Author: Trafficblast

As promised, Sony showcased a ton of upcoming PS4 and PS5 games during its latest State of Play. During the stream, we also got a brief new look at the second DLC for Remedy’s mind-bending, critically acclaimed Control: the AWE expansion, which arrives later this month.

In true Control fashion, the new AWE expansion trailer–which you can watch below–featured some cryptic imagery that was hard to make sense of, but it further hinted at a connection to Remedy’s Alan Wake series. In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Remedy shed more light on the expansion and what players can expect from it.

According to Remedy, AWE stands for Altered World Event. These “occur when paranatural forces breach our world.” As the studio explains:

“Sometimes, AWEs are minor and go unnoticed. However, sometimes AWEs cause catastrophic events. Historically, the Investigations Sector was where the Federal Bureau of Control’s dangerous work of searching for AWE cases was coordinated from, and where evidence was stored… until things went horribly, horribly wrong, and the sector was sealed off years ago.”

It falls on Control protagonist Jesse Faden to enter this sector and reclaim it from the mysterious creature that has taken it over. As part of her mission, she’ll need to explore the AWE cases that were investigated here, and she’ll be able to use a new Service Weapon form called Surge, which Remedy describes as “in essence a sticky grenade launcher.”

This ability will particularly come in handy when battling the Hiss Airborne Ranger, a new enemy type being introduced in the AWE expansion. The foe is able to fly and attack Jesse from afar using a shotgun.

On top of that, the AWE expansion is introducing a new Altered Item that will let players replay four boss fights from the campaign as well as the beloved Ashtray Maze. The item sits in the Investigations Sector and resembles an arcade machine. Remedy is also adding a new horde mode and “a few other surprises” to the game.

The AWE expansion releases on August 27. It’s the second and final piece of DLC for Control, following the Foundation expansion, which recently hit Xbox One back in June (following its PS4/PC release earlier this year). Remedy has also confirmed that Control is coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Revealed during the State of Play livestream, the online Pokemon-like, Temtem, will be coming to PlayStation 5 in 2021. Coming from developer Crema and publisher Humble Games, the massively-multiplayer online game that pays tribute to the Pokemon series first saw a release back in early 2020 on PC as an early access game. Focusing on young adventurers exploring an archipelago of floating islands filled with magical creatures, this will mark the first time we have confirmation that the online game will arrive on next-gen platforms.

Given first life as a Kickstarter game, it was eventually picked up by Humble Games and has seen a steady community of players since its release. Though the developers stated that there were plans to release the game on PS4 and Xbox One, Temtem is so far only playable on PC. Before the reveal during the State of Play stream, GameSpot spoke with game director Guillermo Andrades about its launch earlier this year.

“We’re incredibly excited [about Temtem’s success]. Back when we started thinking about developing Temtem we were nervous about how players would receive it,” said the director. “We knew that people have always longed for a new and more modern take on the creature collection genre, but we, of course, questioned whether or not we had the right approach.”

Since its release, the online game has added more Temtem to collect and locations to explore. During our talk, Andrades stated that it was still too early to talk about any plans for cross-play or cross-save features for the different platforms Temtem will be on. Still, he did state that Crema is looking forward to taking advantage of the PS5’s capabilities for the game.

“While Temtem is not a technical beast, we’re looking forward to maxing out our engine and seeing Temtem at its full visual capacity,” he said. “We’re also really looking forward to the new gameplay-related features and possibilities that the next generation of hardware brings, such as haptic feedback.”

For more on the reveals and news from State of Play, be sure to check out roundup of the games shown off during the stream.

Popular strategy game Auto Chess is coming to the PS4 later this year. During Sony’s latest State of Play, Auto Chess’s release date was revealed to be October 31, 2020. The strategy game will come with PlayStation-exclusive items and new game versions that will be detailed later on.

Auto Chess’s State of Play trailer didn’t reveal much past the release date, though we did see some gameplay. Players can expect the console versions to be similar to their PC and mobile counterparts. Auto Chess has quite a few modes, including Casual, Ranked, and various others. Players place their chess pieces in strategic configurations to try to outwit and out-muscle their seven opponents.

Pieces in Auto Chess all feature different statistics, including three different star levels that designate their power. Additionally, each piece has race and class synergies that players need to pay attention to in order to create the most powerful setup.

Auto Chess spawned from a Dota 2 mod and is currently on PC as an exclusive to the Epic Games Store. It’s currently in Early Access on Epic’s storefront, but we don’t yet know if it’ll launch in full on the same day as the PS4 version. Auto Chess was previously announced for Nintendo Switch as well, though it’s currently unclear if it will launch on Nintendo’s platform the same day. It’s also available on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

During Sony’s August State of Play stream, the company announced a release date for Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series on PSVR. Vader Immortal was previously released episodically on Oculus and is a short-form story following a smuggler working for Darth Vader; the PSVR release will include all three episodes and is launching August 25, 2020 for $30 USD.

Vader Immortal is a canon story within the Star Wars universe and was written by David S. Goyer, who was the screenwriter on Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. It was designed by ILMxLAB, an immersive experience studio founded in 2015. While Vader is the focal point of the plot, you actually play as a smuggler recruited by the Sith Lord to find an artifact. The game features hand-to-hand lightsaber combat and force abilities.

Vader Immortal was first announced for PSVR in May 2020 as part of the Star Wars Day festivities.

There are even more creative assassination possibilities coming to Hitman III when it hits PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 next year. In addition to wandering through the game’s various locales in a third-person perspective, figuring out how to kill your targets with everything from an explosive rubber ducky to a carefully placed poison drink, you’ll also be able to play the entire game in virtual reality, as revealed in a new trailer for the upcoming third game in IO Interactive’s rebooted Hitman series.

As Sony revealed during its latest State of Play presentation, Hitman III will have PSVR support that puts you in the first-person perspective of protagonist Agent 47. We already knew that Hitman III would also include all the missions from the first two games if you already own them–as the new trailer notes, you’ll also get VR support for Hitman and Hitman 2’s missions, too.

IO Interactive previously discussed the ways the PS5’s increased power and speedier loading is going to allow it to increase the complexity of the levels in Hitman III; the series is known for its large stages that are kind of like big clockwork systems, where players are rewarded for learning all the nooks and crannies and studying characters’ movements to find the best, most efficient, and most hilarious ways to eliminate them. VR’s new perspective could offer even more ways to engage with that complexity, and provide new solutions to Hitman’s complex assassination puzzles.

The VR perspective won’t just be about how you look at the world, though–it’ll change how you interact with it as well. Here’s how the action is described in a post on the PlayStation Blog:

“You’ll stand face-to-face with your targets and look them in the eyes, blend-in to a busy crowd and hear the chatter and conversations happening around you and interact with items using your hands. For example, you can swing a frying pan in whatever angle you want to knock out a guard – and then use it to deflect any bullets that are fired at you as you make your escape!”

Hitman III is set to release in January 2021 on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Stadia.

Spelunky 2, the sequel to the groundbreaking platformer, is finally launching next month on September 15 for both PS4 and Steam. Development on the game had gone quiet for months after Yu announced that it would be delayed from its original 2019 release window.

“We wanted to try to not change the things that made the first so great,” Yu said in Sony’s State of Play stream. He added that Spelunky 2 would have cooperative and competitive online multiplayer, branching paths, and a more expansive shopping experience.

Yu explained that he wanted to expand the concept of the original Spelunky universe. While he didn’t confirm exact details, Yu did say that players would be building a “community and family” as they complete various runs. He also announced the ability to ride turkeys and encounter characters that can help or harm you. The sequel will also include more story than its predecessor.

“The time it takes to complete a successful run, however, hasn’t increased that much,” Yu wrote on the official Playstation blog. “Instead, the journey has become much more dense and varied, with lots more to do and try with each time you venture into the caves.”

The original Spelunky emerged from its obscure indie roots to become one of the most celebrated games of its era in its HD incarnation, with some even hailing it as the game of the decade. In our review, Tom McShea said that Spelunky “makes excellent use of its random nature to keep you hooked as you strive to dive ever deeper into the mysterious depths.”

Braid Anniversary Edition was announced during PlayStation’s State of Play event with a trailer showing off the remastered artwork and brand-new animations. The Anniversary Edition is an overhaul of Braid, the 2008 time-bending puzzle-platformer.

The game will also have enhanced sound with new mixes and variants on the original soundtrack, plus an extremely detailed developer commentary track. The commentary track is aiming to be incredibly thorough and, according to the trailer, “If you want to learn how video games are made, Braid anniversary edition will be a really good resource.” You will be able to switch between the old art and the new art at any point during the game.

In GameSpot’s Braid Review, critic Tom Mc Shea wrote, “The captivating ending sequence, which makes use of your rewind ability in a jaw-dropping new way, provides the exclamation point on this remarkable game, but the adventure is consistently engaging throughout the entire ride. The clever puzzles alone are enough to make this an adventure worth taking. Braid’s deep and mesmerizing tale is evergreen: it is outside of and beyond time. It will never get old.”

The game is set to release in early 2021 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.