Lone Echo 2, the sequel to Ready at Dawn's acclaimed 2017 zero-gravity VR adventure will - following a last-minute delay in August - finally release for Oculus devices on 12th October.

Lone Echo 2, which looks set to deliver another about of moody sci-fi adventure built around zero-gravity traversal and puzzling, catapults its two protagonists - Captain Olivia Rhodes and player-controlled android Echo One (also known as Jack) - 400 years into the future following the events of the previous game, this time focussing on an abandoned space station that supposedly holds the key to returning home.

It's been a bit of a bumpy ride for Lone Echo 2, which was originally due to launch in 2019; the game has been been hit by multiple delays throughout its journey to release - most recently due to coronavirus-related development challenges - but hopefully the end is now in sight and 12th October will mark the moment Lone Echo 2 finally makes its way to fans.

Read more

Toy Soldiers HD, a revival of the Xbox Live Arcade classic, will finally arrive on 21st October for Nintendo Switch, Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.

That date has been pushed back a couple of times now, but today was made "absolutely" final after a couple of last-minute bogies were identified.

Toy Soldiers HD polishes up the original game's visuals, includes all of its DLC additions and adds a couple of new levels too.

Read more

Horror game Scorn is now due out at some point in 2022.

Confirmation comes from a note to press from new publisher Kepler Interactive, which is co-founded by Scorn developer Ebb Software.

Scorn is an upcoming first-person survival horror adventure video game due out on PC and Xbox Series X and S. It's inspired by H. R. Giger of Alien fame.

Read more

Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain has returned to PC via GOG.

Silicon Knights' action adventure launched on PSone in 1996 before coming out on PC a year later. It's the first game in the Legacy of Kain series, which went on to include the seminal Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2.

Blood Omen stars Kain, a slain nobleman newly resurrected as a vampire. He seeks revenge against his murderers and a cure to his vampiric curse in the fictional land of Nosgoth.

Read more

Firesprite, the large Liverpool-based team bought by PlayStation earlier this month, has expanded further with the acquisition of Fabrik Games.

Fabrik will now become part of Firesprite, and boost its overall headcount up to 265.

Firesprite was formed from the remnants of Sony Liverpool - which PlayStation shut down back in 2012. Now it has quietly grown to become one of the largest development teams in the UK, and has found itself back as a first-party studio.

Read more

Amazon will offer New World players free server transfers in the next two weeks, with lengthy queue times blighting the MMO's hugely popular launch.

New World launched yesterday and peaked at 707,230 concurrent players - the fifth-highest concurrents figure ever seen on Valve's platform. At one point it was the most popular game on Steam, ahead of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

But this popularity has made for extremely long queue times - for some over nine hours - that has made New World practically unplayable for many customers. In fact, most of the game's negative user reviews on Steam are complaints about these server problems.

Read more

He burns his belongings.

It's hard to imagine what has happened for a man to think there are no options left other than to take a box of his stuff - a box of cherished memories, I think, although we're never formally told - and shove it into a bonfire. It's harder still to imagine how it must feel to keep doing it, over and over and over again. Does it get easier, do you think? After the second time - the tenth time, the fiftieth time, the hundredth time - does it stop hurting? Do you stop feeling it? Or does every box stuffed into the flames make your heart ache just that little bit more?

You've no idea the number of times I've zoomed in, peered a little closer, trying to decipher what it is he's burning. It feels important to me, somehow; the key to unravelling this mystery. I think there's a poster or photograph in there? A man in a white hat. Plus a shoebox, perhaps, and what may or may not be a cuddly toy. I don't suppose it matters, really. One man's trash is another's treasure and all that.

Read more

Night School Studio, the developer behind acclaimed narrative adventure Oxenfree and its highly anticipated sequel, has been acquired by Netflix.

Night School has gained a reputation for creating engaging, sharply written adventures with a strong focus on narrative across the four games it's launched since its founding in 2014. After 2016's critically lauded Oxenfree, the developer released a well-received Mr. Robot tie-in, 1.51exfiltrati0n, followed by pub-crawl-through-hell adventure Afterparty and the Apple-exclusive space escapade Next Stop Nowhere. Notably, given the acquisition news, the studio was also reported to have been developing an unannounced Stranger Things project in conjunction with Telltale Games at one time, before the latter company's collapse.

More recently, Night School confirmed it's working on an Oxenfree sequel, Lost Signals, for release on Switch, PlayStation, and PC next year.

Read more

Microsoft says it will soon allow third-party storefront apps, including those of Amazon and Epic Games, to be discoverable via is Windows store.

"Just like any other app," Microsoft writes in a post announcing the new measures, "third-party storefront apps will have a product detail page that can be found via search or by browsing - so that users can easily find and install it with the same confidence as any other app in the Microsoft Store on Windows."

Amazon and Epic Games will be the first to benefit from the move - which will initially be implemented in the new-look Microsoft Store for Window 11 before making its way to Windows 10 - with Microsoft adding, "we look forward to welcoming other stores as well in the future."

Read more

Square Enix has shared its full presentation schedule for this year's Tokyo Game Show, confirming fresh looks at a range of upcoming games, including Final Fantasy Origin, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Forspoken. Also planned: jazz live painting.

The complete schedule spans three days - running from Friday, 1st October, to Sunday, 3rd October - and kicks off with a big one-hour showcase at 7pm JST (that's 11am in the UK) before shifting the focus to individuals titles. You can also expect a handful of special events, including a live concert and the aforementioned jazz live painting, along the way.

As far as headline reveals go, Square promises new looks at the likes of Guardians of the Galaxy, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Nier creator Yoko Taro's Voice of Cards - The Isle Dragon Roars, and Chocobo Racing successor Chocobo GP. You'll find the full schedule for Square's English-language TGS streams below (all times are in JST):

Read more