Latest Articles (Page 863)

Gears of War 4 marked a turning point for Microsoft's classic franchise, with new studio The Coalition taking over franchise development duties. Its 2016 debut delivered a gorgeous but safe instalment in the series. Gears 5, by comparison, is a revelation in pretty much every regard. It's an ambitious new take on the series, pushing gameplay into uncharted territory while delivering perhaps the most advanced and performant Unreal Engine 4 title to date - and something of a technological high point for both Xbox One consoles.

Ah, Asura's Wrath. How I miss you so. Your over-the-top, QTE-fuelled combat lives long in the memory. I close my eyes and I see a planet-sized man press his finger down on Asura, the demigod's six arms a flurry of punches. You were deeply flawed, but remarkable, a true last-gen diamond in the rough.

One of the many words that games really need their own version of is syncretism. Syncretism, as far as I understand it, is the word for the convergence, or attempted convergence, of different religions, bringing all the points of similarity and all the contradictions together into one bubbling religious stew. Actually, stew is the wrong analogy for what this is, I suspect. Rather, it makes me think of the stately movement of continents, old shorelines removed by collisions while new landscapes become visible over time.

Cat Quest 2, developer The Gentlebros' much-expanded casual action-RPG sequel, is out soon, and, in preparation for its 24th September PC launch, there's a fresh batch of gameplay video.

Remedy Entertainment's Control is a seriously impressive game and a stunning technological achievement with just one major Achilles Heel - immensely variable console performance, to the point where day one code could drop to a minimum of 10 frames per second in trouble spots on PlayStation 4. The September update released on PS4 consoles a couple of days ago, promising "improved general frame-rate performance through optimisation made to multiple systems and content" - and the good news is that the game is significantly better and we are one step towards a much more consistent console experience.

The Nintendo Switch has delivered a host of handheld miracles since it first launched in March 2017. What initially looked like last-gen console power packed into a handheld has given us so much more, to the point where the system plays host to id Tech 6 ports - and even an upcoming conversion of The Witcher 3. Low level access to Nvidia's Tegra X1 has seen some astonishing results over the last couple of years - but it's capable of more. Much more.

Don't Starve developer Klei Entertainment's avoid-the-floor parkour platformer Hot Lava will be springing across the upholstery and out onto Steam next Thursday, 19th September.

It's been just over a week since Spyro Reignited Trilogy first glided onto PCs, which means there's already a bunch of mods for you to try out. Somewhat hilariously, many of these (and indeed the most popular) are ones that seek to make the remastered Spyro games appear more like the original titles. We have come full circle.

Pets have finally arrived in Sea of Thieves as part of this month's Smuggler's Fortune update, and with them comes the game's new real-world cash store.

Autonauts starts simply enough. Craft a bot, train it to chop down a tree, watch it trundle off to do your bidding. What could go wrong? Well, it turns out, quite a lot - because these robots are only as smart as you tell them to be.

Pokémon Sword and Shield's marketing campaign has already been a wild ride: so far we've had Pokémon wearing teapots, Jacob Rees-Smogg, and a cream-inspired Pokémon that definitely hasn't spawned a load of NSFW fan art.

Steam has an issue with discoverability because there's loads there and things get buried. But Valve is working on improving it. Case in point: an update rolled out yesterday to improve the diversity of games being recommended to you.

Remember Anthem? It's been over seven months since BioWare's underwhelming multiplayer first launched, but the game has already found itself added to the EA Vault, and is now available for EA Access and Origin Access subscribers.

Way back in 2014, Universal Studios announced that it had signed a deal to create a number of new theme parks based on Nintendo properties, and it looks like the first of these, in Osaka, Japan, will finally be opening in "spring" next year.

Guilt! Ecstasy! Agony! The corruption and correction of the flesh! Blasphemous is all of these things and m- no, wait. Blasphemous is only these things: all else is heresy, fit to be thrown on the pyre. A gruesome pixelart hybrid of Castlevania and Dark Souls, it casts you as the Penitent One, a musclebound chap in a pointy helmet, who must cleanse a fallen civilisation on behalf of a quasi-Catholic deity known as the Miracle.

The Game Awards, hosted and organised by Geoff Keighley, has steadily become a fixture on the annual gaming calendar. This year will be its fifth and will air a few days later than usual, on Thursday, 12th December. It's usually a late night in the UK, what with the US time difference.

Developer Die Gute Fabrik's strange, visually striking "mutant soap opera", Mutazione, will be making its way to PlayStation 4 and PC next week, on 19th September.

Liquid Bit and BumbleBear's team-based strategy platformer - and update of cult arcade hit - Killer Queen Black is making its way to Switch and PC on 11th October.

Frictional Games' trio of classic psychological frighten-'em-ups, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Justine, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, will be terrorising Switch owners from today, all arriving on Nintendo's platform as part of the Amnesia Collection.

The Witcher card game Gwent is going mobile and heading to iOS devices on 29th October. It's a free-to-play game with the option of buying card kegs (packs), and all progress and purchases will share between iOS and PC (note: not console, by the sound of it).

After a period of relative obscurity - this is the studio's first outing since Nier Automata, a 30-month gap that feels like a vast chasm in the busy CV of this most prolific of teams - Astral Chain shows that PlatinumGames is back. And how. A sprawling, maximalist adventure that binds together police procedural, overstated pugilism and so many different genres in-between, it's the most fun I've had with one of Platinum's titles since Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Heck, it might even be Platinum's best game yet.

It really has been far, far too long since the last truly decent mech game, and the Nintendo Switch's Daemon X Machina comes so very close to being exactly what we've been waiting for all these years.

Developer Dodge Roll's sublime bullet hell dungeon crawler, Enter the Gungeon, is getting a spin-off! It's called - wait for it - Exit the Gungeon, and it's coming to Apple Arcade "soon".

R-Type Final 2 got an airing at Tokyo Game Show today, and it's undoubtedly a very real, very playable prospect. What a time to be alive!

If you've been playing PES 2020 you might have noticed some of the old fake team names have been replaced by new fake team names that are a little more realistic.

I'm always a little baffled by the idea of physical versions of free-to-play games - but anyway, if you fancy owning an exclusive Bloodhound or Lifeline skin, you can soon pick them up in boxed editions of Apex Legends.

Weird Nintendo, I've always felt, is the best Nintendo. From well-known oddities such as the Ultra Hand or Love Tester through to deeper cuts like the Chiritori, a remote control vacuum cleaner that was an early precursor to the Roomba, or the Unirack, a shelving unit that came with its own set of handkerchiefs and a secret compartment to squirrel them away in, all so that children could conjure them out of thin air in a performative trick for the whole family, it's where the heart of the company lies. Storage units and disappearing acts? Now that's the Nintendo I love - the toymaker extraordinaire, taking everyday items and imbuing them with a little magic.

Hideo Kojima has provided our best look yet at Death Stranding and its sci-fi Deliveroo gameplay.

Shenmue 3 is now less than two months from release - and if that makes you very excited, then you'll probably want to indulge in its new Tokyo Games Show trailer below.

After the breakthrough global success of Monster Hunter World, the tasteful handling of Mega Man's return and the course correcting for Resident Evil - which, in the remake of 2, artfully managed to blend Resident Evil old and new, resulting in perhaps the greatest series entry yet - we now have this. A team-based shooter that leans heavily on asymmetrical play, and pushes the Resident Evil formula to odd extremes.