Elden Ring Nightreign is adding its next enhanced Everdark Sovereign boss into the game. Fulghor, Champion of the Nightglow will be the next Nightlord to get an enhanced version, arriving on June 26.
The update goes live at 7am PDT / 4pm CEST / 11pm JST on June 26, as a new target for a Nightfarer expedition. If the big guy is anything like the previous Everdark Sovereign, you’ll have to successfully take down the base version of the Nightlord at least once to challenge its more difficult variant.
Developer FromSoftware started rolling these Everdark Sovereigns out in a surprise drop last week, with the addition of a souped-up Gaping Jaw challenge. These enhanced bosses can throw a lot at the player. Adel, Baron of the Night’s upgraded form was terrifying, zipping around the arena and, at one point, making a giant storm inside the arena.
Fulghor, who reigns under the Darkdrift Knight banner, has already been a bit of a challenge for players in Elden Ring Nightreign in his base form. The centaur can cause some serious damage fast and leaves little room to get in and hit him. The area-of-effect attacks especially cause some problems, if you’re not ready.
So, naturally, the enhanced version of Fulghor could pose some real challenge. Replies to the announcement tweet are gearing up for the prospect of tackling this warrior’s even-more powerful version.
More Everdark Sovereigns are planned to roll out, as FromSoftware has confirmed each week will host a new upgraded boss. As Darkdrift Knight rotates in, it looks like the Gaping Jaw challenge will rotate out. Sentient Pest is the next on the docket, and should pose a fairly interesting challenge, especially with the phase shifts.
Nintendo has once again used its Today! app to announce news, this time a release date for Switch 2 exclusive Drag x Drive.
Drag x Drive launches exclusively on the eShop for Switch 2 on August 14, 2025. That confirms no physical release for the game is planned.
Nintendo has so far failed to confirm a price for Drag x Drive, which was announced in April as part of Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal Direct.
The Nintendo-developed exclusive uses the Joy-Con 2 for 3v3 basketball-style matches where you control wheelchair-using characters. You can use the controllers in mouse mode at the same time to simulate the act of pushing the wheels, speed up, and perform tricks.
With the announcement of Drag x Drive’s release date, we’re starting to get a clearer idea of what’s coming exclusively to Switch 2 during the second half of 2025. On July 17, Donkey Kong Bananza comes out (it just got an eye-catching Nintendo Direct all to itself), then there’s Drag x Drive a month later. Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV launches on July 24, with Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Star-Crossed World due out August 28. Switch 2 exclusives down for 2025 but without a release date include Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, and Splatoon Raiders. FromSoftware’s definitely not Bloodborne 2, The Duskbloods, is due out at some point in 2026.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Firaxis and 2K are committed to reversing the fortunes of Civilization 7 with an all-new update, much of which has been “influenced by the community.”
This month’s “hefty” Update 1.2.2 brings a raft of long-awaited features like Large and Huge Maps, expanded Advanced Game Options, and a community favorite: Steam Workshop support. There’s also new Town Specializations, City-State Bonuses, Beliefs, balance changes, UI improvements, and — best of all, of course — “a very pettable Scout dog.”
Players can also finish their current save under a previous version by using the legacy Steam beta branch. Backwards compatibility for existing saves is also available, although you should note that “some new abilities or effects may not appear until you start a new game or advance to the next Age in your current campaign.”
“For the best experience, we recommend starting a new game, or continuing your current game into the next Age,” Firaxis said.
Large and Huge map sizes — which I’m afraid aren’t available on Switch, along with Standard — default to 10 players, but multiplayer campaigns max out at eight people, inclusive of AI companions. The team hopes to expand Huge to accommodate 12 players eventually, but right now it “needs a bit more time to make sure increased player counts won’t compromise game stability or performance.” That said, because of the size, these maps have been spruced up with Pantheons (and two new ones have been added to Antiquity), Religious Beliefs, Discoveries, and City-State bonuses to “ensure there’s enough content for all the players in a game.”
“One of the best things about Civilization is how many ways there are to play,” the update added. “Some players are happy to peacefully build the biggest, best Cities while others want to ignore all that and go conquer the world (‘Yes, your amazing City does look great in my empire’). With 1.2.2, we’ve added several new advanced game setup options to give you even more control over how you play.”
This means you can now decide whether to enable, disable (or turn off entirely) Legacy Paths per Page, specific Crises, as well as disable Score Victory. AI difficulty can be amended, too, and you can bypass Civ Unlocks On Age Transitions now.
“We’ve had a lot of fun playing with different Legacy Paths on or off in each Age. While Legacy Paths that don’t lead to a Victory are always optional, sometimes it’s nice to just tune them out entirely and focus on playing into the unique strengths of your leader and civ,” Firaxis added. “For a fun sandbox game we’ve been playing in the office, try turning off Legacy Paths for Antiquity and Exploration, and setting the game to Abbreviated Ages. If you want to lean into the sandbox feel even more, try turning off Legacy Paths in Modern and the Score Victory, too.”
Feedback from fans about Religion has necessitated changes, too, with the team now adding new Beliefs and updating existing ones to give bonus incentives for converting your own Settlements. There are “bigger and bolder changes” also on the horizon for Religion, but we’ll find out more about those at a later date. You can also expect Town focus bonuses to help them feel more “impactful.”
“Urban Centers in particular have received a glow-up, and now gain access to many of the Buildings that were otherwise only available in Cities (like Libraries and Monuments in Antiquity),” the update explained. “Fort Towns gain the ability to purchase multiple walls so they can really lock down strategic chokepoints. We also introduced a new type of Town Focus: the Resort Town. These relaxing scenic retreats gain extra Gold and Happiness on Rural tiles with Happiness and increased Yields on Natural Wonders.
“Lastly, we felt massed Hub Towns were overshadowing some of the other options and gave them a slight nerf from +2 Influence per connected Settlement to +1 Influence. We’re going to keep our eye on them to see how they compare against the other newly buffed Towns.”
Players will also now be able to find and install mods from Steam Workshop. Oh, and there’s even a new loading screen, with rewritten and re-recorded narration from Gwendoline Christie.
There’s also an absolute smorgasbord of tweaks and fixes, but if I wrote all those out here, we’d be here until Christmas. You can head on over to the official website to see it.
Civilization 7 has had a rough launch on Steam — that much is clear. The strategy sequel has struggled for players on Valve’s platform ever since its launch in February. Despite a number of patches issued by developer Firaxis to reverse things, Civilization 7 finds itself in the unenviable situation of having fewer players on Steam than Civilization 6 and even the 15-year-old Civilization 5. According to Steam user reviews the game is ‘mixed,’ although the last 1,500 or so reviews has it falling to a ‘mostly negative’ rating.
Update 1.2.2 is out now, although Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 players will have to wait a little longer as the team works “diligently to get these updates through the additional Switch submission requirements.” Players still experiencing issues or bugs are encouraged to disable mods and make the team aware.
We thought Civilization 7 was ‘good,’ awarding it a fitting 7/10, writing: “Civilization 7’s improved warfare and added bits of narrative flair give me reasons to keep clicking one more turn late into the night, but the desire to streamline and simplify this legendary 4X series feels like it has also gone a bit too far, particularly when it comes to the interface.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Back in March this year, game industry veteran Masahiro Sakurai received a lifetime achievement award at the 30th AMD awards. In an interview by ITMedia Business Online conducted at the time (recently republished on Yahoo Japan), Sakurai revealed why he doesn’t hire people, reflected on how the games industry has changed, and touched on the potential use of generative AI in development.
Sakurai is best known as the creator behind two of Nintendo’s big franchises, Kirby and Smash Bros. After working at game dev studio Hal Laboratories from 1989 to 2003, Sakurai became a freelance game creator, founding his own company Sora Ltd. in 2005. In 2022, he created the award-winning YouTube channel “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games,” in which he shared insight and advice on all aspects of making a game.
Sakurai’s approach differs from that of many game creators who have gone on to form their own companies. “When a game creator becomes the president of a company, it is difficult for them to fully engage in creative activities,” explained Sakurai. “There was a conflict between making interesting games and making management decisions — the problem was that being overwhelmed by the duties of being a president made it hard to focus on the vital part, game creation.”
This led Sakurai to his current approach, which involves creating games without directly hiring or managing any employees. “Basically I work together with other game companies to avoid having to manage a company,” Sakurai explained. “This method has worked well so far. I am able to continue being creative and concentrate on making things without becoming extremely busy running a company.”
However, Sakurai noted that his method is not without its challenges. Working with different game devs means that Sakurai has to “build up trusting relationships and working styles from scratch every time. So, I think it is necessary to have a certain degree of flexibility.”
According to Sakurai, one of the most important elements when working with a team on a new project for the first time is to make sure everyone is on the same page and has a clear, shared vision of the game. “I make sure that many members of staff can share the same information at the same time, regardless of their job or whether they are designer or programmer.” Although this takes more time and planning, Sakurai said that in his experience, this approach “reduces the risk of information gaps” and misunderstandings. “Conversely, if I just conveyed my ideas to the producer, and then they assign work to various other people, then some kind of misunderstanding would occur, or even a 180 degree difference (in what was intended).”
However, when asked whether his approach would be the best for the game industry as a whole, Sakurai was hesitant. “It depends on the person. As for me, I had built up a track record and trust through working on Kirby and Smash Bros. titles in the past. If you don’t have this, if you don’t have any track record at all, then the work won’t come to you. This is a way of working that becomes possible through gaining more allies by continuing to make good games, and it is not a style of working that works well for everyone.”
Sakurai went on to highlight another issue in the current game industry that could make it difficult for individuals to break through as auteurs in the same way as they did in the past. “I feel like the position of game director itself is becoming rarer these days. As in, it is rather rare to find someone who, as a director, can take charge of a studio with hundreds of people,” Sakurai stated. “There are plenty of people who want to make games or who are making games, but there is a shortage of game directors who can manage projects with a large number of staff.”
In Sakurai’s opinion, the increased segmentation of game development into specialized roles is the reason for this lack of game directors with the “all-rounder” background necessary to oversee large-scale projects. “In the past, there was a trend by which people would go from being a graphics artist to a planner, and then become a director.” Sakurai explained. “However today, graphics alone, for example, are divided into models, effects, textures and so on. I feel it is very difficult to develop into an all-rounder in such an environment. I feel like this increasing specialization and segmentation has resulted in a lack of directors who can see things from a broad perspective.”
Sakurai advised that it is important for people to understand their own individuality, and develop that accordingly. “I don’t think anyone will follow the same path that I did, but I’m sure that there will be people who break through in other directions,” said Sakurai. In other words, rather than trying to match or compete with the work and achievements of creators who have come before you, it is important to hone your own strengths and focus on what you can bring to the table. “I believe each creator should carve out their own path.” Sakurai insisted.
Sakurai concluded that both AAA projects and indie games are facing difficult situations. “I think it is becoming unsustainable to continue producing large games on the scale that companies currently do, as it requires too much work.” he said, before suggesting generative AI as a potential tool for helping to solve this problem.
“(…) the only effective breakthrough I can think of at the moment is generative AI. I think we are getting to the point where (AAA studios) have to change their way of working by using gen AI to improve work efficiency. I think we are in an era where only the companies that successfully respond to these changes will be able to survive.”
Sakurai noted that indie titles have their own challenges, one being the sheer amount of competition. “Indie games are appealing for their freedom and creativity, but they also need a lot of luck, effort, polish and stand-out elements to succeed in the market.”
Sakurai is currently working on Kirby Air Riders for Nintendo Switch 2.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
Hytale, the Minecraft competitor announced in 2018, is canceled and its developer is shutting down.
Hypixel Studios announced that the ambitious, Riot Games-backed Minecraft-style game had ended development, and the studio itself was in the process of winding down.
Hytale was announced in December 2018 with a trailer that has an incredible 61 million views on YouTube. Here’s the official blurb, as it was back then:
Hytale combines the scope of a sandbox with the depth of a roleplaying game, immersing players in a procedurally generated world where teetering towers and deep dungeons promise rich rewards throughout their adventures. Hytale supports everything from block-by-block construction to scripting and minigame creation, delivered using easy to use and powerful tools.
Excitement around Hytale was fueled by the experience of the developers themselves, who co-founded Hypixel, one of the most influential Minecraft servers in the world. Riot Games, maker of League of Legends, invested in the project and eventually bought the studio.
However, the Hytale dream is now over. “This is not the outcome any of us — at Hypixel or at Riot — wanted,” a statement attributed to co-founder Noxy published to the Hytale website reads. “But after years of pushing forward, adapting, and exploring every possible path, it became clear we couldn’t bring Hytale to life in a way that truly delivered on its promise.”
So, what went wrong? According to Noxy, Hytale’s technical ambitions grew more complex, and even after a reboot of the game engine, the team “found that Hytale still wasn’t as far along as it needed to be.”
“It became clear we’d need a lot more time to get it to a place where it could support the ambitious vision for the game,” Noxy continued.
Options such as reducing scope and pushing the game back were rejected as they “would have meant compromising on what made Hytale special in the first place.” “It wouldn’t have been the game we set out to make,” Noxy explained. “And it wouldn’t have been the game you deserve.”
As for Riot, it tried to find investors to save the project, but it sounds like those efforts failed to go anywhere. The affected staff are getting “generous severance and resources to help them find what’s next.”
Confirmation of the cancelation comes just a few months after Hypixel issued a spring 2025 development update, where the studio revealed some of the progress it had made in the first few months of the year. It even finally revealed a new character that it had teased at the end of 2023. New engine progress was called out, with improvements highlighted.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Dune: Awakening developer Funcom said it is aware that “players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert.”
In a candid letter from the creative director, Joel Bylos said: “So let me start by stating this unequivocally — we want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame. Our goal is not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in.
“We still believe in the core concept of the Deep Desert — an endlessly renewing location that resets every week and creates an activity loop for great rewards. The tension of heading out there, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe, Our wish was that players would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work together to overcome the bleakness of the Deep Desert. But as Stephen King says, ‘Wish in one hand, sh*t in the other, see which one fills up first.’ One of my hands is overflowing right now and sadly not with wishes.”
Bylos admitted that the “extremely competitive nature” of the Deep Desert was forcing players to engage when they may prefer PvP, and consequently, some areas of the Deep Desert will now be flagged as “Partial Warfare (PvE)” where players can grab rare resources without getting ambushed. The largest spice fields, shipwrecks and Landsraad control points will remain “War of Assassins (PvP)” as “high reward, high risk” areas.
That said, the whole game is balanced around guilds and groups, so if you prefer to be a lone wolf, you can expect it to be “grindy if [you] play solo.”
As for the Orni griefing? “Thopters will always be incredibly important for crossing the desert, but they shouldn’t also be the dominant force in actual battles,” Bylos said, adding that the following will be implemented “shortly”:
Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached will have their speed maneuverability reduced
Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters will have increased heat generation
Thrusters will provide a max speed bonus regardless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts will be the fastest vehicles in the game
A new T5 infantry rocket launcher will be added to help improve the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat
Finally, the Landsraad. Bylos defines it as “an umbrella for all endgame activities,” such as dungeons, contracts, and “more specialized delivery tasks.”
“As a system it is an activity driver that is designed to promote the conflict between the factions, internal politics between the guilds, while providing goal thresholds for individuals and groups to work towards getting personal rewards,” the director explained. “And the Landsraad should be doing that for everyone who wants to participate in the elder game, be they PvEer or PvPer. The Landsraad should be giving you things to do every day and every week.
“It’s nothing new, from a design perspective, we’ve seen daily/weekly quest systems in games for a long time. Our approach was to try and frame this system around the greater politics of the Dune universe, by having players engage in activities to earn the votes of the various Landsraad houses.” Consequently, Funcom will shortly be addressing “key flaws” in the Landsraad design, too, including stockpiling, which is currently rewarded but was not designed to be that way.
“Once a live game launches, it becomes a collaborative effort between the developers and the players to make it something amazing,” Bylos concluded. “We appreciate your feedback on what we hope is the beginning of a long journey together.
“Bear with us — our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a game that everybody can enjoy.”
We gave Dune: Awakening a Great 8/10 in our review, writing: “Dune: Awakening is an excellent survival MMO that captures Frank Herbet’s sci-fi world incredibly well, mostly to its advantage and occasionally to its detriment. The survival climb from dehydrated peasant to powerful warlord of Arrakis is a joy almost every step of the way, and the story and worldbuilding filled this nerd with absolute joy. There’s still plenty for Awakening to work on though, as its combat never really hits its stride, the endgame is a bit of a chaotic mess not worth the effort.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Update: The Pokémon Company has officially announced its new series for its popular trading card game, Mega Evolution. Its first expansion will be titled “Pokémon TCG: Mega Evolution.” More information will be revealed on July 10, 2025.
It’s expected to launch in September this year, while Japan’s equivalents, “Mega Brave” and “Mega Symphonia”, will launch in August. The original story continues below.
Just when you thought the Pokémon TCG had enough going on with Destined Rivals and Black Bolt and White Flare, in comes a brand new series altogether with the Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia sets (Update: Mega Evolution for English markets).
Originally announced at Japan’s Championship tournament, as reported by PokeBeach and later confirmed by The Pokémon Company, the two new sets featuring Mega Lucario ex and Mega Gardevoir ex mark the popular trading card game stepping away from its Scarlet and Violet era.
Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia will release on August 1, 2025, in Japan, and in September for English markets as “Mega Evolution”.
Instead of the long-running Scarlet and Violet block, it will now focus on the Mega Evolutions from the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A game.
Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia will contain 63 cards each, before secret rares are taken into account, and officially kick off the new Mega block of cards. Visually impressive full-art Pokémon and item cards were shown off as well. These include Rare Candy, Night Stretcher, Bulbasaur, Vulpix, and Inteleon.
Both sets have been reported to have a Pokémon Center Mega set, including 60 packs of cards amongst two boxes, a card storage box featuring the respective set’s cover Pokémon, four dividers, a deck box featuring Acerola or Lillie, and card sleeves featuring the same character. This has been priced at 12,800 yen (around $87 today), although the official US pricing hasn’t been revealed yet.
Better quality images of Bulbasaur, Vulpix & Inteleon AR’s from Pokemon Mega Brave & Mega Symphonia pic.twitter.com/VTMqIui97d
There will also be a Premium Trainer Box releasing at 6,350 yen in Japan (around $47), with the official US pricing also currently unknown. This will contain 20 packs, 10 of Mega Brave & Mega Symphonia each, 51 unique cards, a storage box, a Poison/Burn marker, damage counters and case, and a damage storage box.
As also shared by PokeBeach in early June, The Pokémon Company informed tournament organisers at the time that pre-release allocations will be even lower than usual, adding to the TCG’s continued problem of stock shortages.
For when we have more concrete details on preorders for the Pokémon TCG’s English versions of Mega Brave and Mega Symphonia in the US and UK, we’ll update this article so you can try and get a jump on them right away.
Ben Williams – IGN freelance contributor with over 10 years of experience covering gaming, tech, film, TV, and anime. Follow him on Twitter/X @BenLevelTen.
We’re seeing serious drops across Final Fantasy cards as more cards enter the market and things start to settle down post-release. That’s a good sign for anyone looking to pick up a few chase cards standalone rather than ripping open more packs than your bank account can handle.
Take Lightning, Army of One, for example. Her Borderless variant was sitting around $90, but has now dropped to around $50. Will it climb again? It’s hard to say, but we’ll keep an eye on it.
The Borderless version of Cloud, Midgar Mercenary is also down to around $50 now, a drop of around $60 from launch week.
Vivi is also still rising in value this week, but it’s still a sharp drop from the $100 market demand last time we looked at him. He can be found for around $55-60 right now, so keep an eye on this one.
Finally, Sephiroth, Fallen Hero’s Extended Art version has crash-landed from around $100 to just $7 since the pre-release day pricing, that’s a big ol’ drop, and a good example as why it’s good to wait and see on how the market will fall post-release of a big set like this.
Magic: The Gathering – Climbers
As we covered recently, Final Fantasy’s cards have bizarrely given some syngizing Doctor Who cards a mega boost in value. For starters, Danny Pink’s ability to draw cards from counters makes him an ideal pickup for your Tidus Commander Deck, but the price has climbed steeply from $4 to over $12 already.
Next up, Barbara Wright might not be the first card you think of when playing Final Fantasy cards, but her Read Ahead ability means she can manipulate Summons from the new set to get to the best effects more quickly. She’s still going for around $4, so she isn’t as pricey as Danny, but she was a dollar not long ago.
Another Tidus synergy, Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus is a Phyrexian Horror that, admittedly, wouldn’t look out of place in a Final Fantasy battle. He can double your proliferation of counters, which is ideal for Tidus’ deck. He’s gone from $6 not long ago to over $14 now.
Aside from our Blitzball star, Vivi Ornitier is getting plenty of love from players (I packed one myself, hooray!). One card that works well with him is the Flame of Anor, an instant with a trio of effects you can pick one of. If you control a Wizard (like our adorable friend), then you can pick two. It’s up to around $3, with the foil going for over $4. Not big numbers, sure, but not long ago it was a $2 card and it could climb yet.
If you’ve ever wanted to upset pals in a casual game of Commander, Mesmeric Orb can pair nicely with either Final Fantasy’s The Water Crystal or if someone at your table is playing the Mothman Fallout deck.
The first of those combos will get your friends milling themselves endlessly, while the latter can spread so many Rad counters that it could end up being the shortest game of Commander in history. Mesmeric Orb just hit $24 and could climb higher, a $7 increase week-on-week.
MTG Sealed Sets
Everything else Final Fantasy is pretty hot right now, so if you manage to find anything in stock, it might be worth picking up ASAP to avoid disapointment.
Lloyd Coombes is Gaming Editor @ Daily Star. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay. He’s also a tech, gaming, and fitness freelancer seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar, Tom’s Guide, IGN, and more.
Thanks to the lovely folks at TCGPlayer for the info and data that informed this article.
Reach is one of the coolest VR games I’ve played in a long time. Chasing the high of classic cinematic action games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, I had a blast climbing ledges, jumping between buildings, and popping enemies while dual-wielding pistols in NDreams’ latest. With dynamic movement and a surprisingly accurate sense of full-body awareness, I can’t wait to see more from this one, even if I got a little dizzy jumping as I platformed my way through the first level.
VR games often need to tow a delicate balance. Moving in a 3D space with stick-based movement is a surefire way to cause motion sickness for a lot of players, so a majority of VR games are designed in a way that takes both point-and-teleport-based movement and stick-based movement into account. But after a demo that featured a lot of running, jumping, and platforming, I’m pleased to say that I didn’t feel that creeping, bottom-of-the-stomach sensation I sometimes feel in VR.
A majority of the demo I played focused on platforming; I scaled up walls and grabbed onto ledges like in The Climb or Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Combined with sprinting, jumping, and even jumping between holds while climbing, the movement here felt surprisingly smooth and dynamic. Before long, I felt like an acrobatic action star pulling off the kinds of stunts only Tom Cruise could accomplish. Multiple times in my demo, I nearly bungled a jump but managed to snag a ledge in the nick of time, swinging in in a way that felt far more real and natural than I could’ve imagined in VR.
Before long, I felt like an acrobatic action star pulling off the kinds of stunts only Tom Cruise could accomplish.
Moreso than any kind of cool action setpiece or stealth encounter, this kind of little detail – snagging a ledge just in time, saving myself from falling to certain doom – helps break free from the often on-rails feeling VR games can have. In sections where I wasn’t so lucky and wound up replaying a few times, I found myself skipping jumps and getting from point A to B in new ways each time. I love finding ways to maximize the tools in my toolkit to improve my movement in any game I play, but that kind of drive is rarely satisfied in VR. Reach answered that question in spades.
Exploring Reach’s first level wasn’t all running and climbing, though. I wound up in a handful of shootouts with generic militia guys as I made my way to rescue some hostages. There’s a bow with unlimited ammo strapped to your shoulder. With just a reach over your shoulder, you can snipe away at enemies from a safe distance before climbing, jumping, or running to where you need to go. While the section I saw didn’t really focus on stealth, I did run guns-blazing into what was probably supposed to be a stealth segment set in an office space.
There seemed to be some kind of enemy alert system, though by the time I realized what that little bubble above my targets’ heads meant, the arrow destined for my last enemy’s chest cavity had whistled off my bowstring. After that, there were a few more shootouts, though they didn’t task me with navigating an enclosed space in quite the same way. Instead, they took the shape of more traditional shooting gallery-style encounters like you’d find in plenty of other VR games with guns. Bad guys popped out of shutters and stood on balconies, with conveniently placed pistols littering the level for me to grab and unload.
These were considerably less fun and interesting than that stealth segment. As anyone who’s spent even a little time in VR will tell you, plenty of VR games make their bones in these shooting galleries – they have for nearly a decade at this point. So going from a more open, interactive design to a handful of moments I’d already seen before in a handful of other VR shooters was pretty disappointing. But after I cleared them, I went right back to platforming, exploring the very ledges my victims fell off of.
The shooting-gallery parts were considerably less fun and interesting than that stealth segment.
After one last shootout, things escalated. A helicopter started firing at me as I clambered my way to safety after a truck barreled through and propped open a gate, letting me scurry up a high wall. This little extra jolt of danger and tension, with walls exploding and ceilings collapsing behind me as the helicopter closed in on my location set off a last-ditch moment of platforming madness.
Blazing through Reach’s first level was the most fun I’ve had in VR in months, capped off with a charming way to end a demo like this. I can’t wait to see the rest of what NDreams cooks up when it eventually releases sometime later this year on Meta Quest 3, PlayStation VR2, and SteamVR.
Tucked into a corner of Summer Games Fest, Spine is definitely the kind of game meant to turn heads and grab attention. There is a decidedly late-’90s arcade style to the third-person action title that compels players to grab a controller and see what is going on for themselves. While it’s still early, in my hands-on demo with Spine, I can safely say that it’s absolutely something I’m excited to see evolve as it develops.
Aesthetically, Spine fits the cyberpunk-Blade Runner mold of an overcrowded dystopian city with profuse neon-yet-dark corners everywhere. The player assumes the role of a street artist named Redline who, in the demo, has been accused of a crime she did not commit and quickly finds herself surrounded by thugs at a bar. Redline fights off the enemies with deadly force and keeps going while punching and shooting everything that gets in her way.
Players familiar with Sifu will notice an immediate resemblance to that game in the form of the quick jabs, special attacks, and parry-driven finishing moves, but the developer shies away from that particular comparison. Instead, they insist it is a little bit more like Rocksteady’s Arkham series of Batman titles, with a heavy focus on reading tells more than predicting enemy movements.
Rather than comparing combat to Sifu, Spine’s developers insist it is a little bit more like Rocksteady’s Arkham series.
Regardless of inspiration, the true carnival-game feel of Spine comes from the flashy and over-the-top finishers that are earned by parrying enemy attacks. Not for the squeamish or meek at heart, Redline will often force enemies to swallow a bullet with a gun shoved between their teeth or spin around them like John Wick with a well-placed shot to the back of the skull. The camera zooms, spins, and pans around the finishers to showcase the most dramatic and cinematic angles for her gunkata before Redline quickly moves on to the next goon coming her way.
Parrying also works at enemies throwing things or shooting at her as well, allowing her to spot-dodge the incoming projectile with a quick lean or turn that feels immensely satisfying, regardless of the ease to pull off.
Occasionally, Redline will pick up another weapon with limited ammo, such as a shotgun, and blow enemies away in one hit. These sections feel more like Hotline Miami than anything Batman has ever done, and sometimes even adopt that overhead camera angle to complete the allusion, intentional or otherwise.
There is some degree of Sega Genesis vibe going on with Spine that I cannot quite put my finger on, but it absolutely evokes an alternate reality where beat-‘em-ups became the biggest genre in the world in the ‘90s and iterated on that formula for decades. While there is a lot more to see before deciding where in that storied hierarchy Spine will land, I am more than interested in watching it get there.
