2023-03

Given that Dead Island 2 has been in development for the better part of a decade, it’s understandable to have some trepidation about its quality (and general existence). Developer Dambuster Studios hopes to convince players that Dead Island 2 is not only close to finished but is a worthy follow-up by releasing an extended gameplay walkthrough that provides the rawest look at its action.  The guided demo follows Irish punk rocker Dani, one of the game's six playable characters, and shows off a lot of the moment-to-moment action across various locales. The gory F.L.E.S.H. system is on full display, as is the wacky makeshift weaponry, including electrified Wolverine-esque claws. We also get a look at the card-based perk system and one strange sidequest involving pizza.  Dead Island is slated to launch on April 21 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S,...

Resident Evil 4 Remake is just a few weeks away but IGN got one more look at the highly-anticipated survival horror game ahead of the launch, with plenty of enticing new details to pore over. While we would have preferred to actually play the game, especially since it’s so close to release, instead we were shown just under 20 minutes of new Resident Evil 4 Remake footage. However, it gave us enough of a look to spot some of what we think will be the biggest changes coming to the horror classic....

Nintendo revealed last month that it was targeting a spring release for Wave 4 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass and today, the company revealed that this wave of DLC will hit the Switch next week.  More specifically, Wave 4 will hit Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on March 9. While we already knew this DLC wave would include Birdo as a playable character and a new course called Yoshi's Island, we didn't know the full track list. Nintendo released a gameplay trailer today, however, that reveals all of the courses coming to the game in this new wave.  Check out the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass Wave 4 trailer for yourself below:  As you can see, Wave 4 brings back returning favorites like GCN Waluigi Stadium from Mario Kart Double Dash, tracks from Mario...

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen of Respawn Entertainment wants the series to be a trilogy.  This news comes from a new IGN Unfiltered interview with the director, which is where Asmussen revealed that even before the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in 2019, the team was already discussing sequel ideas. For Asmussen, Cal's story has always been a trilogy in his head.  "We were already talking about the second game," said Asmussen. "I mean, frankly, we were talking beyond. And these are conversations that, when we're breaking this story with Lucasfilm, it's like: 'Well, where are we going with the second game?' I always wanted to see this as a trilogy. How can we take Cal and the crew to new places beyond what we were doing in the first game."  Asmussen continues, stating that Respawn...

Sony has announced a new collaborative initiative called PlayStation PlayMakers. The console giant will partner up with celebrity fans of the brand to “celebrate their passion for gaming and PlayStation” by creating unique experiences for players. One of those famous names is NBA superstar LeBron James, who helped design a limited-edition PlayStation 5 accessories. The special console plates and DualSense 5 controller were co-designed by James and will release in select countries. The hardware is adorned with artistic elements (including obligatory crowns) and personal inspirational messages by LeBron. There’s no word yet on the prices, but you can only pre-order these items through direct.playstation.com. sometime this year. You can read LeBron's thoughts on the project by visiting the PlayStation Blog.  Click the image to enlarge Other big names involved with PlayStation PlayMakers include country music star Jimmie Allen, actor and comedian King Bach,...

Telltale Games has announced that The Wolf Among Us 2 has been delayed and will now arrive in 2024. In a statement to IGN, the team explains it wants to avoid crunching the team and releasing an unfinished product as it moves development into Unreal Engine 5. Telltale released a brief message on Twitter announcing the delay, but CEO Jamie Ottilie shares more context with IGN. Ottilie discusses the challenges of relaunching the studio in 2019, which were then compounded when the COVID-19 pandemic began the following year. That includes announcing the game when the studio was still staffing up to help secure early funding. Despite those early hurdles, Ottilie states that development has been going well since then, but the team recently decided it wants to adopt Unreal 5 to take advantage of the engine’s new features. Unfortunately, that meant having to redo a lot of the work...

Deck 13, makers of The Surge and Lords of the Fallen, have announced their next big action RPG, Atlas Fallen, launches in May. The game was revealed during last year’s Gamescom and centers on players manipulating sand to explore and survive in a fantastical desert world.   The game supports single-player and two-player co-op and takes place in a massive sand-covered world filled with monsters and gods. You’ll take them down using shape-shifting weapons born out of the sand and other customizable magical abilities. You can check out the cinematic announcement trailer from Gamescom 2022, and a batch of new screenshots, below.    Atlas Fallen will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC....

Electronic Arts has reportedly laid off more than 200 quality assurance testers at its Baton Rouge office in Lousiana.  This news comes by way of Kotaku, which reports that EA laid off these workers, who worked primarily on the publisher's battle royale Apex Legends, during a surprise Zoom call yesterday. The publication reports that its three sources were able to confirm the news, which began making rounds on Twitter when both current and former QA testers at the Lousiana office began to share what they had learned.  EA just fired its entire Baton Rouge studio, which is essentially their entire Apex Legends QA staff. — Ben (@TopMarx420) February 28, 2023 Kotaku reports that around 8 a.m. CT, QA testers were invited to an unscheduled but mandatory Zoom call with Magnit Global, which is the contract agency that manages the workers. It was...

If you’ve paid any attention at all to Final Fantasy XVI, you likely already know how action-forward this game is. It’s easily the farthest a mainline Final Fantasy game has ever been from its traditional turn-based roots, with FFXVI being easily the most action-heavy yet. That’s not surprising, though, considering the game’s combat director is Ryota Suzuki, a former Capcom developer with nearly 20 years of experience designing the action in games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Devil May Cry 4, and most recently, Devil May Cry 5.  With such a personal connection to Devil May Cry, I couldn’t resist asking: Who would win in a one-on-one fight: FFXVI protagonist Clive or Devil May Cry 5 lead Dante? Suzuki had to answer this question with two of his bosses right beside him – FFXVI director Hiroshi Takai and producer Naoki Yoshida...

In today's New Gameplay Today, your hosts Wesley LeBlanc, Kyle Hilliard, and Prima Games' Jesse Vitelli discuss Final Fantasy XVI after going hands-on with it during a recent preview. In this specific segment, Clive must fight the Eikon, Garuda. While he holds his own, he must tap into the powers of Ifrit to finally take her down, and you can watch all that play out in this new NGT. Enjoy! As you can see, the Eikon fights are shaping up to be massive, climatic, and flashy combat scenarios that we can't wait to see more of in the final game. For more, you can read Wesley's full Final Fantasy XVI preview thoughts here. And you can read Jesse's thoughts over at Prima Games here.  For more previews and discussions of some of the biggest games of 2023 and beyond, be sure to head over to...