VR Tech Times

In this week's episode of  The Game Informer Show,  our editor-in-chief, Matt Miller, joins Alex and Marcus to discuss why Marvel Rivals has grown on us and how it's shaking up the Overwatch formula. Next, the crew dives into some of July's best indie games, including Dungeons of Hinterberg, Arranger, and Thank Goodness You're Here — okay, that last one technically releases today, August 1st, but I played and beat it during July via a pre-release copy. Finally, Marcus dives into Silent Hill 2 (2001) and Forestrike, the follow-up to 2021's pixel art action title, Olija.   Watch the Video Version on YouTube: Follow us on social media: Alex Van Aken ( @itsVanAken ), Kyle Hilliard ( @KyleMHilliard ), Marcus Stewart ( @MarcusStewart7 ) The Game Informer Show  is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join us every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with...

After debuting in cinematic teaser form during Summer Game Fest, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII's gameplay reveal is set. Fans will get their first look at the game in action during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live show this month. Mark August 20 on your calendar as the date for Gamescom’s annual evening kick-off show (hosted by Geoff Keighley). The event will feature the world premiere of Civilization VII’s gameplay trailer. Following the show, Firaxis will stream a special gameplay showcase on Twitch featuring over 20 minutes of developer insights and deep-dive discussions of the game’s new features.  Sid Meier’s Civilization VII launches in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/61x5NlS

The 2002 Star Wars: Bounty Hunter video game is being updated and making its way to modern consoles and PC, and we decided to give it a look. The original game, now more than 20 years old, was released on GameCube and PlayStation 2, and this new version adds all kinds of interesting bells and whistles. According to developer Aspyr, this version is a native port of the GameCube version of the game, as opposed to an emulation. The game also features contemporary controls and and overhauled camera system. You can watch the video for our full impressions and play (or replay it) on August 1 on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, Switch, and PC. Head to  Game Informer's  YouTube channel  for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of  New Gameplay Today   right here. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/Lpl7UuW

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Behaviour Interactive Developer: Supermassive Games Release: September 3, 2024 Rating: Mature The Casting of Frank Stone may have new elements due to its ties to Dead by Daylight, but it remains a Supermassive horror game at its core. By that, I mean it’s a narrative-focused, choice-driven adventure that can result in numerous different outcomes based on your decisions and reaction time to sudden button prompts. Characters can be permanently killed off due to your actions, and this blueprint has given past Supermassive works like Until Dawn and especially The Quarry (which boasted 186 different outcomes) plenty of replayability for fans who wanted to see every possible route the story could take. This has typically meant restarting the entire game, but The Casting of Frank Stone eases this process thanks to a new destination called the Cutting Room Floor. This mode opens after you’ve beaten the game once, but it will b...

Tony Pankhurst, the UK actor who served as the face for The Curator in Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology, has passed away. He was 67. Supermassive announced Pankhurst's passing on Twitter. A tribute page from Pankhurst’s family (spotted by GameSpot ) reveals that he died on May 9 and his funeral was held on June 7. The family is currently accepting donations to Hospice in the Weald, who cared for Pankhurst during his final weeks. We are all saddened to hear of Tony Pankhurst's passing. He was the face of The Curator, and we loved working with him. 🤍 pic.twitter.com/ZZQbeViE8S — Supermassive Games (@SuperMGames) July 29, 2024 Pankhurst’s career in the entertainment industry spans over 40 years across films, TV, and radio. In video games, he provided the likeness for the mysterious Curator in The Dark Pictures Anthology games Man of Madan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me, although actor Pip Torrens provided the voice and motion capture for t...

Mortal Kombat 1’s much-anticipated story expansion has been revealed, and it’s called Khaos Reigns. It unfolds after the events of the story campaign and centers on the invasion of Titan Havik from an alternate reality, who seeks to spread anarchy across all timelines. The expansion's cinematic story introduces new playable characters, Noob Saibot and the now female Sektor and Cyrax. These three fighters make up half of Kombat Pack 2 and will be available when the DLC launches on September 24.  In keeping with the tradition of prior games, the second half of Kombat Pack 2 features guest fighters from various films. Scream ’s Ghostface, Terminator 2 ’s T-1000, and Conan the Barbarian are on the way, but there’s no release window for their arrival. Kombat Pack 2 comes included with Khaos Reigns and cannot be purchased as a standalone character bundle.  Animalities are making their return as a free content update upon Khaos Reigns’ release. First introduced in Mortal Kombat ...

In this week's episode of The Game Informer Show podcast, we unpack our latest cover story on The Casting of Frank Stone! After that, Marcus Stewart dives into his time playing the cyberpunk noir detective game Nobody Wants to Die. Charles Harte discusses his early impression of Arranger, and Kyle breaks down his review of Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Marcus also chats about his recent trip to Blizzard to play Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred's new Spiritborn class, and we round out the discussion with listener questions and a surprisingly long reflection on the 1995 film Powder .  Follow us on social media: Marcus Stewart ( @MarcusStewart7 ), Kyle Hilliard ( @KyleMHilliard ), 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 us every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with  Game Informer  staff, develope...

Game Informer Magazine 's next cover story dives into The Casting of Frank Stone , Dead by Daylight's first single-player game, and a collaboration between developer Supermassive Games and DBD masterminds Behaviour Interactive. Enjoy watching Alex Van Aken and Marcus Stewart discuss their time playing the game while watching exclusive gameplay of The Casting of Frank Stone's prologue. The Casting of Frank Stone launches on September 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Be sure to visit our cover story hub for more exclusive stories and videos by clicking the banner below. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/zHxUuf0

Reviewed on: PC Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Plaion Developer: Critical Hit Games Release: July 17, 2024 Rating: Mature Nobody Wants to Die’s world terrifies me. Set only a few hundred years in the future, it paints a dystopian society where humanity has unlocked the secret to immortality, but instead of eternal bliss, it paved the way for the government to have full legal control of our bodies. The world is as fascinating as it is upsetting, and a high-profile murder becomes the catalyst for a gripping (though not always actively engaging) mystery within it.  Since Blade Runner 's release in 1982, renditions of a cyberpunk metropolis have been plentiful and familiar. Nobody Wants to Die’s bleak depiction of 2329 New York City stands out as one of my favorites due to its effective fusion of Art Deco. The game looks as if technology skyrocketed in the 1930s while retaining that era’s aesthetic; vintage cars soar across the polluted airways of...

Game Informer Magazine's next cover story dives into The Casting of Frank Stone , Dead by Daylight's first single-player game, and a collaboration between developer Supermassive Games and DBD masterminds Behaviour Interactive. As part of our ongoing coverage, enjoy watching this exclusive gameplay clip of The Casting of Frank Stone's prologue, which we played during our visit to Behaviour Interactive.  You can read about our impressions of this section in the digital issue, which is now live . Physical issues will arrive to subscribers in the coming weeks.  The Casting of Frank Stone launches on September 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Be sure to visit our cover story hub for more exclusive stories and videos by clicking the banner below. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/pPCKs5O

Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Behaviour Interactive Developer: Supermassive Games Release: September 3, 2024 Rating: Mature The Casting of Frank Stone is Game Informer ’s cover story this month, and we learned some exclusive details about the upcoming horror game during our trip to Behaviour Interactive’s studio in Montreal. Speaking to Supermassive creative director Steve Goss, he clued us in on the game’s most central and unique mechanic: the Super 8mm camera.  Set within the Dead by Daylight universe, the game story unfolds in the summer of 1980 in the unassuming small town of Cedar Hills. It follows a group of teenagers who set out to film a horror movie at an abandoned steel mill that has ties to a murderer named Frank Stone. At its core, The Casting of Frank Stone is a Supermassive game through and through. It’s a cinematic choice-driven horror game that sees players making decisions and executing split-second button prompts that can deci...

Helldivers 2 has been one of 2024’s biggest successes, and developer Arrow Head Games is prepping to launch its most substantial update yet. Escalation of Freedom is an upcoming update that adds new missions, new hazards, and, of course, new bugs. Arriving on August 6, Escalation of Freedom challenges players with a new level 10 difficulty and introduces new mission objectives, such as locating and extracting a crying larva that attracts Terminids. The game also receives new, larger fortress-like outposts for players to capture. The swamp biome gets a spookier facelift, and acid storms can now reduce the armor for players and enemies so both sides take greater damage. New Terminids and Automatons will clash with players, and Arrow Head Games teases that Escalation of Freedom features more surprises players will have to discover on their own. Check out the trailer for a look at what's to come.  Escalation of Freedom also brings quality-of-life improvements including an update to...

Reviewed on: Xbox Series X/S Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Publisher: Capcom Developer: Capcom Release: July 19, 2024 Rating: Teen Kunitsu-Gami is the kind of wonderful, left-field Capcom release we don’t see often these days. Bound to be a cult classic in the future, Path of the Goddess is original and does not lean on any of Capcom’s established properties. Instead, it relies on an admittedly difficult-to-explain but well-executed gameplay loop that I found hard to put down with an art style that is equally challenging to look away from. Players take on the role of Soh, a masked swordsperson bound to protect the divine maiden Yoshiro as she slowly dances along the path of Mt. Kafuku to purge and cleanse it from invading demons. During the day, Yoshiro moves through a level while you explore to find experience points and villagers who can be assigned a job to help protect the maiden during the night as demons pour out from gates in all directions. The loop...

MultiVersus has two new fighters on the way in the form of Jack from Cartoon Network/Adult Swim's beloved animated series Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice of, well, Beetlejuice and its upcoming sequel (don’t make me write it a third time). The game is also getting a ranked mode. Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice are part of the Season 2: Back in Time content, which kicks off tomorrow, July 23. Jack becomes available at launch, letting players cut down opponents using his signature katana (as you can see in the trailer below). Beetlejuice arrives later in the season at an unknown date, so we don't get to see him in action just yet. However, Warner Bros. confirms he’ll become playable before the September 6 theatrical premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice .  Season 2 also introduces a new ranked mode, allowing players to battle for leaderboard points to earn exclusive rank-based cosmetics. A new map, the Warner Bros. Water Tower, will also be added. MultiVersus is available now on Pl...

As part of Game Informer's  exclusive cover story, we flew to BioWare to discuss the making of Dragon Age: The Veilguard with three of the project's leads: Corinne Busche, John Epler, and Mark Darrah. The trio dives into their experiences designing this long-awaited RPG, including its similarities and departures from the series' previous titles like Dragon Age: Origins and 2014's Dragon Age: Inquisition.  The Making of Dragon Age: The Veilguard – Exclusive Video Feature: from Game Informer https://ift.tt/yPfRwoO

After The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reinvented the series in 3D and became its new gold standard, Nintendo followed up with a surreal sequel in Majora's Mask. Set two months after the events of Ocarina, Link finds himself transported to an alternate version of Hyrule called Termina and must prevent a very angry moon from crashing into the Earth over the course of three constantly repeating days. Majora's Mask's unique structure and bizarre tone have earned it legions of passionate defenders and detractors, and one long-time Zelda fan is going to experience it for the first time to see where he lands on that spectrum. Join Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard today and each Friday on Twitch at 1:00 p.m. CT as they gradually work their way through the entire game until Termina is saved. Archived episodes will be uploaded each Saturday on our second YouTube channel  Game Informer Shows , which you can watch both above and by clicking the links below.  ...

AI Limit is an upcoming action RPG that takes clear inspiration from From Software's Dark Souls and other games of the style. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where a mysterious substance has transformed the remainder of humanity into monsters, you control a powerful lifeform called a Blader exploring mankind's last city to put an end to the devastation. Join editors Marcus Stewart and Kyle Hilliard as they show off what this intriguing action game has in store.  Head to  Game Informer's  YouTube channel  for more previews, reviews, and discussions of new and upcoming games. Watch other episodes of  New Gameplay Today   right here. from Game Informer https://ift.tt/irbmIDn

Skeleton Crew, the team behind the 2021 side-scrolling action game Olija , and Devolver Digital have revealed an intriguing new project: Forestrike. The game sports a unique premise: as a martial artist, you can foresee and simulate future combat encounters, allowing you to perfect your execution before laying a finger on anyone.  The fighter battles to free a captive Emperor from an evil Admiral, and doing so involves mastering Foresight, a meditative technique to mentally predict and play out battles before they unfold (for Dragon Ball fans, think of image training). Gameplay-wise, players are pitted against different combinations of enemy types. They use Foresight to play the battle in advance to find the optimal approach to defeating them while taking little to no damage. For example, using Foresight may help you learn to dodge a charging enemy so they trample an ally, then finish him off by lobbing a nearby weapon. Determining the best approach may take several Foresig...