Released in 2023 (and winner of our Game of the Year award), Alan Wake 2 follows up on the original by offering two protagonists: Wake and Saga Anderson. The latter is an FBI special agent investigating mysterious murders in Bright Falls and eventually connects with the former. Boasting incredible production values and storytelling, the sequel sold over two million units as of February 2025.

But that’s not all. To celebrate The Last of Us Day on September 26th, PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members can experience The Last of Us Part 2 on PS4 and The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered on PS5. In terms of PlayStation Classics, Premium members can look forward to the addition of Tekken 3 (PS One), Soulcalibur 3 (PS2) and Tomb Raider: Anniversary (PS2) later this year.

Like COCOON, Geometric Interactive’s second game will be published by Annapurna, the two announced at the showcase. Audio director and composer Jakob Schmid also revealed that it will be “unlike anything we’ve ever worked on before,” though he didn’t provide any specifics.

Before COCOON, members of Geometric Interactive’s development team were part of Playdead, where they worked on Limbo and Inside. That their next title will be entirely different from each of those games doesn’t tell us much, but that track record does create some intrigue. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before more details are shared. Stay tuned until further announcements and updates.

Cocoon

Akin to Inception but with more otherworldly bug-like…things, Cocoon eases you in delicately enough with its world hopping, power unlocking, and puzzles. However, beyond the halfway point, you’re suddenly dealing with earth-shattering bosses, ascending through multiple levels of worlds while carrying others on your back and leveraging portals to enter and exit. It’s an experience unlike any other, delivered in roughly five to six hours and leaving you with more than a few questions when it’s over.

A total of 56 games are nominated across all categories, with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 leading the way with nine nominations in total. It is followed by Alan Wake 2 with eight nominations, Baldur’s Gate 3 with seven, and Cocoon with six. All four are also nominated for the Game of the Year category, alongside The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which is nominated in five categories in total.

The 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards are scheduled for February 15, and will be hosted by Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller and IGN’s Stella Chung. Stay tuned for updates on which games come out as the big winners of the ceremony.

You can check out the full list of nominees in all categories below.

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

• Final Fantasy 16
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Mortal Kombat 1
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

• Alan Wake 2
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Starfield

Outstanding Achievement in Character

• Alan Wake 2 – Saga Anderson
• Baldur’s Gate 3 – Astarion
• Baldur’s Gate 3 – Karlach
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Miles Morales
• Thirsty Suitors – Jala

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

• Alan Wake 2
• Diablo 4
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Planet of Lana
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design

• Alan Wake 2
• Cocoon
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Outstanding Achievement in Story

• Alan Wake 2
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Dave the Diver
• Thirsty Suitors
• Venba

Outstanding Technical Achievement

• Alan Wake 2
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Hogwarts Legacy
• The Finals
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Action Game of the Year

• Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon
• Dead Space
• Hi-Fi Rush
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Remnant 2

Adventure Game of the Year

• Alan Wake 2
• Cocoon
• Dave the Diver
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Family Game of the Year

• Disney Illusion Island
• Fae Farm
• Hello Kitty Adventure Island
• Midnight Girl
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Fighting Game of the Year

• Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
• Mortal Kombat 1
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2
• Pocket Bravery
• Street Fighter 6

Racing Game of the Year

• F-Zero 99
• Forza Motorsport
• Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged
• LEGO 2K Drive

Role-Playing Game of the Year

• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
• Diablo 4
• Final Fantasy 16
• Starfield

Sports Game of the Year

• EA Sports FC 24
• MLB The Show 23
• WWE 2K23

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

• Against the Storm
• Cobalt Core
• Dune: Spice Wars
• The Last Spell
• Wartales

Immersive Reality Technical Achievement

• Asgard’s Wrath 2
• Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
• Horizon Call of the Mountain
• Vertigo 2
• We Are One

Immersive Reality Game of the Year

• Asgard’s Wrath 2
• Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR
• Horizon Call of the Mountain
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice
• Vertigo 2

Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game

• Cocoon
• Dredge
• El Paso, Elsewhere
• Thirsty Suitors
• Venba

Mobile Game of the Year

• Gubbins
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure
• Honkai: Star Rail
• Terra Nil
• WHAT THE CAR?

Online Game of the Year

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
• Diablo 4
• Omega Strikers
• Street Fighter 6
• The Finals

Outstanding Achievement in Game Design

• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Cocoon
• Dave the Diver
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Cocoon
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Game of the Year

• Alan Wake 2
• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Cocoon
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Created by the same team that brought us the Ace Attorney series, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective is all about uncovering the mystery of your own death as a ghostly version of yourself. Phantom. The gameplay revolves around exploring the curious case in complete depth and then reaching a conclusion – which really makes you feel like a detective making important decisions. It’s all accompanied by some smart writing that never fails to keep you guessing, which makes it such an endearing experience.

Fatal Frame / Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse released in 2008 to some great critical and commercial reception, and Koei Tecmo has been trying to bring the series back into the limelight with HD remasters for these game. The remaster of Mask of the Lunar Eclipse released earlier this year, and it does a really good job of souping up the visuals and smoothing out certain jagged edges to make the experience a lot more palatable for modern audiences. Of course, it isn’t perfect by any means – but it’s a great horror game nevertheless.

Cocoon

Cocoon is a wonderful puzzle game that’s entirely built around the concept of worlds existing within worlds, and players can combine and manipulate these worlds through the use of certain orbs to solve puzzles and proceed with the story. Cocoon comes from the lead designer for INSIDE and Limbo, so you can be confident that it’s a solid game with a minimalist control scheme and an emotional story that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

Hi-Fi Rush

Tango Gameworks delivered an excellent rhythmic adventure with Hi-Fi Rush, which has quickly gone on to become one of the biggest surprise hits of this year. Hi-Fi Rush features a world where everything taps to a beat, and you must time your actions and attacks to that beat to be able to dish out damage to your opponents. It’s a wonderfully imaginative game that’s executed with great attention to detail, and should be experienced by more fans.

Season: A Letter to the Future

Season: A Letter to the Future is a game that talks about the nature of change. As the protagonist, your job is to capture the sights and sounds and take them to the next Season – a time when everyone will be unaware of what happened in the last Season. It’s a simple and laid back game with a strong focus on exploration and engaging in conversations, but the many themes that it manages to effectively convey through its story is what makes it so beautiful.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a Soulslike with a complex web of action and progression mechanics that beautifully flow into one another, and what we get is a game that’s surprisingly fun and approachable despite the many mechanics and systems at play. There are a few erratic difficulty spikes here and there, but Wo Long is a largely fun experience where you must overcome brutal but fair challenges ranging from petty enemies to large bosses with multiple health bars and much more.

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon

Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon is FromSoftware’s attempt at modernizing its long-running mech adventure series, and it’s fair to say that the team has largely succeeded in its objective of providing a modern experience for audiences. Armored Core 6 features a fast and frenetic combat lop that’s just a joy to engage with, and the bevy of customization options makes it all so much more compelling.

Deliver Us Mars

Deliver Us Mars is a spiritual successor to Deliver Us The Moon, and the many merits of the 2018 release shine brightly in Deliver Us Mars as well. The story revolves around a space crew embarking on Mars in the hopes of retrieving some stolen spaceships from a mysterious race of aliens called the Outward. It’s all written and performed well, and while the gameplay doesn’t have too many action elements – it does a good job of keeping you engaged through the compelling plot and a wide variety of gameplay options like exploration, puzzle solving, and much more.

Fort Solis

Developer Fallen Leaf’s latest Fort Solis also sends players to explore the furthest depths of the planet Mars, as our protagonist Jack Leary embarks on a search mission for his missing crew. Fort Solis boasts a star cast with the likes of Roger Clark (the voice behind Arthur Morgan) and Troy Baker (the voice behind Joel from The Last of Us) coming to play important characters in this well-written story. Between this and a strong visual presentation powered by Unreal Engine 5, Fort Solis is a solid game that should be experienced by a lot more people.

Jusant

Jusant comes from the guys at Dontnod, the studio best known for its work on the Life is Strange series. Jusant is all about reaching the top of a tall tower while overcoming the many obstacles that lie in your way. It beautifully combines mechanical challenge with immersive storytelling to create something that’s just hard to put down – once you get the hang of it.

Risk of Rain Returns

The original Risk of Rain was an excellent roguelike that featured some amazing combat and compelling progression mechanics, and Risk of Rain Returns is a remaster that knows how to package that experience in a way that feels worthwhile for veterans and newcomers alike. In addition to the base content, Risk of Rain also features enhanced multiplayer options and new build types to experiment with on your repeat playthroughs.

Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe

Originally released in 2011 for the Nintendo Wii, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land now has a Deluxe Edition that comes with updated graphics and smoothed-out gameplay designed for the Nintendo Switch. Much like every other Kirby game, Return to Dream Land is a simple yet fun adventure where you make your way through a wide variety of levels while consuming your enemies to get their powers and become even stronger.

Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

JoyMasher’s Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider feels like a glorious throwback to 16-bit games, thanks to some incredible art direction and smooth-flowing gameplay that remains interesting for the entire duration of the experience. Of course, there are some elements and mechanics in place to make the gameplay feel more palatable for modern audiences which makes it feel like you are reliving the glory days of SNES complete with rose-tinted glasses.

Horizon Call of the Mountain

Horizon: Call of the Mountain was one of the first games to be released for PSVR2, and it’s an excellent adaptation of the full-fat Horizon experience in VR format. Sure, the open-world aspect has been swapped out for a more linear game where you make your way through carefully curated combat challenges and platforming runs – but it all works surprisingly well within the context of the game. And then of course, getting to experience the post-post-apocalyptic world of Horizon from up close is also a really distinct kind of joy in and of itself.

Planet of Lana

Planet of Lana puts players in the teeny tiny shoes of Lana as she kickstarts a grand adventure through fantastical realms inhabited by all sorts of robotic and humanoid creatures. Created by developer Wishfully, Planet of Lana takes players on a joyous ride through a wonderfully well-realized world and tells a heartwarming story that hits just the right notes at every moment. Add to that some amazing visuals and cinematic gameplay, and Planet of Lana becomes a thrill ride like no other.

COCOON sees players investigating different environments and tinkering with machines abandoned by an ancient civilization. They’ll discover orbs which have self-contained worlds but also provide unique abilities and are used to solve different puzzles like activating switches and uncovering hidden paths. Of course, there are also boss battles against guardians.

Perhaps the biggest claim to fame for COCOON is that Limbo and Inside lead gameplay designer Jeppe Carlsen is involved. You can check out our review for more details on the gameplay and how it fares. We awarded it an 8 out of 10, praising the visuals and mechanics but criticizing some of the more esoteric puzzles.

And I would be lying if I said that it didn’t work out quite well. Going into the game as a fan of both Limbo and Inside, I thought I would see similar throughlines in COCOON, and while those similarities are there in terms of how the game prefers to use its environments and animations to tell its story rather than throwing exposition the player’s way, COCOON manages to differentiates itself from its predecessors in a number of ways, not least of which is the game’s use of color.

COCOON is an incredibly bright and colorful game, and while its story isn’t altogether as cheerful or happy as its visuals might at first indicate, the game definitely feels a lot more uplifting than its gruesome predecessors. One of the most interesting things about COCOON is how it punishes the player for messing up. You can’t really die in COCOON. And while this might essentially come off as a pedantic difference at best, since getting hit in a boss fight means you get thrown back to right before entering the arena, essentially resetting the fight, the fact that the game never really outright “kills” you goes a long way in encouraging exploration.

When it comes to gameplay, COCOON relishes in its sheer simplicity. There are only two things you can really do in the game—move and interact. Interaction is highly context sensitive, and where you press the interact button can have different effects depending on the kind of thing you’re interacting with. For example, interact with an orb and you’ll just pick it up. Put the orb in a specific pedestal and hold down the interact button, however, and you’ll end up entering the orb. There are a host of other things you can do, like pulling objects and activating switches, but the game doesn’t really bog you down with a high number of verbs.

While the controls might come off as quite simple, however, the puzzle designs in COCOON can often feel downright ingenious. With little more than the ability to pick up or drop an orb and activate a switch, there’s a small puzzle in the early section of the game where you have to race against your orb going through pipes in order to hit the right switches and make sure that the orb goes the right way, allowing you to ultimately pick the orb up in the right spot and letting you continue with your exploration.

"COCOON relishes in its sheer simplicity."

Speaking of orbs, COCOON’s big gimmick is that it revolves around having entire worlds inside orbs. Early on, you only have to manage a single orb, entering which takes you to a desert world filled with ancient technological ruins and an incredibly angry moth-like monster. Since these opening sections essentially act as an unobtrusive tutorial, the puzzles are relatively simple, and largely revolve around figuring out how to cross, say, a destroyed bridge.

It’s after you beat the first “boss” of the game—the aforementioned angry moth—that COCOON starts kicking things into high gear. Beating the boss essentially unlocks the desert orb’s special ability that can be used in the world outside the orb. In this case, the orb gets the ability to create hidden paths that can only be traversed if you’re carrying the orb with you.

COCOON has the tendency to take single ideas that might sound simple from the outset, and take them to situations where the ideas can get fully explored, especially as it starts introducing more orbs, each with their own bespoke ability, into the mix. The second orb, for instance, lets you travel vertically through stone pillars. For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go into detail about future orbs beyond the second one.

"COCOON’s big gimmick is that it revolves around having entire worlds inside orbs."

Aside from the fact that each orb has its own special ability, it’s also worth noting that each orb also has its own world that is specially themed, each with its own set of challenges to overcome, puzzles to solve, and bosses to beat. Without going into too many spoiler-heavy details, all I’ll say about the boss fights is each one is wonderfully unique, which is quite an accomplishment for a game that doesn’t really have a combat system aside from “pick up bomb” and “explode bomb”.

The big limitations that players have to figure out is that they can only carry a single orb at a time. While this isn’t really a big deal when it comes to transporting multiple orbs, since you can put orbs within orbs within orbs, leading to a stack of worlds within worlds, where this truly becomes challenging is figuring out what kind of orb you’ll need to make use of to solve puzzles in the overworld.

Not all is well and rosy in the world of COCOON, however, especially when it comes to some of its puzzle designs. While most puzzles in the game are rather simple once you figure them out, some puzzles tend to hide clues to solving them in the overworld with rather obscure hints. An early example that I found myself stuck on for an embarrassing amount of time revolved around figuring out the right order of musical switches to hit, with the order being clearly shown on a nearby pillar. While this largely comes down to my own mistakes in not noticing the symbols on the pillar, future puzzles only start getting more obscure with their hints. For example, another similar puzzle revolves around finding the right order of switches on a nearby hidden platform that can only be seen if you’re holding the desert orb.

"COCOON has the tendency to take single ideas that might sound simple from the outset, and take them to situations where the ideas can get fully explored."

Some of the game’s puzzles can also start feeling more tedious than clever, especially when the game has you constantly run back and forth across platforms to hit switches in different order just to understand all the tools at your disposal. Rather than making the player feel clever, these puzzles felt more like they could just easily be solved by brute forcing through the relatively short number of permutations between the switches.

Some puzzle designs aside, COCOON feels like one of the best puzzle-solving games to have come out in quite some time. Its visuals and ambient music do an excellent job of creating a chill atmosphere while you’re solving puzzles, while at the same time easily ramping up the pressure when you take on a boss fight. The game’s minimalistic approach to storytelling also never feels overbearing, and its simple concepts and controls get taken to quite interesting extremes once you zoom out a bit and get a better picture of the world you inhabit, as well as the world you carry on your back.

This game was reviewed on PC.

Following that, tomorrow, on September 20, Recreate Games’ multiplayer party title Party Animals will launch, and it will be available day one on Game Pass for cloud, console, and PC. The day after that, on September 21, Payday 3 will see its global release, and it, too, will be a day one Game Pass release on cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.

Later in the month, on September 29, Geometric Interactive and Annapurna Interactive’s puzzle adventure title COCOON will be available day one via Game Pass on console and PC. Meanwhile, early next month, on October 3, open world action RPG Gotham Knights will come to the service via cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. On the same day, Paradox Interactive’s turn-based tactics title The Lamplighters League will join Game Pass’ library on the day of its release via cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.

Additionally, a 10-hour early access trial of EA Sports FC 24 will also be available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers via EA Play on September 22.

Developed by Geometric Interactive, COCOON is about exploring worlds within worlds. You can carry an orb on your back and leap inside it to explore an entirely different world. While tinkering with them is the key to solving puzzles, you’ll also traverse the “real” world and its various biomes, exploring the ruins of a civilization long past and trying to piece things together.

Orbs have different abilities usable across various worlds, from showcasing hidden paths to triggering switches. Be warned, though – each has a Guardian that you must fight in extensive battles with unique mechanics. What is happening in the various worlds, and can you unravel the greater mystery? We’ll find out when it launches in September, so stay tuned for more details.

Ravenlok

Cococucumber’s Ravenlok is the third title in its Voxel Trilogy – an action RPG set in a fantasy world reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. You’ll explore various realms, battle different monsters and bosses, complete quests, and discover new weapons and skills, all to defeat the Caterpillar Queen. It sounds straightforward but thus far, the visuals and gameplay look pretty compelling. Ravenlok is out in 2023 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC along with Xbox Game Pass.