News

A closer look at the clunky bots and boxy spaceships of The Signal From Tölva

Do you remember Sir, You Are Being Hunted for its breathtaking art and scenic landscapes? Or do you remember mostly harrowing chases through the moors as bemonacled automatons try to skin you for sport? We covered the studio’s newest game The Signal From Tölva last December, focusing on the stunning landscapes of the titular planet. Now, thanks to a video posted by the art team, we’ve gotten a better look at the pointedly clunky, resilient aesthetic of the machines that make up the world of Tölva, from the oil tanker equivalent of spaceships to robots that look like they were put together…

News

Serve up coffee to the dead in an upcoming anime-inspired visual novel

A long, long, long, long, long time ago (summer of last year), I was a barista. I was a barista for nearly three years, workin’ away at the same ol’ shop. Brewing tea, chatting with customers, and befriending regulars. When I played VA-11 Hall-A last year, a game that marketed itself as a “cyberpunk bartending action,” I felt the familiarity of working in the beverage-serving industry wash over me. In the upcoming Necrobarista, I imagine it might evoke a similar feeling. Announced this month at Visual;Conference, the Route 59 Games-developed Necrobarista is a visual novel about a cafe in Melbourne, Australia and…

Sylvio
News

Sylvio’s bringing its ghostly screeches to consoles this Friday the 13th

Can you hear it? The moans in the static. Yes, it’s unmistakable. It’s saying the esoteric, analog-horror game Sylvio is ghosting its way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One this week, on Friday the 13th to be precise. Weird message to pick up on an oscilloscope, that. It’s not quite the original version of Sylvio that we praised so lavishly back in 2015, but a remastered version that is heading to consoles—the tweaks and improvements have already rolled out on the Steam version of the game. The changes include the ability to revisit areas in the game, better hand animations…

RiME
News

RiME showcases the sights, sounds, and creatures of its Mediterranean fantasy

When RiME burst onto our radars with a minute-long trailer back in 2013, it showcased scenes that evoked games like Ico (2001) and The Wind Waker (2002). The camera swooped across a serene Mediterranean island with high walkways and cliff edges to traverse; there was an illusory door that opened into a mountain, where inside dark figures moved towards the protagonist’s campfire; it ended on a huge looming shape, dinosaur in size, moving through the veil of a morning mist. All of that is present in RiME‘s new trailer but it also moves in closer, finally giving us a proper show of the protagonist’s face, as…

OMORI
News

Surreal horror game OMORI won’t be a recluse forever

OMORI isn’t dead but it has been delayed again. The team behind the upcoming “surreal psychological horror RPGmaker game” has released a new trailer and explained why the game isn’t out yet. To make a long story short: the team admits it “underestimated the amount of time to create a video game.” The original estimate for the game’s release date when it was funded on Kickstarter was May 2015. That means that prediction is drawing close to being two years early. But there’s more to it than mere naivete. One of the major setbacks for the OMORI team has been…

Sundered
News

Fighting Sundered’s eldritch horrors is gonna make you feel good

We have got to talk about the gun in Sundered. I know—a gun? Videogames have a lot of guns so what can possibly make this one special? Well, it’s large. (Uh huh.) It fires a huge laser ball. (Uh huh.) And it knocks you flying backwards. (Right.) Look, you didn’t have the shock I did when I first pressed the Shoot button while playing Sundered‘s demo, okay? I don’t know if there’s any other game that, from the very start, gives you such an absurd weapon. I love how over the top it is. Eshe, the woman you play as…

Overland
News

Overland and Night in the Woods get new trailers, confirmed for 2017

It is the end of the year but not the end of times. This means that our minds are being coaxed to look beyond the little that is left of 2016 and towards 2017. What is there for us in this future year? According to the 1987 Schwarznegger film The Running Man, a dystopia is what awaits us, spearheaded by a new show about criminals trying to escape the clutches of professional killers. That doesn’t seem so far-fetched, all things considered. But forget the doom and gloom for just a sec—we have videogames to talk about. In the past 24 hours, videogame…

News

New teaser for 2017’s strangest RPG features Sikth vocalist

That gruff throat noise is unmistakable. If you’re familiar with Sikth, the British progressive metal band, you should recognize the distinctive low tones of vocalist Mikee Goodman‘s voice in the new teaser trailer for No Truce With the Furies. Goodman is an unexpected choice to contribute a voiceover for a videogame trailer, but it makes a lot of sense. His chilling delivery in tracks like “Mermaid Slur” and “Tokyo Lights” is equal parts enchanting and terrifying. Which seems to be close to the mixture of emotions that the Estonian studio ZA/UM (previously Fortress Occident) is aiming for with its “fantastic realism”…

News

See how far the incredible alien planet of Rain World has come

Unveiled over the weekend during PlayStation Experience, the new trailer for Rain World opens with a heavy, droning noise, and a single white slugcat, in a dark industrial world. First it states “you are alone.” Then, a moment before the cut, a question mark appears. “You are alone?” As the soundtrack blooms into a driving synth song, the world also opens up, revealing an elaborate ecosystem where the slugcat is both predator and prey. Rain World was originally funded on Kickstarter in 2014, and was slated to come out later that year. But this new trailer shows just how far…