Everybody who knows about NBA The Run wants it to be the spiritual successor to the beloved ‘00s EA Sports Big franchise, NBA Street. The spirit is definitely there, and its brand of streetball is friendly to newcomers with enough complexities to please fans, but the insistence on its always-online structure keeps it from achieving true greatness.
Created by Play by Play Studios, a new team that includes a number of EA Sports veterans, NBA The Run is a fast-paced 3v3 arcade-style basketball game that strikes a good balance between flashy and strategic skill-based play. Its knockout tournaments are its bread and butter, both as a squad and solo. Knockout Squads feature team-based 3v3 play, and Knockout Solos gives you full control of the trio you pick.
Whether you choose to head online solo or with a squad of three, The Run is built around its roster and does a good job making each NBA star’s kit feel authentic. Steph can shoot a trey from anywhere, but his shots are easily blocked. Wemby is thought of as the best player in this version of the game, but keeping him away from the paint can force bad jumpshots instead of easy dunks. This is all stuff to consider when picking your ballers, and the rulesets make the metagame fun.
That’s where The Run is different from other basketball games. Every game has randomized rules determined at the beginning, which gives each game a sense of balance and enhances that “one more game” hook.
One such example is Triple Threat, where three-pointers are worth three while other shots are only worth one. There’s also Dunkfest, where dunks are the more valuable shot type. That often means relying on your online teammates to play towards the objective, which can be perilous. I often encountered teammates online doing nothing but dunking when the rules clearly stated three-pointers were the way to win. It’s just better with friends, so you know which players they pick and how each selection will complement your team based on the rules.
Human or bot issues aside, I always had a smooth experience finding matches online. Its focus on fast matchmaking and rollback netcode is a strength, but it’s a double-edged sword. Online tournaments are all the game has. There’s no story, no create-a-player, and while the game features a nice roster of over 32 playable NBA stars and 5 fictional streetball legends to unlock, the lack of accessible lore makes the fictional legends feel like nothing more than grind rewards. If you solely want to ball online, this is a great way to do it, but for everyone else, it leaves much to be desired.
With the game always online, the lack of couch multiplayer is its biggest hindrance. Couch multiplayer is obviously less common today than it was in 2003, but it is an expected arcade sports staple, and it’s The Run’s most disappointing exclusion.
NBA The Run does its best to make up for what it lacks with a high attention to detail that makes it easy to see the love for streetball culture. The gameplay, art style, and overall presentation hosted by the legendary DJ, Bobbito Garcia, feel like it all belongs, and that’s what matters. The love of the game is what’ll keep me playing, and it’s easy to feel the team’s love of the sport. Play by Play made clear its plans for ongoing iteration without annualized releases, so hopefully many of these shortcomings can be rectified post-launch to make it the definitive streetball game it wants to be. As it is, it’s too barebones to wholeheartedly recommend, but there’s a great game of basketball waiting for you if you don’t mind only playing online matches.
Ever since Crazy Taxi burst onto the scene in 1999, it has been associated with American rock band, The Offspring, in particular, the band’s fast-paced 1997 track, “All I Want.” The music became such a key part of the package that when the original entry in the series was brought to PS3, Xbox 360, and PC without the synonymous tracks from bands like The Offspring and punk-rock outfit Bad Religion, it was a major point of criticism from fans. We spoke with series creator Kenji Kanno not long after the reveal of Crazy Taxi: World Tour on the importance of those songs and how they ended up in the series in the first place.
According to Kanno, when he began developing a new Crazy Taxi game, as originally reported in 2022, the conversation often circled back to the soundtrack. “Music is very important for Crazy Taxi,” Kanno says. “Every time I talk to stakeholders about the game, they ask the same thing: ‘Will you have The Offspring? Will you have Bad Religion?'”
And the emphasis and importance placed on music in Crazy Taxi have been significant, dating back to the very first game. According to Kanno, it was integral to the development of the original title, and finding the soundtrack has been a crucial part of development in many of the projects he oversees.
“When I design a game or when I create a game, the first thing I decide on is actually the theme song,” Kanno says. “I decide on the song, and then I tell [the development team], ‘Hey, we’re going to make a game based on this song,’ and I make them listen to it on repeat. Like, they can be a designer, they can be a programmer; they have to listen to the song on repeat, and then they can work on the game with [mimicking “All I Want” while pantomiming typing] ‘Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!’ playing in the background. [laughs]”
The exterior of Tower Records in Shibuya
As for how The Offspring landed in Crazy Taxi, it all stemmed from doing what many music fans who grew up in the ’90s were accustomed to doing: going to a nearby record shop and sampling new music, hoping to find something that resonated. For Kanno, that journey took place in one of the most iconic record shops: Tower Records, which is still open to this day.
“I went to Tower Records in Japan,” he recalls. “I listened to a bunch of songs, like, all day. A bunch of songs all day, and when I came out, what I narrowed down to was The Offspring and Bad Religion.”
The upbeat tempos and punk rock vibes of those songs are felt throughout Crazy Taxi’s design, so it makes sense that these songs were the starting point for the original game’s creation. That moment was so important that a Tower Records location became one of the destinations in the original Crazy Taxi. Songs like “All I Want” and “Change The World” by The Offspring, as well as “Ten in 2010” by Bad Religion, became mainstays for Dreamcast owners and arcade-goers, so much so that all three of those songs were present in the demo of Crazy Taxi: World Tour that I had a chance to see.
From everything we saw, Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like an appropriately chaotic modernization of the original premise. However, the game has attracted some controversy upon the reveal that generative AI was used during its development. We also asked Kanno about the team’s use of that technology in development. You can read what he has to say on that topic here.
Crazy Taxi: World Tour arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and PC in 2027.
My nostalgia for Turok begins and ends with 1997’s Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for Nintendo 64. Few things were cooler to 10-year-old me than shooting dinosaurs – or really dinosaurs in general – but I never engaged with the franchise beyond this title. Chalk it up to a lack of interest after hitting middle school, but I still raised a curious eyebrow when a new game resurfaced in an attempt to revive the franchise’s video game relevance. That has yet to happen since the N64 era, but Turok: Origins may be the best shot the series has had in decades.
Developer Saber Interactive has reimagined Turok as an Unreal Engine 5 shooter that can be played alone or in co-op with up to two other players. I played the game in the latter form during Summer Game Fest, partnering with two other media members. The game is a prequel set many years before the 1997 game, starring futuristic warriors from the ancient Order of the Turok battling the Xenia, a race of alien reptilians vying for dominance across the universe. This means completing missions across several planets, many of which are inhabited by dangerous wildlife, including the series’ staple threat, dinosaurs.
Across a roughly 12-hour story campaign, players blast through alien wildlife as one of three classes: Cougar, Bison, or Raven. Cougar is the weapons specialist ideal for offense-minded players; Bison is the vanguard offering defensive options; Raven favors ranged attacks. Despite their differences, all three classes pack plenty of firepower.
During the two missions I played, I tried out the Cougar and Bison. Teams can feature multiple players using the same class, so if you want a flock of Ravens, you can do that. According to game designer Carlos de Maria Castillo, Turok: Origins has been balanced to accommodate all class combinations and synergies. Castillo also touts that each class is highly customizable in terms of weapon loadouts, so even two players sharing the same class can feel distinct from each other.
If you’d rather play solo, Turok: Origins offers a fully offline single-player experience; you won’t be given bots to make up for a lack of teammates. Co-op play features drop-in/drop-out, and the game adjusts to teammates with different states of progression. Players keep everything they earn while playing co-op, such as currency and upgrade resources, to take back into their game. “You don’t feel like you’re wasting your time when playing [with] two other people that are maybe more advanced in the story,” says Castillo.
Turok: Origins can be played in first- or third-person; switching between perspectives is a button press away. I played each mission from both viewpoints, and I had a good time regardless, so the choice comes down to preference.
That leads into my larger compliment: Turok: Origins is very fun to play. Sporting three weapons for each class, the gunplay feels good, and gunning down waves of incoming raptors, giant insects, and Xenia warriors is a good time. The Cougar carries a shotgun-like blaster, while the Raven can fire a bow with exploding laser arrows. Each class also sports four special abilities that operate on a cooldown. The Bison can create a protective barrier for teammates to huddle under, and the Cougar can unleash a powerful sonic scream like Banshee from X-Men. When enemies are near death, they become vulnerable to an execution finishing move.
In the midst of mowing down targets, smaller objectives can surface. In the first mission, we needed to disable several shield generators to expose a larger target, for example. Large boss fights, such as a rampaging Tyrannosaurus Rex armed with rocket launchers on its back, require coordination. Against these bigger foes, using a scanner can reveal weak points to home in on.
As you race from objective to objective, taking time to explore can uncover secrets, including hidden areas, special enemy encounters, and collectibles such as weapon skins. Platforming challenges complement the firefights. Some revolve around using a grapple hook to zip across gaps and hazards. One mission inside an ancient temple tasked us with leaping across waterwheel platforms without falling to the watery depths below.
Missions are designed to be highly replayable, according to Castillo. “There are plenty of planets, and some planets you have multiple quests on, and then you come back to them, to different parts of them, because you know they’re very big,” he tells me. Castillo promises a substantial endgame that includes a new difficulty option that unlocks post-game, as well as enduring progression systems. He also confirms Saber has post-launch content planned.
While there is an overarching narrative that Castillo says fits organically within the Turok mythos, I’d be lying if I said that, as I coordinated with my teammates, cheered when we took down a tough opponent, and laughed when someone mistimed a jump, I cared about the narrative. It remains to be seen if Turok: Origins tells a compelling story, but playing it gave me flashbacks to blasting through Outriders with two friends; I could not confidently tell you what happened in that game’s story because it was more fun to shoot things while chatting with my buddies about literally anything else. I can already see Turok: Origins becoming our next “hangout game”, and the demo, frankly, was more fun than I expected it to be going into it. The strong gunplay, fun abilities, and, if you desire it, enjoyable co-op position Turok: Origins as a potential sleeper hit for shooter fans this year.
There are a lot of games based on The Walking Dead, usually the AMC television show version (itself based on Invincible creator Robert Kirkman’s now-complete comic book series). But hey, what’s one more, especially when it’s basically a Streets of Rage-type brawler. That’s what the newly announced The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival is clearly going for, and it looks pretty fun in the reveal trailer.
Publisher Trailmark Games and developer Odaclick Game Studio, which also developed The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, describe Streets of Survival as a “brutal arcade brawler” that will let players fight walkers as series mainstays Rick Grimes, Daryl Dixon, and Michonne. You will fight Saviors, walkers, Negan, and more using “relentless combos, signature weapon attacks, and crushing finishers.” There appear to be various melee weapons, environmental interactivity, and guns, too.
Check it out in The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival reveal trailer, courtesy of IGN, below:
The game’s storyline is based on the events of the All Out War arc from The Walking Dead, and stages will be set in locations such as Sanctuary, Hilltop, and Alexandria. You can expect familiar bosses, too, such as Negan, Simon, Winslow, the Well Walker, and more, and you can replay these fights and stages with multiple difficulty options and escalating challenges.
There’s no word on when The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival will launch, but it’s “coming soon” to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, and PC (via Steam).
Do you think a Streets of Rage-type brawler is a good fit for The Walking Dead? Let us know in the comments below!
The Forza Horizon franchise has been my favorite racing series since the release of Forza Horizon 3. The excellent racing mechanics, gorgeous visuals, and the fact that it doesn’t take itself too seriously coalesce into an experience that has resonated with me on a consistent basis. So, naturally, when I heard that several key members of the Forza team (including the director of my personal favorite, Forza Horizon 5) had left Playground Games to create a narrative-style game using many of the lessons learned from their time with that franchise, my interest was instantly piqued. But it wasn’t until I saw the game in action — and briefly got my hands on it — that it skyrocketed up my list of most anticipated games.
Clutch is a narrative action/racing game that puts you in the role of Theo Martial, an elite driver who was adopted into racing royalty alongside his sister. The first scene I see takes place in 2010. Theo and his sister Cass, also playable, are children in the back of the car. When their adopted mother steps inside for a moment, Theo jumps into the driver seat as Robbie Williams’ “Let Me Entertain You” plays. This serves as the tutorial, but also gives glimpses into the cinematic quality Clutch delivers.
Through subsequent scenes, it quickly becomes apparent the kind of story Clutch will tell. Penned by Skins co-creator Jamie Brittain, Clutch looks to tell a story rooted in the realistic racing circuit, but with action-movie elements similar to what you’d see in a middle entry of the Fast and the Furious film. Following that introductory sequence, we jump to 12 months in the future, as Theo has gone full vigilante and is speeding away from the police in the south of France. Next, it’s six months in the future, and Theo is participating in a street race as part of the Midnight Collective; unsanctioned races that are largely ignored by the police. Next, you slide into the driver’s seat as Cass in France amidst an offroad race.
This delivers a fine sampler of the content to come, but the final prologue sequence sets the stage, as Cass and Theo are set to participate in the R1K, the biggest racing circuit, in the current day. We see the two siblings joking with their friend, who is also a racer, and interacting with their adoptive father, who the team tells me is a racing legend, and a much better manager than a father. After a brief stint on the track, a massive crash occurs, and a peripheral character is killed on the track, sowing the seeds of doubt in Theo, as well as the R1K’s commissioner. In a post-crash press conference, the commissioner pledges that changes are coming, including new safety measures that will add measures like brake assist and traction control, sending racing purists into a fit.
The cutscenes hammer home the level of detail in the facial capture technology, as the animations are expressive and believable. Unreal Engine 5’s advancements are evident, not only in scenes like this, where we get close-ups of characters’ faces, but also in the world when you’re driving around. The game primarily takes place in one of the racing capitals of the world, Monaco, and it looks terrific. As you speed around, Forza Horizon fans will notice similar attractions to take part in, including quick-hit diversions like speed traps, where you must pass through an area of the street as fast as possible.
Back in Theo’s villa, you can walk around in third person. After a sequence where Theo mentions questioning his career as a driver following the catastrophic events of the R1K race, Theo’s father smashes a wine bottle on his floor and the two siblings speed away. Theo follows Cass to a meetup of the Midnight Collective, where he gets his first taste of the underground racing scene. You can also walk around in third-person at meetups, with Maverick Games hoping to establish more of a human/car connection than is typically put on display in racing games, allowing you to interact with cars in ways beyond just a floating camera. You can also walk up to a car and purchase it at these meetups, if you so choose.
In R1K races, you have one goal: to finish first and claim the top spot on the podium. In Midnight Collective races, it’s all about the ratings. The races are live-streamed, so your goals are much more diverse, including, yes, placement, but also style. Success is based on how many viewers you attract, with style points and racing on the track earning you more viewers. Each checkpoint you pass through earns more followers, but you can sacrifice that to cut across a shortcut, delivering a compelling risk/reward mechanic, as placing higher in the rankings also grants viewers.
The hands-off demo ends with the most narrative-leading part of what I saw. After getting in some hot water, Theo seeks out a fixer at a bar in Monaco. After the two drive around, she tells him to look for an Aston Martin Valhalla in an apartment complex. After Theo searches the entire garage, avoiding security, he eventually realizes it’s up in the penthouse suite. After sneaking in, he spots it, but the alarm is triggered. The only way is out through the window, but it’s on the top floor. Thankfully, the supercar is equipped with a harpoon, so Theo smashes out the window, harpooning a nearby helicopter, which allows Theo to safely touch down on the ground thanks to what the team admits is action-movie physics. But it works.
And the harpoon, which is the first of multiple gadgets you can equip on vehicles, looks extremely satisfying to use, either as a way to zip around corners, or on pursuing police vehicles to spin them out. I’m looking forward to what other gadgets are on offer in Clutch, but the team is remaining tight-lipped for now. That was how my hands-off demo ended, but I also had a chance to play through one R1K race.
As expected, driving feels much like it does in Forza Horizon, albeit slightly stiffer. I don’t know if this is because I was speeding around the track in a decked out racecar or if it feels that way across the board, but it was slightly less loose. Despite this, it still feels great, and offers many of the same control schemes and amenities as Forza Horizon, such as the driving line, which tells you when to brake and accelerate, and the rewind functionality. I appreciate that the rewind mechanic is manual, allowing you to dictate exactly where you want to rewind to, rather than Horizon’s chunks-at-a-time method. Unfortunately, my time with Clutch is way too short, but I saw and felt what I needed to, so I can’t be too upset.
I emerge from many demos and meetings at each Summer Game Fest excited to see how the game I just saw will pan out. There are many such cases at Summer Game Fest 2026. But Clutch is a rare case where I cannot wait to play through the full version of the game. Now, a few days removed from SGF, it is almost certainly my favorite thing I saw at the show, and I can’t wait to finally play the final game and see where Theo and Cass’ story takes us when Clutch arrives in 2027.
Alien: Isolation has been touted as one of the best Alien games ever made, if not the best. Despite the praise, it’s taken a surprising 12 years for a proper sequel to be announced, but we finally saw the full reveal of Alien: Isolation 2 during Summer Game Fest. At the show’s Play Days event in Los Angeles, I got to play the opening section of the long-awaited sequel to see how its scares are coming together. Afterwards, I spoke with creative director Al Hope and art director Ana Sopikova to learn how their team is applying over a decade of feedback to the follow-up.
Warning: This preview contains spoilers for the end of Alien: Isolation
The sequel begins a few months after Alien: Isolation protagonist Amanda Ripley, daughter of the series’ hero Ellen Ripley, thwarted the Xenomorph that had terrorized the Sevastopol space station in the first game. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she managed to contain the creature in a smaller ship and eject it – and herself – into space.
My demo begins in the evening forest of a remote colony planet owned by Weylan-Yutani, the feared corporation and arguably the true main antagonist of the Alien franchise. I control a woman named Blake, Alien: Isolation 2’s new lead, who works for a Weyland-Yutani survey team. Her small team locates a crashed vessel – the very ship players jettisoned in the first game – but must move quickly to investigate it for potential salvage as a dangerous storm threatens to flood the area. One of Blake’s team members doesn’t think this effort is worth the risk the storm poses, so he treks back to their vehicle and gives us 10 minutes to conduct our search before he abandons us. Blake and her remaining partner, Otto, find a way into the small vessel.
Although I only get to move through a very small slice of this opening forest area, art director Ana Sopikova describes it, and the planet as a whole, as being very dangerous. “It’s a very hostile world; storms, there’s weather. It’s definitely not a nice walk in the park.” Al Hope adds that Creative Assembly is creating a “survival sandbox” featuring a mix of exterior and interior spaces with a narrative framework keeping it all together.
While Otto waits near the ladder we used to enter the vessel, I begin exploring the dark interior. I need to restore power, but the fuse panel is damaged. Restoring it requires searching around for scattered parts and electronics. Once I gather enough materials, I fix the panel and bring the ship to life. As I enter the main control room, a prone humanoid figure awakens and lunges at me. It’s a Working Joe, the synthetic service androids that served as enemies in the first game. It’s been torn in half and malfunctions as soon as it grabs me, to the relief of a startled Blake. Sopikova teases not only the return of Working Joes but confirms that players will confront new, non-Xenomorph threats without giving away too much.
I use a computer to access the ship log. Before I can dig too deep into the data, an alert hits the screen warning of a containment breach. As I look through a nearby window into the corridor, the familiar silhouette of the Xenomorph emerges. Panicked, Blake slips under a table just before the creature enters the room. She can barely contain her nerves as the alien slowly investigates the area. Blake has no idea what this thing is, but it thankfully seems oblivious to her presence. For now, at least.
From here, I have one objective: escape the ship. I watch the Xenomorph from under the table until it finally moves elsewhere, stepping out once the coast is clear. I can hear its heavy footsteps nearby as I begin to formulate an escape plan. I look around and spot the familiar save station from the first game and record my progress. From here, the demo becomes extremely similar to Alien: Isolation as I use my eyes and ears to track the Xenomorph’s whereabouts. Whenever I see it approaching – or at least suspect it to – I crouch behind nearby cover, or into one of the floor grates used to enter a small network of ventilation shafts. As in the first game, the Xenomorph can enter the ceiling ventilation to move more undetected, as well as slink into the same floor tunnels available to me.
It was tough to tell in this small slice how much smarter the Xenomorph has become compared to the first game. Exploring exterior spaces is the biggest change from the last game, and I wasn’t able to see how Xenmorph behaves in that type of environment. Al Hope only states that the fundamentals of the creature’s behavior will remain the same, with some necessary tweaks, but declines to elaborate further and promises to share more details at a later date.
I died twice during my demo. The first came when I relied a bit too much on crawling under the floor and, upon hitting a dead end, the Xenomorph slipped into the floor vents and immediately found me. It didn’t end well. The second death came when I became too bold and began speed-walking toward an exit. A door opened in front of me, and the Xenomorph spotted me standing in full view. Running doesn’t seem like a viable escape because it swiftly closed the gap and pinned me down to, presumably, bore its second mouth into my skull. At least, that’s what appeared to happen before the screen cuts to black, and I’m met with a Game Over screen.
Each failed attempt reloaded me at the start of the Xenomorph’s first appearance, meaning I had to sneak from that initial room all over again. It gave me flashbacks to the lengthy runbacks between save stations in the first game. The harsh penalty for death, combined with the exhausting runtime, are among the biggest complaints when people discuss Alien: Isolation, so I ask Hope how these critiques will be addressed in the sequel. “We wanted the game to be kind of tough but fair, and so I think one of our main responsibilities is to make sure it feels balanced, that that balance of tension release fits that tough but fair approach,” Hope explains. “Just simple things, like save station placement, to ensure that it actually feels like the kind of cadence or the rhythm of the experience is maybe a little bit fairer.” Hope adds that Creative Assembly is relying more heavily on user testing for Alien: Isolation 2 to ensure a more balanced – but still challenging – experience.
The third time manages to be the charm as I manage to successfully sneak back to the ladder undetected. Otto is gone; she didn’t respond to an earlier comms message, which probably means she’s completely unharmed and everything is totally fine. As Blake climbs the ladder, the creature ambushes her out of nowhere for a nice jump scare. It knocks her back down and pins her to the floor, giving me the terrifying visual of the creature’s drooling black maw pressed face-to-face with mine. Just before it ends me using its second mouth, the ship is suddenly rocked by the force of the forewarned flood waters. The alien is thrown off me, allowing Blake to scramble up the ladder to escape. My demo comes to an end at this point.
Alien: Isolation is a love letter to Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic, and although two Alien films have been released since that game’s launch in Alien: Covenant and Alien: Romulus, Creative Assembly seemingly won’t be mining these modern films for ideas or references for the sequel.
“We really love the IP, obviously, but again, I think our focus is that original movie,” says Hope, “and we still feel like, though we made one game, it feels like there’s still a real rich vein for us to tap into. So Alien: Isolation took place a couple of years after the first movie; Alien: Isolation 2 takes place months after the events of Alien: Isolation. So there’s a real close connection, both to the first game and the movie, so it feels like we’re pushing our narrative and our world in that space, so we’re very much still focused on that original movie.”
Despite sticking to the first film, Hope gushes about the team’s excitement at seeing the Alien: Isolation save station appear in Alien: Romulus. He also shares that the film’s director, Fede Álvarez, attended SGF the day before to check out the demo of Alien: Isolation 2 I’d played. Speaking of the films, Creative Assembly has once again been granted vast access to 20th Century Studios’ archive of Alien film materials as references for crafting new elements that remain authentic to the source material. “We are a team full of Alien nerds who are just really, really deep into the source,” says Sopikova.
It was neat to check out this early slice of Alien: Isolation 2, but the demo didn’t feature any of the more open level design or other features unique to the sequel. The enclosed space made it feel exactly like the first game, so while it was a nice reminder of what made Alien: Isolation such a tense and memorable experience, we’ll need to wait for a more substantial gameplay showing. I’m also looking forward to learning answers to questions such as who Blake is as a person, how Weyland-Yutani factors into the plot, and how the Xenomorph behaves outside of interior areas.
Alien: Isolation 2 appears to be a ways off – it currently has no release window – so Creative Assembly seemingly has plenty of time to cook. But with a strong foundation to work with, I’m confident it will deliver another terrifying stealth adventure.
Summer showcases often carry a mix of expected and unexpected announcements, and Gundam Rogue Orbit was certainly the latter. Its graphical style and tone seemed like something else entirely, until visual hallmarks like the floating bits, visor, and robotic Haro pal confirmed it was all Gundam.
We didn’t learn too much from the initial trailer and subsequent store page listing for Gundam Rogue Orbit, outside of it being a “fast-paced cinematic story with intense, hard-hitting combat in an all-new universe.” A few of those keywords jumped out at me, though, and I got the chance to sit down with Gundam Rogue Orbit chief producer Shinya Satake and main producer Yuya Tomiyama to elicit a few more hints and details.
Satake tells me that the mission of Gundam Rogue Orbit is to bring Gundam to not just fans of the series, but those who don’t know Gundam; thus, a brand-new Gundam universe with brand-new characters.
“Gundam as an IP is very big and it’s very important to us, and it’s become a big accumulation of the decades of work by all these talented creators and staff,” Satake says. “We’re very excited and honored to be passed the baton to create a new entry in the Gundam universe.”
A recurring theme in my interview is appealing to action game fans. Though they didn’t cite any specific games, there is a desire to have this game appeal to fans Gundam had not yet reached.
“Our main points of focus, regarding the action in this game, is that it truly feels good and satisfying to play for the player,” Tomiyama says. “And we feel that is the main way that we can reach these fans of action games. Another thing that we realized we wanted to focus [on] is that the Gundams often fight on the ground and fight in the air. We wanted that transition to be very seamless as well, and we just really wanted to focus on the […] satisfying feel that the player would have, playing the action game.”
You might notice in the trailer and screenshots that the Gundam’s foes look particularly strange. Rather than other traditional Mobile Suits, like a Zaku or GM, the pictured foes have multiple limbs and animalistic parts, resembling beasts like dragons and scorpions. The producers declined to elaborate on some aspects of their design, as that would have story implications planned to be discussed at a later date. Tomiyama did confirm, however, that their design focus started with trying to make enemies that would be fun to fight in an action game.
Similarly, the visual style is also trying to draw in those estranged action game players. Tomiyama highlights the lead character, Rex, as someone the player can “put themselves in the position of,” and experience the game through his eyes. (The other pictured character, Sophia, has too many story implications to delve into at this moment, according to the producers.) But the look of Gundam Rogue Orbit is, like other aspects, designed to reach the unreached.
“We didn’t exactly target a specific region, but we definitely just wanted to create the game for a more worldwide fanbase,” Tomiyama says. “And because we’re able to create a more photorealistic game, a photorealistic Gundam, that hasn’t really been done before. We really hope [this] resonates with the worldwide fans. But the first overall objective of this game is to create a satisfying action game.”
It looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer to see what exactly Gundam Rogue Orbit is, but the angle of appealing to action game fans is certainly intriguing. Gundam’s international popularity has waxed and waned over the years, often driven by breakthrough series like Gundam Wing or The Witch From Mercury. Yet right now, on its current updraft, it does seem like a great time to take a stab at the unconverted, especially as mech-driven action series like Armored Core see a revitalization. Hopefully, we’ll get some firmer details in the coming months, as Gundam Rogue Orbit targets a 2027 landing.
“Greetings Soldiers, September has become absolutely stacked with incredible looking games,” One More Level’s statement on the delay reads. “We knew this was a possibility, but when you’re in a Partner Showcase as we were, dates get locked in weeks in advance. We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe. Therefore, we’ve decided to move our release date to October 13.
“In the meantime, we just launched our demo on Steam and have been getting loads of feedback. This new date also gives us even more time to improve the game. Try it out, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you in October.”
If you aren’t aware, September has become quite obviously stacked as a result of Fall releases trying to avoid the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In wanting to avoid November, many studios have found themselves launching their games in the massively crowded September, and though Valor Mortis is the first game delayed because of this, we suspect it won’t be the last.
Valor Mortis hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 13.
“Greetings Soldiers, September has become absolutely stacked with incredible looking games,” One More Level’s statement on the delay reads. “We knew this was a possibility, but when you’re in a Partner Showcase as we were, dates get locked in weeks in advance. We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe. Therefore, we’ve decided to move our release date to October 13.
“In the meantime, we just launched our demo on Steam and have been getting loads of feedback. This new date also gives us even more time to improve the game. Try it out, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you in October.”
If you aren’t aware, September has become quite obviously stacked as a result of Fall releases trying to avoid the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In wanting to avoid November, many studios have found themselves launching their games in the massively crowded September, and though Valor Mortis is the first game delayed because of this, we suspect it won’t be the last.
Valor Mortis hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 13.
“Greetings Soldiers, September has become absolutely stacked with incredible looking games,” One More Level’s statement on the delay reads. “We knew this was a possibility, but when you’re in a Partner Showcase as we were, dates get locked in weeks in advance. We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe. Therefore, we’ve decided to move our release date to October 13.
“In the meantime, we just launched our demo on Steam and have been getting loads of feedback. This new date also gives us even more time to improve the game. Try it out, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you in October.”
If you aren’t aware, September has become quite obviously stacked as a result of Fall releases trying to avoid the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI on November 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. In wanting to avoid November, many studios have found themselves launching their games in the massively crowded September, and though Valor Mortis is the first game delayed because of this, we suspect it won’t be the last.
Valor Mortis hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 13.
