Category: Technology

One of the best things about an indie game showcase is that you’ll see at least one preview that makes you think “huh?” and “lol!” in equal parts. For the Day of the Devs presentation at Summer Games Fest 2025, Tire Boy definitely fits the bill. Mechanics-wise, it’s an open-world action-adventure game, which is pretty standard fare. However, like the name says, you play it all out as a tiny anthropomorphized tire. It looks super goofy, but in a way that might also be super great.

The trio from GameTeam6 who presented the early build of the game explained that they wanted to do some odd things with scale in the world, and that’s definitely been accomplished. Most other characters tower over little Tire Boy, whether they’re a friendly owl, an enemy frog or just a really big heckin bunny. But there’s also some sweetness promised as Tire Boy tries to uncover the secrets of his past and his tire people. It’s the sort of wacky combination that can be a lot of fun in practice. 

The studio has a ways to go before it’s ready to play; they didn’t suggest any time frames for a demo or release window, but Tire Boy can be wishlisted on Steam if you want to keep tabs on this quirky project.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/tire-boy-is-a-wacky-open-world-adventure-game-you-can-tread-all-over-000036605.html?src=rss 

Photography games can be hyper-realistic simulations of the real thing or a vehicle for ogling cute creatures, but No Goblin’s Snap & Grab is forging a different path by treating photography as a key ingredient in a good heist. The upcoming game as part of the Day of the Devs showcase at Summer Game Fest 2025, ahead of its launch in 2026.

Based on the trailer, Snap & Grab can be broken into two distinct parts. There’s the snapping, where you’ll play as a professional photographer grooving through (high-fashion) high society, taking pictures of things you want to steal. And the grabbing, where you’ll lay out those photos in a workflow of sorts for your team of thieves to follow during a heist. Some of the things you’ll photograph might be obstacles or parts of the environment you can manipulate in your favor and it looks like more than a few could just be cute pictures of dogs.

Like No Goblin’s other games, 100ft Robot Golf and Roundabout, over-the-top, silly theming is the name of the game. In the case of Snap & Grab, that’s a sort of cartoon-y 80’s aesthetic — think Miami Vice by way of Johnny Bravo and you’ll be in the ballpark of the hair and shoulder pads No Goblin is playing with.

Luckily, you won’t have to wait long to see the game for yourself. No Goblin says Snap & Grab is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X / S in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/snap-grab-is-no-goblins-campy-photography-based-heist-game-000024233.html?src=rss 

While many of us soldier on with the remakes and VR takes on the Resident Evil story, Capcom is prepping the next chapter of the story: Resident Evil Requiem. The sequel was fully revealed as part of Summer Game Fest Live, kicking off a week(ish) of gaming announcements and release dates.

Intercutting the starting moments of REs of the past, Capcom did a fake-out, teasing that we’d have to wait a little longer to see Resident Evil Requiem — it turns out they only meant a 30-minute wait.

The teaser trailer raised more questions than answers, teasing locations from previous games, like Raccoon City — and its ruined police department. It appears the game will follow Grace Ashcroft, as she tries unveil grim mysteries and, er, gets kidnapped. She’s the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft — a Resident Evil character that I do not remember at all. 

Capcom confirmed a year ago that veteran director Koshi Nakanishi will lead what is definitely not the ninth chapter of Resident Evil. (If you don’t count Code Veronica, who even are you?) Nakanishi was involved in the development of Resident Evil Revelations and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, among other Resident Evil titles. 

Resident Evil 9 is set to launch on February 27, 2026, but a demo will be playable in August at Gamescom, so book your tickets for Cologne, Germany.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/resident-evil-requiem-announced-at-summer-game-fest-2025-231136129.html?src=rss 

If you’ve ever dreamed of being a student at a school built entirely out of escape rooms and silly puns, Coin Crew has the game just for you. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School is heading to PC in 2026, and it’s available now to wishlist on Steam. It’s the sequel to Escape Academy, which is one of our absolute favorite puzzle games in recent years, particularly when played as a couch co-op experience.

Escape Academy 2 expands the campus into an open world, allowing players to explore and uncover secrets between classes, ramping up the student role-playing vibe. Coin Crew also drew inspiration from games like Animal Well and The Legend of Zelda series, which incorporate riddles and mysteries into the standard exploration gameplay loop, creating a free-roaming puzzle flow.

The original Escape Academy attracted more than 4 million players, and the sequel appears to be even bigger and radder. There’s no release date for now, but Coin Crew is looking for playtesters through its Discord channel. The Escape Academy series is published by iam8bit, and the sequel was revealed during the Day of the Devs showcase tied to Summer Game Fest 2025.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/escape-academy-2-back-2-school-is-an-open-world-puzzle-game-spanning-the-whole-campus-000055295.html?src=rss 

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio first teased “Project Century” in 2024, and at Summer Game Fest it debuted a new trailer revealing the game’s full name: Stranger Than Heaven. The game clearly draws on the bareknuckle brawling of the Yakuza series, but this time is set in the jazzy Japan of 1943.

It’s hard to get a full sense of the story from the trailer alone, but similar to RGG’s previous games, it looks like Stranger Than Heaven will feature an open-world full of enemies to whoop and narrative choices that’ll be as determined by who you punch as who you help. If the player character Mako Taito isn’t a private eye, he does appear to be investigating something.

RGG’s released a Like a Dragon spin-off, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii earlier this year. Before that, it’s last major entry in the melodramatic crime saga was Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth in 2024. Besides the gameplay similarities, it’s not clear if Stranger Than Heaven is set in the same world as RGG’s other open-world action RPGs. At the very least, it does seem incredibly stylish, though.

Stranger Than Heaven is still in-development and doesn’t currently have a release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/rggs-project-century-is-now-called-stranger-than-heaven-232848763.html?src=rss 

Fusing light psychological horror with the quiet melancholy of American Realist painter Edward Hopper, developer Thomas Waterzooi is following up his puzzle games Please, Touch the Artwork and Please, Touch the Artwork 2 by having you just watch the artwork instead. Please, Watch the Artwork is an upcoming spot-the-difference game featured during Day of the Devs that tasks you with observing a museum of living paintings and tracking down a sad clown that may be harshing the other paintings’ vibe.

In the game, you’ll observe living versions of classic Edward Hopper paintings, like Nighthawks or Automat, and look for inconsistencies, like a character behaving strangely or objects being out of place — what one could describe as sad clown interference. You’ll then click on the offending area and it’ll be repainted, restoring the living painting to its normal gloomy self. 

Please, Watch the Artwork riffs on popular horror titles like I’m On Observation Duty, Five Nights At Freddy’s and dozens of other similar games on Steam that make you look at fake CCTV footage of a garages and office buildings. Waterzooi’s game just takes a slightly classier approach. The combination of classic art and eclectic puzzle mechanics has paid off well in the past, too: Please, Touch the Artwork was nominated for numerous awards, including an Apple Design Award.

Please, Watch the Artwork will be available on iOS and Android for $4.99 and on Steam for macOS, Windows and Linux devices for $7.99. Waterzooi’s Day of the Dev’s presentation didn’t include an exact release date for the game, but he did suggest that it will be out around Halloween.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/please-watch-the-artwork-is-a-puzzle-game-with-eerie-paintings-and-a-sad-clown-000022744.html?src=rss 

Neverway already looks, sounds and feels like it’s going to be something special — in a grim, grotesque and hellishly depressed kind of way. (Side note: That could be a nice tagline, no? It’s grim! It’s grotesque! It’s hellishly depressed! It’s… Neverway! OK, I’ll stop.)

Neverway is a life-sim RPG starring Fiona, a young woman who quits her dead-end job to live on a remote island farm for a while, where she ends up becoming the immortal herald of a dead god. Fiona has to fight through nightmare realms and battle repulsive horrors, while also tending her land and maintaining relationships with townsfolk. She’s able to meet and date more than 10 distinct characters, and forming friendship bonds unlocks combat abilities. The game features farming and fishing mechanics, and there’s also a crafting system for secondary tools like the hookshot, which supplements Fiona’s primary weapon, a sword.

Neverway comes from Coldblood Inc., an independent Vancouver studio founded by Brazilian-Canadian developers Pedro Medeiros and Isadora Sophia. Medeiros is the pixel artist behind Towerfall and Celeste, two stunning indie games, and Sophia is an ex-senior software engineer at Microsoft and the creator of the open-source Murder Engine, which powers Neverway. The game also features music by Disasterpiece, the composer behind Fez and the top-tier horror film It Follows, with sound design by Martin Kvale of NokNok Audio. OuterSloth, the indie game fund established by Among Us creators InnerSloth, is providing financial backing for Neverway, and Coldblood Inc. is self-publishing it.

Though Neverway was officially announced one month ago during the Triple-i Initiative showcase, it still made a splash as part of the Day of the Devs event tied to Summer Game Fest 2025 this week. Neverway is heading to PC at an undetermined future time, and it’s available to wishlist on Steam now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/bask-in-the-grotesque-pixel-art-beauty-of-neverway-000046814.html?src=rss 

Bandai Namco is making a sequel to the 2019 action RPG Code Vein. The sequel, appropriately-named Code Vein II, is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2026. The announcement was made during the Summer Game Fest kickoff stream. 

The first one was a popular soulslike, and the sequel will probably follow this winning formula. It received mixed reviews, but the dungeon-crawling seemed solid and the difficulty wasn’t over the top.

The graphics for Code Vein II look sharp and the story seems convoluted, but fun. It looks to be carrying over some story beats from the first one. It’s still set in a post-apocalyptic future and still follows a protagonist with vampire-like abilities. We’ll have more on this one as it gets closer to the actual release.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-soulslike-action-rpg-code-vein-is-getting-a-sequel-214216149.html?src=rss 

Developer Cold Symmetry jumpstarted Summer Game Fest Live with the first trailer for Mortal Shell II, a sequel to Mortal Shell with what looks like an equal amount of gruesome imagery. The game is expected to launch in 2026, but you can register right now to try a beta version of Mortal Shell II when it becomes available.

According to the game’s Steam page, Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel to the original Mortal Shell released in 2020. It combines deliberate, Dark Souls-style action with a grotesque, dark setting, not unlike Dark Souls itself. The trailer offers ample examples is full of over-the-top enemies — of particular note, a giant armored snail — and lots of sharp things piercing soft flesh.

Playing as “the Harbinger” you’ll travel through “more than 60 dungeons,” leveraging the “Shells” of fallen warriors to gain new abilities, Cold Symmetry writes. It sounds like the just the kind of punishing experience Soulslike fans get out of bed for.

Mortal Shell II is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S in 2026.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mortal-shell-ii-is-dark-gross-and-coming-in-2026-214811717.html?src=rss