With Dead by Daylight celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year, what better way to celebrate than to finally land the big guy himself?!

Jason’s impending arrival in The Fog was revealed as part of the Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary stream this morning in a brand-new trailer.

No details on just what Jason’s appearance in the game entails, but expect more soon.

Jason enters the world of Dead by Daylight on June 16, 2026.

Jason Voorhees has a long history in the world of video games, dating back to his unique purple & blue look in the Friday the 13th NES game. He returned in Friday the 13th: The Game, and he’s also been featured in Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Mortal Kombat over the years.

This is a big year for Jason Voorhees, with A24 and Peacock’s television series “Crystal Lake” set to premiere this coming October. The prequel series premieres on October 15, 2026.

The arrival of Jason Voorhees to Dead by Daylight is made possible by the Jason Universe, a multi-platform expansion of the Friday the 13th franchise from its original owners.

What else can we expect from the Jason Universe this year? Stay tuned…

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When a drug ring of criminal clowns crashes a bachelor party and kidnaps the groom-to-be, it’s up to the bride and her mother-in-law to mount a rescue. Players will battle their way through psychopathic circus performers, bazooka-toting bearded ladies, and murderous mobsters across 30+ levels.

In addition to couch co-op, Lethal Wedding features what’s called the Vow System, which keeps the stakes high by challenging players to complete randomized objectives before reaching the end of each stage. Before entering any levels, you can pick optional challenges to unlock special rewards. For example, if you want elite upgrades like Speed Reload, you’ll have to “vow” to face enemies with bonus damage and increased movement speed.

In another nod to ZAMN, you’ll be making use of unorthodox yet appropriately-themed weapons. Set devastating traps, blast enemies with rapid-fire fruit, or deploy snapping, bouncing rabbits from a magician’s hat. You’ll also be able to tailor your character with more than 20+ randomized enhancements, including everything from Combat Veils to Bulletproof Dresses.

The post ‘Zombies Ate My Neighbors’-Inspired ‘Lethal Wedding’ Coming to Steam And Sega Genesis/Mega Drive [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Blending stealth-action, shop management, and dark comedy, ZOMBUTCHER puts players in the rotting shoes of a zombie entrepreneur trying to keep a small butcher shop alive in a haunting Louisiana town. By day, players manage the shop, serve monster customers, and upgrade their business. By night, they stalk the streets for “fresh stock,” avoid patrols, and gather ingredients to keep demand high.

In ZOMBUTCHER, running a business is hard enough. Running one while being hunted by humans is another challenge entirely. Players must balance the needs of their ever-hungry monster clientele with the dangers lurking outside the shop. As demand grows, they’ll invest in better equipment, expand their butcher shop, and craft increasingly unusual products, from fresh brains to bottled blood and other monster-ready delicacies. After all, these are customers you really don’t want to disappoint. The game allows players to customize how they hunt, manage, and survive.

Of course, seeing as you’re a zombie yourself, you’ll need to do some upkeep for yourself. Not a problem, as you can swap out arms and legs from over ten different limb sets to unlock new abilities, or just refresh your body.

The post ‘ZOMBUTCHER: Monster Business Simulator’ Opens for Business on June 11 [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Developed by Ares’ Swift Games, the studio behind the hit mobile title Heroes vs Hordes, in The Walking Dead: Aftermath, players will step into the shoes of iconic survivors from The Walking Dead Universe, including Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, and Michonne, as they fight to survive against relentless walker herds, hostile enemies, and powerful bosses. Aftermath combines “high-intensity” roguelite action with survivor strategy and base-building meta-progression, challenging players to adapt, scavenge, and fight to stay alive.

The journey spans increasingly harrowing campaign chapters set across the franchise’s most iconic locations, from the deceptive peace of Hershel’s Farm and the fortified streets of Woodbury to the haunting remains of Terminus to the Alexandria Safe-Zone.

When the fighting stops, players must retreat to their Base Camp to fortify their community and ensure long-term survival. There, players will be able to do the following:

• Forge Survivor Bonds: Unlock additional characters and exclusive progression bonuses. Assigning them to specific camp roles unlocks vital production synergies and enhances overall community effectiveness.
• Secure the Perimeter: Construct and upgrade defensive structures, such as watchtowers and walls, to safeguard the settlement.
• Generate Critical Resources: Manage farms, scrapyards, and lumber mills to produce the supplies necessary for expansion.
• Arsenal Progression: Permanently improve weapons, armor, and survivor attributes using scavenged materials.

The Walking Dead: Aftermath will also feature a robust live-service, delivering regular content updates, new storylines, new characters, and limited-time events.

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The Florist tells the story of Jessica Park, who arrives in the lakeside town of Joycliffe to make a last-minute delivery. Her timing sparks disaster as the town quickly descends into a deadly fight for survival against omnipresent floral overgrowth. Solve ingenious puzzles, defeat horrifying enemies, and uncover a mysterious plan to create new life in the most inhuman way imaginable.

The gameplay trailer reveals enemies known as Seeds, who are tragic victims of a deadly floral affliction. No longer alive, their bodies are controlled by organic growth which instinctually move to attack and draw nutrients from living organisms. Luckily for the player, they can make use of the Catclaw Revolver or Rosetta Shotgun to even the odds.

Seeds aren’t the only foe players will need to worry about, as they’ll also have to deal with The Harvester, a hulking monstrosity that carries a bloodstained sack. The player will need to stay one step ahead, unravel the mystery behind the outbreak, and put a stop to The Harvester’s mission.

The post New “Gardens of Death” Gameplay Trailer Reveals Floral Horrors of ‘The Florist’ [Watch] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“We’re excited to finally bring Chapter 5 to console players,” said George Krstic, Senior Director of Creative at Mob Entertainment. “This chapter pushed us creatively in a lot of ways, both narratively and atmospherically, and we can’t wait for a whole new audience to experience what’s waiting inside the factory.”

In Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5, players descend deeper than ever into the depths of the Playtime Co. factory to confront the deadly puppet master orchestrating the horrors that have unfolded. As the truth behind The Prototype’s madness comes into focus, survival hinges on solving devious puzzles, navigating dangerous environmental obstacles, and mastering new GrabPack tools and abilities. Hunted relentlessly by Playtime’s security system, Huggy Wuggy, and separated from their only allies, players must explore a chilling new layer of the facility where tortured experiments lurk in the darkness and may not be what they seem.

Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5 is also available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Meanwhile, fans can also look forward to the film adaptation of Poppy Playtime, which is currently in development.

The post ‘Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5’ Comes to Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch May 27th [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

According to Fantastico Creative Director Andrea Valesini, Green Inferno is an investigation horror game in the spirit of Color Gray Games’ The Case of the Golden Idol, combined with the graphic violence of Italian exploitation cinema, and built upon an original script by Ruggero Deodato.

The road to Green Inferno has been a rocky one. Development kicked off back in 2019, and was marked by significant setbacks: a 2020 legal dispute over image rights forced the studio to rename the project, a subsequent wave of international criticism required a creative rethink, and Deodato’s passing in 2022 cast doubt on the entire project. Fantastico Studio chose to continue, releasing the visual novel Cannibal Tales in 2024 as the first narrative expansion of the universe, and now culminating with Green Inferno.

“For six years we kept asking ourselves whether it was worth continuing. Every time, the answer came from the material itself, a story Ruggero couldn’t have told in any other way,” says Valesini. “Green Inferno is that story.”

Taking place in the same universe as Cannibal Tales, the game follows a group searching for a film reel on a tropical island, with its footage containing disturbing material tied to real cases of cannibalism. Players take on the role of investigator, exploring illustrated scenes to gather textual and contextual clues, and assembling them to reconstruct the truth.

No date on when the demo will arrive in June, but seeing as Steam Next Fest kicks off on June 15, that would seem as good a time as any to dive into the demo.

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Set directly following the events of the previous game, Amanda the Adventurer 3 returns players to the world of Riley Park as they work to uncover the secrets surrounding the oddly interactive children’s show, “Amanda the Adventurer”. Having survived their Aunt Kate’s attic after being left a stack of VHS tapes of the 90s-era kid’s program, Riley followed the mystery to Kensdale Public Library, where new secrets and dangers awaited them. Now, after barely escaping the library intact with the help of an enigmatic masked woman, Riley must explore the abandoned Hameln Entertainment facility and put an end to the Adventure, once and for all.

As the final entry in the series, Amanda the Adventurer 3 aims to take the best elements from its predecessors to offer a satisfying and exhilarating experience for players everywhere, whether longtime fans or interested newcomers. Join Riley as they take on thought-provoking puzzles and uncover hiding secrets within the Hameln facility, on their way to discovering the ultimate truth.

And for the “try before you buy” crowd, you can check out the demo for the game, which is still available on Steam.

The post ‘Amanda The Adventurer 3’ Comes to Consoles Next Week [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The limited-time event prepares Reagents for a future dominated by clashing cults of personality and competing fundamentalist ideals. During the event, players will face a rotating onslaught of Prime Assets, destroy defective televisions for additional rewards, unlock new limited-time cosmetics, and endure two new MK-Challenges designed to “test faith, obedience, and survival instinct”.

In MK-Challenge: Win The Truth, you are the blind observer who consumes screen-fed ignorance and swells with the genius of idiot artifice. You must spread the knowledge that brings suffering to the wise in order to win the game which only punishes the defeated. Meanwhile, MK-Challenge: Incinerate The Relic has you as both heretic and zealot. Relics are the proof of an impossible gospel, the belief that makes whole the deservedly slaughtered lamb. Pay your way into heaven and incinerate the relic to get out.

There’s still more to come, thanks to some new “routine therapies” that will be available next month. The first known as Classified, takes place from June 16 to June 30, and will see multiple secret variators added to the game.  The second is Mirror, which runs from June 30 to July 14, and sees the Trial perspective “altered” to mislead Reagents. Furthermore, by popular demand, Murkoff is extending each Routine Therapy to two weeks, giving Reagents more time to adapt or fail under these conditions.

You can read the full patch notes here. The Outlast Trials is available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PlayStation, and Xbox.

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The trailer demonstrates the awesome power of the new puzzle box, which you’ll use for both combat and puzzles. Outside of combat, players can use the Genesis Configuration to transform parts of the Labyrinth to open paths forward. Manipulating the box will also be invaluable for solving puzzles in the mortal world.

Of course, the real fun begins when you unleash the Genesis Configuration in combat. Banish your enemies with gruesome executions to gather their Suffering in order to unleash a variety of abilities. Use Telekinesis to launch saw blades, rail spikes and more at enemies to maim and dismember them. Wield Pyrokinesis to absorb incandescent fire to burn away foes and the
environment. And for that old school flair, you can even summon the iconic Hell Chains to tear your opponents apart.

You’ll need these dark gifts to survive the battle against Hell’s armies, as you descend into the darkest depths of the underworld to rescue your love from the clutches of the Cenobites in a terrifying new story in the Hellraiser universe. Face your deepest fears against deviant monsters, cultists and creatures with the infernal powers of the Genesis Configuration puzzle box and an arsenal of earthly weapons.

Hellraiser: Revival is slated to arrive later this year on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series.

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According to the devteam, the playtest was “very instructive,” and given the team plenty of ideas for the next steps in development. Those include balance combat and reassessing the game’s difficulty, improving combat readability, as well as the diversity of missions and encounters.

“We apologize for this delay but we prefer to take the time to implement it right rather than rushing and not delivering a game that meets your expectations,” says the team.

Ex Sanguis has you leading your elite warriors known as Stillae as the last hope for their dying world. To do so, you must engage in tactical combat against the forces of Stasis and restore the flow of life. That involves spilling blood, and plenty of it.

Taking a few cues from the XCOM series, you must use your surroundings to your advantage to turn the tide of battle in your favour. You can also use Timeline Effects to speed up, delay or swap time position in order to impact turn order and outsmart your enemies. You will also unlock a range of abilities, each offering powerful synergies and deep build customization.

The post Stylishly Bloody Turn-Based Title ‘Ex Sanguis’ Pushed to Q3 2026 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The news, reported by GI.biz, arrives a week after the franchise’s 2016 reboot celebrated its 10th anniversary.

DOOM’s soundtrack, composed by Bobby Prince, joins 25 other recordings spanning 70 years, including works by Beyoncé, Ray Charles, Weezer, and more. The video game album was selected from more than 3,000 public nominations.

The addition is notable in that the Registry’s first video game inclusion only just arrived in 2023; the Super Mario Bros. theme was the first to be inducted. DOOM is only the third video game soundtrack to receive this distinction.

“Key to Doom‘s popularity was the adrenaline-fueled soundtrack created by Prince,” the National Recording Registry said.

“Prince, a lifelong musician and practising lawyer, was fascinated by the MIDI technology that rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as a means for instrument control and composition, an interest that led to his earliest work composing video games.”

It continued: “Taking advantage of his knowledge of MIDI, Prince worked to ensure that the sound effects he created could cut through the music by assigning them to different MIDI frequencies.

“The Doom soundtrack would go on to inspire countless remixes and lay the foundation for future generations of game composers.”

As our own Aaron Boehm writes of this franchise and its pioneering first-person shooter, “the 1993 classic from id Software has always been synonymous with the very concept of video games.”

About the original classic: “In the future, an unnamed marine fights for survival on a space station on Mars where the Union Aerospace Corporation accidentally opened up a physical portal to Hell.”

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Wreck Below has you or having up to three friends join you as you investigate oceanic paranormal sites caused by haunted wrecks. You and your crew are tasked with diving into these dangerous sites to dismantle the wrecks while avoiding the dangers that lurk in the depths.

Each mission begins aboard a research vessel, where players select a mission, equip their tools, and deploy into wreck sites. Once underwater, crews navigate through floating islands to locate and dismantle wrecks while managing environmental hazards and limited visibility. As the mission progresses, something begins to notice the crew. Audio distorts, and systems fail. Extraction becomes increasingly uncertain.

Wreck Below makes use of a sanity mechanic, where peering too long into the depths will drain your sanity. You’ll need to stick to the task at hand in order to keep a grip on things. Making things even more interesting in the various biomes you’ll enter is the fact that each map is procedurally generated, making no two dives the same.

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Slated for release later this year, the story has you on your way home from your late-night classes, where you find yourself trapped in an alleyway that has turned into an endless labyrinth. Take note of your surroundings carefully to distinguish between “Ghost Traces”, phenomena that could never happen in reality, and “Ghost Feints”, eerie occurrences that might seem possible. Uncover the hidden secrets of the alley, survive the haunting threats, and find your way out.

You’ll need to make use of your bracelet given to you by your shaman grandmother, which will glow in the presence of supernatural traces. Use your phone’s camera to spot and judge Ghost Traces and Ghost Feints. Reporting specific Ghost Traces successfully will earn you keys. Use these keys to unlock the “Chest of Truth” and reveal the dark secrets hidden behind the haunting.

The more clues you gather, the more relentless the pursuit becomes. However, you have only three lives. Lose them all, and you will be trapped.

The post Get a Taste of First-Person Psychological Horror Game ‘The Alley’ With The New Demo [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Players take on the role of investigators sent into Pantheon, which has been overrun by the rogue AI known as Minerva, an integrated artificial intelligence that has turned the city into a locked-down machine nightmare. As players explore dark, isolated facilities, they’ll have to contend with Minerva roaming the city, observing their behavior in real time, and adapting its tactics. Restore systems, recover hidden data, and work together to uncover the truth behind the collapse of Pantheon before Minerva closes in.

Players can choose to face the Minerva alone, or as mentioned, team up with up to three other players. The game scales its intensity based on your group size. Success depends on real-time communication and strategic coordination to stay one step ahead of Minerva.

Every playthrough offers a different mission to the exit. You must complete a series of randomized and stage-specific objectives while navigating the foreboding environment. No two sessions feel the same, as the missions and threats constantly evolve.

That main threat is Minerva, who roams the corridors in search of you. It observes your habits and remembers your favorite hiding spots. If you continuously repeat the same behavior, it will adapt and change its hunting pattern to catch you.

Look for the full version of CODE EXIT on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store in 2027.

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“We’ve been hard at work making DREADMOOR into the dark fishing game of our dreams, and the player feedback we’ve received during our past playtests has been a huge part of making that happen,” said Rostislav Fedorov, CEO of Dream Dock Games. “This is just a first peek at what DREADMOOR has in store for the more than 200,000 people who have wishlisted, but once you’ve gotten a taste, well… you’ll be hooked.”

In a bayou ravaged by an evil plague, board a leaky fishing boat and scavenge to survive – and maybe even turn a profit! Explore the Submerged Lands to scout out the best fishing spots, but be on the lookout for the fearsome, mutated predators that make these waters their home. For a big enough fish, anything looks like bait.

Once your hold is full of mutant fish, head back to the bait shop that’s perched on the back of a gargantuan crab and sell your catch. Scavenge materials to use to upgrade your hull and fishing gear, sell your catches, then seek out deadlier prey to find the rare parts needed for specialty lures and pole upgrades.

The post First Public Playtest of ‘DREADMOOR’ on Now [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Alas — unlike Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary — when the luckless astronauts of this title arrive at the touted Goldilocks zone, they don’t end up forging life-long bromances with any of the ETs they bump into. On the contrary, their experience of first contact is decidedly more hostile, leading to a desperate fight for survival that’s equal parts Alien and The Thing.

The Dark Pictures have always flitted between different settings and themes, but this latest jump to space horror is undoubtedly their biggest pivot yet. Which raises the question: “Where can they possibly go from here?”

In the past, we’ve had a decent inkling of what’s around the corner, as each previous anthology instalment has concluded with a sneak peek teeing up the next game. Directive 8020 sort of upholds this tradition, although it takes way more effort to uncover the hidden teaser this time, and it’s not particularly revealing when you do.

All it shows is a degraded VHS tape playing on its own accord and flashing up a string of increasingly unsettling images. A startled deer. A subliminal flash of glaring eyes. A group of people hypnotically pacing around in a circle. An occult glyph is being etched onto the screen. And then, finally, a decrepit, spindly hand reaching out from a black void.

There’s not much we can glean from this preview, to be honest, other than that the next Dark Pictures entry is presumably going to have some kind of paranormal slant. So, if nothing else, it should be a good palate cleanser after all of Directive 8020’s sci-fi escapades!

The thing is, whatever form this upcoming project does take, the team at Supermassive will still have plenty of unmined ideas and juicy horror tropes left to explore. To date, they’ve flirted with slashers, torture porn, ghost stories, vampire flicks, and body horror, while also doing a weird witchcraft trials riff on that noughties road-movie Reeker (Little Hope was an odd duck).

Yet there’s so much still on the table! With that said, as The Dark Pictures heads into the promising new era of its sophomore season, now seems like the opportune moment to draw up a wishlist of which horror subgenres we’d like to see the franchise tackling next. Here are seven that we think they should prioritise!

International Horror

Suspiria

Back when The Dark Pictures was still in its adolescence, and sat under the publishing banner of Bandai Namco, a trilogy pack was released in Europe, bundling together the first three games in the series. This shipped with an assortment of goodies, including a nifty SteelBook case, a set of pins, and a cloth map that depicted the known world.

Dotted sporadically around the latter collectable were a handful of symbols that each corresponded to the setting of a different instalment in the anthology (as it stood at the time). A ship marooned in the Pacific denoted where our hapless vacationers got stranded in Man of Medan, while a seventeenth-century ragdoll placed in the New England territories marked the witchy happenings of Little Hope, and a crescent moon over Iraq delineated House of Ashes’ combat zone.

Although it was never made explicit, we always took this map to be a mission statement for The Dark Pictures going forward. An articulation of Supermassive’s globe-trotting aspirations for the franchise, and a sign that they hoped to one day raise their inky-black flag in each and every continent. Much like how jetsetters use those scratch maps to proudly tick off all the travel destinations they’ve been to.

Yet if this Dark Pictures atlas were to be updated now, the icons would still largely be concentrated in or around America. There’d be representation for The Devil in Me in the Chicago area, and some kind of topographical contouring that places Directive 8020 way out of the atmosphere, but nothing in Europe, the Far East, Africa, or the Antipodes.

We’d like to see the series expanding its horizons in Season 2, then, not only for the literal change of scenery, but because it would also open up tantalizing possibilities for new genre switch-ups. Just imagine an Italian giallo entry, some Aussie outback horror, or even something that boldly homages the New French Extremity (only half-serious with that last one).

J-Horror 

1998’s Ring

The likeliest and most fitting candidate, however, would have to be J-horror. As a genre, it clicks super well with the interactive movie formula, given that its protagonists are often doomed by the poor choices they make (be it to watch an evil VHS tape, to answer a sinister phone call, or to trespass in a notorious murder house) and must then figure out the precise steps they need to follow in order to avert their appointment with death. Which might as well be a standardised synopsis for every single game in The Dark Pictures Anthology!

Case in point, the ethical dilemma that our heroine is faced with at the end of Ringu — whereby they have to either accept the grim fate that’s been handed to them or otherwise pass Sadako’s curse on to a patsy — is practically gift-wrapped for this type of choose-your-own-adventure experience. If you squint next time you’re watching Hideo Nakata’s film, you can almost imagine the branching-path options loading before your very eyes. “Copy the Tape” or “Don’t Copy the Tape”.

But it’s not just J-horror’s emphasis on moral deliberation that makes it feel uniquely suited to The Dark Pictures’ whole deal. The genre also tends to have a heavy

investigatory element — as characters race against the clock to uncover the truth behind supernatural goings-on — a countdown structure that lends itself nicely to video game chapters, and some basis in real-life folklore or urban legend. All of which are prerequisites for The Dark Pictures Anthology. Like onryō spirits and poor plumbing, these two would go perfectly together.

Gothic Horror

The Woman in Black

If, on the other hand, the Surrey-based developers would prefer to make something that hits a little closer to home, they could always turn to old Blighty for inspiration. It’d make sense to honour their roots and have at least one of these games take place somewhere in the UK, what with half of the actors on their Rolodex hailing from the nation to begin with (including Will Poulter, Pip Torrens, Paul Kaye and Latasha Lynch).

And if you’re going to do something set on this quaint isle, then the most obvious route to go down would be a traditional gothic chiller, à la The Woman in Black or The Turn of the Screw. Because Christ knows England, Wales, and Scotland have got more than enough local ghost stories to pick from, whether it’s the wraiths that are said to stalk the Tower of London, the Grey Lady of Glamis Castle, or the headless Princess Gwenllian. Hell, you can barely walk ten steps down the cobbled streets of York without bumping into another purported spook site or supposedly haunted pub.

If they wanted to, Supermassive could fully embrace their heritage and commit to doing a proper period-piece set in Victorian England, switching out Little Hope’s camera-torches for kerosene lamps and Directive 8020’s spaceship decks for stately homes. It’d be a welcome change of pace after all of the series’ 21st-century scenarios, and could be an opportunity to pivot away from the blunt jump scares and gore that have defined The Dark Pictures thus far. Indeed, the developers could take the opportunity to deliver more elegant, subdued frights, adding a welcome touch of class to proceedings.

Exploitation Horror

Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left

An alternative to class, of course, is pure sleaze. The Dark Pictures have been relatively straight-laced when it comes to everything but elaborate deaths. Sure, characters are liable to meet sticky ends if you lead them astray, but the resulting kills are over-the-top and not in the least bit disturbing (unless you’re of a very sensitive disposition). Not to mention, there’s a general avoidance of taboo subject matter, upsetting themes, and even strong language. Considering that they take after infamously horny flicks like Friday the 13th, they’re remarkably chaste too.

Plunging into the grimy depths of grindhouse cinema could be a way to make the puritanical titles feel more dangerous and disreputable than they do. To be clear, we’re not advocating for some tasteless, interactive rape-revenge premise or anything, but there is scope to introduce a bit more grit into the franchise. Perhaps something along the lines of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. You know, something that’s legitimately transgressive, brutal, and grungy. It’d be a timely move as well, given that Ti West’s X trilogy recently gave the movement a new lease on life and dragged it back into the cultural zeitgeist.

If they don’t want to go whole hog here (which is understandable, given how off-putting to general audiences this sort of thing can be), they could still gesture towards the exploitation cycle. Even if it just meant emulating the DIY aesthetic of the genre’s ‘70s heyday.

Religious Horror

The Exorcist III

Another wave of horror that was inescapable in the ’60s through the ’70s, and often cross-pollinated with exploitation cinema, is religious horror.

Out of everything on our list, this is probably the most glaring omission from The Dark Pictures canon thus far, particularly when you consider how many bona fide classics belong in the conversation (see The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, etc.). If Supermassive truly aims to encompass everything that horror is and can be, then they’ll have to tackle this theme sooner or later.

There’s a lot of cool stuff they could do with it! Their dialogue system, for instance, could be used to ask probing questions about dogma and to test the faith of characters with different values and opposing world views (a la CBS’s “Evil“). Meanwhile, the patented “Turning Point” system could enable you to respond to supernatural phenomena— be it a possession, a miracle, or a demonic infestation — with either a cold scientific rationalism or an unwavering belief in the divine, presenting a really interesting fork in the road that could have meaningful consequences for the story.

Apocalyptic Horror

Night of the Living Dead

With its emphasis on stealth encounters and a Resident Evil-esque puzzle that had you mixing chemical compounds, Directive 8020 saw The Dark Pictures affording players greater agency than ever before. Should the development team want to continue down this road, tentatively adopting more interactive elements that go beyond mere QTEs, then they’ll need to pick a genre that gives them sufficient latitude for that.

There’s arguably no better option in this respect than apocalyptic horror. Because any Doomsday calamity will inevitably leave the world divided and fraught with danger, and those who linger on after the bombs / viral outbreak/ A.I. Armageddon/ sound-sensitive alien invasion (tick as appropriate) will need to forever keep their guard up.

Which means it will be really easy for Supermassive to integrate persistent, real-time threats into their story. It’s why zombie pandemics have always been the go-to scenario for survival horror games for decades, as they give you an inexhaustible supply of enemies that you can evade or gun down. Speaking of which, if Supermassive ever wanted to branch out into full-blown combat mechanics, either gun or melee-based, then doing the George A. Romero thing wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Holiday Horror

Terrifier 3

It’s not commercially viable for myriad reasons (not least because no one in their right mind would release a AAA title that people would only want to play for one month out of the entire calendar year), but our dream scenario is for Supermassive to embrace holiday horror. Specifically, we’d go nuts for a Dark Pictures Christmas Special!

Whatever kind of story you choose to tell here — whether it’s a killer Santa murder spree, a Krampus-style take on Yuletide traditions, or just a secular creature feature that happens to unfold at the most wonderful time of the year — it’s bound to be a ton of fun. After all, ‘tis the season for petty dramas and long-repressed hostilities bubbling to the surface.

You see, we’ve always enjoyed fanning the flames of characters’ interpersonal conflicts in these games, and there’s no better time to stoke those tensions than during the holidays. You’ve got (often dysfunctional) families cooped up together for days on end, the stresses of present buying, awkwardness around the mistletoe, and people getting unwisely liquored up around those they secretly resent. It’s a powder keg ready to blow, and, as the puppet master manipulating the strings of everyone involved, you get the privilege of deciding if, when, and how it all blows up.

Even without rampaging psychopaths or bloodthirsty ghouls on the prowl, it’d be a hoot exploiting this messy dynamic. Especially since it has been sorely lacking from the last few Supermassive outings, which have all revolved around button-down professionals (are we the only ones yearning for the hormonal soap opera antics of Until Dawn?)

And then, when the horror does begin in earnest, the developers would have free rein to devise hundreds of ironic seasonal kills for players to discover — from fairy light strangulations to candy cane impalements and mangled bodies being jammed down chimneys. You’d be compelled to play it over and over again just to collect them all!

In short, cheesiness like this would play to the franchise’s strengths. Of course, the main reason we’re pushing for holiday horror is so that we can see the Curator wearing a fetching festive hat and sweater as he bookends the tale. That’d be the only gift we’d ever need!

Anyway, those are the subgenres we’d most like to see The Dark Pictures exploring next, but what about you? Would you be interested in an animal attack outing? A bit of folk horror? Some gateway horror? Or something else entirely?

Directive 8020, is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Steam.

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Also like Slender Man, many video games adapted this concept to varying levels of success. One of those games, released the same year as the viral post that defined much of the accepted mythology of the Backrooms, was from indie developer Puppet Combo, the creator of games such as Nun Massacre, The Glass Staircase, and Stay Out of the House. Originally titled “Day 7“, it was distributed via their Patreon, but with the impending release of A24’s Backrooms film, Puppet Combo has decided to rebrand the game simply as The Backrooms for release on consoles.

Initially, this felt like a strange mismatch to me. Puppet Combo is really known for a grindhouse aesthetic, focusing on scuzzy, violent slasher games. Would that gel with the eerie liminal horror vibe that had been established?

While there definitely are some more gnarly elements in the final act of this hour-long game, I found that their signature style actually worked to give everything a found footage aesthetic, one that brought to mind the YouTube shorts that the feature film is based on. The PSX graphics style works perfectly to heighten the feeling of unreality, making you wonder if that thing you’re seeing in the distance is merely a trick of the low-fi filter.

Retro Style Held Back By Retro Mechanics

The retro look does a great job of setting the mood right off the bat, but unfortunately, the retro controls do not. Playing from a first-person perspective, I expected to be able to control with the traditional dual joystick layout people have used forever, but instead of left and right on the left joystick strafing, it turned my character. I understand that it’s meant to evoke the feeling of an older era, like many Puppet Combo games, but this took a bit for me to get used to.

There also appeared to be a bug that prevented me from inverting the y-axis, which I do for all games, making it take even longer for me to acclimate to the game’s controls. I saw a post from the studio’s account saying both these issues would be fixed in an upcoming update, but they were definitely barriers for me starting out.

The game’s prologue does a nice job of setting up the main character, Terrance, another thing I wasn’t really expecting from the game. It’s not the most in-depth personality, but it was nice to see some dialogue of him interacting with his coworkers or people on the subway, where he finds himself in the titular labyrinth. Dialogue sequences are charmingly low-fi, with characters popping in and standing static in front of you, only to disappear immediately when they finish.

Their models aren’t even in the world as you’re navigating, making for a slight jump scare when they start speaking. It may look pretty janky, but the old school charm works on me in a way that makes it feel endearing rather than unfinished.

While I enjoyed the vibe that these interactions set up in the beginning, I did not enjoy getting through it. Before you get to the titular location, you spend some time going from your office to the subway, and this location felt really easy to get lost in. It was not clear where I was supposed to go, and I felt like I only stumbled upon the subway entrance by happenstance. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a thematic feeling, prepping me for the feeling of getting lost in the Backrooms, but I found it more frustrating than interesting, especially with the slow walk speed. I was holding the run button the entire time, and even that didn’t quite feel fast enough.

A Liminal Walking Simulator

It should go without saying that most of the game is about exploring the Backrooms, navigating the seemingly endless space to progress to different story beats. It does a good job of creating the illusion that there are lots of different ways for you to go while actually being pretty linear. Branching paths quickly lead to dead ends, ensuring you stay on the critical path to keep the story rolling. That’s not to say you can’t get turned around given the intentional sameness of the environments, but there’s just enough landmarking that you can keep moving forward even if you get lost for a moment.

That’s mostly it as far as gameplay goes. It fairly firmly sits in the genre of spooky walking simulator, forcing you to wander from beat to beat. Eventually, you find a purse that allows you to drop coins like breadcrumbs, which are crucial for being able to backtrack when the story asks you. This mechanic is a fun little twist that feels thematically in line with the lost-in-a-liminal-space vibes it’s going for. It’s a welcome addition that gives you at least a little bit of agency, something that the game lacks by design.

Despite having a mostly repeating set of environment pieces, the game finds clever ways to have things break down as you explore further. The uncanniness of the Backrooms itself is played up when things start glitching, again taking advantage of the retro aesthetics to give you a feeling of reality falling apart at the seams. Needless to say, you’re not alone down there, leading to some creepy encounters and strange happenings. These are the strongest elements of the game, with a good understanding of what makes the premise work.

To break things up, there’s a dream sequence in the game that once again gives us a glimpse into the character while also providing some liminal horror of its own. Taking place at a funeral, it shows Terrance interacting with family members as a child, getting lost while playing an ill-advised game of hide and seek at the funeral home. The concepts of the Backrooms bleed into this setting, creating some of the more effective parts of the game both narratively and tonally. This takes place pretty early in the runtime, and I wish they had found more space for these types of sequences, as they offer a good break from the monotonous location.

The Final Verdict: An Atmospheric but Slight Creepypasta Experience

While the build is solid, I feel like the ending is very abrupt, especially given the extremely short runtime of the game. The climax does a good job of paying off some elements, but it escalates so quickly that it doesn’t feel natural to me. There’s a strange confrontation at the end that all takes place via menus, which technically works fine but doesn’t really feel all that satisfying.

I literally exclaimed “that’s it?” at the end of the game, as it felt like it had just gotten going at the moment it ended. I don’t really know much about the production of the original game, but I’m a little surprised Puppet Combo didn’t go back and add a bit more to the end to make this console version stand out more.

I’ve seen a lot of people online say that this release feels like a cash-in on the upcoming film, and it definitely is, albeit one that was created about three years before the Kane Parsons short films came out. I don’t begrudge Puppet Combo for spending resources on a console port of this and timing it with the film, but I wish there were more care taken with the package.

While I’m glad to hear that the control issues are being addressed, it feels like a little extra work to extend the game would have helped it fully take advantage of the concept. I enjoyed the atmosphere created in this version of the Backrooms, with the low-poly graphics enhancing the vibe, but it feels like it never has a chance to fully get going.

Review code provided by publisher. The Backrooms is out now on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series.

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Coming to Steam, the story for Project Rabbit involved the collapse of the power of dimensions, resulting in continents from different realms became entangled into a single world, and within the cracks between them, the “Abyss of Time” was born.

The Abyss is a twisted world sealed away by the Blood Queen. Within the Abyss wander beings that neither age nor die, trapped in an endless cycle of time. Those who survived the darkness of the Abyss built the last refuge beneath a fading barrier of light. But the barrier is slowly losing its power. To survive, someone must once again step into the Abyss.

Within the Abyss of Time, even the smallest mistake can lead to a fatal end. You must dodge, parry, and master a variety of combat skills to battle against beings consumed by madness. Along the way, you’ll discover hidden treasures and forgotten secrets buried deep within the Abyss, and forge your own combat style through combinations of weapons, equipment, and skills.

Going solo or teaming up with friends, venturing into the Abyss of Time will see you not only facing creatures consumed by madness, but also unpredictable encounters with other survivors. If you manage to claim valuable treasures and resources, you must survive and make it back alive before losing everything.

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Fortunately, you’re not completely without any tools. You have your trusty Compass and Handheld Sonar Device to help you find your way, as well as avoid the dangers lurking below. Still, with minimal maps and waypoints to guide you, you must chart your own path using whatever information you can find: a note, a direction, a sound, or maybe even a star.

The ocean is scattered with abandoned sites. While they may hold clues to how you can escape to safety, not every locale is friendly. Years of isolation have twisted these places, and exploring them comes with risk. These areas expand the horror beyond the open water, forcing you to face threats on both land and sea.

And above all else, do not fall into the water. The unexplored depths hide unimaginable terrors. These creatures have risen to the surface, and you must do everything to avoid becoming their prey. Use your tools to track their movements and consider cutting the engine if you are making too much noise. Stay calm, stay quiet, and you may live long enough to see land again.

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As such, the team has also released a new trailer giving players a look at these new gameplay features.

If you’ve never heard of VANRAN before, this dark fantasy action RPG tells the tale of Caleb, who for 100 years, stood as the shield of the Northern Frontier. He watched hundreds of souls vanish into the abyss, thrown in by the very royalty he swore to protect. His rebellion was met with steel, where his brothers-in-arms had became his executioners. To escape their blades, he chose the fall. Now a fallen human slave wields a sealed blade to begin the rebellion again.

As one would expect from a Souls-like, you’ll need to parry and move in order to strike your foes at the right moment. You must master the art of active parry to catch and return the momentum of your opponent’s strike, all while weaving in and out of combat.

Along with the armies of the Demon Realm, you’ll face gigantic monuments known as the Govu. These encounters are not mere bosses but are multi-stage fights, taking a cue from Shadow of the Colossus where you’ll need to literally scale these monsters to cut them down.

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The demo is designed as a free prologue to Dread Eagle, appropriately titled Dread Eagle Demo Prologue, and takes place shortly before the events of the main game. The demo includes its own unique content separate from the full version of the game. Rather, the demo gives players a separate first look at the world, atmosphere, and survival mechanics of Dread Eagle.

The demo has players being captured by Soviet soldiers and taken to a classified research site known as Unit 91-C. Hidden deep inside a secret military facility, Unit 91-C is rumored to be the place where disturbing experiments were carried out on unwilling subjects. But when the player arrives, it becomes clear that the facility is no longer under Soviet control. Something has gone wrong, and the experiments inside have left behind carnage in their wake.

As a result, players must explore the dark corridors of the facility, interact with the environment, uncover fragments of the story, and learn the basics of survival as they face whatever is still lurking inside. The demo can be played alone or together with a friend in co-op, giving players the choice to face the horror by themselves or enter the facility as a team.

“Dread Eagle Demo Prologue is the first step into the world of the game,” said Tarba Paul Cornel, Game Director at Galactic Crows. “We wanted players to feel the tension from the very beginning, but also give them something separate from the full game. This prologue has its own content, its own moments, and it sets up the nightmare that continues in Dread Eagle.”

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Blending fast, familiar gameplay with psychological tension and strategic depth, Rock, Paper, Severed sees you choose from a cast of characters, each with their own secrets and reasons for playing, to sit at the table, play Rock, Paper, Scissors, and try to win. However, if you lose, you must sacrifice a finger. Run out of fingers, and you can guess what happens.

Presiding over the game is the mysterious Entity, a shadowy host offering players a chance at absolution. Those who sit at the table are drawn in by the promise of wiping away their sins, but leaving is not so simple. As matches unfold, fragments of the past begin to surface, and the true cost of the game becomes horrifyingly clear.

Luckily, you have at your disposal a range of items to manipulate outcomes, shift momentum, and outplay your opponents. You can also use bluffing techniques in order to outsmart your opponents, but you’ll need to take care, as they will try to do the same with you.

And if the singleplayer campaign isn’t your thing, you can join up to three friends in multiplayer action, where only one walks away whole.

And if you like mysteries, Buzzin’ Games has added some intrigue with the game’s official site, which is filled with hidden secrets, cryptic clues, and unsettling discoveries. But finding them won’t be straightforward. A clue to help you navigate and decipher the site is hidden within the reveal trailer itself. Watch closely, dig deeper, and uncover the path for yourself.

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“Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy is the culmination of the series, and we can’t wait to share this grand finale with the fans,” says Stormind Games CCO Daniele Azara. “Storytelling has always been at the heart of Remothered, and this trailer gives players, old and new, a deeper look into the mystery, the characters, and the horror behind the Red Nun.”

Along with the story trailer, Stormind has also lifted the curtain on the game’s voice cast. Revealed in a recent community video, the cast includes Cissy Jones (“The Walking Dead”, Life is Strange, BAFTA winner for Firewatch) as Susan, and Maggie Robertson (Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village) as the Red Nun herself. In the new video below, Cissy and Maggie talk about their characters and the inspirations they bring to their roles.

Legendary composer Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill) will also provide the soundtrack for the game.

When a mysterious recording rekindles the hope that her daughter might still be alive, Susan, against all reason, decides to go to the place where everything seems to have begun: a decaying noble residence isolated on the slopes of Mount Etna and once owned by the Ashmann family.

What starts as a desperate search soon becomes a journey into terror, where family secrets, memory, and obsession intertwine. Susan finds herself drawn into a labyrinth of relentless stalkers, hidden symbols, and supernatural phenomena. As reality fractures and dark powers rise, every step brings her closer to the truth… and to a terror older than herself.

Look for Remothered: Red Nun’s Legacy later this year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store and GOG.com.

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As expected with the program, both games are playable today on modern systems with several optimisations. Among them are optimised framerates, unlocked resolutions, and added modern controller support.

Here’s a breakdown of the full list of improvements for METRO 2033 (2010 version) and METRO: Last Light Complete Edition (2013 version):

• Full compatibility with Windows 10 and 11

• Added support for modern controllers (including Sony DualSense / DualShock 4, Microsoft Xbox Series / Xbox One / Xbox 360, Nintendo Switch 2 Pro / Switch Pro, Logitech F, Amazon Luna) with optimal button binding, hotplugging and wireless mode)

• Increased the maximum number of supported resolutions

• Implemented new high-resolution framerate limiter

• Implemented vertical synchronisation for fluid and tear-free experience

• Optimised default game settings

METRO 2033 Redux and METRO: Last Light Redux, the remastered versions of the original titles, remain available on PC and console platforms. Meanwhile, look for METRO 2039 this winter for the Xbox Series, PlayStation 5, Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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In FEED IT, players are forced to take care of a monster with a simple choice either you give the food to the creature and starve, or you eat the food yourself and risk the monster’s wrath. Designed as a short-form, replayable horror experience with multiple paths and various endings, FEED IT draws inspiration from games like Silent Hill or Mouthwashing. That is, like those titles, the game focuses more on discomfort emotional pressure rather than your typical scares.

Adding more intrigue is the fact that instead of fully explaining its world outright, FEED IT leaves players to make sense of the situation as they move through it. You’ll face minimal interactions and a restrained structure. There’s no complex plot to uncover, but instead the game is more about living through a concentrated horror experience.

You won’t have to wait long to give FEED IT a whirl, as a playable demo will be available on Steam as part of next month’s Steam Next Fest, with the full release planned for this summer.

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The upcoming patch mainly focuses on balance improvements across Tombwater. Players with stacked resources will now encounter a more balanced impact, with the game at a difficulty curve that better reflects the developers’ intentions.  Along with the update comes several bug fixes and level improvements. You can check out the full list on the patch notes.

Inspired by classics like The Legend of Zelda and Hollow Knight, Tombwater is a 2D Soulslike action RPG that casts you as a lone gunslinger who arrives in the accursed ghost town in search of a lost friend. The residents of the once-prosperous mining town have been afflicted by madness. Monsters and horrors roam the streets and there are few souls remaining with a sound mind. It’s up to you to clean up the town, as well as uncover the secrets that Tombwater’s deranged inhabitants are trying to keep buried.

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The game focuses on Terrence, your typical office guy who’s having a typical day at the office. However, while traveling home, he inexplicably falls down to the Backrooms. A journey chronicling 7 days… Can Terrence escape this liminal horror phenomenon? Or will he be trapped within this place forever?

The Backrooms is a horror adventure game where you explore the liminal space of the Backrooms while you interact with strange and creepy characters. Explore the Backrooms, find the unexpected as you go into impossible spaces and see things you shouldn’t have seen.

Puppet Combo brings the liminal horror phenomenon from obscure corners of the internet to console players looking for exploration-based atmospheric horror.

Meanwhile, Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut with his adaptation of the Backrooms on May 29 with (you guessed it) Backrooms. Starring Academy Award nominees Chiwetel Ejiofor (Venom: The Last Dance) and Renate Reinsve (A Different Man), the cast also features Mark Duplass (Creep), Finn Bennett (“True Detective: Night Country”), Lukita Maxwell (“Shrinking”), and Avan Jogia (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City).

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Adding to that is the news that the Silent Hill 2 remake has now surpassed 6 million cumulative players, adding another million since March. This includes the number of copies sold for both physical and digital versions, as well as the number of players on subscription services.

To celebrate, Konami has announced that the dual pack of both games is receiving a 40% discount until May 28 on the PlayStation Store.

Also available for the Xbox Series and PC via Steam, Silent Hill f is the first entry in the series set in Japan, where players take on the role of Shimizu Hinako, a high school student struggling under society’s pressure of expectations. Wandering through her hometown Ebisugaoka, a mysterious fog rolls in and covers the town, revealing a disturbing transformation. Hinako must face horrific creatures, uncover mysteries and confront traumatic decisions that will influence her fate.

Meanwhile, more Silent Hill is due out later this year, courtesy of Screen Burn with Silent Hill Townfall. No release date has been set as of yet, but you can pre-order the game now on PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

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According to the latest earnings report, Dead Rising, along with Devil May Cry, Dragon’s Dogma, and Onimusha, have been earmarked as brands for “the next engine of growth”. That seems to imply either remakes, ports or new entries in these franchises. Obviously, we have Onimusha: Way of the Sword coming later this year, and Devil May Cry is currently enjoying its second season of its adaptation (read Daniel’s review) on Netflix, but where does that leave Dead Rising?

Capcom had surprised everyone with the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster a few years ago, and had also conducted a survey of fans to see just what other titles that they’d like to see get a similar treatment. Then there’s the rumour of Dead Rising 5 that popped up earlier this year that has fans’ tongues wagging, but obviously, Capcom has kept silent and (rightly so) focused on Resident Evil Requiem.

It’s an interesting turn of fortunes, since Capcom never did reveal the exact sales numbers for the Deluxe Remaster, nor has the franchise had quite the same success as other Capcom horror IPs. Still, for fans of the series, you can’t complain that Capcom is once again paying attention.

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In The Necromancer’s Tale, players assume the role of a minor noble in the 18th Century, drawn into the dark necromantic arts as you seek knowledge and revenge. With a narrative heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, great power awaits as you master forbidden rituals and command an army of the undead, along with the weird, the morbid, and a gradual descent into madness. Before you lies a great spellbook, filled with powerful rites of death and reanimation. Can you decipher the pages and master its arcane rituals without losing your mind or being strung up by the townsfolk?

Unlike conventional RPGs, necromancy is not just a skill—it’s an immersive journey into secrecy, manipulation, and moral decay. Inspired by titles like Disco Elysium and Pillars of Eternity, this dark origin story is touted as the first of its kind to explore what it truly means to become a necromancer, unravelling mysteries of death and power in a richly layered narrative spanning over 400,000 words, and 180+ NPCs. The game’s branching dialogue and faction-based trust system mean that every choice matters.

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Guns didn’t need to be reloaded because that would get in the way of the action. Demons were hanging out in this space because that’s where the designer wanted to challenge you. The Mars base was laid out like a maze because it was fun to get around. There was no concern for anything beyond the most basic of narratives, which was only there to provide a pretense for you to turn demons into pixelated corpses using a range of great feeling weapons.

It was a simpler time, and that simplicity allowed them to be laser-focused on making it fun.

For a while, this model of games dominated, with DOOM clones popping up everywhere. Despite getting DOOM II and Final DOOM, the franchise fell off the map a bit. In 2004, we saw id try to reboot the franchise, but it looked very different from its predecessors. In the intervening years, Half-Life had shown the world a template for making first-person shooters more story-focused, and DOOM 3 tried to move a bit in that direction. There was more narrative, with actual NPCs delivering plot information, as well as a new focus on atmosphere and horror. This was divisive at the time, though history has mostly vindicated this approach, as it felt like this was a reconceptualization of what DOOM was rather than an evolution of what people liked about it.

Following this, the DOOM franchise would go on a long hiatus as it figured out what it looked like in a modern landscape. Call of Duty came out, and that franchise, particularly the Modern Warfare games, redefined the first-person shooter genre as one that was about linear spectacle, throwing you into bombastic setpieces that evoked action movies. These games focused more on a sense of realism, set in grounded locations with conventional weapons.

This was also the era of the third-person cover shooter, which trained gamers to be a bit more passive, hiding behind waist-high walls as their health recharged before popping up to take more shots at enemies. It seemed like the world had left behind the style of DOOM, leaving its future uncertain.

It took a long time for the franchise to figure out what it wanted to be. The game known as DOOM 4 was stuck in development hell for a long time, conceived of as a Call of Duty-style game that featured a focus on cover, scripted cinematics, and passive health regeneration, casting you in an epic struggle examining the impact of Hell’s invasion of Earth. As time went on, they decided that this direction was out of touch with the original games, and development was restarted essentially from scratch.

Slick Design Unleashes Stylish New Vision of Hell That Still Holds Up

This ended up being the right call, as it resulted in DOOM (2016), a perfect combination of retro sensibilities and modern design, evoking the feeling of the original two titles while still setting itself apart with an identity all its own. Heralded as one of the best games of the year, it was praised for its propulsive single player campaign that managed to give a different kind of thrill than the Call of Duties of the world, challenging the player with snappy combat that didn’t pull its punches. While the multiplayer and map creation tools were not as well received, it was hard to deny that DOOM was back in a big way that still resonates now, on its ten-year anniversary.

The story wastes very little time, mocking the idea that the Doom Slayer would have any patience for exposition. Like DOOM 3, there are other characters that move the plot forward, but you play as a man of action who smashes screens that monologue at him. It’s the perfect way to pay homage to the no-nonsense attitude of the originals while also still being at least somewhat narrative driven like a modern action game. All the Doom Slayer needs to know is he’s on a Mars base and some corporate idiots unleashed Hell in the name of profit, and that’s all we really want as the player, so we’re right alongside him when he’s brushing off any notion of plot.

The level design also reflects this mentality of being classic and modern at the same time. The spaces you traverse feel more grounded, like something you expect to see in a science lab on Mars, but they also feel fun to traverse and explore. Rather than feel beholden to being completely authentic, they put an emphasis on making the space playable first and foremost.

Arenas are well laid out, with changes in elevation and cover that make them perfect for the game’s exciting firefights. As you progress through the levels, there are plenty of secrets hidden throughout, rewarding you for going off the beaten path or doing extra platforming challenges. There’s even a modern version of the original’s extremely game-y colored keycard system that shows up as a fun callback.

All Hail the Glory Kill System

When people talk about DOOM (2016), the thing they still bring up, even a decade later, is the combat. Compared to the Call of Duties of the world, it was fast. Really fast. You don’t even have to hold down a run button to be moving quickly. Very frequently, you’ll be locked in arenas with enemies that need to be killed to move on, and these scenarios can get lethal quickly if you’re not careful. Standing still was frequently a death sentence, forcing you to constantly be on the move to dodge enemies and line up your shots. There’s no regenerating health, so you heal the old-fashioned video game way: glowing powerups.

Weapons don’t need to reload, but you’re limited in how much you can carry for each weapon. Ammo is replenished through pickups around the level, though it’s rare that it will be able to keep up with your rate of consumption. This creates an interesting rhythm that requires you to switch between weapons on the fly as you run out, changing tactics in the moment as the intensity ratchets up.

At some point in the game, you’re given a chainsaw that will make an enemy explode into ammo, making you think about how low you need to be before using up precious chainsaw fuel to restock on ammo. These weapons can all be upgraded, with alternate fire modes and stats that can be unlocked as you explore. Upgrades like this are another concession to modern game design, but it feels like it fits into the classic DOOM ethos because it’s all about giving you more tools to turn demons into piles of gore.

And boy, will there be gore.

The biggest change to the combat is the Glory Kill system, which allows you to do brutal executions on stunned enemies. The hyperviolent animations could be considered reward enough, but these Glory Kills also send health pickups flying, contributing to the core loop of the game. Despite the Doom Slayer being a killing machine, enemies can do quite a bit of damage to you very quickly, so this creates the “push forward” feel of the combat.

In order to heal, you need to get up close and personal with the enemies. It’s a simple concept that forces you to take calculated risks when you need to, but it truly elevates combat into something that’s both tactical and reflex-based. Some people argue that the overly animated kills break up the flow of combat a bit by bringing you to a complete stop, but even that becomes a tactical decision because you get a moment of invincibility that can be taken advantage of.

You’ll need all the advantages you can get, because classic DOOM enemies were remade in high definition glory. Instead of the darker color palette of DOOM 3, enemies are a bit brighter, saturated with reds in a way that leans more cartoony than realistic. When stunned, they get a very artificial glow to them so that they stand out, once again putting emphasis on game design over verisimilitude.

Each enemy has a different type of threat that they pose on the battlefield, and their extremely distinct visual styles not only make them easy to tell apart at a glance, but also convey what they do effectively through how they look. It feels like id figured out the exact number of enemy types and systems that they would need, creating a lean and mean combat system that’s simultaneously challenging and empowering.

The Revitalized Series Ensures No Rest for the Living

DOOM (2016) was such a successful revamp of the franchise that it spawned two sequels, each of which further attempted to evolve the formula. DOOM Eternal pushed the mechanic complexity even further, adding all sorts of tools to the Doom Slayer’s arsenal, but losing some of the streamlined nature of its predecessor. This was a divisive direction.

On one hand, it made things feel more game-y than ever, with platforming challenges and intricate weapons, and on the other hand, it complicated things too much, taking you out of the flow state that DOOM (2016) was so good at putting you in by giving you too many things to think about. There was also a strangely large emphasis on narrative, with longer cutscenes and more demonic lore, which never really landed with me.

DOOM: The Dark Ages followed Eternal, this time heading to the past for a medieval war against Hell. Narrative was clearly a core pillar of this entry, but thankfully, they pared back some of the more complicated mechanics of Eternal. In their place was a new shield, which allowed you to block and parry enemy attacks. Instead of leading to a defensive playstyle, it gave you the tools to be more aggressive, pushing forward as you shrugged off projectiles or sent them flying back at your foes.

Even the signature Glory Kill system was pared back a bit, removing the synced animation to keep you in the action. The relative simplicity of The Dark Ages worked better for me than Eternal, but I still think the medieval setting and narrative focus put it a step behind 2016 in my book.

In an industry where so many games are chasing a cinematic feel, DOOM (2016) was a great reminder that sometimes you just need to let a video game be a video game first and foremost. There can be a thrill to leading the player through bombastic, scripted setpieces that feel ripped from Hollywood blockbusters, but very often, I just want to run through a well-laid-out space and use fun weapons to rip and tear until it’s done. I need just enough pretense to justify the demons-on-Mars premise, not the entire history of Hell and all its generals.

I think the Boomer Shooter revival we’re seeing among indie games, highlighted by games like Dusk and Prodeus, shows that id was onto something with their franchise revival, and I hope that more AAA games start thinking about ways to capture that retro charm with a modern edge.

You can pick up DOOM on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, the Xbox One, and the Nintendo Switch.

The post A Decade of Ripping and Tearing: How ‘DOOM’ 2016 Revived The Series appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Coming on Steam, the story for Nailcrown sees you in a world swallowed by shadow, where death is not the end, but the beginning. You have been summoned back from the grave, you rise with a purpose: to aid your brother (who happens to be a necromancer) in the conquest for the Nailcrown. Along the way, you will piece together his secrets as you advance through dungeons, fortified castles, and haunted villages.

Fight through enemies alone or in cooperative play, you’ll have access to an array of implements to dish out punishment. Tear through flesh with the nailgun, or use the ever-reliant shotgun to blow away your foes. If you’re feeling up close and personal, you’ll also have access to a sword and warhammer to do some smashing and slashing.

The results of which make use of Nailcrown’s dynamic gore system. Shatter bones, splatter blood, and send limbs flying with brutal strikes.

In keeping with the old-school vibes, you’ll uncover secrets and improve your character at shrines. You can also find upgrades for your weapons to make them even deadlier.

And if your bloodlust still hasn’t been quenched, you can go at it with friends in brutal Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes.

The post Brutal Dark Fantasy FPS ‘Nailcrown’ Announced for Steam [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The movie will expand beyond the first-person puzzle horror game into a layered cinematic narrative where urban legends, Eastern spirituality, and family tragedy intertwine.

Drawing on a Vietnamese urban legend about a cursed Saigon apartment block from the 1990s, the film follows an estranged young man who returns home to discover his mother is possessed. He must work alongside his sister to unravel a malevolent force tied to forbidden rituals, buried family secrets, and the spirit world.

Slated for a 2027 release, The Scourge is directed by Doan Si Nguyen and written by Tran Khanh Hoang.

Charlie Nguyen (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny) & Jimmy Pham Nghiem of Chanh Phuong Films produce.

Vietnam-based sales agent Skyline Media is introducing the project to international buyers at the Cannes film market, currently underway.

“As the first Vietnamese feature film inspired by an original local game IP, The Scourge is a major step forward not only for Vietnamese cinematic storytelling, but for the country’s broader content ecosystem,” commented Skyline Media CEO Hang Trinh.

Developed by publisher Rare Reversee and Beaztek Studio, The Scourge has topped China’s Steam Early Access chart, accumulated over 60,000 downloads, and earned a 94% positive rating on the platform.

The post ‘The Scourge’ – Vietnamese Horror Video Game Set for Film Adaptation appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

You are a streamer, and you’re chasing that ever-elusive clout. The house is legendary, haunted for decades, complete with a ghost story that never dies. So you set up your laptop, grab your flashlight, and go live with your stream. The numbers climb and the chat spams. The views are finally coming in. But the house has other plans.

Armed only with your equipment and your instincts, you push deeper into the house, which as expected begins to “play”. Objects move when and where they shouldn’t. Whispers are heard through the static. Each paranormal event is a puzzle. You’ll need to observe what’s happening, interpret the anomaly, and experiment with your tools. Correct actions stabilize the encounter and reveal the truth, while mistakes escalate the situation, turning the environment hostile and unpredictable.

And much like in Don’t Go Live, Dark Stream features a fully integrated Twitch chat mechanic that reacts in real time to every discovery and every scream. They’re your audience, your witnesses, and maybe even your downfall. Will they support you when the house turns against you, will they feed the chaos, or will they simply spam “F” while everything falls apart?

The post Livestream a Haunted House Investigation in ‘Dark Stream’ [Teaser] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As previously mentioned, the 1.0 release includes 80 new masks  to collect (for a total of over 130), including “Key” masks that unlock hidden areas during your heists, and you’ll be able to deck out the home base with new furnishings and upgrades. Of course, that will require surviving the toothy wrath of three new pets to keep them.

“Thanks to the feedback from our community, we’ve been able to make the most of the Early Access period and bolster Burgle Supply Company with plenty of improvements and new content,” says Terrible Posture Games’ Creative Director Joe Mirabello. “Indulge in some good old-fashioned fun with friends by taking on ridiculous heists set in a dozen new levels, including graveyards, secret labs, renaissance festivals, giant bathrooms, and more, all while dodging new enemies, and discovering plenty of other fresh surprises in 1.0!”

Start a profitable life of crime today with Burgle Supply Company! Gather up to six of your pals to rob unsuspecting homes full of loot. Swipe key items and throw them into the definitely-not-suspicious plain white truck. Take on optional challenges to pilfer some extra credit – and extra goodies – to earn that gold star and make your parents proud.

However, you’ll also need to prepare to face a variety of lethal and unsettling family pets. Evade the mutant dog by carrying out missions quickly and quietly to avoid becoming another chew toy. Other day-to-day risks may include ghost moths, lobster fish, explosive egg-laying slugs, and accidental deaths caused by well-meaning associates.

The post 1.0 Release of ‘Burgle Supply Company’ Now Available [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Scrawled onto the parapets that neighbour my intended port of call, like the inscription Dante saw engraved atop the gates of hell, is this ominous message.

I infer that it must have been left by some conscientious citizen who has long since departed from this accursed place. Whether in the metaphysical sense or because they just slipped aboard a passing boat. Either way, one thing’s for sure: they have departed. 

As I prepare to berth at the makeshift jetty before me, it becomes increasingly clear that the islet to which I am drawn hasn’t played host to a living soul for quite some time. Sure, there are plenty of people scattered around. But none of them are breathing… 

Taking stock of just how many corpses line the path up from the pier and towards my destination, I have to concede that the author of that foreboding missive may well have had a point. Docking here does seem like a bad plan!

Still, I have no choice but to press on, for I must reach that abandoned church which looms menacingly up ahead. As my port draws inexorably closer, I try to think of an alternative route. A diversion that will, yes, eat up valuable seconds when I have not one left to spare, but also grant me passage through the district without having to set foot on this godforsaken inlet.

It’s not just the graffiti that’s got me on edge, you see. Everything in the vicinity seems to be screaming “turn back”. Additional portents corroborate the one I first saw upon approach (with these supplementary writings warning of “Murderers” and “Lunatics”, while urging me to “Stay Away”), carrion birds orbit the church steeple, and my boat’s flywheel has begun sputtering erratically as if it is actively resisting going any further.   

In spite of these ill omens and going against every self-preservation instinct in my bones, I eventually make landfall on the small island. Hitching my dinghy to the port, I then begin the short pilgrimage towards that desecrated seat of authority, which currently stands between me and a terrible destiny.

Along the way, I glimpse signs of profane influence infecting the place of worship. The floor is teeming with Slither — that damned worm-like pestilence that has all but consumed my city — while insectoid monstrosities from some blasphemous realm wait in the wings, occasionally darting from hollowed out tombs to snatch bodies or to spring an ambush.  

It feels like an age before I reach the church door, but when I finally do, it comes as an indescribable relief. I’ve never been much of a religious man — having devoted much of my formative years to lying, cheating, and the pursuit of occult artefacts — but, right now, I can understand the appeal. Basking in the warm glow of the vestibule, shielded from the horrors of the outside world by beautiful stained glass, this feels like a true safe haven. It’s almost enough to make an old swindler convert! 

Emphasis on the word “almost”.  While the church does provide sanctuary from the Slither and the various other abominations that have infested Arkham, it’s clear that even it has not been able to fully escape perversion. Epistolary accounts scatter the aisles, telling of how the parishioners here turned away from the Lord a long time ago, in favour of a new, pernicious faith in dark things that slumber beneath the waves. They write of antediluvian beings from the abyssal depths of the ocean, of bizarre rituals committed in their name, and of some ancient trident that can bend the very elements to its will.

As I study these clues, the voice of local broadcaster, Mushroom Jack, echoes through the building. Gibbering from the comfort of his radio station, he’s relating a tale he once heard about a man who ventured into the church undercroft only to come up against a wall of flesh that was stretched tight, and a malevolent eye that seemed to instil madness in anyone who dared meet its gaze. Guess that’s where I’m heading. 

I have no idea what I’ve walked into here, or how any of these puzzle pieces fit together. But it’s my job to find out what it all means and what to do about that formless thing that’s apparently taken root in the crypt. After all, she’s depending on me.

Who Doesn’t Love a Good Underdog Story? 

Please forgive that feeble attempt at mimicking the prose of H.P. Lovecraft, but there’s a reason we took that tack when introducing our preview. It seemed like the most evocative way of conveying what The Sinking City 2 is going for.

Indeed, Frogwares’ long-awaited sequel might not feature any such narration from its protagonist. But, if it did, it would sound just like an authentic excerpt from Lovecraft’s oeuvre, complete with the same grim fatalism, the same loquacious phrasing, and the same curious blend of gothic and cosmic horror. Because this is a game that has a keen understanding of what’s made the controversial author’s output, and the shared universe it inhabits, endure in the zeitgeist for well over a century. 

The same was true of its underrated 2019 predecessor, to be fair. If you’re wondering why it’s taken so long for the developers to return to this material that they so obviously love, well, you can blame a protracted legal battle for that, as well as the devastating impact of the war in Ukraine. All things considered, it’s kind of a miracle that we’re getting any follow-up at all, never mind one that appears to be in such promising shape. Of course, an outpouring of support from the community (via Kickstarter) has helped to grease the proverbial wheels somewhat.

Nevertheless, credit where it’s due, Frogwares has made the best of a rough situation here and used the fallow period between The Sinking City and The Sinking City 2 to their advantage. You can tell they’ve thought ambitiously about how they can make their sequel a real quantum leap and not just an iterative upgrade. 

Moving from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, it certainly looks like a game that’s benefited from seven years of technological advancements (especially when it comes to the enhanced lighting and water effects). But it’s crucially way more refined from a mechanical perspective, too. 

With the best will in the world, the original game was a textbook case of Eurojank. For all of the creative ideas, intriguing world-building, and experimental design choices, it was hardly the smoothest of experiences when you actually sat down to try and play it. There were glitches abound, the combat was floaty as hell, and the whole experience could generously be described as “rough around the edges”.  

Its successor, on the other hand, is significantly more polished. Part of that’s because the team has evidently learned lessons from their first go-around and wisely heeded audience feedback. To be blunt, though, the main reason that The Sinking City 2 feels so much tighter than its predecessor is that Frogwares has closely emulated a franchise that can seemingly do no wrong at present. 

Namely, they’ve had a go at making their own AA version of Resident Evil. Hey, if you’re gonna steal, you might as well steal from the best in the business!

Enter the Survival Horror

As we learned during our hands-on preview, it doesn’t take long for you to pick up on the Resi influence here. Whereas The Sinking City was an unusual hybrid of open-world detective sim and (rather clunky) monster-shooting action, this is primarily a linear survival-horror title that has a few investigative garnishes. 

You do have access to a Charlie Kelly-style conspiracy board — from which you can string together clues and draw conclusions about the case at hand — yet it’s an optional system that we barely got to utilise during our vertical slice. There are also occasional mysteries to sleuth out, but these are secondary objectives that you can choose to disregard altogether if you’re so inclined.

Superseding the detective role-playing (which has been Frogwares’ bread and butter for decades, perfected through their many Sherlock Holmes adaptations) is all that Resident Evil stuff. Specifically, modern Resident Evil.

The resemblance goes much deeper than just the over-the-shoulder perspective and the interconnected level design, and trickles down into the minutiae. For example, you’ve got: single-use keys that can unlock containers of your choosing (ala Resident Evil Requiem’s lockpicks); a crafting system that sees the same ingredients being used to produce both health items and ammunition; safe rooms that provide an analogue method of recording progress and a magical inventory box; a map that uses color-coding to indicate which rooms have been searched; and a reward-system that allocates points for the completion of challenging feats. Hell, they even lift that one scene from the Resident Evil 2 remake, wherein you have to nervously slide open refrigerated drawers in a morgue. 

To reiterate, it’s not necessarily a crazy idea to copy Resident Evil’s homework, and Frogwares does a stellar job of it when you consider their working with crowdfunding resources. Still, it’s pretty incontestable that that’s what’s happening here.

New City, New Flood, New Dangers

Where The Sinking City 2 is trying to carve out an identity of its own is less on the gameplay side of things, and more so with its enthralling world-building and narrative conceit. 

Framed as part of the public domain “Cthulhu Mythos” (which studios are getting a lot of mileage out of lately), it’s set in an alternate United States, where all of Lovecraft’s demented imaginings are an accepted part of everyday American life. The existence of Shoggoths is no secret here, Deep One sightings are commonplace, and Innsmouthers are a recognised — albeit prejudiced against — societal group.  

If you played the original game, you’ll already be acquainted with this high-concept premise. What you won’t be quite so familiar with, however, is the submerged municipality after which the sequel is titled. You see, this ain’t the same “Sinking City” we explored before. Last time around, we navigated the waterlogged ruins of Oakmont, Massachusetts, but now the action has been relocated to the waterlogged ruins of Arkham, Massachusetts. I mean, look on the bright side, at least the eldritch horrors have yet to cross any state lines!

The backstory for this fresh setting is that, at some point in the 1920s, Arkham was hit with two simultaneous, and possibly related, calamities. First, a devastating flood of unknown origins swept through the metropolis, drowning its streets, its public spaces, and its residences, until only those who had managed to stake out higher ground could even think about staying put. 

The initial emergency response made sense on paper, with authorities erecting barricades and building floodgates, yet it did little to quell the rising tides. Before long, Arkham was twisted into a kind of neo-Venice, traversable only by boat or by bridges that were cobbled together from salvaged materials. 

Things went from bad to worse when deadly vermin began to emerge from the dark waters. Known as “the Slither”, this parasitic scourge (which, funnily enough, looks just like those alien slugs from the James Gunn movie of the same name) spread at an alarming rate and sought refuge in the corpses that were starting to pile up in the streets-turned-canals. It soon became apparent to the Arkhamites that these worms were capable of more than just proliferating disease as well, with them having the ability to reanimate and then puppeteer the dead as grim marionettes. 

Between this Slither plague and the other unholy abominations that came with the flood, the restoration of Arkham was written off as a lost cause. An evacuation was promptly mandated, and the once-great city was left to rot. The handful of people who remained behind gradually succumbed to corruption themselves, and it’s now purely the domain of stark raving lunatics and mad occult worshipers.

And you, of course! 

On that note, The Sinking City 2 isn’t just thrusting you into a brand-new setting, but also into the shoes of a brand-new protagonist. Which is somewhat inevitable, given that the previous game’s lead, Charles Reed, was left to an uncertain fate that hinged entirely upon your choices 

In Reed’s stead, you’ll now be controlling raffish adventurer Calvin Rafferty. He’s basically a Nathan Drake type; only, rather than hunting for cities of gold or legendary pirate booty, he’s more interested in blasphemous artifacts like the Necronomicon and the idols of Cthulhu.

A pre-flood flashback tells us everything we need to know about Calvin. We’re introduced to him as he swaggers into a restaurant, brazenly swipes two flutes of champagne from a waiter’s tray, and then plops himself down at a table across from a young lady who’s been waiting patiently for him to swan along. Boasting to (who we soon learn is his long-term girlfriend and partner in crime), Faye, Calvin crows about how he managed to avoid getting in any trouble whilst acquiring his latest occult prize. That is just before a bunch of armed men burst into the room to prove him wrong on that count.

Anyway, as you can tell, he is a classic rogue who doesn’t take anything seriously and is motivated primarily by a thirst for thrills, fortune, and glory. Yet the stakes are raised when we subsequently flash forward to the events of the main story and find him in much gloomier circumstances. 

Here, we join a very different (and more focused) Calvin, who is now on a quest to save his beloved from the forces of darkness. You see, at some point, he and Faye recklessly performed a botched ritual together that left her in a coma, and him utterly distraught. Now, he’s searching for a way to revive her by any means necessary.

Dark Academia Courtesy of Miskatonic University

With this narrative context established, we’re dropped into our first proper gameplay sequence. Relatively early in the campaign, it has us combing the Miskatonic University library (an important place in the Lovecraftian canon) in search of a forbidden tome that will outline the steps Calvin must follow to bring Faye back to the land of the living.

We hope that we’ll be able to find the relevant piece of literature, but the odds are frankly stacked against us. After all, the place is in complete disarray; with flooding having ruined many of the volumes and the shelves having been toppled over by God only knows what. Expecting that the sanctity of the Dewey Decimal system has been preserved here seems like it might be asking a bit too much. Still, we must persevere for her sake and so begin sloshing our way through the ankle-deep waters that have seeped into every nook and cranny of the building. 

It’s here that we get our first taste of that Resident Evil flavouring that’s been so liberally sprinkled throughout The Sinking City 2. Because this library annex is, for all intents and purposes, a miniaturised Raccoon City Police Department, complete with locked doors, interconnected shortcuts, and areas that are gated off by lite puzzles. 

For an idea of the kind of thing you can expect, there’s one part where we have to reorganise bookcases using a series of cranks, so that we can create an uninterrupted path through the upper level of the building. Not only does this open up new rooms that have yet to be explored, but it also gives us a convenient way to loop around to the central staircase. 

Said shortcut then comes in quite handy when we later need to backtrack down to the ground floor, having acquired a chemical agent that can be used to dissolve the lock on a crate we passed by earlier. It’s all very tightly structured like that.

While not as intricate as one of the larger-scale environments you might find in Resi, the library is still a nifty bit of level design. Negotiating these kinds of areas is always satisfying for fans of the survival horror genre, as you get to figure out how neatly everything fits together and pick the space clean of its valuable contents (the endorphin rush of watching the map turn that pleasing blue hue when you’re done never diminishes). 

Speaking of the library’s contents, we do eventually find that arcane book we’ve been on the hunt for. Alas, it turns out that its pages are filled with indecipherable glyphs that we have no way of interpreting. 

Yet, just when it seems like we’ve hit a dead end, we bump into a scholar who offers welcome assistance. He’s a bit of an eccentric, mind you, having gouged out his own fucking eyes and inserted Slither worms into the empty sockets. We’d roundly condemn his actions, by the way, were it not for the fact that these new oculars are what enable him to read the eldritch text in our possession. And we desperately need to know what it says.

Before he performs any such translation services, though, he wants us to bring him something first and dispatches us to the Devil’s Reef Hotel, where the “guest of honor” apparently awaits collection. Whatever the hell that means!

Look, we’ve got to do what the guy asks. He’s the only one who can give us the answers we seek. 

The Lovecraftian Game is Afoot

That’s pretty much where you came in, as we then proceed to head over to that weird church with the sea god zealots and the wall of flesh stretched thin in its basement. To clarify, we’re not just here to see the sights. Rather, it’s a necessary pit-stop on our journey, because a sluice is blocking passage to the Devil’s Reef Hotel, and the parishioners of this church are the ones who used to control it. You know, back when they were alive. 

Unfortunately, raising the gate isn’t going to be as easy as just hitting a big red button. The operating mechanism has been chained up with a combination lock, and we’ve got to work out the code if we want to get out of Dodge. 

Which brings us to The Sinking City 2’s detective gameplay. The original title was quite involved when it came to these mechanics, with cases that unfolded across a sprawling open world. Among other things, you needed to question NPCs, reconstruct the events of crime scenes in chronological order, and visit the city hall to cross-reference archival data. 

By comparison, investigations in the linear sequel are significantly pared back or, dare we say it, dumbed down. Relevant clues are localised to the immediate vicinity of the puzzle (in this case, the church and its grounds) and most of them appear to take the form of written notes. You can lump findings together in a mind palace to better organise your thoughts. Yet, other than that, it’s a surprisingly straightforward approach for a developer who built their entire brand on Sherlock Holmes mysteries. 

Cracking the gate conundrum doesn’t take much lateral thinking, anyway. Although it is admittedly possible that the riddles will get more sophisticated as the game goes on. You never know, maybe the developers just wanted to show us a quick and easy one for the purposes of our demo slice. 

Reassuringly, there is a more complex puzzle that you can choose to solve in the church if you want to 100% everything. We won’t spoil the specifics, but it involves a starfish key, a stone trident, a rotating monolith, a codex of symbols, and a ceremonial dagger. 

To reiterate, you don’t have to tackle this extra challenge. However, doing so will unlock additional context that’s well worth seeing. In fact, based on our limited experience so far, we’d recommend engaging with The Sinking City 2’s optional brainteasers whenever you can. They grant access to cool secret areas like this, can uncover fascinating lore, will bring you face-to-face with new horrors (remember that eyeball in the crypt?), and might even yield tangible gameplay rewards.

Fill ‘Em With Lead and Upgraded Combat

Another incentive for solving all of the puzzles is that — again, like in some modern Resident Evil titles — you might happen upon an attachment for your favourite weapon. When we opened that aforementioned crate in the library, for example, we were rewarded with a compensator that could be affixed to our handgun to reduce its recoil and improve its accuracy. 

Yet apart from a few Slither-possessed corpses and a handful of spindly insectoids (picture a cross between Xenomorph facehuggers and the demodogs from “Stranger Things”), there wasn’t actually a whole lot for us to shoot at in the first chunk of our preview. To get a better sense of the combat, we had to skip ahead to a more action-packed chapter.

Taking place much further along in the story, and further along into the ritual to save Faye, this portion trapped us in a deserted hospital where all manner of strange procedures were being performed on the patients. It’s a bigger environment than either the library or the church, roughly comparable in size to Brookhaven from Silent Hill 2. There’s a tantalising number of locked doors and a gnarly puzzle that requires us to use surgically removed faces in order to bypass anachronistic biometric technology.

We only get to skim the surface of that stuff, however, as our exploration is cut short after about 30 minutes. That’s okay, though, because this part of the demo is really just an excuse to test out The Sinking City 2’s new and (vastly) improved combat. 

As we said before, the original game was bursting with charm and creativity, but it didn’t nail everything that it set out to achieve. Enemy encounters, in particular, were awkward, stilted, unresponsive, and frustrating. They were something you tolerated, so that you get to the next stretch of detective work (like eating your vegetables prior to dessert).

The upgrade that has occurred in the sequel is undeniable, and combat is now a legitimately enjoyable proposition. Creatures no longer soak up damage without visibly registering the impact of a shot, and will react appropriately depending on where you’ve hit them. Meanwhile, each weapon has a weighty kick to it, whether it’s the forceful blast of the shotgun or the jerky rat-a-tat-tat-tat of a Tommy gun.

It all just feels way more gratifying. At one point, there’s a scripted set-piece wherein waves of Slither-zombies start swarming in through the doors and smashing down windows, before eventually tackling us over a ledge amidst showers of falling debris, and it’s a thousand times more cinematic than anything we got in the original game. 

It’s not just a question of presentation, though. There’s a far greater emphasis on battle tactics as well. On that note, Calvin plays very similarly to Leon Kennedy (that’s rookie RE2 Leon, not the roundhouse-kicking super-agent of RE4 and Requiem), which means you’ve got to think strategically about where you position yourself in the room and what the most economical way of bringing down a given threat is. Maybe you’ll take opportunistic potshots at a distance to whittle down the enemy hordes, or perhaps you’ll try to lure them all into a corridor to blast them all away with a well-judged shotgun blast.

You’ll need to adapt for each opponent too, as they all have their own idiosyncratic movement styles, different behavioural patterns, and unique attacks. Those little facehugger things, for instance, will skuttle underneath furniture and into hidden crevices to make you waste precious bullets, while spitter-type mutants will bombard you from afar with projectile acid. Even the garden-variety zombies have a little twist here, courtesy of their pulsating weak spots that shift around from limb to limb whenever you try to get a bead on them. 

In short, the combat is a dramatic improvement over what came before. Our only reservation, at this moment in time, is that this slickness might have come at a cost of Frogwares’ signature detective mechanics, which seemed a tad underutilised in our brief time with the game. 

Granted, there’s only so much you can glean from a 90-minute demo, but we just hope that there will be more meaty puzzles and investigations to balance out the gunfights. After all, that’s what gave the first one its personality.   

Nevertheless, this remains an encouraging first impression of The Sinking City 2, and we can’t wait to wade into the murky waterways of Arkham when it releases in the Summer. After everything these developers have been through, we’re rooting for them to pull it off. 

The Sinking City 2 is currently in development for release later this summer on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

The post Lovecraftian Horrors Await You in ‘The Sinking City 2’ [Preview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“With Directive 8020, we’ve taken our signature horror narrative and everything we love about cinematic storytelling, pushing it all into new territory,” says Will Doyle, Creative Director at Supermassive Games. “We’re incredibly proud of what the team has accomplished, and bringing our storytelling into a sci-fi setting for the first time has been a hugely exciting step. The team has worked hard to refine every part of the experience, so we can’t wait for players to finally get their hands on it.”

Earth is dying and humanity is running out of time. 12 light-years from home, Tau Ceti f offers a small sliver of hope. When the colony ship Cassiopeia crash lands on the planet, its crew soon realize they are far from being alone.

Hunted by an alien organism capable of mimicking its prey, the crew of the Cassiopeia must outwit their pursuers to make it home alive. As they battle to survive, they are confronted with the hardest choice of all: to save themselves, they must risk the lives of everyone on Earth.

A bold first for Supermassive Games, this “The Thing… in space” sci-fi survival horror journey evolves The Dark Pictures formula with real-time threats, survival gameplay and enhanced tools like Turning Points. Players must navigate impossible moral dilemmas amid rising paranoia, where no one on the crew can be trusted and every choice matters, shaping the fate of the crew at every turn. Choose wisely, as all characters can live and all can die. And what of The Curator? Well, you’ll just have to play to find out!

Starring Lashana Lynch (No Time to Die, Bob Marley: One Love, The Woman King) as pilot Brianna Young, Directive 8020 aims to deliver a gripping cinematic experience that can be played solo or shared with up to five players in couch co-op movie night mode (with online multiplayer coming in a post-launch update).

Check out Aaron’s thoughts on the game. And check out Harrison’s interview with Will Doyle.

The post Supermassive’s Sci-Fi Horror Title ‘Directive 8020’ Available Now [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With herds of the vicious livestock roaming the Highlands looking for their next victim, players must arm themselves with anything they can – bedrolls, traffic cones, chainsaws and more as they battle wave upon wave of monstrous sheep, lamas, highland cows, and other ferocious undead.

Coming to Steam later this year, several different sheep-killing modes will be available at launch. Those who prefer to handle their zombie sheep culling unobserved can head out solo, and for those who would rather have witnesses/accomplices to the absolute carnage, up to four players can head to the Highlands to do battle with the undead hordes.

“We are so excited to be working with the amazing team at Bunkhouse on Flock Off!,” said Keith Kawamura, CEO of Shoreline Games. “The moorish nature of Flock Off!’s gameplay has made it “unputdownable” during internal playtests, and we cannot wait for players to see more of this slightly weird, but endlessly fun co-op game!”

With four distinct playable characters to choose from, there’s something for everyone in Flock Off!. And in addition to using pretty much everything that isn’t nailed down as a weapon, you’ll also have at your disposal unique items to provide some extra oomph to your firepower. That includes boomboxes, trashbags, and even glue bottles, each boasting unique effects.

The post Battle Zombified Sheep in The Country in Co-op PvE game ‘Flock Off!’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Announced at the Galaxies Showcase on April 16, this collaboration is the first of its kind for Phasmophobia. Four of the game’s maps have been reimagined including Nell’s Diner, the Grafton and Bleasdale Farmhouses, and Camp Woodwind. As players explore, they’ll be challenged to search for pages of Alan’s writing – written for Phasmophobia by Remedy Entertainment Creative Director, Sam Lake.

“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with such an iconic title for our first collaboration,” said Daniel Knight, CEO and Game Director at Kinetic Games. “We’re big fans of the Alan Wake franchise, and knew it would fit perfectly with Phasmophobia. We can’t wait for our ghost hunters to jump in today and experience a small piece of the Dark Place in our game, and we can’t thank Remedy Entertainment enough for allowing us to create one of the most exciting in-game events for Phasmophobia yet.”

“It’s an honor and joy for us to collaborate with the Phasmophobia team in this event,” adds Remedy Entertainment Creative Director Sam Lake. “Our two franchises complement each other perfectly. A word of caution to all the potential ghost hunters out there, if you choose to enter, you might never be able to leave the Dark Place. You have been warned.”

Phasmophobia is currently available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam.

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Fans of Rusted Moss will be happy to know that Emlise and developer Mini Bunnies are returning to that game’s world with Iron Bramble, a momentum-based Metroidvania game that inherits its predecessor’s physics-based grappling hook action. Launching on Steam in 2027, the game is set in a mysterious giant mechanism known as the “Iron Bramble,” the game mixes sci-fi and dark fantasy, where players follow Lilac as she battles robots possessed by the souls of the dead.

Coming to Steam later this year is developer roccay’s The Dream Of A Cockspur, a point-and-click horror adventure title that sees players stranded on a desolate island. Six investigators have come to examine a mysterious celestial body that has landed on the island. The investigation proceeded smoothly for two weeks, but the day before the researchers were set to return to the mainland, their boat is mysteriously damaged. What follows is a surreal adventure where nothing is as it seems.

Complimenting The Dream Of A Cockspur in the adventure department is developer .iris and their 3D psychological horror adventure game A Passing in the Night. Also launching later this year on Steam, the game centers around Kai, who awakens in the dead of night from a dream. What follows is the Kai aimlessly walking around a surreal town until he meets a demon, who gives him one hour to decide whether or not to give up his most precious memory in exchange for freedom from worldly pain. During this little time he is given, Kai must decide to keep his memories and deal with the pain of waking life, or to sacrifice what is precious to him and escape reality. Or will he continue to wander the streets, searching for answers in the dark where strange beings await him?

Lastly, developer LydiaBluebell revealed their 2D exploration horror adventure game Midnight Train: New Moon, which will head to Steam next year. A remake of the free 2020 game Midnight Train, New Moon follows Luna Wyndell, a girl traveling by train in search of a certain place. Before she knows it, all the passengers inside the train have vanished without a trace, and the train has stopped in a strange void. The only other person remaining on the train is Neil, an aspiring detective. Together, the two leave the train and enter a building in the void. There, the two discover a strange pocket watch, along with a note: “Find the next train. It departs in three hours. If you fail, you’ll be trapped here forever.”

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The Jason Universe team is headed to Licensing Expo 2026 in Las Vegas later this month, and a press release previews over 40 new licensing partnerships that are on the way.

In the mix? Jason’s return to Fortnite later this year.

The press release previews…

“Jason’s presence in interactive entertainment continues to grow. Fortnite will again feature the Jason Universe in its Fortnitemares Halloween event — building on an ongoing crossover that has introduced the iconic slasher to a whole new generation of fans.”

Fortnitemares 2025 ran from October 9 – October 31. Watch last year’s trailer below.

“As we scale Jason Universe through premium content initiatives…our partnership strategy is focused on honoring the brand’s legacy, while expanding high-quality, multi-platform touchpoints that deepen audience engagement,” Robbie Barsamian, Executive Vice President at Horror, Inc., previews in the aforementioned press release for Licensing Expo 2026.

Other upcoming licensing partnerships from the Jason Universe include brands like Loungefly, Gutter Garbs, Mad Engine, Brickcraft, Mondo, KidRobot, NECA, and Spirit Halloween.

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Inspired by Outlast and Still Wakes the Deep, players in Stow Away must navigate tight corridors, storm-soaked decks and lightless hulls while being hunted by something with tentacles and a inkling to get you. Unfortunately for you, you don’t have much of anything to defend yourself.

You can, however, take advantage of the maintenance shafts, and by slipping between containers, and scavenging what little the ship hasn’t already claimed. You must draw the creature away by causing distractions. In doing so, you must risk exposure to create those opportunities to eventually escape. You also have a lone voice from the bridge offering guidance.

All the while, you’ll learn the truth of what happened aboard the ship through logs, the environments themselves, and the echoes of those who didn’t make it.

And if you’re keen on learning more about Stow Away, you won’t have to wait long. The team is currently working hard at completing a demo that will be available in the coming months. Perhaps even for next month’s Steam Next Fest?

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There’s a very unique thrill of playing the role of both director and participant in a story, and Supermassive figured out that there’s no better genre for this format than horror. After Until Dawn, their most significant contribution in this space has been The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of smaller scale games that all take this formula into different subgenres to tell standalone tales unified by a Rod Serling-esque host that frames the drama as it unfolds.

The four games that make up the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology had their ups and downs, but Supermassive decided to take some time off from their annual schedule to make sure the next entry was an evolution of the series. Directive 8020 is the result of that work. Not only does it keep the much loved choice-based gameplay, but it adds several wrinkles that put it more in line with more traditional survival horror games, a direction they’ve been slowly moving towards for the past few entries.

Despite having supernatural elements, the previous games have been all grounded in modern times. Directive 8020 immediately sets itself apart by moving into sci-fi horror. Set in the far future, it follows the crew of the Cassiopeia, a space vessel that’s making its way to a planet in Tau Ceti to make way for a colony ship that’s following close behind. Their role is not to land on the planet, but to do a dry run and act as a scouting mission for the real deal.

Obviously, since this is a horror game, the crew is woken up early to deal with a crisis on board. It’s clear that Supermassive is taking inspiration from Alien and The Thing, two of the most iconic sci-fi horror stories of all time, as they are confronted with a shape-shifting being that can take the form of anyone on board.

It’s a solid setup, but something like this succeeds or fails based on the strength of its characters. Fortunately there’s just enough going on to create believable relationships that you can easily slip into as your control shifts from character to character. None of them are particularly deep, but they all have their role on the Cassiopeia in a way that sets up interpersonal drama to play out as the tension ratchets up.

The actors bringing these characters to life are all up to the challenge, particularly Captain Marvel star Lashana Lynch, delivering solid performances that make some of the stiffer lines still feel real.

Choices Feel More Meaningful Than Ever

Because this is a four year space journey where people are in suspended animation for most of it, characters are introduced as they are woken up in different groups, continuing to mix up the dynamic by adding fresh faces as time goes on. It’s a smart way to have a fairly large cast without forcing you to meet an overwhelming number right at the beginning, letting the relationships breathe before things hit the fan.

As with most of these games, you have a hand in defining who they are through the choices you make. With dialogue, these are often adding flavor to the scene, showing the character as more jokey or practical based on your selections. Interestingly, each character has two Destinies they can fall into depending on how you portray them, and once these are locked in it can have narrative implications for the character going forward. Supermassive has always experimented with ideas like this, having various stats that show their traits or relationships, but this system feels more streamlined, with easier to understand consequences.

Directive 8020 introduces a text-based messaging system that everyone has built into their wrist-mounted computers, allowing you to communicate with other members of the crew instantly. I found these to be really satisfying, giving you opportunities for interactions that were less plot relevant and more about meaningfully building the relationships, making them feel more lived-in and natural. As identities become unclear when the shape-shifting presence starts to become more of a threat, there’s some really great moments of tension created using this system.

Choice again plays a big role in how things play out, allowing each of your characters to make decisions that can drastically alter the course of the narrative. These choices can have immediate consequences in the scene, or have ripple effects that won’t play out until later in the story. Each of these branching moments is marked by a UI notification so you know there were consequences to something you did, putting emphasis on the moment in an effective manner.

Some choices even warn you beforehand that they will be gamechanging, which feels particularly stressful, in a good way, when it’s combined with a ticking clock. Moments of confrontation are still resolved with the series’ signature quick time events, providing tense games of Simon Says as your characters fight for their lives.

The Turning Points System is a Smart Addition

Character interactions, dialogue choices, branching narratives – these are all mechanics that have been used in The Dark Pictures Anthology in the past, but the three years away from the series has led Supermassive to make a lot of substantial changes to the core of the game. One of the biggest among them is the Turning Points system, which allows you to rewind to pivotal moments in order to try the other options available to you.

As much as I love the possibility space that Supermassive’s brand of branching narrative design provides, I never actually find myself replaying them to see other paths, as much as I might tell myself I want to. That makes this feature very appealing, allowing you to immediately give it another go if your favorite character died due to a missed QTE or a choice you didn’t fully think through. There’s even a tab on the menu that lays out all the branching paths visually, showing you just how many different permutations of the narrative exist.

If you’re a hardcore fan of the game that wants to live with your consequences, there’s a mode that completely deactivates this, forcing you to live with the consequences for your playthrough. I always appreciate more options for the player, and this feature is a welcome one that’s there for people to use if they feel so inclined.

One of the biggest changes in gameplay is the addition of stealth mechanics, moving the much of the danger out of QTEs and into real-time action. Many times throughout the game you will be required to crouch your way through areas, hiding from the alien menace that stalks you through the ship. These sequences are never too complicated, involving just one creature to keep track of, but it’s a welcome addition, if a little undercooked. One of these sequences featured another character watching security cameras and guiding you to safety, which left me wanting more variations on the idea.

Enemy behaviors aren’t very complex, and you don’t really have a ton of tools at your disposal to deal with them, though your wrist computer can occasionally hack things in the environment to cause distractions, but the fear of getting caught is a great shortcut to creating tension. You usually get one “free” mistake where you can shock them with your cattle prod-like tool to break away, but these stealth sequences can be just as lethal as the standard QTEs, so you will need to take care. I definitely lost characters to sequences like this, but there are difficulty options that can help you deal with these moments if you’re coming to the game for more of an interactive movie-style experience.

Puzzles and Exploration Add More Traditional Survival Horror Elements

Another way they mix up gameplay is with some fairly rudimentary puzzles. There’s more of a feeling of exploration in certain spaces, with doors locked by missing batteries or unpowered wires. With your wrist computer, you’re able to scan the area, following power lines and performing tasks to restore functionality and progress forward. There’s even a little timing-based lockpicking minigame that feels satisfying to do, especially when under pressure. These aren’t the most complicated or compelling activities, but I appreciate Supermassive trying to incorporate more traditional game elements into their house style.

Some of the more compelling moments combine these puzzles with stealth, forcing you to track down batteries while also hiding from an enemy. I wish there was a little bit more resource management to mix things up, but I fear that would alienate their fans who are looking for a more casual experience. As it is, it feels like it’s trying to satisfy two audiences in a way that might not be enough for either.

A change that hurt the game for me was the lack of the framing story with the Curator. I know the model for the actor, Tony Pankhurst, passed away a couple years ago, but I was really missing the character’s interjections after big narrative beats. This has always felt integral to the style of Supermassive games, with the therapist from Until Dawn and the fortune teller in The Quarry being other successful examples, and its absence was notable, though he does show up in neat little Easter Egg moments if you jump through some hoops. The seven-hour story is broken up into eight chapters, usually ending with some voice over narration from one of the characters, but it didn’t have the same “Twilight Zone”-style impact that I was used to.

Directive 8020 Struggles to Escape Its Horror Influences

It’s very clear that Supermassive had specific inspirations for this narrative, that being Alien and The Thing, and while it’s a good foundation for ideas, I wish it did more to get out of the shadow of its influences. While the space colony dry scouting mission is a strong setup, most of the threats that the game explores are so derivative that it feels like we as an audience are way ahead of the characters as far as the mystery goes, robbing the story of anything that truly surprises the player. It takes them a while to figure out that whatever is on the ship can mimic other crew members, something that’s very obvious to the player from an early stage.

This isn’t used to create moments of dramatic irony, but instead drags the pacing down a bit. I was also surprised that the who-is-real-and-who-is-an-alien concept wasn’t used more often in regards to the choice system, as that type of tension is one of the things that shapeshifter narratives thrive at.

The pacing problems are also apparent in the very structure of this type of game, even if they try some storytelling techniques to mitigate it. There’s a lack of tension in the early hours of the game because it’s clear that characters won’t be dropping too early, as it would be hard to write around their absence. This leads to some early sections of the game feeling a bit hollow, even if you are making choices that set up success or failure later down the road. Directive 8020 does remedy this a bit by including flashforwards in most of the chapters, cutting to life and death situations that take place later in the narrative in order, but it made me want more experimentation with linearity to fully take advantage of this.

The final two chapters of the game finally land on the story’s unique selling point, breaking away from the concepts laid out by its influences and creating something that feels more its own, but it happens too late to fully explore the interesting concept. Directive 8020 has some smart things to say about the way corporations treat people as disposable assets and what it means to hold onto the concept of humanity, and I feel like we don’t get a chance to fully explore it. I kept hoping it would explore certain parallels or revisit specific concepts, but in the end I got a mostly satisfying story, even if it didn’t go as in depth as I wanted into its themes.

Despite Familiarity, The Dark Pictures Anthology Moves Forward

Much like the narrative, I wish the visuals had a bit more of a unique identity. There were some neat elements of future tech, but no signature thing that would make it instantly recognizable among screenshots of other sci-fi horror space games. The graphics are great, with moody lighting and detailed environments, even if there were a few technical polish issues here and there. Creature designs are generally good, particularly when things start getting crazy around the end, though they rarely do much to set themselves apart from enemies seen in games like Dead Space or Resident Evil.

Despite my complaints about originality, this still ranks among the upper half of Supermassive’s games in my book. The new gameplay additions, particularly the stealth mechanics, do a great job of combining tension with a more active sense of player agency. The signature choice-based narrative remains solid, enhanced by the new Turning Point system that lets you freely explore other options without forcing a full replay of the game.

While I wish the narrative took more time to explore the concepts of its final act twist, it still provides a nice little thrill ride sure to entertain fans of sci-fi horror. It’s obvious that Supermassive took the time to rethink the franchise, and Directive 8020 takes more steps forwards than steps back, making me excited to see what comes next.

Review code provided by publisher. Directive 8020 launches May 12 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Steam.

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Details on the gameplay are still to come, but the story for Curse of the Crimson Stag centers around a teenager named Brit, who feeling stuck in her backwater hometown, jumps at the chance for a life-changing adventure: to assist in the making of a documentary about the derelict Whiteroot Hotel. The once luxurious hotel stands abandoned in the American Northwest, with local folklore spinning tales of ghostly hauntings and of angry spirits being the reason for its desertion.

The people of the area tell of an entity known as the Crimson Stag – a protective spirit of sorts – which supposedly inhabits the dark woods of the area. Once Brit starts her exploration of the hotel, it quickly becomes clear that she is in over her head. The Whiteroot Hotel does not surrender its secrets easily and, whether it is supernatural forces or dark machinations, the Curse of the Crimson Stag soon threatens to claim her as well.

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Warner Bros’ long-awaited sequel Mortal Kombat II continues this trend of making up for the adaptational mistakes of yesteryear, with director Simon McQuoid going out of his way to include as much of the original lore and iconography as possible without ever getting in the way of the story. In honor of that noble effort, here are four fun Easter eggs that you may not have noticed while watching Mortal Kombat II!

While there are plenty more callbacks to the games in this 116-minute feature, these are just five of the less obvious references that stood out during our first watch. That being said, don’t forget to comment below if you think a particularly fun easter egg was missed.

Just in case you’ve yet to see the film: beware of spoilers ahead!

With that out of the way, onto the list. 

4. Failed Fatality

Executing a Fatality in Mortal Kombat used to be a hell of a lot harder before you could simply pause the fight and check the in-game move list. Hell, back when arcades were still a thing, you’d even see kids running around with hastily-scrawled notes containing the secret to humiliating your friends by turning their character into a charred skeleton.

However, even with the instructions in hand, it’s sometimes hard to get some of these moves right (especially as an aging gamer). That’s why I appreciate the inclusion of a failed Fatality towards the beginning of the flick, where Kitana refuses her father’s command to execute Johnny Cage, and he stumbles around awkwardly before falling to the ground just like in the game.

While Kitana’s hesitation is explained later on, the gag is still a clear nod towards one of the most annoying aspects of the source material.

3. Ed Boon’s Cameo

Ed Boon is one of the most influential creators in the gaming industry (as well as the iconic original voice for Scorpion and several other characters), so it’s kind of frustrating that he only ever had a live-action cameo in the low-budget Mortal Kombat: Legacy web-series.

Thankfully, the new film finally gives Boon the Stan Lee-esque treatment that he deserves by having him portray a friendly bartender who addresses Johnny Cage’s alcohol-fueled depression by commenting that the character used to be “more animated”.

2. Johnny Cage’s Callback to Big Trouble in Little China

It’s no secret that the development team over at Midway used to be huge movie buffs. In fact, the entire concept behind the Mortal Kombat games was basically lifted from Bloodsport, and the character of Johnny Cage was even meant to be a digitized Jean Claude Van Damme before the actor became busy with other projects. However, some of the MK franchise’s influences are much more obvious than others.

That’s why it was fun to see Karl Urban’s Cage finally address the fact that Raiden is an obvious knock-off of Lightning from John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. Now just wait until he finds out about Shang Tsung!

1. Cheating Shao Kahn

Arcade games are known to be unfair in their attempts at extracting every last quarter from excited gamers, but it was only recently that fans discovered just how mean the original version of Mortal Kombat II could really be. As it turns out, the game that introduced us to the legendary villain Shao Kahn actually reacted directly to player input rather than the onscreen action, often making it literally impossible to land a hit during some of the boss battles. If that wasn’t bad enough, Kahn would later appear in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot as an essentially broken character that did way too much damage with nearly unavoidable attacks.

That’s precisely why it feels like such a clever little in-joke when the film presents Shao Kahn as something of a supernatural cheater. After all, in McQuoid’s movie, the monstrous conqueror rigs the tournament in his favor by stealing Raiden’s powers and essentially becoming an immortal god – with devastating consequences for our fair-playing heroes.

I never thought I’d see a videogame adaptation use a literal “god mode” as a plot device, and yet here we are!

The post 4 ‘Mortal Kombat II’ Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The story sees you saved from the gallows for a fate worse than death: the mines. Given your expertise in excavation, you’ve been assigned to oversee operations at a new imperial mining facility. You will optimize, automate, and upgrade. The empire expects results: coal, ore, or whatever else the earth is hiding down there.

The process in Drill Deep starts simple: Click away at the blocks while also managing the operation by expanding the surface base, optimizing and upgrading. The surface camp grows, smokestacks rise, progress charts tick upward. It’s almost cozy out there. Yet there is something else down there. As you descend, the rock gets older and the reality warps. You start finding unusual formations, otherworldly fossils, even inscriptions in unknown languages. The workers don’t comment on them. At first, neither do you.

However, you soon realise that whatever is down there is slowly corrupting you, your canary and all the operation on the surface. Take what you can, and use it to craft permanent upgrades for the next run. From there, the cycle begins again, as does your descent.

The post Dig Your Way Into Madness in ‘Drill Deep’ [Trailer] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Additionally, customers who have purchased an eligible Mortal Kombat II movie ticket will receive a promotional code to obtain 750 Dragon Krystals (in-game currency) for use in Mortal Kombat 1 game. For more information, head on over to the code redemption website.

This all comes after series co-creator Ed Boon hinted in an interview with Collider that NetherRealm was in the process of developing another Mortal Kombat game, though he didn’t offer much more than that. One would hope that NetherRealm take their time with this next entry and address fan criticisms, given that Mortal Kombat 1 sold just half of what Mortal Kombat 11 sold (8 million versus 15 million).

Mortal Kombat 1: Definitive Edition is available now digitally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Mortal Kombat II (read Meagan’s review here) is out now in theatres.

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In an interview with Game File, Zelnick covered a wide range of topics, one of which (obviously) turned to BioShock. The fourth entry has been in development and never officially been announced for several years now, despite the game supposedly having “ramped up production” back in 2024, having images leak online, and a rumoured 2028 release.

When asked if he was surprised that Take-Two hasn’t been able to get traction on a new BioShock title since 2013, Zelnick was frank in his response.

“Think about what ‘surprise’ implies,” he said. “That’s like, one day, everything’s awesome, and the next day, I’m like, ‘Holy shit.’ And I don’t run the business that way. But I think if you’re saying ‘disappointed,’ yes. Deeply disappointed.”

Despite that, Zelnick feels that the project is in a better position now after having BioShock Infinite producer Rod Fergusson take over the as head of development last year. However, Zelnick admits that Take-Two “wasted a lot of time and money” getting to this point, but that it was the price of the “nature of entertainment”.

“What we do is a big team activity in the same way that making a movie is a team activity. And with big team activities, you can’t necessarily tell how it’s going to be until it all comes together, or begins to come together, and that can take a while and can be very costly.”

Currently, the fourth BioShock title, which was announced back in 2019, is being developed by Cloud Chamber.

Meanwhile, the last we heard of the Netflix film adaptation of BioShock directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine), that project was also still ongoing.

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Once again, up to four players suit up as members of the Colonial Marines. This is not a rescue mission—it’s a fight for survival. Xenomorphs stalk the corridors, ambush from the shadows, and swarm in overwhelming numbers. You must coordinate with your fireteam, utilizing each class’s unique abilities, and adapt on the fly as encounters escalate from tense standoffs to all-out war.

Fireteam Elite 2 will feature deeper squad mechanics, smarter enemies, and a “fully customizable Specialist class” that lets players mix and match major and minor abilities from every available class into one Marine. Build a loadout tailored to your exact playstyle and fill whatever role your squad needs.

The game will also launch with multiple dedicated Horde maps that will push squads to their limits. Teams will battle through escalating waves of xenomorphs and other deadly enemies, earning increasingly valuable rewards as they survive deeper into the onslaught.

You can grab the original Aliens: Fireteam Elite on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC via Steam. And check out our review of Fireteam Elite while you wait.

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