Video Games | Page 995 of 1214

Red Faction: Guerrilla dev’s barmy physics sandbox Instruments Of Destruction leaves early access in May

Do you remember the noughties fan warz over which game had the best terrain destruction physics? The victors of that particular forum skirmish were probably DICE’s Battlefield games, with their woozy Frostbitten cinematography and dependable multiplayer tactic of having a whole team focus fire on a single capture point, gradually reducing it to stumps of foundation. But leftier souls may have preferred Volition’s (RIP) Red Faction series, the third of which, Red Faction: Guerrilla, featured a granular demolition engine that you bash apart whole bases with a sledgehammer.

Well, Guerrilla’s lead tech designer Luke Schneider is still in the architecture-ruining business: his and Radiangames’s latest, the hopefully self-explanatory Instruments Of Destruction, leaves Steam early access on May 10th, 2024. Here’s the 1.0 trailer.

Exclusive: Farm With Frogs In ‘Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge’ On Switch This Year

Ribbit-ing stuff.

Do you love frogs? Have you ever wanted to raise an army of the little hoppy creatures? Developer Humble Reeds’ Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge is a ribbit-ing farm sim that’ll let you live out that fantasy.

Originally only coming to PC, we can exclusively reveal that Kamaeru will also be hopping onto Nintendo Switch in 2024 — at the same time as the PC release. With beautiful watercolour visuals and a cute little premise, the game looks pretty irresistible if you like your faming sims, or a just a big frog lover.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Diablo 4’s First Public Test Realm Let’s Players Try Season 4 Early

Diablo 4 players impatiently waiting to try Season 4 can now do so thanks to Blizzard releasing the game’s first Public Test Realm (PTR).

Blizzard initially announced the PTR in late March, revealing that it would run for a limited time, starting on Tuesday, April 2, and concluding on Tuesday, April 9. However, a week-long PTR is not the only thing limiting this PTR, as Blizzard already confirmed in the same announcement that it would only be available to players with a PC Battle.net account.

Nevertheless, if you are eligible for the PTR, you will gain access to test updates and features before Season 4 officially launches. Alongside allowing certain players itching to try the new season, this PTR will also allow the development team some time to consider and implement any player feedback gained from this testing period, allowing them to incorporate it into the forthcoming season.

The release of the PTR was part of a bigger announcement from Blizzard, revealing that the team had to delay Season 4. The season was originally supposed to launch on April 16, but during the most recent episode in the Campfire Chat series, Diablo Community Lead Adam Fletcher revealed that it had to delay the fourth season until May 14.

Diablo 4 is already being touted as the biggest post-launch update for the game yet. While Season 3 introduced some things, most notably Class Changes, Blizzard pledged that the next season will rework itemization, changing the entire framework of how loot impacts the overall gameplay experience.

For who recently jumped in thanks to Blizzard bringing its most recent project to both Xbox Game Pass for consoles and PC Game Pass, there are a few caveats: there is no Xbox achievement support, and if you are playing the PC Game Pass version, you need to install Battle.net.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Content Warning devs fixing mic, video and connection problems after “wild ride” of a launch

It’s a fond hope, a fool’s hope, but perhaps 2024 will be remembered not as the year of Yet More Layoffs, but the year of Unexpected Hits. Surprise record-setters like Palworld, which I don’t especially like, Helldivers 2, which I rather enjoy, and now Content Warning, which I’m still figuring out. If you missed it, the co-op horror game released on Monday with a temporary free promotion, and racked up a 200,000-player Steam concurrency last night. Published by Totally Accurate Battle Simulator outfit Landfall, it’s sort of like Lethal Company in being about venturing into horrible places as a wibbly-wobbly defenceless explorer, but rather than gathering scrap for resale, you’re filming yourself and the monsters in a bid to publish a viral “SpookTube” video, with tuber celebrity translating into cash for new equipment.

Each video is edited together automatically from your footage and accompanying voicechat, once you return from each trip to the Old World, and you can watch it all on an in-game monitor with a mocked-up chat feed and viewcount. It’s a pungent, potted commentary on the machinations of Youtube celebrity, with heady notes of “cautionary tale about algorithmic content generation” and “cautionary tale about people endangering or hurting themselves being a dependable source of views”. Urgh, I can feel an op-ed coming on. In the meantime, here’s how the developers – a team of only five – are updating Content Warning following its launch success.

“It almost feels like proof-of-concept for a first-person Prince of Persia game, with an ever-so-gentle dusting of Portal,” our Edwin said after playing free first-person platformer Grimhook when it launched in December. It’s a cracking little game, parkouring about with the help of supernatural powers and a grappling hook, but ends right as it feels like it’s getting started. I’d certainly be up for three hours of this, so how splendid to hear that the developers are planning to make a “complete” and fancier experience.

The PC and console market grew by 2.6% to $93.5 billion in revenue last year, according to a new report by video games date company Newzoo (cheers, Kotaku!) That’s good, right? Growth is universally a good thing, otherwise all those nice, dead-eyed men in suits wouldn’t keep saying it was. You can’t just lie about growth, that’s a business crime. However, here’s some slightly more worrying news, depending on how much you value new ideas: Of all the game time that gamers spent gaming in quantifiable Big Year for Gaming 2023, just 20% of that time was gamed on games other than the 66 specific games mentioned in the report.

Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Uniqlo Range Officially Announced

A Link to the Peng (sorry).

Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo has announced a new range of t-shirts based on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (thanks, VGC).

Launching in Japan on 26th April, 2024 at ¥1,500 (roughly $10 / £8) each, the range consists of six designs based on Nintendo’s sublime sequel to Breath of the Wild, which launched on the Switch in May 2023. No Western release for the range has been confirmed at the time of writing, but based on previous collaborations, we’re confident that Uniqlo will bring them over shortly after the initial Japanese launch.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Atari Buys RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Publishing Rights for $7 Million

Atari has bought the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 publishing rights from Frontier Developments for $7 million.

Atari, which has a long-term RollerCoaster Tycoon licensing agreement with franchise creator Chris Sawyer, said it is now the sole publisher of all major titles within the RollerCoaster Tycoon franchise, including Rollercoaster Tycoon Classic, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon Deluxe, Rollercoaster Tycoon Joyride, Rollercoaster Tycoon World, Rollercoaster Tycoon Puzzle, and Rollercoaster Tycoon Touch.

The hugely successful Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was developed by Frontier Developments, the UK studio behind Elite: Dangerous and Zoo Tycoon, and released in 2004. It’s available now on PC, Mac, iOS, and Nintendo Switch, but Atari said it plans to expand digital and physical distribution, and “explore brand and merchandising collaborations as part of a long-term plan to bring the franchise to new heights.”

“As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Rollercoaster Tycoon with Chris Sawyer, I am really pleased that we can unite this important and successful title in the series with the rest of the franchise,” said Wade Rosen, Chairman and CEO of Atari. ”This is going to create new opportunities for Atari as we continue the great work done by Frontier, and bring benefits to the fans of games across the Rollercoaster Tycoon franchise.”

The sale brings in much-needed cash for Frontier, which has struggled in recent years after a string of games failed to hit sales projections. In November, Frontier issued a trading update following poor launch sales of its real-time strategy game Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin. The studio has also suffered a round of layoffs.

In a trading update issued this week, Frontier said sales of its games since January have been “in-line with expectations”, with Jurassic World Evolution 2 and Planet Zoo leading the charge. The recent console release of Planet Zoo saw “strong player engagement”, with total sales up to and including the day of release greater than the sales achieved by Planet Coaster when that game came out on consoles in November 2020.

According to Frontier, publishing RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 generated $1.5 million in profit per year since the company acquired the rights in 2018. The $7 million sale is made up of $4 million of up-front cash and $3 million of deferred cash. “The proceeds of the disposal will be utilized by the Company for general working capital purposes,” Frontier said.

Frontier’s cash position grew to £23.4 million as of March 31, 2024, up from £19.9 million as of December 31, 2023. Cash received during that three month period included the $4m of up-front consideration due from the sale of the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 publishing rights and the first tranche of the video games tax relief cash credit related to the FY23 UK tax returns, Frontier said.

As for the future, Frontier said it “remains comfortable” with its previous guidance. In a previous update, Frontier said it was refocusing on creative management simulation games (CMS). With this in mind, Frontier has confirmed three future CMS games, with one releasing in each of the next three financial years. Alongside this it will continue to develop and support its existing portfolio of games, including Elite Dangerous, F1 Manager, and Realms of Ruin.

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.

Dead Cells custodians Evil Empire are reportedly working on a new Prince of Persia roguelike, out this year

Evil Empire, the studio responsible for the previous five or so years of updates to Motion Twin’s roguelite metroidvania game Dead Cells, are set to release a new roguelite set in the Prince of Persia universe “later this year.”

That’s according to Insider Gaming, who were told by sources that ‘The Rogue Prince of Persia’, as the game is rumoured to be named, will first release in Steam early access. It’s reckoned to have been in development for the last four years or so, and supposedly came about after a talk between Evil Empire and Ubisoft at GDC 2019.

Nightdive’s Next Updated Retro Video Game Is Not One You’d Expect

Fresh from bringing back classics such as Star Wars: Dark Forces, Turok 3, and Quake 2, Nightdive Studios has announced its next restoration — and it’s a game no-one expected.

You’d be forgiven for having not heard of PO’ed. It was developed and published by Any Channel Inc. initially for the 3DO in 1995, with a PlayStation port released in 1996 courtesy of defunct publisher Accolade. In the game you play a chef who tries to escape an alien world. It’s very mid-90s video game!

Here’s the official blurb, courtesy of Nightdive:

Inspired by generational powerhouses Doom and Quake, the original PO’ed pushed first-person action games to new heights with its over-the-top, action-packed, fast-paced, explosive, ridiculous, bloody, smelly, scrumptious, adjective-filled, ultra-violent 3D gameplay. You play as a chef who crashes on an alien planet infested with extraterrestrial foes, using a menu of “household” weapons to deliver a dish best served cold (by dish, I mean revenge, just in case you were confused).

PO’ed: Definitive Edition is an updated version of the 1995 first-person space shooter, and it’s coming soon to PC and consoles. The Definitive Edition features updated visuals, antialiasing, increased frame-rate, redefined controls, and up to 4K 144 FPS performance, Nightdive said.

Here’s the list of PO’ed: Definitive Edition key features, from Nightdive:

A plate full of quality-of-life features to enhance the gameplay and fix bugs present in the original game (which can be toggled off)
Wet your whistle with widescreen support for the HUD and other on-screen graphics
A new delicious difficulty mode has been added for hardcore players
15 appetizing achievements
A dash of localization support for English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish
Total freedom! Cruise on foot or fly with your jetpack through 25 wild 3D environments

PO’ed: Definitive Edition releases for Windows PC via Steam and GOG, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch in “the very near future.”