• MindsEye review – a dystopian future that plays like it’s from 2012

    There’s a Sphere-alike in Redrock, MindsEye’s open-world version of Las Vegas. It’s pretty much a straight copy of the original: a huge soap bubble, half sunk into the desert floor, with its surface turned into a gigantic TV. Occasionally you’ll pull up near the Sphere while driving an electric vehicle made by Silva, the megacorp that controls this world. You’ll sometimes come to a stop just as an advert for an identical Silva EV plays out on the huge curved screen overhead. The doubling effect can be slightly vertigo-inducing.At these moments, I truly get what MindsEye is trying to do. You’re stuck in the ultimate company town, where oligarchs and other crooks run everything, and there’s no hope of escaping the ecosystem they’ve built. MindsEye gets this all across through a chance encounter, and in a way that’s both light of touch and clever. The rest of the game tends towards the heavy-handed and silly, but it’s nice to glimpse a few instances where everything clicks.With its Spheres and omnipresent EVs, MindsEye looks and sounds like the future. It’s concerned with AI and tech bros and the insidious creep of a corporate dystopia. You play as an amnesiac former-soldier who must work out the precise damage that technology has done to his humanity, while shooting people and robots and drones. And alongside the campaign itself, MindsEye also has a suite of tools for making your own game or levels and publishing them for fellow players. All of this has come from a studio founded by Leslie Benzies, whose production credits include the likes of GTA 5.AI overlords … MindsEye. Photograph: IOI PartnersWhat’s weird, then, is that MindsEye generally plays like the past. Put a finger to the air and the wind is blowing from somewhere around 2012. At heart, this is a roughly hewn cover shooter with an open world that you only really experience when you’re driving between missions. Its topical concerns mainly exist to justify double-crosses and car chases and shootouts, and to explain why you head into battle with a personal drone that can open doors for you and stun nearby enemies.It can be an uncanny experience, drifting back through the years to a time when many third-person games still featured unskippable cut-scenes and cover that could be awkward to unstick yourself from. I should add that there are plenty of reports at the moment of crashes and technical glitches and characters turning up without their faces in place. Playing on a relatively old PC, aside from one crash and a few amusing bugs, I’ve been mostly fine. I’ve just been playing a game that feels equally elderly.This is sometimes less of a criticism than it sounds. There is a definite pleasure to be had in simple run-and-gun missions where you shoot very similar looking people over and over again and pick a path between waypoints. The shooting often feels good, and while it’s a bit of a swizz to have to drive to and from each mission, the cars have a nice fishtaily looseness to them that can, at times, invoke the Valium-tinged glory of the Driver games.Driving between missions … MindsEye. Photograph: Build A Rocket Boy/IOI PartnersAnd for a game that has thought a lot about the point at which AI takes over, the in-game AI around me wasn’t in danger of taking over anything. When I handed over control of my car to the game while tailing an enemy, having been told I should try not to be spotted, the game made sure our bumpers kissed at every intersection. The streets of this particular open world are filled with amusingly unskilled AI drivers. I’d frequently arrive at traffic lights to be greeted by a recent pile-up, so delighted by the off-screen collisions that had scattered road cones and Dumpsters across my path that I almost always stopped to investigate.I even enjoyed the plot’s hokeyness, which features lines such as: “Your DNA has been altered since we last met!” Has it, though? Even so, I became increasingly aware that clever people had spent a good chunk of their working lives making this game. I don’t think they intended to cast me as what is in essence a Deliveroo bullet courier for an off-brand Elon Musk. Or to drop me into an open world that feels thin not because it lacks mission icons and fishing mini-games, but because it’s devoid of convincing human detail.I suspect the problem may actually be a thematically resonant one: a reckless kind of ambition. When I dropped into the level editor I found a tool that’s astonishingly rich and complex, but which also requires a lot of time and effort if you want to make anything really special in it. This is for the mega-fans, surely, the point-one percent. It must have taken serious time to build, and to do all that alongside a campaignis the kind of endeavour that requires a real megacorp behind it.MindsEye is an oddity. For all its failings, I rarely disliked playing it, and yet it’s also difficult to sincerely recommend. Its ideas, its moment-to-moment action and narrative are so thinly conceived that it barely exists. And yet: I’m kind of happy that it does.

    MindsEye is out now; £54.99
    #mindseye #review #dystopian #future #that
    MindsEye review – a dystopian future that plays like it’s from 2012
    There’s a Sphere-alike in Redrock, MindsEye’s open-world version of Las Vegas. It’s pretty much a straight copy of the original: a huge soap bubble, half sunk into the desert floor, with its surface turned into a gigantic TV. Occasionally you’ll pull up near the Sphere while driving an electric vehicle made by Silva, the megacorp that controls this world. You’ll sometimes come to a stop just as an advert for an identical Silva EV plays out on the huge curved screen overhead. The doubling effect can be slightly vertigo-inducing.At these moments, I truly get what MindsEye is trying to do. You’re stuck in the ultimate company town, where oligarchs and other crooks run everything, and there’s no hope of escaping the ecosystem they’ve built. MindsEye gets this all across through a chance encounter, and in a way that’s both light of touch and clever. The rest of the game tends towards the heavy-handed and silly, but it’s nice to glimpse a few instances where everything clicks.With its Spheres and omnipresent EVs, MindsEye looks and sounds like the future. It’s concerned with AI and tech bros and the insidious creep of a corporate dystopia. You play as an amnesiac former-soldier who must work out the precise damage that technology has done to his humanity, while shooting people and robots and drones. And alongside the campaign itself, MindsEye also has a suite of tools for making your own game or levels and publishing them for fellow players. All of this has come from a studio founded by Leslie Benzies, whose production credits include the likes of GTA 5.AI overlords … MindsEye. Photograph: IOI PartnersWhat’s weird, then, is that MindsEye generally plays like the past. Put a finger to the air and the wind is blowing from somewhere around 2012. At heart, this is a roughly hewn cover shooter with an open world that you only really experience when you’re driving between missions. Its topical concerns mainly exist to justify double-crosses and car chases and shootouts, and to explain why you head into battle with a personal drone that can open doors for you and stun nearby enemies.It can be an uncanny experience, drifting back through the years to a time when many third-person games still featured unskippable cut-scenes and cover that could be awkward to unstick yourself from. I should add that there are plenty of reports at the moment of crashes and technical glitches and characters turning up without their faces in place. Playing on a relatively old PC, aside from one crash and a few amusing bugs, I’ve been mostly fine. I’ve just been playing a game that feels equally elderly.This is sometimes less of a criticism than it sounds. There is a definite pleasure to be had in simple run-and-gun missions where you shoot very similar looking people over and over again and pick a path between waypoints. The shooting often feels good, and while it’s a bit of a swizz to have to drive to and from each mission, the cars have a nice fishtaily looseness to them that can, at times, invoke the Valium-tinged glory of the Driver games.Driving between missions … MindsEye. Photograph: Build A Rocket Boy/IOI PartnersAnd for a game that has thought a lot about the point at which AI takes over, the in-game AI around me wasn’t in danger of taking over anything. When I handed over control of my car to the game while tailing an enemy, having been told I should try not to be spotted, the game made sure our bumpers kissed at every intersection. The streets of this particular open world are filled with amusingly unskilled AI drivers. I’d frequently arrive at traffic lights to be greeted by a recent pile-up, so delighted by the off-screen collisions that had scattered road cones and Dumpsters across my path that I almost always stopped to investigate.I even enjoyed the plot’s hokeyness, which features lines such as: “Your DNA has been altered since we last met!” Has it, though? Even so, I became increasingly aware that clever people had spent a good chunk of their working lives making this game. I don’t think they intended to cast me as what is in essence a Deliveroo bullet courier for an off-brand Elon Musk. Or to drop me into an open world that feels thin not because it lacks mission icons and fishing mini-games, but because it’s devoid of convincing human detail.I suspect the problem may actually be a thematically resonant one: a reckless kind of ambition. When I dropped into the level editor I found a tool that’s astonishingly rich and complex, but which also requires a lot of time and effort if you want to make anything really special in it. This is for the mega-fans, surely, the point-one percent. It must have taken serious time to build, and to do all that alongside a campaignis the kind of endeavour that requires a real megacorp behind it.MindsEye is an oddity. For all its failings, I rarely disliked playing it, and yet it’s also difficult to sincerely recommend. Its ideas, its moment-to-moment action and narrative are so thinly conceived that it barely exists. And yet: I’m kind of happy that it does. MindsEye is out now; £54.99 #mindseye #review #dystopian #future #that
    MindsEye review – a dystopian future that plays like it’s from 2012
    www.theguardian.com
    There’s a Sphere-alike in Redrock, MindsEye’s open-world version of Las Vegas. It’s pretty much a straight copy of the original: a huge soap bubble, half sunk into the desert floor, with its surface turned into a gigantic TV. Occasionally you’ll pull up near the Sphere while driving an electric vehicle made by Silva, the megacorp that controls this world. You’ll sometimes come to a stop just as an advert for an identical Silva EV plays out on the huge curved screen overhead. The doubling effect can be slightly vertigo-inducing.At these moments, I truly get what MindsEye is trying to do. You’re stuck in the ultimate company town, where oligarchs and other crooks run everything, and there’s no hope of escaping the ecosystem they’ve built. MindsEye gets this all across through a chance encounter, and in a way that’s both light of touch and clever. The rest of the game tends towards the heavy-handed and silly, but it’s nice to glimpse a few instances where everything clicks.With its Spheres and omnipresent EVs, MindsEye looks and sounds like the future. It’s concerned with AI and tech bros and the insidious creep of a corporate dystopia. You play as an amnesiac former-soldier who must work out the precise damage that technology has done to his humanity, while shooting people and robots and drones. And alongside the campaign itself, MindsEye also has a suite of tools for making your own game or levels and publishing them for fellow players. All of this has come from a studio founded by Leslie Benzies, whose production credits include the likes of GTA 5.AI overlords … MindsEye. Photograph: IOI PartnersWhat’s weird, then, is that MindsEye generally plays like the past. Put a finger to the air and the wind is blowing from somewhere around 2012. At heart, this is a roughly hewn cover shooter with an open world that you only really experience when you’re driving between missions. Its topical concerns mainly exist to justify double-crosses and car chases and shootouts, and to explain why you head into battle with a personal drone that can open doors for you and stun nearby enemies.It can be an uncanny experience, drifting back through the years to a time when many third-person games still featured unskippable cut-scenes and cover that could be awkward to unstick yourself from. I should add that there are plenty of reports at the moment of crashes and technical glitches and characters turning up without their faces in place. Playing on a relatively old PC, aside from one crash and a few amusing bugs, I’ve been mostly fine. I’ve just been playing a game that feels equally elderly.This is sometimes less of a criticism than it sounds. There is a definite pleasure to be had in simple run-and-gun missions where you shoot very similar looking people over and over again and pick a path between waypoints. The shooting often feels good, and while it’s a bit of a swizz to have to drive to and from each mission, the cars have a nice fishtaily looseness to them that can, at times, invoke the Valium-tinged glory of the Driver games. (The airborne craft are less fun because they have less character.)Driving between missions … MindsEye. Photograph: Build A Rocket Boy/IOI PartnersAnd for a game that has thought a lot about the point at which AI takes over, the in-game AI around me wasn’t in danger of taking over anything. When I handed over control of my car to the game while tailing an enemy, having been told I should try not to be spotted, the game made sure our bumpers kissed at every intersection. The streets of this particular open world are filled with amusingly unskilled AI drivers. I’d frequently arrive at traffic lights to be greeted by a recent pile-up, so delighted by the off-screen collisions that had scattered road cones and Dumpsters across my path that I almost always stopped to investigate.I even enjoyed the plot’s hokeyness, which features lines such as: “Your DNA has been altered since we last met!” Has it, though? Even so, I became increasingly aware that clever people had spent a good chunk of their working lives making this game. I don’t think they intended to cast me as what is in essence a Deliveroo bullet courier for an off-brand Elon Musk. Or to drop me into an open world that feels thin not because it lacks mission icons and fishing mini-games, but because it’s devoid of convincing human detail.I suspect the problem may actually be a thematically resonant one: a reckless kind of ambition. When I dropped into the level editor I found a tool that’s astonishingly rich and complex, but which also requires a lot of time and effort if you want to make anything really special in it. This is for the mega-fans, surely, the point-one percent. It must have taken serious time to build, and to do all that alongside a campaign (one that tries, at least, to vary things now and then with stealth, trailing and sniper sections) is the kind of endeavour that requires a real megacorp behind it.MindsEye is an oddity. For all its failings, I rarely disliked playing it, and yet it’s also difficult to sincerely recommend. Its ideas, its moment-to-moment action and narrative are so thinly conceived that it barely exists. And yet: I’m kind of happy that it does. MindsEye is out now; £54.99
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  • Everything new at Summer Game Fest 2025: Marvel Tōkon, Resident Evil Requiem and more

    It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now.
    We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days, and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between.
    Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order.
    Tuesday, June 3
    State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI
    Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV.

    The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved.
    It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year.
    Wednesday, June 4
    PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines
    Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement.

    The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026.
    Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea Baby Steps and Silent Hill f. We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom!

    Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect.
    Thursday, June 5
    Diddly squat
    There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand.Friday, June 6
    Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound
    It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements.

    Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth"Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6.
    We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's ajazzy new trailer for your consideration.

    Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game.
    There were countless other announcements at the show, including:

    Troy Baker is the big cheese in Mouse: P.I. for Hire
    Here's a silly puppet boxing game you never knew you needed
    Killer Inn turns Werewolf into a multiplayer action game
    Out of Words is a cozy stop-motion co-op adventure from Epic Games
    Lego Voyagers is a co-op puzzle game from the studio behind Builder's Journey
    Mina the Hollower, from the makers of Shovel Knight, arrives on Halloween
    Wu-Tang Clan's new game blends anime with Afro-surrealism

    Day of the Devs: Blighted, Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II
    As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here.
    Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner. 

    Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots.

    Here are some of the other games that caught our eye:

    Snap & Grab is No Goblin's campy, photography-based heist game
    Please, Watch the Artwork is a puzzle game with eerie paintings and a sad clown
    Bask in the grotesque pixel-art beauty of Neverway
    Pocket Boss turns corporate data manipulation into a puzzle game
    Tire Boy is a wacky open-world adventure game you can tread all over

    The rest: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Light

    After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now.

    Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia. 
    Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing. 
    Saturday-Sunday: Xbox and much, much more
    Now you're all caught up. We're expecting a lot of news this weekend, mostly from Xbox on Sunday. We'll be updating this article through the weekend and beyond, but you can find the latest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2025 on our front page.This article originally appeared on Engadget at
    #everything #new #summer #game #fest
    Everything new at Summer Game Fest 2025: Marvel Tōkon, Resident Evil Requiem and more
    It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now. We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days, and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between. Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order. Tuesday, June 3 State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV. The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved. It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year. Wednesday, June 4 PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement. The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026. Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea Baby Steps and Silent Hill f. We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom! Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect. Thursday, June 5 Diddly squat There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand.Friday, June 6 Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements. Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth"Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6. We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's ajazzy new trailer for your consideration. Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. There were countless other announcements at the show, including: Troy Baker is the big cheese in Mouse: P.I. for Hire Here's a silly puppet boxing game you never knew you needed Killer Inn turns Werewolf into a multiplayer action game Out of Words is a cozy stop-motion co-op adventure from Epic Games Lego Voyagers is a co-op puzzle game from the studio behind Builder's Journey Mina the Hollower, from the makers of Shovel Knight, arrives on Halloween Wu-Tang Clan's new game blends anime with Afro-surrealism Day of the Devs: Blighted, Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here. Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner.  Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots. Here are some of the other games that caught our eye: Snap & Grab is No Goblin's campy, photography-based heist game Please, Watch the Artwork is a puzzle game with eerie paintings and a sad clown Bask in the grotesque pixel-art beauty of Neverway Pocket Boss turns corporate data manipulation into a puzzle game Tire Boy is a wacky open-world adventure game you can tread all over The rest: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Light After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now. Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia.  Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.  Saturday-Sunday: Xbox and much, much more Now you're all caught up. We're expecting a lot of news this weekend, mostly from Xbox on Sunday. We'll be updating this article through the weekend and beyond, but you can find the latest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2025 on our front page.This article originally appeared on Engadget at #everything #new #summer #game #fest
    Everything new at Summer Game Fest 2025: Marvel Tōkon, Resident Evil Requiem and more
    www.engadget.com
    It's early June, which means it's time for a ton of video game events! Rising from the ashes of E3, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest is now the premium gaming event of the year, just inching ahead of… Geoff Keighley's Game Awards in December. Unlike the show it replaced, Summer Game Fest is an egalitarian affair, spotlighting games from AAA developers and small indies across a diverse set of livestreams. SGF 2025 includes 15 individual events running from June 3-9 — you can find the full Summer Game Fest 2025 schedule here — and we're smack dab in the middle of that programming right now. We're covering SGF 2025 with a small team on the ground in LA and a far larger group of writers tuning in remotely to the various livestreams. Expect game previews, interviews and reactions to arrive over the coming days (the show's in-person component runs from Saturday-Monday), and a boatload of new trailers and release date announcements in between. Through it all, we're collating the biggest announcements right here, with links out to more in-depth coverage where we have it, in chronological order. Tuesday, June 3 State of Unreal: The Witcher IV and Fortnite AI Epic hitched its wagon to SGF this year, aligning its annual developer Unreal Fest conference, which last took place in the fall of 2024, with the consumer event. The conference was held in Orlando, Florida, from June 2-5, with well over a hundred developer sessions focused on Unreal Engine. The highlight was State of Unreal, which was the first event on the official Summer Game Fest schedule. Amid a bunch of very cool tech demos and announcements, we got some meaningful updates on Epic's own Fortnite and CD PROJEKT RED's upcoming The Witcher IV. The Witcher IV was first unveiled at The Game Awards last year, and we've heard very little about it since. At State of Unreal, we got a tech demo for Unreal Engine 5.6, played in real time on a base PS5. The roughly 10-minute slot featured a mix of gameplay and cinematics, and showed off a detailed, bustling world. Perhaps the technical highlight was Nanite Foliage, an extension of UE5's Nanite system for geometry that renders foliage without the level of detail pop-in that is perhaps the most widespread graphical aberration still plaguing games today. On the game side, we saw a town filled with hundreds of NPCs going about their business. The town itself wasn't quite on the scale of The Witcher III's Novigrad City, but nonetheless felt alive in a way beyond anything the last game achieved. It's fair to say that Fortnite's moment in the spotlight was… less impressive. Hot on the heels of smooshing a profane Darth Vader AI into the game, Epic announced that creators will be able to roll their own AI NPCs into the game later this year. Wednesday, June 4 PlayStation State of Play: Marvel Tōkon, Silent Hill f and the return of Lumines Another company getting a headstart on proceedings was Sony, who threw its third State of Play of the year onto the Summer Game Fest schedule a couple days ahead of the opening night event. It was a packed stream by Sony's standards, with over 20 games and even a surprise hardware announcement. The most time was given to Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, a new PlayStation Studios tag fighter that fuses Marvel Superheroes with anime visuals. It's also 4 versus 4, which is wild. It's being developed by Arc System Works, the team perhaps best known for the Guilty Gear series. It's coming to PS5 and PC in 2026. Not-so-coincidentally, Sony also announced Project Defiant, a wireless fight stick that'll support PS5 and PC and arrive in… 2026. Elsewhere, we got a parade of release dates, with concrete dates for Sword of the Sea (August 19) Baby Steps (September 8) and Silent Hill f (September 25). We also got confirmation of that Final Fantasy Tactics remaster (coming September 30), an an all-new... let's call it aspirational "2026" date for Pragmata, which, if you're keeping score, was advertised alongside the launch of the PS5. Great going, Capcom! Rounding out the show was a bunch of smaller announcements. We heard about a new Nioh game, Nioh 3, coming in 2026; Suda51's new weirdness Romeo is a Dead Man; and Lumines Arise, a long-awaited return to the Lumines series from the developer behind Tetris Effect. Thursday, June 5 Diddly squat There were absolutely no Summer Game Fest events scheduled on Thursday. We assume that's out of respect for antipodean trees, as June 5 was Arbor Day in New Zealand. (It's probably because everyone was playing Nintendo Switch 2.) Friday, June 6 Summer Game Fest Live: Resident Evil Requiem, Stranger Than Heaven and sequels abound It's fair to say that previous Summer Game Fest opening night streams have been… whelming at best. This year's showing was certainly an improvement, not least because there were exponentially fewer mobile game and MMO ads littering the presentation. Yes, folks tracking Gabe Newell's yacht were disappointed that Half-Life 3 didn't show up, and the Silksong crowd remains sad, alone and unloved, but there were nonetheless some huge announcements. Perhaps the biggest of all was the "ninth" (Zero and Code Veronica erasure is real) Resident Evil game. Resident Evil Requiem is said to be a tonal shift compared to the last game, Resident Evil Village. Here's hoping it reinvigorates the series in the same way Resident Evil VII did following the disappointing 6. We also heard more from Sega studio Ryu Ga Gotoku about Project Century, which seems to be a 1943 take on the Yakuza series. It's now called Stranger Than Heaven, and there's a (literally) jazzy new trailer for your consideration. Outside of those big swings, there were sequels to a bunch of mid-sized games, like Atomic Heart, Code Vein and Mortal Shell, and a spiritual sequel of sorts: Scott Pilgrim EX, a beat-em-up that takes the baton from the 2010 Ubisoft brawler Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. There were countless other announcements at the show, including: Troy Baker is the big cheese in Mouse: P.I. for Hire Here's a silly puppet boxing game you never knew you needed Killer Inn turns Werewolf into a multiplayer action game Out of Words is a cozy stop-motion co-op adventure from Epic Games Lego Voyagers is a co-op puzzle game from the studio behind Builder's Journey Mina the Hollower, from the makers of Shovel Knight, arrives on Halloween Wu-Tang Clan's new game blends anime with Afro-surrealism Day of the Devs: Blighted, Snap & Grab, Blighted and Escape Academy II As always, the kickoff show was followed by a Day of the Devs stream, which focused on smaller projects and indie games. You can watch the full stream here. Escape Academy has been firmly on our best couch co-op games list for some time, and now it's got a sequel on the way. Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School takes the same basic co-op escape room fun and expands on it, moving away from a level-select map screen and towards a fully 3D school campus for players to explore. So long as the puzzles themselves are as fun as the original, it seems like a winner.  Semblance studio Nyamakop is back with new jam called Relooted, a heist game with a unique twist. As in the real world, museums in the West are full of items plundered from African nations under colonialism. Unlike the real world, in Relooted the colonial powers have signed a treaty to return these items to their places of origin, but things aren't going to plan, as many artifacts are finding their way into private collections. It's your job to steal them back. The British Museum is quaking in its boots. Here are some of the other games that caught our eye: Snap & Grab is No Goblin's campy, photography-based heist game Please, Watch the Artwork is a puzzle game with eerie paintings and a sad clown Bask in the grotesque pixel-art beauty of Neverway Pocket Boss turns corporate data manipulation into a puzzle game Tire Boy is a wacky open-world adventure game you can tread all over The rest: Ball x Pit, Hitman and 007 First Light After Day of the Devs came Devolver. Its Summer Game Fest show was a little more muted than usual, focusing on a single game: Ball x Pit. It's the next game from Kenny Sun, an indie developer who previously made the sleeper hit Mr. Sun's Hatbox. Ball x Pit is being made by a team of more than half a dozen devs, in contrast to Sun's mostly solo prior works. It looks like an interesting mashup of Breakout and base-building mechanics, and there's a demo on Steam available right now. Then came IOI, the makers of Hitman, who put together a classic E3-style cringefest, full of awkward pauses, ill-paced demos and repetitive trailers. Honestly, as someone who's been watching game company presentations for two decades or so, it was a nice moment of nostalgia.  Away from the marvel of a presenter trying to cope with everything going wrong, the show did have some actual content, with an extended demo of the new James Bond-themed Hitman mission, an announcement that Hitman is coming to iOS and table tops, and a presentation on MindsEye, a game from former GTA producer Leslie Benzies that IOI is publishing.  Saturday-Sunday: Xbox and much, much more Now you're all caught up. We're expecting a lot of news this weekend, mostly from Xbox on Sunday. We'll be updating this article through the weekend and beyond, but you can find the latest announcements from Summer Game Fest 2025 on our front page.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/everything-new-at-summer-game-fest-2025-marvel-tokon-resident-evil-requiem-and-more-185425995.html?src=rss
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  • Build A Rocket Boy execs depart one week before MindsEye launches

    Two executives at Build A Rocket Boy have parted ways with the studio, a mere week ahead of the launch of its next title, MindsEye, on June 10.Spotted by Eurogamer, Chief Legal Officer Riley Graebner and Chief Financial Officer Paul Bland have departed the company. They announced their leave on LinkedIn.Graebner, who was at the studio for three and a half years, said he’s proud of what the team accomplished. He mentioned doubling the size of the company to over 450 people and building a legal team and legal ops infrastructure as highlights of his tenure."There are so many people who have made my time at BARB memorable and I fear forgetting essential names," Graebner wrote. "A heartfelt thank you will have to do."A "concerted effort" to "trash" MindsEye and Build A Rocket BoyThe news comes days after a user in the MindsEye Discord server asked studio co-CEO Mark Gerhard if the people who reacted negatively to the game were financed by someone, to which he replied "100%"He then claimed that there's been a "concerted effort to trash the game and the studio."Build A Rocket Boy, which is spearheaded by former Grand Theft Auto V producer Leslie Benzies, is following up on a tumultuous 2024. In January, the studio received million to continue building its immersive game platform Everywhere, announced back in 2022 around vague mentions of a blockchain component, as well as MindsEye and UGC design tools. Then, it laid off an unknown number of staff just over four weeks later.Related:In October, Hitman creator IO Interactive announced a partnership as publisher for MindsEye, as well as the Everywhere platform. Two months later, the studio acquired PlayFusion. As part of the deal, Gerhard, who was CEO and CTO at the studio, joined Build A Rocket Boy as co-CEO."We’ve always admired PlayFusion’s creativity and innovative approach to transmedia entertainment, and joining forces with them will ascend Build a Rocket Boy to our next level of excellence," Benzies said at the time.
    #build #rocket #boy #execs #depart
    Build A Rocket Boy execs depart one week before MindsEye launches
    Two executives at Build A Rocket Boy have parted ways with the studio, a mere week ahead of the launch of its next title, MindsEye, on June 10.Spotted by Eurogamer, Chief Legal Officer Riley Graebner and Chief Financial Officer Paul Bland have departed the company. They announced their leave on LinkedIn.Graebner, who was at the studio for three and a half years, said he’s proud of what the team accomplished. He mentioned doubling the size of the company to over 450 people and building a legal team and legal ops infrastructure as highlights of his tenure."There are so many people who have made my time at BARB memorable and I fear forgetting essential names," Graebner wrote. "A heartfelt thank you will have to do."A "concerted effort" to "trash" MindsEye and Build A Rocket BoyThe news comes days after a user in the MindsEye Discord server asked studio co-CEO Mark Gerhard if the people who reacted negatively to the game were financed by someone, to which he replied "100%"He then claimed that there's been a "concerted effort to trash the game and the studio."Build A Rocket Boy, which is spearheaded by former Grand Theft Auto V producer Leslie Benzies, is following up on a tumultuous 2024. In January, the studio received million to continue building its immersive game platform Everywhere, announced back in 2022 around vague mentions of a blockchain component, as well as MindsEye and UGC design tools. Then, it laid off an unknown number of staff just over four weeks later.Related:In October, Hitman creator IO Interactive announced a partnership as publisher for MindsEye, as well as the Everywhere platform. Two months later, the studio acquired PlayFusion. As part of the deal, Gerhard, who was CEO and CTO at the studio, joined Build A Rocket Boy as co-CEO."We’ve always admired PlayFusion’s creativity and innovative approach to transmedia entertainment, and joining forces with them will ascend Build a Rocket Boy to our next level of excellence," Benzies said at the time. #build #rocket #boy #execs #depart
    Build A Rocket Boy execs depart one week before MindsEye launches
    www.gamedeveloper.com
    Two executives at Build A Rocket Boy have parted ways with the studio, a mere week ahead of the launch of its next title, MindsEye, on June 10.Spotted by Eurogamer, Chief Legal Officer Riley Graebner and Chief Financial Officer Paul Bland have departed the company. They announced their leave on LinkedIn.Graebner, who was at the studio for three and a half years, said he’s proud of what the team accomplished. He mentioned doubling the size of the company to over 450 people and building a legal team and legal ops infrastructure as highlights of his tenure."There are so many people who have made my time at BARB memorable and I fear forgetting essential names," Graebner wrote. "A heartfelt thank you will have to do."A "concerted effort" to "trash" MindsEye and Build A Rocket BoyThe news comes days after a user in the MindsEye Discord server asked studio co-CEO Mark Gerhard if the people who reacted negatively to the game were financed by someone, to which he replied "100%" (via VG247.) He then claimed that there's been a "concerted effort to trash the game and the studio."Build A Rocket Boy, which is spearheaded by former Grand Theft Auto V producer Leslie Benzies, is following up on a tumultuous 2024. In January, the studio received $110 million to continue building its immersive game platform Everywhere, announced back in 2022 around vague mentions of a blockchain component, as well as MindsEye and UGC design tools. Then, it laid off an unknown number of staff just over four weeks later.Related:In October, Hitman creator IO Interactive announced a partnership as publisher for MindsEye, as well as the Everywhere platform. Two months later, the studio acquired PlayFusion. As part of the deal, Gerhard, who was CEO and CTO at the studio, joined Build A Rocket Boy as co-CEO."We’ve always admired PlayFusion’s creativity and innovative approach to transmedia entertainment, and joining forces with them will ascend Build a Rocket Boy to our next level of excellence," Benzies said at the time.
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  • Former ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Chief Leslie Benzies ‘Can’t Wait’ to Play ‘GTA 6,’ Downplays Similarities to His New Studio’s ‘MindsEye’

    Next week, the former president of “Grant Theft Auto” maker Rockstar North launches his first title since leaving the Take-Two Interactive-owned video game developer and opening his own studio, Build A Rocket Boy: the AAA narrative-driven action-adventure thriller “MindsEye.”

    Published by IOI Partners, the team behind the “Hitman” franchise, the Unreal Engine 5-built game will debut June 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store with a price tag for the standard edition.

    Related Stories

    Set in the near-futuristic city of Redrock, “MindsEye” puts players into the role of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier haunted by fragmented memories from his mysterious MindsEye neural implant, as he uncovers a conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate greed, an unchecked military, and a threat so sinister that it endangers the very survival of humanity.

    Popular on Variety

    But the base story isn’t the biggest draw for “MindsEye,” which includes Build A Rocket Boy’s proprietary Game Creation System, that enables players to, well, “craft anything in their minds eye.”

    Per the studio, “Players can craft their own experiences using all of the ‘MindsEye’ assets, creating everything from custom missions to entirely new scenarios within the game’s expansive, richly detailed world. Whether you’re designing a high-speed chase through Redrock’s bustling cityscapes or a stealth mission in its industrial outskirts, it is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, ensuring that players of all skill levels can bring their imagination to life.”

    Benzies’ Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy has promised “fresh premium content” will rollout monthly for the game, including regular releases of new missions, challenges and game assets.

    While “MindsEye” is the first title from Benzies since he launched BARB after leaving Rockstar in 2016, it’s just step one in the prolific producer’s plan to shake up the gaming industry.

    “At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title,” Benzies told Variety. “‘MindsEye’ is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts.”

    See Variety‘s full interview with Benzies below, including the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn between “MindsEye” and the aesthetic of the “GTA” franchise, and his hopes for Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated and much-delayed “GTA 6.”

    Where did the concept for “MindsEye” come from?

    I pull a lot of inspiration from the real world. Watching the actions of humans – their foibles and their virtues. Watching the advancement of technology and how we adapt, or indeed, do not adapt. We’ve been moving to an automated world for many years now, and the impact on humans, especially with recent advancements in AI, which serves as good fodder for a story and even better for a video game. I think we all have this little nagging feeling about how humans and AI will blend together in the future—will it go smoothly, or will it turn sinister?

    We’re fans of all different types of media, and we’ve drawn influence from cinematic visionaries like Ridley Scott, Paul Greengrass, Christopher Nolan, and J.J. Abrams, and films like “The Bourne Identity,” “Memento,” and TV series “Lost” — they’re all exploring memory, perception, and control in their own ways.

    So, while we nod to those influences here and there, we wanted to build something that feels fresh, grounded in today’s world, but still asking the kinds of questions that have always made this genre powerful.

    With your “GTA” roots, obvious comparisons are already being drawn between the style and aesthetic of that franchise and “MindsEye.”

    Comparisons will always be made—it’s the way human beings pigeonhole concepts. But “MindsEye” isn’t built to fit into anyone else’s box.

    Many games share the same core elements: cars, guns, cities, and charismatic characters, and differentiation is even tougher in today’s entertainment landscape. Streaming, social media, and on-demand binge culture have fractured attention spans, and consumer mindshare is a brutal battlefield for all IP.

    Our industry continues to celebrate each other’s breakthroughs, and I’m proud that our collective innovation is advancing the medium of gaming, even if our paths diverge.

    As an independent studio we have the freedom to break ground in experimental new ways and the challenge is balancing innovation with familiarity—too much “new” risks alienating fans, too much “same” feels stale. It’s about nailing what makes your game’s world feel alive and urgent.

    “MindsEye” is about consequence and connection—it’s cinematic, reactive, and meant to feel like a world you’re not just playing in, but able to create in it too.

    We’re excited to see what they’ve crafted with “GTA VI ,” and I can’t wait to play it as a consumer for the first time. They’re always delivering something new, unique and at a scale that very few can pull off.

    What does MindsEye represent in BARB’s larger vision and long-term strategy? Are you plotting this out as a multi-game franchise or your first standalone?

    At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title. “MindsEye” is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts.

    It’s the future of entertainment to allow active participation so players feel like they have agency and can immerse themselves in our world as they want to. We are introducing three products in one game that will revolutionize AAA-quality interactive gaming and storytelling: “MindsEye” narrative story, Play.MindsEye, and Build.MindsEye.

    In our tightly crafted action-noir, “MindsEye” narrative story we have rips in time accessed through portals at strategic points throughout the game – so while you play as Jacob Diaz on his personal journey, players can also explore side stories and delve deeper into the backstories of characters they encounter along the way. In this way we are delivering companion content at the same time as the anchor content, weaving a rich narrative tapestry which will continue to evolve and expand giving greater depth to characters so you understand their personality and motivations.

    How do digital products Play.MindsEyeand Build.MindsEyetie in to plans for “MindsEye” and what BARB wants to offer gamers?

    In this new era of entertainment, where streaming platforms, boom-and-bust games, and an on-demand culture dominate, we’re pushing things in a new direction—with an interface that simplifies how we consume not just games, but all forms of entertainment. Consumers are moving away from 2D browsing into fully 3D, immersive experiences. Put simply, we’re shifting from passive interaction to active participation.

    As with all new products, things evolve. Arcadia was originally envisioned as our creation platform, but as we continued developing “MindsEye” and building out BARB’s ecosystem, it naturally grew into something more focused— Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye. Play delivers cinematic, high-intensity gameplay with missions and maps that constantly evolve. Build gives players intuitive tools to create their own content—no technical skills required, just imagination and intent.

    For BARB to fully realize our vision, we had to beta test our creation system with a community of builders in real-time and started with Everywhere while we were in stealth mode developing MindsEye.

    How did you settle on IOI as publishing partner?

    We’ve always found the way IOI handled the “Hitman” franchise interesting. They are one of the few publishers that have taken their single-player IP and increased their player count and amplified their community culture over time. From a technology point of view, their one executable approach for all of their content is very smart, and we always planned to have a similar approach, which encouraged us to join forces.

    This interview has been edited and condensed.
    #former #grand #theft #auto #chief
    Former ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Chief Leslie Benzies ‘Can’t Wait’ to Play ‘GTA 6,’ Downplays Similarities to His New Studio’s ‘MindsEye’
    Next week, the former president of “Grant Theft Auto” maker Rockstar North launches his first title since leaving the Take-Two Interactive-owned video game developer and opening his own studio, Build A Rocket Boy: the AAA narrative-driven action-adventure thriller “MindsEye.” Published by IOI Partners, the team behind the “Hitman” franchise, the Unreal Engine 5-built game will debut June 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store with a price tag for the standard edition. Related Stories Set in the near-futuristic city of Redrock, “MindsEye” puts players into the role of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier haunted by fragmented memories from his mysterious MindsEye neural implant, as he uncovers a conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate greed, an unchecked military, and a threat so sinister that it endangers the very survival of humanity. Popular on Variety But the base story isn’t the biggest draw for “MindsEye,” which includes Build A Rocket Boy’s proprietary Game Creation System, that enables players to, well, “craft anything in their minds eye.” Per the studio, “Players can craft their own experiences using all of the ‘MindsEye’ assets, creating everything from custom missions to entirely new scenarios within the game’s expansive, richly detailed world. Whether you’re designing a high-speed chase through Redrock’s bustling cityscapes or a stealth mission in its industrial outskirts, it is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, ensuring that players of all skill levels can bring their imagination to life.” Benzies’ Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy has promised “fresh premium content” will rollout monthly for the game, including regular releases of new missions, challenges and game assets. While “MindsEye” is the first title from Benzies since he launched BARB after leaving Rockstar in 2016, it’s just step one in the prolific producer’s plan to shake up the gaming industry. “At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title,” Benzies told Variety. “‘MindsEye’ is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts.” See Variety‘s full interview with Benzies below, including the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn between “MindsEye” and the aesthetic of the “GTA” franchise, and his hopes for Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated and much-delayed “GTA 6.” Where did the concept for “MindsEye” come from? I pull a lot of inspiration from the real world. Watching the actions of humans – their foibles and their virtues. Watching the advancement of technology and how we adapt, or indeed, do not adapt. We’ve been moving to an automated world for many years now, and the impact on humans, especially with recent advancements in AI, which serves as good fodder for a story and even better for a video game. I think we all have this little nagging feeling about how humans and AI will blend together in the future—will it go smoothly, or will it turn sinister? We’re fans of all different types of media, and we’ve drawn influence from cinematic visionaries like Ridley Scott, Paul Greengrass, Christopher Nolan, and J.J. Abrams, and films like “The Bourne Identity,” “Memento,” and TV series “Lost” — they’re all exploring memory, perception, and control in their own ways. So, while we nod to those influences here and there, we wanted to build something that feels fresh, grounded in today’s world, but still asking the kinds of questions that have always made this genre powerful. With your “GTA” roots, obvious comparisons are already being drawn between the style and aesthetic of that franchise and “MindsEye.” Comparisons will always be made—it’s the way human beings pigeonhole concepts. But “MindsEye” isn’t built to fit into anyone else’s box. Many games share the same core elements: cars, guns, cities, and charismatic characters, and differentiation is even tougher in today’s entertainment landscape. Streaming, social media, and on-demand binge culture have fractured attention spans, and consumer mindshare is a brutal battlefield for all IP. Our industry continues to celebrate each other’s breakthroughs, and I’m proud that our collective innovation is advancing the medium of gaming, even if our paths diverge. As an independent studio we have the freedom to break ground in experimental new ways and the challenge is balancing innovation with familiarity—too much “new” risks alienating fans, too much “same” feels stale. It’s about nailing what makes your game’s world feel alive and urgent. “MindsEye” is about consequence and connection—it’s cinematic, reactive, and meant to feel like a world you’re not just playing in, but able to create in it too. We’re excited to see what they’ve crafted with “GTA VI ,” and I can’t wait to play it as a consumer for the first time. They’re always delivering something new, unique and at a scale that very few can pull off. What does MindsEye represent in BARB’s larger vision and long-term strategy? Are you plotting this out as a multi-game franchise or your first standalone? At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title. “MindsEye” is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts. It’s the future of entertainment to allow active participation so players feel like they have agency and can immerse themselves in our world as they want to. We are introducing three products in one game that will revolutionize AAA-quality interactive gaming and storytelling: “MindsEye” narrative story, Play.MindsEye, and Build.MindsEye. In our tightly crafted action-noir, “MindsEye” narrative story we have rips in time accessed through portals at strategic points throughout the game – so while you play as Jacob Diaz on his personal journey, players can also explore side stories and delve deeper into the backstories of characters they encounter along the way. In this way we are delivering companion content at the same time as the anchor content, weaving a rich narrative tapestry which will continue to evolve and expand giving greater depth to characters so you understand their personality and motivations. How do digital products Play.MindsEyeand Build.MindsEyetie in to plans for “MindsEye” and what BARB wants to offer gamers? In this new era of entertainment, where streaming platforms, boom-and-bust games, and an on-demand culture dominate, we’re pushing things in a new direction—with an interface that simplifies how we consume not just games, but all forms of entertainment. Consumers are moving away from 2D browsing into fully 3D, immersive experiences. Put simply, we’re shifting from passive interaction to active participation. As with all new products, things evolve. Arcadia was originally envisioned as our creation platform, but as we continued developing “MindsEye” and building out BARB’s ecosystem, it naturally grew into something more focused— Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye. Play delivers cinematic, high-intensity gameplay with missions and maps that constantly evolve. Build gives players intuitive tools to create their own content—no technical skills required, just imagination and intent. For BARB to fully realize our vision, we had to beta test our creation system with a community of builders in real-time and started with Everywhere while we were in stealth mode developing MindsEye. How did you settle on IOI as publishing partner? We’ve always found the way IOI handled the “Hitman” franchise interesting. They are one of the few publishers that have taken their single-player IP and increased their player count and amplified their community culture over time. From a technology point of view, their one executable approach for all of their content is very smart, and we always planned to have a similar approach, which encouraged us to join forces. This interview has been edited and condensed. #former #grand #theft #auto #chief
    Former ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Chief Leslie Benzies ‘Can’t Wait’ to Play ‘GTA 6,’ Downplays Similarities to His New Studio’s ‘MindsEye’
    variety.com
    Next week, the former president of “Grant Theft Auto” maker Rockstar North launches his first title since leaving the Take-Two Interactive-owned video game developer and opening his own studio, Build A Rocket Boy: the AAA narrative-driven action-adventure thriller “MindsEye.” Published by IOI Partners, the team behind the “Hitman” franchise, the Unreal Engine 5-built game will debut June 10 across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and on PC via Steam and Epic Games Store with a $59.99 price tag for the standard edition. Related Stories Set in the near-futuristic city of Redrock, “MindsEye” puts players into the role of Jacob Diaz, a former soldier haunted by fragmented memories from his mysterious MindsEye neural implant, as he uncovers a conspiracy involving rogue AI, corporate greed, an unchecked military, and a threat so sinister that it endangers the very survival of humanity. Popular on Variety But the base story isn’t the biggest draw for “MindsEye,” which includes Build A Rocket Boy’s proprietary Game Creation System, that enables players to, well, “craft anything in their minds eye.” Per the studio, “Players can craft their own experiences using all of the ‘MindsEye’ assets, creating everything from custom missions to entirely new scenarios within the game’s expansive, richly detailed world. Whether you’re designing a high-speed chase through Redrock’s bustling cityscapes or a stealth mission in its industrial outskirts, it is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, ensuring that players of all skill levels can bring their imagination to life.” Benzies’ Edinburgh-based Build A Rocket Boy has promised “fresh premium content” will rollout monthly for the game, including regular releases of new missions, challenges and game assets. While “MindsEye” is the first title from Benzies since he launched BARB after leaving Rockstar in 2016 (Benzies was the lead “Grand Theft Auto” developer across the third through fifth games in the franchise, as well as “Grand Theft Auto Online,” and was in a legal battle with parent company Take Two over unpaid royalties from 2016 until 2019), it’s just step one in the prolific producer’s plan to shake up the gaming industry. “At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title,” Benzies told Variety. “‘MindsEye’ is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts.” See Variety‘s full interview with Benzies below, including the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn between “MindsEye” and the aesthetic of the “GTA” franchise, and his hopes for Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated and much-delayed “GTA 6.” Where did the concept for “MindsEye” come from? I pull a lot of inspiration from the real world. Watching the actions of humans – their foibles and their virtues. Watching the advancement of technology and how we adapt, or indeed, do not adapt. We’ve been moving to an automated world for many years now, and the impact on humans, especially with recent advancements in AI, which serves as good fodder for a story and even better for a video game. I think we all have this little nagging feeling about how humans and AI will blend together in the future—will it go smoothly, or will it turn sinister? We’re fans of all different types of media, and we’ve drawn influence from cinematic visionaries like Ridley Scott, Paul Greengrass, Christopher Nolan, and J.J. Abrams, and films like “The Bourne Identity,” “Memento,” and TV series “Lost” — they’re all exploring memory, perception, and control in their own ways. So, while we nod to those influences here and there, we wanted to build something that feels fresh, grounded in today’s world, but still asking the kinds of questions that have always made this genre powerful. With your “GTA” roots, obvious comparisons are already being drawn between the style and aesthetic of that franchise and “MindsEye.” Comparisons will always be made—it’s the way human beings pigeonhole concepts. But “MindsEye” isn’t built to fit into anyone else’s box. Many games share the same core elements: cars, guns, cities, and charismatic characters, and differentiation is even tougher in today’s entertainment landscape. Streaming, social media, and on-demand binge culture have fractured attention spans, and consumer mindshare is a brutal battlefield for all IP. Our industry continues to celebrate each other’s breakthroughs, and I’m proud that our collective innovation is advancing the medium of gaming, even if our paths diverge. As an independent studio we have the freedom to break ground in experimental new ways and the challenge is balancing innovation with familiarity—too much “new” risks alienating fans, too much “same” feels stale. It’s about nailing what makes your game’s world feel alive and urgent. “MindsEye” is about consequence and connection—it’s cinematic, reactive, and meant to feel like a world you’re not just playing in, but able to create in it too. We’re excited to see what they’ve crafted with “GTA VI ,” and I can’t wait to play it as a consumer for the first time. They’re always delivering something new, unique and at a scale that very few can pull off. What does MindsEye represent in BARB’s larger vision and long-term strategy? Are you plotting this out as a multi-game franchise or your first standalone? At Build A Rocket Boy, our vision goes far beyond a single title. “MindsEye” is the first episode and central story around which ever-expanding interconnected episodes will span. We’re already working on future episodes, which will introduce alternate realities while maintaining it’s core themes of hope, redemption, and the intrigue of civilizations past and future, drawing from the lore and multiverse concepts. It’s the future of entertainment to allow active participation so players feel like they have agency and can immerse themselves in our world as they want to. We are introducing three products in one game that will revolutionize AAA-quality interactive gaming and storytelling: “MindsEye” narrative story, Play.MindsEye, and Build.MindsEye. In our tightly crafted action-noir, “MindsEye” narrative story we have rips in time accessed through portals at strategic points throughout the game – so while you play as Jacob Diaz on his personal journey, players can also explore side stories and delve deeper into the backstories of characters they encounter along the way. In this way we are delivering companion content at the same time as the anchor content, weaving a rich narrative tapestry which will continue to evolve and expand giving greater depth to characters so you understand their personality and motivations. How do digital products Play.MindsEye (formerly named Arcadia) and Build.MindsEye (formerly Everywhere) tie in to plans for “MindsEye” and what BARB wants to offer gamers? In this new era of entertainment, where streaming platforms, boom-and-bust games, and an on-demand culture dominate, we’re pushing things in a new direction—with an interface that simplifies how we consume not just games, but all forms of entertainment. Consumers are moving away from 2D browsing into fully 3D, immersive experiences. Put simply, we’re shifting from passive interaction to active participation. As with all new products, things evolve. Arcadia was originally envisioned as our creation platform, but as we continued developing “MindsEye” and building out BARB’s ecosystem, it naturally grew into something more focused— Play.MindsEye and Build.MindsEye. Play delivers cinematic, high-intensity gameplay with missions and maps that constantly evolve. Build gives players intuitive tools to create their own content—no technical skills required, just imagination and intent. For BARB to fully realize our vision, we had to beta test our creation system with a community of builders in real-time and started with Everywhere while we were in stealth mode developing MindsEye. How did you settle on IOI as publishing partner? We’ve always found the way IOI handled the “Hitman” franchise interesting. They are one of the few publishers that have taken their single-player IP and increased their player count and amplified their community culture over time. From a technology point of view, their one executable approach for all of their content is very smart, and we always planned to have a similar approach, which encouraged us to join forces. This interview has been edited and condensed.
    0 Commentarii ·0 Distribuiri ·0 previzualizare
  • MindsEye Has an “Overarching 10 Year Plan,” Including an Open-World Free Roam Title

    Build A Rocket Boy’s Leslie Benzies has spoken about MindsEye and how the studio plans to offer a value-for-money experience without any filler. However, it’s only the first step in a longer game, which includes a “big overarching ten-year plan.”
    While speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Benzies reiterated that the title would continue receiving new content. “Some of the content, like races, are made just for fun. Butmost of the content, we’ll try and incorporate it into the story. So once you’ve played the big overarching ten-year plan, you’ll have a very good idea of what this universe looks like.”
    There are plans for multiplayer and a fully open world, but it’s also looking at “what players are creating and incorporating that into our plans. Given the ease of the tools, we think there will be a high percentage of players who will jump in and give it a try, see how it feels, and then decide. Hopefully, some will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players.”
    Interestingly, the story of MindsEye is “bang in the middle” of the greater narrative that Build A Rocket Boy wants to tell. “So, we’re going to go back 10,000 years, then we’re going to go forward a certain amount of time. It’s the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is,” said Benzies.
    This is the reason why the studio hasn’t showcased footage for “huge parts” of the experience. The studio wants to avoid spoilers, but he does tease that the story takes some “unusual twists.”
    As for multiplayer, Benzies said, “The dream from the building side is to allow players the opportunity to create their own multiplayer open-world games with ease. Anyone could pick up the game, jump in, drive around, stop at a point where they saw something of interest, build a little mission, jump back in the car, drive again, and build another mission. Once you’ve built a couple of hundred of these, you’ve built your own open-world game. So, that’s the build side.”
    However, Build A Rocket Boy also wants to develop “a place where people can socialise, play together, and engage in the stories that we build.” As such, an open-world multiplayer title is planned for next year, unfolding one year after the events of MindsEye. You can also expect an open-world free-roam title to bridge the gap between the two releases.
    “All of these stories interconnect in a fairly unique and original way, which I think players like these days. They like the complexity of deeper stories.”
    MindsEye launches on June 10th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out the overview trailer and post-launch roadmap.
    #mindseye #has #overarching #year #plan
    MindsEye Has an “Overarching 10 Year Plan,” Including an Open-World Free Roam Title
    Build A Rocket Boy’s Leslie Benzies has spoken about MindsEye and how the studio plans to offer a value-for-money experience without any filler. However, it’s only the first step in a longer game, which includes a “big overarching ten-year plan.” While speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Benzies reiterated that the title would continue receiving new content. “Some of the content, like races, are made just for fun. Butmost of the content, we’ll try and incorporate it into the story. So once you’ve played the big overarching ten-year plan, you’ll have a very good idea of what this universe looks like.” There are plans for multiplayer and a fully open world, but it’s also looking at “what players are creating and incorporating that into our plans. Given the ease of the tools, we think there will be a high percentage of players who will jump in and give it a try, see how it feels, and then decide. Hopefully, some will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players.” Interestingly, the story of MindsEye is “bang in the middle” of the greater narrative that Build A Rocket Boy wants to tell. “So, we’re going to go back 10,000 years, then we’re going to go forward a certain amount of time. It’s the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is,” said Benzies. This is the reason why the studio hasn’t showcased footage for “huge parts” of the experience. The studio wants to avoid spoilers, but he does tease that the story takes some “unusual twists.” As for multiplayer, Benzies said, “The dream from the building side is to allow players the opportunity to create their own multiplayer open-world games with ease. Anyone could pick up the game, jump in, drive around, stop at a point where they saw something of interest, build a little mission, jump back in the car, drive again, and build another mission. Once you’ve built a couple of hundred of these, you’ve built your own open-world game. So, that’s the build side.” However, Build A Rocket Boy also wants to develop “a place where people can socialise, play together, and engage in the stories that we build.” As such, an open-world multiplayer title is planned for next year, unfolding one year after the events of MindsEye. You can also expect an open-world free-roam title to bridge the gap between the two releases. “All of these stories interconnect in a fairly unique and original way, which I think players like these days. They like the complexity of deeper stories.” MindsEye launches on June 10th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out the overview trailer and post-launch roadmap. #mindseye #has #overarching #year #plan
    MindsEye Has an “Overarching 10 Year Plan,” Including an Open-World Free Roam Title
    gamingbolt.com
    Build A Rocket Boy’s Leslie Benzies has spoken about MindsEye and how the studio plans to offer a value-for-money experience without any filler. However, it’s only the first step in a longer game, which includes a “big overarching ten-year plan.” While speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Benzies reiterated that the title would continue receiving new content. “Some of the content, like races, are made just for fun. But [with] most of the content, we’ll try and incorporate it into the story. So once you’ve played the big overarching ten-year plan, you’ll have a very good idea of what this universe looks like.” There are plans for multiplayer and a fully open world, but it’s also looking at “what players are creating and incorporating that into our plans. Given the ease of the tools, we think there will be a high percentage of players who will jump in and give it a try, see how it feels, and then decide. Hopefully, some will create compelling content we can then promote and make that part of our plans to push to other players.” Interestingly, the story of MindsEye is “bang in the middle” of the greater narrative that Build A Rocket Boy wants to tell. “So, we’re going to go back 10,000 years, then we’re going to go forward a certain amount of time. It’s the relevant piece of the puzzle that will have players asking questions of what the bigger story is,” said Benzies. This is the reason why the studio hasn’t showcased footage for “huge parts” of the experience. The studio wants to avoid spoilers, but he does tease that the story takes some “unusual twists.” As for multiplayer, Benzies said, “The dream from the building side is to allow players the opportunity to create their own multiplayer open-world games with ease. Anyone could pick up the game, jump in, drive around, stop at a point where they saw something of interest, build a little mission, jump back in the car, drive again, and build another mission. Once you’ve built a couple of hundred of these, you’ve built your own open-world game. So, that’s the build side.” However, Build A Rocket Boy also wants to develop “a place where people can socialise, play together, and engage in the stories that we build.” As such, an open-world multiplayer title is planned for next year, unfolding one year after the events of MindsEye. You can also expect an open-world free-roam title to bridge the gap between the two releases. “All of these stories interconnect in a fairly unique and original way, which I think players like these days. They like the complexity of deeper stories.” MindsEye launches on June 10th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Check out the overview trailer and post-launch roadmap.
    0 Commentarii ·0 Distribuiri ·0 previzualizare
  • MindsEye Requires “20ish” Hours to Complete, Says Director

    Build A Rocket Boy’s MindsEye has had quite the journey in the past week, from finally showcasing extensive gameplay at last to its co-CEO believing that those with negative reactions are “100 percent” financed by “someone.” Nevertheless, studio founder and director Leslie Benzies believes in the game’s vision and offering value for money without the filler.
    Speaking to GamesIndustry, Benzies said, “I don’t think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat and they want the potatoes. We’ve tried to make as much meat as we can if that makes sense.”
    Though MindsEye’s story was previously touted as requiring about 15 hours to finish, Benzies has since noted that it will take “20ish” hours, which is a “good length for a game.”
    “What you also find through data is thatbig games, people don’t play them all. The majority of people – 60% or 70% of people – don’t actually play games to the end.”
    “So when you’re making something, I would prefer – I’m sure the team would say the same –you had the whole experience from start to finish and not create this 200-hour game. Create something that is finishable but has some side things that will fill out the universe. A lot of the side missions on the play side of MindsEye do fill out the characters’ back stories or fill out what was happening in the world.”
    As for the price, which is Benzies said, “The world’s in a funny place. People are worried about the price of eggs. So value for money, I think people appreciate that when times are difficult.”
    The discussion is interesting since titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered have received praise for offering so much at Whether MindsEye can aspire to the same quality of content in its runtime remains to be seen.
    It launches on June 10th worldwide for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but the journey only starts there, with a post-launch roadmap announced. Check it out here.
    #mindseye #requires #20ish #hours #complete
    MindsEye Requires “20ish” Hours to Complete, Says Director
    Build A Rocket Boy’s MindsEye has had quite the journey in the past week, from finally showcasing extensive gameplay at last to its co-CEO believing that those with negative reactions are “100 percent” financed by “someone.” Nevertheless, studio founder and director Leslie Benzies believes in the game’s vision and offering value for money without the filler. Speaking to GamesIndustry, Benzies said, “I don’t think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat and they want the potatoes. We’ve tried to make as much meat as we can if that makes sense.” Though MindsEye’s story was previously touted as requiring about 15 hours to finish, Benzies has since noted that it will take “20ish” hours, which is a “good length for a game.” “What you also find through data is thatbig games, people don’t play them all. The majority of people – 60% or 70% of people – don’t actually play games to the end.” “So when you’re making something, I would prefer – I’m sure the team would say the same –you had the whole experience from start to finish and not create this 200-hour game. Create something that is finishable but has some side things that will fill out the universe. A lot of the side missions on the play side of MindsEye do fill out the characters’ back stories or fill out what was happening in the world.” As for the price, which is Benzies said, “The world’s in a funny place. People are worried about the price of eggs. So value for money, I think people appreciate that when times are difficult.” The discussion is interesting since titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered have received praise for offering so much at Whether MindsEye can aspire to the same quality of content in its runtime remains to be seen. It launches on June 10th worldwide for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but the journey only starts there, with a post-launch roadmap announced. Check it out here. #mindseye #requires #20ish #hours #complete
    MindsEye Requires “20ish” Hours to Complete, Says Director
    gamingbolt.com
    Build A Rocket Boy’s MindsEye has had quite the journey in the past week, from finally showcasing extensive gameplay at last to its co-CEO believing that those with negative reactions are “100 percent” financed by “someone.” Nevertheless, studio founder and director Leslie Benzies believes in the game’s vision and offering value for money without the filler. Speaking to GamesIndustry, Benzies said, “I don’t think you can have filler content in games. I think people want the meat and they want the potatoes. We’ve tried to make as much meat as we can if that makes sense.” Though MindsEye’s story was previously touted as requiring about 15 hours to finish, Benzies has since noted that it will take “20ish” hours, which is a “good length for a game.” “What you also find through data is that [with] big games, people don’t play them all. The majority of people – 60% or 70% of people – don’t actually play games to the end.” “So when you’re making something, I would prefer – I’m sure the team would say the same – [that] you had the whole experience from start to finish and not create this 200-hour game. Create something that is finishable but has some side things that will fill out the universe. A lot of the side missions on the play side of MindsEye do fill out the characters’ back stories or fill out what was happening in the world.” As for the price, which is $60, Benzies said, “The world’s in a funny place. People are worried about the price of eggs. So value for money, I think people appreciate that when times are difficult.” The discussion is interesting since titles like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered have received praise for offering so much at $49.99. Whether MindsEye can aspire to the same quality of content in its runtime remains to be seen. It launches on June 10th worldwide for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but the journey only starts there, with a post-launch roadmap announced. Check it out here.
    0 Commentarii ·0 Distribuiri ·0 previzualizare
  • June 2025's biggest new game releases for console and PC, including Nintendo Switch 2

    The Nintendo Switch 2 headlines a huge month of gaming releases, and we've got everything you need to know across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch for June 2025Tech09:00, 31 May 2025Switch 2 is the big release this monthJune is almost here, and while game releases used to be relatively quiet in the summer, that trend has been well and truly bucked in recent years.In fact, June 2025 might be one of the biggest in recent memory, and while last month offered plenty of 'May Madness', June introduces the Nintendo Switch 2, Mario Kart World, and much, much more.‌Whether you're picking up Nintendo's latest hardware or not, we've got a rundown of the biggest games you can pick up in June across all platforms.‌Here's what you should be on the lookout for.We played the Switch 2, and now we want another goReleased: June 5‌We could have filled this list with the Switch 2 and its launch lineup, which includes Cyberpunk 2077, Civilization 7, and that all-important Mario Kart World.It's expected to be one of the biggest console launches in history, and it's just a few days into the month. If you've missed all the latest news, the Switch 2 is drastically more powerful than its predecessor while keeping the same form factor. It has a larger display with 1080p resolution, and can output 4K when docked–a first for a Nintendo console.Be sure to check back around launch for a whole host of Switch 2 coverage.‌Dune Awakening is an ambitious survival MMOReleased: June 10, Platforms: PCSurvival games are a Marmite kind of deal, but whether you love them or hate them, we'd recommend keeping an eye on Funcom's Dune Awakening.‌Players find themselves stuck on Arrakis, and will need to acquire resources, craft a base, and stay clear of Sandworms, bandits, and other players.Promising a huge, political endgame that sees players pledge allegiance to different factions, it could be a fascinating release for PC gamers.MindsEye looks impressive already‌Released: June 10, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCAnother June 10 launch, MindsEye comes from Build A Robot Boy–the studio helmed by GTA legend Leslie Benzies–and it's promising a near-future open-world adventure that looks gorgeous in motion.The game, which is published by Hitman devs IO Interactive, will also include a huge game creation toolkit. The idea is that players can keep building things for MindsEye, meaning there's almost no end to the fun.‌FBC Firebreak is a departure for RemedyReleased: June 17, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCThe ever-impressive Remedy Entertainment is releasing a surprising new co-op shooter set in the same universe as Control.‌Players will need to tackle all kinds of monsters with friends or strangers, while also having the option to use their own supernatural abilities to stem the tide.Early previews have been positive, and Remedy hasn't steered us wrong yet.Rematch offers 5v5 football action‌Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCYou can't beat a good football game, but we didn't expect one to come from the team that gave us martial arts adventure Sifu.Rematch is that game, and rather than giving players a birds-eye view of the action, they'll play as a single player in third-person.‌With even the keeper able to use some slick footwork, it could be the closest we get to a new FIFA Street.Is that who we think it is?Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5Article continues belowThere's not a lot to say about Death Stranding 2, purely because we know that whatever preconceived notions we have about the game will be shredded to bits with Hideo Kojima at the helm.The sequel to the post-apocalyptic adventure that was once a PS4 exclusive is only for PS5 players this time around, and it looks to be just as off-the-wall as its predecessor.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌
    #june #2025039s #biggest #new #game
    June 2025's biggest new game releases for console and PC, including Nintendo Switch 2
    The Nintendo Switch 2 headlines a huge month of gaming releases, and we've got everything you need to know across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch for June 2025Tech09:00, 31 May 2025Switch 2 is the big release this monthJune is almost here, and while game releases used to be relatively quiet in the summer, that trend has been well and truly bucked in recent years.In fact, June 2025 might be one of the biggest in recent memory, and while last month offered plenty of 'May Madness', June introduces the Nintendo Switch 2, Mario Kart World, and much, much more.‌Whether you're picking up Nintendo's latest hardware or not, we've got a rundown of the biggest games you can pick up in June across all platforms.‌Here's what you should be on the lookout for.We played the Switch 2, and now we want another goReleased: June 5‌We could have filled this list with the Switch 2 and its launch lineup, which includes Cyberpunk 2077, Civilization 7, and that all-important Mario Kart World.It's expected to be one of the biggest console launches in history, and it's just a few days into the month. If you've missed all the latest news, the Switch 2 is drastically more powerful than its predecessor while keeping the same form factor. It has a larger display with 1080p resolution, and can output 4K when docked–a first for a Nintendo console.Be sure to check back around launch for a whole host of Switch 2 coverage.‌Dune Awakening is an ambitious survival MMOReleased: June 10, Platforms: PCSurvival games are a Marmite kind of deal, but whether you love them or hate them, we'd recommend keeping an eye on Funcom's Dune Awakening.‌Players find themselves stuck on Arrakis, and will need to acquire resources, craft a base, and stay clear of Sandworms, bandits, and other players.Promising a huge, political endgame that sees players pledge allegiance to different factions, it could be a fascinating release for PC gamers.MindsEye looks impressive already‌Released: June 10, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCAnother June 10 launch, MindsEye comes from Build A Robot Boy–the studio helmed by GTA legend Leslie Benzies–and it's promising a near-future open-world adventure that looks gorgeous in motion.The game, which is published by Hitman devs IO Interactive, will also include a huge game creation toolkit. The idea is that players can keep building things for MindsEye, meaning there's almost no end to the fun.‌FBC Firebreak is a departure for RemedyReleased: June 17, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCThe ever-impressive Remedy Entertainment is releasing a surprising new co-op shooter set in the same universe as Control.‌Players will need to tackle all kinds of monsters with friends or strangers, while also having the option to use their own supernatural abilities to stem the tide.Early previews have been positive, and Remedy hasn't steered us wrong yet.Rematch offers 5v5 football action‌Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCYou can't beat a good football game, but we didn't expect one to come from the team that gave us martial arts adventure Sifu.Rematch is that game, and rather than giving players a birds-eye view of the action, they'll play as a single player in third-person.‌With even the keeper able to use some slick footwork, it could be the closest we get to a new FIFA Street.Is that who we think it is?Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5Article continues belowThere's not a lot to say about Death Stranding 2, purely because we know that whatever preconceived notions we have about the game will be shredded to bits with Hideo Kojima at the helm.The sequel to the post-apocalyptic adventure that was once a PS4 exclusive is only for PS5 players this time around, and it looks to be just as off-the-wall as its predecessor.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌ #june #2025039s #biggest #new #game
    June 2025's biggest new game releases for console and PC, including Nintendo Switch 2
    www.dailystar.co.uk
    The Nintendo Switch 2 headlines a huge month of gaming releases, and we've got everything you need to know across PlayStation, Xbox, PC and Switch for June 2025Tech09:00, 31 May 2025Switch 2 is the big release this month(Image: Nintendo)June is almost here, and while game releases used to be relatively quiet in the summer, that trend has been well and truly bucked in recent years.In fact, June 2025 might be one of the biggest in recent memory, and while last month offered plenty of 'May Madness', June introduces the Nintendo Switch 2, Mario Kart World, and much, much more.‌Whether you're picking up Nintendo's latest hardware or not, we've got a rundown of the biggest games you can pick up in June across all platforms.‌Here's what you should be on the lookout for.We played the Switch 2, and now we want another goReleased: June 5‌We could have filled this list with the Switch 2 and its launch lineup, which includes Cyberpunk 2077, Civilization 7, and that all-important Mario Kart World.It's expected to be one of the biggest console launches in history, and it's just a few days into the month. If you've missed all the latest news, the Switch 2 is drastically more powerful than its predecessor while keeping the same form factor. It has a larger display with 1080p resolution, and can output 4K when docked–a first for a Nintendo console.Be sure to check back around launch for a whole host of Switch 2 coverage.‌Dune Awakening is an ambitious survival MMOReleased: June 10, Platforms: PCSurvival games are a Marmite kind of deal, but whether you love them or hate them, we'd recommend keeping an eye on Funcom's Dune Awakening.‌Players find themselves stuck on Arrakis, and will need to acquire resources, craft a base, and stay clear of Sandworms, bandits, and other players.Promising a huge, political endgame that sees players pledge allegiance to different factions, it could be a fascinating release for PC gamers.MindsEye looks impressive already(Image: Build a Rocket Boy)‌Released: June 10, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCAnother June 10 launch, MindsEye comes from Build A Robot Boy–the studio helmed by GTA legend Leslie Benzies–and it's promising a near-future open-world adventure that looks gorgeous in motion.The game, which is published by Hitman devs IO Interactive, will also include a huge game creation toolkit. The idea is that players can keep building things for MindsEye, meaning there's almost no end to the fun.‌FBC Firebreak is a departure for RemedyReleased: June 17, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCThe ever-impressive Remedy Entertainment is releasing a surprising new co-op shooter set in the same universe as Control.‌Players will need to tackle all kinds of monsters with friends or strangers, while also having the option to use their own supernatural abilities to stem the tide.Early previews have been positive, and Remedy hasn't steered us wrong yet.Rematch offers 5v5 football action‌Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PCYou can't beat a good football game, but we didn't expect one to come from the team that gave us martial arts adventure Sifu.Rematch is that game, and rather than giving players a birds-eye view of the action, they'll play as a single player in third-person.‌With even the keeper able to use some slick footwork, it could be the closest we get to a new FIFA Street.Is that who we think it is?(Image: Kojima/Guerrilla Games)Released: June 19, Platforms: PS5Article continues belowThere's not a lot to say about Death Stranding 2, purely because we know that whatever preconceived notions we have about the game will be shredded to bits with Hideo Kojima at the helm.The sequel to the post-apocalyptic adventure that was once a PS4 exclusive is only for PS5 players this time around, and it looks to be just as off-the-wall as its predecessor.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌
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