Sonic Superstars isn’t the first time that Sega has attempted to recapture the magic of playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog more than 30 years ago. Just five years ago, in fact, Sonic Mania stuck that landing. So is there enough creative juice left in that IP tank to truly warrant another stab at rebooting the classic sidescroller? After blazing through four levels with Sonic and his cabal of colorful friends, each with their particular set of skills, signs point to yes — with a caveat. Ultimately, Sonic Superstars is just more Sonic with a facelift and a few new bells and whistles. The game is fun and tricky, great to look at, and speaks to those Sega Genesis memories lodged forever in my brain, but it also doesn’t feel amazingly novel. At least in solo play, that is.
The Gap Preview – Diving into a multiverse of memories
11.08.2023 - 10:05 / thesixthaxis.com / Into A
Outside of death itself, one of the things that haunts humans the most is the idea that we might eventually lose our memories, our sense of self and effectively our existence. Dementia, Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases are frankly terrifying, and it’s with good reason that so much research is being done to find ways to stall and prevent their occurrence. The Gap sees one neuroscientist’s quest to heal his wife send him hurtling into memories and moments from the past, and on into a multiverse where the cure might be found.
So no, The Gap has nothing to do with that once omnipresent fashion retailer, but instead leans into the narrative prop de jour, of a multiverse of possibilities. Conceptually, though, it’s far removed from the kinds of time travel and multiverse shenanigans that we see in comic books and movies, and rather has more common ground with hard sci-fi mixed into the psychological exploration.
Faced with the prospect of his wife losing her memories, neuroscientist Joshua Hayes is drawn into signing up to test an experimental treatment using nanobots to control brainwave patterns. This… was probably ready for human trials, to be honest, though does start to allow Joshua to explore memories in a much more vivid fashion, and eventually delve into the multiverse theories.
The game leaps back and forth between points in time, exploring a messy apartment with warnings daubed on the window, plants a good few months beyond the last time they were watered, and general disarray from a life that’s completely fallen apart. However, finding particular items within this environment allows you to delve down to a time in the past, experiencing formative moments in Joshua’s life as you quest for that all-important cure.
One takes you back to his time at university with a test coming up the next day, and a bunch of things to pick up and interact with. There’s an actual neuroscience test that you need to take, and there’s all the research and information that you need in order to pass it placed around you. We accidentally went straight into the test without doing the pre-requisite study and naturally flunked the exam. Not only that, but we meandered off to go partying and bowling when we should have been studying.
As you explore those other points in time, you’ll start to piece together events and clues, creating a sprawling network of connections on the apartment wall, with a tantalising prospect of this tapping into multiverse and alternate time lines along the way. I’m already speculating over which style of this the game will tie into, whether it’s something more Steins;Gate, Fringe or one of the many other explorations of the theme.
There’s a lot at play within The Gap, from the potentially
David Fincher’s The Killer looks like the kind of movie the Hitman games deserve
Netflix released the first trailer on Tuesday for The Killer, David Fincher’s latest psychological action thriller starring Michael Fassbender as a methodical and highly trained assassin undergoing a crisis of conscience while on assignment in Paris. The trailer is quintessential Fincher: a fast-cut montage of scenes of Fassbender narrating his gradual psychological breakdown filled with sickly yellow hues and icy turquoise lighting, powered by an ominous, thrumming electronic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
The house that Dead by Daylight built | Behavior Interactive interview
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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - The First Preview | gamescom 2023
At a glance, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden owes a lot to Sony’s recent God of War outings. Its close third-person camera perspective, linear-but-open level design, and mix of environmental puzzles and hard-hitting melee combat are all present. But there’s more than meets the eye here. After playing a whole quest I’ve discovered that beneath that surface lies a soul just as connected to the Life is Strange series developer Don't Nod is famed for as it is to Sony’s godly behemoth.
The Gap adds PS4 and Xbox One versions, launches October 19
First-person narrative thriller The Gap will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on October 19, publisher Crunching Koalas and developer Label This announced. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions are newly announced.
Explore A Parallel World In The Gap, A Psychological Thriller Releasing This October
Publisher Crunching Koalas and Developer Label This Studio revealed its psychological thriller, The Gap, last year at the 2022 Future Games Show. Now, the team has returned to this year’s Future Games Show with a new trailer for The Gap and an October release date.
Infiltrate the memory driven horror of The Gap ahead of its Fall 2023 release
Prepare to find out more about The Gap, with a developer intro and new trailer revealed exclusively at the Future Games Show.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - The First Preview | gamescom 2023
The chainsword is one of my favourite weapons in all of science fiction. It has the form factor of a medieval longsword, but the blade is made up of dozens of chainsaw teeth that rip and tear through flesh. In a single strike it captures both the gothic aesthetic and violent excess of Warhammer 40,000. And this weapon is the brutal, snarling heart of the long-awaited Space Marine 2.
Alan Wake 2: The First Preview | gamescom 2023
What’s it like to be trapped in a hell of your own making? For writer Alan Wake, that’s the story he’s trying to tell. And after watching a full 40-minute demo, played from the perspective of Wake himself, it certainly looks set to be a tale worth telling. Taking place in an area called The Dark Place, this lengthy slice of the story follows Alan as he makes his way through an oppressive and haunting replica of New York City riddled with danger, gunfights, and puzzles. It’s classic survival horror but with the distinct edge of developer Remedy - smart, engrossing, and consistently odd.
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name - The First Preview
Kazuma Kiryu may have faked his death and quietly walked away from a life of street brawls, tense hostage situations, and mini-games galore at the end of Yakuza 6. But an iconic character like that will never be shelved for too long. With the Yakuza series retitled to more closely match the Japanese translation, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name has roped in Kiryu for one last simple job. And we all know how well “one last simple jobs” tend to go. Even though it was a bit disappointing that my playthrough strayed away from details of the main story arc, what I did see strongly justified bringing our boy out of retirement for another go-around.
Mortal Kombat 1: The Final Preview
You could chalk up Mortal Kombat’s massive success as a fighting game franchise to a number of factors: It’s 30-year legacy, its attention-grabbing and unparalleled violence, its beloved roster of characters, its deep fighting mechanics, the list goes on. But I’d argue that one of the most important elements of Mortal Kombat’s success, especially since Mortal Kombat 9, has been its single player offerings, which is one thing that we haven’t really seen out of the upcoming Mortal Kombat 1. Until now, that is. At a recent event, I got to go hands-on with the first chapter of Mortal Kombat 1’s cinematic story mode, as well as its brand-new Invasion mode, and my early impressions are that NetherRealm doesn’t seem to be loosening its grip on the crown as the king of fighting game single-player modes just yet.
Alan Wake 2 Trailer Finally Showcases its Titular Hero in a Trippy Dive into the Dark Place
Alan Wake 2 finally arrives in just a couple of months, and yet, we haven’t seen that much of the game in action. A brief few minutes of gameplay was shown at Summer Games Fest, but fans were left wanting more, particularly since that gameplay didn’t actually feature Alan Wake himself. Well, today during the big Geoff-Keighly-produced Gamescom Opening Night Live show, we got another look at Alan Wake 2 gameplay showing the titular author exploring the creepy Dark Place.