Kicking off a new video log series, he revealed the new region would feature “several new biomes” and that it’s quite possibly one of the team’s “scariest regions we’ve ever done.”

“It’s dark, it’s threatening, and it’s really beautiful at the same time. It’s an odd juxtaposition,” said Gallegos.

Of course, it’s also “going to add a lot of new story elements, including expanding on not only the story of the colonists, but also the story of…the other beings.” If you’ve played the current build to the end of its current plot, you’ll know what he means.

Players can also expect a “bunch” of new creatures while the Collector Leviathan, everyone’s least favorite Cthulhu LARPer, gets new behavior that makes it “scarier than ever.” And for those snooping in the files and unearthing the Sea Frog Chassis, it’s actually just called the Frog Chassis and adds limbs for the Tadpole with “lots of cool new abilities.”

If that wasn’t enough, you can look forward to new Biomods. The developer is also adding the Dash function to your Fins, so you no longer have to sacrifice a Biomod slot to take it. EA 2.0 doesn’t have a release date yet, but Gallegos promises more details en route as the series rolls on, so stay tuned.

Subnautica 2 is currently playable on Xbox Series X/S and PC. Check out our early access review when it first launched.

He also noted that the title shipped in a more pared-down state than what was initially planned, thanks in large part to members of the development team falling sick due to the global pandemic. This led to the studio cutting out quite a bit of planned content, including boss fights and entire levels.

“I was forced to ship the game. I’m mad at myself, there’s no doubt. I was so stunned by that decision, because we had f***ing COVID. A million people died in America. I lost one of my best friends. Every single month, four to six people in my company were getting sick. There were times our small team in Spain was shut down; it goes through a small place like that, and you lose your rendering team for a while. The main thing you’re concerned about, not that you aren’t normally, is the health of your team. Making a game just became secondary because this is about life. This is about humanity.”

The state in which The Callisto Protocol was released likely did it no favors when it came to critical reception, and Schofield admits that even Krafton “thought Callisto was a complete failure.” He blamed the publisher for “complaining” while the team itself was working on patches to raise the quality of the horror title.

“What they didn’t know while all they were doing was complaining, we were doing patches. I waited until I finished all the DLC and put out 86 patches. That was a lot of f***ing work. Every day you’re going in, you’re making changes. Some are little, others are massive. That was all to get it back to where it needed to be.”

On the subject of how the team worked through the pandemic, Schofield discussed getting “everybody together on Zoom” and going through individual calls despite the difficulty of managing a team of hundreds of developers. “But we did it. We did all these things because we were searching for the best way to do it. There were so many meetings.”

Interestingly, there was even a pitch for a sequel to The Callisto Protocol. However, owing to the poor critical and commercial reception of the horror title, Krafton decided to pass on the project. Schofield describes the concept as revolving around a plague, noting that it would have been bigger in scale than its predecessor.

“Over the years, different things have warped into one crazy freaking place. You go anywhere, and there are ships and stuff. That was just part of it. That’s where the outbreak would start. We had a lot of drawings, and a lot of some of the stuff that didn’t get in the first game was going to be in this one.”

The Callisto Protocol is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, take a look at our review.

Perhaps it’s simply playing it safe after all the fuss over Unknown Worlds’ Subnautica 2, which has ultimately proven worth it from the looks of things, or perhaps it’s a sign of changing times on the live-service front. Either way, the studio has decided to cancel development of the extraction spin-off of the popular franchise.

Expressing regret over the decision, the studio pointed to concerns about delivering an experience “that players could enjoy in the long term,” which is probably the most telling. This is a space with big names and equally massive reputations and player bases to compete against. With ARC Raiders continuing to innovate and keep its players coming back, especially with Frozen Trail out this October, we’d understand even a franchise as big as PUBG backing off from that particular fight.

Well, let’s hope that Krafton can now focus a little more on making Subnautica a franchise IP like it wants to. That’s a space where the waters remain relatively untested and ripe for the taking, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Players take on the role of a Containment Agent for the eponymous World Phasebound Control Authority at its Seoul branch. In this role, players will take on supernatural phenomena that take on bizarre and twisted forms. To deal with this, players will have access to the Core Interferometer, allowing them to dive into containment zones to vanquish these threats.

The core gameplay will involve hack-and-slash combat, and the trailer has indicated that players will have access to a variety of weapons and characters, each with their own abilities, that match their play style. The Phasebound Horrors of the game are described as being “anomalous entities that defy the very laws of modern logic and physical reality,” which would hint at them being quite ferocious encounters.

Players will have to figure out the weaknesses of these Phasebound Horrors to put them down for good, and along the way, pull off some epic and flashy combos. There will also be a progression system that revolves around using materials obtained from fights to craft upgrades for weapons.

Along with single-player content, WPCA: World Phasebound Control Authority will also offer co-op gameplay for up to three-player parties. The structure is noted as not requiring pre-made parties or strict roles among the players, which also hints at similarities with Capcom’s Monster Hunter franchise.

The accompanying gameplay was all kinds of chaotic, but the game’s penchant for player expression, a wide array of weapons to do that with, and of course, an extensive wardrobe to look and feel your best when you’re out fighting for your life in the new map it brings. It’s called Cascadia and takes you back all the way to 1996, with level designs that feature a lot of call backs to a time we’d call simpler. But those battles are far from it, as you get access to melee and ranged weapons, and a lot of ways to dish out damage while trying to receive as little of it as you possibly can.

If all of this is music to your years, you’re probably going to want to try signing up for the closed beta that’s coming soon, and hope that you get to dive in to that new approach to progression early on. Check out the latest trailer below (courtesy of IGN) for a stylish introduction to Cascadia while we wait for news about potential release windows on PC and consoles.

You can explore Port Desire, which is small but layered and dense, as you please. Hacking, tinkering and guns-blazing are all viable play-styles, and while the city is meant to feel grounded, it’s also full of adventure. Neon Giant doesn’t want it to feel too overwhelming, but you could be investigating a murder and suddenly spot something else that requires some ingenuity to reach. Long story short, if you see an open balcony, chances are it can be reached.

It’s also possible to kill all NPCs. Their deaths are permanent, so if you slay a vendor, their shop will shut down. Hilariously, you can lock yourself out of buying any guns this way. The game will provide a warning after killing absolutely essential NPCs, so while you can continue playing, it should provide more context on how important they were to the story.

No Law launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Both trailers start off the same way – with a woman on a boat that gets sucked into some kind of whirlpool – before we get to see some in-game footage of the world, its various monsters, and some of the weapons and abilities that players will have access to. The first trailer also hints that Tarae: The Unbound will offer plenty of choices when it comes to character classes, which will go on to define the player’s arsenal of weapons and abilities.

Along with the traditional action RPG classes that one would expect, like a warrior, a magic user, and a rogue, there also seem to be more interesting choices available. Some of the gameplay showcased a character seemingly summoning another character to cast spells on their behalf. Guns also seem to be a viable tool for fighting off the strange, demonic creatures of the game, and there will likely be a class focusing on ranged combat to help.

The studio’s description of the class system implies that players will have quite a bit of freedom when it comes to mixing and matching their various skills, traits, support skills, and gear. Through this, players will be able to customize their class for their own play style. Traits will form the core of the class, with new branches opening up once players get their hands on support skills and unique gear. There are also the Five Elements, the harmony of Yin and Yang, the concept of Karma, and the cycle of Reincarnation that will further shape the player’s choices.

At launch, there will seemingly be six playable characters – dubbed Seekers – who will each have their own motivations for their journey that can make them cross paths with one another. All of their primary goal is to recover the Sources that would restore the cycle of reincarnation in the world, and have seemingly been scattered across Taegwido.

Many of the creatures in Tarae: The Unbound will be based on Eastern myths and folklore, with some even being massive boss fights that the studio has said are designed to be “mastered”. This means that they will offer a considerable level of challenge, and players will have to learn their attack patterns and various quirks to be able to take them on efficiently.

The core story of Tarae: The Unbound revolves around the outcast, Agasa, who shattered the boundaries between worlds to break the wheel of reincarnation. This has had the unfortunate side effect of throwing the world into chaos because of all the strange creatures now roaming around.

Tarae: The Unbound is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. However, the action RPG doesn’t yet have a release date.

Some consider him to be a pacifist who likes taking care of plants. Others point out his sneaky tactics, whether it’s disabling cameras or pickpocketing fools. Brute force isn’t off the table either, whether it’s breaking down doors or blowing up enemy heads. You can also get a little more creative by planting grenades on roombas and watching the mayhem unfurl from afar.

While tearing through the opposition should feel good (perhaps almost as good as it looks), consequences abound. We didn’t really see much of that in the new trailer, but Neon Giant has promised “alternate paths” through its story. Port Desire doesn’t seem like a place that takes too kindly to anyone, but you might want to think before zeroing every single target.

No Law launches in 2027 for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Given the studio’s work on The Ascent, it’s actually pretty impressive to see its leap into the first-person shooter space. If nothing else, this should help make the wait for Cyberpunk 2 somewhat easier.

As outlined by creative director Anthony Gallegos in a new video, it functions as a local chat option that switches to radio when you split up, before breaking up completely. There are also player emotes, inventory sharing to swap items directly with players, and revives (though it’s on a timer, so act fast if someone goes down).

It also adds two new playable characters, suit colors and the Tracking Tag. This can be held and extends your black box signal across greater distances upon death. But you can also throw it into a locker to serve as a beacon.

And at long last, HUD icons have seen improvements, starting small by default and then scaling up as you get closer to them. No more looking at a large clump of icons together, trying to discern which is which. Aside from pinned recipe improvements and the base-building tool now indicating when you can’t build something, Gallegos teased Update 2.0 with a new vehicle, region and an encounter with the Collector Leviathan.

Stay tuned for Update 1.2’s patch notes tomorrow, and check out our Subnautica 2 review in the meantime.

This means that future plans for Subnautica 2 will involve a “focus on quality and community trust until full launch, while pursuing long-term franchise expansion.” In the short term, Krafton wants to “scale up the creative” behind the game by offering more features like expanded scalability for co-op gameplay while preserving its core.

The success of Subnautica 2 comes despite the title and its development team – Unknown Worlds – going through quite a bit of drama following its acquisition by Krafton. Earlier this month, CEO Ted Gill announced that he was stepping down from his role as part of a settlement with Krafton that ensures that the publisher will pay out its promised bonuses.

“We mutually agreed to part ways. New leadership is the best way for the studio to move forward,” he said. Both Unknown Worlds and Krafton are working together to find a new CEO for the studio in the meantime.

“Krafton, Inc., Unknown Worlds Entertainment and Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland, and Max McGuire have reached a mutual settlement and agreed to dismiss all pending legal proceedings,” said Krafton in a statement. “Unknown Worlds and Krafton are focused on supporting Subnautica 2, its Early Access journey to the full 1.0 release and the global community that has made the franchise so special. Unknown Worlds will continue leading development, with Krafton providing support for the success of the game.”

The bonuses in question led to quite a bit of controversy, and even ended up with Unknown Worlds co-founders Gill, Cleveland, and McGuire taking Krafton to court. These bonuses amounted to more than $250 million, and were promised as part of Krafton’s acquisition of the studio – a deal that was valued at $500 million.

As for Subnautica 2 itself, the title has seen incredible success, managing to sell more than 4 million copies in its first five days alone. In a statement, executive producer Fernando Melo thanked the game’s community for the support and promised that feedback will continue to drive development momentum for the Early Access title.

Interestingly, Subnautica 2 also saw some minor controversy due to design decisions made by the developers that prevented players from killing the underwater creatures of the in-game world. In a Discord server, the game’s level designer said, “We aren’t a killing game. Go play Sons of the Forest or something if you want to kill.”

Following some player backlash, Unknown Worlds announced that it would rethink its approach for Subnautica 2, and promised players that the game’s creature encounters would get balancing changes, with players getting some tools to mitigate the threat presented by some of its more dangerous encounters. While Subnautica 2 will continue not to focus on combat, the studio wants to give players enough tools to deal with larger predators in more meaningful ways.