One of the biggest news stories to come out of last night’s Game Awards was the announcement of Elden Ring: Nightreign, a new standalone, co-op Elden Ring experience coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC next year.
Our lucky friends over at IGN got to speak to the game’s director, Junya Ishizaki, and one of the questions relates to the game coming to Nintendo’s upcoming Switch successor. It’s undoubtedly a fair query, given that the three-player PvE outing is also coming to last-gen hardware like the PS4 and Xbox One.
Next Week(s) on Xbox: New Games for December 16 to January 3
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox! Each week, we highlight the exciting new games arriving soon on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Game Pass. This will be the last feature for a couple of weeks as we’ll be on holiday. Check out the details on these upcoming titles below and click on their profiles for more information (release dates may vary). Let’s jump in!
Experience the golden age of piracy through a strong and original narrative, real-time exploration and turn-based tactical combat in Flint – Treasure of Oblivion. Assisted by his friend Billy Bones and his crew, Captain Flint sets sail for a mysterious treasure. If the call of the unknown galvanizes him, he doesn’t yet suspect this adventure will set him free.
You’re Ace – a famous bounty hunter after your latest target, the eccentric robot-showman Frazzer. To find your way through his twisted techno-playground, you’ll have to master the art of shooting, wall-running, sliding, and bunny hopping, all in sync with the beat!
Take on the role of a little imp chef serving up devilishly delightful dishes to hungry demon patrons. Move the dishes across the fiery kitchen, carefully pushing and delivering them on the table to serve your hellish clients. Every level demands sharp thinking and a strategic approach, as each dish must be assembled with precision to satisfy your picky infernal clientele.
Embark on an enchanting quest as Azura, a spirited heroine, and discover a world of ancient mysticism. Forge unbreakable bonds with mythical creatures using the power of Primalis Crystals. Traverse breathtaking landscapes, make difficult choices, and uncover the secrets that shape your destiny.
Montgomery Fox And The Case Of The Diamond Necklace (Xbox)
An exciting Hidden Object investigation. When crime strikes the countryside, only a famous city detective can solve the case. He’ll soon discover there’s more to this case than meets the eye! Set for a journey, meet different characters, find clues and finally unravel a riveting mystery in this fun and colorful hidden object adventure game! Enjoy bright and lighthearted levels and locations, with no time limit or pressure of any kind.
Montgomery Fox And The Case Of The Missing Ballerinas (Xbox)
When the ballerinas mysteriously vanish from the theatre, Detective Montgomery Fox jumps into action. Meet various characters, question them, and write your clues to your diary. Visit dozens of locations and search through hundreds of hidden objects and items while you solve riddles and play minigames in this hidden object adventure game.
In a bizarre bazaar, there’s a worried woman crafting entire universes in the palm of her hand. Universe for Sale is a hand-drawn adventure game set in the dense clouds of Jupiter, where sapient orangutans work as dockhands and mysterious cultists strip the flesh from their bones to reach enlightenment.
Scarabs, spiders and other insects seek to destroy the fragile world of ants, and only your magic and strategic thinking will help maintain the balance. Your task is to become the leader of this great colony, rebuild your army and learn to use magic to protect your comrades to turn the tide of battle.
When the Bitty Gang steals the town’s livelihood and takes it underground, a lone, brave cowboy must come to the rescue. Cave Ranger is an 8-bit inspired, retro platform game. Rescue sheep, fight outlaws, and face down dangerous critters. With a whip and pistol at his disposal, the cave ranger must traverse old mines, water reservoirs, and even a sawmill! It is a lighthearted, laid-back western, full of platformer fun.
A love letter to 80s maze-based arcade games. In this game, you make your way through a maze trying to avoid robots, destroy security servers, and escape. Armed with your trusty blaster (the P-45) you’ll need to blast the evil robot managers and avoid electrified walls.
Welcome to Ghoulie’s Garden, where Halloween magic awaits! Guide Ghoulie, a friendly little zombie, through haunted mazes filled with pumpkins to collect. But beware — this garden is crawling with ghosts, bats, and colorful clowns eager to make things tricky!
An omniverse multiplayer party royale game that allows up to 10 players to enjoy a range of compact plays in 10 minutes. Players can customize their characters with variety of effects and features, making the game more interactive and unpredictable.
The much-improved successor to the highly successful Jewel Fever 2 which is played by millions of people. It adds new game modes, better graphics, and finally local and online multiplayer!
Step into the role of your favorite heroes and villains from across the history of Star Trek and embark on an epic space adventure to control the mysterious Nexus. Battle to save all of existence in Star Trek’s official strategy-based RPG!
Prepare delicious meals for your feline customers by moving carts, chopping, mixing, and baking ingredients to create the perfect dish. Each level requires precision and planning, as you’ll need to pay close attention to the orders and ingredients before you start cooking. Serve your whiskered clients with speed and accuracy to keep them happy!
How well do you know your planet and the universe beyond? Let’s put your knowledge to the test! Embark on an exciting journey filled with captivating trivia, stunning visuals, and surprising discoveries!
What’s the worst thing that could happen to a modern-day taxi driver? Not getting paid? Get mugged? No. A cabbie can get cursed by a witch and lose his sight. What if that witch is unable to control her powers in this world? What happens then? Welcome to the magical world of Doodle Taxi where you’ll navigate an open world while your vision is slowly taken away. The cure: Deliver customers fast and carefully to restore your vision.
Sequel to an action-adventure RPG. Experience the ambiance of 16-bit classics from the 80s and 90s with many modern twists. Challenge yourself in 50 action-packed levels full of dangers and riches.
The wild west gets even wilder with the development of cybernetic technology, and it’s up to you to take down the bandit gangs turning this tech against honest and hard-working locals! Step into the role of a steampunk gunslinger with a mechanical arm and loads of enhanced weaponry at your disposal in this top-down, twin-stick shooter presented in a slick pixel art style.
A thrilling puzzle game where chaos and strategy collide. You play as a powerful monster invading a city, tasked with destroying buildings by pushing cars into them. Progress through 30 uniquely designed levels, each filled with new challenges and obstacles that test your wits and destructive skills!
Guide the hungry cow to its goal! Place directional tiles on the ground and choose to solve puzzles the easy or hard way, it’s up to you! Watch as the cow follows your path to reach its tasty hay in this fun, kid-friendly game!
As 2024 comes to a close, we can’t help but look back at an incredible year of gaming. The PlayStation Blog team wants to thank you for the moments we’ve shared this year, and across PlayStation’s last 30 years.
Before we press start on a new year, we’ve gathered some season’s greetings from our talented friends and colleagues from across the industry.
Ryu Ga Gotoku revealed Project Century at The Game Awards 2024 last night and Yakuza / Like a Dragon fans are already deep in the theorizing phase to figure out what the heck it actually is.
Some fans believe Project Century is directly connected to RGG Studio’s other games by being set in Kamurocho, the fictional version of Tokyo’s red light district at the center of the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series. While its streets are obviously a far cry from the modern metropolis that is Tokyo today, a certain building seen in the trailer looks similar to a prominent location in Kamurocho.
“I saw a building that looked like Shangri-la at the start of the trailer,” Reddit user Jenkitten165 said, referencing the one at the bottom-left of the street in the image on the left, below. Shangri-La, a brothel which has appeared in various states across several Yakuza / Like a Dragon games, is on the right.
There are differences, of course, but the shape of the building, its position on the street, the large front door, and the balcony directly above it all match. Shangri-La is also a distinctively older looking building than most in Kamurocho.
If it is in fact Shangri-La, this would make the main street seen in the Project Century trailer East Taihei Boulevard, just along the road from where the Millenium Tower now stands and the home of Kobuki Drugs.
Details are still slim on Project Century but it seems similar in style to the Yakuza / Like a Dragon games, with lots of street fights and, well, actual yakuza walking around. Sticking to this theme would therefore make Tokyo’s red light district, once again, a perfect setting for Project Century.
Is Project Century a Yakuza / Like a Dragon game?
This raises the question of canon, as while Project Century is set in 1915 and therefore 90 years before Yakuza 1, it could still be set in the same universe and timeline. The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series time hops plenty already, with prequel Yakuza 0 going back to 1988 and some cutscenes going back decades earlier.
Yakuza gangs were active during this time period too, so despite its much earlier presence it could easily be about the Japanese underworld. The main family in the Yakuza / Like a Dragon series, the Tojo Clan, has never had its origins explored either, perhaps presenting an opportunity to do so here.
Project Century could still be set within the Yakuza / Like a Dragon canon without technically being a Yakuza / Like a Dragon game, however. RGG Studio has done this before with Judgement and Lost Judgement, a series set within the same world but featuring (mostly) different characters and a different story.
Some fans even think it’s linked to Judgement directly. “Genuinely think it may be Judgement: Isshin,” said crazyred88 on Reddit. Like a Dragon: Isshin is the somewhat confusingly non-canon Yakuza / Like a Dragon game that is essentially a piece of historical fiction featuring characters from the modern setting games.
But is the protagonist of Project Century, presumably the man we see beating up baddies in the trailer, an alternate history version of Takayuki Yagami from the Judgement series? The trailer only shows a single shot of his face, so it’s still hard to say, but some fans certainly think so.
Other theories exist too, of course, with the most common comparison being made between the protagonist and the actor who played protagonist Kiryu Kazuma in the 2007 live action adaptation of Yakuza / Like a Dragon, Kazuki Kitamura.
“He looks like Kazuki Kitamura, who played Kiryu in the first movie,” said SomeChunkyMilk on Reddit. “He’s my guess. The nose and the hair look pretty damn similar.” FarEast_Frez chimed in too: “He’s quite tall as well, which would probably help with the mocap since the character looked quite tall.”
This would mean he wasn’t Yagami, of course, who’s played by Takuya Kimura. Like a Dragon: Isshin previously brought over all the characters one for one, with the same models and voice actors and so on, so this would dissuade the Judgement Isshin theory.
Others, again, point to a completely fresh character though: the founding member of the Tojo Clan. ” I wonder if it’s the first Tojo patriarch, the one who takes Kamurocho under his control and establishes the family, then later the Tojo Clan,” said Hold-My-Sake on Reddit. “Dude if this is legit the progenitor of the Tojo Clan I will actually eat a shoe,” added Terrible_Guidance599.
Is Project Century a Dragon Engine game?
Whoever he is, the protagonist of Project Century is much more violent than the likes of Kiryu or Yagami. Despite having beaten up thousands of people and taken down helicopters with rocket launchers and so on, Kiryu has officially never killed someone. The same can’t be said after 90 seconds of this new protagonist, who’s stabbing baddies with crowbars and ripping out their innards.
This is notable for other reasons though; the current Dragon Engine has so far been used to create Yakuza 6: The Song of Life, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Judgement, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Lost Judgement, Like a Dragon: Ishin, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and the upcoming Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, for a total of 11 games over eight years.
Fans are debating whether Project Century is, or is not, a Dragon Engine game. “It’s like they pushing the Dragon engine to its limit, even for RGG standard this is insane,” Reddit user honoyom said, but was refuted by AnyImpression6 who thought it was Unreal Engine 5.
Others pointed out that Project Century is already reusing animations from other RGG Studio games though, something that’s fairly common practice. “Like four of the combat animations are straight from the other games too,” said AppealToReason16. “I knew it was an RGG game before the name reveal at that first movement.”
RGG Studio does make clear the trailer footage is pre-alpha, however, meaning very early in development. RGG Studio has otherwise made clear it favors the Dragon Engine for its ability to produce a realistic atmosphere for cities at night time. It could therefore make sense that, for Project Century, which doesn’t feature the bright lights of modern day Tokyo, RGG Studio would be more comfortable stepping away from the Dragon Engine in favor of something more technologically advanced.
Fans will just have to wait patiently for answers to all of these questions. Project Century is probably still a while away given it doesn’t have a title yet, and RGG Studio is currently developing Virtua Fighter 6 and Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii alongside Project Century.
It is known for its unbelievably speedy development times, however. In the last five years, for example, its released Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Judgment Remastered, Lost Judgment, Like a Dragon: Ishin, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, alongside three Super Monkey Ball Games and an enhanced remaster of Virtua Fighter 5. That’s 12 games in total.
In our 9/10 review of the last RGG Studio release, IGN said: “Sprawling, enthralling, and packed with dynamic brawling, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth isn’t just the best turn-based Like a Dragon game, it’s one of the greatest games in the entire series.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Stealth launching a game during an awards ceremony is cool. But you know what’s cooler? Stealth launching a union. As many in the games industry settled in for an evening of advertisements and blockbuster backslapping, one group of US workers quietly succeeded in organising something of their own. Employees at Zenimax Online Studios launched their union with 461 members, as announced on social media site Bluesky last night.
If you watched The Witcher 4’s debut trailer during The Game Awards 2024, you’ll have heard a line of dialogue that sounded very much like it was coming from previous protagonist Geralt: “Time for a new saga. See you on the path.”
IGN can confirm that Geralt is indeed in The Witcher 4, and that is indeed the voice of veteran Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle. Confirmation comes from CD Projekt itself, which told IGN: “Geralt will appear in the game, but we don’t want to spoil his role precisely. You’ll have to wait to learn more for now.”
So, how can Geralt appear in The Witcher 4 after The witcher 3 left the character in semi-retirement at his vineyard in Toussaint? In an interview with IGN ahead of the reveal of The Witcher 4, CD Projekt franchise and lore designers Cian Maher and Marcin Batylda explained how the already established timeline of events makes it make sense.
“I mean Geralt will probably be around for a long time to the extent that in Season of Storms, the prequel novel that takes place actually before Geralt attends that banquet we mentioned earlier on, there is an epilogue in that book,” Maher explained.
“It takes place in a place called Magpie Forest in 1373, 101 years after The Witcher 3. And in that epilogue there is a certain white-haired witcher hunting a monster who remains unnamed, but who behaves in a certain way and obviously he has white hair. So by which I mean I think we can expect Geralt to be around for a long time. The capacity in which he does is, we’ll see, but I don’t think he’s going anywhere.”
“I don’t actually know if that’s true now because they came back and they went, ‘We haven’t put anything out there, don’t say anything,’ ” Cockle said, before adding: “The truth is I can’t answer the question because I’ve signed an NDA. So even if I did know, I’d have to lie to you.”
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.
Will the bulletting of my beloved dinosaurs never cease? Turok: Origins will revisit the dino-hunting archery of ye olde Nintendo 64, reimagining it as a story of three native huntsfolk out to lambast large lizards. The big new angle is that it’ll be a third-person shooter and you can play in online co-op as a team of T-rex wreckers. You then slurp up their dino DNA to upgrade your character. Come and watch these crimes against nature in the trailer below.
FromSoftware surprised everyone at The Game Awards 2024 last night with the reveal of co-op spin-off Elden Ring Nightreign, but if that’s not shocking enough, it also features bosses from Dark Souls.
Their appearances will be limited, Ishizaki said, as they represent creatures that have strayed into this twisted version of Limgrave from other universes. While he only mentioned Dark Souls, this theoretically opens the door for other FromSoftware games such as Demon’s Souls, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and, dare we say it, Bloodborne to cameo.
Elden Ring Nightreign drops up to three players into a condensed version of Limgrave from the main Elden Ring and tasks them with surviving. Enemies and structures are procedurally generated to allow for a varied experience, with players encouraged to battle to grow stronger and survive the night, when a boss appears.
Dave The Diver has quickly become one of the most bankable titles for an appearance at each and every game showcase since it arrived on PC and console last year, and The Game Awards was no exception.
Developer MINTROCKET popped up at this year’s Geoff-fest to reveal the upcoming ‘In the Jungle‘ DLC, an expansion that will see Dave and co. leave the Blue Hole and set out into greener pastures (literally) to search for their next catch.
