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Sons of the Forest is the direct sequel to Endnight’s well-received The Forest (which got its version 1.0 release in 2018 after four years in early access), a game that combined the survival genre’s penchant for scavenging and crafting with a genuinely unnerving horror element as protagonist Eric Leblanc searched the titular, cannibal-infested forest for his son following a harrowing plane crash. Sons of the Forest, which this time sees players tracking down a missing billionaire on a remote island, was originally due to launch in May this year, but Endnight made the decision to postpone its release to October in order to deliver its “vision of the next step in survival games”....

There are already several mods which reshade the game, like this one from BadRusMan that emulates a more cinematic style, or overhaul the visuals, like this noir mod by ManWithAPlan. There’s also a mod which disables the HUD and enemy outlines, by Mixerced, if you want to remove the interface whilst you play. But why not take your Spider-Man on PC experience one step further and replace the titular hero himself?...

Chill Season will introduce fresh weapons and stages to the already-bursting game, as well as two highly-anticipated game modes. Much of today’s trailer is taken up by something titled Big Run, which is an event mode version of the series’ Salmon Run format. Footage shows Salmonids invading Wahoo World: There’s also X Battles, which you’ll only gain access to after becoming an elite ranked player in Anarchy Battles, and where you’ll need to risk X Power as you swim your way up the mode’s leaderboard....

To get access to the demo, you will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. However, not everyone who has a Switch necessarily wants to subscribe to NSO. To negate this, Nintendo is offering everyone who downloads the demo a code that will give them a seven day trial of its subscription service. This means that, not only will you be able to have a go at covering every conceivable surface in brightly-coloured ink, you will also be able to have a whirl with other Nintendo classics from the NES and SNES era....

If you’re unfamiliar with the farming sim, the game opens with you inheriting land from your grandpa who has sadly passed away - shown in a brief scene at the start. However, modders are now altering the scene to show grandpa in a variety of new… situations. The standard version sees him on his deathbed. But modders have given him a more luxurious bed, a worse bed, or no bed at all and in a Family Guy pose....

This is how Mini Motorways is played. This is a city-building puzzler that may also be one of the most aesthetically refined games ever made: flat colour and pleasing abstractions of the modern world, its concrete and metal, its curtain-walling and internal combustion. You play by connecting businesses of a certain colour to houses of the same colour, without causing traffic jams and snarl ups as houses and businesses of different colours start to appear too....

Rocket League splits players into teams and asks them to score goals - using rocket powered cars rather than feet, and employing a ball that absolutely towers over them on the pitch. Competing to score the most points before time runs out – if you’re drawing after 5 mins, say hello to overtime and sudden death – you’ve got a few tricks at your disposal. Boost pads are evenly spread across the field to provide a speed advantage, for instance, letting us shoot at pace or demolish an opponent’s vehicle if we collide at max speed....

Trials of the Dragon King will include a number of additional missions, seemingly focused on Bahamut. Square Enix has released a new teaser trailer and updated its website. Watch on YouTube Trials of the Dragon King trailer. Trials of the Dragon King is the first story-based DLC for the game and is included in its season pass. The DLC also contains new jobs, weapons, accessories and a category of equipment....

The dates were shown as part of Capcom’s Tokyo Game Show livestream event earlier today, which also included a new look at parts of the game and some returning fighters. Series veterans Ken, Blanka, Dhalsim and E. Honda were all confirmed as returning characters to the roster. Footage of the Battle Hub showed a game centre full of arcade cabinets for players to compete against one another. We also got to see some of the World Tour, the single-player story mode, character customisation and Scrap Heap mode....

Twitter user Dogon McBanana decided to go rootling about in the files of Nintendo’s GameCube title. What they found was a host of unused, slightly unnerving (see the T-posing, scarecrow like horror below), character models. “It seems like at some point each captain was going to have their own unique team of sidekicks,” wrote McBanana. “DK has a team of other Kong-like characters, for example. Luigi also has a dupe of himself for his sidekick, likely placeholder....

It works beautifully. Songs play, drum beats scroll, and you tap away to match them. Small red beats need a tap inside the circle, small blue beats need a tap outside the circle, bigger red beats require two fingered taps, and so do bigger blue beats. Now and then you have to do a drum roll. Genuine happiness ensues. I have no idea why Taiko Pop Tap works its magic, but it almost never fails....

1980s Japanese PC gaming has never really been as widely fetishised overseas as its console counterpart, which lent my first trip to Akihabara’s Beep a couple of years back the thrill of discovery. It’s my first encounter with so many of these games, though even if you’re a veteran of the scene you’re bound to be surprised by what’s in the doujin section, where you’ll find self-published efforts from hobbyists, often complete with self-penned covers....

The project was initially revealed as coming to PC and Xbox during this weekend’s Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, as well as to Xbox Game Pass on day one, at some point in 2023. ORIGINAL STORY 12/6/22: Announced during tonight’s Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a new project from Team Ninja which will arrive in early 2023 and launch for PC and Xbox Game Pass. Specifically, it’s being led by producers Fumihiko Yasuda (of Nioh fame) and Masaaki Yamagiwa (Bloodborne)....

The collection contains 13 games in total, including all three versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters. Here’s the full list: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Arcade) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time (Arcade) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (NES) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (Super Nintendo) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Super Nintendo) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist (Sega Genesis) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Sega Genesis) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of The Foot Clan (Game Boy) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (Game Boy) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue (Game Boy)...

Berg and the rest of the very small team at Neon Giant seem especially keen to emphasise, too, that these two games are different beasts. You would think that’s pretty obvious - The Ascent is an intimate, top-down twin-stick shooter, for starters, not a blockbuster open world - but still, point taken. Do not compare The Ascent to Cyberpunk 2077. It is tempting though. The two might well be different beasts but, playing the first hour or two of The Ascent, the impression is of a kind of alternate-universe version....

Riley and Rochelle from Sheinman Games will take players on a deductive journey, following the lives of two singers from two different backgrounds who fall in love… and also fall apart. Players will create their own documentary about the two stars as they “take a nuanced yet insider look at the pop culture world” of the ’90s. Diary entries, along with a catalogue of Riley and Rochelle’s older records, will work as a framework for the narrative, with the developer stating “the player will choose how they want the film to end, and who gets to come out on top....

This project comes from Themeborne, which is known for its Escape the Dark series. Themeborne will be working closely with The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog on the upcoming release, with its Kickstarter campaign kicking off later this month. As for the board game itself, this will see one to five players taking on the role of either Ellie, Joel, Tess, Bill, Tommy or Marlene. Once players have picked their character, they will be tasked with “resolving immersive chapter cards”....

This will contain Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun Dragonfall and Shadowrun: Hong Kong, previously released on PC, now with “upscaled graphics, improved performance and controller-optimised gameplay”. Originally developed by Jordan Weisman’s Harebrained Schemes, the turn-based cyberpunk trilogy first arrived for PC between 2013 and 2015. Mobile versions have also been available - but never console editions. Until now! Shadowrun Returns launched in 2013 and saw an 8/10 from Eurogamer. “For those who just want to relive the isometric action of the SNES and Megadrive days, Shadowrun Returns easily delivers,” Dan Whitehead wrote....

Following the second season of Netflix’s fantasy saga that released at Christmas, the official Twitter account has shared an image of Geralt, Yennefer and Ciri on set in the snow (that’s Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra and Freya Allan). If it’s hard to ascertain any story from that, the account has also shared a plot summary. Mild spoilers follow. Of course, it’ll follow on from recent events, but it does seem to be veering back towards the plot of the books....

“Welcome to the Butterfly House,” teases the official announcement, “a mysterious manor of perverse angles and non-Euclidean geometry built by occultist Pasquale Deneveaux to open a gateway to the Wyrd, a vast, interdimensional web of wondrous and horrifying planes of existence beyond our world. When a B.P.R.D. agent vanishes inside the mansion, it’s up to Hellboy and his team of agents to uncover its forbidden secrets.” Specifics are a little thin right now, but Hellboy Web of Wyrd - which is being developed by West of Dead studio Upstream Arcade - promises an original storyline crafted in collaboration with series creator Mike Mignola, as well as designed to evoke the visuals and atmosphere of the comics....