Category: Video Games

Three more Tomb Raider games are getting remastered courtesy of Crystal Dynamics and Aspyr, bringing fans back to the time when the hallowed series was starting to be considered a little long in the tooth.

The Tomb Raider IV-IV Remastered features updated version of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles, and Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. The first two were originally released for the PlayStation 1 and Dreamcast, while the third one came out on PlayStation 2. All three are considered lesser entries by many fans, with Angel of Darkness in particular being known for being buggy and unfinished.

Here are the official descriptions of all three games.

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999)

Lara Croft uncovers the lost tomb of the Egyptian God Set, unwittingly unleashing him and fulfilling an ancient prophecy—one that plunges mankind into darkness. Pursued at every turn by her arch-rival, the unscrupulous archaeologist Werner Von Croy, Lara embarks on a journeyof discovery across Egypt, where she must overcome the most ingenious puzzles and infernal traps ever devised while facing terrifying evil from beyond the grave.

Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000)

Following the events of The Last Revelation, Lara Croft is buried in an Egyptian tomb and presumed dead. At her memorial, those closest to her reminisce about secrets from her past. Travel back and experience Lara’s untold adventures, introducing new gameplay mechanics like stealth and tightrope balancing!

Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness (2003)

Accused of murder, Lara becomes a fugitive on the run, uncovering a sinister conspiracy involving alchemical experiments and the search for ancient artifacts. It’s up to Lara to stop this unholy alliance from unleashing its incredible powers on the world.

Aspyr’s collection will seek to spruce all of these games up a bit with improved visuals, modern control options, trophies, achievements, and of course, a Photo Mode. They follow in the footsteps of the Tomb Raider I – III Remastered Collection released earlier this year, which were developed in part by a fan who had previously been working on remakes of the original games.

We wrote in our tech review, “The very small and largely independent team that built Tomb Raider I-III Remastered have clear passion and skills for the legacy of Lara Croft. The enhancements offered are great and much better than, for example, the recent Konami Metal Gear Solid Collection. High frame rates, dual new and old modes, all of the expansion packs, improved graphics and controls alongside fast swapping across all 3 titles and DLC from the main menu are welcome.”

Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio has sold over one million copies as of its official release date, publisher Sega has announced.

That’s enough to make Metaphor: ReFantazio the fastest-selling Atlus game of all time, breaking Persona 3 Reload’s record of hitting one million in a week.

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s October 11 global release date has already seen the Persona-style game shoot up Steam’s most-played game list, with 42,992 concurrent players at the time of this article’s publication. That figure will no-doubt rise as we head into the weekend and fans in other regions get the chance to play.

The game also launched across PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, but neither Sony nor Microsoft makes player numbers publicly available. It seems likely that one million sales figure will swell to two million sooner rather than later.

Atlus made the announcement alongside the release of an illustration from character designer Shigenori Soejima, below.

アトラス完全新作ファンタジーRPG『メタファー：リファンタジオ』 全世界累計販売本数100万本を突破！

“Metaphor: ReFantazio” has surpassed 1 million copies sold worldwide!

MetacriticによるメタスコアではPlayStation®5版:93点をはじめ各プラットフォームで高得点を獲得しました。 #メタファー pic.twitter.com/ruL9vpNxOT

— セガ公式アカウント🦔 (@SEGA_OFFICIAL) October 11, 2024

Metaphor: ReFantazio, from the creators of the hugely popular Persona 3, 4, and 5, is a role-playing game set in the United Kingdom of Euchronia, a medieval fantasy realm that mirrors the real world. You play an orphaned boy who journeys across the kingdom as part of a bid for the throne.

It has enjoyed pretty much universal acclaim, with IGN’s Metaphor: ReFantazio review returning a 9/10. We said: “Refining the Atlus RPG formula of weaving tough turn-based combat into compelling social sim mechanics, Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t just send a powerful message across its political drama, it becomes a beautiful expression of the real impact storytelling can have on all of us.”

As part of its promotion for the game’s launch, Sega gave UK fans the chance to become a member of the royal family of the world’s smallest (but unofficially recognized) country: Sealand.

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.

On Disco Elysium’s five-year anniversary, two separate studios each made up of people who used to work at developer ZA/UM have announced they’re both making a spiritual successor of their own.

Disco Elysium is a 2019 narrative role-playing game developed and published by controversial studio ZA/UM. Gameplay revolves around navigating dialogue trees rather than combat, with each of the 24 skills representing a different aspect of the amnesiac detective protagonist’s abilities and thoughts. The player is free to support or suppress his ideologies as they work through the story. Disco Elysium is considered by some among the greatest video games ever made.

It went on to enjoy enormous success, winning numerous game of the year awards and selling millions of copies. A TV series adaptation deal followed, as did the release of an expanded version of the game featuring full voice acting and new content subtitled The Final Cut. A follow-up seemed all but guaranteed, but after high-profile staff exits and subsequent messy legal tussles brought ZA/UM to its knees, what might have turned out to be a Disco Elysium sequel was canceled.

Now, two new London-based studios have emerged from the chaos: Dark Math Games and Longdue Games. Each has drawn a line back to both Disco Elysium and ZA/UM in the announcement of not just their existence, but their upcoming games.

Let’s start with Dark Math Games. Founded in 2023, Dark Math describes itself as a “breakaway group” from the original development team of Disco Elysium. It is a group of 20 people, about half of whom “contributed” to “bringing the critically acclaimed hit Disco Elysium and Disco Elysium – The Final Cut to life.”

Dark Math’s game is called XXX NIGHTSHIFT and, like Disco Elysium, is described as a ‘true detective RPG.’ Here’s the official blurb:

Set 2086, you play a Patrol Op, Dinorah Katz, who is stranded at a luxury Ski resort in Antarctica. This original science-fiction setting lands you in a resort that shouldn’t exist with people that you shouldn’t know with the endless polar night covering a multitude of sins.

XXX NIGHTSHIFT will deliver a deep single-player role-playing experience with many tools and layers of gameplay. A unique companion dynamic adds more fun and offers different paths to solve cases. The innovative and powerful role-playing system respects your time and trusts your intelligence with seismic choices. It’s up to you to decide how your story unfolds — and how it ends.

Based on its announcement trailer and screenshots, XXX NIGHTSHIFT looks remarkably similar to Disco Elysium, even down to the isometric perspective and dialogue text that moves up the right-hand side of the screen as the player makes choices and hears voice actors bring a narrator and the protagonist’s internal monologue to life.

One of the four Dark Math founders is art director Timo Albert, who was a motion graphic designer at ZA/UM from 2018 to October 2022. Albert commented: “Additionally to innovating the traditional RPG mechanics, we’ll bring something fresh to the table. You will see. And of course, a few less words. And a few more bullets, perhaps. In total: lot more fun.”

According to filings on Companies House, Dark Math’s active directors include Heiti Kender, with his brother, Kaur Kender, listed as a resigned director. Kaur Kender was an early investor in ZA/UM and executive producer of Disco Elysium. In March 2023, a bitter legal dispute between Kender and ZA/UM over ownership of the coveted Disco Elysium IP was resolved, with a court ordering Kender to repay ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus for legal fees.

Now, let’s move on to Longdue Games. It said it’s making a “new psychological RPG… set in a game world conceived by the leads of the now canceled Disco Elysium sequel.” Others working on this untitled Disco Elysium spiritual successor worked at the likes of Bungie, Rockstar, and Yes, Your Graces developer Brave At Night.

Longdue, backed by tech investor Riaz Moola, said it has a “focus on creating psychologically deep, narrative-first experiences” and wants to become “a meaningful and consistent voice in the isometric cRPG space.”

“With the fifth anniversary of Disco Elysium on the horizon, Longdue is proud to announce its formation as a new independent studio that has raised seed investment to create an RPG that will continue Disco Elysium’s award-winning legacy and represent a bold new artistic endeavor that aims to trailblaze in the narrative-first cRPG space,” Longdue said in its note to press.

Longdue didn’t name its game (all we have for now is a solitary piece of concept art, below), but it did say it features what it calls a “psychogeographic” RPG mechanic “where every decision reshapes both the world and the characters that inhabit it.” “In this experience,” Longdue explained, “the lines between the mind and the environment blur, colliding and transforming with each choice, leading players through an ever-evolving narrative landscape.”