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The Guardian
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why bloated budgets mean open world games are starting to think small
For more than 20 years the action adventure genre has been dominated by open-world games. They started in quite a constrained way, with titles such as Shenmue and Driver offering miniature cities to wander about, but during the 21st century, they grew to encompass whole kingdoms. Now we have titles such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Elden Ring and Death Stranding that contain vast and highly varied environments; Minecraft worlds are reportedly 60,000km wide. And let's not forget space sims such as Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky, which effectively contain whole galaxies. This whole design model, however, is starting to seem a teeny bit unsustainable. Not only is it astonishingly expensive to build giant worlds (it's rumoured that the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost in the region of $2bn), but the market is also saturated with competitors all promising many hundreds of hours of exploration. Is there really an unlimited supply of players willing to buy and play more than two of these a year – especially now that we're being incentivised to stick around through live service features, such as regularly updated costumes, missions and locations? As a result, major studios are beginning to rethink their approach to map design in large single-player adventures. Released in February, Avowed is the latest epic role-playing fantasy from Obsidian Entertainment, and instead of an open structure, the landscape is divided into a series of smaller segments, which open up consecutively as the story progresses. According to narrative designer Kate Dollarhyde, a key part of this decision was being able to provide a cogent narrative that allowed for more player choice. 'Pacing is really tough in open-world games,' she told Xbox Wire. 'You never know where the player is and what they're doing at any given time. So having these zones that happen in sequence means we always know what content you've just come from on the critical path.' In short, what the player loses in terms of being able to wander about wherever they like, the developers gain in taking control over how the story proceeds. I enjoyed the structure too because it gave me a very clear idea of how far I'd come – it made a very ambitious title feel manageable. Another recent example is Atomfall, apocalyptic postwar thriller from Rebellion Developments in which the player must escape the quarantine zone placed around a disaster at the Windscale nuclear plant. Again, there are four main landscape areas for the player to discover, some of which are subtly locked behind narrative prompts. These spaces are fully explorable – you can wander the woods, explore a little village, clamber down into winding caves – but they're comparatively small, so it feels like wherever you go, you're going to find something interesting and relevant. Added to this is the lack of fast travel: you get everywhere on foot, so you really become embedded in these rich spaces – part of the pleasure becomes taking new routes between familiar locations, checking out ruined country mansions, or hidden gorges leading down to trickling streams. It reminded me of how fun it was to play last year's excellent role-playing adventure Dragon's Dogma 2, which was more open in design but similarly restricted fast travel across the map, providing only a few teleport sites. In this way, every quest really felt like a quest – something time-consuming, unpredictable and dangerous. The sorts of things games are really about. I wonder what effect the arrival of GTA 6 will have – whether other publishers will feel they should compete or if they'll just throw their arms up in surrender and head the way of Obsidian and Rebellion. I hope it's the latter. There's still so much innovation to be made in contained explorable environments – look at how much interactive variety has been teased from the wonderful Hitman titles: the way that interlocking gameplay systems involving player-character abilities, enemy AI and environmental factors combine to produce rich procedural narratives. I've forgotten a lot of the landscape I saw in the Horizon titles but I'll never forget knocking out a millionaire tech bro with a giant fish. The variety that open-world titles boast about doesn't just have to come from sheer expanse, it can be much more granular. I'd take an intricately authored village over a vast wilderness any day, because I like to get to know a place. I knew the little town of Silent Hill, I knew the docks of Shenmue. It's like famous game designer Chappell Roan once put it: I don't want the world, but I'll take this city. If Balatro has got you really into weird poker games, can I point you toward Cave of Cards? A little browser-based game by the brilliant designer Adam Saltsman, it's essentially a 'match-three' puzzler mixed with a poker game: you clear the cave by digging up playing cards and making a decent hand. You can play on your PC, Mac or phone and it runs on the online virtual console Pico-8, which has dozens of other excellent little games to try. Available on: PC, Mac, smartphone Estimated playtime: 2+ hours Very relevant to our essay above, Nicolas Doucet, the director of Sony's beautiful platformer Astro Bot, said at a talk at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco: 'From the start, we were in the mindset that it's OK to make a compact game, and I think it's really important – especially going into this year – it's OK to make a small game.' Eurogamer has the rest of the details. Oh and look: here is writer Sam Howitt with an excellent article on Mass Effect: Andromeda and the idea of games that respect your time as a player. It's a really nuanced piece with lots of examples, and I like the way Howitt neatly sums up the Ubisoft school of open-world game design as 'travelling to points on a map to build up progress meters'. If you're waiting for the TV adaptation of The Last of Us Part Two, Variety has a decent interview with the actor Pedro Pascal, who portrays Joel, about how he prepared for the five-year gap in the narrative timeline between the games. It's an interesting insight into his grasp on the character and the world itself. Sign up to Pushing Buttons Keza MacDonald's weekly look at the world of gaming after newsletter promotion Why video games can't escape their role in the radicalisation of young men UK watchdog bans 'shocking' ads in mobile games that objectified women Video game music has arrived on the festival circuit – and it's only going to get bigger An important question from reader Natalie this week: 'It's taken me many games played and unfinished before I've realised that, although I enjoy gameplay, puzzles, strategy, defeating bosses and the like, all of my favourite games have compelling narratives. Can you recommend some of the best storytelling in video game history? I'm a Nintendo Switch gamer but I'm up for hearing broad recommendations for future reference.' This is a tough one to answer because I'm extremely critical of video game narratives that rely on overly complicated world-building and endless environmental lore drops – and those are often the ones on lists of the best video game stories. There are a bunch of classics I'd recommend, though: the indie title Firewatch, Valve's classic sci-fi opus Portal 2, the beautiful Ico, the immense God of War. The Resident Evil Remakes are strong on schlocky horror narratives, too. For the Switch, try a bingeable quartet of Undertale, The Excavation of Hob's Barrow, To the Moon and Outer Wilds – all gripping in different ways. If you've got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@
The Independent
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The biggest game releases in 2025: From GTA 6 to Assassin's Creed: Shadows
If 2024 felt like a year without a major gaming release, then fear not, 2025 has undoubtedly the biggest game on its calendar – Grand Theft Auto 6. And sure, while everyone's excited about Rockstar 's long-awaited sequel, there are also other big games to look forward to, including a new Assassin's Creed game, Dune Awakening and a Fable reboot. Here are some of 2025's gaming highlights to look forward to across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, with some rumours thrown in for good measure. 'Avowed' Release date: 18 February 2025 Available platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC An Xbox console exclusive, Avowed has been described as a 'thoroughly old-fashioned' RP and has been delayed from 2024 to 18 February 2025. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment – the studio behind Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and The Outer Worlds – Avowed is set in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity and can be played in both first-person and third-person perspective. It will feature a combination of melee and magic combat against men and beasts, so yes, think Skyrim. 'Monster Hunter Wilds' 2018's Monster Hunter World was a major breakthrough for Capcom's RPG series and introduced the title to a whole host of new players. Wilds looks set to continue the trend as the forthcoming release collected a whole heap of trophies at the Gamescom awards including Best Trailer, Most Epic and Most Entertaining. Monster Hunter Wilds arrives on 28 February 2025 for Xbox, PS5 and Steam. 'Assassin's Creed: Shadows' Release date: 20 March 2025 Available platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC It's been over four years since the last huge mainline Assassin's Creed game - Valhalla was released in November 2020 just as the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles launched. In late 2023 Assassin's Creed: Mirage arrived as its own standalone game after it was scrapped as a Valhalla DLC but the title was overlooked by many. Assassin's Creed: Shadows was originally set to be released in November of 2024 but has since been pushed back to 20 March 2025. Set in 16th century feudal Japan, the game will have two protagonists – Naoe, a female shinobi and Yasuke, a samurai who will play more like a tank character. 'Doom: The Dark Ages' Release date: 2025 Available platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC Doom (2016) and Doom Eternal are two of the best shooters of the past 10 years, so there's no reason to doubt why Doom: The Dark Ages shouldn't be just as brilliant, and absurd, and gory and horrific. The most striking detail about The Dark Ages is that it will serve as a prequel in which you experience the Doom Slayer's (Doomguy) origin story as he becomes the last hope of a kingdom fighting against the forces of Hell in a techno-medieval alternate universe. The game will be released on PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox on May 15, 2025. Release date: 2025 Available platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC The Borderlands movie hit cinemas in the summer of 2024 to drum up excitement for the fourth mainline instalment in the FPS series, except the movie flopped and everybody hated it. Fortunately, it was so forgettable that you likely forgot the film ever happened. The definitive looter shooter is set to be released on September 23, 2025. The date was confirmed at Sony's Sate of Play event in February. it will arrive in 2025 on Xbox, PS5 and PC. 'Call Of Duty' Black Ops 6 was seen by many as a return to form for the series which has had diminishing returns since the fantastic Modern Warfare reboot in pre-pendemic 2019. Although Warzone was a phenomenon during the pandemic, the extremely negative response to the MW3 campaign left Activision with some love to rekindle and Black Ops 6 did that. Even better, many Xbox owners got the game on day one for free via Game Pass. This year's entry is rumoured to be a Black Ops 2 sequel (very confusing) and will likely once again land on PS5 and for free on Game Pass in Q4 2025. 'Death Stranding 2: On the Beach' Release date: 2025 Available platforms: PS5 If you thought Death Stranding was weird then Death Stranding 2: On The Beach is likely to be even weirder. The sci-fi baby-shipping simulator from Hideo Kojima was originally a PlayStation exclusive in 2019 but was released on Xbox Series X/S in November 2024, so those who missed out the first time can now experience the fever dream adventure starring Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen. DS2:OTB is set to drop at some point in 2025 for the PS5, a good guess is that it will probably be Q4, mirroring when Death Stranding originally released. 'Dune: Awakening' Release date: Early 2025 Available platforms: PC With two critically acclaimed Denis Villeneuve-directed Dune films in the can and a third presumingly on the way, there is clearly an appetite for Frank Herbert's Arrakis epic. Hopefully Funcom's Dune: Awakening can deliver that spice to those who crave it. Running on Unreal Engine 5, Dune Awakening is an open world survival MMO set on the most dangerous planet in the universe. Do you want to simply survive or do you want to conquer the entirety of Arrakis? That is up to you. The game is coming to PC in early 2025, but as of yet, there are no further details on the Xbox or PlayStation release window. 'Fable' Release date: 2026 Available platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC Return to Albion for the first time in nearly 15 years as Xbox's beloved RPG makes a comeback. First mentioned back in 2017 by Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, this reboot is being handled by Playground Games - the studio behind the Forza Horizon series. Fable will be released in 2026 for Xbox and Microsoft Windows after it was taken off the calendar for this year on February 25 . 'Ghost of Yotei' Release date: 2025 Available platforms: PS5 The much-anticipated sequel to the much-loved PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima from 2020. Set during the first Mongol invasion of Japan, you played as Jin as you fought to protect Tsushima Island. Ghost of Yotei will take place more than 300 years after the first game, and the main protagonist will be Atsu, a female warrior who takes on the role of the titular 'Ghost'. Sucker Punch Productions has said Ghost of Yotei will give players more choice over narrative and the direction the story will go in based on the decisions you make. The release date of Ghost of Yotei is yet to be announced, but it's set to land on PlayStation at some point in 2025. 'GTA 6' The big one: yes it's been delayed, yes it's been well over 10 years since GTA V, yes, we've only had one trailer and yes, it may even get delayed again, but it's still Grand Theft Auto. As it stands, Rockstar's next entry in this behemoth of a series is set for sometime in the second half of 2025 on Xbox and PlayStation. All we really know is that it's set in a fictional version of Florida (back to Vice City) and there will be dual protagonists - Lucia and Jason.
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Avowed's Best Weapon Combos And More Of The Week's Top Tips
This week, we've got a host of Avowed tips to help you make the most of your sojourn to the Living Lands. We've also got some pointers for mastering Magik in Marvel Rivals, and for defeating Mortal Kombat 1's new pink-clad ninja boss, Floyd. (Get it?) Click on for these tips and more. Avowed has a wide variety of weapons that you can mix and match in any way you wish, ideal for shaping the game to your whim as you work your way through The Living Lands. With so many build combinations you have tons of freedom in how you approach combat—and then double it because you have two loadouts, giving you the ability to really change things up on the fly. - Billy Givens Read More Role-playing games are known to be lengthy adventures that can keep you busy for weeks, months, or years, some totalling well over 100 hours. As such, it's not surprising you'd want to know just how long you'll be spending in Obsidian Entertainment's newest RPG, Avowed, and whether it's worth your time and money. If you're curious about how long it will take to beat this exciting RPG, we'll fill you in on what to expect below. - Billy Givens Read More If you were to watch any trailers or marketing material for Obsidian's role-playing hit Avowed, it would be perfectly reasonable to assume the game is strictly a first-person affair. With this focus on first-person melee combat in every video around, you may be shocked to hear that it actually provides a third-person option as well. Here's how to switch to third-person in Avowed, and whether it gains you any advantages. - Billy Givens Read More For those who like the smell of gunpowder during their trip through The Living Lands, there are a lot of great pistols to find in Avowed. Snagging the best one, though, will have to wait until you're in the game's final region, Galawain's Tusks. The Magic Pistol may have a generic name, but it's a damn fine weapon to keep on your hip. Here's what to know about the Magic Pistol and where to find it. - Billy Givens Read More Avowed features three starting classes, each focused on specific archetypes that most role-playing fans are certain to recognize. While you can mix and match abilities between these different classes throughout your adventure, picking the one that appeals most to you can have a significant impact on your early hours in the game. Here are the basics of each starting class in Avowed. - Billy Givens Read More If you haven't kept up with Mortal Kombat 1 in recent weeks, you've probably missed the new character that's whipped the fanbase into a frenzy. No, I'm not talking about the Conan the Barbarian DLC fighter that's been pretty overshadowed by all this. I'm talking about a pink ninja named Floyd who's been added as a hidden boss. Also, yeah, he's totally named after the band Pink Floyd. - Samuel Moreno Read More The Space-Time Smackdown expansion is a few weeks old now in Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, and it has shifted the game's competitive landscape by leaps and bounds. Up to this point, Psychic decks have ruled the roost. Mewtwo ex, combined with the Energy generation of Gardevoir, inflicted such high burst damage that it held fast as one of the game's most dangerous cards since launch. Now it seems Mewtwo ex's meta-dominating days will come to an end, as another card has quickly overtaken its throne. - Timothy Monbleau Read More One of the earliest quests you'll receive in Avowed is 'Message From Afar,' which sends you to the northwestern corner of Dawnshore to explore the Strangleroot. Here, you'll face off against a fearsome bear, meet a new NPC, and ultimately have a fresh conversation with the Voice you've been hearing in your head. - Billy Givens Read More If you're the kind of person who likes ripping through baddies with an axe, you'll probably enjoy Avowed's selection of skull-splitters. There are quite a few solid choices to wield, but Drawn in Winter—which can be obtained early in the game—is an incredible option to run with, good through the entire adventure. Here's what you need to know about Drawn in Winter and where to find it. - Billy Givens Read More Many of the Marvel Rivals Duelists settle in nicely into specific roles. Psylocke functions perfectly as an assassin while Hawkeye is meant to be used at range. But if you're looking for an easy-to-pick-up hero with more flexibility, there is plenty of fun to be had with Magik. - Samuel Moreno Read More For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Xbox's Latest Big Single-Player RPG Was Originally Pitched As Skyrim + Destiny
Obsidian Entertainment's Avowed is a wonderful single-player RPG featuring large fantasy zones to explore and chatty companions. But that wasn't always the plan. In fact, it was originally designed as an online game similar to Destiny. According to a new Bloomberg article, Avowed—out now on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass—started life back in 2018 as something the then-independent Obsidian could present to prospective buyers. The game was planned to be the Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity studio's magnum opus and was going to be an online fantasy RPG mashing together Destiny and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The ambitious pitch called for players to adventure together online in a huge open world. Later in 2018, Microsoft bought Obsidian and work continued on Avowed. But the game struggled to come together, and by the time Xbox announced Avowed publicly in 2020, Obsidian had cut the multiplayer out entirely. Then in January 2021, Obsidian scrapped that version of the game, which had been in development for two years. Carrie Patel took over as director and she implemented two big changes. The first was to focus more on the world and lore of Pillars of Eternity, and the second was to replace the Skyrim-like open world with large 'zones.' This was the same approach used in The Outer Worlds, Obsidian's sci-fi RPG from 2019, and it helped the team build different, varied locales and skip over a ton of technical hurdles. 'With any game you think, 'OK, we can't climb every mountain — which ones are really worth the effort for us?'' Patel told Bloomberg. 'We knew from The Outer Worlds that we could build a really great game with 'open zones,' and that also adds some advantages in terms of letting you really theme your areas more distinctly and intentionally, and provide a sense of progression as the player's going from one environment to the next.' All that hard work and the messy development cycle, including multiple vertical slices and reboots, paid off in the end, as Avowed has received near-universal praise from critics and has proved a hit for Xbox's Game Pass service. 'I feel like I've learned so much over the past four years that I wish I'd known at the start of this process,' admitted Patel. 'It's definitely been a job where the highs are really high and the lows are really low.' As for what's next? Patel says she'd 'love' to do more with the Avowed team in the Pillars of Eternity world. But for now, Obsidian won't say what's next for the Xbox workhorse studio. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
The Independent
17-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
How to play Avowed for free and early on Xbox
It has been a game long-teased by Microsoft to potentially be the console's next huge RPG hit and possible future franchise and now Avowed is here. First revealed in the summer of 2020, Avowed was initially pitched to be Obsidian Entertainment's answer to Skyrim, although the studio then rowed back on that claim. The game is set in the world of Eora, the same universe which features in the Pillars of Eternity games. Playable in both first person and third person, the high fantasy RPG will focus on combat and decision making as your progress through the Living Lands. As for the narrative of the game, the official website reads this: 'As an envoy of Aedyr, you are sent to investigate rumors of a spreading plague with a secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save the island and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them apart?' What time is Avowed released? Avowed is released on February 18/February 19 on Xbox and Windows, depending on what time zone/region you are in. February 18 10 AM PT (LA) 1 PM ET (New York) 6 PM GMT (London) February 19 5 AM AEDT (Sydney) Can you play Avowed for free? Yes, if you have an Xbox and you are already subscribed to Game Pass Premium then the game will be available to pre-install and will be playable once it is released. Can you play Avowed early? Also yes - and there are multiple ways to do it. If you buy the Premium Edition then you can jump in right now. Alternatively, you can still buy the Premium Edition and jump in as soon as you buy it. If you want to play early but don't want to invest too early then the Premium Upgrade is the route to go down. The Premium Upgrade is ideal for Game Pass Ultimate / PC Game Pass members as it doesn't include the full game itself (so you'll need to remain subscribed post-launch), and it's available for £17.99 / $22.49 on the Microsoft Store. Alternatively, if you just CANNOT wait those extra hours and you simply have to play the game first on release day then you can set the location/timezone of your Xbox to PT (LA) as the West Coast of America gets access to the game before anyone. Legally speaking, you're on your own here, but Microsoft has never said you cannot do this or taken any legal action against anyone doing so despite it being against the terms of service.
