A release date has yet to be announced.
The game’s details via the publisher:
The Kingdom of Myrtana has been invaded by an implacable horde of orcs.
King Rhobar II, in need of a large quantity of magical ore in order to forge powerful weapons, operates the Khorinis mines with all available prisoners. To prevent them from escaping, the monarch asks his best magicians to create a magical barrier. But something goes wrong. The magic gets out of control and a mutiny turns the mines into a wild territory now controlled by the most violent prisoners.
The King is forced to negotiate with the new owners, while the tension between the different factions of the mines increases. What no one expects is that the arrival of an unknown prisoner will change absolutely everything.
Key Features
Return to The Colony, in a full blown remake of the popular and revolutionary game Gothic from 2001. Rediscover the world of the mining colony, its secrets and challenges.
Play as the Nameless Hero—manage the fate of a lifetime convicted prisoner who must survive in a world of wild animals, creatures and convicts of dangerous reputation.
Faithful full remake of the original Gothic.
Modernized combat system that takes the basic premises of the original combat system to the modern age.
Stay tuned at Gaming Instincts via Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook for more gaming news.
The post Gothic Remake Gets New Gameplay Trailer appeared first on Gaming Instincts - Next-Generation of Video Game Journalism.
Somehow, it's that time of the year again already! THQ Nordic's annual gaming showcase has returned to offer a look at its upcoming slate of releases, both previously known and newly announced. This time around, the long-awaited Gothic 1 Remake and Titan Quest 2 both got gameplay reveals, and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed popped up to remind us all it's coming out relatively soon. As for the new stuff, Wreckfest is getting a sequel, Little Nightmares studio Tarsier's creepy new game has been teased (as has a new Darksiders), while strikingly animated platforming adventure The Eternal Life of Goldman looks like a real gem.
So if you didn't catch the showcase and are curious to see what you missed, you'll find a full round-up - augmented by a few additional details from an earlier press briefing - below.
We were big fans of 2018 demolition derby racer Wreckfest ("Wreckfest offers primal pleasures," wrote Martin Robinson, "with little by way of pretension), and developer Bugbear Entertainment is ready to do it all over again in the newly announced Wreckfest 2. Details are relatively scant at this early juncture, but it promises "unmatched deformation and physical damage models" as its high-octane single-player and multiplayer racing unfolds.
At THQ Nordic, we think of ourselves as a true variety publisher. No matter what kind of gamer you are, there’s a home for you in one of our digital worlds.
For our 2024 Digital Showcase we wanted to demonstrate exactly that, with games including a remake of a beloved Disney classic, a new IP from a team of horror legends, an adrenaline-fuelled wreck racer, and much more. Here’s what is coming to Xbox.
This year’s stream opened with a new 2D adventure platformer from Weappy Studio, developers behind This Is the Police.
Navigate a mysterious archipelago as Goldman, realized in expertly-crafted 2D animation, every frame bursting with the passion injected by devs creating the game they have always wanted to make.
Weappy have put player freedom and a sense of wonder at the core of their design philosophy, rewarding players for exploring the archipelago’s many hidden nooks and crannies. Platforming sections pose a challenge, but a fair one – focused on helping you find the solution that works for you through experimentation.
We’ll have more news on The Eternal Life of Goldman to share before the year is out – until then, make sure to wishlist the game on Xbox to be among the first to receive updates.
The time has almost come to pick up your brush and decide the fate of Wasteland! When Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed releases on September 24, the power to shape the world will be in your hands.
Use paint and thinner to restore harmony to a mysterious world and uncover its secrets in classic 3D platformer action, spending time with beloved characters and exploring side-scrolling levels inspired by Mickey Mouse’s history.
Whether you first journeyed to Wasteland fourteen years ago or it’s your first time taking up the brush, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is unmissable for any Disney fan. We can’t wait for you to join us on this adventure later in the year.
Customize your ride and take your own personal wrecking machine online in a range of events designed for maximum vehicular mayhem! With never-before-seen damage modelling fidelity thanks to the power of Xbox Series consoles, you’ll leave every event with your car’s bodywork telling its own story.
The team at Bugbear Entertainment are devoting themselves to giving you the freedom to wreck how you want – whether it’s trading paint with other speed demons in a traditional race, bombing through obstacle courses, or settling scores in a classic destruction derby grudge match.
Keep the engine running, we’ll be back with more on Wreckfest 2 soon.
When we announced Titan Quest II a year ago, the support we received from the community was incredible, with the reveal trailer quickly becoming one of our most watched ever. We want to thank all of you who have expressed your excitement for the long-awaited sequel to the original mythological ARPG by taking you on the next step in Titan Quest II’s journey to release – our debut gameplay trailer.
In today’s broadcast, we gave ARPG fans their first glimpse of what awaits in the gorgeous Ancient Greek landscapes of Titan Quest II, and the legendary powers you’ll use to fight your way through Nemesis’ vengeful hordes. The team at Grimlore Games are hard at work crafting a world that feels rewarding to explore, with adversaries waiting around every corner, ready to drop meaningful loot that can completely alter your playstyle.
Your hero in Titan Quest II should feel personal to you, with deep customization at the heart of the experience – from how your hero looks, through to their own unique choice from thousands of different skill and equipment combinations. Whether you’re a solo adventurer or you team up with friends online to weave your legend together, Titan Quest II will take you on an odyssey unlike any other, offering a fresh experience for ARPG veterans and newcomers alike.
Since our reveal back in 2020, the support for Alkimia Interactive’s Gothic 1 Remake has been nothing short of amazing. Seeing that not just die-hard Gothic fans, but also RPG players as a whole are excited for Gothic’s return has been the best motivation for the team.
Today, we showed you how Alkimia are crafting a world that feels like it extends far beyond the player, with a fully realized ecosystem and influential groups warring for control of the land.
Gothic 1 Remake will feel familiar to longtime fans, but some crucial updates have been made to harness the power of new gen consoles. Gameplay and visuals have been overhauled, with deeper progression and crafting systems, as well as varied NPC routines and interactions.
No matter which camp you lend your allegiance to – the ore-rich Old Camp, the plotting New Camp, or the Brotherhood of the Sleeper, who swear fealty to a strange new deity – the mysterious, unforgiving world of Gothic 1 Remake will soon be ready to explore.
As with last year, the THQ Nordic Showcase marks release day for the latest DLC for Way of the Hunter, this time taking the hunt to the Scandinavian wilderness.
Venture to Lintukoto Reserve, a fictionalized vision of tranquil forests glowing with magical moonlight, vast meadows bustling with wildlife, and snow-dusted hills. A range of new endemic wildlife populates the beautiful scenery – lynxes, arctic foxes, and many others each with their own range of unique behaviors.
The team at Nine Rocks have spent months meticulously sculpting every inch of this new DLC – we can’t wait to welcome you to Lintukoto Reserve, out now!
They’re coming.
A new vision of horror from the team behind Little Nightmares I & II.
Want to know more? Tune in to Gamescom Opening Night Live, Tuesday August 20, 11am PT/8pm CEST.
It wouldn’t be our yearly showcase without one last tantalizing reveal…
The foreboding rumble of caverns eons old. Embers swirl through the air, cast up from pools of bubbling lava.
Three enormous heads, hewn from otherworldly stone suddenly burst into life with mystical flame. The Charred Council roar a single word in unison: HORSEMAN.
It won’t be long until we reveal more about where the Darksiders series is going next, but for now, know this… the Four Horsemen will ride again.
That concludes our wrap-up for the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2024! From the whole team at THQ Nordic and our dev partners – thank you all so much for your passionate support over the last year. We hope to see you soon in one of our digital worlds!
The post THQ Nordic 2024 Digital Showcase – Check Out All the Reveals Coming to Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Ti, kdo hráli Wreckfest, vám potvrdí, že se jedná o jednu z nejlepších arkádových závodních her poslední doby, a vývojář Bugbear Entertainment a vydavatel THQ Nordic nyní oznámili, že se hra dočká pokračování. Wreckfest 2 byl oficiálně oznámen na nedávném THQ Nordic Digital Showcase. Níže se podívejte na oznamovací trailer.
Hra Wreckfest 2 bude obsahovat přepracovaný fyzikální engine, který zdvojnásobí mechaniku destrukce, a nové mechaniky úprav, které hráčům umožní vytvořit si „auto svých snů“ a následně tato vozidla sdílet online.
Kromě toho se můžete těšit také na zcela přepracovaný režim kariéry, nové funkce pro více hráčů, jako je nový systém matchmakingu založený na dovednostech, podpora rozdělené obrazovky a fronty na serverech, stejně jako na kouskovací výzvy, časově omezené turnaje a další.
Hra Wreckfest 2 je ve vývoji pro systémy PS5, Xbox Series X/S a PC. Datum vydání zatím nebylo oznámeno.
Článek Ohlášena hra Wreckfest 2 se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.
Somehow, it's that time of the year again already! THQ Nordic's annual gaming showcase has returned to offer a look at its upcoming slate of releases, both previously known and newly announced. This time around, the long-awaited Gothic 1 Remake and Titan Quest 2 both got gameplay reveals, and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed popped up to remind us all it's coming out relatively soon. As for the new stuff, Wreckfest is getting a sequel, Little Nightmares studio Tarsier's creepy new game has been teased (as has a new Darksiders), while strikingly animated platforming adventure The Eternal Life of Goldman looks like a real gem.
So if you didn't catch the showcase and are curious to see what you missed, you'll find a full round-up - augmented by a few additional details from an earlier press briefing - below.
We were big fans of 2018 demolition derby racer Wreckfest ("Wreckfest offers primal pleasures," wrote Martin Robinson, "with little by way of pretension), and developer Bugbear Entertainment is ready to do it all over again in the newly announced Wreckfest 2. Details are relatively scant at this early juncture, but it promises "unmatched deformation and physical damage models" as its high-octane single-player and multiplayer racing unfolds.
At THQ Nordic, we think of ourselves as a true variety publisher. No matter what kind of gamer you are, there’s a home for you in one of our digital worlds.
For our 2024 Digital Showcase we wanted to demonstrate exactly that, with games including a remake of a beloved Disney classic, a new IP from a team of horror legends, an adrenaline-fuelled wreck racer, and much more. Here’s what is coming to Xbox.
This year’s stream opened with a new 2D adventure platformer from Weappy Studio, developers behind This Is the Police.
Navigate a mysterious archipelago as Goldman, realized in expertly-crafted 2D animation, every frame bursting with the passion injected by devs creating the game they have always wanted to make.
Weappy have put player freedom and a sense of wonder at the core of their design philosophy, rewarding players for exploring the archipelago’s many hidden nooks and crannies. Platforming sections pose a challenge, but a fair one – focused on helping you find the solution that works for you through experimentation.
We’ll have more news on The Eternal Life of Goldman to share before the year is out – until then, make sure to wishlist the game on Xbox to be among the first to receive updates.
The time has almost come to pick up your brush and decide the fate of Wasteland! When Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed releases on September 24, the power to shape the world will be in your hands.
Use paint and thinner to restore harmony to a mysterious world and uncover its secrets in classic 3D platformer action, spending time with beloved characters and exploring side-scrolling levels inspired by Mickey Mouse’s history.
Whether you first journeyed to Wasteland fourteen years ago or it’s your first time taking up the brush, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is unmissable for any Disney fan. We can’t wait for you to join us on this adventure later in the year.
Customize your ride and take your own personal wrecking machine online in a range of events designed for maximum vehicular mayhem! With never-before-seen damage modelling fidelity thanks to the power of Xbox Series consoles, you’ll leave every event with your car’s bodywork telling its own story.
The team at Bugbear Entertainment are devoting themselves to giving you the freedom to wreck how you want – whether it’s trading paint with other speed demons in a traditional race, bombing through obstacle courses, or settling scores in a classic destruction derby grudge match.
Keep the engine running, we’ll be back with more on Wreckfest 2 soon.
When we announced Titan Quest II a year ago, the support we received from the community was incredible, with the reveal trailer quickly becoming one of our most watched ever. We want to thank all of you who have expressed your excitement for the long-awaited sequel to the original mythological ARPG by taking you on the next step in Titan Quest II’s journey to release – our debut gameplay trailer.
In today’s broadcast, we gave ARPG fans their first glimpse of what awaits in the gorgeous Ancient Greek landscapes of Titan Quest II, and the legendary powers you’ll use to fight your way through Nemesis’ vengeful hordes. The team at Grimlore Games are hard at work crafting a world that feels rewarding to explore, with adversaries waiting around every corner, ready to drop meaningful loot that can completely alter your playstyle.
Your hero in Titan Quest II should feel personal to you, with deep customization at the heart of the experience – from how your hero looks, through to their own unique choice from thousands of different skill and equipment combinations. Whether you’re a solo adventurer or you team up with friends online to weave your legend together, Titan Quest II will take you on an odyssey unlike any other, offering a fresh experience for ARPG veterans and newcomers alike.
Since our reveal back in 2020, the support for Alkimia Interactive’s Gothic 1 Remake has been nothing short of amazing. Seeing that not just die-hard Gothic fans, but also RPG players as a whole are excited for Gothic’s return has been the best motivation for the team.
Today, we showed you how Alkimia are crafting a world that feels like it extends far beyond the player, with a fully realized ecosystem and influential groups warring for control of the land.
Gothic 1 Remake will feel familiar to longtime fans, but some crucial updates have been made to harness the power of new gen consoles. Gameplay and visuals have been overhauled, with deeper progression and crafting systems, as well as varied NPC routines and interactions.
No matter which camp you lend your allegiance to – the ore-rich Old Camp, the plotting New Camp, or the Brotherhood of the Sleeper, who swear fealty to a strange new deity – the mysterious, unforgiving world of Gothic 1 Remake will soon be ready to explore.
As with last year, the THQ Nordic Showcase marks release day for the latest DLC for Way of the Hunter, this time taking the hunt to the Scandinavian wilderness.
Venture to Lintukoto Reserve, a fictionalized vision of tranquil forests glowing with magical moonlight, vast meadows bustling with wildlife, and snow-dusted hills. A range of new endemic wildlife populates the beautiful scenery – lynxes, arctic foxes, and many others each with their own range of unique behaviors.
The team at Nine Rocks have spent months meticulously sculpting every inch of this new DLC – we can’t wait to welcome you to Lintukoto Reserve, out now!
They’re coming.
A new vision of horror from the team behind Little Nightmares I & II.
Want to know more? Tune in to Gamescom Opening Night Live, Tuesday August 20, 11am PT/8pm CEST.
It wouldn’t be our yearly showcase without one last tantalizing reveal…
The foreboding rumble of caverns eons old. Embers swirl through the air, cast up from pools of bubbling lava.
Three enormous heads, hewn from otherworldly stone suddenly burst into life with mystical flame. The Charred Council roar a single word in unison: HORSEMAN.
It won’t be long until we reveal more about where the Darksiders series is going next, but for now, know this… the Four Horsemen will ride again.
That concludes our wrap-up for the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2024! From the whole team at THQ Nordic and our dev partners – thank you all so much for your passionate support over the last year. We hope to see you soon in one of our digital worlds!
The post THQ Nordic 2024 Digital Showcase – Check Out All the Reveals Coming to Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Title: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Type of Game: Action-Adventure, Psychological Horror
Developer: Ninja Theory
Publisher: Ninja Theory
Released: August 8, 2017
Platforms Available: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 4
Level of Maturity: Mature 16+
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Face painted with battle paint, anger, and determination in her eyes. But don’t be fooled. Senua, the protagonist of Ninja Theory’s Massacre, not only uses war paint to show her will to kill, but she’s also probably trying to hide her darkness and banish the whispering demons behind it, in vain. Hellblade is, in fact, a properly psychotic action flick where you’re never sure if there’s a real threat after your neck or the fruits of the main character’s twisted mind. Anyone expecting pure carnage along the lines of Devil May Cry, however, would be mistaken. Of course, you’ll see situations where soul-searching goes by the wayside and swords stabbed into heads come into play, too. Still, Hellblade certainly can’t claim to be classic action-packed fare. It is more of a psychological study. Hellblade is a ballad of madness dressed up in a damn engaging coat that occasionally strays into the field of unadulterated horror.
Senua ventures into the underworld of Norse mythology to save a beloved soul. The apparent main storyline, however, is a background melody to the whole orchestra. Instead, the story is more about dealing with one’s own fears, struggling with fading mental health, and reflecting on how incredibly little it takes for the human mind to slip into a spiral of hopelessness and damnation. In other words, the main storyline here is Senua herself. But when the entire play hinges on the solo performance of a single character, a girl who has been seeing into other worlds since she was a little girl (and it’s not a pretty sight), she needs special attention. And that’s precisely what the creators have done. The foundation is an incredibly detailed and elaborate model that must have been created by someone who was perhaps born with a manual in hand. On top of that, add facial expressions that even the guys from Naughty Dog would be ashamed of with their Uncharted 4 or The Last of Us Part II, games that can rightly be considered the definition of technical excellence in the gaming industry for their time.
No need to mention further the incredible Red Dead Redemption 2 (incidentally, a few days ago, we released a gallery of my last playthrough of this beautiful game), but back to the point of why we’re here before I start going into detail and my review of a Nordic adventure becomes an essay on the wild west…
But all of this would have been a dead “primer” for Hellblade if the heroine hadn’t been breathed life into in a riveting way by Melina Juergens. She may have worked as a video editor at Ninja Theory during the game’s development. Still, after playing Hellblade, one can’t help wondering if she’s accidentally missed her calling. Senua transforms into a completely believable, authentic human being through her performance. It’s very hard not to like her, not to sympathize with her, not to experience her hardships. It’s no surprise that most of the story’s cutscenes focus on Senua, occupying her from different angles and giving space to Melina’s acting, but that’s not a criticism, quite the opposite. Having managed to create such an exciting and beautiful character, it would be an eternal shame not to put her to such great use. Ninja Theory could write textbooks on handling mental illness, translating it into atmosphere, game design, and gameplay elements. They’ve succeeded like few before. The intense yet icy fear that paralyzes life, the voices of non-existent beings that you can hear through Senua, the visual depiction of real psychotic hallucinations that the developers worked with psychiatrists and sick people to create – all of this uniquely intersects on screen, delivering an oppressive and compelling experience. The developers recommend playing with headphones, which I can’t help but agree on my part, as the game very often works with 3D sound.
Overall – the setting, mood, atmosphere, and craftsmanship are phenomenal. For these positives alone, the game deserves an honest recommendation. Think back to Devil May Cry – especially in the later levels, the developers made it clear that they are downright good at psychological environments. In moments when you’re not sneaking around with your heart in your pants with some fictional vision, the game serves up a fairly classic pattern of alternating action passages and puzzles with the environment. While the puzzles aren’t particularly complex, they often build to some enjoyable punchlines by working with alternating worlds, adjusting reality before your eyes, and finding the hidden shapes of Norse runes. They may not wholly satisfy avid solvers, but they give you a better view of the beautiful setting, and that is the point.
And then it comes to action. The pulsing Darkness materializes in the form of warrior spirits. The semi-demonic Vikings are properly terrifying and formidable to behold, in short, enemies as they should be. You’ll gather up the fragile remnants of your and Senua’s courage and go out to meet them… …and they’re grabbing at you like straw men. That’s really the only complaint I have with the game. The fights are technically well played, no doubt about it. Everything is slick and smooth; the sword dance moves build on each other like a real ballet, and Senua goes from offense to defense and back with lightning grace, quickly but naturally. Inner voices warn fearfully of a blow going to the back, scream in pain and fear when an enemy knocks you down, and so on. The battles, by the way, like the whole game, are an audiovisual feast. They’re too simple and straightforward in terms of gameplay. The combat system, while visually stunning, needs more depth and complexity than many action-adventure games offer, which may disappoint some players.
The desire not to hurt the carefully built atmosphere, not to pull the player immersed in the local world back above the surface, is apparent. You won’t find any interface here at all, as it could be distracting. The absence of auxiliary indicators may be the reason why the developers didn’t want to go overboard with the difficulty, only that they managed the opposite extreme. Most of the battles can be solved by pressing a single attack and the occasional dodge, during which Senua is invulnerable, so it doesn’t matter which side you perform it on. The pinnacle of the tactic is to kick the enemy with your shield first before you start slashing furiously with your sword. The icing on the cake of the whole negative side of things is then put on by the unnecessarily overpowered focus mode, which stops time, is virtually impossible to die in, charges excessively fast, and takes far too long. The combat system offers more combos and attacks than one might initially think. There’s no list or explanations, so you’ll have to figure them out on your own, but the bottom line is that you can spice up the fight with your own efforts. Combine lunges as much as possible, even though it’s not really necessary, deliberately not using slow motion, and so on. The battles are then pure bliss to look at and listen to; the enjoyment of the dynamics and rhythm of the battle dance is great but lacking in adrenaline. The joy of victory. Tactical depth. This is best illustrated by the fact that I first played through the game on the medium difficulty it offers and rarely managed to die during combat.
On the other hand, there would be honorable exceptions where the combat would cause goosebumps. These are not so much the fault of the game design, however, but the music. For a few of the more important conflicts are accompanied by guttural Nordic folk that whip up the already immense sensory pleasure to an unreal level. It’s still a triumph of form over content, but if you like, say, Wardrun, add a point to your rating. And speaking of numbers – to have Hellblade’s complexity, difficulty, and variety of combat system from, say, the oft-mentioned DmC, it would be somewhere between a nine and a ten for everyone else without blinking an eye.
Technically, the game is in order. On the basic PlayStation 4 FAT model, it consistently maintained 30 frames per second, which is admirable given the game’s high level of detail, and the developers have clearly put effort into optimization, something that not everyone can claim for many years. Furthermore, I encountered a few minor bugs, but nothing worth mentioning, as they occurred so rarely that it’s easy to simply wave them off.
Before the final verdict, I’d quickly return to the mentioned perhaps too simple combat. Don’t take it so badly from me. Despite the reservations about the visually beautiful but easy and not very deep battles, I thoroughly enjoyed the game from the first seconds to the final credits (which lasted about eight hours). This is mainly thanks to the excellent atmosphere, environment, and absolutely unrivaled handling of the theme. The whole experience is then enhanced by audiovisual beauty and a character so excellently crafted (both in appearance and internally) that one’s jaw drops effortlessly. Hellblade is an excellent, emotionally charged poem about real and imagined darkness inside people. Unique, fresh, beautiful, and terrifying. Play it. I recommend it.
Norse mythology mixed with a ticket to human madness provides the basis for the creation of a dark, captivating mood. The game stands on exploring fear, anxiety, and on an amazing main character, or rather the excellent acting performance of her portrayer. The sophistication and depth of the combat system lags a bit, but the rest of the game is an unconventional delight that is definitely worth buying, which cannot be said about the sequel that only repeated already used, albeit once good ideas with minimal innovations. However, you can read more about that in my previous review of that second part.
Steam (PC): Available for $29.99. You can purchase it directly from Steam.
Xbox Store (Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S): Available for $2.99 now, but normaly 29.99. Or included in Game Pass. Check it out on the Xbox Store.
Nintendo Shop (Switch): Available for $29.99. Purchase it from the Nintendo Shop.
PlayStation Store (PS4, PS5): Available for $29.99. You can find it on the PlayStation Store.
Official Page: Visit the official Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice page for more information.
Subreddit: Join the discussion on the Hellblade Subreddit.
The post Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – Excellent Nordic Nightmare appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.
Every year, the team here at THQ Nordic puts months into crafting a Digital Showcase we think you’ll love, filled with news on previously announced games and teases of what you can expect from our dev teams in the future.
Variety defines what we do, and that has never been truer than in our 2024 broadcast – including a gorgeous hand-drawn adventure, a fender-bending destruction racer sequel, the much-demanded return of a legendary action-adventure series, and a whole lot more.
We opened this year’s stream with the debut of an all-new 2D adventure platformer from Weappy Studio, developers behind This Is the Police.
As Goldman, with your trusty cane in hand, navigate a mysterious archipelago brought to life with painstakingly handcrafted 2D animation, each frame bursting with the passion that the team have injected into the game they have always wanted to make.
A sense of wonder and freedom to experiment are at the core of Weappy’s design philosophy, with a focus on rewarding players for their inquisitiveness about the world and platforming sections that are challenging but fair. The Eternal Life of Goldman begs you to discover the archipelago’s further reaches, each new ability and artifact you find adding new dimensions to your gameplay.
We can’t wait to tell you more later this year – for now, make sure to follow and wishlist the game at PlayStation Store to be among the first to receive updates.
The time has almost come to pick up your brush and decide the fate of Wasteland! When Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed releases on September 24, the power to shape the world with paint and thinner will be in your hands.
Take control of Mickey Mouse in 3D platforming action, exploring a land peppered with beloved characters to meet and secrets to discover, including classic side-scrolling levels inspired by Mickey Mouse’s history.
Rebuilt from the ground up by the team at Purple Lamp, and for the first time on PS5 and PS4, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a must-play for Disney fans of all ages, whether this is their first venture into Wasteland or a journey down memory lane.
Create the car of your tire-screeching dreams, show it off online, and smash it to pieces in the ultimate range of wrecktastic events. Whether it’s giving it your all to be first past the finish line, hurtling through obstacle courses, or crushing your rivals in a destruction derby free-for-all, Wreckfest 2 is about letting loose in the ultimate playground of vehicular carnage.
PS5 hardware has given the team at Bugbear Entertainment the freedom to model higher crash fidelity than ever, with each chassis-crinkling impact realized in real time.
At the end of each event, your beaten-up vehicle will tell its own unique story – of traded paint, twisted steel, and grudge matches settled on the track.
Last year, we announced Titan Quest II with a trailer that set the stage for the battle against rogue goddess Nemesis and her hordes. Millions of views and thousands of comments later, we’re ready to show you more of the rich, verdant world that the team at Grimlore Games have been hard at work bringing to life.
In our debut gameplay trailer, you can get your first glimpse of the adventures that await you in the sun-drenched landscapes of Ancient Greece, and the godly powers you’ll claim as you take your place amongst the greatest legendary heroes. The team are hand-crafting an experience that encourages you to rise to the challenge, with epic battles against beasts of myth rewarding players with unique loot that changes the way you play.
This is your tale to tell, with deep customization options – from your hero’s appearance, to their combination of a vast range of modifiable skills and equipment loadouts. Whether you choose to embark on this odyssey alone or with friends, Titan Quest II will lead you on an unforgettable journey across a land unlike any other in the ARPG genre.
Since we announced development of Gothic 1 Remake in 2020, the outpouring of support from Gothic fans around the globe, as well as the RPG community at large, has been immense. Every positive comment, each cry of “For Gomez!”, has bolstered the team at Alkimia Interactive as they work to deliver a game that is both a faithful love letter to the Gothic fandom and a welcoming experience full of wonder and fresh discoveries for newcomers.
In today’s trailer, we delved into how Alkimia are crafting a world that is an organism unto itself, with a thriving ecosystem and powerful factions competing for dominance – a world that seems to exist beyond the player, but is ripe to be shaped by your decisions.
Visuals and gameplay have also been completely rebuilt to meet modern standards, with more rewarding progression, more impactful combat, and diverse NPC routines and interactions.
Whether you join the ore-rich Old Camp in league with the King, the New Camp who plan to destroy the magical barrier surrounding the Valley of Mines, or the Brotherhood of the Sleeper who put their faith in a mysterious new deity – the dark world of Gothic 1 Remake will soon be yours to explore.
For the second year in a row, we’ve released a DLC for Way of the Hunter on the same day as our Digital Showcase.
Whereas last year we took the hunt to lush African grasslands, today’s release will let you explore a stunningly-realized Scandinavian landscape populated with lynx, arctic foxes, and a range of other unique wildlife, all with their own realistic behaviors.
Wander through vast magical forests that shimmer under gentle rain, sprawling meadows teeming with life, and snowy hilltops that inspired folklore of ages past. With each tranquil moment that passes in this fictionalized Scandinavian wilderness, so lovingly sculpted by the team at Nine Rocks Games, your harmony with your surroundings increases.
Way of the Hunter: Lintukoto Reserve is out now on PS5.
From the creators of Little Nightmares I & II comes an entirely new vision, unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Find out more at Gamescom Opening Night Live, Tuesday August 20, 11am PT/8pm CEST.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase without just one more thing to tantalize you as we close out the stream…
The ominous rumble of a chamber impossibly old. Scorching ash suspended in the air, spewed forth by roiling lava.
Three colossal stone heads, suddenly set ablaze with otherworldly flames. The Charred Council awake, and roar a single word in unison: Horseman.
We’ll have more news to share on where the world of Darksiders is going soon, but for now, know this… the Four Horsemen will ride again.
That’s it for the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2024! From all of us at THQ Nordic, as well as our dev partners spread around the world – thank you so much for joining us. We can’t wait to share more with you on each of these titles in the near future and see you soon in our digital worlds.
Every year, the team here at THQ Nordic puts months into crafting a Digital Showcase we think you’ll love, filled with news on previously announced games and teases of what you can expect from our dev teams in the future.
Variety defines what we do, and that has never been truer than in our 2024 broadcast – including a gorgeous hand-drawn adventure, a fender-bending destruction racer sequel, the much-demanded return of a legendary action-adventure series, and a whole lot more.
We opened this year’s stream with the debut of an all-new 2D adventure platformer from Weappy Studio, developers behind This Is the Police.
As Goldman, with your trusty cane in hand, navigate a mysterious archipelago brought to life with painstakingly handcrafted 2D animation, each frame bursting with the passion that the team have injected into the game they have always wanted to make.
A sense of wonder and freedom to experiment are at the core of Weappy’s design philosophy, with a focus on rewarding players for their inquisitiveness about the world and platforming sections that are challenging but fair. The Eternal Life of Goldman begs you to discover the archipelago’s further reaches, each new ability and artifact you find adding new dimensions to your gameplay.
We can’t wait to tell you more later this year – for now, make sure to follow and wishlist the game at PlayStation Store to be among the first to receive updates.
The time has almost come to pick up your brush and decide the fate of Wasteland! When Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed releases on September 24, the power to shape the world with paint and thinner will be in your hands.
Take control of Mickey Mouse in 3D platforming action, exploring a land peppered with beloved characters to meet and secrets to discover, including classic side-scrolling levels inspired by Mickey Mouse’s history.
Rebuilt from the ground up by the team at Purple Lamp, and for the first time on PS5 and PS4, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a must-play for Disney fans of all ages, whether this is their first venture into Wasteland or a journey down memory lane.
Create the car of your tire-screeching dreams, show it off online, and smash it to pieces in the ultimate range of wrecktastic events. Whether it’s giving it your all to be first past the finish line, hurtling through obstacle courses, or crushing your rivals in a destruction derby free-for-all, Wreckfest 2 is about letting loose in the ultimate playground of vehicular carnage.
PS5 hardware has given the team at Bugbear Entertainment the freedom to model higher crash fidelity than ever, with each chassis-crinkling impact realized in real time.
At the end of each event, your beaten-up vehicle will tell its own unique story – of traded paint, twisted steel, and grudge matches settled on the track.
Last year, we announced Titan Quest II with a trailer that set the stage for the battle against rogue goddess Nemesis and her hordes. Millions of views and thousands of comments later, we’re ready to show you more of the rich, verdant world that the team at Grimlore Games have been hard at work bringing to life.
In our debut gameplay trailer, you can get your first glimpse of the adventures that await you in the sun-drenched landscapes of Ancient Greece, and the godly powers you’ll claim as you take your place amongst the greatest legendary heroes. The team are hand-crafting an experience that encourages you to rise to the challenge, with epic battles against beasts of myth rewarding players with unique loot that changes the way you play.
This is your tale to tell, with deep customization options – from your hero’s appearance, to their combination of a vast range of modifiable skills and equipment loadouts. Whether you choose to embark on this odyssey alone or with friends, Titan Quest II will lead you on an unforgettable journey across a land unlike any other in the ARPG genre.
Since we announced development of Gothic 1 Remake in 2020, the outpouring of support from Gothic fans around the globe, as well as the RPG community at large, has been immense. Every positive comment, each cry of “For Gomez!”, has bolstered the team at Alkimia Interactive as they work to deliver a game that is both a faithful love letter to the Gothic fandom and a welcoming experience full of wonder and fresh discoveries for newcomers.
In today’s trailer, we delved into how Alkimia are crafting a world that is an organism unto itself, with a thriving ecosystem and powerful factions competing for dominance – a world that seems to exist beyond the player, but is ripe to be shaped by your decisions.
Visuals and gameplay have also been completely rebuilt to meet modern standards, with more rewarding progression, more impactful combat, and diverse NPC routines and interactions.
Whether you join the ore-rich Old Camp in league with the King, the New Camp who plan to destroy the magical barrier surrounding the Valley of Mines, or the Brotherhood of the Sleeper who put their faith in a mysterious new deity – the dark world of Gothic 1 Remake will soon be yours to explore.
For the second year in a row, we’ve released a DLC for Way of the Hunter on the same day as our Digital Showcase.
Whereas last year we took the hunt to lush African grasslands, today’s release will let you explore a stunningly-realized Scandinavian landscape populated with lynx, arctic foxes, and a range of other unique wildlife, all with their own realistic behaviors.
Wander through vast magical forests that shimmer under gentle rain, sprawling meadows teeming with life, and snowy hilltops that inspired folklore of ages past. With each tranquil moment that passes in this fictionalized Scandinavian wilderness, so lovingly sculpted by the team at Nine Rocks Games, your harmony with your surroundings increases.
Way of the Hunter: Lintukoto Reserve is out now on PS5.
From the creators of Little Nightmares I & II comes an entirely new vision, unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Find out more at Gamescom Opening Night Live, Tuesday August 20, 11am PT/8pm CEST.
Of course, it wouldn’t be the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase without just one more thing to tantalize you as we close out the stream…
The ominous rumble of a chamber impossibly old. Scorching ash suspended in the air, spewed forth by roiling lava.
Three colossal stone heads, suddenly set ablaze with otherworldly flames. The Charred Council awake, and roar a single word in unison: Horseman.
We’ll have more news to share on where the world of Darksiders is going soon, but for now, know this… the Four Horsemen will ride again.
That’s it for the THQ Nordic Digital Showcase 2024! From all of us at THQ Nordic, as well as our dev partners spread around the world – thank you so much for joining us. We can’t wait to share more with you on each of these titles in the near future and see you soon in our digital worlds.
I've never learned to drive, but every so often a well-meaning friend tells me I'd be good at it, because 'look, Edwin, you play all those driving games, surely they've taught you the basics'. Friend, here is what driving games have taught me: traffic lights are there for regional flavour; drifting is the same thing as cornering; other cars exist to serve as bumper cushions when overshooting a turn. Certainly, nobody wants a guy whose ideas about automobiles come from 2018's Wreckfest to be involved in the school run. On which note: THQ Nordic have just announced Wreckfest 2 - a fresh helping of destruction derby with fancified visuals and newly animate drivers who flinch and gesticulate when other drivers smash into them. Witness the carnage in the announcement trailer below.
It's a hell of a thing to showcase a remake weeks after kiboshing the developers of the original game. In early July, Gothic creators Piranha Bytes were reportedly shuttered as part of Embracer Group's mad race to trim costs, following their decade-long acquisition binge. Watching THQ Nordic's new Gothic Remake trailer, below, feels a little like watching a vivisectionist parade about in somebody else's skin. Still, the remake's developers Alkimia Interactive aren't to blame for Embracer's fuck-ups, and I am selfishly happy to see Gothic return as an Unreal Engine 5 production - even if I didn't play the original back in 2001.
Sin did play the original game, and in her 2016 retrospective, she paints an absorbing picture of a dark fantasy "microsociety" in which every community "has a reason to exist, a means of providing for itself, a social order, and a long term goal". It's a setup that reminds me of my beloved Roadwarden, even as the sight of grumpy lizards slinking through undergrowth has me silently mouthing "fus roh dah".
Titan Quest 2! Now there's a name you can set your watch by. No colons, no bespoke jargon, no tortuous subtitles like "Gaia's B.O.U.N.T.Y." or "Hyperion's Wild Rumpus" - just the steadying prospect of a titanic quest that, who knows, may involve actual titans. The action-RPG beneath the moniker appears similarly straightforward: it's about following a plot thread through a mythological world in top-down view, smashing Ancient Greek giga-crabs and the like to obtain shinier, pointier varieties of gear. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that there's an endgame in which you farm monsters for crafting materials.
Like Pandora opening her box, but without the accompanying tidal wave of sickness, curses and death, THQ Nordic have released a new trailer that talks you though all of this in detail. Here it is...
I've never learned to drive, but every so often a well-meaning friend tells me I'd be good at it, because 'look, Edwin, you play all those driving games, surely they've taught you the basics'. Friend, here is what driving games have taught me: traffic lights are there for regional flavour; drifting is the same thing as cornering; other cars exist to serve as bumper cushions when overshooting a turn. Certainly, nobody wants a guy whose ideas about automobiles come from 2018's Wreckfest to be involved in the school run. On which note: THQ Nordic have just announced Wreckfest 2 - a fresh helping of destruction derby with fancified visuals and newly animate drivers who flinch and gesticulate when other drivers smash into them. Witness the carnage in the announcement trailer below.
It's a hell of a thing to showcase a remake weeks after kiboshing the developers of the original game. In early July, Gothic creators Piranha Bytes were reportedly shuttered as part of Embracer Group's mad race to trim costs, following their decade-long acquisition binge. Watching THQ Nordic's new Gothic Remake trailer, below, feels a little like watching a vivisectionist parade about in somebody else's skin. Still, the remake's developers Alkimia Interactive aren't to blame for Embracer's fuck-ups, and I am selfishly happy to see Gothic return as an Unreal Engine 5 production - even if I didn't play the original back in 2001.
Sin did play the original game, and in her 2016 retrospective, she paints an absorbing picture of a dark fantasy "microsociety" in which every community "has a reason to exist, a means of providing for itself, a social order, and a long term goal". It's a setup that reminds me of my beloved Roadwarden, even as the sight of grumpy lizards slinking through undergrowth has me silently mouthing "fus roh dah".
Titan Quest 2! Now there's a name you can set your watch by. No colons, no bespoke jargon, no tortuous subtitles like "Gaia's B.O.U.N.T.Y." or "Hyperion's Wild Rumpus" - just the steadying prospect of a titanic quest that, who knows, may involve actual titans. The action-RPG beneath the moniker appears similarly straightforward: it's about following a plot thread through a mythological world in top-down view, smashing Ancient Greek giga-crabs and the like to obtain shinier, pointier varieties of gear. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that there's an endgame in which you farm monsters for crafting materials.
Like Pandora opening her box, but without the accompanying tidal wave of sickness, curses and death, THQ Nordic have released a new trailer that talks you though all of this in detail. Here it is...
At its Showcase 2024 event, THQ Nordic shared new trailers for Wreckfest 2, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and Tarsier Studios’ unannounced game. And, since we don’t have enough details for the two of them, we’ve decided to share all of them in one article. Wreckfest 2 is the sequel to Bugbear’s demolition derby themed racing … Continue reading New Trailers for Wreckfest 2, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and Tarsier Studios’ Unannounced Game →
The post New Trailers for Wreckfest 2, Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed and Tarsier Studios’ Unannounced Game appeared first on DSOGaming.
THQ Nordic has just teased a new Darksiders game. Although we don’t know much about it, you can find below its teaser trailer. And, sadly, other than the teaser, we don’t have anything additional to share. THQ Nordic claims that we’ll be able to ride again so perhaps we might get an official reveal at … Continue reading THQ Nordic has just teased a new Darksiders game →
The post THQ Nordic has just teased a new Darksiders game appeared first on DSOGaming.
At its 2024 Showcase event, THQ Nordic released a new 4-minute in-engine trailer for Gothic 1 Remake. This trailer will give you a glimpse at the visual style and graphics of this upcoming remake which will be using Unreal Engine 5. In Gothic 1 Remake, players will play as the Nameless Hero. You’ll need to … Continue reading Gothic 1 Remake just got a new 4-minute in-engine trailer →
The post Gothic 1 Remake just got a new 4-minute in-engine trailer appeared first on DSOGaming.
A phoenix is a mythological firebird that is periodically reborn from its own ashes, a symbol of cyclical renewal. It's also, according to several former employees of Chorus developers Fishlabs in Hamburg, an internal title for the massive cost-cutting project begun by Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group in June 2023.
The current incarnation of a bewildering series of mergers, renamings and acquisitions that date back to the founding of Nordic Games in 2004, Embracer have spent much of the past decade buying up video game studios and licenses, from Deus Ex developers Eidos Montreal to the adaptation rights for The Lords Of The Rings. According to a February 2023 earnings report, by the end of December 2022 the conglomerate had 134 internal studios on the books (including table-top developers) and owned or controlled over 850 IPs, with 224 games in development. Our Graham warned of the perils of such consolidation in 2019, and his misgivings have been borne out. Following the reported collapse of a billion dollar Savvy Games investment deal, Embracer set out to recover their debts by cancelling projects, laying off staff and closing whole studios. Fishlabs - acquired by Embracer in 2018 alongside their parent company Koch Media, nowadays Plaion - were among those burned by "Project Phoenix", first losing a dozen people in September 2023, and then around half their remaining workforce in November. In the process of these reductions, Embracer also binned off two video game projects – a sumptuous sci-fi metroidvania that was in full development, and a "visual prototype" for a brand new Red Faction game.
A phoenix is a mythological firebird that is periodically reborn from its own ashes, a symbol of cyclical renewal. It's also, according to several former employees of Chorus developers Fishlabs in Hamburg, an internal title for the massive cost-cutting project begun by Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group in June 2023.
The current incarnation of a bewildering series of mergers, renamings and acquisitions that date back to the founding of Nordic Games in 2004, Embracer have spent much of the past decade buying up video game studios and licenses, from Deus Ex developers Eidos Montreal to the adaptation rights for The Lords Of The Rings. According to a February 2023 earnings report, by the end of December 2022 the conglomerate had 134 internal studios on the books (including table-top developers) and owned or controlled over 850 IPs, with 224 games in development. Our Graham warned of the perils of such consolidation in 2019, and his misgivings have been borne out. Following the reported collapse of a billion dollar Savvy Games investment deal, Embracer set out to recover their debts by cancelling projects, laying off staff and closing whole studios. Fishlabs - acquired by Embracer in 2018 alongside their parent company Koch Media, nowadays Plaion - were among those burned by "Project Phoenix", first losing a dozen people in September 2023, and then around half their remaining workforce in November. In the process of these reductions, Embracer also binned off two video game projects – a sumptuous sci-fi metroidvania that was in full development, and a "visual prototype" for a brand new Red Faction game.
Například společnost THQ Nordic představila své plány na tuto akci. Společnost potvrdila, že na Gamescom přiveze pět her, z nichž dvě zatím nebyly oznámeny. Jedna z nich má jednoslovný název o šesti písmenech, zatímco druhá má pětislovný název o 23 písmenech. Další tři hry budou Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, Titan Quest 2 a Gothic Remake. Všech pět her bude možné hrát na stánku společnosti THQ Nordic.
Na 2. srpna je také naplánována digitální přehlídka THQ Nordic, na které společnost podle svých slov oznámí tyto dva neoznámené tituly. Gamescom je mezitím naplánován na 21.-25. srpna.
Letošního Gamescomu se nezúčastní společnost Nintendo a i Ubisoft potvrdil, že se zúčastní. Uniklé informace tvrdí, že Microsoft bude mít navíc vlastní oznámení.
Článek THQ Nordic přiveze na Gamescom dvě neohlášené hry se nejdříve objevil na GAME PRESS.
As the season of summer showcases creeps ever closer, THQ Nordic has announced its annual digital event will be returning this August with a look at its upcoming games, including the Gothic 1 remake and Titan Quest 2.
Specifically, the THQ Nordic Showcase 2024, as it's imaginatively being called, airs from 8pm BST on Friday, 2nd August - or 9pm CEST/12pm PDT/3pm EDT if you live elsewhere - and will be streamed via YouTube, Twitch, and Steam.
As for what we can expect to see, THQ Nordic is being relatively coy, only confirming appearances from its Gothic 1 Remake (which was confirmed to be in development all the way back in February 2020), alongside Titan Quest 2, and "much more".
Every choice we made when developing Outcast – A New Beginning had, at its core, one motivation: freedom. It was important to us not to limit where players could go at any point; instead, we gave them the tools to navigate the detailed open world we’ve spent the last few years crafting.
We’re incredibly proud of Outcast’s world and want players to share its richness with us. As players set out across Adelpha, we want to reward them for their curiosity and sense of adventure.
Whether it’s blitzing through an invader base and unlocking a new weapon module, zipping through gliding challenges to earn jetpack upgrades, or simply taking in the sights, we’ve strived to make every second spent on the planet of Adelpha feel meaningful to players.
Knowing that players would be spending a lot of time in Cutter Slade’s boots, it was important to us that it felt fun to maneuver him through the world. Open-world games often ask players to cross great distances, and it’s our job as developers to ensure that you always feel invigorated by navigating the wilds of Adelpha.
When designing how Cutter moved through the world, we didn’t want to gatekeep fun traversal abilities for later in the game. From early in Outcast – A New Beginning, you can take advantage of Adelpha’s teetering precipices and deep valleys with your gliding suit, swooping across the alien landscape.
As you progress, you’ll unlock abilities that make exploration on the ground feel fluid, too – Cutter’s jet sprint lets you skim across land and water. The jetpack’s boost ability can help you dodge enemy attacks, leap over tricky terrain, and rain down fiery justice on the invading forces.
By offering players the choice to go anywhere at any time, we knew that we had to make Adelpha feel like a cohesive ecosystem, which extended to how our quests work. The sense of deep exploration we’ve aimed for with Cutter’s movement extends to how we designed our quests, with each of the game’s seven villages possessing a story at their core, waiting to be unraveled.
We didn’t want to restrict players to a single path – naturally, helping Adelpha’s native Talans can take several routes. The coastal village of Sappa, the story you can experience in our currently live PS5 demo, gives a great example of how Outcast’s quest system works.
From talking to the fishertalans of Sappa, you’ll find out that the local ventilope tamer has gone missing. As a village who rely on the winged ventilopes for travel and fishing, they’ve fallen into crisis. You can choose how to start helping Sappa – provide a temporary solution by skimming over the water with your jetpack to rustle up fish or make a beeline to the nearest invader base to rescue the tamer.
Once you’ve rescued Sappa’s resident ventilope expert, you’ll find yourself sent down a path that takes you to the far-flung reaches of other villages in a quest to harness an airborne squadron of ventilope bombers that you can call on in combat.
This kind of meaningful progression is at the heart of Outcast- A New Beginning – a tangible reason for players to seek out Adelpha’s further reaches.
As you beat back the off-world invaders and navigate across the verdant – but sometimes hostile – world of Adelpha, you’ll come to trust your arsenal above all else. Rather than give players a fixed selection of weapons, we opted for a nigh-endless selection of modules to fit their playstyle. You can swap out your modules on the fly to suit the situation, customizing your weaponry for each encounter with over 100,000 possible combinations.
It isn’t just conventional weaponry that Cutter has at his disposal – with each village you liberate, you’ll gain access to a new ancient power to help you in your quest to liberate the Talan people.
We’ve been fortunate enough to have an incredibly dedicated fanbase since 1999. Though our game may be called A New Beginning, we wear our history on our sleeve. Many of us at Appeal have been here since the original Outcast broke new ground, and it’s been one of the greatest adventures of our careers to bring Cutter Slade’s journey to current-generation hardware in a way that pays homage to our past with references and easter eggs for the most diehard Outcast fans out there.
Making Outcast accessible to a new generation of players has been equally important to honoring the series’ legacy. With each step of the design process, we questioned how newcomer-friendly our world was while ensuring we celebrated the history we were building on by bringing Outcast back in 2024.
Outcast – A New Beginning releases on March 15, and you can play the game today with a free demo. We hope we’ll see you in Adelpha!
Every choice we made when developing Outcast – A New Beginning had, at its core, one motivation: freedom. It was important to us not to limit where players could go at any point; instead, we gave them the tools to navigate the detailed open world we’ve spent the last few years crafting.
We’re incredibly proud of Outcast’s world and want players to share its richness with us. As players set out across Adelpha, we want to reward them for their curiosity and sense of adventure.
Whether it’s blitzing through an invader base and unlocking a new weapon module, zipping through gliding challenges to earn jetpack upgrades, or simply taking in the sights, we’ve strived to make every second spent on the planet of Adelpha feel meaningful to players.
Knowing that players would be spending a lot of time in Cutter Slade’s boots, it was important to us that it felt fun to maneuver him through the world. Open-world games often ask players to cross great distances, and it’s our job as developers to ensure that you always feel invigorated by navigating the wilds of Adelpha.
When designing how Cutter moved through the world, we didn’t want to gatekeep fun traversal abilities for later in the game. From early in Outcast – A New Beginning, you can take advantage of Adelpha’s teetering precipices and deep valleys with your gliding suit, swooping across the alien landscape.
As you progress, you’ll unlock abilities that make exploration on the ground feel fluid, too – Cutter’s jet sprint lets you skim across land and water. The jetpack’s boost ability can help you dodge enemy attacks, leap over tricky terrain, and rain down fiery justice on the invading forces.
By offering players the choice to go anywhere at any time, we knew that we had to make Adelpha feel like a cohesive ecosystem, which extended to how our quests work. The sense of deep exploration we’ve aimed for with Cutter’s movement extends to how we designed our quests, with each of the game’s seven villages possessing a story at their core, waiting to be unraveled.
We didn’t want to restrict players to a single path – naturally, helping Adelpha’s native Talans can take several routes. The coastal village of Sappa, the story you can experience in our currently live PS5 demo, gives a great example of how Outcast’s quest system works.
From talking to the fishertalans of Sappa, you’ll find out that the local ventilope tamer has gone missing. As a village who rely on the winged ventilopes for travel and fishing, they’ve fallen into crisis. You can choose how to start helping Sappa – provide a temporary solution by skimming over the water with your jetpack to rustle up fish or make a beeline to the nearest invader base to rescue the tamer.
Once you’ve rescued Sappa’s resident ventilope expert, you’ll find yourself sent down a path that takes you to the far-flung reaches of other villages in a quest to harness an airborne squadron of ventilope bombers that you can call on in combat.
This kind of meaningful progression is at the heart of Outcast- A New Beginning – a tangible reason for players to seek out Adelpha’s further reaches.
As you beat back the off-world invaders and navigate across the verdant – but sometimes hostile – world of Adelpha, you’ll come to trust your arsenal above all else. Rather than give players a fixed selection of weapons, we opted for a nigh-endless selection of modules to fit their playstyle. You can swap out your modules on the fly to suit the situation, customizing your weaponry for each encounter with over 100,000 possible combinations.
It isn’t just conventional weaponry that Cutter has at his disposal – with each village you liberate, you’ll gain access to a new ancient power to help you in your quest to liberate the Talan people.
We’ve been fortunate enough to have an incredibly dedicated fanbase since 1999. Though our game may be called A New Beginning, we wear our history on our sleeve. Many of us at Appeal have been here since the original Outcast broke new ground, and it’s been one of the greatest adventures of our careers to bring Cutter Slade’s journey to current-generation hardware in a way that pays homage to our past with references and easter eggs for the most diehard Outcast fans out there.
Making Outcast accessible to a new generation of players has been equally important to honoring the series’ legacy. With each step of the design process, we questioned how newcomer-friendly our world was while ensuring we celebrated the history we were building on by bringing Outcast back in 2024.
Outcast – A New Beginning releases on March 15, and you can play the game today with a free demo. We hope we’ll see you in Adelpha!
Amazon is offering eight games to Prime Gaming subscribers in March, including Fallout 2 and Invincible Presents: Atom Eve.
The month will start out with Fallout 2 to promote Amazon's upcoming Fallout adaptation, which is set to premiere on 12th April. We got a good look at the show in December when Amazon released a teaser trailer, following numerous set leaks and official promotional photos.
If you haven't played it, Fallout 2 is one of the classic RPGs which still holds up today. In 2017, Eurogamer was able to visit Obsidian Entertainment and speak to Feargus Urquhart, Leonard Boyarsky and Tim Cain, who all previously worked on Fallout 1 and 2 whilst at Interplay Productions.
THQ Nordic has announced that Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed will be officially coming to PC in 2024. To celebrate this announcement, the publisher shared a trailer that you can find below. Disney Epic Mickey is a vibrant 3D platformer that originally came on Nintendo Wii in 2010. So, consider Rebrushed is a remastered version of … Continue reading Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is officially coming to PC →
The post Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is officially coming to PC appeared first on DSOGaming.
Remember those N64 wrestling games of yore? Well THQ Nordic and Yuke’s definitely do, and those titles are the basis for AEW: Fight Forever.
It’s been an interesting dev cycle for AEW: Fight Forever, which was created under a publisher and developer that should be well known to fans of the sport. I’m referring to THQ Nordic and Yuke’s there, as the companies teamed for quite a few games back in the 90s and 2K’s.
Well, THQ Nordic did under the plain ol’ “THQ” banner anyway. Fast-forward to the present though, and the band is getting back together, albeit with a wild card thrown in.
That card, of course, is All-Elite Wrestling. AEW debuted back in 2019 and immediately grabbed quite an audience for itself. It got so popular, that it didn’t take long before a video game was announced, though said game wouldn’t actually appear until just now, with AEW: Fight Forever.
The action it presents will be instantly recognizable for fans of THQ’s legacy titles, though it’s not exactly the same as what developer AKI turned out.
AEW: Fight Forever is cast in the mold of an N64 wrestling title. If you were wondering if that was the case, then I can definitely confirm that for you right off the top. It was apparently one of the points too, as the formula for that venerated franchise has been puzzlingly lost for decades at this point.
As mentioned, it’s also the first game to spin out of All-Elite Wrestling, so it’s instantly notable for a few things. But while basing a first offering on the bones of the aforementioned was a pretty fantastic idea for the brand’s gaming debut, there’s a lot more to it than just the shadow of the N64.
AEW, even though it’s a wrestling company, has managed to differentiate itself quite a bit from the market leader in the time it’s been around. It’s much more open to bloodshed, it’s obviously got some different pay-per-views and match-types, and it’s of course got a roster that’s as unique as possible given the state of contracts today. Fight Forever seeks to bring all of that to life for game fans, and it does so pretty darn well.
In addition to the full slate of singles, tag, and “rumble rules” Battle Royale “exhibition” matches, Fight Forever also brings online play and a pretty nice career mode to bear. The latter a loose retelling of AEW’s first year too, complete with some branching options, so it’s not just a series of random matches.
The Road to Elite actually sends your chosen grappler out into various cities for some sightseeing, fine dining, and even talk show appearances. He or she can also hit the gym, buy some gear and even make alliances or enemies. It’s pretty cool, and is actually fun to play.
Oh, and you can play mini-games too. Available both via the main menu and from within the career mode, the mini-games are well realized, though are somewhat odd that they’re present at all. If you’re playing a wrestling game after all, you kind of just wanna wrestle.
Finally though, I have to mention the create-a-wrestler. It’s not… great. As wrestling games go, Fight Forever’s creation suite feels slim at best, offering relatively few options and almost no bells and whistles. If you’re looking to bring past icons of the ring into your version of the company, or carry across those who work for other promotions, you’re going to have a lot of problems. A lot.
It’s nearly impossible to create passable stars thanks to the dearth of possibilities here. There isn’t an ability to write on clothing or build custom designs for example, and even the hair and facial options are slim. This in particular is something that really needs to get focused on for future AEW titles.
As disappointing as the above is, we’ve gotta move on to Fight Forever’s biggest plus: its gameplay. I know I mentioned this above, but it’s absolutely worth its own segment.
Fight Forever plays like a dream for those who loved the classic N64 games I mentioned. You will literally be able to slip right back int playing it on the higher difficulty settings if you logged hours on No Mercy or WCW vs The World. For those who never indulged in those older games though, know that this is also an incredibly easy title to pick up and play.
AEW gives players punch and kick buttons, a run button, the ability to climb the turnbuckles, block and reverse moves, pull weapons from ringside, and of course pin your opponent for the 1-2-3. All of that should sound right in line with any other wrestling game really, but there’s a big difference with its grapple button.
Unlike other wrestling games, once you engage a grapple in Fight Forever, you can select a move from one of three categories. That’s a big difference between the N64 games I’ve been harping on, which have weak and strong grapples only. In Fight Forever, once grappled you have the choice of engaging a kick or punch-centric move, on top of something like a suplex or slam.
Getting deeper into a match, you’ll want to pull off a ‘signature’ and then finishing move to put your opponent away. Those are based on your momentum meter, which builds as the match goes more and more your way. Once it hits one of those levels, first Signature and then Special, you either hit the d-pad or right analog stick (respectively) from the grapple to hit the move.
The control scheme here might seem more streamlined and simple than other games in the genre, and it is. But that’s the beauty of it. The controls result in a slower and less chaotic game, and one that I feel the self-tag of “arcade” falls short in describing. I’ve always thought of the N64 games as being more strategic, and that’s true for Fight Forever as well.
Another fairly major way that AEW: Fight Forever differentiates itself is with its looks. Well, both it’s looks and its sounds really, or lack thereof in certain in-game situations. But before we get to the latter, let’s talk graphics.
As you can no doubt tell, Fight Forever eschews the need to get ultra-realistic. Instead of getting every crease in a grappler’s face just right, this game goes almost in the complete opposite direction. And that’s also in keeping with those classic 64bit titles.
Fight Forever does serve up varying body types, heights, and weights (which do impact some moves), but the overall look is more ‘animated’ than real-life. Personally, I love that, and prefer that kind of a look overall. But that said, it could conceivably be a negative if you don’t. It’s kind of up to your own preference.
But even with that design choice, all of the named wrestlers look like themselves. The animation is terrific as well, and the arenas look fantastic. But as I mentioned, that’s on the visual side. On the sound side… meh.
The in-game set list isn’t anything to write home about, though that’s nothing new for a wrestling title. As for the themes, wrestlers personal tracks are only played in small bits through the limited entrance scenes. And while in-ring sound effects are great, with satisfying impacts and grunts, cut-scenes and such are almost all unvoiced.
Oh, and play-by-play and color commentary? Yeah, there is none. AEW has a fantastic booth, with the likes of Taz, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, and one of the greatest booth guys of all time in Jim Ross. And yet, even with all of that talent, there’s only an outro, where a very brief summation of the match is given. Make of it what you will.
AEW: Fight Forever is definitely an acquired taste, and it’s got some bugs here and there as well. But that said, it’s also undeniably fun. Even with the rough spots, the title’s ‘pick-up-and-play’ nature makes it a solid wrestling option for fans of the sport, and a ton of fun for fans of this specific brand. A solid gaming-start for AEW.
A copy of this game was provided by THQ Nordic for this review
AEW: Fight Forever
Release Date: June 28th, 2023
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch, PS4, Xbox One
Publisher: THQ Nordic
Developer: Yuke’s
MSRP: $59.99 USD
The post AEW: Fight Forever (PC) Review appeared first on BrutalGamer.
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