Image: Kojima Productions It wouldn’t be a Game Awards without Hideo Kojima. This time, however, the director wasn’t on hand to show off Death Stranding 2 — instead he revealed a new Xbox game called OD. We didn’t get to see much of the game, which was teased last year, and the first teaser mostly just showed the cast doing motion capture tests. It ended with the tagline “For all the players and screamers.”That said, the game does have a strong cast, including Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. Also Jordan Peele is involved somehow. Kojima teased other big names who are working on the project, but wouldn’t say who just yet. OD is billed as something of a cross between a game and a movie, with a press release describing it as an experience that... Continue reading…

When it comes to devices like the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and any of the other best gaming handhelds, they're all fantastic at playing games. No matter the operating system, once you're in a game, it runs, and that's part of what makes them excellent devices. However, they differ in operating systems, with most gaming handhelds running Windows. When it comes to the Steam Deck, though, it runs Linux, bucking the trend of everyone else in the industry.

Image: Embark Studios The Finals is a unique new shooter where everything is destructible. It’s available now on PS5, Xbox Series S / X, and PC. Continue reading…

Image: Capcom Things are about to get a little bit wild in the world of Monster Hunter. At The Game Awards this evening, Capcom revealed the latest entry in the franchise: Monster Hunter Wilds.There aren’t a lot of details yet about what makes this one different from past MonHun titles, and the game isn’t expected to launch until 2025. It’s slated for the PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X / S. There’s at least a very beautiful trailer to watch full of lots of mounts to ride and monsters to hunt (obviously). More news on Wilds is expected in the summer of 2024.MonHun has been on a roll in recent years. The launch of Monster Hunter World in 2018 saw the franchise break out and become a global hit, and it was followed by a live-action film, the Switch spinoff... Continue reading…

Image: The Game Awards Geoff Keighley’s annual celebration of video games is back. Continue reading…

No Rest for the Wicked. | Image: Moon Studios Moon Studios, the team behind the beautiful and incredibly hard Ori games, has announced its next project. It’s called No Rest for the Wicked and is described as “a mature, precision action role-playing game.” The game is launching in early access on PC in early 2024, with a full release on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S planned for sometime afterward. And, of course, it looks absolutely stunning. Here’s the age-gated trailer.It’ll be Moon’s first title outside of the Ori series, and it sounds like there is a very large focus on combat. In a press release, the studio says that “fights in the game are animation-driven, direct, and tactile, allowing skilled players to combine visceral strikes and deadly moves.” It also features co-op for... Continue reading…

Image: Hello Games A decade ago, at the Spike Video Game Awards, Hello Games made a splash by announcing the wildly ambitious sci-fi exploration game No Man’s Sky. This evening, at the 2023 edition of The Game Awards, the studio did it again, revealing Light No Fire. This time, instead of offering a massive universe of different planets to explore, the game is focused on a single, incredibly detailed world.According to Hello’s Sean Murray, the game has been in development for the last five years by a small team. He describes it as “the first real open world” with no boundaries, which also has an online multiplayer component. From the trailer it appeared to have elements like crafting and mining, and also the ability to ride flying mounts.Here’s the... Continue reading…

Image: Google Google just announced Gemini, its most powerful suite of AI models yet, and the company has already been accused of lying about its performance. An op-ed from Bloomberg claims Google misrepresented the power of Gemini in a recent video. Google aired an impressive “what the quack” hands-on video during its announcement earlier this week, and columnist Parmy Olson says it seemed remarkably capable in the video — perhaps too capable.The six-minute video shows off Gemini’s multimodal capabilities (spoken conversational prompts combined with image recognition, for example). Gemini seemingly recognizes images quickly — even for connect-the-dots pictures — responds within seconds, and tracks a wad of paper in a cup and ball game in real-time.... Continue reading…

Image: Marvel Entertainment Arkane Lyon is making a game based on Marvel’s Blade franchise, the studio announced at The Game Awards 2023 on Thursday.The game was revealed in a brief cinematic trailer, so we didn’t get any gameplay of the title or any details about when it might be released. But Arkane Lyon studio director Dinga Bakaba said that it would be an “immersive third-person action adventure,” so we can look forward to that. The trailer’s description also notes that it’s single-player and that it’s set in Paris. A press release notes that Arkane Lyon has “just begun” development, so we might be waiting a long time to see it.Arkane Studios, which is one of many big developers under Microsoft’s increasingly-large empire, had a big stumble with the release... Continue reading…

Unlike its Windows counterpart, macOS Sonoma is available to all Mac users for free. So, as long as you have one of the compatible Mac models, you can install the operating system without buying or activating a license. This simplifies matters for users, as anyone could theoretically boot the operating system on supported hardware. Furthermore, it makes it easier to deploy the operating system on multiple Macs consecutively by relying on a bootable USB macOS installer. To create one, follow the steps we've listed in this guide.

Image: Proton Proton Drive, the end-to-end encrypted cloud storage app, is getting more like Google Drive. The Android version of the app now lets you automatically back up and manage the photos on your phone. With the addition of a photo syncing and management feature, it’s becoming more viable as an alternative to mainstream cloud storage options like Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Unlike both of these services, files stored within Proton Drive are end-to-end encrypted, which means third parties, including Proton itself, can’t view your uploaded content. Image: Proton While Proton Drive currently lets you store photos and other files from your phone, it doesn’t automatically sync new photos. The update will make it more... Continue reading…

Image: The Verge Of all the layoffs happening at Spotify this week, this has to be the biggest. Chief financial officer Paul Vogel, who since 2020 has managed the company’s balance sheet as it expanded into podcasting and audiobooks, is leaving the company at the end of March 2024.Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the decision was made because Vogel didn’t have the experience needed to help the company both expand and meet market expectations. The company is starting the search for a successor.“Spotify has embarked on an evolution over the last two years to bring our spending more in line with market expectations while also funding the significant growth opportunities we continue to identify. I’ve talked a lot with Paul about the need to balance these two... Continue reading…