Well, it finally revealed more details in a recent interview with 4Gamer. The publication initially asked producer Takeshi Yamanaka about a “substantial story mode.” While he said it was “difficult to directly compare the volume of content” to previous games’ stories, there is indeed an Episode Mode for enjoying the story.

“We had a manga artist draw the base manga, and then we added movement to each panel to advance the story, which is a fairly time-consuming way to present it.” With five playable teams, he claims it’s enough to offer “nearly 10 hours of gameplay in total.” It even utilizes the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback and includes voice acting in 10 languages (as opposed to the usual three).

Problems arose, however, when the publication reported that there wouldn’t be any actual gameplay battles. This was later corrected at the behest of Arc System Works, and the response now notes, “In Episode Mode, playable battles are included everywhere. The battle that leads to the content of the story is developed, and it is designed to be casually enjoyed by anyone as if reading a manga, so that you can experience the story more interactively.”

A mistranslation? A mistake, be it from the developer or the publication? Whatever the case may be, such a story mode wouldn’t be out of nowhere. Guilty Gear Strive’s narrative, for example, is completely non-playable.

Regardless, it’s good news for those who want a hefty single-player mode when Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls launches on August 6th for PS5 and PC. It’s entering the “final stages of development,” but there are still more characters to be revealed, so stay tuned for updates.

However, there’s also a new system update for Xbox Insiders that brings a nifty new feature to the table, and it’s one Achievement hunters are sure to love. Your Gamerscore now unlocks a badge that’s indicative of your total score and the bracket it falls under, with tiers getting more valuable the higher your overall score.

Five million’s the upper limit as of now, although it may not be long before we see a few players break the 10 million mark. It doesn’t have a release date for live servers, but it should land sometime in the near future.

It’s a nice little addition that looks consistent with the rebranding effort, especially following the renaming of Microsoft Gaming to Xbox after CEO Asha Sharma took over the reins in February this year. And while Xbox isn’t out of the woods yet, these small but significant steps towards reviving the brand’s fortunes have us feeling strangely optimistic. Of course, a new crop of consoles that could revive the fierce rivalry of modern gaming’s early days doesn’t hurt either.

But as a video game world, and one in which you get to hunt those very criminals as one of the most iconic superheroes in existence, it becomes quite the stage for a lot of spectacle and entertainment. Well, it looks like a lot of you can’t wait to take on the city’s criminal underbelly in LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, as the game now has 950,000 wishlists on Steam ahead of its release on May 22nd. Note that owners of its Deluxe Edition can get in three days early.

It’s probably as interesting as it is thanks to the comparisons to Rocksteady’s take on the character in the Arkham franchise. However, but it does bring enough to the table to stand on its own two feet, and maybe even take the fight to its inspirations in some areas.

We don’t have to wait too long to find out, and we’re just itching to hop in the Batmobile and get started with this one when it launches on Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

In what’s shaping up to be a fine addition to an extensive list of PC mods available for the title, a tweet from modder Afevis Solmunko, whom you might know as the one behind MGSHDFix, a popular presence in the modding community, has unlocked a feature that might change the way you play Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty.

It unlocks a true third-person camera for a previously unprecedented amount of freedom in how you approach levels, and could be quite useful. The best part is that it’s been right there in the game’s files, and Solmunko stumbled upon it by accident.

Far be it from Kojima to keep something like this hidden for decades, it’s seemingly a holdover from Bluepoint Games’ Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. Though the studio ultimately didn’t add true third-person to Metal Gear Solid 2, the code remained. Solmunko even notes, “Everything related to it is labeled BP/Bluepoint.”

Well, we’re going to dive in for a fresh playthrough. It should certainly help while we wait for the second volume of the collection to drop in August this year.

https://x.com/Afevis/status/2054392640154836994

https://x.com/Afevis/status/2054402109240688684

A new narrative trailer for the game, delivered as a sort of PSA to all you miners out there, details how all mining facilities have suddenly gone dark in the wake of attacks by the Corespawn, an alien race that’s definitely hostile to your presence. You’re going to take on the role of a Reclaimer, a specialized unit that doesn’t flinch at entering mining facilities with just armor and a pickaxe, using their prodigious skill to gather potent weapons along the way.

The Reclaimers can also work with Exponite, a valuable power source to upgrade your gear in the field. Every Reclaimer has been encouraged to make the most out of Exponite they find. You’re going to need it all as you search for the elevator on each floor of hostile facilities, making your way to the Rift at the deepest levels of each one to rid the region of the Corespawn once and for all.

Overall, this looks like a roguelite spin on a popular franchise that’s sure to appeal to fans and newcomers alike when it enters early access on May 20th for PC. Rock and stone until then.

“When ARC Raiders launched, we planned to offer monthly updates. The intention was to keep you all engaged, to ensure the game always felt fresh, and to give you reasons to keep braving topside. But once the game was in players’ hands, we saw that the kind of long-term experience we want to create for ARC Raiders requires more transformative updates.

“Over time, we’ve found that the pressure of a monthly cycle limits how impactful these updates can be. You feel it, and we feel it too. Running at that pace isn’t sustainable, or compatible with the bigger ambitions we have for this game.”

The new yearly updates promise to be “larger in scale, more impactful, with the goal to genuinely change how you play the game.” Regular updates, including balance adjustments, bug fixes, events and store updates, will still be delivered at a regular cadence.

For instance, next week brings a new Trader for level 25 and above players who will exchange “high-value items” for “unique rewards, rare items, and cosmetics” that rotate weekly. You can even acquire two new Perks – extra space for the stash and the Expedition Vault to bring up to five items across (including blueprints).

Other improvements are slated for later this year. As for Frozen Trail, it adds the largest map in the game with “layered design and new mysteries.” You’ll also encounter new ARC threats with “fresh designs, and unique behaviors that will challenge Raiders in new ways”; new progression goals for those who have maxed out everything; and perhaps most intriguingly, the first steps to uncovering the ARC’s origin.

The Skill Tree will also see improvements, and you can expect new weapons, cosmetics and instruments. Of course, it’s only “just the beginning” with more details to be revealed later.

“One thing that has become increasingly clear since launch is how important progression and player goals are to the ARC Raiders experience. If you love ARC Raiders, you want more reasons to keep returning to the Rust Belt – and we want to build systems that continue evolving alongside the game,” said Embark.

“Some of the progression improvements we want to implement simply need more development time that we haven’t been able to address properly while running on a monthly cycle. Moving to larger updates allows us to spend more time refining the systems players engage with the most.”

Granted, there’s always the question of whether a live-service game can truly thrive without a regular infusion of content. Time will tell, but you can’t fault the developer for trying to add on to ARC Raiders in more meaningful ways.

In the meantime, the end of Season 1 means you should really use all the gear hoarded in your Vault due to the upcoming reset. Map Events such as Intercept, Lockdown and more will now appear, guaranteed, in a run, and Wardens will drop keys for locked rooms without the slightest hint of RNG.

That doesn’t mean you can stroll around with Sponsored Kits and expect to prosper. New PoIs in Perimeter, Dire Marsh and Outpost will feature Wardens spawning in, and UESC dropships have become more common on Perimeter. There’s also a “new threat” on Dire Marsh that will try to “shut down Runner activity,” which certainly sounds like a hacker unit of some sort. Faction EXP from all sources is also increased while end-of-season objectives provide additional progress.

If all that wasn’t enough, Cryo Archive, the game’s end-game zone, is available from May 21st until June 2nd when Season 2 begins. Players will receive a free Cryo Archive Sponsored Kit daily, which should be good to farm for Cryo Archive: Ranked when it’s live from May 24th, 10 AM PT to May 28th.

Stay tuned for more details from Season 2 in the coming weeks, and check out Marathon’s current roadmap in the meantime.

“Personally, I’m super excited,” said Svensson. “I’m in an incredibly privileged position in the industry to have amazing visibility into what games will be for the next three, four, five years, as we’re aware of our partners’ roadmaps. I literally cannot explain to you, like… Last year was an amazing year for games. This year will be an even better year for games. Next year will be an even better year for games. So, like, the trajectory of content is unbelievably positive, and we as an industry should be super optimistic about where we’re going to go in spite of the headlines.”

However, when it comes to providing reasons for this optimism, Svensson isn’t really able to go into too much detail, since companies tend to have development and product cycles to follow. He said that decisions are being made today that will likely end up helping the industry as a whole in the future.

“What we or other publishers or developers can’t talk about is, when you think about a product cycle – two years at the low end, five, six years at the higher end – the decisions we’re making now will affect where we’re going to be in five or six years. And obviously, the decisions we’re making now take into account where we are at this moment, right? And anticipating where we’re going to be over the next couple. So, the industry — there are no dire times for the industry ahead as far as I’m concerned. Very smart decisions are being made by our partners. Very smart decisions are being made by platforms. Be more comfortable than you think you should be,” he continued.

While Svensson likely meant to express optimism, his words can be difficult to take seriously these days when you simply take a look at all of the layoffs across the gaming industry that have taken place this year alone. Studios of all sizes have been facing problems, from Iron Galaxy Studios to the team behind Wuchang: Fallen Feathers and even VR developers like Polyarc Games. Even giants don’t seem to be immune, with Fortnite developer Epic Games having laid off over a thousand of its employees back in March.

Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida believes that these layoffs may simply be the result of companies over-hiring during COVID-19 when they experienced growth, and now find themselves overstaffed.

“I think it was super optimism of the time during Covid-19,” he explained. “The industry grew so much because [people] had to stay at home, and video games were the easiest and cheaper way to be entertained. So they saw this huge increase in growth of the industry, and many investors poured money into the sector, so these publishers over-hired, over-invested. They hired too many people. They invested in projects that they shouldn’t have.”

“And when that additional demand subsided after Covid, the people running these companies saw the reality, that the industry went back to the original steady growth cog, that means that the growth became flat after a couple of years.”

What happened, and why do some of these locations seem familiar? It’s your job to find out and solve puzzles along the way, and Croteam promised both “familiar and all-new mechanics” in the game’s Steam listing. As usual, you can prioritize what’s necessary to progress the story or “pursue the deeper secrets” of the Anomaly. We’re guessing the latter holds the key to unlocking the true ending.

Either way, this marks the finale of The Talos Principle series and features stunning locales, from a desert planet being terraformed to lush gardens. Composer Damjan Mravunac also returns to craft a brand new soundtrack.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming months, or check out The Talos Principle 2, which is currently available for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. Why is the third game skipping Microsoft’s console at launch? Your guess is as good as ours. There’s also The Talos Principle: Reawakened, a remaster of the first game that includes revamped visuals, the expansion, and even some new content with In the Beginning.

As part of its plans, Capcom wants to make more use of the franchises its own with content outside of games, like the Devil May Cry animated adaptation, new amusement equipment, and arcade operations, among other things. Along with this, the company is also making use of pricing strategies and catalogue sales to further boost awareness of its games so that it can then make new entries.

Interestingly, while franchises like Dead Rising and Dragon’s Dogma are also included in its presentation slide, some of the company’s older IPs, like the classic Breath of Fire RPG franchise, fighting game series Darkstalkers, or dinosaur-themed survival horror franchise Dino Crisis, seemingly remain missing from these plans.

Capcom COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto had previously spoken about bringing these classic franchises back, while also maintaining a focus on the company’s trio of core IPs – Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Monster Hunter.

“To improve our chance of success, we are working to resolve business challenges, issue by issue,” wrote Tsujimoto in his statement. “Our efforts are focused on core IP such as the Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter franchises, and mapping out mainline series entries and sequels, remakes, new IP, and ports of content to the latest hardware. We consistently release two to three major new titles each year, but recognize the need to grow our pipeline going forward.”

“Capcom owns a wealth of globally popular brands, such as Mega Man, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney. We aim to expand our user base and improve our performance through new releases, remakes, and ports of titles in these series to new hardware. By enhancing brand power and cultivating loyal fan bases, we will grow these into core IPs.”

The last entry in the Devil May Cry franchise was 2019’s Devil May Cry 5, which saw the franchise return after an 11-year break, not counting 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry, following up on 2008’s Devil May Cry 4. The newest entry picked up where its predecessor left off, bringing back Nero as one of the playable characters alongside Dante, as well as introducing a brand new character, V, who plays an integral role in the story. The title also got a Special Edition upgrade that brought in Vergil as a playable character, complete with his own moveset and iconic theme song.

Okami, on the other hand, is getting a new game. However, according to Clovers president and CEO Kento Koyama, this new game is “still a ways off”.

“Although the release is still a ways off, we cannot wait to get the finished game into your hands,” he said in a New Year’s message. “We will continue to work tirelessly this year to deliver an experience that surpasses the expectations of players all over the world.”