Monster Hunter is one of Capcom's biggest franchises at this point, so of course the company has been cooking up another mainline entry. It's called Monster Hunter Wilds and it's coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2025.
The trailer shows the player character and several creatures trying to escape a dust storm before lightning strikes. The air then clears to reveal a lush landscape teeming with wildlife. There wasn't a whole lot else to the announcement clip other than the appearance of a dragon, but hey, it looks pretty and it gives fans of the series something to look forward to.
Series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said at The Game Awards his team plans to show off much more of the game in the summer of 2024. In the meantime, fans can keep themselves occupied with the likes of Monster Hunter Now and a Monster Hunter crossover that's set to go live in Exoprimal next month.
Monster Hunter Wilds. The next generation in the genre defining series. Launching in 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC/Steam. #MHWilds pic.twitter.com/HLCkHbXLfF Monster Hunter (@monsterhunter) December 8, 2023
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/capcoms-next-big-monster-hunter-game-is-wilds-coming-in-2025-042312977.html?src=rss
Xbox-only gamers have had to patiently bide their time until Baldur's Gate 3, one of the biggest titles of 2023, hit Microsoft's consoles. The RPG came out of early access on PC in August and it landed on PS5 the following month. However, technical issues held up the Xbox Series X/S version until now.
Developer and publisher Larian Studios had pledged to release the Xbox version by the end of the year and said it would reveal the exact date at The Game Awards. True to its word, Larian announced that the Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 is out right now.
Along with Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3 had the most nominations (eight) of any title at The Game Awards 2023. It ultimately won six: Best Performer, Best Role Playing Game, Best Community Support, Best Multiplayer Game, Players' Voice and the big one, Game of the Year.
The Xbox delay was due to a technical problem with the Series S. As Larian's director of publishing Michael Douse wrote in July, "We cannot remove the split-screen feature because we are obliged to launch with feature parity, and so continue to try and make it work. However, Larian said the following month that, after meeting with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, it had found a solution that would allow it to support split-screen on Series X but not Series S.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/baldurs-gate-3-is-available-now-on-xbox-series-xs-040406055.html?src=rss
UK indie studio Hello Games is building something that it's calling "more ambitious" than No Man's Sky. The studio's next game is Light No Fire, and it brings procedural generation to an entire planet on an incredibly detailed scale.
Light No Fire is an open-world exploration and community-building game set on a planet the size of Earth, blending RPG elements with sandbox survival. It's a multiplayer experience on an ancient and fantastical planet, with climbable trees, hills and mountains, and secrets to discover at every turn. It's "the first real open world," according to Hello Games co-founder Sean Murray.
Light No Fire has been in development for five years, by about a dozen developers at Hello Games. In the title's first trailer, it looks like the team took an entire planet from No Man's Sky and filled it completely with life, resources and mysteries.
There's no release date for Light No Fire and no confirmed platforms, and the game was kept in complete secrecy until its reveal at The Game Awards on December 7.
Hello Games is synonymous with No Mans Sky, a sprawling and incredibly popular space-exploration sim that landed in 2016 and only got better with time. But before the indie studio scored a huge marketing deal with Sony for No Mans Sky before one of its founders was meeting with Steven Spielberg and appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Hello Games was known for the cartoony sidescroller Joe Danger.
UK developers Ryan Doyle, Grant Duncan, Sean Murray and David Ream founded Hello Games in 2009, after quitting their jobs at major studios like EA and Criterion. This was before the modern indie boom, at a time when XBLA was just getting started and Steam had only a handful of indie games.
"Actually breaking away and doing your own thing was a stupid thing to do at the time," Murray told me in 2016.
For nine months, the Hello Games quartet worked on Joe Danger, a 3D sidescroller starring a happy-go-lucky dirtbike daredevil, and they tried to lock down a publisher. No one was interested.
"Everyone turned us down," Murray said in 2016. "Sony turned us down, and Microsoft and so many places."
Out of money and resigned to giving up on their indie dreams, Doyle, Duncan, Murray and Ream went to the pub.
"We came up with this stupid idea," Murray said. "I had a house, and so I sold my house to pay for the rest of development. The way I looked at it was like, I had bought that house because I had worked at EA, so it was like blood money. Like a blood diamond. You gotta sell that; that's bad karma."
And he really did. Built on loans and the money from Murrays house sale, Joe Danger came out on June 9, 2010, and it was a hit. Hello Games followed it up with Joe Danger 2: The Movie in 2012. By then, the studio was an established indie hit-maker and it had relationships with major publishers. In December 2013, the team revealed something entirely unexpected: No Mans Sky, a multiplayer game the size of the universe and filled with galaxies of procedurally generated planets to explore.
Hello Games
The next summer, No Mans Sky had a tentpole moment at Sonys E3 press conference, and the AAA marketing machine was activated. Sony leaned heavily on Hello Games to bolster its image as an indie curator, and over the next two years, the buzz around No Mans Sky reached astronomical heights. Spielberg, Colbert, Kanye West and Elon Musk all got involved in their own ways, and No Man's Sky was a household name years before it launched.
By the time the game came out, it was impossible for it to live up to the hype. No Mans Sky promised a universe of procedurally generated planets to explore, teeming with minerals and creatures and other players to encounter, but at launch on August 9, 2016, it was buggy and empty. The bones of a fantastic game were there, but some players felt so misled by Sony's intense marketing campaign that they filed a lawsuit against Hello Games.
The team kept working on No Mans Sky, releasing bug fixes, updates and expansions, including a VR version. Over the years, the vision that players were initially sold clarified in-game, and the online rage died down until it was fully replaced by admiration. Since launch, No Mans Sky has won multiple high-profile awards, including Best Ongoing Game at The Game Awards 2020. This year, its nominated at The Game Awards in the Best Community Support category.
Hello Games
"It's become so much simpler two years out from launch," Murray told me in 2019. "At launch, we were so focused on trying to please the partners that we were working with, trying to market our game, trying to live up to expectations that we were really struggling to meet."
No Mans Sky in particular is Murrays brainchild, and he was the face of the game as it rose and fell and rose again in public perception. He and the rest of the Hello Games team which is bigger than four developers nowadays have been keeping silent about their internal projects, and its easy to understand why.
"They are super talented and I didn't want to just move on and let that be their legacy," Murray said in 2019. "It's really nice for them to be able to say to people, 'I worked on No Man's Sky,' and people to be really happy and positive about it now. That is something that they deserved."
This history makes todays reveal of Light No Fire even sweeter. Fourteen years after that fateful night in the pub, Hello Games is a testament to persistence.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-makers-of-no-mans-sky-will-simulate-a-whole-planet-for-light-no-fire-035108958.html?src=rss
Arkane Lyon, the developer of Deathloop, is making a game based on Marvels resident vampire hunter Blade. Theres a trailer, but its just a cinematic with no gameplay. Still, this is very exciting news as Arkane Lyon is the talented team behind Prey and the Dishonored 2. It also made the vampire shooter Redfall, which had some good ideas that were marred by, well, some very bad ideas. Heres hoping the second times a holy watered charm.
This doesnt have anything to do with Marvels upcoming Blade film, which has been in and out of development hell these past few years. Its an original game set in Paris that adapts the comic book character. Arkane calls it a mature single-player adventure, so it's likely to feature more gore than other Marvel games because, well, thats kind of Blades whole bag. As usual, Marvel Games is on board, as VP and creative director Bill Roseman took the stage at The Game Awards after the trailer reveal.
Marvel is fairly hands-on with its games nowadays, and recent titles like Spider-Man 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy had its stamp of approval. Theres no release date and no announced platforms for Blade, though the entire team at Arkane Lyon is currently pouring so much love into the game.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/arkane-lyon-is-making-a-blade-game-and-were-all-very-excited-032148485.html?src=rss
After what feels like countless delays (seriously, our first hands-on with it was in mid-2017), Ubisoft's Skull and Bones finally has a release date. As revealed at The Game Awards, the action-adventure game is at last set to land on February 16, 2024. Ubisoft+ subscribers and those who pre-order can hop in three days earlier.
As this name suggests, this is a game all about piracy. You can choose to set sail on a pirate ship by yourself or team up with a friend or two in co-op play. You'll battle settlements and other ships, "defy legendary pirate myths" and face off against fearsome creatures from the deep.
If you have a pirate-sized itch to scratch and Sea of Thieves isn't quite cutting it for you, you can register for the Skull and Bones closed beta, which will run from December 15 to 18. The game is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Amazon Luna. At one point, Skull and Bones was supposed to arrive on Google Stadia, but the cloud gaming platform has both debuted and died since the game's first delay.
Skull and Bones will release on February 16, 2024! Pre-order available now: https://t.co/wUrakdZF4uPlay up to 3 days early with the Premium Edition, or by subscribing to Ubisoft+.#TheGameAwards #SkullandBones pic.twitter.com/4nqsxy8BIy The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 8, 2023
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ubisofts-long-delayed-skull-and-bones-is-finally-set-to-arrive-on-february-16-031617196.html?src=rss
Hideo Kojima officially unveiled his upcoming game (that leaked in 2022) at the Game Awards 2023. Previously described as something no one has ever experienced or seen before, the cinematic OD (previously known as Overdose) will include a collaboration with horror director and comedian Jordan Peele.
ODs 90-second trailer includes intimate closeups of actors reading nursery rhymes and other dialogue as they grow increasingly frantic. In the clips final moments, you catch a glimpse of a door opening in the reflection of their eyes (with a creaking sound hammering the point home). Wherever the games plot takes us, the trailer makes it clear it falls squarely in the horror genre (as expected).
We already knew the title would be published by Xbox Game Studios, relying heavily on Microsofts cloud technology. Previous leaks indicated Death Stranding actor Margaret Qualley would play the protagonist, although she was nowhere to be found in the trailer. The billed cast in the trailer includes Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer and Udo Kier.
You can watch ODs cryptic trailer below.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hideo-kojimas-xbox-game-is-the-cinematic-horrorfest-od-024342457.html?src=rss
If riding velociraptors and giant mechas wasn't enough for its discerning players, Fortnite is incorporating a semi-standalone racing game into its free-for-all universe. On Thursday at the 2023 Game Awards, Epic revealed more cinematic gameplay footage mere hours before the game is set to launch.
Developed by Psyonix, the folks who built Rocket League (itself an e-sport staple), the Rocket Racing mode operates within the larger Fortnite game. The action is set at the Festive Falls track where racers go head-to-head to compete for the top spot.
In the trailer shown at the Awards, players raced through the track using directional boosters to launch their cars over obstacles, drift them through turns, and fly through hidden shortcuts. Players will also apparently be able to call items from their inventories to use mid-race, blinking them into existence in their opponents' paths. Rocket Racing is set to officially launch on Friday December 8.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/epic-games-shows-off-more-of-fortnites-rocket-racing-mode-ahead-of-its-launch-023944541.html?src=rss
Sorry Evolution fans, theres a new Jurassic Park game in town. Saber Interactive and Universal just dropped a trailer for Jurassic Park: Survival at The Game Awards. This is an adventure game set on Isla Nublar just one day after the events of the original film. You play as InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who missed the last plane out of dodge. In other words, shes stuck on an island full of hungry dinosaurs.
The single-player action-adventure has you hiding from all kinds of menacing species, and the publisher boasts that each dinosaur boasts its own set of distinct and adaptive behaviors. Obviously, with a name like Jurassic Park: Survival, staying alive will be the name of the game. Theres not much, after all, one person can do to hurt a rampaging T-rex. This looks to be a stealth-heavy nailbiter, but one with all of the familiar landmarks from the film. It even features that iconic John Williams theme.
Theres no release date yet, so we likely have a bit of time before we get our hands on this one. Jurassic Park: Survival launches on Xbox X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC. Theres just one final question on my mind. Will the player find the body of recently-deceased Dennis Nedry? The dude sucked, but he didnt deserve that.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jurassic-park-survival-is-an-adventure-game-set-one-day-after-the-original-film-023630203.html?src=rss
Sega promised a new era at The Game Awards, and it gave us five games to look forward to. Well, "new" is doing a lot of heavy lifting: The storied developer announced that fresh titles are coming based on Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Shinobi, Golden Axe and Streets of Rage.
Depending on your age, those titles may mean various things to you. Golden Axe and Shinobi have their roots in the arcades of the '80s, while Streets of Rage is a Genesis classic. Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio were both released in the Dreamcast era (with Crazy Taxi making its debut in arcades first).
Several prominent fighting game creators received physical invites from Sega to tune into The Game Awards, fueling speculation that a Virtua Fighter revival was part of the company's plans for the event. Unless Sega is holding another trailer back, it looks like those folks will be leaving a little disappointed.
Segas parent company SegaSammy has been awkwardly talking about a "Super Game" project since 2021. The term was only really defined as a game capable of making hundreds of millions of dollars for Sega. Super! In the same investor presentation, the company openly contemplated reviving dormant properties like Virtua Fighter, Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi by way of remasters, remakes and reboots.
Other game series listed for revival, such as Space Channel 5, Panzer Dragoon and Streets of Rage, have seen some action. Space Channel 5 got a remastered VR port, Panzer Dragoon got a remake and Streets of Rage got an excellent new numbered release, Streets of Rage 4, developed and published by third parties under license from Sega.
Four of the new titles appear from the tiny glimpses in Sega's trailer to be high-budget 3D affairs. The Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio revivals seem to be glossy HD takes on the games they're based on, while the Golden Axe reboot in particular is unrecognizable from the 2D scroller it's based on. Streets of Rage also appears to be going all-3D. Only Shinobi looks somewhat familiar, using a 2D style close to Dotemu's Windjammers 2 and Streets of Rage 4.
Sega
The Sega of today is very different to the one that made the originals. The turn of the century saw Sega battle through a multi-stage midlife crisis in search of a new identity; The Dreamcast was in the process of being thoroughly outsold by Sonys PlayStation 2, leading Sega to exit the console business in 2001. At the same time, the 90s arcade revival that saw Sega become a technology leader was fading fast.
After some missteps in the early days of third-party publishing, and an acquisition by pachinko manufacturer Sammy, Sega began to find its feet. The mid 00s saw the debut of the Yakuza series, and the company has made several key acquisitions since, such as Sports Interactive (Football Manager), Creative Assembly (Total War), Relic Entertainment (Warhammer), Atlus, (Megami Tensei/Persona) and, most recently, Angry Birds maker Rovio. Its also seen success in cinemas with its Sonic the Hedgehog movies.
And here I am just waiting on a new Seaman game.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sega-is-resurrecting-its-classics-including-jet-set-radio-crazy-taxi-and-golden-axe-022041470.html?src=rss
Supermassive Games just dropped a trailer for its forthcoming single-player interactive story game set in the Dead by Daylight universe. The Casting of Frank Stone is a character-driven narrative adventure that features all of the character choice and tension of Supermassive-developed titles like Until Dawn and The Quarry.
The developer promises powerful life or death choices and an entirely new cast of characters. Supermassive says this is a whole new way for horror fans to experience the franchise, and thats something of an understatement. Dead by Deadlight is an asymmetrical multiplayer title in which one player is the killer and the others are trying to survive. Its like a really intense version of hide and seek. Obviously, a single player adventure would have to be completely different, which the trailer certainly leans into.
As you can see, the game looks slow, moody and cinematic, which is a stark departure from the source material. The trailer's short of actual gameplay details, but there are some first person shots of a flashlight in the woods, so that's something.
We already knew this crossover was in the works, but the trailer debut at The Game Awards is our first real look at the game. Supermassive is known for putting its own B-horror spin on things, so The Casting of Frank Stone should be a good time when it launches in 2024 for Xbox X/S and PC via Steam and Windows. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/supermassives-dead-by-daylight-spin-off-is-the-casting-of-frank-stone-020153336.html?src=rss
