Lorelei And The Laser Eyes doesn’t let its surreal creativity strip its puzzles of logic

“In one of Nero’s many manifests,” reads a books in surreal puzzle-box Lorelei And The Laser Eyes, referring to its eccentric (read: tastefully deranged) antag-artist, “there is a satirical proposal claiming that only dictators should be allowed to direct films.” Developers Simogo – of well-deserved Sayonara Wild Hearts and Device 6 acclaim – seem to agree that’s a position worth satirising. Lorelei, despite its single-solution puzzles, is not dictatorial. It’s far too interested in collaborating with you for that. It wants you to observe, consider, and interpret its many mysteries. What’s really hooked me here is how those puzzles are kept coherent and logical, despite you getting delivered a letter by dog and occasionally visiting a floppy disk bizzaro world where you converse with a magician who manifests from his own discarded hat.

Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Reportedly Set to Launch Straight Into Xbox Game Pass

Microsoft will soon announce its intention to release this year’s mainline Call of Duty game straight into Game Pass, according to a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft will announce the plans during its Xbox showcase event in June.

“Microsoft plans a major shakeup of its video game sales strategy by releasing the coming installment of Call of Duty to its subscription service instead of the longtime, lucrative approach of only selling it a la carte,” WSJ reported. Microsoft declined to comment when contacted by the publication.

The report tallies with recent comments from Xbox president Sarah Bond, who indicated all Microsoft’s games, including those developed by the recently acquired Activision, will launch straight into Game Pass.

Microsoft has faced tough questions around the potential cannibalization effect of Game Pass, particularly on games that launch on the service day-one. While Xbox executives have insisted sales can be boosted by a game’s presence on Game Pass, some publishers remain unconvinced. Former Activision boss Bobby Kotick, for example, was always against putting Call of Duty into subscription services. Unlike Microsoft, console rival Sony does not release its new exclusives straight into its subscription service.

In an interview with IGN last year, Xbox boss Phil Spencer was asked how he’d handle his and Kotick’s different ideologies after the deal to buy Activision Blizzard closed. “Well, there’s a different person making the decisions,” Spencer laughed.

“Well, there’s a different person making the decisions.

New Call of Duty games sell for $70 and usually shift around 25 million copies per year, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. By releasing this year’s Call of Duty straight into Game Pass, Microsoft potentially risks cannibalizing those sales.

Of course, Activision will also launch Call of Duty across Xbox, PlayStation, and PC as a game that can be bought outright. But with Game Pass subscriber numbers failing to grow meaningfully Microsoft is under pressure to attract new customers, and adding a mainline Call of Duty game at launch will no doubt help with that.

This year’s Call of Duty is expected to be called Black Ops 6, after teasers discovered in Warzone were acknowledged by developer Treyarch. Microsoft is also rumored to be ready to release the Call of Duty back catalog of video games into Game Pass ahead of Black Ops 6’s release later this year.

Microsoft is in the process of cutting 1,900 staff from its gaming business. Earlier this month, the company shocked the video game world by announcing the closure of Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Redfall developer Arkane Austin. There are fears more cuts are to come.

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 Countdown Begins! Splatoon 3’s Apocalypse-Themed Splatfest Kicks Off This Weekend

Apocalypse wow.

Update : Set your doomsday clocks, folks, because Splatoon 3’s end-of-the-world Splatfest gets underway this weekend.

The event will be kicking off on 18th May (17th in North America) and asks the surprisingly dark question, “What would you do at the world’s end?“. Be sure to head over to the polling station in Splatsville Square to cast your vote for either Team Same Ol’, Bucket List or Save the Day and then prepare yourself for a weekend of splatting.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Headphones Required – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s Binaural Audio Is Like Nothing You’ve Ever Heard

Category: Games

Headphones Required – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s Binaural Audio Is Like Nothing You’ve Ever Heard

2017’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was an exceedingly special game. A bold, brash direction for Ninja Theory, the decision to craft a short, narrative experience revolving around mental health was a brave leap, but one that ultimately paid off. Now, seven years later, the studio is gearing up to reveal a sequel to Senua’s story, built with the same love and care, but expanding on the debut in every conceivable way.

In the run up to launch, we’ll be bringing you the story of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II from inside the studio itself, as well as stories and lessons from Hellblade’s creative leads. This is Ninja Theory’s ultimate form, filled with industry-leading talent, groundbreaking technology, and one of the most unique approaches to game development you’ve ever seen to fulfil the ultimate goal – the pursuit of true immersion.

If you’ve played Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, you will be more than familiar with its incredible audio design; most notably the memorable, incessant dialogue that goes on inside Senua’s mind throughout the course of the game – and, by association, the unique way it enters your head, too. In Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Ninja Theory is going all out on implementing audio to establish its sense of place – here the first game used audio techniques simply for Senua’s internal dialogue, the sequel makes sound trickery an integral part of the game.

Xbox Wire had the honor of sitting down with Hellblade audio director David Garcia Diaz in his studio, to find out how the team did it, why it’s needed, and uncover more about the utterly mesmerizing process of building binaural audio into the very fabric of Senua’s journey.

For the uninitiated, binaural audio is a method of recording sound using two microphones, designed to create a 3D soundscape as you would hear it with your own ears. It’s not a new process – but its implementation across the Hellblade series is both unique and integral to its design. This is the most authentic recreation of psychosis you can experience, and Garcia Diaz has landed here through almost a decade of research, patience and skill.

A Leap In Technology

Garcia Diaz separates Hellblade’s main pillars of evolution down into two parts – technological and psychological. The technological improvements stem from a sizeable upgrade in the resources and equipment used to capture its soundscape; Garcia Diaz’s office showcases a smorgasbord of impressive tools that left my inner synth enthusiast in awe.

There’s also now a team of seven working on Hellblade II‘s audio design, whereas Garcia Diaz worked alone on Senua’s Sacrifice. He admits: “The first game was a massive project with so many details, and I couldn’t do everything. There’s a lot of places where you can’t hear foley or footsteps, I just focused on what felt the most important.”

As I move through Hellblade II‘s incredible environments, I can truly feel and hear the premium approach to even the smallest sounds. During one scene, I lead Senua through an abandoned village, and we can hear the remnants of its fate, echoing from the past. I hear an anguished mother crying intertwined with the harsh buzz of flies orbiting a nearby carcass, so intense and erratic I nearly swat myself a few times. On the calmer, open coasts, I hear the distant crashing of waves and ambient winds landing secondary to the crunch of Senua’s feet padding cautiously over loose stones.

Crucially, with headphones on, I can hear where all of this is. This isn’t a wash of sound effects, they’re placed precisely where they should be. Garcia Diaz and his team have been able to consider acoustics more fully, and how sound moves and reverberates in Hellblade II as it does in the real world, to create that deeper sense of immersion.

“The acoustics play an incredibly important role,” Garcia Diaz adds. “For example, if you shout and there’s a rock, the sound is going to bounce off that. If a priest is chanting in a cave, you want to hear the sound travelling towards you, or the opposite if something is moving away. All of the sounds work together to create atmosphere and tension, and with this technology, we can achieve that.”

Senua’s Growth

The other main aspect Garcia Diaz addresses is the psychological evolution of Senua herself, and how that has shaped what she will hear in the world, and in her head. She’s stronger and more in tune with her psychosis – not cured, but armed with a greater understanding of what to expect, which in turn leads to a wider range of conversational exchanges between the voices.

Senua’s condition is once again represented in part by the Furies – the voices that she will hear throughout the game. In Hellblade II, the voices can still feel every bit as overwhelming, but there is a fluidity to them that can make them almost a comfort as you follow Senua.

“Hellblade 1 had very dark ‘colors’ – now we have other colors”, Garcia Diaz explains. “Senua has the ability to feel [the Furies] in a different way, they now have deeper, meaningful conversations which didn’t happen in the first game, which I think is very beautiful.”

This is represented in action as I watch Senua engage in a conversation with several new characters across her journey. The Furies are in conflict each time, debating Senua’s reactions, running through potential responses and justifications with a mind-bending pace. But Senua is no longer a prisoner to this cacophony, she can see past the influence of the voices and decide for herself how to proceed in that moment. Does this person need my help? Will they hurt me? Senua can find her own answers through the noise just as the player does, and we can feel her emotions and considerations reflected in the style, tenacity and placement of the sound, similar to a score for a movie.

“We are representing abstract concepts with sound,” Garcia Diaz adds. “What does guilt sound like, and what is our vision of guilt for Senua? How do we interpret sadness, or euphoria, or rage?”

“We are not just recreating a sound, we are creating a character’s reality, and this is our way of interpretating these emotions [for Senua] with sound and music and voices, all tied together to create one moment.”

“We are not just recreating a sound, we are creating a character’s reality, and this is our way of interpretating these emotions.”
David Garcia Diaz

Three’s A Crowd

While Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is an insular journey that follows Senua alone with the accompaniment of the Furies representing how her psychosis manifests, Hellblade II will see Senua encounters new characters in the world for the first time. She’ll engage in dialogue with these strangers, and face the trials of navigating relationships while handling the overwhelming, unrelenting narration of her condition.

In one Hellblade II scene, Senua meets a stranger that is being held captive by Viking slavers. In this moment, she’s conversing with him directly, but the voices are at odds with what both parties are saying out loud.

“You have to consider – what happens if there is a conversation between three people? What does that sound like to everyone involved?” Garcia Diaz adds.

While I’m at the studio I’m shown a snippet of the Furies in action. Performers Abbi Greenland and Helen Goalan take part in an unscripted performance depicting Senua moving through a cave. Through headphones, I hear a haunting narration of the surroundings, their thoughts seamlessly falling into a flow state. But what I see is the two actors circling both sides of the head-shaped Neumann microphone sitting between them like vultures picking at a carcass – allowing their voices to feel as though they’re moving through your head, as they would do for Senua Even in this brightly-lit room, I’m on edge after 30 seconds of this experience, the unpredictable hisses and snarky giggles picking at my brain. Garcia Diaz likens the experience to jazz – it’s atmospheric, moving and some of its best parts are created out of improvisation, not a pre-agreed script.

Hellblade actresses, Abbi and Helen, performing a snippet of their voice lines

“In music you have crescendos, diminuendos, fortissimos, pianissimos – I want to do the same with the voices,” Garcia Diaz says. “Sometimes they grow, sometimes they’re quiet so you don’t feel constantly tired or overwhelmed.

“There are enough dynamics that we’re able to have them present almost all of the time – sometimes we’ll cross a boundary, but I think this is important, because the voices are something that Senua cannot switch off.”

The importance of the audio is something that cannot be overstated in both Hellblade games – it’s what makes Senua’s journey so unique and emotional to experience. Garcia Diaz knows this, but he also recognizes that his role as audio director is just one cog in Ninja Theory’s wider pursuit for immersion.

“Everything needs to go together, and I’m excited for people to see it all,” he says. “For people to discover this new Senua, and to get immersed in her world again. That’s what we’re striving for – a unique experience, and an immense journey.”

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II will be released on May 21, 2024 for Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, Steam and Cloud – and will be available with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass day one.

The post Headphones Required – Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’s Binaural Audio Is Like Nothing You’ve Ever Heard appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Vote For Your Favorite Overwatch 2 x Porsche Livery to Win a Custom Xbox Series X

Iconic sports car brand Porsche and hero shooter Overwatch 2 have teamed up for an electric collaboration that includes special in-game cosmetics and Legendary character skins, and you can take part for a chance to win a limited collab design Xbox Series X!

Race into battle with a Legendary skin for D.Va that’s inspired by the new all-electric Porsche Macan. D.Va’s jacket combines her bunny icon with the Macan’s official colour swatch known as Provence, while her mech partner Tokki gets a new look that incorporates details from the Macan, like the sleek rear light, four-point headlights, and yellow brake caliper.

D.Va and Tokki’s new look isn’t the only addition. Pharah also gets in on the action with a new suit inspired by the all-electric Porsche Taycan. IGN has everything you need to know about the collaboration, including trailers and the chance to choose one of three collab inspired livery designs that will be wrapped on a Macan Electric.

That’s right, this collab is speeding out into the real world. If D.Va gets a Macan-inspired design, it’s only right that the Macan gets a collab inspired design too! There are three livery options to choose from: The Finish Line, World of Heroes and Nerf This! Head over to the Porsche x Overwatch 2 hub to cast your vote for your favorite design and you’ll be entered into the prize draw, where you could win the grand prize of a limited collab design Xbox Series X and Porsche x Overwatch hoodie!

The livery design with the most votes will be announced at IGN Live, taking place June 7–9. Then you can spot the winning livery wrapped on a real Macan Electric, and pose with the life-sized mech statue of Tokki at gamescom 2024 in Cologne, Germany.

Summery Soulslike Enotria: The Last Song is delayed again, but there’s an 8-hour demo coming soon

You might remember Enotria: The Last Song as the Italian-inspired Soulslike that shifted its release date from June to August to avoid Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree… but found itself nestled next to Black Myth: Wukong. Well, scratch that August release, as now it’s been shifted back to September instead! But hey, there’s a demo coming out real soon that’ll hopefully give us a better sense of what the game’s like. I imagine it’ll involve a lot of fighting spindly monsters, dying, and resurrecting at whatever object they’ve decided will be the equivalent of Dark Souls’ bonfires. Likely something Leonardo da Vinci made or drew or invented. That man’s stats were specced high.

Visual Novels Based On ‘The Quintessential Quintuplets’ Anime Come To Switch Next Week

The famous five.

Publisher Spike Chunsoft has announced that it is bringing the popular anime and manga series ‘The Quintessential Quintuplets‘ to Switch on 23rd May in the form of two brand-new visual novels.

The Quintessential Quintuplets – Memories of a Quintessential Summer and The Quintessential Quintuplets – Five Memories Spent With You will be available both individually (for £28.99 / £34.99) and as part of a Double Pack (£49.99 / $59.99) when they arrive on the Switch eShop next week.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Half of All PlayStation Gamers Are Yet to Upgrade to PS5, Sony Stats Reveal

With the PlayStation 5 entering the second half of its life, figures from Sony indicate around half of all current PlayStation gamers are yet to upgrade to current gen.

As pointed out by Game File’s Stephen Totilo, Sony announced this week that PlayStation has 118 million monthly active users (MAUs), up 9% year-on-year, but around half of those are still on the 11-year-old PlayStation 4. PS5 has sold over 59 million units since going on sale in November 2020, and it has yet to see a price cut. Infact, Sony has raised the price of the console.

Speaking to the investment community (as reported by Totilo) Sony president Hiroki Totoki painted a rosy picture of the situation, saying MAUs will steadily increase as PS4 players eventually upgrade to PS5, but as Daniel Ahmad, Director of Research and Insights at Niko Partners, pointed out in a tweet, the transition from PS4 to PS5 has so far been “slow.”

On console PlayStation Network MAU’s have barely grown since the PS5 launch.
It’s just been a slow transition from PS4 > PS5
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 16, 2024

So, why have so many PS4 gamers held off on upgrading to a PS5? Or, perhaps to put it a better way, why are so many PS4 gamers content to stick with the console they have?

Mat Piscatella, Executive Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana, suggested in a tweet that the most-played games in the U.S. are all currently available on the last generation of consoles, and that’s enough for most people. These games (Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, GTA 5, and Call of Duty), are all available on PS4. “Any console that can play a majority of, or all five, of these games will be just fine for many people,” Piscatella commented.

This is not a situation unique to PlayStation, either, Piscatella added, as it affects all consoles. IGN has already reported on tumbling sales of the Xbox Series X and S, which looks like it will struggle to outsell its predecessor, the much-maligned Xbox One. Microsoft’s answer includes bringing its Xbox games to rival platforms, including PS5, but it has also committed to releasing a more powerful next-gen console, and there are rumors it plans an Xbox handheld, too.

As for Sony, PS5 sales currently trail those of PS4 after the same amount of time after launch, but it’s worth pointing out the PS4 had undergone price cuts totaling $100 by now. Sony has said it expects PS5 sales to continue to decline, although it is also expected to launch a PS5 Pro later this year.

Sony’s plan to increase sales and profits from PlayStation in the coming years depends upon its ability to expand the number of active PlayStation users and user engagement, and cutting business costs. In February, Sony announced a significant round of layoffs affecting around 900 staff, or about 8% of its global PlayStation workforce. The layoffs affect a number of PlayStation studios, including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla, Firesprite, and, most significantly, PlayStation’s London studio. Alongside the layoffs, a number of in-development games were canceled.

Sony also plans to grow sales of first-party games. It has said this financial year ending March 2025 will not see the release of big new games in its major franchises, ruling out sequels in the Spider-Man and God of War series. But Sony is expected to release a number of big-hitters from April 2025 onwards, including the likes of Insomniac’s Wolverine.

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.

With Borderlands 4 Waiting in the Wings, New Gearbox Owner Take-Two Plans to Pursue ‘Growth Opportunities’

Take-Two plans to go big on Borderlands now it owns Gearbox Entertainment.

In March, the embattled Embracer Group sold Borderlands developer Gearbox to Take-Two for $460 million. As part of the deal, Take-Two, which through its publishing division 2K already had a long history with Gearbox, now owns the franchises Borderlands, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem. Gearbox is joining 2K Games and will continue to be led by CEO and founder Randy Pitchford.

Gearbox has enjoyed enormous success with the looter shooter Borderlands franchise over the years. It’s sold nearly 86 million units across all titles, with Borderlands 2 secure as 2K’s top-selling video game with 28 million sold. Borderlands 3 is 2K’s fastest-selling video game ever, and has sold nearly 20 million units to date.

Currently, Gearbox has both a new Borderlands and “at least one exciting new intellectual property” in development. 2K Games plans to reveal the “next iteration in one of its biggest and most beloved franchises” at Summer Game Fest, which is set to take place on Friday, June 7. Fans speculate this game may be Borderlands 4.

If so, it would match up neatly with the release of the Borderlands movie, which comes out on August 9. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has teased Borderlands 4 in the past. “Look, we haven’t even announced anything of it,” Pitchford said back in March. “Clearly, we’re working on something. And I know what we’re working on, and holy shit… It’s the greatest thing we’ve ever done. And I can’t wait, but it’s not time yet. It’s not time yet. There will be a time.”

Speaking in an investor-focused call following its latest financial results, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick said the company now plans to double-down on Borderlands, and had already identified “many potential growth opportunities” for the series.

“Borderlands 3 outpaced our forecasts and we are thrilled that Randy Pitchford and Gearbox Entertainment are slated to join officially 2K’s renowned internal studios in the coming weeks,” Zelnick said.

“We have already identified many potential growth opportunities for the Borderlands series and Gearbox’s catalog, which we plan to pursue once the studio is integrated into our organization. We are also excited to see growing buzz for the star-studded Borderlands feature film which is planned for release by Lionsgate this summer.”

“We have already identified many potential growth opportunities for the Borderlands series and Gearbox’s catalog, which we plan to pursue once the studio is integrated into our organization.

The Borderlands franchise has already expanded with a number of video game spin-offs and is set to expand further with the release of the aforementioned Borderlands movie, starring the likes of Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, and Jamie Lee Curtis. One spin-off Take-Two has singled out as doing particularly well is 2022 action role-playing first-person shooter Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, which is set within the world of a fantasy-themed tabletop RPG.

Expanding on the decision to buy Gearbox during the investor call, Zelnick said that when the opportunity presented itself to buy the company “on terms that we felt were reasonable, we frankly jumped at the opportunity.”

“We have all the respect in the world for Randy Pitchford and his team,” Zelnick continued. “He has the ability to bring AAA products to market, responsibly and on a very reliable and rather rapid cadence. And he is a hit maker. And it’s very hard to make a new hit, and [Tiny Tino] was a new hit. And of course, Borderlands just goes from strength to strength. So we’re thrilled to have Gearbox in the family.”

“Borderlands just goes from strength to strength. So we’re thrilled to have Gearbox in the family.

Based on Zelnick’s comments, we can expect plenty more Borderlands in the future now Gearbox is under the Take-Two umbrella. But there are issues elsewhere in the company. Earlier this month, Take-Two announced a cost reduction plan that included project cancellations and layoffs amounting to 5% of its workforce. Amid this announcement came reports based on internal documentation that seemed to confirm Take-Two was closing OlliOlli World developer Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games. But when IGN asked Zelnick why these closures happened, he replied: “We didn’t shutter those studios.” Reports also indicate publishing label Private Division, which is behind was also gutted.

This week, Take-Two narrowed the hotly anticipated GTA 6 release date window to fall 2025.

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.

First Hades 2 patch lets you gather seed, silver and souls simultaneously

Hell-wandering roguelike Hades 2 has received its first proper patch, and it does everything the developers said it would. You now sprint faster and, significantly, you can gather more than one type of crafting resource per run (as long you’ve unlocked the tool that lets you gather that resource). This means Melinoë can now go fishing, dig up seeds, mine silver, and gain the trust of errant shades, all in a single night’s work. There is a catch though.