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.

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.

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. 

It's a sad moment for gamers. Kotakureports Masayuki Uemura, the lead creator of the Famicom and Super Famicom (aka NES and SNES), died on December 6th at the age of 78. He started working at Sharp, where he sold solar cell and light sensor technology, but he's best remembered for a long and highly influential run at Nintendo that effectively revived the video game industry following the 1983 crash.

Uemura first became involved with Nintendo after the company's Gunpei Yokoi asked about using Sharp solar cells to produce light gun games. The future console designer joined Nintendo in 1971, and the company released gun games that included a home-friendly game called Duck Hunt (yes, the predecessor of the NES title). Company president Hiroshi Yamauchi put Uemura in charge of the R&D2 division responsible for hardware, including consoles, and in November 1981 famously called Uemura asking him to build a machine that lets you play arcade games on your TV. The result was 1983's Famicom, the system that would become the NES outside of Japan.

You know at least some of what happened next. The Famicom and NES were wild successes, selling nearly 62 million units combined and rejuvenating interest in home consoles. Uemura then led work on the Super Famicom, whose global launch as the SNES further cemented Nintendo's reputation. He also produced some NES games, including Ice Climber and three sports titles. He retired from Nintendo in 2004, but continued to serve as an advisor and would go on to teach and research video games as a professor at Ritsumeikan University.

It's hard to overstate Uemura's influence. The video game business as it exists today arguably owes much to the skill of Uemura and his team when they designed their first TV consoles. He also helped grow Japan's overall tech industry by making Nintendo a global force in electronics. While he certainly wasn't the only star at Nintendo, he was one of the most directly influential.

With so many different ways to build a computer, one of the trickiest aspects of PC gaming is knowing whether a game you’re about to install will play well on your machine. Microsoft is testing a feature that could make that easier. As spotted by The Verge, the Xbox app on Windows now includes a label that will tell you if a game will “play great” on your PC.

Tom Warren/The Verge

Since there are some titles where the app says “performance check not available yet,” it doesn’t appear Microsoft is comparing the listed system requirements against the components in your PC. Instead, it would seem the company is building a database where it tests a game against various different machines. If you want to test the labels, you can do so by downloading the Xbox Insider app and opting into the Windows gaming preview. 

If the system works well, it could solve a common pain point for PC gamers. In recent years, we’ve seen some developers share more granular system requirements for their games, telling you not just the minimum and recommended spec but also hardware that will deliver the best experience at Full HD, QHD and 4K respectively. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been anything close to standardization across the industry, and that’s even before you consider the fact some developers list overly optimistic requirements for their games.

Starfield is just under a year away from landing on PC and Xbox Series X/S, and Bethesda has offered another peek at what's in store with a mini documentary. The seven-minute "Into the Starfield: The Endless Pursuit" featurette shows a lot of concept art and brief shots of things like robots, alien worlds and a spaceport.

The video is centered around the evolution of Bethesda Game Studios and the worlds it has built over the years. Given that many of the studio's games are about exploration (such as those in the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series), progressing to space exploration with Starfield is a logical next step. Art director Matt Carofano noted the upcoming game has a "more realistic, science-based backing to it" than, say, the fantasy world of Skyrim.

Game director Todd Howard also offered a "cryptic" tease. He said Starfield has "two step-out moments." Many other games typically only have one of those, in which the player sees the expanse of an open-world environment for the first time.

There isn't a ton of detail about what Starfield is in this video, but it gives folks who are excited about the game a little more insight. There will be more episodes of "Into the Starfield" in the coming months as the release date edges closer. Starfield will arrive on November 11th, 2022.

Fortnite and Final Fantasy. A doomed pairing of the most lucrative recent gaming phenomenon with one of the most storied video-game franchises spanning over 30 years? I love Final Fantasy, mostly. I’m lukewarm on Fortnite and the battle royale format in general. With Metroid Dread, Shin Megami Tensei, Alan Wake Remastered and Deathloop on my to-do list, why am I still glued to a free-to-play mobile game?

Probably because it’s expanding the already very-expanded Final Fantasy VII universe. The game that got the sequel CGI movie, the remake, multiple mobile games and more. And yet, barring a smart intro movie that cribs from the opening scenes of FF7R, you won’t see the protagonists (or antagonists) of the iconic RPG — though you’ll be able to cosplay as them.

In First Soldier, you play as, well, recruits looking to become the first Soldier — a specific top-class army member. Cloud, from FFVII, is introduced in the original as “Soldier, First Class” and this game takes everything back 30 years to the early formation of Shinra Corp’s military finest.

The setting, then, is a battle royale to see how augmented soldiers fare against each other (and whatever beasts come their way in the process). The battleground is a surprisingly expansive map on the outskirts of Midgar — while also featuring many of the major landmarks of Midgar’s sectors. Aerith’s church and childhood home is there to be shot at, as is the arena, Sector 7’s markets, the abandoned trainyard and more. The battle theme of FF7 kicks in as helicopters swarm into the area, dropping off recruits. It still gets me excited every time.

The grounds are littered with guns, from handguns to sniper rifles, as well as materia (magic orbs that offer both offensive and support capabilities) and even pretty rare summoning spells. I've yet to summon anything so far. There are also potions to pick up and help extend your chances of survival.

These are the baseline weapons and items. Differentiating itself from Fortnite — if not all BR games; we see you Apex and Warzone — you can also choose a job role, a la most RPGs. This mostly affects your special ability, your melee weapon and how you attack with it. Warrior is a straight-shooting class with a sword and a rush special that closes distance so you can wallop your rivals before they can get a shot in. Monks have the ability to heal themselves when they mete out damage, while Ninjas get an extra jump and the ability to hide in stealth mode for a few seconds.

Sorcerers come with a special ability that supercharges MP recovery for more regular offensive (and healing spells), while the ranger reloads guns faster than the others — and has a very convenient Assess skill that will mark threats around you even when they’re out of sight.

Each feels slightly different to play with, but there’s a pleasant balance to the different roles, though both soldier and monk suffer from having to rely on their melee attack for their advantages.

Let me say this outright; you should play First Soldier with a gamepad. Fortunately, I’m testing out Backbone, a third-party connected controller for iPhone that means I was already in a good place to aim my guns and spells. Magic casting controls are a bit messy — you’ll need to hold down an L-trigger while pressing another collar button to unleash one of three spells you may have picked up. Those melee attacks, which all job classes have, are really hard to land on your enemies, regardless of whether you’re using a gamepad or touch controls. Hopefully, the devs are able to finesse melee attacks as the game progresses. 

This means that, in a rather un-Final Fantasy way, you’ll come to depend on your guns for most of your kills. But hey, getting that sniper headshot kill is a thrill. Killing other players or monsters, opening chests and surviving through the rounds will level up your character through the match itself. This adds to your attack damage and increases your HP, meaning you should also last longer. It also rewards proactive play and exploration, and not just trying to survive to the final area.

As you might expect from a free-to-play battle royale game, there are season passes available for purchase. These offer up skins, banners, emotes and more cosmetic goodies for wannabe Soldiers. Even without a pass, you can earn a few rewards by fulfilling “rank” criteria during the battles. Gain stars, level up your rank — which is unrelated to leveling up your individual job ranks — and you’ll gain access to a smattering of wardrobe options or chocobo-raising items. I’m currently wearing a moogle hat, please say hi.

Square Enix

Yes, there’s also a chocobo rearing mini-game buried inside First Soldier, and you’re able to summon your favorite steed to the battles as a very handy transport option. It isn’t the only way to speed around levels, however. There are also cars and bikes to get you within the battle arena. The shrinking arena damages anyone outside its perimeter, but you’re able to persist with potions and healing spells and hopefully make it to safety.

The only drawback growing, as I play, is the fact that my leveling up has no tangible effect on my performance in the game — which is true of most battle royale games. The appeal is that each new battle isn’t affected by the round before it, but then chasing these goals (play two rounds as a warrior; make 300 pts of damage with a shotgun; visit Corneo’s mansion) soon tires. What exactly is the point?

For now, the point is that First Soldier skirmishes are entertaining, and the difficulty curve isn’t too brutal. I’ve won a few rounds, out of 75 players, and come second a handful of times. One colleague told me that early iterations of battle royale games are often filled with bots to juice the numbers (and offer up some encouraging early wins) but I will not let him take this tiny victory away from me.

Hopefully Square Enix has plans to offer more levels, weapons and events to spice it up. There are some limited-edition bosses throughout the Midgar level. I’ve managed to best two of them, but I’ve also been felled by Tonberry — a notoriously powerful monster from the Final Fantasy series— a few too many times. Maybe I should try fighting him as a ninja...

Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier is out now on Apple App Store and Google Play.

Epic Games has acquired Harmonix, the studio behind titles like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Central and more recently Fuser. Financial terms have not been disclosed. Epic’s vision for Harmonix involves the metaverse. In the immediate future, the two plan to create “musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite.”

Viewed through that lens, Epic’s interest in the studio makes a lot of sense. Outside of frequent brand collaborations, Fortnite is at this point best known for its virtual concerts. In the last two years, a handful of major artists like Ariana Grande and Travis Scott have drawn a lot of interest to the game. In the latter case, for example, more than 12.3 people watched Scott’s performance concurrently.

In the meantime, Harmonix says it will continue to support its existing slate of games. That means Rock Band players can continue to look forward to new DLC and Fuser players can expect the studio to continue hosting events. Additionally, any game that's currently available through Steam will continue to be sold through Valve's storefront.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: In Halo Infinite, you play as the Spartan super-soldier Master Chief who must defeat a dastardly group of aliens (somehow, the Banished returned!) before they take over a mysterious ring world. Playing through the game's first few missions is like plowing through an abridged Halo campaign, for better or worse. It starts off with Master Chief drifting in space, where he's miraculously rescued by a human soldier. In short order, he was back in action taking down feisty grubs, plowing helmet-first into increasingly bigger firefights and going toe-to-toe with angry looking space ape. Been there, plasma grenaded that.

To be blunt: Halo Infinite's opening had me worried, especially after its year-long delay. Sure, it was nice to be back in Master Chief's shoes after six years, but it still felt like a retread, even with the addition of a new grappling hook. It was as if I was walking down the same corridors and fighting enemies that I already faced in Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, the previous two games developed by 343 Industries. Once again, I feared that the studio would be too afraid to push Halo into fresh territory and reach the heights of Bungie, the franchise's creator. (Bungie's Halo 3: ODST, in particular, was a unique attempt at delivering a human-focused story in a world filled with super soldiers.)

But a few hours in, once I showed that ape who was boss and acquired a Cortana-like AI called "The Weapon," Halo Infinite finally opened up. I made may way to the nearby semi-destroyed ring world, dubbed "Zeta Halo," along with my soldier buddy. After clearing out a Forward Operating Base (or FOB) filled with baddies, I was presented with something rarely seen in Halo: choice. Before me lay a chunk of Zeta Halo that I could explore freely. Judging from my map, which was populated by taking over that FOB, there was plenty to do. I could rescue some nearby soldiers, go hunt for new equipment, or take on notorious targets. This Halo was my oyster (or more fittingly, a broken disc-shaped sea creature of some kind).

I chose to embrace the freedom. My next story mission could wait. As I wandered around Zeta Halo, a grassy environment that's clearly reminiscent of the first entry, I quickly learned that the grappling hook was more than just a way to climb up. It also gives you a bit of a speed boost as you traverse the open world. Movement in Halo has always been slow, a quirk that likely made the game easier for players to grasp when console shooters were rare.

343 Industries/Microsoft

Halo Infinite still feels a bit like you're trying to hop around on the moon, but I appreciated being able to zip forward quickly by grappling onto a nearby hill or tree. You can also dash, something that the series didn't have until its fourth major entry, Halo Reach, but this time around it's more like a light jog. Time and again, it was the grappling hook that saved my Spartan butt if I needed to quickly run from a battle. It also gives you the freedom to approach enemies from multiple angles. When I noticed some soldiers pinned down by the Banished, I was able to scale up the side of a cliff and clear out the aliens easily.

While Halo Infinite technically presents you with an open world, it's more akin to a slimmed-down Far Cry map than something filled with detail like Assassin's Creed or Grand Theft Auto. Zeta Halo feels large, but it's not exactly teeming with life (though it's nice to see a few stray animals hopping around). Still, the ability to chart my own path felt thrilling, and investigating waypoints was well worth it. Helping those soldiers, for example, gave me valor points which can unlock new weapons at FOBs. There are also Spartan Cores throughout the map, which can be used to upgrade your equipment (I was quick to beef up my shields and make my grappling hook faster.) Everyone will be able to turn Master Chief into their own customized super soldier.

As you'd expect, everything in Halo Infinite ultimately comes down to you blasting aliens into a pulp. Sometimes, you blow stuff up. But 343 Studios still found a few ways to change up the gameplay. When you go after a High Value Target, for example, you have to be prepared take on a over-powered enemy that's typically surrounded by plenty of goons. Some of those encounters took me several tries on the Heroic difficulty setting, which forced me to optimize and reassess my attack strategy. Taking down those notorious bad guys nets you unique guns and plenty of valor points.

For a bigger challenge, you could also try to take over Banished Outposts teeming with enemies. Tackling one of those down was a multi-step process: I sniped the tougher looking soldiers from afar, grappled along the rooftops, and manually opened up and destroyed four fuel cores. What started out as a semi-stealth mission turned into an all-out frag fest—at one point I hopped into a trusty Battle Tank and started blasting Banished ships left and right. The escalation of that encounter left me breathless.

I waited until the very last moment before I tackled that overdue story mission—I just wanted to explore every nook and cranny of the world before my preview session was up. By that point, my shields and grappling hook were upgraded several times, and I fully grasped the importance of approaching combat encounters thoughtfully. As I peered at the looming tower before me, I noticed a rocky outcrop along one side. A bit of grappling led me to a sniper's nest, where I found a rifle that helped me take out some of the more dangerous Brutes.

343 Industries/Microsoft

I could only do so much damage remotely, though. So I held my breath, took a running start, and leaped towards several Banished soldiers patrolling a nearby tower. I couldn't quite clear the distance on my own, but thankfully my trusty grappling hook pulled me right up. At that point, I was in a typical Halo firefight, but it felt all the more special because I chose how to get there. 

Once I made my way into the center of the tower, a new tool awaited me: the threat detector. Think of it like a three-dimensional radar that can be deployed on any surface. It shows you exactly where enemies are hiding for a limited period. That was particularly useful as I made my way up every level of the tower, which was filled with Banished aliens waiting around corners and hiding behind debris. The threat detector was also key to defeating that mission's boss, a Banished leader who spent the entire fight cloaked in invisibility. (Not so sportsman-like, I know.)

Despite the rocky start, I came away from my glimpse at Halo Infinity's campaign with the urge to keep exploring. I wanted to optimize my Master Chief build, and I was eager to see if the game would somehow wrap up his relationship with Cortana, his previous AI who turned into a galactic threat. Mostly, though, I was curious to see what else 343 Industries had in store. After a decade leading the franchise, it seems like the studio is finally ready to let Halo evolve.

343 Industries/Microsoft

That's also true of Halo Infinity's free-to-play multiplayer mode, which Microsoft launched this week as a celebratory surprise. As someone who mainly plays Halo for its campaign, I really didn't expect much from the game's multiplayer, but it still managed to hook me during 343's closed betas. Now that it's open to everyone (though still a beta), I'm even more impressed. The maps are fun and inventive, the gunplay feels tight, and every match feels like a life-or-death battle between super soldiers. It's the closest the franchise has come to replicating the glory days of Halo 3 (or back when I was hooked on the first game in college). And judging from its massive popularity on Steam, where more than 270,000 people were playing on launch day, it seems like for many gamers, the wait was worth it.

Three years after its initial announcement, Windjammers 2 doesn’t have a release date yet, but the good news is it’s coming to Xbox Game Pass. Developer Dotemu shared that tidbit of new information in a trailer it posted on Wednesday. When it finally launches, Windjammers 2 will be available on Game Pass for both PC and Xbox, and it will support online crossplay across all Xbox and PC versions of the title. That means Steam and Game Pass users will have the chance to play against one another.

The trailer also offers a look at the two final characters that will make up the game’s initial 12-person roster. There’s Jodi Costa, who fans will recognize from the 1994 original, and newcomer Sammy Ho. Both have their own set of special moves you’ll need to master to make the most of their capabilities. In addition to PC and Xbox, Dotemu will release Windjammers 2 on Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, PlayStation 4 and PS5.