Game Informer

Xbox Game Pass has long been considered the best value in the games industry, and Microsoft keeps sweetening the pot. While new game additions are always great, the team at Xbox continues to add value to the subscription service through new features. One major component Xbox has added to Game Pass following the service's success is cloud gaming. Now, that feature is set to arrive on Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One this holiday season.

Xbox Cloud Streaming on Xbox consoles will include more than 100 games from the cloud, taking the game-discovery mission statement of Game Pass to the next level. Using Xbox Cloud Streaming, players can jump right into games without having to wait for the game to install. This also allows you to jump directly into a multiplayer game like Sea of Thieves as soon as you receive an invite, even if you don't have the game installed locally on your machine.

Additionally, if you're still using an Xbox One, Xbox Cloud Gaming will allow you to play games only playable on Xbox Series X/S. That means if you've missed out on Gen 9-exclusive games like The Medium and Microsoft Flight Simulator, you'll be able to play those games on Xbox One through Xbox Cloud Gaming in the future. 

Gamescom 2021 is officially here and Xbox is kicking things off with its showcase to bring in a week of gaming news and celebrations. One of the titles shown during Xbox's stage time is Dying Light 2 Stay Human and the new gameplay shows off what fans can expect from the flexible combat and impressive parkour abilities. 

The latest Dying Light 2 gameplay centers around the game's parkour and unique means for players to traverse the city. Sitting down with Tymon Smektala, the game's lead designer, the Gamescom inside look dives deeper into all of the creative ways players can take to combat. Go ham by tanking your way through foes or take a more strategic approach with Dying Light 2's verticality; the choice is yours and choosing is half the fun. 

From the Studio:
In Zack Snyder's Justice League, Bruce Wayne aligns forces to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat. Now united, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions. Presented in a 4:3 format to preserve the integrity of the director’s vision.

Click to see more!

This is your opportunity to see the full-length directors cut in 4K Ultra HD™ all you need to do is enter below by 9/6/2021 for your chance to win. This is a physical copy, not a download, and we have 10 available. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is rated R so you must be 17 years of age or older and a legal resident of the U.S. to win. Full rules available with each entry method below. Good Luck!

The rollout for the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters kicked off last month with the simultaneous launch of the first three games in the series. Instead of taking the same approach for Final Fantasy 4,5, and 6, it looks like we’re getting those one at a time beginning with the much-beloved fourth entry.

Final Fantasy 4 Pixel Remaster launches September 8 for PC and mobile devices for $17.99. What constitutes a pixel remaster? Each game in this series features redone pixel art by original artist Kazuko Shibuya and a re-arranged orchestral soundtrack overseen by legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu. Gameplay perks include an improved control scheme and new features such as an auto-battle option and the ability to save at any time. If you pre-purchase Final Fantasy 4 on Steam you’ll be treated to bonuses like a 20 percent discount, limited edition wallpapers, and remixed versions of the Main Theme, Battle 2, and The Red Wings tracks.

The Xbox Gamescom 2021 showcase is today and we are ready to see what else Team Green has in store! From more hardware news to new game reveals, we've got 90 full minutes of live stream goodness to enjoy and we want to check it out with you! 

The event kicks off today, August 24, at 10:00 a.m. PT with the Opening Night Live ceremony going down on August 25 at 11:00 a.m. PT. The event will be co-streamed by the amazing Parris Lilly and Kate Yeager as they dive deeper into the games arriving later this year and what else Microsoft has up its proverbial sleeve. To learn more about "our biggest games line up ever," there will be more updates from already revealed titles, including some of Xbox's third-party partners, as well as some more on holiday releases and news of Xbox Game Pass. 

For those ready to see what is in store, join Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) and Steve Saylor (@SteveSaylor) as we watch along with the Game Informer community. Depending on what's shown, there may be some excited squeals, some disappointed groans, and the usual shenanigans. Why get coffee when you can hang out in chat instead, am I right? 

Today is the day! We are finally learning what Guardians can expect from Destiny 2 Season of the Lost and The Witch Queen expansion and just who Savathun has been masquerading as whilst roaming the City. The studio shared a brief teaser video that showed off a readied Savathun in all of her hive god glory earlier this week, and now it's time to officially see what's next! With Season of the Splicer teasing her invasion into the City, Season of the Lost will take that revelation and run deep into the Darkness with it.

Following an earlier teaser that showed Mara Sov, the Awoken queen and sister to Uldren Sov, who is now The Crow, would be making a return, the team behind the space shooter took it one step further with a creepy video of Savathun emerging from what looks like her Throne World. We confirmed that Sov was still alive with Petra Venj using the Oracle Engine, and now it looks like we may be helping her purge the Dreaming City of its curse.

Today, the 128 GB model Oculus Quest 2 is available to order. This model features double the storage of the previous incarnation, which featured 64 GB of storage. These days, you can never have enough space for games and apps, so it's not surprising that new Oculus Quest 2 models continue to support more storage. Hefty VR experiences can take up a ton of room, and it's annoying to clean out all your stuff just to add new programs. 

If you're not familiar with Oculus Quest 2, it's a fully wireless VR option. While many iterations of VR technology continue to try and climb in the gaming space and beyond, no model has truly reached a frictionless consumer experience in regards to setup and use. However, with more storage and no wires to fiddle with, Oculus Quest 2 is definitely making strides toward making VR an eventual reality in gaming, social, and even business spaces. 256 GB models are also in the cards for the Oculus Quest 2, providing even more essential room.

With another video game entry in the long-running Aliens series almost here, fans of all things Xenomorph are asking themselves whether or not developer Cold Iron Studios' latest shooter will be closer to Alien: Isolation or Aliens: Colonial Marines.

We'll start with the good news: Aliens: Fireteam Elite isn't the latter. Join Liana, Stadnik, and Jay (the game's reviewer) as they take you through the first few levels of the game and tell you what they're enjoying about the space shooter and what could be better. 

With a focus on the positive, there's a lot to like about Cold Iron Studios' new title. The shooting feels good, and the developer makes solid use of its class system. Players will be able to complement each other skills by choosing from five familiar yet effective combatants, such as the support-focused Doc class or the high damage-dealing Demolisher. Each class has unique abilities that can create destructive and fun synergies while playing in co-op.

Speaking of playing with friends, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is unequivocally best when playing with friends. A group of three can squad up and unleash hell on the unending swarms of Xenos, and even some of the game's rougher edges were smoothed a bit by having friends to slay with.

Last week, 343 Industries confirmed that Halo Infinite is still expected to launch during the holiday period later this year but would be releasing without campaign co-op and the Forge. The decision to push forward with the release versus another delay was not easy to make, and that's something the studio is opening up with following the reception of the updated launch status. 

Halo Infinite was originally slated to be an Xbox Series X and S launch title, but reception to the first gameplay reveal caused the team to step back and rethink the state of the game. Given the most recent wave of reactions and the positive reception that the first Flight Test saw, we think that time was well spent. However, not everything is quite where the team wants it to be. In a recent development video from the team, head of creative Joseph Staten mentioned that the studio considered pushing for another delay, but that ultimately a delay was decided against due to the nature of live-service games.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla may be the current hotness, but that doesn’t mean Ubisoft has forgotten about its predecessor, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. If you own a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S and missed out on this massive tour through ancient Greece or want to make a return trip, you’ll be able to do so with an improved performance beginning tomorrow.

On August 24, Title Update 1.6.0 goes live and adds 60 frames-per-second support when playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on new-gen consoles via backwards compatibility. This is great news considering the game launched in 2018, so there obviously isn’t a native PS5/Xbox Series X/S version. Now players can reap the benefits of their hardware's extra horsepower. Ubisoft also shared the patch sizes for each platform, which thankfully aren’t gigantic:

Xbox One: 370MB
PlayStation 4: 470MB

We've all been there: you have an engagement you already committed to, but you want to play one more level. One more game, one more match, one more chapter. It's a tale as old as time, and with Brendan Fraser making his highly anticipated comeback to acting, The Mummy hero managed to make us love him just a little bit more than we already did by being incredibly relatable with not being able to put his Nintendo Switch down. 

YouTuber Scott Lawrence shared a video of the actor when they were trying to pull Fraser's attention from his Switch console stealthily. When preparing for a fan meet and greet, an adorably enthralled Fraser can be seen blissfully unaware of the eyes on him while he plays in a relatable moment of pure joy. It's wholesome, and it's Monday, so we're taking the smiles where we can get them. You can smile alongside us in the video at the top of the article! 

American McGee's Alice series took the Alice in Wonderland universe in places we never expected. The gruesomely morbid tale turned Alice's dream into a true nightmare, and fans couldn't get enough. The series director wanted to dive back in with a third entry and began work on what's being called Alice: Asylum, and the full script can be seen now on the Patreon from both American McGee and Alex Crowley. 

McGee took to Twitter to share the link to the latest Alice adventure's Patreon page, providing a narrative outline PDF for interested fans to look over. The post also came with an invitation to join the Crowd Design process, Patreon or not, and the option to get the inside scoop for as little as $1 a month. 

The "Alice: Asylum" Narrative Outline PDF is now publically accessible over on my Patreon. https://t.co/mrtS0uvCll

You can join in the Crowd Design process even if you aren't a Patron (though you should feel cheap and dirty if you do, I mean it's like $1 a month, come on man). pic.twitter.com/7foWxIgmc0

Where were you when the Atari Lynx came out? I, for one, wasn’t born yet. Still, I’m aware of the Atari Corporation’s late 20th-century dominance. The first color handheld, the Lynx, sold over 3 million copies and rivaled household-name products like the original Game Boy. But when the Atari Jaguar was next in line to take the throne, the Lynx, with its impressive graphics, was discontinued and eventually faded into relative obscurity. Until now, that is. Two developers just released new games for the classic console, each complete with its own cartridge and case. 

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On August 24, Bungie will be revealing more about what Destiny 2 players can expect from Season of the Lost leading into the upcoming Witch Queen expansion. The studio shared a brief teaser video that showed off a readied Savathun in all of her hive god glory ahead of the live stream event. With Season of the Splicer teasing her invasion into the City, Season of the Lost will take that revelation and run deep into the Darkness with it. 

Last week, Bungie confirmed that Mara Sov, the Awoken queen and sister to Uldren Sov, who is now The Crow, would be making a return. We confirmed that Sov was still alive with Petra Venj using the Oracle Engine, and now it looks like we may be helping her purge the Dreaming City of its curse. Only one more day left to find out!

Discover what lies ahead.

Destiny 2 Showcase Event // Aug 24 @ 9AM PThttps://t.co/P3UimOAtDM pic.twitter.com/XMYkrT2F7b

Many anime fans, but new and old, have at the very least heard of the classic Cowboy Bebop series. This popular space western narrative first saw the light of day back in 1998 and has remained a staple with fans and an inspiration to other anime creators since then. Now there’s an all-new way to see Spike and the crew, as the live-action Netflix Cowboy Bebop series dropped a few new pictures of the cast in full character as well as a release date. 

Netflix is ready to jam and dropped a ton of new photos to see the main cast in all of their space cowboy glory. Launching on November 19, the new set photos give fans of the series a chance to see a new way to experience this world. Judging off of the images, the casting looks to be spot on. WIth Yoko Kanno also returning, the original composer for Cowboy Bebop, the latest adaptation could just be that perfect sweet spot that links live-action and animation. 

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The developer behind mobile hits like Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, Supercell, revealed Everdale today, an entirely new IP for the company. Set in a tranquil fantasy realm, Everdale will task its players to work together to build up their villages. The cooperative mobile game aims to be a highly social experience centered around good times and relaxing escapades rather than looting and combat. Though the game is entering beta, the team cautions players that everything they see is still a work in progress and could change throughout development.

Supercell also released an announcement trailer to give players some idea of what to expect in its new project. The colorful world takes center stage, highlighting Everdale’s more light-hearted tone. The six-minute video also shows off the team’s vision behind some of the game’s features, like village building, the upgrading system, money-making tasks, and community collaboration. To achieve the sense of community crucial to Everdale’s premise, Supercell worked on a system that allows 10 players in the same game to watch everyone’s progress as it unfolds, something the team hopes will set Everdale apart from other similar building games. To learn more, check out the trailer below:

Over 16 years have passed between Psychonauts games, but not much time has elapsed for protagonist Razputin “Raz” Aquato. His scratchy, high-pitched voice still screams of youthful inexperience, and his actions almost always show an eagerness to learn.

Astria Ascending caught our attention when it was unveiled in March for its gorgeous hand-drawn visuals. French-Canadian developer Artisan Studios, who created the Super Neptunia RPG, enlisted plenty of JRPG talent to help them create the game.

The story is written by Kazushige Nojima, best known for his work on the Final Fantasy series, spanning from VII all the way to today with XV and VII Remake. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, who provided memorable scores for Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story, and Valkyria Chronicles, is behind the music. While the art comes from Akihiko Yoshida, the main character designer on  Nier: Automata and Bravely Default, and Hideo Minaba, who was a primary art lead on Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy’s IX and XIV. 

Tim Schafer likes Star Wars. But as far as he’s concerned, Lucasfilm’s video games were the company’s greatest creative output. In the early ’80s, George Lucas’ burgeoning computer division explored a few forms of entertainment outside of the movie industry. In 1984, the company released a sci-fi-inspired sports game called Ballblazer as well as a primordial first-person shooter set in space called Rescue on Fractalus! To Schafer, these games were a revelation. The video game industry, on the whole, seemed almost magical.

“I was there at the beginning,” Schafer says. “I remember my dad bringing home a Magnavox Odyssey, the first home arcade console ever and just being so fascinated with it. Sometimes it feels funny to explain to people why it’s exciting to see things moving on a screen. I’m trying to talk to my daughter about it. She’s grown up with smartphones, and I’m like, ‘No, you don’t understand. TV was controlled by other people, and then you could make dots move on it!’ It was so fascinating.”

Tonight’s SummerSlam event saw a new teaser video for WWE 2K22. 2K Games has been largely silent about the game since it debuted during WrestleMania 37; the publisher hadn’t even divulged what platforms it’s available. Now fans have a new peek at the anticipated title, but the most surprising update is that the game won’t be coming until next year. 

WWE 2K22 is launching in March 2022. Although the game never had a confirmed release window, many expected it to arrive this year given every entry since WWE ‘13 (excluding Battlegrounds) has launched in October, and the franchise as a whole always maintained a Fall release cycle. 2K22 will have the first March release since the original WWF Smackdown game (which shares the same lineage as the 2K games). Furthermore, 2K will host a deep dive into 2K22’s features, modes, and reveal the cover superstar in January. 

If you have a few minutes and you’re looking to party this summer (Yes, there’s still a little bit of summer left) grab a few friends for sharks, squirt guns, and shopping carts. While the full Rubber Bandits game doesn’t have a release date yet, the summer prologue demo is on Steam and free-to-play. In this case, free-to-party. Combining a few different genres, primarily the physics-based brawler (i.e., Gang Beasts) and party titles like Mario Party, the combination is worth a shot if you’re surfing Steam for something for you and your Discord crew.

The early Sonic games were renowned for their music, so when the sound changed from its more traditional video game-style fare as heard on Genesis and Sega CD to the hard rock music that floods the soundtracks of modern Sonic games, it was a big risk. However, Sega was able to effectively usher in the modern era of Sonic music thanks in large part to Crush 40, a band fronted by vocalist Johnny Gioeli and guitarist Jun Senoue. Gioeli, a longtime rock veteran, has fronted several bands including Hardline and Axel Rudi Pell, while Senoue began working on Sega's sound team on games like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sega Rally 2.

While fans of the modern era of Sonic games are familiar with the band's many tracks, which include beloved songs like "Open Your Heart," "Live & Learn," and "Sonic Heroes," new or lapsed fans had an excellent excuse to dive into the sounds of Crush 40 during last month's Sonic Symphony 30th Anniversary concert (you can watch the whole thing here). Following the positive reception of that virtual performance, we reached out to Senoue to learn more about his time working in games, the formation of Crush 40, and the band's biggest hits.

Neill Blomkamp has a new film coming out called Demonic that aims to bring the realm of the supernatural to the forefront in a terrifying way, but before that there were adventures like Chappie, District 9, and a few live-action shorts for games such as for Halo and Anthem. Originally, Blomkamp was set to create a full Halo universe, but scheduling conflicts forced him to pull out of the project. With the Halo TV series coming soon from Showtime, he reflected on his time on set and how he had to get emergency surgery in an admittedly the most badass way. 

We sat down with Blomkamp to learn more about his new role at Gunzilla Games creating a unique AAA shooter experience, his feelings on the film industry in relation to gaming, and more. That being said, there was one story that stood out to me uniquely because of my love for Halo, and that included the unforeseen working hazards of working on a property like this. 

When talking about what future plans are shaping up to be at Gunzilla Games for other games, he mentioned that right now 100 percent of the focus is purely on the current project. That being said, when asked if he'd ever revisit Halo, he responded, saying, "I don't think I'd ever be able to revisit Halo from a game perspective, since that IP is so carefully controlled by Microsoft and how it gets made as part of an ecosystem. But I am just a huge fan of Halo."

In 2009, Chair Entertainment and Epic Games released Shadow Complex, a side-scrolling platforming adventure about a man named Jason who explores a massive underground complex, slowly acquiring high-tech gear that turns him into a one-man army. I was absolutely stoked to get my hands on the title because of one word the developers used when talking about their inspirations. That word: Metroid.

We're living in the age of gaming adaptations, and Bethesda's Fallout is no exception. With a new Fallout TV show in the works, the producer teased a few details about what fans of the Wasteland can expect from the upcoming "mindf***" that lies ahead. 

The upcoming Fallout tribute is currently in production over at Amazon, and Lucy Joy, co-creator alongside fellow Westworld extraordinaire Jonathan Nolan, recently sat down with the folks over at Collider to tease a small inside look at what's in store. While Joy couldn't give any details, for obvious reasons, she did promise that it will offer an experience that no one will expect. 

"It is just a gonzo, crazy, funny, adventure and a mindf*** like none you've ever seen before," she told the site, adding that she thinks it's "pretty cool" and that it's a project she's passionate about. As a massive Hunter S. Thompson fan, I appreciate her use of the word "gonzo," and I will admit, her work on Westworld has me intrigued. The two properties aren't quite as separated as people might think, especially with the doom aspect featuring in, but I am interested in seeing how she'll put her creative spin on the Bethesda RPG. 

In 1993, the Ultimate Fighting Championship burst onto the scene, pitting masters of different martial arts disciplines against one another in a bracket-style tournament. The UFC has evolved and grown in a multitude of ways in the nearly three decades since that first event in Denver. Still, with other major promotions like Bellator and the Professional Fighters League experimenting with bracket-style tournaments, many fans wonder what would happen if UFC returned to its roots and hosted its own. We decided to find out for ourselves, using the best tool at our disposal: EA Sports UFC 4.

Using the current official UFC rankings found on the promotion's website, I constructed eight-person tournament brackets featuring the highest-ranked fighters of each weight class (aside from women's featherweight, since there are no official rankings and EA Sports UFC 4 only has two active fighters from that division). The seeding is based on current ranking, though for some high-profile fighters who are in the process of changing weight classes (like Jon Jones or Cody Garbrandt), I had to plug them in where it made the most sense. I then watched every fight as the A.I.-controlled combatants duked it out. Each fight was scheduled for three rounds, except for the championship fight at the end, which could go five rounds.

343 Industries has been hard at work trying to ensure that Halo Infinite sees a 2021 release and after the positive reception of the first Flight Test beta period, it's easy to see why so many Halo fans are getting excited for the holidays. That being said, the studio has confirmed some news regarding the Halo Infinite launch, namely that the latest Master Chief adventure will not feature campaign co-op or Forge right at launch. The good news is that this shouldn't result in a delay, the team added that they are still targeting a holiday window. 

Hermen Hulst hasn’t been head of PlayStation Studios for long, only taking over the position from gaming industry veteran Shuhei Yoshida about a year and a half ago. However, in that time, he’s had to contend with a console launch, the complications of COVID-19 on game development, and helping studios launch some of Sony’s most successful and inventive games, such as The Last of Us Part II, Returnal, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.

PlayStation Studios is an international network of development studios creating gaming experiences. Hulst is tasked with leading the 12 internal studios under the banner and ensuring the developers have the resources and support they need. The list of talent includes industry juggernauts, such as Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank), Guerrilla Games (Horizon Zero Dawn), Sucker Punch (Ghost of Tsushima), Naughty Dog (Uncharted, The Last of Us), Santa Monica Studios (God of War), and Media Molecule (Dreams), to name a few.

In case you missed it, the stellar deck-builder Monster Train has made its way to Switch. Even better, it comes in a spiffy new edition called First Class that includes The Last Divinity DLC. Switch is an ideal platform for deck-builders, and Monster Train fans can finally enjoy the game on the go or while lounging in bed.

Monster Train First Class runs for $29.99 and also includes every bonus card and gameplay update released up to this point. The game’s competitive Hell Rush mode, with pits up to eight players against each other online, supports cross-play with the PC and Xbox versions. 

Are you a fan of the genre but haven't played Monster Train? Much like Slay the Spire, the game is a deck-building roguelike, but this time you’re on a multi-story train heading for the underworld that’s being attacked by invading monsters. The goal is to prevent enemies from ascending to the top of the train, so you'll need to concoct monster and spell combos to keep foes at bay as well as keep your train on the tracks. 

Lauren S. Hissrich has been leading The Witcher charge over at Netflix, including Geralt's live-action tale, a prequel series, and the new animated spin-off centering around a younger Vesemir. With Netflix's The Witcher season 2 dropping later this year, it looks like she is about to become even busier than before because she has just signed a massive partnership deal with the streaming company. 

Hissrich took to her social media to share the good news about the multi-year deal, saying, “I am so thrilled to have found my home at Netflix, and can’t wait to continue what’s been an incredibly fulfilling creative partnership. While my heart belongs to The Witcher franchise, I equally look forward to digging in on other exciting projects for their global audience in the years to come.”

I can’t pretend to be cool about this. It’s a career dream come true. https://t.co/34q6mmsXW8

— Lauren S. Hissrich (@LHissrich) August 19, 2021

She won't just be working on The Witcher, but other projects, as well. We don't know what those are at the moment, but we do know that she has stated in the past that she has multiple seasons' worth of content planned for Geralt of Rivia. 

With the summer game season in full swing, the game industry is looking to Gamescom next week to provide the next big announcements from studios. A newer tradition of the show traditionally held in Germany is Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live event that kicks off the Gamescom with all kinds of new trailers and reveals. Keighley took to Twitter this morning to give a tease from his event, and this one may excite some fans of a certain galaxy-hopping crime organization.

Keighley’s tweet (see below) features a short video of a brick wall covered in graffiti with the word “rebooting” at the center of the shot. Directly next to that word is a fleur-de-lis, an icon synonymous with the 3rd Street Saints, the titular gang at the center of the Saints Row franchise. It’s no surprise that we found Saints Row’s Twitter account has also been changed to show this image as its banner.

Are you ready to explore even more of Inazuma? The lush purple horizons, cherry blossoms, and electrical energy are about to get even wilder. Free-to-play Genshin Impact gets the next major update soon on September 1, which is adding a ton of content to the most recent area to come to the game. Yep, there are new playable characters coming, and everyone is going to be trying to add Raiden Shogun to their ranks. I hope you’ve been stockpiling those primogems away. 

New bosses? New minigames? Sure, they’re all coming too! While the majority of the new activities in 2.1 take place in Inazuma, players can head back to Liyue to participate in less stressful endeavors. Cooking, treasure hunting, and that kind of revelry are going on in Liyue while the action is happening in Inazuma.  There’s a lot going on in this content patch, check out a trailer below for a taste.

This month, Game Informer’s RPG issue featured Tales of Arise on the cover, and we were able to sit down with Bandai Namco to discover how it was reinventing the long-running franchise for a modern audience. It led to some interesting tidbits, from putting more strategy into combat to make players feel more in the action to having better puzzle implementation in dungeons. Bandai Namco never shied from discussing the importance of this entry.

“This is a huge revival after 25 years of the Tales series, and we really wanted to bring a Tales title to the next level,”  producer Yusuke Tomizawa told us at the time. “We wanted to elevate and push the envelope. [To do that,] we wanted to focus on really brushing up the quality, making sure it’s polished. And also, for the game concept, we want it to be really exciting for both new players and for existing fans, preserving what everybody has loved about Tales but also appealing to a new audience.”

You think you know him? We would be referring to WWE Hall of Famer Edge, who is one of the first superstars fans get to see in WWE 2K22. With the SummerSlam pay-per-view airing this weekend, 2K Games dropped a pair of screenshots yesterday showing off the Rated R Superstar in all of his glory, providing a sneak peek into 2K22’s presentation. 

WWE 2K22 was announced during Wrestlemania 37, but 2K has been mostly quiet about the project since then other than sharing behind-the-scenes content. The two screenshots of the 11-time world champion serve as one of the few in-game looks at the upcoming wrestling sim. Other than this, fans have only gotten to see Rey Mysterio and Cesaro in the game’s debut trailer. Edge is looking pretty darn good and, in this writer’s opinion, significantly better in the face than he did in 2K20. But since wrestling fans love to scrutinize, apply your critical eye to the images below and see if developer Visual Concepts hit the mark.

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On August 24, Bungie is fully unveiling what season 15 will have to offer but following a Razer ad that accidentally leaked the new season's name, the studio went with the flow with their own teaser. With a new image, Bungie confirms Queen Mara Sov's return alongside a conspicuous Osiris in the background. You know, the guy I've been saying has been suspicious all season of the Splicer and I'm convinced is Savathun in disguise? Yeah, that guy. 

Bungie's teaser drops the name, Season of the Lost, in an image showing Mara Sov with Osiris in the background. If you read our previous deep dive into the epilogue of Season of the Splicer, then you'll remember that Osiris, the romantic partner of Saint, left his better half behind. Saint-14 was then left to fight alongside Minthrax in order to protect the Fallen against Lakshmi-2 and the Vex. Osiris, completely uncaring about the danger Saint-14 was in, stood by and witnessed it all following Lakshmi's proclamation that Osiris helped her rally the Fallen for slaughter. Earlier this season, it was confirmed that Savathun has taken the disguise of someone in the city, but Bungie never said who. Given how Osiris has been acting following the closure of Season of the Chosen, I have been convinced that it's him. The Splicer's ending only made me feel more secure in that theory, and this image? Yeah, come on ... Osiris is Savathun: 

The rapper Soulja Boy has an "interesting" past with gaming, including making his own bootleg consoles that never saw public release. Now, he's making a new bold claim, this time alleging that he owns Atari. It didn't take long before the company effectively shut down his boasts with a short but to-the-point statement. Oh, Soulja Boy... when will you learn?

After his first attempt at breaking into the gaming industry as a console manufacturer was ripped apart, the rapper continued to try to find his entry point. The first attempt at making his own console began in 2019 when he tried to peddle a "new design." Immediately, he was met with cease and desist notifications from major companies in the business. Previously, the rapper took potshots at former Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aime when he said he "made him retire." After numerous jokes and utter silence, it looks like Soulja Boy is ready to crank the gaming market once more, though once more, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. 

A new Metroid Dread trailer is here and comes with it a new blog post from Nintendo diving a little deeper into Samus Aran's abilities. The 2D Metroid adventure is dropping soon on the Nintendo Switch this October and to get fans excited, a new video shows off more about what players can expect from the latest game. 

In the trailer below, we see a closer look at our protagonist in full action, showing the bounty hunter's lack of fear in the face of danger. So what does the galaxy's most powerful bounty hunter do with the power that's just "within arm's reach"? She straight-up murders, that's what: 

In addition to the new trailer, Nintendo also supplied a new blog post giving some additional insight into the upcoming game. "Samus is a true professional who takes a quiet and calm approach to her work. Because of this, you might think that she’s a cold-hearted person—but you’d be mistaken," says the dev team. "In actuality, Samus is a woman with a very kind heart, as evidenced by her show of mercy to a Metroid hatchling while on a mission to eradicate the enigmatic species. Perhaps the hatchling sensed a nurturing nature within Samus when it imprinted on her."

Serial Cleaners is the upcoming sequel to 2017’s Serial Cleaner. Whereas in the first game, you played a single cleaner, as in a person paid to clean up crime scenes, this time you control four of them. It’s slated to arrive in early 2022, and we have an exclusive trailer showing off the youngest member of your crew. Meet Erin Reed, AKA Vip3r. 

The four cleaners are unique in both personality and skill-set. That said, Serial Cleaners remains a single-player experience, and you'll alternate between characters to relieve grisly murder scenes of their evidence. The squad includes Bob C. Leaner, a well-rounded character ideal for those who prefer a sneaky, methodical approach. Lati is a nimble cleaner adept at limbing, jumping, and sliding out of danger. Psycho Haldor “Hal” Boen takes a more in-your-face approach by knocking out guards and slicing up dead bodies using his trusty chainsaw. Finally, there’s our girl Vip3r.