Reports over the last couple of years have suggested that not only was Meta working on a smartwatch, it was developing one with two cameras. However, that project is on hold, according to Bloomberg, as Meta is focusing on other wearables instead.

The long-rumored smartwatch was pegged as a possible Apple Watch competitor and the report suggests it was expected to go on sale next spring for around $349. A prototype was said to have features including activity tracking, a calendar, photo gallery and heart rate monitoring. It's believed to have had an 18-hour battery life.

Apps included Spotify, as well as ones for Meta's own WhatsApp and Instagram Stories. The prototype reportedly did not have a native app store. Instead, the idea was that you'd manage the device using your Facebook account. Naturally, you would have been able to post to Facebook and Instagram from the watch.

The device reportedly had WiFi, GPS and eSIM support and a removable watch face with two side buttons, one of which was a circular control (it's unclear if this was an Apple Watch crown-style dial). It was said to feature a five-megapixel camera on the watch face and a 12-megapixel one on the rear. The latter was designed to be usable after the watch face was removed.

That second camera appears to have caused issues during development — its positioning reportedly interfered with sensors that turned feedback from the wearer's nerves into digital signals. The company has mulled the idea of using smartwatches as input devices for its take on the metaverse, with users being able to control avatars or engage with VR spaces through gestures.

Along with technical complications, it seems that broader issues at Meta played a role in the device being put on hold. A report last month suggested the company has killed off some Meta Reality Labs projects as it looks to rein in spending. Meta has shaken up its leadership team in recent weeks as well.

Still, the work of the engineers who were on the dual-camera watch project may not be in vain. Meta may use some of the features in other wearables. There's a possibility of the project being revived at a later date too.

Meanwhile, Meta is also said to have scaled back on its ambitions for augmented reality glasses. According to The Information, the company is no longer expected to release its first-generation augmented reality glasses in 2024. That device is now said to be earmarked for use as a demo product. The report suggests Meta is instead focusing on the second-gen AR glasses, meaning it could be several years before the device hits the market. 

In addition, the report suggests Meta will no longer make Portal devices for consumers. The company is said to be planning to turn Portal smart displays into a product line aimed at businesses.

Ustwo, the studio behind Monument Valley and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, is working on a new game called Desta: The Memories Between. It features a blend of roguelike, turn-based and sports-game mechanics, and it's in development for multiple platforms — though exactly which remains a mystery, as does the game's release date. The studio promises to share more information in the coming months.

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Desta takes place in two worlds, reality and a limbo made up of the protagonist's memories, and its main gameplay mechanic involves throwing around a blue ball. The story follows Desta, a person in their 20s who returns home after leaving their loved ones in chaos a while back. Desta's dad has died, and when they find his treasured blue ball, they're transported to a dreamlike world where they can confront their past and speak with the people they left behind. Solving physics and spatial puzzles with the ball unlocks dialogue with Desta's friends and family members, and helps them find the necessary words to move forward.

The game is fully voice acted, and ustwo developers are pulling inspiration from games like Hades and Into the Breach for its mechanics.

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"Desta is the deepest, most ambitious and most replayable title from ustwo games yet, but with all the heart and approachability that the London studio is known for," according to ustwo.

As if official confirmation was actually needed after the leak earlier today, a remake of 2013's The Last Of Us is coming to PlayStation 5 on September 2nd. Sony put together a trailer showing some of the gorgeous visuals of The Last of Us Part I and noted that the remake is coming to PC as well. The bundle also includes the excellent Left Behind expansion.

The developers used original performances from Ashley Johnson, Troy Baker, and the rest of the cast, but utilized a new AI and refreshed the combat. The effects and exploration have been enhanced as well. The team is harnessing 3D audio and the DualSense controller's adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. There will be more accessibility features than the original game had too, building on the extensive options in The Last of Us Part II. More details will be revealed in the coming months.

The remake is a full-price game at $70. Opt for the $80 Digital Deluxe edition and you'll be able to unlock some items and features early, including a speedrun mode, explosive arrows(!), weapon skins and modifiers for faster crafting and healing. The $100 Firefly edition includes all of those bonuses as well as a steelbook cover for the physical version and four issues of the The Last of Us: American Dreams comic. There are pre-order perks for every version too.

That's not the only news about the franchise that was revealed today. It's long been acknowledged that a standalone multiplayer games set in the world of The Last of Us was in the works, and now Naughty Dog has revealed more details about what's in store. Studio co-president Neil Druckmann, the director of the first two games in the series, showed the first concept art at Summer Game Fest.

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Druckmann said it will be "as big of as any of our single-player games that we've done, and in some ways bigger." It has its own story and a new cast of characters, along with a fresh setting. It's led by a team of Naughty Dog veterans who have worked on the series as well as the Uncharted games. More details will be announced next year. 

Following that announcement, Druckmann touched on the HBO's upcoming The Last of Us series. While lots of set photos have popped up over the last year, he showed the second official still from the show. It shows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and (Bella Ramsay) taking cover. Bump up the brightness on the image, though, and you'll see something lurking in the background.

PlayStation Productions/HBO

It also emerged that Johnson and Baker, who played Ellie and Joel in the games, will appear in the show, but their roles haven't been revealed as yet. Filming will wrap on the first season tomorrow. While the series is expected to arrive next year, Druckmann said that fans will hear more about it "very soon."

Bloober Team is returning to its roots with Layers of Fears, a "psychological horror chronicle" heading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC in early 2023. The game is a new story chapter in the Layers of Fear universe, building on the spooky psychedelic foundation laid out in the previous installments.

"We are bringing back a franchise that is really special for us, in a new form that will give players a truly fresh gaming experience and that will shed new light on the overall story," Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno said in a press release. "Our plan was to recreate the games, but we didn’t want to make it a simple collection of two remastered games. We’ve worked out a new approach, something that is maybe not yet obvious. But I can tell you there’s a reason why we called it Layers of Fears."

Bloober Team launched its original horror franchise in 2016 with Layers of Fear and an expansion subtitled Inheritance. A full sequel came out in 2019, and throughout the years Bloober Team has partnered with major studios to create spooky games including Blair Witch and The Medium.

Last year, Bloober Team entered into a partnership with Konami, the publisher of the Silent Hill franchise, fueling rumors that the studio was working on a remake of Silent Hill 2. These rumors came to a head just before the Summer Game Fest kickoff show this year — but turns out, it was Layers of Fears all along. The studio is reportedly working on multiple games simultaneously, so there's still a chance for Bloober Team to get in on the Silent Hill franchise.

Bloober Team is co-developing Layers of Fears with Anshar Studios, which also helped out with Observer: System Redux.

You no longer need cords (or a PlayStation) to continue the Moss saga. Polyarc has revealed that Moss: Book II is coming to the Quest 2 VR headset on July 21st. The core experience remains intact — you help the mouse heroine Quill as evil forces try to claim the Glass she holds. The difference, of course, is that the Quest 2's stand-alone design and dual controllers promise more gameplay freedom compared to the PSVR version.

You can add Book II to your wishlist now. The launch comes months after the game's March 31st debut on PSVR, but it's arguably worth the wait. The PlayStation release not only tethers you to a console, but relies on a conventional gamepad. This brings the game to a wider audience while taking better advantage of VR's potential.

Fans of Donut Country creator Ben Esposito won't have to wait much longer to play his new game. At Summer Game Fest, Annapurna Interactive announced Neon White is launching on June 16th on both PC and Nintendo Switch. Alongside news of a release date, the publisher also shared a new gameplay trailer, showcasing the game's unusual mix of platforming and card-based shooting. Engadget senior editor Jessica Conditt interviewed Esposito about the game last March and came away excited to play it.    

NASA wants a deeper understanding of the many unexplained, flying objects that appear in the sky. The agency is launching a study team this fall to observe UFOs, now known as UAPS (unidentified aerial phenomena). While it may be tempting to think of UFOs as the stuff of sci-fi and conspiracy theories, NASA’s announcement states right off the bat that there is “no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin.” Instead, the focus of the mission appears to be on gathering data and furthering our scientific understanding of UAPs. There’s a practical reason why. Unexplained flying objects — no matter the origin — can pose a threat to flight safety and national security, as military officials have noted.

“The limited number of observations of UAPs currently makes it difficult to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of such events. Unidentified phenomena in the atmosphere are of interest for both national security and air safety. Establishing which events are natural provides a key first step to identifying or mitigating such phenomena, which aligns with one of NASA’s goals to ensure the safety of aircraft,” said the agency in its announcement.

NASA is far from the only US government agency with an interest in UAPs. Last month, Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in over 50 years, where Pentagon officials noted that reports of UAPs are more frequent now than in the past. More than 143 incidents of unidentified flying objects have been reported to the Pentagon since 2004 and remain unexplained, according to a report released last year by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

NASA’s UAP study will be led by astrophysicist David Spergel of the Simons Foundation and NASA’s Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. The study will take nine months to complete, and the team will consult with a field of experts in science, aeronautics and data analytics.

Upon the study’s conclusion, NASA promises to make both its findings and all the collected data public. “All of NASA’s data is available to the public – we take that obligation seriously – and we make it easily accessible for anyone to see or study,” Evans said in a statement.

Publisher Coffee Stain is dipping its hooves back into the world of livestock-based chaos. Goat Simulator 3 was announced during Thursday's Summer Game Fest showcase. It's coming to Xbox, PlayStation and Epic Games Store this fall.

As fans of the series will expect, it's an open-world adventure game. You'll headbutt and lick anything and everything as you triple-jump across the island of San Angora, which is packed with fresh areas, challenges and events. There's four-player couch and online co-op. You'll be able to explore the island together and butt heads in seven minigames.

You'll be able to customize your goat with gear that enhances their abilities. You can kit them out with questionable fashion choices like tea trays and toilet rolls, or skip to the inevitable and slap a jetpack on their back.

In 2020, Starcraft 2 production director Tim Morten left Blizzard to start Frost Giant Studios. At Summer Game Fest, he finally showed off what he and his team have been working on for the past two years. We got our first look at Stormgate, a new free-to-play real-time strategy game that runs on Unreal Engine 5. Morten didn't share too many details on the project but said the game would feature two races at launch.  

Frost Giant features some serious talent. In addition to Morten, former Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne campaign designer Tim Campbell is part of the team working on Stormgate. Frost Giant plans to begin beta testing the game next year. 

Nearly full, honest decade after it was first shown off at Gamescom 2012, Lunar Software and Raw Fury made an appearance at Summer Game Fest 2022 to show off the new trailer for the long-awaited space survival horror, Routine.

Set in an abandoned and derelict planetary research station, players must investigate the mysteries surrounding fates of its former inhabitants, all while hounded by a deadly lurking threat that may or may not be of the mechanical variety. Lunar Software has reportedly rebuilt the game "from the ground up" to take advantage of the new generation of console hardware capabilities. Routine will be released on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass, though there is no release date set at this time.