The next batch of free games for Xbox Live Gold has been announced. In December 2018, subscribers will receive two Xbox One titles – QUBE 2 and Never Alone – and an Xbox 360 title – Dragon Age 2. Interestingly, an original Xbox title is also available, with Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.

While QUBE 2 will be available throughout the month, Never Alone is available from December 16th to January 15th, 2019. Dragon Age 2 can be claimed from December 1st to 15th, while Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is available from December 16th to 31st. As with previous months’ offerings, the Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles will be backwards compatible on Xbox One.

The inclusion of Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction is interesting because it means other original Xbox titles could be available for free in the future as well. The real question is: What can we expect? Perhaps classics like Panzer Dragoon Orta or Jade Empire? Time will tell, so we’ll see what the new year has to hold.

Never Alone will be getting its very first expansion, Foxtales, on July 28, the developer announced today. Like the base game itself, Foxtales focuses on one specific Alaskan folk tale- in this case casting Nuna and Fox in a new adventure inspired by the tale of the “Two Coastal Brothers.”

“Spring has come to the Arctic as Nuna and Fox climb aboard their umiaq (a sealskin canoe) and take to the waters of the coasts, rivers and lakes of Northwest Alaska. They’ll travel across open seas, swim through the ruins of a sunken village and paddle up the Noatak River on a mission to rescue a new friend,” they said, talking about the story.

On a mechanical front, Never Alone: Foxtales will have three all new levels full of environments to explore, puzzles to solve and enemies to face. And as always, the game has been developed in full collaboration with the Alaskan native community, so it should come off as uniquely authentic.

Never Alone: Foxtales will be coming July 28 to PS4, Xbox One and Steam.

Game Overview:

In Never Alone players take up the role of Nuna and her fox. The game is desscribed as atmospheric puzzle platformer which requires the player to control both the character in order to progress through the game. The game also includes stories of the Little People, the Rolling Heads, Sky People and Manslayer.

Never Alone is now available for the PlayStation 4,  Xbox One and PC. The game is developed by Upper One Games and published by E-Line Media.

Check out the video walkthrough of Never Alone below and let us know if you have any questions in the comments section below.

For video game guides, tips and wikis, check out our gaming portal here.

If you’ve been waiting for E-Line’s Never Alone in Europe for the PS4, you’re going to have to wait slightly longer. Though the 2D title is out now on PC, Xbox One and PS4 in North America while the Xbox One and PC versions are out in Europe, the developer has announced that the PS4 version has been delayed to November 26th.

The reason for this is due to a patch which releases with the game but is yet in certification testing with SCEE. The developer stated that, “E-Line and Upper One Games are committed to delivering the best customer experience possible. While we’re disappointed that the European PS4 launch will be delayed by a week, we are confident that game players will be delighted by Never Alone when it does come out.”

Have you had a chance to play Never Alone? Let us know what you think of the game and stay tuned for information the release of the PS4 version.

Set to release on November 4th of 2014 (presumably world wide as no regional release dates have been given) the game will be launching on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows PC’s.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

​Never alone is being developed by Upper One Games who are recognized as being the first Native American video game studio, they are working on the project alongsit the Cook Inlet Tribal Council, an NPO (Non Profit Organization) that primarily works with indigenous peoples living in the more urban areas of Alaska. The title is being developed on the hugely popular Unity Game Engine and is scheduled for a Q3 release of November 4th 2014.

The game first came into being during the conceptual stages w​​hen the Cook Inlet Tribal Council met with a company that uses video games as an educational device as well as a media platform, this group is known as E-Line Media. It was during this meeting that the idea of Never Alone was conceived as being part of a series that “shares, celebrates, and extends culture”.

Upper One Games, the ‘for profit’ portion of the Cook Inlet Tribal Council are the “first indigenous-owned video game developer and publisher in US history”, they have built and developed the game around the idea of “what it means to be human” and plan on doing this by weaving the narrative with intergenerational stories and plots. The general idea of the game is to be one that focuses on and shares the stories that are embedded in the culture of the indigenous Alaskan people and their folklore, any proceeds generated by the game will be going towards funding further Cook Inlet Tribal Council education missions.

Story

​The story of Never Alone is constructed around the tales found in the folklore of the indigenous Alaskan people, the narrative follows a story of bringing balance to the “eternal blizzard” by going to its source. The influencing stories set to make an appearance include the Blizzard Man, The Little People, Manslayer, The Rolling Heads and Sky People, but the game will be split across eight separate chapters to better facilitate the puzzle platforming structure of the game.

Gameplay

​The gameplay of Never Alone follows that of the typical “atmospheric puzzle platformer”, this is perhaps a genre best represented in the hugely popular game, Limbo. Never Alone however takes on an entirely different art style that makes the game somewhat singular in this regard, opting to go ​​for a more desaturated chalk-like pastel esque art style.

The player takes control of the young Alaskan Native, Nuna and her p​u​r​e​ white Arctic fox. The primary puzzle platforming mechanic in Never Alone is that the player can swap between Nuna and her Fox to help solve puzzles and progress through the game. The fox is much faster than Nuna,as you would expect, but Nuna can pick up items and can use her Bola (the Bolas is a throwing weapon that originated in the Americas and consists of two weights at opposite ends up a rope to make a heavy, tangling projectile) to open up new areas in the game. Nuna and her fox will adventure together and solve puzzles throughout the 8 separate chapters of the game.

The game is mostly set in the cold, harsh and often hostile environment of the Alaskan tundra and reflects a very real but wholly natural threat to Nuna and her Fox.

Characters

​Never Alone has two main characters in the game that travel through the 8 separate chapters together, they are:

Nuna – Nuna is one of the Iñupiaq,the Alaskan Native folk and she is adventuring with an arctic fox. Skilled in the use of a Bolas, Nuna is one of the games two main playable characters.

The Arctic Fox – The Arctic Fox is a pure snow white companion that is going to be travelling with Nuna throughout the adventure, the fox is considerably faster than Nuna bu is obviously lacking the means to throw the bolas like Nuna.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.