Table of Contents
TOAlong with some worthy winners: Balatro, Astro Bot and Metaphor: ReFantazio swept the board. the game prizes Last Thursday brought a generous amount of year-end announcements, like unexpected gifts under the tree. In terms of newsworthy reveals, it was the best show yet – it felt a bit like an old-school E3 conference. If you, understandably, weren’t watching a three-hour video game awards show live from Los Angeles that aired after midnight UK time, here’s what’s worth knowing.
A first look at The Witcher IV
We know that CD Projekt has been developing another dark fantasy RPG in Poland for some time, but now we’ve seen it. The next Witcher game It stars white-haired warrior Ciri, rather than her sort of father figure, Geralt, and the trailer shows her locked in combat with an impressively gruesome monster. Hell yeah, I saw this entire trailer: I spent about 200 hours on The Witcher III back in the day and I can’t wait to see this. immensely.
A new game of naughty dog
The next project from the developers of The Last of Us is called Intergalactic: the heretic prophet and, as the name suggests, it is science fiction. You are trapped on a planet at the edge of the known galaxy that no one has returned from in 600 years, cut off from communication with civilization. The premise seems a little tired, but I love the sleek lines and bright colors of this space fantasy, and the judicious use of Pet Shop Boys in the trailer.
us too I saw a new trailer for another promising-looking AAA game: Mafia: The Old Country, set in Sicily. (Our Guardian games columnist Dominik Diamond recently played the original Mafia remake, to see if he was too old to finally become a gangster.)
Sequels I never expected to see
Yo beloved the painterly, Zelda-like Ōkami from 2006, in which you play a wolf god who fights demons in ancient Japan with the help of a magical ink brush, but I had long since given up hope of seeing a sequel ( apart from 2010’s Ōkamiden, made by a different studio). So the announcement that Hideki Kamiya, the original director of the game, is working on Okami 2 in his new studio Clovers was a surprise comparable to the presentation of Shenmue III at E3 2015. The name of the studio is a joke: Kamiya’s old studio, which made the original Ōkami, was Clover.
Another unexpected announcement from Capcom was a new Onimusha game – another PS2-era hit about samurai in feudal Japan, just as exciting but significantly more forgiving than the Ninja Gaiden action games (which are also getting a side scrolling sequel). Sega is also getting in on the revivals: the team behind Like a Dragon has been tasked with working on a new installment in the Virtua Fighter series. And even ’90s dinosaur hunter Turok gets another chance in a new game called Turok: origins (warning: violent trailer).
Cooperative classics of the future
Swedish developer Hazelight is known for its cooperative games A Way Out, about two brothers trying to escape from prison, and It Takes Two, a magical-realistic platformer about a couple on the brink of divorce. The next one is about two aspiring writers (of science fiction and fantasy) who get trapped together in a virtual reality simulation of their stories. You switch between fighting dragons and mechs. is called Split Fiction.
Meanwhile, the new game from the creators of Overcooked! It’s a spooky cooperative horror affair called stage frightwhich has two players working in escape room style scenarios. AND alsoFromSoftware has a new cooperative spin-off of Elden Ring that sounds a bit like Elden Ring and Monster Hunter. I’m a little skeptical about it, but I’m also thrilled at the prospect of a new FromSoftware game that I can actually finish, because playing it will totally count as quality time with my partner.
And finally…
Fumito Ueda led the team at Sony’s Japanese studio that created Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, and The Last Guardian, a trilogy of standard-setting games that made me think differently about how games can express ideas. Now, in a new studio in Tokyo, he has returned to game development with Project: Robot. There’s barely enough here for a one-minute trailer but I’ll still play anything this guy does any chance I get.
what to play
In the craziness that is being a working parent in December, I have found some peace in Naiada fluid game about how to be a water nymph. Followed by small schools of fish, you will swim through beautiful river landscapes, singing to birds and enjoying piano music and the sounds of nature. Sometimes you reunite lost ducklings with their mother or make a brief appearance in the human world (these are, unfortunately, the most frustrating parts). It has made me feel immersed in nature on my Steam Deck.
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Available in: personal computer
Estimated playing time: 3-4 hours
what to read
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Bloomberg interviewed the general director of CD Projekt Red for more context on how the studio has changed since Cyberpunk 2077 in preparation for The Witcher IV.
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And if you want to know more about the background of that Ōkami sequel, VGC has a great interview with Hideki Kamiya.
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Classic adventure game Beneath a steel sky He turned 30 last week – eurogamer conducted an entertaining interview with its creators to commemorate the occasion.
What to click
Question Block
Thanks to everyone who submitted a selection for the upcoming Games of the Year issue for our readers, and also to those who just wrote in to say how much they enjoyed the newsletter. It really makes my day. One Last Question of the Year is a perennial reader classic. Jessica:
“As usual, I have family coming to me for Christmas and I hope there is a video game that different generations can play together. Everyone is bored with Overcooked. Aid?!”
The Christmas game classics never seem to change: Wii Sports, the Jackbox series of game show-style contests, Just Dance, Mario Kart, 1-2-Switch, Heads Up! for a fun telephone version of charades, and Clubhouse Games for a beautifully crafted collection of virtual card and board games. But in order to offer a really new recommendation: Super Mario Party Jamboree It’s the best virtual board games have ever been. My five year old can play it, so I think anyone could do it.
If you have a question for the ask block, or anything else to say about the newsletter, hit reply or email us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.