The Artful Escape is an idealized vision of everything the music industry could be, straight out of the brain of Australian rockstar Johnny Galvatron. In five years of development (at least), The Artful Escape has transformed into a psychedelic adventure game with a living soundtrack of original folk and rock music, a cast of ridiculous characters, otherworldly environments, and a roster A-list voice actors, including Jason Schwartzman, Lena Headey, Michael Johnston, Carl Weathers and Mark Strong.

The Artful Escape is set to hit Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC on September 9th, priced at $20. It'll hit Game Pass at the same time, and it's being published by indie hit-maker Annapurna Interactive.

Galvatron is the frontman of The Galvatrons, a high-energy Australian rock group that toured the continent and opened for bands like Def Leppard and Cheap Trick in the late 2000s. However, for the past few years, Galvatron has been a game developer first and foremost. In the 2010s, he used YouTube videos to teach himself how to create a game in Unreal, building off the 3D animation and coding courses he took back in college, right before Warner Music signed him. He then founded a studio, rented some office space, secured a deal with Annapurna, and somewhere along the way, he ended up in a recording booth with Jason Schwartzman.

"We just hung out and spoke about David Bowie and Bob Dylan and video games and stuff," Galvatron said. "And it was just like, it was a moment for me. He came into the studio and he had like a cape and he had a dressing gown and like an umbrella and a little tiny Korg synth. He brought all these things and he put them all around him and he would like, do the line with the cape and then he would throw the cape around another way, and then he would hold the umbrella and do the line. I was just on my feet the whole time."

Annapurna Interactive

In The Artful Escape, the main character, Francis Vendetti, goes on a multidimensional journey to discover his true stage persona — which seems to be a David Bowie-esque shred machine — while at the same time reckoning with the legacy of his late uncle, a Bob Dylan-style folk icon. He travels through strange and trippy worlds, playing music and hunting for his true sound.

To give a sense of the game's oddball vibe, Schwartzman plays a giant brain perched atop a pile of discarded fish parts.

"He’s a really funny comic support character," Galvatron said. "Like a very lofty British alien, like a brain floating in an aquarium on a flotilla of goldfish fins. It'll make sense when you see it."

For Galvatron, The Artful Escape is exactly that — an escape. His career as a mainstream rockstar was ultimately unfulfilling, filled with red tape, stagnant bureaucracy and awkward interactions. In between shows, he often found himself curled up in the corner of the tour bus, reading Dune or writing his own novel, watching the continent fly by. 

As a game developer, he's building the industry he actually wanted to be a part of, one line of code at a time.

"It's kind of what I dreamed the music industry would be, this world of magical doors and these great experiences, instead of like drinking Melbourne Bitter at an RSL in Wollongong, trying not to get beaten up because you look like you're in Poison," Galvatron said. He laughed and, without missing a beat, added, "Can you use that quote in its entirety?"

Sure thing, Galvatron — but only because that sounds like a solid premise for a sequel to The Artful Escape.

Dead Space is coming back. EA revealed a teaser trailer for a remastered version of the original Dead Space, showing off a spooky interstellar environment and not much else. Motive Studios is developing the game, and it's heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC.

Here's how EA describes the new endeavor: "The sci-fi survival horror classic Dead Space returns, completely rebuilt from the ground up by Motive Studios to offer a deeper and more immersive experience. Harnessing the power of the Frostbite game engine and next generation consoles, this remake brings jaw-dropping visual fidelity and improvements to gameplay while staying true to the original."

Developing...

When EA and DICE revealed Battlefield 2042 in June, they had to contend with a wave of leaks and spoiled surprises, but they were able to keep details about the game's third and final mode under wraps. Today, the secret's out. Battlefield Portal is the third mode in Battlefield 2042, and it's all about community interaction and user-created levels.

Battlefield Portal includes all seven maps from 2042's All-Out Warfare mode, plus six classic environments from previous Battlefield titles. The classic maps are Battle of the Bulge and El Alamein from Battlefield 1942, Arica Harbor and Valparaiso from Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Caspian Border and Noshahr Canals from Battlefield 3. 

EA

The mode features pre-programmed, reimagined experiences from these past titles, including conquest, rush and team deathmatch. All of the maps, including the classic ones, will support matches of up to 128 players on PC, Xbox Series consoles and PlayStation 5. As with Battlefield 2042's main All-Out Warfare mode, matches on older-gen hardware will be capped at 64 players.

Here's where it gets custom. Along with the updated, old-school playgrounds, Battlefield Portal includes more than 40 weapons, more than 40 vehicles, and more than 30 gadgets from three theaters of war, plus all of the related content from Battlefield 2042. This means the M1 Garand, Panzerschreck, B17 Bomber, Spitfire, defibrillator and other fan-favorite tools are back.

EA

Factions are also returning to Battlefield Portal. On top of the specialists from Battlefield 2042, the mode features seven armies from the classic games, including the UK, US and Germany out of 1942, and the US and Russia from Bad Company 2. Battlefield Portal also supports classic soldier archetypes like Battlefield 3's assault, recon, support and engineer roles.

All of this culminates in the Builder tool in Battlefield Portal. In Builder, players can design their own matches and share them with the community, adjusting a range of settings including the game logic itself. Players will have control over the maps and modes in their custom games, including traits like available factions, weapons and gear; the ability to toggle down sights or go prone; the size of the battle and conditions for victory. 

EA

Players won't be able to edit any of the actual maps, but overall, Portal has an extremely rich customization mode. All progress in Battlefield Portal is shared across consoles, just like stats in the main game. 

Battlefield 2042 — including Battlefield Portal — is due out on October 22nd, for $60 on PC, Xbox One and PS4, and $70 on Xbox Series X/S and PS5. There's still one more game mode yet to be revealed, Hazard Zone. We know it's a "high-stakes squad-based game type never seen before in the Battlefield franchise," and it's not a battle royale mode, but that's about it.

There’s a moment in the 1986 Aliens film when Bill Paxton’s character, William Hudson, turns to his crewmates and says, "Man, it's a shooting gallery down there." After playing though the preview of Aliens: Fireteam Elite, I can say it feels like the developers really took this line to heart. Like, really.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite is an online, co-op, third-person survival shooter from Cold Iron Studios, and it’s been in development for the past six years. Cold Iron was actually bought and sold four times starting in 2018, bringing its mysterious Alien-based game along for the ride. In the end, Cold Iron has cut a deal with 20th Century Studios to self-publish Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and it’s due to hit Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles on August 24th, priced at $40.

20th Century Studios

I had the chance to play a preview build of Fireteam Elite that included access to two of the four campaigns, and four of the five character classes: gunner, technician, demolisher and doc (the final class is recon). Each campaign consists of three missions filled with AI-powered Xenomorph hordes, with three difficulty levels unlocked from the start. Every mission requires three players, and empty team slots are filled by bots named Alpha and Beta, which honestly end up functioning more like mobile turrets than actual teammates.

So, after playing hours of the preview with friends and bots alike, here’s my conclusion: Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a generic survival shooter with old-school arcade DNA. Fireteam Elite feels like an online, updated version of light-gun games like Area 51 or House of the Dead, complete with repetitive environments and sloppy hit boxes. The game is competent, but not dynamic. To put it simply — man, it’s just a shooting gallery down there.

To be fair, that’s what survival shooters are all about. Enter a new area, prepare your defenses, kill the swarm, rinse and repeat. The thing is, Fireteam Elite deploys this formula in such a rigid structure that missions quickly become predictable, no matter how many bugs show up. What’s more, the generic sci-fi environments blend together after a few playthroughs, and tricks like falling ceiling panels and sudden bursts of steam lose their effectiveness well before the first mission is over.

Fireteam Elite fails to build tension. With such a transparent gameplay structure, any feeling of pressure or horror has to come from the xenomorphs themselves, and frankly, they’re often not smart enough to make this happen. The swarms rarely feel unmanageable and the specialized xenomorphs, like spitters or jumpers, routinely behave in non-threatening ways. This unpredictability ends up being more adorable than scary. Plus, I have to note that my game crashed three times in about seven hours of play.

That’s not to say the AI is trash altogether. Cold Iron says it’s already resolved some of the movement issues the xenomorphs were experiencing in the preview build, and it really is impressive to see dozens of inky black aliens bounding down the hallway, each on its own path but out for blood, and the game is built around these moments. The xenos stumble around corners like dogs on a tile floor, and details like this add much-needed personality to the waves.

20th Century Studios

The game’s most exciting moments come at the end of each mission, during the final swarm. These are long standoffs with waves of xenomorphs, including spitters, prowlers, bursters and giants that hunt down a single crew member at a time. I’ve found the technician and doc to be particularly useful in these moments — the technician has a turret that recharges after it’s been destroyed and shock grenades to keep the xenomorphs at bay, while the doc has an incredibly handy healing circle.

This is where the most strategizing takes place, even if it is mostly just turret talk. There are chests containing consumable weapons, health and on-demand ammo refills at each final battle, meaning your whole team will start off well-equipped and they’re free to spray and pray. This is good, considering the reticles on most of the weapons are generous, and crowd control is the name of the game, not accuracy. 

20th Century Studios

There are a few bright spots in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. The soundtrack is a James Horner-inspired orchestral situation and it’s a constant reminder of the game’s cinematic 1980s roots; it does a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to setting the mood. Plus, the game’s RPG elements — including character, loadout and weapon customization, and challenge cards — add a necessary layer of depth to otherwise straightforward missions.

I wasn’t expecting Fireteam Elite to be as narrative-driven as the films or as moody as Alien: Isolation, but I had hoped for something like Left 4 Dead meets Dead Space, and this ain’t that. Instead, Aliens: Fireteam Elite feels like a theme park ride in video game form. The monsters aren’t really threatening, but the crowds certainly are. And, of course, it’s more fun with friends.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, a 57-year-old dad from New Mexico, flew to the edge of space and back again today. He wasn't the only person aboard the rocket, which was the first-ever crewed flight from private space company Blue Origin, but he's the one that camera crews flocked to once the 10-minute trip was done. Maybe they were drawn in by his smile. Maybe they thought he was the winner of a sub-orbital Lex Luthor lookalike contest. Maybe his bulbous, pale cowboy hat caught their eye. 

In reality of course, it was because Bezos is the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon, and considered to be the richest person in the world. This wealth not only gives him the opportunity to build, run and then ride his own rocket ships, but it also makes people really interested in what he has to say, regardless of his relationship to the matter at hand.

When Bezos stepped back onto Earth after spinning around in zero-gravity for a few minutes, the cameras descended and his cowboy hat answered a handful of questions about the experience. The world's richest man shared his thoughts about space, pollution and wage depression, likely just before taking an SUV caravan to his private jet and heading to one of his global luxury estates. 

Here are three of the most centibillionaire things Bezos said after his Blue Origin flight today:

“We need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry, and move it into space. And keep Earth as this beautiful gem of a planet that it is.” In this same interview, Bezos discussed his plans to expand Blue Origin's space tourism business over the coming decades, a venture that has the potential to pump massive amounts of carbon and other chemicals into the atmosphere. Unlike ground-based emitters like cars or coal-powered plants, rocket emissions are expelled directly into the upper atmosphere, where they linger for years. Additionally, Amazon has threatened to fire employees for speaking up about the company's support of the oil and gas industries.

"We need unifiers, not vilifiers. When you look out at the planet, there are no borders. There's nothing. It's one planet and we share it and it's fragile." As the CEO of Amazon, for years Bezos fought against company efforts to unionize, even amid credible reports of inhumane, exploitative conditions for Amazon delivery drivers and warehouse workers. 

Bezos, who amassed more than $70 billion in personal wealth last year and regularly pays $0 in federal income taxes, then thanked those same Amazon employees for paying for his trip to space. He said, “I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this.” That line, at least, is completely accurate.

Sure, Elgato's Stream Deck MK.2 can organize your desktop apps and make going live on Twitch as easy as pressing a button, but most importantly, it supports a range of adorable faceplates. The Stream Deck MK.2 costs $150 and it's being sold alongside seven new faceplates, priced at $10 each. Elgato showed off the MK.2 today in a new trailer and it's available to order now (yes, so are the faceplates).

The Stream Deck MK.2 has 15 customizable LCD keys that can be connected to PC apps, media tools and specific platforms, with plugins for Twitch, OBS, YouTube, XSplit, Spotify, Philips Hue and others. This allows streamers in particular to set hotkeys for going live, controlling A/V features and interacting with the audience. The icons on the MK.2 are digitally customizable as well.

In June, Elgato rolled out Stream Deck 5.0, a beefy software update that included a new store, icon library, and a selection of DMCA-free music and sound effects.

The next time you're on a plane, searching for a Wi-Fi connection while soaring thousands of feet above the ground, don't look for the Gogo name. The longstanding standard of in-flight internet, Gogo Commercial Aviation, has been rebranded to Intelsat.

Intelsat, an international satellite communications provider, purchased Gogo Commercial Aviation in December 2020. It was a cash deal valued at $400 million. Gogo still exists and focuses on business aviation services.

Gogo has been a staple of in-flight entertainment for the past decade, partnering with 17 major airlines. The service is as impressive as it is frustrating, though it's improved with time. In 2019, Gogo announced plans to roll out 5G in-flight services this year, and it began testing those antennas in June. As Intelsat, 5G is still the goal.

“This name change is happening while Intelsat is leveraging its unparalleled global orbital and spectrum rights, scale and partnerships to build the world’s first global 5G satellite-based software-defined network of networks,” Intelsat CEO Stephen Spengler said in a press release.

Absolver studio Sloclap is working on a new kind of kung fu game, Sifu, and it requires a little more time and attention than developers originally planned. Sifu was supposed to hit PlayStation 4, PS5 and the Epic Games Store this year, but it's been delayed to early 2022. 

Sloclap shared the new release date in a trailer that also shows off the game's unique death system. Sifu is a kung fu-inspired game, much like Absolver, but it's narrative-driven and every time a player dies, they return to the fight as an older version of themselves. Sifu is all about hand-to-hand combat and magical age progression, and it tells a violent tale of revenge suitable for any age — well, teens and up, according to the ESRB.

The game's first trailer was inspired by Old Boy and today's video is called, "Sifu - Fight Club Gameplay Teaser," so we're sensing a film-centric theme, too.

Death Stranding Director's Cut, an extended version of Kojima Productions' 2019 sci-fi action game, will come to PlayStation 5 on September 24th. Sony debuted the first full trailer for Death StrandingDirector's Cut during today's State of Play livestream, alongside the game's release date and news that pre-orders are open now. Check out the trailer right here:

Today's trailer confirms the Director's Cut will have new boss battles and combat mechanics, including fresh weapons and accessories like an ambulatory Buddy Bot. There's also a shooting range, a racing mode, new campaign missions and upgraded transportation options. The game was revealed during the Summer Game Fest kickoff livestream in June, but these are the first concrete details about what'll be included.

All of that is in addition to the core game, which is difficult to summarize (like most Kojima titles), but we'll do our best: Death Stranding is beautiful and tedious. It's an expansive, strange, futuristic adventure about isolation, death and social connection, and it's often cinematic to a fault. Which, oddly enough, makes a director's cut feel like the next logical step.

AT&T is the latest carrier to make Messages by Google the default messaging service for all customers on Android devices. The move will replace the default messaging system, SMS, with Rich Communication Services technology, an open standard that prioritizes media, eliminates character limits, and generally upgrades the traditional texting experience. 

RCS unlocks the ability to share full-resolution photos and send larger media files than SMS can handle, it streamlines group chats, enables end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations, and it works over Wi-Fi or data. The transition for AT&T customers will take place soon, according to Google.

Google has been nudging the mobile industry toward RCS for years, and it's finally catching on. T-Mobile is making the switch to Messages by Google, and therefore RCS messaging, by the end of the year, and now AT&T is doing the same. 

However, Verizon hasn't announced plans to adopt RCS — and neither has Apple, for that matter.