Monday news, part two:
Daedalic turns one of its classic point-and-click adventures into a life-and-death survival game, and it feels a little weird
https://www.pcgamer.com/daedalic-turns-one-of-its-classic-point-and-click-adventures-into-a-life-and-death-survival-game-and-it-feels-a-little-weird/
A new Deponia game was unveiled today at the Future Games Show, called Surviving Deponia. But unlike the previous games in the series—all comedic point-and-click adventures—this one is a "story-driven survival" game where you'll "Explore, craft, build and fight your way through the harsh landscape of Deponia."
Monkey Island is coming to Sea of Thieves, and because of that, so am I
https://www.pcgamer.com/monkey-island-is-coming-to-sea-of-thieves-and-because-of-that-so-am-i/
I always felt like something was missing from Sea of Thieves. (...)
Anyway, it appears the reason I never gelled with Sea of Thieves is simply because it wasn't Monkey Island. I know this because Microsoft has just announced an expansion to Sea of Thieves themed around LucasArts' legendary adventure games, and suddenly I couldn't be more excited to set sail in Rare's a-vast ocean.
Overwatch 2's PvE mode may be dead, but I'll play the hell out of these story missions
https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2s-pve-mode-may-be-dead-but-ill-play-the-hell-out-of-these-story-missions/
There looks to be a lot more to Overwatch 2's co-op PvE missions than I would've thought after Blizzard said it had severely reduced its story mode ambitions last month.
At today's Xbox Games Showcase, Blizzard dropped a montage of Overwatch 2 footage with snippets from the upcoming PvE story missions, called Overwatch 2: Invasion, coming on August 10.
I wondered what The Banner Saga devs were up to: turns out it's Towerborne, a co-op action adventure where you live in a big windmill
https://www.pcgamer.com/i-wondered-what-the-banner-saga-devs-were-up-to-turns-out-its-towerborne-a-co-op-action-adventure-where-you-live-in-a-big-windmill/
It's been a long time since the final instalment of The Banner Saga released back in 2018, and I, for one, sometimes find myself pondering what Stoic have been working on all this time. Turns out it's Towerborne, a co-op party-based adventure that looks in a somewhat similar vein to For the King. You and a group of friends form a party and fight to resettle a post-apocalyptic fantasy world.
I almost can't believe it, but Frostpunk 2 looks even more grim and bleak than the original game
https://www.pcgamer.com/frostpunk-2-new-trailer-pcgs-2023/
Survival city builder Frostpunk 2 takes place 30 years after the massive blizzard that capped off the original game's campaign, but even though humanity has somehow survived the frozen planet for decades, things haven't gotten any easier. If anything, the situation looks more bleak, dire, and desperate than ever.
Ultra-hardcore survival shooter Road To Vostok's getting a big new public build
https://www.pcgamer.com/road-to-vostok-trailer-pcgs-2023/
If the recent rash of survival games failing to make good on their ambitious promises has left you disillusioned, then I’ve good news: Road to Vostok is getting a substantial demo in fall 2023. You’ll be able to see for yourself exactly how the genre's hardcore entry is coming along.
Take your first look at Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin in action
https://www.pcgamer.com/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-realms-of-ruin-gameplay-reveal-pcgs-2023/
Developer Frontier has revealed the first snippet of gameplay for its recently announced Warhammer RTS Realms of Ruin and confirmed the game’s two upcoming open beta periods.
Citizen Sleeper 2 is inbound, and this time you have a spaceship
https://www.pcgamer.com/citizen-sleeper-2-reveal-trailer-pcgs-2023/
Announced in the June 11 PC Gaming Show, the cherished cyberpunk game Citizen Sleeper is getting a sequel.
In the dystopian role-playing game, you play a Sleeper, a digitized human brain piloting a robotic body owned by a corporation. You’re an imitation of life, an artificial intelligence outlawed in this sci-fi future, built to bypass the pesky legal limitations that restrict a corporation’s ability to make money.
Atlus has announced the Persona 3 remake and Persona 5 tactics spin-off that it already accidentally told us about, and shown off some slick new footage
https://www.pcgamer.com/atlus-has-announced-the-persona-3-remake-and-persona-5-tactics-spin-off-that-it-already-accidentally-told-us-about-and-shown-off-some-slick-new-footage/
Remember that time three days ago when Atlus leaked its own Persona game announcements? Me too, and you'll never guess: today they in fact did the official announcement for those games.
(...)
On another front, you might ask yourself, what if smash hit Persona 5 was 1) way cuter and 2) a tactics game? Well, Atlus has got a treat for you. Persona 5 Tactica (P5T) will be a cute-chibi-art version of the familiar characters as they dive into a new psychologically monstrous world inside somebody's brain. They'll be aiding some folks called The Rebel Corps as they take on a big, mean, scary lady who appears to have declared themself Queen of this other reality and/or the inside of their own head. It's hard to say which.
>> Persona 3 won't have the female protagonist nor the stuff of other versions.
WW2 shooter Hell Let Loose is adding a shorter-session mode for 25 players
https://www.pcgamer.com/hell-let-loose-objective-mode-reveal-pcgs-2023/
World War 2 military sim Hell Let Loose is shifting its focus to smaller-scale warfare in its next update, with the introduction of a slimmer objective-based game mode.
Vampire Survivors is getting a surprise free update with gameshow flair
https://www.pcgamer.com/vampire-survivors-is-getting-a-surprise-free-update-with-gameshow-flair/
At the 2023 PC Gaming Show, Vampire Survivors developer Poncle announced the hit bullet heaven's 1.5 update, complete with a fresh map, character variation, and chaotic new pickup. Patch 1.5 of Vampire Survivors is set to go live tomorrow, June 12.
Check out Baldur's Gate's three densely-packed districts in this dev diary
https://www.pcgamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-dev-diary-city-reveal-pcgs-2023/
In a video premiered during the PC Gaming Show 2023, Larian gave a deeper look at the city of Baldur’s Gate. The main metropolis of the upcoming RPG of the same name, Baldur’s Gate is something of a favorite location among Dungeons & Dragons players, and Larian says its iteration of the setting in Baldur's Gate 3 will be larger than any that have come before in a video game.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer is 'confident' that the Activision Blizzard acquisition will go through
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-boss-phil-spencer-is-confident-that-the-activision-blizzard-acquisition-will-go-through/
Xbox's Phil Spencer is staying the course: Microsoft's long-delayed acquisition of Activision Blizzard will happen, he said on Sunday.
Spencer made the comment at an Xbox event called What's Next For Gaming today, where he emphasized that "Microsoft is very committed, we're very committed" to the acquisition. The current major hurdle for the acquisition is the United Kingdom's Competition and Market Authority, which has blocked the deal. Both Microsoft and Activision are appealing the authority's decision. The FTC in the US has also not yet approved the deal.
F1 Manager 2023 lets you rewrite history in its new mode
https://www.pcgamer.com/f1-manager-2023-scenario-mode-reveal-pcgs-2023/
Nothing stands still in F1, and Frontier’s impressive pace of change in licensed sports management sim F1 Manager 2023 is a testament to that. Building on last year’s fine debut release, the updated 2023 title introduces several key innovations, including an all-new scenario mode.
Dune: Awakening's combat 'is much more second-to-second and intense than you would find in an MMO'
https://www.pcgamer.com/dune-awakenings-combat-is-much-more-second-to-second-and-intense-than-you-would-find-in-an-mmo/
One of the things Denis Villeneuve's Dune film highlights is that warfare on Arrakis relies on some quite contrasting flavors of fighting. When the soldiers of House Atreides and House Harkonnen clash in the movie, aircraft are raining artillery fire from above while warriors protected by Holtzman shields duel with old-fashioned blades down below. That sense of battles taking place on multiple, overlapping fronts is something Funcom's massively multiplayer survival game Dune: Awakening aims to capture as well.
American Truck Simulator players are now being targeted by in-game recruitment ads from a massive truck company
https://www.pcgamer.com/american-truck-simulator-players-are-now-being-targeted-by-in-game-recruitment-ads-from-a-massive-truck-company/
(...) American Truck Simulator now features billboards with recruitment ads dotting its virtual United States (thanks, GamesRadar+), which point players towards Schneider's careers page. And according to the developers, this is the first of what may be many.
System Shock's first patch fixed every glitch I ran into, including a few things I didn't even realize were bugs
https://www.pcgamer.com/system-shocks-first-patch-fixed-every-glitch-i-ran-into-including-a-few-things-i-didnt-even-realize-were-bugs/
I've been having a great time in Nightdive's System Shock—it's been one of those "actually having trouble putting it down" games for me. It's technically impressive too, with great performance and a lightweight install for an Unreal Engine 4 game, but I've definitely encountered a few glitches in my playtime.
And every single one I can remember has been taken care of in the game's first patch since launching on May 30. The biggest was a nearly progress-blocking bug in the Maintenance level's cyberspace section: it would slow to a crawl and eventually crash toward the end, and just last night I managed to muddle through by rushing past its final enemies. The game still crashed shortly after exiting, but I got that sweet autosave meaning I didn't have to run it a fourth time.
Teardown's new creative mode update is a major leap for its thriving modding scene
https://www.pcgamer.com/teardowns-new-creative-mode-update-is-a-major-leap-for-its-thriving-modding-scene/
One of best sandbox games on PC is getting a creative mode. As shown during today's PC Gaming Show, Tuxedo Labs is preparing to launch in-game creation tools for Teardown that allow players to model maps or objects in-game and save them for later use.
Mega Man-inspired roguelite platformer 30XX is launching out of early access in August
https://www.pcgamer.com/30xx-full-launch-trailer-pcgs-2023/
Accompanied by a killer chiptune soundtrack, the new 30XX trailer reveals that the roguelite will be out on August 9. The PC Gaming Show video also gave us a good look at the platformer’s robot-butt-kicking action.
What makes an Obsidian game? Playing tonnes of old Obsidian (and BioWare) games
https://www.pcgamer.com/what-makes-an-obsidian-game-playing-tonnes-of-old-obsidian-and-bioware-games/
Obsidian Entertainment was founded in 2003 by several employees of the soon-to-be-shuttered Black Isles Studios (best-known for Fallout 1 & 2 and Planescape: Torment). Obsidian's early years were spent working on sequels to other company's games, often with spectacular results like Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2, before it moved onto original titles like Alpha Protocol, Pillars of Eternity, and the very successful Outer Worlds.
Ask any fan of the studio's work and they'll tell you there's a common thread between these games, a hard-to-grasp quality that makes it feel like an Obsidian joint: Some just put it down to the consistently excellent writing, of course, but it's much more than that. Following the announcement of the studio's next project, the excellent-looking Avowed, we sat down with Obsidian co-founder Feargus Urquhart to talk turkey and, towards the end of the chat, thoughts turned to what he made of this thread. After all, Obsidian's been around for 20 years now, it's a big studio, talent comes and goes, and you have the game development equivalent of the Ship of Theseus problem: What makes an Obsidian game an Obsidian game?
