On Monday, it was Ubisoft's turn to take center stage at Summer Game Fest. After Microsoft's strong showing on Sunday, the publisher's showcase was a more sedate affair, with Ubisoft mostly providing updates on games that it had already been previously announced. 

However, the event did have its share of highlights. One surprise announcement saw Castlevania showrunner Adi Shankar take the stage in a seriously ridiculous getup to reveal Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix, an animated series based, of all things, on Far Cry 3's Blood Dragon expansion from 2013. After years of development, Ubisoft also offered a first look at Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. But the star of the show was undoubtedly the first gameplay trailer Massive Entertainment shared for its upcoming Star Wars project, Outlaws. The 10-minute clip offered a comprehensive look at what Star Wars fan can expect from the open world title in 2024. If you missed any part of the presentation, our video summary will catch you up in less than 14 minutes.   

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

It's Capcom's turn for a Summer Game Fest livestream. The publisher will host its Capcom Showcase at 6PM ET and you can watch it below. The stream will run for around 36 minutes, Capcom said, though we'll be getting things underway with a pre-show at 5:30PM. If you miss the stream as it happens, you'll be able to catch up on YouTube later.

The company has revealed three of the titles it will feature. We'll see Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, a remastered version of an adventure game that debuted over a decade ago. The latest edition will arrive on June 30th.

One segment of the showcase will be devoted to Exoprimal, a multiplayer dinosaur-slaying game that's coming to PlayStation, Xbox and PC on July 14th. Capcom will also provide another look at Dragon's Dogma 2. The hotly anticipated sequel doesn't have a release date as yet.

The publisher will have other things to share, but the rest of the lineup remains a mystery for now. Knowing Capcom, though, there'll probably be some mention of Resident Evil. Perhaps we'll get an update on the upcoming virtual reality mode for the Resident Evil 4 remake.

Engadget has been in Los Angeles over the last few days to go hands-on with some of the many titles that have been showcased during Summer Game Fest. You can check out news, previews and impressions from the various events at our Summer Game Fest hub.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Ubisoft has given us the first proper look at Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR for the Meta Quest platform and confirmed a holiday launch window. The news comes via the company’s Ubisoft Forward streaming event as part of the Summer Game Fest. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR releases for both the Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2 and the recently-announced Meta Quest 3, though OG Quest owners are out of luck.

We knew this was coming, as Meta just held a games showcase event that featured Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, but there’s now a dedicated trailer. This trailer is light on actual gameplay and heavy on CGI cutscenes, but it definitely confirms that you play in first person as an actual assassin through the magic of VR. Ubisoft says the title lets you experience parkour-style movement, stealth combat and good old-fashioned hand-to-hand fisticuffs in virtual reality.

The game brings back former series protagonists like Ezio, as you’ll be interacting with their memories to access levels. For those weary of the nausea associated with VR, particularly while performing elaborate parkour moves, Ubisoft says the title includes “best-in-class comfort features” to help with vertigo or fear of heights, though we aren’t exactly sure what that means. There’s no price yet, but top-tier Quest titles cap out at around $40. Also, the game looks to be a Quest platform exclusive at launch.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Ubisoft revealed a teaser trailer today for Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. The upcoming Netflix anime is based on the 2013 Blood Dragon expansion for Far Cry 3 — but it appears to be at least as much of a tongue-in-cheek remix of Ubisoft IP and early 90s nostalgia.

Series creator Adi Shankar (producer of Netflix’s Castlevania series) introduced the trailer in a campy cyborg getup befitting the source material. “Seven years ago, I got a call from Ubisoft, offering me the opportunity to adapt one of their very, very, very serious franchises into an anime,” Shankar deadpanned. “But instead, I came back to them with a crazy concept inspired by the mood of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. This concept used Ubisoft’s vast library of characters, and remixed them into one delirious anime series that would become this love letter to the 90s… or at least how I remembered the 90s.”

Shankar describes the series as a violent, dystopian fiction in the spirit of the works of Aldous Huxley, as well as a spoof, satire, dark comedy, love story and “the most philosophically conscious show you’ve watched in a long time.” Bobbypills Studio handles the animation.

Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix is scheduled to premiere worldwide on Netflix this fall. You can watch the “Easter-egg-filled” teaser trailer below.

Ubisoft’s open-world Avatar game is almost here. At the company’s Summer Game Fest preview event, we got a substantial look at the story and gameplay of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. James Cameron introduced the game in a prerecorded segment, teasing “new environments new flora and fauna and characters”.

A cinematic trailer lays out how this tale will fit in with the Avatar movies. In short, it’ll cover the events of both games, with the protagonist being kidnapped during the events of the first film and schooled by the human invaders. After the events at the end of Avatar, you are cryogenically frozen… then unfrozen 15 years later in time to fight the RDA’s continued invasion.

The game itself is an open-world first-person action-adventure game, where you'll be able to combine Na'vi skills and weapons with human assault weapons and a casual rocket launcher or two. It wouldn't be an Avatar thing without the ability to bond with sentient animals you can ride. The trailer teases the ability to ride direhorses as well as your very own ikran. You'll be able to feed and customize your partner when not flying down waterfalls. Frontiers of Pandora will include a new western expanse not seen in the movies, where you'll meet as-yet unseen Na'vi clans, including a secretive healer clan. 

You'll be able to equip and grow your character to fit your own playstyle, crafting weaponry and items from resources and upgrading your own skills as you see fit. 

Frontiers of Pandora launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC and, oddly, Luna. (Yes, Luna!) on December 7th 2023.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

It’s nearly time for the big Ubisoft Forward Summer Game Fest showcase event, so expect plenty of announcements, trailers, demos and more. With E3 deflating like a sad balloon, this is likely the year’s biggest gaming conference for incredible reveals. The showcase starts at 1:00 PM ET, with a pre-show at 12:45, and there are a bunch of ways to watch live. Ubisoft is hosting its own YouTube stream and Twitch feed for the event, in addition to streams available via the festival itself.

So what’s on the agenda? The publisher has already confirmed that it’ll be releasing information regarding Assassin’s Creed Mirage, a new The Crew racing title and a game adaptation of a little-known film series called Avatar. Ubisoft is extremely prolific, however, and is always working on a diverse array of games. Titles like the oft-delayed pirate sim Skull and Bones could make an appearance, and the same goes for Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland and the company’s forthcoming multiplayer shooter XDefiant.

The company already announced a Prince of Persia sidescrolling spin-off on the first day of SGF, so more gameplay footage might drop during the event. Those looking for additional information about the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake will have to keep waiting, as Ubisoft recently said that it would not be showing any new footage at the Forward event.

Ubisoft has not announced how long its showcase will run, but similar events have come in at around the 90 minute mark. As always, Engadget has staffers on location to report on the most jaw-dropping announcements, so keep the site open for updates.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

I’m worried about Saga Anderson. She’s a seasoned FBI agent investigating a string of ritualistic deaths around Cauldron Lake, and she’s a little too impressed by all the supernatural gore she encounters. At one point, she’s talking to her partner about the cult activity they’ve seen – the dismembered body parts and necromancy and murderous villagers roaming the forests – and she says, “this place just keeps getting crazier… but this is exciting.”

A few scenes later, she’s shoving a heart through a portal to another realm and inviting a witch to show her “the terror.”

So, yeah, I’m nervous about Saga’s fate in Alan Wake II – and that only makes me more excited for the full game. I saw a 30-minute hands-off preview of Alan Wake II at Summer Game Fest, set in the second chapter. By this time, Saga has made her peace with the paranormal darkness of the case she’s investigating; she’s already pulled a manuscript page out of a corpse’s chest cavity and followed its instructions to Cauldron Lake, the setting of the original game.

Alan Wake came out 13 years ago, and the timeline in the sequel has also progressed 13 years. The writer Alan Wake has been missing that whole time, and Saga is hunting the ghost of FBI agent Robert Nightingale, who was killed at the end of the first game. In chapter two, Saga and her partner are deep in the Pacific Northwest woods. The preview shows off gorgeous lighting, character models and environments, plus satisfying-looking gunplay and flashlight-play.

Dialogue scenes between Saga and her partner aren’t rushed, establishing the narrative and letting it breathe, and there are a few moments where players can choose how to respond. The two agents split up and there are a series of simple puzzles for Saga to solve, like collecting a fuse or finding the right numbers to crack a lock, all while a sense of dread constantly builds in the background. The preview provides some serious early Resident Evil vibes — Alan Wake II is a survival-horror experience, while the original was an action-thriller.

As Saga attempts to solve the mysteries around her, she can jump into her Mind Place (no, not Mind Palace) to organize clues and connect the dots. Her Mind Place looks like the living room of a ’90s conspiracy theorist, with photos and notes connected by red string along one wood-paneled wall. This is where Saga can manipulate the evidence she’s found, placing clues near each other to see if they’re related, unlocking the path forward. If she gets stuck, she can go to the desk in the center of the room and commune with her subjects, asking them for answers based on the clues she’s gathered; this is called Profiling. Saga can enter her Mind Place at any time.

Remedy Entertainment

There are a few jump-scares in the preview, where the screen quickly cuts to a screaming face or an enemy suddenly bursts through a doorway, but they’re well placed and not overdone. Saga feels capable and curious – maybe a little too curious for her own good, but we’ll have to see how that plays out in the full game. At the end of the preview, Alan suddenly appears in the woods with Saga, screaming about dark forces and confused by how long he’s been missing.

The big innovation in Alan Wake II is the ability to swap between Saga and Alan himself, playing as both characters throughout the game. Chapter one begins with Saga in the driver’s seat, and after that players can choose to play as her or Alan at the beginning of each new section. A Remedy spokesperson said developers are still fine-tuning the swap mechanic; they don’t necessarily want to give players the ability to change characters every five minutes, for the sake of the narrative flow, but they still want to provide real instances of meaningful choice.

Remedy Entertainment

Alan Wake II is a contained single-player experience and it doesn’t have a bunch of side quests, according to Remedy. There are a few errands to complete and secrets to find parallel to the main story, but this is first-and-foremost a linear, narrative-driven game. 

There were plenty of sequels at the Summer Game Fest showcase, and Alan Wake II stands out in this crowded field. The preview showcased a clear vision: Alan Wake II retains the themes of the original game, but introduces a fresh perspective with the protagonist, mechanics and genre. It feels like Remedy knows the story it's trying to tell — even if Alan and Saga don't.

Alan Wake II is due to hit PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 on October 17th.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

When I saw the announcement trailer for Immortals of Aveum in the winter of 2022, I was surprised by my own interest in the game. Immortals came from an unproven studio founded four years prior by Bret Robbins, a AAA creative director who most recently built a trio of Call of Duty titles: Modern Warfare 3, Advanced Warfare, and WWII. Ascendant Studios, his independent venture, was partnering with EA on its debut game, a first-person shooter in a militaristic fantasy world. On the surface, it didn’t sound like something I’d be drawn to.

But Immortals of Aveum caught my eye. Its cinematics were beautiful and the trailer showcased frenetic combat with bright beams of magic, all while actors Gina Torres (Firefly) and Darren Barnet (Never Have I Ever) narrated an epic story of rebellion, political sabotage and dragons. From a first-person perspective, the protagonist’s hand movements were quick and sharp, and they looked like a satisfying build-up to powerful attacks.

With a few months of hindsight, I remain interested in Immortals of Aveum and I think I’ve figured out why. There aren’t a ton of first-person action games that rely on mechanics other than guns — Dishonored, Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hexen come to mind, but it’s a small field overall. That might be one reason Immortals of Aveum stands out as something fresh, but it’s also nice to see a new, AAA-level game that’s single-player and narrative-driven with a contained campaign, rather than an open world of live-service features. Learning more about Ascendant helped, too: Robbins was also the creative director of the original Dead Space and his team included former Telltale Games members, lending weight to the assertation that Immortals of Aveum would center a dense storyline.

I played a demo of Immortals of Aveum at Summer Game Fest 2023, and it was gorgeous. Its cinematics were particularly impressive: The motion capture was smooth and the character models were finely detailed, with delicate eye markings and layers of gear. The clarity of the cutscenes made it easier to get lost in the dialogue and the ravaged fantasy world of Aveum, even in a short period of time.

Gameplaywise, I had access to the blue type of magic, which granted me two abilities: a whip that pulled enemies toward me, and a burst of balled-up energy, spammable as fast as my finger could press R2. I also used the Animate ability on a giant rock hand, using a telekinesis-type power to manipulate its fingers and bridge a gap between two cliffside landings. Playing with a gamepad on PC, I found the mechanics to be almost too smooth, with my reticle often sliding beyond my intended targets, but this is something I think I’d get used to after 30 minutes longer with the game. Even with the hyper-lubricated controls, I appreciated the lack of a noticeable aim assist.

EA

I didn’t encounter the sheer number of enemies that Ascendant has shown off in trailers for Immortals of Aveum; my hordes maxed out at about eight. But by the end of my play time, I felt like I’d started to learn the rhythm of the game’s combat, and I can see it becoming frenzied — in a great way — with the addition of new magical powers. And, sure, some more enemies.

The most jarring part of the demo was actually traversing the terrain — there were plenty of craggy mountainsides and rock walls that looked perfectly climbable by modern action-adventure standards, but they weren’t. Maybe I needed to spend more time learning the intricacies of gap-jumping and ledge-grabbing, but I found my character to be slightly less spry than I wanted, unwilling to fully double-jump or pull himself onto platforms. However, the movement restrictions seemed purposeful, and the game wasn’t sluggish by any means: Immortals of Aveum felt more like a puzzle game than a climbing adventure, with a series of locked stone doors and multicolored gems to throw magic at in specific patterns.

EA

My demo broke once, when a bug prevented a stone door from opening, and a developer had to get me back on track. I was assured that the game will be in full working condition by launch day, in about six weeks.

Ascendant Studios is independent, but it’s marketed as a AAA team and it has about 100 employees. Immortals of Aveum certainly looks like a big-budget game; it’s built in Unreal Engine 5 and heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC on July 20th. I remain intrigued; I'm excited to get my hands on a few more magical powers and see where this world of high-fantasy politics leads.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

Meta's Audiocraft research team has just released MusicGen, an open source deep learning language model that can generate new music based on text prompts and even be aligned to an existing song, The Decoder reported. It's much like ChatGPT for audio, letting you describe the style of music you want, drop in an existing tune (optionally) and then clicking "Generate." After a good chunk of time (around 160 seconds in my case), it spits out a short piece of all-new music based on your text prompts and melody. 

The demo on Facebook's Hugging Face AI site lets you describe your music, providing a handful of examples like "an 80s driving pop song with heavy drums and synth pads in the background." You can then "condition" that on a given song up top 30 seconds long, with controls letting select a specific portion of that. Then, you just hit generate and it renders a high-quality sample up to 12 seconds long. 

The team used 20,000 hours of licensed music for training, including 10,000 high quality music tracks from an internal dataset, along with Shutterstock and Pond5 tracks. To make it faster, they used Meta's 32Khz EnCodec audio tokenizer to generate smaller chunks of music that can be processed in parallel. "Unlike existing methods like MusicLM, MusicGen doesn't not require a self-supervised semantic representation [and has] only 50 auto-regressive steps per second of audio," wrote Hugging Face ML Engineer Ahsen Khaliq in a tweet.

Last month, Google released a similar music generator called MusicLM, but MusicGen seems to generate slightly better results. On a sample page, the researchers compare MusicGen's output with MusicLM and two other models, Riffusion and Musai, to prove that point. It can be run locally (a GPU with at least 16GB of RAM is recommended) and available in four model sizes, from small (300 million parameters) to large (3.3 billion parameters) — with the latter having the greatest potential for producing complex music. 

As mentioned, MusicGen is open source and can even be used to generate commercial music (I tried it with "Ode to Joy" and several suggested genres and the results above were... mixed). Still, it's the latest example of the breathtaking speed of AI development over the past half year, with deep learning models threatening to make incursions into yet another genre. 

The Xbox Series S occupies an interesting space in Microsoft’s gaming lineup, given it can play every current-generation title available for the Series X. It may be significantly less powerful, but it’s also smaller and a lot cheaper, making it a “good enough” option for plenty of mainstream and casual gamers. Now, at 2023’s Summer Game Fest, Microsoft is addressing one of users’ biggest bugbears about the machine, which should make it a lot easier to live with.

At the event, the company showed off a new “carbon black” version of the console with 1TB storage, double what’s presently available. It’s a big deal for owners of the all-digital console since, with just 512GB, the current Series S users are often forced to delete downloaded games or buy a pricey expansion card to make room for whatever’s just landed on Game Pass. The new Series S will be available on September 1st, days before Microsoft’s latest blockbuster release, Starfield.

– Dan Cooper

The Morning After isn’t just a newsletter – it’s also a daily podcast. Get our daily audio briefings, Monday through Friday, by subscribing right here.

The biggest stories so far from Summer Game Fest 2023

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Roguelike ‘33 Immortals’ has 33-player co-op

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Twitter has reportedly refused to pay its Google Cloud contract

It could have dire consequences for its automated moderation system.

Back in 2018, Twitter signed a billion-dollar deal with Google to host some of its platform on the latter’s cloud servers. Now, with a new owner trying to avoid paying for anything, ever at all, the company has decided to renege on that obligation. Reports say Twitter hasn’t paid Google the latest installment of what’s owed and is now racing to migrate key functionality away from Google Cloud before June 30th, but might not make that deadline. That could put some key Twitter functionality at risk, including the automated moderation platform which combats spam and CSAM.

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Ubisoft's open-world Star Wars game is 'Outlaws'

The company promised to share gameplay footage later today.

Ubisoft / Lucasfilm

Ubisoft's long-awaited open-world Star Wars game will arrive in 2024. The publisher announced Star Wars Outlaws on Sunday during Microsoft's Xbox and Starfield Direct showcase with a cinematic trailer that introduces fans to the game's Han Solo-like protagonist, Key Vess. Ubisoft is billing Outlaws as the first-ever open-world Star Wars game — though it's worth noting many past games in the franchise, including the recently released Jedi: Survivor, feature open-world elements.

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‘Mortal Kombat 1’ made a great first impression at SGF 2023

Yes, that’s its name.

Warner Bros.

One of the biggest reveals from a generally muted Summer Game Fest showcase was footage from Mortal Kombat 1. The 12th mainline game in the series restarts the universe with a once-mortal Liu Kang, now a full-fledged god of fire. Alongside this new world, the title also adds Kameos, summonable allies to fights. Read on for our first impressions of playing the game.

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Netflix's password sharing crackdown seems to be working

An analytics company says nagging users into paying has paid dividends.

We won’t know how successful Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing has been until we’ve seen its next one or two financial releases. But a third-party analytics company believes Netflix’s policy of nagging users into paying up has started to bear fruit. Its data suggests the streamer saw a spike in sign-ups towards the end of May, far outstripping the number of cancelations.

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