February 2024

The team behind Life is Strange are no strangers to parallel timelines. Don't Nod's original narrative adventure ended with a binary choice - you could save the life of your closest companion, or doom them to protect the town you both grew up in. It was a decision that rippled through the stories of subsequent sequels, and remains an emotional peak the franchise has since struggled to surpass. Now, after years of silence, the team behind that ending are finally back with a new game - Lost Records: Bloom & Rage - ready to talk about why their time working on Life is Strange ended.

Much has changed for Don't Nod over the past decade, with the original Life is Strange team now an ocean away and under a brand new roof at the recently-established Don't Nod Montreal. Their time with Life is Strange is long over, following the conclusion of Life is Strange 2 at the end of 2019. Just over a year later, Eurogamer reported that Deck Nine Games, developer of the excellent Life is Strange prequel Before the Storm, was now the series' main developer - and it was indeed this studio that made 2021's enjoyable Life is Strange: True Colors.

Palworld, the survival game filled with legally distinct Pokémon and numerous Glock-19s, has received its first major patch. Straight off the production line are fixes to crashes, as well as enemy pals getting stuck in walls. And if you've been plagued by other players stealing your flock, then worry no longer, as pal spheres chucked at your low-HP pals won't capture them anymore. Breeding also becomes easier, with the removal of some annoying flourishes. There's a lot more and it gets progressively sillier.

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Sega of America will lay off 61 people in March, according to the state of California and the Sega of America AEGIS union. The layoffs are allegedly aimed at the company's QA and localisation departments, and represent around 13% of Sega of America's workforce.

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Well, they're finally doing it. They're making free Godzilla DLC for Dave The Diver, Mintrocket's hitherto laidback restaurant management/ocean exploration game. The kaiju of kaijus will invade the celebrated "indie" title in May, shortly after the PS5 release. How would Godzilla himself react, if he were writing this news post? I suspect he would say: RRRRRARRRARRGH.

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At last night's State of Play, Vertigo Games and Deep Silver lifted the lid on Metro Awakening, an upcoming origin story for the Metro series.

The game is described as a story-driven adventure, built exclusively for VR. It promises plenty of stealth and a good dash of combat, with the developer stating this will be the "most immersive" Metro experience to date.

You will play as Serdar in Metro Awakening. Serdar is "a doctor and a rationalist" in search of medication for his wife. This search will take players to the tunnels beneath Moscow, but it won't be an easy trip. You see, the tunnels are full of mutants. "As your courage and sanity are pushed to the limit you must learn to walk the line between life and death, the spirit and the material world, and awaken the being you will become..." the official blurb teases. You can see Metro Awakening's announcement trailer below.

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Two Devil May Cry games have been delisted on Steam.

As shared on X, formerly Twitter, by Wario64, Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition and Devil May Cry 4 are no longer available to purchase.

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition remains available, released in 2015 after the 2008 original, while Devil May Cry 3 is now only available as part of the Devil May Cry HD collection released on Steam in 2018.

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We're back! And we're past the grimmest month of the year. That's right, it's time for lovely, sunny, er, February! Thankfully, there's an absolute bucketload of interesting games to see you through it.

For the unfamiliar, What To Play This Month is our recurring series where we gather up the best games of the month gone by, and the ones we're most interested in from the month ahead. We missed January, instead pulling together a whopping great 65 games we're excited for in all of 2024 - and I am going to say that was a completely intentional decision, and absolutely not because I was too busy to get January's out in time alongside it. Anyway, here's What To Play This February!

We're sneaking in a few gems from December 2023 here too, since they didn't get their time to shine last month - and also because if you're anything like us, you might've struggled to find time to play them between hectic family holiday visits anyway. Do give them a look.

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RPS Game Club is back in action for 2024 today, and our first pick of the year is the exceedingly good Cobalt Core, a spaceship roguelike deckbuilder where you're slipping and sliding out the way of incoming missiles to get to the bottom of why you and the rest of your animal pals seem to be stuck in a pesky timeloop. I had an absolute blast with it when it came out at the end of last year, and really, this is just the perfect excuse to shove it back in front of your faces again.

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UPDATE 3pm: Devolver has confirmed the reported layoffs at Artificer with Eurogamer.

"Yesterday, Devolver and studio Artificer made the tough decision to reduce the Artificer workforce by 28 employees, 18 effective immediately and 10 after their current project releases," it told us.

"Over the past year, both companies have worked together to navigate the studio's difficulties to ensure Artificer remains open and that their hard work is realised with the launch of their next game. Layoffs are not easy, and the remaining team at Artificer and Devolver Digital are committed to supporting these talented and creative professionals find new roles throughout the industry."

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Zenless Zone Zero, the next game from Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail developer miHoYo, will also be releasing on PS5.

Initially revealed as an action RPG for PC and mobile, the PS5 port was announced during last night's PlayStation State of Play.

There was no word on a release date for Zenless Zone Zero, but you can watch the embedded trailer below to see captured footage of the game on PS5.

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Foamstars will arrive on PlayStation Plus next week, but before then Square Enix has detailed what's in store for the game's first season.

Starry Pop is its name, reflecting the game's music and idol themes, with season one detailed on the PlayStation Blog.

As previously reported, the game will have both a free and paid season pass (£4.99), with the premium version offering early access to new content and additional cosmetic rewards. We now know Square Enix has updates planned for the next year, with seasons updating each month.

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Dave the Diver's eponymous protagonist will have a new ocean threat to deal with in May, when Godzilla emerges from the depths in a free DLC.

Given the mysterious nature of the Blue Hole, where Dave the Diver is set, it's not surprising that it's prone to visits from the famous sea monster.

Developer Mintrocket hasn't said much on how Godzilla will fit into the game, other than telling players to "prepare to meet the King of the Monsters in the Blue Hole". Godzilla makes his appearance at the end of the announcement trailer for Dave the Diver's PlayStation release.

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Even more information on Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.0 will come out before the official release of the new patch. HoYoVerse announced yet another special program, titled “It’s Always Night in Penacony.”

You’ll be able to watch it from the game’s official YouTube and Twitch accounts. It’ll start from 5 PM PT/8 PM ET on February 5, 2024. However, it’s unknown what the special program will cover, since HoYoVerse already detailed what will be new in 2.0. Many people in the replies have also expressed curiosity and confusion, wondering what it could be. Some others have guessed that there might be a live music performance.

Sony’s January 31 State of Play gave hungry gamers a heaping helping of upcoming titles to drool over, including the long-awaited Silent Hill 2 remake and deeper dives into Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. But the biggest reveal of the evening came with an extended look at the story and gameplay of Hideo Kojima’s D…

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Capcom announced the exact release date for Ed in Street Fighter 6. When it released a teaser trailer in January 2024, it noted that the Street Fighter V debutant would appear in February 2024. The company has since confirmed that Ed will be available on February 27, 2024.

To help players hype up Ed's release, Capcom has also released a new Fighting Pass titled "Ed Arrives!" This pass adds a photo frame featuring Ed and a Neo Shadaloo device wallpaper. It also comes with an avatar gear set, a new emote, three title bars, and five stickers that include a chibi artwork of Falke.

In addition, the pass features the 1991 beat 'em up arcade title Captain Commando as a playable classic game. It also brings in three BGMs from Street Fighter V: Ed's Theme, Falke's Theme, and Balrog's Theme. As a side note, the latter is alternatively titled M. Bison's Theme in the Japanese version, as that is what the boxer is known as in the country, owing to the name swaps made in the series' localization.

Sting announced a release date for the Nintendo Switch version of Riviera: The Promised Land Remaster. It will come out on February 29, 2024 for 2860 JPY ($19.50).

The remastered version will have several new features, as well as additional content from the original. Riviera: The Promised Land originally came out in 2002 as a fantasy RPG that you could play on the go. It used to be on devices like the GBA and the PSP. The remaster will boast upscaled graphics, a text log, variations in the pixel art, autosave, fast forward, a return function, and an EXP boost feature. The EXP boost will let you adjust how many more or less EXP you gain per battle, which can be a way to alter how difficult or easy the game is.

As for new functions and features, there will be new difficulty and play modes, hints on how to obtain items, and NG+. Clearing the game will unlock additional content as well. Sting will post more information in the future via its official Twitter (X) account.

Pocketpair released a new Palworld update on all platforms, and the patch notes reveal other players Pals now can’t be stolen and the save issue tied to capturing over 7,000 pals is in the process of being fixed. While one issue is completely repaired, more work needs to be done on the other.

Rather than some sort of Palworld take on Pokemon’s Team Rocket, the one bug simply had to do with a glitch people could exploit. If one person in multiplayer’s Pal was too weak, another person could catch it with a Pal Sphere. That first player would then completely lose access to the character. 

As for the save file fix, that isn’t completely repaired yet in Palworld. If someone is playing and hits that 7,000 Pals mark after downloading the update, it will be fine. They won’t experience the game crashing that others are. However, if someone experienced that issue before the patch, they’ll find they still can’t play and use that save data just yet.

Nijisanji announced on social media that the Vtuber Kyo Kaneko will graduate on February 17, 2024. Kyo will hold a live stream on YouTube at 8am PT/11am ET/5pm CET explaining his decision.

First, here’s the announcement revealing Kyo will leave the company. It didn’t offer any explanation for his departure. However, it did clarify that activities will end and the YouTube membership both end on February 17, 2024. Fan letters can still be mailed into the company and will be delivered to Kyo until March 17, 2024. There’s no set end-date for merchandise, but those sales will taper off too.

Here’s the embed for the Kyo Kaneko stream which will explain why he decided to graduate from Nijisanji. 

Surprise, miners. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the Vampire Survivors-like spinoff that puts a bullet heaven twist on one of the PC's best co-op games, is launching into early access just a couple of weeks from now. It’ll be out on Steam from February 14th, incidentially gifting the possibility for all kinds of cheap Valentine’s Day slogan gags. You are my Rock and Stone? My Ommoran Heartstone belongs to you? Drill you be Mine? Hilarious. Also, there’s a trailer.

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A great 3D platformer seems to be a rare and special thing these days. I think Psychonauts 2 was the last one that really took my breath away, but outside of that (as well as obviously every 3D Nintendo platformer), I often struggle to think of many games that could be considered its equal. There's always something holding them back, isn't there? Whether it's a wonky camera, slightly unwieldly controls, or the platforming itself is just a little too pedestrian to ignite the imagination.

So where does Penny's Big Breakaway fit into the equation? This is the next game from former Sonia Mania dev Christian Whitehead's new studio, Evening Star, and yep, you can definitely tell this was made by some real Sonic heads. Penny and her (strangely toothy) sentient yo-yo, err, Yo-Yo, feel like a ball of energy just waiting to bust out across the colourful scenery of their home world of Macaroon, and golly, they sure can fly with just a couple of timely button presses. Alas, there is a but. For me at least, Penny and Yo-Yo are perhaps a bit too energetic for my platforming tastes, and having spent a few hours with an early preview build, I often found them quite a rambunctious pairing to keep under control.

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You know what game I've been secretly hankering for after playing so much Palworld recently? It's Lightyear Frontier, the upcoming farming/crafting mech adventure game from Frame Break and Amplifier Studios, and happily, we now know when it's finally coming out. Lightyear Frontier will be launching into early access on both Steam and Game Pass on March 19th, and you can go and play a demo of it right now, too. The demo is technically part of Steam Next Fest next week, but it's live now for all to enjoy (just like every other Steam Next Fest demo, it seems).

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There's now a short demo available for the upcoming Switch remake of puzzle platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong on the Nintendo eShop, ahead of its release later this month.

The demo lets you play through four levels from the first world - three in which Mario collects the toys, and one where you get to lead the Mini-Marios to a toy box.

Nintendo has also released a new overview trailer for the game to coincide with the demo.

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If you have been wanting to play Alan Wake 2, but were put off by the game's semi-regular, flashing jump scares, I have good news.

As part of its recent update, Remedy has added a feature that will allow you to tone down those horror flashes (apparently a much-requested addition). Players can now opt for either a Low or Normal visual and audio intensity of horror flash, to curate the game better to their liking.

Along with this option to dial back on the scaries, the studio has also introduced a Chapter Select function. This will allow players to load up any mission they fancy as long as they have previously unlocked it. Yes, this means you can go back and replay Alan Wake 2's awesome musical moments again and again and again.

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The announcement during last night’s State of Play that a new entry in the Silent Hill franchise was out now and available for free immediately brought to mind the legendary P.T. demo. Sadly, the intrigue Silent Hill: The Short Message stoked during its trailer never pays off after playing through the entirety of this…

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Remember fast-food kids meals with specially marketed pop culture toys? They just don’t make ‘em like they used to. In the 1990s, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and Burger King often chose chaos with their tie-ins, like the Batman Forever glass mugs or the Hercules plates. Heck, even when big event films like…

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Everything about the moviegoing experience is merchandisable, and long has been. But the rising trend of increasingly complex and elaborate collectible popcorn buckets might have finally reached the apex with Dune: Part Two, which invites you to place your hand in a very different kind of Gom Jabbar test.

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In 2013, an unassuming Xbox Live Arcade game was released called Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Early looks made it seem like a pleasant environmental puzzle game about a pair of brothers going on an adventure, but actually playing the game showcased an impressive and specific point of view from its creator, Josef Fares. You can read Game Informer's review of the original Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons by following the link. The game was both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and to this day still features some of the best examples of gameplay as storytelling, and it's all done without any proper dialogue. After Brothers' release, Fares went on to found Hazelight, the studio behind A Way Out and It Takes Two.

Now, 10 years later, developer Avantgarden Games is preparing to release a remake of the game on February 28 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Join Marcus Stewart and me as we take a look at the new version and reminisce about the original.

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Visual Concepts
Release: March 8, 2024
Rating: Teen

WWE 2K has steadily climbed the ladder of quality over the past two entries. A strong comeback in 2K22 saw initiative but meaningful improvements in 2K23, and the series is arguably the strongest it's ever been. But a new year means another opportunity to retain the title for best wrestling sim or drop it to someone else. On the morning of the Royal Rumble last Saturday, I got to sample WWE 2K24’s notable new additions at a special preview event. That includes the new Showcase mode documenting 40 years of WrestleMania, the new Ambulance Match type, and additional features added to the moment-to-moment action. 

At the January 2024 State of Play, a Death Stranding 2 trailer appeared and featured tons of crazy stuff! Higgs is back with an electric guitar that he also uses to attack with electricity and slashes! There’s a metal ninja that makes BB sounds! Fragile’s got a second pair of hands around her neck! But there are other possibly neat or maybe important things you might have missed too. 

Fragile smokes cigarettes that give off BTs (Beached Things)

Kotobukiya is restocking its Metal Gear REX plastic model kit, and it has also opened a new pre-order batch. The kit originally appeared as early as 2019, and it has also received multiple restock batches since then. The next batch of the kit's stocks will appear in April 2024.

The package will come with around 401-600 parts. When completed, the 1/100 scale unit will stand at approximately 220mm (~8.66 inches) tall. The owner will also be able to open and close the cockpit and missile hatches.

The set will also include 1/100 scale figures of Liquid Snake, Solid Snake, and Gray Fox the Cyborg Ninja. The owner can place Liquid Snake's sitting figure inside Metal Gear REX's cockpit. Meanwhile, the Cyborg Ninja figure will have a lying-down variation to help recreate the event cutscene at Shadow Moses in Metal Gear Solid.

HoYoVerse has released a Myriad Celestia trailer for Black Swan, who will make her debut in Honkai: Star Rail Version 2.0. The trailer also features Robin, whom we saw in trailer for 2.0.

You can watch the trailer here:

The trailer shows how Black Swan uses her powers as a fortune teller, as well as how she can use dreams, or memories, as a medium for activating them. It also shows a lot of scenes in Penacony, which has a bright “never-sleeping” city vibe. Because it takes place in a dream, there are a lot of bizarre phenomena in this trailer, such as Black Swan emerging from a sign to pick up a drink. Other characters that make a cameo in this trailer include Acheron, Sunday, Robin, and Duke Inferno.

Cerevo, along with Atlus, is developing a 1/1 replica of the Evoker from Persona 3 Reload. You’ll be able to check out a prototype of it at Wonder Festival 2024 Winter.

This news came out during the Persona 3 Reload livestream that Atlus held on January 31, 2024. It was a special miniature event to commemorate the upcoming release of the game. According to the stream, the Evoker will be to scale and Cerevo developed it under the supervision of the Persona 3 Reload team from Atlus.

The Evoker model has several gimmicks. For one, it can transform into Theurgy Mode, and you can also make it give off light. It can also play the Persona summoning voice lines from all the SEES members, as well as play battle music. Cerevo is currently developing more functions, so the final product will likely have even more gimmicks. It will also come with a case, which will look like an attache case.

Maaya Sakamoto, the voice actress for Aigis, shared some of her thoughts about Persona ahead of the release of Persona 3 Reload. She talked about how she recorded her lines for the remake, as well as what she thinks about her character.

In the interview, she stated that she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to accurately portray Aigis again, since it’d been so many years since she originally voiced her. However, she was able to easily recapture the essence once recording actually started. She was also impressed anew at the story, and thinks that the reason it doesn’t feel outdated even after so many years is because the themes of Persona 3 Reload are so universal. She also states that she’s excited to meet everyone—both new and returning players—as Aigis once more.

At the beginning of the interview, Sakamoto also talked about how recording for the original Persona 3 went. She reminisces that back then, voice actors recorded their lines separately so she had to imagine everyone else’s performances as she gave hers. However, they all recorded together for the drama CD, which came out later, and remembers that they had a really fun time together.

Right after exploring Scottish peaks and glens in A Highland Song, indie studio Inkle are now sending us into an ever-shifting labyrinth full of art in a free new game. Made for Google's Arts & Culture initiative, The Forever Vault is an adventure game where you search the labyrinth's many attics, mines, gardens, server rooms, rooftops, treehouses, wine cellars, and such for your missing pal not only by passing through doorways and stairways but by connecting ideas and concepts contained within artwork. Having played (and failed) one attempt to crack it, I'm keen for a return.

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There's life in the ol' Alan Wake 2 yet. Last year's multimedia horror extravaganza game has a new patch, and of note is that it includes chapter select but, interestingly, also the "much-requested option to tune down the horror flashes", according to the notes here. What is a horror flash, you ask? It's that thing where a horror game or film or TV show suddenly flashes up a semi-transparent image of like, a monster, or a screaming woman, or a big weird eye. A jump scare meets the Kuleshov effect.

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Not that Yakuza (or Like A Dragon as it's now called) hasn't felt comfortable in its skin over the years, but Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth feels particularly confident. I think that's down to a lot of little improvements to its RPG systems that I mention in my review, but also two other things: a radio and trolleys.

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Tencent Holdings - the biggest videogame company in the world - are looking to buy Dungeons & Dragons off Hasbro, with Baldur's Gate 3 creators Larian serving as an intermediary. Or maybe not. The above claim surfaced yesterday, while everybody was going nuts about Hideo Kojima's latest shenanigans, and has swiftly been shot down by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, originator of all things D&D that haven't been created by D&D's vast and imaginative modding, fanshipping and spin-off-making communities. Curious.

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Here at the Electronic Wireless Show podcast we like indie games (inasmuch as "indie" can ever really be a helpful term; as the "good" doctor Peterson would no doubt say, what do words even mean? It's bloody complicated!) and thus are using the news that Day Of The Devs is a non-profit (what does non-profit even mean? What does profit mean? It's bloody complicated!) as a flimsy excuse to talk about indie games. Plus: Steam Next Fest kicks off next week, and there were indie game demos a-plenty, so we talk about some favourites of those, too. Plus: we've been playing JRPGs! And I was wrong, it's episode 4. Please ignore every time I say it's episode 5. I told you my notes aren't to be trusted.

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They say ammo scarcity is an artform in FPS games, but I'd argue no game makes a single sniper bullet work harder than the freshly announced Children Of The Sun. I mean, why waste them when you're a young telekinetic hellbent on getting your revenge on the cult that raised you and held you hostage for your entire life? One bullet goes a long way when you can alter the path of its trajectory with each fresh kill you land - as long as they're visible in your immediate eyeline, that is. There are no swoopy swerves going on here, and the thrill of each level is working out the best (and quite literal) angle of attack to take down every last target. I've been playing the first handful of levels of Children Of The Sun over the last week or so, and no word of a lie, this murderous mix of Hitman, Holedown and Sniper Elite has shot straight into my gooey, beating heart.

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Following a cautious, gradual roll-out to stop everything blowing up in a tangle of lost progress and Tenno tears, developer Digital Extremes has announced that free-to-play sci-fi shooter Warframe's long-awaited cross-platform save feature is now available to all players.

Digital Extremes has been slowly working away on Warframe's cross-platform support for a number of years now; cross-play was first introduced back in December 2022, while cross-save - enabling players to pick up where they left off regardless of the platform they're playing on - starting rolling out in December last year.

At the time, Digital Extremes explained it would be taking a cautious approach and introducing cross-save in phases, to avoid risking timeouts caused by high demand - something that could potentially be catastrophic for a feature as sensitive as account merging. Since then, it's been rolling out cross-save support to players in batches, but today brings the news it'll now be immediately available to anyone that wants to take advantage of the feature.

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