The road to Dead Island 2 was longer than most. In 2011, Techland and Deep Silver released the first Dead Island, a sort of zombie-themed take on Borderlands. Following a couple of expansions and spinoffs, Dead Island 2 was announced way back in 2014. We’ve been covering it since then! The undead sequel changed development hands a few times o...
Back in April, Modus Games announced that Hammerwatch II would be coming to consoles and PC in the summer. Hammerwatch is a top-down, 2D action RPG series with an emphasis on cooperative play. Today, the developer announced that the Steam version of Hammerwatch II will be launching in August, with console versions to follow later in the year. ...
The first Cooking Simulator is, reportedly, a very good cooking game for consoles and PC. How can Big Cheese Studio improve on such a finely crafted meal of a game when making the sequel? Why, with co-op, of course. Cooking Simulator 2: Better Together will feature 2-player online co-op, allowing friends to prepare meals and perform other tasks together. The sequel is heading to Steam at the end of the year.
Gal Guardians: Demon Purge, the Castlevania-style co-op game starring twin sister demon hunters, first launched digitally on all platforms as Grim Guardians. Shortly thereafter, the title changed to the superior title that we have today. Publisher PQUBE also announced physical editions for PlayStation and Switch, and now those physical editions are available.
Dead Island 2 is a huge game, but games can always be bigger. Today's update adds the new ability to switch skins for the playable characters. All six characters get a free unlockable skin, and premium skins can be purchased as well. Additionally, Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver have announced Twitch drops and the contents of paid expansions that will be arriving in the future.
Sega might not be too keen on making sequels to its games (Sonic Superstars notwithstanding), but it has been willing to license out sequels such as Streets of Rage 4. We'll soon see another such licensed sequel in the form of C-Smash VRS, the upcoming PlayStation VR2-exclusive sequel to Cosmic Smash. While Cosmic Smash is a fairly obscure arcade/Dreamcast game, there's no denying that this sequel looks like a super fun virtual reality game.
Of the co-op games announced during the Xbox Games Showcase this year, the most highly anticipated title is undoubtedly PAYDAY 3 from Starbreeze and Deep Silver. First announced way back in 2016, PAYDAY 3 is a cooperative first-person shooter/heist game. Thanks to the recent Xbox showcase, we now know that the game will launch on Xbox Series S|X consoles, PlayStation 5, and PC on September 21 - just a few months away!
Today's Xbox Games Showcase offered few surprises. Some Xbox fans had hoped for bombshell announcements that would help Microsoft's console to better compete with PlayStation, but no such announcements occured. That's not to say that Microsoft didn't show any cool games! They just showed games of about the same hype level as were shown at last year's event. Additionally and despite reports to the contrary, several games were shown only as cinematic footage rather than in-game footage. Still, we learned about some cool upcoming co-op games, and that's always reason to celebrate.
This year's Xbox Games Showcase event featured a number of game announcements but relatively few surprises. One welcome surprise, however, came right at the end of the event. Phil Spencer announced a new version of Microsoft's popular Xbox Series S console that will come in black and feature a 1TB SSD. That's a lot more storage for only $50 more than the regular Series S!
Turtle Beach is back with a new headset in their Stealth lineup, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro. This time positioning itself as a premium option in the wireless market to compete with the likes of Astro Gaming A50s and the Steel Series Nova Pro. Having tested over a dozen headsets in the past few years, it's becoming harder and harder to see what truly sets these apart from each other.
The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria from Free Range Games and North Beach Games is a real "monkey's paw" situation. We wished for a new cooperative LOTR game, and we're getting one! That's good. But it will be a survival/crafting game in which players have to manage hunger and all that busywork. Not as good! Still, the game has a strong premise and a cool universe to its name, so we'll keep an open mind. Also, whereas Return to Moria was initially announced for PC only, it will now be launching on Xbox Series and PlayStation 5 consoles too!
Remember when Sonic Generations came out in 2011, and everyone loved it despite the obnoxious final boss battle? In the years since, Sega has stubbornly refused to make a sequel despite the obvious financial incentive to do so. That will finally change this fall when Sonic Superstars arrives on consoles and PC. It's not called "Sonic Generations 2," but this one clearly builds on the 2.5D visual style and gameplay of Generations. Even more excitingly, it will also feature 4-player local co-op!
