Tag: tech

Resurrecting a beloved gaming series like Ninja Gaiden is always a tricky proposition. Anyone who might have worked on the franchise in its heyday has likely moved on to other projects or left the industry entirely. But judging by the talent working on Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, the new series entry revealed at the Game Awards, I think it’s safe to say the franchise is in safe hands. That’s because Ragebound unites two companies who know a thing or two about making quality games. 

The Game Kitchen — the Spanish studio behind Blasphemous and its excellent sequel, Blasphemous 2 — is developing the game, with Dotemu (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4) on publishing duties. 

Right away, you can see the influence of The Game Kitchen. The studio’s signature pixel art style looks gorgeous in the back half of the reveal trailer, and it looks like the game will reward tight, coordinated play from players. As for the story, it’s set during the events of the NES version of Ninja Gaiden and stars a new protagonist, Kenji Mozu. It’s up to him to save Hayabusa Village while Ryu is away in America.  

Ninja Gaiden Ragebound will arrive in the summer of 2025 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.  

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ragebound-is-a-new-ninja-gaiden-game-from-the-team-behind-blasphemous-015621718.html?src=rss

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is just barely in the rearview mirror and FromSoftware already has a new game in the wings. The first trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign, a standalone co-op action game, at The Game Awards 2024.

As it’s name and the trailer suggests, Nightreign is set in the same world, and quite possible the same map as Elden Ring, but transformed with new enemies and bosses. More importantly, it looks like you’ll be able to tackle it with a party of two other axe, magic, and sword-wielding friends. FromSoftware’s announcement says the game will carry over the weapons and enemies of Elden Ring but remix the rest. The game is structured in three day chunks, with the most difficult bosses, “Nightlords,” arriving on the third day for you and your friends to fight. Beyond that, it sounds like the map could change, each time you play, making each three day session different.

Multiplayer isn’t a new concept for FromSoftware. Demon Souls, multiple Dark Souls entries, and Elden Ring all allow for some kind of co-op multiplayer if you need to summon a friend in for a particularly difficult boss fight. Playing a game were you get to run around the open world with friends, seemingly with a much greater ability to jump and run around based on the trailer, would feel very different.

Elden Ring Nightreign is coming to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC in 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/elden-ring-nightreign-is-a-co-op-spinoff-coming-in-2025-015211308.html?src=rss

If you’re a PlayStation fan, you’re likely at least familiar with Shadow of the Colossus, Ico and The Last Guardian. They’re three atmospheric and unique titles that have influenced plenty of games over the last decade. And we’re going to get more from director Fumito Ueda, but it was quite the mysterious and brief reveal. All we know is that Ueda has a new title coming out, published by Epic, and it fits in right alongside with his prior work. It’s about the most minimal game reveals I can think of — there’s a spaceship taking off, and that’s about all I can really say at this point — but Ueda fans will be excited for this nonetheless. There’s no timeframe for release, but when it does arrive it’ll be out on PC and Xbox for the first time as well as PlayStation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/fumito-uedas-follow-up-to-the-last-guardian-is-an-untitled-dark-sci-fi-game-014455329.html?src=rss

Swedish indie studio Hazelight is synonymous with co-op gaming, so of course its next project is built for two players — but this time, it also features two genres. Split Fiction is a co-op adventure where players leap between sci-fi and fantasy worlds in a bid to escape the clutches of a greedy publishing corporation. It supports local and online play, and, fittingly, it uses split-screen.

In Split Fiction, you play as Mio and Zoe, two writers who end up trapped in the same bubble of a creativity-stealing machine controlled by an evil publisher. Mio is a sci-fi author and Zoe writes fantasy, and their two worlds have come to life around them. Together, they have to escape by jumping between the sci-fi and fantasy realms, surviving the unique dangers in each fictional space. It sounds like a classic story about the power of friendship and platforming.

The game’s debut trailer, which premiered at The Game Awards, showcases two richly stylized worlds and a variety of mechanics in each. Mio’s sci-fi realm has neon lights, robots, lasers, hoverboards and gravity bikes, while Zoe’s fantasy space has dragons, magic, adorable villages, giants and castles. Each level has a unique mechanic. For instance, in one fantasy level you hatch dragons and their abilities evolve from carrying you between platforms, to rolling you up like an armadillo, and finally to full-on dragon riding.

Hazelight and its founder, Josef Fares, are as much a part of The Game Awards as Hideo Kojima at this point, and the studio’s previous title, It Takes Two, won Game of the Year in 2021. Amazon is adapting It Takes Two into a movie, with Sonic the Hedgehog film writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller tackling the script.

Hazelight

Like Hazelight’s previous games, Split Fiction is being published by EA under its indie-focused EA Originals label. Split Fiction is due to hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 6, 2025, and it’ll cost $50. On PC, it’s coming to Steam, the Epic Games Store and the EA app. Crucially for the co-op aspect, it supports cross-platform play among PS5, Xbox and Steam.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/it-takes-two-studio-returns-with-dueling-sci-fi-and-fantasy-worlds-in-split-fiction-014152431.html?src=rss

Well, let’s be honest: I don’t think any of us expected to see CD Projekt Red preview The Witcher 4 anytime soon, and yet the studio did just that, sharing a lengthy cinematic trailer for the upcoming sequel at the Game Awards. Even if there’s no gameplay footage to be found, fans of the series will love what they see. 

That’s because the clip reveals the protagonist of the game, and it’s none other than Ciri, the adopted daughter of everyone’s favorite witcher, Geralt of Rivia. Thematically, the clip is similar to The Witcher 3’s excellent “Killing Monsters” trailer. Ciri arrives to save a young woman from a horrible monster, only for human ignorance and superstition to undo her good deed.

CD Projekt did not share a release date for The Witcher 4, nor did the studio say what platforms the game would arrive on. However, it has previously said it was making the game in Unreal Engine 5, and if you look hard enough, a footnote at the bottom says the trailer was pre-rendered in UE5 on an unannounced “NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-first-witcher-4-trailer-sees-ciri-kicking-butt-014137326.html?src=rss

It was always a question of when, not if, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth would land on PC, and Square Enix took a moment at The Game Awards to spill the beans. The second entry in the Final Fantasy VII remake series is coming to PC on January 23. You’ll get 30 percent off if you preorder via Steam or the Epic Games Store.

The date was revealed in a very brief clip with not much in the way of details. This version will have upgraded lighting, and enhanced textures and modeling, as well as support for NVIDIA’s DLSS upscaling tech. A Reddit AMA with producer and director Yoshinori Kitase and Naoki Hamaguchi is set for December 13 at 9PM ET, so we may find out more details about the PC version then.

The Game Awards was a fitting stage to reveal the PC release date, as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is one of the ceremony’s game of the year nominees. It scored seven nominations overall, the joint most alongside Astro Bot.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-is-coming-to-pc-on-january-23-013602136.html?src=rss

Brawlers Absolver and Sifu put Sloclap on the map thanks to their memorable looks, slick action and crunchy animations. So naturally the next project for the French studio is [checks notes] a 5v5 arcade soccer game. Uh, sure!

Rematch, which is slated to arrive next summer, perhaps makes more sense for Sloclap than first meets the eye. The studio says the title falls within its remit of making challenging action games with a stylized look.

Each human player controls one character, including the goalkeeper, though you may find yourself quickly transitioning from a striker role to defense. Given the third-person perspective, it may feel more aligned with Rocket League or the career mode in the FIFA/EA Sports FC series rather than the full-pitch view you see in most of the latter’s modes.

Rematch is skill-based, so you won’t be packing your team with players filled with high stats à la FC Ultimate Team. How you perform is down to your own abilities, not how many points you’ve plowed into your player’s shooting and dribbling attributes.

Sloclap designed the game for fast-flowing action. There are no fouls or offsides here. The ball doesn’t go out of play as there’s a Rocket League-style boundary wall. You even can use that to your advantage by bouncing the ball off the barrier to set up a teammate for a shot at goal.

Soccer is about “being in the right place at the right time and executing to perfection,” according to Pierre Tarno, creative director and executive producer at Sloclap. The studio is hoping to capture that in Rematch. Along with the importance of positioning, the game is said to place an onus on “deep tactics.”

Sloclap

Goalkeepers don’t need to be kicking their heels while waiting for the opposition to take a shot at their goal. They can push up outside of their penalty area and play as a Manuel Neuer-style sweeper keeper to close down counter attacks if they’re willing to take a risk.

When your team has possession, but you don’t have the ball, you can call for a pass. The player who has it will see a line to the teammate who made the request, which should help with spatial awareness (there seems to be a minimap too).

Sloclap built the game around three core tenets: helping players feel like athletes, the pressure of high-stakes matches and the joy of being part of a team. “It’s about the joy of playing football with friends,” Tarno said, and as much about setting up a teammate to bag a goal — perhaps with a perfectly executed volley — as it is to score yourself. And when you lose a game, the idea is that you’ll dust off and queue up with your friends for another one. Hence the name Rematch.

Along with competitive modes and quick play options, you can expect private games with customizable rules. There’s a seasonal content system that will gradually introduce more features, events, environments and ways to customize your character.

Don’t expect to see the likes of Liverpool or Real Madrid in Rematch, at least not right away. The game is set in the future, so there isn’t much in the way of licensing, but Sloclap isn’t ruling out such agreements down the line.

Rematch will be a premium game rather than a free-to-play title. It’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC next summer. Sloclap plans to run beta tests this spring.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-next-game-from-the-sifu-team-is-a-5v5-arcade-soccer-title-005902694.html?src=rss

Thick as Thieves is a new project from the team of immersive sim and stealth-action icons at OtherSide Entertainment, which includes Deus Ex creator Warren Spector, Looking Glass Studios founder Paul Neurath, and Thief: The Dark Project lead Greg LoPiccolo. Yes, that’s a stacked lineup. Together, the OtherSide crew has created or worked on the System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief and Ultima Underworld series, and (along with Doug Church and Ken Levine) are largely responsible for the existence of immersive sims as we know them.

So, Thick as Thieves is one to watch. OtherSide’s latest project adds multiplayer to the immersive stealth genre, creating a first-person PvPvE experience set in an alternate timeline at the dawn of the 20th century. The game takes place in a version of the 1910s that’s been infused with advanced technology and magic — but these two forces are at odds, and they’ve created vast disparities in wealth and power.

The game’s main city contains a dark criminal underbelly and audacious displays of wealth, and players have to infiltrate both spaces in a competitive multiplayer experience. Thick as Thieves is all about sneaking in, stealing things and escaping unnoticed in a variety of steampunk-adjacent locations.

Strategizing and smooth execution are key in Thick as Thieves, but other players pose a constant threat. The game supports varying play styles, from pure stealth to run-and-gun, and you can adapt your approach with each new mission. OtherSide promises there are secrets in every shadow of the city and vital information to uncover from NPCs, and your personal storyline will evolve based on the way you choose to play.

OtherSide Entertainment

Here’s how Spector describes it: “Thick As Thieves captures the vision of immersive gameplay that OtherSide was founded on. With this game, we’re empowering players to create their own stories in a world that values observation, craftiness, and creative problem-solving.”

Thick as Thieves is being published by Megabit, and it’s due to hit PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/thick-as-thieves-is-a-multiplayer-stealth-action-game-from-legends-warren-spector-and-paul-neurath-004352183.html?src=rss

Adobe has a new experimental tool for removing window reflections from photos. The feature was originally announced at Adobe Max 2023 as “Project See Through” and is available to preview in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Bridge right now if you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber, with Adobe Lightroom support coming soon.

If you’ve ever taken a photo of something through a shop window, you’ve likely dealt with your own reflection or a variety of light streaks and distortions ruining the image. Adobe’s Reflection Removal tool (as Project See Through is referred to now) is designed to make those reflections a lot easier to remove.

Adobe

The tool uses AI that can isolate two separate images: the reflection and whatever is on the other side of the window or reflective material. The training data Adobe used to teach its AI was built from thousands of reflection-free photos that were combined in pairs to create composite images with simulated reflections. The AI model was given the task of determining what two original images the composite was made from, which Adobe engineers could then reward or penalize until the model’s accuracy improved.

The final product works best with reflections that take up the entire field of view of the image. Specifically, Adobe says the Reflection Removal tool can’t handle “reflections from windows that are small or far away” or reflections from “wine glasses, car bodies, or clouds reflected in a lake.” Engadget was able to test the feature on a reflection in a pair of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and came to a similar conclusion. Adobe’s tool was able to make the lenses of the sunglasses oddly clearer, revealing some of the background behind them, but not remove the reflection entirely.

Engadget

If you want to try the feature for yourself, Adobe says you can go to the Preferences Panel in the Camera RAW plug-in, enable the “New AI Settings and Features Panel,” and then restart whatever app you’re accessing the plug-in from. Once you’ve uploaded a photo, the Reflection Removal tool will be in the Remove panel under the Distraction Removal section.

Reflection Removal is just one small example of how Adobe has been trying to integrate AI into its suite of creative apps in the last few years. The company has been putting most of its attention towards generative AI, first with Adobe Firefly’s image generation capabilities, and more recently in October 2024, video generation, too.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/adobes-new-photoshop-tool-can-clean-away-window-reflections-235855968.html?src=rss