Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 is done and dusted for another year, but it's certainly kicked off this year's Gamescom with a bang - and we've got all the news, trailers and announcements right here in one handy summary. Whether you missed the show itself or just want a handy reminder of everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live this year, read on below.

Of course, alongside the main show, this year's ONL also had a 30-minute pre-show that was stuffed with announcements as well, which we'll quickly run through here before getting into the detail of the main show announcements below. Here, we got new trailers for Dave the Diver's latest crossovers, spooky co-op adventure Begone Beast and construction sim Roadcraft, alongside Italian Soulslike Enotria: The Last Song, Cairn (that shouty, but lovely looking climbing game from Summer Game Fest), life sim Inzoi from PUBG publishers Krafton, as well as a Terry showcase for Street Fighter 6.

There were also new game announcements in the pre-show in the form of Sniper Elite Resistance (coming 2025), the Donkey Kong-esque platformer Nikoderiko: The Magical World (with music from David Wise, no less), "first person farming horror allegory" We Harvest Shadows, the also quite spooky-looking Aila, a tease for the sequel to Journey to the Savage Planet (aptly named Revenge of the Savage Planet), action RPG Tribe Nine from the creators of Danganronpa, and the Lashana Lynch-led Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game.

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - the Microsoft-owned-Bethesda-release set to arrive on Xbox and PC this year - is also coming to PlayStation 5.

At this evening's Gamescom Opening Night Live event, host Geoff Keighley revealed that everyone's favourite fedora sporting professor will be cracking his whip on Sony's platform as well.

In addition to this news, Bethesda announced a release date for the game. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will release across Xbox Series X/S and PC on 9th December. Its PS5 release will then follow a few months later, during the spring of 2025.

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To this day, I still hold Indy responsible for my penchant for hats. I have been enthralled by Indiana Jones ever since I was a little girl - but despite this deep affection, coming away from a hands-off preview of MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I just can't let myself get overly excited about the upcoming release just yet.

While I'm still looking forward to playing another narrative-driven adventure game, with that fun 'afternoon popcorn flick' energy Great Circle undoubtedly has, my immediate reaction from this first extended demo is to worry this is all it will be, leaning just a little too heavily on fan nostalgia and a tried and tested formula, but without the innovation to truly set it apart from the rest. (And, given the game is currently set to release this year, I really hoped to see more gameplay than I did.)

The demo, which is also being shown at this year's Gamescom, begins with Indy entering a large room within the Sunsparker Chamber, a mysterious underground temple and one of "several well guarded secrets and hidden ruins" you can expect to discover. With the camera in first-person, our archaeologist - gamely brought to life by a still-recognisable Troy Baker - looks around the ancient room before gameplay switches to a cutscene. Indy approaches a statue set upon a plinth at the back of the room, in a scene immediately reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark - which is fitting, given the Great Circle is set between the events of this film and The Last Crusade.

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Paradox Interactive's streak of game delays continues with the news its Chinese-Room-developed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is now targeting a release in the "first half of 2025", rather than its previously announced "late 2024" window.

In a post on its website, Paradox called the delay a "proactive decision" derived from its commitment earlier this year to deliver "high-quality games" to its players. "Though [Bloodlines 2] is in a good enough place that we could have maintained our planned release window," it wrote, "Paradox and The Chinese Room collaboratively decided to prioritise polish."

Paradox says the delay will "create a quality assurance buffer, giving more time between testing and launch, ensuring we release the game when it's ready." More specifically, The Chinese Room will use the time to expand Bloodlines 2's story, providing twice as many endings as its predecessor, and to "adjust certain areas" such as Fabien - the voice in its protagonist's head.

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Just when Geoff Keighley had started to fade from your memory, he comes rubber-banding back with a vengeance - snap! It's Gamescom week and it kicks off with Opening Night Live this evening from 7pm UK time (other Opening Night Live timings here). A pre-show with additional announcements will begin at 6.30pm UK. We'll be watching and reporting on it live, as always, right here, so you can either keep abreast of announcements while you do something else, or you can join in with your thoughtful and amusing comments. Please keep us company. Please.

What do we expect to see today? Well, probably Geoff Keighley, but also the new Indiana Jones game, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dune Awakening. We're also expecting Little Nightmares creator Tarsier to unveil its new project, which could be exciting. On top of that: Diablo 4 expansion Vessel of Hatred, Civilization 7, hero shooter Marvel Rivals, Lost Records (the project made by the creators of Life is Strange), Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (which was recently delayed), and Black Ops 6. Keighley's best pal Hideo Kojima has also been tweeting enigmatic silhouetted pictures of actors who are presumably playing roles in Death Stranding 2.

And before you ask, "Yes, there will be new game announcements," Keighley said on X.

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MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will reportedly launch for PlayStation 5 in the early half of 2025, following an Xbox Series X/S and PC release at the end of this year.

That's according to industry insider Nate the Hate (one of the first people to break the news of Microsoft's multi-platform plans at the start of this year) who made the claim on social media. "MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will release on Xbox & PC this holiday (Dec) as a timed console exclusive," they wrote. "After this timed-exclusive window expires, Indiana Jones & the Great Circle is planned to come to PlayStation 5 in the first half of 2025."

Nate the Hate's claim tallies with a report by The Verge back in February, which said Microsoft was planning to go beyond its initial slate of comparatively low-key multi-platform releases by launching some of its flagship games on competing consoles. These were said to include Starfield and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, with the latter supposedly due to arrive on PS5 "some months" after its Xbox and PC release.

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Back in June, developer IO Interactive revealed it was resurrecting and reworking Hitman 3's VR mode, first released for PSVR in 2021, exclusively for Meta Quest 3 - and the studio has now shared first gameplay, showcasing this Reloaded edition's various enhancements.

On a basic level, Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded is the same game that earned itself a Eurogamer Recommended badge back in the day, meaning players can don goggles and immersively sneak through likes of Dubai, Dartmoor, Berlin, Chongqing, and Mendoza.

However, Reloaded - which is being developed with XR Games - is more than just a straight port of Hitman 3 VR's scrappy but enjoyable previous release. It also introduces a new flat-shaded artstyle, more "fluid and natural" movement options, an overhauled UI, and - perhaps most notably - dual-wielding, so players can use a different weapon or item in each hand.

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Oh, and new Indiana Jones And The Great Circle trailer! Great. I’ve been looking forward to a nice, juicy chunk of extended gameplay. You know, something to really convey the flow of the game, rather than the admittedly impressive but nonetheless very fragmented snippets we’ve gotten so far. Now to sit back and…oh, wait. Hang on. It’s just actor Troy Baker telling me about all the great acting he’ll be doing. It is great, by the way. He’s doing a fantastic job. Maybe just, you know, a crumb of acknowledgement or elucidation over the whole ‘interactivity’ part?

Anyway, don’t mind me. I’m just an old fool who likes to press buttons. And, to be fair, it's not like Machinegames don't have a great track record. Anyway, here’s some good news: The game releases December 9th this year. Have a release date trailer.

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MachineGames have made a decent living as the creators of satirical alternate histories in which you messily murder Nazis using mighty double-handfuls of shotgun. There are Nazis to fight in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle - a globe-trotting, tomb-robbing adventure featuring a Lost Ark-era Harrison Ford - but as you'd expect from a Lucasfilm adaptation, there's rather less of the bloodshed.

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In Shadows Of Doubt you can fall from the roof of a corporate office building during a routine investigation, shatter all the bones in your frail detective body, wake up in a clinic fully healed, and then sprint out the door without paying your sky-high hospital bills while the clinic's auto-turret shoots at you for doing a medical dine and dash. The early access game is on our best immersive sims list for a reason, you know, and now it has an autumn release date for the final version, along with a new trailer.

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Oh, and new Indiana Jones And The Great Circle trailer! Great. I’ve been looking forward to a nice, juicy chunk of extended gameplay. You know, something to really convey the flow of the game, rather than the admittedly impressive but nonetheless very fragmented snippets we’ve gotten so far. Now to sit back and…oh, wait. Hang on. It’s just actor Troy Baker telling me about all the great acting he’ll be doing. It is great, by the way. He’s doing a fantastic job. Maybe just, you know, a crumb of acknowledgement or elucidation over the whole ‘interactivity’ part?

Anyway, don’t mind me. I’m just an old fool who likes to press buttons. And, to be fair, it's not like Machinegames don't have a great track record. Anyway, here’s some good news: The game releases December 9th this year. Have a release date trailer.

Read more

MachineGames have made a decent living as the creators of satirical alternate histories in which you messily murder Nazis using mighty double-handfuls of shotgun. There are Nazis to fight in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle - a globe-trotting, tomb-robbing adventure featuring a Lost Ark-era Harrison Ford - but as you'd expect from a Lucasfilm adaptation, rather less of the bloodshed.

Read more

In Shadows Of Doubt you can fall from the roof of a corporate office building during a routine investigation, shatter all the bones in your frail detective body, wake up in a clinic fully healed, and then sprint out the door without paying your sky-high hospital bills while the clinic's auto-turret shoots at you for doing a medical dine and dash. The early access game is on our best immersive sims list for a reason, you know, and now it has an autumn release date for the final version, along with a new trailer.

Read more

Steam store – Official website – Wikipedia entry

Some game genres are so rare, it’s a miracle when a new game releases in that style. I personally call this genre: stealth tactics. The actual genre is Real-Time Tactics, but I find that name doesn’t really cover this (sub)genre. If you have ever played games like: Commando’s, Desperados, Robin Hood – The Legend of Sherwood or Shadow Tactics… You know what sort of game I’m talking about. A game features a rag tag group of heroes. Each hero has unique abilities. They must get through big groups of enemies. They do this one by one to progress the group’s goals. The game I want to talk about today is called Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew. This was the last game by the studio Mimimi. Is this game the swansong to close down this studio, or is it a game that’s better left forgotten? Before that, I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section down below. A comment with your thoughts and/or opinions on the game and/or the content of the article.

Promises of amazing treasure

In this game, you play as the crew of a special pirate ship named the Red Marley. Each main member of the crew has a black pearl in their chest, granting them unique supernatural abilities. These unique abilities come at a cost of being cursed to a sort of undead status.

The Red Marley’s captain fell in battle, and now the Inquisition is after the biggest treasure of the ship. Now, the Red Marley’s crew doesn’t want this to happen. So they do everything in their power to avoid this from happening.

The story in this game doesn’t take itself too seriously. The story is written like it’s a Saturday morning cartoon. A story arc can be contained in one or a handful of episodes, but always has an ending. While almost everything in the story ends well for the main cast, the story and writing never looses its charm. I felt like I was transported back into the time I woke up for the weekly Pokémon episode. I knew that the main problem of that week’s episode would resolve by the end. Still, I kept rooting for the heroes.

One of the biggest reasons I kept rooting for the main characters is because of the voice actors. Their performances are extremely well done. They bring a lot of personality and life to each character. They make the characters stand out like real, actual people. This script must have been immense, since the characters sometimes react on the actions you preform with other characters. There are 8 main characters, and more if you buy the DLC packs. If you start counting how many unique voice lines that bring to the table… And that’s the tip of the iceberg. The enemies for example, when they come together also have unique dialogue between them.

It’s possible to write an article by itself about the world building, story and voice acting in this game. I can also assure you that when I write this article, I’ll keep gushing about it all. A great example is how the save & load function fits into the story. It enhances the world of this game. Yes, you read that correctly. When you save, you store a memory in the Red Marley. When you load one of your saves, the Red Marley uses its powers to restore that memory. Your characters also respond to your saving and loading action and this brings even more charm to this game.

In these types of games, the replay value is quite high. Especially since you tackle all missions in various ways and each playthrough is going to be different. In this game, it’s taken even a step further. You can choose the order to revive your crew. You can also choose the order to finish the missions of that chapter. I can assure you that your playthrough will look nothing like mine.

The main quest is quite enjoyable to play through. I actually became really immersed in the world of this game. At the moment, I’m playing through the final missions of the game and the DLC missions. I’m having a blast. Thankfully, I can easily start a new playthrough of this game. Then I can experience it all of it over again and take a totally different route. And maybe I can do the little side quests and pirate tales as well. Since, that’s content, I haven’t gone into too much yet.

Your playthrough of this game will take you somewhere between 27 to 37 hours. That is, if you want to beat the main story and DLC’s. But, if you want to fully finish this game… Oh boy, then you’ll have a game that’s close to 80 hours on your hands. I already mentioned the crew tales. But there are also mini-challenges you can go for during the missions to earn badges. Let’s not forget the achievements you can earn. Well, most of the achievements are related to the main campaign.

Now, I have one complaint about the badges in this game. Earning some of these badges is extremely tricky. Sometimes, you don’t get all the information you expect to. For example, there is a badge on each map for using all the landing spots of that map. But guess what, there is no easy way to see if you already used a landing spot or not. It’s a shame that some badges work like that. Especially since some of these badges make you go out of your way to play in an unique way. A more challenging way to spice up your normal routine.

Apart from bragging trophies, these medals don’t really add up to much. But, I honestly don’t really mind that. Since, it’s fun to gather these medals and have some bonus challanges during my playthrough. It keeps me on my toes and it’s really enjoyable.

Mindblowing abilities

I’m still quite impressed at how balanced this game is. Each character has their own unique abilities. It’s best that you always have a character with an ability that can move guards from their position. If you don’t have that, the game will actually warn you. You are going to make it extremely challenging for yourself.

Personally, I’m playing through this game on the normal difficulty setting and your decisions actually matter. Before starting each mission, study the map well. Try to remember each map as well as you can. Since you are going to revisit each map at least once or twice. It’s extremely important to choose the correct landing position.

You would think that the game will be a bit boring if you always bring the same crew into missions. But, the game rewards you using different characters for missions. You gain more vigor if you play with certain crew members during certain missions. If you earned enough vigor, you can upgrade one of the unique abilities of your characters. This upgrade will give you more and better tools in your arsenal. Now, these upgrades can make the game much easier. You can always turn off the upgrades while on the Red Marley.

In the introduction paragraph of this article, I quickly explained how this game works. So, let me tell you the gist of it. In this game, you go from mission to mission, completing various goals in each one. These goals can range for example from rescuing an informant or stealing an artifact. In each mission, there are various enemies patrolling the area. Your goal is to find the weakspots in their patrols and dispose of the enemies without getting spotted.

Now, getting spotted isn’t the end of the world in this game. Depending on where you are spotted, it’s possible to escape and hide somewhere. You just have to avoid taking damage, since your health is limited, and you can’t heal during the mission. If you aren’t careful, it’s easy to get swamped or overwhelmed with guards. Especially when a guard with a bell spots you, the traces you leave behind or sees a dead body. When this happens, you have a limited amount of time to kill that guard before the bell is rung. When the bell is rung, more guards will emerge from nearby barracks and swarm to the location.

On top of that, there are also some unique enemy types outside your regular patrol goons. The first type I want to talk are the Kindred. These annoying buggers bring something quite unique to the table in this genre. Kindred are always connected with each other. If you don’t kill these all at the same time, they will revive each other. But, this is only the start of your troubles.

You also have Prognosticar. And let me tell you, these are even more challenging. To defeat these enemies, you need to have two units ready. One unit needs to be spotted or attack the Prognosticar. Since as soon as that happens, your unit gets trapped. This trap will go on and damage your unit until the unit either dies or is rescued. When the Prognosticar is using his trap, he can be attacked and killed. But do it quick. The trap is damaging your unit. You are also stuck in place. This situation is dangerous.

It also matters if the mission is taking place during day or night. The big difference is that in the daytime, the enemies have a bigger field of view. During the nighttime, some enemies will carry a torch on their patrol. This gives more light to other units. They can spot you sneaking by if you aren’t careful. There are also various torches dotted around the map, and you can put them out. The enemies can’t stand torches that are put out and will go out of their way to light them again.

It’s also important to know if an enemy stops in their patrol to talk to another enemy. Since if you kill one of them, the other enemy will start looking for them. They will start running around and if you weren’t careful, will find your tracks and spot you.

Learning those little mechanics is essential in this game. Never forget the tools you have in this game! This ranges from the abilities of each character to how for example view cones work. There is something called view cone surfing. If you want to dash to another place past some enemies… Understand that a full color in the view cone means they will spot you right away. Stripped sections of the view cone will cause you to be unseen if you crawl by. Also, it takes a few moments of you being spotted and the alarm being raised. You can run quickly enough past an enemy. Alternatively, you can run from view cone to view cone. It’s possible to get past unseen.

If you are afraid that you will get overwhelmed by all the information of all the little mechanics, don’t worry. The difficulty curve in this game is perfect. This game also has solid character tutorials. Each character tutorial guides you through 2–3 rooms, teaching you the abilities of each ability and their unique use cases. At the end of each character tutorial, you get a puzzle room. Putting to the test if you can use that character correctly. During the game, you can always open your logbook from the pause menu, where all tutorials can be watched again.

This brings me to the abilities of your characters in this game. If you have played similar games, you’ll recognize certain abilities and others will be quite new and unique. Now, some of these abilities will have a unique spin to it. For example, your sniper only has one shot. But, when you retrieve your sniper bolt… Your sniper can shoot again.

There are also extremely unique mechanics, like your Canoness has very fun abilities. She can pick up dead bodies in her canon to launch them at enemies to knock them out. But, you can also pick up allies. You can fling them over a group of enemies. This will give them a better hiding spot. Or your Ship Doctor, she can create one hiding spot out of thin air. Or your navigator, she can stop time for one enemy, allowing you to easy sneak by. And your ship cook can throw a special doll. This doll allows him to teleport to that location. He does this as soon as you click the button. Oh, and if you place that doll on an enemy, it sticks to that enemy.

You might be annoyed that I somewhat spoiled things in the above paragraph. But I have only told the tip of the iceberg here. I have left out several characters in that little summary and they have mindblowing abilities as well. Each map is created in such a way that it doesn’t really matter which characters you take into battle. Since you can finish it using any of your characters.

The Swansong of Mimimi

When Klamath and I started streaming Commandos, I wanted to play a similar game. One I haven’t played through. Since I first started playing through Desperados III again, and that was beaten in a few days. Since, I really enjoyed Desperados III, I bought the next game from the studio.

As somebody who enjoyed Desperados III quite a lot, I was happy to see things return in this game. I can’t tell you how much I love the speed up button. While I wish you can adjust the speed of it… The slow wait can be annoying. Sometimes, you have to get an enemy right where you want them. On top of that, you also have the showdown mode. With the press of a button, you can stop time and plan out your units their next move. Once you press the enter key, either still in showdown mode or not, the actions will be executed. It still feels amazing when you execute a well timed attack to take out difficult set of enemies.

Something that’s extremely useful is how you can rotate the camera in this game. Sometimes an enemy walks behind a building or some rocks… So, if you can’t rotate the camera, you wonder from where you are taking damage. Also, the ability of outlining the enemies, ladders and hiding spots help with that as well. As you can see from my screenshots, I always play with that feature enabled.

Sadly, there are a few ladders that don’t get an outline. Most likely since the developers forgot to put a certain tag on them. I remember one in Angler’s Grave, at the top right. It’s not too far from one of the mission objectives, the informant. Thankfully, these very minor oversights rarely happen. Overall, this game is extremely solid and blast to play through.

The controls are extremely solid. I had to get used to one thing. To execute certain actions, I had to hold the left mouse button instead of just clicking. This sometimes tripped me up but a quick reload fixed that problem. I only have one minor complaint about the controls. Depending on the camera angle, there were rare moments where your character refused to go to a location. I suspect it has to do with where you click. Your unit always wants to look for the shortest way to reach where you click. Sadly, this trips something up in the pathfinding and your unti refuses to go to their destination. Thankfully, a quick camera movement can fix these moments. And also, I’m glad that these moments are quite rare.

Something that’s even more rare are some minor visual bugs that can happen sometimes. Sometimes an UI-element refuses to dissapear. I had that happen twice, when I shot an enemy holding down an exit rift with the Canoness. The stars indicated that the enemy was dizzy. They hovered above the enemy’s head after the rift opened. Even after I killed the enemy, these stars remained visible. There are sometimes minor visual bugs happening like that. Thankfully, they are extremely rare and sometimes are quite funny. One time, one of my units was standing perpendicular on a ladder when I stopped it going up the ladder. The only annoying bug was that I couldn’t retrieve two bodies. They lay in a remote part of Angler’s Grave. It was almost impossible to get rid of two bodies. Maybe, it’s possible. I don’t know, I honestly gave up and earned the badge of hiding bodies on a later revist.

In such a big game it’s to be expected that sometimes things can go wrong. But it surprises me how little goes wrong and how polished the overall game is. Scrolling through the patch notes of this game, I noticed that the developers fixed many issues. They also added a lot of new content to the game. The last update to the game was even a modding tool for this game. These mods go from chaging your character models to adding new maps. I think I’ll play around with the mods after I have fully beaten the game. I’m extremely close, since I’m in the final missions of the game.

Now, earlier I talked about the UI. The UI is quite easy and helpful. There are several unique icons to inform you where certain things are. For example, where you left the paper doll when using the ship cook. There is only one thing in the UI I dislike. And that’s the list of save games. You get a little screenshot of the location of the save and a time stamp. And that’s it. You can’t give a special name or note to them. So if you are looking for a certain save… you either need to make notes OR just go through all them until you het it.

It’s the only real complaint I can give about this game. There is just a lot that this game does right. Like how you can scroll to zoom in or out. When you scroll again at the max zoom level, you see a live map. This map shows where all the enemies are. The only minor complaint I have about the map is that ammo chests aren’t marked on there. Also, quick note on the ammo chests… Almost every character has the same visual for their gun. Now, if another visual appears above the ammo chest, it doesn’t matter. The ammo chests are never character specific.

Visually, this game looks breathtaking. The attention to detail in this world gets a big thumbs up from me. The world really feels alive and somewhat real. The little animation details for example when an enemy stops at a prison cell to talk to inmates… This is just amazing. The immersion level is even higher with that.

The soundtrack is very catchy and a joy to listen to. It made certain moments in the game even more thrilling. The music has been created by Filippo Beck Peccoz, he also created the music for Desperados III. The soundtrack really fits the game like a glove. I’m so glad I bought the soundtrack DLC,. Now I can add the music to my music library to play while I’m at my dayjob.

This brings me to the sound design of this game. The sound design of this game is amazing. I’m playing this game with a good headset and I don’t think this game is playable without sound effects. A great example is, when you get spotted. You not only get a great visual hint of a yellow line turning red of the enemy spotting you… You also get some sound effects informing you that things are about to go down. On top of that, the sound effects add so much extra impact on taking down enemies. This makes it even more rewarding when you finally take down that one pesky enemy.

One thing I haven’t talked about yet is how flexible this game is. I have touched upon that by talking about how you can only choose three out of 8 characters per mission. And you are encouraged to experiment with different combinations. Now, when you open the options menu, you’ll be blown away. You can change almost everything. The controls like the shortcuts for abilities can be tweaked to your liking. You have quite a lot of control to tweak the volumes, the controls, the visuals… Even tweak certain game mechanics to your liking. Don’t like the save reminder? You can turn that off.

There is still another thing that boggles my mind that was added in this game. You can create a custom difficulty. The only complaint I have there is that the UI fails to explain the differences. I find it challenging to understand all the settings. You get a short explaination about the setting, and then you have a slider you can set. But, what’s the difference between 1 and 2 on the slider? That’s something the UI doesn’t really tell.

When I was writing this article, I kept looking at my notes and thought: “Oh, I forgot about that.”. There are just so many things in this game. The fact that in some missions, you must kill enemies in unique ways. In one mission, you have to lure enemies to a certain location. You need to do this 4 times. You do this instead of killing them. It’s a breath of fresh air. You’d think that having only a handful of maps would make this game boring and repetitive, but no. The maps are not only large but also used in extremely interesting ways. Revisits of a map make it easier to start, but each area is used in a mission. So, there is still a lot of challenge in the revisits.

Oh, there is one more thing. The question if you should buy the DLC’s or not. Let me just tell you this, I bought the game on sale with the DLC’s included. I’m so happy I did! Since the additional content in the DLC’s adds so much more to this game. They come highly recommended.

Now, I have left out a few things for you all to find while playing this game. This article is already getting quite long. I want to leave some things as a surprise for people interested in playing this game. I think it’s high time to wrap up this review and give my conclusion and final thoughts on this game.

Conclusion of this treasure hunt

The negatives:

-Unable to add notes to quick saves.
-Some minor (visual) glitches can happen. Thankfully, they are rare and rarely/never gamebreaking.
-The UI of custom difficulty could have been executed better.

The positives:

+ A masterclass in it’s genre in terms of gameplay.
+ Extremely flexible with options.
+ A modding tool.
+ A love-able cartoony story.
+ Amazing voice over work.
+ Superb soundtrack.
+ …

Final thoughts:

When I started playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, I had extremely high expectations. Mimimi blew me away with the amazing Desperados III. With this swansong of a game, they not only met my expectations, they blew them out of the water. This game showcases the achievements of passionate people. These individuals are dedicated to creating the game they love.

It didn’t take long before I fell in love with the cast of this game. The charm drew me into the world of this game. Apart from some minor things, it’s hard to find things to critique about this game. The only thing I can critique are small bugs that barely impact the gameplay of this game. This game really feels like a finished product and it’s a thrill ride from start to finish.

If you really want to find things this game does wrong… You’ll either need to be extremely nitpicky or just have the game not clicking with you. If you find this game too easy or too difficult, just tweak the setttings to your playstyle and voila.

If you enjoy games like Commandos or Desperados… You’d do yourself a disservice to not check out this game. Give the demo of this game a try, and see what you think. I wouldn’t be surprised that this game sinks it’s hook into you like it did with me.

It’s a shame to see that this game studio closes. Thank you to everybody who worked on this amazing title and I hope to meet your work in other games. This final game you all created together is a real piece of art. It’s a masterclass in game development and shows how well you know the community for games like this. I’m so happy that this game exists. Since it wouldn’t surprise me that I’ll play through this game several times now.

Before I ramble on and on about this game, I think it’s high time I wrap up this article. Otherwise, I’ll keep praising this game to high heavens and back. So, with that said, I have said close to everything I wanted to say about this game. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then… Have a great rest of your day and take care!

Score: 100/100

Developer: Infogrames    Publisher: Ocean    Release: 08/14/98   Genre: Action-Adventure Mission Impossible was one of the earliest Nintendo 64 games announced. There were lofty promises made as it would attempt to capture the essence of being a spy in 3d for...

The post Mission Impossible (Nintendo 64) appeared first on Classic-Games.net.

It barely feels like five minutes since the last one, but, somehow, Gamescom is almost upon us again. Which means publishers are starting to detail their plans for the show - and in Microsoft's case, we now know that'll include daily livestreams for those at home, plus over 50 playable games for anyone wandering the Koelnmesse's halls.

Attendees visiting Microsoft's Hall 7 Gamescom booth in person will find 50 games from Xbox Game Studios, Blizzard, Bethesda, and third-party partners, playable across 240 gaming stations. These include Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Fallout 76: Milepost Zero, The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, and Towerborne.

Playable third-party games, meanwhile, include Star Wars Outlaws, Space Marine 2, and the long-awaited Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. A full list of games at the booth can be found here.

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It barely feels like five minutes since the last one, but, somehow, Gamescom is almost upon us again. Which means publishers are starting to detail their plans for the show - and in Microsoft's case, we now know that'll include daily livestreams for those at home, plus over 50 playable games for anyone wandering the Koelnmesse's halls.

Attendees visiting Microsoft's Hall 7 Gamescom booth in person will find 50 games from Xbox Game Studios, Blizzard, Bethesda, and third-party partners, playable across 240 gaming stations. These include Age of Mythology: Retold, Ara: History Untold, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Fallout 76: Milepost Zero, The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road, and Towerborne.

Playable third-party games, meanwhile, include Star Wars Outlaws, Space Marine 2, and the long-awaited Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. A full list of games at the booth can be found here.

Read more

The immersive sim has seen a revival in recent years. Not only from larger studios like Arkane, keeping the faith alive with their time loops and space stations, but also from a bunch of smaller developers bravely exploring a typically ambitious genre. RPS has always had an affinity for these systemically luxuriant simulations, historically lauding the likes of the original Deus Ex as the best game ever made. But given everything that has come since, is that still the case? Only one way to find out: make a big list.

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The immersive sim has seen a revival in recent years. Not only from larger studios like Arkane, keeping the faith alive with their time loops and space stations, but also from a bunch of smaller developers bravely exploring a typically ambitious genre. RPS has always had an affinity for these systemically luxuriant simulations, historically lauding the likes of the original Deus Ex as the best game ever made. But given everything that has come since, is that still the case? Only one way to find out: make a big list.

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Whisper it quietly, but Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater looks like the most exciting Konami project in years. The trailer shown at this year's Xbox Games Showcase contains just over two minutes of tightly edited in-engine footage, but it answers a lot of questions about the direction of the project - with more details provided in an interview between Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter and producer Noriaki Okamura. At its heart, Delta looks to offer extensive reworks to visuals, controls and camera, using Unreal Engine 5, alongside slavishly faithful recreation of the level design and cutscene direction of the PS2 original.

Of course, we've seen Metal Gear Solid 3 polished up in Bluepoint's excellent HD Collection back on PS3 and Xbox 360 - a build that's also been re-used in the recent Master Collection to mixed reviews. But this remake, Metal Gear Solid Delta, is a more ambitious beast. It's shaping up to be a genuine effort to give series fans the best way to play the game. The big question is this: how does the footage we have so far compare to the original via the HD Collection? What's changed, and what stays intact?

While Metal Gear Solid Delta's release date is still unannounced, we do know it's set for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam - and with that being the case, there's no telling what platform we're precisely seeing in the trailer. It could be a mixture of formats, though the smart money is on an early PC build. Practically every shot I've pixel counted shows a crisp native 4K image, a true 3840x2160 with dynamic resolution scaling deployed only rarely. Next there's the frame-rate situation. Oddly enough, the trailer is only presented on YouTube as a 30fps encode, but hopefully that is a limitation of the capture - we'd expect to see a full 60fps in the final product, as we got with the HD Collection before it.

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With Sony having surprised precisely no-one by announcing that, once again, PlayStation won't be at this year's Gamescom, Microsoft has seized the opportunity to let everyone know that, by Jove, Xbox will be at this year's show.

Microsoft shared the news over on social media, inviting attendees to visit its "biggest booth yet" when Gamescom returns to Cologne, Germany, in August this year.

Microsoft will, of course, be the only major console maker to have at presence at Gamescom 2024; Nintendo confirmed it wouldn't be coming along back in April, saying there would be opportunities for players to try Switch games at other events throughout the year, and PlayStation confirmed a no-show earlier this week. Sony's absence hardly warrants a raised eyebrow, however, given it hasn't showed up since 2019.

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There are far too many excellent turn-based strategy games to play them all these days, and with even more coming to PC everyday, going back to the landmark releases gets harder and harder. But if you missed it, Invisble, Inc from Don't Starve developer Klei Entertainment is worth a return, particularly if you miss XCOM 2, and need something to fill the gap before (hopefully) XCOM 3. Oh, and if it helps, you can get it for just $3 right now.

Title: Ghost of Tsushima
Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Released: July 17, 2020
Platforms Available: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC Game (Director’s Cut)
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
Article Reading Time: 9 minutes

Introduction

It was the thirteenth century, and Mongol troops invaded the Japanese island of Tsushima. Samurais were soundly defeated, and almost everyone on the battlefield died. But Jin Sakai survives thanks to the help of the thief Yuna and gradually begins to learn that the honorable ways of the samurai may no longer be enough against the Mongol invasion. The time is coming when it will be necessary to stray from this virtuous path. Not all of Tsushima’s defenders, however, share this attitude.

Choosing Your Path

Right at the beginning of your Ghost of Tsushima journey, you choose how authentically you want to experience the Mongol invasion. Classically with an English dub, Weeb-ish with a Japanese dub, or ultra-old-school-weeb-ish in “Kurosawa mode”. Then, as you prepare the peasants to defend their village from the Mongols, you can almost feel like a hero in Kurosawa’s films. But even if you’re not a fan of playing a game that looks like it was made in the 1950s, you indeed won’t be deprived of the aesthetic experience. In fact, the world of Ghost of Tsushima is absolutely breathtaking. Whether you’re strolling along a cliff, riding through a forest with your horse’s hooves swirling golden leaves, traversing the snowy plains of the north looking for the silhouettes of Mongolians on the horizon, or galloping through a grassy plain under the moonlight with Jin’s palm raking the shimmering flowers.

Visual and Aesthetic Experience

And, of course, such beauty deserves a proper photo mode. With options to control almost everything in the scene… But you don’t have to take the camera, because the developers will show you the most beautiful angles. A great example is the title screens of the quests, which are simply a treat for the eyes.

By now, you may think I’m stretching the aesthetic too far. However, the underlining of the impressive visuals continues with the user interface, which is minimal and nil in terms of navigation. Sure, you have a separate full-size map, but the elements in the world are used for your direct navigation. If you look around from an elevated location, columns of smoke will reveal the location of camps, birds will show you various points of interest, and foxes will lead you to hidden Inari shrines. If you think the basic building block of all games is the ability to pet a dog, you should rethink your values in life because here you can pet foxes. And we’ll get to the dogs later in this review.

Immersive Navigation

We’ve covered those animals by navigating to predetermined places in the world. But your navigation becomes a breeze if you set your destination or go to a waypoint. And the raw immersion goes even further. What a lot of open-world games take from the third Witcher is tracking. Unfortunately, that includes the malaise of highlighting tracks on the mini-map. You then run along the trail with your nose buried in the map, which is quite different from my idea of tracking. Here, you don’t have a mini-map to dig into or an auxiliary highlight, so you’re following tracks in the world. Whether it’s bootprints, hoofprints, or a trail of dead Mongols. And speaking of dead Mongols… when your haiku-writing and landscape exploration is interrupted by a hostile group, you have tremendous freedom in dealing with them.

Combat Mechanics

First of all, you’re a samurai. So you can challenge your enemies fairly and use your skills in an equal contest. Being a samurai means you must react quickly to dodge or parry attacks, move tactically around the battlefield, change stances depending on which enemy you’re attacking, and, last but not least, aim your attacks accurately. Here, you don’t (except for boss fights) have the option of targeting the enemy, so it’s no problem to swing your sword next to him. Bossfights are very impressive. It is so remarkable at times that the basic PS4( not the PS4 Pro version) stops keeping up with the steady framerate, and the responsiveness of the controls goes downhill. And that could be better at the speed of these fights, and at times, I found the framerate to be the real enemy. On PS5, however, the situation is entirely different, and you can’t naturally complain about anything in this regard.

Stealth and Strategy

Slightly unfairly made the fights and the occasional movement issues in a not-entirely flat environment. At this point, I was so pleased with the relatively benevolent health system. This can be topped up using the commitment points above the health bar. These restore some of your health instantly, and you replenish it by killing enemies and, once unlocked, with other abilities such as precisely timed dodges. As I mentioned, however, you’ll find out right from the start that the Mongol invasion should not be fought off in an honorable samurai fashion. Jin must resort to techniques less worthy of being a virtuous warrior.

Expanding Your Arsenal

First, they learn to sneak and quietly destroy unsuspecting enemies. Gradually, your arsenal of sneaky tools grows. Of course, this is increasingly at odds with Jin’s manners. Still, the increasingly numerous and sneaky tactics of the Mongols require this dodging from the samurai path, and more importantly, being a sneaky bastard is just more fun in terms of gameplay. From throwing knives to smoke, sticks and other bombs, explosive arrows to, say, poison darts. You can even deviate from the samurai path enough to use fear in combat and execute your enemies so brutally that onlookers fall to their knees.

Ethical Dilemmas

But where does this brutality come into play when it comes to killing Mongolian dogs, who would sniff you out before their owners while sneaking around? Yes, you’ve gone from samurai to atrocities worthy of The Last of Us Part II.

If your lousy conscience, fueled by flashbacks to childhood lessons you violate like this, weighs heavily on you, you can try to justify helping the islanders. While the main story of repelling the Mongol invasion tells an exciting tale, it’s the less epic side of the war from the general population’s perspective that you’ll really only get to see in the side quests. Wherever you go, you’re likely to meet someone in need. You’ll save someone from a group of bandits or Mongols, somewhere you’ll get the herbs the healer needs, and somewhere things can get conjurer-like. Everything is kind of morally grey, and you don’t even know if you want to help anyone anymore.

Side Quests and Exploration

But you don’t leave a village or a settlement to the Mongols. Especially if the rescue points you to the proper places, whether it’s shrines where you find amulets, places to chop bamboo where you increase your maximum determination, baths where you increase your maximum health, and so on, you may even come across musicians who will tell you the legend of a mythical weapon, armor, or technique you can follow to find its object. And, of course, we must remember the flowers you can use to repaint your armor at the merchants. But if you’re an adventurer, you don’t need the advice of others, and you can find these places on your own thanks to the density of their placement. Even if you wander around, you can improve your stats in a way that makes sense in this beautiful world.

Overall Impressions

With all that said Ghost of Tsushima is a great open-world game with extensive side storylines and minor quests that flesh out the world. But it also adopts other mechanics from other games. You can feel the inspiration from Nioh in the attitude system or the similarity to the more recent Assassin’s Creed in clearing out enemy camps. In theory, it’s not doing anything new or unprecedented. But everything it does, it does really well, and most importantly, it presents it with the dense atmosphere of feudal Japan. There are minor technical problems, but that’s due to the big open world. On the other hand, Ghost of Tsushima emphasizes detail and overall player-friendliness, and these elements make up for the minor flaws.

Conclusion

In short, Ghost of Tsushima is a great open-world game spiced up with elements taken from other games and genres. In theory, it does nothing new and unprecedented. What it does do, however, is that it does really well, and most importantly, it presents itself in the impressive guise of feudal Japan and fantastic and natural gameplay with cool animations.
Soon, we will cover multiplayer combat mode Ghost of Tsushima: Legends and fantastic DLC Itchy Island. Stay with us, and game on!

Where to Buy Ghost of Tsushima

1. Steam (PC): Available for $59.99. You can purchase the game directly from Steam​ 
2. Epic Games Store (PC): Also priced at $59.99. You can find it on the  Epic Games
3. PlayStation Store (PS4, PS5): The Director’s Cut is available for $69.99. Check it out on the PlayStation Store
4. Direct PlayStation (PC): The digital code for the Director’s Cut is available for $59.99. Purchase it from PlayStation Direct​

The post Ghost of Tsushima: Mastering the Art of Samurai and Stealth appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

The Ubisoft Forward 2024 showcase has drawn to close. Don't worry if you missed it, though, as we're about to go over everything which made an appearance during the showcase. From major releases to updates for existing titles to Assassin's Creed - because this is Ubisoft Forward and there has to be Assassin's Creed news. It's the law.

You'll find all of the announcements below, along with their accompanying trailers, for everything shown during Ubisoft Forward 2024.

While the Ubisoft Forward 2024 pre-show actually began with a dicussion about Skull and Bones water mechanics, the first proper game trailer we got was for Rocksmith+, a game designed to teach you how to play the guitar. Well, it can now also teach you how to play the piano. You can try RockSmith+ for free on PlayStation 4 and 5.

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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss everything shown at the Xbox Showcase last night: one of the best summer preview events in recent years, and one of Microsoft's best ever.

On the one hand, perhaps the trove of upcoming titles should be expected. After all, this is what you should get when you spend nearly $100bn buying up swathes of the games industry. On the other, well, Microsoft has seemed to perenially exist on promising that next year's crop of first-party games will finally be where its acquisition spree pays off, where Game Pass truly hits the big time, and where it at last starts clawing back some market share.

After watching the avalanche of announcements last night (Doom! Gears! Perfect Dark!) alongside everything else we knew was coming (Fable! Indy! More Diablo!) it's hard to see how the next 12 months couldn't make an impact - let alone the boost of launching Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 into Xbox Game Pass. Could Xbox finally feel like it's hitting its stride this console generation, after numerous misfires? Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.

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At this evening's Xbox showcase, Bethesda and developer Machine Games gave us all another little peek at Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.

The team shared a look at what it calls a "pivotal cinematic", in which Indy and his sidekick (for this game at least) Gina "make a startling discovery in the Himalayas". There is a kerfuffle over a stone, and of course, some explosions and bad guys getting thrown off cliffs.

You can check it out for yourself below.

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Konami provided a fresh look at Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater at tonight's Xbox Games Showcase.

After snippets at previous showcases, this new trailer showed off plenty of gameplay of the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.

However, there's still no release date. Take a look at the trailer below.

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The Summer Game Fest stampede continues today with a big one: the Xbox Game Showcase. The show starts at 6pm UK time and we'll be covering all the major talking points right here, in a blow-by-blow account. As ever, you can watch the stream right here and chat about everything in the comments with us below.

What do we expect to see? Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from Wolfenstein developer MachineGames, the Shattered Space expansion for Starfield, and possibly Flight Simulator 2024. I'm also holding out hope for a proper look at the Fable reboot, and there's a chance we may see the new Gears of War game that The Coalition has been working on. That's a pretty solid line-up, if it all comes to pass.

However, it's against the backdrop of studio closures and redundancies that Microsoft takes to the stage, so it'll be interesting to see if there's any reaction or reference to that. Microsoft has also made some bold moves in recent months to make previously Xbox-exclusive games available on PlayStation, so I wonder whether that initiative will continue with other games. It's an important moment for Microsoft; let's see what it's got.

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Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Indy’s upcoming FPS adventure game, has a new ‘Official Showcase Reveal’ trailer, officially showcasing and revealing basically nothing about the game except that it features some pretty and decently acted cutscenes, which we already knew from the previous reveal. It does have snow nazis in however, possibly the rarest flavour of Nazi after Cookies n’ Cream and Original. You’ll find the trailer below. Be careful: it’s official. Also, it’s mainly just one very long cutscene, so if you want to save that stuff for when the game’s out, maybe don’t bother.

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The Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remake - aka Metal Gear Solid Delta - resurfaced during tonight’s Xbox Games Showcase. We still don’t have a release date, despite signs we might see the remake of the 2004 game this year, but we did get a pretty good look at a bunch of key moments from the original remade in the shiny Unreal Engine 5 do-over - including a look at The Boss and the familiar gravelly tones of Snake actor David Hayter.

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Customer service jobs in supermarkets feel like a rite of passage in the UK. They offer an instructive and character-shaping congregation of work-placed nightmares. Whether it's the repeat shoplifters with odd nicknames, chancers who believe the warehouse should have every out-of-stock item available within seconds, or just the complainers unhappy that you've had the audacity to run out of ready-peeled quail eggs (that actually happened) we all have retail horror stories that linger in the mind long after other, more obviously important events, have faded. No wonder then, that upon finding the game One Minute to Close at WASD 2024, memories of working at a Waitrose in my student days immediately came flooding back.

SleepySwan Studios has chosen to explore the particular retail pain of customers who choose to show up right before closing. It's a common cruelty no matter which slice of the industry you work in. When you've had a long day stacking shelves or manning checkouts and the end is finally in sight, you just want to go home. "I only need a couple of things," you hear these people say while they wander aimlessly and delay your escape. The horror. Well, consider this payback, I guess. One Minute to Close doesn't just put you in the shoes of that dreaded late-night customer, it adds an inventive twist by turning the whole experience into a sandbox stealth mission.

Seriously. The game tasks you with finding six random items, giving you one real-time minute to search the store for everything you need. Grab a trolley and begin your late-night shopping: for those sixty seconds you can explore with total freedom. But when that time's up, the lights go out. You must then sneak towards the self-checkout after finding all six items, pay, and leave the building safely. It's easier said than done when your trolley's squeaking wheels clearly need some oil, and when the security guards roaming the aisles with flashlights are on high alert.

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Title: Hello Neighbor 2
Developer: Eerie Guest
Publisher: tinyBuild
Released: December 6, 2022
Platforms Available: PlayStation, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PC Game,
Platform Reviewed: Playstation 5

Expanding the Neighborhood: Quentin’s New Challenge

In the stealth puzzle horror game Hello Neighbor 2 from tinyBuild, you take on the role of investigative journalist Quentin as he tries to uncover the secrets of his neighbors. You’ll have to scour the homes of the other residents of the quaint town of Raven Brooks before shining a light on Mr. Peterson himself, the first game’s familiar antagonist. You’ll visit hunter and taxidermist Otto’s cozy log cabin, the giant mayor’s mansion, and the local baker Gerda.

Compared to its predecessor, Hello Neighbor 2 offers a more extensive and more varied game world. The first Hello Neighbor already boasted original graphics, largely retained in the sequel but have also been improved. The adventures of journalist Quentin can be enjoyed in a more colorful and generally more attractive graphic design. The creators’ creativity is then fully demonstrated in the detailed interior of the buildings, which also includes the puzzles themselves.

Enhanced Aesthetics, Overlooked Storytelling

While the game’s visuals have managed to move up a level, the story has yet to receive similar attention. Although the brand has introduced an original theme, the plot is still only told in hints in Hello Neighbor 2. The newly introduced characters of the inhabitants of Raven Brooks, the game only bothers to present them as villains to be shouldered. In doing so, the life stories of these remarkable characters could deepen Mr. Peterson’s intriguing lore. Unfortunately, the cutscenes don’t tell much about the character’s motivations. You’ll be left to fill in the gaps in the story, which, even after completing the game, at least in my case, are not closed. The developers have thus missed an opportunity to link new characters and puzzles (which currently function somewhat independently) through a tailored, full-fledged story that you won’t find in the game.

The genre identity of Hello Neighbor 2 is also debatable. The title is marketed as a stealth horror game, but you won’t be scared while playing it. Because of the overall flatness of the story, you ultimately won’t have any reason for the game’s negative characters to instill any sense of fear in you. Gerda, Otto, or Mr. Peterson himself function more as obstacles to slow you down in your puzzle-solving, but certainly not as characters whose presence will send chills down your spine.    

Puzzle Integration: A Step Forward in Intuitiveness

Hello Neighbor 2 has many puzzles. In each of the nine levels, you’re tasked with solving a few puzzles and getting a key to use in the following area. The leading role here is thus played by searching the corners of individual buildings, looking for parts of various mechanisms, following visual clues, and discovering the correct way to solve puzzles.

Suppose you prefer to avoid puzzle titles where you have to work out the right solution mainly by trial and error, which was partly the basis of the first game. In that case, you’ll probably like Hello Neighbor 2. In fact, the game offers a lot more nudges toward puzzle solving than its predecessor. The puzzles are more intuitive, and you’ll rarely find yourself needing help with how to proceed.

The correct order of the numerical code is indicated by the colored flags or a practically placed leaflet with a picture of a clock. When arranging the trophies on the shelf, you can rely on the photo next to them. What I enjoyed about Hello Neighbor 2, apart from the puzzles themselves, was their integration into the environment, where they are evenly placed so that you can explore almost every corner of the building or area while solving them.

As you solve the puzzles, you’ll be constantly watched by the residents of Raven Brooks, who won’t let a snooping journalist in their house get to you. Quentin has no way to defend himself and the only chance is to escape or hide in one of the hiding places located at each level. We got to know the artificial intelligence, which was able to learn from the player’s actions and then predict his actions in the first Hello Neighbor, and it worked well. Mr. Peterson gradually learned your routes, and as you moved through his house you’d find bear traps or strategically placed cameras that alerted him to your every move. The developers promised an AI upgrade in the sequel, with the characters simultaneously pursuing the player to be controlled by several advanced AIs.

AI Downgrade and Sluggish Movement

I don’t know where the mistake was made, but the AI in Hello Neighbor 2 needs to be improved. While it does happen that the AI will come after you, you’ll also encounter loose boards or a bell above a door in levels that will alert the AI. But you can get rid of it quickly – just sprint for a few seconds. Once you are far enough away from the AI (just a few metres), it will forget you even existed. For example, suppose you hide in one of the cupboards right under the nose of Otto the Hunter. In that case, his rage will immediately be replaced by an obnoxious “hmm,” and he’ll look for you at the other end of the house.

Unfortunately, apart from the AI, the controls have not seen any major improvements, as they are incredibly cumbersome in Hello Neighbor 2. A simple jump onto a ledge sometimes becomes a superhuman task that takes several attempts. Moreover, the game never gives you exact limits on where you can move and where your character can jump over obstacles.

Lost Potential: Fumbling on Familiar Grounds

As if the unpolished controls weren’t enough, I encountered countless bugs and lag in Hello Neighbor 2 that sometimes made the title unplayable. At one point, mis-loaded textures made it impossible to solve a puzzle. Five years after the release of the first Hello Neighbor, the creators at tinyBuild had the opportunity to capitalize on all the feedback and turn it into a great sequel. But we didn’t get to see that.

At the moment, you can already purchase Hello Neighbor 2 at a still relatively exorbitant price, or if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription so of the monthly games, the price also does not hide the fact that the creators most likely released the game mainly with the vision of high earnings. Unfortunately, Hello Neighbor 2’s technical incompleteness, awkward controls, virtually non-existent story, and underdeveloped AI overshadowed the good things about the game, which are the imaginative concept and visuals or the well-designed puzzles. A decent disappointment…

Where to Buy Hello Neighbor 2

You can purchase “Hello Neighbor 2” from various platforms for youe preferred gaming system:

• Steam (PC): Hello Neighbor 2 is available on Steam for $39.99. The game, developed and published by Eerie Guest and tinyBuild, offers features like single-player mode and Steam Achievements. You can check it out and purchase it here on Steam.
• Epic Games Store (PC): Also priced at $19.99 during a sale (regularly $39.99), available on the Epic Games Store. This version includes features like achievements and a self-refundable purchase option. Find more details and purchase the game here on Epic Games Store.
• Xbox: On the Xbox platform, Hello Neighbor 2 costs $39.99 and is available with features such as Xbox Play Anywhere, Cloud-enabled, and optimized for Xbox Series X|S. Check it out here on Xbox.
• PlayStation Store (PS4 and PS5): The PlayStation Store offers different editions of Hello Neighbor 2, including the Deluxe Edition, which offers additional content at higher prices. Visit the PlayStation Store to purchase or learn more. The Deluxe Edition is available for $39.99 on PlayStation.

The post Hello Neighbor 2: A Sequel’s Struggle with Ambition and Execution appeared first on WePlayGames.net: Home for Top Gamers.

Great was the consternation of singleplayer horror likers at the popularity of Lethal Company, a landmark creepfest and satire of corporate piecework that is best enjoyed in groups of four. When will developer Zeekerss give us a proper singleplayer campaign mode, the loners of the gaming community wondered, peering from their boltholes and eyries. A Lethal Sole Trader, as it were - or failing that, how about some bot support? Well, this particular monkeypaw finger has curled. It curled about four years ago, actually, when Zeekerss released singleplayer-only horror compilation It Steals.

I've been playing It Steals (available on Itch and Steam for £4 or $5) as part of our latest Lethal Company-dedicated Game Club, and let me tell you, it makes Lethal Company look positively, er, Nonlethal. There are many points of comparison between games, but while Lethal Company is geared more obviously for laughs, with its whoopie cushions and ReactionTube-friendly co-op mechanics, It Creeps just wants to scare you shitless. It's also brilliant.

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Some new videogame releases pounce on us like excitable Golden Retrievers, while others become apparent to us more insidiously, like undead Golden Retrievers creeping back from the grave to do their master's bidding unto eternity. Withering Rooms is one of the latter: released out of early access last week, and noticed by me just yesterday, it's a haunted mansion metroidvania in which you are a small girl in a nightie who must use meat cleavers, pentagrams and spells of self-enlargement or possession or incineration to overcome various monsters of the Silently Hilly and/or Residentially Evil persuasion. No, none of the monsters are Golden Retrievers.

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Last night's Xbox Partner Preview showcase gave us our first look at Sleight of Hand, an occult noir deckbuilding stealth sim from RiffRaff Games. And, it looks Ace (see what I did there?).

On Sleight of Hand's release next year across Xbox Series X/S and PC (including day one on Game Pass), players will take on the role of Lady Luck, a former occult detective "fated to return for one final job". And that job? Taking down her former Coven after a "less than amicable departure" which saw her lose her left hand.

"Too tired to fight fate any longer, and with more overdue bills than bucks to her name, Lady Luck strikes out to Steeple City with a cursed deck in hand, ready to track down everyone from her past life," reads Sleight of Hands description.

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Sleight of Hand is an upcoming stealth-action game in which your sneaky detective uses cards to sneak around enemies while on the hunt for your former cult. It’s from the co-creator of acclaimed mobile game Framed, and has more than one connection to Metal Gear Solid going for it.

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The tides have turned in the cultural consensus on videogame adaptations, thanks to the success of The Last of Us, Sonic movies, and more well-received live-action projects in recent years. This might be good news for Watch Dogs, which is lined up to receive the big-screen treatment.