Xbox Game Pass subscribers will soon be able to access games from the EA Play catalog, and they’re now able to better prepare themselves for this influx. Games from EA Play can now be preloaded, and it looks like they’ll be available to play from November 10.
The Verge‘s Tom Warren has reported on Twitter that games from the EA Play list can now be preloaded. They won’t be playable for another week, but you can prepare yourself now for when all of these games are available.
Xbox Game Pass subscribers can now preload EA Play games ready for the launch next week. You can download all games, but they won’t be unlocked until November 10th. pic.twitter.com/z7FjHiVnAW
We’ve checked and can verify that Battlefield V and other titles from EA Play can now be pre-installed by Game Pass subscribers who do not own these games.
EA Play contains over 70 games on Xbox–here’s the complete list. Its inclusion makes Game Pass even better value. This only applies to the console version of EA Play, though–the PC still requires a separate subscription.
It was previously announced that EA Play would be available to Game Pass subscribers in November, and that’s now coming to pass. Some other major games recently added to Game Pass include a trio of classic point-and-click adventures and the upcoming console release of Gears Tactics.
The Xbox Series X, which you’ll also be able to play all of these games on, launches November 10.
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The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope gives me a little hope for the future of Supermassive Games’ horror series. Some smart gameplay tweaks ensure that Little Hope still highlights Supermassive’s vital role in the modern adventure space, but it also highlights why the studio’s future games need to be better than this for those smart changes to really shine.
Little Hope, like its immediate predecessor Man of Medan, is a mashup of horror tropes and subgenres. It borrows iconography from The Blair Witch Project. It borrows its Puritan-era paranoia from The Witch (and Arthur Miller’s non-horror play The Crucible). And its conceit, which finds a group of college students and their professor stranded in the woods after their bus crashes, hangs on a premise that will be familiar for fans of Stephen King’s The Mist or John Carpenter’s The Fog. As the game progressed, I became increasingly skeptical that those threads would come together in a satisfying way. In the end, they don’t, but I still had a good time on the ride to that disappointing conclusion.
Little Hope begins with a flashback to the 1970s and a brief introduction to a troubled family of six. Dad is a heavy drinker. The older sister feels isolated and depressed. And, in a hint at the spiritual warfare that will dominate much of Little Hope’s second half, the younger sister has been held back repeatedly after church to speak with the reverend. These glowing embers of drama soon blaze up into a literal raging fire when the younger sister leaves her doll on the stovetop. In the ensuing blaze, every member of the family meets their grisly demise, save Will Poulter’s Anthony, who helplessly watches on.
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Our focus soon shifts to another group–a professor, John, and four students, Andrew, Angela, Taylor, and Daniel–who are attempting to regain their bearings after a bus crash leaves them stranded in the woods. The bus driver responsible for the crash is missing, and the field-tripping group finds themselves surrounded by a mysterious fog that sends anyone who ventures into it back in the direction they came. Each member of this group is a dead ringer for a member of the family from the game’s opening. And, as the group ventures into the abandoned town of Little Hope, they begin to have visions of earlier doppelgangers, former inhabitants of the town caught up in the lethal paranoia of 17th-century witch trials.
Despite the sprawling cast, you only control the present-day versions of the characters. As you do, you make dialogue decisions by pointing the needle of a compass at one of two spoken options or the ever-present option to just be silent. Your choices affect the dynamics of character relationships and also cause changes to their personality traits.
As this story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that Little Hope’s time-hopping ambitions impede its ability to do much successful character work in the here and now. I have only vague ideas of who John, Angela, Taylor, Daniel, and Andrew are. In previous games, Supermassive has presented characters as well-acted archetypes, then allowed players to further define their personalities within those boundaries–playing to or against type. Here, the types are so ill-defined that it becomes difficult to even have an opinion on what each character would or wouldn’t do. In a bonus unlockable interview with Will Poulter, the actor described his character as socially awkward. “I guess he was socially awkward,” I thought. But, as I thought back through the game, I realized that impression came from a line where his character, in effect, told another character that he was socially awkward. There isn’t nearly enough in the moment-to-moment character interactions to surface these details. As a result, Little Hope’s central cast don’t feel like three-dimensional characters. Some of them aren’t even successful archetypes.
As you explore, you control your character’s movement and flashlight beam as the camera frames them in old-school Resident Evil-style angles. This is one of my favorite quirks of Supermassive design; it’s one of the few studios in modern mainstream games carrying the torch for fixed camera horror. But the fact that much of Little Hope takes place on a lonely road means that Supermassive doesn’t have as much room to play around with point of view. Most of the time, Little Hope employs what amounts to a slightly zoomed out third-person perspective, which feels like a missed opportunity given Supermassive’s talent for shot composition.
There are some positive changes, though. Little Hope seems far more technically sound than Man of Medan, and the story handles Supermassive’s trademark branching paths more smoothly than ever as a result. While Man of Medan noticeably hitched at times as it attempted to bring everything together and, presumably, cycle between different versions of cutscenes depending on which members of your party were still alive, Little Hope feels like it’s telling one seamless story. Little Hope genuinely nails the feeling that everything that is happening is authored. For example, in one scene that could play out with burgeoning couple Taylor and Daniel alone or with the pair accompanied by older nontraditional student Angela, Daniel says something to the effect of, “We’ll both get out of this, you’ll see.” It works as is when it’s Daniel and Taylor alone. But it becomes a character-building moment when Angela is present and, excluded from Daniel’s “both,” pointedly clears her throat. In this way, Little Hope manages to use the constraints inherent to its flexible narrative to do some good character work, even if that work is squandered in their overall development.
Additionally, the QTEs that define Supermassive’s adrenaline-pumping approach to life-or-death action are at their best here. Instead of just popping up randomly, the timed button presses now appear first as a warning–smartly positioned on-screen to mirror the placement of the button on the controller–before you are required to press them. This doesn’t remove the tension, but it does give you a better chance of succeeding without first spending multiple playthroughs learning the timing.
The Traits system, however, pushes the other direction. As you make decisions, the personality traits, like “Fearful” or “Reckless,” are accentuated. If you make enough decisions leaning in one direction, a padlock symbol will appear next to that trait in your character profile, indicating that that trait is now an unchangeable part of your personality. I can explain it now, but it took me two full playthroughs to understand how this system works because none of this is explained upfront. This system, which is opaque and not tutorialized, has major consequences late in the game. But as you play, no context is given for the lock appearing next to the trait, and it’s immensely frustrating to see a character’s fate tied to a system the game didn’t explain. Tying personality traits to a character’s fate may make narrative sense, but it’s presented in such a murky way that it results in certain late-game character deaths that feel completely out of your hands. While the UI has been improved to its best iteration in Little Hope, the Traits system ensures that shepherding your characters through the game is still a frustrating five-hour-long exercise in trial-and-error.
Still, despite its faults, Little Hope can’t help but remind me of the reasons I love Supermassive’s take on the modern narrative adventure game. The studio is masterful at producing tension through gameplay as simple as a well-timed button press, and Little Hope is a high-water mark for the studio’s technical proficiency. While the story and character work are uncharacteristically lackluster, Little Hope still manages to offer a solid foundation for Supermassive’s future.
Even though going out to search for new Pokemon was a much more difficult in 2020, some modifications to the game and a player base with more time on their hands than usual has meant to Pokemon Go has made a lot of money this year.
Sensor Tower is reporting that Pokemon Go has brought in $1 billion so far in 2020, and has surpassed $4 billion in lifetime revenue. Its total is now around $4.2 billion.
These are estimates based on the site’s analytics, but the game, which launched in July 2016, is unquestionably still very popular. 2020 is now the game’s single biggest year.
The game’s previous best year was 2019, when it earned $902 million. The game still has two more months to keep driving that record up. Pokemon Go is the third-highest grossing mobile game worldwide for the year, behind PUBG Mobile (which has made enormous money) and Honor of Kings.
Lego has been one of the most popular toy brands for decades, and every year, the designers manage to release some truly inventive kits. In 2020, we saw the arrival of clever Nintendo-themed sets, including the Lego NES and a lineup of Super Mario course-building sets. Lego also released a new line of gorgeous wall art for Star Wars and Marvel. And, of course, multiple new sets featuring The Child (aka Baby Yoda) have hit store shelves. Lego is a big hit every holiday season, and we’re guessing you know at least one person who would love to receive a brand-new Lego set as a gift. To help you cross that Lego enthusiast’s name off your list, we’ve rounded up some of the best Lego gifts you can give this holiday.
While this guide solely focuses on Lego, we have plenty more gift ideas in our gift guide hub. From Marvel and Star Wars gifts to Funko Pops and Fortnite, chances are you’ll find some solid ideas regardless of what you’re looking for. And when looking for gifts for gamers, don’t forget to take a peek at our dedicated gift guides for Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
The Lego Nintendo Entertainment System is easily one of the cooler kits around. Released in celebration of Super Mario Bros.’s 35th anniversary, the 2,646-piece set lets you create stunning models of the console, controller, a Super Mario Bros. cartridge, and a CRTV. The TV is the most impressive piece here, as you get to build World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. A tiny crank on the side of the TV moves Mario across the stage. It’s quite the inventive set all around and would be the perfect gift for the old-school Nintendo fan in your life. Check out our Lego NES review for more details.
The Lego Super Mario line lets youngsters create their own courses using Mario-themed bricks, enemies, power-ups, and more. The Adventures with Mario Starter Course is where you want to start here, but there are 10 expansions available to purchase separately to make the possibilities endless. Lego Mario himself has sound effects, and both his eyes and chest are interactive, changing their look depending on what’s happening on the course. Keep in mind that building and playing requires an app that can be downloaded on iOS or Android devices.
Coming as a surprise to absolutely no one, Lego has recreated Baby Yoda as a 7.5-inch Lego statue. Despite his obviously blocky look, Lego Baby Yoda still looks quite cute. His head, ears, and mouth can move to make different poses, and he carries the control knob from the Razor Crest in his left hand. The 1,073-piece set also comes with a tiny Baby Yoda figurine and an information card.
Hailing from the 1989 movie starring Michael Keaton, the Batwing is one of the most detailed Lego builds to date. The 2,363-piece set recreates Batman’s awesome flying vehicle to near-perfection. The set comes with three figures: Batman, The Joker, and a Boombox goon. The Batwing can be displayed using the included stand, or you can mount it to your wall.
Also based on its look in Tim Burton’s Batman film, the Batmobile kit is an equally impressive build meant for older Lego fans. It’s a 3,306-piece build that comes in at 23 inches long–so it definitely takes up a good bit of space. The set comes with Batman, The Joker, and Vicki Vale minifigures. Though a great display piece, the Batmobile also has a cockpit that opens and two hidden machine guns that pop up. The Batmobile comes with a rotating display stand, too.
Quite possibly the most “sophisticated” series Lego has made, Lego Art could feasibly hang in a gallery and not seem out of place. There are several Lego Art kits to choose from, including Iron Man and Star Wars, and each one has a dizzying level of detail. The Iron Man set is 3,167 pieces and can be built to create three unique looks. Meanwhile, the Star Wars set is 3,395 pieces and can be built to form one of three Sith Lords: Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, or Darth Maul. Buying three of the same set makes it possible to build one huge portrait of Iron Man or Darth Vader.
Build Mando’s ship from The Mandalorian with this large-scale 1,023-piece kit. The Razor Crest includes a cockpit that opens and closes, spring-loaded shooters, detachable escape pod, ramps, and a cargo hold. It’s great for both display and play and comes with five figures: Mando, Greef Karga, IG-11, Scout Trooper, and an itty-bitty Baby Yoda.
For the Star Wars fan in your life, this Advent calendar is a very fitting Christmas gift. It comes with six Lego minifigures, six Lego figures, and 12 small-scale builds. It’s best to give an Advent calendar early so they can open a new little gift every day in December leading up to Christmas.
This Lego Brickheadz set comes with two chunky figures hailing from The Mandalorian: the inseparable duo of Mando and The Child. Baby Yoda is in his floating bassinet, while Mando means all business. While they aren’t large figures, they are more in-depth than they look at a combined 295 pieces.
For Iron Man fans, this is a really cool kit. You get to build Tony Stark’s Hall of Armor featuring his suits and gadgets. The 524-piece set comes with four Iron Man minifigures: Iron Man MK 1, MK 5, MK 41, MK 50. You also get two Outrider figures and an Igor Suit mech.
Minecraft and Lego really are a perfect match, and this large-scale build is easily the coolest set revolving around the mega-popular Microsoft game. The 834-piece Creeper Mine build comes with minifigures of Steve, blacksmith, and a husk. You also get Creeper, bat, and cow figures to round out the set. The star of the show is the giant Creeper mine though, which looks great as a display piece, too.
This awesome Lego Creator kit can be built into three different models: a regular robot, robot dog, or robot bird. The 205-piece set is recommended for kids ages 7 and up.
The Lego Boost Creative Toolbox is a STEM-focused building kit that is dedicated to teaching kids aged 7-12 the basics of coding. After building Vernon the Robot, you can use the downloadable application (compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows) to program commands for Vernon. You can teach him how to dance, play guitar, and explore. There are a myriad of exercises included that make this kit worthwhile for kids who show an interest in robotics.
Remote-control cars are cool–remote-controlled Lego cars are even cooler. Part of the Technic series, the Stunt Racer remote-controlled vehicle is a 324-piece kit that can be built into two different vehicles, each of which can perform wheelies and fast spins.
For the dinosaur fanatic in your life, this little set can be built into three different notable types of dinosaurs: the T-Rex, Triceratops, or Pterodactyl. It’s a smaller scale set at 174 pieces, which makes it ideal for younger kids.
At 579 pieces, the Lego Technic Chevy Corvette is an in-depth build that will interest the gearhead in your life. In addition to building a slick orange corvette, you can also build a classic Hot Rod with this kit.
Overwatch fans will love this 227-piece build featuring hero Wrecking Ball. It has extractable legs, fold-out Quad Cannons, and mirrors the cool look seen in the popular Blizzard first-person shooter.
The Frozen series is easily one of the most popular modern animation franchises, so there’s a good chance you have a kid on your list who still belts out “Let it Go” (much to your delight, we’re sure). This 701-piece kit lets Frozen fans build Elsa’s ice palace. It comes with Elsa and Anna mini-dolls as well as Olaf, Marshmallow, and four Snowgie minifigures.
Big Disney fans, especially those who fancy themselves as something of a Disney historian, will get a kick out of this gorgeous Stemboat Willie building kit. Designed with a black and white aesthetic, the scene hails from the 1928 cartoon. At 751 pieces, this set has a nice attention to detail and comes with adorable Mickey and Minnie figures.
While Lego kits with designed builds are the most popular nowadays, sometimes it’s nice to just go back to the basics. This literal box of bricks comes with 790 bricks spread across 33 different types. Kids can construct a myriad of unique designs, with the only limit being their imagination.
In this video, Persia talks about some of the best gifts you can get for your favorite Xbox fan to help fill your year with holiday cheer.
This gift guide has a range of gifts including new games like Cyberpunk 2077, necessary gear like the Arctic 1 wireless gaming headset, and even some Funko Pops to celebrate Halo Infinite!
We have even more holiday gift ideas for you on our full Xbox Holiday Gift Guide on GameSpot.com.
Square Enix has released a 10-hour demo for Dragon Quest XI S – Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition (say that five times fast) on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Even better, Square Enix says all your progress will transfer over to the full game if you decide to purchase it.
One might be shocked to hear that a game’s demo can last 10 hours, given that some games last all of six. Considering Dragon Quest XI players can easily rack up 100+ hours before hitting the ending, it’s a little more understandable.
Square Enix announced the demo in a blog post. You can get the PS4 version here, the Xbox One demo here, or the Steam demo here.
“To be frank, calling this a demo is kind of underselling it,” Square writes. “The download lets you play through the entirety of the opening chapters – a gargantuan chunk of game that could take you around 10 hours, depending on how you play.”
Square Enix also added that players who complete the demo will receive a “little treat” for players who complete the demo, although they’re not revealing what it is.
Dragon Quest XI S is an expanded and enhanced version of the original 2017 JRPG, with new story content, new orchestral music, new battle speed options, a Japanese dialogue track, and an expanded crafting system, among other additions.
Dragon Quest XI S is out on December 4.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he’s still in the demo stages of figuring out life.
Community is one of those hard-to-define buzzwords. It’s always been a popular concept in marketing, advertisements, and is a key word in the age of social media-dominated internet. PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan offered some insight in a Gamesindustry.biz interview on how the gaming company sees its community–or, in other words, its userbase.
Ryan’s vision of the PlayStation community includes “stickiness and tribal nature” as key characteristics. Ryan defines stickiness as “once you’re stuck it’s hard to unstick,” and is a quality that “probably gives [PlayStation] an opportunity to retain those people, where in the past maybe they’ve gone.”
He continues, “We have the data to support this–the networked nature of entertainment these days allows for communities to be massively more sticky, and kind-of homogeneous.” Ryan hopes to expand this “tribal, networked, and sticky” community by drawing in new demographics. He cites the company’s work on female protagonists and geographic expansions for beefing up PlayStation’s userbase. Ryan states, “I think there is further progress to be made in [the Middle East and Germany]. But equally, I think Asia–outside of Japan–has huge potential for us. And Latin America has huge potential for us.”
Speaking on the trend of major gaming corporations buying up studios–Microsoft recently bought Bethesda–Ryan praises Sony’s existing studios for their organic growth. In particular, he cites Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima for being a surprising commercial success. “Very quietly, in a very PlayStation way, we’ve been building something quite special with these studios,” Ryan comments. “You can do it with frenzied acquisition, or measured acquisition, or you can do it organically.”
What Ryan essentially implies is that everybody being connected through some type of social media will help PlayStation in creating a loyal consumer base. Ryan comments that PS5 has been designed intentionally to encourage the expansion of networks. PS5’s UI does include more sharing features, like screen-share and an easier switch between capturing videos and images.
PlayStation 5 releases on November 12. If you were unable to preorder, your best bet at snagging a console may be during Black Friday. Check out our PS5 preorder guide for full details.
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Call of Duty: Warzone won’t be switching engine when it welcomes content from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – even though Black Ops Cold War uses a new engine itself.
A verified Activision Art Lead revealed the news on ResetEra. “There will not be an engine shift for WZ,” writes ShutterMunster, in response to a comment chain about the future of the battle royale game.
Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War runs on a new engine, but it looks like Warzone won’t be making the switch, despite the fact that weapons, operators and loadouts from the latest Call of Duty game will be brought to Warzone as part of a cross-franchise integration, arriving in December.
The decision means that Warzone should feel broadly the same to play, even while the tools of war you use may be altered drastically by the update (although existing, Modern Warfare-themed equipment will reamin available to players). Equally, it may mean that playing Warzone and Black Ops Cold War side-by-side may take some getting used to.
Some players in the same ResetEra thread are concerned about how the Black Ops Cold War arsenal of weapons will be balanced in Warzone when they make the jump between engines. We’re sure we’ll hear more about that when the game’s integration is detailed further.
Since the release of Remember Me in 2013, it’s felt like developer Dontnod has been working to define its identity. With Twin Mirror, a narrative-focused adventure game centering on an investigative journalist, Dontnod is closer than ever to solidifying its style, marrying the inventive mechanics of its games like Remember Me and Vampyr with the storytelling focus of Life Is Strange to make something that plays to all the developer’s strengths.
We recently got a look at the first few hours of Twin Mirror, which sets up the story of Sam Higgs, a journalist returning to his West Virginia hometown of Basswood after two years away. Twin Mirror takes a lot from the episodic Life is Strange games, which are mostly about communication, developing characters, and making choices in dialogue and actions that can influence a branching narrative. Dontnod has had a lot of success telling deep, character-driven stories with those games, and Twin Mirror is a clear outgrowth of that success.
In the opening of Twin Mirror, Sam returns to Basswood for the funeral of his best friend, Nick. With a jaunt to an old lookout point, the game quickly puts Sam’s return and the baggage he’s brought with him into context. Sam had proposed to his girlfriend Anna before leaving, which didn’t go well, and in the intervening years, he’d had a falling out with Nick. Naturally, Sam can’t wait to bail on this formerly closed chapter of his life. Reminiscing about Nick, Anna, and Basswood triggers one of the major mechanics in Twin Mirror: the Mind Palace. It’s the physical representation of Sam’s mind and imagination the story occasionally brings you into, where Sam can wander around visiting memories, talk to himself, and generally take a break from a world he struggles to deal with.
From the lookout, Sam heads to a local bar for Nick’s wake, where we learn even more backstory and about all strained relationships he left behind in Basswood. Nick’s daughter, Joan, is angry with Sam–her godfather–for abandoning her in the suffocating small town. A lot of locals are angry with Sam over an article he published that resulted in the local mine closing. Many people just generally don’t really seem to like Sam and aren’t afraid to say as much. The feeling’s pretty mutual, it seems.
Throughout these scenes, Life is Strange fans will feel right at home. You walk Sam around a location, interacting with people to either trigger internal monologues about how he feels about them, or to engage in conversations. A few key moments come with choices, as well. When Joan mentions that she thinks the circumstances of Nick’s death are suspicious, you can choose to promise to look into the event–which could potentially create some harmful false hope for a little girl grieving her father–or lie and leave her out of it, even as Sam’s investigative brain starts cataloguing the details. When a group of local miners suggest they want to pick a fight, you can step to them or walk away. Life is Strange is all about branching story choices and unforeseen consequences that reveal themselves late into the tale. Similarly in Twin Mirror, the early hours of the game haven’t made any of those consequences apparent yet.
Sam’s decisions are yours, but you’ll get advice from a strange character known as the Double, who basically functions as Sam’s personal Tyler Durden. The Double is a version of Sam who seems more in tune with social cues and the feelings of others, and he’ll often appear to talk to Sam and give him an alternative viewpoint, although you don’t have to listen to it. Having an imaginary friend wandering around the scene is a bit of a played-out storytelling trope at this point, but Twin Mirror quickly implies that there’s more to this character than we know; there’s even some indication that he might not be fully imaginary, and that Sam can’t seem to get rid of him.
Twin Mirror presents a more cinematic feel than Dontnod’s previous works, with a greater emphasis on creative cinematography to help you better understand Sam, all showing how the developer has evolved as a result of the Life is Strange games. One particularly impressive moment shows Sam getting progressively more drunk during the course of Nick’s wake, operating at regular speed as fast-forwarded characters move in and out of the scene, interacting with him, sharing a drink, and disappearing into the night. It’s moments like these that pull you into Sam’s headspace. We get a palpable sense of how he feels about his old town, the people within it, and the way his life has turned out in the intervening two years since leaving.
Dontnod also portrays Sam’s emotions through actual gameplay. After the wake, Sam awakens with a painful hangover after having blacked out–only to discover that his shirt from the night before is covered in blood that doesn’t belong to him. That kicks off a sensation of panic that takes players into the Mind Palace, where Sam is chased by a shadowy figure. You control Sam as he goes racing down a hallway filled with transparent doors, some of them with messages written on them. The simple goal here is to dodge the doors with messages that increase Sam’s panic, and try to run through the ones that will help him calm and steady himself. It’s a relatively simple gameplay moment, but these interactive representations of Sam’s feelings help to make it easier to relate to him and what he’s going through.
What also makes Twin Mirror feel like an evolution for Dontnod is that it draws on Life is Strange as well as on the developer’s other, less successful forays–Remember Me and Vampyr. Both games are heavily focused on story, but parts of them also feel like failed experiments. Remember Me spends a lot of its time focused on action, using imperfect riffs on combat mechanics reminiscent of the Batman Arkham games, and climbing mechanics that recall Uncharted. Vampyr has an action-RPG sensibility not unlike something that might come out of a developer like Obsidian Entertainment, but with some cumbersome combat and unclear choice mechanics.
Both Remember Me and Vampyr also have fascinating ideas with untapped potential, however. Remember Me focused on the sci-fi conceit that memories could be recorded, separated from their owners, bought, sold, and revisited in order to discover new information. Vampyr is largely about understanding how characters fit together in a greater social ecosystem, so that you can either solve their problems or discreetly murder them to sustain your undeath.
Twin Mirror contains moments that play off these ideas as you work through its linear story. As Sam tries to figure out what he did the night before, he revisits the bar from the wake and gathers evidence to reconstruct the events. When he’s found all the clues, you’re returned to the Mind Palace, where Sam’s analytical mind can simulate what might have played out. You stitch the clues together to reconstruct an apparent fight, figuring out who was involved and how it happened–and that helps Sam regain his memory and decide what to do next. The investigation mechanics have a very Remember Me feel as Sam reconstructs a scene. It’s a bit like playing the role of investigator Will Graham from the excellent TV show Hannibal (which, I must admit, is one of my favorites), as Sam uses a talent for investigation that lets him uncover information from a scene that others missed.
Without spoiling much more, what Sam starts to uncover builds into a greater mystery as he tries to figure out what he did the night before, what else has been going on in Basswood during his absence, and critically, who he can trust. Things get darker and more sinister in a hurry, and it’ll be interesting to see how Sam grapples with the people of Basswood, the details of what happened to Nick, his own confusion about himself, and the agendas of others–particularly the Double, who seems like a strange and shadowy addition to the story.
But I’m most interested to see how much more Twin Mirror expands on Dontnod’s ideas from other games. It already feels like a step forward from the Life is Strange games, leaning on the developer’s ability to develop deep and relatable characters, while making new strides in how it presents its stories. And even a few short hours with the game demonstrate how Twin Mirror is pulling in the experimental ideas that made Remember Me and Vampyr fascinating and fun, finding ways to explore the mindset of its protagonist and to help make you feel like an integral part of solving the mystery. So far, Twin Mirror is building on all the things that have made Dontnod games worthy of attention, and I’m excited to see where else its unfolding mystery will go when the game releases on December 1.
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla — November 10 (PS4, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC, Stadia) / November 12 (PS5)
Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC, Stadia
The next entry in the Assassin’s Creed saga is set in the Viking era. As tribe leader Eivor, you’ll lead your people in raids across the isle of Great Britain. You’ll pillage villages, build your own encampment, and even dip back into social stealth. Expect more info on the mysterious Hidden Ones too.
More Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Coverage:
Dirt 5 — November 10 (Series X/S) / November 12 (PS5)
Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC
Dirt 5
Dirt 5 will already be out on current-gen consoles by the time the new ones arrive, and you’ll be able transfer your saves from Xbox One to Series X/S (unfortunately you cannot do the same from PS4 to PS5). What awaits you in this rally racing game is a variety of tracks around the world, each with dynamic weather conditions. You can take on a rival driver in career mode, too.
More Dirt 5 Coverage:
Bugsnax — November 12
Available on: PS4, PS5, PC
Bugsnax
The titular Bugsnax are little edible creatures that live on a mysterious island, and it’s up to you to catch them for the citizens, a species called the Grumpus, of Snaxburg. Doing so requires a bit of puzzle-solving and carrying out quests for each Grumpus. Even better, you can get it for free on PS5 as one of PlayStation Plus’s November games!
This isn’t a sequel to 2018’s Spider-Man game; it’s a standalone adventure where you control the titular Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. Miles has his own set of suits–including a rad outfit from Into the Spiderverse–that come with their own special abilities. He can go invisible, discharge electricity, and more. Additionally, there’s a free upgrade from the PS4 version to PS5 if you aren’t able to grab the new console for a while.
More Spider-Man: Miles Morales Coverage:
Godfall — November 12
Available on: PS5, PC
Godfall
The very first confirmed PS5 game is just around the corner. This looter-slasher published by Gearbox is set in a world divided by the five elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit. Likewise, you can choose from five different Knight classes and fight with a variety of weapons, each with their own flashy attacks.
More Godfall Coverage:
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War — November 13
Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
The latest in the Call of Duty series retells the events after the first Black Ops game. Set during the Reagan era, you’ll be carrying out covert missions all over the world in the campaign. The usual multiplayer modes are back, along with new options via Fireteam. And yes, there are zombies, too.
More Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Coverage:
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity — November 20
Available on: Switch
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
The next Hyrule Warriors game is set 100 years before the events of Breath of the Wild. You can take control of Link, Zelda, Impa, and the Four Champions as you battle Ganon’s forces musou-style. Expect some traditional Zelda puzzles along with all that combat, too. You can try out a demo now if you’re curious.
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There are way more games coming in November, of course. Check out GameSpot’s list of all the confirmed PS5 and Xbox Series X/S launch games for the complete info. New Releases will be back next week with a closer look at more upcoming games, including Destiny 2‘s Beyond Light expansion and Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory.