@IGN Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was shown off at E3.

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Watch the opening 16 minutes from the E3 2018 demo build of Koji Igarashi's spiritual successor to Castlevania, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Over on the Paradox forums Age of Wonders: Planetfall gets its first development diary.

Hi there! and welcome to the first Age of Wonders: Planetfall development journal. From here on, the team at Triumph will be giving you weekly updates on our progress and revealing details of the game along the way.

Join us at the Paradox Forums: First a request to the AoW3 community: we kindly ask you to join us here on the Paradox forums, as the old Age of Wonders ones will be closed down later this year. This way Triumph can spend more time making games and less on fighting spam-bots. Please create your account here.

Inspiration: By Gandalf’s beard - A sci-fi Age of Wonders? Yes - It’s been a long-standing wish from many of the team to do something with our love of sci fi: Starwars, Dune, Fallout, Starship Troopers have all been an inspiration in one form or another. We feel our beloved war-focussed 4X game formula is a great fit for sci-fi themes - and futuristic weapon arsenals. At the same time, nothing gets the creative juices flowing like a new setting.

Premise: As one of the heirs to the shattered Star Union, you emerge from a cosmic Dark Age to craft a new future for your people. You travel to one of the many lost worlds of the old empire, where you will find marvels among the remnants of this once great civilization. You will need to develop / rediscover technologies and social doctrines for your colonists to thrive on these hostile worlds, for you are not alone here. Other houses compete with yours to rebuild the Star Union, and you will need both a carefully crafted arsenal, and a firm grip on diplomacy if you are to have a chance at victory.

Our Goals:

•  Build a new setting filled with lore and new gameplay opportunities.
•  Transform the melee centered fantasy battles to new ranged sci-fi clashes with cover, overwatch and destructible terrain. Hit chances are back. It’s familiar and vastly different at the same time.
•  Develop Planetary Empire building: Compared to AoW3, we want to added new layers of depth to the economy and diplomacy systems. Sessions now play on wrapping planets which are procedurally generated.
•  Roll out the fourth generation of Triumph’s Creator Engine, which is 64 bit, has a PBR renderer and a new toolset. This allows us – and eventually you through modding – to create a better looking worlds, that contain more content, more efficiently.

There is nothing that reflects the fusion of the gameplay and the setting better than the unit line up. So here is one in pre-alpha state for you: A Vanguard Liberator with Flechette Ammo and Jetpack mods called the Screaming Eagle. How would you name this unit variant?

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Next week we’ll tell more about the setting and its central element: the galactic empire called the Star Union.

RPGamer took a look at Pathfinder: Kingmaker at E3.

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My demo took me to a dungeon filled with trolls that had become immune to fire damage. Given that is one of the troll’s primary weaknesses, this is a problem. Maneuvering around the dungeon was easy enough, a ring formed around the party that served as its line of sight. It felt like I was only able to move the party within this range, which did prevent me from allowing my party to travel long distances after I had cleared most of the dungeon out. The characters I was given were more powerful than they would have been otherwise so combat was no problem. That is until I made a rookie mistake and spent all my resources fighting a troll and not taking care of the mage backing it up. Yes, I wiped with an overpowered party. My only defense is I’m no good at real-time with pause.

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Thanks Purpleblob!

The challenging platformer Azuran Tales: Trials is now available on Steam:

Gameplay

Azuran Tales: Trials offers a different take on platformer gameplay with a hardcore combat experience, punishing levels and brutal enemies to defeat. Don't expect any help as you explore all of its handcrafted levels full of lore, monsters, traps, and unique Bosses. This game is straightforward and hard to beat. Magrath's trickery won't be stopped with just one or two bodies clogging the gears of his traps, so you will be forced to learn and adapt or fail and die each and every time!

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Story

Drukandra, the God of the Dead, Ruler of the Underworld, found your soul worthy for his quest. After granting you his blessing, you are sent to hunt down Magrath, an entity shrouded in mystery, who wields great power and wishes to claim the world of Azuran as his own. Only by finding the hidden pieces of the Amulet of Valur can you bring this foe down, but doing so won't be easy. Deadly traps and villainous enemies await you for Magrath knows you are coming, and he doesn't intend to make things easy for you!

Features

• 15 handcrafted levels
• Different environments - Dungeons, Caves, Cities, Underground and more
• Choice-based character progression
• Deadly mechanics
• Awesome Boss fights
• Nerve-shattering reaction speed usage
• Battle Cleric class gameplay and storyline

RetrospectiveGaming looks back at Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny:

Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny Review (1992)

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About:
"Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny is a role-playing video game developed by Attic Entertainment Software. It was the first game based on the German pen & paper RPG system The Dark Eye by Fantasy Productions. The original German version of the game (German title: Das Schwarze Auge: Die Schicksalsklinge) was released in 1992. Due to its success it was translated to English and released by Sir-Tech in 1993."

Digital Trends is impressed by Cyberpunk 2077, too:

‘Cyberpunk 2077’ preview

The epic sci-fi sprawl of ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ feels like the future of gaming

Cyberpunk 2077 looks like the future.

That seems obvious, given the name – but I’m not talking about the setting. The future I see in Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming first-person shooter-RPG from The Witcher series developer CD Projekt RED, is an unprecedented level of choice and consequence in RPGs.

Cyberpunk cultivates an open-world experience where every small detail is perfectly curated to immerse you in a dirty neon city. It helps quite a bit that, even within a highly structured demo, it feels as if Cyberpunk imposes very few limits. You can approach every conversation and scenario however you’d like and perhaps, more importantly, it seems as if every system — from driving to dialogue to hacking to shooting — is well-considered and polished.

Simply put, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like a larger, more complete simulation than any game I’ve ever seen. If the game works half as well as its E3 2018 hands-off demo suggests, it should be at the top of your wish list.

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Jay Krishnan of IndianNoob looks back at Gothic:

Retro Saturdays Episode 22 :: Gothic

The year was 2002 and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind had taken the RPG market by storm. People were praising it left and right for pioneering the modern 3D RPG genre. Meanwhile in an another corner of the world, a 10 year old boy was enjoying the hell out of another 3D open world RPG. No, it wasn’t Bethtesda’s seminal title that went on to win countless awards. The game that had this little kid hooked was relatively unknown and was made by a small team of German developers who called themselves Piranha Bytes. The game was none another than Gothic, a game which is regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time in niche RPG circles, and one which does not hold much impact to the mainstream masses outside that circle. I’m hoping that those who are unfamiliar with Gothic will find this retrospective to be a bit informative, and those that are familiar with the cult classic will get a trip back to memory lane. Without further mumbo-jumbo, let’s take a look at Gothic, an RPG which was truly ahead of its time.

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Gothic- The Legacy

Gothic, while a huge succes in Germany, didn’t get the appreciation it deserved outside the region at the time of release. It however garnered a huge cult following. Gothic was succeeded by Gothic II, which improved upon the game in almost every way imaginable. The map was made 10 times the size of Gothic. Hell, even the prison colony from the first game can be visited in Gothic II and that’s just a small portion of the map. An expansion called Night of the Raven was released for Gothic II. Gothic II and Night of the Raven now comes bundled as Gothic Gold. Gothic II was followed by Gothic 3, an ambitious game with a huge open world. Gothic 3 was ridddled with bugs and performance issues and was received poorly back when it came out. But nowadays Gothic 3 is made a pleasant experience thanks to a gigantic community patch. After making Gothic 3, Piranha Bytes lost the licence to JoWood and JoWood would go onto publish an expansion for Gothic 3 titled Forsaken Gods, and Arcania: Gothic 4, a sequel in name only. Both of these games were poorly received. Piranha Bytes then made the Risen series and Elex in the spirit of Gothic. Even though the Gothic licence is back in their hands, it doesn’t seem like Piranha Bytes is doing anything with it at the moment. Maybe we’ll see a remaster or a remake sometime in the future. In my opinion, Gothic is a modern masterpiece that should be played by fans of the RPG genre. It’s just a damn fine game man.

A demo for the JRPG Sanctus Mortem is now available:

The Demo is now released!

We're very pleased to announce that the Demo for Sanctus Mortem is now available to download! Just click on the "Download Demo" button on the store page, and you're ready to go! The Demo features approximately 3 to 4 hours of gameplay depending on your playstyle.

We hope you all enjoy, and thank you very much for the support!

Stellar Tactics has a new update.

Progress Update 6/15/18
16 JUNE - STELLAR TACTICS

Hi all - It's time for another progress update. I've included a video that shows some of the work I've been doing. Details below.

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The last few months have been pretty crazy around here. Since the last major patch, I've been focused on opening the FTL gates and there is still a lot of work to do. Most of this time has been spent wrapping up all the procedural mission sets needed to make sure the universe is populated with locations to explore. This has been thousands of hours of work over the last year between me and a talented modeler/ level designer I work with. I'm happy to say that work is now done - I'm finished with the level sets for the next content patch.

Another large block of work that is finished is generating the interiors for the various stations found in the universe. That means the interiors are in the game, loading based on where you are in the universe, vendors are placed and faction mission contacts are available. You can now dock at trade stations across the universe in the development build - if you have the proper level of faction needed. In a future patch you will be able to hack station security remotely and board the stations of hostile factions. Doing that will place a station on alert and you will need to fight your way through the station to disable various systems like external station turrets and interior defense systems. Should be interesting.

All the space stations that were completed some time ago have been added to the universe. Later I'll be adding external turret systems to the stations for faction warfare.

The incursion system is now working in all systems that have stations or a faction presence. I'll expand on this in the future with faction warfare and more.

I've also added volumetric effects to all systems as well as LUT Color Grading. They add a lot to the visual appearance and diversity of star systems.

For the last week I've been focused on performance on the Star Map. The game processes tens of thousands of independent AI vessels. The Star Map uses LOD algorithms to display ships and systems that are nearby and places them into a secondary processing queue when they are out of range. Every ship has a task or set of tasks and when they are out of visual range, they switch to a secondary process that uses universe time to determine arrival, task completion and assign new tasks. It's a fairly complex system and seems to be running well. I'm going to give myself another week with this to make sure everything is performing and running as expected.

And finally, the revised animations are finished, including special attacks for all weapon types. You might notice that "stealth" will be going in the game. I'll add these animations into the game when I get through a longer list of tasks I'm working on right now.

So, what's next?

Performance on the Star Map, tying the mission generator into the rest of the universe, finishing the crew manager, adding commodities and refining the trade system and a good number of other things that need to be done like data buoy's, the mission tracker and more. These should move along pretty fast. It does take time though, so I hope you will all be patient. It's going to be a huge update when it's finished and I need to make sure everything is in and working well.

I'd like to thank all of you for supporting the game and hope you all have a great weekend!

IGN checked out the ation RPG Ashen:

Ashen Gameplay Demo - IGN Live E3 2018

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Thanks Porcozaur!

The Legends of Ellaria team gave a short message that they have started working on the RPG system of the game.

We have now started to develop a full RPG system for Legends of Ellaria (yes, finally). For this reason, we will be releasing fewer updates in the summertime, with only bug fixes, optimizations, and some minor features to be released in the meantime.

However, this will all be worth your time since we will be releasing a Major update with a brand new RPG system that includes leveling, talents (similar to Skyrim's skill tree), new animations, attacks, skillsets, magic effects, improved combat system, classes, and much, much more.

A new trailer for Shadows Awakening is available, in which development director, Peter Nagy shows the features of the game.

DARKNESS APPROACHES IN NEW SHADOWS: AWAKENING FEATURETTE 

Devour new insights into the world, characters and mechanics of upcoming action RPG

Bracknell UK, 15^th June 2018 
Kalypso Media and Games Farm are proud to present a brand-new video preview of upcoming soul-sucking action RPG Shadows: Awakening, offering both series veterans and newcomers alike a sneak peek at the unique party system that makes every playthrough so thrilling and unique, as well as a more detailed look at the game world itself, combat and the cast of characters you'll meet on your journey through the darkness.

If the featurette has got you yearning for some soul-devouring action of your own, pre-order customers on Steam can be among the very first to play the closed beta ahead of the game's launch in Fall 2018. As well as instant access to the closed beta, pre-order customers on Steam will also unlock the Legendary Armory pack, a digital artbook, the digital soundtrack (available at launch) and a 15% discount.
 
About Shadows: Awakening
Shadows: Awakening is the new adventure in the Heretic Kingdoms saga. After the members of the secret council known as the Penta Nera are assassinated, their souls are consumed by the Devourers - evil demons which possess the ability to absorb the memories and personalities of the souls they acquire and materialize them as their puppets. Re-emerging into the mortal realm once again, the demonic Penta Nera continue their quest for power and immortality, but at what cost?

Shadows: Awakening is a unique, isometric single-player RPG with real-time tactical combat. You take control of a demon summoned from the Shadow Realm - the Devourer - to consume the souls of long-dead heroes and embark on an epic adventure with challenging gameplay, a gripping storyline and enchanting graphics. Do you have the focus and wits to master the world of the Heretic Kingdoms? Gather your party, control powerful heroes and use their skills to your advantage. But who is in charge... the demon, or the souls that it has devoured? It's up to you to either thwart a major threat and save the world, or to plunge it into complete disaster...

Features

• A Tale of Two Worlds - In a parallel universe inhabited by demons and monsters; seamlessly switch between the Shadow Realm and the mortal plane and witness a gripping storyline in a world full of myths, destinies and legendary creatures.
• Unique Party System - multiple characters in one demon, each retaining their own personalities with internal dialogues, rivalries and communication between the characters.
• Wide variety of Skills and Characters - Choose from 3 heroes, each with their own personal storylines, quests and dialogues. Consume the souls of 14 playable characters, each with their own unique skillsets, like Kalig the Bandit King and Evia, Daughter of Fire.
• Tactical Real-Time Combat - Combine the skills of your various characters to maximize the effects of your devastating skills and spells.
• Extensive Gameplay - 20+ hours for a single playthrough, but with substantial options for replayability which accumulate to 60+ hours for the full experience.
• Challenging Puzzles - Complex puzzles are scattered throughout the game, and will take you through a vibrant set of locations, from rustic towns to the deepest and darkest of dungeons.
• Crafting and Looting System - Expanded crafting and looting system will let you use rewards to configure the ultimate adventurer.
• Fully Voiced - All dialogues are fully narrated, including actors like Tom Baker

Shadows: Awakening is scheduled for a global release in Fall 2018.

A new gameplay video for The Surge 2.

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Three minutes of footage from the upcoming sci-fi souls-like sequel, which is already looking like a vast improvement over the original.

Thanks porcozaur!

A new update for Thea 2: The Shattering shows some pre-alpha gameplay.

Hi everyone. 

So we've had a chance to show a short demo of some pre-alpha gameplay for Thea 2 at Digital Dragons last month and today, we want to share a play-through from that. 

Now, the video is a bit long, but we wanted to show as much as possible.

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@VG24/7 Dying Light 2 has some of the writers that worked on Witcher 3.

Techland is taking the story, writing and quests for upcoming zombie parkour game Dying Light 2 very seriously.

Not only has it hired the talent of designer Chris Avellone to shape the game, but it has also hired writers from CD Projekt RED who worked on The Witcher 3’s Bloody Baron quest.

[...]

An interview conducted by PC Gamer about Cyberpunk 2077.

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Another thing I noticed in that demo is there's a scene where you're walking down an alley and they point out a crime scene on the side and say "Night City's dangerous, crime's happening all the time." What I was curious about is how dynamic or how static Night City is. Is that crime scene something that's always going to be there in that district?

This stuff is going to depend on, we've got dynamic weather and day and night cycles. Things are going to happen differently depending on that time and weather. I can't go into too much detail, but there's going to be a sense of feeling a different space, and how it feels different in those time events, as well.

Okay, so returning to that same area, things will be changing as you go?

Yeah.

Because you're a level designer, I'm curious—this is a roleplaying game and a shooter, I feel like there's a massive challenge in combining those two very big genres and making both parts feel equally satisfying. Level design is so paramount to making a good shooter. How are you designing these environments that enable roleplaying, feel realistic and immersive, but also make for a good shooter experience? The two don't always go hand-in-hand, you know?

I think you hit the nail on the head when you say they don't always go hand-in-hand. But one of the things that's been great to work on this game, from my personal perspective, is that class system. We showed a bit today. There's the three you can have: netrunner, techie, solo. Each of these is going to have a different way to solve a combat encounter or an environmental challenge.

Having that makes this easier, in the sense that because it's about choice, that way there's more options for you to handle those situations differently. Because of that you'll be able to move through the space, and you'll have the traditional sense of that sort of shooter space, but to layer that extra stuff on top, that excitement when you use those abilities for that class system—that's what's made it an exciting thing, from my point of view, to make the levels. And I know the rest of the team, the other level designers, enjoy having those choices.

[...]

A new tactical gameplay video for Phantom Doctrine was shown at E3.

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@Shacknews An interview with Mark Parker who is working on Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.

One of the best things about developing a hit game is that it allows studios to branch out into passion projects. Developer Funcom did a fantastic job with recently-released action title Conan Exiles, and the next game from the studio is set to blend strategy and adventure into a gorgeous game filled with unusual creatures. Shacknews caught up with Mark Parker, producer at The Bearded Ladies Consulting, at E3 2018 to learn more about the team's latest "tactical adventure" title.

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Angry Joe has interviewed CD Project Red at the E3 about Cyberpunk 2077:

Cyberpunk 2077 - Angry Interview E3 2918!

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Gamebanshee reports that the developers of Nioh 2 were interviewed recently.

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The developers also mention that the first Ni-Oh was a learning experience of sorts for them. It gave them an understanding of how to better utilize the RPG elements in an action-RPG like Ni-Oh, and I have to say, I like the sound of that.

See for yourself:

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The Sinking City will release March 21st 2019.

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A new video from E3 for Greedfall.

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[E3 2018] GreedFall paints the genesis of the game’s story in E3 Trailer GreedFall is the latest RPG from Spiders, currently in development for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.

Set in a 17th century setting embedded in magic, Greedfall has a unique visual identity inspired by European Baroque art, depicting grandiose sceneries in muted warm colors and dark undertones. This E3 Trailer reveals the origins of GreedFall’s story, as settlers, mercenaries and treasure hunters, fleeing a continent plagued by pollution and an incurable disease, set foot on a remote island seeping with magic, rumored to be filled with riches and lost secrets.

A grand journey filled with mystery follows, as you find yourself in the middle of ever-increasing tensions between the invading settlers and the locals, who are protected by manifestations of the island’s earthly magic in the form of supernatural beings. With a strong focus on its core RPG identity, GreedFall follows Spiders' experience in building intricate worlds filled with mysteries to discover, weaving deep character interactions, and offering players freedom to achieve quests and objectives in many different ways – through combat, as well as diplomacy, deception or stealth.

The island of GreedFall is a living, ever-evolving world. Your actions, from seemingly trivial choices to the most important political decisions, will influence and alter its course, as well as the relationship between the different factions established on the island. GreedFall releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2019. Hands off presentations and interviews are available at E3 2018.

Thanks porcozaur!

Xenonauts 2 will launch on Kickstarter 20th June.

Tobe4funas checked out Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem:

Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem REVIEW - Diablo 2 on Steroids!

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Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem - action rpg similar to Diablo 2. Absolutely loved how it captures the atmosphere and how it looks overall. It's currently in alpha (going into beta this September), so there's little content at the moment and obviously some bugs and stuff, but I'll be personally waiting eagerly for this one to come out.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was shown off at E3.

Reveal Trailer

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From outcast mercenary to legendary hero, embark on an epic journey to uncover the truth about your past and change the fate of Ancient Greece in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Gameplay Walkthrough

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Watch the first ever gameplay walkthrough of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey! Visit the beautiful Mykonos City in Ancient Greece where our Spartan hero Kassandra prepares for her next adventure. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will feature dialogue options, weapons and combat ability

Call of Cthulhu has a new E3 trailer.

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[E3 2018] Call of Cthulhu defines madness in heart-pumping E3 Trailer Call of Cthulhu, the official videogame inspired by Chaosium’s classic pen and paper RPG, today defines madness in its heart-pumping E3 Trailer!

Uncover the chilling mysteries of this Narrative RPG game, descending deep into a world of cosmic horrors, creeping madness, and shrouded Old Gods within Lovecraft’s iconic universe.

@USGamer Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice will not be story driven according to the Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki.

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One of the major changes in Sekiro is the use of a fixed protagonist. While games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne allowed you to create your own character and choose a skill class. That freedom also meant that the story was told through atmosphere and world-building. With Sekiro there is only one class, and there is only one pre-made character players can choose from and exploring the world from a fixed perspective makes the storytelling a bit more straightforward, at least initially. 

"First of all, we think if you ask is it going to be easy to understand? We would say yes, at least initially. There are some themes and motifs particularly tied to using a fixed protagonist that allows to explore him as a character a lot easier," said Miyazaki during our interview. "It allows for a different way for a storytelling there which was not really possible with our previous games which did not have a fixed protagonist." 

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Maneater released a trailer at E3 and has a Steam page with no release date as yet.

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About This Game

Maneater is a Single-Player Action RPG, set in the unforgiving waters of the Gulf Coast. Fight to survive in the open ocean, with danger lurking at every depth. Your only tools are your wits, your jaws, and an uncanny ability to evolve as you feed. Anything and everything is on the menu... kill or be killed.

Become a MANEATER

Play as a giant Bull Shark and terrorize the coastal waterways. Tear swimmers and divers limb from limb, give the humans a reason to fear you.

Explore a massive open world

Immerse yourself in a living, breathing world full of threats, and rewards. Explore sunken wrecks, lurk in swamps, or just cruise the open ocean looking for whales to feed on.

Deep Stats and Role Playing

Role-play and customize your shark with a variety of stat driven systems. Evolve different parts of your body to improve how they function, or pump up your ferocity to enter brief feeding frenzies.

Experienced Team

From the minds behind Depth and Killing Floor, our goal as an early access game is to push the feeling of playing as a shark to new heights, developing a strictly single-player experience that will challenge and engage the player from start to finish. Gritty, visceral, heart-pounding action games are our calling.

Cyberpunk 2077 has been demoed for the games press and they wrote their impressions. You may find this interview by Variety of value also.

PC Gamer

Those were some of the biggest highlights of that hour-long demo, and I cannot wait to see more. Honestly, my head is still spinning, and it's hard to say whether the full game will be able to feel as dense and intricate. I never expected that our first look would have so much to cover, which is hopefully a good sign of how much more is still to come for Cyberpunk.

Gameinformer

This first taste of Cyberpunk 2077 was unexpected and nothing short of amazing We know CD Projekt Red has a firm handle on player choice and narrative – which are both evidenced here – but now we see this dev has first-person shooter chops as well. The combat looked dynamic, fun, and filled with RPG elements galore. Although we were treated to roughly an hour of finely polished and beautiful gameplay, the developer didn't share a release date or give any hint of when we might see it. That likely points to 2019 or later. Don't worry, it's for this generation, and is currently slated to hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

VG24/7

We met a lot of different characters in Night City, most of them clearly out for self. As one character puts it, “everybody gets fucked”. We met a gangster boss who gifted us a mission to prove our worth, a gun for hire, a corporate exec with nothing but disdain for the working classes. Don’t expect to make any friends in Cyberpunk 2077. And if you do, well, don’t trust ’em.

Thanks BoboTheMighty!

Fallout: The Frontier is a mod for New Vegas which has a new trailer.

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Exactly one year later, we finally reveal our brand new trailer! Join the Exiled NCR on a brand new adventure! Join us on Discord and discuss about the Frontier. Ask questions, talk to the devs, provide ideas, hang out… all are welcome!

Thanks Drithius!