Hello, Hitchhiker.

I’m Craig Hauser, level and combat designer at Angry Mob Games. We just released Trinity Fusion, an all-new action roguelite where the only way to save the multiverse is to end it. We’ve been working on the game for four years now, and we’re happy to finally get the game out there in the wild, available now on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S!

So, What’s the Story?

Trinity Fusion is a 2.5D action rogue-lite set in a doomed, man-made multiverse. In it, you’ll play as Maya, a woman psychically connected with her three parallel selves.

Their worlds are literally falling apart around them, and you and your counterselves are the key element in a plan to reconnect them, fusing each of their scattered worlds back together into one stable whole again.

The story is put together in collaboration with Ada Hoffmann, author of The Outside, The Fallen and The Infinite, which we are big fans of.

The Tricky Art of Hitting Things Good

Trinity Fusion, more than anything else, is all about great-feeling combat. Mechanics focus on slashes, dodges and satisfying special moves. We’re taking everything we learned from building our previous platform fighting game, Brawlout, and applying it to a purely PvE experience. Every strike and stagger is beautifully animated, every hit giving just the right amount of feedback. This is, and I’m not trying to brag too much, probably some of the best hit feedback you’re going to get in this niche.

Combine that combat feel with three characters that have their own unique weapons and abilities, the usual roguelike-ish interconnected systems of permanent and temporary upgrades and our new Character Fusions(!) and players will find that they have tons of flexibility to play the game the way they want to play it, and get rewarded for doing so.

Get Amped Up

The flexibility and power of our mid-run upgrades, called Amplifiers, is what we consider to be Trinity Fusion’s “special sauce”, the thing that takes our already great-feeling combat into an escalating endorphin rush as players get further and further into their runs.

For each Amplifier you equip, you’re not only getting an immediate upgrade, but you’re making progress toward what we call synergy powerups, massive upgrades like Critical Vampire that heals you for a percentage of the critical damage you deal. These synergies can quickly change how you might want to set up your build going forward.

By Your Powers Combined…

Finally, let’s talk about character fusions, where you combine two of your counterselves to get access to both of their toolsets at once. Fusing your characters isn’t just about giving yourself an extra ability or two, it can be essential to crafting a powerful build as you get to the later stages of your run. Keeping that “Critical Vampire” upgrade from earlier in mind, let’s talk about how fusions can play into buildcrafting.

As your run progresses, you’ll find more and more weapons that have bonuses like dealing guaranteed critical damage to enemies afflicted with specific status effects. Fusing your current character with Altara, whose Energy weapons can inflict Weak, Chill, Freeze, Electric or Fire effects, can make late-run, crit-focused builds significantly easier to plan for. Having a tool in your back pocket that automatically doubles the damage of your other weapons and feeds into any crit-powered Amplifiers can be devastating, and can keep individual weapons viable for much longer than they would have been otherwise.

But I Don’t Want to Make Builds, I Just Wanna Hit Things

Let’s say you don’t care about any of that build stuff and just want more combat options. You can do that too! The fusion of Kera and Naira is actually my personal favorite way to play, switching between Kera’s melee launchers that carry smaller enemies into the air for air combos and blasting the tankier units that I can’t launch by using Naira’s guns. Combining abilities like Kera’s Dash Uppercut and Naira’s Glitch Dash abilities lets me temporarily become a hypermobile, invulnerable human wrecking ball.

Whether you want to work towards a specific build from the start of your run, want to try and complete the game with a single character, or if you want unmatched versatility in combat, Trinity Fusion is designed to ensure that there’s no “wrong” way to go about saving/ending the multiverse.

We have a lot more planned for the near future, but for now, we hope that you check the game out, and that those of you that have already taken the plunge are enjoying the 1.0 release of Trinity Fusion. Have fun, and we’ll see you out there in the multiverse!

Trinity Fusion

Angry Mob Games

☆☆☆☆☆
15

★★★★★

$19.99

Get it now

Take control of your parallel selves on a mission to save the dying multiverse. Explore dark, sci-fi worlds and engage in fast-paced, smooth and precise combat.

𝐀 𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞-𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐣𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞

The various branches of the multiverse are always changing. Fight through a combination of procedurally-generated levels as well as hand-crafted challenges and arenas that will put your skills to the test. Levels with 3D graphics are seamlessly constructed out of hundreds of hand-made rooms.

𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐭

With weapons and attack systems that leverage our previous experience working on fighting games. You’ll slide, dash and dodge between enemy attacks and strike back with an arsenal of satisfying special weapons and abilities.

𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞

Each of your parallel selves has their own world with multiple biomes to explore, as well as their own sets of unique abilities and weapons. Travel through a universe of desolate wastes and caverns roamed by mutant creatures, escape the endless forges and labs of a world ruled by machines, and survive the dangerous sky cities of a post-human society.

𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧

Unlock permanent upgrades in the Hub and discover new starting points for your run as you reclaim major locations in each universe. Finding yourself getting stuck in one area? Start your next run in a different one! No matter where you die, or which starting point you pick, you’re making progress somewhere.

The post Trinity Fusion – Bring Down the Multiverse appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Good day, Survivors! I’m Evan Wolbach, co-founder of Dead Drop Studios. We’re elated to tell you all about Railbreak, our aggressively fun on-rails arcade shooter, launching today on Xbox Series X|S!  Since we last shared details with you, our first Unreal Engine 5 game has expanded in every way!

A “Scream” You’ll Return to Again and Again

We understand that replayability is critical in an arcade game, which is why we’re stoked to share how Railbreak is set to deliver non-stop entertainment! We asked ourselves how we could create a new and compelling experience for both veterans and newcomers to arcade on-rails shooters, and our answer is the unpredictable ‘Glitch’ gameplay modifier system. While playing through any of the six acts awaiting you in Railbreak’s fully-voiced, campy story, you’ll encounter strange ‘Glitches’ that turn the game on its head.  Your shotgun might start firing icy blasts, zombies may no longer be susceptible to dismemberment, and…throwing a grenade may initiate a risky roulette?! The new Glitch Gauntlet mode freshens up every round of Railbreak with randomized enemies and constant randomized ‘Glitches’ to contend with. It may be the first rogue-like mode ever featured in an on-rails shooter.

Zany, Over-the-Top Firearms Give you the Edge in Battle

It’s important that the armaments in any shooting game feel lively and satisfying to use, so we’ve upgraded Railbreak’s guns with spicy elemental attributes. Send zombies flying with explosive rounds, put out fire and freeze enemies in their tracks with icy blasts, build up an electrical force to make your foes pop, and more. In Story mode, you can switch between different weapons scattered in each act, but in other modes like Score Attack, you play as one of eight diverse unlockable characters, each with their own distinctive loadouts, making each round feel novel.

Diverse Special Infected Creatures Will Keep you on your Toes

Of course, it would be boring to defeat the same few types of enemies over and over. With Railbreak, we’ve taken care to include a wide variety of different zombies. The highlights of these are our special infected abominations. These beasts each have unique attacks and attributes that force you to be swift with the trigger button. The gargantuan Slab towers over you and deals out massive damage, the demonic Fetch strives to burn you to a crisp with its mighty laser attack, and Gluttons will even puke smelly acid onto you if you let them get too close. There are a total of six different types of these enemies, and faster and more aggressive ‘Glitched’ variants serve as brutal boss encounters. Think you’ve mastered the art of slaughter? Try out the new Boss Rush mode, and see if you can survive a parade of Railbreak’s biggest nasties in Cypress Ridge’s filthy sewers.

Slay the Way You Want to with a Multitude of Options, Difficulties, and Modes

We’ve designed Railbreak to be a blast no matter how you play! Jump into action alone or with a friend with optional co-op support. Learn the ropes on the accessible Assisted difficulty, or lunge head-first into a wicked challenge on Off the Rails difficulty. Break the fourth wall with an entertaining arcade Story, or fit in some quick action with the never-ending Onslaught mode or our special Shoutout Shootout mode.  Other helpful features include local score tracking, a beefy settings menu, and an in-depth How to Play manual. Can you survive a long and bloody night and live to fight another day?  Take up the challenge in Railbreak, launching today for Xbox Series X|S. Leave a deliciously bloody mess in your wake or die trying!

Railbreak

Dead Drop Studios LLC

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$19.99

Pre-order

It’s Saturday night in Cypress Ridge which means the city is in ruins, hordes of flesh eating undead are on the prowl, and you have the arcade all to yourself! Grab your controller, select your survivor, and blast your way to safety as the city burns around you in this on-rails survival horror shooter. Oh, and don’t forget to bring a friend for zombie fodder, er, we mean multiplayer experience!

Railbreak melds a classic on-rails arcade experience with the cutting edge Unreal Engine 5. In this prelude to Outbreak: Shades of Horror, you’ll get an opportunity to see the sights and sounds of Cypress Ridge and get chomped on by a zombie or four! Face the city alone, or bring a friend along with optional 2-player co-op supported across the entire game

Featuring a wide cast of survivors each with their own loadouts and traits, you’ll find plenty of replayability in this absurd take of a survival horror game in a survival horror game. A full story mode experience awaits across six scenarios. Bonus modes include Score Attack, and the endless Onslaught Mode that keeps ratcheting up the difficulty until the undead finally seal your fate.

Crack open your piggy bank, snag a fizzy soda, and take a trip back to the 1990’s arcade.

The post Railbreak’s Ballistic Bloodshed Wreaks Arcade Havoc Today on Xbox Series X|S appeared first on Xbox Wire.

As the meme goes, the real treasure is the friends you made along the way. Even more so if you are planning to go mining for gold and valuable gems, as you have more hands and backpacks to take the loot out.

For the second anniversary of Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder, our latest VR game, we wanted to bring the mines to everyone. Thus, we started working on a version of Cave Digger 2 for flat screens and consoles.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Cave Digger 2 before, welcome to an action-adventure game where you can explore the old mines, natural formations, and ancient ruins in wildland valleys .

What do you do there? You start as a prospector with only a pickaxe. You dig for loot and trade the mined valuables for new gadgets, areas, funky fashion, and more. All while you try not to die by the hands of the local fauna.

Compared to the first game of the series, we wanted to have players join forces with friends or other members of the community and adventure together. And so we did, and added co-op multiplayer to Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder.

However, quite often VR players have friends who don’t own any headset or don’t like playing in virtual reality, even if a game seems interesting. So, we decided to build a bridge between the two worlds with Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder.

The goal was ambitious: multiplayer co-op and crossplaying from all consoles and all systems, in VR or non-VR. Our team had an interesting challenge ahead. Not only did we have to implement each platform’s own multiplayer requirements, but we had to make sure that everything was working between the three VR versions and between the four flat versions. That took a lot of resources, from both our coding and testing teams.

It was tough, but since you are reading this article right now, it worked! Now go take a pickaxe with you, grab some dynamite, ping your friends, and head into the caves to unearth the secrets they keep!

If you are a lone adventurer who wants to find other players, join our saloon on Discord., and pick up the game today on Xbox!

Cave Digger 2

VRKiwi

☆☆☆☆☆
2

★★★★★

$14.99

$11.99

Get it now

Play as a prospector who begins their adventure in a seemingly abandoned camp with the goal to extract valuables from the caves. Trade them for new tools, upgrades, and locations in order to advance your frontier exploration.
To unveil the secrets of the Valley, follow the breadcrumbs left by a previous explorer known only as Clayton. The story has multiple endings, each revealing a different side of it.

The post Cave Digger 2 is Out Now on Xbox: Multiplayer Co-op and Crossplay for Everyone appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Stuffed is a procedurally generated first-person shooter that takes place in the dreams of a little girl. Play as a teddy bear and fight waves of endless waves of nightmares as you defend your owner, Ellie. Originally hitting the gaming scene in Early Access on PC, we’re thrilled to announce that Stuffed is now coming to Xbox. Get ready to dive into a world of dreams and unleash mayhem with our teddy bear protagonist armed with an arsenal that’s anything but cuddly.

Fight Waves of Nightmares

Enter the world of Ellie’s dreams, where your goal is clear: defend your owner’s bedroom door and defeat a variety of nightmares in endless waves. From plunger-wielding garden gnomes to fanged rubber ducks and shadow-made monsters, there’s no shortage of creative foes. Defeating enemies earns you points, which you can use to unlock new areas of the map and weapons. With randomly generated maps every session, Stuffed promises a unique challenge each time.

We drew inspiration from our favourite FPS titles but added a cute and colourful twist to make the genre accessible to all gamers. Don’t be fooled by the teddy bear aesthetic; Stuffed packs a punch, especially in the later waves.

Unique Weapons

Ever imagined using a popcorn grenade or a jellybean shotgun? In Stuffed, you’ll wield weapons crafted from everyday household items. Our team delved deep into childhood nostalgia, and worked hard to make sure the internal workings of the weapons made sense regardless of how whacky the designs were – resulting in many debates within the team while gathered around a whiteboard with insane doodles. During the early days of development, we even had our animator wear oven gloves while holding toy guns to get an understanding of how a teddy bear might hold a weapon. Shoutout to Strikecast, our audio wizards, who brought these weapons to life using everything from wooden spoons to toilets for the perfect soundscape.

Customise Your Bear

Why a teddy bear? Because who didn’t have a stuffed friend growing up? But since everyone’s childhood was different, we wanted to make sure you could customise your bear to truly match your tastes. Every game you play will award you with Bear Coins based on your performance, and you can use these Coins to unlock new fur patterns and outfits for your bear. Mix and match to your heart’s content. Are you feeling like a skeletal astronaut, a stripey pirate with a peg leg, or perhaps a rainbow-patterned bear rocking a unicorn onesie? The choice is yours!

The entire team poured their hearts into Stuffed, and we hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed creating it. Brace yourself to enter Ellie’s dreams and conquer those nightmares.

STUFFED

The Game Publisher

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

STUFFED is a procedurally generated first-person shooter, that takes place in the dreams of a little girl. Play as a teddy bear and fight waves of nightmares as you defend your owner.

FIGHT WAVES OF NIGHTMARES
Defend your owner’s bedroom door and defeat a variety of nightmares in endless waves. Earn points from defeating nightmares and use them to unlock new map areas and weapons.

PROCEDURAL MAPS
Explore Ellie’s house in Horde Mode with a fully procedural environment.

UNIQUE WEAPONS
From a popcorn grenade to a cola cannon, find and use unique weapons made from household objects.

LEVEL UP YOUR BEAR
Earn XP in Horde Mode to unlock special player abilities each game session.

CUSTOMISE YOUR BEAR
Use points to unlock new outfits and furs for your teddy bear. Mix and match outfits and furs to fully personalise them.

The post Cute Yet Spooky FPS Finally Comes to Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.