Latest news with #MortalShell
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Soulsborne Sequel Gets Very Metal Trailer Full Of E3 2008 Energy
Today, during Summer Game Fest, Mortal Shell 2 was announced with a trailer that made me miss the days of E3 circa 2008 or 2010. The dark and twisted souls-like is coming to PC and consoles in 2026. Here's the first trailer for the upcoming action RPG, which kicked off the whole Summer Game Fest event, from publisher Playstack and developer Cold Symmetry: And here's how the publisher describes the standalone third-person RPG sequel to the first Mortal Shell, which launched to positive reviews in 2020. 'Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel to Mortal Shell that significantly expands on the original with unrestricted, adrenaline-charged combat, deeper weapon design with extensive upgrade options, and an emphasis on free exploration. This action RPG offers an immersive, interconnected open world, expansive yet deliberately compact, designed to unfold its twisted landscapes and hidden structures while respecting the player's time. This metal-infused Mortal Shell II trailer really reminded many of us at Kotaku of the kind of over-the-top but fun trailers we'd seen back in the mid-00s. The screaming metal, the angry executions, and the mention of what the song is at the start. Very 2010 or so energy. And I'm here for it. The devs have removed any kind of stamina system from Mortal Shell II, according to a press release shared by Gematsu. 'Mortal Shell II's combat system is agile yet grounded,' say the devs. 'Unrestricted by stamina, players exploit multiple tactics to shatter enemy posture and strike critically.' Mortal Shell II is set to launch on consoles and PC in 2026. No specific console was shared, but I expect it will arrive on PS5 and Xbox sometime next year. .For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Engadget
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Mortal Shell II is dark, gross and coming in 2026
To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the "Content and social-media partners" setting to do so. Developer Cold Symmetry jumpstarted Summer Game Fest Live with the first trailer for Mortal Shell II , a sequel to Mortal Shell with what looks like an equal amount of gruesome imagery. The game is expected to launch in 2026, but you can register right now to try a beta version of Mortal Shell II when it becomes available. According to the game's Steam page, Mortal Shell II is a standalone sequel to the original Mortal Shell released in 2020. It combines deliberate, Dark Souls -style action with a grotesque, dark setting, not unlike Dark Souls itself. The trailer offers ample examples is full of over-the-top enemies — of particular note, a giant armored snail — and lots of sharp things piercing soft flesh. Playing as "the Harbinger" you'll travel through "more than 60 dungeons," leveraging the "Shells" of fallen warriors to gain new abilities, Cold Symmetry writes. It sounds like the just the kind of punishing experience Soulslike fans get out of bed for. Mortal Shell II is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X / S in 2026.
Business Insider
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Gaming Industry is calling for Renaissance: How illustrator, designer and game creator is reshaping the global stage
Monsters, zombies, vampires, dark souls wandering the dark halls, prophets of doom and gloom - you name it, he drew it. Several generations of PlayStations, XBox, Microsoft Windows games feature the characters drawn by Dmitry Parkin, an award-winning illustrator, designer, and game creator who started his journey in a provincial Russian town. Almost three decades in the game-developing industry won Dmitry Parkin wide acclaim and various awards varying from many Games of the Year to Best RPGs, Best Art Direction, Best Storytelling, and even the Most Violent Game to Make It Past Aussie Censors. Whatever best-selling post-apocalyptic-world action role-playing video game you are choosing in PlayStore, it is highly likely to feature his characters or images. Monster Darlings Reaping Awards His pensive paintbrush created the Ghost of Tsushima, Mortal Shell, Metro: Exodus & Last Light, Fallout 3, Doom 4, The Order: 1886, Aliens, Halo: The Master Chief Collection to name a few. Some, like the open-ended Fallout 3 with its flexible character-leveling system, marked a major shift in the series by using 3D graphics and real-time combat, replacing the 2D isometric graphics. It is still considered one of the greatest video games of all time, with 18 international awards it got coverage by many national media: CNN, BBC, New York Times, Hollywood Reporter etc. Others, like Ghost of Tsushima, became the first American game to earn the Famitsu 's Game of the Year award. Some (Aliens: Colonial Marines) revamped the old film classics like James Cameron's 1986 film Aliens; others (Order: 1886) won rewards for outstanding visual effects in a real-time project. His games bring about nostalgia, allowing one to have the first impression the second time. Much like his Mortal Shell released in 2020 that many reviewers claimed to resuscitate the same emotions experienced when they played the good old Dark Souls. Hitting 1,6 million views on its YouTube debut trailer and thus being nominated as the Best Trailer of Gaming Awards 2020, Mortal Shell sold over million copies by 2023 ploughing in the gross revenue of about $29 mln. It was nominated for Best Debut Game at The Game Awards 2020. With a well-established reputation in the industry and extensive expertise in character art, Sony extended Dmitry a job offer and facilitated his relocation to work on Ghost of Tsushima as a Senior Character Artist. In two and a half years, the game was officially released, becoming an overnight sensation. It sold over 2.4 million copies within the first three days. As of 2023, the game had generated an impressive $397 million in total revenue. Not only that. Ghost of Tsushima received 38 nominations and won 26 awards, including some of the most prestigious honors in the industry — Best Art Direction, Outstanding Character Design and Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Best Visual Art and Audience Award Winner, and it was just in 2020 alone. Even four years after release, Ghost of Tsushima continued to dominate the market. In May 2024, it was the best-selling game in the U.S., reaffirming its status as a modern classic. How can a man have his thumb in all those many pies? Where does that creative passion come from? Allure of the Dangerous The answer is simple. 'I never went with the flow, yet created the waves by myself', says Dmitry. The wave started with a ripple. Staring at the shallow waters of a small river, the young Dmitry was mesmerized by newts slowly paddling by, weirdly crawling crustaceans, slimy leeches and hissing snakes. 'All those amphibians evoked thoughts about the ones living in constant danger, the coldness and the darkness, hunting some and hiding from others, all those spiky shapes and wriggly tails were scary, hypnotizing, and irresistible', describes Parkin. Vivid illustrations found in the home library encyclopedias nurtured the passion for studying the structure and the movement of those unearthly-like creatures. The inexplicable allure of death and fear drove him to explore the mechanisms and images that cause these emotions. In general, it formed the foundations for the perception of fear, death, domination, the cruelty of nature where one animal eats another, the incomparable suffering of the devoured compared to the feeling of satiation of the other, there has always been a feeling that there is something wrong with it. 'Reading Nietzsche and listening to the deafening rumble of dense bass-and-drum metal rock solidified the idea that art should challenge and evoke emotions, otherwise, it is a meaningless doodling', explains Dmitry Parkin. Not by Art Alone Born and raised in Saratov, a city in the Russian 'midwest', Parkin could have become a local Banksy, drawing graffiti on the grey city walls. Yet, being inspired by H.R. Giger's works, he would have added more to Saratov's blues if his monsters had ever appeared there. Instead, he dived into polishing his techniques, experimenting with materials in the dire quest to discover a formula, a combination that would trigger a certain emotion. 'Eventually, it was acrylic or pencil that let add more layers in post-processing hence making the image more complex and allowing hiding technical nuances, brush strokes or touches to get away from the feeling that it was a drawing', he said. Back in the 1990s, when he was 14-15, Dmitry met a friend who was into programming, they started hanging out together — the guy programming, Dmitry drawing basic visuals for the games. This was the dawn of the era of the first 3D editor software, the best time to dive into the unknown and grow. Dmitry mastered some software, plunged into several projects which brought handsome pocket money for a schoolboy; he had got a solid portfolio and 4 years of working experience by the time he left school. Dmitry never studied design or art in high school. After graduating from school he made an attempt to study programming at a polytechnical university in his hometown but soon dropped out. 'Soon I realized that university lectures were too boring for me. On the other hand, drawing and creating my own gaming worlds enchanted me', Parkin recalled. Starry-eyed and passionate, he got project after project usually without test assignments, his works being the best proof of eligibility. The Way to the USA Building up his technical expertise, Dmitry made a perfect partner for programmers as few could do both - create art for the game and help develop it. The first job in Moscow in the early 00s was with a publishing house Buka where Dmitry worked as an artist, not limited by narrow frameworks. 'Working there, I realised the power of freedom and eventually moved to freelance which allowed taking up more projects. I went really global in the mid 00s, doing jobs for XBox, Microsoft, Sony, indiebrands, etc.', he says. By the time Parkin engaged in 3D graphics professionally, he had chiselled his art techniques and style — the fundamentals for any creator. Digital tools are just tools to enhance one's technical prowess, it is the idea and the message that gets the project skyrocketing. And sometimes luck. Hardly could Dmitry fathom when he agreed to participate in Liquid Development 's startup project, that it would turn out to be the Fallout 3 game he was signing up for. It was his favourite game, now being part of the art team, it felt legit. Winning the War of GameDev Dominance Winning 2008 Dominance War 3 was like 'fire meet gasoline'. 'In the art world, a benchmark for fame is not the amount of paintings you produced, but the amount of replicas and 'spin-offs' you generated', explains Parkin. The Imrod character after the personal award of 2008 Dominance War 3 became the most popular and replicated character, often copied by 3D artists. The original version was made freely available and became often used for various tests and demonstrations, indie game projects, youtube tutorials and even SIGGRAPH 2008 presentation. That victory brought an avalanche of job offers. When the focus within the game industry shifted to creature design, character art and 'digital sculpture', Dmitry's full potential became unleashed. The early passion for amphibious creeps coupled with advanced technical expertise raising the detail and quality to a new level helped to get as close as possible to hyper-realism, and become a key element that set the trend in the modern (at that time) game industry. Over years, he has been putting skins on, adding light, assembling the settings in games, reviving somewhat lame code into sturdy demos that went viral overnight and generated millions of views. Some games like Mortal Shell became great career boosters as working there he combined art and art-directing, thus getting the ultimate freedom of expression. 'I once did what turned out to be a life-saving project for Playstack who was virtually on its last legs and looking for a flagship project that would champion a good market share', recalls Parkin. With his vast portfolio of monsters, Dmitry happened to find himself in the eye of the storm, always trendy, regardless of the fleeting fashions in the industry. There has always been a place where he belonged. Dmitry's creed is to create characters with a mission, vision and message. Quite a refreshing view on the over-commercialised game-developing industry that churns out gazillions of games 24/7. 'The generic games developed now are mostly like a stack of books on a railway station stall - identical bland time-killing amusement. The industry is calling for Renaissance bringing about something tangible, real, savoury and wholesome. Everybody is getting tired of the trite eviscerated visuals and ideas that lack finesse and, most importantly, message. There is no art in it. The much-hailed AI cannot provide a valid substitution for human creative spirits. It might in the future, but now it is up to a human with a solid set of art skills to generate the ideas and navigate the art projects from concept to fruition', Parkin shares his thoughts about the industry development.
