TomorrowHead Studio has revealed its debut game at the Future Game Show today. Will: Follow the Light is a narrative adventure focused on the authenticity of its travel and puzzle syst??ems. It’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbo?x Series X|S.

I’d refer to it as a walking sim, but I think that would be a misnomer since the trailer focuses just as much on dog sledd??ing and sailing. I mean, I think it fits ?the genre’s criteria not the name.

Anyway, Will: Follow the Light casts you as a m?an appropriately named Will who is traveling north to find his lost son. According to the press release, “It explores the relationship between father and son in an adventure taking players on an emotional rollercoaster through wild thunderstorms, the ringing silence of loneliness, and a tale about the importance of caring for loved ones.�Oh okay.

What I find most interesting is the “realistic controls�of the sailing yacht. The travel segments of the trailer do seem pretty detailed. Moreover, they also say there’s a lifelike navigation system. I have hopes that there is a lot of travel and navigation in Will: Follow the Light, be??cause I feel that it tends to get downplayed in a world with omnipresent fast travel. In games, I mean. Fast travel in real life hasn’t been figured out yet, as far as I know.

The puzzles also seem detailed, as they’re said to be “rooted in real life.�It shows weights being added to an elevator’s counterweight which is kind of neat. It might beat adventure game logic, but maybe not. There might be a reason why few games use puzzles “rooted in real life.�/p>

Will: Follow the Light is coming to PC??, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S in 2025.

The post Will: Follow the Light looks like it will be a detailed take? on the narrative adve??nture genre appeared first on Destructoid.

This is a long drive for someone with nothing to think about

One of the things I respect about the medium of video games is its ability to tackle difficult situations in a way that other mediums can’t. Even when it comes to non-visual mediums like, say, the written word, we’re ??only spectators. A video game can make things about us. Some empathy is still required, but we can be the ones trapped in an uncomfortable situation.

Sometimes this is too much. When I played He Fucked the Girl Out of Me last year, it actually dug up memories of (unrelated to the subject matter) trauma that I had repressed. It was for the ?best, but it was a?lso a lot.

But it doesn’t always have to be a lot, as A Long Journey to an Uncertain End proves. You can approach difficult subjects carefully and with a light heart without minimizing the s??eriousness of it. If you asked me before playing it how such a thing would be possible, I probably wouldn’t ?have an answer. And yet, here it is.

[caption id="attachment_389209" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End (PC)
Developer: Crispy Creative
Publisher: Crispy Creative, Mooncat Games, Fig Publishing Inc.
Released: June 28, 2023
MSRP: TBA

In A Long Journey to an Uncertain End, you’re on the run from your abusive ex. Also, you’re a spaceship. Actually, you’re the AI pilot of a spaceship, but youâ€??™ve been “unshackled,â€?so you can feel the full spectrum of emotions. Your ex wasn’t treating you well, and after a particularly violent episode, you’re liberated by a crewmember and are off to, well, an uncertain end.

That may sound rather ridiculous, but the presentation is eerily realistic. Someone smashing the control panels of a vehicle may sound more like property damage, but I feel really gross for just writing that sentence. ??If that’s too outlandish to really latch onto, your ex-partner is also psychologically abusive. And boy howdy, that gets across very cle?arly without being blatantly said.

As you travel, you meet a colorful cast of new crewmembers to recruit. Their antics do a great job of helping you forget that someone wants to emotionally beat you into submission. The sci-fi elements do a decent job of taking the edge off, the characters make things fun and entertaining, but the whole abuse angle is still ?there and capable of biting at you whenever a cutscene comes up.

I guess the best way of putting it is that A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is very careful and compassionate about?? how ??it handles the subject matter.

//youtu.be/pbzXNf8TXkw

Dice or die

The game itself is sort of a mash-up of a visual novel and a simple tabletop RPG. There’s no combat, but there are a whole lot of dice rolls. Essentially, you move from planet to planet with the primary task of keeping your ship supplied for the next jump. You do this using simple trades, or by having your crewmembers do side-jobs. Sometimes these side-jobs will net you additional crewmembers or advance the plot in? some way. People you help may a??lso assist you in the final part of each sector.

Each member of the crew has expertise in a certain area, like tech or seduction. Then it’s just a matter of odds. You can call in favors to increase these and�/p>

Ugh. Okay, so the gameplay is where everything breaks down with A Long Journey to an Uncertain End. As much as I have admiration for its unique premise and deftness when it comes to telling a difficult story, the gameplay is easy to get through ??at best and mystifying at worst. And it’s frustrating, because I don’t know where to begin.

I guess the best place is with its biggest issue: There’s very little feedback here. It seems like A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is trying to be an extremely friendly game, but part of the way it does this is by withholding punishment. If you run out of supplies on a jump to a new planet, for example, I’m not sure what the result is. Does this upset your crew members? I’m not sure. Can you fail a job entirely or just not complete it well? Why does calling in a favor sometimes wipe out all the crew mood increase that I get from a job and replace it with something else? What am I missing here? Why won’t you tell me!?

[caption id="attachment_389211" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I don't like these odds

It’s not as though I had a difficult time getting through 2-3 hours of A Long Journey to an Uncertain End??. Larg?ely, the only credible threat I could find was a clock that ticked down to when your ex catches up to you. That’s not nothing, but it’s pretty easy to just make sure you just take off before they get too close.

But midway through, I noticed I was packing bags of favors that I could call in. You typically use these to simply increase the odd??s of success for jobs. Since?? I had dozens of these things by the mid-point of the game, I was suddenly able to just scatter my crew across the jobs on a planet, then whiff it through all the decisions. Once at the end of a job, I could just pile on the favors and walk away with the reward. I’m pretty sure that’s not how the game is supposed to be played.

It’s almost prototypical. The framework of the gameplay was laid down, and all the writing was dropped on top of it, but nothing was done to tweak or polish it into an enjoyable experience. It’s not a completely non-functional wreck, but you can see what it was aiming for, and it falls way short?.

[caption id="attachment_389215" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A sloshing bucket

It’s a shame, because the characters are fun and the story is reasonably well-written. I feel th??at the actual sci-fi elements are a little trite, but its integration of difficult themes makes it a success. The characters are a splash of LGBTQ??+ color, to the point where the spaceship is filled to bursting with gender fluid. Their preferred pronouns don’t necessarily play much into the narrative, but their identities help each feel distinct.

A Long Journey to an Uncertain End is just such a well-intentioned game that it’s a shame that it’s so limp where it counts. You rarely see its sensitive approach to difficult topics in video games. Yet, when it’s time to engage with it as a player, it falls into a heap on the floor. The cast of characters and narrative themes help elevate it above simply being average, but it’s hard to get over the nauseating sting of disappointment when you discover that A Long Journey to an Uncertain End isn’t quite where it could or should be.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: A Long Journey to an Uncertain End appeared first on Destructoid.

A fine vintage

Party for Introverts has revealed its narrative RPG, Cabernet, which is set for release on PC in early 2024.

Cabernet casts you as ??a 19th-century vampire trying to blend in with aristocrats. You explore the town and command a slate of classic vampire powers, like turning into a bat and hypnotizing people. You use these to steal the blood of rich people. Finally, a protagonist we can root for??.

//youtu.be/n-n87qBhCr8

Your character is new to the whole vampire thing and still hasn’t made the decision on whether they should hold onto their humanity or?? just go with that and have a feast. That’s not a hard decision for me. The game contains themes of social conflict,? alcoholism, and corruption. Hopefully, this doesn’t get too in the way of eating the rich.

There is n?o indication that romance will play a role here, but we can always hope.

Sometimes PR people will seek out journalists who fit best with the subject matter of what they’re trying to bring attention to, then they reach out to them directly. That’s what happened here. I often don’t know why they talk to me aside from “actually reports on non-AAA games,�but I totally get it with Cabernet. I can barely last 5-minutes in a polite conversation without lusting over vampires. Well played, PR person. Now I want to know if I come up? in a Google search for vampire-fucker or i?f I’m just on a list somewhere.

If you, too, lust for vampires and blood, Cabernet will arrive for PC in early 2024.

The post Cabernet?? is a narrative game about eating the rich appeared first on Destructoid.

New platform, same great taste

As someone who spent much of the late 2000s deep in the RPG Maker community, I can’t believe how far the engine has come. RPG Maker is typically associated with low-quality Final Fantasy knockoffs, but funny enough, it’s the non-RPGs that became breakout hits. To The Moon set the stage for narrative RPG Maker games that are worth both time and money, and Laura Shigihara’s Rakuen follows in that proud tradition. Giv??en Shigihara's involvement with the former project, this shouldn't come as a surprise.

Of course, this is old news by now. Rakuen originally released in 2017 to critical acclaim from fans and critics alike. Sporting an Overwhelmingly Positive consensus on Steam, words like “beautiful�and “masterpiece�typically describe this title in reviews. Now, nearly six years later, Rakuen is receiving a second wind with a Nintendo Switch port. Labeled Deluxe Edition, it combines the entirety of Rakuen with a couple of animated shorts and the brand-new game Mr. Saitou. The good news is that Rakuen is fantastic, and I was happy to finally experience this wonderful story. As for the new features that ma??ke this a “Deluxe Edition,�well�t??hey certainly exist.

[caption id="attachment_369547" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Rakuen Deluxe Edition (PC, Nintendo Switch [reviewed])
Developer: Laura Shigihara
Publisher: Morizora Studios
Release: March 23rd, 2023 (Deluxe Edition)
MSRP: $24.99

Rakuen is a simple adventure game about a boy in a hospital called Boy. Textboxes literally address him as Boy, so I’m not being too cheeky here. The name Rakuen is derived from Boy’s favorite book, which his mother (referred to strictly as Mom) frequently reads to him. Shortly after the introductory sequence, Mom insists that the world inside of Rakuen is real, and they?? journey from the walls of the hospital t??o the fantasy realm for themselves.

It’s here that the core plot is laid out: Boy has a wish that only the forest guardian inside the book can grant. How??ever, in order for the guardian to gr??ant this wish, Boy must help the other residents of the hospital with their own personal traumas and heartaches. Conveniently, these characters exist in both the real world and the fantasy land that Boy and Mom explore. This allows the game to explore gravely serious subjects through a childlike perspective that helps soften the cold reality at the center of the story.

Rakuen deliberately blurs the line between imagination and reality, and it’s up to the player to determine where one realm ends and the other begins. The main plot takes a backseat for most of the adventure, with subtle clues scattered beneath the episodic stories that point towards how the tale will ultimately end. This approach serves Rakuen well overall. It’s not terribly difficult to figure out plot threads well before they happen, but the major story arcs of the game are told well enough to still hit hard even if you know they're coming. Make no mistake; Rakuen is a tearje??rker. This is a game best ?played by someone ready to cry throughout its duration, even if the journey between those big emotional moments doesn't always hit.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVwxS5IBUYw

Everything, everywhere, not all at once

If I had to describe the tone of Rakuen in one word, it would be “yes.�/p>

The narrative freely oscillates between quirky humor, heartfelt drama, and even horror when necessary. My biggest misgiving with Rakuen is that its comedy is only okay most of the time. There are so many gags that just land weakly, often using Boy’s shocked face as a punchline over an actual joke. Don’t get me wrong, I love quirky humor as much as anyone. But many of Rakuen's lighter moments last a few lines too long and lack direction, as if Shigihara is riffing off the top of her head for filler to ?break up the drama.

Fortunately, there are bits that genuinely charm me and get a laugh. There’s a section involving a tea party that has some fantastic visual gags, bolstered by sharper writing that spends less time meandering ar??ound its jokes. As much as I enjoyed this section, it makes the comedy that came before it seem all the more aimless in comparison.

Conversely, the dramatic beats at the center of the episodic story arcs in Rakuen are universally great. Not only are the characters lovable and sympathetic, but their conflicts portray real-world trauma with devastating precision. As somebody who spent the majority of the COVID-19 pandemic caring for a person with a condition mirroring one found in the game, I needed a minute to get through his story's ending because of how true to life it was. Every tale in Rakuen is treated with respect and ??impeccable attention to detail, and the filler comedy becomes more infrequent as the plot progresses. I only wish the script received another round of polish to push it closer to this level of quality throughout its duration.

[caption id="attachment_369548" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Oh right, it’s a game

I’ve focused on writing until now because that’s overwhelmingly the main draw of Rakuen. It’s luckily fun to play too, if not?? a bit in?consistent.

For the first five hours, Rakuen does an admirable job of breaking up its plot arcs with adventure game elements. There’s a decent amount to explore with light secrets to uncover, which adds a great sense of progression. Boy and Mom will often find themselves in puzzle-based dungeons that are both fun on their own merits and award key items to unlock new areas. If you stretched the comparison paper thin, you might say it's a bit like a Zelda game.

There are a few obstacles that, for lack of a better term, feel very RPG Maker. These include hostile NPCs with predictable movement patterns and block-pushing puzzles, both of which are easy-to-code conflicts that inevitably pop up in any title made with the engine. This luckily won't mean anything to the vast majority of players, but anyone who has played many RPG Maker games will find these bits grating.

At its best, Rakuen does a great job weaving its level design into its already strong narrative. There’s one particular area involving a bear family (trust me, it makes sense in the game) that especially stands out. The puzzles are engaging, and the exploration subtly builds up the story like a good mystery. Unfortunately, shortly after this moment, Rakuen just…kind of gives up on gameplay. Puzzles are almost comp??letely dropped as plot threads appear in rapid succession, largely forgoing this cohesion of gameplay and story that was just hitting its stride. I strongly got the impression that Shigihara just wanted the project to be done alre??ady after a certain point, though fortunately the significant story moments never drop in quality.

This ?leads to some bizarre pacing issues. Early plots feel like they drag at times, and the later plots go by too fast. This isn't a major issue, it's just jarring to watch how fast the back half of the story resolves.

[caption id="attachment_369549" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Hey, wanna listen to some tunes?

If there’s one element of Rakuen that is consistently excellent, it’s the music.

You can tell Laura Shigihara put all her heart and soul into the soundtrack. There aren’t any energetic bangers necessarily, but each track seamlessly enhances Rakuen’s atmosphere. The songs in the fantasy world evoke classic SNES RPGs, driving home feelings of whimsy to encourage exploration. When the game wants to be tense, the music puts in overtime to create more unease than the relatively basic 2D graphics ever could. Rakuen’s several?? vocal tracks especially deserve accolades, as they're universally poignant and lead to some of the game’s most powerful moments. I could frankly summarize the game by saying when Shigihara and friends start singing, I start crying.

Shigihara has generously uploaded the entire soundtrack to YouTube, but I recommend experiencing these tracks in context as much as possible. The music is tied deeply to the story, similar to "The Ballad of the Wind Fish" in Link's Awakening. I don't mean to downplay the clear effort put into the visual presentation, as there is some genuinely nice eye candy here. But to experience the best parts of this gam?e, I highly recommend playing this one with headphones.

[caption id="attachment_369550" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

And now, a Mr. Saitou review

From the outside looking in, Rakuen may only look like a piece of the content available in Rakuen Deluxe Edition. The package also includes Mr. Saitou, which Shigihara herself calls "The next installment in the Rakuen universe."  I wrote some early impressions on Mr. Saitou during the February 2023 Steam Next Fest, so check ??those out here if you’d like a more detailed overview of the g??ame. Unfortunately, for anyone who anticipated Mr. Saitou as a proper sequel to Rakuen, I hate to say you're going to be disappointed.

To kick off with a positive, I love how Mr. Saitou focuses on its core characters. Boy and Mom spend most of Rakuen as passive observers and feature little development outside of the game's beginning and end. Conversely, the titular Mr. Saitou and his eventual companion Brandon take center stage in their respective adventure. The dynamic between the two is incredibly wholesome and fits the atmosphere of Rakuen to a tee.

Unfortunately, Mr. Saitou otherwise forgoes the strengths of Rakuen and instead doubles down on quirky humor. Credit where credit’s due, there are more visual gags here that land better than the average Rakuen joke. There are also punchlines that veer into painfully unfunny territory. Look, I can shrug off a bad joke or a terribly out-of-date reference. Lord knows I've made plenty of those myself. The problem is that Mr. Saitou never hits any heartfelt highs that made Rakuen so special. You'll find an emotional hook buried here, but it's almost treated like an afterthought by the game's conclusion. I'm okay with Mr. Saitou going in a different direction than Rakuen, it just doesn't stick the landing.

[caption id="attachment_369551" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

New game nonplussed

Exacerbating Mr. Saitou’s issues is its rudimentary gameplay. Rakuen didn’t have a consistent stream of winners in its puzzle design, but there was at least a mix of decent brainteasers and basic challenges. Mr. Saitou, on the other hand, is only basic challenges. You got your standard RPG Maker block-pushing puzzles, and you have a running gimmick of math puzzles that Mr. Saitou absolutely runs into the ground. Also, there’s weirdly a lot of mandatory backtracking throughout the game. The slow walking speed in Rakuen was already problematic, but the sections in Mr. Saitou that literally consist of carrying things fr??om point A to point B exacer??bate the issue.

To be clear, I don’t think Mr. Saitou is unpleasant to play. It just doesn’t live up to the tone set by its predecessor or its own trailer. Even after searching every nook and cranny, Mr. Saitou took me less than two hours to finish. It’s not underwhelming because it’s short, it’s underwhelming because there’s so little to it. While I did enjoy seeing the quirky fantasy characters of Rakuen appear again, these were never the main draw of the original. That said, if Rakuen was your favorite game of the past six years, I suppose Mr. Saitou is good enough as a novelty.

I will say that Mr. Saitou works okay as a supplemental experience. There are genuine visual spectacles here, including one very fun sequence that I imagine will get a ton of hits on YouTube. With how heavy and heart-wrenching Rakuen is, Mr. Saitou offers a wholesome story to cool down with after your journey’s end. Its presence doesn’t make Rakuen Deluxe Edition wo??rse, but you aren’t missing?? much by skipping it.

[caption id="attachment_369552" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Racking up features

Eagle-eyed fans may take umbrage with Rakuen referred to as an RPG Maker game. One of the major changes in this release is the new engine that allows the game to even run on the Switch. Since this is my first time with Rakuen, I can’t tell you specifically what has or hasn’t changed. However, having had experience with RPG Maker XP, I can say Deluxe Edition still feels like an RPG Maker game. The menus and performance all perfectly mirror the engine, for better or for worse. I’m sure this chang?e is significant for the game’s development, but it doesn’t notably impact the end product.

The only other major addition to cover in Deluxe Edition are a few animated shorts called Farmer in the Sky. Much like Mr. Saitou, these are merely fine. I can appreciate the novelty of seeing the characters rendered in 3D, but the shorts themselves feel like pilots for something that never took off. They’re decently cute, and I'd imagine a young child could really enjoy these. Not that I’d want to devastate a young child with a heavy game like Rakuen, but I ??wouldn't take paren?ting advice from a game review.

Fortunately, Rakuen on its own justifies the Deluxe Edition. Though a bit uneven, its best moments are spectacular enough to warrant a recommendation for anyone in need of a good cry or two. I do wish Mr. Saitou reached the same emotional heights, but it’s serviceable if viewed strictly as a bonus. That said, if you wanted to save money and get vanilla Rakuen on PC, I wouldn’t stop you.

_{[This review was based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher. Dale North, former Editor-in-Chief of Destructoid, was involved in the creation of Rakuen. The author has never worked directly with Dale. As always, no relationships were factored into this article.]}

The post Review: Rakuen Deluxe Edition appeared first on Destructoid.

Back to VHS tapes and cartridges

Don't Nod?? Montreal is teasing its next project. A new photo for the upcoming game has been shared on socia?l media, alongside a call for job applicants.

As shared on Twitter, Don't Nod Montreal spotlights a screen of its new experience, with ??the caption, "Does it bring back childhood memories?" The t?eam says it is hiring on this "new narrative game" and lists a link to the Don't Nod career site.

//twitter.com/DONTNOD_Ent/status/161900989871?2268800

The project will feature veterans from both Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2, as confirmed by its director Michel Koch. What it might be about is anyon?e's guess. Though from the décor and vibes alone, I feel like a '90s setting definitely lines up here.

What's in store for Don't Nod

The team at Don't Nod has been working on a few projects since the release of Life is Strange back in 2015. The Montreal subsidiary was established in 2020, with a stated goal of creating "even more amb?itious" titles.

Between the follow-up Life is Strange 2 and other projects, like vampire RPG Vampyr and narrative one-offs Tell Me Why and Twin Mirror, Don't Nod has been busy. The company also changed its name, going from Dontnod to Don't Nod, and had a minority stake investment from Tencent.

Though Life is Strange is now under the wing of another studio, I'm curious to see what the Don't Nod crew are working on next. This image gives off some of the familiar hometown-story vibes that Life is Strange has been known for. But we probably w??on't know much more about it until Don't Nod Montreal is ready to fully reveal it??.

The post Don’t Nod Montreal is teasing a nostalgic new project appeared first on Destructoid.

A harrowing journey to the end of the world

I never get tired of a good narrative game, so when I see a trailer that looks good enough to grab my attention, I can't help but get excited about a potential new story-driven gem. That's absolutely the case when it comes to The Pale Beyond, a narrative polar exploration game that's set to release on February 24, 2023. The title was originally announced back in November of 2021, and its story will follow the crew of a vessel named The Temperance, who have set out on an expedition toward the South Pole in an attempt to discover the mystery of their lost sister ship, the Viscount, which set out on a journey to find the absolute magnetic Sout??h five years prior.

//youtu.be/PvvkUPPJc_E

The Pale Beyond's launch trailer shows off some of the game's foremost mechanics, like resource and morale management and survival simulation �one can imagine how those elements will tie into tough narrative?? choices the player must make for the survival of the crew. What really grabbed me about this game is its art style, from the painterly backdrops to the hand-drawn character portra?its. Here's hoping that the gameplay experience will hold up against the gorgeous visuals.

I'm a big fan of these harrowing, tension-filled "journey" narratives, and it's certainly not a story I've played in a game for a good while now, so I'm looking forward to checking out The Pale Beyond once it drops. If the game looks interesting to you as well and you want to get a taste before the release date, there's also a demo you can download on The Pale Beyond's Steam page right now.

The post Chilling narr?ative exploration game The Pale Beyond releases next month appeared first on Destructoid.

A picturesque new story is on the way from the OPUS team

Developer SIGONO has been making some waves with its narrative adventures, and now the team has announced its next project. OPUS: Prism Peak is a new game from SIGONO, and it's taki??ng a look through a camera lens for its story.

SIGONO has developed several different narrative adventures under the OPUS banner, stretching back to 2016's OPUS: The Day We Found Earth. The Taiwanese studio found some breakout success with 2021's OPUS: Echo of Starsong, which received both audience critical acclaim, and found its way to the Switch with the Full Bloom Edition.

With OPUS: Prism Peak, the studio seems like its looking towards the camera for a new perspective. With the tagline "Capture the moment, then learn to let go," it certainly seems poised for some powerful ?emotions.

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

According to its Steam page, OPUS: Prism Peak is an adventure where choices will lead to divergi??ng endings, as you play a photographer lost in an ethereal realm. You'll have to use your camera t??o uncover mysteries and find a way home through all of it.

The camera eye

Not much more information has been shared just yet, but the premise alone is very intriguing. The camera has become a cool way of viewing video game worlds, whether on the arcade-like railways of Pokemon Snap or snapping shots of the final days in Umurangi Generation.

With a team like SIGONO behind it, OPUS: Prism Peak could be another one to watch in the realm of camera-based adventure. Hopefully we'll hear more about this project soon. Meanwhile, that leaves plenty of time to check out the other OPUS games.

The post OPUS: Prism Peak is the next narrative adventure from S??IG??ONO appeared first on Destructoid.

Not quite extinct

Songs, drama, and fond memories are all flooding back for one indie narrative game. Goodbye Volcano High has resurfaced wit??h a trailer and a launch window.

The dino teen drama got some notice when it took the stage during a PlayStation showcase in 2020. The project's been in development since, with the release window shifting in the meantime. Now, Goodbye Volcano High is aiming for a summer 2023 launch.

Alongside the news today is a trailer, showing off some of what's in store for the prehistoric school year. While the art direction is an immediate draw for some, today's trailer also spotlights game?play?? from KO_OP's story.

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

There's dialogue options, which will likely have some ramifications down the line for Fang, th?e lead. Or maybe jamming to music's more your style, or taking photos. When the cataclysm is nigh, what should you do with your time?

Meteoric rise

That's the crux of Goodbye Volcano High: the world is ending, an era is being put to a close. So what do you do with the time remaining? It's a??? bit heavy, for sure.

But as someone who hadn't been sold on the concept just yet, today's trailer has honestly won me over a bit. The music is fantastic, and all the style added to dialogue, rhythm, and other segments give Goodbye Volcano High a bit of added flair. I've seen some narrative games do impressive things with?? how t??hey stylize basic chats and conversations.

If making the most of life's little dramas before imminent doom sounds up your alley, Goodbye Volcano High is aiming for a summer 2023 launch.

The post Dino school story Goodbye ??Volcano High gets a summer launch window appeared first on Destructoid.

We talk to the Blaseball team about what's in store for the new Era

It w?as the year 2020, and everyone was inside. The world was slowly coming to grips with a pandemic, and everyone was indoors and online. Amid it all, there was Blaseball.

Blaseball is, at its most distilled form, a sports game. Users join through the website and assign themselves to a team of choice, like the Houston Spies or Baltimore Crabs, either through?? regional loyalty or just digging their vibe. Each team is populated by generated players, who play out their games in A.I.-driven baseball games, like watching a bunch of CPU opponents fight in Super Smash Bros.

The teams play matches throughout the week, effectively simulating a seaso??n of baseball, and users bet in-game currency on the outcomes, akin to Salty Bet matches. Those earnings can be used for your own purposes, or to help the team try and secure ??certain advantages through a bidding process.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5t8DwnDE1k

And this is where Blaseball gave way to its, let’s say, stranger side. Be??cause the “splort�itse??lf is just a piece of the greater puzzle. What Blaseball truly b??ecame was a greater work of co??mmunity and collaborative fiction. 

Developer The Game Band would incorporate bizarre rules and situations, like extra bases for one team to run or blooddrain raining down on the field. Star players would be incinerated in matches. A peanut god entombed competitors in peanut shells. Wild time??s.

A new Era

So it’s 2022, and Blaseball is back. The Game Band is kicking off ??a season of Fall Ball as a build-up to the new Era. After a Great Siesta and a lot of time poking, prodding, and examining, the team is reapproaching what Blaseball is.

I sa??t down with Sam Rosenthal, Joel Clark, and Stephen Bell, three leads behind Blaseball and its upcoming return. And as Rosen??thal describes it, the team has taken a c??hance to look at what they want Blaseball to be ??at a higher level. The first version was very “reactive,�Rosenthal say?s, and went well beyond expectations. But the cadence, methods, and team size were not sustainable.

The Game Band now stands? at 27 employees strong, up from the “five or si?x�they started Blaseball with. And a new version of Blaseball is powering it.

“It’s kind of like a rethinking, a reb?oot, of what Blaseball was,�said Rosenthal.

//twitter.com/thegameband/status/158531831?8545637376

The Fall Ball

A?pproachability and community are two aspects Rosentha??l goes on to highlight as changes. A core focal point of Blaseball has been its community; teams�fans assemble in Discords and on social me??dia, organizing planning sessions alongside charity efforts and general outreach. The robust community aspects made Blaseball feel heaven-sent amid the pandemic. But it??’s also made it tough for newcomers arriving, and seeing floods of messages, in-language, and constant games, to know where to start.

Fall Ball is helping with? that. The current event is described by The Game band as a prologue event, showing a universe in formation. Players are, for lack of a better term, being “burped�into the universe and dropped onto random teams. There’s some anticipation on who will appear in this world. And also, it ?provides a nice onboarding point.

Still, the core of Blaseball is its emergent narra?tive. No other anecdote is as effective as illustrating this than the story of Jaylen Hotdogfingers. The pitcher was effectively raised from the dead through a b??it of a loophole, and then became a necromantic terror that was beaning batters at the plate to mark them for incineration. Jaylen and so many others became tall tales, living legends of the Blaseball scene that drove the drama between each A.I.-driven ??sim session.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=diAHuUV2Meg

Emerging narrative

The Game Band calls Blaseball an emergent narrative game. “That’s not going away,â€?Clark tells me. And while there is improvisation, the studio has also been able to map out a bit more in advance thanks to the break time ??between the conclusion of Blaseball’s Discipline Era and now.

“We do still plan to be improvisational, and like, be able to build on these fan stories during this Era, but so much of it’s planned in advance,�said Clark. “So we have to find this balance of designing the possibility space where fans might take the emergent narrative. When we’re designing e?ach season, we see where it might go, where were the corners that the fans might find and take this in?�/span>

The Game Band previously had to wo?rk around edge cases like Jaylen’s necromancy on the fly, as Bell tells me. The team was always planning ahead before. But the big change has been having so much time to map out a whole possibility space.

“We, previously, had a small possibility space, and then we would be rushing to expand it over the course of an Era,�said Rosenthal. “And now we have taken the time to really think?? thro??ugh what we want the possibility space to be, and have a better sense for where we can jump in and react, you know, based on what the fans latch onto.�/span>

Talk to me

The communication aspect is also one The Game Band has considered. The team didn’t go into too much detail on exactly what it’s planning. But it is thinking about aspects of how people organize and participate outside of the game, and to be more intentional with how the community can talk to o??ne another.

Discords are still going to have a place in Blaseball, the team assures. But they’re not networks the team made, and they’ve become core parts of the experience. Th??e team has been thinking a lot about what worked well and didn’t work well with those aspects, as it looks at ways to help people connect in the game.

Core parts of Blaseball will continue to remain, though. Th??e sparseness, Clark says, goes a long way towards the g??ame being improvisational. It’s easier to be more mysterious and adaptive when a game doesn’t need massive 3D models, after all. But Blaseball is getting “a fresh coat of paint,�to add a bit more to?? the experience.

More? points the team examined in?clude making big moments clearer, so users have a better idea of when to “tune in�for something big. Season will feel very different as the games roll on, too. The sim is fairly new, if not totally new. That means changing some aspects.

“And I’ll stay a little vague here, but it’s really giving us more groun??d to cover,�said Clark. “And there’s just a lot more that we can play with ??there.�/span>

Bell mentions worrying about ho??w many more ways the team could have played with baseball. Blaseball has had catastrophi??c weather and incinerations. It turned a contest with a peanut god into a live RPG boss battle. Bell even jokes about an idea he pitched, exponential runs, that never saw the light of day.

//twitter.com/blaseball/st??atus/1585316187944022017

Expanding the game

When ??lo??oking at how to expand and add depth, Bell cites Dwarf Fortress. The id??ea of expanding? interiority, in the case of the dwarves, can add more of that depth. The team is being understandably vague, as the mystery and deeper lore is a core part of Blaseball that The Game Band is still ??working to retain, even as it makes the on-ram??p easier.

But with the new Era of Blaseball, it doesn’t feel like The Game Band i?s trying to recapture the moment.?? It’s not really possible to do that anyways. Blaseball, as it was in 2020, was of its time??. And now the team is looking at what Blaseball can be in 2022. It’s daunting, but as a Blaseball aficionado, pretty exciting.

Through a mob?ile app,?? on-boarding and helping players who only jump on for five minutes a time, the doors to Blaseball doors are opening a bit more. It’s this bizarre, otherworld?? “splort�that is happening in the background. Until a notif?ication hits your phone, and chaos lets loose. This is the start of a new universe, picking up where the old one left off. The Game Band seems intent on bringing in old Blaseball fans and newcomers alike.

And as Clark jokes at ??the conclusion of our?? chat: “We’re hoping it’s just as cursed.�/span>

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A Sam Fisher for the times

A new job listing on Ubisoft's career page indicates the Splinter Cell re??make will be modifying the story of the original. Specifically, they're taking a look at updating it for a "modern day" audience.

As spotted by PSU, a scriptwriter opening for the Splinter Cell remake is open on Ubisoft's site. Alongside working on the Sn??owdrop engine to rebuild a stealth classic, it looks like the writing staff will also be retooling the narrat??ive.

Here's an excerpt from the listing:

"Using the first Splinter Cell game as our foundation we are rewriting and updating the story for a modern-day audience. We want to keep the spirit and themes of the original game while exploring our characters and the world to make them more authentic and believable. As a Scriptwriter at Ubisoft Toronto, you will join the Narrative team and help create a cohesive and compelling narrative experience for a new audience of Splinter Cell fans."

It's unclear what that entails, outside of possibly incorporating modern ideas into the spy story. Maybe Sam will have to quietly distribute food deliveries along his intended route. Or perhaps he'll get distracted during a pivotal moment when one of his tweets goes viral. We ?do live in really weird times.

The return of Splinter Cell

The Splinter Cell remake got confirmed at the end of 2021. Ubisoft Toronto is heading up development on the remake, using the same Snowdrop engine powering Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

The team's been pretty quiet since though, outside of confirming a few things. The new-old Splinter Cell will remain linear and not open-world, so in some ways it definitely sounds like they're ad?hering to the original.

Still, a "modern" story for Sam has me, at the very least, curious. Hopefully we learn some more about the Splinter Cell remake soon.

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Sunset Visitor's new adventure is about uncovering the past

Indie publisher Fellow Traveller has revealed a new collaboration with a studio on its debut game. 1000xRESIST is a narrat?ive adventure from Sunset Visitor, arriving in 2023 for PC an??d Switch.

This is the first game from Vancouver-based Sunset Visitor, and it has quite an in??teresting concept behind it. As a clone named WATCHER, the player is thrust into a mysterious time where the air is unbreathable.

By shifting through the past, present, and future, the player can uncover memories and histories of the ALLMO??THER, the last surviving human. And through this, maybe they can uncover the truth.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3XXgRpIKp4

Visually, 1000xRESIST is striking. Today's reveal trailer certainly ??made an impression on me. And it sounds like the team is incorporating many influences into the project.

"We are a group of creators with experience across dance, theatre, music, film, visual arts, and new media, and 1000xRESIST is truly a reflection of t?hat diversity," said Sunset Visitor f??ounder, CEO, and creative director Remy Siu in a press release.

Siu says the team is a collective largely of the Asian-Canadian diaspora, and 1000xRESIST draws on their experiences as first and second-generation immigrants. The founder?? also cites Yoko Taro, Red Candle Games, Satoshi Kon, and the theatre of Robert Wilson. "We look forward to sharing this sci-fi story awash in the Asian diasporic psyche," said Siu.

Future days

It's a compelling pitch from a first-time studio. And Fellow Traveller has been pretty good about picking up interesting narrative titles. The publisher has been behind games like Citizen Sleeper, Genesis Noir, and Paradise Killer.

With 1000xRESIST, this mix of extremely cinematic design and style is striking,?? with lots of interesting color, lighting, effects, and angles in the trailer. It's visually intriguing, and it's got me curious about how the story itself will play out.

Sunset Visitor sets its sights on a 2023 launch for 1000xRESIST on PC and Nintendo Switch.

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Blast back to the '90s in a tale of pop and romance

A new kind of love story is headed to Steam, with a musical twist. Riley & Rochelle is an ??upcoming new m?ystery from Sheinman Games that sees you untangling the relationship of two musicians.

Riley and Rochelle are two artists from different worlds, who wind up falling in and out of love in the '90s. Hailing from Detroit is Riley Stone, a rocker who came up through the indie music scene. Meanwhile Rochelle Robert is a former child pageant star who gets discovered an?d makes her way into the spotlight.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5LO9H8YCfM

The two collide and grow closer, and it's your job to figure out how, why, and what happened after. Riley & Rochelle lets you piece together mus??ic, journal entries, and information to figure out the story. Maybe, even, whether anyone gets a decent ending.

The game is a collaboration between Tim Sheinman and Natalia Yanchak, with art from Mack Chater, Murray Somerwolff, and Josiah Whitfi??eld. And the Sheinman Games label is what caught my eye about this i??n the first place.

He was a boy, she was a girl

Sheinman has made several investigation-centric games in the past. One in particular I dug was Rivals, a similar mix of music and detective work that had the player ????piece together the history of a band and its falling out.

Just the general idea of pulling together scraps of info for a VH1's Behind The Music style program is interesting enough. But the music here is spot-on, too. A clever mix of information hunting and good tunes makes for a pretty unique style of detective game.

Riley & Rochelle is currently aiming for a launch on PC and Mac. You can head on over and wishlist it on Steam at this link.

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Just caught in the churn

Gamescom Opening Night Live is less than a week away, which means we're steadily seeing which games are pre-announcing their show appearance. Today, showrunner Geoff Keighley and Telltale Games confirm that the latter's The Expanse series will show off a ??first look at gameplay during the show??case.

The Opening Night Live stream is airing on Twitch and YouTube, on August 23 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. The show's expected to run for two hours, with over 30 games on stage to show.

//twitter.com/tellta??legames/status/1559933630104??752128

The new Telltale series is from the reformed Telltale Games, which was bought and revived after the first Telltale Games had to shut its doors. This new Telltale, under LCG Entertainment, is the one working on The Expanse: A Telltale Series alongside fellow narr?ative game studio Deck Nine and Alcon Interactive Group.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=13h1mxJUZjc

No risk, no reward

I am pretty curious to see what this combination has in store for The Expanse. While the new Telltale is fairly fresh, Deck Nine proved its mettle with Life is Strange: True Colors, a really phenomenal entry in the series.

The story will follow Camina Drummer, who Expanse fans will remember as the all-around-badass Belter from the series. It takes place prior to the events of ?the series, following Drummer's search for a mysterious treasure on the fringes of the Belt.

While IP adaptations were Telltale's go-to during its original run, The Expanse is a new franchise for the company. It's also one that could, in my opinion, really benefit from a narrative-focused approach. The t??ensions and politics of the Solar System playing out in verbal standoffs through Te?lltale's systems could be a good time, if done well. We'll learn more at Gamescom Opening Night Live.

Telltale is also working on The Wolf Among Us 2, which we got a look at earlier this year. That's set for sometime in 2023.

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Let's kick it

Who doesn't love a good video game sidekick? I've been playing through some of the old Ratchet & Clank games with a friend, and while A Crack in Time is one of the best of the series, my biggest gripe is that we don't get enough Ratchet and Clank quality time. Maybe I'm just too sentimental, but I really love seeing best buddy characters in my games, and Clank makes just about the best sidekick a girl cou??ld ask for.

He's got it all �an adorable personality, quippy dialogue, useful game mechanics, he never gets in the way, and his gameplay sections break things up and provide some cool puzzle mechanics. Clank is so awesome, he got me thinking about some other great �and not so great �sidekicks in video gam?es.

No one likes a useless sidekick

The most classic example is Ashley from Resident Evil 4, and one of the most tedious, awful escort missions in the history of gaming. I haven't played any of the Resident Evil games because I'm too much of a wimp, and even I know about this trainwreck. Players have used Ashley as the prime example of annoying sidekick characters and escort missions for years now, to the point that her name is evoked at game studios when discussing what not to do. She's whiny, she gets in the way, and requires help to do basic tasks like using a ladder, which then triggers a long a?nimation you have to wait through.

Ashley is less of a sidekick and more of a walking em??bodiment of frustrating game mechanics. Having another character around to bounce off of both narratively and in gameplay can be a huge asset, b?ut when buddy AI is bad, it's really, really bad.

Then we have characters like Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite or Ellie from The Last of Us, who feel like direct answers to the ??Ashleys of the world. They don't get in the way, they help you out in combat and restock your ammo, and they play a big part in the story as well-written, complex characters. Ellie still needs help crossing any body of water because she can't swim, but I find that small annoyance pretty forgivable considering she's one of the best video game characters of all time.

The best of the best

Luigi is another character who always makes the best sidekicks lists, which isn't surprising considering he was pretty much the first famous sidekick out there. He's so iconic he even graduated to the main character of his own games, which ?is more than most other characters on this list.

Then there are?? the characters like Navi, Cortana, or Ghost who serve as a utility as well as side characters, whic?h is a pretty good way to do things when you want the player to have ultimate freedom, but still convey important information to them in an interesting way.

B-12 from the recent release Stray is another great example of a sidekick character who is super helpful in gameplay, but also adds a ton to the narrative. Plus, even sidekicks like these that don't get a ton of screen time are still b??eloved by fans because they're well-written (maybe with the exception of Navi on this one) and add to the game's overall narrative experience.

With single-player games seemingly on the decline these days, the sidekicks are fewer and further between, so this is my plea for developers to put more adorable, funny, interesting side characters in our games. In the past, they may have hurt the experience more than they've helped ?it, but the more recent sidekicks have come away being one of the best parts of their respective game's experience. Just gimme a little buddy, and I'll be happy.

Who is your favorite video game sidekick?

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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New episodes of the making-the-band series will debut weekly

If you dig pop songs and narrative adventures, We Are OFK might just be crafting a mix for you. Indie-pop interactive series We Are OFK debuts with its first two episodes on August 18, 2??022.

The ?biopic series follows the members of OFK, a virtual band looking for their big break in the Los Angeles music scene. The interactive animated series takes place over five episodes, with five interactive music videos?? that double as tracks performed by OFK.

Team OFK, the developers behind ?the project, includes some multifaceted talent from the gaming, TV, music, and film industries.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu2iKC4fVDs

In essence, it's kind of like an interactive Gorrilaz or Josie & The Pussycats narrative adventure. Episodes will have fully-vo?iced dialogue and texting interfaces for long-range c?hats. It also looks like it will have some drama, as these 20-somethings try to make it big while also dealing with heartbreak, music-making, and paying the rent.

?The first two episodes debut on August 18, while new episodes premiere weekly afterward on August 25, September 1, and September 8. The season will ultimately be five episodes lo?ng.

Spin the record

For collectors, We Are OFK is also getting a couple special physical goodies. One that makes perfect sense is a 2x vinyl, which includes OFK's singles, art prints, and some special a?coustic tracks. Those acoustic versions can only be heard on the vinyl.

There's also a physical version planned for the Nintendo Switch and PS5 versions of We Are OFK, which includes all five chapters and a papercraft version of Debug the cat. I guess Stray is no longer the only cat game on the market.

Both versions arrive via iam8bit, and are currently up for order on the iam8bit site.

We Are OFK premieres on Nintendo Switch, P??S4, PS5, and PC via both Steam and Epic on August 18.

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It's a free upgrade for those who already own it

2017 was a stellar year for video games. So many excellent titles launched that you might have even let some slip you by. And if What Remains of Edith Finch is one of you, th?ere's some good news: this emotional story is out now on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X??|S.

Revealed as part of today's Annapurna Interactive summer showcase, What Remains of Edith Finch got a next-gen update today, bringing Giant Sparrow's adventure game?? to the new console hardware. It arrives with 4K and 60 FPS support. And what's more, owners of the game on Xbox One or PlayStation 4 can upgrade to the newer generation versions for ??free.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKpcpwM5onA

Otherwise, the game is available on the Xbox store and PlayStation Store. (It is ??????????????????????????al??so on Game Pass, at the time of this writing.)

What's left of those who came before

If you need a pitch on Edith Finch, it's a narrati?ve adventure game where you play as the titular heroine Edith. The Finches are a superstitious family, governed in part by one constant rule: every member of the family has their own room. And the house the Finches live in just keeps growing, up and up.

As you enter new areas and learn more about the Finches who came before, trying to discover why Edith is the last Finch alive, you also learn about your family members. Each area is a new vignette, often with its own mechanic and narrat?ive device, exploring what happened to them and why. And also, maybe a little bit about their life.

It is a sublimely beautiful game about life, legacy, family, death, mourning, and a really, really big house. As we covered five years ago and still today, What Remains of Edith Finch is very worth your tim?e. And those rooms will likely look even better wit?h all that hardware bolstering them.

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FLUX arrives on Erlin's Eye in July

Sci-fi narrative adventure Citizen Sleeper is getting more content, starting this month. FLUX, the first of three free DLC episodes for Citizen Sleeper, launches on July 28, 2022.

FLUX is one of three upcoming updates, and centers on tensions around a refugee ship bound for Erlin's Eye, the station on which Citizen Sleeper takes place. All three of Citizen Sleeper's new episodes expand on the wider narrative of the Helion System, where t?he Eye is located.

The FLUX storyline will introduce new?? characters at the heart of its story. Eshe is the stubborn captain of the Climbing Briar,?? tangled up with the flotilla. Peake, their second-in-command, will also play a role in a story about getting relief through quarantine.

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

The current roadmap for post-launch rollout has FLUX landing in July, while a second update is tentatively scheduled for Oc?tober. More is further out, likely into next year.

No time for nodding off, Sleeper

If you're unfamiliar, Citizen Sleeper is a tabletop-inspired role-playing adventure that released earlier this year for PC, Mac, Switch, and Xbox. It follows a Sleep??er, which is an artificial body and consciousness essentially copied over from another person for labor.

As the Sleeper, you're on the run from a corporation and find yourself on Erlin's Eye, a station filled with wayward souls and outcasts on the fringe of occupied space. Much of the game is about surviving day to day, trying ?to maintain a failing body while figuring out what to do next, and how.

It's an extremely captivating experience that I haven't been able to get out of my head since I reviewed it. It's a wonderful mix of storytelling, tension, and tabletop mec??hanics. So it's safe to say I'm interested in what Jump Over The Age and Fellow Traveller are doing with these follow-up episodes.

The first Citizen Sleeper DLC episode, FLUX, goes live for free on all platforms on July 28.

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You could go without them... but why would you?

Audio diaries �you'll find these little nuggets of storytelling scattered all over a game's world, taking the form of whatever diegetic theming fits best into the narrative. They can be called voxophones, audiographs, audio logs, or straight-up tape recorders, but it's always the same experience. You walk up to an object, interact with it, and you can h??ear characters talking to themselves, other characters, or even directly to the player themselves. We're going to call them audio diaries for simplic?ity's sake.

It's one of those mechanics that's in almost every single third- or first-person action game that has any semblance of narrative, and based on who I've talked to about ??audio diaries, they're a pretty polarizing mechanic at that. Some people I talk to hate them because they don't want to have to go out of their way to get story content and then spend extra time listening to it, while for others, hunting down all of the audio diaries and piecing together the stories they te??ll can be one of the most enjoyable parts of the game.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=usj21KlUVcQ

Where it all started

I'm ?somewhere in the middle, I think. It can depend on what the stories are that the diaries are actually telling me, and how difficult it i?s to find them in the game world.

It's kind of ironic that I think the series that does audio diaries the best is BioShock, because while it wasn't the first game to include them, it was certainly the game that popularized them and set the standard for how they're included in many games today. Yet another reason why BioShock is one of the most influential games ever made, especially when it come??s to interactive storytelling.

Before BioShock premiered the classic audio diary setup to the world, other early examples included games like Carmine, Lunar, and Chrono, wherein the story content took the form of video logs. System Shock 2, Doom 3, the Fatal Frame series, and the original Metal Gear also included variou??s types of rudimentary audio diaries.

The importance and challenge of player autonomy

One of the most challenging things about creating interactive narratives is that while you want to let the player experience a game however they want, you still want to maintain the order of story conventions to a certain extent. For sto??ries that lean more heavily on the side of linearity, it can be especi??ally difficult to create a game that tells that narrative while not taking too much autonomy away from the player. Hence the genius of audio diaries �it's non-linearity baked into a linear story.

When an audio diary is pla?ying, the player doesn't have anything in particular they need to look at, or any one place they need to remain in for the diary to be heard. That means that placing d??iaries in locations where players already have some less intense, but still crucial, tasks to do �like exploring, scavenging for supplies, or solving simple puzzles �is kind of a perfect option. Then the player is getting some fun story content on top of the other stuff they were already doing. It's kind of like listening to a podcast or audiobook while you're cleaning your house.

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

Of course, there are potential problems with this setup. When players have complete control, they might walk into an unski??ppable cutscene or scripted section while an audio diary is playing �or similarly, the audio diary might be playing over some important dialogue from a nearby NPC. Thankfully more recent games will give you the option to replay diaries in the menus, but it's still annoying to have an immersive in-game?? story moment interrupted by something you weren't aware was going to happen.

What I think is especially interesting, though, is that writers and narrative designers have to create audio diaries with the assumption that a good portion of players won't listen to them at all. This isn't a big deal with one-off diaries meant to fill out the world, but when you ?have multiple diaries that tell the perspective of a prominent side character, they have to be designed so that they can make sense individually or with one or two missing, while also creating a cohesive story across multiple entries.

Filling out the world

Most games that implement audio ?diaries as a mechanic tel?l great stories even if the player doesn't find a single one, but games that use audio diaries the best are the ones that leave you walking away glad you tracked them all down, because the world feels so much more full after having listened to them. Combined with the fact that they're super easy to listen to, they're pretty much the best way to give players lore without just dumping everything into a codex (sorry codex lovers, but it ain't for me).

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNm4lGQMiKA

Audio diaries are also a great way for side characters to shine when we may not be spending a whole of time with them. Some of the best monologues and character bits in games like Deathloop or the Borderlands series actually come from obscure audio diaries, and while it's a shame tha?t some players will miss out on those moments, it makes it all the more special that you have to go out of your way to find them.

Whether you tend to skip audio diaries, or if you go out of your wa??y to find every single one of them, you can't deny the impact that this single mechanic has had on interactive storytelling. Personally, I'm always going to go out of my way, but I guess the beauty is that everyone gets to experience a game's story exactly how they want.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

The post The unseen stor??y: audio diaries in video game narratives appeared first on Destructoid.

Little mouse, big adventures

The Spirit and the Mouse is an upcoming narrative ?puzzle platformer from Alblune Games, an indie team made up of two developers, Lucie Lescuyer and Alex Strook. Players will take on the role of a mouse named Lila who lives in a quaint French village, making friends with little electric spirit friends and helping out the local townspeople.

The game's trailer shows off the cozy setting, some of the characters that we'll meet, and of course, some gameplay segments of Lila running along rooftops and using electricity powers. The Spirit and the Mouse looks l??ike one of those games that gives you plenty to do, but lets you go at your own ?pace and chill out, which is a perfect combination in my eyes.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5jpnShiiLs

I'l??l be interested to see what kind of narrative they have going on too, because we didn't get to see a lot of that from the trailer, but I have a feeling it's going to make me feel all warm and fuzzy (and not just because of the electricity). Another highlight from the trailer for me is definitely the music �I love an upbeat, jazzy score, so this might turn out to be one of those game soundtracks I have on a loo??p for a while.

I also never would have guessed just from looking at it that The Spirit and the Mouse was made by only two people. It looks great and well-polished �we'll have to see what it's like in practice when it comes out later this year. Alblune promises a wholesome, heartwarming experience with this one, and based on vibes alone, The Spirit and the Mouse feels like it might be in the same vein as the highly-anticipated Stray. Either way, we're always in need of mor??e uplifting games out there.

The Spirit and the Mouse is set to electrify us sometime in 2022 on PC and Nintendo Swi?tch, and a demo is available to play righ??t now on Steam.

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Where is my camera?

One of the most compelling things a game can do in my eyes is have a clear artistic vision and go balls-to-the-wall in order to execute it. American Arcadia is one of those games. From the very first trailer I saw, I knew it was going to be one of those titles that delivers on aesthetic and concept, which can either be spectacular, or flop on its face. After playing a preview of American Arcadia for the Tribeca Games Fest, I have a feeling? it will be leaning toward the former.

Sometimes a game can bite off more than it can chew with a bunch of different elements �more complexity isn't always better. There's certainly much more game than what I got to play of American Arcadia, but from what I did get to see, it looks like a really fun balance of diffe??rent styles of art and gameplay. It's got a little bit of retro-future '70s f?lair, a little bit of voyeuristic, capitalist dread, some platforming, some puzzles, some snarky dialogue �and yet somehow, it all works together.

Premise is everything

The story follows Trevor, a man who thinks he's living a normal life, but it turns out he and all of the other citizens of Arcadia are being broadcast live 24/7. Sound familiar? It's inspired by The Truman Show, but actually gives the concept an interesting new twist instead of resting on its laurels. That's one of my favorite movies, so seeing a game take the conceit and run with it is reall?y cool as a fan.

The twist is that a hacker on the outside, Angela, has taken an interest in Trevor, and wants to help him escape. American Arcadia's story cuts between the two characters as they try t??o navigate the escape, with Angela using the camera ?feeds and controls to clear the way for Trevor to get the hell out of dodge.

Let's talk gameplay

Trevor's portion of the game has 2.5D side-scr?olling gameplay with platforming, chases, and puzzles, while Angela's perspective is first-person with exploration, stealth, and hacking. At first I thought that these two halves of the game would feel too disparate and detached from one ?another, but like I said, from the section of the game that I played, they actually seem to balance each other out quite nicely.

To be frank, none of the gameplay elements seem to really be reinventing the wheel here, but the real magic comes from how all of the different pieces and sequences fit together to create the overall experience. There's a certain lack of control in Trevor's section t??hat you don't really notice until you play as Angela, and that makes for some pretty powerful stuff.

Aesthetic, color, and theme

Art style is more important to me than I care to admit when it comes to games, and American Arcadia has one of the prettiest aesthetics I've seen in a while. It's a visual feast that knocks its retro-future '70s visuals right out of the park. Walking through the office building that Trevor works in was something out of a groovy capitalistic fever dream, and I love it �never in my life did I ever think I would see a conversation pit for cubicles. What a fun, campy detail tha??t a?ctually demonstrates these characters' relationships to their work, and if that's any indication of what the rest of the game is going to be like, I think we're in for a treat.

What I think is most impressive about American Arcadia and its use of so many different elements is how well it uses its dual protagonist/dual gameplay styles to? reflect on the story's main themes. We don't get to see the world through Trevor's eyes (at least as far as we know at this point), but instead through the voyeuristic perspective that others have been seeing him through his entire life.

While Angela is trying to get Trevor to a place where he will have his own autonomy, she is sti?ll controlling everything he does in order to get him there. This game raises a lot of interesting questions just on premise alone, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how they address those plot elements in the full experience. Just as how the contrasting perspectives make for some compelling gameplay, they also make for a compelling story as well.

It's on the wish list, for sure

As a narrative-lover, American Arcadia is at the very top of my list of games to look forward to. Out of the Blue Games knows how to deliver on style, as we've seen with their first release Call of the Sea, so I have nothing but confidence that Arcadia will be one of the most enjoyable and refreshing interactive narrative experiences? of the next ?few years.

The game ?doesn't have a release window yet, but we do know ??it's getting a release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC thanks to publisher Raw Fury. For now, this is one I'll just have to be patient for.

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Character-driven story with a supernatural twist

Since I played it back in 2018, Oxenfree has been one of my favorite games. It's one of those stories that's character-focused on top of everything else it has going for it, like a gorgeous art style, amazing VO performances, and one of the best implementations of a dialogue system in a game I've ever seen. I even found the gameplay, which mostly involves walking and climbing around Edwards Island, to be really engaging, mostly because of the conversations the characters had. For me, it captures the coming-of-age magic that something like Stranger Things season one had, and it's one o??f the best narrative games of the last decade.

As one would expect, I'm pretty stoked for the sequel. I had been following any news surrounding Oxenfree II: Lost Signals since it was announced last year, and during the Tribeca Games Fest, I was fortunate enough to play a?? preview of the upcoming title. I am pleased to report back that this ??experience has only increased my hype for the release.

If it ain't broke...

Here's the thing �the team at Night School knows what made Oxenfree work the first? time, and they're not straying too far from that. The focus on "walk-and-talk" gameplay is still there, the climbing-through-creepy-caves exploration is definitely still there, and you're still gonna use the radio to check out some creepy ghost signals, etc.

That's not to say the games will be exactly the same �on the contrary, the story focuses on Riley, who is in her 30s, as opposed to the teenage characters of the first game. Now there are tears in the space-time continuum that players will enter and explore, and there's a whole new group of antagonists who are a more active part of the story than in the first game. Basically, they've kept the heart of Oxenfree as they move forward in the series, but the entire scope of Oxenfree II has been blown up a bit.

And I respect the hell out of that choice. Sequels can be so hit or miss regardless of the medium they are, but the key to a good sequel is an understanding of why people were drawn to the original in the first place. Even with little context of who the characters were and what they were doing when I dropped into the preview, everything felt so quintessentially Oxenfree that I knew the overall experience was going to gi??ve me exactly what I'm as?king for.

//youtu.be/pv82YytSYCY?t=2995

Characters first

While you play as Riley, the aforementioned 30-something who is quick-witted, pragmatic, and self-assured, her old friend from high school, Jacob, is also along for the ride. There's an innocence to him that I found really charming even from a short bit of gameplay, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how his character fully develops over the course of Oxenfree II. He's a lot more laid back and plays off of Riley's character nicely, but it never feels like we're rehashing any of the relationship dynamics from th?e first game. It's yet another area of the game that feels familiar, yet still entirely new and intriguing to explore.

That shiny new feeling ?also extends to a large piece of the story: the supernatural phenomena that plague the island. In the first ??game, you only got to briefly interact with people from the past who were harmed by what had happened at this place, but now, players will be actually going back in time and seeing it for themselves.

The devs also let on that in the same way that Riley and Jacob can enter a previous timeline?, things from previous timelines can ??come into their present as well, and that they will have to deal with the repercussions of that.

Unanswered questions

Something else I'll be looking forward to is seeing how Lost Signals' story ties into the first game. During the Tribeca Games Showcase, Night School's lead writer Adam Hines actually let on that Jacob has a connection to Maggie Adler, the woman who lived on Edwards Island and who helped kick off the events of the first game. Of course, there's also the possibility that Riley and Jacob will get close to figuring out what exactly is causing all of these strange, supernatural occurrences, which is a mystery I think many of us would love to see solved in Oxenfree II.

My only reservation is that the devs might play it a little too safe by relying on the precedent of the first game, but that's much more of a hypothetical than it is based on anything I've seen of the game so far. I've been sorely disappointed by sequels in the past, so I'm trying to stay realistic here, but honestly, everything I've seen of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals only reinforces its place at the top ?of my "most anticipated games" list. Of all the games on the do?cket this year, I think I'm looking forward to this one the most.

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Venture into the unknown

If there's one thing I love, it's a narrative adventure game, and I'm in luck with Starward Industries' upcoming title The Invincible. Based on the 1964 Polish novel of the same name, Stanisław Lem's work of hard sci-fi was at the forefront of commentary on microrobots and swarm intelligence. It's giving Firewatch meets Annihilation vibes, an??d t?hat makes for a pretty cool video game premise if you ask me.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=13nRHDoUz6s

The game was announced last year, but this is the first time we've gotten a good look at some gameplay -- what we saw today at the PC Gaming Showcase was an early beta build of the game. We saw scientist Yasna as she navigates an unknown planet in an attempt to recover the equipment from a previous expedition, and of course, things don't quite go according to plan. This looks like a really chilling, grounded narrative experience, and this short gameplay clip alone is enough to send The Invincible to the top of my list of most anticipated games.

The Invincible will be coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X someti??me in 2022.

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Don't make a bloody mess

Ambitious, brooding, stylish, and messy, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong ?feels right at home with the eternal unde?ad it follows.

It takes the narrative adventure style, mixes it with tabletop RPG and some pen-and-paper puzzle solving, and comes away with something fresh. It just also stumbles a few? times on its way there.

The Vampire brand has been slowly upping its presence in video games over the past few years. Alongside the slew of visual novels and a nebulous in-development Bloodlines sequel, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is an interesting new entrant. When it shines, it r??eally feels l??ike the better parts of playing a tabletop campaign. It's the stutters in-between that cause the most trouble.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=d76hfJVVvYA

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong (PC [played], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Big Bad Wolf
Publisher: Nacon
Released: May 18, 2022
MSRP: $49.99 on PC, $59.99 on console

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong follows three different vampires—Galeb, Emem, and Leysha—hailing from three different clans but all falling under the thumb of the Boston Camarilla and its upstart Prince Hazel Iversen. An attempted reunification party meant to consolidate Hazel's power became a bloodbath, and so she disperses the three protagonists on different quests to ascertain who has attacked them, why, and whether another strike is im??minent.

It's a good kickstart to the plot, and I enjoy the moments where Swansong leans heavily into the lore of Vampire: The Masquerade. There's a lot of internal politicking and ?posturing, as internal disputes within the Boston Camarilla spill over. It doesn't hurt if you don't know the difference between a Toreador and a Nosferatu, and a Codex is available to handle more esoteric concepts like the Beckoning.

Swansong also hands you some generally straightforward vampires to play. Galeb, the Ventrue, is a dominating presence as one of the older souls still in Boston; the tension between managing his legacy a??nd leaving for distant shores was a highlight for me. Emem Louis is younger, a fast and charismatic Toreador who finds hers??elf caught up in the politics of the court.

Leysha, the Malkavian among the bunch, has the most interesting gameplay mechanics. She can obfuscate her appearance and even change outfits, making some of her sequences feel like the recent Hitman trilogy. She also ??struggles with visions and premonitions, and possibly hallucinations. Her story can feel a bit fraught at times, though it ultimately hit a solid resolution (with my decisions, at least).

As each one gets wrapped up in the fallout of the party, they have to infiltrate operations and interrogate others to get information. Part of this involves traditional adventure game exploration. Developer Big Bad Wolf's previous project, The Council, had a sim?ilar basis of adventure game exploration and discovery.

Talk it out

Swansong also pulls a similar twist with its confrontations, where major decision points play out as debates between two charac??ters. Throughout each level, the player has to manage two resource meters: their willpower, used to employ reasoning, and their hunger, which grows as they invoke vampiric powers.

These come to a head in confrontations, which pit you against another NPC in a pretty engaging duel of wits and reason. I wa??s often forced to ascertain how certain characters might respond to certain attempts, metering out my willpower left. Do I spend a lot of willpower to employ some Rhetoric, in hopes it wins me this round and gets me closer to the goal? Or do I intentionally fail this point, saving my resources for later?

It seems like a lot the first few times it happens, though ultimately confrontations are simple: make it through the conversation and win the final point, ??w?ithout "missing" too many times and failing. Failure is usually soft anyways, usually cutting off one of several points of progression or incurring a physical change in a character. But it feels good to just barely eke out a battle of the minds.

I just wish the dialogue interactions outside these battles felt a bit more rewarding. Once in a blue moon, I'd get a piece of info that I could use. In a few cases, they opened up a new route forward. Largely, I felt like spending willpower on basic dialogue didn't reward me enough to keep doing so. Exploration and discovering hard clues, like a letter in someone's safe or an SD card from a camera, often elici?ted more tangible rewards.

There's a lot of exploring to do too, as Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong's puzzles can get in-depth. The best ones heavily lean on the "get out a pad and ?pen" style; I've got a notebook full of scribbled passwords, number sequences, and even a cipher. I'm someone who enjoys that stuff, and in a few cases, they really resulted in some tense sequences. A few of the final puzzles in Swansong really got my heart racing, as I had to make fast deductions and quick logical leaps to avoid terrible outcomes.

A few others are a bit more obtuse, especially in the breadcrumb hints they give. Getting a "completionist" run in your first go will feel a bit arduous, and while I enjoyed the more standard puzzles, some involving navigating the area just felt annoying to poke away at. It felt better organizing my thoughts and solving r??iddles, rather than trying to ascertain how to use preset jumps to get from point A to point B.

Character models look nice in still images, though once they get moving, they have a bit of an unnatural look in some dialogue scenes. The navigation in general can feel a bit stiff too, and it's also where I encountered a fair deal of bugs. Sometimes my character would get hitched on a stair wrong, or it would take a deal of time to accurately l??and my cursor on the marker I was aiming for. Controller suffers the most from? this, though the mouse-and-keyboard had some awkward moments too.

Camera angles got misaligned in a few conversations, characters would clip into walls or sit on air. In general, there were a decent number of "oh, that's weird" moments. It never felt game-breaking, but Swansong is noticeably janky at times. One sequence in particular brought all those issues ??together though: a stealth mission that really felt out-of-place and genuinely unenjoyable. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief once ??I knew I was done with it, and have no desire to go back and replay that part in particular.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong does feel like a game that encourages r??eplaying though, if only to see different permutations of the ending. There are definitely a few major branching points, where a chara??cter could end up in a very different epilogue or even prematurely meet their Final Death. I don't know that I'm keen to explore them personally, but a few choices did really tug at my heart, and I found myself caring about the fates of the protagonists a good bit by the time credits rolled.

It's an un-living

Swansong really feels like it tries to capture the better parts of Vampire: The Masquerade's tabletop roots. The segmented structu??re, level-over-le?vel progression in stats like Education and Technology, and many alternative methods for advancing the story can make it feel like a good, short campaign. I clocked about 20 hours, which felt like just the right length, even as the ending chapters rapidly leapt between the three protagonists as their narrative arcs closed.

When it's leaning heavily into logic puzzles, mystery, deduction, and sleuthing, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong sings. It's the janky issues, rough exploration puzzles, and a few odd choices that prevent Swansong from being a showstopper.

If you're heavily interested in a vampire-fueled mystery game with some good "a-ha" moments, Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong can deliver. It'll falter and miss some notes here and there, but it does at least sate my thirst for so??me vampire storytelling fo?r now.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Telling stories through the dishes we love

Food. It's one of the most quintessential parts of being alive, so it only makes sense t?hat we would find a?? way to include it in a medium like video games that often tries to replicate real life.

Ever since the early days of gaming, food has been a way to get health or energy back. The first thing that comes to mind when I think about video game food has to be the meat you find in the walls of a spooky castle in Castlevania, or the hilariously anachronistic gyro and fries you can pick up in Hades. It's something that can seem really silly on the face of it, and the way we use?? food for health in video games has been memed and parodied to death. Admittedly, it is very funny to imagine your character in a game s?topping in the middle of a scuffle to shove fourteen wheels of cheese into their face before diving back into the fight.

But when you think about it, is there any other analogy that works better? I don't think so. Food is our fuel, it's what gives us? energy to do the things we ??need to do �a simple, given fact of life that is still somehow easy for me to forget on an almost daily basis.

Cooking is the name of the game

[caption id="attachment_256206" align="alignnone" width="1280"] _{Cooking Mama: Cookstar.}[/caption]

While food remains an important mechanic to most games out there, we also have games that place their entire focus on food. Take the classic and beloved Cooking Mama series for example �there's literally nothing else to do in those games except make food. You'd think it would get too repetitive or boring after a while, but Mama always finds new ways to keep it just as interesting and ch?allenging as trying to make food in real life.

As someone who has had varied success on their journey to learn new recipes and make nutritious-enough food so as not to drop dead one day as an adult fending for myself, it's interesting to have games that turn what is usually a struggle for me into an enjoyable gameplay loop. Although, any Cooking Mama connoisseur? can attest that the game can be equally as challenging, so maybe it's a little too true to life there.

Tell me a story...with food

[caption id="attachment_321519" align="alignnone" width="1280"] _{The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.}[/caption]

My absolute favorite, though, is when games use food as a storytelling mechanic. This is less common than just using food as a health supplement, but we still see it fairly often in games. One of my favorites includes Stardew Valley, where food becomes the center of multiple holidays in the game, and is also a core way to "get to know" your favorite villagers and endear them to you.

Another game that comes to mind is Breath of the Wild. Some of the adventur?es I go?????????????????????????? on in that game have nothing to do with saving Hyrule, but instead finding the ingredients I need to make the perfect, most delicious-sounding meal. There are even quests that involve bringing someone food they like, or gathering ingredients for a favorite recipe.

These stories may seem small up against the epic, heroic backdrop of saving the world, but I think they reflect on o?ur humanity in a really sweet way. I'm sure there are tons of other games out there that have equally engaging storylines surrounding food, I just need to search them out. Food is in many ways at the heart of how we interact with each other and the world, so having characters interact and bond over food reminds me of how special those interactions can be in real life.

Venba: a story of food and family

[caption id="attachment_321582" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _Venba.[/caption]

That's what gets me so excited for games like Venba, an upcoming narrative cooking game that is being featured at this year's Tribeca Games Festival. It centers on an Indian mother who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s, and "will cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations and explore in this story about family, love, loss and more," according to the game's website.

The cooking gameplay makes it look like a spiritual successor to Cooking Mama in certain ways, but the addition of the narrative in parallel with that cooking mechanic is what has me the most excited about Venba.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about Indian culture, but what I do know is that food is a very important factor. I'm not only looking forward to playing Venba, but also learning more about food from another culture, and how that food ties into the family dynamics of first-generation immigrants. Of all the games coming to Tribeca this year, I think it's safe to say that Venba will be one to look out for.

If the goal of telling stories is to help us all connect and understand what it means to be human, food is a natural extension of that. It will always be fun to consume foods in-game to replenish health or receive a buff, but I love the idea of highlighting o??ur relationship to food within game stories, rather than always using it as a means to an end. We have some great games out there that incorporate food into their narratives, but I'm looking forward to seeing more food-centric stories in games.

Story Beat is a weekly column discussing anything and everything to do with storytelling in video games.

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How do you improve on perfection?

Where do I even begin with this? You can't review The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe like a normal game �no, not even close. Sure, you can call it an open-ended walking sim with multiple endings, but while that may be true, it doesn't even come close to doing the experience of playing it justice. The Stanley Parable is what every other video game that claims to be art should aspire to, bec??ause it is able to so effectively convey its thesis while at the same time entertaining you to al??l hell.

Nine years ago, we reviewed The Stanley Parable when it originally came out, and James Stephanie Sterling's sentiment was that to give anything away was to ruin the game's whole appeal, and the same goes for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. So much of what makes this game special is the surprise and the discovery of it all, so in order to maintain the spirit of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, all I can tell you is that this is a must-pla??y. Not just as one of the best games of the year, mind you, but as one of the best games period.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Crows Crows Crows
Publisher: Crows Crows Crows
Released: April 27, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

I've written pages and pages of notes trying to piece this review together, trying my best to convey why I think this game truly is genius (a word I use sparingly in any part of my life, let alone when discussing video games). I like to think I'm a tough critic, especially when it comes to narrative games, but The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has a way ??of immediately?? disarming me every time I boot it up.

For all of its commentary and cynicism, at its heart, it has so much charm, and so much love for the medium it's so dedicated to deconstructing. With any other game, I have to stop and pick apart every little mechanic or how it feels to play or how the UI looks, but at risk of sounding hyperbolic, speaking about The Stanley Parable in that way would feel sacrilegious.

When you're in the business of thinking about thinking about and writing about thinking about video games, there's nothing more refreshing than a game that just takes you on a journey, and The Stanley Parable does just that. There's never a moment where you're hoping the game is going to present you with something engaging �it just does it, it does so masterfully, and it escalates to places you weren't expecting, but you're so glad it did. I will say that if this kind of game isn't your thing, you're not going to enjoy it because the Ultra Deluxe content leans even harder into absurdism. But if you're willing to let go of any preconceived notions of what a game is supposed to be and roll wit??h it, you're going to have an amazing time.

The new content

I hate talking about it in these terms, but fine: if you're worried about getting your money's worth, don't worry,? you're more than doubling the original game's run time. If you're talking about quality, well, the new deluxe content kind of just makes me want to throw my hands up and be like, "I don't know what you want me to say." It does exactly what it needs to do. It's hilarious and self-aware and dripping with ir?ony, all while still having whip-smart writing that makes me happy to sit back and soak it all in for a while because it's just that good.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is The Stanley Parable for a new era, for 2022. If the original was a commentary on game design and the way players think about autonomy and choice in video games, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe's extra content is a commentary on game reviews, online commentary, sequels, and hype in the?? industry �and it does so with the same level of wit and sarcasm that you'd expect.

A game for the modern era

The whole experience reminded me a lot of Bo Burnham's Inside. Love it or hate it, that special captured exactly what it felt like to exist in the first year of the pandemic specifically, in a way that I think will act as a sort of time capsule for future generations. The new content of The Stanley Parable's deluxe edition has this same type of specificity �if you want to know what it feels like to be a game developer, journalist, or really anyone who works in games in 2022, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has you covered.

Another review-y topic that I actually did want to touch on is the game's accessibility �something the devs put a lot of thought into this time around. There are all kinds of new settings to accommodate all kinds of?? players, like more options for subtitles and improved in-game textures that feature text, new control schemes, such as one that allows players to go through the game playing entirely with one hand, and even content warnings for some of the game's more intense moments. You can tell that Crows Crows Crows put a lot ??of effort into making sure all players can enjoy the experience, and I have to give them kudos for that.

What are you still doing here? Just go and play it!

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe might joke about overly aggrandizing reviews, but it's one of the few games that's actually deserving of one. For all its smugness, I'd love to sit here and tell you that The Stanley Parable is pretentious and fu?ll of shit, but it earns every right to its pretension. And I for one and so glad I'm here to see it. There's a reason it's consid??ered one of the best games of all time.

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Blink and you'll miss it

It's the first day of December, and all through the blog, the writers of Destructoid are clearing their backlog. So in my efforts to catch up with some missed notables in the run-up to award season, I decided to boot up indie narrative Before Your Eyes last night. And frankly, it's re??ally taken ahold of me.

If you haven't heard of Before Your Eyes, it's a narrative adventure from GoodbyeWorld Games with a pretty interesting premise. Stepping into the head of someone else, you wa??tch through their eyes as you whisk through their life. You are Benjamin, Benny, and you are reliv??ing Benny's life.

Going back through Benny's memories, you reli??ve all of it through his eyes. From birth to death, you see it all in a first-person view. Even, at times, making choices. And sometimes those choices are whether or not you blink.

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

The crux of the experience is that you play Before Your Eyes with a webcam plugged? in. Using eye-detection software, the game will recognize when you've blinked. Sometimes, that's how you select options or advance through a scene. Sometimes, it's how you leave one momen??t in time—potentially forever.

You might be starting to get the idea now. Benny's life is not an easy one, and you sit in the driver's seat as he goes through family drama, g??rowing pains, and difficult moments in life. To say more is?? to spoil more, and for a game that will take just about 90 minutes to see through, it's really best to just go in as unaware as possible.

Because really, Before Your Eyes has become one of my big knockout surprises of the year. In the way that fellow indie game Unpacking—another on my backlog—touches on the tactile, Before Your Eyes hones in on the visual. And, by nature, the??? fleeting.

It was so easy, early on, to accidental??ly blink and skip through a major scene. Every time an advance is coming up, a metronome will appear, signaling that your next blink will take you further into Benny's life. It's a nice reminder that can, in some circumstances, become menacing. What if you don't want to leave? What if you want to stay here, in this moment? Better keep those eyes open.

Every once in a while, an indie project simply stuns with its execution on an idea. Games like Florence and Gorogoa take one concept, and then twist and turn that concept to tell a story that fits so well. And Before Your Eyes belongs in the same conversation. Th?e usage of eyes—blinking and staring and shutting—as a mechanical concept works incredibly well.

It's something we do that's so mechanical, it's automatic. We don't think about blinking, at least not until someone points it out to us. It flits by?, much like the little events in life. The notes we passed in history class, playing with a toy boat in a tub, listening to a loved one play a tune at the piano. Every little car trip, every little conversation, can all blink right by so mechanically. Even major life events punctuating the mundane are all, eventually, just blinks of your eye.

Before Your Eyes definitely has a few stutters. I had to recalibrate my eye tracking a few times, and its best experience requires a very specific setup. Needing a PC and a webcam to play isn't a??lways the easiest ask.

Yet if you have the capabilities, Before Your Eyes is an experience you absolutely need to undertake. At some points, I thought I knew what emotional strings it was going to pull on. But even when I was right, the wa??y in which it did so, and how it used the eye-tracking as part of it, worked so well that it still?? floored me.

In a year of some big games, Before Your Eyes is something you're not going to experience anywhere else. And it is, in my opinion, something you need to set aside an evening for. It's currently available on PC via Steam here.

The post Before Your Eyes is clever, ?heart-wrenching, and a must-pla??y appeared first on Destructoid.

New content and modding features arrive in this update

The World of Horror returns for more run-based frights. Panstasz's retro horror RPG World of Horror get??s a big update today with 'The Ceasel?ess Curse.'

If you haven't got around to it yet, World of Horror is a run-based horror RPG that mimics the style and interface of older systems. Its retro aesthetic melds with its horror, taking inspiration from the likes of Junji Ito. Stuck in the city of Shi??okawa, you have to solve local terrors that plague the town and fight evil as a greater cosmic horror inches ever closer, spelling out impending doom. It's a fun time!

After teasing some good news coming soon, developer panstasz has released the big update today, which adds a pretty hefty amount of content on all sides for World of Horror. A reworked City Planning feature will help players customize their game a bit more, and Challenges will test seasoned players of World of Horror, pushing them to deal with pre-selec?ted playthroughs with unique mechanics.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-RojolTesY

Two new mysteries arrive: a weird f??riend with a dark secret and an abandoned mansion filled with creepy paintings. Surely neither ??one will have any unforeseen horrors lying in wait, right? Two new characters also join the lineup, the Witch and the Ex-Cultist, bringing the roster up to 11 playable heroes. Plus a bevy of new events are arriving, the largest batch since the initial launch of Early Access, exploring characters' backstories and roles.

And to round it all off, modders get some new tools as well. Custom mysteries, created characters, and chained events and combat encou?nters are all available.

Basically, it's a huge update for a horror-themed RPG that's already caught our eye in the past. There's really not much else like World of Horror out there, and I'm happy to have another excuse to go back to it. The holidays might be the time for joy and cheer, but my festivities this year wi??ll also include another dangerous trip to the city of Shiokawa.

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Guess who's back, back again

The next Assassin's Creed will have one of its long-running writers back. Darby McDevitt has confirmed he's returning to the Assassin's Creed franchise.

First reported by VGC, McDevitt had left Ubisoft in March, saying he had decided to set forth on a new adventure. Now, it appears he'll be returning to Ubisoft to once again work on the Assassin's Creed series.

"It's true! As I pondered my career over the past year, I focused on my desire to explore new ideas and unknown frontiers," said McDevitt in a social media post. "Much to my delight, this is reflected in my return to Ubisoft to work on [Assassin's Creed]. I’m excited to continue my journey. Stay tuned!"

He also added that he has "never been more excited" about the places the Assassin's Creed team is going, and ??the stori??es he will get to tell with them.

//twitter.com/DarbyMcDevit??t/status/1459190353110708224

McDevitt has a sizeable number of Assassin's Creed credits on his resume, from Revelations up through 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla. The next Assassin's Creed project is reportedly set to be a live-service project of some kind. Ubisoft itself has formally announced it under a codename, Assassin's Creed Infinity, which is in development as a cross-studio, collaborative effort.

Ubisoft, meanwhile, has still been under scrutiny from its employees. A recent open petition was made public by current and former workers at the company, claiming that none of its demands had been met. These stem from lingering concerns and issues after several public allegations of a to?xic company cul??ture at the publisher. It also led to the departure of several Ubisoft executives.

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Back into the surreal

It's time to head back out to the diamond. Developer The Game Band has announced Blaseball: Short Circuits, a series of short, temporary universes in which it will explore some new features for Blaseball's future.

Blaseball, if you're unfamiliar, is a sort of surreal fantasy sports simulation where fans back their favorite teams and watch as they play a whole season of "baseball" in a week. I use air-quotations because Blaseball is all about bending the rules; in its first eras,?? teams saw players get incinerated, had to navigate the vast expanse of the universe, and fought a peanut god.

It all rules, and this video from People Make Games ?sums up the appeal quite well if you want a further div??e.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5t8DwnDE1k

In today's blog, The Game Band confirms that the next Blaseball era will launch in 2022, alongside its forthcoming mobile app. But as it works towards that goal, as well as making a more sustainable schedule, ethical monetization, and an approachable onboarding process, it's testi??ng a few things out.

That's where Blaseball: Short Circuits comes in. It's a series of short, low-stakes mini-series of "temporary universes." The idea is for each to be light on narrative and designed to test out some variations of the core Blaseball experience. The 24 teams of Blaseball will compete with new rosters in each universe, and at the end of each two-week period, that universe will end. (Don't worry, previo??us era's players are still fine...for now.)

The Game Band says it hopes to research how fans play Blaseball, as well as welcome in new fans and just enjoy some good ol' fashioned Blaseball action. The dates are subject to change, but the first Short Circuit is set to run Nov. 1 through 14. You can follow the action on the Blaseball site.

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A game based on the films is tip-toeing into 2022

Blockbuster horror film franchise A Quiet Place is branching into video games. Saber Interactive and iLLOGIKA announced today that they are putting together A Quiet Place video game based on the films.

The A Quiet Place game will be a single-player, story-driven adventure that will try to create the same suspense and drama of the motion pictures. Saber Interactive will be publishing, while iLLOGIKA—a Montreal-based studio with talent from the Rainbow Six and Far Cry series—will handle development, with help from EP1T0ME.

"The A Quiet Place video game will let fans experience the tension of the films with a level of immersion they’ve never felt before," said iLLOGIKA creative director Hervé Sliwa in a press release. "We’re excited to work with EP1T??0ME and to team up with Saber Interactive to share this unique vision of hope and horror with players everywhere in the future??."

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7cc5t7tv8

A Quiet Place is a film series with two entries so far, set in a post-apoca??lypse overrun by giant monsters. These monsters detect their prey through echolocation, so a big component of the drama and terror is characters trying not ??to make noise, and the pin-drop quiet during extremely tense moments. It's a setting I could see working really well for a horror video game.

Saber says we'll learn more about the A Quiet Place video game sometime before the year's out, and it's currently slated for a 2022 launch.

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