Category: Games

Armor customization in Halo Infinite aims to include lore while also allowing players to fit their own personalities. In the Halo Infinite technical preview livestream, 343 Industries went over some of the customizations options that will be available in the Halo Infinite tech test this weekend and the launch version of the game.

One of the main pieces of armor customizations are the armor cores, which serve as a base for your Spartan. Some of the armor cores will be based in the Halo Infinite lore, like the Mark VII armor shown in the video. Other armor sets like the previously revealed Yoroi armor, which is designed to look like Samurai armor, are considered fractured cores, and exist outside of the Halo Infinite lore.

To demonstrate how this works, 343 Industries showed concept art with 15 different armor styles for Yoroi armor. While the base of the armor remains the same, different aspects of it can be changed to a player’s liking. Some of the armor shown had a katana attached to the hip, while others had throwing knives. There are different chest plate options and the option to add a bandolier of bullets. The developers said that the idea behind this is to make each armor core feel like a unique character that people are playing, while still offering in-depth customization.

Another customization option shown was the ability to equip prosthetics on any of the four limbs, or all of them. The developers said that not only do the prosthetics add another layer of customizations for players, but they also allow players to represent themselves.

The full livestream offered a look at many at both Halo Infinite multiplayer gameplay and some of the features included in the upcoming technical test, including the first look at Halo Infinite running on an Xbox One and a look at the Academy, which will teach new players the ropes of Halo Infinite.

The first multiplayer beta for Halo Infinite starts today for anyone who was invited and the full game is set to release Holiday 2021.

Since Microsoft launched the original Xbox in 2001 we’ve seen thousands of games come out across four generations of consoles. Here, IGN’s top Xbox fans have picked out the very best of the best, settling on just 10 games that represent the finest of the Xbox canon. Our criteria: we chose games that were originally Xbox exclusives. They might have come out on other consoles later down the line, but at the time they represented the best of what the Xbox consoles had to offer. With that said, here are our top 10 Xbox exclusives of all time.

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10. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved

Built as a dev experiment to test the OG Xbox controller’s analog sticks for Project Gotham Racing (source), Geometry Wars was one of the best Xbox games you could play around the launch of the Xbox Live Arcade for the 360. If you were like us, friends would fight tooth and nail over who could top the leaderboards. Once we learned the ins and outs of point generation we were jamming out to the killer soundtrack while racking up score multipliers left and right. Geometry Wars was great then and continues to be even all these years later.

9. Dead Rising

Dead Rising launched within the first year of Xbox 360 and showcased what the second-generation Xbox was capable of: namely, hundreds of zombies shambling around the screen without completely tanking the frame rate. Granted, it hasn’t aged all that well in the past 15 years, but it is still a decently fun zombie-massacring game that gives you the freedom to pursue the story or goof around in an infested mall using mostly anything as a weapon to defend yourself.

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8. Sea of Thieves

Sea of Thieves is a fantastic open-world game that lets you captain your own ship, fight skeletons and phantoms, dig up treasure, and basically just live the Pirate’s Life! It encourages multiple play styles, both alone and with a crew of friends. You can spend your time-solving puzzles and ranking up your Pirate alliance class, sink other players’ ships in arena mode while flying a Reaper flag, or you can battle a barrage of AI villains on the open seas. And the surprises keep coming, since Sea of Thieves has been updated consistently ever since it came out in 2018. We’ve gotten interesting challenges and storylines, including the recent Disney collaboration that brought us a whole Pirates of the Caribbean campaign. Gameplay has been steadily improving too, since the developer,  Rare, has consistently proven that it is more than willing to listen to player feedback. With Xbox Game Pass making it available to any subscriber, it’s easy for new players to jump right in.

7. Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic

Coming two years after the release of the original Xbox, BioWare’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was the fateful next step in the critical and commercial success for the creators of the breakout RPG hits Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2. This new epic Star Wars tale, which is set some 4,000 years before the events of movies, BioWare’s approach provided a fresh look at what video games could accomplish in George Lucas’ universe, especially from a storytelling perspective. It introduced memorable locations and quests, with characters like the bloodthirsty assassin droid HK-47, Darth Revan, and many more. At the same time, it set the standard for what a western RPG could achieve, offering us difficult choices that affected our story and experiences as we played.  Along with its all-time great twist, KOTOR would go on to be remembered as one of the original Xbox’s standout achievements, revered not just as an RPG but as a standout part of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. 

6: Ori and the Blind Forest

There’s no shortage of Metroidvania-style platforming games, which makes it hard for any one to stand out. Even so, when it arrived on the Xbox One in 2015, Ori and the Blind Forest stood out immediately. It has a gorgeous art style, ultra-responsive controls, a bounteous variety of enemies, and a tough-but-fair level of difficulty to its platforming challenges. Tying it all together is a touching story that made us care deeply about these characters and their world almost instantly. It provided an outstanding foundation for the 2020 sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, to build on.

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5. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Like The Elder Scroll III: Morrowind on the Xbox 360 before it, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was the undisputed king of western RPGs in its day when it arrived in 2006. Featuring an expansive map that dwarfed even Morrowind’s open world, Oblivion allowed us to become fully immersed in the lands of Cyrodiil. We played through engaging and epic questlines (featuring the voices of Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean!), as well as sprawling cities and towns where every person had their own 24-hour schedule of working and sleeping, making the world feel much more alive than any previous RPG. Whether you yearned to become the Gray Fox of the Thieves Guild or Arch-Mage of the Arcane University, Oblivion is full of engrossing storylines to uncover and lose yourself in.

4. Gears of War

Epic Games may not have invented the third-person cover shooting genre, but the original Gears of War revolutionized it in a stellar cooperative shooter that pushed the Xbox 360 to its limits and kicked off another flagship Xbox game series.

This single-player, co-op, and multiplayer triple threat innovated with its embrace of the second-generation of Xbox Live that made it easy to find a friend playing through the gritty and bloody campaign and drop right in to join them, or just wholesale invite your friends into a party for some pub-stomping in public matchmaking for competitive matches.

Also: CHAINSAW GUN!

3. Fable

When Fable launched in the third year of the original Xbox’s lifetime, the only other big RPG on Microsoft’s first console was the outstanding Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. But while not all of designer Peter Molyneux’s famously boastful promises came to pass, Fable easily distinguished itself from everything that’d come before with action combat and spellcasting, choices of meaningful consequence, and a highly British sensibility that remains charming to this day (maybe throw in a “chicken chaser” soundbite). Beyond that, you can buy a house, get married, get divorced, kill your best friend, and embrace a freedom of choice not often seen in its time. But above all, what Fable really accomplished was to carve out a wholly unique attitude for itself, cementing a sense of nostalgia that many of us are still chasing to this day.

2. Forza Horizon 4

Forza Horizon is Xbox’s Porsche 911 — a franchise that’s attractive, powerful, and most importantly, reliable. Forza Horizon is consistently a showcase series for the Xbox consoles, and Forza Horizon 4 is arguably the best among them even today. The way it brings the United Kingdom to life with utterly spectacular sights and sound design is unmatched. At the same time, Forza Horizon has managed to fill the arcade racing niche left vacant by the decline of series like EA’s Need for Speed, and its accessibility has allowed its popularity to overtake the more hardcore classic Forza Motorsport series and made Xbox the go-to console for racing enthusiasts. 

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1. Halo: Combat Evolved

Come on, did you really think anything else could ever possibly be #1 on this list? As one of the all-time best launch games for any console, Halo: Combat Evolved proved to be so good, so influential, and so important to Microsoft that the Xbox might not have made it past its first console generation without it. Sure, 2004’s Halo 2 was the catalyst for the runaway success of Xbox Live and, arguably, online multiplayer gaming on consoles as a whole, but the original Halo gave Xbox an identity as a multiplayer machine that friends could gather around, made it cool, and proved that first-person shooters could truly be great without a mouse and keyboard. Thanks to the outstanding multiplayer and an original story that brought us the Master Chief, Cortana, Warthogs, and so many iconic Covenant enemies and vehicles, Bungie became a household name. Soon, gamers were hauling their enormous CRT TVs to each others’ houses for System Link LAN parties, and entire cottage industries (like Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue machinima series) sprouted out of the runaway popularity of Halo. And so yes, Combat Evolved is and will always be the GOAT when it comes to Xbox exclusives.

Naturally there are countless other fantastic and beloved Xbox exclusives that got elbowed off of our small top 10 list, and no disrespect to them, but these are the ones that came out on top in the friendly competition for IGN’s staff’s hearts. What’s on your list? Let us know in the comments, and then check out some of our other top 10s to see what you agree with and what you don’t. And for all your gaming news, reviews, and more, keep it here at IGN.

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One of the new features coming in Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer mode is called the Academy, which will give new players an opportunity to get used to how Halo multiplayer works. Developer 343 Industries has recently explained more about how the Academy will work in both the full game and this weekend’s beta test.

In a new video, the studio went into detail on how the Academy serves as a tutorial and entry point for newcomers to Halo multiplayer. In the full game, it’ll be broken down into three elements. The first is a conventional tutorial that explains the fundamental controls and mechanics of the game, but it’ll also introduce new players to some of the lore surrounding Halo’s multiplayer. From there, players can jump into weapon drills, which allow for experimentation with the game’s arsenal. Finally, the Academy will also include a mode where you can play multiplayer matches, either alone or with teammates, against bots across all of the maps.

In the technical preview kicking off today, players will be able to try out weapon drills. You can see what these look like in the embed above; in essence, this mode gamifies learning how to use Halo’s weapons. While the version in the preview will be limited, 343 Industries stated that weapon drills will likely be more complex in the full version.

The studio has been unveiling a lot more info about the game ahead of the beta’s launch, such as an overview of the game’s settings as well as some lengthy gameplay on an Xbox One. The tech test will run from July 29 through August 1. As with all beta tests, things may change from now until when the full game launches later this year.

More player ratings have been revealed for Madden NFL 22, and this time they focus on the defensive backs. The cornerbacks and safeties are both key to protecting against long throws and stopping breakthrough rushes, and the list even includes the newest member of the 99 club.

Among the top five cornerbacks, Jalen Ramsey clocks in with a 99 OVR rating, following by Stephen Gilmore at 97, Jaire Alexander at 95, Tre’Davious White at 93, and Marlon Humphrey 92.

The full top 10 list is below. These numbers are only applicable to the beginning of the season and will change based on how their real-world counterparts perform.

Madden NFL 22 Top-Rated CBs:

• Jalen Ramsey: 99 OVR
• Stephon Gilmore: 97 OVR
• Jaire Alexander: 95 OVR
• Tre’Davious White: 95 OVR
• Marlon Humphrey: 92 OVR
• Xavien Howard: 91 OVR
• James Bradberry: 90 OVR
• Denzel Ward: 89 OVR
• Kendall Fuller: 89 OVR
• Darius Slay Jr.: 88 OVR

Safeties are categorized separately, and while there aren’t any 99-rated players, there are still some fantastic picks to solidify the middle of the field. Tyrann Mathieu leads the way with 95, followed by Budda Baker with 93, Devin McCourty with 92, Jessie Bates III with 91, and Justin Simmons with 91. The full top 10 list is below.

Madden NFL 22 Top-Rated Safeties:

• Tyrann Mathieu: 95 OVR
• Budda Baker: 93 OVR
• Devin McCourty: 92 OVR
• Jessie Bates III: 91 OVR
• Justin Simmons: 91 OVR
• Jamal Adams: 90 OVR
• Harrison Smith: 90 OVR
• Eddie Jackson: 89 OVR
• Adrian Amos: 89 OVR
• Minkah Fitzpatrick: 88 OVR

For more Madden 22 ratings, you can check out the highest-rated running backs, edge-rushers, tight ends, as well as a roundup of all the top ratings thus far.

Madden NFL 22 will be available on August 20 for PC, consoles, and Stadia. You can use our Madden 22 preorder guide now.

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].