I’m really captivated by Don’t Nod’s new mystery visual novel Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, but I can’t help feeling like it keeps getting in its own way. I’ve put about three hours into the game, and while it brings the Life Is Strange studio’s signature emotional, human dialogue, diversity, and a compelling story…
Don’t Nod, makers of Life is Strange and Tell Me Why, has announced that its next title, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, is coming this June and will get a playable demo this month.
Steam and Switch players can pick up the game on June 8, whereas PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S owners have to wait until June 22. Harmony: The Fall of Reverie is a choice-driven adventure starring Polly, a woman who returns home to find her missing mother. It's here Polly discovers she has clairvoyant abilities connecting her to a strange dimension called Reverie. While visiting this world, Polly becomes Harmony and encounters six powerful god-like beings called Aspirations, which serve as the hearts of humanity such as Glory, Power, Chaos, Bliss, and Truth.
Polly must restore the balance between Reverie and our world and decide which Aspiration ultimately inspires humanity by making decisions represented by a system called the Augural. This web presents a multitude of scenes players will jump between that reveal possible futures that, in turn, unlock additional story branches. Polly does this by collecting crystals given to her with each choice and character bond she makes, which are used to unlock nodes on the Augural that alter the course of the story.
Redfall has been a letdown for many players, but perhaps no one is more disappointed than Xbox head Phil Spencer. During an appearance this morning on Kinda Funny Games’ Xcast, the executive opened up about Redfall’s launch woes.
“There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community,” says Spencer when asked about his reaction to the game's poor reception. “...just to kind of watch the community lose confidence, be disappointed, I’m disappointed, I’m upset with myself…”
Spencer continues by touching on the criticism of Redfall launching at 30 frames per second and how it goes against Microsoft’s original claim of first-party Xbox Series X/S titles always running at 60 FPS. “That was kind of our punch in the chin, rightfully, a couple of weeks ago,” he says before later assuring Arkane is on track towards delivering its previously promised 60 FPS performance mode.
It looks like there will be a gacha mini-game in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In an image that Nintendo shared on the The Legend of Zelda Twitter account, Link is standing in front of a gacha machine on top of a sky island. It’s unclear what purpose this gacha machine will serve.
Considering the game will cost $70 at launch, it is highly unlikely that there will be any real-life micro-transactions to spin the gacha. Link will likely need to use in-game items in order to play it. However, what kinds of items are available from the gacha machine are still unclear. The mini-map in the corner of the screen also shows Link’s position, which might give players an idea as to where they can access it in-game.
There’s a new Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari trailer ahead of the season 2 debut. Crunchyroll shared a version with subtitles alongside the Japanese release of it. Its announcement referred to it as a cour 2 of this Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari anime adaptation. t features major characters like Hyoma Kunato and Botan Nagatsuki, as well as hints at things to come. The show will air in Japan and stream on Crunchyroll in July 2023.
In addition to showing the characters and Botan’s realization, it also highlights some new music. For example, just after the 50 second mark, the new opening theme for the Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari cour 2/season 2 episodes appear. It is Megatera Zero’s “Daregatame.” At the end, after the 1:35 mark, a sample of the ending theme song “Private Room” by Azusa Tadokoro appears.
Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari returns to Crunchyroll this July with cour 2 pic.twitter.com/3x7x83kmrn
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) May 4, 2023
Since the Netflix One Piece live action adaptation was announced, series creator Eiichiro Oda’s periodically released messages to fans about the show and its progress. We now saw a new one released at the start of May 2023. While the note reminded people about the 2023 release window, Oda also said, “[Netflix] promised that we won’t launch it until I’m satisfied.”
Here’s the full statement on the One Piece live-action show’s progress, which appeared on the Netflix official Twitter account. Oda noted that “it could be frustrating” for Tomorrow Studios, Netflix, and him to work together, but that they’re currently “finishing all 8 episodes.” He also noted that he agreed to this show in 2016, because “If we’re going to do it, I want to be able to supervise things while I’m still active.” After that, Oda mentioned that the show will only appear when he is “satisfied.”
Ever since the beginning of our partnership with Eiichiro Oda, we have been working closely to bring the ONE PIECE live action to you — we welcome everyone to this adventurous world! pic.twitter.com/Woki8YZ27H
— Netflix (@netflix) May 4, 2023
Take one look at Luna Abyss and you'll probably go, 'Wait a minute, this looks like first-person Returnal!' And having played the first mission of the game at GDC, I can confirm that yes, this is very much in the vein of first-person Returnal. It's a fast-paced, bullet hell shooter set on a strange alien moon where everything's out to get you, but the shift in perspective makes everything in its titular abyss feel closer and more intimate, calling to mind the frantic, confined gun fights of Doom and Quake more than Housemarque's seminal roguelike - games that creative director Benni Hill tells me were formative experiences for him growing up.
There's also a greater emphasis on story-telling in Luna Abyss, with Hill also citing Nier: Automata and Bioshock as other key influences. It's a compelling mix, based on the first chunk I played, and arguably one of my surprise GDC favourite demos alongside The Thaumaturge and The Lamplighters League. Indeed, Hill tells me they started working on Luna Abyss a year before Returnal was even announced, and when they first saw it during Sony's PlayStation 5 reveal stream in the summer of 2020, he and his team did a collective double-take.
Perennial favourite The Sims 4 is about to get some much-needed competition in the life sim arena. Not only have we got upcoming games Life By You and Paralives offering more customisation options, more features, and more polish than The Sims, but now there's Tiny Life as well, a new entrant that asks the question: what if The Sims was simply smaller? Tiny Life has just released into early access, and it’s aiming to scratch that Sim-itch in a leaner, pixelated package.
For the past while, I've been playing a closed beta build of Park Beyond, and let me tell you, I am very bad at it. I can just about (by the skin of my teeth) make a profitable park, but my god, that park will have the worst layout you've ever seen in your cursed, vomiting in the bins at a Disneyland life. But look, if the park works, it works, right? The shareholders can't complain!
Thing is, much like with the internet or your mum's relationship with the binman, theme park simulators can really change while you're not paying attention. While part of Park Beyond's selling point is making literally impossible rides via the aptly-named method of Impossification (an upgrade to rides you buy by spending units of amazement gleaned from your slack-jawed guests, in order to strap a canon to a rollercoaster), I really was not prepared for how simulation-y the simulation bits are.
Frictional Games are releasing the next entry in their hit horror series later this month - May 23rd - with Amnesia: The Bunker, taking their signature stalks through the dark into a World War One setting. That date’s creeping up very soon, and we now have our first extended look at gameplay down below.
For the King 2 - the sequel to IronOak Games' wonderful tabletop-RPG-meets-digital-board-game adventure - is getting a closed beta next week, and registration is now open.
IronOak's follow-up - which pits players against the kingdom of Fahrul's tyrannical queen 20 years after the end of the first game - is, from what's been shown so far, less a bold new direction for the series and more a deepening of the original's already hugely entertaining core.
That means another light-hearted, optionally co-operative rogue-like adventure blending familiar RPG staples - dungeon crawling, questing, turn-based exploration and combat, loot acquisition, and so on - with some neat story generation through randomised narrative events.
Redfall is an open world first-person shooter that combines mechanics-driven, immersive sim-style design with optional cooperative multiplayer. It promises a vast Unreal Engine 4-powered world to explore while casting aside the shackles of the last-generation Xbox One hardware with a release exclusively targeting Xbox Series consoles and the PC. Alas, things have perhaps not gone quite as planned. The omission of a 60 frames per second performance mode turns out to be one of the lesser issues facing a release with a range of technical and content problems.
Overall, the critics have been harsh, but my own experience has been more positive - though this is far from the sublime genius of Arkane Austin's last game, the brilliant Prey. Over time, Arkane has increasingly become one of my favorite game developers in the business, specialising in immersive sim-style first-person experiences. Redfall is a little different. While solo play is possible, the game is clearly built with multiplayer in mind. Its immersive-sim roots are still evident, but Redfall delivers an experience reminiscent of Far Cry blended with a looter shooter.
With its multiplayer focus and open world design, it's clear that a change in engine was necessary to bring Redfall to life. While Arkane Lyon has focused its efforts on the suitably impressive Void Engine, Arkane Austin's previous project, Prey, was built on CryEngine. That is, until the Typhon Hunter DLC, which uses Unreal Engine 4 no doubt owing to its multiplayer and VR functionality, both of which Unreal excels in. Unfortunately, when it comes to delivering vast open world environments, Unreal Engine 4's reputation has been tarnished in recent years, with games such as Gotham Knights and Jedi Survivor exhibiting poor performance, visual inconsistencies or both at launch.
LudoNarraCon, the narrative-game-focused digital festival organised by publisher Fellow Traveller, has returned to Steam for a four-day programme of panels, demos, and discounts.
2023 marks the fourth consecutive year LudoNarraCon has taken place, with proceedings now underway on Steam and continuing until Monday, 8th May. 15 panels and fireside chats about narrative games and development will feature throughout, covering a wide range of topics.
These include a conversation with Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert, plus discussions on forming meaningful relationships in games, using system-based writing to make player choices have a more lasting impact, telling stories in subtle and surprising ways, the importance of world-building and creating tension, creating narrative in survival games, and more. A full schedule of developer panels and chats can be found on Steam.
Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has revealed that a single line of faulty code tied to an assault rifle was responsible for a slew of audio and graphical bugs that have plagued players during the 16th season of the battle royale game.
Players started reporting the bugs soon after the launch of Season 16 after noticing missing rifle sounds, phantom particle effects, and disappearing grenades that would fail to explode, yet deal the correct amount of damage to nearby enemies. The bugs hadn’t appeared in playtesting, but after a preliminary investigation the most likely cause of the missing effects was narrowed down to a limitation in how the game’s servers parsed out effects.
According to the Reddit post describing the bug hunt, the Apex Legends servers are capable of dispatching up to 128 effect “entries” for each and every frame of gameplay. These entries can include stop/start commands for anything from weapon specific sound effects, to physics impacts, bullet tracers, and more. Any effect requests received by the server after it hit its 128 entry frame limit would be dropped, which could explain the missing sounds and FX reported by players.
The team then worked to ferret out which faulty process or asset was causing the effect overload. However, as noted in the Reddit update, each new season of Apex Legends sees the introduction of thousands of asset tweaks, and code adjustments. Finding the cause of the problem would be akin to hunting down “a needle in a haystack”.
Destiny 2’s next season is right around the corner, and as always there are a ton of changes coming to the MMO shooter. Bungie outlined a bunch of them in a new blog post, including that it’s raising the price of season passes from $10 to $12. It’s a small amount in the scheme of things that nevertheless points to the…
Update 5/5/2023 1:30 p.m. ET: After just 24 hours, Kaitlyn “Amouranth” Siragusa’s Twitch channel has been reinstated, Dexerto reports. Don’t expect to watch previous livestreams, though, as all of her VODs have been nuked. All that’s left for now are clips clipped by her fans. Original story follows.
Discord is a pretty good product. It’s an easy way to communicate with friends, find realtime communities around topics of mutual interest, and it’s crucial for making use of voice chat across most online multiplayer games. And now Discord’s decided to muck it all up by forcing everyone to switch to a new username in…
In 2023, digital sales account for the majority of video games sold. But this wasn’t always the case. In fact, this really didn’t start until the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 era of gaming. And according to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, losing to Sony in that generation has put Xbox at a disadvantage, as owners of…
If you were a teenage girl in the early aughts, prone to lurking amongst the towering shelves of Hot Topic tchotchkes and flat-ironing your fringe until it was crispier than Darth Vader’s body, then you always understood the Star Wars prequels, and more specifically, Anakin Skywalker.
Escape rooms have gotten massively popular, and they’re a unique experience, standing out from outings at the movies or museums. They can be an amazing time, but the expectation that you’ll have to solve some puzzles can make them intimidating if you’ve never tried one before. And because the puzzles are meant to be…
In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show, the crew dives deep into our Redfall review, tries to pinpoint where Bethesda and Arkane Austin went wrong, and discusses the game's strengths and shortcomings. Later in the show, Charles shares his thoughts about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor after beating it, and then Marcus talks about a new 2D Metroidvania called The Last Case of Benedict Fox.
Watch the video version of our weekly gaming podcast right here:
Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Marcus Stewart (@MarcusStewart7), Charles Harte (@Chuckduck365)
The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join host Alex Van Aken every Thursday for a chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from around the industry. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
The Star Wars May the 4th sale on Amazon is now live. As expected, a wide variety of items related to the series are now discounted. Some of the deals include a special Echo Dot stand based on The Mandalorian's Grogu for $24.99 and a C3-PO-themed Citizen watch for $262.50.
In its earliest hours, Harmony: The Fall of Reverie seems like a very well-constructed narrative adventure that places the flow of the story in the hands of the player. It offers a deeply interesting world, and combines sci-fi and fantasy in its dystopian tale. However, for such a narrative-heavy game, its characters and plot do not live up to its system and lore in an early build.
The story of Harmony: The Fall of Reverie focuses on Polly, who returns to her hometown of Atina following the mysterious disappearance of her mother. At the same time, she discovers that she has the power of clairvoyance. She accomplishes this through the Augural. She also gains access to another world called Reverie. In Reverie, personified Aspirations like Bliss, Power, and Truth reside. They give her advice on how to act in Brittle--the human world--in order to find her mother. At the same time, there is an ongoing conspiracy surrounding the mega-corporation MK and its plans to control the population of Atina, and it might be behind the disappearance of her mother.
[gallery ids="961785,961784,961783" link="file"]
One country will not be getting Final Fantasy XVI (FFXVI) when it launches later this year, as it is banned in Saudi Arabia. The Public Authority for Media has made an official statement. No reason was offered. [Thanks, Resetera and Glitched!]
The ESRB listed why Final Fantasy XVI received a "Mature" rating, as opposed to the series's usual "Teen." Reasons include sex scenes, torture scenes, drug use, prostitution, hate crimes, and sexual content. The Public Authority for Media did not pointed out what scene Square Enix refuses to compromise on. However, scenes for the game contain lots of violence, blood splatter, references to prostitution, partial nudity, and “a character caressing and straddling a man in bed.” Though the announcement was vague, only citing that Square Enix refuses to make necessary modifications to Final Fantasy XVI, we have seen Saudi Arabia ban other games for similar situations.
For some reason, I found the Honkai: Star Rail “Signs of Fragmentum,” Difficulty III stage’s Wubbaboo to be the easiest ones to find. Like the second stage, there are five hidden around. The only real trial here is that some of the monsters are rather difficult, due to this being a recommended level 38 map. So even though you can’t access the overall map, the light panel puzzles and hidden Wubbaboo locations are pretty obvious.
The first Wubbaboo is right in the elevator shaft you step out of when the challenge begins. Just run around and look down. You should see the little buddy floating like in the screenshot below.
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="961844" link="file"]
The next two Wubbaboo are near the strong enemy across the bridge. One is hiding under the bridge, while the other is just past the light panel puzzle. However, because of the positioning, you can only get the one floating near the bridge after you finish that puzzle. Here’s that light panel solution:
[gallery columns="1" size="full" ids="961845" link="file"]
Scan that Wubbaboo, then turn around to scan the one floating near the bridge to get these two in Honkai: Star Rail “Signs of Fragmentum,” Difficulty III.
[gallery columns="2" size="full" link="file" ids="961848,961853"]
To get the next Wubbaboo and reach more enemies, you need to complete another light bridge. Again, this is a simple one.
Medicos will unveil its Crystal Edition action figure of Jolyne Cujo Third from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean at Anime Expo 2023. A limited supply of the figures will be available at the con, which will run from July 1-4, 2023. It will also be available via lottery during WonFes Summer 2023.
In the past, Medicos released Crystal Edition figures of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure characters such as Cars. The Crystal Edition physically looks like a normal action figure, but there is an extremely limited amount. There were only eighty figure total for Cars, and they each had a serial number. The Cars figure ran for 40,000 JPY (around $295.60). While we do not yet know the price for the Jolyne Cujo Third Crystal Edition figure from Medicos, more information on the Stone Ocean item should come out closer to WonFes 2023 and Anime Expo.
Sea of Thieves is preparing to send bamboozle-proof buccaneers off on another ARG-like adventure, with the multiplayer pirate game's second Mystery, The Hoarder's Hunt, now confirmed to launch next Thursday, 11th May.
Sea of Thieves' first Mystery, which ran from May to September last year, was a lovely idea in principle, weaving a web of devious clues - both in and out of the game - that would eventually reveal the culprit behind the murder of prominent character DeMarco Singh.
It certainly had its moments - the magical in-game lantern given to players at the start of the Mystery, revealing clues wherever its light shone in the world, was a lovely bit of clue-hunting paraphernalia - but, unfortunately, the whole thing just ended up lurching awkwardly to its less-than-stellar conclusion, hindered by a clumsy, immersion-shattering insistence on gating progress behind social media engagement targets.
Final Fantasy XVI won’t be available for PlayStation 5 owners residing in Saudi Arabia come June 22 because Square Enix’s highly anticipated action-RPG has been banned there for some currently vague reasons.
Capcom just released a new Event Quest for Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, and it will let you acquire the Buff Body layered armor. As the name suggests, this armor will showcase your hunter’s muscles. It almost makes our characters appear to be in swimwear. In addition, another quest to face a crown-sized monster and get is also live.
Check out the announcement for the new event quests available for Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak here below.
https://twitter.com/monsterhunter/status/1653916144875577347?s=20
The name of the event quest to get the Buff Body armor in Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak is "Hazard: Buffoon's Buff Baboon Swoon." You will need to claim it via the Courier and complete it by talking to the attendant at the Quest Counter. This challenge will put you against a gold-crown hazard Rajang in the Infernal Springs. However, you must be Master Rank (MR) 10 or higher to accept the quest.
Each successful encounter against the event’s Rajang will reward you with Buff Badges needed to craft the layered armor. You will need at least four of these badges to craft the full set. The Buff Body armor will be available as a craftable set by talking to the Smithy, selecting the “Forge Layered Armor” option, and heading to the Special segment.
In addition, the other new event quest available is called "A Fire to Jyuratodouse." It will place players against a crown-sized Jyuratodus. The rewards for completing this quest will be jewels, which in turn can be used to customize and power up the hunter's gear.
Some Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku characters are being turned into figures, with Gabimaru and his executioner Yamada Asaemon Sagiri both being brought into the real world. Bandai announced each one will be turned into an SH Figuarts articulated figure and more static Figuarts Mini. There are no release dates yet, but we did get a 2023 release window.
Here's a closer look at all four figures in the official announcement. The Gabimaru and Sagiri SH Figuarts figures are posed together first in their two photographs. These show their articulation options. It also looks like Sagiri can sheath her sword when not using it. For the Figuarts Minis, the two characters stand alongside each other.
Gabimaru & Yamada Asaemon Sagiri from Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku are are coming to S.H.Figuarts and Figuarts Mini line. These figures are set to release at the end of this year. Pre-orders are now open, so check your collectible retailers for availability. #TamashiiNations pic.twitter.com/HZvY6YO84m
— Bandai Collectibles (@BandaiCollect) May 4, 2023
F1 2021 had a story mode calling 'Braking Point', but it was absent from the racing simulation's 2022 iteration. It returns in F1 2023, which will launch this June. There's a reveal trailer below which features its protagonists, including newcomer Callie Mayer.
Redfall currently has 'Mostly Negative' reviews on Steam, reflecting a co-op shooter that feels sparse, unsatisfying and buggy to players. Our Ed is no fan either. In an interview with Kinda Funny earlier today, Xbox head Phil Spencer talked at length about Redfall's issues.
"I'm upset with myself," said Spencer, while defending the decision not to delay the game.
On its blog today, Destiny 2 creator Bungie announced a price increase for its standalone season passes, which grant players access to limited-time activities and story content every three months.
Going forward, Bungie will ask Destiny 2 players to pay 20% more each season, up from 1,000 Silver (an in-game premium currency that costs real money) to 1,200 Silver -- from $10 to $12 per season.
Bungie simultaneously announced it will charge 10% more for its season pass rank bundles, which speed up the process of maxing out each season's loot-filled progress bar. This increase will see the +10 Ranks Bundle go from 2,000 Silver to 2,200 Silver (or $20 to $22).
While this will impact anyone who has been buying season passes in Destiny a la carte, the price increase does not affect those who already bought the full year of seasonal access via the deluxe version of Destiny 2: Lightfall - at least not until the next major expansion currently slated for next year: The Final Shape.
No reason was offered for the price increase, other than the developer stating, "This will be the new pricing for Season Passes in Lightfall's year for those looking to maximize their rewards with each new Season, and we'll be evaluating new approaches to post-lauch content in the year of The Final Shape." Bungie also pointed to renewed investment in seasonal content: "...our teams continue to invest in crafting compelling Seasonal experiences for the year of Lightfall..."
Ever-improving technological capabilities have led to ever-expanding possibilities in game development, and over the past two decades especially, studios have harnessed those technologies to make their games look better, play smoother, and for the most part, run longer.
Game length has become a critical selling point given consumers' limited time and money, and their seemingly unlimited options for entertainment. So, with the help of IGN sister site HowLongtoBeat, we set out to discover the longest video game campaigns ever made.
The list is based on the average time it takes to ‘mainline’ a game's campaign (i.e., to play straight through the story without exploring much or any side content). We decided to highlight story length rather than overall length as the overall list is dominated by idle games and neverending simulations. HowLongtoBeat estimates are based on user-reported playtimes.
My Time at Portia, a cozy town simulator from 2019, squeezes onto our list with a 70.5-hour campaign — half an hour longer than Crusader Kings 3.
My Time at Portia offers nearly as much content outside of the main story, as completionists can expect to spend around 135 hours with the sim.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor continues the legend of Cal Kestis, intertwining his fate deeper into Star Wars lore. By the end of Jedi: Survivor’s roughly 20-hour playthrough time (per How Long to Beat), you’ll have witnessed a story that spans two eras of Star Wars and features numerous surprise twists, so we’re going to explain exactly what went down.
Keep reading below the spoiler break to know everything that happens at the end of Jedi: Survivor, and what it might mean for a potential sequel.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor does a fun little thing where each time you think the game is going to end, it doesn’t. Instead, the final third of the game is full of twists and turns that will leave your ship spinning. So let’s jump right in.
Early on, Jedi: Survivor sets up Dagan Gera, a rogue Jedi from the High Republic era who’s been preserved for centuries in Bacta, as the game’s primary villain. His desire for revenge against the Jedi for betraying him, and the secret planet of Tanalorr, drives the main conflict of the game for the most part.
Cal, aided by a Force mirage of Santari Khri, defeats Dagan and regains the compass that will help lead him and his team to Tanalorr which they plan on using as a secret base away from the Empire’s gaze. However, this is where the game’s big twist comes in.
For long-time Nintendo fans and video game historians there have been few public events as memorable as Space World 2000, the show that first revealed the GameCube—and its library of games, and a divisive Zelda demo—to the world.
If you’ve been even remotely connected to PC gaming over the last year or two, you’d have felt some heat radiating off the community. A rising sense of frustration, that things are bad and just keep getting worse. Many PC gamers feel like they’re reaching a breaking point, and it’s hard not to sympathise.
Star Wars is a massive and popular franchise that encompasses hundreds of books, games, and more. But it all started with a few films back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. And today, we are going to dodge the angry nerds and fan theories to look at every Star Wars film released in theaters and list the best and worst…
I’m still pretty early into Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and while I’ve not run into the game-breaking bugs PC players are dealing with on my PS5, I have run into one progress-halting issue: I can’t get back to playing the main story because I’m too busy dressing Cal Kestis in the cool (and not so cool) outfits I’m…
