While gamescom has overtaken the crux of major video announcements, several other sudden surprises and unsurprising slops have also taken space on the newspaper stand.

Gamescom Big Gains

gamescom 2024 is still ongoing into the weekend, and you can catch up with our roundup of opening night’s announcements here! But a big crux of the annual convention’s major programming has reached its climax with its award show with the following winners:

• Monster Hunter Wilds for Best Trailer, Most Epic, Most Entertaining, and Best PlayStation Game
• Little Nightmares 3 for Audio, Visuals, and Best Xbox Game
• Genshin Impact for Best Mobile Game
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 for Best PC Game
• Frostpunk 2 for Gameplay
• Tavern Talk for Most Wholesome
• Creatures of Ava for Games for Impact
• Microsoft / Xbox / Bethesda / Blizzard for Best of Show Floor

Tango Gameworks Dances Again

In a sudden turn of events, games studio Tango Gameworks has been taken over by publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, Krafton, with full intent on resuming all work activities as norm and ambition to further continue the Hi-Fi Rush IP.

The Hi-Fi Rush developer was founded by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and went on to be acquired by ZeniMax Media, in turn, later getting folded over into Microsoft. News that Tango Gameworks was to be shuttered erupted back in late spring.

Packing Up Camp

Meanwhile, the bell tolls for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp—and certainly not those kinds of Bells—and it has been announced that services for the mobile game will end November this year.

That said, Nintendo has further elaborated they intend on releasing a paid, offline version of the game, and Pocket Camp players will be able to transfer their data from the original game.

In other news…

Steam now has a new feature in reviews to indicated if a reviewer has played the title extensively on the Steam Deck.

While among several of the lineup of announcements made at gamescom 2024, developer Warhorse Studios emphasizes that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will not be released until the first quarter of next year on February 11, 2025.

In the midst of another wave of SAG-AFTRA strikes that has now evoked a rally for video game actors, Amazon Games CEO Christopher Hartmann claims that games “don’t really have acting“.

The Backyard Sports video game franchise is being rebooted.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has unveiled a 60-day plan to address player complaints.

John Carpenter is reportedly heavily involved in the production of a new Halloween game, to be developed on Unreal Engine 5.

Final Fantasy XVI is now up for preorder on both the Epic Games Store and Steam. The game is due out September 17th, and a demo is available now. Meanwhile, a rumor also suggests that game will also soon find itself on the Xbox.

To no one’s shock, the Borderlands movie flopped at the box office. You can still get the Claptrap popcorn bucket watching something else though! (while supplies last)

And finally, United States Vice President candidate for the Democratic party Tim Walz was apparently a huge Dreamcast gamer, to the point his wife had to hide the console away from him.

The post The Bulletin: Not the Last Dance appeared first on Gamesline.

Big IPs

Superheroes of all fits are jumping into the fray by billing new video game titles.

The countdown begins for a Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO, the first entry in the Budokai Tenkaichi fighting game series for almost two decades.

Unsurprisingly, the next Call of Duty is on its way with Black Ops 6, but more surprisingly, a new Indiana Jones game has been revealed. Meanwhile, people are still worming their way along for Dune.

Marvel Rivals confirms a release date for near the end of the year, but more significantly, confirms that all heroes will be free to play upon launch.

More has been shown on the Mercenary companions that will be in Diablo IV’s “Vessel of Hatred” expansion.

There will also be a new entry to the Batman: Arkham series of games—but alas, exclusively for the Meta Quest 3.

Big Returns

A new Sid Meier’s Civilization boasts new major changes such as a variety of more combinations players can explore and a mechanic to the gameplay that now divides up the development of a world into three different Ages.

Street Fighter 6 and Fatal Fury are throwing some punches with more content, dropping gameplay trailers for Terry and Mai Shiranui respectively.

Capcom had even more to show off with additional footage for Monster Hunter Wilds.

After long anticipation since the first game, a sequel to Kingdom Come: Deliverance has also been revealed.

Little Nightmares 3 will be a new standalone sequel to the original series, the first entry without the original developer’s involvement, Tarsier Studios, and instead entirely developed by Supermassive Games.

A new Dying Light game will also serve as a standalone sequel against the original series.

One of the last reveals of opening night was the highly anticipated sequel to the Mafia, now revealed to officially be Mafia: The Old Country, taking place in 1900s Sicily.

And yet while the Borderlands movie has been spectacularly bombing, much to our chagrin, there is going to be another Borderlands game.

And Some New Faces

An interesting slew of various new original projects have also been welcomed into the mix of announcements, such as We Harvest Shadows, a strange hybrid between farming simulator and horror.

While Tarsier Studios is hands-off with Little Nightmares 3, they have moved on to announced a new game of similar cut with Reanimal, a horror co-op.

Science fiction and tech have been a recurring genre across these slate of games:

ARC Raiders is marketing itself as a new, PvPvE action survival shooter set in a future, ravaged Earth, while Revenge of the Savage Planet brings in a more cartoonish, tongue-in-cheek perspective while you travel your way across aliens world. A.I.L.A. a first person horror game, will be unmistakably tapping into today’s fears around AI.

Although aligning itself with the The Dark Pictures anthology, Directive 8020 will be attempting to explore another multi-linear tale within science fiction horror.

On anthologies—a new animated anthology series called Secret Level, created by Love, Death & Robots showrunner Tim Miller, will be exploring stories based on video games. Several IPs, teased in the trailer included The Outer Worlds, SIFU, and Mega Man.

While Sims fans still eagerly wait for further updates on Electronic Arts’ next big title, inZoi is a new character creation and life simulation game.

Although also emerging from already existing games series—albeit relatively niche—The First Berserker: Khazan will be a new action roleplaying game set in the Dungeon & Fighter universe.

On the more saccharine side of things, Infinity Nikki will be the first foray of Nikki, the dress-up, roleplaying mobile game franchise into a fully 3D rendered, open world setting.

And finally, Peter Molyneux still has more to say, attempting to bring back players to the world of Fable with Masters of Albion.

The post Bulletin+: Gamescom 2024, Opening Night appeared first on Gamesline.

It’s the post-PAX podcast as Solon has returned to regale us about one ReedPop run show while E3 removes itself from their clutches. Plus, John’s still digging through Xenosaga and the Pokemon TCG Game Boy game, Maverick’s shooting through Armored Core 6, Nintendo’s new console was demoed at Gamescom, Roblox is trying to get into the dating sphere, and Blizzard tries to properly age the Overwatch cast to hilarious results.

You can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @TheGamesline, @John_Michonski, @maverickdrifter, and @ChorbySP.

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at gamesline.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or directly to our RSS feed.

Edited by Maverick

The post The Gamesline Podcast Ep. 16: Parlez-vous ReedPop? appeared first on Gamesline.

A new Killing Floor game was announced. Not much else was detailed.

Even more Tekken 8 reveals, including a variety of characters, confirmation of a story mode, and a new battle hub similar to Street Fighter VI‘s. Tekken 8 launches January 26th, 2024.

Zack Snyder showed up! He’s got a new movie (or movies?) releasing on Netflix soon called Rebel Moon, and there’ll also be a game based on it.

Pearl Abyss’ latest title, the massive Crimson Desert, has a new gameplay trailer. It’s…a lot.

The Little Nightmares series will receive a new entry, this time with co-op.

Age of Empires 4 has gotten a remaster, and released right then and there!

Zenless Zone Zero, the next Hoyoverse gacha, looks really slick. Also, Honkai Star Rail‘s PS5 version’s test started August 23rd and runs through the 28th.

We’ve got more Alan Wake 2 footage. That’s all I gotta say, check it out instead of reading this!

Mortal Kombat 1 showed off a few more characters, this time highlighting General Shao, Sindel, and Raiden.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage got a new trailer.

Nightingale, a survival game with some really freaky monsters, got its early access launch set to February 22nd, 2024.

If you wish to watch the full show, here’s all three hours, including the guy who ran up on stage to yell about GTA6.

It’s not just Gamescom this week

Charles Martinet, the longtime official voice of Mario, is stepping down from the role. He will continue to be a “Mario Ambassador”, but it has already been confirmed that Super Mario Wonder will not feature his performance.

A new Pokemon, Poltchageist, has been revealed. This ‘mon is a convergent evolution of Sinistea, and has the ability to heal its doubles partner on switch-in.

That awful-looking Playstation streaming handheld has a name. It’s Playstation Portal, and will cost $200.

Bioware has fired 50 people, including many of their long-time writing staff who were working on the latest Dragon Age. Some of those laid off also include staff from Keywords, who had just recently unionized.

Denuvo has announced their technology will be compatible with Nintendo Switch, promising to block PC emulation. This announcement was paired with AI art, which is quite ironic indeed.

The post The Bulletin: Gamescom Goodies appeared first on Gamesline.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has blocked the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merger. The CMA cited concerns about Microsoft having too much of an authority in “cloud gaming” as the primary reason for their interception. Brad Smith, CEO of Microsoft, has stated that the company intends on appealing the decision.

Waypoint, launched in 2016 as Vice Media’s dedicated games section, will be shutting down on June 2. Vice is also shuttering its Vice News Tonight program as part of a series of other major cuts in midst of the restructuring of the company.

I'm not sure where to begin, except to say, with equal parts fury and sadness, that Waypoint is over. The team, myself included, have been terminated by VICE, and our final day running the website, the podcasts, and streams, will come to an end on June 2nd.

— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) April 27, 2023

Sega of America unionizes as the Allied Employees Guild Improving SEGA (AEGIS) with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). AEGIS-CWA will be the first union in the video games industry that encompasses several departments, comprising of members from the departments of marketing, games as a service, localization, product development, and quality assurance.

Powerhouse Animation Studios, the studio behind the Netflix, animated adaptation of Castlevania, its upcoming sequel, and an anticipated adaption to Tomb Raider, has also announced their unionization with the Animation Guild.

Great news! Congrats to #animation workers at Powerhouse in #Texas for unionizing with the #AnimationGuild! Let's show our support for this historic effort as they seek voluntary recognion. #Power2Powerhouse#WeAre839 #WePowerAnimation@LATimes @AustinChronicle @Variety @THR pic.twitter.com/3uPRYwkxnH

— The Animation Guild // #WeAre839 (@animationguild) April 24, 2023

Nintendo will be exhibiting at Gamescom 2023. This will be the company’s first big, in-person appearance at a major games trade show since E3 2012. Gamescom is set for August 23 to 27 in Cologne, Germany.

Square Enix’s attempts as remaking The Portopia Serial Murder Case as an “AI tech preview” has been met with scrutiny across the board. The game relies on a machine learning text input system that has been quickly found to be incredibly faulty, rendering progress difficult and nearly unplayable. The game is free to download, and currently has an over 90% “Very Negative” reviews on Steam.

the portopia serial murder case is an excellent example of why stapling "AI" to your game doesn't in fact guarantee your game will work pic.twitter.com/WX9v6VZrGD

— Aura (MOOMANIBE@Cohost) (@MOOMANiBE) April 24, 2023

Developer Young Horses has made their early catalog of games free to play, such as the original version of Octodad.

A new entry to the Armored Core series has been announced, and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon is set to be released around late August.

The Guinness World Record of the most people playing Dungeons & Dragons at a time was broken in a mall in Provo, Utah. Over 1,200 aspiring adventurers took place in the nerdy gathering crowding the Provo Towne Centre mall.

On the other hand, Wizards of the Coast continues to be off their rocks and hired and sent security agents to a YouTuber’s home to shut down a leak of their latest Magic: The Gathering set, “March of the Machine: The Aftermath.”

YouTuber Oldschoolmtg cooperated with the agents to hand over the set, and explains that the set was mistakenly sent to him. WotC has yet to release a statement about the incident, and is currently unclear if Oldschoolmtg will be compensated for the goods they have had to turn in.

The post The Bulletin: Shut It Down appeared first on Gamesline.

In the news, Masahiro Sakurai’s got a Youtube channel and Hideo Kojima’s got a podcast.  We’re getting a new Dualsense wireless controller and Pokémon breeding is rumored to be changing. A Space for the Unbound has been delayed indefinitely because of their publisher being predatory as all hell. Gamescom also happened and we have a lot of release dates for games like Sonic Frontiers and New Tales From the Borderlands. We also got more detailed looks at Return to Monkey Island and Dead Island 2 and more.

As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo,  @Mavsplaniamania, @ChorbySP and @JudgementScythe

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via iTunes, Hipcast, direct download, or listen below!

The post VGCC Episode 408: Saints Splatfest appeared first on Gamesline.

Gamescom this week sure had some reveals, some of the standouts include New Tales From the Borderlands releasing October 21st, Sonic Frontiers is slated for release on November 8th, Return to Monkey Island is out on PC and Switch September 19th (International Talk Like a Pirate Day), and Dead Island 2 is coming coming out later this February after an entire decade of development hell.

Masahiro Sakurai is making videos on YouTube. With the more or less finished development of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate last year, it seems like Sakurai’s focusing part of his newly found free time making content online. So far these videos are no longer than ten minutes each covering various topics from game design to games history all through the lens of someone with 30 years of experience in the field. In a space rife with various discourse about what makes a game good, it’s nice to hear someone with experience talk about accessibility since working back in 1992.

Sony has announced the DualSense Edge Wireless Controller, a fully customizable controller similar to the Xbox Elite controller. Stick caps are interchangeable, two new buttons are positioned in the back, and triggers also include a hair lock among other features. This seems pretty cool, unfortunate that it also comes out at the news of the PS5 increasing in price basically everywhere outside the U.S.

But fear not gamers, as Nvidia is reporting that supply and demand might result in discounts on GPUs for retailers. While this doesn’t necessarily mean you yourself will receive a discount, the realization that inventory is at a high will hopefully result in easier access with less hassle or worry that a an RTX3000 will just turn into crypto fodder.

A Space for the Unbound is delayed indefinitely due to “predatory practices” by publisher PCube. In a message from publisher Toge Productions and developer Mojiken, PCube has been accused of withholding information regarding grant money that was intended for game developers in order to “negotiate the increase of their revenue share.” As of this bulletin PCube has responded stating they have honored all agreements on their end and state unreasonable terms from Toge Productions; Toge Productions has yet to issue a response to this update.

The post The Bulletin: Gamescom Express appeared first on Gamesline.

As always, you can support us on our Patreon, and follow us on Twitter @VGChooChoo, @john_michonski, and @ChorbySP

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our Discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via iTunes, hipcast, direct download, or listen below!

The post VGCC Episode 370: The No More Heroes 3 Episode appeared first on Gamesline.

Indie Arena Booth took things completely online this year by hosting an expansive, virtual chatroom where attendees and developers can directly engage together. Trying to simulate the full-on convention experience, you could create avatars and navigate digital exhibits appropriately designed to thematically match the game they’re representing.

There was actually a small customization aspect to making the avatars, using different parts from some of the games being showcased to originally designed assets specific for IAB’s event. I personally settled on being a cat head floating in the void of space.

Walking around in a digital convention can be just as overwhelming as doing the same in a physical one, so you could’ve easily opted to open the map and jump around wherever strikes you as grabbing instead. Steam also ended up hosting a landing page dedicated to the event, so you could scroll through the games and streams like a traditional catalog. IAB typically goes hand in hand with Gamescom every year, and the two events collaborated again, with IAB fashioning itself as connected to the latter.

Given many scheduling push backs and delays due to the current world circumstances, games continue to be a nightmare as many anticipated AAA titles scheduled their releases all at once at the height of the holiday season this year—and unfortunately, even the indies are not immune to this release chaos! Indie Arena Booth Online states that they hosted about “185 games from 53 countries” this year, and you can bet I barely have scratched the surface in trying to tackle a majority of them.

I narrowed my focus on titles with available demos that I have never played before, even if they had already previously appeared in the Steam Summer Fest lineup. You can also find my other impressions of many other games I have tried from that event not specified in the aforementioned piece here. Ultimately, here are several games that I was able to try:

As Far As the Eye

A turn-based Eurostyle city builder, you take the role of the literal wind as a guide to beings known as Pupils. You have to help them manage their skills and resources before the world is submerged in an impending flood. The game is procedurally generated and there are different tribes of Pupils you can choose to start off with, each with their own benefits and disadvantages. The game is very cute looking with a storybook-like artstyle and mechanics that are pretty simple to learn. As Far As the Eye presents what seems to be a very meditative, peaceful experience that one could easily immerse many hours into, with only time and potentially poor choices serving as a threat to this journey.

Chicken Police

This is the third point-and-click, noir-themed, mystery game with anthropomorphic animals that I know of in development that is pending release for the last quarter of 2020 or early 2021. I am not sure what is inspiring this trend, but good for the furries, I suppose. What stands out immediately about Chicken Police is its zany art direction in using photo collage by merging real animal heads with humanoid bodies, which fits the absurdist, comedic tone it immediately gives off. Playing as a rooster detective, the game is fully voice-acted (with incredibly high production values) and is just screaming hamminess similar to the Ace Attorney series and its pastiche Aviary Attorney, but it takes it even further with a sprinkle of raunchiness. Unfortunately as with many works that feature animals as the primary population of focus, I’m already erring on the side of caution given the game has already made it clear there is going to be some exploration of their own version of an allegory to racism heads on, but I am definitely intrigued so far in how the rest of it is going to be such a trip.

Jessika

Jessika was released earlier this year and is an FMV containing many elements similar to Her Story, Emily is Away, and the Simulacra games. You work for a group that specializes in processing the digital footprints and data of the deceased at the request of their family. Like the aforementioned games, Jessika has you peruse through media left behind on a computer in order to find the information needed to move forward. The game puts you in the perspective that this job is noble at first, but after being thrown into a case revolving around a woman named Jessika, things take a dark turn. Jessika tackles heavy themes such as suicide, abuse, and privacy, so I am wary approaching the game given how consistently there seems to be an unfortunate standard with how women are treated in mystery titles like these. The game otherwise has a very intuitive, smooth UI and a system worth revisiting to see where the narrative takes a turn and can possibly exceed my expectations.

Neurodeck: Psychological Deckbuilder

Neurodeck is a different take on the deck-building genre; instead of aiming to build a collection of characters to fight, the goal is to rake up cards themed around psychology and the subconscious. You start off each “session” by selecting a particular character’s profile with a starting palette of different skills and passive abilities. The cards collected include things like memories, emotions, and other miscellaneous sources of comfort to combat monsters in the form of phobias and negative feelings. The goal is to complete each profile’s tree by tackling a sequence of battles, personality tests, or even meditating. It is currently unclear to me right now how much went behind the game in following this theme and if the information conveyed is something backed by proper research and consultation, but the premise is definitely interesting.

Over the Alps

Over the Alps is another game that has already been released as of this writing. A text narrative game, you explore a branching thriller taking place in Switzerland in the midst of World War II, making dialogue choices through the form of postcards. The game is extremely stylish, emulating the artstyle of Franco-Belgian comics contemporary to the game’s setting like The Adventures of Tintin. Although what seems to be very simple in execution, Over the Alps’ visuals and engaging writing are sure to be its main hook.

Paradise Killer

This game is pretty incomprehensible in every single way, but that doesn’t lend itself to be a bad thing at all—far beyond it. Paradise Killer is a murder mystery game where you take on the role of Lady Love Dies, an investigator freed from her exile to investigate a mass murder in Paradise. Paradise is an island that regularly gets destroyed and regenerated every few millenia thanks to the constant meddling of demons, and the recent incident disrupted the island’s latest cycle to finally achieve a near-perfect state. Paradise Killer is drenched with the colors of lo-fi, vaporwave dreams and PS1-era aesthetics, so it is a little hard at the moment to determine if there are aspects to the game that are still unfinished or deliberate. But eccentric is clearly an understatement to describe a game like this, as it is filled with layers of cryptic lore and utterly surreal visuals that want you to keep asking questions. The game has the promise that there is no true answer to the mystery at hand and that there are multiple ways you can tackle the narrative. It is certainly something I am looking forward to and I too, hope to enjoy my own time in Paradise.

Sword of the Necromancer

Your girlfriend is dead and now you have to find the forbidden Sword of the Necromancer to try to revive her! Roguelite, dungeon crawler games like these are not my jam at all and I personally find that many of them just end up blurring together in my mind. Yet, Sword of the Necromancer definitely has promise for those who are into this genre as another one that can be added to the personal library with pretty solid visuals, straightforward mechanics and even a co-op mode.

Weaving Tides

Weaving Tides is a puzzle adventure game in which you mount the back of your carpet dragon friend in order to weave across the textile-laden world to solve obstacles along the way. At some points, with your dragon’s tail acting like a thread, you need to patch up holes in the map by weaving through them. Enemies encountered can also be defeated by trapping them within the weave you make. The game’s concept is very charming, entirely themed around textiles and the processes behind fabric and embroidery. It has a visual style that is textured to look like everything is made from arts and crafts in some manner, presenting tiny, subtle details craftspersons would recognize and appreciate.

Many games events that have happened in 2020 have proven the resiliency of an industry when it comes to easily translating things for a community that has already been so normalized to the idea of being online and plugged in 24/7. Indie Arena Booth Online has presented a very unique and fun take on what a virtual show can do and look like. They continue to ask the questions on what future in-person events should do to innovate and be as accessible as possible, now knowing that a virtual event is more than capable of fulfilling everything a real life one can. In some ways, events such as these are possibly paving the path to large shows like E3’s obsolescence, and this also begins to beg other questions on how valuable some physical events were to begin with and what that means for them when they return.

The post First Impressions of Indie Arena Booth Online appeared first on Gamesline.

As always you can support us on our patreon, and follow us on twitter @VGChooChoo, @John_Michonski, @lvmaeparian, @SolaireHazard and @solonface

Also, don’t forget to rate and review us on iTunes, and tell a friend about the show! If you want to send in questions send them to podcast@videogamechoochoo.com, via twitter with the hashtag #AskVGCC or into our ask box at videogamechoochoo.tumblr.com/ask.

You can also join our discord channel at thegamezone.zone!

Our theme song is “Crush” by Melt Channel, from the album Magic is Real.

Subscribe via iTunes, Hipcast, Direct Download or listen below!

The post VGCC Episode 277: The Cover Flush appeared first on Gamesline.