Video Games | Page 536 of 1488

Dune: Awakening Gets Tons of New Gameplay Footage Revealing Unreal Engine 5 Arrakis in Dune Direct

We already knew that Norwegian game developer Funcom is working on an open-world survival MMO game set in the Dune universe. And today, the developer has provided a new look at Dune: Awakening, including a glimpse into Arrakis along with some gameplay footage.

As part of Dune Direct, a nearly 25-minute digital showcase to provide new details on Dune: Awakening, Funcom concluded the presentation with a new gameplay trailer subtitled “Survive Arrakis.” The trailer, which you can check out below, is visually stunning.

Powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, the latest trailer for Dune: Awakening shows the extreme conditions on planet Arrakis, from the harsh climate to gigantic sandworms emerging from the sand and evading hostile enemies. The gameplay trailer also leans into the survival aspects of Awakening, showing snippets of your playable character gathering materials and finding various ways of traversing the massive open world.

In addition to the trailer, IGN can exclusively reveal two new screenshots. The first shows some of the game’s particle effects in action.

The second shows off its lighting and other aspects of Dune: Awakening’s character design.

Funcom also released a host of other screenshots showing off Dune: Awakening’s world as well as a featurette titled Creating Worlds, which chronicles its journey from “book to movie to game.” It includes interviews with its development team interspersed with the movie that reveals how Funcom brought the forbidding world of Arrakis to life.

The rest of the Dune Direct details Dune: Awakening’s survival mechanics and other elements, with creative director Joel Bylos explaining how it takes the base-building from Conan Exiles and builds on it, with a special emphasis on sharing blueprints between different players. He also discusses the ways in which players will be able to learn abilities from the “great schools of the universe,” including becoming a Bene Gesserit and being able to “compel enemies to come closer so you can stab them with a knife.” As for sandworms, Bylos says they are more of a “tension mechanic.” There’s no way to kill them; they can only be avoided. However, you can lure them into your enemies (or friends), or simply avoid them with an ornithopter.

Bylos says that Funcom has been running betas for Dune: Awakening for several months now, with the intention of bringing in more players over time. However, he says that Funcom has no intention of “rushing it out the door,” saying that it “takes as long as it takes.” Players hoping to sign up for one of the closed betas can do so at the game’s official website.

Surviving Arrakis

Dune: Awakening was first announced in 2022 at The Game Awards. Set on the sandworm-filled planet Arrakis, Dune: Awakening “is set on Arrakis and takes inspiration from both Frank Herbert’s novels and Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning film while exploring exciting new possibilities in the franchise.”

While no release date was announced for Dune: Awakening, we previously learned that it will be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

The announcement comes following the release of Dune: Part 2, which hit theatres last Friday. In our review of Dune: Part 2, my colleague Tom Jorgenson wrote: “Featuring absolutely staggering visuals, Dune: Part Two is an arresting, transportive middle entry in Denis Villeneuve’s tricky sci-fi saga.”

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Meta Will Delete All Oculus Accounts Later This Month

The final nail in the coffin for Oculus branding is coming, as Meta announced today that those who fail to migrate their Oculus account to a Meta account will lose access to all their games and in-app purchases at the end of the month.

In an email sent out to some Quest users (spotted by The Verge), Meta warned that if you do not integrate your Oculus account into a Meta account by March 29, not only will it delete your account, but you will lose access to anything from the account, including games, DLC, achievements and store credit.

The move comes as no surprise; in 2021, when Facebook rebranded itself to Meta, the tech giant revealed plans to retire the Oculus brand to simplify its “brand architecture.” This included renaming the Oculus Quest to the Meta Quest line of standalone VR headsets. In June 2022, Meta announced the ability to create a Meta account, a more approachable alternative for Quest owners to log into their headset without creating or logging into their Facebook account, something that was at the time a major drawback for Quest 2 owners.

Users can seamlessly migrate their Oculus account to a Meta account by heading to Meta’s official website and signing up for a Meta account. However, users must use the same email address associated with their Oculus account for their games, store credits, and other user data in their newly-created Meta account.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Screenshot Saturday Mondays: ASCII tears and undersea fears

Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter’s #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, despite Twitter throwing a wobbly and doing its best to keep me from taking a good look at the tag, I still found plenty of interesting and attractive indie games to admire. Check ’em out!

Arthur Morgan Is Your American History Teacher in New Red Dead Redemption Audiobook

Roger Clark, who plays Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, is set to narrate an audiobook that looks at American history through the lens of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption games.

Clark narrates historian Tore Olsson’s ‘Red Dead’s History’ in character as Arthur Morgan, protagonist of Rockstar’s critically acclaimed open-world epic.

Red Dead’s History explores the “wildly dramatic and gritty world” of America from 1870 to 1920. 2010’s Red Dead Redemption and its prequel, 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2, set in 1911 and 1899 respectively, were praised for their authentic portrayal of life during the decline of the American frontier. In the book, Olsson digs into the detail presented in the games and adds context from real-world American history.

Here’s the official blurb:

“Weaving together the fictional characters and plot of the Red Dead Redemption games with real-life historical vignettes, Olsson reveals that the action-packed violence of the Red Dead universe isn’t just spawned from Hollywood westerns but rooted in real sociopolitical issues from turn-of-the-century America.”

IGN spoke with college history professor Tore Olsson, who as well as writing books teaches the world’s first Red Dead Redemption history class at the University of Tennessee, to discuss the work. (Check out the interview in full for a fascinating look into the Red Dead Redemption games and their historical “thoughtfulness”, as Olsson puts it.) Here’s a snippet:

“It came as an epiphany when I sat down in the midst of the pandemic in 2020, and played Red Dead Redemption 2 for the first time. I was only about 10 hours in, and all these historical nodes in my brain are firing left and right. I can’t turn off my historian identity when I’m playing. And I’m really genuinely surprised at how historically thoughtful the games were. I’m not so much obsessed with this question of accuracy that gets bandied around a lot, when you talk about historical video games. I’m more interested in thoughtfulness and the ways a game tries to capture the mood and the feeling and the range of options and the realities of a time period. And I thought the game did a surprisingly good job at that.”

IGN also spoke to Roger Clark himself, who revealed why he wanted to be involved with the project, discussed the making of Red Dead Redemption 2, and teased what’s next.

The audiobook edition of Red Dead’s History will be published by Macmillan Audio on August 6, 2024 and will be available at Audible, Apple Books, or wherever audiobooks are sold.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Rumour: Paper Mario & Luigi’s Mansion 2 News Potentially Coming On MAR10

Popping up.

With MAR10 just a few days away, we’re all getting ready to celebrate Nintendo’s mascot — probably by playing Mario games or just indulging in some sales or some merchandise. But prominent Nintendo leaker Pyoro has suggested that we may well be getting some news this year.

Over on Twitter, Pyoro has shared a tweet from No Context Super Mario, which mentioned that it would be “really cool” if the studio dropped some news on the upcoming Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake on Nintendo Switch. Pyoro added to the retweet that “MAR10 Day falls on a Sunday this year but…”, meaning that we could indeed be getting some news about the game very soon.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Xbox and Best Buy Launch Stunning SpongeBob-Inspired Special Edition Xbox Bundle

Xbox, Best Buy, Paramount Game Studios and GameMill are joining forces to give SpongeBob SquarePants fans a new way to game. Through Best Buy Drops on the Best Buy Mobile App, fans will have the exclusive opportunity bring home an Xbox Series X – Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 Special Edition Bundle which includes a custom-designed console inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants himself, showing off his iconic smile, Krusty Krab uniform, and ecstatic arms.

Additionally, the bundle contains an Xbox Wireless Controller featuring SpongeBob and all of his favorite underwater friends, including Squidward, Gary, and Mr. Krabs, in a colorful collage of cartoon characters, as well as a digital download of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2.

A limited supply of these bundles will be available for purchase at 8am PST on Thursday, March 7, 2024. The bundle will retail for $699 and is only available in the US. Download the Best Buy Mobile App, make sure you set a notification and act fast—once the drop goes live, it will only be obtainable while inventory remains.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 lets you duke it out with the biggest and best fighting character roster yet, including characters like SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Squidward Tentacles, Jimmy Neutron, and more! Choose your favorite brawlers, master their unique move sets, and use all-new powerful Supers to land the finishing blow with friends or across a unique, roguelike player campaign! Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 recently released new DLC featuring Mr. Krabs on February 15, 2024.

The post Xbox and Best Buy Launch Stunning SpongeBob-Inspired Special Edition Xbox Bundle appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Tribes soars out of the grave once again with Tribes 3: Rivals entering early access next week

The fast-paced flag-capturing FPS series Tribes will return from the dead once again next week with the early access launch of Tribes 3: Rivals. Over the weekend, developers Prophecy Games announced March 12th is the date, with the full launch to follow after up to a year. Prophecy are spun off from Hi-Rez Studios, the folks who who made Tribes: Ascend, which officially shut down a few years back. I hear this next one’s pretty fun.

Fake Ransomware Gang Admits It Made Up Epic Games Hack

A fake ransomware gang has said it lied when it claimed to have hacked Fortnite maker Epic Games.

A group calling itself Mogilevich had claimed to have accessed Epic Games data and threatened to release its data unless it was paid. But Epic itself denied it had been hacked, and now Mogilevich has admitted the scam.

Cyber Daily quoted a Mogilevich spokesperson who said the group tried to trick hackers into buying hacking tools. “In reality, we are not a ransomware-as-a-service, but professional fraudsters,” the spokesperson said. “None of the databases listed in our blog were as true as you might have discovered recently. We took advantage of big names to gain visibility as quickly as possible, but not to fame and receive approval, but to build meticulously our new trafficking of victims to scam.”

We don’t think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that.

“Now the real question is, why confess all this when we could just run away?” the spokesperson continued. “This was done to illustrate the process of our scam. We don’t think of ourselves as hackers but rather as criminal geniuses, if you can call us that.”

As Cyber Daily points out, even this confession may be a lie. But what is clear is Mogilevich is not behind a hack of Epic Games or any other organization. Indeed, Epic Games itself had issued a statement insisting there was “zero evidence” Mogilevich’s claims were legitimate.

“Mogilievich has not contacted Epic or provided any proof of the veracity of these allegations,” Epic said in a statement issued to Eurogamer. “When we saw these allegations, which were a screenshot of a darkweb webpage in a tweet from a third party, we began investigating within minutes and reached out to Mogilevich for proof. Mogilevich has not responded. The closest thing we have seen to a response is this tweet, where they allegedly ask for $15k and ‘proof of funds’ to hand over the purported data.”

While this case is a scam, video game companies are on high alert after a series of hacks in recent years that have resulted in the release of stolen data.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The Sims 4 now has some tie-in jewellery, which I both hate and admire

As any fool knows, the age of girlies bulk-buying silver wire and making their own crystal jewellery at home is over, but EA always arrives precisely when it means to. This weekend saw the release of the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack, a DLC for The Sims 4 that takes the ability to find crystals (already in the game) and straps on your Sims making them into semi-precious, semi-magic jewellery that can be charged up by the moon. What I find more interesting is that this launched with some official IRL Sims plumbob jewellery that you can buy and wear around your own precious, swan-like neck.

Star Wars Strategy Game Still Alive Following Mass Layoffs at EA

The Star Wars strategy game in development at Bit Reactor and produced by Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi developer Respawn has survived after the recent mass layoffs at EA.

EA announced plans in February 2024 to lay off around 670 workers, cancel or close games, and move away from future licensed intellectual property.

The publisher currently has several confirmed Star Wars and Marvel games in development, including a third Jedi game, Black Panther, and Iron Man. But EA canceled Respawn’s Star Wars first person shooter, which was announced last year but had not yet been fully revealed.

Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn.

Some had expressed concern about the fate of the Star Wars strategy game, but a tweet by developer Bit Reactor confirmed it survived the cull.

“Last week was difficult for the industry, and more so because of our strong relationships within the other teams at Respawn,” Bit Reactor said. “But for those asking, we are still hard at work, and our game was unaffected by last week’s news.”

In a subsequent tweet responding to a question asking when the Star Wars strategy game would be unveiled, Bit Reactor said: “As soon as it’s ready…”

EA announced the Star Wars strategy game in January 2022 alongside two others all overseen in one form or another by Respawn. We now know the FPS has fallen by the wayside, leaving Star Wars Jedi 3 and the strategy game in development. Neither have release windows. Bit Reactor was formed by Firaxis Games veterans best-known for their work on the XCOM franchise.

Announcing the layoffs, EA boss Andrew Wilson said the company would now double down on owned IP, sports, and “massive online communities.” This marks yet another major blow to the games industry amid ongoing mass layoffs at studios of all sizes. The cuts impacted roughly 10,000 developers in 2023, and are approaching 8,000 in just the first two months of 2024.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.