Latest news with #Atomfall
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Explore the Wicked Isle in the upcoming DLC for a popular Cumbria-based game
Travel to the Wicked Isle and explore the mysteries of Midsummer in the upcoming story expansion for Atomfall. Game developer Rebellion has announced the first DLC for its hit game Atomfall that will expand the story and open up new potential endings for the main game. Atomfall takes place in a fictional version of Cumbria five years after a nuclear disaster - the 1957 Windscale Fire - led to the area being locked down. The new DLC, set to be released on June 3, will draw on the game's folk horror elements. Read more: "Midsummer is located close to the Windscale Atom Plant and as a result the levels of infection in both the people and environment are higher than on the mainland,' explained Ben Fisher, Head of Design at Rebellion. "You are going to meet new enemy factions including pirate bandits and infected druids. To help you survive there are new weapons to be found on the island including a devastating Blunderbuss shotgun, a new bow, cutlass, daggers and the Beekeeper's Staff. "You will also be able to acquire new skills which will aid you on your quest as well as an upgraded metal detector which will enable you find even more loot caches."
Irish Post
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Post
How Did the Irish Video Game Industry Perform During 2024?
OVER the past few years, the video game industry in Ireland has been steadily growing for reasons we will be discussing here. The iGaming industry, which encompasses professional video gaming events, aka eSports events, is also on the rise, plus more people than ever are enjoying playing on legally permitted casino sites with thousands of computer-generated and live dealer games from various award-winning software providers and game development studios. Let's dive straight in and take a closer look at how the Irish video game industry performed during 2024 and whether it fell short of or exceeded industry analyst expectations. Did the video game industry in Ireland perform well in 2024? Yes. The video game industry in Ireland had its best-ever year in 2024, generating well over €600 million in revenue. By the end of 2027, expert analysts project that technologies like cloud gaming will help push this figure even higher to around €810 million. According to the latest reports, more than half of all Irish adults actively participate in one form of gaming from their preferred consoles, smartphones, tablets, laptops, or desktop computers, and they play everything from triple-A blockbuster video games to online slot machines and from casual/Indie games to puzzlers and sports simulation video games. Which video game companies are based in Ireland? Ireland is home to several small independent game development studios and software providers, as well as much larger, more well-established gaming companies. Examples of video game companies with offices in Ireland are the following: Riot Games Activision WarDucks Demonware EA Playrix Pewter Games Studios Havok Others include Virtuous, Keyword Studios, DIGIT Game Studios, Boon Studios Lt, Wildlife Studios, Squareroot Solutions, and Romero Games, to name a few. Why is Ireland's video game industry such a success? Ireland's video game industry is a huge success and is currently performing better than expected due to several key factors. For example, Ireland is now home to a growing pool of talented and highly skilled individuals, a well-matured tech scene that's hospitable to startup companies, plenty of support from the government via several initiatives, and an ever-expanding gaming culture. Over the past few years, Ireland has repositioned itself as a rising hub in the global gaming scene, and the future looks promising. Tax credits and other incentives, supportive government policies, and local and international investment have all helped the gaming industry in Ireland reach extraordinary new heights. What are the most popular new video games being played in Ireland in 2025? Some of the most popular new video games currently being played in Ireland include titles such as Assassin's Creed Shadows, Atomfall, Borderlands 4, Doom: The Dark Ages, Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Other hit titles that are currently trending in 2025 are Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, Civilization VII, South of Midnight, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, and Hell Is Us. There's also Little Nightmares III, Crimson Desert, Fable, Eternal Strands, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and Elden Ring Nightreign, to name just a few. Conclusion Thanks to cloud gaming, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and various other key technologies, Ireland's video game industry is poised to grow even more over the coming years. Ireland provides a pro-business environment for gaming companies, with many talented individuals gaining their qualifications from renowned universities to specialise in various key areas of the digital entertainment sector, such as art & design and technology. Ireland also has a strong gaming culture that continues to grow, and as the gaming sector expands over the next five to ten years, it will assert itself as a true leader in the global gaming arena.
South China Morning Post
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
New game Atomfall turns real British nuclear disaster into something much worse
Northwest England, October 1957. A fire breaks out in the Windscale reactor on the site of the nuclear complex now known as Sellafield. Radioactive gases contaminate an area of several hundred square kilometres. A number of people die in the accident. Advertisement Based on this real event, the British development studio Rebellion has created a fictional scenario for the PC and console game Atomfall. Set in 1962, five years after the Windscale fire, the story is even darker and grimmer than the reality. In this action-survival game, you explore a post-apocalyptic northern England full of horror, secrets and uncertainty. People are suspicious, supplies are scarce and dangers lurk everywhere. You will encounter numerous characters on your journey, some of whom are helpful and informative, while others have ill intentions. The name Oberon recurs repeatedly but what it means and why it seems so important remains a mystery for a long time. The game is played from a first-person perspective. As you move through deserted areas, you must not only be on guard against enemies but also search for new supplies and resources. Ammunition is extremely rare, so fighting should be carefully considered and is often better avoided altogether. In addition to firearms, you can rely on your fists in close combat, and use various helpful objects. Advertisement The gaming world is dark and authentic, while gameplay is enhanced by the excellent soundtrack and the 1960s visuals. The console versions could use some tweaking in terms of graphics as they occasionally experience blurry or flickering textures.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Atomfall might have been an apocalyptic classic if it wasn't for all the walking
'Fast travel'. The greatest two words in gaming. Greater even than 'infinite lives', Clive Sinclair or 'moustachioed plumber'. It is to go from one location in a game where you are doing something important to another location in the blink of a loading screen, cutting out the repetitive kerfuffle in between. (Trivia break: Repetitive Kerfuffle might have been the working title for Tetris!) We've had it since the 80s. Dragon Quest had a Return spell and the original Zelda had the recorder to take you to different dungeons, and even they were preceded six years earlier by a certain big fat yellow mouth who had dots for supper and ghosts for dessert. Because that guy could go out of one side of the screen and appear on the other instantly. That's fast travel isn't it? My advocacy for this is however tempered by the depression I feel that PacMan may have thought going off the right hand side would mean an escape from his corridor hell, only to return, Sisyphus-like, back where he started. The Sisyphus reference is apt because, even more than the chafing hands and sore calves, the biggest problem the boulder-pushing Greek had was boredom. Fast travel is essential because we play video games to escape the tedium of real life. And the most tedious thing in life is travel of any kind. Even with the latest fad for space flights, you have to go through the boring grind of making the $20m for the ticket in return for 12 minutes of seeing the Earth look just like it does in the pictures. When a developer puts fast travel in a game, they are saying: 'I get you. We both want you to enjoy this game. So we will fast as much of this tedious travel as we can.' Not Rebellion Developments though. Not with Atomfall. Atomfall doesn't just ignore fast travel, it depends on your ability to yomp across great swathes of land you have already yomped across. With really tough enemies. It reduces the game to a study in anger at times. And this is such a shame because I loved so much about it. The story is fascinating: What really did happen during the Windscale nuclear plant disaster in England in 1957. A fire there was rated a five out of seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale. Chernobyl was a seven. The end of that recent episode of The Last of Us was a six. In the game, this event has turned a section of the Lake District into a radioactive quarantine zone, and you wake up in the middle of it with no memory of who you are or how you got there, and then stumble around gleaning bits of info off people in return for doing their bidding. I enjoyed peeling this onion of conflicting information from nicely grey moral characters with just about every accent in the UK displayed at some point or other, because nothing brings the country together like a good old-fashioned quarantine. I don't mind that it doesn't have a traditional RPG skill tree. There is no XP to grind for. Just Training Stimulants you can find and exchange for better stealth, stamina, weaponry and so on. But there can be too many quests open at the same time. I hope that when the apocalypse hits in this life (next Tuesday at this rate), it is a lot less busy. I also don't mind that Atomfall is very tough to play, even if you reduce the combat to the lowest level (Useless Dad), but I do mind having a tiny backpack and not enough accessible storage tubes for surplus. Sign up to Pushing Buttons Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming after newsletter promotion I love the fact that the only foods you can eat are potatoes, tomatoes, Cornish pasties and slices of cake washed down with cups of tea that lower your heart rate. That is a beautiful detail. But I grew to hate the ridiculous slogs between all this, especially in the final third of the game, which should be when RPGs get into their slickest phase. Apparently the developers' reason for nixing fast travel was that they wanted you to be totally immersed in this world they created. And what a world it is visually! The countryside is so lush and gorgeous it's like a work of art. And unlike the Sistine Chapel, you don't have to crick your neck to see it. Maybe the developers were so pleased that they may have created the most beautifully rendered world in game graphics history that they thought: 'OK, we will jolly well make sure the punters get to spend time with nothing to do but behold it.' It's a shame because the world is well set up. The factions of military, outlaws, citizens, hippie mystics and zombies are my kind of party, although the enemy AI is inconsistent and the Big Bad is the most sedentary villain since Davros. With fast travel, I would have completed the game in 10 hours and been raving for more. As it was Atomfall had me wandering around a new place getting angry and resentful at things I had to keep doing for other people. And I already have family vacations for that.
Arab News
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
REVIEW: ‘Atomfall' is a quirky apocalypse featuring retro paranoia and tea-fueled resilience
LONDON: 'Atomfall' is a game that defies easy categorization. Set in a post-apocalyptic version of the English Lake District, this curious hybrid feels like 'Fallout' wandered into a 'Stalker' fever dream while binge-watching 'The Wicker Man,' with just a touch of Austin Powers' absurdity thrown in for good measure. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ It's a love letter to Britain's eerie countryside, retro paranoia and weird tea-fueled resilience — and somehow, it works. A post shared by Atomfall (@atomfallgame) You start as a nameless survivor with no real background, no memory, and no clear purpose beyond 'get out.' A short newsreel hints at some nuclear disaster, but from there, it's up to you to piece things together through exploration and investigation. There's no hand-holding here, but there are helpful instructions to get you going. The narrative is loose, but intriguingly so — it's more about what you discover than what you're told. The open world is split into main landscape regions, each with its own aesthetic and mood. The Lake District setting is surprisingly atmospheric, with moody hills, foggy forests, and crumbling 1950s architecture. Despite its muted palette, Atomfall encourages players to explore every inch — scavenging for materials, unlocking secrets, and finding absurd British cultural relics. Limited ammo and classic crafting mechanics add a layer of survival challenge, making every encounter feel like it matters. Gameplay offers distinct playstyles — combat, survival, and exploration. You can go in guns blazing, sneak around enemies, or scrounge for supplies and tea (yes, tea restores health). Combat is functional, though not always tight. Shooting and melee work well enough, but enemy AI is hit-or-miss. Sometimes they'll charge you recklessly; other times they just stand there wondering what planet they're on. Melee is especially satisfying, though clunky in tight spaces. Likewise, while outlaws, druids, mutants and soldiers are all nominally different challenges they are much of a muchness in terms of dealing with them. 'Atomfall' doesn't shy away from the odd. Its dark humor and sheer Britishness give it a special charm, but the heavy use of local slang and regional accents may confuse non-UK players. Picture 'Clockwork Orange' meets 'Hot Fuzz' and you're halfway there. Still, it's part of the game's identity — this is a very specific apocalypse, where people ask you to fetch delivery parcels and fix a fence while the world burns around them. There is a basic but useful skill tree that lets you tailor your approach, from combat proficiency to crafting perks. Quests are often simple ('bring X to Y'), but branching conversations and trackable leads give them some depth. Your choices in dialogue can impact outcomes — sometimes subtly, sometimes with unexpected consequences. Enemy respawns after death are a mixed blessing. On one hand, it keeps the world dangerous. On the other, it can feel like busywork when you're simply trying to pass through. 'Atomfall' is weird, scrappy, and full of character. It doesn't have the polish of a AAA giant, but it doesn't try to. Instead, it offers a delightfully odd, open-ended experience that rewards curiosity and embraces chaos. For those willing to roll with its eccentricities, 'Atomfall' is a radioactive romp worth taking.
