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Epic Games is about to decimate the Fortnite island once again. The battle royale’s latest season, dubbed Fortnite Wilds, commences on June 9th, and a cinematic trailer debuted for it during Summer Game Fest Live.

This time around, Epic is revamping the island by collapsing the center of it to reveal a jungle. You’ll be able to ride colorful velociraptors and explore ancient ruins. Mud and vines will play roles in the season as well. Somehow, all of that ties into a Transformers collaboration as Optimus Prime make an appearance. As it happens, a new Transformers movie is in theaters this week.

There’s not much cohesion between the jungle theme and the latest crossover, but it doesn’t really matter. Millions of people will rush to play the new season anyway. Besides, let’s face it: tearing around the island on the back of a raptor while wearing an Optimus Prime skin could be fun.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/fortnites-next-season-features-transformers-and-rideable-raptors-210411943.html?src=rss 

Summer Game Fest’s final reveal was the sequel…est of all sequels: Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s second chapter, Rebirth. It will take Cloud, Aerith and the rest of the team beyond Midgar, and we got a glimpse and expanded areas for exploration, tapping into the power of the PS5. 

The start of the trailer, however, teases alternate timelines and events yet again, with the collapse of the expressway (the end of FF7: Remake) showing injured party members being stretchered onto helicopters, before returning to more familiar story beats for anyone who’s played the original. 

We’ll get flashbacks to Tifa and Cloud’s reunion in the town of Kalm, where they both grew up, and more Sephiroth chewing up scenes with vague dialogue and gorgeous hair. We also see secondary antagonists, the Turks, with a full roster, ready to go three-on-three against your party. 

The most intriguing snippets were battles showing Cloud et al. able to collaborate with each other on their moves, upping the damage. It’s something we saw in FF7R’s DLC with Yuffie and her ally Sonan. The trailer also gave us the first glimpse of both Yuffie and Red XIII (the talking dog) duking it out alongside the rest of the party. The game has been delayed, to early 2024 now, but we now know it’ll land on two discs — if that’s any consolation.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/final-fantasy-vii-remake-rebirth-is-delayed-to-early-2024-211301245.html?src=rss 

Between the likes of Skate, Skate Story and OlliOlli World, we’re in the midst of a renaissance of skateboarding games. Helskate looks like it’s going in a different direction from many of them. It uses skateboarding as a foundation for monster slaying.

In this project from Phantom Coast, you’ll make your way through the hellscape of Vertheim with arcade-style skating. You’ll power up attacks by pulling off combos, and unlock abilities and buffs as you progress. Ultimately, you’ll need to battle the Gods of Skating. You’ll need to conquer a score challenge to defeat one and grind up another to target its weak points.

Since this is a roguelite, some progress will carry over when you die, but otherwise you’ll be starting again. You’ll be able to put together a unique build for each run by combining weapons, gear and tapes. Permanent ability upgrades come in the form of tattoos, which is a neat touch.

In case you’re concerned that the skateboarding aspect might not live up to other titles in the genre, the fact that veteran designer Steve Swink is leading the team may sate your concerns. Swink has some previous experience in that domain, having designed one of the levels in Tony Hawk’s Underground.

In any case, Helskate made a solid first impression. The action looks fast paced and it has some slick visuals. It brings to mind Hades as well as the fantastic Rollerdrome, which requires players to pull off rollerblading tricks to refill their ammo.

We’ll need to wait a while longer to see if Helskate can meet the heady heights of those other games. It’s slated to hit Steam early access in early 2024.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/helskate-mashes-together-tony-hawk-and-hades-211341687.html?src=rss 

After Elon Musk finalized his purchase of Twitter last October, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta reportedly began working on a social media platform of its own, codenamed Project 92. During a company-wide meeting on Thursday, Meta chief product officer Chris Cox showed off a set UI mock-ups to the assembled employees, which were promptly leaked online.

The project’s existence was first officially confirmed in March when the company told reporters, “We’re exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates. We believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” A set of design images shared internally in May were leaked online as well.

The new platform, which Cox referred to as “our response to Twitter,” will be a standalone program, based on Instagram and integrating ActivityPub, the same networking protocol that powers Mastodon. The leaked images include a shot of the secure sign in screen; the main feed, which looks suspiciously like Twitter’s existing mobile app; and the reply screen. There’s no word yet on when the app will be available for public release.

“We’ve been hearing from creators and public figures who are interested in having a platform that is sanely run, that they believe that they can trust and rely upon for distribution,” Cox said, per a Verge report. Celebrities including Oprah and the Dalai Lama have both reportedly been attached to the project.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/screenshots-of-instagrams-answer-to-twitter-leak-online-212427998.html?src=rss 

It’s still not clear if Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake will ever see the light of day — but if you’re looking for a new side story in the franchise, the company has you covered. Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at Summer Games Fest 2023, a new action-adventure platformer “inspired by the Metroidvania structure.”

Pivoting the franchise’s platforming roots to the more exploratory and action focused gameplay featured in Metroid and Castlevania games sounds like a natural twist — but it isn’t the only change to the series format that Lost Crown offers. Rather of taking on the role of the titular prince, Lost Crown instead asks players to rescue him as Sargon, a new hero, and part of a group called “The Immortals.” Ubisoft promises that the game features intense platforming, giant boss fights, puzzles, and new character abilities and power throughout the journey.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will release on January 18 2024 for all platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, as well as on PC through the Epic Games Store and on Amazon Luna.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prince-of-persia-the-lost-crown-is-a-metroidvania-style-platformer-coming-in-2024-194059046.html?src=rss 

There will be no rest for the wicked after Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest opening event wraps up. Immediately afterward, the stream will move onto the Day of the Devs showcase. The spotlight on indie games starts at 5PM ET, but you can tune in early to catch the Summer Game Fest Live reveals.

It’ll likely be worth watching Day of the Devs as Double Fine and iam8bit always have intriguing indies to highlight. At the last Summer Game Fest edition, they showed off the likes of the enjoyable Desta: The Memories Between, Birth and Escape Academy. That showcase also included a look at the gorgeous puzzle platformer, Planet of Lana, which hit Game Pass recently.

Several studios have revealed they’ll be part of the latest edition of Day of the Devs, including Land & Sea, a team that includes former Alto’s Adventure developers. We’ll also get looks at Hyper Light Breaker (the follow-up to Hyper Light Drifter), Geometric Interactive’s Cocoon, Shape Shop’s Mars First Logistics, Moonloop Games’ Hauntii and much more

So, be sure to stick around after Keighley’s event. You might just discover a game or two that you fall in love with at first sight and immediately add to your wishlist.

Meanwhile, Engadget is on the ground in Los Angeles for Summer Game Fest. We’ll be bringing you news, updates, reveals and hands-on impressions from all the not-E3 events that are taking place over the next few days.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/watch-summer-game-fests-day-of-the-devs-livestream-here-at-5pm-et-200003384.html?src=rss 

Lies of P is a dark, steampunk take on the legend of Pinocchio, and it’s due to come out on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S (plus Game Pass) on September 19th. There’s a demo available across all platforms right now, and it’ll be live until June 27th. The demo requires an online connection and is free to access.

Lies of P comes from prolific South Korean publisher and developer Neowiz. The studio describes the game as an Souls-like action experience, and it’s absolutely drenched in dark fantasy vibes. The latest trailer for Lies of P, shown off during the Summer Game Fest kickoff show today, reveals a sprawling industrial landscape filled with mechanical technologies, cog-wheel robots and bronze finishes. The game is styled after the Belle Epoque era, drawing on late 19th-century French aesthetics. 

Lies of P features character customization and various narrative choices. Neowiz describes the setting and gameplay as follows: “Once a beautiful city, Krat has become a living nightmare as deadly puppets run amok and a plague sweeps the land. Play as P, a puppet who must fight his way through the city on his unrelenting journey to find Geppetto and finally become human.”

Those who pre-order the digital deluxe edition of Lies of P will get early access to the full game. Pre-orders are live on the game’s website right now.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-play-a-demo-of-the-goth-pinocchio-game-lies-of-p-right-now-200224973.html?src=rss 

In the middle of this year’s Summer Games Fest, Geoff Keighley teased a new game with characters from a storied manga artist – and he wasn’t kidding. Sand Land is a new adventure game from Bandai Namco, featuring character design from Akira Toriyama, the man who gave us Dragon Ball’s Goku, the art of the Dragon Quest series, the characters of Chrono Trigger, not to mention countless more manga titles. Sand Land was initially a short manga series written back in 2000 by Toriyama. Now it’s a game. (In fact, in the trailer you can see the protagonist play around with what appears to be a Gameboy Advance, which is cute.)

We got a quick tour of what kind of game Sandland will be, as you’ll take control of a demonic prince, Beelzebub, alongside a cohort of monstrous characters, exploring, well, sandy environments. While you’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with some enemies, you’ll also pilot tanks to gun down enemies from afar, or go up against other military hardware. There appears to be a whole array of vehicles to explore the desert with. There’s no release date yet, but hopefully, we’ll hear more in the following days.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sand-land-trailer-sgf-2023-akira-toriyama-200242482.html?src=rss