Nominees for The Game Awards were released yesterday, and there's a whole lot of indie excellence on display. However, one notable contender among them has decided to withdraw from contention.
The fabulously titled Megabonk received a nod for the Best Debut Indie Game category. However, the project creator, who currently goes by vedinad, announced on X today that they were withdrawing. "I've made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game," the solo dev said.
I'm withdrawing from The Game Awards.
It's an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, but unfortunately i don't think it qualifies for the category "Debut Indie Game"
I've made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game 🥸
The category is kind of a weird one, since indie creators may have worked at other big or small studios. Even fully self-taught devs will have made and maybe even released several projects before having any kind of breakthrough success or popularity. But if vedinad feels the game doesn't fit the category, then it's still a gracious move to bow out.
Megabonk follows in the recent lineage of Vampire Survivors, a popular bullet-hell roguelike that just arrived in virtual reality. The Megabonk riff takes the 2D concept into a low-poly 3D and adds some pretty wacky characters into the mix. Venidad said the title sold 1 million copies in just two weeks, making it one of the latest Steam indie sensations to have a big moment.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/megabonk-has-withdrawn-from-the-game-awards-212822746.html?src=rss
There's finally a way to gift games purchased on the Epic Games Store. Epic has announced that it's now possible to gift digital games through the Epic Games Store, provided the person you're sending them to has an Epic Games account.
On a game's store page, you'll now see a Gift button under the normal Buy Now button. Clicking it will prompt you to log in to your Epic account if you haven't done so already, and then ask you to enter the Epic account of whoever you're sending the game to, pick one message from a selection of pre-written messages and then select the date you want the gift to "arrive."
The menu that appears when you purchase a game as a gift.
Ian Carlos Campbell for Engadget
Epic says that if the person you're sending the game to already owns it, you'll be automatically refunded. If the other person chooses to reject the gift, you'll also receive your money back. Not every purchase on the Epic Games Store can be gifted, though. Free games, subscriptions, "pre-purchase offers" and in-game currency are excluded.
Gifting is a basic feature of online stores, so on some level it's more surprising that the Epic Games Store didn't have the feature than it is that gifting is being added now. One reason why, could be that most of Epic's focus for its digital store has been on undercutting the fees of both Steam and the Apple App Store.
For example, in May, the company announced that it wouldn't take a cut of the first $1,000,000 in revenue that an app makes, after which it would only take 12 percent. That undercuts both Apple and Valve's financial arrangements with developers. Epic also regularly offered free games through its game store to lure new users, something it plans to continue to do with its mobile app store.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/epic-games-store-will-finally-let-you-gift-games-191000946.html?src=rss
The developer is also rehiring 30 staffers that were laid off as part of the cancellation. We write so often about layoffs in the industry, so it's always a distinct treat to cover the opposite.
We did it. Hytale is saved. We have acquired Hytale from Riot Games.
Hypixel co-founder Simon Collins-Laflamme calls this a "new and exciting chapter" for the game, which has been in development for nearly ten years. He says he is "grateful to Riot Games for making this possible."
Riot Games, which is owned by the conglomerate Tencent, purchased Hypixel Studios back in 2020 for an undisclosed sum. However, Hytale was riding high at that point. The game had attracted over 2.5 million signees for an upcoming beta and was supposed to be officially released in 2021.
Years passed, and still no Hytale. This eventually led to Riot canning the project entirely. "After years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise," an official post on the Hypixel website once read.
The studio hasn't disclosed how it got funding for this move, but Collins-Laflamme said that the founders are "personally committed to funding for the next 10 years." Here's to hoping the game is actually playable by that point. To that end, the company does plan on announcing an early access release date in the near future.
"Hytale has had a long and challenging journey. It's taken longer than anyone hoped, and it's changed a lot along the way," the company wrote. "This is not going to be easy. This is not going to be fast. This is not going to be perfect. But it's going to be ours. Built together: one feature at a time, one bug fix at a time, one mod at a time."
For the uninitiated, Hytale is a nifty-looking adventure game that can be described as an open world riff on Minecraft. It certainly looks like Minecraft, but it has a much bigger emphasis on action and RPG mechanics.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/hypixel-studios-buys-its-ip-from-riot-so-hytale-is-back-in-development-185040959.html?src=rss
While there are countless ways to play old video games, endless emulators that eat up ROMs and spew out memories, the hardware offerings from Analogue have elevated the act of retro gaming to an art form. With an obsessive dedication to pixel-perfect reproductions of classic platforms, Analogue's various devices generally set the benchmark for consuming old games on new displays.
The company's latest entry is an ode to the Nintendo 64, and that poses a bit of a problem. While Analogue's other systems honored the golden age of 2D gaming, the pinnacle of pixel art in many ways, the N64 ushered gamers into the early, ugly days of 3D gaming. Nearly three decades after its initial release, most N64 games look pretty catastrophic by modern standards. Can the Analogue 3D ($250) treatment save them?
Origin Story
The early to mid-'90s were a heady time for console gaming. Sega and Nintendo had printed so much money in the 16-bit era that both were throwing everything they could at the wall to capture the fluorescent pink, velcro wallets of the gamers of the day. Wild controllers, endless system add-ons and even virtual reality were in the cards.
But it would be the humble CD-ROM that really pushed things forward. Sega did its own multimedia add-on in-house, with the Sega CD. Nintendo decided to team up with Sony for the development of its own disc drive. When that project fell apart, Sony famously decided to continue on, releasing the original PlayStation in 1995.
Almost overnight, the gaming world was all about three-dimensional gaming, a landscape that Sega's Saturn was ill-prepared for. Nintendo, though, went all-in for its next system, the Nintendo 64. It not only packed more polygons and colors than Sony's system, but Nintendo finally cracked the code of how to make a truly good three-dimensional platformer with Mario 64.
Mario 64 is not only a great game, it became the template for how player and camera controls worked, defining rules that still exist today.
The N64 was also the first mainstream console to feature an analog controller out of the box, the first console since the Atari 5200 in the early '80s to have four controller ports and the first American console to offer haptic feedback in the form of 1997's Rumble Pak. Today it all sounds quaint, but it was a truly revolutionary machine back in the day.
N64 redux
The Analogue 3D has the look of a N64 console, right down to the four controller ports up front.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
The Analogue 3D is somewhat revolutionary as well, but for different reasons. At its core, it relies on a field programmable gate array, or FPGA, much like Analogue's previous devices (the Super Nt, Mega Sg, Pocket and Duo). An FPGA is effectively a processor full of virtual building blocks, called logic elements, which enable it to replicate any other system. It takes a massive amount of configuration, but the result is pure hardware emulation.
Again, it’s the same concept as Analogue's previous devices, just on a massively larger scale. Where the Pocket used an Altera Cyclone V FPGA with 49,000 logic elements, this one uses an Intel Cyclone 10 GX FPGA clocking in at 220,000 logic elements. While Analogue never gave much in the way of explanation, it's likely that the extreme complexity that resulted in delay after annoying delay — well, that and the complexities of running an international business in the tariff-laden minefield that is today's global trading landscape.
Beyond that, the Analogue 3D very much follows the same aesthetic seen in the company's previous units: a minimalist take on the original hardware. It looks like a smaller and thinner N64 — one that requires active cooling, by the way, so make sure you don't crowd this thing in among your other, lesser game consoles.
It (virtually) supports all the N64's key accessories, like the Transfer Pak, the Expansion Pak and the Rumble Pak. It's USB-C powered and output comes via HDMI, and you'll find the requisite cables included in the box. There's also an SD card around the back for firmware updates and a pair of USB-A ports for good measure. Up front, you'll find four controller ports, with the distinctive circular style used by the N64. But you can connect controllers via USB or wirelessly too, if you prefer.
Analogue opted for a another 8BitDo controller.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
The system's default controller is again provided by 8BitDo, which has created special designs for Analogue's other recent releases. For better or worse, the $39.99 8BitDo 64 controller doesn't imitate the three-pronged N64 style, but does offer all that system's buttons in a more traditional layout. It's perhaps too traditional, difficult to tell apart from Nintendo's own Switch Pro controller from a distance.
I haven’t been a fan of 8BitDo controllers in the past. Given the premium Analogue charges for its systems, the 8BitDo controllers haven't risen to that level of polish. This new generation, though, is definitely a step up. The controller's buttons don't rattle when you shake it, the inputs have a good feel to them, the vibration isn't harsh and pairing is quick and easy.
That said, I did run into latency issues if I was more than about 10 feet away from the system, or if I closed the door on the cabinet that held the Analogue 3D. That's a far cry from the connectivity of a Switch Pro controller, which I can readily use from another room if I'm ever so inclined.
CRT vibes in an OLED era
The Analogue 3D and the Nintendo 64.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
Analogue has made a name for itself by obsessing over striking the perfect blend of honoring original systems while making them great in a modern world. If I may insert one automotive reference, they are doing to game systems what Singer Vehicle Design does to Porsches.
But where cars both old and reimagined look great on the same road, vintage consoles struggle with modern TVs. Plug an original N64 into your 4K HDTV via a tangle of adapters, and you'll get a blurry, blocky mess that will make you question everything your childhood self held dear. Even if you go the hardcore route with something like an Open Source Scan Converter or an HDMI mod kit to take vintage analog signals and turn them into modern digital ones, you're still probably not going to like the results. That's because it isn't all about getting crisp signals from console to display. These systems were designed for cathode rays, where one colored pixel bled into the next to create a seamless view to hide many of the N64's 320 x 240 flaws.
The Analogue 3D goes to great lengths to replicate that look through a series of filters meant to replicate everything from a consumer-grade CRT to the sort of professional-grade monitor that cost as much as a new car did back in the '90s. Analogue has experimented with these filters in the past, but they're taken to a new level here, with options for specifying monitor type, quality and size. The results are quite impressive, still a bit grittier than a giant-sized CRT would be in real life, but looking miles better than the unfiltered view of the games. You can even tune and tweak those display settings on a per-game basis, if you're especially finicky.
Unfortunately, you'll have to take my word for that. The 4K CRT effects don't really show up through a capture card, and as of now the Analogue 3D has no integrated screen capture functionality. That, I was told, is coming later.
Back to the future of gaming
Perfect Dark on the Analogue 3D.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
I started my testing with the game that, in the eyes of many, represents the high-water mark of the N64 experience: Perfect Dark. Rare's classic first-person shooter shares a lot of its concepts (and surely its code) with that other N64 icon, Goldeneye. But, in the three years between those games, developers learned plenty of tricks, resulting in a game that really pushed the hardware to its limits.
Or past its limits, really. Perfect Dark was equally famous for its uneven frame rates. Expecting a one-to-one recreation of the original hardware, I was surprised to find the game running buttery smooth on the Analogue 3D. How?
The system includes a series of tweaking and tuning options, including something of a baked-in overclocking function. By default, it's on Auto, which, at least in the case of Perfect Dark, dialed up the Analogue 3D's power to make up for the original system's polygon processing shortcomings. But the Analogue 3D is nothing if not tweakable, and with a few taps into the system's menu, I was able to turn that off.
Now locked into "Force Original Hardware" mode, Perfect Dark played just like it did back in the day, a shaky and jittery testament to the overachieving aspirations of Rare's developers. And, thanks to more settings adjustments, I could enable the 16:9 mode in Perfect Dark and stretch the video output on the Analogue 3D, getting a proper widescreen effect — even though the game doesn't output a full 16:9 grid of pixels.
Super Robot Spirits on the Analogue 3D.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
Beyond Auto, you can set the game to run in Enhanced, Enhanced+ and Unleashed speeds. I switched over to another game notorious for its poor performance: Superman: The New Superman Adventures. I initially reviewed this game way back in 1999, and it has since become notorious as one of the worst of all time.
It's no better today, but thanks to the Analogue 3D, it is at least more fluid. The game's choppiness is gone, replaced by a too-rapid pace to the uninspired ring-chasing gameplay. Sadly, the faster frame rate doesn't make up for the omnipresent green fog that makes Superman 64 feel so claustrophobic. Neither does it fix the crunchy, murky textures that surround you in Perfect Dark.
It's not all bad, though. 1997's Super Robot Spirits, a giant robot fighting game released only in Japan, features untextured 3D models that use Gouraud shading to look a little less blocky. The result looks genuinely crisp and clean on the Analogue 3D.So too do games like Mario Kart 64 and Yoshi's Story, 3D games that rely heavily on 2D elements, which scale very nicely up to a modern, 65-inch 4K OLED, like the LG B7 I used for testing.
Unfortunately, there were few games that really popped for me. Much of the time, I was stuck looking at blurry, blocky textures poking out of foggy landscapes that were far less breathtaking than I remembered them 25-plus years ago.
Wrap-up
The Analogue 3D and the Nintendo 64.
Tim Stevens for Engadget
Analogue's earlier systems take some of the greatest 2D games ever made and elevate them to crisply defined, high-resolution pixel art. They are gorgeous and charming to behold, which just makes them all the more engaging to play. Sadly, few of the games on the N64 stand up so well. Making these games look truly good would require pushing back the omnipresent fog and upscaling the ugly textures that plague many N64 games. That, it's safe to say, would go well past the point of faithful recreation that Analogue strives for.
It's hard to fault the Analogue 3D itself for this. The hardware does a remarkable job of recreating that original experience. My N64 library has never looked better, and I am definitely enjoying digging into games I haven't played in decades, plus a few newly acquired gems that I missed back in the day. But, more often than not, I'm left shaking my head at just how bad these games looked, and no amount of 4K upscaling and CRT emulation can fix that.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/analogue-3d-review-modern-processing-cant-fix-vintage-flaws-160000410.html?src=rss
Xbox has revealed the last batch of Game Pass additions for November along with a couple of titles that are coming to the service in December. Starting today, though, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers have a Fortnite Crew subscription at no extra cost.
That includes access to the current Fortnite battle pass, along with the OG pass, Lego pass, music pass and Rocket League’s rocket pass premium. On top of that, Fortnite Crew puts 1,000 V-Bucks in subscribers’ wallets every month.
Microsoft announced Fortnite Crew as a perk for Game Pass Premium in early October, when it jacked up the price of the service to $30 per month. Still, it’s a decent value add for Fortnite players, given that a Crew membership costs $12 per month by itself. Seems like as good a reason as any to check out the current Simpsons-themed season of Fortnite Battle Royale if you have an Ultimate subscription.
As for the games that are joining the service over the next couple of weeks, there are two day-one additions to Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass. Action RPG title Moonlighted 2: The Endless Vault joins the lineup as a PC-only game preview on November 19.
Then, on December 1, a game we’re pretty darn excited for joins the fray in the form of Marvel Cosmic Invasion. This is a sidescrolling beat-‘em-up from Tribute Games and publisher Dotemu, the same tandem that brought us the terrific Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. You can choose from a roster of 15 fighters in Cosmic Invasion, including Iron Man, Phoenix/Jean Grey, Spider-Man and Wolverine. The demo is a blast, so here's hoping for more of that from the full game, which is also coming to Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PS4 and PS5 on December 1.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a spiritual successor to Life is Strange from the creator of that series, Don't Nod. It debuted earlier this year and it's coming to Game Pass Ultimate and Premium, as well as PC Game Pass, for cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S on December 2. Don't Nod is also behind last year's action RPG Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, which I enjoyed quite a bit. That's coming to the same Game Pass tiers on the same platforms on November 25.
The other Game Pass additions for the next two weeks are:
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (cloud, console and PC) – November 19, arriving on Game Pass Premium
Revenge of the Savage Planet (cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S) – November 19, arriving on Game Pass Premium
Monsters are Coming! Rock & Road (handheld and PC) – November 20 on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass
The Crew Motorfest (cloud, console and PC) – November 20 on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass
Kill It With Fire! 2 (cloud, console, and PC) – November 25 on Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass
As for the titles leaving Game Pass this month, Barbie Project Friendship, Lords of the Fallen, Octopath Traveler, Octopath Traveler II and SteamWorld Build (all for cloud, console and PC) will depart the service for the time being on November 30.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-game-pass-ultimate-now-includes-a-fortnite-crew-subscription-151826277.html?src=rss
We don't know how long this stream will run for, but previous Partner Preview events have lasted around 25 to 30 minutes. As indicated by the name, this stream will highlight third-party publishers. Xbox called out companies like THQ Nordic, Tencent and IO Interactive in the press release that announced the event.
We do know some games that'll be getting the spotlight this week. Xbox has stated that we'll be seeing "an exciting first look" at content coming to the James Bond game, 007 First Light. IO Interactive is behind that one and it comes out on March 27.
We got to watch this title in action at Gamescom and called it "Hitman meets action blockbuster." This is appropriate given that developer IO Interactive was behind many of the Hitman games.
We'll also be getting an "electrifying extended gameplay trailer" for Tides of Annihilation. This is an upcoming fantasy adventure game made by the Chinese studio Eclipse Glow Games. The platform also promises a "fresh look" at Reanimal, which is a horror adventure from the folks behind Little Nightmares.
Xbox has also promised some "brand-new reveals and Game Pass announcements." Those Game Pass announcements had better be beefy, considering that recent price hike. We'll find out on Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-is-hosting-a-partner-showcase-on-november-20-at-1pm-et-191537266.html?src=rss
We won't have to wait too much longer to find out which game will follow the wonderful Astro Bot's triumph at last year's edition of The Game Awards. The 2025 ceremony takes place on December 11 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. In between a cavalcade of video game trailers and announcements, the show will squeeze in some actual awards. We now know what the contenders for The Game Awards 2025 are after Monday's announcement of the nominees.
Those vying for the top prize of game of the year are:
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver
Half of those are also up for game of the year at the Indie Game Awards. Those three games (Clair Obscur, Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong) are up for the best independent game award at this ceremony as well, alongside Absolum, Ball x Pitand Blue Prince.
With 12 nods in total — including three in the best performance category — Clair Obscur isn’t just the most-nominated game this year. It’s the most-nominated game in the 12-year history of the ceremony. Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yōtei have eight nods each, Hades II has seven and Silksong has five. Sony Interactive Entertainment leads the way among publishers with 19 nominations.
Here are the most nominated games at #TheGameAwards 2025.
⁰Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the most nominated game in TGA history with 12 total nominations. pic.twitter.com/bn4KjSDuoP
A whole bunch of high-profile games missed out on nominations for the main award. However, the likes of Arc Raiders, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Mario Kart World, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Battlefield 6, Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds and Silent Hill f have picked up nods in other categories. It’s neat to see games like Consume Me, Despelote, Rematch and Dispatch pick up nominations this year too. Meanwhile, Marvel’s Deadpool VR, a game that isn’t even out until tomorrow, picked up a nod.
Fan voting for this year's edition of The Game Awards starts today on the TGA website. Public ballots account for 10 percent of the final vote, with a jury comprising dozens of media outlets accounting for the remaining 90 percent. The nominees for the players’ voice award — the only one determined entirely by fans — will be announced on December 1.
The Game Awards (which is under fire over its handling of the discontinued Future Class program) will be streaming across a wide variety of platforms, including Prime Video for the first time. As ever, we'll be on top of all of the big news from the event, so stay tuned to Engadget for all the juicy details. Place your bets now on what will be announced. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get a glimpse of Half-Life 3?
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-game-awards-2025-nominees-include-clair-obscur-hollow-knight-silksong-and-hades-2-173626649.html?src=rss
Following months of rumors, Valve finally announced the new Steam Machine earlier this week. And while I might question the company's decision to ship a system with only 8GB of VRAM in 2026, I believe the "Gabecube" will do more for PC gaming than anything Microsoft has done in the last decade.
With SteamOS and Linux, Valve has polished away many of the things that make PC gaming unapproachable to some people. Want to set a frame limit to extend your Steam Deck's battery life? It's an easy-to-find option in the Performance overlay, not something you need to dig through multiple menus to find. Want to suspend a game? That's possible on SteamOS.
And now with the Steam Machine, Valve is poised to bring the fun of PC gaming to an entirely new audience: home console gamers. Even though I don't plan to buy one, selfishly I hope it's a runaway success. Like a lot of PC gamers I imagine, I'm ready to leave Windows behind. Over the last few years, Microsoft has proven to be a poor steward of the platform. The company seems more interested in pushing AI features few care for, rather than solving the issues that have plagued Windows for years. After all, it was only recently that Microsoft said it would tackle shader stutter, a problem that has plagued many recent AAA games. Worse yet, that solution may take years to fully implement.
I want the Steam Machine to be the revolution that brings SteamOS to desktop PCs, but before that can happen, Valve must solve Linux's cheating problem. Right now, the Steam Deck covers two of the three pillars of PC gaming: indies and singleplayer AAA games. For some people, that's enough, but it leaves out a huge section of the PC market. Nearly four years after its release, you can't play some of the most popular competitive games,andit's all because of how easy it is to make cheating software for Linux-based operating systems.
In a 2024 interview with The Verge, Riot's Phillip Koskinas summarized the issue concisely. "You can freely manipulate the kernel, and there’s no user mode calls to attest that it’s even genuine," he told the outlet. "You could make a Linux distribution that’s purpose-built for cheating and we’d be smoked."
When Valve released the Steam Deck at the start of 2022, there was some hope games like Fortnite and Rainbow Six Siege would eventually be playable on the handheld, and for a while things looked positive. Toward the end of 2021, Valve announced Proton compatibility with BattlEye. A few months later, the company did the same for Epic's Easy Anti-Cheat. There's also Valve's in-house solution, VAC, which is fully supported and means the company's own games, including Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, are playable on Steam Deck.
However, despite Valve's support for some of the most popular anti-cheat solutions on the market, many studios chose not to bring their competitive games to SteamOS, citing cheating concerns. Some notable examples include Fortnite, Valorant and PUBG. Those games have never been playable on Steam Deck. In fact, last fall EA withdrew Linux and Steam Deck support for Apex Legends, one of the few competitive shooters you could play on Valve's handheld.
"In our efforts to combat cheating in Apex, we’ve identified Linux OS as being a path for a variety of impactful exploits and cheats. As a result, we’ve decided to block Linux OS access to the game," the company said at the time. "We believe the decision will meaningfully reduce instances of cheating in our game."
For EA, Riot, Epic and developers of other popular competitive games, the issue is two-fold: Cheating software is harder to detect when it's used on Linux. More importantly, for many of them there aren't enough Linux players to justify the resources needed to secure their games for every Linux distribution. For example, when Riot made its Vanguard software a requirement to play League of Legends in 2024, the studio said there were just over 800 daily users playing the game on Linux. For context, millions of people League every day. Put another way, it's a chicken and egg problem.
The Steam Machine represents an opportunity for Valve. According to Are We Anti-Cheat Yet, a crowd-sourced database listing games that require anti-cheat software and whether they work through Linux or Valve's Proton compatibility layer, 682 games don't work for one reason or another. That means more than half of the 1,136 games that require anti-cheat software can't be played on SteamOS.
With the nature of Linux being what it is, it's unlikely Valve could make even the most popular kernel-level anti-cheat apps work across every Linux distribution, and based on the company's approach, it doesn't have an interest in doing that. However, if Valve made a better sandbox for developers to secure their games, we could absolutely see a SteamOS version of Valorant, for instance.
Studios will go where their players are. The Steam Deck has proven that. And if the Steam Machine becomes popular enough to warrant companies like EA to bring their games to SteamOS and Linux, the PC gaming landscape will suddenly be very different.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/for-the-steam-machine-to-change-pc-gaming-valve-must-solve-linuxs-anti-cheat-problem-130000088.html?src=rss
Welcome to our latest roundup of what's going on in the indie game space. As ever, it's been a busy week of new games arriving and details of upcoming releases emerging. Before we get to some of those though, the nominees for the second annual Indie Game Awards were announced this week.
There's a nice mix of big hitters and smaller, but equally worthy titles among the Game of the Year contenders. Those are:
Absolum - Dotemu, Guard Crush Games and Supamonks
and Roger - TearyHand Studio
Blue Prince - Dogubomb
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector - Jump Over the Age
Consume Me - Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P and Ken "coda" Snyder
Hades II - Supergiant Games
Hollow Knight: Silksong - Team Cherry
Keep Driving - YCJY Games
Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo - Pocket Trap
Consume Me and and Roger are two I've been meaning to check out for a while. I'm also yet to hop into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is arguably the frontrunner here — it's looking like the favorite for top honors at The Game Awards next month as well.
There are a whole bunch of worthy contenders in other categories, from hits like Discountyand the charmingly bittersweet Time Flies, to solo-developed projects like Spilled! and Vile: Exhumed. The supremely addictive Ball x Pit picked up a nod, but it's going against the tremendous Öoo (and Absolum, Hades II and Silksong) in the gameplay design category. It's neat to see Playdate game Taria & Como earn recognition too.
The Indie Game Awards ceremony takes place on December 18 at 6:30PM ET. You can watch it on YouTube and Twitch.
New releases
The new release I'm most looking forward to trying when I have a chance is Windswept, a precision platformer that's inspired by similar games from the '90s like Donkey Kong Country. Marbles the duck and Checkers the turtle each have unique movement abilities, and you'll need to swap between the pair to best navigate environments. You'll be trying to help them get back home after a storm whisked them away.
There are lots of secrets to discover across the 40-plus levels, animal buddies to ride and much more. I grew up with games like this one from WeatherFell and publisher Top Hat Studios, which looks completely up my alley. Windswept is out now on Steam, GOG, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S for $20.
The Devolver Digital-published Possessor(s) is something a little different from Hyper Light Drifter studio Heart Machine. This is a horror-inflected Metroidvania and the developers drew inspiration from platform fighters for the combat. Here, high school student Luca forms an alliance with a demon in need of a host following "an interdimensional catastrophe." They team up to stay alive and discover what led to the disaster.
As with Heart Machine's other games, it looks very pretty, but reviews for Possessor(s) — which is out on PS5 and PC — have been fairly mixed so far. Things haven't exactly been going great for Heart Machine overall. The studio last month laid off staff and ended development of Hyper Light Breaker, which remains in early access.
As with its earlier game Before Your Eyes, Nice Dream says its latest project, Goodnight Universe, is best played with a camera. There's the option to interact with the game using your eye movement and facial expressions. That makes a lot of sense for Goodnight Universe, which casts you in the role of a six-month-old baby with psychic powers. Little Isaac just wants familial love, but a shadowy tech corporation is looking to take custody of him.
Skybound Games is the publisher of Goodnight Universe, which is available on Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Steam for $20. A Switch version is coming on December 18, and an update that will bring camera support to the Switch 2 edition is on the way.
Bonaparte - A Mechanized Revolution is a turn-based strategy game that affords you the chance to shift the outcome of the French Revolution. An opportunity to revolutionize the revolution, as it were. You can defend, depose or even reform the monarchy.
As the title suggests, you'll have mechs at your disposal in battle — to that end, this reminds me a bit of the clockpunk soulslike Steelrising, which was also set during the French Revolution. Bonaparte - A Mechanized Revolution, from Studio Imugi and co-publisher 2P Games, left early access on Steam this week. It costs $20.
Upcoming
I'm very happy to continue this little run of including a dog game in this roundup every week with something new on the beautifully titled Barkour. As part of Steam Animal Fest (which runs until Monday and includes a sale on games like Tunic and Hello Kitty Island Adventure), Varsav Game Studios unleashed a new trailer and an updated Steam demo.
Here, you play as Agent T.H.U.N.D.E.R., a special agent with gadgets galore and plenty of bite to go with the bark. On missions, you can play the stealthy way, fight your enemies head on or carry out barkour parkour runs. Varsav Game Studios is hoping to release Barkour in 2026.
Next up, we have release dates for a pair of cafe sims, starting with Tailside. As a furry cafe owner, you'll be looking to perfect the art of coffee making so you can serve delicious concoctions to your patrons. You can even create foam art on lattes for an extra-special touch.
In this game from solo developer Coffee Beans Dev, you can customize your cafe to your liking. There are no timers to worry about, so you can play at your own pace. Tailside is coming to Steam on January 21. A demo is available now.
As revealed during the State of Play Japan showcase this week, the latest entry in the Coffee Talk series is bound for Steam, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch on March 5. Chorus Worldwide Games and Toge Productions' Coffee Talk Tokyo places you in the role of a barista who hears out their clientele.
The drinks you make (which you can enhance with sprinkle stencils for latte art) help shape your conversations with customers and have a bearing on the branching storylines. Coffee Talk and Coffee Talk Episode 2 composer Andrew “AJ” Jeremy returned to craft another lo-fi soundtrack for the latest installment.
A release window for InKonbini: One Store. Many Stories was confirmed during the State of Play Tokyo stream as well. It's coming to Steam and consoles, including PS5, in April. There's a Steam demo available now.
From Nagai Industries, this simulator puts you in the role of a college student and employee of a small-town Japanese convenience store (a konbini) in the early 1990s. You'll decide which products to sell, and order and restock goods. More importantly, you'll have to deliver exceptional customer service. That involves having conversations with customers, which will sometimes end up having an impact on their lives. It seems quite lovely.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/old-school-platforming-metroidvania-horror-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-120000751.html?src=rss
By all appearances, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 features a not insignificant amount of AI-generated art, Kotaku reports. The game's over 680 Calling Cards — collectible backgrounds earned through in-game achievements or purchases — appear to be the main offenders, featuring art that imitates the knockoff animation style of ChatGPT.
While it's hard to authoritatively claim that Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations are a smoking gun, the Calling Cards players have spotted do at the very least seem unpolished for a splashy $70 game. Activision has also confirmed that the game's development team used "generative AI tools to help develop some in-game assets" in a disclosure on the Black Ops 7 Steam page, which certainly won't dissuade anyone’s suspicions.
I havent really looked at the Multiplayer and Zombie calling cards as closely and im willing to bet they're using ai on those too but its only the Campaign and endgame calling cards that are this type of blatant Sora/Grok artstyle pic.twitter.com/5qmEXhoQkJ
In a statement to Kotaku, Activision also didn't deny the possibility, noting that AI was one of several "digital tools" it used "to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players." Using AI-generated art or at least AI art edited by a human could have saved Activision and developer Treyarch money during development. But it's also possible these in-game rewards look weird because they were made in the rush to get the game out the door.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has the honor of being the first in the franchise to launch on Xbox Game Pass, one way Microsoft hopes to justify the subscription's recent price hike. That the game features AI-generated assets might dampen some player's excitement, but Black Ops 7's campaign seems like the more pressing issue. It requires an internet connection to run because it was designed to be played in a "squad" of four, but even if you play with in-game bots, you still can't pause the game.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/call-of-duty-black-ops-7-appears-to-feature-ai-generated-art-assets-201746595.html?src=rss
