FROM NINTENDOLIFE.COM
Uncover treasures and mysteries of the ancient world alongside Lara Croft in three classic Tomb Raider adventures – now remastered and featuring each game’s expansion content. Face off against deadly foes, reveal dangerous myths and solve puzzles with upgraded graphics and the option to switch to the original polygonal look at any time. Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft is available for pre-order later today and launches digitally in Nintendo eShop and in the My Nintendo Store on Nintendo.com on Feb. 14, 2024, just in time to celebrate Lara Croft’s birthday!
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FROM GIZMODO.COM
During its “Drop 01" livestream event, Netflix unveiled the first official look at its Tomb Raider anime, The Legend of Lara Croft. The show was originally announced back in 2021 and marks the first new piece of Tomb Raider media since the 2018 reboot movie starring Alicia Vikander.
Set in the same continuity as Crystal Dynamics’ Survivor trilogy of games—which encompassed the titular 2013 reboot, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider—the series from Castlevania studio Powerhouse Animation stars Haley Atwell as that continuity’s version of Lara Croft. While plot details are currently under wraps, the big thing worth knowing is that Lara appears to be raiding tombs and ends up getting involved in something supernatural that’ll require her to set things right before the world becomes endangered. Like her video game counterpart, this Lara has the only two friends she’s ever truly needed: a pickaxe for climbing and a bow and arrow for silent kills.
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FROM IGN.COM
Nightdive Studios, who recently remastered classic first-person games System Shock and Quake 2, is doing the same to another first-person legend: Star Wars: Dark Forces. It is in development for all major platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Watch the announcement trailer above.
The single-player-only Star Wars FPS first released in 1995 for PC and was the first adventure for players as Kyle Katarn, who would go on to become a Jedi in Jedi Knight and its sequels. You don't ever get your hands on a lightsaber in Dark Forces, but it's remembered fondly for its memorable missions and difficult boss fights. "I think the audience will appreciate the degree of challenge," Nightdive's Larry Kuperman told IGN.
The remaster cleans up the 28-year-old Dark Forces gameplay and cutscenes similarly to how Nightdive approached the recent Quake 2 remaster: with its in-house Kex Engine, thus allowing modern controls and features like 4K resolution, widescreen support (the original was in the old 4:3 aspect ratio days with 1024x768 resolution), and 60fps. "What we really try to do is bring back the way you felt when you played the original," Kuperman said. "That's our mission." He added, "Our mantra is always about preservation. And you don't preserve things by changing them."
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From KOTAKU.COM
A teaser for a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake coming to PlayStation 5 nearly stole the show at Sony’s September 2021 showcase. But reports surfaced last year that the project was already in trouble. Now Star Wars fans have noticed that Sony recently deleted tweets about the game and has hidden the trailer from its official YouTube channel.
Word that the teaser trailer had been removed from PlayStation’s channel first began to spread on September 28 on the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit. Twitter user Crusader3456 later shared a thread showing that Sony’s tweets about the teaser from the original 2021 PlayStation Showcase had also been deleted. The only official mention left appears to be a single tweet promoting multiple games from the livestream.
It’s possible the highly anticipated KOTOR remake is still alive and this is just some weirdness on the part of Sony’s social media department. It also might be the case that the project, which debuted as a PS5 exclusive, has all but been canceled amid ongoing development issues and massive budget cuts at parent publisher Embracer. Sony and Embracer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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EXCLUSIVE FROM ENTERTAINMENTWEEKLY.COM
Following the success of its debut feature, Nimona, Annapurna Animation is ready to launch its next phase of movies.
Multiple projects are now in the works as key creative positions have been put in place, including a new project from Nimona co-director Nick Bruno and the next title from Ice Age director Chris Wedge, EW can exclusively report.
Among other intriguing items on the agenda for the division are plans to adapt video games from Annapurna Interactive, the gaming branch of the indie studio. First up is Stray, the award-winning adventure game from the developers at BlueTwelve Studio.
Released in 2022, Stray puts players in control of a stealthy cat who must traverse an underground city populated by robots and mutant bacteria with the help of a friendly drone, B-12.
Robert Baird, who leads Annapurna Animation with Andrew Millstein, joined his fellow former Disney Animation executive for an interview with EW on a Monday afternoon in late August — having just come from a Stray brainstorming meeting.
"This is a game that's all about what makes us human, and there are no humans in it," he says. "It's a buddy comedy about a cat and a robot, and there's such a hilarious dynamic. So, there's comedy inherent in this, but there's not one human being in this movie. I think it's one of the reasons why the game was incredibly popular, that you are seeing the world through the point of view of an adorable cat. How did they pull that off, and how are we going to pull that off in the movie? We will, even though sometimes it feels impossible, but we know that's the essence of the game and the key to telling the story."
Baird went on to say that there's "something so emotional" that the creators are trying to capture when adapting the game to film. BlueTwelve, he explains, described the game as having a "sort of 'hopepunk' vibe," a narrative concept that optimism is a form of resistance. "I love that term, hopepunk," he says. "I think, if we are going to do this adaptation justice, this is going to be the first and greatest hopepunk movie that's ever been made.
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FROM THE VERGE.COM
After Unity announced, then modified, then reannounced its new runtime fee program, the video game development community wanted to know how and why this disastrous rollout happened. In addition to the letter Unity Create president Marc Whitten published on Friday, he also held a live fireside chat on YouTube in which he addressed some of the community’s biggest questions and concerns.
One of the first things Whitten did, both in his letter and during the chat, was offer an apology.
“I just wanna say I’m sorry,” Whitten said in his Q&A with Jason Weimann, a YouTube creator known for his Unity tutorials. “It’s very clear that we did not take enough feedback before we rolled out the program.”
One of the first and most important questions asked had also been circulating throughout social media since Unity’s initial announcement: “why?” Why add onto Unity’s current pricing plan — which was a tiered, subscription-based service — something that quickly became universally reviled and just as quickly walk it back?
“The most fundamental thing that we’re trying to do is [build] a sustainable business for Unity,” Whitten answered. He said the runtime fee was meant to be a “balanced exchange” between Unity and its users that would incorporate a kind of “shared success.”
Additionally, the new plan now offers developers a choice. They can either pay fees based on “a calculated amount based on the number of new people engaging with your game each month” or a flat 2.5 percent of all revenue, whichever is lower.
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FROM BLOOMBERG.COM
Video-game developer Striking Distance Studios, a subsidiary of Korean publisher Krafton Inc., is appointing new management several months after the commercial flop of its first game.
Chief Executive Officer Glen Schofield is leaving, a Krafton representative confirmed Wednesday, saying he has “decided to pursue new opportunities.” Striking Distance’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer are also leaving. Krafton said all three departures were voluntary.
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FROM PCGAMER.COM
The spirit of Tolkien's Shire has always lent itself to the cozy game aesthetic. It's been a dream of those with a love of all things that grow for some time but finally, someone has decided to turn their hand at a cozy Shire game. And it's not just any old game studio taking the lead here. Tales of the Shire will be coming straight from the hands of the official Lord of the Rings special effects studio, Wētā Workshop, in New Zealand.
As part of the celebrations for Hobbit Day, Wētā Workshop showed off a teaser trailer in its recent tweet, though it doesn't give much away. It's a short and intimate journaling session with a particularly artsy hobbit, who's making the finishing touches to a watercolour of a monotone character in their notebook.
Wētā Workshop will be working with publisher Private Division to get the game to us on PC and console in 2024 so we can finally live out our days in peace. And although Tales of the Shire hasn't shown up on Steam yet, you can check up on the progress through Private Division's official store page.
We'll have to wait until next year for the game's features to be fully revealed, but at least we can say it's happening. No longer will we, as gentle halfling folk, be dragged off on wild adventures—bothersome things—only to find our home and all its contents being auctioned off to our greedy cousins.
"Not today! Good morning!"
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FROM KOTAKU.COM
Sega has canceled the yet-to-be-released Hyenas, an extraction shooter set in space that was in development at Total War and Alien Isolation studio Creative Assembly. The publisher also canceled several other, unannounced games as part of “structural reforms” across its European operations.
Announced in June 2022, Hyenas was described as a “sci-fi space piracy multiplayer FPS” pitting teams of players against each other and NPCs as they fought to steal valuable items and pieces of pop culture, like Sonic statues and Rubik’s cubes. On September 11, the game wrapped up its most recent beta. 17 days later, Sega and the developers behind Hyenas confirmed it was canceled.
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FROM KOTAKU.COM
Netflix revealed a teaser trailer for its upcoming Devil May Cry anime during the Drop 01 showcase, a livestreamed event where the streamer showcased new shows coming to its service in the near future.
Devil May Cry, developed by Capcom back in 2001, was a highly influential character-action game that followed Dante, a gun-slinging, pizza-eating devil hunter who protected the world from demons, at least so long as the money’s good. As the son of a once-powerful demon, Sparda, Dante used his demonic powers to defeat devils in style by juggling them in the air using an arsenal of weapons he’d made out of their fallen brethren. Later on in the series, Dante aligned himself with fellow devil hunters Trish and Lady, and battled his evil brother, Vergil.
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FROM PCGAMER.COM
Telltale Games has laid off an unknown portion of its staff, in an unfortunate deja vu moment for a handful of its employees.
Word of the layoffs first began circulating when Jonah Huang, a former cinematic artist for the developer, published a series of tweets that claimed Telltale had let go "most" of its staff in early September, adding that he was unable to comment on the status of The Wolf Among Us 2—which was delayed earlier this year—thanks to being under NDA.
For Huang, it's the second time this has happened to him. It's been five years to the month since the original Telltale crumbled, letting go the majority of its staff to leave a skeleton crew in September 2018 before officially shutting up shop on October 11, 2018. Half a decade and a second Telltale layoff later, Huang ended his tweet thread by saying: "Telltale gave me a good deal this time around, but still, it ended the same way most jobs in games end: a layoff, not a retirement. I ask my fellow game devs to fight for better."
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FROM PCGAMER.COM
Having completed a three-year comeback that finally turned it into the game it should have been on launch day, it looks like Cyberpunk 2077 is now headed for television screens. CD Projekt Red announced today that it is working with production company Anonymous Content on a "live-action project" that will tell a brand new story set in Night City.
The project is still in the early development stages and currently doesn't have a screenwriter, although a search for one is underway. CD Projekt said it's working "directly" with Anonymous Content Studios' head of television Garret Kemble and various other executives and producers, and that it is being developed "in close collaboration with the Cyberpunk 2077 creative team."
Anonymous Content has been around for more than 20 years, during which it's been involved with a number of television and film projects including True Detective, Schitt's Creek, The Revenant, 13 Reasons Why, and Random Acts of Flyness. It's also at least technically working on another live-action videogame project, Life is Strange, although that one was announced seven years ago and there's still no sign of it yet.
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FROM PCGAMER.COM
CD Projekt studio head Adam Badowski said during an investors presentation today that the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077 is officially underway, but still very, very early in the process.
Phantom Liberty will be the one and only expansion to Cyberpunk 2077, which is both good and bad news: Bad because, now that it's finally all squared away, we want more Cyberpunk 2077, but good because it means the focus has shifted to the full-scale sequel, announced in October 2022 as Project Orion. But—and really, this should come as no surprise—anyone hoping to get their hands on it anytime soon should probably temper their expectations.
"We decided not to develop any more add-ons for CP2077, but rather to start designing a full sequel to the game under the Project Orion codename," CD Projekt Red studio head Adam Badowski explained during the presentation. "This project is on the conceptual design level right now, and it's going to be designed by a team of veterans who were responsible for designing Cyberpunk 2077 and designing Phantom Liberty.
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