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Senua's Saga: Hellblade II's first gameplay trailer is ridiculously good-looking
Ninja Theory is back to show its work two years after announcing the sequel.
'Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice' gets a surprise Xbox Series X/S patch
Ninja Theory says a PC update is in the works as well.
Microsoft shares a behind-the-scenes look at 'Senua's Saga: Hellbade II' development
But during Microsoft's second E3 showcase, the company shared an update on the title — only it wasn't your usual progress report.
Watch Microsoft's second E3 showcase here at 1PM ET
Get more details on upcoming Xbox games, including 'Halo Infinite.'
Ninja Theory is done updating multiplayer brawler 'Bleeding Edge'
The game's still active, but you might not find enough players to throw down with.
‘Project: Mara’ is Ninja Theory's new psychological horror game
Microsoft's Ninja Theory is developing an experimental new game called Project: Mara that it says will explore "new ways of storytelling" through "a grounded representation of mental terror." We don't know when you'll be able to play Project: Mara, but the title will share at least two similarities with the studio's 2017 breakout, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. First, Ninja Theory says a small team is developing Project: Mara. Second, the game will feature mental illness as a significant aspect of its design, with the studio planning to incorporate "real lived experience accounts and in-depth research" throughout the development process.
Watch 'Senua's Saga: Hellblade II' running on the new Xbox Series X
Microsoft revealed its next-generation console, the Xbox Series X, in a surprise announcement at The Game Awards -- and no debut would be complete without a fancy, detailed, in-engine demo. To that end, players got another world premiere in the form of Senua's Saga: Hellblade II from Ninja Theory.
Microsoft and Ninja Theory are making games to fight mental illness
In 2015, Ninja Theory released Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, a journey through the mind of the Celtic warrior Senua as she faced anxiety, depression, hallucinations and delusions. The Microsoft-owned studio took careful steps to respect people suffering from those conditions, and it worked with Paul Fletcher, a professor at the University of Cambridge, to accurately portray mental illness. Beyond the award recognition, Ninja Theory and Fletcher were encouraged to keep going with their work around mental health. Today, they announced their next endeavor: The Insight Project.
DmC Definitive is 1080p, 60fps fast in this clip
Definitive and remastered editions are all the rage nowadays, and in some cases a bump in technology can vastly change how a game is played. That may very well be the case for the DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive set, which brings the lightning-fast action gameplay to 60fps and 1080p. Oh so many frames means those relentless battles can blaze by while ratcheting up tension. Watch above as the Dante for a new era steps out of his 30fps cage on console and plows through enemies at a much quicker clip. The DmC: Devil May Cry Definition Edition launches for PS4 and Xbox One on March 10.
Report: Ninja Theory's Hellblade coming to PC as well as PS4
It may still be exclusive to the PlayStation 4 in the land of the consoles, but Ninja Theory's upcoming action game Hellblade will also find a home on PC. "I think PC offers us a level of freedom that we haven't had before," Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades told PC Gamer. "We're looking at everything we do on this project and figuring out better ways of doing things compared to how the traditional AAA console model works. And consoles are following suit with PC, but I think they're years behind what things like Steam are doing." Antoniades adds that the platform restrictions imposed by console manufacturers like Microsoft and Sony hinder Ninja Theory's ability to rapidly tweak and playtest Hellblade. Obviously, this isn't an issue in creating the PC game. How the PC version will differentiate itself from the console game is currently unknown, though Antoniades notes that Ninja Theory is aiming to make Hellblade technologically open-ended, both to support player-made modifications and so that the developers can add to the game in the future. "I think we want to get to the point where we can invite players and fans to add to the game, and do things that are unexpected, and suggest ideas or add-ons that can make the game richer," Antoniades said. [Image: Ninja Theory]
Heavenly Sword: How Not to Kill Your Heroine (in the movie)
Heavenly Sword begins with its heroine in agony, convulsing on the battleground, her tangled red hair swirled in the dirt. Nariko still clings to the cursed sword that had gotten her so far. As searing scripture snakes up her arms, branding her the doomed property of this mystical blade, she wonders: Why now? Why, on the verge of victory, does the sword claim my life? That glimpse of Nariko, unable to dodge the sword's fatal toll, forever lingers over the action game that follows. Instead of a plotted ascent to power, with sharp, assured victory in hand, we play through a dreaded descent. With every new chapter, Nariko comes closer and closer to the end of her strength.
Disney Infinity 2.0 channels Ninja Theory's combat expertise
Disney Infinity 2.0 is all about merging different universes, a philosophy that apparently also applies to its development team. Polygon reports that during Giant Bomb's panel at PAX Prime, Infinity 2.0 Executive Producer John Vignocchi revealed that Ninja Theory was brought on in February due to the studio's talent with combat, most recently on display in DmC: Devil May Cry and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Vignocchi clarified that Ninja Theory developed Infinity 2.0's sand tornado-summoning Princess Jasmine, but also helped with Loki, the Green Goblin and Ronan the Accuser. Ninja Theory is of course still working on Hellblade, a new IP announced at Gamescom that the studio hopes will capitalize on its core strengths. Last year's DmC stands as Ninja Theory's most recent release (on consoles), which managed to ship one million copies to retailers. [Image: Disney]
Ninja Theory: Hellblade isn't tied to Heavenly Sword at all
Like many of you, when Ninja Theory showed its new game at Gamescom we turned to each other and whispered "Heavenly Sword 2? Come on, that's totally Kai!" But no, it was Hellblade, and in an Eurogamer interview the studio's confirmed the PS4 game has no ties whatsoever to the 2007 hack-and-slash. And no, it's not even a spiritual successor. "It's a brand new IP," Ninja Theory's Dominic Matthews said. "Senua is a new character. It's not tied to Heavenly Sword at all. I saw someone describe the name as someone just putting Heavenly Sword into Thesaurus.com and going, oh it's Hellblade. It's not something where we've gone, 'Yeah, let's make people think it is this.' We really like Heavenly Sword. We loved making that game. So it's actually more just we like making female protagonists that look in a certain style. And we like swords. And we like hell. It's more that."
Ninja Theory reveals Razer, a prematurely cancelled MMO
Ninja Theory, the makers of the upcoming Hellblade, revealed today that it previously worked on an MMO called Razer that has since been canned. Razer was "an epic massively co-op sci-fi adventure" for Xbox One, PS4, and the PC that would have pitted players against a gigantic alien that enveloped Earth. Three months of concept design and previsualizations were performed on Razer before Ninja Theory decided to pull the plug on the project. According to the studio, Razer "was a game we designed in conjunction with a publisher to satisfy their desirable feature list." To enlighten the community and fellow developers about the complex and involved process of creating a game, Ninja Theory released concept art, previsualization videos, and documents from Razer. You can check out the gameplay experience trailer after the jump.
See Ninja Theory's canceled game, Razer, in action
Yesterday, we told you about Razer, a game in development at Ninja Theory that had no luck finding a publisher and was canceled in favor of the newly-revealed Hellblade. Today, we bring you internal footage of what could have been. According to a series of Ninja Theory tweets, the trailer found below the break is "genuine pitch materials," meaning it depicts a game that is far from completion. Despite this, we can see a few novel ideas in play. Apparently Razer would have allowed for multiplayer cooperation between players within the game itself and those using tablets to observe the battle, not unlike the Commander mode in Battlefield 4. Where EA's game is a first-person shooter, however, Razer is closer to a third-person action game both gunplay and melee combat in close quarters. Unfortunately, since no publisher agreed to fund Razer, it's unlikely the game will ever see the light of day. That said, if any budding developers want to take up the task of completing what Ninja Theory has begun, the developer has announced plans to release the game's development materials to the public. [Image: Ninja Theory]
Death is not the end of Ninja Theory's other original IP, Razer
Hellblade is the next game from UK developer Ninja Theory, but it wasn't the only original IP intended to follow up on the studio's early 2013 release of DmC: Devil May Cry. Speaking - and tweeting - at GDC Europe, Ninja Theory revealed Razer, an original IP that unfortunately died during the greenlight process. In the game, players would have joined forces to fight a monster that had taken over the planet. The concept featured online melee combat, but was not picked up by publishers. Ninja Theory lamented the status of the AAA market, stating that, "The conditions of the AAA market mean that creativity can be restricted." Hellblade, for comparison, is being independently produced. Not all hope is lost for Razer, though. Ninja Theory will be releasing all design documents for the game sometime next week, meaning anyone with the talent and means could, theoretically, finish it or create a spiritual successor. [Image: Ninja Theory]
Quick take on Sony's Gamescom 2014 press conference
Joystiq's Ludwig Kietzmann and Sinan Kubba reflect on Sony's Gamescom 2014 press event held today in Cologne, Germany. The event featured new game announcements from Rayman creator Michel Ancel (Wild) and Heavenly Sword developer Ninja Theory (Hellblade) among many other bits of news covered in our recap of the event. Did the PlayStation press conference resonate with you, or were there announcements you wished you heard that weren't part of the event? Share your own reactions in the comments.
PlayStation Gamescom 2014 press conference round-up: Wild, Hellblade
After Microsoft rolled out a whole bunch of announcements earlier today, it was Sony's turn to take the stage for its Gamescom 2014 press conference. We watched the stream, we followed the liveblog and now it's time to recap all of the event's announcements. Head past the break to dive into our round-up.
Hellblade is Ninja Theory's new nightmarish game [Update: Trailer added!]
Ninja Theory revealed its new game, Hellblade, during Sony's Gamescom 2014 press conference. The announcement trailer showed a well-detailed woman clutching a sword amidst some shadowy demons. Sony said the game will arrive first on PS4, prior to other consoles. The developer is known for creating Heavenly Sword, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry. Update: We've added a fresh trailer of Hellblade below.
Ninja Theory's F2P beat-em-up Fightback out now on iOS
Enslaved and DmC studio Ninja Theory made its mobile debut today with Fightback, a free-to-play brawler that's out now on the App Store. Last we heard, an Android version was also in the works, but no sign of it on Google Play just yet. I took Fightback for a quick spin on my iPhone 5 this morning, and from what I played it's essentially a Die Hard-em-up. You play as a Van Damme-like muscle man, slick-haired with sunglasses to boot, and your aim in each mission is to beat up every last enemy in your path. When you're done, the hero punches a lift button, or walks up the stairs with a lingering look at the fallen bodies left in his wake. While it's not as (lovingly) mocking as Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, its cheesy 1980s roots are more than evident. Also, no surprises that, being a Ninja Theory game, it's great to look at too. While it looks like a typical 2D beat-em-up, you don't really control your character's left-to-right movement in Fightback. Instead, the hero automatically moves from fight to fight; a typical level might see you take on two enemies at the start, and once you defeat them your character walks forwards into another fight with four more enemies, and so on and so forth. Player input, then, is limited to the fighting, with quick taps and directional swipes allowing you to punch, kick, and shoot your enemies down. As you progress along, you can use the in-game cash and gold you earn to upgrade your stats, buy protective vests, a whole assortment of meaty firearms, and some cosmetic tattoos. Like some other free-to-play games, Fightback employs a stamina meter that drains one segment each time you play a mission, but refills gradually over time - from what I could see, it refilled at a rate of six minutes per segment. You can use in-game gold to refill the meter in full, and in my brief playthrough I was able to get more gold by leveling up. Of course, another way to get gold or in-game cash is by purchasing them using real-life money. That said, publisher Chillingo notes the game doesn't feature any compulsory payments, and as ever you can choose to disable in-app purchases in the settings of your iDevice.
