Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Homeworld 3, and More Exciting Games Coming Out in May

Xbox fans, and some of their employees, were blindsided earlier this month when Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered, including the “gut stab” closure of Arkane Austin, developer of the acclaimed Prey and the more troubled Redfall. Following the announcement Arkane Austin was shutting up shop, it was reported that the team had been working on additional updates for Redfall, including one that would deliver a long-promised offline mode. Unfortunately, at the time, it seemed unlikely any of these promised updates would come to fruition.

Is Call of Duty coming to Xbox Game Pass? When Microsoft first began pursuing it’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many assumed using Call of Duty to bolster Game Pass was one of their goals, but things have changed since then. Game Pass growth has slowed, badly missing growth targets, and Xbox boss Phil Spencer has admitted there’s a ceiling to its success. While some Activision Blizzard games like Diablo IV have been added to Game Pass, recent reports suggested that Microsoft was still “evaluating” whether to do the same with the headliner that is Call of Duty.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is available on PC as of today, and it offers the full suite of upscaling options, including DLSS 3, FSR 3, and XeSS (check out the game’s performance with DLSS 3 here). Interestingly, Ghost of Tsushima also offers something other games don’t – the ability to combine DLSS upscaling with FSR 3 frame generation.

Sony has announced the latest lineup of games coming to their PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers this May. The headliner is definitely Rockstar’s blockbuster Red Dead Redemption 2, but some other solid additions, including Deceive Inc. and Stranded: Alien Dawn are also on the way. Meanwhile, Premium subscribers have some deep cuts coming, including snowboarding game 2Xtreme and a Worms pinball game I’ve never heard of.

Earlier this week Ubisoft finally shone a light on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the new Feudal Japan-set RPG-style adventure from the team at Ubisoft Quebec, that was originally known by the codename Assassin’s Creed Red. Since then, a few other tidbits have leaked, including a release date and some details about the game’s DLC and pricing plans. That said, fans were understandably still hungry for more.

WWE 2K24 has been on the market for a couple of months now and developer Visual Concepts is expanding the experience with the game’s first DLC pack. CM Punk made his surprise return to WWE this past November at Survivor Series, and in years past, fans would likely have had to wait over a year to see him in a WWE game, as the deadline for setting the roster for the next game would have passed. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, as Visual Concepts got to work and managed to get him into the ECW Punk Pack, which also includes Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, Sandman, and Terry Funk.

Dead by Daylight is turning eight years old, and Montreal-based series creators Behaviour Interactive had certainly a lot to announce during their big anniversary broadcast. Plenty of new detail was provided about the new Dungeons & Dragons update, although we also learned that a Castlevania chapter is on the way later this year. Players can also look forward to the introduction of a mode with two killers instead of the usual one.

Update: Whoops! It looks like one of Ubisoft's channels accidentally leaked the Assassin's Creed Shadows release date before the official reveal -- November 15, 2024.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II drops in just a couple weeks, and Microsoft and Ninja Theory have dropped a new featurette focusing on the game’s psychosis mechanics. As before, Ninja Theory has put a lot of effort and research into depicting psychosis accurately, with a professor of neuroscience and somebody who actually suffers from psychosis attesting to that in the video.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered, including Arkane Austin (Prey, Redfall), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush), and Alpha Dog Games, while Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios to work on The Elder Scrolls Online. This follows nearly 1,900 layoffs earlier in the year, largely from Microsoft’s newly-acquired Activision Blizzard teams. Unfortunately, it seems this isn’t the end of the pain.

Ubisoft’s crossover Call-of-Duty-esque multiplayer shooter XDefiant has been in various forms of testing for over a year and delayed multiple times, but it seems the game is finally launching for real this month. XDefiant will be a free-to-play live-service game with regular updates, but it will launch with a variety of “preseason” content, including five factions, 14 maps, and multiple modes. Here’s a rundown of the launch content.

Sand Land, the new open-world action-adventure based on one of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s lesser-known works is out now, and its surprisingly complex for an anime adaptation. One of things you’re going to want to do early on to make your life easier is upgrade your home base of Spino Town. While it may not the very most important upgrade, the Furniture Shop is fun, as it allows you to decorate your very own Animal-Crossing-style room. You’ll have to complete a series of sidequests in order to get the Furniture Shop, but don’t worry, we’ll walk you through it…