No Rest for the Wicked is the new project from Moon Studios, the team behind Ori and the Blind Forest and its sequel and it looks as beautiful as you'd expect. It's a top-down action RPG set in the year 841, in a kingdom that's just lost its king. His arrogant and inexperienced son has taken over, and the Pestilence is sweeping the land. The turmoil has led a powerful religious leader to expand her influence in the region, and groups on the fringes are fighting for control wherever they can. You play as a holy warrior called a Cerim, imbued with magic and destined to fight the Pestilence.
No Rest for the Wicked emphasizes action and precision in a gorgeous medieval setting, and it includes online co-op for up to four players total. It's due to hit early access on Steam in the first quarter of 2024, and it will eventually come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Moon Studios debuted the project at The Game Awards with a cinematic trailer, promising more details during a digital showcase called Wicked Inside on March 1. Private Division is publishing the game.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/no-rest-for-the-wicked-is-a-medieval-action-rpg-from-the-ori-team-020119459.html?src=rss
God of War Ragnarok is a game so large that it practically has a whole second game tucked away inside. And yet that still doesn't seem to be quite enough Norse action for Kratos. During The Game Awards, Sony revealed a Valhalla-centric expansion for the 2022 hit.
Not only that, it's free. And it's coming next week, on December 12, to both PS4 and PS5 versions of the base game.
Much like with the No Return mode in the upcoming The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Sony is leaning into the roguelite format here. In the trailer, Kratos is shown getting slammed into the ground by a wyvern. He then wakes up to hear Mimir telling him there's "no shame in what just happened. It's all part of the process. Let's go again!"
On each run, you'll have to contend with fresh combinations of enemies and some surprises, according to the PlayStation Blog. The more enemies you take down, the more resources you'll earn to put towards permanent upgrades. While you'll have access to Kratos' skill trees from the main game, you'll need to stick with one shield and one Spartan Rage path on each run. You'll also unlock temporary perks as you progress through each attempt.
And don't worry too much if that all seems daunting. There are five difficulty settings to choose from and there will still be an extensive array of accessibility options at your disposal.
It seems the DLC will dig into a new part of Kratos' story as well. "Embark with Kratos to Valhalla on a deeply personal and reflective journey towards a future he never thought possible," the trailer's YouTube description reads. That suggests the expansion will lead into the next game in the series. While you can jump into Valhalla at any time, the developer recommend finishing the base game's main story first. That's because the DLC acts as an epilogue.
There have been rumors floating around for a while that Santa Monica Studio was working on DLC for God of War Ragnarok. That it will be available at no extra cost (and so soon!) is a nice little holiday treat for fans.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/god-of-war-ragnarok-is-getting-a-free-roguelite-expansion-next-week-015012803.html?src=rss
Not content to rest on its honkin' laurels after the success of 2019's indie smash hit Untitled Goose Game, House House unveiled the first teaser footage for its new adventure title at the 2023 Game Awards Thursday night.
Big Walk looks to be a significant departure from its predecessor in both tone and scope. The team describes it as "a cooperative online walker-talker" that encourages players to "hang out and get lost with close friends in a big world."
The online coop game is set on an expansive bruch-covered island that's overflowing with mysteries to uncover and challenges to overcome. In the trailer we can see a group of oddly-limbed avatars strolling around a hillside, solving puzzles, exploring strange caves and setting off signal flares. Cooperation will be a big part of the game. Players will need to work together to navigate through the terrain and keep in contact with one another while out and about.
Our favourite part of playing online coop games is when they give you enough direction for the group to keep up a good momentum, but its relaxed enough that youre mostly just able to enjoy spending time with your friends. We hope Big Walk gives players that direction, and space, to focus on and enjoy those group dynamics, whether youre playing with one friend or as a big group, Jake Strasser, developer at House House, said in a Thursday release. Big Walk is slated to arrive on Steam and the Epic Game Store in 2025. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-walk-is-the-next-project-from-the-untitled-goose-game-team-014503842.html?src=rss
Dead Cells developer Motion Twin dropped one of the first eye-popping trailers of the Game Awards 2023 (in the pre-show, no less). The visually striking Windblown is billed as a lightning-fast action roguelike, bringing a whole new level of speed to the action rogue-like genre.
Windblown takes place in The Ark, a floating village in the sky, full of innocent souls. It orbits the deadly Vortex with its army of Sentinels, as they threaten to devour the protagonists aerial home. Playing solo or multiplayer, youll control characters called Leapers, who absorb the memories of the fallen warriors who came before, learning how to master the fighting styles of their predecessors to unleash their full potential.
The games blurb invites you to find your rhythm in the fast-paced combat, which the trailer appears to back up. Both its cutscenes and gameplay use a cel-shaded art style that should at least comfort you with plenty of eye candy as you die 20 times in a row.
Windblown is scheduled to arrive in early access on PC in 2024. You can add it to your Steam wishlist now.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/windblown-is-the-next-game-from-the-creators-of-dead-cells-012941545.html?src=rss
Atlus and its subsidiary Studio Zero have finally released a new trailer for the forthcoming RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio at The Game Awards. The titles being helmed by many of the talented folks behind Persona 5, including director Katsura Hashino and composer Shoji Meguro. The primary difference? This game takes place in a fantasy setting, with nary a high school or talking cat in sight.
The game was originally teased earlier this year, but all we had was a title and a small announcement trailer. Now this trailer is the real deal, with full voice acting, cinematics and plenty of actual gameplay. A video game trailer with actual gameplay, what a novel concept.
As for that gameplay, the combat looks similar to Persona, though without the use of the titular beasties. The game is populated by a diverse cast of characters and if you stare at the menus you can see some tell-tale signs of a robust social element at play, another similarity to the Persona series.
Theres also something of a steampunk vibe running throughout, which is always a nifty choice for a video game. Who knows, maybe theres a sinister blue door somewhere in the world populated by a creepy old man. Metaphor: ReFantazio The Royal Tournament, a name Square Enix would love, launches in fall of next year on Xbox X/S and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-a-new-trailer-for-that-cool-looking-fantasy-rpg-from-the-persona-5-team-012127188.html?src=rss
Exodus is the first game from Archetype Entertainment, a studio established by Wizards of the Coast in 2019 and staffed by former developers from BioWare, 343 Industries, Naughty Dog and other AAA establishments. Exodus is a big and bold sci-fi RPG that deals with time dilation, the idea that time passes more slowly than we're used to during high-velocity travel, causing interstellar explorers to outlive their friends and family back home.
In Exodus, humanity has been forced to abandon Earth and establish a new civilization in a hostile galaxy. Players are the Traveler, a person tasked with exploring far-off solar systems for advanced alien technology. What the Traveler counts in days, the rest of humanity experiences in decades. With this conceit, players' choices will cause butterfly effects to ripple across humanity's new planet, particularly in the lives of their own loved ones, and the Traveler will watch these play out over generations.
Player choice is a big part of Exodus, affecting individual combat moments and helping to shape the overall story arc. The game includes alien weaponry and classic gunplay, a deep progression system, and a swathe of companion characters (yes, romance is on the table). Also, Matthew McConaughey is in Exodus in some way, and he presented the game at The Game Awards, unveiling its first trailer.
Archetype, a division of Wizards of the Coast, is packed with stellar sci-fi video game talent. It includes studio head James Ohlen (Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins), executive producer Chad Robertson (Star Wars: The Old Republic), director Chris King (Halo 4), and narrative director Drew Karpyshyn (Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2). The focus on time dilation and personal loss in Exodus underscores the team's desire to build an emotional, narrative-driven game, with action as an engaging but supplementary feature and they have the résumés to pull that off.
Exodus is in development for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/exodus-is-a-new-sci-fi-rpg-from-former-bioware-343-and-naughty-dog-developers-011433508.html?src=rss
The Game Awards got off to a flying start with a string of fascinating announcements during the pre-show. One of the freshly revealed games that's coming your way soon is Thrasher, which is from the artist and composer behind the 2016 nightmare-inducing factory Thumper.
Thrasher will see you take control of a space eel at the dawn of time. You'll need to master "fast-paced gesture controls" to evolve this creature into a so-called megabeast. While it might not be a direct sequel to Thumper, the trailer suggests it'll share some of the previous game's DNA. It seems like there will once again be mind-melting visuals to match a pulsating, anxious soundtrack. I'm terrified already.
Thrasher is coming to PC, consoles and virtual reality platforms in 2024.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-looks-like-another-nightmare-inducing-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-010802152.html?src=rss
Earlier this year, Google announced it would shut down its standalone podcast app in 2024. Since then, the company has started moving podcasts into YouTube and its companion app YouTube Music. As a way to ease the transition, Google will be rolling out a migration tool for its current podcast app users. With the tool, users in the US will be able to move their favorite pod subscriptions from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music, or export them for use in other podcast apps.
In the coming weeks, the migration tool will be available through a banner in Google Podcasts. There are step-by-step instructions on how to use the migration tool in Google's Help Center. The entire process is just four steps and youll need to have both Google Podcasts and YouTube Music installed on your device to complete the transfer. After the transfer, Google notes it may take a few minutes for everything to show up in your YouTube Music library.
Google's move to ditch its standalone podcast app doesn't come as a total surprise. Google Podcasts has been around since 2018 but it never quite took off like similar apps, including Overcast and Spotify. And YouTube is already a popular destination for podcast fans, with a recent study claiming over 23 percent of podcasts listeners use YouTube as their primary player. Many of today's trending podcasts are already available on YouTube. For podcasts that are not available on the platform, users can add shows directly to their YouTube Music library via RSS feed. This isn't Google's first rodeo. Back in 2020, the company nixed its standalone music app, Google Play Music, in favor of YouTube Music, and it also offered a comprehensive tool to transfer libraries to the new app.
Google Podcasts will remain live for listening through March 2024, after which users will be able to migrate or export their subscriptions through July 2024.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/heres-how-to-move-your-subscriptions-off-google-podcasts-before-it-shuts-down-194039938.html?src=rss
Metas latest update for Threads will address a long-running feature request for the companys Twitter competitor: topic tags. The company is adding searchable tags to make it easier for people to find conversations that interest them.
Mark Zuckeberg previewed the change last month, but the feature is now available to all Threads users, according to the company. With the update, Threads users can append one tag to each post, and the app will surface tag suggestions and stats about how many other users have used the topic in the past.
Notably, though the feature can be found under the familiar # symbol, Threads tags are a bit different than hashtags. As Instagram head Adam Mosseri noted in a post, Threads tags can contain spaces and special characters. Threads posts are also limited to a single tag per post, so users may want to think carefully about which tag they select.
Hashtags have been a long-requested feature for Metas Twitter competitor, and many users have questioned why the company didnt carry over the feature, which is also widely used on Instagram. It seems Meta has been slow to adopt the feature, however, because of fears of how it could be misused on the rapidly growing platform.
Hashtags, while long popular on Instagram and X, have also been misused. On Instagram, hashtags have been used to spread misinformation and other incredibly problematic content. And while Meta has already imposed search limitations on potentially sensitive content on Threads, the added restrictions on tags might discourage other kinds of abuse. The hope is this design focuses tags more on communities and less on engagement hacking, Mosseri explained.
But even with the limitations, the addition of tags could help make Threads more useful for tracking real-time conversations. And the fact that tags include stats about how much theyre being used suggests it could also be a precursor to some kind of trending topics feature, which has been the source of much speculation.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/metas-threads-is-getting-searchable-topics-just-dont-call-them-hashtags-191915209.html?src=rss
The tenth edition of the Game Awards is upon us. The event unfolds Thursday evening, with host Geoff Keighley scheduled to take the stage at 7:30PM ET. In addition to the myriad trailers, announcements, gameplay clips and speeches, six titles will compete for the coveted Game of the Year award. Engadget will cover all the big news as it happens, and you can watch along below.
Baldurs Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 lead the pack with eight total nominations. Theyll compete for Game of the Year with Marvels Spider-Man 2 (seven nods), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (five), The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (five) and the Resident Evil 4 remake (four).
Nintendo had a banner year, even as the Switch likely approaches its swan song. The company raked in 15 total nominations the most of any publisher. Sony was next, with 13 nods, while Microsoft (including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard) received 10 noms. Meanwhile, Epic Games, the only non-hardware-producing publisher in the top four, snagged nine.
The awards show includes 31 total awards in areas as diverse as Best Action Game, Best Esports Coach and Best Independent Game. The indie category opened a can of worms this year, as the beloved Dave the Diver was included in the category despite being produced by a subsidiary of Nexon, a behemoth with an $18.3 billion market cap.
You can tune into the Game Awards on YouTube, Twitch (and other platforms) at 7:30PM ET on Thursday. Or, watch below:
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-the-game-awards-2023-here-at-730pm-et-190011911.html?src=rss
