Photo modes are a pretty common feature for video games where players go bounding around an interesting open world. Today, Minecraft joined their ranks, making an in-game camera available in the Minecraft Marketplace as a free add-on called Vibrant Memories. The feature requires a copy of Minecraft's Bedrock Edition on any platform; the Java version doesn't appear to support the camera.
As well as capturing the moment as-is and saving particular camera angles to reuse later, Vibrant Memories will let a player decide whether or not to appear in the image. It will also let them set whether the weather is sunny or rainy and if the time is sunrise, sunset, day or night.
That's a pared-back take on photo mode, but then in many ways, Minecraft is a pared-back game. Sure, it's gotten loads of new features and creatures over the past 15 years, but at heart, it's just about mining and crafting.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/minecraft-now-has-a-photo-mode-with-vibrant-memories-215948221.html?src=rss
Microsoft’s Game Pass is having a very impressive 2025 where the quality and cadence of releases is concerned, and things are showing no signs of slowing down as we settle into the summer months. Highlights of the June lineup include co-op FPS FBC: Firebreak, which joins the service today, Sloclap’s highly-anticipated soccer game, Rematch, and a trio of Warcraft remasters.
Let’s start with probably the most significant addition. Back in May, Engadget’s Jessica Conditt got to play Remedy’s FBC: Firebreakand was tentatively optimistic about what is a pretty major genre-shift for the studio known for single-player games such as Alan Wake and Control (Firebreak is set in the same location as the latter). The important building blocks of a great co-operative shooter were there, and the hope is that Remedy has polished up the experience ahead of launch. FBC: Firebreak also joins PS Plus today as a day one release for both platforms, which should hopefully help get it off the ground.
Also joining today is Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, a roguelite spin-off of 2021’s Lost in Random, that has more than a hint of Hades about it judging by screenshots and fast-paced gameplay clips we’ve seen in the runup to launch.
Another notable Game Pass additions arrives on June 19. Rematchis a soccer game that eschews the more sim-like approach of EA Sports FC in favor of an arcade-style spin on the world’s most popular sport. Matches are 5v5, and you only control one player on your team. There are no offsides, no fouls and no breaks in play, so referees won’t bail you out when something doesn’t go your way. Rematch is the latest game from the Paris-based indie studio Sloclap, who made the incredibly stylish kung fu game, Sifu. It’s no surprise, then, that Rematch’s almost impressionist aesthetic is just as easy on the eye.
It’s also a big month for Game Pass’ ever-growing catalogue of Activision Blizzard games, with the remastered versions of Warcraft I and Warcraft II, as well as Warcraft III: Reforged all being added on June 26. Call of Duty: WWII joins them on June 30. As we head into July, Game Pass subscribers can download or stream Little Nightmares II and Rise of the Tomb Raider, which returns to Microsoft’s service ahead of the game’s 10th anniversary in November.
You can check out the full list of announcements here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/junes-game-pass-additions-include-remedy-co-op-shooter-fbc-firebreak-163131482.html?src=rss
Panic is not messing around with Playdate's second season. After starting off Season Two on the right foot with Dig! Dig! Dino!, Fulcrum Defender and the surprise rollout of Blippo+, the team has followed through with another strong pair of games for week two. The Whiteoutand Wheelsprung are, like the week one games, polar opposites of each other: a somber, narrative-heavy post-apocalyptic adventure and a nutty dirtbike game with realistic(ish) physics.
If you're looking for any throughline between them, I've got you. It's squirrels. You'll see. (Alright I may be reaching, but as both a journalist and a wildlife rehabilitator who is currently raising orphaned squirrels, just let me have this one).
This week also brought an update for the "intergalactic TV service," Blippo+, and it looks like we'll be getting new content for some time to come. The Season Two team wrote in an email accompanying the latest drop that "Blippo+ itself is going to update every week for eleven (!) weeks, every Thursday at 10AM PT [1PM ET]." Once it's all over, there will be reruns. We'll get a countdown for that on week 12, the team says. Now, let's get into the new games.
The Whiteout
Scenic Route Software
Minutes into playing Scenic Route Software's The Whiteout, I became certain that this was going to be another game that would make me cry. The narrative tone is heavy, the atmosphere is bleak and absolutely nothing about it suggests that anything is going to get better… ever. It feels hopeless from the start, but you have to keep trudging along anyway. (If you've ever read The Road, the feeling should be familiar). When I finally reached the end, though, I wasn't in tears — I was totally speechless, in a "mouth hanging open, empty inside" kind of way. It's stunning.
The Whiteout is narrative driven, picking up in a barren post-apocalyptic version of the US in which a snowstorm began one spring and never stopped. The events are set in current times — the onset of the snow occurred in spring 2025 — giving it an eerie, close to home kind of quality. Everything about it feels like something that could happen. As you play through its five chapters, the story is told through the playable character's musings about the past and present. It's all beautifully written, with numerous sentimental moments that felt genuinely heartbreaking.
It did manage to get a few smiles out of me though; the character makes cynical quips here and there, and a nefarious bunch called The Woodpeckers comes to be known simply as "the 'peckers," which got me every time. And the appearance of a squirrel just kind of hanging out in the background served as a refreshing sign of life amid the desolation. (I wondered while playing if the squirrel was a checkpoint, but I'd have to go through it all again to figure that out for sure.)
The gameplay entails mostly linear exploration, searching for resources, solving puzzles and making choices about your next moves. There's not much in the way of action, and you spend most of the game just walking with a slowness that is at times maddening. But, while I definitely would have appreciated the option to speed up even a little (a gentle jog, maybe?), the lethargy helps to illustrate how hard it would be to carry on in such conditions. Backtracking several times to get all the resources you need to progress in some areas is painfully tedious, so the relief when you do complete the action is real. Patience is key in this game.
I fear some people will give up on this title early because of the pace, and I implore you not to do that. It's worth every minute. It's also worth it to play with headphones, as recommended, to really let yourself be immersed in the setting. I stayed up half the night playing and got up early the next morning to finish it, and I'm still thinking about the ending I came to. There are multiple endings according to the creators, so I'll likely dive back in for another go once I've had more time to digest. The Whiteout is without a doubt the most memorable game of both Playdate seasons to date.
Wheelsprung
Nino van Hooff & Julie Bjørnskov
So, you played The Whiteout and now you're depressed. The Playdate team seems to have prepared for this, because the other game that dropped this week with the second release of Season Two may as well be the antidote. Wheelsprung is cute, charming and silly as hell. It's also a pretty challenging (and frustrating) physics game, but I do love a game that pisses me off a little.
The art of Wheelsprung is instantly recognizable as that of Julie Bjørnskov, one of the creators of Escape the Boardgame and Escape the Arcade, which is to say it's oozing whimsy. Bjørnskov made this one with programmer Nino van Hooff. The story is pretty simple: a family with a child who loves nuts — like, enough to scatter them all over the place in joy — has briefly left their home unattended, and you're a squirrel equipped with an absurdly flexible dirtbike who is on a mission to collect as many nuts as possible in their absence. There are nearly three dozen levels to complete, each of them an obstacle course you must figure out how to navigate on the two-wheeler. There's also a level editor to create your own tracks.
The squirrel's dirtbike is basically a Dr. Seuss contraption, and it's capable of some pretty impressive maneuvers. Lean in either direction using the D-pad and it can do a wheelie. Hit the down arrow and it'll instantly turn you to face the other way. But you must always be conscious of your balance. Allowing the squirrel's helmet to so much as tap an obstacle will result in a run-ending wipeout, as of course will all-out crashing. This game forces you to get extremely creative to traverse complicated tracks. There's a leaderboard and ideally you want to finish with the fastest time possible, but for a handful of levels my main goal at first was just figuring out how to make it to the end at all.
I don't want to give away too many hints about how to excel in this game, but I sure have spent a surprising amount of time driving my bike upside down dangling from one wheel, or rocking the bike back and forth to creep forward like an inchworm. It is absolutely ridiculous, and lots of (somewhat rage-inducing) fun.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playdate-season-2-review-the-whiteout-and-wheelsprung-130014285.html?src=rss
A yellow Playdate handheld console is pictured on a wooden surface displaying the title card for the Season 2 game, The Whiteout, which features a snowman with X'ed out eyes
I have not played a single boxing game outside of Wii Sports this century, but that could be about to change. Summer Game Fest Live brought us the reveal of Felt That: Boxing, which stars puppet pugilists.
This project from the appropriately named Sans Strings Studio and Seth Green's animation company, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, is billed as "a comedic, over-the-top boxing game set in a world where the charm of furry puppets collides with the fury of boxing." The clip is structured like a trailer for an underdog sports movie and it is just delightful.
The snippets of gameplay suggest there will be training minigames that include dodging slices of burnt toast that a trainer hurls at your puppet (who is named Fuzz-E) and, uh, plunging a toilet. According to the description on the YouTube video, the developers are aiming to make the "boxing mechanics are intentionally ridiculous, favoring fun over precision, with [puppet] limbs flailing about with an insane sense of chaos." Lovely.
This trailer was immediately the most interesting thing during SGF Live up to that point. Felt That: Boxing does not yet have a release window, but you can wishlist it on Steam now, like I just did.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/heres-a-silly-puppet-boxing-game-you-never-knew-you-needed-215616201.html?src=rss
There will be no shortage of gaming news to come out of Summer Game Fest 2025, but don't forget about the first-ever Frosty Games Fest that will highlight more than 50 video games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. The showcase will kick off its YouTube and Twitch livestreams on Saturday June 7 at 7PM ET.
Organized by industry professionals from the region, Amy Potter, Kieron Verbrugge, Lucy Mutimer and Pritika Sachdev will take us through some upcoming and recently released games from Oceania. If you prefer, you can also tune into the event with various co-streamers, which can be found at Frosty Games Fest's Bluesky account.
To close out Saturday's festivities, Frosty Games Fest will shine a light on titles like Sub-Verge, a psychological narrative puzzle game that takes place underwater from Interactive Tragedy, Limited, and Winnie’s Hole, a turn-based roguelite based on the Winnie the Pooh franchise from Twice Different. The Melbourne-based 10PM Club will also debut its teaser trailer for REAPRIEVE, where you follow a grim reaper at an office desk who's tasked with deleting a soul's memories. Be sure to follow our live reporting of Summer Game Fest 2025, where we'll be on site to cover the latest gaming announcements.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-frosty-games-fest-at-summer-game-fest-2025-220039256.html?src=rss
We're expecting a ton of AAA and indie game announcements during Summer Game Fest 2025, but the Southeast Asian Games Showcase will highlight the best games coming out of the region. The event will offer some exclusive reveals, new trailers and update announcements on more than 45 titles from Southeast Asian game developers. You can catch all the news through the YouTube livestream, which will start Saturday, June 7 at 3PM ET.
The showcase teased some updates with Polychroma Games' Until Then, a narrative adventure game set in a fictional Filipino city, Bit Egg's Lost & Found Co., a quirky hidden object game, and kopiforge's SEDAP! A Culinary Adventure that's equal parts co-op cooking and combat.
Right before the Southeast Asian Games Showcase, you'll be able to catch the Latin American Games Showcase at 2PM ET and the Women-Led Games Showcase at 1PM ET, both on June 7. For the rest of the Summer Game Fest 2025, tune into Engadget's coverage, where we'll have in-person reports on some of the biggest gaming announcements expected during the event.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-southeast-asian-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-181518526.html?src=rss
Summer Game Fest 2025 is just around the corner and it'll be a weekend packed with video game news. The event kicks off on June 6, with roughly a dozen livestreams scheduled to take place from then through June 8. Among them is the Latin American Games Showcase, which will highlight over 50 titles from Latin American indie developers. You can tune into the YouTube stream on Saturday, June 7 at 2PM ET (11AM PT).
Last year's Latin American Games Showcase at SGF gave us a glimpse at a ton of games to be excited about, like the recently released title, Despelote, that's both memoir and soccer game. We don't know yet what the 2025 showcase will bring, but there's sure to be some gems. Before the Latin American Games Showcase on Saturday, Summer Game Fest Live will usher in the festivities on June 6 at 5PM ET (2PM PT).
We have all the info you need to know right here ahead of Summer Game Fest and will be on the ground getting some hands-on time with many of the games you'll see featured in the showcases, so be sure to check back in for the latest news.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-latin-american-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-210009391.html?src=rss
The Women-Led Games Showcase will be returning for its second year at the Summer Game Fest 2025. It will feature 39 titles from women-led and majority women development teams, and viewers can expect to see deep dives, release announcements and information on DLCs during the event. The Showcase will take place on June 7 at 1PM Eastern time and will be streamed live on Twitch and YouTube, which is embedded below. You can also watch the stream through various co-streamers' Twitch channels that you can find from the Women-Led Games' X account. Take note that the team will also be running a Steam sale event from June 6 to 13 for women-led titles.
In addition to this showcase, Summer Game Fest 2025 will also feature several other events, such as Day of the Dev for indie titles and Wholesome Direct for cozy games. There will be a showcase for titles created by Latin American developers, a Green Games event for titles that make direct contributions to green initiatives and an Xbox Games Showcase for updates on titles from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. You can also watch the live premiere for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach on June 8 at 10PM Eastern time.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/how-to-watch-the-women-led-games-showcase-at-summer-game-fest-2025-190005489.html?src=rss
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