Gaming Bolt News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Despite its rough early access launch last week, Moon Studios has worked extensively to improve No Rest for the Wicked. The Souls-like action RPG has garnered some positive impressions, though – check them out in the trailer below.

Bandai Namco’sSAND LAND is now available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC. You can check out its launch trailer here, featuring all the hijinx and vehicular action (though be warned of potential spoilers).

Manor Lords generated a fair bit of buzz in the lead-up to its recent release, surpassing 3 million wishlists, so it’s no surprise that it’s got off to a flying start where player numbers are concerned. Developer Slavic Magic and publisher Hooded Horse’s medieval city-building real-time strategy title launched for Steam in early access on April 26, and within the first 24 hours of its release, it’s attracted players in strong numbers.

Xur has returned in Bungie’s Destiny 2, appearing in the Tower Hangar. Unfortunately, much of the sought after loot is dropping in Onslaught, and his inventory just can’t hack it. Nevertheless, he’s carrying the Exotic energy shotgun Lord of Wolves and other items until the next reset.

Valve has added many quality-of-life updates to Counter-Strike 2 in its latest patch while buffing the Zeus and nerfing the kill reward from the XM1014. Some prominent changes include the ability to swap between one’s left and right hand while aiming. You can set it before rounds and swap temporarily by pressing H.

Survios announced in 2022 that it was developing a new horror game based on the Alien franchise, and that game has now been formally unveiled. Titled Alien: Rogue Incursion, the single-player action horror game has been announced with a brief trailer that reveals its name, but doesn’t show any gameplay or offer any details on its story and setup.

The Plucky Squire sits close to the top of most anticipated lists for a great many people, and even though we’ve seen frustratingly little of it, every time it does re-emerge, it continues to look incredibly promising. In recent days, for instance, developer All Possible Futures has been posting short gameplay clips of the action-adventure title on its official Twitter page, and you guessed it- it’s looking really good.

Tango Gameworks has seen some success over the past year thanks to the launch of Hi-Fi Rush (which recently arrived on PS5). While many awaited to see its next big project, perhaps the most surprising announcement to emerge was that Shinji Mikami would be leaving. As the founder, he would directThe Evil Within and serve as executive producer on The Evil Within 2, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Hi-Fi Rush.

Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno has provided an update on Silent Hill 2 in an IR/conference following the group’s consolidated annual report for 2023 (via MauroNL on Twitter). He noted that the team is “in the final stages of work” on the remake, and “We expect that a release date and platforms on which the game will appear will be revealed soon.”

Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s newest update is out today, adding Tweyen and Seofon as new playable characters. However, players won’t have to wait long before the next addition, as Sandalphon arrives with Version 1.3.0 in late May.

The wait for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been a long one, but with the long-anticipated open world survival horror FPS drawing closer to its launch a few months down the line, on the 38th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, developer GSC Game World has released a brief new trailer that offers another look at the game.

We’ve been hearing about Lost Soul Aside for years at this point, and though the Devil May Cry and Final Fantasy-inspired action RPG has continued to look impressive with each of its new showings, details on when the game will actually launch have remained frustratingly elusive. That, however, might change soon.

Nintendo has still yet to unveil the successor to the Switch, but the Japanese company’s next-gen console continues to be the subject of rumours and leaks. A new report published by Spanish outlet Vandal has now also allegedly revealed new details on the upcoming console.

Allegedly in the works since as far back as 2018, Resident Evil 9 is set to have the longest ever development cycle for a Resident Evil game by the time it launches, which, as per prior reports, is going hand-in-hand with the series’ largest ever budget for a single game to date. It seems, however, that Capcom might have pushed back the game further out than originally planned to give it even more time in the oven.

After ending its open beta last year, Player First Games’ MultiVersus will fully launch next month. Alongside new characters, netcode changes, a PvE Mode, a shift to Unreal Engine 5 and more, several changes and new mechanics have been added. These include new Dash Attacks.

Star Wars Outlaws will task players with dealing with several different criminal syndicates at the same time, and while many of these – like the Hutts, the Pykes, and Crimson Dawn – will be familiar to fans of the property, the game will also be introducing things of its own creation into the Star Wars canon as well. There is, for instance, the Ashiga Clan, one of the criminal factions in the game, and in an article published by Game Informer, members of the game’s development team at Massive Entertainment have revealed more details on the newly created Syndicate.

Stellar Blade is out today on PS5 after receiving a stylish launch trailer to commemorate its release. However, Shift Up has a brief new trailer, this time showcasing the unique ranged attacks that Eve can unleash. Check it out below.

Bethesda’s long-awaited Next-Gen Update for Fallout 4 went live yesterday, adding free Creation Club content for all players and native 4K support for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. However, there were several issues, like PlayStation Plus subscribers not getting the update for free. Game Pass subscribers don’t have this issue, of course.

As showcased in yesterday’s livestream, the latest update for Granblue Fantasy: Relink is available today for PS4, PS5 and PC players. Ver. 1.2.1 brings two new quests and adds new characters – Seofon and Tweyen of the Immortals. Check out the new content trailer below to see them in action, though beware of spoilers.

Square Enix’s latest mainline title in the SaGa series is now available with SaGa Emerald Beyond. Featuring six playable characters and 17 worlds to explore, it’s playable on PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS and Android. Check out the launch trailer below.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s upcoming remake is continuing to generate buzz in the lead-up to its release next month, which is no surprise, given the immense legacy of the GameCube original. From a content and gameplay standpoint, it looks like the remake is going to be a pretty straightforward one, but Nintendo is still adding in some new features to modernize the experience.

When Exodus was announced at The Game Awards last December, it was none other than actor Matthew McConaughey who unveiled the game on-stage. At the time, it was revealed that he was playing a major character in the game, though since then, further details on the role he will play have been scarce.

As a sci-fi RPG coming from ex-BioWare devs, it’s no surprise that Exodus is getting as much attention from Mass Effect as it is, and clearly, the game is going to offer a similar experience to BioWare’s series in a number of key ways.

Archetype Entertainment might be an entirely new studio, but with its ranks full of industry vets from BioWare, Naughty Dog, and more, it certainly seems to have the talent to back its AAA ambitions. The studio revealed its first game – AAA sci-fi action RPG Exodus – in December last year, turning the heads of more than a few Mass Effect fans, and has been doling out new details on it in bits and pieces ever since.

Slime Rancher 2 is coming to PS5 this June, developer Monomi Park has announced. The first-person life sim adventure game has been available exclusively on Xbox Series X/S and PC ever since its early access launch in 2022, but is finally also headed to Sony’s current-gen console.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it won’t host BlizzCon this year. The annual event washosted for the first time in person last year since 2020 and was seemingly on the verge of a comeback. Though not meant to be, the company told IGN it’s not a decision “made lightly.”

People Can Fly has cancelled Project Dagger, a new action-adventure IP that was in development at its New York studio for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The studio announced the project’s development back in 2020, revealing at the time that it would be published by Take-Two Interactive. In 2022, however, it was announced that the agreement between the two had been terminated, and that People Can Fly would be moving forward with the project with the intention of self-publishing it.

After showcasing what the Harbinger and Weaver are capable of inDestiny 2’s The Final Shape, Bungie has a new teaser dedicated to the Husk. As a melee combatant of The Witness’s Dread faction, it rushes players with bladed tonfa. Check it out below.

Since it was first unveiled as Project Eve several years ago, Korean studio Shift Up’s Stellar Blade has been on the radar for many, and now the action title is celebrating its release. Though officially the PS5-exclusive hasn’t yet launched in many regions of the world, there are some that have got access to it, to celebrate which Sony has released a launch trailer for the game. Check it out below.

Polyphony Digital’s latest monthly content update is available for Gran Turismo 7, focusing on two new electronic vehicles – the ŠKODA Vision Gran Turismo and AFEELA Prototype 2024. Check out the trailer below to see them in action.

The Fallout festivities continue. With Amazon Prime’s Fallout show having got off to an impressive start (and a second season already having been grenlit), the Fallout games, too, have been enjoying significant boosts in sales. That’s likely to continue for the foreseeable future, with Fallout 4’s long-awaited Next-Gen Update out now.

Klei Entertainment’s Rotwood, a co-op hack-and-slash title with rogue-like elements, is now live for PC via Steam Early Access. Retailing for $10.99, it’s ten percent off until May 8th. Check out the launch trailer below.

Coming from the creative leads of Persona 3, 4, and 5, Metaphor: ReFantazio is obviously borrowing plenty of elements from the Persona series, but Atlus’ upcoming RPG is also going to put its own twist in that formula in a number of ways, appropriately enough for an entirely new IP. Take, for instance, its blend of real-time and turn-based combat mechanics, or how it will handle exploration throughout its map. Another area where the fantasy RPG will differ from Persona games is how it’ll handle bonds.

Aspyr’s Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection had a shaky launch last month, facing several “critical errors” with its multiplayer and bugs. It’s since improved, with the development team’s second update out now on all platforms.

11 bit Studios’ Frostpunk celebrates its sixth anniversary, with the developer announcing over five million copies sold on all platforms. It first launched in 2018 for PC before coming to PS4 and Xbox One in 2019 and MacOS in 2021.

Rabbit and Bear Studios’ Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has seen a long journey since its 2020 Kickstarter (including the passing of director Yoshitaka Murayama), but is now finally playable. Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch version has some issues, including a bug preventing a major character’s recruitment.

After game director Kim Hyung-tae announced New Game Plus would be coming “very soon” to Stellar Blade, various reviews have confirmed its availability from launch. YouTuber FightinCowboy revealed this on Twitter, and IGN also updated their review to confirm the arrival of New Game Plus in a new patch.

Nintendo has released an overview trailer for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, breaking down the story, setting, and combat mechanics players can expect. Check it out below.

If there’s one area (or one of several, actually) where Persona games never fail to impress, it’s the music. Persona 3 Reload, which launched in February, was no different, with the remake receiving widespread praise for how it reimagined and expanded on the original Persona 3’s beloved soundtrack. Now, the remake’s full OST is available for purchase and streaming.

Between support for Dreams coming to an end, reductions in staff due to layoffs, and even the threat of being shuttered entirely, Media Molecule has suffered several blows over the last several months, though the studio best known for LittleBigPlanet and Dreams is continuing to trudge along. Last year, it revealed that it had started working on its next project, and though the developer did say at the time that this new game wouldn’t be a Dreams sequel, it was unclear if that meant it would be a new IP. Was it, perhaps, going to be a Dreams spinoff? A new LittleBigPlanet game?

NOTE: There are spoilers ahead for Gears 5.

Bandai Namco has a new trailer for its upcoming action-adventure SAND LAND, based on Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama’s manga. Be warned, since it’s rife with story spoilers. Check it out below.

Last year’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was very much a back-to-the-basics moment for Ubisoft’s flagship franchise, opting to have a smaller world with a gameplay loop focused on stealth and parkouring, rather than the RPG mechanics that the series has become known for. Whether or not we’ll ever see a direct follow-up to Mirage is a question that some series fans have wondered at since the game launched last October, and though there’s no concrete answers on that front yet, its development team certainly seems open to the idea of making more games with Mirage’s protagonist Basim.

With Destiny 2: The Final Shape, players will tackle familiar foes inside the Pale Heart of the Traveler en route to fighting The Witness. However, they also have to tackle the Dread, a race of Rhulk-like beings loyal to the latter. Check out the brief trailer below, which highlights two types of Dread: the Harbinger and the Weaver.

Saber Interactive’s MudRunner game has carved out a solid niche for itself, but if you just can’t get enough of it, even with the recently released Expeditions: A MudRunner Game– well, there’s more on the way, albeit on new platforms.

The Fallout series has exploded like a nuclear bomb over the last couple of weeks. Ever since Amazon Prime’s acclaimed eight-episode series premiered on April 10, both the show itself as well as the games it is inspired by have enjoyed roaring success.

A new software update is available for PlayStation 5, adding the recently announced Community Game Help feature. Unlike regular Game Help, this feature uses gameplay videos from other players to provide hints.

Tomas Salas’ Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles launched as a sizable follow-up to The Falconeer that veers into the city-builder genre. However, it’s expanding ever more, starting with its first free update, “Trade, Tribute and Spoils.” A new trailer is available, outlining its features – check it out below.

Meta has announced that it is teaming up with Asus ROG and Lenovo to make new third-party VR gaming headsets that will run on the Meta VR ecosystem. The ecosystem itself is getting a refresh, as detailed by a lengthy blog post, and will now be known as Meta Horizon OS.

Continuing its extensive post-launch support for Lords of the Fallen, Hexworks has released perhaps its largest update yet, Master of Fate. It adds Advanced Game Modifier Options — seven modifiers to enable before a playthrough — to significantly up the challenge. Check out the near-eight-minute overview trailer below.

Developer Cradle Games and publisher GameMill Entertainment’s beat ’em up title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch. Check out the game’s launch trailer below.

Developer FarBridge has announced that upcoming VR strategy title Homeworld: Vast Reaches will be coming to Meta Quest 2 and 3 on May 2. The studio has also revealed that a SteamVR release is planned for the title as well for later this year. The game is currently available to wishlist on the Meta Quest Store and Steam.

Assassin’s Creed Codename Red is the series’ next mainline instalment, but we also know what’s next after the Japan-set game. Alongside Red, in 2022, Ubisoft also announced Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe, a game that, as per reports, is set in Central Europe and focuses on the witch trials during the 16th century. Now, new potential details on the title have emerged courtesy of a report published by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson.

Stellar Blade has been on many radars over the last couple of years, and in the lead-up to its launch, developer Shift Up and publisher Sony are continuing to release new details on the action game. Several more have now arrived with a new developer diary, shedding light on Stellar Blade’s world, combat, and more.

Several years on from its original launch, Deliver Us the Moon is finally set to launch for the Nintendo Switch. Originally set to arrive on Nintendo’s platform in 2020, the port was cancelled some months prior to its planned release, with publisher Wired Productions citing technical limitations at the time.

It’s no secret that Amazon’s Fallout series has done wonders for the video game franchise, resulting in higher player counts for Fallout 76 and Fallout 4. The former has done quite well, with the officialFallout Twitter announcing over one million players in a single day for the online title.

Moon Studios’ action RPG No Rest for the Wicked, currently in Steam Early Access, has received a new hotfix. Hotfix 4 offers one performance improvement, fixing a GPU culling leak, but adjusts several gameplay features. One of the most important is that Bounties and Challenges will no longer be deleted if you abandon them, which is excellent news.

Gunfire Games’ latest paid DLC for Remnant 2 is live with The Forgotten Kingdom, with players exploring a new biome in Yaesha. Check out the launch trailer below, which outlines the new environments and enemies.

In 2021, we commented on the development of Cygames’ Project Awakening and how Granblue Fantasy: Relink wasn’t the only action RPG taking a while to cook. Fast-forward to 2024 and while Relink has done well for itself, the former is still nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, the development team updated fans on Twitter, assuring them that the game hasn’t been cancelled.

Rabbit and Bear Studios’ Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series, is now available. It’s playable on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch and PC (along with Game Pass). Check out the launch trailer below, highlighting the different heroes and villains that players will encounter.

A new trailer is available for Bungie’s Destiny 2: The Final Shape, with the returning Cayde-6 (voiced by Nathan Fillion), outlining his experience waking up inside the Traveler. Far from the afterlife, the former Hunter Vanguard recognizes that The Witness is infecting it and consuming it from within.

With all the twists and turns that Honkai: Star Rail’s Penacony storyline has seen, many assumed Firefly (voiced by Analesa Fisher) would become a playable character. miHoYo has confirmed the same in new “Extraterrestrial Satellite Communication” splash art. As a limited 5-star character, she deals Fire damage and follows the Path of the Destruction.

SNK has released a fighting guide for Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves ahead of EVO Japan 2024, outlining all the mechanics players should know. The REV System is the central focus, but there’s also the return of Just Defense and Hyper Defense from Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora came and went without making too much of a mark for a great many people who played it, but developer Massive Entertainment has continued to put out new patches for the open world title since its launch in December, with another one now having gone live in the form of Title Update 3.2.

There are many reasons to look forward to Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, Atlus’s enhanced version of its acclaimed 2021 RPG. However, one of the biggest wildcards is perhaps Yoko Hiromine. The new character isn’t just essential to the story – she’s also controllable during combat.

With EVO Japan set for April 27th to 29th, SNK has released a new guide for those checking out the Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves demo. The sequel to 1999’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves features several new and returning characters, plus new mechanics like the REV System.

Since it launched on Nintendo Switch in 2021, there have been rumors and anticipation for Shin Megami Tensei 5 on other platforms. It’s finally happening with Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, launching this Summer for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5 and PC (along with Switch).

Hot off its showcase for Metaphor: ReFantazio, where it revealed cities, exploration, dungeons and whatnot, Atlus has announced Atlus Fes for June 8th and 9th in Bellesalle Akihabara, Tokyo, from 10 AM to 6 PM JST. It will feature playable demos forReFantazio and evenShin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance.

Veteran Atlus artist and character designer Kazuma Kaneko has left the Japanese company. Kaneko departed in 2023, ending a tenure that lasted 35 years, joining Tokyo-based publisher and developer COLOPL. He revealed the same in an official interview recently published by his new employer.

If you’ve held off on playing Shin Megami Tensei 5 since its launch for the Nintendo Switch in 2021, your patience is set to be rewarded. Not only is the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance set to bring Atlus’ acclaimed RPG to non-Switch platforms, it will also bring with it a truckload of new content in the form of a new playable character, over 75 hours of additional gameplay, and much more. Also included in that deluge of additions is a host of new music- which, of course, is always a crucial part of Atlus-developed games.

Along with announcing an October release date for Metaphor: ReFantazio, Atlus has revealed a bunch of new details on the fantasy RPG’s combat and dungeons, cities and exploration, and much more. In addition to that, with pre-orders for the title going live today, the company has also revealed a physical Collector’s Edition that players will have the option of picking up.

Atlus broadcast a digital showcase for Metaphor: ReFantazio, its next big role-playing game, outlining its different elements. To kick things off, developer Studio Zero revealed that it will launch on October 11th worldwide. Check out the trailer below.

First-person action RPG Dead Island 2 is out now on Steam.Dead Island 2, originally released back in April 2023, first came to PC exclusively via the Epic Games Store. Having spent a full year exclusive to the digital distribution platform, Dead Island 2 is now also available on Steam.

As promised, developer Weta Workshop and publisher Private Division have premiered the debut trailer for Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game, their upcoming life sim title, showcasing glimpses of its cozy setting, art style, core mechanics, and more.

Riot Games has released a new trailer for its upcoming fighting game 2XKO, this time around, offering up an in-depth look at a new addition to the game’s roster—Illaoi, the Kraken Priestess. Check out the trailer below.

Developer Passtech Games has released a major new update for Ravenswatch. Titled the Fall of Avalon, the update was originally announced earlier this month during the Triple-i Initiative showcase. Check out the new trailer celebrating the update’s release below.

Sony’s multiplatform release strategy has accelerated rapidly in recent years, with the company now viewing PC as a much more prominent part of its larger strategy, especially where live service titles are concerned. Earlier this year, for instance, Helldivers 2 launched simultaneously for PS5 and PC, and it’s fair to say that the majority of game’s unexpected success has been thanks to PC audiences. Now, interestingly enough, it looks like Sony might be considering ways to bring even larger audiences into Arrowhead Game Studios’ acclaimed co-op shooter.

Developer FuturLab has announced that PowerWash Simulator has been played by 12 million players. Celebrating the milestone, the studio states that the game’s various collaboration DLC releases, including ones with SpongeBob SquarePants, Back to the Future, and Warhammer 40,000, had a hand in hitting the number.

Sega has declared 2024 the year of Shadow the Hedgehog, which means fans of the Ultimate Lifeform (as he likes to be referred to) have plenty to look forward to in the coming months. That, of course, includes Keanu Reeves voicing him in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which will release in theaters worldwide this December, but Sonic fans in the gaming space won’t be left behind either.