Posts with «arts & entertainment» label

The 'Cuphead' DLC will finally arrive on June 30th

Studio MDHR has finally announced a release date for the long-awaited Cuphead expansion. After a string of delays, The Delicious Last Course will arrive on June 30th, nearly five years after the run-and-gun platformer debuted.

A trailer that emerged at The Game Awards shows more of that gorgeous 1930s-style art that helped make Cuphead so compelling in the first place. The Delicious Last Course takes place on a new island, Inkwell Isle. Along with new weapons and charms, you'll have even more fiendish bossies to battle.

Ms. Chalice, who has unique abilities, will join Cuphead and Mugman on their new adventure. She'll be a playable character in the original game too.

The DLC was announced all the way back in 2018, with a planned release window of sometime the following year, so it's been a long time coming. Even though this is billed as Cuphead's "final challenging quest," this won't be the last we see of the character. An animated Netflix series called The Cuphead Show is in the works.

'Slitterhead' is a new horror game from the creator of Silent Hill

We finally know what Keiichiro Toyama has been up to since leaving Sony. At The Game Awards, Toyama's Bokeh Game Studio revealed Slitterhead. It's a horror-action game that will see you fighting grotesque skeletal monsters. Beyond that, the first trailer the studio shared didn't reveal much about the game's plot. Toyama is best known for his work on Silent Hill and more recently the Gravity Rush series. Also working on the project is Devil May Cry character designer Tatsuya Yoshikawa. 

Slitterhead does not have a release date currently.

'Lord of the Rings: Gollum' reveals new gameplay footage

Gollum promises to be a journey through Middle Earth through the eyes of one of its least heroic inhabitants. Now we're getting to lay eyes on how it'll look in action, thanks to a new trailer released during the Game Awards.

We've been teased with some idea of its locales already, like the fire and brimstone of Mordor, and the lush forest of Mirkwood. It's also been revealed that dialog options will allow players to carve a narrative path based on the choices of either the bitter and debauched Gollum, or his timid but moral alter-ego Smeagol. 

Initially scheduled for release in 2021, Daedalic Entertainments Gollum is set to come out at some point next year, and will be available for PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Switch. The company has also claimed it will be the first in a series of games set in Tolkien's worlds.

Lady Gaga brings ten of her hits to 'Beat Saber'

No, Meta and Beat Games still aren't done adding big-name musicians to Beat Saber. They're releasing a 10-song Lady Gaga Music Pack that, as you'd imagine, brings some of the pop superstar's best-known songs to the VR rhythm game on Quest and Rift headsets. There aren't any surprise picks here — the collection ranges from early hits like "Poker Face" to the Ariana Grande collaboration "Rain on Me." Still, you might appreciate slicing to Gaga's beats with a Chromatica-inspired backdrop.

The pack should be available tonight (December 9th) at $13 for the whole bundle, or $2 per song. Completists could undoubtedly poke holes in the selection (you won't get singles like "Applause"), but it's hard to object loudly when Gaga's dance pop should lend itself well to Beat Saber's gameplay.

'Star Wars: Eclipse' is a new adventure game from the 'Detroit: Become Human' team

Quantic Dream, the developer ofDetroit: Become Human andBeyond: Two Souls, is working on a Star Wars game set in the franchise's High Republic era. That's a sentence we never thought we would ever write, but here we are. Lucasfilm Games announced the title at The Game Awards. Host Geoff Keighley said the game is in "early development." The publisher also shared a cinematic trailer, showing off locations that will be familiar to anyone who has seen the prequel trilogy. Spoiler warning: Jar Jar Binks sadly does not make an appearance in the trailer.

Star Wars: Eclipse does not currently have a release date.

'Alan Wake 2' will arrive in 2023

It's been more than a decade since Alan Wake first captured gamers' attention, and now it's finally official: the game is getting a sequel. At The Game Awards, we got a first first minute-long look to set up Alan Wake 2, which Remedy Entertainment says will arrive sometime in 2023. Yep, it's going to be a long wait, but at least we know for sure it's coming. Remedy says that the game will be released for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and the PS5.

This announcement comes a couple months after Alan Wake was remastered and released across multiple platforms, and that game contained the tease found in the original game that claimed "Alan Wake's journey through the night will continue." Some speculated that it would be removed from the remaster, but it was in kept intact. Turns out, the line is correct — it just took a long time to come true. 

As for what we'll get from Alan Wake 2, the trailer doesn't give us a whole lot of detail. It's more of a vibe-setting video, and it does a great job at setting up some seriously creepy vibes. While there's not much more to learn about the game right now, you can plan the remastered original on the Xbox One, Series X/S, PS4 or PS5 now. Remedy also says that it'll have more details about the game to share in the summer of 2022.

'Homeworld 3' continues the classic sci-fi RTS series in 2022

More than two years after its initial announcement, Homeworld 3 has a release date. Gearbox and developer Blackbird Interactive announced on Thursday during The Game Awards the next entry in the classic real-time strategy series will debut before the end of 2022. They also shared a first look at gameplay. 

The trailer opens with a shot of the Khar-Toba, the ship that set the Kushan, the protagonists of the Homeworld series, on their journey to return to their home of Hiigara. The clip is narrated by Karan S'jet, who fans will remember as one of the main characters of the first two games. S'jet recounts some of the pivotal moments of Homeworld and Homeworld 2 before the footage turns to the space battles players can expect to experience once the game comes out. 

Blackbird Interactive, a studio made up of former Relic Entertainment employees — including Rob Cunningham, the original art director on the first two games — is developing Homeworld 3. The studio previously worked on the excellent Deserts of Kharak, which is a prequel to the first game. 

Homeworld 3 is available to wishlist on Steam and the Epic Games Store

'The Expanse' is getting the Telltale Games treatment

Telltale Games is best known for its narrative-driven spins on existing franchises, and next up for the revived studio is an adaptation of Amazon Prime sci-fi series The Expanse. Telltale says the game, which it's working on with Deck Nine Games, will delve into the story of Camina Drummer. 

In The Expanse: A Telltale Series, a mutiny has broken out on the Artemis. As is the case in other Telltale titles, you'll have to make decisions that impact the story and, more specifically, determine the fate of the spaceship. Telltale hasn't announced a release window or which platforms the game is coming to.

Much like Telltale, The Expanse got a second chance. Syfy canceled the show after three seasons, but Amazon picked it up. The sixth and final season premieres on December 10th.

What a debut! The world premiere of Expanse, you saw it here first! #TheGameAwardspic.twitter.com/blIkvaRFnF

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 10, 2021

Netlix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop is over after one disappointing season

Netflix has canceled its much-hyped and equally maligned Cowboy Bebop adaptation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the streaming giant decided against renewing the series. The decision comes just three weeks after the show's November 19th premiere. Like with many of its other high-profile cancellations, Netflix is said to have weighed the show's viewership numbers with the potential cost of filming another season.

The cancellation shouldn't come as a surprise, however. Many reviews of Cowboy Bebop were critical of the adaptation. Here at Engadget, we said it was "everything wrong with nostalgia reboots." Even if the series had been better, it's safe to say it had an impossible task before it. Cowboy Bebop is one of the most-loved anime series in history. For many western fans of a certain age, it was their introduction to the medium and they would have been critical of the final product no matter what direction the crew took it. 

Watch the 2021 Game Awards here at 8PM ET

The Game Awards are in-person once again, but you'll still have an opportunity to tune in online. The games industry ceremony is streaming live at 8PM Eastern, and you can watch it here through YouTube as well as through multiple other services that include Twitch, Twitter, TikTok, Facebook Live, Steam and even in VR (albeit 2D) through Oculus Venues.

You can expect sizzle from the awards themselves, with frontrunner nominees like Deathloop and Ratchet & Clank vying for attention alongside indie darlings and odd choices like Cyberpunk 2077. You'll also likely see a surprise or two among the many game premieres and updates that define the show. That's not including simultaneous launches like the Unreal Engine 5-based The Matrix Awakens demo.

However, this year's event may be as notable for the surrounding drama as the actual presentation. Activision Blizzard will be a no-show (beyond the advisory board, that is), and the company's sexual harassment scandal may cast a shadow over some nominees. You can also be sure the organizers will make full use of a real-world venue, with performances from the likes of Sting and Imagine Dragons. In that light, the 2021 gala still won't represent business as usual.