11 Bit Studios and developer Starward Industries have shown off five minutes of gameplay for The Invincible at the PC Gaming Show. Originally revealed in 2020, The Invincible takes place on the distant planet of Regis III as you carry out a rescue mission as astrobiologist Yasna.

Several crew members of an interstellar scientific expedition have gone missing on the mysterious planet, and it’ll be up to Yasna to discover what happened to them and if they’re even still alive on a planet that contains horrifying secrets.

For fans of classic sci-fi, the game’s art design features a retro-futuristic aesthetic inspired by the novel of the same name by Polish sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem.

The Invincible

“When many of us were teenagers, Lem gave us a vision of the future that felt surreal. And as a reader, I couldn’t imagine the world of The Invincible being more tangible than the one portrayed in the game,” 11 Bit Studios external development director Marek Ziemak said. “As a Polish publisher on a mission to showcase meaningful entertainment, we couldn’t pass by the opportunity to take on a game based on such an important piece of Polish cultural heritage as Lem’s book.”

The Invincible will be making its way to PC and consoles next year.

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Despite looking a whole lot like Turtle Rock Studios’ Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood in its latest gameplay trailer, developer Arkane Austin wants players to know that its upcoming open-world, cooperative first-person shooter Redfall is not like those games. After talking with Arkane Austin studio director Harvey Smith and Redfall co-creative director Ricardo Bare, I came away thinking Redfall looks and sounds more like Arkane Austin’s take on a Borderlands-like game, not Left 4 Dead.

“Once in a while, we get compared to Left 4 Dead,” Smith told GameSpot. “But this is a big campaign that is persistent and you play through the story and level your character up and you can do that alone or with other people. We love Left 4 Dead, but [Redfall] is not Left 4 Dead in any way really, other than colorful characters. When you play alone in our game, you have one character, there aren’t bots. We don’t have the whole party together.”

Redfall takes place in the titular fictional Massachusetts city, which has come under siege by an army of vampires. That army of the undead has created an endless night by blocking out the sun and also prevented any and all escape by cutting the island off from the rest of the world. Those humans who are still alive have either joined a cult devoted to sacrificing everyone to the vampires or are struggling to find a way to survive the nightmare.

You fall into the latter camp, playing as one of four survivors–cryptozoologist and inventor Devinder Crousley, combat engineer Remi De La Rosa, ex-military sharpshooter Jacob Boyer, or biomedical engineering student Layla Ellison. All four can wield the abundance of loot you’ll uncover in Redfall (all of which is divided into color-coded tiers of rarity and power), but each brings their own specialties to combat with their unique abilities. A medical trial gone wrong has left Layla with telekinetic superpowers, for example, while Remi uses her inventive mind to outfit her robotic companion with supportive tech.

Whichever character you pick is who you’re playing as for the entire campaign, which you can tackle solo or with a group of up to four players. Whether you play alone or in a group, it seems like you’ll get largely the same experience–there are no powers that only work in multiplayer, for instance. “We made a decision very early on,” Smith said. “We’re not going to make features that are like, ‘If I’m playing single-player, I feel I’m missing out on some big thing.’ And so as much as possible, we try to keep the campaign one-to-one [in terms of] what you see if you’re playing single-player or multiplayer. The only additional thing is obviously interaction and the banter between squadmates and any co-op synergy that you have between them.”

“Yeah, and there’s definitely nothing like, ‘This is the co-op campaign and this is the single-player campaign,'” Bare added. “It’s the same content. We do try to do the thing where [each character’s] abilities, as an example, are 100% cool in single-player, but then also have nice compliments if you happen to be playing multiplayer. So an obvious example would be Layla’s elevator. It’s useful in single-player for her to shoot herself up onto rooftops. But it’s obviously also cool when you’re playing with friends [because] your friends can also use it.”

As you play, you’ll not only uncover loot, you’ll also earn points to put into skill trees, unlocking additional perks tied to your character’s specific abilities. Anyone who has played a Borderlands game or similar titles (like Destiny 2 or Outriders) should be familiar with what Redfall is offering. The major difference Arkane Austin seems to be bringing with Redfall is stealth-driven combat mechanics, which aren’t usually seen in such a traditionally action-heavy style of game. But Smith and Bare indicated that Redfall won’t be as heavily stealth-focused as previous Arkane games like Dishonored or Prey; instead, the game will have a healthy balance of stealth and action, with a player’s experience largely depending on whether they’re playing solo or in a group.

“It really goes back to the heart of why we [use] stealth systems to begin with,” Smith said. “This is not a pure stealth game. This is more a game where stealth enables a certain kind of play. And the main reason we do it, I think, is because of the AI that you get, by definition, when you make a stealth game–at least an analog [type of] stealth game [like what] we like.”

That does mean there isn’t too much of a focus on stealth in Redfall–which, to be fair, does feature incredibly loud firearms like bolt-action sniper rifles and shotguns. It’s an option for you if you want it, but Smith said stealth isn’t as important a consideration as it is in games like Hitman or Dishonored.

“Even if you would not consider this a pure stealth game, stealth is a part of it,” Smith said. “[Stealth] allows you to get the drop on people. It allows you to get into an interesting vantage. It allows you to skip some combat [sections] if you are vulnerable, if you’re in a bad situation, your health is low, whatever. And it also generates these moments where you think you’re moving through an area and no one hears you, no one sees you, but suddenly you have a tail and you’re kiting one set of enemies into another set of enemies.”

You shouldn’t have to worry about trying to stealth and wondering whether your allies will do the same. Arkane Austin has created a context-sensitive ping system for Redfall, allowing players to communicate with each other even if not everyone is on mics. It’s just one of several accessibility features that Arkane Austin has put into Redfall, which Smith indicated has become a greater priority since the developer’s parent company, ZeniMax, was acquired by Microsoft. Not much else has seemingly changed under the new leadership, however, with Smith saying that Arkane Austin still enjoys a great deal of creative freedom.

“From our perspective, nothing’s changed because we still report to ZeniMax and they’re not very prescriptive–we’ve always had an enormous degree of creative freedom,” Smith said. “But one of the benefits so far working with Microsoft is a lot of insight into accessibility and the importance of that, and so we have more of that that we’ll talk about at some point in the near future.”

Unlike similar games, Redfall does not incorporate a respec system, meaning that once you make a choice in your character’s skill tree, you’re stuck with it. Additionally, the game does not balance combat behind the scenes in the case of different-leveled characters entering the same game. If you’re playing as a level 20 Layla and you’re joined by your friend who’s a level 5 Remi, your friend is just going to have a rough go at it (though the higher amounts of experience they’ll earn should help them level up faster). Arkane Austin’s hope with this is that it promotes the idea that your character is an accurate reflection of your choices, all of which have lasting consequences on your experience with the game.

“There’s a lot of decisions that you have to make as soon as you start making a co-op game,” Smith said, “And over and over during the project, we found ourselves coming into contact with those [decisions]. All of us had worked on multiplayer games at some point, even though it’s not our forte, it’s not our specialty, but over and over, we had to answer questions about, ‘What do we do here? How do we gate that?’ And there’s a lot of features, I think, in modern games that are sort of niceties or quality-of-life features that actually hurt the game in some ways, like giving yourself the ability to just fluidly respec constantly.”

Smith added, “And if you go play with a friend and you guys do whatever mission, that’s fine, that’s cool. The host gets credit for it, for sure–it’s part of their progression. But if you then start the campaign, you have to play those missions [again]. Again, there’s a lot of stuff that at first feels quality-of-life that ultimately undermines the authenticity of the experience somehow.”

As someone who typically plays as the Siren class in Borderlands games, Layla looks the most appealing to me out of Redfall’s roster.

Redfall will have a linear campaign, but much like Prey, there are plenty of optional side quests and nuggets of story for players to uncover. Bare confirmed there’s far more lore and backstory to discover in Redfall in comparison to Prey–even if you can’t enter every building, Redfall’s city setting is far larger than Prey’s space station, meaning the team had to include more to find in order to prevent the open world from feeling empty.

“I think there are advantages to the kinds of games that we’ve made like Dishonored and Prey where it’s very single-player,” Smith said. “But with an open world, you can go anywhere. You can be meaning to go here, but look out across a baseball diamond and a graveyard and a trailer park and see something that you want to do over there and then get into this whole thing because the AI heard you and followed you and kited you into something else. And then you wander upon a vignette of some petrified vampires and a UV light on a tripod because some lady sniper from Bellwether set up a tripod there with UV lights and turned them off so that the vampires start thawing out and she’s fighting for her life and you can just walk off or you can help her, or you help [the vampires]. And suddenly an hour has passed and you’re just like, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t even gotten to the mission yet.’ And that’s really what we love about open-world games.”

Both Smith and Bare reiterated that environmental storytelling is a big part of Redfall, even with the multiplayer focus. They acknowledge that Redfall doesn’t look quite like Arkane Austin’s previous work, but the studio’s creative values are still represented in some form or another.

Originally slated for Summer 2022, Redfall has been delayed to the first half of 2023. The game is scheduled to launch for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

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The Xbox & Bethesda showcase debuted a new turn-based game from Oxide Games, the studio behind 2016’s Ashes of the Singularity. It’s called Ara: History Untold, and a cinematic trailer showed a variety of historical periods and structures mashed into one.

The trailer promised it will appear on the PC version of Game Pass, and teased that you can now sign up for access to the Insider Program that will begin later this year. Insiders who gain access to the game will be able to leave feedback and help shape development going forward.

According to the official announcement, players will build a dynamic world through Oxide’s new Nitrous Engine, which will influence how the world and people develop. You’ll lead a nation through history as they explore, create art and cultural achievements, go to war, or avoid conflict with diplomacy.

This story is developing.

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Diablo IV will have an in-game shop, a new Blizzard job listing confirms, with the game’s product manager responsible for managing the game’s “in-game storefront throughout each season to deliver an exceptional player experience.”

The product manager will also “utilize tools to configure product contents, pricing, and availability,” and maintain the shop’s content roadmap.

This is the first official confirmation that Diablo IV will have an in-game shop and microtransactions of some kind, while also reinforcing the fact Blizzard’s next entry in the RPG franchise will be taking a live-service, seasonal approach.

News that Diablo IV will have an in-game store has some fans of the series concerned given the recent release of Blizzard’s free-to-play mobile game Diablo Immortal, which is also playable on PC with cross-play and cross-progression between platforms. Diablo Immortal has been heavily criticized for its various microtransactions, including some many players view as pay-to-win. Diablo Immortal has seen more than 10 million downloads, with Blizzard hailing the game’s launch as the biggest in franchise history. It also sports the lowest Metacritic user score for a PC game in Metacritic history with a score of .2.

Beta registrations for Diablo IV recently went live, though signing up doesn’t seem to guarantee a chance of getting into the beta once it does arrive. No start date for the beta is listed, and the game’s new beta sign-up page lists Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC as platforms, with Xbox One and PlayStation 4 missing despite having already been announced for last-gen platforms.

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2022’s next major gaming event, the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, is set to take place today, June 12. It starts at 10 AM PT and promises to run for more than an hour and a half, and it should be packed with Xbox and PC games, reveals, trailers, and much more. While very little has been specifically confirmed for the event, we can likely expect a look at games like Starfield, Redfall, and many more. Below, you’ll find the full rundown on how to watch the event, its start time, and some idea of what to expect.

The breadth of Xbox’s events has expanded since years ago thanks to its acquisition of Bethesda, which brought a bunch of additional developers into the Xbox first-party family. Of course, there could also be showings from third-party companies, as well, with rumors of Hideo Kojima working on a game that will come to Xbox.

When is the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase?

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase takes place today, Sunday, June 12. It starts at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, and you can see more regional times below.

Xbox/Bethesda start time on Sunday, June 12

10 AM PT12 PM CT1 PM ET6 PM GMT2 AM JST (Monday, June 13)3 AM AEST (Monday, June 13)

How long is the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase?

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will run for 1 hour and 35 minutes, according to Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg. For comparison, 2021’s Xbox & Bethesda event ran for 1 hour and 25 minutes.

How To Watch Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will be streamed in a variety of places, including through the official Xbox pages on YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok, among others. Microsoft will broadcast the event in more than 30 languages, including ASL. GameSpot will also carry a livestream of the showcase, which you can watch above or on GameSpot’s YouTube.

Xbox YouTubeXbox TwitchXbox Twitch ASLXbox TwitterXbox FacebookXbox TikTok

What To Expect At The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase

The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase will include “amazing titles” from Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda, and Microsoft’s third-party partners around the world, Microsoft said in its announcement. There will also be updates on Xbox Game Pass and Microsoft’s efforts in the PC space, the company said.

Microsoft did not provide any specifics regarding games on display at the event, but Bethesda’s Starfield is a safe bet–while it has been delayed out of November, it’s still one of the biggest first-party games on the horizon. Microsoft also has new Fable and Forza Motorsport games in the works that could be shown off. Forza Horizon 5 DLC recently leaked that we could get a look at, while a port of GoldenEye 007 may also be in the works, according to various reports and an Achievement listing. Something new involving Banjo-Kazooie is rumored, too.

As for Bethesda’s non-Starfield offerings, the showcase could bring more news about Redfall and the Indiana Jones games from MachineGames. As always, there will surely be unexpected announcements and new reveals, too.

As noted above, there are rumors of a Kojima game coming to Xbox, with a recent leak pointing to the acclaimed Metal Gear creator working on a horror game called Overdose.

Accessibility

There will be several different accessibility options available during the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase. These include “subtitle support and/or audio dubbed translations” in the following languages:

Simplified ChineseTraditional ChineseCzechDanishDutchFinnishGermanGreekHebrewHindiHungarianIndonesianItalianJapaneseKoreanMalayNorwegianPersian (Farsi)PolishPortugueseBrazilian PortugueseRussianSlovakCastilian SpanishLatin American SpanishSwedishThaiTurkishUkrainianVietnamese

Additionally, the Xbox YouTube channel will have versions with American Sign Language as well as another with audio descriptions. The XboxASL Twitch channel will air the American Sign Language version, as well.

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The cult sequel Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is now available on PC. Announced on the Future Games Show, the game is available on Steam and currently has a launch discount to boot.

The launch discount brings it down to $28 from a regular price of $40. That price will be available through June 18. The Steam page notes that a controller is needed because keyboard-and-mouse controls aren’t supported. It also doesn’t appear that this version will work on Steam Deck, at least for the time being.

The Switch version had notoriously poor performance and it remains to be seen if this PC port (or future updates and mods) will iron it out. The Steam announcement does note that this version includes technical improvements. Those include unspecified higher resolutions and performance improvements, in addition to faster loading times. You can check out the very modest system specs below.

Deadly Premonition 2 launched on Nintendo Switch almost a year ago, in July 2021. And while it was the long-awaited follow-up to a cult classic, the reception was less than glowing. It received a mixed reception on GameSpot sister site Metacritic with a 56 as its current metascore.

“If you can get past its performance, there are glimpses of a good story here, and moments that make it a worthy installment in the Francis Zach Morgan saga,” Kurt Indovina wrote in GameSpot’s Deadly Premonition 2 review. “But, ultimately, Deadly Premonition 2 lacks the emotional resonance found in the first game. It’s a different brew of coffee from your favorite roaster, but one that’s more bitter than you probably hoped for.”

System Requirements

OS: 64-bit Windows 8Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-3470 CPUMemory: 6 GB RAMGraphics: Geforce GTX 750 2GBStorage: 10 GB available space

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Turbo Golf Racing by dev Hugecalf Studios sounds exactly like what the game’s title implies: eight players race around in cars and slam into golf balls. Think Rocket League, but more golf-themed. It will be available on PC and Xbox Series X|S, with Steam Early Access coming on August 4.

Turbo Golf Racing’s Beta 2 is currently available, however, if you’re eager to try out the game now. It’s free-to-download on the game’s Steam page. Beta 2 will run through the end of Steam Next Fest, on June 20.

At the end of the trailer, it’s shown that Turbo Golf Racing will also be coming to Game Pass at some point. It’s unknown currently if it will arrive on Game Pass as the same date as the Early Access release.

Part of the gameplay includes equipping your racing cars with power cores–items that can can give the vehicle unique abilities like Ground Stomp and Gravitate Ball and Roll. Power cores offers boosts like moving faster and hitting harder.

Hugecalf Studios also highlighted the variety of vehicle customization options in-game, as well as diverse terrains in the racing arenas. The devs also plan to support the game with regular free updates, like new power cores and cosmetics.

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If 2021’s Boyfriend Dungeon left you wanting even more boyfriends and dungeons, developer Kitfox has you covered. As part of today’s Future of Play Direct, Kitfox has announced two new romance options and a sinister new villain are coming to the game. And, best of all, all these new additions will be free.

The Secret Weapons update is scheduled to hit Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC later this summer and will allow players to befriend and romance Leah the Hammer and Jonah the Axe. While both these characters made brief cameos in the main game, they were previously unromanceable. Now, you’ll be able to talk up the passionate Leah and wine and dine gourmet chef Jonah.

In addition, the update adds a new villain: Dr. Holmes the whip. If that doesn’t sound intense enough already, the fierce fatale behind the game’s newest dungeon was designed by Unseen Inc. CEO and creative director Ikumi Nakamura. While Unseen Inc. is a new venture for the director, you might know Nakamura from her previous work on The Evil Within series and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

“Designing Dr. Holmes was an exciting job for me,” Nakamura said in the official Secret Weapons update press release. “It is truly an honor to be involved in indie development like this, and it is often exciting and educational to work and talk with the creators. We hope you all enjoy the new downloadable content.”

Last but certainly not least, Kitfox has confirmed Dr. Holmes will be voiced by popular content creator and streamer Kathleen ‘Loserfruit‘ Belsten. If the dark and demented character piques your interest, you can even try your hand at dating them–though apparently they aren’t too fond of weapon wielders.

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During the 2022 Guerrilla Collective indie game livestream, Microids unveiled Arkanoid: Eternal Battle, a modern revival of an arcade classic with a battle royale twist.

This new Arkanoid includes four ways to play: a new modern take on the classic block-breaking gameplay, the original retro experiences from decades ago, four-player local split-screen gameplay, and a 25-player online battle royale mode where the last one standing wins it all.

This is Microids’s second reveal of a classic game franchise’s revival, as the publisher announced Flashback 2–the return of the 30-year-old PC action-platformer–during Summer Game Fest Live on June 9.

Taito first released Arkanoid in arcades in 1986 as a simple concept: players would move a single platform in order to bounce a ball, which would then break blocks floating in the air above the platform. Break all of the blocks and the player would move on to the next stage, with each stage increasing the challenge until the player hit the game over screen.

Arkanoid: Eternal Battle will launch on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC in October 2022.

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The Street Fighter 6 news just keeps getting better and better. Shortly after Guile’s big reveal at Summer Game Fest Live, more details about the upcoming seventh entry in the Street Fighter series regarding the game’s multiplayer have surfaced. According to GameSpot’s Tamoor Hussain, who got the chance to play the game during Summer Game Fest Live’s Days of Play, Street Fighter 6 uses rollback netcode. In addition, popular fighting game YouTuber Maximillian Dood revealed the developers told him the game will feature cross-play.

Confirmed from the devs directly. Street Fighter VI will have cross play.

— Maximilian Dood (@maximilian_) June 10, 2022

For those unfamiliar with rollback netcode, it refers to the method of navigating latency wherein your console predicts what move the person you’re fighting against online will do next in order to avoid input delay. By treating your opponent as a computer rather than another player, the game intelligently predicts what move they might use next, then essentially rolls it back and replaces it with the proper move if they wind up not executing it. While this might sound like it leads to a whole lot of intrusive “rollbacks,” the computer tends to be very intuitive and the rollbacks, barely noticeable. In recent years, this has become a preferred feature in fighting games, as input delay can make or break a match.

Combined with cross-play between platforms, these features prop Street Fighter 6 up to be the go-to fighting game of 2023. Capcom has stated they plan to redefine the Street Fighter series with the upcoming title, and these implementations–in addition to improved mechanics–seem like sure fire ways to.

Street Fighter 6 is set to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2023.

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