My favourite visitor in Animal Crossing is probably Celeste. This owl - I think she's the sister of Blathers over at the museum - loves star-gazing. She drops by on nights when you'll see shooting stars. The thing I love is that you walk out of your house and she'll just be wandering around in the trees somewhere. I know a lot of visitors do this, but Celeste seems to do it differently: she's not selling anything or after a trade. She doesn't want you to do her a favour.

Celeste's just enjoying the stars. She seems to have a bit more of an internal life than other visitors as a result. Last night I saw Celeste and then spent an hour waiting for a shooting star - I have yet to see one in New Horizons. I didn't see one last night, but it wasn't a bad hour by any means. I had nothing much to do, and also it's quite nice to have an excuse to find an empty bit of island and park the camera upwards - just me and the night sky.

I tell myself that I much prefer the camera set-up of the first Animal Crossing, which was pointed firmly at the ground. This made the game a sort of enchanted rock pool you looked down into. I loved the way that firework displays, say, were visible in the game through their reflections in water. But with the new camera, introduced in Wild World, I want to say, we did get a proper view of the sky. And we got Celeste.

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These past few months, Microsoft has been openly revealing more and more information on the Xbox Series X, and most of it has been pretty positive news so far. That includes this new tidbit today on backward compatibility from Jason Ronald, Partner Director of Program Management for the Xbox Platform Team

Microsoft has announced plainly that "thousands of games" will be playable on the Xbox Series X at launch via backward compatibility. In fact, the publisher boasts that thousands are playable right now, implying that there won't be a hitch in the future that prevents them from reaching that lofty goal. By the time the Series X arrives later this year, they claim that they'll have spent "200,000 hours" doing quality checks on game compatibility.

Beyond the act of support, Microsoft says that they'll play "better than ever before." There will be no "boost mode" option because each game is automatically boosted by the CPU, GPU and SSD. They even say that some games will have "higher performance than the games saw on their original launch platform," which includes "higher and more steady framerates" for select titles. The numbers provided include the "ability to double the frame rate of select games," from 30FPS to 60 or 60FPS to 120FPS.

Load times will also decrease across the board, Microsoft says. HDR support will also now be "automatic," with "zero impact to the game's performance," even for games as far back as the original Xbox. Also, "quick resume" will work for backward compatible titles, which allows you to literally resume progress for multiple games.

[Update: After closing up their US repair center program in late Match, Nintendo has announced that "some" of their repair centers are now coming back online as of May 28. The company is working on "gradually restarting services," so locations that have your items might be shipping them out soon, and you should be able to send out your broken products in the near future.]

As global pandemic concerns continue to mount, Nintendo is taking part of its operation offline this week, as they've just closed their US repair service centers.

While gaming has been a much-needed respite in this current climate the safety of employees is more important, so they're being closed until further notice. If you've already sent your hardware in or are about to, there's some things you should know first: thankfully, Nintendo has provided a helpful FAQ.

For starters, if you're sending a product now, it might be returned as "undeliverable," so don't do that. If you have a product sitting there now in a service center, it will "remain there until repair services resume." When everything goes back to normal, this page will be updated. Nintendo says repair orders will remain for "180 days," but will honor expired warranties during the closure.

It's a rough situation out there for everyone: stay safe! And hopefully, indoors.

Important Information About Repair Service Center Closures [Nintendo]

I know as much as the next gal that classic adventure games aren’t for everyone. But if you were thinking of dipping your toe in the genre, Thimbleweed Park is a great place to start – because you’re starting at the finish, almost. The game was created by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick, who worked on some of the most famous adventure games to come out of Lucasfilm (later LucasArts).

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Today Nippon Ichi Software released a brand new trailer of its upcoming action-JRPG Shoujo Jigoku no Doku Musume. 

The trailer focuses on the cast of the game, providing another look at the beautiful illustrations by Madoka Hanagi. 

The cast certainly seems colorful and interesting, reflecting Nippon Ichi’s usual ability to create worlds that look rather crazy and fun despite darker themes, and populate them with adorable weirdos, which sets the studio apart even among other Japanese developers.

You can check it out below. 

Shoujo Jigoku no Doku Musume releases in Japan for PS4 and Nintendo Switch on June 25.

At the moment we haven’t heard any news from NIS America about a possible western release, so we’ll have to wait and see if we get an announcement at some point down the line.

Usually, the western branch of the company bring to North America and Europe almost everything Nippon Ichi Software makes (with a few relevant games still missing like Jinrui no Minasama e), so the outlook isn’t bad.

Hopefully, we’ll hear something new soon. 

Today Nihon Falcom released a sizable batch of screenshots and artwork of its upcoming JRPG The Legend of Heroes: Hajimari no Kiseki, the next game of the Trails series.

The assets focus on the looks in the game of a bunch of returning characters who appeared in previous Trails games from the beginning to the end of the series.

We get to see KeA Bannings, Alex Dudley, Mireille, Zhao Lee, Erika Russell, and Renne Bright. There’s enough to spark quite a bit of nostalgia among the fans.

You can check out the gallery below.

Destroy All Humans, the remake of the 2005 PS2/Xbox title, now has a demo. Right now, it's only available on GOG, so you can test the game out and see how it plays on your PC.

The demo consists of the game's first mission, which was shown off in a recent trailer. Whether you played the original or not, you can now get some insight into what the game involves. There's no word on whether the demo will be available elsewhere in the future.

According to the demo description, this is about a 20-30 minute slice of gameplay, so don't expect to spend a whole afternoon with it. The demo weighs in at a fairly hefty 8GB.

If you don't like to play your games on PC, Xbox One owners will be able to get some idea of what the Destroy All Humans experience entails in June, as the original will be a part of Xbox Games with Gold. If you're really keen, there's also a $400 Collector's Edition available for preorder.

Square Enix announced today via press release the establishment of the subsidiary named Square Enix AI & ARTS Alchemy.

The company will focus on using the know-how about artificial intelligence accumulated by Square Enix in the field of digital entertainment.

The goal is to promote research and business development centered on “Entertainment AI” that can be used not only in games but also in entertainment in general.

Below you can check out the logo of the newly-formed company.

Cliff Bleszinski, the designer of the original Gears of War games, has reflected on the closure of his latest studio, Boss Key. Appearing on the Animal Talking show with Star Wars writer Gary Whitta, Bleszinski said the closure of his studio affected him personally in a serious and significant way.

"I was deeply, deeply depressed for about a year," he said. "My doctor put me on Lexapro for a little bit. That messed me up, so I got off that. It was one of the hardest things to happen to me in my entire life. It was almost harder than losing my father when I was 15 years old."

Half-Life: Alyx has received a new update, bringing the game up to version 1.4, and it's added a nifty new feature--liquid inside bottles. That's not normally the kind of thing that would excite us, but Half-Life: Alyx's liquids are an exception.

The GIF below shows off the new liquid in action inside a bottle, and it looks extremely realistic. The new feature isn't the liquid itself so much as the physics underpinning it, which should look extra impressive in VR.

Update 1.4 adds several other features and fixes to the game, including a raft of new subtitles, some UI improvements, and crash fixes. The Workshop has also been updated, which will be good news for anyone who likes to tinker.

Since its initial launch, Sea of Thieves has received consistent support and updates from Rare and it’s certainly a very different game now from its original state. With the addition of Tall Tales, players who were looking for more story-based content finally have something to work on, and the game’s latest update only makes that content even better.

Released just yesterday, the new Lost Treasures update brings about a much-needed improvement to Tall Tales. Now, players will be able to quit out of the game whenever they want without having to worry about losing progress in a Tall Tales mission. Checkpoints will allow them to jump back in whenever they start playing again, which definitely makes these missions much easier to digest and more palatable.

In addition to that, the update also introduces some limited time events and daily bounties, which give you more opportunities to earn gold. The bounties can range from anything in the game like sharing shanties and blowing up other ships, and gives players another reason to log in daily.

The Hunter’s Haul and Reaper’s Rewards have also been added as new events, allowing players to get new rewards like emotes and other cosmetic items.

Sea of Thieves is now available on Xbox One and PC.

The post Sea of Thieves’ Lost Treasures Update Finally Adds Tall Tales Checkpoints and More Quality of Life Improvements appeared first on Twinfinite.

Japan will get Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered in August 2020. Here's hoping the worldwide release won't be far behind.

The post Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered Will Launch in Japan on August 27, 2020 appeared first on Siliconera.

Minecraft Dungeons is out now, and Microsoft has teamed up with the fashion company CLOAK to release a clothing series for the title--including, yes, a series of wearable cloaks. The brand, which was co-founded by Minecraft content creators Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, has released a whole range of Minecraft clothing.

Along with cloaks, which are undoubtedly the highlight (especially if you're living in a cold climate currently), there's also shirts, hoodies, jogger pants, and caps available. All the clothing in this range is inspired by Minecraft Dungeons, and the Bauhaus and De Stijl art movements are cited as influences.

The cloaks are "ultra-limited", according to the press release, and are designed for comfort in mind. They're also, of course, the exact sort of outfit you might wear if you were exploring a dungeon. You can see more from the range below.

Microsoft's game-streaming service, xCloud, has introduced five more games, including one of the company's 2020 exclusives.

Available now in the xCloud beta on Android are Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Batman: Arkham Knight, Mortal Kombat X, Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, and Pillars of Eternity.

These games are available in the xCloud service right now. They join the 50+ games already in the catalog, including Gears 5, Destiny 2, Halo 5, Hellblade, Madden NFL 20, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Digital marketplace GOG started its annual Summer Sale today with over 3,000 deals in its store and free demos of upcoming games.

The DRM-free store boasts discounts up to 95% with deep deals on PC titles such as Firewatch, BioShock Infinite Complete Edition, Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Edition, XCOM 2, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, Warcraft I & 2 Bundle, Dishonored: Complete Collection, and more.

The Summer Sale is also discounting newly added games to GOG, Metro Exodus and 2018’s Prey. The two games are both DRM-free and discounted at 50% and 70% respectively.

Publisher bundles are offering even higher discounts by buying three or more games from its catalog. Some publishers include Activision, Daedalic Entertainment, Devolver Digital, Electronic Arts, Paradox Interactive, and more.

Alongside the sale were the release of free PC demos for upcoming games such as the tactical western Desperados III and the Destroy All Humans! remake. Other demos include the System Shock remake, management game Spiritfarer, RPG Vagrus – The Riven Realms, the “reverse horror” game Carrion, and JRPG-inspired Cris Tales.

The GOG Summer Sale begins today and ends on Monday, June 15 at 9 a.m. ET.

The post GOG Summer Sale Offers Deep Discounts and Demos for System Shock and Destroy All Humans! appeared first on Twinfinite.

Those looking forward to the Fasnacht Day parade in Fallout 76 have had their prayers answered; the event is back on after experiencing technical issues at launch on May 25. Robots will be set loose upon Appalachia every hour for the duration of the event, and Bethesda has extended the festivities until June 9.

Fasnacht Day is part of the May community calender for Fallout 76 (below), which includes other events like a Double XP weekend earlier on in the month, backpack vanity upgrades shortly after that, and the upcoming submission window for players who want to contribute to the "Black and White" gallery which will go on show in June.

Grand Theft Auto VI is presumed to be the next title in development at Rockstar Games, and now an SEC filing by publisher Take-Two Interactive might indicate that it won't be ready until 2023. [Update: Take-Two has contradicted the takeaway in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, saying the table only reflects marketing commitments for third-party companies and not its internal projects. As a result, this wouldn't indicate any potential marketing spend on a new Rockstar game.]

A 10-K filing by Take-Two, which includes presumed marketing spend for the next five years, shows that the company is planning to spend over $89 million in its 2023 financial year. This period starts on April 1 2023 and ends on March 31 2024, with double the marketing budget than any other year during this five-year stretch by. According to analyst Jeff Cohen of investment firm Stephens (and reported by VentureBeat), the budget is likely for Grand Theft Auto VI.

Despite this, Cohen points to previous 10-K filings by Take-Two where the marketing budget accurately predicted the launch windows of games before their announcement, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being the most recent example. Although timeline can change over a five-year forecast, it seems plausible that Take-Two's current plan is to launch the next Grand Theft Auto installment a decade after Grand Theft Auto V.

If you haven't yet checked out Far Cry 5, you'll be able to play it for free on PC this coming weekend through Uplay. The sprawling, America-set entry in the Far Cry series will also be discounted, as will the rest of the Far Cry series.

You'll be able to play the game for free from Friday May 29 at 6AM PT until Sunday, May 31 at 1PM PT. Preload is available now.

This probably won't be enough time to see everything Far Cry 5 has to offer, but you'll be able to pick the game up cheaper than usual. The standard and Gold editions of the game will both be discounted by 75% during and following this weekend, while the season pass and DLC packs will be discounted by 50%.

Additionally, all other games in the series will be discounted by up to 75% on the Uplay Store. That includes the standard and Gold editions of each games, and it means you can grab the classic Far Cry 2--or the newer Far Cry New Dawn--at a discount.

Far Cry 5, which pits you up against a cult, received a 9/10 in GameSpot's review. Reviewer Edmond Tran wrote that the game "boasts a wonderfully harmonious flow to its adventure, with its smart changes to exploration, discovery, and progression distinctly bolstering the enjoyment of creatively engaging and experimenting with its spectacular open world."

Min Guen is an artist who has worked on games like Warface, and TV shows like Agents of Shield and the new Snowpiercer series on Netflix.

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The final boss in Minecraft Dungeons is, as you might expect, the game’s primary antagonist: the Arch-Illager. Given that it’s the last boss fight in the game, it makes sense for it to be tough--however, the difficulty spike from the previous section to this one is astonishing. If you’re having trouble with the Arch-Illager, you’re not alone. I, too, had an absolute nightmare trying to beat him. It took ages.

But there’s a way to tackle this boss fight in which victory is almost guaranteed. When I went back to take him on a second time, it was substantially easier than the first, because I had a plan. Here’s how to take down the Arch-Illager in Minecraft Dungeons. Be wary, this is a guide for the final boss fight, so expect some minor spoilers below.

If you’re concerned about the final area before the fight, make sure you know how the enchanting system works in Minecraft Dungeons and take some advice from our essential tips and tricks for Minecraft Dungeons. We’ve also put together a guide for everything you need to know about Minecraft Dungeons. Be sure to check out our Minecraft Dungeons review, too.

Akira

As arguably the most influential anime movie of all-time, it is shocking that Akira hasn’t gotten a live-action film yet. Well, that is because Warner Bros. has kept it in limbo since acquiring the rights in 2002. 

Hope emerged in 2017, as Taika Waititi became the project’s director. The film is once again up in the air, though, as Watiti juggles all of his current projects.

Cowboy Bebop

After years of speculation, Netflix revealed the Cowboy Bebop live-action Netflix series is in production. 

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebob stars John Cho, Mustafa Shakir, Daniella Pineda, and Alex Hassell, following the ragtag group of bounty hunters trying to survive the chaos of space.

Your Name

Even though it just released in 2016, Your Name is already getting a live-action movie. 

The film is going to be produced by Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot, telling the story of two strangers that share a magical connection via swapping bodies.

Attack on Titan

Yes, you do read that right: Attack on Titan is getting another live-action movie. The first attempt, shot in two-part, bombed horribly when it released in Japan in 2015, joining the list of terrible anime movie adaptations. 

There is hope for this time around, though, as Andy Muschietti is directing the movie. He is best known for his work adapting Stephen King’s IT in 2017, so he already has a solid track record.

One Piece

While it may seem odd that a fantasy story about a stretchy pirate and his eccentric band of misfits is getting a live-action series, the success of One Piece as an anime and manga speaks for itself. 

Martin Scorsese has partnered with Apple to finance and produce the new movie Killers of the Flower Moon. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scorsese originally brought the movie to Netflix--which financed his extremely expensive mobster movie The Irishman--but Apple's bid apparently came in higher.

The report says Netflix was ready to sign Killers of the Flower Moon for $215 million, while MGM was also said to be involved in the bidding process for an undisclosed sum

The final price paid by Apple for Killers of the Flower Moon was not revealed in the report. Apple will finance the movie, while Paramount (which is owned by GameSpot parent company ViacomCBS) will distribute it.

Today’s selection of articles from Kotaku’s reader-run community: A Radical Concept For Addressing Sexism In Video Games • SnackTAYku Review: Spinach On Pizza • TAY Retro: Nintendo Entertainment System - Baseball Simulator 1,000 [TV Commercial, NA]

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Danganronpa, the cult-classic visual novel that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in Japan, is now available on mobile for the first time. The first part of the trilogy is on both iOS and Android, and the store description specifically calls it "Part 1" of an anniversary release--because Danganronpa 2 and 3 are coming as well.

The first game in the series casts players as Makoto Naegi, a new student at Hope's Peak, a top-class school that only invites students who are at the absolute top of their field--but Naegi has been invited as the "most lucky" student, having gotten in based on a lottery system.

The students that arrive at the school soon find themselves locked off from the rest of the world and issued a challenge by Monokuma, a malevolent teddy bear (stay with me here)--the only way to escape the school is to commit a murder and not get caught during the class trial that follows. If one student can convince the others to unanimously declare the wrong party guilty, they'll be allowed to escape while everyone else is killed.

It's a weird, fun adventure, and has become a cult classic since its 2010 release in Japan on the PSP. The Vita version received an 8/10 in GameSpot's review.

The game is $15.99 on iOS and $17.99 on Android. It's also available on Vita, PS4, and PC. Release dates for the second and third games on mobile have not been announced as of yet.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is in the works for the launch of both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (as well as PC and current systems), and it's going to introduce a few changes to the Assassin's Creed formula. The two most recent games in the series, Origins and Odyssey, have taken the series in a new direction by melding the action gameplay with RPG elements. Valhalla isn't necessarily dropping those, but it sounds like progression will be a bit different in the new game. It should serve as a more comfortable play experience for fans of the earlier games, which were pure action-adventure games with very little in the way of role-playing elements.

Talking to Kotaku, creative director Ashraf Ismail has delved into the game's progression system, as well as how new missions will be doled out, among other details. Ismail says that one of the goals with this game is to prevent players from hitting progression walls, so that you're less likely to need to grind to level up.

"We have a new take on progression in this game," Ismail says. "We have more the concept of power, power that is gained through, let’s say, the player gaining skills." He wants to avoid "big progression walls" with this game, so that players can explore freely without being held back too much.

Things have been quiet on the System Shock remaster front for a while, but today a demo for the game has suddenly launched. The demo, which is available now on both Steam and GOG, lets you test out all of the game's unlockable weapons within the Medical Bay.

The game, which is set in 2072, is being remastered with a new visual engine, but it aims to present the same story and gameplay that players enjoyed in the 1994 original. It's being developed by Nightdive Studios, which also released an Enhanced Edition of the game in 2015, and is working on System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition too.

The press release GameSpot was sent promises that we'll learn more about the future of the System Shock franchise soon. "Stay tuned for much more System Shock news coming in June," it teases.

It's been an interesting month for System Shock news, as we also recently found out that Tencent is now involved in the development of System Shock 3, which was looking for a while like it might be in trouble. The IP and franchise is still owned by Nightdive Studios.

Hitting more than a year after launch, the big patch that coincided with the release of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is exactly the kind of shot in the arm that MK11 needs to keep going strong in its second year. There are new stages, Friendships for every character, a plethora of big-time balance changes that shake up the meta, stage fatalities, quality of life improvements, and more.

The Kyoto Animation arsonist has been formally arrested, nearly a year after the incident. The arrest was delayed for medical reasons.

The post Kyoto Animation Arsonist Formally Arrested After Nearly a Year of Complications appeared first on Siliconera.

Yes, Second Life is still going, and yes, people are still spending loads of real money on stuff inside it. Like The Monarchy, the game’s most expensive, exclusive...brothel.

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Hot on the heels of news about Denuvo anti-cheat being removed from Doom Eternal, Metro Exodus has also removed the same software from all PC versions of the game.

Metro Exodus is available on Epic Games Store, Steam, and also via Xbox Game Pass for PC. All three iterations of the title have received a recent hotfix that removes Denuvo anti-cheat software from your installations. On top of that, owners of the Epic Games Store version of Metro Exodus can now back their saves up (which they were unable to do previously).

The hotfix has just been deployed, and it also makes some minor tweaks to the Sam's Story expansion as well as to Epic save backups, as mentioned. The full list of hotfix changes is available below, as pulled from the official Metro Exodus site:

Microsoft has released a new Xbox app that aims to give parents more control over what games their children can access and how long they are allowed to play, among other things.

The new "Xbox Family Settings" app lets you set screen time limits on a daily and weekly basis, while it also allows you to provide, for example, more time on the weekends and less during the week. The app gives parents the ability to set content filters. For example, you can choose to block mature-rated games for younger children or other variations based on age and content level.

The Xbox Family Settings app also allows parents to limit in-game communication with other people. You can toggle the setting to only allow children to chat with friends or not at all, for example. Another feature in the app is activity reports, which are exactly what they sound like. These are gaming and usage reports sent daily or weekly to parents.

Square Enix has opened the floodgates on the Final Fantasy VII Remake soundtrack.

The post Final Fantasy VII Remake Soundtrack Is Officially Out and Digitally Available appeared first on Siliconera.

May 2020's Games with Gold offerings once again lean into sports and racing, but there's also a pair of action-RPGs. The first of these games are available now for Gold members.

For the whole month, users can grab V-Rally 4, a 2018 Xbox One off-road racing game that features more than 50 rallycross cars, buggies, and more. V-Rally-4 is more of an arcade racing game than a sim, with scenic tracks scattered across every continent.

You can also head back to 2009 until May 31 with Overlord 2, a decent Xbox 360 action-RPG in the now-defunct series. It earned a 7.5/10 in GameSpot's Overlord 2 review, in which we praised the diverse combat mechanics and humorous story.

The Last of Us Part II is easily one of the most anticipated PlayStation 4 games of the generation, and we’re only weeks away from experiencing Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic epic from start to finish. The full game hits June 19, and it sounds like the perfect way to kick off the summer. But don’t go into this dystopian world unprepared; as you patiently wait to get your hands on a copy, we’ve compiled this spoiler-free recap of everything you might need to know about The Last of Us Part II.

Who is the developer?

Let’s start with the basics. The studio is called Naughty Dog and it has a long history in the industry, working on fan-favorite series like Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, and Uncharted. Recently the studio has become renowned for its focus on polished storytelling and larger-than-life setpiece moments. Expect plenty of those in Part II. 

What happened in the first game? 

Dragon Age writer David Gaider's new game, Chorus: A Musical Adventure Game, is going through some tough times right now due to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a post to the game's Fig page, the developers said the global pandemic has led to a "loss of productivity, inevitable delays, and many difficult days." Overall, however, the developers at Summerfall Studios say that Chorus is "fine" and "progressing as well as can be expected."

Three members of the Chorus development team have either contracted the coronavirus or been tested for it, the studio said. "Almost all of us have been through mandatory isolation periods. The rest of the time, we've been self-isolating to do our part in helping stop the spread, and still are!" the statement reads.

Keen for more Apex Legends in your life? Respawn Entertainment and EA have just announced the Apex Legends summer esports circuit as part of their existing four-month Global Series.

The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) will award $500,000 in prize money to whoever is victorious after all of its circuits, with the summer circuit being Respawn's remote solution to the traditional in-person format of the tournament.

According to Respawn and EA, the summer circuit of the ALGS will kick off on June 11 and go until September 13. Regionals will take place in the months of June to August, with the Last Chance qualifying round to be played on August 16. Play-offs will then take place on September 12 and 13 as shown in the calendar below, taken from the official Apex Legends blog about this latest esports circuit.

Developer Naughty Dog unveiled some new information about The Last of Us Part 2 in today's State of Play livestream. During the showcase, director Neil Druckmann confirmed that the upcoming sequel features "some of the largest environments" Naughty Dog has ever created.

While talking over various gameplay sequences before showing off an extended look at The Last of Us Part 2, Druckmann divulged some interesting tidbits about the sequel and its world. He confirmed that Ellie can perform various traversal movements--including climbing, jumping, swinging from ropes, and swimming--while exploring a dilapidated Seattle and other locations "previously unexplored" in the game's universe. These additional traversal mechanics will allow you to discover new areas, resources, and side missions.

While talking about the new additions made to The Last of Us Part 2, Druckmann said that the game features incredibly large environments never-before-seen in a Naughty Dog title before. As such, horseback riding and boat sailing are necessary components to making your away across The Last of Us Part 2's world.