Month: July 2021

The Annapurna Interactive Showcase has just concluded, featuring nearly half an hour of game reveals, updates on existing games, and new partnership announcements.

Biggest among them were the reveals of a release window for Stray and the announcement of an expansion for The Outer Wilds, but here’s a full rundown of everything we just saw, heard, and learned:

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The Artful Escape

The Artful Escape, a musical story game about the nephew of a folk-music legend coming to terms with who he is, was first announced way back in 2017. Today, we saw a brand new trailer for the game at last bestowing a release date upon it: September 9 for Xbox (Game Pass, yes!) and Steam.

Within the new trailer, we also got a tease of a star-studded voice cast which includes names such as Michael Johnston, Caroline Kinley, Lena Headey, Jason Schwartzman, Mark Strong, and Carl Weathers.

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Neon White

Neon White got a new gameplay trailer today showcasingits fast-paced movement and choice-based gameplay that has you discarding weapons to gain access to powerful traversal abilities. Neon White is coming to Nintendo Switch and PC this winter.

Outerloop Games

Studio head Chandana Ekanayake, lead programmer Justin Lalone, and animator Aung Zaw Oo made an appearance in Annapurna’s showcase today to tease a partnership with the publisher on a new game. Outerloop was previously responsible for Falcon Age. While the team didn’t offer any specifics on their next project, 80 Days and Falcon Age writer Meg Jayanth is working on this one too. 

Ekanayake says that Outerloop’s next game will tackle “immigrant culture growing up in the US, gossiping aunties, overbearing parents, and family pressure.” We also saw a bit of off-screen footage of skateboarding gameplay.

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A Memoir Blue: A Journey Into the Depths of Memory

Cloisters, an indie development team originally from New York City and now multinational and based in Taichung City, showed off a trailer for its debut project: A Memoir Blue: A Journey Into the Depths of Memory. The trailer hinted at a family-focused narrative with some oceanic themes and, as the title indicates, a journey into the world of memory. A Memoir Blue is planned for Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Nintendo Switch, and iOS at a later date.

Jessica Mak

Everyday Shooter developer and Soundshapes co-director Jessica Mak announced a partnership with Annapurna Interactive for a new, unannounced game. No specific details were shown, but Mak mentioned the importance of music, sound, and replicating the kind of flow a musician has when they are playing an instrument and turning it into gameplay — something we saw glimpses of as a blocky human shape ran through brightly colored 3D and 2D levels. Mak suggested this new game will involve action, adventure, and musical components.

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Storyteller

Developer Daniel Benmergui brought a new trailer for Storyteller, a puzzle game about crafting stories. Players are given a title for a story, and are then given its pieces: characters, settings, or plot events, and are tasked with arranging them into a story that makes sense and fits the initial prompt. Storyteller is coming soon to Nintendo Switch and Steam, and a demo is out now on Steam.

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Solar Ash

Solar Ash got a brand new trailer today, showing off more of its smooth parkour, colorful world, and the strange creatures that inhabit it. Best of all, we finally have a release date of October 26, 2021, for PS4, PS5, and PC.

Ivy Road

In an announcement that sounds like the set-up to a very, very cool joke, the creator of the Stanley Parable and Beginner’s Guide Davey Wreden has partnered with the co-creator of Gone Home and Tacoma Karla Zimonja, as well as Minecraft composer Daniel Rosenfeld (C418) to create a new game being published by Annapurna. The group offered no concrete details as to what they’re making, but the new studio is called Ivy Road, and Wreden and Zimonja spent a lot of their announcement video drinking tea from a very fancy-looking tea set in a pleasant, plant-filled room.

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Skin Deep

Next, we got an update on Blendo Games’ upcoming project Skin Deep, a first-person shooter with a sneeze meter, upsetting bodily injuries, being smelly, and all kinds of other weird, gross physical problems (or benefits, depending on how you see them). It’s by the creator of Quadrilateral Cowboy and is planned for release on Steam at a later date.

Platform Updates

Annapurna dropped a rapid-fire reel of platform release updates as follows:

• The Pathless is coming to Steam on November 16
• What Remains of Edith Finch is headed to iOS on August 16
• I Am Dead arrives on PS5, PS4, and Xbox on August 9
• Telling Lies and Gorogoa are both headed to Xbox GamePass “soon”

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Stray

At last, we got a meaty new trailer for Stray, the upcoming PlayStation and PC game about a lost cat wandering a city of strange, human-like machines. There’s plenty of new gameplay detail in the trailer, including some very cute cat interactions, but the most important bit is that Stray finally has a release window: it’s coming to PS4, PS5, and PC in early 2022. Not much longer!

No Code Entertainment Productions

Glasgow-based No Code is making a horror game of some kind, and this time, they say it’s on purpose. The creators of Observation and Stories Untold made a brief appearance in the Annapurna Presentation today to tease a partnership with the publisher, with co-founders Jon McKellan and Omar Khan and lead designer Graeme McKellan discussing their strange relationship with the horror genre and the ways in which they have accidentally stumbled into it their entire lives. Khan described No Code’s next game as their “biggest project to date,” saying the studio had doubled in size to make it happen.

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Outer Wilds

Finally, Mobius creative director Alex Beachum made an appearance with an update on the upcoming Switch release for Outer Wilds, which is planned for this holiday. But the even bigger announcement is that the game is getting its “first and only expansion” entitled Echoes of the Eye, which is planned for release on PS4, Steam, Epic Games, Store, and Xbox on September 28.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

The exploration adventure game Outer Wilds is getting an expansion, and it’s coming sooner than you might expect. The Echoes of the Eye expansion is coming on September 28.

Annapurna Interactive confirmed the “first and only” expansion with a trailer during its games showcase. The development team acknowledged that the original game didn’t leave much room for expansion, but hinted that questions like “why” may be answered in the DLC itself. A press release says the DLC revolves around “an anomaly that can’t be attributed to any known location in the solar system.”

Echoes of the Eye was actually leaked in April by a SteamDB listing, and publisher Annapurna gave a winking signal-boost to the discovery that acted as almost-confirmation. This is the first official word we’ve heard of the expansion, however.

Outer Wilds was one of GameSpot’s best games of 2019. A big part of that was its story, which helped to inspire curiosity and discovery with a sense of scientific wonder.

Starting today, PS5 owners can choose to upgrade their storage with M.2 solid state drives. You’ll want to be familiar with the SSD requirements and be comfortable with taking apart your PS5 (it’s not simple plug and play). 1TB solid state drives that work with the PS5 are too expensive to be considered deals; you’d expect to pay 40%-50% the cost of the PS5 itself. 500GB is the sweet spot. It’s still a healthy storage boost and it won’t burn a hole in your wallet. Other deals today include the lowest price ever on the MacBook Air with M1 chip, 40% off The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Hardcover preorder, and 27% off Apple AirPods Pro.

New PS5 Update Supports M.2 SSDs

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Sony released a new beta update for PS5 owners that allow the installation and use of M.2 solid state drives. Before you get too excited though, be aware that the SSD requirements are very strict; the budget M.2 SSDs like the Samsung 980, WD SN750, or the Crucial P5 might not fly. At the bare minimum, the PS5 requires a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD with a recommended speed of 5,500Mbps or higher. In other words, you’ll be paying a pretty penny if you want maximum speed out of your storage upgrade.

Samsung 980 Pro 500GB M.2 Solid State Drive

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Samsung is one of the most popular and reliable SSD brands, and the 980 offers 6,900Mbps transfer speeds and a PCIe Gen4 interface at a price that won’t break the bank. Performance-wise it will blow any standard SATA SSD or hard drive out of the water. It’s designed to run optimally even without a heatsink (it’s supposed to withstand torrid PC temps, and the PS5 is essentially a proprietary gaming PC), but it’s also very simple to install one on your own.

WD Black SN850 500GB M.2 SSD with Heatsink

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For those of you who insist on following Sony’s guidelines to the letter but don’t want to install a heatsink yourself, the WD Black SN850 solid state drive with pre-attached heatsink will cover all your bases. This is a blazing fast drive with transfer speeds rated at up to 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface. There are faster and far pricier options available, but I doubt you’ll notice any real world performance difference in a PS5 console.

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Samsung T7 500GB USB 3.2 Portable SSD

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If the idea of taking apart your PS5 to install an SSD sounds too daunting for you, there’s always the much easier and more convenient route of plugging in an external storage drive. The Samsung T7 SSD is as fast as it gets in that department. The PS5 has USB ports that support Gen2 speeds (up to 10Gbps) and this SSD supports USB 3.2 Gen2, so it’s practically a match made in heaven. It’s normally $100 for the 500GB model (portable SSD drives are typically pricier than internal ones), but you’re saving 30% off with this deal. Of course it won’t be as fast as an M.2 SSD, but it’s easier, cheaper, and you’ll be able to use it for other things.

Corsair Force 600 1TB M.2 Solid State Drive

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This is an interesting SSD to consider as well. It’s easily the lowest priced 1TB M.2 SSD we’ve seen that *almost* fulfills all of the PS5 SSD recommended specs. The only caveat is that it boasts 4,950Mbps read speeds, just slightly less than the 5,500Mbps. Sony’s official statement is that 5,500Mbps is recommended, but not required. This is a PCIe Gen4 model and it even includes a heatsink (which is removable if there are installation issues).

New Apple MacBook Air with M1 Chip

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Amazon is offering the lowest price ever on the new MacBook Air with M1 chip. You can save $150 off compared to buying directly from the Apple Store. Reviews show that the new M1 chip is a veritable speed demon; it offers better performance while generating less heat and consuming less power than any of the Intel chips that Apple used in previous models.

Monster Energy Zero Ultra, Sugar Free Energy Drink

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This deal is always popular with the IGN crowd when it comes along. Monster Energy Drinks usually cost about $2-$3 apiece at your local convenience store. On sale you might be lucky to find them for about $1.50. This deal lets you cop a 24-pack for only $1.05 apiece. Get it to under $1 per can if you add a total of five items to your current Amazon Subscribe & Save order. This is in my opinion the best tasting of the zero calorie energy drinks.

Dyson AM11 Pure Cool Purifier Tower Fan

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The Dyson AM11 fan costs an outrageous $400 new! You’re getting this refurbished model directly from Dyson (via Walmart), and it carries a very respectable 6 month warranty. The AM11 functions as a bladeless tower fan (ward against inquisitive fingers) and as a true HEPA air purifier that filters out 99.97% of allergens and pollutants as small as 0.3 microns.

The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition Hardcover

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This LotR Illustrated Hardcover Edition hasn’t been released yet (it’s out October 19), but it just saw it’s second massive price drop today. Last week this book was discounted for the first time ever from $75 down to $59.99 (20% off). Today, there’s yet another discount for a total of 40% off the original price. If you’ve already preordered this book, don’t fret; Amazon will automatically guarantee you the lowest price. This massive 1,200+ page tome includes illustrations from author JRR Tolkien, for the first time in any edition of the series since 1954.

Apple AirPods Pro Noise-Cancelling Earbuds

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If you regret not picking the Airpods Pro up on Amazon Prime Day at 24% off, here’s your chance to get it today at the same price. The AirPods Pro is considered one of the best noise-cancelling in-ear headphones you can get, especially for under $200, and it’s significantly better than even the vanilla AirPods.

More Daily Deals for July 29

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out the IGN Deals articles and subscribe to the IGN Deals Twitter page.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye is an expansion to the time-looping adventure game, coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store) on September 28. A Switch release for the full game will follow in holiday 2021.

Leaked on Steam earlier this year, the DLC – described as Outer Wilds’ “first and only expansion” – was finally officially announced during an Annapurna showcase today. That doesn’t mean we actually know much about what it is, though.

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A cryptic teaser showed the game’s rickety spaceship and its familiar solar system as the sun entered an eclipse and we got brief shots of an unknown, underground location. We also learned that the expansion will “weave directly into the existing world and narrative,” but got no sense of how that’s being achieved.

The Eye is a major area in Outer Wilds, so it appears we’ll be returning to at least some of the settings from the game’s original, but the game’s interlocking locations and time-looping structure would suggest that anything new might need to be added amongst the existing game, rather than ‘after it’. I, for one, am very excited to see how it all comes together – and what it is that made developer Mobius Digital decide to return to its debut game.

Outer Wilds was one of IGN’s nominees for game of the year for 2019, and we named it the best adventure game of that year. It went onto win numerous awards, including the BAFTA for best game.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Stray, the third-person adventure game about a cat lost in a robotic cybercity, is coming to PS4, PS5 and PC in early 2022.

Announced during today’s Annapurna showcase, we also a saw a new trailer for the game, showing off the game’s variety of quests, exploration, and even combat. Playing as a cat separated from its family and lost in a city full of ‘human-like machines’, the game will see you making your way back home with the help of drone called B-12.

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From what we’ve seen so far, the game begins with your cat character falling into the mysterious city, injuring itself in the process. As you progress, you’ll be solving puzzles, helping out the city’s inhabitants (finding lost sheet music for a musician, for example), and avoiding danger. B-12 will act as your means of communication, translating the world around you, and storing items in your little cat backpack for you.

There seems to be more of a focus on stealth (and, naturally, your character can run, jump, and climb with ease), but B-12 can also use what seems to be a disintegration light on certain enemies.

Stray is the debut project for French developer BlueTwelve Studio, which formed in 2016 and began working on the game.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Stray, a game about a cat wearing a backpack in a world taken over by robots, was already poised to be the most precious thing in the world before we even saw gameplay. During the July 29 Annapurna Interactive stream, however, we were given our first look at Stray in action, including a harrowing chase sequence. And we also learned as part of the event that it’s coming out next year.

After meeting a drone named B12, the cat is able to communicate with those around it, including the humans who still exist in the harsh world we wouldn’t wish on a single real kitty. It’s so harsh, in fact, that a chase soon begins as slug creatures try to consume the cat. Using B12’s unlockable abilities, the drone is able to stun them long enough for them to be defeated.

You’ll have to use your stealth and agility to make it through Stray, and according to Annapurna Interactive, you’ll also need to sometimes be “as annoying as possible.” If you have ever had a cat, you know this is a crucial element of their entire species. You can even knock stuff off of ledges to solve puzzles and claw up a leather couch like a little demon.

Stray was planned for a 2021 launch, but it’s now going to launch in 2022. Alongside the PC release, it will also be available on PS4 and PS5. Make sure to stock that backpack full of plenty of catnip toys and delicious tuna treats while you wait.

During the Annapurna Interactive Showcase today, a group of surprising collaborators announced that they would be working together on a new, unannounced game: Stanley Parable and The Beginner’s Guide creator Davey Wreden, Gone Home and Tacoma co-creator Karla Zimonja, Minecraft composer Daniel ‘C418’ Rosenfeld, and obviously, Annapurna itself.

Wreden and Zimonja appeared at the event in a plant-strewn room, drinking out of a fancy tea set and teased whatever it is they’re working on. They didn’t offer any concrete details, except to introduce Rosenfeld as the game’s composer and Annapurna as its publisher. It’s not clear if the tea was a hint or just a really cozy set dressing.

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We’ve loved all four of Ivy Road’s founders’ aforementioned past creations: We found The Beginner’s Guide to be “thought-provoking and disarming” and said The Stanley Parable was “witty, unusual, and quietly discomfiting.” Tacoma gave us a glimpse of a “fascinating future” with “wonderfully written characters” while Gone Home was “one of the finest stories we’ve ever experienced in games.” 

And then there’s C418’s work, which includes the entire original Minecraft soundtrack and then some. So whatever Ivy Road is cooking up, it’s being built on an exciting foundation.

There were plenty more announcements out of Annapurna today, including other collaborations between the publisher and companies like No Code and Outerloop, as well as release windows for Stray and The Artful Escape and an expansion for The Outer Wilds.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

A new trailer for Solar Ash debuted during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase, revealing that developer Heart Machine’s upcoming game will launch for PS5, PS4, and PC on October 26. The trailer showcases a bit more of what exploration looks like in Solar Ash which, according to creative director Alx Preston, is the first-and-foremost focus for the game.

“We’re traversal first,” Preston told GameSpot. “That was kind of the vision of the game: Control the traversal, the environments that you’re moving through, and the spectacle of it all. Especially the scale on the grandiosity of it just feeling impossibly large and you’re feeling really tiny and insignificant in as many ways as possible. The traversal absolutely takes precedence and the combat is kind of intermingled with that traversal.”

To do that, Heart Machine has designed Solar Ash’s movement mechanics to be fairly easy to grasp. You will have to practice to achieve the same level of fluidity seen in trailers. But when I asked Preston, he said that Solar Ash’s movement more closely resembles the easy-to-pick-up web-swinging mechanics of Marvel’s Spider-Man than the carefully timed button presses and precise turns needed to perform an amazing aerial goal in Rocket League.

“I would say it’s pretty approachable,” Preston said. “I think we’re very aware of how challenging a third person game can be with a freeform camera.”

“If you’re comfortable with third-person action games, you’re not going to find anything super wild here where you have to be pressing both triggers in tandem or anything like that. I would say it’ll be pretty straightforward how to manage your character.”

With all this focus on traversal, you’ll need somewhere to go. According to Preston, Solar Ash delivers with an open environment. “I would say [the world] is kind of–it’s open,” Preston said. “It’s very big and open in a lot of ways, but it’s not an open-world game. I’m not going to sit here and be like ‘You can go anywhere,’ like you can go to Gannon’s castle right away or anything like that. There’s an order to things.”

And yes, if you buy Solar Ash for PlayStation 5, you will experience different sensations and sounds while moving around thanks to the PS5 DualSense controller’s 3D audio and haptic feedback. “I won’t get too into detail other than the DualSense is super rad and we’re going to do some stuff with it,” Preston said.

Several other games were shown off during the Annapurna Showcase, such as the memory-driven interactive story A Memoir Blue and card-based, speedrunning-focused Neon White.