City planners and traffic mathematicians, rejoice: Cities Skylines II is due to come out on October 24th, 2023. It's heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. A new trailer shows off the updated visuals and mechanics of the sequel.

Developer Colossal Order shipped the original Cities Skylines 8 years ago, and it's since sold more than 12 million copies. There's a strong Twitch and YouTube community for the game, and some of the biggest personalities have been playing the sequel in beta and providing feedback to developers.

Pre-orders for Cities Skylines II are open today. Colossal Order revealed the new game in March, and it plans to showcase each of its features in detail, one per week, throughout the coming months.

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

Obsidian Entertainment is finally ready to show us a little more of Avowed, its forthcoming first-person fantasy RPG. At Xbox’s SGF showcase, we got to see a barrage of magical spells, battle dynamics, and all kinds of mythical beasts you’re likely to face. Interestingly, you'll be able to wield swords and guns in addition to magical incantations. Like previous Obsidian games, companions will feature heavily. According to Feargus Urquhart, Studio Head, your first companion will be Kai, a “Coastal Aumaua” and apparently one of the only friendly faces you’ll come across. 

The game is set in the same universe as the crowdfunded Pillars of Eternity, so expect to see more playful writing and storytelling. You’ll play as an envoy of Aedyr, investigating rumors of a plague. From there, it seemingly all goes further downhill. With the tagline of “Forge your destiny”, the trailer hints that you can choose to be a good or (very) bad guy. It looks like it may scratch that Elder Scrolls itch, until Elder Scrolls 6 finally shows itself. 

Avowed is set to launch in 2024.

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

Indie studio Thunder Lotus announced a game today that invites you to “Face the Wrath of God.” 33 Immortals is the Spiritfarer developer’s new co-op action / roguelike that supports up to 33 players.

“Pick-up and raid, cooperate to survive hordes of monsters and rise above the Almighty,” the title’s description reads. The game’s trailer shows 33-player co-op rendered with an art style that reminds me of old Space Ghost cartoons (meant as a compliment). However, the somewhat retro appearance may have made it easier for Thunder Lotus to render 33 simultaneous co-op players along with enemies and its dungeon-crawling environment.

Thunder Lotus says 33 Immortals will be available on Game Pass (Xbox Series X / S) and the Epic Games Store in 2024. You can check out the reveal trailer below.

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

Compulsion Games is back with a new project called South of Midnight, a third-person action adventure set in an original world of magic, monsters and giant, blues-playing skeletons. The game's debut trailer is a cinematic snippet introducing the protagonist, a young woman named Hazel, as she attempts to reason with an immortal specter on a dark dock. Hazel is hunting a monster — or, it's hunting her, as the trailer goes on to show — and she can wield bright threads of magic. 

South of Midnight is in development for Xbox Series X/S and PC, including a Steam release, and it'll come to Game Pass on launch day — whenever that may be.

South of Midnight is set in a fictional town in the southern United States and the game is infused with magical realism. It's a Southern Gothic love letter of sorts, creative director David Sears said on Xbox Wire.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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

It's been three years since we learned that a Fable reboot was in the works and we got our first glimpse at the game in action during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest. The clip opened with the unmistakable face and voice of Richard Ayoade. His character Dave (a vegetable enthusiast) complains about so-called heroes who take out bandits and slay legendary beasts. 

As Dave rambles on, he gets up to investigate something and we learn that he's a giant. He comes nose to face with one of those heroes before they get into a fight.

The trailer includes some gameplay snippets and it suggests there'll be an offbeat tone to Fable, which is being made by Playground Games. There's no release date as yet, but the action RPG will be available on Xbox Series X/S and PC. Of course, it'll be on Game Pass.

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

The Summer Game Fest party keeps rolling today with the Tribeca Games Spotlight. Unlike many of the other Summer Game Fest showcases, Tribeca has already announced which games it will feature. As in previous years, the festival is highlighting games with a focus on artistic storytelling. You can watch the stream below at 3PM ET.

Arguably the most prominent game of the bunch is The Expanse: A Telltale Series. This is a prequel to the Amazon Prime show of the same name. You'll play as Camina Drummer (Cara Gee). Players will have to make tough choices that impact the future of a crew of space scavengers. There should be more exploration than in previous Telltale titles as well. Telltale will release the game in chapters every two weeks starting on July 27th.

There will be fresh looks at Stray Gods, a "roleplaying musical" that features much of the cast of The Last of Us, and Goodbye Volcano High, a narrative adventure game that first emerged during a PlayStation presentation three years ago. A Highland Song has been on my radar for a while, and we'll find out more details about the so-called rhythm survival platformer during Tribeca's event.

The stream will highlight a few other games, including Despelote, a story-driven soccer game with an eye-catching art style from publisher Panic. Nightscape is a 2.5D "atmospheric adventure game" from a studio in Qatar, while the Focus-published Chants of Sennaar is an adventure title based on the myth of Babel.

If you're in New York City, you can be among the first to try playable demos of these games at the festival's Spring Studios hub. Tribeca runs until June 18th. On the film side, the festival is hosting the world premiere of Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds, a documentary about the creative mind behind Death Stranding and the Metal Gear series. Kojima will be in attendance for a Q&A.

Meanwhile, Engadget is on the ground in Los Angeles for all things Summer Game Fest. We've got previews and hands-on impressions of many of the games being featured coming your way.

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

Spotify already lets you download songs, albums and playlists for offline listening, but you need to select each one manually so it's easy to forget your favorite music. Now, the company is testing a feature called "Your Offline Mix" that will "save a mix of your recently played songs for when the vibe is high, but your connection is low," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said on Twitter.

The feature looks similar to YouTube's Offline Mixtape feature that came out back in 2019. As we wrote at the time, "Smart Downloads will pick some of your favorite songs and make sure they are available to you anywhere." Spotify's feature looks very similar, with the system downloading frequently listened-to songs and other content.

The feature is in testing and it's not clear yet when it will be available, but users in Ek's Twitter mentions said they've already seen it in their apps — with one noting that they hadn't downloaded 90 percent of the songs in their mix. Plus, the screenshot shows an offline mix over three-and-a-half hours long, so it can handle plenty of songs. That will make it quite useful for times when you're traveling or are in a remote location and need a little (or a lot) of entertainment.

Reels started as Instagram's solution for competing with TikTok and soon launched on sister-site Facebook — a natural expansion. Meta is now testing Reels on a less expected medium: the Meta Quest. Its VR headset works for internet browsing, watching movies, games and more — but the addition of typically-vertical Reels presents a different viewing experience than these more malleable (and typically screen-wide) options. 

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the update through a 13-second video on Meta's Instagram Channel. It featured a Reel from influencer Austin Sprinz's Instagram account in which he visited the world's deepest pool. The immersive video is a good choice for VR, taking the viewer underwater into a seemingly bottomless space — and is certainly better than a cooking or dance Reel. 

The Reels update comes ahead of Meta Quest 3's fall release and follows Apple's new AR/VR Vision Pro headset announcement. Though, with Quest 3's pricing starting at $499, compared to the Vision Pro's $3,499, the pair don't exactly fall into the same category. Meta's VR headset line first launched as Oculus Quest and subsequently Oculus Quest 2 before the second-generation model was rebranded as Meta Quest 2. The Meta Quest Pro followed soon after the name change. As for Reels, there's no timeline for if and when it will leave the testing phase and become available across Meta Quest headsets. 

The Summer Game Fest featured a spate of new announcements and updates again this year, including the new Prince of Persia action-adventure platformer by Ubisoft. In Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown coming in 2024, you take on the role of Sargon to rescue the prince, not just by killing enemies and fighting bosses, but also by solving puzzles. Bandai Namco launched Sand Land, a new adventure game featuring character designs by Akira Toriyama wherein you'll have to play as the demonic prince Beelzebub, as well. 

Meanwhile, Sega revealed its new take on Sonic the Hedgehog in Sonic Superstars, with updated graphics and a split-screen view, launching this fall. As for Remedy, creative director Sam Lake made an appearance at the event to show off some new gameplay for Alan Wake II. The game will have two protagonists — Alan Wake and FBI agent Saga Anderson — and the game will be split 50-50 between them. You'll play one or the other throughout the game, but there are parts where you'll have to choose which POV to see. 

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, which is coming out on November 9th 2023, was also featured at the event. It's the next entry in the Yakuza series and will again star Kiryu, who previously faked his death. Epic Games also released a cinematic trailer for Fortnite's latest season, dubbed Fortnite Wilds, that's commencing on June 9th. Finally, Square Enix has launched a premiere trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake: Rebirth, the second chapter of the FFVII remake, that has been pushed back to early 2024. 

You can watch all those announcements and more in under 20 minutes in the video above. 

After Elon Musk finalized his purchase of Twitter last October, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta reportedly began working on a social media platform of its own, codenamed Project 92. During a company-wide meeting on Thursday, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox showed off a set UI mock-ups to the assembled employees, which were promptly leaked online.

The project's existence was first officially confirmed in March when the company told reporters, "We're exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there's an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests." A set of design images shared internally in May were leaked online as well.

The new platform, which Cox referred to as “our response to Twitter,” will be a standalone program, based on Instagram and integrating ActivityPub, the same networking protocol that powers Mastodon. The leaked images include a shot of the secure sign in screen; the main feed, which looks suspiciously like Twitter's existing mobile app; and the reply screen. There's no word yet on when the app will be available for public release.

“We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution,” Cox said, per a Verge report. Celebrities including Oprah and the Dalai Lama have both reportedly been attached to the project.