ZA/UM, the studio behind Disco Elysium, announced the first details of its next game, an espionage RPG called Project C4. The first teaser trailer set the tone, which--true to the studio's pedigree--seems like a role-playing game with significant psychological elements.

You're an Operant working for a global superpower, and your missions will be clandestine attempts to uncover secrets and gain influence, all while running the risk of death or exposure. ZA/UM emphasized the mental strain of spycraft in the announcement, saying that your character can use psychoactive substances to erase, change, or alter the violent events of the real world. To that end, the dialogue in the trailer seems to suggest heavy psychological elements and exploring what spycraft does to a person.

The studio said gameplay consists of tense dice rolls and weighty dialogue choices, and it wants players to feel "the stench of failure," as shared in a presentation. The game is said to make failure a part of gameplay to honor player choice.

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Monster Hunter series producer Ryozo Tsujimoto has credited the story of Monster Hunter Wilds as being one of the primary factors behind the Capcom game's breakout success.

Tsujimoto, who was recently promoted to become Capcom's Chief Product Officer, stated this in an interview with Nikkei, a Japanese publication. Automaton then reported his comments, which explained that Tsujimoto believed players enjoyed how Monster Hunter Wilds emphasized its story more than previous Monster Hunter games and how its immersiveness was heightened as the game was fully voiced. He also credited cross-play with drawing many people to the game and getting them to stick around.

Monster Hunter Wilds launched on February 28 and sold 8 million copies during its first three days on the market. On March 10, Circana's Executive Director Mat Piscatella confirmed on Bluesky that Monster Hunter Wilds had the highest launch-week dollar sales for any game since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and that it ranked 1 in weekly dollar sales across all three platforms it was available on.

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According to the CEO of The Lego Group, the company may begin developing some video games internally. Niels Christiansen, who has been Lego's CEO since 2017, said in an interview that the company is ramping up to make some games in-house.

"We can definitely say as long as we're under the Lego brand we can cover experiences for kids of all ages, digital or physical. [Games development in-house] is something we're building up," he said in an interview with FT.

Many of the existing Lego games are made by external studios via a licensing arrangement. For example, Lego works with the UK studio TT Games on the popular Lego games based on brands like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Wargaming, the developer behind World of Tanks, confirmed that its new mech shooter Steel Hunters will enter early access on April 2.

Steel Hunters was revealed at The Game Awards 2024. It's quite different from the military-focused multiplayer games Wargaming is best known for, such as World of Tanks, World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. Steel Hunters fully embraces sci-fi as a mecha game that blends elements from hero shooters, battle royales, and extraction shooters. Five teams of two players fight each other to collect a resource called Starfall on Earth, and players can win by killing all of their opponents or successfully extracting.

When Steel Hunters enters early access, it will include seven different "Hunters" for players to choose from: Razerside, Heartbreaker, Fenris, Ursus, Trenchwalker, Prophet, and Weaver. Three maps scattered around Earth--Crimson Ridge, Maryland Heights, and Stonecutter Keeper--will also be part of Steel Hunters from the start of Early Access.

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The Last of Us Season 2 releases this April, and the sophomore season will up the ante in terms of how the deadly fungus spreads--and this will include by way of airborne spores.

Neil Druckmann confirmed this during a SXSW panel recently, saying the reason the team decided to do this in Season 2 was for dramatic purposes. "Everything has to be drama. There had to be a dramatic reason of introducing it now. And there is," he said (via IGN).

In The Last of Us game series, the outbreak spreads from spores, but Season 1 changed things up and had the fungus spread via cordycep tendrils. There was a fan backlash against this.

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The first season finale of Amazon's Fallout TV series wasn't ambiguous about where the show was going next. Season 2 is heading to New Vegas, the bombed-out remains of Las Vegas that featured in 2010's Fallout: New Vegas. Now, a pair of leaked videos from Season 2 has demonstrated how Fallout will bring New Vegas to life.

Via Kotaku, Tiktok user Onzo1313 shared a few videos from just outside of the Fallout Season 2 set. The first video has a very brief glimpse of the Vegas strip that has a sign for the Lucky 38 casino, which is controlled by Mr. House in Fallout: New Vegas. Another video features the worn-out "Welcome to the Strip" sign that looks very true to the way it appeared in the game.

These aren't the only New Vegas leaks we've seen since Season 2 began filming. Other locations from the game that will appear include the Dinky the T-Rex and the rinky-dink desert hotel it resides on from the outskirts of New Vegas. Pictures of Rita's Cafe and the Atomic Wrangler have also been shared by leakers.

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Blizzard has announced that it is collaborating with the K-pop group LE SSERAFIM again, giving players new skins to purchase for a select few characters. The collaboration will run between March 18-31.

There are new FEARLESS Legendary skins for Mercy, D.Va, Illari, Ashe, and Juno, as well as Blue Flame recolor skins for Kiriko, D.Va, Sombra, Tracer, and Brigitte. Players can purchase each skin individually or all 10 of them together in the Ultra Bundle. There will also be challenges for players to take on to earn more rewards, including the Legendary Fawksey James Junkrat skin.

It's unclear how much each skin costs, but individual skins in previous LE SSERAFIM collaborations were 1,900 Overwatch Coins, which comes out to a little less than $20 (the 2,000 coin bundle is $20)

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Following last year's strong showing for Silent Hill, we'll soon learn more about what's next for the horror franchise. Konami has revealed a Silent Hill Transmission--the name it gives to its virtual showcases centered on the series--is coming this Thursday, March 13 at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET. The video will focus on Silent Hill f, the next mainline game in the series.

Silent Hill f was revealed in 2022, but we've not seen it since that day. That was when we saw a teaser trailer debut alongside several other Silent Hill projects, such as the Silent Hill 2 remake and Silent Hill: Townfall, which is still in development from No Code. Based on the wording of Konami's tweet, it doesn't seem like any other games will be mentioned during the showcase.

Silent Hill f's flowery imagery is memorable, and soon it may be placed in a clearer context.

Last we'd heard, the oddly named Silent Hill f was in development from Neobards, a studio with experience supporting Resident Evil games, including the remakes for Resident Evil 2 and 3, as well as Resident Evil 7 and its multiplayer mode, ReVerse. The game's story will be penned by famed Japanese writer Ryukishi07, the author of the acclaimed When They Cry visual novel series.

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Cat Quest: The Fur-tastic Trilogy

$30 (was $50)

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The Cat Quest trilogy is on sale for its lowest price yet right meow at Amazon and Best Buy. Released last October, the compilation bundles all three adorable action-RPGs on one cartridge for Nintendo Switch. Cat Quest: The Fur-tastic Trilogy is discounted to $30 (was $50). The paw-some collection includes 2017's Cat Quest, the 2019 sequel Cat Quest 2, and 2024's Cat Quest 3.

Cat Quest 2 and last year's pirate-themed threequel can be played alongside another player in local co-op. If you're looking for a beginner-friendly action-RPG that's fun for both adults and kids, any of the Cat Quest games would be a purrfect choice. It's worth noting that the first game is single-player only, but you can dive right into the second without missing any story beats if you want to play co-op from the jump.

Cat Quest: The Fur-tastic Trilogy $30 (was $50)

These aren't genre-defining RPGs, but they are cozy little adventures with gorgeous 2.5D graphics that feel like the video game equivalent of comfort food. It has straightforward melee and ranged combat and an easy-to-follow gear and loot management system. Each game's overworld grants players the freedom to explore. You'll find new quests, dungeons, and loot during your travels. The series also has a lot of puns revolving around cats and dogs.

All three games received paw-sitive critic and user reviews. Over on GameSpot's sister-site Metacritic, Cat Quest 3 has a "generally favorable" Metascore of 80 from 21 reviews. On Steam, the first two games have "Overwhelmingly Positive" user rating averages, and Cat Quest 3 sits at "Very Positive."

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Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann revealed some more narrative details about Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet in Creator to Creator discussion with Civil War director Alex Garland.

The studio behind Uncharted and The Last of Us revealed Intergalactic, a brand new sci-fi game meant to kickstart a franchise, at The Game Awards 2024. That announcement trailer revealed a fair bit about Intergalactic's premise, namely that it follows a bounty hunter who gets standard on the distant planet of Sempiria. Ahead of season 2 of the popular The Last of Us TV show, Druckmann appeared on Sony's Creators to Creators podcast for a discussion with film director Alex Garland, who is promoting the upcoming film 28 Years Later. Toward the end of the conversation, Druckmann revealed more about the universe Intergalactic is set in and Naughty Dog's goals with the project.

Druckmann highlights that Intergalactic will be "a game about faith and religion" and is set around 2000 years in the future in a universe that diverged from our own in the 1980s. He reveals that Naughty Dog has created 2000 years of history for the religion of Sempiria, which has been cut off from communication with the rest of the galaxy for the last 600 years prior to the start of the game. He also explained how Naughty Dog wants players to feel lonely and lost in a place whose people and history are mysterious to them.

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Sony is testing out new AI software, and it's using a beloved character--Aloy from the Horizon series--to show it off.

A YouTube video narrated by Sharwin Raghoebardajal--a software engineering director at Sony Interactive Entertainment who focuses on gaming tech, AI, and face technology for the Advanced Technology Group within Sony's PlayStation Studios--appeared online last week, giving players a look at an AI-ified version of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West's main character, Aloy.

Raghoebardajal verbally interacts with Aloy throughout the video, starting off by greeting her and asking how she's been doing.

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If the internet has taught me anything, its that Stardew Valley and Baldur's Gate 3 are two games folks simply cannot get enough of, myself included. Fortunately, a newly-released, fan-made mod, Baldur's Village, combines the two in a pretty spectacular way. With the Baldur's Village mod, Stardew players can add 20+ characters, six new locations, new shops, new items, and new events, all inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, to the popular farming sim.

"A new village has recently been built north of Pelican Town, and its new residents seem... rather unusual," the mods description reads. "You can find the entrance to Baldur's Village at the top of the southern mountain map, right next to Linus' tent."

After venturing up north, players will be greeted by an entirely new area occupied by several familiar faces, including Gale, Shadowheart, Wyll, Karlach, Halsin, and everyone's favorite, blood-sucking aristocrat, Astarion. Currently, Astarion is the only new neighbor players will be able to romance, as he is the only one the team has finished designing heart events and gift preferences for. However, the team has confirmed that its next focus will be creating Halsin's romance storyline, followed by expanding world-building background stories and gameplay features.

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Directors Neil Druckmann and Alex Garland sat down for a wide-ranging and fascinating chat recently where they discussed their professional careers. There is some overlap, of course, as Druckmann's The Last of Us franchise and Garland's 28 Days Later are themed around a virus that leads to epic societal collapse. In the discussion, Garland said he's sure The Last of Us (2013) is better than 28 Days Later (2002), at least in terms of the writing.

"The Last of Us is better than 28 Days Later, or at least the writing is. I know what 28 Days is. I know what I did. I know what the process was," he said in an an interview for Sony. "The thing about The Last of Us was I was like, 'Oh this is like so much more sophisticated and moving.' I'm not dissing 28 Days Later. It's a nice part of my life. But seriously, The Last of Us is on another level."

28 Days Later was directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and stars Cillian Murphy. The film 28 Weeks Later followed in 2007, with 28 Years Later coming this June. Boyle and Garland were less involved with the sequel, but are coming back to direct and write 28 Years Later, respectively, for this summer.

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There could be an official Xbox-branded handheld out by the end of this year. A new report states that Microsoft is partnering with a PC gaming company, like ASUS or Lenovo, on the device, with a targeted launch in 2025.

According to WindowsCentral, the handheld is codenamed Keenan and will be similar in nature to the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S--which will be the first device outside the Steam Deck family to run on Valve's SteamOS. So, the Xbox-branded handheld will likely run on Windows, featuring the Microsoft Store and PC Game Pass. The report also states the system will likely sport an Xbox guide button and aesthetics that fit the Xbox ethos.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer mentioned an Xbox handheld is a "few years out" in November. (Spencer, for his part, has teased making an Xbox handheld for a while now, too.) This longer-term plan lines up with the report of the next Xbox launching in 2027. Basically, Microsoft plans to kick off the next generation with a Xbox Series X successor accompanied by an internally developed handheld system.

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Last week AMD launched FSR 4 alongside its first RDNA 4-equipped desktop GPUs. It's a drastic improvement over previous versions of the tech suite, introducing AI-powered upscaling that is only possible thanks to dedicated hardware on the new cards. It's an advancement that Sony's Mark Cerny is saying will come to PS5, albeit not until 2026.

Speaking to Digital Foundry, Cerny was full of praise for AMD's FSR 4 release, saying that the upscaler surpasses the work Sony has done with its PS5 Pro-exclusive solution, PSSR. "And results are excellent, it's a more advanced approach that can exceed the crispness of PSSR," Cerny explained. "I'm very proud of the work of the joint team!"

Cerny says that FSR 4 will need to be backported to the PS5 Pro, essentially through a new version of PSSR that takes into account all the advancements AMD has made. Cerny says that for the most part the information the upscaler requires from a game will stay the same, which will make implementation by developers easier, but that it isn't as easy as supporting FSR 4 natively. This is due to the PS5 Pro having an entirely different architecture than RDNA 4, and thus not one that can support it fully like AMD's latest GPUs.

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A quick search online can provide countless horror stories about working in an Amazon warehouse: Conditions are frequently cited as being unsafe; many workers report feeling burned out, and creepy surveillance schemes keep everyone producing like human assembly-line robots. In short, it's a bad time. But as horrific as it seems, in Order 13, working in an Amazon-style warehouse is the basis for a more traditional horror story.

Order 13 is just one of a few recent horror games using real-world labor issues as a backdrop for its scares. Lethal Company satirically shreds the practice of ever-rising expectations to the point where they become cold, unreachable goals that result in the long-lasting layoff known as death. 7 Minutes in Hell paints a dark picture of greed and getting yours at the expense of others--or even your own best interest--all wrapped up in a Supermarket Sweep-meets-Lovecraft framework.

Similarly, Order 13 drops you into a massive Amazon-style warehouse in which the quota for productivity is perpetually pointing upward, even as something inhuman seems to be skittering around the dark corridors.

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Developer Psyonix has announced a futuristic theme for Rocket League Season 18, with this new season kicking off on March 14. The season brings a new battle pass, a high-tech new arena, more Mutators, and another way to report toxic players.

Season 18 features free and premium tiers in the battle pass, and one of the highlights is the Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack car body in the paid tiers. This new car body is unlocked instantly for all players who purchase the premium pass. Other items in the premium pass include the modern Azura car body and accessories, such as the Space Tower Antenna, Spaceship Topper, and the Waypoint Trail.

Beyond just cosmetics, Season 18 also features a new arena for players to experience. The brand new Futura Garden arena includes a design with towering, futuristic architecture. You can get a first look at Futura Garden in the trailer above.

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It's going to be a few months before Death Stranding 2: On the Beach arrives, and if you really want to feel like you're part of that game world, then you can start saving up some cash for a very fancy Hamilton watch that'll be arriving alongside the game. It's only $1,600, but it is the exact same model worn by the Solid Snake-like character Neil in the SXSW trailer.

The Hamilton watch as it appears in Death Stranding 2: On the BeachGallery

As spotted by Automaton (via GamesRadar), this is a new timepiece from Swiss watchmaker Hamilton that was revealed shortly after the 10-minute Death Stranding 2 SXSW trailer went live. Priced at $1,583--or 1,395 Swiss Francs so be prepared for some exchange rate fluctuations--the "American Classic Boulton: Death Stranding 2 Limited Edition" watch is a pretty good-looking piece of equipment even without its links to the video game.

Limited to 2,000 pieces, it features a full titanium case, automatic mechanical movement, and seven different pieces of sapphire glass, so it might survive one or two Timefall sessions if you ever find yourself stuck in a Death Stranding apocalypse.

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Seth Rogen shared a surprising bit of PlayStation trivia during a red carpet interview at SXSW. When asked what the funniest note he'd received on a script was, Rogen said it was a note from Sony on the screenplay for 2007's Superbad, which Rogen co-wrote.

According to Rogen, a scene in which Evan (Michael Cera) can be seen playing a game on a PlayStation 2 was originally meant to show Seth (Jonah Hill) using the console--but Sony wasn't having it.

"Jonah Hill's Character, Seth, was so reprehensible to the studio," Rogen explained, laughing. "They were like--there's a scene where [Cera and Hill] are playing video games--and [Sony's] like, 'Jonah can't touch a PlayStation.' They were like, 'We can't have him interact with our products as a character, because [he's] too vile a character.'"

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One year ago, Disney invested $1.5 billion into Epic Games to create a massive Disney x Fortnite experience that has yet to come to fruition. But at South by Southwest, one of Disney's Imagineers teased the way that this online experience may be able to play off of a guest's trip to a Disney theme park.

During the Disney parks panel at SXSW, Walt Disney Imagineering's Asa Kalama--who oversees interactive experiences at Disney theme parks--used a ride in Star Wars Galaxy's Edge as an example of how the real-life trip at the theme park can affect the Disney x Fortnite game for visitors.

"Imagine... what if you could go to the park and have an experience in Smuggler's Run [and] go on this amazing mission, but then have that affect or connect your gameplay at home," said Kalama.

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