It is always an exciting time when Red Candle Games are up to something. The sheer variety they’ve put on display with Detention, Devotion, and most recently Nine Sols is nothing to sniff at. Now, it appears they’re gearing up for the next project in an appropriately mysterious way. Earlier today, the official Red Candle Games YouTube channel shared a video titled “The Dark Legacy of the Sun Tribe,” and it certainly is… something.
One of my favorite board games, and one that I always recommend as an excellent choice for board game beginners, is Z-Man Games’ Pandemic. A tense and strategic cooperative game that pits players in various specialized roles with the goal of stopping and eradicating deadly viruses. Now, Matt Leacock, the designer of Pandemic, has done it again, replacing viruses with Urakai, and first responders with Legolas and Gimli. The game is called The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. I love Pandemic, but after diving into this, it’s going to be hard to go back.
Fate of the Fellowship recounts the struggle of the Fellowship trying to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom, with 1 to 5 players taking up the cloaks of various members of the Fellowship and their allies. Turns are spent maneuvering friendly forces and characters around Middle-earth, completing missions, halting the forces of Sauron, and inching Frodo and Sam closer to Mount Doom.
Before the game begins, players choose two characters to control from the impressive roster of 10 possible heroes, including the likes of the King himself, Argorn, the rest of the Fellowship, and elves Eowyn or Arwen. Each character comes with their own player card detailing their special abilities and starting location, where you place the screen-printed wooden meeples.
Some characters help more with movement, such as Gandalf being able to move double the spaces when traveling alone. Others, like Eowyn, are better suited to being hurled into combat, letting her permanently remove Nazghul from the game board. Being able to play to each of the available heroes’ strengths is a big factor in determining if you manage to chuck that annoying piece of metal into the volcano or not.
The players’ goal is to complete three randomly assigned objectives before finally getting Frodo to Mt. Doom to destroy the ring – a pretty straightforward goal. In order to avoid defeat, everyone has to work together to keep Frodo hidden, and to stop the dark forces from overtaking too many safe havens around Middle-earth, like Rivendell.
You lose when the Hope track hits zero. A number of situations cause your hope to lower, including havens falling to shadow, Frodo being spotted, or when you need to draw a player card but there aren’t any left. There are ways to gain Hope, but those opportunities are far fewer, including capturing a shadow stronghold and some objective rewards. This tug-of-war is always present and sometimes requires you to make hard decisions, such as drawing the eye away from the region Frodo is in at the cost of risking friendly army units in an encounter skewed in favor of the shadow.
When it comes to taking actions, Fate adds some additional elements and requirements that can limit what you can do on your turn. You can take four actions with a character. These include preparatory actions like Travel (moving your character), Muster (adding friendly army units), Fellowship (giving or taking a card from another player), and Prepare (exchanging one of your cards for its associated resource – more on this in a moment). You can also Attack (engage enemies with friendly army units), or Capture (take over/retake a stronghold of an enemy).
Since each player controls two characters, in a pretty creative move, everyone is able to take a single action as their other character, too, in addition to their primary character for that turn, who can take up to four. There are some restrictions present, such as not being able to split up your turns (i.e. take two actions with your main character, your single action with your secondary, and finish with the remaining two actions with your primary) but I do enjoy how this lets you have your hand in two places anywhere on the board at once. And you choose which of your characters is the primary each turn, so you are never locked in either.
While in the original Pandemic game, you have to turn in a set of similar colored cards to cure a virus, this concept of using resources to conduct an action has been expanded in Fate, with many of your actions requiring, at least in part, one of four different resources to do. Player cards feature one of these icons and can be played as that resource’s cost, such as Friendship being spent to Muster new forces or Valor for Attack.
Debatably, the most important of these resources are the Stealth and Resistance ones that have a more direct hand in whether or not you will fail or succeed in the game. Spending Stealth cards allows Frodo’s player to move him without causing a search by Sauron and removing the risk of losing hope. The Resistance resource not only lets you re-roll dice, but you MUST spend five of these even to attempt to throw the ring into Mt. Doom to win.
My feelings on these added action requirements are split. While I appreciate the added strategy and thematic component they bring to Fate of the Fellowship, it also shifts the game more into the realm of randomness. When you have what you need or can get it on your turn, pulling off big plays feels awesome. However, if you don’t, it can lead to some pretty lackluster turns, especially when I or my friends have little we can do to impact our odds of winning. Moments like these just didn’t feel good, since regardless of how much or how little you manage to do on your turn, you still need to draw from the Darkness deck, which could make things worse for the good guys instead. Thankfully, though, I would say that these sorts of turns only come about every so often, and I felt far more productive most of the time, and that my decisions made a difference.
My plays of Fate of the Fellowship were full of tense moments, dramatic victories, and risky plays that sometimes paid off in spades and other times brought about cataclysmic failure. When the countdown begins closing out 2025, I have little doubt that Fate of the Fellowship will have delivered one of the best gaming moments of my year.
As a hail-mary, last-ditch attempt at victory, we flew Frodo straight to Mt. Doom on the backs of the giant eagles using a special event card one of us had drawn. Doing so not only caused every Nazgul to rush back along with the Eye of Sauron directly on him, but we also needed to roll 14 dice and cross our fingers our hope track could withstand it. The first roll of seven dice put us dangerously close to losing all hope, and all that stood between the Fellowship and seven more dice.
Unfortunately, the results of those seven dice resulted in an outcome that dropped our hope to zero. Or at least it would have, had Tom Bombadil (or at least his event card) not come in to save the day. After slamming it down, I was able to re-roll three of the search dice, with a brand new result keeping our hope alive. The Fellowship and free peoples of Middle-earth had done it! The hype we felt at that moment was real.
17 years separate the original Pandemic and Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, and this latest adaptation of Matt Leacock’s system proves that its bones are still solid. Fate of the Fellowship expands and grows what has already proven to work, delivering a challenging yet rewarding cooperative experience.
It isn’t a title that I want to recommend for people looking to get into board games, thanks to the added mechanisms and heavier reliance on chance compared to Pandemic. Plus there’s the occasional turn where you are left just waiting and hoping to get what you need. Still, it’s a game I would quickly bring to the table with players who enjoy Pandemic already and are more receptive to heavier board games. The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is hands-down one of the best Lord of the Rings and Pandemic games on the market right now, and proves that Gandalf meant to literally fly to Mt. Doom when he said “Fly, you fools!”.
Ubisoft has detailed a fresh update coming to Assassin’s Creed Shadows on September 11, which will add support for the game’s upcoming Claws of Awaji expansion as well as a list of other freebies — including some very special armor and a very special cat.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows update 1.1.1 will launch at 7am Pacific, 10am Eastern or 3pm UK time tomorrow, and weigh in at 12.94GB on PlayStation 5, 33GB on Xbox Series X/S and 42GB on PC (though only 17GB through Steam).
This update arrives a week ahead of Claws of Awaji’s debut on September 16 — and for much more on what that contains, be sure to check out IGN’s hands-on impressions of the expansion, including its cool Metal Gear Solid-inspired boss fight, and a lengthy chat with its developers about how Claws of Awaji wraps up Shadows’ unanswered plot threads.
As a taster of Awaji, all players will get access to the expansion’s new Bo staff weapon via an introductory quest that will be made available whether you own the new content or not. (This will unlock in-game on September 16.)
Other major changes include another level cap increase, this time to level 100, plus two new gear qualities and fresh hideout upgrades with two additional levels for each building that grant further bonuses to Naoe, Yasuke and their allies.
Several fan-requested additions are also included, such as the ability to advance the time of day (handy for sneaking into castles under cover of darkness) and improved scouts that will reveal viewpoints and safehouses. This update will also completely unfog a map region once all its viewpoints have been synchonised. Phew.
Last but definitely not least comes a fresh Animus Hub project, Sanctuary, which includes items themed around the franchise’s fan-favorite Renaissance hero Ezio. Of particular note here is the “Rooftop Cat” pet for your hideout, a white feline with custom Assassin robes. Adorable.
Below lies the patch’s list of bug fixes, in addition to all of the above.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
The bar for getting me to write up a new roguelike has never been higher. I don’t care how many twists you throw into the formula, developers. I don’t care how imaginatively you have reinvented the wheel of permadeath and unlocks. I am tired of this genre/wantonly adhesive cultural phenomenon. I wish for it to die in shame and ignominy.
You’ve made a roguelike in which attacks are performed by assembling a manga page, you say? Well… go on then. Here’s a trailer for The Fable: Manga Build Roguelike.
Or you’re outta here, pal.
Motoi Okamoto, a former developer at Nintendo and now steward for the Silent Hill franchise at Konami, has taken to social media to comment on whether game directors might be considered “incompetent” if they’re unable to judge new ideas without first implementing them.
As covered by Automaton, Okamoto – who worked on games such as Pikmin, Luigi’s Mansion, and Wii Play – describes a culture at Nintendo in which “everyone is a director”, thus giving team members the agency to make decisions that might improve a game.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
High On Life 2 is doing the things you’d expect this sequel to do – it’s bigger, more packed with jokes, even more experimental than the first game, and now has a skateboard you can use at any time (naturally). But it’s also doing something we didn’t expect: changing the first game’s structure fundamentally. High On Life 2 is taking cues from Metroidvania games, but using them to its own ends.
In an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Squanch Games’ COO & Executive Producer, Matty Studivan, and Creative & Art Director, Mikey Spano explained – among many other things – about how the team changed their thinking to offer a whole new hub-based design for the game.
“Our Design Director, Erich Meyr, and I early on decided we wanted to do something that had Metroidvania elements to it, but we also wanted to support telling really tight stories,” explained Spano. “So, this time around, we tried to keep all of the Metroidvania elements in the hubs.”
While the original High On Life was built around a single hub, Blim City, the sequel will take you to three different hubs, each with a lot more to them and, in classic Metroidvania style, offering more and more interactions the more you play and earn.
“It’s a big step up for us from the first game,” said Studivan. “If you played it and you know Blim City, it’s a really cool spot, but pretty small geographically.”
“We have three decent-sized hubs in [High On Life 2],” adds Spano, “and each one of those hubs has a lot of little side things you can do, NPCs you can find, tons of collectibles, tons of unlockable things. And obviously with the skateboard; there’s a lot of cool stuff related to the skateboard that you can do in the hubs.”
The change is effectively about letting Squanch have their cake and eat it – the new structure means that the team can pack in the stupendously weird moments that made High On Life beloved, without needing to derail the core story to get non-sequitur jokes in there. It’s an elegant mix:
“In terms of how it all flows together, you’ve got your home base that you’re always returning to,” explained Spano. “And in there, you’re talking to your crew about what you’re going to do next. And then, you’ll be dropped down into the hub. And then from there, you’re navigating to a target that you’re following. But once you get to a certain point, it triggers a more linear experience where we can tell the story in a tighter way. We still always have choices that you’re making and stuff like that.
“But in terms of finishing a level and then coming back with new power-ups, we try to keep all that in the hub so that we can tell a complete story without needing players to come back and hear the same things over and over again.”
The upshot is that Squanch can tell the story they want to, but give players the freedom to step away and explore just how odd the surrounding world is at their leisure. To help create all that side content, Squanch took a very fun approach:
“One of the ways we were able to do that is that we do game jams at the studio, because the entire team is so creative,” added Studivan. “And so, we had eight or nine teams [jam] for a week – and I think like seven of the game jams are in the hubs in this game.”
It should make exploring the hubs rewarding in itself – with entire other game types hidden away, every discovery can become something new. We’ll get more of what we learned to expect from the first game, too – High On Life included entire, real-life movies to watch, and that will return (with a movie theater to watch them in). We also know that Squanch has licensed full games (NES game Bible Adventures formed a pivotal part of the demo we recently played) that will appear along the way.
“We’re spending a lot more resources and time on [side content]. It really makes the world feel like you’re somewhere lived-in,” said Studivan.
The big changes to structure are also about catering to different kinds of players. Those who just want the story can jump from main mission to main mission without friction. Those who want to do everything can do so without having to repeat missions, and at their own pace. And there are also those who might waver between quick blasts and marathon sessions:
“So, with the missions, we try to keep them at a certain length so that if you’re like, ‘I’m going to go take down this bounty,’ you actually can finish it in a night and then get back to putting your kids to bed or whatever it is that you have to do,” said Spano. “And then for the gamers that want a more free-form experience, they know they can just hang out in the hub for a while and do whatever they want and take on missions whenever they want.”
For a game that presents itself as unabashedly dumb, there’s a core of smart, classic game design thinking sitting beneath all the madness. With that design in place, it allows Squanch to go as wild as they want with the ideas we, as players, will interact with.
Even in the earliest looks at the game, we’re seeing how far they can push this – one boss fight suddenly sees your enemy hack your game, sending you navigating your own menu screens to fight him off. And, best of all:
“That’s one of the more normal parts of the game,” Spano said. “This demo is early in the game. By Act Three it’s just so off the rails and insane. I think people are going to be really surprised.”
I’m very much looking forward to seeing how much weirder this can get – High on Life 2 arrives for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC on February 13, 2026, and will be available on day one with Game Pass Ultimate.
If you want to hear much, much more about the game, make sure to check out the full Official Xbox Podcast episode, which dives into how Squanch turned around a sequel so quickly, the difficult art of writing comedy for games, the benefits of switching to Unreal Engine 5 and… the wonder of Microsoft Excel.
Squanch Games, Inc.
Do you have what it takes to risk it all and bring down an intergalactic conspiracy that once again threatens your favorite species (humans)?
High On Life RETURNS as you and your beloved rag-tag team of alien misfits shoot, stab, and skate your way through gorgeous, dangerous worlds all across the galaxy to blow up the EVIL pharmaceutical conglomerate hell-bent on putting price tags on HUMAN LIFE!
The post High On Life 2: Why Squanch Added a Whole New Hub-Based Design appeared first on Xbox Wire.
At Sony Interactive Entertainment, we’re committed to providing safe play for gamers of all ages, including enhancing ways for parents to manage their children’s gaming experience. This includes the current parental control features available on the PS5 and PS4 console, such as playtime settings and age restriction settings for games. Today, we’re pleased to announce our next step in this commitment with PlayStation Family, a new dedicated parental control mobile app available on iOS and Android devices*. PlayStation Family app will be launching around the world starting today.
PlayStation Family app is a new experience to help parents set up and manage their children’s gaming experience on PlayStation – straight from their supported mobile device. The app includes a number of new customizable features for parents to manage their children’s playtime, including an activity report, more visibility into what their children are playing, and approving extra playtime requests – all at the tap of a finger.
Here’s a look at the features from PlayStation Family app:
Guided Onboarding – Enjoy a thoughtfully guided experience setting up a child account easily with PlayStation Family app.
Real-Time Notifications – Get notified what game a child is playing in real time. Approve or decline a child’s requests for extra playtime, restricted games, and communicate from a mobile device – you have the final say.
Activity Reports – Review daily and weekly activity reports at a glance. Parents can see up-to-date information about a child’s playtime and activity.
Manage Playtime – Set playtime limits for each day of the week. Children can enjoy more flexibility by requesting additional playtime from the console, while parents can approve or decline their requests from a phone or tablet.
Manage Spending – Manage spending activity by adding funds, viewing balances, and setting a monthly spending limit for a child to buy content from the PlayStation Store.
Content Filters – Choose and configure age appropriate content with a tap of a button. We’ve included presets that automatically apply recommended settings for different age groups, and every setting can also be customized individually to best suit each child.
Social Interactions- Customize privacy settings and how your children connect and play. Manage access to social features.
PlayStation Family app is available for download on the App Store and Google Play in most markets starting today.
We’re excited to bring an easy way for parents to manage their children’s gaming directly from their mobile devices. This is just the beginning with our new mobile app – we’ll plan to continue adding enhancements to PlayStation Family app to evolve the experience over time. We hope you’ll enjoy it and we look forward to your feedback.
*PlayStation Family app is compatible with iOS version 14 and Android 8 or higher.
“After 50, 70, 100 hours, you need something a bit unique,” says Simon Arsenault, content director for Assassin’s Creed Shadows expansion Claws of Awaji at Ubisoft Bordeaux. And it’s true to say that — despite much of the upcoming add-on feeling familiar — Awaji still contains just enough distinct moments that the portion of its additional 10 hours we’ve now played felt fresh enough, rather than only offering more of the same.
Ubisoft is keen to showcase more of these distinct moments individually, and also keep some surprises back for players at launch, when the expansion arrives next week on September 16. But for now, IGN is able to highlight a cool Metal Gear Solid-inspired boss fight that doubles down on the series’ focus on stealth, and is a highlight of the expansion’s first half.
Set in an atmospheric arena deep within Awaji’s dense forest, players are tasked with repeatedly tracking down Awaki, one of the expansion’s four main villains. Awaki is a master of stealth and disguise, and near-indistinguishable from a set of straw decoys also spread around the area. To counter her, you’ll have to scuttle, sneak and crawl while staying out of sight, or risk getting sniped from long range by Awaki, who’s equipped with a teppo rifle.
Every time you’re discovered, or mistakenly attack a decoy, Awaki changes her position — forcing you to start your hunt afresh. The only clues you’re given are an ability to focus in on her voice whenever she taunts you, affording you a sense of direction, and the ability to use Naoe’s Eagle Vision when in very close range, in order to confirm your suspicions.
It’s a relatively elaborate set-piece and something quite unlike anything else in Assassin’s Creed — though stealth genre fans will find it somewhat similar to showdowns seen elsewhere. Indeed, while on a tour of Bordeaux’s studio, developers acknowledged to IGN that the mission was inspired by Metal Gear Solid 3’s The Fear fight, as well Dishonored, and Snake’s MGS5 showdown with Quiet.
The fight also plays into Awaji’s more isolated island setting , and the darker, creepier atmosphere the expansion hopes to differentiate itself with. “We really liked the idea of an island region, with natural boundaries all around, it’s compact, there’s a seclusion we like, something where you’re a bit isoloted,” Arsenault notes. “It brings increased tension to the experience, increased danger. As soon as we added a new faction in there, it’s their world. As players you’re coming into their land. You’re not in control anymore, not as much.”
Awaji’s quartet of antagonists embody much of that tension, and always seem one step ahead of Naoe and Yasuke as they search for answers regarding the former’s mother, and hunt for Shadows’ final mystery box macguffin. Standing in their way are Kimura Yukari, the daughter of a Templar Yasuke previously killed, her bodyguard Imagawa Tomeji, their spymaster Yasuhira, and lastly Nowaki — she’s the cloaked character in a horned mask, above.
Most of these characters look set to have their own unique boss encounter, and it’s these — alongside smaller tweaks to Shadows’ main gameplay, the expansion’s new weapon (the Bo staff), and a smattering of extra skills and abilities for existing play styles that Arsenault is hoping will keep players further entertained.
“It’s not as much countering it, it’s more kind of spinning it,” he tells me, when I ask about disrupting player expectations. “So you’re expecting something and it doesn’t behave the same way.” I mention to him how, when going hands-on with the expansion, I sent out scouts to determine a mission’s location as usual — only to discover a new gameplay system in Awaji where doing so alerts the local populace, making them antagonistic when you arrive. It’s a new trade-off to using an existing system, and something Arsenault hopes will give veteran players something else to consider.
“What should I do? Should I find a new strategy? Should I avoid sending scouts or should I send them somewhere else? That’s what’s interesting with it,” he continued. “You take something that has been learned and has become kind of a routine and you just add a small twist. And we did that with a lot of systems. You’re used to civilians [needing help], or merchants, but now some can attack you — that didn’t happen.”
For much more on the expansion’s story, IGN sat down with Arsenault for an in-depth discussion detailing how Claws of Awaji picks up from Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ finale and, finally, answers the game’s two major narrative threads — even as various story elements shifted during development.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Look, we all know The Sims is a weird little series. You can torture your Sims, meet fairies and werewolves and vampires, have half alien babies. So I feel like I shouldn’t be all that surprised by The Sims 4’s next expansion pack, Adventure Awaits, seeing the return of imaginary friends. And yet here I am, taken aback and slightly horrified by the game’s interpretation of imaginary friends in its first gameplay trailer.
Hola, big Steam update alert, featuring some stuff you might already have tried in beta and a crap tonne of other stuff you might not have. Either way, it’s all in the hands of the masses now, so worth being aware of. Yes, “removed a setting from music settings that wasn’t hooked up to anything” is a change you need to know about, don’t question me!
You can find the full notes for this latest Steam update here, and I advise you whip out your best Sunday Papers pipe and slippers when you do, because there are bullet points for days. In the meantime here’s a quick rundown that you can safely consume without old man tobacco and weird indoor shoes.
