South of Midnight, first revealed at last year’s Summer Game Fest, will launch on Xbox and PC sometime next year. During today's Xbox showcase, we got a first look at how the third-person action-adventure will play.
Right off the bat, it reminds me of Square Enix’s fun-but-flawed Forspoken. In South of Midnight, protagonist Hazel is apparently pulled into a “Southern Gothic world” where reality and fantasy are blurred. Hazel is able to move around the environment fluidly, with the new trailer showing off gliding skills, double jumps, and some sort of magical grapple hook to speed up level navigation.
We also got even more cutscenes to help flesh out this world, and they still have that Into The Spider-verse jumpy frame-rate trick to separate cutscenes from in-game actionYou’ll be able to fight monsters with close-up magical blade attacks and other midrange weaponry. Oh and you seem to befriend – and ride – a giant catfish around the magical bayou.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/compulsion-games-south-of-midnight-will-arrive-in-2025-174928203.html?src=rss
There's a new Doom in town. Doom: The Dark Ages is heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, day one on Game Pass, in 2025. The game's first trailer showcases a world of hulking monsters in blood-soaked environments, badass new weapons and what looks to be a player-controlled dragon. At one point, the Doom Slayer steps inside a giant mech suit in order to battle a huge demon, buildings crumbling beneath their feet.
The weapons and creatures in Doom: The Dark Ages have a distinct medieval flare, as is expected, with lots of sharpened blades, at least one flail and heavy armor all around. One new weapon that stands out in the game's reveal trailer is an automatic shotgun with a skull in the center of it, menacing and slightly silly at the same time. As is custom in Doom games, the level of gory, gruesome detail on display in The Dark Ages is exceptional, and it looks like the game is leaning into everything that makes this franchise so deliciously disgusting.
Doom: The Dark Ages is a prequel to 2016's Doom and Doom Eternal, developed by series shepherd id Software. Its story will illuminate the origin of the Doom Slayer. Spoiler: He will slaughter a lot of demons.
It's possible this is the rumored Doom: Year Zero that was mentioned in leaked documents related to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The leak happened in September 2023 and it outlined Bethesda's roadmap over the coming years as part of the Xbox Game Studios brand.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/doom-the-dark-ages-hits-ps5-xbox-series-xs-and-pc-in-2025-172938801.html?src=rss
It seemed like a missed opportunity for Microsoft and Bethesda to not have a new Fallout game ready to capitalize on the TV adaptation's success. However, Bethesda does have Fallout 76 up its sleeve at least, and the latest expansion of the multiplayer RPG is just a few days away.
The publisher revealed the Skyline Valley expansion during the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday. The DLC expands the map for the first time into a new region called Shenandoah. The telethon-themed trailer offers a peek at some of what's in store. For instance, you'll be able to explore the remnants of Vault 63 and try to discover what happened to its dwellers. As you might expect, there will also be Ghouls to contend with. The trailer ends on a spicy tease, as starting early next year, you'll actually be able to play as a Ghoul.
Fallout 76had a rough debut, but by all accounts the game has gotten much better over time (following in the footsteps of some other Bethesda games). As with other Fallout titles, it had a huge surge in players in the wake of the Prime Video show. On Steam alone, the average number of concurrent players shot up nearly fivefold from 5,975 in March to 25,673 in April.
With so many new and returning players enjoying the game, it’s nice that they won’t have to wait long for more things to see and do. Skyline Valley, which is free for Fallout 76 players on all platforms, will arrive on June 12.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fallout-76s-next-free-expansion-drops-on-june-12-172003045.html?src=rss
Paramount+ just dropped the full trailer for its upcoming animated TMNT series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it looks like a lot of fun. The show, a spinoff of last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, will see a slew of actors from the movie return to their roles, including Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, Brady Noon as Raphael and Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil. It’s scheduled to be released on the streaming platform August 9.
In Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the brothers find themselves up against the villain Bishop (now depicted as a woman), who should be familiar to longtime fans of the franchise. After becoming separated by Bishop, they’ll have to stand on their own until they find each other to fight together again. The show will get 12 episodes, which will be available exclusively on Paramount+.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-2d-animated-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-show-hits-paramount-on-august-9-163555708.html?src=rss
You can get the new Beats Solo 4 over-hear headphones with two years of AppleCare+ for $80 off thanks to a limited-time deal running on Amazon right now. The Solo 4 headphones were released just this past April and normally go for about $230 with the AppleCare+ bundle. Under the current 34 percent discount, they’re only $150. The deal applies to all three colors of the Solo 4: Cloud Pink, Matte Black and Slate Blue.
The Beats Solo 4 headphones brought significant improvements under the hood compared to earlier models, but stuck to the same familiar design externally. They’re touted to get about 50 hours of battery life on a charge without Spatial Audio on, and 45 hours with the feature enabled — but they managed to last much longer than that in our review, hitting 63 hours with Spatial Audio. Sound quality got a major boost as well. The Solo 4 headphones reflect “a more even-handed tuning,” according to Engadget’s Billy Steele, and don’t suffer from “the overly bass-heavy EQ that dominated the sound on [Beats'] early headphones.”
With the Solo 4, the company also switched to a USB-C charging port, following in Apple’s footsteps. They’re capable of lossless audio when using a wired connection. These headphones don’t offer active noise cancellation, but Beats has implemented a noise-learning algorithm and added beam-forming MEMS microphones for improved call quality.
The Beats Solo 4s aren’t the only headphones on sale right now. Amazon is also running a really good deal on the Beats Studio Pro (without AppleCare+). This model is nearly half off, bringing the price down to just $180 from the usual $350.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-beats-solo-4-headphones-with-applecare-are-on-sale-for-150-144447183.html?src=rss
Some Anker and Soundcore products are being recalled due to a manufacturing defect that could cause fires. Anker issued a recall for its 321 Power Bank (PowerCore 5K, A1112) this week, saying, “The lithium-ion battery in the affected power banks can overheat, potentially causing melting of plastic components, smoke and fire hazards.” Its audio brand, Soundcore, issued a recall for its A3102 Speaker in Black as well.
The company has apparently started notifying customers who may own one of the affected devices via email, but you can double check the serial numbers — which are printed on the bottom of each device — using the above links to be sure. Anker says the issue applies only to a small number of devices manufactured between March and April of 2023. Also affected is a workplace conferencing device, the AnkerWork A3302 speakerphone, according to a press release. If you have one of these devices, the company advises you immediately stop using it and dispose of it properly at a facility that takes lithium batteries.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/popular-anker-power-bank-and-soundcore-speaker-recalled-over-potential-fire-risk-200637850.html?src=rss
I cannot think of a game from recent times that I’ve tried more aggressively to get my friends into than Cult of the Lamb. Maybe this is the whole cult mindset talking, but something about it all just begs to be enjoyed with a pal. I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way — fans have been asking the developers for months to add a multiplayer option so they can fight side-by-side with their friends. And now, it’s actually happening. Cult of the Lamb publisher Devolver Digital has announced an upcoming free update called “Unholy Alliance” that adds local co-op to the game along with a new playable character: The Goat.
“Unholy Alliance” will be available to download August 12 for PC, PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch. With the update, you’ll be able to take on the full campaign with the help of a second player. Per the announcement notes, “The Lamb and the Goat can swap weapons, deal extra damage when fighting back-to-back, or deal a critical hit if their attacks are in sync.” There will be multiplayer versions of knucklebones and the fishing minigame, too. Unfortunately for anyone who was hoping for online co-op, though, this unholy alliance is local only, and the developers have so far said there aren’t plans to bring it online.
ANNOUNCING UNHOLY ALLIANCE 🎉
Our next Free Major Content Update! 🌟
Play Cult of the Lamb with you and a friend with LOCAL CO-OP! 🎮👫
Have no friends because everyone hates you? 😗 boooo Well, that's okay because there is much, much more in this update for you too. pic.twitter.com/dOpPUpVAx2
The team behind this game has been really good about keeping it fresh with free updates that actually build on the story and acknowledge fans’ feedback — hello, we got the sex update — and it’s nice to see that continue some two years after its release. If you can’t make the most of the co-op, there will be perks in “Unholy Alliance” for solo players too, including “a heap of new powers and abilities to play with.” The update will also bring “new tarot cards, relics, buildings, fleeces, follower traits, follower quests, and other secrets to discover.”
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cult-of-the-lamb-is-finally-getting-a-co-op-mode-but-its-local-only-180715026.html?src=rss
Break out your blankets and settle in, everyone. It’s time for the cozy games.
The latest Wholesome Direct showcase offers an hour-long celebration of innovation and coziness in indie development, featuring more than 30 meditative, calming and absolutely adorable experiences. Some of the titles are brand new, some are getting updates, many of them have demos, and others simply deserve time in the spotlight. One thing they all have in common is an inherent ability to warm your heart.
The entire Wholesome Direct 2024 showcase is worth watching. It’s packed with brilliant indie gems and brand-new trailers, and many of the featured titles already have demos available to download. Here, we’ve collected four games that came out today as surprise drops tied to the showcase: Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge, POOOOL, The Palace on the Hill and Tracks of Thought. I spent some time playing the first three games on this list and each one is lovely in its own way; I’ve left my thoughts with the game descriptions below.
Watch, read about and then play a bunch of cozy, wholesome games — that’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday. Or a summer.
Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge
This one’s for the players who can’t get enough of games like Neko Atsume and Usagi Shima, or for folks who just really love adorable amphibians. Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is a farming sim about building and maintaining a protected space in the wetlands where wild frogs can thrive, and it gets much deeper than simply buying new poufs for the animals to sleep on. In Kamaeru, players have to dig out the wetlands, harvest ingredients to make jam and other treats for selling at the market, monitor their environmental impact, and purchase items to create an inviting space for all of their frog friends. Players are able to take photos of the frogs, feed them, name them and even breed them, mixing their colorways in a tic-tac-toe Punnett square.
Kamaeru is a relaxed, methodical and surprisingly deep experience that happens to be filled with cute and colorful frogs. It’s much more than a passive animal-observation game, and it takes a fair amount of grinding — but like, in a really cozy, froggy way — for the on-screen rewards to start rolling in. After about an hour of play, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of this game.
Kamaeru is available now on Steam, itchi.io and Nintendo Switch, and it’s verified on Steam Deck. It's developed by Humble Reeds and published by Armor Games Studios.
POOOOL
Count 'em, that’s four Os. POOOOL is a sweet and simple game with infinite replayability, much like the stick-and-ball sport that inspired it. In POOOOL, players fling bouncy balls of various sizes around a contained rectangle, one at a time, in an attempt to make spheres of the same color touch. When two matching balls collide, they instantly combine into a bigger ball, which can then be combined with another of the same size, and so on. It’s kind of like Threes! but with colorful balls instead of numbers. Eventually, the globes reach their limit and they disappear with a pop, leaving plenty of room for new balls to spawn. The round ends and the score is tallied when there’s no more room for the spheres to be flung.
POOOOL is a lovely little physics simulator with a friendly art style and soothing, repeatable mechanics. This is a game that rewards strategy, but it’s also incredibly forgiving of mindless clicking and dragging, and both play styles result in a satisfyingly bouncy experience. Put it in your pile of games to play while killing time or pretending to get work done, and you’ll get plenty of use out of it. POOOOL comes from developer Noah King and publisher digimoss, and it’s available right now on Steam.
The Palace on the Hill
This is a special one. The Palace on the Hill is a thoughtful and robust slice-of-life game set in a fictional town in rural India in the 1990s, starring a young man who’s helping his family earn money over the summer. Players plant, tend to and sell their crops, they work shifts at the local tea shop, and they pick up odd jobs in town, getting to know the residents along the way. The young man is an aspiring artist, and he finds inspiration for new paintings around the village, sharing stories about the area’s past in beautiful watercolor vignettes. There’s a rich history here and plenty of things to do in each moment.
The Palace on the Hill is a sweet surprise of an adventure game, riveting, methodical and illuminating. The rural town where it takes place feels alive and its boundaries expand delicately as the game progresses. Each NPC has a distinct personality and a unique relationship with the protagonist, and their world quickly feels familiar, even as it remains filled with secrets. I heartily recommend this game.
The Palace on the Hill is available today on Steam, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, iOS and Android, and it’s verified on Steam Deck. It comes from indie studio Niku Games.
Tracks of Thought
Tracks of Thought is a game about chatting, managing cards and solving mysteries, and it all takes place on a long-haul locomotive heading to an unknown destination. After passing through a strange tunnel, every passenger on the train forgets where they’re going, and it’s up to the protagonist, an amiable purple ladybug, to figure out what’s going on. The ladybug’s personality is shaped by the player’s interactions with other passengers, and conversations play out as card battles where the goal is to resolve conflict and help everyone get on the same page.
Tracks of Thought has a cartoony art style and a cast of cool, bug-like characters, and it seems to offer a clever blend of conversation and card battles. With today's showing, this game has been featured in a total of four Wholesome Directs (yes, that's nearly all of them), so it's especially great to see it out now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Tracks of Thought comes from developer Tidbits Play and publisher Freedom Games.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/here-are-the-cozy-games-from-wholesome-direct-that-you-can-play-right-now-170042994.html?src=rss
The first gameplay trailer for Neva is out and, wow, I cannot wait to play this one. Neva, from Gris developer Nomada Studio, is an action-adventure game that follows the story of a woman named Alba and a horned wolf cub that has become her companion in a decaying world. While it appears thematically and artistically similar to Gris, the new trailer shows Neva will have a fair amount of combat, unlike its predecessor. And it looks absolutely stunning.
Publisher Devolver Digital released the latest look at Neva during Summer Game Fest. It doesn’t have a firm release date just yet, but it’s slated to come out this year. Neva will be available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Prepare for an emotional experience.
Nomada’s first title, Gris (2018), is the kind of game that really sticks with you after you’ve finished it. I cried at the end of it all (which I promise is not as regular a thing as it would seem now that I’ve written about crying over a game twice in the span of a week). Neva seems like it has the potential to be just as impactful — or more, because now there’s a dog involved. It doesn’t hurt that the promotional art is giving some serious Princess Mononoke vibes.
Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/theres-now-a-gameplay-trailer-for-neva-the-upcoming-title-from-the-makers-of-gris-152743695.html?src=rss
Meta will now let you create massive community chats on Messenger with people you aren't connected to in any way. Back in 2022, the company launched community chats for Facebook Groups, giving people belonging to the same groups an easy way to talk in real time. While that community feature is tied to groups on the social network, this one isn't — it will let use Messenger like Discord to connect with as many as 5,000 random people using the app.
The company didn't post an announcement, but it confirmed the new feature's rollout to TechCrunch. All community chats will be displayed in one place inside the Messenger app, with each one having a "Home" space where administrators can post updates and announcements. According to Meta's Help page for the feature, it's "not available to everyone or on all platforms at this time." You'll know if you're part of this rollout if you see the option to create a new community in the left menu of your Messenger app on mobile.
If you do create a community, you'll get the power to remove someone from the chat, report or remove content and delete the chat altogether. All members can issue shareable invites, though, so communities have the potential to grow big beyond the initial participants' circle. The fact that this flavor of Facebook chats is meant for public conversations, however, also means that you'd have to be more careful of what you share. It's not just current members who'll be able to see what you've said, but also future members other people invite.
As TechCrunch notes, you could use the new option to make chats for schools, organizations, neighborhoods and other groups with a large number of potential members. It could also be a more convenient and better option than WhatsApp's similar community chats feature, since the app needs to be connected to a phone number.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/messengers-new-community-chats-dont-need-to-be-connected-to-facebook-groups-131511680.html?src=rss