December 5th sees the arrival of the multiplayer voxel title Clone Drone in the Danger Zone and blacksmithing adventure While the Iron’s Hot for Xbox Series X/S, PC and cloud. Rise of the Tomb Raider returns on the same day. On December 7th, Goat Simulator 3 arrives for cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S, followed by Against the Storm on December 8th for PC.

Lemmings-like puzzle title Tin Hearts debuts on December 12th for the service, while Far Cry 6 is available on December 14th. As for Game Pass Core (the replacement for Xbox Live Gold), it will offer Chivalry 2 and Totally Reliable Delivery Service on December 6th. Check out the titles leaving Game Pass on December 15th:

• Chained Echoes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Opus Magnum (PC)
• Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Rubber Bandits (Cloud, Console, and PC)

In a report published on Dealabs, the leaker has claimed that the first half of December will see nine games being added to Game Pass, including the aforementioned Remnant titles, and on December 1, SteamWorld Build, which is confirmed to be a day and date release for the service. On December 8, as previously confirmed, Against the Storm will release day and date for Game Pass as well.

Among the rest, the two most prominent titles are Far Cry 6 and Rise of the Tomb Raider. They will allegedly be accompanied by World War Z: Aftermath, Spirit of the North: Enhanced Edition, Goat Simulator 3, Tin Hearts, Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, and While the Iron’s Hot.

Microsoft will likely be officially announcing its wave 1 lineup for Game Pass’ December additions soon, so stay tuned for that.

From the beginning, Spirit of the North is a walking simulator in its truest form. You guide the fox you control along paths with very little to do except admire the environments and attempt to piece together what you think has happened to the fallen civilization you’re exploring. It takes very clear inspiration from the likes of Journey and Rime in its presentation and gameplay. With no dialogue and very little text, you are given vague direction and minimal explanation as to what you are meant to be doing throughout the game, and your only course of action is to follow the guide that leads you and assists you along the way.

"The first few chapters of the game flaunt the game’s strengths, which are contained entirely in its presentation."

Spicing up the walking simulator aspects of the gameplay, though, are objects throughout the world with which you have to interact to affect parts of the environment that will allow you to proceed. Usually, this happens by collecting Spirit Blooms, patches of blue flowers that give you a special glow and allow your companion spirit to have these contextual interactions with the environment, primarily with decaying tablets that can be lit. In doing this, you have a few options for your spirits actions. These are hardly puzzles in the early going, as they appear more like fetch quests to bring the Spirit Blooms to the desired locations than anything that requires much thought, and the actions to do what you need are relatively constant, with very little in the way of difficulty in wondering what you have to do. This is emphasized especially because every time you come up to an object at any point in the game, regardless of how many abilities you have, the correct contextual button prompt pops up, which made it less of an activity in discovering where I should be acting than an activity in wandering and hoping a button prompt would appear.

In doing all of these puzzles, the game’s narrative starts to take a bit of a back seat. As it tells you exceptionally little, it takes effort to begin to have an understanding of what is really going on in this civilization and with your spirit companion. As you get to the latter stages of the game, there are more murals and hints as to what happened in the past that give more of an idea of the context of the world. There are also numerous Shaman Masters scattered throughout the world, whose staffs lay elsewhere in an environment. Reconnecting a Shaman Master acts as the game’s only real collectible within the game, though it is a valuable addition to the civilization’s past. Overall, though, the story is obtuse enough that it’s easy to overlook it as you complete the rest of the game, but on a second playthrough, it gets more interesting and begins to clear up what really happened to this world.

The first few chapters of the game flaunt the game’s strengths, which are contained entirely in its presentation. Walking around the varying environments is consistently stunning, especially as they change from one season or color to another. In these chapters, it’s a relaxing experience that lets you reflect on the world and companionship you experience. When seen from afar, the environments are gorgeous, especially under the red sky or under feet of snow. Up close, though, the environments can be rougher around the edges. It’s easy to see the specific texture edges, and some animations seem pretty framey. However, the game’s music is arguably its strongest aspect, rounding out the beautiful environments with an emotional and resonating score that rivals scores of others masterpieces in the genre. It does an incredible job of amplifying the emotional aspects of the game and making seemingly minor moments touching and memorable.

"With the peace and beauty of its environments as the game’s greatest aspect, then, the final chapters become somewhat of a letdown because they lose focus from what makes the game stand out."

Technically, the game runs generally well, with only an occasional hitch in the framerate. The more frustrating element is the hitboxes of the platforms and of your fox. It’s never entirely clear as to where you will land and whether or not that location will register as the platform on which it appears, making me fall through a platform or stand on air. Numerous times I had to restart late-game puzzles because I fell off a platform or missed a jump that was affected by a misplaced hitbox. It’s frustrating to see this because it took away from the game’s beauty, as I began to focus more on the specific corners of a platform than on the environment, civilization, or companionship the game is presenting.

With the peace and beauty of its environments as the game’s greatest aspect, then, the final chapters become somewhat of a letdown because they lose focus from what makes the game stand out. As you hit the more open areas, you’ll be faced with more intricate and thoughtful puzzles that do more to test your abilities, especially ones you gain later in the game. These can get pretty frustrating because of the imprecision of the hitboxes and the lack of explanations of not only what you need to do, but also what your abilities themselves can do. With this, you’ll begin to focus more on finding a way to create your path forward than on what actually lies ahead.

Though these puzzles are more of a way for the game to test you on your abilities, they feel forced into the game to make the ending more difficult, as opposed to anything that enhance the narrative. In the early stages of the game, it seems to understand that the civilization you’re exploring and the narrative and environments it’s presenting are the most important aspects, but these take away from that, especially in one chapter that takes place almost entirely within a cave. It’s a large missed opportunity that feels like the game felt like it had to shoehorn in more generic difficult puzzles than rely on its strengths and create a consistent experience that the first chapters hint at.

"While Spirit of the North is a fantastic case of a beautiful experience, its late inconsistencies hurt its complete package."

Spirit of the North contains an incredibly relaxing, beautiful, and mellow experience that gives you the ability to interpret its themes in your own ways. I loved the experiences in which I could walk around and explore the environments to try to piece together what happened to this civilization and who my spirit companion was, especially when backdropped by the achingly beautiful score that complements it. However, the last few chapters lose what makes the rest of it great because they choose to focus on the less satisfying, more generic puzzles, instead of the fantastic open exploration and discovery gameplay. While Spirit of the North is a fantastic case of a beautiful experience, its late inconsistencies hurt its complete package.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Spirit of the North

Developed by Infuse Studio and releasing for PS4, Spirit of the North is a mellow tale of exploration. It sees a red fox meeting a fox spirit who acts as the Northern Lights’ guardian. Together, you’ll explore the mysterious landscape, traversing meadows and caves inspired by Iceland, and attempt to solve the world’s mystery. Beautiful, relaxing and wholly intriguing, Spirit of the North is out on November 1^st.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Initially met with skepticism, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has had some fairly positive pre-launch impressions. The story revolves around Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan who survived Order 66 and lives in secrecy. Of course, that doesn’t last for long and the Empire’s Inquistorius, namely the Second Sister, are after his life. With gameplay reminiscent of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Force powers and a variety of planets to explore, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order could be a dark horse. It’s out on November 15^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Game Freak’s eighth generation Pokemon title travels to the Galar Region with numerous stadiums and giant Pokemon created by Gigantamaxing (who naturally battle). As usual, your job will be to scour the region, take on gym leaders and ultimately challenge in the Champions Cup. There are open space areas that players are free to explore along with co-op raid bosses to topple and new Pokemon to collect. Pokemon Sword and Shield releases on November 15^th for the Nintendo Switch and the hype is very much real.

Shenmue 3

It’s been a long, long wait for Shenmue 3, the next chapter in Yu Suzuki’s long-running saga. And while there have been ups, downs and delays, the sequel is on track to release on November 19^th for PS4 and PC. Protagonist Ryu Hazuki continues his quest to hunt down Lan Di, his father’s killer, venturing to Bailu Village, Choubu and Baisha in China. With various mini-games, numerous NPCs to talk to, underground fights, training and much more to explore, Shenmue 3 promises to be a worthy follow-up to the series.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts

After the open world slump of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts is moving back to more mission-based gameplay. Set in Siberia, players will take on contracts to hunt targets, completing bonus objectives for more money. Sniping is still king and the new Dynamic Reticle System promises a realistic experience, though you also get sniper turrets and drones (because of course sniper turrets are a thing). Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts arrives on November 22^nd for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Need for Speed Heat

Electronic Arts has been rather reserved in its marketing for Need for Speed Heat, which introduces the Miami-inspired Palm City as the player’s latest racing playground. Nevertheless, the emphasis is back on street racing and evading the cop. There’s an interesting mechanic where racing during the day rewards money and upgrades but racing in the night rewards rep. Night races are illegal though so you’ll have to evade the cops and return to a safehouse for those rep gains. With 127 cars and no Speedcards, Need for Speed Heat might be worth checking out when it releases on November 8th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC)

Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC, which is a big deal given how the game’s visuals could look even better than they do already. Along with improved graphics, PC players can also look forward to new weapons, bounty missions, gang hideouts and more. Though it won’t be available on Steam until December, you can pick it up on the Humble Store, Epic Games Store and Rockstar Games launcher on November 5^th.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Mario and Sonic compete, once again, to prove their sporting prowess. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 does look better than previous collaborations. It boasts higher production values and some very cool new features like Classic 2D Events where 2D sprites of the cast compete across 10 events. There also Dream Events like hoverboarding, karate and much more to keep you busy. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is out on November 5^th for Nintendo Switch.

Death Stranding

Regardless of where you stand, there’s no denying that the release of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is a momentous occasion. Taking place in the future, the story focuses on Sam Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, as he ventures the country to reconnect its cities following a great disaster. Along the way, he’ll deal with eerie entities known as the B.T.s and the enigmatic Cliff played by Mads Mikkelsen. Death Stranding has looked gorgeous so far thanks to the Decima Engine – with its release for PS4 on November 8^th, we’ll soon find out exactly what it has to offer.

Just Dance 2020

Ubisoft’s next title in the Just Dance series is out on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PS4 and Xbox One on November 5^th (with a launch on Google Stadia as well). Yes, we almost forgot about it as well but as a game to play with friends and family, the Just Dance series works pretty well. Just Dance 2020 will continue this trend with songs like Bangarang from Skrillex, Kill This Love by Blackpink and of course, the universally loved and not at all loathed Baby Shark by Pinkfong.

"We were big fans of Journey, Abzu, and Rime for how they could capture people’s interest without ever having any dialogue. Having backgrounds as Game Environment Artists we were naturally drawn to this style of game and wanted to create something of our own."

Did you look at any similar games for inspiration while developing Spirit of the North? From what I’m able to sense, the game does seem to evoke games like Journey in style and tone.

When Taylor and I first started seriously thinking about making our own game we knew right away we wanted something that people would remember but something that was actually possible for us as a small team of two to create. We were big fans of Journey, Abzu, and Rime for how they could capture people’s interest without ever having any dialogue. Having backgrounds as Game Environment Artists we were naturally drawn to this style of game and wanted to create something of our own.

Environmental storytelling can be hard to nail down, especially when a game relies on it as absolutely as Spirit of the North seems to be doing. What’s the process been like to get that aspect of the experience just right?

It was a lot of trial and error on the level design side of things and just the visual style in general. Throughout the game, there are murals that give the player insight into what happened in the past that made the world around them the way that it is. The process of having things make sense but not be too obvious was a challenging one, especially without the use of words. In the end, the process came down to what made sense visually. We would ask friends if they could figure out what the murals meant or just parts of the game in general. Sometimes their answers were varied but we kind of liked that not everyone experienced it the same way.

I know Spirit of the North is supposed to be a guided, scripted experience, but what does it offer in terms of exploration? I imagine players will be quite tempted to explore the game’s beautiful environments.

Spirit of the North is a linear game, but towards the middle and end of the game when you start unlocking abilities we tried to open up the play space as much as we could without it becoming completely unreasonable for us as a team of two.

Why did you decide to go with a Nordic-inspired setting for this game? How much does the Nordic folklore figure into the game’s story and setting?

We first knew we wanted our games main character to be a fox, at first, we didn’t know what the game would even be about other than that. But Taylor remembered a Nordic folktale about a fox that creates the northern lights when it brushes its tail against things. After doing a bit more research, we knew we wanted to have it be part of our main story.

"Spirit of the North is a linear game, but towards the middle and end of the game when you start unlocking abilities we tried to open up the play space as much as we could without it becoming completely unreasonable for us as a team of two."

Can you talk to us about how puzzles will work in the game, and how much of the experience they account for as opposed to traversal and exploration?

Puzzles work in a few different ways, but the main mechanic involves Infusing standing stones with pure energy that is gathered from Spirit Bloom flowers that are scattered around the landscapes. Puzzles are a pretty significant part of the game, but they do help slow the player down and pay attention to their surroundings.

The spirit companion is obviously going to be important to the story, but how does it factor into the gameplay?

This question could only really be answered with serious spoilers. So for the sake of not spoiling the game. I will say that the Spirit Fox and Wisp are very important in terms of gameplay. There are certain abilities you can’t use without them. Making certain parts of the game shake up how you approach puzzles.

Roughly how long will an average playthrough of Spirit of the North be?

A first playthrough takes around 8 hours if you take time to find all the collectibles. Originally our goal was for the game to be around 3 hours long, but we felt like it needed more. If we had made the game any bigger I don’t think we would have ever been able to finish it.

Why did you decide to launch as a timed exclusive for the PS4?

We decided to launch on PS4 first because we knew right away that there was no possible way a team of two could create and release a game for all platforms at once such as Xbox, Switch, PC. We knew since this is our first game the odds were already against us, so we decided to go with a console release for more exposure. We happen to be PS4 users, so we were already familiar with how the menus and interface worked so that played a big part in deciding as well.

How will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

The PS4 Pro version will run at a resolution of 1920×1080 capped at 60fps.

How is the game running on the original PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

The standard PS4 will run at a resolution of 1920×1080 capped at 30fps. The game will look almost identical to the PS4 Pro with only a few minor settings turned down the major difference is the fps cap.

"We decided to launch on PS4 first because we knew right away that there was no possible way a team of two could create and release a game for all platforms at once such as Xbox, Switch, PC. We knew since this is our first game the odds were already against us, so we decided to go with a console release for more exposure."

The PS5 is confirmed to have an SSD. From a development perspective, how will this help you to improve game performance in the future?

An SSD will definitely help improve load and save times on all games running on that platform. But as an interesting side note. Load times also heavily depend on the other hardware in your system, Spirit of the North loads much faster on PS4 Pro than PS4 Standard. Even though they have the same sort of hard drive.

The PS5 will have a Zen 2 CPU processor which is a major leap over the CPUs found in the PS4 and Xbox One. From a development perspective, how will this help you in developing games of the future?

The PS5 will be much easier to develop for in terms of being able to use much more performance heavy rendering features such as higher quality DFAO, Volumetric Fog, and Ambient Occlusion. Just getting the game running on PS4 Pro was a challenge at first when I was trying to figure out the limitations of the hardware. I had to go through and optimize the game countless times and learn more about how rendering works than I ever thought I would know to get the game running decently on both systems.

Backwards compatibility is a big feature PS5. How will it help your past library to evolve and grow?

I think this will affect the whole industry and gaming community in many different ways. Some positives are people won’t have to buy remasters to play their favorite PS4 games. On the downside, developers won’t be as eager to release remasters or new editions of PS4 games on PS5. I think consumers will realize after a few years of the new console being out they would rather have remasters of their favorite PS4 games that utilizes the PS5’s hardware to its full potential letting them experience the games they like in more detail.

The PS5 was recently confirmed to have Haptic enabled controllers. How do you think that will help games to evolve?

I think Haptic feedback could be a really neat feature. As long as developers actually use it to its full potential and it doesn’t just add additional cost to the controller like the touchpad on the DualShock 4 that would be a great outcome.

We now know – officially – that the PS5 is going to launch in Holiday 2020, and over the past few months, Sony have shared a great deal of new details on their upcoming console. But of all the new info they have shared, the most exciting bits have been the one that came before everything else- the fact that the system is going to have an SSD (which has excited developers quite a bit), and that it’ll be using AMD’s Zen 2 CPU (which is something else that’s going to be a huge boost to development).

We recently conducted an interview with Infuse Studio’s Jacob Sutton – the developers of the upcoming narrative adventure title Spirit of the North – and picked his brain about next-gen hardware, what we know about it, and what all of it, from his perspective as a developer, is going to do for games next generation. And Sutton’s views on both the SSD and the new processor are quite positive.

When speaking about the PS5’s SSD, Sutton commented on how it would improve load times for all games, though he also noted that that’s something that depends on more than just the SSD.

“An SSD will definitely help improve load and save times on all games running on that platform,” said Sutton. “But as an interesting side note- load times also heavily depend on the other hardware in your system. Spirit of the North loads much faster on PS4 Pro than PS4 standard. Even though they have the same sort of hard drive.

Meanwhile, when we asked him about his thoughts on the PS5’s Zen 2 CPU, Sutton said that it would make developing games for the system significantly easier in terms of making use of intensive rendering techniques, while comparing it to his experiences with the difficulties he’s faced in getting his game optimized for the PS4 Pro.

“The PS5 will be much easier to develop for in terms of being able to use much more performance heavy rendering features such as higher quality DFAO, Volumetric Fog, and Ambient Occlusion,” he said. “Just getting the game running on PS4 Pro was a challenge at first when I was trying to figure out the limitations of the hardware. I had to go through and optimize the game countless times and learn more about how rendering works than I ever thought I would know to get the game running decently on both systems.”

In the same interview, Sutton also spoke to us about the PS5 controller’s recently revealed haptic feedback feature– read more on that through here. Our full interview with Sutton will be live soon, so stay tuned to GamingBolt.

Infuse Studio’s Spirit of the North launches exclusively for the PS4 on November 1.

Sony has yet to fully unveil the PlayStation 5, releasing bits of information en route to next year’s release. However, some of those details, like the next DualShock controller having adaptive triggers and Haptic feedback sounds very promising. What do other developers think of it though?

We spoke to Infuse Studio environment artist Jacob Sutton, who’s currently working on Spirit of the North for the PS4. Sutton said that, “I think Haptic feedback could be a really neat feature. As long as developers actually use it to its full potential and it doesn’t just add additional cost to the controller like the touchpad on the DualShock 4 that would be a great outcome.”

Backwards compatibility is another major feature that the PlayStation 5 will have. Despite it still being in development, having one’s entire PS4 library available from the outset is great. Regarding how it would help one’s library grow and evolve, Sutton said, “I think this will affect the whole industry and gaming community in many different ways. Some positives are people won’t have to buy remasters to play there favorite PS4 games.

“On the downside, developers won’t be as eager to release remasters or new editions of PS4 games on PS5. I think consumers will realize after a few years of the new console being out they would rather have remasters of there favorite PS4 games that utilizes the PS5’s hardware to its full potential letting them experience the games they like in more detail.”

The PlayStation 5 is out in Holiday 2020 with a reveal event rumored to be taking place in February 2020. Stay tuned for more details on the same in the coming months. As for Spirit of the North, it releases on November 1st for the PS4. Xbox One and PC releases are planned for later. Stay tuned for our full interview soon.

Wattam

Funomena’s Wattam is directed by the creator of Katamari, which means a fair bit of weirdness is explore. You explore a world of colorful characters, making friends with rocks, flowers and gaping mouths to solve puzzles and do other joyful things. The key element is that everyone has a melody which can be combined together, no doubt creating a song to herald the apocalypse. All jokes aside, if you’re looking for something truly unique, Wattam is out in December 2019 for PS4 and PC.