Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 was featured in this evening’s Xbox Developer Direct. Ninja Theory gave a further glimpse of the things they show when talking about Hellblade: motion capture, graphical fidelity, mental health representation, and stabbing. They also provided a release date: May 21st, 2024.
Another year, another annual 30+ hour Chapter to further expand the already mind-bogglingly expansive RPG universe of The Elder Scrolls Online, which is now steadily approaching its 10th anniversary (coming up on April 4). This special occasion calls for a long-awaited classic TES feature to finally make its way into Zenimax Online Studios’ massively multiplayer online spinoff when the newly announced Gold Road expansion becomes available later this year. And for what it’s worth, that classic feature is indeed spell crafting in the form of Gold Road’s new Scribing system, as some theorized on Reddit following an unintentional leak of Gold Road’s introductory videos on YouTube via Zenimax itself.
Gold Road will release in June on all platforms, with PC and Mac versions releasing on June 3 ahead of its console launch on June 18.
As ZOS puts it, Scribing lets you “collect and customize” unique skills called Grimoires across ESO’s open-world zones through various means, and it’s even being described by Zenimax as a “fictional precursor to what could become spell crafting 1000 years in the future,” so take that as you will.
It’s exciting to hear that those skills each have a “primary, secondary, and tertiary effect” which you can alter and build upon with socketable Scripts. In theory, that could immediately open up tons of opportunities for new builds no matter which class you play as – and if I’m being optimistic, it could even shake up what many (myself included) believe is a stagnant combat system where skill rotations rarely change within a given CP160+ build.
But hey – if you’re more obsessed with getting your ESO character’s visual style just right, they’ve got you covered. At launch, Gold Road will feature 22 collectible styles that can be applied to your customizable Grimoires, and The Elder Scrolls fans who remember spell crafting from Daggerfall, Morrowind, and Oblivion may be pleased with the new system – which will tie directly into the skill lines that already exist for all classes, whether or not you directly engage with Gold Road’s content.
To that end, there will be “at least one” Grimoire for each of the major Weapon and World (Mage’s Guild, Fighter’s Guild, Soul Magic, Assault, Support) skill lines. Frankly, it’s been a long time since the Soul Magic line got any love, and I’m stoked to finally replace Soul Trap on my Templar’s skill bar.
It wouldn’t be a new ESO Chapter without a new zone featuring the usual mix of new quests, delves, points of interest, a new 12-player trial called Lucent Citadel, and a new main story – as we’ve come to expect from ESO’s annual Chapters since the Morrowind expansion released in 2017. The only thing missing is the usual duo of fresh NPC companions, who Zenimax says are coming in the final DLC of 2024.
The new area is set in the West Weald region of Cyrodiil, home to one of Oblivion’s iconic cities – Skingrad – which serves as Gold Road’s capital city.
The West Weald sounds like a sizable region, split threefold. There, you’ll find yourself exploring the titular Gold Road which is described as a “deciduous forest with windswept fall colors,” the jungle rainforest-inspired Valenwood Annexation, and the arid Colovian Highlands. From what’s been shared by Zenimax Online Studios, it sounds like you can simply walk into the West Weald via Cyrodiil, Reaper’s March, Craglorn, or the Gold Coast.
Once you get settled in the West Weald, you can choose to embroil yourself in the politics of a faction of Bosmer splintered off from the Valenwood named the “Recollection,” as they try to help out the newly-introduced 18th Daedric Prince, Ithelia – who, without spoiling too much about her identity or her connection to the broader story, was first mentioned during the events of 2023’s ESO Chapter, Necrom.
Like Necrom, that makes Gold Road’s role in terms of expanding broader TES lore especially important because we haven’t seen any additions to the Daedric Pantheon – which typically numbers 17 – since The Elder Scrolls series was in its infancy.
If you complete the main stories of both expansions, you’ll get to experience “capper” quests that resolve the combined stories. Ithelia and her realm Mirrormoor could very well make an appearance in The Elder Scrolls 6 in the far-flung future, so Gold Road may make it worthwhile to jump back into The Elder Scrolls Online and play the new main quests – even if you’ve been burned out of ESO’s otherwise decent Chapters over the last few years.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road is currently in development for PC, Mac, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Tonight’s Xbox Developer Direct brought an update on Avowed, Obsidian’s first-person fantasy RPG. A new trailer provided a substantial look at combat, including pistols, dual-wielding swords and wands, as well as a slightly updated release window: this autumn.
Today’s Xbox Developer Direct stream offered updates on some of 2024’s biggest Microsoft games, including MachineGames’ Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Obsidian’s Avowed and Ninja Theory’s Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. If you missed the stream and want a quick roundup of all the news, games, release dates and trailers featured, we’ve gathered it all together in this post.
The post Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Gameplay Reveal appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Dragon’s Dogma was always envisioned as a single player game that gave off the impression of a multiplayer one, or a “Single-Player Online Party Action Game” in Director Hideaki Itsuno’s own words. And one of the key elements of driving that feeling home are the AI-controlled Pawns that make up 3/4s of your party. Pawns were a fascinating inclusion in the original game – at times endearing with their amusing (and frequent) comments on whatever was happening, other times bewildering with some of their behaviors in battle, and very often a great source of humor and levity.
That system is largely the same in Dragon’s Dogma 2 – you still create your own Pawn with their own Vocation that you can gear up however you like, and that Pawn will get shared online with the rest of the world so that another player can hire your Pawn that’s equipped with both the gear and knowledge that you provide to it. You’ll then fill out the remaining two slots of your party with two other Pawns that you can hire from The Rift – essentially a Pawn Network – who will provide you with quest knowledge and information that they themselves gained from their own creator’s adventure.
One of the key things that I noticed in my own playthrough, and something that Itsuno also highlighted when speaking with IGN, is that both Pawns and NPCs in general are much better this time around at guiding the player to a quest, or pointing out areas of interest, basically themselves acting as replacements for UI elements like markers or arrows.
“We wanted it to feel like a friend who’s played the game before is sitting there next to you and giving you advice. Like, ‘Hey, go this way,’ or ‘In this case, you should go with this here,’ or ‘This is what you do.’ In other words, having a friend there with you who provides guidance in an enjoyable way,” said Itsuno. “We wanted to avoid putting too many markers and such on the screen, if possible. We didn’t want too much that kills a player’s mood, so we put a lot of effort into having Pawns and NPCs be your only guides in the world.”
Like the first game, Pawns will also have Inclinations as well, with you being able to outright select whether you want your Pawn to be kindhearted, calm, simple, or straightforward, without having to go through a questionnaire first. Your Pawn’s Inclination has a substantial role in dictating how that Pawn will behave in battle, with kindhearted Pawns favoring a balanced approach with an emphasis on support; calm Pawns being more proficient with defense and evasion; simple Pawns being extra diligent about looting items; and straightforward Pawns being more daring when it comes to attacking foes head-on. Each Inclination also has its own set of voice actors, with different options for pitch modulations, and their own unique actions that they can take as well.
According to Kento Kinoshita, lead game designer for Dragon’s Dogma 2, “If you want to think of it in terms of individuality, I think we’ve very consciously tried to expand the number of ways in which Pawns are individuals. There’s personality, as we just mentioned; while in terms of knowledge, they might have knowledge of certain enemies. This game also isn’t really about a specific main quest that they freely play through, but instead contains lots of different quests. It isn’t very forceful. The game is made in such a way where only the Pawns on a quest with a player learn from that quest, so I think there will be clearly individual experiences based on how different people play the game, what quests they go on, and what kind of knowledge they have. Part of the fun in finding Pawns will be the reaction of ‘Oh, this Pawn knows about this particular subject, awesome.’ where all the different parts of the game work together.”
Finally, one new aspect of Pawns are Specializations, which are special abilities given to Pawns, similar to what we would call licenses or qualifications. The idea is basically that Pawns can learn the ropes from their master – they can develop the Woodland Wordsmith specialization, which allows you to understand Elvish, by getting close with an NPC that speaks Elvish. Another example is the Chirurgeon Specialization, which allows Pawns to use healing items on others, as opposed to only being able to use them on themselves, allowing you to basically make a Pawn a healer, even if they aren’t a Mage.
“In this game, we have also made it possible for players to leave some things to their Pawns that they might find tedious or uninteresting, including not only combat, but also some other elements. We believe that by combining Inclinations and Specializations, players can create a Pawn that best suits their preferences,” said Itsuno.
Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit
Rockstar is looking to the horizon as it begins to “approach the limits of what’s possible” on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and it’s starting by removing the Rockstar Editor from those versions of Grand Theft Auto Online.
The Grand Theft Auto maker announced plans to make a shift toward the future in a news post on its website. It says that, while the Rockstar Editor will survive on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S, players on last-gen consoles will lose access come February 20, 2024. The editor’s removal is said to be part of the “necessary steps” that Rockstar is taking to ensure GTA Online additions continue to roll out on PS4 and Xbox One.
“This update will help to ensure the stability of these platforms and keep them updated with GTA Online additions for as long as possible,” Rockstar says.
Clips and projects created on these platforms will be deleted when the Rockstar Editor is removed next month. Those who are interested in saving or exporting their projects can view instructions on the Rockstar support page.
Today’s update isn’t all bad news. The post also includes promises to deliver more GTA Online love to players this week, including doubled rewards and vehicle discounts through January 24.
GTA Online has thrived for around a decade, so it makes sense to see Rockstar making new moves toward what’s next while still supporting its existing fans. These plans obviously include the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, which was officially unveiled late last year. Potential online plans for the new open-world entry in the studio’s trend-setting series are a mystery for now, though we might have some guesses thanks to T-Pain.
For more on the world of Grand Theft Auto, you can check out our colleciton of every GTA trailer ever released. You can also read up on some possible evidence that suggests Grand Theft Auto 5 DLC and Bully 2 almost happened.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Bethesda has released Starfield’s first major update in 2024 into beta, with “over a hundred fixes and adjustments” introduced, most of which address fixing quests and adding quality-of-life improvements to the company’s space RPG.
In a blog post, Bethesda detailed every change coming to Starfield as part of update 1.9.47.0. Some of the tweaks that immediately stand out include improved widescreen support, allowing for the game to now support 32:9, 21:9, and 16:10 aspect ratios, and fixes to the Eye of the Storm Quest. The latter has been one of the quests some have been unable to complete, most notably when the player reaches the data transfer section.
Bethesda further reiterated that it will “continue to have a steady stream of updates about every six weeks,” telling those that might not have seen an issue addressed in this latest to not “lose faith” and encouraging users to continue sharing issues and feedback with the team.
In our review of Starfield, which we awarded a 7 out of 10, we said: “Starfield has a lot of forces working against it, but eventually, the allure of its expansive roleplaying quests and respectable combat make its gravitational pull difficult to resist.”
You can check out the full Update 1.9.47.0 notes below.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
I think we’re well into “milking the gimmick” territory for bodycam horror games now – last week’s Digested may have been one giant snake too many – but Zoochosis does have the additional virtue of being heavily inspired by the cute doggy scene from The Thing. And also, perhaps, Five Nights At Freddy’s.
In this latest, gruesome escapade from Sparky Marky developers Clapperheads, you are a zookeeper working the night shift. Your job, initially, is to feed the incarcerated animals and clean up after them while giving them an occasional pat on the nose. But Something Is Wrong. Giraffes aren’t supposed to have that many legs, or mandibles. Kangaroos aren’t supposed to stick to the ceiling, or have several sets of teeth.
Try Eastward ahead of the DLC’s release.
Europe’s next Nintendo Switch Online Game Trial kicks off today in Europe, and it’s for Pixpil’s beautiful pixel art adventure Eastward. From now until 24th January, you can try out this unique game for free if you’re subscribed to the Nintendo Switch Online service.
Eastward was published by Chucklefish and arrived on the Nintendo Switch in 2021 and takes place in a world filled with MIASMA. The survivors of this moved underground and above ground, abandoned towns and structures have been filled with overgrown plants and unusual creatures.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
