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Received today — 19 June 2025

End of Abyss is when Metroidvania meets space horror

17 June 2025 at 14:00

You’d assume that the latest game from the developers that made Little Nightmares 2 is going to be a bit spooky and dark, and Section 9 Interactive's End of Abyss is that. However, it's also a little easier to describe and explain: an atmospheric sci-fi shooter with Metroidvania-style exploration.

While there's no shortage of Metroidvanias to draw inspiration from, when I played a demo at SGF 2025, all I could think of was Alien. It might be the scanner, which the protagonist can use to glean information, spot hidden items and tag room details for further exploration once you’ve got new skills or weapons. Mattias Ottvall, co-creator of the game, praised my tendency to scan everything, which netted me several secret item caches during my demo playthrough.

You’ll have to tag between the scanner and your gun pretty often, too, as biped monsters, spidery little parasites and beefier foes swing their literal heads at you. Fortunately, End of Abyss’ isometric layout is paired with the ability to move and shoot with each analog stick. If things get a little too dicey, your character also has a very forgiving dive roll.

After some early teething issues (scanning an alien zombie instead of shooting it down), the control setup eventually became second nature, and I was tumbling out of the way of an alien golem boss, firing shotgun rounds into its flank. The shotgun, unfortunately, has finite ammo (which you can both craft and find in the world), so I resorted to chipping away with my pistol at a distance.

The brief demo (and teaser trailer) suggest a dark and shady atmosphere similar to the studio’s previous games. Naturally, there’s the occasional scare as you explore this rundown facility.

If you do get overwhelmed, the character gets respawned back into the world — as do the monsters — but any doors unlocked and skills gained are saved. Even better, with a game that centers on exploration, when you come across something that you can’t yet interact with (for example, a weakened wall that could be demolished or a security door that requires a key), scanning it in-game will ‘tag’ the feature on the menu map, making it easier to circle back once you have what you need to progress. During the demo, I unlocked explosives for tackling the weakened walls that were tagged, but I also spotted grapple hook fixtures, presumably for a later point in the game.

The tagging is a nice touch for anyone who struggles to keep track of their path in sprawling Metroidvania games, although this is contingent on how expansive End of Abyss turns out to be. The original Little Nightmares turned out to be a short, but sweet escape – how deep will the abyss go?

End of Abyss is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/end-of-abyss-is-when-metroidvania-meets-space-horror-140049187.html?src=rss

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© Epic Games

End of Abyss

The Morning After: Trump Mobile is a thing

17 June 2025 at 11:16

Oh, Gold. It’s not April 1, it’s just a weird surprise. Donald Trump is launching a phone called Trump Mobile, which comes with wireless plans (starting at $47.25) and even a phone called the T1 Phone.

During the announcement event at Trump Tower in New York City, Donald Trump Jr. said they were building something for “people who have been underserved,” and to “make sure that real Americans could get true value from their mobile carriers.”

(Trump Mobile’s only plan is roughly double that of equivalent offerings at other low-cost carriers, like Mint Mobile and Boost Mobile.)

It’s not just phone service, however: The plan will supposedly include a telemedicine service powered by Doctegrity, roadside assistance provided by Drive America and mobile device protection by Omega Mobile Care.

The T1 Phone will be a gold-accented (of course) smartphone manufactured in the United States. So expect to factor that into what it might eventually cost. (Bloomberg has reported it will be a $500 device.)

According to the Trump Mobile site, the T1 phone will have 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, a rear three-camera setup with a 50MP main camera and a “5000mAh long life camera,” which we’re all guessing is meant to say battery.

— Mat Smith

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The news you might have missed

Meta and Oakley tease a smart glasses collaboration

Something’s happening June 20.

Earlier this year, reports teased that Meta was working with Oakley on smart glasses, and it seems they’ve almost finished the project. A new Instagram account called @oakleymeta has popped up, and its first post teased an announcement for this Friday (June 20). Instagram’s own official account and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared the clip on their stories. Unlike the Ray-Ban iteration, these new smart glasses are said to be for cyclists and other athletes.

Continue reading.

Android 16 is out (on all eligible Pixel phones)

Major updates include new live update notifications.

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Google

Google has released Android 16 to early compatible handsets. The company says new devices will come preloaded with the OS in “the coming months.” As usual, it’s first coming to Google’s own Pixel phones. The biggest noticeable change might be live updates in notifications. This means actions like ride shares and food deliveries will get a progress bar directly in the notifications. Camera wise, Android 16 adds automatic night mode scene detection, hybrid auto exposure and more precise color temperature adjustments. UltraHDR images have been improved, with support for HEIC encoding.

Continue reading.

Teslas hit kid-sized dummies in Full Self-Driving tests

Anti-Tesla organizations repeated the test-drive trial eight times.

Tesla has reportedly pushed back the rollout of its upcoming all-electric, fully autonomous car called the Cybercab. Meanwhile, a recent demonstration in Austin, Texas, showed a Tesla Model Y running through a school bus’ flashing lights and stop signs and repeatedly hitting child-size mannequins. The Dawn Project conducted the tests by , alongside Tesla Takedown and ResistAustin, and showed Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software repeating the same mistake eight times.

Tesla’s autonomous driving feature is formally known as Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and “requires a fully attentive driver.” Tesla even has a warning that says, “failure to follow these instructions could cause damage, serious injury or death.”

Continue reading.

Switch 2 Pro Controller review

Nintendo’s best gamepad simply costs too much.

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Engadget

The Switch 2 Pro controller is the most refined gamepad Nintendo has ever made. It’s just a shame that, at $85, it’s so expensive and doesn’t have Hall effect sticks. There are also a decent number of third-party options, if you’re looking for more refined controls.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111632614.html?src=rss

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© Trump Mobile

Trump Mobile T1 Phone
Received before yesterday

The Morning After: Our verdict on the Switch 2

13 June 2025 at 11:15

You forget how much of a hit, how much of a turnaround, the Nintendo Switch turned out to be. After the major wobble (and baffling form factor) of the Wii U, Nintendo came back with a hybrid console that would replace and fuse its handheld and home console lineages. The console had no right being as playable (and enjoyable) as it was.

Now, finally, its successor has landed. And for once, Nintendo’s calling its new console a sequel. Nintendo took the best features from the original and upgraded nearly all of them.

The major upgrades in hardware include a bigger 7.9-inch LCD screen, a more mature design that feels more solid and significantly upgraded performance and power. The only major drawback is battery life. Nintendo says it should provide between 2 and 6.5 hours of runtime on a single charge, but that depends on how resource-intensive your games are.

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Engadget

According to Sam Rutherford’s review testing: “In Mario Kart World, the Switch 2 lasted two hours and 23 minutes, which is on the lower end of Nintendo’s official estimate. Meanwhile, in the NS2 edition of Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the console fared a bit better with a time of 2:56.” Compared to the OLED Switch’s battery life, it’s a reduction, but it’s also equivalent to other high-powered handhelds, like the ROG Ally X and Steam Deck.

Check out our full review (and perhaps our guide to the best games on the original Switch — because backward compatibility).,

— Mat Smith

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The news you might have missed

Get up to 50 percent off MasterClass subscriptions for Father’s Day

It’s a solid discount.

If you’re struggling to find a good present for Father’s Day, MasterClass has discounted its subscriptions by up to 50 percent. I grabbed a similar deal for myself, unfortunately only 40 percent off, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the solid interface and how many courses are available. Many course videos can even be downloaded for viewing offline.

Continue reading.

Nothing’s Phone 3 will go on sale on Amazon

Best Buy is picking up the handset for Canada.

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Engadget

Nothing CEO Carl Pei has been teasing this news since April, but now it’s official: You might actually be able to buy the company’s next flagship phone. The Nothing Phone 3 will be available to purchase from Amazon or directly from the company. Until now, only the Phone 2 has made it to general sale in the US. For the other models (including the very impressive Phone 3a), users would have to buy a unit via a beta program, which has no after-sale support. Any caveats? Well, there will be no carrier discount. The Phone 3 will support 4G and 5G with AT&T and T-Mobile. While there’s no explicit support for Verizon, the Phone 2 worked well with its network, so that’ll probably be the case with the third phone.

How much? There’s no official US price yet. Pei recently said it would cost £800 in the UK at launch, which would translate to around $1,080 in US dollars.

Continue reading.

An e-bicycle made for two

The Olto has a removable battery.

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Infinite Machine

Infinite Machine made waves with its retro-futuristic P1 electric bike, and now it’s back with the Olto. Its new e-bike boasts 40 miles of range and a top speed of 33 mph, with a 20 mph limit while riding in the bike lane.

Just like the P1, the Olto e-bike looks both futuristic and retro, (like a transformer that turns into a vape.) What’s notable is it can carry two riders at the same time, and you can add accessories, like child carriers.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111554900.html?src=rss

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© Sam Rutherford for Engadget

For the Switch 2, Nintendo is using new red cartridges instead of the black ones used in the original Switch.

Ratatan demands your attention, rhythmically

9 June 2025 at 16:00

Sometimes, you tire of guns, zombies, and sequels; sometimes, you want to lead a bunch of tiny creatures and rhythmically march them into combat, letting the waves of confusion wash over you. That’s what Ratatan is here to do. 

It’s the spiritual successor to Japan Studio and Pyramid’s beloved Patapon rhythmic action series. However, you don’t control Patapons, anymore, but Ratatans – which are completely different. These animal(ish) characters bark button-timing orders to their little squad of Cobun characters, who can launch attacks, assemble around the character you control, evade attacks and more. Inputting command sequences promptly also charges up the "Fever" bar, improving the effectiveness of those actions as well.

I haven’t played the Patapon series, which stretched to three (!) games on the PSP, in years, and while the mechanics are similar, Ratatan is more elaborate, evolved and customizable. At its core, though, it’s the same mechanic that demands you maintain the rhythmic input of commands and avoid attacks. It sounds simple enough, but corralling your Cobuns to follow you into battle and balance special attacks with avoiding damage felt like the gaming equivalent of patting your head and rubbing your stomach. Also, it’s 2025, so it’s a roguelike flavor of rhythmic action. Of course.

You can select between several different animals-with-weapons-and-one-eye, and each comes with a different load-out of Cobun warriors. Some are melee fighters, while others are ranged attackers. You can also buy (or craft) more powerful weapons for each Cobun, adding to the sense of progression. I think that’s needed, as Ratatan is a roguelike take on the Patapons that came before it. You’ll dive into a portal and battle multiple waves of enemies, often picking up buffs or treasure at the end of each wave.

Each run is then typically capped off with a boss fight, either against a smarter, smaller enemy (and its underlings) or a more monstrous threat. During my demo, I was mostly getting beaten by a giant hermit crab, despite having picked up a very useful freezing attack buff during that run. I had to learn that lesson: You can pick up all the buffs you want, but you’ll still need to nail the rhythm of attack and defense, while simultaneously keeping an eye on enemy attacks and the placement of both your character and your adorable Cobun fighters. (Ratatan’s character designs are inspired by Nelnal, best known for their work on Pokémon and Deltarune.)

Further fight dynamics include a jump move and guard move that combines the Ratatan and Cobun movements to avoid game-ending damage. Fortunately, the early parts of the game didn’t demand mastery of these.

There’s an early Ratatan demo still available to play on Steam, but the build available at SGF 2025 seems much closer to a finished release. I was able to explore the game’s hub world, filled with shops for upgrades, crafting and organizing your Ratatans’ band of Cobun warriors. These parts felt a little confusing when served alongside the starting levels of the game, but should add longevity and interest when folded into the whole game.

Ratatan will launch later this year on PC, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ratatan-demands-your-attention-rhythmically-160048067.html?src=rss

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© Ratata Arts Co.

Ratatan

Everything new at Summer Game Fest 2025: Xbox handheld, Resident Evil Requiem and more

9 June 2025 at 00:34

It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now.

We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days (the show's in-person component runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between.

Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order.

Tuesday, June 3

State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI

Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV.

The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved.

It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year.

Wednesday, June 4

PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines

Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement.

The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026.

Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19) Baby Steps (September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom!

Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect.

Thursday, June 5

Diddly squat

There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It's probably because everyone was playing Nintendo Switch 2.)

Friday, June 6

Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound

It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements.

Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth" (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is real) Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6.

We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's a (literally) jazzy new trailer for your consideration.

Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.

There were countless other announcements at the show, including:

Day of the Devs: Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II

As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here.

Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner. 

Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots.

Here are some of the other games that caught our eye:

The rest: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Light

After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now.

Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia. 

Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing. 

Saturday, June 7

Monument Valley 3, eggs, Camper Van: Make it Home and niche streams

The Wholesome Direct arrived on Saturday, just in time to soothe that weird hangover we all got after the IOI showcase. The Wholesome Direct is a celebration of all things adorable, quaint, peaceful and sweet, and this year included mainstream news about Monument Valley 3 coming to consoles and PC, following a stint as a Netflix exclusive. There was also a release date announcement for the cozy but twisted shop-management sim Discounty, which is about as spooky as the Wholesome Direct ever gets. There’s something sinister about the small town in Discounty, and while we’re still not sure if it’s demons or just the looming specter of capitalism, we know for sure the game is coming to PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on August 21.

Meanwhile, Omelet You Cook hit Steam during the showcase as a nice little surprise. It’s a game about making eggs for picky students in a cafeteria, and of course pleasing Principal Clucker (who is a chicken, yes). Simply put, it looks delicious. The final game we want to shout out from this year’s Wholesome Direct is Camper Van: Make it Home, a perfect little crossover of interior design mechanics and slightly miniaturized objects, which makes for a super cute experience. It came out during the showcase, and it’s live now on Steam.

There were dozens of other announcements during the 2025 Wholesome Direct stream, and the entire thing is worth a watch. You can do so at your leisure, ideally cuddled up with a blanket and a nice drink, right here.

Saturday was also the time for all of the hyper-specific game streams to shine. We saw the Women-led Games show, Latin American Games Showcase, Southeast Asian Games Showcase, Green Games Showcase and Frosty Games Fest. Party!

Sunday, June 8

A new Xbox handheld, Outer Worlds 2 and Black Ops 7

The last big event of the weekend was Xbox, which had its usual breathless showcase. The major news, especially for a publication like Engadget, was the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X, two new Xbox-focused PC handhelds. Internally, they're a lot like ASUS' ROG Ally handhelds, but the grips have been smoothed out to feel more like an Xbox controller in your hands.

The software experience is also different. The Xbox Ally handhelds run Windows 11, but in Microsoft's version of Steam Big Picture mode there'll be fewer background processes and… just a generally lower overhead compared to regular Windows handhelds. Thankfully, Microsoft isn't locking things down, as it'll be able to access other "popular storefronts," which we're taking to mean Steam and Epic. The Xbox Ally will be available closer to the holidays, but price is a huge question mark: The ROG Ally costs significantly more than the Steam Deck and Switch 2. Is Microsoft going to subsidize these things, or are they going to cost $600-$800 like ASUS' own-brand versions?

Side note: A quick screw you to Microsoft for using Hollow Knight: Silksong to show off the new handheld. We're all starving out here, and this was not helpful. I guess the news that it'll be playable on day one on the handheld at least narrows down the release date to "between now and whenever this thing comes out."

Less of a surprise was Outer Worlds 2, which Microsoft said would be at the show well ahead of time. We got a release date — October 29 — and a deep dive into the game's new systems. It looks like an expanded title compared to the original, with an improved combat system and a more fleshed out set of companions. We hope to have more on what's new real soon.

The One More Thing of the show was a new Call of Duty game, Black Ops 7. Truly, when a game comes out every year is it really worth blowing your one more thing on? If only Microsoft had an Xbox-branded handheld to show off, that would've been a really cool note to end the show!

Here are the other bits and pieces worth reading about from the Xbox show:

The rest: Paralives and Blippo+

Paralives has been in the works for what feels like forever, but you'll be able to play it this year: It enters early access on December 8. The indie take on The Sims looks charming as all hell in its latest trailer, and I can't wait.

Blippo+ has been a great distraction since it launched with Playdate season 2, and we found out Sunday that it'll be coming to more platforms soon — in full color, no less! It'll arrive on PC and Nintendo Switch in fall 2025.

Monday, June 9

Now you're all caught up. There's just one event on Monday, and it's the Black Voices in Gaming showcase. It starts at noon ET, and we've embedded the steam below for your viewing pleasure.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/everything-new-at-summer-game-fest-2025-xbox-handheld-resident-evil-requiem-and-more-185425578.html?src=rss

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© Engadget

Summer Game Fest 2025

Lumines Arise combines that addictive puzzling flow with a killer soundtrack

9 June 2025 at 00:00

After a symphony, online multiplayer and a remaster, the well-regarded (and often handheld) puzzler Lumines is getting Enhance’s full synesthetic, Tetris-flowing, treatment. Lumines Arise is almost here.

If you haven’t played the game before, Lumines’ premise centers on rotating and dropping four-square blocks made of one or two colors, building up larger squares of a single color. The game’s timeline sweeps across the playfield – to the beat of the soundtrack – erasing completed squares in its path, while also giving you the brief opportunity to quickly drop more squares, add multiplier combos and score even more points.

Lumines Arise adds a new mechanic to the addictive yet simple puzzle. 'Burst' is a refillable bar that you can trigger with L2/R2, which locks a square on the playing field, allowing you to pile on subsequent blocks. You can initiate Burst once the counter has rolled above 50, although it maxes out at 100. As you might expect for a synesthesia-tickling game like Arise, Burst mode has its own low-key musical accompaniment.

Lumines has never looked better. But that’s not just due to 2025 hardware power, but also design choices for Lumines’ skins – the unhinged wallpaper design and block themes that bubble up as you advance through puzzle stages. They’re delightfully mad and, at times, distracting. (As you play, the view of your Lumines blocks will occasionally ‘zoom’ closer – this is intentional. Game Director Takashi Ishihara said this was to both add some dynamism to what are typically static blocks, but also to pull the players’ attention back to the game at hand. Lumines Arise wants you to focus on the now, not the score, your Burst meter, or your customizable avatar.)

My favorite part of the demo was the final stage, which featured two chameleons simply raving along to the dance music. The soundtrack is, naturally, a banger, too. Lumines Arise features new music from Hydelic, also responsible for the award-winning soundtrack of Tetris Effect: Connected. (The band has already launched one track, "Only Human," on Bandcamp – it’s coming to other streaming services, too.)

On another stage, two skeletal hands, seemingly strung up like puppets, twitch and wriggle as you shift and rotate your blocks. If anything, I think Enhance missed a trick not mapping the finger movements to a DualSense controller. I said that in front of Ishihara because I have zero sense of decorum — apparently, he'd had the same idea. I now consider myself a game designer.

I got to briefly see Lumines Arise running on a Steam Deck, too. The time of the handheld console and PC is now, so it's nice to see a typically made-for-consoles game ready for this new gaming PC form factor.

Ishihara teased that there’s more to reveal ahead of Arise’s launch. The game will launch on both PS5 and Steam, and it will also feature VR compatibility on both platforms. While Enhance wasn’t yet willing to reveal the details, there will also be some form of multiplayer, but it seems like it’ll be in a different form compared to the more adversarial nature of Tetris Effect’s multiplayer modes. 

Additionally, Ishihara wanted to highlight that the avatars, which dance and emote in sync with your in-game actions, now feature legs. That is important, apparently. Enhance is promising more answers in due time. Lumines Arise is set to launch in fall 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/lumines-arise-hands-on-interview-takashi-ishihara-000038767.html?src=rss

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© Enhance

Lumines Arise

Resident Evil Requiem announced at Summer Game Fest 2025

6 June 2025 at 23:11

While many of us soldier on with the remakes and VR takes on the Resident Evil story, Capcom is prepping the next chapter of the story: Resident Evil Requiem. The sequel was fully revealed as part of Summer Game Fest Live, kicking off a week(ish) of gaming announcements and release dates.

Intercutting the starting moments of REs of the past, Capcom did a fake-out, teasing that we'd have to wait a little longer to see Resident Evil Requiem — it turns out they only meant a 30-minute wait.

The teaser trailer raised more questions than answers, teasing locations from previous games, like Raccoon City — and its ruined police department. It appears the game will follow Grace Ashcroft, as she tries unveil grim mysteries and, er, gets kidnapped. She's the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft — a Resident Evil character that I do not remember at all. 

Capcom confirmed a year ago that veteran director Koshi Nakanishi will lead what is definitely not the ninth chapter of Resident Evil. (If you don't count Code Veronica, who even are you?) Nakanishi was involved in the development of Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, among other Resident Evil titles. 

Resident Evil 9 is set to launch on February 27, 2026, but a demo will be playable in August at Gamescom, so book your tickets for Cologne, Germany.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/resident-evil-requiem-announced-at-summer-game-fest-2025-231136129.html?src=rss

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© Capcom

Resident Evil 9

Out of Words is a cozy stop-motion co-op adventure from Epic Games

6 June 2025 at 22:09

A new co-op adventure is coming from Epic Games. Made by WiredFly and Kong Orange, Out of Words will offer a stop-motion-flavored platform adventure that's a little bit cozy and a little bit fantasy. The controllable humans have had their mouths stolen — that's why it's called Out of Words. (It's a little On The Nose.)

The cute figures and creatures have been crafted by hand, and cutscenes suggest they've been stop-motion animated alongside the gaming parts. Alongside the two humans you seemingly control, there's also a cute flying stingray. According to Epic Games, much of that whimsy originates from the mind of acclaimed poet Morten Søndergaard.

Out of Words
Epic Games

A core navigation dynamic will be the ability to invert gravity, allowing players to run upside-down alongside each other. There are other traversal powers, including monstrous arms that can grab and slingshot players across spaces.

Out of Words launches in 2026, and is coming to the Epic Games Store, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/out-of-words-is-a-cozy-stop-motion-co-op-adventure-from-epic-games-220803056.html?src=rss

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© Epic Games

Out of Words

The Morning After: What to expect at Summer Game Fest 2025

3 June 2025 at 11:13

It’s time to game. Kicking off June 6, with Summer Game Fest Live, SGF 2025 runs through to June 9, with the likes of Xbox Games Showcase and even Death Stranding 2 live game premiere likely to make headlines. There is a bunch of others in store, including Day of the Devs. Devolver Direct and Wholesome Direct are peppering the schedule.

For Xbox, games in the pipeline include the new Fable, Perfect Dark, Gears of War: E-Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, Hideo Kojima’s OD and Contraband.

What about Nintendo (although it’s a bit busy) and Sony? Traditionally, both have their own presentations, but there is no word yet on either. Ubisoft usually does a thing too, but nothing’s on the docket.

The most recent headline-makers include a glimpse at The Witcher 4, courtesy of Unreal, and a closer look at IO Interactive’s 007 First Light, a James Bond game from the studio responsible for the incredible Hitman series. Hopefully, there are further surprises. Maybe a Silksong release date? Gosh, I can be silly.

— Mat Smith

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-111341868.html?src=rss

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© Kojima Productions

The player character from Death Stranding 2: On the Beach running through a field of fire.
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