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“The biggest goal was to make it more of an evolution,” says Saros lead game designer Abebe Tinari when I ask about developing a spiritual rather than direct sequel to Housemarque’s electric PS5 launch window title. The aim has been to “build off what Returnal established and add elements like the shield, different types of bullets, take the bullet ballet formula, but then bring something new to it.”Central to this vision was “Evolutionizing our gameplay, [and] being more cinematic, as well,” adds narrative designer Khalil Osaimi. Specifically, how the team was to “drive the story” through this new, theatrical lens.…
Darenn Keller is, in some ways, the modern games industry personified. As a young French game designer, he landed a “dream” job at Ubisoft working on the Assassin’s Creed series, getting his fingerprints on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Mirage as well as a few games in the Ghost Recon series. There was just one problem: “It wasn’t what I’d imagined and I started feeling miserable,” Keller said in the Reddit post that first alerted me to his story.So, as Keller tells me in an interview, he went indie. He left with “about two years of savings and no real plan,”…
Pearl Abyss has just released a new Crimson Desert patch containing improvements to the game’s sometimes wonky controls, faster load times, new mounts, and replacements for some of the AI-generated assets that were left in the RPG supposedly by accident.For context, players very quickly noticed that some in-game paintings in Crimson Desert’s huge world looked, well, questionable at best. More than a few pieces of art had all the hallmarks of something that was AI-generated, with one particularly nightmarish painting fusing humans and horses together in a way that would make Frankenstein’s monster shudder.Developer Pearl Abyss hadn’t disclosed the game…
The new Minecraft Tiny Takeover update is the ninth ‘game drop’ Mojang has launched since it switched to the new model of smaller, more frequent overhauls to the sandbox game. It made the change from its bigger annual or biannual updates official in 2024, in an attempt to bring more regular refreshes and ensure Minecraft continues to feel ever-evolving. But does that rule out the potential for more substantial, transformative patches? I put the question to Minecraft product manager Anna Lundgren, who says the team is prepared to be flexible. Lundgren tells me the switch from annual updates to the…
One of the most striking things about Kratos’ design in the God of War games – aside from his chiselled body and bald head – is his pale white skin, covered in ash, that always stands out extra hard against all the bloodshed. But the decision to have Kratos permanently dipped in ash only came about because the very first pieces of concept art created for the action game were drawn on white paper and already looked badass enough.The first game’s lead environment artist, Stig Asmussen, who eventually directed God of War 3 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, said…
The Sunday Papers is our weekly roundup of great writing about (mostly) videogames from across the web. Sundays are for deciding to re-watch The Sopranos. Specifically that episode in which Tony gets a bad tummy and then talks to a fish. You wonder what you might fever dream of, if you too were to go and eat at an Indian restaurant, then have enough room for a snack at Artie Bucco’s fine Italian eatery? Would you too dream of surreal wandering down a boardwalk? Would you instead dream something different? Would you dream of a platypus sitting in a high-rise…
A new Crimson Desert update has landed, with Pearl Abyss still hard at work tackling the many major and minor grips to be had with its colossal open-world game. While the headline feature is the addition of five impressive new mounts (I’ll describe those later in case you’re looking to dodge spoilers), there’s much more to be excited about. Further improved movement controls and reduced stamina costs should make getting about Pywel feel better, the minimap has been upgraded, menu interactions with a mouse are more intuitive, and load times are faster than before. These Crimson Desert patch notes come…
In a move that no one versed in the world of the RAM crisis was shocked by, Sony revealed that the PS5 is getting a price increase. Announced over on its official PlayStation Blog, Isabelle Tomatis, Vice President, Global Marketing, stated that the “continued pressures in the global economic landscape” have resulted in the decision to increase the price of the PS5 Slim, PS5 Pro, and even the PlayStation Plus handheld across the globe.Both the disc-edition and digital PS5 Slim consoles are increasing by an eye-watering $100. Meanwhile, the already pricey PlayStation 5 Pro is increasing by $150, which means…
A new edition is always the perfect time to start a game like Warhammer 40K, but even then, it’s an intimidating world to break into. It’s propped up by decades of lore across numerous factions and countless characters, so “intimidating” doesn’t quite cut it. That’s why I’d recommend starting with a certain cheat-sheet to the Warhammer 40,000 universe before diving in.Warhammer 40,000: The Ultimate Guide is an “everything you need to know” about that universe, covering everything from its major historical events to the armies you should be aware of. Because the new edition (which was officially revealed at AdeptiCon)…
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has gone down as one of the most influential open-world games of all time, universally lauded for its writing and quest design. And while The Witcher 3 established CD Projekt Red as a powerhouse, the long and winding road of Cyberpunk 2077’s development isn’t quite the same story.But years after its disastrous launch, perhaps the most remarkable thing I’ve found about Cyberpunk’s transformation is that it’s arguably a better “role-playing” game than The Witcher 3, in terms of the quintessential idea that the genre stands for. And that largely comes down to two key factors:…