Tag Archives: Video Games

PlayStation Summer Sale slashes prices on Elden Ring, COD: Modern Warfare 3, FFVII remake bundle and more

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It's summer sale time for the PlayStation Network, and this year's discounted offerings include some of the biggest games released these past few years. You can grab Elden Ring for the PS4 and the PS5 for 30 percent less than its usual price at $42. The critically acclaimed title, developed by FromSoftware with world building by George R.R. Martin, was one of Engadget's favorite games for 2022. It's also notoriously difficult and will definitely challenge you and test your patience. Armored Core VI, another FromSoftware creation, is listed for $42, down from $60. Its deluxe edition that comes with a digital artbook and a copy of its soundtrack only costs $7 more.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Cross-Gen is also half-off right now at $35, though for around $4 more, you can get the bundle with some extra items. Hogwarts Legacy for the PS5 is down 60 percent, so you can get it for $28 instead of $70. Meanwhile, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Fallen Order that was released last year, is only $31.49. That's 55 percent lower than its retail price of $70. There's a bunch of discounted Resident Evil titles included in the sale list, as well, including RE Village for the PS4 and PS5, which you can get for only $16 instead of $40. 

And if you're curious about the new versions of Final Fantasy VII and haven't tried either of the games that are already out, you can get the FFVII Remake and Rebirth Twin Pack for $75 instead of $100. For $90, you can buy the digital deluxe version of the bundle that usually sells for $120 to get access to both games for the PS5, a digital artbook, a digital soundtrack and some special items. The PlayStation Summer Sale will run for almost a month, ending on August 14, though some games will be removed from the promotion earlier than that.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playstation-summer-sale-slashes-prices-on-elden-ring-cod-modern-warfare-3-ffvii-remake-bundle-and-more-123035675.html?src=rss

Dead by Daylight spinoff The Casting of Frank Stone arrives on September 3

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Behaviour Interactive has shared a bunch of Dead by Daylight-related updates, including the release date for an upcoming spinoff. The Casting of Frank Stone, which was developed by Until Dawn studio Supermassive Games, will hit PC, PlayStation and Xbox on September 3.

This is a single-player game that brings the narrative adventure format that Supermassive has used so effectively in its previous projects to the DbD universe. The story will change based on the decisions you make and how you deal with quick-time events and puzzles. It focuses on a bunch of young people who want to film their own horror movie in a condemned steel mill, only to find evidence of crimes carried out by a serial killer. The game is said to take between five and seven hours to complete.

As for the main game, Lara Croft is now available as a survivor as part of the Tomb Raider chapter, which went live today. Cross-progression will finally be available starting on July 22 as well. You'll need a Behaviour account and a copy of the base game for each platform on which you want to play it. You'll have access to all of the same progress and purchases on each system.

Those who have been waiting for extra DbD mayhem can look forward to a limited-time mode that pits two killers against eight survivors when the long-awaited 2 vs. 8 option goes live on July 25. The maps are larger and survivors will need to repair twice as many generators to escape. To keep the action fast paced, hooks and perks will be removed. Survivors will be able to try out a new class system instead. The 2 vs. 8 mode will be available until August 8.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/dead-by-daylight-spinoff-the-casting-of-frank-stone-arrives-on-september-3-192339402.html?src=rss

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 has leaked online two months before release

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A pre-release build of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has leaked online two months before release, according to reporting by Insider Gaming. This is a fully playable version that was “randomly posted on a tracker,” according to sources who have downloaded and experimented with the build. It remains unclear how the game ended up online.

Players have said that the game is around 75GB in size. Though this leaked build is playable, it does have some issues. There are missing strings and a bunch of placeholder assets, but the version does include server data that should allow for online play. As expected, gameplay footage has begun popping up online, but we’ll refrain from posting any so as to keep things spoiler-free. We will drop a trailer though, because the game looks neat. 

In addition to forgoing gameplay videos, we don’t recommend heading to a torrent site to look for the leaked build. This is not only bad for the hard-working folks who made the game, but will more than likely riddle your PC with more bugs than an open Florida patio in summer. Torrents ain’t what they used to be.

Developers Focus Entertainment and Saber Interactive have issued a statement regarding the leak, asking fans to wait for the official release and thanking them for ongoing support. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 comes out on September 9 and will be available for the PS5, Xbox Series S|X and PC.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/warhammer-40k-space-marine-2-has-leaked-online-two-months-before-release-185034761.html?src=rss

The Double Dragon series returns yet again with an ultra-modern tribute to the original game

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I first started hitting arcades in the late '80s, and one of the first games I remember playing was the seminal 1987 beat-em-up Double Dragon. Probably not the most appropriate thing for a seven-year-old, but I pumped plenty of quarters into it and subsequently spent tons of time playing the NES port. After its late '80s / early '90s heyday, though, the Double Dragon series has gone through a number of weird iterations and revamps, and a new one based on the original game is set to arrive in 2025.

Double Dragon Revive is produced by Japanese developer / publisher Arc System Works, who acquired the rights to Double Dragon back in 2015 after the original developer Technōs went out of business. Unlike Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons, which was released in 2023 and featured a very distinctive cartoonish style, Revive is leaning into an ultra-modern and more realistic vibe, relatively speaking. 

It reminds me a bit of recent Street Fighter games; similarly, the characters look like they have a greatly expanded set of moves to bash through the waves of bad guys. There isn't much detail on the game out there yet, though Arc System Works does note that this game isn't a pure button-masher, saying that it "requires adaptation and variety." 

Visual style isn't the only thing differentiating Revive from Rise of the Dragons. The 2023 game had ropuelike elements, 13 playable characters and a tag-team ability to let you swap between those characters. Revive, as the name suggests, will likely stick more to the tried-and-true Double Dragon formula. How much that'll resonate with players in 2025 remains to be seen, but there are surely enough nostalgic kids from the '80s out there who will give this one a shot. It'll be available for the PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S and on Steam.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-double-dragon-series-returns-yet-again-with-an-ultra-modern-tribute-to-the-original-game-142722631.html?src=rss

The designer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride is back with a Lovecraftian roguelike

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Luke Muscat, the lead designer for Halfbrick Studios' Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, has announced a new game called Feed the Deep. This time, he's not backed by a studio and supported by colleagues: Feed the Deep is his first solo project after quitting his job. He calls the game a "Lovecraftian deep sea roguelike," because you take on the role of a diver who literally has to feed the eldritch horror lurking in the darkness of the ocean's depths. 

In the game, humanity built floating cities on the surface of the ocean without knowing about the threat living below. Your job is to feed whatever's living in the deep so that it doesn't destroy the cities. In its Steam page, Muscat said the game was "inspired by the likes of Dome Keeper and Spelunky." You'll have to collect resources in the darkness to be able to get upgrades and items, all while managing your oxygen to make sure you survive the dive. The caves you have to explore are procedurally generated so they will look different every time you play. You can also choose your play style, whether to go fast and aggressive, or to go slower and more relaxed. 

It's unclear if Feed the Deep will be available on non-PC platforms, but Muscat has only shared a Steam page for it so far. He's planning to release the game sometime this third quarter. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-designer-of-fruit-ninja-and-jetpack-joyride-is-back-with-a-lovecraftian-roguelike-130002746.html?src=rss

PS Plus members can try the Overwatch-like Concord this weekend

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Firewalk Studios’ upcoming debut game, the 5v5 team shooter Concord, is opening up to all PlayStation Plus members this weekend. Pre-order customers and PS Plus subscribers can try the multiplayer FPS beginning on Friday, July 12, at noon ET.

The beta window for the PS5 and PC game was initially only meant for pre-order customers. (If you already reserved the game, you’ll still get beta access and codes for friends, whether you subscribe to PS Plus or not.) Opening it up to PlayStation Plus members gives developer Firewalk Studios and publisher PlayStation Studios the bonuses of extra player feedback, server stress tests and the chance to catch bugs and work on balancing. And, of course, it lets them build extra hype for the new IP.

All 16 characters (“Freegunners” with somewhat nontraditional roles) will be unlocked and available during the Early Access weekend, which ends on July 14. PS5 players can pre-download the Concord Beta starting Thursday at noon ET. Meanwhile, an Open Beta will invite anyone to try the FPS next weekend (July 18 at noon ET through July 21).

FPS view of a sci-fi battle. Fire, enemy, stairs, other stuff.
Firewalk Studios / PlayStation Studios

Three game modes will be available during the Early Access this weekend. These include Clash Point (round-based, no-respawn matches where you try to capture a zone), Trophy Hunt (a respawn-based bounty-collecting mode) and Cargo Run (no-respawn mode where you retrieve a package, plant it in a zone and defend it). You can try four maps in the preview: Freewater, Star Chamber, Water Hazard and Shock Risk.

Next week’s Concord Open Beta will add a new mode, Area Control (teams compete to control zones with respawns enabled), and another map, the ominous-sounding Bone Mines.

The developers say your rewards will carry over from this weekend’s Early Access to next weekend’s Open Beta, but none will transfer to the game’s launch on August 23. Firewalk Studios listed the beta’s supported PC specs in its announcement blog post, although it cautions those could change before the final version.

Firewalk Studios is a Sony-owned team founded by (among others) three Bungie veterans who worked on the Destiny franchise. Others at the studio hail from Respawn, Activision and BioWare, fleshing out the team’s multiplayer shooter credentials. With Concord, the developers appear to borrow elements from Overwatch, Destiny and Halo while adding nontraditional player classes and narrative and character elements similar to Guardians of the Galaxy.

Concord arrives on August 23 for PS5 and PC. You can check out the gameplay trailer below.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ps-plus-members-can-try-the-overwatch-like-concord-this-weekend-171557607.html?src=rss

Amazon is giving away 3 more free PC games during Prime Day next week, including Rise of the Tomb Raider

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One of the holiest but non-religious days of our economic year is just around the corner and Amazon will mark the occasion by giving away three AAA titles during Amazon Prime Day through its Prime Gaming service. The online retailer announced it will offer free copies of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Chivalry 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration Edition for 48 hours starting on Tuesday July 16.

Amazon’s early Prime Day deals will also give away 15 PC games ahead of this year’s Prime Day including titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX.

Rocksteady’s open world Suicide Squad game is the one game in Amazon’s free games pack that sounds most like an even trade giving how hard it tanked with players on day one. It took seven years to make the game and expectations were high since it came from the same studios that made the brilliant Batman Arkham trilogy but it seemed doomed from the start of its release date.

Rocksteady pulled the game offline just one hour after its launch due a strange bug that let players beat the game after just a few minutes of gameplay. The reviews also weren’t all that kind even among gamers.

We know we’re not doing a good job of selling the game but the fact that it’s free and you get to be a giant anthropomorphic shark should be enough to get it across the line.

Tom Banner Studios’ medieval multiplayer brawler Chivalry II fared much better among critics and players. Imagine Star Wars: Battlefront if it was set in medieval times (the time period, not the dinner theater chain). It’s basically a big bloody sandbox where you get to hack, stab and slash strangers online in epic medieval battles, the kind you’ve seen in movies like Braveheart, Willow and The Lord of the Rings trilogy before they got way out of hand.

Easily the best free deal in this batch is the 20th anniversary edition of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Lara Croft, played by Camilla Luddington, returns to PCs in this epic tale of archaeology and survival as she treks across the freezing tundra of Siberia to continue her late father’s research. She’s also racing against an evil shadow group called Trinity who are pursuing her and a fabled secret to immortality that may be more material than myth than Lara might realize.

If you can’t wait just a few more days for Prime Day to start, there are plenty of other free game deals you can score right on Amazon Games, GOG and the Epic Games Store.

Your Prime Day Shopping Guide: See all of our Prime Day coverage. Shop the best Prime Day deals on Yahoo Life. Follow Engadget for Prime Day tech deals. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Amazon Prime Day deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Prime Day sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-is-giving-away-3-more-free-pc-games-during-prime-day-next-week-including-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-050047723.html?src=rss

The makers of Palworld have formed a new company in partnership with Sony

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The maker of Xbox Game Pass stalwart Palworld said on Wednesday it’s forming a new company in partnership with… Sony. Palworld developer and publisher Pocketpair announced its new team-up with Sony Music Entertainment to create Palworld Entertainment, Inc. The joint venture’s stated purpose: “accelerating the multifaceted global development of Palworld and its further expansion,” which sounds like corporate-speak for “merch, baby.”

The deal includes Sony Music Entertainment, Inc. and anime studio and game publisher Aniplex, Inc., both part of the broader Sony Corporation. Pocketpair says Palworld merchandise will soon be available for pre-order at Aniplex Online.

The joint venture’s new website

Pocketpair

When Palworld launched in Early Access in January, many in the gaming industry speculated Nintendo would sue it into oblivion. The game, which sold over a million copies in eight hours and exceeded 25 million players within its first month, isn’t subtle about its Pokémon influence. It includes nearly 1:1 likenesses of some of the longstanding franchise’s creatures, which the player — yes — collects and battles. But so far, The Pokémon Company has held back its lawyers. We can only speculate about its reasons, but fears of alienating fans of a beloved new game or worries about parody and fair use protections could be possibilities.

You can’t make up the irony of the newly established alliance, as the Pokémon Company was established as a similar joint venture between Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures in 1998. Well-played, Sony.

Palworld Entertainment says it will kick off its new licensing push with a series of “exclusive merchandise based on the game.” The joint venture will debut its new lineup of goods (plushies, perhaps?) at Bilibili World 2024, which kicks off in two days in Shanghai, China.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-makers-of-palworld-have-formed-a-new-company-in-partnership-with-sony-184823203.html?src=rss

Ad-free Vampire Survivors is coming to Apple Arcade on August 1

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Vampire Survivors, one of the very best games of the last few years, is already available for iPhone. It arrived on iOS out of the blue at the tail end of 2022. That version is ad-supported, which can disrupt what's otherwise a perfectly enjoyable mobile gaming experience. However, Apple Arcade subscribers will soon be able to play an ad-free version of the auto-shooting roguelike at no extra cost.

Vampire Survivors+ is coming to the subscription service on August 1. That version of the game will include both of the premium expansions at no extra cost as well. The base game (which is also coming to PlayStation this summer) includes 50 playable characters and 80 weapons, so with the extras that the DLCs add to the mix, you'll have countless of hours of gameplay at your fingertips. You'll even be able to play with up to three friends on the same device if you connect enough controllers to it.

That's not all though, as Apple has announced two other upcoming additions to the service. Temple Run: Legends flips the franchise on its head. The original Temple Run was a big hit on the iPhone. However, this will be the first level-based game in the series and it'll have more than 500 stages. Those craving a classic infinite run mode will still have access to one, though. Temple Run: Legends is coming to Apple Arcade on August 1.

In addition, another Apple Vision Pro game is coming to Apple Arcade. Physics-based puzzle game Castle Crumble will arrive on August 29.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ad-free-vampire-survivors-is-coming-to-apple-arcade-on-august-1-155244352.html?src=rss

Angel Pop brings cutesy chaos to Playdate in a highly addictive bullet hell

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This is it, the first game to nearly make me throw my Playdate against a wall. Angel Pop, a bullet hell shoot ‘em up that landed on the Playdate Catalog last month, is utter chaos. Playing as an adorable little girl, you must fend off a nonstop barrage of enemy fire over the course of 50-or-so levels, trying to clear each stage of all enemies within a limited span of time as projectiles bombard you from every direction. It moves at breakneck speed, and at some points, there may be as many as 1,000 objects on the screen. Basically, it’s everything a person could want in a bullet hell, and I’m completely addicted.

Angel Pop really tests the limits of the Playdate, with so much happening on screen at all times, but it plays with impressive smoothness. The game is set in what developer NNNN describes as “a surreal dreamworld,” and the art juxtaposes the cartoonish player character and enemies with moody backdrops like dark cityscapes, to beautiful effect. It really nails the arcade feel of things.

It uses a combination of ever-changing difficulty and points bonuses that give you additional lives to keep things challenging without being entirely unrewarding. You might start out a round in Normal, but play a little too well and you could soon find yourself in a much harder mode. Or, there’s the option to only play in Nightmare mode, which locks the game at the hardest difficulty setting (Death). You can use either the crank or the D-pad to control the direction of your bullets, which are unlimited, and you’ve got a finite supply of bombs that you can drop for close-range attacks when you’re in a tough spot.

Angel Pop makes a great case for shmups on Playdate, and I’m now inspired to go check out all the others after mostly playing slow-paced games. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of frustration — I’ve only made it about halfway through so far, and there’s been a lot of screaming involved.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/angel-pop-brings-cutesy-chaos-to-playdate-in-a-highly-addictive-bullet-hell-213433545.html?src=rss