EA has announced that its next Skate game won’t be shown off at its EA Play event on July 22. In a tweet posted by Full Circle, the developers explained that it’s still too soon to show off the game.
“It’s still early and we are committed to doing this thing right which means it’s gonna take some time,” the team at Full Circle explained.
It’s not all bad news though, as Full Circle added that it’ll have a “little something” to show off on July 19. The latest Skate game was first announced at last year’s EA Play, but other than the company remained tight-lipped on the project. Behind the scenes, Full Circle was officially formed in January this year and its staff includes Skate series veterans Deran Chung and Cuz Parry.
Skate 4–or whatever it is that EA eventually ends up calling the game–won’t be the only title missing from the EA Play line-up, as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars won’t be present either.
Starz has released the official extended trailer and key art for its original independent professional wrestling drama series Heels ahead of its August 15 premiere date.
In addition to the trailer and key art, Starz also announced that Heels will be part of Comic-Con@Home 2021 on Friday, July 23 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST with a panel featuring Heels’ writer and creator Michael Waldron (Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), showrunner Mike O’Malley (Shameless, Survivor’s Remorse), and the cast. The panel will feature, among other things, a never-before-seen sneak peek at the show.
Heels stars Arrow’s Stephen Amell, The Hunger Games and Vikings’ Alexander Ludwig, and tells the story of “the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small town pro wrestling.”
“Set in a close-knit Georgia community, [Heels] follows a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals war over their late father’s legacy,” Heels’ official description reads. “In the ring, somebody must play the good guy and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel. But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind.”
Amell plays Jack Spade while Ludwig plays his younger brother, Ace. Alison Luff also stars in Heels as Staci Spade, “Jack’s wife who learns that she has to contend with the emotional stakes her in-laws have invested in their wrestling goals and the demands it puts on her family.”
Get Smart and Tommy Boy’s Peter Segal is also serving as executive producer on Heels and will be directing seveal episodes of the new series.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
At E3 2002, Nintendo began promoting its new e-Reader platform for Game Boy Advance by giving attendees cards featuring some of Nintendo’s favorite characters, each of which had a chance to win the lucky guest a prize. All of these were thought to be lost or destroyed, but one “first place” Kirby card has allegedly reappeared and is now for sale on eBay.
As reported by Kotaku, the eBay listing is currently sitting at $6,500 with 25 bids, and the seller notes that the First Place card would win the guest a Limited Edition Gold Game Boy Advance Pokemon/NYC Store Limited Edition handheld. All the winning cards were destroyed by Nintendo to prevent additional redemptions, but this card was never redeemed, therefore it was not destroyed.
The seller AndersonCentral has been an eBay member since 2005 and has 100% positive feedback. They also uploaded a video of the card being swiped on a Game Boy Advance with an e-Reader to prove its authenticity, and you can view that here.
According to a story from 2007, most of these promotional cards would result in a “no prize” result, while 100 would earn a “second prize” result and 10 would secure a “first place” result.
It’s important to note that this card hasn’t been independently verified or had its condition graded, but the seller has provided a good case for its authenticity.
If you’re not already familiar with it, New World is the upcoming and long-awaited MMORPG from Amazon Games Studios. And that wait is almost over, given that New World is finally launching to the public next month on August 31st. As a quick rundown, this is an action-focused MMO that features everything from faction warfare to a rich open world that’s dotted with quests, treasures, and discoverable locations and settlements, and having spent some time with it now, I’m confident in saying that it’s coming together nicely. This last week, I was given a whole five hours to run around, leveling up my own character from scratch – a process which had me venturing through the very first zone, Windsward, which spans the first ten levels of gameplay and then some – and then jumping into a session of New World’s PvPvE mode, Outpost Rush. And then, finally, I was given a tour through one of New World’s endgame dungeons – The Lazarus Instrumentality – which is aimed at parties of five characters who have reached level 60.
The first part of the preview event had me starting from ground zero. And this was no mistake: Beginning a fresh character in New World gave me the free reign to slow down and experience the island of Aeternum through the eyes of a fresh survivor of a shipwreck. And let me tell you, this place is vast. Once you get yourself off of the beach and closer to Windsward settlement proper, you’re treated to grand vistas and gorgeous, flora-rich valleys where you can lay down your campsite and just watch time pass by the fire if that’s what you want. But there’s substance here too – the world itself is filled with hidden nooks and crannies where you might find useful items, bosses, or treasure. There are a bunch of quests to do – they don’t seem incredibly deep beyond what you’d expect out of any old MMORPG, but they do point you to interesting locations. It’s definitely channeling other popular open-world games like Skyrim or Genshin Impact, but in an alternate and far more Grimdark vision of the 1600s, if that suits your fancy.
There are plenty of discoverable locations that pop up on your compass as you approach them – I casually stumbled upon plenty of caves and abandoned farmlands, and of course there’s the rustic yet thoroughly lived-in Windsward settlement, which seamlessly fits into the open world. But the world itself is also quite malleable and unpredictable. For one, the landscape is dotted with resource nodes – like trees, bushes, and boulders – that blend right into the background, and you can actually harvest any of those resources that you see. You can temporarily alter the topography of the world around you, by, say, converting a forest into an open clearing. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this concept work in an MMO, but New World definitely goes above and beyond to make it feel like you’re directly tapping into – and changing – its realistic and detailed world.
But like I said earlier, it’s unpredictable. In fact, Windsward and its surrounding locales are much more dangerous than I was expecting for a zone that’s targeted to low-level players. As you wander around and find your bearings at a low level, you will also run into enemies that are far higher level than you as Corruption slowly takes hold of the region. This can lead to some genuinely scary encounters, where the sky turns red and foggy, and enemies with question marks by their names will straight-up bullrush you quite a distance.
At one point, a group of monsters chased me all the way up to the gates of Windsward settlement. At another point, I watched another player speed past me with a train of enemies on their tail, and I actually managed to help fend them off in what ended up being a bonding moment. In this sense, New World recaptures the sort of danger and inter-reliance on other players that was present in older MMOs.
And then I was ferried off to Outpost Rush, New World’s 20 vs. 20 player PvPvE battleground. I thought it was fun when I tried it out a few weeks ago and focused on attacking and defending bases with a bow and an ice gauntlet, but this time I completely different build and went with a fire staff and a greataxe – both of which are useful for crowd control in melee range – and instead of going head-to-head with the opposite team the whole time, I spent more time exploring Nauthynos Island. In fact, I finally made my way down to the Corrupted Portal, where I did single combat with dryads while collecting Azoth and infused wood to haul back to my fortress. It was a markedly different experience, showing me that even if you’re not big into PVP, there will still be plenty of ways to go off and purely focus on PVE stuff while still contributing to your team’s success.
The final portion of the preview took me to the Lazarus Instrumentality, an end-game dungeon with some genuinely tough bosses that took strategizing from the entire group to get through after several tries. As an avid Elder Scrolls Online player, this kind of reminded me of some of ESO’s more recent dungeons like Scalecaller Peak, where it’s very easy to wipe unless each party member does the right thing at the right time – but finally getting through that pesky boss or that really challenging puzzle for the first time feels like a well-earned victory. And my party shared several of those moments together.
I initially tried my hand at being the party’s designated tank with just a hatchet and a spear, both of which are fine DPS weapons but absolutely pale in comparison to the classic sword and shield when you’re trying to be the party’s sole tank. But through New World’s convenient respec system, I was able to quickly switch not just my main weapon skills, but also my entire attribute sheet mid-dungeon. And instead of optimizing for the hatchet and spear (both of which rely heavily on Dexterity), I refocused my attributes into Constitution – like a proper tank.
Much like last time, I had a weak connection to Amazon Games’ test server – which is located on the east coast, and often averaged about 200 to 300 milliseconds of ping. If you don’t know what that means, it basically translates to a one or two-bar signal at any given time, which is unacceptably low for most online games. And despite that fact, I still managed to have a smooth enough connection to play for five hours without too many issues. Besides a few crashes and some sticky combat when the lag spiked, New World still managed to remain coherent overall.
At the end of my preview session, I was left particularly intrigued by many of those deeper interlocking systems that incentivize higher and lower level players working together.
For example, the aforementioned Corruption system comes to mind here. Every player can collect materials and craft things to contribute to a settlement, which makes it level up and offer more services and amenities, but it sounds like Corruption will gradually progress through a zone, resulting in invasions where, if the forces of Corruption are successful, that’ll actually make the settlement level back down again. This sounds like a potent combination that could lead to an interesting tug-of-war for dominance of the open world between you, your faction, and the Corruption.
If you’re into ARPGs or action-focused open-world games, and you’re also a fan of MMORPGs with a faster-paced feel to them, then New World is likely to be your cup of tea. It’s got a bit of everything, but it doesn’t sound like you’ll ever be hemmed into one style of play if you prefer PVP over PVE or vice versa.
Whether or not those systems actually come together with just as much nuance, ultimately hinges upon how popular New World ends up being once it launches next month. But right now, especially after what I’ve been shown, my fingers are crossed.
It’s no secret that Nvidia’s RTX 30 graphics cards are some of the most difficult high-ticket items to purchase right now. If you are still looking to get your hands on one of the latest Nvidia GPUs, Best Buy has announced that select locations will sell RTX 30 GPUs tomorrow.
Best Buy did not specify which RTX 30 graphics cards it would be selling, but it is likely that the retailer will have various RTX 30 cards such as the RTX 3060 and RTX 3080 available across different manufacturers such as EVGA and MSI.
115 Best Buy locations across the United States (including one location in Puerto Rico) will be selling limited quantities of Nvidia’s flagship GPU line. In an effort to make sure as many people as possible can purchase an RTX 30 card, Best Buy confirmed that each of the eligible retail stores would be enforcing a one-GPU-per-customer rule, with employees slated to begin handing out tickets at 7:30am local time. Acquiring a ticket guarantees you the opportunity to purchase an RTX 30 GPU inside the store when the doors open at 8am local time.
This marks the second time Best Buy will have sold Nvidia’s RTX 30 series cards in-stores. Last month, select Best Buy locations sold limited quantities of RTX 3080 Ti Founder’s Edition GPUs. Since its debut in late 2020, the sale of RTX 30 cards in retail chains like Best Buy have been handled primarily online.
A new story trailer for Psychonauts 2 has all the psychedelic madcap action you may expect from the long-awaited sequel, along with one thing you may not have expected: Raz’s surprisingly large family.
The trailer explains that it’s Raz’s first official day as a Psychonaut, and that the organization is facing a threat from a long-dormant enemy who may have compromised one of your allies. In the process we see lots of wild set-pieces and gameplay elements, like a Raz pencil sketch that comes to life. But near the very end, his family makes an appearance, adding seven more Aquatos to the mix.
Like the first game, Psychonauts 2 appears to be an inventive mix of puzzle-platforming and Burton-esque landscapes as you delve into the minds of various subjects to battle their inner demons. In fact, the trailer makes a point of this, as a character narrates that a Psychonaut’s job is to help people, not change their minds or “fix” them.
When Double Fine boss Tim Schaefer gave an update on development as the game entered the home stretch, he committed not to “crunch” on the game–the common practice of developers putting in long hours. He cited a bad crunch experience from the first Psychonauts as the reason for this new approach.
“You’re just so focused on making the game good, and getting it done, and then you look up and it’s a sea of dead bodies all around you,” he said. “And you’re like, ‘What have I done?'”
Fortnite and LeBron James aren’t done celebrating their collaboration just yet. King James was inducted into the elite Icon Series of Fortnite last week, but the party continues for a few more days, and residents of Los Angeles, home to James’ Lakers, will get to taste the crossover for themselves.
Opening tomorrow and staying in place through Thursday is El Rey’s Taco Tuesday, a pop-up restaurant that will be adorned with all manner of Fortnite and LeBron insignia. All menu items will be free, though that menu–and who’s cooking–has yet to be revealed. Given Epic’s top-shelf taste when it comes to collaborations, it may be that the chef is a known commodity too–at least to the food world. Some LA locals got an early look at the restaurant ahead of its grand opening.
El Rey’s Taco Tuesday will be located at 8175 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles and its hours will vary by day. Suffice it to say, free tacos from Fortnite and LeBron will draw long lines, but if you plan on going, here’s when El Rey’s will be open each day before it disappears on Friday.
July 20: 1 PM – 8 PM
July 21: 10 AM – 8 PM
July 22: 10 AM – 2 PM
It seems LeBron doesn’t mind playing around with the “Taco Tuesday” theme even after his filing to trademark the phrase was denied by the US Patent Office in 2019, with the government body citing it being a “commonplace term” as a reason to disallow the move.
“The applied-for mark is a commonplace term, message, or expression widely used by a variety of sources that merely conveys an ordinary, familiar, well-recognized concept or sentiment message,” the USPTO told ESPN when the decision was made.
In-game, the Fortnite LeBron James skin includes a Taco Tuesday alternate Style in addition to his King James and Toon Squad looks, the latter of which coincides with the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto has shared his thoughts on Halo Infinite, and his thought process seems to match up with how the community was feeling, generally speaking. Talking to HiddenXperia, Lehto said he was feeling “pretty worried” about Halo Infinite in Summer 2020 when 343 showed off a slide of the game’s campaign. However, he felt more confident in the game this year, like the rest of us, after 343 showed off very improved visuals and discussed its multiplayer element.
“I was pretty worried by what I saw last E3. I think the community in general was. But, you can clearly see that 343 listened to all of that feedback, and what they turned around for this year was impressive,” Lehto said. “So, so exciting to see that they took all of that feedback to heart. And I think they knew in general what they really wanted to do in making it look and feel better. The multiplayer overview was just fantastic and really exciting to see. I cannot wait to play the game and get in there and just see how it feels. Just the visual feel of it too.”
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“As an artist and creative director looking at the overall game, [I am] really impressed with where they are taking things and how they are kind of harkening back to some of the original designs,” he said. “Yes, I know a lot of the designs were from the Bungie era, but they’re taking their own spin on it still. They’re not just copying things verbatim. They’re making it unique for Infinite, and it feels like it. It feels really good. Not gonna lie, I’m kinda jealous because I think it looks like one of the best Halos that has been created thus far. So I really can’t wait to hop in there and see what they’ve done with it. I have all the hope and positive vibes for 343 when it comes to them wrapping up Infinite and getting it out there this fall. I hope the community is there to support them as well.”
Lehto’s latest studio, V1 Interactive, shut down after its first game, Disintegration, failed to find an audience.
While it’s not as attractive as a land-speed record set in Black Rock Desert, Japan’s latest benchmark when it comes to internet speed is much more impressive. Smashing the 178 terabits per second benchmark it set last year when it worked with UK engineers, the new internet speed record now stands at a lightning-fast 319 terabits per second, as originally reported by Vice.
To achieve this speed, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) used advanced fiber-optic technology in a lab setting. The NICT system made use of an experimental strand of fiber-optic cable that featured four cores housed in a cable that was roughly the size of a regular fiber optic line.
Data was then looped through coiled bits of fiber optic that created a simulated transmission distance of 1,864 miles, with no degradation in speed being reported. With a path established, the researchers then used a 552-channel comb laser firing at multiple wavelengths through multiple amplifiers to speed through into the history books.
How fast is 319 Tb/s theoretically? In a crucial test under optimum conditions, downloading the entire 220 GB package of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War would take 0.005552 seconds. It’s worth noting that a regular solid-state drive couldn’t keep up with those data transfer speeds, but it’s an exciting glimpse into the internet of tomorrow. The NICT believes that the specially-developed four-core optical fiber optic cable can be used with existing systems to provide a massive speed boost.
For now, the technology will be used for data transmission purposes instead of the more important task of keeping Call of Duty: Warzone instantly updated.
Double Fine’s studio head, Tim Schafer, has been noticing a trend with games recently. He feels like games have to have a certain look: a darkness, grittiness, or adultness to them. He’s glad those games exist, he admitted, but he longs for a time where he played games with brightly colored characters, running and jumping on vibrant platforms that didn’t feel so dark and serious.
It’s an interesting sentiment considering Psychonauts 2‘s serious themes of mental health; contradictory even. But it’s that same contradiction that also illustrates the game’s distinct and inspiring identity, combining Tim’s desire for a brightly colorful world to jump around in, while tackling a certain kind of adultness. It’s a clashing of concepts and, for Psychonauts 2, it works very well. During my five hours of hands-on time with a preview version of the game, the theme of clashing concepts was persistent throughout, with laugh-out-loud humor and imaginative level design contrasted with weighty themes of mental conditions like addiction, PTSD, and anxiety. These topics are handled in Psychonauts 2 in a light-hearted manner without demeaning them–they are treated in an approachable and empathetic way.
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Now Playing: Psychonauts is still amazing 16 years Later
None of this is new when the sequel is held up next to its cult classic predecessor, which came out 16 years ago and featured similar themes as the basis of its inspiration and story. Psychonauts 2, however, feels more deliberate, thoughtful, and considerate in its approach, bringing these themes of mental health front-and-center. This intentionality is signalled early, by way of a mental health advisory shown the moment I booted up the game. “Ultimately, Psychonauts 2 is a game about empathy and healing” the statement reads.
What followed was a dazzling display of Double Fine’s signature humor and unhinged creativity, complimented by an ambitious scope of level design, tight gameplay, and a careful handling of serious topics. It feels honed-in and streamlined while staying true to what made Psychonauts so special 16 years ago.
The story picks up only hours after the first game, and moments after the VR sequel-interlude Psychonauts in the Rhombus Of Ruin. With the help of Psychonauts special agents Sasha Nein, Milla Vodello, and girlfriend Lili Zanotto, 10 year old psychic-prodigy Razputin has saved the leader of the Psychonauts, Truman Zanotto, from the grips of antagonist and maniacal dentist/ametuer brain surgeon Dr. Loboto. In order to find out who hired Dr. Loboto to kidnap Truman, Raz (you) and his team enter Loboto’s mind in hopes to uncover the mystery. What follows is a seamless transition as the camera zooms in, panning over the lobes of a brain as though they were a sprawling landscape, only for them to slowly transform into a sea of office cubicles where Raz is undercover working within Loboto’s mind–that is until Loboto becomes aware of his mental intruders.
Quickly the mundane mud-toned walls of an office space begin to shift, extend, and contort. Giant teeth start to protrude through the floors, as the walls become flesh-covered, and the ground becomes squishy and moist. As Loboto takes back control of his own mind, his dentistry background collides with the faux office facade. It’s quirky and fantastical, yet dire and eerie all at the same time, and it’s that surreal medley that makes the Psychonauts 2’s opening level a spectacle of Double Fine’s over-the-top creativity.
Like the original Psychonauts, the sequel will see Raz explore different worlds created from the subconscious minds of many oddball characters he’ll meets throughout his adventure.
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Psychonaut 2’s art director Lisette Titre-Montgomery explained the game’s art direction as “an acid trip with a really great story.” Lisette’s goal was to push the sense of surrealism the furthest she could by making things feel psychonautical (the methodology of exploring one’s altered state of consciousness), and equally wonky (the core style of the first game).The result is on full display during the first level, which also acts as a refresher for many abilities players from the original will be familiar with: telekinesis, PSI Blast, Pyrokinesis, and Levitation, all of which have been given a welcomed overhaul.
Telekinesis, for example, now operates more closely to the how it functions in Remedy Entertainment’s Control, where items nearby will automatically come to you, making it easy to launch it at an an enemy; Pyrokinesis forms an area-of-attack bubble to better visualize its execution; and PSI Blast has a cooldown rather than having to collect aggression ammo. Al thesel quality of life improvements make Psychonauts 2’s combat feel tight and refined, especially with the addition of a dodge button.
Through Loboto’s mind, I encountered mainstay enemies from the first game like the damage spongie Censors (business suit dressed men meant to attack harmful thoughts within one’s brain), but also an array of new enemies like Regrets–flying creatures that carry a heavy weight to drop on you. Unlike Censors, Regrets could only be damaged using PSI Blast, which is a long range ability. Additionally, after defeating one, I intuitively picked up a Regret’s weight using Telekinesis and hurled it at another enemy. It was very satisfying.
Psychonaut 2 leans much further into the weirdness and surrealism that developer Double Fine is known for.
With the introduction of each new enemy, I was conditioned to change my playing style, often switching out abilities to control the onslaught. New enemies like Doubt (sludge-like creatures that can slow you down) are highly flammable, making Pyrokensis come in clutch. While Enablers (support enemies that make foes invincible) were fast and agile, requiring the use of Time Bubble, a new ability that temporarily slows an enemy in place, giving you a window to lay in on the beatdown.
The constant introduction of different enemy types, learning their weaknesses, and understanding the abilities on-hand, offered consistent variety with multiple methods to tackle the situation. Most impressive is Double Fine’s interlacing of conceptual design with its enemies–like using feelings of regret, doubt, and enabling–as literal interpretations for enemy types is another example of the clashing of serious concepts, that are spun into something as whimsical as it is cohesive. But, like the first game, it’s not all about the action, but moments of exploration too. The Psychonauts headquarters, known as the Motherlobe, is akin to Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp from the first game: a wide and open connective hub-like area.
Upon entering the HQ, you’re greeted with a towering mural of the organization’s leaders, known as the Psychic 6; the room is alive with agents talking to each other, bustling around, reading books or having lunch. You can hear the thoughts of some agents, while others use their abilities to tend to watering plants, or levitate to other platforms. A brain in a hamster ball is rolling around, there’s a rat in a leather jacket, and voices reverberate from the PA system. It felt believable, holistic, and entrancing in the way that it had felt familiar though I knew I had never seen it before.
“The real goal was making sure that the player had a feeling that the psychonauts organization was so much more than what they initially understood it to be,” Lisette told me. She wanted to evoke a sense of history surrounding the player with the Psychonauts, to make it feel like a fully operating organization. The feeling is emphasized with returning composer Peter Mcconell’s soundtrack that flourishes on a grand and ambitious scale, evoking a swelling sense of awe when Raz first steps into the lobby.
Psychonaut 2’s art director Lisette Titre-Montgomery explained the game’s art direction as “an acid trip with a really great story.”
It’s also the introduction to the many new characters of Psychonauts 2, including Hollis Forsythe, the no-nonsense second head of Psychonauts, and now Raz’s new teacher. When entering Forsythe’s mind for class, Raz learns the new ability Mental Connection, which can be used to interconnect a person’s thoughts, or even completely change their mind. When Raz uses Mental Connection to accidentally change Forsythe’s mind to associate risk with delight, her mental state begins to unravel as elements of her past as a doctor start to transfuse with gambling. Themes of guilt, fear, and risk are intertwined with old-style Vegas and hospitals, resulting in Raz having to gamble with literal concepts of life and death as a puzzle element to proceed, and in the process, learns more about Forsythe’s character beyond her stern and hard exterior. This is where Psychonauts 2’s depth of writing and characterization is firing on all cylinders.
The most shining example of level design, writing, themes, and gameplay working symbiotically together is Compton’s Cookoff: a chaotic, stressful, and hilarious take on performance anxiety. For Tim Schafer, orchresting a balance of humor and these conditions is what made the process fun for him. “How can you represent something like anxiety? What would that look like? If you were having an anxiety dream, and you had just been to cooking class, what might you make in your dreams that would represent that feeling?” he said. The result is an intense race against the clock to gather animated talking ingredients like eggs, fruits, and meats to boil in water, blend in a blender, or get sliced by a giant hatchet.
It was the sorta thing that made me feel horrible, wincing as I brought an excited talking egg to boil alive in a pot, while laughing hysterically as I watched a piece of ham gleefully get fried in a pan. All the while, using the environment to grind between cooking stations, and avoid obstacles like giant cheese grinders or hot plates, all of which was peppered with comical, tongue-in-cheek commercial breaks. The entire time I was smiling, stressed out, and mournful all at once, and I loved it. In the end, it’s a heartfelt and considerate take on a character struggling with eternal judgment, and a sense of unworthiness amongst his peers. It was only after I played the level when I reinterpreted the chaotic and stressful nature of its design. It’s during this level that all the game’s mechanics, from using abilities, to platforming, and battling various enemy types felt heavily focused and working in harmony.
Along with his returning set of Psy-powers, Raz will also acquire a new slate of abilities.
The last level of the preview was Cassie’s Collection, which was complete 180 from the anxiety-induced nightmare of Compton’s Cookoff, and instead featured a level wide in scope, and ambitious in its display of a fantasy reflective of the character’s mind that it took place in. Cassie is a teacher who loves big worlds, storytelling, and literature, and therefore the level itself is big, adventurous, and made up of literal books.
“It was important to make you feel like you were going into a story world. But what we really wanted to sell was Cassie’s issue, and it’s that she can’t let go. And so she’s made multiple versions of herself,” Lisette said.
In her mind, Cassie’s alternate versions of herself are hidden away in the pages of books throughout the world. In order to help face Cassie’s biggest foe, herself, I had to navigate a fantastical world made of paper castles, sail on paper-made boats, hop through literal pages, and use written sentences as my platforms to find the other versions of herself. Typing the very concept is making me giddy just thinking about it. This was also the introduction of the new ability called Projection, which gives Raz the power to illustrate a paper-thin archetype of himself that you can order to slip through hard to fit areas, to unlock gates, doors, and distract enemies.
Each level I had played, including the time I had to explore the Motherlobe, was bolstered by an unrelenting sense of imagination and creativity that never let up during my five hours with it. When I asked Tim about the pressure of returning to the cult classic he helped create 16 years ago, he said, “I don’t think any fan expectation could be harder than our own. We’re a team full of perfectionists that just really want to get things right.” He elaborated by saying, “If we didn’t have an inspiration to make Psychonauts 2, then we wouldn’t have done it.”
Some worlds will see Raz take on a different appearance, matching the visuals and aesthetic of the places he’ll visit.
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On the surface, Psychonauts 2 is shaping up to be an engaging, ambitious, honed-in take on colorful 3D platformers. However, the most promising aspect hasn’t just been returning to its world, mastering its platforms or combat, but peeling back the layers to see what’s beneath it to take a closer look at its characters, the depth of their struggles, fears, and regrets, all of which serve as the foundation and inspiration for the worlds you traverse.
In a post-mortem for the first game written by its executive producer Caroline Esmurdoc she said that an oft-muttered mantra of the game’s development was, “God is in the details.” This saying rings true now more than ever when returning to the wacky, complex, and whimsical world of Psychonauts 16 years later, and it left me very eager to see what it means for the sequel when it launches on August 25.
