Tonight's Xbox Developer Direct brought an update on Avowed, Obsidian's first-person fantasy RPG. A new trailer provided a substantial look at combat, including pistols, dual-wielding swords and wands, as well as a slightly updated release window: this autumn.
The leaks were right. Machine Games' next Nazi-biffer is called Indiana Jones And The Great Circle. It was shown for the first time during this evening's Xbox Developer Direct, where we got to see first-person punching and whipping, some tomb raiding, and plenty of Indy's face in cutscenes.
We also got a release window: 2024.
Today's Xbox Developer Direct stream offered updates on some of 2024's biggest Microsoft games, including MachineGames' Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Obsidian's Avowed and Ninja Theory's Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2. If you missed the stream and want a quick roundup of all the news, games, release dates and trailers featured, we've gathered it all together in this post.
I think we're well into "milking the gimmick" territory for bodycam horror games now - last week's Digested may have been one giant snake too many - but Zoochosis does have the additional virtue of being heavily inspired by the cute doggy scene from The Thing. And also, perhaps, Five Nights At Freddy's.
In this latest, gruesome escapade from Sparky Marky developers Clapperheads, you are a zookeeper working the night shift. Your job, initially, is to feed the incarcerated animals and clean up after them while giving them an occasional pat on the nose. But Something Is Wrong. Giraffes aren't supposed to have that many legs, or mandibles. Kangaroos aren't supposed to stick to the ceiling, or have several sets of teeth.
Games Done Quick is busy raising loads of money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation, so we have a little chat about speedrunning, speedrunners, the benefits of breaking the game vs. the quality of a purist speedrun, and also a dog. We don't have a Nate this week, but James has been playing Apelegs again and offers a surprising self-assessment of how he feels like he's past his Apex Legends prime, and how confidence is a really necessary skill in competitive shooters. Worth tuning in for a listen to that.
It’s been two whole graphics card generations since Nvidia last tried the whole Super-branded refresh thing>, and from what I recall of that sweaty 2019 summer, most of the updated RTX 20 series cards were meek rejigs of GPUs that didn’t really need replacing in the first place. Having tried the new RTX 4070 Super, though, it looks like Nvidia aren’t just redeeming the Super badge – they might just right the wrongs of the RTX 40 family as a whole.
Four months after the troubled launch of Payday 3, developers Starbreeze have announced they've formed a "strike team of veteran developers" with the goal of bringing it "up to where it will meet your expectations". The cooperative heist FPS got off to a right bumpy start when the ever-unpopular decision to only be playable if you're online collided with server issues that saw Starbreeze take the game down for a while. Since then, it has failed to rise above 'Mixed' review rating on Steam, not helped by Starbreeze releasing a £15 DLC pack when many players were unhappy with the game they'd just bought for £35.
Today's the day of Xbox Developer Direct 2024, a select showcase of forthcoming Microsoft-published games, from sorcerous RPGs to intricate strategy games, which begins at 12pm PT, 3pm ET and 8pm UK. Wait, stop! Come back here, you silly goose. You don't need to go anywhere. I've embedded the livestream below, together with the key things you need to know about the games in question.
Your favourite beaver-based colony sim Timberborn's latest big update has arrived, and honestly, I'd say your poor beavers won't appreciate it one bit. The main reason being, it adds a new ecological hazard called Badwater, that doesn't only make your water bad, but your crops and beavers at risk of being bad. Still, there are plenty of new buildings to help you harness the power of the stanky water and errr, exercise halls for beavers to get their sweat on. I wouldn't recommend they rehydrate with the bad water, though.
As we all know, I like vampire stories, and I like different takes on vampire stories. Yesterday Edwin dangled an upcoming visual novel called Vampire Therapist in front of my nose. I am intrigued, also because I appreciate a Ronseal approach to titles. In Vampire Therapist, out on Steam this June 17th, you play Sam, a vampire who becomes a therapist to other vampires. So the title works twice!