THQ Nordic has announced that the Alone in the Dark reboot is launching October 25 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC and that a free demo is available now.
Users on these platforms can download the playable prologue of Alone in the Dark to experience what the full game will have to offer without receiving any spoilers from the main story. The standalone demo puts players in the shoes of 11-year-old Grace Saunders as she runs an errand that quickly goes wrong.
The publisher also revealed that Stranger Things’ David Harbour will star as one dual-protagonist Edward Carnby while Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer will play the other, Emily Hartwood.
Players can choose to play through the story as either character, though THQ Nordic promises that each character will provide a different take on the same narrative.
“Explore Derceto Manor in this reimagination of Alone in the Dark, a love letter to the 90’s cult classic horror game,” reads the announcement. “Set in the gothic American south in the 1920s, Alone in the Dark features a noir-setting with classical Lovecraftian horror-elements, where the familiar meets the surreal.”
First announced in August 2022, THQ Nordic has gone relatively quiet on Alone in the Dark since, only re-emerging now to announce the release date and prologue. In our first preview of the game, IGN said “the team and motivation seem right to deliver an exciting take on a classic of horror gaming.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Survival Horror is a genre we take for granted, but back in 1992 a little game called Alone in the Dark really kickstarted the whole idea, giving us a taste of limited resources and investigative adventure against the odds. Now Pieces Interactive is remaking that classic in a star-studded, atmospheric take that promises to deliver the classic horror plot to modern audiences. Heading that up is Mikael Hedberg, writer and director of Amnesia and Soma, and between his answers and answers from publisher THQ Nordic at a press Q&A things are looking pretty promising as we gear up to return to the deeply haunted Louisiana Bayou around Derceto.
The big reveal is that Stranger Things actor David Harbour will be playing the role of detective Edward Carnby, a hard boiled scenery-chewing role that’s a perfect cast for Harbour and one that he seems genuinely excited to undertake. Meanwhile Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer will take over as Emily Hartwood, the woman who has hired Carnby to investigate the fate of her uncle while she pries deeper into her family secret, the mystery-shrouded “Hartwood Curse.”
Pieces looks to be keeping many key elements of the early Alone in the Dark games in their remake, especially the series’ classic melee combat: While getting stuck in with a monster was a death sentence in later Survival Horror, carving up Ghouls with a sword was always a much better choice than wasting precious bullets on them.
The original Alone in the Dark is a pretty big deal. It’s one of those things where, when looking at it, nothing seems special only because so many games since have done everything exactly like Alone in the Dark did them. That fixed camera for a 3D space? The way the mystery is investigated? All Alone in the Dark’s creations. It all showed up again later in a little game called Resident Evil, which you might have heard of. That makes it all the cooler to see where the new Alone in the Dark is drawing from design work done in the Resident Evil remakes while still staying unique to what it is. An over the shoulder camera should be a real improvement to both navigating and appreciating the locales, not to mention fighting monsters.
Being Southern myself, one of the most important bits of Alone in the Dark is the setting. The Louisiana Bayou is iconic for a reason, and the Southern Gothic is a genre far older than Survival Horror. Mikael Hedberg gave me a pretty satisfying answer to whether Alone in the Dark will explore those roots, noting that expanding the story in the remake gave Pieces space to expand on the local historic traditions and connect the story more deeply to Voudou, among other things. He also referenced the oppressive atmosphere of the 1986 movie Angel Heart, a psychological thriller that I think will set him on the right path to some good old down-home horror.
While the setting is certainly home-grown for me, I’m even more pleased to hear the musical choices that Pieces has made. Jazz is a Louisiana staple, but the Alone in the Dark directors have pulled in a modern European twist: The metal-infused ambience of Doom Jazz. Most horror games aren’t willing to risk a heavy soundtrack, but it looks like Pieces knows you can’t have noir—even horror noir—without a good saxophone. The involvement of Doom Jazz legend Jason Köhnen is a really powerful choice for the aesthetic direction of Alone in the Dark: There’s just not much like the power that these strange ambient pluckings and pressurized drum rolls can achieve.
In all, the team and motivation seem right to deliver an exciting take on a classic of horror gaming. I’m looking forward to learning more about Alone in the Dark as we get closer to release, and you can bet I’m downloading the free prologue Grace in the Dark right now.
Developer Blackbird Interactive and publisher Gearbox have announced that Homeworld 3 has been delayed to February 2024. It was originally planned to launch during the first half of 2023.
“Our primary goal is to deliver a Homeworld experience that lives up to the standards set by its predecessors and is worthy of this series’ incredible legacy,” Blackbird and Gearbox explained in a statement on Twitter.
They continued, saying, “Homeworld 3 is shaping up to be exactly that, but in order to fully realize that vision we need more time to refine and polish the game.”
We are moving the launch of Homeworld 3 from the first half of 2023 to February 2024 so that we deliver the quality experience that fans deserve. pic.twitter.com/DaCX4eFMm4
In the meantime, fans can play Homeworld: The Remastered Collection, which has the first two games included. In IGN’s Homeworld: The Remastered Collection review, we said, “Gearbox gives Homeworld the respect it deserves in this impressive refitting of Relic’s classic RTS games.”
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey
Look, we don’t want to tell you how you should play Tears of the Kingdom. Go out, make a mess, explore the world, do whatever you want. But there are certain things in this game that if you don’t do early, you might find yourself later wishing you had chosen differently. And one of those is the order in which you tackle the Regional Phenomena quests, which lead to Tears of the Kingdom’s dungeons.
Once you pass the tutorial of Tears of the Kingdom, you’ll be handed a main quest called Regional Phenomena, which sends you to complete the game’s four major dungeons in any order you like by visiting the Rito, the Zorah, the Gerudo, and the Goron cities and people. You can put these quests off as long as you want, do them in a random order, or go wherever your heart takes you, but there is a recommended order to do these in, and it’s for pretty good reason: some of the rewards are much, much better than others, and can make the rest of the game significantly easier.
Spoiler Alert: Below the video, we explain exactly why Rito Village is the best way to go. Read on at your own risk!
Rito Village partners you with the new Rito champion, Tulin, who comes with a truly awesome ability. He can create wind gusts that will blow you forward quickly in a direction when you’re on your paraglider. It’s a massive gamechanger, making it much easier to get around the world, especially in the sky. Trust me – you’re going to use this ability a lot, and once you have it, you’ll wonder why you waited so long to get it.
By contrast, the other Regional Phenomena quest abilities aren’t quite as impressive. The Goron ability, used by Yunobo, is a close second: he can use it to bust through breakable rocks, meaning you don’t have to keep grinding through rocks on sticks to mine your way through caves. We recommend heading to Goron City second for this reason.
But the remaining two abilities, used by Riju and Sidon, are more combat-oriented and less useful for traversal. Riju’s power, which zaps foes with lighting from a distance, is great when fighting mobs – especially Gloom Hands. Prince Sidon’s ability is a shield that can send out a magical orb when released, but is a little more situational in its use. It’s good to have, but probably the lowest priority of the four.
Once you have visited Rito Village, gotten Tulin’s power, and collected Autobuild, there’s tons more to do. We have it all catalogued in our full guides to Tears of the Kingdom.
Fistfighting has been around since the beginning of time, and boxing (or some form of martial pugilism) has been around basically as long.
Celebrate the ancient tradition (as well as the modern advancements in boxing) by taking fighters under your wing, coaching them, and leading them to victory (or defeat) in World Championship Boxing Manager, which you can claim right now as part of IGN Plus.
Plus members – get your key for World Championship Boxing Manager 2 here on its IGN Rewards page. Not a Plus member? Sign up now. You can also follow the devs on Twitter.
Developer Interview: Creative Director Andrew Marsh
I sat down with Andrew Marsh, the Creative Director for WCBM2, to discuss the development of the game, its goals, and what players can expect when they jump into this retro (but approachable) management sim.
Making a Sequel to a Beloved Retro Management Sim
Boxing games have been around since very early in gaming history, and the team at MegaCat was interested in creating a boxing management game for several reasons. One major draw was to tell a wide range of stories, from stories about up-and-coming boxers, to underground club fighters and huge prize fighters, and depicting the seedy underbelly, the massive spotlight, and everything in between.
The team also found the style of the original World Championship Boxing Manager (WCBM) appealing, so the idea of creating a sequel that built off the (beloved) original was enticing to the retro-enthusiast team, who took this opportunity to iterate and improve upon the original, adding new quality-of-life improvements and even entirely new phases of the game.
Melding Old and New
Nothing was off the table for the development team, who want to bring a classic experience for older players, while making it easy for new players to jump in, particularly those who are new to management sims, new to boxing, or new to retro-style games. Playing the original game, they started by streamlining and modernizing it, then looked for new elements they could bring in to make it more fun for players.
Just like the original, players take on the role of a boxing manager who is trying to find up-and-coming boxers and make a career for them both, but unlike the original, there is more interaction when it comes to the real fights, and not solely an adventure-game focus.
In the original game, announcers would simply tell players how the boxing match was going, but in WCBM2, players will see the fights play out, watching as the fighters land hits and expend their energy. Between rounds, the player will be able to restore either their boxer’s health or endurance a bit, then tell them whether to stick with their current strategy, or switch it up. This is all unique to WCMB2, and it creates an engaging rhythm of strategizing during the week, and seeing if the training paid off when it comes time to fight on Friday night.
Representation of the Sport and its Champions
I enjoyed the strategic rhythm of planning training sessions for boxers, then picking tournaments to enter and managing the ‘big picture’ strategy for the boxer as they fought, round to round, and the team at MegaCat saw that puzzle-solving and strategizing as a key part of the sport.
Another addition was the Knowledge section, which has a ton of interesting information on boxing, including techniques, equipment, and other things. Beautiful, detailed art pieces depicting different styles of boxing gloves are there, and a whole lot more, which is great for someone like me, who doesn’t know much about the more intricate aspects of the sport.
The dev team also talked to classic boxers (and their estates) to get first-hand knowledge about the sport to bring a higher level of realism, and to craft their stories, which players can enjoy in WCBM2. In story modes, you can play as more than a random boxer. You can certainly do that, but you can also manage Sugar Ray Robinson, from before his career even began. Even if you aren’t into simulation games, give it a chance, and you may find something new (and old) to enjoy.
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Brian Barnett writes reviews, guides, features, & more for IGN & GameSpot. You can get your fix of his antics on Twitter (@Ribnax), Backloggd (Ribnax) & Twitch (Ribnax) or check out his fantastic video game talk show, The Platformers, on Twitch & Apple Podcasts.
Bungie has shared a new video documentary about Marathon, its newly announced sci-fi PvP extraction shooter.
Announced at yesterday’s PlayStation Showcase, the new Marathon is the first entry in the franchise since 1996. The game is PvP-focused and won’t have a single-player campaign, but it will honor the mythology and story of the original Marathon games.
We’ve already learned even more details about the upcoming shooter thanks to a six-and-a-half minute video Bungie posted after fans quickly solved one of the developer’s famous ARG (alternate reality game) puzzles.
We’ll get to the scavenger hunt Bungie fans went on yesterday to uncover the ViDoc, but first, let’s get to the content of the video itself.
In Marathon, you play as a Runner exploring the hostile world of Tau Ceti IV while searching for artifacts and weapons. Bungie showed off concept art for the Runners, describing them as a combination of fashion, sci-fi, and cyberpunk.
Bungie says players will be a part of the narrative in Marathon that will unfold over the course of a season. For example, one extraction team may find an alien key that unlocks a new zone. The responsibility then falls on those players to figure out how to unlock the zone for everyone else.
Marathon is releasing on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, and it will have full crossplay and cross progression. No release date was given, but Bungie said it is marching towards its alpha. The team plans to go dark for a while to work on the game, saying we will see gameplay the next time Marathon emerges.
Bungie Fans Follow a Trail of Breadcrumbs to Unlock the Marathon ViDoc
It turns out Bungie hid a ton of secrets in yesterday’s reveal trailer, including one puzzle that involved Bungie developers posting cryptic images on social media. When the community tracked down all 12 secret images and overlaid them, it revealed a sequence of dots.
Thanks to some hints from a well-hidden Marathon Twitter account, the community discovered this was a binary sequence that needed to be run through a punch card decoder. This led the puzzle solvers to a stream that needed 7,777 viewers to unlock the full ViDoc. Destiny YouTuber Skarrow9 solved the final step of the puzzle yesterday evening, and posted a video explaining the solution in full.
There are even more secrets hidden within Marathon’s reveal trailer. In fact, Skarrow9 shared a Google Doc that is tracking all of the secrets Bungie fans are working on uncovering. In less than 24 hours since the reveal, the Marathon community has already put in a ton of legwork, as this document stretches across 37 pages of clues and findings.
The unsolved mysteries include decoding pages of a Marathon Zine, figuring out purchase order and memo documents, and a lot more.
Bungie is known for teasing fans with these scavenger hunts, digging a number of deep, winding rabbit holes for Destiny fans to discover throughout the years. The developer’s ARG history stretches all the way back to the Halo days, when it promoted Halo 2 on a website called ilovebees.com.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Insomniac finally revealed the first gameplay for Spider-Man 2. In an 12-minute long trailer, it showed off several new gameplay changes coming to Spider-Man 2, as well as some important new plot details. Without further ado, let’s swing into all of the big, new details we learned from the latest Spider-Man 2 trailer.
Peter Parker Gets the Symbiote Suit
Right off the bat, Insomniac confirmed that Peter Parker will get the Symbiote Suit. While we’ll get to his new powers in a bit, this turn of events poses some interesting questions, especially when taking into account the ending of the first Spider-Man game.
After the credits of Marvel’s Spider-Man, it’s revealed that Harry Osborn, Peter Parker’s best friend, is ill and fused with the Venom symbiote. He’s last seen floating in a green tank covered in the symbiote while his father, Norman Osborn aka Green Goblin, promises to find a way to cure him.
Naturally, this suggests it’s Harry Osborn, not Eddie Brock, who is the Venom that Peter Parker and Miles Morales face off against in the first Spider-Man 2 trailer. And at some point, Peter potentially takes the symbiote from Harry. This could be why Harry’s life is in danger during this trailer and why Peter and Miles must rescue Curt Connors / Lizard to save a weakened Osborn.
With Great Power…
Peter’s symbiote suit means he’ll be getting some new powers, which were on full display in the new trailer. While facing off against Kraven’s henchmen, Spider-Man is able to extend his reach and smash enemies against walls using the Symbiote. He’s also able to use the Symbiote to create multiple tentacles (Spider-legs?) to barrel into enemies.
At one point those tentacles can also be used to shield Peter from attacks and parry enemy blows to send them flying backwards. And lastly, he’s able to use his new arms to grab multiple enemies at once and slam them into the ground, taking out groups of enemies at once.
Kraven’s Hunt Begins
Kraven the Hunter’s backstory is revealed in the new Spider-Man 2 trailer and it’s not so different from his comic book origin story. A wealthy wild game hunter, this version of Kraven seems to already hunt people for sport. But having grown bored of his existing prey, his men suggests Kraven go to Manhattan where he can hunt not only Spider-Man, but several of New York City’s superhumans. Again, not so different from how he’s portrayed in the comics, but sometimes if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Kraven’s Targets
Speaking of New York City’s prey, it seems like Spider-Man isn’t the only one Kraven is looking to hunt. When shown a list of possible targets in Manhattan, Kraven’s men include Black Cat, Prowler, Wraith, Tombstone, Taskmaster, and Miles Morales. Later on in the trailer it’s shown that Kraven is hunting Curt Connors aka The Lizard. Rather than just hunting Spider-Man, it looks like Kraven is hunting every superpowered being, whether or not they’re Peter Parker’s allies or enemies.
Double Trouble
Would Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 star Peter Parker just like in the first game, or would it resume the adventure of Miles Morales? The answer is both. Insomniac confirmed that while there won’t be any co-op component, players will be able to switch between Peter Parker and Miles Morales during certain segments of the game.
In the instance that was shown in the gameplay trailer, Peter Parker realizes he’s too far away to help Lizard escape Kraven’s men, but Miles isn’t and it’s here players can switch to Miles and head to the dock before Peter can get there. This also raises some interesting story possibilities we’ll dive into in a bit.
New Suit Gives You Wings
Speaking of teaming up with Miles Morales, it looks like he’ll also be getting some new abilities in Spider-Man 2. Along with an upgraded suit with wings that lets him glide across New York (Insomniac confirmed both Spider-Men will have wingsuits), he seems to have mastered some new abilities with his venom blast, looks suspiciously like Goku’s Kamehameha from Dragon Ball.
Once in the warehouse, Miles shows off some new stealth abilities too including being able to spin a line he can tightrope across to sneak up on enemies.
New York, New York
New York City will be a little bit bigger this time around as Queens gets added as one of the new boroughs that will be explorable in the game. In the past, only Manhattan was available, but Insomniac is teasing multiple new areas for the sequel, including Brooklyn across the river. Just how big is this city?
What’s Happening With Harry?
Throughout the trailer Peter says Lizard is the only one who is able to save Harry Osborn. As we know, Harry’s not in a great place having been last seen covered in Symbiote goop. But with the Symbiote seemingly with Peter Parker, what’s going on with Harry Osborn? This appears to be the central storyline of the game that will likely connect Venom, Peter Parker, Miles Morales all together.
A Possible Showdown?
At the end of the trailer Miles and his best friend Ganke are visibly worried about Peter, who thanks to the Symbiote suit is acting more and more aggressive. Now that it’s been confirmed that you can play as both characters in Spider-Man 2, there’s a chance players will have to play as Miles to try and stop Peter from falling further and further into the dark side. Can you imagine the awkward conversation after that?
This is everything we saw in the new Spider-Man 2 gameplay trailer. Let us know what you noticed in the comments below.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Whether it’s a book, a movie, or a video game, creative works generally exist for a reason. Sometimes it’s to delight, by entertaining with stories or fun gameplay. Other times it’s to inform, with news or by exposing the audience to different perspectives. Or it makes you think, with interesting ideas that challenge you to consider or reflect. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, however, is a game that does none of these things. Instead, it thrusts you into the role of the titular character without doing anything meaningful with his defining internal conflict, and sends him on a series of missions that are neither fun to play nor interesting to experience. The one question it poses is: why would someone want to play this?
Playing as Gollum sounded like it might’ve been a decent pitch for a game, since he’s one of the more interesting and famous characters in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe. He and Sméagol are two sides of the same coin; the good person that was Sméagol was tragically corrupted by The One Ring, twisted into this pathetic creature. It’s his clammy bare feet that we step into, ostensibly with the goal of regaining possession of the Ring from Bilbo Baggins. However, most of your time is spent experiencing Gollum’s time as a prisoner during the years between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ringin a linear, story-driven series of levels. Prison Simulator: Mordor Edition is sadly less interesting than it sounds. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was supposed to be on a grand Lord of the Rings adventure, and was instead stuck collecting bits and baubles for forgettable NPCs and hiding in bushes to hide from monotonous guard patrols.
There are generally three phases to any level, and they range from uninteresting to just plain bad. There’s the chores phase, in which Gollum goes from one waypoint to another to complete some menial task. There’s always some conceptually different scenario, like crawling through small openings to detonate explosives, but functionally it’s a series of marches across the same areas over and over again. It never feels like there’s any point to it, just busywork. It could be fun to run around with Gollum, thanks to his surprising sprint speed, but he has a stamina meter that depletes in just a few seconds and takes far longer to replenish. Trying to get anywhere involves too little speed, too much waiting, and an unfortunate amount of hearing Gollum choking on his own breath.
The platforming phases are more compelling, but still poorly designed. Spacious rooms with handles to climb, walls to run, and leaps to take bring a faster pace of action, but the loose and floaty way Gollum moves and imprecise controls make it feel like something from the PlayStation 2 era. Having experienced a modern Assassin’s Creed or Tomb Raider game, here it feels far too easy to jump toward the correct point and fall to your death because you drifted to one side, or missed the part of the ledge that has the white line that establishes exactly where you can grab. The paths are rigidly defined, and often involve blind jumps or best guesses at what the next intended handle is. Rather than a throwback, it comes across as outdated; a poor facsimile of classics like the Prince of Persia series.
These issues plagued mediocre stealth games 15 years ago.
Finally there are the stealth segments, which are simply bad. Any time Gollum needs to go from point A to B undetected, it’s going to be a slog. Enemies have extremely limited parol patterns, are terribly nearsighted, and seem to suffer from acute, rapid-onset amnesia, forgetting Gollum ever existed not long after losing sight of him. These are issues that plagued mediocre stealth games 15 years ago, and it’s jarring to see them in 2023. There’s no cat-and-mouse game of outsmarting enemies using interesting abilities and clever level design as you do in something like Dishonored or Hitman, you just exploit their painfully obvious blind spots with no objective outside of reaching the designated point.
Gollum’s only tools are his ability to sneak quietly, throw rocks, and disappear in tall grass or shadows. Because the enemy AI is surprisingly terrible, doing something as simple as standing on a table or knee-high rock can make you completely immune to capture. I was able to navigate a long stealth section in the Animal Pits of Barad-dûr by just jumping and grabbing an overhang anytime someone spotted me. Eventually some of the Orcs get crossbows, but even then the threat is minimal.
There’s no combat per se, which makes sense because Gollum is no fighter when it comes to any opponent larger than a hobbit. You do have the option to strangle enemies, but it comes with some odd caveats. First, it doesn’t work on anyone with a helmet. This makes sense for someone in full battle regalia — Sméagol’s grubby mitts won’t bend steel, after all. However, what defines a helmet in this game is broadly open to interpretation. Is that orc wearing a hat? Decent chance he’s strangle-proof. Also, strangling only applies to orcs. It makes sense you can’t choke beasts like spiders, but other humanoid races like elves apparently have invincible throats, eliminating the only method to bypass enemies apart from stealth. Which, again, is not good.
A few chase sequences change up the pace, though they are a bit of a mixed bag. One places Gollum on a moving object and requires careful dodging oncoming obstructions and archers, and manages to be one of only a handful of fun sections to play through. The other is a Crash Bandicoot-style run toward the camera, made miserable by the imprecise platforming and inability to see obstacles until moments before you need to avoid them. It is frustrating to play as a character who is looking ahead and should see incoming objects but not being able to see them yourself, and die because of it.
There is some potential replayability if you for some reason wanted to revisit Gollum’s lousy adventure instead of playing any of the many spectacular games that have come out recently. Hidden collectibles don’t offer any sort of rewards, you just spread them out on an old piece of cloth to look at while Gollum offers a line of dialogue for each. Even as someone with a natural compulsion to find everything in most games I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to find the next bat wing or chunk of jar. It just felt pointless to add to his sad hoard of not-so-precious treasures.
What’s it for, Precious?
Hardcore Lord of the Rings fans know Gollum himself is a complex character, both a victim and a villain, but that’s not explored in any meaningful way in this story. There are occasional binary choices to answer questions or take action as Gollum or Sméagol, but it never felt like this altered the story or had lasting effects on Gollum himself. Sometimes there’s a need for one side of Gollum’s personality to convince the other to go along with plans, like when Gollum is hiding from an orc and a painting of the Eye of Sauron sends him into hysterics. The two choices were “Kill the Orc,” which Gullum supported, or the Sméagol-endorsed option to “Keep Panicking.” Sméagol won the argument, but it’s hard to tell if that’s because I made a compelling case for further panicking, or if the multiple-choice options were just too easy to select from. In my 20 hours exploring Middle-earth there was maybe a single instance where the debate didn’t go exactly as expected, which made it feel pointless to engage with.
It’s not very interesting to look at, either. Even with all the PC graphics options set to Epic, places like Barad-dûr look drab and flat, and the empty lifelessness of the Mirkwood stands out in an era of games where lush flora and fauna has become the norm. Gollum’s model looks good enough, including his surprisingly detailed wisps of hair, and his mannerisms are well captured, but other characters suffer from distractingly stiff animations and a haunting lack of facial expression.
The sound design, however, is strong. The raspy, almost choking speech of Gollum is well acted, as is the clearer and more timid Sméagol side of his personality. It sounds exactly like someone who saw Andy Serkis’ performance in the movie trilogy would expect. Even small details, like the clammy sound of Gollum’s hands slapping on different surfaces as he climbs or runs, or the reverberation of ringing bells in certain spaces, stand out as authentic, with impressive attention to detail.
But even if it looked and sounded uniformly spectacular, Gollum would still feel pointless to play, and that feeling turns to despair when technical issues crop up. On three different occasions during this review levels needed to be fully restarted: once because of an unfortunately placed autosave, and twice because parts of puzzles were outright broken, so despite the solution being evident there was no way to advance. They weren’t fully game-breaking problems because restarting fixed them, but they were spirit-breaking – playing through areas that were uninteresting the first time bordered on painful for a second go-around that never should have been necessary.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Destiny 2.
Destiny 2 has teased the return of a major character in its upcoming expansion, The Final Shape.
A new teaser trailer (above) for the game’s upcoming expansion has unveiled the return of a fan-favorite character who hasn’t been seen in quite a while.
Cayde-6 (voiced by Nathan Fillion) will be back in The Final Shape, Destiny 2’s next expansion which follows on from the recent Lightfall expansion.
In the video, he’s seen conversing with Ikora Rey, one of his fellow Guardians, and one of the three original class Vanguards. But quite how he’s back remains a bit of a mystery… and it might not be a permanent thing.
“I wish you could have been there,” says Ikora as she recounts some of the events that have passed during Cayde’s absence. “I’m here now,” he responds. “Wherever here is.”
Cayde-6 was dramatically killed off in the earlier Destiny 2 expansion, Forsaken where the iconic Hunter Vanguard was brutally murdered by Uldren Sov after his ghost was destroyed by the Scorn.
IGN’s Destiny 2 review gave it 8/10 and said: “Destiny 2 is a blast out of the gate thanks to its excellent co-op shooter gameplay and strong storytelling in the campaign. Not all the features I’d expected to find are here, but it does deliver the same kind of highly social gameplay and rewarding, loot-driven progression that helped the original keep me hooked for hundreds of hours.”
“The Delta symbol (Δ) was chosen because its meaning fits the concept of the remake project,” read a tweet from the official Metal Gear twitter account. “Delta means ‘change’ or ‘difference’ without changing structure.”
Delta is a symbol taken from the Greek alphabet, which is often used in the modern era to denote a state of change, chiefly in scientific fields. For example a lowercase version of the symbol can denote an alteration in molecular chemistry, while the change in velocity of a space rocket is measured in delta v (Δv).
The Delta symbol (Δ) was chosen because its meaning fits the concept of the remake project.
We don’t yet know exactly what form these changes will take, but Konami has promised that the remake will boast “unprecedented graphics” and “immersive sound”, and that it will feature evolved gameplay with “a seamless user experience”.
The company has also told fans that the remake — which has yet to be given a release date — will represent a “faithful recreation” of Kojima’s 2004 original in terms of story and game design.
Xbox also took to Twitter earlier today to highlight the fact that Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater will also be coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles, along with a number of other titles revealed during the PlayStation showcase. The title will also be coming to PC.
PlayStation also revealed the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 at yesterday’s event, which will make the first three games of the franchise available to play on PS5 when it drops in August this year.
Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer
