Sam Barlow, the director of the highly acclaimed Immortality and Her Story, has recently teased his new work. I'm talking about the mysteriously titled Project D████. That's not the result of monitor burn-in, but seemingly Barlow's attempt at captivating fans via some sort of viral detective call-to-action. At first, details seem scarce, but he's clearly making references to Silent Hill. Let's dive into what we have:

Right now, we only know that Project D???? will be a survival horror title directed by Sam Barlow and published by Half Mermaid Productions. It's possibly set in 1983, involves one or more nurses, and it warns players about a nightmare. I know it looks like I'm not saying anything, so feel free to read the official release and see wh?at you can make of it.

"??Project D██â–??ˆâ–ˆ is a ████â–?â–?survival horror ██â–?Sam Barlow ██ Half Mermaid.

██████ ████�██ 1983 ██ �████████�████ ████ ████████, ██�████ ████ ██████ ██████ nurse ████�██�████ ██████�████�████ ██████�in ██████�██� Be careful ██████�████ ██�████ ████ �night?mare."

It's all very intentionally vague, but it gets more interesting when you realize Barlow's tweet also makes mentions of shattered memories. That, along with the previous reference to nurses, can't help but make fans reminisce about Silent Hill. I get that Barlow could be making a Silent Hill reference to coast on the brand's rebirth, but he was actually the lead writer and designer of Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Many already know the silly rabbit hole we could fall into, in suspecting a game of being a secret Silent Hill project. If you're out of the loop, you should totally check out the story of Abandoned, a vaporware game that became popular, then infamous, as its director attempted to sneakily lead the Internet to believe it was a new Silent Hill game.

Is D really a new secret Silent Hill project, is Barlow just flashing his horr??or credentials, or is he messing with a type of fire he might not be able to put out?

Barlow's Tw?itter name also makes reference to a "Project C," of which he's yet to reveal any det??ails.

The post Is the cre?ator of Immortality and Her Story? hinting at a new Silent Hill? appeared first on Destructoid.

PlayStation 5 owners are one of the few who have yet to be able to get their hands on Sam Barlow's interactive movie title, Immortality. But their wait is finally over, as Immortality splices onto PS5 on January 23.

The news came within an announcement trailer from Barlow's Half Mermaid Prod?uctions. The trailer gives a brief idea of how the game's unique "match cut" feature works and tease??s the project's supernatural story.

Initially released for PC and Xbox Series X|S in August 2022, Immortality was met with glowing reviews from many outlets. Destructoid's Eric Van Allen classified it as "superb" in our review.

Immortality's story revolves around the actress Marissa Marcel and the three films s??he starred? in but were never released. The player uses behind-the-scene footage to jump between movies, matching shots of faces or objects to jump to a similar take in a different film. The more you interact with the game's clips, the more you begin to unravel and understand the title's dark and mysterious plot.

Outside of reviews, Immortality also cleaned up during award season. The project was nominated across numerous outlets for Best Performance, Best Story, Best Game Direction, and Best Game. Manon Gage, the lead actress who portrayed Marissa Marcel, came home with hardware at the 2022 Golden Joystick Awards for Best Performer. Gage also won the 2022 New York Game Award for Best Acting in a Game.

PlayStation 5 owners should be excited to have such a unique title become part of the console's catalog when Immortality launches on PlayStation 5 on January 23. Immortality is currently playable on? PC, Xbox Series X|S, mobile, and Mac.

The post Haunting FMV mystery Immortality comes to PS5 later thi??s month appeared first on Destructoid.

The 'I'm walkin' here' award goes to...

Yesterday saw the New York Videogame Critics Circle host its 12th annual New York Game Awards, celebrating the be?st releases to hit the PC, console, and mobile gaming market in 2022.

In a ceremony packed full of, frankly, oddly monikered categories Elden Ring was the big winner of the evening, taking home the "Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year". In addition, FromSoftware's highly celebrated fantasy RPG also captured the "Statue of Liberty Award for Best World". Elden Ring, as you will no doubt be aware, topped many outlets' "Best of" lists at the end of 2022, (including our own), which is a testament to the title's ap???peal in aesthetic design, gameplay, and atmosphere.

Other big winners of the night included Poncle's Vampire Survivors, which won the "Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game", while actor Manon Gage took home the "Great White Way Award for Best Acting in a Game", for her affecting performance in Sam Barlow's Immortality. The "A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game" was won by card-battle Marvel Snap, while the "Herman Melville Award for Best Writing in a Game" went to Sony Santa Monica's brutal and evocative sequel God of War: Ragnarok.

Here is the winners' list for the 2023 New York Game Awards:

• Big Apple Award for Best Game of the Year: Elden Ring
• Off-Broadway Award for Best Indie Game: Vampire Survivors
• Herman Melville Award for Best Writing in a Game: God of War Ragnarök
• Statue of Liberty Award for Best World: Elden Ring
• Tin Pan Alley Award for Best Music in a Game: Metal: Hellsinger
• Great White Way Award for Best Acting in a Game: Manon Gage (Immortality)
• Coney Island Dreamland Award for Best AR/VR Game: Moss: Book II
• Central Park Children’s Zoo Award for Best Kids Game: Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• A-Train Award for Best Mobile Game: Marvel Snap
• Freedom Tower Award for Best Remake: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
• Joltinâ€?Joe Award for Best Esports Player of the Year: Masaya "aMSa" Chikamoto (VGBootCamp/Red Bull Esports)
• Chumley’s Speakeasy Award for Best Hidden Gem: Signalis
• NYC GWB Award for Best DLC: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
• Knickerbocker Award for Best Games Journalism: Justin Heckert (Vanity Fair)
• Elizabeth Jennings Graham Award for Best Educator: Ryan O'Callaghan
• Andrew Yoon Legend Award Recipient: Phil Spencer

The post Elden Ring bags another B??est Game trophy at New York Gam??e Awards appeared first on Destructoid.

An interesting year

It feels like a bit of a copout to say "2022 was an interesting year for video games," because every year is an interesting year for video games... but, well, 2022 was an interesting year for video games! It was the first year in which I really felt like I could see 2020's production setbacks on the release calendar, but it was also a year for projects that seemed like they would never arrive. Who would have guessed that Dwarf Fortress would reach 1.0 and Live A Live would get?? its official? English localization in the same year?

I didn't have to whittle this list down too much - while there were a lot of smaller games this year, I only really loved a few. Personally, I prefer that to a year with a massive wave of just-okay games crowding out the ones I'm actually interested in. 2022 didn't see all that many releases from massive developers, which meant shorter mid-budget titles and indie games had the chance to really stand out, and I had the chance to play a lot more ??of them. There was plenty of chaff in there, but I also got to see some wheat I may have otherwise missed. I might not have even played some of ?the games on this list in a busier year. So thanks, 2022.

With all that being said, I'd like to run down those excellent?? games that gave me that warm and f?uzzy game of the year feeling.

[caption id="attachment_356093" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Vampire Survivors

Vampire Survivors showed up at just the right time for me. At the beginning of the year, I contracted COVID-19 after seeing the most recent Scream movie in theaters (the illness was nearly as bad as the movie). Blessedly, Vampire Survivors had entered early access only a few weeks earlier, and, as luck would have it, I had a spare three dollars burning a hole in my pocket. And that's the story of how Vampire Survivors made my quarantine bearable.

This is by no means a difficult game, but it's a microcosm of what I love about RPGs. Watching my character go from a wimpy little single-weaponed loser to a screen-clearing god over the course of thirty minutes is the kind of dopamine hit that I just need sometimes. This is not a joke - I just opened Vampire Survivors to grab a quick screenshot for this entry and I acc?identally ??played through an entire run.

[caption id="attachment_356095" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bethesda Softworks[/caption]

Ghostwire: Tokyo

I don't really understand why so few people played Ghostwire: Tokyo. I get that it was never going to be a God of War-sized smash hit, but this is the third title from a studio with a decent reputation, and the pitch is great - explore the haunted streets of Tokyo while slinging Doctor Strange-ish magic at ?various ghosts and spirits. What's more, the execution of all those ideas is pretty great.

The empty city at the heart of Ghostwire: Tokyo is gorgeously haunting, and?? the moment-to-mo??ment FPS combat feels great. The banter between protagonist Akito and his ghost buddy KK keeps the middling story from dragging the experience down, and collecting what feels like one trillion different objects scattered around the environment is a blast. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it rolls along just fine.

[caption id="attachment_356098" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Neon White

Nobody needs to hear me talk about Neon White. I've touched on its cringe-and-proud writing in the past, and anyone who's spent more than a couple hours with it knows how instantly addicting its speedrunning parkour loop is. Neon White i?s very good, and if you haven't played it by now, you really should.

I'm reminded of something like Celeste, a game that made me love precision platforming where other precision platformers could not. I don't care for speed games of this nature, and yet, I cannot stop gunning for those shiny blue medals in Neon White. It's just so great.

[caption id="attachment_356100" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Humble Games[/caption]

Signalis

I have a confession to make: while I love nearly every Resident Evil game released after 2005, I kind of can't stand classic survival horror games. I love the eerie atmospheres and the carefully constructed environments, and every time I start Silent Hill, I become briefly convinced that it will become my entire personality. But I've never finished Silent Hill.

I did finish Signalis, a lo-fi sci-fi sendup to survival horror stories of the PSX era, and I thought it was great. A lot of the things I struggle with in those early survival horror games (esoteric puzzles, poor sense of direction, clunky gunplay, constant inventory management) are present here, but I forced myself to muscle through them, and I found myself really liking them. I was also very taken in by Signalis' setting and its beautiful art style. I guess I should go finish Silent Hill now.

[caption id="attachment_356102" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Bandai Namco[/caption]

Elden Ring

Poet Robert Graves once said, "The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good." That's kind of how I feel about Elden Ring. Often, when a game connects with absolutely everybody e?lse, I can't help but look?? for its shortcomings. I always end up scouting for the seams, the compromises that must have been made to appeal to such a wide audience.

I did exactly that with Elden Ring. I loved the thing on release, and I poured dozens of hours into it, but as soon as I stopped playing, I started assembling my little list of contrarian gripes. It's repetitive, the narrative coasts on being esoteric to mask the fact that it's kind of boring, there are too many damn systems to make "system mastery" feel satisfying, and so on. And then I came back to Elden Ring, and all of those complaints melted away. Because Elden Ring is very good, in s??pite of all the people who s?ay it is very good.

[caption id="attachment_356104" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Funcom[/caption]

Metal: Hellsinger

Metal: Hellsinger is a rhythm game with designs that imitate 2016's DOOM and a boss fight set to a Serj Tankian solo. It's gre?at.

[caption id="attachment_356106" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Crows Crows Crows[/caption]

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

The Stanley Parable didn't really need a remaster, and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe knows it. It's hard to explain what, exactly, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is without totally spoiling some of its most delightful surprises. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Ultra Deluxe has surprises, though, because it's The Stanley Parable, and that's what The Stanley Parable is.

The Stanley Parable is the kind of game that you should play if you have any interest in video games as a means of telling stories, and that's especially true now, with the Ultra Deluxe pa??ckage representing a reasonably major re?invention of the original concept.

[caption id="attachment_356108" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Immortality

I love Sam Barlow's Her Story, a non-linear FMV mystery game in which new scenes are discovered by searching for specific keywords. Immortality, Barlow's newest game,?? is even better. It features a similar system, in which new s?cenes are unlocked by searching for specific items found in video clips.

Immortality is the story of a movie star whose three films were never released to the public. The player takes on the role of an archivist, simultaneously assembling those unreleased films from recovered footage and attempting to unravel the mystery of what happened behind the scenes. It's a story about cinema, and the image-matching game system is a perfect match for that narrative. Her Story is a story about language, the words we use and the reasons we use them. In contrast, Immortality is a story about images, a much headier concept in a m?uch more satisfying package.

[caption id="attachment_356109" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Raw Fury[/caption]

Norco

Norco is one of those ga??mes that feels special from minute one. This bizarre point-and-click adventure set in a near-future version of the real-world town of Norco, Louisiana is dreamy, melancholic, and simply amazing. It's a striking anti-capitalist text, but it's also a love letter to the kind of place that doesn't ofte?n receive love letters.

I have found myself considering something new about Norco almost every day since I played it. It blends its near-future dystopia with its current-day problems abs??olutely expertly. This is the kind of game w?here a dying mother does gig work in order to amass cryptocurrency to pay for her own digital ghost. It's full of tragic sci-fi conundrums like that, and I can't stop thinking about it.

[caption id="attachment_356112" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image from Devolver Digital[/caption]

Card Shark

I don't know all that much about pre-revolutionary France. I know even less about gambling, and next to nothing about cheating at card tables. And yet, while playing Card Shark, I felt myself becoming an expert at cheating at card games in pre-revolutionary France. Nerial's period piece, which focuses on the pupil of the Co??mte de Saint Germain (history's greatest liar), is a thing of beauty.

Card Shark looks amazing, and its story is a charming and touching testament to the proverbial little guy, but where it sings is in its gameplay. The card tricks performed in the game are based on very real cheats, and Nerial has produced something of an interactive handbook for fraud. Every trick is taught to the player carefully, and executing on them feels like playing a very painterly WarioWare micro-game. Part of me wishes it was a little longer, but the narrative itself is very well-pa?ced. I just want to play more of the thing, which is a very good problem to have. It's an incredibly specific game, but the one that I loved the most this year.

The post Sorrel Kerr-Jung’s favorite games of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

This is the stuff I live for

The horizons of my video game tastes have broadened pretty significantly over the past few years, but my undying love for narrative games first and foremost has never wavered. While 2022 has been a great year for games in general, from heavy hitters like Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok to indie darlings like Cult of the Lamb and Vampire Survivors, I think this past year has been one of the best we??'ve seen for narrative games in a good while due to the breadth of stories that were told both thematically and mechanically.

Whether those stories were rooted in lighthearted, optimistic sentimentality or a grounded, gritty introspection, I was reminded time and time again why I'm so excited for games to continue paving the way forward as our youngest and most dynamic storytelling medium. Here are some highlights of what I consider to be some of the most ??compelling narrative games to have come out in 2022 �if you're interested in interactive storytelling and haven't played through these yet, I suggest adding them to your backlog ASAP. Keep in mind that I'm only touching on my absolute favorite narrative games of 2022 with this short list, so if I missed a truly groundbreaking game narrative this year, make sure to let me know down in the comments!

Stray

I was so pleasantly surprised by Stray. It's a game I excitedly jum?ped into as a cat lover, but I'll admit that I didn't expect much more from it than some cute yet vapid interactions and some run-of-the-mill gameplay. While I actually found myself enjoying the platforming mechanics that helped me see the world from a cat's perspective (especially in the game's most open hub section, The Slums), it was its story that I found to be unexpectedly poignant and uplifting.

I certainly didn't expect to come to care for a tiny AI robot whose introduction at the time seemed to only be for tutorial purposes, or that a game with a cat as a protagonist would provide one of the most delicate and thought-provoking stories about the end of the world that I've seen as a fan of apocalypse fiction.

For me, what really worked for Stray was more in its minute, subtle?? interactions with NPCs and the environment than in its overarching narrative itself, but the game managed to keep its hold? on me the entire way through to my tearful conclusion of its story. This is a game I've thought about a lot over the months since I played it, and I look forward to returning to it sometime in the future.

NORCO

I've followed NORCO since it was previewed at Tribeca's Games Festival back in 2021, and while it was absolutely snubbed at this year's Game Awards, I'm still so pleased that it's gotten the love that it has. Being from the South myself, I'm partial to southern gothic storytelling, and NORCO did the subgenre proud as the best to delve into the American South since Kentucky Route Zero.

Also similar to Cardboard Computer's modern classic, NORCO leaned hard into surrealism and used it to deliver some truly unforgettable commentary about capitalism and our connection to the land on which we live. NORCO's writing is poetic and sometimes downright hilarious, and it has some of the most beautiful pixel art I've ever seen in my life. Some of the gameplay elements weren't exactly my favorite, but i?t's overall a good time if you like point-and-clicks, and its storytelling should certainly not be overlooked.

Signalis

Signalis is a game I wasn't sure I was going to be able to play at all on account of my aversion to horror, but I'm thrilled that I was able to push through. Signalis' story is told in a less traditional manner, and in more of a way that I can only describe as "vibes" outside of its journal entries scattered around the map, and I think it was brilliantly done. I love a story that poses a lot of questions, and while Signalis p??rovided many more questions than answers, it succeeded tremendously at exploring the lengths we're willing to go for the people that we love, especially when we have nothing to lose.

As you make your way through a ruined space station, the story of Signalis almost feels like it's already?? happened, with the player left to wander around in the aftermath wondering how it all could have gone down differently. It leaves you with this sense of futility, and yet somehow still hope. ??It's a story you feel more than think your way through, and in that sense, it has more heart than any game I've played in a long time.

Pentiment

I feel like there are two types of gamers in the world: those who like Pentiment, and those who don't. Point-and-click is already a polarizing genre, b??ut I feel like when people saw the game's authentic medieval art style, they decided r?ight then and there that the game was or wasn't for them. To those who were quick to write it off, I'm begging you to reconsider, because this is one of the most compelling murder mysteries I've ever played in a game, which is also helped by the streamlining of some of the more cumbersome point-and-click conventions.

Pentiment is a game that surprised me again and again in the absolute best ways, but what really stands out the most is how it refuses to give the player definitive answers, which not only re-contextualizes the whodunit genre, but also how a lot of us think about video game storytelling in general. This is a game ??that has incredible replay value, so I'll likely be starting another playthrough before the year's out just to see how much everything changes on a different pa?th.

Immortality

To me, Immortality is not only the best narrative game of the year, but also a milestone of the medium's continued innovations in storytelling, following in rank with Disco Elysium and The Last of Us as one of my favorite interactive narrative experiences of all time. It explores its themes so intimately and in such compelling ways, and I can't get over how well the three "movies" of Marissa Marcel play off of each o??ther. This game has some of the most incredible acting performances of recent years as well, and the gut-wrenching twist is one of the gaming moments that will truly stick with me for the rest of my life.

When people talk about video games as art, especially a storytelling art, Immortality needs to be at the top of that list. It's a narrative that could truly only be told through an interactive experience. I feel like I could write volumes on the depth and complexity of this game, and I likely will in the future after subsequent playthroughs. For now, though, I'm still kind of basking in it �and of course, going back, again and again, to try to find every last clip that I'm mi??ssing.

The post 2022 was an amazing year for narrative games appeared first on Destructoid.

Slowly rolling backwards on the year

Another year has come to a close, and so we're looking back at the breadth of games we saw throughout these last 12 months. Many came and went,? and gradually, I've managed to whittle the crowd dow?n to something resembling my ten favorite games of 2022.

It wasn't an easy task, to be honest. Sure, this year saw the delay of multiple big-name projects into 2023. I'm a bit grateful for that though, as it at least gave me time to spend on some smaller indie ??releases. And wow, did they come out swinging.

This year was the year of small games, tactics games, story-driven and narrative titles, and more. I played a lot of games this year that felt like they were pushing forward, whether through new mechanics and ideas or just pushing hardware to its limits. Sitting down to whittle down my list, I was cutting games that I genuinely enjoyed and could have easily made my list last year. Plus, I got way into Final Fantasy XIV.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFlDRhvM4L0

This was also the year of Chainsaw Man, and I'm not -not- mentioning that.

2022 had some stiff competition. My honorable mentions list could stretch on for ages. And my top 5 or so have all swapped around constantly as I've thought this over and over. Heck, I had to cut off Midnight Suns and Chained Echoes from consideration, as I just didn't have the time to properly dive through them before I fi?nalized my list.

Well,?? let's get to the heart of the matter. Here are ten of my favorite games from this ye??ar, in no particular order except the last one.

Neon White

Part-speedrun tutorial, part-Toonami special, but 100% dripping in style and incredible design choices, Neon White is a breath of fresh air for folks who still boot up Titanfall 2 just to run the Pilot's Gauntlet. Everything, from its incredible vision of heaven and unabashed commitment to the bit down to the actual movement and gunplay, felt rock solid. The story still didn't move me quite as much as it did for others, but the action and killer soundtrack of Neon White have been stuck in my mind all year. Seriously, even against a line-up of heavy hitters, Neon White is one of the best OSTs all year.

Pokemon Legends Arceus

I was down-and-out on Pokemon for a long time headed into 2022. I've got friends and family who adore the series, but the mainline series hadn't hooked me in since the Game Boy Color. Pokemon Legends Arceus is the entry that didn't just re-imagine Pokemon; it re-ignited my spark for this series.

The catching mechanics of Arceus turn the semi-open, Monster Hunter-like environments into careful cat-and-mouse games, heightened by the presence of terrifying Alpha Pokemon. I loved the danger and the thrill. I loved how this journey wasn't taken over well-trodden roads, and the world felt like it was still wild and new, despite being a region long-time Trainers know well. It was easily the better of the two Pokemon entries I played this year, and hopefully the Legends line is something The Pokemon Company returns to in the f?uture.

AI: The Somnium Files - nirvanA Initiative

Mystery, laughs, twists, and great puzzles. The nirvanA Initiative is what I've wanted to see from Uchikoshi and company since the Nonary Games concluded, and what I'd hoped the first AI: The Somnium Files would be.

There's a lot to be said for a shift in leading characters; Ryuji was fine, but Mizuki easily steals the show. Still, what endeared the nirvanA Initiative to me was seeing this series embrace real puzzles and escape room-style scenarios for its dream-diving sections. It was more enjoyable to puzzle these out than any of the more esoteric, dream-logic problems were. And the overall story structure ends up twisting and winding in a more interesting manner, too. This felt like the team finding their footing in the Somnium universe, and making it stand tal??l in the pantheon of murder-my??stery adventures.

Vampire Survivors

Honestly, who didn't fall down a Vampire Survivors hole this year? While there's been an influx of players recently thanks to its DLC and Game Pass debut, I've been on the Vampire Survivors beat since this time last year. And yet it's never really g?otten old or? dull in that time.

Sure, there have been times I've taken breaks or even uninstalled it from my computer for a couple weeks. But poncle's effective blend of active inaction, avoiding enemies while hoping you've made the right upgrade decisions and maneuvers to stay afloat, mixes tower defense and roguelite into a beautiful blend. It's one of many indie success stories this year, but poncle and the Vampire Survivors crew have really put in the work, al?l the while offering an incredibly fun game at a mind-b??endingly low price.

Elden Ring

Two moments stick out to me, that ensured Elden Ring would be on my e??nd-of-year list. The first: opening a treasure chest and waking up in Caelid. Walking out into that blasted land, with the scarlet canopy weaving around its shores and cliffs, I knew I dug this game.

The second was another teleportation, this time to the Haligtree. Here, I needed a moment to just take in the scope and wonder of this massive area, completely separate from the critical path. I beat every boss, conquered all foes, built the perfect Tarnished and in the end, ushered in an era of stars with the witch Ranni. Elden Ring is a big, gorgeous culmination of years of Souls development, and it really manages to achieve all?? it set out to do.

Pentiment

With Microsoft building up a wealth of studios and building out Game Pass, Pentiment is the so??rt of end result I was hoping for in all of it. This passion project from a team over at Obsidian is not the sort of blockbuster, big-budget, all-out affair you'd expect.

Instead, Pentiment is rich, beautiful, and wonderfully focused on its historical narrative adventure. Following Andreas Maler through the ages as the world evolves around him, dealing with the times while also investigating a murder, was something a bit different. And it clicked incredibly well because of it. Pentiment is sharp in its writing, art style, presentation, and more, and well-worth checking out. It's an exciting sign of? the possibilities for smaller projects from the big studios under the Xbox banner.

Signalis

I had been struck by Signalis' style since an early demo I checked out. Pixel art, anime style, and low-poly environments made for a mix of styles that fe??lt bound together just right. It was exciting to see that rose-engine's survival horror game managed to stick the landing, too.

Signalis feels like a love letter to classic survival horror. Dark hallways and corners loom large. Ominous, vacuous silence makes every step feel louder than it should, as you carefully navigate through dangerous, monster-filled corridors. The limited inventory and elaborate puzzles meant I was constantly making choices, juggling what I could hold and what I was willing to risk every outing. Signalis is such a tightly packed, perfectly paced bite of survival horror that I can easily see mys?elf booting up again? several times over.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

This is my crow-eating moment: I did not think Xenoblade was for me. Despite loving the Xenosaga series, Chronicles never managed to draw me in. But the war story focus of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 caught my eye, and boy, am I glad?? I gave it a chan?ce.

There hasn't been a party that I've dug as much as Xenoblade Chronicles 3's group of rag-tag adventurers in some time. Brought together by fate and driven to discover just why they are born to die in never-ending war, it doesn't take long for them to start fusing into robots and fighting gods. But it's the little moments that kept me locked in; campfire hang-outs, character-focused quests, and tons of time spent on developing this crew and their growing group of cohorts made the big moments hit. I've been, diving into side quests and extra content, holding off on rolling credits because I don't want to be finished with this world. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is easily one of my favorite RPG??s I've played in a while.

Immortality

As a fan of both FMV and Barlow's previous work, I was eager to see what the team at Half Mermaid would do with Immortality. The match-cut system is interesting enough, but as it turns out, Immortality is m??uch, much more than just a novel navi??gation tool.

This mystery, that ambiguously sends you searching through the lost film history of a missing star, smartly breaks down the barrier between film and subject. It draws you in, not just with the match-cut that asks for careful observation of scenes, but in its framing too. You can go for a long time without using an interface, and all the while be absorbed in the story, connecting dots and matching names to faces. It drew me in, and didn't let me go, ultimately revealing a dialogue about creation and creativity that's been stuck in my head for months. In a year full of fascinating narrative design, this was a highlight.

Citizen Sleeper

Given how early it arrived in the year compared to some other games on this list, I wasn't sure where Citizen Sleeper would fall on my list as more a??nd more games arrived. It might be the greatest testament to Jump Over the Age's sci-fi, narrative-driven RPG that it's still held up through it all.

In Citizen Sleeper, you play a Sleeper, a runaway worker formed from an artificial consciousness in a failing body. Camped out on Erlin's Eye, every day is about staving off hunger and damage, alongside the looming threat of planned obsolescence without the corpo-mandated medicine. But then something clicks. Amid all the daily dice rol??ls, hoping for high rolls and trying to keep ahead, you start to form a community.

Others trying to get through life, drifting through the E?ye, start to drift into?? your orbit. Soon, you're not just trying to survive. You're forming a co-op and commune., or hacking the station for ancient secrets. You're building a still to try and keep an old haunt afloat.

All the while, Citizen Sleeper asks the player to juggle clocks, ticking up towards success and down towards failures. This experience made me think about how role-playing games operate, and what emotional stories can be formed from the looming stresses and dangers of life on the outskirts of the universe. By the time I left the Eye, I felt at peace with my journey there, and what might be next for my Sleeper. ?That journey was easily a highlight of 2022, and my favorite game of the year too.

The post Eric Van Allen’s favorite games of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

A movie star, a priest, and Master Chief walk into a bar...

The year is coming to a close, and so it's time to look b?ack at what 2022 held, particularly for Xbox fans. Microsoft had a seemingly quiet year, but this year's nominees for Destructoid's best-in-class Xbox games spoke volumes.

As a reminder, our awards season here at Destructoid runs December-to-December. So while Halo Infinite wasn't eligible last year, it is this year, and it's likely better off for it. While 343 Industries' FPS struggled right out of the gate, a series of updates have been gradually turning the narrative around. The recent Forge beta and quality-of-life improvements are starting to make Infinite feel a bit more ??like what folks might have hoped for at launch, and so it's worth noting that.

Obsidian wound up being the standard-bearer for Microsoft's first-party efforts in 2022, with not one but two games making our nominations. The first, Grounded, launched out of Early Access, and those at the site who checked it out really dug Obsidian's take on co-op survival in a backyard world. Pentiment, meanwhile, is a passion project with some stellar art, direction, and writing. It captures life in the 16th century through a thrilling, emotional tale of art and legacy.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyMlV5_HRWk

Of course, Xbox these days isn't just about the first-party offerings. Xbox Game Pass had some stellar games arrive on the service, and the rest of our list shows that, as they've all been on Xbox Game Pass this year. We start with Nobody Saves the World, an early 2022 hit from Guacamelee developer Drinkbox that? we dug and didn't want to see fall out ?of our collective recollection come GOTY season. It's colorful, inventive, and its transformations are a blast to mix and match.

Tunic barely needs an introduction, as it seemed to capture many hearts and minds over the last few years. Underneath a cute action game was a FEZ-like pu?zzle waiting to be solved. I also just like a game that has a manual in it, okay?

The latest from Sam Barlow and the Half Mermaid crew, Immortality, is one of the more innovative games?? on this list. The way it turned racking and reeling footage, like you were using an old film machine, to tell a spooky and resonant story about creation and art has stuck with me, months after I rolled credits. It's also, in my humble opinion, a game you absolutely have to play using a controller.

The many, many rodents of A Plague Tale: Requiem close out our Xbox ballot. It's a gorgeous, emotional adventure, and as our review details, it shows how Asobo Studio has found a strong beat in this tale of two beleaguered siblings. Check out the official bal??lot below, and come back later this month to see who takes the top prize.

Here are the nominees for Destructoid’s Best Xbox Game of 2022:

• Grounded
• Halo Infinite
• Nobody Saves the World
• Pentiment
• Tunic
• Immortality
• A Plague Tale: Requiem

The post Nominees for Destructoid’s Best Xbox Game of 2022 appeared first on Destructoid.

Here are your candidates for the Keighleys

It's that time of year again. The snow is starting to fall, as fall turns to ??winter, ??and The Game Awards are just around the corner. Today, The Game Awards revealed its 2022 nominees.

The awards ceremony itself will take place on December 8 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, CA. There will be industry members and a ticket-purchasing audience in attendance, for a night of trophies and worl??d premieres.

This year's nominees are led by God of War Ragnarok with 10 total nominations, followed by Elden Ring at 7. It's not all titans though, as some indie projects got some nods too. Immortality and Neon White both picked up three nominations apiece.

Debut Indie Game and Games For Impact have some solid entries too, like Vampire Survivors and Citizen Sleeper. A certain gaming content creator was also recognized, as recently-retired news aggregator Nibell??ion (a.k.a. ?Nibel) got a nomination for Content Creator of the Year.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRmtd9PS-gE

Wi??thout further ado, here's the full lineup for this year's nominees for The Game Awards 2022.

Game of the Year

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Stray
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Game Direction

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Immortality
• Stray

Best Performance

• Ashly Burch (Horizon Forbidden West)
• Charlotte McBurney (A Plague Tale: Requiem)
• Christopher Judge (God of War Ragnarok)
• Manon Gage (Immortality)
• Sunny Suljic (God of War Ragnarok)

Best Multiplayer

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• MultiVersus
• Overwatch 2
• Splatoon 3
• TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

Best Ongoing Game

• Apex Legends
• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
• Fortnite
• Genshin Impact

Best Art Direciton

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Scorn
• Stray

Best Score

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Metal Hellsinger
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Audio Design

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Gran Turismo 7
• Horizon Forbidden West

Innovation in Accessibility

• As Dusk Falls
• God of War Ragnarok
• Return to Monkey Island
• The Last of Us Part 1
• The Quarry

Best Narrative

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Immortality

Games For Impact

• A Memoir Blue
• As Dusk Falls
• Citizen Sleeper
• Endling - Extinction is Forever
• Hindsight
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Best Independent Game

• Cult of the Lamb
• Neon White
• Sifu
• Stray
• Tunic

Best Mobile Game

• Apex Legends Mobile
• Diablo Immortal
• Genshin Impact
• Marvel Snap
• Tower of Fantasy

Best Community Support

• Apex Legends
• Destiny 2
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Fortnite
• No Man's Sky

Best Debut Indie Game

• Neon White
• NORCO
• Stray
• Tunic
• Vampire Survivors

Best VR/AR Game

• After the Fall
• Among Us VR
• Bonelab
• Moss: Book II
• Red Matter 2

Content Creator of the Year

• Karl Jacobs
• Ludwig
• Nibellion
• Nobru
• QTCinderella

Best Action Game

• Bayonetta 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
• Neon White
• Sifu
• TMNT: Shredder's Revenge

Best Action/Adventure Game

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Stray
• Tunic

Best RPG

• Elden Ring
• Live a Live
• Pokemon Legends: Arceus
• Triangle Strategy
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Fighting Game

• DNF Duel
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R
• The King of Fighters XV
• MultiVersus
• Sifu

Most Anticipated Game

• Final Fantasy XVI
• Hogwarts Legacy
• Resident Evil 4
• Starfield
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Adaptation

• Arcane: League of Legends
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
• The Cuphead Show!
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Uncharted

Best Family Game

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Nintendo Switch Sports
• Splatoon 3

Best Sim/Strategy Game

• Dune: Spice Wars
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
• Total War: Warhammer III
• Two Point Campus
• Victoria 3

Best Sports/Racing Game

• F1 22
• FIFA 23
• NBA 2K23
• Gran Turismo 7
• OlliOlli World

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Dota 2
• League of Legends
• Rocket League
• Valorant

Best Esports Athlete

• Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon
• Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
• Finn "karrigan" Andersen
• Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
• Jacob "Yay" Whiteaker

Best Esports Team

• DarkZero Esports
• FaZe Clan
• Gen.G
• LA Thieves
• LOUD

Best Esports Coach

• Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi
• Matheus "nzkA" Tarasconi
• Erik "d00mbr0s" Sandgren
• Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström
• Go "Score" Dong-bin

Best Esports Event

• Evo 2022
• 2022 League of Legends Worlds
• PGL Major Antwerp 2022
• The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
• Valorant Champions 2022

The post The Game Awards 2022 nominees include Ragnarok, Elden Ring?, and Ni?bel appeared first on Destructoid.

Gods, monsters, and some coffee all hit Game Pass this month

One god game is leaving Xbox Game Pass at the end of August, but a few "immortal" games are stepping up to take its place. As Supergiant's Hades leaves at the end of the month, Xbox Game Pass picks up Immortals Fenyx Rising, Immortality, and several other new games for the service.

The selection for this month is a solid selection of indie gems, both new and old. Coffee Talk arrives today, letting you play barista to a host of creatures in alt-Seattle. Opus: Echo of Starsong arrives later on??, bringing a vibrant art style and deep? narrative to the service.

A notable arrival this month on Game Pass is Immortality, the new FMV adventure from Sam Barlow and Half Mermaid. It was pretty impressive when I previewed it, and seems like it'll be wo??rth checking out when it launches on August 30.

Or if fighting Greek mythology is more your thing, Immortals Fenyx Rising should fit the bill. It's a Breath of the Wild-adjacent adventure with a heavy helping of myth, and I've heard mostly alright things about it.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEStlPKIGL8

Of course, as some games arrive, others leave. This month sees another batch of games leave Xbox Game Pass, and there are some heavy hitters worth checking out before they take off. Hades is a big one, with a little roguelite action mixed with Greek myth and Supergiant charm.

We also see What Remains of Edith Finch, Spirifarer, Twelve Minutes, and more leave the service at the end of August. Hades aside, those are some games you could absolutely squeeze into a week?end before they're gone.

Here's the full lineup for the second half o?f August.

Xbox Game Pass - August arrivals

• Coffee Talk (Cloud, Console, PC) - August 16
• Midnight Fight Express (Cloud, Console, PC) - August 23
• Exapunks (PC) - August 25
• Opus: Echo of Starsong - Full Bloom Edition (Console, PC) - August 25
• Commandos 3 - HD Remaster (Cloud, Console, PC) - August 30
• Immortality (Cloud, PC, Xbox Series X|S) - August 30
• Immortals Fenyx Rising (Cloud, Console, PC) - August 30
• Tinykin (Console, PC) - August 30

Xbox Game Pass - August departures

• Elite Dangerous (Cloud and Console)
• Hades (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Myst (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• NBA 2K22 (Cloud and Console)
• Signs of the Sojourner (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Spiritfarer (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Twelve Minutes (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• Two Point Hospital (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• What Remains of Edith Finch (Cloud, Console, and PC)
• World War Z (Cloud, Console, and PC)

The post Xbox Game Pass sees gods arriving and leaving at the end o??f Augus?t appeared first on Destructoid.

The case of the missing movie star needs a little more time

The next Sam Barlow FMV adventure is taking a little bit of extra time. Immortality has been pushed back to a rel?ease date of August 30, 2022.

Developer Half Mermaid shared the news today, stating the launch has been pushed back from its July date. The extra month ??will be to ensure the expe??rience is "as polished as possible."

"We hope everyone anticipating th?e game will? understand this necessary evil and continue to prepare to dig into the most complex mystery we have tried to answer yet: What happened to Marissa Marcel?"

Half Mermaid also shared some new screens of Immortality, showing off some of the different eras and the Moviola-style interface for sifti??ng through the footage.

??//twitter.com/HalfMermaid/status/1547255721137475584

On the case

Immortality is the latest game from Sam Barlow, the creator of Her Story and Telling Lies. Alongside the Half Mermaid team, Barlow's explored? FMV twice in the past. Both games task players with sifting through massive amounts of footage using a text-based interface.

In Immortality though, the system uses a match-cut tool to identify visual objects—a wig, a cross, someone's face—and cut to other footage. It's tech that's really impressive, and really took me aback when I got the chance to try it out.

Plus, there's the narrative through-line: the search for Marissa Marcel. The actress only starred in three movies and has since disappeared from the limelight. The question Immortality poses is why, and what could have happened? Did something go south??, is there foul play involved, or is there some other force a??t play?

?Considering that I haven't stopped thinking about some of the footage I found in my demo, the delay does sting a bit. But I've really enjoyed Half Mermaid and Barlow's FMV work so far, and an extra month's work on this mystery is comparably small. I'll just have to settle for red string and corkboard for a w??hile longer.

Immortality is com??ing to PC and Xbox Series X?|S on August 30, 2022.

The post FMV mystery Immortality delayed into August appeared first on Destructoid.

The future is lookin' bright for narrative games

So, that's another year of summer game announcements on the book. There are a few more streams on the horizon, but for now, we've gotten a taste of just about all of the upcoming games we can handle. Developers threw what felt like an endless stream of new titles at us, and while a lot of the space horror games kind of blurred together after a while, there were plenty of titles that stuck out to me as games I'd be looking forward to the most. Naturally, most of them are narrative games, and so for my sake and yours, I decided to compile a list of what I think are the best-looking narrative games that were highlighted these? past few days/weeks.

Keep in mind that some of these don't advertise the story being the central mechanic or the main focus of the game, but the narrative looked intriguing enoug??h that it's one?? of the features that drew me to it the most. Whatever, it's my list and I'll do what I want.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx0w-eAoTk

The Invincible �Annihilation meets Firewatch

This one kind of came out of nowhere, and it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the weekend for me. Based on the influential 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible follows a scientist named Yasna as she attempts ??to piece together what happened to a lost crew on a hostile alien planet. The premise alone doesn't sound like anything to write home about, but the trailer sent a chill down my spine.

I consider myself a pretty voracious reader, so hearing that we're getting a game based on a novel definitely makes my ears perk up. The trailer had a slow-paced sense of dread that really works, and while I haven't read The Invincible, I imagine it captures the feeling of the novel quite well. I just finished reading the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, and I think the trailer we sa??w captured a similar sense of awe mixed with horror.

Like I said, I had never heard of The Invincible before I saw the gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Showcase, but now it might just be the one game I'm look??ing forward to the most.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpT-74avAR0

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals �a return to an old favorite

This is one of the games I was fortunate enough to play a preview of for the Tribeca Games Fest this weekend, and I am pleased to report that it's everything I want from an Oxenfree sequel, considering the first one is one of my favorite narrative games of all time. It's got the same spooky flair and atmosphere you'd expect from the series, but one of the things I'm most excited about is seeing the series move away from a cast o?f teenagers to a protagonist in her 30s.

The new player character Riley is returning home and dealing with her past after being away for a long while, which I think is a cool direction to move in after the first game was about high schoolers trying to figure out their places in the world. I've done a lot of growing up myself since I played the first Oxenfree, so having each game relate to me at different parts in my life is a pretty cool thing. I'm looking forward to the creepy, sentimental rollercoaster ride that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is likely to be.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgA7zRbhKY

American Arcadia �The Truman Show with a twist

I'm not gonna lie �I love The Truman Show. When I saw that there was a game on the horizon inspired by the film, I knew it was going to be right up my alley, and it turns out, it very much is. American Arcadia is another game I got to preview for Tribeca, and it exceeded the expectations I had going in. Not only does it look absolu?tely stunning with its colorful-retro-future-70s aesthetic, but it has a ton to offer by way of gameplay.

It's part 2.5D sidescrolling platformer, part puzzle game, part first-person stealth game �and while I was worried that it had too much going on, it all fit together surprisingly well to create an experience I've never quite seen before. Sure, any individual element of American Arcadia isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it's the final product th??at I think is going to blow me away. As far as narrative games goes, it ticks all the boxes for me so far.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEStlPKIGL8

Immortality �FMV is yet again revolutionizing narrative games

Sam Barlow has been one of games' most creative minds for years, and now he's back with his most ambitious project yet. Immortality is a full-motion video game (a rare breed at this point) that centers on the disappearance of a woman named Marissa Marcel. Players are tasked with going through old reels of three different unreleased films she starred in to piece the mystery together, and it's one of t?he most stylish-looking games we got to see this weekend.

I'm always looking for games that are doing things we haven't seen before, and Immortality looks like it's going to give us a newer, even more complex take on the ideas that Barlow masterfully executed in his earlier titles. The writing team includes talent that worked on shows like The Queen's Gambit and Mr. Robot, so I have nothing but high hopes for this narrat?ive-centric FMV myster??y.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXq20gant-4

Pentiment �Ye old video game

Wacky art styles are a surefire way to get me interested in a game, and in that regard, Pentiment had my attention right out the gate. It's a medieval-themed narrative game that looks balls-to-the-walls crazy, and we certainly haven't seen anything like it from Obsidian, the studio behind The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. They had a smaller internal team break out to work on Pentiment �something I would lov??e to see from more?? big-budget studios who have the capacity to make some awesome smaller-scale projects.

It's got a painterly, storybook art style that's evocative of the period it's set in, and features classically medieval things like writing beautifully decorated manuscripts, discussing the latest news from Italy, and of course, violent mobs bur?ning buildings down. It looks like an exciting adventure full of twists and? turns, and as something of a casual history buff, this one is already sitting pretty on my Steam wishlist.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_ek16Bm-o

The Alters �Clones? Clones.

The newest title from 11 Bit Studios, The Alters follows Jan, who creates alternate versions of himself to survive on an isolated planet. In terms of gameplay, each one of the ?clones is supposed to have diffe??rent powers that the player can use to their advantage, but each will also have a different personality that's based on different moments and paths in Jan's life.

The announcement trailer didn't give us much information about what it will feel like to play just yet, but on premise and 11 Bit's reputation alone, I can tell that this is going to be one hell of a ride. The studio always does an awesome job of incorporating a well-told story into games that also have really solid gameplay, so I'll be looking forward to hearing more about The Alters as the studio continues its development.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

High on Life �The Rick and Morty guys finally got me onboard

Okay, I'm gonna be honest here, I've never seen Rick and Morty. Maybe I just never got around to it, maybe it was the fandom that turned me off, but it was never something I felt drawn to. That's why I was so surprised when I saw the trailer for High on Life, and actually thought it ??seemed like a hilarious, go??ofy time.

The idea is that you're a bounty hunter who needs to take out aliens who are using humans as some kind of drug. It's got a colorful, eccentric art style, the quippy, zany tone you'd expect from Squanch Games, and of course, the real highlight of the trailer, talking guns. Games like High on Life aren't usually my kind of thing, but it looks so out there and different that I know I'm gonna be ?itching to try it. Plus, I'm just a sucker for an FPS, and this one looks l??ike it'll have some really unique shooting mechanics.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l6uWxe-vk

Stray �/em> a cat-centric narrative game