There are a lot of survival games out there, and it can be difficult to figure out which ones are worth putting your time and money into. If ??you’ve got a PlayStation 5 and want a new challenge to dive into, we’ve got you covered. 

But what makes a survival game? Generally speaking, if you begin with very little and have to work your way up by gathering and crafting, then it can likely be included as part of the survival genre. If you can?? build your own base and customize it to your own tastes, then even better. 

H?ere are ten survival games available to play on PlayStation 5 right now, and each of them is definitely worth checking ??out if you’re a fan of the genre. 

Minecraft

As far as survival games go, Minecraft is a classic. You enter a pixelated world and have to work your way up from nothing but your fists. Gather resources to build a shelter and food to fill your stomach, and then you can go exploring in the cave systems under your blocky feet. One of the major plus points to Minecraft is Creative Mode, allowing you infinite resources to build glorious cr?ea??tions. 

The best thing about Minecraft is that it’s the perfect ga?me to introduce a younger ??generation to the joy of survival games, with children everywhere loving the blocky world and everything in it. 

Rust

After waking up naked on the beach with a rock, you’re tasked with surviving on servers? filled with other players who are all only looking ou??t for themselves. You then need to gather (or steal, if you’re feeling brave) resources that will allow you to build shelters, all while avoiding the hostile wildlife such as bears and wolves who will attack you without a second thought. 

To top off the survival experience of Rust, all servers get reset on the final Thursday of each month. This means that all of your bases, ?and all of your progress, is removed, and once again, you find yourself naked on the sand with only a rock.  

Ark: Survival Evolved

Have ??you ever wanted to tame dinosaurs and don them in mecha suits that turn them into war machines to use in survival against other players??? Well, if that’s the case, then Ark: Survival Evolved might just be the survival game you’ve been looking for. You can play either single-player or multiplayer and form tribes with others on your server. 

It goes without saying that you begin your life in Ark: Survival Evolved with nothing, and you have to gather and craft your way up. Eventually, you can ta?me dinosaurs as mounts and take on mythical creatures. You can even ?build mobile bases on the backs of some of the larger prehistoric beasties, giving you the ultimate RV. 

Subnautica

Subnautica is unlike any other game on this list because you have ??no land to stand on. Well, aside from?? the giant ship that you get to explore as part of the story and two islands you’ll get to eventually. You’ll need to gather blueprints, resources, and food in order to survive in the middle of an alien sea, surrounded by absolutely giant and very hostile alien creatures. 

There are multiple modes that you can enable while playing Subnautica, wi??th Creative Mode disabling all d??????????????????????????epletable characteristics like health and thirst. On the other end of the spectrum, Hardcore Mode removes warnings of low oxygen levels and includes a gamer's worst fear �Permadeath. If you die, your save file will be gone forever. 

No Man’s Sky

No Man’s Sky got off to a rocky start when it was first released? back in 2016, but it’s become a beloved title in the survival genre thanks to multiple game-??changing updates. Now, it’s an example of everything a good survival game should be. 

As a humanoid ?explorer of the planets, you wake up on a random planet with a crashed spaceship and only a multitool to help you navigate the strange world. On the plus ?side, the multitool not only allows you to scan and gather resources but also acts as your first weapon if you encounter any alien creatures out to kill you. 

Grounded

Grounded is my personal idea of hell, and seems as though it took heavy inspiration from Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Shrunk down to the size of an ant and suddenly needing to survive in a world filled with giant insec?ts, you’ll gradually become more hungry and thirsty as time go?es on, having to gather resources and water to survive. 

What’s worse is that Spiders are considered an “apex predatorâ€?in the world of Grounded, and as an arachnophobe, having a giant spider chase you across the backyard while you’re starving and dying is not my idea of a fun time. With that said, Grounded does have an arachnophobia mode, and I guess your enjoyment of this will depend on how much b?ugs give you the ick. 

The Forest

If surviving against insects isn’t your idea of a good time, then how about surviving in a world filled with cannibals who not only want to kill you but also rip the flesh from your bones? The Forest is the predecessor to Sons of the Forest, and if you play through The Forest and find it enjoyable, I ??strongly suggest that?? you pick up the sequel as well. 

The best survival method for The Forest is to focus on building and exploring during the day, as ?the mutants with nefarious intentions come out in the dark of night. There’s a huge level of fear ?and anxiety that you’ll feel when playing through this one, but it’s also hugely satisfying to survive and get through the story. 

Pacific Drive

If you’re looking for a survival game with a bit of a four-wheeled twist, then Pacific Drive is d??efinitely the way to go. Using your trusty (if a little run-down) station wagon, you can drive across the map to scavenge and gather resources to imp??rove both your own chances of survival and the car itself. 

Your car is fully customizable, and you’ll need to focus on repairs and upgrades so that you can explore further and survive for longer. Anomalies around the map will affect you or the car in different ways, such a??s scrambling the controls for the car or inflicting damage, so be careful as you explore. 

This War of Mine

This War of Mine is the only survival game o?n this list that isn’t played through a first-person POV. Instead, you’re in control of a group of people who are hiding in a damaged house after fleeing from a war. They can’t venture outside in the daylight?, as there are snipers waiting to take them out, and you’re low on resources. 

Each controllable character has its own backstory, and you need to keep each of them alive as you wait for the ceasefire to come. However, there is no fixed timeframe for this event, so you’ll just need to keep going until it comes. This War of Mine is ha??unting and definitely something you should try if you’re into survival games. 

Green Hell

Green Hell can be played in either single-player or co-op multiplayer mode and?? is an open-world survival game set in the Amazon Rainforest. As you likely expect by now, you’ll need to gather resources, build shelter, and find food in order to survive. 

If you choose to follow the story, which is entirely op??tional, then you’ll go off in search of your wife, who went missing after venturing out on a solo trip to a local tribal village. Unfortunately, your only contact with her is through the radio, and the local Yabahuaca tribe has not taken kindly to the presence of researchers in their jungle.

The post 10 Best PS5 Survival games appeared first on Destructoid.

Early Access launches February 23

With the recent news that Sons of the Forest will, after many delays, finally releasing later this month, (as an Early Access title rather than a finished product), players can rest assured that the content currently planned for inclusion in the initial release is only the beginning. The development team over at Endnight have referred to Sons of the Forest as:

"t?he biggest most complex game we have ever made."

While there is a ton of content planned to roll out over time, as part of the new Early Access introduction, Endnight has been quick to clarify that the foundation has already been well established, and that the Early Access period is specifically intended as a means to incorporate community feedback in fine-tuning the game, and to allow them to create new additional content ??beyond the original intended scope. With that in mind, it’s worth recapping at least a few things we currently know will be part of the experience from day one.

[caption id="attachment_361451" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Endnight[/caption]

Raising the stakes for survival�/h3>

The survival mechanics that lay at the heart of The Forest have always provided a reasonable degree of challenge for even an organized team of players. Sons of the Forest intends to raise the bar further by forcing the player to confront not only what else may populate the environment, but also the elements themselves. With certain sources of food, water, medicine, and other supplies being specifically tied to certain seasons, players will have to carefully prepare for each presumably-long season ahead of time. The processes for storing and preserving food in the original game were fairly rudimentary, with the player being able to build a simple drying rack. However, the developers have intimated that Sons of the Forest will offer far more extensive mechanics regarding the preparation and long-term storage of food and ot??her necessities.

Trailer footage has previously shown the player manually erecting a lean-to tent using what appears to be a plastic sheet and a few sticks, as well as lighting a fire. A lot of emphasis has been placed on the dedicated animations associated with each action.?? Immersion has always been a strong element driving the gameplay, and the developers seem firmly intent on doubling ?down on what the first game experimented with.

[caption id="attachment_361453" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Endnight[/caption]

Hostile enemy spotted�/h3>

The Forest was praised for its complex approach to the AI behavior tree utilized by the NPC cannibals and mutants the player would come across in-game. The general principle underlying this was that, as the player becomes better-equipped and more aggressive throughout the world, the AI itself would retaliate by increasing the numb??er of patrols sent out to the player’s general area. This would escalate to the point where mutants, (aka espe??cially powerful monsters) would begin stalking the general area, making a beeline for the player upon making initial visible contact.

Sons of the Forest aims to feature an all-new cast of mutants for the player to encounter. It is not presently known for certain whether any old faces will be among the roster. Certain NPC types, such as the new cannibal variants, do bear obvious physical resemblances to those seen in The Forest, but? the exact details of those inferred connections presently remain unclear.

The post-credits scene at the end of The Forest strongly implied that the creatures we see now in Sons of The Forest were the direct result of exten?sive human bioweapon experimentation, just as those before. While the full capabilities of the new cannibals, and more importantly the new mutants, remain deliberately murky, there is more than enough reason already to keep your distance. The sight alone of some of these monstrosities i??s more than enough reason to run away at the soonest opportunity.

[caption id="attachment_298199" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Image via Endnight[/caption]

The right tools for the job�/h3>

Weapons were something that may have been in scarce supply in the original game, but Sons of the Forest seems set on? ensuring that you’ll always have access to some kind of military-gear weaponry when you need it. Previous trail??ers have shown the player wielding shotguns, pistols, and other weaponry. This presents an interesting dilemma to the core gameplay experience.

Previously, players would need to make quick and calculated decisions as to when it would be best to engage in combat directly, and when it would be best to run or sneak away instead. Playing aggressively might be satisfying for those seeking adventure, but it will quickly drain your supplies. Even a player who is decent at blocking incoming blows can easily find themselves overwhelmed by sheer numbers, or by the presence of a single mutant. The addition of such weaponry indicates that the enemies present in the game, particularly the mutants, will likely prove far more intelligent, and likely far stronger, than those previously seen in The Forest.

However, there will be more in the player’s inventory than just merely weapons. Shoveling seems to be one notable new chore. As if becoming the world’s most proficient lumberjack and spelunker wasn’t enough for you, it seems like now you’ll need to literally dig for the truth that lies at the center of this island’s mysteries. The game’s second trailer shows footage of the player uncovering what appears to be a secret underground bunker, buried underneath several feet of dirt. There is also evidence to believe that the player will now have access to some kind of tracking device, which will potentially also function similarly to the map and compass from the first game, allowing them to more readily investigate certain areas of the map and mark them for future visits. However, th?is could also double as a device by which the player can advance the story.

Piecing together the story...

The Forest more or less adopted a lean and mean attitude toward storytelling, preferring to leave most of it as optional bits of environmental evidence, or taking the form of certain collectables, such as video cassette tapes containing short clips. However, promotional footage shown to date indicates that traditional cutscenes will play a slightly greater role here than they had before, so if you aren't able to find every single piece of background lore, fear not, Sons of the Forest probably has you covered.

The story here will likely follow similar, but not identical, narrative beats as its predecessor. The player will crash-land on an abandoned?? island, and attempt to make sense of what's happening around them, as they scavenge for resources and attempt to stay out of the clutches of some particularly hostile experimental specimens.

The game's mos?t recent trailer strongly implies that the player will take the role of Timmy, the now-adult son of the original game's protagonist. While the player was able to revive Timmy from death after he was taken from the plane crash to be experimented on by the s??ame researchers who created the monstrosities that populate the island, Timmy was later shown to have developed some form of supernatural powers himself, which he struggles to control. How this will translate into the actual gameplay seen here currently remains uncertain.

With Sons of the Forest fa?st approaching its Early Access launch, playe?rs won’t have to wait long to begin venturing through the island’s forests, and discover the horrors that lurk within.

The post Everything We Know About Sons of the Forest appeared first on Destructoid.

The PC version is launching on May 20

Status updates have been few and far between for Sons of the Forest, the sequel to the freaky mutant survival game The Forest, but Endnight shared a big one today. After a lot of wondering, it turns out that it's got a pretty close release date, at least in terms of the initial PC launch. Sons of the Forest is on track?? for May 20, 2022, which isn't ?crowded yet.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6mTyKyCuTE

There's something about things going bump in a cave that really sets off my paranoia, to say nothing of trees and bushes rustling suspiciously. That said, after securing a base and enough weapons �and a gun-toting companion �the fleshy freakos start to lose their fear factor a bit. It's not a mark against the game so much as a reassuring inevitability. I want to be scared, unsettled, and caught off-guard, but considering this is still a survival game, I also want to eventually overcome those moments so I can, you know, chill a bit.

Last we heard from a tweet at the end of October, Sons of the Forest ideally would've been a late 2021 release, but the team needed more time. The developers tucked a few screenshots into that message, including the nicely-lit item stockpile pictured above, another grisl?y one with a head missing its body, and an image showin??g a spear about to strike a pair of sea turtles. I'll do a lot of depraved stuff in video games, but I won't do that.

Curiously, Sons of the Forest still doesn't have a Steam page �or an Epic Games Store listing, for that matter �so we'll have to circle back to see how the launch might shake out. The Forest built up a substantial audience on PS4, but right now, it's looking ?like PC is the priority. I'm also wondering about early access; are they skipping to a full release?

We're coming up on two years since the sequel was revealed at The Game Awards, and fans of The Forest are more than ready to tea?m up. "Fight demons," ?indeed.

The post Sons of the Forest looks gnarly and it j??ust got a May 2022 release date appeared first on Destructoid.

A night in the woods

Developer Endlight Games has announced that their woodland survival game, The Forest, has manag??ed to shift a solid 5??.3 million copies since its launch on Steam Early Access back in 2015.

The cree?py, improvisational PC title, which has only recently seen release on PS4, sees players attempt to survive on a remote peninsula after a plane crash, using whatever can be scavenged to provide food, shelter, and healthcare, while also defending against a strange band of cannibalistic mutants that roam the territory.

Made on a budget of only $125,000, Endlight will no doubt be pleased with thei??r product's slow-burn success to date. A new update was also announced, bringing new weap?onry, gear, construction materials, and a scary new monster, challenging all those daring to go down to the woods today, or any other day.

The Forest is available now on PC and PS4.

The post The Forest has sold over ??five million copies since release appeared first on Destructoid.

Bring a friend

We got two great survival games this year with Subnautica and The Forest. One takes place underwater, the other in the wilderness, and both have cre?epy threats you'll n??eed to muster up the courage to face.

The Forest made it through Steam Early Access back in Ap?ril, which Dan summed up as "fun and terrifying all-in-one" in his review. Endnight Games has continued rolling out PC updates, but there's also a PlayStation 4 port on the docket. We finally have a date: it's coming November 6, 2018.

Co-op multiplayer will also be supported on PS4, and I love the developer's wording. "Set out as up to four dads on a horror adventure to find your missing kid. Join together with friends to build, swim, or mess around with turtle-shell sledding in the snow. We now feel multiplayer is the best way to experience The Forest, playing with up to three other friends for the ultimate survival horror?? exp?erience."

I figured this would be a bit of a wait give?n the history of Steam Early Access games making it over to PS4, but November? That's not too bad. Keep this on you?r to-play list.

End Night Game [Twitter]

The post Cannibal mutant s??urv??ival game The Forest hits PS4 in November appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our community blogs

_{[The Actual Charlton Heston reviews the best game about walking for the Band of Bloggers prompt, The Forest. A game where you walk, very quickly, away from mutant cannibals. Want to see your own blogs promoted to the front page? Start your own blog! ~Marcel]}

Hi, my name is The Actual Charlton Heston, and the only thing I'm qualified to be writing is the menu at Denny's. I'd like to take a moment, though, to talk to you/at you about a game: The creators of said game called it The Forest, and it is undoubtedly a video game which you can currently purchase and play in real life, and it ta??kes place in a forest. P?inkie swears, totes didn't make it up.

See? I don't have the Photoshop chops to make that. I also don't have Photoshop, so it's absolutely a real thing

Anyshits, this game, yeah? We've established it's a game? Cool. This game? sees you, the protagonist surviving, Robinson Crusoe-style, on an island after your plane crashes. Sans the overt racism, and with the obvious modern amenities, like iPods, and fleshlights.

Sounds pretty great, right?

That's because you haven't met your neighbors yet. They ??are all mutant cannibals. Each and every last one of them would like nothing more than to rip your dick off and plant it in the soil in the vain hope that ??it will grow into a dick tree that they can harvest and use to sustain future generations of mutant cannibals. Look, I didn't invent socialism folks; but these fuckers perfected it.

Digressions aside, this game has everything necessary to make it in to this ??month's theme: You're in a f??orest, you can walk around in it, and it is a real video game. You're reading this. You're in this with me: You have wasted your life as badly as I have. Let's get down to brass tacks.

With those out of the way, let's continue.

The game begins with a plane crash. Should have said "spoilers ahead," but it's in the first god damn trailer on the Steam store page, this is partially on you.

Anyway, you have to find your kid or some shit, I dunno. I'm on day 65 and, honestly, I forgot he was even a factor. I got distracted by all of the cannibal hunting and fortress building. You know how it is. Kid'll be fine, character grows out of adversity, after all. Plus, after 65 days, there is no way the mutant cannibals have not eaten him. It's what they do.

I may be a bad father, but I did build a treehouse; if he's alive, he's going to be totally stoked to see this shit

The game is primarily about survival: You need food, you need water, you need warmth, and you absolutely need to avoid fighting packs of cannibals, because for real, you're basically on their lawn and they are all - each and every one of them -Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. I won't spoil anything beyond the basic cannibals. Let it suffice to say that you should tread as lightly around them as you would at a friend's house during a sleepover, if your friend had really physically abusive parents. Don't expect to t??rounce these guys like you're Carl Weathers or something.

If I had guns like that, I'd be married to Carl Weathers by now

Look, I'm no reviewer. I'm a man easily pleased. I'd never presume to tell you that my opinion should dictate whether or not you play a game. My opinion is worth little, and it should be treated with disdain and derision. I will, however, say this much: The Forest made me feel, for a few brief moments, what it was to have a son I truly did not give a shit about, because he is ?on screen for all of 20 second?s before every horror imaginable is foisted on you and the cortisol overload takes over. You WILL kill cannibals. This is a given. You WILL forget your son needs rescuing after you take your 89th stealthy stroll through the woods in search of rabbits to kill, lizards to skin, and clues to find.

Meet your new neighbors; some of them are Mormon, but none of them wear clothing, just like in real life

There is much to be gained in playing The Forest. You might learn to distrust every sound, every rustling bush, every yelp in the distance that sounds to?o inhuman to have been bellowed out of a human throat. You just might decide to build a treehouse, as I did,?? and hunt that which hunts you by the light of the moon, your zeal for their blood your only objective. You might actually try to find your kid, which, yeah, Child Protective Services probably isn't going to let your parental negligence slide, so you'd probably better get on that.

Build ziplines, play guitar solos in your head as you zip and zap on 'em. Find weapons and necessities in the deepest, darkest caverns, teeming with horrors you can barely see until it is too late. Take a shit off the edge of a cliff while ordering a set of tea cups from SkyMall, for all I care, just know this: they have your scent, these creatures. They will assail every fortification you build. They will come at you with numbers unending. And then you can kill them with cleverly placed traps and pure, a?nimal rage, cutting off their body parts, and building a burning effigy out of said parts to ward off future attackers. The world is your oyster.

Shit, nevermind, the world is not your oyster, just run

If you have childhood abandonment issues, I'm not sure I'd recommend The Forest for anything besides exposure therapy. Look, it's a given at this point that my son is dead. He is now fertilizing an ill-conceived dick tree on the peninsula, somewhere. But, if you enjoy stabbing mutant cannibals in the throat with make-shift spears, building deadly traps and unassailable fortresses, and generally fucking with what would have otherwise been a stable ecosystem? You sh?ould probably play this game.

And I guarantee this like I guaranteed my failed l?ine of brake pads: Heartily, but with much regret in hindsight.

Still no refunds, you filthy, damned hippies

The post Band Of Bloggers: ??An? idiot attempts to review The Forest appeared first on Destructoid.

'I'm wearing her clothes!'

The Forest is a survival horror game in a very literal sense. It has all the survival elements you'd expect, such as gathering materials to construct your base and craft items, to managing various stats such as hunger, stamina, and even sanity. But, it's the horror aspect of The Forest th?at truly separates it from o?ther games within the survival genre.

You play the unluckiest survival expert and father in the world, as your plane crashes on a remote peninsula and your son is kidnapped by a mysterious red figure. If that's not bad enough, on?ce you begin exploring your surroundings and searching for your son, you'll soon discover this place isn't so remote after all.

You may hear a few twigs snap behind you, maybe you'll hear odd screeching in the middle of the night, or maybe you'll simply stumble into one of their camps. Either way, you'll soon be greeted by the mutant cannibal creatures that call this place home and who already made short work of you?r fellow plane passengers. It's then what you do from there that makes this g?ame special.

The Forest (PC [reviewed], PS4)
Developer: Endnight Games
Publisher: Endnight Games
Released: April 30, 2018 (PC), TBA (PS4)
MSRP: $19.99

Generally, the survival genre puts the narrative on the back-end of priorities with a much larger focus on player-versus-player experiences or the actual survival mechanics themselves. That said, outside of the obvious horror aspect, one other relatively unique aspect of The Forest (at least within the surviva?l genre) is that it thrives on its own narrative. This is a game littered with plenty of instances of great environmental storytelling. Things as simple as discovering a group of tents in the middle of the woods with blood trails strewn about, or potential clues in the form of crayon drawings from your son, to stumbling on the unfortunate remains of other passengers.

As obvious and crazy as it is to state this, The Forest can be completed and features a fully fleshed-out ending sequence, with the option for a few different endings as well. Which, in a weird way, was somewhat refreshing for me as someone who's played far too many survival games that end with me getting bored due to the lack of an end goal. On the topic of building things, though, The Forest certainty still offers up that much and then some. Everything from a few preset cabins and tree houses you can choos??e between, or even placi??ng down custom foundations and building from there.

Once you've placed ??something you want to build, it'll give you a nifty transparent preview of what everything will look like, as well as a list in the bottom left corner for what's required to build it. As solid as the building UI is, though, I can't say the same for the rest of it. Navigating your inventory, for example, can be a r??eal pain in a sticky situation since it's somewhat of a cluttered mess, especially in the late game when you have a massive inventory.

You'll also be doing all your crafting in the inventory space, by combining resources you find. Much of it is what you'd expect, such as combining two sticks to make a spear for example. However, there are plenty of other complicated designs such as bombs, a bow and arrows, or even different types of armor. On top of the crafting, you can also upgrade your weapons with various resources, such as placing teeth you find from mutant cannibals on your club to further increase the damage or combining bombs with tree sap to make sticky bombs. 

As solid as the building, crafting, and general survival elements are, the real star attraction is the cave systems. What The Forest truly nails with?? the caves is an almost tangible feeling of fear from being in the dark and unknown. All of this is aided by smart level design and terrifying sound design.

Overall, The Forest doesn't feature much of any ambient music, but honestly, it doesn't need any. When you explore the caves all you'll hear is the sound of your own footsteps, your lighter, drips of water, rocks crumbling around you, and sometimes distant abstract noises deeper within the caves that ar?e every bit as terrifying as you imagine them being.

The art direction matches this as well, with plenty of gnarly body horror and ghoulish designs for the mutant cannibals themselves. From the mud-covered ferals that run on all fours in the woods and eat one another, to the much taller gray-skinned cannibals that travel in hunting parties, or the heavily mutated cannibals reminding me of something straight out of Silent Hill.

Best yet, the mutant cannibals have this very interesting characteristic where, early on, they'll seemingly leave you alone and keep their distance, almost like they're stalking you, only for them to become far more aggressive as the days progress. Throw all this in with the option for up to eight-player cooperative multiplayer and The Forest isn't only a great horror game, it's also just a fantastic time with a group of friends. 

Positives aside, The Forest doesn't only contain a bunch of hungry mutant cannibals, but also a fair amount of jank to go along with them. This can range from the odd crash, to somet??imes the physics going completely haywire and objects suddenly flying off into the distance. But, it's at its worst when the mutant cannibals themselves are dumb as bricks in combat due to bad AI.

I had a number of moments where I could cheese my way through combat by simply standing on a large rock and hitting them with my spear without much issue. As terrifying as they are, they can't seem to grasp heights or even knee-high walls for that matter. If you're going to play The Forest, I highly recom?mend playing on a higher difficulty, especially for multiplayer.

Jank and sometimes dumb mutant cannibals aside, what Endnight Games accomplished with The Forest with only a team of four people is simply extraordinary. It's one of the best survival games I've played in recent memory. Whether I was creeping my way through the woods alone at night or playing with friends during the day and showing the local residents who the true masters of their domain are, I haven't played anything like this that's been so fun and terrifying all-in-one in a long, long time. 

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

The post Review: The Forest appeared first on Destructoid.

Mutant needs its blanky?

The Forest is ??;a game where you’ll wear armour made out of lizards you’ve beaten to death while friendly cannibals leave piles of dead rabbits in your camp because they think you might be hungry. It’s been in Early Access for quite a while now, and developer Endnight Games has released the patch notes for its huge update to the game.

The biggest addition is that the playable map has been made bigger, with new areas?? added. There’s also the first attempt at full gamepad support for those who don’t like keyboard and mouse too much.

On top of that, the enemies now have a sleep cycle just like the player – some will go for little snooze in the day in their villages and huts while others patrol the area. It’s kind of adorable until you realise they want to eat your kidneys… then it’s actually still pretty cute. Widdl??e sweepy cannibals.

The Forest is shaping up to be something pretty cool. You can peruse the full patch notes on the webs?ite, as it’s simply too big of an upd?a??te to list here in full.

We don’t know when it&rs?quo;ll leave Early A??ccess, but it will also be hitting PlayStation 4 at some point as well.

The post The Forest’s latest update has sleepy mutant cannibals appeared first on Destructoid.

Co-op update is live

There's this Discovery show called Naked and Afraid in which two nude strangers survive in the wilderness for three weeks. It's alright but the novelty wears off fast. Imagine how much more entertaining it'd be if there were cannibal mutants scurrying around.

Until American television reaches that point, here's the next best thing: cooperative play in The Forest. Endnight Games has released an update that allows players to pair up. It's also "slowed down [the??] tennis ball throw massively" so they can play catch. How thou??ghtful.

Co-op is rough in its current state -- reminder: The Forest is still in Steam Early Access -- so hold off unless you??'re okay with bugs or curiosity has gotten the better of you. Endnight intends to smooth out the experience and support more than two players with future patches.

The post Fend off cannibals with a friend in The Forest appeared first on Destructoid.

Survival of the bravest

This trailer for the open-world survival horror title The Forest is my favorite yet. It begins calmly, allowing you to get swept up by the scenic wilderness and marvel at that fish that totally just got stabbed by a spear before the tension begins to rise as the creepy-crawlers come out.

We're finally given a more in-depth look at the game's base-building mechanics, a crucial part of your survival after a fateful plane crash. When the Bad Things come to your house, you'd best make sure there are plenty of traps? ready to greet them. Better double up, just to be safe.

Now, I'm not sure what those otherworldly multi-armed mutants are but I want nothing to do with them. I do, however, want everything to do with The Forest. It's coming to PC via Steam Early Access on May 22, 2014 and ther?e's even going to be Oculus Rift support. Uh, no thanks!

The post The Forest is my next Steam Early Access purchase appeared first on Destructoid.

Spreadable fire should come in handy

First off, if you've not seen this trailer for Endnight Games' open-world survival horror title The Forest, you're going to want to spend a? minute and a? half doing so.

There are new screenshots, viewable below, which show a dead shark, a dead stewardess, and what's bound to be a dead you. As a stranded survivor of a plane crash, you??'ll need to scavenge and set up a defensive structure with traps to fend off against cannibalistic mutants who come out at night to do creepy things. I'm so ready to be creeped out.

The studio is aiming to release an alpha build of The Forest on Steam in t?he coming months. I don't usually go for alphas but that rule may be undone by my desire to be genuinely frightened by games. And from everything I've seen here, that potential exists.

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Been a while since a trailer has made me that uneasy

With this trailer, The Forest has gone from one of a handful of ??survival horror titles I'm anticipating to become my most-wanted. Horror in a relatively open world may sound like a challenge to pull off, but if the video is any indication, Endnight Games Limited has it figured out.

The game is out later this year on PC and it'll sup??port ?Oculus Rift, though I can only imagine how tense that'd be. Forget virtual reality -- obscuring your vision and hearing from what's going on in the real world would be unsettling in and of itself.

As a fan of The Descent, I can't not love the promise of this.

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Inspired by The Descent, Cannibal Holocaust

I may or may not have let out an audible "Holy sh*t!" while watching this trailer for The Forest, a first-person survival horror game looking for support on Steam Greenlight. Not because of a jump scare, mind you -- it happened when I realized this really is a survival game complete wi?th tree chopping and structure building. Oh, and there's creepy mutants lurking about, too.

Days in The Forest will be spent preparing for nights, which is naturally when the monsters come out. They should consider restructuring their sleep cycles. SKS Games says steal??th is an option, or players can "engage them directly with crude weapons built from sticks and st??ones."

What I'm most excited about here is that, seemingly, the horror in The Forest is not a constant, oppressive force; tension can outstay its welcome to a point where it becomes ineffective. Rather, it appears that SKS is keeping pacing in mind. The developers have cited The Descent and Cannibal Holocaust as sources ??of inspiration. Yes, this deserv?es a spot on my radar.

First-person open-world survival horror game The Forest looks brill??iant [Eurogamer]

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