The trailer gives us a glimpse at gameplay across a series of missions. It also provides details about the four playable characters part of a group named the Aces. Players can take on the role of the Ace of Clubs (the ghost), the Ace of Diamonds (the technician), the Ace of Spades (the enforcer), and Ace of Hearts (the mastermind). As you might expect from an entry in the Payday franchise, Aces High offers a mix of stealth and action gameplay. While players will have the option to sneak around, sooner or later, they will trip off an alarm, bringing in hordes of guards that stand between them and their escape routes.

Payday: Aces High will feature an overarching story that revolves around the Aces trying to get revenge on business titan Warren Jupiter, who had previously framed the crew. In their hunt for vengeance, players will have access to plenty of tools and weapons, giving them freedom to plan out their heists in their preferred way. Available weapons will range from pistols and SMGs to shotguns and assault rifles, while equipment will include grappling hooks and sentry guns, among other things.

“For the past 15 years, we’ve admired how Payday lets players jump into scenarios straight out of the wildest Hollywood crime movies and take heists into their own hands,” said Fast Travel Games co-founder and chief creative officer Erik Odeldahl in a press release. “We’re kicking things up to the next level this year with Payday: Aces High – get ready to lock-and-load with up to three other heisters, in the immersion that only VR can bring!”

“Payday is one of the most iconic franchises in gaming, with more than 50 million players worldwide,” said Starbreeze Entertainment CEO Adolf Kristjansson. “Fast Travel Games is a globally respected VR studio with over a decade of VR experience. They are the ideal partner to bring Payday to this platform. With Aces High, we are expanding the Payday universe and inviting players to plan and execute heists together in a fully immersive experience. Under their leadership, Aces High is not just an adaptation. It is a true Payday game built from the ground up for this medium.”

In the meantime, Starbreeze has been facing quite a bit of trouble in its attempts to make Payday 3 more appealing to players. Earlier this year, however, it had been hit by a round of lay-offs, which indicate that these attempts may not be going smoothly. Back in October, the studio had also confirmed that it was no longer working on an offline mode for the co-op shooter. Thankfully, the more popular Payday 2 seems to be largely unaffected, thanks to its development now being handled by Sidetrack Games.

If you didn’t know about this one, it involves bringing light to a world where arts and crafts once thrived before the sun’s disappearance caused a lot of problems. You step into the shoes of The Burnt One, who is accompanied by an absolutely adorable candle called Potboy, on a quest to bring light to the world by scaling Moon Mountain without succumbing to all of the dangers you find along the way.

Gameplay-wise, you’re going to be interested to know that there’s no traditional combat system, and that you’re going to have to rely on innate flame and matchsticks to get by, while closing your eyes lets your other senses point you in the right direction. If that wasn’t innovative enough for you, most of the character models you see are 3D scans of handcrafted clay models, making this one a visual treat as well as a fairly challenging experience.

We were quite happy with its original release, and see no reason why the Switch 2 version should be any different. You’ll probably agree with us once you check out the trailer below.

That said, the game does have a structure. There are six chapters total, each telling a more or less self-contained tale with the overarching themes of fire and darkness shared between them (and what the game does with these themes is brilliant). As the Burnt One, your own objective is to guide your adorable Potboy companion to Moon Mountain, a ubiquitous sight from every corner of the game’s world. In-between these chapters is the Midnight Walk itself, a long stretch of road leading to Moon Mountain. It’s on this stretch of highway where you can chat with recurring characters like the banjo-playing Soulfisher and the two-headed Soothsayer guide.

"Each chapter feels like you’re stopping off the highway and getting a tour of the town’s culture and history."

These friendly faces, along with a charming narrator, help offset the otherwise dark and isolating tone the game has. You might want to put subtitles on for some NPCs though, because their accent and dialect can be uncanny and hard to understand at times (in a good way). I love the roadtrip vibe the game has going on; each chapter feels like you’re stopping off the highway and getting a tour of the town’s culture and history. It’s typically within these chapters where The Midnight Walk’s core gameplay really comes into focus.

The Midnight Walk has the heart of a classic adventure game and the mind of a stealth title. You’re typically helping the bizarre denizens within each chapter by bringing fire to them through clever use of your portable flame companion, Potboy. One of the more common puzzles involves commanding Potboy to light a series of candles in a particular order to raise a platform for a limited time. The command feature works well enough, but there’s occasional issues with Potboy’s pathing. There were three times when I ordered him to light a candle, only to realize he’s stuck behind a wall or in a different room getting snagged against some geometry. The pathing is not terrible, but it could be better.

"Later in the game, you’re given a match launcher that lights fires from afar."

You’re not left without any tools of your own though. Later in the game, you’re given a match launcher that lights fires from afar. It’s not a full substitute for Potboy, but it does alleviate some of the pathing issues that can arise from commanding him. This is not a puzzle-heavy game though, and the puzzles that exist are pretty straightforward. This lack of progressive puzzle design throughout the game left me wanting a bit more, I admit. There’s just a lot more that could be done with the fire-lighting concept, so it strikes me as a bit of a wasted opportunity that it never evolved into anything more challenging or substantial gameplay-wise. For me, at least, most of the game’s challenge came from the stealth sequences.

Early on, players will get a taste of just how nerve-wracking and terrifying sneaking around the dark can be in this game. The stitched-up faces of the Crawlers really compel the player to get as far away from them as possible. The creatures you’re hiding from are downright terrifying. And the game doesn’t hold back on the jump scare animations when you get caught either, accompanied as they are by that classic horror sting in the sound department. I think the studio nailed the theming of light and dark with the sneaking gameplay here. It really is a natural fit having a fire-lighting mechanic while sneakily avoiding nightmarish monstrosities in the dark of night.

"Early on, players will get a taste of just how nerve-wracking and terrifying sneaking around the dark can be in this game."

In gameplay terms, stealth is rather simple like the puzzles, but more satisfying. You have a typical crouch toggle, and the game lets you know if enemies spot you by dimming the light around the screen. The darker the screen is, the more hidden you are. And like a horror game, there’s closets to run and hide in should a monster catch sight of you. Sprinting to a closet and waiting for the monster to scurry back to its spot is just as tense, if not more, as other horror games. And yes, there’s an element of powerlessness considering a majority of creatures cannot be directly harmed.

Some of the more nail-biting sequences involve closing your eyes to enhance hearing in order to locate invisible objects and places of interest. You can imagine the kind of scenarios the game gets up to with this premise, with creatures stalking you while blindly listening for the way forward. My favorite puzzle utilizes the psychology of facing fears all too well, requiring you to directly look and blink at the monster’s face in order to escape and get past it. Suffice to say, this game can be absolutely terrifying, despite its demure and unassuming appearance at times.

"This game can be absolutely terrifying, despite its demure and unassuming appearance at times."

Part of the reason the horror works so well can be attributed to the game’s uncanny and wildly creative art style. Every creature was crafted from real-life clay models first and then rendered in-game. There’s even a stop-motion effect to animations that give it that extra touch. Going into this, I thought it looked vaguely like a Tim Burton movie, and yes, the environments and weird creatures do have a certain Burton-esque quality to them. I mean, a couple of landscapes almost seem to reference Nightmare Before Christmas more or less directly. But The Midnight Walk is also very much its own thing, taking the whimsy of fairy tales and fusing it with uncanny horror.

"There’s an element of contrast between common real-world objects, like old shoes and books, and the more bizarre abstract creatures and landscapes that just works so well."

One of the joys of the dreamlike journey is simply admiring all the bewilderingly unique environmental details. Whether it’s the awkward tree-like spires reaching into the night sky or a discarded teacup emblazoned with Victorian era art sketches, The Midnight Walk never disappoints with its intriguing aesthetic. And then there’s the occasional moment of awe upon witnessing groups of giant figures migrating off into the background to who knows where. It’s the odd little background details like these that make it a more mysterious and unpredictable place than many others in gaming. There’s an element of contrast between common real-world objects, like old shoes and books, and the more bizarre abstract creatures and landscapes that just works so well.

One area in particular put a grin on my face. A cave housing a terrifying creature had a couple of windows with which I could gain a better vantage point. As I approach, I notice the windows are actually the end of a glass bottle lodged into a small hole. Examining the bottle closer shows the typical bottom grooves accompanied by scratch marks and realistic reflections. In this instance and others like it, The Midnight Walk demonstrates not just uniqueness but attention to detail. And what’s more, the mixture of everyday objects with the fantastical fits with the lore in interesting ways that the game oh so subtly hints at. I never knew quite what to expect from the surreal landscape despite the connective aesthetic style draped across the whole work. This is thanks in part to each chapter varying up its environment. The swamplands of one chapter feels different to the more clustered metro area of another.

"The various knickknacks you collect can be examined at your leisure within Housy"

Such strong environmental design might give the impression that the game is highly explorable; and while there is some exploration, it certainly is limited by design. The Midnight Walk is a pretty linear tale. Each of the chapters is a self-contained area with specific objectives. That said, you’re free to roam around at your leisure (when you’re not being chased by a Grinner), checking the collectible objects located at dead ends and other corners of the environment. Still, there’s not a whole lot of surface area to explore here. This is very much an adventure game in its exploration, with small intricate areas to browse around at your own pace.

The various knickknacks you collect can be examined at your leisure within Housy, your walking house companion. It’s here where you can peruse the various vinyl music tracks, chapter items, story page reels, and shellphones (basically audio logs) that you’ve gathered up over the course of the game. Some of these objects tell their own stories, but many give further context to places you visit and creatures you meet. Whether you’re listening to the collected music tracks within Housy or experiencing it through the chapters, there’s plenty to love with the soundtrack. The score gets across the dreamlike atmosphere and dark ambiguity of much of the game very well.

"The stopmotion claymation visuals are a treat to behold."

Much of The Midnight Walk’s charm is owed to its artistic presentation. The stopmotion claymation visuals are a treat to behold. Likewise, the way the game uses the themes of fire and darkness coalesce into something really poignant and unique. I enjoyed my time journeying down the midnight walk, though I don’t see much of a reason to return. There’s just not a lot of replay value here. Replaying chapters to collect everything you missed doesn’t take too long either, considering how small most areas are. And while the game touts six chapters, the final two are very brief segments with little gameplay. The game feels lacking in content in the later half, almost like it got rushed and had a deadline to meet. It’s a polished game, yes, but I was certainly left wanting more from the last two chapters considering the self-contained tales the first four managed to tell. Still, even with its low replay value and short five hour runtime, The Midnight Walk is a memorable journey oozing with creativity that won’t be easily forgotten.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

Unfolding over five tales with a cast of, to put it kindly, “odd characters,” The Midnight Walk sees players as The Burnt One. After becoming friends with the fiery (in this case, literally) Potboy, you embark on an epic journey, all while attempting to protect his flame.

There are moments where it comes in handy, like distracting enemies, though you’ll need to sneak around to survive. It’s a dark task in more ways than one, but the clay models, coupled with the stop-motion animation, create a visually resplendent narrative.

Stay tuned for more details and gameplay from The Midnight Walk in the coming months.

The story sees the player controlling The Burnt One, who befriends Potboy and explores a Tim Burton-esque world of horror. Various monstrosities want to snuff out Potboy’s flame, and it’s your job to protect him across five unique tales. Perhaps the most notable aspect of The Midnight Walk is that its assets are created using clay.

These are then 3D scanned, with stop-motion animation used for movement. Everything is hand-crafted, and combined with the bizarre characters players will meet, The Midnight Walk could be a uniquely compelling experience. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay in the coming months.

Developed by Fast Travel Games, Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice will put you into the shoes of a vampire. The game is slated to feature a several side missions to go alongside its main story. It will also feature dialogue options and other role-playing features, allowing the protagonist to improve their abilities.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice makes use of Venice as a setting, and will have quite a bit of emphasis on stealth gameplay. Players will have special abilities like dropping Shadow Traps, or making use of Cloak of Shadows. If combat is more to your liking, the game also features abilities for direct combat, and even high-speed traversal.

Cities: VR – Enhanced Edition allows players to design the cities of their dreams in VR. The game features intuitive controls and menus, with roads being easy to plot and buildings being quick to place. Cities: VR – Enhanced Edition also works with the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, with feedback as structures are built.

The studio had begun teasing the game all the way back in May, posting a vague tweet with the #psvr2 and #playstationvr2 hashtags.

Far from the only game announced for the PlayStation VR2, studios have also unveiled titles like Crossfire: Sierra Squad and The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR.

Cities: VR – Enhanced Edition will be available on PlayStation VR2 on February 22.

Taking place in the same universe as Stellaris, Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game tasks players with the search of the titular Ghost Signal. Players will get to meet mysterious aliens, fight planet-sized creatures, and take part in space battles.

Players can also take time off from their grand adventure to fill out their logbook with details about exotic creatures that can be scanned, or conduct research in multiple tech trees.

Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game is going to be a roguelite game, featuring randomised maps with daily challenges and leaderboards, and a variety of weapons including heavy artillery and powerful upgrades like atomic missiles.

Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game doesn’t yet have a release date. The game will be coming to the Meta Quest 2 some time in early 2023.

Fast Travel Games has quite a bit of experience in making VR games. Its most recent release was CitiesVR, which allows players to play city building game Cities: Skylines in VR.

The PlayStation VR2 headset, officially unveiled by Sony earlier this year, has yet to see a lot of studios announce games for it. It does feature a few upcoming games by first-party studios, including Horizon Call of the Mountain made by Firesprite Studios and Guerrilla Games.

While Sony is yet to make an official announcement of the headset’s release date, speculation indicates that the headset will likely be released in either the Holiday 2022 season, or in Q1 2023. Industry professionals are leaning towards the later release date.

Sony unveiled the PSVR2 headset and controllers back in January, along with a complete list of specifications, with highlights like the DualSense trigger effects on the PSVR2 Sense controllers, and high resolutions in the display panels.

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