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Deep Silver hasn't killed off 'Dead Island 2'
Dead Island's long-awaited sequel is alive and well despite numerous setbacks after its trailer was revealed way back in 2014. The game's Twitter account has reassured a fan asking about Dead Island 2 that it's still in development -- the release of the zombie franchise's Survivor mobile game spin-off apparently doesn't mean that its publisher, Deep Silver, gave up on its PC/console entry. Unfortunately, Deep Silver has refused to reveal more info and only told people that it will tweet about the game once it has more to share at a later date.
Snapchat’s new lens lets you play tennis against Serena Williams
Wimbledon is in full swing, and thanks to Snapchat you can get in on the action by playing your very own match against tennis legend Serena Williams. Kind of. Snap and Williams have collaborated on a new interactive 3D Bitmoji Lens that lets you take on the tennis queen in an increasingly fast-paced match. Let's be honest, you're never going to beat her -- but you might be able to beat the high scores of your friends, and that's still gloat-worthy. As the tennis star herself said, "It's so fun because how often do you get to play against me?" Watch Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian Sr. foolishly believe he can match her, below.
'Westworld: The Maze' is a choose-your-own-adventure Alexa game
Consider yourself a Westworld superfan? Now you can prove it. Ahead of the season finale, HBO is launching its first full-scale Alexa voice skill with Westworld: The Maze, an immersive voice experience that challenges fans to demonstrate their knowledge of the sci-fi western through a choose-your-own-adventure game.
Steam lets game developers customize their homepages
Steam has put its new Creator Homepages into open beta, letting developers and publishers customize their homepages to better show off their game catalogs. There's a lot of flexibility -- publishers can divide their portfolios up however they wish, so they could split them by genre, or fan-favorites, for example. And for new creators, or those without an extensive catalog, the space can be also be used to announce new projects or showcase concept art. Fans can follow their favorite publishers directly from their homepage to get notifications when updates, announcements or new titles are released.
'Metro: Exodus' treads a fine line between strategy and busy work
This year's E3 has already given us a glimpse of a wide spectrum of games, from upcoming installments in classic multiplayer franchises to new and interesting, story-driven titles. Metro: Exodus, the third game in the post-apocalyptic Metro saga, falls very much into the latter camp. Studio 4A Games announced the title at E3 2017, but all we've really heard since is that the release window has been pushed from later this year to early next. With development nearing completion, though, 4A Games is today spilling the beans on what we can expect from Metro: Exodus, both in terms of storyline and the nitty gritty of gameplay mechanics.
Get ready for a 'Cyanide & Happiness' battle royale game
Things are already pretty dark in the Cyanide & Happiness universe, but throw a post-rapture apocalypse into the mix and you've got straight-up carnage. That's the backdrop of Rapture Rejects, a top down isometric last-man-standing game set in the (crumbling) world of everyone's favourite bleak comic strip. It's essentially a mash-up of Battle Royale and Worms, with no boring military stuff and plenty of bizarre weapons, plus Cyanide & Happiness' imitable brand of OTT animated violence. And also Satan. You can sign up for alpha, which is happening this summer, now.
The debut 'Sea of Thieves' campaign almost makes it fun again
Sea of Thieves was an opportunity for Microsoft and studio Rare to do something completely new. The multiplayer pirate simulator promised endless hours of entertainment. A sandbox world steeped in lore in which you make your own adventures. But upon the game's release in March this year, the internet was befuddled, asking the question: Is this really it? There just didn't seem to be that much to do, but Sea of Thieves was always supposed to follow the "game as a service" model of trickling in new content. That starts with The Hungering Deep campaign that beached earlier this week in a flawed but potentially important step in re-injecting some semblance of fun into the game.
'Battlefield V' returns to WWII with ever-evolving multiplayer
Games in the Battlefield franchise have covered conflicts from the Vietnam War to a fictional future in 2142. Developer EA DICE took the series into new territory in 2016 with the well-received Battlefield 1, setting the game in the rarely touched World War I era. For the next installment, Battlefield V (let's just not talk about the naming convention) returns to where the franchise started: World War II. As you know, the conflict comes up time and time again in films and games, but DICE hopes Battlefield V will tell some of its untold stories, and link these narratives to an ever-changing multiplayer experience intended to keep players interested, and logging back into the fight. Oh, and you won't have pay for the privilege of new content either.
Two 'Mega Man' classics will be re-released on cartridge
Fans of Mega Man are being spoilt rotten at the moment. The game's 30th anniversary has seen a slew of announcements, including the forthcoming arrival of Mega Man 11 and two new Mega Man Legacy Collection compilations. Now Capcom and iam8bit are upping the ante with the release of limited edition cartridges for Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X.
'Starcraft II' finally gets a store for player-made maps
Newer Blizzard titles like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm are free to play, but they do offer as many paid extras as you can shake a stick at. That's normal these days, of course, but StarCraft II was first released in 2010 -- a simpler time when you tended to just buy a video game and play it. There have been many paid expansions and cosmetics added over the years, but Blizzard originally promised a marketplace through which the community could sell custom-made maps and take a cut of the revenue. This feature was first mentioned way back in 2009, before StarCraft II even launched, and nine years later it's finally debuting in the impending 4.3.0 update.
‘The Loss Levels’ is a game about shock, grief and powerlessness
The Loss Levels isn't beautiful or challenging, competitive or replayable. It isn't even fun... But where other games inject you into an entirely fictional world, The Loss Levels plants you firmly in this one. Specifically, it puts the player in the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing last year, and tells the personal story of developer Dan Hett, who lost his brother in the terror attack that claimed 23 lives, including that of the bomber.
'Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery' hits your phone April 25th
Warner Bros. announced its Harry Potter mobile game last December, promising that we'd all be able to experience life as a Hogwarts student, going to classes and interacting with the well-known professors in the magical school. Now Jam City, the mobile publisher tasked with making the game itself, has revealed that Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery will be available April 25th. It will also include some very famous voices reprising their roles as teachers of magic.
BAFTA-winning puzzle game 'The Spectrum Retreat' is almost ready
Dan Smith was only 18 when he won the BAFTA Young Game Designers Award in 2016 for the prototype of his first-person puzzler. Now, his creation is almost ready to hit your consoles: video game publisher Ripstone Games is releasing The Spectrum Retreat on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC sometime this year. The game puts you in an unsettlingly pristine art deco hotel called The Penrose, where you have to solve color-coded puzzles and take on physics challenges to unravel its secrets and solve the mystery surrounding your stay.
'Apocalypse Cow' is a platform game inspired by 'Wreck-It Ralph'
One of the best things about attending GDC is that, more often than not, you come across some of the best-looking independent titles. Today, that honor goes to Apocalypse Cow, a cinematic adventure game that draws inspiration from animated films like Wreck-It Ralph and genre-classics such as Super Mario. This 2D platformer, developed by an indie studio called Monsters, features the story of a character named Penny who tries to figure out what caused a glitch in a digital universe made up of video game worlds -- hence the homage to Wreck-It Ralph.
'Yakuza Kiwami 2' set for Western launch on August 28th
While Western fans of the Yakuza series are still patiently waiting for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life's delayed PS4 launch next month, Sega decided to tease further by announcing that Yakuza Kiwami 2, the remake of Yakuza 2 from 2008, is also heading to the West on August 28th. This is surprising considering that there is a 28-month gap between the Japanese debut of Yakuza 6 and its Western counterpart, whereas for Yakuza Kiwami 2 it's just going to be a nine-month wait -- assuming that there will be no delay, of course. In other news, following the botched release of the Yakuza 6 demo that let folks play beyond the intended limit, Sega said it will finally be releasing the demo back online "early next week." This should keep fans busy until April 17th, at which point their progress in the demo will be carried over to the full game.
BBC game helps kids lead the fight against fake news
The BBC wants the news consumers of tomorrow to understand and identify fake news, and has launched a game to help them do exactly that. The game, called BBC iReporter, puts young people in the shoes of a newbie BBC journalist about to break their first news story. Players must make all kinds of journalistic choices in pursuit of their scoop. Which sources should they trust? Where should they go to check their facts? Their objective, just like real journalists, is to deliver a tight, credible story against the clock, or face the wrath of their editor.
'Yakuza 6' makes Tokyo's red-light district virtually real
I'm a relatively late fan of Sega's famed Yakuza franchise. It was the 2015 prequel, Yakuza 0 on the PS4, that got me hooked: It was the series' first title to be localized in Chinese, which helped me understand its rich storyline on the humble beginnings of series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and his strangely charming acquaintance, Goro Majima. What also fascinated me about these open-world games was how most of the world was based on Tokyo's Kabukicho and Osaka's Dotonbori, often with incredible attention to detail.
Valve’s new ‘Dota 2’ subscription adds an in-game coach
Dota 2 is a completely free-to-play game, with all the MOBA's heroes available to new players from day one. Valve makes money by selling different in-game cosmetics, announcers, HUDs, etc. When major tournaments roll around, the house that GabeN built also puts out time-limited "Battle Passes" that add challenges, co-operative game types, fantasy leagues and other things that encourage your participation in exchange for special effects and the latest hero skins. That's how it's worked in the past, but this year Valve is trying a more consistent approach to monetization with the new Dota Plus subscription.
Crowdfunded ‘Shaq-Fu’ revival game finally comes out this spring
The early '90s made a bad habit out of terrible action games cashing in on brands and celebrities. One of the latter was Shaq Fu, which has become a punchline in Worst Games of All Time lists for franchising out NBA star Shaquille O'Neal into a bad fighter filled with a confusing mish-mash of myths. Instead of ruin, some saw kitschy promise, and a revival was successfully crowdfunded in 2014. Friends who collectively sunk over $450,000 into this dream, your time is coming. Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn will arrive for PC and consoles (including the Switch) this spring.
‘Sea of Thieves’ will live or die by how its world grows
Sea of Thieves is unquestionably an absolute blast to play. It unashamedly embraces every seafarer cliché and trope so you can live out all your pirate fantasies, just without the sunburn, scurvy and missing appendages. You can down grog until you puke, take to the open ocean in search of treasure or conflict and, when you lose a cannon fight, play a mournful tune with your fellow scallywags as you go down with your galleon. But Sea of Thieves isn't supposed to be a game you spend a few fun evenings playing before forgetting it just as quickly. Developer Rare envisions its core audience spending hundreds if not thousands of hours plundering this new world. If that's going to be the case, though, it has to grow to be twice the title it is today.
