Son of Thanjai is an open-world action game set in 11th-Century South India, a unique setting in the medium, and if that pitch doesn’t sell you on it, its gameplay trailer might. That’s because it looks awesome, with the princely protagonist Vinnendhira Chola utilizing the Indian whip-sword weapon known as a Surul Vaal to dismember enemies invading his one-day kingdom in a violently bloody fashion.
At 19 years old, Vinnendhira has spent his life behind palace walls, avoiding responsibility and enjoying royal comfort. But his father is dying, and enemies are preparing to overthrow the family throne, so Vinnendhira is thrown into an adventure where he must fight tooth and nail (and whip) to survive. Son of Thanjai also takes an alternate-history approach to the Chola Empire, alluding to surprises likely in store when the game launches sometime in the future on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Check it out in the Son of Thanjai gameplay reveal trailer below:
Looks pretty cool, right? There aren’t many games set in India, and even fewer (maybe none) set in 11th-Century South India. This setting and the game’s premise, coupled with this first look at gameplay, have caught my attention, and I look forward to checking it out one day.
“Cast out, Vinnendhiran travels a kingdom at the height of its power and on the edge of collapse: temple crowns crowded with merchants and pilgrims, fertile river plains, dangerous frontier roads, occupied settlements, and courts thick with ambition. Some still believe in the Cholas. Others have suffered because of them. Most are simply trying to survive. The farther he travels from the throne he lost, the more he learns how little he ever understood the people he was born to rule, and how much he will need them.”
There’s no word on when Son of Thanjai will launch, but the Steam page says “coming soon,” so hopefully we can check it out on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in the near future.
There might not be anything cooler than Beyblades – ripping metallic, over-the-top spinning tops into a weird plastic arena and watching with bated breath while it knocks into another person’s top until one stops completely. And that’s why I’m so stoked about Slayblade, a Y2K Beyblade-inspired roguelite where you collect parts and, well, let it rip.
Revealed during the Frosty Games Fest, one of the many showcases held during this wildly packed SGF-related week, Slayblade is an upcoming game from Henry’s House, the team behind 2022’s Kardboard Kings, and Oscar Brittain, and it looks awesome. It features colorful Y2K lofi visuals, more than 60 blade parts to collect and unlock, and some excellent music that will be the soundtrack to your “chill roguelite” story-lite adventure through PS1-inspired city streets, at least if the reveal trailer is any indication.
Check it out for yourself in the Slayblade gameplay trailer below:
“Build your battle-top and become King of the Streets,” the game’s description reads. “Collect 60+ parts, merge their powers, and dominate opponents in this chill roguelite. Skate around a vibrant Y2K city, winning cash and upgrades on your way to the top. And if you die in the game, you die in real life.”
Dinosaur survival game The Lost Wild seemed, for lack of a better word, lost since its reveal in 2021. So much so, in fact, that we included the game in our recent magazine round-up of long-announced games that had more or less gone radio silent since their debuts. We like to think that article willed the game’s reemergence during this week’s PlayStation’s State of Play into existence, but regardless of the reasoning, we’re happy to see it again, and I was even more intrigued to check out a 30-minute hands-off demo at Summer Game Fest Play Days
The game stars Saskia, a woman who awakens after a car accident to find herself on an island teeming with dinosaurs. The live demo begins in an impressively rendered moonlit forest, which is devoid of any static HUD elements. As Saskia carefully navigates the dense foliage in first-person, the demoer highlights one of the key elements of The Lost Wild: stealth. Moving too quickly or loudly, or using your flashlight or igniting flares, will alert nearby animals to your presence, which might include hungry carnivores.
Saskia is apparently not a fighter, but even if she were, I doubt she could do much against the main threat of this demo: an Allosaurus. This apex predator makes its presence known when Saskia encounters a man wearing a hazmat suit near a facility. As the panicked man runs towards Sasikia, likely grateful to see someone who isn’t a prehistoric reptile, he’s promptly snatched by the jaws of the Allosaurus as Saskia quickly crawls under a nearby car. Underneath the vehicle, the man is dropped to the ground remarkably intact before Allosaurus scoops him back up and viciously chomps him in half. His bloody bottom half, entrails exposed, slumps to the ground as the Allosaurus seemingly catches a whiff of the terrified Saskia. After a few curious sniffs, it resumes devouring the remains of its prey – false alarm. Although the graphical fidelity of the dinosaur and characters leaves a bit to be desired in this in-development build, the scene gets its point across effectively; don’t get caught.
As scary as they can be, The Lost Wild’s dinosaurs are not designed to be bloodthirsty monsters whose sole purpose is to make Saskia their lunch. Instead, developer Great Ape Games aims to depict them as real animals who behave accordingly. While I don’t get to see how nuanced this behavior can be, the Allosaurus doesn’t feel like it’s actively hunting Saskia. It’s roaming the area probably because this is its territory, but when it does discover the player, they need to act fast. Creating distractions is key, such as a later sequence when Saskia enters a facility and throws a rock to knock out an outdoor light to draw the Allosaurus’ attention. If distractions don’t work, the demo shows you can hide in tall grass to sneak around, slide under vehicles like a scared child cowering under a bed, or just run for it and hope for the best. That last option ended badly on two occasions for the developer playing the build for us, however.
As a passionate fan of the original Jurassic Park, I have a soft spot for scary yet awe-inspiring dinosaur media, so The Lost Wild’s premise strikes a few good chords. The demo was intentionally slow and a decent mood piece, but I love the premise. I’m also eager to witness the realistic dinosaur behaviors shine through beyond the Allosaurus murderizing someone. I also hope the animals and characters will be sharpened up by the time the game arrives in 2027.
It’s also hard not to acknowledge the strange, perhaps unfortunate, coincidence of how The Lost Wild shares almost the same “run and hide from the dinosaurs” premise with another upcoming game, Jurassic Park: Survival, but without Universal’s popular license. While The Lost Wild was announced first, it’s hard not to pine for Saber Interactive’s upcoming game more, given my aforementioned fandom for the franchise. I truly hope The Lost Wild can woo me on its own merits, and I’m intrigued to see how this long-awaited project sticks the landing.
Digital Eclipse does video game collections arguably better than any other studio out there, so it’s always a treat to see its latest. Following recent releases like the Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, The Making of Karateka, Tetris Forever, Atari 50, and more, the studio is rounding up classics from Barbie history in Barbie Rewind.
Launching November 12 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, Barbie Rewind will let players decorate various rooms of Barbie’s iconic Dreamhouse with more than 250 pieces of furniture, decor, and accessories inspired by real Barbie playsets from across the decades. Plus, Barbie has apparently left you her game collection, consisting of 16 classic Barbie games spanning 1991 to 2007.
Check it out in the Barbie Rewind reveal trailer below:
Digital Eclipse and publisher Atari haven’t yet revealed the full list of the 16 games, but we do know one of them is the never-before-released Sega Genesis and SNES game, Barbie: Vacation Adventure. Others include the Game Boy Color’s Barbie Pet Rescue and the Game Boy Advance’s Barbie Horse Adventures: Blue Ribbon Race. When you’re not playing through these Barbie classics, Barbie herself will call you in-game to give you quests – complete them to earn XP and unlock new items to decorate the Dreamhouse with.
“Choose from three retro Dreamhouse designs for your exterior facade, walls, and floors,” a description of the game reads. “You can even mix-and-match them from room to room. […] Plenty of familiar friends – Ken, Teresa, and Christie – pop in to get your help with designs for them, too. You can flip through pages of Barbie history in the beautiful digital lookbook.”
A standard physical edition of Barbie Rewind will be released for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch alongside a deluxe physical edition on those same two platforms. The deluxe edition will include a premium numbered box, an exclusive Barbie Rewind doll wearing an Atari t-shirt, a poster, and a copy of the game. Check it out below:
Barbie Rewind launches on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC on November 12.
Cronos: The New Dawn, Bloober Team’s latest original survival horror game, launched last September, but it seems the studio isn’t done with the game yet. The upcoming (and newly announced) Lazarus DLC will put players in the boots of the Warden from the base game, shifting the experience from a slower survival horror game to a fast-paced action game, sometime this Fall.
It sounds like Lazarus will be a prequel to the base story of Cronos: The New Dawn, as it will allow players to control the Warden, following his journey in his prime from pathfinder to the character we know today. His character will feature a unique set of skills, including decoys that allow you to move quickly through danger, giving Lazarus a different game feel than Cronos: The New Dawn, according to Bloober Team.
Check it out in the Cronos: Lazarus DLC reveal trailer below:
Bloober Team describes Cronos: The New Dawn as a slower survival horror game, but says playing as the Warden will turn the experience into “a faster, more aggressive take on Cronos’ survival horror formula, with combat defined by speed, pressure, and constant danger.” You’ll be up against the Tracker, a persistent new threat whose only objective is to hunt you down and kill you. The story is one of rebellion, inner conflict, and the cost of defying the Collective, according to the team.
“Cronos: The New Dawn is our original IP – an ambitious risk that allows us to create something truly unique,” Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno writes in a press release. “We’re thrilled to expand the Cronos universe with Cronos: Lazarus. The Warden has resonated strongly with audiences, and we’re excited to see Alan Turkington return to this iconic role.”
Cronos: Lazarus is scheduled to launch sometime this Fall on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Developer Pipeworks Studios and publisher Atari have revealed Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered, and it’s launching on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC on November 3. As the name implies, it’s a remaster of the original 2002 kaiju brawler hit (at least in my living room), Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee.
When it launches this November, the remaster will bring enhanced visuals, an improved unlock system, quality-of-life improvements, and more to the original experience. It will also include the addition of online multiplayer, allowing you to duke it out in Versus or Melee modes, both online and via local couch co-op.
Check it out in the Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered reveal trailer below:
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee Remastered will feature 12 monsters to unlock and choose from, including, of course, the big man himself, Godzilla, alongside King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, Rodan, and plenty more.
If you’re interested in a physical edition of the game, Atari is publishing one for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. The game will be available on November 3 digitally on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.
Did you play this back in the early 2000s? Let us know in the comments below!
I didn’t think I would be the ideal audience for Among Us, the new show that dropped yesterday on Paramount+. I’ve played the game but don’t have a strong attachment to the brand, and I’ve always perceived it as intended for a middle school audience. Regardless of whether that’s true for the game, it’s certainly not true for the show, and I found a lot to love as someone only passively aware of Among Us’ cultural significance. The show is fun, not obsessed with game references, and makes a far more earnest attempt at depicting drama and death than I could have guessed. Put simply, Among Us works.
First, a quick warning: this show probably isn’t suitable for young kids. Among Us the game has permeated the PCs, consoles, and phones of people of all ages, but Among Us is aimed a little older; despite being rated TV-PG, it feels more like it’s right over the cusp of PG-13. There’s mild swearing, copious cartoon gore, and a pretty bleak tone in the later episodes as the body count begins to stack up.
The show’s premise is roughly identical to that of the game. A spaceship is on the way to deliver a shipment of “Ore+” to the Mira corporation, and it’s staffed by crewmates: round, human-like creatures each donning a different colored spacesuit, which is also their name. However, one of them is an imposter, a shapeshifting alien a la John Carpenter’s The Thing, and that monster is thirsty for blood. Despite its silly, sometimes childlike tone in the opening episodes, the show is a murder mystery, and as the number of victims increases, the mood adjusts accordingly, which I appreciated. It resists the urge to make jokes about the drama and treats the stakes sincerely, which kept me invested.
A party in episode one. I’m using it as a pseudo group shot, because nobody has died yet at this point.
If you’re not coming to the show as a fan of the game, you’re probably coming for the star-studded cast, which is generally utilized well. Ashley Johnson (known for Critical Role and The Last of Us) gives a standout performance as Purple, a skeptical security guard who’s also the most grounded crewmate. Meanwhile, Elijah Wood (known for The Lord of the Rings), Yvette Nicole Brown (known for Community), and Patton Oswalt (known for Ratatouille) are also highlights as Green, Orange, and White, respectively. That said, some characters don’t get as much of a chance to shine as I’d hoped, either getting buried in the ensemble or dying too early in the show. Because of this, the latter episodes are generally stronger; by the time the crew has diminished, we’ve gotten to know each character well enough to fully understand their motivations and to really mourn them when they die.
While Among Us (the game) doesn’t have prewritten dialogue or a traditional narrative, I’d argue that its structure creates a story every time you play, and the Among Us show adapts this well. The loop from tension to murder to trial to verdict is effective; the show’s best scenes are also my favorite parts of the game, when crewmates debate whom to accuse and eject from the ship. If you’re a fan of the games, you’ll find it well-represented here, but if you’re unfamiliar, you don’t need to do any catching up.
A shot in the show’s intro, where Red is playing a video game. The video game parody changes every episode.
I especially appreciate how distinct each character looks and acts, considering they all have roughly identical bodies. The outfits and personalities are distinct, and I’m amazed at how much personality the show’s team of artists can imbue in a simple visor. Closer looks at the imposter are also very well done, with a disturbing, Cronenberg-like design. There are also plenty of visual nods to both Among Us and other video games, but they’re unobtrusive side jokes, and you won’t miss anything if you don’t catch them. One of my favorite touches is that the intro sequence changes every episode to reflect who’s alive and who’s dead (and also changes the video game reference on Red’s monitor).
I am satisfied with Among Us, and left the season finale glad that Infinity Train’s Owen Dennis was the one to create the adaptation. While it’s not necessarily groundbreaking storytelling, I enjoyed its various twists, animation style, and balance of respect for the source material and the medium of television. Most of all, it nails a distinct tone of drama, comedy, and light horror that defines the experience when playing the game. Among Us takes its source material seriously and succeeds because of it.
Bloober Team, the studio behind Silent Hill 2 Remake and last year’s Cronos: The New Dawn, and Paramount Games Studio, which recently revealed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin is being developed by Platinum Games, have unveiled Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, a psychological horror game launching next year. Revealed during IGN Live, Shadow Frontier puts players in control of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Ro Laren after she crash-lands on a mysterious planet to answer a distress call when it launches in 2027 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
Michelle Forbes, who played the character in The Next Generation, returns to play the character in Shadow Frontier, and though she only appeared in just a handful of episodes across the series’ seven seasons, she made an impact on Trekkies, making her reappearance in the first-ever Star Trek horror game an exciting one. “The planet [Ro Laren lands on] is a spaceship graveyard where nothing is as it seems,” a press release reads. “As she explores the planet’s corrupted surface and crosses paths with other survivors, she must face twisted creatures, a hostile ecosystem, and an entity that seeks to envelop her body and mind.”
Check it out in the Star Trek: Shadow Frontiers trailer below:
Bloober Team CEO Piotr Babieno says many at the studio are lifelong Star Trek fans, and that the team looks forward to “combining that passion with what we do best, horror.”
“[We’ve] partnered with Paramount to create something truly unique: a new adventure set in a beloved universe, enriched with our own signature layer of dark, psychological thriller,” Babieno writes in a press release. “We’re genuinely excited about this journey, and our hope is to honor the legacy of Star Trek in a way that feels both respectful yet refreshingly different.”
Star Trek: Shadow Frontier doesn’t have an exact release date, but Bloober Team and Paramount Games say it’s due out next year on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
What do you think of this reveal? Let us know in the comments below!
For anyone following the video game business closely, the saga of development behind 1666: Amsterdam is an intriguing one, and that’s before we even get down to understanding the game itself. After being re-revealed at this year’s Summer Game Fest show, there’s a good bit to unpack about the project and why it’s going to be one to watch closely in the coming months.
Patrice Désilets was instrumental in bringing to life Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2003), but he deserves credit as one of the foundational originators of Assassin’s Creed, bringing the idea to life back in 2007 and setting it on a course to be one of the most popular and influential game series of the last two decades.
After laying the groundwork for the series and first sequels, Désilets had a complicated breakup with Ubisoft. Subsequently, he started work at THQ Montreal on 1666: Amsterdam around 2011 and 2012, before that studio went bankrupt, Ubisoft purchased the studio (and its properties) at auction, and Désilets was promptly let go again – without rights to his project. By 2016, Désilets regained rights to the project, and work once again began in earnest to develop the project at his new studio, Panache Digital Games.
Having worked with Désilets and covered his work on Assassin’s Creed, I can speak to his imagination and drive to create. In conversation, he is one of those developers who loves the craft and is interested in exploring its potential. When he left Ubisoft, he had been brimming with ideas to bring to that franchise, and it’s safe to say that many aspects of the Assassin’s Creed franchise moved in different directions after his departure. As a developer, Désilets seems especially drawn to history, mysticism, the power of ritual, and the ties between the past and present – all of which are directly relevant to what is coming together with 1666: Amsterdam.
A Game Of Three Time Periods
Not unlike the unique modern-day/past split in Assassin’s Creed, 1666: Amsterdam is a game that explicitly explores different time periods, and the prelude demo includes a glimpse at three of them.
The core of the historical game’s action is set in Amsterdam, beginning in December of 1665, as a young woman transforms from her unassuming self into an ethereal, red-garbed witch named Noa, on her way to a “commencement” ritual for a clandestine group called the Zaindaris Tribe. There, around a sacred tree, she selects a companion familiar from among several distinct cats, and the selected feline jumps toward her arms.
A sudden jump takes us to a second time period in the modern day, playing as a different young woman named Clio, who is investigating an enigmatic letter left behind by her ailing father. She visits an old professor friend of that father in a university library. The letter includes an indecipherable section that seems obscured by magic.
After investigating and finding more clues, Clio (and Professor Lucas) can interpret the letter, which gives the young woman a vision that rockets her into yet another time period in 1999, and the story told by her father that appears to be (at first hearing) a retelling of how Clio was likely conceived. As in, it’s a story told by her father, Aaron, about a sex ritual he was pulled into with a woman who is (presumably) Clio’s mother.
The amorous encounter culminates in Aaron awakening as a cat, traveling back in time to December 1665, and leaping into the arms of Noa, creating a tidy narrative loop to wrap up the story intro.
A Mix Of Gameplay Styles
The public demo is notable for its absence of action sequences, but several brief sizzle scenes offer a glimpse of what players might expect. Once again, in keeping with Désilets’ prior work on Assassin’s Creed, we see Noa navigating the historical landscape of busy city streets in Amsterdam, engaging in magic-fueled third-person action combat with her foes.
But the demo does hint at other important elements of play, including a focus on investigating one’s environment. At any time, the characters in the demo can pause and look around, focus on objects, and learn about them, often leading to new interactive objects or prompts. As Noa, players also have access to seemingly magical capabilities, drawing a substance called Lux from dead things and utilizing a dark energy called Nux to enchant, ignite, or otherwise affect objects around her.
The other fascinating twist on gameplay is the cat, who we’re led to believe is actually the time-traveled embodiment of Aaron from centuries later, moving with Noa through Amsterdam. When Noa selects a cat companion, she is given the choice between several individual named creatures, including The Dreamer, Hermit, Spirit, Knight, Page, Child, Alchemist, Guardian, or Wildling. Each has described traits that seem to indicate different potential specialties, almost like cat classes. While much of the game is clearly navigated from the perspective of Noa, you’ll also have sequences played as the cat, able to jump to high places, infiltrate small spaces, and more.
An Intriguing Mystery, A Familiar Playstyle
Nothing about 1666: Amsterdam feels like it’s fundamentally the same game as Assassin’s Creed. But once you make the creative connection, there’s no denying the lines of inspiration that connect Désilets’ new project to his earlier brainchild.
According to in-demo summaries and early details revealed by the developers, Noa moves through Amsterdam, identifying entities known as the Originals, who have lived for centuries, and Noa is the Collector sent to take that power back from them. Amsterdam is lively and active during the day, but reveals new secrets at night, and Noa is able to track and confront in multiple ways, depending on player preference. If this sounds familiar (especially to players of the early Assassin’s Creed games), it’s because both are rooted in similar gameplay fantasies, and separated by setting, characters, and an increased focus on witchcraft and magic here in 1666.
After playing the prologue (which is billed as the opening of the game), it’s clear that Désilets and his team have done a fine job of establishing an intriguing setup and some gorgeous (often disquieting) visual frameworks. We’re also treated to the hints of a haunting musical score by the Canadian cellist and composer Jorane.
With those atmospheric, audio, and visual elements established, a great deal of 1666: Amsterdam’s potential hinges on the action, urban exploration, and infiltration experience that Désilets and his team are crafting, and which have yet to be detailed or played in the hours that presumably follow the revealed story opening.
If those features compare favorably to some of the fun we experienced in the early days of Assassin’s Creed, I suspect there may be an audience hungry for a return to the mystery, historical reverence, and surprise that Panache Digital seems to be shooting for here.
If you’re a fan of co-op platformers like It Takes Two and Split Fiction, Out of Words should absolutely be on your radar. This 2D platformer stars two teenagers, Kurt and Karla, whose friendship becomes strained when one of them is moving away. Somehow, they’re transported to a bizarrely idyllic but dangerous fantasy world with their mouths erased. I played 30 minutes of the game’s second chapter during Summer Game Fest Play Days, and while the game’s stop-motion aesthetic drew me in, the clever cooperative platforming mechanics kept me hooked.
It’s appropriate that my demo session with the game’s creative director was in relative silence. That winds up being an endorsement of the game’s design because, despite not communicating much, we intuitively tackled the game’s entertaining cooperative physics challenges. The sequence begins as my partner and I sprint and leap across beautiful grassy plains as strange, furry creatures follow and imitate our actions, like jumping, and it ends with us diving into the ocean.
This underwater segment shows off the first of the game’s co-op mechanics. To avoid drowning while navigating raging currents, we have to stick close together to allow an air bubble to surround us; swim too far apart, and the bubble breaks. One tricky section later in the chapter became my favorite, as it called on both of us to separately explore mossy terrain on the ground, the ceiling, and the walls, by passing a blue, stingray-like creature back and forth that allowed the holder to defy gravity. Switching between platforms above and below by passing the creature like a baton at the right times is a challenging yet entertaining test of our trust and coordination. I got the biggest kick out of overcoming a lengthy gap by repeatedly passing the vital critter to keep each other from falling to our deaths. It’s probably the best (and least painful) trust fall exercise I’ve ever experienced.
Out of Words is also an artistic juggernaut thanks to its hand-crafted aesthetic and animation, which is brought to life using traditional stop-motion techniques. I even got to meet and take a photo with an in-game model for one of the game’s creatures (posted above). Seeing the detailed sculpture in person certainly raised my appreciation for the insane artistry and work that’s gone into bringing Out of Words to life. That respect, combined with the fun gameplay, makes me excited to phone up a buddy to see how Kurt and Karla escape their strange predicament when the game launches early next year.
