Tag Archives: Video Games

Summer Game Fest 2024: What to expect and how to watch games revealed live

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E3 might be dead and buried but there's still a ton of gaming news to look forward to in the coming days as Summer Game Fest 2024 is standing in the old expo's stead. SGF has gradually taken on more importance over the last few years as an umbrella for all the various game showcases that take place each June.

From June 7 until June 10, a string of SGF events will highlight dozens of games. The big announcements will all be livestreamed for you to watch at home but there's also an in-person component to SGF. Engadget will have boots on the ground to bring you some extra insight as well as our impressions of many of the games featured throughout the event.

For those of you who'll be enjoying the festivities from afar, here's the lowdown on how to watch Summer Game Fest 2024 and what to expect.

How to watch Summer Game Fest Live - June 7, 5pm ET

How to watch: YouTube and Twitch

We've seen some major announcements at the two-hour tentpole SGF showcase over the last few years, but it seems the 2024 edition will be more muted. SGF organizer and host Geoff Keighley has tried to temper expectations by saying that most of what's shown this year will be new info on previously announced games.

He has confirmed that Monster Hunter Wilds, Kingdom Come 2: Deliverance and Metaphor: Refantazio (a fantasy JRPG from the team behind Persona) will get some time in the spotlight. Also on deck are the release date for free co-op shooter The First Descendant, a peek at 3D fighter Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and a look at the Among Us animated series.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Kingdom Hearts IV, The Wolf Among Us 2 and Ken Levine's definitely-not-BioShock followup to BioShock Judas will not be featured. There will be some fresh reveals, though maybe try to keep your hype levels in check for this one. "There definitely are things that are being announced but this is not a show that has a lot of like 'coming in 2026' or '2027', or teasers for games that are years and years out," Keighley said.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: Moderate.

Day of the Devs - June 7, 7PM ET

How to watch: YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) and Twitch

Day of the Devs is a reliably great showcase of upcoming indie games. The team always manages to assemble a collection of diverse and intriguing titles. Last year's Game Awards edition, for instance, included peeks at Open Roads, Crow Country and Mars After Midnight, all of which we've enjoyed so far this year. I inevitably end up adding at least four or five games from Day of the Devs to my Steam wishlist, so it's a must watch.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: Team Cherry is an indie studio, but nope.

Devolver Direct - June 7, 8PM ET

How to watch: YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) and Twitch

Devolver Digital's annual helping of chaos is once again upon us. The publisher's reliably kooky Direct stream will include details on at least a few games. Here's hoping we get release dates for The Plucky Squire and Skate Story, the latter which has been at the top of my to-play list for a couple of years. Both titles are supposed to be arriving in 2024, so now would be a great time for an update. Keep your fingers crossed for details on man-baby walking simulator Baby Steps amid the "exciting new reveals" Devolver has planned.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: Highly unlikely.

Xbox Games Showcase - June 9, 1PM ET

How to watch: YouTube and Twitch (ASL option)

This could well be the biggest showcase of the week in terms of major game announcements. It’s the first time that Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard have all been part of one of these events.

Microsoft has quite a few games and major updates on its 2024 slate. We’ll likely get details and or release dates on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Starfield and Diablo IV expansions and the next season of Overwatch 2. Hopefully we'll get a glimpse of Arkane Lyon's Blade game too. Expect to hear about more titles that are on the way to Game Pass, and possibly additional first-party games making the leap over to PlayStation and Switch.

For many, the main event will take place after the main showcase as we’ll learn all about Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. The next installment of the series is likely set during the Gulf War. It’s the first Call of Duty title that will be available on Game Pass on its release day. It marks a major risk for Microsoft in foregoing sales of boxed copies of the game in favor of a boost in subscriber numbers.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: Medium to high. The last we heard much about the game was at this showcase in 2022.

Ubisoft Forward - June 10, 3PM ET

How to watch: YouTube (with English subtitles, audio description and American Sign Language options) and Twitch

Monday is going to be a busy ol' day for the Engadget crew as we'll be rolling straight from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote into Ubisoft Forward. The publisher has a couple of major games lined up for the rest of the year in Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and it's promising "exclusive looks" at both.

XDefiant will get the same treatment. We'll probably hear about what's next for some of Ubisoft's other ongoing games, such as Rainbow Six: Siege and Skull and Bones, and perhaps some future plans for The Division. Ubisoft Forward will have a preshow and a postshow, so there's lots ahead from the company.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: Unless [shudders] Ubisoft suddenly buys Team Cherry, nil.

FILE - This photo shows a balloon of the Mario character of Mario Bros. during an event in Tokyo, on Feb. 15, 2024. Japanese video-game maker Nintendo said Tuesday, May 7, 2024 that it will make an announcement about a successor to its Switch home console sometime before March 2025. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESS

How to watch: YouTube

The house that Mario built has assured the world that there will be a Nintendo Direct sometime in June, but it has yet to announce the particulars. One thing that will not be a factor in this showcase is the successor to the Nintendo Switch. While the company has pledged to announce its next flagship system by next March, it will not be doing so here.

Chances of a Hollow Knight: Silksong appearance: High, especially if Xbox doesn't feature it.

And that's not all, folks. There are several other showcases taking place over the coming days. Atlus is hosting a YouTube stream dedicated to Metaphor: ReFantazio on Friday at 9PM ET. Saturday in particular has a bunch to check out, including the Future of Play Direct, Wholesome Direct (both of which feature family-friendly games), the Latin American Games Showcase and a Women-Led Games stream. These will run throughout the day, starting at 11AM ET. On Sunday, the PC Gaming Show will follow the Call of Duty Direct at 4PM ET.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/summer-game-fest-2024-what-to-expect-and-how-to-watch-games-revealed-live-165058094.html?src=rss

Skydance’s Behemoth brings giant climbable monster fights to VR

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Skydance Games is best known for The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, one of the most popular, games on the original PlayStation VR. Combining visceral fights with TWD’s usual dramatic twists, turns and zombies, it felt like a proper VR game. 

Skydance's Behemoth is an action-adventure game that draws on the combat and physics of The Walking Dead games but focuses more on fighting and less on survival. Like Saints and Sinners, there’s still a crafting system, but it’s a lot simpler, reinforcing the action-adventure slant here. I got to play a slice of the game, which combined early tutorial snippets outlining controls and mechanics with more thrilling set pieces and exploration segments – oh, and a battle with the behemoth itself.

Shawn Kittelsen, vice president of Creative, says Behemoth has a more sophisticated combat system. You will have to observe enemies, time your counterattacks and generally think a little more about your strategy instead of just waving your weapons around in virtual space. Doing that will drain your stamina bar, leaving you unable to dodge or block if you’re not careful. While combat feels weighty, you can still flail around with weapons and do damage — limitations are translating the swing of a plastic PSVR controller to a massive four-pound broadsword. This stamina system does help keep that in check, at least a little.

Kittelsen says the game lightly draws inspiration from Dark Souls for battle dynamics. At the same time, the most compelling part — a brief fight with the giant — reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus… from a completely different perspective.

You could split my demo into two halves. The initial chunk of the demo introduces control systems, traversal techniques and how to fight other human foes. Like a lot of VR games, it takes a moment to get up to speed. Fortunately, Skydance equipped my character with a magical sword that I could throw and resummon, Thor hammer-style. That, however, didn’t fix my habit of dropping my shield immediately after battles.

I tried out bows, an ax and other weapons dropped by human enemies as I traversed the early parts of the game. I swung across monkey bars and climbed vertical rock faces and ropes, and I felt more than a little self-conscious doing so in a room of game developers and PRs. A wrist-mounted grappling hook adds a bit of speed to exploration, but all these systems together (plus not playing VR on the reg) did make me feel a little queasy. The creators have added the ability to reduce your field of view to lessen the effect, but I did break into a cold sweat during my demo. However, it didn’t reach the levels of Resident Evil 7’s notorious nausea-causing demo.

Skydance Interactive Behemouth Event
Mark Robinson

I went into the second part of my demo, a brief skirmish with a behemoth called Seal, with some trepidation. Would running and evading a colossal monster make me feel even more VR-sick? Not the case. Maybe because I focused on a single objective — the giant monster — as I swung around on my grapple hook, fired arrows at his weak points, dodged foot stomps and more, I felt… fine. That’s a great sign, as my brief tussle with the giant was the standout moment of the demo. I did, however, die a few times.

Like SatC and recent Zelda games, you can scale this behemoth (if there’s the right texture of climbable surface). You can also use your grappling hook to launch yourself towards Seal's knee. You can’t simply cling on, though, as your stamina meter will burn away as you inch toward the giant’s weak spots. In a somewhat misguided approach, I tried to use arrows to hit the creature but would inevitably drop the bow rather than release the arrow. That was due to my skill, not the control system.

Like Horizon Call of the Mountain, climbing and traversing with your hands in Behemoth is fun, but that PSVR2 exclusive is a prettier game. However, the good news is Behemoth is coming to almost all contemporary VR headsets, from Meta’s Quest 2 and upwards, as well as PC headsets and PSVR2.

The creators say the primary campaign will last around 12 hours, with an additional arena mode to fight more enemies — or, hopefully, offer a quick shortcut to battle the behemoth. I can’t wait to get squashed again.

Skydance’s Behemoth launches in fall 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/skydances-behemoth-brings-giant-climbable-monster-fights-to-vr-140057216.html?src=rss

The Keyper is a casual adventure game for Playdate that unexpectedly made me cry

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Sometimes it’s the simplest games that end up leaving you all teary-eyed and emotional.

When I first downloaded Cool Lemon Club’s The Keyper for Playdate, I didn’t have much in the way of expectations beyond a general sense that it should be pretty good, since lots of people online seemed to be recommending it. The adventure game, which is available on itch.io and the official Playdate Catalog, sees the player searching for the many different keys needed to unlock areas of the mysterious Winchester 21 building after taking over the role of caretaker. The person who formerly held the job is gone, leaving only some cryptic notes behind, and the residents are varying degrees of weird.

On its face, it seems like a pretty standard game of puzzle solving and exploration. It’s effectively frustrating throughout, as you repeatedly retrace your steps trying to navigate the Winchester 21’s several floors and labyrinthine tunnel system to find the keys and the doors they unlock. But as the plot unfolds and you uncover more of the building’s secrets, The Keyper reveals itself to be a game with a lot of heart.

Its charm lies in the strange interactions between you and the people who live in the apartments (and tunnels… and walls) of the Winchester 21. They each have their own little storylines, some of which present new mysteries and side-quests for you to take on. One of these in particular really tugged at my heartstrings, but I wouldn’t dare spoil it for you here.

The Keyper is a little dark, a little funny and just the right amount of challenging. While it does offer the option to save your progress so you can walk away from it and come back later, I’d recommend setting aside a few hours and just playing this through in one shot for the most impact. By the time you reach the end and finally figure out what’s been going on all along, the entire tone of the game has shifted into something a lot more heartwarming than it all first appears. I may even have cried a little during the final scene. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-keyper-is-a-casual-adventure-game-for-playdate-that-unexpectedly-made-me-cry-214640406.html?src=rss

Former Activision studio Toys for Bob partners with Xbox to publish its first game as an indie

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Former Activision studio Toys for Bob just announced a partnership with Xbox to release its first game after spinning off as an independent entity. The company, which developed recent entries in the Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot franchises, hasn’t released any concrete details about its upcoming release, except to say that it’s early in development and that the team has been working hard.

This is, of course, something of a homecoming for the developer. Activision is owned by Microsoft, making Toys for Bob its… former grandchild? In any event, it’s likely easy to get pitch meetings and the like with a company you’ve worked with in the past. Also, the developer has a fairly stellar pedigree, having created the Skylanders franchise and the well-reviewed Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, among others.

Toys for Bob spun out as an indie back in February after Microsoft instituted sweeping layoffs that impacted 86 employees, which was more than half of the staff. At the time, the company said the transition to an indie would allow it to return to “being a small and nimble studio.” This sentiment harkens back to its early days of the 1980s and 1990s, back when Toys for Bob was cranking out games like Star Control.

The developer also said back in February that Microsoft has “been extremely supportive of our new direction and we’re confident that we will continue to work closely together as part of our future.” It looks like it wasn’t lying about that last part.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-activision-studio-toys-for-bob-partners-with-xbox-to-publish-its-first-game-as-an-indie-170033303.html?src=rss

Former Activision studio Toys for Bob partners with Xbox to publish its first game as an indie

Posted on by

Former Activision studio Toys for Bob just announced a partnership with Xbox to release its first game after spinning off as an independent entity. The company, which developed recent entries in the Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot franchises, hasn’t released any concrete details about its upcoming release, except to say that it’s early in development and that the team has been working hard.

This is, of course, something of a homecoming for the developer. Activision is owned by Microsoft, making Toys for Bob its… former grandchild? In any event, it’s likely easy to get pitch meetings and the like with a company you’ve worked with in the past. Also, the developer has a fairly stellar pedigree, having created the Skylanders franchise and the well-reviewed Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, among others.

Toys for Bob spun out as an indie back in February after Microsoft instituted sweeping layoffs that impacted 86 employees, which was more than half of the staff. At the time, the company said the transition to an indie would allow it to return to “being a small and nimble studio.” This sentiment harkens back to its early days of the 1980s and 1990s, back when Toys for Bob was cranking out games like Star Control.

The developer also said back in February that Microsoft has “been extremely supportive of our new direction and we’re confident that we will continue to work closely together as part of our future.” It looks like it wasn’t lying about that last part.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/former-activision-studio-toys-for-bob-partners-with-xbox-to-publish-its-first-game-as-an-indie-170033303.html?src=rss

Silent Hill 2 remake hits PS5 and PC on October 8

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Bloober Team's remake of Silent Hill 2 is due to hit PlayStation 5 and PC on October 8, and it's looking nice and spooky. It's available to pre-order on the PlayStation Store and Steam.

It's been less than two years since Konami and Bloober Team announced the Silent Hill 2 remake, though news of its existence leaked a few months beforehand, giving fans plenty of time to catastrophize the situation. Today we got the first gameplay trailer for the remake, showcasing familiar hallways lined with bloody nurses, low-light environments crawling with bugs, and other nasty surprises that have always been lurking in the sleepy town of Silent Hill. With modern visuals, lighting and sensibilities, it all looks eerily beautiful.

The release date trailer dropped during today's PlayStation State of Play showcase. Right after that, Konami held a separate event just for its numerous Silent Hill projects, including an extended look at the Silent Hill 2 remake.

Bloober Team is the studio behind the Layers of Fear franchise, Observer, Blair Witch and The Medium — all perfectly serviceable psychological horror experiences. Still, there's a lot to live up to here: Silent Hill 2 is a beloved, classic horror game. It hit the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and, more than 20 years on, plenty of fans are anxious to see how the remake will hold up. Bloober Team has completely rebuilt the game, including full performance capture and swapping a semi-fixed camera for a modern third-person perspective.

Bloober Team co-founder Piotr Babieno told Engadget in June 2023 that the studio shifted its entire game-making ethos for the Silent Hill 2 remake. Instead of leading with mood and set dressing, they made mechanics the foundation of the on-screen terror, using player input to generate disquiet. The Layers of Fear collection that came out last summer marked the end of Bloober Team's psychological-horror era. As Babieno said last June:

“This year is like closing the era of making psychological horror games. Right now we are going into Bloober Team 3.0, making mass-market horror.... We decided that our next titles should be much more mass-market oriented. We’d like to talk with more people. We’d like to deliver our ideas, with our DNA, not by environment or storytelling, but by action. So all of our future titles will have a lot of gameplay mechanics. They will be much bigger.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/silent-hill-2-remake-hits-ps5-and-pc-on-october-8-230731258.html?src=rss

Silent Hill 2 remake hits PS5 and PC on October 8

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Bloober Team's remake of Silent Hill 2 is due to hit PlayStation 5 and PC on October 8, and it's looking nice and spooky. It's available to pre-order on the PlayStation Store and Steam.

It's been less than two years since Konami and Bloober Team announced the Silent Hill 2 remake, though news of its existence leaked a few months beforehand, giving fans plenty of time to catastrophize the situation. Today we got the first gameplay trailer for the remake, showcasing familiar hallways lined with bloody nurses, low-light environments crawling with bugs, and other nasty surprises that have always been lurking in the sleepy town of Silent Hill. With modern visuals, lighting and sensibilities, it all looks eerily beautiful.

The release date trailer dropped during today's PlayStation State of Play showcase. Right after that, Konami held a separate event just for its numerous Silent Hill projects, including an extended look at the Silent Hill 2 remake.

Bloober Team is the studio behind the Layers of Fear franchise, Observer, Blair Witch and The Medium — all perfectly serviceable psychological horror experiences. Still, there's a lot to live up to here: Silent Hill 2 is a beloved, classic horror game. It hit the PlayStation 2 in 2001 and, more than 20 years on, plenty of fans are anxious to see how the remake will hold up. Bloober Team has completely rebuilt the game, including full performance capture and swapping a semi-fixed camera for a modern third-person perspective.

Bloober Team co-founder Piotr Babieno told Engadget in June 2023 that the studio shifted its entire game-making ethos for the Silent Hill 2 remake. Instead of leading with mood and set dressing, they made mechanics the foundation of the on-screen terror, using player input to generate disquiet. The Layers of Fear collection that came out last summer marked the end of Bloober Team's psychological-horror era. As Babieno said last June:

“This year is like closing the era of making psychological horror games. Right now we are going into Bloober Team 3.0, making mass-market horror.... We decided that our next titles should be much more mass-market oriented. We’d like to talk with more people. We’d like to deliver our ideas, with our DNA, not by environment or storytelling, but by action. So all of our future titles will have a lot of gameplay mechanics. They will be much bigger.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/silent-hill-2-remake-hits-ps5-and-pc-on-october-8-230731258.html?src=rss

Until Dawn is coming to PS5 and PC this fall

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The Until Dawn remaster is heading to PS5 and PC this fall. Sony gave the announcement at its State of Play event after teasing the game earlier this year. The company also dropped a new trailer, and it certainly looks like a spooky delight. In other words, that fall release date is starting to make sense from a themed holiday perspective.

The Until Dawn remake was built in Unreal Engine 5 and boasts several new features that were missing from the original PS4 title. You'll be able to experience the action from a third-person perspective for the first time, which is pretty neat. Developer Ballistic Moon, taking the reins from original dev Supermassive Games, has also said it has expanded the color palette to make it more cinematic and to allow for contextual character movement animations.

We don’t have an exact release date other than fall, but I’ll put money on October. In related news, Sony’s prepping an Until Dawn movie which should release sometime in the nearish future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/until-dawn-is-coming-to-ps5-and-pc-this-fall-223945702.html?src=rss

Until Dawn is coming to PS5 and PC this fall

Posted on by

The Until Dawn remaster is heading to PS5 and PC this fall. Sony gave the announcement at its State of Play event after teasing the game earlier this year. The company also dropped a new trailer, and it certainly looks like a spooky delight. In other words, that fall release date is starting to make sense from a themed holiday perspective.

The Until Dawn remake was built in Unreal Engine 5 and boasts several new features that were missing from the original PS4 title. You'll be able to experience the action from a third-person perspective for the first time, which is pretty neat. Developer Ballistic Moon, taking the reins from original dev Supermassive Games, has also said it has expanded the color palette to make it more cinematic and to allow for contextual character movement animations.

We don’t have an exact release date other than fall, but I’ll put money on October. In related news, Sony’s prepping an Until Dawn movie which should release sometime in the nearish future.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/until-dawn-is-coming-to-ps5-and-pc-this-fall-223945702.html?src=rss

How to watch Sony’s PlayStation State of Play event this evening

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Sony’s next PlayStation State of Play livestream event kicks off this evening at 6PM ET and it's extremely easy to watch. The stream will be available on the company’s YouTube page, seen above, on Twitch and even TikTok. Sony says the event should last around 30 minutes.

So what’s on the agenda? The company promises the stream will spotlight 14 games coming to the PS5 and PS VR2. Sony hasn’t announced many first-party titles for the months and years ahead, so this should finally give us a glimpse into the future of both the PS5 and its VR headset accessory. Wait, 14 games in 30 minutes? You had better not take a break to make popcorn.

Sony remains mum as to which 14 games will get some TLC during the stream, but we have some likely guesses. It’s been nearly three years since the teaser trailer for Insomniac’s Wolverine game dropped, and the near-indestructible mutant has been all over the pop culture landscape lately. It’s highly likely we’ll get an actual gameplay trailer and maybe, just maybe, a release date.

Rumors have suggested that the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake will get another trailer, but Konami is holding its own event immediately following State of Play. Konami’s event is called Silent Hill Transmission, so we’re definitely getting something about the neglected horror franchise. We just don’t know if it’ll be at 6PM ET or sometime after 7PM ET.

An ad for the event.
Konami

It’d be really nice if Sony finally announces Ghost of Tsushima 2, particularly after the release of that stellar PC port of the original game. Haven's Fairgame$ and Firewalk's Concord are likely to show up. Also, Bungie is getting ready to release a Destiny 2 expansion called The Final Shape. That’ll likely get a shoutout. Reports suggest a new Astro game from Team Asobi is currently in development.

Now onto hopes. We know Guerilla is working on more games in the Horizon universe, so it’d be nice to get some information about that. Sony owns a bunch of studios and they all have to be working on something. Just one surprise from Naughty Dog or Media Molecule could set the internet on fire. In any event, we don’t have that long to wait.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-to-watch-sonys-playstation-state-of-play-event-this-evening-130041039.html?src=rss