“Materials seen" by podcast Sacred Symbols (£) talk of “Project S” which allegedly includes “some sort of empire called The Zaraan, a race not seen in Star Wars before”. “Sarah is described as an athletic 30-something and is a member of a human-like race. This race is at the lead of some sort of empire called The Zaraan, a race not seen in Star Wars before,” Sacred Symbols revealed (as transcribed by VGC)....

Available via Steam for less than £2, it adapts familiar Resi weaponary and health items and tasks you with healing up and restocking a hero over various levels. Think of it as a window into Resi 4’s safe rooms, translated into 40 puzzle scenarios of escalating difficulty, where Leon might pause for a few minutes to snort some herbs and shuffle around his guns to squeeze in a few more shotgun shells....

Organisers are calling Summer Game Fest a “spectacular live, 2 hour world premiere showcase” that’s promising “premieres, gameplay demos and news on some of the most highly anticipated games from more than 30 developers and publishers”. And with the event rapidly approaching, it’s now confirmed viewers can expect appearances - in some capacity at least - from 2K, Activision, Atlus, Bandai Namco, Bloober Team, Capcom, Coffee Stain, Deep Silver, Devolver Digital, Digital Extremes, DotEmu, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Focus Entertainment, Frost Giant Studios, Humble Games, Level Infinite, Mediatonic, MiHoYo, Netflix, PlayStation, Raw Fury, Samsung Gaming Hub, Sega, Skybound Games, Square Enix, Steam, Studio MDHR, Tribeca Festival, Warner Bros....

Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto and Universal Studios Japan boss Jean-Louis Bonnier struck socially-distant Mario poses, surrounded by costumed Mushroom Kingdom characters, as members of the public entered the park. Nintendo provided the following snaps from the ceremony: Universal’s Nintendo theme park in Osaka has been hit by multiple delays over the past year due to the pandemic’s impact. Originally, it was due to open alongside last summer’s now-postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games....

Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood will be the first version of the attraction to open in the west (a second US park is planned for Universal Orlando Resort’s Epic Universe expansion, reportedly opening in 2025), and will loosely follow the exuberant, Mario-themed design of the existing Japanese park. Don’t expect a carbon copy, however; photos of ongoing construction work at Universal Studios Hollywood, as documented by Inside the Magic, have pointed to some key difference in layout thanks to the reduced space available in the Los Angeles park....

Alone in the Dark, for those too young to remember, is widely considered to be the granddaddy of the survival horror genre, with the 1992 original pioneering the fixed-camera spook-house formula that would go on to influence the likes of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. THQ Nordic’s reimagined version of Alone in the Dark - which is being handled by Swedish developer Pieces Interactive - takes the basic premise of the 1992 original, in which private detective Edward Carnby helps Emily Hartwood investigate her uncle’s suicide at the gloomy Derceto Mansion, and shakes it up a little for modern audiences....

Bandai Namco published the familiar trailer, below. It ends with a note to say news is coming spring 2021. “Spring is just around the corner, and we’ve been working hard to make it unforgettable!” Bandai Namco said. “Catch the first new glimpse from Tales of Arise.” Tales of Arise was announced at E3 2019 for release in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was delayed indefinitely in June 2020, and we haven’t heard much since....

It’s tempting to think this just happened, that game developers woke up one day and decided accessibility was something they needed to improve. But of course they didn’t. Behind the realisation was a push from a community which needed better access to games, and to the entertainment and escapism they provide. My guest on The Eurogamer Podcast [since renamed One-to-one] this week is someone who’s a key part of that community, someone whose writing for Eurogamer has helped bring awareness to the accessibility challenges he faces and many people face....

The English translation in Builders 2 is sublime. It’s a non-stop barrage of flawless puns, knockout one-liners and perfectly pitched pop culture references. It’s also a song to British linguistic diversity. The game is split into several acts. Each has its own island sandbox to play around in, its own story, and its own cast of characters who, in true Dragon Quest style, speak their own UK dialects. There’s very little voice acting and, as dialects are tricky to recognise when they’re written down, meeting a new character becomes a game of ‘guess the accent’....

Of course, I don’t mean that there are cameras in the game as with Beyond Good & Evil or anything like that. But seeing certain features in the game that are also present in so many favourite photographs I’ve seen on the web was quite a jarring experience. Firstly, the water. The water in Tunic is such a glorious, vivid blue that it almost looks like flowing silk. It’s been obvious for a while that the most realistic looking waves in a video game are probably those you dance across in Sea of Thieves....

The game’s Steam page is now up and running. The Division 2 launches on Steam nearly four years after it came out on PC and console in March 2019. Back then, Ubisoft’s deal with Epic meant the PC versions of its games launched on the Epic Games Store as well as Ubisoft’s own storefront, but not Steam, much to the annoyance of PC gamers. Ubisoft is slowly coming back to Steam....

Inauguration Day is set for Wednesday 20th January, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as US president. The reveal of Gates of Oblivion was planned for Thursday, 21st January, but will now take place on Tuesday, 26th January at 10pm UK time instead. The developers replied to one fan on Twitter who questioned the decision given The Elder Scrolls Online’s global playerbase to say “given recent events, we are opting to play it safe”....

Eurogamer’s own Aoife Wilson was positive in her review, saying that the essence of the original is “preserved brilliantly” in the glossy remake. It also sold like gangbusters, passing the five million mark by August and giving Square Enix a new high watermark for digital sales. Work on the sequel is already underway at Square Enix, with Tetsuya Nomura promising a release ‘ASAP’. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of time to sink your teeth into part one....

This year’s show - in a bid to return to the glitz and glamour of previous, pre-pandemic years - is planned to be an “full-scale”, in-person event and will be held at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theatre. Expect the usual mix of awards, world premieres, and musical performances - Keighley has already confirmed The Game Awards Orchestra will be back on-stage for another melodic turn - with the whole thing being streamed live for the viewing pleasure of all....

The video game industry’s annual winter trailer fest, which also includes some awards, will broadcast live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and be livestreamed online. This year’s show will include a new category for Best Adaptation, which will award “shows, movies, books, podcasts, comics and more” which “authentically adapt” video game source material. 2022 has certainly seen plenty of video game adaptations, with TV series based on Cuphead, Halo and Tekken, as well as film versions of Uncharted and Resident Evil....

Tales from the Far Territory, as the new expansion is known, releases in six parts over the course of 12 months, each arriving approximately every 8-10 weeks. All six parts will focus on The Long Dark’s much-loved Survival mode, but there are narrative elements in there and Hinterland is referring to the complete series as a “campaign”. Exactly what will be coming when is currently unclear, but Hinterland has now detailed all the major features it’ll be introducing to Survival mode throughout the expansion....

So what does a new Dark Alliance game look like? Because we haven’t actually seen it before now, except for an in-engine teaser that didn’t give a lot away. Now, though, I’ve played it. The biggest and most immediate difference is the camera angle, which is now over-the-shoulder, rather than zoomed out and looking down, as in a game like Diablo. This makes Dark Alliance more cinematic and better shows off the new setting of Icewind Dale....

Ghosts are supernatural characters that are a staple of The Sims franchise, and they reappear in The Sims 4 base game. Ghosts are non-playable characters by default, but can be made playable with the right know-how. This page covers how to make ghosts playable in The Sims 4, as well as detailing the powers, abilities, and unique behaviours of this occult creature type. Death is its own (mis)adventure in The Sims 4: with all add-ons installed, there are over twenty different ways for your Sims to meet their maker....

This includes games it has made - including physical stock deliveries - as well as all games sold via GOG. The move is a significant one, as it marks CD Projekt as the first major publisher and platform holder to decide to pull all business from Russia and its ally Belarus over the former’s invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday, Ukraine deputy prime minister called specifically on PlayStation and Xbox to do similar....

As announced in a news post, the game will be go offline on 30th June 2023. Monster Slayer will also be removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store on 31st January 2023, while all in-game purchases will be disabled on the same day. “We are proud that we were able to create a location-based AR experience that captured what it was like to be a Witcher in real life and gave the community a chance to battle Witcher-world monsters up close and in person....