NLG - Next Level Gaming

Square Enix and Final Fantasy XVI developer Creative Business Unit III have been open about the game spanning decades of protagonist Clive Rosfield’s life for years. It’s an interesting aspect of this story because it speaks to how broad its horizons might be. What starts as a revenge story will grow into one of war, its effects on people, and ultimately, Valisthea’s place in a fight between Eikons, Dominants, and more over crystals.  It also means we’ll be seeing a lot of Clive’s life. During my cover story trip, I played a few of FFXVI’s opening hours, much of which took place in the past, when Clive is just 15 and his younger brother Joshua even younger. I learned a lot about their relationship with each other as well as with their parents, and more I won’t spoil here. But I also flashed forward to a 28-year-old Clive to catch up with him years after a deeply traumatic childhood event, and CBUIII and Square Enix say we’ll go even further into Clive’s life, into his 30s.  I asked

For a licensed racing game, 2021’s Hot Wheels Unleashed was a fun and respectable debut , and now we’ll get to see how developer Milestone builds on that foundation with an upcoming sequel.  Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged arrives on October 19 and retains the fun “little toy car in a big world” presentation with new additions under the hood. Players can now get behind the wheel of motorcycles and ATVs, and the game has over 130 vehicles total at launch. Players race across five diverse environments using new skills: double jumping and lateral dashing. The double jump can be performed at any time to leap over rivals and obstacles, while dashing is great for sideswiping nearby opponents or dodging hazards. Milestone touts increased interactivity between vehicles and objects on and off the track, and playstyles can be customized using perks earned by earning skill points.  Modes include a revamped story-driven campaign starring four original characters, complete with animated c

A handful of former CD Projekt Red ( The Witcher 3 , Cyberpunk 2077 ) developers have created a new studio named Blank. to make a character-driven game set in an apocalypse, "with a twist or two."  Cyberpunk 2077 game director and The Witcher 3 co-game director Mateusz Kanik has co-founded Blank. with Jędrzej Mróz and Marcin Jefimow, both former executive producers on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. Together, this new studio aims to apply "their years of experience to a clean slate" and bring "beautifully crafted games and unique experiences to players, favoring novel territory rather than well-trodden ground." A press release from Blank. says the studio has no plans to make "clones, or predictable entries."  Alongside the studio reveal, Blank. has released concept art for its unannounced project, which is the aforementioned game set in an apocalypse, which you can see below:  Kanik will serve as the game's director, while Mróz and Jef

2021's Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  blended together the stories of the first Resident Evil game and its sequel, Resident Evil 2 ( which received a fantastic remake in 2019 ), and while it wasn't a complete knockout hit, some have been asking for a sequel. It seems one might be on the way.  According to a new report on Sudbury.com , a news organization that covers the Greater Sudbury area in Canada, which is where  Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  was filmed, Sudbury is receiving an $11 million injection from the provincial government, as reported by PCGamesN . This government is funding 20 local projects through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and while a sequel to  Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City  hasn't officially been named as one of those 20 projects, there is one called "Umbrella Chronicles," and it's receiving $2 million.  If you're familiar with the Resident Evil series, you know "Umbrella Chronicles&

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the next first-party PlayStation title making the jump to Steam on July 26, marking the series' first appearance on PC.  The 2021 dimension-hopping adventure served as one of the earliest showcases of the PlayStation 5’s tech (namely it’s fast-loading SSD), and the PC version sports additional bells and whistles such as:  Performance-enhancing upscaling for Nvidia DLSS 3, AMD FSR 2, and Intel XeSS Unlocked framerate Ray-traced reflections/shadows Ultra-wide support for 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9 monitors Developer Nixxes Software is handling this PC port of the acclaimed action platformer, which sees Ratchet & Clank fighting to stop their old foe Dr. Nefarious from conquering the multiverse with the help of Ratchet's alternate universe counterpart, Rivet. In our review , we scored the game a 9 out of 10, with former editor-in-chief Andrew Reiner writing, "It’s a great continuation of the series that is just a joy to play. It steal

Designing combat in a Final Fantasy game seems like a double-edged sword. On one hand, you likely want to appeal to the fans of the series, and on the other, you want to attract new players. But it’s impossible to please everyone when making big changes like developer Creative Business Unit III is doing with Final Fantasy XVI – using a real-time action combat system that couldn’t be further from the series’ classic turn-based roots.  As someone who loves the franchise’s turn-based format and its more action-forward design as of late, and as someone who’s played FFXVI for more than five hours at this point, I’m quite pleased with the combat. It’s fast-paced, action-heavy, and perhaps most importantly, fitting of this world and these characters. I especially like the singular focus on Clive, as you never control any of your party members (although you give combat-related orders to Clive’s dog companion, Torgal).  Designing this combat was the biggest challenge of FFXVI’s development,

Designing combat in a Final Fantasy game seems like a double-edged sword. On one hand, you likely want to appeal to the fans of the series, and on the other, you want to attract new players. But it’s impossible to please everyone when making big changes like developer Creative Business Unit III is doing with Final Fantasy XVI – using a real-time action combat system that couldn’t be further from the series’ classic turn-based roots.  As someone who loves the franchise’s turn-based format and its more action-forward design as of late, and as someone who’s played FFXVI for more than five hours at this point, I’m quite pleased with the combat. It’s fast-paced, action-heavy, and perhaps most importantly, fitting of this world and these characters. I especially like the singular focus on Clive, as you never control any of your party members (although you give combat-related orders to Clive’s dog companion, Torgal).  Designing this combat was the biggest challenge of FFXVI’s development,

Square Enix has revealed that Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai will be released this September.  More specifically, it hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC on September 28. Alongside this release date, Square Enix has released a new trailer showing off more of what to expect in this game set in the Dragon Quest universe. Check out the new Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai trailer for yourself below :  Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai is a video game adaptation of The Adventure of Dai anime, which is based on a manga, which itself is based on the Dragon Quest game series. It is an action role-playing game that combines visuals from both the manga and anime of The Adventure of Dai, and it will feature a Story Mode and the Temple of Recollection. In the former, you'll play through a standard campaign that adapts The Adventure of Dai, while in the Temple of Recollection, you can fight through a dung

The October 2022 announcement of Silent Hill: Ascension, an interactive streaming series from Genvid Entertainment and Konami, raised some eyebrows from fans but provided little in the way of details. Today, Genvid broke its silence by not only giving us new details on the series but also a trailer. In this series, which will unfold simultaneously across the globe, those watching can help decide the fates of Ascension's main characters. This means that as the story plays out, the audience will have a say in who survives the surely horrific story, who will be redeemed or damned by their actions, and who will suffer the almost certainly ghastly consequences. According to Genvid Entertainment, not even the developers will know the results of the story until it unfolds. Silent Hill: Ascension features an ensemble of new characters, monsters, and locations within the Silent Hill universe. Genvid has crafted a real-time interactive system that allows viewers from around the world to d

Final Fantasy XVI’s combat is fast, chaotic, and, most importantly, fun. There are plenty of combos to pull off, and in just the small taste of the action during my cover story trip to Square Enix’s Tokyo, Japan, office, I saw so much variance in setting up Clive’s combative abilities that I can’t wait to see what others do in-game.  I also watched combat director Ryota Suzuki play through some of the most challenging encounters in the game, and unsurprisingly, he excelled, taking maybe one or two hits in the 20 minutes he played. He used combos I didn’t really comprehend – admittedly, he was playing at a much later portion of the game than I had hands-on access with – and it got me thinking: is he excited to see what players do with FFXVI’s combat, much like I was sitting there watching him pull off intricate combos against myriad enemies?  Final Fantasy XVI Combat Director Ryota Suzuki “I’ve always tried to give players a lot of freedom when it comes to the controls and the actio

Remakes tend to be more exciting than remasters because the improvements often go beyond mere bumps in resolution or framerate. At best, studios reimagine classic experiences in exciting new ways, sand away rough edges, and somehow retain the intangible x-factors that made fans fall in love with these titles in the first place. At the very least, remakes offer a great way to play antiquated or less accessible experiences on modern hardware.  The remake boom has been in full swing in recent years to the point that it’s starting to get tough to keep track of all the projects in the works. Thankfully, we’ve gathered as many of the announced remakes ( not remasters ) that we could find and gathered them in one neat list, arranged chronologically by release window. This will be an evolving list that will be updated as new remakes are announced and released, so be sure to keep an eye on it over the coming months.  System Shock Release: May 30 First revealed in 2015, Nightdive St